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

III.
THE TALE OF THE HOODIE.
From Ann MacGilvray, Islay. — April 1859.
THEEE was ere now a farmer, and he had three
daughters. They were waulking* clothes at a river.
A hoodie f came round and he said to the eldest one,
'M-POS-U-MI, " Wilt thou wed me, farmer's daughter ? "
" I won't wed thee, thou ugly brute. An ugly brute is
the hoodie," said she. He came to the second one on
the morrow, and he said to her, " M-POS-U-Ml, wilt
thou wed me ? " "Not I, indeed," said she ; "an ugly
brute is the hoodie." The third day he said to the
youngest, M-POS-U-MI, " Wilt thou wed me, farmer's
daughter?" "I will wed thee," said she; "a pretty
creature is the hoodie," and on the morrow they married.
The hoodie said to her, "Whether wouldst thou
rather that I should be a hoodie by day, and a man
at night ; or be a hoodie at night, and a man by day ? "
" I would rather that thou wert a man by day, and a
hoodie at night," says she. After this he was a splendid
fellow by day, and a hoodie at night. A few days after
they married he took her with him to his own house.
At the end of three quarters they had a son. In
* Postadli. A method of washing clothes practised ia the
Highlands— viz., by dancing on them barefoot in a tub of water.
t Hoodie — the Royston crow — a very common bird in the
Highlands ; a sly, familiar, knowing bird, which plays a great
part in these stories. He is common in most parts of Europe.