time to come,” answered Conal.
Next day he struck the pole of combat with double the force of the first
time, so that the king got a staggering fit from the shock that it gave
him.
The Yellow King had no forces now but the deaf, the blind, the cripples,
the sensible women, the idiots, and the people of small account. So out
went the king in his own person. He and young Conal made the hills,
dales, and valleys tremble, and clear spring wells to rise out of hard,
gravelly places. Thus they fought for three days and two nights. On the
evening of the third day, the king asked Conal for a time to rest and
take food and drink.
“I have never begun any work,” said Conal, “without finishing it. Fight
to the end, then you can rest as long as you like.”
So they went at it again, and fought seven days and seven nights without
food, drink, or rest, and each trying to get the advantage of the other.
On the seventh evening, Conal swept the head off the king with one blow.
“’Tis your own skull that will be on the pole in place of mine, and I’ll
have the daughter,” said Conal.
The Yellow King’s daughter came down and asked, “Will you go with me now,
or will you take the kingdom?”
“I will go,” answered Conal.
“You did not go to the battle?” asked Conal of the guard.
“I did not.”
“Well for you that you did not. Now,” said Conal to the princess,
“whomever of the maids you like best, the guard may marry, and they will
care for this kingdom till we return.”
The guard and maid were married, and put in charge of the kingdom. The
following morning young Conal got his steed ready and set out for home
with the princess. As they were riding along near the foot of a mountain,
Conal grew very sleepy, and said to the princess, “I’ll go down now and
take a sleep.”
The place was lonely,—hardly two houses in twenty miles. The Yellow
King’s daughter advised Conal: “Take me to some habitation and sleep
there; this place is too wild.”
“I cannot wait,—I’m too drowsy and weary after the long battle; but if
I might sleep a little, I could fight for seven days and seven nights
again.” He dismounted, and she sat on a green mossy bank. Putting his
head on her lap, he fell asleep, and his steed went away on the mountain
side grazing.
Conal had slept for three days and two nights with his head in the lap
of the Yellow King’s daughter, when on the evening of the third day the
princess saw the largest man she had ever set eyes on, walking toward
her through the sea and a basket on his back. The sea did not reach to
his knees; a shield could not pass between his head and the sky. This
was the High King of the World. This big man faced up to where Conal and
his bride were; and, taking the tips of her fingers, he kissed her three
times. “Bad luck to me,” said the King of the World, “if the young woman
I am going for were beyond the ditch there I would not go to her. You
are fairer and better than she.”
“Where were you going?” asked the princess. “Don’t mind me, but go on.”
“I was going for the Yellow King’s daughter, but will not go a step
further now that I see you.”
“Go your way to her, for she is the finest princess on earth; I am a
simple woman, and another man’s wife.”
“Well, pain and torments to me if I go beyond this without taking you
with me!”
“If this man here were awake,” said the Yellow King’s daughter, “he would
put a stop to you.” She was trying all this time to rouse Conal.
“It is better for him to be as he is,” said the High King; “if he were
awake, it’s harm he’d get from me, and that would vex you.”
When she saw that he would take her surely, she bound him not to make her
his wife for a day and a year.
“This is the worst promise that ever I have made,” said the High King,
“but I will keep it.”
“If this man here were awake, he would stop you,” said the princess.
The High King of the World thrust the tip of his forefinger under the
sword-belt of Conal, and hurled him up five miles in the air. When Conal
came down, he let out three waves of blood from his mouth.
“Do you think that is enough?” asked the king of the princess.
“Throw him a second time,” said the Yellow King’s daughter.
He threw him still higher, and Conal put out three greater waves. “Is
that enough?”
“Try him a third time.” He threw him still higher this time. Conal put
out three greater waves, but waked not.
While the High King was throwing up Conal, the princess was writing a
letter telling all,—that she knew not whither she was going, that she had
bound the High King of the World not to make her his wife for a day and a
year, “and,” said she, “I’m sure that you will find me in that time.”
The king took her in his arms, and away he went walking in the sea,
throwing fish into his basket as he travelled through the water.
Conal slept a hero’s sleep of seven days and nights, and woke four days
after his bride had been stolen. He rubbed his eyes, and, glancing toward
the mountain side, saw neither steed nor wife, and said, “No wonder that
I cannot see wife nor horse when I’m so sleepy; what am I to do?”
