me

EDUC.-
PS.CH.
LIBRARY

. CELTIC
FAIRY TALES
SELECTED AND EDITED BY

JOSEPH JACOBS
EDITOR OF "FORK-LORE"

or
'
.
> ILLUSTRATED BY

DIVERSITY I JOHN D. BATTEN

or

LONDON
DAVID NUTT, 270 STRAND
1892
 LIBRARY

[Rights of translation and reproduction reserved"]

 ro

A LF RE D N U TT

163317
3//
 Preface

AST 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, Machines, 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.

Vlll Preface
In making my selection I have chiefly tried to make the
stories characteristic. would have been easy, especially
It

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

brek 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 this 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
 Preface ix

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 exhaus-
tion. The Celtic folk-tales have been collected while the

practice of story-telling is still in full vigour, though there

are every signs 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
x Preface

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 retell 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 effective-

ness and local colour to a narrative, as Mr. Kipling well

knows.
One characteristic of the Celtic folk-lore I have en-

deavoured 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

 Preface xi

Irish vellum of the twelfth century. I could have more

than filled this volume with similar oral traditions about

Finn (the " Ossian But the
Fingal of Macpherson's ").

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

" Low &
Legendary Fictions," and Messrs. Sampson 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.

Xll Preface

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 imagi-

nation. 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

I. CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN ...... I

II. GULEESH *
". ......... 5

III. THE FIELD OF BOLIAUNS . . . . 26

XlV. THE HORNED WOMEN ........ 3O

V. CONAL YELfOWCLAW ....... .

34

VI. HUDDEN AND DUDDEN AND DONALD O'NEARY ... 47

VII. THE SHEPHERD OF MYDDVAI ...... 57

VIII. THE SPRIGHTLY TAILOR ........ OI

JfclX.
THE STORY OF DEIRDRE ..... . .
65

X. MUNACHAR AND MANACHAR ....... 83

A^-XI. GOLD-TREE AND SILVER-TREE . . . . ... 88. ^

vXii. KING O'TOOLE AND HIS GOOSE ...... 93

XIII. THE WOOING OF OLWEN . .

99

XIV. JACK AND HIS COMRADES . ...... 112

xiv Contents
PAGE
XV. THE SHEE AN GANNON AND THE GRUAGACH GAIRE . . 121

XVI. THE STORY-TELLER AT FAULT 131

XVII. THE SEA-MAIDEN .

144

XVIII. A LEGEND OF KNOCKMANY !

56

XIX. FAIR, BROWN, AND TREMBLING . . . .

169

JXX. JACK AND HIS MASTER . . ...'-. ,.-prr- . . jg 2

XXI. BETH GELLERT . . ... . . .

192

XXII. THE TALE OF IVAN . . . .

XXIII. ANDREW COFFEY . . , ... . . 2 OO

XXIV. THE BATTLE OF THE BIRDS . '. . . 2 C>6

XXV. BREWERY OF EGGSHELLS 22J

XXVI. THE LAD WITH THE GOAT-SKIN

NOTES AND REFERENCES

237
 Full-page Illustrations

*
THE SEA-MAIDEN . . . . . . . . Frontispiece

CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN . . . . To face page 2

CONAL YELLOWCLAW '

.- . . . . . . ,, 42

DEIRDRE . ... . . . . . ;
. ,, 68

THE EAGLE OF EBBW ABWY . . . .' . . ,, 1 09

" TREMBLING "

AT THE CHURCH DOOR .... ,, 172

THATCHING WITH BIRDS' FEATHERS .... ,, 214

CAUTION TO READERS ... . . . .

,, 236

[Full-page illustrations, initials, and cuts from blocks supplied by

Messrs. J. C. Drummond & Co.]

 Connla and the Fairy Maiden

ON NLA 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 coming
towards him.
" Whence comest "
thou, maiden ? said Connla.
" I come from the
Plains of the Ever Living," she said,
" there where there 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
voicewhen 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,

A
 ;
Celtic Fairy Tales

Moy where Boadag

Mell, isking for aye, nor has there
been complaint or sorrow in that land since he has 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 thy comely face and royal form.
to grace

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.
" Coran of the he said, " and of the
Oh, many spells,"

cunning magic, I call upon thy aid. A task is upon me

too great for all my and
skill 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 hi? 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.
 Connla and the Fairy Maiden 3
" 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 J
" Summon Druid Coran, for see she has
swift my I

again this day the power of speech."

Then the maiden said " :
Oh, 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

come, it will do away with
will

the Druid's magic spells that come from the lips of the false
black demonj'
Then Conn the king observed that since the maiden
came Connla none that spake to him.
his son spoke to So
Conn of the hundred fights said to him, " Is it to thy mind
"
what the woman says, my son ?

"'Tis hard upon me," then said Connla; "I love my own
folk above all things ;
but yet, 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 we can 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."

 Celtic Fairy Tales

When the maiden ceased to speak, Connla of the Fiery

Hair rushed away from them and sprang into the curragh,
the gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. And then

they all, king and court, saw glide away over the bright
it

sea towards the setting sun. Away and away, till eye could
see it no longer, and Connla and the Fairy Maiden went
their way on the sea, and were no more seen, nor did any
know where they came.
 Guleesh

|
HERE 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: " bitter My grief that I am not

gone away out of this place altogether. I'dsooner be any

place in tb,e world than here. Och, it's well for you, white
" that's
moon," says he, 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
and laughing, and making sport, and
together, and talking,
the sound went by him like a whirl of wind, and he was
"
listening to it
going into the rath. Musha, by my soul,"
" but
says he, ye're merry enough, and I'll follow ye."
 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 " and and saddle
:
My horse, bridle, !

"
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 him " Are
to :
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 over-
took 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 them " Hie over
of said :
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.
 Guleesh 7
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 The daughter "
France,' Guleesh," said he.
of the king of France isbe married to-night, the hand-
to

somest 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 ?
" " " I'm
Why shouldn't I be satisfied ? said Guleesh.
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 up, and Guleesh found himself and
lifted

his companions in the palace. There was a great feast

going on there, and there was not a nobleman or a gentle-
man kingdom but was gathered there, dressed in silk
in the

and and gold and silver, and the night was as bright
satin,
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
 8 Celtic Fairy Tales

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 put a soorawn in Guleesh's
it

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 if 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
 Guleesh 9
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 gar-
ments 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 in 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 said
" that there's
be," Guleesh,
griefon her, when everybody round her is so full of sport
and merriment."
" man " for
Musha, then, she is grieved," said the little ;

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 him three years ago,
to when she was only
fifteen, was too young, and requested him
but she said she
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
it's indeed,
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
io Celtic Fairv
j
Tales
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 she turned her head away
kiss, but
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.
Whenthey 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
threw something that was in his hand upon
to rise again he

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 maneen
seized her and raised her up behind Guleesh, and the king
 Guleesh ii

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
and the crying, and the wonder, and the searching,
trouble,
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
12 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 and on the moment
cap!" said Guleesh ;

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
them were riding on an old
of 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 :

" Oh no good may

!
Guleesh, you clown, you thief, that
"
happen you, why did you play that trick on us ?
But they had no power at all to earry off the girl, after

Guleesh had consecrated her to himself.

" Oh
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 to out of the young girl," said
good get
the little man that was talking to him in the palace before
 Guleesh 1
3

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
" she'll be without talk any more ; now, Guleesh, what
he,

good will she be to you when she'll be dumb ? It's time

"
for us togo 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
ofthem 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 on her said Guleesh in his
grief yet,"
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.
" " me what you would
Lady," said Guleesh, tell like

me to do now. I never belonged at all to that lot of shee-

hogues 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 he saw mouth moving
the
as "if she was going to speak, but there came no word
from it.
" It cannot " that
be," said Guleesh, you are dumb.
14 Celtic Fairy Tales
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, forhe knew well that they would not be-
lieve 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
" I know now what I'll do I'll
he, ; bring her to the priest's
house, and he won't refuse me to keep the lady and care
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 was any other place she would rather go, he
there
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
" We will
any place he was going. go to the priest's
" he is under an obligation
house, then," said he ;
to me,
and will do anything I ask him."
 Guleesh 1
5

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.
" isn't the nice are
Guleesh, Guleesh, it
boy you
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 such a time, or, at all events, can't
at
"
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 any-
body 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.

" said "
tell me truly who is this
Now, Guleesh," he,

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
" but was from the palace of the
you," said Guleesh ;
it

king of France I carried off this lady, and she is the daughter

of the king of France."

1 6 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 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
todo 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 theyoung girl what was they intended to do, and
it

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
 Guleesh 17
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 know-
ledge 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
B
1 8 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 and there was a white fog which was
behind him ;

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
 Guleesh 19
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 back again, when he heard a
him to return
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 them-

and then each one of them cried out "
selves ; 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
2o Celtic Fairy Tales
"
of his mouth, another man cried out : Ora !
Guleesh, my
boy, areyou 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 " he won't do it
was," said another man.; again."
" Isn't he a the same lad to take a woman
prime lad, !

with him that never said as much to him as, How do you '

' "
do ? since this time last year says the third man.
!

" be looking at her," said another

Perhaps he likes to

voice.
" And omadawn only knew that there's an herb
if the

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.
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 daugh-
ter.
" 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

 Guleesh 21
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
22 Celtic Fairy Tales
that there were seven little branches coming out of the
stalk, and seven leaves growing on every brancheen of them ;

fi
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'sany 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
up with the juice, and put it to his own
half
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.
He had to wait, then, till the day rose but he deter- ;

mined, 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
 Guleesh
felt himself so bold and valiant, and spirited and light, as he
was and he was quite certain that
that day, 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 herb, and that it would

was great power in that
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
24 Celtic Fairy Tales

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. She rubbed her eyes and looked like
heavens.
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
" A thousand thanks to
knees, and said :
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 and she ate with a good
food,

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
 Guleesh 25
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 her chamber with the priest, and they
into

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 house from day to day, and the friendship
to the

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 birdeen 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 !
 The Field of Boliauns

NE fine day in harvest was indeed Lady-

it

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
" but isn't it
Tom, surprising to hear the stonechatters
"
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
 The Field of Boliauns 27
of his head, a deeshy daushy leather apron hanging before

him, pulled out a little wooden

and stood up upon it, stool,
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 of a brogue just for himself.
"
bit fit Well, by the
Tom " often heard tell of the
powers," said to himself, I

Lepracauns, and, to tell God's truth, 1 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 " God bless your work,
got up cmite close to him,
neighbour," said Tom.
The man " Thank
little raised up his head, and you
kindly," said he.
"
11
I wonder you'd be working on the holiday said Tom. !

" That's own was the

my business, not yours," reply.
" be you'd be to tell us what
Well, may civil enough
"
you've got in the pitcher there ? said Tom.
" That with pleasure," said he
'

"
I will, ;
it's good beer."
" Beer " " Thunder and
! said Tom. fire ! where did you
"
get it ?
" Where did made And
I get it, is it ? Why, I it.

"
what do you think I made it of ?
" Devil a one of " but of
me knows," said Tom ; malt, I
"
suppose, what else ?
" There made of heath."
you're out. I it

" Of heath " said " sure

!
Tom, bursting out laughing ;

"
you don't think me to be such a fool as to believe that ?
28 Celtic Fairy Tales
X

" Do "
as you please," said he, but what I tell you is the
truth. Did you never hear tell of the Danes."
1

"Well, what about them?' said Tom.

" when they
Why, all the about them there is, is that
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 theLepracaun, 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 littleman was quite frightened ;
so says
" Come with me a couple of fields and I'll
he, along oft',

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
and says he, "
Lepracaun pointed to a big boliaun, Dig
under that boliaun, and you'll get the great crock all

full of guineas."
 The Field of Boliauns 29
Tom hurry had never thought of bringing a spade
in his

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.

"
suppose," said the Lepracaun, very civilly, "you have
I

"
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
" and much
Lepracaun 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
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
and required assistance, opened the door, and a
called

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 "^lence, and began to card
 The Horned Women 31
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 to rise and open to
herself obliged
the and immediately a second witch entered, having
call,

two horns on her forehead, and in her hand a wheel for

spinning wool.
" Give me " am Witch of the two
place," she said ;
I the

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."
32 Celtic Fairy Tales
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.
 The Horned Women 33
Not long were the witches in coming back, and they
raged and called for vengeance.
" "
Open open !" they screamed
!
open, feet- water !"
;

" I " I am scattered on the

cannot," said the feet-water ;

ground, and my path is down to the Lough."

"
Open, open, wood and trees and beam !" they cried to
the door.
" I " for the beam
cannot," said the door, is fixed in the

jambs and have no power to move."

I

"
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 Srmjt. of
the^WeJJ^whp haoVwish'ed their njjn 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

ONALL 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 them-

selves 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 " what made your sons go
Oh, Conall ! 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."

 Conall Yellowclaw 35
After these words Conall left the king, and he went home :

when he got home he was under much trouble and per-

plexity. 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.
"Oh, 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

they reached it. When they reached Lochlann they did
till

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 into 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 will do me a kindness, and will put me in a
you
way to get him, for certain
pay ye I will for it."
" The thingyou are come to seek," said the
is silly that
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 " since
is what I am thinking," said Conall, you
36 Celtic Fairy Tales
are working every day for the king, you and your gillies
could put myself and my sons into five 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 five sacks. The king's gillies

came to seek the bran, and they took the five sacks with

them, and they emptied them before the horses. The ser-
vants locked the door, and they went away.
When they rose to lay hand on the brown horse, said
" You shall not do that. It is hard to get out of
Conall,
this ;
let us make for ourselves five 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 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 they went to their hiding holes. The servants rum-
 Conall Yellowclaw 37
maged well, and did not find a thing. They- returned and
they told this.
" That is marvellous for me," said the king " to
:
go you
lie down again, and if I notice it again I will go out my-
self."

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 " must be that
me," said the king ;
it

some one is troubling my brown horse." He sounded the

bell hastily, and when his waiting-man came to him, he
said tohim 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, " Oh, Conall,
"
you that are here ?
is it
" 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
" I knew
Erin, or that his sons were to be put to death.
that Ishould not get him by asking, and I was going to

steal- him."
 38 Celtic Fairy Tales
" it is well enough, but come said the
Yes, Conall, in,"

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 goodness and to my grace,
it to my
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."
" will tell a case as hard in which
I I
was," said Conall.
" was once a young had much land, and
and
I lad, my father

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 my-
'
selfhad 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
pay the Conall,
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
 Conall Yellowclaw 39
them long.
'

Play up with you, why should you be silent ?

Make a cronan to Conall Yellow/ said the head bard. Cer-

tainlyI 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.
"
Why will you be silent ? Go up and sing a cronan
'

to Conall Yellowclaw/ said the head bard. And surely, oh,

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
Pay now their reward, said the head
'
head bard was.
bard ;
and for sure, oh king, I had no reward for them ;

and I said have no reward for you.'

to them, And
'
I

surely, oh king, there was 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
'

Ihave 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
4o Celtic Fairy Tales
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 must not be losing my
I

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 neighbourhood in the

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 And the wisest of the
it.'

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, oh 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."
 Conall Yellowclaw 41
" Och " of words.
!
Conall," said the king, you are full

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 said
" on condition that thou dost
then," Conall,
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
said the
hear," king.
" was then," "
I
young lad, and I went
said Conall, quite a
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 cal-

dron on the site of the fire. I myself was telling him how
42 Celtic Fairy Tales
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. Ibegan 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.

" 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.'
" '
am not,' said '
I
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 oh 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,
 Conall Yellowclaw 43
and I saw the world about me, surely, oh, 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 '
Since thou
! said he, l
hast thou done this to me.
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,
l

and I will take it with me.' He threw the ring on the flat
ground, went myself and
I I lifted the ring, and I put it on

my finger. When he said me then,

'
Is the ring fitting
'
thee ? I said to him, '
It is.' Then he Where art thou,
said,
'

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 could out on the loch, and there was a great
as I

depth in the place. He shouted, Where art thou, ring ? ' '

And the ring said, I am here,' though it was on the bed of

'

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
he had of gold and silver, and I went home, and
all

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
 44 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 gf 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 ? her myself word upon word

I told

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
It is that he must be cooked for the giant
' '
of the child ?
who is here, or else no more of my world will be before
me.' Just then we could be hearing the footsteps of the
 Conall Yellowclaw 45
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 was so large, that my head
lid

went through easily. Everything was coming easily with

me began to bring up my hips.
till I 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
I began to draw his spear and every breath that
weapon.
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
got the spear loosed from him.
I

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 gave his head a lift, and he

he felt this

struck the other end of the dart on the top of the cave, and
46 Celtic Fairy Tales

itwent through to the back of his head. And he fell cold

dead where he was and you may be sure, oh king, that
;

was on me. I myself and the woman went out on

joy
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 " that were there ? "
you," said she,
" Well " 'twas I."
then," said he,
" Och och
" " 'twas I that was
! said !
she, 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, Oh, 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, oh son and brother.

 Hudden and Dudden and
Donald O'Neary
HERE 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
48 Celtic Fairy Tales

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 grum-
" If
bling as usual, and all to the tune of only we could get
that vagabond Donald O'Neary out of the country."
" Let's Hudden "
kill Daisy," said 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 upshed where lay
to the little

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 downhearted
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.
11
Some of your best whisky," says he to the landlord.
But the landlord didn't like his looks. " Is it I
fearing
won't pay you, you are?" says Donald; "why I have a
hide here that gives me all the money I want." And with
 Hudden and Dudden 49
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 Hasn't me and
sale, I tell you. it kept
"
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 ?
" me your
Good-evening, Hudden. Will you lend 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

scaleswhen 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.
" That vagabond, bad luck
Good-evening, Dudden. 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."
D
 Celtic Fairy Tales
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, /never!" that was all they could say.

il
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.
 Hudden and Dudden 5 i

"
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 in the
early 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 making game of me you are
it 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."

52 Celtic Fairy Tales

was more kicks than halfpence that Hudden and

It

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
and their faces black and blue. " Is
off, fighting you've it

been ? or mayhap you met the police, ill luck to them ?"
" We'll It's mighty smart
police you, you vagabond.
you thought yourself, deluding us with your lying tales."
" Who deluded you ? Didn't you see the gold with
your own two eyes ?"
But was no use talking.
it
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 " I'm dead beat.
go in," said Hudden ;
It's

heavy he is for the little he had to eat."

If Hudden was willing, so was Dudden. As
Donald, for

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 said Dudden " if we don't
still, you vagabond," ;

mind waiting, you needn't."

 Hudden and Dudden 53
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, tell won't have her!" said
I you ;
I

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.
" won't have her,
I 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, be so bold as to
may I

ask?" said a farmer, who had just come up with a drove of

cattle, and was turning in for a glass.
" the king's daughter.
It's They are bothering the life

out of me to marry her."

" You're the
lucky fellow. to be in
IjJLgive something
your shoes."
" Do you now
see that ! 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
 54 Celtic Fairy Tales

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 and you
my cattle in exchange/' said the farmer ;

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.
" " it's now
Ah, never mind," said Dudden only a step
;

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.
" now
Well, here you are," said Dudden, for they were
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, who 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."
 Hudden and Dudden 55
" True for me
you, Dudden, and let 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.
" could bring up with me," said
It's only the worst I

Donald O'Neary " the others were so there was no

; fat,

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,"
" as I was
said Dudden, but, just saying, you were ever
a decent lad, and you'll show us the way, won't you?"
" I I'm called upon to do that
don't see that there is ;

a power more cattle down there. shouldn't I have Why

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!"
56 Celtic Fairy Tales

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

P in the Black Mountains in Caermarthen-

shire 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

wandered about amongst his flock.

gliding to the shore, they
They had more than mortal beauty, and he was filled with
love for her that came nearest to him. He offered her the
58 Celtic Fairy Tales

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 laughing to the lake.

off

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 her 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, sum-
moning from the Jake 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
here 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.
 The Shepherd of Myddvai 59
" "
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 fella-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 and trouble is
they are entering into trouble ;

upon you for that is the second causeless blow you have
;

given me. Be careful the third is the last."

;

The husband was careful never to strike her again. But

one day at a funeral she suddenly burst out into fits of

laughter. Her husband forgot, and touched her rather

on the " Is this a time for
roughly shoulder, saying,
"
laughter ?
11 " because those that die
I laugh," she said, 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 gray Gerin^er,
And the white bull from the king's coast,
Grey ox, and black calf,
All, all, follow me home,
60 Celtic Fairy Tales
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
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. -Ate&Jrews being the

vest and breeches united in one piece, and
ornamented with fringes, were very comfortable, and suit-
able to be worn in walking or dancing. And 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
62 Celtic Fairy Tales

night in the church, the tailor was not to be daunted, but

took in hand to gain the prize.
it 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 gravestone 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 pave-
ment 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 head of
:
great
mine?"
" see that, but sew "
I I'll 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 but I'll sew this
"
that, 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
" Do you
again the mighty voice thundered : 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
 The Sprightly Tailor 63
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 pave-
" Do you see this great leg
ment, said in a roaring voice :

"
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 gravestone, 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 but the tailor had got the start and a nimble
it ;

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

apparition came up to it ; and, enraged at losing his prize,

struck the wall above the gate, and left there the mark of
64 Celtic Fairy Tales

his five great fingers. Ye may see them plainly to this Hay,

only peer close enough..

if ye'll

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
HERE 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.
66 Celtic Fairy Tales
" Are "
you doing any soothsaying ? says Malcolm.
"
Yes, I am doing a little. Are you in need of sooth-
saying ?."
" I do not mind taking soothsaying from you, if
Well,
you had soothsaying for me, and you would be willing to

do it."
" I will do soothsaying for you. What kind of
Well,
"
soothsaying do you want ?
" wanted was that you would
Well, the soothsaying I

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.
" " I saw second sight
Well," said the soothsayer, in my
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 hernor 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 care-
 The Story of Deirdre 67
fully 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 fajr^sl^orm, of loveliestaspect. and
of gentlest nature that existed between earth and heaven in
all whatever colour of hue she had before, there
Ireland
was nobody would blush
that looked into her face but she

fiery red over it.

The woman had charge of her, gave Deirdre every

that
information and skill of which she herself had knowledge
and There was not a -blade of grass growing from
skill.

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

wintpr__night f
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 lay down by the
side of the beautiful green knoll in which Deirdre lived, and
he slept. The man was from hunger and wandering,
faint

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
68 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 no shelter or house for them here." "
is Oh, 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 which you taught me, I
faith,
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. " for this and raiment, you man
Oh, life
"
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."
" " I
Well," said the hunter, 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.
 ONLY THE BIRDS OF THE
O NURSE WHAT ONE TO ~r M E OTHER>.
THERE 'SNO HOME FOR. THEM ME *
C RY IS THAT ? LET THEM QO 6V TO THE
 The Story of Deirdre 69
" are Naois, son of Uisnech, and Allen and Arden
They
his two brothers."
" What like are these men when if we were to see
seen,
them?" said Deirdre.
" the aspect and form of the men when seen are
Why,
"
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 said the " be off
are," nurse, you
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.
" have only to O " that
I tell you, king," said the hunter, I

saw the fairest creature that ever was born in Erin, and I

came to tell you of it."

" Who beauty and where is she to be seen, when
is this

she was not seen before till you saw her, if you did see
"
her ?
" I did see her," said the hunter.
" if I
Well, But, 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
70 Celtic Fairy Tales

reward of your directing me will be as good as the reward

of your message/' said the king.
" I will direct O is
Well, you, king, although it
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 Jength_^pf the wjy_ajid>_jxu^hn.s.s^pf 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
who it is that wants me to open
to tell my bothy door."
" When the poor
It is I, Connachar, King of Ulster."
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
 The Story of Deirdre 71
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 a 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 And she gave the promise.
end." 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 ^ef

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 hut follow after
film.^ She girded up her raiment and went after the men
that went past the base of the knoll, leaving her women
72 Celtic Fairy Tales

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
nave 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 dis-

tance to travel, and the dusk of night was coming on.

She "
They did so. 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 is

anything else but the wail of the wave-swans of Connachar/

" No
said his brothers. 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 gay^ TVirffre t,h^ 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 which Connachar, King of Ulster, his uncle's son,

in

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

 The Story of Deirdre 73
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 Deirdre away by the sword whether
to take

she was married to Naois or not. So he prepared a great

and gleeful feast. He sent word far and wide through
Erin all to 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 send for his father's brother, Ferchar Mac Ro, and
to

to send him on an embassy to Naois. He did s#; 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 sumptuous feast to

setting forth a great
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

74 Celtic Fairy Tales

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 :

s\
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.

Naois, son of Uisnech, hear,

What was shown in a dream to me.

1 saw three grey hawks out of the south

Come flying over the sea,
And the red 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 Ro " and
will go there," said Ferchar Mac ;
if

Connachar show kindness to you, show ye kindness to

him ;
and if he will display wrath towards you display ye
 The Story of Deirdre 75
wrath towards him, and I and my three sons will be with

you."
" We " We
will," said Daring Drop. will," said Hardy
" We
Holly. 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 vow and his word in presence of his
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 wentf 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.

to sea,
hructf>rl^r> it ;

And thejsecond morrow tfrfy

On thewhite 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. " " I did not
Well," said Connachar,
expect that the sons of Uisnech would come, though I sent
for them, and I am not quite ready to receive them. But
76 Celtic Fairy Tales
there is a house down yonder where I keep strangers, and

letthem 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 Go you, Gelban "
strangers.
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 Naois, 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 ajso 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
 The Story of Deirdre 77
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 Connachar "let three hundred
true," said ;

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 abode of the strangers and to take Deirdre up

to the

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, onwhich 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?"

" the three sons of Ferchar Mac Ro."
We,
" " a free
Well," said the king, I will give 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."
78 Celtic Fairy Tales
"
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, thanaccept 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 brown locks returned inside. " We are
beauteous,
"
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 day and night in the morning

at the parting of the

twilight time, and Naois said they must go away, leave that
house, and return to Alba.
Naois and Deirdre, Allan 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 spoke to
" Much wealth have I
him as follows :
expended on you,
Duanan Gacha Druid, to give schooling and learning and
magic mystery to you, 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
jwill 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.
 The Story of Deirdre 79
" What is the good of that ? that will not do yet," said
Connachar. " are off without bending of their feet
They
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.
" O
Though Duanan, it will not make the
that be good,
heroes return," said Connachar "
they are gone without
;

regard for me, and without honour to me, and without

power on my part to pursue them or to force them to return
this night."
" 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
" Come
getting tired, and nearly giving over. you, Arden,
and sit on my right shoulder," said Naois. Arden came
and sat Arden was long in this
on Naois's shoulder.
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 nigh-well 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.
8o Celtic Fairy Tales

Allen was not long when the weakness of death came on

him and his hold Naois looked around, and when
failed.

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.

" are gone," said Duanan Gacha Druid
They to the king,
 The Story of Deirdre 81
" 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

greenmeadow plain and Deirdre bending above showering
down her tears.
Then Deirdre said this lament " Fair one, loved one,:

flower of. beloved upright and strong

beauty ;
beloved ;

noble and modest warrior. Fair one, blue-eyed, beloved of J

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.
82 Celtic Fairy Tales
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. There-
upon a firshoot 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
HERE once lived a Munachar and a Mana-

char, 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 rasp-
berries, 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.
" " u
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'l It's my own news
I'm seeking. Going looking for an axe, an axe to
cut a">od, a rod ttf. mike a gad, a gad to hang

Manachar, who ate my raspberries every one."

'

" You will not " until

get me," said the axe, you get a
84 Celtic Fairy Tales
He came " What news
flag to edge me." to the flag. 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 that I'm

seeking. Going looking for water, water to wet 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 " until
get me," said the water, you get
a deer who will swim me." He came to the deer. " What
" " It's
news to-day ? says the deer. 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
 Munachar and Manachar 85
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 hunt deer, deer to
to

swim water, water to wet flag, flag to edge axe, axe to cut
a rod, a rod to make a gad, gad to hang Manachar, who
ate my raspberries every one."
" You will not get
" until
me," said the cat, you will get
milk which you will give me." He came to the cow.
" What news " "
to-day ? said the cow. my own news
It's

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
He came to the threshers.
" What news to-
yonder."
" "
day ? said the threshers. It's -own news I'm my
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
86 Celtic Fairy Tales
" until
threshers, 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 to the threshers, the threshers to give me a

whisp of straw, the whisp of straw I will give to the cow r

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
11

" till
the miller, 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 lie 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. Daubthe crow,! daub ! said
" "
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
 Munachar and Manachar
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 ready to hang Manachar he found that
it

Manachar had BURST.

 Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree

NCE upon was a king who had

a time there
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."
went home, blind with rage.
Silver-tree 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
 Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree 89
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 happened about this time that the son of a great

it

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.
" "am not
Troutie, bonny little fellow," said she, 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
" I am
long-ship in order, and said, 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.

 Celtic Fairy Tales
The prince was out hunting on the hills. Gold-tree knew
the long-ship of her father coming.
" Oh she to the servants, "
!" said my "mother is coming,
and she will kill me."
" She shall notkill 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-
your own
hole, so that
mother may give a kiss
to it?"

She put out her little

finger, and Silver-tree
I went and put a poi-
soned stab in it, and
Gold-tree fell dead.
When the prince
came home, and found
Gold-tree dead, he was
in great sorrow, and
when he saw how beau-
tifulshe was, he did
not bury her at all, but
he locked her in a room
where nobody would
-
.]__ j

get near her.

 Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree 91
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 hunt-
ing-hill, looking very downcast.
" What said his
" would
me that
gift," wife, you give
I could make you laugh ?"
" Oh make me
indeed, nothing could
!
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.
" " am not the
Troutie, bonny little fellow," said she, I

most beautiful queen in the world ?"

" Oh ! indeed you are not."
"Who then?"
11
Why, Gold-tree, your daughter."
" Oh well, she is not alive. It is a year since I
! put
the poisoned stab into her finger."
92 Celtic Fairy Tales
" 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 order, and they went away.
in 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 " we
at all," said the second wife ;
will go down to
meet her."
Silver-tree came ashore. "Come down, Gold-tree, love,"
" for own mother has come
said she, your to you with a
precious drink."
" It is a custom in this
country," said the second wife,
" that the who offers a drink takes a draught out of
person
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
CH, I thought all the world, far and near, had

heerd o' King O'Toole well, well, but the

darkness of mankind is untellible !
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 ; youbut, see, in course of time the king grew old,

by raison he was stiff in his when he

limbs, and 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
;
94 Celtic Fairy Tales

diverted him was this-a-way : You see, the goose used to

swim across the lake, and go diving for trout, and catch
fishon 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, who should he meet but a mighty decent young
man coming up to him.
" God save
you," says the king to the young man.
" God save
you kindly, King OToole," says the young
man.
"True for you," says the king. I am
"
King OToole/'
" and
says he, prince plennypennytinchery of these parts,"
" but how came ye "
says he ; to know that ? says he.
 King O'Toole and His Goose 95
"
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,"

" know more than
says he, I 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.
" " and how is it
Well, honest man," says the king, 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.
" " I'm no tinker
No," says the saint ; by trade, King
O'Toole I've a better trade than
;
a tinker," says he
" what would " made your old goose
you say," says he, if I
"
as good as new ?

My dear, at the word of making

goose as good as his

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."
" " if
By faminee!" says King O'Toole, 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
horn's not so soft " as to
that my all out," says lie, repair
96 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 " that's the do
says the saint
fairer," ; way to
business. " the bargain make
Now," says he, this is I'll

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 " " it's a

bright says St. Kavin, back agin,
!

"
bargain. Come here says he to the poor old goose
!

" come unfortunate ould and it's I that'll

here, you cripple,
make you the sporting bird." With that, my dear, he took
" Criss
up the goose by the two wings 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 vournccn" says he, " but you are the darlint o' the
world."
" And what do you say "
to me," says Saint Kavin, for

making her the like ?"

 King O'Toole and His Goose 97
" "
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
G
98 Celtic Fairy Tales
" for
word," says he ; you didn't say that word, the
if

devil 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 OToole,!
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,"
;

" that I've been

says he, discoursing all this time without
" all as one as if he was a
knowing it," says he, 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 kill-

ing 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
HORTLY 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 fore-
told 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 light-
ning of heaven. Two brindled, white-breasted greyhounds,
ioo Celtic Fairy Tales
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 " Since
said Arthur, 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 send messengers in search of her."
will gladly

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.
 The Wooing of Olwen ibV
"
Then said Kilhuch, Every one has received his boon,
and I yet lack mine. Iwill depart and bear away thy

honour with me."

Then said
" Rash chieftain dost thou reproach
Kay, !

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 handbreath 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 those of nine opposing
lances.
And Arthur " Go thou
called to Kynthelig the guide.
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.
102 Celtic Fairy Tales
He called Gwrhyr Gwalstawt leithoedd, because he knew j

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 Teirgwaeth, in order
that they went into a savage country, he might cast a
if

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.
 The Wooing of Olwen 103
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-colouredsilk, 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 sprang up wherever she
trefoils

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 " that
fallen over my eyes," said Yspathaden Penkawr,
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."
104 Celtic Fairy Tales

The knights rested in the house of Custennin the herds-

man, 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 Yspa-
thaden's breast with it, so. that it came out at the small of
his back.
" A cursed " the
ungentle son-in-law, truly," says he,
hard iron pains me like the bite of a horse-leech. Cursed
be the hearth whereon it was heated Henceforth whenever
!
 The Wooing of Olwen 105
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."
" " name
promise thee that willingly," said Kilhuch,
I

what thou wilt."

" I do so," said he.
will
" comb or
Throughout the world there is not a scissors
with which I can arrange my hair, on account of its rank-

ness, 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."
io6 Celtic Fairy Tales
" me
It will be easy for 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 now is, 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
" Which of these marvels will it be best for us to seek
said,
'
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."
 The Wooing of Olwen 107
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 "
Lord, go thou
followers then said unto Arthur,

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 leithoedd, to go upon this quest, for thou know-
est languages, and art familiar with those of the birds
all

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,
" Tell me if
saying, 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
io8 Celtic Fairy Tales
the pecking of my beak every evening, and now there is not
so much as the size of a nut remaining thereof ; yet the ven-

geance 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 " When came was a

stag said, first I hither, there
plain around me, without any trees save one oak sapling,
all

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 youinquire. Nevertheless, be your guide I will
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
GURhMR,arn>
asie OF
uuer^n
 The Wooing of Olwen 109
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 struck 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, you who may.
I cannot
However, I
tell

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
no Celtic Fairy Tales

proceeded till they came to the wall of the prison, and they!
heard a great wailing and lamenting from the dungeon.
Said " Who is it that laments in this house of
Gwrhyr,
"
stone ?
And the voice replied, " Alas, it is Mabon, the son of
"
Modron, who ishere imprisoned !

Then they returned and told Arthur, who, summoning

his warriors, attacked the castle.
And whilst was going on, Kay and Bedwyr,
the fight

mounting on the shoulders of the fish, broke into the dun-

geon, 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
upon him
loose 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 Modron came up with him,
the son of
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
 The Wooing of Olwen 1 1 1

that he reached the shore, neither dog nor man nor horse
could overtake him until he came to Cornwall. There
Arthur and his hosts followed in his track until they over-

took him in Cornwall. Hard had been their trouble before,

but it was child's play towhat 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 man ? " said Kilhuch.
shaved,
" am
I
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
NCE 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
" and
mother one evening, Mother, bake my cake, kill my
hen, till I go seek my fortune ;
and if I meet it, never fear
but I'll with you."
soon be back to share it

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 ?
" " me
O musha, mother," says Jack, why do you ax
that question ? sure you know I wouldn't have your curse
and Darner's estate along with it."

" " here's the whole lot of

Well, then, Jack," says she,
'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

 Jack and His Comrades 113
ne'er a farmer's house he went At last
into wanted a boy.
his road led was a poor ass
by the side of a bog, and there
up to his shoulders near a big bunch of grass he was

striving to come at.

" " me out or I'll
Ah, then, Jack asthore," says he, help
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 ?
" comes
Faith, I'm going to seek my fortune till harvest
"
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 us be jogging."

all my heart, it's getting late, let

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 !

" and
dog, get rid of them ill conducted boys ; purshuin'
to 'em."
" over your arm, and come
Well, well, throw your tail

along."
* H
 H4 Celtic Fairy Tales
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. they were eating and chatting, what

While
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
" here's a bone and
breakfast," says Jack ; something on
it."
" "
May your child never know
says a hungry belly !

Tom "
; myself that's in need of your kindness.
it's 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 me.'"
asking
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 shot, and the poor cock came back

fluttering and trembling to Jack and his comrades.

" " " wasn't
Omusha, naybours !
says he, it the heigth
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 ?
 Jack and His Comrades 115
"We're going to seek our fortune till the harvest comes
in ; you may join our party if you like, /ajid 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.
" " the worse luck now the better
Well, well," says Jack,
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
warm lap, and the cock went to roost in the
lay in the ass's
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 dis-! :

turbed me from as nice a wisp 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 " but
light indeed," says Jack, 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 itcame singing, and laughing, and cursing.
" " " walk on
Easy, boys !
says Jack :
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
1. 1 6 Celtic
Fairy Tales
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
" and it's little we'd
full, get only for
the honest porter ! here's his purty
"
health !

" The "

purty health
porter's !

cried out every one of them, and

Jack bent his finger at his comrades.

" Close
your ranks, my men,"
" and let
says he in a whisper, 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

sung 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
 Jack and His Comrades 117
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 from our warm
damp grass is very different
room," says one.
" I was
obliged to drop a fine pig's foot," says another.
" a of
I didn't get tayspoonful my last tumbler," says
another.
" And all the Lord of Dunlavin's gold and silver that we
"
left behind !
says the last.
" " and see
I think venture back," says the captain,
I'll

if we can recover anything."

" That's a
"
said and away he
good boy !
they all,

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, he did, he got the marks of his teeth in

and if

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
n8 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 he reeled into the stable, back
till

foremost, but the ass received him with a kick En the

broadest part of his small clothesjand 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 hear-
" "
ing, 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 Ah, I have on me.
if you only knew what have gone through for you
I 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 could, and who should I

fast as I

stumble over but a cobbler and his seat, and if he did not
work at mewith his awls and his pinchers you may call me
*a rogue. Well, I got away from him somehow, but when
1 was passing through the door, it must be the divel 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
 Jack and His Comrades 119
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."

" " we believe
Oh, my poor captain," says they, 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 some-
times 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
" What do you want here, my fine fellow ? there isn't
Jack,
room for you all."
" We " what I'm sure
want," says Jack, 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.

120 Celtic Fairy Tales
" " to hear
be glad, Barney/' says the master,
I'd your
answer to the gentleman with the red comb on him."
" don't believe the rascal sure I didn't
Ah, my lord, ;

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 you will begrudge us
I don't think
our supper and bed after our long march from the wood of
Athsalach."
" Not one of you will ever see a
Begrudge, indeed !

poor day if I can help it."

So all were welcomed to their heart's 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
oroadcloth, 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 com-
fortably near the castle, and all were as happy as you
please.
 The Shee an Gannon and the

Gruagach Gaire
|HE 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.
" * ^
w ^ ve y u m y Daughter in mar-
"
riage," 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 mar-
riage, and all of them went away to get the knowledge I
wanted. Not one was able to get it and tell me what
stopped theGruagach 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

122 Celtic Fairy Tales

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 man for hire."
:
young looking
" " was going
Well," said the master of the house, I 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,
 The Shee an Gannon 123
and threw the sour ones down to the cattle of the Gruagach
Gaire.
Soon a great crashing was heard in the woods, the
noise ofyoung 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
" 'tis little I care for
him from the tree, 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 thought. sprang on the
at this He
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 you're done for now
last ;
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
124 Celtic Fairy Tales

enough in all his place 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 the Gruagach were :

" Whatkeeps you from laughing, you who used to laugh

"
so loud that the whole world heard you ?
" I'm " that the
sorry," said the Gruagach, daughter of
the king of Erin sent you here."
" If don't tell me
you I'll make
of your ownwill, 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 Gruagach but some ropes made of untanned
to the

sheepskin 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

 The Shee an Gannon 125
brown hare came rushing in, jumped on to the hearth,
tossed up and ran away.
the ashes to the rafters
"
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 an attack should come on me, I

heart that if

could defend myself better with the iron than the wooden

pike.
" Yellow Face me the iron pike, and the first chance
gave
of taking what could out of the pot on the point of the
I

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 ;
126 Celtic Fairy Tales

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 sons he took hold of me and
killed my
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 sheepskin 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
 The Shee an Gannon 127
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.
" said the if your pet had had manners,
" and
I," cowboy ;

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.
" take the wooden one," said the " and
I'll cowboy ; 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
" I'll do the same
their father, said :
thing to you unless
you bring the twelve sons of my master to life, and make
128 Celtic Fairy Tales

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.
 The Shee an Gannon 129
They hurried on ;
and when within three miles of the
king's castle there was such a throng of people that no one
could go a step ahead. " We must clear a road through
this," said thecowboy.
" Wemust 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 bride-
groom, 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.
" was
It 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 believeme, Gruagach the 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 " he is the
then," said the Gruagach, 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,

130 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 burned to ashes.

The wedding lasted nine days, and the last day was
better than the first.
 The Story- Teller at Fault

the time when the Tuatha De Dannan

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 what-
ever 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 morning he found himself quite at

this

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
132 Celtic Fairy Tales
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 you come to breakfast, my dear?" said she.
don't
" I have no mind to eat anything," replied the story-
"
teller long as I have been in the service of the king of
;

Leinster, never sat down to breakfast without having a new

I

story ready for the evening, but this morning my mind is

I don't know what to do.
quite shut up, and I might as

well down and die at once. I'll be disgraced for ever

lie

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.
"
do," replied her husband.
I

They drew nigh, and saw a miserable looking old man

lying on the ground with a wooden leg placed beside him.
" "
Whoare you, my good man ? asked the story-teller.
" 'tis little matter who I am. I'm a poor, old,
Oh, then,
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 ?
" am
I waiting here to see if any one will play a game
with me," replied the beggar man.
" man
Play with you Why what has a poor old
! like
"
you to play for ?
" have one hundred pieces of gold
I in this leathern

purse," replied the old man.

" You may as well play with him," said the story-teller's
 The Story-Teller at Fault 133
" and
wife ; 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 for, fool that I am
look !

" Will "

man.
asked the old
you play again ?
" 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."
" man Do you think for all the money in
Nonsense, !

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."
" never refused you before," said the story-teller, " and
I

I won't do so now."
Down he sat again, and in one throw lost houses, hounds,
and chariot.
" Will "
asked the beggar.
you play again ?
" Are of me, man what else have
you making game ;
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.
134 Celtic Fairy Tales
" " This the third time,
Accept his offer," said she. is

and who knows what luck you may have ? You'll surely

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 me "
said the story-
way you're leaving ?

teller.
" Sure was won," said she.
I
" You would not cheat
"
the poor man, would you ?
" Have "
you any more to stake ? asked the old man.
" You know have not," replied the story-
very well I

teller.
" I'll stake the whole now, wife and own
all, against your
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.

 The Story-Teller at Fault 135
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.
"
might be sport to others," replied the story-teller
It
" for
looking at his wife, my part I could well put up with
the loss of it."
" Would it be
asking too much," he went on to the
" to know who
beggar, you are at all, or where you come
from, or why you take a pleasure in plaguing a poor old
"
man like me ?
" Oh "
"I'm an odd kind of good-
!
replied the stranger,
one day poor, another day rich, but if you
for-little fellow,

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.
136 Celtic Fairy Tales
" Go " and see
who
out/' said he to his doorkeeper, 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.
 The Story-Teller at Fault 137
" And you " Whence come
likewise," said O'Donnell.
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 hillside."
" It's the great traveller you are," said O'Donnell.
"
Maybe 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."
" You
shall have them," said O'Donnell and the lank ;

grey beggarman took three small straws and placed them in

his hand.
" " I'll blow
The middle said one," the other
he, away ;

two I'll leave."

" Thou canst not
do it," said one and all.

But the lank grey beggarman put a finger on either

away he blew the middle one.
outside straw and, whiff,
" '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 word, O'Donnell."
at his

The on his hand, and a finger

lad put the three straws
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 do another
more pieces, O'Donnell, and I'll trick for

thee," said the lank grey beggarman.

" Six
shalt thou have."
138 Celtic Fairy Tales
" Seest thou two ears One move but
my ! I'll 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 a pull.
it

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.
" said the lank
Well, O'Donnell," grey beggarman,
" shown thee, but show thee
strange are the tricks I've I'll

a stranger one yet for the same money."

" Thou hast
my word for it," said O'Donnell.

With beggarman took a bag from under

that the lank grey
and from out the bag a ball of silk, and he un-
his armpit,
wound the ball and he flung it slantwise 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.
" " has
Now," said the lank grey beggarman any one a ;

mind to run after the dog and on the course ? "

" I will," said a lad of O'Donnell's.
" with you then," said the juggler " but I warn
Up 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
" I'm afraid the hound is
said :
eating the hare, and that
our friend has fallen asleep."
 The Story -Teller at Fault 139
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 I'm pleased, and sore I'm angered," said
little
" that a hound and a lad should be killed at
O'Donnell, 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 said O'Donnell.
get that,"
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 Leinsters King.

Heavy was the flesh and weary the spirit of Leinster's

140 Celtic Fairy Tales

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 " thou shalt
fear/' added he to the story-teller,
see all, and not a man shall see thee."

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 O
you ever, 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
of thy harpers."
 The Story-Teller at Fault 141
When the harpers heard this, they drew their swords and
rushed at him, but instead of striking him, their blows fell

on each other, and soon not a man but was cracking his
neighbour's skull and getting his own cracked in turn.
When the king saw this, he thought it hard the harpers
weren't content with murdering their music, but must needs
murder eacn other.
" the fellow who began it all," said he " and
Hang ;
if I

can't have a story, let me have peace."

Up came the guards, seized the lank grey beggarman,

marched him to the gallows and hanged him high and dry.
Back they marched to the hall, and who should they see
but the lank grey beggarman seated on a bench with his
mouth to a flagon of ale.
" Never
welcome you in," cried the captain of the guard,
" didn't we hang you this minute, and what brings you
"
here ?
" Is it me "
myself, you mean ?
" Who else ? " said the
captain.
"
May your hand turn into a pig's foot with you when
you think of tying the rope ; why should you speak of hang-
"
ing me ?

Back they scurried to the gallows, and there hung the

king's favourite brother.
Back they hurried to the king who had fallen fast asleep.
"Please your Majesty," said the captain, "we hanged
that strolling vagabond, but here he is back again as well
as ever."
"
Hang him again," said the king, and off he went to

sleep once more.

They did as they were told, but what happened was that
142 Celtic Fairy Tales

they found the king's chief harper hanging where the lank
grey beggarman should have been.
The captain of the guard was sorely puzzled.
" Are "
you wishful to hang me a third time ? said the
lank grey beggarman.
" Go where the captain, " and as fast as
you will," said

you please if you'll only go far enough. It's trouble enough

you've given us already."

" Now " and
you're reasonable," said the beggarman ;

since you've given up trying to hang a stranger because he

finds fault with your music, I don't mind telling you that if
you go back to the gallows you'll find your friends sitting
on the sward none the worse for what has happened."
As he said these words he vanished ;
and the story-teller
found himself on the spot where they first met, and where
his wife still was with the carriage and horses.
" " I'll torment
Now/' said the lank grey beggarman,
you no longer. There's your carriage and your horses, and

your money and your wife ;

do what you please with
them."
" For
my carriage and my horses and my hounds," said
" thank you but wife and
the story-teller, I ; my my money
you may keep."
" " want and as
No," said the other. I neither, for your
wife, don't think ill of her for what she did, she couldn't

help it."
" Not it Not help kicking me into the mouth of
help !

my own hounds ! Not help casting me off for the sake of

"
a beggarly old
" I'm not as I am Angus
beggarly or as old as ye think.
of the Bruff many a good turn you've done
;
me with the
 The Story-Teller at Fault 143
King of Leinster. This morning my magic told me the
difficulty you were in, and I made up my mind to get you
out of it. As
your wife there, the power that changed
for

your body changed her mind. Forget and forgive as man

and wife should do, and now you have a story for the King
"
of Leinster when he calls for one ;
and with that he disap-
appeared.
It's true enough he now had a story fit for a king. From
first to last he told all that had befallen him so long and
;

loud laughed the king that he couldn't go to sleep at all.

And he told story-teller never to trouble for fresh

the

stories, but every night as long as he lived he listened again

and he laughed afresh at the tale of the lank grey
beggarman.
 The Sea-Maiden
'HERE was once a poor old fisherman, and
one year he was not getting much fish.
On a day of days, while he was fishing,
there rose a sea-maiden at the side of
his boat, and she asked him, " Are you
"
getting much fish ? The old man
answered and " Not I."
" What reward would
said,
"
you give me for sending plenty of fish to you ?
" Ach " said the old man, " I have not much to spare."
!

" Will "

you give me the first son you have ? said she.
" I would
give ye that, were I to have a son," said he.
" Then and remember me when son
go home, your
is twenty years of age, and you yourself will get
plenty of fish after this." Everything happened as the
sea-maiden said, and he himself got plenty of fish but ;

when the end of the twenty years was nearing, the old man
was growing more and more sorrowful and heavy hearted,
while he counted each day as it came.
He had rest neither day nor night. The son asked his
"
father one day, " Is any one troubling you ? The old
 The Sea-Maiden 145
man "
Some one is, but that's nought to do with you
said,
nor any one else." The lad " I must know what it is."
said,
His father told him at last how
the matter was with him and
the sea-maiden. " Let not that put you in any trouble," said
the son " " You shall not
I will not oppose you."
; you ;

shall not go, my son, though I never get fish any more."
" If
you will not let me go with you, go to the smithy, and
let the smith make me a great strong sword, and I will

go seek my fortune."
His father went to the smithy, and the smith made a
doughty sword for him. His father came home with the
sword. The lad grasped it and gave it a shake or two,
and it flew into a hundred splinters. He asked his father
to go smithy and get him another sword in which
to the

there should be twice as much weight and so his father ;

did, and so likewise it

happened next sword it
to the
broke in two halves. Back went the old man to the
smithy and the smith made a great sword, its like he
;

never made before. " There's

thy sword for thee," said
the smith, " and the fist must be good that plays this
blade." The old man gave the sword to his son he gave ;

it a shake or two.
" This will " it's
do," said he high ;

time now to travel on my way."

On the next morning he put a saddle on a black horse
that his father had, and he took the world for his pillow.

When he went on a bit, he fell in with the carcass of a

sheep beside the road. And there were a great black dog,
a falcon, and an otter, and they were quarrelling over the

spoil. So they asked him to divide it for them. He came

down off the horse, and he divided the carcass amongst the
three. Three shares to the dog, two shares to the otter,
K
0X46 Celtic Fairy Tales
and a share to the falcon.
" For "
this/' said the dog, if

swiftness of foot or sharpness of tooth will give thee aid,

mind me, and be Said the " If
I will at thy side." otter,
the swimming of foot on the ground of a pool will loose
thee, mind me, and I will be at thy side." Said the
" If
falcon, hardship comes on thee, where swiftness of
wing or crook of a claw will do good, mind me, and I will
be at thy side."

On this he went onward till he reached a king's house,

and he took service to be a herd, and his wages were to be
according to the milk of the cattle. He went away with
the cattle, and the grazing was but bare. In the evening
when he took them home they had not much milk, the place
was so bare, and his meat and drink was but spare that
night.
On the next day he went on further with them ;
and at

lasthe came to a place exceedingly grassy, in a green glen,

of which he never saw the like.
But about the time when he should drive the cattle

homewards, who should he see coming but a great giant

"
with his sword in his hand ? " Hi Ho HOGARACH ! ! ! ! ! !

" Those
says the giant. cattle are mine ; they are on my
and a dead man art thou."
"
land, I say not that," says
the herd " there is no knowing, but that may be easier
;

to say than to do."

He drew the great clean-sweeping sword, and he neared
the giant. The herd drew back his sword, and the head was
off the giant in a twinkling. He leaped on the black horse,
and he went to look for the giant's house. In went the

herd, and that's the place where there was money in plenty,
and dresses of each kind in the wardrobe with gold and
 The Sea- Maiden 147
silver, and each thing finer than the other. At the mouth
of night he took himself to the king's house, but he took
not a thing from the giant's house. And when the cattle
were milked this night there was milk. He got good
feeding this night, meat and drink without stint, and the
king was hugely pleased that he had caught such a herd.
He went on for a time in this way, but at last the glen
grew bare of grass, and the grazing was not so good.
So he thought he would go a little further forward in
on the giant's land ;
and he sees a great park of grass.
He returned for the cattle, and he put them into the

park.
They were but a short time grazing in the park when a
came of rage and madness. " Hi
great wild giant full !

"
HAW ! ! HOGARAICH ! ! ! said the giant. "It is a drink of
" There
thy blood that will quench my thirst this night."
is no knowing," said the herd,
" but that's easier to
say
than to do." And at each other went the men. There
was shaking of blades ! At length and at last it seemed
as if the giant would get the victory over the herd. Then
he called on the dog, and with one spring the black dog
caught the giant by the neck, and swiftly the herd struck off
his head.

He
went home very tired this night, but it's a wonder if
the king's cattle had not milk. The whole family was
delighted that they had got such a herd.
Next day he betakes himself to the castle. When he
reached the door, a little flattering carlin met him standing
" All hail and
in the door. good luck to thee, fisher's son ;
'tis I myself am
pleased to see thee great is the honour ;

for this kingdom, for thy like to be come into it

thy coming
148 Celtic Fairy Tales

in is fame for this little bothy ; go in first ;

honour to the

gentles go on, and take breath."

;

" In before
me, thou crone ; I like not flattery out of
doors ; go in and let's hear thy speech." In went the

crone, and when her back was to him he drew his sword

and whips her head off; but the sword flew out of his
hand. And swift the crone gripped her head with both

hands, and puts it on her neck as it was before. The dog

sprung on the crone, and she struck the generous dog with
the club of magic and there
;
he lay. But the herd

struggled for a hold of the club of magic, and with one

blow on the top of the head she was on earth in the
twinkling of an eye. He went forward, up a little, and
there was spoil! Gold and silver, and each thing
more precious than another, in the crone's castle. He
went back to the king's house, and then there was re-
joicing.
He followed herding in this but one
way for a time ;

" "
night after he came home, instead of getting
All hail
" "
and Good luck from the dairymaid, all were at crying
and woe.
He asked what cause of woe there was that night. The
said
" There is a beast with three heads in
dairymaid great
the loch, and it must get some one every year, and the lot
had come year on the king's daughter, and at midday
this

to-morrow she is to meet the Laidly Beast at the upper

end of the loch, but there is a great suitor yonder who is
going to rescue her."
" What suitor is that " "
? Oh, he is a
said the herd.
" and when he
great General of arms," said the dairymaid,
kills the beast, he will marry the king's daughter, for the
 The Sea-Maiden 149
king has said that he who could save his daughter should

get her to marry."

But on the morrow, when the time grew near, the
king's daughter and this hero of arms went to give a

meeting to the beast, and they reached the black rock, at

the upper end of the loch. They were but a short time
there when the beast stirred in the midst of the loch ;

but when the General saw this terror of a beast with three

heads, he took fright, and he slunk away, and he hid

himself. And the king's daughter was under fear and
under trembling, with no one at all to save her. Sud-
denly she sees a doughty handsome youth, riding a black
horse, and coming where she was. He was marvellously
arrayed and fullarmed, and his black dog moved after him.
" There is
gloom on your face, girl," said the youth ;

" what do "

you here ?
150 Celtic Fairy Tales

"JOh ! that's no matter," said the king's daughter.

" not long
It's I'll be here, at all events."
" I say not that," said he.
" A champion fled as likely as you, and not long since,"
said she.
" He is who stands the war," said the youth.
a champion
And to meet the beast he went with his sword and his
dog. But there was a spluttering and a splashing between
himself and the beast The dog kept doing all he might,
!

and the king's daughter was palsied by fear of the noise of

the beast ! One of them would now be under, and now above.
But at last he cut one of the heads off it. It gave one
roar, and the son of earth, echo of the rocks, called to its
screech, and it drove the loch in spindrift from end to end,
and in a twinkling it went out of sight.
" Good and victory follow you, lad " said the
luck !

