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Title: The Kiltartan wonder book
Author: Lady Gregory
Illustrator: Margaret Gregory
Release date: June 16, 2025 [eBook #76322]
Language: English
Original publication: Dublin: Maunsel & Co. Ltd, 1911
Credits: Chris Hapka and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KILTARTAN WONDER BOOK ***
THE KILTARTAN WONDER BOOK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: HE CAME DOWN SPREAD-LEGS ON A MULE.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE KILTARTAN
WONDER BOOK
BY LADY GREGORY
ILLUSTRATED BY
MARGARET GREGORY
MAUNSEL & CO. LTD.
96 MIDDLE ABBEY STREET DUBLIN.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To
R. G. G.
A Kiltartan Child
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE MULE 1
BESWARRAGAL 8
THE SEVEN FISHERS 22
SHAWNEEN 31
THE MAN THAT SERVED THE SEA 52
THE BULLOCKEEN 59
THE THREE SONS 66
KING SOLOMON 75
THE ROBINEEN 79
THE BALL OF THREAD 85
THE HORSE AND FOAL 89
THE WOMAN THAT WAS A GREAT FOOL 91
THE DANES 94
CAILLEAC-NA-CEARC 97
THE GOATS 100
THE CURIOUS WOMAN 102
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ILLUSTRATIONS
HE CAME DOWN SPREAD-LEGS ON A MULE _Frontispiece_
THE KING WAS HID IN THE YELLOW EGG _Facing page_ 6
BESWARRAGAL AND HER MAIDENS BATHE 10
BESWARRAGAL AND THE MAN WITH WINGS 18
IT IS IN THAT FOX CROAGCILL’S LIFE WAS 28
A GENTLEMAN’S DEMESNE AND WALLS ABOUT IT 34
THE BLACK BULLOCKEEN DIES 64
THE THIRD THING I’LL BE TAKING IS YOURSELF 76
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MULE
Well, I will tell you the story of a Mule was in the world one time,
says the old man who had promised me a codfish and had only brought me a
hake.
There were three sons of a King that had died, and they were living
together, and there was a stable and a bird, and one of the sons was a
bit simple. The bird used to be coming to the stable every morning and
to be singing sweetly, and they all three fell in love with it and used
to be trying to take it, but they could not. But one day the one that
was a bit simple, that they called the Fool, took the tail off it. The
bird said to him then: ‘You must follow me now until you find me;’ and
it went away, and he went following after it. And when he was on the
height it was in the hollow, and when he was in the hollow it was on the
height, and he never could come up with it; and at last it went out of
his sight.
He came then to a wall, and he made a leap over it, and where did he
come down but spread-legs on the back of a Mule that was in the field.
‘Are you a good jock?’ says the Mule. ‘I am middling good,’ says he.
‘Hold on so,’ says the Mule, ‘and I will bring you to the place where
the bird is.’ There was a wall in front of them—a double wall—and the
Mule faced it, and went over it with one leap, and the Fool on his back.
‘You are the best jock ever I saw,’ says the Mule. ‘You are the best
Mule ever I saw,’ says the Fool. They went on then as far as they could
through the course of the day, till the Mule said: ‘I’m hungry now; go
get me a few grains of oats.’ ‘How can I do that,’ says the Fool, ‘when
I have no money?’ ‘Go in there to that inn and get it for me, as I told
you,’ says the Mule. ‘How much will do you?’ says he. ‘Seven stone,’
says the Mule. So they stopped at the inn, and the Fool put him into the
stable and bade the innkeeper to give him seven stone of oats. ‘Go in
now and get your own dinner,’ says the Mule. So he went in and he got
his dinner; and when he was ready to go, the innkeeper asked for the
money. ‘I have none,’ says he. ‘Well, I will keep the Mule in the stable
till such time as you can pay me,’ says the innkeeper, and he went out
and was going to lock the stable door, and the Mule gave a kick that
broke his leg, and there he was lying on the ground. ‘Come on now,’ says
the Mule; and the Fool got up on his back, and away with them again, and
they came to a wall that was five miles in height. ‘At it now,’ says the
Fool, and the Mule faced at it and crossed it with one leap. ‘You are a
jock that can’t be beat,’ says the Mule. ‘You are a Mule that can’t be
beat,’ says the Fool.
There was before them a lake that was five miles in length and five
miles in breadth. ‘I am thirsty now,’ says the Mule, ‘after that feed I
had. And I’ll stop now till I’ll take a drink,’ he says. ‘Do not,’ says
the Fool, ‘or you will be heavy and not able to go.’ ‘Wait till you see
that,’ says the Mule. So he stopped and he began to drink, and he never
stopped till he had drunk up the whole of the lake that was five miles
in length and five miles in breadth. They went on again till they came
to a mountain that was before them, and the whole of the mountain was in
one blaze, and there was a high wall before it, fifteen feet high. ‘Hold
on now,’ says the Mule. ‘Here, at it,’ says the Fool, and the Mule
crossed it with one leap; and when he came where the blaze was, he let
out of his mouth all the water of the lake he had swallowed, and it
quenched the blaze, and there they saw before them the bird. But if they
did it went under ground, and the Mule followed it under ground into the
enchanted place where it lived; and when they got there, it was not a
bird, but the finest young lady that could be seen, and a King’s
daughter. The Fool asked her then to come along with him till he would
marry her. ‘I will not,’ she said, ‘until such time as you will find my
father, that I have hidden away from you.’ So he brought the Mule out to
the stable, and he didn’t know where to go look for the King. And when
they were in the stable the Mule said: ‘The young lady has a hen
clutching, and the place where it is clutching is in her own room, under
her bed. And under it you will find eleven eggs,’ he said, ‘and one of
them is yellow and spotted. And take that one in your hand, and be going
to smash it against the floor, and the King that is inside of it will
cry out and will ask you to spare his life.’ So he went looking for the
hen, and all happened as the Mule had said. ‘Will you marry me now?’
says he to the young lady. ‘I will not,’ says she, ‘till you find my
father that I have hidden a second time.’ So the place where she hid her
father that time was in a duck’s bill, and she put the duck out swimming
in the middle of a pond. The young man went then to the stable and asked
the Mule did he know where the King was hidden, and the Mule told him it
was in the duck’s bill. ‘And look at my tail,’ he said, ‘and see is
there e’er a grey rib in it.’ So he looked, and there was a grey rib.
‘Pull it out,’ says the Mule, ‘and bring it to the pond where the duck
is, and throw it out over the water, and however far the duck is, that
rib will bring it back to the land. And catch a hold of it then, and
threaten to cut the neck of it, and the King will cry out from its bill
and ask you to spare him.’ So he did all that, and he spared the King,
and then he went to the King’s daughter. ‘Will you marry me this time?’
says he. ‘I will not,’ says she, ‘till you find my father the third
time.’ The place she hid him the third time was in a block of wood, and
the Mule said to the young man: ‘Take a nail out from my shoe and drive
it into the block of wood till you will split it.’ So he drew the nail,
and he put it on the block of wood, and was going to split it, and the
King called out for mercy, and he spared him.
[Illustration: THE KING WAS HID IN THE YELLOW EGG.]
After that he married the young lady, and himself and herself and the
old King lived together, and there never were three people happier. And
the Mule said: ‘Where will I go now?’ ‘Go back,’ says the Fool, ‘to your
own place, for you know the way well to it. But come back here at the
end of seven years,’ he said, ‘till you’ll see how am I getting on.’ So
at the end of the seven years the Mule came back, and he asked to be
taken into service. ‘I will never make a servant of you,’ says the Fool,
‘when I remember all the things you did for me, and all you helped me.’
‘If that is so,’ says the Mule, ‘go and root up that little bush you see
beyond, and give me three blows with the stump of it.’ So he did that,
and with the three blows of the bush the enchantment went from the Mule,
and who was he but the young man’s own father, the King that was thought
to be dead. So they all four lived together then and ever since, and the
time I saw them myself they were well and happy and having great riches.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BESWARRAGAL
I will tell you the story of Beswarragal, said the old man of a hundred
years old.
There was a King of Ireland out walking one time with his Grand Adviser.
And they came to the side of a pool, and they saw in it a wild duck with
a flock of twelve young ones, and she was pushing and beating away one
of the young ones to make it leave the flock. ‘I wonder why is it the
bird is doing that?’ said the King. ‘It is the right thing, whenever
there is a family of twelve, to send one of them away to seek a fortune
for himself,’ says the Grand Adviser. ‘If that is so,’ says the King,
‘what way can I know which one of my sons must I send away?’ ‘I will
tell you that,’ says the Grand Adviser. ‘Let you watch them to-morrow
the time they are coming home from the school, and close the gate on
whichever one of them will be last, and let him be the one you will send
away.’ So the next day they watched the twelve sons coming from the
school, and the one that was last at the gate was the youngest of them
all. ‘Oh, give him another chance,’ says the King. So the next day they
watched again, and it was the same one, the youngest, that was last at
the gate; and the third day it was the same thing. ‘Oh,’ says the King,
‘it is worse to me the youngest to go than any two of the others.’ ‘You
need not mind that,’ says the Grand Adviser, ‘for I can tell you that
the life he will have will be a happy one.’ ‘I am content so,’ says the
King.
So the King sent for him then, and he gave him a purse of money that
would last him for ten years or for twenty years, and he bade him go
make a way for himself.
So the King’s son set out, and he travelled the roads till night time,
and he saw a cottage before him, and a light in it, and he opened the
door and went in, and all he saw in it was one old man. ‘A welcome
before you, King’s son,’ says the old man. ‘I thank you for that
welcome,’ says he; ‘but how is it you know me to be a King’s son?’ So
the old man showed him a sword that hung over the top of the door. ‘If
any man comes through that door,’ he says, ‘that is not a King’s son,
that sword will fall and will whip the head of him. And it is a good
time you came here,’ he said, ‘and you could have come at no better
time.’ ‘Why is that?’ says the young man. ‘There is a pool there
beyond,’ says the old man, ‘and one morning in the whole year, there
comes to it Beswarragal, that is the most beautiful woman of the whole
world, having her twelve waiting maids with her, and they go swimming in
that pool. And to-morrow is the day they are coming,’ he said, ‘and let
you hide yourself till they will go into the water, and Beswarragal will
be the last to strip, and let you take her clothes and hide them, and
she will not be able to go away, and whatever you will ask her she will
do it. And what you will ask of her is herself,’ he said.
[Illustration: BESWARRAGAL AND HER MAIDENS BATHE.]
