tell me.”
“You gave your head in pledge,” said Knowing Man, “for the safety of the
child; and you were a strange man to do so, for the child will be taken
from this to-night.”
“Do you say that?” asked Fin.
“I do. And do you know who will do it?”
“I do not.”
“I will tell you. In the Eastern World lives a sister of this king, a
savage hag and a terrible witch. This hag went to the Eastern World
because she had a dispute with her brother. She is ungrateful, and full
of malice; she comes now and steals away her brother’s children to leave
him without heirs to his kingdom. When she finds this room closed on
every side, and sees no other way of reaching the child, she will climb
to the roof, and stretch her arm down to catch the king’s little son, and
take him away with her.”
Lazy Back sat down near the hearth, and swore a great oath that if the
hag thrust her hand down, he would hold her or keep the hand.
A little after midnight, Hearing Ear said, “I hear the hag; she is making
ready to leave her castle in the Eastern World, and giving strict orders
to guard the two children while she is gone.”
“Well,” said Far Feeler, “now I feel her going up through her own castle;
now I feel her going out through the door on the roof. Her castle has
no entrance except an opening in the roof, and the walls of it are as
slippery as glass.”
“You will warn me when she is coming,” said Fin to Hearing Ear.
“Oh, I will,” said Hearing Ear; “I will not forget that.”
In a little while the hag was at the castle, and going around it trying
to enter. Although the castle was surrounded by sentries, not one of them
saw her; for she was invisible, through power of enchantment.
“She has come,” said Hearing Ear; “she is walking around the castle. Now
is the time to watch her well.”
A few moments later, she thrust her arm down the chimney; and no sooner
was it down than Lazy Back caught her hand. When she felt her hand
caught, she struggled greatly; but Lazy Back kept the hold that he had,
and nothing could stir him. At last the arm left the shoulder of the
hag. Lazy Back drew the arm down the chimney. All looked at it with
amazement; and while the nurses were wondering at the arm, and Fin
measuring its length and its thickness, they forgot the child. The hag
thrust her other arm down then, caught the child, and hurried away home
with it. When the nurses saw that the child was gone, they screamed; and
Fin said,—
“It would be better for us to hurry to our vessel, and leave the country
before the king is up in the morning; he will destroy us all for losing
his son.”
“We will not do that,” said the little men. “Late as it is, we will
follow the hag, and bring back the child.”
They set out that moment; and since Fin could not keep up with the little
men, Lazy Back took him on his shoulder: and, in the twinkle of an eye,
they reached the ship, and set sail for the Eastern World.
Indeed, they were not long on the journey; for they were enchanted. When
they came to land near the hag’s castle, Fin, Bowman, and two others
remained on the vessel. Climber, Thief, and the rest went for the child.
“Where are you, Climber?” asked Thief, when they were at the wall.
“Here,” said Climber.
“Take me to the top of the castle.”
Climber took Thief on his back, and climbed like a butterfly to the top
of the building; then Thief crept down into the castle, and returned
quickly with the youngest of the children.
“Take this one down to our comrades, and hurry back to me.”
Climber went down, and hastened up again. Thief had another of the
children at the top of the castle before him. Climber took that down,
with orders from Thief to carry the two children to the vessel. Then he
returned a third time, and Thief had the third child.
“Take this one, and come for me,” said Thief.
The little men at the foot of the castle ran off to the ship with the
last child. Nimble as Thief was, he could not have taken the children
at another time. All the servants were busied with the hag, who was
suffering terribly from the loss of her arm. They forgot the children for
a short time.
Climber took Thief to the ground, and they started at full speed toward
the ship. When they came, Fin set sail for the kingdom of the Big Men.
“We shall be pursued right away,” said Knowing Man. “If the hag comes up
with the ship, she will destroy every man of us.”
“She will not,” said Bowman. “If I get one glimpse of that hag, I will
put an end to her life; and do you listen, Hearing Ear, to know is she
coming, and tell me when you hear her.”
“I hear her now,” said Hearing Ear. “She is raging, and she is cursing
those who were minding the children, and let them be taken. Now she is
leaving the castle; now she is racing on after us.”
“Tell us, Far Feeler, when she is coming near,” said Fin.
“She is making a terrible uproar,” said Hearing Ear.
“She is coming toward us. She is very near,” said Far Feeler.