" I am safe for one

king's daughter. night, but the beast
will come again and again, until the other two heads come

off it." He caught the beast's head, and he drew a knot

through it, and he told her to bring it with her there
to-morrow. She gave him a gold ring, and went home
with the head on her shoulder, and the herd betook himself
to the cows. But she had not gone far when this great
General saw and he said to " I will kill if
her, her, you
you do not say that 'twas I took the head off the beast."
" Oh " " 'tis I will who else took the
!
says she, say it ;

"
head off the beast but you !
They reached the king's

house, and the head was on the General's shoulder. But

here was rejoicing, that she should come home alive and

whole, and this great captain with the beast's head full of
blood in his hand. On the morrow they went away, and
 The Sea-Maiden 151
there was no question at all but that this hero would save
the king's daughter.

They reached the same place, and they were not long
there when the fearful Laidly Beast stirred in .the midst of the

loch, and the hero slunk away as he did on yesterday, but

it was not long after this when the man of the black horse

came, with another dress on. No matter ;

she knew that
was the very same lad.
" It is I am to see
it pleased
"
I am in hopes you will handle your great
you," said she.
sword to-day as you did yesterday. Come up and take
breath." But they were not long there when they saw the
beast steaming in the midst of the loch.
At once he went to meet the beast, but there was
Cloopersteich and Claperstich, spluttering, splashing, raving,
and roaring on the beast They kept at it thus for a long
!

time, and about the mouth of night he cut another head

off the beast. He put it on the knot and gave it to her.
She gave him one of her earrings, and he leaped on the
black horse, and he betook himself to the herding. The
king's daughter went home with the heads. The General
met her, and took the heads from her, and he said to her,
that she must tell that it was he who took the head off
the beast this time also. " Who else took the head off
"
the beast but you ? said she. They reached the king's
house with the heads. Then there was joy and glad-
ness.
About the same time on the morrow, the two went away.
The officer himself as he usually did.
hid The king's
daughter betook herself to the bank of the loch. The hero
of the black horse came, and if roaring and raving were on
the beast on the days that were passed, this day it was
 152 Celtic Fairy Tales
horrible. But no matter, he took the third head off the
beast, and drew it through the knot, and gave it to her.
She gave him her other earring, and then she went home
with the heads. When
they reached the king's house, all
were full of smiles, and the General was to marry the
king's daughter the next day. The wedding was going on,

and every one about the castle longing till the priest should
come. But when the priest came, she would marry only the
one who could take the heads off the knot without cutting
it. .
" Who should take the heads off the knot but the man
"
that put the heads on ? said the king.
The General them, but he could not loose them and
tried ;

at last there was no one about the house but had tried to
take the heads off the knot, but they could not. The king
asked if there were any one else about the house that
 The Sea-Maiden 153
would try to take the heads off the knot. They said that
the herd had not tried them yet. Word went for the herd ;

and he was not long throwing them hither and thither.

" But " the
stop a bit, my lad," said the king's daughter ;

man that took the heads off the beast, he has my ring and
my two earrings." The herd put his hand in his pocket,

and he threw them on the board. "

Thou art my man,"
said the king's daughter. The king was not so pleased
when he saw that it was a herd who was to marry his
daughter, but he ordered that he should be put in a better
dress ; but his daughter spoke, and she said that he had a
dress as fine as any that ever was in his castle ;
and thus
it
happened. The herd put on the giant's golden dress,
and they married that same day.
They were now married, and everything went on well.
But one day, and it was the namesake of the day when his
father had promised him to the sea-maiden, they were
sauntering by the side of the loch, and lo and behold she !

came and took him away to the loch without leave or ask-
ing. The king's daughter was now mournful, tearful, blind-
sorrowful for her married man she was always with her
;

eye on the loch. An old soothsayer met her, and she told
how it had befallen her married mate. Then he told her
the thing to do to save her mate, and that she did.
She took her harp to the sea-shore, and sat and played ;

and the sea-maiden came up to listen, for sea-maidens are

fonder of music than all other creatures. But when the
wife saw the sea-maiden she stopped. The sea-maiden
" " "
said, Play on !
No, not till I see
but the princess said,

my man again." So the sea-maiden put up his head out of

the loch. Then the princess played again, and stopped till
154 Celtic Fairy Tales
the sea-maiden put him up to the waist. Then the princess

played and stopped again, and this time the sea-maiden put
him all out of the loch, and he called on the falcon and
became one and flew on shore. But the sea-maiden took
the princess, his wife.
Sorrowful was each one that was in the town on this night.
Her man was mournful, tearful, wandering down and up
about the banks of the loch, by day and night. The old
soothsayer met him. The soothsayer told him that there
was no way of killing the sea-maiden but the one way, and
this
" In the
is it island that is in the midst of the loch
is the white-footed hind of the slenderest legs and the
swiftest step,and though she be caught, there will spring a
hoodie out of her, and though the hoodie should be caught,
there will spring a trout out of her, but there is an egg in
the mouth of the trout, and the soul of the sea-maiden is
in the egg, and if the egg breaks, she is dead."
Now, there was no way of getting to this island, for the
sea-maiden would sink each boat and raft that would go on

the loch. He
thought he would try to leap the strait with
the black horse, and even so he did. The black horse
leaped the strait. He saw the hind, and he let the black
dog after her, but when he was on one side of the island,
the hind would be on the other side. " Oh ! would the
"
black dog of the carcass of flesh were here ! No sooner
spoke he the word 'than the grateful dog was at his side ;

and after the hind he went, and they were not long in
bringing her to earth. But he no sooner caught her than a
hoodie sprang out of her. " Would that the falcon
grey, of
"
sharpest eye and swiftest wing, were here No sooner said
!

he this than the falcon was after the hoodie, and she was not
 The Sea-Maiden 155
long putting her to earth ; and as the hoodie fell on the
" Oh that
bank of the loch, out of her jumps the trout. !

"
thou wert by me now, oh otter ! No sooner said than the
otter was at and out on the loch she leaped, and
his side,

brings the trout from the midst of the loch but no sooner ;

was the otter on shore with the trout than the egg came
from his mouth. He sprang and he put his foot on it.

'Twas then the sea-maiden appeared, and she said, " Break
not the egg, and you shall get all you ask."
" Deliver
"
to me my wife In the wink of an eye she was by his
!

side. When he got hold of her hand in both his hands, he

let his foot down on the egg, and the sea-maiden died.
 A Legend of Knockmany
HAT man, woman, or child has not
Irish

heard of our renowned Hibernian Hercules,

the great and glorious Fin M'Coul ? Not
one, from Cape Clear to the Giant's Cause-
way, nor from that back again to Cape
Clear. And, by-the-way, speaking of the Giant's Causeway
brings me at once to the beginning of my story. Well, it
so happened that Fin and his men were all working at the

Causeway, in order to make a bridge across to Scotland ;

when Fin, who was very

fond of his wife Oonagh, took it
into his head that he would go home and see how the poor
woman got on in his absence. So, accordingly, he pulled
up a fir-tree, and, after lopping off the roots and branches,
made a walking-stick of it, and set out on his way to

Oonagh.
Oonagh, or rather Fin, lived at this time on the very tip-

top of Knockmany Hill, which faces a cousin of its own

called Cullamore, that rises up, half-hill, half-mountain, on
the opposite side.
There was at that time another giant,named Cucullin
some say he was Irish, and some say he was Scotch but
 A Legend of Knockmany 157
whether Scotch or Irish, sorrow doubt of it but he was a

targer. No other giant of the day could stand before him ;

and such was his strength, that, when well vexed, he could
give a stamp that shook the country about him. The fame
and name of him went far and near ;
and nothing in the

shape of a man, it was

said, had any chance with him in a

fight. By one blow of his fists he flattened a thunderbolt

and kept it in his pocket, in the shape of a pancake, to show
to all his enemies, when they were about to fight him. Un-
doubtedly he had given every giant in Ireland a considerable
beating, barring Fin M'Coul himself ; and he swore that he
would never rest, night or day, winter or summer, till he
would serve Fin with the same sauce, if he could catch him.
However, the short and long of it was, with reverence be it
spoken, that Fin heard Cucullin was coming to the Causeway
to have a trial of strength with him and he was seized with
;

a very warm and sudden fit of affection for his wife, poor

woman, leading a very lonely, uncomfortable life of it in his

absence. He
accordingly pulled up the fir-tree, as I said
before, and having snedded it into a walking-stick, set out
on his travels to see his darling Oonagh on the top of

Knockmany, by the way.

In truth, the people wondered very much why it was
that Fin selected such a windy spot for his dwelling-
house, and they even went so far as to tell him as
much.
"What can you mane, Mr. M'Coul," said they, "by.
pitching your tentupon the top of Knockmany, where you
never are without a breeze, day or night, winter or summer,
and where you're often forced to take your nightcap without
either going to bed or turning up your little finger ; ay, an'
158 Celtic Fairy Tales

where, besides this, there's the sorrow's own want of

"
water ?
" said
" ever since was the height of a round
Why," Fin, I

tower, I was known to be fond of having a

good prospect
of my own ;
and where the dickens, neighbours, could I
find a better spot for a good prospect than the top of
Knockmany ? As for water, I am sinking a pump, and,
plase goodness, as soon as the Causeway's made, I intend
to finish it."

Now, this was more of Fin's philosophy ;

for the real

state of the case was, that he pitched upon the top of

Knockmany in order that he might be able to see Cucullin

coming towards the house. All we have to say is, that if

he wanted a spot from which to keep a sharp look-out

and, between ourselves, he did want it
grievously barring
Slieve Croob, or Slieve Donard, or its own cousin, Culla-
more, he could not find a neater or more convenient situa-
tion for it in the sweet and sagacious province of Ulster.
" God save all here " said
Fin, good-humouredly, on
!

putting his honest face into his own door.

" an' welcome home to
Musha, Fin, avick, you're your
own Oonagh, you darlin' bully." Here followed a smack
that is said to have made the waters of the lake at the
bottom of the hill curl, as it
were, with kindness and
sympathy.
Fin spent two or three happy days with Oonagh, and felt
himself very comfortable, considering the dread he had of
Cucullin. This, however, grew upon him so much that
his wife could not but perceive something lay on his
mind which he kept altogether to himself. Let a woman
alone, in the meantime, for ferreting or wheedling a secret
 A Legend of Knockmany 159
out of her good man, when she wishes. Fin was a proof
of this.
" said " that's
It's this Cucullin," he, troubling me.
When the fellow gets angry, and begins to stamp, he'll
shake you a whole townland ; and it's well known that he
can stop a thunderbolt, for he always carries one about him
in the shape of a pancake, to show to any one that might

misdoubt it."

As hespoke, he clapped his thumb in his mouth, which

he always did when he wanted to prophesy, or to know

anything that happened in his absence and the wife asked ;

him what he did it for.

" He's " I see him
coming," said Fin below Dun-;

gannon."
" Thank who
goodness, dear ! an' is it, avick ? Glory
"
be to God !

" That " and

baste, Cucullin," replied Fin ;
how to

manage I don't run away, I am disgraced and

know. If I
;

I know that sooner or later I must meet

him, for my thumb
tells me so."
" When will he be here ?
"
said she.
"
To-morrow, about two o'clock," replied Fin, with a

groan.
"Well, my bully, don't be cast down," said Oonagh;
"
depend on me, and maybe I'll bring you better out of this
scrape than ever you could bring yourself, by your rule o'

thumb."
She then made a high smoke on the top of the hill, after

which she put her finger in her mouth, and gave three
whistles, and by that Cucullin knew he was invited to Culla-
more for this was the way that the Irish long ago gave a
160 Celtic Fairy Tales

sign to all strangers and travellers, to let them know they

were welcome to come and take share of whatever was
going.
In the meantime, Fin was very melancholy, and did not
know what to do, or how to act at all. Cucullin was an
" cake "
ugly customer to meet with ; and, the idea of the
aforesaid flattened the very heart within him. What chance
could he have, strong and brave though he was, with a
man who could, when put in a passion, walk the country
into earthquakes and knock thunderbolts into pancakes ?

Fin knew not on what hand to turn him. Right or left

backward or forward where to go he could form no guess

whatsoever.
" " can
Oonagh," said he, you do nothing for me ?
Where's all your invention ? Am I to be skivered like a
rabbit before your eyes, and to have my name disgraced for
ever in the sight of all my tribe, and me the best man
among them How am to fight this man-mountain
? I

this huge cross between an earthquake and a thunderbolt ?

"
with a pancake in his pocket that was once
" Be "
easy, Fin," replied Oonagh ; troth, I'm ashamed
of you. Keep your toe in your
pump, will you ? Talking
of pancakes, maybe, we'll give him as good as any he brings
with him thunderbolt or otherwise. If I don't treat him

to as smart feeding as he's got this many a day, never trust

Oonagh again. Leave him to me, and do just as I bid

you."
This relieved Fin very much ; for, after all, he had great
confidence in his wife, knowing, as he did, that she had got
him out of many a quandary before. Oonagh then drew
the nine woollen threads of different colours, which she
 A Legend of Knockmany 161
always did to find out the best way of succeeding in any-
thing of importance she went about. She then platted
them into three plats with three colours in each, putting one
on her right arm, one round her heart, and the third round
her right ankle, for then she knew that nothing could fail

with her that she undertook.

Having everything now prepared, she sent round to the

neighbours and borrowed one-and-twenty iron griddles,

which she took and kneaded into the hearts of one-and-
twenty cakes of bread, and these she baked on the fire in

the usual way, setting them aside in the cupboard accord-

ing as they were done. She then put down a large pot of
new milk, which she made into curds and whey. Having
done all this, she sat down quite contented, waiting for his
arrival on the next day about two o'clock, that being the
hour at which he was expected for Fin knew as much by

the sucking of his thumb. Now this was a curious pro-

perty that Fin's thumb had. In this very thing, moreover,

he was very much resembled by his great foe, Cucullin ;

for it was well known that the huge strength he possessed

all lay in the middle finger of his right hand, and that, if he

happened by any mischance to lose it, he was no more, for

all 'his bulk, than a common man.

At length, the next day, Cucullin was seen coming across

the valley, and Oonagh knew that it was time to commence
operations. She immediately brought the cradle, and made
Fin to lie down in it, and cover himself up with the
clothes.
" You must own she "so
pass for your child," said ;

just lie there snug, and say nothing, but be guided by

me."
 162 Celtic Fairy Tales

About two o'clock, as he had been expected, Cucullin

" " " where
came in. God save all here ! said he ;
is this
"
the great Fin M'Coul lives ?
" Indeed " God save
it is, honest man," replied Oonagh ;

"
you kindly won't you be sitting ?
down "
"Thank you, ma'am," says he, sitting ; you're
"
Mrs. M'Coul, I suppose ?
" I " and I have no
am," said she reason, I hope, to be
;

ashamed of my husband."
" " he has the name of
No," said the other, being the
strongest and bravest man in Ireland ;
but for all that,,

there's a man not far from you that's very desirous of taking
"
a shake with him. Is he at home ?
" " and ever a man
Why, then, no," she replied ;
if left

his house in a fury, he did. It appears that some one told

him of a big basthoon of a giant called Cucullin being down
at the Causeway to look for him, and so he set out there to

try if Troth, I hope, for the poor

he could catch him.

giant's sake, he won't meet with him, for if he does, Fin

will make paste of him at once."
" "
Well," said the other, I am Cucullin, and I have been
seeking him these twelve months, but he always kept clear
of me and ;
I will never rest night or day till I lay my hands
on him."
At this up a loud laugh, of great contempt,
Oonagh set

by-the-way, and looked at him as if he was only a mere

handful of a man.
" Did "
you ever see Fin ? said she, changing hermanner
all at once.
" " " he
How could I ? said he ; always took care to keep
his distance."
 A Legend of Knockmany 163
" "I judged much and
I thought so," she replied ;
as ;
if

you take my advice,you poor-looking creature, you'll pray

night and day that you may never see him, for I tell you it

willbe a black day for you when you do. But, in the
meantime, you perceive that the wind's on the door, and as
Fin himself is from home, maybe you'd be civil enough to
turn the house, for it's always what Fin does when he's
here."
This was a startler even to Cucullin ;
but he got up,

however, and after pulling the middle finger of his right

hand until it cracked three times, he went outside, and
getting his arms about the house, turned it as she had
wished. When Fin saw this, he felt the sweat of fear

oozing out through every pore of his skin ;

but Oonagh,

depending upon her woman's wit, felt not a whit daunted.

" " as
Arrah, then," said she, you are so civil, maybe
you'd do another obliging turn for us, as Fin's not here to
do it himself. You see, after this long stretch of dry
weather we've had, we feel very badly off for want of water.
Now, Fin says there's a fine spring-well somewhere under
the rocks behind the hill here below, and it was his intention

to pull them asunder ;

but having heard of you, he left the

place in such a fury, that he never thought of it. Now, if

you try to find it, troth I'd feel it a kindness."

She then brought Cucullin down to see the place, which
was then all one solid rock and, after looking at
;
it for

some time, he cracked his right middle finger nine times,

and, stooping down, tore a cleft about four

feet hundred
deep, and a quarter of a mile in length, which has since

been christened by the name of Lumford's Glen.

" You'll now come " and eat a bit of such
in," said she,
164 Celtic Fairy Tales

humble fare as we
can give you. Fin, even although he
and you are enemies, would scorn not to treat you kindly
in his own house ; and, indeed, if I didn't do it even in his

absence, he would not be pleased with me."

She accordingly brought him and placing half-a-dozen in,

of the cakes we spoke of before him, together with a can or

two of butter, a side of boiled bacon, and a stack of cabbage,
she desired him to help himself for this, be known, was
it

long before the invention of potatoes. Cucullin put one

of the cakes in his mouth to take a huge whack out of it,

when he made a thundering noise, something between a

he shouted ; " how
" Blood and "
growl and a yell. fury !

is this ? Here are two of my teeth out What kind of !

bread this is you gave me."

" What's the matter ? " said
Oonagh coolly.
" Matter " shouted the other "
!
again why, here are ;

the two best teeth in my head gone."

1

"Why/ said she, "that's Fin's bread the only bread

he ever eats when at home ; but, indeed, I forgot to tell you
that nobody can eat it but himself, and that child in the
cradle there. I thought, however, that, as you were
reported to be rather a stout little fellow of your size, you
might be able to manage it, and I did not wish to affront a
man that thinks himself able to fight Fin. Here's another
cake maybe it's not so hard as that."
moment was not only hungry, but ravenous,
Cucullin at the
so, he accordingly made a fresh set at the second cake, and
immediately another yell was heard twice as loud as the
"
first.
" Thunder and
gibbets he roared, " take your !

bread out of this, or I will not have a tooth in my head ;

"
there's another pair of them gone !
 A Legend of Knockmany 165
" "
Well, honest man," replied Oonagh, if you're not able
to eat the bread, say so quietly, and don't be wakening the
child in the cradle there. There, now, he's awake upon
me.'
Fin now gave a skirl that startled the giant, as coming
from such a youngster as he was supposed to be.

" " I'm me something to eat."

Mother," said he, hungry get
Oonagh went over, and putting into his hand a cake that

had no griddle in it, Fin, whose appetite in the meantime

had been sharpened by seeing eating going forward, soon
swallowed it. Cucullin was thunderstruck, and secretly
thanked his stars that he had the good fortune to miss
" I'd have no
meeting Fin, for, as he said to himself, chance
with a man who could eat such bread as that, which even
1 66 Celtic Fairy Tales
his son that's but in his cradle can munch before my
eyes."
"
I'd like to take a glimpse at the lad in the cradle," said
" for I can tell
he to Oonagh ; you that the infant who can
manage that nutriment is no joke to look at, or to feed of a
scarce summer."
" With all the veins of my heart," replied Oonagh; "get
up, acushla, and show this decent little man something that

won't be unworthy of your father, Fin M'Coul."

Fin, who was dressed for the occasion as much like a
" Are
boy as possible, got up, and bringing Cucullin out,
"
you strong ? said he.
" Thunder an' ounds !" exclaimed the other, " what a voice
"
in so small achap !

" Are " are

you strong?" said Fin again ; you able to
"
squeeze water out of that white stone ? he asked, putting
one into Cucullin's hand. The latter squeezed and squeezed
the stone, but in vain.
" " " You a
Ah, you're a poor creature said Fin. giant
! !

Give me the stone here, and when I'll show what Fin's
little son can do, you may then judge of what my daddy
himself is."

Fin then took the stone, and exchanging it for the curds,
he squeezed the latter until the whey, as clear as water,
oozed out in a little shower from his hand.
" I'll now " to
said
go in," cradle for I scorn
he, my ; to
lose my time with any one that's not able to eat my
daddy's bread, or squeeze water out of a stone. Bedad,
you had better be off out of this before he comes back ;
for if he catches you, it's in flummery he'd have you in

two minutes."
 A Legend of Knockmany 167
Cucullin, seeing what he had seen, was of the same
opinion himself ;
his knees knocked together with the
terror of Fin's return, and he accordingly hastened to bid

Oonagh farewell, and to assure her, that from that day out, he
never wished to hear of, much less to see, her husband.
" I admit
fairly that I'm not a match for him," said he,
" as I am tell him I will avoid him as I would the
strong ;

plague, and that I will make myself scarce in this part of

the country while I live."

Fin, in the meantime, had gone into the cradle, where he

lay very quietly, his heart at his mouth with delight that
Cucullin was about to take his departure, without discovering
the tricks that had been played off on him.
" It's well for " that he doesn't
you," said Oonagh, happen
to be here, for it's nothing but hawk's meat he'd make of

you."
" I know "
that," says Cucullin ;
divil a thing else he'd
make of me ;
but before I go, will you let me feel what kind
of teeth Fin's lad has got that can eat griddle-bread like
"
that ?
" With said she
"
all pleasure in life," ; only, as they're
far back in his head, you must put your finger a good way
in."

Cucullin was surprised to find such a powerful set of

grinders in one so young but he was still much more so
;

on finding, when he took his hand from Fin's mouth, that

he had left the very finger upon which his whole strength
depended, behind him. He gave one loud groan, and fell
down at once with terror and weakness. This was all Fin
wanted, who now knew that his most powerful and bitterest

enemy was at his mercy. He started out of the cradle, and

1 68 Celtic Fairy Tales
in a few minutes the great Cucullin, that was for such a
length of time the terror of him and all his followers, lay
a corpse before him. Thus did Fin, through the wit and
invention of Oonagh, his wife, succeed in overcoming his

enemy by cunning, which he never could have done by

force.
 Fair, Brown, and Trembling

ING HUGH CURUCHA lived in TirConal,

and he had three daughters, whose names
were Fair, Brown, and Trembling.
Fair and Brown had new dresses, and
went church every Sunday. Trembling
to
was kept at home to -do the cooking and work. They
would not let her go out of the house at all ;
for she was
more beautiful than the other two, and they were in dread

she might marry before themselves.

They carried on in this way for seven years. At the

end of seven years the son of the king of Emania fell in

love with the eldest sister.

One Sunday morning, after the other two had gone to

church, the old henwife came into the kitchen to Trembling,

and said " It's at church
:
you ought to be this day, instead
of working here at home."
" How could I ?
"
said
" I have no
go Trembling.
clothes good enough to wear at church and
;
if my sisters

were to see me there, they'd kill me for going out of the

house."
" I'll " a finer dress than
give you," said the henwife,
170 Celtic Fairy Tales
either of them has ever seen. And now tell me what dress
"
will you have ?
" " a dress as white as
have/' said Trembling,
I'll
snow,
and green shoes for my feet."
Then the henwife put on the cloak of darkness, clipped
a piece from the old clothes the young woman had on, and
asked for the whitest robes in the world and the most
beautiful that could be found, and a pair of green shoes.
That moment she had the robe and the shoes, and she
brought them to Trembling, who put them on. When
Trembling was dressed and ready, the henwife said "I :

have a honey-bird here to sit on your right shoulder, and a

honey-finger to put on your left. At the door stands a
milk-white mare, with a golden saddle for you to sit on, and
a golden bridle to hold in your hand."

Trembling sat on the golden saddle and when she was ;

the henwife said " You must not

'

ready to start, :
go inside
the door of the church, and the minute the people rise up
at the end of Mass, do you make off, and ride home as fast

as the mare will carry you."

When Trembling came to the door of the church there
was no one inside who could get a glimpse of her but was

striving to know who she was and when they saw her
;

hurrying away at the end of Mass, they ran out to overtake

her. But no use in their running ;
she was away before

any man could come near her. From the minute she left
the church till she got home, she overtook the wind before
her, and outstripped the wind behind.
She came down at the door, went in, and found the
henwife had dinner ready. She put off the white robes,
and had on her old dress in a twinkling.
 Fair, Brown, and Trembling 171
When the two sisters came home the henwife asked :

" Have you any news to-day from the church ? "
" We have " We saw a
great news," said they.
wonderful grand lady at the church-door. The like of the
robes she had we have never seen on woman before. It's

little that was thought of our dresses beside what she had
on ;
and there wasn't a man at the church, from the king
to the beggar, but was trying to look at her and know who
she was."
The sisters would give no peace till they had two dresses
like the robes of the strange lady ;
but honey-birds and

honey-fingers were not to be found.

Next Sunday the two sisters went to church again, and
left the youngest at home to cook the dinner.
'
After they had gone, the henwife came in and asked
" Will "
you go to church to-day ?
" I would " if I could
go," said Trembling, get the
going."
" What robe will "
you wear ? asked the henwife.
" The finest black satin that can be
found, and red shoes
for my feet."
"What colour do you want the mare to be ? "
"I want her to be so black and so glossy that I can see

myself inher body."

The henwife put on the cloak of darkness, and asked for
the robes and the mare. That moment she had them.
When Trembling was dressed, the henwife put the honey-
and the honey-finger on her left.
bird on her right shoulder
The saddle on the mare was silver, and so was the bridle.
When Trembling sat in the saddle and was going away,
the henwife ordered her strictly not to go inside the door of
 172 Celtic Fairy Tales

the church, but to rush away as soon as the people rose at

(
the end of Mass, and hurry home on the mare before any
man could stop her.
That Sunday the people were more astonished than ever,
and gazed at her more than the first time and all they ;

were thinking of was to know who she was. But they had
no chance for the moment the people rose at the end of
;

Mass she slipped from the church, was in the silver saddle,
and home before a man could stop her or talk to her.
The henwife had the dinner ready. Trembling took off
her satin robe, and had on her old clothes before her sisters

got home.
" "
What news have you to-day ? asked the henwife of the
sisters when they came from the church.
" And
Oh, we saw the grand strange lady again ! it's

little that any man could think of our dresses after looking
at the robes of satin that she had on ! And all at church,
from high to low, had their mouths open, gazing at her, and
no man was looking at us."
The two sisters gave neither rest nor peace till they got
dresses as nearly like the strange lady's robes as they could
find. Of course they were not so good ;
for the like of
those robes could not be found in Erin.
When the third Sunday came, Fair and Brown went to

church dressed in black satin. They left Trembling at

home to work in the kitchen, and told her to be sure and

have dinner ready when they came back.
After they had gone and were out of sight, the henwife
and said "
came to the kitchen :
Well, my dear, are you for
"
church to-day ?
" I would if I had a new dress to wear."
go
TREMBLING" AT THE CHURCH DOOR
 Fair, Brown, and Trembling 173
" What
I'll get you any dress you ask for. dress would
"
you like ? asked the henwife.
" A dress red as a rose from the waist down, and white
as snow from the waist up ;
a cape of green on my
shoulders ;
and a hat on my head with a red, a white, and
a green feather in it ;
and shoes for my feet with the toes
red, the middle white, and the backs and heels green."
The henwife put on the cloak of darkness, wished for all

these things, and had them. When

Trembling was dressed,
the henwife put the honey-bird on her right shoulder and
the honey-finger on her left, and, placing the hat on her

head, clipped a few hairs from one lock and a few from
another with her scissors, and that moment the most
beautiful hair was flowing down over the girl's
golden
shoulders. Then the henwife asked what kind of a mare
she would ride. She said white, with blue and gold-coloured
diamond-shaped spots all over her body, on her back a
saddle of gold, and on her head a golden bridle.
The mare stood there before the door, and a bird sitting
between her ears, which began to sing as soon as Trembling
was in the saddle, and never stopped till she came home

from the church.

