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032 - Tehi Tegi · Manx Fairy Tales

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one of Manx Fairy Tales. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox according all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Phone Manx Fairy Tales by Sophia Morrison Tahi Tegi.
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  Speaker 1: Long hundreds of years ago, there was a witch in
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  Speaker 1: the island who made herself the finest and cleverest looking
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  Speaker 1: young woman in it. Her like, for beauty was never
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  Speaker 1: before seen in this mortal world. When she went out
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  Speaker 1: walking or riding, the very birds of the air would
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  Speaker 1: forget to sing for looking at her, and her sweet
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  Speaker 1: voice would tempt him off the trees to listen to her.
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  Speaker 1: Even the animals would stand still till she went by,
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  Speaker 1: for her beauty cast a spell on them. And as
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  Speaker 1: for the men, the poor creatures, they flocked from all
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  Speaker 1: sides of the island to woo her, and when they
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  Speaker 1: at once looked on her face, they never wanted to
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  Speaker 1: leave her. They forgot everything else in the world, all
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  Speaker 1: sorrow and care, home and country. So at last everything
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  Speaker 1: in the island came to a standstill, because the men
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  Speaker 1: followed wherever this young witch chose to lead them. Their
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  Speaker 1: haggards were empty, for they neither plowed nor sowed, and
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  Speaker 1: their houses stultans, for they never built nor mended. They
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  Speaker 1: cut no turf and pulled no ling for fires. Their
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  Speaker 1: fields were covered with stones, so that the cattle died
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  Speaker 1: for want of pasture, and their gardens were full of weeds.
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  Speaker 1: There was a strange stillness throughout the island. No children's
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  Speaker 1: voices were to be heard anywhere. The witch only laughed
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  Speaker 1: to see what her beauty had done. And she kept
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  Speaker 1: all the men near her by, making each think that
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  Speaker 1: himself might be the chosen one. If one asked her
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  Speaker 1: to marry him, she would answer, and maybe I will,
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  Speaker 1: And then she would say the same to the next.
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  Speaker 1: So they spent their days in pleasuring themselves. When she
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  Speaker 1: had made slaves of the men of the island in
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  Speaker 1: this way, she said, one day, saddle me my horse,
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  Speaker 1: for I've a mind to ride. So they brought her milk,
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  Speaker 1: white horse, shod with shoes of gold, with bit of
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  Speaker 1: gold and bridle set with jewels, with saddle of mother
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  Speaker 1: of pearl and sallow cloth of blue teihitegi mounted, and
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  Speaker 1: the waves of her golden hair flowed down over her
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  Speaker 1: dress of shining white. I'm going, said she, to the
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  Speaker 1: country for the day, and you can follow me on
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  Speaker 1: foot if you like. She rode and took her way
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  Speaker 1: under shady trees and through grassy lanes, where bluebells and
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  Speaker 1: primroses grew as thick as the grass, and the hedges
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  Speaker 1: were yellow with gors. She went on by fields covered
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  Speaker 1: with stones, which were once fine corn land, And on
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  Speaker 1: she went, at the head of them, by lonely little
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  Speaker 1: thorntons whose roof had sunk in on the heart, and
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  Speaker 1: then by spots where houses once had been, now marked
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  Speaker 1: by jenny nettles and an old tramon tree. Her way
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  Speaker 1: mounted upwards among hills shining in the may sunlight, and
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  Speaker 1: through gills where little streams ran down, between banks covered
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  Speaker 1: with fern and brier and many a flower, to the
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  Speaker 1: blue sea. At last they found themselves at the side
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  Speaker 1: of a bright, swift river, and she put a spell
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  Speaker 1: on it and made it seem shallow and as smooth
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  Speaker 1: and clear as glass, so that the little stones at
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  Speaker 1: the bottom were barely covered. Then, when they were all
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  Speaker 1: beginning to wade through it, she took off the spell,
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  Speaker 1: and the water rushed over their heads. And swallowed up
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  Speaker 1: the six hundred poor lovers. With that, she made a
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  Speaker 1: bat of herself, and rose up in the air and
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  Speaker 1: flew out of sight. Her milk white horse turned into
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  Speaker 1: a perkin, plunged to the bottom of the stream, and
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  Speaker 1: swam away out to sea, and was never more seen
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  Speaker 1: from that. The wise men of the island made their
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  Speaker 1: women go on foot and follow their husbands wherever they
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  Speaker 1: should lead, so that no such accident should happen again.
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  Speaker 1: If by chance a woman went first, anyone who saw
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  Speaker 1: her cried out, tah tagi, tah tagi. End of chapter
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  Speaker 1: thirty one