Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales
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Title: Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales
Editor: Joseph Jacobs
Illustrator: John Dickson Batten
Release date: April 13, 2011 [eBook #35862]
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC FOLK AND FAIRY TALES ***
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
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_SAY THIS_
_Three times, with your eyes shut_
[Illustration: Gaelic]
_And you will see_
_What you will see_
[Illustration: The Sea Maiden]
Celtic Folk and
Fairy Tales
SELECTED AND EDITED BY
JOSEPH JACOBS
EDITOR OF "FOLK-LORE"
ILLUSTRATED BY
JOHN D. BATTEN
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
* * * * *
To
ALFRED NUTT
* * * * *
Preface
Last year, in giving the young ones a volume of English Fairy Tales,
my difficulty was one of collection. This time, in offering them
specimens of the rich folk-fancy of the Celts of these islands, my
trouble has rather been one of selection. Ireland began to collect her
folk-tales almost as early as any country in Europe, and Croker has
found a whole school of successors in Carleton, Griffin, Kennedy,
Curtin, and Douglas Hyde. Scotland had the great name of Campbell, and
has still efficient followers in MacDougall, MacInnes, Carmichael,
MacLeod, and Campbell of Tiree. Gallant little Wales has no name to
rank alongside these; in this department the Cymru have shown less
vigour than the Gaedhel. Perhaps the Eisteddfod, by offering prizes
for the collection of Welsh folk-tales, may remove this inferiority.
Meanwhile Wales must be content to be somewhat scantily represented
among the Fairy Tales of the Celts, while the extinct Cornish tongue
has only contributed one tale.
In making my selection I have chiefly tried to make the stories
characteristic. It would have been easy, especially from Kennedy, to
have made up a volume entirely filled with "Grimm's Goblins" _a la
Celtique_. But one can have too much even of that very good thing, and
I have therefore avoided as far as possible the more familiar
"formulae" of folk-tale literature. To do this I had to withdraw from
the English-speaking Pale both in Scotland and Ireland, and I laid
down the rule to include only tales that have been taken down from
Celtic peasants ignorant of English.
Having laid down the rule, I immediately proceeded to break it. The
success of a fairy book, I am convinced, depends on the due admixture
of the comic and the romantic: Grimm and Asbjornsen knew the secret,
and they alone. But the Celtic peasant who speaks Gaelic takes the
pleasure of telling tales somewhat sadly: so far as he has been
printed and translated, I found him, to my surprise, conspicuously
lacking in humour. For the comic relief of this volume I have
therefore had to turn mainly to the Irish peasant of the Pale; and
what richer source could I draw from?
For the more romantic tales I have depended on the Gaelic, and, as I
know about as much of Gaelic as an Irish Nationalist M.P., I have had
to depend on translators. But I have felt myself more at liberty than
the translators themselves, who have generally been over-literal, in
changing, excising, or modifying the original. I have even gone
further. In order that the tales should be characteristically Celtic,
I have paid more particular attention to tales that are to be found on
both sides of the North Channel. In re-telling them I have had no
scruple in interpolating now and then a Scotch incident into an Irish
variant of the same story, or _vice versa_. Where the translators
appealed to English folk-lorists and scholars, I am trying to attract
English children. They translated; I endeavoured to transfer. In
short, I have tried to put myself into the position of an _ollamh_ or
_sheenachie_ familiar with both forms of Gaelic, and anxious to put
his stories in the best way to attract English children. I trust I
shall be forgiven by Celtic scholars for the changes I have had to
make to effect this end.
The stories collected in this volume are longer and more detailed than
the English ones I brought together last Christmas. The romantic ones
are certainly more romantic, and the comic ones perhaps more comic,
though there may be room for a difference of opinion on this latter
point. This superiority of the Celtic folk-tales is due as much to the
conditions under which they have been collected, as to any innate
superiority of the folk-imagination. The folk-tale in England is in
the last stages of exhaustion. The Celtic folk-tales have been
collected while the practice of story-telling is still in full vigour,
though there is every sign that its term of life is already numbered.
The more the reason why they should be collected and put on record
while there is yet time. On the whole, the industry of the collectors
of Celtic folk-lore is to be commended, as may be seen from the survey
of it I have prefixed to the Notes and References at the end of the
volume. Among these, I would call attention to the study of the
legend of Beth Gellert, the origin of which, I believe, I have
settled.
While I have endeavoured to render the language of the tales simple
and free from bookish artifice, I have not felt at liberty to re-tell
the tales in the English way. I have not scrupled to retain a Celtic
turn of speech, and here and there a Celtic word, which I have _not_
explained within brackets--a practice to be abhorred of all good men.
A few words unknown to the reader only add effectiveness and local
colour to a narrative, as Mr. Kipling well knows.
One characteristic of the Celtic folk-tale I have endeavoured to
represent in my selection, because it is nearly unique at the present
day in Europe. Nowhere else is there so large and consistent a body of
oral tradition about the national and mythical heroes as amongst the
Gaels. Only the _byline_, or hero-songs of Russia, equal in extent the
amount of knowledge about the heroes of the past that still exists
among the Gaelic-speaking peasantry of Scotland and Ireland. And the
Irish tales and ballads have this peculiarity, that some of them have
been extant, and can be traced for well nigh a thousand years. I have
selected as a specimen of this class the Story of Deirdre, collected
among the Scotch peasantry a few years ago, into which I have been
able to insert a passage taken from an Irish vellum of the twelfth
century. I could have more than filled this volume with similar oral
traditions about Finn (the Fingal of Macpherson's "Ossian"). But the
story of Finn, as told by the Gaelic peasantry of to-day, deserves a
volume by itself, while the adventures of the Ultonian hero,
Cuchulain, could easily fill another.
I have endeavoured to include in this volume the best and most typical
stories told by the chief masters of the Celtic folk-tale, Campbell,
Kennedy, Hyde, and Curtin, and to these I have added the best tales
scattered elsewhere. By this means I hope I have put together a
volume, containing both the best, and the best known folk-tales of the
Celts. I have only been enabled to do this by the courtesy of those
who owned the copyright of these stories. Lady Wilde has kindly
granted me the use of her effective version of "The Horned Women"; and
I have specially to thank Messrs. Macmillan for right to use Kennedy's
_Legendary Fictions_, and Messrs. Sampson Low & Co., for the use of
Mr. Curtin's Tales.
In making my selection, and in all doubtful points of treatment, I
have had resource to the wide knowledge of my friend Mr. Alfred Nutt
in all branches of Celtic folk-lore. If this volume does anything to
represent to English children the vision and colour, the magic and
charm, of the Celtic folk-imagination, this is due in large measure to
the care with which Mr. Nutt has watched its inception and progress.
With him by my side I could venture into regions where the non-Celt
wanders at his own risk.
Lastly, I have again to rejoice in the co-operation of my friend, Mr.
J. D. Batten, in giving form to the creations of the folk-fancy. He
has endeavoured in his illustrations to retain as much as possible of
Celtic ornamentation; for all details of Celtic archaeology he has
authority. Yet both he and I have striven to give Celtic things as
they appear to, and attract, the English mind, rather than attempt the
hopeless task of representing them as they are to Celts. The fate of
the Celt in the British Empire bids fair to resemble that of the
Greeks among the Romans. "They went forth to battle, but they always
fell," yet the captive Celt has enslaved his captor in the realm of
imagination. The present volume attempts to begin the pleasant
captivity from the earliest years. If it could succeed in giving a
common fund of imaginative wealth to the Celtic and the Saxon children
of these isles, it might do more for a true union of hearts than all
your politics.
JOSEPH JACOBS.
* * * * *
Contents
PAGE
I. CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN 1
II. GULEESH 6
III. THE FIELD OF BOLIAUNS 29
IV. THE HORNED WOMEN 34
V. CONALL YELLOWCLAW 38
VI. HUDDEN AND DUDDEN AND DONALD O'NEARY 54
VII. THE SHEPHERD OF MYDDVAI 64
VIII. THE SPRIGHTLY TAILOR 68
IX. THE STORY OF DEIRDRE 72
X. MUNACHAR AND MANACHAR 92
XI. GOLD-TREE AND SILVER-TREE 97
XII. KING O'TOOLE AND HIS GOOSE 102
XIII. THE WOOING OF OLWEN 109
XIV. JACK AND HIS COMRADES 124
XV. THE SHEE AN GANNON AND THE GRUAGACH GAIRE 134
XVI. THE STORY-TELLER AT FAULT 144
XVII. THE SEA-MAIDEN 158
XVIII. A LEGEND OF KNOCKMANY 171
XIX. FAIR, BROWN, AND TREMBLING 184
XX. JACK AND HIS MASTER 198
XXI. BETH GELLERT 209
XXII. THE TALE OF IVAN 212
XXIII. ANDREW COFFEY 217
XXIV. THE BATTLE OF THE BIRDS 223
XXV. BREWERY OF EGGSHELLS 242
XXVI. THE LAD WITH THE GOAT-SKIN 245
NOTES AND REFERENCES 257
* * * * *
Full-Page Illustrations
PAGE
THE SEA-MAIDEN _Frontispiece_
CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN 5
CONAL YELLOWCLAW 47
DEIRDRE 77
THE EAGLE OF ERRIO ABWY 121
"TREMBLING" AT THE CHURCH DOOR 187
THATCHING WITH BIRDS' FEATHERS 233
CAUTION TO READERS 256
(Full-page illustrations, initials, and cuts, from blocks supplied by
Messrs. J. C. Drummond & Co.)
* * * * *
CELTIC FAIRY TALES
Connla and the Fairy Maiden
Connla of the Fiery Hair was son of Conn of the Hundred Fights. One
day as he stood by the side of his father on the height of Usna, he
saw a maiden clad in strange attire towards him coming.
"Whence comest thou, maiden?" said Connla.
"I come from the Plains of the Ever Living," she said, "there where is
neither death nor sin. There we keep holiday alway, nor need we help
from any in our joy. And in all our pleasure we have no strife. And
because we have our homes in the round green hills, men call us the
Hill Folk."
The king and all with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw
no one. For save Connla alone, none saw the Fairy Maiden.
"To whom art thou talking, my son?" said Conn the king.
Then the maiden answered, "Connla speaks to a young, fair maid, whom
neither death nor old age awaits. I love Connla, and now I call him
away to the Plain of Pleasure, Moy Mell, where Boadag is king for aye,
nor has there been sorrow or complaint in that land since he held the
kingship. Oh, come with me, Connla of the Fiery Hair, ruddy as the
dawn, with thy tawny skin. A fairy crown awaits thee to grace thy
comely face and royal form. Come, and never shall thy comeliness fade,
nor thy youth, till the last awful day of judgment."
The king in fear at what the maiden said, which he heard though he
could not see her, called aloud to his Druid, Coran by name.
"O Coran of the many spells," he said, "and of the cunning magic, I
call upon thy aid. A task is upon me too great for all my skill and
wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship. A
maiden unseen has met us, and by her power would take from me my dear,
my comely son. If thou help not, he will be taken from thy king by
woman's wiles and witchery."
Then Coran the Druid stood forth and chanted his spells towards the
spot where the maiden's voice had been heard. And none heard her voice
again, nor could Connla see her longer. Only as she vanished before
the Druid's mighty spell, she threw an apple to Connla.
For a whole month from that day Connla would take nothing, either to
eat or to drink, save only from that apple. But as he ate it grew
again and always kept whole. And all the while there grew within him a
mighty yearning and longing after the maiden he had seen.
But when the last day of the month of waiting came, Connla stood by
the side of the king his father on the Plain of Arcomin, and again he
saw the maiden come towards him, and again she spoke to him.
"'Tis a glorious place, forsooth, that Connla holds among shortlived
mortals awaiting the day of death. But now the folk of life, the
ever-living ones, beg and bid thee come to Moy Mell, the Plain of
Pleasure, for they have learnt to know thee, seeing thee in thy home
among thy dear ones."
When Conn the king heard the maiden's voice he called to his men aloud
and said:
"Summon swift my Druid Coran, for I see she has again this day the
power of speech."
Then the maiden said: "O mighty Conn, Fighter of a Hundred Fights, the
Druid's power is little loved; it has little honour in the mighty
land, peopled with so many of the upright. When the Law comes, it will
do away with the Druid's magic spells that issue from the lips of the
false black demon."
Then Conn the king observed that since the coming of the maiden Connla
his son spoke to none that spake to him. So Conn of the Hundred Fights
said to him, "Is it to thy mind what the woman says, my son?"
"'Tis hard upon me," said Connla; "I love my own folk above all
things; but yet a longing seizes me for the maiden."
When the maiden heard this, she answered and said: "The ocean is not
so strong as the waves of thy longing. Come with me in my curragh, the
gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. Soon can we reach Boadag's
realm. I see the bright sun sink, yet far as it is, we can reach it
before dark. There is, too, another land worthy of thy journey, a land
joyous to all that seek it. Only wives and maidens dwell there. If
thou wilt, we can seek it and live there alone together in joy."
When the maiden ceased to speak, Connla of the Fiery Hair rushed away
from his kinsmen and sprang into the curragh, the gleaming,
straight-gliding crystal canoe. And then they all, king and court, saw
it glide away over the bright sea towards the setting sun, away and
away, till eye could see it no longer. So Connla and the Fairy Maiden
went forth on the sea, and were no more seen, nor did any know whither
they came.
[Illustration: Connla and the fairy maiden]
Guleesh
There was once a boy in the County Mayo; Guleesh was his name. There
was the finest rath a little way off from the gable of the house, and
he was often in the habit of seating himself on the fine grass bank
that was running round it. One night he stood, half leaning against
the gable of the house, and looking up into the sky, and watching the
beautiful white moon over his head. After he had been standing that
way for a couple of hours, he said to himself: "My bitter grief that I
am not gone away out of this place altogether. I'd sooner be any place
in the world than here. Och, it's well for you, white moon," says he,
"that's turning round, turning round, as you please yourself, and no
man can put you back. I wish I was the same as you."
Hardly was the word out of his mouth when he heard a great noise
coming like the sound of many people running together, and talking,
and laughing, and making sport, and the sound went by him like a whirl
of wind, and he was listening to it going into the rath. "Musha, by my
soul," says he, "but ye're merry enough, and I'll follow ye."
What was in it but the fairy host, though he did not know at first
that it was they who were in it, but he followed them into the rath.
It's there he heard the _fulparnee_, and the _folpornee_, the
_rap-lay-hoota_, and the _roolya-boolya_, that they had there, and
every man of them crying out as loud as he could: "My horse, and
bridle, and saddle! My horse, and bridle, and saddle!"
"By my hand," said Guleesh, "my boy, that's not bad. I'll imitate ye,"
and he cried out as well as they: "My horse, and bridle, and saddle!
My horse, and bridle, and saddle!" And on the moment there was a fine
horse with a bridle of gold, and a saddle of silver, standing before
him. He leaped up on it, and the moment he was on its back he saw
clearly that the rath was full of horses, and of little people going
riding on them.
Said a man of them to him: "Are you coming with us to-night, Guleesh?"
"I am surely," said Guleesh.
"If you are, come along," said the little man, and out they went all
together, riding like the wind, faster than the fastest horse ever you
saw a-hunting, and faster than the fox and the hounds at his tail.
The cold winter's wind that was before them, they overtook her, and
the cold winter's wind that was behind them, she did not overtake
them. And stop nor stay of that full race, did they make none, until
they came to the brink of the sea.
Then every one of them said: "Hie over cap! Hie over cap!" and that
moment they were up in the air, and before Guleesh had time to
remember where he was they were down on dry land again, and were
going like the wind. At last they stood still, and a man of them said
to Guleesh: "Guleesh, do you know where you are now?"
"Not a know," says Guleesh.
"You're in France, Guleesh," said he. "The daughter of the king of
France is to be married to-night, the handsomest woman that the sun
ever saw, and we must do our best to bring her with us, if we're only
able to carry her off; and you must come with us that we may be able
to put the young girl up behind you on the horse, when we'll be
bringing her away, for it's not lawful for us to put her sitting
behind ourselves. But you're flesh and blood, and she can take a good
grip of you, so that she won't fall off the horse. Are you satisfied,
Guleesh, and will you do what we're telling you?"
"Why shouldn't I be satisfied?" said Guleesh. "I'm satisfied, surely,
and anything that ye will tell me to do I'll do it without doubt."
They got off their horses there, and a man of them said a word that
Guleesh did not understand, and on the moment they were lifted up, and
Guleesh found himself and his companions in the palace. There was a
great feast going on there, and there was not a nobleman or a
gentleman in the kingdom but was gathered there, dressed in silk and
satin, and gold and silver, and the night was as bright as the day
with all the lamps and candles that were lit, and Guleesh had to shut
his two eyes at the brightness. When he opened them again and looked
from him he thought he never saw anything as fine as all he saw
there. There were a hundred tables spread out, and their full of meat
and drink on each table of them, flesh-meat, and cakes and sweetmeats,
and wine and ale, and every drink that ever a man saw. The musicians
were at the two ends of the hall, and they were playing the sweetest
music that ever a man's ear heard, and there were young women and fine
youths in the middle of the hall, dancing and turning, and going round
so quickly and so lightly, that it put a _soorawn_ in Guleesh's head
to be looking at them. There were more there playing tricks, and more
making fun and laughing, for such a feast as there was that day had
not been in France for twenty years, because the old king had no
children alive but only the one daughter, and she was to be married to
the son of another king that night. Three days the feast was going on,
and the third night she was to be married, and that was the night that
Guleesh and the sheehogues came, hoping, if they could, to carry off
with them the king's young daughter.
Guleesh and his companions were standing together at the head of the
hall, where there was a fine altar dressed up, and two bishops behind
it waiting to marry the girl, as soon as the right time should come.
Now nobody could see the sheehogues, for they said a word as they came
in, that made them all invisible, as if they had not been in it at
all.
"Tell me which of them is the king's daughter," said Guleesh, when he
was becoming a little used to the noise and the light.
"Don't you see her there away from you?" said the little man that he
was talking to.
Guleesh looked where the little man was pointing with his finger, and
there he saw the loveliest woman that was, he thought, upon the ridge
of the world. The rose and the lily were fighting together in her
face, and one could not tell which of them got the victory. Her arms
and hands were like the lime, her mouth as red as a strawberry when it
is ripe, her foot was as small and as light as another one's hand, her
form was smooth and slender, and her hair was falling down from her
head in buckles of gold. Her garments and dress were woven with gold
and silver, and the bright stone that was in the ring on her hand was
as shining as the sun.
Guleesh was nearly blinded with all the loveliness and beauty that was
on her; but when he looked again, he saw that she was crying, and that
there was the trace of tears in her eyes. "It can't be," said Guleesh,
"that there's grief on her, when everybody round her is so full of
sport and merriment."
"Musha, then, she is grieved," said the little man; "for it's against
her own will she's marrying, and she has no love for the husband she
is to marry. The king was going to give her to him three years ago,
when she was only fifteen, but she said she was too young, and
requested him to leave her as she was yet. The king gave her a year's
grace, and when that year was up he gave her another year's grace, and
then another; but a week or a day he would not give her longer, and
she is eighteen years old to-night, and it's time for her to marry;
but, indeed," says he, and he crooked his mouth in an ugly
way--"indeed, it's no king's son she'll marry, if I can help it."
Guleesh pitied the handsome young lady greatly when he heard that, and
he was heart-broken to think that it would be necessary for her to
marry a man she did not like, or what was worse, to take a nasty
sheehogue for a husband. However, he did not say a word, though he
could not help giving many a curse to the ill-luck that was laid out
for himself, to be helping the people that were to snatch her away
from her home and from her father.
He began thinking, then, what it was he ought to do to save her, but
he could think of nothing. "Oh! if I could only give her some help and
relief," said he, "I wouldn't care whether I were alive or dead; but I
see nothing that I can do for her."
He was looking on when the king's son came up to her and asked her for
a kiss, but she turned her head away from him. Guleesh had double pity
for her then, when he saw the lad taking her by the soft white hand,
and drawing her out to dance. They went round in the dance near where
Guleesh was, and he could plainly see that there were tears in her
eyes.
When the dancing was over, the old king, her father, and her mother
the queen, came up and said that this was the right time to marry her,
that the bishop was ready, and it was time to put the wedding-ring on
her and give her to her husband.
The king took the youth by the hand, and the queen took her daughter,
and they went up together to the altar, with the lords and great
people following them.
[Illustration:]
When they came near the altar, and were no more than about four yards
from it, the little sheehogue stretched out his foot before the girl,
and she fell. Before she was able to rise again he threw something
that was in his hand upon her, said a couple of words, and upon the
moment the maiden was gone from amongst them. Nobody could see her,
for that word made her invisible. The little man_een_ seized her and
raised her up behind Guleesh, and the king nor no one else saw them,
but out with them through the hall till they came to the door.
