Ossian Collection > Folk tales and fairy lore in Gaelic and English

THE GIRL WHO EMPTIED THE INEXHAUST-
IBLE MEAL CHEST OF THE FAIRIES.
On'ck upon a time a young maiden went to drive her
father's cattle to the hill. A Fairy Knoll lay before
her in the path she took; and after she came in sight
of it, she n>et a band of fairies, with one taller than
the rest at their head. This one seized her,
and with the help of the others, took her away with
him to the Fairy Knoll.
As soon as he had got her within the Knoll, he put her
under an obligation to bake into bread all the meal in the
meal-chest, before she would receive her wages and
permission to go home.
The chest was but small, and so the poor maiden
imagined that she would not take a long time in empty-
ing it. But in this she was greatly deceived. For
though she began to bake, and kept at it with all her
strength day after day, her labour was to all appear-
ance in vain. As she would empty the chest it would
fill again. At length she saw that her task, and, there-
fore, her captivity, would never come to an end. This
thought so grieved her that she burst out a-crying.
In the Fairy Knoll was an old woman who had been
carried off by the fairies in her youth, and who had
been so long there that she had lost all hope of ever
getting out. This woman beheld the plight of the