Bowman saw her, rested his bow on the shoulder of another, aimed, and
sent an arrow through the one eye in the middle of the hag’s forehead.
She fell flat on the sea, and lay dead there. Fin and his small men moved
forward swiftly to the castle. They arrived one hour before the end of
night, and from that time till daybreak there was joy in the chamber.
The small men and the two children of the king were playing together and
enjoying themselves. Just before day, the king sent a servant to know
what had happened in the chamber where his son was. The man could not
enter, for they would not let him; but he looked through the keyhole. He
went back then, and said to the king,—
“They seem to be very merry inside; and there are two lads in the room
bigger than any of the small men.”
The king knew they would not be merry unless the child was there. What he
did was to throw on his mantle, and go himself to see. He knocked at the
door.
“Who is there?” asked Fin.
“I,—the king.”
The door was thrown open, and in walked the king. He saw the child in the
cradle; but what was his wonder when he saw the other two. Without saying
a word, he seized Fin’s hand and shook it; and then he thanked him.
“There are your other two children,” said Fin; “and do you know who stole
them?”
“I do not.”
“I will tell you,” said Fin. “Have you a sister?”
“I had,” answered the king, “but we became enemies; and I know not where
she is at this moment.”
Then Fin told everything that had happened in the night. “And now you
have your three sons,” said he to the king.
The king made a feast, which lasted seven days and seven nights. Never
had there been such a feast in the kingdom of the Big Men as that; and
sure why not, for wasn’t it a great thing for the king to have his three
sons home with him? When the feast was over, the king sent his men to
carry all kinds of riches and treasures to Fin’s ship; and for three days
they were carrying them. At parting, the king said to Fin, “If ever you
need my assistance, you have only to send for it.”
Fin and his men sailed homeward then swiftly; and it was not long till
they reached Fintra. The ship was unloaded; and Fin was glad, looking at
his treasures, and thinking of his adventures in the land of the Big Men.
Some time after Fin had come from the land of the Big Men, he sent
warriors to the chief ports of Erin to guard against enemies. One day his
face was anxious and gloomy.
“You seem to be grieving,” said Dyeermud; “you would better tell us what
trouble is on you.”
“Some trouble is near me,” said Fin.
“By my hand,” said Oscar, “if you do not tell me your trouble, I will not
eat one morsel to-day.”
“Trouble is near me; but I know not yet what it is.”
“Chew your thumb then,” said Oscar.
Fin chewed his thumb from the flesh to the bone, from the bone to the
marrow, from the marrow to the quick, and found out that there were three
giants in the Eastern World who were coming to attack himself and his
forces, drive them into the sea like sheep, and leave not a man of them
living.
Fin knew not what to do; and he was in great grief that there should be
three men who could invade all Erin, and destroy its defenders.
“Chew your thumb a second time,” said Oscar, “to know is there any way to
conquer them. We have travelled the world, and no people have the upper
hand of us so far. There must be arms against these three.”
Fin chewed his thumb the second time; and the knowledge he got was this,
that fire would not burn, water would not drown, swords would not cut
either of the three giants. There was nothing to kill them but three
things which their father had at home in the Eastern World; and if they
saw those three things, they would fall dead, and dissolve into three
heaps of jelly. What the three things were, was not told. “Go now,” said
Fin to Dyeermud, “and find the forces, and I will watch myself for the
enemy.”
Next morning Fin took his sword under his arm, went to Fintra, and began
to herd bullocks. He did this for some time, till one day above another
he saw three giants coming in toward him, the water not past their hips.
He wasn’t long waiting when they came near the cliff where he was; and he
saw their hearts, their mouths were stretched open so widely, laughing at
the boy herding the cattle.
“Where is Fin MacCool and his forces?” asked one of the giants.
“Well,” said Fin, “it is not for me to tell you where Fin MacCool is;
I am only his herder. But is there anything in the world to kill you?
It must be there is not, and ye to have the courage to face Fin MacCool
and his forces; for no people in the world have ever yet beaten them in
battle.”
“We have come to Erin,” said the giants, “to find Fin MacCool; and we
will drive him and his forces into the sea, like sheep from the side of
a mountain. Fire cannot burn us; swords do not cut us; and water will
not drown us. Nothing in the world can cause our death but our own three
caps; and where they are, neither you nor Fin will ever know.”
“How am I to know,” asked the herdsman, “that fire will not burn you, or
water drown you, or swords cut you? Let me give you a blow; and I’ll know
will swords cut you.”