Oro! dear Mary! it's there the pity was, and the trouble, and the
crying, and the wonder, and the searching, and the _rookawn_, when
that lady disappeared from their eyes, and without their seeing what
did it. Out of the door of the palace they went, without being stopped
or hindered, for nobody saw them, and, "My horse, my bridle, and
saddle!" says every man of them. "My horse, my bridle, and saddle!"
says Guleesh; and on the moment the horse was standing ready
caparisoned before him. "Now, jump up, Guleesh," said the little man,
"and put the lady behind you, and we will be going; the morning is not
far off from us now."
Guleesh raised her up on the horse's back, and leaped up himself
before her, and, "Rise, horse," said he; and his horse, and the other
horses with him, went in a full race until they came to the sea.
"Hie over cap!" said every man of them.
"Hie over cap!" said Guleesh; and on the moment the horse rose under
him, and cut a leap in the clouds, and came down in Erin.
They did not stop there, but went of a race to the place where was
Guleesh's house and the rath. And when they came as far as that,
Guleesh turned and caught the young girl in his two arms, and leaped
off the horse.
"I call and cross you to myself, in the name of God!" said he; and on
the spot, before the word was out of his mouth, the horse fell down,
and what was in it but the beam of a plough, of which they had made a
horse; and every other horse they had, it was that way they made it.
Some of them were riding on an old besom, and some on a broken stick,
and more on a _bohalawn_ or a hemlock-stalk.
The good people called out together when they heard what Guleesh said:
"O Guleesh, you clown, you thief, that no good may happen you! Why did
you play that trick on us?"
But they had no power at all to carry off the girl, after Guleesh had
consecrated her to himself.
"O Guleesh, isn't that a nice turn you did us, and we so kind to you?
What good have we now out of our journey to France? Never mind yet,
you clown, but you'll pay us another time for this. Believe us, you'll
repent it."
"He'll have no good to get out of the young girl," said the little man
that was talking to him in the palace before that, and as he said the
word he moved over to her and struck her a slap on the side of the
head. "Now," says he, "she'll be without talk any more; now, Guleesh,
what good will she be to you when she'll be dumb? It's time for us to
go--but you'll remember us, Guleesh!"
When he said that he stretched out his two hands, and before Guleesh
was able to give an answer, he and the rest of them were gone into the
rath out of his sight, and he saw them no more.
He turned to the young woman and said to her: "Thanks be to God,
they're gone. Would you not sooner stay with me than with them?" She
gave him no answer. "There's trouble and grief on her yet," said
Guleesh in his own mind, and he spoke to her again: "I am afraid that
you must spend this night in my father's house, lady, and if there is
anything that I can do for you, tell me, and I'll be your servant."
The beautiful girl remained silent, but there were tears in her eyes,
and her face was white and red after each other.
"Lady," said Guleesh, "tell me what you would like me to do now. I
never belonged at all to that lot of sheehogues who carried you away
with them. I am the son of an honest farmer, and I went with them
without knowing it. If I'll be able to send you back to your father
I'll do it, and I pray you make any use of me now that you may wish."
He looked into her face, and saw the mouth moving as if she were going
to speak, but there came no word from it.
"It cannot be," said Guleesh, "that you are dumb. Did I not hear you
speaking to the king's son in the palace to-night? Or has that devil
made you really dumb, when he struck his nasty hand on your jaw?"
The girl raised her white smooth hand, and laid her finger on her
tongue, to show him that she had lost her voice and power of speech,
and the tears ran out of her two eyes like streams, and Guleesh's own
eyes were not dry, for as rough as he was on the outside he had a soft
heart, and could not stand the sight of the young girl, and she in
that unhappy plight.
He began thinking with himself what he ought to do, and he did not
like to bring her home with himself to his father's house, for he knew
well that they would not believe him, that he had been in France and
brought back with him the king of France's daughter, and he was afraid
they might make a mock of the young lady or insult her.
As he was doubting what he ought to do, and hesitating, he chanced to
remember the priest. "Glory be to God," said he, "I know now what I'll
do; I'll bring her to the priest's house, and he won't refuse me to
keep the lady and care for her." He turned to the lady again and told
her that he was loth to take her to his father's house, but that there
was an excellent priest very friendly to himself, who would take good
care of her, if she wished to remain in his house; but that if there
was any other place she would rather go, he said he would bring her to
it.
She bent her head, to show him she was obliged, and gave him to
understand that she was ready to follow him to any place he was going.
"We will go to the priest's house, then," said he; "he is under an
obligation to me, and will do anything I ask him."
They went together accordingly to the priest's house, and the sun was
just rising when they came to the door. Guleesh beat it hard, and as
early as it was the priest was up, and opened the door himself. He
wondered when he saw Guleesh and the girl, for he was certain that it
was coming wanting to be married they were.
"Guleesh, Guleesh, isn't it the nice boy you are that you can't wait
till ten o'clock or till twelve, but that you must be coming to me at
this hour, looking for marriage, you and your sweetheart? You ought
to know that I can't marry you at such a time, or, at all events,
can't marry you lawfully. But ubbubboo!" said he, suddenly, as he
looked again at the young girl, "in the name of God, who have you
here? Who is she, or how did you get her?"
"Father," said Guleesh, "you can marry me, or anybody else, if you
wish; but it's not looking for marriage I came to you now, but to ask
you, if you please, to give a lodging in your house to this young
lady."
The priest looked at him as though he had ten heads on him; but
without putting any other question to him, he desired him to come in,
himself and the maiden, and when they came in, he shut the door,
brought them into the parlour, and put them sitting.
"Now, Guleesh," said he, "tell me truly who is this young lady, and
whether you're out of your senses really, or are only making a joke of
me."
"I'm not telling a word of lie, nor making a joke of you," said
Guleesh; "but it was from the palace of the king of France I carried
off this lady, and she is the daughter of the king of France."
He began his story then, and told the whole to the priest, and the
priest was so much surprised that he could not help calling out at
times, or clapping his hands together.
When Guleesh said from what he saw he thought the girl was not
satisfied with the marriage that was going to take place in the palace
before he and the sheehogues broke it up, there came a red blush into
the girl's cheek, and he was more certain than ever that she had
sooner be as she was--badly off as she was--than be the married wife
of the man she hated. When Guleesh said that he would be very thankful
to the priest if he would keep her in his own house, the kind man said
he would do that as long as Guleesh pleased, but that he did not know
what they ought to do with her, because they had no means of sending
her back to her father again.
Guleesh answered that he was uneasy about the same thing, and that he
saw nothing to do but to keep quiet until they should find some
opportunity of doing something better. They made it up then between
themselves that the priest should let on that it was his brother's
daughter he had, who was come on a visit to him from another county,
and that he should tell everybody that she was dumb, and do his best
to keep every one away from her. They told the young girl what it was
they intended to do, and she showed by her eyes that she was obliged
to them.
Guleesh went home then, and when his people asked him where he had
been, he said that he had been asleep at the foot of the ditch, and
had passed the night there.
There was great wonderment on the priest's neighbours at the girl who
came so suddenly to his house without any one knowing where she was
from, or what business she had there. Some of the people said that
everything was not as it ought to be, and others, that Guleesh was not
like the same man that was in it before, and that it was a great
story, how he was drawing every day to the priest's house, and that
the priest had a wish and a respect for him, a thing they could not
clear up at all.
That was true for them, indeed, for it was seldom the day went by but
Guleesh would go to the priest's house, and have a talk with him, and
as often as he would come he used to hope to find the young lady well
again, and with leave to speak; but, alas! she remained dumb and
silent, without relief or cure. Since she had no other means of
talking, she carried on a sort of conversation between herself and
himself, by moving her hand and fingers, winking her eyes, opening and
shutting her mouth, laughing or smiling, and a thousand other signs,
so that it was not long until they understood each other very well.
Guleesh was always thinking how he should send her back to her father;
but there was no one to go with her, and he himself did not know what
road to go, for he had never been out of his own country before the
night he brought her away with him. Nor had the priest any better
knowledge than he; but when Guleesh asked him, he wrote three or four
letters to the king of France, and gave them to buyers and sellers of
wares, who used to be going from place to place across the sea; but
they all went astray, and never a one came to the king's hand.
This was the way they were for many months, and Guleesh was falling
deeper and deeper in love with her every day, and it was plain to
himself and the priest that she liked him. The boy feared greatly at
last, lest the king should really hear where his daughter was, and
take her back from himself, and he besought the priest to write no
more, but to leave the matter to God.
So they passed the time for a year, until there came a day when
Guleesh was lying by himself on the grass, on the last day of the last
month in autumn, and he was thinking over again in his own mind of
everything that happened to him from the day that he went with the
sheehogues across the sea. He remembered then, suddenly, that it was
one November night that he was standing at the gable of the house,
when the whirlwind came, and the sheehogues in it, and he said to
himself: "We have November night again to-day, and I'll stand in the
same place I was last year, until I see if the good people come again.
Perhaps I might see or hear something that would be useful to me, and
might bring back her talk again to Mary"--that was the name himself
and the priest called the king's daughter, for neither of them knew
her right name. He told his intention to the priest, and the priest
gave him his blessing.
Guleesh accordingly went to the old rath when the night was darkening,
and he stood with his bent elbow leaning on a grey old flag, waiting
till the middle of the night should come. The moon rose slowly, and it
was like a knob of fire behind him; and there was a white fog which
was raised up over the fields of grass and all damp places, through
the coolness of the night after a great heat in the day. The night was
calm as is a lake when there is not a breath of wind to move a wave on
it, and there was no sound to be heard but the _cronawn_ of the
insects that would go by from time to time, or the hoarse sudden
scream of the wild-geese, as they passed from lake to lake, half a
mile up in the air over his head; or the sharp whistle of the golden
and green plover, rising and lying, lying and rising, as they do on a
calm night. There were a thousand thousand bright stars shining over
his head, and there was a little frost out, which left the grass under
his foot white and crisp.
He stood there for an hour, for two hours, for three hours, and the
frost increased greatly, so that he heard the breaking of the
_traneens_ under his foot as often as he moved. He was thinking, in
his own mind, at last, that the sheehogues would not come that night,
and that it was as good for him to return back again, when he heard a
sound far away from him, coming towards him, and he recognised what it
was at the first moment. The sound increased, and at first it was like
the beating of waves on a stony shore, and then it was like the
falling of a great waterfall, and at last it was like a loud storm in
the tops of the trees, and then the whirlwind burst into the rath of
one rout, and the sheehogues were in it.
It all went by him so suddenly that he lost his breath with it, but he
came to himself on the spot, and put an ear on himself, listening to
what they would say.
Scarcely had they gathered into the rath till they all began shouting,
and screaming, and talking amongst themselves; and then each one of
them cried out: "My horse, and bridle, and saddle! My horse, and
bridle, and saddle!" and Guleesh took courage, and called out as
loudly as any of them: "My horse, and bridle, and saddle! My horse,
and bridle, and saddle!" But before the word was well out of his
mouth, another man cried out: "Ora! Guleesh, my boy, are you here with
us again? How are you getting on with your woman? There's no use in
your calling for your horse to-night. I'll go bail you won't play such
a trick on us again. It was a good trick you played on us last year."
"It was," said another man; "he won't do it again."
"Isn't he a prime lad, the same lad! to take a woman with him that
never said as much to him as, 'How do you do?' since this time last
year!" says the third man.
"Perhaps he likes to be looking at her," said another voice.
"And if the _omadawn_ only knew that there's an herb growing up by his
own door, and if he were to boil it and give it to her, she'd be
well," said another voice.
"That's true for you."
"He is an _omadawn_."
"Don't bother your head with him; we'll be going."
"We'll leave the _bodach_ as he is."
And with that they rose up into the air, and out with them with one
_roolya-boolya_ the way they came; and they left poor Guleesh standing
where they found him, and the two eyes going out of his head, looking
after them and wondering.
[Illustration:]
He did not stand long till he returned back, and he thinking in his
own mind on all he saw and heard, and wondering whether there was
really an herb at his own door that would bring back the talk to the
king's daughter. "It can't be," says he to himself, "that they would
tell it to me, if there was any virtue in it; but perhaps the
sheehogue didn't observe himself when he let the word slip out of his
mouth. I'll search well as soon as the sun rises, whether there's any
plant growing beside the house except thistles and dockings."
He went home, and as tired as he was he did not sleep a wink until the
sun rose on the morrow. He got up then, and it was the first thing he
did to go out and search well through the grass round about the house,
trying could he get any herb that he did not recognise. And, indeed,
he was not long searching till he observed a large strange herb that
was growing up just by the gable of the house.
He went over to it, and observed it closely, and saw that there were
seven little branches coming out of the stalk, and seven leaves
growing on every brancheen of them; and that there was a white sap in
the leaves. "It's very wonderful," said he to himself, "that I never
noticed this herb before. If there's any virtue in an herb at all, it
ought to be in such a strange one as this."
He drew out his knife, cut the plant, and carried it into his own
house; stripped the leaves off it and cut up the stalk; and there came
a thick, white juice out of it, as there comes out of the sow-thistle
when it is bruised, except that the juice was more like oil.
He put it in a little pot and a little water in it, and laid it on the
fire until the water was boiling, and then he took a cup, filled it
half up with the juice, and put it to his own mouth. It came into his
head then that perhaps it was poison that was in it, and that the good
people were only tempting him that he might kill himself with that
trick, or put the girl to death without meaning it. He put down the
cup again, raised a couple of drops on the top of his finger, and put
it to his mouth. It was not bitter, and, indeed, had a sweet,
agreeable taste. He grew bolder then, and drank the full of a thimble
of it, and then as much again, and he never stopped till he had half
the cup drunk. He fell asleep after that, and did not wake till it was
night, and there was great hunger and great thirst on him.
[Illustration:]
He had to wait, then, till the day rose; but he determined, as soon as
he should wake in the morning, that he would go to the king's daughter
and give her a drink of the juice of the herb.
As soon as he got up in the morning, he went over to the priest's
house with the drink in his hand, and he never felt himself so bold
and valiant, and spirited and light, as he was that day, and he was
quite certain that it was the drink he drank which made him so hearty.
When he came to the house, he found the priest and the young lady
within, and they were wondering greatly why he had not visited them
for two days.
He told them all his news, and said that he was certain that there was
great power in that herb, and that it would do the lady no hurt, for
he tried it himself and got good from it, and then he made her taste
it, for he vowed and swore that there was no harm in it.
Guleesh handed her the cup, and she drank half of it, and then fell
back on her bed and a heavy sleep came on her, and she never woke out
of that sleep till the day on the morrow.
Guleesh and the priest sat up the entire night with her, waiting till
she should awake, and they between hope and unhope, between
expectation of saving her and fear of hurting her.
She awoke at last when the sun had gone half its way through the
heavens. She rubbed her eyes and looked like a person who did not know
where she was. She was like one astonished when she saw Guleesh and
the priest in the same room with her, and she sat up doing her best to
collect her thoughts.
The two men were in great anxiety waiting to see would she speak, or
would she not speak, and when they remained silent for a couple of
minutes, the priest said to her: "Did you sleep well, Mary?"
And she answered him: "I slept, thank you."
No sooner did Guleesh hear her talking than he put a shout of joy out
of him, and ran over to her and fell on his two knees, and said: "A
thousand thanks to God, who has given you back the talk; lady of my
heart, speak again to me."
The lady answered him that she understood it was he who boiled that
drink for her, and gave it to her; that she was obliged to him from
her heart for all the kindness he showed her since the day she first
came to Ireland, and that he might be certain that she never would
forget it.
Guleesh was ready to die with satisfaction and delight. Then they
brought her food, and she ate with a good appetite, and was merry and
joyous, and never left off talking with the priest while she was
eating.
After that Guleesh went home to his house, and stretched himself on
the bed and fell asleep again, for the force of the herb was not all
spent, and he passed another day and a night sleeping. When he woke up
he went back to the priest's house, and found that the young lady was
in the same state, and that she was asleep almost since the time that
he left the house.
He went into her chamber with the priest, and they remained watching
beside her till she awoke the second time, and she had her talk as
well as ever, and Guleesh was greatly rejoiced. The priest put food on
the table again and they ate together, and Guleesh used after that to
come to the house from day to day, and the friendship that was between
him and the king's daughter increased, because she had no one to
speak to except Guleesh and the priest, and she liked Guleesh best.
So they married one another, and that was the fine wedding they had,
and if I were to be there then, I would not be here now; but I heard
it from a bird_een_ that there was neither cark nor care, sickness nor
sorrow, mishap nor misfortune on them till the hour of their death,
and may the same be with me, and with us all!
[Illustration:]
The Field of Boliauns
[Illustration:]
One fine day in harvest--it was indeed Lady-day in harvest, that
everybody knows to be one of the greatest holidays in the year--Tom
Fitzpatrick was taking a ramble through the ground, and went along the
sunny side of a hedge; when all of a sudden he heard a clacking sort
of noise a little before him in the hedge. "Dear me," said Tom, "but
isn't it surprising to hear the stone-chatters singing so late in the
season?" So Tom stole on, going on the tops of his toes to try if he
could get a sight of what was making the noise, to see if he was right
in his guess. The noise stopped; but as Tom looked sharply through the
bushes, what should he see in a nook of the hedge but a brown pitcher,
that might hold about a gallon and a half of liquor; and by-and-by a
little wee teeny tiny bit of an old man, with a little _motty_ of a
cocked hat stuck upon the top of his head, a deeshy daushy leather
apron hanging before him, pulled out a little wooden stool, and stood
up upon it, and dipped a little piggin into the pitcher, and took out
the full of it, and put it beside the stool, and then sat down under
the pitcher, and began to work at putting a heel-piece on a bit of a
brogue just fit for himself. "Well, by the powers," said Tom to
himself, "I often heard tell of the Lepracauns, and, to tell God's
truth, I never rightly believed in them--but here's one of them in
real earnest. If I go knowingly to work, I'm a made man. They say a
body must never take their eyes off them, or they'll escape."
Tom now stole on a little further, with his eye fixed on the little
man just as a cat does with a mouse. So when he got up quite close to
him, "God bless your work, neighbour," said Tom.
The little man raised up his head, and "Thank you kindly," said he.
"I wonder you'd be working on the holiday!" said Tom.
"That's my own business, not yours," was the reply.
"Well, maybe you'd be civil enough to tell _us_ what you've got in the
pitcher there?" said Tom.
"That I will, with pleasure," said he; "it's good beer."
"Beer!" said Tom. "Thunder and fire! where did you get it?"
"Where did I get it, is it? Why, I made it. And what do you think I
made it of?"
"Devil a one of me knows," said Tom; "but of malt, I suppose, what
else?"
"There you're out. I made it of heath."
"Of heath!" said Tom, bursting out laughing; "sure you don't think me
to be such a fool as to believe that?"
"Do as you please," said he, "but what I tell you is the truth. Did
you never hear tell of the Danes?"
"Well, what about _them_?" said Tom.
"Why, all the about them there is, is that when they were here they
taught us to make beer out of the heath, and the secret's in my family
ever since."
"Will you give a body a taste of your beer?" said Tom.
"I'll tell you what it is, young man, it would be fitter for you to be
looking after your father's property than to be bothering decent quiet
people with your foolish questions. There now, while you're idling
away your time here, there's the cows have broke into the oats, and
are knocking the corn all about."
Tom was taken so by surprise with this that he was just on the very
point of turning round when he recollected himself; so, afraid that
the like might happen again, he made a grab at the Lepracaun, and
caught him up in his hand; but in his hurry he overset the pitcher,
and spilt all the beer, so that he could not get a taste of it to tell
what sort it was. He then swore that he would kill him if he did not
show him where his money was. Tom looked so wicked and so
bloody-minded that the little man was quite frightened; so says he,
"Come along with me a couple of fields off, and I will show you a
crock of gold."
So they went, and Tom held the Lepracaun fast in his hand, and never
took his eyes from off him, though they had to cross hedges and
ditches, and a crooked bit of bog, till at last they came to a great
field all full of boliauns, and the Lepracaun pointed to a big
boliaun, and says he, "Dig under that boliaun, and you'll get the
great crock all full of guineas."
Tom in his hurry had never thought of bringing a spade with him, so he
made up his mind to run home and fetch one; and that he might know the
place again he took off one of his red garters, and tied it round the
boliaun.
Then he said to the Lepracaun, "Swear ye'll not take that garter away
from that boliaun." And the Lepracaun swore right away not to touch
it.
"I suppose," said the Lepracaun, very civilly, "you have no further
occasion for me?"
"No," says Tom; "you may go away now, if you please, and God speed
you, and may good luck attend you wherever you go."
"Well, good-bye to you Tom Fitzpatrick," said the Lepracaun; "and much
good may it do you when you get it."
