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

MAC IAIN DIREACH. 329
tliy shoe, and that thou be wet, cold, and soiled, until
thou gettest for me the bird from which that feather
came."
And he said to his muime, "I am setting it as
crosses and as sjjells, and as the decay of the year on
thee ; that thou be standing with the one foot on the
great house, and the other foot on the castle ; and that
thy face be to the tempest whatever vnnd blows, until
I return back."
And Maclain Direach went away as fast as he
could to seek the bird from which the feather came,
and his muime was standing with the one foot on the
castle, and the other on the great house, till he should
come back ; and her front Avas to the face of the tem-
pest, however long he might be without coming.
Maclain Direach was gone, travelHng the waste to
see if he could see the falcon, but the falcon he could
not see ; and much less than that, he could not get
her ; and he was going by himself through the waste,
and it was coming near to the night. The little flut-
tering birds Avere going from the bush tops, from tuft
to tuft, and to the briar roots, going to rest ; and
though they were, he Avas not going there, till the
night came blind and dark ; and he went and crouched
at the root of a briar ; and who came the way but an
GiLLE j\LiiRTEAN, the lox ; and he said to him, "Thou'rt
down in the mouth a Mhic Iain Direach ; thou earnest
on a bad night ; I have myself but one wether's
trotter and a sheep's cheek, but needs must do Avith it."
They kindled a fire, and they roasted flesh, and
they ate the wether's trotter and the sheep's cheek ;
and in the morning Gille Mairtean said to the king's
son, " Oh son of Iain Direach, the falcon thou seekest
is by the great giant of the Five Heads, and the Five
Humps, and the Five Throttles, and I will shew thee