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

THE TALE OF THE SHIFTY LAD. 347
she jDut a black dot on the face of the Shifty Lad ; but
the Shifty Lad got the vial whipped out of her pocket,
unknown to her ; and since there were two black dots
on him, he put two dots on twenty other men in the
company, and four black dots on the Seanagal. Then
when the dancing was over, some were sent to see who
was the man on whom were the two black dots,
When they looked amongst the jjeople, they found
twenty men on whom there were two black dots, and
there were four black dots on the Seanagal ; and the
Shifty Lad found (means) to go swiftly where the
king's daughter was, and to slip the vial back again
into her pocket. The Seanagal looked and he had his
black vial ; the king's daughter looked and she had
her own vial ; then the Seanagal and the king took
counsel ; and the last counsel that they made was that
the king should come to the company, and say, that
the man who had done every trick that had been done,
must be exceedingly clever ; if he would come forward
and give himself up, that he should get the king's
daughter to marry, and the one half of the kingdom
while the king was alive, and the whole of the king-
dom after the king's death. And every one of those
who had the two black dots on their faces came
and they said that it was they who had done every
cleverness that had been done. Then the king and
his high council went to try how the matter should
be settled ; and the matter which they settled was,
that all the men who had the two black dots on
their faces should be put together in a chamber, and
they were to get a child, and the king's daughter was
to give an apple to the child, and the child was to be
put in where the men with the two black dots on their
faces were seated and to whatsoever one the child