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

268
WEST HIGHLANB TALES.
lay down that niglit. On the morrow he was going to
hunt, and he said to her — " If she woukl behave her-
self as a good woman till he returned, that they would
be married in a few days." He gave her the keys, and
he said to her that she might open every chamber that
was within but that little one, " but see that she should
not open that one." She opened every one, and when
she came to this one, because she thought " what might
be in it that she might not open it more than the rest Ì"
she opened it, and she saw her two sisters there dead,
and she went down to the two knees in blood. She
came out, and she was cleaning her feet, and she could
not take a bit of the blood otf them. The tiny cat
came where she Avas, and she said to her — " Give me
a tiny drop of milk, and I will clean thy feet as well as
they were before." " I will give it, thou creature; I
will give thee thy desire of milk if thou will clean my
feet." The cat licked her feet as well as they were
before. Then the king came home, and they set down
liis dinner, and they sat at it. Before they ate a bit,
he said to her, " Wert thou a good woman to-day ? "
"I was middling," said she; I have no boasting to
make of myself. " Let me see thy feet," said he. She
let him see her feet. " Thou wert a good woman,"
said he ; " and if thou boldest on thus till the end of
a few days, thyself and I will be married." On the
morrow he went away to hunt. When he went away
the little cat came where she was. " Now, I will tell
thee in what way thou wilt be quickest married to him,"
said the cat. " There are," said she, " a lot of old
chests witlnn. Thou shalt take out three of them ; thou
shalt clean them. Thou shalt say to him next night,
that he must leave these three chests, one about of
them, in thy mother's house, as they are of no use
here ; that there are plenty here without them ; thou