Adder o’ Baldoon

Amongst the many traditions of Galloway, appears one, entitled the Adder o' Baldoon, the foundation of which is, that a reptile of enormous size was killed about sixty years ago, on the fertile howms of Baldoon, near Wigtown; it measured somewhere about eight or nine feet in length, and in thickness that of a man's arm. A shepherd traced it out one dewy morning, by the path it had left on the wet grass, and his dog having come up on it beyond a dyke, a dreadful conflict ensued between Collie and our Boa Constrictor; the strong Tyke, however, succeeded in worrying the huge monster, but not until the serpent had stung him so that he died next morning. The herd himself was so panic struck with the scene, that he was never like himsell again; and died soon afterwards; poor fellow, he fancied that it was an Hurchon that Rover had fallen in with at first-—did he expect it was an Adder, and one of such magnitude. Such seems to be nearly the true part of the tale. The stuffed skin of it is yet to be seen, I am told, in some gentleman's museum in that part of the Country. Warm imaginations have made a good deal of the tale though. They give it wings and claws, and finishes a dragon, which was as thick as a corn sack fu'; so the whole becomes good food for bairnies to take during a Forenicht.

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