In the olden times, when it was the fashion for gentlemen to wear swords, the Laird of Balmachie went one day to Dundee, leaving his wife at home ill in bed. He encountered fairies which carried his wife in bedclothes.They disappeared on seeing him. He placed her on the horse before him, and, arrived safely at home. He placed her under the care of an attentive friend. He went to his wife’s bed, lifted the impostor from the bed and threw her on the fire, from which she bounced like a sky-rocket. His wife said that after sunset, the nurse left her for preparing a little candle. Elves came in at the window, thronging like bees from a hive.
They filled the room, and having lifted her from the bed carried her through the window, after which she recollected nothing further, till she saw her husband standing over her on the Cur-hills, at the back of Carlungy. The hole in the roof, by which the female fairy made her escape, was mended. But it could never be kept in repair, as a tempest of wind happened always once a year, which uncovered that particular spot, without injuring any other part of the roof.
