Brand reports a story told to him by a gentleman and his lady, who had it from the bailie of the place the boat belonged to. About five years earlier, a boat at the fishing drew her lines, and one of them, as the men thought, had a great fish on it, which came up with more difficulty than the rest. When raised, it came more easily to the surface, and a creature like a woman showed at the side of the boat, with the face, arms, breasts and shoulders of a woman and long hair hanging down her back. Below the breasts she was under the water, so they could not make out her shape.
Surprised, one of the fishers drew a knife and thrust it into her breast. She cried out, as they judged, Alas, and the hook gave way and she fell backwards and was seen no more. The hook was big, and it had gone in at her chin and out at the upper lip.
The man who stabbed her is now dead, Brand says, and was observed never to have prospered after it, but to have been haunted by an evil spirit in the appearance of an old man, who used to say to him, Will ye do such a thing, who killed the woman. The other man in the boat was still alive in Burra. Brand says many he asked had not heard of it, but some had and judged it very true.
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