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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The King of Ireland’s Son, by Padraic Colum
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The King of Ireland’s Son
+
+Author: Padraic Colum
+
+Posting Date: February 9, 2009 [EBook #3495]
+Release Date: October, 2002
+Last Updated: November 3, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KING OF IRELAND’S SON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by A. Elizabeth Warren
+
+
+
+
+
+THE KING OF IRELAND’S SON
+
+by Padraic Colum
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS:
+
+  FEDELMA, THE ENCHANTER’S DAUGHTER
+
+  WHEN THE KING OF THE CATS CAME TO KING CONNAL’S DOMINION
+
+  THE SWORD OF LIGHT AND THE UNIQUE TALE, WITH AS MUCH OF THE ADVENTURES
+       OF GILLY OF THE GOAT-SKIN AS IS GIVEN IN “THE CRANESKIN BOOK”
+
+  THE TOWN OF THE RED CASTLE
+
+  THE KING OF THE LAND OF MIST
+
+  THE HOUSE OF CROM DUV
+
+  THE SPAE-WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+
+FEDELMA, THE ENCHANTER’S DAUGHTER
+
+
+
+I
+
+Connal was the name of the King who ruled over Ireland at that time.
+He had three sons, and, as the fir-trees grow, some crooked and some
+straight, one of them grew up so wild that in the end the King and the
+King’s Councillor had to let him have his own way in everything. This
+youth was the King’s eldest son and his mother had died before she could
+be a guide to him.
+
+Now after the King and the King’s Councillor left him to his own way the
+youth I’m telling you about did nothing but ride and hunt all day. Well,
+one morning he rode abroad--
+
+    His hound at his heel,
+    His hawk on his wrist;
+    A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+    And the blue sky over him,
+
+and he rode on until he came to a turn in the road. There he saw a gray
+old man seated on a heap of stones playing a game of cards with himself.
+First he had one hand winning and then he had the other. Now he would
+say “That’s my good right,” and then he would say “Play and beat that,
+my gallant left.” The King of Ireland’s Son sat on his horse to watch
+the strange old man, and as he watched him he sang a song to himself
+
+    I put the fastenings on my boat
+    For a year and for a day,
+    And I went where the rowans grow,
+    And where the moorhens lay;
+
+    And I went over the stepping-stones
+    And dipped my feet in the ford,
+    And came at last to the Swineherd’s house,--
+    The Youth without a Sword.
+
+    A swallow sang upon his porch
+    “Glu-ee, glu-ee, glu-ee,”
+     “The wonder of all wandering,
+    The wonder of the sea;”
+     A swallow soon to leave ground sang
+    “Glu-ee, glu-ee, glu-ee.”
+
+“Prince,” said the old fellow looking up at him, “if you can play a game
+as well as you can sing a song, I’d like if you would sit down beside
+me.”
+
+“I can play any game,” said the King of Ireland’s Son. He fastened his
+horse to the branch of a tree and sat down on the heap of stones beside
+the old man.
+
+“What shall we play for?” said the gray old fellow.
+
+“Whatever you like,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“If I win you must give me anything I ask, and if you win I shall give
+you anything you ask. Will you agree to that?”
+
+“If it is agreeable to you it is agreeable to me,” said the King of
+Ireland’s Son.
+
+They played, and the King of Ireland’s Son won the game. “Now what do
+you desire me to give, King’s Son?” said the gray old fellow.
+
+“I shan’t ask you for anything,” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “for I
+think you haven’t much to give.”
+
+“Never mind that,” said the gray old fellow. “I mustn’t break my
+promise, and so you must ask me for something.”
+
+“Very well,” said the King’s Son. “Then there’s a field at the back of
+my father’s Castle and I want to see it filled with cattle to-morrow
+morning. Can you do that for me?”
+
+“I can,” said the gray old fellow.
+
+“Then I want fifty cows, each one white with a red ear, and a white calf
+going beside each cow.”
+
+“The cattle shall be as you wish.”
+
+“Well, when that’s done I shall think the wager has been paid,” said the
+King of Ireland’s son. He mounted his horse, smiling at the foolish
+old man who played cards with himself and who thought he could bring
+together fifty white kine, each with a red ear, and a white calf by the
+side of each cow. He rode away
+
+   His hound at his heel,
+   His hawk on his wrist;
+   A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+   And the green ground under him,
+
+and he thought no more of the gray old fellow.
+
+
+But in the morning, when he was taking his horse out of the stable,
+he heard the grooms talking about a strange happening. Art, the King’s
+Steward, had gone out and had found the field at the back of the Castle
+filled with cattle. There were fifty white red-eared kine there and each
+cow had a white calf at her side. The King had ordered Art, his Steward,
+to drive them away. The King of Ireland’s Son watched Art and his men
+trying to do it. But no sooner were the strange cattle put out at one
+side of the field than they came back on the other. Then down came
+Maravaun, the King’s Councillor. He declared they were enchanted cattle,
+and that no one on Ireland’s ground could put them away. So in the
+seven-acre field the cattle stayed.
+
+When the King of Ireland’s Son saw what his companion of yesterday could
+do he rode straight to the glen to try if he could have another game
+with him. There at the turn of the road, on a heap of stones, the gray
+old fellow was sitting playing a game of cards, the right hand against
+the left. The King of Ireland’s Son fastened his horse to the branch of
+a tree and dismounted.
+
+“Did you find yesterday’s wager settled?” said the gray old fellow.
+
+“I did,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“Then shall we have another game of cards on the same understanding?”
+ said the gray old fellow.
+
+“I agree, if you agree,” said the King of Ireland’s son. He sat under
+the bush beside him and they played again. The King of Ireland’s Son
+won.
+
+“What would you like me to do for you this time?” said the gray old
+fellow.
+
+Now the King’s Son had a step-mother, and she was often cross-tempered,
+and that very morning he and she had vexed each other. So he said, “Let
+a brown bear, holding a burning coal in his mouth, put Caintigern the
+Queen from her chair in the supper-room to-night.”
+
+“It shall be done,” said the gray old fellow.
+
+Then the King of Ireland’s Son mounted his horse and rode away
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the green ground under him,
+
+and he went back to the Castle. That night a brown bear, holding a
+burning coal in his mouth, came into the supper-room and stood between
+Caintigern the Queen and the chair that belonged to her. None of the
+servants could drive it away, and when Maravaun, the King’s Councillor,
+came he said, “This is an enchanted creature also, and it is best for us
+to leave it alone.” So the whole company went and left the brown bear in
+the supper-room seated ‘in the Queen’s chair.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The next morning when he wakened the King’s Son said, “That was a
+wonderful thing that happened last night in the supper-room. I must go
+off and play a third game with the gray old fellow who sits on a heap of
+stones at the turn of the road.” So, in the morning early he mounted and
+rode away
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the green ground under him,
+
+and he rode on until he came to the turn in the road. Sure enough the
+old gray fellow was there. “So you’ve come to me again, King’s Son,”
+ said he. “I have,” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “and I’ll play a last
+game with you on the same understanding as before.” He tied his horse to
+the branch and sat down on the heap of stones. They played. The King of
+Ireland’s Son lost the game. Immediately the gray old fellow threw
+the cards down on the stones and a wind came up and carried them away.
+Standing up he was terribly tall.
+
+“King’s Son,” said he, “I am your father’s enemy and I have done him an
+injury. And to the Queen who is your father’s wife I have done an injury
+too. You have lost the game and now you must take the penalty I put upon
+you. You must find out my dwelling-place and take three hairs out of my
+beard within a year and a day, or else lose your head.”
+
+With that he took the King of Ireland’s Son by the shoulders and lifted
+him on his horse, turning the horse in the direction of the King’s
+Castle. The King’s Son rode on
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the blue sky over him.
+
+That evening the King noticed that his son was greatly troubled. And
+when he lay down to sleep everyone in the Castle heard his groans and
+his moans. The next day he told his father the story from beginning to
+end. The King sent for Maravaun his Councillor and asked him if he knew
+who the Enchanter was and where his son would be likely to find him.
+
+“From what he said,” said Maravaun, “we may guess who he is. He is the
+Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands and his dwelling-place is hard to
+find. Nevertheless your son must seek for him and take the three hairs
+out of his beard or else lose his head. For if the heir to your kingdom
+does not honorably pay his forfeit, the ground of Ireland won’t give
+crops and the cattle won’t give milk.” “And,” said the Councillor, “as a
+year is little for his search, he should start off at once, although I’m
+bound to say, that I don’t know what direction he should go in.”
+
+The next day the King’s Son said good-by to his father and his
+foster-brothers and started off on his journey. His step-mother would
+not give him her blessing on account of his having brought in the brown
+bear that turned her from her chair in the supper-room. Nor would she
+let him have the good horse he always rode. Instead the Prince was given
+a horse that was lame in a leg and short in the tail. And neither hawk
+nor hound went with him this time.
+
+
+All day the King’s Son was going, traveling through wood and waste until
+the coming on of night. The little fluttering birds were going from the
+bush tops, from tuft to tuft, and to the briar-roots, going to rest; but
+if they were, he was not, till the night came on, blind and dark. Then
+the King’s Son ate his bread and meat, put his satchel under his head
+and lay down to take his rest on the edge of a great waste.
+
+In the morning he mounted his horse and rode on. And as he went across
+the waste he saw an extraordinary sight--everywhere were the bodies of
+dead creatures--a cock, a wren, a mouse, a weasel, a fox, a badger, a
+raven---all the birds and beasts that the King’s Son had ever known. He
+went on, but he saw no living creature before him. And then, at the end
+of the waste he came upon two living creatures struggling. One was an
+eagle and the other was an eel. And the eel had twisted itself round the
+eagle, and the eagle had covered her eyes with the black films of death.
+The King’s Son jumped off his horse and cut the eel in two with a sharp
+stroke of his sword.
+
+The eagle drew the films from her eyes and looked full at the King’s
+Son. “I am Laheen the Eagle,” she said, “and I will pay you for this
+service, Son of King Connal. Know that there has been a battle of the
+creatures--a battle to decide which of the creatures will make laws for
+a year. All were killed except the eel and myself, and if you had not
+come I would have been killed and the eel would have made the laws. I am
+Laheen the Eagle and always I will be your friend. And now you must tell
+me how I can serve you.”
+
+“You can serve me,” said the King’s Son, “by showing me how I may come
+to the dominion of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands.”
+
+“I am the only creature who can show you, King’s Son. And if I were not
+old now I would carry you there on my back. But I can tell you how you
+can get there. Ride forward for a day, first with the sun before you and
+then with the sun at your back, until you come to the shore of a lake.
+Stay there until you see three swans flying down. They are the three
+daughters of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. Mark the one who
+carries a green scarf in her mouth. She is the youngest daughter and
+the one who can help you. When the swans come to the ground they will
+transform themselves into maidens and bathe in the lake. Two will come
+out, put on their swanskins and transform themselves and fly away. But
+you must hide the swanskin that belongs to the youngest maiden. She will
+search and search and when she cannot find it she will cry out, ‘I would
+do anything in the world for the creature who would find my swanskin for
+me.’ Give the swanskin to her then, and tell her that the only thing she
+can do for you is to show you the way to her father’s dominion. She will
+do that, and so you will come to the House of the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands. And now farewell to you, Son of King Connal.”
+
+Laheen the Eagle spread out her wings and flew away, and the King’s Son
+journeyed on, first with the sun before him and then with the sun at
+his back, until he came to the shore of a wide lake. He turned his horse
+away, rested himself on the ground, and as soon as the clear day came he
+began to watch for the three swans.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+They came, they flew down, and when they touched the ground they
+transformed themselves into three maidens and went to bathe in the lake.
+The one who carried the green scarf left her swanskin under a bush. The
+King’s Son took it and hid it in a hollow tree.
+
+Two of the maidens soon came out of the water, put on their swanskins
+and flew away as swans. The younger maiden stayed for a while in the
+lake. Then she came out and began to search for her swanskin. She
+searched and searched, and at last the King’s Son heard her say, “I
+would do anything in the world for the creature who would find my
+swanskin for me.” Then he came from where he was hiding and gave her the
+swanskin. “I am the Son of the King of Ireland,” he said, “and I want
+you to show me the way to your father’s dominion.”
+
+“I would prefer to do anything else for you,” said the maiden. “I do not
+want anything else,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“If I show you how to get there will you be content?”
+
+“I shall be content.”
+
+“You must never let my father know that I showed you the way. And he
+must not know when you come that you are the King of Ireland’s Son.”
+
+“I will not tell him you showed me the way and I will not let him know
+who I am.”
+
+
+Now that she had the swanskin she was able to transform herself. She
+whistled and a blue falcon came down and perched on a tree. “That falcon
+is my own bird,” said she. “Follow where it flies and you will come to
+my father’s house. And now good-by to you. You will be in danger, but
+I will try to help you. Fedelma is my name.” She rose up as a swan and
+flew away.
+
+The blue falcon went flying from bush to bush and from rock to rock.
+The night came, but in the morning the blue falcon was seen again. The
+King’s Son followed, and at last he saw a house before him. He went in,
+and there, seated on a chair of gold was the man who seemed so tall when
+he threw down the cards upon the heap of stones. The Enchanter did not
+recognize the King’s Son without his hawk and his hound and the fine
+clothes he used to wear. He asked who he was and the King’s Son said he
+was a youth who had just finished an apprenticeship to a wizard. “And,”
+ said he, “I have heard that you have three fair daughters, and I came to
+strive to gain one of them for a wife.”
+
+“In that case,” said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, “you will
+have to do three tasks for me. If you are able to do them I will give
+you one of my three daughters in marriage. If you fail to do any one of
+them you will lose your head. Are you willing to make the trial?”
+
+“I am willing,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“Then I shall give you your first task to-morrow. It is unlucky that you
+came to-day. In this country we eat a meal only once a week, and we have
+had our meal this morning.”
+
+“It is all the same to me,” said the King’s Son, “I can do without food
+or drink for a month without any hardship.”
+
+“I suppose you can do without sleep too?” said the Enchanter of the
+Black Back-Lands.
+
+“Easily,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“That is good. Come outside now, and I’ll show you your bed.” He took
+the King’s Son outside and showed him a dry narrow water-tank at the
+gable end of the house. “There is where you are to sleep” said the
+Enchanter. “Tuck yourself into it now and be ready for your first task
+at the rising of the sun.”
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son went into the little tank. He was
+uncomfortable there you may be sure. But in the middle of the night
+Fedelma came and brought him into a fine room where he ate and then
+slept until the sun was about to rise in the morning. She called him and
+he went outside and laid himself down in the water-tank.
+
+As soon as the sun rose the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came out
+of the house and stood beside the water-tank. “Come now,” said he, “and
+I will show you the first task you have to perform.” He took him to
+where a herd of goats was grazing. Away from the goats was a fawn with
+white feet and little bright horns. The fawn saw them, bounded into the
+air, and raced away to the wood as quickly as any arrow that a man ever
+shot from a bow.
+
+“That is Whitefoot the Fawn,” said the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands. “She grazes with my goats but none of my gillies can bring
+her into my goat-house. Here is your first task--run down Whitefoot the
+Fawn and bring her with my goats into the goat-shelter this evening.”
+ When he said that the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands went away
+laughing to himself.
+
+“Good-by, my life,” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “I might as well try
+to catch an eagle on the wing as to run down the deer that has gone out
+of sight already.” He sat down on the ground and his despair was great.
+Then his name was called and he saw Fedelma coming towards him. She
+looked at him as though she were in dread, and said, “What task has my
+father set you?” He told her and then she smiled. “I was in dread it
+would be a more terrible task,” she said. “This one is easy. I can help
+you to catch Whitefoot the Fawn. But first eat what I have brought you.”
+
+
+She put down bread and meat and wine, and they sat down and he ate
+and drank. “I thought he might set you this task,” she said, “and so I
+brought you something from my father’s store of enchanted things. Here
+are the Shoes of Swiftness. With these on your feet you can run down
+Whitefoot the Fawn. But you must catch her before she has gone very far
+away. Remember that she must be brought in when the goats are going into
+their shelter at sunset. You will have to walk back for all the time you
+must keep hold of her silver horns. Hasten now. Run her down with the
+Shoes of Swiftness and then lay hold of her horns. Above all things
+Whitefoot dreads the loss of her silver horns.”
+
+He thanked Fedelma. He put on the Shoes of Swiftness and went into the
+wood. Now he could go as the eagle flies. He found Whitefoot the Fawn
+drinking at the Raven’s pool.
+
+When she saw him she went from thicket to thicket. The Shoes of
+Swiftness were hardly any use to him in these shut-in places. At last he
+beat her from the last thicket. It was the hour of noon-tide then. There
+was a clear plain before them and with the Shoes of Swiftness he ran her
+down. There were tears in the Fawn’s eyes and he knew she was troubled
+with the dread of losing her silver horns.
+
+He kept his hands on the horns and they went back over miles of plain
+and pasture, bog and wood. The hours were going quicker than they were
+going. When ‘he came within the domain of the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands he saw the goats going quickly before him. They were hurrying
+from their pastures to the goat-shelter, one stopping, maybe, to bite
+the top of a hedge and another giving this one a blow with her horns to
+hurry her on. “By your silver horns, we must go faster,” said the King
+of Ireland’s Son to the Fawn. They went more quickly then.
+
+He saw the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands waiting at the goat-house,
+now counting the goats that came along and now looking at the sun. When
+he saw the King of Ireland’s Son coming with his capture he was so angry
+that he struck an old full-bearded goat that had stopped to rub itself.
+The goat reared up and struck him with his horns. “Well,” said the
+Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, “you have performed your first task,
+I see. You are a greater enchanter than I thought you were.
+Whitefoot the Fawn can go in with my goats. Go back now to your own
+sleeping-place. To-morrow I’ll come to you early and give you your
+second task.”
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son went back and into the dry water-tank. He was
+tired with his day’s journey after Whitefoot the Fawn. It was his hope
+that Fedelma would come to him and give him shelter for that night.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Until the white moon rose above the trees; until the hounds went out
+hunting for themselves; until the foxes came down and hid in the hedges,
+waiting for the cocks and hens to stir out at the first light--so long
+did the King of Ireland’s Son stay huddled in the dry water-tank.
+
+By that time he was stiff and sore and hungry. He saw a great white owl
+flying towards the tank. The owl perched on the edge and stared at the
+King’s Son. “Have you a message for me?” he asked. The owl shrugged with
+its wings three times. He thought that meant a message. He got out of
+the tank and prepared to follow the owl. It flew slowly and near the
+ground, so he was able to follow it along a path through the wood.
+
+The King’s Son thought the owl was bringing him to a place where Fedelma
+was, and that he would get food there, and shelter for the rest of the
+night. And sure enough the owl flew to a little house in the wood. The
+King’s Son looked through the window and he saw a room lighted with
+candles and a table with plates and dishes and cups, with bread and meat
+and wine. And he saw at the fire a young woman spinning at a spinning
+wheel, and her back was towards him, and her hair was the same as
+Fedelma’s. Then he lifted the latch of the door and went very joyfully
+into the little house.
+
+But when the young woman at the spinning wheel turned round he saw that
+she was not Fedelma at all. She had a little mouth, a long and a hooked
+nose, and her eyes looked cross-ways at a person. The thread she was
+spinning she bit with her long teeth, and she said, “You are welcome
+here, Prince.”
+
+“And who are you?” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “Aefa is my name,”
+ said she, “I am the eldest and the wisest daughter of the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-lands. My father is preparing a task for you,” said she,
+“and it will be a terrible task, and there will be no one to help you
+with it, so you will lose your head surely. And what I would advise you
+to do is to escape out of this country at once.”
+
+“And how can I escape?” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “There’s only
+one way to escape,” said she, “and that is for you to take the Slight
+Red Steed that my father has secured under nine locks. That steed is the
+only creature that can bring you to your own country. I will show you
+how to get it and then I will ride to your home with you.”
+
+“And why should you do that?” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“Because I would marry you,” said Aefa.
+
+“But,” said he, “if I live at all Fedelma is the one I will marry.”
+
+No sooner did he say the words than Aefa screamed out, “Seize him,
+my cat-o’-the-mountain. Seize him and hold him.” Then the
+cat-o’-the-mountain that was under the table sprang across the room and
+fixed himself on his shoulder. He ran out of the house. All the time he
+was running the cat-o’-the-mountain was trying to tear his eyes out. He
+made his way through woods and thickets, and mighty glad he was when
+he saw the tank at the gable-end of the house. The cat-’o-the-mountain
+dropped from his back then. He got into the tank and waited and waited.
+No message came from Fedelma. He was a long time there, stiff and
+sore and hungry, before the sun rose and the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands came out of the house.
+
+
+
+V
+
+“I hope you had a good night’s rest,” said the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands, when he came to where the King of Ireland’s Son was
+crouched, just at the rising of the sun. “I had indeed,” said the King’s
+Son. “And I suppose you feel fit for another task,” said the Enchanter
+of the Black Back-Lands. “More fit than ever in my life before,” said
+the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands took him past the goat-house
+and to where there was an open shelter for his bee-hives. “I want this
+shelter thatched,” said he, “and I want to have it thatched with the
+feathers of birds. Go,” said he, “and get enough feathers of wild birds
+and come back and thatch the bee-hive shelter for me, and let it be done
+before the set of sun.” He gave the King’s Son arrows and a bow and
+a bag to put the feathers in, and advised him to search the moor for
+birds. Then he went back to the house.
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son ran to the moor and watched for birds to fly
+across. At last one came. He shot at it with an arrow but did not bring
+it down. He hunted the moor all over but found no other bird. He hoped
+that he would see Fedelma before his head was taken off.
+
+Then he heard his name called and he saw Fedelma coming towards him. She
+looked at him as before with dread in thier eyes and asked him what task
+her father had set him. “A terrible task,” he said, and he told her
+what it was. Fedelma laughed. “I was in dread he would give you another
+task,” she said. “I can help you with this one. Sit down now and eat and
+drink from what I have brought you.”
+
+He sat down and ate and drank and he felt hopeful seeing Fedelma beside
+him. When he had eaten Fedelma said, “My blue falcon will gather the
+birds and pull the feathers off for you. Still, unless you gather them
+quickly there is danger, for the roof must be thatched with feathers at
+the set of sun.” She whistled and her blue falcon came. He followed
+it across the moor. The blue falcon flew up in the air and gave a
+bird-call. Birds gathered and she swooped amongst them pulling feathers
+off their backs and out of their wings. Soon there was a heap of
+feathers on the ground--pigeons’ feathers and pie’s feathers, crane’s
+and crow’s, blackbird’s and starling’s. The King of Ireland’s Son
+quickly gathered them into his bag. The falcon flew to another place and
+gave her bird-call again. The birds gathered, and she went amongst
+them, plucking their feathers. The King’s Son gathered them and the blue
+falcon flew to another place. Over and over again the blue falcon called
+to the birds and plucked out their feathers, and over and over again the
+King’s Son gathered them into his bag. When he thought he had feathers
+enough to thatch the roof he ran back to the shelter. He began the
+thatching, binding the feathers down with little willow rods. He had
+just finished when the sun went down. The old Enchanter came up and
+when he saw what the King’s Son had done he was greatly surprised. “You
+surely learned from the wizard you were apprenticed to,” said he.. “But
+to-morrow I will try you with another task. Go now and sleep in the
+place where you were last night.” The King’s Son, glad that the head was
+still on his shoulders, went and lay down in the water-tank.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+Until the white moon went out in the sky; until the Secret People began
+to whisper in the woods--so long did the King of Ireland’s Son remain in
+the dry water-tank that night.
+
+And then, when it was neither dark nor light, he saw a crane flying
+towards him. It lighted on the edge of the tank. “Have you a message for
+me?” said the King of Ireland’s Son. The crane tapped three times with
+its beak. Then the King’s Son got out of the tank and prepared to follow
+the bird-messenger.
+
+This was the way the crane went. It would fly a little way and then
+light on the ground until the Prince came up to it. Then it would fly
+again. Over marshes and across little streams the crane led him. And all
+the time the King of Ireland’s Son thought he was being brought to the
+place where Fedelma was--to the place where he would get food and where
+he could rest until just before the sun rose.
+
+They went on and on till they came to an old tower. The crane lighted
+upon it. The King’s Son saw there was an iron door in the tower and he
+pulled a chain until it opened. Then he saw a little room lighted with
+candles, and he saw a young woman looking at herself in the glass. Her
+back was towards him and her hair was the same as Fedelma’s.
+
+But when the young woman turned round he saw she was not Fedelma. She
+was little, and she had a face that was brown and tight like a nut. She
+made herself very friendly to the King of Ireland’s Son and went to him
+and took his hands and smiled into his face.
+
+“You are welcome here,” said she.
+
+“Who are you?” he asked. “I am Gilveen,” said she, “the second and
+the most loving of the three daughters of the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands.” She stroked his face and his hands when she spoke to him.
+
+“And why did you send for me?”
+
+“Because I know what great trouble you are in. My father is preparing a
+task for you, and it will be a terrible one. You will never be able to
+carry it out.”
+
+“And what should you advise me to do, King’s daughter?”
+
+“Let me help you. In this tower,” said she, “there are the wisest books
+in the world. We’ll surely find in one of them a way for you to get from
+this country. And then I’ll go back with you to your own land.”
+
+“Why would you do that?” asked the King of Ire-land’s Son.
+
+“Because I wish to be your wife,” Gilveen said.
+
+“But,” said he, “if I live at all Fedelma is the one I’ll marry.”
+
+When he said that Gilveen drew her lips together and her chin became
+like a horn. Then she whistled through her teeth, and instantly
+everything in the room began to attack the King’s Son. The looking glass
+on the wall flung itself at him and hit him on the back of the head. The
+leg of the table gave him a terrible blow at the back of the knees. He
+saw the two candles hopping across the floor to burn his legs. He ran
+out of the room, and when he got to the door it swung around and gave
+him a blow that flung him away from the tower. The crane that was
+waiting on the tower flew down, its neck and beak outstretched, and gave
+him a blow on the back.
+
+So the King of Ireland’s Son went back over the marshes and across the
+little streams, and he was glad when he saw the gable-end of the house
+again. Je went into the tank. He knew that he had not long to wait
+before the sun would rise and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands
+would come to him and give him the third and the most difficult of the
+three tasks. And he thought that Fedelma was surely shut away from him
+and that she would not be able to help him that day.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+At the rising of the sun the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came to
+where the King of Ireland’s Son was huddled and said, “I am now going to
+set you the third and last task. Rise up now and come with me.”
+
+The King’s Son came out of the water-tank and fol-lowed the Enchanter.
+They went to where there was a well. The King’s Son looked down and he
+could not see the bottom, so deep the well was. “At the bottom,” said
+the Enchanter “is the Ring of Youth. You must get it and bring it to me,
+or else you must lose your head at the setting of that sun.” That was
+all he said. He turned then and went away.
+
+The King’s Son looked into the well and he saw no way of getting down
+its deep smooth sides. He walked back towards the Castle. On his way he
+met Fedelma, and she looked at him with deep dread in her eyes. “What
+task did my father set you to-day?” said she. “He bids me go down into
+a well,” said the King’s Son. “A well!” said Fedelma, and she became all
+dread. “I have to take the Ring of Youth from the bot-tom and bring it
+to him,” said the King’s Son. “Oh,” said Fedelma,’”he has set you the
+task I dreaded.”
+
+Then she said, “You will lose your life if the Ring of Youth is not
+taken out of the well. And if you lose yours I shall lose my life too.
+There is one way to get down the sides of the well. You must kill me.
+Take my bones and make them as steps while you go down the sides. Then,
+when you have taken the Ring of Youth out of the water, put my bones
+as they were before, and put the Ring above my heart. I shall be alive
+again. But you must be careful that you leave every bone as it was.”
+
+The King’s Son fell into a deeper dread than Fedelma when he heard what
+she said. “This can never be,” he cried. “It must be,” said she, “and by
+all your vows and promises I command that you do it. Kill me now and do
+as I have bidden you. If it be done I shall live. If it be not done you
+will lose your life and I will never regain mine.”
+
+He killed her. He took the bones as she had bidden him, and he made
+steps down the sides of the well. He searched at the bottom, and he
+found the Ring of Youth. He brought the bones together again. Down on
+his knees he went, and his heart did not beat nor did his breath come or
+go until he had fixed them in their places. Over the heart he placed the
+Ring. Life came back to Fedelma.
+
+“You have done well,” she said. “One thing only is not in its place--the
+joint of my little finger.” She held up her hand and he saw that her
+little finger was bent.
+
+“I have helped you in everything,” said Fedelma, “and in the last task
+I could not have helped you if you had not been true to me when Aefa and
+Gilveen brought you to them. Now the three tasks are done, and you can
+ask my father for one of his daughters in marriage. When you bring him
+the Ring of Youth he will ask you to make a choice. I pray that the one
+chosen will be myself.”
+
+“None other will I have but you, Fedelma, love of my heart,” said the
+King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son went into the house before the setting of the
+sun. The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands was seated on his chair of
+gold. “Have you brought me the Ring of Youth?” he asked.
+
+“I have brought it,” said the King’s Son.
+
+“Give it to me then,” said the Enchanter.
+
+“I will not,” said the King’s Son, “until you give what you promised me
+at the end of my tasks--one of your three daughters for my wife.”
+
+The Enchanter brought him to a closed door. “My three daughters are
+within that room,” said he. “Put your hand through the hole in the door,
+and the one whose hand you hold when I open it--it is she you will have
+to marry.”
+
+Then wasn’t the mind of the King’s Son greatly troubled? If he held the
+hand of Aefa or Gilveen he would lose his love Fedelma. He stood without
+putting out his hand. “Put your hand through the hole of the door or
+go away from my house altogether,” said the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands.
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son ventured to put his hand through the hole in
+the door. The hands of the maidens inside were all held in a bunch. But
+no sooner did he touch them than he found that one had a broken finger.
+This he knew was Fedelma’s hand, and this was the hand he held.
+
+“You may open the door now,” said he to the Enchanter. He opened the
+door and the King of Ireland’s Son drew Fedelma to him. “This is the
+maiden I choose,” said he, “and now give her her dowry.”
+
+“The dowry that should go with me,” said Fedelma, “is the Slight
+Red Steed.” “What dowry do you want with her, young man?” said the
+Enchanter.
+
+“No other dowry but the Slight Red Steed.”
+
+“Go round to the stable then and get it. And I hope no well-trained
+wizard like you will come this way again.”
+
+“No well-trained wizard am I, but the King of Ire-land’s Son. And I have
+found your dwelling-place within a year and a day. And now I pluck the
+three hairs out of your heard, Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands.”
+
+The beard of the Enchanter bristled like spikes on a hedgehog, and the
+balls of his eyes stuck out of his head. The King’s Son plucked the
+three hairs of his beard before he could lift a hand or say a word.
+“Mount the Slight Red Steed and be off, the two of you,” said the
+Enchanter.
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son and Fedelma mounted the Slight Red Steed
+and rode off, and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, and his two
+daughters, Aefa and Gilveen, in a rage watched them ride away.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+They crossed the River of the Ox, and went over the Mountain of the Fox
+and were in the Glen of the Badger before the sun rose. And there, at
+the foot of the Hill of Horns, they found an old man gathering dew from
+the grass.
+
+“Could you tell us where we might find the Little Sage of the Mountain?”
+ Fedelma asked the old man.
+
+“I am the Little Sage of the Mountain,” said he, “and what is it you
+want of me?”
+
+“To betroth us for marriage,” said Fedelma.
+
+“I will do that. Come to my house, the pair of you. And as you are both
+young and better able to walk than I am it would be fitting to let me
+ride on your horse.”
+
+The King’s Son and Fedelma got off and the Little Sage of the Mountain
+got on the Slight Red Steed. They took the path that went round the Hill
+of Horns. And at the other side of the hill they found a hut thatched
+with one great wing of a bird. The Little Sage got off the Slight Red
+Steed. “Now,” said he, “you’re both young, and I’m an old man and it
+would be fitting for you to do my day’s work before you call upon me to
+do anything for you. Now would you,” said he to the King of Ireland’s
+Son, “take this spade in your hand and go into the garden and dig my
+potatoes for me? And would you,” said he to Fedelma, “sit down at the
+quern-stone and grind the wheat for me?”
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son went into the garden and Fedelma sat at the
+quern-stone that was just outside the door; he dug and she ground
+while the Little Sage sat at the fire looking into a big book. And when
+Fedelma and the King’s Son were tired with their labor he gave them a
+drink of buttermilk.
+
+She made cakes out of the wheat she had ground and the King’s Son washed
+the potatoes and the Little Sage boiled them and so they made their
+supper. Then the Little Sage of the Mountain melted lead and made two
+rings; and one ring he gave to Fedelma to give to the King’s Son and one
+he gave to the King’s Son to give to Fedelma. And when the rings were
+given he said, “You are betrothed for your marriage now.”
+
+They stayed with the Little Sage of the Mountain that night, and when
+the sun rose they left the house that was thatched with the great wing
+of a bird and they turned towards the Meadow of Brightness and the Wood
+of Shadows that were between them and the King of Ireland’s domain. They
+rode on the Slight Red Steed, and the Little Sage of the Mountain went
+with them a part of the way. He seemed downcast and when they asked him
+the reason he said, “I see dividing ways and far journeys for you both.”
+ “But how can that be,” said the King’s Son, “when, in a little while we
+will win to my father’s domain?” “It may be I am wrong,” said the Little
+Sage, “and if I am not, remember that devotion brings together dividing
+ways and that high hearts win to the end of every journey.” He bade
+them good-by then, and turned back to his hut that was thatched with the
+great wing of a bird.
+
+They rode across the Meadow of Brightness and Fedelma’s blue falcon
+sailed above them. “Yonder is a field of white flowers,” said she, “and
+while we are crossing it you must tell me a story.”
+
+“I know by heart,” said the King’s Son, “only the stories that Maravaun,
+my father’s Councillor, has put into the book he is composing--the book
+that is called ‘The Breastplate of Instruction.’”
+
+“Then,” said Fedelma, “tell me a story from ‘The Breastplate of
+Instruction,’ while we are crossing this field of white flowers.”
+
+“I will tell you the first story that is in it,” said the King’s Son.
+Then while they were crossing the field of white flowers the King’s Son
+told Fedelma the story of
+
+
+
+The Ass and the Seal
+
+
+X
+
+A seal that had spent a curious fore-noon paddling around the island
+of Ilaun-Beg drew itself up on a rock the better to carry on its
+investigations. It was now within five yards of the actual island. On
+the little beach there were three curraghs in which the island-men went
+over the sea; they were turned bottom up and heavy stones were placed
+upon them to prevent their being carried away by the high winds. The
+seal noted them as he rested upon the flat rock. He noted too a little
+ass that was standing beyond the curraghs, sheltering himself where the
+cliffs hollowed in.
+
+Now this ass was as curious as the seal, and when he saw the smooth
+creature that was moving its head about with such intelligence he came
+down to the water’s edge. Two of his legs were spancelled with a piece
+of straw rope, but being used to such impediment he came over without
+any awkwardness. He looked inquiringly at the seal.
+
+The gray-headed crow of the cliff lighted on a spar of rock and made
+herself an interpreter between the two. “Shaggy beast of the Island,”
+ said the seal, “friend and follower of men, tell me about their fabulous
+existence.”
+
+“Do you mean the hay-getters?” said the ass.
+
+“You know well whom he means,” said the gray-headed crow viciously.
+“Answer him now.”
+
+“You gravell me entirely when you ask about men,” said the ass. “I don’t
+know much about them. They live to themselves and I live to myself.
+Their houses are full of smoke and it blinds my eyes to go in. There
+used to be green fields here and high grass that became hay, but there’s
+nothing like that now. I think men have given up eating what grows out
+of the ground. I see nothing, I smell nothing, but fish, fish, fish.”
+
+The gray-headed crow had a vicious eye fixed on the ass all the time he
+was speaking. “You’re saying all that,” said she, “because they let the
+little horse stay all night in the house and beat you out of it.”
+
+“My friend,” said the seal, “it is evident that men deceive you by
+appearances. I know men. I have followed their boats and have
+listened to the wonderful sounds they make with their voices and with
+instruments. Do they not draw fish out of the depths by enchantments? Do
+they not build their habitations with music? Do they not draw the moon
+out of the sea and set it for a light in their houses? And is it not
+known that the fairest daughters of the sea have loved men?”
+
+“When I’m awake long o’ moonlit nights I feel like that myself,” said
+the ass. Then the recollections of these long, frosty nights made him
+yawn. Then he brayed.
+
+“What it is to live near men,” said the seal in admiration. “What
+wonderful sounds!”
+
+“I’d cross the water and rub noses with you,” said the ass, “only I’m
+afraid of crocodiles.”
+
+“Crocodiles?” said the gray-headed crow.
+
+“Yes,” said the ass. “It’s because I’m of a very old family, you know.
+They were Egyptians. My people never liked to cross water in their own
+country. There were crocodiles there.”
+
+“I don’t want to waste any more time listening to nonsense,” said the
+gray-headed crow. She flew to the ass’s back and plucked out some of the
+felt. “I’ll take this for my own habitation,” she said, and flew back to
+the cliff.
+
+The ass would have kicked up his heels only two of his legs were
+fastened with the straw rope. He turned away, and without a word of
+farewell to the seal went scrambling up the bank of the island.
+
+The seal stayed for a while moving his head about intelligently. Then
+he slipped into the water and paddled off. “One feels their lives in
+music,” he said; “great tones vibrate round the island where men live.
+It is very wonderful.”
+
+“That,” said the King’s Son, “is the first story in ‘The Breastplate of
+Instruction,’--‘The Ass and the Seal.’ And now you must tell me a story
+while we are crossing the field of blue flowers.”
+
+“Then it will be a very little story,” said Fedelma. They crossed a
+little field of blue flowers, and Fedelma told
+
+
+
+The Sending of the Crystal Egg
+
+
+XI
+
+The Kings of Murias heard that King Atlas had to bear The world upon his
+back, so they sent him then and there The Crystal Egg that would be
+the Swan of Endless Tales That his burthen for a while might lie on his
+shoulder-scales Fair-balanced while he heard the Tales the Swan poured
+forth--North-world Tales for the while he watched the Star of the North;
+And East-world Tales he would hear in the morning swart and cool, When
+the Lions Nimrod had spared came up from the drinking pool; West-world
+Tales for the King when he turned him with the sun; Then whispers of
+magic Tales from Africa, his own.
+
+But the Kings of Murias made the Crane their messenger--The fitful Crane
+whose thoughts are always frightening her She slipped from Islet to
+Isle, she sloped from Foreland to Coast; She passed through cracks in
+the mountains and came over trees like a ghost; And then fled back in
+dismay when she saw on the hollow plains The final battle between the
+Pigmies and the Cranes.
+
+Where is the Crystal Egg that was sent King Atlas then? Hatched it will
+be one day and the Tales will be told to men: That is if it be not laid
+in some King’s old Treasury: That is if the fitful Crane did not lose it
+threading the Sea!
+
+They were not long going through the little field of blue flowers, and
+when they went through it they came to another field of white flowers.
+Fedelma asked the King’s Son to tell her another story, and thereupon he
+told her the second story in “The Breastplate of Instruction.”
+
+
+
+The Story of the Young Cuckoo
+
+
+XII
+
+The young cuckoo made desperate attempts to get himself through the
+narrow opening in the hollow tree. He screamed when he failed to get
+through.
+
+His foster-parents had remained so long beside him that they were wasted
+and sad while the other birds, their broods reared, were vigorous and
+joyful. They heard the one that had been reared in their nest, the young
+cuckoo, scream, but this time they did not fly towards him. The young
+cuckoo screamed again, but there was something in that scream that
+reminded the foster-parents of hawks. They flew away. They were
+miserable in their flight, these birds, for they knew they were
+committing a treason.
+
+They had built their nest in a hollow tree that had a little opening.
+A cuckoo laid her egg on the ground and, carrying it in her beak, had
+placed it in the nest. Their own young had been pushed out. They had
+worn themselves to get provision for the terrible and fascinating
+creature who had remained in their nest.
+
+When the time came for him to make his flight he could not get his
+body through the little opening. Yesterday he had begun to try. The two
+foster-parents flew to him again and again with food. But now their own
+nesting place had become strange to them. They would never go near it
+again. The young cuckoo was forsaken.
+
+A woodpecker ran round the tree. He looked into the hollow and saw the
+big bird crumpled up.
+
+“Hello,” said the woodpecker. “How did you get here?”
+
+“Born here,” said the young cuckoo sulkily.
+
+“Oh, were you?” said the woodpecker and he ran round the tree again.
+
+When he came back to the opening the young cuckoo was standing up with
+his mouth open.
+
+“Feed me,” said he.
+
+“I’ve to rush round frightfully to get something for myself,” said the
+woodpecker.
+
+“At least, someone ought to bring me food,” said the young cuckoo.
+
+“How is that?” said the woodpecker.
+
+“Well, oughtn’t they to?” said the young cuckoo.
+
+“I wouldn’t say so,” said the woodpecker, “you have the use of your
+wits, haven’t you?” He ran round the trunk of the tree again and
+devoured a lean grub. The young cuckoo struggled at the opening and
+screamed again.
+
+“Don’t be drawing too much attention to yourself,” advised the
+woodpecker when he came to the opening again. “They might take you for a
+young hawk, you know.”
+
+“Who might?” said the cuckoo. “The neighbors. They would pull a young
+hawk to pieces.”
+
+“What am I to do?” said the young cuckoo.
+
+“What’s in your nature to do?”
+
+“My nature?” said the young cuckoo. “It’s my nature to swing myself on
+branches high up in a tree. It’s my nature to spread out my wings and
+fly over pleasant places. It is my nature to be alone. But not alone as
+here. Alone with the sound of my own voice.” Suddenly he cried, “Cuckoo,
+cuckoo, cuckoo!”
+
+“I know you now,” said the woodpecker. “There’s going to be a storm,” he
+said; “trust a woodpecker to know that.”
+
+The young cuckoo strove towards the big sky again, and he screamed so
+viciously that a rat that had just come out of the ditch fastened his
+eyes on him. That creature looked bad to the young cuckoo. Rain plopped
+on the leaves. Thunder crashed. A bolt struck the tree, and the part
+above the opening was torn away.
+
+The young cuckoo flung himself out on the grass and went awkwardly
+amongst the blue bells. “What a world,” said he. “All this wet and fire
+and noise to get me out of the nest. What a world!” The young cuckoo
+was free, and these were the first words he said when he went into the
+world.
+
+That was the last story the King’s Son told from Maravaun’s book, “The
+Breastplate of Instruction.” They had another little field of blue
+flowers to cross, and as they went across it Fedelma told the King’s Son
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE CLOUD-WOMAN
+
+XIII
+
+     The Cloud-woman, Mor, was the daughter
+     Of Griann, the Sun,--well, and she
+     Made a marriage to equal that grandeur,
+     For her Goodman was Lir, the Sea.
+
+     The Cloud-woman Mor, she had seven
+     Strong sons, and the story-books say
+     Their inches grew in the night-time,
+     And grew over again in the day.
+
+     The Cloud-woman Mor,--as they grew in
+     Their bone, she grew in her pride,
+     Till her haughtiness turned away, men say,
+     Her goodman Lir from her side;
+
+     Then she lived in Mor’s Home and she watched
+     With pride her sons and her crop,
+     Till one day the wish in her grew
+     To view from the mountain-top
+     All, all that she owned, so she
+     Traveled without any stop.
+
+     And what did she see? A thousand
+
+     Fields and her own fields small, small!
+     “What a fine and wide place is Eirinn,” said she,
+     “I am Mor, but not great after all.”
+
+     Then a herdsman came, and he told her
+     That her sons had stolen away:
+     They had left the calves in the hollow,
+     With the goose-flock they would not stay:
+
+     They had seen three ships on the sea
+     And nothing would do them but go:
+     Mor wept and wept when she heard it,
+     And her tears made runnels below.
+
+     Then her shining splendor departed:
+     She went, and she left no trace,
+     And the Cloud-woman, Mor, was never
+     Beheld again in that place.
+
+     The proud woman, Mor, who was daughter
+     Of Griann, the Sun, and who made
+     A marriage to equal that grandeur,
+     Passed away as a shade.
+
+
+XIV
+
+And that was the last story that Fedelma told, for they had crossed the
+Meadows of Brightness and had come to a nameless place--a stretch of
+broken ground where there were black rocks and dead grass and bare roots
+of trees with here and there a hawthorn tree in blossom. “I fear this
+place. We must not halt here,” Fedelma said.
+
+And then a flock of ravens came from the rocks, and flying straight
+at them attacked Fedelma and the King of Ireland’s Son. The King’s Son
+sprang from the steed and taking his sword in his hand he fought the
+ravens until he drove them away. They rode on again. But now the ravens
+flew back and attacked them again and the King of Ireland’s Son fought
+them until his hands were wearied. He mounted the steed again, and they
+rode swiftly on. And the ravens came the third time and attacked them
+more fiercely than before. The King’s Son fought them until he had
+killed all but three and until he was covered with their blood and
+feathers.
+
+The three that had escaped flew away. “Oh, mount the Slight Red Steed
+and let us ride fast,” said Fedelma to the King’s Son.
+
+“I am filled with weariness,” he said. “Bid the steed stay by the rock,
+lay my sword at my side, and let me sleep with my head on your lap.”
+
+“I fear for us both if you slumber here,” said Fedelma.
+
+“I must sleep, and I pray that you let me lay my head on your lap.”
+
+“I know not what would awaken you if you slumber here.”
+
+“I will awaken,” said the King’s Son, “but now I must sleep, and I would
+slumber with my head on your lap.”
+
+She got down from the Slight Red Steed and she bade it stay by a rock;
+she put his sword by the place he would sleep and she took his head upon
+her lap. The King’s Son slept.
+
+As she watched over him a great fear grew in Fedelma. Every hour she
+would say to him, “Are you near waking, my dear, my dear?” But no flush
+of waking appeared on the face of the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+Then she saw a man coming across the nameless place, across the broken
+ground, with its dead grass and black rocks and with its roots and
+stumps of trees. The man who came near them was taller than any man she
+had seen before--he was tall as a tree. Fedelma knew him from what she
+had heard told about him--she knew him to be the King of the Land of
+Mist.
+
+The King of the Land of Mist came straight to them. He stood before
+Fedelma and he said, “I seek Fedelma, the daughter of the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-Lands and the fairest woman within the seas of Eirinn.”
+
+“Then go to her father’s house and seek Fedelma there,” said she to him.
+
+“I have sought her there,” said the King of the Land of Mist, “but she
+left her father’s house to go with the King of Ireland’s Son.”
+
+“Then seek her in the Castle of the King of Ireland,” said Fedelma.
+
+“That I will not. Fedelma is here, and Fedelma will come with me,” said
+the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+“I will not leave him with whom I am plighted,” said Fedelma.
+
+Then the King of the Land of Mist took up the King of Ireland’s Son.
+High he held him--higher than a tree grows. “I will dash him down on the
+rocks and break the life within him,” said he.
+
+“Do not so,” said Fedelma. “Tell me. If I go with you what would win me
+back?”
+
+“Nothing but the sword whose stroke would slay me--the Sword of Light,”
+ said the King of the Land of Mist. He held up the King of Ireland’s Son
+again, and again he was about to dash him against the rocks. The blue
+falcon that was overhead flew down and settled on the rock behind her.
+Fedelma knew that what she and the King of the Land of Mist would say
+now would be carried some place and told to someone. “Leave my love, the
+King’s Son, to his rest,” she said.
+
+“If I do not break the life in him will you come with me, Fedelma?”
+
+“I will go with you if you tell again what will win me back from you.”
+
+“The Sword of Light whose stroke will slay me.”
+
+“I will go with you if you swear by all your vows and promises not to
+make me your wife nor your sweetheart for a year and a day.”
+
+“I swear by all my vows and promises not to make you my wife nor my
+sweetheart for a year and a day.”
+
+“I will go with you if you let it be that I fall into a slumber that
+will last for a year and a day.”
+
+“I will let that be, fairest maid within the seas of Eirinn.”
+
+“I will go with you if you will tell me what will take me out of that
+slumber.”
+
+“If one cuts a tress of your hair with a stroke of the Sword of Light it
+will take you out of that slumber.”
+
+The blue falcon that was behind heard what the King of the Land of
+Mist said. She rose up and remained overhead with her wings outspread.
+Fedelma took the ring off her own finger and put it on the finger of the
+King of Ireland’s Son, and she wrote upon the ground in Ogham letters,
+“The King of the Land of Mist.”
+
+“If it be not you who wakens me, love,” she said, “may it be that I
+never waken.”
+
+“Come, daughter of the Enchanter,” said the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+“Pluck the branch of hawthorn and give it to me that I may fall into my
+slumber here,” said Fedelma.
+
+The King of the Land of Mist plucked a flowering branch of hawthorn
+and gave it to her. She held the flowers against her face and fell into
+slumber. For a while she and the King of Ireland’s Son were side by side
+in sleep.
+
+Then the King of the Land of Mist took Fedelma in his arms and strode
+along that nameless place, over the broken ground with its dead grass
+and its black rocks and its stumps and roots of trees and the three
+ravens that had escaped the sword of the King of Ire-land’s Son followed
+where he went.
+
+
+XV
+
+Long, long after Fedelma had been taken by the King of the Land of Mist
+the King of Ireland’s Son came out of his slumber. He saw around him
+that nameless place with its black rocks and bare roots of trees. He
+remembered he had come to it with Fedelma. He sprang up and looked for
+her, but no one was near him. “Fedelma, Fedelma!” He searched and he
+called, but it was as if no one had ever been with him. He found his
+sword; be searched for his steed, but the Slight Red Steed was gone too.
+
+He thought that the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands had followed them
+and had taken Fedelma from him. He turned to go towards the Enchanter’s
+country and then he found what Fedelma had written upon the ground in
+Ogham letters
+
+____II_____________\/______//___        IIII       /\
+
+“The King of the Land of Mist”
+
+He did not know what direction to take to get to the dominion of the
+King of the Land of Mist. He crossed the broken ground and he found no
+trace of Fedelma nor of him who had taken her. He found himself close to
+the Wood of Shadows. He went through it. As he went on he saw scores and
+scores of shadows. Nothing else was in the wood--no bird, no squirrel,
+no cricket. The shadows had the whole wood to themselves. They ran
+swiftly from tree to tree, and now and then one would stop at a tree and
+wait. Often the King of Ireland’s Son came close to a waiting shadow.
+One became like a small old man with a beard. The King’s Son saw this
+shadow again and again. What were they, the shadows, he asked himself?
+Maybe they were wise creatures and could tell him what he wanted to
+know.
+
+He thought he heard them whispering together. Then one little shadow
+with trailing legs went slowly from tree to tree. The King of Ireland’s
+Son thought he would catch and hold a shadow and make it tell him where
+he should go to find the dominion of the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+He went after one shadow and another and waited beside a tree for one to
+come. Often he thought he saw the small old man with the beard and
+the little creature with trailing legs. And then he began to see other
+shadows--men with the heads of rooks and men with queer heavy swords
+upon their shoulders. He followed them on and on through the wood and he
+heard their whispering becoming louder and louder, and then he thought
+that as he went on the shadows, instead of slipping before him, began to
+turn back and go past and surround him. Then he heard a voice just under
+the ground at his feet say, “Shout--shout out your own name, Son of King
+Connal!” Then the King’s Son shouted out his own name and the whispers
+ceased in the wood and the shadows went backward and forward no more.
+
+He went on and came to a stream within the wood and he went against its
+flow all night as well as all day, hoping to meet some living thing that
+would tell him how he might come to the dominion of the King of the Land
+of Mist. In the forenoon of another day he came to where the wood grew
+thin and then he went past the last trees.
+
+He saw a horse grazing: he ran up to it and found that it was the Slight
+Red Steed that had carried Fedelma and himself from the house of the
+Enchanter. Then as he laid hold of the steed a hound ran up to him and
+a hawk flew down and he saw that they were the hawk and the hound that
+used to be with him when he rode abroad from his father’s Castle.
+
+He mounted and seeing his hound at his heel and his hawk circling above
+he felt a longing to go back to his father’s Castle which he knew to be
+near and where he might find out where the King of the Land of Mist had
+his dominion.
+
+So the King of Ireland’s Son rode back to his father’s Castle--
+
+   His hound at his heel,
+   His hawk on his wrist.
+
+
+
+
+WHEN THE KING OF THE CATS CAME TO KING CONNAL’S DOMINION
+
+
+
+I
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son was home again, but as he kept asking about a
+King and a Kingdom no one had ever heard of, people thought he had lost
+his wits in his search for the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. He
+rode abroad every day to ask strangers if they knew where the King of
+the Land of Mist had his dominion and he came back to his father’s every
+night in the hope that one would be at the Castle who could tell him
+where the place that he sought was. Maravaun wanted to relate to him
+fables from “The Breastplate of Instruction” but the King’s Son did not
+hear a word that Maravaun said. After a while he listened to the things
+that Art, the King’s Steward, related to him, for it was Art who had
+shown the King’s Son the leaden ring that was on his finger. He took it
+off, remembering the betrothal ring that the Little Sage had made, and
+then he saw that it was not his, but Fedelma’s ring that he wore. Then
+he felt as if Fedelma had sent a message to him, and he was less wild in
+his thoughts.
+
+Afterwards, in the evenings, when he came back from his ridings, he
+would cross the meadows with Art, the King’s Steward, or would stand
+with him while the herdsmen drove the cattle into the byres. Then he
+would listen to what Art related to him. And one evening he heard Art
+say, “The most remarkable event that happened was the coming into this
+land of the King of the Cats.”
+
+“I will listen to what you tell me about it,” said the King’s Son.
+“Then,” said Art, the King’s Steward, “to your father’s Son in all truth
+be it told”--
+
+
+
+The King of the Cats stood up. He was a grand creature. His body was
+brown and striped across as if one had burned on wood with a hot poker.
+Like all the race of the Royal Cats of the Isle of Man he was without a
+tail. But he had extraordinarily fine whiskers. They went each side of
+his face to the length of a dinner-dish. He had such eyes that when he
+turned one of them upward the bird that was flying across dropped from
+the sky. And when he turned the other one down he could make a hole in
+the floor.
+
+He lived in the Isle of Man. Once he had been King of the Cats of
+Ireland and Britain, of Norway and Denmark, and the whole Northern and
+Western World. But after the Norsemen won in the wars the Cats of Norway
+and Britain swore by Thor and Odin that they would give him no more
+allegiance. So for a hundred years and a day he had got allegiance
+only from the Cats of the Western World; that is, from Ireland and the
+Islands beyond.
+
+The tribute he received was still worth having. In May he was sent a
+boatful of herring. In August he was let have two boatfuls of mackerel.
+In November he was given five barrels of preserved mice. At other
+seasons he had for his tribute one out of every hundred birds that flew
+across the Island on their way to Ireland--tomtits, pee-wits, linnets,
+siskins, starlings, martins, wrens and tender young barn owls. He was
+also sent the following as marks of allegiance and respect: a salmon,
+to show his dominion over the rivers; the skin of a marten to show his
+dominion in the woods; a live cricket to show his dominion in the houses
+of men; the horn of a cow, to show his right to a portion of the milk
+produced in the Western World.
+
+
+But the tribute from the Western World became smaller and smaller. One
+year the boat did not come with the herring. Mackerel was sent to him
+afterwards but he knew it was sent to him because so much was
+being taken out of the sea that the farmer-men were plowing their
+mackerel-catches into the land to make their crops grow. Then a year
+came when he got neither the salmon nor the marten skin, neither the
+live cricket nor the cow’s horn. Then he got righteously and royally
+indignant. He stood up on his four paws on the floor of his palace, and
+declared to his wife that he himself was going to Ireland to know what
+prevented the sending of his lawful tribute to him. He called for
+his Prime Minister then and said, “Prepare for Us our Speech from the
+Throne.”
+
+The Prime Minister went to the Parliament House and wrote down “Oyez,
+Oyez, Oyez!” But he could not remember any more of the ancient language
+in which the speeches from the Throne were always written. He went home
+and hanged himself with a measure of tape and his wife buried the body
+under the hearth-stone.
+
+“Speech or no speech,” said the King of the Cats, “I’m going to pay a
+royal visit to my subjects in Ireland.”
+
+He went to the top of the cliff and he made a spring. He landed on the
+deck of a ship that was bringing the King of Norway’s daughter to be
+married to the King of Scotland’s son. The ship nearly sank with the
+crash of his body on it. He ran up the sails and placed himself on the
+mast of the ship. There he gathered his feet together and made another
+spring. This time he landed on a boat that was bringing oak-timber to
+build a King’s Palace in London. He stood where the timber was highest
+and made another spring. This time he landed on the Giant’s Causeway
+that runs from Ireland out into the sea. He picked his steps from
+boulder to boulder, and then walked royally and resolutely on the ground
+of Ireland. A man was riding on horseback with a woman seated on the
+saddle behind him. The King of the Cats waited until they came up.
+
+“My good man,” said he very grandly, “when you go back to your house,
+tell the ash-covered cat in the corner that the King of the Cats has come
+to Ireland to see him.”
+
+His manner was so grand that the man took off his hat and the woman made
+a courtesy. Then the King of the Cats sprang into the branch of a tree
+of the forest and slept till it was past the mid-day heat.
+
+I nearly forgot to tell you that as he slept on the branch his whiskers
+stood around his face the breadth of a dinner-dish either way.
+
+
+
+II
+
+The next day the King’s Son rode abroad and where he went that day he
+saw no man nor woman nor living creature in the land around. But coming
+back he saw a falcon sailing in the air above. He rode on and the falcon
+sailed above, never rising high in the air, and never swooping down.
+The King’s Son fitted an arrow to his bow and shot at the falcon.
+Immediately it rose in the air and flew swiftly away, but a feather from
+it fell before him. The King’s Son picked the feather up. It was a blue
+feather. Then the King’s Son thought of Fedelma’s falcon--of the bird
+that flew above them when they rode across the Meadows of Brightness.
+It might be Fedelma’s falcon, the one he had shot at, and it might have
+come to show him the way to the Land of Mist. But the falcon was not to
+be seen now.
+
+He did not go amongst the strangers in his father’s Castle that evening;
+but he stood with Art who was watching the herdsmen drive the cattle
+into the byres. And Art after a while said, “I will tell you more about
+the coming of the King of the Cats into King Connal’s Dominion. And as
+before I say
+
+“To your father’s Son in all truth be it told “--
+
+
+The King of the Cats waited on the branch of the tree until the moon
+was in the sky like a roast duck on a dish of gold, and still neither
+retainer, vassal nor subject came to do him service. He was vexed, I
+tell you, at the want of respect shown him.
+
+This was the reason why none of his subjects came to him for such a long
+time: The man and woman he had spoken to went into their house and did
+not say a word about the King of the Cats until they had eaten their
+supper. Then when the man had smoked his second pipe, he said to the
+woman: “That was a wonderful thing that happened to us to-day. A cat to
+walk up to two Christians and say to them, ‘Tell the ashy pet in your
+chimney corner at home that the King of the Cats has come to see him.’”
+
+No sooner were the words said than the lean, gray, ash-covered cat that
+lay on the hearthstone sprang on the back of the man’s chair.
+
+“I will say this,” said the man; “it’s a bad time when two Christians
+like ourselves are stopped on their way back from the market and
+ordered--ordered, no less--to give a message to one’s own cat lying on
+one’s own hearthstone.”
+
+“By my fur and daws, you’re a long time coming to his message,” said the
+cat on the back of the chair; “what was it, anyway?”
+
+“The King of the Cats has come to Ireland to see you,” said the man,
+very much surprised.
+
+“It’s a wonder you told it at all,” said the cat, going to the door.
+“And where did you see His Majesty?”
+
+“You shouldn’t have spoken,” said the man’s wife.
+
+“And how did I know a cat could understand?” said the man.
+
+“When you have done talking amongst yourselves,” said the cat, “would
+you tell me where you met His Majesty?”
+
+“Nothing will I tell you,” said the man, “until I hear your own name
+from you.”
+
+“My name,” said the cat, “is Quick-to-Grab, and well you should know
+it.”
+
+“Not a word will we tell you,” said the woman, “until we hear what the
+King of the Cats is doing in Ireland. Is he bringing wars and rebellions
+into the country?”
+
+“Wars and rebellions,--no, ma’am,” said Quick-to-Grab, “but deliverance
+from oppression. Why are the cats of the country lean and lazy and
+covered with ashes? It is because the cat that goes outside the house in
+the sunlight, to hunt or to play, is made to suffer with the loss of an
+eye.”
+
+“And who makes them suffer with the loss of an eye?” said the woman.
+“One whose reign is nearly over now,” said Quick-to-Grab. “But tell me
+where you saw His Majesty?”
+
+“No,” said the man. “No,” said the woman, “for we don’t like your
+impertinence. Back with you to the hearthstone, and watch the mouse-hole
+for us.”
+
+Quick-to-Grab walked straight out of the door.
+
+“May no prosperity come to this house,” said he, “for denying me when I
+asked where the King of the Cats was pleased to speak to you.”
+
+But he put his ear to the door when he went outside and he heard the
+woman say,--
+
+“The horse will tell him that we saw the King of the Cats a mile this
+side of the Giant’s Causeway.” (That was a mistake. The horse could
+not have told it at all, because horses never know the language that is
+spoken in houses--only cats know it fully and dogs know a little of it.)
+
+Quick-to-Grab now knew where the King of the Cats might be found. He
+went creeping by hedges, loping across fields, bounding through woods,
+until he came under the branch in the forest where the King of the
+Cats rested, his whiskers standing round his face the breadth of a
+dinner-dish.
+
+When he came-under the branch Quick-to-Grab mewed a little in Egyptian,
+which is the ceremonial language of the Cats. The King of the Cats came
+to the end of the branch.
+
+“Who are you, vassal?” said he in Phoenician.
+
+“A humble retainer of my lord,” said Quick-to-Grab in High-Pictish (this
+is a language very suitable to cats but it is only their historians who
+now use it).
+
+They continued their conversation in Irish.
+
+“What sign shall I show the others that will make them know you are the
+King of the Cats?” said Quick-to-Grab.
+
+The King of the Cats chased up the tree and pulled down heavy branches.
+“There is a sign of my royal prowess,” said he.
+
+“It’s a good sign,” said Quick-to-Grab. They were about to talk again
+when Quick-to-Grab put down his tail and ran up another tree greatly
+frightened.
+
+“What ails you?” said the King of the Cats. “Can you not stay still
+while you are speaking to your lord and master?”
+
+“Old-fellow Badger is coming this way,” said Quick-to-Grab, “and when he
+puts his teeth in one he never lets go.”
+
+Without saying a word the King of the Cats jumped down from the tree.
+Old-fellow Badger was coming through the glade. When he saw the King of
+the Cats crouching there he stopped and bared his terrible teeth. The
+King of the Cats bent himself to spring. Then Old-fellow Badger turned
+round and went lumbering back.
+
+“Oh, by my claws and fur,” said Quick-to-Grab, “you are the real King of
+the Cats. Let me be your Councillor. Let me advise your Majesty in the
+times that will be so difficult for your subjects and yourself. Know
+that the Cats of Ireland are impoverished and oppressed. They are under
+a terrible tyranny.”
+
+“Who oppresses my vassals, retainers and subjects?” said the King of the
+Cats.
+
+“The Eagle-Emperor. He has made a law that no cat may leave a man’s
+house as long as the birds (he makes an exception in the case of owls)
+have any business abroad.”
+
+“I will tear him to pieces,” said the King of the Cats. “How can I reach
+him?”
+
+“No cat has thought of reaching him,” said Quick-to-Grab, “they only
+think of keeping out of his way. Now let me advise your Majesty. None
+of our enemies must know that you have come into this country. You must
+appear as a common cat.”
+
+“What, me?” said the King of the Cats.
+
+“Yes, your Majesty, for the sake of the deliverance of your subjects you
+will have to appear as a common cat.”
+
+“And be submissive and eat scraps?”
+
+“That will be only in the daytime,” said Quick-to-Grab, “in the
+night-time you will have your court and your feasts.”
+
+“At least, let the place I stay in be no hovel,” said the King of
+the Cats. “I shall refuse to go into a house where there are washing
+days--damp clothes before a fire and all that.”
+
+“I shall use my best diplomacy to safeguard your comfort and dignity,”
+ said Quick-to-Grab, “please invest me as your Prime Minister.”
+
+The King of the Cats invested Quick-to-Grab by biting the fur round his
+neck. Then the King and his Prime Minister parted. The King of the Cats
+took up quarters for a day or two in a round tower. Quick-to-Grab made a
+journey through the country-side. He went into every house and whispered
+a word to every cat that was there, and whether the cat was watching a
+mouse-hole, or chasing crickets, or playing with kittens, when he or she
+heard that word they sat up and considered.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Early, early, next day the King of Ireland’s Son rode out in search
+of the blue falcon, but although he rode from the ring of day to the
+gathering of the dark clouds he saw no sign of it on rock or tree or in
+the air. Very wearily he rode back, and after his horse was stabled he
+stood with Art in the meadows watching the cattle being driven by. And
+Art, the King’s Steward, said: “The Coming of the King of the Cats into
+King Connal’s dominion is a story still to be told. To your father’s
+Son in all truth be it told”--
+
+
+Quick-to-Grab, in consultation with the Seven Elders of the Cat-Kin
+decided that the Blacksmith’s forge would be a fit residence for the
+King of the Cats. It was clean and commodious. But the best reason of
+all for his going there was this: people and beasts from all parts
+came into the forge and the King of the Cats might learn from their
+discussions where the Eagle-Emperor was and how he might be destroyed.
+
+His Majesty found that the Forge was not a bad residence for a King
+living unbeknownst. It was dry and warm. He liked the look of the flames
+that mounted up with the blowing of the bellows. He used to sit on a
+heap of old saddles on the floor and watch the horses being shod or
+waiting to be shod. He listened to the talk of the men. The people in
+the Forge treated him respectfully and often referred to his size, his
+appearance and his fine manners.
+
+Every night he went out to a feast that the cats had prepared for him.
+Quick-to-Grab always walked back to the Forge with him to give a Prime
+Minister’s advice. He warned His Majesty not to let the human beings
+know that he understood and could converse in their language--(all cats
+know men’s language, but men do not know that the cats know). He told
+him not to be too haughty (as a King might be inclined to be) to any
+creature in the Forge.
+
+The King of the Cats took this advice. He used even to twitch his ears
+as a mark of respect to Mahon, the hound whose kennel was just outside
+the forge, and to the hounds that Mahon had to visit him. He even made
+advances to the Cock who walked up and down outside.
+
+This Cock made himself very annoying to the King of the Cats. He used
+to strut up and down saying to himself over and over again, “I’m
+Cock-o’-the-Walk, I’m Cock-o’-the-Walk.” Sometimes he would come into
+the Forge and say it to the horses. The King of the Cats wondered how
+the human beings could put up with a creature who was so stupid and so
+vain. He had a red comb that fell over one eye. He had purple feathers
+on his tail. He had great spurs on his heels. He used to put his head on
+one side and yawn when the King of the Cats appeared.
+
+Cock-o’-the-Walk used to come into the Forge at night and sleep on the
+bellows. And when the King of the Cats came back from the feasts he
+used to waken up and say to himself, “I’m Cock-o’-the-Walk, I’m
+Cock-o’-the-Walk. The Cats are not a respectable people.”
+
+One noonday there were men in the Forge. They were talking to the Smith.
+Said one, “Could you tell us, Smith, where iron came from?” The King of
+the Cats knew but he said nothing. Cock-o’-the-Walk came to the door and
+held his head as if he were listening.
+
+“I can’t tell where iron came from,” said the Smith, “but if that Cock
+could talk he could tell you. The world knows that the Cock is the
+wisest and the most ancient of creatures.”
+
+“I’m Cock-o’-the-Walk,” said the Cock to a rusty ass’s shoe.
+
+“Yes, the Cock is a wonderful creature,” said the man who had asked the
+question.
+
+“Not wonderful at all,” said the King of the Cats, “and if you had asked
+me I could have told you where iron came from.”
+
+“And where did iron come from?” said the Smith.
+
+“From the Mountains of the Moon,” said the King of the Cats.
+
+The men in the Forge put their hands on their knees and looked down at
+him. Mahon the hound came into the Forge with other hounds at his tail,
+and seeing the men looking at the King of the Cats, Mahon put his nose
+to him. Cock-o’-the-Walk flapped his wings insolently. The King of the
+Cats struck at the red hanging comb with his paw. The Cock flew up in
+the air. The King of the Cats sprang out of the window, and as he did,
+Mahon and the other hounds sprang after him--
+
+
+IV
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son rode towards the East the next day, and in the
+first hour’s journey he saw the blue falcon sailing above. He followed
+where it went and the falcon never lifted nor stooped, but sailed
+steadily on, only now and again beating the air with its wings. Over
+benns and through glens and across moors the blue falcon flew and the
+King of Ireland’s Son followed. Then his horse stumbled; he could not go
+any further, and he lost sight of the blue falcon.
+
+Black night was falling down on the ground when he came back to the
+King’s Castle. Art, the King’s Steward, was waiting for him and he
+walked beside his limping horse. And Art said when they were a little
+way together, “The Coming of the King of the Cats is a story still to be
+told.
+
+“To your father’s Son in all truth be it told “--
+
+
+By the magic powers they possessed it was made known to all the cats
+in the country that their King was being pursued by the hounds. Then on
+every hearthstone a cat howled. Cats sprang to the doors, overturning
+cradles upon children. They stood upon the thresholds and they all made
+the same curse--“That ye may break your backs, that ye may break your
+backs before ye catch the King of the Cats.”
+
+When he heard the howls of his vassals, retainers and subjects, the King
+of the Cats turned over on his back and clawed at the first hound that
+came after him. He stood up then. So firmly did he set himself on his
+four legs that those that dashed at him did not overthrow him. He
+humped up his body and lifted his forepaws. The hounds held back. A horn
+sounded and that gave them an excuse to get away from the claws and the
+teeth, the power and the animosity of the King of the Cats.
+
+Then, even though it might cost each and every one of them the loss of
+an eye, the cats that had sight of him came running up. “We will go with
+you, my lord, we will help you, my lord,” they cried all together.
+
+“Go back to the hearthstones,” said the King of the Cats. “Go back and
+be civil and quiet again in the houses. You will hear of my deeds. I go
+to find the tracks of our enemy, the Eagle-Emperor.”
+
+When they heard that announcement the cats lamented, and the noise of
+their lamentation was so dreadful that horses broke their harnesses
+where they were yoked; men and women lost the color of their faces
+thinking some dreadful visitation was coming on the land; every bag of
+oats and rye turned five times to the right and five times to the left
+with the fright it got; dishes were broken, knives were hurled round,
+and the King’s Castle was shaken to the bottom stone.
+
+“It is not the time to seek the tracks of the Eagle-Emperor,” said
+Quick-to-Grab. “Stay for a while longer in men’s houses.”
+
+“Never,” said the King of the Cats. “Never will I stay by the
+hearthstone and submit to be abused by cocks and hounds and men. I will
+range the world openly now and seek out the enemy of the Cat-Kind, the
+Eagle-Emperor.”
+
+Without once turning his back he went towards the wood that was filled
+with his enemies, the birds. The cats, when they saw their petitions
+were no use, went everyone back to the house where he or she stayed.
+Each one sat before a mouse-hole and pretended to be watching. But
+though mice stirred all round them the cats of Ireland never turned a
+head that night.
+
+It was the wren, the smallest of birds, that saw him and knew him for
+the King of the Cats. The wren flew through the wood to summon the
+Hawk-Clan. But it was towards sunset now and the hawks had taken up
+their stations at the edge of the wood to watch that they might pick up
+the farmers’ chickens. They wouldn’t turn an eye when the wren told
+them that a cat was in the wood during the time forbidden to cats to be
+outside the houses of men. “It is the King of the Cats,” said the wren.
+None of the hawks lifted a wing. They were waiting for the chickens that
+would stray about the moment after sunset.
+
+But if the wren couldn’t rouse the Hawk-Clan she was able to rouse the
+other bird-tribes. “A cat, a cat, on your lives a cat,” she called out
+as she flew through the wood. The rooks that were going home now rose
+above the trees, cawing threats. The blackbirds, thrushes and jays
+screamed as they flew before the King of the Cats. The woodpeckers,
+hedge-sparrows, tom-tits, robins and linnets chattered as they flew
+behind him. Sometimes the young rooks made a great show of attacking
+him. They flew down from the flock. “He is here, here, here,” they cawed
+and flew up again. The rooks kept telling themselves and the other birds
+in the wood what they were going to do with the King of the Cats. But a
+single raven did more against him than the thousand rooks that made so
+much noise. This raven was in a hole in the tree. She struck the King of
+the Cats on the head with her beak as he went past.
+
+The King of the Cats was annoyed by the uproar the birds were making and
+he was angered by the raven’s stroke, but he did not want to enter into
+a battle with the birds. He was on his way to the house of the Hag of
+the Wood who was then known as the Hag of the Ashes. Now as this is the
+first time you have heard of the Hag of the Ashes, I’ll have to tell
+you how the King of the Cats had heard of her and how he knew where her
+house was in the wood.
+
+
+
+V
+
+The next day the King’s Son put a bridle on the Slight Red Steed and
+rode towards the East again. He saw the blue falcon and he followed
+where it flew. Over benns, and through glens and across mountains and
+moors the blue falcon went and the Slight Red Steed neither swerved nor
+stumbled but went as the bird flew. The falcon lighted on a pine tree
+that grew alone. The King’s Son rode up and put his hands to the tree
+to climb and put his head against it, and as he did he heard speech from
+the tree. “The stroke of the Sword of Light will slay the King of the
+Land of Mist and the stroke of the Sword of Light that will cut a tress
+of her hair will awaken Fedelma.” There was no more speech from the tree
+and the falcon rose from its branches and flew high up in the air. Then
+the King of Ireland’s Son rode back towards his father’s Castle.
+
+He went to the meadow and stood with Art and listened to what Art had to
+tell him. And as before the King’s Steward began--
+
+“To your father’s Son in all truth be it told”--
+
+
+Quick-to-Grab had said to the King of the Cats, “If ever you need the
+counsel of a human being, go to no one else but the Hag of the Ashes who
+was once called the Hag of the Wood. In the very centre of the wood four
+ash trees are drawn together at the tops, wattles are woven round these
+ash trees, and in the little house made in this way the Hag of the Ashes
+lives, with no one near her since her nine daughters went away, but her
+goat that’s her only friend.” The King of the Cats was now in the centre
+of the wood. He saw four ash trees drawn together at the tops and he
+jumped to them.
+
+Now the Hag of the Ashes had a bad neighbor. This was a crane that had
+built her nest across the roof of the little house. The nest prevented
+the smoke from coming out at the top and the house below was filled
+with it. The Hag could hardly keep alive on account of the smoke and she
+could neither take away the nest nor banish the bird.
+
+The crane was there when the King of the Cats sprang on the roof. She
+was sitting with her two legs stretched out, and when the King of the
+Cats came down beside her she slipped away and sailed over the trees.
+“Time for me to be going,” said the crane. And from that day to this she
+never came back to the house of the Hag of the Ashes.
+
+“Oh, thanks to you, good creature,” said the Hag of the Ashes, coming
+out of the house. “Tear down her nest now and let the smoke rise up
+through the roof.”
+
+The King of the Cats tore up the sticks and wool that the crane’s nest
+was made of, and the smoke came up through the top of the house. “Oh,
+thanks to you, good creature, that has destroyed the cross crane’s nest.
+Come down on my floor now and I’ll do everything that will serve you.”
+
+The King of the Cats jumped down on the floor of the Hag’s house and saw
+the Hag of the Ashes sitting in a corner, She was a little, little woman
+in a gray cloak. All over the floor there were ashes in heaps, for
+she used to light a fire in one corner and when it was burnt out light
+another beside the ashes of the first. The smoke had never gone through
+the hole in the roof since the crane had built her nest on the top of
+the house. Her face was yellow with the smoke and her eyes were half
+closed on account of it.
+
+“Do you know who I am, Hag of the Ashes?” said the King of the Cats when
+he stood on the floor.
+
+“You are a cat, honey,” said the Hag of the Ashes. “I am the King of the
+Cats.”
+
+“The King of the Cats you are indeed. And it was you who let the smoke
+out of the top of my little house by destroying the nest the cross crane
+had built on it.”
+
+“It was I who did that.”
+
+“Welcome to you then, King of the Cats. And what service can the Hag of
+the Ashes do for you in return?”
+
+“I would go to where the Eagle-Emperor is. You must show me the way.”
+
+“By my cloak I will do that. The Eagle-Emperor lives on the top of the
+Hill of Horns.”
+
+“And how can I get to the top of the Hill of Horns?”
+
+“I don’t know how you can get there at all. All over the Hill is bare
+starvation. No four-footed thing can reach the top--no four-footed
+thing, I mean, but my goat that’s tied to the hawthorn bush outside.”
+
+“I will ride on the back of your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns.”
+
+“No, no, good King of the Cats. I have only my goat for company and how
+could I bear to be parted from him?”
+
+“Lend me your goat, and when I come back from the Hill of Horns I will
+plate his horns with gold and shoe his hooves with silver.”
+
+“No, no, good King of the Cats. How could I bear my goat to be away from
+me, and I having no other company?”
+
+“If you do not let me ride on your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns
+I will leave a sign on your house that will bring the cross crane to
+build her nest on the top of it again.”
+
+“Then take my goat, King of the Cats, take my goat but let him come back
+to me soon.”
+
+“I will. Come with me now and bid him take me to the top of the Hill of
+Horns.”
+
+The King of the Cats marched out of the house and the Hag of the Ashes
+hobbled after him. The goat was lying under the hawthorn bush. He put
+his horns to the ground when they came up to him.
+
+“Will you go to the Hill of Horns?” said the Hag of the Ashes.
+
+“Indeed, that I will not do,” said the goat.
+
+“Oh, the soft tops of the hedges on the way to the Hill of Horns--sweet
+in the mouth of a goat they should be,” said the Hag of the Ashes. “But
+my own poor goat wants to stay here and eat the tops of the burnt-up
+thistles.”
+
+“Why didn’t you tell me of the hedges on the way to the Hill of Horns
+before?” said the goat, rising to his feet. “To the Hill of Horns I’ll
+go.”
+
+“And will you let a cat ride on your back to the Hill of Horns?”
+
+“Indeed, I will not do that.”
+
+“Then, my poor goat, I’ll not untie the rope that’s round your neck, for
+you can’t go to the Hill of Horns without this cat riding on your back.”
+
+“Let him sit on my back then and hold my horns, and I’ll take no notice
+of him.”
+
+The Hag of the Ashes untied the rope that was round his neck, the King
+of the Cats jumped up on the goat’s back, and they started off on the
+path through the wood. “Oh, how I’ll miss my goat, until he comes back
+to me with gold on his horns and silver on his hooves,” the Hag of the
+Ashes cried after them.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son did not leave the Castle the next day, but
+stayed to question those who came to it about the Sword of Light. And
+some had heard of the Sword of Light and some had not heard of it. In
+the afternoon he was in the chambers of the Castle and he watched his
+two foster-brothers, Dermott and Downal, the sons of Caintigern, the
+Queen, playing chess. They played the game upon his board and with his
+figures. And when he went up to them and told them they had permission
+to use the board and the figures, they said, “We had forgotten that you
+owned these things.” The King’s Son saw that everything in the Castle
+was coming into the possession of his foster-brothers.
+
+He found another board with other chess-men and he played a game with
+the King’s Steward. And Art said, “The coming of the King of the Cats
+into King Connal’s Dominion is a story still to be told.
+
+“To your father’s Son in all truth be it told “--
+
+
+What should a goat do but ramble down laneways, wander across fields,
+stray along hedges and stay to rest under shady trees? All this the
+Hag’s goat did. But at last he brought the King of the Cats to the foot
+of the Hill of Horns.
+
+And what was the Hill of Horns like, asks my kind foster-child. It was
+hills of stones on the top of a hill of stones. Only a goat could foot
+it from pebble to stone, from stone to boulder, from boulder Ko crag,
+and from crag to mountain-shoulder. It was well and not ill what the
+Hag’s goat did. But then thunder sounded; lightning struck fire out of
+the stones, the wind mixed itself with the rain and the tempest pelted
+cat and goat. The goat stood on a mountain-shoulder. The wind rushed
+up from the bottom and carried the companions to the top of the Hill of
+Horns. Down sprang the cat. But the goat stood on his hind-legs to
+butt back at the wind. The wind caught him between the beard and the
+under-quarters and swept him from the top and down the other side of the
+hill (and what happened to the Hag’s goat after this I never heard). The
+King of the Cats put his claws into the crevices of a standing stone and
+held to it with great tenacity. And then, when the wind abated and he
+looked across his shoulder, he found that he was standing beside the
+nest of the Eagle-Emperor.
+
+It was a hollow edged with rocks, and round that hollow were scattered
+the horns of the deer and goats that the Eagle-Emperor had carried off.
+And in the hollow there was a calf and a hare and a salmon. The King of
+the Cats sprang into the Eagle-Emperor’s nest. First he ate the salmon.
+Then he stretched himself between the hare and the calf and waited for
+the Eagle-Emperor.
+
+At last he appeared. Down he came to the nest making circles in the air.
+He lighted on the rocky rim. The King of the Cats rose with body bent
+for the spring, and if the Eagle-Emperor was not astonished at his
+appearance it was because an Eagle can never be astonished.
+
+A brave man would be glad if he could have seen the Eagle-Emperor as
+he crouched there on the rock rim of his nest. He spread down his wings
+till they were great strong shields. He bent down his outspread tail.
+He bent down his neck so that his eyes might look into the creature that
+faced him. And his cruel, curved, heavy beak was ready for the stroke.
+
+But the King of the Cats sprang into the air. The Eagle lifted himself
+up but the Cat came down on his broad back. The Eagle-Emperor screamed
+his war-scream and flew off the hill. He struck at the King of the Cats
+with the backs of his broad wings. Then he plunged down. On the stones
+below he would tear his enemy with beak and claws.
+
+It was the Cat that reached the ground. As the Eagle went to strike at
+him he sprang again and tore the Eagle’s breast. Then the Eagle-Emperor
+caught the King of the Cats in his claws and flew up again, screaming
+his battle-scream. Drops of blood from both fell on the ground. The
+Eagle had not a conqueror’s grip on his enemy and the King of the Cats
+was able to tear at him.
+
+It happened that Curoi, King of the Munster Fairies, was marching at the
+head of his troop to play a game of hurling with the Fianna of Ireland,
+captained by Fergus, and for the hand of Aine’, the daughter of
+Mananaun, the Lord of the Sea. Just when the ball was about to be thrown
+in the air the Eagle-Emperor and the King of the Cats were seen mixed
+together in their struggle. One troop took the side of the Eagle and the
+other took the side of the Cat. The men of the country came up and took
+sides too. Then the men began to fight amongst themselves and some were
+left dead on the ground. And this went on until there were hosts of the
+men of Ireland fighting each other on account of the Eagle-Emperor
+and the King of the Cats. The King of the Fairies and the Chief of the
+Fianna marched their men away to a hill top where they might watch the
+battle in the air and the battles on the ground. “If this should go
+on,” said Curoi, “our troops will join in and men and Fairies will be
+slaughtered. We must end the combat in the air.” Saying this he took up
+the hurling-ball and flung it at the Cat and Eagle. Both came down on
+the ground. The Cat was about to spring, the Eagle was about to pounce,
+when Curoi darted between them and struck both with his spear. Eagle and
+Cat became figures of stone. And there they are now, a Stone Eagle with
+his wings outspread and a Stone Cat with his teeth bared and his paws
+raised. And the Eagle-Emperor and the King of the Cats will remain like
+that until Curoi strikes them again with his fairy-spear.
+
+When the Cat and the Eagle were turned into stone the men of the country
+wondered for a while and then they went away. And the Fairies of Munster
+and the Fianna of Ireland played the hurling match for the hand of Aine’
+the daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea, and what the result of
+that hurling match was is told in another book.
+
+And that ends my history of the coming into Ire-land of the King of the
+Cats.
+
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son left Art and went into an unused room in the
+Castle to search for a little bell that he might put upon the Slight Red
+Steed. He found the little bell, but it fell out of his hand and slipped
+through a crack in the floor. He went and looked through the crack. He
+saw below a room and in it was Caintigern, the Queen, and beside her
+were two women in the cloaks of enchantresses. And when he looked again
+he knew the two of them--they were Aefa and Gilveen, the daughters of
+the enchanter of the Black Back-Lands and Fedelma’s sisters. “And
+will my two sons come to rule over their father’s dominion?” he heard
+Caintigern ask.
+
+“The Prince who gains the Sword of Light will rule over his father’s
+dominion,” Aefa said.
+
+“Then one of my sons must get the Sword of Light,” Caintigern said.
+“Tell me where they must go to get knowledge of where it is.”
+
+“Only the Gobaun Saor knows where the Sword of Light is,” said Aefa.
+
+“The Gobaun Saor! Can he be seen by men?” said Caintigern.
+
+“He can be seen,” said Aefa. “And there is one--the Little Sage of the
+Mountain--who can tell what road to go to find the Gobaun Saor.”
+
+“Then,” said Caintigern, “my two sons, Dermott and Downal, will ride out
+to-morrow to find the Little Sage of the Mountain, and the Gobaun Saor,
+so that one of them may find the Sword of Light and come to rule over
+his father’s dominion.”
+
+When the King of Ireland’s Son heard that, he went to the stable where
+the Slight Red Steed was, and put the bridle upon him and rode towards
+the Hill of Horns, on one side of which was the house thatched with the
+one great wing of a bird, where the Little Sage of the Mountain lived.
+
+
+
+
+THE SWORD OF LIGHT
+
+AND THE UNIQUE TALE WITH AS MUCH OF THE ADVENTURES OF GILLY OF THE
+GOATSKIN AS IS GIVEN IN “THE CRANESKIN BOOK”
+
+
+
+I
+
+He came to the house that was thatched with the one great wing of a
+bird, and, as before, the Little Sage of the Mountain asked him to do a
+day’s work. The King’s Son reaped the corn for the Little Sage, and as
+he was reaping it his two foster-brothers, Dermott and Downal, rode by
+on their fine horses. They did not know who the young fellow was who
+was reaping in the field and they shouted for the Little Sage of the
+Mountain to come out of the house and speak to them. “We want to know
+where to find the Gobaun Saor who is to give us the Sword of Light,”
+ said Dermott.
+
+“Come in,” said the Sage, “and help me with my day’s work, and I’ll
+search in my book for some direction.”
+
+“We can’t do such an unprincely thing as take service with you,” said
+Downal. “Tell us now where we must go to find the Gobaun Saor.”
+
+“I think you have made a mistake,” said the Little Sage. “I’m an
+ignorant man, and I can’t answer such a question without study.”
+
+“Ride on, brother,” said Downal, “he can tell us nothing.” Dermott and
+Downal rode off on their fine horses, the silver bells on their bridles
+ringing.
+
+That night, when he had eaten his supper, the Little Sage told the
+King’s Son where to go. It is forbidden to tell where the King of
+Ireland’s Son found the Builder and Shaper for the Gods. In a certain
+place he came to where the Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted
+his anvil, and he saw the Gobaun Saor beating on a shape of iron.
+
+“You want to find the Sword of Light,” said the Gobaun, his eyes as
+straight as the line of a sword-blade, “but show me first your will,
+your mind and your purpose.”
+
+“How can I do that?” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“Guard my anvil for a few nights,” said the Gobaun Saor. “A Fua comes
+out of the river sometimes and tries to carry it off.”
+
+The Gobaun Saor had to make a journey to look at trees that were growing
+in the forest, and the King’s Son guarded his anvil. And at night a Fua
+came out of the river and flung great stones, striving to drive him away
+from the anvil. He ran down to the river bank to drive it away, but the
+creature caught him in its long arms and tried to drown him in the deep
+water. The King of Ireland’s Son was near his death, but he broke away
+from the Fua, and when the creature caught him again, he dragged it up
+the bank and held it against a tree. “I will give you the mastery of
+all arts because you have mastered me,” said the Fua. “I do not want the
+mastery of arts, but maybe you can tell me where to find the Sword
+of Light.” “You want to know that--do you?” said the Fua, and then it
+twisted from him and went into the river.
+
+The Fua came the next night and flung stones as before, and the King’s
+Son wrestled with it in the very middle of the river, and held him
+so that he could not get to the other bank. “I will give you heaps of
+wealth because you have mastered me,” said the creature with the big
+eyes and the long arms. “Not wealth, but the knowledge of where to
+come on the Sword of Light is what I want from you,” said the King of
+Ireland’s Son. But the Fua twisted from him and ran away again.
+
+The next night the Fua came again, and the King’s Son wrestled with him
+in the middle of the river and followed him up the other bank, and held
+him against a tree. “I will give you the craft that will make you
+the greatest of Kings, because you have mastered me.” “Not craft, but
+knowledge of where the Sword of Light is, I want from you,” said the
+King’s Son. “Only one of the People of Light can tell you that,” said
+the Fua. It became a small, empty sort of creature and lay on the ground
+like a shadow.
+
+The Gobaun Saor came back to his forge and his anvil. “You have guarded
+my anvil for me,” he said, “and I will tell you where to go for the
+Sword of Light. It is in the Palace of the Ancient Ones under the Lake.
+You have an enchanted steed that can go to that Lake. I shall turn his
+head, and he shall go straight to it. When you come to the edge of the
+Lake pull the branches of the Fountain Tree and give the Slight Red
+Steed the leaves to eat. Mount now and go.”
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son mounted the Slight Red Steed and went
+traveling again.
+
+
+II
+
+From all its branches, high and low, water was falling in little
+streams. This was the Fountain Tree indeed. He did not dismount, the
+King of Ireland’s Son, but pulled the branches and he gave them to the
+Slight Red Steed to eat.
+
+He ate no more than three mouthfuls. Then he stamped on the ground with
+his hooves, lifted his head high and neighed three times. With that he
+plunged into the water of the Lake and swam and swam as if he had the
+strength of a dragon. He swam while there was light on the water and he
+swam while there was night on the water, and when the sun of the next
+day was a hand’s breadth above the lake he came to the Black Island.
+
+All on that Island was black and burnt, and there were black ashes up to
+the horse’s knees. And no sooner had the Slight Red Steed put his hooves
+on the Island than he galloped straight to the middle of it. He
+galloped through an opening in the black rock and went through a hundred
+passages, each going lower than the other, and at last he came into the
+wide space of a hall.
+
+The hall was lighted. When the King’s Son looked to see where the light
+came from he saw a sword hanging from the roof. And the brightness of
+the Sword was such that the hall was well lighted. The King of Ireland’s
+Son galloped the Slight Red Steed forward and made it rear up. His hand
+grasped the hilt of the Sword. As he pulled it down the Sword screeched
+in his hand.
+
+He flashed it about and saw what other things were in the Cave. He saw
+one woman, and two women and three women. He came to them and he saw
+they were sleeping. And as he flashed the Sword about he saw other women
+sleeping too. There were twelve women in the Cave where the Sword of
+Light had been hanging and the women were sleeping.
+
+And in the hands of each of the sleeping women was a great gemmed cup.
+The spirit of the King’s Son had grown haughty since he felt the Sword
+in his hands. “You have the sword, why should you not have the cup?”
+ something within him said. He took a cup from the hands of one of the
+sleeping women and drank the bubbling water that it held. His spirit
+grew more haughty with that draught. From the hands of each of the
+twelve sleeping women he took the cup and he drank the draught of
+bubbling water that it held. And when he had drunk the twelve draughts
+of bubbling water he felt that with the Sword of Light in his hands he
+could cut his way through the earth.
+
+He mounted the Slight Red Steed and rode it through the Cave and swam
+it across the Lake with No Name. He held the Sword of Light across his
+saddle. The Steed went as the current drew him, for it was long since he
+had eaten the leaves of the Fountain Tree, and the spirit that had made
+him vigorous coming was feeble now. The current brought them to the
+shore below where the Fountain Tree grew.
+
+
+And there on the shore he saw a bunch of little men, little women and
+littler children, all with smoke-colored skins, all with but one eye in
+their heads, all crying and screaming at each other like sea-birds, and
+all sitting round a fire of dried water weeds, cooking and eating eels
+and crab-apples.
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son put his hands on the bridle-rein and drew the
+Slight Red Steed out of the water. The women with one right eye and
+the men with one left eye, and the children in their bare smoky skins
+screamed at him, “What do you want, what do you want, man with the
+horse?”
+
+“Feed and water my steed for me,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“We are the Swallow People, and no one commands us to do things,” said
+an old fellow with a beard like knots of ropes.
+
+“Feed my steed with red wheat and water it with pure spring water,” said
+the King’s Son fiercely. “I am the King of Ireland’s Son and the Sword
+of Light is in my hands, and what I command must be done.”
+
+“We are the Swallow People and we are accounted a harmless people,” said
+the old fellow.
+
+“Why are ye harmless?” said the King’s Son, and he flourished the sword
+at them.
+
+“Come into our cave, King’s Son,” said the old fellow, “we will give you
+refreshment there, and the children will attend to your steed.”
+
+He went into the cave with certain of the Swallow People. They were all
+unmannerly. They kept screaming and crying to each other; they pulled
+at the clothes of the King’s Son and pinched him. One of them bit his
+hands. When they came into the cave they all sat down on black stones.
+One pulled in a black ass loaded with nets. They took the nets off its
+back, and before the King’s Son knew that anything was about to happen
+they threw the nets around him. The meshes of the nets were sticky. He
+felt himself caught. He ran at the Swallow People and fell over a stone.
+Then they drew more nets around his legs.
+
+The old fellow whom he had commanded took up the Sword of Light. Then
+the Swallow People pulled up the ass that had carried the nets and
+rubbed its hard hoof on the Sword. The King’s Son did not know what
+happened to it. Then he heard them cry, “The brightness is gone off the
+thing now.” They left the Sword on a black rock, and now no light came
+from it. Then all the Swallow People scrambled out of the cave.
+
+They came back eating eels and crab-apples out of their hands. They paid
+no attention to the King of Ireland’s Son, but climbed into a cave above
+where he was lying.
+
+He broke the nets that were round him. He found the Sword on the black
+stones, with the brightness all gone from it because of the rubbing with
+the ass’s hoof. He climbed up the wall of the other cave to punish the
+Swallow People. They saw him before he could see them in the darkness,
+and they all went into holes and hid themselves as if they were rats and
+mice.
+
+With the blackened sword in his hands the King of Ireland’s Son went out
+of the Cave, and the horse he had left behind, the Slight Red Steed, was
+not to be found.
+
+
+III
+
+Without a steed and with a blackened sword the King of Ireland’s Son
+came to where the Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted his
+anvil. No water nor sand would clean the Sword, but he left it down
+before the Gobaun Saor, hoping that he would show him a way to dean it.
+“The Sword must be bright that will kill the King of the Land of Mist
+and cut the tress that will awaken the Enchanter’s daughter,” said the
+Gobaun Saor. “You have let the Sword be blackened. Carry the blackened
+Sword with you now.”
+
+“Brighten it for me and I will serve you,” said the King of Ireland’s
+Son.
+
+“It is not easy for me to brighten the Sword now,” said the Gobaun Saor.
+“But find me the Unique Tale and what went before its beginning and what
+comes after its end, and I shall brighten the sword for you and show you
+the way to the Land of Mist. Go now, and search for the Unique Tale.”
+
+He went, and he had many far journeys, I can tell you, and he found no
+person who had any knowledge of the Unique Tale or who knew any way of
+coming to the Land of Mist. One twilight in a wood he saw a great bird
+flying towards him. It lighted on an old tree, and the King of Ireland’s
+Son saw it was Laheen the Eagle.
+
+“Are you still a friend to me, Eagle?” said the King’s Son.
+
+“I am still a friend to you, King’s Son,” said Laheen.
+
+“Then tell me where I should go to get knowledge of the Unique Tale,”
+ said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“The Unique Tale--I never heard of it at all,” said Laheen the Eagle,
+changing from one leg to the other. “I am old,” she said, shaking her
+wings, “and I never heard of the Unique Tale.”
+
+The King’s Son looked and saw that Laheen was really old. Her neck was
+bare of feathers and her wings were gray. “Oh, if you are so old,” said
+the King’s Son, “and have gone to so many places, and do not know of the
+Unique Tale, to whom can I go to get knowledge of it?”
+
+“Listen,” said Laheen the Eagle, “there are five of us that are called
+the Five Ancient Ones of Ireland, and it is not known which one of
+the five is the oldest. There is myself, Laheen the Eagle; there is
+Blackfoot the Elk of Ben Gulban, there is the Crow of Achill, the Salmon
+of Assaroe and the Old Woman of Beare. We do not know ourselves which
+of us is the oldest, but we know that we five are the most ancient of
+living things. I have never heard of the Unique Tale,” said Laheen, “but
+maybe one of the other Ancients has heard of it.”
+
+“I will go to them,” said the King’s Son. “Tell me how I will find the
+Crow of Achill, the Elk of Ben Gulban, the Salmon of Assaroe and the Old
+Woman of Beare--tell me how to go to them, Laheen the Eagle.”
+
+“You need not go to the Salmon of Assaroe,” said the Eagle, “for the
+Salmon would not have heard any tale. I will get you means of finding
+the other three. Follow the stream now until you come to the river. Wait
+at the ford and I will fly to you there.” Laheen the Eagle then shook
+her wings and flew slowly away. The King of Ireland’s Son followed the
+stream until he came to the river--the River of the Ox it was.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+And having come to the River of the Ox he sought the ford and waited
+there for Laheen the Eagle. When it was high noon he saw the shadow of
+the Eagle in the water of the ford. He looked up. Laheen let something
+fall into the shallows. It was a wheel. Then Laheen lighted on the rocks
+of a waterfall above the ford and spoke to the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“Son of King Connal,” she said, “roll this wheel before you and follow
+it where it goes. It will bring you first where Blackfoot the Elk
+abides. Ask the Elk has he knowledge of the Unique Tale. If he has no
+knowledge of it start the wheel rolling again. It will bring you then
+where the Crow of Achill abides. If the Crow cannot tell you anything of
+the Unique Tale, let the wheel bring you to where the Old Woman of Beare
+lives. If she cannot tell you of the Unique Tale, I cannot give you any
+further help.”
+
+Laheen the Eagle then spread out her wings and rising above the mist of
+the waterfall flew away.
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son took the wheel out of the shallow water and
+set it rolling before him. It went on without his touching it again.
+Then he was going and ever going with the clear day going before him
+and the dark night coming behind him, going through scrubby fields and
+shaggy bog-lands, going up steep mountain sides and along bare mountain
+ridges, until at last he came to a high mound on a lonesome mountain.
+And as high as the mound and as lonesome as the mountain was the Elk
+that was standing there with wide, wide horns. The wheel ceased rolling.
+
+“I am from Laheen the Eagle,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+The Elk moved his wide-horned head and looked down at him. “And why have
+you come to me, son?” said the Elk.
+
+“I came to ask if you had knowledge of the Unique Tale,” said the King
+of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“I have no knowledge of the Unique Tale,” said the Elk in a deep voice.
+
+“And are you not Blackfoot, the Elk of Ben Gulban, one of the five of
+the oldest creatures in the world?” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“I am the Elk of Ben Gulban,” said Blackfoot, “and it may be that there
+is no creature in the world more ancient than I am. The Fianna hunted me
+with their hounds before the Sons of Mile’ came to the Island of Woods.
+If it was a Tale of Finn or Caelta or Goll, of Oscar or Oisin or Conan,
+I could tell it to you. But I know nothing of the Unique Tale.”
+
+Then Blackfoot the Elk of Ben Gulban turned his wide-horned head away
+and looked at the full old moon that was coming up in the sky. And the
+King of Ireland’s Son took up the wheel and went to look for a shelter.
+He found a sheep-cote on the side of the mountain and lay down and slept
+between sheep.
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+When the sun rose he lifted up the wheel and set it going before him. He
+was going and ever going down long hillsides and across spreading plains
+till he came to where old trees and tree-stumps were standing hardly
+close enough together to keep each other company. The wheel went through
+this ancient wood and stopped before a fallen oak-tree. And sitting on a
+branch of that oak, with a gray head bent and featherless wings gathered
+up to her neck was a crow.
+
+“I come from Laheen the Eagle,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“What did you say?” said the Crow, opening one eye.
+
+“I come from Laheen the Eagle,” said the King of Ireland’s Son again.
+
+“Oh, from Laheen,” said the Crow and dosed her eye again.
+
+“And I came to ask for knowledge of the Unique Tale,” said the King of
+Ireland’s Son.
+
+“Laheen,” said the Crow, “I remember Laheen the Eagle.” Keeping her eyes
+shut, she laughed and laughed until she was utterly hoarse. “I remember
+Laheen the Eagle,” she said again. “Laheen never found out what I did
+to her once. I stole the Crystal Egg out of her nest. Well, and how is
+Laheen the Eagle?” she said sharply, opening one eye.
+
+“Laheen is well,” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “She sent me to ask if
+you had knowledge of the Unique Tale.”
+
+“I am older than Laheen,” said the Crow. “I remember Paralon’s People.
+The Salmon of Assaroe always said he was before Paralon’s People. But
+never mind! Laheen can’t say that. If I could only get the feathers to
+stay on my wings I’d pay Laheen a visit some day. How are Laheen and her
+bird-flocks?”
+
+“O Crow of Achill,” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “I was sent to ask
+if you had knowledge of the Unique Tale.”
+
+“The Unique Tale! No, I never heard of it,” said the Crow. She gathered
+her wings up to her neck again and bent her gray head.
+
+“Think, O Crow of Achill,” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “I will bring
+you the warmest wool for your nest.”
+
+“I never heard of the Unique Tale,” said the Crow. “Tell Laheen I was
+asking for her.” Nothing would rouse the Crow of Achill again. The King
+of Ireland’s Son set the wheel rolling and followed it. Then he was
+going and ever going with the clear day before him and the dark night
+coming behind him. He came to a wide field where there were field-fares
+or ground larks in companies. He crossed it. He came to a plain of tall
+daisies where there were thousands of butterflies. He crossed it.
+He came to a field of buttercups where blue pigeons were feeding. He
+crossed it. He came to a field of flax in blue blossom. He crossed it
+and came to a smoke-blackened stone house deep sunk in the ground. The
+wheel stopped rolling before it and he went into the house.
+
+
+An old woman was seated on the ground before the fire basting a goose. A
+rabbit-skin cap was on her hairless head and there were no eye-brows on
+her face. Three strange birds were eating out of the pot--a cuckoo, a
+corncrake and a swallow. “Come to the fire, gilly,” said the old woman
+when she looked round.
+
+“I am not a gilly, but the King of Ireland’s Son,” said he.
+
+“Well, let that be. What do you want of me?”
+
+“Are you the Old Woman of Beare?”
+
+“I have been called the Old Woman of Beare since your
+fore-great-grandfather’s time.”
+
+“How old are you, old mother?”
+
+“I do not know. But do you see the three birds that are picking out
+of my pot? For two score years the swallow was coming to my house and
+building outside. Then he came and built inside. Then for three score
+years he was coming into my house to build here. Now he never goes
+across the sea at all, and do you see the corncrake? For five score
+years she was coming to the meadow outside. Then she began to run into
+the house to see what was happening here. For two score years she was
+running in and out. Then she stayed here altogether. Now she never goes
+across the sea at all. And do you see the cuckoo there? For seven score
+years she used to come to a tree that was outside and sing over her
+notes. Then when the tree was gone, she used to light on the roof of my
+house. Then she used to come in to see herself in a looking glass. I
+do not know how many score years the cuckoo was going and coming, but I
+know it is many score years since she went across the sea.”
+
+“I went from Laheen the Eagle to Blackfoot the Elk, and from the Elk of
+Ben Gulban to the Crow of Achill, and from the Crow of Achill, I come to
+you to ask if you have knowledge of the Unique Tale.”
+
+“The Unique Tale, indeed,” said the Old Woman of Beare. “One came to me
+only last night to tell me the Unique Tale. He is the young man who is
+counting the horns.”
+
+“What young man is he and what horns is he counting?”
+
+“He is no King’s Son, but a gilly--Gilly of the Goat-skin he is called.
+He is counting the horns that are in two pits outside. When the horns
+are counted I will know the number of my half-years.”
+
+“How is that, old mother?”
+
+“My father used to kill an ox every year on my birthday, and after my
+father’s death, my servants, one after the other, used to kill an ox for
+me. The horns of the oxen were put into two pits, one on the right-hand
+side of the house and one on the left-hand side. If one knew the number
+of the horns one would know the number of, my half-years, for every
+pair of horns goes to make a year of my life. Gilly of the Goatskin is
+counting the horns for me now, and when he finishes counting them I will
+let him tell the Unique Tale.”
+
+“But you must let me listen to the tale too, Old Woman of Beare.”
+
+“If you count the horns in one pit I will let you listen to the tale.”
+
+“Then I will count the horns in one pit.”
+
+“Go outside then and count them.”
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son went outside. He found on the right-hand side
+of the house a deep quarry-pit. Round the edge of it were horns of all
+kinds, black horns and white horns, straight horns and crooked horns.
+And below in the pit he saw a young man digging for horns that were sunk
+in the ground. He had on a jacket made of the skin of a goat.
+
+“Who are you?” said the young man in the quarry-pit. “I am the King of
+Ireland’s Son. And who may you be?”
+
+“Who I am I don’t know,” said the young man in the goatskin, “but they
+call me Gilly of the Goatskin. What have you come here for?”
+
+“To get knowledge of the Unique Tale.”
+
+“And it was to tell the same Unique Tale that I came here myself. Why do
+you want to know the Unique Tale?”
+
+“That would make a long story. Why do you want to tell it?”
+
+“That would make a longer story. There is a quarry-pit at the left-hand
+side of the house filled with horns and it must be your task to count
+them.”
+
+“I will count them,” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “But you will be
+finished before me. Do not tell the Old Woman of Beare the Tale until we
+both sit down together.”
+
+“If that suits you it will suit me,” said Gilly of the Goatskin, and he
+began to dig again.
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son went to the left-hand side of the house.
+He found the quarry-pit and went into it to count the horns that were
+there--black horns and white horns, straight horns and crooked horns.
+And now, while the King of Ireland’s Son is in the quarry-pit, I
+will tell you the adventures of Gilly--the Lad or the Servant--of the
+Goatskin, which adventures are written in “The Craneskin Book.”
+
+
+
+VI
+
+He never stirred out of the cradle till he was past twelve years of age,
+but lay there night and day, long days and short days; the only garment
+he ever put on was a goatskin; a hunter had once put it down on the
+floor beside his cradle and he reached out with his two hands, drew it
+in and put the goatskin on him. He got his name and his coat at the same
+time, for he was called ever afterwards “Gilly of the Goatskin.”
+
+But although he never stirred out of the cradle, Gilly of the Goatskin
+had ways of diverting himself. He used to shoot arrows with a bow out
+of the door of the house and hit a mark on a tree that was opposite him.
+_And where did he get the bow and arrows?_ The bow fell down from the
+roof of the house and into the cradle. And as for arrows he used to make
+them out of the wands that the Hags brought in to make baskets with. But
+the Hags never saw him using the bow and sending off the arrows. All day
+they would be going along the streams gathering the willow wands for the
+baskets they made.
+
+He knew nobody except the three Hags of the Long Teeth, and he had never
+heard the name of mother or father. Often, when she was peeling the
+wands with a black-handled knife, the Hag of the House used to tell
+Gilly of the Goatskin the troubles that were in store for him--danger
+from the sword and the spear and the knife, from water and fire, from
+the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air. She delighted to tell
+him about the evils that would befall him. And she used to laugh when
+she told him he was a hump-back and that people would throw stones at
+him.
+
+
+One day when the Hags were away gathering willow wands, Gilly turned the
+cradle over and lay under it. He wanted to see what they would do when
+they did not see him sitting up in the cradle. They came in. Gilly
+looked through a crack in the cradle and saw the Hags--they were old and
+crooked and had long teeth that came down below their chins.
+
+“He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone!” screamed the Hag of the House, when
+she did not see Gilly in the cradle.
+
+“He’s gone,” said one of the long-toothed Hags. “I told you he would go
+away. Why didn’t you cut out his heart yesterday, or the day before?”
+
+“Mind what I tell you,” said the other Hag of the Long Teeth. “Mind what
+I tell you. His father’s son will grow into a powerful champion.”
+
+“Not he,” said the Hag of the House, with great anger. “He’ll never
+become a Champion. He’s only a little hump-backed fellow with no weapons
+and with no garment but a goatskin.”
+
+“It would be better to kill him when he comes back,” said the first of
+the Hags with the Long Teeth.
+
+“And if he doesn’t come back, tell the Giant Crom Duv,” said the second.
+
+Gilly of the Goatskin crept from under the cradle, put his bow resting
+on the bottom that was now turned uppermost, took up some of the rods
+that were on the floor and then shouted at the Hags. “Oh, if that’s
+a hazel rod he has at his bow he will kill us all,” they screamed out
+together.
+
+He drew back the string, fired the willow rod and struck the middle Hag
+full on the breast. The three Hags fell down on the ground. The pot that
+was always hanging over the fire turned itself upside down and the
+house was filled with smoke. Gilly of the Goatskin, the bow in his hand,
+sprang across the cradle, over the threshold of the door, and out into
+the width and the height, the length and the breadth, the gloom and the
+gleam of the world.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+He was out, as I have said, in the width and the height, the length and
+the breadth, the gloom and the gleam of the world. He fired arrows into
+the air. He leaped over ditches, he rolled down hillsides, he raced
+over level places until he came to what surprised him more than all the
+things in the world--a river. He had never seen such water before and
+he wondered to see it moving with swiftness. “Where is it going?” said
+Gilly of the Goatskin. “Does it go on like that in the night as well
+as in the day?” He ran by its side and shouted to the river. He saw
+a wide-winged bird flying across it. It was the bird that we call the
+crane or the heron. And as Gilly watched the great winged thing he saw
+that it held a little animal in its claws. Gilly fired an arrow and
+the crane dropped towards the ground. The little animal that was in its
+claws fell down. The crane rose up again and flew back across the river.
+
+The little animal that had been in the claws of the crane came to Gilly
+of the Goatskin. It was smaller than the one-eyed cat that used to sit
+on the hearth of the Hag of the House. It kept its head up and was very
+bold-looking. “Good morning, Lad in the Goatskin,” it said to Gilly,
+“you saved my life and I’m very thankful to you.” “What are you?” said
+Gilly of the Goat-skin. “I’m the Weasel. I’m the boldest and bravest
+creature in this country. I’m the lion of these parts, I am. And,” said
+the Weasel, “I never served anyone before, but I’ll be your servant
+for a quarter of a year. Tell me what way you’re going and I’ll go with
+you.” “I’m going the way he’s going,” said Gilly, nodding towards the
+river, “and I’ll keep beside him till he wants to turn back.” “Oh, then
+you’ll have to go a long way,” said the Weasel, “but I’ll go with you no
+matter bow far you go.” The Weasel walked by Gilly’s side very bravely
+and very independently.
+
+“Oh, look,” said Gilly to the Weasel, “what is that that’s in the
+water?”
+
+The Weasel looked and saw a crystal egg in the shallows.
+
+“It’s an egg,” said the Weasel, “I often eat one myself. I’ll bring it
+up from the bottom to you. I’m good at carrying eggs.”
+
+The Weasel went into the water and put his mouth to the egg and tried to
+lift it. He could not move it. He tried to lift it with his paws as well
+as with his mouth; but this did not do either. He came up the bank then,
+and said to Gilly, “You’ll think I’m a poor sort of a servant because I
+can’t take an egg out of the water. But if I can’t win one way I’ll win
+another way.” He went into the reeds by the river and he said, “Hear me,
+frogs! There’s a great army coming to take you out of the reeds and eat
+you red and raw.” Then Gilly saw the queer frogs lifting up their
+heads, “Oh, what will we do, what will we do?” they cried to the Weasel.
+“There’s only one thing to be done,” said the Weasel. “You gather up
+all the pebbles in the bed of the fiver and we’ll make a big wail on the
+bank to defend you.” The frogs dived into the water at once and dragged
+up pebbles. Gilly and the Weasel piled them on the bank. Then three
+frogs carried up the Crystal Egg. The Weasel took it from them when they
+left it on the bank. Then he climbed a tree and cried out to the frogs,
+“The army is frightened and is running away.” “Oh, thank you, thank
+you,” said the frogs, “we’ll never forget your goodness to us.” Then
+they sat down in the marsh and told each other what a narrow escape they
+all had.
+
+The Weasel gave Gilly the Crystal Egg. It was heavy and he carried it
+for a while in his hand. They went on. After a while said Gilly of the
+Goatskin, “The night’s coming on and the fiver shows no sign of turning
+back. I wish there was a nice place to shelter us.” No sooner did he say
+the word than he and the Weasel found them-selves standing before the
+open door of a nice little house. They went in. A clear fire was burning
+on the hearth, an arm chair was before it, and a bed was made at the
+other side of the fire. “This is good,” said Gilly, “and now I wish that
+we had something to eat.” No sooner did he say the words than a table
+appeared with bread and meat, fruit and wine on it. “Where do these
+fine things come from, I wonder,” said Gilly of the Goatskin. “It’s my
+belief,” said the Weasel, “that all these things come to us on account
+of the egg you have in your hand. It’s a magic egg.” Gilly of the
+Goatskin put the egg on the table and wished that he might see himself
+as he had seen himself in the river. Nothing appeared. Then he took the
+egg in his hand and wished again. And then there was a looking glass on
+the wall before him, and he saw himself in it better than he had seen
+himself in the river. Gilly of the Goatskin knew that he had only to
+hold the Crystal Egg in his hand and wish, to get all he could think of.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Gilly of the Goatskin wished for wide windows in his house and he got
+them. He wished for a light within when there was darkness without, and
+he got a silver lamp that burned until he wished to sleep. He wished for
+the songs of birds and he had a blackbird singing upon his half-door, a
+lark over his chimney, a goldfinch and a green linnet within his window,
+and a shy wren in the evening singing from the top of his dresser. Then
+he wished to hear the conversation of the beasts and all the creatures
+of the fields and the wood and the mountain top came into his house.
+
+The hare used to come in early in the morning. He was always the first
+visitor and he never remained long, and always while he was there he
+kept running up and down the house, and he generally ended his visit by
+jumping through the open window. The martens, the beautiful wild cats of
+the wood, came in to see Gilly once; they were very proud and told
+him nothing. The little black rabbits were very much impressed by the
+martens, and all the time the martens were there they stayed under the
+bed and the chairs. Two or three times the King of the Wood himself--the
+Boar of the Bristles and the Long Tusks--came to see Gilly; he used to
+push open the door and then stand in the middle of the floor grunting
+and grunting. Once he brought his wife with him, and six or seven of
+their little pigs that went running over the floor, with their ears
+hanging over their eyes, came with them too. The hedgehogs used to come,
+but they always made themselves disagreeable. They just lay down by
+the fire and snored, and when they wakened up they quarrelled with
+each other. Everybody said that the hedgehogs’ children were very badly
+brought up and very badly provided for. The squirrels who were so clean
+and careful, and so fond of their children, thought the hedgehogs were
+very bad creatures indeed. “It is just like them to have dirty sticky
+thorns around them instead of nice clean fur,” said the squirrel’s wife.
+“But, my dear,” said the squirrel, “every animal can’t have fur.”
+ “How well,” said she, “the rabbits have fur, though dear knows they’re
+creatures of not much account. It’s all just to let us see that they’re
+some relation of that horrible, horrible boar that goes crashing and
+marching through the wood.”
+
+The deer never came into the house, and Gilly had a shed made for them
+outside. They would come into it and stay there for many nights and
+days, and Gilly used to go out and talk with them. They knew about far
+countries, and strange paths and passes, but they did not know so much
+about men and about the doings of other creatures as the Fox did.
+
+The Fox used to come in the evening and stay until nearly morning
+whether Gilly fell asleep or kept awake. The Fox was a very good talker.
+He used to lie down at the hearth with his paws stretched out, and tell
+about this one and that one, and what she said and what he did. If the
+Fox came to see you, and if he was in good humor for talking, you would
+stay up all night to listen to him. I know I should. It was the Fox
+who told Gilly what the Crow of Achill did to Laheen the Eagle. She had
+stolen the Crystal Egg that Laheen was about to hatch--the Crystal Egg
+that the Crane had left on a bare rock. It was the Fox who told Gilly
+how the first cat came into the world. And it was the Fox who told Gilly
+about the generations of the eel. All I say is that it is a pity the Fox
+cannot be trusted, for a better one to talk and tell a story it would be
+hard to find. He was always picking up and eating things that had been
+left over--a potato roasting in the ashes, an apple left upon a plate,
+a piece of meat under a cover. Gilly did not grudge these things to Rory
+the Fox and he always left something in a bag for him to take home to
+the young foxes.
+
+
+I had nearly forgotten to tell you about Gilly’s friend, the brave
+Weasel. He had made a home for himself under the roof. Sometimes he
+would go away for a day or so and he would never tell Gilly where he
+had been. When he was at home he made himself the door-keeper of
+Gilly’s house. If any of the creatures made themselves disagreeable by
+quarrelling amongst each other, or by being uncivil to Gilly, the
+Weasel would just walk over to them and look them in the eyes. Then that
+creature went away. Always he held his head up and if Gilly asked him
+for advice he would say three words, “Have no fear; have no fear.”
+
+One day Gilly wanted to have a bunch of cherries with his dinner, and he
+went to find the Crystal Egg so that he might wish for it. The Crystal
+Egg was not in the place he had left it. He called the Weasel and the
+two of them searched the house. The Crystal Egg was nowhere to be found.
+“One of the creatures has stolen the Egg,” said the Weasel, “but whoever
+stole it I will make bring it back. I’ll soon find out who did it.” The
+Weasel walked up to every creature that came in, looked him or her in
+the eye and said, “Did you steal the Crystal Egg?” And every creature
+that came in said, “No, Little Lion, I didn’t steal it.” Next day they
+had examined every creature except the Fox. The Fox had not been in the
+night before nor the night before that again. He did not come in the
+evening they missed the Crystal Egg nor the evening after that evening.
+That night the Weasel said, “As sure as there are teeth in my head the
+Fox stole the Crystal Egg. As soon as there is light we’ll search for
+him and make him give the Egg back to us.”
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+The Weasel was right; it was Rory the Fox who had stolen Gilly’s Crystal
+Egg. One night, just as he was leaving Gilly’s house, the moon shone
+full upon the Crystal Egg. In the turn of a hand Rory the Fox had made a
+little spring and had taken the Egg in his mouth. Then he slipped out by
+the door as quick and as quiet as a leaf blown in the wind.
+
+He couldn’t help himself stealing the Egg, when the chance came. He had
+had a dream about it. He dreamt that the Egg had been hatched and that
+out of it had come the most toothsome bird that a Fox had ever taken by
+the neck. He snapped his teeth in his sleep when he dreamt of it. The
+Fox told his youngsters about the bird he had dreamt of--a bird as big
+as a goose and so fat on the neck and the breast that it could hardly
+stir from sitting. The youngsters had smacked their lips and
+snapped their teeth. Every time he came home now they used to say to
+him--“Father, have you brought us the Boobrie Bird?” No wonder that his
+eyes used to turn to the Crystal Egg when he sat in Gilly’s house. And
+then because the moon shone on it just as he was leaving, and because he
+knew that Gilly’s back was turned, he could not keep himself from making
+a little spring and taking the Crystal Egg softly in his mouth.
+
+He went amongst the dark, dark trees with the soft and easy trot of a
+Fox. He knew well what he should do with the Egg. He had dreamt that it
+had been hatched by the Spae-Woman’s old rheumatic goose. This goose was
+called Old Mother Hatchie and the Fox had never carried her off because
+he knew she was always hatching out goslings for his table. He went
+through the trees and across the fields towards the Spae-Woman’s house.
+
+The Spae-Woman lived by telling people their fortunes and reading them
+their dreams. That is why she was called the Spae-Woman. The people gave
+her goods for telling them their dreams and fortunes and she left her
+land and stock to whatever chanced. The fences of her fields were broken
+and rotted. Her hens had been carried off by the Fox. Her goat had gone
+wild. She had neither ox nor ass nor sheep nor pig. The Fox went through
+her fence now as lightning would go through a gooseberry bush and he
+came out before her barn. There was a hole in the barn-door and he went
+through that. And in the north-west corner of the barn, he saw Old Mother
+Hatchie sitting on a nest of straw and he knew that there was a clutch
+of eggs under her. She cackled when she saw the Fox on the floor of the
+barn but she never stirred off the nest. Rory left what was in his mouth
+on the ground. Old Mother Hatchie put her head on one side and looked at
+the Egg that was clear in the full moonlight.
+
+“This egg, Mistress Hatchie,” said Rory the Fox, “is from the Hen-wife
+of the Queen of Ireland. The Queen asked the Hen-wife to ask me to leave
+it with you. She thinks there’s no bird in the world but yourself that
+is worthy to hatch it and to rear the gosling that comes out of it.”
+
+“That’s right, that’s right,” said Mother Hatchie. “Put it here, put
+it here.” She lifted her wing and the Fox put the Crystal Egg into the
+brood-nest.
+
+He went out of the barn, crossed the field again, and went amongst the
+dark, dark trees. He went along slowly now for he began to think that
+Gilly might find out who stole the Crystal Egg and be vexed with him.
+Then he thought of the Weasel. The Fox began to think he might be sorry
+for himself if the Weasel was set on his track.
+
+Rory did not go to Gilly’s house the next night nor the night after. The
+third night, as he was going home from a ramble, the Owl hooted at him.
+“Why do you hoot at me, Big Moth?” said the Fox stopping in his trot.
+(He always called the Owl “Big Moth” to pretend that he thought she
+wasn’t a bird at all, but a moth. He made this pretence because he was
+annoyed that he could never get an owl to eat). “Why do you hoot at
+me, Big Moth?” said he. “The Weasel’s going to have your bones for
+his stepping-stones and your blood for his morning dram,” said the Owl
+balefully as she went amongst the dark, dark trees. The Fox stopped long
+to consider. Then he went to his burrow and told his youngsters they
+would have to move house. He had them stirring at the first light.
+He gave them a frog each for their breakfast and took them across the
+country. They came to a burrow that Old-Fellow Badger had just left and
+Rory the Fox brought his youngsters into it and told them that it would
+be their new house.
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+The evening after when Rory the Fox was taking his nap he heard one of
+his youngsters give a sharp cry. They were playing outside the burrow,
+lie looked out and he saw that his three youngsters were afraid of
+something that was between them and the burrow. He looked again and saw
+the Weasel.
+
+“Ahem,” said Rory the Fox, “and how are we this morning?”
+
+The Weasel had marked one of Rory’s youngsters for attack. Although Rory
+spoke, he never took his eyes off the youngster he had marked.
+
+“My dear friend,” said the Fox, “I was just going to say--if you are
+looking for anything, perhaps I could tell you where it might be found.”
+
+“Crystal Egg,” said the Weasel without ever taking away his
+blood-thirsty gaze from Rory’s youngster.
+
+“Oh, the Crystal Egg,” said Rory the Fox. “Yes, to be sure. I could
+bring you at once to the place where the Crystal Egg is.” He came out of
+the burrow and saw Gilly standing on the bank behind.
+
+“I think it is time for my children to go back to their burrow,” said
+Rory the Fox. “Please excuse them, my friends.” The Weasel took his eyes
+off the youngster he had marked and the three little foxes scampered
+into the burrow.
+
+“This way, friends,” said the Fox, and he started off towards the
+Spae-Woman’s house with the light and easy trot of a fox. Gilly and the
+Weasel went behind him. They crossed a field of flax, a field of
+hemp and a field of barley. They came to the broken fence before the
+Spae-Woman’s house, and in front of the house they saw the Spae-Woman
+herself and she was crying and crying.
+
+The Fox hid behind the fence, the Weasel climbed up on the ditch and
+Gilly himself went to the woman.
+
+“What ails you at all?” said Gilly to her.
+
+“My goose--the only fowl left to me has been taken by robbers.”
+
+“Ask her where the clutch of eggs is that the goose was hatching,” said
+Rory the Fox anxiously, putting his head over the fence.
+
+“And where is the clutch of eggs, ma’am, that your goose was hatching?”
+
+“The robbers took the nest with the goose and the eggs with the nest,”
+ said the Spae-Woman.
+
+“And the Crystal Egg was with the other eggs,” said the Fox to Gilly. He
+said no more. He made a quick turn and got clear away before the Weasel
+could spring on him. He ran back to his burrow. He told the little foxes
+they must change houses again. That night they lay in a wood and at the
+first light they crossed water and went to live on an island where the
+Weasel never came.
+
+“Where did the robbers go with the goose, the nest, and the eggs?” said
+Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+“They went to the river,” said the Spae-Woman. “I followed them every
+inch of the way. They got into a boat and they hoisted their sails. They
+rowed and they rowed, so that the hard gravel of the bottom was brought
+to the top, and the froth of the top was driven down to the bottom of
+the river. And wherever they are,” said the Spae-Woman, “they are far
+from us now.”
+
+“Will you come with me?” said Gilly to the Weasel, “we will track them
+down and take back the Crystal Egg.”
+
+“I engaged myself to be with you for a quarter of a year,” said the
+Weasel, “and the three months are up now, Gilly. Winter is coming on and
+I must see to my own affairs.”
+
+“Then good-by, Weasel,” said Gilly. “I will search for the Crystal Egg
+myself. But first I must ask the woman to let me rest in the house and
+to give me some provision for my journey.” The Weasel looked up into
+Gilly’s face and said good-by to him. Then Gilly followed the Spae-Woman
+into her house. “Ocone,” she was saying to herself, “my dream told me
+I was to lose my poor goose, and still I never did anything to make it
+hard for the robbers to take her from me.”
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+Well, in the Spae-Woman’s house he stayed for three-quarters of a year.
+He often went in search of the robbers who had taken the Crystal Egg
+with the Spae-Woman’s goose, but no trace of them nor their booty could
+he ever find. He met birds and beasts who were his friends, but he could
+not have speech with them without the Egg that let him have anything he
+wished. He did work for the Spae-Woman--fixed her fences and repaired
+her barn and brought _brosna_ for her fire every evening from the wood.
+At night, before he went to sleep, the Spae-Woman used to tell him her
+dreams of the night before and tell him about the people who had come to
+her house to have their fortunes told.
+
+One Monday morning she said to him, “I have had an inlook, son of
+my heart, and I know that my gossip, the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance, is going to come and take you into his service.”
+
+“And what sort of a man is your gossip, the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance?” Gilly asked.
+
+“An unkind man. Two youths who served me he took away, one after the
+other, and miserable are they made by what he did to them. I’m in dread
+of your being brought to the Townland of Mischance.”
+
+“Why are you in dread of it, Spae-Woman?” said Gilly. “Sure, I’ll be
+glad enough to see the world.”
+
+“That’s what the other two youths said,” said the Spae-Woman. “Now I’ll
+tell you what my gossip the Churl of the Townland of Mischance does: he
+makes a bargain with the youth that goes into his service, telling him
+he will give him a guinea, a groat and a tester for his three months’
+service. And he tells the youth that if he says he is sorry for the
+bargain he must lose his wages and part with a strip of his skin, an
+inch wide. He rode on a bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined and spotted
+horse, from his neck to his heel. Oh, he is an unkind man, my gossip,
+the Churl of the Townland of Mischance.”
+
+“And is there no way to get the better of him?” asked Gilly.
+
+“There is, but it is a hard way,” said the Spae-Woman. “If one could
+make him say that he, the master, is sorry for the bargain, the Churl
+himself would lose a strip of his skin an inch wide from his neck to his
+heel, and would have to pay full wages no matter how short a time the
+youth served him.”
+
+“It’s a bargain anyway,” said Gilly, “and if he comes I’ll take service
+with the Churl of the Townland of Mischance.”
+
+The first wet day that came brought the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance. He rode on a bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined and spotted
+horse. He carried an ash-plant in his hand to flog the horse and to
+strike at the dogs that crossed his way. He had blue lips, eyes looking
+crossways and eyebrows like a furze bush. He had a bag before him filled
+with boiled pigs’ feet. Now when he rode up to the house, he had a
+pig’s foot to his mouth and was eating. He got down off the bob-tailed,
+big-headed, spavined and spotted horse, and came in.
+
+“I heard there was a young fellow at your house and I want him to take
+service with me,” said he to the Spae-Woman.
+
+“If the bargain is a good one I’ll take service with you,” said Gilly.
+
+“All right, my lad,” said the Churl. “Here is the bargain, and it’s as
+fair as fair can be. I’ll give you a guinea, a groat and a tester for
+your three months’ work with me.”
+
+“I believe it’s good wages,” said Gilly.
+
+“It is. Howsoever, if you ever say you are sorry you made the bargain
+you will lose your wages, and besides that you will lose a strip of your
+skin an inch wide from your neck to your heel. I have to put that in
+or I’d never get work done for me at all. The serving boys are always
+saying ‘I can’t do that,’ and ‘I’m sorry I made the bargain with you.’”
+
+“And if you say you’re sorry you made the bargain?”
+
+“Oh, then I’ll have to lose a strip of my skin an inch wide from my neck
+to my heel, and besides that I’ll have to give you full wages no matter
+how short a time you served me.”
+
+“Well, if that suits you it will suit me,” said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+“Then walk beside my horse and we’ll get back to the Townland of
+Mischance to-night,” said the Churl. Then he swished his ash-plant
+towards Gilly and ordered him to get ready. The Spae-Woman wiped the
+tears from her face with her apron, gave Gilly a cake with her blessing,
+and he started off with the Churl for the Townland of Mischance.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+What did Gilly of the Goatskin do in the Townland of Mischance? He got
+up early and went to bed late; he was kept digging, delving and ditching
+until he was so tired that he could go to sleep in a furze bush; he ate
+a breakfast that left him hungry five hours before dinner-time, and he
+ate a dinner that made it seem long until supper-time. If he complained
+the Churl would say, “Well, then you are sorry for your bargain,” and
+Gilly would say “No,” rather than lose the wages he had earned and a
+strip of his skin into the bargain.
+
+One day the Churl said to him, “Go into the town for salt for my supper,
+take the short way across the pasture-field, and be sure not to let the
+grass grow under your feet.” “All right, master,” said Gilly. “Maybe
+you would bring me my coat out of the house so that I needn’t make two
+journeys.” The Churl went into the house for Gilly’s coat. When he came
+back he found Gilly standing in the nice grass of the pasture-field
+lighting a wisp of hay. “What are you doing that for?” said the Churl to
+him. “To burn the grass on the pasture-field,” said Gilly. “To burn the
+grass on my pasture-field, you villain--the grass that is for my good
+race-horse’s feeding! What do you mean, at all?” “Sure, you told me not
+to let the grass grow under my feet,” said Gilly. “Doesn’t the world
+know that the grass is growing every minute, and how will I prevent it
+from growing under my feet if I don’t burn it?” With that he stooped
+down to put the lighted hay to the grass of the pasture-field. “Stop,
+stop,” said the Churl, “I meant that you were to go to the town,
+without loitering on the way.” “Well, it’s a pity you didn’t speak more
+clearly,” said Gilly, “for now the grass is a-fire.” The Churl bad to
+stamp on the grass to put the fire out. He burnt his shins, and that
+made him very angry. “O you fool,” said he to Gilly, “I’m sorry--” “Are
+you sorry for the bargain you made with me, Master?” “No. I was going
+to say I was sorry I hadn’t made my meaning clear to you. Go now to the
+town and bring me back salt for my supper as quickly as you can.”
+
+After that the Churl was very careful when he gave Gilly an order to
+speak to him very exactly. This became a great trouble to him, for the
+people in the Townland of Mischance used always to say, “Don’t let the
+grass grow under your feet,” when they meant “Make haste,” and “Don’t
+be there until you’re back,” when they meant “Go quickly” and “Come with
+horses’ legs” when they meant “come with great speed.” He became tired
+of speaking to Gilly by the letter, so he made up his mind to give him
+an order that could not be carried out, so that he might have a chance
+of sending him away without the wages he had earned.
+
+One Monday morning he called Gilly to the door of the house and said to
+him, “Take this sheep-skin to the market and bring me back the price
+of it and the skin.” “Very well, Master,” said Gilly. He put the skin
+across his arm and went towards the town. The people on the road said
+to him, “What do you want for the sheep-skin, young fellow?” “I want
+the skin and the price of it,” Gilly said. The people laughed at him and
+said, “You’re going to give yourself a long journey, young fellow.”
+
+He went through the market asking for the skin and the price of it.
+Everyone joked about him. He went into the market-house and came to a
+woman who was buying things that no one else would buy. “What do you
+want, youth?” said she. “The price of the skin and the skin itself,”
+ said Gilly. She took the skin from him and plucked the wool out of it.
+She put the wool in her bag and put the skin back on the board. “There’s
+the skin,” said she, “and here’s the price of it.” She left three groats
+and a tester on top of the skin.
+
+The Churl had finished his supper when Gilly came into the house. “Well,
+Master, I’ve come back to you,” said Gilly. “Did you bring me the price
+of it and the skin itself?” said the Churl. “There is the skin,” said
+Gilly, putting on the table the sheep-skin with the wool plucked out of
+it. “And here’s the price of it--three groats and a tester,” said he,
+leaving the money on top of the skin.
+
+After that the Churl of the Townland of Mischance began to be afraid
+that Gilly of the Goatskin would be too wise for him, and would get away
+at the end of the three months with his wages, a guinea, a groat and a
+tester, in his fist. This thought made the Churl very downcast, because,
+for many months now, he had got hard labor out of his serving-boys,
+without giving them a single cross for wages.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+The day after Christmas the Churl said to Gilly, “This is Saint
+Stephen’s Day. I’m going to such a man’s barn to see the mummers perform
+a play. Foolish people give these idle fellows money for playing, but
+I won’t do any such thing as that. I’ll see something of what they are
+doing, drink a few glasses and get away before they start collecting
+money from the people that are watching them. They call this collection
+their dues, no less.”
+
+“And what can I do for you, Master?” said Gilly. “Run into the barn at
+midnight and shout out, ‘Master, Master, your mill is on fire.’ That
+will give me an excuse for running out. Do you understand now what I
+want you to do?”
+
+“I understand, Master.”
+
+The Churl put on his coat and took his stick in his hand. “Mind what
+I’ve said to you,” said he. “Don’t be a minute later than midnight. Be
+sure to come in with a great rash--come in with horse’s legs--do you
+understand me?”
+
+“I understand you, Master,” said Gilly.
+
+The mummers were dancing before they began the play when the Churl came
+into the barn. “That’s a rich man,” said one of them to another. “We
+must see that he puts a good handful into our bag.” The Churl sat on the
+bench with the farmer who had a score of cows, with the blacksmith who
+shod the King’s horses, and with the merchant who had been in foreign
+parts and who wore big silver rings in his ears. Half the people who
+were there I could not tell you, but there were there--
+
+   Biddie Early
+   Tatter-Jack Walsh
+   Aunt Jug
+   Lundy Foot
+   Matt the Thresher
+   Nora Criona
+   Conan Maol, and
+   Shaun the Omadhaun.
+
+Some said that the King of Ireland’s Son was there too. The play was
+“The Unicorn from the Stars.” The mummers did it very well although they
+had no one to take the part of the Unicorn.
+
+They were in the middle of the play when Gilly of the Goatskin rushed
+into the barn. “Master, master,” he shouted, “your mill--your mill is
+on fire.” The Churl stood up, and then put his glass to his head and
+drained what was in it. “Make way for me, good people,” said he. “Let
+me out of this, good people.” Some people near the door began to talk
+of what Gilly held in his hands. “What have you there, my servant?” said
+the Churl. “A pair of horse’s legs, Master. I could only carry two of
+them.”
+
+The Churl caught Gilly by the throat. “A pair of horse’s legs,” said he.
+“Where did you get a pair of horse’s legs?”
+
+“Off a horse,” said Gilly. “I had trouble in cutting them off. Bad cess
+to you for telling me to come here with horse’s legs.”
+
+“And whose horse did you cut the legs off?” “Your own, Master. You
+wouldn’t have liked me to cut the legs off any other person’s horse. And
+I thought your race-horse’s legs would be the most suitable to cut off.”
+
+The mummers and the people were gathered round them and they saw the
+Churl’s face get black with vexation.
+
+“O my misfortune, that ever I met with you,” said the Churl.
+
+“Are you sorry for your bargain, Master?” said Gilly.
+
+“Sorry--I’ll be sorry every day and night of my life for it,” said the
+Churl.
+
+“You hear what my Master says, good people,” said Gilly.
+
+“Aye, sure. He says he’s sorry for the bargain he made with you,” said
+some of the people.
+
+“Then,” said Gilly, “strip him and put him across the bench until I cut
+a strip of his skin an inch wide from his neck to his heel.”
+
+
+None of the people would consent to do that. “Well, I’ll tell you
+something that will make you consent,” said Gilly. “This man made two
+poor servant-boys work for him, paid them no wages, and took a strip of
+their skin, so that they are sick and sore to this day. Will that make
+you strip him and put him across the bench?”
+
+“No,” said some of the people.
+
+“He ordered me to come here to-night and to shout ‘Master, master, your
+mill is on fire,’ so that he might be able to leave without paying the
+mummers their dues. His mill is not on fire at all.”
+
+“Strip him,” said the first mummer.
+
+“Put him across the bench,” said another.
+
+“Here’s a skinner’s knife for you,” said a third.
+
+The mummers seized the Churl, stripped him and put him across the bench.
+Gilly took the knife and began to sharpen it on the ground.
+
+“Have mercy on me,” said the Churl.
+
+“You did not have mercy on the other two poor servant-boys,” said Gilly.
+
+“I’ll give you your wages in full.”
+
+“That’s not enough.”
+
+“I’ll give you double wages to give to the other servant-boys.”
+
+“And will you pay the mummers’ dues for all the people here?”
+
+“No, no, no. I can’t do that.”
+
+“Stretch out your neck then until I mark the place where I shall begin
+to cut the skin.”
+
+“Don’t put the knife to me. I’ll pay the dues for all,” said the Churl.
+
+“You heard what he said,” said Gilly to the people. “He will pay me
+wages in full, give me double wages to hand to the servant-boys he has
+injured, and pay the mummers’ dues for everyone.”
+
+“We heard him say that,” said the people.
+
+“Stand up and dress yourself,” said Gilly to the Churl. “What do I want
+with a strip of your skin? But I hope all here will go home with you
+and stand in your house until you have paid all the money that’s claimed
+from you.”
+
+“We’ll go home with him,” said the mummers.
+
+“We’ll stand on his floor until he has paid all the money he has agreed
+to pay,” said the others.
+
+“And now I must tell you, neighbors,” said Gilly, “that I never cut the
+legs of a living horse--neither his horse nor anyone else’s. This pair
+was taken off a poor dead horse by the skinners that were cutting it
+up.”
+
+Well, they all went to the Churl’s house and there they stayed until
+he opened his stone chest and took out his money-box and paid to the
+mummers the dues of all the people with sixpence over, and paid Gilly
+his wages in full, one guinea, one groat and a tester, and handed him
+double wages to give to each of the servant-boys he had injured. Gilly
+took the money and left the house of the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance, and the people and the mummers went to the road with him, and
+cheered him as he went on his way.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+So, without hap or mishap, Gilly came again to the house of the
+Spae-Woman. She was sitting at her door-step grinding corn with a quern
+when he came before her. She cried over him, not believing that he had
+come safe from the Townland of Mischance. And as long as he was with her
+she spoke to him of his “poor back.”
+
+He stayed with her for two seasons. He mended her fences and he cleaned
+her spring-well; he ground her corn and he brought back her swarm of
+bees; he trained a dog to chase the crows out of her field; he had the
+ass shod, the sheep washed and the goat spancelled. The Spae-Woman was
+much beholden to him for all he did for her, and one day she said to
+him, “Gilly of the Goat-skin you are called, but another name is due
+to you now.” “And who will give me another name?” said Gilly of the
+Goatskin. “Who’ll give it to you? Who but the Old Woman of Beare,” said
+the Spae-Woman.
+
+The next day she said to him, “I had a dream last night, and I know now
+what you are to do. You must go now to the Old Woman of Beare for the
+name that is due to you. And before she gives it to you, you must tell
+her and whoever else is in her house as much as you know of the Unique
+Tale.”
+
+“But I know nothing at all of the Unique Tale,” said Gilly of the
+Goatskin.
+
+“There is always a blank before a beginning,” said the Spae-Woman. “This
+evening, when I am grinding the corn at the quern I shall tell you the
+Unique Tale.”
+
+That evening when she sat at the door-step of her house and when the sun
+was setting behind the elder-bushes the Spae-Woman told Gilly the third
+part of the Unique Tale. Then she baked a cake and killed a cock for him
+and told him to start on the morrow’s morning for the house of the Old
+Woman of Beare.
+
+Well, he started off in the morning bright and early, leaving good
+health with the Spae-Woman behind him, and away he went, crossing high
+hills, passing low dales, and keeping on his way without halt or rest,
+the clear day going and the dark night coming, taking lodgings each
+evening wherever he found them, and at last he came to the house of the
+Old Woman of Beare.
+
+He went into the house and found her making marks in the ashes of her
+fire while her cuckoo, her corncrake and her swallow were picking grains
+off the table.
+
+“And what can I do for you, good youth?” said the Old Woman of Beare.
+
+“Give me a name,” said Gilly, “and listen to the story I have to tell
+you.”
+
+
+“That I will not,” said the Old Woman of Beare, “until you have done a
+task for me.”
+
+“What task can I do for you?” said Gilly of the Goatskin. “I would
+know,” said she, “which of us four is the oldest creature in the
+world--myself or Laheen the Eagle, Blackfoot the Elk or the Crow of
+Achill--I leave the Salmon of Assaroe out of account altogether.”
+
+“And how can a youth like me help you to know that?” said Gilly of the
+Goatskin.
+
+“An ox was killed on the day I was born and on every one of my birthdays
+afterwards. The horns of the oxen are in two quarries outside. You must
+count them and tell me how much half of them amounts to and then I shall
+know my age.”
+
+“That I’ll do if you feed me and give me shelter,” said Gilly of the
+Goatskin. “Eat as you like,” said the Old Woman of Beare. She pushed him
+a loaf of bread and a bottle of water. When he cut a slice of the loaf
+it was just as if nothing had been cut off, and when he took a cupful
+out of the bottle it was as if no water had been taken out of it at
+all. When he had drunk and eaten he left the complete loaf and the full
+bottle of water on the shelf, went outside and began to count the horns
+on the right-hand side.
+
+On the second day a strange youth came to him and saluted him, and then
+went to count the horns in the quarry on the left-hand side. This youth
+was none other than the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+On the third day they had the horns all counted. Then Gilly of the
+Goatskin and the King of Ireland’s Son met together under a bush. “How
+many horns have you counted?” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “So many,”
+ said Gilly of the Goatskin. “And how many horns have you counted?” “So
+many,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+
+Just as they were adding the two numbers together they both heard sounds
+in the air--they were like the sounds that Bards make chanting their
+verses. And when they looked up they saw a swan flying round and
+round above them. And the swan chanted the story of the coming of the
+Milesians to Eirinn, and as the two youths listened they forgot the
+number of horns they had counted. And when the swan had flown away they
+looked at each other and as they were hungry they went into the house
+and ate slices of the unwasted loaf and drank cupfuls out of the
+inexhaustible bottle. Then the Old Woman of Beare wakened up and asked
+them to tell her the number of her years.
+
+“We cannot tell you although we counted all the horns,” said the King of
+Ireland’s Son, “for just as we were putting the numbers together a swan
+sang to us and we forgot the number we had counted.”
+
+“You didn’t do your task rightly,” she said, “but as I promised to give
+this youth a name and to listen to the story he had to tell, I shall
+have to let it be. You may tell the story now, Gilly of the Goatskin.”
+
+They sat at the fire, and while the Old Woman of Beare spun threads on
+a very ancient spindle, and while the corncrake, the cuckoo and the
+swallow picked up grains and murmured to themselves, Gilly of the
+Goatskin told them the Unique Tale. And the story as Gilly of the
+Goatskin told it follows this.--
+
+
+
+
+A Unique Tale
+
+
+A King and a Queen were walking one day by the blue pool in their
+domain. The swan had come to the blue pool, and the bright yellow
+flowers of the broom were above the water. “Och,” said the Queen, “if I
+might have a daughter that would show such colors--the blue of the pool
+in her eyes, the bright yellow of the broom in her hair, and the white
+of the swan in her skin--I would let my seven sons go with the wild
+geese.” “Hush,” said the King. “You ask for a doom, and it may be sent
+you.” A shivering came upon the Queen. They went back to the Castle, and
+that evening the nurse told them that a gray man had passed in a circle
+round her seven sons saying, “If it be as your mother desired, let it be
+as she has said.”
+
+Well, before the broom blossomed again and before the swan came to the
+blue pool, a child was born to the Queen. It was a girl. The King was
+sitting with his seven sons when the women came to tell him of the new
+birth. “O my sons,” said he, “may ye be with me all my life.” But his
+sons moved from him as he said it. Out through the door they went, and
+up the mound that was before the door. There they changed into gray wild
+geese, and the seven flew towards the empty hills.
+
+No councillor that the King consulted could help to win them back
+again, and no hunter that he sent through the country could gain tale or
+tidings of them. The King and Queen were left with one child only, the
+girl just born. They called her “Sheen,” a word that means “Storm,”
+ because her coming was a storm that swept away her seven brothers. The
+Queen died, my hearers. Then little Sheen was forgotten by her father,
+and she was reared and companioned by the servants of the house.
+
+One day, when she was the age her eldest brother was when he was changed
+from his human form, Sheen went with Mor, the Woodman’s daughter, and
+Siav, the basket-maker’s foster-child, to gather berries in the wood.
+Going here and there she got separated from Siav and Mor. She came to a
+place where there were lots of berries and went step after step to pick
+them. Her feet went down in a marsh. She cried to Mor and Siav, but no
+answers came from them. She cried and cried again. Her cries startled
+seven wild geese that rose up and flew round her. “Save me,” she cried
+to them. Then one of the wild geese spoke to her. “Anyone but a girl we
+would save from the marsh, but such a one we cannot save, because it was
+a girl who lost us our human forms and the loving companionship of
+our father.” Then Sheen knew--for the servants had often told her the
+story--that it was one of her seven brothers who spoke. “Since ever I
+knew of it,” said she, “the whole of my trouble has been that I was the
+cause of your losing your human form and the companionship of our father
+who is now called the Lonely King. Believe me,” said she, “that I would
+have striven and striven to win you back.” There was so much feeling in
+her voice that her seven brothers, although they had been hardened by
+thinking about their misfortune, were touched at their hearts and
+they flew down to help her. They bore up her arms, they caught at her
+shoulders, they raised up her feet. They carried her beyond the marsh.
+Then she knelt down and cried to them, “O my brothers dear, is there
+anything I can do to restore you to your human forms?” “There is,” said
+the first of the seven wild geese. She begged them to tell it to her.
+“It’s a long and a tiresome labor we would put on you,” said one. “If
+you would gather the light down that grows on the bogs with your own
+hands,” said another, “and if you spun that down into threads, and wove
+the threads into a cloth and sewed the cloth into a shirt, and did that
+over and over again until you had made seven shirts for us, all that
+time without laughing or crying or saying a word, you could save us. One
+shirt you could weave and spin and sew in a year. And it would not be
+until the seven shirts were put upon us that the human form would be
+restored to each of us.” “I would be glad to do all that,” said Sheen,
+“and I would cry no tear, laugh no laugh, and say no word all the time I
+was doing this task.”
+
+Then said the eldest brother, “The marsh is between you and our father’s
+house, and between you and the companions who were with you to-day. If
+you would do the task that would restore us to our human forms, it were
+best you did not go back. Beyond the trees is the house of a lone woman,
+and there you may live until your task is finished.” The seven wild
+geese then flew back to the marsh, and Sheen went to the house beyond
+the trees. The Spae-Woman lived there. She took Sheen to be a dumb girl,
+and she gave her food and shelter for the services she did--bringing
+water from the well in the daytime and grinding corn at the quern
+at dusk. She had the rest of the day and night for her own task. She
+gathered the bog-down between noon and sunset and spun the thread at
+night. When she had lengths of thread spun she began to weave them on
+the loom. At the end of a year she had the first shirt made. In another
+year she made the second, then the third, then the fourth, the fifth and
+the sixth. And all the time she said no word, laughed no laugh and cried
+no tear.
+
+
+She was gathering the bog-down for the seventh and last shirt. Once she
+went abroad on a day when the snow was melted and she felt her footsteps
+light. Hundreds of birds were on the ground eating plentifully and
+calling to one another. Sheen could hardly keep from her mouth the song
+that was in her mind. She would sing and laugh and talk when the last
+thread was spun and woven, when the last stitch was sewn, and when the
+shirts of bog-down she had made in silence would have brought back her
+brothers to their own human forms. She gathered the scarce heads of the
+cannavan or bog-down with one hand, while she held the other hand to her
+lips.
+
+Something dropped down at her feet. It was a white grouse and it
+remained cowering on the ground. Sheen looked up and she saw a hawk
+above. And when she looked round she saw a man coming across the bog.
+The hawk flew towards him and lighted on his shoulder.
+
+Sheen held the white grouse to her breast. The man came near to her
+and spoke to her and his voice made her stand. He wore the dress of a
+hunter. His face was brown and lean and his eyes were bright-blue like
+gentian-flowers. No word did Sheen say to him and he passed on with the
+hawk on his shoulder. Then with the grouse held at her breast she went
+back to the Spae-Woman’s house.
+
+That night when she spun her thread she thought of the blue-eyed,
+brown-faced man. Would any of her brothers be like him, she wondered,
+when they were restored to their human shapes. She fed the white grouse
+with grains of corn and left it to rest in the window-niche above her
+bed. And then she lay awake and tried to know the meaning in the song
+the Spae-Woman sang when she sat spinning wool in the chimney Corner--
+
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast!
+   Little sister,
+   I’ll rock you to rest!
+
+   The flood on the river beats
+   The swan from its nest!
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast!
+
+   The rain-drops encumber
+   The hawthorn’s crest:
+   My thoughts have no number:
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast,
+   Little sister,
+   I’ll rock you to rest.
+
+She passed the night between sleeping and waking, and when the light
+grew she saw the white grouse crouching against the window-opening.
+She opened the door and stepped outside to let the grouse fly from her
+hands.
+
+And there, on the ground before her was a sword! Sheen knew it to be the
+sword of the man she had seen yesterday, and she knew the man had been
+before the door in the night-time. She knelt on the ground to look at
+the bright blue blade. O my listeners, if I was there I was in the
+crows that flew down heavily and cawed as they picked up something that
+pleased them, in the wood-cushats that cooed in the trees, in the small
+birds that quarreled in the thatch of the house, and in the breeze that
+blew round--the first breeze of the day.
+
+The Spae-Woman came outside and saw what Sheen was looking at--the sword
+on the ground. “It is wrought with cunning that only the smiths of Kings
+possess,” she said. She took the sword and hung it on the branch of a
+tree so that the dews of the ground might not rust it. “I think the
+one who owns it is the stranger who is seen in the wild places
+hereabouts--the man whom the neighbors call the Hunter-King,” she said
+to Sheen.
+
+On another day Sheen went to gather bog-down. This time she crossed the
+river by the stepping-stones and went into a country where there were
+many cattle. She stood wondering at their numbers and wishing that such
+a cow and such a calf might belong to the Spae-Woman. Then the next
+thing she saw was two black horses striving with each other. They showed
+their teeth at each other and bit and kicked. Then they came racing
+towards her. “Oh,” said Sheen to herself, “they are Breogan’s wild
+stallions.” She ran, but the horses were able to make circles round her.
