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

THE TWO SHEPHERDS. 97
near on the mouth of the day, the little russet man went out
to look what likeness was on the night.
When he came in, said they to him, " "\^Tiat seeming is on the
night?" "There is a middling seeming," said he; but it is I
who saw the terrible man ddine fuathasach since I went out, as
though he were listening to you. I think that it is fdamhair
CHREiG DALLAiG the giant of crag dallag, who is there.
There out went every man of them, and the one that would
not wait on his bow he would seize on his sword to kill him.
AVhen the little russet man, who was within, thought that
they had hurried well from the house, he said to the one who was
in the bed, " Thou one that art up come down as fast as thou
didst ever." Then he stretched to the poor man who was in the
bed, as fast as ever he did, a stocking full of dollars, and he gave
him bread and cheese. " If thou ever didst it, do it now," said
the little russet man to the herdsman. The herdsman went, and
he reached the house of his master whole and healthy.
The moral of this tale seems to be, that he who runs away
from fancied danger may fall into real peril ; but what bears upon
the theory of the origin of such stories is, that the real peril is
from " water-horses " and " robbers," who have a little red ruagh
man who plays the part of the enchanted princess, and the friendly
cat, and the woman who is the slave of the giants, and the robbers ;
the character which appears in all collections of popular tales to
befriend the benighted stranger, or the wandering prince. And
what is more, the fancied danger was from a creature under the
form of a goat. Why a man should be frightened by a goat, ap-
pears from the last of following two stories, translated from the
Gaelic of Hector Urquhart, and written from the telling of John
Campbell in Strath-Gairloch, Eoss-shire. He is now (185^1)
sixty-three.
8. At some time of the world the lord ofSJearloch tigheaena
GHEAELOCH had a CEATHEAKNACH, who used to be slaying fuathak,
bogles, and routing out the spoilers. The name of this stalwart
man was uistean mok mac ghille phadeig. Uistean was on a
day hunting, and he saw a great wreath of mist above him, and
heard the sweetest music he ever heard, but he was not seeing a
thing but the mist itself. He cast a shot that was in his gun at
VOL. II. H