The fame of the beautiful strange lady had gone out
through the world, and all the princes and great men that
were it came to church that
in Sunday, each one hoping
that it was himself would have her home with him after
Mass.
The son of the king of Emania forgot all about the
eldest sister, and remained outside the church, so as to
catch the strange lady before she could hurry away.
The church was more crowded than ever before, and
174 Celtic Fairy Tales

there were three times as many outside. There was such

a throng before the church that Trembling could only come
inside the gate.
As soon as the people were rising at the end of Mass,
the lady slipped out through the gate, was in the golden
saddle in an instant, and sweeping away ahead of the wind.
But she was, the prince of Emania was at her side, and,
if

seizing her by the foot, he ran with the mare for thirty
perches, and never let go of the beautiful lady till the shoe
was pulled from her foot, and he was left behind with it in
his hand. She came home as fast as the mare could carry
her, and was thinking all the time that the henwife would
kill her for losing the shoe.

Seeing her so vexed and so changed in the face, the old

woman asked " What's the trouble that's on you now ? "
:

" Oh I've lost one of the shoes off my feet," said

!

Trembling.
" Don't mind that don't be vexed," said the henwife
; ;

" it's the best

maybe thing that ever happened to you."
Then Trembling gave up all the things she had to the

henwife, put on her old clothes, and went to work in the

kitchen. When the sisters came home, the henwife asked :

" Have "

you any news from the church ?
" We
have indeed," said they, " for we saw the grandest

sight to-day. The strange lady came again, in grander

array than before. On herself and the horse she rode were
the finest colours of the world, and between the ears of the
horse was a bird which never stopped singing from the time
she came till she went away. The lady herself is the most
beautiful woman ever seen by man in Erin."

After Trembling had disappeared from the church, the

 Fair, Brown, and Trembling 175
son of the king of Emania said to the other kings' sons :

" I will have that

lady for my own."
all said
" You didn't win her the
They :
just by taking
shoe off her foot ; you'll have to win her by the point of the
sword ; you'll have to fight for her with us before you can
call her your own."
" " when I
Well," said the son of the king of Emania,
find the lady that shoe will fit, I'll fight for her, never fear,

before I leave her to any of you."

Then all the kings' sons were uneasy, and anxious to
know who was she that lost the shoe and they began to ;

travel all over Erin to know could they find her. The
prince of Emania and all the others went in a great company
together, and made the round of Erin they went every- ;

where, north, south, east, and west. They visited every

place where a woman was to be found, and left not a house

in thekingdom they did not search, to know could they find
the woman the shoe would fit, not caring whether she was
rich or poor, of high or low degree.
The Emania always kept the shoe
prince of ;
and when
the young women saw it, they had great hopes, for it was
of proper size, neither large nor small, and it would beat
any man to know of what material it was made. One
thought it would fit her if she cut a little from her great
toe ;
and another, with too short a foot, put something
in the tip of her stocking. But no use they only ;

spoiled their feet, and were curing them for months

afterwards.
The two sisters, Fair and Brown, heard that the princes
the world were looking all over Erin for the woman that
^of
could wear the shoe, and every day they were talking of
176 Celtic Fairy Tales

trying it on ;
and one day Trembling spoke up and said :

"
Maybe it's my foot that the shoe will fit."
" Why say
Oh, the breaking of the dog's foot on you !

"
so when you were at home every Sunday ?

They were that way waiting, and scolding the younger

sister, till the princes were
near the place. The day they
were to come, the sisters put Trembling in a closet, and
locked the door on her. When the company came to the

house, the prince of Emania gave the shoe to the sisters.

But though they tried and tried, it would fit neither of
them.
" Is there "
any other young woman in the house ? asked
the prince.
" There in the closet
is," said Trembling, speaking up ;

" I'm here."

" Oh we ! have her for nothing but to put out the ashes,"
said the sisters.
But the prince and the others wouldn't leave the house
till they had seen her so the two sisters had to open the
;

door. When Trembling came out, the shoe was given to

her, and it fitted exactly.

Emania looked " You

The prince of at her and said :

are the woman the shoe fits, and you are the woman I took
the shoe from."
" Do you
Then Trembling spoke up, and said :
stay here
till I return."
Then she went to the henwife's house. The old woman
put on the cloak of darkness, got everything for her she
had the first Sunday at church, and put her on the white
mare in the same fashion. Then Trembling rode along
the highway to the front of the house. All who saw
 Fair, Brown, and Trembling 177
her the first time said " This is the we saw
:
lady at

church."
Then she went away a second time, and a second time
came back on the black mare in the second dress which the
henwife gave her. All who saw her the second Sunday
said " That is the we saw at church."
:
lady
A asked for a short absence, and soon
third time she

came back on the third mare and in the third dress. All
who saw her the third time said " That is the lady we :

saw at church." Every man was satisfied, and knew that

she was the woman.
Then all the princes and great men spoke up, and said
to the son of the king of Emania :
" You'll have to
fight
now for her before we let her go with you."
" I'm here before
you, ready for combat," answered the
prince.
*
Then the son of the king of Lochlin stepped forth. The
struggle began, and a terrible struggle it was. They fought
for nine and then the son of the king of Lochlin
hours ;

stopped, gave up his claim, and left the field. Next day
the son of the king of Spain fought six hours, and yielded
his claim. On the third day the son of the king of Nyerf<5i

fought eight hours, and stopped. The fourth day the son
of the king of Greece fought six hours, and stopped. On
the fifth day no more strange princes wanted to fight ;
and
all the sons of kings in Erin said they would not fight with
a man of their own land, that the strangers had had their

chance, and, as no others came to claim the woman, she

belonged of right to the son of the king of Emania.
The marriage-day was fixed, and the invitations were
sent out. The wedding lasted for a year and a day. When
178 Celtic Fairy Tales

the wedding was over, the king's son brought home the

bride, and when the time came a son was born. The
young woman sent for her eldest sister, Fair, to be with her
and care for her. One day, when Trembling was well, and
when her husband was away hunting, the two sisters went
out to walk and when they came to the seaside, the eldest
;

pushed the youngest sister in. A great whale came and

swallowed her.

The eldest sister came home alone, and the husband

"
Where is your sister ? "
asked,
" She has
gone home to her father in Ballyshannon ;

now that I am well, I don't need her."

" " I'm in dread
Well," said the husband, looking at her,

it's my wife that has gone."

" Oh "
!
no," said she
my sister Fair that's gone."
;
it's

Since the sisters were very much alike, the prince was in
doubt. That night he put his sword between them, and
 Fair, Brown, and Trembling 179
said : "If you are my wife, this sword will get warm ;
if

not, it will stay cold."

In the morning when he rose up, the sword was as cold

as when he put it there.

happened, when the two sisters were walking by the

It

seashore, that a little cowboy was down by the water

minding cattle, and saw Fair push Trembling into the sea ;
and next day, when the tide came in, he saw the whale
swim up and throw her out on the sand. When she was
" When
on the sand she said to the cowboy you go home :

in the evening with the cows, tell the master that my sister

Fair pushed me into the sea yesterday ;

that a whale
swallowed me, and then threw me out, but will come again
and swallow me with the coming of the next tide then he'll ;

go out with the tide, and come again with to-morrow's tide,
and throw me
again on the strand. The whale will cast
me out three times. I'm under the enchantment of this

whale, and cannot leave the beach or escape myself. Unless

my husband saves me before I'm swallowed the fourth

time, I shall be lost. He must come and shoot the whale
with a silver bullet when he turns on the broad of his back.
Under the breast-fin of the whale is a reddish-brown spot.

My husband must hit him in that spot, for it is the only

place in which he can be killed."

When the cowboy got home, the eldest sister gave him a
draught of oblivion, and he did not tell.

Next day he went again to the sea. The whale came

and cast Trembling on shore again. She asked the boy :

" Did master what

you tell the I told you to tell
"
him ?
" I did not," said he " I
; forgot."
 180 Celtic Fairy Tales
" "
How did you forget ? asked she.
11
The woman of the house gave me a drink that made
me forget."
"
Well, don't forget telling him this night ;
and if she

gives you a drink, don't take it from her."

As soon as the cowboy came home, the eldest sister

offered him a drink. He refused to take it till he had

delivered his message and told all to the master. The third

day the prince went down with his gun and a silver bullet
init. He was not long down when the whale came and
threw Trembling upon the beach as the two days before.
She had no power to speak to her husband till he had killed
the whale. Then the whale went out, turned over once on
the broad of his back, and showed the spot for a moment
only. That moment the prince fired. He had but the one
chance, and a short one at that but he took it, and hit the
;

spot, and the whale, mad with pain, made the sea all around
red with blood, and died.
That minute Trembling was able to speak, and went
home with her husband, who sent word to her father what
the eldest sister had done. The father came, and told him
any death he chose to give her to give it. The prince told
the father he would leave her life and death with himself.
The father had her put out then on the sea in a barrel,
with provisions in it for seven years.
In time Trembling had a second child, a daughter. The
prince and she sent the cowboy to school, and trained him
as one of their own and said " If the little
up children, :

girl that is born to us now lives, no other man, in the world

will get her but him."
The cowboy and the prince's daughter lived on till

.
 Fair, Brown, and Trembling 181

they were married. The mother said to her husband :

" You could not have saved me from the whale but for the

little cowboy ;
on that account I don't grudge him my
daughter."
The son of the king of Emania and Trembling had
fourteen children, and they lived happily till the two died of

old age.
 Jack and His Master
POOR woman had three sons. The eldest
and second eldest were cunning clever
fellows, but they called the youngest Jack
the Fool, because they thought he was no
better than a simpleton. The eldest got

home, and said he'd go look for service.

tired of staying at

He stayed away a whole year, and then came back one day,
dragging one foot after the other, and a poor wizened face
on him, and he as cross as two sticks. When he was
rested and got something to eat, he told them how he got
service with the Gray Churl of the Townland of Mischance,
and that the agreement was, whoever would first say he
was sorry for his bargain, should get an inch wide of the
skin of his back, from shoulder to hips, taken off. If it

was the master, he should also pay double wages if it was ;

should get no wages at all. " But the

the servant, he
"
thief," says he, gave me so little to eat, and kept me so
hard at work, that flesh and blood couldn't stand it ; and
when he asked me once, when I was in a passion, if I was
sorry for my bargain, I was mad enough to say I was, and
here I am disabled for life."
 Jack and His Master 183
Vexed enough were the poor mother and brothers ;
and
the second eldest said on the spot he'd go and take service
with the Gray Churl, and punish him by all the annoyance
he'd give him till he'd make him say he was sorry for his
"
agreement. Oh, won't I be glad to see the skin coming
"
off the old villain's back said he.! All they could say had
no effect : he started off for the Townland of Mischance,
and in a twelvemonth he was back just as miserable and
helpless as his brother.
All the poor mother could say didn't prevent Jack the
Fool from starting to see if he was able to regulate the

Gray Churl. He agreed with him for a year for twenty

pounds, and the terms were the same.
" "
said the
Now, Jack," Gray Churl, if you refuse to do
anything you are able to do, you must lose a month's
wages."
"I'm " and
satisfied," said Jack ;
if you stop me from
doing a thing after telling me to do it, you are to give me
an additional month's wages."
" am
I satisfied," says the master.
" Or if you blame me for obeying your orders, you must
give the same."
" am master again.
I satisfied," said the
The dayfirst that Jack served he was fed very poorly,
and was worked to the saddleskirts. Next day he came in
just before the dinner was sent up to the parlour. They
were taking the goose off the spit, but well becomes Jack
he whips a knife off the dresser, and cuts off one side of the
breast, one leg and thigh, and one wing, and fell to. In
came the master, and began to abuse him for his assurance.
"
Oh, you know, master, you're to feed me, and wherever
184 Celtic Fairy Tales
the goose goes won't have to be filled again till
supper.
"
Are you sorry for our agreement ?

The master was going to cry out he was, but he bethought

" Oh
himself in time. no, not at all," said he.
" That's
well," said Jack.
Next day Jack was to go clamp turf on the bog. They
weren't sorry to have him away from the kitchen at dinner
time. He didn't find his breakfast very heavy on his

stomach so he said to the mistress, " I

; think, ma'am, it

will be better for me to get my dinner now, and not lose

time coming home from the bog."
" That's So she brought out a
true, Jack," said she.

good cake, and a print of butter, and a bottle of milk,

thinking he'd take them away to the bog. But Jack kept
his seat, and never drew rein till bread, butter, and milk
went down the red lane.
" "
Now, mistress," said he, I'll be earlier at my work
to-morrow if I sleep comfortably on the sheltery side of a
pile ofdry peat on dry grass, and not be coming here and
going back. So you may as well give me my supper, and be
done with the day's trouble." She gave him that, thinking
he'd take it to the bog ;
but he fell to on the spot, and did
not leave a scrap to tell tales on him ;
and the mistress was
a little astonished.
He called to speak to the master in the haggard, and said
" What are servants asked to do in this country after
he,
"
aten their supper ?
"
Nothing at all, but to go to bed."

"Oh, very He went up on the stable-loft,

well, sir."
stripped, and lay down, and some one that saw him told
the master. He came up.
 Jack and His Master 185
" "
Jack, you anointed scoundrel, what do you mean ?
"To go to sleep, master. The mistress, God bless her,
is after giving me my breakfast, dinner, and supper, and
yourself told me that bed was the next thing. Do you
"
blame me, sir ?

"Yes, you rascal, I do."

" Hand me out one pound thirteen and fourpence, if you
please, sir."
" One "
divel and thirteen imps, you tinker ! what for ?
"
Oh, I
see, you've forgot your bargain. Are you sorry
"
for it ?
"
Oh, ya NO, I mean. I'll give you the money after

your nap."
Next morning early, Jack asked how he'd be employed
that " You are to be holding the plough in that
day.
fallow, outside the paddock." The master went over about
nine o'clock to see what kind of a ploughman was Jack,
and what did he see but the little boy driving the bastes,
and the sock and coulter of the plough skimming along the
sod, and Jack pulling ding-dong again' the horses.
"What are you doing, you contrary thief?" said the
master.
" An' ain't I strivin' to hold this divel of a plough, as

you told me ;
but that ounkrawn of a boy keeps whipping
on the bastes in spite of all I say ;
will you speak to
"
him ?
" Didn't
No, but I'll speak to you. you know, you
bosthoon, that when I said
'
holding the plough,' I meant

reddening the ground."

" Do you
Faith, an' ifyou did, I wish you had said so.
"
blame me for what I have done ?
1 86 Celtic Fairy Tales

The master caught himself in time, but he was so

stomached, he said nothing.

" Go on and redden the
ground now, you knave, as other
ploughmen do."
" An' are "
you sorry for our agreement ?
" "
Oh, not at all, not at all !

Jack ploughed away like a good workman all the rest of

the day.
In a day or two the master bade him go and mind the
cows in a field that had half of it under young corn. " Be
" to
sure, particularly," said he, keep Browney from the
wheat ;
while she's out of mischief there's no fear of the
rest."

About noon, he went to see how Jack was doing his

duty, and what did he find but Jack asleep with his face to
the sod, Browney grazing near a thorn-tree, one end of a

long rope round her horns, and the other end round the
tree, and the rest of the beasts all trampling and eating the

green wheat. Down came the switch on Jack.

" "
Jack, you vagabone, do you see what the cows are at ?
" And do you blame, master ? "

" To be sure, you lazy sluggard, I do ? "

" Hand me out one pound thirteen and fourpence, master.
You said if I only kept Browney out of mischief, the rest
would do no harm. There she is as harmless as a lamb.
"
Are you sorry for hiring me, master ?
" To be that not at
is, all. I'll give you your money
when you go to dinner. Now, understand me ;
don't let a
cow go out of the field nor into the wheat the rest of the

day."
" Never master
"
and neither did he. But the
fear, !
 Jack and His Master 187
churl would rather than a great deal he had not hired
him.
The
next day three
heiferswere missing, and
the master bade Jack go
in search of them.
" Where will I look for
"
them ? said Jack.
" and
Oh, every place likely

unlikely for them all to be in."

The churl was getting very exact in

his words. When he was coming into
the bawn at dinner-time, what work did he find

Jack at but pulling armfuls of the thatch off the

roof, and peeping into the holes he was making ?

" "
What are you doing there, you rascal ?
" "
Sure, I'm looking for the heifers, poor things !

" What would "

bring them there ?
" I don't think but I
anything could bring them in it ;

looked first into the likely places, that is, the cow-
houses, and the pastures, and the fields next
d noW I'm looking in the unlikeliest
ice I can think of. Maybe it's not

pleasing to you it is."

And to be sure it isn't

casing to me, you aggravating

"
goose-cap !

" hand me
Please, sir,

one pound thirteen and

four pence before you sit

down to your dinner. I'm

afraid it's sorrow that's
on you for hiring me at all."
 Celtic Fairy Tales
" I'm not sorry. Will you begin,
May oh no
the div ;

ifyou please, and put in the thatch again, just as if you

"
were doing it for your mother's cabin ?
"
Oh, faith I will, sir, with a heart and a half;" and by
the time the farmer came out from his dinner, Jack had
the roof better than it was before, for he made the boy give
him new straw.
"
Says the master when he came out, Go, Jack, and look
for the heifers, and bring them home."
" And where will I look for 'em ? "
" Go and search for them as if they were your own."
The heifers were all in the paddock before sunset.

Next morning, says the master, " Jack, the path across
the bog to the pasture is very bad the sheep does be
;

sinking in it
every step go and make the sheep's feet
;

a good path." About an hour after he came to the edge

of the bog, and what did he find Jack at but sharpening a

carving knife, and the sheep standing or grazing round.

" Is this the '*

way you are mending the path, Jack ?

said he.
"
Everything must have a beginning, master," said Jack,
" and a
thing well begun is half done. I am sharpening
the knife, and I'll have the feet off every sheep in the flock
while you'd be blessing yourself."
" Feet off
my sheep, you anointed rogue ! and what would
"
you be taking their feet off for ?
" An' sure to
mend the path as you told me. Says you,
"
'
Jack, make a path with the foot of the sheep.'
"
Oh, you fool, I meant make good the path for the

sheep's feet."
" It's a pity you didn't say so, master. Hand me out
 Jack and His Master 189
one pound thirteen and fourpence if you don't like me to

finish my job."
" Divel do
you good with your one pound thirteen and
"
fourpence !

" It's better

pray than curse, master. Maybe you're
"
sorry for your bargain ?
"And to be sure I am not yet, any way."
The next night the master was going to a wedding ;
and
"
says he to Jack, before he set out : I'll leave at midnight,
and I wish you to come and be with me home, for fear I

might be overtaken with the drink. If you're there before,

you may throw a sheep's eye at me, and I'll be sure to see

that they'll give you something for yourself."

About eleven o'clock, while the master was in great

spirits, he felt something clammy hit him on the cheek.
It fell beside his tumbler, and when he looked at it

what was it but the eye of a sheep. Well, he couldn't

imagine who threw it at him, or why it was thrown at
him. After a little he got a blow on the other cheek,
and still it was by another sheep's eye. Well, he was very
vexed, but he thought better to say nothing. In two
minutes more, when he was opening his mouth to take a
sup, another sheep's eye was slapped into it. He sputtered
it out, and cried, 1' Man o' the house, isn't it a great shame

for you to have any one in the room that would do such a
"
nasty thing ?
" " don't blame the honest man.
Master," says Jack,
Sure it's only myself that was throwin' them sheep's eyes
at you, to remind you I was here, and that I wanted
to drink the bride and bridegroom's health. You know
yourself bade me."
i
go Celtic Fairy Tales
11
1 know that you are a great rascal ;
and where did you
"
get the eyes ?
" An' where would heads of your
I get em' but in the

own sheep Would you have me

? meddle with the bastes
of any neighbour, who might put me in the Stone Jug for
it?"
" Sorrow on me that ever I had the bad luck to meet
with you."
" You're " that master says
all witness," said Jack, my
he is sorry for having met with me. My time is up.

Master, hand me
wages, and come into the
over double
next room, and lay yourself out like a man that has some

decency in him, till I take a strip of skin an inch broad

from your shoulder to your hip."
Every one shouted out against that but, says Jack, ;

" You didn't hinder him when he took the same strips from
the backs of my two brothers, and sent them home in that

state, and penniless, to their poor mother."

When the company heard the rights of the business,

they were only too eager to see the job done. The master
bawled and roared, but there was no help at hand. He
was stripped to his hips, and laid on the floor in the next
room, and Jack had the carving knife in his hand ready to
begin.
" Now cruel old villain," said he, giving the knife a
you
" I'll make
couple of scrapes along the floor, you an offer.
Give me, along with my double wages, two hundred
guineas to support my poor brothers, and I'll do without
the strap."
" " "
No ! said he, I'd let you skin me from head to foot

first."
 Jack and His Master igi
" Here
goes then/' said Jack with a grin, but the first
"
little scar he gave, Churl roared out, Stop your hand ;
I'll

give the money."

"
Now, neighbours," said Jack, " you mustn't think worse
of me than I deserve. I wouldn't have the heart to take
an eye out of a rat itself I got half a dozen of them from
;

the butcher, and only used three of them."

So all into the other room, and Jack was made
came again
sit down, and everybody drank his health, and he drank
everybody's health at one offer. And six stout fellows
saw himself and the master home, and waited in the
parlour while uphe went and brought down the two
hundred guineas, and double wages for Jack himself.
When he got home, he brought the summer along with
him to the poor mother and the disabled brothers and ;

he was no more Jack the Fool in the people's mouths,

but " Skin Churl Jack."
 Beth Gellert

RINCE LLEWELYN had a favourite grey-

hound named Gellert that had been given to
him by his father-in-law, King John. He was
as gentle as a lamb at home but a lion in
the chase. One day Llewelyn went to the

chase and blew his horn in front of his castle. All his other

dogs came to the call but Gellert never answered it. So

he blew a louder blast on his horn and called Gellert by
name, but still the greyhound did not come. At last Prince
Llewelyn could wait no longer and went off to the hunt
without Gellert. He had little sport that day because
Gellert was not there, the swiftest and boldest of his hounds.
He turned back in a rage to his castle, and as he came
to the gate, who should he see but Gellert come bounding
out to meet him. But when the hound came near him, the
Prince was startled to see that his lips and fangs were

dripping with blood. Llewelyn started back and the grey-

hound crouched down at his feet as if surprised or afraid at

the way his master greeted him.

Now Prince Llewelyn had a little son a year old with
whom Gellert used to play, and a terrible thought crossed
the Prince's mind that made him rush towards the child's

nursery. And the nearer he came the more blood and dis-
 Beth Gellert
order he found about the rooms. He rushed into it and
found the child's cradle overturned and daubed with blood.
Prince Llewelyn grew more and more terrified, and sought
for his little son everywhere. He could find him nowhere
but only signs of some terrible conflict in which much blood
had been shed. At he
sure the dog had destroyed
last felt

his child, and shouting to Gellert, " Monster, thou hast

devoured my child," he drew out his sword and plunged it

in the greyhound's side, who fell with a deep yell and still

gazing in his master's eyes.

As Gellert raised his dying yell, a little child's cry

answered from beneath the cradle, and there Llewelyn
it

found his child unharmed and just awakened from sleep. But
just beside him lay the body of a great gaunt wolf all torn
to pieces and covered with blood. Too late, Llewelyn
N
194. Celtic Fairy Tales
learned what had happened while he was away. Gellert

had stayed behind to guard the child and had fought and
slain the wolf that had tried to destroy Llewelyn's heir.
In vain was all Llewelyn's grief; he could not bring his
faithful dog to life again. So he buried him outside the
castle walls within sight of the great mountain of Snowdon,
where every passer-by might see his grave, and raised over it
a great cairn of stones. And to this day the place is called

Beth Gellert, or the Grave of Gellert.

 The Tale of Ivan

'HERE were formerly a man and a woman

living in the parish of Llanlavan, in the
place which is called Hwrdh. And work
became scarce, so the man said to his wife,
" I will go search work, and you may
for
live here." So he took fair leave, and travelled far toward

the East, and at last came to the house of a farmer and

asked for work.
" What work can "
ye do ? said the farmer.
" I can do
all kinds of work," said Ivan.

Then they agreed upon three pounds for the year's

wages.
When the end of the year came his master showed him
the three " " here's
pounds. See, Ivan," said he, your
wage ;
but if you will give it me back I'll give you a piece
of advice instead."
" Give me my wage," said Ivan.
196 Celtic Fairy Tales
" master "
No, I'll not," said the ;
I'll explain my
advice."
" Tell it me, then," said Ivan.
Then said the master,
" Never leave the old road for the

sake of a new one."

After that they agreed for another year at the old wages,
and at the end of it Ivan took instead a piece of advice, and

" Never
this was it :
lodge where an old man is married to
a young woman."
The same thing happened at the end of the third year,
when the piece of advice was " Honesty is the : best

policy."
But Ivan would not stay longer, but wanted to go back
to his wife.
" Don't "
go to-day," said his master my wife bakes ;

to-morrow, and she shall make thee a cake to take home to

thy good woman."

And when Ivan was going to leave, " Here," said his
" here is a cake for thee to take home to
master, thy wife,
and, when ye are most joyous together, then break the
cake, and not sooner."
So he took fair leave of them and travelled towards
home, and at last he came to Wayn Her, and there he met
three merchants from Tre Rhyn, of his own parish, coming
home from Exeter " Oho " come
Fair. !
Ivan," said they,
with us ; glad are we to see you. Where have you been
"
so long ?
'*
I have been in service," said Ivan,
" and now I'm going
home to my wife."
"
Oh, come with us you'll be right welcome." !

But when they took the new road Ivan kept to the old
 The Tale of Ivan 197
one. And upon them before they had gone far
robbers fell

from Ivan as they were going by the fields of the houses

in the meadow.
" Thieves " and
They began to cry out, !

"
Ivan shouted out " Thieves ! too. And when the robbers
heard Ivan's shout they ran away, and the merchants went

by the new road and Ivan by the old one till they met again
at Market-Jew.
" " we are
Oh, Ivan," said the merchants, beholding to
you but;
for you we would have been lost men. Come
lodge with us at our cost, and welcome."
When they came to the place where they used to lod-ge r
Ivan said, " I must see the host."
" The " what do
host," they cried ; you want with the
host ? Here is the hostess, and she's young and pretty.
If you want to see the host you'll find him in the
kitchen."
So he went into the kitchen to see the host ;
he found
him a weak old man turning the spit.
" Oh oh
"
! !
quoth Ivan, "I'll not lodge here, but will go
next door."
" Not "
yet," said the merchants, sup with us, and
welcome."
Now happened that the hostess had plotted with a
it

certain monk in Market-Jew to murder the old man in his

bed that night while the rest were asleep, and they agreed
to lay it on the lodgers.

So whiles Ivan was in bed next door, there was a

hole in the pine-end of the house, and he saw a light
through it. So he got up and looked, and heard the
monk "
I had better cover this hole," said he,
speaking.
" or So
people in the next house may see our deeds."
i
g8 Celtic Fairy Tales
he stood with his back against it while the hostess killed
the old man.
But meanwhile Ivan out with his knife,and putting it

through the hole, cut a round piece off the monk's robe.
The very next morning the hostess raised the cry that
her husband was murdered, and as there was neither man
nor child in the house but the merchants, she declared they
ought to be hanged for it.
So they were taken and carried to prison, till at last Ivan
came them. " Alas " bad
to ! alas !
Ivan," cried they,
luck sticks to us ;
our host was killed last night, and we
shall be hanged for it."
" tell the justices," said Ivan, " to summon the real
Ah,
murderers."
" Who
knows," they replied, "who committed the
"
crime ?
" Who committed the crime " said Ivan. " If 1 cannot !

prove who committed hang me in your stead."

the crime,
So he he knew, and brought out the piece of
told all

cloth from the monk's robe, and with that the merchants

were set at liberty, and the hostess and the monk were
seized and hanged.
Then they came all together out of Market-Jew, and
him " Come Coed Carrn y Wylfa,
they said to : as far as
the Wood of the Heap of Stones of Watching, in the
parish of Burman. Then their two roads separated, and
though the merchants wished Ivan to go with them, he
would not go with them, but went straight home to his
wife.