So Tom ran for dear life, till he came home and got a spade, and then
away with him, as hard as he could go, back to the field of boliauns;
but when he got there, lo and behold! not a boliaun in the field but
had a red garter, the very model of his own, tied about it; and as to
digging up the whole field, that was all nonsense, for there were
more than forty good Irish acres in it. So Tom came home again with
his spade on his shoulder, a little cooler than he went, and many's
the hearty curse he gave the Lepracaun every time he thought of the
neat turn he had served him.
The Horned Women
[Illustration:]
A rich woman sat up late one night carding and preparing wool, while
all the family and servants were asleep. Suddenly a knock was given at
the door, and a voice called, "Open! open!"
"Who is there?" said the woman of the house.
"I am the Witch of one Horn," was answered.
The mistress, supposing that one of her neighbours had called and
required assistance, opened the door, and a woman entered, having in
her hand a pair of wool-carders, and bearing a horn on her forehead,
as if growing there. She sat down by the fire in silence, and began to
card the wool with violent haste. Suddenly she paused, and said aloud:
"Where are the women? they delay too long."
Then a second knock came to the door, and a voice called as before,
"Open! open!"
The mistress felt herself obliged to rise and open to the call, and
immediately a second witch entered, having two horns on her forehead,
and in her hand a wheel for spinning wool.
"Give me place," she said; "I am the Witch of the two Horns," and she
began to spin as quick as lightning.
And so the knocks went on, and the call was heard, and the witches
entered, until at last twelve women sat round the fire--the first with
one horn, the last with twelve horns.
And they carded the thread, and turned their spinning-wheels, and
wound and wove, all singing together an ancient rhyme, but no word did
they speak to the mistress of the house. Strange to hear, and
frightful to look upon, were these twelve women, with their horns and
their wheels; and the mistress felt near to death, and she tried to
rise that she might call for help, but she could not move, nor could
she utter a word or a cry, for the spell of the witches was upon her.
Then one of them called to her in Irish, and said, "Rise, woman, and
make us a cake."
Then the mistress searched for a vessel to bring water from the well
that she might mix the meal and make the cake, but she could find
none.
And they said to her, "Take a sieve and bring water in it."
And she took the sieve and went to the well; but the water poured
from it, and she could fetch none for the cake, and she sat down by
the well and wept.
Then a voice came by her and said, "Take yellow clay and moss, and
bind them together, and plaster the sieve so that it will hold."
This she did, and the sieve held the water for the cake; and the voice
said again:
"Return, and when thou comest to the north angle of the house, cry
aloud three times and say, 'The mountain of the Fenian women and the
sky over it is all on fire.'"
And she did so.
When the witches inside heard the call, a great and terrible cry broke
from their lips, and they rushed forth with wild lamentations and
shrieks, and fled away to Slievenamon, where was their chief abode.
But the Spirit of the Well bade the mistress of the house to enter and
prepare her home against the enchantments of the witches if they
returned again.
And first, to break their spells, she sprinkled the water in which she
had washed her child's feet, the feet-water, outside the door on the
threshold; secondly, she took the cake which in her absence the
witches had made of meal mixed with the blood drawn from the sleeping
family, and she broke the cake in bits, and placed a bit in the mouth
of each sleeper, and they were restored; and she took the cloth they
had woven, and placed it half in and half out of the chest with the
padlock; and lastly, she secured the door with a great crossbeam
fastened in the jambs, so that the witches could not enter, and
having done these things she waited.
Not long were the witches in coming back, and they raged and called
for vengeance.
"Open! open!" they screamed; "open, feet-water!"
"I cannot," said the feet-water; "I am scattered on the ground, and my
path is down to the Lough."
"Open, open, wood and trees and beam!" they cried to the door.
"I cannot," said the door, "for the beam is fixed in the jambs and I
have no power to move."
"Open, open, cake that we have made and mingled with blood!" they
cried again.
"I cannot," said the cake, "for I am broken and bruised, and my blood
is on the lips of the sleeping children."
Then the witches rushed through the air with great cries, and fled
back to Slievenamon, uttering strange curses on the Spirit of the
Well, who had wished their ruin; but the woman and the house were left
in peace, and a mantle dropped by one of the witches in her flight was
kept hung up by the mistress in memory of that night; and this mantle
was kept by the same family from generation to generation for five
hundred years after.
Conall Yellowclaw
Conall Yellowclaw was a sturdy tenant in Erin: he had three sons.
There was at that time a king over every fifth of Erin. It fell out
for the children of the king that was near Conall, that they
themselves and the children of Conall came to blows. The children of
Conall got the upper hand, and they killed the king's big son. The
king sent a message for Conall, and he said to him: "O Conall! what
made your sons go to spring on my sons till my big son was killed by
your children? But I see that though I follow you revengefully, I
shall not be much better for it, and I will now set a thing before
you, and if you will do it, I will not follow you with revenge. If you
and your sons will get me the brown horse of the king of Lochlann, you
shall get the souls of your sons."
"Why," said Conall, "should not I do the pleasure of the king, though
there should be no souls of my sons in dread at all? Hard is the
matter you require of me, but I will lose my own life, and the life of
my sons, or else I will do the pleasure of the king."
After these words Conall left the king, and he went home: when he got
home he was under much trouble and perplexity. When he went to lie
down he told his wife the thing the king had set before him. His wife
took much sorrow that he was obliged to part from herself, while she
knew not if she should see him more.
"O Conall," said she, "why didst not thou let the king do his own
pleasure to thy sons, rather than be going now, while I know not if
ever I shall see thee more?"
When he rose on the morrow, he set himself and his three sons in
order, and they took their journey towards Lochlann, and they made no
stop but tore through ocean till they reached it. When they reached
Lochlann they did not know what they should do. Said the old man to
his sons, "Stop ye, and we will seek out the house of the king's
miller."
When they went to the house of the king's miller, the man asked them
to stop there for the night. Conall told the miller that his own
children and the children of his king had fallen out, and that his
children had killed the king's son, and there was nothing that would
please the king but that he should get the brown horse of the king of
Lochlann.
"If you will do me a kindness, and will put me in a way to get him,
for certain I will pay ye for it."
"The thing is silly that you are come to seek," said the miller; "for
the king has laid his mind on him so greatly that you will not get him
in any way unless you steal him; but if you can make out a way, I will
keep it secret."
"This is what I am thinking," said Conall, "since you are working
every day for the king, you and your gillies could put myself and my
sons into four sacks of bran."
"The plan that has come into your head is not bad," said the miller.
The miller spoke to his gillies, and he said to them to do this, and
they put them in four sacks. The king's gillies came to seek the bran,
and they took the four sacks with them, and they emptied them before
the horses. The servants locked the door, and they went away.
When they rose to lay hand on the brown horse, said Conall, "You shall
not do that. It is hard to get out of this; let us make for ourselves
four hiding holes, so that if they hear us we may go and hide." They
made the holes, then they laid hands on the horse. The horse was
pretty well unbroken, and he set to making a terrible noise through
the stable. The king heard the noise. "It must be my brown horse,"
said he to his gillies; "find out what is wrong with him."
The servants went out, and when Conall and his sons saw them coming
they went into the hiding holes. The servants looked amongst the
horses, and they did not find anything wrong; and they returned and
they told this to the king, and the king said to them that if nothing
was wrong they should go to their places of rest. When the gillies had
time to be gone, Conall and his sons laid their hands again on the
horse. If the noise was great that he made before, the noise that he
made now was seven times greater. The king sent a message for his
gillies again, and said for certain there was something troubling the
brown horse. "Go and look well about him." The servants went out, and
the others went to their hiding holes. The servants rummaged well, and
did not find a thing. They returned and they told this.
"That is marvellous for me," said the king: "go you to lie down again,
and if I notice it again I will go out myself."
When Conall and his sons perceived that the gillies were gone, they
laid hands again on the horse, and one of them caught him; and if the
noise that the horse made on the two former times was great, he made
more this time.
"Be this from me," said the king; "it must be that some one is
troubling my brown horse." He sounded the bell hastily, and when his
waiting-man came to him, he said to him to let the stable gillies know
that something was wrong with the horse. The gillies came, and the
king went with them. When Conall and his sons perceived the company
coming they went to the hiding holes.
The king was a wary man, and he saw where the horses were making a
noise.
"Be wary," said the king, "there are men within the stable, let us get
at them somehow."
The king followed the tracks of the men, and he found them. Every one
knew Conall, for he was a valued tenant of the king of Erin, and when
the king brought them up out of the holes he said, "O Conall, is it
you that are here?"
"I am, O king, without question, and necessity made me come. I am
under thy pardon, and under thine honour, and under thy grace." He
told how it happened to him, and that he had to get the brown horse
for the king of Erin, or that his sons were to be put to death. "I
knew that I should not get him by asking, and I was going to steal
him."
"Yes, Conall, it is well enough, but come in," said the king. He
desired his look-out men to set a watch on the sons of Conall, and to
give them meat. And a double watch was set that night on the sons of
Conall.
"Now, O Conall," said the king, "were you ever in a harder place than
to be seeing your lot of sons hanged to-morrow? But you set it to my
goodness and to my grace, and say that it was necessity brought it on
you, so I must not hang you. Tell me any case in which you were as
hard as this, and if you tell that, you shall get the soul of your
youngest son."
"I will tell a case as hard in which I was," said Conall. "I was once
a young lad, and my father had much land, and he had parks of year-old
cows, and one of them had just calved, and my father told me to bring
her home. I found the cow, and took her with us. There fell a shower
of snow. We went into the herd's bothy, and we took the cow and the
calf in with us, and we were letting the shower pass from us. Who
should come in but one cat and ten, and one great one-eyed
fox-coloured cat as head bard over them. When they came in, in very
deed I myself had no liking for their company. 'Strike up with you,'
said the head bard, 'why should we be still? and sing a cronan to
Conall Yellowclaw.' I was amazed that my name was known to the cats
themselves, When they had sung the cronan, said the head bard, 'Now, O
Conall, pay the reward of the cronan that the cats have sung to thee.'
'Well then,' said I myself, 'I have no reward whatsoever for you,
unless you should go down and take that calf.' No sooner said I the
word than the two cats and ten went down to attack the calf, and in
very deed, he did not last them long. 'Play up with you, why should
you be silent? Make a cronan to Conall Yellowclaw,' said the head
bard. I had no liking at all for the cronan, but up came the one cat
and ten, and if they did not sing me a cronan then and there! 'Pay
them now their reward,' said the great fox-coloured cat. 'I am tired
myself of yourselves and your rewards,' said I. 'I have no reward for
you unless you take that cow down there.' They betook themselves to
the cow, and indeed she did not last them long.
[Illustration:]
"'Why will you be silent? Go up and sing a cronan to Conall
Yellowclaw,' said the head bard. And surely, O king, I had no care for
them or for their cronan, for I began to see that they were not good
comrades. When they had sung me the cronan they betook themselves down
where the head bard was. 'Pay now their reward,' said the head bard;
and for sure, O king, I had no reward for them; and I said to them, 'I
have no reward for you.' And surely, O king, there was a
catterwauling between them. So I leapt out at a turf window that was
at the back of the house. I took myself off as hard as I might into
the wood. I was swift enough and strong at that time; and when I felt
the rustling toirm of the cats after me I climbed into as high a tree
as I saw in the place, and one that was close in the top; and I hid
myself as well as I might. The cats began to search for me through the
wood, and they could not find me; and when they were tired, each one
said to the other that they would turn back. 'But,' said the one-eyed
fox-coloured cat that was commander-in-chief over them, 'you saw him
not with your two eyes, and though I have but one eye, there's the
rascal up in the tree.' When he had said that, one of them went up in
the tree, and as he was coming where I was, I drew a weapon that I had
and I killed him. 'Be this from me!' said the one-eyed one--'I must
not be losing my company thus; gather round the root of the tree and
dig about it, and let down that villain to earth.' On this they
gathered about the tree, and they dug about the root, and the first
branching root that they cut, she gave a shiver to fall, and I myself
gave a shout and it was not to be wondered at. There was in the
neighbourhood of the wood a priest, and he had ten men with him
delving, and he said, 'There is a shout of a man in extremity and I
must not be without replying to it.' And the wisest of the men said,
'Let it alone till we hear it again.' The cats began again digging
wildly, and they broke the next root; and I myself gave the next
shout, and in very deed it was not a weak one. 'Certainly,' said the
priest, 'it is a man in extremity--let us move.' They set themselves
in order for moving. And the cats arose on the tree, and they broke
the third root, and the tree fell on her elbow. Then I gave the third
shout. The stalwart men hastened, and when they saw how the cats
served the tree, they began at them with the spades; and they
themselves and the cats began at each other, till the cats ran away.
And surely, O king, I did not move till I saw the last one of them
off. And then I came home. And there's the hardest case in which I
ever was; and it seems to me that tearing by the cats were harder than
hanging to-morrow by the king of Lochlann."
"Och! Conall," said the king, "you are full of words. You have freed
the soul of your son with your tale; and if you tell me a harder case
than that you will get your second youngest son, and then you will
have two sons."
"Well then," said Conall, "on condition that thou dost that, I will
tell thee how I was once in a harder case than to be in thy power in
prison to-night."
"Let's hear," said the king.
"I was then," said Conall, quite a young lad, and I went out hunting,
and my father's land was beside the sea, and it was rough with rocks,
caves, and rifts. When I was going on the top of the shore, I saw as
if there were a smoke coming up between two rocks, and I began to look
what might be the meaning of the smoke coming up there. When I was
looking, what should I do but fall; and the place was so full of
heather, that neither bone nor skin was broken. I knew not how I
should get out of this. I was not looking before me, but I kept
looking overhead the way I came--and thinking that the day would never
come that I could get up there. It was terrible for me to be there
till I should die. I heard a great clattering, coming, and what was
there but a great giant and two dozen of goats with him, and a buck at
their head. And when the giant had tied the goats, he came up and he
said to me, 'Hao O! Conall, it's long since my knife has been rusting
in my pouch waiting for thy tender flesh.' 'Och!' said I, 'it's not
much you will be bettered by me, though you should tear me asunder; I
will make but one meal for you. But I see that you are one-eyed. I am
a good leech, and I will give you the sight of the other eye.' The
giant went and he drew the great caldron on the site of the fire. I
myself was telling him how he should heat the water, so that I should
give its sight to the other eye. I got heather and I made a rubber of
it, and I set him upright in the caldron. I began at the eye that was
well, pretending to him that I would give its sight to the other one,
till I left them as bad as each other; and surely it was easier to
spoil the one that was well than to give sight to the other.
[Illustration: There thou art thou pretty buck. Thou seest me but I
see thee not.]
"When he saw that he could not see a glimpse, and when I myself said
to him that I would get out in spite of him, he gave a spring out of
the water, and he stood in the mouth of the cave, and he said that he
would have revenge for the sight of his eye. I had but to stay there
crouched the length of the night, holding in my breath in such a way
that he might not find out where I was.
"When he felt the birds calling in the morning, and knew that the day
was, he said--'Art thou sleeping? Awake and let out my lot of goats.'
I killed the buck. He cried, 'I do believe that thou art killing my
buck.'
"'I am not,' said I, 'but the ropes are so tight that I take long to
loose them.' I let out one of the goats, and there he was caressing
her, and he said to her, 'There thou art, thou shaggy, hairy white
goat, and thou seest me, but I see thee not.' I kept letting them out
by the way of one and one, as I flayed the buck, and before the last
one was out I had him flayed bag-wise. Then I went and I put my legs
in place of his legs, and my hands in place of his forelegs, and my
head in place of his head, and the horns on top of my head, so that
the brute might think that it was the buck. I went out. When I was
going out the giant laid his hand on me, and he said, 'There thou art,
thou pretty buck; thou seest me, but I see thee not.' When I myself
got out, and I saw the world about me, surely, O king! joy was on me.
When I was out and had shaken the skin off me, I said to the brute, 'I
am out now in spite of you.'
"'Aha!' said he, 'hast thou done this to me? Since thou wert so
stalwart that thou hast got out, I will give thee a ring that I have
here; keep the ring, and it will do thee good.'
"'I will not take the ring from you,' said I, 'but throw it and I will
take it with me.' He threw the ring on the flat ground; I went myself
and lifted the ring, and I put it on my finger. When he said to me
then, 'Is the ring fitting thee?' I said to him, 'It is.' Then he
said, 'Where art thou, ring?' And the ring said, 'I am here.' The
brute went and went towards where the ring was speaking, and now I saw
that I was in a harder case than ever I was. I drew a dirk. I cut the
finger from off me, and I threw it from me as far as I could out on
the loch, and there was a great depth in the place. He shouted, 'Where
art thou, ring?' And the ring said, 'I am here,' though it was on the
bed of the ocean. He gave a spring after the ring, and out he went in
the sea. And I was as pleased then when I saw him drowning, as though
you should grant my own life and the life of my two sons with me, and
not lay any more trouble on me.
"When the giant was drowned I went in, and I took with me all he had
of gold and silver, and I went home, and surely great joy was on my
people when I arrived. And as a sign now look, the finger is off me."
"Yes, indeed, Conall, you are wordy and wise," said the king. "I see
the finger is off you. You have freed your two sons, but tell me a
case in which you ever were that is harder than to be looking on your
son being hanged to-morrow, and you shall get the soul of your eldest
son."
"Then went my father," said Conall, "and he got me a wife, and I was
married. I went to hunt. I was going beside the sea, and I saw an
island over in the midst of the loch, and I came there where a boat
was with a rope before her, and a rope behind her, and many precious
things within her. I looked myself on the boat to see how I might get
part of them. I put in the one foot, and the other foot was on the
ground, and when I raised my head what was it but the boat over in the
middle of the loch, and she never stopped till she reached the island.
When I went out of the boat the boat returned where she was before. I
did not know now what I should do. The place was without meat or
clothing, without the appearance of a house on it. I came out on the
top of a hill. Then I came to a glen; I saw in it, at the bottom of a
hollow, a woman with a child, and the child was naked on her knee, and
she had a knife in her hand. She tried to put the knife to the throat
of the babe, and the babe began to laugh in her face, and she began to
cry, and she threw the knife behind her. I thought to myself that I
was near my foe and far from my friends, and I called to the woman,
'What are you doing here?' And she said to me 'What brought you here?'
I told her myself word upon word how I came. 'Well, then,' said she,
'it was so I came also.' She showed me to the place where I should
come in where she was. I went in, and I said to her, 'What was the
matter that you were putting the knife on the neck of the child?' 'It
is that he must be cooked for the giant who is here, or else no more
of my world will be before me.' Just then we could be hearing the
footsteps of the giant, 'What shall I do? what shall I do?' cried the
woman. I went to the caldron, and by luck it was not hot, so in it I
got just as the brute came in. 'Hast thou boiled that youngster for
me?' he cried. 'He's not done yet,' said she, and I cried out from the
caldron, 'Mammy, mammy, it's boiling I am.' Then the giant laughed out
HAI, HAW, HOGARAICH, and heaped on wood under the caldron.
"And now I was sure I would scald before I could get out of that. As
fortune favoured me, the brute slept beside the caldron. There I was
scalded by the bottom of the caldron. When she perceived that he was
asleep, she set her mouth quietly to the hole that was in the lid, and
she said to me 'was I alive?' I said I was. I put up my head, and the
hole in the lid was so large, that my head went through easily.
Everything was coming easily with me till I began to bring up my hips.
I left the skin of my hips behind me, but I came out. When I got out
of the caldron I knew not what to do; and she said to me that there
was no weapon that would kill him but his own weapon. I began to draw
his spear, and every breath that he drew I thought I would be down his
throat, and when his breath came out I was back again just as far. But
with every ill that befell me I got the spear loosed from him. Then I
was as one under a bundle of straw in a great wind, for I could not
manage the spear. And it was fearful to look on the brute, who had but
one eye in the midst of his face; and it was not agreeable for the
like of me to attack him. I drew the dart as best I could, and I set
it in his eye. When he felt this he gave his head a lift, and he
struck the other end of the dart on the top of the cave, and it went
through to the back of his head. And he fell cold dead where he was;
and you may be sure, O king, that joy was on me. I myself and the
woman went out on clear ground, and we passed the night there. I went
and got the boat with which I came, and she was no way lightened, and
took the woman and the child over on dry land; and I returned home."
The king of Lochlann's mother was putting on a fire at this time, and
listening to Conall telling the tale about the child.
"Is it you," said she, "that were there?"
"Well then," said he, "'t was I."
"Och! och!" said she, "'t was I that was there, and the king is the
child whose life you saved; and it is to you that life thanks should
be given." Then they took great joy.
The king said, "O Conall, you came through great hardships. And now
the brown horse is yours, and his sack full of the most precious
things that are in my treasury."
