d alone at the head of the coffin.

Very soon a man came out of the wood and spoke to him.

'Do you know me?'

'Not I,' answered the naked man. 'I do not know you.'

'But why are you naked?' asked the first man.

'Am I naked? My wife told me that I had all my clothes on,' answered he.

'And my wife told me that I myself was dead,' said the man in the
coffin.

But at the sound of his voice the two men were so terrified that they
ran straight home, and the man in the coffin got up and followed them,
and it was his wife that gained the gold ring, as he had been sillier
than the other two.

From 'West Highland Tales.'

The Hoodie-Crow.

Once there lived a farmer who had three daughters, and good useful girls
they were, up with the sun, and doing all the work of the house. One
morning they all ran down to the river to wash their clothes, when a
hoodie came round and sat on a tree close by.

'Wilt thou wed me, thou farmer's daughter?' he said to the eldest.

'Indeed I won't wed thee,' she answered, 'an ugly brute is the hoodie.'
And the bird, much offended, spread his wings and flew away. But the
following day he came back again, and said to the second girl:

'Wilt thou wed me, farmer's daughter?'

'Indeed I will not,' answered she, 'an ugly brute is the hoodie.' And
the hoodie was more angry than before, and went away in a rage. However,
after a night's rest he was in a better temper, and thought that he
might be more lucky the third time, so back he went to the old place.

'Wilt thou wed me, farmer's daughter?' he said to the youngest.

'Indeed I will wed thee; a pretty creature is the hoodie,' answered she,
and on the morrow they were married.

'I have something to ask thee,' said the hoodie when they were far away
in his own house. 'Wouldst thou rather I should be a hoodie by day and a
man by night, or a man by day and a hoodie by night?'

The girl was surprised at his words, for she did not know that he could
be anything but a hoodie at all times.

Still she said nothing of this, and only replied, 'I would rather thou
wert a man by day and a hoodie by night,' And so he was; and a handsomer
man or a more beautiful hoodie never was seen. The girl loved them both,
and never wished for things to be different.

By and bye they had a son, and very pleased they both were. But in the
night soft music was heard stealing close towards the house, and every
man slept, and the mother slept also. When t