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This legend is Scottish, but the Irish also have their version of the terrible water horse. It is called the Aughisky. It is a demon much like a kelpie except more vicious in nature. They resided in the between worlds, a kind of purgatory of sorts. When the portal was opened, they would leave their realms of the Otherworld for the lochs and streams, in which to prey upon unsuspecting mortals and animals.
The each-uisge was rumored to have the chest and arms of a human man, with clawed and webbed fingers, but the head and hind legs of a horse. It has a strange looking elongated nose, and its coat was generally gray or black with an opalescent shine. It also had waterweeds in its mane to mark it for what it was.
The water horse lures its prey to the waters edge, and most unsuspecting humans can't resist the urge to ride it or touch it. Therein, lies their downfall, because the creature drags it into the water and drowns them, and then drags it back to their lair where it tears them to shreds and eats them at leisure in peace. It craves human flesh, and has also been reported as the culprit for missing sheep and cattle as well. The only part it did not consume was the liver, which oft-times floated to the shore to be eaten by other wild animals or creatures. Also sometimes other internal organs wash ashore as well.
The creature was a shape shifter, and could take the form of a large horse, human or giant bird. When the urge to mate came upon them, they would shift to human form and go into cities and seduce as many women as they could and impregnate them. They would then return to the water and the Otherworld to await the birth of its children. The female children they left alone, for they appear human, cannot shift, and generally have deformed hands and they cannot reproduce. The male children are found once they are born and stolen to be taken back to the realm of the Otherworld, where they are kept until they reach adulthood. If they are left in the mortal world, they die, because they cannot survive.
The only known way to tame a each-uisge and defeat it is to slip its magic bridle over it's head, where it is supposed to become docile, even though it is still dangerous at this point, drag it inland. The longer it is inland and out of the water, the weaker it becomes, and finally dissolves itself into a puddle of water or goop. Some people used the smell of cooking meat to lure it out of the water, and poison it with darts before slipping the bridle on it and dragging it inland. The water horse was rumored to be only vulnerable during the time it shifted and you had to put the bridle on it during its shift to destroy or tame it. If it figured out what you were doing before you had the magic bridle on, then your life was forfeit.
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