“Oh, little man,” said one of the giants, “how could you reach us with a
sword?”
“I will show you a place,” said Fin, “where I may be strong enough to
give a blow ye would remember.”
He led the giants to a narrow place between two cliffs, and stood himself
on the top of one cliff. He gave then a terrible blow of his sword to the
head of one giant, but left not a sign of blood on him.
“By my hand!” said the giant, “if every warrior in Fin MacCool’s forces
is as good at the sword as you, he need not be in dread of any men but
us.”
Fin gave the second giant a terrible blow, and staggered him.
“Oh!” said the giant, “no man ever gave me the like of that.”
He struck the third giant a blow, and knocked him to his knees; but not a
drop of blood came.
“Such a blow as that,” said the giant, “I never got from any man before.
Now, how are you to know that water will not drown us?”
“There is a place which I will show you,” said Fin. “If ye sleep in it
to-night, and rise up in the morning before me, I shall know that water
does not drown you.”
Fin showed a place where the water was twenty fathoms deep. The three
lay down together under the water to stay till next morning. Fin hurried
home then, gathered the Fenians together, and said,—
“I am in dread that these are the right giants. I knocked one trial out
of them; swords will not cut them. They are sleeping to-night under
twenty fathoms of water; but I am full sure that they will rise from it
healthy and sound in the morning. Now, be ready, all of you, to scatter
and go here and there throughout Erin. To-morrow, I am to try will fire
burn them; when I know that, I will tell you what to do.”
The following morning, Fin went to where the giants had spent the night,
and whistled. The three rose up to him at once, and came to land.
“Now,” said the eldest, as he looked around and saw the cattle, “a bite
to eat would not harm us.”
With that he faced one of the bullocks, and caught the beast by one horn.
“Leave him,” said Fin; “you have no call to that bullock.”
Fin caught the bullock by the other horn. The giant pulled, and Fin held
his own. One pulled, the other pulled, till between them they split the
bullock from his muzzle to the tip of his tail, and made two equal parts
of him.
“’Tis a deal for me to have this much itself,” said Fin. “I have saved
half of my master’s property. If ye want food, ye will get it at Fin’s
house. I will show the way; but first let me see will fire burn you.”
“Very well; we will make a great fire, and go into it; we’ll stay in the
fire till the wood is burned down, and then rise out of it as well as
ever.”
There were many trees in the country at that time. The giants and Fin
were not long making a great pile of dry limbs and logs. When the pile
was finished, the giants sat on the top of it, and Fin brought fire. The
flames rose as high as the tree-tops.
“’Tis too hot here for me,” said Fin.
“This is pleasant for us,” said the giants; and they laughed as Fin went
from the heat.
Fin could not come within ten perches of the fire. It burned all day, and
the blaze of it was seen all the following night. In the afternoon of the
next day, the pile had burned down, and the three giants were sitting at
their ease on the hot coals.
“Fire does not harm us; you see that,” said the giants.
“I do, indeed,” said Fin; “and now ye may go to Fin’s house for
refreshment.”
Fin showed them a long road, hurried home himself by a short one, and
gave command to the Fenians to scatter through Erin, and escape. Then,
turning to his mother, he said, “Make three cakes for the giants, put
iron griddles in the middle of them, and bake them a little in the ashes.
You will give these to the giants to eat. You will say that they are
soft, not well baked; that we complain when the bread is not hard. I will
lie down in the dark corner, in that big box there. Do you bind my head
and face with a cloth, and say, when the giants are eating, ‘This poor
child is sick; I think his teeth are coming.’”
The old woman put three cakes in the ashes, and the griddles inside in
them. When the giants came, the cakes were ready, and the old woman was
sitting near the cradle.
“Is this Fin MacCool’s house?” asked the giants.
“It is,” said the old woman.
“And is Fin himself in the house?”
“He is not then,” said the old woman; “and it is seldom he is in it.”
“Have you any food to give us?”
“I have nothing but three loaves of bread; ye may have these, and
welcome.”
“Give us the bread,” said the giants.
The old woman put the cakes on the table. One took a bite, another took
a bite, then the third took a bite; and they all looked at one another.
“I know ye think the bread too soft,” said Fin’s mother. “The Fenians
always blame me for making it too soft; and these cakes are not baked
very well. They are softer than the usual bread of the Fenians.”
