world, and came back to his own castle.
“Oh, then, we were the fools,” said the scolog to his daughters. “Sure,
they were the fisherman, the boat, and the rod.”
Off they went a second time in three balls of red fire; and they
were coming near again when the scolog’s youngest daughter made a
spinning-wheel of her mother, a bundle of flax of herself, and an old
woman of her husband. Up rushed the scolog, and spoke to the spinner,
“Have you seen a mare pass the way and two on her back?” asked he.
“I have, indeed,” said the old woman; “and she is not far ahead of you.”
Away rushed the scolog; and he never stopped till he raced around the
whole world, and came back to his own castle a second time.
“Oh, but we were the fools!” said the scolog. “Sure, they were the old
woman with the spinning-wheel and the flax, and they are gone from us
now; for they are in Erin, and we cannot take our power over the border,
nor work against them unless they are outside of Erin. There is no use in
our following them; we might as well stay where we are.”
The scolog and his daughters remained in the castle at Ardilawn of
Enchantment; but the king’s son rode home on the winged mare, with his
wife on a pillion behind him.
When near the castle of the old king in Erin, the couple dismounted, and
the mare took her own form of a woman. She could do that in Erin. The
three never stopped till they went to the old king. Great was the welcome
before them; and if ever there was joy in a castle, there was joy then in
that one.
DYEERMUD ULTA AND THE KING IN SOUTH ERIN.
There was a king in South Erin once, and he had an only daughter of
great beauty. The daughter said that she would marry no man but the man
who would sail to her father’s castle in a three-masted ship, and the
castle was twenty miles from deep water. The father said that even if
the daughter was willing, he’d never give her to any man but the man who
would come in a ship.
Dyeermud Ulta was the grandson of a great man from Spain who had settled
in Erin, and he lived near Kilcar. Dyeermud heard of the daughter of the
king in South Erin, and fixed in his mind to provide such a ship and go
to the castle of the king.
Dyeermud left home one day, and was walking toward Killybegs, thinking
how to find such a ship, or the man who would make it. When he had gone
as far as Buttermilk Cliff, he saw a red champion coming against him in a
ship that was sailing along over the country like any ship on the sea.
“What journey are you on?” asked the red champion of Dyeermud; “and where
are you going?”
“I am going,” answered Dyeermud, “to the castle of a king in South
Erin to know will he give me his daughter in marriage, and to know if
the daughter herself is willing to marry me. The daughter will have no
husband unless a man who brings a ship to her father’s castle, and the
king will give her to no other.”
“Come with me,” said the red man. “Take me as comrade, and what will you
give me.”
“I will give you what is right,” said Dyeermud.
“What will you give me?”
“I will give you the worth of your trouble.”
Dyeermud went in the ship, and they sailed on till they came to Conlun,
a mile above Killybegs. There they saw twelve men cutting sods, and a
thirteenth eating every sod that they cut.
“You must be a strange man to eat what sods twelve others can cut for
you,” said Dyeermud; “what is your name?”
“Sod-eater.”
“We are going,” said the red man, “to the castle of a king in South Erin.
Will you come with us?”
“What wages will you give me?”
“Five gold-pieces,” said the red man.
“I will go with you.”
The three sailed on till they came to the river Kinvara, one mile below
Killybegs, and saw a man with one foot on each bank, with his back toward
the sea and his face to the current. The man did not let one drop of
water in the river pass him, but drank every drop of it.
“Oh,” said the red man, “what a thirst there is on you to drink a whole
river! How are you so thirsty?”
“When I was a boy, my mother used to send me to school, and I did not
wish to go there. She flogged and beat me every day, and I cried and
lamented so much that a black spot rose on my heart from the beating;
that is why there is such thirst on me now.”
“What is your name, and will you go with us?”
“My name is Gulping-a-River. I will go with you if you give me wages.”
“I will give you five gold-pieces,” said the red man.
“I will go with you,” said Gulping-a-River.
They sailed on then to Howling River, within one mile of Dun Kinealy.
There they saw a man blowing up stream with one nostril, and the other
stopped with a plug.
“Why blow with one nostril?” asked the red man.
“If I were to blow with the two,” replied the stranger, “I would send you
with your ship and all that are in it up into the sky and so far away
that you would never come back again.”
“Who are you, and will you take service with me?”
“My name is Greedy-of-Blowing, and I will go with you for wages.”
“You will have five gold-pieces.”
“I am your man,” said Greedy-of-Blowing.
