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+Project Gutenberg Etext The King of Ireland's Son, by Padraic Colum
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+Title:  The King of Ireland's Son
+
+Author:  Padraic Colum
+
+Release Date: October, 2002  [Etext #3495]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
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+Edition:  10
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+Project Gutenberg Etext The King of Ireland's Son, by Padraic Colum
+******This file should be named kison10.txt or kison10.zip*********
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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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