“Then strike the rock with the holly-staff, and there will come forth from it a cow. Make a halter of the rushen cord, and lead her home to console thy mother for the one just lost.”
All that Robin Redbreast had told her, May-flower did. She walked upon the sea; she made the cord of rushes; she struck the rock, and there came out from it a cow, with eyes as soft as a stag-hound’s, and a skin sleek as that of the mole that burrows in the meadows. May-flower led her home to her poor mother, whose joy now was almost greater than her former sorrow.
But what were her sensations when she began to milk Mor Vyoc’h![7] (for so had Robin Redbreast named the creature). Behold, the milk flowed on and on beneath her fingers like water from a spring!
Ninorc’h had soon filled all the earthen vessels in the house, and then all those of wood, but still the milk flowed on.
“Now, holy Mother save us!” cried the widow, “certainly this beast has drunk of the waters of Languengar.”[8]
In fact, the milk of Mor Vyoc’h was inexhaustible; she had already yielded enough to satisfy every babe in Cornouaille.
In a little time nothing was talked of throughout the country but the widow’s cow, and people crowded from all parts to see it. The rector of Peros-Guirek came among the rest, to see whether it were not a snare of the evil one; but after he had laid his stole upon Mor Vyoc’h’s head, he pronounced her clear of all suspicion.
Before long all the richest farmers were persuading Ninorc’h to sell her cow, each one bidding against the other for so invaluable a beast; her brother Perrik among the rest.
“Come,” said he, “I am your brother; as a good Christian you must give me the preference. Let me have Mor Vyoc’h, and I will give you in exchange as many cows as it takes tailors to make a man.”[9]
“Is that your Christian dealing?” answered the widow. “Nine cows for Mor Vyoc’h! She is worth all the cows in the country, far and near. With her milk I could supply all the markets in the bishoprics of Tréguier and Cornouaille, from Dinan to Carhaix.”