Ossian Collection > Peat-fire flame

TT-IE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
impression upon her at all. She just went on sucking his
cow's milk until he flung a stone at her, in the hope of
killing her. But the stone nearly killed the innocent cow
instead. Then, in the name of St. Columba, protector of
cattle, the crofter grasped the tip of one of the cow's horns,
with the result that the cow jumped away from the loircag,
and the loircacj jumped away from the cow. Up into the
corrie of Coradale fled the loireag, screaming the while,
mocking at the disgruntled crofter of Ben More, and putting
a curse upon him and his cow.
Another strange creature of the elfin order was the rock-
gnome, who is supposed to have lived in the innermost
recesses of the rocks. Now, it was none other than
MacVurich Mor, himself, who was wont to feed the rock-
gnomes in Uist. MacVurich Mor insisted that, whenever
there was a baking in his house at Staoligarry, the scraps
falling from the baking-board be left for the needy gnomes
dwelling among the rocks. " Give a look to it " (that is to
say, look on it, but have nothing further to do with it),
" for it's many a needy mouth that's waiting on it,"
MacVurich Mor would be saying, when he noticed a
housewife stooping to pick up the crumbs that dropped on
the floor from the baking-board, or sweeping up the scraps
that fell about the hearthstone from her girdle.
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