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

FOLK TALES AND FAIRY LORE. 273
where he was, until she would be ready. The woman
now came out, and said that she would not go a step
with him unless he would come in and take a morsel of
food. Then he reminded her of what she had said to
his mistress when she met her in the form of a frog
on the reaping field, and then he said that she dared
not go back from her word. She saw that she had put
herself in his power by what she had said, and that
she must go with him. Before she departed, however,
the lad promised to bring her home safely in a few
days.
The farmer placed his wife behind the lad, and as
soon as she had got seated there, away went the grey
horse at full gallop up the face of the hill. In a very
short time he reached the summit, and then he turned
his face towards a great chasm which lay between the
hill he had ascended and another opposite. When the
farmer's wife noticed this, she cried to the lad: " What
do you mean ? Do you expect the horse to leap that
chasm ? " But before the words were out of her moi^th
the horse went over it like a bird on the wing. " Well
done, grey kitten! " said the lad to the steed that was
under him. These words made the farmer's wife
wonder; but, if so, her wonder was the greater when
she looked and saw that the steed which she herself
and the lad rode was but a grey cat.
" Now," said the lad to the farmer's wife, "you are
going to a Fairy Knoll, which is a short distance from
this, to attend the Queen of the Fairies; and before
you proceed further, I shall tell you what you ought
to do when you reach it. Be not afraid to take my
advice, for I am not a fairy at all, but a human being.
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