Part 4

So the King was very angry when he heard that, and he went to his butler and he said: ‘Go out to the wood where my son is, and shoot him there, and cut him open and bring his heart here with you on the top of the gun, and throw it to the dogs at the door; for I will never have him, or anything belonging to him, brought into this house,’ he said.

So the butler got the gun, and went out to the wood, and when he saw the young man he was going to shoot him. ‘Why would you do that?’ said he. So the butler told him all the father ordered him; and the young man said then: ‘Do not shoot me, but save me. And it is what you will do,’ he said. ‘Go into the wood till you meet with a woodcock, and shoot it, and take the heart out of it, for that is most like the heart of a man. And bring the woodcock’s heart to my father’s house,’ he said, ‘and throw it there to the dogs at the door.’

So the butler did that, and spared him, and took its heart and threw it to the dogs at the door.

It was a good while after that, the beautiful young lady came to the King’s doorway in a coach and four, and she stopped at the door. ‘Send out my husband to me here,’ she said. So the eldest son came out to her. ‘Was it you came to the garden for the apples?’ says she. ‘It was,’ says he. ‘What things did you take notice of in the cottage where I was?’ says she.

So he began telling of this thing and that thing that never was in it at all. And when she heard that she gave him a clout that knocked his head as solid as any stone in the wall.

Then the second son came out, and she asked him the same question, and he told the same lies, and she gave him another clout that left his head as solid as any stone in the wall.

When the King heard all that, he knew they had deceived him, and that it was the youngest son had got the apples for his cure, and he began to cry after him and to lament that he was not living to come back again. ‘Would you like to know he is living yet?’ says the butler. ‘I would sooner hear it than any word that ever I heard,’ says the King. ‘Well, he is living yet, and is in the wood,’ says the butler.

When the young lady heard that, she bade the butler to bring her where he was, and they went together to the wood, and there they found him where he had been living on the fruits of the trees through the most of the year. So when the young lady saw him, she said: ‘Was it you came to the house where I was in the garden?’ ‘It was,’ says he. ‘What things did you take notice of in it?’ ‘Here they are,’ says he. And he put his hand in his pocket, and brought out the gold rings and the golden garters and the other signs he had brought away.

So she knew then he was the right one that was there, and she married him, and they lived happy ever after, and there was great rejoicing in the King of Ireland’s house.

KING SOLOMON

I’ll tell you a story now, and I’ll not be with you again till Christmas; and I never saw a man that could read an open book, was able to tell a story out of the mouth.

King Solomon made a great house for himself, the best that was ever seen. And there was a man passing one day, and he stopped to give a look at it—the way I might give a look at that house there. ‘Tell me what there is stronger and finer than that house,’ says King Solomon. ‘I don’t know anything that is stronger and finer than it is,’ says the man. ‘Well,’ said King Solomon, ‘unless you can give me an answer to that by to-morrow I’ll have the head struck off of you,’ he said.

So when the man went home, he told all that to the daughter he had, and he said he could find no answer. ‘I will give you an answer,’ says she. ‘Is not God stronger than that house, and isn’t heaven finer than what it is?’ So he went the next day and he gave that answer. ‘I’ll give you another question,’ says the King then. ‘Tell me,’ says he, ‘what is the number of the stars of the sky! And tell me that by to-morrow,’ says he, ‘or I will strike the head off you.’

So the man went home, and he could think of no answer, and he told the daughter what happened, and how King Solomon asked him to give an account of the stars in the sky. ‘I will give you an answer,’ says the daughter. ‘If you were to put twelve candles lighting on the top of the highest mountain,’ says she, ‘and to be looking at them, and your sight to spread on you, you wouldn’t know how many you were looking at, but you might think it was hundreds. And there is no one can tell the number of the stars,’ says she, ‘or give an account of them, but God that made them.’

So the man went back next day, and he gave that answer to King Solomon. ‘Where did you get that answer,’ says the king, ‘or who made it?’ says he. ‘It was my daughter made it,’ says the man. ‘Bring her here till I’ll have a look at her,’ says the king.

So the daughter was brought before him, and she was a fine comely girl, and when King Solomon saw her he took a liking to her. ‘Will you marry me?’ says he. ‘I will not,’ says she; ‘for if you marry me to-day, you might throw me off again to-morrow.’ I suppose she said that because she knew of him having seven hundred wives. ‘I will not do that,’ says he. ‘Well,’ says she, ‘I’ll make a bargain with you that I’ll marry you if you give me your word that the day you turn me out you’ll let me carry away with me the three things I’ll ask for, and to have them for my own.’

