Ossian Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 3

290 WEST HIGHL.VND TALES.
She went down tlien again and said, " I must take
thee Avith me now."
" That is not best for thee, but leave me ahve.
Art thou his wife ?"
" 'Not I. It is (so) that he stole me here seven
years agOj and I in dread that he will slay me every
day. Do thou help me, and I will help thee, and
may be that we might put an end to the monster.
Put thou the poker in the fire, and when it is red give
me notice."
She did this, and when it was red she gave him
notice.* Osgar went up then when she loosed liim,.
and he took the poker with him to Avhere he was in
his sleep. There was no part of his face bare, with
scales of hardness, but his two eyes. He put the
poker down through his eye to the ground ; and she
caught hold of his sword, and she struck off his head.
They went away then, and they took with them
silver and gold enough, and Osgar hit upon the spot
where they had left the Httle boat. He did not know
to what side he should turn her prow, but they began
to row, and they reached the very spot from which
they had gone, on the strand. Then he reached the
king of the Finne. They took exceeding good care of
the woman that was there, t
The heroes of the Finne went one day to the hunt-
* It is curious how often in this and in other cases the nar-
rator identifies himself for a time with his hero. A story so told
becomes a kind of dramatic representation, and the more untu-
tored the narrators the more dramatic they are.
t This first adventure is like part of Nos. V. VI. VII. and of a
vast number of other stories which I have. It is at least as old as
Homer ; but as the Gaelic versions invariably introduce a woman.
I do not believe that the stories come from Homer. See notes,
Vol. I. 154.