"I want to see Nial."
"Why?"
"He must not come ... just now."
"Why?"
"At dawn we went up to the top of the hillock, for the 'quiet people' are ever away by then, it is said. And we prayed. I prayed, and Nial said whatever I said. And then, at sunrise, we rose, and went three times round Cnoc-na-shee south-ways, and each time cried Djayseeul!"[17]
"And what was it you would be praying, Oona?"
"That no soul might be in the body of Sorcha's baby."
Alan stared at her, too amazed at first to be angry.
"What madness is this, lassie?"
"Sure it is no madness at all, at all, Alan! It is a good thought, and no madness.... For ... for why.... There is poor Nial; and when Murdo met him on the hillside last night, and told him about Sorcha, Nial found me out by calling through the woods like a cuckoo, and sure a good way too, for there are no cooaks now; and then he and I hoped the baby would have no soul ... and...."