{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24493/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24493","id":"gutenberg_24493","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24493","summary":null,"tags":["Birds -- Fiction","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Fairy tales"],"text":"Produced by David Edwards, Diane Monico, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Boy Who Knew What The Birds Said\n\n\n\n\nTHE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n\nNEW YORK :: BOSTON :: CHICAGO :: DALLAS\nATLANTA :: SAN FRANCISCO\n\nMACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED\n\nLONDON :: BOMBAY :: CALCUTTA\nMELBOURNE\n\nTHE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.\n\nTORONTO\n\n[Illustration: Round and round the Castle they went and the Giant with\nhis strength was wearing out Feet-in-the-Ashes.]\n\n\n\n\nThe Boy Who Knew\nWhat The Birds Said\n\nBy Padraic Colum\n\n_Illustrated by\nDugald Stewart Walker_\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Macmillan Company, Publishers\nNew York Mcmxx\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1918\nBY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\nSet up and electrotyped. Published October, 1918.\n\n\nFor The Boy In The Brocken\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nContents\n\n\n PAGE\n\nHow he came to know what the birds said 13\n\nThe Stone of Victory.\n And how Feet-in-the-Ashes, the Swineherd's Son, came to find it 21\n\nThe King of the Birds 51\n\nBloom-of-Youth and the Witch of the Elders 67\n\nThe Hen-wife's Son and the Princess Bright Brow 85\n\nThe Giant and the Birds 113\n\nThe Sea-Maiden who became a Sea-Swan 133\n\nWhat the Peacock and the Crow Told Each Other 149\n\nThe Treasure of King Labraid Lorc 163\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nList of Full Page Illustrations\n\n\n _Frontispiece_\nRound and Round the Castle they went, and the Giant\nwith his strength was wearing out Feet-in-the-Ashes\n PAGE\n\"No bird will ever out-soar this flight of mine,\"\nsaid the Eagle 61\n\nBut just as the Witch was dragging her to the\nstone a robin began to sing 79\n\nThe Red Champion said, \"Good is the Champion that the\nKing of this Land has sent against me.\" 97\n\nAll flew from the mountain except one bird and\nhe was the greatest amongst them all 117\n\nI put it to my lips, I drank it when he took a\nstep towards me 141\n\nO most beauteous of all the birds, do you know of\nany arms by which a hero can slay a dragon? 155\n\n\"Ernan is Lord, is Lord of the Fair Islands\" 173\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Boy Who Knew\nWhat The Birds Said\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHow He Came to Know What the Birds Said\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThere is one thing that all the Birds are afraid of, and that is the\nthing that will happen when the Bird That Follows the Cuckoo flies\ninto the Cuckoo's mouth.\n\nAnd what will happen then, asks my kind foster-child.\n\nWhen the Bird that Follows the Cuckoo flies into the Cuckoo's mouth\nthe World will come to an end.\n\nAll the Birds know that, but not all the People know it.\n\nWell, one day the Cuckoo was sitting on a bush and her Mouth was open.\nThe Bird That Follows the Cuckoo flew straight at it. And into it he\nmust have flown only for the Boy....\n\nThe Boy was in the tree and he flung his cap at the Cuckoo and he\ncovered the Cuckoo and the Cuckoo's open mouth.\n\nThe Bird That Follows the Cuckoo flew into the Crow's mouth instead,\nand the Crow gave that bird a squeeze, I can tell you. The Cuckoo\npushed off the Boy's cap with her wings and flew into the forest.\n\nAll the Birds of the King's Garden were there at the time. There\nwere--\n\n The Crow, the Woodpecker,\n The Wren and the Eagle,\n The Blackbird and Swallow,\n The Jackdaw and Starling,\n And the wonderful Peacock;\n The Lapwing and Peewit,\n The bold Yellowhammer,\n The bad Willy-wagtail,\n The Raven so awful,\n And the Cock with his Hens;\n Stone-checker, Hedge-sparrow,\n And Lint-white and Lark,\n The Tom-tit and Linnet,\n And brisk little Sparrow,\n The King-fisher too,\n And my own little Goldfinch.