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

GO WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
be a football. The daughter came at night as usual and gave him
Bara agus Cromax, a barrow and a crook, and told him to say
Cab Cab a Chromain, Cuir air a bhara a shluasaid, cuir a
MACH A bhara, and the tools worked of themselves.
Then he had three more tasks set. The three daughters put
three needles through three holes in a partition, he caught the
one without " Chro." (?) They put out three great pins, and he
caught the one that had two " Phloc " heads. Then they pushed
out their little fingers, and he took the one with. Cab as ax
lOXGA, a notch in the nail.
"Hugh ! huh ! " said the giant, "thou hast her now, but to
Erin thou goest not ; thou must stay with me. " At last they
got out the barge (Birlinn). The giant awoke and asked, what
was that sound ? One of the daughters answered, that it was a
OIDHCHE UAMHASACH LE TEIN-ADHAIU 's TAIRNEANACH, a fearful
night with heaven-fire and thunder. "It is well to be under
the shelter of a rock," said the giant. The next scrape of the
boat it was the same thing, and at the third the barge was out
and under sail, but the giant was on foot, aud he threw A
CHEARTLEADH DHUBH, his black cluc, and the boat sailed stern
foremost. The giant sat down in the gravel to haial the boat, and
the daughter shot an arrow, ANN AM bonn dubh an fhamhair,
into the giant's black sole, and there he lay.
Then they got to Erin. He went home first ; she staid in the
barge, till tired of waiting, she went to a smith's house where
she staid with the smith and his mother.
One day the smith heard that the Eimr was going to be
married, and told her. She sent him to the palace to tell the
cook that the finest woman he ever saw was living with him, and
would marry him if he would bring her part of the wedding
feast.
The cook came, and when he saw her, brought a back load of
viands. Then they played the same trick to the butler, and he
brought a back load of wine every day. Then she asked the
smith to make her a golden cock, and a silver hen ; and when he
could not, she made them herself. Then she asked the butler if
she could get a sight of the king's son and the bride, " and the
butler was very much pleased that she had asked him, and not
the cook, for he was much afraid that the cook was looking after
her also." When the gentles saw her they asked her to the
dancing room, and then came the cock and hen play, in which