They lay down that night, and if it was early that Conall rose, it was
earlier than that that the queen was on foot making ready. He got the
brown horse and his sack full of gold and silver and stones of great
price, and then Conall and his three sons went away, and they returned
home to the Erin realm of gladness. He left the gold and silver in his
house, and he went with the horse to the king. They were good friends
evermore. He returned home to his wife, and they set in order a feast;
and that was a feast if ever there was one, O son and brother.
Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary
[Illustration:]
There was once upon a time two farmers, and their names were Hudden
and Dudden. They had poultry in their yards, sheep on the uplands, and
scores of cattle in the meadow-land alongside the river. But for all
that they weren't happy. For just between their two farms there lived
a poor man by the name of Donald O'Neary. He had a hovel over his head
and a strip of grass that was barely enough to keep his one cow,
Daisy, from starving, and, though she did her best, it was but seldom
that Donald got a drink of milk or a roll of butter from Daisy. You
would think there was little here to make Hudden and Dudden jealous,
but so it is, the more one has the more one wants, and Donald's
neighbours lay awake of nights scheming how they might get hold of his
little strip of grass-land. Daisy, poor thing, they never thought of;
she was just a bag of bones.
One day Hudden met Dudden, and they were soon grumbling as usual, and
all to the tune of "If only we could get that vagabond Donald O'Neary
out of the country."
"Let's kill Daisy," said Hudden at last; "if that doesn't make him
clear out, nothing will."
No sooner said than agreed; and it wasn't dark before Hudden and
Dudden crept up to the little shed where lay poor Daisy trying her
best to chew the cud, though she hadn't had as much grass in the day
as would cover your hand. And when Donald came to see if Daisy was all
snug for the night, the poor beast had only time to lick his hand once
before she died.
Well, Donald was a shrewd fellow, and down-hearted though he was,
began to think if he could get any good out of Daisy's death. He
thought and he thought, and the next day you could have seen him
trudging off early to the fair, Daisy's hide over his shoulder, every
penny he had jingling in his pockets. Just before he got to the fair,
he made several slits in the hide, put a penny in each slit, walked
into the best inn of the town as bold as if it belonged to him, and,
hanging the hide up to a nail in the wall, sat down.
"Some of your best whisky," says he to the landlord. But the landlord
didn't like his looks. "Is it fearing I won't pay you, you are?" says
Donald; "why I have a hide here that gives me all the money I want."
And with that he hit it a whack with his stick and out hopped a penny.
The landlord opened his eyes, as you may fancy.
"What'll you take for that hide?"
"It's not for sale, my good man."
"Will you take a gold piece?"
"It's not for sale, I tell you. Hasn't it kept me and mine for years?"
and with that Donald hit the hide another whack and out jumped a
second penny.
Well, the long and the short of it was that Donald let the hide go,
and, that very evening, who but he should walk up to Hudden's door?
"Good-evening, Hudden. Will you lend me your best pair of scales?"
Hudden stared and Hudden scratched his head, but he lent the scales.
When Donald was safe at home, he pulled out his pocketful of bright
gold and began to weigh each piece in the scales. But Hudden had put a
lump of butter at the bottom, and so the last piece of gold stuck fast
to the scales when he took them back to Hudden.
If Hudden had stared before, he stared ten times more now, and no
sooner was Donald's back turned, than he was off as hard as he could
pelt to Dudden's.
"Good-evening, Dudden. That vagabond, bad luck to him----"
"You mean Donald O'Neary?"
"And who else should I mean? He's back here weighing out sackfuls of
gold."
"How do you know that?"
"Here are my scales that he borrowed, and here's a gold piece still
sticking to them."
[Illustration:]
Off they went together, and they came to Donald's door. Donald had
finished making the last pile of ten gold pieces. And he couldn't
finish because a piece had stuck to the scales.
In they walked without an "If you please" or "By your leave."
"Well, _I_ never!" that was all _they_ could say.
"Good-evening, Hudden; good-evening Dudden. Ah! you thought you had
played me a fine trick, but you never did me a better turn in all
your lives When I found poor Daisy dead, I thought to myself, 'Well,
her hide may fetch something'; and it did. Hides are worth their
weight in gold in the market just now."
Hudden nudged Dudden, and Dudden winked at Hudden.
"Good-evening, Donald O'Neary."
"Good-evening, kind friends."
The next day there wasn't a cow or a calf that belonged to Hudden or
Dudden but her hide was going to the fair in Hudden's biggest cart
drawn by Dudden's strongest pair of horses.
When they came to the fair, each one took a hide over his arm, and
there they were walking through the fair, bawling out at the top of
their voices: "Hides to sell! hides to sell!"
Out came the tanner:
"How much for your hides, my good men?"
"Their weight in gold."
"It's early in the day to come out of the tavern." That was all the
tanner said, and back he went to his yard.
"Hides to sell! Fine fresh hides to sell!"
Out came the cobbler:
"How much for your hides, my men?"
"Their weight in gold."
"Is it making game of me you are! Take that for your pains," and the
cobbler dealt Hudden a blow that made him stagger.
Up the people came running from one end of the fair to the other.
"What 's the matter? What's the matter?" cried they.
"Here are a couple of vagabonds selling hides at their weight in
gold," said the cobbler.
"Hold 'em fast; hold 'em fast!" bawled the innkeeper, who was the last
to come up, he was so fat. "I'll wager it's one of the rogues who
tricked me out of thirty gold pieces yesterday for a wretched hide."
It was more kicks than halfpence that Hudden and Dudden got before
they were well on their way home again, and they didn't run the slower
because all the dogs of the town were at their heels.
Well, as you may fancy, if they loved Donald little before, they loved
him less now.
"What's the matter, friends?" said he, as he saw them tearing along,
their hats knocked in, and their coats torn off, and their faces black
and blue. "Is it fighting you've been? or mayhap you met the police,
ill luck to them?"
"We'll police you, you vagabond. It's mighty smart you thought
yourself, deluding us with your lying tales."
"Who deluded you? Didn't you see the gold with your own two eyes?"
But it was no use talking. Pay for it he must, and should. There was a
meal-sack handy, and into it Hudden and Dudden popped Donald O'Neary,
tied him up tight, ran a pole through the knot, and off they started
for the Brown Lake of the Bog, each with a pole-end on his shoulder,
and Donald O'Neary between.
But the Brown Lake was far, the road was dusty, Hudden and Dudden were
sore and weary, and parched with thirst. There was an inn by the
roadside.
"Let's go in," said Hudden; "I'm dead beat. It's heavy he is for the
little he had to eat."
If Hudden was willing, so was Dudden. As for Donald, you may be sure
his leave wasn't asked, but he was lumped down at the inn door for all
the world as if he had been a sack of potatoes.
"Sit still, you vagabond," said Dudden; "if we don't mind waiting, you
needn't."
Donald held his peace, but after a while he heard the glasses clink,
and Hudden singing away at the top of his voice.
"I won't have her, I tell you; I won't have her!" said Donald. But
nobody heeded what he said.
"I won't have her, I tell you; I won't have her!" said Donald; and
this time he said it louder; but nobody heeded what he said.
"I won't have her, I tell you; I won't have her!" said Donald; and
this time he said it as loud as he could.
"And who won't you have, may I be so bold as to ask?" said a farmer,
who had just come up with a drove of cattle, and was turning in for a
glass.
"It's the king's daughter. They are bothering the life out of me to
marry her."
"You're the lucky fellow. I'd give something to be in your shoes."
"Do you see that now! Wouldn't it be a fine thing for a farmer to be
marrying a princess, all dressed in gold and jewels?"
"Jewels, do you say? Ah, now, couldn't you take me with you?"
"Well, you're an honest fellow, and as I don't care for the king's
daughter, though she's as beautiful as the day, and is covered with
jewels from top to toe, you shall have her. Just undo the cord and let
me out; they tied me up tight, as they knew I'd run away from her."
Out crawled Donald; in crept the farmer.
"Now lie still, and don't mind the shaking; it's only rumbling over
the palace steps you'll be. And maybe they'll abuse you for a
vagabond, who won't have the king's daughter; but you needn't mind
that. Ah! it's a deal I'm giving up for you, sure as it is that I
don't care for the princess."
"Take my cattle in exchange," said the farmer; and you may guess it
wasn't long before Donald was at their tails driving them homewards.
Out came Hudden and Dudden, and the one took one end of the pole, and
the other the other.
"I'm thinking he's heavier," said Hudden.
"Ah, never mind," said Dudden; "it's only a step now to the Brown
Lake."
"I'll have her now! I'll have her now!" bawled the farmer, from inside
the sack.
"By my faith and you shall though," said Hudden, and he laid his stick
across the sack.
"I'll have her! I'll have her!" bawled the farmer, louder than ever.
"Well, here you are," said Dudden, for they were now come to the Brown
Lake, and, unslinging the sack, they pitched it plump into the lake.
"You'll not be playing your tricks on us any longer," said Hudden.
"True for you," said Dudden. "Ah, Donald, my boy, it was an ill day
when you borrowed my scales."
Off they went, with a light step and an easy heart, but when they were
near home, whom should they see but Donald O'Neary, and all around him
the cows were grazing, and the calves were kicking up their heels and
butting their heads together.
"Is it you, Donald?" said Dudden. "Faith you've been quicker than we
have."
"True for you, Dudden, and let me thank you kindly; the turn was good,
if the will was ill. You'll have heard, like me, that the Brown Lake
leads to the Land of Promise. I always put it down as lies, but it is
just as true as my word. Look at the cattle."
Hudden stared, and Dudden gaped; but they couldn't get over the
cattle: fine fat cattle they were too.
"It's only the worst I could bring up with me," said Donald O'Neary;
"the others were so fat, there was no driving them. Faith, too, it's
little wonder they didn't care to leave, with grass as far as you
could see, and as sweet and juicy as fresh butter."
"Ah, now, Donald, we haven't always been friends," said Dudden, "but,
as I was just saying, you were ever a decent lad, and you'll show us
the way, won't you?"
"I don't see that I'm called upon to do that; there is a power more
cattle down there. Why shouldn't I have them all to myself?"
"Faith, they may well say, the richer you get, the harder the heart.
You always were a neighbourly lad, Donald. You wouldn't wish to keep
the luck all to yourself?"
"True for you, Hudden, though 'tis a bad example you set me. But I'll
not be thinking of old times. There is plenty for all there, so come
along with me."
Off they trudged, with a light heart and an eager step. When they came
to the Brown Lake the sky was full of little white clouds, and, if the
sky was full, the lake was as full.
"Ah! now, look, there they are," cried Donald, as he pointed to the
clouds in the lake.
"Where? where?" cried Hudden, and "Don't be greedy!" cried Dudden, as
he jumped his hardest to be up first with the fat cattle. But if he
jumped first, Hudden wasn't long behind.
They never came back. Maybe they got too fat, like the cattle. As for
Donald O'Neary, he had cattle and sheep all his days to his heart's
content.
The Shepherd of Myddvai
[Illustration:]
Up in the Black Mountains in Caermarthenshire lies the lake known as
Lyn y Van Vach. To the margin of this lake the shepherd of Myddvai
once led his lambs, and lay there whilst they sought pasture.
Suddenly, from the dark waters of the lake, he saw three maidens rise.
Shaking the bright drops from their hair and gliding to the shore they
wandered about amongst his flock. They had more than mortal beauty,
and he was filled with love for her that came nearest to him. He
offered her the bread he had with him, and she took it and tried it,
but then sang to him:
"Hard-baked is thy bread,
'Tis not easy to catch me,"
and then ran off laughing to the lake.
Next day he took with him bread not so well done, and watched for the
maidens. When they came ashore he offered his bread as before, and the
maiden tasted it and sang:
"Unbaked is thy bread,
I will not have thee,"
and again disappeared in the waves.
A third time did the shepherd of Myddvai try to attract the maiden,
and this time he offered bread that he had found floating about near
the shore. This pleased her, and she promised to become his wife if he
were able to pick her out from among her sisters on the following day.
When the time came the shepherd knew his love by the strap of her
sandal. Then she told him she would be as good a wife to him as any
earthly maiden could be unless he should strike her three times
without cause. Of course he deemed that this could never be; and she
summoning from the lake three cows, two oxen, and a bull, as her
marriage portion, was led homeward by him as his bride.
The years passed happily, and three children were born to the shepherd
and the lake-maiden. But one day they were going to a christening, and
she said to her husband it was far to walk, so he told her to go for
the horses.
"I will," said she, "If you bring me my gloves which I've left in the
house."
But when he came back with the gloves he found she had not gone for
the horses; so he tapped her lightly on the shoulder with the gloves,
and said, "Go, go."
"That's one," said she.
Another time they were at a wedding, when suddenly the lake-maiden
fell a-sobbing and a-weeping, amid the joy and mirth of all around
her.
Her husband tapped her on the shoulder, and asked her, "Why do you
weep?"
"Because they are entering into trouble; and trouble is upon you; for
that is the second causeless blow you have given me. Be careful; the
third is the last."
The husband was very careful never to strike her. But one day at a
funeral she suddenly burst out into fits of laughter. Her husband
forgot, and touched her rather roughly on the shoulder, saying, "Is
this a time for laughter?"
"I laugh," she said, "because those that die go out of trouble, but
your trouble has come. The last blow has been struck; our marriage is
at an end, and so farewell." And with that she rose up and left the
house and went to their home.
Then she, looking round upon her home, called to the cattle she had
brought with her:
"Brindle cow, white speckled,
Spotted cow, bold freckled,
Old white face, and grey Geringer,
And the white bull from the king's coast
Grey ox, and black calf,
All, all, follow me home."
Now the black calf had just been slaughtered, and was hanging on the
hook; but it got off the hook alive and well and followed her; and the
oxen, though they were ploughing, trailed the plough with them and did
her bidding. So she fled to the lake again, they following her, and
with them plunged into the dark waters. And to this day is the furrow
seen which the plough left as it was dragged across the mountains to
the tarn.
Only once did she come again, when her sons were grown to manhood, and
then she gave them gifts of healing by which they won the name of
Meddygon Myddvai, the physicians of Myddvai.
The Sprightly Tailor
[Illustration:]
A Sprightly tailor was employed by the great Macdonald, in his castle
at Saddell, in order to make the laird a pair of trews, used in olden
time. And trews being the vest and breeches united in one piece, and
ornamented with fringes, were very comfortable, and suitable to be
worn in walking or dancing. Macdonald had said to the tailor that if
he would make the trews by night in the church he would get a handsome
reward. For it was thought that the old ruined church was haunted, and
that fearsome things were to be seen there at night.
The tailor was well aware of this; but he was a sprightly man, and
when the laird dared him to make the trews by night in the church, the
tailor was not to be daunted, but took it in hand to gain the prize.
So, when night came, away he went up the glen, about half a mile
distance from the castle, till he came to the old church. Then he
chose him a nice grave-stone for a seat and he lighted his candle, and
put on his thimble, and set to work at the trews, plying his needle
nimbly, and thinking about the hire that the laird would have to give
him.
For some time he got on pretty well, until he felt the floor all of a
tremble under his feet; and looking about him, but keeping his fingers
at work, he saw the appearance of a great human head rising up through
the stone pavement of the church. And when the head had risen above
the surface, there came from it a great, great voice. And the voice
said: "Do you see this great head of mine?"
"I see that, but I'll sew this!" replied the sprightly tailor; and he
stitched away at the trews.
Then the head rose higher up through the pavement, until its neck
appeared. And when its neck was shown, the thundering voice came again
and said: "Do you see this great neck of mine?"
"I see that, but I'll sew this!" said the sprightly tailor; and he
stitched away at his trews.
Then the head and neck rose higher still, until the great shoulders
and chest were shown above the ground. And again the mighty voice
thundered: "Do you see this great chest of mine?"
And again the sprightly tailor replied: "I see that, but I'll sew
this!" and stitched away at his trews.
And still it kept rising through the pavement, until it shook a great
pair of arms in the tailor's face, and said: "Do you see these great
arms of mine?"
"I see those, but I'll sew this!" answered the tailor; and he stitched
hard at his trews, for he knew that he had no time to lose.
The sprightly tailor was taking the long stitches, when he saw it
gradually rising and rising through the floor, until it lifted out a
great leg, and stamping with it upon the pavement, said in a roaring
voice: "Do you see this great leg of mine?"
"Aye, aye: I see that, but I'll sew this!" cried the tailor; and his
fingers flew with the needle, and he took such long stitches, that he
was just come to the end of the trews, when it was taking up its other
leg. But before it could pull it out of the pavement, the sprightly
tailor had finished his task; and, blowing out his candle, and
springing from off his grave-stone, he buckled up, and ran out of the
church with the trews under his arm. Then the fearsome thing gave a
loud roar, and stamped with both his feet upon the pavement, and out
of the church he went after the sprightly tailor.
Down the glen they ran, faster than the stream when the flood rides
it; but the tailor had got the start and a nimble pair of legs, and he
did not choose to lose the laird's reward. And though the thing roared
to him to stop, yet the sprightly tailor was not the man to be
beholden to a monster. So he held his trews tight, and let no darkness
grow under his feet until he had reached Saddell Castle. He had no
sooner got inside the gate, and shut it, than the monster came up to
it; and, enraged at losing his prize, struck the wall above the gate,
and left there the mark of his five great fingers. You may see them
plainly to this day, if you'll only peer close enough.
But the sprightly tailor gained his reward: for Macdonald paid him
handsomely for the trews, and never discovered that a few of the
stitches were somewhat long.
The Story of Deirdre
[Illustration:]
There was a man in Ireland once who was called Malcolm Harper. The man
was a right good man, and he had a goodly share of this world's goods.
He had a wife, but no family. What did Malcolm hear but that a
soothsayer had come home to the place, and as the man was a right good
man, he wished that the soothsayer might come near them. Whether it
was that he was invited or that he came of himself, the soothsayer
came to the house of Malcolm.
"Are you doing any soothsaying?" says Malcolm.
"Yes, I am doing a little. Are you in need of soothsaying?"
"Well, I do not mind taking soothsaying from you, if you had
soothsaying for me, and you would be willing to do it."
"Well, I will do soothsaying for you. What kind of soothsaying do you
want?"
"Well, the soothsaying I wanted was that you would tell me my lot or
what will happen to me, if you can give me knowledge of it."
"Well, I am going out, and when I return I will tell you."
And the soothsayer went forth out of the house, and he was not long
outside when he returned.
"Well," said the soothsayer, "I saw in my second sight that it is on
account of a daughter of yours that the greatest amount of blood shall
be shed that has ever been shed in Erin since time and race began. And
the three most famous heroes that ever were found will lose their
heads on her account."
After a time a daughter was born to Malcolm. He did not allow a living
being to come to his house, only himself and the nurse. He asked this
woman, "Will you yourself bring up the child to keep her in hiding far
away where eye will not see a sight of her nor ear hear a word about
her?"
The woman said she would, so Malcolm got three men, and he took them
away to a large mountain, distant and far from reach, without the
knowledge or notice of any one. He caused there a hillock, round and
green, to be dug out of the middle, and the hole thus made to be
covered carefully over, so that a little company could dwell there
together. This was done.
Deirdre and her foster-mother dwelt in the bothy mid the hills without
the knowledge or the suspicion of any living person about them and
without anything occurring, until Deirdre was sixteen years of age.
Deirdre grew like the white sapling, straight and trim as the rash on
the moss. She was the creature of fairest form, of loveliest aspect,
and of gentlest nature that existed between earth and heaven in all
Ireland--whatever colour of hue she had before, there was nobody that
looked into her face but she would blush fiery red over it.
The woman that had charge of her gave Deirdre every information and
skill of which she herself had knowledge and skill. There was not a
blade of grass growing from root, nor a bird singing in the wood, nor
a star shining from heaven but Deirdre had a name for it. But one
thing, she did not wish her to have either part or parley with any
single living man of the rest of the world. But on a gloomy winter
night, with black, scowling clouds, a hunter of game was wearily
travelling the hills, and what happened but that he missed the trail
of the hunt, and lost his course and companions. A drowsiness came
upon the man as he wearily wandered over the hills, and he laid down
by the side of the beautiful green knoll in which Deirdre lived, and
he slept. The man was faint from hunger and wandering, and benumbed
with cold, and a deep sleep fell upon him. When he lay down beside
the green hill where Deirdre was, a troubled dream came to the man,
and he thought that he enjoyed the warmth of a fairy broch, the
fairies being inside playing music. The hunter shouted out in his
dream if there was any one in the broch, to let him in for the Holy
One's sake. Deirdre heard the voice, and said to her foster-mother, "O
foster-mother, what cry is that?" "It is nothing at all,
Deirdre--merely the birds of the air astray and seeking each other.
