A WITTY WIFE
"The Goban Saor was a mason and a smith, and he could do all
things, and he was very witty. He was going from home one time
and he said to the wife 'If it is a daughter you have this time
I'll kill you when I come back'; for up to that time he had no
sons, but only daughters. And it was a daughter she had; but a
neighbouring woman had a son at the same time, and they made an
exchange to save the life of the Goban's wife. But when the boy
began to grow up he had no wit, and the Goban knew by that he was
no son of his. That is the reason he wanted a witty wife for him.
So there came a girl to the house one day, and the Goban Saor
bade her look round at all that was in the room, and he said 'Do
you think a couple could get a living out of this?' 'They could
not,' she said. So he said she wouldn't do, and he sent her away.
Another girl came another day, and he bade her take notice of all
that was in the house, and he said 'Do you think could a couple
knock a living out of this?' 'They could if they stopped in it,'
she said. So he said that girl would do. Then he asked her could
she bring a sheepskin to the market and bring back the price of
it, and the skin itself as well. She said she could, and she went
to the market, and there she pulled off the wool and sold it and
brought back the price and the skin as well. Then he asked could
she go to the market and not be dressed or undressed. And she
went having only one shoe and one stocking on her, so she was
neither dressed or undressed. Then he sent her to walk neither on
the road or off the road, and she walked on the path beside it.
So he said then she would do as a wife for his son."
AN ADVICE SHE GAVE
"One time some great king or lord sent for the Goban to build
a
caislean for him, and the son's wife said to him before
he went 'Be always great with the women of the house, and always
have a comrade among them.' So when the Goban went there he
coaxed one of the women the same as if he was not married. And
when the castle was near built, the woman told him the lord was
going to play him a trick, and to kill him or shut him up when he
had the castle made, the way he would not build one for any-other
lord that was as good. And as she said, the lord came and bade
the Goban to make a cat and two-tails, for no one could make that
but himself, and it was meaning to kill him on it he was. And the
Goban said he would do that when he had finished the castle, but
he could not finish it without some tool he had left at home. And
they must send the lord's son for it—- for he said it would
not be given to any other one. So the son was sent, and the Goban
sent a message to the daughter-in-law that the tool he was
wanting was called 'When you open it shut it.' And she was
surprised, for there was no such tool in the house; but she
guessed by the message what she had to do, and there was a big
chest in the house and she set it open. 'Come now,' she said to
the young man,' look in the chest and find it for yourself.' And
when he looked in she gave him a push forward, and in he went,
and she shut the lid on him. She wrote a letter to the lord then,
saying he would not get his son back till he had sent her own two
men, and they were sent back to her."
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Smiles & Good Fortune,
Teresa
************************************
It
is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity,
to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. W.
Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915
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