\n\nAll the Birds in the King's Garden were overjoyed that the Bird that\nFollows the Cuckoo did not get into the Cuckoo's Mouth.\n\n\"What shall we do for the Boy who prevented the World from coming to\nan End?\" asked the good-natured Corncrake. She was there too, but I\nforgot to mention her.\n\n\"Nothing,\" said the Willy-wagtail. \"The Boy who would throw a cap\nwould throw a stone. Do nothing at all for him.\"\n\n\"I'll sing for him,\" said the Goldfinch.\n\n\"I'll teach him what the Birds say,\" said the Crow.\n\n\"If he knew the Language of the Birds he would be like King Solomon,\"\nsaid the Raven.\n\n\"Let us make him like King Solomon,\" said the Goldfinch.\n\n\"Yes, yes, yes,\" said all the Birds in the King's Garden.\n\nThe Boy had not gone far when the Crow flew after him and lighted on\nhis shoulder. The Crow spoke to him in the Boy's own language. The Boy\nwas surprised. The Crow flew to a standing stone and went on speaking\nplain words to him.\n\n\"O,\" said the Boy, \"I didn't know you could speak.\"\n\n\"Why shouldn't I know how to speak,\" said the Crow, \"haven't I, for a\nhundred years and more, been watching men and listening to their\nwords? Why shouldn't I be able to speak?\"\n\n\"And you can speak well, ma'am,\" said the Boy, not forgetting his\nmanners.\n\n\"You know one language, but I know many languages,\" said the Crow,\n\"for I know what People say, and I know what all the Birds say.\"\n\nThe old Crow sat there looking so wise and so friendly that the Boy\nbegan to talk to her at his ease. And after a while the Boy said,\n\"Ma'am, do you think I could ever learn what the Birds say?\"\n\n\"You would, if you had me to teach you,\" said the Crow.\n\n\"And will you teach me, ma'am?\" said the Boy.\n\n\"I will,\" said the Crow.\n\nThen every day after that the Crow would sit upon the Standing Stone\nand the Boy would stand beside it. When the Crow had eaten the boiled\npotato that the Boy always brought she would tell him about the\nlanguages of the different Birds. The two were teaching and learning\nfrom day to day, and indeed you might say that the Boy went to school\nto the Crow. He learnt the language of this Bird and that Bird, and\nas he learnt their languages, many's and many's the good story he\nheard them tell each other.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: The Stone of Victory]\n\n\n\n\nThe Stone of Victory\n\nAND HOW FEET-IN-THE-ASHES, THE SWINEHERD'S SON, CAME TO FIND IT\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"If we went there, if we went there, maybe we'd find it,\" said the\nCock-grouse to the Hen-grouse as they went together, clucking through\nthe heather.\n\n\"And if we found it, if we found it, what good would the Stone of\nVictory do us?\" said the Hen-grouse to the Cock-grouse, answering him\nback.\n\n\"And what good did the Stone of Victory do to the youth who was called\nFeet-in-the-Ashes, and who was only the Swineherd's Son?\" said the\nCock-grouse to the Hen-grouse.\n\n\"Tell me, tell me, and then I shall know,\" said the Hen-grouse to the\nCock-grouse, answering him back. They went together, clucking through\nthe heather and the Boy who knew what the Birds said followed them.\n\nHe lay upon a rock and the Cock-grouse and the Hen-grouse discoursed\nbelow him, the Cock-grouse always lifting his voice above the hen's.\nThe Boy heard what they said and he remembered every word of it. And,\nby the tongue in my mouth, here is the story he heard:--\n\n \"Cluck-ee, Cluck-ee, cluck-ee, cloo, cloo, cloo.\" The King of\n Ireland stood outside the gate of his Castle and his powerful\n captains and his strong-armed guards were all around him. And\n one of his captains went to the mound before him and he gave\n a shout to the East and a shout to the West, and a shout to\n the North and a shout to the South. When the King asked him\n why he did it the Captain said \"I want the four quarters of\n the World to know that the King of Ireland stands here with\n his powerful Captains and his strong armed guards that no one\n dare come from the East or West, the North or the South and\n lay the weight of a finger upon him.