John T. Reid, writing in 1869, says one noted spirit on Foula was the Nygel or Nigle, supposed to appear near streams of running water and especially about water mills, where in the night he seized the water wheel with his teeth and held it fast until driven away by firebrands. He varied in size and colour, but always had four legs, glaring eyes, terrible teeth, and a tail like the rim of an immense wheel turned up over his back. He was said once to have entered a dwelling and expelled the inmates, and the place was not lived in for thirty years.
G. F. Black was told by a Foula native that until recent years mothers put children to bed with the warning to be good or the Noggle would take them away.
This is the nuggle, the Shetland water horse, which Wikipedia calls a male horse of gentle disposition who plays pranks on mills. Hibbert calls the shape the Shoopiltee.
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