The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

AMONGST THE MERMAIDS resolving to kill her, hurried off for his weapons. She saw him, fled towards the sea, and in the twinkling of an eye assumed the guise of a seal and plunged beneath the waves. Although tales about sea-trows and mermaids are still plentiful in the islands of Orkney, the land fairies are acknow- ledged to have departed for ever. This is the story of their departure as it has been pieced together by Mr. R. Menzies Fergusson. Once upon a time, many years ago, the trows became dis- satisfied with their residence upon Pomona. They deter- mined, therefore, to leave the Pomona hills and knowes, and take up their dwelling beside the Dwarfie Stone on the island of Hoy. The change was to be effected one evening at midnight, when the moon would be full and everything in favour of their flitting. The fateful night arrived, and the fairy train set out upon their journey. They bade farewell to the grassy hillocks upon which they had danced so often, and to the rocky caverns, the scene of their nightly revels, and all hied to the trysting-place, which was the Black Craig of Strom- ness, chanting an elfin song as they went. There they made the preparations necessary for crossing the intervening sea. They took a number of sémmons, or straw bands used in thatching houses, and, tying them together, made a long rope of sufficient length to stretch across the sound. One end was fastened to the top of the Black Craig, and a sentinel was told off to watch that it did not slip. The other end was seized by a long-legged trow called “ Hempie,” the “ Ferry-leuper,” who made an enormous leap 347