The Picts and their Brochs
supper, as he was going out for a short time, and would be back by the time the kettle was “poor’d.” Well, just as the supper was ready the guidman entered the house, bearing on his back a large turbot, in the mouth of which hung the lost skoag. Says one of the boys: “Guid be naar dee, daa, whaar’s du been aa dis?” “Aks du dat,” says the old man; and, throwing down the fish, he exclaims: “Ill stjund ta dy glyed face. I haed da Öra at da Ötsta wi’ Vytaberg at Tonga afore I made up wi’ ’im.”
The Finns were said to be the only beings who could safely ride the Neugle. The neugle or nicker was a water deity that appeared in the form of a sleek horse, having an erect mane and tail like the “rim o’ a muckle wheel.” He frequented the banks of burns and the margins of lonely lakes, playing his pranks on water-mills (where the owner had neglected to give him an offering) by stopping the tirl. If any luckless nocturnal wanderer, mis-
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