So the young man went down to the pool, and Beswarragal and her twelve
beautiful waiting maids were in the water, and he took her clothes and
hid them. And when they were tired swimming they put their clothes on,
and then they turned to birds and they flew away, all but Beswarragal,
and she could not fly. So the King’s son came to her and he gave her the
clothes. ‘What will you give me now?’ says he. ‘I will give you anything
you will ask,’ says she. ‘I ask nothing but yourself,’ says he; ‘you to
marry me and to be my wife.’ ‘How will you go away with me and you not
able to fly?’ says she. But she put a loop of the chain she had about
his neck, and she took him by the hand and she flew away with him to a
garden, and she brought him into the gardener’s house. ‘And there is one
thing I have to tell you,’ she said; ‘you must never wonder at me or say
anything about me at all.’ ‘I will never do that,’ says he. And every
day she brought him food to the gardener’s house, and they lived
together there for a while.
(The old man of a hundred years was getting tired, and the old woman
that was his wife sent out the old woman sitting on the doorstep to get
him a glass of porter. The old man drank a sup of it, and then the story
went on.)
But at last one day she passed by him in the garden, and when he saw her
so beautiful he turned and he said to the gardener: ‘There was never a
lady so beautiful as mine in the whole world.’ ‘There never was,’ says
the gardener. ‘And you will be without her now,’ he says.
So the next morning Beswarragal brought him his breakfast, and, ‘Oh,’
she said, ‘why did you speak of me and wonder at me, for I must go away
from you now to Righ-na-Sluagh, and you will never see me again.’ ‘How
could I help wondering at you,’ he said, ‘and you so beautiful passing
by? And I will go following after you for ever,’ he said.
So she went away, and before she went she left five drops of honey on
his five fingers. And he left the garden, and went following after and
looking for her in every place.
He walked on all through the day, and at the fall of night he came to a
house that had but an old man in it. ‘God be with the company left me
to-day,’ says he. ‘What company was that?’ says the King’s son.
‘Beswarragal and her twelve young girls,’ says he. ‘That is the one I am
looking for,’ says the King’s son. ‘You never will get her,’ says the
old man. ‘But I will do this for you,’ he says; ‘I will give you a ball
when you leave this to-morrow, and you can go throwing it before you,
and if you can come up with it as fast as it goes, you will come to my
brother and he might help you.’
So after breakfast he took the ball, and he went throwing it and
following it through the day till he came to a house where the old man’s
brother was, and he went in. ‘God be with the company that left me
to-day—that was Beswarragal and her twelve young ladies,’ says the old
man. ‘She is the one I am looking for,’ says the King’s son. ‘You never
will get up to her,’ says the old man; ‘but I will do this for you,’ he
says. ‘There are twelve horses in the stable outside; and go into it,’
he says, ‘and take down the bridle you will see behind the stable door,
and shake it, and whatever horse will come and put its head in it, let
you get up on it, and it will bring you on the road she is gone.’ So
after breakfast in the morning he went out into the stable and got the
bridle and shook it, and a little _gioblacan_ of an Arabian horse came
running and put his head into it. ‘The devil’s welcome to you,’ says he,
‘and all the good horses there are in the stable!’ ‘He’ll answer you
well,’ says the old man, ‘and get up on him now. And are you a good
jock?’ he says. ‘I am,’ says the King’s son, and he got up on it. ‘Let
you leap that now,’ says the old man, and he turned the horse to where
there was a big estate-wall at the side of the place. ‘It is humbugging
you are,’ says the King’s son, ‘for there is no one would be able to
leap that wall.’ But the little Arabian of a horse rose off the ground,
and made the wild cat’s bow in the air, and he came down the other side
of the wall, but the King’s son fell on the ground. But he rose up again
and got up on the little horse. ‘We will make a start now,’ he says.
‘You will never get to the place where Beswarragal is,’ says the old
man, ‘for there is a place between this and it, and the birds that fly
high in the air fall down in ashes passing over that place, with all the
fire that is blazing up a mile high from it, and that is thrown up out
of it.’
The pony set out then, and the King’s son on his back, and away with
them till they came in sight of the fiery place. ‘Put your hand in my
ear,’ says the pony, ‘and take out a bottle that is in it, and you will
find food for yourself and white-water for myself in it.’ So he took the
bottle and he gave white-water to the horse, and he rubbed what was in
the bottle to its hoofs, and it made a great leap into the air and over
the fiery place, and pitched five miles on the other side, and nothing
harmed but that the hair was burned off its belly.
And where they pitched there was a little house, and an old woman in it,
and she gave them shelter for the night. And in the night seven men came
in, and some having but half a head, and some with their hands and their
arms cut off them. ‘Who are those and what happened them?’ said the
King’s son. ‘They are my own sons,’ says the old woman, ‘and every night
through seven years there are men coming in boats and fighting them, and
that leave them that way. And all they kill of them are alive again in
the morning,’ she said, ‘and they themselves will be healed again in the
morning as well as before.’ ‘I will go and kill them,’ says the King’s
son. So he went down to the boats and drove away the men.
Then he went on to a house that was within a quarter of a mile of the
house where Beswarragal was, and he asked lodging. ‘Why would you come
in here,’ says the man of the house, ‘and why wouldn’t you go where
everyone is going—to that big house beyond, where the wedding is going
to be?’ So he asked for a cook’s suit, and he put it on him, and he went
on to Beswarragal’s house, and there were hundreds and hundreds going
into it for her wedding. ‘Are you wanting a cook?’ says the King’s son
at the door. ‘He was never more wanted,’ said they, ‘and if there were
ten of them they would be welcome.’
So they sent him to the kitchen, and he asked the head cook for flour
and things to mix a cake, and he mixed it; and when he had it made ready
to bake he put the print of his five fingers on the top of it, and put
it in the oven. And when it was baked he put a cover over it and gave it
to the servants that were bringing up the dinner, and he said: ‘Give
that cake to Beswarragal and to no other one.’
So it was put before her on the table, and she took it to eat a bit of
it; and when she tasted it, and that she broke it and saw the five drops
of honey in it, she said: ‘Where is the man that made that cake? And
wherever he is send him up to me,’ she said. For she had found the five
drops of honey inside the cake.
So they went for him, and he asked leave to change his cook’s suit, and
they gave him that. And he came up and Beswarragal knew him, and she put
her arms about him. And the man that was to be her husband, he jumped
out of the window and broke his skull on the pavement.
[Illustration: BESWARRAGAL AND THE MAN WITH WINGS.]
So the King’s son and Beswarragal went away back to the garden; but it
wasn’t long till a man came that had wings and could fly, and he stooped
down and took up Beswarragal, as if she was a child, and brought her
away. The King’s son went following her then, and he went on till he
came to the man that had wings, and he asked her of him. ‘There was a
man came that could not fly, but that was a better man than myself,’
says he, ‘and he took her from me.’ So the King’s son went on till he
found that man, and he asked her of him. ‘There was a man came,’ he
said, ‘that had seven colours in his eyes, and that took her from me,’
he said.
So he went on till he came to the man that had seven colours in his eyes
and asked her of him. ‘She was brought away from me,’ says he, ‘by the
Queen of the Black Wood. And there is no one will be able to take her
out of her hands,’ he said.
So the King’s son went on, and he had no knowledge what way to get to
the Black Wood. And he was passing through a field, and a white _garran_
that was in the field spoke to him and said: ‘Get up now on my back, and
I will bring you as far as the stile that leads into the Black Wood. But
there is no one can go into it,’ he said, ‘because it is as dark as
night; and there is no one can face the strength of the Queen that is in
that wood.’
So the King’s son got up on the _garran_, and they went on till they
came to the road that was outside the Black Wood, and there was an old
man there was building a castle on a very large flagstone, and he asked
the King’s son where was he going, and he said he was going to bring
away his wife from the Queen of the Black Wood. ‘There is no one can do
that,’ says the old man, ‘unless it is the man that will put this castle
five yards off the flagstone, with one shove he will give it.’ So the
King’s son went at it, and he gave it one shove, and if he did he put
the castle eight yards from the flagstone. ‘Oh,’ says the old man when
he saw that, ‘I know you must be my sister’s son, for there is no one in
the whole world could do that unless my sister’s son.’ And he put his
arms about him and kissed him. And then he bade him to move the
flagstone and he did that, and there was a sword under it. ‘Take up that
sword,’ says the old man, ‘and be shaking it this way and that way. And
according as you will be shaking it, the strength will be going out of
the Queen of the Black Wood, and you can go to her when she is left
weak,’ he said.
So the King’s son did as he bade him, and by the time he came to the
Queen, all he had to do was to whip the head off her.
So he brought Beswarragal out of the wood, and they went back safe and
well again to the garden.
‘Is there any meaning in the name Beswarragal?’
‘Not a meaning; it was all the name ever she had, and it will be her
name ever and always.’
The old wife of the man of a hundred years, who had fallen asleep
listening, says to the old woman who was sitting on the doorstep. ‘Would
you say was there any meaning in the name?’ And she says, ‘I suppose she
was just an enchanted woman.’ ‘Ah,’ says the old man, ‘I’ll give you
three words that will bring you to Heaven as easy as walking out into
that street. And I will tell you now about the Seven Fishers.’
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SEVEN FISHERS
There were Seven Fishers went out one time from Galway, and a strange
sort of a wind blew one of the seven a long way off out into the sea.
And when the fisherman came back, he went up to the house and he called
to his daughter and he said: ‘I have but the one fish, but let you clean
it and bring it to the shop, and it will get us our supper.’
So she brought it out of the boat, and she was cleaning it and rubbing
it, and while she was doing that it turned to be a tall fine man
standing before her. And he stopped with her for a while, and when he
was going away he said: ‘You will have two sons, and you will never know
want, and your father will get fish every time he will go out. And here
is a letter,’ he said, ‘and give it to the sons at whatever time they
will ask tidings of their father.’
So all happened as he said, and she brought up the sons and reared them,
and at the last she sent them to get learning in Dublin. And when they
got there they saw ball-playing going on, and there was a dispute, and
those that were disputing called out to the young men to settle it, and
they gave their opinion. ‘Ah,’ said the ball-players then, ‘who are
those that are giving a judgment? Scamps that don’t know who is their
father.’
Then the young men looked one at another. ‘That is true,’ they said,
‘and we have no business here, but let us go home again.’ So they turned
and went back, and when they came to Galway there was a hurling, and a
gentleman that was at the head of one side came to them and said: ‘Two
of my own men have failed me, and come you take their place at the
hurling.’ ‘We never played it, and we know nothing of it,’ said they.
‘No matter,’ says he; ‘come and stand up now.’ So they stood up, and
when the ball came near them, the one of them made a leap and struck it,
and the other got the goal. And when they were leaving the field they
heard the people saying to one another: ‘It is the Fish’s sons were the
best.’