They sailed away after that to Bunlaky, a place one mile beyond Dun
Kinealy; and there they found a man crushing stones with the end of his
back, by sitting down on them suddenly.
“What are you doing there?” asked the red man.
“My name is Ironback,” answered the stranger. “I am breaking stones with
the end of my back to make a mill, a bridge, and a road.”
“Will you come with us?” asked the red man.
“I will for just wages,” said Ironback.
“You will get five gold-pieces.”
“I will go in your company,” said Ironback.
They went on sailing, and were a half a mile below Mount Charles when
they saw a man running up against them faster than any wind, and one leg
tied to his shoulder.
“Where are you going, and what is your hurry? Why are you travelling on
one leg?” asked the red man.
“I am running to find a master,” said the other. “If I were to go on my
two legs, no man could see me or set eyes on me.”
“What can you do? I may take you in service.”
“I am a very good messenger. My name is Foot-on-Shoulder.”
“I will give you five gold pieces.”
“I will go with you,” said the other.
The ship moved on now, and never stopped till within one mile of Donegal
they saw, at a place called Kilemard, a man lying in a grass field with
his cheek to the earth.
“What are you doing there?” asked the red man.
“Holding my ear to the ground, and hearing the grass grow.”
“You must have good ears. What is your name; and will you take service
with me?”
“My name is Hearing Ear. I will go with you for good wages.”
“You will have five gold-pieces.”
“I am your man,” said Hearing Ear.
They went next to Laihy, where they found a man named Fis Wacfis (Wise
man, Son of Knowledge), and he sitting at the roadside chewing his thumb.
“What are you doing there?” asked the red man.
“I am learning whatever I wish to know by chewing my thumb.”
“Take service with me, and come on the ship.”
He went on the same terms as the others, and they never stopped nor
halted till they came to the castle of the king. They were outside the
walls three days and three nights before any man spoke a word to them. At
last the king sent a messenger to ask who were they and what brought them.
“I have come in a ship for your daughter, and my name is Dyeermud Ulta,”
was the answer the king got.
The king was frightened at the answer, though he knew himself well enough
that it was for the daughter Dyeermud had come in the ship, and was
greatly in dread that she would be taken from him. He went then to an old
henwife that lived near the castle to know could he save the daughter,
and how could he save her.
“If you’ll be said by me,” said the henwife, “you’ll bid them all come to
a feast in the castle. Before they come, let your men put sharp poisoned
spikes under the cushions of the seats set apart for the company. They
will sit on the spikes, swell up to the size of a horse, and die before
the day is out, every man of them.”
Hearing Ear was listening, heard all the talk between the king and the
henwife, and told it.
“Now,” said Fis Wacfis to Dyeermud, “the king will invite us all to a
feast to-morrow, and you will go there and take us. It is better to send
Ironback to try our seats, and sit on them, for under the cushion of each
one will be poisoned spikes to kill us.”
That day the king sent a message to Dyeermud. “Will you come,” said he,
“with your men, to a feast in my castle to-morrow? I am glad to have such
guests, and you are welcome.”
“Very thankful am I,” said Dyeermud. “We will come to the feast.”
Before the company came, Ironback went into the hall of feasting, looked
at everything, sat down on each place, and made splinters of the seats.
“Those seats are of no use,” said Ironback; “they are no better than so
many cabbage stalks.”
The king had iron seats brought in, strong ones. There was no harm to
Dyeermud and his company from that feast.
Away went the king to the henwife, and told how the seats had been
broken. “What am I to do now?” asked he.
“Say that to get your daughter they must eat what food is in your castle
at one meal.”
Next day Dyeermud went to the castle, and asked, “Am I to have your
daughter now?”
“You are not,” said the king, “unless your company will eat what food is
in my castle at one meal.”
“Very well,” said Dyeermud; “have the meal ready.”
The king gave command to bring out the hundred and fifty tons of
provisions in the castle all prepared and ready for eating.
Dyeermud came with his men, and Sod-eater began; and it was as much as
all the king’s servants could do to bring food as fast as he ate it, and
he never stopped till there wasn’t a pound of the hundred and fifty tons
left.
“Is this all you have to give me?” asked Sod-eater. “I could eat three
times as much.”
“Oh, we have no more,” said the servants.
“Where is our dinner?” asked Dyeermud.
The king had nothing for the others, and he had nothing for himself.
All had to go away hungry, and there was great dissatisfaction in the
castle, and complaining.
