LJC, Brownies seem much more pleasant. Your thread prompted me to drag out my copy of Katherine Briggs' 'Dictionary of Fairies' which has been gathering dust for years. Kelpies sound like downright nasty characters and unworthy of their Australian canine namesakes. Briggs says that a Kelpie was a Scottish water horse that haunted rivers. He could assume human form - that of a rough, shaggy man - and would sometimes leap up behind a solitary rider, gripping him and crushing him, and frightening him almost to death. Before storms, he could be heard howling and wailing. His most usual shape was that of a young horse. He played the bogey-beast trick of alluring travellers on to his back and rushing with them into a deep pool where he struck the water with his tail with a sound like thunder and disappeared in a flash of light. He was also suspected of sometimes tearing people to pieces and devouring them.

I am sure Joe and his helpers would much rather be thought of as Brownies rather than Kelpies.

--Stewie.