They looked at one another then, and they went home and asked the mother
was she their own mother. ‘I am that,’ says she. Then they asked news of
their father, and she gave them the letter he had left with her. And it
gave directions to the eldest son to go to such a cliff, and he would
find a flagstone with a keyhole and a key, and it bade him turn the key
and take out what he would find in it.
So he went to the cliff and he opened the flagstone, and under it he
found a good suit and a horse, and he put on the suit and he got up on
the horse. ‘How long will you stop on me?’ says the horse. ‘As long as
the saddle is under me,’ says he. ‘That is not enough,’ says the horse.
‘Well, as long as the skin is left on you,’ says he. ‘That will do,’
says the horse. So he set out then till he came to the Court of the King
of Munster, that had never spoken a word and never made a laugh for
seven years.
The Fish’s son went in and he asked the King why was he seven years
without speaking a word. ‘It is my daughter that was brought away from
me,’ says he, ‘by Croagcill, that beat me in a battle, and that no man
can beat; for he has the strength of a man in every rib of his hair.’ ‘I
will go bring her back to you,’ says the Fish’s son.
So they made ready a cake for him, and away with him till he met with an
old man, and he asked him did he know where was Croagcill living. ‘I
never came to the place where he is living,’ said the old man, ‘and I
have been walking for the last four hundred years.’
The Fish’s son went on then till he came to a wood and he met with a
white hound, and she searching after food. ‘It is hungry you are,’ says
the Fish’s son. ‘I am not,’ says the hound, ‘but the young ones I have
are hungry.’ So he gave her then the half of the cake, and she was very
thankful, and she said she would come to his help at any time he would
be in need of her, and he to give a call for her, or a whistle. He went
on then till he came to the strand, and he sat down to eat the half of
the cake he had left, and there came a hawk and asked a share of it, and
he gave her a share. ‘Can you give me any tidings of Croagcill and of
where he is living?’ says he to the hawk. ‘I went as far as Croagcill
once,’ says the hawk; ‘and I will give you a little canoe of a boat,’
says she, ‘will bring you to him. But it will be hard for you to kill
him,’ says she, ‘for there is no one knows where his body is or where he
has it hid. And call to me if I can give help to you,’ says she, ‘and
any good anyone can do for you I’ll do it.’
So he went in the boat, and it had charms in it, that it brought him as
far as Croagcill’s house. The King’s daughter saw him coming, and she
ran out to meet him. ‘My thousand welcomes to you,’ says she, ‘for I
thought I never would see one of Ireland’s men again.’ So he told her he
had come to bring her back to her father in Munster. ‘Oh, what can I do
with you now,’ says she; ‘for when Croagcill comes home he will kill
you?’
She put him in hiding before evening in a box, and Croagcill came in,
and having a heavy deer upon his shoulders. He drew it through the fire,
and through the ashes, and through his long, cold teeth, and there was
not one bit left but the bones. ‘Fru, fra, feasog,’ he says then; ‘I
feel the smell of a sweet-voiced liar of an Irishman in some place that
is not far off.’ ‘My dear and my love, and my man that is better than
his father,’ says the King’s daughter, ‘it is that I myself was at the
top of the house, and there came a little bird from Ireland and perched
upon my hand.’ ‘Maybe so, maybe so,’ says he. ‘You to get your death,’
says the King’s daughter; ‘what at all would I do being left in this
strange house?’ ‘Och,’ says he, ‘I will never get my death; for there is
no one knows where the life of my body is hid.’ ‘Oh, and where is it?’
says the King’s daughter. ‘It is in the green plot that is outside the
door,’ says he.
He went out in the morning, and the King’s daughter rose up and she took
roses and posies and every sort that was pretty, and she put them out on
the green plot. And she let the Fish’s son come out for the daytime, and
she put him back in the box at night. When Croagcill drew to the house
in the evening there was a big beast upon his shoulders, and he drew it
through the fire, and through the ashes, and through his long, cold
teeth, and there was not a bit left on it. ‘Fru, fra, feasog, I get the
smell of the sweet-voiced, lying Irishman coming to my house to-night,’
says he. ‘My love and my secret, there is nothing at all but what is
used to be in it,’ says she. ‘There is, and more,’ says he. ‘Oh, I was
up at the top of the castle, and a little bird from Ireland came and
perched on my head,’ says she. ‘Maybe so, maybe so,’ says Croagcill. He
went out then. ‘What is the reason the green plot to be full of roses
and posies?’ says he. ‘Didn’t I hear you say,’ says she, ‘that is the
place your life is?’ ‘Och,’ says he, ‘you to know the place where my
life is, it is likely you would have affection for it.’ ‘I would indeed
be fond of it,’ says she. ‘Well,’ says he, ‘there is a green holly-bush
beyond at the brink of the sea, and it is inside that tree my life is,
and I will never get my death till the Fish’s son from Ireland will come
and will cut down that tree with his sword, and that is a thing will not
happen for ever.’
[Illustration: IT IS IN THAT FOX CROAGCILL’S LIFE WAS.]
In the morning Croagcill went out to the wood, and the Fish’s son took
his sword and began to cut the holly-tree. And when he had it near cut
through, the red fox ran out from the roots, and it is in that fox
Croagcill’s life was. Then the Fish’s son gave a call and a whistle, and
the white hound from the wood came and followed after the fox, and they
were going up and down and there and hither in every part, and at the
last the hound got a grip of the fox. But with that it changed into a
bird and went flying up high over the tide. ‘Oh, where is now the grey
hawk of the dark earth?’ says the Fish’s son. So the hawk was there on
the minute, and she made a dart at the bird in the air, and caught it in
her claws and killed it that it dropped into the sea, and at that minute
Croagcill dropped dead where he was, and there was an end of him.
They gathered all he had of riches, and they went back to the King of
Munster’s house. The King was very glad to see them coming home. ‘You
can take my daughter now,’ says the King, ‘and you can join and be
married to one another.’ So they married and wedded together, and there
was a wedding feast for a year and a day for them, and it was as good
the last day as at the first.
SHAWNEEN
There was a King one time was very much put out because he had no son,
and he went at last to consult his Chief Adviser. And the Chief Adviser
said: ‘It is easy enough managed if you do as I tell you. Let you send
some one,’ says he, ‘to such a place to catch a fish. And when the fish
is brought in, give it to the Queen, your wife, to eat.’
So the King sent as he was bade, and the fish was caught and brought in,
and he gave it to the cook, and bade her put it before the fire, but to
be careful with it, and not to let any blob or blister rise on it. But
it is impossible to cook a fish before the fire without the skin of it
rising in some place or other, and so there came a blob on the skin, and
the cook put her finger on it to smooth it down, and then she put her
finger into her mouth to cool it, and so she got a taste of the fish.
And then it was sent up to the Queen, and she ate it, and what was left
of it was thrown out into the yard, and there was a mare in the yard,
and a greyhound, and they ate the bits that were thrown out.
And before a year was out the Queen had a young son, and the cook had a
young son, and the mare had two foals, and the greyhound had two pups.
And the two young men were sent off for a while to some place to be
cared, and when they came back they were so much like one another no
person could say which was the Queen’s son and which was the cook’s. And
the Queen was vexed at that, and she went to the Chief Adviser and said:
‘Tell me some way that I can know which is my own son, for I don’t like
to be giving the same eating and drinking to the cook’s son as to my
own.’ ‘It is easy to know that,’ said the Chief Adviser, ‘if you will do
as I tell you. Go you outside, and stand at the door they will be coming
in by, and when they see you, your own son will bow his head, but the
cook’s son will only laugh.’
So she did that, and when her own son bowed his head her servants put a
mark on him, that she would know him again. And when they were all
sitting at their dinner after that, she said to Shawneen, that was the
cook’s son: ‘It is time for you to go away out of this, for you are not
my son.’ And her own son, that we will call Shamus, said: ‘Do not send
him away; are we not brothers?’ But Shawneen said: ‘I would have been
long ago out of this house if I knew it was not my own father and mother
owned it.’ And for all Shamus could say to him, he would not stop. But
before he went they were by the well that was in the garden, and he said
to Shamus: ‘If harm ever happens to me, that water on the top of the
well will be blood, and the water below will be honey.’
[Illustration: A GENTLEMAN’S DEMESNE AND WALLS ABOUT IT.]
Then he took one of the pups, and one of the two horses that was foaled
after the mare eating the fish, and the wind that was after him could
not catch him, and he caught the wind that was before him. And he went
on till he came to a cooper’s house, and he asked did he want a servant.
‘Well,’ says the cooper, ‘I have thirteen goats—twelve goats and a
puck—and let you bring them out and be minding them to-morrow.’ ‘I will
do that for you,’ says Shawneen. So the cooper engaged him, and on the
morrow he brought out the goats to the place he was bade, that was the
top of a mountain. And there was a gentleman’s demesne, and walls about
it, and he looked in at the gate and he saw grass growing up as high as
the trees. ‘Why wouldn’t my poor goats go in there,’ says he, ‘and be
grazing in it, and not to be out on that red mountain where there is not
a rib of grass, and what they are eating is clay?’ So he drove in the
goats through the gate, and they were eating the grass, and he heard
some person coming, and he went up in a tree. He saw a giant coming into
the field. The giant looked at him. ‘I see where you are in the tree,’
says he. ‘And I think you too big for one mouthful,’ says he; ‘and I
think you too small for two mouthfuls, and I don’t know what will I do
with you unless I will grind you up and make snuff for my nose.’ ‘As you
are strong be merciful,’ says Shawneen up in the tree. ‘Come down out of
that, you little dwarf,’ says the giant, ‘or I’ll tear you and the tree
asunder.’ So Shawneen came down. ‘Would you sooner be driving red-hot
knives into one another’s hearts,’ says the giant, ‘or would you sooner
be fighting one another on red-hot flags?’ ‘Fighting on red-hot flags is
what I’m used to at home,’ says Shawneen; ‘and your dirty feet will be
sinking in them and my feet will be rising.’ So then they began the
fight. The ground that was hard they made soft, and the ground that was
soft they made hard, and they made spring-wells come up through the
green flags. They were like that all through the day, no one getting the
upper hand of the other; and at last a little bird came and sat on the
bush and said to Shawneen: ‘If you won’t make an end of him by sunset,
he’ll make an end of you.’ Then Shawneen put out his strength, and he
brought the giant down on his knees. ‘Give me my life,’ says the giant,
‘and I’ll give you the best gift I have.’ ‘What gift is that?’ says
Shawneen. ‘A Sword that nothing can stand against,’ says the giant.
