Free Folk Tales of Scotland by William Montgomerie

in and sat down to pull the wool. A sixth and a seventh and an eighth and a ninth and a tenth, and many more weird little women and men came in, and went
to work with distaff, cards, spinning-wheel and loom. The house was full of fairies teasing, carding, pulling and rolling. The fulling-water was boiling over,as they were busy
with the cloth, fulling and cleansing it with soap and fuller’s earth.
    Among the whirr and rasp and rustle and thrum, the good housewife prepared a meal for all her busy little helpers. But the more they worked the hungrier they grew, till the sweat poured off the
goodwife’s face, as she cooked at the fire for them.
    At midnight, she tried to waken the goodman, but he slept like a millstone. Then she thought of a wise man who might help her. So, leaving the fairies eating her newly baked loaves, she slipped
out of the house.
    ‘As long as you live,’ said the wise man, ‘don’t wish for anything without thinking about it well beforehand, in case your wish is granted and brings bad luck. Your
husband is under a spell, and before you can waken him, your visitors must leave the house, and then you must sprinkle some fulling-water over your goodman.’
    ‘How can I rid myself of my strange visitors?’ she asked.
    ‘Return home,’ said the wise man, ‘stand on the knowe beside your door, and shout three times: “Burg Hill’s on fire!” The fairies will all rush out to look.
As soon as they are all outside, reverse, invert, put everything topsy-turvy and mixter-maxter.’

    The goodwife went home and climbed the knowe at her door.
    ‘Burg Hill’s on fire! Burg Hill’s on fire! Burg Hill’s on fire!’ she shouted.
    The fairy people rushed out of the house, crying for the treasure they had left in the fairy mound, Burg Hill. The good housewife shut her door and fastened it. Then she took the band off the
spinning-wheel, spun the distaff the wrong way round, put the wool-cards together, turned the loom mixter-maxter, and took the fulling-water off the fire.
    ‘Inary, good housewife, let us in!’ begged the fairies.
    ‘I can’t,’ said the goodwife, ‘I’m baking bread!’
    ‘Spinning-wheel, come and open the door!’ they cried.
    ‘I can’t,’ said the spinning-wheel, ‘I have no band.’
    ‘Distaff, come and open the door!’ they cried.
    ‘I can’t, I’m twisted the wrong way.’
    ‘Wool-cards, come and open the door!’
    ‘We can’t move,’ said the cards.
    ‘Loom, come and open the door!’
    ‘I can’t, I’m all mixter-maxter.’
    ‘Fulling-water, come and open the door!’
    ‘I can’t. I’m off the fire.’
    Then the fairies remembered the little bannock that was toasting on the hearth,
    ‘Little Bannock,’ they cried, ‘open the door!’
    The little bannock jumped up and ran to the door. But the goodwife was too quick for him. She caught him and he fell on the floor, broken.
    Then the goodwife remembered what she had to do with the fulling-water. She threw a cogful over the goodman, who woke up at once. He got out of bed, and opened the door. At once the fairies
became quiet and went away.
     

T HE K ING OF L OCHLIN ’ S T HREE D AUGHTERS
    HERE was a King of Lochlin, who had three daughters. One day when they were out for a
walk they were carried off by three giants and no one knew where they had gone. The King consulted a story-teller and this wise man told him that the giants had taken them under the earth.
    ‘The only way to reach them,’ said he, ‘is to build a ship that will sail on land and sea.’
    So the King sent out a proclamation that any man who could make such a ship could marry his eldest daughter.
    Now there was a widow who had three sons. The eldest went to his mother and said:
    ‘Bake me a bannock and roast me a cock. I am going to cut wood and build a ship to sail on land and sea.’
    ‘A large bannock with a malison, or a small bannock with a blessing?’ asked his mother.
    ‘A large bannock will be small enough