NUCKELAVEE was a monster of unmixed
malignity, never willingly resting from doing evil to mankind. He was a
spirit in flesh. His home was the sea; and whatever his means of transit
were in that element, when he moved on land he rode a horse as terrible in
aspect as himself. Some thought that rider and horse were really one, and
that this was the shape of the monster. Nuckelavee’s head was like a
man’s, only ten times larger, and his mouth projected like that of a pig,
and was enormously wide. There was not a hair on the monster’s body, for
the very good reason that be had no skin.
If crops were blighted by sea-gust
or mildew, if live stock fell over high rocks that skirt the shores, or if
an epidemic raged among men, or among the lower animals, Nuckelavee was
the cause of all. His breath was venom, falling like blight on vegetable,
and with deadly disease on animal life. He was also blamed for
long-continued droughts; for some unknown reason he had serious objections
to fresh water, and was never known to visit the land during rain.
I knew an old man who was credited
with having once encountered Nuckelavee, and with having made a narrow
escape from the monster’s clutches. This man was very reticent on the
subject. However, after much higgling and persuasion, the following
narrative was extracted:-
Tammas, like his namesake Tam o’
Shanter, was out late one night. It was, though moonless, a fine starlit
night. Tammas’s road lay close by the sea-shore, and as he entered a part
of the road that was hemmed in on one side by the sea, and on the other by
a deep fresh-water loch, he saw some huge object in front of, and moving
towards him. What was he to do? He was sure it was no earthly thing that
was steadily coming towards him. He could not go to either side, and to
turn his back to an evil thing he had heard was the most dangerous
position of all; so Tammie said to himself, "The Lord be aboot me, an’ tak’
care o’ me, as I am oot on no evil intent this night!" Tammie was always
regarded as rough and foolhardy. Anyway, he determined, as the best of two
evils, to face the foe, and so walked resolutely yet slowly forward. He
soon discovered to his horror that the gruesome creature approaching him
was no other than the dreaded Nuckelavee. The lower part of this terrible
monster, as seen by Tammie, was like a great horse with flappers like fins
about his legs, with a mouth as wide as a whale’s, from whence came breath
like steam from a brewing-kettle. He had but one eye, and that as red as
fire. On him sat, or rather seemed to grow from his back, a huge man with
no legs, and arms that reached nearly to the ground. His head was as big
as a clue of simmons (a clue of straw ropes, generally about three feet in
diameter), and this huge head kept rolling from one shoulder to the other
as if it meant to tumble off. But what to Tammie appeared most horrible of
all, was that the monster was skinless; this utter want of skin adding
much to the terrific appearance of the creature’s naked body, the whole
surface of it showing only red raw flesh, in which Tammie saw blood, black
as tar, running through yellow veins, and great white sinews, thick as
horse tethers, twisting, stretching, and contracting as the monster moved.
Tammie went slowly on in mortal terror, his hair on end, a cold sensation
like a film of ice between his scalp and his skull, and a cold sweat
bursting from every pore. But he knew it was useless to flee, and he said,
if he had to die, he would rather see who killed him than die with his
back to the foe. In all his terror Tammie remembered what he had heard of
Nuckelavee’s dislike to fresh water, and, therefore, took that side of the
road nearest to the loch. The awful moment came when the lower part of the
head of the monster got abreast of Tammie. The mouth of the monster yawned
like a bottomless pit. Tammie found its hot breath like fire on his face:
the long arms were stretched out to seize the unhappy man. To avoid, if
possible, the monster’s clutch, Tammie swerved as near as he could to the
loch; in doing so one of his feet went into the loch, splashing up some
water on the foreleg of the monster, whereat the horse gave a snort like
thunder and shied over to the other side of the road, and Tammie felt the
wind of Nuckelavee’s clutches as he narrowly escaped the monster’s grip.
Tammie saw his opportunity, and ran with all his might; and sore need had
he to run, for Nuckelavee had turned and was galloping after him, and
bellowing with a sound like the roaring of the sea. In front of Tammie lay
a rivulet, through which the surplus water of the loch found its way to
the sea, and Tammie knew, if he could only cross the running water, he was
safe; so he strained every nerve. As he reached the near bank another
clutch was made at him by the long arm. Taminie made a desperate spring
and reached the other side, leaving his bonnet in the monster’s clutches.
Nuckelavee gave a wild unearthly yell of disappointed rage as Taminie fell
senseless on the safe side of the water.
