The Ghosts of Craig-Aulnaic

Two celebrated ghosts existed, once on a time, in the wilds of
Craig-Aulnaic, a romantic place in the district of Strathdown,
Banffshire. The one was a male and the other a female. The male was
called Fhuna Mhoir Ben Baynac, after one of the mountains of Glenavon,
where at one time he resided; and the female was called Clashnichd
Aulnaic, from her having had her abode in Craig-Aulnaic. But although
the great ghost of Ben Baynac was bound by the common ties of nature and
of honour to protect and cherish his weaker companion, Clashnichd
Aulnaic, yet he often treated her in the most cruel and unfeeling manner.
In the dead of night, when the surrounding hamlets were buried in deep
repose, and when nothing else disturbed the solemn stillness of the
midnight scene, oft would the shrill shrieks of poor Clashnichd burst
upon the slumberer's ears, and awake him to anything but pleasant
reflections.

But of all those who were incommoded by the noisy and unseemly quarrels
of these two ghosts, James Owre or Gray, the tenant of the farm of Balbig
of Delnabo, was the greatest sufferer. From the proximity of his abode
to their haunts, it was the misfortune of himself and family to be the
nightly audience of Clashnichd's cries and lamentations, which they
considered anything but agreeable entertainment.

One day as James Gray was on his rounds looking after his sheep, he
happened to fall in with Clashnichd, the ghost of Aulnaic, with whom he
entered into a long conversation. In the course of it he took occasion
to remonstrate with her on the very disagreeable disturbance she caused
himself and family by her wild and unearthly cries--cries which, he said,
few mortals could relish in the dreary hours of midnight. Poor
Clashnichd, by way of apology for her conduct, gave James Gray a sad
account of her usage, detailing at full length the series of cruelties
committed upon her by Ben Baynac. From this account, it appeared that
her living with the latter was by no means a matter of choice with
Clashnichd; on the contrary, it seemed that she had, for a long time,
lived apart with much comfort, residing in a snug dwelling, as already
mentioned, in the wilds of Craig-Aulnaic; but Ben Baynac having
unfortunately taken into his head to pay her a visit, took a fancy, not
to herself, but her dwelling, of which, in his own name and authority, he
took immediate possession, and soon after he expelled poor Clashnichd,
with many stripes, from her natural inheritance. Not satisfied with
invading and depriving her of her just rights, he was in the habit of
following her into her private haunts, not with the view of offering her
any endearments, but for the purpose of inflicting on her person every
torment which his brain could invent.