A HIGHLAND FOLK-TALE
COLLECTED BY THE LATE J. F. CAMPBELL,
AND ITS ORIGIN IN CUSTOM.
MR. J. F. CAMPBELL printed the following tale in the second volume of the Transactions of the Ethnological Society (p. 336). It was sent to him in Gaelic by John Davan, in December 1862—that is, after the publication of the fourth volume of his Highland Tales. The tale is only given in outline, but in quite sufficient fulness for my present purpose.
There was a man at some time or other who was well off, and had many children. When the family grew up the man gave a well-stocked farm to each of his children. When the man was old his wife died, and he divided all that he had amongst his children, and lived with them, turn about, in their houses. The sons and daughters got tired of him and ungrateful, and tried to get rid of him when he came to stay with them. At last an old friend found him sitting tearful by the wayside, and learning the cause of his distress, took him home; there he gave him a bowl of gold and a lesson which the old man learned and acted. When all the ungrateful sons and daughters had gone to a preaching, the old man went to a green knoll where his grandchildren were at play, and pretending to hide, he turned up a flat hearthstone in an old stance,[1] and went out of sight. He spread out his gold on a big stone in the sunlight, and he muttered, "Ye are mouldy, ye are hoary, ye will be better for the sun." The grandchildren came sneaking over the knoll, and when they had seen and heard all that they were intended to see and hear,
- ↑ "Standing-place."
