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Sgeulachd mu dhuine a fhuair trì comhairlean an àite tuarast...

Date June 1957
Track ID 32882
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1957.41.B7

Original Tape ID

SA1957.041

Summary

A story about a man who got three pieces of advice instead of payment and how they helped him.

Once upon a time a man went away to work. He sent money home to his wife every year. This year he was going to go home to visit her when he got paid at the end of the feeing term.

Before he left his employer's wife asked which he would prefer: three pieces of advice or his wages. He chose the advice.

The advice was: don't take any short cuts on the way home; don't spend the night in a long, narrow, blackhouse where an old man and a tall red-haired woman live; and when you get home, look before you strike.

The woman gave him half a loaf to take home to his wife.

On the way home he came to a short cut, but he remembered the advice and stayed on the main road. He came to a long, narrow, blackhouse where an old man and a woman matching the description he'd been given were staying. He said he couldn't stay the night and went out and lay in a haystack. The woman came out of the house with another man. He cut a piece from the man's cloak with his knife and put it in his pocket.

He continued on his way and reached home early in the morning. He went in and saw another man in bed with his wife. He got the axe and was about to strike him when he remembered the third piece of advice. He looked again and saw that the man in the bed was his son.

His wife got up and welcomed him. He told her about his adventures word for word and put the loaf on the table. She opened the parcel and found his wages inside the loaf.

After several days he was summoned to court. The old man in the blackhouse had been murdered and he testified against the man who was with the woman and from whom he had taken the piece of cloth.

The contributor thinks she heard this story from her grandmother long ago.

Recording Location

County - Sutherland

Parish - Farr

Village/Place - Bettyhill

Language

Gaelic

Collection

SoSS

Classification

AT910B

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good