According to Moore, a farmer from Slieau Mayll in Onchan was walking home from church one Sunday evening a few years before 1891 when something crossed the road in front of him near Slegaby. It was like a bull, but wild-eyed, and its eyes looked as if they had fire in them. He knew at once what it was: a tarroo-ushtey. He was not a man to back off. He hit it across the back so hard that his walking stick broke. The beast took no notice at all and went on its way.
His brother had met one earlier at Lhanjaghyn. Early one June morning he went to the fold to let the cattle out and found a strange bull standing outside it. His own bull saw it and charged with all its weight. The water bull did not seem bothered. It turned, leapt over a cliff nearby into a deep pool, swam about as if enjoying itself, gave a great bellow and vanished.
Moore adds that water bulls were said to live in lakes all over the island, that their calves could be known by their short ears, and that unlike the glashtin they were generally thought friendly to people.
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