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

lOO WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
" With the gun," said Uistean.
" What," said the weaver, " if the gun will not suit?'"'
" It' it will not suit," said he, " I will try the sword on her. "
" What," said the weaver, " if the sword will not come out of
the sheath?"
" Well," said Uistean, " I will try my mother's sister on her."
And on every arm that Uistean named, the weaver laid eosad,
a spell, but on the dirk which he called his mother's sister the
weaver could not lay a spell. Then Uistean went up to the top
of the knoll, and on the top of the knoll was a pit in which the
goat used to dwell.
She let out a meigaid bleat, and Uistean said, " Dost thou
want thy kid thou skulker ?"
"If I do, I have got it now," said she. Then Uistean laid
hands on his gun, but she would not give a spark. Then he laid
hands on his sword, but it would not come out of the sheath.
" Where now is thy mother's sister?" said the goat.
When Uistean heard this he sprang on the goat, and the first
thrust he gave her with the biodag dirk, she let out a roar.
" It seems odd to me, poor beast, if 1 do not give thy kid milk
now."
And he did not see the goat any more. Uistean turned back-
to the weaver's house, and when he kindled a light, he found the
weaver under the loom pouring blood.
" If it was thou who madest so much loss on the yellow knoll,
thou shalt not get off any farther," said Uistean.
Then he killed the weaver under the loom, and no man was
slain on the yellow knoll since then, by goat or bogle.
These two stories are certain enough. It was by my mother
I heard them, and many a tale there is of Uistean, if I had mind
of them.
John Campbell, Strath Gairloch, Eoss-shire.
10. I have another version of this same tale written by a
school-master, at the request of Mr. Osgood Mackenzie. It is in
very good Gaelic, but to translate it would be repetition, for it is
almost the identical. I do not mention the name of the writer,
for it might be displeasing to him. The narrator is Alexander
Macdonald, Inverasdale. The goat is called Gabhae mhoe khi
BEAGACH fhedsagach, a great hairy-bearded goat ; and the dirk is