+“Breogan’s wild stallions,” said she, “they will rush in and trample me
+to death.” Then she heard someone shouting commands to the horses. She
+saw a man strike one of the stallions with a staff, making him rear
+high. She saw him make the other stand with the command that was in his
+voice. She ran to the river, but she slipped on the stepping-stones;
+she fell down and she felt the water flowing upon her. The man came and
+lifting her up carried her to her own side of the river. Across the bog
+he carried her, and when she looked at him she saw the lean face and
+eyes blue like gentian-flowers--she saw the face of the man who was
+called the Hunter-King. He left her on the ground when they passed the
+bog, and she went on her way without speaking.
+
+Nothing of this no more than of anything else that happened to her, or
+anything that she thought of, did Sheen tell the Spae-Woman. But she
+wished and she wished that the Hunter-King might come past while there
+was a light in the house and step within and talk to the Spae-Woman, so
+that she herself, while spinning the thread, could hear his voice and
+listen to the things he talked about. She often stood at the door and
+watched across the bog to see if anything was coming to her.
+
+A neighbor-woman came across the door-step one evening and Sheen went
+into the house after her, for she felt that something was going to be
+told. There was a dead man in a house. He had been found in the wood. He
+was known as the Hunter-King. Sheen stood at her bed and heard what the
+neighbor-woman said.
+
+The Hunter-King was being waked in the neighbor-woman’s house, and her
+eldest daughter had been the corpse-watcher the first night. In the
+morning they found that the girl’s hand had been withered. The woman’s
+second daughter was the corpse-watcher the second night and her right
+hand had been left trembling. This was the third and last night that the
+Hunter-King would be waked, and to-night there was no one to watch his
+corpse.
+
+Sheen thought that nothing would ever happen in the world again, now
+that the Hunter-King was dead. She thought that there was no loneliness
+so great as that of his corpse with no one to watch it on the last
+strange night it would be above ground. The neighbor-woman went from the
+Spae-Woman and Sheen went after her. She was standing on the door-step
+of her house. “Oh, colleen,” said the neighbor-woman, “I am wanting
+a girl to watch a corpse in my house to-night--the third and the last
+night for watching. Will you watch and I will give you a comb for your
+hair?” Sheen showed that she would serve the woman and she went into the
+wake-house. At first she was afraid to look at the bed. Then she went
+over and saw the Hunter-King with his face still, his eyes closed down,
+and the plate of salt on his breast. His gray gaunt hound was stretched
+across his feet.
+
+
+The woman and her daughters lighted candles and placed them in the
+window recesses and at the head of the corpse. Then they went into their
+dormer-room and left Sheen to her watching. She sat at the fire and made
+one fagot after another blaze up. She had brought her basket of bog-down
+and she began to spin a thread upon the neighbor-woman’s wheel.
+
+She finished the thread and put it round her neck. Then she began to
+search for more candles so that she might be able to light one, as
+another went out. But as she rose up all the candles went out all at
+once. The hound started from the foot of the bed. Then she saw the
+corpse sitting up stiffly in the place where it had been laid.
+
+Something in Sheen overcame her dread, and she went over to the corpse
+and took the salt that was on its breast and put it on its lips. Then a
+voice came from between the lips. “Fair Maid,” said the voice, “have
+you the courage to follow me? The others failed me and they have been
+stricken. Are you faithful?” “I will follow you,” said Sheen. “Then,”
+ said the corpse, “put your hands on my shoulders and come with me. I
+must go over the Quaking Bog, and through the Burning forest, and across
+the Icy Sea.” Sheen put her hands on his shoulders. A storm came and
+they were swept through the roof of the house. They were carried through
+the night. Down they came on the ground and the dead man sprang away
+from Sheen. She went to follow him and found her feet upon a shaking
+sod. They were on the Quaking Bog, she knew. The corpse of the
+Hunter-King went ahead and she knew that she must keep it in sight. He
+went swiftly. The sod went under her feet and she was in the watery mud.
+She struggled out and jumped over a pool that was hidden with heather.
+All the time she was in dread that the figure that went before her so
+quickly would be lost to her. She sank and she struggled and she sprang
+across pools and morasses. All the time what had been the corpse of the
+Hunter-King went before her.
+
+Then she saw fires against the sky and she knew they were coming to the
+Burning Forest. The figure before her sprang across a ditch and went
+into the forest. Sheen sprang across it too. Burning branches fell
+across her path as she went on. Hot winds burnt her face. Flames dazzled
+and smoke dazed her. But the figure before her went straight on and
+Sheen went straight on too.
+
+The forest ended on a cliff. Below was the sea. The figure before her
+dived down and Sheen dived too. The cold chilled her to the marrow. She
+thought the chill would drive the life out of her. But she saw the head
+of one swimming before her and she swam on.
+
+And then they were on land again. “Fair Maid,” said the corpse of the
+Hunter-King, “put your hands on my shoulders again.” She put her hands
+on his shoulders. A storm came and swept them away. They were driven
+through the roof of the neighbor-woman’s house. The candle-wicks
+fluttered and light came on them again. She saw the hound standing in
+the middle of the floor. She saw the corpse sitting where it had been
+laid and the eyes were now open.
+
+“Fair Maid,” said the voice of the Hunter-King, “you have brought me
+back to life. I am a man under enchantment. There is a witch-woman in
+the wood that I gave my love to. She enchanted me so that the soul was
+out of my body, and wandering away. It was my soul you followed. And the
+enchantment was to be broken when I found a heart so faithful that it
+would follow my soul over the Quaking Bog, through the Burning Forest
+and across the Icy Sea. You have brought my soul and my life back to
+me.”
+
+Then she ran out of the neighbor’s house. The night after, in the
+Spae-Woman’s house she finished weaving the threads that were on the
+loom. The next night she stitched the cloth and made the sixth shirt.
+The day after she went into the bog to gather the bog-down for the
+seventh shirt. She had gathered her basketful and was going through the
+wood about the hour of sunset. At the edge of the thin wood she saw the
+Hunter-King standing. He took her hands and his were warm hands. His
+brown face and his gentian-blue eyes were high and noble. And Sheen
+felt a joy like the sharpness of a sword when he sang to her about the
+brightness of her hair and the blue of her eyes. “O Maid,” said he,
+“is there anything that binds you to this place?” Sheen showed him the
+bog-down in the basket and the woven thread that was round her neck.
+“Come with me to my kingdom,” said he, “and you shall be my wife and the
+love of my heart.” The next evening Sheen went with him. She took the
+six shirts she had spun and woven and stitched. The Hunter-King lifted
+her before him on a black horse and they rode into his Kingdom.
+
+
+And now Sheen was the wife of the Hunter-King. She would have been happy
+if her husband’s sisters had been kind. But they were jealous and they
+made everything in the Castle unfriendly to her. And often they talked
+before her brother saying that Sheen was not noble at all, and that the
+reason she did not speak was because her language was a base one. They
+watched her when she went out to gather bog-down in the daytime, and
+they watched her when she spun by herself at night. Sheen longed for the
+days and nights to pass so that the last threads might be spun and woven
+and the last stitches put in the seventh shirt. Then her brothers would
+be with her. She could tell the King about herself and silence the bad
+talk of his sisters. But as she neared the end of her task she became
+more and more in dread.
+
+The threads were spun and woven for the seventh shirt. The cloth was
+made and the first stitches were put in it. Then Sheen’s little son was
+born. The King was away at the time, gathering his men together at far
+parts of the Kingdom, and he sent a message saying that Sheen and her
+baby were to be well-minded, and that his sisters were not to leave the
+chamber where she was until he returned.
+
+On the third night, while Sheen was in her bed with her baby beside her,
+and while her sisters-in-law were in the room, a strange music was heard
+outside. It was played all round the King’s house. Whoever heard it fell
+into deep slumber. The kern that were on guard slept. The maids that
+were whispering together fell into a slumber. And a deep sleep came upon
+Sheen and her child and on her three sisters-in-law who watched in the
+chamber.
+
+Then a gray wolf that had been seen outside sprang in through the window
+opening. He took Sheen’s child in his mouth. He sprang back through the
+window opening and was seen about the place no more. Her sisters-in-law
+wakened while Sheen still slept. They went to tend it and found the
+child was gone. Then they were afraid of what their brother would do to
+them for letting this happen. They made a plot to clear themselves,
+and before Sheen wakened they had killed a little beast and smeared its
+blood upon the pillows of the bed.
+
+
+When the King came into his wife’s chamber he saw his sisters on the
+ground lamenting and tearing the hairs out of their heads. He went to
+where his wife was sleeping and saw blood upon her hands and upon the
+pillows. He turned on his sisters with his sword in his hand. They cried
+out that they could not have prevented the thing that had happened--that
+the Queen had laid hands on the child and having killed it had thrown
+its body to the gray wolf that had been watching outside.
+
+And while they were speaking Sheen awakened. She put out her arms but
+her child was not beside her. She found blood upon the pillows. Then
+she heard her sisters-in-law accuse her to the King of having killed her
+child and flung its body to the gray wolf outside. She fell into a swoon
+and when she came out of it her mind was lost to her.
+
+The King knelt to her and begged her to tell him what had happened. But
+she only knew she was to say no word. Then he used to watch her and he
+wondered why she cried no tear. On the fourth day after she rose from
+her bed and searched the Castle for the piece of cloth she had spun
+and woven out of the bog-down. She found it and began to sew it for the
+seventh shirt. The King’s sisters came to him and said, “The woman you
+brought here is of another race from ours. She has forgotten that a
+child was born to her, and that she killed it and flung its body to the
+gray wolf. She sits there now just stitching a garment.” The King went
+and saw her stitching and stitching as if her life depended on each
+stitch she put into the cloth. He spoke to her and she looked up but did
+not speak. Then the King’s heart was hardened. He took her and brought
+her outside the gate of the Castle. “Go back to the people you came
+from,” said he, “for I cannot bear that you should be here, and not
+speak to me of what has happened.” Sheen knew she was being sent from
+the house he had brought her to. A bitter cry came from her. Then the
+stitched cloth that was in her hand became bog-down and was blown away
+on the breeze. When she saw this happen she turned from the King’s
+Castle and ran through the woods crying and crying.
+
+She went through the woods for many days, living on berries and the
+water of springs. At last she came to the Spae-Woman’s house. The
+Spae-Woman was before the door and she welcomed Sheen back. She gave her
+drinks she had made from strange herbs, and in a season Sheen’s mind and
+health came back to her, and she knew all that had happened. She thought
+she would win back her seven brothers, and then, with their help, win
+back her child and her husband. But she knew she would have to gather
+the bog-down, spin the threads and weave them all over again, as
+her tears and cries had broken her task. She told her story to the
+Spae-Woman. Then she went into silence again, gathering the bog-down and
+spinning the thread.
+
+But when the first thread was spun the memory of her child blew against
+her heart and she cried tears down. The thread she had spun became
+bog-down and was blown away. For days she wept and wept. Then
+the Spae-Woman said to her, “Commit the child you have lost to
+Diachbha--that is, to Destiny--and Diachbha may bring it about that
+he shall be the one that will restore your seven brothers their human
+forms. And when you have committed your lost little son to Diachbha go
+back to your husband and tell him all you have lived through.”
+
+Sheen, believing in the Spae-Woman’s wisdom, did what was told her. She
+made an image of her lost little son with leaves and left it on the top
+of the house where it was blown away by the winds. Then she was ready to
+go back to her husband and tell him all that had happened in her life.
+But on the day she was bringing the last pitcher of water from the well
+she met him on the path before her. “Do you remember that I carried
+you across the bog?” he said. “And do you remember that I followed your
+soul?” said she.
+
+These were the first words she ever spoke to him. They went back
+together to the Spae-Woman’s and she told him all that had been in her
+life. He told her how his sisters had acknowledged that they had spoken
+falsely against her.
+
+He took her back to his own Kingdom, and there, as King and Queen they
+still live. But the name she bears is not Sheen or Storm now. Two sons
+more were born to her. But her seven brothers are still seven wild
+geese, and the Queen has found no trace of her first-born son. But the
+Spae-Woman has had a dream, and the dream has revealed this to her: the
+Son that Sheen lost is in the world, and if the maiden who will come to
+love him, will give seven drops of her heart’s blood, the Queen’s seven
+brothers will regain their human forms.
+
+
+“So that is the Unique Tale,” said the Old Woman of Beare. “If you ever
+find out what went before it and what comes after it come back here and
+tell it to me. But I don’t think you’ll get the rest of it,” said she,
+“seeing that the two of you weren’t able to count the horns outside.”
+ She went on talking and talking, Gilly and the King’s Son hearing what
+she said when she spoke in a sudden high voice, and not hearing when
+she murmured on as if talking to the ashes or to the pot or to the
+corncrake, the cuckoo or the swallow that were picking grains off the
+floor. “If you see Laheen the Eagle again, or Blackfoot the Elk or the
+Crow of Achill tell them to come and visit me sometime. I’m all alone
+here except for my swallow and cuckoo and corncrake. And mind you, great
+Kings and Princes used to come to see me.” So she went on talking in low
+tones and in sudden high tones.
+
+“You must come with me and help me to get the rest of the Unique Tale,”
+ said the King of Ireland’s Son. “That I’ll do,” said Gilly of the
+Goatskin. “But I must get a name first.
+
+“Old Mother,” said he, to the Old Woman of Beare. “You must now give me
+a name.”
+
+“I’ll give you a name,” said the Old Woman of Beare, “but you must stand
+before me and strip off the goatskin that covers you.”
+
+Gilly pulled at the strings and the goatskin fell on the ground. The Old
+Woman of Beare nodded her head. “You have the stars on your breast that
+denote the Son of a King,” she said.
+
+“The Son of a King--me!” said Gilly of the Goatskin. “You have the stars
+on your breast,” said the Old Woman of Beare.
+
+Gilly looked at himself and saw the three stars on his breast. “If I am
+the Son of a King I never knew it until now,” he said.
+
+“You are the son of a King,” said the Old Woman of Beare, “and I will
+give you a name when you come back to me. But I want you, first of all,
+to find out what happened to the Crystal Egg.”
+
+“The Crystal Egg!” said Gilly in great surprise.
+
+“The Crystal Egg indeed,” said the Old Woman of Beare. “You must know
+that it was stolen out of the nest of Laheen the Eagle, and the creature
+that stole it was the Crow of Achill. But what happened to the Crystal
+Egg after that no one knows.”
+
+“I myself had it after that,” said Gilly, “and it was stolen from me by
+Rory the Fox. And then it was put under a goose to hatch.” “A goose to
+hatch the Crystal Egg after an Eagle had half-hatched it! Aye, aye, to
+be sure, that’s right,” said the Old Woman of Beare. “And now you must
+go and find out what happened to it. Go now, and when you come back I
+will give you your name.”
+
+“I will do that,” said Gilly of the Goatskin. Then he turned to the
+King’s Son. “Three days before Midsummer’s Day meet me on the road to
+the Town of the Red Castle, and I will go with you to find out what went
+before and what comes after the Unique Tale,” he said.
+
+“I will meet you,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+The two youths went to the table and ate slices of the unwasted loaf
+and drank draughts from the inexhaustible bottle. “I shall stay here to
+practise sword-cuts and sword-thrusts,” said the King’s Son, “until four
+days before Midsummer’s Day.” The two youths went to the door.
+
+“Seven waves of good-luck to you, Old Woman of Beare,” said Gilly of the
+Goatskin.
+
+“May your double be slain and yourself remain,” said the King’s Son.
+Then they went out together, but not along the same path did the two
+youths go.
+
+
+Gilly slept as he traveled that night, for he fell in with a man who was
+driving a load of hay to the fair, and when he got into the cart he lay
+against the hay and slept. When he parted with the carter he cut a holly
+stick and journeyed along the road by himself. At the fall of night he
+came to a place that made him think he had been there before: he looked
+around and then he knew that this was the place he had lived in when he
+had the Crystal Egg. He looked to see if the house was there: it
+was, and people were living in it, for he saw smoke coming out of the
+chimney. It was dark now and Gilly thought he could not do better than
+take shelter in that house.
+
+He went to the door and knocked. There was a lot of rattling behind,
+and then a crooked old woman opened the door to him. “What do you want?”
+ said she.
+
+“Can I have shelter here for to-night, ma’am?” said Gilly.
+
+“You can get no shelter hem,” said the old woman, “and I’d advise you to
+begone.”
+
+“May I ask who lives here?” said Gilly, putting his foot inside the
+door.
+
+“Six very honest men whose business keeps them out until two and three
+in the morning,” said the crooked old woman.
+
+Gilly guessed that the honest men whose business kept them out until
+two and three in the morning were the robbers he had heard about. And he
+thought they might be the very men who had carried off the Spae-Woman’s
+goose and the Crystal Egg along with it. “Would you tell me, good
+woman,” said Gilly, “did your six honest men ever bring to this house an
+old hatching goose?”
+
+“They did indeed,” said the crooked woman, “and a heart-scald the same
+old hatching goose is. It goes round the house and round the house,
+trying to hatch the cups I leave out of my hands.”
+
+Then Gilly pushed the door open wide and stepped into the house.
+
+“Don’t stay in the house,” said the crooked old woman. “I’ll tell you
+the truth now. My masters are robbers, and they’ll skin you alive if
+they find you here when they come back in the morning.”
+
+“It’s more likely I’ll skin them alive,” said Gilly, and he looked
+so fierce that he fairly frightened the old woman. “And if you don’t
+satisfy me with supper and a bed I’ll leave you to meet them hanging
+from the door.”
+
+The crooked old woman was so terrified that she gave him a supper of
+porridge and showed him a bed to sleep in. He turned in and slept. He
+was roused by a candle being held to his eyes. He wakened up and saw six
+robbers standing round him with knives in their hands.
+
+“What brings you under our roof?” said the Captain. “Answer me now
+before we skin you as we would skin an eel.”
+
+“Speak up and answer the Captain,” said the robbers.
+
+“Why shouldn’t I be under this roof?” said Gilly. “I am the Master-Thief
+of the World.”
+
+The robbers put their hands on their knees and laughed at that. Gilly
+jumped out of the bed. “I have come to show you the arts of thievery and
+roguery,” said he. “I’ll show you some tricks that will let you hold up
+your heads amongst the thieves and robbers of the world.”
+
+
+He looked so bold and he spoke so bold that the robbers began to think
+he might have some reason for talking as he did. They left him and went
+off to their beds. Gilly slept again. At the broad noon they were all
+sitting at breakfast--Gilly and the six robbers. A farmer went past
+leading a goat to the fair.
+
+“Could any of you steal that goat without doing any violence to the man
+who is driving it?” said Gilly.
+
+“I couldn’t,” said one robber, and “I couldn’t,” said another robber,
+and “I’d be hardly able to do that myself,” said the Captain of the
+Robbers.
+
+“I can do it,” said Gilly. “I’ll be back with the goat before you are
+through with your breakfast.” He went outside.
+
+Gilly knew that country well and he ran through the wood until he was
+a bend of the road ahead of the farmer who was leading his goat to the
+fair. He took off one shoe and left it in the middle of the road. He
+ran on then until he was round another bend of the road. He took off the
+other shoe and left it down. Then he hid behind the hedge and waited.
+
+The farmer came to where the first shoe was. “That’s not a bad shoe,”
+ said he, “and if there was a comrade for it, it would be worth picking
+up.” He went on then and came to where the other shoe was lying. “Here
+is the comrade,” said he, “and it’s worth my while now to go back for
+the first.”
+
+He tied the goat to the mile-stone and went back. As soon as the farmer
+had turned his back, Gilly took the collar off the goat, left it on the
+milestone and took the goat through a gap in the hedge. He brought it
+to the house before the robbers were through with their breakfast. They
+were all terribly surprised. The Captain began to bite at his nails.
+
+The farmer, with the two shoes under his arm, came to where he had left
+the goat. The goat was gone and its collar was left on the milestone. He
+knew that a robber had taken his goat. “And I had promised Ann, my
+wife, to buy her a new shawl at the fair,” said he. “She’ll never stop
+scolding me if I go back to her now with one hand as long as the other.
+The best thing I can do is to take a sheep out of my field and sell
+that. Then when she is in good humor on account of getting the shawl
+I’ll tell her about the loss of my goat.” So the farmer went back to the
+field.
+
+They were sitting down to a game of cards after breakfast--the six
+robbers and Gilly--when they saw the farmer going past with the sheep.
+“I’ll be bound that he’ll watch that sheep more closely than he watched
+the goat,” said one of the robbers. “Could any of you steal that sheep
+without doing him any violence?” said Gilly. “I couldn’t,” said one
+robber, and “I couldn’t,” said another robber. “I could hardly do that
+myself,” said the Captain of the Robbers. “I’ll bring the sheep here
+before you’re through with the game of cards,” said Gilly.
+
+The farmer was just past the milestone when he saw a man hanging on a
+tree. “The saints between us and harm,” said he, “do they hang men along
+this road?” Now the man hanging from the tree was Gilly. He had fastened
+himself to a branch with his belt, putting it under his arm-pits. He
+slipped down from the branch and ran till he was ahead of the farmer.
+The farmer saw another man hanging from a tree. “The saints preserve
+us,” said he, “sure; it’s not possible that they hanged two men along
+this road?” Gilly slipped down from that tree too and ran on until he
+was ahead of the farmer again. The farmer saw a third man hanging from
+a tree. “Am I leaving my senses?” said he. “I’ll go back and see if the
+other men are hanging there as I thought they were.” He tied the sheep
+to a bush and went back. As soon as he turned, Gilly slipped down from
+the tree, took the sheep through a gap, and got back to the robbers
+before they were through with the game. All the robbers said it was
+a wonderful thing he had done. The Captain of the Robbers was left
+standing by himself scratching his head.
+
+The farmer found no men hanging on trees and he thought he was out of
+his mind. He came back and he found his sheep gone. “What will I do
+now?” said he. “I daren’t let Ann know I lost a goat and a sheep until
+I put her into good humor by showing the shawl I bought her at the fair.
+There’s nothing to be done now, but take a bullock out of the field and
+sell it at the fair.” He went to the field then, took a bullock out of
+it, and passed the house just as the robbers were lighting their pipes.
+“If he watched the goat and the sheep closely he’ll watch the bullock
+nine times as closely,” said one of the robbers.
+
+“Which of you could take the bullock without doing the man any
+violence?” said Gilly. “I couldn’t,” said one robber, and “I couldn’t,”
+ said another robber. “If you could do it,” said the Captain of the
+Robbers to Gilly, “I’ll resign my command and give it to you.” “Done,”
+ said Gilly, and he went out of the house again.
+
+He went quickly through the wood, and when he came near where the farmer
+was he began to bleat like a goat. The farmer stopped and listened. Then
+Gilly began to baa like the sheep. “That sounds very like my goat and
+sheep,” said the farmer. “Maybe they weren’t taken at all, but just
+strayed off. If I can get them now, I needn’t make any excuses to Ann my
+wife.” He tied the bullock to a tree and went into the wood. As soon as
+he did, Gilly slipped out, took the bullock by the rope and hurried back
+to the house. The robbers were gathered at the door to watch for his
+coming back. When they saw him with the bullock they threw up their
+hats. “This man must be our Captain,” they said. The Captain was biting
+his lips and his nails. At last he took off his hat with the feathers in
+it and gave it to Gilly. “You’re our Captain now,” said the robbers.
+
+Gilly ordered that the goat, the sheep and the bullock be put into the
+byre, that the door be locked and the key be given to him. All that was
+done. Then said he to all the robbers, “I demand to know what became of
+the Crystal Egg that was with the goose you stole from the Spae-Woman.”
+ “The Crystal Egg,” said one of the robbers. “It hatched, and a queer
+bird came out of it.” “Where is that bird now?” said Gilly. “On the
+waves of the lake near at hand,” said the robbers. “We see it every
+day.” “Take me to the lake till I see the Bird out of the Crystal Egg,”
+ said Gilly. They locked the door of the house behind them, and the
+seven, Gilly at their head, wearing the hat with feathers, marched down
+to the lake.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+
+Then they showed him the bird that was on the waves of the lake--a swan
+she was and she floated proudly. The swan came towards them and as she
+drew nearer they could hear her voice. The sounds she made were not
+like any sound of birds, but like the sounds bards make chanting their
+verses. Words came on high notes and low notes, but they were like words
+in a strange language. And still the swan chanted as she drew near to
+the shore where Gilly and the six robbers stood.
+
+She spread out her wings, and, raising her neck she curved it, while
+she stayed watching the men on the bank. “Hear the Swan of Endless
+Tales--the Swan of Endless Tales” she sang in words they knew. Then she
+raised herself out of the water, turned round in the air, and flew back
+to the middle of the lake.
+
+“Time for us to be leaving the place when there is a bird on the lake
+that can speak like that,” said Mogue, who had been the Captain of the
+Robbers. “To-night I’m leaving this townland.”
+
+“And I am leaving too,” said another robber. “And I too,” said another.
+“And I may be going away from this place,” said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+The robbers went away from him and back to the house and Gilly sat by
+the edge of the lake waiting to see if the Swan of Endless Tales would
+come back and tell him something. She did not come. As Gilly sat there
+the farmer who had lost his goat, his sheep and his bullock came by. He
+was dragging one foot after the other and looking very downcast. “What
+is the matter with you, honest man?” said Gilly.
+
+The farmer told him how he had lost his goat, his sheep and his bullock.
+He told him how he had thought he heard his goat bleating and his sheep
+ba’ing, and how he went through the wood to search for them, and how his
+bullock was gone when he came back to the road. “And what to say to
+my wife Ann I don’t know,” said he, “particularly as I have brought no
+shawl to put her in good humor. Heavy is the blame she’ll give me on
+account of my losing a goat, a sheep and a bullock.”
+
+Gilly took a key out of his pocket. “Do you see this key?” said he.
+“Take it and open the byre door at such a place, and you’ll find in that
+byre your goat, your sheep and your bullock. There are robbers in that
+house, but if they try to prevent your taking your own tell them that
+all the threshers of the country are coming to beat them with flails.”
+ The farmer took the key and went away very thankful to Gilly. The story
+says that he got back his goat, his sheep and his bullock and made it an
+excuse that he had seen three magpies on the road for not going to the
+fair to buy a shawl for his wife Ann. The robbers were very frightened
+when he told them about the threshers coming and they went away from
+that part of the country.
+
+As for Gilly, he thought he would go back to the Old Woman of Beare for
+his name. He took the path by the edge of the lake. And as he journeyed
+along with his holly-stick in his hand he heard the Swan of Endless
+Tales chanting.
+
+
+
+
+THE TOWN OF THE RED CASTLE
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Flann was the name that the Old Woman of Beare gave to Gilly of the
+Goatskin when he came back to tell her that the Swan of Endless Tales
+had been hatched out of the Crystal Egg. He went from her house then and
+came to where the King of Ireland’s Son waited for him. The two comrades
+went along a well-traveled road. As they went on they fell in with men
+driving herds of ponies, men carrying packs on their backs, men with
+tools for working gold and silver, bronze and iron. Every man whom they
+asked said, “We are going to the Town of the Red Castle, and to the
+great fair that will be held there.” The King’s Son and Flann thought
+they should go to the Town of the Red Castle too, for where so many
+people would be, there was a chance of hearing what went before and what
+came after the Unique Tale. So they went on.
+
+And when they had come to a well that was under a great rock those whom
+they were with halted. They said it was the custom for the merchants
+and sellers to wait there for a day and to go into the Town of the Red
+Castle the day following. “On this day,” they said, “the people of the
+Town celebrate the Festival of Midsummer, and they do not like a great
+company of people to go into their Town until the Festival is over.”
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son and Flann went on, and they were let into the
+town. The people had lighted great fires in their market-place and they
+were driving their cattle through the fires: “If there be evil on you,
+may it burn, may it burn,” they were crying. They were afraid that
+witches and enchanters might come into the town with the merchants and
+the sellers, and that was the reason they did not permit a great company
+to enter.
+
+The fires in all their houses had been quenched that day, and they might
+not be lighted except from the fires the cattle had gone through. The
+fires were left blazing high and the King’s Son and Flann spent hours
+watching them, and watching the crowds that were around.
+
+Then the time came to take fire to the houses. They who came for fire
+were all young maidens. Each came into the light of one of the great
+fires, took coals from a fire that had burnt low, placed them in a new
+earthen vessel and went away. Flann thought that all the maidens were
+beautiful and wonderful, although the King’s Son told him that some were
+black-faced, and some crop-headed and some hunchbacked. Then a maiden
+came, who was so high above the rest that Flann had no words to speak of
+her.
+
+She had silver on her head and silver on her arms, and the people around
+the fires all bowed to her. She had black, black hair and she had a
+smiling face--not happily smiling, but proudly smiling. Flann thought
+that a star had bent down with her. And when she had taken the fire and
+had gone away, Flann said, “She is surely the King’s daughter!”
+
+“She is,” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “The people here have spoken
+her name.” “What is her name?” asked Flann. “It is Lassarina,” said the
+King’s Son, “Flame-of-Wine.”
+
+“Shall we see her again?” said Flann.
+
+“That I do not know,” said the King’s Son. “Come now, and let us ask the
+people here if they have knowledge of the Unique Tale.”
+
+“Wait,” said Flann, “they are talking about Princess Flame-of-Wine.” He
+did not move, but listened to what was said. All said that the King’s
+daughter was proud. Some said she was beautiful, but others answered
+that her lips were thin, and her eyes were mocking. No other maidens
+came for fire. Flann stood before the one that still blazed, and thought
+and thought. The King’s Son asked many if they had knowledge of the
+Unique Tale, but no one had heard of it. Some told him that there would
+be merchants and sellers from many parts of the world at the fair that
+would be held on the morrow, and that there would be a chance of meeting
+one who had knowledge of it. Then the King’s Son went with one who
+brought him to a Brufir’s--that is, to a House of Hospitality maintained
+by the King for strangers. As for Flann, he sat looking into the fire
+until it died down, and then he slept before it.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Flann was wakened by a gander and his flock of geese that stood round
+him; shook their wings and set up their goose-gabble. It was day then,
+although there was still a star in the sky. He threw furze-roots where
+there was a glow, and made a fire blaze up again. Then the dogs of the
+town came down to look at him, and then stole away.
+
+Horns were blown outside, and the watchman opened the gates. Flann shook
+himself and stood up to see the folk that were coming in. First came the
+men who drove the mountain ponies that had lately fed with the deer
+in wild places. Then came men in leathern jerkins who led wide-horned
+bulls--a black bull and a white bull, and a white bull and a black bull,
+one after the other. Then there were men who brought in high, swift
+hounds, three to each leash they held. Women in brown cloaks carried
+cages of birds. Men carried on their shoulders and in their belts tools
+for working gold and silver, bronze and iron. And there were calves and
+sheep, and great horses and weighty chariots, and colored cloths, and
+things closed in packs that merchants carried on their shoulders.
+The famous bards, and story-tellers and harpists would not come until
+noon-time when the business of the fair would have abated, but with the
+crowd of beggars came ballad-singers, and the tellers of the stories
+that were called “Go-by-the-Market-Stake,” because they were told around
+the stake in the market place and were very common.
+
+And at the tail of the comers whom did Flann see but Mogue, the Captain
+of the Robbers!
+
+
+Mogue wore a hare-skin cap, his left eye protruded as usual, and he
+walked limpingly. He had a pack on his back, and he led a small, swift
+looking horse of a reddish color. Flann called to him as he passed and
+Mogue gave a great start. He grinned when he saw it was Flann and walked
+up to him.
+
+“Mogue,” said Flann, “what are you doing in the Town of the Red Castle?”
+
+“I’m here to sell a few things,” said Mogue, “this little horse,” said
+he, “and a few things I have in my pack.”
+
+“And where are your friends?” asked Flann. “My band, do you mean?”
+ said Mogue. “Sure, they all left me when you proved you were the better
+robber. What are you doing here?”
+
+“I have no business at all,” said Flann.
+
+“By the Hazel! that’s what I like to hear you say. Join me then. You and
+me would do well together.”
+
+“I won’t join you,” said Flann.
+
+“I’d rather have you with me than the whole of the band. What were they
+anyway? Cabbage-heads!” Mogue winked with his protruding eye. “Wait till
+you see me again,” said he. “I’ve the grandest things in my pack.” He
+went on leading the little horse. Then Flann set out to look for the
+King’s Son.
+
+He found him at the door of the Brufir’s, and they drank bowls of milk
+and ate oaten bread together, and then went to the gate of the town to
+watch the notable people who were coming in.
+
+And with the bards and harpers and Kings’ envoys who came in, the King’s
+Son saw his two half-brothers, Dermott and Downal. He hailed them and
+they knew him and came up to him gladly. The King’s Son made Flann known
+to them, saying that he too was the son of a King.
+
+They looked fine youths, Downal and Dermott, in their red cloaks, with
+their heads held high, and a brag in their walk and their words. They
+left their horses with the grooms and walked with Flann and the King’s
+Son. They were tall and ruddy; the King’s Son was more brown in the
+hair and more hawk-like in the face: the three were different from the
+dark-haired, dark-eyed, red-lipped lad to whom the Old Woman of Beare
+had given the name of Flann.
+
+No one had seen the King who lived in the Red Castle, Dermott and Downal
+told the other two. He was called the Wry-faced King, and, on account of
+his disfigurement, he let no one but his Councilors see him.
+
+“We are to go to his Castle to-day,” said Dermott and Downal. “You come
+too, brother,” said he to the King’s Son.
+
+“And you too, comrade,” said Downal to Flann. “Why should we not all go?
+By Ogma! Are we not all sons of Kings?”
+
+Flann wondered if he would see the King’s daughter, Flame-of-Wine. He
+would surely go to the Castle.
+
+They drank ale, played chess and talked until it was afternoon. Then the
+grooms who were with Downal and Dermott brought the four youths new red
+cloaks. They put them on and went towards the King’s Castle.
+
+“Brother,” said Dermott to the King’s Son, “I want to tell you that we
+are not going back to our father’s Castle nor to his Kingdom. We have
+taken the world for our pillow. We are going to leave the grooms asleep
+one fine morning, and go as the salmon goes down the river.”
+
+“Why do you want to leave our father’s Kingdom?”
+
+“Because we don’t want to rule nor to learn to rule. We’ll let you,
+brother, do all that. We’re going to learn the trade of a sword-smith.
+We would make fine swords. And with the King of Senlabor there is a
+famous sword-smith, and we are going to learn the trade from him.”
+
+
+The four went to the Red Castle, and they were brought in and they went
+and sat on the benches to wait for the King’s Steward who would receive
+them. And while they waited they watched the play of a pet fox in
+the courtyard. Flann was wondering all the time if the Princess
+Flame-of-Wine would pass through the court-yard or come into the hall
+where they waited.
+
+Then he saw her come up the courtyard. She saw the youths in the hall
+and she turned round to watch the pet fox for a while. Then she came
+into the chamber and stood near the door.
+
+She wore a mask across her face, but her brow and mouth and chin were
+shown. The youths saluted her, and she bent her head to them. One of the
+women who had brought birds to the Fair followed her, bringing a cage.
+Flame-of-Wine talked to this woman in a strange language.
+
+Although she talked to the woman, Flann saw that she watched his three
+companions. Him she did not notice, because the bench on which he sat
+was behind the others. Flame-of-Wine looked at the King’s Son first,
+and then turned her eyes from him. She bent her head to listen to what
+Downal and Dermott were saying. Flann she did not look at at all, and he
+became sick at heart of the Red Castle.
+
+The King’s Steward came into the Hall and when he announced who the
+youths were--three sons of the King of Ireland traveling with their
+foster-brother--Flame-of-Wine went over and spoke to them. “May we see
+you to-morrow, Kings’ Sons,” she said. “To-morrow is our feast of the
+Gathering of Apples. It might be pleasant for you to hear music in the
+King’s garden.”
+
+She smiled on Downal and Dermott and on the King’s Son and went out of
+the Chamber. The King’s Steward feasted the four youths and afterwards
+made them presents. But Flann did not heed what he ate nor what he heard
+said, nor what present was given him.
+
+
+
+III
+
+The four youths left the Castle and Downal and Dermott took their own
+way when they came to the foot-bridge that was across the river. Then
+when they were crossing it the King’s Son and Flann saw two figures--a
+middle-aged, sturdy man and an old, broken-looking woman--meet before
+the Bull’s Field. “It is the Gobaun Saor,” said the King’s Son. “It is
+the Spae-Woman,” said Flann. They went to them, each wishing to greet
+his friend and helper.
+
+There they saw a sturdy, middle-aged man and a broken-looking old woman.
+But the woman looking on the man saw one who had full wisdom to plan and
+full strength to build, whose wisdom and whose strength could neither
+grow nor diminish. And the man looking on the woman saw one whose brow
+had all quiet, whose heart had all benignity. “Hail, Gobaun, Builder for
+the Gods,” said the woman. “Hail, Grania Oi, Reconciler for the Gods,”
+ said the man.
+
+Then the two youths came swiftly up to them, and the King’s Son greeted
+the middle-aged man, and Flann kissed the hands of the old woman.
+
+“What of your search, King’s Son?” said the Gobaun Saor.
+
+“I have found the Unique Tale, but not what went before nor what comes
+after it,” said the King’s Son.
+
+“I will clear the Sword of Light of its stain when you bring me the
+whole of the Unique Tale,” said the Gobaun Saor.
+
+“I would search the whole world for it,” said the King’s Son. “But now
+the time is becoming short for me.” “Be quick and active,” said the
+Gobaun Saor. “I have set up my forge,” said he, “outside the town
+between two high stones. When you bring the whole of the Tale to me I
+shall clear your sword.”
+
+“Will you not tell him, Gobaun Saor,” said the Spae-Woman, “where he may
+find the one who will tell him the rest of the story?”
+
+“If he sees one he knows in this town,” said the Gobaun Saor, “let him
+mount a horse he has mounted before and pursue that one and force him to
+tell what went before and what comes after the Unique Tale.”
+
+Saying this the Gobaun Saor turned away and walked along the road that
+went out of the town.
+
+The Spae-Woman had brought besoms to the town to sell. She showed the
+two youths the little house she lived in while she was there. It was
+filled with the heather-stalks which she bound together for besoms.
+
+They left the Spae-Woman and went through the town, the King of
+Ireland’s Son searching every place for a man he knew or a horse he had
+mounted before, while Flann thought about the Princess Flame-of-Wine,
+and how little she considered him beside the King’s Son and Dermott
+and Downal. They came to where a crowd was standing before a conjurer’s
+booth. They halted and stood waiting for the conjurer to appear. He came
+out and put a ladder standing upright with nothing to lean against and
+began climbing up. Up, up, up, he went, and the ladder grew higher and
+higher as he climbed. Flann thought he would climb into the sky. Then
+the ladder got smaller and smaller and Flann saw the conjurer coming
+down on the other side. “He has come here to take that horse,” said a
+voice behind the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+The King’s Son looked round, and on the outskirts of the crowd he saw a
+man with a hare-skin cap and a protruding eye who was holding a reddish
+horse, while he watched the conjuror. The King of Ireland’s Son knew the
+horse--it was the Slight Red Steed that had carried him and Fedelma from
+the Enchanter’s house and had brought him to the Cave where he had found
+the Sword of Light. He looked at the conjuror again and he saw he was
+no other than the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. Then it crossed his
+mind what the Gobaun Saor had said to him.
+
+He had seen a man he knew and a horse he had mounted before. He was to
+mount that horse, follow the man, and force him to tell the rest of the
+Unique Tale.
+
+The King’s Son drew back to the outskirts of the crowd. He snatched the
+bridle from the hands of Mogue, the man who held it, and jumped up on
+the back of the Slight Red Steed.
+
+As soon as he did this the ladder that was standing upright fell on the
+ground. The people shouted and broke away. And then the King’s Son saw
+the Enchanter jump across a house and make for the gate of the town.
+
+But if he could jump across a house so could the Slight Red Steed. The
+King’s Son turned its head, plucked at its rein, and over the same house
+it sprang too. The more he ran the more swift the Enchanter became. He
+jumped over the gate of the town, the Slight Red Steed after him. He
+went swiftly across the country, making high springs over ditches and
+hedges. No other steed but the Slight Red Steed could have kept its
+rider in sight of him.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Up hill and down dale the Enchanter went, but, mounted on the Slight Red
+Steed, the King of Ireland’s Son was in hot pursuit. The Enchanter raced
+up the side of the seventh hill, and when the King’s Son came to the top
+of it he found no one in sight.
+
+He raced on, however, and he passed a dead man hanging from a tree. He
+raced on and on, but still the Enchanter was not to be seen. Then the
+thought came into his mind that the man who was hanging from the tree
+and who he thought was dead was the crafty old Enchanter. He turned the
+Slight Red Steed round and raced back. The man that had been hanging
+from the tree was there no longer.
+
+The King’s Son turned his horse amongst the trees and began to search
+for the Enchanter. He found no trace of him. “I have lost again,” he
+said. Then he threw the bridle on the neck of the horse and he said, “Go
+your own way now, my Slight Red Steed.”
+
+When he said that the Slight Red Steed twitched its ears and galloped
+towards the West. It went through woods and across streams, and when the
+crows were flying home and the kites were flying abroad it brought the
+King’s Son to a stone house standing in the middle of a bog. “It may be
+the Enchanter is in this house,” said the King’s Son. He jumped off the
+Slight Red Steed, pushed the door of the house open, and there, seated
+on a chair in the middle of the floor with a woman sitting beside him,
+was the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. “So,” said the Enchanter, “my
+Slight Red Steed has brought you to me.”
+
+“So,” said the King’s Son, “I have found you, my crafty old Enchanter.”
+
+“And now that you have found me, what do you want of me?” said the
+Enchanter.
+
+“Your head,” said the King’s Son, drawing the tarnished Sword of Light.
+
+“Will nothing less than my head content you?” said the Enchanter.
+
+“Nothing less--unless it be what went before, and what comes after the
+Unique Tale.”
+
+“The Unique Tale,” said the Enchanter. “I will tell you what I know of
+it.” Thereupon he began
+
+
+I was a Druid and the Son of a Druid, and I had learned the language of
+the birds. And one morning, as I walked abroad, I heard a blackbird and
+a robin talking, and when I heard what they said I smiled to myself.
+
+“Now the woman I had just married noticed that I kept smiling, and she
+questioned me. ‘Why do you keep smiling to yourself?’ I would not tell
+her. ‘Is that not the truth? ‘“ said the Enchanter to a woman who sat
+beside him. “It is the truth,” said she.
+
+“On the third day I was still smiling to myself, and my wife questioned
+me, and when I did not answer threw dish-water into my face. ‘May
+blindness come upon you if you do not tell me why you are smiling,’ said
+she. Then I told her why I smiled to myself. I had heard what the birds
+said. The blackbird said to the robin, ‘Do you know that just under
+where we are sitting are three rods of enchantment, and if one were to
+take one of them and strike a man with it, he would be changed to any
+creature one named?’ That is what I had heard the birds say and I smiled
+because I was the only creature who knew about the rods of enchantment.
+
+“My wife made me show her where the rods were. She cut one of them when
+I went away. That evening she came behind me and struck me with a rod.
+‘Go out now and roam as a wolf,’ she said, and there and then I was
+changed into a wolf. ‘Is that not true?’” said he to the woman. “It is
+true,” she said.
+
+“And being changed into a wolf, I went through the woods seeking wolf’s
+meat. And now you must ask my wife to tell you more of the story.” The
+King of Ireland’s Son turned to the woman who sat on the seat next the
+Enchanter, and asked her to tell him more of the story. And thereupon
+she began
+
+
+Before all that happened I was known as the Maid of the Green Mantle.
+One day a King rode up a mountain with five score followers and a mist
+came on them as they rode. The King saw his followers no more. He called
+out after a while and four score answered him. And he called out again
+after another while and two score answered him. And after another while
+he called out again and only a score answered him through the mist, and
+when he called out again no one answered him at all.
+
+“The King went up the mountain until he came to the place where I lived
+with the Druids who reared me. He stayed long in that place. The King
+loved me for a while and I loved the King, and when he went away I
+followed him.
+
+“Because he would not come back to me I enchanted him so that there
+were times when he was left between life and death. Once when he was
+seemingly dead a girl watched by him, and she followed his spirit into
+many terrible places and so broke my enchantment.”
+
+“Sheen was the girl’s name,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“Sheen was her name,” said the woman. “He brought her to his Kingdom,
+and made her his queen. After that I married the man who is here
+now--the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, the Son of the Druid of the
+Gray Rock. Ask him now to tell you the rest of the story.”
+
+When she changed me into a gray wolf,” said the Enchanter, “I went
+through the woods searching for what a wolf might eat, but could find
+nothing to stay my hunger. Then I came back and stood outside my house
+and the woman who had been called the Maid of the Green Mantle came to
+me. ‘I will give you back your human form,’ she said, ‘if you do as I
+bid you.’
+
+“I promised her I would do as she bade.
+
+“She bade me go to a King’s house where a child had been born. She bade
+me steal the child away. I went to the King’s house. I went into the
+chamber and I stole the child from the mother’s side. Then I ran through
+the woods. But in the end I fell into a trap that the Giant Crom Duv had
+set for the wolves that chased his stray cattle.
+
+“For a night I lay in the trap with the child beside me. Then Crom Duv
+came and lifted out wolf and child. Three Hags with Long Teeth were
+there when he took us out of the trap, and he gave the child to one of
+them, telling her to rear it so that the child might be a servant for
+him.
+
+“He put me into a sack, promising himself that he would give me a good
+beating. He left me on the floor of his house. But while he was gone for
+his club I bit my way out of the sack and made my escape. I came back
+to my own house, and my wife struck me with the wand of enchantment, and
+changed me from a wolf into a man again. ‘Is that not true?’” said he to
+the woman.
+
+“It is true,” said she.
+
+“That is all of the Unique Tale that I know,” said the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-Lands, “and now that I have told it to you, put up your
+sword.”
+
+“I will put up no sword,” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “until you
+tell me what King and Queen were the father and mother of the child that
+was reared by the Hags of the Long Teeth.”
+
+“I made no promise to tell you that,” said the En-chanter of the Black
+Back-Lands. “You have got the story you asked for, and now let me see
+your back going through my door.”
+
+“Yes, you have got the story, and be off with you now,” said the woman
+who sat by the fire.
+
+
+He put up his sword; he went to the door; he left the house of the
+Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. He mounted the Slight Red Steed and
+rode off. He knew now what went before and what came after the Unique
+Tale. The Gobaun Saor would clean the blemish of the blade of the Sword
+of Light and would show him how to come to the Land of Mist. Then he
+would win back his love Fedelma.
+
+He thought too on the tidings he had for his comrade Flann--Flann was
+the Son of the King who was called the Hunter-King and of Sheen whose
+brothers had been changed into seven wild geese. He shook his horse’s
+reins and went back towards the Town of the Red Castle.
+
+
+V
+
+
+Flann thought upon the Princess Flame-of-Wine. He walked through the
+town after the King’s Son had ridden after the Enchanter, without
+noticing anyone until he heard a call and saw Mogue standing beside a
+little tent that he had set up before the Bull’s Field.
+
+Flann went to Mogue and found him very disconsolate on account of the
+loss of the horse he had brought into the town. “This is a bad town to
+be in,” said Mogue, “and unless I persuade yourself to become partners
+with me I shall have done badly in it. Join with me now and we’ll do
+some fine feats together.”
+
+“It would not become a King’s Son to join with a robber-captain,” said
+Flann.
+
+“Fine talk, fine talk,” said Mogue. He thought that Flann was jesting
+with him when he spoke of himself as a King’s Son.
+
+“I want to sell three treasures I have with me,” said Mogue. “I have the
+most wonderful things that were ever brought into this town.”
+
+“Show them to me,” said Flann.
+
+Mogue opened one of his packs and took out a box. When he opened this
+box a fragrance came such as Flann had never felt before. “What is that
+that smells like a garden of sweet flowers?” said Flann.
+
+“It is the Rose of Sweet Smells,” said Mogue, and he took a little rose
+out of the box. “It never withers and its fragrance is never any less.
+It is a treasure for a King’s daughter. But I will not show it in this
+town.”
+
+“And what is that shining thing in the box?”
+
+“It is the Comb of Magnificence. That is another treasure for a King’s
+daughter. The maiden who would wear it would look the most queenly woman
+in the Kingdom. But I won’t show that either.”
+
+“What else have you, Mogue?”
+
+“A girdle. The woman who wears it would have to speak the truth.” The
+Town of
+
+Flann thought he would do much to get the Rose of Sweet Smells or
+the Comb of Magnificence and bring them as presents to the Princess
+Flame-of-Wine.
+
+He slept in Mogue’s tent, and at the peep of day, he rose up and went
+to the House of Hospitality where Dermott and Downal were. With them he
+would go to the King’s orchard, and he would see, and perhaps he
+would speak to, Flame-of-Wine. But Dermott and Downal were not in the
+Brufir’s. Flann wakened their grooms and he and they made search for the
+two youths. But there was no trace of Dermott and Downal. It seemed they
+had left before daybreak with their horses. Flann went with the grooms
+to the gate of the town. There they heard from the watchman that the two
+youths had gone through the gate and that they had told the watchman to
+tell the grooms that they had gone to take the world for their pillow.
+
+The grooms were dismayed to hear this, and so indeed was Flann. Without
+the King’s Son and without Downal and Dermott how would he go to the
+King’s Garden? He went back to Mogue’s tent to consider what he
+should do. And first he thought he would not go to the Festival of the
+Gathering of the Apples, as he knew that Flame-of-Wine had only asked
+him with his comrades. And then he thought that whatever else happened
+he would go to the King’s orchard and see Flame-of-Wine.
+
+If he had one of the wonderful things that Mogue had shown him--the Rose
+of Sweet Smells or the Comb of Magnificence! These would show her that
+he was of some consequence. If he had either of these wonderful things
+and offered it to her she might be pleased with him!
+
+He sat outside the tent and waited for Mogue to return. When he came
+Flann said to him, “I will go with you as a servant, and I will serve
+you well although I am a King’s Son, if you will give me something now.”
+
+“What do you want from me?” said Mogue.
+
+“Give me the Rose of Sweet Smells,” said Flann.
+
+“Sure that’s the finest thing I have. I couldn’t give you that.”
+
+“I will serve you for two years if you will give it to me,” said Flann.
+
+“No,” said Mogue.
+
+“I will serve you for three years if you will give it to me,” said
+Flann.
+
+“I will give it to you if you will serve me for three years.” Thereupon
+Mogue opened his pack and took the box out. He opened it and put the
+Rose of Sweet Smells into Flann’s hand.
+
+At once Flann started off for the King’s orchard. The Steward who had
+seen him the day before signed to the servants to let him pass through
+the gate. He went into the King’s orchard.
+
+Maidens were singing the “Song for the Time of the Blossoming of the
+Apple-trees” and all that day and night Flann held their song in his
+mind
+
+   The touch of hands that drew it down
+   Kindled to blossom all the bough
+   O breathe the wonder of the branch,
+   And let it through the darkness go!
+
+
+
+Youths were gathering apples, and the Princess Flame-of-Wine walked by
+herself on the orchard paths.
+
+At last she came to where Flann stood and lifting her eyes she looked at
+him. “I had companions,” said Flann, “but they have gone away.”
+
+“They are unmannerly,” said Flame-of-Wine with anger, and she turned
+away.
+
+Flann took the rose from under his cloak. Its fragrance came to
+Flame-of-Wine and she turned to him again.
+
+“This is the Rose of Sweet Smells,” said Flann. “Will you take it from
+me, Princess?”
+
+She came back to him and took the rose in her hand, and there was wonder
+in her face.
+
+“It will never wither, and its fragrance will never fail,” said Flann.
+“It is the Rose of Sweet Smells. A King’s daughter should have it.”
+
+Flame-of-Wine held the rose in her hand, and smiled on Flann. “What is
+your name, King’s Son?” said she, with bright and friendly eyes.
+
+“Flann,” he said.
+
+“Walk with me, Flann,” said she. They walked along the orchard paths,
+and the youths and maidens turned towards the fragrance that the Rose of
+Sweet Smells gave. Flame-of-Wine laughed, and said, “They all wonder at
+the treasure you have brought me, Flann. If you could hear what I shall
+tell them about you! I shall tell them that you are the son of a King of
+Arabia--no less. They will believe me because you have brought me such a
+treasure! I suppose there is nothing more wonderful than this rose!”
+
+Then Flann told her about the other wonderful thing he had seen--the
+Comb of Magnificence. “A King’s daughter should have such a treasure,”
+ said Flame-of-Wine. “Oh, how jealous I should be if someone brought the
+Comb of Magnificence to either of my two sisters--to Bloom-of-Youth
+or Breast-of-Light. I should think then that this rose was not such a
+treasure after all.”
+
+When he was leaving the orchard she plucked a flower and gave it to him.
+“Come and walk in the orchard with me to-morrow,” she said.
+
+“Surely I will come,” said Flann.
+
+“Bring the Comb of Magnificence to me too,” said she. “I could not be
+proud of this rose, and I could not love you so well for bringing it
+to me if I thought that any other maiden had the Comb of Magnificence.
+Bring it to me, Flann.”
+
+“I will bring it to you,” said Flann.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+He was at the gate of the town when the King of Ireland’s Son rode back
+on the Slight Red Steed. The King’s Son dismounted, put his arm about
+Flann and told him that he now had the whole of the Unique Tale. They
+sat before Mogue’s tent, and the King’s Son told Flann the whole of the
+story he had searched for--how a King traveling through the mist had
+come to where Druids and the Maid of the Green Mantle lived, how the
+King was enchanted, and how the maiden Sheen released him from the
+enchantment. He told him, too, how the Enchanter was changed into a
+wolf, and how the wolf carried away Sheen’s child. “And the Unique Tale
+is in part your own history, Flann,” said the King of Ireland’s Son,
+“for the child that was left with the Hags of the Long Teeth was no one
+else than yourself, for you, Flann, have on your breast the stars that
+denote the Son of a King.”
+
+“It is so, it is so,” said Flann, “and I will find out what King and
+Queen were my father and my mother.”
+
+“Go to the Hags of the Long Teeth and force them to tell you,” said the
+King’s Son.
+
+“I will do that,” said Flann, but in his own mind he said, “I will first
+bring the Comb of Magnificence to Flame-of-Wine, and I will tell her
+that I will have to be away for so many years with Mogue and I shall ask
+her to remember me until I come back to her. Then I shall go to the Hags
+of the Long Teeth and force them to tell me what King and Queen were my
+father and mother.”
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son left Flann to his thoughts and went to find
+the Gobaun Saor who would clear for him the tarnished blade of the Sword
+of Light and would show him the way to where the King of the Land of
+Mist had his dominion.
+
+Mogue spent his time with the ballad-singers and the story-tellers
+around the market-stake, and when he came back to his tent he wanted
+to drink ale and go to sleep, but Flann turned him from the ale-pot by
+saying to him, “I want the Comb of Magnificence from you, Mogue.”
+
+“By my skin,” said Mogue, “it’s my blood you’ll want next, my lad.”
+
+“If you give me the Comb of Magnificence, Mogue, I shall serve you for
+six years--three years more than I said yesterday. I shall serve you
+well, even though I am the son of a King and can find out who my father
+and mother are.”
+
+“I won’t give you the Comb of Magnificence.”
+
+“I’ll serve you seven years if you do, Mogue.”
+
+Mogue drank and drank out of the ale-pot, frowning to himself. He put
+the ale-pot away and said, “I suppose your life won’t be any good to you
+unless I give you the Comb of Magnificence?”
+
+“That is so, Mogue.”
+
+Mogue sighed heavily, but he went to his pack and took out the box that
+the treasures were in. He let Flann take out the Comb of Magnificence.
+
+“Seven years you will have to serve me,” said Mogue, “and you will have
+to begin your service now.”
+
+“I will begin it now,” said Flann, but he stole out of the tent, put on
+his red cloak and went to the King’s orchard.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+“Oh, Flann, my treasure-bringer,” said Flame-of-Wine, when she came to
+him. “I have brought you the Comb of Magnificence,” said he. Her hands
+went out and her eyes became large and shining. He put the Comb of
+Magnificence into her hands.
+
+She put the comb into the back of her hair, and she became at once like
+the tower that is builded--what broke its height and turned the full
+sunlight from it has been taken away, and the tower stands, the pride
+of a King and the delight of a people. When she put the Comb of
+Magnificence into her hair she became of all Kings’ daughters the most
+stately.
+
+She walked with Flann along the paths of the orchard, but always she
+was watching her shadow to see if it showed her added magnificence. Her
+shadow showed nothing. She took Flann to the well in the orchard, and
+looked down into it, but her image in the well did not show her added
+magnificence either. Soon she became tired of walking on the orchard
+paths, and when she came to the gate she walked no further but stood
+with Flann at the gate. “A kiss for you, Flann, my treasure-bringer,”
+ said she, and she kissed him and then went hurrying away. And as Flann
+watched her he thought that although she had kissed him he was not now
+in her mind.
+
+He went out of the orchard disconsolate, thinking that when he was on
+his seven years’ service with Mogue Princess Flame-of-Wine might forget
+him. As he walked on he passed the little house where the Spae-Woman had
+her besoms and heather-stalks. She ran to him when she saw him.
+
+“Have you heard that the King’s Son has found what went before, and what
+comes after the Unique Tale?” said she.
+
+“That I have. And I have to go to the Hags of the Long Teeth to find out
+who my father and mother were, for surely I am the child who was taken
+from Sheen.”
+
+“And do you remember that Sheen’s seven brothers were changed into seven
+wild geese?” said she.
+
+“I remember that, mother.”
+
+“And seven wild geese they will be until a maiden who loves you will
+give seven drops of her heart’s blood to bring them back to their human
+shapes.”
+
+“I remember that, mother.” “Whatever maid you love, her you must ask
+if she would give seven drops of her heart’s blood. It may be that she
+would. It may be that she would not and that you would still love her
+without thought of her giving one drop of blood of her little finger.”
+
+“I cannot ask the maiden I love to give seven drops of her heart’s
+blood.”
+
+“Who is the maiden you love?”
+
+“The King’s daughter, Flame-of-Wine.”
+
+He told the Spae-Woman about the presents he had given her--he told
+the Spae-Woman too that he had bound himself to seven years’ service
+to Mogue on account of these presents. The Spae-Woman said, “What other
+treasures are in Mogue’s pack?”
+
+“One treasure more the Girdle of Truth. Whoever puts it on can speak
+nothing but the truth.”
+
+Said the Spae-Woman, “You are to take the Girdle of Truth and give it
+to Flame-of-Wine. Tell Mogue that I said he is to give it to you without
+adding one day to your years’ service. When Flame-of-Wine has put the
+girdle around her waist ask her for the seven drops of heart’s blood
+that will bring your mother’s seven brothers back to their human shapes.
+She may love you and yet refuse to give you the seven drops from her
+heart. But tell her of this, and hear what she will say.”
+
+Flann left the Spae-Woman’s and went back to Mogue’s tent. The loss of
+his treasures had overcome Mogue and he was drinking steadily and went
+from one bad temper to another.
+
+“Begin your service now by watching the tent while I sleep,” said he.
+
+“There is one thing more I want from you, Mogue,” said Flann.
+
+“By the Eye of Balor! you’re a cuckoo in my nest. What do you want now?”
+
+“The Girdle of Truth.”
+
+“Is it my last treasure you’d be taking on me?”
+
+“The Spae-Woman bid me tell you that you’re to give me the Girdle of
+Truth.”
+
+“It’s a pity of me, it’s a pity of me,” said Mogue. But he took the box
+out of his pack, and let Flann take the girdle.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Flame-of-Wine saw him. She walked slowly down the orchard path so that
+all might notice the stateliness of her appearance.
+
+“I am glad to see you again, Flann,” said she. “Have your comrades yet
+come back to my father’s town?”
+
+
+Flann told her that one of them had returned.
+
+“Bid him come see me,” said Flame-of-Wine. Then she saw the girdle in
+his hands.
+
+“What is it you have?” said she.
+
+“Something that went with the other treasures--a girdle.”
+
+“Will you not let me have it, Flann?” She took the girdle in her hands.
+“Tell me, youth,” she said, “how you got all these treasures?”
+
+“I will have to give seven years’ service for them,” Flann said.
+
+“Seven years,” said she, “but you will remember--will you not--that I
+loved you for bringing them to me?”
+
+“Will you remember me until I come back from my seven years’ service?”
+
+“Oh, yes,” said Flame-of-Wine, and she put the girdle around her waist
+as she spoke.
+
+“Someone said to me,” said Flann, “that I should ask the maiden who
+loved me for seven drops of her heart’s blood.” The girdle was now round
+Flame-of-Wine’s waist. She laughed with mockery. “Seven drops of heart’s
+blood,” said she. “I would not give this fellow seven eggs out of my
+robin’s nest. I tell him I love him for bringing me the three treasures
+for a King’s daughter. I tell him that, but I should be ashamed of
+myself if I thought I could have any love for such a fellow.”
+
+“Do you tell me the truth now,” said Flann.
+
+“The truth, the truth,” said she, “of course I tell you the truth. Oh,
+and there are other truths. I shall be ashamed forever if I tell them.
+Oh, oh. They are rising to my tongue, and every time I press them back
+this girdle tightens and tightens until I think it will kill me.”
+
+“Farewell, then, Flame-of-Wine.”
+
+“Take off the girdle, take off the girdle! What truths are in my mind!
+I shall speak them and I shall be ashamed. But I shall die in pain if I
+hold them back. Loosen the girdle, loosen the girdle! Take the rose you
+gave me and loosen the girdle.” She let the rose fall on the ground.
+
+“I will loosen the girdle for you,” said Flann.
+
+“But loosen it now. How I have to strive to keep truths back, and
+oh, what pain I am in! Take the Comb of Magnificence, and loosen the
+girdle.” She threw the comb down on the ground.
+
+He took up the Rose of Sweet Smells and the Comb of Magnificence and he
+took the girdle off her waist. “Oh, what a terrible thing I put round my
+waist,” said Flame-of-Wine. “Take it away, Flann, take it away. But give
+me back the Rose of Sweet Smells and the Comb of Magnificence,--give
+them back to me and I shall love you always.”
+
+“You cannot love me. And why should I give seven years in service for
+your sake? I will leave these treasures back in Mogue’s pack.”
+
+“Oh, you are a peddler, a peddler. Go from me,” said Flame-of-Wine. “And
+do not be in the Town of the Red Castle to-morrow, or I shall have my
+father’s hunting dogs set upon you.” She turned away angrily and went
+into the Castle.
+
+Flann went back to Mogue’s tent and left the Rose of Sweet Smells, the
+Comb of Magnificence and the Girdle of Truth upon Mogue’s pack. He sat
+in the corner and cried bitterly. Then the King of Ireland’s Son came and
+told him that his sword was bright once more--that the stains that had
+blemished its blade had been cleared away by the Gobaun Saor who had
+also shown him the way to the Land of the Mist. He put his arm about
+Flann and told him that he was starting now to rescue his love Fedelma
+from the Castle of the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+
+
+
+THE KING OF THE LAND OF MIST
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son came to the place where the river that he
+followed takes the name of the River of the Broken Towers. It is called
+by that name because the men of the old days tried to build towers
+across its course. The towers were built a little way across the river
+that at this place was tremendously wide.
+
+“The Glashan will carry you across the River of the Broken Towers to
+the shore of the Land of Mist,” the Gobaun Saor had said to the King of
+Ireland’s Son. And now he was at the River of the Broken Towers but the
+Glashan-creature was not to be seen.
+
+Then he saw the Glashan. He was leaning his back against one of the
+Towers and smoking a short pipe. The water of the river was up to his
+knees. He was covered with hair and had a big head with horse’s
+ears. And the Glashan twitched his horse’s ears as he smoked in great
+contentment.
+
+“Glashan, come here,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+But the Glashan gave him no heed at all.
+
+“I want you to carry me across the River of the Broken Towers,” shouted
+the King of Ireland’s Son. The Glashan went on smoking and twisting his
+ears.
+
+And the King of Ireland’s Son might have known that the whole clan
+of the Gruagachs and Glashans are fond of their own ease and will do
+nothing if they can help it. He twitched his ears more sharply when the
+King’s Son threw a pebble at him. Then after about three hours he came
+slowly across the river. From his big knees down he had horse’s feet.
+
+“Take me on your big shoulders, Glashan,” said the King of Ireland’s
+Son, “and carry me across to the shore of the Land of Mist.”
+
+“Not carrying any more across,” said the Glashan. The King of Ireland’s
+Son drew the Sword of Light and flashed it.
+
+“Oh, if you have that, you’ll have to be carried across,” said the
+Glashan. “But wait until I rest myself.”
+
+“What did you do that you should rest?” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+“Take me on your shoulders and start off.”
+
+“Musha,” said the Glashan, “aren’t you very anxious to lose your life?”
+
+“Take me on your shoulders.” “Well, come then. You’re not the first
+living dead man I carried across.” The Glashan put his pipe into his
+ear. The King of Ireland’s Son mounted his shoulders and laid hold of
+his thick mane. Then the Glashan put his horse’s legs into the water and
+started to cross the River of the Broken Towers.
+
+“The Land of Mist has a King,” said the Glashan, when they were in the
+middle of the river.
+
+“That, Glashan, I know,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“All right,” said the Glashan.
+
+Then said he when they were three-quarters of the way across, “Maybe you
+don’t know that the King of the Land of Mist will kill you?”
+
+“Maybe ‘tis I who will kill him,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“You’d be a hardy little fellow if you did that,” said the Glashan. “But
+you won’t do it.”
+
+
+They went on. The water was up to the Glashan’s waist but that gave him
+no trouble. So broad was the river that they were traveling across it
+all day. The Glashan threw the King’s Son in once when he stooped to
+pick up an eel. Said the King of Ireland’s Son, “What way is the Castle
+of the King of the Land of Mist guarded, Glashan?”
+
+“It has seven gates,” said the Glashan.
+
+“And how are the gates guarded?”
+
+“I’m tired,” said the Glashan, “and I can’t talk.”
+
+“Tell me, or I’ll twist the horse’s ears off your head.”
+
+“Well, the first gate is guarded by a plover only. It sits on the third
+pinnacle over the gate, and when anyone comes near it rises up and flies
+round the Castle crying until its sharp cries put the other guards on
+the watch.”
+
+“And what other guards are there?”
+
+“Oh, I’m tired, and I can talk no more.”
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son twisted his horse’s ears, and then the Glashan
+said
+
+
+“The second gate is guarded by five spear-men.”
+
+“And how is the third gate guarded?”
+
+“The third gate is guarded by seven swordsmen.”
+
+“And how is the fourth gate guarded?”
+
+“The fourth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist himself.”
+
+“And the fifth gate?”
+
+“The fifth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist himself.”
+
+“And the sixth gate?”
+
+“The sixth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist.”
+
+“And how is the seventh gate guarded?”
+
+“The seventh gate is guarded by a Hag.”
+
+“By a Hag only?” “By a Hag with poisoned nails. But I’m tired now, and
+I’ll talk no more to you. If I could strike a light now I’d smoke a
+pipe.”
+
+Still they went on, and just at the screech of the day they came to the
+other shore of the River of the Broken Towers. The King of Ireland’s Son
+sprang from the shoulders of the Glashan and went into the mist.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+He came to where turrets and pinnacles appeared above the mist. He
+climbed the rock upon which the Castle was built. He came to the first
+gate, and as he did the plover that was on the third pinnacle above rose
+up and flew round the Castle with sharp cries.
+
+He raised a fragment of the ground-rock and flung it against the gate.
+He burst it open. He dashed in then and through the first courtyard of
+the Castle.
+
+As he went towards the second gate it was flung open, and the five
+spear-men ran upon him. But they had not counted on what was to face
+them--the Sword of Light in the bands of the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+Its stroke cut the spear heads from the spear-holds, and its quick
+glancing dazzled the eyes of the spear-men. On each and every one of
+them it inflicted the wound of death. He dashed through the second gate
+and into the third courtyard.
+
+But as he did the third gate was flung open and seven swordsmen came
+forth. They made themselves like a half circle and came towards the King
+of Ireland’s Son. He dazzled their eyes with a wide sweep of his sword.
+He darted it swiftly at each of them and on the seven swordsmen too he
+inflicted wounds of death.
+
+He went through the third courtyard and towards the fourth gate. As he
+did it opened slowly and a single champion came forth. He closed the
+gate behind him and stood with a long gray sword in his hand. This was
+the King of the Land of Mist. His shoulders were where a tall man’s
+head would be. His face was like a stone, and his eyes had never looked
+except with scorn upon a foe.
+
+When his enemy began his attack the King of Ireland’s Son had power to
+do nothing else but guard himself from that weighty sword. He had the
+Sword of Light for a guard and well did that bright, swift blade guard
+him. The two fought across the courtyard making hard places soft and
+soft places hard with their trampling. They fought from when it was
+early to when it was noon, and they fought from when it was noon until
+it was long afternoon. And not a single wound did the King of Ireland’s
+Son inflict upon the King of the Land of Mist, and not a single wound
+did the King of the Land of Mist inflict upon him.
+
+But the King of Ireland’s Son was growing faint and weary. His eyes
+were worn with watching the strokes and thrusts of the sword that was
+battling against him. His arms could hardly bear up his own sword. His
+heart became a stream of blood that would have gushed from his breast.
+
+And then, as he was about to fall down with his head under the sword
+of the King of the Land of Mist a name rose above all his
+thoughts--“Fedelma.” If he sank down and the sword of the King of the
+Land of Mist fell on him, never would she be saved. The will became
+strong again in the King of Ireland’s Son. His heart became a steady
+beating thing. The weight that was upon his arms passed away. Strongly
+he held the sword in his hand and he began to attack the King of the
+Land of Mist.
+
+And now he saw that the sword in the hand of his enemy was broken and
+worn with the guard that the Sword of Light had put against it. And now
+he made a strong attack. As the light was leaving the sky and as the
+darkness was coming down he saw that the strength was waning in the
+King of the Land of Mist. The sword in his hand was more worn and more
+broken. At last the blade was only a span from the hilt. As he drew back
+to the gate of the fourth courtyard the King of Ireland’s Son sprang at
+him and thrust the Sword of Light through his breast. He stood with his
+face becoming exceedingly terrible. He flung what remained of his sword,
+and the broken blade struck the foot of the King of Ireland’s Son and
+pierced it. Then the King of the Land of Mist fell down on the ground
+before the fourth gate.
+
+So weary from his battles, so pained with the wound of his foot was
+the King of Ireland’s Son that he did not try to cross the body and go
+towards the fifth gate. He turned back. He climbed down the rock and
+went towards the River of the Broken Towers.
+
+The Glashan was broiling on a hot stone the eel he had taken out of the
+river. “Wash my wound and give me refreshment, Glashan,” said the King
+of Ireland’s Son.
+
+The Glashan washed the wound in his foot and gave him a portion of the
+broiled eel with cresses and water.
+
+“To-morrow’s dawn I shall go back,” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “and
+go through the fifth and sixth and seventh gate and take away Fedelma.”
+
+“If the King of the Land of Mist lets you,” said the Glashan.
+
+“He is dead,” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “I thrust my sword through
+his breast.”
+
+“And where is his head?” said the Glashan.
+
+“It is on his corpse,” said the King of Ireland’s Son.
+
+“Then you will have another fight to-morrow. His life is in his head,
+and his life will come back to him if you did not cut it off. It is he,
+I tell you, who will guard the fourth and fifth and sixth gate.”
+
+“That I do not believe, Glashan,” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “There
+is no one to guard the gates now but the Hag you spoke of. To-morrow I
+shall take Fedelma out of her captivity, and we will both leave the Land
+of Mist. But I must sleep now.”
+
+He laid the Sword of Light beside him, stretched himself on the ground
+and went to sleep. The Glashan drew his horse’s legs under him, took the
+pipe out of his ear, and smoked all through the night.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son rose in the morning but he was in pain and
+weariness on account of his wounded foot. He ate the cresses and drank
+the water that the Glashan gave him, and he started off for the Castle
+of the King of the Mist. “‘Tis only an old woman I shall have to deal
+with to-day,” he said, “and then I shall awaken Fedelma, my love.”
+
+He passed through the first gate and the first court-yard, through the
+second gate and the second court-yard, through the third gate and the
+third courtyard. The fourth gate was closed, and as he went towards it,
+it opened slowly, and the King of the Land of Mist stood there--as high,
+as stone-faced, and as scornful as before, and in his hand he had a
+weighty gray sword.
+
+They fought as they fought the day before. But the guard the King of
+Ireland’s Son made against the sword of the King of the Land of Mist was
+weaker than before, because of the pain and weariness that came from his
+wound. But still he kept the Sword of Light before him and the Sword of
+the King of the Land of Mist could not pass it. They fought until it was
+afternoon. The heart in his body seemed turned to a jet of blood that
+would gush forth. His eyes were straining themselves out of their
+sockets. His arms could hardly bear up his sword. He fell down upon one
+knee, but he was able to hold the sword so that it guarded his head.
+
+Then the image of Fedelma appeared before him. He sprang up and his arms
+regained their power. His heart became steady in his breast. And as he
+made an attack upon the King of the Land of Mist, he saw that the blade
+in his hand was broken and worn because of its strokes against the Sword
+of Light.
+
+They fought with blades that seemed to kindle each other into sparks and
+flashes of light. They fought until the blade in the hand of the King of
+the Land of Mist was worn to a hand breadth above the hilt. He drew
+back towards the gate of the fifth courtyard. The King of Ireland’s Son
+sprang at him and thrust the Sword of Light through his breast. Down on
+the stones before the fifth gate of his Castle fell the King of the Land
+of Mist.
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son stepped over the body and went towards the
+fifth gate. Then he remembered what the Glashan had said, “His life is
+in his head.” He went back to where the King of the Land of Mist had
+fallen. With a clean sweep of his sword he cut the head off the body.
+
+Then out of the mist that was all around three ravens came. With beak
+and claws they laid hold of the head and lifted it up. They fluttered
+heavily away, keeping near the ground.
+
+With his sword in his hand the King of Ireland’s Son chased the ravens.
+He followed them through the fourth courtyard, the third courtyard, the
+second and the first. They flew off the rock on which the Castle was
+built and disappeared in the mist.
+
+He knew he would have to watch by the body of the King of the Land of
+Mist, so that the head might not be placed upon it. He sat down before
+the fifth gate. Pain and weariness, hunger and thirst oppressed him.
+
+He longed for something that would allay his hunger and thirst. But he
+knew that he could not go to the river to get refreshment of water and
+cresses from the Glashan. Something fell beside him in the courtyard.
+It was a beautiful, bright-colored apple. He went to pick it up, but
+it rolled away towards the third courtyard. He followed it. Then, as he
+looked back he saw that the ravens had lighted near the body of the King
+of the Land of Mist, holding the head in their beaks and claws. He ran
+back and the ravens lifted the head up again and flew away.
+
+He watched for another long time, and his hunger and his thirst made him
+long for the bright-colored apple he had seen.
+
+Another apple fell down. He went to pick it up and it rolled away. But
+now the King of Ireland’s Son thought of nothing hut that bright-colored
+apple. He followed it as it rolled.
+
+It roiled through the third courtyard, and the second and the first. It
+rolled out of the first gate and on to the rock upon which the Castle
+was built. It rolled off the rock. The King of Ireland’s Son sprang down
+and he saw the apple become a raven’s head and beak.
+
+He climbed up the rock and ran back. And when he came into the first
+courtyard he saw that the three ravens had come back again. They had
+brought the head to the body, and body and head were now joined. The
+King of the Land of Mist stood up again, and his head was turned towards
+his left shoulder. He went to the sixth gate and took up a sword that
+was beside it.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+They fought their last battle before the sixth gate. The guard that the
+King of Ireland’s Son made was weak, and if the King of the Land of Mist
+could have turned fully upon him, he could have disarmed and killed him.
+But his head had been so placed upon his body that it looked The King
+of the Land of Mist 237 over his left shoulder. He was able to draw his
+sword down the breast of the King of Ireland’s Son, wounding him.
+The King’s Son whirled his sword around his head and flung it at his
+wry-headed enemy. It swept his head off, and the King of the Land of
+Mist fell down.
+
+The King of Ireland’s Son saw on the outstretched neck the mark of the
+other beheading. He took up the Sword of Light again and prepared to
+hold the head against all that might come for it.
+
+But no creature came. And then the hair on the severed head became loose
+and it was blown away by the wind. And the bones of the head became a
+powder and the flesh became a froth, and all was blown away by the wind.
+
+Then the King of Ireland’s Son went through the sixth courtyard and came
+to the seventh gate. And before it he saw the last of the sentinels. A
+Hag, she was seated on the top of a water-tank taking white doves out of
+a basket and throwing them to ravens that flew down from the walls and
+tore the doves to pieces.
+
+When the Hag saw the King of Ireland’s Son she sprang down from the
+water-tank and ran towards him with outstretched arms and long poisoned
+nails. With a sweep of his sword he cut the nails from her hands. Ravens
+picked up the nails, and then, as they tried to fly away, they fell
+dead.
+
+“The Sword of Light will take off your head if you do not take me on the
+moment to where Fedelma is,” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “I am sorry
+to do it,” said the Hag, “but come, since you are the conqueror.”
+
+He followed the Hag into the Castle. In a net, hanging across a chamber,
+he saw Fedelma. She was still, but she breathed. And the branch of
+hawthorn that put her asleep was fresh beside her. Strands of her bright
+hair came through the meshes of the net and were fastened to the wall.
+With a sweep of the Sword of Light he cut the strands.
+
+
+Her eyes opened. She saw the King of Ireland’s Son, and the full light
+came back to her eyes, and the full life into her face.
+
+He cut the net from where it hung and laid it on the ground. He cut open
+the meshes. Fedelma rose out of it and went into his arms.
+
+He lifted her up and carried her out into the seventh courtyard. Then
+the Hag who had been one of the sentinels came out of the Castle, closed
+the door behind her and ran away into the mist, three ravens flying
+after her.
+
+And as for Fedelma and the King of Ireland’s Son, they went through the
+courtyards of the Castle and through the mists of the country and down
+to the River of the Broken Towers. They found the Glashan broiling a
+salmon upon hot stones. Salmon were coming from the sea and the Glashan
+went in and caught more, The King of the Land of Mist 239 broiled and
+gave them to the King of Ireland’s Son and Fedelma to eat. The little
+black water-hen came out of the river and they fed it. The next day the
+King of Ireland’s Son bade the Glashan take Fedelma on his shoulders and
+carry her to the other shore of the River of the Broken Towers. And
+he himself followed the little black water-hen who showed him all the
+shallow places in the river so that he crossed with the water never
+above his waist. But he was nearly dead from cold and weariness, and
+from the wounds on breast and foot when he came to the other side and
+found the Glashan and Fedelma waiting for him.
+
+They ate salmon again and rested for a day. They bade good-by to the
+Glashan, who went back to the river to hunt for salmon. Then they went
+along the bank of the river hand in hand while the King of Ireland’s Son
+told Fedelma of all the things that had happened to him in his search
+for her.
+
+They came to where the river became known as the River of the Morning
+Star. And then, in the distance, they saw the Hill of Horns. Towards the
+Hill of Horns they went, and, at the near side of it, they found a house
+thatched with the wing of a bird. It was the house of the Little Sage
+of the Mountain. To the house of the Little Sage of the Mountain Fedelma
+and the King’s Son now went.
+
+
+
+     TO THE MEMORY OF BEATRICE CASSIDY COLUM
+
+
+
+
+THE HOUSE OF CROM DUV
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The story is now about Flann. He went through the East gate of the Town
+of the Red Castle and his journey was to the house of the Hags of the
+Long Teeth where he might learn what Queen and King were his mother and
+his father. It is with the youth Flann, once called the Gilly of the
+Goatskin, that we will go if it be pleasing to you, Son of my Heart. He
+went his way in the evening, when, as the bard said:--
+
+   The blackbird shakes his metal notes
+   Against the edge of day,
+   And I am left upon my road
+   With one star on my way.
+
+And he went his way in the night, when, as the same bard said:--
+
+   The night has told it to the hills,
+   And told the partridge in the nest,
+   And left it on the long white roads,
+   She will give light instead of rest.
+
+And he went on between the dusk and the dawn, when, as the same bard
+said again:--
+
+   Behold the sky is covered,
+   As with a mighty shroud:
+   A forlorn light is lying
+   Between the earth and cloud.
+
+
+And he went on in the dawn, when as the bard said (and this is the
+last stanza he made, for the King said there was nothing at all in his
+adventure):--
+
+   In the silence of the morning
+   Myself, myself went by,
+   Where lonely trees sway branches
+   Against spaces of the sky.
+
+And then, when the sun was looking over the first high hills he came to
+a river. He knew it was the river he followed before, for no other river
+in the country was so wide or held so much water. As he had gone with
+the flow of the river then he thought he would go against the flow of
+the river now, and so he might come back to the glens and ridges and
+deep boggy places he had traveled from.
+
+
+He met a Fisherman who was drying his nets and he asked him what name
+the river had. The Fisherman said it had two names. The people on the
+right bank called it the Day-break River and the people on the left bank
+called it the River of the Morning Star. And the Fisherman told him he
+was to be careful not to call it the River of the Morning Star when he
+was on the right bank nor the Daybreak River when he was on the left, as
+the people on either side wanted to keep to the name their fathers had
+for it and were ill-mannered to the stranger who gave it a different
+name. The Fisherman told Flann he was sorry he had told him the two
+names for the River and that the best thing he could do was to forget
+one of the names and call it just the River of the Morning Star as he
+was on the left bank.
+
+Flann went on with the day widening before him and when the height of
+the noon was past he came to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places
+he had traveled from. He went on with the bright day going before him
+and the brown night coming behind him, and at dusk he came to the black
+and burnt place where the Hags of the Long Teeth had their house of
+stone.
+
+He saw the house with a puff of smoke coming through every crevice
+in the stones. He went to the shut door and knocked on it with the
+knocking-stone.
+
+“Who’s without?” said one of the Hags.
+
+“Who’s within?” said Flann.
+
+“The Three Hags of the Long Teeth,” said one of the Hags, “and if you
+want to know it,” said she, “they are the runners and summoners, the
+brewers and candle-makers for Crom Duv, the Giant.”
+
+Flann struck a heavier blow with the knocking-stone and the door broke
+in. He stepped into the smoke-filled house.
+
+“No welcome to you, whoever you are,” said one of the three Hags who
+were seated around the fire.
+
+“I am the lad who was called Gilly of the Goatskin, and whom you reared
+up here,” said he, “and I have come back to you.”
+
+The three Hags turned from the fire then and screamed at him.
+
+“And what brought you back to us, humpy fellow?” said the first Hag.
+
+“I came back to make you tell me what Queen and King were my mother and
+father.”
+
+“Why should you think a King and Queen were your father and mother?”
+ they said to him.
+
+“Because I have on my breast the stars of a son of a King,” said Flann,
+“and,” said he, “I have in my hand a sword that will make you tell me.”
+
+He came towards them and they were afraid. Then the first Hag bent her
+knee to him, and, said she, “Loosen the hearthstone with your sword and
+you will find a token that will let you know who your father was.”
+
+Flann put his sword under the hearthstone and pried it up. But if
+it were a token, what was under the hearthstone was an evil thing--a
+cockatrice. It had been hatched out of a serpent’s egg by a black cock
+of nine years. It had the head and crest of a cock and the body of a
+black serpent. The cockatrice lifted itself up on its tail and looked at
+him with red eyes. The sight of that head made Flann dizzy and he fell
+down on the floor. Then it went down and the Hags put the hearthstone
+above it.
+
+“What will we do with the fellow?” said one of the Hags, looking at
+Flann who was in a swoon on the floor.
+
+“Cut of his head with the sword that he threatened us with,” said
+another.
+
+“No,” said the third Hag. “Crom Duv the Giant is in want of a servant.
+Let him take this fellow. Then maybe the Giant will give us what he has
+promised us for so long--a Berry to each of us from the Fairy Rowan Tree
+that grows in his courtyard.”
+
+“Let it be, let it be,” said the other Hags. They put green branches on
+the fire so that Crom Duv would see the smoke and come to the house. In
+the morning he came. He brought Flann outside, and after awhile Flann’s
+senses came back to him. Then the Giant tied a rope round his arms and
+drove him before him with a long iron spike that he had for a staff.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+
+Crom Duv’s arms stretched down to his twisted knees; he had long,
+yellow, overlapping horse’s teeth in his mouth, with a fall-down
+under-lip and a drawn-back upper-lip; he had a matted rug of hair on his
+head. He was as high as a haystack. He carried in his twisted hand an
+iron spike pointed at the end. And wherever he was going he went as
+quickly as a running mule.
+
+He tied Flann’s hands behind his back and drew the rope round Flann’s
+body. Then he started off. Flann was dragged on as if at the tail of
+a cart. Over ditches and through streams; up hillsides and down into
+hollows he was hauled. Then they came into a plain as round as the wheel
+of a cart. Across the plain they went and into a mile-deep wood. Beyond
+the wood there were buildings--such walls and such heaps of stones Flann
+never saw before.
+
+But before they had entered the wood they had come to a high grassy
+mound. And standing on that grassy mound was the most tremendous bull
+that Flann had ever seen.
+
+“What bull is that, Giant?” said Flann.
+
+ “My own bull,” said Crom Duv, “the Bull of the Mound. Look back at him,
+little fellow. If ever you try to escape from my service my Bull of the
+Mound will toss you into the air and trample you into the ground.” Crom
+Duv blew on a horn that he had across his chest. The Bull of the Mound
+rushed down the slope snorting. Crom Duv shouted and the bull stood
+still with his tremendous head bent down.
+
+Flann’s heart, I tell you, sank, when he saw the bull that guarded Crom
+Duv’s house. They went through the deep wood then, and came to the gate
+of the Giant’s Keep. Only a chain was across it, and Crom Duv lifted
+up the chain. The courtyard was filled with cattle black and red and
+striped. The Giant tied Flann to a stone pillar. “Are you there, Morag,
+my byre-maid?” he shouted.
+
+“I am here,” said a voice from the byre. More cattle were in the byre
+and someone was milking them.
+
+There was straw on the ground of the courtyard and Crom Duv lay down on
+it and went to sleep with the cattle trampling around him. A great stone
+wall was being built all round the Giant’s Keep--a wall six feet thick
+and built as high as twenty feet in some places and in others as high
+as twelve. The wall was still being built, for heaps of stones and great
+mixing-pans were about. And just before the door of the Keep was a
+Rowan Tree that grew to a great height. At the very top of the tree were
+bunches of red berries. Cats were lying around the stems of the tree and
+cats were in its branches--great yellow cats. More yellow cats stepped
+out of the house and came over to him. They looked Flann all over and
+went back, mewing to each other.
+
+The cattle that were in the courtyard went into the byre one by one as
+they were called by the voice of the byre-maid. Crom Duv still slept. By
+and by a little red hen that was picking about the courtyard came near
+him and holding up her head looked Flann all over.
+
+When the last cow had gone in and the last stream of milk had sounded in
+the milking-vessel the byre-maid came into the courtyard. Flann thought
+he would see a long-armed creature like Crom Duv himself. Instead he saw
+a girl with good and kind eyes, whose disfigurements were that her face
+was pitted and her hair was bushy. “I am Morag, Crom Duv’s byre-maid,”
+ said she.
+
+“Will Crom Duv kill me?” said Flann.
+
+“No. He’ll make you serve him,” said the byre-maid.
+
+“And what will he make me do for him?”
+
+“He will make you help to build his wall. Crom Duv goes out every
+morning to bring his cattle to pasture on the plain. And when he comes
+back he builds the wall round his house. He’ll make you mix mortar and
+carry it to him, for I heard him say he wants a servant to do that.”
+
+“I’ll escape from this,” said Flann, “and I’ll bring you with me.”
+
+“Hush,” said Morag, and she pointed to seven yellow cats that were
+standing at Crom Duv’s door, watching them. “The cats,” said she,
+“are Crom Duv’s watchers here and the Bull of the Mound is his watcher
+out-side.”
+
+“And is this Little Red Hen a watcher too?” said Flann, for the Little
+Red Hen was watching them sideways. “The Little Red Hen is my friend and
+adviser,” Morag, and she went into the house with two vessels of milk.
+
+
+Crom Duv wakened up. He untied Flann and left him free. “You must mix
+mortar for me now,” he said. He went into the byre and came out with a
+great vessel of milk. He left it down near the mixing-pan. He went to
+the side of the house and came back with a trough of blood.
+
+“What are these for, Crom Duv?” said Flann. “To mix the mortar with,
+gilly,” said the Giant. “Bullock’s blood and new milk is what I mix my
+mortar with, so that nothing can break down the walls that I’m building
+round the Fairy Rowan Tree. Every day I kill a bullock and every day my
+byre-maid fills a vessel of milk to mix with my mortar. Set to now, and
+mix the mortar for me.”
+
+Flann brought lime and sand to the mixing-pan and he mixed them in
+bullock’s blood and new milk. He carried stones to Crom Duv. And so
+he worked until it was dark. Then Crom Duv got down from where he was
+building and told Flann to go into the house.
+
+The yellow cats were there and Flann counted sixteen of them. Eight
+more were outside, in the branches or around the stem of the Rowan Tree.
+Morag came in, bringing a great dish of porridge. Crom Duv took up a
+wooden spoon and ate porridge out of vessel after vessel of milk. Then
+he shouted for his beer and Morag brought him vessel after vessel of
+beer. Crom Duv emptied one after the other..Then he shouted for his
+knife and when Morag brought it he began to sharpen it, singing a queer
+song to himself.
+
+“He’s sharpening a knife to kill a bullock in the morning,” said Morag.
+“Come now, and I’ll give you your supper.”
+
+She took him to the kitchen at the back of the house. She gave him
+porridge and milk and he ate his supper. Then she showed him a ladder to
+a room above, and he went up there and made a bed for himself. He slept
+soundly, although he dreamed of the twenty-four yellow cats within, and
+the tremendous Bull of the Mound outside Crom Duv’s Keep.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+This is how the days were spent in the house of Crom Duv. The Giant and
+his two servants, Flann and Morag, were out of their beds at the mouth
+of the day. Crom Duv sounded his horn and the Bull of the Mound bellowed
+an answer. Then he started work on his wall, making Flann carry mortar
+to him. Morag put down the fire and boiled the pots. Pots of porridge,
+plates of butter and pans of milk were on the table when’ Crom Duv and
+Flann came in to their breakfasts. Then, when the Giant had driven out
+his cattle to the pasture Flann cleaned the byre and made the mortar,
+mixing lime and sand with bullock’s blood and new milk. In the afternoon
+the Giant came back and he and Flann started work on the wall.
+
+All the time the twenty-four yellow cats lay on the branches of the
+Rowan Tree or walked about the court-yard or lapped up great crocks
+of milk. Morag’s Little Red Hen went hopping round the courtyard. She
+seemed to be sleepy or to be always considering something. If one of the
+twenty-four yellow cats looked at her the Little Red Hen would waken up,
+murmur something, and hop away.
+
+One day the cattle came home without Crom Duv. “He has gone on one of
+his journeys,” said Morag, “and will not be back for a night and a day.”
+
+“Then it is time for me to make my escape,” said Flann.
+
+“How can you make your escape, my dear, my dear?” said Morag. “If you
+go by the front the Bull of the Mound will toss you in the air and then
+trample you into the ground.”
+
+“But I have strength and cunning and activity enough to climb the wall
+at the back.”
+
+“But if you climb the wall at the back,” said Morag, “you will only come
+to the Moat of Poisoned Water.” “The Moat of Poisoned Water?” “The
+Moat of Poisoned Water,” said Morag. “The water poisons the skin of any
+creature that tries to swim across the Moat.”
+
+Flann was downcast when he heard of the Moat of Poisoned Water. But his
+mind was fixed on climbing the wall. “I may find some way of crossing
+the poisoned water,” he said, “so bake my cake and give me provision for
+my journey.”
+
+Morag baked a cake and put it on the griddle. And when it was baked she
+wrapped it in a napkin and gave it to him. “Take my blessing with it,”
+ said she, “and if you escape, may you meet someone who will be a better
+help to you than I was. I must keep the twenty-four cats from watching
+you while you are climbing the wall.”
+
+“And how will you do that?” said Flann.
+
+She showed him what she would do. With a piece of glass she made on the
+wall of the byre the shadows of flying birds. Birds never flew
+across the House of Crom Duv and the cats were greatly taken with the
+appearances that Morag made with the piece of glass. Six cats watched,
+and then another six came, and after them six more, and after them the
+six that watched in the Rowan Tree. And the twenty-four yellow cats sat
+round and watched with burning eyes the appearances of birds that Morag
+made on the byre-wall. Flann looked back and saw her seated on a stone,
+and he thought the Byre-Maid looked lonesome.
+
+He tried with all his activity, all his cunning and all his strength,
+and at last he climbed the wall at the back of Crom Duv’s house. He gave
+a whistle to let Morag know he was over. Then he went through a little
+wood and came to the Moat of Poisoned Water.
+
+Very ugly the dead water looked. Ugly stakes stuck up from the mud to
+pierce any creature that tried to leap across. And here and there on the
+water were patches of green poison as big as cabbage leaves. Flann drew
+back from the Moat. Leap it he could not, and swim it he dare not. And
+just as he drew back he saw a creature he knew come down to the bank
+opposite to him. It was Rory the Fox. Rory carried in his mouth the skin
+of a calf. He dropped the skin into the water and pushed it out before
+him. Then he got into the water and swam very cautiously, always pushing
+the calf’s skin before him. Then Rory climbed up on the bank where Flann
+was, and the skin, all green and wrinkled, sank down into the water.
+
+Rory was going to turn tail, but then he recognized Flann. “Master,”
+ said he, and he licked the dust on the ground.
+
+“What are you doing here, Rory?” said Flann.
+
+“I won’t mind telling you if you promise to tell no other creature,”
+ said Rory.
+
+“I won’t tell,” said Flann.
+
+“Well then,” said Rory, “I have moved my little family over here. I was
+being chased about a good deal, and my little family wasn’t safe. So I
+moved them over here.” The fox turned and looked round at the country
+behind him. “It suits me very well,” said he; “no creature would think
+of crossing this moat after me.”
+
+“Well,” said Flann, “tell me how you are able to cross it.”
+
+“I will,” said the fox, “if you promise never to hunt me nor any of my
+little family.”
+
+“I promise,” said Flann.
+
+“Well,” said Rory, “the water poisons every skin. Now the reason that I
+pushed the calf’s skin across was that it might take the poison out of
+the water. The water poisons every skin. But where the skin goes the
+poison is taken out of the water for a while, and a living creature can
+cross behind it if he is cautious.”
+
+“I thank you for showing me the way to cross the moat,” said Flann.
+
+“I don’t mind showing you,” said Rory the Fox, and he went off to his
+burrow.
+
+There were deer-skins and calf-skins both sides of the moat. Flann
+took a calf’s skin. He pushed it into the water with a stick. He swam
+cautiously behind it. When he reached the other side of the moat, the
+skin, all green and wrinkled, sank in the water.
+
+Flann jumped and laughed and shouted when he found himself in the forest
+and clear of Crom Duv’s house. He went on. It was grand to see the
+woodpecker hammering on the branch, and to see him stop, busy as he
+was to say “Pass, friend.” Two young deer came out of the depths of the
+wood. They were too young and too innocent to have anything to tell him,
+but they bounded alongside of him as he raced along the Hunter’s Path.
+He jumped and he shouted again when he saw the river before him--the
+river that was called the Daybreak River on the right bank and the River
+of the Morning Star on the left. He said to himself, “This time, in
+troth, I will go the whole way with the river. A moving thing is my
+delight. The river is the most wonderful of all the things I have seen
+on my travels.”
+
+Then he thought he would eat some of the cake that Morag had baked for
+him. He sat down and broke it. Then as he ate it the thought of Morag
+came into his mind. He thought he was looking at her putting the cake on
+the griddle. He went a little way along the river and then he began to
+feel lonesome. He turned back, “I’ll go to Crom Duv’s House,” said he,
+“and show Morag the way to escape. And then she and I will follow the
+river, and I won’t be lonesome while she’s with me.”
+
+So back along the Hunter’s Path Flann went. He came to the Moat of
+Poisoned Water. He found a deer-skin and pushed it into the water and
+then swam cautiously across the moat. He climbed the wall then, and when
+he put his head above it he saw Morag. She was watching for him.
+
+“Crom Duv has not come back yet,” said she, “but oh, my dear, my dear, I
+can’t prevent the yellow cats from watching you come over the wall.”
+
+First six cats came and then another six and they sat round and watched
+Flann come down the wall. They did nothing to him, but when he came down
+on the ground they followed him wherever he went.
+
+“You crossed the moat,” said Morag, “then why did you come back?”
+
+“I came back,” said Flann, “to bring you with me.”
+
+“But,” said she, “I cannot leave Crom Duv’s house.”
+
+“I’ll show you how to cross the moat,” said he, “and we’ll both be glad
+to be going by the moving river.”
+
+Tears came into Morag’s eyes. “I’d go with you, my dear,” said she, “but
+I cannot leave Crom Duv’s house until I get what I came for.”
+
+“And what did you come for, Morag?” said he.
+
+“I came,” said she, “for two of the rowan berries that grow on the
+Fairy Rowan Tree in Crom Duv’s court-yard. I know now that to get these
+berries is the hardest task in the world. Come within,” said she, “and
+if we sit long enough at the supper-board I will tell you my story.”
+
+They sat at the supper-board long, and Morag told
+
+
+
+
+The Story of Morag
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+I was reared in the Spae-Woman’s house with two other girls, Baun and
+Deelish, my foster-sisters. The Spae-Woman’s house is on the top of a
+knowe, away from every place, and few ever came that way.
+
+One morning I went to the well for water. When I looked into it I saw,
+not my own image, but the image of a young man. I drew up my pitcher
+filled with water, and went back to the Spae-Woman’s house. At noontide
+Baun went to the well for water. She came back and her pitcher was only
+half-filled. Before dark Deelish went to the well. She came back without
+a pitcher, for it fell and broke on the flags of the well.
+
+The next day Baun and Deelish each plaited their hair, and they said
+to her who was foster-mother for the three of us: “No one will come to
+marry us in this far-away place. We will go into the world to seek our
+fortunes. So,” said they, “bake a cake for each of us before the fall of
+the night.”
+
+The Spae-Woman put three cakes on the griddle and baked them. And when
+they were baked she said to Baun and Deelish: “Will you each take the
+half of the cake and my blessing, or the whole of the cake without my
+blessing?” And Baun and Deelish each said, “The whole of the cake will
+be little enough for our journey.”
+
+Each then took her cake under her arm and went the path down the knowe.
+Then said I to myself, “It would be well to go after my foster-sisters
+for they might meet misfortune on the road.” So I said to my
+foster-mother, “Give me the third cake on the griddle until I go after
+my foster-sisters.”
+
+“Will you have half of the cake and my blessing or the whole of the cake
+without my blessing?” said she to me.
+
+“The half of the cake and your blessing, mother,” said I.
+
+She cut the cake in two with a black-handled knife and gave me the even
+half of it. Then said she:--
+
+      May the old sea’s
+      Seven Daughters
+      They who spin
+      Life’s longest threads,
+      Protect and guard you!
+
+She put salt in my hand then, and put the Little Red Hen under my arm,
+and I went off.
+
+I went on then till I came in sight of Baun and Deelish. Just as I
+caught up on them I heard one say to the other, “This ugly, freckled
+girl will disgrace us if she comes with us.” They tied my hands and feet
+with a rope they found on the road and left me in a wood.
+
+
+I got the rope off my hands and feet and ran and ran until I came in
+sight of them again. And when I was coming on them I heard one say to
+the other, “This ugly, freckled girl will claim relationship with us
+wherever we go, and we will get no good man to marry us.” They laid hold
+of me again and put me in a lime-kiln, and put beams across it, and put
+heavy stones on the beams. But my Little Red Hen showed me how to get
+out of the lime-kiln. Then I ran and I ran until I caught up with Baun
+and Deelish again.
+
+“Let her come with us this evening,” said one to the other, “and
+to-morrow we’ll find some way of getting rid of her.”
+
+The night was drawing down now, and we had to look for a house that
+would give us shelter. We saw a hut far off the road and we went to the
+broken door. It was the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth. We asked
+for shelter. They showed us a big bed in the dormer-room, and they told
+us we could have supper when the porridge was boiled.
+
+The three Hags sat round the fire with their heads together. Baun and
+Deelish were in a corner plaiting their hair, but the Little Red Hen
+murmured that I was to listen to what the Hags said.
+
+“We will give them to Crom Duv in the morning” one said. And another
+said, “I have put a sleeping-pin in the pillow that will be under each,
+and they will not waken.”
+
+When I heard what they said I wanted to think of what we could do to
+make our escape. I asked Baun to sing to me. She said she would if I
+washed her feet. I got a basin of water and washed Baun’s feet, and
+while she sang, and while the Hags thought we were not minding them, I
+considered what we might do to escape. The Hags hung a pot over the fire
+and the three of them sat around it once more.
+
+When I had washed my foster-sister’s feet I took a besom and began to
+sweep the floor of the house. One of the Hags was very pleased to see me
+doing that. She said I would make a good servant, and after a while she
+asked me to sit at the fire. I sat in the corner of the chimney. They
+had put meal in the water, and I began to stir it with a pot-stick.
+Then the Hag that had asked me to the fire said, “I will give you a good
+share of milk with your porridge if you keep stirring the pot for us.”
+ This was just what I wanted to be let do. I sat in the chimney-corner
+and kept stirring the porridge while the Hags dozed before the fire.
+
+First, I got a dish and ladle and took out of the pot some half-cooked
+porridge. This I left one side. Then I took down the salt-box that was
+on the chimney-shelf and mixed handfuls of salt in the porridge left in
+the pot.
+
+
+When it was all cooked I emptied it into another dish and brought the
+two dishes to the table. Then I told the Hags that all was ready. They
+came over to the table and they gave my foster-sisters and myself three
+porringers of goat’s milk. We ate out of the first dish and they ate out
+of the second. “By my sleep to-night,” said one Hag, “this porridge is
+salty.” “Too little salt is in it for my taste,” said my foster-sister
+Deelish. “It is as salt as the depths of the sea,” said another of the
+Hags. “My respects to you, ma’am,” said Baun, “but I do not taste any
+salt on it at all.” My foster-sisters were so earnest that the Hags
+thought themselves mistaken, and they ate the whole dishful of porridge.
+
+The bed was made for us, and the pillows were laid on the bed, and I
+knew that the slumber-pin was in each of the pillows. I wanted to put
+off the time for going to bed so I began to tell stories. Baun and
+Deelish said it was still young in the night, and that I should tell no
+short ones, but the long story of Eithne, Balor’s daughter. I had just
+begun that story, when one of the Hags cried out that she was consumed
+with thirst.
+
+She ran to the pitcher, and there was no water in it. Then another Hag
+shouted out that the thirst was strangling her. The third one said she
+could not live another minute without a mouthful of water. She took the
+pitcher and started for the well. No sooner was she gone than the
+second Hag said she couldn’t wait for the first one to come back and she
+started out after her. Then the third one thought that the pair
+would stay too long talking at the well, and she started after them.
+Immediately I took the pillows off our bed and put them on the Hags’
+bed, taking their pillows instead.
+
+The Hags came back with a half-filled pitcher, and they ordered us to
+go to our bed. We went, and they sat for a while drinking porringers of
+water. “Crom Duv will be here the first thing in the morning,” I heard
+one of them say. They put their heads on the pillows and in the turn of
+a hand they were dead-fast-sound asleep. I told my foster-sisters then
+what I had done and why I had done it. They were very frightened, but
+seeing the Hags so sound asleep they composed themselves and slept too.
+
+Before the screech of day Crom Duv came to the house. I went outside and
+saw the Giant. I said I was the servant of the Hags, and that they were
+sleeping still. He said, “They are my runners and summoners, my brewers,
+bakers and candle-makers, and they have no right to be sleeping so
+late.” Then he went away.
+
+I knew that the three Hags would slumber until we took the pillows from
+under their heads. We left them sleeping while we put down a fire and
+made our break-fast. Then, when we were ready for our journey, we took
+the pillows from under their heads. The three Hags started up then,
+but we were out on the door, and had taken the first three steps of our
+journey.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+Without hap or mishap we came at last to the domain of the King of
+Senlabor. Baun went to sing for the King’s foster-daughters, and Deelish
+went to work at the little loom in the King’s chamber. We were not long
+at the court of the King of Senlabor when two youths came there from the
+court of the King of Ireland--Dermott and Downal were their names. There
+was a famous sword-smith with the King of Senlabor and these two came
+to learn the trade from him. And my two foster-sisters fell so deeply in
+love with the two youths that every night the pillow on each side of me
+was wet with their tears.
+
+I went to work in the King’s kitchen. Now the King had a dish of such
+fine earthware and with such beautiful patterns upon it that he never
+let it be carried from the Kitchen to the Feast-Hall, nor from the
+Feast-Hall to the Kitchen without going himself behind the servant who
+carried it. One day the servant brought it into the Kitchen to be washed
+and the King came behind the servant. I took the dish and cleaned it
+with thrice-boiled water and dried it with cloths of three different
+kinds. Then I covered it with sweet-smelling herbs and left it in a bin
+where it was sunk in soft bran. The King was pleased to see the good
+care I took of his dish, and he said before his servant that he would
+do me any favor I would ask. There and then I told him about my two
+foster-sisters Baun and Deelish, and how they were in love with the two
+youths Dermott and Downal who had come from the court of the King of
+Ireland. I asked that when these two youths were being given wives, that
+the King should remember my foster-sisters.
+
+The King was greatly vexed at my request. He declared that the two
+youths had on their breasts the stars that denoted the sons of Kings and
+that he intended they should marry his own two foster-daughters when the
+maidens were of age to wed. “It may be,” he said, “that these two youths
+will bring what my Queen longs for--a berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree
+that is guarded by the Giant Crom Duv.”
+
+The next day the King’s Councillor was feeding the birds and I was
+sifting the corn. I asked him what was the history of the Fairy Rowan
+Tree that the Giant Crom Duv guarded and why it was that the Queen
+longed for a berry of it. There and then he told me this story:--
+
+
+
+
+The Story of the Fairy Rowan Tree
+
+
+The history of the Fairy Rowan Tree (said the King’s Councillor) begins
+with Aine’, the daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea. Curoi, the
+King of the Munster Fairies loved Aine’ and sought her in marriage. But
+the desire of the girl’s heart was set upon Fergus who was a mortal,
+and one of the Fianna of Ireland. Now when Mananaun MacLir heard Curoi’s
+proposals and learned how his daughter’s heart was inclined, he said,
+“Let the matter be settled in this way: we will call a hurling-match
+between the Fairies of Munster and the Fianna of Ireland with Curoi to
+captain one side and Fergus to captain the other, and if the Fairies
+win, Aine’ will marry Curoi and if the Fianna have the victory she will
+have my leave to marry this mortal Fergus.”
+
+So a hurling-match was called for the first day of Lunassa, and it
+was to be played along the strand of the sea. Mananaun himself set the
+goal-marks, and Aine’ was there to watch the game. It was played from
+the rising of the sun until the high tide of noon, and neither side won
+a goal. Then the players stopped to eat the refreshment that Mananaun
+had provided.
+
+This is what Mananaun had brought from his own country, Silver-Cloud
+Plain: a branch of bright-red rowan berries. Whoever ate one of these
+rowan berries his hunger and his weariness left him in a moment. The
+berries were to be eaten by the players, Mananaun said, and not one of
+them was to be taken into the world of the mortals or the world of the
+Fairies.
+
+When they stopped playing at the high tide of noon the mortal Fergus saw
+Aine’ and saw her for the first time. A spirit that he had never felt
+before flowed into him at the sight of Mananaun’s daughter. He forgot to
+eat the berry he was given and held it in his mouth by the stalk.
+
+He went into the hurling-match again and now he was like a hawk amongst
+small birds. Curoi defended the goal and drove the ball back. Fergus
+drove it to the goal again; the two champions met and Curoi’s hurl, made
+out of rhinoceros’ horn, did not beat down Fergus’s hurl made out of the
+ash of the wood. The hosts stood aside and left the game to Fergus and
+Curoi. Curoi’s hurl jerked the ball upward; then Fergus gave it the
+double stroke first with the handle and then with the weighted end
+of the hurl and drove it, beautifully as a flying bird, between the
+goal-marks that Mananaun had set up. The match was won by the goal that
+Fergus had gained.
+
+The Fianna then invited the Fairies of Munster to a feast that they were
+giving to Fergus and his bride. The Fairies went, and Mananaun and Aine’
+went before them all. Fergus marched at the head of his troop with the
+rowan berry still hanging from his mouth. And as he went he bit the
+stalk and the berry fell to the ground. Fergus never heeded that.
+
+When the feast was over he went to where Mananaun stood with his
+daughter. Aine’ gave him her hand. “And it is well,” said Conan, the
+Fool of the Fianna, “that this thick-witted Fergus has at last dropped
+the berry out of his mouth.” “What berry?” said Curoi, who was standing
+by. “The rowan berry,” said Conan, “that he carried across two townlands
+the same as if he were a bird.”
+
+When Mananaun heard this he asked about the berry that Fergus had
+carried. It was not to be found. Then the Fianna and the Fairies of
+Munster started back to look for a trace of it. What they found was a
+wonderful Rowan Tree. It had grown out of the berry that Fergus had let
+fall, but as yet there were no berries on its branches.
+
+Mananaun, when he saw the tree said, “No mortal may take a berry that
+grows on it. Hear my sentence now. Fergus will have to guard this tree
+until he gets one who will guard it for him. And he may not see nor keep
+company with Aine’ his bride until he finds one who will guard it better
+than he can guard it himself.” Then Mananaun wrapped his daughter in his
+cloak and strode away in a mist. The Fairy Host went in one direction
+and the Fianna in another, and Fergus was left standing sorrowfully by
+the Fairy Rowan Tree.
+
+
+Next day (said Morag), when the King’s Councillor was feeding the birds
+and I was sifting the corn, he told me the rest of the history of the
+Fairy Rowan Tree. Fergus thought and thought how he might leave off
+watching it and be with Aine’, his bride. At last he bethought him of
+a Giant who lived on a rocky island with only a flock of goats for his
+possessions. This Giant had begged Finn, the Chief of the Fianna, for
+a strip of the land of Ireland, even if it were only the breadth of a
+bull’s hide. Finn had refused him. But now Fergus sent to Finn and asked
+him to bring the Giant to be the guardian of the Fairy Rowan Tree and to
+give him the land around it. “I mislike letting this giant Crom Duv have
+any portion of the land of Ireland,” said Finn, “nevertheless we cannot
+refuse Fergus.”
+
+So Finn sent some of the Fianna to the Giant and they found him
+living on a bare rock of an island with only a flock of goats for his
+possessions. Crom Duv lay on his back and laughed when he heard what
+message the men of the Fianna brought to him. Then he put them and his
+flock of goats into his big boat and rowed them over to Ireland.
+
+Crom Duv swore by his flock of goats he would guard the Fairy Rowan Tree
+until the red berries ceased to come on its branches. Fergus left his
+place at the tree then and went to Aine’, and it may be that she and he
+are still together.
+
+Well did Crom Duv guard the tree, never going far from it and sleeping
+at night in its branches. And one year a heifer came and fed with his
+flock of goats and another year a bullock came. And these were the
+beginning of his great herd of cattle. He has become more and more
+greedy for cattle, said the King’s Councillor, and now he takes them
+away to far pastures. But still the Fairy Rowan Tree is well guarded.
+The Bull that is called the Bull of the Mound is on guard near by, and
+twenty-four fierce yellow cats watch the tree night and day.
+
+The Queen of Senlabor and many another woman besides desires a berry
+from the Fairy Rowan Tree that stands in Crom Duv’s courtyard. For
+the woman who is old and who eats a berry from that tree becomes young
+again, and the maid who is young and who eats a berry gets all the
+beauty that should be hers of right. And now, my maid, said the King’s
+Councillor to me, I have told you the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree.
+
+When I heard all this (said Morag), I made up my mind to get a berry for
+the Queen and maybe another berry besides from the Fairy Rowan Tree in
+Crom Duv’s courtyard. When the King came into the kitchen again, I asked
+him would he permit my foster-sisters to marry Downal and Dermott if I
+brought to his Queen a berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree. He said he would
+give permission heartily. That night when I felt the tears of Baun and
+Deelish I told them I was going to search for such a dowry for them that
+when they had it the King would let them marry the youths they had set
+their hearts on. They did not believe I could do anything to help them,
+but they gave me leave to go.
+
+The next day I told the Queen I was going to seek for a berry from the
+Fairy Rowan Tree. She told me that if I could bring back one berry to
+her she would give me all the things she possessed. I said good-by to my
+foster-sisters and with the Little Red Hen under my arm I went towards
+the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth. I built a shelter and waited
+till Crom Duv came that way. One early morning he came by. I stood
+before him and I told him that I wanted to take service in his house.
+
+Crom Duv had never had a servant in his house. But I told him that he
+should have a byre-maid and that I was well fitted to look after his
+cattle. He told me to follow him. I saw the Bull of the Mound and I was
+made wonder how I could get away with the berry from the Fairy Rowan
+Tree. Then I saw the twenty-four fierce yellow cats and I was made
+wonder how I could get the berry from the tree. And after that I found
+out about the Moat of Poisoned Water that is behind the high wall at the
+back of Crom Duv’s house. And so now (said Morag), you know why I have
+come here and how hard the task is I have taken on myself.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+
+Now that he had heard the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree, Flann often
+looked at the clusters of scarlet berries that were high up on its
+branches. The Tree could be climbed, Flann knew. But on the top of the
+tree and along its branches were the fierce yellow cats--the cats that
+the Hags of the Long Teeth had reared for Crom Duv, thinking that he
+would some time give each of them the berry that would make them young
+again. And at the butt of the tree there were more cats. And all about
+the courtyard the Hags’ fierce cats paraded themselves.
+
+The walls round the Giant’s Keep were being built higher by Crom Duv,
+helped by his servant Flann. The Giant’s herd was now increased by many
+calves, and Morag the byre-maid had much to do to keep all the cows
+milked. And day and night Morag and Flann heard the bellowing of the
+Bull of the Mound.
+
+Now one day while Crom Duv was away with his herd, Flann and Morag were
+in the courtyard. They saw the Little Red Hen rouse herself up, shake
+her wings and turn a bright eye on them. “What dost thou say, my Little
+Red Hen?” said Morag.
+
+“The Pooka,” murmured the Little Red Hen. “The Pooka rides a fierce
+horse, but the Pooka himself is a timid little fellow.” Then the Little
+Red Hen drooped her wings again, and went on picking in the courtyard.
+
+“The Pooka rides a fierce horse,” said Morag, “if the Pooka rides a
+fierce horse he might carry us past the Bull of the Mound.”
+
+“And if the Pooka himself is a timid little fellow we might take the
+fierce horse from him,” said Flann.
+
+“But this does not tell us how to get the berries off the Fairy Rowan
+Tree,” said Morag.
+
+“No,” said Flann, “it does not tell us how to get the berries off the
+tree the cats guard.”
+
+The next day Morag gave grains to the Little Red Hen and begged for
+words. After a while the Little Red Hen murmured, “There are things I
+know, and things I don’t know, but I do know what grows near the ground,
+and if you pull a certain herb, and put it round the necks of the cats
+they will not be able to see in the light nor in the dark. And to-morrow
+is the day of Sowain,” said the Little Red Hen. She said no more words.
+She had become sleepy and now she flew down and roosted under the table.
+There she went on murmuring to herself--as all hens murmur--where the
+Children of Dana hid their treasures--they know, for it was the Children
+of Dana who brought the hens to Ireland.
+
+“To-morrow,” said Morag to Flann, “follow the Little Red Hen, and if
+she makes any sign when she touches an herb that grows near the ground,
+pluck that herb and bring it to me.”
+
+That night Morag and Flann talked about the Pooka and his fierce horse.
+On Sowain night--the night before the real short days begin--the Pooka
+rides through the countryside touching any fruit that remains, so that
+it may bring no taste into winter. The blackberries that were good
+to eat the day before are no good on November day, because the Pooka
+touched them the night before. What else the Pooka does no one really
+knows. He is a timid fellow as the Little Red Hen said, and he hopes
+that the sight of his big black horse and the sound of its trampling and
+panting as he rides by will frighten people out of his way, for he has a
+great fear of being seen.
+
+The next day the Little Red Hen stayed in the courtyard until Crom Duv
+left with his herd. Flann followed her. She went here and there between
+the house and the wall at the back, now picking a grain of sand and
+now an ant or spider or fly. And as she went about the Little Red Hen
+murmured a song to herself:--
+
+   When sleep would settle on me
+   Like the wild bird down on the nest,
+   The wind comes out of the West:
+   It tears at the door, maybe,
+   And frightens away my rest--
+   When sleep would come upon me
+   Like the wild bird down on the nest.
+
+   The cock is aloft with his crest:
+   The barn-owl comes from her quest
+   She fixes an eye upon me
+   And frightens away my rest
+   When sleep would settle on me
+   Like the wild bird down on its nest.
+
+Flann watched all the Little Red Hen did. He saw her put her head on
+one side and look down for a while at a certain herb that grew near the
+ground. Flann plucked that herb and brought it to Morag.
+
+The cattle had come home, but Crom Duv was not with them. Morag milked
+the cows and brought all the milk within, leaving no milk for the cats
+to drink outside. Six came into the kitchen to get their supper there.
+One after another they sprang up on the table, one more proud and
+overbearing than the other. Each cat ate without condescending to make
+a single mew. “Cat of my heart,” said Morag to the first, when he had
+finished drinking his milk. “Cat of my heart! How noble you would look
+with this red around your neck.” She held out a little satchel in which
+a bit of the herb was sewn. The first cat gave a look that said, “Well,
+you may put it on me.” Morag put the red satchel around his neck and he
+jumped off the table.
+
+It was so with all the other cats. They finished lapping their milk and
+Morag showed them the red ribbon satchel. They let her put it round each
+of their necks and then they sprang off the table, and marched off more
+scornful and overbearing than before.
+
+
+Six of the fierce yellow cats climbed into the branches of the Fairy
+Rowan Tree; six stayed in the kitchen; six went into Crom Duv’s chamber,
+and six went to march round the house, three taking each side. No sound
+came from the cats that were within or without. Morag drew a ball of
+cotton across the floor, and the cats that were in the kitchen gave no
+sign of seeing it. “The sight has left their eyes,” said Morag. “Then,”
+ said Flann, “I will climb the Fairy Rowan Tree and bring down two
+berries.” “Be sure you bring down two, my dear, my dear,” said Morag.
+
+They went out to the courtyard and Flann began to climb the Fairy Rowan
+Tree with all suppleness, strength and cunning. The cats that were
+below felt him going up the tree and the cats that were above humped
+themselves up. Flann passed the first branch on which a cat was
+crouched. He went above where the rowan berries were, and bending down
+he picked two of them and put them into his mouth.
+
+He came down quickly with the cats tearing at him. Others had come out
+of the house and were mewing and spitting in the courtyard. Only one had
+fastened itself on Flann’s jerkin, and this one would not let go. “Come
+into the wood, come into the wood,” said Morag. “Now we must stand
+between the house and the mound, and wait till the Pooka rides by.”
+ Flann put the two berries into her hand, they jumped across the chain,
+and ran from the house of the Giant Crom Duv.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+
+They went into the wood, Flann and Morag, and the Little Red Hen was
+under Morag’s arm. They thought they would hide behind trees until they
+heard the coming of the Pooka and his horse. But they were not far in
+the wood when they heard Crom Duv coming towards his house. He came
+towards them with the iron spike in his hand. Flann and Morag ran.
+Then from tree to tree Crom Duv chased them, shouting and snorting and
+smashing down branches with the iron spike in his hand. Morag and
+Flann came to a stream, and as they ran along its bank they heard the
+trampling and panting of a horse coming towards them. Up it came, a
+great black horse with a sweeping mane. “Halt, Pooka,” said Flann in
+a commanding voice. The black horse halted and the Pooka that was its
+rider slipped down to its tail.
+
+Flann held the snorting horse and Morag got on its back. Then Flann
+sprang up between Morag and the horse’s head. Crom Duv was just beside
+them. “Away, Pooka, away,” said Flann, and the horse started through the
+wood like the wind of March.
+
+And then Crom Duv blew on the horn that was across his breast and the
+Bull of the Mound bellowed in answer. As they went by the mound the Bull
+charged down and its horns tossed the tail of the Pooka’s horse. The
+Bull turned and swept after them with his head down and hot breath
+coming out of his nostrils. And when they were in the hollow he was on
+the height, and when they were on the height he was in the hollow. And a
+hollow or a height behind his Bull came Crom Duv himself.
+
+Then the breath of the Bull became hot upon Morag and Flann and the
+Pooka. “Oh, what shall we do now?” said Morag to the Pooka who was
+hanging on to the horse’s tail, his little face all twisted up with
+fear.
+
+
+“Put your hand into my horse’s ear and fling behind what you will find
+there,” said the Pooka, his teeth chattering. Flann put his hand into
+the horse’s right ear and found a twig of ash. He flung it behind them.
+Instantly a tangled wood sprang up. They heard the Bull driving through
+the tangle of the wood and they heard Crom Duv shouting as he smashed
+his way through the brakes and branches. But the Bull and the man got
+through the wood and again they began to gain on the Pooka’s horse.
+Again the breath of the Bull became hot upon them. “Oh, Pooka, what
+shall we do now?” said Morag.
+
+“Put your hand into my horse’s ear and fling behind what you will find
+there,” said the Pooka, his teeth chattering with fear as he held on to
+his horse’s tail. Flann put his hand into the horse’s left ear and he
+found a bubble of water. He flung it behind them. Instantly it spread
+out as a lake and as they rode on, the lake waters spread behind them.
+
+Morag and Flann never knew whether the Giant and the Bull went into that
+lake, or if they did, whether they ever came out of it. They crossed the
+river that marked the bounds of Crom Duv’s domain and they were safe.
+Flann pulled up the horse and jumped on to the ground. Morag sprang down
+with the Little Red Hen. Then the Pooka swung forward and whispered into
+his horse’s ear. Instantly it struck fire out of its hooves and sprang
+down the side of a hill. From that day to this Morag nor Flann ever saw
+sight of the Pooka and his big, black, snorting and foaming horse.
+
+“Dost thou know where we are, my Little Red Hen?” said Morag when the
+sun was in the sky again.
+
+“There are things I know and things I don’t know,” said the Little Red
+Hen, “but I know we are near the place we started from.”
+
+“Which way do we go to come to that place, my Little Red Hen?” said
+Morag. “The way of the sun,” said the Little Red Hen. So Morag and Flann
+went the way of the sun and the Little Red Hen hopped beside them. Morag
+had in a weasel-skin purse around her neck the two rowan berries that
+Flann had given her.
+
+They went towards the house of the Spae-Woman. And as they went Morag
+told Flann of the life she had there when she and her foster-sisters
+were growing up, and Flann told Morag of the things he did when he was
+in the house of the Spae-Woman after she and her foster-sisters had left
+it.
+
+They climbed the heather-covered knowe on which was the Spae-Woman’s
+house and the Little Red Hen went flitting and fluttering towards the
+gate. The Spae-Woman’s old goat was standing in the yard, and its horns
+went down and its beard touched its knees and it looked at the Little
+Red Hen. Then the Little Red Hen flew up on its back. “We’re here again,
+here again,” said the Little Red Hen.
+
+And then the Spae-Woman came to the door and saw who the comers were.
+She covered them with kisses and watered them with tears, and dried them
+with cloths silken and with the hair of her head.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+
+Flann told the Spae-Woman all his adventures. And when he had told her
+all he said--“What Queen is my mother, O my fosterer?” “Your mother,”
+ said the Spae-Woman, “is Caintigern, the Queen of the King of Ireland.”
+
+“And is my mother then not Sheen whose story has been told me?” “Her
+name was changed to Caintigern when her husband who was called the
+Hunter-King made himself King over Ireland and began to rule as King
+Connal.”
+
+“Then who is my comrade who is called the King of Ireland’s Son?”
+
+“He too is King Connal’s son, born of a queen who died at his birth and
+who was wife to King Connal before he went on his wanderings and met
+Sheen your mother.”
+
+And as the Spae-Woman said this someone came and stood at the doorway. A
+girl she was and wherever the sun was it shone on her, and wherever the
+breeze was it rippled over her. White as the snow upon a lake frozen
+over was the girl, and as beautiful as flowers and as alive as birds
+were her eyes, while her cheeks had the red of fox-gloves and her hair
+was the blending of five bright soft colors. She looked at Flann happily
+and her eyes had the kind look that was always in Morag’s eyes. And
+she came and ‘knelt down, putting her hands on his knees. “I am Morag,
+Flann,” she said.
+
+“Morag indeed,” said he, “but how have you become so fair?”
+
+“I have eaten the berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree,” said she, “and now I
+am as fair as I should be.”
+
+All day they were together and Flann was happy that his friend was so
+beautiful and that so beautiful a being was his friend. And he told
+her of his adventures in the Town of the Red Castle and of the Princess
+Flame-of-Wine and his love for her. “And if you love her still I will
+never see you again,” said Morag.
+
+“But,” said Flann, “I could not love her after the way she mocked at
+me.”
+
+“When did she mock at you?”
+
+“When I took her a message that the Spae-Woman told me to give her.”
+
+“And what was that message?”
+
+“‘Ask her,’ said the Spae-Woman, ‘for seven drops of her heart’s
+blood--she can give them and live--so that the spell may be taken from
+the seven wild geese and the mother who longs for you may be at
+peace again.’ This was the message the Spae-Woman told me to give
+Flame-of-Wine. And though I had given her wonderful gifts she laughed at
+me when I took it to her. And by the way she laughed I knew she was hard
+of heart.”
+
+“Yet seven drops of heart’s blood are hard to give,” said Morag sadly.
+
+“But the maiden who loves can give them,” said the Spae-Woman who was
+behind.
+
+“It is true, foster-mother,” said Morag.
+
+That evening Morag said, “To-morrow I must pre-pare for my journey to
+the Queen of Senlabor. You, Flann, may not come with me. The Spae-Woman
+has sent a message to your mother, and you must be here to meet her when
+she comes. A happy meeting to her and you, O Flann of my heart. And I
+shall leave you a token to give to her. So to-morrow I go to the Queen
+of Senlabor with the Rowan Berry and I shall bring my Little Red Hen
+for company, and shall stay only until my sisters are wed to Dermott and
+Downal, your brothers.”
+
+The next day when he came into the house he saw Morag dressed for her
+journey but seated at the fire. She was pale and ill-looking. “Do not
+go to-day, Morag,” said he. “I shall go to-day,” said Morag. She put her
+hand into the bosom of her dress and took out a newly-woven handkerchief
+folded. “This is a token for your mother,” she said. “I have woven it
+for her. Give her this gift from me when you have welcomed her.”
+
+“That I will do, Morag, my heart,” said Flann.
+
+The Spae-Woman came in and kissed Morag good-by and said the charm for a
+journey over her.
+
+   May my Silver-
+   Shielded Magian
+   Shed all lights
+   Across your path.
+
+Then Morag put the Little Red Hen under her arm and started out. “I
+shall find you,” said she to Flann, “at the Castle of the King of
+Ireland, for it is there I shall go when I part from my foster-sisters
+and the Queen of Senlabor. Kiss me now. But if you kiss anyone until you
+kiss me again you will forget me. Remember that.”
+
+“I will remember,” said Flann, and he kissed Morag and said, “When you
+come to the King of Ireland’s Castle we will be married.”
+
+“You gave me the Rowan Berry,” said Morag, “and the Rowan Berry gave me
+all the beauty that should be mine. But what good will my beauty be to
+me if you forget me?”
+
+“But, Morag,” said he, “how could I forget you?”
+
+She said nothing but went down the side of the knowe and Flann watched
+and watched until his eyes had no power to see any more.
+
+
+
+
+THE SPAE-WOMAN
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+There are many things to tell you still, my kind foster-child, but
+little time have I to tell you them, for the barnacle-geese are flying
+over the house, and when they have all flown by I shall have no more to
+say. And I have to tell you yet how the King of Ireland’s Son won home
+with Fedelma, the Enchanter’s daughter, and how it came to pass that the
+Seven Wild Geese that were Caintigern’s brothers were disenchanted and
+became men again. But above all I have to tell you the end of that story
+that was begun in the house of the Giant Crom Duv--the story of Flann
+and Morag.
+
+The barnacle-geese are flying over the house as I said. And so they were
+crossing and flying on the night the King of Ireland’s Son and Fedelma
+whom he had brought from the Land of Mist stayed in the house of the
+Little Sage of the Mountain. On that night the Little Sage told them
+from what bird had come the wing that thatched his house. That was a
+wonderful story. And he told them too about the next place they should
+go to--the Spae-woman’s house. There, he said he would find people that
+they knew--Flann, the King’s Son’s comrade, and Caintigern, the wife of
+the King of Ireland, and Fedelma’s sister, Gilveen.
+
+In the morning the Little Sage of the Mountain took them down the
+hillside to the place where Fedelma and the King’s Son would get a horse
+to ride to the Spae-Woman’s house. The Little Sage told them from
+what people the Spae-Woman came and why she lived amongst the poor
+and foolish without name or splendor or riches. And that, too, was a
+wonderful story.
+
+
+Now as the three went along the river-side they saw a girl on the other
+side of the river and she was walking from the place towards which they
+were going. The girl sang to herself as she went along, and the King’s
+Son and Fedelma and the Little Sage of the Mountain heard what she
+sang,--
+
+   A berry, a berry, a red rowan berry,
+   A red rowan berry brought mc beauty and love.
+
+   But drops of my heart’s blood, drops of my heart’s blood,
+   Seven drops of my heart’s blood I have given away.
+
+   Seven wild geese were men, seven wild geese were men,
+   Seven drops of my heart’s blood are there for your spell.
+
+   A kiss for my love, a kiss for my love,
+   May his kiss go to none till he meet me again.
+
+   If to one go his kiss, if to one go his kiss,
+   He may meet, he may meet, and not know me again.
+
+The girl on the other bank of the river passed on, and the King’s Son
+and Fedelma with the Little Sage of the Mountain came to the meadow
+where the horse was. A heavy, slow-moving horse he seemed. But when they
+mounted him they found he had the three qualities of Finn’s steeds--a
+quick rush against a hill, the gait of a fox, easy and proud, on the
+level ground, and the jump of a deer over harriers. They left health and
+good luck with the Little Sage of the Mountain, and on the horse he gave
+them they rode on to the Spae-Woman’s house.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+When Fedelma and the King of Ireland’s Son came to the Spae-Woman’s
+house, who was the first person they saw there but Gilveen, Fedelma’s
+sister! She came to where they reined their horse and smiled in the
+faces of her sister and the King of Ireland’s Son. And she it was who
+gave them their first welcome. “And you will be asking how I came here,”
+ said Gilveen, “and I will tell you without wasting candle-light. Myself
+and sister Aefa went to the court of the King of Ireland after you, my
+sister, had gone from us with the lucky man of your choice. And as for
+Aefa, she has been lucky too in finding a match and she is now married
+to Maravaun the King’s Councillor. I have been with Caintigern the
+Queen. And now the Queen is in the house of the Spae-Woman with the
+youth Flann and she is longing to give the clasp of welcome to both of
+you. And if you sit beside me on this grassy ditch I will tell you the
+whole story from the first to the last syllable.”
+
+They sat together, and Gilveen told Fedelma and the King’s Son the
+story. The Spae-Woman had sent a message to Caintigern the Queen to tell
+her she had tidings of her first-born son. Thereupon Caintigern went to
+the Spae-Woman’s house and Gilveen, her attendant, went with her. She
+found there Flann who had been known as Gilly of the Goatskin, and knew
+him for the son who had been stolen from her when he was born. Flann
+gave his mother a token which had been given him by a young woman. The
+token was a handkerchief and it held seven drops of heart’s blood. The
+Spae-Woman told the Queen that these seven drops would disenchant her
+brothers who had been changed from their own forms into the forms of
+seven wild geese.
+
+And while Gilveen was telling them all this Flann came to see whose
+horse was there, and great was his joy to find his comrade the King of
+Ireland’s Son. They knew now that they were the sons of the one father,
+and they embraced each other as brothers. And Flann took the hand of
+Fedelma and he told her and the King’s Son of his love for Morag. But
+when he was speaking of Morag, Gilveen went away.
+
+Then Flann took them into the Spae-Woman’s house, and the Queen who was
+seated at the fire rose up and gave them the clasp of welcome. The
+face she turned to the King’s Son was kindly and she called him by his
+child’s name. She said too that she was well pleased that he and Flann
+her son were good comrades, and she prayed they would be good comrades
+always.
+
+
+Fedelma and the King of Ireland’s Son rested themselves for a day. Then
+the Spae-Woman said that the Queen would strive on the next night--it
+was the night of the full moon--to bring back her seven brothers to
+their own forms. The Spae-Woman said too that the Queen and herself
+should be left alone in the house and that the King of Ireland’s
+Son with Flann and Fedelma and Gilveen should go towards the King of
+Ireland’s Castle with MacStairn the woodman, and wait for the Queen at a
+place a day’s journey away.
+
+So the King of Ireland’s Son and Flann, Fedelma and Gilveen bade good-by
+to the Queen, to the Spae-Woman and to the Spae-Woman’s house, and
+started their journey towards the King’s Castle with MacStairn the
+Woodman who walked beside their horses, a big axe in his hands.
+
+At night MacStairn built two bothies for them--one covered with green
+boughs for Fedelma and Gilveen and one covered with cut sods for Flann
+and the King of Ireland’s Son. Flann lay near the opening of this
+bothie. And at night, when the only stir in the forest was that of the
+leaves whispering to the Secret People, Gilveen arose from where she lay
+and came to the other bothie and whispered Flann’s name. He awakened,
+and thinking that Morag had come back to him (he had been dreaming of
+her), he put out his arms, drew Gilveen to him and kissed her. Then
+Gilveen ran back to her own bothie. And Flann did not know whether he
+had awakened or whether he had remained in a dream.
+
+But when he arose the next morning no thought of Morag was in his
+mind. And when the King’s Son rode with Fedelma he rode with Gilveen.
+Afterwards Gilveen gave him a drink that enchanted him, so that he
+thought of her night and day.
+
+Neither Fedelma nor the King’s Son knew what had come over Flann. They
+mentioned the name he had spoken of so often--Morag’s name but it seemed
+as if it had no meaning for him. At noon they halted to bide until the
+Queen came with or without her seven brothers. Flann and Gilveen were
+always together. And always Gilveen was smiling.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+When Caintigern had come, when she knew her son Flann, and when it was
+known to her and to the Spae-Woman that the token Morag had given him
+held the seven drops of heart’s blood that would bring back to their
+own forms the seven wild geese that were Caintigern’s brothers--when
+all this was known the Spae-Woman sent her most secret messenger to the
+marshes to give word to the seven wild geese that they were to fly to
+her house on the night when the moon was full. Her messenger was the
+corncrake. She traveled night and day, running swiftly through the
+meadows. She hid on the edge of the marshes and craked out her message
+to the seven wild geese. At last they heard what she said. On the day
+before the night of the full moon they flew, the seven together, towards
+the Spae-Woman’s house.
+
+No one was in the house but Caintigern the Queen. The door was left
+open to the light of the moon. The seven wild geese flew down and stayed
+outside the door, moving their heads and wings in the full moonlight.
+
+Then Caintigern arose and took bread that the Spae-Woman had made. She
+moistened it in her mouth, and into each bit of moistened bread she put
+a piece of the handkerchief that had a drop of blood. She held out
+her hand, giving each the moistened bread. The first that ate it fell
+forward on the floor of the Spae-Woman’s house, his head down on the
+ground. His sister saw him then as a kneeling man with this arms held
+behind him as if they were bound. And when she looked outside she saw
+the others like kneeling men with their heads bent and their arms held
+behind them. Then Caintigern said, giving the Spae-Woman her secret
+name, “O Grania Oi, let it be that my brothers be changed back to men!”
+ When she said this she saw the Spae-Woman coming across the court-yard.
+The Spae-Woman waved her hands over the bent figures. They lifted
+themselves up as men--as naked, gray men.
+
+The Spae-Woman gave each a garment and the seven men came into the
+house. They would stand and not sit, and for long they had no speech.
+Their sister knelt before each and wet his hand with her tears. She
+thought she should see them as youths or as young men, and they were
+gray now and past the prime of their lives.
+
+They stayed at the house and speech came back to them. Then they longed
+to go back to their father’s, but Caintigern could not bear that they
+should go from her sight. At last four of her brothers went and three
+stayed with her. They would go to her husband’s Castle and the others
+would go too after they had been at their father’s. Then one day
+Caintigern said farewell. The thanks that was due to the Spae-Woman, she
+said she would give by her treatment of the maid who had given the
+token to her son Flann. And she prayed that Morag would soon come to the
+King’s Castle.
+
+
+She went with her three brothers to the place where Flann and the King
+of Ireland’s Son, Fedelma and Gilveen waited for them. A smith groomed
+and decked horses for all of them and they rode towards the King of
+Ireland’s Castle, MacStairn, the Woodman, going before to announce their
+coming.
+
+The King of Ireland waited at the stone where the riders to his Castle
+dismount, and his steward, his Councillor and his Druid were beside him.
+He lifted his wife off her horse and she brought him to Flann. And when
+the King looked into Flann’s eyes he knew he was his son and the son
+of Sheen, now known as Caintigern. He gave Flann a father’s clasp of
+welcome. And the queen brought him to her own three brothers who had
+been estranged from human companionship from before he knew her. And she
+brought him to the youth who was always known as the King of Ireland’s
+Son, and him his father welcomed from the path of danger.
+
+And then the King’s Son took Fedelma to his father and told him she
+was his love and his wife to be. And the King welcomed Fedelma to the
+Castle. Then said Gilveen, “There is a secret between this young man,
+Flann, and myself.”
+
+“What is the secret?” said the Queen, laying her hands suddenly upon
+Gilveen’s shoulders.
+
+“That I am his wife to be,” said Gilveen.
+
+The Queen went to her son and said, “Dost thou not remember Morag,
+Flann, who gave the token that thou gavest me?”
+
+And Flann said, “Morag! I think the Spae-Woman spoke of her name in a
+story.”
+
+“I am Flann’s wife to be,” said Gilveen, smiling in his face.
+
+“Yes, my wife to be,” said Flann. Then the King welcomed Gilveen too,
+and they all went into the Castle. He told his wife he had messages from
+the King of Senlabor about his other sons Dermott and Downal, saying
+that they were making good names for themselves, and that everything
+they did was becoming to sons of Kings. In the hall Fedelma saw Aefa her
+other sister. Aefa was so proud of herself since she married Maravaun
+the King’s Councillor that she would hardly speak to anyone. She gave
+her sisters the tips of her fingers and she bowed very slightingly to
+the two youths. The King questioned his druid as to when it would be
+well to have marriages made in his Castle and the druid said it would be
+well not to make them until the next appearance of the full moon.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+
+As for Morag she went by track and path, by boher and bohereen, through
+fords in rivers and over stepping-stones across them, until at last she
+came to the country of Senlabor and to the Castle of the King.
+
+No one of high degree was in the Castle, for all had gone to watch the
+young horses being broken in the meadow by the river; the King and
+Queen had gone, and the King’s foster-daughters; and of the maids in the
+Castle, Baun and Deelish had gone too. The King’s Councillor also had
+gone from the Castle. Morag went and stayed in the kitchen, and the
+maids who were there did not know her, either because they were new and
+had not heard her spoken of at all, or because she had changed to such
+beauty through eating the berry of the Fairy Rowan Tree that no one
+could know her now for Morag who had cleaned dishes in that kitchen
+before.
+
+It was Breas the King’s Steward who came to her and asked her who she
+was. She told him. Then Breas looked sharply at her and saw she was
+indeed Morag who had been in the King’s kitchen. Then he said loudly,
+“Before you left you broke the dish that the King looked on as his
+especial treasure, and for this, you will be left in the Stone House. I
+who have power in this matter order that it be so.” Then he said in her
+ear, “But kisses and sweet words would make me willing to save you.”
+
+Morag, in a voice raised, called him by that evil name that he was known
+by to the servants and their gossips. But the servants, hearing that
+name said in the hearing of Breas, pretended to be scandalized. They
+went to Morag and struck her with the besoms they had for sweeping the
+floor.
+
+
+Just then her foster-sisters, Baun and Deelish, came into the kitchen.
+Seeing her there they knew her. They spoke to her quietly, but with
+anger, saying they had not wanted her to go on the journey she had
+taken, but, as she had gone it was a pity she had come back, for now she
+had behaved in an iii-mannered way, and they who were her foster-sisters
+would be thought to be as ill-mannered; they told her too that before
+she came back they were well-liked by all, and that Breas had even
+ordered a shady place to be given them at the horse-breaking sports,
+and they had been able to see the two youths who had broken the horses,
+Dermott and Downal.
+
+“It was for a benefit to you that I came back,” said Morag. “I shall
+ask one of you to do a thing for me. You, Baun, sing for the
+foster-daughters of the King. Before they sleep to-night ask them to
+tell the Queen that Morag has returned, and has a thing to give her.”
+
+“I shall try to remember that, Morag,” said Baun. Morag was taken to
+the Stone House by strong-armed bondswomen, and Baun and Deelish sat in
+corners and cried and did not go near her.
+
+That night the King’s foster-daughters kept awake for long, and after
+Baun had sung to them they asked her to tell them what had happened in
+the Castle. Then Baun remembered the tumult in the kitchen that had come
+from the name given to Breas. She told the King’s foster-daughters that
+Morag had come back. “She was reared in the same house with us,” said
+Baun, “but she is not of the same parents.” And then she said; “If your
+Fair Finenesses can remember, tell the Queen that Morag has come back.”
+
+The next day when they were walking with the Queen one of the King’s
+foster-daughters said, “Did you know of a maid named Morag? I have heard
+that she has been away and has come back.”
+
+“How did she fare?” said the Queen.
+
+“We have not heard that,” said the maiden who spoke.
+
+The Queen went to where Baun and Deelish were and from them she heard
+that Morag had been put into the Stone House on the charge that she had
+broken the King’s dish when she had been in the Castle before. Now the
+Queen knew that the dish had been safe after Morag had left. She went
+to the King’s Steward and accused him of having broken it and Breas
+admitted that it was so. Thereupon he lost his rank and became the
+meanest and the most despised servant in the Castle.
+
+The Queen went to the Stone House and took Morag out. She asked her how
+she had fared and thereupon Morag put the Rowan Berry in the Queen’s
+hand. She hastened to her own chamber and ate it, and her youth and
+beauty came back to her, and the King who had grown solitary, loved the
+Queen again.
+
+Then Morag came to great honor in the Castle and the Queen asked her
+to name the greatest favor she could think of. And the favor that Morag
+named was marriages for her foster-sisters with the two youths they
+loved, Downal and Dermott from the court of the King of Ireland.
+
+The Queen, when she heard this, brought fine clothes out of her chests
+and gave them to Baun and Deelish. When they had dressed in these
+clothes the Queen made them known to the two youths. Downal and Dermott
+fell in love with Morag’s foster-sisters, and the King named a day for
+the pairs to marry.
+
+Morag waited to see the marriages, and the King and Queen made it a
+grand affair. There were seven hundred guests at the short table,
+eight hundred at the long table, nine hundred at the round table, and
+a thousand in the great hall. I was there, and I heard the whole story.
+But I got no present save shoes of paper and stockings of butter-milk
+and these a herdsman stole from me as I crossed the mountains.
+
+But Morag got better presents, for the Queen gave her three gifts--a
+scissors that cut cloth of itself, a ball of thread that went into the
+needle of itself, and a needle that sewed of itself.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+
+Morag, with the three gifts that the Queen of Senlabor gave her,
+came again to the Spae-Woman’s house. Her Little Red Hen was in the
+courtyard, and she fluttered up to meet her. But there was no sign of
+any other life about the place. Then, below at the washing-stream
+she found the Spae-Woman rinsing clothes. She was standing on the
+middle-stones, clapping her hands as if in great trouble. “Oh, Morag,
+my daughter Morag,” cried the Spae-Woman, “there are signs on the
+clothes--there are signs on the clothes!”
+
+After a while she ceased crying and clapping her hands and came up from
+the stream. She showed Morag that in all the shifts and dimities she
+washed for her, a hole came just above where her heart would be. Morag
+grew pale when she saw that, but she stood steadily and she did not
+wail. “Should I go to the King’s Castle, fosterer?” said she. “No,”
+ said the Spae-Woman, “but to the woodman’s hut that is near the King’s
+Castle. And take your Little Red Hen with you, my daughter,” said she,
+“and do not forget the three presents that the Queen of Senlabor gave
+you.” Then the Spae-Woman stood up and said the blessing of the journey
+over Morag:--
+
+   May the Olden
+   One, whom Fairy
+   Women nurtured
+   Through seven ages,
+   Bring you seven
+   Waves of fortune.
+
+Morag gave her the clasp of farewell then, and went on her way with the
+Little Red Hen under her arm and the three presents that the Queen of
+Senlabor gave her in her pouch.
+
+
+Morag was going and ever going from the blink of day to the mouth of
+dark and that for three crossings of the sun, and at last she came
+within sight of the Castle of the King of Ireland. She asked a dog-boy
+for the hut of MacStairn the Woodman and the hut was shown to her. She
+went to it and saw the wife of MacStairn. She told her she was a girl
+traveling alone and she asked for shelter. “I can give you shelter,”
+ said MacStairn’s wife, “and I can get you earnings too, for there is
+much sewing-work to be done at this time.” Morag asked her what reason
+there was for that, and the woodman’s wife told her there were two
+couples in the Castle to be married soon. “One is the youth whom we have
+always called the King of Ireland’s Son. He is to be married to a maiden
+called Fedelma. The other is a youth who is the King’s son too, hut
+who has been away for a long time. Flann is his name. And he is to be
+married to a damsel called Gilveen.”
+
+When she heard that, it was as if a knife had been put into and turned
+in her heart. She let the Little Red Hen drop from her arm. “I would sew
+the garments that the damsel Gilveen is to wear,” said she, and she sat
+down on the stone outside the woodman’s hut. MacStairn’s wife then sent
+to the Castle to say that there was one in her hut who could sew all the
+garments that Gilveen would send her.
+
+The next day, with a servant walking behind, Gilveen came to the
+woodman’s hut with a basket of cloths and patterns. The basket was left
+down and Gilveen began to tell MacStairn’s wife how she wanted them cut,
+stitched and embroidered. Morag took up the crimson doth and let her
+scissors--the scissors that the Queen of Senlabor gave her--run through
+it. It cut out the pattern exactly. “What a wonderful scissors,” said
+Gilveen. She stooped down to where Morag was sitting on the stone
+outside of the woodman’s house and took up the scissors in her hand. She
+examined it. “I cannot give it back to you,” said she. “Give it to me,
+and I will let you have any favor you ask.” “Since you want me to
+ask you for a favor,” said Morag, “I ask that you let me sit at the
+supper-table to-night alone with the youth you are to marry.” “That will
+do me no harm,” said Gilveen. She went away, taking the scissors and
+smiling to herself.
+
+That night Morag went into the Castle and came to the supper-table where
+Flann was seated alone. But Gilveen had put a sleeping-draught into
+Flann’s cup and he neither saw nor knew Morag when she sat at the
+table. “Do you remember, Flann,” said she, “how we used to sit at the
+supper-board in the house of Crom Duv?” But Flann did not hear her, nor
+see her, and then Morag had to go away.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+The next day Gilveen came to where Morag sat on the stone outside the
+woodman’s hut to watch her stitch the garment she had cut out. The
+thread went into the needle of itself. “What a wonderful ball of
+thread,” said Gilveen, taking it up. “I cannot give it back to you. Ask
+me for a favor in place of it.” “Since you would have me ask a favor,”
+ said Morag, “I ask that you let me sit at the supper-table alone with
+the youth you are going to marry.” “That will do me no harm,” said
+Gilveen. She took the ball of thread and went away smiling.
+
+That night Morag went into the Castle and came to the supper-table where
+Flann was seated alone. But Gilveen again had put a sleeping-draught
+into his cup, and Flann did not see or know Morag. “Do you not remember,
+Flann,” said she, “the story of Morag that I told you across the
+supper-board in the House of Crom Duv?” But Flann gave no sign of
+knowing her, and then Morag had to go away.
+
+The next day Gilveen came to watch Morag make the red embroideries upon
+the white garment. When she put the needle into the cloth it worked out
+the pattern of itself. “This is the most wonderful thing of all,” said
+Gilveen. She stooped down and took the needle in her hand. “I cannot
+give this back to you,” she said, “and you will have to ask for a favor
+that will recompense you.”
+
+“If I must ask for a favor,” said Morag, “the only favor I would ask is
+that you let me sit at the supper-table to-night alone with the youth
+you are to marry.” “That will do me no harm,” said Gilveen, and she took
+the needle and went away smiling. Morag went to the Castle again that
+night, but this time she took the Little Red Hen with her. She scattered
+grains on the table and the Little Red Hen picked them up. “Little Hen,
+Little Red Hen,” said Morag, “he slept too when I gave the seven drops
+of my heart’s blood for his mother’s sake.” The Little Red Hen flew
+into Flann’s face. “Seven drops of heart’s blood, seven drops of heart’s
+blood,” said the Little Red Hen, and Flann heard the words.
+
+He opened his eyes and saw the Little Red Hen on the table and knew that
+she belonged to one that he had known. Morag, at the other side of the
+table, looked strange and shadowy to him. But he threw crumbs on the
+table and fed the Little Red Hen, and as he watched her picking up the
+crumbs the memory of Morag came back to him. Then he saw her. He knew
+her for his sweetheart and his promised wife and he went to her and
+asked her how it came that she had not been in his mind for so long. “I
+will tell you how you came to forget me,” said she, “it was because of
+the kiss you gave Gilveen, and the enchantment she was able to put on
+you because of that kiss.”
+
+There was sorrow on Morag’s face when she said that, but the sorrow went
+as the thin clouds go from before the face of the high-hung moon, and
+Flann saw her as his kind comrade of Crom Duv’s and as his beautiful
+friend of the Spae-Woman’s house. They kissed each other then, and every
+enchantment went but the lasting enchantment of love, and they sat with
+hands joined until the log in the fire beside them had burnt itself down
+into a brand and the brand had burnt itself into ashes, and all the time
+that passed was, as they thought, only while the watching-gilly outside
+walked from one side of the Castle Gate to the other.
+
+
+Gilveen had come into the room and she saw Flann and Morag give each
+other a true-lover’s kiss. She went away. But the next day she came to
+the King’s Steward, Art, who at one time wanted to marry her, and whom
+she had refused because Aefa, her sister, had married one of a higher
+degree--she came to Art and she told him that she would not marry Flann
+because she had found out that he had a low-born sweetheart. “And I am
+ready to marry you, Art,” she said. And Art was well pleased, and he and
+Gilveen left the Castle to be married.
+
+Then the day came when Fedelma and the King of Ireland’s Son, and Morag
+and Flann were married. They were plighted to each other in the Circle
+of Stones by the Druids who invoked upon them the powers of the Sun, the
+Moon, the Earth, and the Air. They were married at the height of the day
+and they feasted at night when the wax candles were lighted round the
+tables. They had Greek honey and Lochlinn beer; ducks from Achill,
+apples from Emain and venison from the Hunting Hill; they had trout
+and grouse and plovers’ eggs and a boar’s head for every King in the
+company. And these were the Kings who sat down to table with the King of
+Eirinn: the King of Sorcha, the King of Hispania, the King of Lochlinn
+and the King of the Green Island who had Sunbeam for his daughter. And
+they had there the best heroes of Lochlinn, the best story-tellers of
+Alba, the best bards of Eirinn. They laid sorrow and they raised music,
+and the harpers played until the great champion Split-the-Shields told a
+tale of the realm of Greece and how he slew the three lions that guarded
+the daughter of the King. They feasted for six days and the last day
+was better than the first, and the laugh they laughed when Witless, the
+Saxon fool, told how Split-the-Shield’s story should have ended, shook
+the young jackdaws out of every chimney in the Castle and brought them
+down fluttering on the floors.