And when his wife saw him she said :

" Home in the
nick of time. Here's a purse of gold that I've found ;
it
 The Tale of Ivan 199
has no name, but sure belongs to the great lord yonder.
it

I was just thinking what to do when you came."

Then Ivan thought of the third counsel, and he said :

" Let us
go and give it to the great lord."
So they went up to the castle, but the great lord was not
in it, left the purse with the servant that minded
so they
the gate, and then they went home again and lived in quiet
for a time.

But one day the great lord stopped at their house for a
drink of water, and Ivan's wife said to him: " I hope your

lordship found your lordship's purse quite safe with all its
money in it."
" What "
purse is that you are talking about ? said the
lord.
" at the castle,"
Sure, it's your lordship's purse that I left

said Ivan.
" Come with me and we will see into the matter," said

the lord.
So Ivan and his wife went up to the castle, and there
they pointed out the man whom
they had given the purse,
to

and he had to give it up and was sent away from the castle.
And the lord was so pleased with Ivan that he made him
his servant in the stead of the thief.
" "
Honesty's the best policy !
quoth Ivan, as he skipped
" "
about in his new quarters. How joyful I am !

Then he thought of his old master's cake that he was to

eat when he was most joyful, and when he broke it, lo

and behold, inside it was his wages for the three years he
had been with him.
 Andrew Coffey
Y grandfather, Andrew Coffey, was known
to the whole barony as .a quiet, decent
man. And if the whole barony knew
him, he knew the whole barony, every
inch, hill and dale, bog and pasture,
field and covert. Fancy his surprise one
evening, when he found himself in a part of the demesne
he couldn't recognise a bit. He and his good horse were
always stumbling up against some tree or stumbling down
into some bog-hole that by rights didn't ought to be there.

On the top of all this the rain came pelting down wher-
ever there was a clearing, and the cold March wind tore

through the trees. Glad he was then when he saw a light

in the distance, and drawing near found a cabin, though

for the life of him he couldn't think how it came there.

However, in he walked, after tying up his horse, and right

welcome was the brushwood fire blazing on the hearth.
And there stood a chair right and tight, that seemed to say,
" down in me." There wasn't a soul else in the
Come, sit

room. Well, he did sit, and got a little warm and cheered
 Andrew Coffey 201
after his drenching. But all the while he was wondering
and wondering.
"
Andrew Coffey Andrew Coffey !" !

Good heavens who was calling him, and not a

! soul in

sight ? Look around as he might, indoors and out, he

could find no creature with two legs or four, for his horse
was gone.
" ANDREW COFFEY ! ANDREW COFFEY ! tell me a story."
It was louder this time, and it was nearer. And then
what a thing to ask for ! It was bad enough not to be let

sit by the fire and dry oneself, without being bothered for
a story.
" Andrew
Coffey Andrew Coffey Tell me a story, or
! !

it'll be the worse for you."

My poor grandfather was so dumbfounded that he could

only stand and stare.
" ANDREW
COFFEY! ANDREW COFFEY! I told

you it'd be the worse for you."

And with that, out there bounced, from a cupboard that
Andrew Coffey had never noticed before, a man. And the
man was in a towering rage. But it wasn't that. And he
carried as fine a blackthorn as you'd wish to crack a man's
head with. But it wasn't that either. But when my
grandfather clapped eyes on him, he knew him for Patrick
Rooney, and all the world knew he'd gone overboard,
fishing one night long years before.
Andrew
Coffey would neither stop nor stay, but
he took
to his heels and was out of the house as hard as he could.

He ran and he ran taking little thought of what was before

till at last he ran up against a big tree. And then he sat

down to rest.
2O2 Celtic Fairy Tales
He hadn't sat for a moment when he heard voices.
" "
It's heavy he
is, the vagabond." Steady now, we'll
rest when we
get under the big tree yonder." Now that
happened to be the tree under which Andrew Coffey was
sitting. At least he thought so, for seeing a branch handy
he swung himself up by it and was soon snugly hidden
away. Better see than be seen, thought he.
The rain had stopped and the wind fallen. The night
was blacker than Andrew
Coffey could see four
ever, but
men, and they were carrying between them a long box.
Under the tree they came, set the box down, opened
and who should they bring out but
it, Patrick Rooney.
Never a word did he say, and he looked as pale as old
snow.
Well, one gathered brushwood, and another took out
tinder and flint, and soon they had a big fire roaring, and

my grandfather could see Patrick plainly enough. If he

had kept still before, he kept stiller now. Soon they had
four poles up and a pole across, right over the fire, for all

the world like a spit, and on to the pole they slung Patrick

Rooney.
" He'll do well " but who's to mind
enough," said one ;

him whilst we're away, who'll turn the fire, who'll see -that
he doesn't burn?"
With that Patrick opened his " Andrew
lips :
Coffey,"
said he.
" Andrew Andrew Coffey Andrew
Coffey ! !
Coffey !

Andrew Coffey !"

" I'm
obliged to you, gentlemen," said Andrew
much
" but indeed I know
Coffey, nothing about the business."
" You'd better come Andrew said Patrick.
down, Coffey,"
 Andrew Coffey 203
It was the second time he spoke, and Andrew Coffey
decided he would come down. The four men went off and
he was left all alone with Patrick.
Then he and he kept the fire even, and he kept the
sat

spit turning, and all the while Patrick looked at him.

Poor Andrew Coffey couldn't make it all out at all, at all,
and he stared at Patrick and at the fire, and he thought of
the little house in the wood, till he felt quite dazed.
" me ye
Ah, but it's -
burning are!" says Patrick, very
short and sharp.
" I'm sure I
beg your pardon," said my grandfather
" but
might I ask you a question ?"
" If " turn
you want a crooked answer," said Patrick ;

away or it'll be the worse for you."

But my grandfather couldn't get it out of his head ;

hadn't everybody, far and near, said Patrick had fallen

overboard. There was enough to think about, and my
grandfather did think.
" Andrew Andrew me
Coffey! Coffey! it's burning
ye are."
Sorry enough my grandfather was, and he vowed he
wouldn't do so again.
" You'd better said and he gave him a
not," Patrick,
cock of his eye, and a grin of his teeth, that just sent a
shiver down Andrew Coffey 's back. Well it was odd, that
here he should be in a thick wood he had never set eyes

upon, turning Patrick Rooney upon a spit. You can't

wonder at my grandfather thinking and thinking and not

minding the fire.
" ANDREW
COFFEY, ANDREW COFFEY, IT'S THE DEATH OF
YOU I'LL BE."
204 Celtic Fairy Tales
And my grandfather see, but Patrick
with that what did

unslinging himself from the spit and his eyes glared and
his teeth glistened.
It was neither stop nor stay my grandfather made, but
out he ran into the night of the wood. It seemed to him

there wasn't a stone but was for his stumbling, not a branch
but beat his face, not a bramble but tore his skin. And
whereverit was clear the rain pelted down and the cold
March wind howled along.
Glad he was to see a light, and a minute after he was
kneeling, dazed, drenched, and bedraggled by the hearth
side. The brushwood flamed, and the brushwood crackled,
and soon my
grandfather began to feel a little warm and
dry and easy in his mind.
"Andrew Coffey ! Andrew Coffey!"
It's hard for a man to jump when he has been through
all my grandfather had, but jump he did. And when he
looked around, where should he find himself but in the very
cabin he had first met Patrick in.
 Andrew Coffey 205
" Andrew Andrew tell me a story."
Coffey, Coffey,
" Is it a story you want ?" said my grandfather as bold
as may be, for he was just tired of being frightened.
" Well me be
if you can tell the rights of this one, I'll

thankful."
And he told the tale of what had befallen him from first

to last that night. The tale was long, and maybe Andrew

Coffey was weary. It's asleep he must have fallen, for

when he awoke he lay on the hill-side under the open

heavens, and his horse grazed at his side.
 The Battle of the Birds

WILL tell you a story about the wren.

There was once a farmer who was seeking
a servant, and the wren met him and
said :
" What are you seeking ?"
" I am seeking a servant," said the
farmer to the wren.
" Will
you take me ?" said the wren.
"
You, you poor creature, what good would you do ?"
lt
Try me," said the wren.
So he engaged him, and the first work he set him to do
was threshing in the barn. The wren threshed (what did
he thresh with ? Why a flail to be sure), and he knocked
off one grain. A mouse came out and she eats that.
" I'll trouble
you not to do that again," said the wren.
He struck again, and he struck off two grains. Out
came the mouse and she eats them. So they arranged a
contest to see who was strongest, and the wren brings his
twelve birds, and the mouse her tribe.
 The Battle of the Birds 207
" You have your tribe with you," said the wren.
" As well as yourself/' said the mouse, and she struck
out her leg proudly. But the wren broke it with his flail,

and there was a pitched battle on a set day.

When every creature and bird was gathering to battle,

the son of the king of Tethertown said that he would go
to see the battle,and that he would bring sure word home
to his father the king, who would be king of the creatures

this year. The battle was over before he arrived all but
one fight, between a great black raven and a snake. The
snake was twined about the raven's neck, and the raven
held the snake's throat in his beak, and it seemed as if the
snake would get the victory over the raven. When the
king's son saw this he helped the raven, and with one blow
takes the head off the snake. When the raven had taken
and saw that the snake was he " For
breath, dead, said,

thy kindness to me day, I will give thee a sight.

this

Come up now on the root of my two wings." The king's

son put his hands about the raven before his wings, and,
before he stopped, he took him over nine Bens, and nine

Glens, and nine Mountain Moors.

" " see
Now," said the raven, you that house yonder ?

Go now to it. It is a sister of mine that makes her

dwelling in it ;
and I will go bail that you are welcome.
And she asks you, Were you at the battle of the birds ?
if

say you were. And if she asks, Did you see any one like
'

me,' say you did, but be sure that you meet me to-morrow
morning here, in this place." The king's son got good and
right good treatment that night. Meat of each meat, drink
of each drink, warm water to his feet, and a soft bed for his

limbs.
208 Celtic Fairy Tales

On the next day the raven gave him the same sight over
six Bens, and six Glens, and six Mountain Moors. They
saw a bothy far off, but, though far off, they were soon
there. He got good treatment this night,' as before

plenty of meat and drink, and warm water to his feet, and
a soft bed to his limbs and on the next day it was the
same thing, over three Bens and three Glens, and three
Mountain Moors.
On the third morning, instead of seeing the raven as at
the other times, who should meet him but the handsomest
lad he ever saw, with gold rings in his hair, with a bundle
in his hand. The king's son asked this lad if he had seen
a big black raven.
Said the lad to him, " You will never see the raven

again, for I am that raven. I was put under

spells by a
bad druid ;
it was meeting you that loosed me, and for that
"
you shall get this bundle. Now," said the lad, you must
turn back on the self-same steps, and lie a night in each
house as before ;
but you must not loose the bundle which
I gave ye, till in the place where you would most wish to

dwell."
The king'sson turned his back to the lad, and his face
to his father's house and he got lodging from the raven's
;

sisters, just as he got when going forward. When he

it

was nearing his father's house he was going through a close

wood. It seemed to him that the bundle was growing

heavy, and he thought he would look what was in it.

When he loosed the bundle he was astonished. In a
twinkling he sees the very grandest place he ever saw. A
great castle, and an orchard about the castle, in which was
every kind of fruit and herb. He stood full of wonder and
 The Battle of the Birds 209
regret for having loosed the bundle for it was not in his

power back again

to put it and he would have wished this
pretty place to be in the pretty little green hollow that was
opposite his father's house but he looked up and saw a
;

great giant coming towards him.

" Bad's the
place where you have built the house,

king's son," says the giant.

"
Yes, but it is not here I would wish it to be, though it
happens to be here by mishap," says the king's son.
" What's the reward for it back in the bundle as
putting
"
it was before ?
" What's the reward
you would ask?" says the king's son.
" That
you will give me the first son you have when |,*e
is seven years of age," says the giant.
" If I have a son
you shall have him," said the king's
son.
In a twinkling the giant put each garden, and orchard,
and castle bundle as they were before.
in the
" " take
Now," says the giant, your own road, and I

will take mine but mind your promise, and if you forget
;
I

will remember."
a few
The king's son took to the road, and at the end of
days he reached the place he was fondest of. He loosed

the bundle, and the castle was just as it was before. And
when he opened the castle door he sees the handsomest
maiden he ever cast eye upon.
" "
Advance, king's son," said the pretty maid ; every-

thing is in order for you, if you will marry

me this very
day."
11
It's I that am willing," said the king's son. And on
the same day they married.
2io Celtic Fairy Tales

But at the end of a day and seven years, who should be

seen coming to the castle but the giant. The king's son
was reminded of his promise to the giant, and till now he
had nottold his promise to the queen.
" Leave the matter between me and the
giant," says the
queen.
" Turn out " mind
your son," says, the giant ; your
promise."
" You shall have " when mother
him," says the king, his

puts him in order for his journey."

The queen dressed up the cook's son, and she gave him
to the giant by the hand. The giant went away with him ;

but he had not gone far when he put a rod in the hand of
the little laddie. The giant asked him
" If "
thy father had that rod what would he do with it ?
" If
my father had that rod he would beat the dogs and
the cats, so that they shouldn't be going near the king's

meat," said the little laddie.

" Thou'rt the cook's He catches
son," said the giant.
him by the two small ankles and knocks him against the
stone that was beside him. The giant turned back to the
castle in rage and madness, and he said that if they did not
send out the king's son to him, the highest stone of the
castle would be the lowest.
Said the queen to the king, " We'll try it
yet ;
the
butler's son is of the same age as our son."

She dressed up the butler's son, and she gives him to

the giant by the hand. The giant had not gone far when
he put the rod in his hand.
" If " what
thy father had that rod," says the giant,
would he do with it ?"
 The Battle of the Birds 211
"
He would beat the dogs and the cats when they would
be coming near the king's bottles and glasses."
" Thou art the son of the
butler," says the giant and
dashed his brains out too. The giant returned in a very
great rage and anger. The earth shook under the sole of
his feet, and the castle shook and all that was in it.

" OUT HERE WITH THY " or in a

SON," says the giant,
twinkling the stone that is highest in the dwelling will be
the lowest." So they had to give the king's son to the
giant.
When they were gone a little bit from the earth, the giant
showed him the rod that was in his hand and said: "What
"
would thy father do with this rod if he had it ?

The " father has a braver rod than

king's son said :
My
that."

And the giant asked him, " Where is thy father when he
"
has that brave rod ?

And the king's son said: "He will be sitting in his

kingly chair."
Then the giant understood that he had the right one.
The giant took him to his own house, and he reared him
as his own son. On a day of days when the giant was
from home, the lad heard the sweetest music he ever heard
in aroom at the top of the giant's house. At a glance he
saw the finest face he had ever seen. She beckoned to him
to come a bit nearer to her, and she said her name was

Auburn Mary but she told him to go this time, but to be

sure to be at the same place about that dead midnight.
And as he promised he did. The giant's daughter was
" To-morrow
at his side in a twinkling, and she said, you
will get the choice of my two sisters to marry ;
but say

I
212 Celtic Fairy Tales
that you will not take either, but me. My father wants me
to marry the son of the king of the Green City, but I don't

like him." On the morrow the giant took out his three

daughters, and he said :

"
Now, son of the king of Tethertown, thou hast not lost
by living with me so long. Thou wilt get to wife one of
the two eldest of my daughters, and with her leave to go
home with her the day after the wedding."
" If
you will give me this pretty little one," says the
" I will take
king's son, you at your word."
The wrath
giant's and he said " Before thou
kindled, :

gett'st her thou must do the three things that I ask thee to
do."
"
Say on," says the king's son.
The giant took him to the byre.
" " a hundred cattle are stabled
Now," says the giant,
here, and it has not been cleansed for seven years. I am
going from home to-day, and if this byre is not cleaned
before night comes, so clean that a golden apple will run
from end to end of it, not only thou shalt not get my
daughter, but 'tis only a drink of
thy fresh, goodly, beauti-
ful blood that will quench my thirst this night."
He begins cleaning the byre, but he might just as well
to keep baling the great ocean. After midday when sweat
was blinding him, the giant's youngest daughter came
where he was, and she said to him :

" You are being punished, king's son."

" I aTn that," says the king's son.
'
Come over," says Auburn Mary, " and lay down ycur
weariness."
" i
will do that," says he, "there is but death awaiting
 The Battle of the Birds 213
me, at any rate." He sat down near her. He was so
tired that he fell asleep beside her. When he awoke, the

giant's daughter was not to be seen, but the byre was so

well cleaned that a golden apple would run from end to end
of itand raise no stain. In comes the giant, and he said :

" Hast thou cleaned the

byre, king's son ?"
" I have cleaned
it," says he.
"
Somebody cleaned it," says the giant.
" You did not clean at all said the
it, events," king's
son.

"Well, well!" says the giant, "since thou wert so

active to-day, thou wilt get to this time to-morrow to thatch

this byre with birds' down, from birds with no two feathers
of one colour."
The king's son was on foot before the sun ;
he caught

up his bow and his quiver of arrows to kill the birds. He

took to the moors, but he did, the birds were not so easy
if

to take. He was running after them till the sweat was

blinding him. About mid-day who should come but
Auburn Mary.
" You are exhausting yourself, king's son," says she.
" I am," said he.
"There fell -but these two blackbirds, and both of one
colour."
" Come over and lay down your weariness on this pretty

hillock," says the giant's daughter.

" am
It's I willing," said he.
He thought she would aid him this time, too, apd he sat
down near her, and he was not long there till he fell

asleep.
When he awoke, Auburn Mary was gone. He thought
214 Celtic Fairy Tales
he would go back to the house, and he sees the byre
thatched with feathers. When the giant came home, he
said :

" Hast thou thatched the

byre, king's son ?''
" I thatched
it," says he.
"
Somebody thatched it," says the giant.
" You did not thatch
it," says the king's son.
" "
Yes, yes !" says the giant. Now," says the giant,
" there is a fir tree beside that loch down
there, and there
is a magpie's nest in its top. The eggs thou wilt find in

the nest. I must have them for my first meal. Not one
must be burst or broken, and there are five in the nest."

Early in the morning the king's son went where the tree
was, and that tree was not hard to hit upon. Its match

was not in the whole wood. From the foot to the first
branch was five hundred feet. The king's son was going
all round the tree. She came who was always bringing
help to him.
" You are
losing the skin of your hands and feet."
" Ach " I am no sooner
I am," says
! he. up than
down."
" This is no time for stopping," says the giant's daughter.
" Now you must kill me, strip the flesh from my bones,

take all those bones apart, and use them as steps for
climbing the tree. When you are climbing the tree, they
will stick to the glass as if they had grown out of it ; but

when you are coming down, and have put your foot on
each one, they will drop into your hand when you touch
them. Be sure and stand on each bone, leave none
untouched ;
if you do, it will stay behind. Put all my
flesh into this clean cloth by the side of the spring at the
 The Battle of the Birds 215
roots of the tree. When you come to the earth, arrange
my bones together, put the flesh over them, sprinkle it with
water from the spring, and I shall be alive before you.
But don't forget a bone of me on the tree."
" How could I kill " after
you," asked the king's son,
"
what you have done for me ?
" If
you won't obey, you and I are done for," said
" You must climb the
Auburn Mary. tree, or we are lost ;
and to climb the tree you must do as I say."
The king's son obeyed. He killed Auburn Mary, cut
the flesh from her body, and unjointed the bones, as she
had told him.
As he went up, the king's son put the bones of Auburn
Mary's body against the side of the tree, using them as
steps,till he came under the nest and stood on the last

bone.
Then he took the eggs, and coming down, put his
foot on every bone, then took it with him, till he came to
the last bone, which was so near the ground that he failed
to touch it with his foot.

He now placed all the bones of Auburn Mary in order

again at the side of the spring, put the flesh on them,

sprinkled it with water from the spring. She rose up
before him, and said " Didn't I
: tell you not to leave a
bone of my body without stepping on it ? Now I am lame
for life ! You left my little finger on the tree without
touching it, and I have but nine fingers."
" "
Now," says she, go home with the eggs quickly, and
you will get me to marry to-night if you can know me. I

and my two sisters will be arrayed in the same garments,

and made like each other, but look at me when my father
2i 6 Celtic Fairy Tales

says,
'
Go to thy wife, king's son ;
'
and you will see a hand
without a little finger."
He gave the eggs to the giant.
" " l *
be making ready for your
Yes, yes !
says the giant,
marriage."
Then, indeed, there was a wedding, and it was a
wedding Giants and gentlemen, and the son of the king
!

of the Green City was in the midst of them. They were

married, and the dancing began, that was a dance ! The
giant'shouse was shaking from top to bottom.
But bed time came, and the giant said, "It is time for
thee to go to rest, son of the king of Tethertown ;
choose
thy bride to take with thee from amidst those."
She put out the hand off which the little finger was, and
he caught her by the hand.
"Thou hast aimed well this time too; but there is no
knowing but we may meet thee another way," said the
giant.
But to " "
they went.
rest Now," says she, sleep not,
or else you are a dead man. We
must fly quick, quick,
or for certain my father will kill you."
Out they went, and on the blue grey filly in the stable
" " and I will
they mounted. Stop a while," says she,
play a trick to the old hero." She jumped in, and cut an
apple into nine shares, and she put two shares at the head
of the bed, and two shares at the foot of the bed, and two
shares at the door of the kitchen, and two shares at the

big door, and one outside the house.

The awoke and " Are "
giant called, you asleep ?
" Not
yet," said the apple that was at the head of the
bed.
 The Battle of the Birds 217
At the end of a while he called again.
" Not was the of
yet," said the apple that at foot

the bed.
" Are "
A while after this he called again: your asleep ?
" Not said the at the kitchen door.
yet," apple
The giant called again.
The apple that was at the big door answered.
" You are now
going far from me," says the giant.
" Not
yet," says the apple that was outside the house.
" You are The giant jumped on
flying," says the giant.
his feet, and to the bed he went, but it was cold empty.
"
My own daughter's tricks are trying me," said the
" Here's after
giant. them-," says he.
At the mouth of day, the giant's daughter said that
her father's breath was burning her back.
" Put " in the ear of the
your hand, quick," said she, grey
filly, and whatever you find in it, throw it behind
us."
" There is a
twig of sloe tree," said he.
" Throw it behind
us," said she.
Nosooner did he that, than there were twenty miles of
blackthorn wood, so thick that scarce a weasel could go

through it.

The giant came headlong, and there he is fleecing his

head and neck in the thorns.
"
My own daughter's tricks are here as before," said the
" but wood
giant ;
if I had my own big axe and knife here,

I would not be long making a way through this."

He went home for the big axe and the wood knife, and
sure he was not long on his journey, and he was the boy
behind the big axe. He was not long making a way
through the blackthorn.
218 Celtic Fairy Tales
" I will leave the axe and the wood knife here till I

return/' says he.

"If you leave 'em, leave 'em," said a hoodie that was
in a tree,
" we'll steal 'em, steal 'em."
" If " I must take
you will do that," says the giant,
them home." He returned home and left them at the
house.
At the heat of day the giant's daughter felt her father's
breath burning her back.
" Put in the and throw behind
your finger filly's ear,
whatever you find in it."

He got a splinter of grey stone, and in a twinkling there

were twenty miles, by breadth and height, of great grey
rock behind them.
The giant came full pelt, but past the rock he could
not go.
" The tricks of
my own daughter are the hardest things
that ever met me," says " but if I had
the giant ;
lever my
and my mighty mattock, I would not be long in making my
way through this rock also."

There was no help for it, but to turn the chase for them ;

and he was the boy to split the stones. He was not long
in making a road through the rock.
" I will leave the tools here, and I will return no more."
" If leave 'em, leave 'em," says the hoodie, " we will
you
steal 'em, steal 'em."
" Do that if you will there is no time to go back."
;

At the time of breaking the watch, the giant's daughter

said that she felt her father's breath burning her back.
" Look in
the filly's ear, king's son, or else we are lost."
He did so, and it was a bladder of water that was in her
 The Battle of the Birds 219
ear this time. He threw it behind him and there was a
fresh-water loch, twenty miles in length and breadth, behind
them.
The giant came on, but with the speed he had on him,
he was in the middle of the loch, and he went under, and
he rose no more.
On the next day the young companions were come in
" "
sight of his father's house. Now," says she, my father
is drowned, and he won't trouble us any more but before ;

we go "
further," says she, go you to your father's house,
and tell that you have the likes of me ;
but let neither man
nor creature kiss you, for if you do, you will not remember
that you have ever seen me."

Every one he met gave him welcome and luck, and he

charged his father and mother not to kiss him but as ;

mishap was to be, an old greyhound was indoors, and she

knew him, and jumped up to his mouth, and after that he
did not remember the giant's daughter.
She was sitting at the well's side as he left her, but
the king's son was not coming. In the mouth of night she
climbed up into a tree of oak that was beside the well, and
she lay in the fork of that tree all night. A shoemaker
had a house near the well, and about mid-day on the
morrow, the shoemaker asked his wife to go for a drink for
him out of the well. When the shoemaker's wife reached
the well, and when she saw the shadovv of her that was in

the tree, thinking was her own shadow and she never
it

thought till now was so handsome she gave a

that she
cast to the dish that was in her hand, and it was broken on

the ground, and she took herself to the house without

vessel or water.
220 Celtic Fairy Tales
" Where is the water, wife ? " said the shoemaker.
" You shambling, contemptible old carle, without grace,
I have stayed too long your water and wood thrall."
" I
think, wife, that you have turned crazy. Go you,
daughter, quickly, and fetch a drink for your father."
His daughter went, and in the same way so it happened
to her. She never thought till now that she was so lovable,
and she took herself home.
"Up with the drink," said her father.
" You home-spun shoe carle, do you think I am fit to be
"
your thrall ?

The poor shoemaker thought that they had taken a turn

in their understandings, and he went himself to the well.
He saw the shadow of the maiden in the well, and he
looked up to the tree, and he sees the finest woman he
ever saw.
" Your
seat is wavering, but your face is fair," said the
shoemaker. " Come
down, for there is need of you for a
short while at my house."
The shoemaker understood that this was the shadow
that had driven his people mad. The shoemaker took her
to his house, and he said that he had but a poor bothy, but
that she should get a share of all that was in it.

One day, the shoemaker had shoes ready, for on that

very day the king's son was to be married. The shoemaker
was going to the castle with the shoes of the young people,
and the girt said to the shoemaker, " I would like to get a
sight of the king's son before he marries."
" Come with me," says the shoemaker, "I am well
acquainted with the servants at the castle, and you shall

get a sight of the king's son and all the company."

 The Battle of the Birds 221
And when the gentles saw the pretty woman that was
here they took her to the wedding-room, and they filled
for her a glass of wine. When she was going to
drink what is in it, a flame went up out of the glass,
and a golden pigeon and a silver pigeon sprang out
of it.
They were flying about when three grains of barley
fell on the floor. The silver pigeon sprung, and ate
that up.
"
Said the golden pigeon to him, If you remembered
when I cleared the byre, you would not eat that without
.giving me a share."

Again there fell three other grains of barley, and the

silver pigeon sprung, and ate that up as before.
" If
you remembered when I thatched the byre, you
would not eat that without giving me my share," says the
golden pigeon.
Three other grains fall, and the silver pigeon sprung,
and ate that up.
" If when
you remembered I harried the magpie's nest,

you would not eat that without giving me my share," says

the golden pigeon "
;
I lost my little finger bringing it down,
and I want it still."

The king's son minded, and he knew who it was that

was before him.

" the feast,
Well," said the king's son to the guests at

"when I was a little

younger than I am now, I lost the key
of a casket that I had. I had a new key made, but after it

was brought to me I found the old one. Now, I'll leave it

to any one here to tell me what I am to do. Which of the

"
keys should I keep ?
" "
My advice to you," said one of the guests, is to keep
222 Celtic Fairy Tales

the old key, for it fits the lock better and you're more used
to it."

