Kelpie

A Kelpie can appear as a horse or a woman, always slightly strange - weeds hanging from them, awfully wet, green tinge etc. If the horse is mounted, or the woman seduced, the poor soul is dragged to the Kelpies home and drowned. If an escape is made, the Kelpie will chase the victim down, and then drown them. However, a kelpie cannot cross running water

Kel"pie, Kel"py, n.; pl. Kelpies (#). [Cf. Gael. cailpeach, calpach, colpach, a heifer, steer, colt, colpa a cow or horse.] Scotch Myth.

An imaginary spirit of the waters, horselike in form, vulgarly believed to warn, by preternatural noises and lights, those who are to be drowned.

Jamieson.

© Webster 1913.