But let them go past to the bosky glade. There is no shelter or house
for them here." "O foster-mother, the bird asked to get inside for the
sake of the God of the Elements, and you yourself tell me that
anything that is asked in His name we ought to do. If you will not
allow the bird that is being benumbed with cold, and done to death
with hunger, to be let in, I do not think much of your language or
your faith. But since I give credence to your language and to your
faith, which you taught me, I will myself let in the bird." And
Deirdre arose and drew the bolt from the leaf of the door, and she let
in the hunter. She placed a seat in the place for sitting, food in the
place for eating, and drink in the place for drinking for the man who
came to the house. "Oh, for this life and raiment, you man that came
in, keep restraint on your tongue!" said the old woman. "It is not a
great thing for you to keep your mouth shut and your tongue quiet when
you get a home and shelter of a hearth on a gloomy winter's night."
"Well," said the hunter, "I may do that--keep my mouth shut and my
tongue quiet, since I came to the house and received hospitality from
you; but by the hand of thy father and grandfather, and by your own
two hands, if some other of the people of the world saw this beauteous
creature you have here hid away, they would not long leave her with
you, I swear."
"What men are these you refer to?" said Deirdre.
"Well, I will tell you, young woman," said the hunter, "They are
Naois, son of Uisnech, and Allen and Arden his two brothers."
"What like are these men when seen, if we were to see them?" said
Deirdre.
"Why, the aspect and form of the men when seen are these," said the
hunter; "they have the colour of the raven on their hair, their skin
like swan on the wave in whiteness, and their cheeks as the blood of
the brindled red calf, and their speed and their leap are those of the
salmon of the torrent and the deer of the grey mountain side. And
Naois is head and shoulders over the rest of the people of Erin."
"However they are," said the nurse, "be you off from here and take
another road. And, King of Light and Sun! in good sooth and certainty,
little are my thanks for yourself or for her that let you in!"
The hunter went away, and went straight to the palace of King
Connachar. He sent word in to the king that he wished to speak to him
if he pleased. The king answered the message and came out to speak to
the man. "What is the reason of your journey?" said the king to the
hunter.
[Illustration: Deirdre. O Nurse what cry is that!
Only the birds of the air calling one to the other.--
There is no home for them here. Let them go by to the thicket.]
"I have only to tell you, O king," said the hunter. "that I saw the
fairest creature that ever was born in Erin, and I came to tell you of
it."
"Who is this beauty, and where is she to be seen, when she was not
seen before till you saw her, if you did see her?"
"Well, I did see her," said the hunter. "But, if I did, no man else
can see her unless he get directions from me as to where she is
dwelling."
"And will you direct me to where she dwells? and the reward of your
directing me will be as good as the reward of your message," said the
king.
"Well, I will direct you, O king, although it is likely that this will
not be what they want," said the hunter.
Connachar, king of Ulster, sent for his nearest kinsmen, and he told
them of his intent. Though early rose the song of the birds mid the
rocky caves and the music of the birds in the grove, earlier than that
did Connachar, king of Ulster, arise, with his little troop of dear
friends, in the delightful twilight of the fresh and gentle May; the
dew was heavy on each bush and flower and stem, as they went to bring
Deirdre forth from the green knoll where she stayed. Many a youth was
there who had a lithe, leaping and lissom step when they started whose
step was faint, failing, and faltering when they reached the bothy on
account of the length of the way and roughness of the road. "Yonder,
now, down in the bottom of the glen is the bothy where the woman
dwells, but I will not go nearer than this to the old woman," said the
hunter.
Connachar with his band of kinsfolk went down to the green knoll
where Deirdre dwelt and he knocked at the door of the bothy. The nurse
replied, "No less than a king's command and a king's army could put me
out of my bothy to-night. And I should be obliged to you, were you to
tell who it is that wants me to open my bothy door." "It is I,
Connachar, king of Ulster." When the poor woman heard who was at the
door, she rose with haste and let in the king and all that could get
in of his retinue.
When the king saw the woman that was before him that he had been in
quest of, he thought he never saw in the course of the day nor in the
dream of night a creature so fair as Deirdre and he gave his full
heart's weight of love to her. Deirdre was raised on the topmost of
the heroes' shoulders and she and her foster-mother were brought to
the Court of King Connachar of Ulster.
With the love that Connachar had for her, he wanted to marry Deirdre
right off there and then, will she nill she marry him. But she said to
him, "I would be obliged to you if you will give me the respite of a
year and a day." He said, "I will grant you that, hard though it is,
if you will give me your unfailing promise that you will marry me at
the year's end." And she gave the promise. Connachar got for her a
woman-teacher and merry modest maidens fair that would lie down and
rise with her, that would play and speak with her. Deirdre was clever
in maidenly duties and wifely understanding, and Connachar thought he
never saw with bodily eye a creature that pleased him more. Deirdre
and her women companions were one day out on the hillock behind the
house enjoying the scene, and drinking in the sun's heat. What did
they see coming but three men a-journeying. Deirdre was looking at the
men that were coming, and wondering at them. When the men neared them,
Deirdre remembered the language of the huntsman, and she said to
herself that these were the three sons of Uisnech, and that this was
Naois, he having what was above the bend of the two shoulders above
the men of Erin all. The three brothers went past without taking any
notice of them, without even glancing at the young girls on the
hillock. What happened but that love for Naois struck the heart of
Deirdre, so that she could not but follow after him. She girded up her
raiment and went after the men that went past the base of the knoll,
leaving her women attendants there. Allen and Arden had heard of the
woman that Connachar, king of Ulster, had with him, and they thought
that, if Naois, their brother, saw her, he would have her himself,
more especially as she was not married to the king. They perceived the
woman coming, and called on one another to hasten their step as they
had a long distance to travel, and the dusk of night was coming on.
They did so. She cried: "Naois, son of Uisnech, will you leave me?"
"What piercing, shrill cry is that--the most melodious my ear ever
heard, and the shrillest that ever struck my heart of all the cries I
ever heard?" "It isn't anything else but the wail of the wave-swans of
Connachar," said his brothers. "No! yonder is a woman's cry of
distress," said Naois, and he swore he would not go further until he
saw from whom the cry came, and Naois turned back. Naois and Deirdre
met, and Deirdre kissed Naois three times, and a kiss each to his
brothers. With the confusion that she was in, Deirdre went into a
crimson blaze of fire, and her colour came and went as rapidly as the
movement of the aspen by the stream side. Naois thought he never saw a
fairer creature, and Naois gave Deirdre the love that he never gave to
thing, to vision, or to creature but to herself.
Then Naois placed Deirdre on the topmost height of his shoulder, and
told his brothers to keep up their pace, and they kept up their pace.
Naois thought that it would not be well for him to remain in Erin on
account of the way in which Connachar, king of Ulster, his uncle's
son, had gone against him because of the woman, though he had not
married her; and he turned back to Alba, that is, Scotland. He reached
the side of Loch Ness and made his habitation there. He could kill the
salmon of the torrent from out his own door, and the deer of the grey
gorge from out his window. Naois and Deirdre and Allen and Arden dwelt
in a tower, and they were happy so long a time as they were there.
By this time the end of the period came at which Deirdre had to marry
Connachar, king of Ulster. Connachar made up his mind to take Deirdre
away by the sword whether she was married to Naois or not. So he
prepared a great and gleeful feast. He sent word far and wide through
Erin to all his kinspeople to come to the feast. Connachar thought to
himself that Naois would not come though he should bid him, and the
scheme that arose in his mind was to send for his father's brother,
Ferchar Mac Ro, and to send him on an embassy to Naois. He did so; and
Connachar said to Ferchar, "Tell Naois, son of Uisnech, that I am
setting forth a great and gleeful feast to my friends and kinspeople
throughout the wide extent of Erin all, and that I shall not have rest
by day nor sleep by night if he and Allen and Arden be not partakers
of the feast."
Ferchar Mac Ro and his three sons went on their journey, and reached
the tower where Naois was dwelling by the side of Loch Etive. The sons
of Uisnech gave a cordial kindly welcome to Ferchar Mac Ro and his
three sons, and asked of him the news of Erin. "The best news that I
have for you," said the hardy hero, "is that Connachar, king of
Ulster, is setting forth a great sumptuous feast to his friends and
kinspeople throughout the wide extent of Erin all, and he has vowed by
the earth beneath him, by the high heaven above him, and by the sun
that wends to the west, that he will have no rest by day nor sleep by
night if the sons of Uisnech, the sons of his own father's brother,
will not come back to the land of their home and the soil of their
nativity, and to the feast likewise, and he has sent us on embassy to
invite you."
"We will go with you," said Naois.
"We will," said his brothers.
But Deirdre did not wish to go with Ferchar Mac Ro, and she tried
every prayer to turn Naois from going with him--she said:
"I saw a vision, Naois, and do you interpret it to me," said
Deirdre--then she sang:
O Naois, son of Uisnech, hear
What was shown in a dream to me.
There came three white doves out of the South
Flying over the sea,
And drops of honey were in their mouth
From the hive of the honey-bee.
O Naois, son of Uisnech, hear
What was shown in a dream to me.
I saw three grey hawks out of the South
Come flying over the sea,
And the red drops they bare in their mouth
They were dearer than life to me.
Said Naois:
It is nought but the fear of woman's heart,
And a dream of the night, Deirdre.
"The day that Connachar sent the invitation to his feast will be
unlucky for us if we don't go, O Deirdre."
"You will go there," said Ferchar Mac Ro; "and if Connachar show
kindness to you, show ye kindness to him; and if he will display wrath
towards you display ye wrath towards him, and I and my three sons will
be with you."
"We will," said Daring Drop. "We will," said Hardy Holly. "We will,"
said Fiallan the Fair.
"I have three sons, and they are three heroes, and in any harm or
danger that may befall you, they will be with you, and I myself will
be along with them." And Ferchar Mac Ro gave his vow and his word in
presence of his arms that, in any harm or danger that came in the way
of the sons of Uisnech, he and his three sons would not leave head on
live body in Erin, despite sword or helmet, spear or shield, blade or
mail, be they ever so good.
Deirdre was unwilling to leave Alba, but she went with Naois. Deirdre
wept tears in showers and she sang:
Dear is the land, the land over there,
Alba full of woods and lakes;
Bitter to my heart is leaving thee,
But I go away with Naois.
Ferchar Mac Ro did not stop till he got the sons of Uisnech away with
him, despite the suspicion of Deirdre.
The coracle was put to sea,
The sail was hoisted to it;
And the second morrow they arrived
On the white shores of Erin.
As soon as the sons of Uisnech landed in Erin, Ferchar Mac Ro sent
word to Connachar, king of Ulster, that the men whom he wanted were
come, and let him now show kindness to them. "Well," said Connachar,
"I did not expect that the sons of Uisnech would come, though I sent
for them, and I am not quite ready to receive them. But there is a
house down yonder where I keep strangers, and let them go down to it
to-day, and my house will be ready before them to-morrow."
But he that was up in the palace felt it long that he was not getting
word as to how matters were going on for those down in the house of
the strangers. "Go you, Gelban Grednach, son of Lochlin's King, go you
down and bring me information as to whether her former hue and
complexion are on Deirdre. If they be, I will take her out with edge
of blade and point of sword, and if not, let Naios, son of Uisnech,
have her for himself," said Connachar.
Gelban, the cheering and charming son of Lochlin's King, went down to
the place of the strangers, where the sons of Uisnech and Deirdre were
staying. He looked in through the bicker-hole on the door-leaf. Now
she that he gazed upon used to go into a crimson blaze of blushes when
any one looked at her. Naois looked at Deirdre and knew that some one
was looking at her from the back of the door-leaf. He seized one of
the dice on the table before him and fired it through the bicker-hole,
and knocked the eye out of Gelban Grednach the Cheerful and Charming,
right through the back of his head. Gelban returned back to the palace
of King Connachar.
"You were cheerful, charming, going away, but you are cheerless,
charmless, returning. What has happened to you, Gelban? But have you
seen her, and are Deirdre's hue and complexion as before?" said
Connachar.
"Well, I have seen Deirdre, and I saw her also truly, and while I was
looking at her through the bicker-hole on the door, Naois, son of
Uisnech, knocked out my eye with one of the dice in his hand. But of a
truth and verity, although he put out even my eye, it were my desire
still to remain looking at her with the other eye, were it not for the
hurry you told me to be in," said Gelban.
"That is true," said Connachar; "let three hundred brave heroes go
down to the abode of the strangers, and let them bring hither to me
Deirdre, and kill the rest."
Connachar ordered three hundred active heroes to go down to the abode
of the strangers, and to take Deirdre up with them and kill the rest.
"The pursuit is coming," said Deirdre.
"Yes, but I will myself go out and stop the pursuit," said Naois.
"It is not you, but we that will go," said Daring Drop, and Hardy
Holly, and Fiallan the Fair; "it is to us that our father entrusted
your defence from harm and danger when he himself left for home." And
the gallant youths, full noble, full manly, full handsome, with
beauteous brown locks, went forth girt with battle arms fit for fierce
fight and clothed with combat dress for fierce contest fit, which was
burnished, bright, brilliant, bladed, blazing, on which were many
pictures of beasts and birds, and creeping things, lions, and
lithe-limbed tigers, brown eagle, and harrying hawk, and adder fierce;
and the young heroes laid low three-thirds of the company.
Connachar came out in haste and cried with wrath; "Who is there on
the floor of fight, slaughtering my men?"
"We, the three sons of Ferchar Mac Ro."
"Well," said the king, "I will give a free bridge to your grandfather,
a free bridge to your father, and a free bridge each to you three
brothers, if you come over to my side to-night."
"Well, Connachar, we will not accept that offer from you, nor thank
you for it. Greater by far do we prefer to go home to our father and
tell the deeds of heroism we have done, than accept anything on these
terms from you. Naois, son of Uisnech, and Allen and Arden are as
nearly related to yourself as they are to us, though you are so keen
to shed their blood, and you would shed our blood also, Connachar."
And the noble, manly, handsome youths, with beauteous brown locks,
returned inside. "We are now," said they, "going home to tell our
father that you are now safe from the hands of the king." And the
youths, all fresh and tall and lithe and beautiful, went home to their
father to tell that the sons of Uisnech were safe. This happened at
the parting of the day and night in the morning twilight time, and
Naois said they must go away, leave that house, and return to Alba.
Naois and Deirdre, Allen and Arden started to return to Alba. Word
came to the king that the company he was in pursuit of were gone. The
king then sent for Duanan Gacha Druid, the best magician he had, and
he spake to him as follows: "Much wealth have I expended on you,
Duanan Gacha Druid, to give schooling and learning and magic mystery
to you, I'll hold you to account if these people get away from me
to-day without care, without consideration or regard for me, without
chance of overtaking them, and without power to stop them."
"Well, I will stop them," said the magician, "until the company you
send in pursuit return." And the magician placed a wood before them
through which no man could go, but the sons of Uisnech marched through
the wood without halt or hesitation, and Deirdre held on to Naois's
hand.
"What is the good of that? that will not do yet," said Connachar.
"They are off without bending of their feet or stopping of their step,
without heed or respect to me, and I am without power to keep up to
them, or opportunity to turn them back this night."
"I will try another plan on them," said the druid; and he placed
before them a grey sea instead of a green plain. The three heroes
stripped and tied their clothes behind their heads, and Naois placed
Deirdre on the top of his shoulder.
They stretched their sides to the stream,
And sea and land were to them the same,
The rough grey ocean was the same
As meadow-land green and plain.
"Though that be good, O Duanan, it will not make the heroes return,"
said Connachar; "they are gone without regard for me, and without
honor to me, and without power on my part to pursue them, or to force
them to return this night."
[Illustration:]
"We shall try another method on them, since yon one did not stop
them," said the druid. And the druid froze the grey-ridged sea into
hard rocky knobs, the sharpness of sword being on the one edge and the
poison power of adders on the other. Then Arden cried that he was
getting tired, and nearly giving over. "Come you, Arden, and sit on my
right shoulder," said Naois. Arden came and sat on Naois's shoulder.
Arden was not long in this posture when he died; but though he was
dead Naois would not let him go. Allen then cried out that he was
getting faint and well-nigh giving up. When Naois heard his prayer, he
gave forth the piercing sigh of death, and asked Allen to lay hold of
him and he would bring him to land. Allen was not long when the
weakness of death came on him, and his hold failed. Naois looked
around, and when he saw his two well-beloved brothers dead, he cared
not whether he lived or died, and he gave forth the bitter sigh of
death, and his heart burst.
"They are gone," said Duanan Gacha Druid to the king, "and I have done
what you desired me. The sons of Uisnech are dead and they will
trouble you no more; and you have your wife hale and whole to
yourself."
"Blessings for that upon you and may the good results accrue to me,
Duanan. I count it no loss what I spent in the schooling and teaching
of you. Now dry up the flood and let me see if I can behold Deirdre,"
said Connachar. And Duanan Gacha Druid dried up the flood from the
plain and the three sons of Uisnech were lying together dead, without
breath of life, side by side on the green meadow plain and Deirdre
bending above showering down her tears.
Then Deirdre said this lament: "Fair one, loved one, flower of beauty;
beloved, upright, and strong; beloved, noble, and modest warrior. Fair
one, blue-eyed, beloved of thy wife; lovely to me at the
trysting-place came thy clear voice through the woods of Ireland. I
cannot eat or smile henceforth. Break not to-day, my heart: soon
enough shall I lie within my grave. Strong are the waves of sorrow,
but stronger is sorrow's self, Connachar."
The people then gathered round the heroes' bodies and asked Connachar
what was to be done with the bodies. The order that he gave was that
they should dig a pit and put the three brothers in it side by side.
Deirdre kept sitting on the brink of the grave, constantly asking the
gravediggers to dig the pit wide and free. When the bodies of the
brothers were put in the grave, Deirdre said:
Come over hither, Naois, my love,
Let Arden close to Allen lie;
If the dead had any sense to feel,
Ye would have made a place for Deirdre.
The men did as she told them. She jumped into the grave and lay down
by Naois, and she was dead by his side.
The king ordered the body to be raised from out the grave and to be
buried on the other side of the loch. It was done as the king bade,
and the pit closed. Thereupon a fir shoot grew out of the grave of
Deirdre and a fir shoot from the grave of Naois, and the two shoots
united in a knot above the loch. The king ordered the shoots to be cut
down, and this was done twice, until, at the third time, the wife whom
the king had married caused him to stop this work of evil and his
vengeance on the remains of the dead.
Munachar and Manachar
[Illustration:]
There once lived a Munachar and a Manachar, a long time ago, and it is
a long time since it was, and if they were alive now they would not be
alive then. They went out together to pick raspberries, and as many as
Munachar used to pick Manachar used to eat. Munachar said he must go
look for a rod to make a gad to hang Manachar, who ate his raspberries
every one; and he came to the rod. "What news the day?" said the rod.
"It is my own news that I'm seeking. Going looking for a rod, a rod to
make a gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate my raspberries every one."
"You will not get me," said the rod, "until you get an axe to cut me."
He came to the axe. "What news to-day?" said the axe. "It's my own
news I'm seeking. Going looking for an axe, an axe to cut a rod, a rod
to make a gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate my raspberries every
one."
[Illustration:]
"You will not get me," said the axe, "until you get a flag to edge
me." He came to the flag. "What news to-day?" says the flag. "It's my
own news I'm seeking. Going looking for a flag, flag to edge axe, axe
to cut a rod, a rod to make a gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate my
raspberries every one."
"You will not get me," says the flag, "till you get water to wet me."
He came to the water. "What news to-day?" says the water. "It's my own
news I'm seeking. Going looking for water, water to wet flag, flag to
edge axe, axe to cut a rod, a rod to make a gad, a gad to hang
Manachar, who ate my raspberries every one."
"You will not get me," said the water, "until you get a deer who will
swim me." He came to the deer "What news to-day?" says the deer. "It's
my own news I'm seeking. Going looking for a deer, deer to swim water,
water to wet flag, flag to edge axe, axe to cut a rod, a rod to make a
gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate my raspberries every one."
"You will not get me," said the deer, "until you get a hound who will
hunt me." He came to the hound. "What news to-day?" says the hound.
"It's my own news I'm seeking. Going looking for a hound, hound to
hunt deer, deer to swim water, water to wet flag, flag to edge axe,
axe to cut a rod, a rod to make a gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate
my raspberries every one."
"You will not get me," said the hound, "until you get a bit of butter
to put in my claw." He came to the butter. "What news to-day?" says
the butter. "It's my own news I'm seeking. Going looking for butter,
butter to go in claw of hound, hound to hunt deer, deer to swim water,
water to wet flag, flag to edge axe, axe to cut a rod, a rod to make a
gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate my raspberries every one."
"You will not get me," said the butter, "until you get a cat who shall
scrape me." He came to the cat. "What news to-day?" said the cat.
