:m-- (^ictw- IM.. : POPULAR TALES THE WEST HIGHLANDS OEALLY COLLECTED Wi-à\ a translation; By J. F. CAMPBELL. VOL. IL EDINBURGH EDMONSTOX AND DOUGLAS. 1860. ' o CONTENTS. NAME. Date. 5. Headless Trunk A dancing master 6. The Bauchan Do. 7. The Herdsman Johanna MacCrimmon 8. Uistean Mor and the Earl of John Campbell Antrim's Daughter. 9. Do. and the Goat Do. 10. Same Story Alex. M'Donald XXXr. OSEAN AFTER THE FEEN Gaelic .. 2. Same Story MacDonald, tinker 3. Do Several men 4. The Last of the Giants A gamekeeper 5. Do Hugh MacColl, gardener ... XXXII. BARRA WIDOW'S SON. Alexander MacNeill, tenant Gaelic XXXIII. THE QUEEN WHO Mrs. MacTavish SOUGHT A DRINK FROM A CERTAIN WELL. Gaelic Notes XXXIV. THE ORIGIN OF LOCH Thomas MacDonald, game- NESS. keeper. XXXV. CONALL Alexander MacNeill, tenant and fisherman. Gaelic Notes.. XXXVI. MAGHACH COLGAR. Alexander MacNeill Gaelic Notes XXXVII. BROLACHAN. Widow Calder 10 Stories Various sources XXXVIII. MURACHADH MAC Donald Shaw, old soldier BRIAN. Gaelic Notes , XXXIX. THE THREE WIDOWS. Hector Boyd, fisherman.. Gaelic Date. CONTENTS. Bate. NAME. Date. POPULAR TALES OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS. XVIIL THE CHEST. From Mrs MacGeachy, Islay. "OEFOEE this there was a king, and he wished -^ to see his son with a wife before he should depart. His son said he had better go for a wife ; and he gave liim half a hundred pounds to get her. He went for- ward the length of a day, and when the night came he went in to a hostelry to stay in. it. He went down to a chamber with a good fire in front of him ; and when he had gotten meat, the man of the house went down to talk to him. He told the man of the house the jour- ney on which he was. The man of the house told him he need not go further ; that there was a little house opposite to his sleeping chamber ; that the man of the house had three fine daughters ; and if he would stand in the window of his chamber in the morning, that he would see one after another coming to dress herself Tliat they were all like each other, and that he could not distinguish one from the other, but that VOL. 11. n 2 WEST HIGHLAND TALES. the eldest had a mole. That many were going to ask for them, Init that none got them, because whoever Avished for one, must tell whether the love he liked best was younger or older ; and if he made her out, that she would cost liim a hundred pounds. " I have but half a hundred," said the king's son. " I will give thee another half hundred," said the man of the house, " if thou wilt pay me at the end of a day and a year ; and if thou dost not pay me, a strip of skin shall come from the top of thy head to the sole of thy foot." On the morrow when he rose he went to the win- girls dow ; he saw the coming to dress themselves ; and after meat in the morning, he went over to the house of their father. When he went in he was taken down to a chamber, and the man of the house went down to talk to him. He told the journey on which he was, and he said to him, " They tell me that thou hast three fine daughters." " I have that same, but I am afraid that it is not thou who %yilt buy them." " I will give them a trial, at all events," said he. The three were sent down before him, and it was said to him " Whether she, the one he liked best, was the elder or younger." He thought he would take the one with the mole, because he knew she was the eldest. She then was much pleased that it was she herself he was for. He asked her father how much she would be, and her father said she would be a hundred pounds. He bought her, and he took her to the house of his father, and they married. Shortly after they married his father departed. A day or two after the death of the old king, the young king was out hunting ; he saw a great ship coming in to the strand ; he went down to ask the captain what he had on board. The captain said, " That he had a cargo of silk." " Thou must," said THE CHEST. 3 he, " give me a gown of the best silk thou hast for my wife." " Indeed !" said the captain, " thou must have an exceedingly good wife when thou must have a gown of the best silk I have on board." " I have that," said the king, " a wife many of whose equals are not to be got." "Wilt thou lay a wager," said the cap- tain, " that -ndth all her goodness I will not get leave to enter thy chamber Ì" "I will lay a wager, anything thou desiredst, that thou wilt not." " What wager wilt thou lay V said the captain. " I will put the heirship in pledge," said the king. Said the cap- tain, " I will put all the silk in ship in pledge to thee that I will." The captain came on shore and the king went on board. The captain went where the hen wife was, to try if she could make any way to get in with to king's chamber that night. The henwife thought a wliile, and she said " That she did not think that there was any way that would succeed." The captain rose here, and he was going. " Stop thou," said she, " I have thought on a way ; her maid servant and I are well with each other ; I will say to her that I have got word from a sister of mine tliat I Avill scarce find her alive ; I will say to the king's wife that I must go to see my sister ; that I have a big kist, of good worth, and £ should like if she would oblige me and let it into her own sleeping chamber till I come back." She went where the queen was, she asked her this, and she got leave. Here the captain was put into the last, and the king's gilUes were gathered, and the kist put in the chamber. The king's wife was within by herself wearying, for the king was not coming home. At last she went to bed ; when she was going to bed she put a gold ring that was on her finger, and a gold chain that was about her neck, on a board that was op- 4 WEST HIGHLAND TALES. posite to tlie bed. When the man who was in the kist thought that she had time to be asleei3, he rose and he took with him the chain and the ring, and he went into the kist again. At the mouth of day came the hen wife to ask for the kist ; the gillies were gathered, and the kist was taken down. When every one went from the house, as soon as he could, the captain rose and he went down to the ship ; he shook the chain and the ring at the king. Then the king thought that the captain had been with his Avife, or that he could not have the chain and ring. He said to the captain, " Would he put him over to the other side of the loch ?" The captain said, " That he would." When the captain got him over he returned himself, and he Avent to dwell in the Idng's house. Then the king's Avife did not know what to do with herseK, for that the king had not come home. She went that day and she dressed herself in man's clothes, and she went doAvn to the strand ; she met Avith a boat, and she said to them, " Would they put her over on the other side ?" They put her over, and she went on forAvard till she reached the house of a gentleman ; she struck in the door, and the maid servant came doAvn. She said to her, " Did she know if her master wanted a stable gillie V The maid servant said, " That she did not knoAv, but that she Avould ask." The maid servant Avent and she asked her master if he Avanted a stable gillie. He said, " He did ;" and he asked that he should come in ; he engaged her, and she stayed work- ing about the stable. There was a herd of wild beasts Cuming every night, and going into an empty barn that the gentleman had ; a Avild man after them, and his face covered with beard. She kept asking her mas- ter to send a man Avith her, and that they would catch him. Her master said, " That he Avould not ; that THE CHKST. tliey had no business with them ; and that he had not (lone any harm to them." She went out one night hy herself, and she stole with her the key of the barn door ; she lay hid in a hole till the wild man and the beasts went in ; she took with her the gillies, and they caught the mid man. They brought him in and they took off his beard ; when the beard came off him she knew him, but she took no notice ; and he did not know her. On the morrow he was about to go, but she spoke to her master to keep him ; that the work was too heavy on her, and that she needed help.