A supernatural creature which lives under or inside rocks in the Highlands and which devours all milk or crumbs of bread spilt on the ground. Mackenzie, in Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life (p.244), thinks it likely that the Fridean were the original beings to which the libations of milk were poured upon the hills of Gairloch, Ross and Cromarty. He suggests that the fairly widespread tale of a piper who, followed by his dog, explored the windings of an underground cavern and never returned from it, though the sound of his music was followed above ground for several miles, is related to the Fridean. The dog returned hairless, as dogs do from encounters with fairies, and died when it came out into the open.

[Motif: V12.9]