‘Where is it to be found?’ says Shawneen. ‘In that red door you see
there in the hill.’ So Shawneen went and got it out. ‘Where will I try
the Sword?’ says he. ‘Try it on that ugly black stump of a tree,’ says
the giant. ‘I see nothing blacker or uglier than your own head,’ says
Shawneen. And with that he made one stroke, and cut off the giant’s head
that it went into the air, and he caught it on the Sword as it was
coming down, and made two halves of it. ‘It is well for you I did not
join to the body again,’ says the head, ‘or you would never have been
able to strike it off again.’ ‘I did not give you the chance of that,’
says Shawneen. And he brought away the great Sword with him.
So he brought the goats home at evening, and everybody wondered at all
the milk they gave that night. And when the cooper was eating his supper
he said: ‘I think I only hear two roars from beyond to-night, in place
of three.’
The next morning Shawneen went out again with the goats, and he saw
another demesne with good grass in it, and he brought in the goats. All
happened the same as the first day, but the giant that came this time
had two heads, and they fought together, and the little bird came and
spoke to Shawneen as before. And when the giant was brought down by
Shawneen he said: ‘Give me my life and I will give you the best thing I
have.’ ‘What thing is that?’ says Shawneen. ‘It is a Cloak of Darkness
you can put on, and you will see everyone but no one can see you.’
‘Where is it?’ says Shawneen. ‘It’s inside that little red door at the
side of the hill.’ So Shawneen went and brought out the Cloak. And then
he cut off the giant’s two heads, and caught them coming down, and made
four halves of them. And they said it was well for him he had not given
them time to join the body.
That night when the goats came home all the vessels that could be found
were filled up with milk.
The next morning Shawneen went out again, and all happened as before,
and the giant this time had four heads, and Shawneen made eight halves
of them. And the giant told him to go to a little blue door in the side
of the hill, and there he got a pair of Shoes of Swiftness, that when
you put them on would make you run faster than the wind.
That night the goats gave so much milk there was no place to hold it.
‘Oh, what can we do for vessels to hold the milk?’ says the cooper, and
they were milking the poor goats on the ground, and it was given to poor
people and men passing the road. I was passing that way myself, and I
got a drink of it. ‘Why is it,’ says the cooper, ‘the goats are giving
so much milk these days? Are you bringing them to any other grass?’ ‘I
am not,’ says Shawneen, ‘but I have a good stick, and whenever they
would stop still or lie down I give them blows of it, that they jump
over walls and stones and ditches; that’s the way to make them give
plenty of milk.’ And that night at supper the cooper said: ‘I hear no
roars at all.’
The next day Shawneen brought the goats to the first meadow he went to,
and there came before him the mother of the three giants, that was the
strongest of them all. ‘Was it you killed my three sons?’ says she. ‘It
was,’ says Shawneen. ‘I thought,’ says she, ‘the man wasn’t born in
Ireland that could do that much.’ So they took a hold of one another and
went wrestling, and neither of them got the better of the other through
the length of the day. And it is the way it was, the two farthest back
teeth in the mother’s mouth were crutches to her, that reached down to
the ground, the way Shawneen would not get a good grip of her at one
side or the other. And at the fall of day the little bird came and sat
on the bush and said: ‘Why wouldn’t you give a tip to the crutch?’ So
with that he gave a tip of his boot to the tooth, that knocked it out of
her head, and the mother fell, and before she died she gave him up her
estate.
Shawneen left the cooper’s house then, and he went on till he came to a
large garden, and he went up in the branches of a cherry-tree, and he
was eating the cherries and throwing the stones down. There came in a
young lady, and she looked up and she saw him in the tree. ‘Oh, you are
an unruly lad,’ says she, ‘for that tree belongs to the King that is my
father, and what right have you to go plundering it down?’ So he came
down then out of the tree, and he asked what could he do for her. ‘Go
out and bring me news,’ says she, ‘is the Black Duke coming to make a
good fight against the Fiery Dragon.’ The Fiery Dragon now was a fish
that used to come every seven years, and he should get the primest lady
in the land to eat and to banish. And it was the King’s daughter was to
be given to him on that very day, unless the Black Duke or some other
champion would get the better of him. And it was given out that whatever
man would kill the Dragon would get the King’s daughter for his wife.
So Shawneen went down by the road to the sea, and he came to a cluster
of brambles and of bushes that was beside the road, and he looked in,
and who was hiding in it but the Black Duke. ‘Why wouldn’t you go
fight?’ says Shawneen; ‘and thousands of people and carriages there
looking on.’ ‘Oh, I am in dread,’ says the Black Duke; for he was a
great coward, and he was afeard to go on and to face the Fiery Dragon.
‘Give me here your suit of armour,’ says Shawneen. So he got the suit of
armour and he went on to the brink of the sea, and it was like the
Cliffs of Moher; all the people were looking down from it, and there on
the strand the King’s daughter was sitting and she crying, and tied in a
silver chair. And she saw Shawneen coming, and he wearing the Black
Duke’s suit. ‘Let me lie a while with my head on your knee,’ says he,
‘and you can waken me when the Dragon is coming.’ So he did that, and
she saw the Fiery Dragon coming, and its mouth open and a fiery flame
from it, and nine miles of the sea was dry with all he drank of it. So
she wakened Shawneen, and they had a great fight, and he got the better
of the Fiery Dragon. ‘Oh, let me go out of this for the night,’ says the
Dragon, ‘and I’ll come back in the early morning out of the salt sea.’
So Shawneen let him go, and as to himself, he put on the Shoes of
Swiftness that no one would overtake him, and he went back to the
cooper’s house for the night.
Well, the next day he came again, and there was no news or tidings of
the Black Duke, and all happened as before, and he drove back the Fiery
Dragon till the next morning.
And the third day Shawneen came again, and he lay down to take a sleep
while he was waiting, with his head in the lap of the King’s daughter.
And this time she thought some way he was maybe not the Black Duke, and
she took her scissors and cut off a bunch of his hair. ‘Are you cutting
all the hair off my head?’ says he. ‘I am cutting it,’ says she, ‘till
I’ll know who was it made an end of the Fiery Dragon.’ So she made a
little packet of it and put it away, and, another thing, she drew off a
golden shoe from his foot. And when she saw the Dragon coming she awoke
him, and he said: ‘This time I will put the Dragon in a way he will eat
no more King’s daughters.’ So he took out the Sword he had got from the
giant, and he drove the Dragon to his knees out in the sea, and down to
the hip, and gave him a blow that split him in two halves from the head
to the tail, and there was an end of him. And he put on the Cloak of
Darkness he had taken from the giant, that no one saw what way did he
go, and away with him to the cooper’s house.
Then the King made ready the wedding, and he sent for the Black Duke
that was to marry his daughter, and he was made much of and was the
right-hand man, and there was music and shouting before him, and the
greatest wedding given out that ever was. But the King’s daughter knew
well it was not the Black Duke had saved her, and she took out the bunch
of hair she had, and she said she would marry no one but the man whose
hair would match that: and she showed the gold shoe and said she would
marry no one but the man whose foot would fit it. And the Black Duke
tried to put on the shoe, but so much as his toe would not go into it;
and as for his hair, it did not match at all to the bunch of hair she
had cut from the man that saved her.
So then the King gave a great ball to bring all the chief men of the
country together, to try would the shoe fit any of them. And they were
all going to carpenters and joiners getting bits of their feet cut off
to try could they wear the shoe, but it was no use; not one of them
could get it on. Then the King went to his Chief Adviser and asked what
could he do. And the Chief Adviser bade him to give another ball. ‘And
this time,’ he said, ‘give it to poor as well as rich.’
So the ball was given and many came flocking to it, but the shoe would
not fit any one of them. And there were two Fools passing the way and
they said: ‘There is a wedding going on, the greatest that ever was in
the world; and let us go in now,’ they said, ‘and we will be eating
meat.’ So they went in and sat by the kitchen fire, and the King asked
had everyone in the house or out of the house tried to see would the
bunch of hair fit to their poll, and they said all unless the two Fools
that were sitting by the kitchen fire. So they were brought up and bade
to take their caps off, but the hair did not match their own. And the
Chief Adviser said: ‘Is everyone here belonging to the district?’ ‘They
are all here,’ said the King, ‘unless the boy that minds the cooper’s
goats. And I would not like him to be coming up here,’ he said. So
Shawneen was sent for, and he was told what the King said, and that
vexed him, where he knew the two Fools had got their chance. And he got
his sword and came running up the stairs as if to strike off the King’s
head. But when he got to the top of the stairs the King’s daughter saw
him and she gave a cry and ran into his arms. And they tried the shoe
and it fitted him, and his hair matched to the bunch that had been cut
off. That was a good thought the King’s daughter had to cut a bit of his
hair; and there is nothing in the world so quick as a woman’s thought. A
man’s thought is quick enough, but a woman’s thought is quicker again.
And Shawneen took the Black Duke and bound him with gads, that no one
would be able to loosen but himself, and everyone was striving to loosen
the gads, but they could not; and Shawneen was bade come and try his
hand at them, but he said he would not till the Royal Family themselves
would come asking him. So they came, and the gads loosened of
themselves, and Shawneen and the King’s daughter were married; and a
great feast was given for three days and three nights, and there was
every sort of fiddlers and of pipers at the wedding.
And at the end of that time, one morning there came a deer outside the
window, with bells on it, and they ringing. And it called out: ‘Here is
the hunt; where are the huntsman and the hounds?’ So when Shawneen heard
that, he got up and took his horse and his hound and went hunting the
deer. When it was in the hollow he was on the hill, and when it was on
the hill he was in the hollow; and that went on all through the day, and
when night fell it went into a wood. And Shawneen went into the wood
after it, and all he could see was a mud-wall cabin, and he went in, and
there he saw an old woman, about two hundred years old, and she sitting
over the fire. ‘Did you see a deer pass this way?’ says Shawneen. ‘I did
not,’ says she. ‘But it’s too late for you to be following a deer; let
you stop here the night.’ ‘What will I do with my horse and hound?’ says
Shawneen. ‘Here are two ribs of hair,’ says she, ‘and let you tie them
up with those ribs.’ So Shawneen went out and tied up the horse and the
hound, and when he came in again the old woman said: ‘It was you killed
my three grandsons,’ she said, ‘and I’m going to kill you now.’ And she
put on a pair of boxing gloves, each one of them nine stone weight, and
the nails in them fifteen inches long. Then they began to fight, and
Shawneen was getting the worst of it. ‘Help, hound!’ he cried out then.
‘Squeeze, hair!’ called out the old woman, and the rib of hair that was
around the hound’s neck squeezed him to death. ‘Help, horse!’ cried
Shawneen. ‘Squeeze, hair!’ screeched out the hag, and the rib of hair
that was about the horse’s neck began to tighten and to squeeze him to
death. Then the old woman made an end of Shawneen, and threw him outside
the door.