"It's my own news I'm seeking. Going looking for a cat, cat to scrape
butter, butter to go in claw of hound, hound to hunt deer, deer to
swim water, water to wet flag, flag to edge axe, axe to cut a rod, a
rod to make a gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate my raspberries
every one."
"You will not get me," said the cat, "until you will get milk which
you will give me." He came to the cow. "What news to-day?" said the
cow. "It's my own news I'm seeking. Going looking for a cow, cow to
give me milk, milk I will give to the cat, cat to scrape butter,
butter to go in claw of hound, hound to hunt deer, deer to swim water,
water to wet flag, flag to edge axe, axe to cut a rod, a rod to make a
gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate my raspberries every one."
"You will not get any milk from me," said the cow, "until you bring me
a whisp of straw from those threshers yonder." He came to the
threshers. "What news to-day?" said the threshers. "It's my own news
I'm seeking. Going looking for a whisp of straw from ye to give to
the cow, the cow to give me milk, milk I will give to the cat, cat to
scrape butter, butter to go in claw of hound, hound to hunt deer, deer
to swim water, water to wet flag, flag to edge axe, axe to cut a rod,
a rod to make a gad, a gad to hang Manachar, who ate my raspberries
every one."
"You will not get any whisp of straw from us," said the threshers,
"until you bring us the makings of a cake from the miller over
yonder." He came to the miller. "What news to-day?" said the miller.
"It's my own news I'm seeking. Going looking for the makings of a cake
which I will give the threshers, the threshers to give me a whisp of
straw, the whisp of straw I will give to the cow, the cow to give me
milk, milk I will give to the cat, cat to scrape butter, butter to go
in claw of hound, hound to hunt deer, deer to swim water, water to wet
flag, flag to edge axe, axe to cut a rod, a rod to make a gad, a gad
to hang Manachar, who ate my raspberries every one."
"You will not get any makings of a cake from me," said the miller,
"till you bring me the full of that sieve of water from the river over
there."
He took the sieve in his hand and went over to the river, but as often
as ever he would stoop and fill it with water, the moment he raised it
the water would run out of it again, and sure, if he had been there,
from that day till this, he never could have filled it. A crow went
flying by him, over his head, "Daub! daub!" said the crow. "My
blessings on ye, then," said Munachar, "but it's the good advice you
have," and he took the red clay and the daub that was by the brink,
and he rubbed it to the bottom of the sieve, until all the holes were
filled, and then the sieve held the water, and he brought the water to
the miller, and the miller gave him the makings of a cake, and he gave
the makings of the cake to the threshers, and the threshers gave him a
whisp of straw, and he gave the whisp of straw to the cow, and the cow
gave him milk, the milk he gave to the cat, the cat scraped the
butter, the butter went into the claw of the hound, the hound hunted
the deer, the deer swam the water, the water wet the flag, the flag
sharpened the axe, the axe cut the rod, and the rod made a gad, and
when he had it ready to hang Manachar he found that Manachar had
BURST.
[Illustration:]
Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree
[Illustration:]
Once upon a time there was a king who had a wife, whose name was
Silver-tree, and a daughter whose name was Gold-tree. On a certain day
of the days, Gold-tree and Silver-tree went to a glen, where there was
a well, and in it there was a trout.
Said Silver-tree, "Troutie, bonny little fellow, am not I the most
beautiful queen in the world?"
"Oh! indeed you are not."
"Who then?"
"Why, Gold-tree, your daughter."
Silver-tree went home, blind with rage. She lay down on the bed, and
vowed she would never be well until she could get the heart and the
liver of Gold-tree, her daughter, to eat.
At nightfall the king came home, and it was told him that Silver-tree,
his wife, was very ill. He went where she was, and asked her what was
wrong with her.
"Oh! only a thing which you may heal if you like."
"Oh! indeed there is nothing at all which I could do for you that I
would not do."
"If I get the heart and the liver of Gold-tree, my daughter, to eat, I
shall be well."
Now it happened about this time that the son of a great king had come
from abroad to ask Gold-tree for marrying. The king now agreed to
this, and they went abroad.
The king then went and sent his lads to the hunting-hill for a
he-goat, and he gave its heart and its liver to his wife to eat; and
she rose well and healthy.
A year after this Silver-tree went to the glen, where there was the
well in which there was the trout.
"Troutie, bonny little fellow," said she, "am not I the most beautiful
queen in the world?"
"Oh! indeed you are not."
"Who then?"
"Why, Gold-tree, your daughter."
"Oh! well, it is long since she was living. It is a year since I ate
her heart and liver."
"Oh! indeed she is not dead. She is married to a great prince abroad."
Silver-tree went home, and begged the king to put the long-ship in
order, and said, "I am going to see my dear Gold-tree, for it is so
long since I saw her." The long-ship was put in order, and they went
away.
It was Silver-tree herself that was at the helm, and she steered the
ship so well that they were not long at all before they arrived.
The prince was out hunting on the hills. Gold-tree knew the long-ship
of her father coming.
"Oh!" she said to the servants, "my mother is coming, and she will
kill me."
"She shall not kill you at all; we will lock you in a room where she
cannot get near you."
This is how it was done; and when Silver-tree came ashore, she began
to cry out:
"Come to meet your own mother, when she comes to see you." Gold-tree
said that she could not, that she was locked in the room, and that she
could not get out of it.
"Will you not put out," said Silver-tree, "your little finger through
the key-hole, so that your own mother may give a kiss to it?"
She put out her little finger, and Silver-tree went and put a poisoned
stab in it, and Gold-tree fell dead.
[Illustration:]
When the prince came home, and found Gold-tree dead, he was in great
sorrow, and when he saw how beautiful she was, he did not bury her at
all, but he locked her in a room where nobody would get near her.
In the course of time he married again, and the whole house was under
the hand of this wife but one room, and he himself always kept the key
of that room. On a certain day of the days he forgot to take the key
with him, and the second wife got into the room. What did she see
there but the most beautiful woman that she ever saw.
She began to turn and try to wake her, and she noticed the poisoned
stab in her finger. She took the stab out, and Gold-tree rose alive,
as beautiful as she was ever.
At the fall of night the prince came home from the hunting-hill,
looking very downcast.
"What gift," said his wife, "would you give me that I could make you
laugh?"
"Oh! indeed, nothing could make me laugh, except Gold-tree were to
come alive again."
"Well, you'll find her alive down there in the room."
When the prince saw Gold-tree alive he made great rejoicings, and he
began to kiss her, and kiss her, and kiss her. Said the second wife,
"Since she is the first one you had it is better for you to stick to
her, and I will go away."
"Oh! indeed you shall not go away, but I shall have both of you."
At the end of the year, Silver-tree went to the glen, where there was
the well, in which there was the trout.
"Troutie, bonny little fellow," said she, "am not I the most beautiful
queen in the world?"
"Oh! indeed you are not."
"Who then?"
"Why, Gold-tree, your daughter."
"Oh! well, she is not alive. It is a year since I put the poisoned
stab into her finger."
"Oh! indeed she is not dead at all, at all."
Silver-tree went home, and begged the king to put the long-ship in
order, for that she was going to see her dear Gold-tree, as it was so
long since she saw her. The long-ship was put in order and they went
away. It was Silver-tree herself that was at the helm, and she steered
the ship so well that they were not long at all before they arrived.
The prince was out hunting on the hills. Gold-tree knew her father's
ship coming.
"Oh!" said she, "my mother is coming, and she will kill me."
"Not at all," said the second wife; "we will go down to meet her."
Silver-tree came ashore. "Come down, Gold-tree, love," said she, "for
your own mother has come to you with a precious drink."
"It is a custom in this country," said the second wife, "that the
person who offers a drink takes a draught out of it first."
Silver-tree put her mouth to it, and the second wife went and struck
it so that some of it went down her throat, and she fell dead. They
had only to carry her home a dead corpse and bury her.
The prince and his two wives were long alive after this, pleased and
peaceful.
I left them there.
King O'Toole and His Goose
Och, I thought all the world, far and near, had heerd of King
O'Toole--well, well but the darkness of mankind is untollable! Well,
sir, you must know, as you didn't hear it afore, that there was a
king, called King O'Toole, who was a fine old king in the old ancient
times, long ago; and it was he that owned the churches in the early
days. The king, you see, was the right sort; he was the real boy, and
loved sport as he loved his life, and hunting in particular; and from
the rising o' the sun, up he got, and away he went over the mountains
after the deer; and fine times they were.
Well, it was all mighty good, as long as the king had his health; but,
you see, in the course of time the king grew old, by raison he was
stiff in his limbs, and when he got stricken in years, his heart
failed him, and he was lost entirely for want o' diversion, because he
couldn't go a-hunting no longer; and, by dad, the poor king was
obliged at last to get a goose to divert him. Oh, you may laugh, if
you like, but it's truth I'm telling you; and the way the goose
diverted him was this-a-way: You see, the goose used to swim across
the lake, and go diving for trout and catch fish on a Friday for the
king, and flew every other day round about the lake, diverting the
poor king. All went on mighty well until, by dad, the goose got
stricken in years like her master, and couldn't divert him no longer,
and then it was that the poor king was lost entirely. The king was
walkin' one mornin' by the edge of the lake, lamentin' his cruel fate,
and thinking of drowning himself, that could get no diversion in life,
when all of a sudden, turning round the corner, whom should he meet
but a mighty decent young man coming up to him.
[Illustration:]
"God save you," says the king to the young man.
"God save you kindly, King O'Toole," says the young man.
"True for you," says the king. "I am King O'Toole," says he, "prince
and plennypennytinchery of these parts," says he; "but how came ye to
know that?" says he.
"Oh, never mind," says St. Kavin.
You see it was Saint Kavin, sure enough--the saint himself in
disguise, and nobody else. "Oh, never mind," says he, "I know more
than that. May I make bold to ask how is your goose, King O'Toole?"
says he.
"Blur-an-agers, how came ye to know about my goose?" says the king.
"Oh, no matter; I was given to understand it," says Saint Kavin.
After some more talk the king says, "What are you?"
"I'm an honest man," says Saint Kavin.
"Well, honest man," says the king, "and how is it you make your money
so aisy?"
"By makin' old things as good as new," says Saint Kavin.
"Is it a tinker you are?" says the king.
"No," says the saint; "I'm no tinker by trade, King O'Toole; I've a
better trade than a tinker," says he--"what would you say," says he,
"If I made your old goose as good as new?"
My dear, at the word of making his goose as good as new, you'd think
the poor old king's eyes were ready to jump out of his head. With that
the king whistled, and down came the poor goose, just like a hound,
waddling up to the poor cripple, her master, and as like him as two
peas. The minute the saint clapt his eyes on the goose, "I'll do the
job for you," says he, "King O'Toole."
"By _Jaminee_!" says King O'Toole, "if you do, I'll say you're the
cleverest fellow in the seven parishes."
"Oh, by dad," says St. Kavin, "you must say more nor that--my horn's
not so soft all out," says he, "as to repair your old goose for
nothing;" "what'll you gi' me if I do the job for you?--that's the
chat," says St. Kavin.
"I'll give you whatever you ask," says the king "isn't that fair?"
"Divil a fairer," says the saint, "that's the way to do business.
Now," says he, "this is the bargain I'll make with you, King O'Toole:
will you gi' me all the ground the goose flies over, the first offer,
after I make her as good as new?"
"I will," says the king.
"You won't go back o' your word?" says St. Kavin.
"Honour bright!" says King O'Toole, holding out his fist.
"Honour bright!" says St. Kavin, back again, "it's a bargain. Come
here!" says he to the poor old goose--"come here, you unfortunate ould
cripple, and it's I that'll make you the sporting bird." With that, my
dear, he took up the goose by the two wings--"Criss o' my cross an
you," says he, markin' her to grace with the blessed sign at the same
minute--and throwing her up in the air, "whew," says he, jist givin'
her a blast to help her; and with that, my jewel, she took to her
heels, flyin' like one o' the eagles themselves, and cutting as many
capers as a swallow before a shower of rain.
Well, my dear, it was a beautiful sight to see the king standing with
his mouth open, looking at his poor old goose flying as light as a
lark, and better than ever she was; and when she lit at his feet,
patted her on the head, and "_Ma vourneen_," says he "but you are the
_darlint_ o' the world."
[Illustration:]
"And what do you say to me," says Saint Kavin, "for making her the
like?"
"By Jabers," says the king, "I say nothing beats the art o' man,
barring the bees."
"And do you say no more nor that?" says Saint Kavin.
"And that I'm beholden to you," says the king.
"But will you gi'e me all the ground the goose flew over?" says Saint
Kavin.
"I will," says King O'Toole, "and you're welcome to it," says he,
"though it's the last acre I have to give."
"But you'll keep your word true," says the saint.
"As true as the sun," says the king.
"It's well for you, King O'Toole, that you said that word," says he;
"for if you didn't say that word, the divil the bit o' your goose
would ever fly agin."
When the king was as good as his word, Saint Kavin was pleased with
him, and then it was that he made himself known to the king. "And,"
says he, "King O'Toole, you're a decent man, for I only came here to
try you. You don't know me," says he, "because I'm disguised."
"Musha! then," says the king, "who are you?"
"I'm Saint Kavin," said the saint, blessing himself.
"Oh, queen of heaven!" says the king, making the sign of the cross
between his eyes, and falling down on his knees before the saint; "is
it the great Saint Kavin," says he, "that I've been discoursing all
this time without knowing it," says he, "all as one as if he was a
lump of a _gossoon_?--and so you're a saint?" says the king.
"I am," says Saint Kavin.
"By Jabers, I thought I was only talking to a dacent boy," says the
king.
"Well, you know the difference now," says the saint. "I'm Saint
Kavin," says he, "the greatest of all the saints."
And so the king had his goose as good as new, to divert him as long as
he lived; and the saint supported him after he came into his property,
as I told you, until the day of his death--and that was soon after;
for the poor goose thought he was catching a trout one Friday; but, my
jewel, it was a mistake he made--and instead of a trout, it was a
thieving horse-eel; and instead of the goose killing a trout for the
king's supper--by dad, the eel killed the king's goose--and small
blame to him; but he didn't ate her, because he darn't ate what Saint
Kavin had laid his blessed hands on.
The Wooing of Olwen
Shortly after the birth of Kilhuch, the son of King Kilyth, his mother
died. Before her death she charged the king that he should not take a
wife again until he saw a briar with two blossoms upon her grave, and
the king sent every morning to see if anything were growing thereon.
After many years the briar appeared, and he took to wife the widow of
King Doged. She foretold to her stepson, Kilhuch, that it was his
destiny to marry a maiden named Olwen, or none other, and he, at his
father's bidding, went to the court of his cousin, King Arthur, to ask
as a boon the hand of the maiden. He rode upon a grey steed with
shell-formed hoofs, having a bridle of linked gold, and a saddle also
of gold. In his hand were two spears of silver, well-tempered, headed
with steel, of an edge to wound the wind and cause blood to flow, and
swifter than the fall of the dew-drop from the blade of reed grass
upon the earth when the dew of June is at its heaviest. A gold-hilted
sword was on his thigh, and the blade was of gold, having inlaid upon
it a cross of the hue of the lightning of heaven. Two brindled,
white-breasted greyhounds, with strong collars of rubies, sported
round him, and his courser cast up four sods with its four hoofs like
four swallows about his head. Upon the steed was a four-cornered cloth
of purple, and an apple of gold was at each corner. Precious gold was
upon the stirrups and shoes, and the blade of grass bent not beneath
them, so light was the courser's tread as he went towards the gate of
King Arthur's palace.
Arthur received him with great ceremony, and asked him to remain at
the palace; but the youth replied that he came not to consume meat and
drink, but to ask a boon of the king.
Then said Arthur, "Since thou wilt not remain here, chieftain, thou
shalt receive the boon, whatsoever thy tongue may name, as far as the
wind dries and the rain moistens, and the sun revolves, and the sea
encircles, and the earth extends, save only my ships and my mantle, my
sword, my lance, my shield, my dagger, and Guinevere my wife."
So Kilhuch craved of him the hand of Olwen, the daughter of Yspathaden
Penkawr, and also asked the favour and aid of all Arthur's court.
Then said Arthur, "O chieftain, I have never heard of the maiden of
whom thou speakest, nor of her kindred, but I will gladly send
messengers in search of her."
And the youth said, "I will willingly grant from this night to that at
the end of the year to do so."
Then Arthur sent messengers to every land within his dominions to seek
for the maiden; and at the end of the year Arthur's messengers
returned without having gained any knowledge or information
concerning Olwen more than on the first day.
Then said Kilhuch, "Every one has received his boon, and I yet lack
mine. I will depart and bear away thy honour with me."
Then said Kay, "Rash chieftain! dost thou reproach Arthur? Go with us,
and we will not part until thou dost either confess that the maiden
exists not in the world, or until we obtain her."
Thereupon Kay rose up.
Kay had this peculiarity, that his breath lasted nine nights and nine
days under water, and he could exist nine nights and nine days without
sleep. A wound from Kay's sword no physician could heal. Very subtle
was Kay. When it pleased him he could render himself as tall as the
highest tree in the forest. And he had another peculiarity--so great
was the heat of his nature, that, when it rained hardest, whatever he
carried remained dry for a handbreadth above and a handbreadth below
his hand; and when his companions were coldest, it was to them as fuel
with which to light their fire.
And Arthur called Bedwyr, who never shrank from any enterprise upon
which Kay was bound. None was equal to him in swiftness throughout
this island except Arthur and Drych Ail Kibthar. And although he was
one-handed, three warriors could not shed blood faster than he on the
field of battle. Another property he had; his lance would produce a
wound equal to nine opposing lances.
And Arthur called to Kynthelig the guide. "Go thou upon this
expedition with the chieftain." For as good a guide was he in a land
which he had never seen as he was in his own.
He called Gwrhyr Gwalstawt Ieithoedd, because he knew all tongues.
He called Gwalchmai, the son of Gwyar, because he never returned home
without achieving the adventure of which he went in quest. He was the
best of footmen and the best of knights. He was nephew to Arthur, the
son of his sister, and his cousin.
And Arthur called Menw, the son of Tiergwaeth, in order that if they
went into a savage country, he might cast a charm and an illusion over
them, so that none might see them whilst they could see every one.
They journeyed on till they came to a vast open plain, wherein they
saw a great castle, which was the fairest in the world. But so far
away was it that at night it seemed no nearer, and they scarcely
reached it on the third day. When they came before the castle they
beheld a vast flock of sheep, boundless and without end. They told
their errand to the herdsman, who endeavoured to dissuade them, since
none who had come thither on that quest had returned alive. They gave
to him a gold ring, which he conveyed to his wife, telling her who the
visitors were.
On the approach of the latter, she ran out with joy to greet them, and
sought to throw her arms about their necks. But Kay, snatching a
billet out of the pile, placed the log between her two hands, and she
squeezed it so that it became a twisted coil.
"O woman," said Kay, "if thou hadst squeezed me thus, none could ever
again have set their affections on me. Evil love were this."
They entered the house, and after meat she told them that the maiden
Olwen came there every Saturday to wash. They pledged their faith that
they would not harm her, and a message was sent to her. So Olwen came,
clothed in a robe of flame-coloured silk, and with a collar of ruddy
gold, in which were emeralds and rubies, about her neck. More golden
was her hair than the flower of the broom, and her skin was whiter
than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and her fingers
than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray of the meadow
fountain. Brighter were her glances than those of a falcon; her bosom
was more snowy than the breast of the white swan, her cheek redder
than the reddest roses. Whoso beheld was filled with her love. Four
white trefoils sprang up wherever she trod, and therefore was she
called Olwen.
Then Kilhuch, sitting beside her on a bench, told her his love, and
she said that he would win her as his bride if he granted whatever her
father asked.
Accordingly they went up to the castle and laid their request before
him.
"Raise up the forks beneath my two eyebrows which have fallen over my
eyes," said Yspathaden Penkawr, "that I may see the fashion of my
son-in-law."
They did so, and he promised them an answer on the morrow. But as they
were going forth Yspathaden seized one of the three poisoned darts
that lay beside him and threw it back after them.
And Bedwyr caught it and flung it back, wounding Yspathaden in the
knee.
Then said he, "A cursed ungentle son-in-law, truly I shall ever walk
the worse for his rudeness. This poisoned iron pains me like the bite
of a gad-fly. Cursed be the smith who forged it, and the anvil whereon
it was wrought."
[Illustration:]
The knights rested in the house of Custennin the herdsman, but the
next day at dawn they returned to the castle and renewed their
request.
Yspathaden said it was necessary that he should consult Olwen's four
great-grandmothers and her four great grand sires.
The knights again withdrew, and as they were going he took the second
dart and cast it after them.
But Menw caught it and flung it back, piercing Yspathaden's breast
with it, so that it came out at the small of his back.