\" And when he said this\n the other captains flashed their swords and the guards\n clashed their shields and the King of Ireland said, \"Well and\n faithfully am I guarded indeed and luckier am I than any\n other King on the earth for no one can come from the East or\n the West, the North or the South and lay the weight of their\n finger upon me.\"\n\n But no sooner did he say that than they saw a Giant coming\n across the hill and towards the place where they were\n standing. And when the Giant came to them he lifted up his\n hand and he doubled his hand into a fist and he struck the\n King of Ireland full in the mouth and he knocked out three of\n his teeth. He picked the King's teeth up, put them in his\n pouch, and without one word walked past them and went down to\n the sea.\n\n \"Who will avenge the insult put upon me?\" said the King of\n Ireland, \"and which of my captains will go and win back for\n me the three best teeth I had?\" But not one of his captains\n made a step after the Giant.\n\n \"I know now,\" said the King, \"How well you serve and how well\n you guard me. Well, if none of you will help me and if none\n of you will avenge me, I'll find those who will. And now I'll\n make a proclamation and I'll solemnly declare that whoever\n avenges the insult offered to me, and, in addition brings\n back to me the three that were the best teeth in my head,\n even though he be a servant or the son of a servant, I'll\n give him my daughter in marriage and a quarter of my kingdom,\n and, more than that,\" said he, \"I'll make him full captain\n over all my guards.\"\n\n The proclamation was sent all over the Castle and in the end\n it came to the ears of the Swineherd's Son who was called\n Feet-in-the-Ashes. And when he heard it he rubbed the ashes\n out of his hair and he said to his grandmother--\"If there is\n anything in the world I want it is the King's daughter in\n marriage and a quarter of the Kingdom. I'll want provision\n for my journey,\" said he, \"so, grandmother, bake a cake for\n me.\" \"I'll do better than that for you, honey, if you are\n going to win back the King's teeth and marry the King's\n daughter,\" said his grandmother. \"I have a few things of my\n own that no one knows anything about, and I'll give them to\n you with your cake. Here,\" said she, \"is my crutch. Follow\n the Giant's tracks until you come to the sea, throw the\n crutch into the sea and it will become a boat, step into the\n boat and in it you can sail over to the Green Island that the\n Giant rules. And here's this pot of balsam. No matter how\n deep or deadly the sword-cut or the spear-thrust wound is, if\n you rub this balsam over it, it will be cured. Here's your\n cake too. Leave good-luck behind you and take good-luck with\n you, and be off now on your journey.\"\n\n\"And why was the youth called Feet-in-the-Ashes?\" said the Hen-grouse\nto the Cock-grouse.\n\n He was called Feet-in-the-Ashes because he had sat in the\n chimney-corner from the time he could stand upon two legs.\n And everybody who called him Feet-in-the-Ashes thought he was\n too lazy to do anything else. Well, he left good-luck behind\n him and he took good-luck with him and he started off on his\n journey with the cake, the crutch and the cure. He followed\n the Giant's tracks until they came down to the sea. Into the\n sea he flung his grandmother's crutch. It became a boat with\n masts and sails. He jumped into the boat, and the things that\n had to be done in a boat were done by him--\n\n He hoisted the sails--the red sail, the black sail and the\n speckled sail,\n He gave her prow to the sea and her stern to the land,\n The blue sea was flashing,\n The green sea was lashing,\n But on they went with a breeze that he himself would have chosen,\n And the little creatures of the sea sat up on their tails to\n watch his going.\n\n and so he went until he came near the Green Island where\n Shamble-shanks the Giant who had carried off the three teeth\n of the King of Ireland had his Castle and his stronghold.\n\n He fastened his boat where a boat should be fastened and he\n went through the Island until he came to a high grey Castle.