Not far away were some small boys, and they herding cows. The boys began
to make sport of Conal for sleeping seven days and nights. “I do not
blame you for laughing,” said Conal (ever since, when there is a great
sleeper, people say that he sleeps like Conal on the side of Beann
Edain), “but have you tidings of my wife and my steed; where are they, or
has any man taken them?”
A boy older and wiser than the others said, “Your horse is on the
mountain side feeding; and every day he came hither and sniffed you, and
you sleeping, and then went away grazing for himself. Four days ago the
greatest giant ever seen by the eye of man walked in through the ocean;
he tossed you three times in the air. Every time we thought you’d be
broken to dust; and the lady you had, wrote something and put it under
your belt.”
Conal read the letter, and knew that, in spite of her, the Yellow King’s
daughter had been carried away. He then preferred battle to peace, and
asked the boys was there a ship that could take him to sea.
“There is no right ship in the place, but there is an old vessel wrecked
in a cove there beyond,” said the oldest boy.
The boys went with Conal, and showed him the vessel.
“Put your backs to her now, and help me,” said Conal.
The boys laughed, thinking that two hundred men could not move such a
vessel. Conal scowled, and then they were in dread of him, and with one
shove they and Conal put the ship in the sea; but the water was going in
and out through her. Conal knew not at first what to do, as there was no
timber near by, but he killed seven cows, fastened the hides on the ship,
and made it proof against water. When the boys saw the cows slaughtered,
they began to cry, saying, “How can we go home now, and our cows killed?”
“There is not a cow killed,” said Conal, “but you will get two cows in
place of her.” He gave two prices for each cow of the seven, and said to
the boys, “Go home now, and tell what has happened.”
Conal sailed away for himself; and when his ship was in the ocean, he let
her go with the wind. On the third afternoon, he saw three islands, and
on the middle island a fine open strand, with a great crowd of people. He
threw out three anchors, two at the ocean side and one at the shore side,
so that the ship would not stir, no matter what wind blew, and, planting
his sword in the deck, he gave one bound and went out on the strand
seven miles distant. He saluted a good-looking man, and asked, “Why are
so many people here? What is their business?”
“Where do you live? Of what nation are you that you ask such a question?”
“I am a stranger,” said Conal, “just come to this island.”
The islander showed Conal a man sitting on the beach as large as twelve
of the big men of the island. “Do you see him?”
“I do,” said Conal.
“There are three brothers of us on these three islands; that man is our
youngest brother, and he has grown so strong and terrible that we are in
dread he will drive us from our share of the islands, and that is why
we are here to-day. My eldest brother and I have come with what men we
have to this middle island, which belongs to our youngest brother. We
are to play ball against all his forces; if we beat them, we shall think
ourselves safe. Now, which side will you take, young champion?”
“If I go on your side, some may say that I fear your men; and if I go
with your younger brother, you and your elder brother may say that I fear
your strong brother’s forces. Bring all the men of the three islands. I
will play against them.”
“Well,” asked the stranger, “what wager will you lay?”
“I’ll wager,” said Conal, “those two islands out there on the ocean side.”
“They are ours already,” said the man.
“Bad luck to you! Why claim everything?” said Conal. “Well, I’ll lay
another wager. If I lose, I’ll stand in the middle of the strand, and
every man of the three islands may give me a blow of the hurley; and if I
win, I am to have a blow on every man who played against me. But first, I
must have my choice of the hurleys; all must be thrown in a heap. I will
take the one I like best.”
This was done, and Conal took the largest and strongest hurley he could
find. The ball was struck about the middle of the strand; and there was a
goal at each end of it, and these goals were fourteen miles apart. Conal
took the ball with hurley, hand and foot, and never let it touch ground
till he put it through the goal. “Is that a fair inning?” asked he of the
other side.
Some said it was foul, for he kept the ball in the air all the time.
“Well, I’ll make a second trial; I will put it through the opposite
goal.” He struck the ball in the middle of the strand, and sent it toward
the other goal with such force that whoever tipped it never drew breath
again, and every man whom it passed was driven sixty feet to one side or
the other. Conal was always within a few yards of the ball, and he put
it through the goal seven miles distant from the middle of the strand
with two blows.
