J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 2

230 WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
dram as was suitable in the circumstances, and tliey got it.
When they were about to pay for the dram Levi-our struck a
stroke of his stick on the hide, and said, " Pay this, hide." The
coin of money that was necessary to pay the dram leaped out on
the floor. The gentleman asked him whether the hide would
alwaj-s pay in that way. He said it would. " AMiatever a man
drinks in an inn the hide will pay it." " Do you think," said the
gentleman, " it will do that for me if I buy it ? " " Oh, yes, the
very same," said the other. " If it will, I'll give you a hundred
merks for it," said he. "It is yours," said Levi-our, "if you
give me that sum for it." The other paid the money and got the
hide. The gentleman called for another dram which they drank
together. Levi-our bade him strike the hide as he had done, and
he would see that the hide would pay as it did for him. The
other stnick the hide and it paid the money. Levi-our went
away and left it there, and so pleased was the other with his pur-
chase that he called for more drink in the inn. He struck the
hide, and bade it pay for the drink, but nothing would come out
of it ; it would pay no more. Levi-our went home, and next
morning he saw Ribin and Robin, his neighbours, coming to the
house. He was engaged counting the money he got for the hide
when the men came into his house. " Oh, Levi-our," said they,
" where did you get all that money?" " One of my cows died,"
said he, " I flayed her, and carried the hide to the market town ;
I sold the hide and got all this money for it. There is a great
price," said he, "to be had for raw hides." They went away
home, and killed each of them a cow ; they took the hides off them,
and dried them. They went with them to the market town, and
were then walking backwards and forwards asking who would
buy raw hides. Several people came their way, and were offering,
some half-a-crown, and some a crown for each hide. They were
resolved not to sell them, unless they got the same price for them
that Levi-our got for his. They saw that they could not succeed
in that, so they were just obliged at last to return home with the
hides. They went to Levi-our's house. Levi-our left, and went
out of their way. There was nobody to be found within but an
old woman, his mother. It was this they did — they killed Levi-
our's mother out of revenge toward himself. "UTien he returned
home, he found his mother dead. He took the body, and instead