The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends

by Peter Berresford Ellis

  Blamey was looking round for another pail when the cow stopped filling it and walked off.

  When she returned to the house, she told Master Marrack Mayne about this wonder. He smiled and replied that a single pail would usually do but if Blamey ever wanted more, she must take extra pails with her and the cow would fill them without asking.

  “Well,” sighed Blamey, “that is a priceless cow you have and no want will come to this house while she is in health.”

  Then Aunt Furneth took her aside to tell her what she was expected to do.

  “There are some things that you must learn here. Marrack Vyghan is always to be put to bed by daylight. As you share the room, you should go to bed at the same time. Never wait for my nephew’s return. Do not go into any of the spare rooms. Above all, never go into Master Marrack Mayne’s room. Never meddle in anything which is not related to your work. I’ll tell you all that you need to know. Do not ask questions of anyone else. Always rise with the sun and take Marrack Vyghan to the stream outside. Wash him and then,” she handed Blamey a small ivory box with ointment, “you must put this ointment in his eyes.”

  “Does he have some illness with his eyes?” the girl asked in concern.

  The old woman did not reply to her question but said, “Only put a bit the size of a pin-head in each eye. No more.”

  Just as she had finished, Master Marrack Mayne came in and said it would not be long before it was dark and Aunt Furneth should be away to her own home.

  It was then that Blamey told Master Marrack Mayne that she was not used to going to bed so early. He shrugged.

  “Please yourself. Stay up as long as you have a mind to.”

  He obviously was not so strict as Aunt Furneth. However, he mixed her a drink which, when she took it, made her fall asleep in a blink of an eye and dream, without sorrow, about the home she had left and the brothers and sister she had been separated from.

  In the morning, she was up and had completed all the work by the time Aunt Furneth arrived. The old woman looked around her with some disapproval. She was a natural faultfinder and it irritated her not to be able to find fault.

  “It is a good start that you have made,” the old woman finally conceded. “And you have plenty of time on your hands still.”

  Then Master Marrack Mayne came in and he was very pleased with what she had done.

  “Come with me into the garden. Since you have done all the work about the house, I will show you how to tend the herbs that I grow. I will tell you what you must weed and what you must not touch.”

  Aunt Furneth showed her disapproval of the suggestion but Master Marrack Mayne took no notice.

  Blamey showed she was so adept at gardening that her employer was delighted. He demonstrated his feelings by giving her a hug that night and once more giving her the warm, comforting drink that produced such a pleasant sleep.

  Now Blamey was a young girl and this was her first time away from home. She had no experience with young nor old men. She found herself adoring Master Marrack Mayne, and putting herself in the way of pleasing him in every way. And now and again, when Master Marrack Mayne gave her a hug or even a kiss, when she had done something which particularly pleased him, she was almost delirious with happiness.

  Aunt Furneth was not so happy. She began to find fault in everything that Blamey did but every time she went to find her, to tell her to do this and that, she found that she was always in the company of her nephew and, as he was so pleased with her, there was nothing she could do. A dislike built up between Aunt Furneth and Blamey and between Blamey and Aunt Furneth.

  Even so, Blamey found her new life as a maid very pleasant and she took no account of time. Never once did she ever think of her home, of her mother and father nor her sisters and brothers. It was as if they had never existed. Her sole ambition in life was to please her master, Marrack Mayne. Each night, he would mix her the same pleasant drink which produced drowsiness and pleasant sleep, and she would awake fresh and happy in the morning.

  One thing did cross her mind, however. Most mornings he dressed as if he were going hunting, with polished boots and hunting clothes. Blamey ensured the polish of his boots was so well done that they were like mirrors when he put them on. He would mount his great horse and off he would go into the woods that surrounded the house. She tried to follow his path once or twice, for she had a mind to see what the countryside was like beyond the wood and the small meadow adjacent to the house in which the milch cow was kept. But she could never come to the end of the path and always had to return, not having seen the edge of the wood.

  When Master Marrack Mayne heard what she had attempted – and, of course, it was Aunt Furneth who had told him – he grew stern and said that she must never, never venture beyond his grounds again. Indeed, he laid down a rule that she should never go beyond the meadow nor beyond the orchard nor beyond his garden ever again while he was away. Furthermore, there was at the end of the meadow, where the cow grazed, a high rock. Blamey must, on no account, attempt to climb that rock for, amidst the thicket surrounding it, there was a hole which some said had no bottom.

  It had never occurred to Blamey to go near the rock for, not being a boy, she had never thought to climb rocks in all her life. It now became manifest to her, however, that from the top of the rock one might see all the countryside around. It was as if Master Marrack Mayne suddenly saw the new thought that came into her mind, for he leant close to her and laid his hand on her arm.

  “Truly, Blamey, take heed of my warning. That bottomless hole is the home of the Bukkys.”

  Now Blamey knew that the Bukkys were hobgoblins, evil spirits who delighted in stealing innocent souls to carry off to the dark depths. She shivered slightly and promised to avoid the rock.

  Time passed.