To go back now to Shamus. He was out in the garden one day, and he took
a look at the well, and what did he see but that the water at the top
was blood, and what was underneath was honey. So he went into the house
again, and he said to his mother: ‘I will never eat a second meal at the
same table, or sleep a second night in the same bed, till I know what is
happening to Shawneen.’
So he took the other horse then and the hound, and he set off over hills
where cock never crows and wind never blows, and the old boy himself
never sounds his horn. And at last he came to the cooper’s house, and
when he came in the cooper said: ‘You are welcome, and I can give you
better treatment than I did the last time you came in to me;’ for he
thought it was Shawneen was in it, they were so much like one another.
‘That is good,’ says Shamus to himself. ‘My brother has been in this
place.’ And he gave the cooper the full of a basin of gold in the
morning before he left the place.
Then he went on till he came to the King’s house, and when he was at the
door the King’s daughter came running down the stairs. ‘Oh, you are
welcome back to me!’ says she, for she thought it was Shawneen, her
husband, was in it. And all the people said: ‘It is a wonder you to have
gone hunting three days after your marriage, and to stop so long away.’
Well, the next morning the deer came, and bells ringing on her, under
the windows, and called out: ‘The hunt is here; where are the huntsman
and the hounds?’ Then Shamus got up and took his horse and his hound,
and followed her over hills and hollows till they came to the wood, and
there he saw nothing but the mud-wall cabin, and the old woman sitting
by the fire, and she bade him stop the night there, and gave him two
ribs of hair to tie up his horse and his hound. But Shamus was wittier
than Shawneen, and before he went out he threw the ribs of hair into the
fire secretly. When he came in the old woman said: ‘Your brother killed
my three grandsons, and I killed him, and I’ll kill you along with him.’
And she put her gloves on, and they began the fight, and then Shamus
called out: ‘Help, horse!’ ‘Squeeze, hair!’ called out the hag. ‘I can’t
squeeze; I’m in the fire,’ says the hair. And the horse came in and gave
her a blow of the hoof. ‘Help, hound!’ says Shamus then. ‘Squeeze,
hair!’ says the hag. ‘I can’t; I’m in the fire,’ says the second hair.
Then the hound put his teeth in her, and Shamus brought her down, and
she cried for mercy. ‘Give me my life,’ says she, ‘and I’ll tell you
where you’ll get your brother again, and his hound and his horse.’
‘Where is that?’ says Shamus. ‘Do you see that rod over the fire?’ says
she. ‘Let you take it down and go outside the door, where you will see
three green stones, and strike them with the rod, for they are your
brother and his horse and his hound, and they will come to life again.’
‘I will do that, but I will make a green stone of yourself first,’ says
Shamus; and he cut off her head with his sword. Then he went out and
struck the stones, and sure enough there was Shawneen and his horse and
hound, alive and well. And they began striking other stones that were
there, and the rod rose the charm from them, and men came out that had
been turned to stones, hundreds and thousands of them.
Then they went home, and Shawneen and his wife lived happy ever after,
and they had children by the basketful, and threw them out by the
shovelful. I was passing one time myself, and they called me in and gave
me a cup of tea.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MAN THAT SERVED THE SEA
I will tell you a story about a man that served the sea. It came to him
first in a dream to do that, and he was for seven years serving it,
going down by the sea every day. And at the last he saw a mermaid in the
water, and she combing her head, and he made a grab at her and brought
her to the house. And he took the cover off of her, that was the same as
a tail, and she was the most beautiful young lady that ever was seen,
and he married her. But he hid the cover up in the roof of the house,
the way she would not see it, and think of the sea.
She was with him for seven years, and by the will of God they had three
sons, and through all that time she never spoke a word, but she laughed
three times. The first time she laughed was one day the dinner was on
the fire in the pot, and a man that came in was sitting by the hearth,
and they asked him would he eat a share of the victuals, and he gave a
curse and he said: ‘Sorra bit will I eat.’ She gave a laugh when she
heard that. The second time she laughed was one day the pot was on the
fire and the dinner was boiling, and the husband’s mother that was
minding it did not take the top off. For it is the custom with our
people to take the top off what is in the pot, and to throw it in behind
the fire.
And the third time she laughed was one day the husband’s mother was
going into the parlour, and was knocked going in at the door.
Well, at the end of the seven years the cover fell down from the top of
the house, and she got a little sketch of it, and she took it and tried
it on. And with that she went out of the house into the sea, and brought
the three sons along with her, and came back to the house no more.
And the man was going every day to the sea looking for her, and at the
last, at the end of nine years, he got a sketch of her where she was
sitting on a rock, and he made a grab at her. But she said: ‘You have no
chance of getting me at all, or of bringing me back to the house. But
I’ll do this for you,’ she said; ‘the eldest son I had, I’ll give him
back to you if you will promise to leave him all that you have. But as
for myself, you will never see me again,’ she said. ‘Is it any harm to
ask you,’ says the husband, ‘what was it made you laugh the first time
in the house?’ ‘I will tell you that,’ says she. ‘I laughed to hear that
man make the curse, for when he did, all that was in the pot went to
nothing.’ ‘And is it any harm to ask you why you laughed the second and
the third time?’ says the husband. ‘The second time I laughed,’ says
she, ‘was when your mother didn’t take the top off the pot. For all that
was in it turned to poison then,’ says she, ‘and I took no taste of it
myself. And the third time I laughed,’ she said, ‘was when your mother
was knocked going in at the parlour door. For I saw what it was knocked
her,’ she said. ‘It was the leg of a pot that was standing up out of the
floor, and that was full of gold. And go home now,’ she said, ‘and dig
under the threshold of the door, and you will find the pot of gold, and
you can keep all that is in it.’
So the man did that, and he brought his eldest son with him, and he dug
under the floor and found the pot of gold, and they were very rich from
that time.
That is all, my lady, I know about it; and that is one of the old
stories of Ireland.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BULLOCKEEN
There was a King, and it is a good while ago he was in it, and he
married a King’s daughter, and at the end of two years they had a son,
and the mother died. And before dying she made a will, and she willed to
the son but one thing only—a little black Bullockeen was out in the
meadow. And she laid commands on the King: ‘Do not marry another woman,’
she said, ‘till the son I have left with you will give you leave three
times to do it.’
And the son grew to be about seven years old, and he bought a hurling
stick and a silver ball, and he used to go hurling. And one day he was
putting the ball, and when he’d give it a blow that sent it over, he
would be over before it would fall, and when he would strike it hither,
he’d be hither before it, he was that smart, that it would not fall to
the ground. The King was passing that way, and when he saw him he said:
‘It’s a pity your mother not to see you,’ says he, ‘for it is proud out
of you she would be this day.’ ‘Let you leave talking of my mother and
let you take another woman,’ says the son.
Well, the next day he was out with the ball again, and he was twice
smarter that day, and to throw the ball over, he would be over before
it, and to hit it back hither, he would be hither before it, the way it
didn’t touch the ground at all through that day. The King was looking at
him. ‘It’s a pity your mother not to be here and to see you,’ says he.
‘It is time for you to put another woman’s skin on my mother,’ says the
son. And the same thing happened on the third day.
So he married another King’s daughter, and the King’s son had a
step-mother, and a bad step-mother she was. She had three daughters, and
she used to be starving the King’s son, and not to be giving him
nourishment; but he had nothing but hardship, and all she would give him
to eat was stirabout, and she used to be giving all to the daughters.
He was out in the field one day, and the little black Bullockeen came to
him and it said: ‘I know the way you are treated,’ it said, ‘and the
sort of nourishment they are giving you. And unscrew now my left horn,’
it said, ‘and take what you will find out of it.’ So he unscrewed the
left horn, and the first thing he took out was a napkin, and he spread
it out on the grass; and then he took out cups and plates and every sort
of food, and he sat down and ate and drank his enough. And then he put
back the napkin and all into the horn again, and screwed it on.
That was going on every day, and he used to be throwing his stirabout
away into the ash-bin; and the servants found it, and they told the
Queen that he was throwing away what they gave him, and getting fat all
the same. And the Queen did not know what to do, and she would give the
whole world to get quit of him, he being so smart; but she could get no
way to do it.
So she sent for an old prophecy—a woman that did foretellings—and she
asked her what way would she get quit of the step-son. ‘It’s what is
keeping him so smart,’ says the prophecy-woman, ‘is the little
Bullockeen out in the meadow. And let you keep a watch on him,’ says
she, ‘and you’ll know it’s truth I’m telling.’ So the Queen says: ‘I
have three daughters,’ says she, ‘and I’ll send them to watch him,’ says
she, ‘for the one is as sharp as an earwig, and the other is sharper
again, and the third has one eye in the back of her poll that can see
through every enchantment.’ So the first of the girls went out, but
before she went the little Bullockeen says to the son: ‘Your step-sister
will be coming to-day to watch you,’ says he, ‘and unscrew now my right
horn, and take out a pin of slumber you will find under it, and when you
see her coming go and play with her for a while, and put the pin of
slumber into her ear and she will fall asleep.’ So he did as the
Bullockeen told him, and he put the pin of slumber into the
step-sister’s ear, and she fell into a deep sleep in the grass and never
woke till evening.
The next day the second of the girls went out to keep watch, where the
son and the Bullockeen were eating their dinner together. But the
Bullockeen rose a fog and an enchantment around them, that she could see
nothing, and so she went home to her mother.
The third day the third of the daughters went out, and the son took the
pin of slumber as before, and put it in her ear, and she fell asleep.
But if the two front eyes were shut, the eye at the back of the poll was
open. Then the Bullockeen put the fog and the enchantment around her;
but if he did, the eye at the back of her poll was able to see through
every enchantment, and she went back and she told the mother that the
step-brother got all he could use out of the Bullockeen’s horn, and that
he got out of it the best dinner was in the world.
So the Queen sent again for the old prophecy, and she came, and the
Queen asked her what way could she bring the King to do away with the
Bullockeen. ‘For he will not do it for my asking,’ says she.
‘Let you let on to be sick,’ says the hag, ‘and stop in your bed,’ says
she, ‘and send for the King, and tell him there is nothing will cure you
but the liver of the Bullockeen,’ says she.
So the Queen stopped in her bed and let on to be sick, and she sent for
the King, and she said there was nothing could cure her but to kill the
Bullockeen and to give her his liver. ‘I cannot do that,’ says the King;
‘for when that boy’s mother was dying,’ says he, ‘she made a will,’ says
he, ‘and she willed him nothing but the little Bullockeen in the meadow.
But ask me any other thing,’ says he, ‘and I will give it.’
So the Queen sent for the hag and told her that. ‘Let you take a little
black cock is without,’ says the hag, ‘and let them kill it and take the
puddings out of him,’ says she, ‘and fill it with blood, and let you put
that in your mouth and squeeze it the time the King will come in, and
tell him it is the heart’s blood is running from you for the want of the
liver of the Bullockeen,’ says she.