So King Solomon agreed to that, and she married him, and she had a child. And after a while he tired of her, and said she might go home. ‘I will go,’ says she, ‘but I’ll bring away the three things you offered to give me.’ So the first thing she brought away was the child, and the second thing was a bag of gold. She came then to King Solomon. ‘Now,’ says she, ‘since you said I could bring away three things, it is you yourself is the third. And come with me now,’ she says. So when King Solomon heard that, he was afraid she would bring him with her, and that she would have power over him. So he asked her to stop with him, and so she did.

He began well and he ended badly; and Samson did the same, killing a lion that was going to eat him in the beginning, and killing himself in the end. It was through a woman that he lost his eyesight.

THE ROBINEEN

I have a new wife now, says the old man who had come back from Ballinrobe; to keep my victuals ready and the door open before me. She’s a quiet woman at some times, but she has a queer way in her mind at the time of the full moon, but it will pass away after. And here is a story now, and I’ll word it easy to you.

There was a woman one time and she had three sons. Well, one day one of them said the quarter was too small for the three of them to be in it. ‘And I’ll go,’ says he, ‘and I’ll try to do for myself. And let you turn and make a cake for me to bring with me,’ says he to the mother.

The mother went at night and she baked two cakes, a big one and a small one. And when he was going to start in the morning: ‘Which would you sooner have now,’ says she, ‘to have the big one and my curse, or the small one and my blessing?’ ‘I’ll take the big one and your curse,’ says he; ‘the other one is too small and the road being long before me.’

Well, he tripped on till he got hungry, and sat down on the brink of a lake, and he spread out a cloth for the dinner the way he would lose none of the crumbs, and he broke up a piece of the cake then and commenced eating it. The Robineen Redbreast was coming around him and he was hooshing him away. ‘Every crumb that will fall,’ says the Robineen, ‘it will be for me.’ ‘Every crumb that will fall,’ says he, ‘it is little enough for myself.’ So he hooshed away the Robineen.

When he had part of it ate, then he got dry, and he went to the lake to take a drink; and the Robineen walked to the lake before him and commenced washing herself and shaking out her wings in the lake, and she turned it all into blood instead of water. He took a drink of it, and he fell dead after taking the drink. The Robineen got people to bury him under a big stone was in it; for the Robineen was enchanted, and they say the birds of the air had talk at that time.

The two brothers then were sitting by the hearth, the same as himself, till the end of seven years. ‘It is this day seven years,’ says the second one, ‘that the brother went out from this. And I’ll go make a poke for him. And it’s as good for you,’ says he to the mother, ‘go bake a cake for the road in the morning.’

Well, the mother did the same thing as before, and she made a big cake and a small cake, and asked him would he have the small one with her blessing, or the big one with her curse. ‘I’ll have the big one with your curse,’ says he. So he set out, and when he came to the same place he sat down on the same stone where the brother had sat, and he spread a cloth the way any crumb that would fall, he could pick it up for himself. The Robineen came around him asking for the crumbs, and he wouldn’t give them and he hooshed her away. So when he was going to the lake for a drink, she went into it before him, and spread out her wings and scattered the water, and after he took one drink of it he fell dead; and she buried the two of them under one stone, the Robineen did, the two brothers.

Well, they were fourteen years gone when the third man said he would go look for them, and the mother made two cakes the same as she made for the other two. Well, the mother told him then to take the big one or the small one; to take the big one with her curse, or to take the small one with her blessing. ‘There’s nothing like a mother’s blessing,’ says he. ‘And I’ll take the small one with your blessing,’ he said.

It happened that he was walking till he went in the same place where the brothers were killed, and commenced eating the cake. The Robineen was coming anear him, and there wasn’t a bite he would take but he would give a second bite to the Robineen. She didn’t stir up the lake, but let him take his full drink, and she made a well in the lake and made wine in it and gave enough of it to him to drink. ‘Here is a little bush,’ she says then, ‘an enchanted bush; and give a tip to that stone there, and you can rise your two brothers.’ So, thanks be to God, he struck the two tips on the stone, and they rose as well as ever and as fresh. Says the Robineen: ‘They may be thankful to you, they would never stir out of that only for you coming.’

She gave this young fellow a bag of gold for himself and his two brothers, a fine three men. They never met with the Robineen from that out. The mother’s blessing is better with a small cake than her curse with a big one.

After the three brothers went home, they lived together in the house. And the Robineen had told the youngest brother to go where there was a holly-bush in the garden and to root around it. So they went out and rooted around it, and what they found was a crock of gold, and they brought it away with them. There was a little flag, now, in the top of the crock, and the flag was left aside on the grass. It happened there came after a while a poor scholar walking the road, and he took notice of the little slab, and that there was writing on it. And he was able to read the writing, and it is what it said: ‘The other side is as lucky as this side.’ So he showed that to the brothers, and they went rooting the other side, and what did they find but two more crocks of gold, the way there was one apiece for them. So there were no richer farmers in the country than those three brothers, and they got gold and divided it and scattered it.

