J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

240 POPULAR RHYMES OF SCOTLAND.
herding" a flock of swine; and he g-aed up to him and
asked whose swine these were, when the man answered —
* The Eed-Etin of Ireland'—
{Repeat the above verses.']
Then the young man gaed on a hit farther, and came to
another very old man herding goats ; and when he asked
whose goats they were, the answer was —
' The Eed-Etin of Ireland'—
{Repeat the verses again.l
This old man also told him to beware o' the next beasts
that he should meet, for they were of a very different kind
from any he had yet seen.
So the young man went on, and by and by he saw a
multitude of very dreadfu' beasts, ilk ane o' them wi' twa
heads, and on every head four horns. And he was sore
frightened, and ran away from them as fast as he could ;
and glad was he when he came to a castle that stood on
a hillock, wi' the door standing wide to the wa'. And he
gaed into the castle for shelter, and there he saw an auld
wife sitting beside the kitchen fire. He asked the wife if he
might stay there for the night, as he was tired wi' a lang
journey ; and the wife said he might, but it was not a g-ood
place for him to be in, as it belanged to the Red-Etin, who
was a very terrible beast, wi' three heads, that spared no
living man he could get hold of. The young man would
have gone away, but he was afraid of the beasts on the
outside of the castle ; so he beseeched the old woman to
conceal him as well as she could, and not tell the Etin that
he was there. He thought, if he could put over the night,
he might get away in the morning, without meeting wi'
the beasts, and so escape. But he had not been long in his
hidy-hole, before the awful Etin came in ; and nae sooner
was he in, than he was heard crying —
' Snouk but, and snouk ben,
I find the smell of an earthly man ;
Be he living, or be he dead,
His heart this night shall kitchen my bread.'
The monster soon found the poor young man, and pulled
him from his hole. And when he had got him out, he told
him that, if he could answer him thi*ee questions, his life