The place which he now
traversed, was in itself gloomy and desolate, and
tradition had added to it the terror of superstition,
by affirming it was haunted by an evil spirit, termed
_Cloght-dearg_, that is, Redmantle, who at all times,
but especially at noon and at midnight, traversed
the glen, in enmity both to man and the inferior
creation, did such evil as her power was permitted
to extend to, and afflicted with ghastly terrors
those whom she had not license otherwise to hurt.
The minister of Glenorquhy had set his face in
opposition to many of these superstitions, which
he justly thought were derived from the dark ages
of Popery, perhaps even from those of Paganism,
and unfit to be entertained or believed by the Christians
of an enlightened age. Some of his more
attached parishioners considered him as too rash in
opposing the ancient faith of their fathers; and
though they honoured the moral intrepidity of
their pastor, they could not avoid entertaining and
expressing fears, that he would one day fall a victim
to his temerity, and be torn to pieces in the
glen of the Cloght-dearg, or some of those other
haunted wilds, which he appeared rather to have a
pride and pleasure in traversing alone, on the days
and hours when the wicked spirits were supposed
to have especial power over man and beast.
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