Scottish Traditional Tales

by A. J. Bruford

  ‘Will it be long till he gets back from there?’ said he.

  ‘Oh no,’ said she, ‘but there’s a battle chain at the door there: if there was anyone who could shake it,’ said she, ‘he would hear it anywhere in the hill,’ said she.

  Conall went straight out and seized the chain and what a shake he gave it; and he had never heard a peal of thunder louder than that.

  He [Macan Mór na Sorcha] heard it in the hill and: ‘Aha!’ said he, ‘someone must have come in pursuit of the Daughter of the King of the Province of Leinster,’ said he. ‘It’s time I was making for home.’

  When he was getting close to the house – and they felt the house quaking – Conall Ceithir Cheannach rose and went out: it was he who went to fight him and he killed Macan Mór na Sorcha.

  And then they went off with the Daughter of the King of the Province of Leinster in the long-ship.

  18 Duncan MacDonald

  THE MAN IN THE CASSOCK

  HAVE YOU HEARD of the day when it pleased Murchadh mac Brian and Dunnchadh mac Brian and Tig Sionna mac Brian and Brian Borghaidh mac Cionadaigh and Cionadaigh himself along with them, to go hunting to the slopes of Beinn Gulbann in Ireland?

  And the great company went off to the deer forest for the chase and Murchadh mac Brian stayed behind on the hunting-knoll. And what should Murchadh mac Brian see passing by but a stag with one golden antler and one silver antler and a white, red-eared hound in full cry on the heels of the stag. And he was so delighted with the stag and the hound that he set out after them to catch them. And a dense cloud of mist fell around him . . . And from the Strath of Eadrabhagh to the River of Eadrabhagh the stag made a leap and the hound made a leap and Murchadh mac Brian made the third leap and there was none in the whole of Ireland who could have made it after them. And with the mist falling around him, he had no idea what had become of the stag or the hound. And he was left standing there.

  But then he heard the stroke of an axe up above him and he said to himself that there never was the stroke of an axe without someone behind it to strike it, and he went up in the direction where he had heard the sound of the stroke. And there he found a man with a black cassock, a squared staff, a string of bone beads and a string of bronze beads, and he was getting ready a bundle of firewood.

  And Murchadh mac Brian greeted him with gentle words, with the gentleness of a maiden, with eloquent discourse, and the man in the cassock answered him with like words, if they were no better they were no worse, [asking] what man was he and where had he come from, what was his dwelling-place and where did he wish to get to?

  ‘Nothing,’ said Murchadh mac Brian, ‘but just one of the warriors of Murchadh mac Brian.’

  ‘Which one are you,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘of the warriors of Murchadh mac Brian, for that man does not have a single warrior but I have a name for him?’

  ‘Oh,’ said the other, ‘I’m just one of the warriors of Murchadh mac Brian.’

  ‘My good warrior,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘how well it would become you to do an ill deed, and how well you would excuse yourself!’

  And the Man in the Cassock went and took out a rope from the folds of the cassock and he laid it out nine-fold on the moor and began to get the load ready. And Murchadh mac Brian was watching him and though Murchadh mac Brian was a champion himself he was appalled when he saw the size of the load the Man in the Cassock was making. And then when the Man in the Cassock had the load ready and tied up:

  ‘My good warrior,’ said he to Murchadh mac Brian, ‘don’t think ill of me because I’m going to carry this load, for it would have been easy enough for me to have got man after man and woman after woman to come here to fetch this bundle of firewood, but none of them could have taken in one load, as I can, as much as would keep the fires going in Gleann Eillt for a year and a day, but come here now,’ said he, ‘and lift this load on to my back.’

  Murchadh mac Brian went over and put his hands under the load, but he could not raise it a hair’s-breadth off the ground.

  ‘Why,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘are you not lifting the load?’

  ‘Indeed, I have reason enough for it,’ said Murchadh mac Brian. ‘I have never seen many but yourself who wanted a load lifted on to their backs who would not give some little bit of help, and you’re giving me none at all.’

  ‘My good warrior,’ said the other, ‘how well it would become you to do an ill deed, and how well you would excuse yourself!’

