place where I crow in the morning."
"We know, O Unvanquishable," said the three Hens.
"The earth never rocked here," said the Cock, "hence I knew that
something powerful was under the ground at this place. It was the ring
of brass. Now it will be found and brought into the house. And when I
stand here and crow in the morning the earth will rock as it does in
every other place in the world."
"It will, it will," said the Feather-legged Hen.
"It must, O Top of Valor," said the Blue Hen.
"And you will tell us how the ring of brass came to be there, Hero-son
of my heart," said the Little Slate-colored Hen that was the Cock's
mother.
"In the course of the evening I may do so," said the Cock
condescendingly.
When they were beside the sunny wall, the Hens on the ground
scattering dust over their feathers and their lord standing on one leg
with his comb hanging over one eye the Cock said "No Cock of our
breed ever told this story before. They would not frighten the hens
with it. However, since you have persuaded me I will tell you the
tale. My grandfather told it to my father who told it to me. It is the
story of the Big Man who came to this place and who wore the ring of
brass that we uncovered to-day."
He did not put it over his head as you might think from the size of
the ring. No. He wore it on his arm. Never was a bigger man seen by
anyone living. The whole countryside stood outside their houses to see
him come over the hills. When he came to where the stones are he
stooped down to take a drink and he drank the well dry. The people
came out of the house to meet him, and he spoke to them, and out of
what he said to them they drew his story.
As I am to a Bantam, the Big Man was to the other men of the country.
And if they were surprised at his bigness, he was astonished at their
smallness. For he came from a time when all were as big as he. A
hundred and a hundred years before he had hunted with his companions,
and he was then called, not Big Man, but Little Fawn.
And one day--a hundred and a hundred years ago it was--he had gone to
chase a deer. The deer fled into a cave. He followed with his hounds
and his sword, his trumpet and his missile-ball. He went astray and
fell asleep in the Cave. And when he wakened up, his hounds were heaps
of dust beside him. He went into the world, and he found that his
companions were dead for a hundred and a hundred years and that the
men of the earth had become smaller and smaller. In the Cave he left
his sword and his trumpet and his missile-ball.
* * * * *
The Cock put his two feet on the ground and shook his red comb from
over his left to over his right eye. Then said he, Everyone in the
house was friendly to Little Fawn except one person--Murrish the
Cook-woman. From the first day he came there were disputes between
them. "Big men have big appetites," said she to him the day he
came, "and so to-night I will give you two eggs for your supper." But
when she handed him the eggs Little Fawn said "It was not the eggs of
the hedge-sparrow we were wont to eat in my time." "Eggs of the
hedge-sparrow!" said Murrish, "I have handed you the biggest eggs laid
by the best hens in the country." "In my time there were bigger eggs
in the nest of the hedge-sparrow," said Little Fawn.
[Illustration: All flew from the mountain except one bird and he was
the greatest amongst them all.]
The next day she gave him a barley-cake for his breakfast. He ate it
and then sent the boy--Ardan was his name--to ask what else she was
going to give him.
"Give him!" said Murrish the Cook-woman, "I have given him a whole
barley cake, and that is enough for two men's breakfasts."
"Tell her," said Little Fawn, "that I often saw an ivy-leaf that was
as big as her barley cake."
"Tell him," said Murrish the Cook-woman, "that I am not here to listen
to old men's romances."
Now when he heard that his words were taken as old men's romances
Little Fawn was an angry man. He was hungry, for the food he got did
not stay his appetite, but what Murrish said in doubt of his word gave
him more hurt than his hunger did. For in his day and amongst his
companions a lie was never told and nothing a man said was ever
doubted.
The next day he sent back the dish for more butter.
"Tell him," said Murrish the Cook-woman, "that I put a whole pat of
butter on his dish--enough to do two men for two days."
"Tell her," said Little Fawn, "that often I saw a rowan berry that was
bigger as her pat of butter."
"The child just out of the cradle would not believe that story," said
Murrish the Cook-woman.
She sent him a quarter of mutton for his dinner. Little Fawn told
Ardan to ask Murrish for more, as the dinner she gave him left him
hungry still.
"Did he not get a whole quarter of mutton for his dinner?" said
Murrish.
"A whole quarter of mutton, did she say?" said Little Fawn. "Often I
saw a quarter of a blackbird that was bigger than her quarter of
mutton."
"A quarter of a blackbird bigger than my quarter of mutton! Tell him
that if he never lied before, he lies now," said Murrish.
