Some tell that two old women tired of spinning incautiously wished that all the people in Tun Bhuirg were there to help. According to others the elves came to Tapull House in the Ross of Mull and their excessive zeal made them unwelcome. The rhyme they sang as they worked, in Gaelic, was known locally as the rhyme of the goodman of Tapull's servants: 'Let me comb, card, tease, spin. A weaving loom quick. Water for fulling on the fire. Work, work, work.'
The household got rid of them by calling that their own dwelling was on fire. They rushed out and did not return. In the Skye form of the story the cry is 'Dunsuirv on fire'.
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