From shame, the giants ate the cakes, griddles and all. “Well,” muttered
they, “to say that men would eat the like of that bread, and call it too
soft! It is no wonder that they walked the world without finding their
equals.”
“What exercise do the Fenians have after meals?” asked the giants.
“There is a stone outside,” said the old woman, “which they throw over
the house. They throw the stone, run in one door, run out the door
opposite, and catch the stone before it comes to the earth.”
One giant caught the stone, but did not throw it. “What is that?” said
the other, running up and lifting the stone. To show his power, he threw
it over the house, ran through both doors, and caught it coming down. The
same giant threw the stone back again, and left it in its old place. Each
of the others then did the same as the first. The life came near leaving
Fin when he heard the giants throwing the stone, and racing to catch it.
He was in dread they’d make bits of the house, and kill his old mother
and himself.
“Oh, then,” said the giants, when they left the stone, “it is no wonder
that other people get no hand of the Fenians.”
“Well, old woman,” said the eldest giant, “what is that you have there in
the dark corner?”
“My grandson, and it is sick and peevish he is.”
“I suppose the child is getting his teeth?” said the giant.
“Indeed, then, I don’t know,” said the old woman; “but maybe it is the
teeth that are troubling him.”
With that the eldest giant walked up to the cradle, and put his finger in
the child’s mouth; but if he did, Fin took two joints off his finger with
a bite.
“Oh!” said the giant, “if the child grows like that till he is a man, he
will be the greatest champion in the world. To say that a child could
take the finger off me, and he in the cradle!”
Away went the giants; and when they were gone, Fin called his eight
small men, and hurried to the ship. They hoisted sails, and went. They
raised gravel from the bottom of the sea, and put the foam of the waves
in the place of the gravel; and with every bound the ship made, she went
forward ten leagues. Never before did a ship cross the water so swiftly;
and Fin never stopped till he anchored in the Eastern World. He put the
fastenings of a day and a year on the ship, though he might not be absent
one hour, and went away with his men. They were going on and travelling,
and where did they come at last but to the castle of the old King of the
Eastern World, the father of the three giants. The old king laughed when
he saw Fin and the eight small men with him.
“In what part of the world do such people live, and where are you going?”
asked the king. “You would better stay with me till my three sons come
home.”
“Where are your sons?” asked Fin.
“They are in Erin. They went to that country to bring me the head of Fin
MacCool, and to drown all his forces in the deep ocean.”
“They must be great men,” said Fin, “to go against Fin MacCool, and to
think of drowning his forces, and bringing Fin’s head to you. Do you know
that no man ever got the better of Fin, or made any hand of the Fenians
of Erin?”
“My sons are not like others,” said the king; “but will you stay with me?”
“I will,” said Fin, “and why not?”
The old king was very fond of amusement; and after a while Fin told what
a wonderful archer one of his little boys was. The king appointed a day
for a trial of skill in archery. All the greatest marksmen in the Eastern
World were invited.
“Where does the king keep his sons’ three caps?” asked Fin of Knowing Man.
“There is a secret chamber in the castle; no one here but the king knows
where it is. In that chamber are the caps. The king always keeps the key
of that chamber in his pocket.”
“You must show the chamber to Thief, to-morrow,” said Fin.
Next day, while the king was looking at the archery, and wondering at the
skill of Bowman, who sent an arrow through the two eyes of a bird on the
wing, Thief stole the key, and Knowing Man showed the secret chamber.
Thief stole the three caps, and gave them to Fin. Lazy Back ran for
Bowman; and all were soon on the ship sailing for Erin as swiftly as they
had come.
When the ship was near land in Erin, what should Fin see but all the
Fenians coming down from the hilltops, and the three giants behind,
driving them toward the water? He went to the top of the mast then, and
raised the three caps on three sticks.
The giants looked at the vessel sailing in, and saw their own caps. That
moment there was neither strength nor life left in them. They fell to the
ground, and turned into three heaps of jelly. Fin had come just in season
to rescue his forces; in another half hour, he would not have found a man
of the Fenians alive in Erin.
“Oh, but you are here in time!” said Oscar.
“I am,” said Fin; “and it is well for you that I was able to come.”
Fin and the Fenians had a great feast in Rahin, and a joyful night of it;
and no wonder, for life is sweet.
Next day the time of the small men was out; and Fin went to the strand
with them.