"A cursed ungentle son-in-law, truly," says he, "the hard iron pains
me like the bite of a horse-leech. Cursed be the hearth whereon it was
heated! Henceforth whenever I go up a hill, I shall have a scant in my
breath and a pain in my chest."
On the third day the knights returned once more to the palace, and
Yspathaden took the third dart and cast it at them.
But Kilhuch caught it and threw it vigorously, and wounded him through
the eyeball, so that the dart came out at the back of his head.
"A cursed ungentle son-in-law, truly. As long as I remain alive my
eyesight will be the worse. Whenever I go against the wind my eyes
will water, and peradventure my head will burn, and I shall have a
giddiness every new moon. Cursed be the fire in which it was forged.
Like the bite of a mad dog is the stroke of this poisoned iron."
And they went to meat.
Said Yspathaden Penkawr, "Is it thou that seekest my daughter?"
"It is I," answered Kilhuch.
"I must have thy pledge that thou wilt not do towards me otherwise
than is just, and when I have gotten that which I shall name, my
daughter thou shalt have."
"I promise thee that willingly," said Kilhuch, "name what thou wilt."
"I will do so," said he.
"Throughout the world there is not a comb or scissors with which I can
arrange my hair, on account of its rankness, except the comb and
scissors that are between the two ears of Turch Truith, the son of
Prince Tared. He will not give them of his own free will, and thou
wilt not be able to compel him."
"It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think
that it will not be easy."
"Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get. It
will not be possible to hunt Turch Truith without Drudwyn the whelp of
Greid, the son of Eri, and know that throughout the world there is not
a huntsman who can hunt with this dog, except Mabon the son of Modron.
He was taken from his mother when three nights old, and it is not
known where he is now, nor whether he is living or dead."
"It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think
that it will not be easy."
"Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get. Thou
wilt not get Mabon, for it is not known where he is, unless thou find
Eidoel, his kinsman in blood, the son of Aer. For it would be useless
to seek for him. He is his cousin."
"It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think
that it will not be easy. Horses shall I have, and chivalry; and my
lord and kinsman Arthur will obtain for me all these things. And I
shall gain thy daughter, and thou shalt lose thy life."
"Go forward. And thou shalt not be chargeable for food or raiment for
my daughter while thou art seeking these things; and when thou hast
compassed all these marvels, thou shalt have my daughter for wife."
Now, when they told Arthur how they had sped, Arthur said, "Which of
these marvels will it be best for us to seek first?"
"It will be best," said they, "to seek Mabon the son of Modron; and he
will not be found unless we first find Eidoel, the son of Aer, his
kinsman."
Then Arthur rose up, and the warriors of the Islands of Britain with
him, to seek for Eidoel; and they proceeded until they came before the
castle of Glivi, where Eidoel was imprisoned.
Glivi stood on the summit of his castle, and said, "Arthur, what
requirest thou of me, since nothing remains to me in this fortress,
and I have neither joy nor pleasure in it; neither wheat nor oats?"
Said Arthur, "Not to injure thee came I hither, but to seek for the
prisoner that is with thee."
"I will give thee my prisoner, though I had not thought to give him up
to any one; and therewith shalt thou have my support and my aid."
His followers then said unto Arthur, "Lord, go thou home, thou canst
not proceed with thy host in quest of such small adventures as these."
Then said Arthur, "It were well for thee, Gwrhyr Gwalstawt Ieithoedd,
to go upon this quest, for thou knowest all languages, and art
familiar with those of the birds and the beasts. Go, Eidoel, likewise
with my men in search of thy cousin. And as for you, Kay and Bedwyr, I
have hope of whatever adventure ye are in quest of, that ye will
achieve it. Achieve ye this adventure for me."
These went forward until they came to the Ousel of Cilgwri, and Gwrhyr
adjured her for the sake of Heaven, saying, "Tell me if thou knowest
aught of Mabon, the son of Modron, who was taken when three nights old
from between his mother and the wall."
And the ousel answered, "When I first came here there was a smith's
anvil in this place, and I was then a young bird, and from that time
no work has been done upon it, save the pecking of my beak every
evening, and now there is not so much as the size of a nut remaining
thereof; yet the vengeance of Heaven be upon me if during all that
time I have ever heard of the man for whom you inquire. Nevertheless,
there is a race of animals who were formed before me, and I will be
your guide to them."
So they proceeded to the place where was the Stag of Redynvre.
"Stag of Redynvre, behold we are come to thee, an embassy from Arthur,
for we have not heard of any animal older than thou. Say, knowest thou
aught of Mabon?"
The stag said, "When first I came hither, there was a plain all around
me, without any trees save one oak sapling, which grew up to be an oak
with an hundred branches. And that oak has since perished, so that
now nothing remains of it but the withered stump; and from that day to
this I have been here, yet have I never heard of the man for whom you
inquire. Nevertheless, I will be your guide to the place where there
is an animal which was formed before I was."
So they proceeded to the place where was the Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, to
inquire of him concerning Mabon.
And the owl said, "If I knew I would tell you. When first I came
hither, the wide valley you see was a wooded glen. And a race of men
came and rooted it up. And there grew there a second wood, and this
wood is the third. My wings, are they not withered stumps? Yet all
this time, even until to-day, I have never heard of the man for whom
you inquire. Nevertheless, I will be the guide of Arthur's embassy
until you come to the place where is the oldest animal in this world,
and the one who has travelled most, the Eagle of Gwern Abwy."
When they came to the eagle, Gwrhyr asked it the same question; but it
replied, "I have been here for a great space of time, and when I first
came hither there was a rock here, from the top of which I pecked at
the stars every evening, and now it is not so much as a span high.
From that day to this I have been here, and I have never heard of the
man for whom you inquire, except once when I went in search of food as
far as Llyn Llyw. And when I came there, I stuck my talons into a
salmon, thinking he would serve me as food for a long time. But he
drew me into the deep, and I was scarcely able to escape from him.
After that I went with my whole kindred to attack him, and to try to
destroy him, but he sent messengers and made peace with me, and came
and besought me to take fifty fish spears out of his back. Unless he
know something of him whom you seek, I cannot tell you who may.
However, I will guide you to the place where he is."
So they went thither, and the eagle said, "Salmon of Llyn Llyw, I have
come to thee with an embassy from Arthur to ask thee if thou knowest
aught concerning Mabon, the son of Modron, who was taken away at three
nights old from between his mother and the wall."
And the salmon answered, "As much as I know I will tell thee. With
every tide I go along the river upwards, until I come near to the
walls of Gloucester, and there have I found such wrong as I never
found elsewhere; and to the end that ye may give credence thereto, let
one of you go thither upon each of my two shoulders."
So Kay and Gwrhyr went upon his shoulders, and they proceeded till
they came to the wall of the prison, and they heard a great wailing
and lamenting from the dungeon.
Said Gwrhyr, "Who is it that laments in this house of stone?"
And the voice replied, "Alas, it is Mabon, the son of Modron, who is
here imprisoned!"
Then they returned and told Arthur, who, summoning his warriors
attacked the castle.
[Illustration: Gwrhyr and Eidoel talk with the Eagle of Gwern Abwy.]
And whilst the fight was going on, Kay and Bedwyr, mounting on the
shoulders of the fish, broke into the dungeon, and brought away with
them Mabon, the son of Modron.
Then Arthur summoned unto him all the warriors that were in the three
islands of Britain and in the three islands adjacent; and he went as
far as Esgeir Oervel in Ireland where the Boar Truith was with his
seven young pigs. And the dogs were let loose upon him from all sides.
But he wasted the fifth part of Ireland, and then set forth through
the sea to Wales. Arthur and his hosts, and his horses, and his dogs
followed hard after him. But ever and awhile the boar made a stand,
and many a champion of Arthur's did he slay. Throughout all Wales did
Arthur follow him, and one by one the young pigs were killed. At
length, when he would fain have crossed the Severn, and escaped into
Cornwall, Mabon, the son of Modron, came up with him, and Arthur fell
upon him, together with the champions of Britain. On the one side,
Mabon, the son of Modron, spurred his steed and snatched his razor
from him, whilst Kay came up with him on the other side and took from
him the scissors. But, before they could obtain the comb, he had
regained the ground with his feet, and from the moment that he reached
the shore, neither dog nor man nor horse could overtake him until he
came to Cornwall. There Arthur and his host followed in his track
until they overtook him in Cornwall. Hard had been their trouble
before, but it was child's play to what they met in seeking the comb.
Win it they did, and the Boar Truith they hunted into the deep sea,
and it was never known whither he went.
Then Kilhuch set forward, and as many as wished ill to Yspathaden
Penkawr. And they took the marvels with them to his court. And Kaw of
North Britain came and shaved his beard, skin and flesh clean off to
the very bone from ear to ear.
"Art thou shaved man?" said Kilhuch.
"I am shaved," answered he.
"Is thy daughter mine now?"
"She is thine, but therefore needst thou not thank me, but Arthur who
hath accomplished this for thee. By my free will thou shouldst never
have had her, for with her I lose my life."
Then Goreu, the son of Custennin, seized him by the hair of his head
and dragged him after him to the keep, and cut off his head and placed
it on a stake on the citadel.
Thereafter the hosts of Arthur dispersed themselves each man to his
own country.
Thus did Kilhuch, son of Kelython, win to wife Olwen, the daughter of
Yspathaden Penkawr.
Jack and His Comrades
Once there was a poor widow, as often there has been, and she had one
son. A very scarce summer came, and they didn't know how they'd live
till the new potatoes would be fit for eating. So Jack said to his
mother one evening, "Mother, bake my cake, and kill my hen, till I go
seek my fortune; and if I meet it, never fear but I'll soon be back to
share it with you."
So she did as he asked her, and he set out at break of day on his
journey. His mother came along with him to the yard gate, and says
she, "Jack, which would you rather have, half the cake and half the
hen with my blessing, or the whole of 'em with my curse?"
"O musha, mother," says Jack, "why do you ax me that question? sure
you know I wouldn't have your curse and Damer's estate along with it."
"Well, then, Jack," says she, "here's the whole lot of 'em, with my
thousand blessings along with them." So she stood on the yard fence
and blessed him as far as her eyes could see him.
Well, he went along and along till he was tired, and ne'er a farmer's
house he went into wanted a boy At last his road led by the side of a
bog, and there was a poor ass up to his shoulders near a big bunch of
grass he was striving to come at.
"Ah, then, Jack asthore," says he, "help me out or I'll be drowned."
"Never say't twice," says Jack, and he pitched in big stones and sods
into the slob, till the ass got good ground under him.
"Thank you, Jack," says he, when he was out on the hard road; "I'll do
as much for you another time. Where are you going?"
"Faith, I'm going to seek my fortune till harvest comes in, God bless
it!"
"And if you like," says the ass, "I'll go along with you; who knows
what luck we may have!"
"With all my heart; it's getting late, let us be jogging."
Well, they were going through a village, and a whole army of gossoons
were hunting a poor dog with a kettle tied to his tail. He ran up to
Jack for protection, and the ass let such a roar out of him, that the
little thieves took to their heels as if the ould boy was after them.
"More power to you, Jack," says the dog.
"I'm much obleeged to you: where is the baste and yourself going?"
"We're going to seek our fortune till harvest comes in."
"And wouldn't I be proud to go with you!" says the dog, "and get rid
of them ill-conducted boys; purshuin' to 'em."
"Well, well, throw your tail over your arm, and come along."
They got outside the town, and sat down under an old wall, and Jack
pulled out his bread and meat, and shared with the dog; and the ass
made his dinner on a bunch of thistles. While they were eating and
chatting, what should come by but a poor half-starved cat, and the
moll-row he gave out of him would make your heart ache.
"You look as if you saw the tops of nine houses since breakfast," says
Jack; "here's a bone and something on it."
"May your child never know a hungry belly!" says Tom; "it's myself
that's in need of your kindness. May I be so bold as to ask where yez
are all going?"
"We're going to seek our fortune till the harvest comes in, and you
may join us if you like."
"And that I'll do with a heart and a half," says the cat, "and thank
'ee for asking me."
Off they set again, and just as the shadows of the trees were three
times as long as themselves, they heard a great cackling in a field
inside the road, and out over the ditch jumped a fox with a fine black
cock in his mouth.
"Oh, you anointed villain!" says the ass, roaring like thunder.
"At him, good dog!" says Jack, and the word wasn't out of his mouth
when Coley was in full sweep after the Red Dog. Reynard dropped his
prize like a hot potato, and was off like a shot, and the poor cock
came back fluttering and trembling to Jack and his comrades.
"O musha, naybours!" says he, "wasn't it the height o' luck that threw
you in my way! Maybe I won't remember your kindness if ever I find you
in hardship; and where in the world are you all going?"
"We're going to seek our fortune till the harvest comes in; you may
join our party if you like, and sit on Neddy's crupper when your legs
and wings are tired."
Well, the march began again, and just as the sun was gone down they
looked around, and there was neither cabin nor farm house in sight.
"Well, well," says Jack, "the worse luck now the better another time,
and it's only a summer night after all. We'll go into the wood, and
make our bed on the long grass."
No sooner said than done. Jack stretched himself on a bunch of dry
grass, the ass lay near him, the dog and cat lay in the ass's warm
lap, and the cock went to roost in the next tree.
Well, the soundness of deep sleep was over them all, when the cock
took a notion of crowing.
"Bother you, Black Cock!" says the ass; "you disturbed me from as nice
a whisp of hay as ever I tasted. What's the matter?"
"It's daybreak that's the matter; don't you see light yonder?"
"I see a light indeed," says Jack, "but it's from a candle it's
coming, and not from the sun. As you've roused us we may as well go
over and ask for lodging."
So they all shook themselves, and went on through grass, and rocks,
and briars, till they got down into a hollow, and there was the light
coming through the shadow, and along with it came singing, and
laughing, and cursing.
"Easy, boys!" says Jack; "walk on your tippy toes till we see what
sort of people we have to deal with."
So they crept near the window, and there they saw six robbers inside,
with pistols, and blunderbushes, and cutlashes, sitting at a table,
eating roast beef and pork, and drinking mulled beer, and wine, and
whisky punch.
"Wasn't that a fine haul we made at the Lord of Dunlavin's?" says one
ugly-looking thief with his mouth full, "and it's little we'd get only
for the honest porter! here's his purty health!"
"The porter's purty health!" cried out every one of them, and Jack
bent his finger at his comrades.
[Illustration:]
"Close your ranks, my men," says he in a whisper, "and let every one
mind the word of command."
So the ass put his fore-hoofs on the sill of the window, the dog got
on the ass's head, the cat on the dog's head, and the cock on the
cat's head. Then Jack made a sign, and they all sang out like mad.
"Hee-haw, hee-haw!" roared the ass; "bow-wow!" barked the dog;
"meaw-meaw!" cried the cat; "cock-a-doodle-doo!" crowed the cock.
"Level your pistols!" cried Jack, "and make smithereens of 'em. Don't
leave a mother's son of 'em alive; present, fire!"
With that they gave another halloo, and smashed every pane in the
window. The robbers were frightened out of their lives. They blew out
the candles, threw down the table, and skelped out at the back door as
if they were in earnest, and never drew rein till they were in the
very heart of the wood.
Jack and his party got into the room, closed the shutters, lighted the
candles, and ate and drank till hunger and thirst were gone. Then they
lay down to rest;--Jack in the bed, the ass in the stable, the dog on
the door-mat, the cat by the fire, and the cock on the perch.
At first the robbers were very glad to find themselves safe in the
thick wood, but they soon began to get vexed.
"This damp grass is very different from our warm room," says one.
"I was obliged to drop a fine pig's foot," says another.
"I didn't get a tayspoonful of my last tumbler," says another.
"And all the Lord of Dunlavin's gold and silver that we left behind,"
says the last.
"I think I'll venture back," says the captain, "and see if we can
recover anything."
"That's a good boy," said they all, and away he went.
The lights were all out, and so he groped his way to the fire, and
there the cat flew in his face, and tore him with teeth and claws. He
let a roar out of him, and made for the room door, to look for a
candle inside. He trod on the dog's tail, and if he did, he got the
marks of his teeth in his arms, and legs, and thighs.
"Thousand murders!" cried he; "I wish I was out of this unlucky
house."
When he got to the street door, the cock dropped down upon him with
his claws and bill, and what the cat and dog done to him was only a
flay-bite to what he got from the cock.
"Oh, tattheration to you all, you unfeeling vagabones!" says he, when
he recovered his breath; and he staggered and spun round and round
till he reeled into the stable, back foremost, but the ass received
him with a kick on the broadest part of his small clothes, and laid
him comfortably on the dunghill.
When he came to himself, he scratched his head, and began to think
what happened him; and as soon as he found that his legs were able to
carry him, he crawled away, dragging one foot after another, till he
reached the wood.
"Well, well," cried them all, when he came within hearing, "any chance
of our property?"
"You may say chance," says he, "and it's itself is the poor chance all
out. Ah, will any of you pull a bed of dry grass for me? All the
sticking-plaster in Enniscorthy will be too little for the cuts and
bruises I have on me. Ah, if you only knew what I have gone through
for you! When I got to the kitchen fire, looking for a sod of lighted
turf, what should be there but an old woman carding flax, and you may
see the marks she left on my face with the cards. I made to the room
door as fast as I could, and who should I stumble over but a cobler
and his seat, and if he did not work at me with his awls and his
pinchers, you may call me a rogue. Well, I got away from him somehow,
but when I was passing through the door, it must be the divil himself
that pounced down on me with his claws, and his teeth, that were equal
to sixpenny nails, and his wings--ill luck be in his road! Well, at
last I reached the stable, and there, by way of salute, I got a pelt
from a sledge-hammer that sent me half a mile off. If you don't
believe me, I'll give you leave to go and judge for yourselves."
"Oh, my poor captain," says they, "we believe you to the nines. Catch
us, indeed, going within a hen's race of that unlucky cabin!"
Well, before the sun shook his doublet next morning, Jack and his
comrades were up and about. They made a hearty breakfast on what was
left the night before, and then they all agreed to set off to the
castle of the Lord of Dunlavin, and give him back all his gold and
silver. Jack put it all in the two ends of a sack and laid it across
Neddy's back, and all took the road in their hands. Away they went,
through bogs, up hills, down dales, and sometimes along the yellow
high road, till they came to the hall-door of the Lord of Dunlavin,
and who should be there, airing his powdered head, his white
stockings, and his red breeches, but the thief of a porter.
He gave a cross look to the visitors, and says he to Jack, "What do
you want here, my fine fellow? there isn't room for you all."
"We want," says Jack, "what I'm sure you haven't to give us--and that
is, common civility."
"Come, be off, you lazy strollers!" says he, "while a cat 'ud be
licking her ear, or I'll let the dogs at you."
"Would you tell a body," says the cock that was perched on the ass's
head, "who was it that opened the door for the robbers the other
night?"
Ah! maybe the porter's red face didn't turn the colour of his frill,
and the Lord of Dunlavin and his pretty daughter, that were standing
at the parlour window unknownst to the porter, put out their heads.
"I'd be glad, Barney," says the master, "to hear your answer to the
gentleman with the red comb on him."
"Ah, my lord, don't believe the rascal; sure I didn't open the door to
the six robbers."
"And how did you know there were six, you poor innocent?" said the
lord.
"Never mind, sir," says Jack, "all your gold and silver is there in
that sack, and I don't think you will begrudge us our supper and bed
after our long march from the wood of Athsalach."
"Begrudge, indeed! Not one of you will ever see a poor day if I can
help it."
So all were welcomed to their hearts' content, and the ass and the dog
and the cock got the best posts in the farmyard, and the cat took
possession of the kitchen. The lord took Jack in hands, dressed him
from top to toe in broadcloth, and frills as white as snow, and
turnpumps, and put a watch in his fob. When they sat down to dinner,
the lady of the house said Jack had the air of a born gentleman about
him, and the lord said he'd make him his steward. Jack brought his
mother, and settled her comfortably near the castle, and all were as
happy as you please.
The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire
The Shee an Gannon was born in the morning, named at noon, and went in
the evening to ask his daughter of the king of Erin.
"I will give you my daughter in marriage," said the king of Erin; "you
won't get her, though, unless you go and bring me back the tidings
that I want, and tell me what it is that put a stop to the laughing of
the Gruagach Gaire, who before this laughed always, and laughed so
loud that the whole world heard him. There are twelve iron spikes out
here in the garden behind my castle. On eleven of the spikes are the
heads of kings' sons who came seeking my daughter in marriage, and all
of them went away to get the knowledge I wanted. Not one was able to
get it and tell me what stopped the Gruagach Gaire from laughing. I
took the heads off them all when they came back without the tidings
for which they went, and I'm greatly in dread that your head'll be on
the twelfth spike, for I'll do the same to you that I did to the
eleven kings' sons unless you tell what put a stop to the laughing of
the Gruagach."
