The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

288 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
mony ane my father saw when he used to come hame frae the fairs at e'en,
wi' a drap drink in his head, honest man."
Earnscliff was somewhat entertained with the gradual declension of superstition from one generation to another which was inferred in this last observation; and they continued to reason on such subjects, until they came in
sight of the upright stone which gave name to the moor.
"As I shall answer," says Hobbie, " yonder's the creature creeping about
yet! -But it's day-light, and you have your gun, and I brought out my bit
whinger-I think we may venture on him."
" By all manner of means," said Earnscliff; " but, in the name of wonder,
what can he be doing there?"
"Biggin a dry-stane dyke, I think, wi' the grey geese, as they ca' thae
great loose stanes-Odd, that passes a' thing I e'er heard tell of!"
As they approached nearer, Earnscliff could not help agreeing with his
companion. The figure they had seen the night before seemed slowly and
toilsomely labouring to pile the large stones one upon another, as if to form
a small enclosure. Materials lay around him in great plenty, but the labour
of carrying on the work was immense, from the size of most of the stones;
and it seemed astonishing that he should have succeeded in moving several
which he had already arranged for the foundation of his edifice. He was
struggling to move a fragment of great size when the two young men came
up, and was so intent upon executing his purpose, that he did not perceive
them till they were close upon him. In straining and heaving at the stone,
in order to place it according to his wish, he displayed a degree of strength
which seemed utterly inconsistent with his size and apparent deformity.
Indeed, to judge from the difficulties he had already surmounted, he must
have been of Herculean powers; for some of the stones he had succeeded
in raising apparently required two men's strength to have moved them.
Hobbie's suspicions began to revive, on seeing the preternatural strength
he exerted.
1" I am amaist persuaded it's the ghaist of a stane-mason-see siccan bandstanes as he's laid i -An it be a man, after a', I wonder what he wad take
by the rood to build a march dyke. There's ane sair wanted between Cringlehope and the Shaws.-Honest man," (raising his voice,) "ye make good
firm wark there."
The being whom he addressed raised his eyes with a ghastly stare, and,
getting up from his stooping posture, stood before them in all his native
and hideous deformity. His head was of uncommon size, covered with a
fell.of shaggy hair, partly grizzled with age; his eyebrows, shaggy and
prominent, overhung a pair of small, dark, piercing eyes, set far back ill
their sockets, that rolled with a portentous wildness, indicative of a partial
insanity. The rest of his features were of the coarse, rough-hewn stamp,
with which a painter would equip a giant in romance; to which was added
the wild, irregular, and peculiar expression, so often seen in the countenances of those whose persons are deformed. HIis body, thick and square,
like that of a man of middle size, was mounted upon two large feet; but
nature seemed to have forgotten the legs and the thighs, or they were so
very short as to be hidden by the dress which he wore. His arms were long
and brawny, furnished with two muscular hands, and, where uncovered in
the eagerness of his labour, were shagged with coarse black hair. It
seemed as if nature had originally intended the separate parts of his body
to be the members of a giant, but had afterwards capriciously assigned them
to the person of a dwarf, so ill did the length of his arms.and the iron
strength of his frame correspond with the shortness of his stature. His
clothing was a sort of coarse brown tunic, like a monk's frock, girt round him
with a belt of seal-skin. On his head he had a cap made of badger's skin,
or some other rough fur, which added considerably to the grotesque effect of