Then the king's son stood up and said: " I thank you for
a wise advice and an honest word. This is my bride the

daughter of the giant who saved my life at the risk of her

own. I'll have her and no other woman."

So the king's son married Auburn Mary and the wedding

lasted long and all were happy. But all I
got was butter
on a live coal, and they sent me for
porridge in a basket,
water to the stream, and the paper shoes came to an end.
 Brewery of Eggshells
N Treneglwys there is a certain shepherd's
cot known by the name of Twt y Cymrws
because of the strange strife that occurred
there. There once lived there a man and
his wife, and they had twins whom the
woman nursed tenderly. One day she was
called away house of a neighbour at some distance.
to the

She did not much like going and leaving her little ones
224 Celtic Fairy Tales

all alone in a solitary house, especially as she had heard

tell of the good folk haunting the neighbourhood.

Well, she went and came back as soon as she could, but
on her way back she was frightened to see some old elves

of the blue petticoat crossing her path though it was midday.

She rushed home, but found her two little ones in the cradle

and everything seemed as it was before.

But after a time the good people began to suspect
that something was wrong, for the twins didn't grow

at all.

The man said " They're not ours."

:

The woman said " Whose else should they be ? "

:

And so arose the great strife so that the neighbours

named the cottage after it. It made the woman very sad,
so one evening she made up her mind to go and see the
Wise Man of Llanidloes, for he knew everything and would
advise her what to do.
So she went to Llanidloes and told the case to the Wise
Man. Now there was soon to be a harvest of rye and oats,
Wise Man " When
so the said to her, you are getting
dinner for the reapers, clear out the shell of a hen's egg and
boil some potage in it, and then take it to the door as if you

meant it as a dinner for the reapers. Then listen if the

twins say anything. If you hear them speaking of things

beyond the understanding of children, go back and take

them up and throw them into the waters of Lake Elvyn.
But if you don't hear anything remarkable, do them no
injury."
So when the day of the reap came the woman did all

that the Wise Man ordered, and put the eggshell on the fire
and took it off and carried it to the door, and there she stood
 Brewery of Eggshells 225
and listened. Then she heard one of the children say to
the other :

Acorn before oak I knew,

An eggbefore a hen,
But I never heard of an eggshell brew
A
dinner for harvest men.

So she went back into the house, seized the children and
threw them into the Llyn, and the goblins in their blue
trousers came and saved their dwarfs and the mother
had her own children back and so the great strife

ended.
 The Lad with the Goat-skin
ONG ago, a poor widow woman lived down
near the iron forge, by Enniscorth, and she
was so poor she had no clothes to put on
her son so she used to fix him in the ash-
;

hole, near the fire, and pile the warm ashes

about him and according as he grew up, she sunk the pit
;

deeper. At last, by hook or by crook, she got a goat-skin,

and fastened it round his waist, and he felt quite grand, and
took a walk down the street. So says she to him next
morning, "Tom, you thief, you never done any good yet,
and you six foot high, and past nineteen take that rope
;

and bring me a faggor from the wood."

" Never " here
say't twice, mother," says Tom goes."
When he had it gathered and tied, what should come up
but a big giant, nine foot high, and made a lick of a club at

him. Well become Tom, he jumped a-one side, and picked

up a ram-pike ;
and the first crack he gave the big fellow,
he made him kiss the clod.
" If "
you have e'er a prayer," says Tom, now's the time
to say it, before I make fragments of you."
" I have no
prayers," says the giant ; "but if you spare
 The Lad with the Goat-skin 227
my life I'll give you that club ;
and as long as you keep
from sin, you'll win every battle you ever fight with it."

Tom made no bones about letting him off ;

and as soon
as he got the club in his hands, he sat down on the bresna,
and gave it a tap with the kippeen, and says, " Faggot, I
had great trouble gathering you, and run the risk of my life
for you, the least you can do is to carry me home." And
sure enough, the wind o' the word was all it wanted. It

went through the wood, groaning and crackling,

off till it

came to the widow's door.

Well, when the sticks were all burned, Tom was sent off

again to pick more ;

and this time he had to fight with a

giant that had two heads on him. Tom had a little more
trouble with him that's all ;
and the prayers he said,was
to give Tom a fife, that nobody could help dancing when he
was playing Begonies, he made the big faggot dance
it.

home, with himself sitting on it. The next giant was a

beautiful boy with three heads on him. He had neither
prayers nor catechism no more nor the others and so he ;

gave Tom a bottle of green ointment, that wouldn't let you

" And
be burned, nor scalded, nor wounded. now," says
" there's no more of us. You may come and gather
he,
sticks here till little Lunacy Day in Harvest, without giant
or fairy-man to disturb you."

Well, now, Tom was prouder nor ten paycocks, and used
to take a walk down street in the heel of the evening but ;

some o' boys had no more manners than if they

the little

were Dublin jackeens, and put out their tongues at Tom's

club and Tom's goat-skin. He didn't like that at all, and
it would be mean to give one of them a clout. At last,

what should come through the town but a kind of a bell-

 228 Celtic Fairy Tales

man, only it's a big bugle he had, and a huntsman's cap on

his head, and a kind of a painted shirt. So this he
wasn't a bellman, and I don't know what to call him
bugle-man, maybe, proclaimed that the King of Dublin's
daughter was so melancholy that she didn't give a laugh for
seven years, and that hei father would grant her in marriage
to whoever could make her laugh three times.
" That's the
very thing for me to try," says Tom ; and
so, without burning any more daylight, he kissed his
mother, curled his club at the little boys, and off he set
along the yalla highroad to the town of Dublin.
At last Tom
came' to one of the city gates, and the
guards laughed and cursed at him instead of letting him in.
Tom stood it all for a little time, but at last one of them
out of fun, as he said drove his bayonet half an inch or so
into his side. Tomdone nothing but take the fellow by
the scruff o' the neck and the waistband of his corduroys,
and fling him into the canal. Some run to pull the fellow

out, and others to let manners into the vulgarian with their
swords and daggers but a tap from his club sent them
;

headlong into the moat or down on the stones, and they

vere soon begging him to stay his hands.
So at last one of them was glad enough to show Tom
the way to the palace-yard ; and there was the king, and
the queen, and the princess, in a gallery, looking at all sorts
of wrestling, and sword-playing, and long-dances, and

mumming, all to please the princess ;

but not a smile came
over her handsome face.

Well, they all stopped when they seen the young giant,
with his boy's face, and long black hair, and his short curly
beard for his poor mother couldn't afford to bu} razors r
 The Lad with the Goat-skin 229
and his great strong arms, and bare legs, and no covering
but the goat-skin that reached from his waist to his knees.
But an envious wizened bit of a fellow, with a red head,
that wished to be married to the princess, and didn't like
how she opened her eyes at Tom, came forward, and asked
his business very snappishly.
" " make
My business," says Tom, says he, is to the
beautiful princess, God bless her, laugh three times."
" Do you see all them merry
fellows and skilful swords-
" that could eat
men," says the other, you up with a grain
of salt, and not a mother's soul of 'em ever got a laugh
"
from her these seven years ?

So the fellows gathered round Tom, and the bad man

aggravated him till he told them he didn't care a pinch o'
snuff for the whole bilin' of 'em let 'em come on, six at a
;

time, and try what they could do.

The who was too far off to hear what they were
king,
saying, asked what did the stranger want.
" He " to make
wants," says the red-headed fellow,
hares of your best men."
" Oh " " if that's the
says the king,
!
way, let one of 'em
turn out and try his mettle."
So one stood forward, with sword and pot-lid, and made
a cut at Tom. He struck the fellow's elbow with the club,
and up over their heads flew the sword, and down went the
owner of it on the gravel from a thump he got on the
helmet. Another took his place, and another, and another,
and then half a dozen at once, and Tom sent swords,
helmets, shields, and bodies, rolling over and over, and
themselves bawling out that they were kilt, and disabled,
and damaged, and rubbing their poor elbows and hips,
230 Celtic Fairy Tales

and limping away. Tom contrived not to kill any one ;

and the princess was so amused, that she let a great

sweet laugh out of her that was heard over all the

yard.
" of
" I've
King Dublin," says Tom," quarter your
daughter."
And the king didn't know whether he was glad or sorry,
and all the blood in the princess's heart run into her
cheeks.
So there was no more fighting that day, and Tom was
invited to dine with the royal family. Next day, Redhead
told Tom of a wolf, the size of a yearling heifer, that used
to be serenading about the walls, and eating people and
cattle ;
and said what a pleasure it would give the king to
have it killed.
"With all my heart," says Tom " send a jackeen to ;

show me where he lives, and we'll see how he behaves to a

stranger."
The princess was not well pleased, for Tom looked a
different person with fine clothes and a nice green birred h
over his long curly hair and besides, he'd got one laugh
;

out of her. However, the king gave his consent and in ;

an hour and a half the horrible wolf was walking into the
palace-yard, and Tom a step or two behind, with his club
on his shoulder, just as a shepherd would be walking after

a pet lamb.
The king and queen and princess were safe up in their
gallery, but the officers and people of the court that wor
padrowling about the great bawn, when they saw the big
baste coming in, gave themselves up, and began to make
for doors and gates and the wolf licked his chops, as if he
;
 The Lad with the Goat-skin 231
was saying, " Wouldn't I enjoy a breakfast off a couple of
"
yez !

The king shouted out, "O Tom with the Goat-skin,

take away that terrible wolf, and you must have all my

daughter."
But Tom didn't mind him a bit. He pulled out his flute
and began to play like vengeance ;
and dickens a man or

boy in the yard but began shovelling away heel and toe,
and the wolf himself was obliged to get on his hind legs
and dance " Tatther Jack Walsh," along with the rest. A
good deal of the people got inside, and shut the doors, the
way the hairy fellow wouldn't pin them ;
but Tom kept
playing, and the outsiders kept dancing and shouting, and
the wolf kept dancing and roaring with the pain his legs
232 Celtic Fairy Tales

were giving him ;

and all the time he had his eyes on Red-
head, who was shut out along with the rest. Wherever
Redhead went, the wolf followed, and kept one eye on him
and the other on Tom, to see if he would give him leave
to eat him. But Tom shook his head, and never stopped
the tune, and Redhead never stopped dancing and bawling,
and the wolf dancing and roaring, one leg up and the other
down, and he ready to drop out of his standing from fair
tiresomeness.
When the princess seen that there was no fear of any
one beingkilt, she was so divarted by the stew that Red-

head was in, that she gave another great laugh and well ;

become Tom, out he cried, " King of Dublin, I have two

halves of your daughter."
" "
Oh, halves or alls," says the king, put away that
divel of a wolf, and we'll see about it."
So Tom put his flute in his pocket, and says he to the
baste that was sittin' on his currabingo ready to faint,
" Walk off to your mountain, my fine fellow, and live like a

respectable baste and if ever I find you come within seven

;

"
miles of any town, I'll

He said no more, but and gave a flourish

spit in his fist,
of his club. It was all the poor divel of a wolf wanted :

he put his tail between his legs, and took to his pumps
without looking at man or mortal, and neither sun, moon, or
stars ever saw him in sight of Dublin again.

At dinner every one laughed but the foxy fellow ;

and
sure enough he was laying out how he'd settle poor Tom
next day.
" " "
Well, to be sure King of Dublin, you are
!
says he,
in luck. There's the Danes moidhering us to no end.
 The Lad with the Goat-skin 233
Deuce run to Lusk wid 'em ! and
any one can save us
if

from 'em, it is this gentleman with the goat-skin. There is

a flail hangin' on the collar-
beam in hell, and neither Dane
nor devil can stand before it."
"
So," says Tom to the king,
"will you let me have the other
half of the princess if I bring you the
flail?"
" "I'd rather
No, no," says the princess ;

never be your wife than see you in that danger."

But Redhead whispered and nudged Tom
about how shabby it would look to reneague the
adventure. So he asked which way he was to go,
and Redhead directed him.
Well, he travelled and travelled, till he came in
sight of the walls of hell ; and, bedad, before he knocked
at the gates, he rubbed himself over with the greenish
ointment. When
he knocked, a hundred little imps popped
their heads out through the bars, and axed him what he

wanted.
" Tom
I want to speak to the big divel of all," says :

"
open the gate."
It wasn't long till the gate was thrune open, and the
Ould Boy received Tom with bows and scrapes, and axed
his business.
" "
My business isn't much," says Tom. I only came
for the loan of that flail that I see hanging on the collar-

beam, for the King of Dublin to give a thrashing to the

Danes."
"Well," says the other, "the Danes is much better
234 Celtic Fairy Tales

customers to me ;
but since you walked so far I won't
refuse. Hand that flail," says he to a young imp ;
and he
winked the far-off eye at the same time. So, while some
were barring the gates, the young devil climbed up, and
tookdown the flail that had the handstaff and booltheen
both made out of red-hot iron. The little vagabond was
grinning to think how it would burn the hands o' Tom, but
the dickens a burn it made on him, no more nor if it was
a good oak sapling.
" " Now would
Thankee," says Tom. you open the gate
for a body, and I'll give you no more trouble."
" " " is that the
Oh, tramp says Ould Nick ;
!
way ? It
is easier getting inside them gates than getting out again.

Take that tool from him, and give him a dose of the oil of

stirrup."
So one fellow put out his claws to seize on the flail, but
Tom gave him such a welt of it on the side of the head that
he broke off one of his horns, and made him roar like a
devil as he was. Well, they rushed at Tom, but he gave
them, little and big, such a thrashing as they didn't forget
for a while. At last says the ould thief of all, rubbing his
" Let the fool out and woe to whoever lets him in
.elbow, ;

again, great or small."

So out marched Tom, and away with him, without
minding the shouting and cursing they kept up at him from
the tops of the walls and when he got home to the big
;

bawn of the palace, there never was such running and

racing as to see himself and the flail. When he had his
story told, he laid down the flailon the stone steps, and
bid no one for 'their lives to touch it. If the king, and

queen, and princess, made much of him before, they made

 The Lad with the Goat-skin 235
ten times more of him now ;
but Redhead, the mean scruff-

hound, stole over, and thought to catch hold of the flail to

make an end of him. His fingers hardly touched it, when
he let a roar out of him as
heaven and earth were coming
if

together, and kept flinging his arms about and dancing, that
it was
pitiful to look at him. Tom run at him as soon as
he could rise, caught his hands in his own two, and rubbed
them this way and and the burning pain left them
that,
before you could reckon one. Well the poor fellow,
between the pain that was only just gone, and the comfort
he was in, had the comicalest face that you ever see, it was
such a mixtherum-gatherum of laughing and crying.

Everybody burst out a laughing the princess could not

stop no more than the rest and then says Tom, " Now,
;

ma'am, if there were fifty halves of you, I hope you'll give

me them all."

Well, the princess looked at her father, and by

my word,
she came over to Tom, and put her two delicate hands into

his two rough ones, and I wish it was myself was in his

shoes that day !

Tomwould not bring the flail into the palace. You may
be sure no other body went near it and when the early;

risers were passing next morning, they found two long

clefts in the stone, where it was after burning itself an

opening downwards, nobody could tell how

far. But a

messenger came in at noon, and said that the Danes were

so frightened when they heard of the flail coming into

Dublin, that they got into their ships, and sailed away.
Well, I suppose, before they were married,
Tom got
some man, like Pat Mara of Tomenine, to learn him the

"principles of politeness," fluxions, gunnery and fortifi-

236 Celtic Fairy Tales

cation, decimal fractions, practice, and the rule of three

direct, the way he'd be able to keep up a conversation

with the royal family. Whether he ever lost his time

learning them sciences, I'm not sure, but it's as sure as fate
that his mother never more saw any want till the end of
her days.
 MAN o*WO/^AN
BOYoRQIRL
THAT READS WHAT
FOLLOWS
TIAAES
SHALL FALL ASLEEP
AN HUNDREDYEARS

DR.FW -TMIS' : A US 2-0" I ?5 I

 Notes and References

IT may be as well to give the reader some account of the enormous

extent of the Celtic folk-tales in existence. I reckon these to extend

to 2000, though only about 250 are in print. The former number
exceeds that known in France, Italy, Germany, and Russia, where
collection has been most active, and is only exceeded by the MS. col-
lection of Finnish folk-tales at Helsingfors, said to exceed 12,000. As
will be seen, this superiority of the Celts is due to the phenomenal
and patriotic activity of one man, the late J. F. Campbell, of I
slay,
whose Popular Tales and MS. collections (partly described by Mr.
Alfred Nutt in Folk-Lore, i. 369-83) contain references to no less
than 1281 tales (many of them, of course, variants and scraps). Celtic

folk-tales, while more numerous, are also the oldest of the tales of
modern European races ;
some of them e.g., " Connla," in the
present selection, occurring in the oldest Irish vellums. They include
(i) fairy tales properly so-called i.e., tales or anecdotes about fairies,

hobgoblins, &c., told as natural occurrences (2) hero-tales, stories

;

of adventure told of national or mythical heroes (3) folk-tales proper,

;

describing marvellous adventures of otherwise unknown heroes, in

which there is a defined plot and supernatural characters (speaking
animals, giants, dwarfs, &c.) and finally (4) drolls, comic anecdotes
;

of feats of stupidity or cunning.

The collection of Celtic folk-tales began in IRELAND as early as 1825,
with T. Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South
of Ireland. This contained some 38 anecdotes of the first class men-
tioned above, anecdotes showing the belief of the Irish peasantry
in the existence of fairies, gnomes, goblins, and the like. The
Grimms did Croker the honour of translating part of his book,
238 Notes and References
under the title of Irische Elfemndrchen. Among the novelists and
tale-writers of the schools of Miss Edgeworth and Lever folk-tales

were occasionally utilised, as by Carleton in his Traits and Stories,

by S. Lover in his Legends and Stories, and by G. Griffin in his Tales of
a Jury-Room. These all tell their tales in the manner of the stage
Irishman. Chapbooks, Royal Fairy Tales and Hibernian Tales, also
contained genuine folk-tales, and attracted Thackeray's attention in his
Irish Sketch-Book. The Irish Grimm, however, was Patrick Kennedy,
a Dublin bookseller, who believed in fairies, and in five years (1866-
71) printed about 100 folk- and hero^taleTafid drolls (classes 2, 3, and 4
above) in his Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, 1866, Fireside
Stories of Ireland, 1870, and Bardic Stories of Ireland, 1871 all ;

three are now unfortunately out of print. He tells his stories neatly
and with spirit, and retains much that is volkstihnlich in his diction.
He derived his materials from the
English-speaking peasantry of
county Wexford, who changed from Gaelic to English while story-
tellingwas in full vigour, and therefore carried over the stories with the
change of language. Lady Wylde has told many folk-tales very
effectively in her Ancient Legends of Ireland, 1887. More recently
two collectors have published stories gathered from peasants of the
West and North who can only speak Gaelic. These are by an
American gentleman named Curtin, Myths and Folk-Tales of
Ireland, 1890 ;
while Dr. Douglas Hyde has published in Beside the
Fireside, 1891, spirited English versions of some of the stories he
had published in the original Irish in his Leabhar Sgeulaighteachta,
Dublin, 1889. Miss Maclintoch has a large MS. collection, part of
which has appeared in various periodicals and Messrs. Larminie ;

and D. Fitzgerald are known to have much story material in their

possession.
But beside these more modern collections there exist in old and
middle Irish a large number of hero-tales (class 2) which formed the
staple of the old ollahms or bards. Of these tales of " cattle-liftings,
elopements, battles, voyages, courtships, caves, lakes, feasts, sieges,
and eruptions," a bard of even the fourth class had to know seven
presumably one for each day of the year. Sir William Temple
fifties,
knew of a north-country gentleman of Ireland who was sent to sleep

every evening with a fresh tale from his bard. The Book of Leinster^
an Irish vellum of the twelfth century, contains a list of 189 of these
hero-tales, many of which are extant to this day E. O'Curry gives
;

the list in the Appendix to his MS. Materials of Irish History.

 Notes and References 239
Another list of about 70 is given in the preface to the third volume of

the Ossianic Society's publications. Dr. Joyce published a few of the

more celebrated of these in Old Celtic Romances; others appeared in
Atlantis (see notes on "Deirdre"), others in Kennedy's Bardic Stories,
mentioned above.
Turning to SCOTLAND, we must put aside Chambers* Popular Rhymes
of Scotland, 1842, which contains for the most part folk-tales common
with those of England rather than those peculiar to the Gaelic-
speaking Scots. The first name here in time as in importance is
that of J. F. Campbell, of Islay. His four volumes, Popular Tales of
the West Highlands (Edinburgh, 1860-2, recently republished by
the Islay Association), contain some 120 folk- and hero-tales, told
with strict adherence to the language of the narrators, which is
given with a literal, a rather too literal, English version. This
careful accuracy has given an un-English air to his versions, and
has prevented them attaining their due popularity. What Campbell
has published represents only a tithe of what he collected At the end
of the fourth volume he gives a list of 791 tales, &c., collected by him
or his assistants in the two years 1859-61 ;
and in his MS. collections
at Edinburgh are two other lists containing 400 more tales. Only a
portion of these are in the Advocates' Library ; the rest, if extant,
must be in private hands, though they are distinctly of national
importance and interest.
Campbell's influence has been effective of recent years in Scotland.
The Celtic Magazine (vols. xii. and xiii.), while under the editorship
of Mr. MacBain, contained several folk- and hero-tales in Gaelic, and
and so did the Scotch Celtic Review. These were from the collections
of Messrs. Campbell of Tiree, Carmichael, and K Mackenzie. Recently
Lord Archibald Campbell has shown laudable interest in the preserva-
tion of Gaelic folk- and hero-tales. Under his auspices a whole series
of handsome volumes, under the general title of Waifs and Strays of
Celtic Tradition, has been recently published, four volumes having

already appeared, each accompanied by notes by Mr. Alfred Nutt,

which form the most important aid to the study of Celtic Folk-Tales
since Campbell himself. Those to the second volume in particular
(Tales collected by Rev. D. Maclnnes) fill ico pages, with condensed
information on all aspects of the subject dealt with in the light of the
most recent research in the European folk-tales as well as on Celtic
literature. Thanks to Mr. Nutt, Scotland is just now to the fore in
the collection and study of the British Folk-Tale.
 240 Notes and References
WALES makes a poor show beside Ireland and Scotland. Sikes'
British Goblins, and the tales collected by Prof. Rhys in Y Cymrodor,
vols. ii.-vi., are mainly of our first-class fairy anecdotes. Borrow, in
his Wild Wales, refers to a collection of fables in a journal called
The Greal, while the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine for 1830 and
1831 contained a few fairy anecdotes, including a curious version of
the " Brewery of Eggshells from the Welsh.
"
In the older literature,
the lolo MS., published by the Welsh MS. Society, has a few fables
and apologues, and the charming Mabinogion, translated by Lady
Guest, has tales that can trace back to the twelfth century and are
on the border-line between folk-tales and hero-tales.
CORNWALL and MAN are even worse than Wales. Hunt's Drolls
from the West of England has nothing distinctively Celtic, and it is
only by a chance Lhuyd chose a folk-tale as his specimen of Cornish
in his Archceologia 1709 (see Tale of Ivan). The
Britannica,
Manx folk-tales published, including the most recent by Mr. Moore,
in his Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man, 1891, are mainly fairy anecdotes
and legends.
From this survey of the field of Celtic folk-tales it is clear that
Ireland and Scotland provide the lion's share. The interesting thing
to notice is the remarkable similarity of Scotch and Irish folk-tales.
The continuity of language and culture between these two divisions
ofGaeldom has clearly brought about this identity of their folk-tales.
As will be seen from the following notes, the tales found in Scotland
can almost invariably be paralleled by those found in Ireland, and
vice versa. This result is a striking confirmation of the general
truth that the folk-lores of different countries resemble one another
in proportion to their contiguity and to the continuity of language and
culture between them.
Another point of interest in these Celtic folk-tales is the light they
throw upon the relation of hero-tales and folk-tales (classes 2 and. 3-
above). Tales told of Finn or Cuchulain, and therefore coming under
the definition of hero-tales, are found elsewhere told o'f anonymous or
unknown heroes. The question is, were the folk-tales the earliest,
and were they localised and applied to the heroes, or were the heroic
sagas generalised and applied to an unknown n's-? All the evidence,
in my opinion, inclines to the former view, which, as applied to Celtic

folk-tales, is of very great literary importance for it is becoming

;

more and more recognised, thanks chiefly to the admirable work of

Mr. Alfred Nutt, in his Studies on the Holy Grail, that the outburst of
 Notes and References 241
European Romance in the twelfth century was due, in large measure,
toan infusion of Celtic hero-tales into the literature of the Romance-
speaking nations. Now the remarkable thing is, how these hero-
tales have lingered on in oral tradition even to the present
day. (See
a marked case in " Deirdre.") We may, therefore, hope to see consi-
derable light thrown on the most characteristic spiritual product of the
Middle Ages, the literature of Romance and the spirit of chivalry,
from the Celtic folk-tales of the present day. Mr. Alfred Nutt has
already shown this to be true of a special section of Romance litera-
ture, that connected with the Holy Grail, and it seems probable that
further study will extend the field of application of this new method
of research.
The Celtic folk-tale again has interest in retaining many traits of
primitive conditions among the early inhabitants of these isles which
are preserved by no other record. Take, for instance, the calm
assumption of polygamy in "Gold Tree and Silver Tree." That
represents a state of feeling that is decidedly pre-Christian. The
belief in an external soul "Life Index," recently monographed by
Mr. Frazer in his " Golden Bough," also finds expression in a couple
of the Tales (see notes on "Sea-Maiden" and "Fair, Brown, and
Trembling "), and so with many other primitive ideas.

Care, however, has to be taken in using folk-tales as evidence for

primitive practice among the nations where they are found. For the
tales may have come from another race that is, for example, pro-
bably the case with "Gold Tree and Silver Tree" (see Notes). Celtic
tales are of peculiar interest in this connection, as they afford one of
the best fields for studying the problem of diffusion, the most pressing
of the problems of the folk-tales just at present, at least in my opinion.
The Celts are at the furthermost end of Europe. Tales that travelled
to them could go no further and must therefore be the last links in
the chain.
For all these reasons, then, Celtic folk-tales are of high scientific
interest to the folk-lorist, while they yield to none in imaginative and
literary qualities. In any other country of Europe some national
means of recording them would have long ago been adopted. M.
Luzel, e.g., was commissioned by the French Minister of Public
Instruction to collect and report on the Breton folk-tales. England,
here as elsewhere without any organised means of scientific research
in the historical and philological sciences, has to depend on the
enthusiasm of a few private individuals for work of national import -
Q
242 Notes and References
ance. Every Celt of these islands or in the Gaeldom beyond the sea,
and every Celt-lover among the English-speaking nations, should
regard it as one of the duties of the race to put its traditions on record
in the few years that now remain before they will cease for ever to be
living in the hearts and memories of the humbler members of the race.
In the following Notes I have done as in my English Fairy Tales,
and given first, the sources whence I drew the tales, then parallels at
length for the BritishIsles, with bibliographical references for parallels
abroad, and finally, remarks where the tales seemed to need them.
In these I have not wearied or worried the reader with conventional
tall talk about the Celtic genius and its manifestations in the folk-tale ;

on that topic one can only repeat Matthew Arnold when at his best,
in his Celtic Literattire. Nor have I attempted to deal with the more
general aspects of the study of the Celtic folk-tale. For these I
must refer to Mr. Nutt's series of papers in The Celtic Magazine, vol.
xii., or, still better, to the masterly introductions he is contributing to

the series of Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, and to Dr. Hyde's
Beside the Fireside. In my remarks I have mainly confined myself to
discussing the origin and diffusion of the various tales, so far as any-
thing definite could be learnt or conjectured on that subject.
Before proceeding to the Notes, I may "put in," as the lawyers say,
a few summaries of the results reached in them. Of the twenty-six
tales, twelve (i., ii., v., viii., ix., x., xi., xv., xvi., xvii., xix., xxiv.) have
Gaelic originals three (vii., xiii., xxv.) are from the Welsh
; one (xxii.) ;

from the now extinct Cornish one an adaptation of an English poem

;

founded on a Welsh tradition (xxi., " Gellert ") and the remaining
;

nine are what may be termed Anglo-Irish. Regarding their diffusion

among the Celts, twelve are both Irish and Scotch (iv., v., vi., ix., x.,
xiv.-xvii., xix., xx., xxiv) one (xxv.) is common to Irish and Welsh
; ;

and one (xxii.) to Irish and Cornish seven are found only among the
;

Celts in Ireland (i.-iii., xii., xviii., xxii., xxvi) two (viii., xi.) among the
;

Scotch and three (vii., xiii., xxi.) among the Welsh. Finally, so
;

far as we can ascertain tl\eir origin, four (v., xvi., xxi., xxii.) are from
the East five (vi., x., xiv., xx., xxv.) are European drolls three of the
; ;

romantic tales seem to have been imported (vii., ix., xix.) while three ;

others are possibly Celtic exportaticms-to the Continent (xv., xvii., xxiv.)
though the last may have ^previously come thence; the remaining
eleven are, as far as known, original to Celtic lands. Somewhat the
same result would come out, I believe, as the analysis of any repre-
sentative collection of folk-tales of any European district.
 Notes and References 243
I. CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN.
Source. From the old Irish " Echtra Condla chaim maic Cuind
Chetchathaig" of the Leabharnah-Uidhre (" Book of the Dun Cow"),
which must have been written before 1106, when its scribe Maelmori
(" Servant of Mary") was murdered. The original is given by Win-
disch in his Irish Grammar, p. 120, also in the Trans- Kilkenny
Archceol. Soc. for 1874. A fragment occurs in a Rawlinson MS.,
described by Dr. W. Stokes, Tripartite Life, p. xxxvi. I have used

the translation of Prof. Zimmer in his Keltische Beitrage, ii. (Zeits.f.

deutsches Altertum, Bd. xxxiii. 262-4). Dr. Joyce has a somewhat florid
version in his Old Celtic Romances, from which I have borrowed a
touch or two. I have neither extenuated nor added aught but the
last sentence of the Fairy Maiden's last speech. Part of the original
is in metrical form, so that the whole is of the cante-fable species which
I believe to be the original form of the folk-tale (Cf. Eng. Fairy Tales,
notes, p. 240, and infra, p. 257).
Parallels. Prof. Zimmer's paper contains three other accounts of
the terra repromissionis in the Irish sagas, one of them being the
similar adventure of Cormac the nephew of Connla, or Condla Ruad
as he should be called. The fairy apple of gold occurs in Cormac
Mac Brug of Manannan (Nutt's Holy Grail, 193).
Art's visit to the
Remarks. Conn the hundred-fighter had the head-kingship of
Ireland 123-157 A.D., according to the Annals of the Four Masters, i.