+
+The King of Ireland lived long, but he died while his sons were in their
+strong manhood, and after he passed away the Island of Destiny came
+under the equal rule of the two. And one had rule over the courts and
+cities, the harbors and the military encampments. And the other had rule
+over the waste places and the villages and the roads where masterless
+men walked. And the deeds of one are in the histories the shanachies
+have written in the language of the learned, and the deeds of the other
+are in the stories the people tell to you and to me.
+
+   When I crossed the Ford
+   They were turning the Mountain Pass;
+   When I stood on the Stepping-stones
+   They were travelling the Road of Glass.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg’s The King of Ireland’s Son, by Padraic Colum
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+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The King of Ireland's Son, by Padraic Colum
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The King of Ireland's Son
+
+Author: Padraic Colum
+
+Release Date: February 9, 2009 [EBook #3495]
+Last Updated: November 3, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KING OF IRELAND'S SON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by A. Elizabeth Warren, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE KING OF IRELAND&rsquo;S SON
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      by Padraic Colum
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Contents
+    </h3>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> FEDELMA, THE ENCHANTER&rsquo;S DAUGHTER </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> WHEN THE KING OF THE CATS CAME TO KING
+            CONNAL&rsquo;S DOMINION </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE SWORD OF LIGHT </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> THE TOWN OF THE RED CASTLE </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> THE KING OF THE LAND OF MIST </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> THE HOUSE OF CROM DUV </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> THE SPAE-WOMAN </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FEDELMA, THE ENCHANTER&rsquo;S DAUGHTER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Connal was the name of the King who ruled over Ireland at that time. He
+      had three sons, and, as the fir-trees grow, some crooked and some
+      straight, one of them grew up so wild that in the end the King and the
+      King&rsquo;s Councillor had to let him have his own way in everything. This
+      youth was the King&rsquo;s eldest son and his mother had died before she could
+      be a guide to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now after the King and the King&rsquo;s Councillor left him to his own way the
+      youth I&rsquo;m telling you about did nothing but ride and hunt all day. Well,
+      one morning he rode abroad&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    His hound at his heel,
+    His hawk on his wrist;
+    A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+    And the blue sky over him,
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      and he rode on until he came to a turn in the road. There he saw a gray
+      old man seated on a heap of stones playing a game of cards with himself.
+      First he had one hand winning and then he had the other. Now he would say
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s my good right,&rdquo; and then he would say &ldquo;Play and beat that, my
+      gallant left.&rdquo; The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son sat on his horse to watch the
+      strange old man, and as he watched him he sang a song to himself
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    I put the fastenings on my boat
+    For a year and for a day,
+    And I went where the rowans grow,
+    And where the moorhens lay;
+
+    And I went over the stepping-stones
+    And dipped my feet in the ford,
+    And came at last to the Swineherd&rsquo;s house,&mdash;
+    The Youth without a Sword.
+
+    A swallow sang upon his porch
+    &ldquo;Glu-ee, glu-ee, glu-ee,&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;The wonder of all wandering,
+    The wonder of the sea;&rdquo;
+     A swallow soon to leave ground sang
+    &ldquo;Glu-ee, glu-ee, glu-ee.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prince,&rdquo; said the old fellow looking up at him, &ldquo;if you can play a game
+      as well as you can sing a song, I&rsquo;d like if you would sit down beside me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can play any game,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. He fastened his
+      horse to the branch of a tree and sat down on the heap of stones beside
+      the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall we play for?&rdquo; said the gray old fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever you like,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I win you must give me anything I ask, and if you win I shall give you
+      anything you ask. Will you agree to that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it is agreeable to you it is agreeable to me,&rdquo; said the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They played, and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son won the game. &ldquo;Now what do you
+      desire me to give, King&rsquo;s Son?&rdquo; said the gray old fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shan&rsquo;t ask you for anything,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;for I
+      think you haven&rsquo;t much to give.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind that,&rdquo; said the gray old fellow. &ldquo;I mustn&rsquo;t break my promise,
+      and so you must ask me for something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;Then there&rsquo;s a field at the back of my
+      father&rsquo;s Castle and I want to see it filled with cattle to-morrow morning.
+      Can you do that for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can,&rdquo; said the gray old fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I want fifty cows, each one white with a red ear, and a white calf
+      going beside each cow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cattle shall be as you wish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, when that&rsquo;s done I shall think the wager has been paid,&rdquo; said the
+      King of Ireland&rsquo;s son. He mounted his horse, smiling at the foolish old
+      man who played cards with himself and who thought he could bring together
+      fifty white kine, each with a red ear, and a white calf by the side of
+      each cow. He rode away
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   His hound at his heel,
+   His hawk on his wrist;
+   A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+   And the green ground under him,
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      and he thought no more of the gray old fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the morning, when he was taking his horse out of the stable, he
+      heard the grooms talking about a strange happening. Art, the King&rsquo;s
+      Steward, had gone out and had found the field at the back of the Castle
+      filled with cattle. There were fifty white red-eared kine there and each
+      cow had a white calf at her side. The King had ordered Art, his Steward,
+      to drive them away. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son watched Art and his men
+      trying to do it. But no sooner were the strange cattle put out at one side
+      of the field than they came back on the other. Then down came Maravaun,
+      the King&rsquo;s Councillor. He declared they were enchanted cattle, and that no
+      one on Ireland&rsquo;s ground could put them away. So in the seven-acre field
+      the cattle stayed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son saw what his companion of yesterday could
+      do he rode straight to the glen to try if he could have another game with
+      him. There at the turn of the road, on a heap of stones, the gray old
+      fellow was sitting playing a game of cards, the right hand against the
+      left. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son fastened his horse to the branch of a tree
+      and dismounted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you find yesterday&rsquo;s wager settled?&rdquo; said the gray old fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then shall we have another game of cards on the same understanding?&rdquo; said
+      the gray old fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I agree, if you agree,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s son. He sat under the
+      bush beside him and they played again. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son won.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would you like me to do for you this time?&rdquo; said the gray old
+      fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the King&rsquo;s Son had a step-mother, and she was often cross-tempered,
+      and that very morning he and she had vexed each other. So he said, &ldquo;Let a
+      brown bear, holding a burning coal in his mouth, put Caintigern the Queen
+      from her chair in the supper-room to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall be done,&rdquo; said the gray old fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son mounted his horse and rode away
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the green ground under him,
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      and he went back to the Castle. That night a brown bear, holding a burning
+      coal in his mouth, came into the supper-room and stood between Caintigern
+      the Queen and the chair that belonged to her. None of the servants could
+      drive it away, and when Maravaun, the King&rsquo;s Councillor, came he said,
+      &ldquo;This is an enchanted creature also, and it is best for us to leave it
+      alone.&rdquo; So the whole company went and left the brown bear in the
+      supper-room seated &lsquo;in the Queen&rsquo;s chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning when he wakened the King&rsquo;s Son said, &ldquo;That was a
+      wonderful thing that happened last night in the supper-room. I must go off
+      and play a third game with the gray old fellow who sits on a heap of
+      stones at the turn of the road.&rdquo; So, in the morning early he mounted and
+      rode away
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the green ground under him,
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      and he rode on until he came to the turn in the road. Sure enough the old
+      gray fellow was there. &ldquo;So you&rsquo;ve come to me again, King&rsquo;s Son,&rdquo; said he.
+      &ldquo;I have,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll play a last game with
+      you on the same understanding as before.&rdquo; He tied his horse to the branch
+      and sat down on the heap of stones. They played. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son
+      lost the game. Immediately the gray old fellow threw the cards down on the
+      stones and a wind came up and carried them away. Standing up he was
+      terribly tall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;King&rsquo;s Son,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I am your father&rsquo;s enemy and I have done him an
+      injury. And to the Queen who is your father&rsquo;s wife I have done an injury
+      too. You have lost the game and now you must take the penalty I put upon
+      you. You must find out my dwelling-place and take three hairs out of my
+      beard within a year and a day, or else lose your head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he took the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son by the shoulders and lifted
+      him on his horse, turning the horse in the direction of the King&rsquo;s Castle.
+      The King&rsquo;s Son rode on
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the blue sky over him.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      That evening the King noticed that his son was greatly troubled. And when
+      he lay down to sleep everyone in the Castle heard his groans and his
+      moans. The next day he told his father the story from beginning to end.
+      The King sent for Maravaun his Councillor and asked him if he knew who the
+      Enchanter was and where his son would be likely to find him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From what he said,&rdquo; said Maravaun, &ldquo;we may guess who he is. He is the
+      Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands and his dwelling-place is hard to find.
+      Nevertheless your son must seek for him and take the three hairs out of
+      his beard or else lose his head. For if the heir to your kingdom does not
+      honorably pay his forfeit, the ground of Ireland won&rsquo;t give crops and the
+      cattle won&rsquo;t give milk.&rdquo; &ldquo;And,&rdquo; said the Councillor, &ldquo;as a year is little
+      for his search, he should start off at once, although I&rsquo;m bound to say,
+      that I don&rsquo;t know what direction he should go in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day the King&rsquo;s Son said good-by to his father and his
+      foster-brothers and started off on his journey. His step-mother would not
+      give him her blessing on account of his having brought in the brown bear
+      that turned her from her chair in the supper-room. Nor would she let him
+      have the good horse he always rode. Instead the Prince was given a horse
+      that was lame in a leg and short in the tail. And neither hawk nor hound
+      went with him this time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All day the King&rsquo;s Son was going, traveling through wood and waste until
+      the coming on of night. The little fluttering birds were going from the
+      bush tops, from tuft to tuft, and to the briar-roots, going to rest; but
+      if they were, he was not, till the night came on, blind and dark. Then the
+      King&rsquo;s Son ate his bread and meat, put his satchel under his head and lay
+      down to take his rest on the edge of a great waste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning he mounted his horse and rode on. And as he went across the
+      waste he saw an extraordinary sight&mdash;everywhere were the bodies of
+      dead creatures&mdash;a cock, a wren, a mouse, a weasel, a fox, a badger, a
+      raven&mdash;-all the birds and beasts that the King&rsquo;s Son had ever known.
+      He went on, but he saw no living creature before him. And then, at the end
+      of the waste he came upon two living creatures struggling. One was an
+      eagle and the other was an eel. And the eel had twisted itself round the
+      eagle, and the eagle had covered her eyes with the black films of death.
+      The King&rsquo;s Son jumped off his horse and cut the eel in two with a sharp
+      stroke of his sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eagle drew the films from her eyes and looked full at the King&rsquo;s Son.
+      &ldquo;I am Laheen the Eagle,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I will pay you for this service,
+      Son of King Connal. Know that there has been a battle of the creatures&mdash;a
+      battle to decide which of the creatures will make laws for a year. All
+      were killed except the eel and myself, and if you had not come I would
+      have been killed and the eel would have made the laws. I am Laheen the
+      Eagle and always I will be your friend. And now you must tell me how I can
+      serve you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can serve me,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;by showing me how I may come to
+      the dominion of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the only creature who can show you, King&rsquo;s Son. And if I were not
+      old now I would carry you there on my back. But I can tell you how you can
+      get there. Ride forward for a day, first with the sun before you and then
+      with the sun at your back, until you come to the shore of a lake. Stay
+      there until you see three swans flying down. They are the three daughters
+      of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. Mark the one who carries a green
+      scarf in her mouth. She is the youngest daughter and the one who can help
+      you. When the swans come to the ground they will transform themselves into
+      maidens and bathe in the lake. Two will come out, put on their swanskins
+      and transform themselves and fly away. But you must hide the swanskin that
+      belongs to the youngest maiden. She will search and search and when she
+      cannot find it she will cry out, &lsquo;I would do anything in the world for the
+      creature who would find my swanskin for me.&rsquo; Give the swanskin to her
+      then, and tell her that the only thing she can do for you is to show you
+      the way to her father&rsquo;s dominion. She will do that, and so you will come
+      to the House of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. And now farewell to
+      you, Son of King Connal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Laheen the Eagle spread out her wings and flew away, and the King&rsquo;s Son
+      journeyed on, first with the sun before him and then with the sun at his
+      back, until he came to the shore of a wide lake. He turned his horse away,
+      rested himself on the ground, and as soon as the clear day came he began
+      to watch for the three swans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came, they flew down, and when they touched the ground they
+      transformed themselves into three maidens and went to bathe in the lake.
+      The one who carried the green scarf left her swanskin under a bush. The
+      King&rsquo;s Son took it and hid it in a hollow tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two of the maidens soon came out of the water, put on their swanskins and
+      flew away as swans. The younger maiden stayed for a while in the lake.
+      Then she came out and began to search for her swanskin. She searched and
+      searched, and at last the King&rsquo;s Son heard her say, &ldquo;I would do anything
+      in the world for the creature who would find my swanskin for me.&rdquo; Then he
+      came from where he was hiding and gave her the swanskin. &ldquo;I am the Son of
+      the King of Ireland,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I want you to show me the way to your
+      father&rsquo;s dominion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would prefer to do anything else for you,&rdquo; said the maiden. &ldquo;I do not
+      want anything else,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I show you how to get there will you be content?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be content.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must never let my father know that I showed you the way. And he must
+      not know when you come that you are the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not tell him you showed me the way and I will not let him know who
+      I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now that she had the swanskin she was able to transform herself. She
+      whistled and a blue falcon came down and perched on a tree. &ldquo;That falcon
+      is my own bird,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Follow where it flies and you will come to my
+      father&rsquo;s house. And now good-by to you. You will be in danger, but I will
+      try to help you. Fedelma is my name.&rdquo; She rose up as a swan and flew away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blue falcon went flying from bush to bush and from rock to rock. The
+      night came, but in the morning the blue falcon was seen again. The King&rsquo;s
+      Son followed, and at last he saw a house before him. He went in, and
+      there, seated on a chair of gold was the man who seemed so tall when he
+      threw down the cards upon the heap of stones. The Enchanter did not
+      recognize the King&rsquo;s Son without his hawk and his hound and the fine
+      clothes he used to wear. He asked who he was and the King&rsquo;s Son said he
+      was a youth who had just finished an apprenticeship to a wizard. &ldquo;And,&rdquo;
+       said he, &ldquo;I have heard that you have three fair daughters, and I came to
+      strive to gain one of them for a wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case,&rdquo; said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, &ldquo;you will have
+      to do three tasks for me. If you are able to do them I will give you one
+      of my three daughters in marriage. If you fail to do any one of them you
+      will lose your head. Are you willing to make the trial?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am willing,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I shall give you your first task to-morrow. It is unlucky that you
+      came to-day. In this country we eat a meal only once a week, and we have
+      had our meal this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is all the same to me,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;I can do without food or
+      drink for a month without any hardship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you can do without sleep too?&rdquo; said the Enchanter of the Black
+      Back-Lands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Easily,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is good. Come outside now, and I&rsquo;ll show you your bed.&rdquo; He took the
+      King&rsquo;s Son outside and showed him a dry narrow water-tank at the gable end
+      of the house. &ldquo;There is where you are to sleep&rdquo; said the Enchanter. &ldquo;Tuck
+      yourself into it now and be ready for your first task at the rising of the
+      sun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went into the little tank. He was uncomfortable
+      there you may be sure. But in the middle of the night Fedelma came and
+      brought him into a fine room where he ate and then slept until the sun was
+      about to rise in the morning. She called him and he went outside and laid
+      himself down in the water-tank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the sun rose the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came out of
+      the house and stood beside the water-tank. &ldquo;Come now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and I
+      will show you the first task you have to perform.&rdquo; He took him to where a
+      herd of goats was grazing. Away from the goats was a fawn with white feet
+      and little bright horns. The fawn saw them, bounded into the air, and
+      raced away to the wood as quickly as any arrow that a man ever shot from a
+      bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Whitefoot the Fawn,&rdquo; said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands.
+      &ldquo;She grazes with my goats but none of my gillies can bring her into my
+      goat-house. Here is your first task&mdash;run down Whitefoot the Fawn and
+      bring her with my goats into the goat-shelter this evening.&rdquo; When he said
+      that the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands went away laughing to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-by, my life,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;I might as well try
+      to catch an eagle on the wing as to run down the deer that has gone out of
+      sight already.&rdquo; He sat down on the ground and his despair was great. Then
+      his name was called and he saw Fedelma coming towards him. She looked at
+      him as though she were in dread, and said, &ldquo;What task has my father set
+      you?&rdquo; He told her and then she smiled. &ldquo;I was in dread it would be a more
+      terrible task,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;This one is easy. I can help you to catch
+      Whitefoot the Fawn. But first eat what I have brought you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She put down bread and meat and wine, and they sat down and he ate and
+      drank. &ldquo;I thought he might set you this task,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and so I brought
+      you something from my father&rsquo;s store of enchanted things. Here are the
+      Shoes of Swiftness. With these on your feet you can run down Whitefoot the
+      Fawn. But you must catch her before she has gone very far away. Remember
+      that she must be brought in when the goats are going into their shelter at
+      sunset. You will have to walk back for all the time you must keep hold of
+      her silver horns. Hasten now. Run her down with the Shoes of Swiftness and
+      then lay hold of her horns. Above all things Whitefoot dreads the loss of
+      her silver horns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He thanked Fedelma. He put on the Shoes of Swiftness and went into the
+      wood. Now he could go as the eagle flies. He found Whitefoot the Fawn
+      drinking at the Raven&rsquo;s pool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she saw him she went from thicket to thicket. The Shoes of Swiftness
+      were hardly any use to him in these shut-in places. At last he beat her
+      from the last thicket. It was the hour of noon-tide then. There was a
+      clear plain before them and with the Shoes of Swiftness he ran her down.
+      There were tears in the Fawn&rsquo;s eyes and he knew she was troubled with the
+      dread of losing her silver horns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He kept his hands on the horns and they went back over miles of plain and
+      pasture, bog and wood. The hours were going quicker than they were going.
+      When &lsquo;he came within the domain of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands
+      he saw the goats going quickly before him. They were hurrying from their
+      pastures to the goat-shelter, one stopping, maybe, to bite the top of a
+      hedge and another giving this one a blow with her horns to hurry her on.
+      &ldquo;By your silver horns, we must go faster,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son
+      to the Fawn. They went more quickly then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands waiting at the goat-house,
+      now counting the goats that came along and now looking at the sun. When he
+      saw the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son coming with his capture he was so angry that
+      he struck an old full-bearded goat that had stopped to rub itself. The
+      goat reared up and struck him with his horns. &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Enchanter
+      of the Black Back-Lands, &ldquo;you have performed your first task, I see. You
+      are a greater enchanter than I thought you were. Whitefoot the Fawn can go
+      in with my goats. Go back now to your own sleeping-place. To-morrow I&rsquo;ll
+      come to you early and give you your second task.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went back and into the dry water-tank. He was
+      tired with his day&rsquo;s journey after Whitefoot the Fawn. It was his hope
+      that Fedelma would come to him and give him shelter for that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Until the white moon rose above the trees; until the hounds went out
+      hunting for themselves; until the foxes came down and hid in the hedges,
+      waiting for the cocks and hens to stir out at the first light&mdash;so
+      long did the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son stay huddled in the dry water-tank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By that time he was stiff and sore and hungry. He saw a great white owl
+      flying towards the tank. The owl perched on the edge and stared at the
+      King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;Have you a message for me?&rdquo; he asked. The owl shrugged with
+      its wings three times. He thought that meant a message. He got out of the
+      tank and prepared to follow the owl. It flew slowly and near the ground,
+      so he was able to follow it along a path through the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son thought the owl was bringing him to a place where Fedelma
+      was, and that he would get food there, and shelter for the rest of the
+      night. And sure enough the owl flew to a little house in the wood. The
+      King&rsquo;s Son looked through the window and he saw a room lighted with
+      candles and a table with plates and dishes and cups, with bread and meat
+      and wine. And he saw at the fire a young woman spinning at a spinning
+      wheel, and her back was towards him, and her hair was the same as
+      Fedelma&rsquo;s. Then he lifted the latch of the door and went very joyfully
+      into the little house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when the young woman at the spinning wheel turned round he saw that
+      she was not Fedelma at all. She had a little mouth, a long and a hooked
+      nose, and her eyes looked cross-ways at a person. The thread she was
+      spinning she bit with her long teeth, and she said, &ldquo;You are welcome here,
+      Prince.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who are you?&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;Aefa is my name,&rdquo; said
+      she, &ldquo;I am the eldest and the wisest daughter of the Enchanter of the
+      Black Back-lands. My father is preparing a task for you,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and
+      it will be a terrible task, and there will be no one to help you with it,
+      so you will lose your head surely. And what I would advise you to do is to
+      escape out of this country at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how can I escape?&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one
+      way to escape,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and that is for you to take the Slight Red
+      Steed that my father has secured under nine locks. That steed is the only
+      creature that can bring you to your own country. I will show you how to
+      get it and then I will ride to your home with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should you do that?&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I would marry you,&rdquo; said Aefa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if I live at all Fedelma is the one I will marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner did he say the words than Aefa screamed out, &ldquo;Seize him, my
+      cat-o&rsquo;-the-mountain. Seize him and hold him.&rdquo; Then the cat-o&rsquo;-the-mountain
+      that was under the table sprang across the room and fixed himself on his
+      shoulder. He ran out of the house. All the time he was running the
+      cat-o&rsquo;-the-mountain was trying to tear his eyes out. He made his way
+      through woods and thickets, and mighty glad he was when he saw the tank at
+      the gable-end of the house. The cat-&rsquo;o-the-mountain dropped from his back
+      then. He got into the tank and waited and waited. No message came from
+      Fedelma. He was a long time there, stiff and sore and hungry, before the
+      sun rose and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came out of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you had a good night&rsquo;s rest,&rdquo; said the Enchanter of the Black
+      Back-Lands, when he came to where the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son was crouched,
+      just at the rising of the sun. &ldquo;I had indeed,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;And I
+      suppose you feel fit for another task,&rdquo; said the Enchanter of the Black
+      Back-Lands. &ldquo;More fit than ever in my life before,&rdquo; said the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands took him past the goat-house and to
+      where there was an open shelter for his bee-hives. &ldquo;I want this shelter
+      thatched,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and I want to have it thatched with the feathers of
+      birds. Go,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and get enough feathers of wild birds and come back
+      and thatch the bee-hive shelter for me, and let it be done before the set
+      of sun.&rdquo; He gave the King&rsquo;s Son arrows and a bow and a bag to put the
+      feathers in, and advised him to search the moor for birds. Then he went
+      back to the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son ran to the moor and watched for birds to fly
+      across. At last one came. He shot at it with an arrow but did not bring it
+      down. He hunted the moor all over but found no other bird. He hoped that
+      he would see Fedelma before his head was taken off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he heard his name called and he saw Fedelma coming towards him. She
+      looked at him as before with dread in thier eyes and asked him what task
+      her father had set him. &ldquo;A terrible task,&rdquo; he said, and he told her what
+      it was. Fedelma laughed. &ldquo;I was in dread he would give you another task,&rdquo;
+       she said. &ldquo;I can help you with this one. Sit down now and eat and drink
+      from what I have brought you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down and ate and drank and he felt hopeful seeing Fedelma beside
+      him. When he had eaten Fedelma said, &ldquo;My blue falcon will gather the birds
+      and pull the feathers off for you. Still, unless you gather them quickly
+      there is danger, for the roof must be thatched with feathers at the set of
+      sun.&rdquo; She whistled and her blue falcon came. He followed it across the
+      moor. The blue falcon flew up in the air and gave a bird-call. Birds
+      gathered and she swooped amongst them pulling feathers off their backs and
+      out of their wings. Soon there was a heap of feathers on the ground&mdash;pigeons&rsquo; 
+      feathers and pie&rsquo;s feathers, crane&rsquo;s and crow&rsquo;s, blackbird&rsquo;s and
+      starling&rsquo;s. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son quickly gathered them into his bag.
+      The falcon flew to another place and gave her bird-call again. The birds
+      gathered, and she went amongst them, plucking their feathers. The King&rsquo;s
+      Son gathered them and the blue falcon flew to another place. Over and over
+      again the blue falcon called to the birds and plucked out their feathers,
+      and over and over again the King&rsquo;s Son gathered them into his bag. When he
+      thought he had feathers enough to thatch the roof he ran back to the
+      shelter. He began the thatching, binding the feathers down with little
+      willow rods. He had just finished when the sun went down. The old
+      Enchanter came up and when he saw what the King&rsquo;s Son had done he was
+      greatly surprised. &ldquo;You surely learned from the wizard you were
+      apprenticed to,&rdquo; said he.. &ldquo;But to-morrow I will try you with another
+      task. Go now and sleep in the place where you were last night.&rdquo; The King&rsquo;s
+      Son, glad that the head was still on his shoulders, went and lay down in
+      the water-tank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Until the white moon went out in the sky; until the Secret People began to
+      whisper in the woods&mdash;so long did the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son remain in
+      the dry water-tank that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, when it was neither dark nor light, he saw a crane flying
+      towards him. It lighted on the edge of the tank. &ldquo;Have you a message for
+      me?&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. The crane tapped three times with its
+      beak. Then the King&rsquo;s Son got out of the tank and prepared to follow the
+      bird-messenger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the way the crane went. It would fly a little way and then light
+      on the ground until the Prince came up to it. Then it would fly again.
+      Over marshes and across little streams the crane led him. And all the time
+      the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son thought he was being brought to the place where
+      Fedelma was&mdash;to the place where he would get food and where he could
+      rest until just before the sun rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went on and on till they came to an old tower. The crane lighted upon
+      it. The King&rsquo;s Son saw there was an iron door in the tower and he pulled a
+      chain until it opened. Then he saw a little room lighted with candles, and
+      he saw a young woman looking at herself in the glass. Her back was towards
+      him and her hair was the same as Fedelma&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when the young woman turned round he saw she was not Fedelma. She was
+      little, and she had a face that was brown and tight like a nut. She made
+      herself very friendly to the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son and went to him and
+      took his hands and smiled into his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are welcome here,&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I am Gilveen,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;the second and the
+      most loving of the three daughters of the Enchanter of the Black
+      Back-Lands.&rdquo; She stroked his face and his hands when she spoke to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why did you send for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I know what great trouble you are in. My father is preparing a
+      task for you, and it will be a terrible one. You will never be able to
+      carry it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what should you advise me to do, King&rsquo;s daughter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me help you. In this tower,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;there are the wisest books in
+      the world. We&rsquo;ll surely find in one of them a way for you to get from this
+      country. And then I&rsquo;ll go back with you to your own land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why would you do that?&rdquo; asked the King of Ire-land&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I wish to be your wife,&rdquo; Gilveen said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if I live at all Fedelma is the one I&rsquo;ll marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he said that Gilveen drew her lips together and her chin became like
+      a horn. Then she whistled through her teeth, and instantly everything in
+      the room began to attack the King&rsquo;s Son. The looking glass on the wall
+      flung itself at him and hit him on the back of the head. The leg of the
+      table gave him a terrible blow at the back of the knees. He saw the two
+      candles hopping across the floor to burn his legs. He ran out of the room,
+      and when he got to the door it swung around and gave him a blow that flung
+      him away from the tower. The crane that was waiting on the tower flew
+      down, its neck and beak outstretched, and gave him a blow on the back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went back over the marshes and across the
+      little streams, and he was glad when he saw the gable-end of the house
+      again. Je went into the tank. He knew that he had not long to wait before
+      the sun would rise and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands would come to
+      him and give him the third and the most difficult of the three tasks. And
+      he thought that Fedelma was surely shut away from him and that she would
+      not be able to help him that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the rising of the sun the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came to
+      where the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son was huddled and said, &ldquo;I am now going to
+      set you the third and last task. Rise up now and come with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son came out of the water-tank and fol-lowed the Enchanter.
+      They went to where there was a well. The King&rsquo;s Son looked down and he
+      could not see the bottom, so deep the well was. &ldquo;At the bottom,&rdquo; said the
+      Enchanter &ldquo;is the Ring of Youth. You must get it and bring it to me, or
+      else you must lose your head at the setting of that sun.&rdquo; That was all he
+      said. He turned then and went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son looked into the well and he saw no way of getting down its
+      deep smooth sides. He walked back towards the Castle. On his way he met
+      Fedelma, and she looked at him with deep dread in her eyes. &ldquo;What task did
+      my father set you to-day?&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;He bids me go down into a well,&rdquo;
+       said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;A well!&rdquo; said Fedelma, and she became all dread. &ldquo;I
+      have to take the Ring of Youth from the bot-tom and bring it to him,&rdquo; said
+      the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; said Fedelma,&rsquo;&rdquo;he has set you the task I dreaded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she said, &ldquo;You will lose your life if the Ring of Youth is not taken
+      out of the well. And if you lose yours I shall lose my life too. There is
+      one way to get down the sides of the well. You must kill me. Take my bones
+      and make them as steps while you go down the sides. Then, when you have
+      taken the Ring of Youth out of the water, put my bones as they were
+      before, and put the Ring above my heart. I shall be alive again. But you
+      must be careful that you leave every bone as it was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son fell into a deeper dread than Fedelma when he heard what
+      she said. &ldquo;This can never be,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;It must be,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and by
+      all your vows and promises I command that you do it. Kill me now and do as
+      I have bidden you. If it be done I shall live. If it be not done you will
+      lose your life and I will never regain mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He killed her. He took the bones as she had bidden him, and he made steps
+      down the sides of the well. He searched at the bottom, and he found the
+      Ring of Youth. He brought the bones together again. Down on his knees he
+      went, and his heart did not beat nor did his breath come or go until he
+      had fixed them in their places. Over the heart he placed the Ring. Life
+      came back to Fedelma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have done well,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;One thing only is not in its place&mdash;the
+      joint of my little finger.&rdquo; She held up her hand and he saw that her
+      little finger was bent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have helped you in everything,&rdquo; said Fedelma, &ldquo;and in the last task I
+      could not have helped you if you had not been true to me when Aefa and
+      Gilveen brought you to them. Now the three tasks are done, and you can ask
+      my father for one of his daughters in marriage. When you bring him the
+      Ring of Youth he will ask you to make a choice. I pray that the one chosen
+      will be myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None other will I have but you, Fedelma, love of my heart,&rdquo; said the King
+      of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VIII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went into the house before the setting of the
+      sun. The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands was seated on his chair of
+      gold. &ldquo;Have you brought me the Ring of Youth?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have brought it,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give it to me then,&rdquo; said the Enchanter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;until you give what you promised me at
+      the end of my tasks&mdash;one of your three daughters for my wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Enchanter brought him to a closed door. &ldquo;My three daughters are within
+      that room,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Put your hand through the hole in the door, and the
+      one whose hand you hold when I open it&mdash;it is she you will have to
+      marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then wasn&rsquo;t the mind of the King&rsquo;s Son greatly troubled? If he held the
+      hand of Aefa or Gilveen he would lose his love Fedelma. He stood without
+      putting out his hand. &ldquo;Put your hand through the hole of the door or go
+      away from my house altogether,&rdquo; said the Enchanter of the Black
+      Back-Lands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son ventured to put his hand through the hole in the
+      door. The hands of the maidens inside were all held in a bunch. But no
+      sooner did he touch them than he found that one had a broken finger. This
+      he knew was Fedelma&rsquo;s hand, and this was the hand he held.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may open the door now,&rdquo; said he to the Enchanter. He opened the door
+      and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son drew Fedelma to him. &ldquo;This is the maiden I
+      choose,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and now give her her dowry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dowry that should go with me,&rdquo; said Fedelma, &ldquo;is the Slight Red
+      Steed.&rdquo; &ldquo;What dowry do you want with her, young man?&rdquo; said the Enchanter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No other dowry but the Slight Red Steed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go round to the stable then and get it. And I hope no well-trained wizard
+      like you will come this way again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No well-trained wizard am I, but the King of Ire-land&rsquo;s Son. And I have
+      found your dwelling-place within a year and a day. And now I pluck the
+      three hairs out of your heard, Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The beard of the Enchanter bristled like spikes on a hedgehog, and the
+      balls of his eyes stuck out of his head. The King&rsquo;s Son plucked the three
+      hairs of his beard before he could lift a hand or say a word. &ldquo;Mount the
+      Slight Red Steed and be off, the two of you,&rdquo; said the Enchanter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son and Fedelma mounted the Slight Red Steed and
+      rode off, and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, and his two
+      daughters, Aefa and Gilveen, in a rage watched them ride away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IX
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They crossed the River of the Ox, and went over the Mountain of the Fox
+      and were in the Glen of the Badger before the sun rose. And there, at the
+      foot of the Hill of Horns, they found an old man gathering dew from the
+      grass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could you tell us where we might find the Little Sage of the Mountain?&rdquo;
+       Fedelma asked the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the Little Sage of the Mountain,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and what is it you want
+      of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To betroth us for marriage,&rdquo; said Fedelma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do that. Come to my house, the pair of you. And as you are both
+      young and better able to walk than I am it would be fitting to let me ride
+      on your horse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son and Fedelma got off and the Little Sage of the Mountain got
+      on the Slight Red Steed. They took the path that went round the Hill of
+      Horns. And at the other side of the hill they found a hut thatched with
+      one great wing of a bird. The Little Sage got off the Slight Red Steed.
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re both young, and I&rsquo;m an old man and it would be
+      fitting for you to do my day&rsquo;s work before you call upon me to do anything
+      for you. Now would you,&rdquo; said he to the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;take this
+      spade in your hand and go into the garden and dig my potatoes for me? And
+      would you,&rdquo; said he to Fedelma, &ldquo;sit down at the quern-stone and grind the
+      wheat for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went into the garden and Fedelma sat at the
+      quern-stone that was just outside the door; he dug and she ground while
+      the Little Sage sat at the fire looking into a big book. And when Fedelma
+      and the King&rsquo;s Son were tired with their labor he gave them a drink of
+      buttermilk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She made cakes out of the wheat she had ground and the King&rsquo;s Son washed
+      the potatoes and the Little Sage boiled them and so they made their
+      supper. Then the Little Sage of the Mountain melted lead and made two
+      rings; and one ring he gave to Fedelma to give to the King&rsquo;s Son and one
+      he gave to the King&rsquo;s Son to give to Fedelma. And when the rings were
+      given he said, &ldquo;You are betrothed for your marriage now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed with the Little Sage of the Mountain that night, and when the
+      sun rose they left the house that was thatched with the great wing of a
+      bird and they turned towards the Meadow of Brightness and the Wood of
+      Shadows that were between them and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s domain. They rode
+      on the Slight Red Steed, and the Little Sage of the Mountain went with
+      them a part of the way. He seemed downcast and when they asked him the
+      reason he said, &ldquo;I see dividing ways and far journeys for you both.&rdquo; &ldquo;But
+      how can that be,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;when, in a little while we will
+      win to my father&rsquo;s domain?&rdquo; &ldquo;It may be I am wrong,&rdquo; said the Little Sage,
+      &ldquo;and if I am not, remember that devotion brings together dividing ways and
+      that high hearts win to the end of every journey.&rdquo; He bade them good-by
+      then, and turned back to his hut that was thatched with the great wing of
+      a bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They rode across the Meadow of Brightness and Fedelma&rsquo;s blue falcon sailed
+      above them. &ldquo;Yonder is a field of white flowers,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and while we
+      are crossing it you must tell me a story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know by heart,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;only the stories that Maravaun,
+      my father&rsquo;s Councillor, has put into the book he is composing&mdash;the
+      book that is called &lsquo;The Breastplate of Instruction.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Fedelma, &ldquo;tell me a story from &lsquo;The Breastplate of
+      Instruction,&rsquo; while we are crossing this field of white flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell you the first story that is in it,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. Then
+      while they were crossing the field of white flowers the King&rsquo;s Son told
+      Fedelma the story of
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ass and the Seal
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      X
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A seal that had spent a curious fore-noon paddling around the island of
+      Ilaun-Beg drew itself up on a rock the better to carry on its
+      investigations. It was now within five yards of the actual island. On the
+      little beach there were three curraghs in which the island-men went over
+      the sea; they were turned bottom up and heavy stones were placed upon them
+      to prevent their being carried away by the high winds. The seal noted them
+      as he rested upon the flat rock. He noted too a little ass that was
+      standing beyond the curraghs, sheltering himself where the cliffs hollowed
+      in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this ass was as curious as the seal, and when he saw the smooth
+      creature that was moving its head about with such intelligence he came
+      down to the water&rsquo;s edge. Two of his legs were spancelled with a piece of
+      straw rope, but being used to such impediment he came over without any
+      awkwardness. He looked inquiringly at the seal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gray-headed crow of the cliff lighted on a spar of rock and made
+      herself an interpreter between the two. &ldquo;Shaggy beast of the Island,&rdquo; said
+      the seal, &ldquo;friend and follower of men, tell me about their fabulous
+      existence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean the hay-getters?&rdquo; said the ass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know well whom he means,&rdquo; said the gray-headed crow viciously.
+      &ldquo;Answer him now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You gravell me entirely when you ask about men,&rdquo; said the ass. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t
+      know much about them. They live to themselves and I live to myself. Their
+      houses are full of smoke and it blinds my eyes to go in. There used to be
+      green fields here and high grass that became hay, but there&rsquo;s nothing like
+      that now. I think men have given up eating what grows out of the ground. I
+      see nothing, I smell nothing, but fish, fish, fish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gray-headed crow had a vicious eye fixed on the ass all the time he
+      was speaking. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re saying all that,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;because they let the
+      little horse stay all night in the house and beat you out of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friend,&rdquo; said the seal, &ldquo;it is evident that men deceive you by
+      appearances. I know men. I have followed their boats and have listened to
+      the wonderful sounds they make with their voices and with instruments. Do
+      they not draw fish out of the depths by enchantments? Do they not build
+      their habitations with music? Do they not draw the moon out of the sea and
+      set it for a light in their houses? And is it not known that the fairest
+      daughters of the sea have loved men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I&rsquo;m awake long o&rsquo; moonlit nights I feel like that myself,&rdquo; said the
+      ass. Then the recollections of these long, frosty nights made him yawn.
+      Then he brayed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What it is to live near men,&rdquo; said the seal in admiration. &ldquo;What
+      wonderful sounds!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;d cross the water and rub noses with you,&rdquo; said the ass, &ldquo;only I&rsquo;m
+      afraid of crocodiles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Crocodiles?&rdquo; said the gray-headed crow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the ass. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;m of a very old family, you know.
+      They were Egyptians. My people never liked to cross water in their own
+      country. There were crocodiles there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to waste any more time listening to nonsense,&rdquo; said the
+      gray-headed crow. She flew to the ass&rsquo;s back and plucked out some of the
+      felt. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take this for my own habitation,&rdquo; she said, and flew back to
+      the cliff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ass would have kicked up his heels only two of his legs were fastened
+      with the straw rope. He turned away, and without a word of farewell to the
+      seal went scrambling up the bank of the island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The seal stayed for a while moving his head about intelligently. Then he
+      slipped into the water and paddled off. &ldquo;One feels their lives in music,&rdquo;
+       he said; &ldquo;great tones vibrate round the island where men live. It is very
+      wonderful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;is the first story in &lsquo;The Breastplate of
+      Instruction,&rsquo;&mdash;&lsquo;The Ass and the Seal.&rsquo; And now you must tell me a
+      story while we are crossing the field of blue flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it will be a very little story,&rdquo; said Fedelma. They crossed a little
+      field of blue flowers, and Fedelma told
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Sending of the Crystal Egg
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Kings of Murias heard that King Atlas had to bear The world upon his
+      back, so they sent him then and there The Crystal Egg that would be the
+      Swan of Endless Tales That his burthen for a while might lie on his
+      shoulder-scales Fair-balanced while he heard the Tales the Swan poured
+      forth&mdash;North-world Tales for the while he watched the Star of the
+      North; And East-world Tales he would hear in the morning swart and cool,
+      When the Lions Nimrod had spared came up from the drinking pool;
+      West-world Tales for the King when he turned him with the sun; Then
+      whispers of magic Tales from Africa, his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Kings of Murias made the Crane their messenger&mdash;The fitful
+      Crane whose thoughts are always frightening her She slipped from Islet to
+      Isle, she sloped from Foreland to Coast; She passed through cracks in the
+      mountains and came over trees like a ghost; And then fled back in dismay
+      when she saw on the hollow plains The final battle between the Pigmies and
+      the Cranes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where is the Crystal Egg that was sent King Atlas then? Hatched it will be
+      one day and the Tales will be told to men: That is if it be not laid in
+      some King&rsquo;s old Treasury: That is if the fitful Crane did not lose it
+      threading the Sea!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were not long going through the little field of blue flowers, and
+      when they went through it they came to another field of white flowers.
+      Fedelma asked the King&rsquo;s Son to tell her another story, and thereupon he
+      told her the second story in &ldquo;The Breastplate of Instruction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Story of the Young Cuckoo
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young cuckoo made desperate attempts to get himself through the narrow
+      opening in the hollow tree. He screamed when he failed to get through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His foster-parents had remained so long beside him that they were wasted
+      and sad while the other birds, their broods reared, were vigorous and
+      joyful. They heard the one that had been reared in their nest, the young
+      cuckoo, scream, but this time they did not fly towards him. The young
+      cuckoo screamed again, but there was something in that scream that
+      reminded the foster-parents of hawks. They flew away. They were miserable
+      in their flight, these birds, for they knew they were committing a
+      treason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had built their nest in a hollow tree that had a little opening. A
+      cuckoo laid her egg on the ground and, carrying it in her beak, had placed
+      it in the nest. Their own young had been pushed out. They had worn
+      themselves to get provision for the terrible and fascinating creature who
+      had remained in their nest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the time came for him to make his flight he could not get his body
+      through the little opening. Yesterday he had begun to try. The two
+      foster-parents flew to him again and again with food. But now their own
+      nesting place had become strange to them. They would never go near it
+      again. The young cuckoo was forsaken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A woodpecker ran round the tree. He looked into the hollow and saw the big
+      bird crumpled up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello,&rdquo; said the woodpecker. &ldquo;How did you get here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Born here,&rdquo; said the young cuckoo sulkily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, were you?&rdquo; said the woodpecker and he ran round the tree again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he came back to the opening the young cuckoo was standing up with his
+      mouth open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Feed me,&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve to rush round frightfully to get something for myself,&rdquo; said the
+      woodpecker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least, someone ought to bring me food,&rdquo; said the young cuckoo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is that?&rdquo; said the woodpecker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, oughtn&rsquo;t they to?&rdquo; said the young cuckoo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say so,&rdquo; said the woodpecker, &ldquo;you have the use of your wits,
+      haven&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; He ran round the trunk of the tree again and devoured a lean
+      grub. The young cuckoo struggled at the opening and screamed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be drawing too much attention to yourself,&rdquo; advised the woodpecker
+      when he came to the opening again. &ldquo;They might take you for a young hawk,
+      you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who might?&rdquo; said the cuckoo. &ldquo;The neighbors. They would pull a young hawk
+      to pieces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What am I to do?&rdquo; said the young cuckoo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s in your nature to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My nature?&rdquo; said the young cuckoo. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s my nature to swing myself on
+      branches high up in a tree. It&rsquo;s my nature to spread out my wings and fly
+      over pleasant places. It is my nature to be alone. But not alone as here.
+      Alone with the sound of my own voice.&rdquo; Suddenly he cried, &ldquo;Cuckoo, cuckoo,
+      cuckoo!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you now,&rdquo; said the woodpecker. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s going to be a storm,&rdquo; he
+      said; &ldquo;trust a woodpecker to know that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young cuckoo strove towards the big sky again, and he screamed so
+      viciously that a rat that had just come out of the ditch fastened his eyes
+      on him. That creature looked bad to the young cuckoo. Rain plopped on the
+      leaves. Thunder crashed. A bolt struck the tree, and the part above the
+      opening was torn away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young cuckoo flung himself out on the grass and went awkwardly amongst
+      the blue bells. &ldquo;What a world,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;All this wet and fire and noise
+      to get me out of the nest. What a world!&rdquo; The young cuckoo was free, and
+      these were the first words he said when he went into the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was the last story the King&rsquo;s Son told from Maravaun&rsquo;s book, &ldquo;The
+      Breastplate of Instruction.&rdquo; They had another little field of blue flowers
+      to cross, and as they went across it Fedelma told the King&rsquo;s Son
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE STORY OF THE CLOUD-WOMAN XIII
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The Cloud-woman, Mor, was the daughter
+     Of Griann, the Sun,&mdash;well, and she
+     Made a marriage to equal that grandeur,
+     For her Goodman was Lir, the Sea.
+
+     The Cloud-woman Mor, she had seven
+     Strong sons, and the story-books say
+     Their inches grew in the night-time,
+     And grew over again in the day.
+
+     The Cloud-woman Mor,&mdash;as they grew in
+     Their bone, she grew in her pride,
+     Till her haughtiness turned away, men say,
+     Her goodman Lir from her side;
+
+     Then she lived in Mor&rsquo;s Home and she watched
+     With pride her sons and her crop,
+     Till one day the wish in her grew
+     To view from the mountain-top
+     All, all that she owned, so she
+     Traveled without any stop.
+
+     And what did she see? A thousand
+
+     Fields and her own fields small, small!
+     &ldquo;What a fine and wide place is Eirinn,&rdquo; said she,
+     &ldquo;I am Mor, but not great after all.&rdquo;
+ 
+     Then a herdsman came, and he told her
+     That her sons had stolen away:
+     They had left the calves in the hollow,
+     With the goose-flock they would not stay:
+
+     They had seen three ships on the sea
+     And nothing would do them but go:
+     Mor wept and wept when she heard it,
+     And her tears made runnels below.
+
+     Then her shining splendor departed:
+     She went, and she left no trace,
+     And the Cloud-woman, Mor, was never
+     Beheld again in that place.
+
+     The proud woman, Mor, who was daughter
+     Of Griann, the Sun, and who made
+     A marriage to equal that grandeur,
+     Passed away as a shade.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      XIV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And that was the last story that Fedelma told, for they had crossed the
+      Meadows of Brightness and had come to a nameless place&mdash;a stretch of
+      broken ground where there were black rocks and dead grass and bare roots
+      of trees with here and there a hawthorn tree in blossom. &ldquo;I fear this
+      place. We must not halt here,&rdquo; Fedelma said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then a flock of ravens came from the rocks, and flying straight at
+      them attacked Fedelma and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. The King&rsquo;s Son sprang
+      from the steed and taking his sword in his hand he fought the ravens until
+      he drove them away. They rode on again. But now the ravens flew back and
+      attacked them again and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son fought them until his
+      hands were wearied. He mounted the steed again, and they rode swiftly on.
+      And the ravens came the third time and attacked them more fiercely than
+      before. The King&rsquo;s Son fought them until he had killed all but three and
+      until he was covered with their blood and feathers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three that had escaped flew away. &ldquo;Oh, mount the Slight Red Steed and
+      let us ride fast,&rdquo; said Fedelma to the King&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am filled with weariness,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Bid the steed stay by the rock,
+      lay my sword at my side, and let me sleep with my head on your lap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear for us both if you slumber here,&rdquo; said Fedelma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must sleep, and I pray that you let me lay my head on your lap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know not what would awaken you if you slumber here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will awaken,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;but now I must sleep, and I would
+      slumber with my head on your lap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She got down from the Slight Red Steed and she bade it stay by a rock; she
+      put his sword by the place he would sleep and she took his head upon her
+      lap. The King&rsquo;s Son slept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she watched over him a great fear grew in Fedelma. Every hour she would
+      say to him, &ldquo;Are you near waking, my dear, my dear?&rdquo; But no flush of
+      waking appeared on the face of the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she saw a man coming across the nameless place, across the broken
+      ground, with its dead grass and black rocks and with its roots and stumps
+      of trees. The man who came near them was taller than any man she had seen
+      before&mdash;he was tall as a tree. Fedelma knew him from what she had
+      heard told about him&mdash;she knew him to be the King of the Land of
+      Mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Land of Mist came straight to them. He stood before
+      Fedelma and he said, &ldquo;I seek Fedelma, the daughter of the Enchanter of the
+      Black Back-Lands and the fairest woman within the seas of Eirinn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then go to her father&rsquo;s house and seek Fedelma there,&rdquo; said she to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have sought her there,&rdquo; said the King of the Land of Mist, &ldquo;but she
+      left her father&rsquo;s house to go with the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then seek her in the Castle of the King of Ireland,&rdquo; said Fedelma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I will not. Fedelma is here, and Fedelma will come with me,&rdquo; said
+      the King of the Land of Mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not leave him with whom I am plighted,&rdquo; said Fedelma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the King of the Land of Mist took up the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. High
+      he held him&mdash;higher than a tree grows. &ldquo;I will dash him down on the
+      rocks and break the life within him,&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not so,&rdquo; said Fedelma. &ldquo;Tell me. If I go with you what would win me
+      back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing but the sword whose stroke would slay me&mdash;the Sword of
+      Light,&rdquo; said the King of the Land of Mist. He held up the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son again, and again he was about to dash him against the rocks.
+      The blue falcon that was overhead flew down and settled on the rock behind
+      her. Fedelma knew that what she and the King of the Land of Mist would say
+      now would be carried some place and told to someone. &ldquo;Leave my love, the
+      King&rsquo;s Son, to his rest,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I do not break the life in him will you come with me, Fedelma?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go with you if you tell again what will win me back from you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Sword of Light whose stroke will slay me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go with you if you swear by all your vows and promises not to make
+      me your wife nor your sweetheart for a year and a day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I swear by all my vows and promises not to make you my wife nor my
+      sweetheart for a year and a day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go with you if you let it be that I fall into a slumber that will
+      last for a year and a day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will let that be, fairest maid within the seas of Eirinn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go with you if you will tell me what will take me out of that
+      slumber.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If one cuts a tress of your hair with a stroke of the Sword of Light it
+      will take you out of that slumber.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The blue falcon that was behind heard what the King of the Land of Mist
+      said. She rose up and remained overhead with her wings outspread. Fedelma
+      took the ring off her own finger and put it on the finger of the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son, and she wrote upon the ground in Ogham letters, &ldquo;The King
+      of the Land of Mist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it be not you who wakens me, love,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;may it be that I never
+      waken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, daughter of the Enchanter,&rdquo; said the King of the Land of Mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pluck the branch of hawthorn and give it to me that I may fall into my
+      slumber here,&rdquo; said Fedelma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Land of Mist plucked a flowering branch of hawthorn and
+      gave it to her. She held the flowers against her face and fell into
+      slumber. For a while she and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son were side by side
+      in sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the King of the Land of Mist took Fedelma in his arms and strode
+      along that nameless place, over the broken ground with its dead grass and
+      its black rocks and its stumps and roots of trees and the three ravens
+      that had escaped the sword of the King of Ire-land&rsquo;s Son followed where he
+      went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long, long after Fedelma had been taken by the King of the Land of Mist
+      the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son came out of his slumber. He saw around him that
+      nameless place with its black rocks and bare roots of trees. He remembered
+      he had come to it with Fedelma. He sprang up and looked for her, but no
+      one was near him. &ldquo;Fedelma, Fedelma!&rdquo; He searched and he called, but it
+      was as if no one had ever been with him. He found his sword; be searched
+      for his steed, but the Slight Red Steed was gone too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought that the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands had followed them
+      and had taken Fedelma from him. He turned to go towards the Enchanter&rsquo;s
+      country and then he found what Fedelma had written upon the ground in
+      Ogham letters
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ____II_____________\/______//___ IIII /\
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The King of the Land of Mist&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not know what direction to take to get to the dominion of the King
+      of the Land of Mist. He crossed the broken ground and he found no trace of
+      Fedelma nor of him who had taken her. He found himself close to the Wood
+      of Shadows. He went through it. As he went on he saw scores and scores of
+      shadows. Nothing else was in the wood&mdash;no bird, no squirrel, no
+      cricket. The shadows had the whole wood to themselves. They ran swiftly
+      from tree to tree, and now and then one would stop at a tree and wait.
+      Often the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son came close to a waiting shadow. One became
+      like a small old man with a beard. The King&rsquo;s Son saw this shadow again
+      and again. What were they, the shadows, he asked himself? Maybe they were
+      wise creatures and could tell him what he wanted to know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought he heard them whispering together. Then one little shadow with
+      trailing legs went slowly from tree to tree. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son
+      thought he would catch and hold a shadow and make it tell him where he
+      should go to find the dominion of the King of the Land of Mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went after one shadow and another and waited beside a tree for one to
+      come. Often he thought he saw the small old man with the beard and the
+      little creature with trailing legs. And then he began to see other shadows&mdash;men
+      with the heads of rooks and men with queer heavy swords upon their
+      shoulders. He followed them on and on through the wood and he heard their
+      whispering becoming louder and louder, and then he thought that as he went
+      on the shadows, instead of slipping before him, began to turn back and go
+      past and surround him. Then he heard a voice just under the ground at his
+      feet say, &ldquo;Shout&mdash;shout out your own name, Son of King Connal!&rdquo; Then
+      the King&rsquo;s Son shouted out his own name and the whispers ceased in the
+      wood and the shadows went backward and forward no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on and came to a stream within the wood and he went against its
+      flow all night as well as all day, hoping to meet some living thing that
+      would tell him how he might come to the dominion of the King of the Land
+      of Mist. In the forenoon of another day he came to where the wood grew
+      thin and then he went past the last trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw a horse grazing: he ran up to it and found that it was the Slight
+      Red Steed that had carried Fedelma and himself from the house of the
+      Enchanter. Then as he laid hold of the steed a hound ran up to him and a
+      hawk flew down and he saw that they were the hawk and the hound that used
+      to be with him when he rode abroad from his father&rsquo;s Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He mounted and seeing his hound at his heel and his hawk circling above he
+      felt a longing to go back to his father&rsquo;s Castle which he knew to be near
+      and where he might find out where the King of the Land of Mist had his
+      dominion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son rode back to his father&rsquo;s Castle&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   His hound at his heel,
+   His hawk on his wrist.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      WHEN THE KING OF THE CATS CAME TO KING CONNAL&rsquo;S DOMINION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son was home again, but as he kept asking about a
+      King and a Kingdom no one had ever heard of, people thought he had lost
+      his wits in his search for the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. He rode
+      abroad every day to ask strangers if they knew where the King of the Land
+      of Mist had his dominion and he came back to his father&rsquo;s every night in
+      the hope that one would be at the Castle who could tell him where the
+      place that he sought was. Maravaun wanted to relate to him fables from
+      &ldquo;The Breastplate of Instruction&rdquo; but the King&rsquo;s Son did not hear a word
+      that Maravaun said. After a while he listened to the things that Art, the
+      King&rsquo;s Steward, related to him, for it was Art who had shown the King&rsquo;s
+      Son the leaden ring that was on his finger. He took it off, remembering
+      the betrothal ring that the Little Sage had made, and then he saw that it
+      was not his, but Fedelma&rsquo;s ring that he wore. Then he felt as if Fedelma
+      had sent a message to him, and he was less wild in his thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Afterwards, in the evenings, when he came back from his ridings, he would
+      cross the meadows with Art, the King&rsquo;s Steward, or would stand with him
+      while the herdsmen drove the cattle into the byres. Then he would listen
+      to what Art related to him. And one evening he heard Art say, &ldquo;The most
+      remarkable event that happened was the coming into this land of the King
+      of the Cats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will listen to what you tell me about it,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;Then,&rdquo;
+       said Art, the King&rsquo;s Steward, &ldquo;to your father&rsquo;s Son in all truth be it
+      told&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats stood up. He was a grand creature. His body was brown
+      and striped across as if one had burned on wood with a hot poker. Like all
+      the race of the Royal Cats of the Isle of Man he was without a tail. But
+      he had extraordinarily fine whiskers. They went each side of his face to
+      the length of a dinner-dish. He had such eyes that when he turned one of
+      them upward the bird that was flying across dropped from the sky. And when
+      he turned the other one down he could make a hole in the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lived in the Isle of Man. Once he had been King of the Cats of Ireland
+      and Britain, of Norway and Denmark, and the whole Northern and Western
+      World. But after the Norsemen won in the wars the Cats of Norway and
+      Britain swore by Thor and Odin that they would give him no more
+      allegiance. So for a hundred years and a day he had got allegiance only
+      from the Cats of the Western World; that is, from Ireland and the Islands
+      beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tribute he received was still worth having. In May he was sent a
+      boatful of herring. In August he was let have two boatfuls of mackerel. In
+      November he was given five barrels of preserved mice. At other seasons he
+      had for his tribute one out of every hundred birds that flew across the
+      Island on their way to Ireland&mdash;tomtits, pee-wits, linnets, siskins,
+      starlings, martins, wrens and tender young barn owls. He was also sent the
+      following as marks of allegiance and respect: a salmon, to show his
+      dominion over the rivers; the skin of a marten to show his dominion in the
+      woods; a live cricket to show his dominion in the houses of men; the horn
+      of a cow, to show his right to a portion of the milk produced in the
+      Western World.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the tribute from the Western World became smaller and smaller. One
+      year the boat did not come with the herring. Mackerel was sent to him
+      afterwards but he knew it was sent to him because so much was being taken
+      out of the sea that the farmer-men were plowing their mackerel-catches
+      into the land to make their crops grow. Then a year came when he got
+      neither the salmon nor the marten skin, neither the live cricket nor the
+      cow&rsquo;s horn. Then he got righteously and royally indignant. He stood up on
+      his four paws on the floor of his palace, and declared to his wife that he
+      himself was going to Ireland to know what prevented the sending of his
+      lawful tribute to him. He called for his Prime Minister then and said,
+      &ldquo;Prepare for Us our Speech from the Throne.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prime Minister went to the Parliament House and wrote down &ldquo;Oyez,
+      Oyez, Oyez!&rdquo; But he could not remember any more of the ancient language in
+      which the speeches from the Throne were always written. He went home and
+      hanged himself with a measure of tape and his wife buried the body under
+      the hearth-stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speech or no speech,&rdquo; said the King of the Cats, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to pay a
+      royal visit to my subjects in Ireland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the top of the cliff and he made a spring. He landed on the
+      deck of a ship that was bringing the King of Norway&rsquo;s daughter to be
+      married to the King of Scotland&rsquo;s son. The ship nearly sank with the crash
+      of his body on it. He ran up the sails and placed himself on the mast of
+      the ship. There he gathered his feet together and made another spring.
+      This time he landed on a boat that was bringing oak-timber to build a
+      King&rsquo;s Palace in London. He stood where the timber was highest and made
+      another spring. This time he landed on the Giant&rsquo;s Causeway that runs from
+      Ireland out into the sea. He picked his steps from boulder to boulder, and
+      then walked royally and resolutely on the ground of Ireland. A man was
+      riding on horseback with a woman seated on the saddle behind him. The King
+      of the Cats waited until they came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good man,&rdquo; said he very grandly, &ldquo;when you go back to your house, tell
+      the ash-covered cat in the corner that the King of the Cats has come to
+      Ireland to see him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His manner was so grand that the man took off his hat and the woman made a
+      courtesy. Then the King of the Cats sprang into the branch of a tree of
+      the forest and slept till it was past the mid-day heat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I nearly forgot to tell you that as he slept on the branch his whiskers
+      stood around his face the breadth of a dinner-dish either way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day the King&rsquo;s Son rode abroad and where he went that day he saw
+      no man nor woman nor living creature in the land around. But coming back
+      he saw a falcon sailing in the air above. He rode on and the falcon sailed
+      above, never rising high in the air, and never swooping down. The King&rsquo;s
+      Son fitted an arrow to his bow and shot at the falcon. Immediately it rose
+      in the air and flew swiftly away, but a feather from it fell before him.
+      The King&rsquo;s Son picked the feather up. It was a blue feather. Then the
+      King&rsquo;s Son thought of Fedelma&rsquo;s falcon&mdash;of the bird that flew above
+      them when they rode across the Meadows of Brightness. It might be
+      Fedelma&rsquo;s falcon, the one he had shot at, and it might have come to show
+      him the way to the Land of Mist. But the falcon was not to be seen now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not go amongst the strangers in his father&rsquo;s Castle that evening;
+      but he stood with Art who was watching the herdsmen drive the cattle into
+      the byres. And Art after a while said, &ldquo;I will tell you more about the
+      coming of the King of the Cats into King Connal&rsquo;s Dominion. And as before
+      I say
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To your father&rsquo;s Son in all truth be it told &ldquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats waited on the branch of the tree until the moon was
+      in the sky like a roast duck on a dish of gold, and still neither
+      retainer, vassal nor subject came to do him service. He was vexed, I tell
+      you, at the want of respect shown him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the reason why none of his subjects came to him for such a long
+      time: The man and woman he had spoken to went into their house and did not
+      say a word about the King of the Cats until they had eaten their supper.
+      Then when the man had smoked his second pipe, he said to the woman: &ldquo;That
+      was a wonderful thing that happened to us to-day. A cat to walk up to two
+      Christians and say to them, &lsquo;Tell the ashy pet in your chimney corner at
+      home that the King of the Cats has come to see him.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner were the words said than the lean, gray, ash-covered cat that
+      lay on the hearthstone sprang on the back of the man&rsquo;s chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will say this,&rdquo; said the man; &ldquo;it&rsquo;s a bad time when two Christians like
+      ourselves are stopped on their way back from the market and ordered&mdash;ordered,
+      no less&mdash;to give a message to one&rsquo;s own cat lying on one&rsquo;s own
+      hearthstone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my fur and daws, you&rsquo;re a long time coming to his message,&rdquo; said the
+      cat on the back of the chair; &ldquo;what was it, anyway?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The King of the Cats has come to Ireland to see you,&rdquo; said the man, very
+      much surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a wonder you told it at all,&rdquo; said the cat, going to the door. &ldquo;And
+      where did you see His Majesty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shouldn&rsquo;t have spoken,&rdquo; said the man&rsquo;s wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how did I know a cat could understand?&rdquo; said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you have done talking amongst yourselves,&rdquo; said the cat, &ldquo;would you
+      tell me where you met His Majesty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing will I tell you,&rdquo; said the man, &ldquo;until I hear your own name from
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name,&rdquo; said the cat, &ldquo;is Quick-to-Grab, and well you should know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a word will we tell you,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;until we hear what the
+      King of the Cats is doing in Ireland. Is he bringing wars and rebellions
+      into the country?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wars and rebellions,&mdash;no, ma&rsquo;am,&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab, &ldquo;but
+      deliverance from oppression. Why are the cats of the country lean and lazy
+      and covered with ashes? It is because the cat that goes outside the house
+      in the sunlight, to hunt or to play, is made to suffer with the loss of an
+      eye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who makes them suffer with the loss of an eye?&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;One
+      whose reign is nearly over now,&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab. &ldquo;But tell me where
+      you saw His Majesty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the man. &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;for we don&rsquo;t like your
+      impertinence. Back with you to the hearthstone, and watch the mouse-hole
+      for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quick-to-Grab walked straight out of the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May no prosperity come to this house,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;for denying me when I
+      asked where the King of the Cats was pleased to speak to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But he put his ear to the door when he went outside and he heard the woman
+      say,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The horse will tell him that we saw the King of the Cats a mile this side
+      of the Giant&rsquo;s Causeway.&rdquo; (That was a mistake. The horse could not have
+      told it at all, because horses never know the language that is spoken in
+      houses&mdash;only cats know it fully and dogs know a little of it.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quick-to-Grab now knew where the King of the Cats might be found. He went
+      creeping by hedges, loping across fields, bounding through woods, until he
+      came under the branch in the forest where the King of the Cats rested, his
+      whiskers standing round his face the breadth of a dinner-dish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he came-under the branch Quick-to-Grab mewed a little in Egyptian,
+      which is the ceremonial language of the Cats. The King of the Cats came to
+      the end of the branch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you, vassal?&rdquo; said he in Phoenician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A humble retainer of my lord,&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab in High-Pictish (this
+      is a language very suitable to cats but it is only their historians who
+      now use it).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They continued their conversation in Irish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sign shall I show the others that will make them know you are the
+      King of the Cats?&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats chased up the tree and pulled down heavy branches.
+      &ldquo;There is a sign of my royal prowess,&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good sign,&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab. They were about to talk again when
+      Quick-to-Grab put down his tail and ran up another tree greatly
+      frightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What ails you?&rdquo; said the King of the Cats. &ldquo;Can you not stay still while
+      you are speaking to your lord and master?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old-fellow Badger is coming this way,&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab, &ldquo;and when he
+      puts his teeth in one he never lets go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without saying a word the King of the Cats jumped down from the tree.
+      Old-fellow Badger was coming through the glade. When he saw the King of
+      the Cats crouching there he stopped and bared his terrible teeth. The King
+      of the Cats bent himself to spring. Then Old-fellow Badger turned round
+      and went lumbering back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, by my claws and fur,&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab, &ldquo;you are the real King of
+      the Cats. Let me be your Councillor. Let me advise your Majesty in the
+      times that will be so difficult for your subjects and yourself. Know that
+      the Cats of Ireland are impoverished and oppressed. They are under a
+      terrible tyranny.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who oppresses my vassals, retainers and subjects?&rdquo; said the King of the
+      Cats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Eagle-Emperor. He has made a law that no cat may leave a man&rsquo;s house
+      as long as the birds (he makes an exception in the case of owls) have any
+      business abroad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tear him to pieces,&rdquo; said the King of the Cats. &ldquo;How can I reach
+      him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No cat has thought of reaching him,&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab, &ldquo;they only think
+      of keeping out of his way. Now let me advise your Majesty. None of our
+      enemies must know that you have come into this country. You must appear as
+      a common cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, me?&rdquo; said the King of the Cats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, your Majesty, for the sake of the deliverance of your subjects you
+      will have to appear as a common cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And be submissive and eat scraps?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be only in the daytime,&rdquo; said Quick-to-Grab, &ldquo;in the night-time
+      you will have your court and your feasts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least, let the place I stay in be no hovel,&rdquo; said the King of the
+      Cats. &ldquo;I shall refuse to go into a house where there are washing days&mdash;damp
+      clothes before a fire and all that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall use my best diplomacy to safeguard your comfort and dignity,&rdquo;
+       said Quick-to-Grab, &ldquo;please invest me as your Prime Minister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats invested Quick-to-Grab by biting the fur round his
+      neck. Then the King and his Prime Minister parted. The King of the Cats
+      took up quarters for a day or two in a round tower. Quick-to-Grab made a
+      journey through the country-side. He went into every house and whispered a
+      word to every cat that was there, and whether the cat was watching a
+      mouse-hole, or chasing crickets, or playing with kittens, when he or she
+      heard that word they sat up and considered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early, early, next day the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son rode out in search of the
+      blue falcon, but although he rode from the ring of day to the gathering of
+      the dark clouds he saw no sign of it on rock or tree or in the air. Very
+      wearily he rode back, and after his horse was stabled he stood with Art in
+      the meadows watching the cattle being driven by. And Art, the King&rsquo;s
+      Steward, said: &ldquo;The Coming of the King of the Cats into King Connal&rsquo;s
+      dominion is a story still to be told. To your father&rsquo;s Son in all truth be
+      it told&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quick-to-Grab, in consultation with the Seven Elders of the Cat-Kin
+      decided that the Blacksmith&rsquo;s forge would be a fit residence for the King
+      of the Cats. It was clean and commodious. But the best reason of all for
+      his going there was this: people and beasts from all parts came into the
+      forge and the King of the Cats might learn from their discussions where
+      the Eagle-Emperor was and how he might be destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His Majesty found that the Forge was not a bad residence for a King living
+      unbeknownst. It was dry and warm. He liked the look of the flames that
+      mounted up with the blowing of the bellows. He used to sit on a heap of
+      old saddles on the floor and watch the horses being shod or waiting to be
+      shod. He listened to the talk of the men. The people in the Forge treated
+      him respectfully and often referred to his size, his appearance and his
+      fine manners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every night he went out to a feast that the cats had prepared for him.
+      Quick-to-Grab always walked back to the Forge with him to give a Prime
+      Minister&rsquo;s advice. He warned His Majesty not to let the human beings know
+      that he understood and could converse in their language&mdash;(all cats
+      know men&rsquo;s language, but men do not know that the cats know). He told him
+      not to be too haughty (as a King might be inclined to be) to any creature
+      in the Forge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats took this advice. He used even to twitch his ears as
+      a mark of respect to Mahon, the hound whose kennel was just outside the
+      forge, and to the hounds that Mahon had to visit him. He even made
+      advances to the Cock who walked up and down outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This Cock made himself very annoying to the King of the Cats. He used to
+      strut up and down saying to himself over and over again, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      Cock-o&rsquo;-the-Walk, I&rsquo;m Cock-o&rsquo;-the-Walk.&rdquo; Sometimes he would come into the
+      Forge and say it to the horses. The King of the Cats wondered how the
+      human beings could put up with a creature who was so stupid and so vain.
+      He had a red comb that fell over one eye. He had purple feathers on his
+      tail. He had great spurs on his heels. He used to put his head on one side
+      and yawn when the King of the Cats appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cock-o&rsquo;-the-Walk used to come into the Forge at night and sleep on the
+      bellows. And when the King of the Cats came back from the feasts he used
+      to waken up and say to himself, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m Cock-o&rsquo;-the-Walk, I&rsquo;m
+      Cock-o&rsquo;-the-Walk. The Cats are not a respectable people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One noonday there were men in the Forge. They were talking to the Smith.
+      Said one, &ldquo;Could you tell us, Smith, where iron came from?&rdquo; The King of
+      the Cats knew but he said nothing. Cock-o&rsquo;-the-Walk came to the door and
+      held his head as if he were listening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell where iron came from,&rdquo; said the Smith, &ldquo;but if that Cock
+      could talk he could tell you. The world knows that the Cock is the wisest
+      and the most ancient of creatures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m Cock-o&rsquo;-the-Walk,&rdquo; said the Cock to a rusty ass&rsquo;s shoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, the Cock is a wonderful creature,&rdquo; said the man who had asked the
+      question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not wonderful at all,&rdquo; said the King of the Cats, &ldquo;and if you had asked
+      me I could have told you where iron came from.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where did iron come from?&rdquo; said the Smith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the Mountains of the Moon,&rdquo; said the King of the Cats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men in the Forge put their hands on their knees and looked down at
+      him. Mahon the hound came into the Forge with other hounds at his tail,
+      and seeing the men looking at the King of the Cats, Mahon put his nose to
+      him. Cock-o&rsquo;-the-Walk flapped his wings insolently. The King of the Cats
+      struck at the red hanging comb with his paw. The Cock flew up in the air.
+      The King of the Cats sprang out of the window, and as he did, Mahon and
+      the other hounds sprang after him&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son rode towards the East the next day, and in the
+      first hour&rsquo;s journey he saw the blue falcon sailing above. He followed
+      where it went and the falcon never lifted nor stooped, but sailed steadily
+      on, only now and again beating the air with its wings. Over benns and
+      through glens and across moors the blue falcon flew and the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son followed. Then his horse stumbled; he could not go any
+      further, and he lost sight of the blue falcon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Black night was falling down on the ground when he came back to the King&rsquo;s
+      Castle. Art, the King&rsquo;s Steward, was waiting for him and he walked beside
+      his limping horse. And Art said when they were a little way together, &ldquo;The
+      Coming of the King of the Cats is a story still to be told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To your father&rsquo;s Son in all truth be it told &ldquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the magic powers they possessed it was made known to all the cats in
+      the country that their King was being pursued by the hounds. Then on every
+      hearthstone a cat howled. Cats sprang to the doors, overturning cradles
+      upon children. They stood upon the thresholds and they all made the same
+      curse&mdash;&ldquo;That ye may break your backs, that ye may break your backs
+      before ye catch the King of the Cats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he heard the howls of his vassals, retainers and subjects, the King
+      of the Cats turned over on his back and clawed at the first hound that
+      came after him. He stood up then. So firmly did he set himself on his four
+      legs that those that dashed at him did not overthrow him. He humped up his
+      body and lifted his forepaws. The hounds held back. A horn sounded and
+      that gave them an excuse to get away from the claws and the teeth, the
+      power and the animosity of the King of the Cats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, even though it might cost each and every one of them the loss of an
+      eye, the cats that had sight of him came running up. &ldquo;We will go with you,
+      my lord, we will help you, my lord,&rdquo; they cried all together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go back to the hearthstones,&rdquo; said the King of the Cats. &ldquo;Go back and be
+      civil and quiet again in the houses. You will hear of my deeds. I go to
+      find the tracks of our enemy, the Eagle-Emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When they heard that announcement the cats lamented, and the noise of
+      their lamentation was so dreadful that horses broke their harnesses where
+      they were yoked; men and women lost the color of their faces thinking some
+      dreadful visitation was coming on the land; every bag of oats and rye
+      turned five times to the right and five times to the left with the fright
+      it got; dishes were broken, knives were hurled round, and the King&rsquo;s
+      Castle was shaken to the bottom stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not the time to seek the tracks of the Eagle-Emperor,&rdquo; said
+      Quick-to-Grab. &ldquo;Stay for a while longer in men&rsquo;s houses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; said the King of the Cats. &ldquo;Never will I stay by the hearthstone
+      and submit to be abused by cocks and hounds and men. I will range the
+      world openly now and seek out the enemy of the Cat-Kind, the
+      Eagle-Emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without once turning his back he went towards the wood that was filled
+      with his enemies, the birds. The cats, when they saw their petitions were
+      no use, went everyone back to the house where he or she stayed. Each one
+      sat before a mouse-hole and pretended to be watching. But though mice
+      stirred all round them the cats of Ireland never turned a head that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the wren, the smallest of birds, that saw him and knew him for the
+      King of the Cats. The wren flew through the wood to summon the Hawk-Clan.
+      But it was towards sunset now and the hawks had taken up their stations at
+      the edge of the wood to watch that they might pick up the farmers&rsquo; 
+      chickens. They wouldn&rsquo;t turn an eye when the wren told them that a cat was
+      in the wood during the time forbidden to cats to be outside the houses of
+      men. &ldquo;It is the King of the Cats,&rdquo; said the wren. None of the hawks lifted
+      a wing. They were waiting for the chickens that would stray about the
+      moment after sunset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if the wren couldn&rsquo;t rouse the Hawk-Clan she was able to rouse the
+      other bird-tribes. &ldquo;A cat, a cat, on your lives a cat,&rdquo; she called out as
+      she flew through the wood. The rooks that were going home now rose above
+      the trees, cawing threats. The blackbirds, thrushes and jays screamed as
+      they flew before the King of the Cats. The woodpeckers, hedge-sparrows,
+      tom-tits, robins and linnets chattered as they flew behind him. Sometimes
+      the young rooks made a great show of attacking him. They flew down from
+      the flock. &ldquo;He is here, here, here,&rdquo; they cawed and flew up again. The
+      rooks kept telling themselves and the other birds in the wood what they
+      were going to do with the King of the Cats. But a single raven did more
+      against him than the thousand rooks that made so much noise. This raven
+      was in a hole in the tree. She struck the King of the Cats on the head
+      with her beak as he went past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats was annoyed by the uproar the birds were making and
+      he was angered by the raven&rsquo;s stroke, but he did not want to enter into a
+      battle with the birds. He was on his way to the house of the Hag of the
+      Wood who was then known as the Hag of the Ashes. Now as this is the first
+      time you have heard of the Hag of the Ashes, I&rsquo;ll have to tell you how the
+      King of the Cats had heard of her and how he knew where her house was in
+      the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day the King&rsquo;s Son put a bridle on the Slight Red Steed and rode
+      towards the East again. He saw the blue falcon and he followed where it
+      flew. Over benns, and through glens and across mountains and moors the
+      blue falcon went and the Slight Red Steed neither swerved nor stumbled but
+      went as the bird flew. The falcon lighted on a pine tree that grew alone.
+      The King&rsquo;s Son rode up and put his hands to the tree to climb and put his
+      head against it, and as he did he heard speech from the tree. &ldquo;The stroke
+      of the Sword of Light will slay the King of the Land of Mist and the
+      stroke of the Sword of Light that will cut a tress of her hair will awaken
+      Fedelma.&rdquo; There was no more speech from the tree and the falcon rose from
+      its branches and flew high up in the air. Then the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son
+      rode back towards his father&rsquo;s Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the meadow and stood with Art and listened to what Art had to
+      tell him. And as before the King&rsquo;s Steward began&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To your father&rsquo;s Son in all truth be it told&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quick-to-Grab had said to the King of the Cats, &ldquo;If ever you need the
+      counsel of a human being, go to no one else but the Hag of the Ashes who
+      was once called the Hag of the Wood. In the very centre of the wood four
+      ash trees are drawn together at the tops, wattles are woven round these
+      ash trees, and in the little house made in this way the Hag of the Ashes
+      lives, with no one near her since her nine daughters went away, but her
+      goat that&rsquo;s her only friend.&rdquo; The King of the Cats was now in the centre
+      of the wood. He saw four ash trees drawn together at the tops and he
+      jumped to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the Hag of the Ashes had a bad neighbor. This was a crane that had
+      built her nest across the roof of the little house. The nest prevented the
+      smoke from coming out at the top and the house below was filled with it.
+      The Hag could hardly keep alive on account of the smoke and she could
+      neither take away the nest nor banish the bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The crane was there when the King of the Cats sprang on the roof. She was
+      sitting with her two legs stretched out, and when the King of the Cats
+      came down beside her she slipped away and sailed over the trees. &ldquo;Time for
+      me to be going,&rdquo; said the crane. And from that day to this she never came
+      back to the house of the Hag of the Ashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, thanks to you, good creature,&rdquo; said the Hag of the Ashes, coming out
+      of the house. &ldquo;Tear down her nest now and let the smoke rise up through
+      the roof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats tore up the sticks and wool that the crane&rsquo;s nest was
+      made of, and the smoke came up through the top of the house. &ldquo;Oh, thanks
+      to you, good creature, that has destroyed the cross crane&rsquo;s nest. Come
+      down on my floor now and I&rsquo;ll do everything that will serve you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats jumped down on the floor of the Hag&rsquo;s house and saw
+      the Hag of the Ashes sitting in a corner, She was a little, little woman
+      in a gray cloak. All over the floor there were ashes in heaps, for she
+      used to light a fire in one corner and when it was burnt out light another
+      beside the ashes of the first. The smoke had never gone through the hole
+      in the roof since the crane had built her nest on the top of the house.
+      Her face was yellow with the smoke and her eyes were half closed on
+      account of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know who I am, Hag of the Ashes?&rdquo; said the King of the Cats when
+      he stood on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a cat, honey,&rdquo; said the Hag of the Ashes. &ldquo;I am the King of the
+      Cats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The King of the Cats you are indeed. And it was you who let the smoke out
+      of the top of my little house by destroying the nest the cross crane had
+      built on it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was I who did that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Welcome to you then, King of the Cats. And what service can the Hag of
+      the Ashes do for you in return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would go to where the Eagle-Emperor is. You must show me the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my cloak I will do that. The Eagle-Emperor lives on the top of the
+      Hill of Horns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how can I get to the top of the Hill of Horns?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how you can get there at all. All over the Hill is bare
+      starvation. No four-footed thing can reach the top&mdash;no four-footed
+      thing, I mean, but my goat that&rsquo;s tied to the hawthorn bush outside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will ride on the back of your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, good King of the Cats. I have only my goat for company and how
+      could I bear to be parted from him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lend me your goat, and when I come back from the Hill of Horns I will
+      plate his horns with gold and shoe his hooves with silver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, good King of the Cats. How could I bear my goat to be away from
+      me, and I having no other company?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do not let me ride on your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns I
+      will leave a sign on your house that will bring the cross crane to build
+      her nest on the top of it again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then take my goat, King of the Cats, take my goat but let him come back
+      to me soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will. Come with me now and bid him take me to the top of the Hill of
+      Horns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Cats marched out of the house and the Hag of the Ashes
+      hobbled after him. The goat was lying under the hawthorn bush. He put his
+      horns to the ground when they came up to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you go to the Hill of Horns?&rdquo; said the Hag of the Ashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, that I will not do,&rdquo; said the goat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, the soft tops of the hedges on the way to the Hill of Horns&mdash;sweet
+      in the mouth of a goat they should be,&rdquo; said the Hag of the Ashes. &ldquo;But my
+      own poor goat wants to stay here and eat the tops of the burnt-up
+      thistles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you tell me of the hedges on the way to the Hill of Horns
+      before?&rdquo; said the goat, rising to his feet. &ldquo;To the Hill of Horns I&rsquo;ll
+      go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And will you let a cat ride on your back to the Hill of Horns?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, I will not do that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, my poor goat, I&rsquo;ll not untie the rope that&rsquo;s round your neck, for
+      you can&rsquo;t go to the Hill of Horns without this cat riding on your back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him sit on my back then and hold my horns, and I&rsquo;ll take no notice of
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hag of the Ashes untied the rope that was round his neck, the King of
+      the Cats jumped up on the goat&rsquo;s back, and they started off on the path
+      through the wood. &ldquo;Oh, how I&rsquo;ll miss my goat, until he comes back to me
+      with gold on his horns and silver on his hooves,&rdquo; the Hag of the Ashes
+      cried after them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son did not leave the Castle the next day, but
+      stayed to question those who came to it about the Sword of Light. And some
+      had heard of the Sword of Light and some had not heard of it. In the
+      afternoon he was in the chambers of the Castle and he watched his two
+      foster-brothers, Dermott and Downal, the sons of Caintigern, the Queen,
+      playing chess. They played the game upon his board and with his figures.
+      And when he went up to them and told them they had permission to use the
+      board and the figures, they said, &ldquo;We had forgotten that you owned these
+      things.&rdquo; The King&rsquo;s Son saw that everything in the Castle was coming into
+      the possession of his foster-brothers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found another board with other chess-men and he played a game with the
+      King&rsquo;s Steward. And Art said, &ldquo;The coming of the King of the Cats into
+      King Connal&rsquo;s Dominion is a story still to be told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To your father&rsquo;s Son in all truth be it told &ldquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What should a goat do but ramble down laneways, wander across fields,
+      stray along hedges and stay to rest under shady trees? All this the Hag&rsquo;s
+      goat did. But at last he brought the King of the Cats to the foot of the
+      Hill of Horns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And what was the Hill of Horns like, asks my kind foster-child. It was
+      hills of stones on the top of a hill of stones. Only a goat could foot it
+      from pebble to stone, from stone to boulder, from boulder Ko crag, and
+      from crag to mountain-shoulder. It was well and not ill what the Hag&rsquo;s
+      goat did. But then thunder sounded; lightning struck fire out of the
+      stones, the wind mixed itself with the rain and the tempest pelted cat and
+      goat. The goat stood on a mountain-shoulder. The wind rushed up from the
+      bottom and carried the companions to the top of the Hill of Horns. Down
+      sprang the cat. But the goat stood on his hind-legs to butt back at the
+      wind. The wind caught him between the beard and the under-quarters and
+      swept him from the top and down the other side of the hill (and what
+      happened to the Hag&rsquo;s goat after this I never heard). The King of the Cats
+      put his claws into the crevices of a standing stone and held to it with
+      great tenacity. And then, when the wind abated and he looked across his
+      shoulder, he found that he was standing beside the nest of the
+      Eagle-Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a hollow edged with rocks, and round that hollow were scattered the
+      horns of the deer and goats that the Eagle-Emperor had carried off. And in
+      the hollow there was a calf and a hare and a salmon. The King of the Cats
+      sprang into the Eagle-Emperor&rsquo;s nest. First he ate the salmon. Then he
+      stretched himself between the hare and the calf and waited for the
+      Eagle-Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he appeared. Down he came to the nest making circles in the air.
+      He lighted on the rocky rim. The King of the Cats rose with body bent for
+      the spring, and if the Eagle-Emperor was not astonished at his appearance
+      it was because an Eagle can never be astonished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A brave man would be glad if he could have seen the Eagle-Emperor as he
+      crouched there on the rock rim of his nest. He spread down his wings till
+      they were great strong shields. He bent down his outspread tail. He bent
+      down his neck so that his eyes might look into the creature that faced
+      him. And his cruel, curved, heavy beak was ready for the stroke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the King of the Cats sprang into the air. The Eagle lifted himself up
+      but the Cat came down on his broad back. The Eagle-Emperor screamed his
+      war-scream and flew off the hill. He struck at the King of the Cats with
+      the backs of his broad wings. Then he plunged down. On the stones below he
+      would tear his enemy with beak and claws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the Cat that reached the ground. As the Eagle went to strike at him
+      he sprang again and tore the Eagle&rsquo;s breast. Then the Eagle-Emperor caught
+      the King of the Cats in his claws and flew up again, screaming his
+      battle-scream. Drops of blood from both fell on the ground. The Eagle had
+      not a conqueror&rsquo;s grip on his enemy and the King of the Cats was able to
+      tear at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened that Curoi, King of the Munster Fairies, was marching at the
+      head of his troop to play a game of hurling with the Fianna of Ireland,
+      captained by Fergus, and for the hand of Aine&rsquo;, the daughter of Mananaun,
+      the Lord of the Sea. Just when the ball was about to be thrown in the air
+      the Eagle-Emperor and the King of the Cats were seen mixed together in
+      their struggle. One troop took the side of the Eagle and the other took
+      the side of the Cat. The men of the country came up and took sides too.
+      Then the men began to fight amongst themselves and some were left dead on
+      the ground. And this went on until there were hosts of the men of Ireland
+      fighting each other on account of the Eagle-Emperor and the King of the
+      Cats. The King of the Fairies and the Chief of the Fianna marched their
+      men away to a hill top where they might watch the battle in the air and
+      the battles on the ground. &ldquo;If this should go on,&rdquo; said Curoi, &ldquo;our troops
+      will join in and men and Fairies will be slaughtered. We must end the
+      combat in the air.&rdquo; Saying this he took up the hurling-ball and flung it
+      at the Cat and Eagle. Both came down on the ground. The Cat was about to
+      spring, the Eagle was about to pounce, when Curoi darted between them and
+      struck both with his spear. Eagle and Cat became figures of stone. And
+      there they are now, a Stone Eagle with his wings outspread and a Stone Cat
+      with his teeth bared and his paws raised. And the Eagle-Emperor and the
+      King of the Cats will remain like that until Curoi strikes them again with
+      his fairy-spear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Cat and the Eagle were turned into stone the men of the country
+      wondered for a while and then they went away. And the Fairies of Munster
+      and the Fianna of Ireland played the hurling match for the hand of Aine&rsquo; 
+      the daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea, and what the result of
+      that hurling match was is told in another book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And that ends my history of the coming into Ire-land of the King of the
+      Cats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son left Art and went into an unused room in the
+      Castle to search for a little bell that he might put upon the Slight Red
+      Steed. He found the little bell, but it fell out of his hand and slipped
+      through a crack in the floor. He went and looked through the crack. He saw
+      below a room and in it was Caintigern, the Queen, and beside her were two
+      women in the cloaks of enchantresses. And when he looked again he knew the
+      two of them&mdash;they were Aefa and Gilveen, the daughters of the
+      enchanter of the Black Back-Lands and Fedelma&rsquo;s sisters. &ldquo;And will my two
+      sons come to rule over their father&rsquo;s dominion?&rdquo; he heard Caintigern ask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Prince who gains the Sword of Light will rule over his father&rsquo;s
+      dominion,&rdquo; Aefa said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then one of my sons must get the Sword of Light,&rdquo; Caintigern said. &ldquo;Tell
+      me where they must go to get knowledge of where it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only the Gobaun Saor knows where the Sword of Light is,&rdquo; said Aefa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Gobaun Saor! Can he be seen by men?&rdquo; said Caintigern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can be seen,&rdquo; said Aefa. &ldquo;And there is one&mdash;the Little Sage of
+      the Mountain&mdash;who can tell what road to go to find the Gobaun Saor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Caintigern, &ldquo;my two sons, Dermott and Downal, will ride out
+      to-morrow to find the Little Sage of the Mountain, and the Gobaun Saor, so
+      that one of them may find the Sword of Light and come to rule over his
+      father&rsquo;s dominion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son heard that, he went to the stable where the
+      Slight Red Steed was, and put the bridle upon him and rode towards the
+      Hill of Horns, on one side of which was the house thatched with the one
+      great wing of a bird, where the Little Sage of the Mountain lived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SWORD OF LIGHT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AND THE UNIQUE TALE WITH AS MUCH OF THE ADVENTURES OF GILLY OF THE
+      GOATSKIN AS IS GIVEN IN &ldquo;THE CRANESKIN BOOK&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came to the house that was thatched with the one great wing of a bird,
+      and, as before, the Little Sage of the Mountain asked him to do a day&rsquo;s
+      work. The King&rsquo;s Son reaped the corn for the Little Sage, and as he was
+      reaping it his two foster-brothers, Dermott and Downal, rode by on their
+      fine horses. They did not know who the young fellow was who was reaping in
+      the field and they shouted for the Little Sage of the Mountain to come out
+      of the house and speak to them. &ldquo;We want to know where to find the Gobaun
+      Saor who is to give us the Sword of Light,&rdquo; said Dermott.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in,&rdquo; said the Sage, &ldquo;and help me with my day&rsquo;s work, and I&rsquo;ll search
+      in my book for some direction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t do such an unprincely thing as take service with you,&rdquo; said
+      Downal. &ldquo;Tell us now where we must go to find the Gobaun Saor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you have made a mistake,&rdquo; said the Little Sage. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m an ignorant
+      man, and I can&rsquo;t answer such a question without study.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ride on, brother,&rdquo; said Downal, &ldquo;he can tell us nothing.&rdquo; Dermott and
+      Downal rode off on their fine horses, the silver bells on their bridles
+      ringing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, when he had eaten his supper, the Little Sage told the King&rsquo;s
+      Son where to go. It is forbidden to tell where the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son
+      found the Builder and Shaper for the Gods. In a certain place he came to
+      where the Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted his anvil, and he
+      saw the Gobaun Saor beating on a shape of iron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You want to find the Sword of Light,&rdquo; said the Gobaun, his eyes as
+      straight as the line of a sword-blade, &ldquo;but show me first your will, your
+      mind and your purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can I do that?&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guard my anvil for a few nights,&rdquo; said the Gobaun Saor. &ldquo;A Fua comes out
+      of the river sometimes and tries to carry it off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Gobaun Saor had to make a journey to look at trees that were growing
+      in the forest, and the King&rsquo;s Son guarded his anvil. And at night a Fua
+      came out of the river and flung great stones, striving to drive him away
+      from the anvil. He ran down to the river bank to drive it away, but the
+      creature caught him in its long arms and tried to drown him in the deep
+      water. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son was near his death, but he broke away
+      from the Fua, and when the creature caught him again, he dragged it up the
+      bank and held it against a tree. &ldquo;I will give you the mastery of all arts
+      because you have mastered me,&rdquo; said the Fua. &ldquo;I do not want the mastery of
+      arts, but maybe you can tell me where to find the Sword of Light.&rdquo; &ldquo;You
+      want to know that&mdash;do you?&rdquo; said the Fua, and then it twisted from
+      him and went into the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Fua came the next night and flung stones as before, and the King&rsquo;s Son
+      wrestled with it in the very middle of the river, and held him so that he
+      could not get to the other bank. &ldquo;I will give you heaps of wealth because
+      you have mastered me,&rdquo; said the creature with the big eyes and the long
+      arms. &ldquo;Not wealth, but the knowledge of where to come on the Sword of
+      Light is what I want from you,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. But the
+      Fua twisted from him and ran away again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next night the Fua came again, and the King&rsquo;s Son wrestled with him in
+      the middle of the river and followed him up the other bank, and held him
+      against a tree. &ldquo;I will give you the craft that will make you the greatest
+      of Kings, because you have mastered me.&rdquo; &ldquo;Not craft, but knowledge of
+      where the Sword of Light is, I want from you,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;Only
+      one of the People of Light can tell you that,&rdquo; said the Fua. It became a
+      small, empty sort of creature and lay on the ground like a shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Gobaun Saor came back to his forge and his anvil. &ldquo;You have guarded my
+      anvil for me,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I will tell you where to go for the Sword of
+      Light. It is in the Palace of the Ancient Ones under the Lake. You have an
+      enchanted steed that can go to that Lake. I shall turn his head, and he
+      shall go straight to it. When you come to the edge of the Lake pull the
+      branches of the Fountain Tree and give the Slight Red Steed the leaves to
+      eat. Mount now and go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son mounted the Slight Red Steed and went traveling
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From all its branches, high and low, water was falling in little streams.
+      This was the Fountain Tree indeed. He did not dismount, the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son, but pulled the branches and he gave them to the Slight Red
+      Steed to eat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He ate no more than three mouthfuls. Then he stamped on the ground with
+      his hooves, lifted his head high and neighed three times. With that he
+      plunged into the water of the Lake and swam and swam as if he had the
+      strength of a dragon. He swam while there was light on the water and he
+      swam while there was night on the water, and when the sun of the next day
+      was a hand&rsquo;s breadth above the lake he came to the Black Island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All on that Island was black and burnt, and there were black ashes up to
+      the horse&rsquo;s knees. And no sooner had the Slight Red Steed put his hooves
+      on the Island than he galloped straight to the middle of it. He galloped
+      through an opening in the black rock and went through a hundred passages,
+      each going lower than the other, and at last he came into the wide space
+      of a hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hall was lighted. When the King&rsquo;s Son looked to see where the light
+      came from he saw a sword hanging from the roof. And the brightness of the
+      Sword was such that the hall was well lighted. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son
+      galloped the Slight Red Steed forward and made it rear up. His hand
+      grasped the hilt of the Sword. As he pulled it down the Sword screeched in
+      his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He flashed it about and saw what other things were in the Cave. He saw one
+      woman, and two women and three women. He came to them and he saw they were
+      sleeping. And as he flashed the Sword about he saw other women sleeping
+      too. There were twelve women in the Cave where the Sword of Light had been
+      hanging and the women were sleeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in the hands of each of the sleeping women was a great gemmed cup. The
+      spirit of the King&rsquo;s Son had grown haughty since he felt the Sword in his
+      hands. &ldquo;You have the sword, why should you not have the cup?&rdquo; something
+      within him said. He took a cup from the hands of one of the sleeping women
+      and drank the bubbling water that it held. His spirit grew more haughty
+      with that draught. From the hands of each of the twelve sleeping women he
+      took the cup and he drank the draught of bubbling water that it held. And
+      when he had drunk the twelve draughts of bubbling water he felt that with
+      the Sword of Light in his hands he could cut his way through the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He mounted the Slight Red Steed and rode it through the Cave and swam it
+      across the Lake with No Name. He held the Sword of Light across his
+      saddle. The Steed went as the current drew him, for it was long since he
+      had eaten the leaves of the Fountain Tree, and the spirit that had made
+      him vigorous coming was feeble now. The current brought them to the shore
+      below where the Fountain Tree grew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And there on the shore he saw a bunch of little men, little women and
+      littler children, all with smoke-colored skins, all with but one eye in
+      their heads, all crying and screaming at each other like sea-birds, and
+      all sitting round a fire of dried water weeds, cooking and eating eels and
+      crab-apples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son put his hands on the bridle-rein and drew the
+      Slight Red Steed out of the water. The women with one right eye and the
+      men with one left eye, and the children in their bare smoky skins screamed
+      at him, &ldquo;What do you want, what do you want, man with the horse?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Feed and water my steed for me,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are the Swallow People, and no one commands us to do things,&rdquo; said an
+      old fellow with a beard like knots of ropes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Feed my steed with red wheat and water it with pure spring water,&rdquo; said
+      the King&rsquo;s Son fiercely. &ldquo;I am the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son and the Sword of
+      Light is in my hands, and what I command must be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are the Swallow People and we are accounted a harmless people,&rdquo; said
+      the old fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are ye harmless?&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, and he flourished the sword at
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come into our cave, King&rsquo;s Son,&rdquo; said the old fellow, &ldquo;we will give you
+      refreshment there, and the children will attend to your steed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went into the cave with certain of the Swallow People. They were all
+      unmannerly. They kept screaming and crying to each other; they pulled at
+      the clothes of the King&rsquo;s Son and pinched him. One of them bit his hands.
+      When they came into the cave they all sat down on black stones. One pulled
+      in a black ass loaded with nets. They took the nets off its back, and
+      before the King&rsquo;s Son knew that anything was about to happen they threw
+      the nets around him. The meshes of the nets were sticky. He felt himself
+      caught. He ran at the Swallow People and fell over a stone. Then they drew
+      more nets around his legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old fellow whom he had commanded took up the Sword of Light. Then the
+      Swallow People pulled up the ass that had carried the nets and rubbed its
+      hard hoof on the Sword. The King&rsquo;s Son did not know what happened to it.
+      Then he heard them cry, &ldquo;The brightness is gone off the thing now.&rdquo; They
+      left the Sword on a black rock, and now no light came from it. Then all
+      the Swallow People scrambled out of the cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came back eating eels and crab-apples out of their hands. They paid
+      no attention to the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, but climbed into a cave above
+      where he was lying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He broke the nets that were round him. He found the Sword on the black
+      stones, with the brightness all gone from it because of the rubbing with
+      the ass&rsquo;s hoof. He climbed up the wall of the other cave to punish the
+      Swallow People. They saw him before he could see them in the darkness, and
+      they all went into holes and hid themselves as if they were rats and mice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the blackened sword in his hands the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went out
+      of the Cave, and the horse he had left behind, the Slight Red Steed, was
+      not to be found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without a steed and with a blackened sword the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son came
+      to where the Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted his anvil. No
+      water nor sand would clean the Sword, but he left it down before the
+      Gobaun Saor, hoping that he would show him a way to dean it. &ldquo;The Sword
+      must be bright that will kill the King of the Land of Mist and cut the
+      tress that will awaken the Enchanter&rsquo;s daughter,&rdquo; said the Gobaun Saor.
+      &ldquo;You have let the Sword be blackened. Carry the blackened Sword with you
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brighten it for me and I will serve you,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not easy for me to brighten the Sword now,&rdquo; said the Gobaun Saor.
+      &ldquo;But find me the Unique Tale and what went before its beginning and what
+      comes after its end, and I shall brighten the sword for you and show you
+      the way to the Land of Mist. Go now, and search for the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went, and he had many far journeys, I can tell you, and he found no
+      person who had any knowledge of the Unique Tale or who knew any way of
+      coming to the Land of Mist. One twilight in a wood he saw a great bird
+      flying towards him. It lighted on an old tree, and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s
+      Son saw it was Laheen the Eagle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you still a friend to me, Eagle?&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am still a friend to you, King&rsquo;s Son,&rdquo; said Laheen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then tell me where I should go to get knowledge of the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said
+      the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Unique Tale&mdash;I never heard of it at all,&rdquo; said Laheen the Eagle,
+      changing from one leg to the other. &ldquo;I am old,&rdquo; she said, shaking her
+      wings, &ldquo;and I never heard of the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son looked and saw that Laheen was really old. Her neck was
+      bare of feathers and her wings were gray. &ldquo;Oh, if you are so old,&rdquo; said
+      the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;and have gone to so many places, and do not know of the
+      Unique Tale, to whom can I go to get knowledge of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen,&rdquo; said Laheen the Eagle, &ldquo;there are five of us that are called the
+      Five Ancient Ones of Ireland, and it is not known which one of the five is
+      the oldest. There is myself, Laheen the Eagle; there is Blackfoot the Elk
+      of Ben Gulban, there is the Crow of Achill, the Salmon of Assaroe and the
+      Old Woman of Beare. We do not know ourselves which of us is the oldest,
+      but we know that we five are the most ancient of living things. I have
+      never heard of the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said Laheen, &ldquo;but maybe one of the other
+      Ancients has heard of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go to them,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;Tell me how I will find the
+      Crow of Achill, the Elk of Ben Gulban, the Salmon of Assaroe and the Old
+      Woman of Beare&mdash;tell me how to go to them, Laheen the Eagle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not go to the Salmon of Assaroe,&rdquo; said the Eagle, &ldquo;for the
+      Salmon would not have heard any tale. I will get you means of finding the
+      other three. Follow the stream now until you come to the river. Wait at
+      the ford and I will fly to you there.&rdquo; Laheen the Eagle then shook her
+      wings and flew slowly away. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son followed the stream
+      until he came to the river&mdash;the River of the Ox it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And having come to the River of the Ox he sought the ford and waited there
+      for Laheen the Eagle. When it was high noon he saw the shadow of the Eagle
+      in the water of the ford. He looked up. Laheen let something fall into the
+      shallows. It was a wheel. Then Laheen lighted on the rocks of a waterfall
+      above the ford and spoke to the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Son of King Connal,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;roll this wheel before you and follow it
+      where it goes. It will bring you first where Blackfoot the Elk abides. Ask
+      the Elk has he knowledge of the Unique Tale. If he has no knowledge of it
+      start the wheel rolling again. It will bring you then where the Crow of
+      Achill abides. If the Crow cannot tell you anything of the Unique Tale,
+      let the wheel bring you to where the Old Woman of Beare lives. If she
+      cannot tell you of the Unique Tale, I cannot give you any further help.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Laheen the Eagle then spread out her wings and rising above the mist of
+      the waterfall flew away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son took the wheel out of the shallow water and set
+      it rolling before him. It went on without his touching it again. Then he
+      was going and ever going with the clear day going before him and the dark
+      night coming behind him, going through scrubby fields and shaggy
+      bog-lands, going up steep mountain sides and along bare mountain ridges,
+      until at last he came to a high mound on a lonesome mountain. And as high
+      as the mound and as lonesome as the mountain was the Elk that was standing
+      there with wide, wide horns. The wheel ceased rolling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am from Laheen the Eagle,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Elk moved his wide-horned head and looked down at him. &ldquo;And why have
+      you come to me, son?&rdquo; said the Elk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came to ask if you had knowledge of the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no knowledge of the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said the Elk in a deep voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are you not Blackfoot, the Elk of Ben Gulban, one of the five of the
+      oldest creatures in the world?&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the Elk of Ben Gulban,&rdquo; said Blackfoot, &ldquo;and it may be that there is
+      no creature in the world more ancient than I am. The Fianna hunted me with
+      their hounds before the Sons of Mile&rsquo; came to the Island of Woods. If it
+      was a Tale of Finn or Caelta or Goll, of Oscar or Oisin or Conan, I could
+      tell it to you. But I know nothing of the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Blackfoot the Elk of Ben Gulban turned his wide-horned head away and
+      looked at the full old moon that was coming up in the sky. And the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son took up the wheel and went to look for a shelter. He found a
+      sheep-cote on the side of the mountain and lay down and slept between
+      sheep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the sun rose he lifted up the wheel and set it going before him. He
+      was going and ever going down long hillsides and across spreading plains
+      till he came to where old trees and tree-stumps were standing hardly close
+      enough together to keep each other company. The wheel went through this
+      ancient wood and stopped before a fallen oak-tree. And sitting on a branch
+      of that oak, with a gray head bent and featherless wings gathered up to
+      her neck was a crow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come from Laheen the Eagle,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you say?&rdquo; said the Crow, opening one eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come from Laheen the Eagle,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, from Laheen,&rdquo; said the Crow and dosed her eye again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I came to ask for knowledge of the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Laheen,&rdquo; said the Crow, &ldquo;I remember Laheen the Eagle.&rdquo; Keeping her eyes
+      shut, she laughed and laughed until she was utterly hoarse. &ldquo;I remember
+      Laheen the Eagle,&rdquo; she said again. &ldquo;Laheen never found out what I did to
+      her once. I stole the Crystal Egg out of her nest. Well, and how is Laheen
+      the Eagle?&rdquo; she said sharply, opening one eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Laheen is well,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;She sent me to ask if
+      you had knowledge of the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am older than Laheen,&rdquo; said the Crow. &ldquo;I remember Paralon&rsquo;s People. The
+      Salmon of Assaroe always said he was before Paralon&rsquo;s People. But never
+      mind! Laheen can&rsquo;t say that. If I could only get the feathers to stay on
+      my wings I&rsquo;d pay Laheen a visit some day. How are Laheen and her
+      bird-flocks?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O Crow of Achill,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;I was sent to ask if
+      you had knowledge of the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Unique Tale! No, I never heard of it,&rdquo; said the Crow. She gathered
+      her wings up to her neck again and bent her gray head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think, O Crow of Achill,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;I will bring
+      you the warmest wool for your nest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never heard of the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said the Crow. &ldquo;Tell Laheen I was
+      asking for her.&rdquo; Nothing would rouse the Crow of Achill again. The King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son set the wheel rolling and followed it. Then he was going and
+      ever going with the clear day before him and the dark night coming behind
+      him. He came to a wide field where there were field-fares or ground larks
+      in companies. He crossed it. He came to a plain of tall daisies where
+      there were thousands of butterflies. He crossed it. He came to a field of
+      buttercups where blue pigeons were feeding. He crossed it. He came to a
+      field of flax in blue blossom. He crossed it and came to a smoke-blackened
+      stone house deep sunk in the ground. The wheel stopped rolling before it
+      and he went into the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An old woman was seated on the ground before the fire basting a goose. A
+      rabbit-skin cap was on her hairless head and there were no eye-brows on
+      her face. Three strange birds were eating out of the pot&mdash;a cuckoo, a
+      corncrake and a swallow. &ldquo;Come to the fire, gilly,&rdquo; said the old woman
+      when she looked round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not a gilly, but the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son,&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, let that be. What do you want of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you the Old Woman of Beare?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been called the Old Woman of Beare since your
+      fore-great-grandfather&rsquo;s time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How old are you, old mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know. But do you see the three birds that are picking out of my
+      pot? For two score years the swallow was coming to my house and building
+      outside. Then he came and built inside. Then for three score years he was
+      coming into my house to build here. Now he never goes across the sea at
+      all, and do you see the corncrake? For five score years she was coming to
+      the meadow outside. Then she began to run into the house to see what was
+      happening here. For two score years she was running in and out. Then she
+      stayed here altogether. Now she never goes across the sea at all. And do
+      you see the cuckoo there? For seven score years she used to come to a tree
+      that was outside and sing over her notes. Then when the tree was gone, she
+      used to light on the roof of my house. Then she used to come in to see
+      herself in a looking glass. I do not know how many score years the cuckoo
+      was going and coming, but I know it is many score years since she went
+      across the sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went from Laheen the Eagle to Blackfoot the Elk, and from the Elk of
+      Ben Gulban to the Crow of Achill, and from the Crow of Achill, I come to
+      you to ask if you have knowledge of the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Unique Tale, indeed,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare. &ldquo;One came to me
+      only last night to tell me the Unique Tale. He is the young man who is
+      counting the horns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What young man is he and what horns is he counting?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is no King&rsquo;s Son, but a gilly&mdash;Gilly of the Goat-skin he is
+      called. He is counting the horns that are in two pits outside. When the
+      horns are counted I will know the number of my half-years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is that, old mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father used to kill an ox every year on my birthday, and after my
+      father&rsquo;s death, my servants, one after the other, used to kill an ox for
+      me. The horns of the oxen were put into two pits, one on the right-hand
+      side of the house and one on the left-hand side. If one knew the number of
+      the horns one would know the number of, my half-years, for every pair of
+      horns goes to make a year of my life. Gilly of the Goatskin is counting
+      the horns for me now, and when he finishes counting them I will let him
+      tell the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must let me listen to the tale too, Old Woman of Beare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you count the horns in one pit I will let you listen to the tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will count the horns in one pit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go outside then and count them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went outside. He found on the right-hand side of
+      the house a deep quarry-pit. Round the edge of it were horns of all kinds,
+      black horns and white horns, straight horns and crooked horns. And below
+      in the pit he saw a young man digging for horns that were sunk in the
+      ground. He had on a jacket made of the skin of a goat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo; said the young man in the quarry-pit. &ldquo;I am the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son. And who may you be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who I am I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said the young man in the goatskin, &ldquo;but they
+      call me Gilly of the Goatskin. What have you come here for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To get knowledge of the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it was to tell the same Unique Tale that I came here myself. Why do
+      you want to know the Unique Tale?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would make a long story. Why do you want to tell it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would make a longer story. There is a quarry-pit at the left-hand
+      side of the house filled with horns and it must be your task to count
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will count them,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;But you will be
+      finished before me. Do not tell the Old Woman of Beare the Tale until we
+      both sit down together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that suits you it will suit me,&rdquo; said Gilly of the Goatskin, and he
+      began to dig again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went to the left-hand side of the house. He
+      found the quarry-pit and went into it to count the horns that were there&mdash;black
+      horns and white horns, straight horns and crooked horns. And now, while
+      the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son is in the quarry-pit, I will tell you the
+      adventures of Gilly&mdash;the Lad or the Servant&mdash;of the Goatskin,
+      which adventures are written in &ldquo;The Craneskin Book.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      VI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He never stirred out of the cradle till he was past twelve years of age,
+      but lay there night and day, long days and short days; the only garment he
+      ever put on was a goatskin; a hunter had once put it down on the floor
+      beside his cradle and he reached out with his two hands, drew it in and
+      put the goatskin on him. He got his name and his coat at the same time,
+      for he was called ever afterwards &ldquo;Gilly of the Goatskin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But although he never stirred out of the cradle, Gilly of the Goatskin had
+      ways of diverting himself. He used to shoot arrows with a bow out of the
+      door of the house and hit a mark on a tree that was opposite him. <i>And
+      where did he get the bow and arrows?</i> The bow fell down from the roof
+      of the house and into the cradle. And as for arrows he used to make them
+      out of the wands that the Hags brought in to make baskets with. But the
+      Hags never saw him using the bow and sending off the arrows. All day they
+      would be going along the streams gathering the willow wands for the
+      baskets they made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He knew nobody except the three Hags of the Long Teeth, and he had never
+      heard the name of mother or father. Often, when she was peeling the wands
+      with a black-handled knife, the Hag of the House used to tell Gilly of the
+      Goatskin the troubles that were in store for him&mdash;danger from the
+      sword and the spear and the knife, from water and fire, from the beasts of
+      the earth and the birds of the air. She delighted to tell him about the
+      evils that would befall him. And she used to laugh when she told him he
+      was a hump-back and that people would throw stones at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day when the Hags were away gathering willow wands, Gilly turned the
+      cradle over and lay under it. He wanted to see what they would do when
+      they did not see him sitting up in the cradle. They came in. Gilly looked
+      through a crack in the cradle and saw the Hags&mdash;they were old and
+      crooked and had long teeth that came down below their chins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s gone, he&rsquo;s gone, he&rsquo;s gone!&rdquo; screamed the Hag of the House, when she
+      did not see Gilly in the cradle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s gone,&rdquo; said one of the long-toothed Hags. &ldquo;I told you he would go
+      away. Why didn&rsquo;t you cut out his heart yesterday, or the day before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mind what I tell you,&rdquo; said the other Hag of the Long Teeth. &ldquo;Mind what I
+      tell you. His father&rsquo;s son will grow into a powerful champion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not he,&rdquo; said the Hag of the House, with great anger. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll never become
+      a Champion. He&rsquo;s only a little hump-backed fellow with no weapons and with
+      no garment but a goatskin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be better to kill him when he comes back,&rdquo; said the first of the
+      Hags with the Long Teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if he doesn&rsquo;t come back, tell the Giant Crom Duv,&rdquo; said the second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly of the Goatskin crept from under the cradle, put his bow resting on
+      the bottom that was now turned uppermost, took up some of the rods that
+      were on the floor and then shouted at the Hags. &ldquo;Oh, if that&rsquo;s a hazel rod
+      he has at his bow he will kill us all,&rdquo; they screamed out together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew back the string, fired the willow rod and struck the middle Hag
+      full on the breast. The three Hags fell down on the ground. The pot that
+      was always hanging over the fire turned itself upside down and the house
+      was filled with smoke. Gilly of the Goatskin, the bow in his hand, sprang
+      across the cradle, over the threshold of the door, and out into the width
+      and the height, the length and the breadth, the gloom and the gleam of the
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was out, as I have said, in the width and the height, the length and
+      the breadth, the gloom and the gleam of the world. He fired arrows into
+      the air. He leaped over ditches, he rolled down hillsides, he raced over
+      level places until he came to what surprised him more than all the things
+      in the world&mdash;a river. He had never seen such water before and he
+      wondered to see it moving with swiftness. &ldquo;Where is it going?&rdquo; said Gilly
+      of the Goatskin. &ldquo;Does it go on like that in the night as well as in the
+      day?&rdquo; He ran by its side and shouted to the river. He saw a wide-winged
+      bird flying across it. It was the bird that we call the crane or the
+      heron. And as Gilly watched the great winged thing he saw that it held a
+      little animal in its claws. Gilly fired an arrow and the crane dropped
+      towards the ground. The little animal that was in its claws fell down. The
+      crane rose up again and flew back across the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little animal that had been in the claws of the crane came to Gilly of
+      the Goatskin. It was smaller than the one-eyed cat that used to sit on the
+      hearth of the Hag of the House. It kept its head up and was very
+      bold-looking. &ldquo;Good morning, Lad in the Goatskin,&rdquo; it said to Gilly, &ldquo;you
+      saved my life and I&rsquo;m very thankful to you.&rdquo; &ldquo;What are you?&rdquo; said Gilly of
+      the Goat-skin. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m the Weasel. I&rsquo;m the boldest and bravest creature in
+      this country. I&rsquo;m the lion of these parts, I am. And,&rdquo; said the Weasel, &ldquo;I
+      never served anyone before, but I&rsquo;ll be your servant for a quarter of a
+      year. Tell me what way you&rsquo;re going and I&rsquo;ll go with you.&rdquo; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going the
+      way he&rsquo;s going,&rdquo; said Gilly, nodding towards the river, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll keep
+      beside him till he wants to turn back.&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh, then you&rsquo;ll have to go a long
+      way,&rdquo; said the Weasel, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll go with you no matter bow far you go.&rdquo;
+       The Weasel walked by Gilly&rsquo;s side very bravely and very independently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, look,&rdquo; said Gilly to the Weasel, &ldquo;what is that that&rsquo;s in the water?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Weasel looked and saw a crystal egg in the shallows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an egg,&rdquo; said the Weasel, &ldquo;I often eat one myself. I&rsquo;ll bring it up
+      from the bottom to you. I&rsquo;m good at carrying eggs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Weasel went into the water and put his mouth to the egg and tried to
+      lift it. He could not move it. He tried to lift it with his paws as well
+      as with his mouth; but this did not do either. He came up the bank then,
+      and said to Gilly, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll think I&rsquo;m a poor sort of a servant because I
+      can&rsquo;t take an egg out of the water. But if I can&rsquo;t win one way I&rsquo;ll win
+      another way.&rdquo; He went into the reeds by the river and he said, &ldquo;Hear me,
+      frogs! There&rsquo;s a great army coming to take you out of the reeds and eat
+      you red and raw.&rdquo; Then Gilly saw the queer frogs lifting up their heads,
+      &ldquo;Oh, what will we do, what will we do?&rdquo; they cried to the Weasel. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      only one thing to be done,&rdquo; said the Weasel. &ldquo;You gather up all the
+      pebbles in the bed of the fiver and we&rsquo;ll make a big wail on the bank to
+      defend you.&rdquo; The frogs dived into the water at once and dragged up
+      pebbles. Gilly and the Weasel piled them on the bank. Then three frogs
+      carried up the Crystal Egg. The Weasel took it from them when they left it
+      on the bank. Then he climbed a tree and cried out to the frogs, &ldquo;The army
+      is frightened and is running away.&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh, thank you, thank you,&rdquo; said the
+      frogs, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ll never forget your goodness to us.&rdquo; Then they sat down in the
+      marsh and told each other what a narrow escape they all had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Weasel gave Gilly the Crystal Egg. It was heavy and he carried it for
+      a while in his hand. They went on. After a while said Gilly of the
+      Goatskin, &ldquo;The night&rsquo;s coming on and the fiver shows no sign of turning
+      back. I wish there was a nice place to shelter us.&rdquo; No sooner did he say
+      the word than he and the Weasel found them-selves standing before the open
+      door of a nice little house. They went in. A clear fire was burning on the
+      hearth, an arm chair was before it, and a bed was made at the other side
+      of the fire. &ldquo;This is good,&rdquo; said Gilly, &ldquo;and now I wish that we had
+      something to eat.&rdquo; No sooner did he say the words than a table appeared
+      with bread and meat, fruit and wine on it. &ldquo;Where do these fine things
+      come from, I wonder,&rdquo; said Gilly of the Goatskin. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s my belief,&rdquo; said
+      the Weasel, &ldquo;that all these things come to us on account of the egg you
+      have in your hand. It&rsquo;s a magic egg.&rdquo; Gilly of the Goatskin put the egg on
+      the table and wished that he might see himself as he had seen himself in
+      the river. Nothing appeared. Then he took the egg in his hand and wished
+      again. And then there was a looking glass on the wall before him, and he
+      saw himself in it better than he had seen himself in the river. Gilly of
+      the Goatskin knew that he had only to hold the Crystal Egg in his hand and
+      wish, to get all he could think of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VIII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly of the Goatskin wished for wide windows in his house and he got
+      them. He wished for a light within when there was darkness without, and he
+      got a silver lamp that burned until he wished to sleep. He wished for the
+      songs of birds and he had a blackbird singing upon his half-door, a lark
+      over his chimney, a goldfinch and a green linnet within his window, and a
+      shy wren in the evening singing from the top of his dresser. Then he
+      wished to hear the conversation of the beasts and all the creatures of the
+      fields and the wood and the mountain top came into his house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hare used to come in early in the morning. He was always the first
+      visitor and he never remained long, and always while he was there he kept
+      running up and down the house, and he generally ended his visit by jumping
+      through the open window. The martens, the beautiful wild cats of the wood,
+      came in to see Gilly once; they were very proud and told him nothing. The
+      little black rabbits were very much impressed by the martens, and all the
+      time the martens were there they stayed under the bed and the chairs. Two
+      or three times the King of the Wood himself&mdash;the Boar of the Bristles
+      and the Long Tusks&mdash;came to see Gilly; he used to push open the door
+      and then stand in the middle of the floor grunting and grunting. Once he
+      brought his wife with him, and six or seven of their little pigs that went
+      running over the floor, with their ears hanging over their eyes, came with
+      them too. The hedgehogs used to come, but they always made themselves
+      disagreeable. They just lay down by the fire and snored, and when they
+      wakened up they quarrelled with each other. Everybody said that the
+      hedgehogs&rsquo; children were very badly brought up and very badly provided
+      for. The squirrels who were so clean and careful, and so fond of their
+      children, thought the hedgehogs were very bad creatures indeed. &ldquo;It is
+      just like them to have dirty sticky thorns around them instead of nice
+      clean fur,&rdquo; said the squirrel&rsquo;s wife. &ldquo;But, my dear,&rdquo; said the squirrel,
+      &ldquo;every animal can&rsquo;t have fur.&rdquo; &ldquo;How well,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;the rabbits have
+      fur, though dear knows they&rsquo;re creatures of not much account. It&rsquo;s all
+      just to let us see that they&rsquo;re some relation of that horrible, horrible
+      boar that goes crashing and marching through the wood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The deer never came into the house, and Gilly had a shed made for them
+      outside. They would come into it and stay there for many nights and days,
+      and Gilly used to go out and talk with them. They knew about far
+      countries, and strange paths and passes, but they did not know so much
+      about men and about the doings of other creatures as the Fox did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Fox used to come in the evening and stay until nearly morning whether
+      Gilly fell asleep or kept awake. The Fox was a very good talker. He used
+      to lie down at the hearth with his paws stretched out, and tell about this
+      one and that one, and what she said and what he did. If the Fox came to
+      see you, and if he was in good humor for talking, you would stay up all
+      night to listen to him. I know I should. It was the Fox who told Gilly
+      what the Crow of Achill did to Laheen the Eagle. She had stolen the
+      Crystal Egg that Laheen was about to hatch&mdash;the Crystal Egg that the
+      Crane had left on a bare rock. It was the Fox who told Gilly how the first
+      cat came into the world. And it was the Fox who told Gilly about the
+      generations of the eel. All I say is that it is a pity the Fox cannot be
+      trusted, for a better one to talk and tell a story it would be hard to
+      find. He was always picking up and eating things that had been left over&mdash;a
+      potato roasting in the ashes, an apple left upon a plate, a piece of meat
+      under a cover. Gilly did not grudge these things to Rory the Fox and he
+      always left something in a bag for him to take home to the young foxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had nearly forgotten to tell you about Gilly&rsquo;s friend, the brave Weasel.
+      He had made a home for himself under the roof. Sometimes he would go away
+      for a day or so and he would never tell Gilly where he had been. When he
+      was at home he made himself the door-keeper of Gilly&rsquo;s house. If any of
+      the creatures made themselves disagreeable by quarrelling amongst each
+      other, or by being uncivil to Gilly, the Weasel would just walk over to
+      them and look them in the eyes. Then that creature went away. Always he
+      held his head up and if Gilly asked him for advice he would say three
+      words, &ldquo;Have no fear; have no fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One day Gilly wanted to have a bunch of cherries with his dinner, and he
+      went to find the Crystal Egg so that he might wish for it. The Crystal Egg
+      was not in the place he had left it. He called the Weasel and the two of
+      them searched the house. The Crystal Egg was nowhere to be found. &ldquo;One of
+      the creatures has stolen the Egg,&rdquo; said the Weasel, &ldquo;but whoever stole it
+      I will make bring it back. I&rsquo;ll soon find out who did it.&rdquo; The Weasel
+      walked up to every creature that came in, looked him or her in the eye and
+      said, &ldquo;Did you steal the Crystal Egg?&rdquo; And every creature that came in
+      said, &ldquo;No, Little Lion, I didn&rsquo;t steal it.&rdquo; Next day they had examined
+      every creature except the Fox. The Fox had not been in the night before
+      nor the night before that again. He did not come in the evening they
+      missed the Crystal Egg nor the evening after that evening. That night the
+      Weasel said, &ldquo;As sure as there are teeth in my head the Fox stole the
+      Crystal Egg. As soon as there is light we&rsquo;ll search for him and make him
+      give the Egg back to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      IX
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Weasel was right; it was Rory the Fox who had stolen Gilly&rsquo;s Crystal
+      Egg. One night, just as he was leaving Gilly&rsquo;s house, the moon shone full
+      upon the Crystal Egg. In the turn of a hand Rory the Fox had made a little
+      spring and had taken the Egg in his mouth. Then he slipped out by the door
+      as quick and as quiet as a leaf blown in the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He couldn&rsquo;t help himself stealing the Egg, when the chance came. He had
+      had a dream about it. He dreamt that the Egg had been hatched and that out
+      of it had come the most toothsome bird that a Fox had ever taken by the
+      neck. He snapped his teeth in his sleep when he dreamt of it. The Fox told
+      his youngsters about the bird he had dreamt of&mdash;a bird as big as a
+      goose and so fat on the neck and the breast that it could hardly stir from
+      sitting. The youngsters had smacked their lips and snapped their teeth.
+      Every time he came home now they used to say to him&mdash;&ldquo;Father, have
+      you brought us the Boobrie Bird?&rdquo; No wonder that his eyes used to turn to
+      the Crystal Egg when he sat in Gilly&rsquo;s house. And then because the moon
+      shone on it just as he was leaving, and because he knew that Gilly&rsquo;s back
+      was turned, he could not keep himself from making a little spring and
+      taking the Crystal Egg softly in his mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went amongst the dark, dark trees with the soft and easy trot of a Fox.
+      He knew well what he should do with the Egg. He had dreamt that it had
+      been hatched by the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s old rheumatic goose. This goose was
+      called Old Mother Hatchie and the Fox had never carried her off because he
+      knew she was always hatching out goslings for his table. He went through
+      the trees and across the fields towards the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spae-Woman lived by telling people their fortunes and reading them
+      their dreams. That is why she was called the Spae-Woman. The people gave
+      her goods for telling them their dreams and fortunes and she left her land
+      and stock to whatever chanced. The fences of her fields were broken and
+      rotted. Her hens had been carried off by the Fox. Her goat had gone wild.
+      She had neither ox nor ass nor sheep nor pig. The Fox went through her
+      fence now as lightning would go through a gooseberry bush and he came out
+      before her barn. There was a hole in the barn-door and he went through
+      that. And in the north-west corner of the barn, he saw Old Mother Hatchie
+      sitting on a nest of straw and he knew that there was a clutch of eggs
+      under her. She cackled when she saw the Fox on the floor of the barn but
+      she never stirred off the nest. Rory left what was in his mouth on the
+      ground. Old Mother Hatchie put her head on one side and looked at the Egg
+      that was clear in the full moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This egg, Mistress Hatchie,&rdquo; said Rory the Fox, &ldquo;is from the Hen-wife of
+      the Queen of Ireland. The Queen asked the Hen-wife to ask me to leave it
+      with you. She thinks there&rsquo;s no bird in the world but yourself that is
+      worthy to hatch it and to rear the gosling that comes out of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s right, that&rsquo;s right,&rdquo; said Mother Hatchie. &ldquo;Put it here, put it
+      here.&rdquo; She lifted her wing and the Fox put the Crystal Egg into the
+      brood-nest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went out of the barn, crossed the field again, and went amongst the
+      dark, dark trees. He went along slowly now for he began to think that
+      Gilly might find out who stole the Crystal Egg and be vexed with him. Then
+      he thought of the Weasel. The Fox began to think he might be sorry for
+      himself if the Weasel was set on his track.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rory did not go to Gilly&rsquo;s house the next night nor the night after. The
+      third night, as he was going home from a ramble, the Owl hooted at him.
+      &ldquo;Why do you hoot at me, Big Moth?&rdquo; said the Fox stopping in his trot. (He
+      always called the Owl &ldquo;Big Moth&rdquo; to pretend that he thought she wasn&rsquo;t a
+      bird at all, but a moth. He made this pretence because he was annoyed that
+      he could never get an owl to eat). &ldquo;Why do you hoot at me, Big Moth?&rdquo; said
+      he. &ldquo;The Weasel&rsquo;s going to have your bones for his stepping-stones and
+      your blood for his morning dram,&rdquo; said the Owl balefully as she went
+      amongst the dark, dark trees. The Fox stopped long to consider. Then he
+      went to his burrow and told his youngsters they would have to move house.
+      He had them stirring at the first light. He gave them a frog each for
+      their breakfast and took them across the country. They came to a burrow
+      that Old-Fellow Badger had just left and Rory the Fox brought his
+      youngsters into it and told them that it would be their new house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      X
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening after when Rory the Fox was taking his nap he heard one of his
+      youngsters give a sharp cry. They were playing outside the burrow, lie
+      looked out and he saw that his three youngsters were afraid of something
+      that was between them and the burrow. He looked again and saw the Weasel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ahem,&rdquo; said Rory the Fox, &ldquo;and how are we this morning?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Weasel had marked one of Rory&rsquo;s youngsters for attack. Although Rory
+      spoke, he never took his eyes off the youngster he had marked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear friend,&rdquo; said the Fox, &ldquo;I was just going to say&mdash;if you are
+      looking for anything, perhaps I could tell you where it might be found.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Crystal Egg,&rdquo; said the Weasel without ever taking away his blood-thirsty
+      gaze from Rory&rsquo;s youngster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, the Crystal Egg,&rdquo; said Rory the Fox. &ldquo;Yes, to be sure. I could bring
+      you at once to the place where the Crystal Egg is.&rdquo; He came out of the
+      burrow and saw Gilly standing on the bank behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it is time for my children to go back to their burrow,&rdquo; said Rory
+      the Fox. &ldquo;Please excuse them, my friends.&rdquo; The Weasel took his eyes off
+      the youngster he had marked and the three little foxes scampered into the
+      burrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This way, friends,&rdquo; said the Fox, and he started off towards the
+      Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house with the light and easy trot of a fox. Gilly and the
+      Weasel went behind him. They crossed a field of flax, a field of hemp and
+      a field of barley. They came to the broken fence before the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s
+      house, and in front of the house they saw the Spae-Woman herself and she
+      was crying and crying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Fox hid behind the fence, the Weasel climbed up on the ditch and Gilly
+      himself went to the woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What ails you at all?&rdquo; said Gilly to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My goose&mdash;the only fowl left to me has been taken by robbers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask her where the clutch of eggs is that the goose was hatching,&rdquo; said
+      Rory the Fox anxiously, putting his head over the fence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is the clutch of eggs, ma&rsquo;am, that your goose was hatching?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The robbers took the nest with the goose and the eggs with the nest,&rdquo;
+       said the Spae-Woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Crystal Egg was with the other eggs,&rdquo; said the Fox to Gilly. He
+      said no more. He made a quick turn and got clear away before the Weasel
+      could spring on him. He ran back to his burrow. He told the little foxes
+      they must change houses again. That night they lay in a wood and at the
+      first light they crossed water and went to live on an island where the
+      Weasel never came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did the robbers go with the goose, the nest, and the eggs?&rdquo; said
+      Gilly of the Goatskin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They went to the river,&rdquo; said the Spae-Woman. &ldquo;I followed them every inch
+      of the way. They got into a boat and they hoisted their sails. They rowed
+      and they rowed, so that the hard gravel of the bottom was brought to the
+      top, and the froth of the top was driven down to the bottom of the river.
+      And wherever they are,&rdquo; said the Spae-Woman, &ldquo;they are far from us now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you come with me?&rdquo; said Gilly to the Weasel, &ldquo;we will track them
+      down and take back the Crystal Egg.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I engaged myself to be with you for a quarter of a year,&rdquo; said the
+      Weasel, &ldquo;and the three months are up now, Gilly. Winter is coming on and I
+      must see to my own affairs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then good-by, Weasel,&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;I will search for the Crystal Egg
+      myself. But first I must ask the woman to let me rest in the house and to
+      give me some provision for my journey.&rdquo; The Weasel looked up into Gilly&rsquo;s
+      face and said good-by to him. Then Gilly followed the Spae-Woman into her
+      house. &ldquo;Ocone,&rdquo; she was saying to herself, &ldquo;my dream told me I was to lose
+      my poor goose, and still I never did anything to make it hard for the
+      robbers to take her from me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      XI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, in the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house he stayed for three-quarters of a year. He
+      often went in search of the robbers who had taken the Crystal Egg with the
+      Spae-Woman&rsquo;s goose, but no trace of them nor their booty could he ever
+      find. He met birds and beasts who were his friends, but he could not have
+      speech with them without the Egg that let him have anything he wished. He
+      did work for the Spae-Woman&mdash;fixed her fences and repaired her barn
+      and brought <i>brosna</i> for her fire every evening from the wood. At
+      night, before he went to sleep, the Spae-Woman used to tell him her dreams
+      of the night before and tell him about the people who had come to her
+      house to have their fortunes told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One Monday morning she said to him, &ldquo;I have had an inlook, son of my
+      heart, and I know that my gossip, the Churl of the Townland of Mischance,
+      is going to come and take you into his service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what sort of a man is your gossip, the Churl of the Townland of
+      Mischance?&rdquo; Gilly asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An unkind man. Two youths who served me he took away, one after the
+      other, and miserable are they made by what he did to them. I&rsquo;m in dread of
+      your being brought to the Townland of Mischance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are you in dread of it, Spae-Woman?&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;Sure, I&rsquo;ll be glad
+      enough to see the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what the other two youths said,&rdquo; said the Spae-Woman. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;ll
+      tell you what my gossip the Churl of the Townland of Mischance does: he
+      makes a bargain with the youth that goes into his service, telling him he
+      will give him a guinea, a groat and a tester for his three months&rsquo; 
+      service. And he tells the youth that if he says he is sorry for the
+      bargain he must lose his wages and part with a strip of his skin, an inch
+      wide. He rode on a bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined and spotted horse,
+      from his neck to his heel. Oh, he is an unkind man, my gossip, the Churl
+      of the Townland of Mischance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is there no way to get the better of him?&rdquo; asked Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is, but it is a hard way,&rdquo; said the Spae-Woman. &ldquo;If one could make
+      him say that he, the master, is sorry for the bargain, the Churl himself
+      would lose a strip of his skin an inch wide from his neck to his heel, and
+      would have to pay full wages no matter how short a time the youth served
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bargain anyway,&rdquo; said Gilly, &ldquo;and if he comes I&rsquo;ll take service
+      with the Churl of the Townland of Mischance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The first wet day that came brought the Churl of the Townland of
+      Mischance. He rode on a bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined and spotted
+      horse. He carried an ash-plant in his hand to flog the horse and to strike
+      at the dogs that crossed his way. He had blue lips, eyes looking crossways
+      and eyebrows like a furze bush. He had a bag before him filled with boiled
+      pigs&rsquo; feet. Now when he rode up to the house, he had a pig&rsquo;s foot to his
+      mouth and was eating. He got down off the bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined
+      and spotted horse, and came in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard there was a young fellow at your house and I want him to take
+      service with me,&rdquo; said he to the Spae-Woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the bargain is a good one I&rsquo;ll take service with you,&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, my lad,&rdquo; said the Churl. &ldquo;Here is the bargain, and it&rsquo;s as
+      fair as fair can be. I&rsquo;ll give you a guinea, a groat and a tester for your
+      three months&rsquo; work with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe it&rsquo;s good wages,&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is. Howsoever, if you ever say you are sorry you made the bargain you
+      will lose your wages, and besides that you will lose a strip of your skin
+      an inch wide from your neck to your heel. I have to put that in or I&rsquo;d
+      never get work done for me at all. The serving boys are always saying &lsquo;I
+      can&rsquo;t do that,&rsquo; and &lsquo;I&rsquo;m sorry I made the bargain with you.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if you say you&rsquo;re sorry you made the bargain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, then I&rsquo;ll have to lose a strip of my skin an inch wide from my neck
+      to my heel, and besides that I&rsquo;ll have to give you full wages no matter
+      how short a time you served me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if that suits you it will suit me,&rdquo; said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then walk beside my horse and we&rsquo;ll get back to the Townland of Mischance
+      to-night,&rdquo; said the Churl. Then he swished his ash-plant towards Gilly and
+      ordered him to get ready. The Spae-Woman wiped the tears from her face
+      with her apron, gave Gilly a cake with her blessing, and he started off
+      with the Churl for the Townland of Mischance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What did Gilly of the Goatskin do in the Townland of Mischance? He got up
+      early and went to bed late; he was kept digging, delving and ditching
+      until he was so tired that he could go to sleep in a furze bush; he ate a
+      breakfast that left him hungry five hours before dinner-time, and he ate a
+      dinner that made it seem long until supper-time. If he complained the
+      Churl would say, &ldquo;Well, then you are sorry for your bargain,&rdquo; and Gilly
+      would say &ldquo;No,&rdquo; rather than lose the wages he had earned and a strip of
+      his skin into the bargain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day the Churl said to him, &ldquo;Go into the town for salt for my supper,
+      take the short way across the pasture-field, and be sure not to let the
+      grass grow under your feet.&rdquo; &ldquo;All right, master,&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;Maybe you
+      would bring me my coat out of the house so that I needn&rsquo;t make two
+      journeys.&rdquo; The Churl went into the house for Gilly&rsquo;s coat. When he came
+      back he found Gilly standing in the nice grass of the pasture-field
+      lighting a wisp of hay. &ldquo;What are you doing that for?&rdquo; said the Churl to
+      him. &ldquo;To burn the grass on the pasture-field,&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;To burn the
+      grass on my pasture-field, you villain&mdash;the grass that is for my good
+      race-horse&rsquo;s feeding! What do you mean, at all?&rdquo; &ldquo;Sure, you told me not to
+      let the grass grow under my feet,&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;Doesn&rsquo;t the world know
+      that the grass is growing every minute, and how will I prevent it from
+      growing under my feet if I don&rsquo;t burn it?&rdquo; With that he stooped down to
+      put the lighted hay to the grass of the pasture-field. &ldquo;Stop, stop,&rdquo; said
+      the Churl, &ldquo;I meant that you were to go to the town, without loitering on
+      the way.&rdquo; &ldquo;Well, it&rsquo;s a pity you didn&rsquo;t speak more clearly,&rdquo; said Gilly,
+      &ldquo;for now the grass is a-fire.&rdquo; The Churl bad to stamp on the grass to put
+      the fire out. He burnt his shins, and that made him very angry. &ldquo;O you
+      fool,&rdquo; said he to Gilly, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry&mdash;&rdquo; &ldquo;Are you sorry for the bargain
+      you made with me, Master?&rdquo; &ldquo;No. I was going to say I was sorry I hadn&rsquo;t
+      made my meaning clear to you. Go now to the town and bring me back salt
+      for my supper as quickly as you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After that the Churl was very careful when he gave Gilly an order to speak
+      to him very exactly. This became a great trouble to him, for the people in
+      the Townland of Mischance used always to say, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let the grass grow
+      under your feet,&rdquo; when they meant &ldquo;Make haste,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be there until
+      you&rsquo;re back,&rdquo; when they meant &ldquo;Go quickly&rdquo; and &ldquo;Come with horses&rsquo; legs&rdquo;
+       when they meant &ldquo;come with great speed.&rdquo; He became tired of speaking to
+      Gilly by the letter, so he made up his mind to give him an order that
+      could not be carried out, so that he might have a chance of sending him
+      away without the wages he had earned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One Monday morning he called Gilly to the door of the house and said to
+      him, &ldquo;Take this sheep-skin to the market and bring me back the price of it
+      and the skin.&rdquo; &ldquo;Very well, Master,&rdquo; said Gilly. He put the skin across his
+      arm and went towards the town. The people on the road said to him, &ldquo;What
+      do you want for the sheep-skin, young fellow?&rdquo; &ldquo;I want the skin and the
+      price of it,&rdquo; Gilly said. The people laughed at him and said, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re
+      going to give yourself a long journey, young fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went through the market asking for the skin and the price of it.
+      Everyone joked about him. He went into the market-house and came to a
+      woman who was buying things that no one else would buy. &ldquo;What do you want,
+      youth?&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;The price of the skin and the skin itself,&rdquo; said Gilly.
+      She took the skin from him and plucked the wool out of it. She put the
+      wool in her bag and put the skin back on the board. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s the skin,&rdquo;
+       said she, &ldquo;and here&rsquo;s the price of it.&rdquo; She left three groats and a tester
+      on top of the skin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Churl had finished his supper when Gilly came into the house. &ldquo;Well,
+      Master, I&rsquo;ve come back to you,&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;Did you bring me the price of
+      it and the skin itself?&rdquo; said the Churl. &ldquo;There is the skin,&rdquo; said Gilly,
+      putting on the table the sheep-skin with the wool plucked out of it. &ldquo;And
+      here&rsquo;s the price of it&mdash;three groats and a tester,&rdquo; said he, leaving
+      the money on top of the skin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that the Churl of the Townland of Mischance began to be afraid that
+      Gilly of the Goatskin would be too wise for him, and would get away at the
+      end of the three months with his wages, a guinea, a groat and a tester, in
+      his fist. This thought made the Churl very downcast, because, for many
+      months now, he had got hard labor out of his serving-boys, without giving
+      them a single cross for wages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XIII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day after Christmas the Churl said to Gilly, &ldquo;This is Saint Stephen&rsquo;s
+      Day. I&rsquo;m going to such a man&rsquo;s barn to see the mummers perform a play.
+      Foolish people give these idle fellows money for playing, but I won&rsquo;t do
+      any such thing as that. I&rsquo;ll see something of what they are doing, drink a
+      few glasses and get away before they start collecting money from the
+      people that are watching them. They call this collection their dues, no
+      less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what can I do for you, Master?&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;Run into the barn at
+      midnight and shout out, &lsquo;Master, Master, your mill is on fire.&rsquo; That will
+      give me an excuse for running out. Do you understand now what I want you
+      to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand, Master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Churl put on his coat and took his stick in his hand. &ldquo;Mind what I&rsquo;ve
+      said to you,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be a minute later than midnight. Be sure to
+      come in with a great rash&mdash;come in with horse&rsquo;s legs&mdash;do you
+      understand me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you, Master,&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mummers were dancing before they began the play when the Churl came
+      into the barn. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a rich man,&rdquo; said one of them to another. &ldquo;We must
+      see that he puts a good handful into our bag.&rdquo; The Churl sat on the bench
+      with the farmer who had a score of cows, with the blacksmith who shod the
+      King&rsquo;s horses, and with the merchant who had been in foreign parts and who
+      wore big silver rings in his ears. Half the people who were there I could
+      not tell you, but there were there&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Biddie Early
+   Tatter-Jack Walsh
+   Aunt Jug
+   Lundy Foot
+   Matt the Thresher
+   Nora Criona
+   Conan Maol, and
+   Shaun the Omadhaun.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Some said that the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son was there too. The play was &ldquo;The
+      Unicorn from the Stars.&rdquo; The mummers did it very well although they had no
+      one to take the part of the Unicorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were in the middle of the play when Gilly of the Goatskin rushed into
+      the barn. &ldquo;Master, master,&rdquo; he shouted, &ldquo;your mill&mdash;your mill is on
+      fire.&rdquo; The Churl stood up, and then put his glass to his head and drained
+      what was in it. &ldquo;Make way for me, good people,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Let me out of
+      this, good people.&rdquo; Some people near the door began to talk of what Gilly
+      held in his hands. &ldquo;What have you there, my servant?&rdquo; said the Churl. &ldquo;A
+      pair of horse&rsquo;s legs, Master. I could only carry two of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Churl caught Gilly by the throat. &ldquo;A pair of horse&rsquo;s legs,&rdquo; said he.
+      &ldquo;Where did you get a pair of horse&rsquo;s legs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Off a horse,&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;I had trouble in cutting them off. Bad cess to
+      you for telling me to come here with horse&rsquo;s legs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And whose horse did you cut the legs off?&rdquo; &ldquo;Your own, Master. You
+      wouldn&rsquo;t have liked me to cut the legs off any other person&rsquo;s horse. And I
+      thought your race-horse&rsquo;s legs would be the most suitable to cut off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mummers and the people were gathered round them and they saw the
+      Churl&rsquo;s face get black with vexation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O my misfortune, that ever I met with you,&rdquo; said the Churl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you sorry for your bargain, Master?&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sorry&mdash;I&rsquo;ll be sorry every day and night of my life for it,&rdquo; said
+      the Churl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You hear what my Master says, good people,&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, sure. He says he&rsquo;s sorry for the bargain he made with you,&rdquo; said
+      some of the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Gilly, &ldquo;strip him and put him across the bench until I cut a
+      strip of his skin an inch wide from his neck to his heel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      None of the people would consent to do that. &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;ll tell you
+      something that will make you consent,&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;This man made two poor
+      servant-boys work for him, paid them no wages, and took a strip of their
+      skin, so that they are sick and sore to this day. Will that make you strip
+      him and put him across the bench?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said some of the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He ordered me to come here to-night and to shout &lsquo;Master, master, your
+      mill is on fire,&rsquo; so that he might be able to leave without paying the
+      mummers their dues. His mill is not on fire at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strip him,&rdquo; said the first mummer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put him across the bench,&rdquo; said another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a skinner&rsquo;s knife for you,&rdquo; said a third.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mummers seized the Churl, stripped him and put him across the bench.
+      Gilly took the knife and began to sharpen it on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have mercy on me,&rdquo; said the Churl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did not have mercy on the other two poor servant-boys,&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give you your wages in full.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give you double wages to give to the other servant-boys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And will you pay the mummers&rsquo; dues for all the people here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, no. I can&rsquo;t do that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stretch out your neck then until I mark the place where I shall begin to
+      cut the skin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t put the knife to me. I&rsquo;ll pay the dues for all,&rdquo; said the Churl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You heard what he said,&rdquo; said Gilly to the people. &ldquo;He will pay me wages
+      in full, give me double wages to hand to the servant-boys he has injured,
+      and pay the mummers&rsquo; dues for everyone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We heard him say that,&rdquo; said the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand up and dress yourself,&rdquo; said Gilly to the Churl. &ldquo;What do I want
+      with a strip of your skin? But I hope all here will go home with you and
+      stand in your house until you have paid all the money that&rsquo;s claimed from
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll go home with him,&rdquo; said the mummers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll stand on his floor until he has paid all the money he has agreed to
+      pay,&rdquo; said the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now I must tell you, neighbors,&rdquo; said Gilly, &ldquo;that I never cut the
+      legs of a living horse&mdash;neither his horse nor anyone else&rsquo;s. This
+      pair was taken off a poor dead horse by the skinners that were cutting it
+      up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, they all went to the Churl&rsquo;s house and there they stayed until he
+      opened his stone chest and took out his money-box and paid to the mummers
+      the dues of all the people with sixpence over, and paid Gilly his wages in
+      full, one guinea, one groat and a tester, and handed him double wages to
+      give to each of the servant-boys he had injured. Gilly took the money and
+      left the house of the Churl of the Townland of Mischance, and the people
+      and the mummers went to the road with him, and cheered him as he went on
+      his way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XIV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, without hap or mishap, Gilly came again to the house of the
+      Spae-Woman. She was sitting at her door-step grinding corn with a quern
+      when he came before her. She cried over him, not believing that he had
+      come safe from the Townland of Mischance. And as long as he was with her
+      she spoke to him of his &ldquo;poor back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stayed with her for two seasons. He mended her fences and he cleaned
+      her spring-well; he ground her corn and he brought back her swarm of bees;
+      he trained a dog to chase the crows out of her field; he had the ass shod,
+      the sheep washed and the goat spancelled. The Spae-Woman was much beholden
+      to him for all he did for her, and one day she said to him, &ldquo;Gilly of the
+      Goat-skin you are called, but another name is due to you now.&rdquo; &ldquo;And who
+      will give me another name?&rdquo; said Gilly of the Goatskin. &ldquo;Who&rsquo;ll give it to
+      you? Who but the Old Woman of Beare,&rdquo; said the Spae-Woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day she said to him, &ldquo;I had a dream last night, and I know now
+      what you are to do. You must go now to the Old Woman of Beare for the name
+      that is due to you. And before she gives it to you, you must tell her and
+      whoever else is in her house as much as you know of the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I know nothing at all of the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said Gilly of the
+      Goatskin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is always a blank before a beginning,&rdquo; said the Spae-Woman. &ldquo;This
+      evening, when I am grinding the corn at the quern I shall tell you the
+      Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening when she sat at the door-step of her house and when the sun
+      was setting behind the elder-bushes the Spae-Woman told Gilly the third
+      part of the Unique Tale. Then she baked a cake and killed a cock for him
+      and told him to start on the morrow&rsquo;s morning for the house of the Old
+      Woman of Beare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, he started off in the morning bright and early, leaving good health
+      with the Spae-Woman behind him, and away he went, crossing high hills,
+      passing low dales, and keeping on his way without halt or rest, the clear
+      day going and the dark night coming, taking lodgings each evening wherever
+      he found them, and at last he came to the house of the Old Woman of Beare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went into the house and found her making marks in the ashes of her fire
+      while her cuckoo, her corncrake and her swallow were picking grains off
+      the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what can I do for you, good youth?&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me a name,&rdquo; said Gilly, &ldquo;and listen to the story I have to tell
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I will not,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare, &ldquo;until you have done a
+      task for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What task can I do for you?&rdquo; said Gilly of the Goatskin. &ldquo;I would know,&rdquo;
+       said she, &ldquo;which of us four is the oldest creature in the world&mdash;myself
+      or Laheen the Eagle, Blackfoot the Elk or the Crow of Achill&mdash;I leave
+      the Salmon of Assaroe out of account altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how can a youth like me help you to know that?&rdquo; said Gilly of the
+      Goatskin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An ox was killed on the day I was born and on every one of my birthdays
+      afterwards. The horns of the oxen are in two quarries outside. You must
+      count them and tell me how much half of them amounts to and then I shall
+      know my age.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I&rsquo;ll do if you feed me and give me shelter,&rdquo; said Gilly of the
+      Goatskin. &ldquo;Eat as you like,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare. She pushed him a
+      loaf of bread and a bottle of water. When he cut a slice of the loaf it
+      was just as if nothing had been cut off, and when he took a cupful out of
+      the bottle it was as if no water had been taken out of it at all. When he
+      had drunk and eaten he left the complete loaf and the full bottle of water
+      on the shelf, went outside and began to count the horns on the right-hand
+      side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the second day a strange youth came to him and saluted him, and then
+      went to count the horns in the quarry on the left-hand side. This youth
+      was none other than the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the third day they had the horns all counted. Then Gilly of the
+      Goatskin and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son met together under a bush. &ldquo;How
+      many horns have you counted?&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;So many,&rdquo;
+       said Gilly of the Goatskin. &ldquo;And how many horns have you counted?&rdquo; &ldquo;So
+      many,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as they were adding the two numbers together they both heard sounds
+      in the air&mdash;they were like the sounds that Bards make chanting their
+      verses. And when they looked up they saw a swan flying round and round
+      above them. And the swan chanted the story of the coming of the Milesians
+      to Eirinn, and as the two youths listened they forgot the number of horns
+      they had counted. And when the swan had flown away they looked at each
+      other and as they were hungry they went into the house and ate slices of
+      the unwasted loaf and drank cupfuls out of the inexhaustible bottle. Then
+      the Old Woman of Beare wakened up and asked them to tell her the number of
+      her years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We cannot tell you although we counted all the horns,&rdquo; said the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;for just as we were putting the numbers together a swan
+      sang to us and we forgot the number we had counted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t do your task rightly,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but as I promised to give
+      this youth a name and to listen to the story he had to tell, I shall have
+      to let it be. You may tell the story now, Gilly of the Goatskin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They sat at the fire, and while the Old Woman of Beare spun threads on a
+      very ancient spindle, and while the corncrake, the cuckoo and the swallow
+      picked up grains and murmured to themselves, Gilly of the Goatskin told
+      them the Unique Tale. And the story as Gilly of the Goatskin told it
+      follows this.&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      A Unique Tale
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A King and a Queen were walking one day by the blue pool in their domain.
+      The swan had come to the blue pool, and the bright yellow flowers of the
+      broom were above the water. &ldquo;Och,&rdquo; said the Queen, &ldquo;if I might have a
+      daughter that would show such colors&mdash;the blue of the pool in her
+      eyes, the bright yellow of the broom in her hair, and the white of the
+      swan in her skin&mdash;I would let my seven sons go with the wild geese.&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;Hush,&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;You ask for a doom, and it may be sent you.&rdquo; A
+      shivering came upon the Queen. They went back to the Castle, and that
+      evening the nurse told them that a gray man had passed in a circle round
+      her seven sons saying, &ldquo;If it be as your mother desired, let it be as she
+      has said.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, before the broom blossomed again and before the swan came to the
+      blue pool, a child was born to the Queen. It was a girl. The King was
+      sitting with his seven sons when the women came to tell him of the new
+      birth. &ldquo;O my sons,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;may ye be with me all my life.&rdquo; But his sons
+      moved from him as he said it. Out through the door they went, and up the
+      mound that was before the door. There they changed into gray wild geese,
+      and the seven flew towards the empty hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No councillor that the King consulted could help to win them back again,
+      and no hunter that he sent through the country could gain tale or tidings
+      of them. The King and Queen were left with one child only, the girl just
+      born. They called her &ldquo;Sheen,&rdquo; a word that means &ldquo;Storm,&rdquo; because her
+      coming was a storm that swept away her seven brothers. The Queen died, my
+      hearers. Then little Sheen was forgotten by her father, and she was reared
+      and companioned by the servants of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, when she was the age her eldest brother was when he was changed
+      from his human form, Sheen went with Mor, the Woodman&rsquo;s daughter, and
+      Siav, the basket-maker&rsquo;s foster-child, to gather berries in the wood.
