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

184 WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
I have not given the Gaelic of this, because there is nothing
peculiar in the language. It is curious as having a general resem-
blance to the adventures of Jack the Giant Killer and Tom Thumb,
Thor, and other such worthies; and as showing two well-known
Ossianic heroes in a nursery tale, as "early as 1810." Curahal the
father of Fionn ; and Cuchullin.
I have another version of th^se incidents in a story dictated by
Neil Macalister, Port Charlotte, Islay, and written by Mr. Carmichael
at the request of my old friend, John MacLean, of Coulabus.
The Feinn were all in Islay to drive away the Lochlanners, and
when they had succeeded, Cuchullin fell in with a fairy sweetheart,
who had flocks and herds, and he staid, while the rest went north to
fight the Lochlanners in Skye. The fairy sweetheart bore a son, and
by desire of his father, called him Conlaoch. There was a neighbour
called Garbh Mac Stairn, who was far stronger than Cuchullin, and
one day he went to take his fine light-coloured bull. Cuchullin dis-
guised himself as herd, met the giant, told him his mistress was ill in
bed, and then ran round, and got into bed behind her. The wife said
she had got a baby, and the giant poked his finger into his mouth, to
see if he would make " fisean Cuin," a whelp of Conn, and the hero
bit him to the bone. The wife complained of the draught from the
door, lamenting her husband's absence, for he would turn the house
away from the wind. The big man tried, but could not, so he made
oflf to the cattle. The seeming herd got there before him, and they
seized the bull by the horns, and tore him in two. Then they try
the feats which Cuchullin could do. The giant carries a millstone
which the herd cannot lift, to a hill top, and the herd rides it to the
bottom. The giant tries, and gets many a hard fall. They go to a
rock more than a hundred fathoms high, and perform a feat which
used to be attributed to Islay boys ; they " measure two feet and two
fists " over the edge. The giant puts one heel on the edge, the other
against his toe, stoops, and places his clenched hands on each other, on
the other toe ; and tumbles headlong into the " fierce black green sea."
Cuchullin gives a feast, and then goes to Skye to help Fionn>
leaving a ring for his son. He grows up and follows, and his mother
swears him never to tell his name till forced. Conlaoch finds
the Feinn fighting at " Thaigh Mheile aun an Dura." Fionn
sends to find out his name. Conan goes ; they fight, and Conan is
beat. Cuchullin goes, and the son keeps him off with his sword.
They go out into the sea, to the bands of their kilts, to try "cath
builg," and they cast their spears at each other, but the son casts shaft