\n No one was about it and he went through it, gate, court and\n hall. He found a chamber where a fire burned on the\n hearth-stone. He went to the fire gladly. He looked around\n the chamber and he saw three beds. \"There's room to rest\n myself here, at all events,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n Night came on and he left the fire and got into a bed. He\n pulled one of the soft skins over him. Just as he was going\n to turn on his side to sleep three youths came into the\n chamber. Feet-in-the-Ashes sat up on the bed to look at them.\n\n When they saw him they began to moan and groan and when he\n looked them over he saw they were all covered with\n wounds--with spear-thrusts and with sword-cuts. The sight of\n him in the bed, more than their wounds, made them moan and\n groan, and when he asked them why this was so the first of\n the three youths said:--\n\n \"We came here, the three of us, to fight the Giant\n Shamble-shanks and to take from this Island the Stone of\n Victory. We came to this Castle yesterday and we made three\n beds in this chamber so that after the combat we might rest\n ourselves and be healed so that we might be able to fight the\n Giant again to-morrow or the day after, for we know that we\n cannot win victory over him until many combats. Now we come\n back from our first fight and we find you in one of the beds\n we had made. We are not able to put you out of it. One of us\n must stay out of bed and the one that stays out will die\n to-night. Then we shall be only two against the Giant and he\n will kill us when we come to combat again.\" And when the\n first one had said all this the three youths began to moan\n and groan again.\n\n Feet-in-the-Ashes got out of bed. \"You can have your rest,\n the three of you,\" said he. \"And as for me I can sit by the\n fire with my feet in the ashes as often as I did before.\" The\n three youths got into the three beds and when they were in\n them Feet-in-the-Ashes took the pot of balsam that his\n grandmother had given him and rubbed some of it on each one\n of them. In a while their pain and their weariness left them\n and their wounds closed up. Then the three youths sat up in\n their beds and they told Feet-in-the-Ashes their story.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Cluck-ee, cluck-ee, cluck-ee, cluck, cluck,\" said the Hen-grouse,\n\"and what was the story they told?\"\n\n\"Cluck, cluck,\" said the Cock-grouse, \"wait until you hear, cluck,\ncluck.\"\n\n Said the first of these youths, \"On this island there is a\n moor, and on that moor there is a stone, and that stone is\n not known from other stones, but it is the Stone of Victory.\n The Giant Shamble-shanks has not been able to find it\n himself, but he fights with all who come here to find it.\n To-day we went to the moor. As soon as we got there the Giant\n came out of the Grey Castle and fought with us. We fought and\n we fought, but he wounded us so sorely that we were like to\n die of our wounds. We came back to rest here. Thanks to your\n balsam we are cured of our wounds. We'll go to fight the\n Giant to-morrow, and with the surprise he'll get at seeing us\n before him so soon we may be able to overcome him.\"\n\n \"And along with the surprise, there's another thing that will\n help you,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes, \"and that is myself. I\n have to fight the same Giant Shamble-shanks and I may as well\n fight him in company as alone.\"\n\n \"Your help will be welcome if you have not come here to win\n the Stone of Victory.\"\n\n \"Not for the Stone of Victory I have come, but to win back\n the three teeth that were knocked out of the King of\n Ireland's head and to avenge the insult that was offered to\n him.\"\n\n \"Then we'll be glad of your help, good comrade.\" The three\n youths got out of their beds and they sat with\n Feet-in-the-Ashes round the fire and the four spent a third\n of the night in pleasant story-telling, and slumber nor\n weariness did come near them at all.\n\n\"Cluck, cluck, cluck,\" said the Hen-grouse.\n\n\"Say no more,\" said the Cock-grouse, \"for now I'm coming to what's\nwonderful in my story--\"\n\n The four youths were seated round the fire when a little man\n came into the Chamber. He carried a harp in his hands. He\n bowed low to each of the four of them. \"I am MacDraoi, the\n Giant's Harper,\" he said, \"and I have come to play music for\n you.