+      Going here and there she got separated from Siav and Mor. She came to a
+      place where there were lots of berries and went step after step to pick
+      them. Her feet went down in a marsh. She cried to Mor and Siav, but no
+      answers came from them. She cried and cried again. Her cries startled
+      seven wild geese that rose up and flew round her. &ldquo;Save me,&rdquo; she cried to
+      them. Then one of the wild geese spoke to her. &ldquo;Anyone but a girl we would
+      save from the marsh, but such a one we cannot save, because it was a girl
+      who lost us our human forms and the loving companionship of our father.&rdquo;
+       Then Sheen knew&mdash;for the servants had often told her the story&mdash;that
+      it was one of her seven brothers who spoke. &ldquo;Since ever I knew of it,&rdquo;
+       said she, &ldquo;the whole of my trouble has been that I was the cause of your
+      losing your human form and the companionship of our father who is now
+      called the Lonely King. Believe me,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;that I would have striven
+      and striven to win you back.&rdquo; There was so much feeling in her voice that
+      her seven brothers, although they had been hardened by thinking about
+      their misfortune, were touched at their hearts and they flew down to help
+      her. They bore up her arms, they caught at her shoulders, they raised up
+      her feet. They carried her beyond the marsh. Then she knelt down and cried
+      to them, &ldquo;O my brothers dear, is there anything I can do to restore you to
+      your human forms?&rdquo; &ldquo;There is,&rdquo; said the first of the seven wild geese. She
+      begged them to tell it to her. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long and a tiresome labor we would
+      put on you,&rdquo; said one. &ldquo;If you would gather the light down that grows on
+      the bogs with your own hands,&rdquo; said another, &ldquo;and if you spun that down
+      into threads, and wove the threads into a cloth and sewed the cloth into a
+      shirt, and did that over and over again until you had made seven shirts
+      for us, all that time without laughing or crying or saying a word, you
+      could save us. One shirt you could weave and spin and sew in a year. And
+      it would not be until the seven shirts were put upon us that the human
+      form would be restored to each of us.&rdquo; &ldquo;I would be glad to do all that,&rdquo;
+       said Sheen, &ldquo;and I would cry no tear, laugh no laugh, and say no word all
+      the time I was doing this task.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then said the eldest brother, &ldquo;The marsh is between you and our father&rsquo;s
+      house, and between you and the companions who were with you to-day. If you
+      would do the task that would restore us to our human forms, it were best
+      you did not go back. Beyond the trees is the house of a lone woman, and
+      there you may live until your task is finished.&rdquo; The seven wild geese then
+      flew back to the marsh, and Sheen went to the house beyond the trees. The
+      Spae-Woman lived there. She took Sheen to be a dumb girl, and she gave her
+      food and shelter for the services she did&mdash;bringing water from the
+      well in the daytime and grinding corn at the quern at dusk. She had the
+      rest of the day and night for her own task. She gathered the bog-down
+      between noon and sunset and spun the thread at night. When she had lengths
+      of thread spun she began to weave them on the loom. At the end of a year
+      she had the first shirt made. In another year she made the second, then
+      the third, then the fourth, the fifth and the sixth. And all the time she
+      said no word, laughed no laugh and cried no tear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was gathering the bog-down for the seventh and last shirt. Once she
+      went abroad on a day when the snow was melted and she felt her footsteps
+      light. Hundreds of birds were on the ground eating plentifully and calling
+      to one another. Sheen could hardly keep from her mouth the song that was
+      in her mind. She would sing and laugh and talk when the last thread was
+      spun and woven, when the last stitch was sewn, and when the shirts of
+      bog-down she had made in silence would have brought back her brothers to
+      their own human forms. She gathered the scarce heads of the cannavan or
+      bog-down with one hand, while she held the other hand to her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something dropped down at her feet. It was a white grouse and it remained
+      cowering on the ground. Sheen looked up and she saw a hawk above. And when
+      she looked round she saw a man coming across the bog. The hawk flew
+      towards him and lighted on his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sheen held the white grouse to her breast. The man came near to her and
+      spoke to her and his voice made her stand. He wore the dress of a hunter.
+      His face was brown and lean and his eyes were bright-blue like
+      gentian-flowers. No word did Sheen say to him and he passed on with the
+      hawk on his shoulder. Then with the grouse held at her breast she went
+      back to the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night when she spun her thread she thought of the blue-eyed,
+      brown-faced man. Would any of her brothers be like him, she wondered, when
+      they were restored to their human shapes. She fed the white grouse with
+      grains of corn and left it to rest in the window-niche above her bed. And
+      then she lay awake and tried to know the meaning in the song the
+      Spae-Woman sang when she sat spinning wool in the chimney Corner&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast!
+   Little sister,
+   I&rsquo;ll rock you to rest!
+
+   The flood on the river beats
+   The swan from its nest!
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast!
+
+   The rain-drops encumber
+   The hawthorn&rsquo;s crest:
+   My thoughts have no number:
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast,
+   Little sister,
+   I&rsquo;ll rock you to rest.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      She passed the night between sleeping and waking, and when the light grew
+      she saw the white grouse crouching against the window-opening. She opened
+      the door and stepped outside to let the grouse fly from her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And there, on the ground before her was a sword! Sheen knew it to be the
+      sword of the man she had seen yesterday, and she knew the man had been
+      before the door in the night-time. She knelt on the ground to look at the
+      bright blue blade. O my listeners, if I was there I was in the crows that
+      flew down heavily and cawed as they picked up something that pleased them,
+      in the wood-cushats that cooed in the trees, in the small birds that
+      quarreled in the thatch of the house, and in the breeze that blew round&mdash;the
+      first breeze of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spae-Woman came outside and saw what Sheen was looking at&mdash;the
+      sword on the ground. &ldquo;It is wrought with cunning that only the smiths of
+      Kings possess,&rdquo; she said. She took the sword and hung it on the branch of
+      a tree so that the dews of the ground might not rust it. &ldquo;I think the one
+      who owns it is the stranger who is seen in the wild places hereabouts&mdash;the
+      man whom the neighbors call the Hunter-King,&rdquo; she said to Sheen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On another day Sheen went to gather bog-down. This time she crossed the
+      river by the stepping-stones and went into a country where there were many
+      cattle. She stood wondering at their numbers and wishing that such a cow
+      and such a calf might belong to the Spae-Woman. Then the next thing she
+      saw was two black horses striving with each other. They showed their teeth
+      at each other and bit and kicked. Then they came racing towards her. &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo;
+       said Sheen to herself, &ldquo;they are Breogan&rsquo;s wild stallions.&rdquo; She ran, but
+      the horses were able to make circles round her. &ldquo;Breogan&rsquo;s wild
+      stallions,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;they will rush in and trample me to death.&rdquo; Then
+      she heard someone shouting commands to the horses. She saw a man strike
+      one of the stallions with a staff, making him rear high. She saw him make
+      the other stand with the command that was in his voice. She ran to the
+      river, but she slipped on the stepping-stones; she fell down and she felt
+      the water flowing upon her. The man came and lifting her up carried her to
+      her own side of the river. Across the bog he carried her, and when she
+      looked at him she saw the lean face and eyes blue like gentian-flowers&mdash;she
+      saw the face of the man who was called the Hunter-King. He left her on the
+      ground when they passed the bog, and she went on her way without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing of this no more than of anything else that happened to her, or
+      anything that she thought of, did Sheen tell the Spae-Woman. But she
+      wished and she wished that the Hunter-King might come past while there was
+      a light in the house and step within and talk to the Spae-Woman, so that
+      she herself, while spinning the thread, could hear his voice and listen to
+      the things he talked about. She often stood at the door and watched across
+      the bog to see if anything was coming to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A neighbor-woman came across the door-step one evening and Sheen went into
+      the house after her, for she felt that something was going to be told.
+      There was a dead man in a house. He had been found in the wood. He was
+      known as the Hunter-King. Sheen stood at her bed and heard what the
+      neighbor-woman said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hunter-King was being waked in the neighbor-woman&rsquo;s house, and her
+      eldest daughter had been the corpse-watcher the first night. In the
+      morning they found that the girl&rsquo;s hand had been withered. The woman&rsquo;s
+      second daughter was the corpse-watcher the second night and her right hand
+      had been left trembling. This was the third and last night that the
+      Hunter-King would be waked, and to-night there was no one to watch his
+      corpse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sheen thought that nothing would ever happen in the world again, now that
+      the Hunter-King was dead. She thought that there was no loneliness so
+      great as that of his corpse with no one to watch it on the last strange
+      night it would be above ground. The neighbor-woman went from the
+      Spae-Woman and Sheen went after her. She was standing on the door-step of
+      her house. &ldquo;Oh, colleen,&rdquo; said the neighbor-woman, &ldquo;I am wanting a girl to
+      watch a corpse in my house to-night&mdash;the third and the last night for
+      watching. Will you watch and I will give you a comb for your hair?&rdquo; Sheen
+      showed that she would serve the woman and she went into the wake-house. At
+      first she was afraid to look at the bed. Then she went over and saw the
+      Hunter-King with his face still, his eyes closed down, and the plate of
+      salt on his breast. His gray gaunt hound was stretched across his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman and her daughters lighted candles and placed them in the window
+      recesses and at the head of the corpse. Then they went into their
+      dormer-room and left Sheen to her watching. She sat at the fire and made
+      one fagot after another blaze up. She had brought her basket of bog-down
+      and she began to spin a thread upon the neighbor-woman&rsquo;s wheel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She finished the thread and put it round her neck. Then she began to
+      search for more candles so that she might be able to light one, as another
+      went out. But as she rose up all the candles went out all at once. The
+      hound started from the foot of the bed. Then she saw the corpse sitting up
+      stiffly in the place where it had been laid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something in Sheen overcame her dread, and she went over to the corpse and
+      took the salt that was on its breast and put it on its lips. Then a voice
+      came from between the lips. &ldquo;Fair Maid,&rdquo; said the voice, &ldquo;have you the
+      courage to follow me? The others failed me and they have been stricken.
+      Are you faithful?&rdquo; &ldquo;I will follow you,&rdquo; said Sheen. &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the
+      corpse, &ldquo;put your hands on my shoulders and come with me. I must go over
+      the Quaking Bog, and through the Burning forest, and across the Icy Sea.&rdquo;
+       Sheen put her hands on his shoulders. A storm came and they were swept
+      through the roof of the house. They were carried through the night. Down
+      they came on the ground and the dead man sprang away from Sheen. She went
+      to follow him and found her feet upon a shaking sod. They were on the
+      Quaking Bog, she knew. The corpse of the Hunter-King went ahead and she
+      knew that she must keep it in sight. He went swiftly. The sod went under
+      her feet and she was in the watery mud. She struggled out and jumped over
+      a pool that was hidden with heather. All the time she was in dread that
+      the figure that went before her so quickly would be lost to her. She sank
+      and she struggled and she sprang across pools and morasses. All the time
+      what had been the corpse of the Hunter-King went before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she saw fires against the sky and she knew they were coming to the
+      Burning Forest. The figure before her sprang across a ditch and went into
+      the forest. Sheen sprang across it too. Burning branches fell across her
+      path as she went on. Hot winds burnt her face. Flames dazzled and smoke
+      dazed her. But the figure before her went straight on and Sheen went
+      straight on too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The forest ended on a cliff. Below was the sea. The figure before her
+      dived down and Sheen dived too. The cold chilled her to the marrow. She
+      thought the chill would drive the life out of her. But she saw the head of
+      one swimming before her and she swam on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then they were on land again. &ldquo;Fair Maid,&rdquo; said the corpse of the
+      Hunter-King, &ldquo;put your hands on my shoulders again.&rdquo; She put her hands on
+      his shoulders. A storm came and swept them away. They were driven through
+      the roof of the neighbor-woman&rsquo;s house. The candle-wicks fluttered and
+      light came on them again. She saw the hound standing in the middle of the
+      floor. She saw the corpse sitting where it had been laid and the eyes were
+      now open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fair Maid,&rdquo; said the voice of the Hunter-King, &ldquo;you have brought me back
+      to life. I am a man under enchantment. There is a witch-woman in the wood
+      that I gave my love to. She enchanted me so that the soul was out of my
+      body, and wandering away. It was my soul you followed. And the enchantment
+      was to be broken when I found a heart so faithful that it would follow my
+      soul over the Quaking Bog, through the Burning Forest and across the Icy
+      Sea. You have brought my soul and my life back to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she ran out of the neighbor&rsquo;s house. The night after, in the
+      Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house she finished weaving the threads that were on the loom.
+      The next night she stitched the cloth and made the sixth shirt. The day
+      after she went into the bog to gather the bog-down for the seventh shirt.
+      She had gathered her basketful and was going through the wood about the
+      hour of sunset. At the edge of the thin wood she saw the Hunter-King
+      standing. He took her hands and his were warm hands. His brown face and
+      his gentian-blue eyes were high and noble. And Sheen felt a joy like the
+      sharpness of a sword when he sang to her about the brightness of her hair
+      and the blue of her eyes. &ldquo;O Maid,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;is there anything that binds
+      you to this place?&rdquo; Sheen showed him the bog-down in the basket and the
+      woven thread that was round her neck. &ldquo;Come with me to my kingdom,&rdquo; said
+      he, &ldquo;and you shall be my wife and the love of my heart.&rdquo; The next evening
+      Sheen went with him. She took the six shirts she had spun and woven and
+      stitched. The Hunter-King lifted her before him on a black horse and they
+      rode into his Kingdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Sheen was the wife of the Hunter-King. She would have been happy
+      if her husband&rsquo;s sisters had been kind. But they were jealous and they
+      made everything in the Castle unfriendly to her. And often they talked
+      before her brother saying that Sheen was not noble at all, and that the
+      reason she did not speak was because her language was a base one. They
+      watched her when she went out to gather bog-down in the daytime, and they
+      watched her when she spun by herself at night. Sheen longed for the days
+      and nights to pass so that the last threads might be spun and woven and
+      the last stitches put in the seventh shirt. Then her brothers would be
+      with her. She could tell the King about herself and silence the bad talk
+      of his sisters. But as she neared the end of her task she became more and
+      more in dread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The threads were spun and woven for the seventh shirt. The cloth was made
+      and the first stitches were put in it. Then Sheen&rsquo;s little son was born.
+      The King was away at the time, gathering his men together at far parts of
+      the Kingdom, and he sent a message saying that Sheen and her baby were to
+      be well-minded, and that his sisters were not to leave the chamber where
+      she was until he returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the third night, while Sheen was in her bed with her baby beside her,
+      and while her sisters-in-law were in the room, a strange music was heard
+      outside. It was played all round the King&rsquo;s house. Whoever heard it fell
+      into deep slumber. The kern that were on guard slept. The maids that were
+      whispering together fell into a slumber. And a deep sleep came upon Sheen
+      and her child and on her three sisters-in-law who watched in the chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then a gray wolf that had been seen outside sprang in through the window
+      opening. He took Sheen&rsquo;s child in his mouth. He sprang back through the
+      window opening and was seen about the place no more. Her sisters-in-law
+      wakened while Sheen still slept. They went to tend it and found the child
+      was gone. Then they were afraid of what their brother would do to them for
+      letting this happen. They made a plot to clear themselves, and before
+      Sheen wakened they had killed a little beast and smeared its blood upon
+      the pillows of the bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the King came into his wife&rsquo;s chamber he saw his sisters on the
+      ground lamenting and tearing the hairs out of their heads. He went to
+      where his wife was sleeping and saw blood upon her hands and upon the
+      pillows. He turned on his sisters with his sword in his hand. They cried
+      out that they could not have prevented the thing that had happened&mdash;that
+      the Queen had laid hands on the child and having killed it had thrown its
+      body to the gray wolf that had been watching outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And while they were speaking Sheen awakened. She put out her arms but her
+      child was not beside her. She found blood upon the pillows. Then she heard
+      her sisters-in-law accuse her to the King of having killed her child and
+      flung its body to the gray wolf outside. She fell into a swoon and when
+      she came out of it her mind was lost to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King knelt to her and begged her to tell him what had happened. But
+      she only knew she was to say no word. Then he used to watch her and he
+      wondered why she cried no tear. On the fourth day after she rose from her
+      bed and searched the Castle for the piece of cloth she had spun and woven
+      out of the bog-down. She found it and began to sew it for the seventh
+      shirt. The King&rsquo;s sisters came to him and said, &ldquo;The woman you brought
+      here is of another race from ours. She has forgotten that a child was born
+      to her, and that she killed it and flung its body to the gray wolf. She
+      sits there now just stitching a garment.&rdquo; The King went and saw her
+      stitching and stitching as if her life depended on each stitch she put
+      into the cloth. He spoke to her and she looked up but did not speak. Then
+      the King&rsquo;s heart was hardened. He took her and brought her outside the
+      gate of the Castle. &ldquo;Go back to the people you came from,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;for I
+      cannot bear that you should be here, and not speak to me of what has
+      happened.&rdquo; Sheen knew she was being sent from the house he had brought her
+      to. A bitter cry came from her. Then the stitched cloth that was in her
+      hand became bog-down and was blown away on the breeze. When she saw this
+      happen she turned from the King&rsquo;s Castle and ran through the woods crying
+      and crying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went through the woods for many days, living on berries and the water
+      of springs. At last she came to the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house. The Spae-Woman was
+      before the door and she welcomed Sheen back. She gave her drinks she had
+      made from strange herbs, and in a season Sheen&rsquo;s mind and health came back
+      to her, and she knew all that had happened. She thought she would win back
+      her seven brothers, and then, with their help, win back her child and her
+      husband. But she knew she would have to gather the bog-down, spin the
+      threads and weave them all over again, as her tears and cries had broken
+      her task. She told her story to the Spae-Woman. Then she went into silence
+      again, gathering the bog-down and spinning the thread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when the first thread was spun the memory of her child blew against
+      her heart and she cried tears down. The thread she had spun became
+      bog-down and was blown away. For days she wept and wept. Then the
+      Spae-Woman said to her, &ldquo;Commit the child you have lost to Diachbha&mdash;that
+      is, to Destiny&mdash;and Diachbha may bring it about that he shall be the
+      one that will restore your seven brothers their human forms. And when you
+      have committed your lost little son to Diachbha go back to your husband
+      and tell him all you have lived through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sheen, believing in the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s wisdom, did what was told her. She
+      made an image of her lost little son with leaves and left it on the top of
+      the house where it was blown away by the winds. Then she was ready to go
+      back to her husband and tell him all that had happened in her life. But on
+      the day she was bringing the last pitcher of water from the well she met
+      him on the path before her. &ldquo;Do you remember that I carried you across the
+      bog?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And do you remember that I followed your soul?&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were the first words she ever spoke to him. They went back together
+      to the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s and she told him all that had been in her life. He
+      told her how his sisters had acknowledged that they had spoken falsely
+      against her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took her back to his own Kingdom, and there, as King and Queen they
+      still live. But the name she bears is not Sheen or Storm now. Two sons
+      more were born to her. But her seven brothers are still seven wild geese,
+      and the Queen has found no trace of her first-born son. But the Spae-Woman
+      has had a dream, and the dream has revealed this to her: the Son that
+      Sheen lost is in the world, and if the maiden who will come to love him,
+      will give seven drops of her heart&rsquo;s blood, the Queen&rsquo;s seven brothers
+      will regain their human forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that is the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare. &ldquo;If you ever
+      find out what went before it and what comes after it come back here and
+      tell it to me. But I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll get the rest of it,&rdquo; said she,
+      &ldquo;seeing that the two of you weren&rsquo;t able to count the horns outside.&rdquo; She
+      went on talking and talking, Gilly and the King&rsquo;s Son hearing what she
+      said when she spoke in a sudden high voice, and not hearing when she
+      murmured on as if talking to the ashes or to the pot or to the corncrake,
+      the cuckoo or the swallow that were picking grains off the floor. &ldquo;If you
+      see Laheen the Eagle again, or Blackfoot the Elk or the Crow of Achill
+      tell them to come and visit me sometime. I&rsquo;m all alone here except for my
+      swallow and cuckoo and corncrake. And mind you, great Kings and Princes
+      used to come to see me.&rdquo; So she went on talking in low tones and in sudden
+      high tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must come with me and help me to get the rest of the Unique Tale,&rdquo;
+       said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;That I&rsquo;ll do,&rdquo; said Gilly of the
+      Goatskin. &ldquo;But I must get a name first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old Mother,&rdquo; said he, to the Old Woman of Beare. &ldquo;You must now give me a
+      name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give you a name,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare, &ldquo;but you must stand
+      before me and strip off the goatskin that covers you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly pulled at the strings and the goatskin fell on the ground. The Old
+      Woman of Beare nodded her head. &ldquo;You have the stars on your breast that
+      denote the Son of a King,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Son of a King&mdash;me!&rdquo; said Gilly of the Goatskin. &ldquo;You have the
+      stars on your breast,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly looked at himself and saw the three stars on his breast. &ldquo;If I am
+      the Son of a King I never knew it until now,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are the son of a King,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare, &ldquo;and I will give
+      you a name when you come back to me. But I want you, first of all, to find
+      out what happened to the Crystal Egg.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Crystal Egg!&rdquo; said Gilly in great surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Crystal Egg indeed,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare. &ldquo;You must know that
+      it was stolen out of the nest of Laheen the Eagle, and the creature that
+      stole it was the Crow of Achill. But what happened to the Crystal Egg
+      after that no one knows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I myself had it after that,&rdquo; said Gilly, &ldquo;and it was stolen from me by
+      Rory the Fox. And then it was put under a goose to hatch.&rdquo; &ldquo;A goose to
+      hatch the Crystal Egg after an Eagle had half-hatched it! Aye, aye, to be
+      sure, that&rsquo;s right,&rdquo; said the Old Woman of Beare. &ldquo;And now you must go and
+      find out what happened to it. Go now, and when you come back I will give
+      you your name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do that,&rdquo; said Gilly of the Goatskin. Then he turned to the King&rsquo;s
+      Son. &ldquo;Three days before Midsummer&rsquo;s Day meet me on the road to the Town of
+      the Red Castle, and I will go with you to find out what went before and
+      what comes after the Unique Tale,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will meet you,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two youths went to the table and ate slices of the unwasted loaf and
+      drank draughts from the inexhaustible bottle. &ldquo;I shall stay here to
+      practise sword-cuts and sword-thrusts,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;until four
+      days before Midsummer&rsquo;s Day.&rdquo; The two youths went to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seven waves of good-luck to you, Old Woman of Beare,&rdquo; said Gilly of the
+      Goatskin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May your double be slain and yourself remain,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. Then
+      they went out together, but not along the same path did the two youths go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly slept as he traveled that night, for he fell in with a man who was
+      driving a load of hay to the fair, and when he got into the cart he lay
+      against the hay and slept. When he parted with the carter he cut a holly
+      stick and journeyed along the road by himself. At the fall of night he
+      came to a place that made him think he had been there before: he looked
+      around and then he knew that this was the place he had lived in when he
+      had the Crystal Egg. He looked to see if the house was there: it was, and
+      people were living in it, for he saw smoke coming out of the chimney. It
+      was dark now and Gilly thought he could not do better than take shelter in
+      that house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the door and knocked. There was a lot of rattling behind, and
+      then a crooked old woman opened the door to him. &ldquo;What do you want?&rdquo; said
+      she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can I have shelter here for to-night, ma&rsquo;am?&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can get no shelter hem,&rdquo; said the old woman, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;d advise you to
+      begone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask who lives here?&rdquo; said Gilly, putting his foot inside the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Six very honest men whose business keeps them out until two and three in
+      the morning,&rdquo; said the crooked old woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly guessed that the honest men whose business kept them out until two
+      and three in the morning were the robbers he had heard about. And he
+      thought they might be the very men who had carried off the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s
+      goose and the Crystal Egg along with it. &ldquo;Would you tell me, good woman,&rdquo;
+       said Gilly, &ldquo;did your six honest men ever bring to this house an old
+      hatching goose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They did indeed,&rdquo; said the crooked woman, &ldquo;and a heart-scald the same old
+      hatching goose is. It goes round the house and round the house, trying to
+      hatch the cups I leave out of my hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Gilly pushed the door open wide and stepped into the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t stay in the house,&rdquo; said the crooked old woman. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you the
+      truth now. My masters are robbers, and they&rsquo;ll skin you alive if they find
+      you here when they come back in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more likely I&rsquo;ll skin them alive,&rdquo; said Gilly, and he looked so
+      fierce that he fairly frightened the old woman. &ldquo;And if you don&rsquo;t satisfy
+      me with supper and a bed I&rsquo;ll leave you to meet them hanging from the
+      door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The crooked old woman was so terrified that she gave him a supper of
+      porridge and showed him a bed to sleep in. He turned in and slept. He was
+      roused by a candle being held to his eyes. He wakened up and saw six
+      robbers standing round him with knives in their hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What brings you under our roof?&rdquo; said the Captain. &ldquo;Answer me now before
+      we skin you as we would skin an eel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak up and answer the Captain,&rdquo; said the robbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t I be under this roof?&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;I am the Master-Thief
+      of the World.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The robbers put their hands on their knees and laughed at that. Gilly
+      jumped out of the bed. &ldquo;I have come to show you the arts of thievery and
+      roguery,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll show you some tricks that will let you hold up
+      your heads amongst the thieves and robbers of the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked so bold and he spoke so bold that the robbers began to think he
+      might have some reason for talking as he did. They left him and went off
+      to their beds. Gilly slept again. At the broad noon they were all sitting
+      at breakfast&mdash;Gilly and the six robbers. A farmer went past leading a
+      goat to the fair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could any of you steal that goat without doing any violence to the man
+      who is driving it?&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said one robber, and &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said another robber, and
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be hardly able to do that myself,&rdquo; said the Captain of the Robbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can do it,&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be back with the goat before you are
+      through with your breakfast.&rdquo; He went outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly knew that country well and he ran through the wood until he was a
+      bend of the road ahead of the farmer who was leading his goat to the fair.
+      He took off one shoe and left it in the middle of the road. He ran on then
+      until he was round another bend of the road. He took off the other shoe
+      and left it down. Then he hid behind the hedge and waited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The farmer came to where the first shoe was. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not a bad shoe,&rdquo; said
+      he, &ldquo;and if there was a comrade for it, it would be worth picking up.&rdquo; He
+      went on then and came to where the other shoe was lying. &ldquo;Here is the
+      comrade,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s worth my while now to go back for the first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He tied the goat to the mile-stone and went back. As soon as the farmer
+      had turned his back, Gilly took the collar off the goat, left it on the
+      milestone and took the goat through a gap in the hedge. He brought it to
+      the house before the robbers were through with their breakfast. They were
+      all terribly surprised. The Captain began to bite at his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The farmer, with the two shoes under his arm, came to where he had left
+      the goat. The goat was gone and its collar was left on the milestone. He
+      knew that a robber had taken his goat. &ldquo;And I had promised Ann, my wife,
+      to buy her a new shawl at the fair,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;She&rsquo;ll never stop scolding
+      me if I go back to her now with one hand as long as the other. The best
+      thing I can do is to take a sheep out of my field and sell that. Then when
+      she is in good humor on account of getting the shawl I&rsquo;ll tell her about
+      the loss of my goat.&rdquo; So the farmer went back to the field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were sitting down to a game of cards after breakfast&mdash;the six
+      robbers and Gilly&mdash;when they saw the farmer going past with the
+      sheep. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be bound that he&rsquo;ll watch that sheep more closely than he
+      watched the goat,&rdquo; said one of the robbers. &ldquo;Could any of you steal that
+      sheep without doing him any violence?&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said one
+      robber, and &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said another robber. &ldquo;I could hardly do that
+      myself,&rdquo; said the Captain of the Robbers. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll bring the sheep here
+      before you&rsquo;re through with the game of cards,&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The farmer was just past the milestone when he saw a man hanging on a
+      tree. &ldquo;The saints between us and harm,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;do they hang men along
+      this road?&rdquo; Now the man hanging from the tree was Gilly. He had fastened
+      himself to a branch with his belt, putting it under his arm-pits. He
+      slipped down from the branch and ran till he was ahead of the farmer. The
+      farmer saw another man hanging from a tree. &ldquo;The saints preserve us,&rdquo; said
+      he, &ldquo;sure; it&rsquo;s not possible that they hanged two men along this road?&rdquo;
+       Gilly slipped down from that tree too and ran on until he was ahead of the
+      farmer again. The farmer saw a third man hanging from a tree. &ldquo;Am I
+      leaving my senses?&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go back and see if the other men are
+      hanging there as I thought they were.&rdquo; He tied the sheep to a bush and
+      went back. As soon as he turned, Gilly slipped down from the tree, took
+      the sheep through a gap, and got back to the robbers before they were
+      through with the game. All the robbers said it was a wonderful thing he
+      had done. The Captain of the Robbers was left standing by himself
+      scratching his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The farmer found no men hanging on trees and he thought he was out of his
+      mind. He came back and he found his sheep gone. &ldquo;What will I do now?&rdquo; said
+      he. &ldquo;I daren&rsquo;t let Ann know I lost a goat and a sheep until I put her into
+      good humor by showing the shawl I bought her at the fair. There&rsquo;s nothing
+      to be done now, but take a bullock out of the field and sell it at the
+      fair.&rdquo; He went to the field then, took a bullock out of it, and passed the
+      house just as the robbers were lighting their pipes. &ldquo;If he watched the
+      goat and the sheep closely he&rsquo;ll watch the bullock nine times as closely,&rdquo;
+       said one of the robbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which of you could take the bullock without doing the man any violence?&rdquo;
+       said Gilly. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said one robber, and &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said another
+      robber. &ldquo;If you could do it,&rdquo; said the Captain of the Robbers to Gilly,
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll resign my command and give it to you.&rdquo; &ldquo;Done,&rdquo; said Gilly, and he
+      went out of the house again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went quickly through the wood, and when he came near where the farmer
+      was he began to bleat like a goat. The farmer stopped and listened. Then
+      Gilly began to baa like the sheep. &ldquo;That sounds very like my goat and
+      sheep,&rdquo; said the farmer. &ldquo;Maybe they weren&rsquo;t taken at all, but just
+      strayed off. If I can get them now, I needn&rsquo;t make any excuses to Ann my
+      wife.&rdquo; He tied the bullock to a tree and went into the wood. As soon as he
+      did, Gilly slipped out, took the bullock by the rope and hurried back to
+      the house. The robbers were gathered at the door to watch for his coming
+      back. When they saw him with the bullock they threw up their hats. &ldquo;This
+      man must be our Captain,&rdquo; they said. The Captain was biting his lips and
+      his nails. At last he took off his hat with the feathers in it and gave it
+      to Gilly. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re our Captain now,&rdquo; said the robbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly ordered that the goat, the sheep and the bullock be put into the
+      byre, that the door be locked and the key be given to him. All that was
+      done. Then said he to all the robbers, &ldquo;I demand to know what became of
+      the Crystal Egg that was with the goose you stole from the Spae-Woman.&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;The Crystal Egg,&rdquo; said one of the robbers. &ldquo;It hatched, and a queer bird
+      came out of it.&rdquo; &ldquo;Where is that bird now?&rdquo; said Gilly. &ldquo;On the waves of
+      the lake near at hand,&rdquo; said the robbers. &ldquo;We see it every day.&rdquo; &ldquo;Take me
+      to the lake till I see the Bird out of the Crystal Egg,&rdquo; said Gilly. They
+      locked the door of the house behind them, and the seven, Gilly at their
+      head, wearing the hat with feathers, marched down to the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XVI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they showed him the bird that was on the waves of the lake&mdash;a
+      swan she was and she floated proudly. The swan came towards them and as
+      she drew nearer they could hear her voice. The sounds she made were not
+      like any sound of birds, but like the sounds bards make chanting their
+      verses. Words came on high notes and low notes, but they were like words
+      in a strange language. And still the swan chanted as she drew near to the
+      shore where Gilly and the six robbers stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She spread out her wings, and, raising her neck she curved it, while she
+      stayed watching the men on the bank. &ldquo;Hear the Swan of Endless Tales&mdash;the
+      Swan of Endless Tales&rdquo; she sang in words they knew. Then she raised
+      herself out of the water, turned round in the air, and flew back to the
+      middle of the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Time for us to be leaving the place when there is a bird on the lake that
+      can speak like that,&rdquo; said Mogue, who had been the Captain of the Robbers.
+      &ldquo;To-night I&rsquo;m leaving this townland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am leaving too,&rdquo; said another robber. &ldquo;And I too,&rdquo; said another.
+      &ldquo;And I may be going away from this place,&rdquo; said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The robbers went away from him and back to the house and Gilly sat by the
+      edge of the lake waiting to see if the Swan of Endless Tales would come
+      back and tell him something. She did not come. As Gilly sat there the
+      farmer who had lost his goat, his sheep and his bullock came by. He was
+      dragging one foot after the other and looking very downcast. &ldquo;What is the
+      matter with you, honest man?&rdquo; said Gilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The farmer told him how he had lost his goat, his sheep and his bullock.
+      He told him how he had thought he heard his goat bleating and his sheep
+      ba&rsquo;ing, and how he went through the wood to search for them, and how his
+      bullock was gone when he came back to the road. &ldquo;And what to say to my
+      wife Ann I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;particularly as I have brought no shawl
+      to put her in good humor. Heavy is the blame she&rsquo;ll give me on account of
+      my losing a goat, a sheep and a bullock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilly took a key out of his pocket. &ldquo;Do you see this key?&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Take
+      it and open the byre door at such a place, and you&rsquo;ll find in that byre
+      your goat, your sheep and your bullock. There are robbers in that house,
+      but if they try to prevent your taking your own tell them that all the
+      threshers of the country are coming to beat them with flails.&rdquo; The farmer
+      took the key and went away very thankful to Gilly. The story says that he
+      got back his goat, his sheep and his bullock and made it an excuse that he
+      had seen three magpies on the road for not going to the fair to buy a
+      shawl for his wife Ann. The robbers were very frightened when he told them
+      about the threshers coming and they went away from that part of the
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Gilly, he thought he would go back to the Old Woman of Beare for
+      his name. He took the path by the edge of the lake. And as he journeyed
+      along with his holly-stick in his hand he heard the Swan of Endless Tales
+      chanting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE TOWN OF THE RED CASTLE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann was the name that the Old Woman of Beare gave to Gilly of the
+      Goatskin when he came back to tell her that the Swan of Endless Tales had
+      been hatched out of the Crystal Egg. He went from her house then and came
+      to where the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son waited for him. The two comrades went
+      along a well-traveled road. As they went on they fell in with men driving
+      herds of ponies, men carrying packs on their backs, men with tools for
+      working gold and silver, bronze and iron. Every man whom they asked said,
+      &ldquo;We are going to the Town of the Red Castle, and to the great fair that
+      will be held there.&rdquo; The King&rsquo;s Son and Flann thought they should go to
+      the Town of the Red Castle too, for where so many people would be, there
+      was a chance of hearing what went before and what came after the Unique
+      Tale. So they went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when they had come to a well that was under a great rock those whom
+      they were with halted. They said it was the custom for the merchants and
+      sellers to wait there for a day and to go into the Town of the Red Castle
+      the day following. &ldquo;On this day,&rdquo; they said, &ldquo;the people of the Town
+      celebrate the Festival of Midsummer, and they do not like a great company
+      of people to go into their Town until the Festival is over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son and Flann went on, and they were let into the
+      town. The people had lighted great fires in their market-place and they
+      were driving their cattle through the fires: &ldquo;If there be evil on you, may
+      it burn, may it burn,&rdquo; they were crying. They were afraid that witches and
+      enchanters might come into the town with the merchants and the sellers,
+      and that was the reason they did not permit a great company to enter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fires in all their houses had been quenched that day, and they might
+      not be lighted except from the fires the cattle had gone through. The
+      fires were left blazing high and the King&rsquo;s Son and Flann spent hours
+      watching them, and watching the crowds that were around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the time came to take fire to the houses. They who came for fire were
+      all young maidens. Each came into the light of one of the great fires,
+      took coals from a fire that had burnt low, placed them in a new earthen
+      vessel and went away. Flann thought that all the maidens were beautiful
+      and wonderful, although the King&rsquo;s Son told him that some were
+      black-faced, and some crop-headed and some hunchbacked. Then a maiden
+      came, who was so high above the rest that Flann had no words to speak of
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had silver on her head and silver on her arms, and the people around
+      the fires all bowed to her. She had black, black hair and she had a
+      smiling face&mdash;not happily smiling, but proudly smiling. Flann thought
+      that a star had bent down with her. And when she had taken the fire and
+      had gone away, Flann said, &ldquo;She is surely the King&rsquo;s daughter!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;The people here have spoken her
+      name.&rdquo; &ldquo;What is her name?&rdquo; asked Flann. &ldquo;It is Lassarina,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s
+      Son, &ldquo;Flame-of-Wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we see her again?&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I do not know,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;Come now, and let us ask the
+      people here if they have knowledge of the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;they are talking about Princess Flame-of-Wine.&rdquo; He
+      did not move, but listened to what was said. All said that the King&rsquo;s
+      daughter was proud. Some said she was beautiful, but others answered that
+      her lips were thin, and her eyes were mocking. No other maidens came for
+      fire. Flann stood before the one that still blazed, and thought and
+      thought. The King&rsquo;s Son asked many if they had knowledge of the Unique
+      Tale, but no one had heard of it. Some told him that there would be
+      merchants and sellers from many parts of the world at the fair that would
+      be held on the morrow, and that there would be a chance of meeting one who
+      had knowledge of it. Then the King&rsquo;s Son went with one who brought him to
+      a Brufir&rsquo;s&mdash;that is, to a House of Hospitality maintained by the King
+      for strangers. As for Flann, he sat looking into the fire until it died
+      down, and then he slept before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann was wakened by a gander and his flock of geese that stood round him;
+      shook their wings and set up their goose-gabble. It was day then, although
+      there was still a star in the sky. He threw furze-roots where there was a
+      glow, and made a fire blaze up again. Then the dogs of the town came down
+      to look at him, and then stole away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Horns were blown outside, and the watchman opened the gates. Flann shook
+      himself and stood up to see the folk that were coming in. First came the
+      men who drove the mountain ponies that had lately fed with the deer in
+      wild places. Then came men in leathern jerkins who led wide-horned bulls&mdash;a
+      black bull and a white bull, and a white bull and a black bull, one after
+      the other. Then there were men who brought in high, swift hounds, three to
+      each leash they held. Women in brown cloaks carried cages of birds. Men
+      carried on their shoulders and in their belts tools for working gold and
+      silver, bronze and iron. And there were calves and sheep, and great horses
+      and weighty chariots, and colored cloths, and things closed in packs that
+      merchants carried on their shoulders. The famous bards, and story-tellers
+      and harpists would not come until noon-time when the business of the fair
+      would have abated, but with the crowd of beggars came ballad-singers, and
+      the tellers of the stories that were called &ldquo;Go-by-the-Market-Stake,&rdquo;
+       because they were told around the stake in the market place and were very
+      common.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And at the tail of the comers whom did Flann see but Mogue, the Captain of
+      the Robbers!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mogue wore a hare-skin cap, his left eye protruded as usual, and he walked
+      limpingly. He had a pack on his back, and he led a small, swift looking
+      horse of a reddish color. Flann called to him as he passed and Mogue gave
+      a great start. He grinned when he saw it was Flann and walked up to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mogue,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;what are you doing in the Town of the Red Castle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m here to sell a few things,&rdquo; said Mogue, &ldquo;this little horse,&rdquo; said he,
+      &ldquo;and a few things I have in my pack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where are your friends?&rdquo; asked Flann. &ldquo;My band, do you mean?&rdquo; said
+      Mogue. &ldquo;Sure, they all left me when you proved you were the better robber.
+      What are you doing here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no business at all,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the Hazel! that&rsquo;s what I like to hear you say. Join me then. You and
+      me would do well together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t join you,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather have you with me than the whole of the band. What were they
+      anyway? Cabbage-heads!&rdquo; Mogue winked with his protruding eye. &ldquo;Wait till
+      you see me again,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve the grandest things in my pack.&rdquo; He went
+      on leading the little horse. Then Flann set out to look for the King&rsquo;s
+      Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found him at the door of the Brufir&rsquo;s, and they drank bowls of milk and
+      ate oaten bread together, and then went to the gate of the town to watch
+      the notable people who were coming in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And with the bards and harpers and Kings&rsquo; envoys who came in, the King&rsquo;s
+      Son saw his two half-brothers, Dermott and Downal. He hailed them and they
+      knew him and came up to him gladly. The King&rsquo;s Son made Flann known to
+      them, saying that he too was the son of a King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They looked fine youths, Downal and Dermott, in their red cloaks, with
+      their heads held high, and a brag in their walk and their words. They left
+      their horses with the grooms and walked with Flann and the King&rsquo;s Son.
+      They were tall and ruddy; the King&rsquo;s Son was more brown in the hair and
+      more hawk-like in the face: the three were different from the dark-haired,
+      dark-eyed, red-lipped lad to whom the Old Woman of Beare had given the
+      name of Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one had seen the King who lived in the Red Castle, Dermott and Downal
+      told the other two. He was called the Wry-faced King, and, on account of
+      his disfigurement, he let no one but his Councilors see him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are to go to his Castle to-day,&rdquo; said Dermott and Downal. &ldquo;You come
+      too, brother,&rdquo; said he to the King&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you too, comrade,&rdquo; said Downal to Flann. &ldquo;Why should we not all go?
+      By Ogma! Are we not all sons of Kings?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann wondered if he would see the King&rsquo;s daughter, Flame-of-Wine. He
+      would surely go to the Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They drank ale, played chess and talked until it was afternoon. Then the
+      grooms who were with Downal and Dermott brought the four youths new red
+      cloaks. They put them on and went towards the King&rsquo;s Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother,&rdquo; said Dermott to the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;I want to tell you that we are
+      not going back to our father&rsquo;s Castle nor to his Kingdom. We have taken
+      the world for our pillow. We are going to leave the grooms asleep one fine
+      morning, and go as the salmon goes down the river.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you want to leave our father&rsquo;s Kingdom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because we don&rsquo;t want to rule nor to learn to rule. We&rsquo;ll let you,
+      brother, do all that. We&rsquo;re going to learn the trade of a sword-smith. We
+      would make fine swords. And with the King of Senlabor there is a famous
+      sword-smith, and we are going to learn the trade from him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The four went to the Red Castle, and they were brought in and they went
+      and sat on the benches to wait for the King&rsquo;s Steward who would receive
+      them. And while they waited they watched the play of a pet fox in the
+      courtyard. Flann was wondering all the time if the Princess Flame-of-Wine
+      would pass through the court-yard or come into the hall where they waited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he saw her come up the courtyard. She saw the youths in the hall and
+      she turned round to watch the pet fox for a while. Then she came into the
+      chamber and stood near the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She wore a mask across her face, but her brow and mouth and chin were
+      shown. The youths saluted her, and she bent her head to them. One of the
+      women who had brought birds to the Fair followed her, bringing a cage.
+      Flame-of-Wine talked to this woman in a strange language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although she talked to the woman, Flann saw that she watched his three
+      companions. Him she did not notice, because the bench on which he sat was
+      behind the others. Flame-of-Wine looked at the King&rsquo;s Son first, and then
+      turned her eyes from him. She bent her head to listen to what Downal and
+      Dermott were saying. Flann she did not look at at all, and he became sick
+      at heart of the Red Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Steward came into the Hall and when he announced who the youths
+      were&mdash;three sons of the King of Ireland traveling with their
+      foster-brother&mdash;Flame-of-Wine went over and spoke to them. &ldquo;May we
+      see you to-morrow, Kings&rsquo; Sons,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;To-morrow is our feast of the
+      Gathering of Apples. It might be pleasant for you to hear music in the
+      King&rsquo;s garden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled on Downal and Dermott and on the King&rsquo;s Son and went out of the
+      Chamber. The King&rsquo;s Steward feasted the four youths and afterwards made
+      them presents. But Flann did not heed what he ate nor what he heard said,
+      nor what present was given him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The four youths left the Castle and Downal and Dermott took their own way
+      when they came to the foot-bridge that was across the river. Then when
+      they were crossing it the King&rsquo;s Son and Flann saw two figures&mdash;a
+      middle-aged, sturdy man and an old, broken-looking woman&mdash;meet before
+      the Bull&rsquo;s Field. &ldquo;It is the Gobaun Saor,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;It is the
+      Spae-Woman,&rdquo; said Flann. They went to them, each wishing to greet his
+      friend and helper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There they saw a sturdy, middle-aged man and a broken-looking old woman.
+      But the woman looking on the man saw one who had full wisdom to plan and
+      full strength to build, whose wisdom and whose strength could neither grow
+      nor diminish. And the man looking on the woman saw one whose brow had all
+      quiet, whose heart had all benignity. &ldquo;Hail, Gobaun, Builder for the
+      Gods,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;Hail, Grania Oi, Reconciler for the Gods,&rdquo; said
+      the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the two youths came swiftly up to them, and the King&rsquo;s Son greeted
+      the middle-aged man, and Flann kissed the hands of the old woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of your search, King&rsquo;s Son?&rdquo; said the Gobaun Saor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have found the Unique Tale, but not what went before nor what comes
+      after it,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will clear the Sword of Light of its stain when you bring me the whole
+      of the Unique Tale,&rdquo; said the Gobaun Saor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would search the whole world for it,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;But now the
+      time is becoming short for me.&rdquo; &ldquo;Be quick and active,&rdquo; said the Gobaun
+      Saor. &ldquo;I have set up my forge,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;outside the town between two
+      high stones. When you bring the whole of the Tale to me I shall clear your
+      sword.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you not tell him, Gobaun Saor,&rdquo; said the Spae-Woman, &ldquo;where he may
+      find the one who will tell him the rest of the story?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he sees one he knows in this town,&rdquo; said the Gobaun Saor, &ldquo;let him
+      mount a horse he has mounted before and pursue that one and force him to
+      tell what went before and what comes after the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Saying this the Gobaun Saor turned away and walked along the road that
+      went out of the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spae-Woman had brought besoms to the town to sell. She showed the two
+      youths the little house she lived in while she was there. It was filled
+      with the heather-stalks which she bound together for besoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They left the Spae-Woman and went through the town, the King of Ireland&rsquo;s
+      Son searching every place for a man he knew or a horse he had mounted
+      before, while Flann thought about the Princess Flame-of-Wine, and how
+      little she considered him beside the King&rsquo;s Son and Dermott and Downal.
+      They came to where a crowd was standing before a conjurer&rsquo;s booth. They
+      halted and stood waiting for the conjurer to appear. He came out and put a
+      ladder standing upright with nothing to lean against and began climbing
+      up. Up, up, up, he went, and the ladder grew higher and higher as he
+      climbed. Flann thought he would climb into the sky. Then the ladder got
+      smaller and smaller and Flann saw the conjurer coming down on the other
+      side. &ldquo;He has come here to take that horse,&rdquo; said a voice behind the King
+      of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son looked round, and on the outskirts of the crowd he saw a
+      man with a hare-skin cap and a protruding eye who was holding a reddish
+      horse, while he watched the conjuror. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son knew the
+      horse&mdash;it was the Slight Red Steed that had carried him and Fedelma
+      from the Enchanter&rsquo;s house and had brought him to the Cave where he had
+      found the Sword of Light. He looked at the conjuror again and he saw he
+      was no other than the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. Then it crossed
+      his mind what the Gobaun Saor had said to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had seen a man he knew and a horse he had mounted before. He was to
+      mount that horse, follow the man, and force him to tell the rest of the
+      Unique Tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son drew back to the outskirts of the crowd. He snatched the
+      bridle from the hands of Mogue, the man who held it, and jumped up on the
+      back of the Slight Red Steed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he did this the ladder that was standing upright fell on the
+      ground. The people shouted and broke away. And then the King&rsquo;s Son saw the
+      Enchanter jump across a house and make for the gate of the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if he could jump across a house so could the Slight Red Steed. The
+      King&rsquo;s Son turned its head, plucked at its rein, and over the same house
+      it sprang too. The more he ran the more swift the Enchanter became. He
+      jumped over the gate of the town, the Slight Red Steed after him. He went
+      swiftly across the country, making high springs over ditches and hedges.
+      No other steed but the Slight Red Steed could have kept its rider in sight
+      of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up hill and down dale the Enchanter went, but, mounted on the Slight Red
+      Steed, the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son was in hot pursuit. The Enchanter raced
+      up the side of the seventh hill, and when the King&rsquo;s Son came to the top
+      of it he found no one in sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He raced on, however, and he passed a dead man hanging from a tree. He
+      raced on and on, but still the Enchanter was not to be seen. Then the
+      thought came into his mind that the man who was hanging from the tree and
+      who he thought was dead was the crafty old Enchanter. He turned the Slight
+      Red Steed round and raced back. The man that had been hanging from the
+      tree was there no longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King&rsquo;s Son turned his horse amongst the trees and began to search for
+      the Enchanter. He found no trace of him. &ldquo;I have lost again,&rdquo; he said.
+      Then he threw the bridle on the neck of the horse and he said, &ldquo;Go your
+      own way now, my Slight Red Steed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he said that the Slight Red Steed twitched its ears and galloped
+      towards the West. It went through woods and across streams, and when the
+      crows were flying home and the kites were flying abroad it brought the
+      King&rsquo;s Son to a stone house standing in the middle of a bog. &ldquo;It may be
+      the Enchanter is in this house,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son. He jumped off the
+      Slight Red Steed, pushed the door of the house open, and there, seated on
+      a chair in the middle of the floor with a woman sitting beside him, was
+      the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. &ldquo;So,&rdquo; said the Enchanter, &ldquo;my
+      Slight Red Steed has brought you to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;I have found you, my crafty old Enchanter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now that you have found me, what do you want of me?&rdquo; said the
+      Enchanter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your head,&rdquo; said the King&rsquo;s Son, drawing the tarnished Sword of Light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will nothing less than my head content you?&rdquo; said the Enchanter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing less&mdash;unless it be what went before, and what comes after
+      the Unique Tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Unique Tale,&rdquo; said the Enchanter. &ldquo;I will tell you what I know of
+      it.&rdquo; Thereupon he began
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was a Druid and the Son of a Druid, and I had learned the language of
+      the birds. And one morning, as I walked abroad, I heard a blackbird and a
+      robin talking, and when I heard what they said I smiled to myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now the woman I had just married noticed that I kept smiling, and she
+      questioned me. &lsquo;Why do you keep smiling to yourself?&rsquo; I would not tell
+      her. &lsquo;Is that not the truth? &lsquo;&rdquo; said the Enchanter to a woman who sat
+      beside him. &ldquo;It is the truth,&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the third day I was still smiling to myself, and my wife questioned
+      me, and when I did not answer threw dish-water into my face. &lsquo;May
+      blindness come upon you if you do not tell me why you are smiling,&rsquo; said
+      she. Then I told her why I smiled to myself. I had heard what the birds
+      said. The blackbird said to the robin, &lsquo;Do you know that just under where
+      we are sitting are three rods of enchantment, and if one were to take one
+      of them and strike a man with it, he would be changed to any creature one
+      named?&rsquo; That is what I had heard the birds say and I smiled because I was
+      the only creature who knew about the rods of enchantment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My wife made me show her where the rods were. She cut one of them when I
+      went away. That evening she came behind me and struck me with a rod. &lsquo;Go
+      out now and roam as a wolf,&rsquo; she said, and there and then I was changed
+      into a wolf. &lsquo;Is that not true?&rsquo;&rdquo; said he to the woman. &ldquo;It is true,&rdquo; she
+      said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And being changed into a wolf, I went through the woods seeking wolf&rsquo;s
+      meat. And now you must ask my wife to tell you more of the story.&rdquo; The
+      King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son turned to the woman who sat on the seat next the
+      Enchanter, and asked her to tell him more of the story. And thereupon she
+      began
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before all that happened I was known as the Maid of the Green Mantle. One
+      day a King rode up a mountain with five score followers and a mist came on
+      them as they rode. The King saw his followers no more. He called out after
+      a while and four score answered him. And he called out again after another
+      while and two score answered him. And after another while he called out
+      again and only a score answered him through the mist, and when he called
+      out again no one answered him at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The King went up the mountain until he came to the place where I lived
+      with the Druids who reared me. He stayed long in that place. The King
+      loved me for a while and I loved the King, and when he went away I
+      followed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he would not come back to me I enchanted him so that there were
+      times when he was left between life and death. Once when he was seemingly
+      dead a girl watched by him, and she followed his spirit into many terrible
+      places and so broke my enchantment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sheen was the girl&rsquo;s name,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sheen was her name,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;He brought her to his Kingdom, and
+      made her his queen. After that I married the man who is here now&mdash;the
+      Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, the Son of the Druid of the Gray Rock.
+      Ask him now to tell you the rest of the story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she changed me into a gray wolf,&rdquo; said the Enchanter, &ldquo;I went through
+      the woods searching for what a wolf might eat, but could find nothing to
+      stay my hunger. Then I came back and stood outside my house and the woman
+      who had been called the Maid of the Green Mantle came to me. &lsquo;I will give
+      you back your human form,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;if you do as I bid you.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I promised her I would do as she bade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She bade me go to a King&rsquo;s house where a child had been born. She bade me
+      steal the child away. I went to the King&rsquo;s house. I went into the chamber
+      and I stole the child from the mother&rsquo;s side. Then I ran through the
+      woods. But in the end I fell into a trap that the Giant Crom Duv had set
+      for the wolves that chased his stray cattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For a night I lay in the trap with the child beside me. Then Crom Duv
+      came and lifted out wolf and child. Three Hags with Long Teeth were there
+      when he took us out of the trap, and he gave the child to one of them,
+      telling her to rear it so that the child might be a servant for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He put me into a sack, promising himself that he would give me a good
+      beating. He left me on the floor of his house. But while he was gone for
+      his club I bit my way out of the sack and made my escape. I came back to
+      my own house, and my wife struck me with the wand of enchantment, and
+      changed me from a wolf into a man again. &lsquo;Is that not true?&rsquo;&rdquo; said he to
+      the woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true,&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is all of the Unique Tale that I know,&rdquo; said the Enchanter of the
+      Black Back-Lands, &ldquo;and now that I have told it to you, put up your sword.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will put up no sword,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;until you tell
+      me what King and Queen were the father and mother of the child that was
+      reared by the Hags of the Long Teeth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I made no promise to tell you that,&rdquo; said the En-chanter of the Black
+      Back-Lands. &ldquo;You have got the story you asked for, and now let me see your
+      back going through my door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you have got the story, and be off with you now,&rdquo; said the woman who
+      sat by the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put up his sword; he went to the door; he left the house of the
+      Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. He mounted the Slight Red Steed and
+      rode off. He knew now what went before and what came after the Unique
+      Tale. The Gobaun Saor would clean the blemish of the blade of the Sword of
+      Light and would show him how to come to the Land of Mist. Then he would
+      win back his love Fedelma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought too on the tidings he had for his comrade Flann&mdash;Flann was
+      the Son of the King who was called the Hunter-King and of Sheen whose
+      brothers had been changed into seven wild geese. He shook his horse&rsquo;s
+      reins and went back towards the Town of the Red Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann thought upon the Princess Flame-of-Wine. He walked through the town
+      after the King&rsquo;s Son had ridden after the Enchanter, without noticing
+      anyone until he heard a call and saw Mogue standing beside a little tent
+      that he had set up before the Bull&rsquo;s Field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann went to Mogue and found him very disconsolate on account of the loss
+      of the horse he had brought into the town. &ldquo;This is a bad town to be in,&rdquo;
+       said Mogue, &ldquo;and unless I persuade yourself to become partners with me I
+      shall have done badly in it. Join with me now and we&rsquo;ll do some fine feats
+      together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would not become a King&rsquo;s Son to join with a robber-captain,&rdquo; said
+      Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fine talk, fine talk,&rdquo; said Mogue. He thought that Flann was jesting with
+      him when he spoke of himself as a King&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to sell three treasures I have with me,&rdquo; said Mogue. &ldquo;I have the
+      most wonderful things that were ever brought into this town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show them to me,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mogue opened one of his packs and took out a box. When he opened this box
+      a fragrance came such as Flann had never felt before. &ldquo;What is that that
+      smells like a garden of sweet flowers?&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the Rose of Sweet Smells,&rdquo; said Mogue, and he took a little rose
+      out of the box. &ldquo;It never withers and its fragrance is never any less. It
+      is a treasure for a King&rsquo;s daughter. But I will not show it in this town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is that shining thing in the box?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the Comb of Magnificence. That is another treasure for a King&rsquo;s
+      daughter. The maiden who would wear it would look the most queenly woman
+      in the Kingdom. But I won&rsquo;t show that either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What else have you, Mogue?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A girdle. The woman who wears it would have to speak the truth.&rdquo; The Town
+      of
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann thought he would do much to get the Rose of Sweet Smells or the Comb
+      of Magnificence and bring them as presents to the Princess Flame-of-Wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He slept in Mogue&rsquo;s tent, and at the peep of day, he rose up and went to
+      the House of Hospitality where Dermott and Downal were. With them he would
+      go to the King&rsquo;s orchard, and he would see, and perhaps he would speak to,
+      Flame-of-Wine. But Dermott and Downal were not in the Brufir&rsquo;s. Flann
+      wakened their grooms and he and they made search for the two youths. But
+      there was no trace of Dermott and Downal. It seemed they had left before
+      daybreak with their horses. Flann went with the grooms to the gate of the
+      town. There they heard from the watchman that the two youths had gone
+      through the gate and that they had told the watchman to tell the grooms
+      that they had gone to take the world for their pillow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grooms were dismayed to hear this, and so indeed was Flann. Without
+      the King&rsquo;s Son and without Downal and Dermott how would he go to the
+      King&rsquo;s Garden? He went back to Mogue&rsquo;s tent to consider what he should do.
+      And first he thought he would not go to the Festival of the Gathering of
+      the Apples, as he knew that Flame-of-Wine had only asked him with his
+      comrades. And then he thought that whatever else happened he would go to
+      the King&rsquo;s orchard and see Flame-of-Wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he had one of the wonderful things that Mogue had shown him&mdash;the
+      Rose of Sweet Smells or the Comb of Magnificence! These would show her
+      that he was of some consequence. If he had either of these wonderful
+      things and offered it to her she might be pleased with him!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat outside the tent and waited for Mogue to return. When he came Flann
+      said to him, &ldquo;I will go with you as a servant, and I will serve you well
+      although I am a King&rsquo;s Son, if you will give me something now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want from me?&rdquo; said Mogue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me the Rose of Sweet Smells,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure that&rsquo;s the finest thing I have. I couldn&rsquo;t give you that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will serve you for two years if you will give it to me,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Mogue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will serve you for three years if you will give it to me,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will give it to you if you will serve me for three years.&rdquo; Thereupon
+      Mogue opened his pack and took the box out. He opened it and put the Rose
+      of Sweet Smells into Flann&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At once Flann started off for the King&rsquo;s orchard. The Steward who had seen
+      him the day before signed to the servants to let him pass through the
+      gate. He went into the King&rsquo;s orchard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maidens were singing the &ldquo;Song for the Time of the Blossoming of the
+      Apple-trees&rdquo; and all that day and night Flann held their song in his mind
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   The touch of hands that drew it down
+   Kindled to blossom all the bough
+   O breathe the wonder of the branch,
+   And let it through the darkness go!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Youths were gathering apples, and the Princess Flame-of-Wine walked by
+      herself on the orchard paths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last she came to where Flann stood and lifting her eyes she looked at
+      him. &ldquo;I had companions,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;but they have gone away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are unmannerly,&rdquo; said Flame-of-Wine with anger, and she turned away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann took the rose from under his cloak. Its fragrance came to
+      Flame-of-Wine and she turned to him again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the Rose of Sweet Smells,&rdquo; said Flann. &ldquo;Will you take it from me,
+      Princess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She came back to him and took the rose in her hand, and there was wonder
+      in her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will never wither, and its fragrance will never fail,&rdquo; said Flann. &ldquo;It
+      is the Rose of Sweet Smells. A King&rsquo;s daughter should have it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flame-of-Wine held the rose in her hand, and smiled on Flann. &ldquo;What is
+      your name, King&rsquo;s Son?&rdquo; said she, with bright and friendly eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flann,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Walk with me, Flann,&rdquo; said she. They walked along the orchard paths, and
+      the youths and maidens turned towards the fragrance that the Rose of Sweet
+      Smells gave. Flame-of-Wine laughed, and said, &ldquo;They all wonder at the
+      treasure you have brought me, Flann. If you could hear what I shall tell
+      them about you! I shall tell them that you are the son of a King of Arabia&mdash;no
+      less. They will believe me because you have brought me such a treasure! I
+      suppose there is nothing more wonderful than this rose!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Flann told her about the other wonderful thing he had seen&mdash;the
+      Comb of Magnificence. &ldquo;A King&rsquo;s daughter should have such a treasure,&rdquo;
+       said Flame-of-Wine. &ldquo;Oh, how jealous I should be if someone brought the
+      Comb of Magnificence to either of my two sisters&mdash;to Bloom-of-Youth
+      or Breast-of-Light. I should think then that this rose was not such a
+      treasure after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was leaving the orchard she plucked a flower and gave it to him.
+      &ldquo;Come and walk in the orchard with me to-morrow,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely I will come,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring the Comb of Magnificence to me too,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I could not be
+      proud of this rose, and I could not love you so well for bringing it to me
+      if I thought that any other maiden had the Comb of Magnificence. Bring it
+      to me, Flann.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will bring it to you,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was at the gate of the town when the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son rode back on
+      the Slight Red Steed. The King&rsquo;s Son dismounted, put his arm about Flann
+      and told him that he now had the whole of the Unique Tale. They sat before
+      Mogue&rsquo;s tent, and the King&rsquo;s Son told Flann the whole of the story he had
+      searched for&mdash;how a King traveling through the mist had come to where
+      Druids and the Maid of the Green Mantle lived, how the King was enchanted,
+      and how the maiden Sheen released him from the enchantment. He told him,
+      too, how the Enchanter was changed into a wolf, and how the wolf carried
+      away Sheen&rsquo;s child. &ldquo;And the Unique Tale is in part your own history,
+      Flann,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;for the child that was left with
+      the Hags of the Long Teeth was no one else than yourself, for you, Flann,
+      have on your breast the stars that denote the Son of a King.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is so, it is so,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;and I will find out what King and Queen
+      were my father and my mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to the Hags of the Long Teeth and force them to tell you,&rdquo; said the
+      King&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do that,&rdquo; said Flann, but in his own mind he said, &ldquo;I will first
+      bring the Comb of Magnificence to Flame-of-Wine, and I will tell her that
+      I will have to be away for so many years with Mogue and I shall ask her to
+      remember me until I come back to her. Then I shall go to the Hags of the
+      Long Teeth and force them to tell me what King and Queen were my father
+      and mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son left Flann to his thoughts and went to find the
+      Gobaun Saor who would clear for him the tarnished blade of the Sword of
+      Light and would show him the way to where the King of the Land of Mist had
+      his dominion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mogue spent his time with the ballad-singers and the story-tellers around
+      the market-stake, and when he came back to his tent he wanted to drink ale
+      and go to sleep, but Flann turned him from the ale-pot by saying to him,
+      &ldquo;I want the Comb of Magnificence from you, Mogue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my skin,&rdquo; said Mogue, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s my blood you&rsquo;ll want next, my lad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you give me the Comb of Magnificence, Mogue, I shall serve you for six
+      years&mdash;three years more than I said yesterday. I shall serve you
+      well, even though I am the son of a King and can find out who my father
+      and mother are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t give you the Comb of Magnificence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll serve you seven years if you do, Mogue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mogue drank and drank out of the ale-pot, frowning to himself. He put the
+      ale-pot away and said, &ldquo;I suppose your life won&rsquo;t be any good to you
+      unless I give you the Comb of Magnificence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so, Mogue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mogue sighed heavily, but he went to his pack and took out the box that
+      the treasures were in. He let Flann take out the Comb of Magnificence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seven years you will have to serve me,&rdquo; said Mogue, &ldquo;and you will have to
+      begin your service now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will begin it now,&rdquo; said Flann, but he stole out of the tent, put on
+      his red cloak and went to the King&rsquo;s orchard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Flann, my treasure-bringer,&rdquo; said Flame-of-Wine, when she came to
+      him. &ldquo;I have brought you the Comb of Magnificence,&rdquo; said he. Her hands
+      went out and her eyes became large and shining. He put the Comb of
+      Magnificence into her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She put the comb into the back of her hair, and she became at once like
+      the tower that is builded&mdash;what broke its height and turned the full
+      sunlight from it has been taken away, and the tower stands, the pride of a
+      King and the delight of a people. When she put the Comb of Magnificence
+      into her hair she became of all Kings&rsquo; daughters the most stately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked with Flann along the paths of the orchard, but always she was
+      watching her shadow to see if it showed her added magnificence. Her shadow
+      showed nothing. She took Flann to the well in the orchard, and looked down
+      into it, but her image in the well did not show her added magnificence
+      either. Soon she became tired of walking on the orchard paths, and when
+      she came to the gate she walked no further but stood with Flann at the
+      gate. &ldquo;A kiss for you, Flann, my treasure-bringer,&rdquo; said she, and she
+      kissed him and then went hurrying away. And as Flann watched her he
+      thought that although she had kissed him he was not now in her mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went out of the orchard disconsolate, thinking that when he was on his
+      seven years&rsquo; service with Mogue Princess Flame-of-Wine might forget him.
+      As he walked on he passed the little house where the Spae-Woman had her
+      besoms and heather-stalks. She ran to him when she saw him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you heard that the King&rsquo;s Son has found what went before, and what
+      comes after the Unique Tale?&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I have. And I have to go to the Hags of the Long Teeth to find out
+      who my father and mother were, for surely I am the child who was taken
+      from Sheen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you remember that Sheen&rsquo;s seven brothers were changed into seven
+      wild geese?&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember that, mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And seven wild geese they will be until a maiden who loves you will give
+      seven drops of her heart&rsquo;s blood to bring them back to their human
+      shapes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember that, mother.&rdquo; &ldquo;Whatever maid you love, her you must ask if
+      she would give seven drops of her heart&rsquo;s blood. It may be that she would.
+      It may be that she would not and that you would still love her without
+      thought of her giving one drop of blood of her little finger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot ask the maiden I love to give seven drops of her heart&rsquo;s blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is the maiden you love?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The King&rsquo;s daughter, Flame-of-Wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He told the Spae-Woman about the presents he had given her&mdash;he told
+      the Spae-Woman too that he had bound himself to seven years&rsquo; service to
+      Mogue on account of these presents. The Spae-Woman said, &ldquo;What other
+      treasures are in Mogue&rsquo;s pack?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One treasure more the Girdle of Truth. Whoever puts it on can speak
+      nothing but the truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Said the Spae-Woman, &ldquo;You are to take the Girdle of Truth and give it to
+      Flame-of-Wine. Tell Mogue that I said he is to give it to you without
+      adding one day to your years&rsquo; service. When Flame-of-Wine has put the
+      girdle around her waist ask her for the seven drops of heart&rsquo;s blood that
+      will bring your mother&rsquo;s seven brothers back to their human shapes. She
+      may love you and yet refuse to give you the seven drops from her heart.
+      But tell her of this, and hear what she will say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann left the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s and went back to Mogue&rsquo;s tent. The loss of his
+      treasures had overcome Mogue and he was drinking steadily and went from
+      one bad temper to another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begin your service now by watching the tent while I sleep,&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one thing more I want from you, Mogue,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the Eye of Balor! you&rsquo;re a cuckoo in my nest. What do you want now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Girdle of Truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it my last treasure you&rsquo;d be taking on me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Spae-Woman bid me tell you that you&rsquo;re to give me the Girdle of
+      Truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pity of me, it&rsquo;s a pity of me,&rdquo; said Mogue. But he took the box
+      out of his pack, and let Flann take the girdle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VIII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flame-of-Wine saw him. She walked slowly down the orchard path so that all
+      might notice the stateliness of her appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to see you again, Flann,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Have your comrades yet
+      come back to my father&rsquo;s town?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann told her that one of them had returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bid him come see me,&rdquo; said Flame-of-Wine. Then she saw the girdle in his
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it you have?&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something that went with the other treasures&mdash;a girdle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you not let me have it, Flann?&rdquo; She took the girdle in her hands.
+      &ldquo;Tell me, youth,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;how you got all these treasures?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will have to give seven years&rsquo; service for them,&rdquo; Flann said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seven years,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;but you will remember&mdash;will you not&mdash;that
+      I loved you for bringing them to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you remember me until I come back from my seven years&rsquo; service?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes,&rdquo; said Flame-of-Wine, and she put the girdle around her waist as
+      she spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Someone said to me,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;that I should ask the maiden who loved
+      me for seven drops of her heart&rsquo;s blood.&rdquo; The girdle was now round
+      Flame-of-Wine&rsquo;s waist. She laughed with mockery. &ldquo;Seven drops of heart&rsquo;s
+      blood,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I would not give this fellow seven eggs out of my
+      robin&rsquo;s nest. I tell him I love him for bringing me the three treasures
+      for a King&rsquo;s daughter. I tell him that, but I should be ashamed of myself
+      if I thought I could have any love for such a fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you tell me the truth now,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The truth, the truth,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;of course I tell you the truth. Oh, and
+      there are other truths. I shall be ashamed forever if I tell them. Oh, oh.
+      They are rising to my tongue, and every time I press them back this girdle
+      tightens and tightens until I think it will kill me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Farewell, then, Flame-of-Wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take off the girdle, take off the girdle! What truths are in my mind! I
+      shall speak them and I shall be ashamed. But I shall die in pain if I hold
+      them back. Loosen the girdle, loosen the girdle! Take the rose you gave me
+      and loosen the girdle.&rdquo; She let the rose fall on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will loosen the girdle for you,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But loosen it now. How I have to strive to keep truths back, and oh, what
+      pain I am in! Take the Comb of Magnificence, and loosen the girdle.&rdquo; She
+      threw the comb down on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took up the Rose of Sweet Smells and the Comb of Magnificence and he
+      took the girdle off her waist. &ldquo;Oh, what a terrible thing I put round my
+      waist,&rdquo; said Flame-of-Wine. &ldquo;Take it away, Flann, take it away. But give
+      me back the Rose of Sweet Smells and the Comb of Magnificence,&mdash;give
+      them back to me and I shall love you always.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cannot love me. And why should I give seven years in service for your
+      sake? I will leave these treasures back in Mogue&rsquo;s pack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you are a peddler, a peddler. Go from me,&rdquo; said Flame-of-Wine. &ldquo;And
+      do not be in the Town of the Red Castle to-morrow, or I shall have my
+      father&rsquo;s hunting dogs set upon you.&rdquo; She turned away angrily and went into
+      the Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann went back to Mogue&rsquo;s tent and left the Rose of Sweet Smells, the
+      Comb of Magnificence and the Girdle of Truth upon Mogue&rsquo;s pack. He sat in
+      the corner and cried bitterly. Then the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son came and
+      told him that his sword was bright once more&mdash;that the stains that
+      had blemished its blade had been cleared away by the Gobaun Saor who had
+      also shown him the way to the Land of the Mist. He put his arm about Flann
+      and told him that he was starting now to rescue his love Fedelma from the
+      Castle of the King of the Land of Mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE KING OF THE LAND OF MIST
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son came to the place where the river that he
+      followed takes the name of the River of the Broken Towers. It is called by
+      that name because the men of the old days tried to build towers across its
+      course. The towers were built a little way across the river that at this
+      place was tremendously wide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Glashan will carry you across the River of the Broken Towers to the
+      shore of the Land of Mist,&rdquo; the Gobaun Saor had said to the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son. And now he was at the River of the Broken Towers but the
+      Glashan-creature was not to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he saw the Glashan. He was leaning his back against one of the Towers
+      and smoking a short pipe. The water of the river was up to his knees. He
+      was covered with hair and had a big head with horse&rsquo;s ears. And the
+      Glashan twitched his horse&rsquo;s ears as he smoked in great contentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glashan, come here,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Glashan gave him no heed at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want you to carry me across the River of the Broken Towers,&rdquo; shouted
+      the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. The Glashan went on smoking and twisting his
+      ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son might have known that the whole clan of the
+      Gruagachs and Glashans are fond of their own ease and will do nothing if
+      they can help it. He twitched his ears more sharply when the King&rsquo;s Son
+      threw a pebble at him. Then after about three hours he came slowly across
+      the river. From his big knees down he had horse&rsquo;s feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take me on your big shoulders, Glashan,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son,
+      &ldquo;and carry me across to the shore of the Land of Mist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not carrying any more across,&rdquo; said the Glashan. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s
+      Son drew the Sword of Light and flashed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if you have that, you&rsquo;ll have to be carried across,&rdquo; said the
+      Glashan. &ldquo;But wait until I rest myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you do that you should rest?&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+      &ldquo;Take me on your shoulders and start off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Musha,&rdquo; said the Glashan, &ldquo;aren&rsquo;t you very anxious to lose your life?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take me on your shoulders.&rdquo; &ldquo;Well, come then. You&rsquo;re not the first living
+      dead man I carried across.&rdquo; The Glashan put his pipe into his ear. The
+      King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son mounted his shoulders and laid hold of his thick
+      mane. Then the Glashan put his horse&rsquo;s legs into the water and started to
+      cross the River of the Broken Towers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Land of Mist has a King,&rdquo; said the Glashan, when they were in the
+      middle of the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, Glashan, I know,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said the Glashan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then said he when they were three-quarters of the way across, &ldquo;Maybe you
+      don&rsquo;t know that the King of the Land of Mist will kill you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe &lsquo;tis I who will kill him,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;d be a hardy little fellow if you did that,&rdquo; said the Glashan. &ldquo;But
+      you won&rsquo;t do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went on. The water was up to the Glashan&rsquo;s waist but that gave him no
+      trouble. So broad was the river that they were traveling across it all
+      day. The Glashan threw the King&rsquo;s Son in once when he stooped to pick up
+      an eel. Said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;What way is the Castle of the
+      King of the Land of Mist guarded, Glashan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has seven gates,&rdquo; said the Glashan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how are the gates guarded?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired,&rdquo; said the Glashan, &ldquo;and I can&rsquo;t talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, or I&rsquo;ll twist the horse&rsquo;s ears off your head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, the first gate is guarded by a plover only. It sits on the third
+      pinnacle over the gate, and when anyone comes near it rises up and flies
+      round the Castle crying until its sharp cries put the other guards on the
+      watch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what other guards are there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I&rsquo;m tired, and I can talk no more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son twisted his horse&rsquo;s ears, and then the Glashan
+      said
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The second gate is guarded by five spear-men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how is the third gate guarded?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The third gate is guarded by seven swordsmen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how is the fourth gate guarded?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fourth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the fifth gate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fifth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the sixth gate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sixth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how is the seventh gate guarded?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The seventh gate is guarded by a Hag.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By a Hag only?&rdquo; &ldquo;By a Hag with poisoned nails. But I&rsquo;m tired now, and
+      I&rsquo;ll talk no more to you. If I could strike a light now I&rsquo;d smoke a pipe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still they went on, and just at the screech of the day they came to the
+      other shore of the River of the Broken Towers. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son
+      sprang from the shoulders of the Glashan and went into the mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came to where turrets and pinnacles appeared above the mist. He climbed
+      the rock upon which the Castle was built. He came to the first gate, and
+      as he did the plover that was on the third pinnacle above rose up and flew
+      round the Castle with sharp cries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He raised a fragment of the ground-rock and flung it against the gate. He
+      burst it open. He dashed in then and through the first courtyard of the
+      Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he went towards the second gate it was flung open, and the five
+      spear-men ran upon him. But they had not counted on what was to face them&mdash;the
+      Sword of Light in the bands of the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its stroke cut the spear heads from the spear-holds, and its quick
+      glancing dazzled the eyes of the spear-men. On each and every one of them
+      it inflicted the wound of death. He dashed through the second gate and
+      into the third courtyard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as he did the third gate was flung open and seven swordsmen came
+      forth. They made themselves like a half circle and came towards the King
+      of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. He dazzled their eyes with a wide sweep of his sword. He
+      darted it swiftly at each of them and on the seven swordsmen too he
+      inflicted wounds of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went through the third courtyard and towards the fourth gate. As he did
+      it opened slowly and a single champion came forth. He closed the gate
+      behind him and stood with a long gray sword in his hand. This was the King
+      of the Land of Mist. His shoulders were where a tall man&rsquo;s head would be.
+      His face was like a stone, and his eyes had never looked except with scorn
+      upon a foe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his enemy began his attack the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son had power to do
+      nothing else but guard himself from that weighty sword. He had the Sword
+      of Light for a guard and well did that bright, swift blade guard him. The
+      two fought across the courtyard making hard places soft and soft places
+      hard with their trampling. They fought from when it was early to when it
+      was noon, and they fought from when it was noon until it was long
+      afternoon. And not a single wound did the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son inflict
+      upon the King of the Land of Mist, and not a single wound did the King of
+      the Land of Mist inflict upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son was growing faint and weary. His eyes were
+      worn with watching the strokes and thrusts of the sword that was battling
+      against him. His arms could hardly bear up his own sword. His heart became
+      a stream of blood that would have gushed from his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, as he was about to fall down with his head under the sword of
+      the King of the Land of Mist a name rose above all his thoughts&mdash;&ldquo;Fedelma.&rdquo;
+       If he sank down and the sword of the King of the Land of Mist fell on him,
+      never would she be saved. The will became strong again in the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son. His heart became a steady beating thing. The weight that
+      was upon his arms passed away. Strongly he held the sword in his hand and
+      he began to attack the King of the Land of Mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now he saw that the sword in the hand of his enemy was broken and worn
+      with the guard that the Sword of Light had put against it. And now he made
+      a strong attack. As the light was leaving the sky and as the darkness was
+      coming down he saw that the strength was waning in the King of the Land of
+      Mist. The sword in his hand was more worn and more broken. At last the
+      blade was only a span from the hilt. As he drew back to the gate of the
+      fourth courtyard the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son sprang at him and thrust the
+      Sword of Light through his breast. He stood with his face becoming
+      exceedingly terrible. He flung what remained of his sword, and the broken
+      blade struck the foot of the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son and pierced it. Then
+      the King of the Land of Mist fell down on the ground before the fourth
+      gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So weary from his battles, so pained with the wound of his foot was the
+      King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son that he did not try to cross the body and go towards
+      the fifth gate. He turned back. He climbed down the rock and went towards
+      the River of the Broken Towers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Glashan was broiling on a hot stone the eel he had taken out of the
+      river. &ldquo;Wash my wound and give me refreshment, Glashan,&rdquo; said the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Glashan washed the wound in his foot and gave him a portion of the
+      broiled eel with cresses and water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow&rsquo;s dawn I shall go back,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;and
+      go through the fifth and sixth and seventh gate and take away Fedelma.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the King of the Land of Mist lets you,&rdquo; said the Glashan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is dead,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, &ldquo;I thrust my sword through
+      his breast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is his head?&rdquo; said the Glashan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is on his corpse,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you will have another fight to-morrow. His life is in his head, and
+      his life will come back to him if you did not cut it off. It is he, I tell
+      you, who will guard the fourth and fifth and sixth gate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I do not believe, Glashan,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;There
+      is no one to guard the gates now but the Hag you spoke of. To-morrow I
+      shall take Fedelma out of her captivity, and we will both leave the Land
+      of Mist. But I must sleep now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid the Sword of Light beside him, stretched himself on the ground and
+      went to sleep. The Glashan drew his horse&rsquo;s legs under him, took the pipe
+      out of his ear, and smoked all through the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son rose in the morning but he was in pain and
+      weariness on account of his wounded foot. He ate the cresses and drank the
+      water that the Glashan gave him, and he started off for the Castle of the
+      King of the Mist. &ldquo;&lsquo;Tis only an old woman I shall have to deal with
+      to-day,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and then I shall awaken Fedelma, my love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He passed through the first gate and the first court-yard, through the
+      second gate and the second court-yard, through the third gate and the
+      third courtyard. The fourth gate was closed, and as he went towards it, it
+      opened slowly, and the King of the Land of Mist stood there&mdash;as high,
+      as stone-faced, and as scornful as before, and in his hand he had a
+      weighty gray sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They fought as they fought the day before. But the guard the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son made against the sword of the King of the Land of Mist was
+      weaker than before, because of the pain and weariness that came from his
+      wound. But still he kept the Sword of Light before him and the Sword of
+      the King of the Land of Mist could not pass it. They fought until it was
+      afternoon. The heart in his body seemed turned to a jet of blood that
+      would gush forth. His eyes were straining themselves out of their sockets.
+      His arms could hardly bear up his sword. He fell down upon one knee, but
+      he was able to hold the sword so that it guarded his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the image of Fedelma appeared before him. He sprang up and his arms
+      regained their power. His heart became steady in his breast. And as he
+      made an attack upon the King of the Land of Mist, he saw that the blade in
+      his hand was broken and worn because of its strokes against the Sword of
+      Light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They fought with blades that seemed to kindle each other into sparks and
+      flashes of light. They fought until the blade in the hand of the King of
+      the Land of Mist was worn to a hand breadth above the hilt. He drew back
+      towards the gate of the fifth courtyard. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son sprang
+      at him and thrust the Sword of Light through his breast. Down on the
+      stones before the fifth gate of his Castle fell the King of the Land of
+      Mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son stepped over the body and went towards the fifth
+      gate. Then he remembered what the Glashan had said, &ldquo;His life is in his
+      head.&rdquo; He went back to where the King of the Land of Mist had fallen. With
+      a clean sweep of his sword he cut the head off the body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then out of the mist that was all around three ravens came. With beak and
+      claws they laid hold of the head and lifted it up. They fluttered heavily
+      away, keeping near the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With his sword in his hand the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son chased the ravens. He
+      followed them through the fourth courtyard, the third courtyard, the
+      second and the first. They flew off the rock on which the Castle was built
+      and disappeared in the mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He knew he would have to watch by the body of the King of the Land of
+      Mist, so that the head might not be placed upon it. He sat down before the
+      fifth gate. Pain and weariness, hunger and thirst oppressed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He longed for something that would allay his hunger and thirst. But he
+      knew that he could not go to the river to get refreshment of water and
+      cresses from the Glashan. Something fell beside him in the courtyard. It
+      was a beautiful, bright-colored apple. He went to pick it up, but it
+      rolled away towards the third courtyard. He followed it. Then, as he
+      looked back he saw that the ravens had lighted near the body of the King
+      of the Land of Mist, holding the head in their beaks and claws. He ran
+      back and the ravens lifted the head up again and flew away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He watched for another long time, and his hunger and his thirst made him
+      long for the bright-colored apple he had seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another apple fell down. He went to pick it up and it rolled away. But now
+      the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son thought of nothing hut that bright-colored
+      apple. He followed it as it rolled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It roiled through the third courtyard, and the second and the first. It
+      rolled out of the first gate and on to the rock upon which the Castle was
+      built. It rolled off the rock. The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son sprang down and
+      he saw the apple become a raven&rsquo;s head and beak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He climbed up the rock and ran back. And when he came into the first
+      courtyard he saw that the three ravens had come back again. They had
+      brought the head to the body, and body and head were now joined. The King
+      of the Land of Mist stood up again, and his head was turned towards his
+      left shoulder. He went to the sixth gate and took up a sword that was
+      beside it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They fought their last battle before the sixth gate. The guard that the
+      King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son made was weak, and if the King of the Land of Mist
+      could have turned fully upon him, he could have disarmed and killed him.
+      But his head had been so placed upon his body that it looked The King of
+      the Land of Mist 237 over his left shoulder. He was able to draw his sword
+      down the breast of the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, wounding him. The King&rsquo;s Son
+      whirled his sword around his head and flung it at his wry-headed enemy. It
+      swept his head off, and the King of the Land of Mist fell down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son saw on the outstretched neck the mark of the
+      other beheading. He took up the Sword of Light again and prepared to hold
+      the head against all that might come for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But no creature came. And then the hair on the severed head became loose
+      and it was blown away by the wind. And the bones of the head became a
+      powder and the flesh became a froth, and all was blown away by the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son went through the sixth courtyard and came
+      to the seventh gate. And before it he saw the last of the sentinels. A
+      Hag, she was seated on the top of a water-tank taking white doves out of a
+      basket and throwing them to ravens that flew down from the walls and tore
+      the doves to pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Hag saw the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son she sprang down from the
+      water-tank and ran towards him with outstretched arms and long poisoned
+      nails. With a sweep of his sword he cut the nails from her hands. Ravens
+      picked up the nails, and then, as they tried to fly away, they fell dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Sword of Light will take off your head if you do not take me on the
+      moment to where Fedelma is,&rdquo; said the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. &ldquo;I am sorry
+      to do it,&rdquo; said the Hag, &ldquo;but come, since you are the conqueror.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed the Hag into the Castle. In a net, hanging across a chamber,
+      he saw Fedelma. She was still, but she breathed. And the branch of
+      hawthorn that put her asleep was fresh beside her. Strands of her bright
+      hair came through the meshes of the net and were fastened to the wall.
+      With a sweep of the Sword of Light he cut the strands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her eyes opened. She saw the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, and the full light
+      came back to her eyes, and the full life into her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He cut the net from where it hung and laid it on the ground. He cut open
+      the meshes. Fedelma rose out of it and went into his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lifted her up and carried her out into the seventh courtyard. Then the
+      Hag who had been one of the sentinels came out of the Castle, closed the
+      door behind her and ran away into the mist, three ravens flying after her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as for Fedelma and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, they went through the
+      courtyards of the Castle and through the mists of the country and down to
+      the River of the Broken Towers. They found the Glashan broiling a salmon
+      upon hot stones. Salmon were coming from the sea and the Glashan went in
+      and caught more, The King of the Land of Mist 239 broiled and gave them to
+      the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son and Fedelma to eat. The little black water-hen
+      came out of the river and they fed it. The next day the King of Ireland&rsquo;s
+      Son bade the Glashan take Fedelma on his shoulders and carry her to the
+      other shore of the River of the Broken Towers. And he himself followed the
+      little black water-hen who showed him all the shallow places in the river
+      so that he crossed with the water never above his waist. But he was nearly
+      dead from cold and weariness, and from the wounds on breast and foot when
+      he came to the other side and found the Glashan and Fedelma waiting for
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They ate salmon again and rested for a day. They bade good-by to the
+      Glashan, who went back to the river to hunt for salmon. Then they went
+      along the bank of the river hand in hand while the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son
+      told Fedelma of all the things that had happened to him in his search for
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came to where the river became known as the River of the Morning
+      Star. And then, in the distance, they saw the Hill of Horns. Towards the
+      Hill of Horns they went, and, at the near side of it, they found a house
+      thatched with the wing of a bird. It was the house of the Little Sage of
+      the Mountain. To the house of the Little Sage of the Mountain Fedelma and
+      the King&rsquo;s Son now went.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     TO THE MEMORY OF BEATRICE CASSIDY COLUM
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE HOUSE OF CROM DUV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The story is now about Flann. He went through the East gate of the Town of
+      the Red Castle and his journey was to the house of the Hags of the Long
+      Teeth where he might learn what Queen and King were his mother and his
+      father. It is with the youth Flann, once called the Gilly of the Goatskin,
+      that we will go if it be pleasing to you, Son of my Heart. He went his way
+      in the evening, when, as the bard said:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   The blackbird shakes his metal notes
+   Against the edge of day,
+   And I am left upon my road
+   With one star on my way.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And he went his way in the night, when, as the same bard said:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   The night has told it to the hills,
+   And told the partridge in the nest,
+   And left it on the long white roads,
+   She will give light instead of rest.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And he went on between the dusk and the dawn, when, as the same bard said
+      again:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Behold the sky is covered,
+   As with a mighty shroud:
+   A forlorn light is lying
+   Between the earth and cloud.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And he went on in the dawn, when as the bard said (and this is the last
+      stanza he made, for the King said there was nothing at all in his
+      adventure):&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   In the silence of the morning
+   Myself, myself went by,
+   Where lonely trees sway branches
+   Against spaces of the sky.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And then, when the sun was looking over the first high hills he came to a
+      river. He knew it was the river he followed before, for no other river in
+      the country was so wide or held so much water. As he had gone with the
+      flow of the river then he thought he would go against the flow of the
+      river now, and so he might come back to the glens and ridges and deep
+      boggy places he had traveled from.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He met a Fisherman who was drying his nets and he asked him what name the
+      river had. The Fisherman said it had two names. The people on the right
+      bank called it the Day-break River and the people on the left bank called
+      it the River of the Morning Star. And the Fisherman told him he was to be
+      careful not to call it the River of the Morning Star when he was on the
+      right bank nor the Daybreak River when he was on the left, as the people
+      on either side wanted to keep to the name their fathers had for it and
+      were ill-mannered to the stranger who gave it a different name. The
+      Fisherman told Flann he was sorry he had told him the two names for the
+      River and that the best thing he could do was to forget one of the names
+      and call it just the River of the Morning Star as he was on the left bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann went on with the day widening before him and when the height of the
+      noon was past he came to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places he had
+      traveled from. He went on with the bright day going before him and the
+      brown night coming behind him, and at dusk he came to the black and burnt
+      place where the Hags of the Long Teeth had their house of stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw the house with a puff of smoke coming through every crevice in the
+      stones. He went to the shut door and knocked on it with the
+      knocking-stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s without?&rdquo; said one of the Hags.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s within?&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Three Hags of the Long Teeth,&rdquo; said one of the Hags, &ldquo;and if you want
+      to know it,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;they are the runners and summoners, the brewers
+      and candle-makers for Crom Duv, the Giant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann struck a heavier blow with the knocking-stone and the door broke in.
+      He stepped into the smoke-filled house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No welcome to you, whoever you are,&rdquo; said one of the three Hags who were
+      seated around the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the lad who was called Gilly of the Goatskin, and whom you reared up
+      here,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and I have come back to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three Hags turned from the fire then and screamed at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what brought you back to us, humpy fellow?&rdquo; said the first Hag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came back to make you tell me what Queen and King were my mother and
+      father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should you think a King and Queen were your father and mother?&rdquo; they
+      said to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I have on my breast the stars of a son of a King,&rdquo; said Flann,
+      &ldquo;and,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I have in my hand a sword that will make you tell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He came towards them and they were afraid. Then the first Hag bent her
+      knee to him, and, said she, &ldquo;Loosen the hearthstone with your sword and
+      you will find a token that will let you know who your father was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann put his sword under the hearthstone and pried it up. But if it were
+      a token, what was under the hearthstone was an evil thing&mdash;a
+      cockatrice. It had been hatched out of a serpent&rsquo;s egg by a black cock of
+      nine years. It had the head and crest of a cock and the body of a black
+      serpent. The cockatrice lifted itself up on its tail and looked at him
+      with red eyes. The sight of that head made Flann dizzy and he fell down on
+      the floor. Then it went down and the Hags put the hearthstone above it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will we do with the fellow?&rdquo; said one of the Hags, looking at Flann
+      who was in a swoon on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cut of his head with the sword that he threatened us with,&rdquo; said another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the third Hag. &ldquo;Crom Duv the Giant is in want of a servant. Let
+      him take this fellow. Then maybe the Giant will give us what he has
+      promised us for so long&mdash;a Berry to each of us from the Fairy Rowan
+      Tree that grows in his courtyard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it be, let it be,&rdquo; said the other Hags. They put green branches on
+      the fire so that Crom Duv would see the smoke and come to the house. In
+      the morning he came. He brought Flann outside, and after awhile Flann&rsquo;s
+      senses came back to him. Then the Giant tied a rope round his arms and
+      drove him before him with a long iron spike that he had for a staff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crom Duv&rsquo;s arms stretched down to his twisted knees; he had long, yellow,
+      overlapping horse&rsquo;s teeth in his mouth, with a fall-down under-lip and a
+      drawn-back upper-lip; he had a matted rug of hair on his head. He was as
+      high as a haystack. He carried in his twisted hand an iron spike pointed
+      at the end. And wherever he was going he went as quickly as a running
+      mule.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He tied Flann&rsquo;s hands behind his back and drew the rope round Flann&rsquo;s
+      body. Then he started off. Flann was dragged on as if at the tail of a
+      cart. Over ditches and through streams; up hillsides and down into hollows
+      he was hauled. Then they came into a plain as round as the wheel of a
+      cart. Across the plain they went and into a mile-deep wood. Beyond the
+      wood there were buildings&mdash;such walls and such heaps of stones Flann
+      never saw before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But before they had entered the wood they had come to a high grassy mound.
+      And standing on that grassy mound was the most tremendous bull that Flann
+      had ever seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What bull is that, Giant?&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+ &ldquo;My own bull,&rdquo; said Crom Duv, &ldquo;the Bull of the Mound. Look back at him,
+little fellow. If ever you try to escape from my service my Bull of the
+Mound will toss you into the air and trample you into the ground.&rdquo; Crom
+Duv blew on a horn that he had across his chest. The Bull of the Mound
+rushed down the slope snorting. Crom Duv shouted and the bull stood
+still with his tremendous head bent down.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Flann&rsquo;s heart, I tell you, sank, when he saw the bull that guarded Crom
+      Duv&rsquo;s house. They went through the deep wood then, and came to the gate of
+      the Giant&rsquo;s Keep. Only a chain was across it, and Crom Duv lifted up the
+      chain. The courtyard was filled with cattle black and red and striped. The
+      Giant tied Flann to a stone pillar. &ldquo;Are you there, Morag, my byre-maid?&rdquo;
+       he shouted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am here,&rdquo; said a voice from the byre. More cattle were in the byre and
+      someone was milking them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was straw on the ground of the courtyard and Crom Duv lay down on it
+      and went to sleep with the cattle trampling around him. A great stone wall
+      was being built all round the Giant&rsquo;s Keep&mdash;a wall six feet thick and
+      built as high as twenty feet in some places and in others as high as
+      twelve. The wall was still being built, for heaps of stones and great
+      mixing-pans were about. And just before the door of the Keep was a Rowan
+      Tree that grew to a great height. At the very top of the tree were bunches
+      of red berries. Cats were lying around the stems of the tree and cats were
+      in its branches&mdash;great yellow cats. More yellow cats stepped out of
+      the house and came over to him. They looked Flann all over and went back,
+      mewing to each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cattle that were in the courtyard went into the byre one by one as
+      they were called by the voice of the byre-maid. Crom Duv still slept. By
+      and by a little red hen that was picking about the courtyard came near him
+      and holding up her head looked Flann all over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the last cow had gone in and the last stream of milk had sounded in
+      the milking-vessel the byre-maid came into the courtyard. Flann thought he
+      would see a long-armed creature like Crom Duv himself. Instead he saw a
+      girl with good and kind eyes, whose disfigurements were that her face was
+      pitted and her hair was bushy. &ldquo;I am Morag, Crom Duv&rsquo;s byre-maid,&rdquo; said
+      she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will Crom Duv kill me?&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. He&rsquo;ll make you serve him,&rdquo; said the byre-maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what will he make me do for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will make you help to build his wall. Crom Duv goes out every morning
+      to bring his cattle to pasture on the plain. And when he comes back he
+      builds the wall round his house. He&rsquo;ll make you mix mortar and carry it to
+      him, for I heard him say he wants a servant to do that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll escape from this,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll bring you with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush,&rdquo; said Morag, and she pointed to seven yellow cats that were
+      standing at Crom Duv&rsquo;s door, watching them. &ldquo;The cats,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;are
+      Crom Duv&rsquo;s watchers here and the Bull of the Mound is his watcher
+      out-side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is this Little Red Hen a watcher too?&rdquo; said Flann, for the Little Red
+      Hen was watching them sideways. &ldquo;The Little Red Hen is my friend and
+      adviser,&rdquo; Morag, and she went into the house with two vessels of milk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crom Duv wakened up. He untied Flann and left him free. &ldquo;You must mix
+      mortar for me now,&rdquo; he said. He went into the byre and came out with a
+      great vessel of milk. He left it down near the mixing-pan. He went to the
+      side of the house and came back with a trough of blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are these for, Crom Duv?&rdquo; said Flann. &ldquo;To mix the mortar with,
+      gilly,&rdquo; said the Giant. &ldquo;Bullock&rsquo;s blood and new milk is what I mix my
+      mortar with, so that nothing can break down the walls that I&rsquo;m building
+      round the Fairy Rowan Tree. Every day I kill a bullock and every day my
+      byre-maid fills a vessel of milk to mix with my mortar. Set to now, and
+      mix the mortar for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann brought lime and sand to the mixing-pan and he mixed them in
+      bullock&rsquo;s blood and new milk. He carried stones to Crom Duv. And so he
+      worked until it was dark. Then Crom Duv got down from where he was
+      building and told Flann to go into the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The yellow cats were there and Flann counted sixteen of them. Eight more
+      were outside, in the branches or around the stem of the Rowan Tree. Morag
+      came in, bringing a great dish of porridge. Crom Duv took up a wooden
+      spoon and ate porridge out of vessel after vessel of milk. Then he shouted
+      for his beer and Morag brought him vessel after vessel of beer. Crom Duv
+      emptied one after the other..Then he shouted for his knife and when Morag
+      brought it he began to sharpen it, singing a queer song to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s sharpening a knife to kill a bullock in the morning,&rdquo; said Morag.
+      &ldquo;Come now, and I&rsquo;ll give you your supper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took him to the kitchen at the back of the house. She gave him
+      porridge and milk and he ate his supper. Then she showed him a ladder to a
+      room above, and he went up there and made a bed for himself. He slept
+      soundly, although he dreamed of the twenty-four yellow cats within, and
+      the tremendous Bull of the Mound outside Crom Duv&rsquo;s Keep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is how the days were spent in the house of Crom Duv. The Giant and
+      his two servants, Flann and Morag, were out of their beds at the mouth of
+      the day. Crom Duv sounded his horn and the Bull of the Mound bellowed an
+      answer. Then he started work on his wall, making Flann carry mortar to
+      him. Morag put down the fire and boiled the pots. Pots of porridge, plates
+      of butter and pans of milk were on the table when&rsquo; Crom Duv and Flann came
+      in to their breakfasts. Then, when the Giant had driven out his cattle to
+      the pasture Flann cleaned the byre and made the mortar, mixing lime and
+      sand with bullock&rsquo;s blood and new milk. In the afternoon the Giant came
+      back and he and Flann started work on the wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the time the twenty-four yellow cats lay on the branches of the Rowan
+      Tree or walked about the court-yard or lapped up great crocks of milk.
+      Morag&rsquo;s Little Red Hen went hopping round the courtyard. She seemed to be
+      sleepy or to be always considering something. If one of the twenty-four
+      yellow cats looked at her the Little Red Hen would waken up, murmur
+      something, and hop away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day the cattle came home without Crom Duv. &ldquo;He has gone on one of his
+      journeys,&rdquo; said Morag, &ldquo;and will not be back for a night and a day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it is time for me to make my escape,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you make your escape, my dear, my dear?&rdquo; said Morag. &ldquo;If you go
+      by the front the Bull of the Mound will toss you in the air and then
+      trample you into the ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I have strength and cunning and activity enough to climb the wall at
+      the back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if you climb the wall at the back,&rdquo; said Morag, &ldquo;you will only come
+      to the Moat of Poisoned Water.&rdquo; &ldquo;The Moat of Poisoned Water?&rdquo; &ldquo;The Moat of
+      Poisoned Water,&rdquo; said Morag. &ldquo;The water poisons the skin of any creature
+      that tries to swim across the Moat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann was downcast when he heard of the Moat of Poisoned Water. But his
+      mind was fixed on climbing the wall. &ldquo;I may find some way of crossing the
+      poisoned water,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;so bake my cake and give me provision for my
+      journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Morag baked a cake and put it on the griddle. And when it was baked she
+      wrapped it in a napkin and gave it to him. &ldquo;Take my blessing with it,&rdquo;
+       said she, &ldquo;and if you escape, may you meet someone who will be a better
+      help to you than I was. I must keep the twenty-four cats from watching you
+      while you are climbing the wall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how will you do that?&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She showed him what she would do. With a piece of glass she made on the
+      wall of the byre the shadows of flying birds. Birds never flew across the
+      House of Crom Duv and the cats were greatly taken with the appearances
+      that Morag made with the piece of glass. Six cats watched, and then
+      another six came, and after them six more, and after them the six that
+      watched in the Rowan Tree. And the twenty-four yellow cats sat round and
+      watched with burning eyes the appearances of birds that Morag made on the
+      byre-wall. Flann looked back and saw her seated on a stone, and he thought
+      the Byre-Maid looked lonesome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He tried with all his activity, all his cunning and all his strength, and
+      at last he climbed the wall at the back of Crom Duv&rsquo;s house. He gave a
+      whistle to let Morag know he was over. Then he went through a little wood
+      and came to the Moat of Poisoned Water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very ugly the dead water looked. Ugly stakes stuck up from the mud to
+      pierce any creature that tried to leap across. And here and there on the
+      water were patches of green poison as big as cabbage leaves. Flann drew
+      back from the Moat. Leap it he could not, and swim it he dare not. And
+      just as he drew back he saw a creature he knew come down to the bank
+      opposite to him. It was Rory the Fox. Rory carried in his mouth the skin
+      of a calf. He dropped the skin into the water and pushed it out before
+      him. Then he got into the water and swam very cautiously, always pushing
+      the calf&rsquo;s skin before him. Then Rory climbed up on the bank where Flann
+      was, and the skin, all green and wrinkled, sank down into the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rory was going to turn tail, but then he recognized Flann. &ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said
+      he, and he licked the dust on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you doing here, Rory?&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t mind telling you if you promise to tell no other creature,&rdquo; said
+      Rory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t tell,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then,&rdquo; said Rory, &ldquo;I have moved my little family over here. I was
+      being chased about a good deal, and my little family wasn&rsquo;t safe. So I
+      moved them over here.&rdquo; The fox turned and looked round at the country
+      behind him. &ldquo;It suits me very well,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;no creature would think of
+      crossing this moat after me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;tell me how you are able to cross it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will,&rdquo; said the fox, &ldquo;if you promise never to hunt me nor any of my
+      little family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I promise,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Rory, &ldquo;the water poisons every skin. Now the reason that I
+      pushed the calf&rsquo;s skin across was that it might take the poison out of the
+      water. The water poisons every skin. But where the skin goes the poison is
+      taken out of the water for a while, and a living creature can cross behind
+      it if he is cautious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you for showing me the way to cross the moat,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind showing you,&rdquo; said Rory the Fox, and he went off to his
+      burrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were deer-skins and calf-skins both sides of the moat. Flann took a
+      calf&rsquo;s skin. He pushed it into the water with a stick. He swam cautiously
+      behind it. When he reached the other side of the moat, the skin, all green
+      and wrinkled, sank in the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann jumped and laughed and shouted when he found himself in the forest
+      and clear of Crom Duv&rsquo;s house. He went on. It was grand to see the
+      woodpecker hammering on the branch, and to see him stop, busy as he was to
+      say &ldquo;Pass, friend.&rdquo; Two young deer came out of the depths of the wood.
+      They were too young and too innocent to have anything to tell him, but
+      they bounded alongside of him as he raced along the Hunter&rsquo;s Path. He
+      jumped and he shouted again when he saw the river before him&mdash;the
+      river that was called the Daybreak River on the right bank and the River
+      of the Morning Star on the left. He said to himself, &ldquo;This time, in troth,
+      I will go the whole way with the river. A moving thing is my delight. The
+      river is the most wonderful of all the things I have seen on my travels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he thought he would eat some of the cake that Morag had baked for
+      him. He sat down and broke it. Then as he ate it the thought of Morag came
+      into his mind. He thought he was looking at her putting the cake on the
+      griddle. He went a little way along the river and then he began to feel
+      lonesome. He turned back, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go to Crom Duv&rsquo;s House,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and
+      show Morag the way to escape. And then she and I will follow the river,
+      and I won&rsquo;t be lonesome while she&rsquo;s with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So back along the Hunter&rsquo;s Path Flann went. He came to the Moat of
+      Poisoned Water. He found a deer-skin and pushed it into the water and then
+      swam cautiously across the moat. He climbed the wall then, and when he put
+      his head above it he saw Morag. She was watching for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Crom Duv has not come back yet,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;but oh, my dear, my dear, I
+      can&rsquo;t prevent the yellow cats from watching you come over the wall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      First six cats came and then another six and they sat round and watched
+      Flann come down the wall. They did nothing to him, but when he came down
+      on the ground they followed him wherever he went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You crossed the moat,&rdquo; said Morag, &ldquo;then why did you come back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came back,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;to bring you with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I cannot leave Crom Duv&rsquo;s house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll show you how to cross the moat,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and we&rsquo;ll both be glad to
+      be going by the moving river.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tears came into Morag&rsquo;s eyes. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d go with you, my dear,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;but I
+      cannot leave Crom Duv&rsquo;s house until I get what I came for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did you come for, Morag?&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;for two of the rowan berries that grow on the Fairy
+      Rowan Tree in Crom Duv&rsquo;s court-yard. I know now that to get these berries
+      is the hardest task in the world. Come within,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and if we sit
+      long enough at the supper-board I will tell you my story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They sat at the supper-board long, and Morag told
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      The Story of Morag
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was reared in the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house with two other girls, Baun and
+      Deelish, my foster-sisters. The Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house is on the top of a
+      knowe, away from every place, and few ever came that way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning I went to the well for water. When I looked into it I saw, not
+      my own image, but the image of a young man. I drew up my pitcher filled
+      with water, and went back to the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house. At noontide Baun went
+      to the well for water. She came back and her pitcher was only half-filled.
+      Before dark Deelish went to the well. She came back without a pitcher, for
+      it fell and broke on the flags of the well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Baun and Deelish each plaited their hair, and they said to
+      her who was foster-mother for the three of us: &ldquo;No one will come to marry
+      us in this far-away place. We will go into the world to seek our fortunes.
+      So,&rdquo; said they, &ldquo;bake a cake for each of us before the fall of the night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spae-Woman put three cakes on the griddle and baked them. And when
+      they were baked she said to Baun and Deelish: &ldquo;Will you each take the half
+      of the cake and my blessing, or the whole of the cake without my
+      blessing?&rdquo; And Baun and Deelish each said, &ldquo;The whole of the cake will be
+      little enough for our journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Each then took her cake under her arm and went the path down the knowe.
+      Then said I to myself, &ldquo;It would be well to go after my foster-sisters for
+      they might meet misfortune on the road.&rdquo; So I said to my foster-mother,
+      &ldquo;Give me the third cake on the griddle until I go after my
+      foster-sisters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you have half of the cake and my blessing or the whole of the cake
+      without my blessing?&rdquo; said she to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The half of the cake and your blessing, mother,&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She cut the cake in two with a black-handled knife and gave me the even
+      half of it. Then said she:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      May the old sea&rsquo;s
+      Seven Daughters
+      They who spin
+      Life&rsquo;s longest threads,
+      Protect and guard you!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      She put salt in my hand then, and put the Little Red Hen under my arm, and
+      I went off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went on then till I came in sight of Baun and Deelish. Just as I caught
+      up on them I heard one say to the other, &ldquo;This ugly, freckled girl will
+      disgrace us if she comes with us.&rdquo; They tied my hands and feet with a rope
+      they found on the road and left me in a wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I got the rope off my hands and feet and ran and ran until I came in sight
+      of them again. And when I was coming on them I heard one say to the other,
+      &ldquo;This ugly, freckled girl will claim relationship with us wherever we go,
+      and we will get no good man to marry us.&rdquo; They laid hold of me again and
+      put me in a lime-kiln, and put beams across it, and put heavy stones on
+      the beams. But my Little Red Hen showed me how to get out of the
+      lime-kiln. Then I ran and I ran until I caught up with Baun and Deelish
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her come with us this evening,&rdquo; said one to the other, &ldquo;and to-morrow
+      we&rsquo;ll find some way of getting rid of her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The night was drawing down now, and we had to look for a house that would
+      give us shelter. We saw a hut far off the road and we went to the broken
+      door. It was the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth. We asked for
+      shelter. They showed us a big bed in the dormer-room, and they told us we
+      could have supper when the porridge was boiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three Hags sat round the fire with their heads together. Baun and
+      Deelish were in a corner plaiting their hair, but the Little Red Hen
+      murmured that I was to listen to what the Hags said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will give them to Crom Duv in the morning&rdquo; one said. And another said,
+      &ldquo;I have put a sleeping-pin in the pillow that will be under each, and they
+      will not waken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When I heard what they said I wanted to think of what we could do to make
+      our escape. I asked Baun to sing to me. She said she would if I washed her
+      feet. I got a basin of water and washed Baun&rsquo;s feet, and while she sang,
+      and while the Hags thought we were not minding them, I considered what we
+      might do to escape. The Hags hung a pot over the fire and the three of
+      them sat around it once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I had washed my foster-sister&rsquo;s feet I took a besom and began to
+      sweep the floor of the house. One of the Hags was very pleased to see me
+      doing that. She said I would make a good servant, and after a while she
+      asked me to sit at the fire. I sat in the corner of the chimney. They had
+      put meal in the water, and I began to stir it with a pot-stick. Then the
+      Hag that had asked me to the fire said, &ldquo;I will give you a good share of
+      milk with your porridge if you keep stirring the pot for us.&rdquo; This was
+      just what I wanted to be let do. I sat in the chimney-corner and kept
+      stirring the porridge while the Hags dozed before the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First, I got a dish and ladle and took out of the pot some half-cooked
+      porridge. This I left one side. Then I took down the salt-box that was on
+      the chimney-shelf and mixed handfuls of salt in the porridge left in the
+      pot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When it was all cooked I emptied it into another dish and brought the two
+      dishes to the table. Then I told the Hags that all was ready. They came
+      over to the table and they gave my foster-sisters and myself three
+      porringers of goat&rsquo;s milk. We ate out of the first dish and they ate out
+      of the second. &ldquo;By my sleep to-night,&rdquo; said one Hag, &ldquo;this porridge is
+      salty.&rdquo; &ldquo;Too little salt is in it for my taste,&rdquo; said my foster-sister
+      Deelish. &ldquo;It is as salt as the depths of the sea,&rdquo; said another of the
+      Hags. &ldquo;My respects to you, ma&rsquo;am,&rdquo; said Baun, &ldquo;but I do not taste any salt
+      on it at all.&rdquo; My foster-sisters were so earnest that the Hags thought
+      themselves mistaken, and they ate the whole dishful of porridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bed was made for us, and the pillows were laid on the bed, and I knew
+      that the slumber-pin was in each of the pillows. I wanted to put off the
+      time for going to bed so I began to tell stories. Baun and Deelish said it
+      was still young in the night, and that I should tell no short ones, but
+      the long story of Eithne, Balor&rsquo;s daughter. I had just begun that story,
+      when one of the Hags cried out that she was consumed with thirst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She ran to the pitcher, and there was no water in it. Then another Hag
+      shouted out that the thirst was strangling her. The third one said she
+      could not live another minute without a mouthful of water. She took the
+      pitcher and started for the well. No sooner was she gone than the second
+      Hag said she couldn&rsquo;t wait for the first one to come back and she started
+      out after her. Then the third one thought that the pair would stay too
+      long talking at the well, and she started after them. Immediately I took
+      the pillows off our bed and put them on the Hags&rsquo; bed, taking their
+      pillows instead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hags came back with a half-filled pitcher, and they ordered us to go
+      to our bed. We went, and they sat for a while drinking porringers of
+      water. &ldquo;Crom Duv will be here the first thing in the morning,&rdquo; I heard one
+      of them say. They put their heads on the pillows and in the turn of a hand
+      they were dead-fast-sound asleep. I told my foster-sisters then what I had
+      done and why I had done it. They were very frightened, but seeing the Hags
+      so sound asleep they composed themselves and slept too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the screech of day Crom Duv came to the house. I went outside and
+      saw the Giant. I said I was the servant of the Hags, and that they were
+      sleeping still. He said, &ldquo;They are my runners and summoners, my brewers,
+      bakers and candle-makers, and they have no right to be sleeping so late.&rdquo;
+       Then he went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I knew that the three Hags would slumber until we took the pillows from
+      under their heads. We left them sleeping while we put down a fire and made
+      our break-fast. Then, when we were ready for our journey, we took the
+      pillows from under their heads. The three Hags started up then, but we
+      were out on the door, and had taken the first three steps of our journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without hap or mishap we came at last to the domain of the King of
+      Senlabor. Baun went to sing for the King&rsquo;s foster-daughters, and Deelish
+      went to work at the little loom in the King&rsquo;s chamber. We were not long at
+      the court of the King of Senlabor when two youths came there from the
+      court of the King of Ireland&mdash;Dermott and Downal were their names.
+      There was a famous sword-smith with the King of Senlabor and these two
+      came to learn the trade from him. And my two foster-sisters fell so deeply
+      in love with the two youths that every night the pillow on each side of me
+      was wet with their tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went to work in the King&rsquo;s kitchen. Now the King had a dish of such fine
+      earthware and with such beautiful patterns upon it that he never let it be
+      carried from the Kitchen to the Feast-Hall, nor from the Feast-Hall to the
+      Kitchen without going himself behind the servant who carried it. One day
+      the servant brought it into the Kitchen to be washed and the King came
+      behind the servant. I took the dish and cleaned it with thrice-boiled
+      water and dried it with cloths of three different kinds. Then I covered it
+      with sweet-smelling herbs and left it in a bin where it was sunk in soft
+      bran. The King was pleased to see the good care I took of his dish, and he
+      said before his servant that he would do me any favor I would ask. There
+      and then I told him about my two foster-sisters Baun and Deelish, and how
+      they were in love with the two youths Dermott and Downal who had come from
+      the court of the King of Ireland. I asked that when these two youths were
+      being given wives, that the King should remember my foster-sisters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King was greatly vexed at my request. He declared that the two youths
+      had on their breasts the stars that denoted the sons of Kings and that he
+      intended they should marry his own two foster-daughters when the maidens
+      were of age to wed. &ldquo;It may be,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that these two youths will
+      bring what my Queen longs for&mdash;a berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree that
+      is guarded by the Giant Crom Duv.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day the King&rsquo;s Councillor was feeding the birds and I was sifting
+      the corn. I asked him what was the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree that
+      the Giant Crom Duv guarded and why it was that the Queen longed for a
+      berry of it. There and then he told me this story:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      The Story of the Fairy Rowan Tree
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The history of the Fairy Rowan Tree (said the King&rsquo;s Councillor) begins
+      with Aine&rsquo;, the daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea. Curoi, the
+      King of the Munster Fairies loved Aine&rsquo; and sought her in marriage. But
+      the desire of the girl&rsquo;s heart was set upon Fergus who was a mortal, and
+      one of the Fianna of Ireland. Now when Mananaun MacLir heard Curoi&rsquo;s
+      proposals and learned how his daughter&rsquo;s heart was inclined, he said, &ldquo;Let
+      the matter be settled in this way: we will call a hurling-match between
+      the Fairies of Munster and the Fianna of Ireland with Curoi to captain one
+      side and Fergus to captain the other, and if the Fairies win, Aine&rsquo; will
+      marry Curoi and if the Fianna have the victory she will have my leave to
+      marry this mortal Fergus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So a hurling-match was called for the first day of Lunassa, and it was to
+      be played along the strand of the sea. Mananaun himself set the
+      goal-marks, and Aine&rsquo; was there to watch the game. It was played from the
+      rising of the sun until the high tide of noon, and neither side won a
+      goal. Then the players stopped to eat the refreshment that Mananaun had
+      provided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is what Mananaun had brought from his own country, Silver-Cloud
+      Plain: a branch of bright-red rowan berries. Whoever ate one of these
+      rowan berries his hunger and his weariness left him in a moment. The
+      berries were to be eaten by the players, Mananaun said, and not one of
+      them was to be taken into the world of the mortals or the world of the
+      Fairies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they stopped playing at the high tide of noon the mortal Fergus saw
+      Aine&rsquo; and saw her for the first time. A spirit that he had never felt
+      before flowed into him at the sight of Mananaun&rsquo;s daughter. He forgot to
+      eat the berry he was given and held it in his mouth by the stalk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went into the hurling-match again and now he was like a hawk amongst
+      small birds. Curoi defended the goal and drove the ball back. Fergus drove
+      it to the goal again; the two champions met and Curoi&rsquo;s hurl, made out of
+      rhinoceros&rsquo; horn, did not beat down Fergus&rsquo;s hurl made out of the ash of
+      the wood. The hosts stood aside and left the game to Fergus and Curoi.
+      Curoi&rsquo;s hurl jerked the ball upward; then Fergus gave it the double stroke
+      first with the handle and then with the weighted end of the hurl and drove
+      it, beautifully as a flying bird, between the goal-marks that Mananaun had
+      set up. The match was won by the goal that Fergus had gained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Fianna then invited the Fairies of Munster to a feast that they were
+      giving to Fergus and his bride. The Fairies went, and Mananaun and Aine&rsquo; 
+      went before them all. Fergus marched at the head of his troop with the
+      rowan berry still hanging from his mouth. And as he went he bit the stalk
+      and the berry fell to the ground. Fergus never heeded that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the feast was over he went to where Mananaun stood with his daughter.
+      Aine&rsquo; gave him her hand. &ldquo;And it is well,&rdquo; said Conan, the Fool of the
+      Fianna, &ldquo;that this thick-witted Fergus has at last dropped the berry out
+      of his mouth.&rdquo; &ldquo;What berry?&rdquo; said Curoi, who was standing by. &ldquo;The rowan
+      berry,&rdquo; said Conan, &ldquo;that he carried across two townlands the same as if
+      he were a bird.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mananaun heard this he asked about the berry that Fergus had carried.
+      It was not to be found. Then the Fianna and the Fairies of Munster started
+      back to look for a trace of it. What they found was a wonderful Rowan
+      Tree. It had grown out of the berry that Fergus had let fall, but as yet
+      there were no berries on its branches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mananaun, when he saw the tree said, &ldquo;No mortal may take a berry that
+      grows on it. Hear my sentence now. Fergus will have to guard this tree
+      until he gets one who will guard it for him. And he may not see nor keep
+      company with Aine&rsquo; his bride until he finds one who will guard it better
+      than he can guard it himself.&rdquo; Then Mananaun wrapped his daughter in his
+      cloak and strode away in a mist. The Fairy Host went in one direction and
+      the Fianna in another, and Fergus was left standing sorrowfully by the
+      Fairy Rowan Tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day (said Morag), when the King&rsquo;s Councillor was feeding the birds
+      and I was sifting the corn, he told me the rest of the history of the
+      Fairy Rowan Tree. Fergus thought and thought how he might leave off
+      watching it and be with Aine&rsquo;, his bride. At last he bethought him of a
+      Giant who lived on a rocky island with only a flock of goats for his
+      possessions. This Giant had begged Finn, the Chief of the Fianna, for a
+      strip of the land of Ireland, even if it were only the breadth of a bull&rsquo;s
+      hide. Finn had refused him. But now Fergus sent to Finn and asked him to
+      bring the Giant to be the guardian of the Fairy Rowan Tree and to give him
+      the land around it. &ldquo;I mislike letting this giant Crom Duv have any
+      portion of the land of Ireland,&rdquo; said Finn, &ldquo;nevertheless we cannot refuse
+      Fergus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Finn sent some of the Fianna to the Giant and they found him living on
+      a bare rock of an island with only a flock of goats for his possessions.
+      Crom Duv lay on his back and laughed when he heard what message the men of
+      the Fianna brought to him. Then he put them and his flock of goats into
+      his big boat and rowed them over to Ireland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crom Duv swore by his flock of goats he would guard the Fairy Rowan Tree
+      until the red berries ceased to come on its branches. Fergus left his
+      place at the tree then and went to Aine&rsquo;, and it may be that she and he
+      are still together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well did Crom Duv guard the tree, never going far from it and sleeping at
+      night in its branches. And one year a heifer came and fed with his flock
+      of goats and another year a bullock came. And these were the beginning of
+      his great herd of cattle. He has become more and more greedy for cattle,
+      said the King&rsquo;s Councillor, and now he takes them away to far pastures.
+      But still the Fairy Rowan Tree is well guarded. The Bull that is called
+      the Bull of the Mound is on guard near by, and twenty-four fierce yellow
+      cats watch the tree night and day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen of Senlabor and many another woman besides desires a berry from
+      the Fairy Rowan Tree that stands in Crom Duv&rsquo;s courtyard. For the woman
+      who is old and who eats a berry from that tree becomes young again, and
+      the maid who is young and who eats a berry gets all the beauty that should
+      be hers of right. And now, my maid, said the King&rsquo;s Councillor to me, I
+      have told you the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I heard all this (said Morag), I made up my mind to get a berry for
+      the Queen and maybe another berry besides from the Fairy Rowan Tree in
+      Crom Duv&rsquo;s courtyard. When the King came into the kitchen again, I asked
+      him would he permit my foster-sisters to marry Downal and Dermott if I
+      brought to his Queen a berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree. He said he would
+      give permission heartily. That night when I felt the tears of Baun and
+      Deelish I told them I was going to search for such a dowry for them that
+      when they had it the King would let them marry the youths they had set
+      their hearts on. They did not believe I could do anything to help them,
+      but they gave me leave to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day I told the Queen I was going to seek for a berry from the
+      Fairy Rowan Tree. She told me that if I could bring back one berry to her
+      she would give me all the things she possessed. I said good-by to my
+      foster-sisters and with the Little Red Hen under my arm I went towards the
+      house of the Hags of the Long Teeth. I built a shelter and waited till
+      Crom Duv came that way. One early morning he came by. I stood before him
+      and I told him that I wanted to take service in his house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crom Duv had never had a servant in his house. But I told him that he
+      should have a byre-maid and that I was well fitted to look after his
+      cattle. He told me to follow him. I saw the Bull of the Mound and I was
+      made wonder how I could get away with the berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree.
+      Then I saw the twenty-four fierce yellow cats and I was made wonder how I
+      could get the berry from the tree. And after that I found out about the
+      Moat of Poisoned Water that is behind the high wall at the back of Crom
+      Duv&rsquo;s house. And so now (said Morag), you know why I have come here and
+      how hard the task is I have taken on myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now that he had heard the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree, Flann often
+      looked at the clusters of scarlet berries that were high up on its
+      branches. The Tree could be climbed, Flann knew. But on the top of the
+      tree and along its branches were the fierce yellow cats&mdash;the cats
+      that the Hags of the Long Teeth had reared for Crom Duv, thinking that he
+      would some time give each of them the berry that would make them young
+      again. And at the butt of the tree there were more cats. And all about the
+      courtyard the Hags&rsquo; fierce cats paraded themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The walls round the Giant&rsquo;s Keep were being built higher by Crom Duv,
+      helped by his servant Flann. The Giant&rsquo;s herd was now increased by many
+      calves, and Morag the byre-maid had much to do to keep all the cows
+      milked. And day and night Morag and Flann heard the bellowing of the Bull
+      of the Mound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now one day while Crom Duv was away with his herd, Flann and Morag were in
+      the courtyard. They saw the Little Red Hen rouse herself up, shake her
+      wings and turn a bright eye on them. &ldquo;What dost thou say, my Little Red
+      Hen?&rdquo; said Morag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Pooka,&rdquo; murmured the Little Red Hen. &ldquo;The Pooka rides a fierce horse,
+      but the Pooka himself is a timid little fellow.&rdquo; Then the Little Red Hen
+      drooped her wings again, and went on picking in the courtyard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Pooka rides a fierce horse,&rdquo; said Morag, &ldquo;if the Pooka rides a fierce
+      horse he might carry us past the Bull of the Mound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if the Pooka himself is a timid little fellow we might take the
+      fierce horse from him,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this does not tell us how to get the berries off the Fairy Rowan
+      Tree,&rdquo; said Morag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;it does not tell us how to get the berries off the tree
+      the cats guard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Morag gave grains to the Little Red Hen and begged for words.
+      After a while the Little Red Hen murmured, &ldquo;There are things I know, and
+      things I don&rsquo;t know, but I do know what grows near the ground, and if you
+      pull a certain herb, and put it round the necks of the cats they will not
+      be able to see in the light nor in the dark. And to-morrow is the day of
+      Sowain,&rdquo; said the Little Red Hen. She said no more words. She had become
+      sleepy and now she flew down and roosted under the table. There she went
+      on murmuring to herself&mdash;as all hens murmur&mdash;where the Children
+      of Dana hid their treasures&mdash;they know, for it was the Children of
+      Dana who brought the hens to Ireland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow,&rdquo; said Morag to Flann, &ldquo;follow the Little Red Hen, and if she
+      makes any sign when she touches an herb that grows near the ground, pluck
+      that herb and bring it to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Morag and Flann talked about the Pooka and his fierce horse. On
+      Sowain night&mdash;the night before the real short days begin&mdash;the
+      Pooka rides through the countryside touching any fruit that remains, so
+      that it may bring no taste into winter. The blackberries that were good to
+      eat the day before are no good on November day, because the Pooka touched
+      them the night before. What else the Pooka does no one really knows. He is
+      a timid fellow as the Little Red Hen said, and he hopes that the sight of
+      his big black horse and the sound of its trampling and panting as he rides
+      by will frighten people out of his way, for he has a great fear of being
+      seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day the Little Red Hen stayed in the courtyard until Crom Duv
+      left with his herd. Flann followed her. She went here and there between
+      the house and the wall at the back, now picking a grain of sand and now an
+      ant or spider or fly. And as she went about the Little Red Hen murmured a
+      song to herself:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   When sleep would settle on me
+   Like the wild bird down on the nest,
+   The wind comes out of the West:
+   It tears at the door, maybe,
+   And frightens away my rest&mdash;
+   When sleep would come upon me
+   Like the wild bird down on the nest.
+
+   The cock is aloft with his crest:
+   The barn-owl comes from her quest
+   She fixes an eye upon me
+   And frightens away my rest
+   When sleep would settle on me
+   Like the wild bird down on its nest.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Flann watched all the Little Red Hen did. He saw her put her head on one
+      side and look down for a while at a certain herb that grew near the
+      ground. Flann plucked that herb and brought it to Morag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cattle had come home, but Crom Duv was not with them. Morag milked the
+      cows and brought all the milk within, leaving no milk for the cats to
+      drink outside. Six came into the kitchen to get their supper there. One
+      after another they sprang up on the table, one more proud and overbearing
+      than the other. Each cat ate without condescending to make a single mew.
+      &ldquo;Cat of my heart,&rdquo; said Morag to the first, when he had finished drinking
+      his milk. &ldquo;Cat of my heart! How noble you would look with this red around
+      your neck.&rdquo; She held out a little satchel in which a bit of the herb was
+      sewn. The first cat gave a look that said, &ldquo;Well, you may put it on me.&rdquo;
+       Morag put the red satchel around his neck and he jumped off the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was so with all the other cats. They finished lapping their milk and
+      Morag showed them the red ribbon satchel. They let her put it round each
+      of their necks and then they sprang off the table, and marched off more
+      scornful and overbearing than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Six of the fierce yellow cats climbed into the branches of the Fairy Rowan
+      Tree; six stayed in the kitchen; six went into Crom Duv&rsquo;s chamber, and six
+      went to march round the house, three taking each side. No sound came from
+      the cats that were within or without. Morag drew a ball of cotton across
+      the floor, and the cats that were in the kitchen gave no sign of seeing
+      it. &ldquo;The sight has left their eyes,&rdquo; said Morag. &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;I
+      will climb the Fairy Rowan Tree and bring down two berries.&rdquo; &ldquo;Be sure you
+      bring down two, my dear, my dear,&rdquo; said Morag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went out to the courtyard and Flann began to climb the Fairy Rowan
+      Tree with all suppleness, strength and cunning. The cats that were below
+      felt him going up the tree and the cats that were above humped themselves
+      up. Flann passed the first branch on which a cat was crouched. He went
+      above where the rowan berries were, and bending down he picked two of them
+      and put them into his mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came down quickly with the cats tearing at him. Others had come out of
+      the house and were mewing and spitting in the courtyard. Only one had
+      fastened itself on Flann&rsquo;s jerkin, and this one would not let go. &ldquo;Come
+      into the wood, come into the wood,&rdquo; said Morag. &ldquo;Now we must stand between
+      the house and the mound, and wait till the Pooka rides by.&rdquo; Flann put the
+      two berries into her hand, they jumped across the chain, and ran from the
+      house of the Giant Crom Duv.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went into the wood, Flann and Morag, and the Little Red Hen was under
+      Morag&rsquo;s arm. They thought they would hide behind trees until they heard
+      the coming of the Pooka and his horse. But they were not far in the wood
+      when they heard Crom Duv coming towards his house. He came towards them
+      with the iron spike in his hand. Flann and Morag ran. Then from tree to
+      tree Crom Duv chased them, shouting and snorting and smashing down
+      branches with the iron spike in his hand. Morag and Flann came to a
+      stream, and as they ran along its bank they heard the trampling and
+      panting of a horse coming towards them. Up it came, a great black horse
+      with a sweeping mane. &ldquo;Halt, Pooka,&rdquo; said Flann in a commanding voice. The
+      black horse halted and the Pooka that was its rider slipped down to its
+      tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann held the snorting horse and Morag got on its back. Then Flann sprang
+      up between Morag and the horse&rsquo;s head. Crom Duv was just beside them.
+      &ldquo;Away, Pooka, away,&rdquo; said Flann, and the horse started through the wood
+      like the wind of March.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then Crom Duv blew on the horn that was across his breast and the Bull
+      of the Mound bellowed in answer. As they went by the mound the Bull
+      charged down and its horns tossed the tail of the Pooka&rsquo;s horse. The Bull
+      turned and swept after them with his head down and hot breath coming out
+      of his nostrils. And when they were in the hollow he was on the height,
+      and when they were on the height he was in the hollow. And a hollow or a
+      height behind his Bull came Crom Duv himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the breath of the Bull became hot upon Morag and Flann and the Pooka.
+      &ldquo;Oh, what shall we do now?&rdquo; said Morag to the Pooka who was hanging on to
+      the horse&rsquo;s tail, his little face all twisted up with fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put your hand into my horse&rsquo;s ear and fling behind what you will find
+      there,&rdquo; said the Pooka, his teeth chattering. Flann put his hand into the
+      horse&rsquo;s right ear and found a twig of ash. He flung it behind them.
+      Instantly a tangled wood sprang up. They heard the Bull driving through
+      the tangle of the wood and they heard Crom Duv shouting as he smashed his
+      way through the brakes and branches. But the Bull and the man got through
+      the wood and again they began to gain on the Pooka&rsquo;s horse. Again the
+      breath of the Bull became hot upon them. &ldquo;Oh, Pooka, what shall we do
+      now?&rdquo; said Morag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put your hand into my horse&rsquo;s ear and fling behind what you will find
+      there,&rdquo; said the Pooka, his teeth chattering with fear as he held on to
+      his horse&rsquo;s tail. Flann put his hand into the horse&rsquo;s left ear and he
+      found a bubble of water. He flung it behind them. Instantly it spread out
+      as a lake and as they rode on, the lake waters spread behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morag and Flann never knew whether the Giant and the Bull went into that
+      lake, or if they did, whether they ever came out of it. They crossed the
+      river that marked the bounds of Crom Duv&rsquo;s domain and they were safe.
+      Flann pulled up the horse and jumped on to the ground. Morag sprang down
+      with the Little Red Hen. Then the Pooka swung forward and whispered into
+      his horse&rsquo;s ear. Instantly it struck fire out of its hooves and sprang
+      down the side of a hill. From that day to this Morag nor Flann ever saw
+      sight of the Pooka and his big, black, snorting and foaming horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dost thou know where we are, my Little Red Hen?&rdquo; said Morag when the sun
+      was in the sky again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are things I know and things I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said the Little Red
+      Hen, &ldquo;but I know we are near the place we started from.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which way do we go to come to that place, my Little Red Hen?&rdquo; said Morag.
+      &ldquo;The way of the sun,&rdquo; said the Little Red Hen. So Morag and Flann went the
+      way of the sun and the Little Red Hen hopped beside them. Morag had in a
+      weasel-skin purse around her neck the two rowan berries that Flann had
+      given her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went towards the house of the Spae-Woman. And as they went Morag told
+      Flann of the life she had there when she and her foster-sisters were
+      growing up, and Flann told Morag of the things he did when he was in the
+      house of the Spae-Woman after she and her foster-sisters had left it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They climbed the heather-covered knowe on which was the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house
+      and the Little Red Hen went flitting and fluttering towards the gate. The
+      Spae-Woman&rsquo;s old goat was standing in the yard, and its horns went down
+      and its beard touched its knees and it looked at the Little Red Hen. Then
+      the Little Red Hen flew up on its back. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re here again, here again,&rdquo;
+       said the Little Red Hen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the Spae-Woman came to the door and saw who the comers were. She
+      covered them with kisses and watered them with tears, and dried them with
+      cloths silken and with the hair of her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VIII
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flann told the Spae-Woman all his adventures. And when he had told her all
+      he said&mdash;&ldquo;What Queen is my mother, O my fosterer?&rdquo; &ldquo;Your mother,&rdquo;
+       said the Spae-Woman, &ldquo;is Caintigern, the Queen of the King of Ireland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is my mother then not Sheen whose story has been told me?&rdquo; &ldquo;Her name
+      was changed to Caintigern when her husband who was called the Hunter-King
+      made himself King over Ireland and began to rule as King Connal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then who is my comrade who is called the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He too is King Connal&rsquo;s son, born of a queen who died at his birth and
+      who was wife to King Connal before he went on his wanderings and met Sheen
+      your mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as the Spae-Woman said this someone came and stood at the doorway. A
+      girl she was and wherever the sun was it shone on her, and wherever the
+      breeze was it rippled over her. White as the snow upon a lake frozen over
+      was the girl, and as beautiful as flowers and as alive as birds were her
+      eyes, while her cheeks had the red of fox-gloves and her hair was the
+      blending of five bright soft colors. She looked at Flann happily and her
+      eyes had the kind look that was always in Morag&rsquo;s eyes. And she came and
+      &lsquo;knelt down, putting her hands on his knees. &ldquo;I am Morag, Flann,&rdquo; she
+      said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Morag indeed,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;but how have you become so fair?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have eaten the berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and now I
+      am as fair as I should be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All day they were together and Flann was happy that his friend was so
+      beautiful and that so beautiful a being was his friend. And he told her of
+      his adventures in the Town of the Red Castle and of the Princess
+      Flame-of-Wine and his love for her. &ldquo;And if you love her still I will
+      never see you again,&rdquo; said Morag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said Flann, &ldquo;I could not love her after the way she mocked at me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When did she mock at you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I took her a message that the Spae-Woman told me to give her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what was that message?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Ask her,&rsquo; said the Spae-Woman, &lsquo;for seven drops of her heart&rsquo;s blood&mdash;she
+      can give them and live&mdash;so that the spell may be taken from the seven
+      wild geese and the mother who longs for you may be at peace again.&rsquo; This
+      was the message the Spae-Woman told me to give Flame-of-Wine. And though I
+      had given her wonderful gifts she laughed at me when I took it to her. And
+      by the way she laughed I knew she was hard of heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet seven drops of heart&rsquo;s blood are hard to give,&rdquo; said Morag sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the maiden who loves can give them,&rdquo; said the Spae-Woman who was
+      behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true, foster-mother,&rdquo; said Morag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening Morag said, &ldquo;To-morrow I must pre-pare for my journey to the
+      Queen of Senlabor. You, Flann, may not come with me. The Spae-Woman has
+      sent a message to your mother, and you must be here to meet her when she
+      comes. A happy meeting to her and you, O Flann of my heart. And I shall
+      leave you a token to give to her. So to-morrow I go to the Queen of
+      Senlabor with the Rowan Berry and I shall bring my Little Red Hen for
+      company, and shall stay only until my sisters are wed to Dermott and
+      Downal, your brothers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day when he came into the house he saw Morag dressed for her
+      journey but seated at the fire. She was pale and ill-looking. &ldquo;Do not go
+      to-day, Morag,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I shall go to-day,&rdquo; said Morag. She put her hand
+      into the bosom of her dress and took out a newly-woven handkerchief
+      folded. &ldquo;This is a token for your mother,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I have woven it for
+      her. Give her this gift from me when you have welcomed her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I will do, Morag, my heart,&rdquo; said Flann.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spae-Woman came in and kissed Morag good-by and said the charm for a
+      journey over her.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   May my Silver-
+   Shielded Magian
+   Shed all lights
+   Across your path.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Then Morag put the Little Red Hen under her arm and started out. &ldquo;I shall
+      find you,&rdquo; said she to Flann, &ldquo;at the Castle of the King of Ireland, for
+      it is there I shall go when I part from my foster-sisters and the Queen of
+      Senlabor. Kiss me now. But if you kiss anyone until you kiss me again you
+      will forget me. Remember that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will remember,&rdquo; said Flann, and he kissed Morag and said, &ldquo;When you
+      come to the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Castle we will be married.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You gave me the Rowan Berry,&rdquo; said Morag, &ldquo;and the Rowan Berry gave me
+      all the beauty that should be mine. But what good will my beauty be to me
+      if you forget me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Morag,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;how could I forget you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She said nothing but went down the side of the knowe and Flann watched and
+      watched until his eyes had no power to see any more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SPAE-WOMAN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are many things to tell you still, my kind foster-child, but little
+      time have I to tell you them, for the barnacle-geese are flying over the
+      house, and when they have all flown by I shall have no more to say. And I
+      have to tell you yet how the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son won home with Fedelma,
+      the Enchanter&rsquo;s daughter, and how it came to pass that the Seven Wild
+      Geese that were Caintigern&rsquo;s brothers were disenchanted and became men
+      again. But above all I have to tell you the end of that story that was
+      begun in the house of the Giant Crom Duv&mdash;the story of Flann and
+      Morag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The barnacle-geese are flying over the house as I said. And so they were
+      crossing and flying on the night the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son and Fedelma
+      whom he had brought from the Land of Mist stayed in the house of the
+      Little Sage of the Mountain. On that night the Little Sage told them from
+      what bird had come the wing that thatched his house. That was a wonderful
+      story. And he told them too about the next place they should go to&mdash;the
+      Spae-woman&rsquo;s house. There, he said he would find people that they knew&mdash;Flann,
+      the King&rsquo;s Son&rsquo;s comrade, and Caintigern, the wife of the King of Ireland,
+      and Fedelma&rsquo;s sister, Gilveen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning the Little Sage of the Mountain took them down the hillside
+      to the place where Fedelma and the King&rsquo;s Son would get a horse to ride to
+      the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house. The Little Sage told them from what people the
+      Spae-Woman came and why she lived amongst the poor and foolish without
+      name or splendor or riches. And that, too, was a wonderful story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now as the three went along the river-side they saw a girl on the other
+      side of the river and she was walking from the place towards which they
+      were going. The girl sang to herself as she went along, and the King&rsquo;s Son
+      and Fedelma and the Little Sage of the Mountain heard what she sang,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   A berry, a berry, a red rowan berry,
+   A red rowan berry brought mc beauty and love.
+
+   But drops of my heart&rsquo;s blood, drops of my heart&rsquo;s blood,
+   Seven drops of my heart&rsquo;s blood I have given away.
+
+   Seven wild geese were men, seven wild geese were men,
+   Seven drops of my heart&rsquo;s blood are there for your spell.
+
+   A kiss for my love, a kiss for my love,
+   May his kiss go to none till he meet me again.
+
+   If to one go his kiss, if to one go his kiss,
+   He may meet, he may meet, and not know me again.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The girl on the other bank of the river passed on, and the King&rsquo;s Son and
+      Fedelma with the Little Sage of the Mountain came to the meadow where the
+      horse was. A heavy, slow-moving horse he seemed. But when they mounted him
+      they found he had the three qualities of Finn&rsquo;s steeds&mdash;a quick rush
+      against a hill, the gait of a fox, easy and proud, on the level ground,
+      and the jump of a deer over harriers. They left health and good luck with
+      the Little Sage of the Mountain, and on the horse he gave them they rode
+      on to the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Fedelma and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son came to the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house,
+      who was the first person they saw there but Gilveen, Fedelma&rsquo;s sister! She
+      came to where they reined their horse and smiled in the faces of her
+      sister and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. And she it was who gave them their
+      first welcome. &ldquo;And you will be asking how I came here,&rdquo; said Gilveen,
+      &ldquo;and I will tell you without wasting candle-light. Myself and sister Aefa
+      went to the court of the King of Ireland after you, my sister, had gone
+      from us with the lucky man of your choice. And as for Aefa, she has been
+      lucky too in finding a match and she is now married to Maravaun the King&rsquo;s
+      Councillor. I have been with Caintigern the Queen. And now the Queen is in
+      the house of the Spae-Woman with the youth Flann and she is longing to
+      give the clasp of welcome to both of you. And if you sit beside me on this
+      grassy ditch I will tell you the whole story from the first to the last
+      syllable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They sat together, and Gilveen told Fedelma and the King&rsquo;s Son the story.
+      The Spae-Woman had sent a message to Caintigern the Queen to tell her she
+      had tidings of her first-born son. Thereupon Caintigern went to the
+      Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house and Gilveen, her attendant, went with her. She found
+      there Flann who had been known as Gilly of the Goatskin, and knew him for
+      the son who had been stolen from her when he was born. Flann gave his
+      mother a token which had been given him by a young woman. The token was a
+      handkerchief and it held seven drops of heart&rsquo;s blood. The Spae-Woman told
+      the Queen that these seven drops would disenchant her brothers who had
+      been changed from their own forms into the forms of seven wild geese.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And while Gilveen was telling them all this Flann came to see whose horse
+      was there, and great was his joy to find his comrade the King of Ireland&rsquo;s
+      Son. They knew now that they were the sons of the one father, and they
+      embraced each other as brothers. And Flann took the hand of Fedelma and he
+      told her and the King&rsquo;s Son of his love for Morag. But when he was
+      speaking of Morag, Gilveen went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Flann took them into the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house, and the Queen who was
+      seated at the fire rose up and gave them the clasp of welcome. The face
+      she turned to the King&rsquo;s Son was kindly and she called him by his child&rsquo;s
+      name. She said too that she was well pleased that he and Flann her son
+      were good comrades, and she prayed they would be good comrades always.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fedelma and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son rested themselves for a day. Then
+      the Spae-Woman said that the Queen would strive on the next night&mdash;it
+      was the night of the full moon&mdash;to bring back her seven brothers to
+      their own forms. The Spae-Woman said too that the Queen and herself should
+      be left alone in the house and that the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son with Flann
+      and Fedelma and Gilveen should go towards the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Castle
+      with MacStairn the woodman, and wait for the Queen at a place a day&rsquo;s
+      journey away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son and Flann, Fedelma and Gilveen bade good-by
+      to the Queen, to the Spae-Woman and to the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house, and started
+      their journey towards the King&rsquo;s Castle with MacStairn the Woodman who
+      walked beside their horses, a big axe in his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At night MacStairn built two bothies for them&mdash;one covered with green
+      boughs for Fedelma and Gilveen and one covered with cut sods for Flann and
+      the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. Flann lay near the opening of this bothie. And
+      at night, when the only stir in the forest was that of the leaves
+      whispering to the Secret People, Gilveen arose from where she lay and came
+      to the other bothie and whispered Flann&rsquo;s name. He awakened, and thinking
+      that Morag had come back to him (he had been dreaming of her), he put out
+      his arms, drew Gilveen to him and kissed her. Then Gilveen ran back to her
+      own bothie. And Flann did not know whether he had awakened or whether he
+      had remained in a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when he arose the next morning no thought of Morag was in his mind.
+      And when the King&rsquo;s Son rode with Fedelma he rode with Gilveen. Afterwards
+      Gilveen gave him a drink that enchanted him, so that he thought of her
+      night and day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither Fedelma nor the King&rsquo;s Son knew what had come over Flann. They
+      mentioned the name he had spoken of so often&mdash;Morag&rsquo;s name but it
+      seemed as if it had no meaning for him. At noon they halted to bide until
+      the Queen came with or without her seven brothers. Flann and Gilveen were
+      always together. And always Gilveen was smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Caintigern had come, when she knew her son Flann, and when it was
+      known to her and to the Spae-Woman that the token Morag had given him held
+      the seven drops of heart&rsquo;s blood that would bring back to their own forms
+      the seven wild geese that were Caintigern&rsquo;s brothers&mdash;when all this
+      was known the Spae-Woman sent her most secret messenger to the marshes to
+      give word to the seven wild geese that they were to fly to her house on
+      the night when the moon was full. Her messenger was the corncrake. She
+      traveled night and day, running swiftly through the meadows. She hid on
+      the edge of the marshes and craked out her message to the seven wild
+      geese. At last they heard what she said. On the day before the night of
+      the full moon they flew, the seven together, towards the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s
+      house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one was in the house but Caintigern the Queen. The door was left open
+      to the light of the moon. The seven wild geese flew down and stayed
+      outside the door, moving their heads and wings in the full moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Caintigern arose and took bread that the Spae-Woman had made. She
+      moistened it in her mouth, and into each bit of moistened bread she put a
+      piece of the handkerchief that had a drop of blood. She held out her hand,
+      giving each the moistened bread. The first that ate it fell forward on the
+      floor of the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house, his head down on the ground. His sister
+      saw him then as a kneeling man with this arms held behind him as if they
+      were bound. And when she looked outside she saw the others like kneeling
+      men with their heads bent and their arms held behind them. Then Caintigern
+      said, giving the Spae-Woman her secret name, &ldquo;O Grania Oi, let it be that
+      my brothers be changed back to men!&rdquo; When she said this she saw the
+      Spae-Woman coming across the court-yard. The Spae-Woman waved her hands
+      over the bent figures. They lifted themselves up as men&mdash;as naked,
+      gray men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spae-Woman gave each a garment and the seven men came into the house.
+      They would stand and not sit, and for long they had no speech. Their
+      sister knelt before each and wet his hand with her tears. She thought she
+      should see them as youths or as young men, and they were gray now and past
+      the prime of their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed at the house and speech came back to them. Then they longed to
+      go back to their father&rsquo;s, but Caintigern could not bear that they should
+      go from her sight. At last four of her brothers went and three stayed with
+      her. They would go to her husband&rsquo;s Castle and the others would go too
+      after they had been at their father&rsquo;s. Then one day Caintigern said
+      farewell. The thanks that was due to the Spae-Woman, she said she would
+      give by her treatment of the maid who had given the token to her son
+      Flann. And she prayed that Morag would soon come to the King&rsquo;s Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went with her three brothers to the place where Flann and the King of
+      Ireland&rsquo;s Son, Fedelma and Gilveen waited for them. A smith groomed and
+      decked horses for all of them and they rode towards the King of Ireland&rsquo;s
+      Castle, MacStairn, the Woodman, going before to announce their coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland waited at the stone where the riders to his Castle
+      dismount, and his steward, his Councillor and his Druid were beside him.
+      He lifted his wife off her horse and she brought him to Flann. And when
+      the King looked into Flann&rsquo;s eyes he knew he was his son and the son of
+      Sheen, now known as Caintigern. He gave Flann a father&rsquo;s clasp of welcome.
+      And the queen brought him to her own three brothers who had been estranged
+      from human companionship from before he knew her. And she brought him to
+      the youth who was always known as the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, and him his
+      father welcomed from the path of danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the King&rsquo;s Son took Fedelma to his father and told him she was
+      his love and his wife to be. And the King welcomed Fedelma to the Castle.
+      Then said Gilveen, &ldquo;There is a secret between this young man, Flann, and
+      myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the secret?&rdquo; said the Queen, laying her hands suddenly upon
+      Gilveen&rsquo;s shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I am his wife to be,&rdquo; said Gilveen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen went to her son and said, &ldquo;Dost thou not remember Morag, Flann,
+      who gave the token that thou gavest me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Flann said, &ldquo;Morag! I think the Spae-Woman spoke of her name in a
+      story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Flann&rsquo;s wife to be,&rdquo; said Gilveen, smiling in his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my wife to be,&rdquo; said Flann. Then the King welcomed Gilveen too, and
+      they all went into the Castle. He told his wife he had messages from the
+      King of Senlabor about his other sons Dermott and Downal, saying that they
+      were making good names for themselves, and that everything they did was
+      becoming to sons of Kings. In the hall Fedelma saw Aefa her other sister.
+      Aefa was so proud of herself since she married Maravaun the King&rsquo;s
+      Councillor that she would hardly speak to anyone. She gave her sisters the
+      tips of her fingers and she bowed very slightingly to the two youths. The
+      King questioned his druid as to when it would be well to have marriages
+      made in his Castle and the druid said it would be well not to make them
+      until the next appearance of the full moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Morag she went by track and path, by boher and bohereen, through
+      fords in rivers and over stepping-stones across them, until at last she
+      came to the country of Senlabor and to the Castle of the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one of high degree was in the Castle, for all had gone to watch the
+      young horses being broken in the meadow by the river; the King and Queen
+      had gone, and the King&rsquo;s foster-daughters; and of the maids in the Castle,
+      Baun and Deelish had gone too. The King&rsquo;s Councillor also had gone from
+      the Castle. Morag went and stayed in the kitchen, and the maids who were
+      there did not know her, either because they were new and had not heard her
+      spoken of at all, or because she had changed to such beauty through eating
+      the berry of the Fairy Rowan Tree that no one could know her now for Morag
+      who had cleaned dishes in that kitchen before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Breas the King&rsquo;s Steward who came to her and asked her who she was.
+      She told him. Then Breas looked sharply at her and saw she was indeed
+      Morag who had been in the King&rsquo;s kitchen. Then he said loudly, &ldquo;Before you
+      left you broke the dish that the King looked on as his especial treasure,
+      and for this, you will be left in the Stone House. I who have power in
+      this matter order that it be so.&rdquo; Then he said in her ear, &ldquo;But kisses and
+      sweet words would make me willing to save you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Morag, in a voice raised, called him by that evil name that he was known
+      by to the servants and their gossips. But the servants, hearing that name
+      said in the hearing of Breas, pretended to be scandalized. They went to
+      Morag and struck her with the besoms they had for sweeping the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then her foster-sisters, Baun and Deelish, came into the kitchen.
+      Seeing her there they knew her. They spoke to her quietly, but with anger,
+      saying they had not wanted her to go on the journey she had taken, but, as
+      she had gone it was a pity she had come back, for now she had behaved in
+      an iii-mannered way, and they who were her foster-sisters would be thought
+      to be as ill-mannered; they told her too that before she came back they
+      were well-liked by all, and that Breas had even ordered a shady place to
+      be given them at the horse-breaking sports, and they had been able to see
+      the two youths who had broken the horses, Dermott and Downal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was for a benefit to you that I came back,&rdquo; said Morag. &ldquo;I shall ask
+      one of you to do a thing for me. You, Baun, sing for the foster-daughters
+      of the King. Before they sleep to-night ask them to tell the Queen that
+      Morag has returned, and has a thing to give her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall try to remember that, Morag,&rdquo; said Baun. Morag was taken to the
+      Stone House by strong-armed bondswomen, and Baun and Deelish sat in
+      corners and cried and did not go near her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night the King&rsquo;s foster-daughters kept awake for long, and after Baun
+      had sung to them they asked her to tell them what had happened in the
+      Castle. Then Baun remembered the tumult in the kitchen that had come from
+      the name given to Breas. She told the King&rsquo;s foster-daughters that Morag
+      had come back. &ldquo;She was reared in the same house with us,&rdquo; said Baun, &ldquo;but
+      she is not of the same parents.&rdquo; And then she said; &ldquo;If your Fair
+      Finenesses can remember, tell the Queen that Morag has come back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day when they were walking with the Queen one of the King&rsquo;s
+      foster-daughters said, &ldquo;Did you know of a maid named Morag? I have heard
+      that she has been away and has come back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did she fare?&rdquo; said the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have not heard that,&rdquo; said the maiden who spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen went to where Baun and Deelish were and from them she heard that
+      Morag had been put into the Stone House on the charge that she had broken
+      the King&rsquo;s dish when she had been in the Castle before. Now the Queen knew
+      that the dish had been safe after Morag had left. She went to the King&rsquo;s
+      Steward and accused him of having broken it and Breas admitted that it was
+      so. Thereupon he lost his rank and became the meanest and the most
+      despised servant in the Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen went to the Stone House and took Morag out. She asked her how
+      she had fared and thereupon Morag put the Rowan Berry in the Queen&rsquo;s hand.