“Is that a fair inning?” asked Conal.
“It would be hard to say that it is not,” said one man, and no man
gainsaid him.
“Let all stand now in ranks two deep, till I get my blow on each man of
you.”
All the men were arranged two deep; and when Conal came up, the foremost
man sprang behind the one in the rear of him, and that one behind the man
at his side, and so on throughout. None would stand to receive Conal’s
blow.
Away rushed every man, woman, and child, and never stopped till they were
inside in their houses. First of all, ran the brothers of the islands.
When they reached the castle, they began to lament because they had
insulted the champion, and knew not who he was or whence he had come.
The three brothers had one sister; and when she saw them lamenting and
grieving, she asked: “What trouble is on you?”
“We fled from the champion, and the people followed us.”
“None of you invited the champion to the castle,” said the sister; “now
he will fall into such a rage on the strand that in one hour he will not
leave a person alive on the islands. If I had some one to go with me, I
would invite him, and the people would be spared.”
“I will go with you,” said her chief maid.
Away they went, walking toward the strand; and when they had come near,
they threw themselves on their knees before Conal. He asked who they were
and what brought them.
“My brothers sent me to beg pardon for them, and invite you to the
castle.”
“I will go,” said Conal; “and if you had not come, I would not have left
a man alive on the three islands.” Conal went with the princess, and saw
at the castle a very old and large man; and the old man rose up before
him and said, “A hundred thousand welcomes to you, young Conal from Erin.”
“Who are you who know me, and I never before on this island?” asked Conal.
“My name is Donach the Druid, from Erin. I was often in your father’s
house, and it was a good place for rich or poor to visit, for they were
alike there; and now I hope you will take me home to be buried among my
own people. It was God who drove you hither to this island to take me
home.”
“And I will do that,” said Conal, “if I go there myself. Tell me now how
you came to this place.”
“I was taken,” said Donach, “out on the wild arm of the wind, and was
thrown in on this island. I am here ever since. I am old now, and I wish
to be home in my own place in Erin.”
Now young Conal, the sister, and three brothers sat down to dinner. When
dinner was over, and they had eaten and drunk, they were as happy as if
they had lived a thousand years together. The three brothers asked Conal
where was he going, and what was his business. Conal did not say that
he was in search of his wife, but he said that he was going to his own
castle and kingdom. The old druid, two of the brothers, and the sister
said, “We will go with you, and serve you till you come to your kingdom.”
They got a boat and took him to the ship. He weighed anchor, and sailed
away. For two or three days they saw nothing wonderful. The fourth day
they came to a great island; and as they neared it, they saw three
champions inside, and the three fighting with swords and spears. Young
Conal was surprised to see three fighting at the same time.
“Well,” said he, “it is nothing to see two champions in combat, but ’tis
strange to see three. I will go in and see why they are fighting.” He
threw out his chains, and made his ship fast; then he made a rush from
the stern of the vessel to the bow, and as he ran, he caught Donach the
Druid and carried him, and with one leap was in on the strand, seven
miles from the ship.
Young Conal faced the champions, and, saluting the one he thought best,
asked the cause of their battle. The champion sat down, and began. “I
will tell you the reason,” said he. “Seven miles from this place there
stands a castle; in that castle is the most beautiful woman that the eye
of man has ever seen, and the three of us are in love with her. She says
she will take only the best man; and we are striving to know who is best,
but no man of us three can get the upper hand of another. We can kill
every man who comes to the island, but no man of us can kill another of
the three.”
When Conal heard this he sprang up, and told the champions to face him
and he would see what they could do. The three faced him, and went at
him. Soon he swept the heads off two of them, but the third man was
pressing hard on Conal. His name was the Short Dun Champion; but in the
end Conal knocked him with a blow, and no sooner had he him knocked
than Donach the Druid had him tied with strong cords and strings of
enchantment. Then young Conal spoke to Donach the Druid and said, “Come
to this champion’s breastbone and split it, take out his heart and his
liver, and give them to my young hound to eat;” and turning to the Short
Dun Champion, he asked, “Have you ever been so near a fearful death as
you are at this moment?”
“’Tis hard for me to answer you,” said he, “for ’tis firmly I am bound by
your Druid, bad luck to him.”