The king had nothing to do now but to go to the henwife a third time for
advice in his trouble.
“You have,” said she, “three hundred and fifty pipes of wine. If his
company cannot drink every drop of the wine, don’t give him the daughter.”
Next day Dyeermud went to the castle. “Am I to have the daughter now?”
asked he of the king.
“I will not give my daughter,” said the king, “unless you and your
company will drink the three hundred and fifty pipes of wine that are in
my castle.”
“Bring out the wine,” said Dyeermud; “we’ll come to-morrow, and do the
best we can to drink it.”
Dyeermud and his men went next day to where the wine was. Gulping-a-River
was the man for drinking, and they let him at it. After he got a taste,
he was that anxious that he broke in the head of one pipe after another,
and drank till there wasn’t a drop left in the three hundred and fifty
pipes. All the wine did was to put thirst on Gulping-a-River; and he was
that mad with thirst that he drank up the spring well at the castle, and
all the springs in the neighborhood, and a loch three miles distant, so
that in the evening there wasn’t a drop of water for man or beast in the
whole place.
What did the king do but go to the henwife the fourth time.
“Oh,” said she, “there is no use in trying to get rid of him this way;
you can make no hand of Dyeermud by eating or drinking. Do you send him
now to the Eastern World to get the bottle of cure from the three sons
of Sean [pronounced Shawn,—John] Mac Glinn, and to have it at the castle
before noon to-morrow.”
“Am I to get the daughter now?” asked Dyeermud of the king.
“You’ll not get my daughter,” said the king, “unless you have for me here
to-morrow the bottle of cure which the three sons of Sean Mac Glinn have
in the Eastern World.”
Dyeermud went to his ship with the king’s answer.
“Let me go,” said Foot-on-Shoulder. “I will bring you the bottle in
season.”
“You may go,” said Dyeermud.
Away went Foot-on-Shoulder, and was at the sea in a minute. He made a
ship of his cap, a mast of his stick, a sail of his shirt, and away with
him sailing over the sea, never stopping nor halting till he reached the
Eastern World.
In five hours, he came to a castle where the walls of defence were
sixty-six feet high and fifty-five feet thick. Sean Mac Glinn’s three
sons were playing football on the top of the wall.
“Send down the bottle of cure to me,” said Foot-on-Shoulder, “or I’ll
have your lives.”
“We will not give you the bottle of cure; and if you come up, it will be
as hard to find your brains five minutes after as to find the clay of a
cabin broken down a hundred years ago.”
Foot-on-Shoulder made one spring, and rose six feet above the wall. They
were so frightened at the sight of what he did, and were so in dread of
him that they cried, “You’ll get what you want, only spare us,—leave us
our lives. You are the best man that we have ever seen coming from any
part; you have done what no man could ever do before this. You’ll get the
bottle of cure; but will you send it back again?”
“I will not promise that,” said Foot-on-Shoulder; “I may send it, and I
may not.”
They gave him the bottle, he went his way to his ship, and sailed home
to Erin. Next morning the henwife dressed herself up as a piper, and,
taking a rod of enchantment with her, went away, piping on a hill which
Foot-on-Shoulder had to cross in coming to the castle. She thought he
would stop to listen to the music she was making, and then she would
strike him with the rod, and make a stone of him. She was piping away
for herself on the hill like any poor piper making his living. Hearing
Ear heard the music, and told Dyeermud. Fis Wacfis chewed his thumb at
Dyeermud’s command, and found out that the piper was the king’s henwife,
and discovered her plans.
“Oh,” said Fis Wacfis to Dyeermud, “unless you take her out of that, she
will make trouble for us.”
“Greedy-of-Blowing, can you make away with that old woman on the hill?”
asked Dyeermud.
“I can indeed,” said Greedy-of-Blowing.
With that, he ran to the foot of the hill; and with one blast from both
nostrils, he sent the old hag up into the sky, and away she went sailing
so that neither tale nor word of her ever came back.
Foot-on-Shoulder was at the ship outside the castle walls half an hour
before noon, and gave the bottle of cure to Dyeermud. Dyeermud went that
minute to the castle, and stood before the king.
“Here is the bottle of cure which I got from the three sons of Sean Mac
Glinn in the Eastern World. Am I to get the daughter now?”
“I’ll send you my answer to the ship,” said the king.
Where should the king go now in his trouble but to find the henwife.