And that is a nice story and a wonderful story, and a true thing that fell out. And Lofarey, the man that told it to me, said it was a true story, and that his own father told him he was speaking to the poor scholar that read the flag.

THE BALL OF THREAD

There was a young lady one time, and a young boy came to her to ask her to marry him. He gave her a pound ball of thread, and bade her to leave it on the ground, and to take the end of the thread in her hand, and when the end of it would be run out, to stamp her foot on the ground and she would come to him.

So she bought a shilling’s worth of bread and a shilling’s worth of apples, and she took the ball of thread as he told her. And when she stamped her foot a door opened in the ground before her, and she went in, and all she saw in the room was a dog and a cat.

So she divided the bread and the apples between them, and she gave them halves, and they were more than proud to eat that much of Ireland’s bread, which they didn’t get the taste of for two hundred years before.

They showed her then a store of a room where there were fifty of her sort that were after being beheaded, and gold rings on their hands. For the man was an enchanted man, and he had brought them away the same as he did herself. The cat and the dog said as she proved so well, they would hide her before she’d be in danger, for she accommodated them so well with everything. They rose up the flag that was in the fireplace, and they hid her there under it, and when the man came in the man asked did such a one come in, and they said, ‘No.’

When he went to rest himself they opened the door and let her out, and he awoke and told the cat to ask who came in at the door. The cat made him an answer, she said: ‘No one but the dog, that struck against it.’

So the young lady went home, and after a while he came to her again the same way, and he said he would bring her away with him. So when he was coming she invited a great quality dinner, and before he came there she told them all that had happened, and asked what should be done to him. Then some said he should be hung. But a big lord that was there said to do nothing at all to him, only to put him into a barrel of pitch and tar and to burn him altogether. But when they thought to do that and to take him they hadn’t but his shadow, and he flew away out through the top of the house, and they hadn’t a trace of him, and he had brought away the young lady along with him.

Her three brothers went looking for her then with the pound ball of thread he had left. And when they stamped their foot the door opened before them, but there was no one in the house but the cat. They told him their sister was gone, and they were in dread she was killed. But he said: ‘She is not killed, and she is here hid where she was before.’ So they took up the flag of the hearth, and there she was safe and well, and having four gold rings on her hands that belonged to four of her first cousins that were beheaded in the room. The cat told them to go home, and they would meet the man easy enough. So after a while he came looking for the young lady again, and he had changed his clothes, but if he had they knew him. But the first time they fired a shot at him it did him no harm, he being but a shadow. But whatever they did, or whatever shot they put in their gun or their revolver, they shot him dead after that, and there was no more about him.

THE HORSE AND FOAL

There were very haunted people in the old times in Ireland, used to be bewitching one another. A living class of people they were, but it was by magic they did it.

There was a man going to the north from Mayo to sell a horse, and he was riding the horse, and the foal after them. And over beyond the wall he saw a hare running, and two black hounds hunting it. And when they came to him, the hare made a leap into his arms, and he drove away the hounds, and put it down again safe among the rocks. He went on then to the north for to sell the horse, but if he did, in the night it was stole from him.

So he went back to Mayo to see would he find it, and he was walking through the day, and when the night came he met with a house, and he went into it like any countryman might, to ask would he get a clean lodging. And there was in the house a very nice-looking young woman, and he asked could he get a lodging. ‘And why wouldn’t you get it?’ says she. ‘And more than that,’ she says, ‘I’ll call in the husband, and he’ll go find the horse you have lost and the foal. And you don’t know me,’ she says; ‘but I am the woman you saved, and that had been turned into a hare, and for sixteen years I was away in that shape.’

So she did what she promised, and he was deserving of it; for wouldn’t another man have kept the hare when he got it, but something stuck in him that he didn’t. And wasn’t it a terrible thing in those times that women could be turned into hares? And it was only a black hound could come up with them.

THE WOMAN THAT WAS A GREAT FOOL

There was a woman was a great fool. She had meal to sift one day, and the hens were bothering her, coming in over the door. And it was outside in the field she went sifting it, that it was brought away with a blast of wind that rose, till there wasn’t one grain left on the top of another, but it was brought away with the wind into the fields and over the grass. And when the husband came back in the evening he asked where was it, and it was all spent. ‘Sure you have money in the bag to buy more,’ says she. ‘I have not,’ says he; ‘for what is in the bag I have to keep for the Grey Scrape of the Spring.’

Well, the next day an old beggarman came asking for money, and when the woman looked at him and saw that he was grey: ‘That should be the Grey Scrape of the Spring,’ she said. And she gave him all the money was in the bag.