  And, as he said it, he just swept the load up on to his shoulder, and the load did not touch Murchadh mac Brian in the passing but with the wind that came from it, it drove Murchadh mac Brian up to the knees into hard, clay ground on the other side of him. And he got up in a hurry before the Man in the Cassock could see him.

  ‘Now,’ said the Man in the Cassock to Murchadh mac Brian, ‘keep pace with me and keep me in conversation.’

  ‘That’s easy enough for me,’ said Murchadh mac Brian, ‘for here am I light and empty-handed, and there are you with your own big load on your back.’

  And off they went. And when Murchadh mac Brian ran at speed and at full speed, he could catch the swift March wind in front of him and the swift March wind behind could not catch him. But he could not keep near or anywhere near the Man in the Cassock.

  ‘Why,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘are you not keeping pace with me and keeping me in conversation?’

  ‘Indeed,’ said Murchadh mac Brian, ‘I’ve just caught two black-cock that were passing on the wing and I can’t keep up with you.’

  ‘Ha-ha!’ said the Man in the Cassock. ‘How am I to know that you didn’t find them dead!’

  ‘Ha-hail’ said Murchadh mac Brian. ‘They can still bear witness to it. The blood is warm in their bodies.’

  ‘My good warrior,’ said the other, ‘how well it would become you to do an ill deed and how well you would excuse yourself!’

  And then, when they reached Gleann Eillt and the Man in the Cassock threw down his load, it seemed to Murchadh mac Brian that he could as easily see the lowest stone in the castle gateway shaking as the highest stone, as the whole place rang when the man threw down his load. Now the door was so wide that they went in shoulder to shoulder.

  And the Man in the Cassock went straight on into a room and Murchadh mac Brian went straight on after him. And the Man in the Cassock sat down in a decorated golden chair on one side of the table that was ready laid there, and there was a silver chair on the other side and Murchadh mac Brian went and sat down in it.

  And then the man . . . the Man in the Cassock struck a bell that stood on the table and a sturdy, black-haired man came in carrying a drinking horn.

  ‘Give the drink to the guest,’ said the Man in the Cassock.

  ‘Indeed I won’t,’ said the man, ‘I’ll give it to you.’

  ‘Oh,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘give it to him first.’

  ‘No,’ said the man, ‘I’ll give it to you.’

  ‘And what reason have you not to give it to him?’

  ‘This,’ said the man: ‘it’s not his drink that’s in my hand, it’s not his roof that’s over my head, it’s not his food that’s in my belly, and it’s not his clothes that are on my back – and since all of these are yours, you shall have the drink first.’

  ‘Oh, well,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘won’t you give it to him for my sake?’

  ‘Indeed, if I don’t do it for you,’ said the man, ‘I don’t know who else I would do it for’ – and with that he handed the drinking horn to Murchadh mac Brian.

  And Murchadh mac Brian took it, and he decided that caution was best, so he just drank half of it, and he set it back on the table in front of the Man in the Cassock. And the Man in the Cassock went and took a razor-edged dagger of a knife that would split a swallow flying over water on the darkest night of the year, and as much of the horn as was empty he cut off and set it on the table beside him.

  ‘My good warrior,’ said he then to
Murchadh mac Brian, ‘do not think ill of me for doing that for it is a taboo among my taboos, laid on me by the nurse who fostered me, never to raise a half-empty vessel to my lips. And I can put that piece back on the horn for you so perfectly that neither you nor anyone else could tell that it had ever been cut off.’

  And the Man in the Cassock took up the vessel and drank all that was in it, and then he took the piece he had cut off and placed it on top, and it was as whole as ever it had been.

  And what did Murchadh mac Brian see then, leashed at the side of the room, but the stag and the hound he himself had been chasing. And at the same time a company of women came forward to set food on the table before them, and [there was one of them and] it seemed to Murchadh mac Brian that as the moon is outshone by the sun, the stars by the planets, like quenched charcoal in the forge of a smith, so was the appearance of all the women in the world compared to her, with her beauty. And he set a steady gaze on her, and the Man in the Cassock was watching him.

