Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/173

 THE FATALITY OF CERTAIN PLACES TO CERTAIN PERSONS.

BY MISS C. S. HAWKINS DEMPSTER.

THE DEATH OF SIVENO.

upon a time there was a king in Sweden, and his son sailed on the seas. On a certain day he took ship, with manymen on board, and red gold in heaps. And when he went away his stepmother bid him beware of Cape Wrath (Poraft), and Poldhu (the black pool), and Poltarrach gawn (the pool of the dun steer).

It fell out that as he sailed he came to the place called Phorsten Stivanaigh (port of Siveno or Sweno), and did not know what land it was that he had made. And the men of the isles armed themselves, and blackened their faces with soot from the pots, and went out in boats. They told him this creek was called Poltarrach gawn. Then cried the king's son, "God forbid that I should bide in these waters, and the Lord have mercy on my soul if this be Poltarrach gawn." He weighed anchor and made to stand out again to sea, but the men of Assqut (west coast of Sutherland), and the isles (summer islands off Ullapool) were too many for him. They came on board his ship and cried to Siveno that he should yield himself. The Swedes and their prince being stout men fought on deck and below. When the king's son was wounded they put him below, and went on fighting till a man of Glendhu (the black glen), looking through a hole in the deck, saw the king's son, and shot him. Then the Swedes lost heart. They yielded up the gold and all that was in the ship, and only asked to get away with the vessel and their lives. The islesmen began to work with the gold, and to take it out in their plaids; one man holding the plaid on the ship's side and another making it fast in the boat. But the