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

MAC-A-RU9GAICH. 3 ^ 3
his master was, and lie asked liim what he was to do
again ; and his master said to him to put the horses in
what concerned them (harness) in the plough, and to
take a while at ploughing.
Mac-a-Eusgaich said, "The horses won't answer me."
" What ails them 1 " said his master.
" They won't walk for me," said Mac-a-Eusgaich.
" Go and try* them," said his master.
And Mac-a-Eusgaich went where the horses were,
and he put a morsel of one of them into his mouth,
and he went back where his master was, and he said,
" They have but a bad taste."
" What art thou saying 1 " said his master.
The master went where his horses were, and
when he saw them, and the inside taken out of them
and washed and cleaned, he said, " What is the reason
of tliis ? "
"It is," said Mac-a-Eusgaich, "that thou thyself
didst ask me to clean and to wash both the horses and
the stable both without and within, and I did that.
Art thou taking the rue 1 " said Mac-a-Eusgaich.
" I had rather that I had never seen thee," said the
master.
" Well then," said Mac-a-Eusgaich, " thou must
give me three wages, or else a thong of thy skin shall
be taken from the back of thy head down to thy heel."
The dour tenant said that he had rather the thong
to be taken out of his skin, from the back of his head
to liis heel, than give the money to a filthy clown like
Mac-a-Eusgaich.
And according to law the dour tenant was tied, and
a broad thong taken from the back of his head down
liis back. And he cried out that he had rather give
even the money away than that the thong shoiild be
* Feucb, is either taste or try in the Gaelic.