away upon his travels also; so she requested him to take the can to the well for water, that she might make a cake for him. And he went, and as he was bringing home the water, a raven over his head cried to him to look, and he would see that the water was running out. And he was a young man of sense, and seeing the water running out, he took some clay and patched up the holes, so that he brought home enough water to bake a large cake. When his mother put it to him to take the half cake with her blessing, he took it in preference to having the whole with her malison; and yet the half was bigger than what the other lad had got.
So he went away on his journey; and after he had travelled a far way, he met with an old woman that asked him if he would give her a bit of his bannock. And he said: "I will gladly do that," and so he gave her a piece of the bannock; and for that she gave him a magic wand, that might yet be of service to him, if he took care to use it rightly. Then the old woman, who was a fairy, told him a great deal that would happen to him, and what he ought to do in all circumstances; and after that she vanished in an instant out of his sight. He went on a great way further, and then he came up to the old man herding the sheep; and when he asked whose sheep these were, the answer was:
"The Red Ettin of Ireland
Once lived in Ballygan,
And stole King Malcolm's daughter,
The king of Fair Scotland.
