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

TALES ABOUT GLASTIGS.
Donald MacIan was cow-herd with the tenantry of
Achantore in Lochaber. When summer came round,
he went with the cattle on the farm to the summer pas-
tures of Ben Breck, on the north side of the Blackwater.
One day, as he sat on the meadow at the foot of the
Ben, and the cattle were lying round about him, he heard
a small voice far away ; and immediately he looked in
the direction whence it came. What did he behold, com-
ing with great speed and making straight for the place
where he was sitting, but a Glastig? Without a
moment's delay, he drew out of her way and tried to
hide himself in a bush of bog-myrtle. But if he did,
it was not without being observed by her. She turned
the way he went, and, in the twinkling of an eye, was
standing by his side. She then began to leap forward
and back again over his body, clapping her hands, and
repeating the following words: —
" Do you see the wee colt of the sweet gale
Lying in the midst of the kine?
A stroke he would strike between two strokes,
And a stroke between two blows,
In the meadow between two groves,
In the grove between two meadows."
When she grew tired of that work, she went away
with a light, playful spring, singing the following lilt: —
" Friskier am I than the great eagle,
Friskier am I than the young eagle,
Friskier am I than the calf of two cows,
Friskier am I than a kid in a fold; *'