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

FOLK TALES AND FAIRY LORE. 7
promised that she would not, and went on her way.
She reached her father's house in safety, and was
not long there until she was delivered.
Three nights after that event fairy music came about
the house, by means of which the watchers were put
asleep, and then there came in under the lintel a tig
hand which swept away the child, and left bread and
a bottle of wine at the head of the bed.
When the time for her to return home was at hand
her sisters did all they could to see if she would tell
them her husband's name. But she remembered her
promise and told it not. Then her husband himself
came and took her away in his chariot.
At the end of another year and day she came again
to her father's house to be delivered, and everything
happened to her as on the first occasion.
She came the third time to her father's house. But
before she left her own home her husband gave her
strict orders not to tell his name to a living being.
She promised that she would not; but her sisters,
threatening to burn her if she hid it from them any
longer, put her in such a fright that she at last con-
fessed Summer-under-dew was what he was called.
On the third night after the child was born, fairy music
came about the house, and, while the watchers were
asleep, the hand took away the child. But this time
it left neither bread nor wine, and the husband came
not, as he was wont, to take her home. By this she
knew that she had done wrong in giving her husband's
name to her sisters.
As soon as she could move she set out towards
home ; but, when she reached it, she found no living
creature about the castle. She saw how matters stood,