So the Queen did as she bade her, and they killed the cock and filled
the pudding with blood, and the Queen put it in her mouth where she was
in bed. ‘Oh, go run out for the King,’ says she, ‘for I am near my
death.’ So the King came running in. ‘Oh,’ says she, ‘I am near my
death!’ says she, and she squeezes the blood out of her mouth, and the
King thought it was her heart’s blood was coming from her. ‘It will not
stop,’ says she, ‘till I’ll get the liver of the little Bullockeen; and
let you kill him now for me,’ says she. ‘I cannot do that,’ says the
King; and he made her the same answer as before and went out of the
room.
So the Queen sent again for the old prophecy and told her all. ‘Haven’t
you a yard out there,’ says she, ‘and a wall around it,’ says she, ‘is
that high a bird can hardly fly over it,’ says she. ‘And let you drive
the Bullockeen in there,’ says she, ‘and put your champions around to
kill it.’ So that was done, but when the Bullockeen saw all the
champions making an attack on him, he rose up in the air, and the Queen
was leaning out through the window, and he took her on his horns, and
whitewashed the wall with her bones.
He called to the boy then, and the boy put a halter on him, and they
rode away together where the winds never blew, and the cocks never crew,
and the old boy himself never sounded his horn. And they overtook the
wind that was before them, and the wind that was after them couldn’t
overtake them.
They came then to a great wood, and the Black Bullockeen says to the
boy: ‘Get up now into the highest tree you can find, and stop there
through the day, for I have to fight with the Red Bull that is coming
against me. And unscrew my right horn,’ says he, ‘and take out the
little bottle that is in it,’ says he, ‘and keep it with you; and if I
am well at the end of the day,’ says he, ‘it will be as white as snow.’
The Red Bull came to meet him then, and his head was as big as another’s
body would be; and he and the little Bullockeen went to fight together
and the boy stopped up in the tree. And in the evening he looked at the
little bottle, and what was in it was as white as before. So he came
down, and he found the Bullockeen, and got up on his back again, and
they went off the same as before.
They came then to the wood where the White Bull was, and he came out to
fight the Bullockeen, and all happened the same as the first day. And
the boy came down from his tree and got on his back again, and they went
on to another wood. And the Green Bull came to meet him this time, and
the boy went up in a tree. And at evening he looked at the little bottle
and it was red up to the cork. He got down then and went to look for the
Bullockeen, and he found him lying on the ground at the point of death.
[Illustration: THE BLACK BULLOCKEEN DIES.]
And the Green Bull made a great bellow, and made away and left him
there. And the Bullockeen said: ‘I am going to leave you now,’ says he,
‘but I won’t go without leaving you something. And when I am dead,’ says
he, ‘cut three strips of skin off of me, from the nape of the neck to
the root of the tail, and put them about your body. And you to be
wearing those,’ says he, ‘they’ll give you the strength of six hundred
men.’
So the boy sat down on the ground and cried him through three days and
three nights. And after that he cut off as he was bade the three strips
of the skin, and put them around his body, and they gave him the
strength of six hundred men.
That now is the story of the Bullockeen, and it is a story that happened
in the long ago.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE THREE SONS
I’ll tell you a story, says the old man who was bringing fish from the
sea; and after that I’ll be going on to Ballinrobe, to one that has a
shop there and that was reared by my grandmother. It is likely he’ll
give me a tasty suit of clothes. Working all my life I am; working with
the flail in the barn, working with the spade at the potato tilling and
the potato digging, breaking stones on the road. And four years ago the
wife died, and it’s lonesome to be housekeeping alone.
There was a King long ago of Ireland, and he had three sons, and one of
them was something silly. There came a sickness on the King, and he
called his three sons, and he said to them that he had knowledge the
only thing would cure him was the apples from Burnett’s orchard, and he
bade them to go look for them, for that orchard was in some far-away
place, and no one could tell where it was.
The three sons went then, and they tackled their horses, and put on
their bridles, and they set out, and went on till they came to three
cross-roads. There they stopped, and they settled among themselves that
each one of them would take one of the roads and go searching for the
apples, and they would meet at the same place at the end of a year and a
day.
The youngest son, that was a bit silly, took the crossest of the roads,
and he went on till he came to a cottage by the roadside. He went in,
and there was a withered old man in the house, and he said: ‘There is a
great welcome before the King of Ireland’s son!’ The son was astonished
at that, because he thought no one could know him. He got good treatment
there, and in the course of the night he asked the old man did he know
where was Burnett’s garden. ‘I have a hundred years on me,’ said the old
man, ‘and I never heard of such a place. But I have a brother,’ he said,
‘that has a hundred years more than myself, and it may be he would
know,’ he said.
So in the morning he gave a canoe to the King’s son, and it went on of
itself without him turning or guiding it, till it brought him to the old
man’s brother, and he got a welcome there and good treatment; and in the
course of the night he asked that old man did he know where was
Burnett’s orchard. ‘I do not,’ said he; ‘though I have two hundred years
upon me I never heard of it. But go on,’ he said, ‘to a brother I have
that has a hundred years more than myself.’
So in the morning he went into the canoe, and it went on of itself till
it came to where the third old man was, that was older again than the
other two, and the King’s son asked did he know where was Burnett’s
garden. ‘I do not,’ he said, ‘although I have three hundred years upon
me; but I will tell you how you will know it,’ he said. ‘Go on till you
come to shore, where you will see a swan-gander standing by the water,
and he is the one that can tell you and can bring you to it,’ he said.
‘And ask him to bring you to that garden in the name of the Almighty
God.’
So the King’s son went on in the canoe till he came where the
swan-gander was standing on the shore. ‘Can you tell me,’ says he,
‘where can I get the apples that are in Burnett’s orchard? And can you
bring me there?’ he said.
‘Indeed,’ said the swan-gander, ‘I am in no way obliged to your leader,
or to whoever it was sent you to me and gave you that teaching. And
those apples are well minded,’ he said, ‘by wolves; and the only time
they ever sleep is for three hours once in every seven years. And it
chances they are asleep for those three hours at this time; and so I
will bring you there,’ he said.
With that he stretched out his wings, and he bade the King’s son to get
up on his back. And it was long before he could start flying with the
weight that was on him; but he flew away at last, and he brought the
King’s son to Burnett’s garden, and there was a high wall around it, but
he flew over the wall, and put him down in the garden. The King’s son
filled his bag with the apples, and when he had done that, he went
looking around, and he came to a large cottage in the garden, and he
went in, and there was no one in the house but a beautiful young girl,
and she asleep. So he went away; but he brought with him the gold rings
and the gold garters that he saw there in the window.
He got up again on the back of the swan-gander, but it was hard for it
to rise with the weight of the bag of apples. But it did rise at last,
and it brought him to where the old man was that had three hundred
years. And the King’s son gave one of the apples to the old man, and no
sooner did he eat it than his age was gone from him, and he was like a
boy of fifteen years.
He went on then to the two other old men, and gave an apple to both of
them, and no sooner did they eat it than they were like young boys
again.
Then the King’s son went back to the cross-roads, for it was the end of
a year and a day, and he was the first to come there, and he fell
asleep. And the two brothers came, and they saw him there, and they
stole the bag of apples from under his head, and they put in the place
of it a bag of apples that were no use at all. Then they went on to
their father’s house, and they gave him the apples they had stolen, and
he was cured on the moment; but they told him that what the youngest son
was bringing to him was poison apples, that would bring him to his
death.
So the King was very angry when he heard that, and he went to his butler
and he said: ‘Go out to the wood where my son is, and shoot him there,
and cut him open and bring his heart here with you on the top of the
gun, and throw it to the dogs at the door; for I will never have him, or
anything belonging to him, brought into this house,’ he said.
So the butler got the gun, and went out to the wood, and when he saw the
young man he was going to shoot him. ‘Why would you do that?’ said he.
So the butler told him all the father ordered him; and the young man
said then: ‘Do not shoot me, but save me. And it is what you will do,’
he said. ‘Go into the wood till you meet with a woodcock, and shoot it,
and take the heart out of it, for that is most like the heart of a man.
And bring the woodcock’s heart to my father’s house,’ he said, ‘and
throw it there to the dogs at the door.’
So the butler did that, and spared him, and took its heart and threw it
to the dogs at the door.
It was a good while after that, the beautiful young lady came to the
King’s doorway in a coach and four, and she stopped at the door. ‘Send
out my husband to me here,’ she said. So the eldest son came out to her.
‘Was it you came to the garden for the apples?’ says she. ‘It was,’ says
he. ‘What things did you take notice of in the cottage where I was?’
says she.
So he began telling of this thing and that thing that never was in it at
all. And when she heard that she gave him a clout that knocked his head
as solid as any stone in the wall.
Then the second son came out, and she asked him the same question, and
he told the same lies, and she gave him another clout that left his head
as solid as any stone in the wall.
When the King heard all that, he knew they had deceived him, and that it
was the youngest son had got the apples for his cure, and he began to
cry after him and to lament that he was not living to come back again.
‘Would you like to know he is living yet?’ says the butler. ‘I would
sooner hear it than any word that ever I heard,’ says the King. ‘Well,
he is living yet, and is in the wood,’ says the butler.
When the young lady heard that, she bade the butler to bring her where
he was, and they went together to the wood, and there they found him
where he had been living on the fruits of the trees through the most of
the year. So when the young lady saw him, she said: ‘Was it you came to
the house where I was in the garden?’ ‘It was,’ says he. ‘What things
did you take notice of in it?’ ‘Here they are,’ says he. And he put his
hand in his pocket, and brought out the gold rings and the golden
garters and the other signs he had brought away.
So she knew then he was the right one that was there, and she married
him, and they lived happy ever after, and there was great rejoicing in
the King of Ireland’s house.
KING SOLOMON
I’ll tell you a story now, and I’ll not be with you again till
Christmas; and I never saw a man that could read an open book, was able
to tell a story out of the mouth.
King Solomon made a great house for himself, the best that was ever
seen. And there was a man passing one day, and he stopped to give a look
at it—the way I might give a look at that house there. ‘Tell me what
there is stronger and finer than that house,’ says King Solomon. ‘I
don’t know anything that is stronger and finer than it is,’ says the
man. ‘Well,’ said King Solomon, ‘unless you can give me an answer to
that by to-morrow I’ll have the head struck off of you,’ he said.
So when the man went home, he told all that to the daughter he had, and
he said he could find no answer. ‘I will give you an answer,’ says she.
‘Is not God stronger than that house, and isn’t heaven finer than what
it is?’ So he went the next day and he gave that answer. ‘I’ll give you
another question,’ says the King then. ‘Tell me,’ says he, ‘what is the
number of the stars of the sky! And tell me that by to-morrow,’ says he,
‘or I will strike the head off you.’
