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

FOLK TALES ANL> FAIRY LORE. 1 25
of the pen. The fairy arrow would kill without loaving
behind it any visible wound.
The relater of the last story was herding in his boy-
hood near to the town of Strathavon in the South
country. On a clear summer day he happened to be
sitting on a mossy bank, and the cattle quietly pastur-
ing in front of him. To pass the time he began to
cut a dial in the green sward between his feet. In the
midst of this work he thought he heard first a humming
in the air, and an instant after that, a whizzing between
his feet. He turned his eye quickly in the direction
whence the whizzing had come, and what did he behold
but a fairy-arrow stuck in the very middle of the dial.
It was at first red-hot, but in a short time the cold moss
water quenched it. He then put it in his pocket, and
when his engagement was out, he took it home with
him to Gaeldom, and showed it to his father. " My
dear boy," said his father, " it was thy friend who
threw it, otherwise thou wouldst not have been here
this day." Then his father told him the tale preceding
this, and how the tailor aimed at the white wether
instead of ! is neighbour, who was standing in the
door.