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

346 WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
The people who were at the ransacking for the sol-
diers, went to the king's house, and they told how it
had happened ; then the king sent word for the Seana-
gal to get counsel from him ; the Seanagal came, and
the king told how it had happened, and the king asked
counsel from him. This is the counsel that the Seana-
gal gave the king, that he should make a feast and a
ball, and invite the people of the country ; and if the
man who did the evil should be there, that he was the
man who would be the boldest who would be there, and
that he would ask the king's daughter herself to dance
with him. The people were asked to the feast and the
dance ; and amongst the rest the Shifty Lad was asked.
The people came to the feast, and amongst the rest
came the Shifty Lad. When the feast was past, the
dance began ; and the Shifty Lad went and he asked
the king's daughter to dance with him; and the
Seanagal had a vial full of black stuff, and the Seanagal
l^ut a black dot of the stuff that was in the vial on the
Shifty Lad. But it seemed to the king's daughter that
her hair was not well enough in order, and she went to
a side chamber to put it right ; and the Shifty Lad went
in with her ; and when she looked in the glass, he
also looked in it, and he saw the black dot that the
Seanagal had put upon him. When they had danced
till the tune of music was finished, the Shifty Lad went
and he got a chance to steal the vial of the Seanagal
from him unknown to him, and he put two black dots
on the Seanagal, and one black dot on twenty other
men besides, and he put the vial back again where he
found it.
Between that and the end of another while, the
Shifty Lad came again and he asked the king's daugh-
ter to dance. The king's daughter had a vial also, and