So the man went home, and he could think of no answer, and he told the
daughter what happened, and how King Solomon asked him to give an
account of the stars in the sky. ‘I will give you an answer,’ says the
daughter. ‘If you were to put twelve candles lighting on the top of the
highest mountain,’ says she, ‘and to be looking at them, and your sight
to spread on you, you wouldn’t know how many you were looking at, but
you might think it was hundreds. And there is no one can tell the number
of the stars,’ says she, ‘or give an account of them, but God that made
them.’
So the man went back next day, and he gave that answer to King Solomon.
‘Where did you get that answer,’ says the king, ‘or who made it?’ says
he. ‘It was my daughter made it,’ says the man. ‘Bring her here till
I’ll have a look at her,’ says the king.
So the daughter was brought before him, and she was a fine comely girl,
and when King Solomon saw her he took a liking to her. ‘Will you marry
me?’ says he. ‘I will not,’ says she; ‘for if you marry me to-day, you
might throw me off again to-morrow.’ I suppose she said that because she
knew of him having seven hundred wives. ‘I will not do that,’ says he.
‘Well,’ says she, ‘I’ll make a bargain with you that I’ll marry you if
you give me your word that the day you turn me out you’ll let me carry
away with me the three things I’ll ask for, and to have them for my
own.’
[Illustration: THE THIRD THING I’LL BE TAKING IS YOURSELF.]
So King Solomon agreed to that, and she married him, and she had a
child. And after a while he tired of her, and said she might go home. ‘I
will go,’ says she, ‘but I’ll bring away the three things you offered to
give me.’ So the first thing she brought away was the child, and the
second thing was a bag of gold. She came then to King Solomon. ‘Now,’
says she, ‘since you said I could bring away three things, it is you
yourself is the third. And come with me now,’ she says. So when King
Solomon heard that, he was afraid she would bring him with her, and that
she would have power over him. So he asked her to stop with him, and so
she did.
He began well and he ended badly; and Samson did the same, killing a
lion that was going to eat him in the beginning, and killing himself in
the end. It was through a woman that he lost his eyesight.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ROBINEEN
I have a new wife now, says the old man who had come back from
Ballinrobe; to keep my victuals ready and the door open before me. She’s
a quiet woman at some times, but she has a queer way in her mind at the
time of the full moon, but it will pass away after. And here is a story
now, and I’ll word it easy to you.
There was a woman one time and she had three sons. Well, one day one of
them said the quarter was too small for the three of them to be in it.
‘And I’ll go,’ says he, ‘and I’ll try to do for myself. And let you turn
and make a cake for me to bring with me,’ says he to the mother.
The mother went at night and she baked two cakes, a big one and a small
one. And when he was going to start in the morning: ‘Which would you
sooner have now,’ says she, ‘to have the big one and my curse, or the
small one and my blessing?’ ‘I’ll take the big one and your curse,’ says
he; ‘the other one is too small and the road being long before me.’
Well, he tripped on till he got hungry, and sat down on the brink of a
lake, and he spread out a cloth for the dinner the way he would lose
none of the crumbs, and he broke up a piece of the cake then and
commenced eating it. The Robineen Redbreast was coming around him and he
was hooshing him away. ‘Every crumb that will fall,’ says the Robineen,
‘it will be for me.’ ‘Every crumb that will fall,’ says he, ‘it is
little enough for myself.’ So he hooshed away the Robineen.
When he had part of it ate, then he got dry, and he went to the lake to
take a drink; and the Robineen walked to the lake before him and
commenced washing herself and shaking out her wings in the lake, and she
turned it all into blood instead of water. He took a drink of it, and he
fell dead after taking the drink. The Robineen got people to bury him
under a big stone was in it; for the Robineen was enchanted, and they
say the birds of the air had talk at that time.
The two brothers then were sitting by the hearth, the same as himself,
till the end of seven years. ‘It is this day seven years,’ says the
second one, ‘that the brother went out from this. And I’ll go make a
poke for him. And it’s as good for you,’ says he to the mother, ‘go bake
a cake for the road in the morning.’
Well, the mother did the same thing as before, and she made a big cake
and a small cake, and asked him would he have the small one with her
blessing, or the big one with her curse. ‘I’ll have the big one with
your curse,’ says he. So he set out, and when he came to the same place
he sat down on the same stone where the brother had sat, and he spread a
cloth the way any crumb that would fall, he could pick it up for
himself. The Robineen came around him asking for the crumbs, and he
wouldn’t give them and he hooshed her away. So when he was going to the
lake for a drink, she went into it before him, and spread out her wings
and scattered the water, and after he took one drink of it he fell dead;
and she buried the two of them under one stone, the Robineen did, the
two brothers.
Well, they were fourteen years gone when the third man said he would go
look for them, and the mother made two cakes the same as she made for
the other two. Well, the mother told him then to take the big one or the
small one; to take the big one with her curse, or to take the small one
with her blessing. ‘There’s nothing like a mother’s blessing,’ says he.
‘And I’ll take the small one with your blessing,’ he said.
It happened that he was walking till he went in the same place where the
brothers were killed, and commenced eating the cake. The Robineen was
coming anear him, and there wasn’t a bite he would take but he would
give a second bite to the Robineen. She didn’t stir up the lake, but let
him take his full drink, and she made a well in the lake and made wine
in it and gave enough of it to him to drink. ‘Here is a little bush,’
she says then, ‘an enchanted bush; and give a tip to that stone there,
and you can rise your two brothers.’ So, thanks be to God, he struck the
two tips on the stone, and they rose as well as ever and as fresh. Says
the Robineen: ‘They may be thankful to you, they would never stir out of
that only for you coming.’
She gave this young fellow a bag of gold for himself and his two
brothers, a fine three men. They never met with the Robineen from that
out. The mother’s blessing is better with a small cake than her curse
with a big one.
After the three brothers went home, they lived together in the house.
And the Robineen had told the youngest brother to go where there was a
holly-bush in the garden and to root around it. So they went out and
rooted around it, and what they found was a crock of gold, and they
brought it away with them. There was a little flag, now, in the top of
the crock, and the flag was left aside on the grass. It happened there
came after a while a poor scholar walking the road, and he took notice
of the little slab, and that there was writing on it. And he was able to
read the writing, and it is what it said: ‘The other side is as lucky as
this side.’ So he showed that to the brothers, and they went rooting the
other side, and what did they find but two more crocks of gold, the way
there was one apiece for them. So there were no richer farmers in the
country than those three brothers, and they got gold and divided it and
scattered it.
And that is a nice story and a wonderful story, and a true thing that
fell out. And Lofarey, the man that told it to me, said it was a true
story, and that his own father told him he was speaking to the poor
scholar that read the flag.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BALL OF THREAD
There was a young lady one time, and a young boy came to her to ask her
to marry him. He gave her a pound ball of thread, and bade her to leave
it on the ground, and to take the end of the thread in her hand, and
when the end of it would be run out, to stamp her foot on the ground and
she would come to him.
So she bought a shilling’s worth of bread and a shilling’s worth of
apples, and she took the ball of thread as he told her. And when she
stamped her foot a door opened in the ground before her, and she went
in, and all she saw in the room was a dog and a cat.
So she divided the bread and the apples between them, and she gave them
halves, and they were more than proud to eat that much of Ireland’s
bread, which they didn’t get the taste of for two hundred years before.
They showed her then a store of a room where there were fifty of her
sort that were after being beheaded, and gold rings on their hands. For
the man was an enchanted man, and he had brought them away the same as
he did herself. The cat and the dog said as she proved so well, they
would hide her before she’d be in danger, for she accommodated them so
well with everything. They rose up the flag that was in the fireplace,
and they hid her there under it, and when the man came in the man asked
did such a one come in, and they said, ‘No.’
When he went to rest himself they opened the door and let her out, and
he awoke and told the cat to ask who came in at the door. The cat made
him an answer, she said: ‘No one but the dog, that struck against it.’
So the young lady went home, and after a while he came to her again the
same way, and he said he would bring her away with him. So when he was
coming she invited a great quality dinner, and before he came there she
told them all that had happened, and asked what should be done to him.
Then some said he should be hung. But a big lord that was there said to
do nothing at all to him, only to put him into a barrel of pitch and tar
and to burn him altogether. But when they thought to do that and to take
him they hadn’t but his shadow, and he flew away out through the top of
the house, and they hadn’t a trace of him, and he had brought away the
young lady along with him.
Her three brothers went looking for her then with the pound ball of
thread he had left. And when they stamped their foot the door opened
before them, but there was no one in the house but the cat. They told
him their sister was gone, and they were in dread she was killed. But he
said: ‘She is not killed, and she is here hid where she was before.’ So
they took up the flag of the hearth, and there she was safe and well,
and having four gold rings on her hands that belonged to four of her
first cousins that were beheaded in the room. The cat told them to go
home, and they would meet the man easy enough. So after a while he came
looking for the young lady again, and he had changed his clothes, but if
he had they knew him. But the first time they fired a shot at him it did
him no harm, he being but a shadow. But whatever they did, or whatever
shot they put in their gun or their revolver, they shot him dead after
that, and there was no more about him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE HORSE AND FOAL
There were very haunted people in the old times in Ireland, used to be
bewitching one another. A living class of people they were, but it was
by magic they did it.
There was a man going to the north from Mayo to sell a horse, and he was
riding the horse, and the foal after them. And over beyond the wall he
saw a hare running, and two black hounds hunting it. And when they came
to him, the hare made a leap into his arms, and he drove away the
hounds, and put it down again safe among the rocks. He went on then to
the north for to sell the horse, but if he did, in the night it was
stole from him.
So he went back to Mayo to see would he find it, and he was walking
through the day, and when the night came he met with a house, and he
went into it like any countryman might, to ask would he get a clean
lodging. And there was in the house a very nice-looking young woman, and
he asked could he get a lodging. ‘And why wouldn’t you get it?’ says
she. ‘And more than that,’ she says, ‘I’ll call in the husband, and
he’ll go find the horse you have lost and the foal. And you don’t know
me,’ she says; ‘but I am the woman you saved, and that had been turned
into a hare, and for sixteen years I was away in that shape.’
So she did what she promised, and he was deserving of it; for wouldn’t
another man have kept the hare when he got it, but something stuck in
him that he didn’t. And wasn’t it a terrible thing in those times that
women could be turned into hares? And it was only a black hound could
come up with them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WOMAN THAT WAS A GREAT FOOL
There was a woman was a great fool. She had meal to sift one day, and
the hens were bothering her, coming in over the door. And it was outside
in the field she went sifting it, that it was brought away with a blast
of wind that rose, till there wasn’t one grain left on the top of
another, but it was brought away with the wind into the fields and over
the grass. And when the husband came back in the evening he asked where
was it, and it was all spent. ‘Sure you have money in the bag to buy
more,’ says she. ‘I have not,’ says he; ‘for what is in the bag I have
to keep for the Grey Scrape of the Spring.’