When the husband heard that, he didn’t say much, for he was a quiet man. But he went and he killed the cow that was all he had left, and he cut it up and put it in a barrel, and salt on it. ‘That will be enough to grease the cabbage anyway,’ says he.

So the next day the wife brought out every bit of the beef, and she put a bit of it on the top of every head of cabbage was in the garden. Well, when the night came and they were in bed, there came a thousand dogs fighting for the meat was in the garden, and barking, and calling, and roaring. And when the husband went out they had it brought away, and all the cabbage destroyed and broken.

So he said then it was as good for them to go wandering, and he went out of the house, and the woman following him. ‘Let you draw the door after you,’ says he—that is, that she should close it. But what she did was to rise it off the hinges, and to draw it after her along the road till they came to a wood. And they went up into the branches of a tree to pass the night, and she bringing the board with her.

It happened there came some robbers under the tree, dividing a great deal of gold and silver they were after robbing from a castle. And when the man and the woman saw that, they dropped the door down on them with a great noise, and the robbers were affrighted and ran away, leaving all they had robbed after them. And the man and the woman got it for themselves, and they were rich from that day.

THE DANES

I will tell you about the Danes, said the Poet’s son; and it was my father that broke down Raftery in the latter end.

There was a man one time set out from Ireland to go to America or some place; a common man looking for work he was. And something happened to the ship on the way, and they had to put to land to mend it. And in the country where they landed he saw a forth, and he went into it, and there he saw the smallest people he ever saw; and they were the Danes that went out of Ireland, and it is foxes they had for dogs, and weasels were their cats.

Then he went back to get into the ship, but it was gone away, and he left behind. So he went back into the forth, and a young man came to meet him, and he told him what had happened. And the young man said: ‘Come into the room within, where my father is in bed; for he is out of his health, and you might be able to serve him.’ So they went in, and the father was lying in the bed, and when he heard it was a man from Ireland was in it he said: ‘I will give you a great reward if you will go back and bring me a thing I want out of Castle Hacket Hill; for if I had what is there,’ he said, ‘I would be as young as my own son.’ So the man consented to go, and they got a sailing ship ready, and it is what the old man told him, to go back to Ireland. ‘And buy a small pig in Galway,’ he said, ‘and bring it to the mouth of the forth at Castle Hacket and roast it there. And inside the forth there is an enchanted cat that is keeping guard there, and it will come out. And here is a shot-gun and some cross-money,’ he said, ‘that will kill any fairy or any enchanted thing. And within in the forth,’ he said, ‘you will find a bottle and a rack-comb, and bring them here to me,’ he said.

So the man did as he was told, and he bought the pig and roasted it at the mouth of the forth, and out came the enchanted cat, and it having hair seven inches long. And he fired the cross-money out of the shot-gun, and the cat went away and he saw it no more. And he got the bottle and the rack, and brought them back to the old man. And he drank what was in the bottle, and racked his hair with the rack, and he got young again, a young as his own son.

And when there is a marriage among the Danes, they put down the land they have in Ireland with whatever else they have, for they expect to come back and to own the country again some day. But whether they will or not, I don’t know.

The Danes were surely small men, or how could they live in those little rooms and passages in the raths? I’d have to stoop myself down when I’d go into them. They had the whole country once, and they used to make beer out of the tops of the heather the same way the bees draw honey out of it. And it was on St. John’s Night the people lighted wisps and turned them out of Ireland, and that’s the reason the wisps are burned ever since.

CAILLEAC-NA-CEARC

I think I didn’t tell you the story of Cailleac-na-Cearc, the Woman of the Hens, says the old man with the new wife; and how she committed sin.

It was one day they rose up, herself and her twelve children, and there was not bit or drop in the house, and the height of the door of frost and snow was in it; and she sent the husband out to see could he get firing with a little hatchet he had.

And when he went out he got directions to cut a certain tree. And there came out of the tree to him as much as he could carry of lumber of the best of stuff, and he brought it home to the wife.

Well, after a while she bade him go again to the tree and cut it. And there came from it the same lumber of provisions and gold and money and everything they wanted. And the third time she sent him to cut the tree, and the tree spoke to him that time, and it said: ‘You may take what you can this time, but let you never come near me again.’ And he brought back more than would fill the corners of the house. And he said to the wife, that was enough.

But she made him go the fourth time, for women is awful, and she wanted to get all that she could; and only for her bidding he didn’t like to draw back to the tree. And that time the tree spoke to him again, and it said: ‘You have full and plenty, and you’ll see the way your missus is, and you going back to the house.’ For she was covetous and had no patience, and it was by the Almighty God’s will he made a hen of her, and twelve chickens of her twelve children. And she went scraping in the face of the dunghill, and she never left doing that till the day of judgment, picking for her chickens that stopped small as they were always.