The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-03-12
THE HAUNTED BRIDGE.
Superstition in the Highlands of
Scotland.

6up6TSLlUiOu III Inc f112 QldQQS or
Scotland.
There are probably few readers who
are not familiar, to greater or lesser
extent, with the well-ventilated subject
Of superstition in the Highlands of Scot
land. There are few mountain coun-
tries throughout the world that are not
rich in lore and legend relating to the
supernatural; their very configuration
suggests that agencies more than ordi-
nary have been employed in shaping
out their features. 1t is curious to notice
how very largely the demoniac theory
enters into the calculations of the peas
antry. For one fairy glen or knowe
there are dozen devils mills, bridges,
caldrons or punch-bowls; in fact, it is
almost always the beings that are sup
posed to be baleful and inimical to the
human race that have had their person.
atty perpetuated in these legends. This
certainly seems a little incongruous;
but as this is not treatise on demon
ology, we are content to leave it so.
Superstition is part of the being of
the mountaineer. Brave even to rash
ness, he will face the natural dangers
that beset his life-in the torrent, on the
peak, or in the forest; he fears no odds
when he meets his foes. And vet this
man, who can tread the dizzy lodges on
the face of precipice, who can hurl
himself on leveled steel, is more timid
and frightened than a child when he
conceives that forces other than earthly
are being brought to bear on him. It is
partly to the style and manner of his
life that he owes all this He is brought
more into the presence of nature than
his neighbor of the plains; he becomes
imbued with the spirit of his surround
ings; the deep dark gloom of the woods,
the lonesomeness of the mountain soli-
tudes, the voices of the storm and of
the torrent, and of their reproduction in
the echoes, appeal to him; and poet
leal imagination begotten of such an
existence finishes the process. Thus,
the roar of a waterfall in its dark chasm
becomes to him the howlings of some
demon prisoned among the rocks; the
signing of the winds through the forest
trees is caused by the passage of spirits:
the mists that furl around the noun
tain peaks and are waited so silently
across crest and corrie are disembodied
ghosts, and the sounds that break the
stiffness of the night are the shrieks
and yells of fiends and their victims.
This brings me to my story. l fancy
that most of my readers are acquainted
more or less with the scenery of the
Highlands; but in the case of by far the
larger number of them venture to say
that such acquaintance extends only to
the Highlands in their summer or their
autumn dress. If so, they only hall
know them. Brave is the tourist who
ventures amid the bens and glens when
rude King Boreas lords it over them;
when winters wind roars adown the
gorges OF the hill, staggering the stall
wart pines. mingling the withered
leaves and the snow-fakes in the DESC
late woods. When ieicles hang from
the hoary rocks, and the deep drift
cnoKes up the ravines, mantles the
slopes OF the corries and bends in cor
mces over the threatening cliffs; when
,ne river roars through the plain
orown and swollen-and its parent tor-
rents are leaping and raving among the
powders; when the mountain hare and
tne ptarmigan are white as the snow
tn tnaI narbors them, and the deer, driven
I'm Iile nils by stress of weather,
Ioam IN herds through the low-lyin o
"ooos' ana the mountain fox leaves his
uaifn anu prowls around the farm and
.ne sheepfold-then, if you would enter
INTO The spirit of loneliness and sol;tndn
lahe your way to the Highlands, Do
not imagine, however, that such is their
cohoition during the whole of winter.
On the contrary, | have na;ntnd
particularly black picture, and it was
IN very much better weather that two
VI lnree years ago, went north in De-
.ehoef' on visit to some friends in In
sefness-shire. The particular mart of
sne county l stayed in does not mate
aahy Affect my adventure, so | shall
:, MY time sped by very pleasantly al
though the district did NOT afforJ 4,orr, a,
was o,ghoors at short distances; but this
vas circumstance that always pro-
eIleo me an extra hearty welcome
~ "nen n Ventured far enough from home
.S ~ eau upon any people. On one of
s saese expeditions I had ridden to a
in house about eight miles away, and the
.@'f .n hour OF my arrival brought about
an mutation to stay for dinner and
,E sPeau the evening. My friends pushed
th .helr hospitality to such an extent that
s,s stes nad almost prevailed upon me to
nsts me night as well. when a good
Aa'ared challenge changed my wayer-