Well, the next day an old beggarman came asking for money, and when the
woman looked at him and saw that he was grey: ‘That should be the Grey
Scrape of the Spring,’ she said. And she gave him all the money was in
the bag.
When the husband heard that, he didn’t say much, for he was a quiet man.
But he went and he killed the cow that was all he had left, and he cut
it up and put it in a barrel, and salt on it. ‘That will be enough to
grease the cabbage anyway,’ says he.
So the next day the wife brought out every bit of the beef, and she put
a bit of it on the top of every head of cabbage was in the garden. Well,
when the night came and they were in bed, there came a thousand dogs
fighting for the meat was in the garden, and barking, and calling, and
roaring. And when the husband went out they had it brought away, and all
the cabbage destroyed and broken.
So he said then it was as good for them to go wandering, and he went out
of the house, and the woman following him. ‘Let you draw the door after
you,’ says he—that is, that she should close it. But what she did was to
rise it off the hinges, and to draw it after her along the road till
they came to a wood. And they went up into the branches of a tree to
pass the night, and she bringing the board with her.
It happened there came some robbers under the tree, dividing a great
deal of gold and silver they were after robbing from a castle. And when
the man and the woman saw that, they dropped the door down on them with
a great noise, and the robbers were affrighted and ran away, leaving all
they had robbed after them. And the man and the woman got it for
themselves, and they were rich from that day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE DANES
I will tell you about the Danes, said the Poet’s son; and it was my
father that broke down Raftery in the latter end.
There was a man one time set out from Ireland to go to America or some
place; a common man looking for work he was. And something happened to
the ship on the way, and they had to put to land to mend it. And in the
country where they landed he saw a forth, and he went into it, and there
he saw the smallest people he ever saw; and they were the Danes that
went out of Ireland, and it is foxes they had for dogs, and weasels were
their cats.
Then he went back to get into the ship, but it was gone away, and he
left behind. So he went back into the forth, and a young man came to
meet him, and he told him what had happened. And the young man said:
‘Come into the room within, where my father is in bed; for he is out of
his health, and you might be able to serve him.’ So they went in, and
the father was lying in the bed, and when he heard it was a man from
Ireland was in it he said: ‘I will give you a great reward if you will
go back and bring me a thing I want out of Castle Hacket Hill; for if I
had what is there,’ he said, ‘I would be as young as my own son.’ So the
man consented to go, and they got a sailing ship ready, and it is what
the old man told him, to go back to Ireland. ‘And buy a small pig in
Galway,’ he said, ‘and bring it to the mouth of the forth at Castle
Hacket and roast it there. And inside the forth there is an enchanted
cat that is keeping guard there, and it will come out. And here is a
shot-gun and some cross-money,’ he said, ‘that will kill any fairy or
any enchanted thing. And within in the forth,’ he said, ‘you will find a
bottle and a rack-comb, and bring them here to me,’ he said.
So the man did as he was told, and he bought the pig and roasted it at
the mouth of the forth, and out came the enchanted cat, and it having
hair seven inches long. And he fired the cross-money out of the
shot-gun, and the cat went away and he saw it no more. And he got the
bottle and the rack, and brought them back to the old man. And he drank
what was in the bottle, and racked his hair with the rack, and he got
young again, a young as his own son.
And when there is a marriage among the Danes, they put down the land
they have in Ireland with whatever else they have, for they expect to
come back and to own the country again some day. But whether they will
or not, I don’t know.
The Danes were surely small men, or how could they live in those little
rooms and passages in the raths? I’d have to stoop myself down when I’d
go into them. They had the whole country once, and they used to make
beer out of the tops of the heather the same way the bees draw honey out
of it. And it was on St. John’s Night the people lighted wisps and
turned them out of Ireland, and that’s the reason the wisps are burned
ever since.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAILLEAC-NA-CEARC
I think I didn’t tell you the story of Cailleac-na-Cearc, the Woman of
the Hens, says the old man with the new wife; and how she committed sin.
It was one day they rose up, herself and her twelve children, and there
was not bit or drop in the house, and the height of the door of frost
and snow was in it; and she sent the husband out to see could he get
firing with a little hatchet he had.
And when he went out he got directions to cut a certain tree. And there
came out of the tree to him as much as he could carry of lumber of the
best of stuff, and he brought it home to the wife.
Well, after a while she bade him go again to the tree and cut it. And
there came from it the same lumber of provisions and gold and money and
everything they wanted. And the third time she sent him to cut the tree,
and the tree spoke to him that time, and it said: ‘You may take what you
can this time, but let you never come near me again.’ And he brought
back more than would fill the corners of the house. And he said to the
wife, that was enough.
But she made him go the fourth time, for women is awful, and she wanted
to get all that she could; and only for her bidding he didn’t like to
draw back to the tree. And that time the tree spoke to him again, and it
said: ‘You have full and plenty, and you’ll see the way your missus is,
and you going back to the house.’ For she was covetous and had no
patience, and it was by the Almighty God’s will he made a hen of her,
and twelve chickens of her twelve children. And she went scraping in the
face of the dunghill, and she never left doing that till the day of
judgment, picking for her chickens that stopped small as they were
always.
When she had too much she wasn’t pleased till she got more, and so she
couldn’t keep it and had nothing at all left her in the heel of the
hunt.
I suppose it was God that made the provision within in the tree. For the
man was holy. Did he mind seeing his children turned into chickens? He
did not. He was a born saint, and it is likely it was a saint talked
with him abroad at the tree; and he had full and plenty while he lived;
and the day he died the gates of heaven were open, and it was as a white
pigeon that he went in through them. That now is a true story, and that
is a thing that surely happened.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GOATS
There was a girl had a sweetheart that was called Shawn Shamus. And
through the crying of the Banrighean-na-breena he was brought away into
a forth. The girl went to the forth looking for him, and outside of it
she saw the Banrighean, the Queen, sitting and she combing her hair, and
having a blue dress on her like those flowers that grow in the fields.
‘Will you give me back Shawn Shamus?’ says the girl. ‘I will not,’ says
the Queen. And she went on talking for a while, the girl asking and the
Queen refusing. And at the last the Queen said: ‘I will give him to you
if you will bring me a hundred barrels of six-penny money, a hundred
fillies all of the one colour, a hundred spotted cows, a hundred ganders
and a fleet of geese; a hundred slips and a hundred pigs, a hundred
goats that are without damage or roguery.’ So the girl went looking for
all those, and she brought every one of them to the Queen of the forth
except the goats, for she could not get one that was honest, they are
all full of roguery. Everything else but the goats she brought. So the
Queen gave up Shawn Shamus, and they married and lived happy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE CURIOUS WOMAN
There will be no eating in the other world, says the red-haired man
sitting at the door. ‘But there is a tree in it with twelve sorts of
fruit, and what would that be for if we were not to eat it?’ Well, the
first man that went eating fruit made a bad hand of it. He bethought of
himself and it going down, and it stopped in his throat and gave us that
lump in it ever since. Isn’t that a terrible thing for a man to have?
But as to the woman, what she ate stopped down, and so it would if she
ate another along with it. Women are terrible for eating things. Women
are curious, and that is what led her to it. And besides that it was
nice-looking, and women like to have nice things. A woman to see a lady,
she would want all she would be wearing for herself—red stockings and
shoes and dresses, and even to umbrellas.
There was an old couple were past working and they went travelling the
roads, and they met a King that had a palace he had no use for, and he
said they could have the use of it. So he brought them in and put them
into a big room, and there was a big table with every sort of food on
it, and he bade them use what they could of what was there. But there
was a board of the table he bade them not to touch, and the reason was
he had put a mouse under it that would tell him every word they would
say.
Well, when they had ate all they could, the woman began to say she would
look what was under that board. ‘Do not,’ says the man, ‘and the King
after telling you not to touch it.’ ‘Sorra fear he to know of it,’ says
she. But he wouldn’t let her do it that night or the next night, but the
third night she put out her hand and rose up the board, and out ran the
mouse. And they tried to catch it, but you may believe they were not
able to come up with it. And so when the King saw they had the board
shifted, he turned them out of the palace and they were as poor as
before.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE.
I have not changed a word in these stories as they were told to me, but
having heard some of them in different versions from different old
people, I have sometimes taken a passage or a phrase from one and put it
in another where it seemed to fit. _The Seven Fishers_ for instance, the
beginning of which I have given as told by the old man of a hundred
years, drifted into the adventures of _Shawneen_ and of _The
Bullockeen_, and I took another ending for it; and the story of
_Shawneen_, begun in a workhouse, was continued at my own door by a
piper from County Kerry. I have only once, in _The Seven Fishers_, taken
a few sentences from a story told, not to me, but to another. I tell
this, because folk-lorists in these days are expected to be as exact as
workers at any other science.
As to the substance of the stories, there is a hint in _Shawneen_ of
Perseus and Andromeda, and in _The Three Sons_ of the Garden of the
Hesperides, and of Eden itself in _The Curious Woman_. And who can say
whether these have travelled from east to west, or from west to east,
for the barony of Kiltartan, in common with at least three continents,
holds fragments of the wonder tales told in the childhood of the world.
A. G.
Printed by Maunsel & Co., Ltd., Dublin
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Notes
The full-page illustrations from the original text have been placed into
the text. The page numbers in the list of illustrations are those in the
original text and may not reflect where the illustrations are placed in
this version. This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text.
Itemized changes from the original text:
• Frontispiece: Added hyphen in “HE CAME DOWN SPREAD-LEGS” to match
Table of Illustrations and reference in text.
• Dedication: Added missing period after “R” in “R. G. G.”
• p. 19: Supplied missing closing quotation mark after “…that is in
that wood.”
• p. 21: Supplied missing word “do” in “…all he had to do was to…”
• p. 48: Changed “neek” to “neck” and supplied missing apostrophe in
“hound’s” in “…that was around the hound’s neck…”
• p. 48: Supplied missing closing quotation mark after “…till I know
what is happening to Shawneen.”
• p. 56: Changed “ocmmands” to “commands” in “And she laid commands on
the King.”
• p. 60: Changed comma to period at end of paragraph after “…she went
home to her mother.”
• p. 65: Changed “be” to “he” in “…he cut off as he was bade…”
• p. 66: Changed “its” to “it’s” in “…it’s lonesome to be housekeeping
alone.”
• p. 96: Changed “a young” to “as young” in “…he got young again, a
young as his own son.”
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