and shut his
eyes so that he might see nothing. After that he lay down and slept till
morning dawned, and the man came and unlocked the door and shook the
sleeper.

'Here is the cap,' said Ian drowsily, drawing it from under his pillow.
And he fell asleep again directly.

The sun was high in the heavens when he woke again, and this time he
beheld a tall, brown-haired youth standing by him.

'I am the raven,' said the youth, 'and the spells are broken. But now
get up and come with me.'

Then they two went together to the place where Ian had left the dead
horse; but no horse was there now, only a beautiful maiden.

'I am the horse,' she said, 'and the spells are broken'; and she and the
youth went away together.

In the meantime the smith had carried the cap to the castle, and bade
a servant belonging to the knight's youngest daughter bear it to her
mistress. But when the girl's eyes fell on it, she cried out:

'He speaks false; and if he does not bring me the man who really made
the cap I will hang him on the tree beside my window.'

The servant was filled with fear at her words, and hastened and told the
smith, who ran as fast as he could to seek for Ian. And when he found
him and brought him into the castle, the girl was first struck dumb with
joy; then she declared that she would marry nobody else. At this some
one fetched to her the knight of Grianaig, and when Ian had told his
tale, he vowed that the maiden was right, and that his elder daughters
should never wed with men who had not only taken glory to themselves
which did not belong to them, but had left the real doer of the deeds to
his fate.

And the wedding guests said that the knight had spoken well; and the two
elder brothers were fain to leave the country, for no one would converse
with them.

The Fox and the Wolf

[From Tales of the West Highlands.]

At the foot of some high mountains there was, once upon a time, a small
village, and a little way off two roads met, one of them going to the
east and the other to the west. The villagers were quiet, hard-working
folk, who toiled in the fields all day, and in the evening set out for
home when the bell began to ring in the little church. In the summer
mornings they led out their flocks to pasture, and were happy and
contented from sunrise to sunset.

One summer night, when a round full moon shone down upon the white road,
a great wolf came trotting round the corner.

'I positively mus