105. On the day of his birth the five great roads from Tara to all
parts of Ireland were completed one of them from Dublin is still used.
:

Connaught is said to have been named after him, but this is scarcely
consonant with Joyce's identification with Ptolemy's Nagnatai (Irish
Local Names, i. 75). But there can be little doubt of Conn's existence
as a powerful ruler in Ireland in the second century. The historic
existence of Connla seems also to be authenticated by the reference to
him as Conly, the eldest son of Conn, in the Annals of Clonmacnoise.
As Conn was succeeded by his third son, Art Enear, Connla was either
slain or disappeared during his father's lifetime. Under these circum-
stances it is not unlikely that our legend grew up within the century after
Conn i.e., during the latter half of the second century.
As regards the present form of it, Prof. Zimmer (I.e. 261-2) places it
in theseventh century. It has clearly been touched up by a Christian

hand who introduced the reference to the day of judgment and to the
waning power of the Druids. But nothing turns upon this interpolation,
244 Notes and References
so that it is likely that even the present form of the legend is pre-
Christian/'.*?, for Ireland, prePatrician, before the fifth century.
The tale of Connla is thus the earliest fairy tale of modern Europe.
Besides this interest it contains an early account of one of the most
characteristic Celtic conceptions, that of the earthly Paradise, the
Isle ofYouth, Tir-na n-Og. This has impressed itself on the European
imagination in the Arthuriad it is represented by the Vale of
;
Avalon }

and as represented in the various Celtic visions of the future life, it

forms one of the main sources of Dante's Dvvina Commedia. It is
possible too, I think, that the Homeric Hesperides and the Fortunate
had a Celtic origin (as is well known, the early
Isles of the ancients

place-names of Europe are predominantly Celtic). I havefound, I believe,

a reference to the conception in one of the earliest passages in the
classics dealing with the Druids. Lucan, in his Pharsalia (i. 450-8),
addresses them in these high terms of reverence :

Et vos barbaricos ritus, moremque sinistrum,

Sacrorum, Druidae, positis repetistis ab armis,
Solis nosse Deos et cceli numera vobis
Aut solis nescire datum ;
nemora alta remotis
Incolitis lucis.Vobis auctoribus umbrae,
Non tacitas Erebi sedes, Ditisque profundi,
Pallida regna petunt regit idem spiritus arttis
:

Orbe alio :
longae, canitis si cognita, vitae
Mors media est.

The passage certainly seems to me to imply a different conception

from the ordinary classical views of the life after death, the dark and
dismal plains of Erebus peopled with ghosts and the passage I;

have italicised would chime in well with the conception of a continuance

of youth (idem spiritus) in Tir-na n-Og (orbe alio).
One of the most pathetic, beautiful, and typical scenes in Irish
legend is the return of Ossian from Tir-na n-Og, and his interview with
St. Patrick. The old faith and the new, the old order of things and
that which replaced it, meet in two of the most characteristic products
of the Irish imagination (for the Patrick of legend is as much a
legendary figure as Oisin himself). Ossian had gone away to Tir-
na n-Og with the fairy Niamh under very much the same circumstances
as Condla Ruad time flies in the land of eternal youth, and when
;

Ossian returns, after a year as he thinks, more than three centuries had
passed, and St. Patrick had just succeeded in introducing the new
 Notes and References 245
faith. The contrast of Past and Present has never been more vividly
or beautifully represented.

II. GULEESH.
Source. From Dr. Douglas Hyde's Beside the Fire, 104-28, where
it a translation from the same author's Leabhar Sgeulaighteachta.
is

Dr Hyde got it from one Shamus O'Hart, a gamekeeper of French-

park. One is curious to know how far the very beautiful landscapes
in the story are due to Dr. Hyde, who confesses to have only taken
notes. I have omitted a journey to Rome, paralleled, as Mr. Nutt

has pointed out, by the similar one of Michael Scott (Waifs and
I have
Strays, i. 46), and not bearing on the main lines of the story.
"
also dropped a part of Guleesh's name in the original he is
: Guleesh
na guss dhu," Guleesh of the black feet, because he never washed
them nothing turns on this in the present form of the story, but one
;

cannot but suspect it was of importance in the original form.

"
Parallels. Dr. Hyde refers to two short stories, Midnight Ride"
"
(to Rome) and Stolen Bride," in Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends.
But the closest parallel is given by Miss Maclintock's Donegal tale of
"
Jamie Freel and the Young Lady," reprinted in Mr. Yeats' Irish Folk
and Fairy Tales, 52-9. In the Hibernian Tales, "Mann o' Malaghan
and the Fairies," as reported by Thackeray in the Irish Sketch-Book, \
c. xvi., begins like "Guleesh."

III. FIELD OF BOLIAUNS.

T. Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland,
Source.
ed. Wright, pp. 135-9. In the original the gnome is a Cluricaune, but
as a friend of Mr. Batten's has recently heard the tale told of a
Lepracaun, I have adopted the better known title.
Remarks. is from the Irish leith bkrogan, the one-
Lepracaun
shoemaker brogue), according to Dr. Hyde.
(cf.
He is generally seen
(and to this day, too) working at a single shoe, cf. Croker's story
"Little Shoe," I.e. pp. 142-4. According to a writer in the Revue
"little man." Dr.
Celtique, i. 256, the true etymology is luchor pan,
also the same etymology in Irish Names and Places,
Joyce gives
i. 183, where he mentions several places named
after them.
246 Notes and References
IV. HORNED WOMEN.
Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends, the first story.
Sotirce.
A similar version was given by Mr. D. Fitzgerald in the
Parallels.
Revue Celtique, iv. 181, but without the significant and impressive
horns. He refers to Cornhill for February 1877, and to Campbell's
"
Sauntraigh No. xxii. Pop. Tales, ii. 52-4, in which a " woman of
"

"
peace (a fairy) borrows a woman's kettle and returns it with flesh in
it, but at last the woman refuses, and is persecuted by the fairy. I

fail to see much analogy. A much closer one is in Campbell, ii. p-

"
63, where fairies are got rid of by shouting Dunveilg is on fire." The
familiar "lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, your house is on fire
and your childr-en at home," will occur to English minds. Another
version in Kennedy's Legendary Fictions,^. 164, "Black Stairs on
Fire."
Remarks. Slievenamon is a famous fairy palace in Tipperary accord-
ing to Dr. Joyce, I.e. i. 178. It was the hill on which Finn stood when

he gave himself as the prize to the Irish maiden who should run up it
quickest. Grainne won him with dire consequences, as all the world
"
knows or ought to know (Kennedy, Legend Fict., 222, Fion How
selected a Wife ").

J^
V. CONAL YELLOWCLAW.
Source. Campbell, Pop. Tales of West Highlands, No. v. pp. 105-8,
*'
Conall Cra Bhuidhe." I have softened the third episode, which is
"
somewhat too ghastly in the original. I have translated Cra Bhuide "
Yellowclaw on the strength of Campbell's etymology, I.e. p. 158.
Parallels. Campbell's vi. and vii. are two variants showing how
widespread the story is in Gaelic Scotland. It occurs in Ireland where
"
it has been printed in the chapbook, Hibernian Tales, as the Black
Thief and the Knight of the Glen," the Black Thief being Conall, and
the knight corresponding to the King of Lochlan (it is given in Mr.
Lang's Red Fairy Book}. Here it attracted the notice of Thackeray,
who gives a gcod abstract of it in his Irish Sketch-Book, ch. xvi. He
"
thinks it worthy of the Arabian Nights, as wild and odd as an Eastern
"
tale." That fantastical way of bearing testimony to the previous tale
by producing an old woman who says the tale is not only true, but who
was the very old woman who lived in the giant's castle is almost " (why
" "
almost," Mr. Thackeray ?) a stroke of genius." The incident of the
giant's breath occurs in the story of Koisha Kayn, Maclnnes' Tales,
 Notes and References 247
i.
241, as well as the Polyphemus One-eyed giants are
one, ibid. 265.
frequent in Celtic folk-tales (e.g.^ in The Pursuit of Diarmaid arid in
the Mabinogi of Owen).
Remarks. " "
Thackeray's reference to the Arabian Nights is espe-
cially apt, as the tale of Conall is a framework story like The 1001
Nights, the three stories told by Conall being framed, as it were, in a
fourth which is nominally the real story. This method employed by
the Indian story-tellers and from them adopted by Boccaccio and thence
into all European literatures(Chaucer, Queen Margaret, &c.), is
generally thought to be peculiar to the East, and to be ultimately
derived from the Jatakas or Birth Stories of the Buddha who tells his
adventures in former incarnations. Here we find it in Celtdom, and it
occurs also in "The Story-teller at Fault" in this collection, and the
story of Koisha Kayn in Maclnnes' Argyllshire Tales, a variant of
which collected but not published by 'Campbell has no less than
nineteen tales enclosed in a framework. The question is whether the
method was adopted independently in Ireland, or was due to foreign
"
influences. Confining ourselves to Conal Yellowclaw," it seems not
unlikely that the whole story is an impoitaticn. For the second
episode is clearly the story of Polyphemus from the Odyssey which
was known in Ireland perhaps as early as the tenth century (see Prof.
K. Meyer's edition of Merugud Uilix mate Leirtis, Pref. p. xii). It
also crept into the voyages of Sindbad in the Arabian Nights. And
as told in the Highlands it bears comparison even with the Homeric
version. As Mr. Nutt remarks (Celt. Mag. xii.) the address of the
giant to the buck is as effective as that of Polyphemus to his ram.
The narrator, James Wilson, was a blind man who would naturally
" 1
feel the pathos of the address it comes
;
from the heart of the
" "
narrator says' Campbell (I.e., 148),
; it is the ornament which his

mind hangs on the frame of the story."

J VI. HUDDEN AND DUDDEN.

Source. From oral tradition, by the late D. W. Logic, taken down
by Mr. Alfred Nutt.
Parallels. Lover has a tale, " Little Fairly," obviously derived from
"
this folk-tale and there is another very similar,
; Darby Darly."
"
Another version of our tale is given under the title Donald and his
Neighbours," in the chapbook Hibernian Tales, whence it was re-
c. xvi. This has the
printed by Thackeray in his Irish Sketch-Book,
"
incident of the accidental matricide," on which see Prof; R. Kohler
 Notes and References
on Gonzenbach Sicil. Mahrchen, ii. 224. No less than four tales of
Campbell are of this type (Pop. Tales, ii. 218-31). M. Cosquin, in
" Contes "
his populaires de Lorraine," the storehouse of storiology,"
has elaborate excursuses in this class of tales attached to his Nos. x.
and xx. Mr. Clouston discusses it also in his Pop. Tales, ii. 229-88.
Both these writers are inclined to trace the chief incidents to India.
It is to be observed that one of the earliest popular drolls in Europe,
Unibos, a Latin poem of the eleventh, and perhaps the tenth, century,
has the main outlines of the story, the fraudulent sale of worthless
objects and the escape from the sack trick. The same story occurs in
Straparola, the European earliest collection of folk-tales in the six-
teenth century. On the other hand, the gold sticking to the scales is

familiar to us in Alt Baba. (Cf. Cosquin, I.e., i. 225-6, 229).

Remarks. It is indeed curious to find, as M. Cosquin points out a
"
cunning fellow tied in a sack getting out by crying, I won't marry
the princess," in countries so far apart as Ireland, Sicily (Gonzenbach,
No. 71), Afghanistan (Thorburn, Bannu, p. 184), and Jamaica (Folk-
Lore Record, iii. 53). It is indeed impossible to think these are dis-
connected, and for drolls of this kind a good case has been made out
for the borrowing hypotheses by M. Cosquin and Mr. Clouston. Who
borrowed from whom is another and more difficult question which has
to be judged on its merits in each individual case.
This is a type of Ce-tic folk-tales which are European in spread,
have analogies with the East, and can only be said to be Celtic by
adoption and by colouring. They form a distinct section of the tales
told by the Celts, and must be represented in any characteristic
selection. Other examples are xi., xv., xx., and perhaps xxii.

VII. SHEPHERD OF MYDDVAI.

Source. Preface to the edition of "The Physicians of Myddvai" ;

their prescription-book, from the Red Book of Hergest, published

by the Welsh MS. Society in 1861. The legend is not given in the
Red Book, but from oral tradition by Mr. W. Rees, p. xxi. As this is
the first of the Welsh tales in this book it may be as well to give the
reader such guidance as I can afford him on the intricacies of Welsh
pronunciation, especially with regard to the mysterious o/s andys of
Welsh orthography. For w substitute double o, as in "fool" and for
y, the short u in bt, and as near approach to Cymric speech will be
reached as is possible for the outlander. It maybe added that double
d? equals th, and double /is something like Fl, as
Shakespeare knew
 Notes and References 249
in calling his Welsh soldier Fluellen (Llewelyn). Thus "Meddygon
.Myddvai would be Anglice " Methugon Muthvai."
"

Other versions of the legend of the Van Pool are given

Parallels.
in Cambro- Briton, ii. 315 W. Sikes, British Goblins, p. 40. Mr. E.
;

Sidney Hartland has discussed these and others in a set of papers

contributed to ths first volume of The Archceological Review (now
incorporated into Folk- Lore], the substance of which is now given in
his Science of Fairy (See also the references given
Tales, 274-332.
in Revue
Celtique, 187 and
iv., 268). Mr. Hartland gives there an
ecumenical collection of parallels to the several incidents that go to
make up our story (i) The bride-capture of the Swan- Maiden,
(2) the recognition of the bride, (3) the taboo against causeless blows,
(4) doomed to be broken, and (5) disappearance of the Swan-Maiden,
with (6) her return as Guardian Spirit to her descendants. In each
case Mr. Hartland gives what he considers to be the most primitive
form of the incident. With reference to our present tale, he comes to
the conclusion, if I understand him aright, that the lake-maiden was
once regarded as a local divinity. The physicians of Myddvai were
historic personages, renowned for their medical skill for some six cen-

turies,till the race died out with John Jones, fl. 1743. To explain their
skill and uncanny knowledge of herbs, the folk traced them to a
supernatural ancestress, who taught them their craft in a place still
called Pant-y-Meddygon ("Doctors' Dingle"). Their medical know-
ledge did not require any such remarkable origin, as Mr. Hartland
has shown in a paper " On Welsh Folk-Medicine," contributed to
Y Cymmrodor, vol. xii. On the other hand, the Swan-Maiden type
of story is widespread through the Old World. Mr. Morris' "Land
East of the Moon and West of the Sun," in The Earthly Paradise, is
taken from the Norse version. Parallels are accumulated by the
Grimms, ii. 432 Kohler on Gonzenbach, ii. 20
;
or Blade, 149
; ;

Stokes' Indian Fairy Tales, 243, 276 and Messrs. Jones and Koopf,
;

Magyar Folk-Tales, 362-5. It remains to be proved that one of these

versions did not travel to Wales, and become there localised. We
shall see other instances of such localisation or specialisation of general
legends.

VIII. THE SPRIGHTLY TAILOR.

Source. Notes and Queries for December 21, 1861, to which it was
communicated by " Cuthbert Bede," the author of Verdant Green, who
collected it in Canty re.
250 Notes and References
Parallels.Miss Dempster gives the same story in her Sutherland
Collection, No. vii. (referred to by Campbell in his Gaelic list, at end of
vol. iv.) Mrs. John Faed, I am informed by a friend, knows the
;

Gaelic version, as told by her nurse in her youth. Chambers' " Strange
Visitor," Pop! Rhymes of Scotland, 64, of which I gave an Anglicised
version in my English Fairy Tales, No. xxxii., is clearly a variant.
Remarks. The Macdonald of Saddell Castle was a very great man
indeed. Once, when dining with the Lord- Lieutenant, an apology was
made to him for placing him so far away from the head of the table.
"
Where the Macdonald sits," was the proud response, " there is the
head of the table."

IX. DEIRDRE.
Source. Celtic Magazine, xiii. pp. 69, seq. I have abridged some-
what, made the sons of Fergus all faithful instead of two traitors, and
omitted an incident in the house of the wild men called here "strangers."
The original Gaelic was given in the Transactions of the Inverness
Gaelic Society for 1887, p. 241, seq., by Mr. Carmichael. I have inserted
"
Deirdre's Lament " from the Book of Leinster.
Parallels. This is one of the three most sorrowful Tales of Erin,
(the other two, Children of Lir and Children of Tureen, are given in
Dr. Joyce's Old Celtic Romances'], and is a specimen of the old heroic
sagas of elopement, a list of which is given in the Book of Leinster
The "outcast child" is a frequent episode in folk and hero-tales an :

instance occurs in my English Fairy Tales, No. xxxv., and Prof.Kohler

gives many others in Archiv. f. Slav. Philologie, \. 288. Mr. Nutt
adds tenth century Celtic parallels in Folk-Lore, vol. ii. The wooing of
" "
hero_by heroine_is_a.jcharacteristic Celtic touch. See Connla here,
and other examples given by Mr. Nutt in his notes to Maclnnes' Tales.
The trees growing from the lovers' graves occurs in the English ballad
of Lord Lovel and has been studied in Melusine.
Remarks. The " Story of Deirdre " is a remarkable instance of the
tenacity of oral tradition among the Celts. It has been preserved in

no less than five versions (or six, including Macpherson's " Darthula ")
ranging from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. The earliest is in
the twelfth century, Book of Leinster, to be dated about 1140 (edited in
facsimile under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, i. 147, seq.}.
Then comes a fifteenth century version, edited and translated by Dr.
Stokes in Windisch's Irische Texte II., ii.
109,^., "Death of the
Sons of Uisnech." Keating in his History of. Ireland gave another
 Notes and References 251
version in the seventeenth century. The Dublin Gaelic Society
pub-
lished an eighteenth century version in their Transactions for 1808.
And lastly we have the version before us, collected only a few years
ago, yet agreeing in all essential details with the version of the Book of
Leinster. Such a record is unique in the history of oral tradition,
outside Ireland, where, however, it is quite a customary experience in
the study of the Finn-saga. It is now recognised that Macpherson

had, or could have had, ample material for his recJiauffe of the Finn or
" " '; "
Fingal saga. His Darthula is a similar cobbling of our present
story. I leave to Celtic specialists the task of settling the exact
relations of these various texts. content myself with pointing out the
I

fact that in these latter days of a seemingly prosaic century in these

British Isles there has been collected from the lips of the folk a heroic
"
story like this of Deirdre," full of romantic incidents, told with tender
feeling and considerable literary skill. No other country in Europe,
except perhaps Russia, could provide a parallel to this living on of
Romance among the common folk. Surely it is a bounden duty of those
who are in the position to put on record any such utterances of the folk-
imagination of the Celts before it is too late.

X. MUNACHAR AND MANACHAR.

Source. have combined the Irish version given by Dr. Hyde in
I

his Leabhar and translated by him for Mr. Yeats' Irish Folk
Sgeul.,
and Fairy Tales, and the Scotch version given in Gaelic and English
by Campbell, No. viii.
Parallels. Two English versions are given in my Eng. Fairy Tales,
" "
No. iv., The Old Woman and her Pig," and xxxiv., The Cat and
the Mouse," where M.
see notes for other variants in these isles.
Cosquin, in his notes to No. xxxiv., of his Conies de Lorraine, t. ii.
pp. 35-41, has drawn attention to an astonishing number of parallels
scattered through all Europe and the East (cf., too, Crane,
Hal. Pop.
Tales, notes, 372-5). One of the earliest allusions to the jingle is in
Don Quixote, pt. i, c. xvi. "Y asi como suele decirse el gato al rato,
:

el rato d la cuerda, la cuerda al palo, claba el arriero a Sancho,

Sancho a la moza, la moza a e*l, el ventero a" la moza." As I have
pointed out, it is used to this day by Bengali women at the end of
each folk-tale they recite (L. B. Day, Folk-Tales of Bengal, Pref.).
Remarks. Two ingenious suggestions have been made as to the
cere-
origin of this curious jingle, both connecting it with religious
252 Notes and References
monies: Something very similar occurs in Chaldaic at the end
(i)
of the Jewish Hagada, or domestic ritual for the Passover night. It
has, however, been shown that this does not occur in early MSS. or
editions, and was only added at the end to amuse the children after
the service, and was therefore only a translation or adaptation of a
current German form of the jingle (2) M. Basset, in the Revue des
;

Traditions populaires, 1890, t. v. p. 549, has suggested that it is a

survival of the old Greek custom at the sacrifice of the Bouphonia for
the priest to contend that he had not slain the sacred beast, the axe
declares that the handle did it, the handle transfers the guilt further,
and so on. This is ingenious, but fails to give any reasonable account
of the diffusion of the jingle in countries which have had no historic
connection with classical Greece.

XI. GOLD TREE AND SILVER TREE.

Source. Celtic Magazine xiii. 213-8, Gaelic and English from Mr.
',

Kenneth Macleod.
Parallels. Mr. Macleod heard another version in which "Gold
Tree" (anonymous in this variant) is bewitched to kill her father's
horse, dog, and cock. Abroad it is the Grimm's Schneewitchen (No.
53), for the Continental variants of which see Kohler on Gonzenbach,
Sicil. Mdrchen, Nos. 2-4, Grimm's notes on 53, and Crane, Ital. Pop-

Tales^ 331. No is known in the British Isles.

other version
Remarks. should say impossible, that this tale, with
It is unlikely, I

the incident of the dormant heroine, should have arisen independently

in the Highlands : it is most
an importation from abroad. Yet
likely
" "
in it occurs a most primitivebigamous household of
incident, the
the hero this is glossed over in Mr. Macleod's other variant. On
:

"
the survival" method of investigation this would possibly be used
as evidence for polygamy in the Highlands. Yet if, as is probable, the
story came from abroad, this trait may have come with it, and only
implies polygamy in the original home of the tale.

XII. KING O'TOOLE AND HIS GOOSE.

Source. S. Lover's Stories and Legends of the Irish Peasantry.
Remarks. This is really amoral apologue on the benefits of keeping
your word. Yet it is told witn such humour and vigour, that the
moral glides insensibly into the heart.
 Notes and References 253
XIII. THE WOOING OF OLWEN.
Source. The Mabinogi of Kulhwych and Olwen from the translation
of Lady Guest, abridged.
Parallels. Prof. Wny$>,Hibbert Lectures,^. 486, considers that our tale
"
isparalleled by Cuchulain's Wooing of Emer," a translation of which
by Prof. K. Meyer appeared in the Archtzological Review, vol. i. I fail

to see much analogy. On the other hand Arthurian Legend,

in his

p. 41, he rightly compares the tasks set by Yspythadon to those set to

Jason. They are indeed of the familiar type of the Bride Wager (on
which see Grimm- Hunt, i. 399). The incident of the three animals, old,
older, and oldest, has a remarkable resemblance to the Tettira Jataka
(ed. Fausboll, No. 37, transl. Rhys Davids, i. p. 310 seq.} in which the
partridge, monkey, and elephant dispute as to their relative age, and
the partridge turns out to have voided the seed of the Banyan-tree
under which they were sheltered, whereas the elephant only knew it
when a mere bush, and the monkey had nibbled the topmost shoots.
This apologue got to England at the end cf the twelfth century as the
"
Wolf, Fox, and Dove," of a rhymed prose collection
sixty-ninth fable,
of "Fox Fables" (Mishle Shu alim\ of an Oxford Jew, Berachyah
i

Nakdan, known in the Records as "Benedict le Puncteur" (see my

Fables of &sop, i. p. 170). Similar incidents occur in "Jack and his
" "
Snuff-box in my English Fairy Tales, and in Dr. Hyde's Well of
D'Yerree-in-Dowan." The skilled companions of Kulhwych are common
in European folk-tales (Cf. Cosquin, i. 123-5), and especially among
the Celts (see Mr. Nutt's note in Maclnnes' Tales, 445~8), among
whom they occur very early, but not so early as Lynceus and the other
skilled comrades of the Argonauts.
Remarks. The hunting of the boar Trwyth can be traced back in
Welsh tradition at least as early as the ninth century. For it is referred
to in the following passage of Nennius' Historia Britonum ed. Steven-
" Buelt [Builth,
son, p: 60, Est aliud miraculum in regione quas dicitur
co. Brecon] Est ibi cumulus lapidum et unus lapis super-positus super
congestum cum vestigia canis in eo. Quando venatus
est porcum
Arthuri militis,
Troynt \_var. lee. Troit] impressit Cabal, qui erat canis
vestigium in lapide et Arthur postea congregavit congestum lapidum
sub lapide in quo erat vestigium canis sui et vocatur Cam Cabal."
Curiously enough there is still a mountain called
Cam Cabal in the
Still more
district of Builth, south of Rhayader Gwy in Breconshire.
found on this a cairn with a stone
curiously a friend of Lady Guest's
254 Notes and References
two long by one foot wide in which there was an indentation
feet

4 x 3 in. x 2 in. which could easily have been mistaken for a paw-
in.

print of a dog, as maybe seen from the engraving given of it (Mabino-

gion, ed. 1874, p. 269).
The stone and the legend are thus at least one thousand years old.
" There stands the stone to tell if I lie."
According to Prof. Rhys
(Hibbert Lect. 486-97) the whole story is a mythological one, Kulhwych's
mother being the dawn, the clover blossoms that grow under Olwen's
feetbeing comparable to the roses that sprung up where Aphrodite had
trod, and Yspyddadon being the incarnation of the sacred hawthorn.
Mabon, again (I.e. pp. 21, 28-9), is the Apollo Maponus discovered in
Latin inscriptions at Ainstable in Cumberland and elsewhere (Hiibner,
Corp. Insc. Lat. Brit. Nos. 218, 332, 1345). Granting all this, there

is nothing to show any mythological significance in the tale, though

there may have been in the names of the dramatis persona. I
observe from the proceedings of the recent Eisteddfod that the bardic
name of Mr. W. Abraham, M.P., is Mabon.' It scarcely follows
'
that
Mr. Abraham is in receipt of divine honours nowadays.

