Reading Notes, Celtic Tales, Part A: The Sprightly Tailor

Saddell Castle

(Source: Wikipedia Commons)

There once was tailor that was employed by the great Macdonald and Macdonald asked the tailor if he would sew him trews by night in the church. If he survived the night in the haunted church, Macdonald would give him a reward. The tailor knew the church was haunted, but he was a sprightly man and he daringly went to the old church to sew the trews. When he got there, he sat down on a gravestone, he lighted a candle, and he got to sewing.

The night was going pretty smoothly until he felt a rumbling and he looked down and saw a human head pop up out of the stone pavement of the church. The voice said, "Do you see this great head of mine?" The tailor said "I do, but I will continue to sew!" The head rose up higher out of the ground and said, "Do you see this great neck of mine?" The tailor said "I do, but I will continue to sew!" The head rose up higher out of the ground and said, "Do you see this great chest of mine?" The tailor said "I do, but I will continue to sew!" The head, neck, and chest rose up even higher out of the ground and said, "Do you see these great arms of of mine?" The tailor said "I do, but I will continue to sew!" It rose up higher out of the ground and said, "Do you see this great neck of mine?" The tailor said "I do, but I will continue to sew!" It rose up higher out of the ground and put one leg in front of the tailor and said, "Do you see this great leg of mine?" The tailor cried, "I do, but I will continue to sew!"

The tailor was on his last stitches at the end of the trews and when he saw the thing rising from the ground get his other leg out, standing up, the tailor grabbed his finished trews, blew out his candle, and ran all the way to the Saddell Castle. The zombie creature followed the tailor as he ran to the castle, and the tailor got inside the gates before the creature, and out of anger, the creature hit the wall at the top of the gate and you can still see its five finger prints there today if you look close enough.

Story source: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).