THERE
was a woman in Baile Thangusdail, and she was
out seeking a couple of calves; and the night and lateness caught her, and
there came rain and tempest, and she was seeking shelter. She went to a
knoll with the couple of calves, and she was striking a tether-peg into
it. The knoll opened. She heard a gleegashing as if a pot-hook were
clashing beside a pot. She took wonder, and she stopped striking the
tether-peg. A woman put out her head and all above her middle, and she
said, "What business hast thou to be troubling this tulman in which I make
my dwelling?" "I am taking care of this couple of calves, and I am but
weak. Where shall I go with them ?" "Thou shalt
go with them to that breast down yonder. Thou wilt see a tuft of grass. If
thy couple of calves eat that tuft of grass, thou wilt not be a day
without a milk cow as long as thou art alive, because thou hast taken my
counsel."
As she said, she never was without a
milk cow after that, and she was alive fourscore and fifteen years after
the night that was there.