Fae-creatures you probably never heard of : Each-uisge

Fairy creatures are known in folklore to be quite vicious and sometimes downright cruel. A particular water-horse was described to be as perhaps the fiercest and most dangerous of all the water-horses including the very reputed Kelpie. And that fae my friends is called the each-uisge or in the angecalized form, Aughisky.

Yes he is a fae as fairies in folklore come in all sizes and shapes.

A water spirit from Scottish legend is called the Aughisky. He’s a shapeshifter who can take the form of many things like a fine horse or a handsome man.

This creature can usually be found in seas, sea lochs, or fresh water lochs. And he consumes human flesh. Taking advantage of its horse appearance, it waits for unsuspecting humans to either touch it or mount it. The moment they do, its skin becomes adhesive and you can’t get yourself off it try as you might and then it whisks its victims into the body of water devouring them after they drown..

When its finished with its cannibalistic meal, it usually leaves the liver floating in the water.

If you’re that curious and stupid and really wanna see one of these creatures, head to a body of water and roast some cattle or sheep meat there. After a while, the each-uisge will definitely come out…..to devour you most likely.

And yes humans are not the only thing this fae consumes, he also eats cattle and sheep. That’s why they can be lured out with its smell.

However, there have been several stories of people surviving a meeting with the Aughisky

One story tells of a man who handled himself pretty well after he found himself stuck to an aughisky’s back. He placed his feet on either side of the gateway and yanked himself off the water creature using sheer force alone (pretty badass if you ask me).

Another story claims that a boy cut off his finger after(stupidly) touching the each-uisge with it in order to save his life.

But sometimes people just aren’t lucky enough to escape. Just like the blacksmith’s daughter who was lost to the vicious water-horse.

In Raasay, there was said that an each-uisge lived in loch na mna. This each-uisge made the mistake of messing with the wrong family. Because as soon as he devoured the daughter, the blacksmith and his son decided to take revenge.

They roasted a sheep beside the loch to lure the fae out and heated up some big hooks. As soon as he emerged, they rammed the seething hot hooks into the aughisky. And after a short struggle, they succesfully killed him. Maybe the daughter wasn’t saved but at least justice was served right?

Though thankfully, not every woman that meets the sea-horse faces her demise. That’s because aughisky doesn’t always approch women with the intention of devouring them, in fact sometimes he has amorous intentions.

One story claims that a woman herding cattle was approached by a handsome man. And what does a lonely girl usually do when she meets a handsome stranger whom she shouldn’t trust? Obviously she offers him her lap so he could sleep on it. She’s happy from the attractive male’s attention, until he stretches and to her horror, the poor girl discovers he has hooves (some say she saw weeds or sand in his hair which on another note is how you can tell him apart from a normal human in his human form) and so she stealthily escapes scared for her life.

Another story is of a lady who was living alone and the water horse came to her and started flirting. What did she do you ask? She boiled some water and threw it between his legs for his unwanted advances sending him into an episode of burn pains.

So yeah, he’s not always out to eat people. He CAN fall in love, but females beware, there’s a good possibility he would devour the women as much as the men. You are probably thinking that you should never ever mount or touch the each-uisge which is true but not in all cases. You see sometimes the aughisky ventures through land and lets himself be used for farm labor or even a trustworthy stead….until……until he smells a whiff of a loch or a body of water. If you’re riding him at the time, you’re basically a goner. For it’s at that moment that his skin will become adhesive and he will whisk you away to your death.

The each-uisge should never be trusted. Even when he looks friendly, he only does it to lure you away from safety.

So remember, if you ever meet a stranger or a horse beside a loch

RUN

and never look back.

References:

-Each-uisge. (2022). Retrieved December ,2022 from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Each-uisge

-zteve t evans, “Scottish Legends: The each-uisge” Folkrealm Studies January,14 ,2015, https://folkrealmstudies.weebly.com/-scottish-legends-the-each-uisge.html