  ‘Why,’ said the Man in the Cassock to Murchadh mac Brian, ‘are you staring at that red-lipped woman at the table?’

  ‘Indeed,’ said Murchadh mac Brian, ‘it’s just that I would be ashamed if I didn’t recognise her when I saw her again.’

  ‘Ha-ha, my good warrior!’ said the Man in the Cassock. ‘How well you know how to do an ill deed and how well you would excuse yourself! But, Murchadh mac Brian,’ said he, ‘even though the food is on the table, if you would listen to my story, it was through that woman, and that stag and hound over there, that I suffered trials such as no one of my people ever suffered before me and I hope never will after me.

  ‘A year ago,’ said he, ‘I was at the place where you saw me today getting ready the bundle of firewood, and the Gruagach of the Stag and the Hound that are over there came up to me with another in pursuit.

  ‘ “For the love of God,” said she to me, “save my life and my stag and my hound are yours.”

  ‘I was so delighted,’ said he, ‘with the stag and the hound that I went to meet the Gruagach who was after her. And there were nine red tufts of hair growing out of the top of his head, and the bristles growing from each of these tufts were more numerous than those on a farrow cow on a hillside on a May day. And I twisted the three [sic] red tufts of hair round my fist, and I twisted the head off the neck and the neck from its roots, and the weakest of the nine red tufts of hair did not break.

  ‘But before very long, the Gruagach of the Stag and the Hound came up to me again and said:

  ‘ “For the love of God,” said she, “save my life again and my stag and my hound are yours.”

  ‘ “Your stag and your hound,” said I, “are my prize already.”

  ‘But then I said to myself that it would be an ill thing for me to let her be killed this time after saving her before, and I went to meet the Gruagach who was after her. But, Murchadh mac Brian, taking the head off that Gruagach was nothing more to me than a clump of withered dockens you would pluck from the ground on a harvest field, on a hillside.

  But before very long, a third Gruagach came.

  ‘ “For the love of God,” said the Gruagach of the Stag and the Hound, “save my life and my stag and my hound are yours.”

  ‘I was getting so weary of the whole business,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘that I went straight off to meet the Gruagach who was coming.

  ‘ “Oh for pity’s sake,” said the Gruagach of the Stag and the Hound, “don’t touch that Gruagach, for that one’s my own brother.”

  ‘ “Indeed, to be sure,” said I, “he’s not behaving in a very brotherly fashion to you.”

  ‘ “Oh,” said the Gruagach of the Stag and the Hound, “what we have come for is to seek a judgement from you, and we were not prepared to accept any other judgement but the judgement of a man in a black cassock, a squared staff, a string of bone beads and a string of bronze beads, just like you.”

  ‘ “And what,” said I, “was the trouble between you?”

  ‘ “This,” said she. “It’s not that he hasn’t land of his own and plenty of it, which he has won by the might of his own great strong hand, and,” said she, “such land as I have, my father had it, and my grandfather, and my great-grandfather before me, and now he wants to take that land from me and to have it for himself along with all he has already.”

  ‘Oh, but,’ said the Man in the Cassock [sic], ‘this is my judgement for you,’ said he, ‘let him be content with the land he has, and if it so happens that he loses it by violence, or loses part of it, then you will let him have half of yours.

  ‘Oh, this pleased them very well, both of them – “but you must come and see that it is properly settled between us” [they said].

  ‘We went,’ said he, ‘and set off, and when we reached the sea we took out our water-helmets, and we had not been travelling very long on the sea when we came upon the Machaire Mìn Sgàthach. And wherever we looked, when we went ashore there, there were men coming on foot to meet us and men on horseback, with their hats off. I asked the Gruagach of the Stag and the Hound what was the reason for all these people coming to meet us.

  ‘ “Oh, just you wait a little,” said she, “and I’ll tell you that.”

  ‘ “Indeed,” said I, “I want to hurry and get home tonight yet.”

