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

THE FAIRY OF CORRIE OSBEN AND THE
TAILOR.
In Corrie Osben lived a shepherd's wife, whose child
grew very peevish and difficult to nurse. Neither she
nor her husband knew what was the matter with the
child, or what was to be done with him, until the tailor
came to make clothes of a web of home-made cloth
newly come from the walking-mill. Next day after his
arrival, the shepherd's wife went to the peat-moss, and
left the child under his care till she should return.
Shortly after she went away, what did the tailor hear
behind him but the sweet music of the bag-pipes. He
looked the way whence the music came, and whom did
he see sitting in the bed but a little old grey-headed
man with a pipe of straw in his mouth, busy playing
a tune, to which the following verses are sung: —
Hush ! Oranan, Plush ! Oranan,
Hush! Oranan, Hush! Oheè!
Long is the lassie of coming
To give the Can nan a wee.
Hush! Oranan, etc.
He kept playing this tune until he heard the woman
coming; then the music ceased, and he was again a
little child.
The tailor told the woman nothing of what he had