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

294 WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
have fired, he saw the finest -svoman he ever saw be-
fore him, and he held his hand, and let down the gun,
and let down the lock, and there was the deer eating
the corn again.
Three times he did this, and then he ran after the
deer to try to catch her.
(In the other version, he went out on three suc-
cessive days. On the first, when he aimed he saw over the
sight a woman's face and breast, while the rest re-
mained a deer. " Don't fire at me, -widow's son," said
the deer ; and he did not, and went home and did not
tell what had happened. The next day when he
aimed, the woman was free to the waist, but the rest
was still deer ; and on the tliird she was free ; and
she told the hunter that she was the king of Loch-
lin's daughter, enchanted by the old man, and that she
would marry the hunter if he came to such a hill.)
The deer ran away, and he followed till they came
to a house thatched with heather ; and then the deer
leaped on the house, and she said, " Go in now, thou
fisher's son, and eat thy fill." He went in and there
was a table spread -ndth every Idnd of meat and drink,
and no one within ; for this was a robber's house, and
they were away lifting spoil.
So the fisher's son went in, and as the deer had
told him, he sat liim down, and ate and drank ; and
when he had enough he went under a togsaid (hogshead).
He had not been long there when the twenty-four
robbers came home, and they knew that some one
had been at their food, and they began to grumble and
dispute. Then the leader said, " Why will you dis-
pute and quarrel 1 the man that has done this is here
under the mouth of this hogshead, take him now, and
let four of you go out and kill him."
So they took out Iain, the fishers son, and four of