+      She hastened to her own chamber and ate it, and her youth and beauty came
+      back to her, and the King who had grown solitary, loved the Queen again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morag came to great honor in the Castle and the Queen asked her to
+      name the greatest favor she could think of. And the favor that Morag named
+      was marriages for her foster-sisters with the two youths they loved,
+      Downal and Dermott from the court of the King of Ireland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, when she heard this, brought fine clothes out of her chests and
+      gave them to Baun and Deelish. When they had dressed in these clothes the
+      Queen made them known to the two youths. Downal and Dermott fell in love
+      with Morag&rsquo;s foster-sisters, and the King named a day for the pairs to
+      marry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morag waited to see the marriages, and the King and Queen made it a grand
+      affair. There were seven hundred guests at the short table, eight hundred
+      at the long table, nine hundred at the round table, and a thousand in the
+      great hall. I was there, and I heard the whole story. But I got no present
+      save shoes of paper and stockings of butter-milk and these a herdsman
+      stole from me as I crossed the mountains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Morag got better presents, for the Queen gave her three gifts&mdash;a
+      scissors that cut cloth of itself, a ball of thread that went into the
+      needle of itself, and a needle that sewed of itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morag, with the three gifts that the Queen of Senlabor gave her, came
+      again to the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house. Her Little Red Hen was in the courtyard,
+      and she fluttered up to meet her. But there was no sign of any other life
+      about the place. Then, below at the washing-stream she found the
+      Spae-Woman rinsing clothes. She was standing on the middle-stones,
+      clapping her hands as if in great trouble. &ldquo;Oh, Morag, my daughter Morag,&rdquo;
+       cried the Spae-Woman, &ldquo;there are signs on the clothes&mdash;there are
+      signs on the clothes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a while she ceased crying and clapping her hands and came up from
+      the stream. She showed Morag that in all the shifts and dimities she
+      washed for her, a hole came just above where her heart would be. Morag
+      grew pale when she saw that, but she stood steadily and she did not wail.
+      &ldquo;Should I go to the King&rsquo;s Castle, fosterer?&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the
+      Spae-Woman, &ldquo;but to the woodman&rsquo;s hut that is near the King&rsquo;s Castle. And
+      take your Little Red Hen with you, my daughter,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and do not
+      forget the three presents that the Queen of Senlabor gave you.&rdquo; Then the
+      Spae-Woman stood up and said the blessing of the journey over Morag:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   May the Olden
+   One, whom Fairy
+   Women nurtured
+   Through seven ages,
+   Bring you seven
+   Waves of fortune.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Morag gave her the clasp of farewell then, and went on her way with the
+      Little Red Hen under her arm and the three presents that the Queen of
+      Senlabor gave her in her pouch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morag was going and ever going from the blink of day to the mouth of dark
+      and that for three crossings of the sun, and at last she came within sight
+      of the Castle of the King of Ireland. She asked a dog-boy for the hut of
+      MacStairn the Woodman and the hut was shown to her. She went to it and saw
+      the wife of MacStairn. She told her she was a girl traveling alone and she
+      asked for shelter. &ldquo;I can give you shelter,&rdquo; said MacStairn&rsquo;s wife, &ldquo;and I
+      can get you earnings too, for there is much sewing-work to be done at this
+      time.&rdquo; Morag asked her what reason there was for that, and the woodman&rsquo;s
+      wife told her there were two couples in the Castle to be married soon.
+      &ldquo;One is the youth whom we have always called the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son. He
+      is to be married to a maiden called Fedelma. The other is a youth who is
+      the King&rsquo;s son too, hut who has been away for a long time. Flann is his
+      name. And he is to be married to a damsel called Gilveen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she heard that, it was as if a knife had been put into and turned in
+      her heart. She let the Little Red Hen drop from her arm. &ldquo;I would sew the
+      garments that the damsel Gilveen is to wear,&rdquo; said she, and she sat down
+      on the stone outside the woodman&rsquo;s hut. MacStairn&rsquo;s wife then sent to the
+      Castle to say that there was one in her hut who could sew all the garments
+      that Gilveen would send her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day, with a servant walking behind, Gilveen came to the woodman&rsquo;s
+      hut with a basket of cloths and patterns. The basket was left down and
+      Gilveen began to tell MacStairn&rsquo;s wife how she wanted them cut, stitched
+      and embroidered. Morag took up the crimson doth and let her scissors&mdash;the
+      scissors that the Queen of Senlabor gave her&mdash;run through it. It cut
+      out the pattern exactly. &ldquo;What a wonderful scissors,&rdquo; said Gilveen. She
+      stooped down to where Morag was sitting on the stone outside of the
+      woodman&rsquo;s house and took up the scissors in her hand. She examined it. &ldquo;I
+      cannot give it back to you,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Give it to me, and I will let you
+      have any favor you ask.&rdquo; &ldquo;Since you want me to ask you for a favor,&rdquo; said
+      Morag, &ldquo;I ask that you let me sit at the supper-table to-night alone with
+      the youth you are to marry.&rdquo; &ldquo;That will do me no harm,&rdquo; said Gilveen. She
+      went away, taking the scissors and smiling to herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Morag went into the Castle and came to the supper-table where
+      Flann was seated alone. But Gilveen had put a sleeping-draught into
+      Flann&rsquo;s cup and he neither saw nor knew Morag when she sat at the table.
+      &ldquo;Do you remember, Flann,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;how we used to sit at the
+      supper-board in the house of Crom Duv?&rdquo; But Flann did not hear her, nor
+      see her, and then Morag had to go away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VI
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Gilveen came to where Morag sat on the stone outside the
+      woodman&rsquo;s hut to watch her stitch the garment she had cut out. The thread
+      went into the needle of itself. &ldquo;What a wonderful ball of thread,&rdquo; said
+      Gilveen, taking it up. &ldquo;I cannot give it back to you. Ask me for a favor
+      in place of it.&rdquo; &ldquo;Since you would have me ask a favor,&rdquo; said Morag, &ldquo;I ask
+      that you let me sit at the supper-table alone with the youth you are going
+      to marry.&rdquo; &ldquo;That will do me no harm,&rdquo; said Gilveen. She took the ball of
+      thread and went away smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Morag went into the Castle and came to the supper-table where
+      Flann was seated alone. But Gilveen again had put a sleeping-draught into
+      his cup, and Flann did not see or know Morag. &ldquo;Do you not remember,
+      Flann,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;the story of Morag that I told you across the
+      supper-board in the House of Crom Duv?&rdquo; But Flann gave no sign of knowing
+      her, and then Morag had to go away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Gilveen came to watch Morag make the red embroideries upon
+      the white garment. When she put the needle into the cloth it worked out
+      the pattern of itself. &ldquo;This is the most wonderful thing of all,&rdquo; said
+      Gilveen. She stooped down and took the needle in her hand. &ldquo;I cannot give
+      this back to you,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and you will have to ask for a favor that
+      will recompense you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I must ask for a favor,&rdquo; said Morag, &ldquo;the only favor I would ask is
+      that you let me sit at the supper-table to-night alone with the youth you
+      are to marry.&rdquo; &ldquo;That will do me no harm,&rdquo; said Gilveen, and she took the
+      needle and went away smiling. Morag went to the Castle again that night,
+      but this time she took the Little Red Hen with her. She scattered grains
+      on the table and the Little Red Hen picked them up. &ldquo;Little Hen, Little
+      Red Hen,&rdquo; said Morag, &ldquo;he slept too when I gave the seven drops of my
+      heart&rsquo;s blood for his mother&rsquo;s sake.&rdquo; The Little Red Hen flew into Flann&rsquo;s
+      face. &ldquo;Seven drops of heart&rsquo;s blood, seven drops of heart&rsquo;s blood,&rdquo; said
+      the Little Red Hen, and Flann heard the words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He opened his eyes and saw the Little Red Hen on the table and knew that
+      she belonged to one that he had known. Morag, at the other side of the
+      table, looked strange and shadowy to him. But he threw crumbs on the table
+      and fed the Little Red Hen, and as he watched her picking up the crumbs
+      the memory of Morag came back to him. Then he saw her. He knew her for his
+      sweetheart and his promised wife and he went to her and asked her how it
+      came that she had not been in his mind for so long. &ldquo;I will tell you how
+      you came to forget me,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;it was because of the kiss you gave
+      Gilveen, and the enchantment she was able to put on you because of that
+      kiss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was sorrow on Morag&rsquo;s face when she said that, but the sorrow went
+      as the thin clouds go from before the face of the high-hung moon, and
+      Flann saw her as his kind comrade of Crom Duv&rsquo;s and as his beautiful
+      friend of the Spae-Woman&rsquo;s house. They kissed each other then, and every
+      enchantment went but the lasting enchantment of love, and they sat with
+      hands joined until the log in the fire beside them had burnt itself down
+      into a brand and the brand had burnt itself into ashes, and all the time
+      that passed was, as they thought, only while the watching-gilly outside
+      walked from one side of the Castle Gate to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gilveen had come into the room and she saw Flann and Morag give each other
+      a true-lover&rsquo;s kiss. She went away. But the next day she came to the
+      King&rsquo;s Steward, Art, who at one time wanted to marry her, and whom she had
+      refused because Aefa, her sister, had married one of a higher degree&mdash;she
+      came to Art and she told him that she would not marry Flann because she
+      had found out that he had a low-born sweetheart. &ldquo;And I am ready to marry
+      you, Art,&rdquo; she said. And Art was well pleased, and he and Gilveen left the
+      Castle to be married.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the day came when Fedelma and the King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, and Morag
+      and Flann were married. They were plighted to each other in the Circle of
+      Stones by the Druids who invoked upon them the powers of the Sun, the
+      Moon, the Earth, and the Air. They were married at the height of the day
+      and they feasted at night when the wax candles were lighted round the
+      tables. They had Greek honey and Lochlinn beer; ducks from Achill, apples
+      from Emain and venison from the Hunting Hill; they had trout and grouse
+      and plovers&rsquo; eggs and a boar&rsquo;s head for every King in the company. And
+      these were the Kings who sat down to table with the King of Eirinn: the
+      King of Sorcha, the King of Hispania, the King of Lochlinn and the King of
+      the Green Island who had Sunbeam for his daughter. And they had there the
+      best heroes of Lochlinn, the best story-tellers of Alba, the best bards of
+      Eirinn. They laid sorrow and they raised music, and the harpers played
+      until the great champion Split-the-Shields told a tale of the realm of
+      Greece and how he slew the three lions that guarded the daughter of the
+      King. They feasted for six days and the last day was better than the
+      first, and the laugh they laughed when Witless, the Saxon fool, told how
+      Split-the-Shield&rsquo;s story should have ended, shook the young jackdaws out
+      of every chimney in the Castle and brought them down fluttering on the
+      floors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of Ireland lived long, but he died while his sons were in their
+      strong manhood, and after he passed away the Island of Destiny came under
+      the equal rule of the two. And one had rule over the courts and cities,
+      the harbors and the military encampments. And the other had rule over the
+      waste places and the villages and the roads where masterless men walked.
+      And the deeds of one are in the histories the shanachies have written in
+      the language of the learned, and the deeds of the other are in the stories
+      the people tell to you and to me.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   When I crossed the Ford
+   They were turning the Mountain Pass;
+   When I stood on the Stepping-stones
+   They were travelling the Road of Glass.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg&rsquo;s The King of Ireland&rsquo;s Son, by Padraic Colum
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/3495.txt b/3495.txt
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/3495.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7530 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The King of Ireland's Son, by Padraic Colum
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The King of Ireland's Son
+
+Author: Padraic Colum
+
+Posting Date: February 9, 2009 [EBook #3495]
+Release Date: October, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KING OF IRELAND'S SON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by A. Elizabeth Warren
+
+
+
+
+
+THE KING OF IRELAND'S SON
+
+by Padraic Colum
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS:
+
+  FEDELMA, THE ENCHANTER'S DAUGHTER
+
+  WHEN THE KING OF THE CATS CAME TO KING CONNAL'S DOMINION
+
+  THE SWORD OF LIGHT AND THE UNIQUE TALE, WITH AS MUCH OF THE ADVENTURES
+       OF GILLY OF THE GOAT-SKIN AS IS GIVEN IN "THE CRANESKIN BOOK"
+
+  THE TOWN OF THE RED CASTLE
+
+  THE KING OF THE LAND OF MIST
+
+  THE HOUSE OF CROM DUV
+
+  THE SPAE-WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+
+FEDELMA, THE ENCHANTER'S DAUGHTER
+
+
+
+I
+
+Connal was the name of the King who ruled over Ireland at that time.
+He had three sons, and, as the fir-trees grow, some crooked and some
+straight, one of them grew up so wild that in the end the King and the
+King's Councillor had to let him have his own way in everything. This
+youth was the King's eldest son and his mother had died before she could
+be a guide to him.
+
+Now after the King and the King's Councillor left him to his own way the
+youth I'm telling you about did nothing but ride and hunt all day. Well,
+one morning he rode abroad--
+
+    His hound at his heel,
+    His hawk on his wrist;
+    A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+    And the blue sky over him,
+
+and he rode on until he came to a turn in the road. There he saw a gray
+old man seated on a heap of stones playing a game of cards with himself.
+First he had one hand winning and then he had the other. Now he would
+say "That's my good right," and then he would say "Play and beat that,
+my gallant left." The King of Ireland's Son sat on his horse to watch
+the strange old man, and as he watched him he sang a song to himself
+
+    I put the fastenings on my boat
+    For a year and for a day,
+    And I went where the rowans grow,
+    And where the moorhens lay;
+
+    And I went over the stepping-stones
+    And dipped my feet in the ford,
+    And came at last to the Swineherd's house,--
+    The Youth without a Sword.
+
+    A swallow sang upon his porch
+    "Glu-ee, glu-ee, glu-ee,"
+    "The wonder of all wandering,
+    The wonder of the sea;"
+    A swallow soon to leave ground sang
+    "Glu-ee, glu-ee, glu-ee."
+
+"Prince," said the old fellow looking up at him, "if you can play a game
+as well as you can sing a song, I'd like if you would sit down beside
+me."
+
+"I can play any game," said the King of Ireland's Son. He fastened his
+horse to the branch of a tree and sat down on the heap of stones beside
+the old man.
+
+"What shall we play for?" said the gray old fellow.
+
+"Whatever you like," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"If I win you must give me anything I ask, and if you win I shall give
+you anything you ask. Will you agree to that?"
+
+"If it is agreeable to you it is agreeable to me," said the King of
+Ireland's Son.
+
+They played, and the King of Ireland's Son won the game. "Now what do
+you desire me to give, King's Son?" said the gray old fellow.
+
+"I shan't ask you for anything," said the King of Ireland's Son, "for I
+think you haven't much to give."
+
+"Never mind that," said the gray old fellow. "I mustn't break my
+promise, and so you must ask me for something."
+
+"Very well," said the King's Son. "Then there's a field at the back of
+my father's Castle and I want to see it filled with cattle to-morrow
+morning. Can you do that for me?"
+
+"I can," said the gray old fellow.
+
+"Then I want fifty cows, each one white with a red ear, and a white calf
+going beside each cow."
+
+"The cattle shall be as you wish."
+
+"Well, when that's done I shall think the wager has been paid," said the
+King of Ireland's son. He mounted his horse, smiling at the foolish
+old man who played cards with himself and who thought he could bring
+together fifty white kine, each with a red ear, and a white calf by the
+side of each cow. He rode away
+
+   His hound at his heel,
+   His hawk on his wrist;
+   A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+   And the green ground under him,
+
+and he thought no more of the gray old fellow.
+
+
+But in the morning, when he was taking his horse out of the stable,
+he heard the grooms talking about a strange happening. Art, the King's
+Steward, had gone out and had found the field at the back of the Castle
+filled with cattle. There were fifty white red-eared kine there and each
+cow had a white calf at her side. The King had ordered Art, his Steward,
+to drive them away. The King of Ireland's Son watched Art and his men
+trying to do it. But no sooner were the strange cattle put out at one
+side of the field than they came back on the other. Then down came
+Maravaun, the King's Councillor. He declared they were enchanted cattle,
+and that no one on Ireland's ground could put them away. So in the
+seven-acre field the cattle stayed.
+
+When the King of Ireland's Son saw what his companion of yesterday could
+do he rode straight to the glen to try if he could have another game
+with him. There at the turn of the road, on a heap of stones, the gray
+old fellow was sitting playing a game of cards, the right hand against
+the left. The King of Ireland's Son fastened his horse to the branch of
+a tree and dismounted.
+
+"Did you find yesterday's wager settled?" said the gray old fellow.
+
+"I did," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Then shall we have another game of cards on the same understanding?"
+said the gray old fellow.
+
+"I agree, if you agree," said the King of Ireland's son. He sat under
+the bush beside him and they played again. The King of Ireland's Son
+won.
+
+"What would you like me to do for you this time?" said the gray old
+fellow.
+
+Now the King's Son had a step-mother, and she was often cross-tempered,
+and that very morning he and she had vexed each other. So he said, "Let
+a brown bear, holding a burning coal in his mouth, put Caintigern the
+Queen from her chair in the supper-room to-night."
+
+"It shall be done," said the gray old fellow.
+
+Then the King of Ireland's Son mounted his horse and rode away
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the green ground under him,
+
+and he went back to the Castle. That night a brown bear, holding a
+burning coal in his mouth, came into the supper-room and stood between
+Caintigern the Queen and the chair that belonged to her. None of the
+servants could drive it away, and when Maravaun, the King's Councillor,
+came he said, "This is an enchanted creature also, and it is best for us
+to leave it alone." So the whole company went and left the brown bear in
+the supper-room seated 'in the Queen's chair.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The next morning when he wakened the King's Son said, "That was a
+wonderful thing that happened last night in the supper-room. I must go
+off and play a third game with the gray old fellow who sits on a heap of
+stones at the turn of the road." So, in the morning early he mounted and
+rode away
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the green ground under him,
+
+and he rode on until he came to the turn in the road. Sure enough the
+old gray fellow was there. "So you've come to me again, King's Son,"
+said he. "I have," said the King of Ireland's Son, "and I'll play a last
+game with you on the same understanding as before." He tied his horse to
+the branch and sat down on the heap of stones. They played. The King of
+Ireland's Son lost the game. Immediately the gray old fellow threw
+the cards down on the stones and a wind came up and carried them away.
+Standing up he was terribly tall.
+
+"King's Son," said he, "I am your father's enemy and I have done him an
+injury. And to the Queen who is your father's wife I have done an injury
+too. You have lost the game and now you must take the penalty I put upon
+you. You must find out my dwelling-place and take three hairs out of my
+beard within a year and a day, or else lose your head."
+
+With that he took the King of Ireland's Son by the shoulders and lifted
+him on his horse, turning the horse in the direction of the King's
+Castle. The King's Son rode on
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the blue sky over him.
+
+That evening the King noticed that his son was greatly troubled. And
+when he lay down to sleep everyone in the Castle heard his groans and
+his moans. The next day he told his father the story from beginning to
+end. The King sent for Maravaun his Councillor and asked him if he knew
+who the Enchanter was and where his son would be likely to find him.
+
+"From what he said," said Maravaun, "we may guess who he is. He is the
+Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands and his dwelling-place is hard to
+find. Nevertheless your son must seek for him and take the three hairs
+out of his beard or else lose his head. For if the heir to your kingdom
+does not honorably pay his forfeit, the ground of Ireland won't give
+crops and the cattle won't give milk." "And," said the Councillor, "as a
+year is little for his search, he should start off at once, although I'm
+bound to say, that I don't know what direction he should go in."
+
+The next day the King's Son said good-by to his father and his
+foster-brothers and started off on his journey. His step-mother would
+not give him her blessing on account of his having brought in the brown
+bear that turned her from her chair in the supper-room. Nor would she
+let him have the good horse he always rode. Instead the Prince was given
+a horse that was lame in a leg and short in the tail. And neither hawk
+nor hound went with him this time.
+
+
+All day the King's Son was going, traveling through wood and waste until
+the coming on of night. The little fluttering birds were going from the
+bush tops, from tuft to tuft, and to the briar-roots, going to rest; but
+if they were, he was not, till the night came on, blind and dark. Then
+the King's Son ate his bread and meat, put his satchel under his head
+and lay down to take his rest on the edge of a great waste.
+
+In the morning he mounted his horse and rode on. And as he went across
+the waste he saw an extraordinary sight--everywhere were the bodies of
+dead creatures--a cock, a wren, a mouse, a weasel, a fox, a badger, a
+raven---all the birds and beasts that the King's Son had ever known. He
+went on, but he saw no living creature before him. And then, at the end
+of the waste he came upon two living creatures struggling. One was an
+eagle and the other was an eel. And the eel had twisted itself round the
+eagle, and the eagle had covered her eyes with the black films of death.
+The King's Son jumped off his horse and cut the eel in two with a sharp
+stroke of his sword.
+
+The eagle drew the films from her eyes and looked full at the King's
+Son. "I am Laheen the Eagle," she said, "and I will pay you for this
+service, Son of King Connal. Know that there has been a battle of the
+creatures--a battle to decide which of the creatures will make laws for
+a year. All were killed except the eel and myself, and if you had not
+come I would have been killed and the eel would have made the laws. I am
+Laheen the Eagle and always I will be your friend. And now you must tell
+me how I can serve you."
+
+"You can serve me," said the King's Son, "by showing me how I may come
+to the dominion of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands."
+
+"I am the only creature who can show you, King's Son. And if I were not
+old now I would carry you there on my back. But I can tell you how you
+can get there. Ride forward for a day, first with the sun before you and
+then with the sun at your back, until you come to the shore of a lake.
+Stay there until you see three swans flying down. They are the three
+daughters of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. Mark the one who
+carries a green scarf in her mouth. She is the youngest daughter and
+the one who can help you. When the swans come to the ground they will
+transform themselves into maidens and bathe in the lake. Two will come
+out, put on their swanskins and transform themselves and fly away. But
+you must hide the swanskin that belongs to the youngest maiden. She will
+search and search and when she cannot find it she will cry out, 'I would
+do anything in the world for the creature who would find my swanskin for
+me.' Give the swanskin to her then, and tell her that the only thing she
+can do for you is to show you the way to her father's dominion. She will
+do that, and so you will come to the House of the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands. And now farewell to you, Son of King Connal."
+
+Laheen the Eagle spread out her wings and flew away, and the King's Son
+journeyed on, first with the sun before him and then with the sun at
+his back, until he came to the shore of a wide lake. He turned his horse
+away, rested himself on the ground, and as soon as the clear day came he
+began to watch for the three swans.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+They came, they flew down, and when they touched the ground they
+transformed themselves into three maidens and went to bathe in the lake.
+The one who carried the green scarf left her swanskin under a bush. The
+King's Son took it and hid it in a hollow tree.
+
+Two of the maidens soon came out of the water, put on their swanskins
+and flew away as swans. The younger maiden stayed for a while in the
+lake. Then she came out and began to search for her swanskin. She
+searched and searched, and at last the King's Son heard her say, "I
+would do anything in the world for the creature who would find my
+swanskin for me." Then he came from where he was hiding and gave her the
+swanskin. "I am the Son of the King of Ireland," he said, "and I want
+you to show me the way to your father's dominion."
+
+"I would prefer to do anything else for you," said the maiden. "I do not
+want anything else," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"If I show you how to get there will you be content?"
+
+"I shall be content."
+
+"You must never let my father know that I showed you the way. And he
+must not know when you come that you are the King of Ireland's Son."
+
+"I will not tell him you showed me the way and I will not let him know
+who I am."
+
+
+Now that she had the swanskin she was able to transform herself. She
+whistled and a blue falcon came down and perched on a tree. "That falcon
+is my own bird," said she. "Follow where it flies and you will come to
+my father's house. And now good-by to you. You will be in danger, but
+I will try to help you. Fedelma is my name." She rose up as a swan and
+flew away.
+
+The blue falcon went flying from bush to bush and from rock to rock.
+The night came, but in the morning the blue falcon was seen again. The
+King's Son followed, and at last he saw a house before him. He went in,
+and there, seated on a chair of gold was the man who seemed so tall when
+he threw down the cards upon the heap of stones. The Enchanter did not
+recognize the King's Son without his hawk and his hound and the fine
+clothes he used to wear. He asked who he was and the King's Son said he
+was a youth who had just finished an apprenticeship to a wizard. "And,"
+said he, "I have heard that you have three fair daughters, and I came to
+strive to gain one of them for a wife."
+
+"In that case," said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, "you will
+have to do three tasks for me. If you are able to do them I will give
+you one of my three daughters in marriage. If you fail to do any one of
+them you will lose your head. Are you willing to make the trial?"
+
+"I am willing," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Then I shall give you your first task to-morrow. It is unlucky that you
+came to-day. In this country we eat a meal only once a week, and we have
+had our meal this morning."
+
+"It is all the same to me," said the King's Son, "I can do without food
+or drink for a month without any hardship."
+
+"I suppose you can do without sleep too?" said the Enchanter of the
+Black Back-Lands.
+
+"Easily," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"That is good. Come outside now, and I'll show you your bed." He took
+the King's Son outside and showed him a dry narrow water-tank at the
+gable end of the house. "There is where you are to sleep" said the
+Enchanter. "Tuck yourself into it now and be ready for your first task
+at the rising of the sun."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went into the little tank. He was
+uncomfortable there you may be sure. But in the middle of the night
+Fedelma came and brought him into a fine room where he ate and then
+slept until the sun was about to rise in the morning. She called him and
+he went outside and laid himself down in the water-tank.
+
+As soon as the sun rose the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came out
+of the house and stood beside the water-tank. "Come now," said he, "and
+I will show you the first task you have to perform." He took him to
+where a herd of goats was grazing. Away from the goats was a fawn with
+white feet and little bright horns. The fawn saw them, bounded into the
+air, and raced away to the wood as quickly as any arrow that a man ever
+shot from a bow.
+
+"That is Whitefoot the Fawn," said the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands. "She grazes with my goats but none of my gillies can bring
+her into my goat-house. Here is your first task--run down Whitefoot the
+Fawn and bring her with my goats into the goat-shelter this evening."
+When he said that the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands went away
+laughing to himself.
+
+"Good-by, my life," said the King of Ireland's Son, "I might as well try
+to catch an eagle on the wing as to run down the deer that has gone out
+of sight already." He sat down on the ground and his despair was great.
+Then his name was called and he saw Fedelma coming towards him. She
+looked at him as though she were in dread, and said, "What task has my
+father set you?" He told her and then she smiled. "I was in dread it
+would be a more terrible task," she said. "This one is easy. I can help
+you to catch Whitefoot the Fawn. But first eat what I have brought you."
+
+
+She put down bread and meat and wine, and they sat down and he ate
+and drank. "I thought he might set you this task," she said, "and so I
+brought you something from my father's store of enchanted things. Here
+are the Shoes of Swiftness. With these on your feet you can run down
+Whitefoot the Fawn. But you must catch her before she has gone very far
+away. Remember that she must be brought in when the goats are going into
+their shelter at sunset. You will have to walk back for all the time you
+must keep hold of her silver horns. Hasten now. Run her down with the
+Shoes of Swiftness and then lay hold of her horns. Above all things
+Whitefoot dreads the loss of her silver horns."
+
+He thanked Fedelma. He put on the Shoes of Swiftness and went into the
+wood. Now he could go as the eagle flies. He found Whitefoot the Fawn
+drinking at the Raven's pool.
+
+When she saw him she went from thicket to thicket. The Shoes of
+Swiftness were hardly any use to him in these shut-in places. At last he
+beat her from the last thicket. It was the hour of noon-tide then. There
+was a clear plain before them and with the Shoes of Swiftness he ran her
+down. There were tears in the Fawn's eyes and he knew she was troubled
+with the dread of losing her silver horns.
+
+He kept his hands on the horns and they went back over miles of plain
+and pasture, bog and wood. The hours were going quicker than they were
+going. When 'he came within the domain of the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands he saw the goats going quickly before him. They were hurrying
+from their pastures to the goat-shelter, one stopping, maybe, to bite
+the top of a hedge and another giving this one a blow with her horns to
+hurry her on. "By your silver horns, we must go faster," said the King
+of Ireland's Son to the Fawn. They went more quickly then.
+
+He saw the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands waiting at the goat-house,
+now counting the goats that came along and now looking at the sun. When
+he saw the King of Ireland's Son coming with his capture he was so angry
+that he struck an old full-bearded goat that had stopped to rub itself.
+The goat reared up and struck him with his horns. "Well," said the
+Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, "you have performed your first task,
+I see. You are a greater enchanter than I thought you were.
+Whitefoot the Fawn can go in with my goats. Go back now to your own
+sleeping-place. To-morrow I'll come to you early and give you your
+second task."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went back and into the dry water-tank. He was
+tired with his day's journey after Whitefoot the Fawn. It was his hope
+that Fedelma would come to him and give him shelter for that night.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Until the white moon rose above the trees; until the hounds went out
+hunting for themselves; until the foxes came down and hid in the hedges,
+waiting for the cocks and hens to stir out at the first light--so long
+did the King of Ireland's Son stay huddled in the dry water-tank.
+
+By that time he was stiff and sore and hungry. He saw a great white owl
+flying towards the tank. The owl perched on the edge and stared at the
+King's Son. "Have you a message for me?" he asked. The owl shrugged with
+its wings three times. He thought that meant a message. He got out of
+the tank and prepared to follow the owl. It flew slowly and near the
+ground, so he was able to follow it along a path through the wood.
+
+The King's Son thought the owl was bringing him to a place where Fedelma
+was, and that he would get food there, and shelter for the rest of the
+night. And sure enough the owl flew to a little house in the wood. The
+King's Son looked through the window and he saw a room lighted with
+candles and a table with plates and dishes and cups, with bread and meat
+and wine. And he saw at the fire a young woman spinning at a spinning
+wheel, and her back was towards him, and her hair was the same as
+Fedelma's. Then he lifted the latch of the door and went very joyfully
+into the little house.
+
+But when the young woman at the spinning wheel turned round he saw that
+she was not Fedelma at all. She had a little mouth, a long and a hooked
+nose, and her eyes looked cross-ways at a person. The thread she was
+spinning she bit with her long teeth, and she said, "You are welcome
+here, Prince."
+
+"And who are you?" said the King of Ireland's Son. "Aefa is my name,"
+said she, "I am the eldest and the wisest daughter of the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-lands. My father is preparing a task for you," said she,
+"and it will be a terrible task, and there will be no one to help you
+with it, so you will lose your head surely. And what I would advise you
+to do is to escape out of this country at once."
+
+"And how can I escape?" said the King of Ireland's Son, "There's only
+one way to escape," said she, "and that is for you to take the Slight
+Red Steed that my father has secured under nine locks. That steed is the
+only creature that can bring you to your own country. I will show you
+how to get it and then I will ride to your home with you."
+
+"And why should you do that?" said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Because I would marry you," said Aefa.
+
+"But," said he, "if I live at all Fedelma is the one I will marry."
+
+No sooner did he say the words than Aefa screamed out, "Seize him,
+my cat-o'-the-mountain. Seize him and hold him." Then the
+cat-o'-the-mountain that was under the table sprang across the room and
+fixed himself on his shoulder. He ran out of the house. All the time he
+was running the cat-o'-the-mountain was trying to tear his eyes out. He
+made his way through woods and thickets, and mighty glad he was when
+he saw the tank at the gable-end of the house. The cat-'o-the-mountain
+dropped from his back then. He got into the tank and waited and waited.
+No message came from Fedelma. He was a long time there, stiff and
+sore and hungry, before the sun rose and the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands came out of the house.
+
+
+
+V
+
+"I hope you had a good night's rest," said the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands, when he came to where the King of Ireland's Son was
+crouched, just at the rising of the sun. "I had indeed," said the King's
+Son. "And I suppose you feel fit for another task," said the Enchanter
+of the Black Back-Lands. "More fit than ever in my life before," said
+the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands took him past the goat-house
+and to where there was an open shelter for his bee-hives. "I want this
+shelter thatched," said he, "and I want to have it thatched with the
+feathers of birds. Go," said he, "and get enough feathers of wild birds
+and come back and thatch the bee-hive shelter for me, and let it be done
+before the set of sun." He gave the King's Son arrows and a bow and
+a bag to put the feathers in, and advised him to search the moor for
+birds. Then he went back to the house.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son ran to the moor and watched for birds to fly
+across. At last one came. He shot at it with an arrow but did not bring
+it down. He hunted the moor all over but found no other bird. He hoped
+that he would see Fedelma before his head was taken off.
+
+Then he heard his name called and he saw Fedelma coming towards him. She
+looked at him as before with dread in thier eyes and asked him what task
+her father had set him. "A terrible task," he said, and he told her
+what it was. Fedelma laughed. "I was in dread he would give you another
+task," she said. "I can help you with this one. Sit down now and eat and
+drink from what I have brought you."
+
+He sat down and ate and drank and he felt hopeful seeing Fedelma beside
+him. When he had eaten Fedelma said, "My blue falcon will gather the
+birds and pull the feathers off for you. Still, unless you gather them
+quickly there is danger, for the roof must be thatched with feathers at
+the set of sun." She whistled and her blue falcon came. He followed
+it across the moor. The blue falcon flew up in the air and gave a
+bird-call. Birds gathered and she swooped amongst them pulling feathers
+off their backs and out of their wings. Soon there was a heap of
+feathers on the ground--pigeons' feathers and pie's feathers, crane's
+and crow's, blackbird's and starling's. The King of Ireland's Son
+quickly gathered them into his bag. The falcon flew to another place and
+gave her bird-call again. The birds gathered, and she went amongst
+them, plucking their feathers. The King's Son gathered them and the blue
+falcon flew to another place. Over and over again the blue falcon called
+to the birds and plucked out their feathers, and over and over again the
+King's Son gathered them into his bag. When he thought he had feathers
+enough to thatch the roof he ran back to the shelter. He began the
+thatching, binding the feathers down with little willow rods. He had
+just finished when the sun went down. The old Enchanter came up and
+when he saw what the King's Son had done he was greatly surprised. "You
+surely learned from the wizard you were apprenticed to," said he.. "But
+to-morrow I will try you with another task. Go now and sleep in the
+place where you were last night." The King's Son, glad that the head was
+still on his shoulders, went and lay down in the water-tank.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+Until the white moon went out in the sky; until the Secret People began
+to whisper in the woods--so long did the King of Ireland's Son remain in
+the dry water-tank that night.
+
+And then, when it was neither dark nor light, he saw a crane flying
+towards him. It lighted on the edge of the tank. "Have you a message for
+me?" said the King of Ireland's Son. The crane tapped three times with
+its beak. Then the King's Son got out of the tank and prepared to follow
+the bird-messenger.
+
+This was the way the crane went. It would fly a little way and then
+light on the ground until the Prince came up to it. Then it would fly
+again. Over marshes and across little streams the crane led him. And all
+the time the King of Ireland's Son thought he was being brought to the
+place where Fedelma was--to the place where he would get food and where
+he could rest until just before the sun rose.
+
+They went on and on till they came to an old tower. The crane lighted
+upon it. The King's Son saw there was an iron door in the tower and he
+pulled a chain until it opened. Then he saw a little room lighted with
+candles, and he saw a young woman looking at herself in the glass. Her
+back was towards him and her hair was the same as Fedelma's.
+
+But when the young woman turned round he saw she was not Fedelma. She
+was little, and she had a face that was brown and tight like a nut. She
+made herself very friendly to the King of Ireland's Son and went to him
+and took his hands and smiled into his face.
+
+"You are welcome here," said she.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked. "I am Gilveen," said she, "the second and
+the most loving of the three daughters of the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands." She stroked his face and his hands when she spoke to him.
+
+"And why did you send for me?"
+
+"Because I know what great trouble you are in. My father is preparing a
+task for you, and it will be a terrible one. You will never be able to
+carry it out."
+
+"And what should you advise me to do, King's daughter?"
+
+"Let me help you. In this tower," said she, "there are the wisest books
+in the world. We'll surely find in one of them a way for you to get from
+this country. And then I'll go back with you to your own land."
+
+"Why would you do that?" asked the King of Ire-land's Son.
+
+"Because I wish to be your wife," Gilveen said.
+
+"But," said he, "if I live at all Fedelma is the one I'll marry."
+
+When he said that Gilveen drew her lips together and her chin became
+like a horn. Then she whistled through her teeth, and instantly
+everything in the room began to attack the King's Son. The looking glass
+on the wall flung itself at him and hit him on the back of the head. The
+leg of the table gave him a terrible blow at the back of the knees. He
+saw the two candles hopping across the floor to burn his legs. He ran
+out of the room, and when he got to the door it swung around and gave
+him a blow that flung him away from the tower. The crane that was
+waiting on the tower flew down, its neck and beak outstretched, and gave
+him a blow on the back.
+
+So the King of Ireland's Son went back over the marshes and across the
+little streams, and he was glad when he saw the gable-end of the house
+again. Je went into the tank. He knew that he had not long to wait
+before the sun would rise and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands
+would come to him and give him the third and the most difficult of the
+three tasks. And he thought that Fedelma was surely shut away from him
+and that she would not be able to help him that day.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+At the rising of the sun the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came to
+where the King of Ireland's Son was huddled and said, "I am now going to
+set you the third and last task. Rise up now and come with me."
+
+The King's Son came out of the water-tank and fol-lowed the Enchanter.
+They went to where there was a well. The King's Son looked down and he
+could not see the bottom, so deep the well was. "At the bottom," said
+the Enchanter "is the Ring of Youth. You must get it and bring it to me,
+or else you must lose your head at the setting of that sun." That was
+all he said. He turned then and went away.
+
+The King's Son looked into the well and he saw no way of getting down
+its deep smooth sides. He walked back towards the Castle. On his way he
+met Fedelma, and she looked at him with deep dread in her eyes. "What
+task did my father set you to-day?" said she. "He bids me go down into
+a well," said the King's Son. "A well!" said Fedelma, and she became all
+dread. "I have to take the Ring of Youth from the bot-tom and bring it
+to him," said the King's Son. "Oh," said Fedelma,'"he has set you the
+task I dreaded."
+
+Then she said, "You will lose your life if the Ring of Youth is not
+taken out of the well. And if you lose yours I shall lose my life too.
+There is one way to get down the sides of the well. You must kill me.
+Take my bones and make them as steps while you go down the sides. Then,
+when you have taken the Ring of Youth out of the water, put my bones
+as they were before, and put the Ring above my heart. I shall be alive
+again. But you must be careful that you leave every bone as it was."
+
+The King's Son fell into a deeper dread than Fedelma when he heard what
+she said. "This can never be," he cried. "It must be," said she, "and by
+all your vows and promises I command that you do it. Kill me now and do
+as I have bidden you. If it be done I shall live. If it be not done you
+will lose your life and I will never regain mine."
+
+He killed her. He took the bones as she had bidden him, and he made
+steps down the sides of the well. He searched at the bottom, and he
+found the Ring of Youth. He brought the bones together again. Down on
+his knees he went, and his heart did not beat nor did his breath come or
+go until he had fixed them in their places. Over the heart he placed the
+Ring. Life came back to Fedelma.
+
+"You have done well," she said. "One thing only is not in its place--the
+joint of my little finger." She held up her hand and he saw that her
+little finger was bent.
+
+"I have helped you in everything," said Fedelma, "and in the last task
+I could not have helped you if you had not been true to me when Aefa and
+Gilveen brought you to them. Now the three tasks are done, and you can
+ask my father for one of his daughters in marriage. When you bring him
+the Ring of Youth he will ask you to make a choice. I pray that the one
+chosen will be myself."
+
+"None other will I have but you, Fedelma, love of my heart," said the
+King of Ireland's Son.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went into the house before the setting of the
+sun. The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands was seated on his chair of
+gold. "Have you brought me the Ring of Youth?" he asked.
+
+"I have brought it," said the King's Son.
+
+"Give it to me then," said the Enchanter.
+
+"I will not," said the King's Son, "until you give what you promised me
+at the end of my tasks--one of your three daughters for my wife."
+
+The Enchanter brought him to a closed door. "My three daughters are
+within that room," said he. "Put your hand through the hole in the door,
+and the one whose hand you hold when I open it--it is she you will have
+to marry."
+
+Then wasn't the mind of the King's Son greatly troubled? If he held the
+hand of Aefa or Gilveen he would lose his love Fedelma. He stood without
+putting out his hand. "Put your hand through the hole of the door or
+go away from my house altogether," said the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son ventured to put his hand through the hole in
+the door. The hands of the maidens inside were all held in a bunch. But
+no sooner did he touch them than he found that one had a broken finger.
+This he knew was Fedelma's hand, and this was the hand he held.
+
+"You may open the door now," said he to the Enchanter. He opened the
+door and the King of Ireland's Son drew Fedelma to him. "This is the
+maiden I choose," said he, "and now give her her dowry."
+
+"The dowry that should go with me," said Fedelma, "is the Slight
+Red Steed." "What dowry do you want with her, young man?" said the
+Enchanter.
+
+"No other dowry but the Slight Red Steed."
+
+"Go round to the stable then and get it. And I hope no well-trained
+wizard like you will come this way again."
+
+"No well-trained wizard am I, but the King of Ire-land's Son. And I have
+found your dwelling-place within a year and a day. And now I pluck the
+three hairs out of your heard, Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands."
+
+The beard of the Enchanter bristled like spikes on a hedgehog, and the
+balls of his eyes stuck out of his head. The King's Son plucked the
+three hairs of his beard before he could lift a hand or say a word.
+"Mount the Slight Red Steed and be off, the two of you," said the
+Enchanter.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son and Fedelma mounted the Slight Red Steed
+and rode off, and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, and his two
+daughters, Aefa and Gilveen, in a rage watched them ride away.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+They crossed the River of the Ox, and went over the Mountain of the Fox
+and were in the Glen of the Badger before the sun rose. And there, at
+the foot of the Hill of Horns, they found an old man gathering dew from
+the grass.
+
+"Could you tell us where we might find the Little Sage of the Mountain?"
+Fedelma asked the old man.
+
+"I am the Little Sage of the Mountain," said he, "and what is it you
+want of me?"
+
+"To betroth us for marriage," said Fedelma.
+
+"I will do that. Come to my house, the pair of you. And as you are both
+young and better able to walk than I am it would be fitting to let me
+ride on your horse."
+
+The King's Son and Fedelma got off and the Little Sage of the Mountain
+got on the Slight Red Steed. They took the path that went round the Hill
+of Horns. And at the other side of the hill they found a hut thatched
+with one great wing of a bird. The Little Sage got off the Slight Red
+Steed. "Now," said he, "you're both young, and I'm an old man and it
+would be fitting for you to do my day's work before you call upon me to
+do anything for you. Now would you," said he to the King of Ireland's
+Son, "take this spade in your hand and go into the garden and dig my
+potatoes for me? And would you," said he to Fedelma, "sit down at the
+quern-stone and grind the wheat for me?"
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went into the garden and Fedelma sat at the
+quern-stone that was just outside the door; he dug and she ground
+while the Little Sage sat at the fire looking into a big book. And when
+Fedelma and the King's Son were tired with their labor he gave them a
+drink of buttermilk.
+
+She made cakes out of the wheat she had ground and the King's Son washed
+the potatoes and the Little Sage boiled them and so they made their
+supper. Then the Little Sage of the Mountain melted lead and made two
+rings; and one ring he gave to Fedelma to give to the King's Son and one
+he gave to the King's Son to give to Fedelma. And when the rings were
+given he said, "You are betrothed for your marriage now."
+
+They stayed with the Little Sage of the Mountain that night, and when
+the sun rose they left the house that was thatched with the great wing
+of a bird and they turned towards the Meadow of Brightness and the Wood
+of Shadows that were between them and the King of Ireland's domain. They
+rode on the Slight Red Steed, and the Little Sage of the Mountain went
+with them a part of the way. He seemed downcast and when they asked him
+the reason he said, "I see dividing ways and far journeys for you both."
+"But how can that be," said the King's Son, "when, in a little while we
+will win to my father's domain?" "It may be I am wrong," said the Little
+Sage, "and if I am not, remember that devotion brings together dividing
+ways and that high hearts win to the end of every journey." He bade
+them good-by then, and turned back to his hut that was thatched with the
+great wing of a bird.
+
+They rode across the Meadow of Brightness and Fedelma's blue falcon
+sailed above them. "Yonder is a field of white flowers," said she, "and
+while we are crossing it you must tell me a story."
+
+"I know by heart," said the King's Son, "only the stories that Maravaun,
+my father's Councillor, has put into the book he is composing--the book
+that is called 'The Breastplate of Instruction.'"
+
+"Then," said Fedelma, "tell me a story from 'The Breastplate of
+Instruction,' while we are crossing this field of white flowers."
+
+"I will tell you the first story that is in it," said the King's Son.
+Then while they were crossing the field of white flowers the King's Son
+told Fedelma the story of
+
+
+
+The Ass and the Seal
+
+
+X
+
+A seal that had spent a curious fore-noon paddling around the island
+of Ilaun-Beg drew itself up on a rock the better to carry on its
+investigations. It was now within five yards of the actual island. On
+the little beach there were three curraghs in which the island-men went
+over the sea; they were turned bottom up and heavy stones were placed
+upon them to prevent their being carried away by the high winds. The
+seal noted them as he rested upon the flat rock. He noted too a little
+ass that was standing beyond the curraghs, sheltering himself where the
+cliffs hollowed in.
+
+Now this ass was as curious as the seal, and when he saw the smooth
+creature that was moving its head about with such intelligence he came
+down to the water's edge. Two of his legs were spancelled with a piece
+of straw rope, but being used to such impediment he came over without
+any awkwardness. He looked inquiringly at the seal.
+
+The gray-headed crow of the cliff lighted on a spar of rock and made
+herself an interpreter between the two. "Shaggy beast of the Island,"
+said the seal, "friend and follower of men, tell me about their fabulous
+existence."
+
+"Do you mean the hay-getters?" said the ass.
+
+"You know well whom he means," said the gray-headed crow viciously.
+"Answer him now."
+
+"You gravell me entirely when you ask about men," said the ass. "I don't
+know much about them. They live to themselves and I live to myself.
+Their houses are full of smoke and it blinds my eyes to go in. There
+used to be green fields here and high grass that became hay, but there's
+nothing like that now. I think men have given up eating what grows out
+of the ground. I see nothing, I smell nothing, but fish, fish, fish."
+
+The gray-headed crow had a vicious eye fixed on the ass all the time he
+was speaking. "You're saying all that," said she, "because they let the
+little horse stay all night in the house and beat you out of it."
+
+"My friend," said the seal, "it is evident that men deceive you by
+appearances. I know men. I have followed their boats and have
+listened to the wonderful sounds they make with their voices and with
+instruments. Do they not draw fish out of the depths by enchantments? Do
+they not build their habitations with music? Do they not draw the moon
+out of the sea and set it for a light in their houses? And is it not
+known that the fairest daughters of the sea have loved men?"
+
+"When I'm awake long o' moonlit nights I feel like that myself," said
+the ass. Then the recollections of these long, frosty nights made him
+yawn. Then he brayed.
+
+"What it is to live near men," said the seal in admiration. "What
+wonderful sounds!"
+
+"I'd cross the water and rub noses with you," said the ass, "only I'm
+afraid of crocodiles."
+
+"Crocodiles?" said the gray-headed crow.
+
+"Yes," said the ass. "It's because I'm of a very old family, you know.
+They were Egyptians. My people never liked to cross water in their own
+country. There were crocodiles there."
+
+"I don't want to waste any more time listening to nonsense," said the
+gray-headed crow. She flew to the ass's back and plucked out some of the
+felt. "I'll take this for my own habitation," she said, and flew back to
+the cliff.
+
+The ass would have kicked up his heels only two of his legs were
+fastened with the straw rope. He turned away, and without a word of
+farewell to the seal went scrambling up the bank of the island.
+
+The seal stayed for a while moving his head about intelligently. Then
+he slipped into the water and paddled off. "One feels their lives in
+music," he said; "great tones vibrate round the island where men live.
+It is very wonderful."
+
+"That," said the King's Son, "is the first story in 'The Breastplate of
+Instruction,'--'The Ass and the Seal.' And now you must tell me a story
+while we are crossing the field of blue flowers."
+
+"Then it will be a very little story," said Fedelma. They crossed a
+little field of blue flowers, and Fedelma told
+
+
+
+The Sending of the Crystal Egg
+
+
+XI
+
+The Kings of Murias heard that King Atlas had to bear The world upon his
+back, so they sent him then and there The Crystal Egg that would be
+the Swan of Endless Tales That his burthen for a while might lie on his
+shoulder-scales Fair-balanced while he heard the Tales the Swan poured
+forth--North-world Tales for the while he watched the Star of the North;
+And East-world Tales he would hear in the morning swart and cool, When
+the Lions Nimrod had spared came up from the drinking pool; West-world
+Tales for the King when he turned him with the sun; Then whispers of
+magic Tales from Africa, his own.
+
+But the Kings of Murias made the Crane their messenger--The fitful Crane
+whose thoughts are always frightening her She slipped from Islet to
+Isle, she sloped from Foreland to Coast; She passed through cracks in
+the mountains and came over trees like a ghost; And then fled back in
+dismay when she saw on the hollow plains The final battle between the
+Pigmies and the Cranes.
+
+Where is the Crystal Egg that was sent King Atlas then? Hatched it will
+be one day and the Tales will be told to men: That is if it be not laid
+in some King's old Treasury: That is if the fitful Crane did not lose it
+threading the Sea!
+
+They were not long going through the little field of blue flowers, and
+when they went through it they came to another field of white flowers.
+Fedelma asked the King's Son to tell her another story, and thereupon he
+told her the second story in "The Breastplate of Instruction."
+
+
+
+The Story of the Young Cuckoo
+
+
+XII
+
+The young cuckoo made desperate attempts to get himself through the
+narrow opening in the hollow tree. He screamed when he failed to get
+through.
+
+His foster-parents had remained so long beside him that they were wasted
+and sad while the other birds, their broods reared, were vigorous and
+joyful. They heard the one that had been reared in their nest, the young
+cuckoo, scream, but this time they did not fly towards him. The young
+cuckoo screamed again, but there was something in that scream that
+reminded the foster-parents of hawks. They flew away. They were
+miserable in their flight, these birds, for they knew they were
+committing a treason.
+
+They had built their nest in a hollow tree that had a little opening.
+A cuckoo laid her egg on the ground and, carrying it in her beak, had
+placed it in the nest. Their own young had been pushed out. They had
+worn themselves to get provision for the terrible and fascinating
+creature who had remained in their nest.
+
+When the time came for him to make his flight he could not get his
+body through the little opening. Yesterday he had begun to try. The two
+foster-parents flew to him again and again with food. But now their own
+nesting place had become strange to them. They would never go near it
+again. The young cuckoo was forsaken.
+
+A woodpecker ran round the tree. He looked into the hollow and saw the
+big bird crumpled up.
+
+"Hello," said the woodpecker. "How did you get here?"
+
+"Born here," said the young cuckoo sulkily.
+
+"Oh, were you?" said the woodpecker and he ran round the tree again.
+
+When he came back to the opening the young cuckoo was standing up with
+his mouth open.
+
+"Feed me," said he.
+
+"I've to rush round frightfully to get something for myself," said the
+woodpecker.
+
+"At least, someone ought to bring me food," said the young cuckoo.
+
+"How is that?" said the woodpecker.
+
+"Well, oughtn't they to?" said the young cuckoo.
+
+"I wouldn't say so," said the woodpecker, "you have the use of your
+wits, haven't you?" He ran round the trunk of the tree again and
+devoured a lean grub. The young cuckoo struggled at the opening and
+screamed again.
+
+"Don't be drawing too much attention to yourself," advised the
+woodpecker when he came to the opening again. "They might take you for a
+young hawk, you know."
+
+"Who might?" said the cuckoo. "The neighbors. They would pull a young
+hawk to pieces."
+
+"What am I to do?" said the young cuckoo.
+
+"What's in your nature to do?"
+
+"My nature?" said the young cuckoo. "It's my nature to swing myself on
+branches high up in a tree. It's my nature to spread out my wings and
+fly over pleasant places. It is my nature to be alone. But not alone as
+here. Alone with the sound of my own voice." Suddenly he cried, "Cuckoo,
+cuckoo, cuckoo!"
+
+"I know you now," said the woodpecker. "There's going to be a storm," he
+said; "trust a woodpecker to know that."
+
+The young cuckoo strove towards the big sky again, and he screamed so
+viciously that a rat that had just come out of the ditch fastened his
+eyes on him. That creature looked bad to the young cuckoo. Rain plopped
+on the leaves. Thunder crashed. A bolt struck the tree, and the part
+above the opening was torn away.
+
+The young cuckoo flung himself out on the grass and went awkwardly
+amongst the blue bells. "What a world," said he. "All this wet and fire
+and noise to get me out of the nest. What a world!" The young cuckoo
+was free, and these were the first words he said when he went into the
+world.
+
+That was the last story the King's Son told from Maravaun's book, "The
+Breastplate of Instruction." They had another little field of blue
+flowers to cross, and as they went across it Fedelma told the King's Son
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE CLOUD-WOMAN
+
+XIII
+
+     The Cloud-woman, Mor, was the daughter
+     Of Griann, the Sun,--well, and she
+     Made a marriage to equal that grandeur,
+     For her Goodman was Lir, the Sea.
+
+     The Cloud-woman Mor, she had seven
+     Strong sons, and the story-books say
+     Their inches grew in the night-time,
+     And grew over again in the day.
+
+     The Cloud-woman Mor,--as they grew in
+     Their bone, she grew in her pride,
+     Till her haughtiness turned away, men say,
+     Her goodman Lir from her side;
+
+     Then she lived in Mor's Home and she watched
+     With pride her sons and her crop,
+     Till one day the wish in her grew
+     To view from the mountain-top
+     All, all that she owned, so she
+     Traveled without any stop.
+
+     And what did she see? A thousand
+
+     Fields and her own fields small, small!
+     "What a fine and wide place is Eirinn," said she,
+     "I am Mor, but not great after all."
+
+     Then a herdsman came, and he told her
+     That her sons had stolen away:
+     They had left the calves in the hollow,
+     With the goose-flock they would not stay:
+
+     They had seen three ships on the sea
+     And nothing would do them but go:
+     Mor wept and wept when she heard it,
+     And her tears made runnels below.
+
+     Then her shining splendor departed:
+     She went, and she left no trace,
+     And the Cloud-woman, Mor, was never
+     Beheld again in that place.
+
+     The proud woman, Mor, who was daughter
+     Of Griann, the Sun, and who made
+     A marriage to equal that grandeur,
+     Passed away as a shade.
+
+
+XIV
+
+And that was the last story that Fedelma told, for they had crossed the
+Meadows of Brightness and had come to a nameless place--a stretch of
+broken ground where there were black rocks and dead grass and bare roots
+of trees with here and there a hawthorn tree in blossom. "I fear this
+place. We must not halt here," Fedelma said.
+
+And then a flock of ravens came from the rocks, and flying straight
+at them attacked Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son. The King's Son
+sprang from the steed and taking his sword in his hand he fought the
+ravens until he drove them away. They rode on again. But now the ravens
+flew back and attacked them again and the King of Ireland's Son fought
+them until his hands were wearied. He mounted the steed again, and they
+rode swiftly on. And the ravens came the third time and attacked them
+more fiercely than before. The King's Son fought them until he had
+killed all but three and until he was covered with their blood and
+feathers.
+
+The three that had escaped flew away. "Oh, mount the Slight Red Steed
+and let us ride fast," said Fedelma to the King's Son.
+
+"I am filled with weariness," he said. "Bid the steed stay by the rock,
+lay my sword at my side, and let me sleep with my head on your lap."
+
+"I fear for us both if you slumber here," said Fedelma.
+
+"I must sleep, and I pray that you let me lay my head on your lap."
+
+"I know not what would awaken you if you slumber here."
+
+"I will awaken," said the King's Son, "but now I must sleep, and I would
+slumber with my head on your lap."
+
+She got down from the Slight Red Steed and she bade it stay by a rock;
+she put his sword by the place he would sleep and she took his head upon
+her lap. The King's Son slept.
+
+As she watched over him a great fear grew in Fedelma. Every hour she
+would say to him, "Are you near waking, my dear, my dear?" But no flush
+of waking appeared on the face of the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+Then she saw a man coming across the nameless place, across the broken
+ground, with its dead grass and black rocks and with its roots and
+stumps of trees. The man who came near them was taller than any man she
+had seen before--he was tall as a tree. Fedelma knew him from what she
+had heard told about him--she knew him to be the King of the Land of
+Mist.
+
+The King of the Land of Mist came straight to them. He stood before
+Fedelma and he said, "I seek Fedelma, the daughter of the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-Lands and the fairest woman within the seas of Eirinn."
+
+"Then go to her father's house and seek Fedelma there," said she to him.
+
+"I have sought her there," said the King of the Land of Mist, "but she
+left her father's house to go with the King of Ireland's Son."
+
+"Then seek her in the Castle of the King of Ireland," said Fedelma.
+
+"That I will not. Fedelma is here, and Fedelma will come with me," said
+the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+"I will not leave him with whom I am plighted," said Fedelma.
+
+Then the King of the Land of Mist took up the King of Ireland's Son.
+High he held him--higher than a tree grows. "I will dash him down on the
+rocks and break the life within him," said he.
+
+"Do not so," said Fedelma. "Tell me. If I go with you what would win me
+back?"
+
+"Nothing but the sword whose stroke would slay me--the Sword of Light,"
+said the King of the Land of Mist. He held up the King of Ireland's Son
+again, and again he was about to dash him against the rocks. The blue
+falcon that was overhead flew down and settled on the rock behind her.
+Fedelma knew that what she and the King of the Land of Mist would say
+now would be carried some place and told to someone. "Leave my love, the
+King's Son, to his rest," she said.
+
+"If I do not break the life in him will you come with me, Fedelma?"
+
+"I will go with you if you tell again what will win me back from you."
+
+"The Sword of Light whose stroke will slay me."
+
+"I will go with you if you swear by all your vows and promises not to
+make me your wife nor your sweetheart for a year and a day."
+
+"I swear by all my vows and promises not to make you my wife nor my
+sweetheart for a year and a day."
+
+"I will go with you if you let it be that I fall into a slumber that
+will last for a year and a day."
+
+"I will let that be, fairest maid within the seas of Eirinn."
+
+"I will go with you if you will tell me what will take me out of that
+slumber."
+
+"If one cuts a tress of your hair with a stroke of the Sword of Light it
+will take you out of that slumber."
+
+The blue falcon that was behind heard what the King of the Land of
+Mist said. She rose up and remained overhead with her wings outspread.
+Fedelma took the ring off her own finger and put it on the finger of the
+King of Ireland's Son, and she wrote upon the ground in Ogham letters,
+"The King of the Land of Mist."
+
+"If it be not you who wakens me, love," she said, "may it be that I
+never waken."
+
+"Come, daughter of the Enchanter," said the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+"Pluck the branch of hawthorn and give it to me that I may fall into my
+slumber here," said Fedelma.
+
+The King of the Land of Mist plucked a flowering branch of hawthorn
+and gave it to her. She held the flowers against her face and fell into
+slumber. For a while she and the King of Ireland's Son were side by side
+in sleep.
+
+Then the King of the Land of Mist took Fedelma in his arms and strode
+along that nameless place, over the broken ground with its dead grass
+and its black rocks and its stumps and roots of trees and the three
+ravens that had escaped the sword of the King of Ire-land's Son followed
+where he went.
+
+
+XV
+
+Long, long after Fedelma had been taken by the King of the Land of Mist
+the King of Ireland's Son came out of his slumber. He saw around him
+that nameless place with its black rocks and bare roots of trees. He
+remembered he had come to it with Fedelma. He sprang up and looked for
+her, but no one was near him. "Fedelma, Fedelma!" He searched and he
+called, but it was as if no one had ever been with him. He found his
+sword; be searched for his steed, but the Slight Red Steed was gone too.
+
+He thought that the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands had followed them
+and had taken Fedelma from him. He turned to go towards the Enchanter's
+country and then he found what Fedelma had written upon the ground in
+Ogham letters
+
+____II_____________\/______//___        IIII       /\
+
+"The King of the Land of Mist"
+
+He did not know what direction to take to get to the dominion of the
+King of the Land of Mist. He crossed the broken ground and he found no
+trace of Fedelma nor of him who had taken her. He found himself close to
+the Wood of Shadows. He went through it. As he went on he saw scores and
+scores of shadows. Nothing else was in the wood--no bird, no squirrel,
+no cricket. The shadows had the whole wood to themselves. They ran
+swiftly from tree to tree, and now and then one would stop at a tree and
+wait. Often the King of Ireland's Son came close to a waiting shadow.
+One became like a small old man with a beard. The King's Son saw this
+shadow again and again. What were they, the shadows, he asked himself?
+Maybe they were wise creatures and could tell him what he wanted to
+know.
+
+He thought he heard them whispering together. Then one little shadow
+with trailing legs went slowly from tree to tree. The King of Ireland's
+Son thought he would catch and hold a shadow and make it tell him where
+he should go to find the dominion of the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+He went after one shadow and another and waited beside a tree for one to
+come. Often he thought he saw the small old man with the beard and
+the little creature with trailing legs. And then he began to see other
+shadows--men with the heads of rooks and men with queer heavy swords
+upon their shoulders. He followed them on and on through the wood and he
+heard their whispering becoming louder and louder, and then he thought
+that as he went on the shadows, instead of slipping before him, began to
+turn back and go past and surround him. Then he heard a voice just under
+the ground at his feet say, "Shout--shout out your own name, Son of King
+Connal!" Then the King's Son shouted out his own name and the whispers
+ceased in the wood and the shadows went backward and forward no more.
+
+He went on and came to a stream within the wood and he went against its
+flow all night as well as all day, hoping to meet some living thing that
+would tell him how he might come to the dominion of the King of the Land
+of Mist. In the forenoon of another day he came to where the wood grew
+thin and then he went past the last trees.
+
+He saw a horse grazing: he ran up to it and found that it was the Slight
+Red Steed that had carried Fedelma and himself from the house of the
+Enchanter. Then as he laid hold of the steed a hound ran up to him and
+a hawk flew down and he saw that they were the hawk and the hound that
+used to be with him when he rode abroad from his father's Castle.
+
+He mounted and seeing his hound at his heel and his hawk circling above
+he felt a longing to go back to his father's Castle which he knew to be
+near and where he might find out where the King of the Land of Mist had
+his dominion.
+
+So the King of Ireland's Son rode back to his father's Castle--
+
+   His hound at his heel,
+   His hawk on his wrist.
+
+
+
+
+WHEN THE KING OF THE CATS CAME TO KING CONNAL'S DOMINION
+
+
+
+I
+
+The King of Ireland's Son was home again, but as he kept asking about a
+King and a Kingdom no one had ever heard of, people thought he had lost
+his wits in his search for the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. He
+rode abroad every day to ask strangers if they knew where the King of
+the Land of Mist had his dominion and he came back to his father's every
+night in the hope that one would be at the Castle who could tell him
+where the place that he sought was. Maravaun wanted to relate to him
+fables from "The Breastplate of Instruction" but the King's Son did not
+hear a word that Maravaun said. After a while he listened to the things
+that Art, the King's Steward, related to him, for it was Art who had
+shown the King's Son the leaden ring that was on his finger. He took it
+off, remembering the betrothal ring that the Little Sage had made, and
+then he saw that it was not his, but Fedelma's ring that he wore. Then
+he felt as if Fedelma had sent a message to him, and he was less wild in
+his thoughts.
+
+Afterwards, in the evenings, when he came back from his ridings, he
+would cross the meadows with Art, the King's Steward, or would stand
+with him while the herdsmen drove the cattle into the byres. Then he
+would listen to what Art related to him. And one evening he heard Art
+say, "The most remarkable event that happened was the coming into this
+land of the King of the Cats."
+
+"I will listen to what you tell me about it," said the King's Son.
+"Then," said Art, the King's Steward, "to your father's Son in all truth
+be it told"--
+
+
+
+The King of the Cats stood up. He was a grand creature. His body was
+brown and striped across as if one had burned on wood with a hot poker.
+Like all the race of the Royal Cats of the Isle of Man he was without a
+tail. But he had extraordinarily fine whiskers. They went each side of
+his face to the length of a dinner-dish. He had such eyes that when he
+turned one of them upward the bird that was flying across dropped from
+the sky. And when he turned the other one down he could make a hole in
+the floor.
+
+He lived in the Isle of Man. Once he had been King of the Cats of
+Ireland and Britain, of Norway and Denmark, and the whole Northern and
+Western World. But after the Norsemen won in the wars the Cats of Norway
+and Britain swore by Thor and Odin that they would give him no more
+allegiance. So for a hundred years and a day he had got allegiance
+only from the Cats of the Western World; that is, from Ireland and the
+Islands beyond.
+
+The tribute he received was still worth having. In May he was sent a
+boatful of herring. In August he was let have two boatfuls of mackerel.
+In November he was given five barrels of preserved mice. At other
+seasons he had for his tribute one out of every hundred birds that flew
+across the Island on their way to Ireland--tomtits, pee-wits, linnets,
+siskins, starlings, martins, wrens and tender young barn owls. He was
+also sent the following as marks of allegiance and respect: a salmon,
+to show his dominion over the rivers; the skin of a marten to show his
+dominion in the woods; a live cricket to show his dominion in the houses
+of men; the horn of a cow, to show his right to a portion of the milk
+produced in the Western World.
+
+
+But the tribute from the Western World became smaller and smaller. One
+year the boat did not come with the herring. Mackerel was sent to him
+afterwards but he knew it was sent to him because so much was
+being taken out of the sea that the farmer-men were plowing their
+mackerel-catches into the land to make their crops grow. Then a year
+came when he got neither the salmon nor the marten skin, neither the
+live cricket nor the cow's horn. Then he got righteously and royally
+indignant. He stood up on his four paws on the floor of his palace, and
+declared to his wife that he himself was going to Ireland to know what
+prevented the sending of his lawful tribute to him. He called for
+his Prime Minister then and said, "Prepare for Us our Speech from the
+Throne."
+
+The Prime Minister went to the Parliament House and wrote down "Oyez,
+Oyez, Oyez!" But he could not remember any more of the ancient language
+in which the speeches from the Throne were always written. He went home
+and hanged himself with a measure of tape and his wife buried the body
+under the hearth-stone.
+
+"Speech or no speech," said the King of the Cats, "I'm going to pay a
+royal visit to my subjects in Ireland."
+
+He went to the top of the cliff and he made a spring. He landed on the
+deck of a ship that was bringing the King of Norway's daughter to be
+married to the King of Scotland's son. The ship nearly sank with the
+crash of his body on it. He ran up the sails and placed himself on the
+mast of the ship. There he gathered his feet together and made another
+spring. This time he landed on a boat that was bringing oak-timber to
+build a King's Palace in London. He stood where the timber was highest
+and made another spring. This time he landed on the Giant's Causeway
+that runs from Ireland out into the sea. He picked his steps from
+boulder to boulder, and then walked royally and resolutely on the ground
+of Ireland. A man was riding on horseback with a woman seated on the
+saddle behind him. The King of the Cats waited until they came up.
+
+"My good man," said he very grandly, "when you go back to your house,
+tell the ash-covered cat in the corner that the King of the Cats has come
+to Ireland to see him."
+
+His manner was so grand that the man took off his hat and the woman made
+a courtesy. Then the King of the Cats sprang into the branch of a tree
+of the forest and slept till it was past the mid-day heat.
+
+I nearly forgot to tell you that as he slept on the branch his whiskers
+stood around his face the breadth of a dinner-dish either way.
+
+
+
+II
+
+The next day the King's Son rode abroad and where he went that day he
+saw no man nor woman nor living creature in the land around. But coming
+back he saw a falcon sailing in the air above. He rode on and the falcon
+sailed above, never rising high in the air, and never swooping down.
+The King's Son fitted an arrow to his bow and shot at the falcon.
+Immediately it rose in the air and flew swiftly away, but a feather from
+it fell before him. The King's Son picked the feather up. It was a blue
+feather. Then the King's Son thought of Fedelma's falcon--of the bird
+that flew above them when they rode across the Meadows of Brightness.
+It might be Fedelma's falcon, the one he had shot at, and it might have
+come to show him the way to the Land of Mist. But the falcon was not to
+be seen now.
+
+He did not go amongst the strangers in his father's Castle that evening;
+but he stood with Art who was watching the herdsmen drive the cattle
+into the byres. And Art after a while said, "I will tell you more about
+the coming of the King of the Cats into King Connal's Dominion. And as
+before I say
+
+"To your father's Son in all truth be it told "--
+
+
+The King of the Cats waited on the branch of the tree until the moon
+was in the sky like a roast duck on a dish of gold, and still neither
+retainer, vassal nor subject came to do him service. He was vexed, I
+tell you, at the want of respect shown him.
+
+This was the reason why none of his subjects came to him for such a long
+time: The man and woman he had spoken to went into their house and did
+not say a word about the King of the Cats until they had eaten their
+supper. Then when the man had smoked his second pipe, he said to the
+woman: "That was a wonderful thing that happened to us to-day. A cat to
+walk up to two Christians and say to them, 'Tell the ashy pet in your
+chimney corner at home that the King of the Cats has come to see him.'"
+
+No sooner were the words said than the lean, gray, ash-covered cat that
+lay on the hearthstone sprang on the back of the man's chair.
+
+"I will say this," said the man; "it's a bad time when two Christians
+like ourselves are stopped on their way back from the market and
+ordered--ordered, no less--to give a message to one's own cat lying on
+one's own hearthstone."
+
+"By my fur and daws, you're a long time coming to his message," said the
+cat on the back of the chair; "what was it, anyway?"
+
+"The King of the Cats has come to Ireland to see you," said the man,
+very much surprised.
+
+"It's a wonder you told it at all," said the cat, going to the door.
+"And where did you see His Majesty?"
+
+"You shouldn't have spoken," said the man's wife.
+
+"And how did I know a cat could understand?" said the man.
+
+"When you have done talking amongst yourselves," said the cat, "would
+you tell me where you met His Majesty?"
+
+"Nothing will I tell you," said the man, "until I hear your own name
+from you."
+
+"My name," said the cat, "is Quick-to-Grab, and well you should know
+it."
+
+"Not a word will we tell you," said the woman, "until we hear what the
+King of the Cats is doing in Ireland. Is he bringing wars and rebellions
+into the country?"
+
+"Wars and rebellions,--no, ma'am," said Quick-to-Grab, "but deliverance
+from oppression. Why are the cats of the country lean and lazy and
+covered with ashes? It is because the cat that goes outside the house in
+the sunlight, to hunt or to play, is made to suffer with the loss of an
+eye."
+
+"And who makes them suffer with the loss of an eye?" said the woman.
+"One whose reign is nearly over now," said Quick-to-Grab. "But tell me
+where you saw His Majesty?"
+
+"No," said the man. "No," said the woman, "for we don't like your
+impertinence. Back with you to the hearthstone, and watch the mouse-hole
+for us."
+
+Quick-to-Grab walked straight out of the door.
+
+"May no prosperity come to this house," said he, "for denying me when I
+asked where the King of the Cats was pleased to speak to you."
+
+But he put his ear to the door when he went outside and he heard the
+woman say,--
+
+"The horse will tell him that we saw the King of the Cats a mile this
+side of the Giant's Causeway." (That was a mistake. The horse could
+not have told it at all, because horses never know the language that is
+spoken in houses--only cats know it fully and dogs know a little of it.)
+
+Quick-to-Grab now knew where the King of the Cats might be found. He
+went creeping by hedges, loping across fields, bounding through woods,
+until he came under the branch in the forest where the King of the
+Cats rested, his whiskers standing round his face the breadth of a
+dinner-dish.
+
+When he came-under the branch Quick-to-Grab mewed a little in Egyptian,
+which is the ceremonial language of the Cats. The King of the Cats came
+to the end of the branch.
+
+"Who are you, vassal?" said he in Phoenician.
+
+"A humble retainer of my lord," said Quick-to-Grab in High-Pictish (this
+is a language very suitable to cats but it is only their historians who
+now use it).
+
+They continued their conversation in Irish.
+
+"What sign shall I show the others that will make them know you are the
+King of the Cats?" said Quick-to-Grab.
+
+The King of the Cats chased up the tree and pulled down heavy branches.
+"There is a sign of my royal prowess," said he.
+
+"It's a good sign," said Quick-to-Grab. They were about to talk again
+when Quick-to-Grab put down his tail and ran up another tree greatly
+frightened.
+
+"What ails you?" said the King of the Cats. "Can you not stay still
+while you are speaking to your lord and master?"
+
+"Old-fellow Badger is coming this way," said Quick-to-Grab, "and when he
+puts his teeth in one he never lets go."
+
+Without saying a word the King of the Cats jumped down from the tree.
+Old-fellow Badger was coming through the glade. When he saw the King of
+the Cats crouching there he stopped and bared his terrible teeth. The
+King of the Cats bent himself to spring. Then Old-fellow Badger turned
+round and went lumbering back.
+
+"Oh, by my claws and fur," said Quick-to-Grab, "you are the real King of
+the Cats. Let me be your Councillor. Let me advise your Majesty in the
+times that will be so difficult for your subjects and yourself. Know
+that the Cats of Ireland are impoverished and oppressed. They are under
+a terrible tyranny."
+
+"Who oppresses my vassals, retainers and subjects?" said the King of the
+Cats.
+
+"The Eagle-Emperor. He has made a law that no cat may leave a man's
+house as long as the birds (he makes an exception in the case of owls)
+have any business abroad."
+
+"I will tear him to pieces," said the King of the Cats. "How can I reach
+him?"
+
+"No cat has thought of reaching him," said Quick-to-Grab, "they only
+think of keeping out of his way. Now let me advise your Majesty. None
+of our enemies must know that you have come into this country. You must
+appear as a common cat."
+
+"What, me?" said the King of the Cats.
+
+"Yes, your Majesty, for the sake of the deliverance of your subjects you
+will have to appear as a common cat."
+
+"And be submissive and eat scraps?"
+
+"That will be only in the daytime," said Quick-to-Grab, "in the
+night-time you will have your court and your feasts."
+
+"At least, let the place I stay in be no hovel," said the King of
+the Cats. "I shall refuse to go into a house where there are washing
+days--damp clothes before a fire and all that."
+
+"I shall use my best diplomacy to safeguard your comfort and dignity,"
+said Quick-to-Grab, "please invest me as your Prime Minister."
+
+The King of the Cats invested Quick-to-Grab by biting the fur round his
+neck. Then the King and his Prime Minister parted. The King of the Cats
+took up quarters for a day or two in a round tower. Quick-to-Grab made a
+journey through the country-side. He went into every house and whispered
+a word to every cat that was there, and whether the cat was watching a
+mouse-hole, or chasing crickets, or playing with kittens, when he or she
+heard that word they sat up and considered.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Early, early, next day the King of Ireland's Son rode out in search
+of the blue falcon, but although he rode from the ring of day to the
+gathering of the dark clouds he saw no sign of it on rock or tree or in
+the air. Very wearily he rode back, and after his horse was stabled he
+stood with Art in the meadows watching the cattle being driven by. And
+Art, the King's Steward, said: "The Coming of the King of the Cats into
+King Connal's dominion is a story still to be told. To your father's
+Son in all truth be it told"--
+
+
+Quick-to-Grab, in consultation with the Seven Elders of the Cat-Kin
+decided that the Blacksmith's forge would be a fit residence for the
+King of the Cats. It was clean and commodious. But the best reason of
+all for his going there was this: people and beasts from all parts
+came into the forge and the King of the Cats might learn from their
+discussions where the Eagle-Emperor was and how he might be destroyed.
+
+His Majesty found that the Forge was not a bad residence for a King
+living unbeknownst. It was dry and warm. He liked the look of the flames
+that mounted up with the blowing of the bellows. He used to sit on a
+heap of old saddles on the floor and watch the horses being shod or
+waiting to be shod. He listened to the talk of the men. The people in
+the Forge treated him respectfully and often referred to his size, his
+appearance and his fine manners.
+
+Every night he went out to a feast that the cats had prepared for him.
+Quick-to-Grab always walked back to the Forge with him to give a Prime
+Minister's advice. He warned His Majesty not to let the human beings
+know that he understood and could converse in their language--(all cats
+know men's language, but men do not know that the cats know). He told
+him not to be too haughty (as a King might be inclined to be) to any
+creature in the Forge.
+
+The King of the Cats took this advice. He used even to twitch his ears
+as a mark of respect to Mahon, the hound whose kennel was just outside
+the forge, and to the hounds that Mahon had to visit him. He even made
+advances to the Cock who walked up and down outside.
+
+This Cock made himself very annoying to the King of the Cats. He used
+to strut up and down saying to himself over and over again, "I'm
+Cock-o'-the-Walk, I'm Cock-o'-the-Walk." Sometimes he would come into
+the Forge and say it to the horses. The King of the Cats wondered how
+the human beings could put up with a creature who was so stupid and so
+vain. He had a red comb that fell over one eye. He had purple feathers
+on his tail. He had great spurs on his heels. He used to put his head on
+one side and yawn when the King of the Cats appeared.
+
+Cock-o'-the-Walk used to come into the Forge at night and sleep on the
+bellows. And when the King of the Cats came back from the feasts he
+used to waken up and say to himself, "I'm Cock-o'-the-Walk, I'm
+Cock-o'-the-Walk. The Cats are not a respectable people."
+
+One noonday there were men in the Forge. They were talking to the Smith.
+Said one, "Could you tell us, Smith, where iron came from?" The King of
+the Cats knew but he said nothing. Cock-o'-the-Walk came to the door and
+held his head as if he were listening.
+
+"I can't tell where iron came from," said the Smith, "but if that Cock
+could talk he could tell you. The world knows that the Cock is the
+wisest and the most ancient of creatures."
+
+"I'm Cock-o'-the-Walk," said the Cock to a rusty ass's shoe.
+
+"Yes, the Cock is a wonderful creature," said the man who had asked the
+question.
+
+"Not wonderful at all," said the King of the Cats, "and if you had asked
+me I could have told you where iron came from."
+
+"And where did iron come from?" said the Smith.
+
+"From the Mountains of the Moon," said the King of the Cats.
+
+The men in the Forge put their hands on their knees and looked down at
+him. Mahon the hound came into the Forge with other hounds at his tail,
+and seeing the men looking at the King of the Cats, Mahon put his nose
+to him. Cock-o'-the-Walk flapped his wings insolently. The King of the
+Cats struck at the red hanging comb with his paw. The Cock flew up in
+the air. The King of the Cats sprang out of the window, and as he did,
+Mahon and the other hounds sprang after him--
+
+
+IV
+
+The King of Ireland's Son rode towards the East the next day, and in the
+first hour's journey he saw the blue falcon sailing above. He followed
+where it went and the falcon never lifted nor stooped, but sailed
+steadily on, only now and again beating the air with its wings. Over
+benns and through glens and across moors the blue falcon flew and the
+King of Ireland's Son followed. Then his horse stumbled; he could not go
+any further, and he lost sight of the blue falcon.
+
+Black night was falling down on the ground when he came back to the
+King's Castle. Art, the King's Steward, was waiting for him and he
+walked beside his limping horse. And Art said when they were a little
+way together, "The Coming of the King of the Cats is a story still to be
+told.
+
+"To your father's Son in all truth be it told "--
+
+
+By the magic powers they possessed it was made known to all the cats
+in the country that their King was being pursued by the hounds. Then on
+every hearthstone a cat howled. Cats sprang to the doors, overturning
+cradles upon children. They stood upon the thresholds and they all made
+the same curse--"That ye may break your backs, that ye may break your
+backs before ye catch the King of the Cats."
+
+When he heard the howls of his vassals, retainers and subjects, the King
+of the Cats turned over on his back and clawed at the first hound that
+came after him. He stood up then. So firmly did he set himself on his
+four legs that those that dashed at him did not overthrow him. He
+humped up his body and lifted his forepaws. The hounds held back. A horn
+sounded and that gave them an excuse to get away from the claws and the
+teeth, the power and the animosity of the King of the Cats.
+
+Then, even though it might cost each and every one of them the loss of
+an eye, the cats that had sight of him came running up. "We will go with
+you, my lord, we will help you, my lord," they cried all together.
+
+"Go back to the hearthstones," said the King of the Cats. "Go back and
+be civil and quiet again in the houses. You will hear of my deeds. I go
+to find the tracks of our enemy, the Eagle-Emperor."
+
+When they heard that announcement the cats lamented, and the noise of
+their lamentation was so dreadful that horses broke their harnesses
+where they were yoked; men and women lost the color of their faces
+thinking some dreadful visitation was coming on the land; every bag of
+oats and rye turned five times to the right and five times to the left
+with the fright it got; dishes were broken, knives were hurled round,
+and the King's Castle was shaken to the bottom stone.
+
+"It is not the time to seek the tracks of the Eagle-Emperor," said
+Quick-to-Grab. "Stay for a while longer in men's houses."
+
+"Never," said the King of the Cats. "Never will I stay by the
+hearthstone and submit to be abused by cocks and hounds and men. I will
+range the world openly now and seek out the enemy of the Cat-Kind, the
+Eagle-Emperor."
+
+Without once turning his back he went towards the wood that was filled
+with his enemies, the birds. The cats, when they saw their petitions
+were no use, went everyone back to the house where he or she stayed.
+Each one sat before a mouse-hole and pretended to be watching. But
+though mice stirred all round them the cats of Ireland never turned a
+head that night.
+
+It was the wren, the smallest of birds, that saw him and knew him for
+the King of the Cats. The wren flew through the wood to summon the
+Hawk-Clan. But it was towards sunset now and the hawks had taken up
+their stations at the edge of the wood to watch that they might pick up
+the farmers' chickens. They wouldn't turn an eye when the wren told
+them that a cat was in the wood during the time forbidden to cats to be
+outside the houses of men. "It is the King of the Cats," said the wren.
+None of the hawks lifted a wing. They were waiting for the chickens that
+would stray about the moment after sunset.
+
+But if the wren couldn't rouse the Hawk-Clan she was able to rouse the
+other bird-tribes. "A cat, a cat, on your lives a cat," she called out
+as she flew through the wood. The rooks that were going home now rose
+above the trees, cawing threats. The blackbirds, thrushes and jays
+screamed as they flew before the King of the Cats. The woodpeckers,
+hedge-sparrows, tom-tits, robins and linnets chattered as they flew
+behind him. Sometimes the young rooks made a great show of attacking
+him. They flew down from the flock. "He is here, here, here," they cawed
+and flew up again. The rooks kept telling themselves and the other birds
+in the wood what they were going to do with the King of the Cats. But a
+single raven did more against him than the thousand rooks that made so
+much noise. This raven was in a hole in the tree. She struck the King of
+the Cats on the head with her beak as he went past.
+
+The King of the Cats was annoyed by the uproar the birds were making and
+he was angered by the raven's stroke, but he did not want to enter into
+a battle with the birds. He was on his way to the house of the Hag of
+the Wood who was then known as the Hag of the Ashes. Now as this is the
+first time you have heard of the Hag of the Ashes, I'll have to tell
+you how the King of the Cats had heard of her and how he knew where her
+house was in the wood.
+
+
+
+V
+
+The next day the King's Son put a bridle on the Slight Red Steed and
+rode towards the East again. He saw the blue falcon and he followed
+where it flew. Over benns, and through glens and across mountains and
+moors the blue falcon went and the Slight Red Steed neither swerved nor
+stumbled but went as the bird flew. The falcon lighted on a pine tree
+that grew alone. The King's Son rode up and put his hands to the tree
+to climb and put his head against it, and as he did he heard speech from
+the tree. "The stroke of the Sword of Light will slay the King of the
+Land of Mist and the stroke of the Sword of Light that will cut a tress
+of her hair will awaken Fedelma." There was no more speech from the tree
+and the falcon rose from its branches and flew high up in the air. Then
+the King of Ireland's Son rode back towards his father's Castle.
+
+He went to the meadow and stood with Art and listened to what Art had to
+tell him. And as before the King's Steward began--
+
+"To your father's Son in all truth be it told"--
+
+
+Quick-to-Grab had said to the King of the Cats, "If ever you need the
+counsel of a human being, go to no one else but the Hag of the Ashes who
+was once called the Hag of the Wood. In the very centre of the wood four
+ash trees are drawn together at the tops, wattles are woven round these
+ash trees, and in the little house made in this way the Hag of the Ashes
+lives, with no one near her since her nine daughters went away, but her
+goat that's her only friend." The King of the Cats was now in the centre
+of the wood. He saw four ash trees drawn together at the tops and he
+jumped to them.
+
+Now the Hag of the Ashes had a bad neighbor. This was a crane that had
+built her nest across the roof of the little house. The nest prevented
+the smoke from coming out at the top and the house below was filled
+with it. The Hag could hardly keep alive on account of the smoke and she
+could neither take away the nest nor banish the bird.
+
+The crane was there when the King of the Cats sprang on the roof. She
+was sitting with her two legs stretched out, and when the King of the
+Cats came down beside her she slipped away and sailed over the trees.
+"Time for me to be going," said the crane. And from that day to this she
+never came back to the house of the Hag of the Ashes.
+
+"Oh, thanks to you, good creature," said the Hag of the Ashes, coming
+out of the house. "Tear down her nest now and let the smoke rise up
+through the roof."
+
+The King of the Cats tore up the sticks and wool that the crane's nest
+was made of, and the smoke came up through the top of the house. "Oh,
+thanks to you, good creature, that has destroyed the cross crane's nest.
+Come down on my floor now and I'll do everything that will serve you."
+
+The King of the Cats jumped down on the floor of the Hag's house and saw
+the Hag of the Ashes sitting in a corner, She was a little, little woman
+in a gray cloak. All over the floor there were ashes in heaps, for
+she used to light a fire in one corner and when it was burnt out light
+another beside the ashes of the first. The smoke had never gone through
+the hole in the roof since the crane had built her nest on the top of
+the house. Her face was yellow with the smoke and her eyes were half
+closed on account of it.
+
+"Do you know who I am, Hag of the Ashes?" said the King of the Cats when
+he stood on the floor.
+
+"You are a cat, honey," said the Hag of the Ashes. "I am the King of the
+Cats."
+
+"The King of the Cats you are indeed. And it was you who let the smoke
+out of the top of my little house by destroying the nest the cross crane
+had built on it."
+
+"It was I who did that."
+
+"Welcome to you then, King of the Cats. And what service can the Hag of
+the Ashes do for you in return?"
+
+"I would go to where the Eagle-Emperor is. You must show me the way."
+
+"By my cloak I will do that. The Eagle-Emperor lives on the top of the
+Hill of Horns."
+
+"And how can I get to the top of the Hill of Horns?"
+
+"I don't know how you can get there at all. All over the Hill is bare
+starvation. No four-footed thing can reach the top--no four-footed
+thing, I mean, but my goat that's tied to the hawthorn bush outside."
+
+"I will ride on the back of your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns."
+
+"No, no, good King of the Cats. I have only my goat for company and how
+could I bear to be parted from him?"
+
+"Lend me your goat, and when I come back from the Hill of Horns I will
+plate his horns with gold and shoe his hooves with silver."
+
+"No, no, good King of the Cats. How could I bear my goat to be away from
+me, and I having no other company?"
+
+"If you do not let me ride on your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns
+I will leave a sign on your house that will bring the cross crane to
+build her nest on the top of it again."
+
+"Then take my goat, King of the Cats, take my goat but let him come back
+to me soon."
+
+"I will. Come with me now and bid him take me to the top of the Hill of
+Horns."
+
+The King of the Cats marched out of the house and the Hag of the Ashes
+hobbled after him. The goat was lying under the hawthorn bush. He put
+his horns to the ground when they came up to him.
+
+"Will you go to the Hill of Horns?" said the Hag of the Ashes.
+
+"Indeed, that I will not do," said the goat.
+
+"Oh, the soft tops of the hedges on the way to the Hill of Horns--sweet
+in the mouth of a goat they should be," said the Hag of the Ashes. "But
+my own poor goat wants to stay here and eat the tops of the burnt-up
+thistles."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me of the hedges on the way to the Hill of Horns
+before?" said the goat, rising to his feet. "To the Hill of Horns I'll
+go."
+
+"And will you let a cat ride on your back to the Hill of Horns?"
+
+"Indeed, I will not do that."
+
+"Then, my poor goat, I'll not untie the rope that's round your neck, for
+you can't go to the Hill of Horns without this cat riding on your back."
+
+"Let him sit on my back then and hold my horns, and I'll take no notice
+of him."
+
+The Hag of the Ashes untied the rope that was round his neck, the King
+of the Cats jumped up on the goat's back, and they started off on the
+path through the wood. "Oh, how I'll miss my goat, until he comes back
+to me with gold on his horns and silver on his hooves," the Hag of the
+Ashes cried after them.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+The King of Ireland's Son did not leave the Castle the next day, but
+stayed to question those who came to it about the Sword of Light. And
+some had heard of the Sword of Light and some had not heard of it. In
+the afternoon he was in the chambers of the Castle and he watched his
+two foster-brothers, Dermott and Downal, the sons of Caintigern, the
+Queen, playing chess. They played the game upon his board and with his
+figures. And when he went up to them and told them they had permission
+to use the board and the figures, they said, "We had forgotten that you
+owned these things." The King's Son saw that everything in the Castle
+was coming into the possession of his foster-brothers.
+
+He found another board with other chess-men and he played a game with
+the King's Steward. And Art said, "The coming of the King of the Cats
+into King Connal's Dominion is a story still to be told.
+
+"To your father's Son in all truth be it told "--
+
+
+What should a goat do but ramble down laneways, wander across fields,
+stray along hedges and stay to rest under shady trees? All this the
+Hag's goat did. But at last he brought the King of the Cats to the foot
+of the Hill of Horns.
+
+And what was the Hill of Horns like, asks my kind foster-child. It was
+hills of stones on the top of a hill of stones. Only a goat could foot
+it from pebble to stone, from stone to boulder, from boulder Ko crag,
+and from crag to mountain-shoulder. It was well and not ill what the
+Hag's goat did. But then thunder sounded; lightning struck fire out of
+the stones, the wind mixed itself with the rain and the tempest pelted
+cat and goat. The goat stood on a mountain-shoulder. The wind rushed
+up from the bottom and carried the companions to the top of the Hill of
+Horns. Down sprang the cat. But the goat stood on his hind-legs to
+butt back at the wind. The wind caught him between the beard and the
+under-quarters and swept him from the top and down the other side of the
+hill (and what happened to the Hag's goat after this I never heard). The
+King of the Cats put his claws into the crevices of a standing stone and
+held to it with great tenacity. And then, when the wind abated and he
+looked across his shoulder, he found that he was standing beside the
+nest of the Eagle-Emperor.
+
+It was a hollow edged with rocks, and round that hollow were scattered
+the horns of the deer and goats that the Eagle-Emperor had carried off.
+And in the hollow there was a calf and a hare and a salmon. The King of
+the Cats sprang into the Eagle-Emperor's nest. First he ate the salmon.
+Then he stretched himself between the hare and the calf and waited for
+the Eagle-Emperor.
+
+At last he appeared. Down he came to the nest making circles in the air.
+He lighted on the rocky rim. The King of the Cats rose with body bent
+for the spring, and if the Eagle-Emperor was not astonished at his
+appearance it was because an Eagle can never be astonished.
+
+A brave man would be glad if he could have seen the Eagle-Emperor as
+he crouched there on the rock rim of his nest. He spread down his wings
+till they were great strong shields. He bent down his outspread tail.
+He bent down his neck so that his eyes might look into the creature that
+faced him. And his cruel, curved, heavy beak was ready for the stroke.
+
+But the King of the Cats sprang into the air. The Eagle lifted himself
+up but the Cat came down on his broad back. The Eagle-Emperor screamed
+his war-scream and flew off the hill. He struck at the King of the Cats
+with the backs of his broad wings. Then he plunged down. On the stones
+below he would tear his enemy with beak and claws.
+
+It was the Cat that reached the ground. As the Eagle went to strike at
+him he sprang again and tore the Eagle's breast. Then the Eagle-Emperor
+caught the King of the Cats in his claws and flew up again, screaming
+his battle-scream. Drops of blood from both fell on the ground. The
+Eagle had not a conqueror's grip on his enemy and the King of the Cats
+was able to tear at him.
+
+It happened that Curoi, King of the Munster Fairies, was marching at the
+head of his troop to play a game of hurling with the Fianna of Ireland,
+captained by Fergus, and for the hand of Aine', the daughter of
+Mananaun, the Lord of the Sea. Just when the ball was about to be thrown
+in the air the Eagle-Emperor and the King of the Cats were seen mixed
+together in their struggle. One troop took the side of the Eagle and the
+other took the side of the Cat. The men of the country came up and took
+sides too. Then the men began to fight amongst themselves and some were
+left dead on the ground. And this went on until there were hosts of the
+men of Ireland fighting each other on account of the Eagle-Emperor
+and the King of the Cats. The King of the Fairies and the Chief of the
+Fianna marched their men away to a hill top where they might watch the
+battle in the air and the battles on the ground. "If this should go
+on," said Curoi, "our troops will join in and men and Fairies will be
+slaughtered. We must end the combat in the air." Saying this he took up
+the hurling-ball and flung it at the Cat and Eagle. Both came down on
+the ground. The Cat was about to spring, the Eagle was about to pounce,
+when Curoi darted between them and struck both with his spear. Eagle and
+Cat became figures of stone. And there they are now, a Stone Eagle with
+his wings outspread and a Stone Cat with his teeth bared and his paws
+raised. And the Eagle-Emperor and the King of the Cats will remain like
+that until Curoi strikes them again with his fairy-spear.
+
+When the Cat and the Eagle were turned into stone the men of the country
+wondered for a while and then they went away. And the Fairies of Munster
+and the Fianna of Ireland played the hurling match for the hand of Aine'
+the daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea, and what the result of
+that hurling match was is told in another book.
+
+And that ends my history of the coming into Ire-land of the King of the
+Cats.
+
+
+The King of Ireland's Son left Art and went into an unused room in the
+Castle to search for a little bell that he might put upon the Slight Red
+Steed. He found the little bell, but it fell out of his hand and slipped
+through a crack in the floor. He went and looked through the crack. He
+saw below a room and in it was Caintigern, the Queen, and beside her
+were two women in the cloaks of enchantresses. And when he looked again
+he knew the two of them--they were Aefa and Gilveen, the daughters of
+the enchanter of the Black Back-Lands and Fedelma's sisters. "And
+will my two sons come to rule over their father's dominion?" he heard
+Caintigern ask.
+
+"The Prince who gains the Sword of Light will rule over his father's
+dominion," Aefa said.
+
+"Then one of my sons must get the Sword of Light," Caintigern said.
+"Tell me where they must go to get knowledge of where it is."
+
+"Only the Gobaun Saor knows where the Sword of Light is," said Aefa.
+
+"The Gobaun Saor! Can he be seen by men?" said Caintigern.
+
+"He can be seen," said Aefa. "And there is one--the Little Sage of the
+Mountain--who can tell what road to go to find the Gobaun Saor."
+
+"Then," said Caintigern, "my two sons, Dermott and Downal, will ride out
+to-morrow to find the Little Sage of the Mountain, and the Gobaun Saor,
+so that one of them may find the Sword of Light and come to rule over
+his father's dominion."
+
+When the King of Ireland's Son heard that, he went to the stable where
+the Slight Red Steed was, and put the bridle upon him and rode towards
+the Hill of Horns, on one side of which was the house thatched with the
+one great wing of a bird, where the Little Sage of the Mountain lived.
+
+
+
+
+THE SWORD OF LIGHT
+
+AND THE UNIQUE TALE WITH AS MUCH OF THE ADVENTURES OF GILLY OF THE
+GOATSKIN AS IS GIVEN IN "THE CRANESKIN BOOK"
+
+
+
+I
+
+He came to the house that was thatched with the one great wing of a
+bird, and, as before, the Little Sage of the Mountain asked him to do a
+day's work. The King's Son reaped the corn for the Little Sage, and as
+he was reaping it his two foster-brothers, Dermott and Downal, rode by
+on their fine horses. They did not know who the young fellow was who
+was reaping in the field and they shouted for the Little Sage of the
+Mountain to come out of the house and speak to them. "We want to know
+where to find the Gobaun Saor who is to give us the Sword of Light,"
+said Dermott.
+
+"Come in," said the Sage, "and help me with my day's work, and I'll
+search in my book for some direction."
+
+"We can't do such an unprincely thing as take service with you," said
+Downal. "Tell us now where we must go to find the Gobaun Saor."
+
+"I think you have made a mistake," said the Little Sage. "I'm an
+ignorant man, and I can't answer such a question without study."
+
+"Ride on, brother," said Downal, "he can tell us nothing." Dermott and
+Downal rode off on their fine horses, the silver bells on their bridles
+ringing.
+
+That night, when he had eaten his supper, the Little Sage told the
+King's Son where to go. It is forbidden to tell where the King of
+Ireland's Son found the Builder and Shaper for the Gods. In a certain
+place he came to where the Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted
+his anvil, and he saw the Gobaun Saor beating on a shape of iron.
+
+"You want to find the Sword of Light," said the Gobaun, his eyes as
+straight as the line of a sword-blade, "but show me first your will,
+your mind and your purpose."
+
+"How can I do that?" said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Guard my anvil for a few nights," said the Gobaun Saor. "A Fua comes
+out of the river sometimes and tries to carry it off."
+
+The Gobaun Saor had to make a journey to look at trees that were growing
+in the forest, and the King's Son guarded his anvil. And at night a Fua
+came out of the river and flung great stones, striving to drive him away
+from the anvil. He ran down to the river bank to drive it away, but the
+creature caught him in its long arms and tried to drown him in the deep
+water. The King of Ireland's Son was near his death, but he broke away
+from the Fua, and when the creature caught him again, he dragged it up
+the bank and held it against a tree. "I will give you the mastery of
+all arts because you have mastered me," said the Fua. "I do not want the
+mastery of arts, but maybe you can tell me where to find the Sword
+of Light." "You want to know that--do you?" said the Fua, and then it
+twisted from him and went into the river.
+
+The Fua came the next night and flung stones as before, and the King's
+Son wrestled with it in the very middle of the river, and held him
+so that he could not get to the other bank. "I will give you heaps of
+wealth because you have mastered me," said the creature with the big
+eyes and the long arms. "Not wealth, but the knowledge of where to
+come on the Sword of Light is what I want from you," said the King of
+Ireland's Son. But the Fua twisted from him and ran away again.
+
+The next night the Fua came again, and the King's Son wrestled with him
+in the middle of the river and followed him up the other bank, and held
+him against a tree. "I will give you the craft that will make you
+the greatest of Kings, because you have mastered me." "Not craft, but
+knowledge of where the Sword of Light is, I want from you," said the
+King's Son. "Only one of the People of Light can tell you that," said
+the Fua. It became a small, empty sort of creature and lay on the ground
+like a shadow.
+
+The Gobaun Saor came back to his forge and his anvil. "You have guarded
+my anvil for me," he said, "and I will tell you where to go for the
+Sword of Light. It is in the Palace of the Ancient Ones under the Lake.
+You have an enchanted steed that can go to that Lake. I shall turn his
+head, and he shall go straight to it. When you come to the edge of the
+Lake pull the branches of the Fountain Tree and give the Slight Red
+Steed the leaves to eat. Mount now and go."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son mounted the Slight Red Steed and went
+traveling again.
+
+
+II
+
+From all its branches, high and low, water was falling in little
+streams. This was the Fountain Tree indeed. He did not dismount, the
+King of Ireland's Son, but pulled the branches and he gave them to the
+Slight Red Steed to eat.
+
+He ate no more than three mouthfuls. Then he stamped on the ground with
+his hooves, lifted his head high and neighed three times. With that he
+plunged into the water of the Lake and swam and swam as if he had the
+strength of a dragon. He swam while there was light on the water and he
+swam while there was night on the water, and when the sun of the next
+day was a hand's breadth above the lake he came to the Black Island.
+
+All on that Island was black and burnt, and there were black ashes up to
+the horse's knees. And no sooner had the Slight Red Steed put his hooves
+on the Island than he galloped straight to the middle of it. He
+galloped through an opening in the black rock and went through a hundred
+passages, each going lower than the other, and at last he came into the
+wide space of a hall.
+
+The hall was lighted. When the King's Son looked to see where the light
+came from he saw a sword hanging from the roof. And the brightness of
+the Sword was such that the hall was well lighted. The King of Ireland's
+Son galloped the Slight Red Steed forward and made it rear up. His hand
+grasped the hilt of the Sword. As he pulled it down the Sword screeched
+in his hand.
+
+He flashed it about and saw what other things were in the Cave. He saw
+one woman, and two women and three women. He came to them and he saw
+they were sleeping. And as he flashed the Sword about he saw other women
+sleeping too. There were twelve women in the Cave where the Sword of
+Light had been hanging and the women were sleeping.
+
+And in the hands of each of the sleeping women was a great gemmed cup.
+The spirit of the King's Son had grown haughty since he felt the Sword
+in his hands. "You have the sword, why should you not have the cup?"
+something within him said. He took a cup from the hands of one of the
+sleeping women and drank the bubbling water that it held. His spirit
+grew more haughty with that draught. From the hands of each of the
+twelve sleeping women he took the cup and he drank the draught of
+bubbling water that it held. And when he had drunk the twelve draughts
+of bubbling water he felt that with the Sword of Light in his hands he
+could cut his way through the earth.
+
+He mounted the Slight Red Steed and rode it through the Cave and swam
+it across the Lake with No Name. He held the Sword of Light across his
+saddle. The Steed went as the current drew him, for it was long since he
+had eaten the leaves of the Fountain Tree, and the spirit that had made
+him vigorous coming was feeble now. The current brought them to the
+shore below where the Fountain Tree grew.
+
+
+And there on the shore he saw a bunch of little men, little women and
+littler children, all with smoke-colored skins, all with but one eye in
+their heads, all crying and screaming at each other like sea-birds, and
+all sitting round a fire of dried water weeds, cooking and eating eels
+and crab-apples.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son put his hands on the bridle-rein and drew the
+Slight Red Steed out of the water. The women with one right eye and
+the men with one left eye, and the children in their bare smoky skins
+screamed at him, "What do you want, what do you want, man with the
+horse?"
+
+"Feed and water my steed for me," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"We are the Swallow People, and no one commands us to do things," said
+an old fellow with a beard like knots of ropes.
+
+"Feed my steed with red wheat and water it with pure spring water," said
+the King's Son fiercely. "I am the King of Ireland's Son and the Sword
+of Light is in my hands, and what I command must be done."
+
+"We are the Swallow People and we are accounted a harmless people," said
+the old fellow.
+
+"Why are ye harmless?" said the King's Son, and he flourished the sword
+at them.
+
+"Come into our cave, King's Son," said the old fellow, "we will give you
+refreshment there, and the children will attend to your steed."
+
+He went into the cave with certain of the Swallow People. They were all
+unmannerly. They kept screaming and crying to each other; they pulled
+at the clothes of the King's Son and pinched him. One of them bit his
+hands. When they came into the cave they all sat down on black stones.
+One pulled in a black ass loaded with nets. They took the nets off its
+back, and before the King's Son knew that anything was about to happen
+they threw the nets around him. The meshes of the nets were sticky. He
+felt himself caught. He ran at the Swallow People and fell over a stone.
+Then they drew more nets around his legs.
+
+The old fellow whom he had commanded took up the Sword of Light. Then
+the Swallow People pulled up the ass that had carried the nets and
+rubbed its hard hoof on the Sword. The King's Son did not know what
+happened to it. Then he heard them cry, "The brightness is gone off the
+thing now." They left the Sword on a black rock, and now no light came
+from it. Then all the Swallow People scrambled out of the cave.
+
+They came back eating eels and crab-apples out of their hands. They paid
+no attention to the King of Ireland's Son, but climbed into a cave above
+where he was lying.
+
+He broke the nets that were round him. He found the Sword on the black
+stones, with the brightness all gone from it because of the rubbing with
+the ass's hoof. He climbed up the wall of the other cave to punish the
+Swallow People. They saw him before he could see them in the darkness,
+and they all went into holes and hid themselves as if they were rats and
+mice.
+
+With the blackened sword in his hands the King of Ireland's Son went out
+of the Cave, and the horse he had left behind, the Slight Red Steed, was
+not to be found.
+
+
+III
+
+Without a steed and with a blackened sword the King of Ireland's Son
+came to where the Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted his
+anvil. No water nor sand would clean the Sword, but he left it down
+before the Gobaun Saor, hoping that he would show him a way to dean it.
+"The Sword must be bright that will kill the King of the Land of Mist
+and cut the tress that will awaken the Enchanter's daughter," said the
+Gobaun Saor. "You have let the Sword be blackened. Carry the blackened
+Sword with you now."
+
+"Brighten it for me and I will serve you," said the King of Ireland's
+Son.
+
+"It is not easy for me to brighten the Sword now," said the Gobaun Saor.
+"But find me the Unique Tale and what went before its beginning and what
+comes after its end, and I shall brighten the sword for you and show you
+the way to the Land of Mist. Go now, and search for the Unique Tale."
+
+He went, and he had many far journeys, I can tell you, and he found no
+person who had any knowledge of the Unique Tale or who knew any way of
+coming to the Land of Mist. One twilight in a wood he saw a great bird
+flying towards him. It lighted on an old tree, and the King of Ireland's
+Son saw it was Laheen the Eagle.
+
+"Are you still a friend to me, Eagle?" said the King's Son.
+
+"I am still a friend to you, King's Son," said Laheen.
+
+"Then tell me where I should go to get knowledge of the Unique Tale,"
+said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"The Unique Tale--I never heard of it at all," said Laheen the Eagle,
+changing from one leg to the other. "I am old," she said, shaking her
+wings, "and I never heard of the Unique Tale."
+
+The King's Son looked and saw that Laheen was really old. Her neck was
+bare of feathers and her wings were gray. "Oh, if you are so old," said
+the King's Son, "and have gone to so many places, and do not know of the
+Unique Tale, to whom can I go to get knowledge of it?"
+
+"Listen," said Laheen the Eagle, "there are five of us that are called
+the Five Ancient Ones of Ireland, and it is not known which one of
+the five is the oldest. There is myself, Laheen the Eagle; there is
+Blackfoot the Elk of Ben Gulban, there is the Crow of Achill, the Salmon
+of Assaroe and the Old Woman of Beare. We do not know ourselves which
+of us is the oldest, but we know that we five are the most ancient of
+living things. I have never heard of the Unique Tale," said Laheen, "but
+maybe one of the other Ancients has heard of it."
+
+"I will go to them," said the King's Son. "Tell me how I will find the
+Crow of Achill, the Elk of Ben Gulban, the Salmon of Assaroe and the Old
+Woman of Beare--tell me how to go to them, Laheen the Eagle."
+
+"You need not go to the Salmon of Assaroe," said the Eagle, "for the
+Salmon would not have heard any tale. I will get you means of finding
+the other three. Follow the stream now until you come to the river. Wait
+at the ford and I will fly to you there." Laheen the Eagle then shook
+her wings and flew slowly away. The King of Ireland's Son followed the
+stream until he came to the river--the River of the Ox it was.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+And having come to the River of the Ox he sought the ford and waited
+there for Laheen the Eagle. When it was high noon he saw the shadow of
+the Eagle in the water of the ford. He looked up. Laheen let something
+fall into the shallows. It was a wheel. Then Laheen lighted on the rocks
+of a waterfall above the ford and spoke to the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Son of King Connal," she said, "roll this wheel before you and follow
+it where it goes. It will bring you first where Blackfoot the Elk
+abides. Ask the Elk has he knowledge of the Unique Tale. If he has no
+knowledge of it start the wheel rolling again. It will bring you then
+where the Crow of Achill abides. If the Crow cannot tell you anything of
+the Unique Tale, let the wheel bring you to where the Old Woman of Beare
+lives. If she cannot tell you of the Unique Tale, I cannot give you any
+further help."
+
+Laheen the Eagle then spread out her wings and rising above the mist of
+the waterfall flew away.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son took the wheel out of the shallow water and
+set it rolling before him. It went on without his touching it again.
+Then he was going and ever going with the clear day going before him
+and the dark night coming behind him, going through scrubby fields and
+shaggy bog-lands, going up steep mountain sides and along bare mountain
+ridges, until at last he came to a high mound on a lonesome mountain.
+And as high as the mound and as lonesome as the mountain was the Elk
+that was standing there with wide, wide horns. The wheel ceased rolling.
+
+"I am from Laheen the Eagle," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+The Elk moved his wide-horned head and looked down at him. "And why have
+you come to me, son?" said the Elk.
+
+"I came to ask if you had knowledge of the Unique Tale," said the King
+of Ireland's Son.
+
+"I have no knowledge of the Unique Tale," said the Elk in a deep voice.
+
+"And are you not Blackfoot, the Elk of Ben Gulban, one of the five of
+the oldest creatures in the world?" said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"I am the Elk of Ben Gulban," said Blackfoot, "and it may be that there
+is no creature in the world more ancient than I am. The Fianna hunted me
+with their hounds before the Sons of Mile' came to the Island of Woods.
+If it was a Tale of Finn or Caelta or Goll, of Oscar or Oisin or Conan,
+I could tell it to you. But I know nothing of the Unique Tale."
+
+Then Blackfoot the Elk of Ben Gulban turned his wide-horned head away
+and looked at the full old moon that was coming up in the sky. And the
+King of Ireland's Son took up the wheel and went to look for a shelter.
+He found a sheep-cote on the side of the mountain and lay down and slept
+between sheep.
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+When the sun rose he lifted up the wheel and set it going before him. He
+was going and ever going down long hillsides and across spreading plains
+till he came to where old trees and tree-stumps were standing hardly
+close enough together to keep each other company. The wheel went through
+this ancient wood and stopped before a fallen oak-tree. And sitting on a
+branch of that oak, with a gray head bent and featherless wings gathered
+up to her neck was a crow.
+
+"I come from Laheen the Eagle," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"What did you say?" said the Crow, opening one eye.
+
+"I come from Laheen the Eagle," said the King of Ireland's Son again.
+
+"Oh, from Laheen," said the Crow and dosed her eye again.
+
+"And I came to ask for knowledge of the Unique Tale," said the King of
+Ireland's Son.
+
+"Laheen," said the Crow, "I remember Laheen the Eagle." Keeping her eyes
+shut, she laughed and laughed until she was utterly hoarse. "I remember
+Laheen the Eagle," she said again. "Laheen never found out what I did
+to her once. I stole the Crystal Egg out of her nest. Well, and how is
+Laheen the Eagle?" she said sharply, opening one eye.
+
+"Laheen is well," said the King of Ireland's Son. "She sent me to ask if
+you had knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"I am older than Laheen," said the Crow. "I remember Paralon's People.
+The Salmon of Assaroe always said he was before Paralon's People. But
+never mind! Laheen can't say that. If I could only get the feathers to
+stay on my wings I'd pay Laheen a visit some day. How are Laheen and her
+bird-flocks?"
+
+"O Crow of Achill," said the King of Ireland's Son, "I was sent to ask
+if you had knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"The Unique Tale! No, I never heard of it," said the Crow. She gathered
+her wings up to her neck again and bent her gray head.
+
+"Think, O Crow of Achill," said the King of Ireland's Son. "I will bring
+you the warmest wool for your nest."
+
+"I never heard of the Unique Tale," said the Crow. "Tell Laheen I was
+asking for her." Nothing would rouse the Crow of Achill again. The King
+of Ireland's Son set the wheel rolling and followed it. Then he was
+going and ever going with the clear day before him and the dark night
+coming behind him. He came to a wide field where there were field-fares
+or ground larks in companies. He crossed it. He came to a plain of tall
+daisies where there were thousands of butterflies. He crossed it.
+He came to a field of buttercups where blue pigeons were feeding. He
+crossed it. He came to a field of flax in blue blossom. He crossed it
+and came to a smoke-blackened stone house deep sunk in the ground. The
+wheel stopped rolling before it and he went into the house.
+
+
+An old woman was seated on the ground before the fire basting a goose. A
+rabbit-skin cap was on her hairless head and there were no eye-brows on
+her face. Three strange birds were eating out of the pot--a cuckoo, a
+corncrake and a swallow. "Come to the fire, gilly," said the old woman
+when she looked round.
+
+"I am not a gilly, but the King of Ireland's Son," said he.
+
+"Well, let that be. What do you want of me?"
+
+"Are you the Old Woman of Beare?"
+
+"I have been called the Old Woman of Beare since your
+fore-great-grandfather's time."
+
+"How old are you, old mother?"
+
+"I do not know. But do you see the three birds that are picking out
+of my pot? For two score years the swallow was coming to my house and
+building outside. Then he came and built inside. Then for three score
+years he was coming into my house to build here. Now he never goes
+across the sea at all, and do you see the corncrake? For five score
+years she was coming to the meadow outside. Then she began to run into
+the house to see what was happening here. For two score years she was
+running in and out. Then she stayed here altogether. Now she never goes
+across the sea at all. And do you see the cuckoo there? For seven score
+years she used to come to a tree that was outside and sing over her
+notes. Then when the tree was gone, she used to light on the roof of my
+house. Then she used to come in to see herself in a looking glass. I
+do not know how many score years the cuckoo was going and coming, but I
+know it is many score years since she went across the sea."
+
+"I went from Laheen the Eagle to Blackfoot the Elk, and from the Elk of
+Ben Gulban to the Crow of Achill, and from the Crow of Achill, I come to
+you to ask if you have knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"The Unique Tale, indeed," said the Old Woman of Beare. "One came to me
+only last night to tell me the Unique Tale. He is the young man who is
+counting the horns."
+
+"What young man is he and what horns is he counting?"
+
+"He is no King's Son, but a gilly--Gilly of the Goat-skin he is called.
+He is counting the horns that are in two pits outside. When the horns
+are counted I will know the number of my half-years."
+
+"How is that, old mother?"
+
+"My father used to kill an ox every year on my birthday, and after my
+father's death, my servants, one after the other, used to kill an ox for
+me. The horns of the oxen were put into two pits, one on the right-hand
+side of the house and one on the left-hand side. If one knew the number
+of the horns one would know the number of, my half-years, for every
+pair of horns goes to make a year of my life. Gilly of the Goatskin is
+counting the horns for me now, and when he finishes counting them I will
+let him tell the Unique Tale."
+
+"But you must let me listen to the tale too, Old Woman of Beare."
+
+"If you count the horns in one pit I will let you listen to the tale."
+
+"Then I will count the horns in one pit."
+
+"Go outside then and count them."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went outside. He found on the right-hand side
+of the house a deep quarry-pit. Round the edge of it were horns of all
+kinds, black horns and white horns, straight horns and crooked horns.
+And below in the pit he saw a young man digging for horns that were sunk
+in the ground. He had on a jacket made of the skin of a goat.
+
+"Who are you?" said the young man in the quarry-pit. "I am the King of
+Ireland's Son. And who may you be?"
+
+"Who I am I don't know," said the young man in the goatskin, "but they
+call me Gilly of the Goatskin. What have you come here for?"
+
+"To get knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"And it was to tell the same Unique Tale that I came here myself. Why do
+you want to know the Unique Tale?"
+
+"That would make a long story. Why do you want to tell it?"
+
+"That would make a longer story. There is a quarry-pit at the left-hand
+side of the house filled with horns and it must be your task to count
+them."
+
+"I will count them," said the King of Ireland's Son. "But you will be
+finished before me. Do not tell the Old Woman of Beare the Tale until we
+both sit down together."
+
+"If that suits you it will suit me," said Gilly of the Goatskin, and he
+began to dig again.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went to the left-hand side of the house.
+He found the quarry-pit and went into it to count the horns that were
+there--black horns and white horns, straight horns and crooked horns.
+And now, while the King of Ireland's Son is in the quarry-pit, I
+will tell you the adventures of Gilly--the Lad or the Servant--of the
+Goatskin, which adventures are written in "The Craneskin Book."
+
+
+
+VI
+
+He never stirred out of the cradle till he was past twelve years of age,
+but lay there night and day, long days and short days; the only garment
+he ever put on was a goatskin; a hunter had once put it down on the
+floor beside his cradle and he reached out with his two hands, drew it
+in and put the goatskin on him. He got his name and his coat at the same
+time, for he was called ever afterwards "Gilly of the Goatskin."
+
+But although he never stirred out of the cradle, Gilly of the Goatskin
+had ways of diverting himself. He used to shoot arrows with a bow out
+of the door of the house and hit a mark on a tree that was opposite him.
+_And where did he get the bow and arrows?_ The bow fell down from the
+roof of the house and into the cradle. And as for arrows he used to make
+them out of the wands that the Hags brought in to make baskets with. But
+the Hags never saw him using the bow and sending off the arrows. All day
+they would be going along the streams gathering the willow wands for the
+baskets they made.
+
+He knew nobody except the three Hags of the Long Teeth, and he had never
+heard the name of mother or father. Often, when she was peeling the
+wands with a black-handled knife, the Hag of the House used to tell
+Gilly of the Goatskin the troubles that were in store for him--danger
+from the sword and the spear and the knife, from water and fire, from
+the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air. She delighted to tell
+him about the evils that would befall him. And she used to laugh when
+she told him he was a hump-back and that people would throw stones at
+him.
+
+
+One day when the Hags were away gathering willow wands, Gilly turned the
+cradle over and lay under it. He wanted to see what they would do when
+they did not see him sitting up in the cradle. They came in. Gilly
+looked through a crack in the cradle and saw the Hags--they were old and
+crooked and had long teeth that came down below their chins.
+
+"He's gone, he's gone, he's gone!" screamed the Hag of the House, when
+she did not see Gilly in the cradle.
+
+"He's gone," said one of the long-toothed Hags. "I told you he would go
+away. Why didn't you cut out his heart yesterday, or the day before?"
+
+"Mind what I tell you," said the other Hag of the Long Teeth. "Mind what
+I tell you. His father's son will grow into a powerful champion."
+
+"Not he," said the Hag of the House, with great anger. "He'll never
+become a Champion. He's only a little hump-backed fellow with no weapons
+and with no garment but a goatskin."
+
+"It would be better to kill him when he comes back," said the first of
+the Hags with the Long Teeth.
+
+"And if he doesn't come back, tell the Giant Crom Duv," said the second.
+
+Gilly of the Goatskin crept from under the cradle, put his bow resting
+on the bottom that was now turned uppermost, took up some of the rods
+that were on the floor and then shouted at the Hags. "Oh, if that's
+a hazel rod he has at his bow he will kill us all," they screamed out
+together.
+
+He drew back the string, fired the willow rod and struck the middle Hag
+full on the breast. The three Hags fell down on the ground. The pot that
+was always hanging over the fire turned itself upside down and the
+house was filled with smoke. Gilly of the Goatskin, the bow in his hand,
+sprang across the cradle, over the threshold of the door, and out into
+the width and the height, the length and the breadth, the gloom and the
+gleam of the world.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+He was out, as I have said, in the width and the height, the length and
+the breadth, the gloom and the gleam of the world. He fired arrows into
+the air. He leaped over ditches, he rolled down hillsides, he raced
+over level places until he came to what surprised him more than all the
+things in the world--a river. He had never seen such water before and
+he wondered to see it moving with swiftness. "Where is it going?" said
+Gilly of the Goatskin. "Does it go on like that in the night as well
+as in the day?" He ran by its side and shouted to the river. He saw
+a wide-winged bird flying across it. It was the bird that we call the
+crane or the heron. And as Gilly watched the great winged thing he saw
+that it held a little animal in its claws. Gilly fired an arrow and
+the crane dropped towards the ground. The little animal that was in its
+claws fell down. The crane rose up again and flew back across the river.
+
+The little animal that had been in the claws of the crane came to Gilly
+of the Goatskin. It was smaller than the one-eyed cat that used to sit
+on the hearth of the Hag of the House. It kept its head up and was very
+bold-looking. "Good morning, Lad in the Goatskin," it said to Gilly,
+"you saved my life and I'm very thankful to you." "What are you?" said
+Gilly of the Goat-skin. "I'm the Weasel. I'm the boldest and bravest
+creature in this country. I'm the lion of these parts, I am. And," said
+the Weasel, "I never served anyone before, but I'll be your servant
+for a quarter of a year. Tell me what way you're going and I'll go with
+you." "I'm going the way he's going," said Gilly, nodding towards the
+river, "and I'll keep beside him till he wants to turn back." "Oh, then
+you'll have to go a long way," said the Weasel, "but I'll go with you no
+matter bow far you go." The Weasel walked by Gilly's side very bravely
+and very independently.
+
+"Oh, look," said Gilly to the Weasel, "what is that that's in the
+water?"
+
+The Weasel looked and saw a crystal egg in the shallows.
+
+"It's an egg," said the Weasel, "I often eat one myself. I'll bring it
+up from the bottom to you. I'm good at carrying eggs."
+
+The Weasel went into the water and put his mouth to the egg and tried to
+lift it. He could not move it. He tried to lift it with his paws as well
+as with his mouth; but this did not do either. He came up the bank then,
+and said to Gilly, "You'll think I'm a poor sort of a servant because I
+can't take an egg out of the water. But if I can't win one way I'll win
+another way." He went into the reeds by the river and he said, "Hear me,
+frogs! There's a great army coming to take you out of the reeds and eat
+you red and raw." Then Gilly saw the queer frogs lifting up their
+heads, "Oh, what will we do, what will we do?" they cried to the Weasel.
+"There's only one thing to be done," said the Weasel. "You gather up
+all the pebbles in the bed of the fiver and we'll make a big wail on the
+bank to defend you." The frogs dived into the water at once and dragged
+up pebbles. Gilly and the Weasel piled them on the bank. Then three
+frogs carried up the Crystal Egg. The Weasel took it from them when they
+left it on the bank. Then he climbed a tree and cried out to the frogs,
+"The army is frightened and is running away." "Oh, thank you, thank
+you," said the frogs, "we'll never forget your goodness to us." Then
+they sat down in the marsh and told each other what a narrow escape they
+all had.
+
+The Weasel gave Gilly the Crystal Egg. It was heavy and he carried it
+for a while in his hand. They went on. After a while said Gilly of the
+Goatskin, "The night's coming on and the fiver shows no sign of turning
+back. I wish there was a nice place to shelter us." No sooner did he say
+the word than he and the Weasel found them-selves standing before the
+open door of a nice little house. They went in. A clear fire was burning
+on the hearth, an arm chair was before it, and a bed was made at the
+other side of the fire. "This is good," said Gilly, "and now I wish that
+we had something to eat." No sooner did he say the words than a table
+appeared with bread and meat, fruit and wine on it. "Where do these
+fine things come from, I wonder," said Gilly of the Goatskin. "It's my
+belief," said the Weasel, "that all these things come to us on account
+of the egg you have in your hand. It's a magic egg." Gilly of the
+Goatskin put the egg on the table and wished that he might see himself
+as he had seen himself in the river. Nothing appeared. Then he took the
+egg in his hand and wished again. And then there was a looking glass on
+the wall before him, and he saw himself in it better than he had seen
+himself in the river. Gilly of the Goatskin knew that he had only to
+hold the Crystal Egg in his hand and wish, to get all he could think of.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Gilly of the Goatskin wished for wide windows in his house and he got
+them. He wished for a light within when there was darkness without, and
+he got a silver lamp that burned until he wished to sleep. He wished for
+the songs of birds and he had a blackbird singing upon his half-door, a
+lark over his chimney, a goldfinch and a green linnet within his window,
+and a shy wren in the evening singing from the top of his dresser. Then
+he wished to hear the conversation of the beasts and all the creatures
+of the fields and the wood and the mountain top came into his house.
+
+The hare used to come in early in the morning. He was always the first
+visitor and he never remained long, and always while he was there he
+kept running up and down the house, and he generally ended his visit by
+jumping through the open window. The martens, the beautiful wild cats of
+the wood, came in to see Gilly once; they were very proud and told
+him nothing. The little black rabbits were very much impressed by the
+martens, and all the time the martens were there they stayed under the
+bed and the chairs. Two or three times the King of the Wood himself--the
+Boar of the Bristles and the Long Tusks--came to see Gilly; he used to
+push open the door and then stand in the middle of the floor grunting
+and grunting. Once he brought his wife with him, and six or seven of
+their little pigs that went running over the floor, with their ears
+hanging over their eyes, came with them too. The hedgehogs used to come,
+but they always made themselves disagreeable. They just lay down by
+the fire and snored, and when they wakened up they quarrelled with
+each other. Everybody said that the hedgehogs' children were very badly
+brought up and very badly provided for. The squirrels who were so clean
+and careful, and so fond of their children, thought the hedgehogs were
+very bad creatures indeed. "It is just like them to have dirty sticky
+thorns around them instead of nice clean fur," said the squirrel's wife.
+"But, my dear," said the squirrel, "every animal can't have fur."
+"How well," said she, "the rabbits have fur, though dear knows they're
+creatures of not much account. It's all just to let us see that they're
+some relation of that horrible, horrible boar that goes crashing and
+marching through the wood."
+
+The deer never came into the house, and Gilly had a shed made for them
+outside. They would come into it and stay there for many nights and
+days, and Gilly used to go out and talk with them. They knew about far
+countries, and strange paths and passes, but they did not know so much
+about men and about the doings of other creatures as the Fox did.
+
+The Fox used to come in the evening and stay until nearly morning
+whether Gilly fell asleep or kept awake. The Fox was a very good talker.
+He used to lie down at the hearth with his paws stretched out, and tell
+about this one and that one, and what she said and what he did. If the
+Fox came to see you, and if he was in good humor for talking, you would
+stay up all night to listen to him. I know I should. It was the Fox
+who told Gilly what the Crow of Achill did to Laheen the Eagle. She had
+stolen the Crystal Egg that Laheen was about to hatch--the Crystal Egg
+that the Crane had left on a bare rock. It was the Fox who told Gilly
+how the first cat came into the world. And it was the Fox who told Gilly
+about the generations of the eel. All I say is that it is a pity the Fox
+cannot be trusted, for a better one to talk and tell a story it would be
+hard to find. He was always picking up and eating things that had been
+left over--a potato roasting in the ashes, an apple left upon a plate,
+a piece of meat under a cover. Gilly did not grudge these things to Rory
+the Fox and he always left something in a bag for him to take home to
+the young foxes.
+
+
+I had nearly forgotten to tell you about Gilly's friend, the brave
+Weasel. He had made a home for himself under the roof. Sometimes he
+would go away for a day or so and he would never tell Gilly where he
+had been. When he was at home he made himself the door-keeper of
+Gilly's house. If any of the creatures made themselves disagreeable by
+quarrelling amongst each other, or by being uncivil to Gilly, the
+Weasel would just walk over to them and look them in the eyes. Then that
+creature went away. Always he held his head up and if Gilly asked him
+for advice he would say three words, "Have no fear; have no fear."
+
+One day Gilly wanted to have a bunch of cherries with his dinner, and he
+went to find the Crystal Egg so that he might wish for it. The Crystal
+Egg was not in the place he had left it. He called the Weasel and the
+two of them searched the house. The Crystal Egg was nowhere to be found.
+"One of the creatures has stolen the Egg," said the Weasel, "but whoever
+stole it I will make bring it back. I'll soon find out who did it." The
+Weasel walked up to every creature that came in, looked him or her in
+the eye and said, "Did you steal the Crystal Egg?" And every creature
+that came in said, "No, Little Lion, I didn't steal it." Next day they
+had examined every creature except the Fox. The Fox had not been in the
+night before nor the night before that again. He did not come in the
+evening they missed the Crystal Egg nor the evening after that evening.
+That night the Weasel said, "As sure as there are teeth in my head the
+Fox stole the Crystal Egg. As soon as there is light we'll search for
+him and make him give the Egg back to us."
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+The Weasel was right; it was Rory the Fox who had stolen Gilly's Crystal
+Egg. One night, just as he was leaving Gilly's house, the moon shone
+full upon the Crystal Egg. In the turn of a hand Rory the Fox had made a
+little spring and had taken the Egg in his mouth. Then he slipped out by
+the door as quick and as quiet as a leaf blown in the wind.
+
+He couldn't help himself stealing the Egg, when the chance came. He had
+had a dream about it. He dreamt that the Egg had been hatched and that
+out of it had come the most toothsome bird that a Fox had ever taken by
+the neck. He snapped his teeth in his sleep when he dreamt of it. The
+Fox told his youngsters about the bird he had dreamt of--a bird as big
+as a goose and so fat on the neck and the breast that it could hardly
+stir from sitting. The youngsters had smacked their lips and
+snapped their teeth. Every time he came home now they used to say to
+him--"Father, have you brought us the Boobrie Bird?" No wonder that his
+eyes used to turn to the Crystal Egg when he sat in Gilly's house. And
+then because the moon shone on it just as he was leaving, and because he
+knew that Gilly's back was turned, he could not keep himself from making
+a little spring and taking the Crystal Egg softly in his mouth.
+
+He went amongst the dark, dark trees with the soft and easy trot of a
+Fox. He knew well what he should do with the Egg. He had dreamt that it
+had been hatched by the Spae-Woman's old rheumatic goose. This goose was
+called Old Mother Hatchie and the Fox had never carried her off because
+he knew she was always hatching out goslings for his table. He went
+through the trees and across the fields towards the Spae-Woman's house.
+
+The Spae-Woman lived by telling people their fortunes and reading them
+their dreams. That is why she was called the Spae-Woman. The people gave
+her goods for telling them their dreams and fortunes and she left her
+land and stock to whatever chanced. The fences of her fields were broken
+and rotted. Her hens had been carried off by the Fox. Her goat had gone
+wild. She had neither ox nor ass nor sheep nor pig. The Fox went through
+her fence now as lightning would go through a gooseberry bush and he
+came out before her barn. There was a hole in the barn-door and he went
+through that. And in the north-west corner of the barn, he saw Old Mother
+Hatchie sitting on a nest of straw and he knew that there was a clutch
+of eggs under her. She cackled when she saw the Fox on the floor of the
+barn but she never stirred off the nest. Rory left what was in his mouth
+on the ground. Old Mother Hatchie put her head on one side and looked at
+the Egg that was clear in the full moonlight.
+
+"This egg, Mistress Hatchie," said Rory the Fox, "is from the Hen-wife
+of the Queen of Ireland. The Queen asked the Hen-wife to ask me to leave
+it with you. She thinks there's no bird in the world but yourself that
+is worthy to hatch it and to rear the gosling that comes out of it."
+
+"That's right, that's right," said Mother Hatchie. "Put it here, put
+it here." She lifted her wing and the Fox put the Crystal Egg into the
+brood-nest.
+
+He went out of the barn, crossed the field again, and went amongst the
+dark, dark trees. He went along slowly now for he began to think that
+Gilly might find out who stole the Crystal Egg and be vexed with him.
+Then he thought of the Weasel. The Fox began to think he might be sorry
+for himself if the Weasel was set on his track.
+
+Rory did not go to Gilly's house the next night nor the night after. The
+third night, as he was going home from a ramble, the Owl hooted at him.
+"Why do you hoot at me, Big Moth?" said the Fox stopping in his trot.
+(He always called the Owl "Big Moth" to pretend that he thought she
+wasn't a bird at all, but a moth. He made this pretence because he was
+annoyed that he could never get an owl to eat). "Why do you hoot at
+me, Big Moth?" said he. "The Weasel's going to have your bones for
+his stepping-stones and your blood for his morning dram," said the Owl
+balefully as she went amongst the dark, dark trees. The Fox stopped long
+to consider. Then he went to his burrow and told his youngsters they
+would have to move house. He had them stirring at the first light.
+He gave them a frog each for their breakfast and took them across the
+country. They came to a burrow that Old-Fellow Badger had just left and
+Rory the Fox brought his youngsters into it and told them that it would
+be their new house.
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+The evening after when Rory the Fox was taking his nap he heard one of
+his youngsters give a sharp cry. They were playing outside the burrow,
+lie looked out and he saw that his three youngsters were afraid of
+something that was between them and the burrow. He looked again and saw
+the Weasel.
+
+"Ahem," said Rory the Fox, "and how are we this morning?"
+
+The Weasel had marked one of Rory's youngsters for attack. Although Rory
+spoke, he never took his eyes off the youngster he had marked.
+
+"My dear friend," said the Fox, "I was just going to say--if you are
+looking for anything, perhaps I could tell you where it might be found."
+
+"Crystal Egg," said the Weasel without ever taking away his
+blood-thirsty gaze from Rory's youngster.
+
+"Oh, the Crystal Egg," said Rory the Fox. "Yes, to be sure. I could
+bring you at once to the place where the Crystal Egg is." He came out of
+the burrow and saw Gilly standing on the bank behind.
+
+"I think it is time for my children to go back to their burrow," said
+Rory the Fox. "Please excuse them, my friends." The Weasel took his eyes
+off the youngster he had marked and the three little foxes scampered
+into the burrow.
+
+"This way, friends," said the Fox, and he started off towards the
+Spae-Woman's house with the light and easy trot of a fox. Gilly and the
+Weasel went behind him. They crossed a field of flax, a field of
+hemp and a field of barley. They came to the broken fence before the
+Spae-Woman's house, and in front of the house they saw the Spae-Woman
+herself and she was crying and crying.
+
+The Fox hid behind the fence, the Weasel climbed up on the ditch and
+Gilly himself went to the woman.
+
+"What ails you at all?" said Gilly to her.
+
+"My goose--the only fowl left to me has been taken by robbers."
+
+"Ask her where the clutch of eggs is that the goose was hatching," said
+Rory the Fox anxiously, putting his head over the fence.
+
+"And where is the clutch of eggs, ma'am, that your goose was hatching?"
+
+"The robbers took the nest with the goose and the eggs with the nest,"
+said the Spae-Woman.
+
+"And the Crystal Egg was with the other eggs," said the Fox to Gilly. He
+said no more. He made a quick turn and got clear away before the Weasel
+could spring on him. He ran back to his burrow. He told the little foxes
+they must change houses again. That night they lay in a wood and at the
+first light they crossed water and went to live on an island where the
+Weasel never came.
+
+"Where did the robbers go with the goose, the nest, and the eggs?" said
+Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+"They went to the river," said the Spae-Woman. "I followed them every
+inch of the way. They got into a boat and they hoisted their sails. They
+rowed and they rowed, so that the hard gravel of the bottom was brought
+to the top, and the froth of the top was driven down to the bottom of
+the river. And wherever they are," said the Spae-Woman, "they are far
+from us now."
+
+"Will you come with me?" said Gilly to the Weasel, "we will track them
+down and take back the Crystal Egg."
+
+"I engaged myself to be with you for a quarter of a year," said the
+Weasel, "and the three months are up now, Gilly. Winter is coming on and
+I must see to my own affairs."
+
+"Then good-by, Weasel," said Gilly. "I will search for the Crystal Egg
+myself. But first I must ask the woman to let me rest in the house and
+to give me some provision for my journey." The Weasel looked up into
+Gilly's face and said good-by to him. Then Gilly followed the Spae-Woman
+into her house. "Ocone," she was saying to herself, "my dream told me
+I was to lose my poor goose, and still I never did anything to make it
+hard for the robbers to take her from me."
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+Well, in the Spae-Woman's house he stayed for three-quarters of a year.
+He often went in search of the robbers who had taken the Crystal Egg
+with the Spae-Woman's goose, but no trace of them nor their booty could
+he ever find. He met birds and beasts who were his friends, but he could
+not have speech with them without the Egg that let him have anything he
+wished. He did work for the Spae-Woman--fixed her fences and repaired
+her barn and brought _brosna_ for her fire every evening from the wood.
+At night, before he went to sleep, the Spae-Woman used to tell him her
+dreams of the night before and tell him about the people who had come to
+her house to have their fortunes told.
+
+One Monday morning she said to him, "I have had an inlook, son of
+my heart, and I know that my gossip, the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance, is going to come and take you into his service."
+
+"And what sort of a man is your gossip, the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance?" Gilly asked.
+
+"An unkind man. Two youths who served me he took away, one after the
+other, and miserable are they made by what he did to them. I'm in dread
+of your being brought to the Townland of Mischance."
+
+"Why are you in dread of it, Spae-Woman?" said Gilly. "Sure, I'll be
+glad enough to see the world."
+
+"That's what the other two youths said," said the Spae-Woman. "Now I'll
+tell you what my gossip the Churl of the Townland of Mischance does: he
+makes a bargain with the youth that goes into his service, telling him
+he will give him a guinea, a groat and a tester for his three months'
+service. And he tells the youth that if he says he is sorry for the
+bargain he must lose his wages and part with a strip of his skin, an
+inch wide. He rode on a bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined and spotted
+horse, from his neck to his heel. Oh, he is an unkind man, my gossip,
+the Churl of the Townland of Mischance."
+
+"And is there no way to get the better of him?" asked Gilly.
+
+"There is, but it is a hard way," said the Spae-Woman. "If one could
+make him say that he, the master, is sorry for the bargain, the Churl
+himself would lose a strip of his skin an inch wide from his neck to his
+heel, and would have to pay full wages no matter how short a time the
+youth served him."
+
+"It's a bargain anyway," said Gilly, "and if he comes I'll take service
+with the Churl of the Townland of Mischance."
+
+The first wet day that came brought the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance. He rode on a bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined and spotted
+horse. He carried an ash-plant in his hand to flog the horse and to
+strike at the dogs that crossed his way. He had blue lips, eyes looking
+crossways and eyebrows like a furze bush. He had a bag before him filled
+with boiled pigs' feet. Now when he rode up to the house, he had a
+pig's foot to his mouth and was eating. He got down off the bob-tailed,
+big-headed, spavined and spotted horse, and came in.
+
+"I heard there was a young fellow at your house and I want him to take
+service with me," said he to the Spae-Woman.
+
+"If the bargain is a good one I'll take service with you," said Gilly.
+
+"All right, my lad," said the Churl. "Here is the bargain, and it's as
+fair as fair can be. I'll give you a guinea, a groat and a tester for
+your three months' work with me."
+
+"I believe it's good wages," said Gilly.
+
+"It is. Howsoever, if you ever say you are sorry you made the bargain
+you will lose your wages, and besides that you will lose a strip of your
+skin an inch wide from your neck to your heel. I have to put that in
+or I'd never get work done for me at all. The serving boys are always
+saying 'I can't do that,' and 'I'm sorry I made the bargain with you.'"
+
+"And if you say you're sorry you made the bargain?"
+
+"Oh, then I'll have to lose a strip of my skin an inch wide from my neck
+to my heel, and besides that I'll have to give you full wages no matter
+how short a time you served me."
+
+"Well, if that suits you it will suit me," said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+"Then walk beside my horse and we'll get back to the Townland of
+Mischance to-night," said the Churl. Then he swished his ash-plant
+towards Gilly and ordered him to get ready. The Spae-Woman wiped the
+tears from her face with her apron, gave Gilly a cake with her blessing,
+and he started off with the Churl for the Townland of Mischance.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+What did Gilly of the Goatskin do in the Townland of Mischance? He got
+up early and went to bed late; he was kept digging, delving and ditching
+until he was so tired that he could go to sleep in a furze bush; he ate
+a breakfast that left him hungry five hours before dinner-time, and he
+ate a dinner that made it seem long until supper-time. If he complained
+the Churl would say, "Well, then you are sorry for your bargain," and
+Gilly would say "No," rather than lose the wages he had earned and a
+strip of his skin into the bargain.
+
+One day the Churl said to him, "Go into the town for salt for my supper,
+take the short way across the pasture-field, and be sure not to let the
+grass grow under your feet." "All right, master," said Gilly. "Maybe
+you would bring me my coat out of the house so that I needn't make two
+journeys." The Churl went into the house for Gilly's coat. When he came
+back he found Gilly standing in the nice grass of the pasture-field
+lighting a wisp of hay. "What are you doing that for?" said the Churl to
+him. "To burn the grass on the pasture-field," said Gilly. "To burn the
+grass on my pasture-field, you villain--the grass that is for my good
+race-horse's feeding! What do you mean, at all?" "Sure, you told me not
+to let the grass grow under my feet," said Gilly. "Doesn't the world
+know that the grass is growing every minute, and how will I prevent it
+from growing under my feet if I don't burn it?" With that he stooped
+down to put the lighted hay to the grass of the pasture-field. "Stop,
+stop," said the Churl, "I meant that you were to go to the town,
+without loitering on the way." "Well, it's a pity you didn't speak more
+clearly," said Gilly, "for now the grass is a-fire." The Churl bad to
+stamp on the grass to put the fire out. He burnt his shins, and that
+made him very angry. "O you fool," said he to Gilly, "I'm sorry--" "Are
+you sorry for the bargain you made with me, Master?" "No. I was going
+to say I was sorry I hadn't made my meaning clear to you. Go now to the
+town and bring me back salt for my supper as quickly as you can."
+
+After that the Churl was very careful when he gave Gilly an order to
+speak to him very exactly. This became a great trouble to him, for the
+people in the Townland of Mischance used always to say, "Don't let the
+grass grow under your feet," when they meant "Make haste," and "Don't
+be there until you're back," when they meant "Go quickly" and "Come with
+horses' legs" when they meant "come with great speed." He became tired
+of speaking to Gilly by the letter, so he made up his mind to give him
+an order that could not be carried out, so that he might have a chance
+of sending him away without the wages he had earned.
+
+One Monday morning he called Gilly to the door of the house and said to
+him, "Take this sheep-skin to the market and bring me back the price
+of it and the skin." "Very well, Master," said Gilly. He put the skin
+across his arm and went towards the town. The people on the road said
+to him, "What do you want for the sheep-skin, young fellow?" "I want
+the skin and the price of it," Gilly said. The people laughed at him and
+said, "You're going to give yourself a long journey, young fellow."
+
+He went through the market asking for the skin and the price of it.
+Everyone joked about him. He went into the market-house and came to a
+woman who was buying things that no one else would buy. "What do you
+want, youth?" said she. "The price of the skin and the skin itself,"
+said Gilly. She took the skin from him and plucked the wool out of it.
+She put the wool in her bag and put the skin back on the board. "There's
+the skin," said she, "and here's the price of it." She left three groats
+and a tester on top of the skin.
+
+The Churl had finished his supper when Gilly came into the house. "Well,
+Master, I've come back to you," said Gilly. "Did you bring me the price
+of it and the skin itself?" said the Churl. "There is the skin," said
+Gilly, putting on the table the sheep-skin with the wool plucked out of
+it. "And here's the price of it--three groats and a tester," said he,
+leaving the money on top of the skin.
+
+After that the Churl of the Townland of Mischance began to be afraid
+that Gilly of the Goatskin would be too wise for him, and would get away
+at the end of the three months with his wages, a guinea, a groat and a
+tester, in his fist. This thought made the Churl very downcast, because,
+for many months now, he had got hard labor out of his serving-boys,
+without giving them a single cross for wages.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+The day after Christmas the Churl said to Gilly, "This is Saint
+Stephen's Day. I'm going to such a man's barn to see the mummers perform
+a play. Foolish people give these idle fellows money for playing, but
+I won't do any such thing as that. I'll see something of what they are
+doing, drink a few glasses and get away before they start collecting
+money from the people that are watching them. They call this collection
+their dues, no less."
+
+"And what can I do for you, Master?" said Gilly. "Run into the barn at
+midnight and shout out, 'Master, Master, your mill is on fire.' That
+will give me an excuse for running out. Do you understand now what I
+want you to do?"
+
+"I understand, Master."
+
+The Churl put on his coat and took his stick in his hand. "Mind what
+I've said to you," said he. "Don't be a minute later than midnight. Be
+sure to come in with a great rash--come in with horse's legs--do you
+understand me?"
+
+"I understand you, Master," said Gilly.
+
+The mummers were dancing before they began the play when the Churl came
+into the barn. "That's a rich man," said one of them to another. "We
+must see that he puts a good handful into our bag." The Churl sat on the
+bench with the farmer who had a score of cows, with the blacksmith who
+shod the King's horses, and with the merchant who had been in foreign
+parts and who wore big silver rings in his ears. Half the people who
+were there I could not tell you, but there were there--
+
+   Biddie Early
+   Tatter-Jack Walsh
+   Aunt Jug
+   Lundy Foot
+   Matt the Thresher
+   Nora Criona
+   Conan Maol, and
+   Shaun the Omadhaun.
+
+Some said that the King of Ireland's Son was there too. The play was
+"The Unicorn from the Stars." The mummers did it very well although they
+had no one to take the part of the Unicorn.
+
+They were in the middle of the play when Gilly of the Goatskin rushed
+into the barn. "Master, master," he shouted, "your mill--your mill is
+on fire." The Churl stood up, and then put his glass to his head and
+drained what was in it. "Make way for me, good people," said he. "Let
+me out of this, good people." Some people near the door began to talk
+of what Gilly held in his hands. "What have you there, my servant?" said
+the Churl. "A pair of horse's legs, Master. I could only carry two of
+them."
+
+The Churl caught Gilly by the throat. "A pair of horse's legs," said he.
+"Where did you get a pair of horse's legs?"
+
+"Off a horse," said Gilly. "I had trouble in cutting them off. Bad cess
+to you for telling me to come here with horse's legs."
+
+"And whose horse did you cut the legs off?" "Your own, Master. You
+wouldn't have liked me to cut the legs off any other person's horse. And
+I thought your race-horse's legs would be the most suitable to cut off."
+
+The mummers and the people were gathered round them and they saw the
+Churl's face get black with vexation.
+
+"O my misfortune, that ever I met with you," said the Churl.
+
+"Are you sorry for your bargain, Master?" said Gilly.
+
+"Sorry--I'll be sorry every day and night of my life for it," said the
+Churl.
+
+"You hear what my Master says, good people," said Gilly.
+
+"Aye, sure. He says he's sorry for the bargain he made with you," said
+some of the people.
+
+"Then," said Gilly, "strip him and put him across the bench until I cut
+a strip of his skin an inch wide from his neck to his heel."
+
+
+None of the people would consent to do that. "Well, I'll tell you
+something that will make you consent," said Gilly. "This man made two
+poor servant-boys work for him, paid them no wages, and took a strip of
+their skin, so that they are sick and sore to this day. Will that make
+you strip him and put him across the bench?"
+
+"No," said some of the people.
+
+"He ordered me to come here to-night and to shout 'Master, master, your
+mill is on fire,' so that he might be able to leave without paying the
+mummers their dues. His mill is not on fire at all."
+
+"Strip him," said the first mummer.
+
+"Put him across the bench," said another.
+
+"Here's a skinner's knife for you," said a third.
+
+The mummers seized the Churl, stripped him and put him across the bench.
+Gilly took the knife and began to sharpen it on the ground.
+
+"Have mercy on me," said the Churl.
+
+"You did not have mercy on the other two poor servant-boys," said Gilly.
+
+"I'll give you your wages in full."
+
+"That's not enough."
+
+"I'll give you double wages to give to the other servant-boys."
+
+"And will you pay the mummers' dues for all the people here?"
+
+"No, no, no. I can't do that."
+
+"Stretch out your neck then until I mark the place where I shall begin
+to cut the skin."
+
+"Don't put the knife to me. I'll pay the dues for all," said the Churl.
+
+"You heard what he said," said Gilly to the people. "He will pay me
+wages in full, give me double wages to hand to the servant-boys he has
+injured, and pay the mummers' dues for everyone."
+
+"We heard him say that," said the people.
+
+"Stand up and dress yourself," said Gilly to the Churl. "What do I want
+with a strip of your skin? But I hope all here will go home with you
+and stand in your house until you have paid all the money that's claimed
+from you."
+
+"We'll go home with him," said the mummers.
+
+"We'll stand on his floor until he has paid all the money he has agreed
+to pay," said the others.
+
+"And now I must tell you, neighbors," said Gilly, "that I never cut the
+legs of a living horse--neither his horse nor anyone else's. This pair
+was taken off a poor dead horse by the skinners that were cutting it
+up."
+
+Well, they all went to the Churl's house and there they stayed until
+he opened his stone chest and took out his money-box and paid to the
+mummers the dues of all the people with sixpence over, and paid Gilly
+his wages in full, one guinea, one groat and a tester, and handed him
+double wages to give to each of the servant-boys he had injured. Gilly
+took the money and left the house of the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance, and the people and the mummers went to the road with him, and
+cheered him as he went on his way.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+So, without hap or mishap, Gilly came again to the house of the
+Spae-Woman. She was sitting at her door-step grinding corn with a quern
+when he came before her. She cried over him, not believing that he had
+come safe from the Townland of Mischance. And as long as he was with her
+she spoke to him of his "poor back."
+
+He stayed with her for two seasons. He mended her fences and he cleaned
+her spring-well; he ground her corn and he brought back her swarm of
+bees; he trained a dog to chase the crows out of her field; he had the
+ass shod, the sheep washed and the goat spancelled. The Spae-Woman was
+much beholden to him for all he did for her, and one day she said to
+him, "Gilly of the Goat-skin you are called, but another name is due
+to you now." "And who will give me another name?" said Gilly of the
+Goatskin. "Who'll give it to you? Who but the Old Woman of Beare," said
+the Spae-Woman.
+
+The next day she said to him, "I had a dream last night, and I know now
+what you are to do. You must go now to the Old Woman of Beare for the
+name that is due to you. And before she gives it to you, you must tell
+her and whoever else is in her house as much as you know of the Unique
+Tale."
+
+"But I know nothing at all of the Unique Tale," said Gilly of the
+Goatskin.
+
+"There is always a blank before a beginning," said the Spae-Woman. "This
+evening, when I am grinding the corn at the quern I shall tell you the
+Unique Tale."
+
+That evening when she sat at the door-step of her house and when the sun
+was setting behind the elder-bushes the Spae-Woman told Gilly the third
+part of the Unique Tale. Then she baked a cake and killed a cock for him
+and told him to start on the morrow's morning for the house of the Old
+Woman of Beare.
+
+Well, he started off in the morning bright and early, leaving good
+health with the Spae-Woman behind him, and away he went, crossing high
+hills, passing low dales, and keeping on his way without halt or rest,
+the clear day going and the dark night coming, taking lodgings each
+evening wherever he found them, and at last he came to the house of the
+Old Woman of Beare.
+
+He went into the house and found her making marks in the ashes of her
+fire while her cuckoo, her corncrake and her swallow were picking grains
+off the table.
+
+"And what can I do for you, good youth?" said the Old Woman of Beare.
+
+"Give me a name," said Gilly, "and listen to the story I have to tell
+you."
+
+
+"That I will not," said the Old Woman of Beare, "until you have done a
+task for me."
+
+"What task can I do for you?" said Gilly of the Goatskin. "I would
+know," said she, "which of us four is the oldest creature in the
+world--myself or Laheen the Eagle, Blackfoot the Elk or the Crow of
+Achill--I leave the Salmon of Assaroe out of account altogether."
+
+"And how can a youth like me help you to know that?" said Gilly of the
+Goatskin.
+
+"An ox was killed on the day I was born and on every one of my birthdays
+afterwards. The horns of the oxen are in two quarries outside. You must
+count them and tell me how much half of them amounts to and then I shall
+know my age."
+
+"That I'll do if you feed me and give me shelter," said Gilly of the
+Goatskin. "Eat as you like," said the Old Woman of Beare. She pushed him
+a loaf of bread and a bottle of water. When he cut a slice of the loaf
+it was just as if nothing had been cut off, and when he took a cupful
+out of the bottle it was as if no water had been taken out of it at
+all. When he had drunk and eaten he left the complete loaf and the full
+bottle of water on the shelf, went outside and began to count the horns
+on the right-hand side.
+
+On the second day a strange youth came to him and saluted him, and then
+went to count the horns in the quarry on the left-hand side. This youth
+was none other than the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+On the third day they had the horns all counted. Then Gilly of the
+Goatskin and the King of Ireland's Son met together under a bush. "How
+many horns have you counted?" said the King of Ireland's Son. "So many,"
+said Gilly of the Goatskin. "And how many horns have you counted?" "So
+many," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+
+Just as they were adding the two numbers together they both heard sounds
+in the air--they were like the sounds that Bards make chanting their
+verses. And when they looked up they saw a swan flying round and
+round above them. And the swan chanted the story of the coming of the
+Milesians to Eirinn, and as the two youths listened they forgot the
+number of horns they had counted. And when the swan had flown away they
+looked at each other and as they were hungry they went into the house
+and ate slices of the unwasted loaf and drank cupfuls out of the
+inexhaustible bottle. Then the Old Woman of Beare wakened up and asked
+them to tell her the number of her years.
+
+"We cannot tell you although we counted all the horns," said the King of
+Ireland's Son, "for just as we were putting the numbers together a swan
+sang to us and we forgot the number we had counted."
+
+"You didn't do your task rightly," she said, "but as I promised to give
+this youth a name and to listen to the story he had to tell, I shall
+have to let it be. You may tell the story now, Gilly of the Goatskin."