She was not at home. He sent men to look for the old woman; no tidings
of her that day. They waited till the next day; not a sight of her. The
following morning the king sent servants and messengers to look for the
henwife. They searched the whole neighborhood; could not find her. He
sent all his warriors and forces. They looked up and down, searched the
whole kingdom, searched for nine days and nights, but found no trace of
the henwife.
The king consented at last to give the daughter to Dyeermud, and he had
to consent, and no thanks to him, for he couldn’t help himself. The
daughter was glad and willing; she loved Dyeermud from the first, but the
father would not part with her.
The wedding lasted a day and a year, and when that time was over,
Dyeermud went home on the ship to Kilcar, and there he paid all his men
their wages, and they went each to his own place.
The red man stayed sometime in the neighborhood, and what should he do
one day but seize Dyeermud’s wife, put her in the ship, and sail away
with her. When going, she put him under injunction not to marry her for a
day and a year.
Now Dyeermud, who was hunting when the red man stole his wife, was in
great grief and misery, for he knew not where the red man lived nor where
he should travel to find him. At last he sent a message of inquiry to the
King of Spain; and the king’s answer was, “Only two persons in the whole
world know where that man lives, Great Limper, King of Light, and Black
Thorn of Darkness. I have written to these two, and told them to go to
you.”
The two men came in their own ship through the air to Kilcar, to
Dyeermud, and talked and took counsel.
“I do not know where the red man can be,” said Black Thorn, “unless in
Kilchroti; let us go to that place.”
They sailed away in their ship, and it went straight to the place they
wanted. They had more power than the red man, and could send their ship
anywhere.
In five days and nights they were at Kilchroti. They went straight to the
house, and no one in the world could see the red man’s house there but
these two. Black Thorn struck the door, and it flew open. The red man,
who was inside, took their hands, welcomed them heartily, and said, “I
hope it is not to do me harm that ye are here.”
“It is not to harm you or any one that we are here,” replied they. “We
are here only to get what is right and just, but without that, we will
not go from this.”
“What is the right and just that ye are here for?” asked the red man.
“Dyeermud’s wife,” replied Black Thorn, “and it was wrong in you to take
her; you must give her up.”
“I will fight rather than give her,” said the red man.
“Fighting will not serve you,” said Black Thorn, “it is better for you to
give her to us.”
“Ye will not get her without seven tons of gold,” said the red man. “If
ye bring me the gold, I will give her to you. If ye come without it,
ye’ll get fight from me.”
“We will give you the gold,” said Great Limper, “within seven days.”
“Agreed,” said the red man.
“Come to the ship,” said Great Limper to Black Thorn.
They went on board, and sailed away.
“I was once on a ship which was wrecked on the coast of Spain with
forty-five tons of gold. I know where that gold is; we will get it,” said
Great Limper.
The two sailed to where the gold was, took seven tons of it, and on the
sixth day they had it in Kilchroti, in front of the red man’s house. They
weighed out the gold to him. They went then to find Dyeermud’s wife. She
was behind nine doors; each door was nine planks in thickness, and bolted
with nine bars of iron. The red man opened the doors; all went in, and
looked at the chamber. The woman went out first, next the red man; and,
seizing the door, he thought to close it on Great Limper and Black Thorn,
but Black Thorn was too quick for him, and before the red man could close
the door he shot him, first with a gold and then with a silver bullet.
The red man fell dead on the threshold.
“I knew he was preparing some treachery,” said Black Thorn. “When we
weighed the gold to him, he let such a loud laugh of delight out of him.”
They took the woman and the gold to Dyeermud; they stayed nine days and
nights with him in Kilcar, eating, drinking, and making merry. They
drank to the King of Spain, to all Erin, to themselves, and to their
well-wishers. You see, I had great work to keep up with them these nine
days and nights. I hope they will do well hereafter.
CUD, CAD, AND MICAD, THREE SONS OF THE KING OF URHU.
There was a king once in Urhu, and he had three sons. The eldest was
three, the second two, the youngest one year old. Their names were Cud,
Cad, and Micad. The three brothers were playing one day near the castle,
which was hard by the seashore; and Cud ran in to his father, and said,
“I hope you will give me what I ask.”
“Anything you ask that I can give you will get,” said the father.
“’Tis all I ask,” said Cud, “that you will give me and my brothers one of
your ships to sail in till evening.”
“I will give you that and welcome, but I think you and they are too weak
to go on a ship.”
“Let us be as we are; we’ll never go younger,” said Cud.
