"You will not get any makings of a cake from me," said the miller, "till you bring me the full of that sieve of water from the river over there." He took the sieve in his hand and went over to the river, but as often as ever he would stoop and fill it with water, the moment he raised it the water would run out of it again, and sure, if he had been there from that day till this, he never could have filled it. A crow went flying by him, over his head. "Daub! daub!" said the crow. "My soul to God, then," said Munachar, "but it's the good advice you have," and he took the red clay and the daub that was by the brink, and he rubbed it to the bottom of the sieve, until all the holes were filled, and then the sieve held the water, and he brought the water to the miller, and the miller gave him the makings of a cake, and he gave the makings of the cake to the threshers, and the threshers gave him a whisp of straw, and he gave the whisp of straw to the cow, and the cow gave him milk, the milk he gave to the cat, the cat scraped the butter, the butter went into the claw of the hound, the hound hunted the deer, the deer swam the water, the water wet the flag, the flag sharpened the axe, the axe cut the rod, and the rod made a gad, and when he had it ready--I'll go bail that Manachar was far enough away from him. There is some tale like this in almost every language. It resembles that given in that splendid work of industry and patriotism, Campbell's _Tales of the West Highlands_ under the name of _Moonachug and Meenachug_. "The English House that Jack built," says Campbell, "has eleven steps, the Scotch Old Woman with the Silver Penny has twelve, the Novsk Cock and Hen A-nutting has twelve, ten of which are double. The German story in Grimm has five or six, all single ideas." This, however, is longer than any of them. It sometimes varies a little in the telling, and the actors' names are sometimes _Suracha_ and _Muracha_, and the crow is sometimes a gull, who, instead of _daub! daub!_ says _cuir cré rua lesh!_ DONALD AND HIS NEIGHBOURS. _From Hibernian Tales._[69]