Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 3

lO WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
" Stumpy black raA^en, if thou wert here now ! "
No sooner said he the word than the raven came.
He belaboured the giant about the face, and the eyes,
and the ears, with his beak, and with his claws and
with his wings. '
" Hast thou a nail of a weapon ?"
" I have not."
" Put thy hand under the root of my right wing
and thou wilt find a small sharp knife that I have for
gathering whortle berries, and take his head off."
He did that.
" Xow," said the raven, " take rest as thou didst
last night, and when thou returnest with the three
daughters of the knight, to the cut (edge) of the rock,
thou shalt go down first thyself, and they shall go
down after thee ; and thou shalt give me a quid of
tobacco."
" I will give it ; thou hast well deserved it ; here it
is for thee altogether."
" I will but take a i^uid ; there is many a long day
ti) Bealtain."
" The fortune will not let me lie here till Bealtain."
" Thou hast knowledge of what is behind thee, but
thou hast no knowledge what is before thee."
(3n the morrow they set in order asses, and on
their backs they put the gold and the silver that the
giants had, and he himself and the three daughters of
the knight reached the edge of the rock : when they
reached the edge of the rock, for fear giddiness should
coiue over any of the girls, he sent them down one
after one in the creel. There were three caps of gold
on them, made up finely with "daoimean" (diamonds);
caps that -were made in the Roimli (Rome), and such
that their like were not to be found in the universe.
He kept up the cap that was on the youngest. He was