"One time he was on the road going to the town, and there was a Scotch
rogue on the road that was always trying what could he pick off others,
and he saw the Connemara man--that was the Goban--had a nice cravat, and
he thought he would get a hold of that. So he began talking with him,
and he was boasting of all the money he had, and the Goban said whatever
it was he had three times as much as it, and he with only thirty pounds
in the world. And the Scotch rogue thought he would get some of it from
him, and he said he would go to a house in the town, and he gave him
some food and some drink there, and the Goban said he would do the same
for him on the morrow. So then the Goban went out to three houses, and
in each of them he left ten pounds of his thirty pounds, and he told the
people in every house what they had to do, and that when he would strike
the table with his hat three times they would bring out the money. So
then he asked the Scotch rogue into the first house, and ordered every
sort of food and drink, ten pounds worth in all. And when they had used
all they could of it, he struck with his hat on the table, and the man
of the house brought out the ten pounds, and the Goban said 'Keep that
to pay what I owe you.' The second day he did the same thing in another
house. And in the third house they went to he ordered ten pounds worth
of food and drink in the same way. And when the time came to pay, he
struck the table with the hat, and there was the money in the hand of
the man of the house before them. 'That's a good little caubeen,' said
the Scotch rogue, 'when striking it on the table makes all that money
appear.' 'It is a wishing hat,' said the Goban; 'anything I wish for I
can get as long as I have that.' 'Would you sell it?' said the Scotch
rogue. 'I would not,' said the Goban. 'I have another at home, but I
wouldn't sell one or the other.' 'You may as well sell it, so long as
you have another at home,' said the Scotch rogue. 'What will you give
for it?' says the Goban. 'Will you give three hundred pounds for it?' 'I
will give that,' says the Scotch rogue, 'when it will bring me all the
wealth I wish for.' So he went out and brought the three hundred pound,
and gave it to the Goban, and he got the caubeen and went away with it,
and it not worth three halfpence. There was no beating the Goban.
Wherever he got it, he had got the gift."