The Shee an Gannon made no answer, but left the king and pushed away
to know could he find why the Gruagach was silent.
He took a glen at a step, a hill at a leap, and travelled all day till
evening. Then he came to a house. The master of the house asked him
what sort was he, and he said: "A young man looking for hire."
"Well," said the master of the house, "I was going to-morrow to look
for a man to mind my cows. If you'll work for me, you'll have a good
place, the best food a man could have to eat in this world, and a soft
bed to lie on."
The Shee an Gannon took service, and ate his supper. Then the master
of the house said: "I am the Gruagach Gaire; now that you are my man
and have eaten your supper, you'll have a bed of silk to sleep on."
Next morning after breakfast the Gruagach said to the Shee an Gannon:
"Go out now and loosen my five golden cows and my bull without horns,
and drive them to pasture; but when you have them out on the grass, be
careful you don't let them go near the land of the giant."
The new cowboy drove the cattle to pasture, and when near the land of
the giant, he saw it was covered with woods and surrounded by a high
wall. He went up, put his back against the wall, and threw in a great
stretch of it; then he went inside and threw out another great stretch
of the wall, and put the five golden cows and the bull without horns
on the land of the giant.
Then he climbed a tree, ate the sweet apples himself, and threw the
sour ones down to the cattle of the Gruagach Gaire.
Soon a great crashing was heard in the woods,--the noise of young
trees bending, and old trees breaking. The cowboy looked around, and
saw a five-headed giant pushing through the trees; and soon he was
before him.
"Poor miserable creature!" said the giant; "but weren't you impudent
to come to my land and trouble me in this way? You're too big for one
bite, and too small for two. I don't know what to do but tear you to
pieces."
"You nasty brute," said the cowboy, coming down to him from the tree,
"'tis little I care for you"; and then they went at each other. So
great was the noise between them that there was nothing in the world
but what was looking on and listening to the combat.
They fought till late in the afternoon when the giant was getting the
upper hand; and then the cowboy thought that if the giant should kill
him, his father and mother would never find him or set eyes on him
again, and he would never get the daughter of the king of Erin. The
heart in his body grew strong at this thought. He sprang on the giant,
and with the first squeeze and thrust he put him to his knees in the
hard ground, with the second thrust to his waist, and with the third
to his shoulders.
"I have you at last; you're done for now!" said the cowboy. Then he
took out his knife, cut the five heads off the giant, and when he had
them off he cut out the tongues and threw the heads over the wall.
Then he put the tongues in his pocket and drove home the cattle. That
evening the Gruagach couldn't find vessels enough in his palace to
hold the milk of the five golden cows.
But when the cowboy was on the way home with the cattle, the son of
the king of Tisean came and took the giant's heads and claimed the
princess in marriage when the Gruagach Gaire should laugh.
After supper the cowboy would give no talk to his master, but kept his
mind to himself, and went to the bed of silk to sleep.
On the morning the cowboy rose before his master, and the first words
he said to Gruagach were:
"What keeps you from laughing, you who used to laugh so loud that the
whole world heard you?"
"I'm sorry," said the Gruagach, "that the daughter of the king of Erin
sent you here."
"If you don't tell me of your own will, I'll make you tell me," said
the cowboy; and he put a face on himself that was terrible to look at,
and, running through the house like a madman, could find nothing that
would give pain enough to the Gruagach but some ropes made of untanned
sheep-skin hanging on the wall.
He took these down, caught the Gruagach, fastened him by the three
smalls, and tied him so that his little toes were whispering to his
ears. When he was in this state the Gruagach said: "I'll tell you what
stopped my laughing if you set me free."
So the cowboy unbound him, the two sat down together, and the Gruagach
said:--
"I lived in this castle here with my twelve sons. We ate, drank,
played cards, and enjoyed ourselves, till one day, when my sons and I
were playing, a slender brown hare came rushing in, jumped on to the
hearth, tossed up the ashes to the rafters and ran away.
"On another day he came again; but if he did, we were ready for him,
my twelve sons and myself. As soon as he tossed up the ashes and ran
off, we made after him, and followed him till nightfall, when he went
into a glen. We saw a light before us. I ran on, and came to a house
with a great apartment, where there was a man named Yellow Face with
twelve daughters, and the hare was tied to the side of the room near
the women.
"There was a large pot over the fire in the room, and a great stork
boiling in the pot. The man of the house said to me, 'There are
bundles of rushes at the end of the room, go there and sit down with
your men!'
"He went into the next room and brought out two pikes, one of wood,
the other of iron, and asked me which of the pikes would I take. I
said, 'I'll take the iron one'; for I thought in my heart that if an
attack should come on me, I could defend myself better with the iron
than the wooden pike.
"Yellow Face gave me the iron pike, and the first chance of taking
what I could out of the pot on the point of the pike. I got but a
small piece of the stork, and the man of the house took all the rest
on his wooden pike. We had to fast that night; and when the man and
his twelve daughters ate the flesh of the stork, they hurled the bare
bones in the faces of my sons and myself.
"We had to stop all night that way, beaten on the faces by the bones
of the stork.
"Next morning, when we were going away, the man of the house asked me
to stay a while; and going into the next room, he brought out twelve
loops of iron and one of wood, and said to me: 'Put the heads of your
twelve sons into the iron loops, or your own head into the wooden
one'; and I said: 'I'll put the twelve heads of my sons in the iron
loops, and keep my own out of the wooden one.'
"He put the iron loops on the necks of my twelve sons, and put the
wooden one on his own neck. Then he snapped the loops one after
another, till he took the heads off my twelve sons and threw the heads
and bodies out of the house; but he did nothing to hurt his own neck.
"When he had killed my sons he took hold of me and stripped the skin
and flesh from the small of my back down, and when he had done that he
took the skin of a black sheep that had been hanging on the wall for
seven years and clapped it on my body in place of my own flesh and
skin; and the sheep-skin grew on me, and every year since then I shear
myself, and every bit of wool I use for the stockings that I wear I
clip off my own back."
When he had said this, the Gruagach showed the cowboy his back
covered with thick black wool.
After what he had seen and heard, the cowboy said: "I know now why you
don't laugh, and small blame to you. But does that hare come here
still?"
"He does indeed," said the Gruagach.
Both went to the table to play, and they were not long playing cards
when the hare ran in; and before they could stop him he was out again.
But the cowboy made after the hare, and the Gruagach after the cowboy,
and they ran as fast as ever their legs could carry them till
nightfall; and when the hare was entering the castle where the twelve
sons of the Gruagach were killed, the cowboy caught him by the two
hind legs and dashed out his brains against the wall; and the skull of
the hare was knocked into the chief room of the castle, and fell at
the feet of the master of the place.
"Who has dared to interfere with my fighting pet?" screamed Yellow
Face.
"I," said the cowboy; "and if your pet had had manners, he might be
alive now."
The cowboy and the Gruagach stood by the fire. A stork was boiling in
the pot, as when the Gruagach came the first time. The master of the
house went into the next room and brought out an iron and a wooden
pike, and asked the cowboy which would he choose.
"I'll take the wooden one," said the cowboy; "and you may keep the
iron one for yourself."
So he took the wooden one; and going to the pot, brought out on the
pike all the stork except a small bite, and he and the Gruagach fell
to eating, and they were eating the flesh of the stork all night. The
cowboy and the Gruagach were at home in the place that time.
In the morning the master of the house went into the next room, took
down the twelve iron loops with a wooden one, brought them out, and
asked the cowboy which would he take, the twelve iron or the one
wooden loop.
"What could I do with the twelve iron ones for myself or my master?
I'll take the wooden one."
He put it on, and taking the twelve iron loops, put them on the necks
of the twelve daughters of the house, then snapped the twelve heads
off them, and turning to their father, said: "I'll do the same thing
to you unless you bring the twelve sons of my master to life, and make
them as well and strong as when you took their heads."
The master of the house went out and brought the twelve to life again;
and when the Gruagach saw all his sons alive and as well as ever, he
let a laugh out of himself, and all the Eastern world heard the laugh.
Then the cowboy said to the Gruagach: "It's a bad thing you have done
to me, for the daughter of the king of Erin will be married the day
after your laugh is heard."
"Oh! then we must be there in time," said the Gruagach; and they all
made away from the place as fast as ever they could, the cowboy, the
Gruagach, and his twelve sons. They hurried on; and when within three
miles of the king's castle there was such a throng of people that no
one could see a step ahead. "We must clear a road through this," said
the cowboy.
[Illustration:]
"We must indeed," said the Gruagach; and at it they went, threw the
people some on one side and some on the other, and soon they had an
opening for themselves to the king's castle.
As they went in, the daughter of the king of Erin and the son of the
king of Tisean were on their knees just going to be married. The
cowboy drew his hand on the bridegroom, and gave a blow that sent him
spinning till he stopped under a table at the other side of the room.
"What scoundrel struck that blow?" asked the king of Erin.
"It was I," said the cowboy.
"What reason had you to strike the man who won my daughter?"
"It was I who won your daughter, not he; and if you don't believe me,
the Gruagach Gaire is here himself. He'll tell you the whole story
from beginning to end, and show you the tongues of the giant."
So the Gruagach came up and told the king the whole story, how the
Shee an Gannon had become his cowboy, had guarded the five golden cows
and the bull without horns, cut off the heads of the five-headed
giant, killed the wizard hare, and brought his own twelve sons to
life. "And then," said the Gruagach "he's the only man in the whole
world I have ever told why I stopped laughing, and the only one who
has ever seen my fleece of wool."
When the king of Erin heard what the Gruagach said, and saw the
tongues of the giant fitted in the head, he made the Shee an Gannon
kneel down by his daughter, and they were married on the spot.
Then the son of the king of Tisean was thrown into prison, and the
next day they put down a great fire, and the deceiver was burnt to
ashes.
The wedding lasted nine days, and the last day was better than the
first.
The Story-Teller at Fault
At the time when the Tuatha De Danann held the sovereignty of Ireland,
there reigned in Leinster a king, who was remarkably fond of hearing
stories. Like the other princes and chieftains of the island, he had a
favourite story-teller, who held a large estate from his Majesty, on
condition of telling him a new story every night of his life, before
he went to sleep. Many indeed were the stories he knew, so that he had
already reached a good old age without failing even for a single night
in his task; and such was the skill he displayed that whatever cares
of state or other annoyances might prey upon the monarch's mind, his
story-teller was sure to send him to sleep.
One morning the story-teller arose early, and as his custom was,
strolled out into his garden, turning over in his mind incidents which
he might weave into a story for the king at night. But this morning he
found himself quite at fault; after pacing his whole demesne, he
returned to his house without being able to think of anything new or
strange. He found no difficulty in "there was once a king who had
three sons," or "one day the king of all Ireland," but further than
that he could not get. At length he went in to breakfast, and found
his wife much perplexed at his delay.
"Why don't you come to breakfast, my dear?" said she.
"I have no mind to eat anything," replied the story-teller; "long as I
have been in the service of the king of Leinster, I never sat down to
breakfast without having a new story ready for the evening, but this
morning my mind is quite shut up, and I don't know what to do. I might
as well lie down and die at once. I'll be disgraced for ever this
evening, when the king calls for his story-teller."
Just at this moment the lady looked out of the window.
"Do you see that black thing at the end of the field?" said she.
"I do," replied her husband.
They drew nigh, and saw a miserable-looking old man lying on the
ground with a wooden leg placed beside him.
"Who are you, my good man?" asked the story-teller.
"Oh, then, 'tis little matter who I am. I'm a poor, old, lame,
decrepit, miserable creature, sitting down here to rest awhile."
"An' what are you doing with that box and dice I see in your hand?"
"I am waiting here to see if any one will play a game with me,"
replied the beggarman.
"Play with you! Why what has a poor old man like you to play for?"
"I have one hundred pieces of gold in this leathern purse," replied
the old man.
"You may as well play with him," said the story-teller's wife; "and
perhaps you'll have something to tell the king in the evening."
A smooth stone was placed between them, and upon it they cast their
throws.
It was but a little while and the story-teller lost every penny of his
money.
"Much good may it do you, friend," said he, "What better hap could I
look for, fool that I am!"
"Will you play again?" asked the old man.
"Don't be talking, man; you have all my money."
"Haven't you chariot and horses and hounds?"
"Well, what of them?"
"I'll stake all the money I have against thine."
"Nonsense, man! Do you think for all the money in Ireland I'd run the
risk of seeing my lady tramp home on foot?"
"Maybe you'd win," said the bocough.
"Maybe I wouldn't," said the story-teller.
"Play with him, husband," said his wife. "I don't mind walking, if you
do, love."
"I never refused you before," said the story-teller, "and I won't do
so now."
Down he sat again, and in one throw lost horses, hounds, and chariot.
"Will you play again?" asked the beggar.
"Are you making game of me, man; what else have I to stake?"
"I'll stake all my winnings against your wife," said the old man.
The story-teller turned away in silence, but his wife stopped him.
"Accept his offer," said she. "This is the third time, and who knows
what luck you may have? You'll surely win now."
They played again, and the story-teller lost. No sooner had he done
so, than to his sorrow and surprise, his wife went and sat down near
the ugly old beggar.
"Is that the way you're leaving me?" said the story-teller.
"Sure I was won," said she. "You would not cheat the poor man, would
you?"
"Have you any more to stake?" asked the old man.
"You know very well I have not," replied the story-teller.
"I'll stake the whole now, wife and all, against your own self," said
the old man.
Again they played, and again the story-teller lost.
"Well! Here I am, and what do you want with me?"
"I'll soon let you know," said the old man, and he took from his
pocket a long cord and a wand.
"Now," said he to the story-teller, "what kind of animal would you
rather be, a deer, a fox, or a hare? You have your choice now, but you
may not have it later."
To make a long story short, the story-teller made his choice of a
hare; the old man threw the cord round him, struck him with the wand,
and lo! a long-eared, frisking hare was skipping and jumping on the
green.
But it wasn't for long; who but his wife called the hounds, and set
them on him. The hare fled, the dogs followed. Round the field ran a
high wall, so that run as he might, he couldn't get out, and mightily
diverted were beggar and lady to see him twist and double.
In vain did he take refuge with his wife, she kicked him back again to
the hounds, until at length the beggar stopped the hounds, and with a
stroke of the wand, panting and breathless, the story-teller stood
before them again.
"And how did you like the sport?" said the beggar.
"It might be sport to others," replied the story-teller, looking at
his wife, "for my part I could well put up with the loss of it."
"Would it be asking too much," he went on to the beggar, "to know who
you are at all, or where you come from, or why you take a pleasure in
plaguing a poor old man like me?"
"Oh!" replied the stranger, "I'm an odd kind of good-for-little
fellow, one day poor, another day rich, but if you wish to know more
about me or my habits, come with me and perhaps I may show you more
than you would make out if you went alone."
"I'm not my own master to go or stay," said the story-teller, with a
sigh.
The stranger put one hand into his wallet and drew out of it before
their eyes a well-looking middle-aged man, to whom he spoke as
follows:
"By all you heard and saw since I put you into my wallet, take charge
of this lady and of the carriage and horses, and have them ready for
me whenever I want them."
Scarcely had he said these words when all vanished, and the
story-teller found himself at the Foxes' Ford, near the castle of Red
Hugh O'Donnell. He could see all but none could see him.
O'Donnell was in his hall, and heaviness of flesh and weariness of
spirit were upon him.
"Go out," said he to his doorkeeper, "and see who or what may be
coming."
The doorkeeper went, and what he saw was a lank, grey beggarman; half
his sword bared behind his haunch, his two shoes full of cold
road-a-wayish water sousing about him, the tips of his two ears out
through his old hat, his two shoulders out through his scant, tattered
cloak, and in his hand a green wand of holly.
"Save you, O'Donnell," said the lank, grey beggarman.
"And you likewise," said O'Donnell. "Whence come you, and what is your
craft?"
"I come from the outmost stream of earth,
From the glens where the white swans glide,
A night in Islay, a night in Man,
A night on the cold hill-side."
"It's the great traveller you are," said O'Donnell. "May be you've
learnt something on the road."
"I am a juggler," said the lank, grey beggarman, "and for five pieces
of silver you shall see a trick of mine."
[Illustration:]
"You shall have them," said O'Donnell; and the lank, grey beggarman
took three small straws and placed them in his hand.
"The middle one," said he, "I'll blow away; the other two I'll leave."
"Thou canst not do it," said one and all.
But the lank, grey beggarman put a finger on either outside straw
and, whiff, away he blew the middle one.
"'Tis a good trick," said O'Donnell; and he paid him his five pieces
of silver.
"For half the money," said one of the chief's lads, "I'll do the same
trick."
"Take him at his word, O'Donnell."
The lad put the three straws on his hand, and a finger on either
outside straw and he blew; and what happened but that the fist was
blown away with the straw.
"Thou art sore, and thou wilt be sorer," said O'Donnell.
"Six more pieces, O'Donnell, and I'll do another trick for thee," said
the lank, grey beggarman.
"Six shalt thou have."
"Seest thou my two ears! One I'll move but not t'other."
"'Tis easy to see them, they're big enough, but thou canst never move
one ear and not the two together."
The lank, grey beggarman put his hand to his ear, and he gave it a
pull.
O'Donnell laughed and paid him the six pieces.
"Call that a trick?" said the fistless lad, "any one can do that," and
so saying, he put up his hand, pulled his ear, and what happened was
that he pulled away ear and head.
"Sore thou art, and sorer thou 'lt be," said O'Donnell.
"Well, O'Donnell," said the lank, grey beggarman, "strange are the
tricks I've shown thee, but I'll show thee a stranger one yet for the
same money."
"Thou hast my word for it," said O'Donnell.
With that the lank, grey beggarman took a bag from under his arm-pit,
and from out the bag a ball of silk, and he unwound the ball and he
flung it slant-wise up into the clear blue heavens, and it became a
ladder; then he took a hare and placed it upon the thread, and up it
ran; again he took out a red-eared hound, and it swiftly ran up after
the hare.
"Now," said the lank, grey beggarman, "has any one a mind to run after
the dog and on the course?"
"I will," said a lad of O'Donnell's.
"Up with you, then," said the juggler; "but I warn you if you let my
hare be killed I'll cut off your head when you come down."
The lad ran up the thread, and all three soon disappeared. After
looking up for a long time, the lank, grey beggarman said, "I'm afraid
the hound is eating the hare, and that our friend has fallen asleep."
Saying this he began to wind the thread, and down came the lad fast
asleep; and down came the red-eared hound and in his mouth the last
morsel of the hare.
He struck the lad a stroke with the edge of his sword, and so cast his
head off. As for the hound, if he used it no worse, he used it no
better.
"It's little I'm pleased, and sore I'm angered," said O'Donnell, "that
a hound and a lad should be killed at my court."
"Five pieces of silver twice over for each of them," said the
juggler, "and their heads shall be on them as before."
"Thou shalt get that," said O'Donnell.
Five pieces and again five were paid him, and lo! the lad had his head
and the hound his. And though they lived to the uttermost end of time,
the hound would never touch a hare again, and the lad took good care
to keep his eyes open.
Scarcely had the lank, grey beggarman done this when he vanished from
out their sight, and no one present could say if he had flown through
the air or if the earth had swallowed him up.
"He moved as wave tumbling o'er wave
As whirlwind following whirlwind,
As a furious wintry blast,
So swiftly, sprucely, cheerily,
Right proudly,
And no stop made
Until he came
To the court of Leinster's King,
He gave a cheery light leap
O'er top of turret,
Of court and city
Of Leinster's King."
Heavy was the flesh and weary the spirit of Leinster's king. 'Twas the
hour he was wont to hear a story, but send he might right and left,
not a jot of tidings about the story-teller could he get.
"Go to the door," said he to his doorkeeper, "and see if a soul is in
sight who may tell me something about my story-teller."
The doorkeeper went, and what he saw was a lank, grey beggarman, half
his sword bared behind his haunch, his two old shoes full of cold
road-a-wayish water sousing about him, the tips of his two ears out
through his old hat, his two shoulders out through his scant, tattered
cloak, and in his hand a three-stringed harp.
"What canst thou do?" said the doorkeeper.
"I can play," said the lank, grey beggarman.
"Never fear," added he to the story-teller, "thou shalt see all, and
not a man shall see thee."
[Illustration:]
When the king heard a harper was outside he bade him in.
"It is I that have the best harpers in the five-fifths of Ireland,"
said he, and he signed them to play. They did so, and if they played,
the lank, grey beggarman listened.
"Heardst thou ever the like?" said the king.
"Did you ever, O king, hear a cat purring over a bowl of broth, or the
buzzing of beetles in the twilight, or a shrill-tongued old woman
scolding your head off?"
"That I have often," said the king.
"More melodious to me," said the lank, grey beggarman, "were the worst
of these sounds than the sweetest harping
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