"Does she say that?" said Little Fawn. "Then I swear I shall never
rest in the house nor be easy in my mind until I bring her an ivy leaf
that is as big as her barley loaf, and a rowan berry that is as big as
her pat of butter, and if I bring these," said he, "it may not be
needful for me to get her the blackbird that is as big in one quarter
as the quarter of mutton that she gave me for my dinner."
There and then he went from the house and Ardan the boy went with him.
They went east and they went west, they went towards the north and
towards the south, but no ivy leaf did they find that was as big as a
barley loaf, and no rowan berry did they see that was as big as a pat
of butter. Little Fawn was troubled and downcast. They came back to
the house, and Murrish the Cook-woman was pleased when she heard from
Ardan that they found no ivy leaf and saw no rowan berry that was as
big as her barley loaf or her pat of butter. "There is only one thing
I can do now," said Little Fawn, "and that is to bring her the
blackbird that is as big in one quarter as the quarter of mutton she
gave me for my dinner. And that," said he to Ardan, "will take time
and trouble and the meeting of danger to bring about."
* * * * *
"Time and trouble," said the Feather-legged Hen, "time and trouble!"
"Why did he say time and trouble, O Top of Wisdom?" said the Blue Hen.
"Hush now," said the Little Slate-colored Hen that was the Cock's
mother. "Hush now, and let the Hero-son of my heart tell what's best
in the story...."
* * * * *
"Little Fawn was an old man, white-haired and feeble when he came to
the house," said the Cock, and now he was nearly blind. His mind would
not be at rest, he told Ardan, until he brought to Murrish and showed
her a blackbird that was as big in one quarter as the quarter of
mutton she gave him for his dinner. "But before I can take that
blackbird," said he, "I must have a hound. There is a hound in the
yard, but I have tried her and found she is weak and fearful. She will
have puppies, and one of her puppies, maybe, will do." And he told
Ardan to tell him when the puppies came to the hound that was in the
yard.
Then one day Ardan came and told him that there was a litter of
puppies with the hound. "That is well," said Little Fawn, "and in a
while we will try if one has the strength and courage enough to help
us to take the blackbird."
He told Ardan what to do. He was to take the skin that had been
stripped off a dead horse and he was to nail this skin upon a door in
the yard. Then he was to do a curious thing. He was to take up each
puppy and fling it against the door.
Ardan did all this and Little Fawn stood by and heard the puppies
yowling as they fell on the ground. They scampered away. Then he heard
nothing except Ardan's laugh.
"Why are you laughing, my boy?" said Little Fawn.
"I laugh to see what the last puppy is doing," said Ardan.
"And what is he doing?" said Little Fawn.
"He has not fallen to the ground like the others. He has caught hold
of the horseskin with his teeth and he is holding on to it."
"That puppy will do," said Little Fawn. "He has strength and courage.
Take him and rear him away from the others, and when he comes to his
full strength you and I will take him to hunt the blackbird that is as
big in one quarter as the quarter of mutton Murrish the Cook-woman
gave me for my dinner. We must make our word good this time, good
lad." Ardan took away the puppy (Conbeg they called him) from the
others and reared him up. Little Fawn tested his strength and courage
in many ways. At length he was satisfied. One day he put a leash on
Conbeg and he told the boy to come with him. Little Fawn and Ardan and
Conbeg the young hound went away from the house.
"'Tis the best part of the story," said the Little Slate-colored Hen
that was the Cock's mother.
* * * * *
"It is, it is," said the Feather-legged Hen.
"And how well he tells it, the Top of Wisdom," said the Blue Hen.
"I tell it as my father told me and as his father told him," said the
Cock changing legs. "The first place they went was into the Cave where
the Big Man had lain for a hundred and a hundred years. They found
there the heap of dust that was his two hounds, and they found too the
missile-ball of brass and the trumpet and the great sword. They left
the Cave and they turned south, and they went on and on till they came
to the mountain that is called Slieve-na-Mon. The boy and the man and
the hound rested themselves for a while on the level on the top of the
mountain.
Then Little Fawn told Ardan to take the trumpet and put it to his
mouth. He blew on the trumpet. O louder than ever I crowed was the
noise he made on that trumpet. The trees that were growing on the
mountain top shook at the sound.
"Blow again," said Little Fawn.
And Ardan blew again and he blew louder.
"Now look into the sky," said Little Fawn, "and tell me what you see
coming towards us."
