The Kelpie and the nine children from the Highlands

The Kelpie and the nine children from the Highlands

The tale: A group of children was roaming around one Sunday near Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands when they saw a very large and friendly horse. There was room enough for all of them on its back, so they climbed up. When the horse took off at a gallop the frightened children tried to jump off, but they were all stuck fast. Only one, who happened to have a bible in his pocket, survived to tell the tale, and only because he was smart enough to cut off one of his fingers, glued to the horse’s mane, with his pocket-knife.

This boy supposedly saw the horse dive into a loch with his shrieking cargo. None of the children were ever seen again, but the next day searchers found some pieces of liver and guts floating on the surface of the pond.

It transpires in the tale that the horse had been a water-horse or a kelpie: a creature that likes to fool humans into thinking it is an ordinary horse – or an ordinary man (often with tell-tale sand and weed in his hair) – who will drag you underwater to your doom.