InSutherland was the so-calledMoulin na Vaugha/Fouadh, ‘Mill of the Fuath', haunted by the fuath and her son, the amorphous brollachan. The mill was along a stream offLoch Migdale, and belonged to theDempster family (Skibo Castle) estate.
A fuath once seen at this mill was a nose-lessbanshee with yellow hair wearing a green silk dress; in the story of its capture[a] it was tormented into submission by use of steel (awl, and more effectively by a sewing needle), but it turned to a jellyfish-like mass when light was shone on it. A fuath on the estate farm, encountered on a different occasion, had webbed feet.
They sometimes reputedly intermarry with human beings (typically the female), whose offspring have developed a mane and tail.
The term "fuath" has been explained to be a generic class of spirits inhabiting the sea, rivers, fresh water, or sea lochs,[1][2] with several "subspecies" falling under it.[3]
The Scottish Gaelic termfuath has been explained to mean 'hatred' or 'aversion', derived fromOld Irishfúath 'hate, likeness'.[3] The term is also glossed to mean 'ghost' or 'spectre'.[4]
An alternative name for this class of monsters is thearrachd orfuath-arrachd.[3]
J. F. Campbell characterized the fuath of Sutherland as a water spirit,[5] but it has been stressed byJohn Gregorson Campbell that the term designates a spectre or goblin more generally, not necessarily of aqueous nature or habitat.[6]
J. F. Campbell also conflated the traits of the fuath from different accounts in a generalized description of the fuath of Sutherland[b][5] and this has also fallen under criticism by Gregorson.[6][c]
Furthermore, J. F. Campbell ascribed the mane and tail to thefuath, though these traits had evidently developed in the human progeny of the Munroe family, to which there was attached a floating rumour that their ancestor had interbred with a fuath several generations back.[7][d]
While it has been generalized that the fuath of the locality wears green,[5] "golden and silken gear" was worn by the weird woman seen plunging into theRiver Shin was seen by a (games)keeper of theCharlotte Dempster's family.[9]
A fuath (in this instance spelled "fua") appears in the tale "The King of Ireland's Son". In it, the creature emerges from a body of water and attempts to steal the anvil ofGoban Saor, a mythical craftsman. The King of Ireland's Son wrestles with the creature over the course of three nights in order to gain the favor of Goban Saor.
The story of "The Brollachan" (and several of its variant tales) from Sutherland were collected by Charlotte Dempster in 1859, and supplied to J. F. Campbell who printed it. The stories are set in locales within the Dempster family estate (otherwise known asSkibo)[10][11][e] The writer Charlotte was a relative of the Dempsters of the estate (being the granddaughter of Harriet, the illegitimate daughter of the captain).[11]
(1) J. F. Campbell ed. (1860) "The Brollachan" (Popular Tales II, Tale #37);[12] Charlotte Dempster ed. (1888) "The Brolachan MacVaugh"[13](Sutherlandshire, Moulin na Gleannan "Mill of the Glenn")[f]
Two redactions collected from the same storyteller.[g] Thebrollachan is the son of a fuath, as the latter title indicates.[h][14][2] The brollachan possesses eyes and mouth, but a shapeless mass of a body, and capable of speaking only two words/phrases, "Myself" and "Yourself" (mi-phrein andtu-phrein).[14][15][i]
The brollachan was lying at the mill when the "Allay na Moulin" Murray, the resident alms-receiving crippled man around the mill came and stoked the fire withpeat, causing burns on him. But due to the limits of his vocabulary, the blob could not properly speak the name of the perpetrator.[j]
(2) J. F. Campbell ed. (1860) "Moulion na Fuadh";[16] Dempster ed. (1888) "The Vaugh of Moulinna Vuagha"[14](Sutherland, same mill as above.)
A man who lives inInveran wagers he can go and capture the "kelpie" of the mill (also called the vough, vaugh) and return. He succeeds thanks to a black-muzzled dog, and binds the kelpie to a second horse. When fording the burn at the far end (south) ofLoch Migdale the vough grows agitated, and the man pokes it with an awl and a sewing needle into submission. The creature declares the needle is worse. Upon arrival, when the others shine a light at it, it falls down, a shapeless jelly-like clump, which is much like the so-called "dropped stars" of the moors, strange objects like beached jellyfish.
(3) J. F. Campbell ed. (1860), untitled variant;[17] Dempster ed. (1888) "The Banshee, or Vaugh, or Weird Woman of the Water"[10](Sutherland, same mill as above.)[k]
At the mill haunted by the brollachan, abanshee was spotted who had yellow hair like ripened wheat, wearing a fine silk green dress, but she had no nose.
(4) J. F. Campbell ed. (1860), untitled variant;[18] Dempster ed. (1888) "The Web-footed Kelpie"[9](Sutherland, Dempster family sheep farm.)[l]
The (family's) shepherd found a dirty and lamed banshee and piggybacked her, until he noticed her webbed feet, throwing her off and flinging away the plaid she lay on.
^The traits are already enumerated above, in the leading paragraph.
^Although the main tale and many of the variants he conflates are set in the same mill, as explained below
^Carol Rose's amalgamation has confers a "long spikey tail" on the fuath, emerging from the green robe.[8]
^As mentioned in another variant, where it is explained that "from Skibo there is a lake.. Migdall.. at one end a burn runs out past Moulinna Vaugha, or the kelpie's mill".[10]
^The same mill also is known as Moulin na Vaugha "Mill of the Fuath" according to the variant tale below about the capture, Campbell's variant 1 (Dempster's vii).[14] This mill was within (or at least near) the expansion to the estate purchased by Captain John Hamilton Dempster, and on the purchased land's survey map the mill is labeled with the sprite's name spelt "fouah".[14]
^The fuath and vough(vaugh) spellings are interchangeably used.
^Dempster concludes that the brollachan is the equivalent of the Manxglashan or brounie, and also equatable to the Boneless bug or goblin mentioned byReginald Scot inDiscoverie of Witchcraft (1584).
^Briggs refers to this tale as a Nemo type,[2] where Nemo is Latin for "No One", referring to the name ("Outis" in Greek) that Odysseus employed on the isle of the Cyclops. Cf. Campbell's variant/parallel 9 (p. 198).
^Misspelt lake name in Campbell: "Nigdall", (recté Migdall), as confirmed in Dempster's redaction.
^Though not specified, theCreich farm near mill is known for sheep-raising.
^abBriggs states "many at least of the urisks, and presumably nuckelavee".
^Macleod, Norman; Dewar, Daniel (1831),"Fuath",A Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Glasgow: W.R. M'Phun, p. 308
^abcCampbell (1860),2: 191. He gives an amalgamated descriptions of the fuath, drawing from the main brollachan tale and variants 1.–5. He is also quoted inBriggs (1967), pp. 52–53
^Mackillop (1998). "Highland subspecies of the fuath include the beithir, fideal, pellaidh, and ùruisg.
^Mackenzie states categorically "Peallaidh was afuath" and adds "a form ofPeallaidh or the urisk on the east coast of Scotland in the Lowlands was shellycoat"）
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