+
+They sat at the fire, and while the Old Woman of Beare spun threads on
+a very ancient spindle, and while the corncrake, the cuckoo and the
+swallow picked up grains and murmured to themselves, Gilly of the
+Goatskin told them the Unique Tale. And the story as Gilly of the
+Goatskin told it follows this.--
+
+
+
+
+A Unique Tale
+
+
+A King and a Queen were walking one day by the blue pool in their
+domain. The swan had come to the blue pool, and the bright yellow
+flowers of the broom were above the water. "Och," said the Queen, "if I
+might have a daughter that would show such colors--the blue of the pool
+in her eyes, the bright yellow of the broom in her hair, and the white
+of the swan in her skin--I would let my seven sons go with the wild
+geese." "Hush," said the King. "You ask for a doom, and it may be sent
+you." A shivering came upon the Queen. They went back to the Castle, and
+that evening the nurse told them that a gray man had passed in a circle
+round her seven sons saying, "If it be as your mother desired, let it be
+as she has said."
+
+Well, before the broom blossomed again and before the swan came to the
+blue pool, a child was born to the Queen. It was a girl. The King was
+sitting with his seven sons when the women came to tell him of the new
+birth. "O my sons," said he, "may ye be with me all my life." But his
+sons moved from him as he said it. Out through the door they went, and
+up the mound that was before the door. There they changed into gray wild
+geese, and the seven flew towards the empty hills.
+
+No councillor that the King consulted could help to win them back
+again, and no hunter that he sent through the country could gain tale or
+tidings of them. The King and Queen were left with one child only, the
+girl just born. They called her "Sheen," a word that means "Storm,"
+because her coming was a storm that swept away her seven brothers. The
+Queen died, my hearers. Then little Sheen was forgotten by her father,
+and she was reared and companioned by the servants of the house.
+
+One day, when she was the age her eldest brother was when he was changed
+from his human form, Sheen went with Mor, the Woodman's daughter, and
+Siav, the basket-maker's foster-child, to gather berries in the wood.
+Going here and there she got separated from Siav and Mor. She came to a
+place where there were lots of berries and went step after step to pick
+them. Her feet went down in a marsh. She cried to Mor and Siav, but no
+answers came from them. She cried and cried again. Her cries startled
+seven wild geese that rose up and flew round her. "Save me," she cried
+to them. Then one of the wild geese spoke to her. "Anyone but a girl we
+would save from the marsh, but such a one we cannot save, because it was
+a girl who lost us our human forms and the loving companionship of
+our father." Then Sheen knew--for the servants had often told her the
+story--that it was one of her seven brothers who spoke. "Since ever I
+knew of it," said she, "the whole of my trouble has been that I was the
+cause of your losing your human form and the companionship of our father
+who is now called the Lonely King. Believe me," said she, "that I would
+have striven and striven to win you back." There was so much feeling in
+her voice that her seven brothers, although they had been hardened by
+thinking about their misfortune, were touched at their hearts and
+they flew down to help her. They bore up her arms, they caught at her
+shoulders, they raised up her feet. They carried her beyond the marsh.
+Then she knelt down and cried to them, "O my brothers dear, is there
+anything I can do to restore you to your human forms?" "There is," said
+the first of the seven wild geese. She begged them to tell it to her.
+"It's a long and a tiresome labor we would put on you," said one. "If
+you would gather the light down that grows on the bogs with your own
+hands," said another, "and if you spun that down into threads, and wove
+the threads into a cloth and sewed the cloth into a shirt, and did that
+over and over again until you had made seven shirts for us, all that
+time without laughing or crying or saying a word, you could save us. One
+shirt you could weave and spin and sew in a year. And it would not be
+until the seven shirts were put upon us that the human form would be
+restored to each of us." "I would be glad to do all that," said Sheen,
+"and I would cry no tear, laugh no laugh, and say no word all the time I
+was doing this task."
+
+Then said the eldest brother, "The marsh is between you and our father's
+house, and between you and the companions who were with you to-day. If
+you would do the task that would restore us to our human forms, it were
+best you did not go back. Beyond the trees is the house of a lone woman,
+and there you may live until your task is finished." The seven wild
+geese then flew back to the marsh, and Sheen went to the house beyond
+the trees. The Spae-Woman lived there. She took Sheen to be a dumb girl,
+and she gave her food and shelter for the services she did--bringing
+water from the well in the daytime and grinding corn at the quern
+at dusk. She had the rest of the day and night for her own task. She
+gathered the bog-down between noon and sunset and spun the thread at
+night. When she had lengths of thread spun she began to weave them on
+the loom. At the end of a year she had the first shirt made. In another
+year she made the second, then the third, then the fourth, the fifth and
+the sixth. And all the time she said no word, laughed no laugh and cried
+no tear.
+
+
+She was gathering the bog-down for the seventh and last shirt. Once she
+went abroad on a day when the snow was melted and she felt her footsteps
+light. Hundreds of birds were on the ground eating plentifully and
+calling to one another. Sheen could hardly keep from her mouth the song
+that was in her mind. She would sing and laugh and talk when the last
+thread was spun and woven, when the last stitch was sewn, and when the
+shirts of bog-down she had made in silence would have brought back her
+brothers to their own human forms. She gathered the scarce heads of the
+cannavan or bog-down with one hand, while she held the other hand to her
+lips.
+
+Something dropped down at her feet. It was a white grouse and it
+remained cowering on the ground. Sheen looked up and she saw a hawk
+above. And when she looked round she saw a man coming across the bog.
+The hawk flew towards him and lighted on his shoulder.
+
+Sheen held the white grouse to her breast. The man came near to her
+and spoke to her and his voice made her stand. He wore the dress of a
+hunter. His face was brown and lean and his eyes were bright-blue like
+gentian-flowers. No word did Sheen say to him and he passed on with the
+hawk on his shoulder. Then with the grouse held at her breast she went
+back to the Spae-Woman's house.
+
+That night when she spun her thread she thought of the blue-eyed,
+brown-faced man. Would any of her brothers be like him, she wondered,
+when they were restored to their human shapes. She fed the white grouse
+with grains of corn and left it to rest in the window-niche above her
+bed. And then she lay awake and tried to know the meaning in the song
+the Spae-Woman sang when she sat spinning wool in the chimney Corner--
+
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast!
+   Little sister,
+   I'll rock you to rest!
+
+   The flood on the river beats
+   The swan from its nest!
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast!
+
+   The rain-drops encumber
+   The hawthorn's crest:
+   My thoughts have no number:
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast,
+   Little sister,
+   I'll rock you to rest.
+
+She passed the night between sleeping and waking, and when the light
+grew she saw the white grouse crouching against the window-opening.
+She opened the door and stepped outside to let the grouse fly from her
+hands.
+
+And there, on the ground before her was a sword! Sheen knew it to be the
+sword of the man she had seen yesterday, and she knew the man had been
+before the door in the night-time. She knelt on the ground to look at
+the bright blue blade. O my listeners, if I was there I was in the
+crows that flew down heavily and cawed as they picked up something that
+pleased them, in the wood-cushats that cooed in the trees, in the small
+birds that quarreled in the thatch of the house, and in the breeze that
+blew round--the first breeze of the day.
+
+The Spae-Woman came outside and saw what Sheen was looking at--the sword
+on the ground. "It is wrought with cunning that only the smiths of Kings
+possess," she said. She took the sword and hung it on the branch of a
+tree so that the dews of the ground might not rust it. "I think the
+one who owns it is the stranger who is seen in the wild places
+hereabouts--the man whom the neighbors call the Hunter-King," she said
+to Sheen.
+
+On another day Sheen went to gather bog-down. This time she crossed the
+river by the stepping-stones and went into a country where there were
+many cattle. She stood wondering at their numbers and wishing that such
+a cow and such a calf might belong to the Spae-Woman. Then the next
+thing she saw was two black horses striving with each other. They showed
+their teeth at each other and bit and kicked. Then they came racing
+towards her. "Oh," said Sheen to herself, "they are Breogan's wild
+stallions." She ran, but the horses were able to make circles round her.
+"Breogan's wild stallions," said she, "they will rush in and trample me
+to death." Then she heard someone shouting commands to the horses. She
+saw a man strike one of the stallions with a staff, making him rear
+high. She saw him make the other stand with the command that was in his
+voice. She ran to the river, but she slipped on the stepping-stones;
+she fell down and she felt the water flowing upon her. The man came and
+lifting her up carried her to her own side of the river. Across the bog
+he carried her, and when she looked at him she saw the lean face and
+eyes blue like gentian-flowers--she saw the face of the man who was
+called the Hunter-King. He left her on the ground when they passed the
+bog, and she went on her way without speaking.
+
+Nothing of this no more than of anything else that happened to her, or
+anything that she thought of, did Sheen tell the Spae-Woman. But she
+wished and she wished that the Hunter-King might come past while there
+was a light in the house and step within and talk to the Spae-Woman, so
+that she herself, while spinning the thread, could hear his voice and
+listen to the things he talked about. She often stood at the door and
+watched across the bog to see if anything was coming to her.
+
+A neighbor-woman came across the door-step one evening and Sheen went
+into the house after her, for she felt that something was going to be
+told. There was a dead man in a house. He had been found in the wood. He
+was known as the Hunter-King. Sheen stood at her bed and heard what the
+neighbor-woman said.
+
+The Hunter-King was being waked in the neighbor-woman's house, and her
+eldest daughter had been the corpse-watcher the first night. In the
+morning they found that the girl's hand had been withered. The woman's
+second daughter was the corpse-watcher the second night and her right
+hand had been left trembling. This was the third and last night that the
+Hunter-King would be waked, and to-night there was no one to watch his
+corpse.
+
+Sheen thought that nothing would ever happen in the world again, now
+that the Hunter-King was dead. She thought that there was no loneliness
+so great as that of his corpse with no one to watch it on the last
+strange night it would be above ground. The neighbor-woman went from the
+Spae-Woman and Sheen went after her. She was standing on the door-step
+of her house. "Oh, colleen," said the neighbor-woman, "I am wanting
+a girl to watch a corpse in my house to-night--the third and the last
+night for watching. Will you watch and I will give you a comb for your
+hair?" Sheen showed that she would serve the woman and she went into the
+wake-house. At first she was afraid to look at the bed. Then she went
+over and saw the Hunter-King with his face still, his eyes closed down,
+and the plate of salt on his breast. His gray gaunt hound was stretched
+across his feet.
+
+
+The woman and her daughters lighted candles and placed them in the
+window recesses and at the head of the corpse. Then they went into their
+dormer-room and left Sheen to her watching. She sat at the fire and made
+one fagot after another blaze up. She had brought her basket of bog-down
+and she began to spin a thread upon the neighbor-woman's wheel.
+
+She finished the thread and put it round her neck. Then she began to
+search for more candles so that she might be able to light one, as
+another went out. But as she rose up all the candles went out all at
+once. The hound started from the foot of the bed. Then she saw the
+corpse sitting up stiffly in the place where it had been laid.
+
+Something in Sheen overcame her dread, and she went over to the corpse
+and took the salt that was on its breast and put it on its lips. Then a
+voice came from between the lips. "Fair Maid," said the voice, "have
+you the courage to follow me? The others failed me and they have been
+stricken. Are you faithful?" "I will follow you," said Sheen. "Then,"
+said the corpse, "put your hands on my shoulders and come with me. I
+must go over the Quaking Bog, and through the Burning forest, and across
+the Icy Sea." Sheen put her hands on his shoulders. A storm came and
+they were swept through the roof of the house. They were carried through
+the night. Down they came on the ground and the dead man sprang away
+from Sheen. She went to follow him and found her feet upon a shaking
+sod. They were on the Quaking Bog, she knew. The corpse of the
+Hunter-King went ahead and she knew that she must keep it in sight. He
+went swiftly. The sod went under her feet and she was in the watery mud.
+She struggled out and jumped over a pool that was hidden with heather.
+All the time she was in dread that the figure that went before her so
+quickly would be lost to her. She sank and she struggled and she sprang
+across pools and morasses. All the time what had been the corpse of the
+Hunter-King went before her.
+
+Then she saw fires against the sky and she knew they were coming to the
+Burning Forest. The figure before her sprang across a ditch and went
+into the forest. Sheen sprang across it too. Burning branches fell
+across her path as she went on. Hot winds burnt her face. Flames dazzled
+and smoke dazed her. But the figure before her went straight on and
+Sheen went straight on too.
+
+The forest ended on a cliff. Below was the sea. The figure before her
+dived down and Sheen dived too. The cold chilled her to the marrow. She
+thought the chill would drive the life out of her. But she saw the head
+of one swimming before her and she swam on.
+
+And then they were on land again. "Fair Maid," said the corpse of the
+Hunter-King, "put your hands on my shoulders again." She put her hands
+on his shoulders. A storm came and swept them away. They were driven
+through the roof of the neighbor-woman's house. The candle-wicks
+fluttered and light came on them again. She saw the hound standing in
+the middle of the floor. She saw the corpse sitting where it had been
+laid and the eyes were now open.
+
+"Fair Maid," said the voice of the Hunter-King, "you have brought me
+back to life. I am a man under enchantment. There is a witch-woman in
+the wood that I gave my love to. She enchanted me so that the soul was
+out of my body, and wandering away. It was my soul you followed. And the
+enchantment was to be broken when I found a heart so faithful that it
+would follow my soul over the Quaking Bog, through the Burning Forest
+and across the Icy Sea. You have brought my soul and my life back to
+me."
+
+Then she ran out of the neighbor's house. The night after, in the
+Spae-Woman's house she finished weaving the threads that were on the
+loom. The next night she stitched the cloth and made the sixth shirt.
+The day after she went into the bog to gather the bog-down for the
+seventh shirt. She had gathered her basketful and was going through the
+wood about the hour of sunset. At the edge of the thin wood she saw the
+Hunter-King standing. He took her hands and his were warm hands. His
+brown face and his gentian-blue eyes were high and noble. And Sheen
+felt a joy like the sharpness of a sword when he sang to her about the
+brightness of her hair and the blue of her eyes. "O Maid," said he,
+"is there anything that binds you to this place?" Sheen showed him the
+bog-down in the basket and the woven thread that was round her neck.
+"Come with me to my kingdom," said he, "and you shall be my wife and the
+love of my heart." The next evening Sheen went with him. She took the
+six shirts she had spun and woven and stitched. The Hunter-King lifted
+her before him on a black horse and they rode into his Kingdom.
+
+
+And now Sheen was the wife of the Hunter-King. She would have been happy
+if her husband's sisters had been kind. But they were jealous and they
+made everything in the Castle unfriendly to her. And often they talked
+before her brother saying that Sheen was not noble at all, and that the
+reason she did not speak was because her language was a base one. They
+watched her when she went out to gather bog-down in the daytime, and
+they watched her when she spun by herself at night. Sheen longed for the
+days and nights to pass so that the last threads might be spun and woven
+and the last stitches put in the seventh shirt. Then her brothers would
+be with her. She could tell the King about herself and silence the bad
+talk of his sisters. But as she neared the end of her task she became
+more and more in dread.
+
+The threads were spun and woven for the seventh shirt. The cloth was
+made and the first stitches were put in it. Then Sheen's little son was
+born. The King was away at the time, gathering his men together at far
+parts of the Kingdom, and he sent a message saying that Sheen and her
+baby were to be well-minded, and that his sisters were not to leave the
+chamber where she was until he returned.
+
+On the third night, while Sheen was in her bed with her baby beside her,
+and while her sisters-in-law were in the room, a strange music was heard
+outside. It was played all round the King's house. Whoever heard it fell
+into deep slumber. The kern that were on guard slept. The maids that
+were whispering together fell into a slumber. And a deep sleep came upon
+Sheen and her child and on her three sisters-in-law who watched in the
+chamber.
+
+Then a gray wolf that had been seen outside sprang in through the window
+opening. He took Sheen's child in his mouth. He sprang back through the
+window opening and was seen about the place no more. Her sisters-in-law
+wakened while Sheen still slept. They went to tend it and found the
+child was gone. Then they were afraid of what their brother would do to
+them for letting this happen. They made a plot to clear themselves,
+and before Sheen wakened they had killed a little beast and smeared its
+blood upon the pillows of the bed.
+
+
+When the King came into his wife's chamber he saw his sisters on the
+ground lamenting and tearing the hairs out of their heads. He went to
+where his wife was sleeping and saw blood upon her hands and upon the
+pillows. He turned on his sisters with his sword in his hand. They cried
+out that they could not have prevented the thing that had happened--that
+the Queen had laid hands on the child and having killed it had thrown
+its body to the gray wolf that had been watching outside.
+
+And while they were speaking Sheen awakened. She put out her arms but
+her child was not beside her. She found blood upon the pillows. Then
+she heard her sisters-in-law accuse her to the King of having killed her
+child and flung its body to the gray wolf outside. She fell into a swoon
+and when she came out of it her mind was lost to her.
+
+The King knelt to her and begged her to tell him what had happened. But
+she only knew she was to say no word. Then he used to watch her and he
+wondered why she cried no tear. On the fourth day after she rose from
+her bed and searched the Castle for the piece of cloth she had spun
+and woven out of the bog-down. She found it and began to sew it for the
+seventh shirt. The King's sisters came to him and said, "The woman you
+brought here is of another race from ours. She has forgotten that a
+child was born to her, and that she killed it and flung its body to the
+gray wolf. She sits there now just stitching a garment." The King went
+and saw her stitching and stitching as if her life depended on each
+stitch she put into the cloth. He spoke to her and she looked up but did
+not speak. Then the King's heart was hardened. He took her and brought
+her outside the gate of the Castle. "Go back to the people you came
+from," said he, "for I cannot bear that you should be here, and not
+speak to me of what has happened." Sheen knew she was being sent from
+the house he had brought her to. A bitter cry came from her. Then the
+stitched cloth that was in her hand became bog-down and was blown away
+on the breeze. When she saw this happen she turned from the King's
+Castle and ran through the woods crying and crying.
+
+She went through the woods for many days, living on berries and the
+water of springs. At last she came to the Spae-Woman's house. The
+Spae-Woman was before the door and she welcomed Sheen back. She gave her
+drinks she had made from strange herbs, and in a season Sheen's mind and
+health came back to her, and she knew all that had happened. She thought
+she would win back her seven brothers, and then, with their help, win
+back her child and her husband. But she knew she would have to gather
+the bog-down, spin the threads and weave them all over again, as
+her tears and cries had broken her task. She told her story to the
+Spae-Woman. Then she went into silence again, gathering the bog-down and
+spinning the thread.
+
+But when the first thread was spun the memory of her child blew against
+her heart and she cried tears down. The thread she had spun became
+bog-down and was blown away. For days she wept and wept. Then
+the Spae-Woman said to her, "Commit the child you have lost to
+Diachbha--that is, to Destiny--and Diachbha may bring it about that
+he shall be the one that will restore your seven brothers their human
+forms. And when you have committed your lost little son to Diachbha go
+back to your husband and tell him all you have lived through."
+
+Sheen, believing in the Spae-Woman's wisdom, did what was told her. She
+made an image of her lost little son with leaves and left it on the top
+of the house where it was blown away by the winds. Then she was ready to
+go back to her husband and tell him all that had happened in her life.
+But on the day she was bringing the last pitcher of water from the well
+she met him on the path before her. "Do you remember that I carried
+you across the bog?" he said. "And do you remember that I followed your
+soul?" said she.
+
+These were the first words she ever spoke to him. They went back
+together to the Spae-Woman's and she told him all that had been in her
+life. He told her how his sisters had acknowledged that they had spoken
+falsely against her.
+
+He took her back to his own Kingdom, and there, as King and Queen they
+still live. But the name she bears is not Sheen or Storm now. Two sons
+more were born to her. But her seven brothers are still seven wild
+geese, and the Queen has found no trace of her first-born son. But the
+Spae-Woman has had a dream, and the dream has revealed this to her: the
+Son that Sheen lost is in the world, and if the maiden who will come to
+love him, will give seven drops of her heart's blood, the Queen's seven
+brothers will regain their human forms.
+
+
+"So that is the Unique Tale," said the Old Woman of Beare. "If you ever
+find out what went before it and what comes after it come back here and
+tell it to me. But I don't think you'll get the rest of it," said she,
+"seeing that the two of you weren't able to count the horns outside."
+She went on talking and talking, Gilly and the King's Son hearing what
+she said when she spoke in a sudden high voice, and not hearing when
+she murmured on as if talking to the ashes or to the pot or to the
+corncrake, the cuckoo or the swallow that were picking grains off the
+floor. "If you see Laheen the Eagle again, or Blackfoot the Elk or the
+Crow of Achill tell them to come and visit me sometime. I'm all alone
+here except for my swallow and cuckoo and corncrake. And mind you, great
+Kings and Princes used to come to see me." So she went on talking in low
+tones and in sudden high tones.
+
+"You must come with me and help me to get the rest of the Unique Tale,"
+said the King of Ireland's Son. "That I'll do," said Gilly of the
+Goatskin. "But I must get a name first.
+
+"Old Mother," said he, to the Old Woman of Beare. "You must now give me
+a name."
+
+"I'll give you a name," said the Old Woman of Beare, "but you must stand
+before me and strip off the goatskin that covers you."
+
+Gilly pulled at the strings and the goatskin fell on the ground. The Old
+Woman of Beare nodded her head. "You have the stars on your breast that
+denote the Son of a King," she said.
+
+"The Son of a King--me!" said Gilly of the Goatskin. "You have the stars
+on your breast," said the Old Woman of Beare.
+
+Gilly looked at himself and saw the three stars on his breast. "If I am
+the Son of a King I never knew it until now," he said.
+
+"You are the son of a King," said the Old Woman of Beare, "and I will
+give you a name when you come back to me. But I want you, first of all,
+to find out what happened to the Crystal Egg."
+
+"The Crystal Egg!" said Gilly in great surprise.
+
+"The Crystal Egg indeed," said the Old Woman of Beare. "You must know
+that it was stolen out of the nest of Laheen the Eagle, and the creature
+that stole it was the Crow of Achill. But what happened to the Crystal
+Egg after that no one knows."
+
+"I myself had it after that," said Gilly, "and it was stolen from me by
+Rory the Fox. And then it was put under a goose to hatch." "A goose to
+hatch the Crystal Egg after an Eagle had half-hatched it! Aye, aye, to
+be sure, that's right," said the Old Woman of Beare. "And now you must
+go and find out what happened to it. Go now, and when you come back I
+will give you your name."
+
+"I will do that," said Gilly of the Goatskin. Then he turned to the
+King's Son. "Three days before Midsummer's Day meet me on the road to
+the Town of the Red Castle, and I will go with you to find out what went
+before and what comes after the Unique Tale," he said.
+
+"I will meet you," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+The two youths went to the table and ate slices of the unwasted loaf
+and drank draughts from the inexhaustible bottle. "I shall stay here to
+practise sword-cuts and sword-thrusts," said the King's Son, "until four
+days before Midsummer's Day." The two youths went to the door.
+
+"Seven waves of good-luck to you, Old Woman of Beare," said Gilly of the
+Goatskin.
+
+"May your double be slain and yourself remain," said the King's Son.
+Then they went out together, but not along the same path did the two
+youths go.
+
+
+Gilly slept as he traveled that night, for he fell in with a man who was
+driving a load of hay to the fair, and when he got into the cart he lay
+against the hay and slept. When he parted with the carter he cut a holly
+stick and journeyed along the road by himself. At the fall of night he
+came to a place that made him think he had been there before: he looked
+around and then he knew that this was the place he had lived in when he
+had the Crystal Egg. He looked to see if the house was there: it
+was, and people were living in it, for he saw smoke coming out of the
+chimney. It was dark now and Gilly thought he could not do better than
+take shelter in that house.
+
+He went to the door and knocked. There was a lot of rattling behind,
+and then a crooked old woman opened the door to him. "What do you want?"
+said she.
+
+"Can I have shelter here for to-night, ma'am?" said Gilly.
+
+"You can get no shelter hem," said the old woman, "and I'd advise you to
+begone."
+
+"May I ask who lives here?" said Gilly, putting his foot inside the
+door.
+
+"Six very honest men whose business keeps them out until two and three
+in the morning," said the crooked old woman.
+
+Gilly guessed that the honest men whose business kept them out until
+two and three in the morning were the robbers he had heard about. And he
+thought they might be the very men who had carried off the Spae-Woman's
+goose and the Crystal Egg along with it. "Would you tell me, good
+woman," said Gilly, "did your six honest men ever bring to this house an
+old hatching goose?"
+
+"They did indeed," said the crooked woman, "and a heart-scald the same
+old hatching goose is. It goes round the house and round the house,
+trying to hatch the cups I leave out of my hands."
+
+Then Gilly pushed the door open wide and stepped into the house.
+
+"Don't stay in the house," said the crooked old woman. "I'll tell you
+the truth now. My masters are robbers, and they'll skin you alive if
+they find you here when they come back in the morning."
+
+"It's more likely I'll skin them alive," said Gilly, and he looked
+so fierce that he fairly frightened the old woman. "And if you don't
+satisfy me with supper and a bed I'll leave you to meet them hanging
+from the door."
+
+The crooked old woman was so terrified that she gave him a supper of
+porridge and showed him a bed to sleep in. He turned in and slept. He
+was roused by a candle being held to his eyes. He wakened up and saw six
+robbers standing round him with knives in their hands.
+
+"What brings you under our roof?" said the Captain. "Answer me now
+before we skin you as we would skin an eel."
+
+"Speak up and answer the Captain," said the robbers.
+
+"Why shouldn't I be under this roof?" said Gilly. "I am the Master-Thief
+of the World."
+
+The robbers put their hands on their knees and laughed at that. Gilly
+jumped out of the bed. "I have come to show you the arts of thievery and
+roguery," said he. "I'll show you some tricks that will let you hold up
+your heads amongst the thieves and robbers of the world."
+
+
+He looked so bold and he spoke so bold that the robbers began to think
+he might have some reason for talking as he did. They left him and went
+off to their beds. Gilly slept again. At the broad noon they were all
+sitting at breakfast--Gilly and the six robbers. A farmer went past
+leading a goat to the fair.
+
+"Could any of you steal that goat without doing any violence to the man
+who is driving it?" said Gilly.
+
+"I couldn't," said one robber, and "I couldn't," said another robber,
+and "I'd be hardly able to do that myself," said the Captain of the
+Robbers.
+
+"I can do it," said Gilly. "I'll be back with the goat before you are
+through with your breakfast." He went outside.
+
+Gilly knew that country well and he ran through the wood until he was
+a bend of the road ahead of the farmer who was leading his goat to the
+fair. He took off one shoe and left it in the middle of the road. He
+ran on then until he was round another bend of the road. He took off the
+other shoe and left it down. Then he hid behind the hedge and waited.
+
+The farmer came to where the first shoe was. "That's not a bad shoe,"
+said he, "and if there was a comrade for it, it would be worth picking
+up." He went on then and came to where the other shoe was lying. "Here
+is the comrade," said he, "and it's worth my while now to go back for
+the first."
+
+He tied the goat to the mile-stone and went back. As soon as the farmer
+had turned his back, Gilly took the collar off the goat, left it on the
+milestone and took the goat through a gap in the hedge. He brought it
+to the house before the robbers were through with their breakfast. They
+were all terribly surprised. The Captain began to bite at his nails.
+
+The farmer, with the two shoes under his arm, came to where he had left
+the goat. The goat was gone and its collar was left on the milestone. He
+knew that a robber had taken his goat. "And I had promised Ann, my
+wife, to buy her a new shawl at the fair," said he. "She'll never stop
+scolding me if I go back to her now with one hand as long as the other.
+The best thing I can do is to take a sheep out of my field and sell
+that. Then when she is in good humor on account of getting the shawl
+I'll tell her about the loss of my goat." So the farmer went back to the
+field.
+
+They were sitting down to a game of cards after breakfast--the six
+robbers and Gilly--when they saw the farmer going past with the sheep.
+"I'll be bound that he'll watch that sheep more closely than he watched
+the goat," said one of the robbers. "Could any of you steal that sheep
+without doing him any violence?" said Gilly. "I couldn't," said one
+robber, and "I couldn't," said another robber. "I could hardly do that
+myself," said the Captain of the Robbers. "I'll bring the sheep here
+before you're through with the game of cards," said Gilly.
+
+The farmer was just past the milestone when he saw a man hanging on a
+tree. "The saints between us and harm," said he, "do they hang men along
+this road?" Now the man hanging from the tree was Gilly. He had fastened
+himself to a branch with his belt, putting it under his arm-pits. He
+slipped down from the branch and ran till he was ahead of the farmer.
+The farmer saw another man hanging from a tree. "The saints preserve
+us," said he, "sure; it's not possible that they hanged two men along
+this road?" Gilly slipped down from that tree too and ran on until he
+was ahead of the farmer again. The farmer saw a third man hanging from
+a tree. "Am I leaving my senses?" said he. "I'll go back and see if the
+other men are hanging there as I thought they were." He tied the sheep
+to a bush and went back. As soon as he turned, Gilly slipped down from
+the tree, took the sheep through a gap, and got back to the robbers
+before they were through with the game. All the robbers said it was
+a wonderful thing he had done. The Captain of the Robbers was left
+standing by himself scratching his head.
+
+The farmer found no men hanging on trees and he thought he was out of
+his mind. He came back and he found his sheep gone. "What will I do
+now?" said he. "I daren't let Ann know I lost a goat and a sheep until
+I put her into good humor by showing the shawl I bought her at the fair.
+There's nothing to be done now, but take a bullock out of the field and
+sell it at the fair." He went to the field then, took a bullock out of
+it, and passed the house just as the robbers were lighting their pipes.
+"If he watched the goat and the sheep closely he'll watch the bullock
+nine times as closely," said one of the robbers.
+
+"Which of you could take the bullock without doing the man any
+violence?" said Gilly. "I couldn't," said one robber, and "I couldn't,"
+said another robber. "If you could do it," said the Captain of the
+Robbers to Gilly, "I'll resign my command and give it to you." "Done,"
+said Gilly, and he went out of the house again.
+
+He went quickly through the wood, and when he came near where the farmer
+was he began to bleat like a goat. The farmer stopped and listened. Then
+Gilly began to baa like the sheep. "That sounds very like my goat and
+sheep," said the farmer. "Maybe they weren't taken at all, but just
+strayed off. If I can get them now, I needn't make any excuses to Ann my
+wife." He tied the bullock to a tree and went into the wood. As soon as
+he did, Gilly slipped out, took the bullock by the rope and hurried back
+to the house. The robbers were gathered at the door to watch for his
+coming back. When they saw him with the bullock they threw up their
+hats. "This man must be our Captain," they said. The Captain was biting
+his lips and his nails. At last he took off his hat with the feathers in
+it and gave it to Gilly. "You're our Captain now," said the robbers.
+
+Gilly ordered that the goat, the sheep and the bullock be put into the
+byre, that the door be locked and the key be given to him. All that was
+done. Then said he to all the robbers, "I demand to know what became of
+the Crystal Egg that was with the goose you stole from the Spae-Woman."
+"The Crystal Egg," said one of the robbers. "It hatched, and a queer
+bird came out of it." "Where is that bird now?" said Gilly. "On the
+waves of the lake near at hand," said the robbers. "We see it every
+day." "Take me to the lake till I see the Bird out of the Crystal Egg,"
+said Gilly. They locked the door of the house behind them, and the
+seven, Gilly at their head, wearing the hat with feathers, marched down
+to the lake.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+
+Then they showed him the bird that was on the waves of the lake--a swan
+she was and she floated proudly. The swan came towards them and as she
+drew nearer they could hear her voice. The sounds she made were not
+like any sound of birds, but like the sounds bards make chanting their
+verses. Words came on high notes and low notes, but they were like words
+in a strange language. And still the swan chanted as she drew near to
+the shore where Gilly and the six robbers stood.
+
+She spread out her wings, and, raising her neck she curved it, while
+she stayed watching the men on the bank. "Hear the Swan of Endless
+Tales--the Swan of Endless Tales" she sang in words they knew. Then she
+raised herself out of the water, turned round in the air, and flew back
+to the middle of the lake.
+
+"Time for us to be leaving the place when there is a bird on the lake
+that can speak like that," said Mogue, who had been the Captain of the
+Robbers. "To-night I'm leaving this townland."
+
+"And I am leaving too," said another robber. "And I too," said another.
+"And I may be going away from this place," said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+The robbers went away from him and back to the house and Gilly sat by
+the edge of the lake waiting to see if the Swan of Endless Tales would
+come back and tell him something. She did not come. As Gilly sat there
+the farmer who had lost his goat, his sheep and his bullock came by. He
+was dragging one foot after the other and looking very downcast. "What
+is the matter with you, honest man?" said Gilly.
+
+The farmer told him how he had lost his goat, his sheep and his bullock.
+He told him how he had thought he heard his goat bleating and his sheep
+ba'ing, and how he went through the wood to search for them, and how his
+bullock was gone when he came back to the road. "And what to say to
+my wife Ann I don't know," said he, "particularly as I have brought no
+shawl to put her in good humor. Heavy is the blame she'll give me on
+account of my losing a goat, a sheep and a bullock."
+
+Gilly took a key out of his pocket. "Do you see this key?" said he.
+"Take it and open the byre door at such a place, and you'll find in that
+byre your goat, your sheep and your bullock. There are robbers in that
+house, but if they try to prevent your taking your own tell them that
+all the threshers of the country are coming to beat them with flails."
+The farmer took the key and went away very thankful to Gilly. The story
+says that he got back his goat, his sheep and his bullock and made it an
+excuse that he had seen three magpies on the road for not going to the
+fair to buy a shawl for his wife Ann. The robbers were very frightened
+when he told them about the threshers coming and they went away from
+that part of the country.
+
+As for Gilly, he thought he would go back to the Old Woman of Beare for
+his name. He took the path by the edge of the lake. And as he journeyed
+along with his holly-stick in his hand he heard the Swan of Endless
+Tales chanting.
+
+
+
+
+THE TOWN OF THE RED CASTLE
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Flann was the name that the Old Woman of Beare gave to Gilly of the
+Goatskin when he came back to tell her that the Swan of Endless Tales
+had been hatched out of the Crystal Egg. He went from her house then and
+came to where the King of Ireland's Son waited for him. The two comrades
+went along a well-traveled road. As they went on they fell in with men
+driving herds of ponies, men carrying packs on their backs, men with
+tools for working gold and silver, bronze and iron. Every man whom they
+asked said, "We are going to the Town of the Red Castle, and to the
+great fair that will be held there." The King's Son and Flann thought
+they should go to the Town of the Red Castle too, for where so many
+people would be, there was a chance of hearing what went before and what
+came after the Unique Tale. So they went on.
+
+And when they had come to a well that was under a great rock those whom
+they were with halted. They said it was the custom for the merchants
+and sellers to wait there for a day and to go into the Town of the Red
+Castle the day following. "On this day," they said, "the people of the
+Town celebrate the Festival of Midsummer, and they do not like a great
+company of people to go into their Town until the Festival is over."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son and Flann went on, and they were let into the
+town. The people had lighted great fires in their market-place and they
+were driving their cattle through the fires: "If there be evil on you,
+may it burn, may it burn," they were crying. They were afraid that
+witches and enchanters might come into the town with the merchants and
+the sellers, and that was the reason they did not permit a great company
+to enter.
+
+The fires in all their houses had been quenched that day, and they might
+not be lighted except from the fires the cattle had gone through. The
+fires were left blazing high and the King's Son and Flann spent hours
+watching them, and watching the crowds that were around.
+
+Then the time came to take fire to the houses. They who came for fire
+were all young maidens. Each came into the light of one of the great
+fires, took coals from a fire that had burnt low, placed them in a new
+earthen vessel and went away. Flann thought that all the maidens were
+beautiful and wonderful, although the King's Son told him that some were
+black-faced, and some crop-headed and some hunchbacked. Then a maiden
+came, who was so high above the rest that Flann had no words to speak of
+her.
+
+She had silver on her head and silver on her arms, and the people around
+the fires all bowed to her. She had black, black hair and she had a
+smiling face--not happily smiling, but proudly smiling. Flann thought
+that a star had bent down with her. And when she had taken the fire and
+had gone away, Flann said, "She is surely the King's daughter!"
+
+"She is," said the King of Ireland's Son. "The people here have spoken
+her name." "What is her name?" asked Flann. "It is Lassarina," said the
+King's Son, "Flame-of-Wine."
+
+"Shall we see her again?" said Flann.
+
+"That I do not know," said the King's Son. "Come now, and let us ask the
+people here if they have knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"Wait," said Flann, "they are talking about Princess Flame-of-Wine." He
+did not move, but listened to what was said. All said that the King's
+daughter was proud. Some said she was beautiful, but others answered
+that her lips were thin, and her eyes were mocking. No other maidens
+came for fire. Flann stood before the one that still blazed, and thought
+and thought. The King's Son asked many if they had knowledge of the
+Unique Tale, but no one had heard of it. Some told him that there would
+be merchants and sellers from many parts of the world at the fair that
+would be held on the morrow, and that there would be a chance of meeting
+one who had knowledge of it. Then the King's Son went with one who
+brought him to a Brufir's--that is, to a House of Hospitality maintained
+by the King for strangers. As for Flann, he sat looking into the fire
+until it died down, and then he slept before it.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Flann was wakened by a gander and his flock of geese that stood round
+him; shook their wings and set up their goose-gabble. It was day then,
+although there was still a star in the sky. He threw furze-roots where
+there was a glow, and made a fire blaze up again. Then the dogs of the
+town came down to look at him, and then stole away.
+
+Horns were blown outside, and the watchman opened the gates. Flann shook
+himself and stood up to see the folk that were coming in. First came the
+men who drove the mountain ponies that had lately fed with the deer
+in wild places. Then came men in leathern jerkins who led wide-horned
+bulls--a black bull and a white bull, and a white bull and a black bull,
+one after the other. Then there were men who brought in high, swift
+hounds, three to each leash they held. Women in brown cloaks carried
+cages of birds. Men carried on their shoulders and in their belts tools
+for working gold and silver, bronze and iron. And there were calves and
+sheep, and great horses and weighty chariots, and colored cloths, and
+things closed in packs that merchants carried on their shoulders.
+The famous bards, and story-tellers and harpists would not come until
+noon-time when the business of the fair would have abated, but with the
+crowd of beggars came ballad-singers, and the tellers of the stories
+that were called "Go-by-the-Market-Stake," because they were told around
+the stake in the market place and were very common.
+
+And at the tail of the comers whom did Flann see but Mogue, the Captain
+of the Robbers!
+
+
+Mogue wore a hare-skin cap, his left eye protruded as usual, and he
+walked limpingly. He had a pack on his back, and he led a small, swift
+looking horse of a reddish color. Flann called to him as he passed and
+Mogue gave a great start. He grinned when he saw it was Flann and walked
+up to him.
+
+"Mogue," said Flann, "what are you doing in the Town of the Red Castle?"
+
+"I'm here to sell a few things," said Mogue, "this little horse," said
+he, "and a few things I have in my pack."
+
+"And where are your friends?" asked Flann. "My band, do you mean?"
+said Mogue. "Sure, they all left me when you proved you were the better
+robber. What are you doing here?"
+
+"I have no business at all," said Flann.
+
+"By the Hazel! that's what I like to hear you say. Join me then. You and
+me would do well together."
+
+"I won't join you," said Flann.
+
+"I'd rather have you with me than the whole of the band. What were they
+anyway? Cabbage-heads!" Mogue winked with his protruding eye. "Wait till
+you see me again," said he. "I've the grandest things in my pack." He
+went on leading the little horse. Then Flann set out to look for the
+King's Son.
+
+He found him at the door of the Brufir's, and they drank bowls of milk
+and ate oaten bread together, and then went to the gate of the town to
+watch the notable people who were coming in.
+
+And with the bards and harpers and Kings' envoys who came in, the King's
+Son saw his two half-brothers, Dermott and Downal. He hailed them and
+they knew him and came up to him gladly. The King's Son made Flann known
+to them, saying that he too was the son of a King.
+
+They looked fine youths, Downal and Dermott, in their red cloaks, with
+their heads held high, and a brag in their walk and their words. They
+left their horses with the grooms and walked with Flann and the King's
+Son. They were tall and ruddy; the King's Son was more brown in the
+hair and more hawk-like in the face: the three were different from the
+dark-haired, dark-eyed, red-lipped lad to whom the Old Woman of Beare
+had given the name of Flann.
+
+No one had seen the King who lived in the Red Castle, Dermott and Downal
+told the other two. He was called the Wry-faced King, and, on account of
+his disfigurement, he let no one but his Councilors see him.
+
+"We are to go to his Castle to-day," said Dermott and Downal. "You come
+too, brother," said he to the King's Son.
+
+"And you too, comrade," said Downal to Flann. "Why should we not all go?
+By Ogma! Are we not all sons of Kings?"
+
+Flann wondered if he would see the King's daughter, Flame-of-Wine. He
+would surely go to the Castle.
+
+They drank ale, played chess and talked until it was afternoon. Then the
+grooms who were with Downal and Dermott brought the four youths new red
+cloaks. They put them on and went towards the King's Castle.
+
+"Brother," said Dermott to the King's Son, "I want to tell you that we
+are not going back to our father's Castle nor to his Kingdom. We have
+taken the world for our pillow. We are going to leave the grooms asleep
+one fine morning, and go as the salmon goes down the river."
+
+"Why do you want to leave our father's Kingdom?"
+
+"Because we don't want to rule nor to learn to rule. We'll let you,
+brother, do all that. We're going to learn the trade of a sword-smith.
+We would make fine swords. And with the King of Senlabor there is a
+famous sword-smith, and we are going to learn the trade from him."
+
+
+The four went to the Red Castle, and they were brought in and they went
+and sat on the benches to wait for the King's Steward who would receive
+them. And while they waited they watched the play of a pet fox in
+the courtyard. Flann was wondering all the time if the Princess
+Flame-of-Wine would pass through the court-yard or come into the hall
+where they waited.
+
+Then he saw her come up the courtyard. She saw the youths in the hall
+and she turned round to watch the pet fox for a while. Then she came
+into the chamber and stood near the door.
+
+She wore a mask across her face, but her brow and mouth and chin were
+shown. The youths saluted her, and she bent her head to them. One of the
+women who had brought birds to the Fair followed her, bringing a cage.
+Flame-of-Wine talked to this woman in a strange language.
+
+Although she talked to the woman, Flann saw that she watched his three
+companions. Him she did not notice, because the bench on which he sat
+was behind the others. Flame-of-Wine looked at the King's Son first,
+and then turned her eyes from him. She bent her head to listen to what
+Downal and Dermott were saying. Flann she did not look at at all, and he
+became sick at heart of the Red Castle.
+
+The King's Steward came into the Hall and when he announced who the
+youths were--three sons of the King of Ireland traveling with their
+foster-brother--Flame-of-Wine went over and spoke to them. "May we see
+you to-morrow, Kings' Sons," she said. "To-morrow is our feast of the
+Gathering of Apples. It might be pleasant for you to hear music in the
+King's garden."
+
+She smiled on Downal and Dermott and on the King's Son and went out of
+the Chamber. The King's Steward feasted the four youths and afterwards
+made them presents. But Flann did not heed what he ate nor what he heard
+said, nor what present was given him.
+
+
+
+III
+
+The four youths left the Castle and Downal and Dermott took their own
+way when they came to the foot-bridge that was across the river. Then
+when they were crossing it the King's Son and Flann saw two figures--a
+middle-aged, sturdy man and an old, broken-looking woman--meet before
+the Bull's Field. "It is the Gobaun Saor," said the King's Son. "It is
+the Spae-Woman," said Flann. They went to them, each wishing to greet
+his friend and helper.
+
+There they saw a sturdy, middle-aged man and a broken-looking old woman.
+But the woman looking on the man saw one who had full wisdom to plan and
+full strength to build, whose wisdom and whose strength could neither
+grow nor diminish. And the man looking on the woman saw one whose brow
+had all quiet, whose heart had all benignity. "Hail, Gobaun, Builder for
+the Gods," said the woman. "Hail, Grania Oi, Reconciler for the Gods,"
+said the man.
+
+Then the two youths came swiftly up to them, and the King's Son greeted
+the middle-aged man, and Flann kissed the hands of the old woman.
+
+"What of your search, King's Son?" said the Gobaun Saor.
+
+"I have found the Unique Tale, but not what went before nor what comes
+after it," said the King's Son.
+
+"I will clear the Sword of Light of its stain when you bring me the
+whole of the Unique Tale," said the Gobaun Saor.
+
+"I would search the whole world for it," said the King's Son. "But now
+the time is becoming short for me." "Be quick and active," said the
+Gobaun Saor. "I have set up my forge," said he, "outside the town
+between two high stones. When you bring the whole of the Tale to me I
+shall clear your sword."
+
+"Will you not tell him, Gobaun Saor," said the Spae-Woman, "where he may
+find the one who will tell him the rest of the story?"
+
+"If he sees one he knows in this town," said the Gobaun Saor, "let him
+mount a horse he has mounted before and pursue that one and force him to
+tell what went before and what comes after the Unique Tale."
+
+Saying this the Gobaun Saor turned away and walked along the road that
+went out of the town.
+
+The Spae-Woman had brought besoms to the town to sell. She showed the
+two youths the little house she lived in while she was there. It was
+filled with the heather-stalks which she bound together for besoms.
+
+They left the Spae-Woman and went through the town, the King of
+Ireland's Son searching every place for a man he knew or a horse he had
+mounted before, while Flann thought about the Princess Flame-of-Wine,
+and how little she considered him beside the King's Son and Dermott
+and Downal. They came to where a crowd was standing before a conjurer's
+booth. They halted and stood waiting for the conjurer to appear. He came
+out and put a ladder standing upright with nothing to lean against and
+began climbing up. Up, up, up, he went, and the ladder grew higher and
+higher as he climbed. Flann thought he would climb into the sky. Then
+the ladder got smaller and smaller and Flann saw the conjurer coming
+down on the other side. "He has come here to take that horse," said a
+voice behind the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+The King's Son looked round, and on the outskirts of the crowd he saw a
+man with a hare-skin cap and a protruding eye who was holding a reddish
+horse, while he watched the conjuror. The King of Ireland's Son knew the
+horse--it was the Slight Red Steed that had carried him and Fedelma from
+the Enchanter's house and had brought him to the Cave where he had found
+the Sword of Light. He looked at the conjuror again and he saw he was
+no other than the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. Then it crossed his
+mind what the Gobaun Saor had said to him.
+
+He had seen a man he knew and a horse he had mounted before. He was to
+mount that horse, follow the man, and force him to tell the rest of the
+Unique Tale.
+
+The King's Son drew back to the outskirts of the crowd. He snatched the
+bridle from the hands of Mogue, the man who held it, and jumped up on
+the back of the Slight Red Steed.
+
+As soon as he did this the ladder that was standing upright fell on the
+ground. The people shouted and broke away. And then the King's Son saw
+the Enchanter jump across a house and make for the gate of the town.
+
+But if he could jump across a house so could the Slight Red Steed. The
+King's Son turned its head, plucked at its rein, and over the same house
+it sprang too. The more he ran the more swift the Enchanter became. He
+jumped over the gate of the town, the Slight Red Steed after him. He
+went swiftly across the country, making high springs over ditches and
+hedges. No other steed but the Slight Red Steed could have kept its
+rider in sight of him.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Up hill and down dale the Enchanter went, but, mounted on the Slight Red
+Steed, the King of Ireland's Son was in hot pursuit. The Enchanter raced
+up the side of the seventh hill, and when the King's Son came to the top
+of it he found no one in sight.
+
+He raced on, however, and he passed a dead man hanging from a tree. He
+raced on and on, but still the Enchanter was not to be seen. Then the
+thought came into his mind that the man who was hanging from the tree
+and who he thought was dead was the crafty old Enchanter. He turned the
+Slight Red Steed round and raced back. The man that had been hanging
+from the tree was there no longer.
+
+The King's Son turned his horse amongst the trees and began to search
+for the Enchanter. He found no trace of him. "I have lost again," he
+said. Then he threw the bridle on the neck of the horse and he said, "Go
+your own way now, my Slight Red Steed."
+
+When he said that the Slight Red Steed twitched its ears and galloped
+towards the West. It went through woods and across streams, and when the
+crows were flying home and the kites were flying abroad it brought the
+King's Son to a stone house standing in the middle of a bog. "It may be
+the Enchanter is in this house," said the King's Son. He jumped off the
+Slight Red Steed, pushed the door of the house open, and there, seated
+on a chair in the middle of the floor with a woman sitting beside him,
+was the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. "So," said the Enchanter, "my
+Slight Red Steed has brought you to me."
+
+"So," said the King's Son, "I have found you, my crafty old Enchanter."
+
+"And now that you have found me, what do you want of me?" said the
+Enchanter.
+
+"Your head," said the King's Son, drawing the tarnished Sword of Light.
+
+"Will nothing less than my head content you?" said the Enchanter.
+
+"Nothing less--unless it be what went before, and what comes after the
+Unique Tale."
+
+"The Unique Tale," said the Enchanter. "I will tell you what I know of
+it." Thereupon he began
+
+
+I was a Druid and the Son of a Druid, and I had learned the language of
+the birds. And one morning, as I walked abroad, I heard a blackbird and
+a robin talking, and when I heard what they said I smiled to myself.
+
+"Now the woman I had just married noticed that I kept smiling, and she
+questioned me. 'Why do you keep smiling to yourself?' I would not tell
+her. 'Is that not the truth? '" said the Enchanter to a woman who sat
+beside him. "It is the truth," said she.
+
+"On the third day I was still smiling to myself, and my wife questioned
+me, and when I did not answer threw dish-water into my face. 'May
+blindness come upon you if you do not tell me why you are smiling,' said
+she. Then I told her why I smiled to myself. I had heard what the birds
+said. The blackbird said to the robin, 'Do you know that just under
+where we are sitting are three rods of enchantment, and if one were to
+take one of them and strike a man with it, he would be changed to any
+creature one named?' That is what I had heard the birds say and I smiled
+because I was the only creature who knew about the rods of enchantment.
+
+"My wife made me show her where the rods were. She cut one of them when
+I went away. That evening she came behind me and struck me with a rod.
+'Go out now and roam as a wolf,' she said, and there and then I was
+changed into a wolf. 'Is that not true?'" said he to the woman. "It is
+true," she said.
+
+"And being changed into a wolf, I went through the woods seeking wolf's
+meat. And now you must ask my wife to tell you more of the story." The
+King of Ireland's Son turned to the woman who sat on the seat next the
+Enchanter, and asked her to tell him more of the story. And thereupon
+she began
+
+
+Before all that happened I was known as the Maid of the Green Mantle.
+One day a King rode up a mountain with five score followers and a mist
+came on them as they rode. The King saw his followers no more. He called
+out after a while and four score answered him. And he called out again
+after another while and two score answered him. And after another while
+he called out again and only a score answered him through the mist, and
+when he called out again no one answered him at all.
+
+"The King went up the mountain until he came to the place where I lived
+with the Druids who reared me. He stayed long in that place. The King
+loved me for a while and I loved the King, and when he went away I
+followed him.
+
+"Because he would not come back to me I enchanted him so that there
+were times when he was left between life and death. Once when he was
+seemingly dead a girl watched by him, and she followed his spirit into
+many terrible places and so broke my enchantment."
+
+"Sheen was the girl's name," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Sheen was her name," said the woman. "He brought her to his Kingdom,
+and made her his queen. After that I married the man who is here
+now--the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, the Son of the Druid of the
+Gray Rock. Ask him now to tell you the rest of the story."
+
+When she changed me into a gray wolf," said the Enchanter, "I went
+through the woods searching for what a wolf might eat, but could find
+nothing to stay my hunger. Then I came back and stood outside my house
+and the woman who had been called the Maid of the Green Mantle came to
+me. 'I will give you back your human form,' she said, 'if you do as I
+bid you.'
+
+"I promised her I would do as she bade.
+
+"She bade me go to a King's house where a child had been born. She bade
+me steal the child away. I went to the King's house. I went into the
+chamber and I stole the child from the mother's side. Then I ran through
+the woods. But in the end I fell into a trap that the Giant Crom Duv had
+set for the wolves that chased his stray cattle.
+
+"For a night I lay in the trap with the child beside me. Then Crom Duv
+came and lifted out wolf and child. Three Hags with Long Teeth were
+there when he took us out of the trap, and he gave the child to one of
+them, telling her to rear it so that the child might be a servant for
+him.
+
+"He put me into a sack, promising himself that he would give me a good
+beating. He left me on the floor of his house. But while he was gone for
+his club I bit my way out of the sack and made my escape. I came back
+to my own house, and my wife struck me with the wand of enchantment, and
+changed me from a wolf into a man again. 'Is that not true?'" said he to
+the woman.
+
+"It is true," said she.
+
+"That is all of the Unique Tale that I know," said the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-Lands, "and now that I have told it to you, put up your
+sword."
+
+"I will put up no sword," said the King of Ireland's Son, "until you
+tell me what King and Queen were the father and mother of the child that
+was reared by the Hags of the Long Teeth."
+
+"I made no promise to tell you that," said the En-chanter of the Black
+Back-Lands. "You have got the story you asked for, and now let me see
+your back going through my door."
+
+"Yes, you have got the story, and be off with you now," said the woman
+who sat by the fire.
+
+
+He put up his sword; he went to the door; he left the house of the
+Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. He mounted the Slight Red Steed and
+rode off. He knew now what went before and what came after the Unique
+Tale. The Gobaun Saor would clean the blemish of the blade of the Sword
+of Light and would show him how to come to the Land of Mist. Then he
+would win back his love Fedelma.
+
+He thought too on the tidings he had for his comrade Flann--Flann was
+the Son of the King who was called the Hunter-King and of Sheen whose
+brothers had been changed into seven wild geese. He shook his horse's
+reins and went back towards the Town of the Red Castle.
+
+
+V
+
+
+Flann thought upon the Princess Flame-of-Wine. He walked through the
+town after the King's Son had ridden after the Enchanter, without
+noticing anyone until he heard a call and saw Mogue standing beside a
+little tent that he had set up before the Bull's Field.
+
+Flann went to Mogue and found him very disconsolate on account of the
+loss of the horse he had brought into the town. "This is a bad town to
+be in," said Mogue, "and unless I persuade yourself to become partners
+with me I shall have done badly in it. Join with me now and we'll do
+some fine feats together."
+
+"It would not become a King's Son to join with a robber-captain," said
+Flann.
+
+"Fine talk, fine talk," said Mogue. He thought that Flann was jesting
+with him when he spoke of himself as a King's Son.
+
+"I want to sell three treasures I have with me," said Mogue. "I have the
+most wonderful things that were ever brought into this town."
+
+"Show them to me," said Flann.
+
+Mogue opened one of his packs and took out a box. When he opened this
+box a fragrance came such as Flann had never felt before. "What is that
+that smells like a garden of sweet flowers?" said Flann.
+
+"It is the Rose of Sweet Smells," said Mogue, and he took a little rose
+out of the box. "It never withers and its fragrance is never any less.
+It is a treasure for a King's daughter. But I will not show it in this
+town."
+
+"And what is that shining thing in the box?"
+
+"It is the Comb of Magnificence. That is another treasure for a King's
+daughter. The maiden who would wear it would look the most queenly woman
+in the Kingdom. But I won't show that either."
+
+"What else have you, Mogue?"
+
+"A girdle. The woman who wears it would have to speak the truth." The
+Town of
+
+Flann thought he would do much to get the Rose of Sweet Smells or
+the Comb of Magnificence and bring them as presents to the Princess
+Flame-of-Wine.
+
+He slept in Mogue's tent, and at the peep of day, he rose up and went
+to the House of Hospitality where Dermott and Downal were. With them he
+would go to the King's orchard, and he would see, and perhaps he
+would speak to, Flame-of-Wine. But Dermott and Downal were not in the
+Brufir's. Flann wakened their grooms and he and they made search for the
+two youths. But there was no trace of Dermott and Downal. It seemed they
+had left before daybreak with their horses. Flann went with the grooms
+to the gate of the town. There they heard from the watchman that the two
+youths had gone through the gate and that they had told the watchman to
+tell the grooms that they had gone to take the world for their pillow.
+
+The grooms were dismayed to hear this, and so indeed was Flann. Without
+the King's Son and without Downal and Dermott how would he go to the
+King's Garden? He went back to Mogue's tent to consider what he
+should do. And first he thought he would not go to the Festival of the
+Gathering of the Apples, as he knew that Flame-of-Wine had only asked
+him with his comrades. And then he thought that whatever else happened
+he would go to the King's orchard and see Flame-of-Wine.
+
+If he had one of the wonderful things that Mogue had shown him--the Rose
+of Sweet Smells or the Comb of Magnificence! These would show her that
+he was of some consequence. If he had either of these wonderful things
+and offered it to her she might be pleased with him!
+
+He sat outside the tent and waited for Mogue to return. When he came
+Flann said to him, "I will go with you as a servant, and I will serve
+you well although I am a King's Son, if you will give me something now."
+
+"What do you want from me?" said Mogue.
+
+"Give me the Rose of Sweet Smells," said Flann.
+
+"Sure that's the finest thing I have. I couldn't give you that."
+
+"I will serve you for two years if you will give it to me," said Flann.
+
+"No," said Mogue.
+
+"I will serve you for three years if you will give it to me," said
+Flann.
+
+"I will give it to you if you will serve me for three years." Thereupon
+Mogue opened his pack and took the box out. He opened it and put the
+Rose of Sweet Smells into Flann's hand.
+
+At once Flann started off for the King's orchard. The Steward who had
+seen him the day before signed to the servants to let him pass through
+the gate. He went into the King's orchard.
+
+Maidens were singing the "Song for the Time of the Blossoming of the
+Apple-trees" and all that day and night Flann held their song in his
+mind
+
+   The touch of hands that drew it down
+   Kindled to blossom all the bough
+   O breathe the wonder of the branch,
+   And let it through the darkness go!
+
+
+
+Youths were gathering apples, and the Princess Flame-of-Wine walked by
+herself on the orchard paths.
+
+At last she came to where Flann stood and lifting her eyes she looked at
+him. "I had companions," said Flann, "but they have gone away."
+
+"They are unmannerly," said Flame-of-Wine with anger, and she turned
+away.
+
+Flann took the rose from under his cloak. Its fragrance came to
+Flame-of-Wine and she turned to him again.
+
+"This is the Rose of Sweet Smells," said Flann. "Will you take it from
+me, Princess?"
+
+She came back to him and took the rose in her hand, and there was wonder
+in her face.
+
+"It will never wither, and its fragrance will never fail," said Flann.
+"It is the Rose of Sweet Smells. A King's daughter should have it."
+
+Flame-of-Wine held the rose in her hand, and smiled on Flann. "What is
+your name, King's Son?" said she, with bright and friendly eyes.
+
+"Flann," he said.
+
+"Walk with me, Flann," said she. They walked along the orchard paths,
+and the youths and maidens turned towards the fragrance that the Rose of
+Sweet Smells gave. Flame-of-Wine laughed, and said, "They all wonder at
+the treasure you have brought me, Flann. If you could hear what I shall
+tell them about you! I shall tell them that you are the son of a King of
+Arabia--no less. They will believe me because you have brought me such a
+treasure! I suppose there is nothing more wonderful than this rose!"
+
+Then Flann told her about the other wonderful thing he had seen--the
+Comb of Magnificence. "A King's daughter should have such a treasure,"
+said Flame-of-Wine. "Oh, how jealous I should be if someone brought the
+Comb of Magnificence to either of my two sisters--to Bloom-of-Youth
+or Breast-of-Light. I should think then that this rose was not such a
+treasure after all."
+
+When he was leaving the orchard she plucked a flower and gave it to him.
+"Come and walk in the orchard with me to-morrow," she said.
+
+"Surely I will come," said Flann.
+
+"Bring the Comb of Magnificence to me too," said she. "I could not be
+proud of this rose, and I could not love you so well for bringing it
+to me if I thought that any other maiden had the Comb of Magnificence.
+Bring it to me, Flann."
+
+"I will bring it to you," said Flann.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+He was at the gate of the town when the King of Ireland's Son rode back
+on the Slight Red Steed. The King's Son dismounted, put his arm about
+Flann and told him that he now had the whole of the Unique Tale. They
+sat before Mogue's tent, and the King's Son told Flann the whole of the
+story he had searched for--how a King traveling through the mist had
+come to where Druids and the Maid of the Green Mantle lived, how the
+King was enchanted, and how the maiden Sheen released him from the
+enchantment. He told him, too, how the Enchanter was changed into a
+wolf, and how the wolf carried away Sheen's child. "And the Unique Tale
+is in part your own history, Flann," said the King of Ireland's Son,
+"for the child that was left with the Hags of the Long Teeth was no one
+else than yourself, for you, Flann, have on your breast the stars that
+denote the Son of a King."
+
+"It is so, it is so," said Flann, "and I will find out what King and
+Queen were my father and my mother."
+
+"Go to the Hags of the Long Teeth and force them to tell you," said the
+King's Son.
+
+"I will do that," said Flann, but in his own mind he said, "I will first
+bring the Comb of Magnificence to Flame-of-Wine, and I will tell her
+that I will have to be away for so many years with Mogue and I shall ask
+her to remember me until I come back to her. Then I shall go to the Hags
+of the Long Teeth and force them to tell me what King and Queen were my
+father and mother."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son left Flann to his thoughts and went to find
+the Gobaun Saor who would clear for him the tarnished blade of the Sword
+of Light and would show him the way to where the King of the Land of
+Mist had his dominion.
+
+Mogue spent his time with the ballad-singers and the story-tellers
+around the market-stake, and when he came back to his tent he wanted
+to drink ale and go to sleep, but Flann turned him from the ale-pot by
+saying to him, "I want the Comb of Magnificence from you, Mogue."
+
+"By my skin," said Mogue, "it's my blood you'll want next, my lad."
+
+"If you give me the Comb of Magnificence, Mogue, I shall serve you for
+six years--three years more than I said yesterday. I shall serve you
+well, even though I am the son of a King and can find out who my father
+and mother are."
+
+"I won't give you the Comb of Magnificence."
+
+"I'll serve you seven years if you do, Mogue."
+
+Mogue drank and drank out of the ale-pot, frowning to himself. He put
+the ale-pot away and said, "I suppose your life won't be any good to you
+unless I give you the Comb of Magnificence?"
+
+"That is so, Mogue."
+
+Mogue sighed heavily, but he went to his pack and took out the box that
+the treasures were in. He let Flann take out the Comb of Magnificence.
+
+"Seven years you will have to serve me," said Mogue, "and you will have
+to begin your service now."
+
+"I will begin it now," said Flann, but he stole out of the tent, put on
+his red cloak and went to the King's orchard.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+"Oh, Flann, my treasure-bringer," said Flame-of-Wine, when she came to
+him. "I have brought you the Comb of Magnificence," said he. Her hands
+went out and her eyes became large and shining. He put the Comb of
+Magnificence into her hands.
+
+She put the comb into the back of her hair, and she became at once like
+the tower that is builded--what broke its height and turned the full
+sunlight from it has been taken away, and the tower stands, the pride
+of a King and the delight of a people. When she put the Comb of
+Magnificence into her hair she became of all Kings' daughters the most
+stately.
+
+She walked with Flann along the paths of the orchard, but always she
+was watching her shadow to see if it showed her added magnificence. Her
+shadow showed nothing. She took Flann to the well in the orchard, and
+looked down into it, but her image in the well did not show her added
+magnificence either. Soon she became tired of walking on the orchard
+paths, and when she came to the gate she walked no further but stood
+with Flann at the gate. "A kiss for you, Flann, my treasure-bringer,"
+said she, and she kissed him and then went hurrying away. And as Flann
+watched her he thought that although she had kissed him he was not now
+in her mind.
+
+He went out of the orchard disconsolate, thinking that when he was on
+his seven years' service with Mogue Princess Flame-of-Wine might forget
+him. As he walked on he passed the little house where the Spae-Woman had
+her besoms and heather-stalks. She ran to him when she saw him.
+
+"Have you heard that the King's Son has found what went before, and what
+comes after the Unique Tale?" said she.
+
+"That I have. And I have to go to the Hags of the Long Teeth to find out
+who my father and mother were, for surely I am the child who was taken
+from Sheen."
+
+"And do you remember that Sheen's seven brothers were changed into seven
+wild geese?" said she.
+
+"I remember that, mother."
+
+"And seven wild geese they will be until a maiden who loves you will
+give seven drops of her heart's blood to bring them back to their human
+shapes."
+
+"I remember that, mother." "Whatever maid you love, her you must ask
+if she would give seven drops of her heart's blood. It may be that she
+would. It may be that she would not and that you would still love her
+without thought of her giving one drop of blood of her little finger."
+
+"I cannot ask the maiden I love to give seven drops of her heart's
+blood."
+
+"Who is the maiden you love?"
+
+"The King's daughter, Flame-of-Wine."
+
+He told the Spae-Woman about the presents he had given her--he told
+the Spae-Woman too that he had bound himself to seven years' service
+to Mogue on account of these presents. The Spae-Woman said, "What other
+treasures are in Mogue's pack?"
+
+"One treasure more the Girdle of Truth. Whoever puts it on can speak
+nothing but the truth."
+
+Said the Spae-Woman, "You are to take the Girdle of Truth and give it
+to Flame-of-Wine. Tell Mogue that I said he is to give it to you without
+adding one day to your years' service. When Flame-of-Wine has put the
+girdle around her waist ask her for the seven drops of heart's blood
+that will bring your mother's seven brothers back to their human shapes.
+She may love you and yet refuse to give you the seven drops from her
+heart. But tell her of this, and hear what she will say."
+
+Flann left the Spae-Woman's and went back to Mogue's tent. The loss of
+his treasures had overcome Mogue and he was drinking steadily and went
+from one bad temper to another.
+
+"Begin your service now by watching the tent while I sleep," said he.
+
+"There is one thing more I want from you, Mogue," said Flann.
+
+"By the Eye of Balor! you're a cuckoo in my nest. What do you want now?"
+
+"The Girdle of Truth."
+
+"Is it my last treasure you'd be taking on me?"
+
+"The Spae-Woman bid me tell you that you're to give me the Girdle of
+Truth."
+
+"It's a pity of me, it's a pity of me," said Mogue. But he took the box
+out of his pack, and let Flann take the girdle.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Flame-of-Wine saw him. She walked slowly down the orchard path so that
+all might notice the stateliness of her appearance.
+
+"I am glad to see you again, Flann," said she. "Have your comrades yet
+come back to my father's town?"
+
+
+Flann told her that one of them had returned.
+
+"Bid him come see me," said Flame-of-Wine. Then she saw the girdle in
+his hands.
+
+"What is it you have?" said she.
+
+"Something that went with the other treasures--a girdle."
+
+"Will you not let me have it, Flann?" She took the girdle in her hands.
+"Tell me, youth," she said, "how you got all these treasures?"
+
+"I will have to give seven years' service for them," Flann said.
+
+"Seven years," said she, "but you will remember--will you not--that I
+loved you for bringing them to me?"
+
+"Will you remember me until I come back from my seven years' service?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Flame-of-Wine, and she put the girdle around her waist
+as she spoke.
+
+"Someone said to me," said Flann, "that I should ask the maiden who
+loved me for seven drops of her heart's blood." The girdle was now round
+Flame-of-Wine's waist. She laughed with mockery. "Seven drops of heart's
+blood," said she. "I would not give this fellow seven eggs out of my
+robin's nest. I tell him I love him for bringing me the three treasures
+for a King's daughter. I tell him that, but I should be ashamed of
+myself if I thought I could have any love for such a fellow."
+
+"Do you tell me the truth now," said Flann.
+
+"The truth, the truth," said she, "of course I tell you the truth. Oh,
+and there are other truths. I shall be ashamed forever if I tell them.
+Oh, oh. They are rising to my tongue, and every time I press them back
+this girdle tightens and tightens until I think it will kill me."
+
+"Farewell, then, Flame-of-Wine."
+
+"Take off the girdle, take off the girdle! What truths are in my mind!
+I shall speak them and I shall be ashamed. But I shall die in pain if I
+hold them back. Loosen the girdle, loosen the girdle! Take the rose you
+gave me and loosen the girdle." She let the rose fall on the ground.
+
+"I will loosen the girdle for you," said Flann.
+
+"But loosen it now. How I have to strive to keep truths back, and
+oh, what pain I am in! Take the Comb of Magnificence, and loosen the
+girdle." She threw the comb down on the ground.
+
+He took up the Rose of Sweet Smells and the Comb of Magnificence and he
+took the girdle off her waist. "Oh, what a terrible thing I put round my
+waist," said Flame-of-Wine. "Take it away, Flann, take it away. But give
+me back the Rose of Sweet Smells and the Comb of Magnificence,--give
+them back to me and I shall love you always."
+
+"You cannot love me. And why should I give seven years in service for
+your sake? I will leave these treasures back in Mogue's pack."
+
+"Oh, you are a peddler, a peddler. Go from me," said Flame-of-Wine. "And
+do not be in the Town of the Red Castle to-morrow, or I shall have my
+father's hunting dogs set upon you." She turned away angrily and went
+into the Castle.
+
+Flann went back to Mogue's tent and left the Rose of Sweet Smells, the
+Comb of Magnificence and the Girdle of Truth upon Mogue's pack. He sat
+in the corner and cried bitterly. Then the King of Ireland's Son came and
+told him that his sword was bright once more--that the stains that had
+blemished its blade had been cleared away by the Gobaun Saor who had
+also shown him the way to the Land of the Mist. He put his arm about
+Flann and told him that he was starting now to rescue his love Fedelma
+from the Castle of the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+
+
+
+THE KING OF THE LAND OF MIST
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The King of Ireland's Son came to the place where the river that he
+followed takes the name of the River of the Broken Towers. It is called
+by that name because the men of the old days tried to build towers
+across its course. The towers were built a little way across the river
+that at this place was tremendously wide.
+
+"The Glashan will carry you across the River of the Broken Towers to
+the shore of the Land of Mist," the Gobaun Saor had said to the King of
+Ireland's Son. And now he was at the River of the Broken Towers but the
+Glashan-creature was not to be seen.
+
+Then he saw the Glashan. He was leaning his back against one of the
+Towers and smoking a short pipe. The water of the river was up to his
+knees. He was covered with hair and had a big head with horse's
+ears. And the Glashan twitched his horse's ears as he smoked in great
+contentment.
+
+"Glashan, come here," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+But the Glashan gave him no heed at all.
+
+"I want you to carry me across the River of the Broken Towers," shouted
+the King of Ireland's Son. The Glashan went on smoking and twisting his
+ears.
+
+And the King of Ireland's Son might have known that the whole clan
+of the Gruagachs and Glashans are fond of their own ease and will do
+nothing if they can help it. He twitched his ears more sharply when the
+King's Son threw a pebble at him. Then after about three hours he came
+slowly across the river. From his big knees down he had horse's feet.
+
+"Take me on your big shoulders, Glashan," said the King of Ireland's
+Son, "and carry me across to the shore of the Land of Mist."
+
+"Not carrying any more across," said the Glashan. The King of Ireland's
+Son drew the Sword of Light and flashed it.
+
+"Oh, if you have that, you'll have to be carried across," said the
+Glashan. "But wait until I rest myself."
+
+"What did you do that you should rest?" said the King of Ireland's Son.
+"Take me on your shoulders and start off."
+
+"Musha," said the Glashan, "aren't you very anxious to lose your life?"
+
+"Take me on your shoulders." "Well, come then. You're not the first
+living dead man I carried across." The Glashan put his pipe into his
+ear. The King of Ireland's Son mounted his shoulders and laid hold of
+his thick mane. Then the Glashan put his horse's legs into the water and
+started to cross the River of the Broken Towers.
+
+"The Land of Mist has a King," said the Glashan, when they were in the
+middle of the river.
+
+"That, Glashan, I know," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"All right," said the Glashan.
+
+Then said he when they were three-quarters of the way across, "Maybe you
+don't know that the King of the Land of Mist will kill you?"
+
+"Maybe 'tis I who will kill him," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"You'd be a hardy little fellow if you did that," said the Glashan. "But
+you won't do it."
+
+
+They went on. The water was up to the Glashan's waist but that gave him
+no trouble. So broad was the river that they were traveling across it
+all day. The Glashan threw the King's Son in once when he stooped to
+pick up an eel. Said the King of Ireland's Son, "What way is the Castle
+of the King of the Land of Mist guarded, Glashan?"
+
+"It has seven gates," said the Glashan.
+
+"And how are the gates guarded?"
+
+"I'm tired," said the Glashan, "and I can't talk."
+
+"Tell me, or I'll twist the horse's ears off your head."
+
+"Well, the first gate is guarded by a plover only. It sits on the third
+pinnacle over the gate, and when anyone comes near it rises up and flies
+round the Castle crying until its sharp cries put the other guards on
+the watch."
+
+"And what other guards are there?"
+
+"Oh, I'm tired, and I can talk no more."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son twisted his horse's ears, and then the Glashan
+said
+
+
+"The second gate is guarded by five spear-men."
+
+"And how is the third gate guarded?"
+
+"The third gate is guarded by seven swordsmen."
+
+"And how is the fourth gate guarded?"
+
+"The fourth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist himself."
+
+"And the fifth gate?"
+
+"The fifth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist himself."
+
+"And the sixth gate?"
+
+"The sixth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist."
+
+"And how is the seventh gate guarded?"
+
+"The seventh gate is guarded by a Hag."
+
+"By a Hag only?" "By a Hag with poisoned nails. But I'm tired now, and
+I'll talk no more to you. If I could strike a light now I'd smoke a
+pipe."
+
+Still they went on, and just at the screech of the day they came to the
+other shore of the River of the Broken Towers. The King of Ireland's Son
+sprang from the shoulders of the Glashan and went into the mist.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+He came to where turrets and pinnacles appeared above the mist. He
+climbed the rock upon which the Castle was built. He came to the first
+gate, and as he did the plover that was on the third pinnacle above rose
+up and flew round the Castle with sharp cries.
+
+He raised a fragment of the ground-rock and flung it against the gate.
+He burst it open. He dashed in then and through the first courtyard of
+the Castle.
+
+As he went towards the second gate it was flung open, and the five
+spear-men ran upon him. But they had not counted on what was to face
+them--the Sword of Light in the bands of the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+Its stroke cut the spear heads from the spear-holds, and its quick
+glancing dazzled the eyes of the spear-men. On each and every one of
+them it inflicted the wound of death. He dashed through the second gate
+and into the third courtyard.
+
+But as he did the third gate was flung open and seven swordsmen came
+forth. They made themselves like a half circle and came towards the King
+of Ireland's Son. He dazzled their eyes with a wide sweep of his sword.
+He darted it swiftly at each of them and on the seven swordsmen too he
+inflicted wounds of death.
+
+He went through the third courtyard and towards the fourth gate. As he
+did it opened slowly and a single champion came forth. He closed the
+gate behind him and stood with a long gray sword in his hand. This was
+the King of the Land of Mist. His shoulders were where a tall man's
+head would be. His face was like a stone, and his eyes had never looked
+except with scorn upon a foe.
+
+When his enemy began his attack the King of Ireland's Son had power to
+do nothing else but guard himself from that weighty sword. He had the
+Sword of Light for a guard and well did that bright, swift blade guard
+him. The two fought across the courtyard making hard places soft and
+soft places hard with their trampling. They fought from when it was
+early to when it was noon, and they fought from when it was noon until
+it was long afternoon. And not a single wound did the King of Ireland's
+Son inflict upon the King of the Land of Mist, and not a single wound
+did the King of the Land of Mist inflict upon him.
+
+But the King of Ireland's Son was growing faint and weary. His eyes
+were worn with watching the strokes and thrusts of the sword that was
+battling against him. His arms could hardly bear up his own sword. His
+heart became a stream of blood that would have gushed from his breast.
+
+And then, as he was about to fall down with his head under the sword
+of the King of the Land of Mist a name rose above all his
+thoughts--"Fedelma." If he sank down and the sword of the King of the
+Land of Mist fell on him, never would she be saved. The will became
+strong again in the King of Ireland's Son. His heart became a steady
+beating thing. The weight that was upon his arms passed away. Strongly
+he held the sword in his hand and he began to attack the King of the
+Land of Mist.
+
+And now he saw that the sword in the hand of his enemy was broken and
+worn with the guard that the Sword of Light had put against it. And now
+he made a strong attack. As the light was leaving the sky and as the
+darkness was coming down he saw that the strength was waning in the
+King of the Land of Mist. The sword in his hand was more worn and more
+broken. At last the blade was only a span from the hilt. As he drew back
+to the gate of the fourth courtyard the King of Ireland's Son sprang at
+him and thrust the Sword of Light through his breast. He stood with his
+face becoming exceedingly terrible. He flung what remained of his sword,
+and the broken blade struck the foot of the King of Ireland's Son and
+pierced it. Then the King of the Land of Mist fell down on the ground
+before the fourth gate.
+
+So weary from his battles, so pained with the wound of his foot was
+the King of Ireland's Son that he did not try to cross the body and go
+towards the fifth gate. He turned back. He climbed down the rock and
+went towards the River of the Broken Towers.
+
+The Glashan was broiling on a hot stone the eel he had taken out of the
+river. "Wash my wound and give me refreshment, Glashan," said the King
+of Ireland's Son.
+
+The Glashan washed the wound in his foot and gave him a portion of the
+broiled eel with cresses and water.
+
+"To-morrow's dawn I shall go back," said the King of Ireland's Son, "and
+go through the fifth and sixth and seventh gate and take away Fedelma."
+
+"If the King of the Land of Mist lets you," said the Glashan.
+
+"He is dead," said the King of Ireland's Son, "I thrust my sword through
+his breast."
+
+"And where is his head?" said the Glashan.
+
+"It is on his corpse," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Then you will have another fight to-morrow. His life is in his head,
+and his life will come back to him if you did not cut it off. It is he,
+I tell you, who will guard the fourth and fifth and sixth gate."
+
+"That I do not believe, Glashan," said the King of Ireland's Son. "There
+is no one to guard the gates now but the Hag you spoke of. To-morrow I
+shall take Fedelma out of her captivity, and we will both leave the Land
+of Mist. But I must sleep now."
+
+He laid the Sword of Light beside him, stretched himself on the ground
+and went to sleep. The Glashan drew his horse's legs under him, took the
+pipe out of his ear, and smoked all through the night.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+The King of Ireland's Son rose in the morning but he was in pain and
+weariness on account of his wounded foot. He ate the cresses and drank
+the water that the Glashan gave him, and he started off for the Castle
+of the King of the Mist. "'Tis only an old woman I shall have to deal
+with to-day," he said, "and then I shall awaken Fedelma, my love."
+
+He passed through the first gate and the first court-yard, through the
+second gate and the second court-yard, through the third gate and the
+third courtyard. The fourth gate was closed, and as he went towards it,
+it opened slowly, and the King of the Land of Mist stood there--as high,
+as stone-faced, and as scornful as before, and in his hand he had a
+weighty gray sword.
+
+They fought as they fought the day before. But the guard the King of
+Ireland's Son made against the sword of the King of the Land of Mist was
+weaker than before, because of the pain and weariness that came from his
+wound. But still he kept the Sword of Light before him and the Sword of
+the King of the Land of Mist could not pass it. They fought until it was
+afternoon. The heart in his body seemed turned to a jet of blood that
+would gush forth. His eyes were straining themselves out of their
+sockets. His arms could hardly bear up his sword. He fell down upon one
+knee, but he was able to hold the sword so that it guarded his head.
+
+Then the image of Fedelma appeared before him. He sprang up and his arms
+regained their power. His heart became steady in his breast. And as he
+made an attack upon the King of the Land of Mist, he saw that the blade
+in his hand was broken and worn because of its strokes against the Sword
+of Light.
+
+They fought with blades that seemed to kindle each other into sparks and
+flashes of light. They fought until the blade in the hand of the King of
+the Land of Mist was worn to a hand breadth above the hilt. He drew
+back towards the gate of the fifth courtyard. The King of Ireland's Son
+sprang at him and thrust the Sword of Light through his breast. Down on
+the stones before the fifth gate of his Castle fell the King of the Land
+of Mist.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son stepped over the body and went towards the
+fifth gate. Then he remembered what the Glashan had said, "His life is
+in his head." He went back to where the King of the Land of Mist had
+fallen. With a clean sweep of his sword he cut the head off the body.
+
+Then out of the mist that was all around three ravens came. With beak
+and claws they laid hold of the head and lifted it up. They fluttered
+heavily away, keeping near the ground.
+
+With his sword in his hand the King of Ireland's Son chased the ravens.
+He followed them through the fourth courtyard, the third courtyard, the
+second and the first. They flew off the rock on which the Castle was
+built and disappeared in the mist.
+
+He knew he would have to watch by the body of the King of the Land of
+Mist, so that the head might not be placed upon it. He sat down before
+the fifth gate. Pain and weariness, hunger and thirst oppressed him.
+
+He longed for something that would allay his hunger and thirst. But he
+knew that he could not go to the river to get refreshment of water and
+cresses from the Glashan. Something fell beside him in the courtyard.
+It was a beautiful, bright-colored apple. He went to pick it up, but
+it rolled away towards the third courtyard. He followed it. Then, as he
+looked back he saw that the ravens had lighted near the body of the King
+of the Land of Mist, holding the head in their beaks and claws. He ran
+back and the ravens lifted the head up again and flew away.
+
+He watched for another long time, and his hunger and his thirst made him
+long for the bright-colored apple he had seen.
+
+Another apple fell down. He went to pick it up and it rolled away. But
+now the King of Ireland's Son thought of nothing hut that bright-colored
+apple. He followed it as it rolled.
+
+It roiled through the third courtyard, and the second and the first. It
+rolled out of the first gate and on to the rock upon which the Castle
+was built. It rolled off the rock. The King of Ireland's Son sprang down
+and he saw the apple become a raven's head and beak.
+
+He climbed up the rock and ran back. And when he came into the first
+courtyard he saw that the three ravens had come back again. They had
+brought the head to the body, and body and head were now joined. The
+King of the Land of Mist stood up again, and his head was turned towards
+his left shoulder. He went to the sixth gate and took up a sword that
+was beside it.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+They fought their last battle before the sixth gate. The guard that the
+King of Ireland's Son made was weak, and if the King of the Land of Mist
+could have turned fully upon him, he could have disarmed and killed him.
+But his head had been so placed upon his body that it looked The King
+of the Land of Mist 237 over his left shoulder. He was able to draw his
+sword down the breast of the King of Ireland's Son, wounding him.
+The King's Son whirled his sword around his head and flung it at his
+wry-headed enemy. It swept his head off, and the King of the Land of
+Mist fell down.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son saw on the outstretched neck the mark of the
+other beheading. He took up the Sword of Light again and prepared to
+hold the head against all that might come for it.
+
+But no creature came. And then the hair on the severed head became loose
+and it was blown away by the wind. And the bones of the head became a
+powder and the flesh became a froth, and all was blown away by the wind.
+
+Then the King of Ireland's Son went through the sixth courtyard and came
+to the seventh gate. And before it he saw the last of the sentinels. A
+Hag, she was seated on the top of a water-tank taking white doves out of
+a basket and throwing them to ravens that flew down from the walls and
+tore the doves to pieces.
+
+When the Hag saw the King of Ireland's Son she sprang down from the
+water-tank and ran towards him with outstretched arms and long poisoned
+nails. With a sweep of his sword he cut the nails from her hands. Ravens
+picked up the nails, and then, as they tried to fly away, they fell
+dead.
+
+"The Sword of Light will take off your head if you do not take me on the
+moment to where Fedelma is," said the King of Ireland's Son. "I am sorry
+to do it," said the Hag, "but come, since you are the conqueror."
+
+He followed the Hag into the Castle. In a net, hanging across a chamber,
+he saw Fedelma. She was still, but she breathed. And the branch of
+hawthorn that put her asleep was fresh beside her. Strands of her bright
+hair came through the meshes of the net and were fastened to the wall.
+With a sweep of the Sword of Light he cut the strands.
+
+
+Her eyes opened. She saw the King of Ireland's Son, and the full light
+came back to her eyes, and the full life into her face.
+
+He cut the net from where it hung and laid it on the ground. He cut open
+the meshes. Fedelma rose out of it and went into his arms.
+
+He lifted her up and carried her out into the seventh courtyard. Then
+the Hag who had been one of the sentinels came out of the Castle, closed
+the door behind her and ran away into the mist, three ravens flying
+after her.
+
+And as for Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son, they went through the
+courtyards of the Castle and through the mists of the country and down
+to the River of the Broken Towers. They found the Glashan broiling a
+salmon upon hot stones. Salmon were coming from the sea and the Glashan
+went in and caught more, The King of the Land of Mist 239 broiled and
+gave them to the King of Ireland's Son and Fedelma to eat. The little
+black water-hen came out of the river and they fed it. The next day the
+King of Ireland's Son bade the Glashan take Fedelma on his shoulders and
+carry her to the other shore of the River of the Broken Towers. And
+he himself followed the little black water-hen who showed him all the
+shallow places in the river so that he crossed with the water never
+above his waist. But he was nearly dead from cold and weariness, and
+from the wounds on breast and foot when he came to the other side and
+found the Glashan and Fedelma waiting for him.
+
+They ate salmon again and rested for a day. They bade good-by to the
+Glashan, who went back to the river to hunt for salmon. Then they went
+along the bank of the river hand in hand while the King of Ireland's Son
+told Fedelma of all the things that had happened to him in his search
+for her.
+
+They came to where the river became known as the River of the Morning
+Star. And then, in the distance, they saw the Hill of Horns. Towards the
+Hill of Horns they went, and, at the near side of it, they found a house
+thatched with the wing of a bird. It was the house of the Little Sage
+of the Mountain. To the house of the Little Sage of the Mountain Fedelma
+and the King's Son now went.
+
+
+
+     TO THE MEMORY OF BEATRICE CASSIDY COLUM
+
+
+
+
+THE HOUSE OF CROM DUV
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The story is now about Flann. He went through the East gate of the Town
+of the Red Castle and his journey was to the house of the Hags of the
+Long Teeth where he might learn what Queen and King were his mother and
+his father. It is with the youth Flann, once called the Gilly of the
+Goatskin, that we will go if it be pleasing to you, Son of my Heart. He
+went his way in the evening, when, as the bard said:--
+
+   The blackbird shakes his metal notes
+   Against the edge of day,
+   And I am left upon my road
+   With one star on my way.
+
+And he went his way in the night, when, as the same bard said:--
+
+   The night has told it to the hills,
+   And told the partridge in the nest,
+   And left it on the long white roads,
+   She will give light instead of rest.
+
+And he went on between the dusk and the dawn, when, as the same bard
+said again:--
+
+   Behold the sky is covered,
+   As with a mighty shroud:
+   A forlorn light is lying
+   Between the earth and cloud.
+
+
+And he went on in the dawn, when as the bard said (and this is the
+last stanza he made, for the King said there was nothing at all in his
+adventure):--
+
+   In the silence of the morning
+   Myself, myself went by,
+   Where lonely trees sway branches
+   Against spaces of the sky.
+
+And then, when the sun was looking over the first high hills he came to
+a river. He knew it was the river he followed before, for no other river
+in the country was so wide or held so much water. As he had gone with
+the flow of the river then he thought he would go against the flow of
+the river now, and so he might come back to the glens and ridges and
+deep boggy places he had traveled from.
+
+
+He met a Fisherman who was drying his nets and he asked him what name
+the river had. The Fisherman said it had two names. The people on the
+right bank called it the Day-break River and the people on the left bank
+called it the River of the Morning Star. And the Fisherman told him he
+was to be careful not to call it the River of the Morning Star when he
+was on the right bank nor the Daybreak River when he was on the left, as
+the people on either side wanted to keep to the name their fathers had
+for it and were ill-mannered to the stranger who gave it a different
+name. The Fisherman told Flann he was sorry he had told him the two
+names for the River and that the best thing he could do was to forget
+one of the names and call it just the River of the Morning Star as he
+was on the left bank.
+
+Flann went on with the day widening before him and when the height of
+the noon was past he came to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places
+he had traveled from. He went on with the bright day going before him
+and the brown night coming behind him, and at dusk he came to the black
+and burnt place where the Hags of the Long Teeth had their house of
+stone.
+
+He saw the house with a puff of smoke coming through every crevice
+in the stones. He went to the shut door and knocked on it with the
+knocking-stone.
+
+"Who's without?" said one of the Hags.
+
+"Who's within?" said Flann.
+
+"The Three Hags of the Long Teeth," said one of the Hags, "and if you
+want to know it," said she, "they are the runners and summoners, the
+brewers and candle-makers for Crom Duv, the Giant."
+
+Flann struck a heavier blow with the knocking-stone and the door broke
+in. He stepped into the smoke-filled house.
+
+"No welcome to you, whoever you are," said one of the three Hags who
+were seated around the fire.
+
+"I am the lad who was called Gilly of the Goatskin, and whom you reared
+up here," said he, "and I have come back to you."
+
+The three Hags turned from the fire then and screamed at him.
+
+"And what brought you back to us, humpy fellow?" said the first Hag.
+
+"I came back to make you tell me what Queen and King were my mother and
+father."
+
+"Why should you think a King and Queen were your father and mother?"
+they said to him.
+
+"Because I have on my breast the stars of a son of a King," said Flann,
+"and," said he, "I have in my hand a sword that will make you tell me."
+
+He came towards them and they were afraid. Then the first Hag bent her
+knee to him, and, said she, "Loosen the hearthstone with your sword and
+you will find a token that will let you know who your father was."
+
+Flann put his sword under the hearthstone and pried it up. But if
+it were a token, what was under the hearthstone was an evil thing--a
+cockatrice. It had been hatched out of a serpent's egg by a black cock
+of nine years. It had the head and crest of a cock and the body of a
+black serpent. The cockatrice lifted itself up on its tail and looked at
+him with red eyes. The sight of that head made Flann dizzy and he fell
+down on the floor. Then it went down and the Hags put the hearthstone
+above it.
+
+"What will we do with the fellow?" said one of the Hags, looking at
+Flann who was in a swoon on the floor.
+
+"Cut of his head with the sword that he threatened us with," said
+another.
+
+"No," said the third Hag. "Crom Duv the Giant is in want of a servant.
+Let him take this fellow. Then maybe the Giant will give us what he has
+promised us for so long--a Berry to each of us from the Fairy Rowan Tree
+that grows in his courtyard."
+
+"Let it be, let it be," said the other Hags. They put green branches on
+the fire so that Crom Duv would see the smoke and come to the house. In
+the morning he came. He brought Flann outside, and after awhile Flann's
+senses came back to him. Then the Giant tied a rope round his arms and
+drove him before him with a long iron spike that he had for a staff.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+
+Crom Duv's arms stretched down to his twisted knees; he had long,
+yellow, overlapping horse's teeth in his mouth, with a fall-down
+under-lip and a drawn-back upper-lip; he had a matted rug of hair on his
+head. He was as high as a haystack. He carried in his twisted hand an
+iron spike pointed at the end. And wherever he was going he went as
+quickly as a running mule.
+
+He tied Flann's hands behind his back and drew the rope round Flann's
+body. Then he started off. Flann was dragged on as if at the tail of
+a cart. Over ditches and through streams; up hillsides and down into
+hollows he was hauled. Then they came into a plain as round as the wheel
+of a cart. Across the plain they went and into a mile-deep wood. Beyond
+the wood there were buildings--such walls and such heaps of stones Flann
+never saw before.
+
+But before they had entered the wood they had come to a high grassy
+mound. And standing on that grassy mound was the most tremendous bull
+that Flann had ever seen.
+
+"What bull is that, Giant?" said Flann.
+
+ "My own bull," said Crom Duv, "the Bull of the Mound. Look back at him,
+little fellow. If ever you try to escape from my service my Bull of the
+Mound will toss you into the air and trample you into the ground." Crom
+Duv blew on a horn that he had across his chest. The Bull of the Mound
+rushed down the slope snorting. Crom Duv shouted and the bull stood
+still with his tremendous head bent down.
+
+Flann's heart, I tell you, sank, when he saw the bull that guarded Crom
+Duv's house. They went through the deep wood then, and came to the gate
+of the Giant's Keep. Only a chain was across it, and Crom Duv lifted
+up the chain. The courtyard was filled with cattle black and red and
+striped. The Giant tied Flann to a stone pillar. "Are you there, Morag,
+my byre-maid?" he shouted.
+
+"I am here," said a voice from the byre. More cattle were in the byre
+and someone was milking them.
+
+There was straw on the ground of the courtyard and Crom Duv lay down on
+it and went to sleep with the cattle trampling around him. A great stone
+wall was being built all round the Giant's Keep--a wall six feet thick
+and built as high as twenty feet in some places and in others as high
+as twelve. The wall was still being built, for heaps of stones and great
+mixing-pans were about. And just before the door of the Keep was a
+Rowan Tree that grew to a great height. At the very top of the tree were
+bunches of red berries. Cats were lying around the stems of the tree and
+cats were in its branches--great yellow cats. More yellow cats stepped
+out of the house and came over to him. They looked Flann all over and
+went back, mewing to each other.
+
+The cattle that were in the courtyard went into the byre one by one as
+they were called by the voice of the byre-maid. Crom Duv still slept. By
+and by a little red hen that was picking about the courtyard came near
+him and holding up her head looked Flann all over.
+
+When the last cow had gone in and the last stream of milk had sounded in
+the milking-vessel the byre-maid came into the courtyard. Flann thought
+he would see a long-armed creature like Crom Duv himself. Instead he saw
+a girl with good and kind eyes, whose disfigurements were that her face
+was pitted and her hair was bushy. "I am Morag, Crom Duv's byre-maid,"
+said she.
+
+"Will Crom Duv kill me?" said Flann.
+
+"No. He'll make you serve him," said the byre-maid.
+
+"And what will he make me do for him?"
+
+"He will make you help to build his wall. Crom Duv goes out every
+morning to bring his cattle to pasture on the plain. And when he comes
+back he builds the wall round his house. He'll make you mix mortar and
+carry it to him, for I heard him say he wants a servant to do that."
+
+"I'll escape from this," said Flann, "and I'll bring you with me."
+
+"Hush," said Morag, and she pointed to seven yellow cats that were
+standing at Crom Duv's door, watching them. "The cats," said she,
+"are Crom Duv's watchers here and the Bull of the Mound is his watcher
+out-side."
+
+"And is this Little Red Hen a watcher too?" said Flann, for the Little
+Red Hen was watching them sideways. "The Little Red Hen is my friend and
+adviser," Morag, and she went into the house with two vessels of milk.
+
+
+Crom Duv wakened up. He untied Flann and left him free. "You must mix
+mortar for me now," he said. He went into the byre and came out with a
+great vessel of milk. He left it down near the mixing-pan. He went to
+the side of the house and came back with a trough of blood.
+
+"What are these for, Crom Duv?" said Flann. "To mix the mortar with,
+gilly," said the Giant. "Bullock's blood and new milk is what I mix my
+mortar with, so that nothing can break down the walls that I'm building
+round the Fairy Rowan Tree. Every day I kill a bullock and every day my
+byre-maid fills a vessel of milk to mix with my mortar. Set to now, and
+mix the mortar for me."
+
+Flann brought lime and sand to the mixing-pan and he mixed them in
+bullock's blood and new milk. He carried stones to Crom Duv. And so
+he worked until it was dark. Then Crom Duv got down from where he was
+building and told Flann to go into the house.
+
+The yellow cats were there and Flann counted sixteen of them. Eight
+more were outside, in the branches or around the stem of the Rowan Tree.
+Morag came in, bringing a great dish of porridge. Crom Duv took up a
+wooden spoon and ate porridge out of vessel after vessel of milk. Then
+he shouted for his beer and Morag brought him vessel after vessel of
+beer. Crom Duv emptied one after the other..Then he shouted for his
+knife and when Morag brought it he began to sharpen it, singing a queer
+song to himself.
+
+"He's sharpening a knife to kill a bullock in the morning," said Morag.
+"Come now, and I'll give you your supper."
+
+She took him to the kitchen at the back of the house. She gave him
+porridge and milk and he ate his supper. Then she showed him a ladder to
+a room above, and he went up there and made a bed for himself. He slept
+soundly, although he dreamed of the twenty-four yellow cats within, and
+the tremendous Bull of the Mound outside Crom Duv's Keep.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+This is how the days were spent in the house of Crom Duv. The Giant and
+his two servants, Flann and Morag, were out of their beds at the mouth
+of the day. Crom Duv sounded his horn and the Bull of the Mound bellowed
+an answer. Then he started work on his wall, making Flann carry mortar
+to him. Morag put down the fire and boiled the pots. Pots of porridge,
+plates of butter and pans of milk were on the table when' Crom Duv and
+Flann came in to their breakfasts. Then, when the Giant had driven out
+his cattle to the pasture Flann cleaned the byre and made the mortar,
+mixing lime and sand with bullock's blood and new milk. In the afternoon
+the Giant came back and he and Flann started work on the wall.
+
+All the time the twenty-four yellow cats lay on the branches of the
+Rowan Tree or walked about the court-yard or lapped up great crocks
+of milk. Morag's Little Red Hen went hopping round the courtyard. She
+seemed to be sleepy or to be always considering something. If one of the
+twenty-four yellow cats looked at her the Little Red Hen would waken up,
+murmur something, and hop away.
+
+One day the cattle came home without Crom Duv. "He has gone on one of
+his journeys," said Morag, "and will not be back for a night and a day."
+
+"Then it is time for me to make my escape," said Flann.
+
+"How can you make your escape, my dear, my dear?" said Morag. "If you
+go by the front the Bull of the Mound will toss you in the air and then
+trample you into the ground."
+
+"But I have strength and cunning and activity enough to climb the wall
+at the back."
+
+"But if you climb the wall at the back," said Morag, "you will only come
+to the Moat of Poisoned Water." "The Moat of Poisoned Water?" "The
+Moat of Poisoned Water," said Morag. "The water poisons the skin of any
+creature that tries to swim across the Moat."
+
+Flann was downcast when he heard of the Moat of Poisoned Water. But his
+mind was fixed on climbing the wall. "I may find some way of crossing
+the poisoned water," he said, "so bake my cake and give me provision for
+my journey."
+
+Morag baked a cake and put it on the griddle. And when it was baked she
+wrapped it in a napkin and gave it to him. "Take my blessing with it,"
+said she, "and if you escape, may you meet someone who will be a better
+help to you than I was. I must keep the twenty-four cats from watching
+you while you are climbing the wall."
+
+"And how will you do that?" said Flann.
+
+She showed him what she would do. With a piece of glass she made on the
+wall of the byre the shadows of flying birds. Birds never flew
+across the House of Crom Duv and the cats were greatly taken with the
+appearances that Morag made with the piece of glass. Six cats watched,
+and then another six came, and after them six more, and after them the
+six that watched in the Rowan Tree. And the twenty-four yellow cats sat
+round and watched with burning eyes the appearances of birds that Morag
+made on the byre-wall. Flann looked back and saw her seated on a stone,
+and he thought the Byre-Maid looked lonesome.
+
+He tried with all his activity, all his cunning and all his strength,
+and at last he climbed the wall at the back of Crom Duv's house. He gave
+a whistle to let Morag know he was over. Then he went through a little
+wood and came to the Moat of Poisoned Water.
+
+Very ugly the dead water looked. Ugly stakes stuck up from the mud to
+pierce any creature that tried to leap across. And here and there on the
+water were patches of green poison as big as cabbage leaves. Flann drew
+back from the Moat. Leap it he could not, and swim it he dare not. And
+just as he drew back he saw a creature he knew come down to the bank
+opposite to him. It was Rory the Fox. Rory carried in his mouth the skin
+of a calf. He dropped the skin into the water and pushed it out before
+him. Then he got into the water and swam very cautiously, always pushing
+the calf's skin before him. Then Rory climbed up on the bank where Flann
+was, and the skin, all green and wrinkled, sank down into the water.
+
+Rory was going to turn tail, but then he recognized Flann. "Master,"
+said he, and he licked the dust on the ground.
+
+"What are you doing here, Rory?" said Flann.
+
+"I won't mind telling you if you promise to tell no other creature,"
+said Rory.
+
+"I won't tell," said Flann.
+
+"Well then," said Rory, "I have moved my little family over here. I was
+being chased about a good deal, and my little family wasn't safe. So I
+moved them over here." The fox turned and looked round at the country
+behind him. "It suits me very well," said he; "no creature would think
+of crossing this moat after me."
+
+"Well," said Flann, "tell me how you are able to cross it."
+
+"I will," said the fox, "if you promise never to hunt me nor any of my
+little family."
+
+"I promise," said Flann.
+
+"Well," said Rory, "the water poisons every skin. Now the reason that I
+pushed the calf's skin across was that it might take the poison out of
+the water. The water poisons every skin. But where the skin goes the
+poison is taken out of the water for a while, and a living creature can
+cross behind it if he is cautious."
+
+"I thank you for showing me the way to cross the moat," said Flann.
+
+"I don't mind showing you," said Rory the Fox, and he went off to his
+burrow.
+
+There were deer-skins and calf-skins both sides of the moat. Flann
+took a calf's skin. He pushed it into the water with a stick. He swam
+cautiously behind it. When he reached the other side of the moat, the
+skin, all green and wrinkled, sank in the water.
+
+Flann jumped and laughed and shouted when he found himself in the forest
+and clear of Crom Duv's house. He went on. It was grand to see the
+woodpecker hammering on the branch, and to see him stop, busy as he
+was to say "Pass, friend." Two young deer came out of the depths of the
+wood. They were too young and too innocent to have anything to tell him,
+but they bounded alongside of him as he raced along the Hunter's Path.
+He jumped and he shouted again when he saw the river before him--the
+river that was called the Daybreak River on the right bank and the River
+of the Morning Star on the left. He said to himself, "This time, in
+troth, I will go the whole way with the river. A moving thing is my
+delight. The river is the most wonderful of all the things I have seen
+on my travels."
+
+Then he thought he would eat some of the cake that Morag had baked for
+him. He sat down and broke it. Then as he ate it the thought of Morag
+came into his mind. He thought he was looking at her putting the cake on
+the griddle. He went a little way along the river and then he began to
+feel lonesome. He turned back, "I'll go to Crom Duv's House," said he,
+"and show Morag the way to escape. And then she and I will follow the
+river, and I won't be lonesome while she's with me."
+
+So back along the Hunter's Path Flann went. He came to the Moat of
+Poisoned Water. He found a deer-skin and pushed it into the water and
+then swam cautiously across the moat. He climbed the wall then, and when
+he put his head above it he saw Morag. She was watching for him.
+
+"Crom Duv has not come back yet," said she, "but oh, my dear, my dear, I
+can't prevent the yellow cats from watching you come over the wall."
+
+First six cats came and then another six and they sat round and watched
+Flann come down the wall. They did nothing to him, but when he came down
+on the ground they followed him wherever he went.
+
+"You crossed the moat," said Morag, "then why did you come back?"
+
+"I came back," said Flann, "to bring you with me."
+
+"But," said she, "I cannot leave Crom Duv's house."
+
+"I'll show you how to cross the moat," said he, "and we'll both be glad
+to be going by the moving river."
+
+Tears came into Morag's eyes. "I'd go with you, my dear," said she, "but
+I cannot leave Crom Duv's house until I get what I came for."
+
+"And what did you come for, Morag?" said he.
+
+"I came," said she, "for two of the rowan berries that grow on the
+Fairy Rowan Tree in Crom Duv's court-yard. I know now that to get these
+berries is the hardest task in the world. Come within," said she, "and
+if we sit long enough at the supper-board I will tell you my story."
+
+They sat at the supper-board long, and Morag told
+
+
+
+
+The Story of Morag
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+I was reared in the Spae-Woman's house with two other girls, Baun and
+Deelish, my foster-sisters. The Spae-Woman's house is on the top of a
+knowe, away from every place, and few ever came that way.
+
+One morning I went to the well for water. When I looked into it I saw,
+not my own image, but the image of a young man. I drew up my pitcher
+filled with water, and went back to the Spae-Woman's house. At noontide
+Baun went to the well for water. She came back and her pitcher was only
+half-filled. Before dark Deelish went to the well. She came back without
+a pitcher, for it fell and broke on the flags of the well.
+
+The next day Baun and Deelish each plaited their hair, and they said
+to her who was foster-mother for the three of us: "No one will come to
+marry us in this far-away place. We will go into the world to seek our
+fortunes. So," said they, "bake a cake for each of us before the fall of
+the night."
+
+The Spae-Woman put three cakes on the griddle and baked them. And when
+they were baked she said to Baun and Deelish: "Will you each take the
+half of the cake and my blessing, or the whole of the cake without my
+blessing?" And Baun and Deelish each said, "The whole of the cake will
+be little enough for our journey."
+
+Each then took her cake under her arm and went the path down the knowe.
+Then said I to myself, "It would be well to go after my foster-sisters
+for they might meet misfortune on the road." So I said to my
+foster-mother, "Give me the third cake on the griddle until I go after
+my foster-sisters."
+
+"Will you have half of the cake and my blessing or the whole of the cake
+without my blessing?" said she to me.
+
+"The half of the cake and your blessing, mother," said I.
+
+She cut the cake in two with a black-handled knife and gave me the even
+half of it. Then said she:--
+
+      May the old sea's
+      Seven Daughters
+      They who spin
+      Life's longest threads,
+      Protect and guard you!
+
+She put salt in my hand then, and put the Little Red Hen under my arm,
+and I went off.
+
+I went on then till I came in sight of Baun and Deelish. Just as I
+caught up on them I heard one say to the other, "This ugly, freckled
+girl will disgrace us if she comes with us." They tied my hands and feet
+with a rope they found on the road and left me in a wood.
+
+
+I got the rope off my hands and feet and ran and ran until I came in
+sight of them again. And when I was coming on them I heard one say to
+the other, "This ugly, freckled girl will claim relationship with us
+wherever we go, and we will get no good man to marry us." They laid hold
+of me again and put me in a lime-kiln, and put beams across it, and put
+heavy stones on the beams. But my Little Red Hen showed me how to get
+out of the lime-kiln. Then I ran and I ran until I caught up with Baun
+and Deelish again.
+
+"Let her come with us this evening," said one to the other, "and
+to-morrow we'll find some way of getting rid of her."
+
+The night was drawing down now, and we had to look for a house that
+would give us shelter. We saw a hut far off the road and we went to the
+broken door. It was the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth. We asked
+for shelter. They showed us a big bed in the dormer-room, and they told
+us we could have supper when the porridge was boiled.
+
+The three Hags sat round the fire with their heads together. Baun and
+Deelish were in a corner plaiting their hair, but the Little Red Hen
+murmured that I was to listen to what the Hags said.
+
+"We will give them to Crom Duv in the morning" one said. And another
+said, "I have put a sleeping-pin in the pillow that will be under each,
+and they will not waken."
+
+When I heard what they said I wanted to think of what we could do to
+make our escape. I asked Baun to sing to me. She said she would if I
+washed her feet. I got a basin of water and washed Baun's feet, and
+while she sang, and while the Hags thought we were not minding them, I
+considered what we might do to escape. The Hags hung a pot over the fire
+and the three of them sat around it once more.
+
+When I had washed my foster-sister's feet I took a besom and began to
+sweep the floor of the house. One of the Hags was very pleased to see me
+doing that. She said I would make a good servant, and after a while she
+asked me to sit at the fire. I sat in the corner of the chimney. They
+had put meal in the water, and I began to stir it with a pot-stick.
+Then the Hag that had asked me to the fire said, "I will give you a good
+share of milk with your porridge if you keep stirring the pot for us."
+This was just what I wanted to be let do. I sat in the chimney-corner
+and kept stirring the porridge while the Hags dozed before the fire.
+
+First, I got a dish and ladle and took out of the pot some half-cooked
+porridge. This I left one side. Then I took down the salt-box that was
+on the chimney-shelf and mixed handfuls of salt in the porridge left in
+the pot.
+
+
+When it was all cooked I emptied it into another dish and brought the
+two dishes to the table. Then I told the Hags that all was ready. They
+came over to the table and they gave my foster-sisters and myself three
+porringers of goat's milk. We ate out of the first dish and they ate out
+of the second. "By my sleep to-night," said one Hag, "this porridge is
+salty." "Too little salt is in it for my taste," said my foster-sister
+Deelish. "It is as salt as the depths of the sea," said another of the
+Hags. "My respects to you, ma'am," said Baun, "but I do not taste any
+salt on it at all." My foster-sisters were so earnest that the Hags
+thought themselves mistaken, and they ate the whole dishful of porridge.
+
+The bed was made for us, and the pillows were laid on the bed, and I
+knew that the slumber-pin was in each of the pillows. I wanted to put
+off the time for going to bed so I began to tell stories. Baun and
+Deelish said it was still young in the night, and that I should tell no
+short ones, but the long story of Eithne, Balor's daughter. I had just
+begun that story, when one of the Hags cried out that she was consumed
+with thirst.
+
+She ran to the pitcher, and there was no water in it. Then another Hag
+shouted out that the thirst was strangling her. The third one said she
+could not live another minute without a mouthful of water. She took the
+pitcher and started for the well. No sooner was she gone than the
+second Hag said she couldn't wait for the first one to come back and she
+started out after her. Then the third one thought that the pair
+would stay too long talking at the well, and she started after them.
+Immediately I took the pillows off our bed and put them on the Hags'
+bed, taking their pillows instead.
+
+The Hags came back with a half-filled pitcher, and they ordered us to
+go to our bed. We went, and they sat for a while drinking porringers of
+water. "Crom Duv will be here the first thing in the morning," I heard
+one of them say. They put their heads on the pillows and in the turn of
+a hand they were dead-fast-sound asleep. I told my foster-sisters then
+what I had done and why I had done it. They were very frightened, but
+seeing the Hags so sound asleep they composed themselves and slept too.
+
+Before the screech of day Crom Duv came to the house. I went outside and
+saw the Giant. I said I was the servant of the Hags, and that they were
+sleeping still. He said, "They are my runners and summoners, my brewers,
+bakers and candle-makers, and they have no right to be sleeping so
+late." Then he went away.
+
+I knew that the three Hags would slumber until we took the pillows from
+under their heads. We left them sleeping while we put down a fire and
+made our break-fast. Then, when we were ready for our journey, we took
+the pillows from under their heads. The three Hags started up then,
+but we were out on the door, and had taken the first three steps of our
+journey.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+Without hap or mishap we came at last to the domain of the King of
+Senlabor. Baun went to sing for the King's foster-daughters, and Deelish
+went to work at the little loom in the King's chamber. We were not long
+at the court of the King of Senlabor when two youths came there from the
+court of the King of Ireland--Dermott and Downal were their names. There
+was a famous sword-smith with the King of Senlabor and these two came
+to learn the trade from him. And my two foster-sisters fell so deeply in
+love with the two youths that every night the pillow on each side of me
+was wet with their tears.
+
+I went to work in the King's kitchen. Now the King had a dish of such
+fine earthware and with such beautiful patterns upon it that he never
+let it be carried from the Kitchen to the Feast-Hall, nor from the
+Feast-Hall to the Kitchen without going himself behind the servant who
+carried it. One day the servant brought it into the Kitchen to be washed
+and the King came behind the servant. I took the dish and cleaned it
+with thrice-boiled water and dried it with cloths of three different
+kinds. Then I covered it with sweet-smelling herbs and left it in a bin
+where it was sunk in soft bran. The King was pleased to see the good
+care I took of his dish, and he said before his servant that he would
+do me any favor I would ask. There and then I told him about my two
+foster-sisters Baun and Deelish, and how they were in love with the two
+youths Dermott and Downal who had come from the court of the King of
+Ireland. I asked that when these two youths were being given wives, that
+the King should remember my foster-sisters.
+
+The King was greatly vexed at my request. He declared that the two
+youths had on their breasts the stars that denoted the sons of Kings and
+that he intended they should marry his own two foster-daughters when the
+maidens were of age to wed. "It may be," he said, "that these two youths
+will bring what my Queen longs for--a berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree
+that is guarded by the Giant Crom Duv."
+
+The next day the King's Councillor was feeding the birds and I was
+sifting the corn. I asked him what was the history of the Fairy Rowan
+Tree that the Giant Crom Duv guarded and why it was that the Queen
+longed for a berry of it. There and then he told me this story:--
+
+
+
+
+The Story of the Fairy Rowan Tree
+
+
+The history of the Fairy Rowan Tree (said the King's Councillor) begins
+with Aine', the daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea. Curoi, the
+King of the Munster Fairies loved Aine' and sought her in marriage. But
+the desire of the girl's heart was set upon Fergus who was a mortal,
+and one of the Fianna of Ireland. Now when Mananaun MacLir heard Curoi's
+proposals and learned how his daughter's heart was inclined, he said,
+"Let the matter be settled in this way: we will call a hurling-match
+between the Fairies of Munster and the Fianna of Ireland with Curoi to
+captain one side and Fergus to captain the other, and if the Fairies
+win, Aine' will marry Curoi and if the Fianna have the victory she will
+have my leave to marry this mortal Fergus."
+
+So a hurling-match was called for the first day of Lunassa, and it
+was to be played along the strand of the sea. Mananaun himself set the
+goal-marks, and Aine' was there to watch the game. It was played from
+the rising of the sun until the high tide of noon, and neither side won
+a goal. Then the players stopped to eat the refreshment that Mananaun
+had provided.
+
+This is what Mananaun had brought from his own country, Silver-Cloud
+Plain: a branch of bright-red rowan berries. Whoever ate one of these
+rowan berries his hunger and his weariness left him in a moment. The
+berries were to be eaten by the players, Mananaun said, and not one of
+them was to be taken into the world of the mortals or the world of the
+Fairies.
+
+When they stopped playing at the high tide of noon the mortal Fergus saw
+Aine' and saw her for the first time. A spirit that he had never felt
+before flowed into him at the sight of Mananaun's daughter. He forgot to
+eat the berry he was given and held it in his mouth by the stalk.
+
+He went into the hurling-match again and now he was like a hawk amongst
+small birds. Curoi defended the goal and drove the ball back. Fergus
+drove it to the goal again; the two champions met and Curoi's hurl, made
+out of rhinoceros' horn, did not beat down Fergus's hurl made out of the
+ash of the wood. The hosts stood aside and left the game to Fergus and
+Curoi. Curoi's hurl jerked the ball upward; then Fergus gave it the
+double stroke first with the handle and then with the weighted end
+of the hurl and drove it, beautifully as a flying bird, between the
+goal-marks that Mananaun had set up. The match was won by the goal that
+Fergus had gained.
+
+The Fianna then invited the Fairies of Munster to a feast that they were
+giving to Fergus and his bride. The Fairies went, and Mananaun and Aine'
+went before them all. Fergus marched at the head of his troop with the
+rowan berry still hanging from his mouth. And as he went he bit the
+stalk and the berry fell to the ground. Fergus never heeded that.
+
+When the feast was over he went to where Mananaun stood with his
+daughter. Aine' gave him her hand. "And it is well," said Conan, the
+Fool of the Fianna, "that this thick-witted Fergus has at last dropped
+the berry out of his mouth." "What berry?" said Curoi, who was standing
+by. "The rowan berry," said Conan, "that he carried across two townlands
+the same as if he were a bird."
+
+When Mananaun heard this he asked about the berry that Fergus had
+carried. It was not to be found. Then the Fianna and the Fairies of
+Munster started back to look for a trace of it. What they found was a
+wonderful Rowan Tree. It had grown out of the berry that Fergus had let
+fall, but as yet there were no berries on its branches.
+
+Mananaun, when he saw the tree said, "No mortal may take a berry that
+grows on it. Hear my sentence now. Fergus will have to guard this tree
+until he gets one who will guard it for him. And he may not see nor keep
+company with Aine' his bride until he finds one who will guard it better
+than he can guard it himself." Then Mananaun wrapped his daughter in his
+cloak and strode away in a mist. The Fairy Host went in one direction
+and the Fianna in another, and Fergus was left standing sorrowfully by
+the Fairy Rowan Tree.
+
+
+Next day (said Morag), when the King's Councillor was feeding the birds
+and I was sifting the corn, he told me the rest of the history of the
+Fairy Rowan Tree. Fergus thought and thought how he might leave off
+watching it and be with Aine', his bride. At last he bethought him of
+a Giant who lived on a rocky island with only a flock of goats for his
+possessions. This Giant had begged Finn, the Chief of the Fianna, for
+a strip of the land of Ireland, even if it were only the breadth of a
+bull's hide. Finn had refused him. But now Fergus sent to Finn and asked
+him to bring the Giant to be the guardian of the Fairy Rowan Tree and to
+give him the land around it. "I mislike letting this giant Crom Duv have
+any portion of the land of Ireland," said Finn, "nevertheless we cannot
+refuse Fergus."
+
+So Finn sent some of the Fianna to the Giant and they found him
+living on a bare rock of an island with only a flock of goats for his
+possessions. Crom Duv lay on his back and laughed when he heard what
+message the men of the Fianna brought to him. Then he put them and his
+flock of goats into his big boat and rowed them over to Ireland.
+
+Crom Duv swore by his flock of goats he would guard the Fairy Rowan Tree
+until the red berries ceased to come on its branches. Fergus left his
+place at the tree then and went to Aine', and it may be that she and he
+are still together.
+
+Well did Crom Duv guard the tree, never going far from it and sleeping
+at night in its branches. And one year a heifer came and fed with his
+flock of goats and another year a bullock came. And these were the
+beginning of his great herd of cattle. He has become more and more
+greedy for cattle, said the King's Councillor, and now he takes them
+away to far pastures. But still the Fairy Rowan Tree is well guarded.
+The Bull that is called the Bull of the Mound is on guard near by, and
+twenty-four fierce yellow cats watch the tree night and day.
+
+The Queen of Senlabor and many another woman besides desires a berry
+from the Fairy Rowan Tree that stands in Crom Duv's courtyard. For
+the woman who is old and who eats a berry from that tree becomes young
+again, and the maid who is young and who eats a berry gets all the
+beauty that should be hers of right. And now, my maid, said the King's
+Councillor to me, I have told you the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree.
+
+When I heard all this (said Morag), I made up my mind to get a berry for
+the Queen and maybe another berry besides from the Fairy Rowan Tree in
+Crom Duv's courtyard. When the King came into the kitchen again, I asked
+him would he permit my foster-sisters to marry Downal and Dermott if I
+brought to his Queen a berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree. He said he would
+give permission heartily. That night when I felt the tears of Baun and
+Deelish I told them I was going to search for such a dowry for them that
+when they had it the King would let them marry the youths they had set
+their hearts on. They did not believe I could do anything to help them,
+but they gave me leave to go.
+
+The next day I told the Queen I was going to seek for a berry from the
+Fairy Rowan Tree. She told me that if I could bring back one berry to
+her she would give me all the things she possessed. I said good-by to my
+foster-sisters and with the Little Red Hen under my arm I went towards
+the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth. I built a shelter and waited
+till Crom Duv came that way. One early morning he came by. I stood
+before him and I told him that I wanted to take service in his house.
+
+Crom Duv had never had a servant in his house. But I told him that he
+should have a byre-maid and that I was well fitted to look after his
+cattle. He told me to follow him. I saw the Bull of the Mound and I was
+made wonder how I could get away with the berry from the Fairy Rowan
+Tree. Then I saw the twenty-four fierce yellow cats and I was made
+wonder how I could get the berry from the tree. And after that I found
+out about the Moat of Poisoned Water that is behind the high wall at the
+back of Crom Duv's house. And so now (said Morag), you know why I have
+come here and how hard the task is I have taken on myself.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+
+Now that he had heard the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree, Flann often
+looked at the clusters of scarlet berries that were high up on its
+branches. The Tree could be climbed, Flann knew. But on the top of the
+tree and along its branches were the fierce yellow cats--the cats that
+the Hags of the Long Teeth had reared for Crom Duv, thinking that he
+would some time give each of them the berry that would make them young
+again. And at the butt of the tree there were more cats. And all about
+the courtyard the Hags' fierce cats paraded themselves.
+
+The walls round the Giant's Keep were being built higher by Crom Duv,
+helped by his servant Flann. The Giant's herd was now increased by many
+calves, and Morag the byre-maid had much to do to keep all the cows
+milked. And day and night Morag and Flann heard the bellowing of the
+Bull of the Mound.
+
+Now one day while Crom Duv was away with his herd, Flann and Morag were
+in the courtyard. They saw the Little Red Hen rouse herself up, shake
+her wings and turn a bright eye on them. "What dost thou say, my Little
+Red Hen?" said Morag.
+
+"The Pooka," murmured the Little Red Hen. "The Pooka rides a fierce
+horse, but the Pooka himself is a timid little fellow." Then the Little
+Red Hen drooped her wings again, and went on picking in the courtyard.
+
+"The Pooka rides a fierce horse," said Morag, "if the Pooka rides a
+fierce horse he might carry us past the Bull of the Mound."
+
+"And if the Pooka himself is a timid little fellow we might take the
+fierce horse from him," said Flann.
+
+"But this does not tell us how to get the berries off the Fairy Rowan
+Tree," said Morag.
+
+"No," said Flann, "it does not tell us how to get the berries off the
+tree the cats guard."
+
+The next day Morag gave grains to the Little Red Hen and begged for
+words. After a while the Little Red Hen murmured, "There are things I
+know, and things I don't know, but I do know what grows near the ground,
+and if you pull a certain herb, and put it round the necks of the cats
+they will not be able to see in the light nor in the dark. And to-morrow
+is the day of Sowain," said the Little Red Hen. She said no more words.
+She had become sleepy and now she flew down and roosted under the table.
+There she went on murmuring to herself--as all hens murmur--where the
+Children of Dana hid their treasures--they know, for it was the Children
+of Dana who brought the hens to Ireland.
+
+"To-morrow," said Morag to Flann, "follow the Little Red Hen, and if
+she makes any sign when she touches an herb that grows near the ground,
+pluck that herb and bring it to me."
+
+That night Morag and Flann talked about the Pooka and his fierce horse.
+On Sowain night--the night before the real short days begin--the Pooka
+rides through the countryside touching any fruit that remains, so that
+it may bring no taste into winter. The blackberries that were good
+to eat the day before are no good on November day, because the Pooka
+touched them the night before. What else the Pooka does no one really
+knows. He is a timid fellow as the Little Red Hen said, and he hopes
+that the sight of his big black horse and the sound of its trampling and
+panting as he rides by will frighten people out of his way, for he has a
+great fear of being seen.
+
+The next day the Little Red Hen stayed in the courtyard until Crom Duv
+left with his herd. Flann followed her. She went here and there between
+the house and the wall at the back, now picking a grain of sand and
+now an ant or spider or fly. And as she went about the Little Red Hen
+murmured a song to herself:--
+
+   When sleep would settle on me
+   Like the wild bird down on the nest,
+   The wind comes out of the West:
+   It tears at the door, maybe,
+   And frightens away my rest--
+   When sleep would come upon me
+   Like the wild bird down on the nest.
+
+   The cock is aloft with his crest:
+   The barn-owl comes from her quest
+   She fixes an eye upon me
+   And frightens away my rest
+   When sleep would settle on me
+   Like the wild bird down on its nest.
+
+Flann watched all the Little Red Hen did. He saw her put her head on
+one side and look down for a while at a certain herb that grew near the
+ground. Flann plucked that herb and brought it to Morag.
+
+The cattle had come home, but Crom Duv was not with them. Morag milked
+the cows and brought all the milk within, leaving no milk for the cats
+to drink outside. Six came into the kitchen to get their supper there.
+One after another they sprang up on the table, one more proud and
+overbearing than the other. Each cat ate without condescending to make
+a single mew. "Cat of my heart," said Morag to the first, when he had
+finished drinking his milk. "Cat of my heart! How noble you would look
+with this red around your neck." She held out a little satchel in which
+a bit of the herb was sewn. The first cat gave a look that said, "Well,
+you may put it on me." Morag put the red satchel around his neck and he
+jumped off the table.
+
+It was so with all the other cats. They finished lapping their milk and
+Morag showed them the red ribbon satchel. They let her put it round each
+of their necks and then they sprang off the table, and marched off more
+scornful and overbearing than before.
+
+
+Six of the fierce yellow cats climbed into the branches of the Fairy
+Rowan Tree; six stayed in the kitchen; six went into Crom Duv's chamber,
+and six went to march round the house, three taking each side. No sound
+came from the cats that were within or without. Morag drew a ball of
+cotton across the floor, and the cats that were in the kitchen gave no
+sign of seeing it. "The sight has left their eyes," said Morag. "Then,"
+said Flann, "I will climb the Fairy Rowan Tree and bring down two
+berries." "Be sure you bring down two, my dear, my dear," said Morag.
+
+They went out to the courtyard and Flann began to climb the Fairy Rowan
+Tree with all suppleness, strength and cunning. The cats that were
+below felt him going up the tree and the cats that were above humped
+themselves up. Flann passed the first branch on which a cat was
+crouched. He went above where the rowan berries were, and bending down
+he picked two of them and put them into his mouth.
+
+He came down quickly with the cats tearing at him. Others had come out
+of the house and were mewing and spitting in the courtyard. Only one had
+fastened itself on Flann's jerkin, and this one would not let go. "Come
+into the wood, come into the wood," said Morag. "Now we must stand
+between the house and the mound, and wait till the Pooka rides by."
+Flann put the two berries into her hand, they jumped across the chain,
+and ran from the house of the Giant Crom Duv.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+
+They went into the wood, Flann and Morag, and the Little Red Hen was
+under Morag's arm. They thought they would hide behind trees until they
+heard the coming of the Pooka and his horse. But they were not far in
+the wood when they heard Crom Duv coming towards his house. He came
+towards them with the iron spike in his hand. Flann and Morag ran.
+Then from tree to tree Crom Duv chased them, shouting and snorting and
+smashing down branches with the iron spike in his hand. Morag and
+Flann came to a stream, and as they ran along its bank they heard the
+trampling and panting of a horse coming towards them. Up it came, a
+great black horse with a sweeping mane. "Halt, Pooka," said Flann in
+a commanding voice. The black horse halted and the Pooka that was its
+rider slipped down to its tail.
+
+Flann held the snorting horse and Morag got on its back. Then Flann
+sprang up between Morag and the horse's head. Crom Duv was just beside
+them. "Away, Pooka, away," said Flann, and the horse started through the
+wood like the wind of March.
+
+And then Crom Duv blew on the horn that was across his breast and the
+Bull of the Mound bellowed in answer. As they went by the mound the Bull
+charged down and its horns tossed the tail of the Pooka's horse. The
+Bull turned and swept after them with his head down and hot breath
+coming out of his nostrils. And when they were in the hollow he was on
+the height, and when they were on the height he was in the hollow. And a
+hollow or a height behind his Bull came Crom Duv himself.
+
+Then the breath of the Bull became hot upon Morag and Flann and the
+Pooka. "Oh, what shall we do now?" said Morag to the Pooka who was
+hanging on to the horse's tail, his little face all twisted up with
+fear.
+
+
+"Put your hand into my horse's ear and fling behind what you will find
+there," said the Pooka, his teeth chattering. Flann put his hand into
+the horse's right ear and found a twig of ash. He flung it behind them.
+Instantly a tangled wood sprang up. They heard the Bull driving through
+the tangle of the wood and they heard Crom Duv shouting as he smashed
+his way through the brakes and branches. But the Bull and the man got
+through the wood and again they began to gain on the Pooka's horse.
+Again the breath of the Bull became hot upon them. "Oh, Pooka, what
+shall we do now?" said Morag.
+
+"Put your hand into my horse's ear and fling behind what you will find
+there," said the Pooka, his teeth chattering with fear as he held on to
+his horse's tail. Flann put his hand into the horse's left ear and he
+found a bubble of water. He flung it behind them. Instantly it spread
+out as a lake and as they rode on, the lake waters spread behind them.
+
+Morag and Flann never knew whether the Giant and the Bull went into that
+lake, or if they did, whether they ever came out of it. They crossed the
+river that marked the bounds of Crom Duv's domain and they were safe.
+Flann pulled up the horse and jumped on to the ground. Morag sprang down
+with the Little Red Hen. Then the Pooka swung forward and whispered into
+his horse's ear. Instantly it struck fire out of its hooves and sprang
+down the side of a hill. From that day to this Morag nor Flann ever saw
+sight of the Pooka and his big, black, snorting and foaming horse.
+
+"Dost thou know where we are, my Little Red Hen?" said Morag when the
+sun was in the sky again.
+
+"There are things I know and things I don't know," said the Little Red
+Hen, "but I know we are near the place we started from."
+
+"Which way do we go to come to that place, my Little Red Hen?" said
+Morag. "The way of the sun," said the Little Red Hen. So Morag and Flann
+went the way of the sun and the Little Red Hen hopped beside them. Morag
+had in a weasel-skin purse around her neck the two rowan berries that
+Flann had given her.
+
+They went towards the house of the Spae-Woman. And as they went Morag
+told Flann of the life she had there when she and her foster-sisters
+were growing up, and Flann told Morag of the things he did when he was
+in the house of the Spae-Woman after she and her foster-sisters had left
+it.
+
+They climbed the heather-covered knowe on which was the Spae-Woman's
+house and the Little Red Hen went flitting and fluttering towards the
+gate. The Spae-Woman's old goat was standing in the yard, and its horns
+went down and its beard touched its knees and it looked at the Little
+Red Hen. Then the Little Red Hen flew up on its back. "We're here again,
+here again," said the Little Red Hen.
+
+And then the Spae-Woman came to the door and saw who the comers were.
+She covered them with kisses and watered them with tears, and dried them
+with cloths silken and with the hair of her head.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+
+Flann told the Spae-Woman all his adventures. And when he had told her
+all he said--"What Queen is my mother, O my fosterer?" "Your mother,"
+said the Spae-Woman, "is Caintigern, the Queen of the King of Ireland."
+
+"And is my mother then not Sheen whose story has been told me?" "Her
+name was changed to Caintigern when her husband who was called the
+Hunter-King made himself King over Ireland and began to rule as King
+Connal."
+
+"Then who is my comrade who is called the King of Ireland's Son?"
+
+"He too is King Connal's son, born of a queen who died at his birth and
+who was wife to King Connal before he went on his wanderings and met
+Sheen your mother."
+
+And as the Spae-Woman said this someone came and stood at the doorway. A
+girl she was and wherever the sun was it shone on her, and wherever the
+breeze was it rippled over her. White as the snow upon a lake frozen
+over was the girl, and as beautiful as flowers and as alive as birds
+were her eyes, while her cheeks had the red of fox-gloves and her hair
+was the blending of five bright soft colors. She looked at Flann happily
+and her eyes had the kind look that was always in Morag's eyes. And
+she came and 'knelt down, putting her hands on his knees. "I am Morag,
+Flann," she said.
+
+"Morag indeed," said he, "but how have you become so fair?"
+
+"I have eaten the berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree," said she, "and now I
+am as fair as I should be."
+
+All day they were together and Flann was happy that his friend was so
+beautiful and that so beautiful a being was his friend. And he told
+her of his adventures in the Town of the Red Castle and of the Princess
+Flame-of-Wine and his love for her. "And if you love her still I will
+never see you again," said Morag.
+
+"But," said Flann, "I could not love her after the way she mocked at
+me."
+
+"When did she mock at you?"
+
+"When I took her a message that the Spae-Woman told me to give her."
+
+"And what was that message?"
+
+"'Ask her,' said the Spae-Woman, 'for seven drops of her heart's
+blood--she can give them and live--so that the spell may be taken from
+the seven wild geese and the mother who longs for you may be at
+peace again.' This was the message the Spae-Woman told me to give
+Flame-of-Wine. And though I had given her wonderful gifts she laughed at
+me when I took it to her. And by the way she laughed I knew she was hard
+of heart."
+
+"Yet seven drops of heart's blood are hard to give," said Morag sadly.
+
+"But the maiden who loves can give them," said the Spae-Woman who was
+behind.
+
+"It is true, foster-mother," said Morag.
+
+That evening Morag said, "To-morrow I must pre-pare for my journey to
+the Queen of Senlabor. You, Flann, may not come with me. The Spae-Woman
+has sent a message to your mother, and you must be here to meet her when
+she comes. A happy meeting to her and you, O Flann of my heart. And I
+shall leave you a token to give to her. So to-morrow I go to the Queen
+of Senlabor with the Rowan Berry and I shall bring my Little Red Hen
+for company, and shall stay only until my sisters are wed to Dermott and
+Downal, your brothers."
+
+The next day when he came into the house he saw Morag dressed for her
+journey but seated at the fire. She was pale and ill-looking. "Do not
+go to-day, Morag," said he. "I shall go to-day," said Morag. She put her
+hand into the bosom of her dress and took out a newly-woven handkerchief
+folded. "This is a token for your mother," she said. "I have woven it
+for her. Give her this gift from me when you have welcomed her."
+
+"That I will do, Morag, my heart," said Flann.
+
+The Spae-Woman came in and kissed Morag good-by and said the charm for a
+journey over her.
+
+   May my Silver-
+   Shielded Magian
+   Shed all lights
+   Across your path.
+
+Then Morag put the Little Red Hen under her arm and started out. "I
+shall find you," said she to Flann, "at the Castle of the King of
+Ireland, for it is there I shall go when I part from my foster-sisters
+and the Queen of Senlabor. Kiss me now. But if you kiss anyone until you
+kiss me again you will forget me. Remember that."
+
+"I will remember," said Flann, and he kissed Morag and said, "When you
+come to the King of Ireland's Castle we will be married."
+
+"You gave me the Rowan Berry," said Morag, "and the Rowan Berry gave me
+all the beauty that should be mine. But what good will my beauty be to
+me if you forget me?"
+
+"But, Morag," said he, "how could I forget you?"
+
+She said nothing but went down the side of the knowe and Flann watched
+and watched until his eyes had no power to see any more.
+
+
+
+
+THE SPAE-WOMAN
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+There are many things to tell you still, my kind foster-child, but
+little time have I to tell you them, for the barnacle-geese are flying
+over the house, and when they have all flown by I shall have no more to
+say. And I have to tell you yet how the King of Ireland's Son won home
+with Fedelma, the Enchanter's daughter, and how it came to pass that the
+Seven Wild Geese that were Caintigern's brothers were disenchanted and
+became men again. But above all I have to tell you the end of that story
+that was begun in the house of the Giant Crom Duv--the story of Flann
+and Morag.
+
+The barnacle-geese are flying over the house as I said. And so they were
+crossing and flying on the night the King of Ireland's Son and Fedelma
+whom he had brought from the Land of Mist stayed in the house of the
+Little Sage of the Mountain. On that night the Little Sage told them
+from what bird had come the wing that thatched his house. That was a
+wonderful story. And he told them too about the next place they should
+go to--the Spae-woman's house. There, he said he would find people that
+they knew--Flann, the King's Son's comrade, and Caintigern, the wife of
+the King of Ireland, and Fedelma's sister, Gilveen.
+
+In the morning the Little Sage of the Mountain took them down the
+hillside to the place where Fedelma and the King's Son would get a horse
+to ride to the Spae-Woman's house. The Little Sage told them from
+what people the Spae-Woman came and why she lived amongst the poor
+and foolish without name or splendor or riches. And that, too, was a
+wonderful story.
+
+
+Now as the three went along the river-side they saw a girl on the other
+side of the river and she was walking from the place towards which they
+were going. The girl sang to herself as she went along, and the King's
+Son and Fedelma and the Little Sage of the Mountain heard what she
+sang,--
+
+   A berry, a berry, a red rowan berry,
+   A red rowan berry brought mc beauty and love.
+
+   But drops of my heart's blood, drops of my heart's blood,
+   Seven drops of my heart's blood I have given away.
+
+   Seven wild geese were men, seven wild geese were men,
+   Seven drops of my heart's blood are there for your spell.
+
+   A kiss for my love, a kiss for my love,
+   May his kiss go to none till he meet me again.
+
+   If to one go his kiss, if to one go his kiss,
+   He may meet, he may meet, and not know me again.
+
+The girl on the other bank of the river passed on, and the King's Son
+and Fedelma with the Little Sage of the Mountain came to the meadow
+where the horse was. A heavy, slow-moving horse he seemed. But when they
+mounted him they found he had the three qualities of Finn's steeds--a
+quick rush against a hill, the gait of a fox, easy and proud, on the
+level ground, and the jump of a deer over harriers. They left health and
+good luck with the Little Sage of the Mountain, and on the horse he gave
+them they rode on to the Spae-Woman's house.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+When Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son came to the Spae-Woman's
+house, who was the first person they saw there but Gilveen, Fedelma's
+sister! She came to where they reined their horse and smiled in the
+faces of her sister and the King of Ireland's Son. And she it was who
+gave them their first welcome. "And you will be asking how I came here,"
+said Gilveen, "and I will tell you without wasting candle-light. Myself
+and sister Aefa went to the court of the King of Ireland after you, my
+sister, had gone from us with the lucky man of your choice. And as for
+Aefa, she has been lucky too in finding a match and she is now married
+to Maravaun the King's Councillor. I have been with Caintigern the
+Queen. And now the Queen is in the house of the Spae-Woman with the
+youth Flann and she is longing to give the clasp of welcome to both of
+you. And if you sit beside me on this grassy ditch I will tell you the
+whole story from the first to the last syllable."
+
+They sat together, and Gilveen told Fedelma and the King's Son the
+story. The Spae-Woman had sent a message to Caintigern the Queen to tell
+her she had tidings of her first-born son. Thereupon Caintigern went to
+the Spae-Woman's house and Gilveen, her attendant, went with her. She
+found there Flann who had been known as Gilly of the Goatskin, and knew
+him for the son who had been stolen from her when he was born. Flann
+gave his mother a token which had been given him by a young woman. The
+token was a handkerchief and it held seven drops of heart's blood. The
+Spae-Woman told the Queen that these seven drops would disenchant her
+brothers who had been changed from their own forms into the forms of
+seven wild geese.
+
+And while Gilveen was telling them all this Flann came to see whose
+horse was there, and great was his joy to find his comrade the King of
+Ireland's Son. They knew now that they were the sons of the one father,
+and they embraced each other as brothers. And Flann took the hand of
+Fedelma and he told her and the King's Son of his love for Morag. But
+when he was speaking of Morag, Gilveen went away.
+
+Then Flann took them into the Spae-Woman's house, and the Queen who was
+seated at the fire rose up and gave them the clasp of welcome. The
+face she turned to the King's Son was kindly and she called him by his
+child's name. She said too that she was well pleased that he and Flann
+her son were good comrades, and she prayed they would be good comrades
+always.
+
+
+Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son rested themselves for a day. Then
+the Spae-Woman said that the Queen would strive on the next night--it
+was the night of the full moon--to bring back her seven brothers to
+their own forms. The Spae-Woman said too that the Queen and herself
+should be left alone in the house and that the King of Ireland's
+Son with Flann and Fedelma and Gilveen should go towards the King of
+Ireland's Castle with MacStairn the woodman, and wait for the Queen at a
+place a day's journey away.
+
+So the King of Ireland's Son and Flann, Fedelma and Gilveen bade good-by
+to the Queen, to the Spae-Woman and to the Spae-Woman's house, and
+started their journey towards the King's Castle with MacStairn the
+Woodman who walked beside their horses, a big axe in his hands.
+
+At night MacStairn built two bothies for them--one covered with green
+boughs for Fedelma and Gilveen and one covered with cut sods for Flann
+and the King of Ireland's Son. Flann lay near the opening of this
+bothie. And at night, when the only stir in the forest was that of the
+leaves whispering to the Secret People, Gilveen arose from where she lay
+and came to the other bothie and whispered Flann's name. He awakened,
+and thinking that Morag had come back to him (he had been dreaming of
+her), he put out his arms, drew Gilveen to him and kissed her. Then
+Gilveen ran back to her own bothie. And Flann did not know whether he
+had awakened or whether he had remained in a dream.
+
+But when he arose the next morning no thought of Morag was in his
+mind. And when the King's Son rode with Fedelma he rode with Gilveen.
+Afterwards Gilveen gave him a drink that enchanted him, so that he
+thought of her night and day.
+
+Neither Fedelma nor the King's Son knew what had come over Flann. They
+mentioned the name he had spoken of so often--Morag's name but it seemed
+as if it had no meaning for him. At noon they halted to bide until the
+Queen came with or without her seven brothers. Flann and Gilveen were
+always together. And always Gilveen was smiling.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+When Caintigern had come, when she knew her son Flann, and when it was
+known to her and to the Spae-Woman that the token Morag had given him
+held the seven drops of heart's blood that would bring back to their
+own forms the seven wild geese that were Caintigern's brothers--when
+all this was known the Spae-Woman sent her most secret messenger to the
+marshes to give word to the seven wild geese that they were to fly to
+her house on the night when the moon was full. Her messenger was the
+corncrake. She traveled night and day, running swiftly through the
+meadows. She hid on the edge of the marshes and craked out her message
+to the seven wild geese. At last they heard what she said. On the day
+before the night of the full moon they flew, the seven together, towards
+the Spae-Woman's house.
+
+No one was in the house but Caintigern the Queen. The door was left
+open to the light of the moon. The seven wild geese flew down and stayed
+outside the door, moving their heads and wings in the full moonlight.
+
+Then Caintigern arose and took bread that the Spae-Woman had made. She
+moistened it in her mouth, and into each bit of moistened bread she put
+a piece of the handkerchief that had a drop of blood. She held out
+her hand, giving each the moistened bread. The first that ate it fell
+forward on the floor of the Spae-Woman's house, his head down on the
+ground. His sister saw him then as a kneeling man with this arms held
+behind him as if they were bound. And when she looked outside she saw
+the others like kneeling men with their heads bent and their arms held
+behind them. Then Caintigern said, giving the Spae-Woman her secret
+name, "O Grania Oi, let it be that my brothers be changed back to men!"
+When she said this she saw the Spae-Woman coming across the court-yard.
+The Spae-Woman waved her hands over the bent figures. They lifted
+themselves up as men--as naked, gray men.
+
+The Spae-Woman gave each a garment and the seven men came into the
+house. They would stand and not sit, and for long they had no speech.
+Their sister knelt before each and wet his hand with her tears. She
+thought she should see them as youths or as young men, and they were
+gray now and past the prime of their lives.
+
+They stayed at the house and speech came back to them. Then they longed
+to go back to their father's, but Caintigern could not bear that they
+should go from her sight. At last four of her brothers went and three
+stayed with her. They would go to her husband's Castle and the others
+would go too after they had been at their father's. Then one day
+Caintigern said farewell. The thanks that was due to the Spae-Woman, she
+said she would give by her treatment of the maid who had given the
+token to her son Flann. And she prayed that Morag would soon come to the
+King's Castle.
+
+
+She went with her three brothers to the place where Flann and the King
+of Ireland's Son, Fedelma and Gilveen waited for them. A smith groomed
+and decked horses for all of them and they rode towards the King of
+Ireland's Castle, MacStairn, the Woodman, going before to announce their
+coming.
+
+The King of Ireland waited at the stone where the riders to his Castle
+dismount, and his steward, his Councillor and his Druid were beside him.
+He lifted his wife off her horse and she brought him to Flann. And when
+the King looked into Flann's eyes he knew he was his son and the son
+of Sheen, now known as Caintigern. He gave Flann a father's clasp of
+welcome. And the queen brought him to her own three brothers who had
+been estranged from human companionship from before he knew her. And she
+brought him to the youth who was always known as the King of Ireland's
+Son, and him his father welcomed from the path of danger.
+
+And then the King's Son took Fedelma to his father and told him she
+was his love and his wife to be. And the King welcomed Fedelma to the
+Castle. Then said Gilveen, "There is a secret between this young man,
+Flann, and myself."
+
+"What is the secret?" said the Queen, laying her hands suddenly upon
+Gilveen's shoulders.
+
+"That I am his wife to be," said Gilveen.
+
+The Queen went to her son and said, "Dost thou not remember Morag,
+Flann, who gave the token that thou gavest me?"
+
+And Flann said, "Morag! I think the Spae-Woman spoke of her name in a
+story."
+
+"I am Flann's wife to be," said Gilveen, smiling in his face.
+
+"Yes, my wife to be," said Flann. Then the King welcomed Gilveen too,
+and they all went into the Castle. He told his wife he had messages from
+the King of Senlabor about his other sons Dermott and Downal, saying
+that they were making good names for themselves, and that everything
+they did was becoming to sons of Kings. In the hall Fedelma saw Aefa her
+other sister. Aefa was so proud of herself since she married Maravaun
+the King's Councillor that she would hardly speak to anyone. She gave
+her sisters the tips of her fingers and she bowed very slightingly to
+the two youths. The King questioned his druid as to when it would be
+well to have marriages made in his Castle and the druid said it would be
+well not to make them until the next appearance of the full moon.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+
+As for Morag she went by track and path, by boher and bohereen, through
+fords in rivers and over stepping-stones across them, until at last she
+came to the country of Senlabor and to the Castle of the King.
+
+No one of high degree was in the Castle, for all had gone to watch the
+young horses being broken in the meadow by the river; the King and
+Queen had gone, and the King's foster-daughters; and of the maids in the
+Castle, Baun and Deelish had gone too. The King's Councillor also had
+gone from the Castle. Morag went and stayed in the kitchen, and the
+maids who were there did not know her, either because they were new and
+had not heard her spoken of at all, or because she had changed to such
+beauty through eating the berry of the Fairy Rowan Tree that no one
+could know her now for Morag who had cleaned dishes in that kitchen
+before.
+
+It was Breas the King's Steward who came to her and asked her who she
+was. She told him. Then Breas looked sharply at her and saw she was
+indeed Morag who had been in the King's kitchen. Then he said loudly,
+"Before you left you broke the dish that the King looked on as his
+especial treasure, and for this, you will be left in the Stone House. I
+who have power in this matter order that it be so." Then he said in her
+ear, "But kisses and sweet words would make me willing to save you."
+
+Morag, in a voice raised, called him by that evil name that he was known
+by to the servants and their gossips. But the servants, hearing that
+name said in the hearing of Breas, pretended to be scandalized. They
+went to Morag and struck her with the besoms they had for sweeping the
+floor.
+
+
+Just then her foster-sisters, Baun and Deelish, came into the kitchen.
+Seeing her there they knew her. They spoke to her quietly, but with
+anger, saying they had not wanted her to go on the journey she had
+taken, but, as she had gone it was a pity she had come back, for now she
+had behaved in an iii-mannered way, and they who were her foster-sisters
+would be thought to be as ill-mannered; they told her too that before
+she came back they were well-liked by all, and that Breas had even
+ordered a shady place to be given them at the horse-breaking sports,
+and they had been able to see the two youths who had broken the horses,
+Dermott and Downal.
+
+"It was for a benefit to you that I came back," said Morag. "I shall
+ask one of you to do a thing for me. You, Baun, sing for the
+foster-daughters of the King. Before they sleep to-night ask them to
+tell the Queen that Morag has returned, and has a thing to give her."
+
+"I shall try to remember that, Morag," said Baun. Morag was taken to
+the Stone House by strong-armed bondswomen, and Baun and Deelish sat in
+corners and cried and did not go near her.
+
+That night the King's foster-daughters kept awake for long, and after
+Baun had sung to them they asked her to tell them what had happened in
+the Castle. Then Baun remembered the tumult in the kitchen that had come
+from the name given to Breas. She told the King's foster-daughters that
+Morag had come back. "She was reared in the same house with us," said
+Baun, "but she is not of the same parents." And then she said; "If your
+Fair Finenesses can remember, tell the Queen that Morag has come back."
+
+The next day when they were walking with the Queen one of the King's
+foster-daughters said, "Did you know of a maid named Morag? I have heard
+that she has been away and has come back."
+
+"How did she fare?" said the Queen.
+
+"We have not heard that," said the maiden who spoke.
+
+The Queen went to where Baun and Deelish were and from them she heard
+that Morag had been put into the Stone House on the charge that she had
+broken the King's dish when she had been in the Castle before. Now the
+Queen knew that the dish had been safe after Morag had left. She went
+to the King's Steward and accused him of having broken it and Breas
+admitted that it was so. Thereupon he lost his rank and became the
+meanest and the most despised servant in the Castle.
+
+The Queen went to the Stone House and took Morag out. She asked her how
+she had fared and thereupon Morag put the Rowan Berry in the Queen's
+hand. She hastened to her own chamber and ate it, and her youth and
+beauty came back to her, and the King who had grown solitary, loved the
+Queen again.
+
+Then Morag came to great honor in the Castle and the Queen asked her
+to name the greatest favor she could think of. And the favor that Morag
+named was marriages for her foster-sisters with the two youths they
+loved, Downal and Dermott from the court of the King of Ireland.
+
+The Queen, when she heard this, brought fine clothes out of her chests
+and gave them to Baun and Deelish. When they had dressed in these
+clothes the Queen made them known to the two youths. Downal and Dermott
+fell in love with Morag's foster-sisters, and the King named a day for
+the pairs to marry.
+
+Morag waited to see the marriages, and the King and Queen made it a
+grand affair. There were seven hundred guests at the short table,
+eight hundred at the long table, nine hundred at the round table, and
+a thousand in the great hall. I was there, and I heard the whole story.
+But I got no present save shoes of paper and stockings of butter-milk
+and these a herdsman stole from me as I crossed the mountains.
+
+But Morag got better presents, for the Queen gave her three gifts--a
+scissors that cut cloth of itself, a ball of thread that went into the
+needle of itself, and a needle that sewed of itself.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+
+Morag, with the three gifts that the Queen of Senlabor gave her,
+came again to the Spae-Woman's house. Her Little Red Hen was in the
+courtyard, and she fluttered up to meet her. But there was no sign of
+any other life about the place. Then, below at the washing-stream
+she found the Spae-Woman rinsing clothes. She was standing on the
+middle-stones, clapping her hands as if in great trouble. "Oh, Morag,
+my daughter Morag," cried the Spae-Woman, "there are signs on the
+clothes--there are signs on the clothes!"
+
+After a while she ceased crying and clapping her hands and came up from
+the stream. She showed Morag that in all the shifts and dimities she
+washed for her, a hole came just above where her heart would be. Morag
+grew pale when she saw that, but she stood steadily and she did not
+wail. "Should I go to the King's Castle, fosterer?" said she. "No,"
+said the Spae-Woman, "but to the woodman's hut that is near the King's
+Castle. And take your Little Red Hen with you, my daughter," said she,
+"and do not forget the three presents that the Queen of Senlabor gave
+you." Then the Spae-Woman stood up and said the blessing of the journey
+over Morag:--
+
+   May the Olden
+   One, whom Fairy
+   Women nurtured
+   Through seven ages,
+   Bring you seven
+   Waves of fortune.
+
+Morag gave her the clasp of farewell then, and went on her way with the
+Little Red Hen under her arm and the three presents that the Queen of
+Senlabor gave her in her pouch.
+
+
+Morag was going and ever going from the blink of day to the mouth of
+dark and that for three crossings of the sun, and at last she came
+within sight of the Castle of the King of Ireland. She asked a dog-boy
+for the hut of MacStairn the Woodman and the hut was shown to her. She
+went to it and saw the wife of MacStairn. She told her she was a girl
+traveling alone and she asked for shelter. "I can give you shelter,"
+said MacStairn's wife, "and I can get you earnings too, for there is
+much sewing-work to be done at this time." Morag asked her what reason
+there was for that, and the woodman's wife told her there were two
+couples in the Castle to be married soon. "One is the youth whom we have
+always called the King of Ireland's Son. He is to be married to a maiden
+called Fedelma. The other is a youth who is the King's son too, hut
+who has been away for a long time. Flann is his name. And he is to be
+married to a damsel called Gilveen."
+
+When she heard that, it was as if a knife had been put into and turned
+in her heart. She let the Little Red Hen drop from her arm. "I would sew
+the garments that the damsel Gilveen is to wear," said she, and she sat
+down on the stone outside the woodman's hut. MacStairn's wife then sent
+to the Castle to say that there was one in her hut who could sew all the
+garments that Gilveen would send her.
+
+The next day, with a servant walking behind, Gilveen came to the
+woodman's hut with a basket of cloths and patterns. The basket was left
+down and Gilveen began to tell MacStairn's wife how she wanted them cut,
+stitched and embroidered. Morag took up the crimson doth and let her
+scissors--the scissors that the Queen of Senlabor gave her--run through
+it. It cut out the pattern exactly. "What a wonderful scissors," said
+Gilveen. She stooped down to where Morag was sitting on the stone
+outside of the woodman's house and took up the scissors in her hand. She
+examined it. "I cannot give it back to you," said she. "Give it to me,
+and I will let you have any favor you ask." "Since you want me to
+ask you for a favor," said Morag, "I ask that you let me sit at the
+supper-table to-night alone with the youth you are to marry." "That will
+do me no harm," said Gilveen. She went away, taking the scissors and
+smiling to herself.
