Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/178

 170 not always treat him well, for he was sometimes very hungry, so hungry that he had to wear a hunger belt.

One day, at dinner, his son-in-law said to him, "Did you ever, among the giants, eat so good beef, or from so large an ox!" "Among us," said the last of the giants, "the legs of the birds were heavier than the hindquarters of your ox." They laughed him to scorn, and said it was because he was blind that he made such mistakes. So he called to a servant, and bid him bring him his bow and three arrows, and lead him by the hand to a corrie which he named in the Balnagowan forest. "Now," he said, "do you see such and such a rock?" "Yes," said the servant. "Are there rushes at the foot of it?" "Yes," said the servant. "And is there a step in the face of it?" "Yes." "Then take me to the steps, and put me on the first of them." The servant did so. "Look now, and tell me what comes." "I see birds," said the fellow. "Are they bigger than common?" "No, no bigger than in Feam," said the servant. A little after, "What do you see now?" "Birds still," said the servant. "And are they bigger than usual?" "They are three times bigger than eagles." A little later, "Do you see any more birds?" said the giant. "Yes; that the air is black with them, and the biggest is three times as big as an ox." "Then guide my hand on the bow," said the blind giant. And the lad guided him so well that the biggest bird fell at the foot of the rock among the rushes. "Take home a hindquarter," said the giant, and they carried it home between them. When they came to the house of his son-in-law he walked in with it, and aimed a tremendous blow at the place where his son-in-law usually sat. Being blind, he did not see that the chair was empty. It was broken to atoms. But the son-in-law lived to repent, and to treat the blind giant better.—(Rev. Niel Mackinnon, Creich.)

[This tale is known in the Hebrides. The giant was Ossian.

There is an Irish version of the legend, in which the blackbirds are called deer, or elks."]

xviii.—

Once upon a time there were two men travelling together on foot along Spey side. The elder one of the two grew weary, and they sat