Ardan looked for a long time, and at last he saw what he thought was a
cloud coming towards the mountain-top. And then he saw that the cloud
was a flock of birds. They came to the mountain-top and lighted on the
ground--Peewits, Blackbirds, Starlings, Finches, Linnets--and each was
bigger than any bird he had ever seen. The birds were hardly afraid of
the hound, but Conbeg went amongst them and drove them away.
And then another cloud was seen coming across the sky, and this cloud
came to be a flock of birds too, and they came to the mountain-top and
lighted on the ground--Linnets, Finches, Starlings, Blackbirds,
Peewits--and each bird was bigger than the birds in the first flock.
"Loose the hound on them," said Little Fawn. Ardan unslipped Conbeg
and the hound went amongst the birds. But they were not afraid and
they attacked the hound, and only his strength and courage was so
great they would have driven him off the mountain-top.
They rose up and they flew away, and as they did another flock of
birds came towards the mountain-top. They lighted on the
ground--Peewits, Blackbirds, Starlings, Finches, Linnets--tremendous
birds. Ardan loosed Conbeg on them. Then with beaks open and claws
outstretched they flew at Ardan and Little Fawn. Little Fawn took his
great sword in hand and he attacked them with such strength that the
great birds flew off.
All flew from the mountain except one bird. He was a Blackbird and the
greatest amongst them all. When Ardan told Little Fawn that this bird
was left alone on a rock the Big Man told him to unloose Conbeg.
The hound dashed at the Blackbird but the blackbird flew at him and
attacked him with beak and claws. With a sweep of his wing he threw
Conbeg on the ground. Then he rose up in the air and flew towards
Ardan and Little Fawn.
"You will escape him," said Ardan, "but me he will kill as he has
killed Conbeg." "Put the missile-ball into my hand and guide my aim,"
said Little Fawn. Ardan put the missile-ball of brass into the Big
Man's hand and guided his aim. Little Fawn threw the missile-ball and
the Blackbird fell down on the ground. But the bird was not killed.
"A frightening tale, a frightening tale," said the Blue Hen.
"So it is, so it is," said the Feather-legged Hen.
"But you have done well to tell the Hens the story, Hero-son of my
heart," said the Little Slate-colored Hen that was the Cock's mother.
* * * * *
"More has to be told," said the Cock, "and it is needful that it
should be told now. Murrish the Cook-woman was in the kitchen. In
dashed Conbeg the hound, his eyes blazing with the fierceness of the
chase. Murrish was so frightened that she ran to the door. And coming
to the door she saw Little Fawn with a net on his shoulder. He came
into the house and he put the net on the floor, and he showed Murrish
what was in the net--a tremendous bird--a Blackbird that was as big in
one quarter as the quarter of mutton she had on the table. And when
the net was laid down on the ground the Blackbird flew up and he
carried the middle of the roof away with him as he flew through it and
he tumbled beams and rafters down upon Murrish. My grandfather saw the
Blackbird flying towards the mountain that is called Slieve-na-Mon,
and my grandfather told my father who told me." "You spoke the truth
when you said that you saw a blackbird as big in one quarter as the
quarter of mutton I gave you for your dinner," said Murrish the
Cook-woman to Little Fawn. "And I believe you when you say you saw an
ivy leaf as big as my barley loaf and a rowan berry as big as my pat
of butter." "I would only show you," said Little Fawn "that the men I
lived amongst had truth on their lips as they had strength in their
hands and courage in their hearts."
And from that day Little Fawn and Murrish the Cook-woman lived in
peace and good fellowship, and Ardan and Conbeg grew up together and
became famous, one and the other. They lived happy for long, but as
the books say--
The end of every ship is drowning,
The end of every kiln is burning,
The end of every feast is wasting,
The end of every laugh is sighing.
And if they were here once, they are here no more.
"And if they are not, we are," said the Slate-colored Hen that was the
Cock's mother. "We're here," said she, "and the earth, I promise you,
will shake under your feet to-morrow, no matter where you crow,
Hero-son of my heart."
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The Sea-Maiden who became a Sea-Swan]
The Sea-Maiden who became a Sea-Swan
[Illustration]
The Sea-Swan told the story to the pigeons of the rock, and the Boy
Who Knew What the Birds said heard every word of it. I was once a
Sea-Maiden, she said, and my name was Eevil, and I was known through
all the Kingdoms that are Under-Wave for my beautiful hair--my long,
beautiful, green hair. Something was in me that made me want to dance,
and I used to rise up through the water, and dance on the shore of the
island that is called Hathony.
