“It’s a lie from you”
(’S breugach dhuit e)
to which the answer is,
“Who then is it?”
(Feuch cò eile e?).
The person accused at once passes it on by mentioning some one else, such as the “Rooster on the House top,” and the same query and answer, “Who then is it?”, etc., is passed on. The first one who fails in giving a ready reply has to submit to give a forfeit which the ruler keeps in security till all have been exacted; then some one bends down and rests his head upon the king’s knee, when the forfeits are held upon his head and he is made to award the punishment of redeeming them. He does not see whose forfeit it is, and the penalty imposed is sometimes very ludicrous and impossible. One, for instance, has to sit on the fire till his stomach boils (Suidhe air an teine gus am bi a ghoile air ghoil); another is to go out to the hillock in front of the village and bawl out three times,
“This is the one who did the mischief
And who will do it to-night yet.”
(’S mise an duine a rinn an t-olc
’S nì mi ’n nochd fhathast e).