There is a deep dub, or pool, on Ballacoan stream, which the children of Laxey call Nikkesen's. It is the home of Nyker, the Water Goblin. It has no bottom; and brambles and ferns are growing round it, and fir trees and hazels are hiding it from sight. No child, no grown-up person even, will go near it after dark.
A great many years ago a beautiful girl living at Ballaquine was sent to look for the calves, which had gone astray. She had got as far as Nikkesen's, when she took a notion that she heard the calves over the river in Johnny Baldoon's nuts. At once she began to call to them:
"Kebeg! Kebeg! Kebeg!"
So loud that you could hear her at Chibber Pherick, Patrick's Well. The people could hear her calling quite plainly, but, behold, a great mist came and rolled down the valley, and shut it from sight. The people on one side of the valley could hear her voice yet calling through the mist
"Kebeg! Kebeg! Kebeg!"
Then came a little sweet voice through the mist and the trees in answer:
"Kebeg's here ! Kebeg's here"
And she cried:
"I'm comin'! I'm comin'"
And that was all.
The Fairies who live in Nikkesen's had pulled her in, and carried her to their own. home.
She was never heard of again.
Source: Sophia Morrison - Manx Fairy Tales, London 1911