Mananaun, as you, creatures, know, is Lord of the Sea, and what he
commands in the Kingdoms-Under-Wave has to be. Now Mananaun made a
promise to a King of an Earth-Kingdom, and the promise was that he
would give this King whatever he asked for. The King died according to
the ways of men, and his son, whose name was Branduv, came to rule
him.
Branduv called Mananaun out of the sea, and he asked that he renew the
promise he had made to his father. The Lord of the Sea did not want a
promise to lapse because of the death of a man, and he renewed it to
the man's son. Then Mananaun told him he would take him and show him
the Kingdoms of the Sea and whatever he saw that he desired there
would be given to him. He took him in his boat of glass "The Ocean
Sweeper" to visit the Kingdoms of the Sea.
They came to Moy Mell, the Plain of Pleasure, and there Mananaun gave
Branduv a branch of everlasting blossoms; they came to another Kingdom
and there Mananaun gave him a sword that was the best wrought in the
world; they came to a third Kingdom and there Mananaun gave him a pair
of hounds that could run down the silver-antlered stag. But as yet
Branduv the King had asked no gift from Mananaun.
They came to Mananaun's own Kingdom, Silver-Cloud Plain, and there
Branduv was left alone while Mananaun drank the Ale of the Ever-Living
Ones. The King saw from the shores of Silver-Cloud Plain "The Ocean
Sweeper," and he directed that the boat bring him to the island. And
the boat travelled as the one in it wished.
Only one thing had ever made me fearful of dancing on the shore of the
Island of Hathony--that was the presence there of a pair of Ravens.
These Ravens had once been Sea-maidens, but they had desired men for
husbands, and they had gone to them. The men forsook them, and they
had become first Witches and afterwards Ravens. Ever since their
change they wished harm to the Maidens of the Sea. I had been
frightened of them, but now I had seen them flapping about so often
that I was no longer or I was only a little, afraid.
I came up through the sea and I danced upon the shore of the island,
and the play of the waves was in my dance, and my long soft green
hair fell over my foam-white, foam soft body. I danced on, O my
listeners, and as no one had ever seen me looked upon, I thought no
one looked upon me now.
But this King of the earthly Kingdom saw me. He saw me as I danced by
the waves, and I was the fairest thing he had ever looked upon. At
first he was all wonder and no robber's thoughts were in his mind. But
the Ravens came to him. One perched on one shoulder and one perched on
the other, and one said "If you carry Eevil off you will have the
fairest wife in all the world," and the other said "If you leave her
here you will never look on anything as fair again."
The Ravens flapped before him to guide him to a place in the dark
rocks where he might hide and to which I might come. He followed where
they led. But I saw his shadow on a rock. I drew back and the sea took
me and drew me into its depths. "The sea has taken her," said Branduv
to the Ravens.
"Mananaun is Lord of the Sea," said one of the Ravens.
"And Mananaun has promised you a gift, and he cannot refuse what you
will ask," said the other Raven.
Then the Ravens flapped away and Mananaun came to where the King was
standing. "You have asked me for a gift," said Mananaun, "think now of
what you desire before I take you back to your own island." Then said
Branduv, "What I ask is that you bestow upon me the Sea-maiden who was
dancing here, Eevil."
[Illustration]
Mananaun in anger lifted his spear. But then he remembered he was
bound by a promise to Branduv. He lowered the spear he had raised. "I
will give you any other gift you ask," said he, "even my own boat 'The
Ocean Sweeper.'"
"I hold you to your promise," said Branduv, "and I declare to you
that I shall take no other gift unless it be the maiden who was here
dancing by the sea."
"It must be then that I give her you," said Mananaun, and his face was
dark.
[Illustration]
Down he went to the Kingdom-Under-Wave and he came to the black
mansion where lived the Seven Spinning Women of the Sea. He spoke as
speaks a King who has a hard thing to do. "A law has to be broken,"
said he. "What law, Lord?" said the Spinning Women. "The law that
saves our Maidens from taking part in the stormy lives of men." "We
would rather that anything else but this should happen, Lord," said
the Seven Spinning Women. "This thing must happen," said Mananaun,
"and the Maiden Eevil must go to Branduv the King." "She must be
prepared for this," said the Seven Spinning Women.