“I will pay you your wages to-day,” said Fin. “To each man five
gold-pieces. I am willing and glad to give more; for ye were the good
servants to me.”
“We want nothing but our wages,” said the small men.
Fin paid each five gold-pieces. He wanted the ship in which he had sailed
to the Eastern World, and kept his eye on it.
“Oh,” said Three Sticks, “don’t mind that ship; look at the one beyond.”
Fin turned in the other direction, and saw nothing but water.
“There is no ship there,” said he, turning to Three Sticks.
But Three Sticks and all his comrades were gone. Fin looked out on the
water; the ship was gone too. He was sorry for the ship, and sorry for
the small men; he would rather have them than all the Fenians of Erin.
FIN MACCOOL, CEADACH OG, AND THE FISH-HAG.
On a time Fin MacCool and the Fenians were living at Rahonain, a mile
distant from Fintra. While Fin and his men were near Fintra, a champion
called Ceadach Og, son of the King of Sorach, came to them to learn
feats of skill. They received Ceadach with gladness; and after a time he
learned all their feats, and departed. Fin and the Fenians were pleased
with his company; and Ceadach was grateful to Fin and the Fenians.
At some distance from Fintra, there lived at that time a famed champion,
who taught feats of valor and arms, and was surnamed the Knight of
Instruction. With this man Ceadach engaged to gain still more knowledge.
The Knight of Instruction had a daughter; and there was with him a second
man learning, whose nickname was Red Face.
When the champions had learned all the feats from the knight, the two
were in love with his daughter. Not wishing that one of his pupils
should envy the other, the knight could not settle which man to choose.
He called then his druid, and laid the whole question before him.
“My advice,” said the druid, “is this: Open two opposite doors in your
castle; place your daughter half-way between them; and let the two
champions pass out, one through one door, and one through the other.
Whomever your daughter will follow, let her be the wife of that man.”
The champions had their own compact, that the man whom the young woman
would follow should let the other have three casts of a spear at him, and
he without right of defence; but if another would defend, he might let
him.
The knight brought his daughter to the middle of the chamber, and opened
the doors. The young woman went out after Ceadach.
Ceadach and his wife went their way then together; and he feared to stop
at any place till he came to a great lonesome forest. He went to the
middle of the forest, built a house there, and lived with his wife for a
season.
One day as Fin was walking near the water at Fintra, he met a strange
creature,—a woman to the waist, from the waist a fish. The human half was
like an old hag. When Fin stopped before her, he greeted the hag. She
returned the greeting, and asked him to play chess for a sentence.
“I would,” answered Fin, “if I had my own board and chessmen.”
“I have a good board,” said the fish-hag.
“If you have,” said Fin, “we will play; but if you win the first game, I
must go for my own board, and you will play the second on that.”
The hag consented. They played on her chessboard, and the hag won that
game.
“Well,” said Fin, “I must go for my own board, and do you wait till I
bring it.”
“I will,” said the fish-hag.
Fin brought his own board; and they played, and he won.
“Now,” said Fin, “pass your sentence on me, since you won the first game.”
“I will,” said the hag; “and I place you under sentence of weighty
druidic spells not to eat two meals off the one table, nor to sleep two
nights in the one bed, nor to pass out by the door through which you came
in, till you bring me the head of the Red Ox, and an account of what took
the eye from the Doleful Knight of the Island, and how he lost speech and
laughter. Now pass sentence on me.”
“You will think it too soon when you hear it,” said Fin, “but here it is
for you. I place you under bonds of weighty druidic spells to stand on
the top of that gable above there, to have a sheaf of oats fixed on the
gable beyond you, and to have no earthly food while I’m gone, except what
the wind will blow through the eye of a needle fixed in front of you.”
“Hard is your sentence, O Fin,” said the fish-hag. “Forgive me, and I’ll
take from your head my sentence.”
“Never,” said Fin. “Go to your place without waiting.”
Before Fin departed, the fish hag had mounted the gable.
The fame of the Red Ox had spread through all lands in the world, and
no man could go near him without losing life. The Fenians were greatly
unwilling to face the Red Ox, and thought that no man could match him,
unless, perhaps, Ceadach.
Though they knew not where Ceadach was living, nor where they were likely
to find him, they started in search of that champion. They played with a
ball, as they travelled, driving it forward before them, knowing that if
Ceadach saw the ball he would give it a blow.