  One day, after Master Marrack Mayne had left, she grew tired of the same old routine and went down to the meadow. She did not call for the cow to come and give milk, which it invariably did, no matter what time of the day or night it was called. Instead she walked across the meadow to where a silvery little stream ran beside the high rock and she sat down to rest in the sun.

  She was dozing there when she heard a voice calling her name softly.

  Frowning, she looked up.

  Near the high rock stood a short, thin little fellow. For a moment she thought it was young Marrack Vyghan and the little boy was playing tricks.

  “Come over here, Blamey. I have a beautiful diamond ring to give you,” called the voice.

  She started up to fetch him but, as she grew near, she realized that the little figure was that of an adult with dark, diamond-shaped eyes and thin, red lips and sharp white teeth.

  It was then she realized what Master Marrack Mayne had told her and, with a scream, she turned and ran as hard as she could back into the house. There she found Aunt Furneth in the kitchen. The old woman glanced at her with total disapproval.

  “You have been near the high rock, I can tell. You’ve only just escaped being carried away by the Bukkys. I am going to tell my nephew of your disobedience to his instructions.”

  So Blamey waited in trepidation for Master Marrack Mayne’s return and wondered how he would react when Aunt Furneth told him. However, her master was not angry.

  “We will let this matter pass, as it is the first time you disobeyed me, Blamey.” He spoke kindly, for he saw that she was so anxious to please him. That evening, she took her drink once again and in the morning she was happy and feeling pleasantly refreshed.

  Aunt Furneth was more irritated with her than ever.

  “You would do well to heed my advice, child,” she told her.

  Blamey, however, grew confident, for nothing she seemed to do displeased Master Marrack Mayne, in spite of the nagging of Aunt Furneth.

  So confident did Blamey now become of her position that, one day when Aunt Furneth was in the kitchen and Blamey was upstairs cleaning her room, a thought suddenly occurred to her. She had not followed Furneth’s rules,
given to her on her first day in the house. In spite of that fact, she had never been chastised for her disobedience. There was only one rule she had strictly kept and that more out of absent-mindedness than anything else. This was the rule which forbade her to go into Master Marrack Mayne’s room nor into any of the spare rooms.

  Bold she was. She crept along the corridor and reached out to the handle of the master’s room and slowly turned it. She peered inside and found she was in a room filled with objects which set her heart pounding in fear. Shelves lined the room and on the shelves were rows of men’s heads and shoulders – no arms were attached to them. They looked almost like stone busts. By the fire-place were whole bodies of young boys and girls. They were also stone-like and whiter than corpses.

  In the middle of the room was a great black wood coffin with a tiny brass plaque on it.

  Though fear caught her heart, she moved forward and peered down. The plaque was obscured by dust and, nervously, she pulled out her handkerchief and rubbed it so that she could read what was inscribed there.

  As she did so, a sound came out of the coffin like a soft groaning of a soul in agony. The coffin-lid moved slightly.

  Blamey was so overcome with fear that she collapsed in a faint.

  The sound of her falling body on the floor above caused Aunt Furneth to go racing up the stairs. She saw the door of her nephew’s room open. Inside, she saw Blamey stretched on the floor by the coffin.

  Aunt Furneth reached forward and grabbed the girl by the ankle and dragged her out of the room.

  She said nothing to Blamey after the girl had recovered from her faint but, that evening, when Master Marrack Mayne came in, Blamey knew that he was acquainted with what had happened.

  “This is the second time that you have disobeyed an instruction, Blamey,” he said sternly.

  The poor girl was quivering with fright. She had so wanted to please him in all things.

  “It will not happen again, sir,” she whispered.

  “Indeed, it may not. For, if you transgress a third time, there will be no forgiveness for you. I have been kind to you and, in that kindness, you have thought that you might ignore the rules of Aunt Furneth. I have been lenient and, because I have been so easy, it seems that you have become too forward in this house.”

  Blamey burst out crying and it seemed that Master Marrack Mayne was struck by her contrite attitude. “We will let this matter pass, but do not let it happen again.”

  After this, it seemed that Marrack Mayne was distant to her and so she redoubled her efforts to please him and even to please Aunt Furneth. Finally, one evening, after she had sung a song to him and put him in good mood once again, he gave her a hug and it seemed that the past was forgiven.

  Time passed and, as time passes, so the sharpness of memory fades. Blamey felt a welling curiosity about the forbidden rooms and the strange statue-like heads and shoulders and little ones inside. Then she began to think about the house and its curious inhabitants and wondered if she was missing something.

  It was one morning when she was putting the ointment from the ivory box into the eyes of Marrack Vyghan that a thought crossed her mind. Marrack Vyghan had curious eyes, far older than those of a mere boy. He seemed to notice things that she did not. She wondered what the ointment could be. She decided that it was some magic balm that could improve the eyesight. She wondered whether it would improve her own eyesight.

  Later that morning, when she was alone in the house, she went to the ivory box and put a tiny drop of the ointment in her eyes. At first nothing happened and then her eyes started to burn and smart. So painful was the sensation that she rushed downstairs out of the house and to the little stream in the meadow and began to bathe her eyes in an attempt to wash the ointment away.