  ‘But I waited till she came and caught up with me and,

  ‘ “What you have there, then,” said she, “is this: I have one daughter, and all the men you see there,” said she, “they are going to kill each other and the survivor will have the girl.” ’

  And who should this really be but the Gruagach of the Tiobart, who had come to get him [the Man in the Cassock] by a ruse, for she knew very well that if he was in the company he would win the girl.

  ‘ “Indeed, truly,” said I to them, “I could suggest a better way of settling it than that if they would take it from me.”

  ‘ “What way is that?” they all said.

  ‘ “This,” said I: “to run a race, and the fastest runner to have the girl and no life would be lost.”

  ‘And this pleased all of them. And we went,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘and started the race, and I was back long before they had got half way, and I had won the girl.

  ‘And we went back home to the Tiobart that night, myself and the girl, and the Gruagach of the Stag and the Hound, and their family. But, Murchadh mac Brian,’ said he, ‘when the food was on the table, a knock was heard at the door, and there was no second knock when the door was smashed in in splinters there on to the floor and that woman there was taken out from my side.

  ‘ “You’re out now,” said the man who had taken her out, “and there is not one in the four far-flung quarters of the world who can get her back inside, unless the Feamanach Mór Fabhsach should come, a man without mildness or meekness or mercy, without love of God or fear of man, and even if that man did come it would be no easy task for him to get you tonight.”

  ‘ “Oh,” said the Gruagach of the Stag and the Hound, “where,” said she, “is there a man of that description under this roof and let him follow and truly, indeed, if there is such a one, I’d rather have him for a son-in-law than some fellow I wouldn’t know where to find to get her back.”

  ‘I took it,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘that she was referring to me, and though I was not quite ready to go, I rose from the table and girded up my black cassock above my buttocks and took my squared staff in my hand, my bronze beads round my neck and my bone beads above my brow, and off I went. And when I was catching up fast with the man who had taken the woman, I called to him,

  ‘ “What daughter of the mighty and most pompous one do we have here?”

  ‘ “What you are,” said he answering back, “is a man set for short shrift.”

  ‘ “Put down the maiden,” said I, “or you’ll have to fight for her.”

  ‘ “You can have as much of a fight for her as you like,” said that man, “but you won’t get the maiden tonight.”

>   ‘And he hurled the spear he was carrying at me,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘and it went past like a red flash into the sky beyond me. But I went and hurled my own spear at him and struck him in the upper part of the chest and he fell, and I rushed over to him and killed him, and I took the woman home to the Tiobart that night. And if they had had food or drink to get in the Tiobart, they had finished it before I got back.

  ‘But the next night then, Murchadh mac Brian, when the food was on the table, a knock was heard at the door, and there was no second knock when the door was smashed in in splinters on to the floor and that woman there was taken out from my side.

  ‘ “You’re out now,” said the man who had taken her out, “and there is not one in the four far-flung quarters of the world who can get you back inside, unless the Feamanach Mór Fabhsach should come, a man without mildness or meekness or mercy, without love of God or fear of man, and even if that one did come it would be no easy task for him to get you tonight.”

  ‘ “Oh,” said the Gruagach of the Tiobart, “where is there a man of that description,” said she, “under this roof, and truly indeed, if there is such a one, I’d rather have him for a son-in-law than some fellow I wouldn’t know where to find to get her back.”

  ‘I took it that she was referring to me tonight again,’ said the Man in the Cassock, ‘and I said to myself that I would not let her get so far from home as I had last night, and I was already prepared and off I went. And as I was catching up with them I called to them, asking what [?infant] of the mighty and most powerful one we had here.

  ‘ “What you are,” said the other man, “is a man set for short shrift.”

  ‘ “You put the maiden down,” said I, “or you’ll have to fight for her.”

  “ ‘Ho! You can have as much of a fight as you like for her,’ said he answering back, ‘but you won’t get the maiden tonight.’

  “He hurled the spear he was carrying at me,” said the Man in the Cassock, “and it went like a red flash into the sky beyond me. And I went and made a cast at him with my own spear and struck him in the upper part of his chest and he fell, and I rushed over to him and killed him. And I took the woman home with me at the Tiobart, and if they had had food or drink to get in the Tioabart, they had finished it before I got there.