+
+That night Morag went into the Castle and came to the supper-table where
+Flann was seated alone. But Gilveen had put a sleeping-draught into
+Flann's cup and he neither saw nor knew Morag when she sat at the
+table. "Do you remember, Flann," said she, "how we used to sit at the
+supper-board in the house of Crom Duv?" But Flann did not hear her, nor
+see her, and then Morag had to go away.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+The next day Gilveen came to where Morag sat on the stone outside the
+woodman's hut to watch her stitch the garment she had cut out. The
+thread went into the needle of itself. "What a wonderful ball of
+thread," said Gilveen, taking it up. "I cannot give it back to you. Ask
+me for a favor in place of it." "Since you would have me ask a favor,"
+said Morag, "I ask that you let me sit at the supper-table alone with
+the youth you are going to marry." "That will do me no harm," said
+Gilveen. She took the ball of thread and went away smiling.
+
+That night Morag went into the Castle and came to the supper-table where
+Flann was seated alone. But Gilveen again had put a sleeping-draught
+into his cup, and Flann did not see or know Morag. "Do you not remember,
+Flann," said she, "the story of Morag that I told you across the
+supper-board in the House of Crom Duv?" But Flann gave no sign of
+knowing her, and then Morag had to go away.
+
+The next day Gilveen came to watch Morag make the red embroideries upon
+the white garment. When she put the needle into the cloth it worked out
+the pattern of itself. "This is the most wonderful thing of all," said
+Gilveen. She stooped down and took the needle in her hand. "I cannot
+give this back to you," she said, "and you will have to ask for a favor
+that will recompense you."
+
+"If I must ask for a favor," said Morag, "the only favor I would ask is
+that you let me sit at the supper-table to-night alone with the youth
+you are to marry." "That will do me no harm," said Gilveen, and she took
+the needle and went away smiling. Morag went to the Castle again that
+night, but this time she took the Little Red Hen with her. She scattered
+grains on the table and the Little Red Hen picked them up. "Little Hen,
+Little Red Hen," said Morag, "he slept too when I gave the seven drops
+of my heart's blood for his mother's sake." The Little Red Hen flew
+into Flann's face. "Seven drops of heart's blood, seven drops of heart's
+blood," said the Little Red Hen, and Flann heard the words.
+
+He opened his eyes and saw the Little Red Hen on the table and knew that
+she belonged to one that he had known. Morag, at the other side of the
+table, looked strange and shadowy to him. But he threw crumbs on the
+table and fed the Little Red Hen, and as he watched her picking up the
+crumbs the memory of Morag came back to him. Then he saw her. He knew
+her for his sweetheart and his promised wife and he went to her and
+asked her how it came that she had not been in his mind for so long. "I
+will tell you how you came to forget me," said she, "it was because of
+the kiss you gave Gilveen, and the enchantment she was able to put on
+you because of that kiss."
+
+There was sorrow on Morag's face when she said that, but the sorrow went
+as the thin clouds go from before the face of the high-hung moon, and
+Flann saw her as his kind comrade of Crom Duv's and as his beautiful
+friend of the Spae-Woman's house. They kissed each other then, and every
+enchantment went but the lasting enchantment of love, and they sat with
+hands joined until the log in the fire beside them had burnt itself down
+into a brand and the brand had burnt itself into ashes, and all the time
+that passed was, as they thought, only while the watching-gilly outside
+walked from one side of the Castle Gate to the other.
+
+
+Gilveen had come into the room and she saw Flann and Morag give each
+other a true-lover's kiss. She went away. But the next day she came to
+the King's Steward, Art, who at one time wanted to marry her, and whom
+she had refused because Aefa, her sister, had married one of a higher
+degree--she came to Art and she told him that she would not marry Flann
+because she had found out that he had a low-born sweetheart. "And I am
+ready to marry you, Art," she said. And Art was well pleased, and he and
+Gilveen left the Castle to be married.
+
+Then the day came when Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son, and Morag
+and Flann were married. They were plighted to each other in the Circle
+of Stones by the Druids who invoked upon them the powers of the Sun, the
+Moon, the Earth, and the Air. They were married at the height of the day
+and they feasted at night when the wax candles were lighted round the
+tables. They had Greek honey and Lochlinn beer; ducks from Achill,
+apples from Emain and venison from the Hunting Hill; they had trout
+and grouse and plovers' eggs and a boar's head for every King in the
+company. And these were the Kings who sat down to table with the King of
+Eirinn: the King of Sorcha, the King of Hispania, the King of Lochlinn
+and the King of the Green Island who had Sunbeam for his daughter. And
+they had there the best heroes of Lochlinn, the best story-tellers of
+Alba, the best bards of Eirinn. They laid sorrow and they raised music,
+and the harpers played until the great champion Split-the-Shields told a
+tale of the realm of Greece and how he slew the three lions that guarded
+the daughter of the King. They feasted for six days and the last day
+was better than the first, and the laugh they laughed when Witless, the
+Saxon fool, told how Split-the-Shield's story should have ended, shook
+the young jackdaws out of every chimney in the Castle and brought them
+down fluttering on the floors.
+
+The King of Ireland lived long, but he died while his sons were in their
+strong manhood, and after he passed away the Island of Destiny came
+under the equal rule of the two. And one had rule over the courts and
+cities, the harbors and the military encampments. And the other had rule
+over the waste places and the villages and the roads where masterless
+men walked. And the deeds of one are in the histories the shanachies
+have written in the language of the learned, and the deeds of the other
+are in the stories the people tell to you and to me.
+
+   When I crossed the Ford
+   They were turning the Mountain Pass;
+   When I stood on the Stepping-stones
+   They were travelling the Road of Glass.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The King of Ireland's Son, by Padraic Colum
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+This etext was prepared by A Elizabeth Warren MD, Sacramento,
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+
+
+THE KING OF IRELAND'S SON
+
+by Padraic Colum
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+FEDELMA, THE ENCHANTER'S DAUGHTER
+
+WHEN THE KING OF THE CATS CAME TO KING CONNAL'S DOMINION
+
+THE SWORD OF LIGHT AND THE UNIQUE TALE, WITH AS MUCH OF THE ADVENTURES OF
+GILLY OF THE GOAT-SKIN AS IS GIVEN IN "THE CRANESKIN BOOK"
+
+THE TOWN OF THE RED CASTLE
+
+THE KING OF THE LAND OF MIST
+
+THE HOUSE OF CROM DUV
+
+THE SPAE-WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+Connal was the name of the King who ruled over Ireland at that time. He had
+three sons, and, as the fir-trees grow, some crooked and some straight, one of
+them grew up so wild that in the end the King and the King's Councillor had to
+let him have his own way in everything. This youth was the King's eldest son
+and his mother had died before she could be a guide to him.
+
+Now after the King and the King's Councillor left him to his own way the youth
+I'm telling you about did nothing but ride and hunt all day. Well, one morning
+he rode abroad--
+
+    His hound at his heel,
+    His hawk on his wrist;
+    A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+    And the blue sky over him,
+
+and he rode on until he came to a turn in the road. There he saw a gray old
+man seated on a heap of stones playing a game of cards with himself. First he
+had one hand winning and then he had the other. Now he would say "That's my
+good right," and then he would say "Play and beat that, my gallant left." The
+King of Ireland's Son sat on his horse to watch the strange old man, and as he
+watched him he sang a song to himself 
+
+    I put the fastenings on my boat
+    For a year and for a day,
+    And I went where the rowans grow,
+    And where the moorhens lay;
+
+    And I went over the stepping-stones
+    And dipped my feet in the ford,
+    And came at last to the Swineherd's house,--
+    The Youth without a Sword.
+
+    A swallow sang upon his porch
+    "Glu-ee, glu-ee, glu-ee,"
+    "The wonder of all wandering,
+    The wonder of the sea;"
+    A swallow soon to leave ground sang
+    "Glu-ee, glu-ee, glu-ee."
+
+"Prince," said the old fellow looking up at him, "if you can play a game as
+well as you can sing a song, I'd like if you would sit down beside me."
+
+"I can play any game," said the King of Ireland's Son. He fastened his horse
+to the branch of a tree and sat down on the heap of stones beside the old man.
+
+"What shall we play for?" said the gray old fellow.
+
+"Whatever you like," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"If I win you must give me anything I ask, and if you win I shall give you
+anything you ask. Will you agree to that?"
+
+"If it is agreeable to you it is agreeable to me," said the King of Ireland's
+Son.
+
+They played, and the King of Ireland's Son won the game. "Now what do you
+desire me to give, King's Son?" said the gray old fellow.
+
+"I shan't ask you for anything," said the King of Ireland's Son, "for I think
+you haven't much to give."
+
+"Never mind that," said the gray old fellow. "I mustn't break my promise, and
+so you must ask me for something."
+
+"Very well," said the King's Son. "Then there's a field at the back of my
+father's Castle and I want to see it filled with cattle to-morrow morning. Can
+you do that for me?"
+
+"I can," said the gray old fellow.
+
+"Then I want fifty cows, each one white with a red ear, and a white calf going
+beside each cow."
+
+"The cattle shall be as you wish."
+
+"Well, when that's done I shall think the wager has been paid," said the King
+of Ireland's son. He mounted his horse, smiling at the foolish old man who
+played cards with himself and who thought he could bring together fifty white
+kine, each with a red ear, and a white calf by the side of each cow. He rode
+away 
+
+   His hound at his heel,
+   His hawk on his wrist;
+   A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+   And the green ground under him,
+
+and he thought no more of the gray old fellow.
+
+
+But in the morning, when he was taking his horse out of the stable, he heard
+the grooms talking about a strange happening. Art, the King's Steward, had
+gone out and had found the field at the back of the Castle filled with cattle.
+There were fifty white red-eared kine there and each cow had a white calf at
+her side. The King had ordered Art, his Steward, to drive them away. The King
+of Ireland's Son watched Art and his men trying to do it. But no sooner were
+the strange cattle put out at one side of the field than they came back on the
+other. Then down came Maravaun, the King's Councillor. He declared they were
+enchanted cattle, and that no one on Ireland's ground could put them away. So
+in the seven-acre field the cattle stayed.
+
+When the King of Ireland's Son saw what his companion of yesterday could do he
+rode straight to the glen to try if he could have another game with him. There
+at the turn of the road, on a heap of stones, the gray old fellow was sitting
+playing a game of cards, the right hand against the left. The King of
+Ireland's Son fastened his horse to the branch of a tree and dismounted.
+
+"Did you find yesterday's wager settled?" said the gray old fellow.
+
+"I did," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Then shall we have another game of cards on the same understanding?" said the
+gray old fellow.                                                 
+
+"I agree, if you agree," said the King of Ireland's son. He sat under the bush
+beside him and they played again. The King of Ireland's Son won.
+
+"What would you like me to do for you this time?" said the gray old fellow.
+
+Now the King's Son had a step-mother, and she was often cross-tempered, and
+that very morning he and she had vexed each other. So he said, "Let a brown
+bear, holding a burning coal in his mouth, put Caintigern the Queen from her
+chair in the supper-room to-night."
+
+"It shall be done," said the gray old fellow.
+
+Then the King of Ireland's Son mounted his horse and rode away 
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the green ground under him,
+
+and he went back to the Castle. That night a brown bear, holding a burning
+coal in his mouth, came into the supper-room and stood between Caintigern the
+Queen and the chair that belonged to her. None of the servants could drive it
+away, and when Maravaun, the King's Councillor, came he said, "This is an
+enchanted creature also, and it is best for us to leave it alone." So the
+whole company went and left the brown bear in the supper-room seated 'in the
+Queen's chair.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The next morning when he wakened the King's Son said, "That was a wonderful
+thing that happened last night in the supper-room. I must go off and play a
+third game with the gray old fellow who sits on a heap of stones at the turn
+of the road." So, in the morning early he mounted and rode away 
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the green ground under him,
+
+and he rode on until he came to the turn in the road. Sure enough the old gray
+fellow was there. "So you've come to me again, King's Son," said he. "I have,"
+said the King of Ireland's Son, "and I'll play a last game with you on the
+same understanding as before." He tied his horse to the branch and sat down on
+the heap of stones. They played. The King of Ireland's Son lost the game.
+Immediately the gray old fellow threw the cards down on the stones and a wind
+came up and carried them away. Standing up he was terribly tall.
+
+"King's Son," said he, "I am your father's enemy and I have done him an
+injury. And to the Queen who is your father's wife I have done an injury too.
+You have lost the game and now you must take the penalty I put upon you. You
+must find out my dwelling-place and take three hairs out of my beard within a
+year and a day, or else lose your head."
+
+With that he took the King of Ireland's Son by the shoulders and lifted him on
+his horse, turning the horse in the direction of the King's Castle. The King's
+Son rode on 
+
+  His hound at his heel,
+  His hawk on his wrist;
+  A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
+  And the blue sky over him.
+
+That evening the King noticed that his son was greatly troubled. And when he
+lay down to sleep everyone in the Castle heard his groans and his moans. The
+next day he told his father the story from beginning to end. The King sent for
+Maravaun his Councillor and asked him if he knew who the Enchanter was and
+where his son would be likely to find him.
+
+"From what he said," said Maravaun, "we may guess who he is. He is the
+Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands and his dwelling-place is hard to find.
+Nevertheless your son must seek for him and take the three hairs out of his
+beard or else lose his head. For if the heir to your kingdom does not
+honorably pay his forfeit, the ground of Ireland won't give crops and the
+cattle won't give milk." "And," said the Councillor, "as a year is little for
+his search, he should start off at once, although I'm bound to say, that I
+don't know what direction he should go in."
+
+The next day the King's Son said good-by to his father and his foster-brothers
+and started off on his journey. His step-mother would not give him her
+blessing on account of his having brought in the brown bear that turned her
+from her chair in the supper-room. Nor would she let him have the good horse
+he always rode. Instead the Prince was given a horse that was lame in a leg
+and short in the tail. And neither hawk nor hound went with him this time.
+
+
+All day the King's Son was going, traveling through wood and waste until the
+coming on of night. The little fluttering birds were going from the bush tops,
+from tuft to tuft, and to the briar-roots, going to rest; but if they were, he
+was not, till the night came on, blind and dark. Then the King's Son ate his
+bread and meat, put his satchel under his head and lay down to take his rest
+on the edge of a great waste.
+
+In the morning he mounted his horse and rode on. And as he went across the
+waste he saw an extraordinary sight--everywhere were the bodies of dead
+creatures--a cock, a wren, a mouse, a weasel, a fox, a badger, a raven---all
+the birds and beasts that the King's Son had ever known. He went on, but he
+saw no living creature before him. And then, at the end of the waste he came
+upon two living creatures struggling. One was an eagle and the other was an
+eel. And the eel had twisted itself round the eagle, and the eagle had covered
+her eyes with the black films of death. The King's Son jumped off his horse
+and cut the eel in two with a sharp stroke of his sword.
+
+The eagle drew the films from her eyes and looked full at the King's Son. "I
+am Laheen the Eagle," she said, "and I will pay you for this service, Son of
+King Connal. Know that there has been a battle of the creatures--a battle to
+decide which of the creatures will make laws for a year. All were killed
+except the eel and myself, and if you had not come I would have been killed
+and the eel would have made the laws. I am Laheen the Eagle and always I will
+be your friend. And now you must tell me how I can serve you."
+
+"You can serve me," said the King's Son, "by showing me how I may come to the
+dominion of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands."
+
+"I am the only creature who can show you, King's Son. And if I were not old
+now I would carry you there on my back. But I can tell you how you can get
+there. Ride forward for a day, first with the sun before you and then with the
+sun at your back, until you come to the shore of a lake. Stay there until you
+see three swans flying down. They are the three daughters of the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-Lands. Mark the one who carries a green scarf in her mouth. She
+is the youngest daughter and the one who can help you. When the swans come to
+the ground they will transform themselves into maidens and bathe in the lake.
+Two will come out, put on their swanskins and transform themselves and fly
+away. But you must hide the swanskin that belongs to the youngest maiden. She
+will search and search and when she cannot find it she will cry out, 'I would
+do anything in the world for the creature who would find my swanskin for me.'
+Give the swanskin to her then, and tell her that the only thing she can do for
+you is to show you the way to her father's dominion. She will do that, and so
+you will come to the House of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. And now
+farewell to you, Son of King Connal."
+
+Laheen the Eagle spread out her wings and flew away, and the King's Son
+journeyed on, first with the sun before him and then with the sun at his back,
+until he came to the shore of a wide lake. He turned his horse away, rested
+himself on the ground, and as soon as the clear day came he began to watch for
+the three swans.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+They came, they flew down, and when they touched the ground they trans- formed
+themselves into three maidens and went to bathe in the lake. The one who
+carried the green scarf left her swanskin under a bush. The King's Son took it
+and hid it in a hollow tree.
+
+Two of the maidens soon came out of the water, put on their swanskins and flew
+away as swans. The younger maiden stayed for a while in the lake. Then she
+came out and began to search for her swanskin. She searched and searched, and
+at last the King's Son heard her say, "I would do anything in the world for
+the creature who would find my swanskin for me." Then he came from where he
+was hiding and gave her the swanskin. "I am the Son of the King of Ireland,"
+he said, "and I want you to show me the way to your father's dominion."
+
+"I would prefer to do anything else for you," said the maiden. "I do not want
+anything else," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"If I show you how to get there will you be content?"
+
+"I shall be content."
+
+"You must never let my father know that I showed you the way. And he must not
+know when you come that you are the King of Ireland's Son."
+
+"I will not tell him you showed me the way and I will not let him know who I
+am."
+
+
+Now that she had the swanskin she was able to transform herself. She whistled
+and a blue falcon came down and perched on a tree. "That falcon is my own
+bird," said she. "Follow where it flies and you will come to my father's
+house. And now good-by to you. You will be in danger, but I will try to help
+you. Fedelma is my name." She rose up as a swan and flew away.
+
+The blue falcon went flying from bush to bush and from rock to rock. The night
+came, but in the morning the blue falcon was seen again. The King's Son
+followed, and at last he saw a house before him. He went in, and there, seated
+on a chair of gold was the man who seemed so tall when he threw down the cards
+upon the heap of stones. The Enchanter did not recognize the King's Son
+without his hawk and his hound and the fine clothes he used to wear. He asked
+who he was and the King's Son said he was a youth who had just finished an
+apprenticeship to a wizard. "And," said he, "I have heard that you have three
+fair daughters, and I came to strive to gain one of them for a wife."
+
+"In that case," said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, "you will have to
+do three tasks for me. If you are able to do them I will give you one of my
+three daughters in marriage. If you fail to do any one of them you will lose
+your head. Are you willing to make the trial?"
+
+"I am willing," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Then I shall give you your first task to-morrow. It is unlucky that you came
+to-day. In this country we eat a meal only once a week, and we have had our
+meal this morning."
+
+"It is all the same to me," said the King's Son, "I can do without food or
+drink for a month without any hardship."
+
+"I suppose you can do without sleep too?" said the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands.
+
+"Easily," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"That is good. Come outside now, and I'll show you your bed." He took the
+King's Son outside and showed him a dry narrow water-tank at the gable end of
+the house. "There is where you are to sleep" said the Enchanter. "Tuck
+yourself into it now and be ready for your first task at the rising of the
+sun."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went into the little tank. He was uncomfortable
+there you may be sure. But in the middle of the night Fedelma came and brought
+him into a fine room where he ate and then slept until the sun was about to
+rise in the morning. She called him and he went outside and laid himself down
+in the water-tank.
+
+As soon as the sun rose the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came out of the
+house and stood beside the water-tank. "Come now," said he, "and I will show
+you the first task you have to perform." He took him to where a herd of goats
+was grazing. Away from the goats was a fawn with white feet and little bright
+horns. The fawn saw them, bounded into the air, and raced away to the wood as
+quickly as any arrow that a man ever shot from a bow.
+
+"That is Whitefoot the Fawn," said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. "She
+grazes with my goats but none of my gillies can bring her into my goat-house.
+Here is your first task--run down Whitefoot the Fawn and bring her with my
+goats into the goat-shelter this evening." When he said that the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-Lands went away laughing to himself.
+
+"Good-by, my life," said the King of Ireland's Son, "I might as well try to
+catch an eagle on the wing as to run down the deer that has gone out of sight
+already." He sat down on the ground and his despair was great. Then his name
+was called and he saw Fedelma coming towards him. She looked at him as though
+she were in dread, and said, "What task has my father set you?" He told her
+and then she smiled. "I was in dread it would be a more terrible task," she
+said. "This one is easy. I can help you to catch Whitefoot the Fawn. But first
+eat what I have brought you."
+
+
+She put down bread and meat and wine, and they sat down and he ate and drank.
+"I thought he might set you this task," she said, "and so I brought you
+something from my father's store of enchanted things. Here are the Shoes of
+Swiftness. With these on your feet you can run down Whitefoot the Fawn. But
+you must catch her before she has gone very far away. Remember that she must
+be brought in when the goats are going into their shelter at sunset. You will
+have to walk back for all the time you must keep hold of her silver horns.
+Hasten now. Run her down with the Shoes of Swiftness and then lay hold of her
+horns. Above all things Whitefoot dreads the loss of her silver horns."
+
+He thanked Fedelma. He put on the Shoes of Swiftness and went into the wood.
+Now he could go as the eagle flies. He found Whitefoot the Fawn drinking at
+the Raven's pool.
+
+When she saw him she went from thicket to thicket. The Shoes of Swiftness were
+hardly any use to him in these shut-in places. At last he beat her from the
+last thicket. It was the hour of noon-tide then. There was a clear plain
+before them and with the Shoes of Swiftness he ran her down. There were tears
+in the Fawn's eyes and he knew she was troubled with the dread of losing her
+silver horns.
+
+He kept his hands on the horns and they went back over miles of plain and
+pasture, bog and wood. The hours were going quicker than they were going. When
+'he came within the domain of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands he saw the
+goats going quickly before him. They were hurrying from their pastures to the
+goat-shelter, one stopping, maybe, to bite the top of a hedge and another
+giving this one a blow with her horns to hurry her on. "By your silver horns,
+we must go faster," said the King of Ireland's Son to the Fawn. They went more
+quickly then.
+
+He saw the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands waiting at the goat-house, now
+counting the goats that came along and now looking at the sun. When he saw the
+King of Ireland's Son coming with his capture he was so angry that he struck
+an old full-bearded goat that had stopped to rub itself. The goat reared up
+and struck him with his horns. "Well," said the Enchanter of the Black Back-
+Lands, "you have performed your first task, I see. You are a greater enchanter
+than I thought you were. Whitefoot the Fawn can go in with my goats. Go back
+now to your own sleeping-place. To-morrow I'll come to you early and give you
+your second task."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went back and into the dry water-tank. He was tired
+with his day's journey after Whitefoot the Fawn. It was his hope that Fedelma
+would come to him and give him shelter for that night.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Until the white moon rose above the trees; until the hounds went out hunting
+for themselves; until the foxes came down and hid in the hedges, waiting for
+the cocks and hens to stir out at the first light--so long did the King of
+Ireland's Son stay huddled in the dry water-tank.
+
+By that time he was stiff and sore and hungry. He saw a great white owl flying
+towards the tank. The owl perched on the edge and stared at the King's Son.
+"Have you a message for me?" he asked. The owl shrugged with its wings three
+times. He thought that meant a message. He got out of the tank and prepared to
+follow the owl. It flew slowly and near the ground, so he was able to follow
+it along a path through the wood.
+
+The King's Son thought the owl was bringing him to a place where Fedelma was,
+and that he would get food there, and shelter for the rest of the night. And
+sure enough the owl flew to a little house in the wood. The King's Son looked
+through the window and he saw a room lighted with candles and a table with
+plates and dishes and cups, with bread and meat and wine. And he saw at the
+fire a young woman spinning at a spinning wheel, and her back was towards him,
+and her hair was the same as Fedelma's. Then he lifted the latch of the door
+and went very joyfully into the little house.
+
+But when the young woman at the spinning wheel turned round he saw that she
+was not Fedelma at ail. She had a little mouth, a long and a hooked nose, and
+her eyes looked cross-ways at a person. The thread she was spinning she bit
+with her long teeth, and she said, "You are welcome here, Prince."
+
+"And who are you?" said the King of Ireland's Son. "Aefa is my name," said
+she, "I am the eldest and the wisest daughter of the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-lands. My father is preparing a task for you," said she, "and it will be
+a terrible task, and there will be no one to help you with it, so you will
+lose your head surely. And what I would advise you to do is to escape out of
+this country at once."
+
+"And how can I escape?" said the King of Ireland's Son, "There's only one way
+to escape," said she, "and that is for you to take the Slight Red Steed that
+my father has secured under nine locks. That steed is the only creature that
+can bring you to your own country. I ,rill show you how to get it and then I
+will ride to your home with you."
+
+"And why should you do that?" said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Because I would marry you," said Aefa.
+
+"But," said he, "if I live at all Fedelma is the one I will marry."
+
+No sooner did he say the words than Aefa screamed out, "Seize him, my cat-o'-
+the-mountain. Seize him and hold him." Then the cat-o'-the-mountain that was
+under the table sprang across the room and fixed himself on his shoulder. He
+ran out of the house. All the time he was running the cat-o'-the-mountain was
+trying to tear his eyes out. He made his way through woods and thickets, and
+mighty glad he was when he saw the tank at the gable-end of the house. The
+cat-'o-the-mountain dropped from his back then. He got into the tank and
+waited and waited. No message came from Fedelma. He was a long time there,
+stiff and sore and hungry, before the sun rose and the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands came out of the house.
+
+
+
+V
+
+I hope you had a good night's rest," said the Enchanter of the Black Back-
+Lands, when he came to where the King of Ireland's Son was crouched, just at
+the rising of the sun. "I had indeed," said the King's Son. "And I suppose you
+feel fit for another task," said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. "More
+fit than ever in my life before," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands took him past the goat-house and to
+where there was an open shelter for his bee-hives. "I want this shelter
+thatched," said he, "and I want to have it thatched with the feathers of
+birds. Go," said he, "and get enough feathers of wild birds and come back and
+thatch the bee-hive shelter for me, and let it be done before the set of sun."
+He gave the King's Son arrows and a bow and a bag to put the feathers in, and
+advised him to search the moor for birds. Then he went back to the house.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son ran to the moor and watched for birds to fly across.
+At last one came. He shot at it with an arrow but did not bring it down. He
+hunted the moor ail over but found no other bird. He hoped that he would see
+Fedelma before his head was taken off.
+
+Then he heard his name called and he saw Fedelma coming towards him. She
+looked at him as before with dread in tier eyes and asked him what task her
+father had set him. "A terrible task," he said, and he told her what it was.
+Fedelma laughed. "I was in dread he would give you another task," she said. "I
+can help you with this one. Sit down now and eat and drink from what I have
+brought you."
+
+He sat down and ate and drank and he felt hopeful seeing Fedelma beside him.
+When he had eaten Fedelma said, "My blue falcon will gather the birds and pull
+the feathers off for you. Still, unless you gather them quickly there is
+danger, for the roof must be thatched with feathers at the set of sun." She
+whistled and her blue falcon came. He followed it across the moor. The blue
+falcon flew up in the air and gave a bird-call. Birds gathered and she swooped
+amongst them pulling feathers off their backs and out of their wings. Soon
+there was a heap of feathers on the ground--pigeons' feathers and pie's
+feathers, crane's and crow's, blackbird's and starling's. The King of
+Ireland's Son quickly gathered them into his bag. The falcon flew to another
+place and gave her bird-call again. The birds gathered, and she went amongst
+them, plucking their feathers. The King's Son gathered them and the blue
+falcon flew to another place. Over and over again the blue falcon called to
+the birds and plucked out their feathers, and over and over again the King's
+Son gathered them into his bag. When he thought he had feathers enough to
+thatch the roof he ran back to the shelter. He began the thatching, binding
+the feathers down with little willow rods. He had just finished when the sun
+went down. The old Enchanter came up and when he saw what the King's Son had
+done he was greatly surprised. "You surely learned from the wizard you were
+apprenticed to," said he.. "But to-morrow I will try you with another task. Go
+now and sleep in the place where you were last night." The King's Son, glad
+that the head was still on his shoulders, went and lay down in the water-tank.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+Until the white moon went out in the sky; until the Secret People began to
+whisper in the woods--so long did the King of Ireland's Son remain in the dry
+water-tank that night.
+
+And then, when it was neither dark nor light, he saw a crane flying towards
+him. It lighted on the edge of the tank. "Have you a message for me?" said the
+King of Ireland's Son. The crane tapped three times with its beak. Then the
+King's Son got out of the tank and prepared to follow the bird-messenger.
+
+This was the way the crane went. It would fly a little way and then light on
+the ground until the Prince came up to it. Then it would fly again. Over
+marshes and across little streams the crane led him. And all the time the King
+of Ireland's Son thought he was being brought to the place where Fedelma was--
+to the place where he would get food and where he could rest until just before
+the sun rose.
+
+They went on and on till they came to an old tower. The crane lighted upon it.
+The King's Son saw there was an iron door in the tower and he pulled a chain
+until it opened. Then he saw a little room lighted with candles, and he saw a
+young woman looking at herself in the glass. Her back was towards him and her
+hair was the same as Fedelma's.
+
+But when the young woman turned round he saw she was not Fedelma. She was
+little, and she had a face that was brown and tight like a nut. She made
+herself very friendly to the King of Ireland's Son and went to him and took
+his hands and smiled into his face.
+
+"You are welcome here," said she.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked. "I am Gilveen," said she, "the second and the most
+loving of the three daughters of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands." She
+stroked his face and his hands when she spoke to him.
+
+"And why did you send for me?"
+
+"Because I know what great trouble you are in. My father is preparing a task
+for you, and it will he a terrible one. You will never be able to carry it
+out."
+
+"And what should you advise me to do, King's daughter?"
+
+"Let me help you. In this tower," said she, "there are the wisest books in the
+world. We'll surely find in one of them a way for you to get from this
+country. And then I'll go back with you to your own land."
+
+"Why would you do that?" asked the King of Ire-land's Son.
+
+"Because I wish to be your wife," Gilveen said.
+
+"But," said he, "if I live at all Fedelma is the one I'll marry."
+
+When he said that Gilveen drew her lips together and her chin became like a
+horn. Then she whistled through her teeth, and instantly everything in the
+room began to attack the King's Son. The looking glass on the wall flung
+itself at him and hit him on the back of the head. The leg of the table gave
+him a terrible blow at the back of the knees. He saw the two candles hopping
+across the floor to burn his legs. He ran out of the room, and when he got to
+the door it swung around and gave him a blow that flung him away from the
+tower. The crane that was waiting on the tower flew down, its neck and beak
+outstretched, and gave him a blow on the back.
+
+So the King of Ireland's Son went back over the marshes and across the little
+streams, and he was glad when he saw the gable-end of the house again. Je went
+into the tank. He knew that he had not long to wait before the sun would rise
+and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands would come to him and give him the
+third and the most difficult of the three tasks. And he thought that Fedelma
+was surely shut away from him and that she would not be able to help him that
+day.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+At the rising of the sun the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands came to where
+the King of Ireland's Son was huddled and said, "I am now going to set you the
+third and last task. Rise up now and come with me."
+
+The King's Son came out of the water-tank and fol-lowed the Enchanter. They
+went to where there was a well. The King's Son looked down and he could not
+see the bottom, so deep the well was. "At the bottom," said the Enchanter "is
+the Ring of Youth. You must get it and bring it to me, or else you must lose
+your head at the setting of that sun." That was all he said. He turned then
+and went away.
+
+The King's Son looked into the well and he saw no way of getting down its deep
+smooth sides. He walked back towards the Castle. On his way he met Fedelma,
+and she looked at him with deep dread in her eyes. "What task did my father
+set you to-day?" said she. "He bids me go down into a well," said the King's
+Son. "A well!" said Fedelma, and she became all dread. "I have to take the
+Ring of Youth from the bot-tom and bring it to him," said the King's Son.
+"Oh," said Fedelma,'"he has set you the task I dreaded."
+
+Then she said, "You will lose your life if the Ring of Youth is not taken out
+of the well. And if you lose yours I shall lose my life too. There is one way
+to get down the sides of the well. You must kill me. Take my bones and make
+them as steps while you go down the sides. Then, when you have taken the Ring
+of Youth out of the water, put my bones as they were before, and put the Ring
+above my heart. I shall be alive again. But you must be careful that you leave
+every bone as it was."
+
+The King's Son fell into a deeper dread than Fedelma when he heard what she
+said. "This can never be," he cried. "It must be," said she, "and by all your
+vows and promises I command that you do it. Kill me now and do as I have
+bidden you. If it be done I shall live. If it be not done you will lose your
+life and I will never regain mine."
+
+He killed her. He took the bones as she had bidden him, and he made steps down
+the sides of the well. He searched at the bottom, and he found the Ring of
+Youth. He brought the bones together again. Down on his knees he went, and his
+heart did not beat nor did his breath come or go until he had fixed them in
+their places. Over the heart he placed the Ring. Life came back to Fedelma.
+
+"You have done well," she said. "One thing only is not in its place--the joint
+of my little finger." She held up her hand and he saw that her little finger
+was bent.
+
+"I have helped you in everything," said Fedelma, "and in the last task I could
+not have helped you if you had not been true to me when Aefa and Gilveen
+brought you to them. Now the three tasks are done, and you can ask my father
+for one of his daughters in marriage. When you bring him the Ring of Youth he
+will ask you to make a choice. I pray that the one chosen will be myself."
+
+"None other will I have but you, Fedelma, love of my heart," said the King of
+Ireland's Son.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went into the house before the setting of the sun.
+The Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands was seated on his chair of gold. "Have
+you brought me the Ring of Youth?" he asked.
+
+"I have brought it," said the King's Son.
+
+"Give it to me then," said the Enchanter.
+
+"I will not," said the King's Son, "until you give what you promised me at the
+end of my tasks--one of your three daughters for my wife."
+
+The Enchanter brought him to a closed door. "My three daughters are within
+that room," said he. "Put your hand through the hole in the door, and the one
+whose hand you hold when I open it--it is she you will have to marry."
+
+Then wasn't the mind of the King's Son greatly troubled? If he held the hand
+of Aefa or Gilveen he would lose his love Fedelma. He stood without putting
+out his hand. "Put your hand through the hole of the door or go away from my
+house altogether," said the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son ventured to put his hand through the hole in the
+door. The hands of the maidens inside were all held in a bunch. But no sooner
+did he touch them than he found that one had a broken finger. This he knew was
+Fedelma's hand, and this was the hand he held.
+
+"You may open the door now," said he to the Enchanter. He opened the door and
+the King of Ireland's Son drew Fedelma to him. "This is the maiden I choose,"
+said he, "and now give her her dowry."
+
+"The dowry that should go with me," said Fedelma, "is the Slight Red Steed."
+"What dowry do you want with her, young man?" said the Enchanter.
+
+"No other dowry but the Slight Red Steed."
+
+"Go round to the stable then and get it. And I hope no well-trained wizard
+like you will come this way again."
+
+"No well-trained wizard am I, but the King of Ire-land's Son. And I have found
+your dwelling-place within a year and a day. And now I pluck the three hairs
+out of your heard, Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands."
+
+The beard of the Enchanter bristled like spikes on a hedgehog, and the balls
+of his eyes stuck out of his head. The King's Son plucked the three hairs of
+his beard before he could lift a hand or say a word. "Mount the Slight Red
+Steed and be off, the two of you," said the Enchanter.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son and Fedelma mounted the Slight Red Steed and rode
+off, and the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, and his two daughters, Aefa
+and Gilveen, in a rage watched them ride away.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+They crossed the River of the Ox, and went over the Mountain of the Fox and
+were in the Glen of the Badger before the sun rose. And there, at the foot of
+the Hill of Horns, they found an old man gathering dew from the grass.
+
+"Could you tell us where we might find the Little Sage of the Mountain?"
+Fedelma asked the old man.
+
+"I am the Little Sage of the Mountain," said he, "and what is it you want of
+me?"
+
+"To betroth us for marriage," said Fedelma.
+
+"I will do that. Come to my house, the pair of you. And as you are both young
+and better able to walk than I am it would be fitting to let me ride on your
+horse."
+
+The King's Son and Fedelma got off and the Little Sage of the Mountain got on
+the Slight Red Steed. They took the path that went round the Hill of Horns.
+And at the other side of the hill they found a hut thatched with one great
+wing of a bird. The Little Sage got off the Slight Red Steed. "Now," said he,
+"you're both young, and I'm an old man and it would be fitting for you to do
+my day's work before you call upon me to do anything for you. Now would you,"
+said he to the King of Ireland's Son, "take this spade in your hand and go
+into the garden and dig my potatoes for me? And would you," said he to
+Fedelma, "sit down at the quern-stone and grind the wheat for me?"
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went into the garden and Fedelma sat at the quern-
+stone that was just outside the door; he dug and she ground while the Little
+Sage sat at the fire looking into a big book. And when Fedelma and the King's
+Son were tired with their labor he gave them a drink of buttermilk.
+
+She made cakes out of the wheat she had ground and the King's Son washed the
+potatoes and the Little Sage boiled them and so they made their supper. Then
+the Little Sage of the Mountain melted lead and made two rings; and one ring
+he gave to Fedelma to give to the King's Son and one he gave to the King's Son
+to give to Fedelma. And when the rings were given he said, "You are betrothed
+for your marriage now."
+
+They stayed with the Little Sage of the Mountain that night, and when the sun
+rose they left the house that was thatched with the great wing of a bird and
+they turned towards the Meadow of Brightness and the Wood of Shadows that were
+between them and the King of Ireland's domain. They rode on the Slight Red
+Steed, and the Little Sage of the Mountain went with them a part of the way.
+He seemed downcast and when they asked him the reason he said, "I see dividing
+ways and far journeys for you both." "But how can that be," said the King's
+Son, "when, in a little while we will win to my father's domain?" "It may be I
+am wrong," said the Little Sage, "and if I am not, remember that devotion
+brings together dividing ways and that high hearts win to the end of every
+journey." He bade them good-by then, and turned back to his hut that was
+thatched with the great wing of a bird.
+
+They rode across the Meadow of Brightness and Fedelma's blue falcon sailed
+above them. "Yonder is a field of white flowers," said she, "and while we are
+crossing it you must tell me a story."
+
+"I know by heart," said the King's Son, "only the stories that Maravaun, my
+father's Councillor, has put into the book he is composing--the book that is
+called 'The Breastplate of Instruction.'"
+
+"Then," said Fedelma, "tell me a story from 'The Breastplate of Instruction,'
+while we are crossing this field of white flowers."
+
+"I will tell you the first story that is in it," said the King's Son. Then
+while they were crossing the field of white flowers the King's Son told
+Fedelma the story of
+
+
+
+The Ass and the Seal
+
+
+X
+
+A seal that had spent a curious fore-noon paddling around the island of Ilaun-
+Beg drew itself up on a rock the better to carry on its investigations. It was
+now within five yards of the actual island. On the little beach there were
+three curraghs in which the island-men went over the sea; they were turned
+bottom up and heavy stones were placed upon them to prevent their being
+carried away by the high winds. The seal noted them as he rested upon the flat
+rock. He noted too a little ass that was standing beyond the curraghs,
+sheltering himself where the cliffs hollowed in.
+
+Now this ass was as curious as the seal, and when he saw the smooth creature
+that was moving its head about with such intelligence he came down to the
+water's edge. Two of his legs were spancelled with a piece of straw rope, but
+being used to such impediment he came over without any awkwardness. He looked
+inquiringly at the seal.
+
+The gray-headed crow of the cliff lighted on a spar of rock and made herself
+an interpreter between the two. "Shaggy beast of the Island," said the seal,
+"friend and follower of men, tell me about their fabulous existence."
+
+"Do you mean the hay-getters?" said the ass.
+
+"You know well whom he means," said the gray-headed crow viciously. "Answer
+him now."
+
+"You gravell me entirely when you ask about men," said the ass. "I don't know
+much about them. They live to themselves and I live to myself. Their houses
+are full of smoke and it blinds my eyes to go in. There used to be green
+fields here and high grass that became hay, but there's nothing like that now.
+I think men have given up eating what grows out of the ground. I see nothing,
+I smell nothing, but fish, fish, fish."
+
+The gray-headed crow had a vicious eye fixed on the ass all the time he was
+speaking. "You're saying all that," said she, "because they let the little
+horse stay all night in the house and beat you out of it."
+
+"My friend," said the seal, "it is evident that men deceive you by
+appearances. I know men. I have followed their boats and have listened to the
+wonderful sounds they make with their voices and with instruments. Do they not
+draw fish out of the depths by enchantments? Do they not build their
+habitations with music? Do they not draw the moon out of the sea and set it
+for a light in their houses? And is it not known that the fairest daughters of
+the sea have loved men?"
+
+"When I'm awake long o' moonlit nights I feel like that myself," said the ass.
+Then the recollections of these long, frosty nights made him yawn. Then he
+brayed.
+
+"What it is to live near men," said the seal in admiration. "What wonderful
+sounds!"
+
+"I'd cross the water and rub noses with you," said the ass, "only I'm afraid
+of crocodiles."
+
+"Crocodiles?" said the gray-headed crow.
+
+"Yes," said the ass. "It's because I'm of a very old family, you know. They
+were Egyptians. My people never liked to cross water in their own country.
+There were crocodiles there."
+
+"I don't want to waste any more time listening to nonsense," said the gray-
+headed crow. She flew to the ass's back and plucked out some of the felt.
+"I'll take this for my own habitation," she said, and flew back to the cliff.
+
+The ass would have kicked up his heels only two of his legs were fastened with
+the straw rope. He turned away, and without a word of farewell to the seal
+went scrambling up the bank of the island.
+
+The seal stayed for a while moving his head about intelligently. Then he
+slipped into the water and paddled off. "One feels their lives in music," he
+said; "great tones vibrate round the island where men live. It is very
+wonderful."
+
+"That," said the King's Son, "is the first story in 'The Breastplate of
+Instruction,'--'The Ass and the Seal.' And now you must tell me a story while
+we are crossing the field of blue flowers."
+
+"Then it will be a very little story," said Fedelma. They crossed a little
+field of blue flowers, and Fedelma told
+
+
+
+The Sending of the Crystal Egg
+
+
+XI
+
+The Kings of Murias heard that King Atlas had to bear
+The world upon his back, so they sent him then and there
+The Crystal Egg that would be the Swan of Endless Tales
+That his burthen for a while might lie on his shoulder-scales
+Fair-balanced while he heard the Tales the Swan poured forth--
+North-world Tales for the while he watched the Star of the North;
+And East-world Tales he would hear in the morning swart and cool,
+When the Lions Nimrod had spared came up from the drinking pool;
+West-world Tales for the King when he turned him with the sun;
+Then whispers of magic Tales from Africa, his own.
+
+But the Kings of Murias made the Crane their messenger--
+The fitful Crane whose thoughts are always frightening her
+She slipped from Islet to Isle, she sloped from Foreland to Coast;
+She passed through cracks in the mountains and came over trees like a ghost;
+And then fled back in dismay when she saw on the hollow plains
+The final battle between the Pigmies and the Cranes.
+
+Where is the Crystal Egg that was sent King Atlas then?
+Hatched it will be one day and the Tales will be told to men:
+That is if it be not laid in some King's old Treasury: That is if the fitful
+Crane did not lose it threading the Sea!
+
+They were not long going through the little field of blue flowers, and when
+they went through it they came to another field of white flowers. Fedelma
+asked the King's Son to tell her another story, and thereupon he told her the
+second story in "The Breastplate of Instruction."
+
+
+
+The Story of the Young Cuckoo
+
+
+XII
+
+The young cuckoo made desperate attempts to get himself through the narrow
+opening in the hollow tree. He screamed when he failed to get through.
+
+His foster-parents had remained so long beside him that they were wasted and
+sad while the other birds, their broods reared, were vigorous and joyful. They
+heard the one that had been reared in their nest, the young cuckoo, scream,
+but this time they did not fly towards him. The young cuckoo screamed again,
+but there was something in that scream that reminded the foster-parents of
+hawks. They flew away. They were miserable in their flight, these birds, for
+they knew they were committing a treason.
+
+They had built their nest in a hollow tree that had a little opening. A cuckoo
+laid her egg on the ground and, carrying it in her beak, had placed it in the
+nest. Their own young had been pushed out. They had worn themselves to get
+provision for the terrible and fascinating creature who had remained in their
+nest.
+
+When the time came for him to make his flight he could not get his body
+through the little opening. Yesterday he had begun to try. The two foster-
+parents flew to him again and again with food. But now their own nesting place
+had become strange to them. They would never go near it again. The young
+cuckoo was forsaken.
+
+A woodpecker ran round the tree. He looked into the hollow and saw the big
+bird crumpled up.
+
+"Hello," said the woodpecker. "How did you get here?"
+
+"Born here," said the young cuckoo sulkily.
+
+"Oh, were you?" said the woodpecker and he ran round the tree again.
+
+When he came back to the opening the young cuckoo was standing up with his
+mouth open.
+
+"Feed me," said he.
+
+"I've to rush round frightfully to get something for myself," said the
+woodpecker.
+
+"At least, someone ought to bring me food," said the young cuckoo.
+
+"How is that?" said the woodpecker.
+
+"Well, oughtn't they to?" said the young cuckoo.
+
+"I wouldn't say so," said the woodpecker, "you have the use of your wits,
+haven't you?" He ran round the trunk of the tree again and devoured a lean
+grub. The young cuckoo struggled at the opening and screamed again.
+
+"Don't be drawing too much attention to yourself," advised the woodpecker when
+he came to the opening again. "They might take you for a young hawk, you
+know."
+
+"Who might?" said the cuckoo. "The neighbors. They would pull a young hawk to
+pieces."
+
+"What am I to do?" said the young cuckoo.
+
+"What's in your nature to do?"
+
+"My nature?" said the young cuckoo. "It's my nature to swing myself on
+branches high up in a tree. It's my nature to spread out my wings and fly over
+pleasant places. It is my nature to be alone. But not alone as here. Alone
+with the sound of my own voice." Suddenly he cried, "Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!"
+
+"I know you now," said the woodpecker. "There's going to be a storm," he said;
+"trust a woodpecker to know that."
+
+The young cuckoo strove towards the big sky again, and he screamed so
+viciously that a rat that had just come out of the ditch fastened his eyes on
+him. That creature looked bad to the young cuckoo. Rain plopped on the leaves.
+Thunder crashed. A bolt struck the tree, and the part above the opening was
+torn away.
+
+The young cuckoo flung himself out on the grass and went awkwardly amongst the
+blue bells. "What a world," said he. "All this wet and fire and noise to get
+me out of the nest. What a world!" The young cuckoo was free, and these were
+the first words he said when he went into the world.
+
+That was the last story the King's Son told from Maravaun's book, "The
+Breastplate of Instruction." They had another little field of blue flowers to
+cross, and as they went across it Fedelma told the King's Son
+
+
+The Story of the Cloud-Woman
+
+XIII
+
+The Cloud-woman, Mor, was the daughter
+Of Griann, the Sun,--well, and she
+Made a marriage to equal that grandeur,
+For her Goodman was Lir, the Sea.
+
+The Cloud-woman Mor, she had seven
+Strong sons, and the story-books say
+Their inches grew in the night-time,
+And grew over again in the day.
+
+The Cloud-woman Mor,--as they grew in
+Their bone, she grew in her pride,
+Till her haughtiness turned away, men say,
+Her goodman Lir from her side;
+
+Then she lived in Mor's Home and she watched
+With pride her sons and her crop,
+Till one day the wish in her grew
+To view from the mountain-top
+All, all that she owned, so she
+Traveled without any stop.
+
+And what did she see? A thousand
+
+Fields and her own fields small, small!
+"What a fine and wide place is Eirinn," said she,
+"I am Mor, but not great after all."
+
+Then a herdsman came, and he told her
+That her sons had stolen away:
+They had left the calves in the hollow,
+With the goose-flock they would not stay:
+
+They had seen three ships on the sea
+And nothing would do them but go:
+Mor wept and wept when she heard it,
+And her tears made runnels below.
+
+Then her shining splendor departed:
+She went, and she left no trace,
+And the Cloud-woman, Mor, was never
+Beheld again in that place.
+
+The proud woman, Mor, who was daughter
+Of Griann, the Sun, and who made
+A marriage to equal that grandeur,
+Passed away as a shade.
+
+
+XIV
+
+And that was the last story that Fedelma told, for they had crossed the
+Meadows of Brightness and had come to a nameless place--a stretch of broken
+ground where there were black rocks and dead grass and bare roots of trees
+with here and there a hawthorn tree in blossom. "I fear this place. We must
+not halt here," Fedelma said.
+
+And then a flock of ravens came from the rocks, and flying straight at them
+attacked Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son. The King's Son sprang from the
+steed and taking his sword in his hand he fought the ravens until he drove
+them away. They rode on again. But now the ravens flew back and attacked them
+again and the King of Ireland's Son fought them until his hands were wearied.
+He mounted the steed again, and they rode swiftly on. And the ravens came the
+third time and attacked them more fiercely than before. The King's Son fought
+them until he had killed all but three and until he was covered with their
+blood and feathers.
+
+The three that had escaped flew away. "Oh, mount the Slight Red Steed and let
+us ride fast," said Fedelma to the King's Son.
+
+"I am filled with weariness," he said. "Bid the steed stay by the rock, lay my
+sword at my side, and let me sleep with my head on your lap."
+
+"I fear for us both if you slumber here," said Fedelma.
+
+"I must sleep, and I pray that you let me lay my head on your lap."
+
+"I know not what would awaken you if you slumber here."
+
+"I will awaken," said the King's Son, "but now I must sleep, and I would
+slumber with my head on your lap."
+
+She got down from the Slight Red Steed and she bade it stay by a rock; she put
+his sword by the place he would sleep and she took his head upon her lap. The
+King's Son slept.
+
+As she watched over him a great fear grew in Fedelma. Every hour she would say
+to him, "Are you near waking, my dear, my dear?" But no flush of waking
+appeared on the face of the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+Then she saw a man coming across the nameless place, across the broken ground,
+with its dead grass and black rocks and with its roots and stumps of trees.
+The man who came near them was taller than any man she had seen before--he was
+tall as a tree. Fedelma knew him from what she had heard told about him--she
+knew him to be the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+The King of the Land of Mist came straight to them. He stood before Fedelma
+and he said, "I seek Fedelma, the daughter of the Enchanter of the Black Back-
+Lands and the fairest woman within the seas of Eirinn."
+
+"Then go to her father's house and seek Fedelma there," said she to him.
+
+"I have sought her there," said the King of the Land of Mist, "but she left
+her father's house to go with the King of Ireland's Son."
+
+"Then seek her in the Castle of the King of Ireland," said Fedelma.
+
+"That I will not. Fedelma is here, and Fedelma will come with me," said the
+King of the Land of Mist.
+
+"I will not leave him with whom I am plighted," said Fedelma.
+
+Then the King of the Land of Mist took up the King of Ireland's Son. High he
+held him--higher than a tree grows. "I will dash him down on the rocks and
+break the life within him," said he.
+
+"Do not so," said Fedelma. "Tell me. If I go with you what would win me back?"
+
+"Nothing but the sword whose stroke would slay me--the Sword of Light," said
+the King of the Land of Mist. He held up the King of Ireland's Son again, and
+again he was about to dash him against the rocks. The blue falcon that was
+overhead flew down and settled on the rock behind her. Fedelma knew that what
+she and the King of the Land of Mist would say now would be carried some place
+and told to someone. "Leave my love, the King's Son, to his rest," she said.
+
+"If I do not break the life in him will you come with me, Fedelma?"
+
+"I will go with you if you tell again what will win me back from you."
+
+"The Sword of Light whose stroke will slay me."
+
+"I will go with you if you swear by all your vows and promises not to make me
+your wife nor your sweetheart for a year and a day."
+
+"I swear by all my vows and promises not to make you my wife nor my sweetheart
+for a year and a day."
+
+"I will go with you if you let it be that I fall into a slumber that will last
+for a year and a day."
+
+"I will let that be, fairest maid within the seas of Eirinn."
+
+"I will go with you if you will tell me what will take me out of that
+slumber."
+
+"If one cuts a tress of your hair with a stroke of the Sword of Light it will
+take you out of that slumber."
+
+The blue falcon that was behind heard what the King of the Land of Mist said.
+She rose up and remained overhead with her wings outspread. Fedelma took the
+ring off her own finger and put it on the finger of the King of Ireland's Son,
+and she wrote upon the ground in Ogham letters, "The King of the Land of
+Mist."
+
+"If it be not you who wakens me, love," she said, "may it be that I never
+waken."
+
+"Come, daughter of the Enchanter," said the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+"Pluck the branch of hawthorn and give it to me that I may fall into my
+slumber here," said Fedelma.
+
+The King of the Land of Mist plucked a flowering branch of hawthorn and gave
+it to her. She held the flowers against her face and fell into slumber. For a
+while she and the King of Ireland's Son were side by side in sleep.
+
+Then the King of the Land of Mist took Fedelma in his arms and strode along
+that nameless place, over the broken ground with its dead grass and its black
+rocks and its stumps and roots of trees and the three ravens that had escaped
+the sword of the King of Ire-land's Son followed where he went.
+
+
+XV
+
+Long, long after Fedelma had been taken by the King of the Land of Mist the
+King of Ireland's Son came out of his slumber. He saw around him that nameless
+place with its black rocks and bare roots of trees. He remembered he had come
+to it with Fedelma. He sprang up and looked for her, but no one was near him.
+"Fedelma, Fedelma!" He searched and he called, but it was as if no one had
+ever been with him. He found his sword; be searched for his steed, but the
+Slight Red Steed was gone too.
+
+He thought that the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands had followed them and
+had taken Fedelma from him. He turned to go towards the Enchanter's country
+and then he found what Fedelma had written upon the ground in Ogham letters 
+
+____II_____________\/______//___
+        IIII       /\
+
+"The King of the Land of Mist"
+
+He did not know what direction to take to get to the dominion of the King of
+the Land of Mist. He crossed the broken ground and he found no trace of
+Fedelma nor of him who had taken her. He found himself close to the Wood of
+Shadows. He went through it. As he went on he saw scores and scores of
+shadows. Nothing else was in the wood--no bird, no squirrel, no cricket. The
+shadows had the whole wood to themselves. They ran swiftly from tree to tree,
+and now and then one would stop at a tree and wait. Often the King of
+Ireland's Son came close to a waiting shadow. One became like a small old man
+with a beard. The King's Son saw this shadow again and again. What were they,
+the shadows, he asked himself? Maybe they were wise creatures and could tell
+him what he wanted to know.
+
+He thought he heard them whispering together. Then one little shadow with
+trailing legs went slowly from tree to tree. The King of Ireland's Son thought
+he would catch and hold a shadow and make it tell him where he should go to
+find the dominion of the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+He went after one shadow and another and waited beside a tree for one to come.
+Often he thought he saw the small old man with the beard and the little
+creature with trailing legs. And then he began to see other shadows--men with
+the heads of rooks and men with queer heavy swords upon their shoulders. He
+followed them on and on through the wood and he heard their whispering
+becoming louder and louder, and then he thought that as he went on the
+shadows, instead of slipping before him, began to turn back and go past and
+surround him. Then he heard a voice just under the ground at his feet say,
+"Shout--shout out your own name, Son of King Connal!" Then the King's Son
+shouted out his own name and the whispers ceased in the wood and the shadows
+went backward and forward no more.
+
+He went on and came to a stream within the wood and he went against its flow
+all night as well as all day, hoping to meet some living thing that would tell
+him how he might come to the dominion of the King of the Land of Mist. In the
+forenoon of another day he came to where the wood grew thin and then he went
+past the last trees.
+
+He saw a horse grazing: he ran up to it and found that it was the Slight Red
+Steed that had carried Fedelma and himself from the house of the Enchanter.
+Then as he laid hold of the steed a hound ran up to him and a hawk flew down
+and he saw that they were the hawk and the hound that used to be with him when
+he rode abroad from his father's Castle.
+
+He mounted and seeing his hound at his heel and his hawk circling above he
+felt a longing to go back to his father's Castle which he knew to be near and
+where he might find out where the King of the Land of Mist had his dominion.
+
+So the King of Ireland's Son rode back to his father's Castle--
+
+   His hound at his heel,
+   His hawk on his wrist.
+
+
+
+
+
+When the King of the Cats Came to King Connal's Dominion
+
+
+I
+
+The King of Ireland's Son was home again, but as he kept asking about a King
+and a Kingdom no one had ever heard of, people thought he had lost his wits in
+his search for the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands. He rode abroad every day
+to ask strangers if they knew where the King of the Land of Mist had his
+dominion and he came back to his father's every night in the hope that one
+would be at the Castle who could tell him where the place that he sought was.
+Maravaun wanted to relate to him fables from "The Breastplate of Instruction"
+but the King's Son did not hear a word that Maravaun said. After a while he
+listened to the things that Art, the King's Steward, related to him, for it
+was Art who had shown the King's Son the leaden ring that was on his finger.
+He took it off, remembering the betrothal ring that the Little Sage had made,
+and then he saw that it was not his, but Fedelma's ring that he wore. Then he
+felt as if Fedelma had sent a message to him, and he was less wild in his
+thoughts.
+
+Afterwards, in the evenings, when he came back from his ridings, he would
+cross the meadows with Art, the King's Steward, or would stand with him while
+the herdsmen drove the cattle into the byres. Then he would listen to what Art
+related to him. And one evening he heard Art say, "The most remarkable event
+that happened was the coming into this land of the King of the Cats."
+
+"I will listen to what you tell me about it," said the King's Son. "Then,"
+said Art, the King's Steward, "to your father's Son in all truth be it told"--
+
+
+
+The King of the Cats stood up. He was a grand creature. His body was brown and
+striped across as if one had burned on wood with a hot poker. Like all the
+race of the Royal Cats of the Isle of Man he was without a tail. But he had
+extraordinarily fine whiskers. They went each side of his face to the length
+of a dinner-dish. He had such eyes that when he turned one of them upward the
+bird that was flying across dropped from the sky. And when he turned the other
+one down he could make a hole in the floor.
+
+He lived in the Isle of Man. Once he had been King of the Cats of Ireland and
+Britain, of Norway and Denmark, and the whole Northern and Western World. But
+after the Norsemen won in the wars the Cats of Norway and Britain swore by
+Thor and Odin that they would give him no more allegiance. So for a hundred
+years and a day he had got allegiance only from the Cats of the Western World;
+that is, from Ireland and the Islands beyond.
+
+The tribute he received was still worth having. In May he was sent a boatful
+of herring. In August he was let have two boatfuls of mackerel. In November he
+was given five barrels of preserved mice. At other seasons he had for his
+tribute one out of every hundred birds that flew across the Island on their
+way to Ireland--tomtits, pee-wits, linnets, siskins, starlings, martins, wrens
+and tender young barn owls. He was also sent the following as marks of
+allegiance and respect: a salmon, to show his dominion over the rivers; the
+skin of a marten to show his dominion in the woods; a live cricket to show his
+dominion in the houses of men; the horn of a cow, to show his right to a
+portion of the milk produced in the Western World.
+
+
+But the tribute from the Western World became smaller and smaller. One year
+the boat did not come with the herring. Mackerel was sent to him afterwards
+but he knew it was sent to him because so much was being taken out of the sea
+that the farmer-men were plowing their mackerel-catches into the land to make
+their crops grow. Then a year came when he got neither the salmon nor the
+marten skin, neither the live cricket nor the cow's horn. Then he got
+righteously and royally indignant. He stood up on his four paws on the floor
+of his palace, and declared to his wife that he himself was going to Ireland
+to know what prevented the sending of his lawful tribute to him. He called for
+his Prime Minister then and said, "Prepare for Us our Speech from the Throne."
+
+The Prime Minister went to the Parliament House and wrote down "Oyez, Oyez,
+Oyez!" But he could not remember any more of the ancient language in which the
+speeches from the Throne were always written. He went home and hanged himself
+with a measure of tape and his wife buried the body under the hearth-stone.
+
+"Speech or no speech," said the King of the Cats, "I'm going to pay a royal
+visit to my subjects in Ireland."
+
+He went to the top of the cliff and he made a spring. He landed on the deck of
+a ship that was bringing the King of Norway's daughter to be married to the
+King of Scotland's son. The ship nearly sank with the crash of his body on it.
+He ran up the sails and placed himself on the mast of the ship. There he
+gathered his feet together and made another spring. This time he landed on a
+boat that was bringing oak-timber to build a King's Palace in London. He stood
+where the timber was highest and made another spring. This time he landed on
+the Giant's Causeway that runs from Ireland out into the sea. He picked his
+steps from boulder to boulder, and then walked royally and resolutely on the
+ground of Ireland. A man was riding on horseback with a woman seated on the
+saddle behind him. The King of the Cats waited until they came up.
+
+"My good man," said he very grandly, "when you go back to your house, tell the
+ash-covered cat in the comer that the King of the Cats has come to Ireland to
+see him."
+
+His manner was so grand that the man took off his hat and the woman made a
+courtesy. Then the King of the Cats sprang into the branch of a tree of the
+forest and slept till it was past the mid-day heat.
+
+I nearly forgot to tell you that as he slept on the branch his whiskers stood
+around his face the breadth of a dinner-dish either way.
+
+
+
+II
+
+The next day the King's Son rode abroad and where he went that day he saw no
+man nor woman nor living creature in the land around;. But coming back he saw
+a falcon sailing in the air above. He rode on and the falcon sailed above,
+never rising high in the air, and never swooping down. The King's Son fitted
+an arrow to his bow and shot at the falcon. Immediately it rose in the air and
+flew swiftly away, but a feather from it fell before him. The King's Son
+picked the feather up. It was a blue feather. Then the King's Son thought of
+Fedelma's falcon--of the bird that flew above them when they rode across the
+Meadows of Brightness. It might be Fedelma's falcon, the one he had shot at,
+and it might have come to show him the way to the Land of Mist. But the falcon
+was not to be seen now.
+
+He did not go amongst the strangers in his father's Castle that evening; but
+he stood with Art who was watching the herdsmen drive the cattle into the
+byres. And Art after a while said, "I will tell you more about the coming of
+the King of the Cats into King Connal's Dominion. And as before I say
+
+"To your father's Son in all truth be it told "--
+
+
+The King of the Cats waited on the branch of the tree until the moon was in
+the sky like a roast duck on a dish of gold, and still neither retainer,
+vassal nor subject came to do him service. He was vexed, I tell you, at the
+want of respect shown him.
+
+This was the reason why none of his subjects came to him for such a long time:
+The man and woman he had spoken to went into their house and did not say a
+word about the King of the Cats until they had eaten their supper. Then when
+the man had smoked his second pipe, he said to the woman: "That was a
+wonderful thing that happened to us to-day. A cat to walk up to two Christians
+and say to them, 'Tell the ashy pet in your chimney corner at home that the
+King of the Cats has come to see him.'"
+
+No sooner were the words said than the lean, gray, ash-covered cat that lay on
+the hearthstone sprang on the back of the man's chair.
+
+"I will say this," said the man; "it's a bad time when two Christians like
+ourselves are stopped on their way back from the market and ordered--ordered,
+no less--to give a message to one's own cat lying on one's own hearthstone."
+
+"By my fur and daws, you're a long time coming to his message," said the cat
+on the back of the chair; "what was it, anyway?"
+
+"The King of the Cats has come to Ireland to see you," said the man, very much
+surprised.
+
+"It's a wonder you told it at all," said the cat, going to the door. "And
+where did you see His Majesty?"
+
+"You shouldn't have spoken," said the man's wife.
+
+"And how did I know a cat could understand?" said the man.
+
+"When you have done talking amongst yourselves," said the cat, "would you tell
+me where you met His Majesty?"
+
+"Nothing will I tell you," said the man, "until I hear your own name from
+you."
+
+"My name," said the cat, "is Quick-to-Grab, and well you should know it."
+
+"Not a word will we tell you," said the woman, "until we hear what the King of
+the Cats is doing in Ireland. Is he bringing wars and rebellions into the
+country?"
+
+"Wars and rebellions,--no, ma'am," said Quick-to-Grab, "but deliverance from
+oppression. Why are the cats of the country lean and lazy and covered with
+ashes? It is because the cat that goes outside the house in the sunlight, to
+hunt or to play, is made to suffer with the loss of an eye."
+
+"And who makes them suffer with the loss of an eye?" said the woman. "One
+whose reign is nearly over now," said Quick- to-Grab. "But tell me where you
+saw His Majesty?"
+
+"No," said the man. "No," said the woman, "for we don't like your
+impertinence. Back with you to the hearthstone, and watch the mouse-hole for
+us."
+
+Quick-to-Grab walked straight out of the door.
+
+"May no prosperity come to this house," said he, "for denying me when I asked
+where the King of the Cats was pleased to speak to you."
+
+But he put his ear to the door when he went outside and he heard the woman
+say,--
+
+"The horse will tell him that we saw the King of the Cats a mile this side of
+the Giant's Causeway." (That was a mistake. The horse could not have told it
+at all, because horses never know the language that is spoken in houses--only
+cats know it fully and dogs know a little of it.
+
+Quick-to-Grab now knew where the King of the Cats might be found. He went
+creeping by hedges, loping across fields, bounding through woods, until he
+came under the branch in the forest where the King of the Cats rested, his
+whiskers standing round his face the breadth of a dinner-dish.
+
+When he came-under the branch Quick-to-Grab mewed a little in Egyptian, which
+is the ceremonial language of the Cats. The King of the Cats came to the end
+of the branch.
+
+"Who are you, vassal?" said he in Phoenician.
+
+"A humble retainer of my lord," said Quick-to-Grab in High-Pictish (this is a
+language very suitable to cats but it is only their historians who now use
+it).
+
+They continued their conversation in Irish.
+
+"What sign shall I show the others that will make them know you are the King
+of the Cats?" said Quick-to-Grab.
+
+The King of the Cats chased up the tree and pulled down heavy branches. "There
+is a sign of my royal prowess," said he.
+
+"It's a good sign," said Quick-to-Grab. They were about to talk again when
+Quick-to-Grab put down his tail and ran up another tree greatly frightened.
+
+"What ails you?" said the King of the Cats. "Can you not stay still while you
+are speaking to your lord and master?"
+
+"Old-fellow Badger is coming this way," said Quick-to-Grab, "and when he puts
+his teeth in one he never lets go."
+
+Without saying a word the King of the Cats jumped down from the tree. Old-
+fellow Badger was coming through the glade. When he saw the King of the Cats
+crouching there he stopped and bared his terrible teeth. The King of the Cats
+bent himself to spring. Then Old-fellow Badger turned round and went lumbering
+back.
+
+"Oh, by my claws and fur," said Quick-to-Grab, "you are the real King of the
+Cats. Let me be your Councillor. Let me advise your Majesty in the times that
+will be so difficult for your subjects and yourself. Know that the Cats of
+Ireland are impoverished and oppressed. They are under a terrible tyranny."
+
+"Who oppresses my vassals, retainers and subjects?" said the King of the Cats.
+
+"The Eagle-Emperor. He has made a law that no cat may leave a man's house as
+long as the birds (he makes an exception in the case of owls) have any
+business abroad."
+
+"I will tear him to pieces," said the King of the Cats. "How can I reach him?"
+
+"No cat has thought of reaching him," said Quick-to-Grab, "they only think of
+keeping out of his way. Now let me advise your Majesty. None of our enemies
+must know that you have come into this country. You must appear as a common
+cat."
+
+"What, me?" said the King of the Cats.
+
+"Yes, your Majesty, for the sake of the deliverance of your subjects you will
+have to appear as a common cat."
+
+"And be submissive and eat scraps?"
+
+"That will be only in the daytime," said Quick-to-Grab, "in the night-time you
+will have your court and your feasts."
+
+"At least, let the place I stay in be no hovel," said the King of the Cats. "I
+shall refuse to go into a house where there are washing days--damp clothes
+before a fire and all that."
+
+"I shall use my best diplomacy to safeguard your comfort and dignity," said
+Quick-to-Grab, "please invest me as your Prime Minister."
+
+The King of the Cats invested Quick-to-Grab by biting the fur round his neck.
+Then the King and his Prime Minister parted. The King of the Cats took up
+quarters for a day or two in a round tower. Quick-to-Grab made a journey
+through the country-side. He went into every house and whispered a word to
+every cat that was there, and whether the cat was watching a mouse-hole, or
+chasing crickets, or playing with kittens, when he or she heard that word they
+sat up and considered.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Early, early, next day the King of Ireland's Son rode out in search of the
+blue falcon, but although he rode from the ring of day to the gathering of the
+dark clouds he saw no sign of it on rock or tree or in the air. Very wearily
+he rode back, and after his horse was stabled he stood with Art in the meadows
+watching the cattle being driven by. And Art, the King's Steward, said: "The
+Coming of the King of the Cats into King Connal's dominion is a story still to
+be told. "To your father's Son in all truth be it told"--
+
+
+Quick-to-Grab, in consultation with the Seven Elders of the Cat-Kin decided
+that the Blacksmith's forge would be a fit residence for the King of the Cats.
+It was clean and commodious. But the best reason of all for his going there
+was this: people and beasts from all parts came into the forge and the King of
+the Cats might learn from their discussions where the Eagle-Emperor was and
+how he might be destroyed.
+
+His Majesty found that the Forge was not a bad residence for a King living
+unbeknownst. It was dry and warm. He liked the look of the flames that mounted
+up with the blowing of the bellows. He used to sit on a heap of old saddles on
+the floor and watch the horses being shod or waiting to be shod. He listened
+to the talk of the men. The people in the Forge treated him respectfully and
+often referred to his size, his appearance and his fine manners.
+
+Every night he went out to a feast that the cats had prepared for him. Quick-
+to-Grab always walked back to the Forge with him to give a Prime Minister's
+advice. He warned His Majesty not to let the human beings know that he
+understood and could converse in their language--(all cats know men's
+language, but men do not know that the cats know). He told him not to be too
+haughty (as a King might be inclined to be) to any creature in the Forge.
+
+The King of the Cats took this advice. He used even to twitch his ears as a
+mark of respect to Mahon, the hound whose kennel was just outside the forge,
+and to the hounds that Mahon had to visit him. He even made advances to the
+Cock who walked up and down outside.
+
+This Cock made himself very annoying to the King of the Cats. He used to strut
+up and down saying to himself over and over again, "I'm Cock-o'-the-Walk, I'm
+Cock-o'-the-Walk." Sometimes he would come into the Forge and say it to the
+horses. The King of the Cats wondered how the human beings could put up with a
+creature who was so stupid and so vain. He had a red comb that fell over one
+eye. He had purple feathers on his tail. He had great spurs on his heels. He
+used to put his head on one side and yawn when the King of the Cats appeared.
+
+Cock-o'-the-Walk used to come into the Forge at night and sleep on the
+bellows. And when the King of the Cats came back from the feasts he used to
+waken up and say to himself," I'm Cock-o'-the-Walk, I'm Cock-o'-the-Walk. The
+Cats are not a respectable people."
+
+One noonday there were men in the Forge. They were talking to the Smith. Said
+one, "Could you tell us, Smith, where iron came from?" The King of the Cats
+knew but he said nothing. Cock-o'-the-Walk came to the door and held his head
+as if he were listening.
+
+"I can't tell where iron came from," said the Smith, "but if that Cock could
+talk he could tell you. The world knows that the Cock is the wisest and the
+most ancient of creatures."
+
+"I'm Cock-o'-the-Walk," said the Cock to a rusty ass's shoe.
+
+"Yes, the Cock is a wonderful creature," said the man who had asked the
+question.
+
+"Not wonderful at all," said the King of the Cats, "and if you had asked me I
+could have told you where iron came from."
+
+"And where did iron come from?" said the Smith.
+
+"From the Mountains of the Moon," said the King of the Cats.
+
+The men in the Forge put their hands on their knees and looked down at him.
+Mahon the hound came into the Forge with other hounds at his tail, and seeing
+the men looking at the King of the Cats, Mahon put his nose to him. Cock-o'-
+the-Walk flapped his wings insolently. The King of the Cats struck at the red
+hanging comb with his paw. The Cock flew up in the air. The King of the Cats
+sprang out of the window, and as he did, Mahon and the other hounds sprang
+after him--
+
+
+IV
+
+The King of Ireland's Son rode towards the East the next day, and in the first
+hour's journey he saw the blue falcon sailing above. He followed where it went
+and the falcon never lifted nor stooped, but sailed steadily on, only now and
+again beating the air with its wings. Over benns and through glens and across
+moors the blue falcon flew and the King of Ireland's Son followed. Then his
+horse stumbled; he could not go any further, and he lost sight of the blue
+falcon.
+
+Black night was falling down on the ground when he came back to the King's
+Castle. Art, the King's Steward, was waiting for him and he walked beside his
+limping horse. And Art said when they were a little way together, "The Coming
+of the King of the Cats is a story still to be told.
+
+"To your father's Son in all truth be it told "--
+
+
+By the magic powers they possessed it was made known to all the cats in the
+country that their King was being pursued by the hounds. Then on every
+hearthstone a cat howled. Cats sprang to the doors, overturning cradles upon
+children. They stood upon the thresholds and they all made the same curse--
+"That ye may break your backs, that ye may break your backs before ye catch
+the King of the Cats."
+
+When he heard the howls of his vassals, retainers and subjects, the King of
+the Cats turned over on his back and clawed at the first hound that came after
+him. He stood up then. So firmly did he set himself on his four legs that
+those that dashed at him did not overthrow him. He humped up his body and
+lifted his forepaws. The hounds held back. A horn sounded and that gave them
+an excuse to get away from the claws and the teeth, the power and the
+animosity of the King of the Cats.
+
+Then, even though it might cost each and every one of them the loss of an eye,
+the cats that had sight of him came running up. "We will go with you, my lord,
+we will help you, my lord," they cried all together.
+
+"Go back to the hearthstones," said the King of the Cats. "Go back and be
+civil and quiet again in the houses. You will hear of my deeds. I go to find
+the tracks of our enemy, the Eagle-Emperor."
+
+When they heard that announcement the cats lamented, and the noise of their
+lamentation was so dreadful that horses broke their harnesses where they were
+yoked; men and women lost the color of their faces thinking some dreadful
+visitation was coming on the land; every bag of oats and rye turned five times
+to the right and five times to the left with the fright it got; dishes were
+broken, knives were hurled round, and the King's Castle was shaken to the
+bottom stone.
+
+"It is not the time to seek the tracks of the Eagle-Emperor," said Quick-to-
+Grab. "Stay for a while longer in men's houses."
+
+"Never," said the King of the Cats. "Never will I stay by the hearthstone and
+submit to be abused by cocks and hounds and men. I will range the world openly
+now and seek out the enemy of the Cat-Kind, the Eagle-Emperor."
+
+Without once turning his back he went towards the wood that was filled with
+his enemies, the birds. The cats, when they saw their petitions were no use,
+went everyone back to the house where he or she stayed. Each one sat before a
+mouse-hole and pretended to be watching. But though mice stirred all round
+them the cats of Ireland never turned a head that night.
+
+It was the wren, the smallest of birds, that saw him and knew him for the King
+of the Cats. The wren flew through the wood to summon the Hawk-Clan. But it
+was towards sunset now and the hawks had taken up their stations at the edge
+of the wood to watch that they might pick up the farmers' chickens. They
+wouldn't turn an eye when the wren told them that a cat was in the wood during
+the time forbidden to cats to be outside the houses of men. "It is the King of
+the Cats," said the wren. None of the hawks lifted a wing. They were waiting
+for the chickens that would stray about the moment after sunset.
+
+But if the wren couldn't rouse the Hawk-Clan she was able to rouse the other
+bird-tribes. "A cat, a cat, on your lives a cat," she called out as she flew
+through the wood. The rooks that were going home now rose above the trees,
+cawing threats. The blackbirds, thrushes and jays screamed as they flew before
+the King of the Cats. The woodpeckers, hedge-sparrows, tom-tits, robins and
+linnets chattered as they flew behind him. Sometimes the young rooks made a
+great show of attacking him. They flew down from the flock. "He is here, here,
+here," they cawed and flew up again. The rooks kept telling themselves and the
+other birds in the wood what they were going to do with the King of the Cats.
+But a single raven did more against him than the thousand rooks that made so
+much noise. This raven was in a hole in the tree. She struck the King of the
+Cats on the head with her beak as he went past.
+
+The King of the Cats was annoyed by the uproar the birds were making and he
+was angered by the raven's stroke, but he did not want to enter into a battle
+with the birds. He was on his way to the house of the Hag of the Wood who was
+then known as the Hag of the Ashes. Now as this is the first time you have
+heard of the Hag of the Ashes, I'Il have to tell you how the King of the Cats
+had heard of her and how he knew where her house was in the wood.
+
+
+
+V
+
+The next day the King's Son put a bridle on the Slight Red Steed and rode
+towards the East again. He saw the blue falcon and he followed where it flew.
+Over benns, and through glens and across mountains and moors the blue falcon
+went and the Slight Red Steed neither swerved nor stumbled but went as the
+bird flew. The falcon lighted on a pine tree that grew alone. The King's Son
+rode up and put his hands to the tree to climb and put his head against it,
+and as he did he heard speech from the tree. "The stroke of the Sword of Light
+will slay the King of the Land of Mist and the stroke of the Sword of Light
+that will cut a tress of her hair will awaken Fedelma." There was no more
+speech from the tree and the falcon rose from its branches and flew high up in
+the air. Then the King of Ireland's Son rode back towards his father's Castle.
+
+He went to the meadow and stood with Art and listened to what Art had to tell
+him. And as before the King's Steward began--
+
+"To your father's Son in all truth be it told"--
+
+
+Quick-to-Grab had said to the King of the Cats, "If ever you need the counsel
+of a human being, go to no one else but the Hag of the Ashes who was once
+called the Hag of the Wood. In the very centre of the wood four ash trees are
+drawn together at the tops, wattles are woven round these ash trees, and in
+the little house made in this way the Hag of the Ashes lives, with no one near
+her since her nine daughters went away, but her goat that's her only friend."
+The King of the Cats was now in the centre of the wood. He saw four ash trees
+drawn together at the tops and he jumped to them.
+
+Now the Hag of the Ashes had a bad neighbor. This was a crane that had built
+her nest across the roof of the little house. The nest prevented the smoke
+from coming out at the top and the house below was filled with it. The Hag
+could hardly keep alive on account of the smoke and she could neither take
+away the nest nor banish the bird.
+
+The crane was there when the King of the Cats sprang on the roof. She was
+sitting with her two legs stretched out, and when the King of the Cats came
+down beside her she slipped away and sailed over the trees. "Time for me to be
+going," said the crane. And from that day to this she never came back to the
+house of the Hag of the Ashes.
+
+"Oh, thanks to you, good creature," said the Hag of the Ashes, coming out of
+the house. "Tear down her nest now and let the smoke rise up through the
+roof."
+
+The King of the Cats tore up the sticks and wool that the crane's nest was
+made of, and the smoke came up through the top of the house. "Oh, thanks to
+you, good creature, that has destroyed the cross crane's nest. Come down on my
+floor now and I'll do everything that will serve you."
+
+The King of the Cats jumped down on the floor of the Hag's house and saw the
+Hag of the Ashes sitting in a corner, She was a little, little woman in a gray
+cloak. All over the floor there were ashes in heaps, for she used to light a
+fire in one corner and when it was burnt out light another beside the ashes of
+the first. The smoke had never gone through the hole in the roof since the
+crane had built her nest on the top of the house. Her face was yellow with the
+smoke and her eyes were half closed on account of it.
+
+"Do you know who I am, Hag of the Ashes?" said the King of the Cats when he
+stood on the floor.
+
+"You are a cat, honey," said the Hag of the Ashes. "I am the King of the
+Cats."
+
+"The King of the Cats you are indeed. And it was you who let the smoke out of
+the top of my little house by destroying the nest the cross crane had built on
+it."
+
+"It was I who did that."
+
+"Welcome to you then, King of the Cats. And what service can the Hag of the
+Ashes do for you in return?"
+
+"I would go to where the Eagle-Emperor is. You must show me the way."
+
+"By my cloak I will do that. The Eagle-Emperor lives on the top of the Hill of
+Horns."
+
+"And how can I get to the top of the Hill of Horns?"
+
+"I don't know how you can get there at all. All over the Hill is bare
+starvation. No four-footed thing can reach the top--no four-footed thing, I
+mean, but my goat that's tied to the hawthorn bush outside."
+
+"I will ride on the back of your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns."
+
+"No, no, good King of the Cats. I have only my goat for company and how could
+I bear to be parted from him?"
+
+"Lend me your goat, and when I come back from the Hill of Horns I will plate
+his horns with gold and shoe his hooves with silver."
+
+"No, no, good King of the Cats. How could I bear my goat to be away from me,
+and I having no other company?"
+
+"If you do not let me ride on your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns I will
+leave a sign on your house that will bring the cross crane to build her nest
+on the top of it again."
+
+"Then take my goat, King of the Cats, take my goat but let him come back to me
+soon."
+
+"I will. Come with me now and bid him take me to the top of the Hill of
+Horns."
+
+The King of the Cats marched out of the house and the Hag of the Ashes hobbled
+after him. The goat was lying under the hawthorn bush. He put his horns to the
+ground when they came up to him.
+
+"Will you go to the Hill of Horns?" said the Hag of the Ashes.
+
+"Indeed, that I will not do," said the goat.
+
+"Oh, the soft tops of the hedges on the way to the Hill of Horns--sweet in the
+mouth of a goat they should be," said the Hag of the Ashes. "But my own poor
+goat wants to stay here and eat the tops of the burnt-up thistles."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me of the hedges on the way to the Hill of Horns before?"
+said the goat, rising to his feet. "To the Hill of Horns I'll go."
+
+"And will you let a cat ride on your back to the Hill of Horns?"
+
+"Indeed, I will not do that."
+
+"Then, my poor goat, I'll not untie the rope that's round your neck, for you
+can't go to the Hill of Horns without this cat riding on your back."
+
+"Let him sit on my back then and hold my horns, and I'll take no notice of
+him."
+
+The Hag of the Ashes untied the rope that was round his neck, the King of the
+Cats jumped up on the goat's back, and they started off on the path through
+the wood. "Oh, how I'lI miss my goat, until he comes back to me with gold on
+his horns and silver on his hooves," the Hag of the Ashes cried after them.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+The King of Ireland's Son did not leave the Castle the next day, but stayed to
+question those who came to it about the Sword of Light. And some had heard of
+the Sword of Light and some had not heard of it. In the afternoon he was in
+the chambers of the Castle and he watched his two foster-brothers, Dermott and
+Downal, the sons of Caintigern, the Queen, playing chess. They played the game
+upon his board and with his figures. And when he went up to them and told them
+they had permission to use the board and the figures, they said, "We had
+forgotten that you owned these things." The King's Son saw that everything in
+the Castle was coming into the possession of his foster-brothers.
+
+He found another board with other chess-men and he played a game with the
+King's Steward. And Art said, "The coming of the King of the Cats into King
+Connal's Dominion is a story still to be told.
+
+"To your father's Son in all truth be it told "--
+
+
+What should a goat do but ramble down laneways, wander across fields, stray
+along hedges and stay to rest under shady trees? All this the Hag's goat did.
+But at last he brought the King of the Cats to the foot of the Hill of Horns.
+
+And what was the Hill of Horns like, asks my kind foster-child. It was hills
+of stones on the top of a hill of stones. Only a goat could foot it from
+pebble to stone, from stone to boulder, from boulder Ko crag, and from crag to
+mountain-shoulder. It was well and not ill what the Hag's goat did. But then
+thunder sounded; lightning struck fire out of the stones, the wind mixed
+itself with the rain and the tempest pelted cat and goat. The goat stood on a
+mountain-shoulder. The wind rushed up from the bottom and carried the
+companions to the top of the Hill of Horns. Down sprang the cat. But the goat
+stood on his hind-legs to butt back at the wind. The wind caught him between
+the beard and the under-quarters and swept him from the top and down the other
+side of the hill (and what happened to the Hag's goat after this I never
+heard). The King of the Cats put his claws into the crevices of a standing
+stone and held to it with great tenacity. And then, when the wind abated and
+he looked across his shoulder, he found that he was standing beside the nest
+of the Eagle-Emperor.
+
+It was a hollow edged with rocks, and round that hollow were scattered the
+horns of the deer and goats that the Eagle-Emperor had carried off. And in the
+hollow there was a calf and a hare and a salmon. The King of the Cats sprang
+into the Eagle-Emperor's nest. First he ate the salmon. Then he stretched
+himself between the hare and the calf and waited for the Eagle-Emperor.
+
+At last he appeared. Down he came to the nest making circles in the air. He
+lighted on the rocky rim. The King of the Cats rose with body bent for the
+spring, and if the Eagle-Emperor was not astonished at his appearance it was
+because an Eagle can never be astonished.
+
+A brave man would be glad if he could have seen the Eagle-Emperor as he
+crouched there on the rock rim of his nest. He spread down his wings till they
+were great strong shields. He bent down his outspread tail. He bent down his
+neck so that his eyes might look into the creature that faced him. And his
+cruel, curved, heavy beak was ready for the stroke.
+
+But the King of the Cats sprang into the air. The Eagle lifted himself up but
+the Cat came down on his broad back. The Eagle-Emperor screamed his war-scream
+and flew off the hill. He struck at the King of the Cats with the backs of his
+broad wings. Then he plunged down. On the stones below he would tear his enemy
+with beak and claws.
+
+It was the Cat that reached the ground. As the Eagle went to strike at him he
+sprang again and tore the Eagle's breast. Then the Eagle-Emperor caught the
+King of the Cats in his claws and flew up again, screaming his battle-scream.
+Drops of blood from both fell on the ground. The Eagle had not a conqueror's
+grip on his enemy and the King of the Cats was able to tear at him.
+
+It happened that Curoi, King of the Munster Fairies, was marching at the head
+of his troop to play a game of hurling with the Fianna of Ireland, captained
+by Fergus, and for the hand of Aine', the daughter of Mananaun, the Lord of
+the Sea. Just when the ball was about to be thrown in the air the Eagle-
+Emperor and the King of the Cats were seen mixed together in their struggle.
+One troop took the side of the Eagle and the other took the side of the Cat.
+The men of the country came up and took sides too. Then the men began to fight
+amongst themselves and some were left dead on the ground. And this went on
+until there were hosts of the men of Ireland fighting each other on account of
+the Eagle-Emperor and the King of the Cats. The King of the Fairies and the
+Chief of the Fianna marched their men away to a hill top where they might
+watch the battle in the air and the battles on the ground. "If this should go
+on," said Curoi, "our troops will join in and men and Fairies will be
+slaughtered. We must end the combat in the air." Saying this he took up the
+hurling-ball and flung it at the Cat and Eagle. Both came down on the ground.
+The Cat was about to spring, the Eagle was about to pounce, when Curoi darted
+between them and struck both with his spear. Eagle and Cat became figures of
+stone. And there they are now, a Stone Eagle with his wings outspread and a
+Stone Cat with his teeth bared and his paws raised. And the Eagle-Emperor and
+the King of the Cats will remain like that until Curoi strikes them again with
+his fairy-spear.
+
+When the Cat and the Eagle were turned into stone the men of the country
+wondered for a while and then they went away. And the Fairies of Munster and
+the Fianna of Ireland played the hurling match for the hand of Aine' the
+daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea, and what the result of that
+hurling match was is told in another book.
+
+And that ends my history of the coming into Ire-land of the King of the Cats.
+
+
+The King of Ireland's Son left Art and went into an unused room in the Castle
+to search for a little bell that he might put upon the Slight Red Steed. He
+found the little bell, but it fell out of his hand and slipped through a crack
+in the floor. He went and looked through the crack. He saw below a room and in
+it was Caintigern, the Queen, and beside her were two women in the cloaks of
+enchantresses. And when he looked again he knew the two of them--they were
+Aefa and Gilveen, the daughters of the enchanter of the Black Back-Lands and
+Fedelma's sisters. "And will my two sons come to rule over their father's
+dominion?" he heard Caintigern ask.
+
+"The Prince who gains the Sword of Light will rule over his father's
+dominion," Aefa said.
+
+"Then one of my sons must get the Sword of Light," Caintigern said. "Tell me
+where they must go to get knowledge of where it is."
+
+"Only the Gobaun Saor knows where the Sword of Light is," said Aefa.
+
+"The Gobaun Saor! Can he be seen by men?" said Caintigern.
+
+"He can be seen," said Aefa. "And there is one--the Little Sage of the
+Mountain--who can tell what road to go to find the Gobaun Saor."
+
+"Then," said Caintigern, "my two sons, Dermott and Downal, will ride out to-
+morrow to find the Little Sage of the Mountain, and the Gobaun Saor, so that
+one of them may find the Sword of Light and come to rule over his father's
+dominion."
+
+When the King of Ireland's Son heard that, he went to the stable where the
+Slight Red Steed was, and put the bridle upon him and rode towards the Hill of
+Horns, on one side of which was the house thatched with the one great wing of
+a bird, where the Little Sage of the Mountain lived.
+
+
+
+The Sword of Light and the Unique Tale With as Much of the Adventures of Gilly
+of the Goatskin as is Given in "The Craneskin Book"
+
+
+I
+
+He came to the house that was thatched with the one great wing of a bird, and,
+as before, the Little Sage of the Mountain asked him to do a day's work. The
+King's Son reaped the corn for the Little Sage, and as he was reaping it his
+two foster-brothers, Dermott and Downal, rode by on their fine horses. They
+did not know who the young fellow was who was reaping in the field and they
+shouted for the Little Sage of the Mountain to come out of the house and speak
+to them. "We want to know where to find the Gobaun Saor who is to give us the
+Sword of Light," said Dermott.
+
+"Come in," said the Sage, "and help me with my day's work, and I'll search in
+my book for some direction."
+
+"We can't do such an unprincely thing as take service with you," said Downal.
+"Tell us now where we must go to find the Gobaun Saor."
+
+"I think you have made a mistake," said the Little Sage. "I'm an ignorant man, 
+and I can't answer such a question without study."
+
+"Ride on, brother," said Downal, "he can tell us nothing." Dermott and Downal
+rode off on their fine horses, the silver bells on their bridles ringing.
+
+That night, when he had eaten his supper, the Little Sage told the King's Son
+where to go. It is forbidden to tell where the King of Ireland's Son found the
+Builder and Shaper for the Gods. In a certain place he came to where the
+Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted his anvil, and he saw the Gobaun
+Saor beating on a shape of iron.
+
+"You want to find the Sword of Light," said the Gobaun, his eyes as straight
+as the line of a sword-blade, "but show me first your will, your mind and your
+purpose."
+
+"How can I do that?" said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Guard my anvil for a few nights," said the Gobaun Saor. "A Fua comes out of
+the river sometimes and tries to carry it off."
+
+The Gobaun Saor had to make a journey to look at trees that were growing in
+the forest, and the King's Son guarded his anvil. And at night a Fua came out
+of the river and flung great stones, striving to drive him away from the
+anvil. He ran down to the river bank to drive it away, but the creature caught
+him in its long arms and tried to drown him in the deep water. The King of
+Ireland's Son was near his death, but he broke away from the Fua, and when the
+creature caught him again, he dragged it up the bank and held it against a
+tree. "I will give you the mastery of all arts because you have mastered me,"
+said the Fua. "I do not want the mastery of arts, but maybe you can tell me
+where to find the Sword of Light." "You want to know that--do you?" said the
+Fua, and then it twisted from him and went into the river.
+
+The Fua came the next night and flung stones as before, and the King's Son
+wrestled with it in the very middle of the river, and held him so that he
+could not get to the other bank. "I will give you heaps of wealth because you
+have mastered me," said the creature with the big eyes and the long arms. "Not
+wealth, but the knowledge of where to come on the Sword of Light is what I
+want from you," said the King of Ireland's Son. But the Fua twisted from him
+and ran away again.
+
+The next night the Fua came again, and the King's Son wrestled with him in the
+middle of the river and followed him up the other bank, and held him against a
+tree. "I will give you the craft that will make you the greatest of Kings,
+because you have mastered me." "Not craft, but knowledge of where the Sword of
+Light is, I want from you," said the King's Son. "Only one of the People of
+Light can tell you that," said the Fua. It became a small, empty sort of
+creature and lay on the ground like a shadow.
+
+The Gobaun Saor came back to his forge and his anvil. "You have guarded my
+anvil for me," he said, "and I will tell you where to go for the Sword of
+Light. It is in the Palace of the Ancient Ones under the Lake. You have an
+enchanted steed that can go to that Lake. I shall turn his head, and he shall
+go straight to it. When you come to the edge of the Lake pull the branches of
+the Fountain Tree and give the Slight Red Steed the leaves to eat. Mount now
+and go."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son mounted the Slight Red Steed and went traveling
+again.
+
+
+II
+
+From all its branches, high and low, water was falling in little streams. This
+was the Fountain Tree indeed. He did not dismount, the King of Ireland's Son,
+but pulled the branches and he gave them to the Slight Red Steed to eat.
+
+He ate no more than three mouthfuls. Then he stamped on the ground with his
+hooves, lifted his head high and neighed three times. With that he plunged
+into the water of the Lake and swam and swam as if he had the strength of a
+dragon. He swam while there was light on the water and he swam while there was
+night on the water, and when the sun of the next day was a hand's breadth
+above the lake he came to the Black Island.
+
+All on that Island was black and burnt, and there were black ashes up to the
+horse's knees. And no sooner had the Slight Red Steed put his hooves on the
+Island than he galloped straight to the middle of it. He galloped through an
+opening in the black rock and went through a hundred passages, each going
+lower than the other, and at last he came into the wide space of a hall.
+
+The hall was lighted. When the King's Son looked to see where the light came
+from he saw a sword hanging from the roof. And the brightness of the Sword was
+such that the hall was well lighted. The King of Ireland's Son galloped the
+Slight Red Steed forward and made it rear up. His hand grasped the hilt of the
+Sword. As he pulled it down the Sword screeched in his hand.
+
+He flashed it about and saw what other things were in the Cave. He saw one
+woman, and two women and three women. He came to them and he saw they were
+sleeping. And as he flashed the Sword about he saw other women sleeping too.
+There were twelve women in the Cave where the Sword of Light had been hanging
+and the women were sleeping.
+
+And in the hands of each of the sleeping women was a great gemmed cup. The
+spirit of the King's Son had grown haughty since he felt the Sword in his
+hands. "You have the sword, why should you not have the cup?" something within
+him said. He took a cup from the hands of one of the sleeping women and drank
+the bubbling water that it held. His spirit grew more haughty with that
+draught. From the hands of each of the twelve sleeping women he took the cup
+and he drank the draught of bubbling water that it held. And when he had drunk
+the twelve draughts of bubbling water he felt that with the Sword of Light in
+his hands he could cut his way through the earth.
+
+He mounted the Slight Red Steed and rode it through the Cave and swam it
+across the Lake with No Name. He held the Sword of Light across his saddle.
+The Steed went as the current drew him, for it was long since he had eaten the
+leaves of the Fountain Tree, and the spirit that had made him vigorous coming
+was feeble now. The current brought them to the shore below where the Fountain
+Tree grew.
+
+
+And there on the shore he saw a bunch of little men, little women and littler
+children, all with smoke-colored skins, all with but one eye in their heads,
+all crying and screaming at each other like sea-birds, and all sitting round a
+fire of dried water weeds, cooking and eating eels and crab-apples.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son put his hands on the bridle-rein and drew the Slight
+Red Steed out of the water. The women with one right eye and the men with one
+left eye, and the children in their bare smoky skins screamed at him, "What do
+you want, what do you want, man with the horse?"
+
+"Feed and water my steed for me," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"We are the Swallow People, and no one commands us to do things," said an old
+fellow with a beard like knots of ropes.
+
+"Feed my steed with red wheat and water it with pure spring water," said the
+King's Son fiercely. "I am the King of Ireland's Son and the Sword of Light is
+in my hands, and what I command must be done."
+
+"We are the Swallow People and we are accounted a harmless people," said the
+old fellow.
+
+"Why are ye harmless?" said the King's Son, and he flourished the sword at
+them.
+
+"Come into our cave, King's Son," said the old fellow, "we will give you
+refreshment there, and the children will attend to your steed."
+
+He went into the cave with certain of the Swallow People. They were all
+unmannerly. They kept screaming and crying to each other; they pulled at the
+clothes of the King's Son and pinched him. One of them bit his hands. When
+they came into the cave they all sat down on black stones. One pulled in a
+black ass loaded with nets. They took the nets off its back, and before the
+King's Son knew that anything was about to happen they threw the nets around
+him. The meshes of the nets were sticky. He felt himself caught. He ran at the
+Swallow People and fell over a stone. Then they drew more nets around his
+legs.
+
+The old fellow whom he had commanded took up the Sword of Light. Then the
+Swallow People pulled up the ass that had carried the nets and rubbed its hard
+hoof on the Sword. The King's Son did not know what happened to it. Then he
+heard them cry, "The brightness is gone off the thing now." They left the
+Sword on a black rock, and now no light came from it. Then all the Swallow
+People scrambled out of the cave.
+
+They came back eating eels and crab-apples out of their hands. They paid no
+attention to the King of Ireland's Son, but climbed into a cave above where he
+was lying.
+
+He broke the nets that were round him. He found the Sword on the black stones,
+with the brightness all gone from it because of the rubbing with the ass's
+hoof. He climbed up the wall of the other cave to punish the Swallow People.
+They saw him before he could see them in the darkness, and they all went into
+holes and hid themselves as if they were rats and mice.
+
+With the blackened sword in his hands the King of Ireland's Son went out of
+the Cave, and the horse he had left behind, the Slight Red Steed, was not to
+be found.
+
+
+III
+
+Without a steed and with a blackened sword the King of Ireland's Son came to
+where the Gobaun Saor had set up his forge and planted his anvil. No water nor
+sand would clean the Sword, but he left it down before the Gobaun Saor, hoping
+that he would show him a way to dean it. "The Sword must be bright that will
+kill the King of the Land of Mist and cut the tress that will awaken the
+Enchanter's daughter," said the Gobaun Saor. "You have let the Sword be
+blackened. Carry the blackened Sword with you now."
+
+"Brighten it for me and I will serve you," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"It is not easy for me to brighten the Sword now," said the Gobaun Saor. "But
+find me the Unique Tale and what went before its beginning and what comes
+after its end, and I shall brighten the sword for you and show you the way to
+the Land of Mist. Go now, and search for the Unique Tale."
+
+He went, and he had many far journeys, I can tell you, and he found no person
+who had any knowledge of the Unique Tale or who knew any way of coming to the
+Land of Mist. One twilight in a wood he saw a great bird flying towards him.
+It lighted on an old tree, and the King of Ireland's Son saw it was Laheen the
+Eagle.
+
+"Are you still a friend to me, Eagle?" said the King's Son.
+
+"I am still a friend to you, King's Son," said Laheen.
+
+"Then tell me where I should go to get knowledge of the Unique Tale," said the
+King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"The Unique Tale--I never heard of it at all," said Laheen the Eagle, changing
+from one leg to the other. "I am old," she said, shaking her wings, "and I
+never heard of the Unique Tale."
+
+The King's Son looked and saw that Laheen was really old. Her neck was bare of
+feathers and her wings were gray. " Oh, if you are so old," said the King's
+Son, " and have gone to so many places, and do not know of the Unique Tale, to
+whom can I go to get knowledge of it?"
+
+"Listen," said Laheen the Eagle," there are five of us that are called the
+Five Ancient Ones of Ireland, and it is not known which one of the five is the
+oldest. There is myself, Laheen the Eagle; there is Blackfoot the Elk of Ben
+Gulban, there is the Crow of Achill, the Salmon of Assaroe and the Old Woman
+of Beare. We do not know ourselves which of us is the oldest, but we know that
+we five are the most ancient of living things. I have never heard of the
+Unique Tale," said Laheen, "but maybe one of the other Ancients has heard of
+it."
+
+"I will go to them," said the King's Son. "Tell me how I will find the Crow of
+Achill, the Elk of Ben Gulban, the Salmon of Assaroe and the Old Woman of
+Beare--tell me how to go to them, Laheen the Eagle."
+
+"You need not go to the Salmon of Assaroe," said the Eagle, "for the Salmon
+would not have heard any tale. I will get you means of finding the other
+three. Follow the stream now until you come to the river. Wait at the ford and
+I will fly to you there." Laheen the Eagle then shook her wings and flew
+slowly away. The King of Ireland's Son followed the stream until he came to
+the river--the River of the Ox it was.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+And having come to the River of the Ox he sought the ford and waited there for
+Laheen the Eagle. When it was high noon he saw the shadow of the Eagle in the
+water of the ford. He looked up. Laheen let something fall into the shallows.
+It was a wheel. Then Laheen lighted on the rocks of a waterfall above the ford
+and spoke to the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Son of King Connal," she said, "roll this wheel before you and follow it
+where it goes. It will bring you first where Blackfoot the Elk abides. Ask the
+Elk has he knowledge of the Unique Tale. If he has no knowledge of it start
+the wheel rolling again. It will bring you then where the Crow of Achill
+abides. If the Crow cannot tell you anything of the Unique Tale, let the wheel
+bring you to where the Old Woman of Beare lives. If she cannot tell you of the
+Unique Tale, I cannot give you any further help."
+
+Laheen the Eagle then spread out her wings and rising above the mist of the
+waterfall flew away.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son took the wheel out of the shallow water and set it
+rolling before him. It went on without his touching it again. Then he was
+going and ever going with the clear day going before him and the dark night
+coming behind him, going through scrubby fields and shaggy bog-lands, going up
+steep mountain sides and along bare mountain ridges, until at last he came to
+a high mound on a lonesome mountain. And as high as the mound and as lonesome
+as the mountain was the Elk that was standing there with wide, wide horns. The
+wheel ceased rolling.
+
+"I am from Laheen the Eagle," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+The Elk moved his wide-horned head and looked down at him. "And why have you
+come to me, son?" said the Elk.
+
+"I came to ask if you had knowledge of the Unique Tale," said the King of
+Ireland's Son.
+
+"I have no knowledge of the Unique Tale," said the Elk in a deep voice.
+
+"And are you not Blackfoot, the Elk of Ben Gulban, one of the five of the
+oldest creatures in the world?" said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"I am the Elk of Ben Gulban," said Blackfoot, "and it may be that there is no
+creature in the world more ancient than I am. The Fianna hunted me with their
+hounds before the Sons of Mile' came to the Island of Woods. If it was a Tale
+of Finn or Caelta or Goll, of Oscar or Oisin or Conan, I could tell it to you.
+But I know nothing of the Unique Tale."
+
+Then Blackfoot the Elk of Ben Gulban turned his wide-horned head away and
+looked at the full old moon that was coming up in the sky. And the King of
+Ireland's Son took up the wheel and went to look for a shelter. He found a
+sheep-cote on the side of the mountain and lay down and slept between sheep.
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+When the sun rose he lifted up the wheel and set it going before him. He was
+going and ever going down long hillsides and across spreading plains till he
+came to where old trees and tree-stumps were standing hardly close enough
+together to keep each other company. The wheel went through this ancient wood
+and stopped before a fallen oak-tree. And sitting on a branch of that oak,
+with a gray head bent and featherless wings gathered up to her neck was a
+crow.
+
+"I come from Laheen the Eagle," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"What did you say?" said the Crow, opening one eye.
+
+"I come from Laheen the Eagle," said the King of Ireland's Son again.
+
+"Oh, from Laheen," said the Crow and dosed her eye again.
+
+"And I came to ask for knowledge of the Unique Tale," said the King of
+Ireland's Son.
+
+"Laheen," said the Crow, "I remember Laheen the Eagle." Keeping her eyes shut,
+she laughed and laughed until she was utterly hoarse. "I remember Laheen the
+Eagle," she said again. "Laheen never found out what I did to her once. I
+stole the Crystal Egg out of her nest. Well, and how is Laheen the Eagle?" she
+said sharply, opening one eye.
+
+"Laheen is well," said the King of Ireland's Son. "She sent me to ask if you
+had knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"I am older than Laheen," said the Crow. "I remember Paralon's People. The
+Salmon of Assaroe always said he was before Paralon's People. But never mind!
+Laheen can't say that. If I could only get the feathers to stay on my wings
+I'd pay Laheen a visit some day. How are Laheen and her bird-flocks?"
+
+"0 Crow of Achill," said the King of Ireland's Son, "I was sent to ask if you
+had knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"The Unique Tale! No, I never heard of it," said the Crow. She gathered her
+wings up to her neck again and bent her gray head.
+
+"Think, O Crow of Achill," said the King of Ireland's Son. "I will bring you
+the warmest wool for your nest."
+
+"I never heard of the Unique Tale," said the Crow. "Tell Laheen I was asking
+for her." Nothing would rouse the Crow of Achill again. The King of Ireland's
+Son set the wheel rolling and followed it. Then he was going and ever going
+with the clear day before him and the dark night coming behind him. He came to
+a wide field where there were field-fares or ground larks in companies. He
+crossed it. He came to a plain of tall daisies where there were thousands of
+butterflies. He crossed it. He came to a field of buttercups where blue
+pigeons were feeding. He crossed it. He came to a field of flax in blue
+blossom. He crossed it and came to a smoke-blackened stone house deep sunk in
+the ground. The wheel stopped rolling before it and he went into the house.
+
+
+An old woman was seated on the ground before the fire basting a goose. A
+rabbit-skin cap was on her hairless head and there were no eye-brows on her
+face. Three strange birds were eating out of the pot--a cuckoo, a corncrake
+and a swallow. "Come to the fire, gilly," said the old woman when she looked
+round.
+
+"I am not a gilly, but the King of Ireland's Son," said he.
+
+"Well, let that be. What do you want of me?"
+
+"Are you the Old Woman of Beare?"
+
+"I have been called the Old Woman of Beare since your fore-great-grandfather's
+time."
+
+"How old are you, old mother?"
+
+"I do not know. But do you see the three birds that are picking out of my pot?
+For two score years the swallow was coming to my house and building outside.
+Then he came and built inside. Then for three score years he was coming into
+my house to build here. Now he never goes across the sea at all. and do you
+see the corncrake? For five score years she was coming to the meadow outside.
+Then she began to run into the house to see what was happening here. For two
+score years she was running in and out. Then she stayed here altogether. Now
+she never goes across the sea at all. And do you see the cuckoo there? For
+seven score years she used to come to a tree that was outside and sing over
+her notes. Then when the tree was gone, she used to light on the roof of my
+house. Then she used to come in to see herself in a looking glass. I do not
+know how many score years the cuckoo was going and coming, but I know it is
+many score years since she went across the sea."
+
+"I went from Laheen the Eagle to Blackfoot the Elk, and from the Elk of Ben
+Gulban to the Crow of Achill, and from the Crow of Achill, I come to you to
+ask if you have knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"The Unique Tale, indeed," said the 0ld Woman of Beare. "One came to me only
+last night to tell me the Unique Tale. He is the young man who is counting the
+horns."
+
+"What young man is he and what horns is he counting?"
+
+"He is no King's Son, but a gilly--Gilly of the Goat-skin he is called. He is
+counting the horns that are in two pits outside. When the horns are counted I
+will know the number of my half-years."
+
+"How is that, old mother?"
+
+"My father used to kill an ox every year on my birthday, and after my father's
+death, my servants, one after the other, used to kill an ox for me. The horns
+of the oxen were put into two pits, one on the right-hand side of the house
+and one on the left-hand side. If one knew the number of the horns one would
+know the number of, my half-years, for every pair of horns goes to make a year
+of my life. Gilly of the Goatskin is counting the horns for me now, and when
+he finishes counting them I will let him tell the Unique Tale."
+
+"But you must let me listen to the tale too, Old Woman of Beare."
+
+"If you count the horns in one pit I will let you listen to the tale."
+
+"Then I will count the horns in one pit."
+
+"Go outside then and count them."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went outside. He found on the right-hand side of the
+house a deep quarry-pit. Round the edge of it were horns of all kinds, black
+horns and white horns, straight horns and crooked horns. And below in the pit
+he saw a young man digging for horns that were sunk in the ground. He had on a
+jacket made of the skin of a goat.
+
+"Who are you?" said the young man in the quarry-pit. "I am the King of
+Ireland's Son. And who may you be?"
+
+"Who I am I don't know," said the young man in the goatskin, "but they call me
+Gilly of the Goatskin. What have you come here for?"
+
+"To get knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"And it was to tell the same Unique Tale that I came here myself. Why do you
+want to know the Unique Tale?"
+
+"That would make a long story. Why do you want to tell it?"
+
+"That would make a longer story. There is a quarry-pit at the left-hand side
+of the house filled with horns and it must be your task to count them."
+
+"I will count them," said the King of Ireland's Son. "But you will be finished
+before me. Do not tell the Old Woman of Beare the Tale until we both sit down
+together."
+
+"If that suits you it will suit me," said Gilly of the Goatskin, and he began
+to dig again.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son went to the left-hand side of the house. He found
+the quarry-pit and went into it to count the horns that were there--black
+horns and white horns, straight horns and crooked horns. And now, while the
+King of Ireland's Son is in the quarry-pit, I will tell you the adventures of
+Gilly--the Lad or the Servant--of the Goatskin, which adventures are written
+in "The Craneskin Book."
+
+
+
+VI
+
+He never stirred out of the cradle till he was past twelve years of age, but
+lay there night and day, long days and short days; the only garment he ever
+put on was a goatskin; a hunter had once put it down on the floor beside his
+cradle and he reached out with his two hands, drew it in and put the goatskin
+on him. He got his name and his coat at the same time, for he was called ever
+afterwards "Gilly of the Goatskin."
+
+But although he never stirred out of the cradle, Gilly of the Goatskin had
+ways of diverting himself. He used to shoot arrows with a bow out of the door
+of the house and hit a mark on a tree that was opposite him. _And where did he
+get the bow and arrows?_ The bow fell down from the roof of the house and into
+the cradle. And as for arrows he used to make them out of the wands that the
+Hags brought in to make baskets with. But the Hags never saw him using the bow
+and sending off the arrows. All day they would be going along the streams
+gathering the willow wands for the baskets they made.
+
+He knew nobody except the three Hags of the Long Teeth, and he had never heard
+the name of mother or father. Often, when she was peeling the wands with a
+black-handled knife, the Hag of the House used to tell Gilly of the Goatskin
+the troubles that were in store for him--danger from the sword and the spear
+and the knife, from water and fire, from the beasts of the earth and the birds
+of the air. She delighted to tell him about the evils that would befall him.
+And she used to laugh when she told him he was a hump-back and that people
+would throw stones at him.
+
+
+One day when the Hags were away gathering willow wands, Gilly turned the
+cradle over and lay under it. He wanted to see what they would do when they
+did not see him sitting up in the cradle. They came in. Gilly looked through a
+crack in the cradle and saw the Hags--they were old and crooked and had long
+teeth that came down below their chins.
+
+"He's gone, he's gone, he's gone!" screamed the Hag of the House, when she did
+not see Gilly in the cradle.
+
+"He's gone," said one of the long-toothed Hags. "I told you he would go away.
+Why didn't you cut out his heart yesterday, or the day before?"
+
+"Mind what I tell you," said the other Hag of the Long Teeth. "Mind what I
+tell you. His father's son will grow into a powerful champion."
+
+"Not he," said the Hag of the House, with great anger. "He'll never become a
+Champion. He's only a little hump-backed fellow with no weapons and with no
+garment but a goatskin."
+
+"It would be better to kill him when he comes back," said the first of the
+Hags with the Long Teeth.
+
+"And if he doesn't come back, tell the Giant Crom Duv," said the second.
+
+Gilly of the Goatskin crept from under the cradle, put his bow resting on the
+bottom that was now turned uppermost, took up some of the rods that were on
+the floor and then shouted at the Hags. "Oh, if that's a hazel rod he has at
+his bow he will kill us all," they screamed out together.
+
+He drew back the string, fired the willow rod and struck the middle Hag full
+on the breast. The three Hags fell down on the ground. The pot that was always
+hanging over the fire turned itself upside down and the house was filled with
+smoke. Gilly of the Goatskin, the bow in his hand, sprang across the cradle,
+over the threshold of the door, and out into the width and the height, the
+length and the breadth, the gloom and the gleam of the world.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+He was out, as I have said, in the width and the height, the length and the
+breadth, the gloom and the gleam of the world. He fired arrows into the air.
+He leaped over ditches, he rolled down hillsides, he raced over level places
+until he came to what surprised him more than all the things in the world--a
+river. He had never seen such water before and he wondered to see it moving
+with swiftness. "Where is it going?" said Gilly of the Goatskin. "Does it go
+on like that in the night as well as in the day?" He ran by its side and
+shouted to the river. He saw a wide-winged bird flying across it. It was the
+bird that we call the crane or the heron. And as Gilly watched the great
+winged thing he saw that it held a little animal in its claws. Gilly fired an
+arrow and the crane dropped towards the ground. The little animal that was in
+its claws fell down. The crane rose up again and flew back across the river.
+
+The little animal that had been in the claws of the crane came to Gilly of the
+Goatskin. It was smaller than the one-eyed cat that used to sit on the hearth
+of the Hag of the House. It kept its head up and was very bold-looking. "Good
+morning, Lad in the Goatskin," it said to Gilly, "you saved my life and I'm
+very thankful to you." "What are you?" said Gilly of the Goat-skin. "I'm the
+Weasel. I'm the boldest and bravest creature in this country. I'm the lion of
+these parts, I am. And," said the Weasel, "I never served anyone before, but
+I'll be your servant for a quarter of a year. Tell me what way you're going
+and I'll go with you." "I'm going the way he's going," said Gilly, nodding
+towards the river, "and I'll keep beside him till he wants to turn back." "Oh,
+then you'll have to go a long way," said the Weasel, "but I'll go with you no
+matter bow far you go." The Weasel walked by Gilly's side very bravely and
+very independently.
+
+"Oh, look," said Gilly to the Weasel, "what is that that's in the water?"
+
+The Weasel looked and saw a crystal egg in the shallows.
+
+"It's an egg," said the Weasel, "I often eat one myself. I'll bring it up from
+the bottom to you. I'm good at carrying eggs."
+
+The Weasel went into the water and put his mouth to the egg and tried to lift
+it. He could not move it. He tried to lift it with his paws as well as with
+his mouth; but this did not do either. He came up the bank then, and said to
+Gilly, "You'll think I'm a poor sort of a servant because I can't take an egg
+out of the water. But if I can't win one way I'll win another way." He went
+into the reeds by the river and he said, "Hear me, frogs! There's a great army
+coming to take you out of the reeds and eat you red and raw." Then Gilly saw
+the queer frogs lifting up their heads, "Oh, what will we do, what will we
+do?" they cried to the Weasel. "There's only one thing to be done," said the
+Weasel. "You gather up all the pebbles in the bed of the fiver and we'll make
+a big wail on the bank to defend you." The frogs dived into the water at once
+and dragged up pebbles. Gilly and the Weasel piled them on the bank. Then
+three frogs carried up the Crystal Egg. The Weasel took it from them when they
+left it on the bank. Then he climbed a tree and cried out to the frogs, "The
+army is frightened and is running away." "Oh, thank you, thank you," said the
+frogs, "we'll never forget your goodness to us." Then they sat down in the
+marsh and told each other what a narrow escape they all had.
+
+The Weasel gave Gilly the Crystal Egg. It was heavy and he carried it for a
+while in his hand. They went on. After a while said Gilly of the Goatskin,
+"The night's coming on and the fiver shows no sign of turning back. I wish
+there was a nice place to shelter us." No sooner did he say the word than he
+and the Weasel found them-selves standing before the open door of a nice
+little house. They went in. A clear fire was burning on the hearth, an arm
+chair was before it, and a bed was made at the other side of the fire. "This
+is good," said Gilly, "and now I wish that we had something to eat." No sooner
+did he say the words than a table appeared with bread and meat, fruit and wine
+on it. "Where do these fine things come from, I wonder," said Gilly of the
+Goatskin. "It's my belief," said the Weasel, "that all these things come to us
+on account of the egg you have in your hand. It's a magic egg." Gilly of the
+Goatskin put the egg on the table and wished that he might see himself as he
+had seen himself in the river. Nothing appeared. Then he took the egg in his
+hand and wished again. And then there was a looking glass on the wall before
+him, and he saw himself in it better than he had seen himself in the river.
+Gilly of the Goatskin knew that he had only to hold the Crystal Egg in his
+hand and wish, to get all he could think of.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Gilly of the Goatskin wished for wide windows in his house and he got them. He
+wished for a light within when there was darkness without, and he got a silver
+lamp that burned until he wished to sleep. He wished for the songs of birds
+and he had a blackbird singing upon his half-door, a lark over his chimney, a
+goldfinch and a green linnet within his window, and a shy wren in the evening
+singing from the top of his dresser. Then he wished to hear the conversation
+of the beasts and all the creatures of the fields and the wood and the
+mountain top came into his house.
+
+The hare used to come in early in the morning. He was always the first visitor
+and he never remained long, and always while he was there he kept running up
+and down the house, and he generally ended his visit by jumping through the
+open window. The martens, the beautiful wild cats of the wood, came in to see
+Gilly once; they were very proud and told him nothing. The little black
+rabbits were very much impressed by the martens, and all the time the martens
+were there they stayed under the bed and the chairs. Two or three times the
+King of the Wood himself--the Boar of the Bristles and the Long Tusks--came to
+see Gilly; he used to push open the door and then stand in the middle of the
+floor grunting and grunting. Once he brought his wife with him, and six or
+seven of their little pigs that went running over the floor, with their ears
+hanging over their eyes, came with them too. The hedgehogs used to come, but
+they always made themselves disagreeable. They just lay down by the fire and
+snored, and when they wakened up they quarrelled with each other. Everybody
+said that the hedgehogs' children were very badly brought up and very badly
+provided for. The squirrels who were so clean and careful, and so fond of
+their children, thought the hedgehogs were very bad creatures indeed. "It is
+just like them to have dirty sticky thorns around them instead of nice clean
+fur," said the squirrel's wife. "But, my dear," said the squirrel, "every
+animal can't have fur." "How well," said she, "the rabbits have fur, though
+dear knows they're creatures of not much account. It's all just to let us see
+that they're some relation of that horrible, horrible boar that goes crashing
+and marching through the wood."
+
+The deer never came into the house, and Gilly had a shed made for them
+outside. They would come into it and stay there for many nights and days, and
+Gilly used to go out and talk with them. They knew about far countries, and
+strange paths and passes, but they did not know so much about men and about
+the doings of other creatures as the Fox did.
+
+The Fox used to come in the evening and stay until nearly morning whether
+Gilly fell asleep or kept awake. The Fox was a very good talker. He used to
+lie down at the hearth with his paws stretched out, and tell about this one
+and that one, and what she said and what he did. If the Fox came to see you,
+and if he was in good humor for talking, you would stay up all night to listen
+to him. I know I should. It was the Fox who told Gilly what the Crow of Achill
+did to Laheen the Eagle. She had stolen the Crystal Egg that Laheen was about
+to hatch--the Crystal Egg that the Crane had left on a bare rock. It was the
+Fox who told Gilly how the first cat came into the world. And it was the Fox
+who told Gilly about the generations of the eel. All I say is that it is a
+pity the Fox cannot be trusted, for a better one to talk and tell a story it
+would be hard to find. He was always picking up and eating things that had
+been left over--a potato roasting in the ashes, an apple left upon a plate, a
+piece of meat under a cover. Gilly did not grudge these things to Rory the Fox
+and he always left something in a bag for him to take home to the young foxes.
+
+
+I had nearly forgotten to tell you about Gilly's friend, the brave Weasel. He
+had made a home for himself under the roof. Sometimes he would go away for a
+day or so and he would never tell Gilly where he had been. When he was at home
+he made himself the door-keeper of Gilly's house. If any of the creatures made
+themselves disagreeable by quarrelling amongst each other, or by being uncivil
+to Gilly, the Weasel would just walk over to them and look them in the eyes.
+Then that creature went away. Always he held his head up and if Gilly asked
+him for advice he would say three words, "Have no fear; have no fear."
+
+One day Gilly wanted to have a bunch of cherries with his dinner, and he went
+to find the Crystal Egg so that he might wish for it. The Crystal Egg was not
+in the place he had left it. He called the Weasel and the two of them searched
+the house. The Crystal Egg was nowhere to be found. "One of the creatures has
+stolen the Egg," said the Weasel, "but whoever stole it I will make bring it
+back. I'll soon find out who did it." The Weasel walked up to every creature
+that came in, looked him or her in the eye and said, "Did you steal the
+Crystal Egg?" And every creature that came in said, "No, Little Lion, I didn't
+steal it." Next day they had examined every creature except the Fox. The Fox
+had not been in the night before nor the night before that again. He did not
+come in the evening they missed the Crystal Egg nor the evening after that
+evening. That night the Weasel said, "As sure as there are teeth in my head
+the Fox stole the Crystal Egg. As soon as there is light we'll search for him
+and make him give the Egg back to us."
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+The Weasel was right; it was Rory the Fox who had stolen Gilly's Crystal Egg.
+One night, just as he was leaving Gilly's house, the moon shone full upon the
+Crystal Egg. In the turn of a hand Rory the Fox had made a little spring and
+had taken the Egg in his mouth. Then he slipped out by the door as quick and
+as quiet as a leaf blown in the wind.
+
+He couldn't help himself stealing the Egg, when the chance came. He had had a
+dream about it. He dreamt that the Egg had been hatched and that out of it had
+come the most toothsome bird that a Fox had ever taken by the neck. He snapped
+his teeth in his sleep when he dreamt of it. The Fox told his youngsters about
+the bird he had dreamt of--a bird as big as a goose and so fat on the neck and
+the breast that it could hardly stir from sitting. The youngsters had smacked
+their lips and snapped their teeth. Every time he came home now they used to
+say to him--"Father, have you brought us the Boobrie Bird?" No wonder that his
+eyes used to turn to the Crystal Egg when he sat in Gilly's house. And then
+because the moon shone on it just as he was leaving, and because he knew that
+Gilly's back was turned, he could not keep himself from making a little spring
+and taking the Crystal Egg softly in his mouth.
+
+He went amongst the dark, dark trees with the soft and easy trot of a Fox. He
+knew well what he should do with the Egg. He had dreamt that it had been
+hatched by the Spae-Woman's old rheumatic goose. This goose was called Old
+Mother Hatchie and the Fox had never carried her off because he knew she was
+always hatching out goslings for his table. He went through the trees and
+across the fields towards the Spae-Woman's house.
+
+The Spae-Woman lived by telling people their fortunes and reading them their
+dreams. That is why she was called the Spae-Woman. The people gave her goods
+for telling them their dreams and fortunes and she left her land and stock to
+whatever chanced. The fences of her fields were broken and rotted. Her hens
+had been carried off by the Fox. Her goat had gone wild. She had neither ox
+nor ass nor sheep nor pig. The Fox went through her fence now as lightning
+would go through a gooseberry bush and he came out before her barn. There was
+a hole in the barn-door and he went through that. And in the north-west comer
+of the barn, he saw Old Mother Hatchie sitting on a nest of straw and he knew
+that there was a clutch of eggs under her. She cackled when she saw the Fox on
+the floor of the barn but she never stirred off the nest. Rory left what was
+in his mouth on the ground. 0ld Mother Hatchie put her head on one side and
+looked at the Egg that was clear in the full moonlight.
+
+"This egg, Mistress Hatchie," said Rory the Fox, "is from the Hen-wife of the
+Queen of Ireland. The Queen asked the Hen-wife to ask me to leave it with you.
+She thinks there's no bird in the world but yourself that is worthy to hatch
+it and to rear the gosling that comes out of it."
+
+"That's right, that's right," said Mother Hatchie. "Put it here, put it here."
+She lifted her wing and the Fox put the Crystal Egg into the brood-nest.
+
+He went out of the barn, crossed the field again, and went amongst the dark,
+dark trees. He went along slowly now for he began to think that Gilly might
+find out who stole the Crystal Egg and be vexed with him. Then he thought of
+the Weasel. The Fox began to think he might be sorry for himself if the Weasel
+was set on his track.
+
+Rory did not go to Gilly's house the next night nor the night after. The third
+night, as he was going home from a ramble, the Owl hooted at him. "Why do you
+hoot at me, Big Moth?" said the Fox stopping in his trot. (He always called
+the Owl "Big Moth" to pretend that he thought she wasn't a bird at all, but a
+moth. He made this pretence because he was annoyed that he could never get an
+owl to eat). "Why do you hoot at me, Big Moth?" said he. "The Weasel's going
+to have your bones for his stepping-stones and your blood for his morning
+dram," said the Owl balefully as she went amongst the dark, dark trees. The
+Fox stopped long to consider. Then he went to his burrow and told his
+youngsters they would have to move house. He had them stirring at the first
+light. He gave them a frog each for their breakfast and took them across the
+country. They came to a burrow that Old-Fellow Badger had just left and Rory
+the Fox brought his youngsters into it and told them that it would be their
+new house.
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+The evening after when Rory the Fox was taking his nap he heard one of his
+youngsters give a sharp cry. They were playing outside the burrow, lie looked
+out and he saw that his three youngsters were afraid of something that was
+between them and the burrow. He looked again and saw the Weasel.
+
+"Ahem," said Rory the Fox, "and how are we this morning?"
+
+The Weasel had marked one of Rory's youngsters for attack. Although Rory
+spoke, he never took his eyes off the youngster he had marked.
+
+"My dear friend," said the Fox, "I was just going to say--if you are looking
+for anything, perhaps I could tell you where it might be found."
+
+"Crystal Egg," said the Weasel without ever taking away his blood-thirsty gaze
+from Rory's youngster.
+
+"Oh, the Crystal Egg," said Rory the Fox. "Yes, to be sure. I could bring you
+at once to the place where the Crystal Egg is." He came out of the burrow and
+saw Gilly standing on the bank behind.
+
+"I think it is time for my children to go back to their burrow," said Rory the
+Fox. "Please excuse them, my friends." The Weasel took his eyes off the
+youngster he had marked and the three little foxes scampered into the burrow.
+
+"This way, friends," said the Fox, and he started off towards the Spae-Woman's
+house with the light and easy trot of a fox. Gilly and the Weasel went behind
+him. They crossed a field of flax, a field of hemp and a field of barley. They
+came to the broken fence before the Spae-Woman's house, and in front of the
+house they saw the Spae-Woman herself and she was crying and crying.
+
+The Fox hid behind the fence, the Weasel climbed up on the ditch and Gilly
+himself went to the woman.
+
+"What ails you at all?" said Gilly to her.
+
+"My goose--the only fowl left to me has been taken by robbers."
+
+"Ask her where the clutch of eggs is that the goose was hatching," said Rory
+the Fox anxiously, putting his head over the fence.
+
+"And where is the clutch of eggs, ma'am, that your goose was hatching?"
+
+"The robbers took the nest with the goose and the eggs with the nest," said
+the Spae-Woman.
+
+"And the Crystal Egg was with the other eggs," said the Fox to Gilly. He said
+no more. He made a quick turn and got clear away before the Weasel could
+spring on him. He ran back to his burrow. He told the little foxes they must
+change houses again. That night they lay in a wood and at the first light they
+crossed water and went to live on an island where the Weasel never came.
+
+"Where did the robbers go with the goose, the nest, and the eggs?" said Gilly
+of the Goatskin.
+
+"They went to the river," said the Spae-Woman. "I followed them every inch of
+the way. They got into a boat and they hoisted their sails. They rowed and
+they rowed, so that the hard gravel of the bottom was brought to the top, and
+the froth of the top was driven down to the bottom of the river. And wherever
+they are," said the Spae-Woman, "they are far from us now."
+
+"Will you come with me?" said Gilly to the Weasel, "we will track them down
+and take back the Crystal Egg."
+
+"I engaged myself to be with you for a quarter of a year," said the Weasel,
+"and the three months are up now, Gilly. Winter is coming on and I must see to
+my own affairs."
+
+"Then good-by, Weasel," said Gilly. "I will search for the Crystal Egg myself.
+But first I must ask the woman to let me rest in the house and to give me some
+provision for my journey." The Weasel looked up into Gilly's face and said
+good-by to him. Then Gilly followed the Spae-Woman into her house. "Ocone,"
+she was saying to herself, "my dream told me I was to lose my poor goose, and
+still I never did anything to make it hard for the robbers to take her from
+me."
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+Well, in the Spae-Woman's house he stayed for three-quarters of a year. He
+often went in search of the robbers who had taken the Crystal Egg with the
+Spae-Woman's goose, but no trace of them nor their booty  could he ever find.
+He met birds and beasts who were his friends, but he could not have speech
+with them without the Egg that let him have anything he wished. He did work
+for the Spae-Woman--fixed her fences and repaired her barn and brought
+_brosna_ for her fire every evening from the wood. At night, before he went to
+sleep, the Spae-Woman used to tell him her dreams of the night before and tell
+him about the people who had come to her house to have their fortunes told.
+
+One Monday morning she said to him, "I have had an inlook, son of my heart,
+and I know that my gossip, the Churl of the Townland of Mischance, is going to
+come and take you into his service."
+
+"And what sort of a man is your gossip, the Churl of the Townland of
+Mischance?" Gilly asked.
+
+"An unkind man. Two youths who served me he took away, one after the other,
+and miserable are they made by what he did to them. I'm in dread of your being
+brought to the Townland of Mischance."
+
+"Why are you in dread of it, Spae-Woman?" said Gilly. "Sure, I'll be glad
+enough to see the world."
+
+"That's what the other two youths said," said the Spae-Woman. "Now I'll tell
+you what my gossip the Churl of the Townland of Mischance does: he makes a
+bargain with the youth that goes into his service, telling him he will give
+him a guinea, a groat and a tester for his three months' service. And he tells
+the youth that if he says he is sorry for the bargain he must lose his wages
+and part with a strip of his skin, an inch wide. He rode on a bob-tailed, big-
+headed, spavined and spotted horse, from his neck to his heel. Oh, he is an
+unkind man, my gossip, the Churl of the Townland of Mischance."
+
+"And is there no way to get the better of him?" asked Gilly.
+
+"There is, but it is a hard way," said the Spae-Woman. "If one could make him
+say that he, the master, is sorry for the bargain, the Churl himself would
+lose a strip of his skin an inch wide from his neck to his heel, and would
+have to pay full wages no matter how short a time the youth served him."
+
+"It's a bargain anyway," said Gilly, "and if he comes I'll take service with
+the Churl of the Townland of Mischance."
+
+The first wet day that came brought the Churl of the Townland of Mischance. He
+rode on a bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined and spotted horse. He carried an
+ash-plant in his hand to flog the horse and to strike at the dogs that crossed
+his way. He had blue lips, eyes looking crossways and eyebrows like a furze
+bush. He had a bag before him filled with boiled pigs' feet. Now when he rode
+up to the house, he had a pig's foot to his mouth and was eating. He got down
+off the bob-tailed, big-headed, spavined and spotted horse, and came in.
+
+"I heard there was a young fellow at your house and I want him to take service
+with me," said he to the Spae-Woman.
+
+"If the bargain is a good one I'll take service with you," said Gilly.
+
+"All right, my lad," said the Churl. "Here is the bargain, and it's as fair as
+fair can be. I'll give you a guinea, a groat and a tester for your three
+months' work with me."
+
+"I believe it's good wages," said Gilly.
+
+"It is. Howsoever, if you ever say you are sorry you made the bargain you will
+lose your wages, and besides that you will lose a strip of your skin an inch
+wide from your neck to your heel. I have to put that in or I'd never get work
+done for me at all. The serving boys are always saying 'I can't do that,' and
+'I'm sorry I made the bargain with you.'"
+
+"And if you say you're sorry you made the bargain?"
+
+"Oh, then I'll have to lose a strip of my skin an inch wide from my neck to my
+heel, and besides that I'll have to give you full wages no matter how short a
+time you served me."
+
+"Well, if that suits you it will suit me," said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+"Then walk beside my horse and we'll get back to the Townland of Mischance to-
+night," said the Churl. Then he swished his ash-plant towards Gilly and
+ordered him to get ready. The Spae-Woman wiped the tears from her face with
+her apron, gave Gilly a cake with her blessing, and he started off with the
+Churl for the Townland of Mischance.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+What did Gilly of the Goatskin do in the Townland of Mischance? He got up
+early and went to bed late; he was kept digging, delving and ditching until he
+was so tired that he could go to sleep in a furze bush; he ate a breakfast
+that left him hungry five hours before dinner-time, and he ate a dinner that
+made it seem long until supper-time. If he complained the Churl would say,
+"Well, then you are sorry for your bargain," and Gilly would say "No," rather
+than lose the wages he had earned and a strip of his skin into the bargain.
+
+One day the Churl said to him, "Go into the town for salt for my supper, take
+the short way across the pasture-field, and be sure not to let the grass grow
+under your feet." "All right, master," said Gilly. "Maybe you would bring me
+my coat out of the house so that I needn't make two journeys." The Churl went
+into the house for Gilly's coat. When he came back he found Gilly standing in
+the nice grass of the pasture-field lighting a wisp of hay. "What are you
+doing that for?" said the Churl to him. "To burn the grass on the pasture-
+field," said Gilly. "To burn the grass on my pasture-field, you villain--the
+grass that is for my good race-horse's feeding! What do you mean, at all?"
+"Sure, you told me not to let the grass grow under my feet," said Gilly.
+"Doesn't the world know that the grass is growing every minute, and how will I
+prevent it from growing under my feet if I don't burn it?" With that he
+stooped down to put the lighted hay to the grass of the pasture-field. "Stop,
+stop," said the Churl, "I meant that you were to go to the town, without
+loitering on the way." "Well, it's a pity you didn't speak more clearly," said
+Gilly, "for now the grass is a-fire." The Churl bad to stamp on the grass to
+put the fire out. He burnt his shins, and that made him very angry. "0 you
+fool," said he to Gilly, "I'm sorry--" "Are you sorry for the bargain you made
+with me, Master?" "No. I was going to say I was sorry I hadn't made my meaning
+clear to you. Go now to the town and bring me back salt for my supper as
+quickly as you can."
+
+After that the Churl was very careful when he gave Gilly an order to speak to
+him very exactly. This became a great trouble to him, for the people in the
+Townland of Mischance used always to say, "Don't let the grass grow under your
+feet," when they meant "Make haste," and "Don't be there until you're back,"
+when they meant "Go quickly" and "Come with horses' legs" when they meant
+"come with great speed." He became tired of speaking to Gilly by the letter,
+so he made up his mind to give him an order that could not be carried out, so
+that he might have a chance of sending him away without the wages he had
+earned.
+
+One Monday morning he called Gilly to the door of the house and said to him,
+"Take this sheep-skin to the market and bring me back the price of it and the
+skin." "Very well, Master," said Gilly. He put the skin across his arm and
+went towards the town. The people on the road said to him, "What do you want
+for the sheep-skin, young fellow?" "I want the skin and the price of it,"
+Gilly said. The people laughed at him and said, "You're going to give yourself
+a long journey, young fellow."
+
+He went through the market asking for the skin and the price of it. Everyone
+joked about him. He went into the market-house and came to a woman who was
+buying things that no one else would buy. "What do you want, youth?" said she.
+"The price of the skin and the skin itself," said Gilly. She took the skin
+from him and plucked the wool out of it. She put the wool in her bag and put
+the skin back on the board. "There's the skin," said she, "and here's the
+price of it." She left three groats and a tester on top of the skin.
+
+The Churl had finished his supper when Gilly came into the house. "Well,
+Master, I've come back to you," said Gilly. "Did you bring me the price of it
+and the skin itself?" said the Churl. "There is the skin," said Gilly, putting
+on the table the sheep-skin with the wool plucked out of it. "And here's the
+price of it--three groats and a tester," said he, leaving the money on top of
+the skin.
+
+After that the Churl of the Townland of Mischance began to be afraid that
+Gilly of the Goatskin would be too wise for him, and would get away at the end
+of the three months with his wages, a guinea, a groat and a tester, in his
+fist. This thought made the Churl very downcast, because, for many months now,
+he had got hard labor out of his serving-boys, without giving them a single
+cross for wages.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+The day after Christmas the Churl said to Gilly, "This is Saint Stephen's Day.
+I'm going to such a man's barn to see the mummers perform a play. Foolish
+people give these idle fellows money for playing, but I won't do any such
+thing as that. I'll see something of what they are doing, drink a few glasses
+and get away before they start collecting money from the people that are
+watching them. They call this collection their dues, no less."
+
+"And what can I do for you, Master?" said Gilly. "Run into the barn at
+midnight and shout out, 'Master, Master, your mill is on fire.' That will give
+me an excuse for running out. Do you understand now what I want you to do?"
+
+"I understand, Master."
+
+The Churl put on his coat and took his stick in his hand. "Mind what I've said
+to you," said he. "Don't be a minute later than midnight. Be sure to come in
+with a great rash--come in with horse's legs--do you understand me?"
+
+"I understand you, Master," said Gilly.
+
+The mummers were dancing before they began the play when the Churl came into
+the barn. "That's a rich man," said one of them to another. "We must see that
+he puts a good handful into our bag." The Churl sat on the bench with the
+farmer who had a score of cows, with the blacksmith who shod the King's
+horses, and with the merchant who had been in foreign parts and who wore big
+silver rings in his ears. Half the people who were there I could not tell you,
+but there were there--
+   Biddie Early
+   Tatter-Jack Walsh
+   Aunt Jug
+   Lundy Foot
+   Matt the Thresher
+   Nora Criona
+   Conan Maol, and
+   Shaun the Omadhaun.
+Some said that the King of Ireland's Son was there too. The play was
+    "The Unicorn from the Stars."
+The mummers did it very well although they had no one to take the part of the
+Unicorn.
+
+They were in the middle of the play when Gilly of the Goatskin rushed into the
+barn. "Master, master," he shouted, "your mill--your mill is on fire." The
+Churl stood up, and then put his glass to his head and drained what was in it.
+"Make way for me, good people," said he. "Let me out of this, good people."
+Some people near the door began to talk of what Gilly held in his hands. "What
+have you there, my servant?" said the Churl. "A pair of horse's legs, Master.
+I could only carry two of them."
+
+The Churl caught Gilly by the throat. "A pair of horse's legs," said he.
+"Where did you get a pair of horse's legs?"
+
+"Off a horse," said Gilly. "I had trouble in cutting them off. Bad cess to you
+for telling me to come here with horse's legs."
+
+"And whose horse did you cut the legs off?" "Your own, Master. You wouldn't
+have liked me to cut the legs off any other person's horse. And I thought your
+race-horse's legs would be the most suitable to cut off."
+
+The mummers and the people were gathered round them and they saw the Churl's
+face get black with vexation.
+
+"0 my misfortune, that ever I met with you," said the Churl.
+
+"Are you sorry for your bargain, Master?" said Gilly.
+
+"Sorry--I'll be sorry every day and night of my life for it," said the Churl.
+
+"You hear what my Master says, good people," said Gilly.
+
+"Aye, sure. He says he's sorry for the bargain he made with you," said some of
+the people.
+
+"Then," said Gilly, "strip him and put him across the bench until I cut a
+strip of his skin an inch wide from his neck to his heel."
+
+
+None of the people would consent to do that. "Well, I'll tell you something
+that will make you consent," said Gilly. "This man made two poor servant-boys
+work for him, paid them no wages, and took a strip of their skin, so that they
+are sick and sore to this day. Will that make you strip him and put him across
+the bench?"
+
+"No," said some of the people.
+
+"He ordered me to come here to-night and to shout 'Master, master, your mill
+is on fire,' so that he might be able to leave without paying the mummers
+their dues. His mill is not on fire at all."
+
+"Strip him," said the first mummer.
+
+"Put him across the bench," said another.
+
+"Here's a skinner's knife for you," said a third.
+
+The mummers seized the Churl, stripped him and put him across the bench. Gilly
+took the knife and began to sharpen it on the ground.
+
+"Have mercy on me," said the Churl.
+
+"You did not have mercy on the other two poor servant-boys," said Gilly.
+
+"I'll give you your wages in full."
+
+"That's not enough."
+
+"I'll give you double wages to give to the other servant-boys."
+
+"And will you pay the mummers' dues for all the people here?"
+
+"No, no, no. I can't do that."
+
+"Stretch out your neck then until I mark the place where I shall begin to cut
+the skin."
+     
+"Don't put the knife to me. I'll pay the dues for all," said the Churl.
+
+"You heard what he said," said Gilly to the people. "He will pay me wages in
+full, give me double wages to hand to the servant-boys he has injured, and pay
+the mummers' dues for everyone."
+
+"We heard him say that," said the people.
+
+"Stand up and dress yourself," said Gilly to the Churl. "What do I want with a
+strip of your skin? But I hope all here will go home with you and stand in
+your house until you have paid ail the money that's claimed from you."
+
+"We'll go home with him," said the mummers.
+
+"We'll stand on his floor until he has paid all the money he has agreed to
+pay," said the others.
+
+"And now I must tell you, neighbors," said Gilly, "that I never cut the legs
+of a living horse--neither his horse nor anyone else's. This pair was taken
+off a poor dead horse by the skinners that were cutting it up."
+
+Well, they all went to the Churl's house and there they stayed until he opened
+his stone chest and took out his money-box and paid to the mummers the dues of
+all the people with sixpence over, and paid Gilly his wages in full, one
+guinea, one groat and a tester, and handed him double wages to give to each of
+the servant-boys he had injured. Gilly took the money and left the house of
+the Churl of the Townland of Mischance, and the people and the mummers went to
+the road with him, and cheered him as he went on his way.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+So, without hap or mishap, Gilly came again to the house of the Spae-Woman.
+She was sitting at her door-step grinding corn with a quern when he came
+before her. She cried over him, not believing that he had come safe from the
+Townland of Mischance. And as long as he was with her she spoke to him of his
+"poor back."
+
+He stayed with her for two seasons. He mended her fences and he cleaned her
+spring-well; he ground her corn and he brought back her swarm of bees; he
+trained a dog to chase the crows out of her field; he had the ass shod, the
+sheep washed and the goat spancelled. The Spae-Woman was much beholden to him
+for all he did for her, and one day she said to him, "Gilly of the Goat-skin
+you are called, but another name is due to you now." "And who will give me
+another name?" said Gilly of the Goatskin. "Who'll give it to you? Who but the
+0ld Woman of Beare," said the Spae-Woman.
+
+The next day she said to him, "I had a dream last night, and I know now what
+you are to do. You must go now to the 0Id Woman of Beare for the name that is
+due to you. And before she gives it to you, you must tell her and whoever else
+is in her house as much as you know of the Unique Tale."
+
+"But I know nothing at ail of the Unique Tale," said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+"There is always a blank before a beginning," said the Spae-Woman. "This
+evening, when I am grinding the corn at the quern I shall tell you the Unique
+Tale."
+
+That evening when she sat at the door-step of her house and when the sun was
+setting behind the elder-bushes the Spae-Woman told Gilly the third part of
+the Unique Tale. Then she baked a cake and killed a cock for him and told him
+to start on the morrow's morning for the house of the Old Woman of Beare.
+
+Well, he started off in the morning bright and early, leaving good health with
+the Spae-Woman behind him, and away he went, crossing high hills, passing low
+dales, and keeping on his way without halt or rest, the clear day going and
+the dark night coming, taking lodgings each evening wherever he found them,
+and at last he came to the house of the Old Woman of Beare.
+
+He went into the house and found her making marks in the ashes of her fire
+while her cuckoo, her corncrake and her swallow were picking grains off the
+table.
+
+"And what can I do for you, good youth?" said the Old Woman of Beare.
+
+"Give me a name," said Gilly, "and listen to the story I have to tell you."
+
+
+"That I will not," said the Old Woman of Beare, "until you have done a task
+for me."
+
+"What task can I do for you?" said Gilly of the Goatskin. "I would know," said
+she, "which of us four is the oldest creature in the world--myself or Laheen
+the Eagle, Blackfoot the Elk or the Crow of Achill--I leave the Salmon of
+Assaroe out of account altogether."
+
+"And how can a youth like me help you to know that?" said Gilly of the
+Goatskin.
+
+"An ox was killed on the day I was born and on every one of my birthdays
+afterwards. The horns of the oxen are in two quarries outside. You must count
+them and tell me how much half of them amounts to and then I shall know my
+age."
+
+"That I'll do if you feed me and give me shelter," said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+"Eat as you like," said the Old Woman of Beare. She pushed him a loaf of bread
+and a bottle of water. When he cut a slice of the loaf it was just as if
+nothing had been cut off, and when he took a cupful out of the bottle it was
+as if no water had been taken out of it at all. When he had drunk and eaten he
+left the complete loaf and the full bottle of water on the shelf, went outside
+and began to count the horns on the right-hand side.
+
+On the second day a strange youth came to him and saluted him, and then went
+to count the horns in the quarry on the left-hand side. This youth was none
+other than the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+On the third day they had the horns all counted. Then Gilly of the Goatskin
+and the King of Ireland's Son met together under a bush. "How many horns have
+you counted?" said the King of Ireland's Son. "So many," said Gilly of the
+Goatskin. "And how many horns have you counted?" "So many," said the King of
+Ireland's Son.
+
+
+Just as they were adding the two numbers together they both heard sounds in
+the air--they were like the sounds that Bards make chanting their verses. And
+when they looked up they saw a swan flying round and round above them. And the
+swan chanted the story of the coming of the Milesians to Eirinn, and as the
+two youths listened they forgot the number of horns they had counted. And when
+the swan had flown away they looked at each other and as they were hungry they
+went into the house and ate slices of the unwasted loaf and drank cupfuls out
+of the inexhaustible bottle. Then the Old Woman of Beare wakened up and asked
+them to tell her the number of her years.
+
+"We cannot tell you although we counted all the horns," said the King of
+Ireland's Son, "for just as we were putting the numbers together a swan sang
+to us and we forgot the number we had counted."
+
+"You didn't do your task rightly," she said, "but as I promised to give this
+youth a name and to listen to the story he had to tell, I shall have to let it
+be. You may tell the story now, Gilly of the Goatskin."
+
+They sat at the fire, and while the 0ld Woman of Beare spun threads on a very
+ancient spindle, and while the corncrake, the cuckoo and the swallow picked up
+grains and murmured to themselves, Gilly of the Goatskin told them the Unique
+Tale. And the story as Gilly of the Goatskin told it follows this.--
+
+
+
+
+A Unique Tale
+
+
+A King and a Queen were walking one day by the blue pool in their domain. The
+swan had come to the blue pool, and the bright yellow flowers of the broom
+were above the water. "Och," said the Queen, "if I might have a daughter that
+would show such colors--the blue of the pool in her eyes, the bright yellow of
+the broom in her hair, and the white of the swan in her skin--I would let my
+seven sons go with the wild geese." "Hush," said the King. "You ask for a
+doom, and it may be sent you." A shivering came upon the Queen. They went back
+to the Castle, and that evening the nurse told them that a gray man had passed
+in a circle round her seven sons saying, "If it be as your mother desired, let
+it be as she has said."
+
+Well, before the broom blossomed again and before the swan came to the blue
+pool, a child was born to the Queen. It was a girl. The King was sitting with
+his seven sons when the women came to tell him of the new birth. "O my sons,"
+said he, "may ye be with me all my life." But his sons moved from him as he
+said it. Out through the door they went, and up the mound that was before the
+door. There they changed into gray wild geese, and the seven flew towards the
+empty hills.
+
+No councillor that the King consulted could help to win them back again, and
+no hunter that he sent through the country could gain tale or tidings of them.
+The King and Queen were left with one child only, the girl just born. They
+called her "Sheen," a word that means "Storm," because her coming was a storm
+that swept away her seven brothers. The Queen died, my hearers. Then little
+Sheen was forgotten by her father, and she was reared and companioned by the
+servants of the house.
+
+One day, when she was the age her eldest brother was when he was changed from
+his human form, Sheen went with Mor, the Woodman's daughter, and Siav, the
+basket-maker's foster-child, to gather berries in the wood. Going here and
+there she got separated from Siav and Mor. She came to a place where there
+were lots of berries and went step after step to pick them. Her feet went down
+in a marsh. She cried to Mor and Siav, but no answers came from them. She
+cried and cried again. Her cries startled seven wild geese that rose up and
+flew round her. "Save me," she cried to them. Then one of the wild geese spoke
+to her. "Anyone but a girl we would save from the marsh, but such a one we
+cannot save, because it was a girl who lost us our human forms and the loving
+companionship of our father." Then Sheen knew--for the servants had often told
+her the story--that it was one of her seven brothers who spoke. "Since ever I
+knew of it," said she, "the whole of my trouble has been that I was the cause
+of your losing your human form and the companionship of our father who is now
+called the Lonely King. Believe me," said she, "that I would have striven and
+striven to win you back." There was so much feeling in her voice that her
+seven brothers, although they had been hardened by thinking about their
+misfortune, were touched at their hearts and they flew down to help her. They
+bore up her arms, they caught at her shoulders, they raised up her feet. They
+carried her beyond the marsh. Then she knelt down and cried to them, "O my
+brothers dear, is there anything I can do to restore you to your human forms?"
+"There is," said the first of the seven wild geese. She begged them to tell it
+to her. "It's a long and a tiresome labor we would put on you," said one. "If
+you would gather the light down that grows on the bogs with your own hands,"
+said another, "and if you spun that down into threads, and wove the threads
+into a cloth and sewed the cloth into a shirt, and did that over and over
+again until you had made seven shirts for us, all that time without laughing
+or crying or saying a word, you could save us. One shirt you could weave and
+spin and sew in a year. And it would not be until the seven shirts were put
+upon us that the human form would be restored to each of us." "I would be glad
+to do all that," said Sheen, "and I would cry no tear, laugh no laugh, and say
+no word all the time I was doing this task."
+
+Then said the eldest brother, "The marsh is between you and our father's
+house, and between you and the companions who were with you to-day. If you
+would do the task that would restore us to our human forms, it were best you
+did not go back. Beyond the trees is the house of a lone woman, and there you
+may live until your task is finished." The seven wild geese then flew back to
+the marsh, and Sheen went to the house beyond the trees. The Spae-Woman lived
+there. She took Sheen to be a dumb girl, and she gave her food and shelter for
+the services she did--bringing water from the well in the daytime and grinding
+corn at the quern at dusk. She had the rest of the day and night for her own
+task. She gathered the bog-down between noon and sunset and spun the thread at
+night. When she had lengths of thread spun she began to weave them on the
+loom. At the end of a year she had the first shirt made. In another year she
+made the second, then the third, then the fourth, the fifth and the sixth. And
+all the time she said no word, laughed no laugh and cried no tear.
+
+
+She was gathering the bog-down for the seventh and last shirt. Once she went
+abroad on a day when the snow was melted and she felt her footsteps light.
+Hundreds of birds were on the ground eating plentifully and calling to one
+another. Sheen could hardly keep from her mouth the song that was in her mind.
+She would sing and laugh and talk when the last thread was spun and woven,
+when the last stitch was sewn, and when the shirts of bog-down she had made in
+silence would have brought back her brothers to their own human forms. She
+gathered the scarce heads of the cannavan or bog-down with one hand, while she
+held the other hand to her lips.
+
+Something dropped down at her feet. It was a white grouse and it remained
+cowering on the ground. Sheen looked up and she saw a hawk above. And when she
+looked round she saw a man coming across the bog. The hawk flew towards him
+and lighted on his shoulder.
+
+Sheen held the white grouse to her breast. The man came near to her and spoke
+to her and his voice made her stand. He wore the dress of a hunter. His face
+was brown and lean and his eyes were bright-blue like gentian-flowers. No word
+did Sheen say to him and he passed on with the hawk on his shoulder. Then with
+the grouse held at her breast she went back to the Spae-Woman's house.
