The Picts and their Brochs
gift often proved to be of considerable advantage. An old man possessed of this Finnish art had lost a young horse. He wandered up hill and down dale for several days without finding the straying animal, but one morning two corbies alighted on a knoll near his house and engaged in a short croaking dialogue, and to his surprise the conversation was interpreted as follows:—
1st Corbie—Dead horse! dead horse!
2nd Corbie—Whaar pairt? whaar pairt?
1st Corbie—Upo da Neep, upo da Neep.
2nd Corbie—Is he fat? is he fat?
1st Corbie—Aa spick, aa spick.
The man, on going to the place indicated in the corbies’ speech, found that his own horse had fallen over the banks.
Persons who were possessed of the Finnish art could perform feats by sea or water quite impossible to ordinary mortals. They could raise the wind like furies in order to wreck the crafts of their enemies, and change the storm into a calm.
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