The travelling folk are religious in their own way. Mostly their religion comes from all the animals; animals can teach you because they know and are intelligent towards things that humans never regard or respect. The donkey or ‘cuddy’ is sacred to the Scottish travellers, they’ll not ill-treat this animal, overload or be bad to it in any way … This is the story, so sit down and listen! Then you’ll be able to tell it to your children when you grow up.
THE old collie dog was tired as he lay beside his master on the hillside that lovely moonlit night. His master was a shepherd who watched the sheep all night through to take care of them, because in these days long long ago there were many wolves and foxes. The shepherd had two young dogs he’d reared up and kept along with the old collie, but he loved and respected his old collie most because he’d had it for many many years. So they sat on the hillside and the moon rose higher; it was beautiful and the stars were shining.
The shepherd turned round and said to the collie, ‘Old fellow, you must be tired. You ran a lot this morning, more than you should have, and you know you’re getting old now. I’m sure there’s no use the four of us sitting here. Why don’t you go home and go in the byre, sleep among the hay for the night? It’ll make you fresh for tomorrow. Me and your young offspring here will take care of the sheep.’
The old collie sat up, his tongue hanging out, and he looked at his master. He wondered why his master didn’t want him. He understood the language all right, but some things his master said he didn’t really understand. When the master said ‘go home old friend’ he knew the meaning perfectly. He thought to himself, ‘My master doesn’t need me this night so I’ll go home.’ He really was tired.
So the old dog trotted back to the small steadings and the farm where he lived. He curled up in the byre among the hay and straw that had been placed in the stalls. And his old friend the donkey came in from the cold; he was a free agent who wandered around the farm to his heart’s content. And the collie couldn’t remember when he’d ever seen the place without the donkey. The donkey walked into one of the stalls and started chewing on the hay or straw or whatever was left out. The collie curled up to go to sleep. He heard his friend the donkey chewing, chewing, chewing, on and on and on.
Then a little later he heard voices coming through the doorway. He wondered, ‘Is that my master coming home?’ And he looked out. It was still dark, but the moon was shining clear, he thought to himself, ‘It can’t be my master, it’s not his time yet. He always comes home by daylight when the sheep’ll be safe, because no predators or any kind of wild animal will disturb them during the day.’ So he was wide awake and sitting in the stall one down from the donkey, when lo and behold who should walk to the stall beside him but a woman! A young beautiful woman and a man with a beard. The collie had never seen these people before and he wondered who they were. He said to himself, ‘They must be strangers seeking their lodging for the night.’
So the dog curled back, he never said a yelp, never said a bark. He watched them; the man took his wife by the hand and led her into the empty stall that had little straw in it. And there was a manger above them for holding the hay for feeding the cattle but there were no cattle in the byre this night. The dog sat and he listened, he heard the man talking and he knew well what they were saying.
The man said, ‘This is where we’ll stay, we shall find shelter here for the night.’ He looked around, ‘It’s only a dog and a donkey and I’m sure they won’t disturb us.’ He said, ‘Are you all right, my dear?’
‘Well,’ she says, ‘I don’t feel very well.’
And the man rakes up the hay, he places it, makes a little bed. He says, ‘I’m sure … will it happen tonight?’
She says, ‘I think it’ll happen in moments.’
The collie dog he’s sitting there. The donkey stops chewing his hay and all is quiet. And then lo and behold the man says, ‘Are you needing any help?’
‘No,’ she says, ‘I’ll manage myself. Just you stand there at the stall entrance and see that I have a little privacy for a few moments.’
And the man stands there … he walks back and forward. And the dog lies, he never says a word but he hears everything that is going on. Lo and behold the next thing the dog hears is the crying of a little baby … a little baby cried.
And the dog said, ‘This woman, this being, this human being must be giving birth to a baby right here beside us in the stall! I have never seen this before.’ And he crawled slowly round a wee bit closer, he keeked round the stall. Lo and behold the woman was holding up the most beautiful little baby that you ever saw! It had long dark golden hair. It was wet. And the husband ran in.
He pulled off his covering of cloth, his cloak, he told her, ‘Use this!’ And his wife wrapped the baby in it.
She said, ‘He’s a wonderful child.’
Then the husband said, ‘We need some place to put him for a wee while.’
And she said, ‘Put some straw in the manger just above where I lie, and put him there for a few moments.’
The husband shook the straw along the manger and he took this little baby wrapped in his own cloth, he stood naked to the waist, and he put him up in the manger. And the old collie dog, he was keeking round the stall, he saw the most beautiful thing he ever saw in his life: he saw a star shining through the window. The star seemed to come closer and closer and closer – till it shone right above the window. The dog had never seen this before and he wondered why such a star had come so close … his thoughts were on his master in the hillside. He wondered if his master would be disturbed by this same shining star. But then his thoughts changed, he heard the man and the woman talking.