“Unbind the champion,” said Conal, “till he tells us at his ease was he
ever nearer a fearful death than he is at this moment.”
“I was,” said the champion to Conal. “Sit down there on that stool. I
will sit here and tell you. I did not think much of your torture, for I
knew that when my heart and liver were taken, I should be gone in that
moment. Once I had a longer torture to suffer. Not many months ago, I was
sailing on my ship in mid-ocean when I saw the biggest man ever seen on
earth, and he with a beautiful woman in his hand. The moment I saw that
woman I was in love with her, and I sailed toward the High King of the
World, for it was he that was in it; but if I did, he let my ship go out
in full sail between his two legs, and travelled on in another direction.
I turned the ship again, and went after him. I climbed to the topmast,
and stood there. I came up to the King of the World, for wind and wave
were with me, and, being almost as high as the woman in his hand, I made
a grasp at her; he let my ship out between his legs, but if he did, I
took the woman with me and kissed her three times. This enraged the High
King. He came to my ship, bound and tied me with strong hempen cords,
then, putting a finger under me, he tossed me out on the sea and let
my ship drift with the wind. I had some enchantment of my own, and the
sea did not drown me. When little fish came my way, I swallowed them,
and thus I got food. I was in this state for many days, and the hempen
cords began to rot and weaken. Through good luck or ill, I was thrown
in on this island. I pulled the cords, and struggled with them till one
hand was free; then I unbound myself. I came to shore where the island
is wildest. A bird called Nails of Daring had a nest in a high, rugged
cliff. This bird came down, and, seizing me, rose in the air. Then she
dropped me. I fell like a ball, and struck the sea close to land. I
feigned death well, and was up and down with the waves that she might not
seize me a second time, but soon she swooped down and placed her ear near
me to know was I living. I held my breath, and she, thinking me dead,
flew away. I rose up, and ran with all speed to the first house I found.
Now, was I not nearer a worse death than the one to which you condemned
me? Nails of Daring would have given me a frightful and slow death, and
you wished to give me a quick one.”
“Short Dun Champion,” said Conal, “the woman you saw with the High King
was my wife. It was luck that brought me in your way, and it was luck
that Donach the Druid tied you in such a fashion. Now you must guide me
to the castle of the High King.”
“Come, now, druid, bind my hands and feet, take my heart and liver and
give them to young Conal’s hound whelp, rather than take me to that king.
I got dread enough before from him.”
“Believe me, all I want of you now is to guide my ship; you will come
back in safety and health,” said young Conal.
“I will go with you and guide you, if you put me beneath your ship’s
ballast when you see him nearing us, for fear he will get a glimpse of
me.”
“I will do that,” said Conal.
Now they went out to the ship, and steered away, with the Short Dun
Champion as pilot. They were the fifth day at sea when he steered the
ship toward the castle of the High King. “That,” said the Short Dun
Champion, pointing to a great building on an island, “is the castle of
the High King of the World; but as good a champion as you are, you cannot
free your wife from it. That castle revolves; and as it goes around it
throws out poison, and if one drop of that poison were to fall on you the
flesh would melt from your bones. But the King of the World is not at
home now, for to-morrow the day and the year will be up since he stole
the wife from you. I have some power of enchantment and I will bring the
woman to you in the ship.”
The Short Dun Champion went with one leap from the deck of the ship
to the strand, and, caring for no man, walked straight to the castle
where the Yellow King’s daughter was held. The castle had an opening
underneath, and the Short Dun Champion, keeping the poison away by his
power, passed in, found the princess, and wrapping her in the skirt of an
enchanted cloak that he had, took her out, and running to the strand was
in on the deck of the ship with one bound.
The moment the princess set eyes on Conal, she gave such a scream that
the High King heard her, and he off in the Western World inviting all the
great people to his wedding. He started that minute for the castle, and
did not wait to throw fish in his basket as he went through the sea. When
he came home, the princess was not there before him. “Where has my bride
gone, or has some one stolen her?” asked he.
“A man who has a ship in the harbor came and stole the lady.”
“A thousand deaths! What shall I do, and all the high people on the way
to the wedding?”
He seized a great club and killed half his servants, then rushed to the
strand, and seeing the ship still at anchor, shouted for battle.
