Colin’s Cattle is a Gaelic air. There is a widespread tale
variously laid in Argyll, Perth, Inverness, and in other
counties of the highland of fairies singing to cows. In one such
example, an invisible maiden sings to the cows of Colin –
Crodh Chailean! Crpdh Chailean!
Crodh Chailean mo ghaoil,
Crodh Chailean mo chridhe,
Air lighe cheare fraoish.
Cows of Colin! Cows of Colin!
Cows of Colin of my love,
Cows of Colin of my heart
In color of the heather-hen.
In one version of the song, Colin’s wife and her infant child
had been lifted away by the fairies to a fairy bower in the glen
between the hills. There she was kept nursing the babes which
the fairies had stolen, until upon Hallow Eve, when all the
bowers were open, Colin by placing a steel tinder above the
lentil of the door to the fairy bower was enabled to enter the
bower and in safety lead forth his wife and child.
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