[From Mona Miscellany second series Manx Soc vol 21]

THE GLASHTYN.

THE Glashtyn is a goblin or sprite who wore no clothes, and was hairy ; said to frequent rivers in their lonely secluded spots, and is useful or otherwise as the caprice of the moment led them, assuming various shapes, and occasionally performing kind offices for the farmer, something in the way of the Scottish Brownie or the Manx "Phynnodderee," as mentioned in the first part of Mona Miscellany.

In Campbell’s Tales of the West Highlands, he relates the following, which was told him by a woman who lived near the Calf of Man, who said :— " Did you ever hear tell of the Glashan ?" " No ; tell me about the Glashan." " Well, you see, in the ould times they used to be keeping the sheep in the folds, and one night an ould man forgot to put them in, and he sent out his son, and he came back and said the sheep were all folded, but there was a year-old lamb, oasht playing the mischief with them, and that was the Glashan. You see they were very strong, and when they wanted a stack threshed, though it was a whole stack, the Glashan would have it threshed for them in one night. And they were running after the women. There was one of them once caught a girl, and ha’ a hould of her by the dress, and he sat down and he fell asleep, and then she cut away all the dress, you see, round about, this way, and left it in his fist, and ran away ; and when he awoke, he threw what he had over his shoulder, this way, and he said something in Manx. Well, you see, one night the ould fellow sent all the women to bed, and he put on a cap and a woman’s dress, and he sat down by the fire, and he began to spin ; and the young Glashans they came in, and they began saying something in Manx that means ‘ Are you turning the wheel ? are you trying the reel ? ‘ Well, the ould Glashan he was outside, and he knew better than the young ones ; lie knew it was the ould fellow himself, and he was telling them, but they did not mind him, and so the ould man threw a lot of hot turf, you see ~ it was turf they burned then, over them, and burned them ; and the ould one said (something in Manx). You’ll not understand that now

" Yes, I do ; pretty nearly."

" Ah, well. And so the Glashans went away, and never came back any more."

" Have you many stories like that, guidwife?"

" Ah ! " said she, " there were plenty of people that could tell those stories once. When I was a little girl I used to hear them telling them in Manx over the fire at night ; but people is so changed with pride now that they care for nothing."