When the Short Dun Champion heard the king’s voice, he screamed to be put
under the ballast. He was put there and hidden from sight. “If I whistle
with my fingers,” asked young Conal, “will you come to me?”
“I will, if I were to die the next moment,” said the Short Dun Champion.
Conal told Donach the Druid to stand at the bows of the ship, then,
walking to the stern, he was so glad at having his wife on the vessel,
and he going to fight with the High King, that he made a run, seized the
druid, and carried him with one leap to the strand, eleven miles distant.
The High King demanded his wife.
“She is not your wife, but mine,” said young Conal. “I won her with my
sword, and you stole her away like a thief, and I sleeping. Though she
is mine, I did not flee when I took her away from you.”
“It is time for battle,” said the king, and the two closed in combat.
The king, being so tall, had the advantage. “I might as well make him
shorter,” thought Conal, and with one blow he cut the two legs off the
king at the knee joints. The king fell. No sooner was he down than the
druid had him tied with hard cords of enchantment. Conal whistled through
his finger. The Short Dun Champion, hearing the whistle, screamed to be
freed from the ballast. The men took him out. He went in on the strand
with one bound, and when he came up to where the High King was lying,
Conal said, “Cut this man at the breastbone, take out his heart with his
liver, and give them as food to my hound whelp.”
“He is well bound by your druid; but firmly as he is bound, I am in dread
to go near him to do this.”
Conal then drew his own sword, and with a blow swept the head off the
High King. Then Conal, Donach the Druid, and the Short Dun Champion went
to the ship and sailed homeward. On their way, where should they sail but
along the coast of Spain? While they were sailing, Conal espied three
great castles, and not far from them a herd of cattle grazing.
“Will one of you go and inquire why these three castles are built near
together?” asked Conal of the two island brothers.
“I will go,” said the elder.
He went on shore to the herdsman and asked, “Why are those three castles
so near one another?”
“I will tell you,” said the herdsman; “but you must come first and touch
my finger-tips.”
No sooner had the champion done this, than the man drew a rod of
enchantment, struck him a blow, and turned him to stone.
Conal saw this from the ship, and asked, “Who will go in now?”
“I will go,” said the second brother. “I have the best right.” He went
and met the same fate as his brother.
“I will go this time,” said Conal.
The Yellow King’s daughter, Donach the Druid, and the Short Dun Champion
seized Conal to keep him from going.
“If I do not live but a moment, I must go and knock satisfaction out of
the herdsman for what he has done to my men,” cried out Conal. So he
went, and walking up to the herdsman, asked the same questions as the two
brothers.
“Come here and touch my finger tips.”
Conal walked up to the herdsman, caught his fingers, then ran under the
rod and seized the herdsman; but if he did, the herdsman had him that
moment on the flat of his back. But Conal was up, and had the herdsman
down, and, drawing his sword, said, “I’ll have your head now unless you
tell me why these three castles are here close together.”
“I will tell you, but do you remember, young Conal, when in our father’s
castle how I used to get the first blow on you?”
“Are you my brother?” asked Conal.
“I am,” said the herdsman.
“Why did you kill my men?”
“If I killed them, I can raise them;” and going to the two brothers, he
struck each a blow, and they rose up as well and strong as ever.
“Well,” said the brother to Conal, “Saudan Og arrived in Spain the day
before we did, and he had one-third of the kingdom taken before us. We
went against him the following day, and kept him inside that third, and
we have neither gained nor lost since. The King of Spain had a castle
here; my father and the King of Leinster built a second castle near that;
Saudan Og built the third near the two, for himself and his men, and that
is why the three castles are here. We are ever since in battle; Saudan
has the one-third, and we the rest of Spain.”
Conal arrayed himself as a champion next morning, and went to Saudan’s
castle. He struck a blow on the pole of combat that shook the whole
kingdom, and that day he killed Saudan and every man of his forces.
Conal’s eldest brother married the daughter of the King of Spain. He
took the second brother with him, married him to the sister of the two
island brothers, and gave him the three islands. He went home then, gave
the kingdom of the Yellow King to the Short Dun Champion, and had the
two island brothers well married to king’s daughters in Erin. All lived
happily and well; if they did not, may we!
THE BLACK THIEF AND KING CONAL’S THREE HORSES.