He said, ‘Look, we must stay here for the night. But we must find better shelter for our child tomorrow. I’m sure he will be all right, though, nothing’s going to happen to him. He’s a lovely child.’
The old dog sat and listened to all they said. And the child never said one word. Finally the talking stopped and the dog fell asleep. But he wakened early in the morning when he heard a disturbance next to the stall where he lay. This was the man and his wife getting up and taking the child from the manger where he lay during the night.
And the man says, ‘I must go to the village to find some help for you. There must be someone there who’ll give you help.’
She says, ‘I feel well, husband, I feel fine, lovely.’
He says, ‘I know you feel lovely but I must find some help for you and the child.’
She says, ‘Husband, it’s a long way to the village. We passed it through and they wouldn’t give us any shelter and that’s why we ended up here.’
He says, ‘We’ll go back with the baby, and when they see the baby they’ll probably give us shelter.’
‘But,’ she says, ‘husband, I’m too weak, I can’t walk.’
‘Oh,’ he says, ‘don’t worry, my dear, don’t worry. You’ll no need to walk. There’s a little donkey here and I’m sure the farmer won’t mind if I borrow it for a few hours to take you to the village.’ So the man walked in and took a rope, a halter from the wall. He put it on the donkey’s head, but no saddle or bridle or anything. He lifted his wife up and placed her on the donkey’s back. He went to the manger and picked out the wee child, put him in her arms.
And the old collie’s sitting watching this. He wonders and he wonders, wonders … if his master knew about this … what a story he could tell if only he could speak to him! Then daylight came and the man with the beard, with not a stitch on his body because his cloak was wrapped round the Baby, walked out the doorway leading the donkey with the woman and the child. And he walked away. The collie had never seen anything like this before in his life. He wondered, ‘Would he ever see his old friend the donkey again?’ But he loved that little child and he wished he had seen him closer. He crawled up in the straw and fell asleep.
The next thing he heard was a whistle – his master was back from the hills with the two young dogs. He came before them with a large tray of food and he put the dogs in the byre. Then the shepherd walked to his little cottage beside the farmhouse to have his own breakfast. But the old dog didn’t feel like eating. He didn’t feel like anything. He just wanted one thing in his life that he’d never had – to look at the baby because he had never seen his face. After the young dogs had fed themselves, they curled up and went to sleep, and the old collie dog went to sleep.
How long he slept he doesn’t know, but the next thing he hears is ‘hoof hoof’ beats on the floor. In comes the old donkey, just by himself. And instead of going to his own stall, he walks into the stall where the old dog lay. The old collie looks up, says, ‘Hello, old friend, you’re back.’
And the donkey speaks to the dog, ‘Yes, I’m back. I had such a wonderful experience. I walked to the village and I carried this beautiful young woman and her child. But,’ he says, ‘I feel queer and funny now.’
‘And did you see the baby?’ says the collie dog.
‘Yes,’ says the donkey, ‘I saw the baby, the most beautiful baby in this world.’
And the old collie says, ‘I wish I had seen the baby.’
‘You will,’ says the donkey, ‘some day you will see him. He will come again. He will come again and everyone will understand. But not talking about him or talking about you,’ says the donkey, ‘do you see something strange about me?’
‘No,’ says the collie, ‘I don’t see anything strange about you. You’re just a donkey to me and I’m just a dog to you.’
‘Look again,’ says the donkey. ‘Look once more. See if there’s something about me that you’ve never seen before.’
And the collie looks and says, ‘You’ve four legs like me and you’ve got a tail, you’ve got a head and ears like what I’ve got. You’ve got a mane and hair – just like me.’
‘No,’ says the donkey, ‘there’s something else you must see. And I hope in the future many people will see it, for when they see it they’ll probably understand!’
‘Understand what?’ says the collie dog. ‘Tell me what you mean!’
‘Look on my shoulders,’ says the donkey, ‘and tell me what you see.’
The collie stood up, he put his front paws up against the wall and he looked. The donkey wasn’t very high. He looked on the donkey’s back, and lo and behold for the first time in his life – across the donkey’s shoulders was the cross in black. ‘What is that?’ said the collie who had never seen this before.
‘That,’ said the donkey, ‘is the mark of the child who was born this night. It was given to me and will remain with me for eternity, until some day he comes and shows his face to everyone.’
‘Then maybe I’ll see him,’ said the dog, ‘maybe I will see him again?’
‘You’ll see him,’ said the donkey, you’ll see him again; maybe not in this world, but maybe in another one when we leave this place.’ And that is the end of my story.