The king gave the ship. Cud hurried out, and, catching Cad and Micad,
one under each of his arms, went with one spring to the best ship in
the roadstead. They raised the sails then, and the three brothers did
as good work as the best and largest crew. They left the harbor with
the fairest wind a ship ever had. The wind blew in a way that not a
cable was left without stretching, an oar without breaking, nor a helm
without cracking with all the speed the ship had. The water rose in three
terrible ridges, so that the rough gravel of the bottom was brought to
the top, and the froth of the top was driven down to the bottom of the
sea. The sight of the kingdom of the world soon sank from the eyes of the
brothers; and when they saw nothing but blue sea around them, a calm fell
on the water.
Cud was going back and forth on the deck, sorry for what was done; and a
good right he had to be sorry, but he was not sorry long. He saw a small
currachan (boat) a mile away, and went with one spring from his ship to
the currachan. The finest woman in the world was sleeping in the bottom
of the boat. He put a finger under her girdle, and went back with a
spring to the ship. When he touched his own deck, she woke.
“I put you under bonds and the misfortune of the world,” cried she, “to
leave me where you saw me first, and to be going ever and always till you
find me again.”
“What name am I to call you when I go in search of you?”
“The Cat of Fermalye, or the Swan of Endless Tales,” said the woman.
He took her with one spring to the little boat, and with another spring
went back to his own ship. Whatever good wind they had coming, they had
it twice better going home. In the evening the ship was anchored among
the others again. The brothers went ashore in a boat. When Cud came in,
his father put out a chair for him, and gave him great welcome. Cud sat
down; but as he did, he broke three rungs in the chair, two ribs in
himself, and a rafter in the roof of the castle.
“You were put under bonds to-day,” said the father.
“I was,” said Cud.
“What bonds?”
“To be going ever and always till I find the Cat of Fermalye, or the Swan
of Endless Tales.”
Himself and his father spent that night together, and they were very
sad and downhearted. As early as the dawn came, Cud rose and ate his
breakfast.
“Stay with me; I’ll give you half my kingdom now, and all when I die,”
said the father.
“I cannot stay under bonds; I must go,” replied Cud.
Cud took the ship he liked best, and put supplies for a day and seven
years in her.
“Now,” said the father, “ask for something else; anything in the world I
can give, I will give you.”
“I want nothing but my two brothers to go with me.”
“I care not where they go if yourself leaves me,” said the king.
The three brothers went aboard the ship; and if the wind was good the
first day, it was better this time. They never stopped nor rested till
they sailed to Fermalye. The three went on shore, and were walking the
kingdom. They had walked only a short piece of it when they saw a grand
castle. They went to the gate; Cud was just opening it when a cat came
out. The cat looked at Cud, bowed to him, and went her way. They saw
neither beast nor man in the castle, or near it; only a woman at the
highest window, and she sewing.
“We’ll not stop till we go as far as the woman,” said Cud.
The woman welcomed them when they came to her, put out a gold chair to
Cud and a wooden chair to each of his brothers.
“’Tis strange,” said Micad, “to show so much greater respect to one than
the other two.”
“No cause for wonder in that,” said the woman. “I show respect to this
one, for he is my brother-in-law.”
“We do not wonder now, but where is his wife?”
“She went out a cat when ye came in.”
“Oh, was that she?” cried Cud.
They spent the night with good cheer and plenty of food, the taste of
honey in every bit they ate, and no bit dry. As early as the day dawned,
the three rose, and the sister-in-law had their breakfast before them.
“Grief and sorrow, I’m in dread ’tis bad cooking ye have on the ship.
Take me with you; you’ll have better food.”
“Welcome,” said Cud. “Come with us.”
Each of the others welcomed her more than Cud. The four went on board;
the brothers raised sails, and were five days going when they saw a ship
shining like gold and coming from Western waters.
“That ship has no good appearance,” said Cud. “We must keep out of
danger;” and he took another course. Whatever course he took, the other
ship was before him always, and crossing him.
“Isn’t it narrow the ocean is, that you must be crossing me always?”
shouted Cud.
“Do not wonder,” cried a man from the other ship; “we heard that the
three sons of the King of Urhu were sailing on the sea, and if we find
them, it’s not long they’ll be before us.”
The three strangers were the three sons of the King of Hadone.
“If it is for these you are looking,” said Cud, “you need go no farther.”
“It is to find you that we are here,” said the man on the shining ship,
“to take you on a visit to our own kingdom for a day and seven years.
After that, we will go for the same length of time to your kingdom.”
“You will get that and welcome,” said Cud.