Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 1

2 74 WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
watch, and the other two went in, and they began to
kill the young wolves, and they were squealing, and
the old one heard them, and she came running to the
place, and slipped between the legs of the lad who was
watching, and got her head into the hole, but he held
her by the tail.
" What," said the lad who was inside " is keeping
the light from us."
Ma bhristeas bun Fionn bithidh fios agad.
" If the root of Fionn (or if the hairy root) breaks,
thou wilt know," said the man outside.
Well, he held on, and the lads that were inside
killed the wolf and the young ones, and they took the
boy home to his mother, and his family were alive in
the time of my grandfather, and they say they Avere
never like other people.
This is manifestly the same as the story of Romulus and
Remus, but it appears on very strong evidence that wolves really
carry off and suckle children in Oude now, and that these children
grow up to be half savages. It is either a fact in natural history,
or a tradition, believed to be a fact in Sutherland and in Oude.
I have heard the same story told in the Highlands of a wild boar,
but the boar's tail would be but a slippery hold. J. F. C.
According to Innes (Scotland in the Middle Ages, Pp. 125),
in 1283, there was an allowance for one hunter of wolves at
Stirling; and there were wild boars fed at the King's expense in
1263, in Forfarshire. There are plenty of wolves now in Scandi-
navia, and in Brittany, and wild boars in Germany, and elsewhere
in Europe. The Gaelic names for welfare Madadh, Alluidh,
commonly used ; Faol Chu, Alla Mhadadh, all of which are
composed of an epithet, and a word which now means dog. Die.
etc. Mac tire, Earth's Son ; Faol, Armstrong.
A Boar is Tone, Cullach, Fiadh chullach.
The Fox appears as a talking creature in several stories. So
does the Bear in No. IX., and the Wolf and Falcon, No. IV.
The Dog appears in No. XII. ; the Sheep, Cat, Cock, Goose, Dog,