Scotland's riverside has a beautiful horse, never ride it

Old people in the Scottish Highlands tell children: if you see a horse by the river or the lake, very beautiful, with wet mane, standing quietly, do not approach.

That is a "kelpie", a water horse. It is sometimes black, sometimes white, sometimes turns into a handsome young man, standing by the river waiting for you, waterweed tangled in its hair, dripping water.

It is very good at luring people. If you touch its skin, your hand sticks to it and cannot be pulled away; if you mount it, it bolts into the water, dragging you into the deep to drown and eat you. The next day people only find some entrails on the shore.

There is a story that several children saw a gentle horse, and climbed on one by one; the last child touched its nose, his hand stuck, and he cut off his own fingers with a knife to escape, while the horse rushed into the lake with all the children.

Some also say that if someone can seize the kelpie's bridle, they can make it work for them; the strength of one water horse equals ten horses.

The use of these stories is obvious: do not let children go to the water alone.

In 2013, in Falkirk, Scotland, two giant iron horse-head sculptures were built, thirty meters high, called "Kelpies", one bowing its head, one raising it, standing by the canal. From afar, they look like two horses emerging from the water.

#Ghosts #网络转载 #欧洲民俗