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

MAC-A-RUSGAICH. 309
"And the dour tenant had for it but to agree
■with ]Mac-a-Itusgaich, and to give Mac-a-Rusgaich an-
other reward for herding his cattle.
ISText day the carle himself went to the hill, and
he could not see Iris heifers ; he sought for them, but
could not find them. He went home, and he said to
Mac-a-Rusgaich,
" Thou must go thyself to search for the heifers,
Mac-a-Rusgaich, I could not find them this day ; and
go thou to search for them, and search for them until
thou find them."
And Mac-a-Rusgaich said, " And where shall I go
to seek them?"
The old carle said, " Go and search for them in the
places where thou thinkest that they are ; and search
for them in places where thou dost not suppose them
to be."
Mac-a-Rusgaich said, "Well, then, I will do that."
The old carle went into the house ; and Mac-a-
Rusgaich got a ladder, and set it up against the house ;
he went up upon the house, and he began at pulling
the thatch oft' the house, and throwing it down. And
before the carle came out again, the thatch was about
to be aU but a very little off the house, and the rafters
bare ; and Mac-a-Rusgaich was puUing the rest and
throwing it down.
The old carle said, " Adversity and calamity be
upon thee, boy ; what made thee take the thatch off
the house in that way 1 "
Mac-a-Rusgaich said, " It is because that I am
searching for the heifers in the thatch of the house."
The old carle said, " How art thou seeking the
heifers in the thatch of the house, where thou art sure
that they are not."
Mac-a-Rusgaich said, " Because thou thyself saidest