Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 2

2 WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
the eldest had a mole. That many were going to ask
for them, Init that none got them, because whoever
Avished for one, must tell whether the love he liked
best was younger or older ; and if he made her out,
that she would cost liim a hundred pounds. " I have
but half a hundred," said the king's son. " I ■will
give thee another half hundred," said the man of the
house, " if thou wilt pay me at the end of a day and a
year ; and if thou dost not pay me, a strip of skin shall
come from the top of thy head to the sole of thy foot."
On the morrow when he rose he went to the win-
dow ; he saw the girls coming to dress themselves ;
and after meat in the morning, he went over to the
house of their father. When he went in he was taken
down to a chamber, and the man of the house went
down to talk to him. He told the journey on
which he was, and he said to him, " They tell
me that thou hast three fine daughters." " I have that
same, but I am afraid that it is not thou who %yilt buy
them." " I will give them a trial, at all events," said
he. The three were sent down before him, and it was
said to him " Whether she, the one he liked best, was
the elder or younger." He thought he would take the
one with the mole, because he knew she was the eldest.
She then was much pleased that it was she herself he
was for. He asked her father how much she would
be, and her father said she would be a hundred pounds.
He bought her, and he took her to the house of his
father, and they married. Shortly after they married
his father departed.
A day or two after the death of the old king, the
young king was out hunting ; he saw a great ship
coming in to the strand ; he went down to ask the
captain what he had on board. The captain said,
" That he had a cargo of silk." " Thou must," said