+
+That night when she spun her thread she thought of the blue-eyed, brown-faced
+man. Would any of her brothers be like him, she wondered, when they were
+restored to their human shapes. She fed the white grouse with grains of corn
+and left it to rest in the window-niche above her bed. And then she lay awake
+and tried to know the meaning in the song the Spae-Woman sang when she sat
+spinning wool in the chimney Corner--
+
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast!
+   Little sister,
+   I'll rock you to rest!
+
+   The flood on the river beats
+   The swan from its nest!
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast!
+
+   The rain-drops encumber
+   The hawthorn's crest:
+   My thoughts have no number:
+   You would not slumber
+   If laid at my breast,
+   Little sister,
+   I'll rock you to rest.
+
+She passed the night between sleeping and waking, and when the light grew she
+saw the white grouse crouching against the window-opening. She opened the door
+and stepped outside to let the grouse fly from her hands.
+
+And there, on the ground before her was a sword! Sheen knew it to be the sword
+of the man she had seen yesterday, and she knew the man had been before the
+door in the night-time. She knelt on the ground to look at the bright blue
+blade. 0 my listeners, if I was there I was in the crows that flew down
+heavily and cawed as they picked up something that pleased them, in the wood-
+cushats that cooed in the trees, in the small birds that quarreled in the
+thatch of the house, and in the breeze that blew round--the first breeze of
+the day.
+
+The Spae-Woman came outside and saw what Sheen was looking at--the sword on
+the ground. "It is wrought with cunning that only the smiths of Kings
+possess," she said. She took the sword and hung it on the branch of a tree so
+that the dews of the ground might not rust it. "I think the one who owns it is
+the stranger who is seen in the wild places hereabouts--the man whom the
+neighbors call the Hunter-King," she said to Sheen.
+
+On another day Sheen went to gather bog-down. This time she crossed the river
+by the stepping-stones and went into a country where there were many cattle.
+She stood wondering at their numbers and wishing that such a cow and such a
+calf might belong to the Spae-Woman. Then the next thing she saw was two black
+horses striving with each other. They showed their teeth at each other and bit
+and kicked. Then they came racing towards her. "Oh," said Sheen to herself,
+"they are Breogan's wild stallions." She ran, but the horses were able to make
+circles round her. "Breogan's wild stallions," said she, "they will rush in
+and trample me to death." Then she heard someone shouting commands to the
+horses. She saw a man strike one of the stallions with a staff, making him
+rear high. She saw him make the other stand with the command that was in his
+voice. She ran to the river, but she slipped on the stepping-stones; she fell
+down and she felt the water flowing upon her. The man came and lifting her up
+carried her to her own side of the river. Across the bog he carried her, and
+when she looked at him she saw the lean face and eyes blue like gentian-
+flowers--she saw the face of the man who was called the Hunter-King. He left
+her on the ground when they passed the bog, and she went on her way without
+speaking.
+
+Nothing of this no more than of anything else that happened to her, or
+anything that she thought of, did Sheen tell the Spae-Woman. But she wished
+and she wished that the Hunter-King might come past while there was a light in
+the house and step within and talk to the Spae-Woman, so that she herself,
+while spinning the thread, could hear his voice and listen to the things he
+talked about. She often stood at the door and watched across the bog to see if
+anything was coming to her.
+
+A neighbor-woman came across the door-step one evening and Sheen went into the
+house after her, for she felt that something was going to be told. There was a
+dead man in a house. He had been found in the wood. He was known as the
+Hunter-King. Sheen stood at her bed and heard what the neighbor-woman said.
+
+The Hunter-King was being waked in the neighbor-woman's house, and her eldest
+daughter had been the corpse-watcher the first night. In the morning they
+found that the girl's hand had been withered. The woman's second daughter was
+the corpse-watcher the second night and her right hand had been left
+trembling. This was the third and last night that the Hunter-King would be
+waked, and to-night there was no one to watch his corpse.
+
+Sheen thought that nothing would ever happen in the world again, now that the
+Hunter-King was dead. She thought that there was no loneliness so great as
+that of his corpse with no one to watch it on the last strange night it would
+be above ground. The neighbor-woman went from the Spae-Woman and Sheen went
+after her. She was standing on the door-step of her house. "Oh, colleen," said
+the neighbor-woman, "I am wanting a girl to watch a corpse in my house to-
+night--the third and the last night for watching. Will you watch and I will
+give you a comb for your hair?" Sheen showed that she would serve the woman
+and she went into the wake-house. At first she was afraid to look at the bed.
+Then she went over and saw the Hunter-King with his face still, his eyes
+closed down, and the plate of salt on his breast. His gray gaunt hound was
+stretched across his feet.
+
+
+The woman and her daughters lighted candles and placed them in the window
+recesses and at the head of the corpse. Then they went into their dormer-room
+and left Sheen to her watching. She sat at the fire and made one fagot after
+another blaze up. She had brought her basket of bog-down and she began to spin
+a thread upon the neighbor-woman's wheel.
+
+She finished the thread and put it round her neck. Then she began to search
+for more candles so that she might be able to light one, as another went out.
+But as she rose up all the candles went out all at once. The hound started
+from the foot of the bed. Then she saw the corpse sitting up stiffly in the
+place where it had been laid.
+
+Something in Sheen overcame her dread, and she went over to the corpse and
+took the salt that was on its breast and put it on its lips. Then a voice came
+from between the lips. "Fair Maid," said the voice, "have you the courage to
+follow me? The others failed me and they have been stricken. Are you
+faithful?" "I will follow you," said Sheen. "Then," said the corpse, "put your
+hands on my shoulders and come with me. I must go over the Quaking Bog, and
+through the Burning forest, and across the Icy Sea." Sheen put her hands on
+his shoulders. A storm came and they were swept through the roof of the house.
+They were carried through the night. Down they came on the ground and the dead
+man sprang away from Sheen. She went to follow him and found her feet upon a
+shaking sod. They were on the Quaking Bog, she knew. The corpse of the Hunter-
+King went ahead and she knew that she must keep it in sight. He went swiftly.
+The sod went under her feet and she was in the watery mud. She struggled out
+and jumped over a pool that was hidden with heather. All the time she was in
+dread that the figure that went before her so quickly would be lost to her.
+She sank and she struggled and she sprang across pools and morasses. All the
+time what had been the corpse of the Hunter-King went before her.
+
+Then she saw fires against the sky and she knew they were coming to the
+Burning Forest. The figure before her sprang across a ditch and went into the
+forest. Sheen sprang across it too. Burning branches fell across her path as
+she went on. Hot winds burnt her face. Flames dazzled and smoke dazed her. But
+the figure before her went straight on and Sheen went straight on too.
+
+The forest ended on a cliff. Below was the sea. The figure before her dived
+down and Sheen dived too. The cold chilled her to the marrow. She thought the
+chill would drive the life out of her. But she saw the head of one swimming
+before her and she swam on.
+
+And then they were on land again. "Fair Maid," said the corpse of the Hunter-
+King, "put your hands on my shoulders again." She put her hands on his
+shoulders. A storm came and swept them away. They were driven through the roof
+of the neighbor-woman's house. The candle-wicks fluttered and light came on
+them again. She saw the hound standing in the middle of the floor. She saw the
+corpse sitting where it had been laid and the eyes were now open.
+
+"Fair Maid," said the voice of the Hunter-King, "you have brought me back to
+life. I am a man under enchantment. There is a witch-woman in the wood that I
+gave my love to. She enchanted me so that the soul was out of my body, and
+wandering away. It was my soul you followed. And the enchantment was to be
+broken when I found a heart so faithful that it would follow my soul over the
+Quaking Bog, through the Burning Forest and across the Icy Sea. You have
+brought my soul and my life back to me."
+
+Then she ran out of the neighbor's house. The night after, in the Spae-Woman's
+house she finished weaving the threads that were on the loom. The next night
+she stitched the cloth and made the sixth shirt. The day after she went into
+the bog to gather the bog-down for the seventh shirt. She had gathered her
+basketful and was going through the wood about the hour of sunset. At the edge
+of the thin wood she saw the Hunter-King standing. He took her hands and his
+were warm hands. His brown face and his gentian-blue eyes were high and noble.
+And Sheen felt a joy like the sharpness of a sword when he sang to her about
+the brightness of her hair and the blue of her eyes. "0 Maid," said he, "is
+there anything that binds you to this place?" Sheen showed him the bog-down in
+the basket and the woven thread that was round her neck. "Come with me to my
+kingdom," said he, "and you shall be my wife and the love of my heart." The
+next evening Sheen went with him. She took the six shirts she had spun and
+woven and stitched. The Hunter-King lifted her before him on a black horse and
+they rode into his Kingdom.
+
+
+And now Sheen was the wife of the Hunter-King. She would have been happy if
+her husband's sisters had been kind. But they were jealous and they made
+everything in the Castle unfriendly to her. And often they talked before her
+brother saying that Sheen was not noble at all, and that the reason she did
+not speak was because her language was a base one. They watched her when she
+went out to gather bog-down in the daytime, and they watched her when she spun
+by herself at night. Sheen longed for the days and nights to pass so that the
+last threads might be spun and woven and the last stitches put in the seventh
+shirt. Then her brothers would be with her. She could tell the King about
+herself and silence the bad talk of his sisters. But as she neared the end of
+her task she became more and more in dread.
+
+The threads were spun and woven for the seventh shirt. The cloth was made and
+the first stitches were put in it. Then Sheen's little son was born. The King
+was away at the time, gathering his men together at far parts of the Kingdom,
+and he sent a message saying that Sheen and her baby were to be well-minded,
+and that his sisters were not to leave the chamber where she was until he
+returned.
+
+On the third night, while Sheen was in her bed with her baby beside her, and
+while her sisters-in-law were in the room, a strange music was heard outside.
+It was played all round the King's house. Whoever heard it fell into deep
+slumber. The kern that were on guard slept. The maids that were whispering
+together fell into a slumber. And a deep sleep came upon Sheen and her child
+and on her three sisters-in-law who watched in the chamber.
+
+Then a gray wolf that had been seen outside sprang in through the window
+opening. He took Sheen's child in his mouth. He sprang back through the window
+opening and was seen about the place no more. Her sisters-in-law wakened while
+Sheen still slept. They went to tend it and found the child was gone. Then
+they were afraid of what their brother would do to them for letting this
+happen. They made a plot to clear themselves, and before Sheen wakened they
+had killed a little beast and smeared its blood upon the pillows of the bed.
+
+
+When the King came into his wife's chamber he saw his sisters on the ground
+lamenting and tearing the hairs out of their heads. He went to where his wife
+was sleeping and saw blood upon her hands and upon the pillows. He turned on
+his sisters with his sword in his hand. They cried out that they could not
+have prevented the thing that had happened--that the Queen had laid hands on
+the child and having killed it had thrown its body to the gray wolf that had
+been watching outside.
+
+And while they were speaking Sheen awakened. She put out her arms but her
+child was not beside her. She found blood upon the pillows. Then she heard her
+sisters-in-law accuse her to the King of having killed her child and flung its
+body to the gray wolf outside. She fell into a swoon and when she came out of
+it her mind was lost to her.
+
+The King knelt to her and begged her to tell him what had happened. But she
+only knew she was to say no word. Then he used to watch her and he wondered
+why she cried no tear. On the fourth day after she rose from her bed and
+searched the Castle for the piece of cloth she had spun and woven out of the
+bog-down. She found it and began to sew it for the seventh shirt. The King's
+sisters came to him and said, "The woman you brought here is of another race
+from ours. She has forgotten that a child was born to her, and that she killed
+it and flung its body to the gray wolf. She sits there now just stitching a
+garment." The King went and saw her stitching and stitching as if her life
+depended on each stitch she put into the cloth. He spoke to her and she looked
+up but did not speak. Then the King's heart was hardened. He took her and
+brought her outside the gate of the Castle. "Go back to the people you came
+from," said he, "for I cannot bear that you should be here, and not speak to
+me of what has happened." Sheen knew she was being sent from the house he had
+brought her to. A bitter cry came from her. Then the stitched cloth that was
+in her hand became bog-down and was blown away on the breeze. When she saw
+this happen she turned from the King's Castle and ran through the woods crying
+and crying.
+
+She went through the woods for many days, living on berries and the water of
+springs. At last she came to the Spae-Woman's house. The Spae-Woman was before
+the door and she welcomed Sheen back. She gave her drinks she had made from
+strange herbs, and in a season Sheen's mind and health came back to her, and
+she knew all that had happened. She thought she would win back her seven
+brothers, and then, with their help, win back her child and her husband. But
+she knew she would have to gather the bog-down, spin the threads and weave
+them all over again, as her tears and cries had broken her task. She told her
+story to the Spae-Woman. Then she went into silence again, gathering the bog-
+down and spinning the thread.
+
+But when the first thread was spun the memory of her child blew against her
+heart and she cried tears down. The thread she had spun became bog-down and
+was blown away. For days she wept and wept. Then the Spae-Woman said to her,
+"Commit the child you have lost to Diachbha--that is, to Destiny--and Diachbha
+may bring it about that he shall be the one that will restore your seven
+brothers their human forms. And when you have committed your lost little son
+to Diachbha go back to your husband and tell him all you have lived through."
+
+Sheen, believing in the Spae-Woman's wisdom, did what was told her. She made
+an image of her lost little son with leaves and left it on the top of the
+house where it was blown away by the winds. Then she was ready to go back to
+her husband and tell him all that had happened in her life. But on the day she
+was bringing the last pitcher of water from the well she met him on the path
+before her. "Do you remember that I carried you across the bog?" he said. "And
+do you remember that I followed your soul?" said she.
+
+These were the first words she ever spoke to him. They went back together to
+the Spae-Woman's and she told him all that had been in her life. He told her
+how his sisters had acknowledged that they had spoken falsely against her.
+
+He took her back to his own Kingdom, and there, as King and Queen they still
+live. But the name she bears is not Sheen or Storm now. Two sons more were
+born to her. But her seven brothers are still seven wild geese, and the Queen
+has found no trace of her first-born son. But the Spae-Woman has had a dream,
+and the dream has revealed this to her: the Son that Sheen lost is in the
+world, and if the maiden who will come to love him, will give seven drops of
+her heart's blood, the Queen's seven brothers will regain their human forms.
+
+
+"So that is the Unique Tale," said the Old Woman of Beare. "If you ever find
+out what went before it and what comes after it come back here and tell it to
+me. But I don't think you'll get the rest of it," said she, "seeing that the
+two of you weren't able to count the horns outside." She went on talking and
+talking, Gilly and the King's Son hearing what she said when she spoke in a
+sudden high voice, and not hearing when she murmured on as if talking to the
+ashes or to the pot or to the corncrake, the cuckoo or the swallow that were
+picking grains off the floor. "If you see Laheen the Eagle again, or Blackfoot
+the Elk or the Crow of Achill tell them to come and visit me sometime. I'm all
+alone here except for my swallow and cuckoo and corncrake. And mind you, great
+Kings and Princes used to come to see me." So she went on talking in low tones
+and in sudden high tones.
+
+"You must come with me and help me to get the rest of the Unique Tale," said
+the King of Ireland's Son. "That I'll do," said Gilly of the Goatskin. "But I
+must get a name first.
+
+"Old Mother," said he, to the Old Woman of Beare. "You must now give me a
+name."
+
+"I'll give you a name," said the Old Woman of Beare, "but you must stand
+before me and strip off the goatskin that covers you."
+
+Gilly pulled at the strings and the goatskin fell on the ground. The Old Woman
+of Beare nodded her head. "You have the stars on your breast that denote the
+Son of a King," she said.
+
+"The Son of a King--me!" said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+"You have the stars on your breast," said the Old Woman of Beare.
+
+Gilly looked at himself and saw the three stars on his breast. "If I am the
+Son of a King I never knew it until now," he said.
+
+"You are the son of a King," said the Old Woman of Beare, "and I will give you
+a name when you come back to me. But I want you, first of all, to find out
+what happened to the Crystal Egg."
+
+"The Crystal Egg!" said Gilly in great surprise.
+
+"The Crystal Egg indeed," said the Old Woman of Beare. "You must know that it
+was stolen out of the nest of Laheen the Eagle, and the creature that stole it
+was the Crow of Achill. But what happened to the Crystal Egg after that no one
+knows."
+
+"I myself had it after that," said Gilly, "and it was stolen from me by Rory
+the Fox. And then it was put under a goose to hatch." "A goose to hatch the
+Crystal Egg after an Eagle had half-hatched it! Aye, aye, to be sure, that's
+right," said the 0ld Woman of Beare. "And now you must go and find out what
+happened to it. Go now, and when you come back I will give you your name."
+
+"I will do that," said Gilly of the Goatskin. Then he turned to the King's
+Son. "Three days before Midsummer's Day meet me on the road to the Town of the
+Red Castle, and I will go with you to find out what went before and what comes
+after the Unique Tale," he said.
+
+"I will meet you," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+The two youths went to the table and ate slices of the unwasted loaf and drank
+draughts from the inexhaustible bottle. "I shall stay here to practise sword-
+cuts and sword-thrusts," said the King's Son, "until four days before
+Midsummer's Day." The two youths went to the door.
+
+"Seven waves of good-luck to you, 0ld Woman of Beare," said Gilly of the
+Goatskin.
+
+"May your double be slain and yourself remain," said the King's Son. Then they
+went out together, but not along the same path did the two youths go.
+
+
+Gilly slept as he traveled that night, for he fell in with a man who was
+driving a load of hay to the fair, and when he got into the cart he lay
+against the hay and slept. When he parted with the carter he cut a holly stick
+and journeyed along the road by himself. At the fall of night he came to a
+place that made him think he had been there before: he looked around and then
+he knew that this was the place he had lived in when he had the Crystal Egg.
+He looked to see if the house was there: it was, and people were li;5ng in it,
+for he saw smoke coming out of the chimney. It was dark now and Gilly thought
+he could not do better than take shelter in that house.
+
+He went to the door and knocked. There was a lot of rattling behind, and then
+a crooked old woman opened the door to him. "What do you want?" said she.
+
+"Can I have shelter here for to-night, ma'am?" said Gilly.
+
+"You can get no shelter hem," said the old woman, "and I'd advise you to
+begone."
+
+"May I ask who lives here?" said Gilly, putting his foot inside the door.
+
+"Six very honest men whose business keeps them out until two and three in the
+morning," said the crooked old woman.
+
+Gilly guessed that the honest men whose business kept them out until two and
+three in the morning were the robbers he had heard about. And he thought they
+might be the very men who had carried off the Spae-Woman's goose and the
+Crystal Egg along with it. "Would you tell me, good woman," said Gilly, "did
+your six honest men ever bring to this house an old hatching goose?"
+
+"They did indeed," said the crooked woman, "and a heart-scald the same old
+hatching goose is. It goes round the house and round the house, trying to
+hatch the cups I leave out of my hands."
+
+Then Gilly pushed the door open wide and stepped into the house.
+
+"Don't stay in the house," said the crooked old woman. "I'll tell you the
+truth now. My masters are robbers, and they'll skin you alive if they find you
+here when they come back in the morning."
+
+"It's more likely I'll skin them alive," said Gilly, and he looked so fierce
+that he fairly frightened the old woman. "And if you don't satisfy me with
+supper and a bed I'll leave you to meet them hanging from the door."
+
+The crooked old woman was so terrified that she gave him a supper of porridge
+and showed him a bed to sleep in. He turned in and slept. He was roused by a
+candle being held to his eyes. He wakened up and saw six robbers standing
+round him with knives in their hands.
+
+"What brings you under our roof?" said the Captain. "Answer me now before we
+skin you as we would skin an eel."
+
+"Speak up and answer the Captain," said the robbers.
+
+"Why shouldn't I be under this roof?" said Gilly. "I am the Master-Thief of
+the World."
+
+The robbers put their hands on their knees and laughed at that. Gilly jumped
+out of the bed. "I have come to show you the arts of thievery and roguery,"
+said he. "I'll show you some tricks that will let you hold up your heads
+amongst the thieves and robbers of the world."
+
+
+He looked so bold and he spoke so bold that the robbers began to think he
+might have some reason for talking as he did. They left him and went off to
+their beds. Gilly slept again. At the broad noon they were all sitting at
+breakfast--Gilly and the six robbers. A farmer went past leading a goat to the
+fair.
+
+"Could any of you steal that goat without doing any violence to the man who is
+driving it?" said Gilly.
+
+"I couldn't," said one robber, and "I couldn't," said another robber, and "I'd
+be hardly able to do that myself," said the Captain of the Robbers.
+
+"I can do it," said Gilly. "I'll be back with the goat before you are through
+with your breakfast." He went outside.
+
+Gilly knew that country well and he ran through the wood until he was a bend
+of the road ahead of the farmer who was leading his goat to the fair. He took
+off one shoe and left it in the middle of the road. He ran on then until he
+was round another bend of the road. He took off the other shoe and left it
+down. Then he hid behind the hedge and waited.
+
+The farmer came to where the first shoe was. "That's not a bad shoe," said he,
+"and if there was a comrade for it, it would be worth picking up." He went on
+then and came to where the other shoe was lying. "Here is the comrade," said
+he, "and it's worth my while now to go back for the first."
+
+He tied the goat to the mile-stone and went back. As soon as the farmer had
+turned his back, Gilly took the collar off the goat, left it on the milestone
+and took the goat through a gap in the hedge. He brought it to the house
+before the robbers were through with their breakfast. They were all terribly
+surprised. The Captain began to bite at his nails.
+
+The farmer, with the two shoes under his arm, came to where he had left the
+goat. The goat was gone and its collar was left on the milestone. He knew that
+a robber had taken his goat. "And I had promised Ann, my wife, to buy her a
+new shawl at the fair," said he. "She'll never stop scolding me if I go back
+to her now with one hand as long as the other. The best thing I can do is to
+take a sheep out of my field and sell that. Then when she is in good humor on
+account of getting the shawl I'll tell her about the loss of my goat." So the
+farmer went back to the field.
+
+They were sitting down to a game of cards after breakfast--the six robbers and
+Gilly--when they saw the farmer going past with the sheep. "I'll be bound that
+he'll watch that sheep more closely than he watched the goat," said one of the
+robbers. "Could any of you steal that sheep without doing him any violence?"
+said Gilly. "I couldn't," said one robber, and "I couldn't," said another
+robber. "I could hardly do that myself," said the Captain of the Robbers.
+"I'll bring the sheep here before you're through with the game of cards," said
+Gilly.
+
+The farmer was just past the milestone when he saw a man hanging on a tree.
+"The saints between us and harm," said he, "do they hang men along this road?"
+Now the man hanging from the tree was Gilly. He had fastened himself to a
+branch with his belt, putting it under his arm-pits. He slipped down from the
+branch and ran till he was ahead of the farmer. The farmer saw another man
+hanging from a tree. "The saints preserve us," said he, "sure; it's not
+possible that they hanged two men along this road?" Gilly slipped down from
+that tree too and ran on until he was ahead of the farmer again. The farmer
+saw a third man hanging from a tree. "Am I leaving my senses?" said he. "I'll
+go back and see if the other men are hanging there as I thought they were." He
+tied the sheep to a bush and went back. As soon as he turned, Gilly slipped
+down from the tree, took the sheep through a gap, and got back to the robbers
+before they were through with the game. All the robbers said it was a
+wonderful thing he had done. The Captain of the Robbers was left standing by
+himself scratching his head.
+
+The farmer found no men hanging on trees and he thought he was out of his
+mind. He came back and he found his sheep gone. "What will I do now?" said he.
+"I daren't let Ann know I lost a goat and a sheep until I put her into good
+humor by showing the shawl I bought her at the fair. There's nothing to be
+done now, but take a bullock out of the field and sell it at the fair." He
+went to the field then, took a bullock out of it, and passed the house just as
+the robbers were lighting their pipes. "If he watched the goat and the sheep
+closely he'll watch the bullock nine times as closely," said one of the
+robbers.
+
+"Which of you could take the bullock without doing the man any violence?" said
+Gilly. "I couldn't," said one robber, and "I couldn't," said another robber.
+"If you could do it," said the Captain of the Robbers to Gilly, "I'll resign
+my command and give it to you." "Done," said Gilly, and he went out of the
+house again.
+
+He went quickly through the wood, and when he came near where the farmer was
+he began to bleat like a goat. The farmer stopped and listened. Then Gilly
+began to baa like the sheep. "That sounds very like my goat and sheep," said
+the farmer. "Maybe they weren't taken at all, but just strayed off. If I can
+get them now, I needn't make any excuses to Ann my wife." He tied the bullock
+to a tree and went into the wood. As soon as he did, Gilly slipped out, took
+the bullock by the rope and hurried back to the house. The robbers were
+gathered at the door to watch for his coming back. When they saw him with the
+bullock they threw up their hats. "This man must be our Captain," they said.
+The Captain was biting his lips and his nails. At last he took off his hat
+with the feathers in it and gave it to Gilly. "You're our Captain now," said
+the robbers.
+
+Gilly ordered that the goat, the sheep and the bullock be put into the byre,
+that the door be locked and the key be given to him. All that was done. Then
+said he to all the robbers, "I demand to know what became of the Crystal Egg
+that was with the goose you stole from the Spae-Woman." "The Crystal Egg,"
+said one of the robbers. "It hatched, and a queer bird came out of it." "Where
+is that bird now?" said Gilly. "On the waves of the lake near at hand," said
+the robbers. "We see it every day." "Take me to the lake till I see the Bird
+out of the Crystal Egg," said Gilly. They locked the door of the house behind
+them, and the seven, Gilly at their head, wearing the hat with feathers,
+marched down to the lake.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+
+Then they showed him the bird that was on the waves of the lake-- a swan she
+was and she floated proudly. The swan came towards them and as she drew nearer
+they could hear her voice. The sounds she made were not like any sound of
+birds, but like the sounds bards make chanting their verses. Words came on
+high notes and low notes, but they were like words in a strange language. And
+still the swan chanted as she drew near to the shore where Gilly and the six
+robbers stood.
+
+She spread out her wings, and, raising her neck she curved it, while she
+stayed watching the men on the bank. "Hear the Swan of Endless Tales--the Swan
+of Endless Tales" she sang in words they knew. Then she raised herself out of
+the water, turned round in the air, and flew back to the middle of the lake.
+
+"Time for us to be leaving the place when there is a bird on the lake that can
+speak like that," said Mogue, who had been the Captain of the Robbers. "To-
+night I'm leaving this townland."
+
+"And I am leaving too," said another robber. "And I too," said another. "And I
+may be going away from this place," said Gilly of the Goatskin.
+
+The robbers went away from him and back to the house and Gilly sat by the edge
+of the lake waiting to see if the Swan of Endless Tales would come back and
+tell him something. She did not come. As Gilly sat there the farmer who had
+lost his goat, his sheep and his bullock came by. He was dragging one foot
+after the other and looking very downcast. "What is the matter with you,
+honest man?" said Gilly.
+
+The farmer told him how he had lost his goat, his sheep and his bullock. He
+told him how he had thought he heard his goat bleating and his sheep ba'ing,
+and how he went through the wood to search for them, and how his bullock was
+gone when he came back to the road. "And what to say to my wife Ann I don't
+know," said he, "particularly as I have brought no shawl to put her in good
+humor. Heavy is the blame she'll give me on account of my losing a goat, a
+sheep and a bullock."
+
+Gilly took a key out of his pocket. "Do you see this key?" said he. "Take it
+and open the byre door at such a place, and you'll find in that byre your
+goat, your sheep and your bullock. There are robbers in that house, but if
+they try to prevent your taking your own tell them that all the threshers of
+the country are coming to beat them with flails." The farmer took the key and
+went away very thankful to Gilly. The story says that he got back his goat,
+his sheep and his bullock and made it an excuse that he had seen three magpies
+on the road for not going to the fair to buy a shawl for his wife Ann. The
+robbers were very frightened when he told them about the threshers coming and
+they went away from that part of the country.
+
+As for Gilly, he thought he would go back to the Old Woman of Beare for his
+name. He took the path by the edge of the lake. And as he journeyed along with
+his holly-stick in his hand he heard the Swan of Endless Tales chanting.
+
+
+
+
+The Town of the Red Castle
+
+I
+
+
+Flann was the name that the Old Woman of Beare gave to Gilly of the Goatskin
+when he came back to tell her that the Swan of Endless Tales had been hatched
+out of the Crystal Egg. He went from her house then and came to where the King
+of Ireland's Son waited for him. The two comrades went along a well-traveled
+road. As they went on they fell in with men driving herds of ponies, men
+carrying packs on their backs, men with tools for working gold and silver,
+bronze and iron. Every man whom they asked said, "We are going to the Town of
+the Red Castle, and to the great fair that will be held there." The King's Son
+and Flann thought they should go to the Town of the Red Castle too, for where
+so many people would be, there was a chance of hearing what went before and
+what came after the Unique Tale. So they went on.
+
+And when they had come to a well that was under a great rock those whom they
+were with halted. They said it was the custom for the merchants and sellers to
+wait there for a day and to go into the Town of the Red Castle the day
+following. "On this day," they said, "the people of the Town celebrate the
+Festival of Midsummer, and they do not like a great company of people to go
+into their Town until the Festival is over."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son and Flann went on, and they were let into the town.
+The people had lighted great fires in their market-place and they were driving
+their cattle through the fires: "If there be evil on you, may it burn, may it
+burn," they were crying. They were afraid that witches and enchanters might
+come into the town with the merchants and the sellers, and that was the reason
+they did not permit a great company to enter.
+
+The fires in all their houses had been quenched that day, and they might not
+be lighted except from the fires the cattle had gone through. The fires were
+left blazing high and the King's Son and Flann spent hours watching them, and
+watching the crowds that were around.
+
+Then the time came to take fire to the houses. They who came for fire were all
+young maidens. Each came into the light of one of the great fires, took coals
+from a fire that had burnt low, placed them in a new earthen vessel and went
+away. Flann thought that all the maidens were beautiful and wonderful,
+although the King's Son told him that some were black-faced, and some crop-
+headed and some hunchbacked. Then a maiden came, who was so high above the
+rest that Flann had no words to speak of her.
+
+She had silver on her head and silver on her arms, and the people around the
+fires all bowed to her. She had black, black hair and she had a smiling face--
+not happily smiling, but proudly smiling. Flann thought that a star had bent
+down with her. And when she had taken the fire and had gone away, Flann said,
+"She is surely the King's daughter!"
+
+"She is," said the King of Ireland's Son. "The people here have spoken her
+name." "What is her name?" asked Flann. "It is Lassarina," said the King's
+Son, "Flame-of-Wine."
+
+"Shall we see her again?" said Flann.
+
+"That I do not know," said the King's Son. "Come now, and let us ask the
+people here if they have knowledge of the Unique Tale."
+
+"Wait," said Flann, "they are talking about Princess Flame-of-Wine." He did
+not move, but listened to what was said. All said that the King's daughter was
+proud. Some said she was beautiful, but others answered that her lips were
+thin, and her eyes were mocking. No other maidens came for fire. Flann stood
+before the one that still blazed, and thought and thought. The King's Son
+asked many if they had knowledge of the Unique Tale, but no one had heard of
+it. Some told him that there would be merchants and sellers from many parts of
+the world at the fair that would be held on the morrow, and that there would
+be a chance of meeting one who had knowledge of it. Then the King's Son went
+with one who brought him to a Brufir's--that is, to a House of Hospitality
+maintained by the King for strangers. As for Flann, he sat looking into the
+fire until it died down, and then he slept before it.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Flann was wakened by a gander and his flock of geese that stood round him;
+shook their wings and set up their goose-gabble. It was day then, although
+there was still a star in the sky. He threw furze-roots where there was a
+glow, and made a fire blaze up again. Then the dogs of the town came down to
+look at him, and then stole away.
+
+Horns were blown outside, and the watchman opened the gates. Flann shook
+himself and stood up to see the folk that were coming in. First came the men
+who drove the mountain ponies that had lately fed with the deer in wild
+places. Then came men in leathern jerkins who led wide-horned bulls--a black
+bull and a white bull, and a white bull and a black bull, one after the other.
+Then there were men who brought in high, swift hounds, three to each leash
+they held. Women in brown cloaks carried cages of birds. Men carried on their
+shoulders and in their belts tools for working gold and silver, bronze and
+iron. And there were calves and sheep, and great horses and weighty chariots,
+and colored cloths, and things closed in packs that merchants carried on their
+shoulders. The famous bards, and story-tellers and harpists would not come
+until noon-time when the business of the fair would have abated, but with the
+crowd of beggars came ballad-singers, and the tellers of the stories that were
+called "Go-by-the-Market-Stake," because they were told around the stake in
+the market place and were very common.
+
+And at the tail of the comers whom did Flann see but Mogue, the Captain of the
+Robbers!
+
+
+Mogue wore a hare-skin cap, his left eye protruded as usual, and he walked
+limpingly. He had a pack on his back, and he led a small, swift looking horse
+of a reddish color. Flann called to him as he passed and Mogue gave a great
+start. He grinned when he saw it was Flann and walked up to him.
+
+"Mogue," said Flann, "what are you doing in the Town of the Red Castle?"
+
+"I'm here to sell a few things," said Mogue, "this little horse," said he,
+"and a few things I have in my pack."
+
+"And where are your friends?" asked Flann. "My band, do you mean?" said Mogue.
+"Sure, they all left me when you proved you were the better robber. What are
+you doing here?"
+
+"I have no business at all," said Flann.
+
+"By the Hazel! that's what I like to hear you say. Join me then. You and me
+would do well together."
+
+"I won't join you," said Flann.
+
+"I'd rather have you with me than the whole of the band. What were they
+anyway? Cabbage-heads!" Mogue winked with his protruding eye. "Wait till you
+see me again," said he. "I've the grandest things in my pack." He went on
+leading the little horse. Then Flann set out to look for the King's Son.
+
+He found him at the door of the Brufir's, and they drank bowls of milk and ate
+oaten bread together, and then went to the gate of the town to watch the
+notable people who were coming in.
+
+And with the bards and harpers and Kings' envoys who came in, the King's Son
+saw his two half-brothers, Dermott and Downal. He hailed them and they knew
+him and came up to him gladly. The King's Son made Flann known to them, saying
+that he too was the son of a King.
+
+They looked fine youths, Downal and Dermott, in their red cloaks, with their
+heads held high, and a brag in their walk and their words. They left their
+horses with the grooms and walked with Flann and the King's Son. They were
+tall and ruddy; the King's Son was more brown in the hair and more hawk-like
+in the face: the three were different from the dark- The Town of the Red
+Castle l93 haired, dark-eyed, red-lipped lad to whom the Old Woman of Beare
+had given the name of Flann.
+
+No one had seen the King who lived in the Red Castle, Dermott and Downal told
+the other two. He was called the Wry-faced King, and, on account of his
+disfigurement, he let no one but his Councilors see him.
+
+"We are to go to his Castle to-day," said Dermott and Downal. "You come too,
+brother," said he to the King's Son.
+
+"And you too, comrade," said Downal to Flann. "Why should we not all go? By
+Ogma! Are we not all sons of Kings?"
+
+Flann wondered if he would see the King's daughter, Flame-of-Wine. He would
+surely go to the Castle.
+
+They drank ale, played chess and talked until it was afternoon. Then the
+grooms who were with Downal and Dermott brought the four youths new red
+cloaks. They put them on and went towards the King's Castle.
+
+"Brother," said Dermott to the King's Son, "I want to tell you that we are not
+going back to our father's Castle nor to his Kingdom. We have taken the world
+for our pillow. We are going to leave the grooms asleep one fine morning, and
+go as the salmon goes down the river."
+
+"Why do you want to leave our father's Kingdom?"
+
+"Because we don't want to rule nor to learn to rule. We'll let you, brother,
+do all that. We're going to learn the trade of a sword-smith. We would make
+fine swords. And with the King of Senlabor there is a famous sword-smith, and
+we are going to learn the trade from him."
+
+
+The four went to the Red Castle, and they were brought in and they went and
+sat on the benches to wait for the King's Steward who would receive them. And
+while they waited they watched the play of a pet fox in the courtyard. Flann
+was wondering all the time if the Princess Flame-of-Wine would pass through
+the court-yard or come into the hall where they waited.
+
+Then he saw her come up the courtyard. She saw the youths in the hall and she
+turned round to watch the pet fox for a while. Then she came into the chamber
+and stood near the door.
+
+She wore a mask across her face, but her brow and mouth and chin were shown.
+The youths saluted her, and she bent her head to them. One of the women who
+had brought birds to the Fair followed her, bringing a cage. Flame-of-Wine
+talked to this woman in a strange language.
+
+Although she talked to the woman, Flann saw that she watched his three
+companions. Him she did not notice, because the bench on which he sat was
+behind the others. Flame-of-Wine looked at the King's Son first, and then
+turned her eyes from him. She bent her head to listen to what Downal and
+Dermott were saying. Flann she did not look at at all, and he became sick at
+heart of the Red Castle.
+
+The King's Steward came into the Hall and when he announced who the youths
+were--three sons of the King of Ireland traveling with their foster-brother--
+Flame-of-Wine went over and spoke to them. "May we see you to-morrow, Kings'
+Sons," she said. "To-morrow is our feast of the Gathering of Apples. It might
+be pleasant for you to hear music in the King's garden."
+
+She smiled on Downal and Dermott and on the King's Son and went out of the
+Chamber. The King's Steward feasted the four youths and afterwards made them
+presents. But Flann did not heed what he ate nor what he heard said, nor what
+present was given him.
+
+
+
+III
+
+The four youths left the Castle and Downal and Dermott took their own way when
+they came to the foot-bridge that was across the river. Then when they were
+crossing it the King's Son and Flann saw two figures--a middle-aged, sturdy
+man and an old, broken-looking woman--meet before the Bull's Field. "It is the
+Gobaun Saor," said the King's Son. "It is the Spae-Woman," said Flann. They
+went to them, each wishing to greet his friend and helper.
+
+There they saw a sturdy, middle-aged man and a broken-looking old woman. But
+the woman looking on the man saw one who had full wisdom to plan and full
+strength to build, whose wisdom and whose strength could neither grow nor
+diminish. And the man looking on the woman saw one whose brow had all quiet,
+whose heart had all benignity. "Hail, Gobaun, Builder for the Gods," said the
+woman. "Hail, Grania Oi, Reconciler for the Gods," said the man.
+
+Then the two youths came swiftly up to them, and the King's Son greeted the
+middle-aged man, and Flann kissed the hands of the old woman.
+
+"What of your search, King's Son?" said the Gobaun Saor.
+
+"I have found the Unique Tale, but not what went before nor what comes after
+it," said the King's Son.
+
+"I will clear the Sword of Light of its stain when you bring me the whole of
+the Unique Tale," said the Gobaun Saor.
+
+"I would search the whole world for it," said the King's Son. "But now the
+time is becoming short for me." "Be quick and active," said the Gobaun Saor.
+"I have set up my forge," said he, "outside the town between two high stones.
+When you bring the whole of the Tale to me I shall clear your sword."
+
+"Will you not tell him, Gobaun Saor," said the Spae-Woman, "where he may find
+the one who will tell him the rest of the story?"
+
+"If he sees one he knows in this town," said the Gobaun Saor, "let him mount a
+horse he has mounted before and pursue that one and force him to tell what
+went before and what comes after the Unique Tale."
+
+Saying this the Gobaun Saor turned away and walked along the road that went
+out of the town.
+
+The Spae-Woman had brought besoms to the town to sell. She showed the two
+youths the little house she lived in while she was there. It was filled with
+the heather-stalks which she bound together for besoms.
+
+They left the Spae-Woman and went through the town, the King of Ireland's Son
+searching every place for a man he knew or a horse he had mounted before,
+while Flann thought about the Princess Flame-of-Wine, and how little she
+considered him beside the King's Son and Dermott and Downal. They came to
+where a crowd was standing before a conjurer's booth. They halted and stood
+waiting for the conjurer to appear. He came out and put a ladder standing
+upright with nothing to lean against and began climbing up. Up, up, up, he
+went, and the ladder grew higher and higher as he climbed. Flann thought he
+would climb into the sky. Then the ladder got smaller and smaller and Flann
+saw the conjurer coming down on the other side. "He has come here to take that
+horse," said a voice behind the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+The King's Son looked round, and on the outskirts of the crowd he saw a man
+with a hare-skin cap and a protruding eye who was holding a reddish horse,
+while he watched the conjuror. The King of Ireland's Son knew the horse--it
+was the Slight Red Steed that had carried him and Fedelma from the Enchanter's
+house and had brought him to the Cave where he had found the Sword of Light.
+He looked at the conjuror again and he saw he was no other than the Enchanter
+of the Black Back-Lands. Then it crossed his mind what the Gobaun Saor had
+said to him.
+
+He had seen a man he knew and a horse he had mounted before. He was to mount
+that horse, follow the man, and force him to tell the rest of the Unique Tale.
+
+The King's Son drew back to the outskirts of the crowd. He snatched the bridle
+from the hands of Mogue, the man who held it, and jumped up on the back of the
+Slight Red Steed.
+
+As soon as he did this the ladder that was standing upright fell on the
+ground. The people shouted and broke away. And then the King's Son saw the
+Enchanter jump across a house and make for the gate of the town.
+
+But if he could jump across a house so could the Slight Red Steed. The King's
+Son turned its head, plucked at its rein, and over the same house it sprang
+too. The more he ran the more swift the Enchanter The Town of the Red Castle
+i99 became. He jumped over the gate of the town, the Slight Red Steed after
+him. He went swiftly across the country, making high springs over ditches and
+hedges. No other steed but the Slight Red Steed could have kept its rider in
+sight of him.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Up hill and down dale the Enchanter went, but, mounted on the Slight Red
+Steed, the King of Ireland's Son was in hot pursuit. The Enchanter raced up
+the side of the seventh hill, and when the King's Son came to the top of it he
+found no one in sight.
+
+He raced on, however, and he passed a dead man hanging from a tree. He raced
+on and on, but still the Enchanter was not to he seen. Then the thought came
+into his mind that the man who was hanging from the tree and who he thought
+was dead was the crafty old Enchanter. He turned the Slight Red Steed round
+and raced back. The man that had been hanging from the tree was there no
+longer.
+
+The King's Son turned his horse amongst the trees and began to search for the
+Enchanter. He found no trace of him. "I have lost again," he said. Then he
+threw the bridle on the neck of the horse and he said, "Go your own way now,
+my Slight Red Steed."
+
+When he said that the Slight Red Steed twitched its ears and galloped towards
+the West. It went through woods and across streams, and when the crows were
+flying home and the kites were flying abroad it brought the King's Son to a
+stone house standing in the middle of a bog. "It may be the Enchanter is in
+this house," said the King's Son. He jumped off the Slight Red Steed, pushed
+the door of the house open, and there, seated on a chair in the middle of the
+floor with a woman sitting beside him, was the Enchanter of the Black Back-
+Lands. "So," said the Enchanter, "my Slight Red Steed has brought you to me."
+
+"So," said the King's Son, "I have found you, my crafty old Enchanter."
+
+"And now that you have found me, what do you want of me?" said the Enchanter.
+
+"Your head," said the King's Son, drawing the tarnished Sword of Light.
+
+"Will nothing less than my head content you?" said the Enchanter.
+
+"Nothing less--unless it be what went before, and what comes after the Unique
+Tale."
+
+"The Unique Tale," said the Enchanter. "I will tell you what I know of it."
+Thereupon he began 
+
+
+I was a Druid and the Son of a Druid, and I had learned the language of the
+birds. And one morning, as I walked abroad, I heard a blackbird and a robin
+talking, and when I heard what they said I smiled to myself.
+
+"Now the woman I had just married noticed that I kept smiling, and she
+questioned me. 'Why do you keep smiling to yourself?' I would not tell her.
+'Is that not the truth? '" said the Enchanter to a woman who sat beside him.
+"It is the truth," said she.
+
+"On the third day I was still smiling to myself, and my wife questioned me,
+and when I did not answer threw dish-water into my face. 'May blindness come
+upon you if you do not tell me why you are smiling,' said she. Then I told her
+why I smiled to myself. I had heard what the birds said. The blackbird said to
+the robin, 'Do you know that just under where we are sitting are three rods of
+enchantment, and if one were to take one of them and strike a man with it, he
+would be changed to any creature one named?' That is what I had heard the
+birds say and I smiled because I was the only creature who knew about the rods
+of enchantment.
+
+"My wife made me show her where the rods were. She cut one of them when I went
+away. That evening she came behind me and struck me with a rod. ' Go out now
+and roam as a wolf,' she said, and there and then I was changed into a wolf.
+'Is that not true?'" said he to the woman. "It is true," she said.
+
+"And being changed into a wolf, I went through the woods seeking wolf's meat.
+And now you must ask my wife to tell you more of the story." The King of
+Ireland's Son turned to the woman who sat on the seat next the Enchanter, and
+asked her to tell him more of the story. And thereupon she began 
+
+
+Before all that happened I was known as the Maid of the Green Mantle. One day
+a King rode up a mountain with five score followers and a mist came on them as
+they rode. The King saw his followers no more. He called out after a while and
+four score answered him. And he called out again after another while and two
+score answered him. And after another while he called out again and only a
+score answered him through the mist, and when he called out again no one
+answered him at all.
+
+"The King went up the mountain until he came to the place where I lived with
+the Druids who reared me. He stayed long in that place. The King loved me for
+a while and I loved the King, and when he went away I followed him.
+
+"Because he would not come back to me I enchanted him so that there were times
+when he was left between life and death. Once when he was seemingly dead a
+girl watched by him, and she followed his spirit into many terrible places and
+so broke my enchantment."
+
+"Sheen was the girl's name," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Sheen was her name," said the woman. "He brought her to his Kingdom, and made
+her his queen. After that I married the man who is here now--the Enchanter of
+the Black Back-Lands, the Son of the Druid of the Gray Rock. Ask him now to
+tell you the rest of the story."
+
+When she changed me into a gray wolf," said the Enchanter, "I went through the
+woods searching for what a wolf might eat, but could find nothing to stay my
+hunger. Then I came back and stood outside my house and the woman who had been
+called the Maid of the Green Mantle came to me. 'I will give you back your
+human form,' she said, 'if you do as I bid you.'
+
+"I promised her I would do as she bade.
+
+"She bade me go to a King's house where a child had been born. She bade me
+steal the child away. I went to the King's house. I went into the chamber and
+I stole the child from the mother's side. Then I ran through the woods. But in
+the end I fell into a trap that the Giant Crom Duv had set for the wolves that
+chased his stray cattle.
+
+"For a night I lay in the trap with the child beside me. Then Crom Duv came
+and lifted out wolf and child. Three Hags with Long Teeth were there when he
+took us out of the trap, and he gave the child to one of them, telling her to
+rear it so that the child might be a servant for him.
+
+"He put me into a sack, promising himself that he would give me a good
+beating. He left me on the floor of his house. But while he was gone for his
+club I bit my way out of the sack and made my escape. I came back to my own
+house, and my wife struck me with the wand of enchantment, and changed me from
+a wolf into a man again. 'Is that not true?'" said he to the woman.
+
+"It is true," said she.
+
+"That is all of the Unique Tale that I know," said the Enchanter of the Black
+Back-Lands, "and now that I have told it to you, put up your sword."
+
+"I will put up no sword," said the King of Ireland's Son, "until you tell me
+what King and Queen were the father and mother of the child that was reared by
+the Hags of the Long Teeth."
+
+"I made no promise to tell you that," said the En-chanter of the Black Back-
+Lands. "You have got the story you asked for, and now let me see your back
+going through my door."
+
+"Yes, you have got the story, and be off with you now," said the woman who sat
+by the fire.
+
+
+He put up his sword; he went to the door; he left the house of the Enchanter
+of the Black Back-Lands. He mounted the Slight Red Steed and rode off. He knew
+now what went before and what came after the Unique Tale. The Gobaun Saor
+would clean the blemish of the blade of the Sword of Light and would show him
+how to come to the Land of Mist. Then he would win back his love Fedelma.
+
+He thought too on the tidings he had for his comrade Flann--Flann was the Son
+of the King who was called the Hunter-King and of Sheen whose brothers had
+been changed into seven wild geese. He shook his horse's reins and went back
+towards the Town of the Red Castle.
+
+
+V
+
+
+Flann thought upon the Princess Flame-of-Wine. He walked through the town
+after the King's Son had ridden after the Enchanter, without noticing anyone
+until he heard a call and saw Mogue standing beside a little tent that he had
+set up before the Bull's Field.
+
+Flann went to Mogue and found him very disconsolate on account of the loss of
+the horse he had brought into the town. "This is a bad town to be in," said
+Mogue, "and unless I persuade yourself to become partners with me I shall have
+done badly in it. Join with me now and we'll do some fine feats together."
+
+"It would not become a King's Son to join with a robber-captain," said Flann.
+
+"Fine talk, fine talk," said Mogue. He thought that Flann was jesting with him
+when he spoke of himself as a King's Son.
+
+"I want to sell three treasures I have with me," said Mogue. "I have the most
+wonderful things that were ever brought into this town."
+
+"Show them to me," said Flann.
+
+Mogue opened one of his packs and took out a box. When he opened this box a
+fragrance came such as Flann had never felt before. "What is that that smells
+like a garden of sweet flowers?" said Flann.
+
+"It is the Rose of Sweet Smells," said Mogue, and he took a little rose out of
+the box. "It never withers and its fragrance is never any less. It is a
+treasure for a King's daughter. But I will not show it in this town."
+
+"And what is that shining thing in the box?"
+
+"It is the Comb of Magnificence. That is another treasure for a King's
+daughter. The maiden who would wear it would look the most queenly woman in
+the Kingdom. But I won't show that either."
+
+"What else have you, Mogue?"
+
+"A girdle. The woman who wears it would have to speak the truth." The Town of
+
+Flann thought he would do much to get the Rose of Sweet Smells or the Comb of
+Magnificence and bring them as presents to the Princess Flame-of-Wine.
+
+He slept in Mogue's tent, and at the peep of day, he rose up and went to the
+House of Hospitality where Dermott and Downal were. With them he would go to
+the King's orchard, and he would see, and perhaps he would speak to, Flame-of-
+Wine. But Dermott and Downal were not in the Brufir's. Flann wakened their
+grooms and he and they made search for the two youths. But there was no trace
+of Dermott and Downal. It seemed they had left before daybreak with their
+horses. Flann went with the grooms to the gate of the town. There they heard
+from the watchman that the two youths had gone through the gate and that they
+had told the watchman to tell the grooms that they had gone to take the world
+for their pillow.
+
+The grooms were dismayed to hear this, and so indeed was Flann. Without the
+King's Son and without Downal and Dermott how would he go to the King's
+Garden? He went back to Mogue's tent to consider what he should do. And first
+he thought he would not go to the Festival of the Gathering of the Apples, as
+he knew that Flame-of-Wine had only asked him with his comrades. And then he
+thought that whatever else happened he would go to the King's orchard and see
+Flame-of-Wine.
+
+If he had one of the wonderful things that Mogue had shown him--the Rose of
+Sweet Smells or the Comb of Magnificence! These would show her that he was of
+some consequence. If he had either of these wonderful things and offered it to
+her she might be pleased with him!
+
+He sat outside the tent and waited for Mogue to return. When he came Flann
+said to him, "I will go with you as a servant, and I will serve you well
+although I am a King's Son, if you will give me something now."
+
+"What do you want from me?" said Mogue.
+
+"Give me the Rose of Sweet Smells," said Flann.
+
+"Sure that's the finest thing I have. I couldn't give you that."
+
+"I will serve you for two years if you will give it to me," said Flann.
+
+"No," said Mogue.
+
+"I will serve you for three years if you will give it to me," said Flann.
+
+"I will give it to you if you will serve me for three years." Thereupon Mogue
+opened his pack and took the box out. He opened it and put the Rose of Sweet
+Smells into Flann's hand.
+
+At once Flann started off for the King's orchard. The Steward who had seen him
+the day before signed to the servants to let him pass through the gate. He
+went into the King's orchard.
+
+Maidens were singing the "Song for the Time of the Blossoming of the Apple-
+trees" and all that day and night Flann held their song in his mind 
+
+   The touch of hands that drew it down
+   Kindled to blossom all the bough 
+   O breathe the wonder of the branch,
+   And let it through the darkness go!
+
+
+
+Youths were gathering apples, and the Princess Flame-of-Wine walked by herself
+on the orchard paths.
+
+At last she came to where Flann stood and lifting her eyes she looked at him.
+"I had companions," said Flann, "but they have gone away."
+
+"They are unmannerly," said Flame-of-Wine with anger, and she turned away.
+
+Flann took the rose from under his cloak. Its fragrance came to Flame-of-Wine
+and she turned to him again.
+
+"This is the Rose of Sweet Smells," said Flann. "Will you take it from me,
+Princess?"
+
+She came back to him and took the rose in her hand, and there was wonder in
+her face.
+
+"It will never wither, and its fragrance will never fail," said Flann. "It is
+the Rose of Sweet Smells. A King's daughter should have it."
+
+Flame-of-Wine held the rose in her hand, and smiled on Flann. "What is your
+name, King's Son?" said she, with bright and friendly eyes.
+
+"Flann," he said.
+
+"Walk with me, Flann," said she. They walked along the orchard paths, and the
+youths and maidens turned towards the fragrance that the Rose of Sweet Smells
+gave. Flame-of-Wine laughed, and said, "They all wonder at the treasure you
+have brought me, Flann. If you could hear what I shall tell them about you! I
+shall tell them that you are the son of a King of Arabia--no less. They will
+believe me because you have brought me such a treasure! I suppose there is
+nothing more wonderful than this rose!"
+
+Then Flann told her about the other wonderful thing he had seen--the Comb of
+Magnificence. "A King's daughter should have such a treasure," said Flame-of-
+Wine. "Oh, how jealous I should be if someone brought the Comb of Magnificence
+to either of my two sisters--to Bloom-of-Youth or Breast-of-Light. I should
+think then that this rose was not such a treasure after all."
+
+When he was leaving the orchard she plucked a flower and gave it to him. "Come
+and walk in the orchard with me to-morrow," she said.
+
+"Surely I will come," said Flann.
+
+"Bring the Comb of Magnificence to me too," said she. "I could not be proud of
+this rose, and I could not love you so well for bringing it to me if I thought
+that any other maiden had the Comb of Magnificence. Bring it to me, Flann."
+
+"I will bring it to you," said Flann.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+He was at the gate of the town when the King of Ireland's Son rode back on the
+Slight Red Steed. The King's Son dismounted, put his arm about Flann and told
+him that he now had the whole of the Unique Tale. They sat before Mogue's
+tent, and the King's Son told Flann the whole of the story he had searched     
+for--how a King traveling through the mist had come to where Druids and the
+Maid of the Green Mantle lived, how the King was enchanted, and how the maiden 
+Sheen released him from the enchantment. He told him, too, how the Enchanter
+was changed into a wolf, and how the wolf carried away Sheen's child. "And the 
+Unique Tale is in part your own history, Flann," said the King of Ireland's
+Son, "for the child that was left with the Hags of the Long Teeth was no one
+else than yourself, for you, Flann, have on your breast the stars that denote
+the Son of a King."
+
+"It is so, it is so," said Flann, "and I will find out what King and Queen
+were my father and my mother."
+
+"Go to the Hags of the Long Teeth and force them to tell you," said the King's
+Son.
+
+"I will do that," said Flann, but in his own mind he said, "I will first bring
+the Comb of Magnificence to Flame-of-Wine, and I will tell her that I will
+have to be away for so many years with Mogue and I shall ask her to remember
+me until I come back to her. Then I shall go to the Hags of the Long Teeth and
+force them to tell me what King and Queen were my father and mother."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son left Flann to his thoughts and went to find the
+Gobaun Saor who would clear for him the tarnished blade of the Sword of Light
+and would show him the way to where the King of the Land of Mist had his
+dominion.
+
+Mogue spent his time with the ballad-singers and the story-tellers around the
+market-stake, and when he came back to his tent he wanted to drink ale and go
+to sleep, but Flann turned him from the ale-pot by saying to him, "I want the
+Comb of Magnificence from you, Mogue."
+
+"By my skin," said Mogue, "it's my blood you'll want next, my lad."
+
+"If you give me the Comb of Magnificence, Mogue, I shall serve you for six
+years--three years more than I said yesterday. I shall serve you well, even
+though I am the son of a King and can find out who my father and mother are."
+
+"I won't give you the Comb of Magnificence."
+
+"I'll serve you seven years if you do, Mogue."
+
+Mogue drank and drank out of the ale-pot, frowning to himself. He put the ale-
+pot away and said, "I suppose your life won't be any good to you unless I give
+you the Comb of Magnificence?"
+
+"That is so, Mogue."
+
+Mogue sighed heavily, but he went to his pack and took out the box that the
+treasures were in. He let Flann take out the Comb of Magnificence.
+
+"Seven years you will have to serve me," said Mogue, "and you will have to
+begin your service now."
+
+"I will begin it now," said Flann, but he stole out of the tent, put on his
+red cloak and went to the King's orchard.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Oh, Flann, my treasure-bringer," said Flame-of-Wine, when she came to him. "I
+have brought you the Comb of Magnificence," said he. Her hands went out and
+her eyes became large and shining. He put the Comb of Magnificence into her
+hands.
+
+She put the comb into the back of her hair, and she became at once like the
+tower that is builded--what broke its height and turned the full sunlight from
+it has been taken away, and the tower stands, the pride of a King and the
+delight of a people. When she put the Comb of Magnificence into her hair she
+became of all Kings' daughters the most stately.
+
+She walked with Flann along the paths of the orchard, but always she was
+watching her shadow to see if it showed her added magnificence. Her shadow
+showed nothing. She took Flann to the well in the orchard, and looked down
+into it, but her image in the well did not show her added magnificence either.
+Soon she became tired of walking on the orchard paths, and when she came to
+the gate she walked no further but stood with Flann at the gate. "A kiss for
+you, Flann, my treasure-bringer," said she, and she kissed him and then went
+hurrying away. And as Flann watched her he thought that although she had
+kissed him he was not now in her mind.
+
+He went out of the orchard disconsolate, thinking that when he was on his
+seven years' service with Mogue Princess Flame-of-Wine might forget him. As he
+walked on he passed the little house where the Spae-Woman had her besoms and
+heather-stalks. She ran to him when she saw him.
+
+"Have you heard that the King's Son has found what went before, and what comes
+after the Unique Tale?" said she.
+
+"That I have. And I have to go to the Hags of the Long Teeth to find out who
+my father and mother were, for surely I am the child who was taken from
+Sheen."
+
+"And do you remember that Sheen's seven brothers were changed into seven wild
+geese?" said she.
+
+"I remember that, mother."
+
+"And seven wild geese they will be until a maiden who loves you will give
+seven drops of her heart's blood to bring them back to their human shapes."
+
+"I remember that, mother." "Whatever maid you love, her you must ask if she
+would give seven drops of her heart's blood. It may be that she would. It may
+be that she would not and that you would still love her without thought of her
+giving one drop of blood of her little finger."
+
+"I cannot ask the maiden I love to give seven drops of her heart's blood."
+
+"Who is the maiden you love?"
+
+"The King's daughter, Flame-of-Wine."
+
+He told the Spae-Woman about the presents he had given her--he told the Spae-
+Woman too that he had bound himself to seven years' service to Mogue on
+account of these presents. The Spae-Woman said, "What other treasures are in
+Mogue's pack?"
+
+"One treasure more the Girdle of Truth. Whoever puts it on can speak nothing
+but the truth."
+
+Said the Spae-Woman, "You are to take the Girdle of Truth and give it to
+Flame-of-Wine. Tell Mogue that I said he is to give it to you without adding
+one day to your years' service. When Flame-of-Wine has put the girdle around
+her waist ask her for the seven drops of heart's blood that will bring your
+mother's seven brothers back to their human shapes. She may love you and yet
+refuse to give you the seven drops from her heart. But tell her of this, and
+hear what she will say."
+
+Flann left the Spae-Woman's and went back to Mogue's tent. The loss of his
+treasures had overcome Mogue and he was drinking steadily and went from one
+bad temper to another.
+
+"Begin your service now by watching the tent while I sleep," said he.
+
+"There is one thing more I want from you, Mogue," said Flann.
+
+"By the Eye of Balor! you're a cuckoo in my nest. What do you want now?"
+
+"The Girdle of Truth."
+
+"Is it my last treasure you'd be taking on me?"
+
+"The Spae-Woman bid me tell you that you're to give me the Girdle of Truth."
+
+"It's a pity of me, it's a pity of me," said Mogue. But he took the box out of
+his pack, and let Flann take the girdle.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Flame-of-Wine saw him. She walked slowly down the orchard path so that all
+might notice the stateliness of her appearance.
+
+"I am glad to see you again, Flann," said she. "Have your comrades yet come
+back to my father's town?"
+
+
+Flann told her that one of them had returned.
+
+"Bid him come see me," said Flame-of-Wine. Then she saw the girdle in his
+hands.
+
+"What is it you have?" said she.
+
+"Something that went with the other treasures--a girdle."
+
+"Will you not let me have it, Flann?" She took the girdle in her hands. "Tell
+me, youth," she said, "how you got all these treasures?"
+
+"I will have to give seven years' service for them," Flann said.
+
+"Seven years," said she, "but you will remember--will you not--that I loved
+you for bringing them to me?"
+
+"Will you remember me until I come back from my seven years' service?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Flame-of-Wine, and she put the girdle around her waist as she
+spoke.
+
+"Someone said to me," said Flann, "that I should ask the maiden who loved me
+for seven drops of her heart's blood." The girdle was now round Flame-of-
+Wine's waist. She laughed with mockery. "Seven drops of heart's blood," said
+she. "I would not give this fellow seven eggs out of my robin's nest. I tell
+him I love him for bringing me the three treasures for a King's daughter. I
+tell him that, but I should be ashamed of myself if I thought I could have any
+love for such a fellow."
+
+"Do you tell me the truth now," said Flann.
+
+"The truth, the truth," said she, "of course I tell you the truth. Oh, and
+there are other truths. I shall be ashamed forever if I tell them. Oh, oh.
+They are rising to my tongue, and every time I press them back this girdle
+tightens and tightens until I think it will kill me."
+
+"Farewell, then, Flame-of-Wine."
+
+"Take off the girdle, take off the girdle! What truths are in my mind! I shall
+speak them and I shall be ashamed. But I shall die in pain if I hold them
+back. Loosen the girdle, loosen the girdle! Take the rose you gave me and
+loosen the girdle." She let the rose fall on the ground.
+
+"I will loosen the girdle for you," said Flann.
+
+"But loosen it now. How I have to strive to keep truths back, and oh, what
+pain I am in! Take the Comb of Magnificence, and loosen the girdle." She threw
+the comb down on the ground.
+
+He took up the Rose of Sweet Smells and the Comb of Magnificence and he took
+the girdle off her waist. "Oh, what a terrible thing I put round my waist,"
+said Flame-of-Wine. "Take it away, Flann, take it away. But give me back the
+Rose of Sweet Smells and the Comb of Magnificence,--give them back to me and I
+shall love you always."
+
+"You cannot love me. And why should I give seven years in service for your
+sake? I will leave these treasures back in Mogue's pack."
+
+"Oh, you are a peddler, a peddler. Go from me," said Flame-of-Wine. "And do
+not be in the Town of the Red Castle to-morrow, or I shall have my father's
+hunting dogs set upon you." She turned away angrily and went into the Castle.
+
+Flann went back to Mogue's tent and left the Rose of Sweet Smells, the Comb of
+Magnificence and the Girdle of Truth upon Mogue's pack. He sat in the comer
+and cried bitterly. Then the King of Ireland's Son came and told him that his
+sword was bright once more--that the stains that had blemished its blade had
+been cleared away by the Gobaun Saor who had also shown him the way to the
+Land of the Mist. He put his arm about Flann and told him that he was starting
+now to rescue his love Fedelma from the Castle of the King of the Land of
+Mist.
+
+
+
+
+The King of the Land of Mist
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The King of Ireland's Son came to the place where the river that he followed
+takes the name of the River of the Broken Towers. It is called by that name
+because the men of the old days tried to build towers across its course. The
+towers were built a little way across the river that at this place was
+tremendously wide.
+
+"The Glashan will carry you across the River of the Broken Towers to the shore
+of the Land of Mist," the Gobaun Saor had said to the King of Ireland's Son.
+And now he was at the River of the Broken Towers but the Glashan-creature was
+not to be seen.
+
+Then he saw the Glashan. He was leaning his back against one of the Towers and
+smoking a short pipe. The water of the river was up to his knees. He was
+covered with hair and had a big head with horse's ears. And the Glashan
+twitched his horse's ears as he smoked in great contentment.
+
+"Glashan, come here," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+But the Glashan gave him no heed at all.
+
+"I want you to carry me across the River of the Broken Towers," shouted the
+King of Ireland's Son. The Glashan went on smoking and twisting his ears.
+
+And the King of Ireland's Son might have known that the whole clan of the
+Gruagachs and Glashans are fond of their own ease and will do nothing if they
+can help it. He twitched his ears more sharply when the King's Son threw a
+pebble at him. Then after about three hours he came slowly across the river.
+From his big knees down he had horse's feet.
+
+"Take me on your big shoulders, Glashan," said the King of Ireland's Son, "and
+carry me across to the shore of the Land of Mist."
+
+"Not carrying any more across," said the Glashan. The King of Ireland's Son
+drew the Sword of Light and flashed it.
+
+"Oh, if you have that, you'll have to be carried across," said the Glashan.
+"But wait until I rest myself."
+
+"What did you do that you should rest?" said the King of Ireland's Son. "Take
+me on your shoulders and start off."
+
+"Musha," said the Glashan, "aren't you very anxious to lose your life?"
+
+"Take me on your shoulders." "Well, come then. You're not the first living
+dead man I carried across." The Glashan put his pipe into his ear. The King of
+Ireland's Son mounted his shoulders and laid hold of his thick mane. Then the
+Glashan put his horse's legs into the water and started to cross the River of
+the Broken Towers.
+
+"The Land of Mist has a King," said the Glashan, when they were in the middle
+of the river.
+
+"That, Glashan, I know," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"All right," said the Glashan.
+
+Then said he when they were three-quarters of the way across, "Maybe you don't
+know that the King of the Land of Mist will kill you?"
+
+"Maybe 'tis I who will kill him," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"You'd be a hardy little fellow if you did that," said the Glashan. "But you
+won't do it."
+
+
+They went on. The water was up to the Glashan's waist but that gave him no
+trouble. So broad was the river that they were traveling across it all day.
+The Glashan threw the King's Son in once when he stooped to pick up an eel.
+Said the King of Ireland's Son, "What way is the Castle of the King of the
+Land of Mist guarded, Glashan?"
+
+"It has seven gates," said the Glashan.
+
+"And how are the gates guarded?"
+
+"I'm tired," said the Glashan, "and I can't talk."
+
+"Tell me, or I'll twist the horse's ears off your head."
+
+"Well, the first gate is guarded by a plover only. It sits on the third
+pinnacle over the gate, and when anyone comes near it rises up and flies round
+the Castle crying until its sharp cries put the other guards on the watch."
+
+"And what other guards are there?"
+
+"Oh, I'm tired, and I can talk no more."
+
+The King of Ireland's Son twisted his horse's ears, and then the Glashan said
+ 
+
+"The second gate is guarded by five spear-men."
+
+"And how is the third gate guarded?"
+
+"The third gate is guarded by seven swordsmen."
+
+"And how is the fourth gate guarded?"
+
+"The fourth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist himself."
+
+"And the fifth gate?"
+
+"The fifth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist himself."
+
+"And the sixth gate?"
+
+"The sixth gate is guarded by the King of the Land of Mist."
+
+"And how is the seventh gate guarded?"
+
+"The seventh gate is guarded by a Hag."
+
+"By a Hag only?" "By a Hag with poisoned nails. But I'm tired now, and I'll
+talk no more to you. If I could strike a light now I'd smoke a pipe."
+
+Still they went on, and just at the screech of the day they came to the other
+shore of the River of the Broken Towers. The King of Ireland's Son sprang from
+the shoulders of the Glashan and went into the mist.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+He came to where turrets and pinnacles appeared above the mist. He climbed the
+rock upon which the Castle was built. He came to the first gate, and as he did
+the plover that was on the third pinnacle above rose up and flew round the
+Castle with sharp cries.
+
+He raised a fragment of the ground-rock and flung it against the gate. He
+burst it open. He dashed in then and through the first courtyard of the
+Castle.
+
+As he went towards the second gate it was flung open, and the five spear-men
+ran upon him. But they had not counted on what was to face them--the Sword of
+Light in the bands of the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+Its stroke cut the spear heads from the spear-holds, and its quick glancing
+dazzled the eyes of the spear-men. On each and every one of them it inflicted
+the wound of death. He dashed through the second gate and into the third
+courtyard.
+
+But as he did the third gate was flung open and seven swordsmen came forth.
+They made themselves like a half circle and came towards the King of Ireland's
+Son. He dazzled their eyes with a wide sweep of his sword. He darted it
+swiftly at each of them and on the seven swordsmen too he inflicted wounds of
+death.
+
+He went through the third courtyard and towards the fourth gate. As he did it
+opened slowly and a single champion came forth. He closed the gate behind him
+and stood with a long gray sword in his hand. This was the King of the Land of
+Mist. His shoulders were where a tall man's head would be. His face was like a
+stone, and his eyes had never looked except with scorn upon a foe.
+
+When his enemy began his attack the King of Ireland's Son had power to do
+nothing else but guard himself from that weighty sword. He had the Sword of
+Light for a guard and well did that bright, swift blade guard him. The two
+fought across the courtyard making hard places soft and soft places hard with
+their trampling. They fought from when it was early to when it was noon, and
+they fought from when it was noon until it was long afternoon. And not a
+single wound did the King of Ireland's Son inflict upon the King of the Land
+of Mist, and not a single wound did the King of the Land of Mist inflict upon
+him.
+
+But the King of Ireland's Son was growing faint and weary. His eyes were worn
+with watching the strokes and thrusts of the sword that was battling against
+him. His arms could hardly bear up his own sword. His heart became a stream of
+blood that would have gushed from his breast.
+
+And then, as he was about to fall down with his head under the sword of the
+King of the Land of Mist a name rose above all his thoughts--"Fedelma." If he
+sank down and the sword of the King of the Land of Mist fell on him, never
+would she be saved. The will became strong again in the King of Ireland's Son.
+His heart became a steady beating thing. The weight that was upon his arms
+passed away. Strongly he held the sword in his hand and he began to attack the
+King of the Land of Mist.
+
+And now he saw that the sword in the hand of his enemy was broken and worn
+with the guard that the Sword of Light had put against it. And now he made a
+strong attack. As the light was leaving the sky and as the darkness was coming
+down he saw that the strength was waning in the King of the Land of Mist. The
+sword in his hand was more worn and more broken. At last the blade was only a
+span from the hilt. As he drew back to the gate of the fourth courtyard the
+King of Ireland's Son sprang at him and thrust the Sword of Light through his
+breast. He stood with his face becoming exceedingly terrible. He flung what
+remained of his sword, and the broken blade struck the foot of the King of
+Ireland's Son and pierced it. Then the King of the Land of Mist fell down on
+the ground before the fourth gate.
+
+So weary from his battles, so pained with the wound of his foot was the King
+of Ireland's Son that he did not try to cross the body and go towards the
+fifth gate. He turned back. He climbed down the rock and went towards the
+River of the Broken Towers.
+
+The Glashan was broiling on a hot stone the eel he had taken out of the river.
+"Wash my wound and give me refreshment, Glashan," said the King of Ireland's
+Son.
+
+The Glashan washed the wound in his foot and gave him a portion of the broiled
+eel with cresses and water.
+
+"To-morrow's dawn I shall go back," said the King of Ireland's Son, "and go
+through the fifth and sixth and seventh gate and take away Fedelma."
+
+"If the King of the Land of Mist lets you," said the Glashan.
+
+"He is dead," said the King of Ireland's Son, "I thrust my sword through his
+breast."
+
+"And where is his head?" said the Glashan.
+
+"It is on his corpse," said the King of Ireland's Son.
+
+"Then you will have another fight to-morrow. His life is in his head, and his
+life will come back to him if you did not cut it off. It is he, I tell you,
+who will guard the fourth and fifth and sixth gate."
+
+"That I do not believe, Glashan," said the King of Ireland's Son. "There is no
+one to guard the gates now but the Hag you spoke of. To-morrow I shall take
+Fedelma out of her captivity, and we will both leave the Land of Mist. But I
+must sleep now."
+
+He laid the Sword of Light beside him, stretched himself on the ground and
+went to sleep. The Glashan drew his horse's legs under him, took the pipe out
+of his ear, and smoked all through the night.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+The King of Ireland's Son rose in the morning but he was in pain and weariness
+on account of his wounded foot. He ate the cresses and drank the water that
+the Glashan gave him, and he started off for the Castle of the King of the
+Mist. "'Tis only an old woman I shall have to deal with to-day," he said, "and
+then I shall awaken Fedelma, my love."
+
+He passed through the first gate and the first court-yard, through the second
+gate and the second court-yard, through the third gate and the third
+courtyard. The fourth gate was closed, and as he went towards it, it opened
+slowly, and the King of the Land of Mist stood there--as high, as stone-faced,
+and as scornful as before, and in his hand he had a weighty gray sword.
+
+They fought as they fought the day before. But the guard the King of Ireland's
+Son made against the sword of the King of the Land of Mist was weaker than
+before, because of the pain and weariness that came from his wound. But still
+he kept the Sword of Light before him and the Sword of the King of the Land of
+Mist could not pass it. They fought until it was afternoon. The heart in his
+body seemed turned to a jet of blood that would gush forth. His eyes were
+straining themselves out of their sockets. His arms could hardly bear up his
+sword. He fell down upon one knee, but he was able to hold the sword so that
+it guarded his head.
+
+Then the image of Fedelma appeared before him. He sprang up and his arms
+regained their power. His heart became steady in his breast. And as he made an
+attack upon the King of the Land of Mist, he saw that the blade in his hand
+was broken and worn because of its strokes against the Sword of Light.
+
+They fought with blades that seemed to kindle each other into sparks and
+flashes of light. They fought until the blade in the hand of the King of the
+Land of Mist was worn to a hand breadth above the hilt. He drew back towards
+the gate of the fifth courtyard. The King of Ireland's Son sprang at him and
+thrust the Sword of Light through his breast. Down on the stones before the
+fifth gate of his Castle fell the King of the Land of Mist.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son stepped over the body and went towards the fifth
+gate. Then he remembered what the Glashan had said, "His life is in his head."
+He went back to where the King of the Land of Mist had fallen. With a clean
+sweep of his sword he cut the head off the body.
+
+Then out of the mist that was all around three ravens came. With beak and
+claws they laid hold of the head and lifted it up. They fluttered heavily
+away, keeping near the ground.
+
+With his sword in his hand the King of Ireland's Son chased the ravens. He
+followed them through the fourth courtyard, the third courtyard, the second
+and the first. They flew off the rock on which the Castle was built and
+disappeared in the mist.
+
+He knew he would have to watch by the body of the King of the Land of Mist, so
+that the head might not be placed upon it. He sat down before the fifth gate.
+Pain and weariness, hunger and thirst oppressed him.
+
+He longed for something that would allay his hunger and thirst. But he knew
+that he could not go to the river to get refreshment of water and cresses from
+the Glashan. Something fell beside him in the courtyard. It was a beautiful,
+bright-colored apple. He went to pick it up, but it rolled away towards the
+third courtyard. He followed it. Then, as he looked back he saw that the
+ravens had lighted near the body of the King of the Land of Mist, holding the
+head in their beaks and claws. He ran back and the ravens lifted the head up
+again and flew away.
+
+He watched for another long time, and his hunger and his thirst made him long
+for the bright-colored apple he had seen.
+
+Another apple fell down. He went to pick it up and it rolled away. But now the
+King of Ireland's Son thought of nothing hut that bright-colored apple. He
+followed it as it rolled.
+
+It roiled through the third courtyard, and the second and the first. It rolled
+out of the first gate and on to the rock upon which the Castle was built. It
+rolled off the rock. The King of Ireland's Son sprang down and he saw the
+apple become a raven's head and beak.
+
+He climbed up the rock and ran back. And when he came into the first courtyard
+he saw that the three ravens had come back again. They had brought the head to
+the body, and body and head were now joined. The King of the Land of Mist
+stood up again, and his head was turned towards his left shoulder. He went to
+the sixth gate and took up a sword that was beside it.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+They fought their last battle before the sixth gate. The guard that the King
+of Ireland's Son made was weak, and if the King of the Land of Mist could have
+turned fully upon him, he could have disarmed and killed him. But his head had
+been so placed upon his body that it looked The King of the Land of Mist 237
+over his left shoulder. He was able to draw his sword down the breast of the
+King of Ireland's Son, wounding him. The King's Son whirled his sword around
+his head and flung it at his wry-headed enemy. It swept his head off, and the
+King of the Land of Mist fell down.
+
+The King of Ireland's Son saw on the outstretched neck the mark of the other
+beheading. He took up the Sword of Light again and prepared to hold the head
+against all that might come for it.
+
+But no creature came. And then the hair on the severed head became loose and
+it was blown away by the wind. And the bones of the head became a powder and
+the flesh became a froth, and ail was blown away by the wind.
+
+Then the King of Ireland's Son went through the sixth courtyard and came to
+the seventh gate. And before it he saw the last of the sentinels. A Hag, she
+was seated on the top of a water-tank taking white doves out of a basket and
+throwing them to ravens that flew down from the walls and tore the doves to
+pieces.
+
+When the Hag saw the King of Ireland's Son she sprang down from the water-tank
+and ran towards him with outstretched arms and long poisoned nails. With a
+sweep of his sword he cut the nails from her hands. Ravens picked up the
+nails, and then, as they tried to fly away, they fell dead.
+
+"The Sword of Light will take off your head if you do not take me on the
+moment to where Fedelma is," said the King of Ireland's Son. "I am sorry to do
+it," said the Hag, "but come, since you are the conqueror."
+
+He followed the Hag into the Castle. In a net, hanging across a chamber, he
+saw Fedelma. She was still, but she breathed. And the branch of hawthorn that
+put her asleep was fresh beside her. Strands of her bright hair came through
+the meshes of the net and were fastened to the wall. With a sweep of the Sword
+of Light he cut the strands.
+
+
+Her eyes opened. She saw the King of Ireland's Son, and the full light came
+back to her eyes, and the full life into her face.
+
+He cut the net from where it hung and laid it on the ground. He cut open the
+meshes. Fedelma rose out of it and went into his arms.
+
+He lifted her up and carried her out into the seventh courtyard. Then the Hag
+who had been one of the sentinels came out of the Castle, closed the door
+behind her and ran away into the mist, three ravens flying after her.
+
+And as for Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son, they went through the
+courtyards of the Castle and through the mists of the country and down to the
+River of the Broken Towers. They found the Glashan broiling a salmon upon hot
+stones. Salmon were coming from the sea and the Glashan went in and caught
+more, The King of the Land of Mist 239 broiled and gave them to the King of
+Ireland's Son and Fedelma to eat. The little black water-hen came out of the
+river and they fed it. The next day the King of Ireland's Son bade the Glashan
+take Fedelma on his shoulders and carry her to the other shore of the River of
+the Broken Towers. And he himself followed the little black water-hen who
+showed him all the shallow places in the river so that he crossed with the
+water never above his waist. But he was nearly dead from cold and weariness,
+and from the wounds on breast and foot when he came to the other side and
+found the Glashan and Fedelma waiting for him.
+
+They ate salmon again and rested for a day. They bade good-by to the Glashan,
+who went back to the river to hunt for salmon. Then they went along the bank
+of the river hand in hand while the King of Ireland's Son told Fedelma of all
+the things that had happened to him in his search for her.
+
+They came to where the river became known as the River of the Morning Star.
+And then, in the distance, they saw the Hill of Horns. Towards the Hill of
+Horns they went, and, at the near side of it, they found a house thatched with
+the wing of a bird. It was the house of the Little Sage of the Mountain. To
+the house of the Little Sage of the Mountain Fedelma and the King's Son now
+went.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE MEMORY OF BEATRICE CASSIDY COLUM
+
+
+
+
+The House of Crom Duv
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The story is now about Flann. He went through the East gate of the Town of the
+Red Castle and his journey was to the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth
+where he might learn what Queen and King were his mother and his father. It is
+with the youth Flann, once called the Gilly of the Goatskin, that we will go
+if it be pleasing to you, Son of my Heart. He went his way in the evening,
+when, as the bard said:--
+
+   The blackbird shakes his metal notes
+   Against the edge of day,
+   And I am left upon my road
+   With one star on my way.
+
+And he went his way in the night, when, as the same bard said:--
+
+   The night has told it to the hills,
+   And told the partridge in the nest,
+   And left it on the long white roads,
+   She will give light instead of rest.
+
+And he went on between the dusk and the dawn, when, as the same bard said
+again:--
+
+   Behold the sky is covered,
+   As with a mighty shroud:
+   A forlorn light is lying
+   Between the earth and cloud.
+
+
+And he went on in the dawn, when as the bard said (and this is the last stanza
+he made, for the King said there was nothing at all in his adventure):--
+
+   In the silence of the morning
+   Myself, myself went by,
+   Where lonely trees sway branches
+   Against spaces of the sky.
+
+And then, when the sun was looking over the first high hills he came to a
+river. He knew it was the river he followed before, for no other river in the
+country was so wide or held so much water. As he had gone with the flow of the
+river then he thought he would go against the flow of the river now, and so he
+might come back to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places he had traveled
+from.
+
+
+He met a Fisherman who was drying his nets and he asked him what name the
+river had. The Fisherman said it had two names. The people on the right bank
+called it the Day-break River and the people on the left bank called it the
+River of the Morning Star. And the Fisherman told him he was to be careful not
+to call it the River of the Morning Star when he was on the right bank nor the
+Daybreak River when he was on the left, as the people on either side wanted to
+keep to the name their fathers had for it and were ill-mannered to the
+stranger who gave it a different name. The Fisherman told Flann he was sorry
+he had told him the two names for the River and that the best thing he could
+do was to forget one of the names and call it just the River of the Morning
+Star as he was on the left bank.
+
+Flann went on with the day widening before him and when the height of the noon
+was past he came to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places he had traveled
+from. He went on with the bright day going before him and the brown night
+coming behind him, and at dusk he came to the black and burnt place where the
+Hags of the Long Teeth had their house of stone.
+
+He saw the house with a puff of smoke coming through every crevice in the
+stones. He went to the shut door and knocked on it with the knocking-stone.
+
+"Who's without?" said one of the Hags.
+
+"Who's within?" said Flann.
+
+"The Three Hags of the Long Teeth," said one of the Hags, "and if you want to
+know it," said she, "they are the runners and summoners, the brewers and
+candle-makers for Crom Duv, the Giant."
+
+Flann struck a heavier blow with the knocking-stone and the door broke in. He
+stepped into the smoke-filled house.
+
+"No welcome to you, whoever you are," said one of the three Hags who were
+seated around the fire.
+
+"I am the lad who was called Gilly of the Goatskin, and whom you reared up
+here," said he, "and I have come back to you."
+
+The three Hags turned from the fire then and screamed at him.
+
+"And what brought you back to us, humpy fellow?" said the first Hag.
+
+"I came back to make you tell me what Queen and King were my mother and
+father."
+
+"Why should you think a King and Queen were your father and mother?" they said
+to him.
+
+"Because I have on my breast the stars of a son of a King," said Flann, "and,"
+said he, "I have in my hand a sword that will make you tell me."
+
+He came towards them and they were afraid. Then the first Hag bent her knee to
+him, and, said she, "Loosen the hearthstone with your sword and you will find
+a token that will let you know who your father was."
+
+Flann put his sword under the hearthstone and pried it up. But if it were a
+token, what was under the hearthstone was an evil thing--a cockatrice. It had
+been hatched out of a serpent's egg by a black cock of nine years. It had the
+head and crest of a cock and the body of a black serpent. The cockatrice
+lifted itself up on its tail and looked at him with red eyes. The sight of
+that head made Flann dizzy and he fell down on the floor. Then it went down
+and the Hags put the hearthstone above it.
+
+"What will we do with the fellow?" said one of the Hags, looking at Flann who
+was in a swoon on the floor.
+
+"Cut of his head with the sword that he threatened us with," said another.
+
+"No," said the third Hag. "Crom Duv the Giant is in want of a servant. Let him
+take this fellow. Then maybe the Giant will give us what he has promised us
+for so long--a Berry to each of us from the Fairy Rowan Tree that grows in his
+courtyard."
+
+"Let it be, let it be," said the other Hags. They put green branches on the
+fire so that Crom Duv would see the smoke and come to the house. In the
+morning he came. He brought Flann outside, and after awhile Flann's senses
+came back to him. Then the Giant tied a rope round his arms and drove him
+before him with a long iron spike that he had for a staff.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+
+Crom Duv's arms stretched down to his twisted knees; he had long, yellow,
+overlapping horse s teeth in his mouth, with a fall-down under-lip and a
+drawn-back upper-lip; he had a matted rug of hair on his head. He was as high
+as a haystack. He carried in his twisted hand an iron spike pointed at the
+end. And wherever he was going he went as quickly as a running mule.
+
+He tied Flann's hands behind his back and drew the rope round Flann's body.
+Then he started off. Flann was dragged on as if at the tail of a cart. Over
+ditches and through streams; up hillsides and down into hollows he was hauled.
+Then they came into a plain as round as the wheel of a cart. Across the plain
+they went and into a mile-deep wood. Beyond the wood there were buildings--
+such walls and such heaps of stones Flann never saw before.
+
+But before they had entered the wood they had come to a high grassy mound. And
+standing on that grassy mound was the most tremendous bull that Flann had ever
+seen.
+
+"What bull is that, Giant?" said Flann.
+
+ "My own bull," said Crom Duv, "the Bull of the Mound. Look back at him,
+little fellow. If ever you try to escape from my service my Bull of the Mound
+will toss you into the air and trample you into the ground." Crom Duv blew on
+a horn that he had across his chest. The Bull of the Mound rushed down the
+slope snorting. Crom Duv shouted and the bull stood still with his tremendous
+head bent down.
+
+Flann's heart, I tell you, sank, when he saw the bull that guarded Crom Duv's
+house. They went through the deep wood then, and came to the gate of the
+Giant's Keep. Only a chain was across it, and Crom Duv lifted up the chain.
+The courtyard was filled with cattle black and red and striped. The Giant tied
+Flann to a stone pillar. "Are you there, Morag, my byre-maid?" he shouted.
+
+"I am here," said a voice from the byre. More cattle were in the byre and
+someone was milking them.
+
+There was straw on the ground of the courtyard and Crom Duv lay down on it and
+went to sleep with the cattle trampling around him. A great stone wall was
+being built all round the Giant's Keep--a wall six feet thick and built as
+high as twenty feet in some places and in others as high as twelve. The wall
+was still being built, for heaps of stones and great mixing-pans were about.
+And just before the door of the Keep was a Rowan Tree that grew to a great
+height. At the very top of the tree were bunches of red berries. Cats were
+lying around the stems of the tree and cats were in its branches--great yellow
+cats. More yellow cats stepped out of the house and came over to him. They
+looked Flann all over and went back, mewing to each other.
+
+The cattle that were in the courtyard went into the byre one by one as they
+were called by the voice of the byre-maid. Crom Duv still slept. By and by a
+little red hen that was picking about the courtyard came near him and holding
+up her head looked Flann all over.
+
+When the last cow had gone in and the last stream of milk had sounded in the
+milking-vessel the byre-maid came into the courtyard. Flann thought he would
+see a long-armed creature like Crom Duv himself. Instead he saw a girl with
+good and kind eyes, whose disfigurements were that her face was pitted and her
+hair was bushy. "I am Morag, Crom Duv's byre-maid," said she.
+
+"Will Crom Duv kill me?" said Flann.
+
+"No. He'll make you serve him," said the byre-maid.
+
+"And what will he make me do for him?"
+
+"He will make you help to build his wall. Crom Duv goes out every morning to
+bring his cattle to pasture on the plain. And when he comes back he builds the
+wall round his house. He'll make you mix mortar and carry it to him, for I
+heard him say he wants a servant to do that."
+
+"I'll escape from this," said Flann, "and I'll bring you with me."
+
+"Hush," said Morag, and she pointed to seven yellow cats that were standing at
+Crom Duv's door, watching them. "The cats," said she, "are Crom Duv's watchers
+here and the Bull of the Mound is his watcher out-side."
+
+"And is this Little Red Hen a watcher too?" said Flann, for the Little Red Hen
+was watching them sideways. "The Little Red Hen is my friend and adviser,"
+Morag, and she went into the house with two vessels of milk.
+
+
+Crom Duv wakened up. He untied Flann and left him free. "You must mix mortar
+for me now," he said. He went into the byre and came out with a great vessel
+of milk. He left it down near the mixing-pan. He went to the side of the house
+and came back with a trough of blood.
+
+"What are these for, Crom Duv?" said Flann. "To mix the mortar with, gilly,"
+said the Giant. "Bullock's blood and new milk is what I mix my mortar with, so
+that nothing can break down the walls that I'm building round the Fairy Rowan
+Tree. Every day I kill a bullock and every day my byre-maid fills a vessel of
+milk to mix with my mortar. Set to now, and mix the mortar for me."
+
+Flann brought lime and sand to the mixing-pan and he mixed them in bullock's
+blood and new milk. He carried stones to Crom Duv. And so he worked until it
+was dark. Then Crom Duv got down from where he was building and told Flann to
+go into the house.
+
+The yellow cats were there and Flann counted sixteen of them. Eight more were
+outside, in the branches or around the stem of the Rowan Tree. Morag came in,
+bringing a great dish of porridge. Crom Duv took up a wooden spoon and ate
+porridge out of vessel after vessel of milk. Then he shouted for his beer and
+Morag brought him vessel after vessel of beer. Crom Duv emptied one after the
+other..Then he shouted for his knife and when Morag brought it he began to
+sharpen it, singing a queer song to himself.
+
+"He's sharpening a knife to kill a bullock in the morning," said Morag. "Come
+now, and I'll give you your supper."
+
+She took him to the kitchen at the back of the house. She gave him porridge
+and milk and he ate his supper. Then she showed him a ladder to a room above,
+and he went up there and made a bed for himself. He slept soundly, although he
+dreamed of the twenty-four yellow cats within, and the tremendous Bull of the
+Mound outside Crom Duv's Keep.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+This is how the days were spent in the house of Crom Duv. The Giant and his
+two servants, Flann and Morag, were out of their beds at the mouth of the day.
+Crom Duv sounded his horn and the Bull of the Mound bellowed an answer. Then
+he started work on his wall, making Flann carry mortar to him. Morag put down
+the fire and boiled the pots. Pots of porridge, plates of butter and pans of
+milk were on the table when' Crom Duv and Flann came in to their breakfasts.
+Then, when the Giant had driven out his cattle to the pasture Flann cleaned
+the byre and made the mortar, mixing lime and sand with bullock's blood and
+new milk. In the afternoon the Giant came back and he and Flann started work
+on the wall.
+
+All the time the twenty-four yellow cats lay on the branches of the Rowan Tree
+or walked about the court-yard or lapped up great crocks of milk. Morag's
+Little Red Hen went hopping round the courtyard. She seemed to be sleepy or to
+be always considering something. If one of the twenty-four yellow cats looked
+at her the Little Red Hen would waken up, murmur something, and hop away.
+
+One day the cattle came home without Crom Duv. "He has gone on one of his
+journeys," said Morag, "and will not be back for a night and a day."
+
+"Then it is time for me to make my escape," said Flann.
+
+"How can you make your escape, my dear, my dear?" said Morag. "If you go by
+the front the Bull of the Mound will toss you in the air and then trample you
+into the ground."
+
+"But I have strength and cunning and activity enough to climb the wall at the
+back."
+
+"But if you climb the wall at the back," said Morag, "you will only come to
+the Moat of Poisoned Water." "The Moat of Poisoned Water?" "The Moat of
+Poisoned Water," said Morag. "The water poisons the skin of any creature that
+tries to swim across the Moat."
+
+Flann was downcast when he heard of the Moat of Poisoned Water. But his mind
+was fixed on climbing the wall. "I may find some way of crossing the poisoned
+water," he said, "so bake my cake and give me provision for my journey."
+
+Morag baked a cake and put it on the griddle. And when it was baked she
+wrapped it in a napkin and gave it to him. "Take my blessing with it," said
+she, "and if you escape, may you meet someone who will be a better help to you
+than I was. I must keep the twenty-four cats from watching you while you are
+climbing the wall."
+
+"And how will you do that?" said Flann.
+
+She showed him what she would do. With a piece of glass she made on the wall
+of the byre the shadows of flying birds. Birds never flew across the House of
+Crom Duv and the cats were greatly taken with the appearances that Morag made
+with the piece of glass. Six cats watched, and then another six came, and
+after them six more, and after them the six that watched in the Rowan Tree.
+And the twenty-four yellow cats sat round and watched with burning eyes the
+appearances of birds that Morag made on the byre-wall. Flann looked back and
+saw her seated on a stone, and he thought the Byre-Maid looked lonesome.
+
+He tried with all his activity, all his cunning and all his strength, and at
+last he climbed the wall at the back of Crom Duv's house. He gave a whistle to
+let Morag know he was over. Then he went through a little wood and came to the
+Moat of Poisoned Water.
+
+Very ugly the dead water looked. Ugly stakes stuck up from the mud to pierce
+any creature that tried to leap across. And here and there on the water were
+patches of green poison as big as cabbage leaves. Flann drew back from the
+Moat. Leap it he could not, and swim it he dare not. And just as he drew back
+he saw a creature he knew come down to the bank opposite to him. It was Rory
+the Fox. Rory carried in his mouth the skin of a calf. He dropped the skin
+into the water and pushed it out before him. Then he got into the water and
+swam very cautiously, always pushing the calf's skin before him. Then Rory
+climbed up on the bank where Flann was, and the skin, all green and wrinkled,
+sank down into the water.
+
+Rory was going to turn tail, but then he recognized Flann. " Master," said he,
+and he licked the dust on the ground.
+
+"What are you doing here, Rory?" said Flann.
+
+"I won't mind telling you if you promise to tell no other creature," said
+Rory.
+
+"I won't tell," said Flann.
+
+"Well then," said Rory, "I have moved my little family over here. I was being
+chased about a good deal, and my little family wasn't safe. So I moved them
+over here." The fox turned and looked round at the country behind him. "It
+suits me very well," said he; "no creature would think of crossing this moat
+after me."
+
+"Well," said Flann, "tell me how you are able to cross it."
+
+"I will," said the fox, "if you promise never to hunt me nor any of my little
+family."
+
+"I promise," said Flann.
+
+"Well," said Rory, "the water poisons every skin. Now the reason that I pushed
+the calf's skin across was that it might take the poison out of the water. The
+water poisons every skin. But where the skin goes the poison is taken out of
+the water for a while, and a living creature can cross behind it if he is
+cautious."
+
+"I thank you for showing me the way to cross the moat," said Flann.
+
+"I don't mind showing you," said Rory the Fox, and he went off to his burrow.
+
+There were deer-skins and calf-skins both sides of the moat. Flann took a
+calf's skin. He pushed it into the water with a stick. He swam cautiously
+behind it. When he reached the other side of the moat, the skin, all green and
+wrinkled, sank in the water.
+
+Flann jumped and laughed and shouted when he found himself in the forest and
+clear of Crom Duv's house. He went on. It was grand to see the woodpecker
+hammering on the branch, and to see him stop, busy as he was to say "Pass,
+friend." Two young deer came out of the depths of the wood. They were too
+young and too innocent to have anything to tell him, but they bounded
+alongside of him as he raced along the Hunter's Path. He jumped and he shouted
+again when he saw the river before him--the river that was called the Daybreak
+River on the right bank and the River of the Morning Star on the left. He said
+to himself, "This time, in troth, I will go the whole way with the river. A
+moving thing is my delight. The river is the most wonderful of all the things
+I have seen on my travels."
+
+Then he thought he would eat some of the cake that Morag had baked for him. He
+sat down and broke it. Then as he ate it the thought of Morag came into his
+mind. He thought he was looking at her putting the cake on the griddle. He
+went a little way along the river and then he began to feel lonesome. He
+turned back, "I'll go to Crom Duv's House," said he, "and show Morag the way
+to escape. And then she and I will follow the river, and I won't be lonesome
+while she's with me."
+
+So back along the Hunter's Path Flann went. He came to the Moat of Poisoned
+Water. He found a deer-skin and pushed it into the water and then swam
+cautiously across the moat. He climbed the wall then, and when he put his head
+above it he saw Morag. She was watching for him.
+
+"Crom Duv has not come back yet," said she, "but oh, my dear, my dear, I can't
+prevent the yellow cats from watching you come over the wall."
+
+First six cats came and then another six and they sat round and watched Flann
+come down the wall. They did nothing to him, but when he came down on the
+ground they followed him wherever he went.
+
+"You crossed the moat," said Morag, "then why did you come back?"
+
+"I came back," said Flann, "to bring you with me."
+
+"But," said she, "I cannot leave Crom Duv's house."
+
+"I'll show you how to cross the moat," said he, "and we'll both be glad to be
+going by the moving river."
+
+Tears came into Morag's eyes. "I'd go with you, my dear," said she, "but I
+cannot leave Crom Duv's house until I get what I came for."
+
+"And what did you come for, Morag?" said he.
+
+"I came," said she, "for two of the rowan berries that grow on the Fairy Rowan
+Tree in Crom Duv's court-yard. I know now that to get these berries is the
+hardest task in the world. Come within," said she, "and if we sit long enough
+at the supper-board I will tell you my story."
+
+They sat at the supper-board long, and Morag told 
+
+
+
+
+The Story of Morag
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+I was reared in the Spae-Woman's house with two other girls, Baun and Deelish,
+my foster-sisters. The Spae-Woman's house is on the top of a knowe, away from
+every place, and few ever came that way.
+
+One morning I went to the well for water.  When I looked into it I saw, not my
+own image, but the image of a young man. I drew up my pitcher filled with
+water, and went back to the Spae-Woman's house. At noontide Baun went to the
+well for water. She came back and her pitcher was only haft-fi/led. Before
+dark Deelish went to the well. She came back without a pitcher, for it fell
+and broke on the flags of the well.
+
+The next day Baun and Deelish each plaited their hair, and they said to her
+who was foster-mother for the three of us: "No one will come to marry us in
+this far-away place. We will go into the world to seek our fortunes. So," said
+they, "bake a cake for each of us before the fall of the night."
+
+The Spae-Woman put three cakes on the griddle and baked them. And when they
+were baked she said to Baun and Deelish: "Will you each take the half of the
+cake and my blessing, or the whole of the cake without my blessing?" And Baun
+and Deelish each said, "The whole of the cake will be little enough for our
+journey."
+
+Each then took her cake under her arm and went the path down the knowe. Then
+said I to myself, "It would be well to go after my foster-sisters for they
+might meet misfortune on the road." So I said to my foster-mother, "Give me
+the third cake on the griddle until I go after my foster-sisters."
+
+"Will you have half of the cake and my blessing or the whole of the cake
+without my blessing?" said she to me.
+
+"The half of the cake and your blessing, mother," said I.
+
+She cut the cake in two with a black-handled knife and gave me the even half
+of it. Then said she:--
+      May the old sea's
+      Seven Daughters 
+      They who spin
+      Life's longest threads,
+      Protect and guard you!
+
+She put salt in my hand then, and put the Little Red Hen under my arm, and I
+went off.
+
+I went on then till I came in sight of Baun and Deelish. Just as I caught up
+on them I heard one say to the other, "This ugly, freckled girl will disgrace
+us if she comes with us." They tied my hands and feet with a rope they found
+on the road and left me in a wood.
+
+
+I got the rope off my hands and feet and ran and ran until I came in sight of
+them again. And when I was coming on them I heard one say to the other, "This
+ugly, freckled girl will claim relationship with us wherever we go, and we
+will get no good man to marry us." They laid hold of me again and put me in a
+lime-kiln, and put beams across it, and put heavy stones on the beams. But my
+Little Red Hen showed me how to get out of the lime-kiln. Then I ran and I ran
+until I caught up with Baun and Deelish again.
+
+"Let her come with us this evening," said one to the other, "and to-morrow
+we'll find some way of getting rid of her."
+
+The night was drawing down now, and we had to look for a house that would give
+us shelter. We saw a hut far off the road and we went to the broken door. It
+was the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth. We asked for shelter. They showed
+us a big bed in the dormer-room, and they told us we could have supper when
+the porridge was boiled.
+
+The three Hags sat round the fire with their heads together. Baun and Deelish
+were in a corner plaiting their hair, but the Little Red Hen murmured that I
+was to listen to what the Hags said.
+
+"We will give them to Crom Duv in the morning" one said. And another said, "I
+have put a sleeping-pin in the pillow that will be under each, and they will
+not waken."
+
+When I heard what they said I wanted to think of what we could do to make our
+escape. I asked Baun to sing to me. She said she would if I washed her feet. I
+got a basin of water and washed Baun's feet, and while she sang, and while the
+Hags thought we were not minding them, I considered what we might do to
+escape. The Hags hung a pot over the fire and the three of them sat around it
+once more.
+
+When I had washed my foster-sister's feet I took a besom and began to sweep
+the floor of the house. One of the Hags was very pleased to see me doing that.
+She said I would make a good servant, and after a while she asked me to sit at
+the fire. I sat in the corner of the chimney. They had put meal in the water,
+and I began to stir it with a pot-stick. Then the Hag that had asked me to the
+fire said, "I will give you a good share of milk with your porridge if you
+keep stirring the pot for us." This was just what I wanted to be let do. I sat
+in the chimney-corner and kept stirring the porridge while the Hags dozed
+before the fire.
+
+First, I got a dish and ladle and took out of the pot some half-cooked
+porridge. This I left one side. Then I took down the salt-box that was on the
+chimney-shelf and mixed handfuls of salt in the porridge left in the pot.
+
+
+When it was all cooked I emptied it into another dish and brought the two
+dishes to the table. Then I told the Hags that all was ready. They came over
+to the table and they gave my foster-sisters and myself three porringers of
+goat's milk. We ate out of the first dish and they ate out of the second. "By
+my sleep to-night," said one Hag, "this porridge is salty." "Too little salt
+is in it for my taste," said my foster-sister Deelish. "It is as salt as the
+depths of the sea," said another of the Hags. "My respects to you, ma'am,"
+said Baun, "but I do not taste any salt on it at all." My foster-sisters were
+so earnest that the Hags thought themselves mistaken, and they ate the whole
+dishful of porridge.
+
+The bed was made for us, and the pillows were laid on the bed, and I knew that
+the slumber-pin was in each of the pillows. I wanted to put off the time for
+going to bed so I began to tell stories. Baun and Deelish said it was still
+young in the night, and that I should tell no short ones, but the long story
+of Eithne, Balor's daughter. I had just begun that story, when one of the Hags
+cried out that she was consumed with thirst.
+
+She ran to the pitcher, and there was no water in it. Then another Hag shouted
+out that the thirst was strangling her. The third one said she could not live
+another minute without a mouthful of water. She took the pitcher and started
+for the well. No sooner was she gone than the second Hag said she couldn't
+wait for the first one to come back and she started out after her. Then the
+third one thought that the pair would stay too long talking at the well, and
+she started after them. Immediately I took the pillows off our bed and put
+them on the Hags' bed, taking their pillows instead.
+
+The Hags came back with a half-filled pitcher, and they ordered us to go to
+our bed. We went, and they sat for a while drinking porringers of water. "Crom
+Duv will be here the first thing in the morning," I heard one of them say.
+They put their heads on the pillows and in the turn of a hand they were dead-
+fast-sound asleep. I told my foster-sisters then what I had done and why I had
+done it. They were very frightened, but seeing the Hags so sound asleep they
+composed themselves and slept too.
+
+Before the screech of day Crom Duv came to the house. I went outside and saw
+the Giant. I said I was the servant of the Hags, and that they were sleeping
+still. He said, "They are my runners and summoners, my brewers, bakers and
+candle-makers, and they have no right to be sleeping so late." Then he went
+away.
+
+I knew that the three Hags would slumber until we took the pillows from under
+their heads. We left them sleeping while we put down a fire and made our
+break-fast. Then, when we were ready for our journey, we took the pillows from
+under their heads. The three Hags started up then, but we were out on the
+door, and had taken the first three steps of our journey.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+Without hap or mishap we came at last to the domain of the King of Senlabor.
+Baun went to sing for the King's foster-daughters, and Deelish went to work at
+the little loom in the King's chamber. We were not long at the court of the
+King of Senlabor when two youths came there from the court of the King of
+Ireland--Dermott and Downal were their names. There was a famous sword-smith
+with the King of Senlabor and these two came to learn the trade from him. And
+my two foster-sisters fell so deeply in love with the two youths that every
+night the pillow on each side of me was wet with their tears.
+
+I went to work in the King's kitchen. Now the King had a dish of such fine
+earthware and with such beautiful patterns upon it that he never let it be
+carried from the Kitchen to the Feast-Hall, nor from the Feast-Hall to the
+Kitchen without going himself behind the servant who carried it. One day the
+servant brought it into the Kitchen to be washed and the King came behind the
+servant. I took the dish and cleaned it with thrice-boiled water and dried it
+with cloths of three different kinds. Then I covered it with sweet-smelling
+herbs and left it in a bin where it was sunk in soft bran. The King was
+pleased to see the good care I took of his dish, and he said before his
+servant that he would do me any favor I would ask. There and then I told him
+about my two foster-sisters Baun and Deelish, and how they were in love with
+the two youths Dermott and Downal who had come from the court of the King of
+Ireland. I asked that when these two youths were being given wives, that the
+King should remember my foster-sisters.
+
+The King was greatly vexed at my request. He declared that the two youths had
+on their breasts the stars that denoted the sons of Kings and that he intended
+they should marry his own two foster-daughters when the maidens were of age to
+wed. "It may be," he said, "that these two youths will bring what my Queen
+longs for--a berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree that is guarded by the Giant Crom
+Duv."
+
+The next day the King's Councillor was feeding the birds and I was sifting the
+corn. I asked him what was the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree that the Giant
+Crom Duv guarded and why it was that the Queen longed for a berry of it. There
+and then he told me this story:--
+
+
+
+
+The Story of the Fairy Rowan Tree
+
+
+The history of the Fairy Rowan Tree (said the King's Councillor) begins with
+Aine', the daughter of Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea. Curoi, the King of the
+Munster Fairies loved Aine' and sought her in marriage. But the desire of the
+girl's heart was set upon Fergus who was a mortal, and one of the Fianna of
+Ireland. Now when Mananaun MacLir heard Curoi's proposals and learned how his
+daughter's heart was inclined, he said, "Let the matter be settled in this
+way: we will call a hurling-match between the Fairies of Munster and the
+Fianna of Ireland with Curoi to captain one side and Fergus to captain the
+other, and if the Fairies win, Aine' will marry Curoi and if the Fianna have
+the victory she will have my leave to marry this mortal Fergus."
+
+So a hurling-match was called for the first day of Lunassa, and it was to be
+played along the strand of the sea. Mananaun himself set the goal-marks, and
+Aine' was there to watch the game. It was played from the rising of the sun
+until the high tide of noon, and neither side won a goal. Then the players
+stopped to eat the refreshment that Mananaun had provided.
+
+This is what Mananaun had brought from his own country, Silver-Cloud Plain: a
+branch of bright-red rowan berries. Whoever ate one of these rowan berries his
+hunger and his weariness left him in a moment. The berries were to be eaten by
+the players, Mananaun said, and not one of them was to be taken into the world
+of the mortals or the world of the Fairies.
+
+When they stopped playing at the high tide of noon the mortal Fergus saw Aine'
+and saw her for the first time. A spirit that he had never felt before flowed
+into him at the sight of Mananaun's daughter. He forgot to eat the berry he
+was given and held it in his mouth by the stalk.
+
+He went into the hurling-match again and now he was like a hawk amongst small
+birds. Curoi defended the goal and drove the ball back. Fergus drove it to the
+goal again; the two champions met and Curoi's hurl, made out of rhinoceros'
+horn, did not beat down Fergus's hurl made out of the ash of the wood. The
+hosts stood aside and left the game to Fergus and Curoi. Curoi's hurl jerked
+the ball upward; then Fergus gave it the double stroke first with the handle
+and then with the weighted end of the hurl and drove it, beautifully as a
+flying bird, between the goal-marks that Mananaun had set up. The match was
+won by the goal that Fergus had gained.
+
+The Fianna then invited the Fairies of Munster to a feast that they were
+giving to Fergus and his bride. The Fairies went, and Mananaun and Aine' went
+before them all. Fergus marched at the head of his troop with the rowan berry
+still hanging from his mouth. And as he went he bit the stalk and the berry
+fell to the ground. Fergus never heeded that.
+
+When the feast was over he went to where Mananaun stood with his daughter.
+Aine' gave him her hand. "And it is well," said Conan, the Fool of the Fianna,
+"that this thick-witted Fergus has at last dropped the berry out of his
+mouth." "What berry?" said Curoi, who was standing by. "The rowan berry," said
+Conan, "that he carried across two townlands the same as if he were a bird."
+
+When Mananaun heard this he asked about the berry that Fergus had carried. It
+was not to be found. Then the Fianna and the Fairies of Munster started back
+to look for a trace of it. what they found was a wonderful Rowan Tree. It had
+grown out of the berry that Fergus had let fall, but as yet there were no
+berries on its branches.
+
+Mananaun, when he saw the tree said, "No mortal may take a berry that grows on
+it. Hear my sentence now. Fergus will have to guard this tree until he gets
+one who will guard it for him. And he may not see nor keep company with Aine'
+his bride until he finds one who will guard it better than he can guard it
+himself." Then Mananaun wrapped his daughter in his cloak and strode away in a
+mist. The Fairy Host went in one direction and the Fianna in another, and
+Fergus was left standing sorrowfully by the Fairy Rowan Tree.
+
+
+Next day (said Morag), when the King's Councillor was feeding the birds and I
+was sifting the corn, he told me the rest of the history of the Fairy Rowan
+Tree. Fergus thought and thought how he might leave off watching it and be
+with Aine', his bride. At last he bethought him of a Giant who lived on a
+rocky island with only a flock of goats for his possessions. This Giant had
+begged Finn, the Chief of the Fianna, for a strip of the land of Ireland, even
+if it were only the breadth of a bull's hide. Finn had refused him. But now
+Fergus sent to Finn and asked him to bring the Giant to be the guardian of the
+Fairy Rowan Tree and to give him the land around it. "I mislike letting this
+giant Crom Duv have any portion of the land of Ireland," said Finn,
+"nevertheless we cannot refuse Fergus."
+
+So Finn sent some of the Fianna to the Giant and they found him living on a
+bare rock of an island with only a flock of goats for his possessions. Crom
+Duv lay on his back and laughed when he heard what message the men of the
+Fianna brought to him. Then he put them and his flock of goats into his big
+boat and rowed them over to Ireland.
+
+Crom Duv swore by his flock of goats he would guard the Fairy Rowan Tree until
+the red berries ceased to come on its branches. Fergus left his place at the
+tree then and went to Aine', and it may be that she and he are still together.
+
+Well did Crom Duv guard the tree, never going far from it and sleeping at
+night in its branches. And one year a heifer came and fed with his flock of
+goats and another year a bullock came. And these were the beginning of his
+great herd of cattle. He has become more and more greedy for cattle, said the
+King's Councillor, and now he takes them away to far pastures. But still the
+Fairy Rowan Tree is well guarded. The Bull that is called the Bull of the
+Mound is on guard near by, and twenty-four fierce yellow cats watch the tree
+night and day.
+
+The Queen of Senlabor and many another woman besides desires a berry from the
+Fairy Rowan Tree that stands in Crom Duv's courtyard. For the woman who is old
+and who eats a berry from that tree becomes young again, and the maid who is
+young and who eats a berry gets all the beauty that should be hers of right.
+And now, my maid, said the King's Councillor to me, I have told you the
+history of the Fairy Rowan Tree.
+
+When I heard all this (said Morag), I made up my mind to get a berry for the
+Queen and maybe another berry besides from the Fairy Rowan Tree in Crom Duv's
+courtyard. When the King came into the kitchen again, I asked him would he
+permit my foster-sisters to marry Downal and Dermott if I brought to his Queen
+a berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree. He said he would give permission heartily.
+That night when I felt the tears of Baun and Deelish I told them I was going
+to search for such a dowry for them that when they had it the King would let
+them marry the youths they had set their hearts on. They did not believe I
+could do anything to help them, but they gave me leave to go.
+
+The next day I told the Queen I was going to seek for a berry from the Fairy
+Rowan Tree. She told me that if I could bring back one berry to her she would
+give me all the things she possessed. I said good-by to my foster-sisters and
+with the Little Red Hen under my arm I went towards the house of the Hags of
+the Long Teeth. I built a shelter and waited till Crom Duv came that way. One
+early morning he came by. I stood before him and I told him that I wanted to
+take service in his house.
+
+Crom Duv had never had a servant in his house. But I told him that he should
+have a byre-maid and that I was well fitted to look after his cattle. He told
+me to follow him. I saw the Bull of the Mound and I was made wonder how I
+could get away with the berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree. Then I saw the
+twenty-four fierce yellow cats and I was made wonder how I could get the berry
+from the tree. And after that I found out about the Moat of Poisoned Water
+that is behind the high wall at the back of Crom Duv's house. And so now (said
+Morag), you know why I have come here and how hard the task is I have taken on
+myself.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+
+Now that he had heard the history of the Fairy Rowan Tree, Flann often looked
+at the clusters of scarlet berries that were high up on its branches. The Tree
+could be climbed, Flann knew. But on the top of the tree and along its
+branches were the fierce yellow cats--the cats that the Hags of the Long Teeth
+had reared for Crom Duv, thinking that he would some time give each of them
+the berry that would make them young again. And at the butt of the tree there
+were more cats. And all about the courtyard the Hags' fierce cats paraded
+themselves.
+
+The walls round the Giant's Keep were being built higher by Crom Duv, helped
+by his servant Flann. The Giant's herd was now increased by many calves, and
+Morag the byre-maid had much to do to keep all the cows milked. And day and
+night Morag and Flann heard the bellowing of the Bull of the Mound.
+
+Now one day while Crom Duv was away with his herd, Flann and Morag were in the
+courtyard. They saw the Little Red Hen rouse herself up, shake her wings and
+turn a bright eye on them. "What dost thou say, my Little Red Hen?" said
+Morag.
+
+"The Pooka," murmured the Little Red Hen. "The Pooka rides a fierce horse, but
+the Pooka himself is a timid little fellow." Then the Little Red Hen drooped
+her wings again, and went on picking in the courtyard.
+
+"The Pooka rides a fierce horse," said Morag, "if the Pooka rides a fierce
+horse he might carry us past the Bull of the Mound."
+
+"And if the Pooka himself is a timid little fellow we might take the fierce
+horse from him," said Flann.
+
+"But this does not tell us how to get the berries off the Fairy Rowan Tree,"
+said Morag.
+
+"No," said Flann, "it does not tell us how to get the berries off the tree the
+cats guard."
+
+The next day Morag gave grains to the Little Red Hen and begged for words.
+After a while the Little Red Hen murmured, "There are things I know, and
+things I don't know, but I do know what grows near the ground, and if you pull
+a certain herb, and put it round the necks of the cats they will not be able
+to see in the light nor in the dark. And to-morrow is the day of Sowain," said
+the Little Red Hen. She said no more words. She had become sleepy and now she
+flew down and roosted under the table. There she went on murmuring to herself-
+-as all hens murmur--where the Children of Dana hid their treasures--they
+know, for it was the Children of Dana who brought the hens to Ireland.
+
+"To-morrow," said Morag to Flann, "follow the Little Red Hen, and if she makes
+any sign when she touches an herb that grows near the ground, pluck that herb
+and bring it to me."
+
+That night Morag and Flann talked about the Pooka and his fierce horse. On
+Sowain night--the night before the real short days begin--the Pooka rides
+through the countryside touching any fruit that remains, so that it may bring
+no taste into winter. The blackberries that were good to eat the day before
+are no good on November day, because the Pooka touched them the night before.
+What else the Pooka does no one really knows. He is a timid fellow as the
+Little Red Hen said, and he hopes that the sight of his big black horse and
+the sound of its trampling and panting as he rides by will frighten people out
+of his way, for he has a great fear of being seen.
+
+The next day the Little Red Hen stayed in the courtyard until Crom Duv left
+with his herd. Flann followed her. She went here and there between the house
+and the wall at the back, now picking a grain of sand and now an ant or spider
+or fly. And as she went about the Little Red Hen murmured a song to herself:--
+
+   When sleep would settle on me
+   Like the wild bird down on the nest,
+   The wind comes out of the West:
+   It tears at the door, maybe,
+   And frightens away my rest--
+   When sleep would come upon me
+   Like the wild bird down on the nest.
+
+   The cock is aloft with his crest:
+   The barn-owl comes from her quest
+   She fixes an eye upon me
+   And frightens away my rest
+   When sleep would settle on me
+   Like the wild bird down on its nest.
+
+Flann watched all the Little Red Hen did. He saw her put her head on one side
+and look down for a while at a certain herb that grew near the ground. Flann
+plucked that herb and brought it to Morag.
+
+The cattle had come home, but Crom Duv was not with them. Morag milked the
+cows and brought all the milk within, leaving no milk for the cats to drink
+outside. Six came into the kitchen to get their supper there. One after
+another they sprang up on the table, one more proud and overbearing than the
+other. Each cat ate without condescending to make a single mew. "Cat of my
+heart," said Morag to the first, when he had finished drinking his milk. "Cat
+of my heart! How noble you would look with this red around your neck." She
+held out a little satchel in which a bit of the herb was sewn. The first cat
+gave a look that said, "Well, you may put it on me." Morag put the red satchel
+around his neck and he jumped off the table.
+
+It was so with all the other cats. They finished lapping their milk and Morag
+showed them the red ribbon satchel. They let her put it round each of ' their
+necks and then they sprang off the table, and marched off more scornful and
+overbearing than before.
+
+
+Six of the fierce yellow cats climbed into the branches of the Fairy Rowan
+Tree; six stayed in the kitchen; six went into Crom Duv's chamber, and six
+went to march round the house, three taking each side. No sound came from the
+cats that were within or without. Morag drew a ball of cotton across the
+floor, and the cats that were in the kitchen gave no sign of seeing it. "The
+sight has left their eyes," said Morag. "Then," said Flann, "I will climb the
+Fairy Rowan Tree and bring down two berries." "Be sure you bring down two, my
+dear, my dear," said Morag.
+
+They went out to the courtyard and Flann began to climb the Fairy Rowan Tree
+with all suppleness, strength and cunning. The cats that were below felt him
+going up the tree and the cats that were above humped themselves up. Flann
+passed the first branch on which a cat was crouched. He went above where the
+rowan berries were, and bending down he picked two of them and put them into
+his mouth.
+
+He came down quickly with the cats tearing at him. Others had come out of the
+house and were mewing and spitting in the courtyard. Only one had fastened
+itself on Flann's jerkin, and this one would not let go. "Come into the wood,
+come into the wood," said Morag. "Now we must stand between the house and the
+mound, and wait till the Pooka rides by." Flann put the two berries into her
+hand, they jumped across the chain, and ran from the house of the Giant Crom
+Duv.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+
+They went into the wood, Flann and Morag, and the Little Red Hen was under
+Morag's arm. They thought they would hide behind trees until they heard the
+coming of the Pooka and his horse. But they were not far in the wood when they
+heard Crom Duv coming towards his house. He came towards them with the iron
+spike in his hand. Flann and Morag ran. Then from tree to tree Crom Duv chased
+them, shouting and snorting and smashing down branches with the iron spike in
+his hand. Morag and Flann came to a stream, and as they ran along its bank
+they heard the trampling and panting of a horse coming towards them. Up it
+came, a great black horse with a sweeping mane. "Halt, Pooka," said Flann in a
+commanding voice. The black horse halted and the Pooka that was its rider
+slipped down to its tail.
+
+Flann held the snorting horse and Morag got on its back. Then Flann sprang up
+between Morag and the horse's head. Crom Duv was just beside them. "Away,
+Pooka, away," said Flann, and the horse started through the wood like the wind
+of March.
+
+And then Crom Duv blew on the horn that was across his breast and the Bull of
+the Mound bellowed in answer. As they went by the mound the Bull charged down
+and its horns tossed the tail of the Pooka's horse. The Bull turned and swept
+after them with his head down and hot breath coming out of his nostrils. And
+when they were in the hollow he was on the height, and when they were on the
+height he was in the hollow. And a hollow or a height behind his Bull came
+Crom Duv himself.
+
+Then the breath of the Bull became hot upon Morag and Flann and the Pooka.
+"Oh, what shall we do now?" said Morag to the Pooka who was hanging on to the
+horse's tail, his little face all twisted up with fear.
+
+
+"Put your hand into my horse's ear and fling behind what you will find there,"
+said the Pooka, his teeth chattering. Flann put his hand into the horse's
+right ear and found a twig of ash. He flung it behind them. Instantly a
+tangled wood sprang up. They heard the Bull driving through the tangle of the
+wood and they heard Crom Duv shouting as he smashed his way through the brakes
+and branches. But the Bull and the man got through the wood and again they
+began to gain on the Pooka's horse. Again the breath of the Bull became hot
+upon them. "Oh, Pooka, what shall we do now?" said Morag.
+
+"Put your hand into my horse's ear and fling behind what you will find there,"
+said the Pooka, his teeth chattering with fear as he held on to his horse's
+tail. Flann put his hand into the horse's left ear and he found a bubble of
+water. He flung it behind them. Instantly it spread out as a lake and as they
+rode on, the lake waters spread behind them.
+
+Morag and Flann never knew whether the Giant and the Bull went into that lake,
+or if they did, whether they ever came out of it. They crossed the river that
+marked the bounds of Crom Duv's domain and they were safe. Flann pulled up the
+horse and jumped on to the ground. Morag sprang down with the Little Red Hen.
+Then the Pooka swung forward and whispered into his horse's ear. Instantly it
+struck fire out of its hooves and sprang down the side of a hill. From that
+day to this Morag nor Flann ever saw sight of the Pooka and his big, black,
+snorting and foaming horse.
+
+"Dost thou know where we are, my Little Red Hen?" said Morag when the sun was
+in the sky again.
+
+"There are things I know and things I don't know," said the Little Red Hen,
+"but I know we are near the place we started from."
+
+"Which way do we go to come to that place, my Little Red Hen?" said Morag.
+"The way of the sun," said the Little Red Hen. So Morag and Flann went the way
+of the sun and the Little Red Hen hopped beside them. Morag had in a weasel-
+skin purse around her neck the two rowan berries that Flann had given her.
+
+They went towards the house of the Spae-Woman. And as they went Morag told
+Flann of the life she had there when she and her foster-sisters were growing
+up, and Flann told Morag of the things he did when he was in the house of the
+Spae-Woman after she and her foster-sisters had left it.
+
+They climbed the heather-covered knowe on which was the Spae-Woman's house and
+the Little Red Hen went flitting and fluttering towards the gate. The Spae-
+Woman's old goat was standing in the yard, and its horns went down and its
+beard touched its knees and it looked at the Little Red Hen. Then the Little
+Red Hen flew up on its back. "We're here again, here again," said the Little
+Red Hen.
+
+And then the Spae-Woman came to the door and saw who the comers were. She
+covered them with kisses and watered them with tears, and dried them with
+cloths silken and with the hair of her head.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+
+Flann told the Spae-Woman all his adventures. And when he had told her all he
+said--"What Queen is my mother, O my fosterer? "Your mother," said the Spae-
+Woman, "is Caintigern, the Queen of the King of Ireland."
+
+"And is my mother then not Sheen whose story has been told me?" "Her name was
+changed to Caintigern when her husband who was called the Hunter-King made
+himself King over Ireland and began to rule as King Connal."
+
+"Then who is my comrade who is called the King of Ireland's Son?"
+
+"He too is King Connal's son, born of a queen who died at his birth and who
+was wife to King Connal before he went on his wanderings and met Sheen your
+mother."
+
+And as the Spae-Woman said this someone came and stood at the doorway. A girl
+she was and wherever the sun was it shone on her, and wherever the breeze was
+it rippled over her. White as the snow upon a lake frozen over was the girl,
+and as beautiful as flowers and as alive as birds were her eyes, while her
+cheeks had the red of fox-gloves and her hair was the blending of five bright
+soft colors. She looked at Flann happily and her eyes had the kind look that
+was always in Morag's eyes. And she came and 'knelt down, putting her hands on
+his knees. "I am Morag, Flann," she said.
+
+"Morag indeed," said he, "but how have you become so fair?"
+
+"I have eaten the berry from the Fairy Rowan Tree," said she, "and now I am as
+fair as I should be."
+
+All day they were together and Flann was happy that his friend was so
+beautiful and that so beautiful a being was his friend. And he told her of his
+adventures in the Town of the Red Castle and of the Princess Flame-of-Wine and
+his love for her. "And if you love her still I will never see you again," said
+Morag.
+
+"But," said Flann, "I could not love her after the way she mocked at me."
+
+"When did she mock at you?"
+
+"When I took her a message that the Spae-Woman told me to give her."
+
+"And what was that message?"
+
+"'Ask her,' said the Spae-Woman, 'for seven drops of her heart's blood--she
+can give them and live--so that the spell may be taken from the seven wild
+geese and the mother who longs for you may be at peace again.' This was the
+message the Spae-Woman told me to give Flame-of-Wine. And though I had given
+her wonderful gifts she laughed at me when I took it to her. And by the way
+she laughed I knew she was hard of heart."
+
+"Yet seven drops of heart's blood are hard to give," said Morag sadly.
+
+"But the maiden who loves can give them," said the Spae-Woman who was behind.
+
+"It is true, foster-mother," said Morag.
+
+That evening Morag said, "To-morrow I must pre-pare for my journey to the
+Queen of Senlabor. You, Flann, may not come with me. The Spae-Woman has sent a
+message to your mother, and you must be here to meet her when she comes. A
+happy meeting to her and you, 0 Flann of my heart. And I shall leave you a
+token to give to her. So to-morrow I go to the Queen of Senlabor with the
+Rowan Berry and I shall bring my Little Red Hen for company, and shall stay
+only until my sisters are wed to Dermott and Downal, your brothers."
+
+The next day when he came into the house he saw Morag dressed for her journey
+but seated at the fire. She was pale and ill-looking. "Do not go to-day,
+Morag," said he. "I shall go to-day," said Morag. She put her hand into the
+bosom of her dress and took out a newly-woven handkerchief folded. "This is a
+token for your mother," she said. "I have woven it for her. Give her this gift
+from me when you have welcomed her."
+
+"That I will do, Morag, my heart," said Flann.
+
+The Spae-Woman came in and kissed Morag good-by and said the charm for a
+journey over her.
+
+   May my Silver-
+   Shielded Magian
+   Shed all lights
+   Across your path.
+
+Then Morag put the Little Red Hen under her arm and started out. "I shall find
+you," said she to Flann, "at the Castle of the King of Ireland, for it is
+there I shall go when I part from my foster-sisters and the Queen of Senlabor.
+Kiss me now. But if you kiss anyone until Story of the Fairy Rowan Tree 29l
+you kiss me again you will forget me. Remember that."
+
+"I will remember," said Flann, and he kissed Morag and said, "When you come to
+the King of Ireland's Castle we will be married."
+
+"You gave me the Rowan Berry," said Morag, "and the Rowan Berry gave me all
+the beauty that should be mine. But what good will my beauty be to me if you
+forget me?"
+
+"But, Morag," said he, "how could I forget you?"
+
+She said nothing but went down the side of the knowe and Flann watched and
+watched until his eyes had no power to see any more.
+
+
+
+
+The Spae-Woman
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+There are many things to tell you still, my kind foster-child, but little time
+have I to tell you them, for the barnacle-geese are flying over the house, and
+when they have all flown by I shall have no more to say. And I have to tell
+you yet how the King of Ireland's Son won home with Fedelma, the Enchanter's
+daughter, and how it came to pass that the Seven Wild Geese that were
+Caintigern's brothers were disenchanted and became men again. But above all I
+have to tell you the end of that story that was begun in the house of the
+Giant Crom Duv--the story of Flann and Morag.
+
+The barnacle-geese are flying over the house as I said. And so they were
+crossing and flying on the night the King of Ireland's Son and Fedelma whom he
+had brought from the Land of Mist stayed in the house of the Little Sage of
+the Mountain. On that night the Little Sage told them from what bird had come
+the wing that thatched his house. That was a wonderful story. And he told them
+too about the next place they should go to--the Spae-woman's house. There, he
+said he would find people that they knew--Flann, the King's Son's comrade, and
+Caintigern, the wife of the King of Ireland, and Fedelma's sister, Gilveen.
+
+In the morning the Little Sage of the Mountain took them down the hillside to
+the place where Fedelma and the King's Son would get a horse to ride to the
+Spae-Woman's house. The Little Sage told them from what people the Spae-Woman
+came and why she lived amongst the poor and foolish without name or splendor
+or riches. And that, too, was a wonderful story.
+
+
+Now as the three went along the river-side they saw a girl on the other side
+of the river and she was walking from the place towards which they were going.
+The girl sang to herself as she went along, and the King's Son and Fedelma and
+the Little Sage of the Mountain heard what she sang,--
+
+   A berry, a berry, a red rowan berry,
+   A red rowan berry brought mc beauty and love.
+
+   But drops of my heart's blood, drops of my heart's blood,
+   Seven drops of my heart's blood I have given away.
+
+   Seven wild geese were men, seven wild geese were men,
+   Seven drops of my heart's blood are there for your spell.
+
+   A kiss for my love, a kiss for my love,
+   May his kiss go to none till he meet me again.
+
+   If to one go his kiss, if to one go his kiss,
+   He may meet, he may meet, and not know me again.
+
+The girl on the other bank of the river passed on, and the King's Son and
+Fedelma with the Little Sage of the Mountain came to the meadow where the
+horse was. A heavy, slow-moving horse he seemed. But when they mounted him
+they found he had the three qualities of Finn's steeds--a quick rush against a
+hill, the gait of a fox, easy and proud, on the level ground, and the jump of
+a deer over harriers. They left health and good luck with the Little Sage of
+the Mountain, and on the horse he gave them they rode on to the Spae-Woman's
+house.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+When Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son came to the Spae-Woman's house, who
+was the first person they saw there but Gilveen, Fedelma's sister! She came to
+where they reined their horse and smiled in the faces of her sister and the
+King of Ireland's Son. And she it was who gave them their first welcome. "And
+you will be asking how I came here," said Gilveen, "and I will tell you
+without wasting candle-light. Myself and sister Aefa went to the court of the
+King of Ireland after you, my sister, had gone from us with the lucky man of
+your choice. And as for Aefa, she has been lucky too in finding a match and
+she is now married to Maravaun the King's Councillor. I have been with
+Caintigern the Queen. And now the Queen is in the house of the Spae-Woman with
+the youth Flann and she is longing to give the clasp of welcome to both of
+you. And if you sit beside me on this grassy ditch I will tell you the whole
+story from the first to the last syllable."
+
+They sat together, and Gilveen told Fedelma and the King's Son the story. The
+Spae-Woman had sent a message to Caintigern the Queen to tell her she had
+tidings of her first-born son. Thereupon Caintigern went to the Spae-Woman's
+house and Gilveen, her attendant, went with her. She found there Flann who had
+been known as Gilly of the Goatskin, and knew him for the son who had been
+stolen from her when he was born. Flann gave his mother a token which had been
+given him by a young woman. The token was a handkerchief and it held seven
+drops of heart's blood. The Spae-Woman told the Queen that these seven drops
+would disenchant her brothers who had been changed from their own forms into
+the forms of seven wild geese.
+
+And while Gilveen was telling them all this Flann came to see whose horse was
+there, and great was his joy to find his comrade the King of Ireland's Son.
+They knew now that they were the sons of the one father, and they embraced
+each other as brothers. And Flann took the hand of Fedelma and he told her     
+and the King's Son of his love for Morag. But when he was speaking of Morag,
+Gilveen went away.
+
+Then Flann took them into the Spae-Woman's house, and the Queen who was seated
+at the fire rose up and gave them the clasp of welcome. The face she turned to
+the King's Son was kindly and she called him by his child's name. She said too
+that she was well pleased that he and Flann her son were good comrades, and
+she prayed they would be good comrades always.
+
+
+Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son rested themselves for a day. Then the
+Spae-Woman said that the Queen would strive on the next night--it was the
+night of the full moon--to bring back her seven brothers to their own forms.
+The Spae-Woman said too that the Queen and herself should be left alone in the
+house and that the King of Ireland's Son with Flann and Fedelma and Gilveen
+should go towards the King of Ireland's Castle with MacStairn the woodman, and
+wait for the Queen at a place a day's journey away.
+
+So the King of Ireland's Son and Flann, Fedelma and Gilveen bade good-by to
+the Queen, to the Spae-Woman and to the Spae-Woman's house, and started their
+journey towards the King's Castle with MacStairn the Woodman who walked beside
+their horses, a big axe in his hands.
+
+At night MacStairn built two bothies for them--one covered with green boughs
+for Fedelma and Gilveen and one covered with cut sods for Flann and the King
+of Ireland's Son. Flann lay near the opening of this bothie. And at night,
+when the only stir in the forest was that of the leaves whispering to the
+Secret People, Gilveen arose from where she lay and came to the other bothie
+and whispered Flann's name. He awakened, and thinking that Morag had come back
+to him (he had been dreaming of her), he put out his arms, drew Gilveen to him
+and kissed her. Then Gilveen ran back to her own bothie. And Flann did not
+know whether he had awakened or whether he had remained in a dream.
+
+But when he arose the next morning no thought of Morag was in his mind. And
+when the King's Son rode with Fedelma he rode with Gilveen. Afterwards Gilveen
+gave him a drink that enchanted him, so that he thought of her night and day.
+
+Neither Fedelma nor the King's Son knew what had come over Flann. They
+mentioned the name he had spoken of so often--Morag's name but it seemed as if
+it had no meaning for him. At noon they halted to bide until the Queen came
+with or without her seven brothers. Flann and Gilveen were always together.
+And always Gilveen was smiling.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+When Caintigern had come, when she knew her son Flann, and when it was known
+to her and to the Spae-Woman that the token Morag had given him held the seven
+drops of heart's blood that would bring back to their own forms the seven wild
+geese that were Caintigern's brothers--when all this was known the Spae-Woman
+sent her most secret messenger to the marshes to give word to the seven wild
+geese that they were to fly to her house on the night when the moon was full.
+Her messenger was the corncrake. She traveled night and day, running swiftly
+through the meadows. She hid on the edge of the marshes and craked out her
+message to the seven wild geese. At last they heard what she said. On the day
+before the night of the full moon they flew, the seven together, towards the
+Spae-Woman's house.
+
+No one was in the house but Caintigern the Queen. The door was left open to
+the light of the moon. The seven wild geese flew down and stayed outside the
+door, moving their heads and wings in the full moonlight.
+
+Then Caintigern arose and took bread that the Spae-Woman had made. She
+moistened it in her mouth, and into each bit of moistened bread she put a
+piece of the handkerchief that had a drop of blood. She held out her hand,
+giving each the moistened bread. The first that ate it fell forward on the
+floor of the Spae-Woman's house, his head down on the ground. His sister saw
+him then as a kneeling man with this arms held behind him as if they were
+bound. And when she looked outside she saw the others like kneeling men with
+their heads bent and their arms held behind them. Then Caintigern said, giving
+the Spae-Woman her secret name, "O Grania Oi, let it be that my brothers be
+changed back to men!" When she said this she saw the Spae-Woman coming across
+the court-yard. The Spae-Woman waved her hands over the bent figures. They
+lifted themselves up as men--as naked, gray men.
+
+The Spae-Woman gave each a garment and the seven men came into the house. They
+would stand and not sit, and for long they had no speech. Their sister knelt
+before each and wet his hand with her tears. She thought she should see them
+as youths or as young men, and they were gray now and past the prime of their
+lives.
+
+They stayed at the house and speech came back to them. Then they longed to go
+back to their father's, but Caintigern could not bear that they should go from
+her sight. At last four of her brothers went and three stayed with her. They
+would go to her husband's Castle and the others would go too after they had
+been at their father's. Then one day Caintigern said farewell. The thanks that
+was due to the Spae-Woman, she said she would give by her treatment of the
+maid who had given the token to her son Flann. And she prayed that Morag would
+soon come to the King's Castle.
+
+
+She went with her three brothers to the place where Flann and the King of
+Ireland's Son, Fedelma and Gilveen waited for them. A smith groomed and decked
+horses for all of them and they rode towards the King of Ireland's Castle,
+MacStairn, the Woodman, going before to announce their coming.
+
+The King of Ireland waited at the stone where the riders to his Castle
+dismount, and his steward, his Councillor and his Druid were beside him. He
+lifted his wife off her horse and she brought him to Flann. And when the King
+looked into Flann's eyes he knew he was his son and the son of Sheen, now
+known as Caintigern. He gave Flann a father's clasp of welcome. And the queen
+brought him to her own three brothers who had been estranged from human
+companionship from before he knew her. And she brought him to the youth who
+was always known as the King of Ireland's Son, and him his father welcomed
+from the path of danger.
+
+And then the King's Son took Fedelma to his father and told him she was his
+love and his wife to be. And the King welcomed Fedelma to the Castle. Then
+said Gilveen, "There is a secret between this young man, Flann, and myself."
+
+"What is the secret?" said the Queen, laying her hands suddenly upon Gilveen's
+shoulders.
+
+"That I am his wife to be," said Gilveen.
+
+The Queen went to her son and said, "Dost thou not remember Morag, Flann, who
+gave the token that thou gavest me?"
+
+And Flann said, "Morag! I think the Spae-Woman spoke of her name in a story."
+
+"I am Flann's wife to be," said Gilveen, smiling in his face.
+
+"Yes, my wife to be," said Flann. Then the King welcomed Gilveen too, and they
+all went into the Castle. He told his wife he had messages from the King of
+Senlabor about his other sons Dermott and Downal, saying that they were making
+good names for themselves, and that everything they did was becoming to sons
+of Kings. In the hall Fedelma saw Aefa her other sister. Aefa was so proud of
+herself since she married Maravaun the King's Councillor that she would hardly
+speak to anyone. She gave her sisters the tips of her fingers and she bowed
+very slightingly to the two youths. The King questioned his druid as to when
+it would be well to have marriages made in his Castle and the druid said it
+would be well not to make them until the next appearance of the full moon.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+
+As for Morag she went by track and path, by boher and bohereen, through fords
+in rivers and over stepping-stones across them, until at last she came to the
+country of Senlabor and to the Castle of the King.
+
+No one of high degree was in the Castle, for all had gone to watch the young
+horses being broken in the meadow by the river; the King and Queen had gone,
+and the King's foster-daughters; and of the maids in the Castle, Baun and
+Deelish had gone too. The King's Councillor also had gone from the Castle.
+Morag went and stayed in the kitchen, and the maids who were there did not
+know her, either because they were new and had not heard her spoken of at all,
+or because she had changed to such beauty through eating the berry of the
+Fairy Rowan Tree that no one could know her now for Morag who had cleaned
+dishes in that kitchen before.
+
+It was Breas the King's Steward who came to her and asked her who she was. She
+told him. Then Breas looked sharply at her and saw she was indeed Morag who
+had been in the King's kitchen. Then he said loudly, "Before you left you
+broke the dish that the King looked on as his especial treasure, and for this,
+you will be left in the Stone House. I who have power in this matter order
+that it be so." Then he said in her ear, "But kisses and sweet words would
+make me willing to save you."
+
+Morag, in a voice raised, called him by that evil name that he was known by to
+the servants and their gossips. But the servants, hearing that name said in
+the hearing of Breas, pretended to be scandalized. They went to Morag and
+struck her with the besoms they had for sweeping the floor.
+
+
+Just then her foster-sisters, Baun and Deelish, came into the kitchen. Seeing
+her there they knew her. They spoke to her quietly, but with anger, saying
+they had not wanted her to go on the journey she had taken, but, as she had
+gone it was a pity she had come back, for now she had behaved in an iii-
+mannered way, and they who were her foster-sisters would be thought to be as
+ill-mannered; they told her too that before she came back they were well-liked
+by all, and that Breas had even ordered a shady place to be given them at the
+horse-breaking sports, and they had been able to see the two youths who had
+broken the horses, Dermott and Downal.
+
+"It was for a benefit to you that I came back," said Morag. "I shall ask one
+of you to do a thing for me. You, Baun, sing for the foster-daughters of the
+King. Before they sleep to-night ask them to tell the Queen that Morag has
+returned, and has a thing to give her."
+
+"I shall try to remember that, Morag," said Baun. Morag was taken to the Stone
+House by strong-armed bondswomen, and Baun and Deelish sat in corners and
+cried and did not go near her.
+
+That night the King's foster-daughters kept awake for long, and after Baun had
+sung to them they asked her to tell them what had happened in the Castle. Then
+Baun remembered the tumult in the kitchen that had come from the name given to
+Breas. She told the King's foster-daughters that Morag had come back. "She was
+reared in the same house with us," said Baun, "but she is not of the same
+parents." And then she said; "If your Fair Finenesses can remember, tell the
+Queen that Morag has come back."
+
+The next day when they were walking with the Queen one of the King's foster-
+daughters said, "Did you know of a maid named Morag? I have heard that she has
+been away and has come back."
+
+"How did she fare?" said the Queen.
+
+"We have not heard that," said the maiden who spoke.
+
+The Queen went to where Baun and Deelish were and from them she heard that
+Morag had been put into the Stone House on the charge that she had broken the
+King's dish when she had been in the Castle before. Now the Queen knew that
+the dish had been safe after Morag had left. She went to the King's Steward
+and accused him of having broken it and Breas admitted that it was so.
+Thereupon he lost his rank and became the meanest and the most despised
+servant in the Castle.
+
+The Queen went to the Stone House and took Morag out. She asked her how she
+had fared and thereupon Morag put the Rowan Berry in the Queen's hand. She
+hastened to her own chamber and ate it, and her youth and beauty came back to
+her, and the King who had grown solitary, loved the Queen again.
+
+Then Morag came to great honor in the Castle and the Queen asked her to name
+the greatest favor she could think of. And the favor that Morag named was
+marriages for her foster-sisters with the two youths they loved, Downal and
+Dermott from the court of the King of Ireland.
+
+The Queen, when she heard this, brought fine clothes out of her chests and
+gave them to Baun and Deelish. When they had dressed in these clothes the
+Queen made them known to the two youths. Downal and Dermott fell in love with
+Morag's foster-sisters, and the King named a day for the pairs to marry.
+
+Morag waited to see the marriages, and the King and Queen made it a grand
+affair. There were seven hundred guests at the short table, eight hundred at
+the long table, nine hundred at the round table, and a thousand in the great
+hall. I was there, and I heard the whole story. But I got no present save
+shoes of paper and stockings of butter-milk and these a herdsman stole from me
+as I crossed the mountains.
+
+But Morag got better presents, for the Queen gave her three gifts--a scissors
+that cut cloth of itself, a ball of thread that went into the needle of
+itself, and a needle that sewed of itself.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+
+Morag, with the three gifts that the Queen of Senlabor gave her, came again to
+the Spae-Woman's house. Her Little Red Hen was in the courtyard, and she
+fluttered up to meet  her. But there was no sign of any other life about the
+place. Then, below at the washing-stream she found the Spae-Woman rinsing
+clothes. She was standing on the middle-stones, clapping her hands as if in
+great trouble. "Oh, Morag, my daughter Morag," cried the Spae-Woman, "there
+are signs on the clothes--there are signs on the clothes!"
+
+After a while she ceased crying and clapping her hands and came up from the
+stream. She showed Morag that in all the shifts and dimities she washed for
+her, a hole came just above where her heart would be. Morag grew pale when she
+saw that, hut she stood steadily and she did not wail. "Should I go to the
+King's Castle, fosterer?" said she. "No," said the Spae-Woman, "but to the
+woodman's hut that is near the King's Castle. And take your Little Red Hen
+with you, my daughter," said she, "and do not forget the three presents that
+the Queen of Senlabor gave you." Then the Spae-Woman stood up and said the
+blessing of the journey over Morag:--
+
+   May the Olden
+   One, whom Fairy
+   Women nurtured
+   Through seven ages,
+   Bring you seven
+   Waves of fortune.
+
+Morag gave her the clasp of farewell then, and went on her way with the Little
+Red Hen under her arm and the three presents that the Queen of Senlabor gave
+her in her pouch.
+
+
+Morag was going and ever going from the blink of day to the mouth of dark and
+that for three crossings of the sun, and at last she came within sight of the
+Castle of the King of Ireland. She asked a dog-boy for the hut of MacStairn
+the Woodman and the hut was shown to her. She went to it and saw the wife of
+MacStairn. She told her she was a girl traveling alone and she asked for
+shelter. "I can give you shelter," said MacStairn's wife, "and I can get you
+earnings too, for there is much sewing-work to be done at this time." Morag
+asked her what reason there was for that, and the woodman's wife told her
+there were two couples in the Castle to be married soon. "One is the youth
+whom we have always called the King of Ireland's Son. He is to be married to a
+maiden called Fedelma. The other is a youth who is the King's son too, hut who
+has been away for a long time. Flann is his name. And he is to be married to a
+damsel called Gilveen."
+
+When she heard that, it was as if a knife had been put into and turned in her
+heart. She let the Little Red Hen drop from her arm. "I would sew the garments
+that the damsel Gilveen is to wear," said she, and she sat down on the stone
+outside the woodman's hut. MacStairn's wife then sent to the Castle to say
+that there was one in her hut who could sew all the garments that Gilveen
+would send her.
+
+The next day, with a servant walking behind, Gilveen came to the woodman's hut
+with a basket of cloths and patterns. The basket was left down and Gilveen
+began to tell MacStairn's wife how she wanted them cut, stitched and
+embroidered. Morag took up the crimson doth and let her scissors--the scissors
+that the Queen of Senlabor gave her--run through it. It cut out the pattern
+exactly. "What a wonderful scissors," said Gilveen. She stooped down to where
+Morag was sitting on the stone outside of the woodman's house and took up the
+scissors in her hand. She examined it. "I cannot give it back to you," said
+she. "Give it to me, and I will let you have any favor you ask." "Since you
+want me to ask you for a favor," said Morag, "I ask that you let me sit at the
+supper-table to-night alone with the youth you are to marry." "That will do me
+no harm," said Gilveen. She went away, taking the scissors and smiling to
+herself.
+
+That night Morag went into the Castle and came to the supper-table where Flann
+was seated alone. But Gilveen had put a sleeping-draught into Flann's cup and
+he neither saw nor knew Morag when she sat at the table. "Do you remember,
+Flann," said she, "how we used to sit at the supper-board in the house of Crom
+Duv?" But Flann did not hear her, nor see her, and then Morag had to go away.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+The next day Gilveen came to where Morag sat on the stone outside the
+woodman's hut to watch her stitch the garment she had cut out. The thread went
+into the needle of itself. "What a wonderful ball of thread," said Gilveen,
+taking it up. "I cannot give it back to you. Ask me for a favor in place of
+it." "Since you would have me ask a favor," said Morag, "I ask that you let me
+sit at the supper-table alone with the youth you are going to marry." "That
+will do me no harm," said Gilveen. She took the ball of thread and went away
+smiling.
+
+That night Morag went into the Castle and came to the supper-table where Flann
+was seated alone. But Gilveen again had put a sleeping-draught into his cup,
+and Flann did not see or know Morag. "Do you not remember, Flann," said she,
+"the story of Morag that I told you across the supper-board in the House of
+Crom Duv?" But Flann gave no sign of knowing her, and then Morag had to go
+away.
+
+The next day Gilveen came to watch Morag make the red embroideries upon the
+white garment. When she put the needle into the cloth it worked out the
+pattern of itself. "This is the most wonderful thing of all," said Gilveen.
+She stooped down and took the needle in her hand. "I cannot give this back to
+you," she said, "and you will have to ask for a favor that will recompense
+you."
+
+"If I must ask for a favor," said Morag, "the only favor I would ask is that
+you let me sit at the supper-table to-night alone with the youth you are to
+marry." "That will do me no harm," said Gilveen, and she took the needle and
+went away smiling. Morag went to the Castle again that night, but this time
+she took the Little Red Hen with her. She scattered grains on the table and
+the Little Red Hen picked them up. "Little Hen, Little Red Hen," said Morag,
+"he slept too when I gave the seven drops of my heart's blood for his mother's
+sake." The Little Red Hen flew into Flann's face. "Seven drops of heart's
+blood, seven drops of heart's blood," said the Little Red Hen, and Flann heard
+the words.
+
+He opened his eyes and saw the Little Red Hen on the table and knew that she
+belonged to one that he had known. Morag, at the other side of the table,
+looked strange and shadowy to him. But he threw crumbs on the table and fed
+the Little Red Hen, and as he watched her picking up the crumbs the memory of
+Morag came back to him. Then he saw her. He knew her for his sweetheart and
+his promised wife and he went to her and asked her how it came that she had
+not been in his mind for so long. "I will tell you how you came to forget me,"
+said she, "it was because of the kiss you gave Gilveen, and the enchantment
+she was able to put on you because of that kiss."
+
+There was sorrow on Morag's face when she said that, but the sorrow went as
+the thin clouds go from before the face of the high-hung moon, and Flann saw
+her as his kind comrade of Crom Duv's and as his beautiful friend of the Spae-
+Woman's house. They kissed each other then, and every enchantment went but the
+lasting enchantment of love, and they sat with hands joined until the log in
+the fire beside them had burnt itself down into a brand and the brand had
+burnt itself into ashes, and all the time that passed was, as they thought,
+only while the watching-gilly outside walked from one side of the Castle Gate
+to the other.
+
+
+Gilveen had come into the room and she saw Flann and Morag give each other a
+true-lover's kiss. She went away. But the next day she came to the King's
+Steward, Art, who at one time wanted to marry her, and whom she had refused
+because Aefa, her sister, had married one of a higher degree--she came to Art
+and she told him that she would not marry Flann because she had found out that
+he had a low-born sweetheart. "And I am ready to marry you, Art," she said.
+And Art was well pleased, and he and Gilveen left the Castle to be married.
+
+Then the day came when Fedelma and the King of Ireland's Son, and Morag and
+Flann were married. They were plighted to each other in the Circle of Stones
+by the Druids who invoked upon them the powers of the Sun, the Moon, the
+Earth, and the Air. They were married at the height of the day and they
+feasted at night when the wax candles were lighted round the tables. They had
+Greek honey and Lochlinn beer; ducks from Achill, apples from Emain and
+venison from the Hunting Hill; they had trout and grouse and plovers' eggs and
+a boar's head for every King in the company. And these were the Kings who sat
+down to table with the King of Eirinn: the King of Sorcha, the King of
+Hispania, the King of Lochlinn and the King of the Green Island who had
+Sunbeam for his daughter. And they had there the best heroes of Lochlinn, the
+best story-tellers of Alba, the best bards of Eirinn. They laid sorrow and
+they raised music, and the harpers played until the great champion Split-the-
+Shields told a tale of the realm of Greece and how he slew the three lions
+that guarded the daughter of the King. They feasted for six days and the last
+day was better than the first, and the laugh they laughed when Witless, the
+Saxon fool, told how Split-the-Shield's story should have ended, shook the
+young jackdaws out of every chimney in the Castle and brought them down
+fluttering on the floors.
+
+The King of Ireland lived long, but he died while his sons were in their
+strong manhood, and after he passed away the Island of Destiny came under the
+equal rule of the two. And one had rule over the courts and cities, the
+harbors and the military encampments. And the other had rule over the waste
+places and the villages and the roads where masterless men walked. And the
+deeds of one are in the histories the shanachies have written in the language
+of the learned, and the deeds of the other are in the stories the people tell
+to you and to me.
+
+   When I crossed the Ford
+   They were turning the Mountain Pass;
+   When I stood on the Stepping-stones
+   They were travelling the Road of Glass.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext The King of Ireland's Son, by Padraic Colum
+
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