They came to me and they told me that the man whose shadow I had seen
on the rock now claimed me for his wife and that Mananaun would not
gainsay him. When I heard this, O my listeners, the life nearly left
me.
This comfort the Seven Spinning Women gave me: I was to stay on his
island so that I might become used to the earthly kingdom, but that I
was not to see Branduv until the green had left my hair and the brown
that the sun makes had come into my cheeks. So I came to Branduv's
island. I lived by the sea-shore and the women of the island attended
me.
How different was this earthly land from the Kingdom-Under-Wave. With
us there was but the one mild season, the one mild light. Here there
was glaring day and terrible darkness, bitter winds and hot beams of
the sun. With us there were songs and tales, but the songs were about
love or about the beautiful things we had seen. Here the tales and
songs were about battles and forays and slaying with the sword. What
they told of their loves was terrible, so much violence and
unfaithfulness was in them.
The soft green tints were going out of my hair and the sun was putting
brownness in my cheeks. Soon my hair would be wheaten-colored like the
hair of the women of the islands and my cheeks would be brown like
theirs. And then the day would come when I should have to be with the
man whom I looked upon as my enemy.
I used to stay by the shore and speak with the birds that came in from
the sea, for I knew their language. Never again could I go back to the
Kingdom-Under-Wave. Green shade after green shade left my hair, brown
tint after brown tint came into my cheeks, and what could I do but
envy the birds that could make their flight from the islands of men.
And when the green had nearly gone altogether from my hair I
thought of a desperate thing I might do.
[Illustration: I put it to my lips, I drank it when he took a step
towards me.]
I sent a message to my sisters, and I sent it by many birds, so that
if they did not get it by one they might get it by another. And I
asked in my message that they send me a draft from the Well under the
Sea, and that they send it in the cup that the Seven Spinning Women
guarded. It would be terrible for any of my sisters to come to
Branduv's island with the draft and the cup, but I begged that they
would do it for me.
The days went by and the green color was now only a shade in my hair,
and brownness was on my cheeks, and the women said "Before this old
moon is gone our King will come here to wed you."
Then one day I found on the shore the cup that my sisters had brought
and the draft from the Secret Well was in it. I took the cup in my
hands and I brought it where I lived. "Come to us," said the women,
"so that we may undo your hair and tell the King when he may come to
wed you." They loosened my hair and then they said "there is no shade
of green here at all. Bid the King come as early as he likes
to-morrow."
I lay that night with the cup beside me. When I rose I knew that day I
should drink from the cup my sisters had sent me--drink the draft that
would change me into what I wished to be--a bird of the sea.
And while I sat with the cup beside me and my hair spread out,
Branduv, the King of the Island, came to the door of the house. It may
have been that I was becoming used to the sight of people of the
earthly kingdoms, for, as I looked upon him he did not seem terrible
to me. He looked noble, I thought, and eager to befriend me and love
me. But the cup was in my hands when he came to the door. I put it to
my lips when he entered the house. I drank it when he took a step
towards me. And thereupon I became what I had wished to be--a
Sea-Swan.
O my listeners! Maybe it would have been well for me if I had wed that
King, and be now as the women of the islands. For now as I fly over
the sea the King's look comes before me, and I think that he was
eager to befriend me and eager to love me. So I am not content when I
am flying over the sea. And I am lonely when I am on these islands,
for I am now a Swan, and what has a Swan to do with the lives of men?
* * * * *
Such was the story that the Sea-Swan told the pigeons of the rock, and
the Boy who knew what the Birds said heard it all, and remembered
every word of it.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: What the Peacock and the Crow Told Each Other]
What The Peacock and the Crow Told Each Other When the Crow Came to
Steal the Peacock's Feathers
[Illustration]
Said the Lapwing "Crow,
I never have seen
Such a one as you,
Such a one as you
For stealing eggs."
Said the Crow "Caw, caw,
I never have seen
Such a one myself,
And I am, I am sure
Longer in the world."
Then the Crow flew away and the Lapwing went on complaining.
The Crow flew away and he came to where the Peacock was walking in the
King's Garden. He asked the Peacock did he ever listen to stories.
"No," said the Peacock as he mounted the steps of the terrace. "No.
Certainly not. I do not demean myself by listening to any of the
stories they tell down below there." He spread out his tail, and, that
he might view his own magnificence, he turned his blue, shining neck.
Hoodie the grey-headed Crow with the bright sharp eyes hopped after
him.