XIV. JACK AND HIS COMRADES.

Source.Kennedy's Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts.
This is the fullest and most dramatic version I know of
Parallels.
the Grimm's "Town Musicians of Bremen" (No. 27). I have given an
English (American) version in my English Fairy Tales, No. 5, in the
notes to which would be found references to other versions known in
the British Isles (e.g.) Campbell, No. n) and abroad. Cf. remarks
on No. vi.

XV. SHEE AN GANNON AND GRUAGACH GAIRE.

Source. Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, p. 1 14 seq. I

have shortened the earlier part of the tale, and introduced into the
 Notes and References 255
"
latter a few touches from Campbell's story of Fiona's Enchant-
ment/' in Revue Celtique, t. i., 193 seq.
Parallels. The early part is similar to the beginning of "
The Sea-
Maiden" (No. xvii., which see). The latter part is practically the
same as the story of " Fionn's Enchantment," just referred to. It also
"
occurs in Maclnnes' Tales, No. in., "The King of Albainn (see
Mr. Nutt's notes, 454). The head-crowned spikes are Celtic, cj. Mr.
Nutt's notes (Maclnnes' Tales, 453).
Remarks. Here again we meet the question whether the folk-tale
precedes the hero-tale about Finn or was derived from it, and again
the probability seems that our st<ry has the priority as a folk-tale,
and was afterwards applied to the national hero, Finn. This is con-
firmed by the fact that a thirteenth century French romance, Conte dit
Graal, has much the same incidents, and was probably derived from
a similar folk-tale of the Celts. Indeed, Mr. Nutt is inclined to think
that the original form of our story (which contains a mysterious

healing vessel) is the germ out of which the legend of the Holy Grail
was evolved (see his Studies in the Holy Grail, p. 202 seq.}.

XVI. THE STORY-TELLER AT FAULT.

Source. Griffin's Tales from a Jury-Room, combined with Camp-
bell, No. xvii. c, "The Slim Swarthy Champion."
Parallels. Campbell gives another variant, I.e. i.jiS. Dr. Hyde
has an Irish version of Campbell's tale written down in 1762, from
which he gives the incident of the air-ladder (which I have had to
euphemise in my version) in his Beside the Fireside, p. 191, and other
passages in his Preface. The most remarkable parallel to this incident,
however, is afforded by the feats of Indian jugglers reported briefly by
Marco Polo, and illustrated with his usual wealth of learning by the
late Sir Henry Yule, in his edition, vol. i.
p. 308 seq. The accom-
panying (reduced from Yule) will tell its own tale it is
illustration :

taken from the Dutch account of the travels of an English sailor,

E. Melton, Zeldzaame Reizen, 1702, p. 468. It tells the tale in five acts,
all included in one sketch. Another instance quoted by Yule is
still more parallel, so to speak. The twenty-third trick performed
by some conjurors before the Emperor Jahangueir (Memoirs, p. 102)
"
is thus described They produced a chain of 50 cubits in length,
:

and in my presence threw one end of it towards the sky, where

it remained as if fastened to something in the air. A .dog was then
brought forward, and being placed at the lower end of the chain, im-
256 Notes and References
mediately ran up, and, reaching the other end, immediately disap-
peared in the air. In the same manner a hog, a panther, a lion, and
a tiger were successively sent up the chain." It has been suggested
that the conjurors hypnotise the spectators, and make them believe

they see these things. This is practically the suggestion of a wise

"
Mohammedan, who quoted by Yule as saying,
is Wallah ! 'tis my
opinion there has been neither going up nor coming down ; 'tis all
hocus-pocus," hocus-pocus being presumably the Mohammedan term
for hypnotism.

Remarks. Dr. Hyde (I.e. Pref. xxix.) thinks our tale cannot be
older than 1362, because of a reference to one O'Connor Sligo which
occurs in all its variants it is, however, omitted in our somewhat
;

abridged version. Mr. Nutt (ap. Campbell, The Fians, Introd. xix.)
thinks that this does not prevent a still earlier version having existed.
I should have thought that the existence of so distinctly Eastern a

trick in the tale, and the fact that it is a framework story (another
Eastern characteristic), would imply that it is a rather late importa-
tion,with local allusions superadded (cf. notes on "Conal Yellow-
claw," No. v.).

The passages in verse from pp. 137, 139, and the description of the
 Notes and References 257
Beggarman, pp. 136, 140, are instances of a curious characteristic of
Gaelic folk-tales called " runs." Collections of conventional epithets
are used over and over again to describe the same incident, the
beaching of a boat, sea-faring, travelling and the like, and are inserted
in different tales.These " runs " are often similar in both the Irish and
the Scotch form of the same tale or of the same incident. The volumes
"
of Waifs and Strays contain numerous examples of these runs," which
" "
have been indexed in each volume. These runs are another con-
firmation of my view that the original form of the folk-tale was that
of the Cantc-fable (see note on "Connla" and on "Childe Rowland" in

English Fairy Tales).

XVII. SEA-MAIDEN.
Source. Campbell, Pop. Tales, No. 4. I have omitted the births of
the animal comrades and transposed the carlin to the middle of the
tale. Mr. Batten has considerately idealised the Sea-Maiden in his
frontispiece. When she restores the husband to the wife in one of the
"
variants, she brings him out of her mouth So the sea-maiden put
!

up his head (Who do you mean? Out of her mouth to be sure. She
had swallowed him}."
"
Parallels. The early part of the story occurs in No. xv., Shee an
" "
Gannon," and the last part in No. xix., Fair, Brown, and Trembling
"
(both from Curtin), Campbell's No. I. The Young King" is much like
" " "
it ; also Maclnnes' No. iv., Herding of Cruachan and No. viii., Lod
the Farmer's Son.' ?
The third of Mr. Britten's Irish folk-tales in the
Folk-Lore Journal is a Sea-Maiden story. The story is obviously a
favourite one among the Celts. Yet its main incidents occur with
frequency in Continental folk-tales. Prof. Kohler has collected a
number in his notes on Campbell's Tales in Orient und Occident, End.
ii.
115-8. The trial of the sword occurs in the saga of Sigurd, yet it is
also frequent in Celtic saga and folk-tales (see Mr. Nutt's note, Mac-
lnnes' Tales, 473, and add. Curtin, 320). The hideous carlin and her
three giant sons is also common form in Celtic. The external soul of
the Sea- Maiden carried about in an egg, in a trout, in a hoodie, in a
hind, is a remarkable instance of a peculiarly savage conception which
has been studied by Major Temple, Wide-awake Stories, 404-5 ; by
Mr. E. Clodd, in the " Philosophy of Punchkin," in Folk-Lore Journal,
vol. ii.,
and by Mr. Frazer in his Golden Boitgh, vol. ii.

Remarks. As both Prof. and Mr. Nutt

Rhys (Hibbert Lect., 464)
(Maclnnes' Tales, 477) have pointed out, practically the same story
R
258 Notes and References
(that of Perseus and Andromeda) is told of the Ultonian hero, Cuchu-
lain, in the Wooing of Emer, a tale which occurs in the Book of
Leinster, a MS. of the twelfth century, and was probably copied from
one of the eighth. Unfortunately it is not complete, and the Sea-Maiden
incident is only to be found in a British Museum MS. of about 1300.
In this Cuchulain finds that the daughter of Ruad is to be given as a
tribute to the Fomori, who, according to Prof. Rhys, Folk-Lore, ii. 293,
have something of the nightmare about their etymology. Cuchulain
fights three of them successively, has his
wounds bound up by a strip
of the maiden's garment, and then departs. Thereafter many boasted
of having slain the Fomori, but the maiden believed them not till at last
by a stratagem she recognises Cuchulain. I may add to this that in Mr.
Curtin's Myths, 330, the threefold trial of the sword is told of Cuchulain.
This would seem to trace our story back to the seventh or eighth
century and certainly to the thirteenth. If so, it is likely enough that
itspread from Ireland through Europe with the Irish missions (for
the wide extent of which see map in Mrs. Bryant's Celtic Ireland).
The very letters that have spread through all Europe except Russia,
are to be traced to the script of these Irish monks why not certain
:

folk-tales ? There is a further question whether the story was originally

told of Cuchulain as a hero-tale and then became departicularised as
a was the process vice versa. Certainly in the form in
folk-tale, or
which appears in the Tochmarc Emer it is not complete, so that here,
it

as elsewhere, we seem to have an instance of a folk-tale applied to a

well-known heroic name, and becoming a hero-tale or saga.

XVIII. LEGEND OF KNOCKMANY.

Source. W. Carleton, Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry.
"
Parallels. Kennedy's Fion MacCuil and the Scotch Giant,"
Legend. Fict., 203-5.
Remarks. Though the venerable names of Finn and Cucullin
(Cuchulain) are attached to the heroes of this story, this is probably
only to give an extrinsic interest to it. The two heroes could not have
come together in any early form of their sagas, since Cuchulain's
reputed date is of the first, Finn's of the third century A.D. (cf. how-
ever, MacDougall's Tales, notes, 272). Besides, the grotesque form
of the legend is enough to remove it from the region of the hero-tale.
On the other hand, there is a distinct reference to Finn's wisdom-
tooth, which presaged the future to him (on this see Revue Celtique,
v. 201, Joyce, Old Celt. Rom., 434-5, and MacDougall, J.c. 274).
 Notes and References 259
Cucullin's power-finger is another instance of the life-index or ex-
ternal soul, on which see remarks on Sea- Maiden. Mr. Nutt informs
me that parodies of the Irish sagas occur as early as the sixteenth
century, and the present tale may be regarded as a specimen.

XIX. FAIR, BROWN, AND TREMBLING.

Source. Curtm, Myths, &.,of Ireland,
Parallels. The latter half resembles the second part of the Sea-
Maiden (No. xvii.), which see. The earlier portion is a Cinderella tale
(on which see the late Mr. Ralston's article in Nineteenth Century,
Nov. 1879, an d Mr. Lang's treatment in his Perrault). Miss Roalfe
Cox is about to publish for the Folk-Lore Society a whole volume of

variants of the Cinderella group of stories, which are remarkably well

represented in these isles, nearly a dozen different versions being
known in England, Ireland, and Scotland.

XX. JACK AND HIS MASTER.

"
Source. Kennedy, Fireside Stories of Ireland, 74-80, Shan an
Omadhan and his Master."
"
Parallels. occurs also in Campbell, No. xlv.,
It Mac a Rusgaich."
It is a European droll, the wide occurrence of which " the loss of
temper bet" I should call it is bibliographised by M. Cosquin, I.e.
ii.
50 (cf. notes on No. vi.).

XXI. BETH GELLERT.

Source. I have paraphrased the well-known poem of Hon. W. R.
"
Spencer, Beth Gelert, or the Grave of the Greyhound," first printed
privately as a broadsheet in 1800 when it was composed ("August n,
"
1800, Dolymalynllyn is the colophon). It was published in Spencer's

Poems, 181 1, pp. 78-86. These dates, it will be seen, are of importance.
"
Spencer states in a note The story of this ballad is traditionary in
:

a village at the foot of Snowdon where Llewellyn the Great had a house
The Greyhound named Gelert was given him by his father-in-law, King
John, in the year 1205, and the place to this day is called Beth-Gelert,
or theTgrave of Gelert." As a matter of fact, no trace of the tradition
in connection with Bedd Gellert can be found before Spencer's jne.
It is not mentioned in Leland's Itinerary, ed. Hearne, v. p. 37

("Beth Kellarth"), in Pennant's Tour (1770), ii. 176, or in Bingley's

260 Notes and References
Tour in Wales (1800). Borrow in his Wild Wales, p. 146, gives the
legend, but does not profess to derive it from local tradition.
Parallels. The only parallel in Celtdom is that noticed by Croker
in his third volume, the legend of Partholan who killed his wife's grey-
hound from jealousy this is found sculptured in stone at Ap Brune,
:

co. Limerick. As
known, and has been elaborately discussed by
is well
Mr. Baring-Gould (Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 134 seq.\ and
Mr. W. A. \Q\v&<XL(Populdr Tales and Fictions, ii. 166, seq.\ the story of
the man who rashly slew the dog (ichneumon, weasel, &c.) that had
saved his babe from death, is one of those which have spread from East
to West. It is indeed, as Mr. Clouston points out, still current in
India, the land of its birth. There is little doubt that it is originally
Buddhistic the late Prof. S. Beal gave the earliest
: known version from
the Chinese translation of the VinayaPitaka in the Academy of Nov. 4,
1882. The conception of an animal sacrificing itself for the sake of others
" hare in "
ispeculiarly Buddhistic the the moon is an apotheosis of
;

such a piece of self-sacrifice on the part of Buddha (Sasa Jatakd).

There are two forms that have reached the West, the first being that of
an animal saving men at the cost of its own life. I pointed out an
early instance of this, quoted by a Rabbi of the second century, in my
Fables of SEsop, i.
105. This concludes with a strangely close parallel
"
to Gellert They raised a cairn over his grave, and the place is
;

still called The Dog's Grave." The Culex attributed to Virgil seems
to be another variant of this. The second form of the legend is always
told as a moral apologue against precipitate action, and originally
occurred in The Fables of Bidpai in its hundred and one forms, all
founded on Buddhistic originals (cf. >zviiey,Pantschatantra, Einleitung,
201).* Thence, according to Benfey, it was inserted in the Book of
Sindibad, another collection of Oriental Apologues framed on what
may be called the Mrs. Potiphar formula. This came to Europe
with the Crusades, and is known in its Western versions as the
Seven Sages of Rome. The Gellert story occurs in all the Oriental
and Occidental versions e.g., ;
it is the First Master's story in Wynkyn

de Worde's (ed. G. L. Gomme, for the Villon Society.) From the

Seven Sages it was taken into the particular branch of the Gesta
Romanorum current in England and known as the English Gesta,

* It occurs in the same chapter a.s the story of La Perrette, which has been traced,
after Benfey, by Prof. M. Mtiller in his "Migration of Fables" (Sel. Essays,
i.
500-74) ; exactly the same history applies to Gellert.
 Notes and References 261
"
where it occurs as c. xxxii., Story of Folliculus." We have thus
traced it to England whence passed to Wales, where I have disco-
it
"
vered it as the second apologue of The Fables of Cattwg the Wise,"
"
in the lolo MS. published by the Welsh MS. Society, p. 561, The
man who killed his Greyhound." (These Fables, Mr. Nutt informs
me, are a pseudonymous production probably of the sixteenth cen-
tury.) This concludes the literary route of the Legend of Gellert from
India to Wales Buddhistic Vinaya Pitaka Fables of Bidpai ;
:

Oriental Sindibad; Occidental Seven Sages of Rome ; "English"

(Latin), Gesta Romanorum ; Welsh, Favles of Cattwg.
Remarks. We have stillto connect the legend with Llewelyn and
with Bedd Gelert. But first it may be desirable to point out why it is

necessary to assume that the legend is a legend and not a fact. The
saving of an infant's life by a dog, and the mistaken slaughter of the
dog, are not such an improbable combination as to make it impossible
that the same event occurred in many places. But what is impossible,
is that such an event should have
in my opinion, independently been
used in different places as the typical instance of, and warning against,
rash action. That the Gellert legend, before it was localised, was used
as a moral apologue in Wales is shown by the fact that it occurs
among the Fables of Cattwg, which are all of that character. It was
also utilised as a proverb " Yr ivy'n edivaru cymmaint dr Gwr a
:

laddodd Vilgi ("I repent as much as the man who slew his grey-
ei

hound"). The fable indeed, from this point of view, seems greatly to
have attracted the Welsh mind, perhaps as of especial value to a pro-
verbially impetuous temperament. Croker (Fairy Legends of Ireland^
vol.iii.
p. 165) points out several places where the legend seems to
have been localised in place-names two places, called "Gwal y
Vilast" ("Greyhound's Couch"), in Carmarthen and Glamorganshire;
" Llech
y Asp" ("Dog's Stone"), in Cardigan, and another place
named in Welsh " Spring of the Greyhound's Stone.' Mr. Baring- ;

Gould mentions that the legend is told of an ordinary

tombstone, with a knight and a greyhound, in Aber-
gavenny Church while the Fable of Cattwg is told
;

of a man in Abergarwan. So widespread and well

known was the legend that it was in Richard III.'s
time adopted as the national crest. In the Warwick Roll, at the
Herald's Office, after giving separate crests for England, Scotland, and
Ireland, that for Wales is given as figured in the margin, and blazoned
" on a coronet in a cradle or, a greyhound argent for Walys" (see
262 Notes and References
J. R. Planche, Twelve Designs for the Costume of Shakespeare's
Richard III., 830, frontispiece). If this Roll is authentic, the popularity
1

of the legend is thrown back into the fifteenth century. It still remains

to explain how and when this general legend of rash action was localised
and specialised at Bedd Gelert : I believe I have discovered this. There
certainly was a local legend about a dog named Gelert at that place ;
E. Jones, in the first edition of his Musical Relicks of the Welsh Bards ,
1784, p. 40, gives the following cnglyn or epigram :

Claddwyd Cylart celfydd (ymlyniad)

Ymlaneau Efionydd
Parod giuio i'w gynydd
Parai'r dydd yr heliai Hydd ;

which he Englishes thus :

The remains of famed Cylart, so faithful and good,

The bounds of the cantred conceal ;

Whenever the doe or the stag he pursued

His master was sure of a meal.

No made in the first edition to the Gellert legend, but

reference was
in the second edition of 1794, p. 75, a note was added telling the
legend, "There is a general tradition in North Wales that a wolf had
entered the house of Prince Llewellyn. Soon after the Prince returned
home, and, going into the nursery, he met his dog Kill-hart, all bloody
and wagging his tail at him Prince Llewellyn, on entering the room
;

found the cradle where his child lay overturned, and the floor flowing
with blood ; imagining that the greyhound had killed the child, he im-
mediately drew his sword and stabbed it then, turning up the cradle^ ;

found under it the child alive, and the wolf dead. This so grieved the
Prince, that he erected a tomb over his faithful dog's grave where ;

afterwards the parish church was built and goes by that name Bedd
Cilhart) or the grave of Kill-hart, in Carnarvonshire. From this
incident is elicited a very common Welsh proverb [that given above
which occurs also in
'
The Fables of Cattwg ;
'
it will be observed that
" "
it is quite indefinite.] Prince Llewellyn ab Jorwerth married Joan,
[natural] daughter of King John, by Agatha, daughter of Robert
Ferrers, Earl of Derby and the dog was a present to the prince from
;

his father-in-law about the year 1205." It was clearly from this note

that the Hon. Mr. Spencer got his account ; oral tradition does not
indulge in dates Anno Domini. The application of the general legend
 Notes and References 263
" "
of the man who
slew his greyhound to the dog Cylart, was due to
the learning of E. Jones, author of the Musical Relicks. I am con-

vinced of this, for by a lucky chance I am enabled to give the real

legend about Cylart, which thus given in Carlisle's Topographical
is
"
Dictionary of Wales, s.v., Bedd
Celert," published in 1811, the date
of publication of Mr. Spencer's Poems. " Its
name, according to tra-
dition, implies The Grave of Celert, a Greyhound which belonged to

Llywelyn, the last Prince of Wales and a large Rock is still pointed
:

out as the monument of this celebrated Dog, being on the spot where
it was found
dead, together with the stag which it had pursued from
Carnarvon," which is thirteen miles distant. The cairn was thus a
monument of a " record " run of a greyhound the englyn quoted by :

Jones is suitable enough for this, while quite inadequate to record the
later legendary exploits of Gelert. Jones found an englyn devoted to
tin exploit of a dog named Cylart, and chose to interpret it in his

second edition, 1794, as the exploit of a greyhound with which all the
world (in Wales) were acquainted. Mr. Spencer took the legend
from Jones (the reference to the date 1205 proves that), enshrined it
in his somewhat banal verses, which were lucky enough to be copied
into several reading-books, and thus became known to all English-

speaking folk.
It remains only to explain why Jones connected the legend with
Llewelyn. Llewelyn had local connection with Bedd Gellert, which
was the seat of an Augustinian abbey, one of the oldest in Wales.
An inspeximus of Edward I. given in Dugdale, Monast. AngL, ed. pr.
"
ii. icoa, quotes as the earliest charter of the abbey Cartam Lewelin,
"
magni." The name
of the abbey was Beth Kellarth " ; the name is
thus given by Leland, I.e., and as late as 1794 an engraving at the
British Museum is entitled
"
Beth Kelert," while Carlisle gives it as
"
Beth Celert." The place was thus named after the abbey, not
after the cairn or rock. This is confirmed by the fact of which
Prof. Rhys had informed me, that the collocation of letters rt is un-
Welsh. Under these circumstances not impossible, I think,
it is

that the earlier legend of the marvellous run of "Cylart" from

Carnarvon was due to the etymologising fancy of some English-speak-
ing Welshman who interpreted the name as Killhart, so that the
simpler legend would be only a folk-etymology.
But whether Kellarth, Kelert, Cylart, Gelert or Gellert ever existed
and run a hart from Carnarvon to Bedd Gellert or no, there can be
little doubt after the preceding that he was not the original hero of the
264 Notes and References
fable of" theman that slew his greyhound," which came to Wales from
Buddhistic India through channels which are perfectly traceable. It
was Edward Jones who first raised him proud position, and
to that
William Spencer who securely installed him there, probably for all
time. The legend is now firmly established at Bedd Gellert. There
"
is said to be an ancient Bedd Gelert," " as sung by the Ancient
air,

Britons"; it is
given a pamphlet published at Carnarvon in the
in

"fifties," entitled Gellerfs Grave; or, Llewellyn's Rashness: a Ballad,

by the Hon. W. R.
Spencer, to which is added that ancient Welsh air,
"Bedd Gelert? as sung by the Ancient Britons. The air is from
R. Roberts' " Collection of Welsh Airs," but what connection it has
with the legend I have been unable to ascertain. This is probably
another case of adapting one tradition to another. It is almost
impossible to distinguish paloeozoic and cainozoic strata in oral
tradition. According to Murray's Guide to N. Wales, p. 125, the only
authority for the cairn now shown is that of the landlord of the Goat
Inn, "who felt compelled by the cravings of tourists to invent a
grave." Some old men at Bedd Gellert, Prof. Rhys informs me, are
ready to testify that they saw the cairn laid. They might almost have
been present at the birth of the legend, which, if my affiliation of it
is correct, is not yet quite 100 years old.

XXII. STORY OF IVAN.

Source. Lluyd, Arckaologia Britannia, 1707, the first comparative
Celtic grammar and the finest piece of work in comparative philology
hitherto done
in England, contains this tale as a specimen of Cornish
then spoken in Cornwall. I have used the English version con-
still

tained in Blackwood's Magazine as long ago as May 1818. I have

taken the third counsel from the Irish version, as the original is not
suited virginibus puerisque, though harmless enough in itself.
Parallels. Lover has a tale, The Three Advices. It occurs also in
modern Cornwall ap. Hunt, Drolls of West of England, 344, "The
Tinner of Chyamor." Borrow, Wild Wales, 41, has a reference which
seems to imply that the story had crystallised into a Welsh proverb.
Curiously enough, forms the chief episode of the so-called " Irish
it
"
Odyssey" (" Merugud Uilix maicc Leirtis" Wandering of Ulysses
M'Laertes "). It was derived, in all probability, from the Gesta
Romanorum, c. 103, where two of the three pieces of advice are
" Avoid a "
byeway," Beware of a house where the housewife is younger
than her husband." It is likely enough that this chapter, like others of
 Notes and References 265
the Gesta, came from the East, for it is found in some versions of " The
Forty Viziers," and in the Turkish Tales (see Oesterley s parallels and
Gesta, ed. Swan and Hooper, note 9).

XXIII. ANDREW COFFEY.

Source. From the late D. W. Logic, written down by Mr. Alfred
Nutt.
Parallels. Dr. Hyde's "Teig O'Kane and the Corpse," and
"
Kennedy's Cauth Morrisy," Legend. Fief., 158, are practically the
same.
Remarks. No collection of Celtic Folk-Tales would be representa-
tive that did not contain some specimen of the gruesome. The most
"
effective ghoul story in existence is Lover's Brown Man."

XXIV. BATTLE OF BIRDS.

Source. Campbell {Pop. Tales, W. Highlands, No. ii.), with touches
from the seventh variant and others, including the casket and key finish,
from Curtin's " Son of the King of Erin " (Myths, &c., 32 seq.}. I have
also added a specimen of the humorous end pieces added by Gaelic
story-tellers ;
on these tags see an interesting note in MacDougall's
Tales, note on p. 112. I have found some
difficulty in dealing with
excessive use of the second "
Campbell's person singular, If thou
thouest him some two or three times, 'tis well," but beyond that it is
wearisome. Practically, I have reserved thou for the speech of giants,
who maybe supposed to be somewhat old-fashioned. I fear, however,
I have not been quite consistent, though the you's addressed to the

apple-pips are grammatically correct as applied to the pair of lovers.

Parallels. Besides the eight versions given or abstracted by
"
Campbell and Mr. Curtin's, there is Carleton's Three Tasks," Dr.
" "
Hyde's Son of Branduf (MS.) there is the First Tale of Maclnnes
;

(where see Mr. Nutt's elaborate notes, 431-43), two in the Celtic
" "
Magazine, vol. xii., Grey Norris from Warland (Folk-Lore Journ.
"
\.
316), and Mr. Lang's Morayshire Tale, Nicht Nought Nothing"
(see Eng. Fairy Tales, No. vii.), no less than sixteen variants found
among the Celts. It must have occurred early among them. Mr.
Nutt found the feather- thatch incident in the Agallamh na Senoraib
(" Discourse of Elders "), which is at least as old as the fifteenth century.
Yet the story is to be found throughout the Indo-European world,
as is shown by Prof. Kohler's elaborate list of parallels attached to
 266 Notes and References
Mr. Lang's variant in Revue Ccltiquc, iii. 374 and Mr. Lang, in his ;

Custom and Myth (" A far travelled Tale "), has given a number of
parallels from savage sources. And strangest of all, the story is
practically the same as the classical myth of Jason and Medea.
Remarks. Mr. Nutt, in his discussion of the tale (Maclnnes, Tales
441), makes the interesting suggestion that the obstacles to pursuit, the
forest, the mountain, and the river, exactly represent the boundary of
the old Teutonic Hades, so that the story was originally one of, the
Descent to Hell. Altogether it seems likely that it is one of the oldest
folk-tales in existence, and belonged to the story-store of the original

Aryans, whoever they were, was passed by them with their language
on to the Hellenes and perhaps to the Indians, was developed in its
modern form in Scandinavia (where its best representative " The
Master Maid " of Asbjornsen is still found), was passed by them to the
Celts and possibly was transmitted by these latter to other parts of
"
Europe, perhaps by early Irish monks (see notes on Sea-Maiden ").
The spread in the Buddhistic world, and thence to the South Seas and
Madagascar, would be secondary from India. I hope to have another
occasion for dealing with this most interesting of all folk-tales in the
detail it deserves.

XXV. BREWERY OF EGGSHELLS.

Source. From the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, 1830, vol. ii.
p. 86 ;
stated to be literally translated from the Welsh.
it is

Parallels. Another variant from Glamorganshire is given in

Y Cymmrodor, vi. 209. Croker has the story under the title I have
given the Welsh one in his Fairy Legends, 41. Mr. Hartland, in his
Science of Fairy Tales, 113-6, gives the European parallels.

XXVI. LAD WITH THE GOAT SKIN.

Source. Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, pp. 23-31. The Adventures
of " Gilla na Chreck an GourV'
Parallels. "The Lad with the Skin Coverings" is a popular Celtic
figure, cf. MacDougalFs Third Tale, Maclnnes' Second, and a reference
in Campbell, iii. 147. According to Mr. Nutt (Holy Grail, 134), he is

the original of Parzival. But the adventures in these tales are not the
"
cure by laughing incident which forms the centre of our tale, and is
;;

Indo-European (cf.
references in English Fairy Tales, notes
in extent

toNo. xxvii.). " The smith who made hell too hot for him is Sisyphus,"
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