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Piety saves a youth from his father's pact with a mysterious...

Date 1956
Track ID 14349
Part 1
Part 2

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1956.176.A1

Original Tape ID

SA1956.176

Summary

Piety saves a youth from his father's pact with a mysterious stranger.

An old fisherman and his wife and their neighbours were starving as there were no fish to be had. A gentleman came to the river and offered his help in exchange for the fisherman's firstborn son. He agreed (his wife was 83) and his net came up crammed with fish. The gentleman told him to gut the fish himself, before giving it away, and to meet him in a year and a day. The fish had jewels for guts and the couple bought a large house. The old woman became pregnant and had a baby boy. At their next meeting, the gentleman told the fisherman he would come for the boy when he was twenty. The son grew up and was very pious. When he was twenty, the gentleman came back. The father told his son of his promises [change of tape] and the son agreed to go. The boy took a stool and a Bible that his mother had given him. Before his father left him, the son opened the Bible and prayed, and the gentleman disappeared in a ball of fire: it was the Auld Man [the Devil] himself.

Item Notes

Starts off in English and switches into Scots.

Recording Location

County - Perthshire

Parish - Blairgowrie

Village/Place - Blairgowrie

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Story

Collection

SoSS

Classification

AT810

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good