  As she finally sat back on the bank of the stream, blinking and gazing around, she suddenly noticed something in the water before her. Her mouth dropped open in surprise. She could see an entire little world there. Trees, birds and people in such great numbers. They were so tiny.

  A figure was moving there among them.

  Startled, she recognized Master Marrack Mayne. He was dressed exactly as he had been when he had left the house that morning, yet he was scarcely as high as a thumbnail.

  She turned aghast from the water, but realized that the tiny world was surrounding her. She could see the little folk everywhere she went: hiding in the grass, behind flowers, sitting on branches.

  “This must be an enchanted place,” she whispered to herself. She found that she was not fearful and her curiosity had, if anything, grown.

  That evening, there was a change to the usual routine. Master Marrack Mayne arrived home with several strangers and baskets of cakes and other goods. Blamey expected him to call her to help prepare a feast for the guests. However, the master told her to take Marrack Vyghan and put him to bed and then go to bed herself.

  “Be sure you take the evening drink,” he called. “I have left it by your bedside.”

  Now a feeling of jealousy came over Blamey, for she saw Master Marrack Mayne, whom she had to admit she was in love with, take the guests, fair ladies and young men, into his chamber where the stone statues were.

  For the first time, she did not take the drink which brought such restful sleep but merely poured it out of the bedroom window. She lay on the bed, fully clothed, listening to the sounds of music, laughter and the ringing of glasses, which showed that Marrack and his guests were enjoying themselves.

  She waited a while and then she crept from her room and along the darkened corridor to see what was happening.

  The door of Master Marrack Mayne’s room was ajar and she looked in. There were the three beautiful ladies in fascinating long gowns, with diamonds glinting from their necks and ears and fingers. There were the two well-dressed gentlemen with the master and they were all dancing round the coffin in the centre of the room. As they danced around, they pounded on the coffin-lid, thumping it soundly, and from it came the sounds of music, as if there were a dozen fiddlers inside.

  Astonished and unable to make any sense of what she had seen, Blamey returned to her room.

  After a while, the music stopped and there came the sounds of guests departing.

  She went to her bedroom window and looked down.

  By the light of the moon she saw Master Marrack Mayne bidding farewell to the guests and he kissed each one of the ladies in such a manner that it brought a blush of jealousy to Blamey’s cheeks. Never had she seen a woman kissed with such a passion.

  She went back to her bed and cried herself to sleep, a sleep which was restless and filled with strange dreams: a sleep which she had never experienced since she had left home.

  That morning, she was up with the sunrise and went through the day’s chores automatically. When Master Marrack Mayne came in, he complimented her on her work and said that she was indeed a good girl and put his arm about her and give her a hug, such as he usually did.

  In ordinary circumstances, Blamey would have been delighted, but now she repulsed him.

  “Save your embraces for the fine ladies you danced with last night.”

  Master Marrack Mayne frowned. “What do you mean, girl?” he said sharply.

  She told him what she had seen.

  The master shook his head sadly.

  “You silly, silly girl. You have rubbed your eyes with the ointment and disobeyed for the third time. You will leave this house tomorrow.”

  She was surprised at his reaction.

  She protested that she would never find her way back to her home, so it was best that she remain.

  “I will take you back to where I found you,” he said sadly.

  She cried and promised to obey in future. She swore that never again would she give way to curiosity, but Master Marrack Mayne would have none of her protestations.

  So, the next day, she packed and, with a broken heart, she left the house; she left the beautiful herb garden and meadow and was taken up upon a horse behind
the master. Time had passed, she realized, but she didn’t know how long it was, for it had seemed so fleeting. She thought perhaps it was one year since she came to the master’s house. She didn’t even know if there were any wages due to her.

  Tears obscured her eyes so that she did not know which road they took except that, in a moment or two, so it seemed, they stood on the road above Carn Kenidjack. Master Marrack Mayne swung down from his horse and lifted Blamey to the ground, placing her on the rock where he had first met her. There he gave her a purse.

  “You’ll find your wages within,” he told her roughly.

  Then he was gone.

  She stayed at the spot for a while, wondering what to do. How could she go home? Were her parents still living? How long had she been away? She had no idea.

  Reluctantly, she began to walked slowly back down the hill into Carn Kenidjack.

  Imagine her surprise when she found her father not looking a day older than when she had last seen him standing at the gate.

  He did not cry out with joy at her appearance, but instead he seemed puzzled.

  “Have you forgotten something?” he asked.

  Then her mother came rushing out. “What’s the matter?” she greeted.

  Blamey was annoyed at the seeming indifference of their greetings.

  “I have been gone these many years and you are not pleased to see me? What does this mean?” she grumbled.

  “Gone these many years? Have you quit your senses, girl?” demanded her father. “It is only half an hour since you quit this house and now here you are back again?”

  “Whyst! Whyst!” cried her mother. “The thing is obvious. When she reached the top of the hill she took fright at the big world and has returned home again.”

  Now Blamey didn’t know what to say. She knew she must have been away for several years. She was just astonished.

  “It is so,” she insisted. “I have been working at the house of Master Marrack Mayne and have just been paid my wages.”