J.F.Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Vol.IV, pp.304-306) gives a version of the tale of 'The Water-Horse and the Water-Bull' written down for him by Mr Pattison of Islay:

In one of the islands here (Islay), on the northern side, there lived before now a great farmer, and he had a large stock of cattle. It happened one day that a calf was born amongst them, and an old woman who lived in the place, as soon as ever she saw it, ordered that it should be put in a house by itself, and kept there for seven years, and fed on the milk of three cows. And as every thing which this old woman advised was always done in the 'baile', this also was done (It is to be remarked that the progeny of the water-bull can be recognized by an expert by the shape of the ears).

A long time after these things a servant girl went with the farmer's herd of cattle to graze them at the side of a loch, and she sat herself down near the bank. There, in a little while, what should she see walking towards her but a man (no description of him given in this version), who asked her to 'fasg' his hair. She said she was willing enough to do him that service, and so he laid his head on her knee, and she began to arrange his locks, as Neapolitan damsels also do by their swains. But soon she got a great fright, for, growing amongst the man's hair, she found a great quantity of 'Liobhagach an locha', a certain slimy green weed that abounds in such lochs, fresh, salt, and brackish (In another version it was sand). The girl knew that if she screamed there was an end of her, so she kept her terror to herself, and worked away till the man fell asleep, as he was with his head on her knee. Then she untied her apron strings, and slid the apron quietly on to the ground with its burden upon it, and then she took her feet home as fast as it was in her heart (This incident I have heard told in the Isle of Man and elsewhere, of a girl and a supernatural). Now when she was getting near the houses she gave a glance behind her, and there she saw her 'caraid' (friend) coming after her in the likeness of a horse.

He had nearly reached her, when the old woman who saw what was going on called out to open the door of the wild bull's house, and in a moment out sprang the bull.

He gave an eye all round about him, and then rushed off to meet the horse, and when they met they fought, and they never stopped fighting till they drove each other out into the sea, and no one could tell which ofthem was best. Next day the body of the bull was found on the shore all torn and spoilt, but the horse was never more seen at all.

The narrator prefaced this story by remarking that it was 'perfectly true', for he had it from a lobster fisher, who heard it from an old man who witnessed the whole scene. It was suggested to him that the 'old woman' was a witch, but he would have his story told in his own way, and said, 'Well, I suppose she was a witch, but I did not hear it.'

Campbell enlarges this tale by some interesting glosses and a variant of the story in which the water-bull is a more fairy-like character with the gift of speech and song:

Mr Pattison, who wrote down this version, regrets that he did not get a fuller description of the animals. I have a fuller description of them, and of the girl, with all the names of the people, and the places, fully set forth. The bull was large and black, he was found groaning in a peat hag, and was helped by the girl's lover, who brought him food, though he suspected him to be the water-bull. The girl was dark-haired and brown-eyed, and the farmer's daughter. Her lover was an active Highland lad, and a drover, who went by the name of 'Eachan coir nan ord', 'Gentle Hector of the hammers', and he was fair-haired.

There was a rejected rival suitor who takes the place of the waterhorse, who threw his plaid over the girl's head when she is at a shieling, and carried her off, but the black water-bull rushed in just at the nick of time, crushed the wicked wooer to the earth, invited the lady to mount on his back, and carried her safely home, when he disappeared, singing —

Aid came to me by a gentle youth,

And to a maiden I brought aid;

After three hundred years of my hard age,

Give me my freedom without delay.

[Type: ML6060. Motifs: F420.1.3.3; F420.1.3.4]