Matheson Collection > Popular tales of the west Highlands > Volume 1

THE BATTLE OF THE BIRDS. 53
to the bride — "There is thy first lover; marry him." And they
are married then and there. The dog brings in his own daugh-
ter ; Mother's Blessing marries her, and the dog danced at the
wedding with the priest. MacCraw said there was something
left out which his informant would not tell.
7. I have received yet another version of this tale, very well
written in Gaelic, from John Dewar, who, according to his own
account of himself, is now (October 1859) residing in Glendaruail,
and is about to proceed to Roseneath, where he used to get em-
ployment in making stobbs for the fences. He heads his story —
" Tales of the Gael in the Winter Nights," and promises to send
more. UiRSGEALN NAN Gael s' na oidhchenan geamhraidh.
— His Gaelic spelling is rather phonetic —
He heard it from his mother, told nearly as the stable-boy gave
it ; and has heard it lately in Glendaruail. He first heard an
abridgement four or five years before 1812 or 1813, when he
learned this from Mary MacCalum, a native of Glen Falloch, at
the head of Loch Lomond.
It begins with a quarrel between a mouse and a wren in a barn
about a grain of oats, which the mouse ivill eat. The wren
brings his twelve birds — the mouse her tribe. The wren says,
"Thou hast thy tribe with thee " — "As well as myself," says the
mouse. The mouse sticks out her leg proudly, and the wren
breaks it with his flail. The creatures of the plain and of the air
all joined the quarrel, and there was a pitched battle on a set day.
They fought the battle in a field above a king's house ; and the fight
was so fierce, that there were left but a raven and a snake. The
king's sou looked out of a window, and saw the snake twined round
the raven's neck, and the raven holding the snake's throat in his
beak — gob — ami neither dared to let go. Both promised friend-
ship for help, and the king's son slew the serpent — Nathair.
The raven lived for a year and a day in the palace, then took
the king's son hunting for the first time, and when he was tired,
carried him. "And he put his hands about the raven before his
wings, and he hopped with him over nine Bens, and nine Glens,
and nine Moors." They go to the three sisters, and the king's
son gets hospitality, because he comes from the land where the
birds set the battle, and brings news of the raven, who is yet
alive, and lived with him for a year and a day. Each day the
number of glens, and hills, and moors passed over, falls from nine
to six and three. The same thing is said by each of the three