\" \"Not one tune do we want to hear from you,\" said\n Feet-in-the-Ashes. \"Whether you want it or not, one you will\n hear,\" said the Harper, \"and that tune is the Slumber Tune. I\n shall play it for you now. And if the whole world was before\n me when I play it, and if every one in it had the pains of\n deep wounds, the playing on my harp would make each and every\n one of them fall into a slumber.\" \"That tune we must not\n hear,\" said the first of the three youths, \"for if we fall\n into a slumber the Giant will see to it that we shall never\n awaken.\"\n\n MacDraoi, the Giant's Harper put his harp to his chest and he\n began to play. Slumber came on the eyelids of the four who\n were at the fire. Three sprang up, but one stayed on his\n bench dead-sound-fast asleep. One yawned and fell down on the\n floor. One of the two that remained went towards the Harper,\n but on his way he fell across a bed and he remained on it.\n Then, out of the four, only one, Feet-in-the-Ashes, was left\n awake.\n\n The Harper played on. Feet-in-the-Ashes put his fingers in\n his mouth and commenced to gnaw them. He gnawed the first two\n fingers down to their joints. But still his mouth kept open\n in a yawn and still the slumber kept heavy on his eyelids. He\n gnawed his third and his little finger. Then he put his right\n hand in his mouth and he bit at his thumb and he bit so\n sharply that his senses nearly all came back to him. With a\n kick he knocked the harp out of the Harper's hands. He caught\n MacDraoi then and turned him head below heels and left him\n hanging by his feet from a beam across the chamber. Then he\n went straight through the hall and out of the Castle.\n\n A wet breeze was blowing and whatever sleep was on his eye it\n blew away. He walked on with the dark clouds of the night\n going behind him and the bright light of the day growing\n before him. \"I'll turn back,\" said he, \"when I hear a cock\n crowing, and whatever I find beside me then I'll take with me\n to remind myself of where I have been.\"\n\n He found himself on a moor and he walked on until he was far\n on it. A cock crew. \"Time to turn back,\" said\n Feet-in-the-Ashes. He looked round to see what he might bring\n with him and he saw on the ground a round stone.\n\n\"A round stone?\" said the Hen-grouse.\n\n\"Yes,\" said the Cock-grouse, \"a round black stone. He took it up, that\nround black stone, and he went back to the Castle, hungry for his\nbreakfast.\"\n\n In the Castle Chamber the three youths were still slumbering,\n one on the bench, one on the floor and one in a bed and\n MacDraoi the Harper was still hanging by his feet from the\n beam across the Chamber. \"Lift me down from this, good lad,\"\n said the Giant's Harper.\n\n \"I will,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes, \"when my three companions\n awaken.\"\n\n \"They won't awaken,\" said MacDraoi the Harper.\n\n \"Then you can hang there,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n \"They won't awaken,\" said MacDraoi, \"until I cause them to\n awaken, and I shall cause them to awaken if you lift me down\n from this.\"\n\n \"Will you promise by your head,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n \"By my head I promise,\" said the Giant's Harper.\n\n Then Feet-in-the-Ashes lifted the Harper down from the\n rafters and set him upon his legs. MacDraoi took up the harp\n and he pulled the strings back-ways. The notes he drew out\n were so piercing that first one and then another and then a\n third of the three youths wakened up. Then, when they were on\n their feet MacDraoi, the Giant's Harper, slipped out of the\n house and went away. What happened to the Harper after that\n no one knows.\n\n\"Cluck, cluck,\" said the Hen-grouse, \"and what did they do after\nthat?\"\n\n\"The next thing they had to do,\" said the Cock-grouse, drawing himself\nup, \"was to fight. Yes, my lady, to fight.\" The Hen-grouse drooped her\nhead and said no more, and the Cock-grouse went on valiantly--\n\n Swords they drew out--the three youths who were with\n Feet-in-the-Ashes. They sharpened these swords. They marched\n off towards the moor with the swords in their hands.\n Feet-in-the-Ashes had no sword. All he had in his hand was a\n holly-stick.\n\n When they came in sight of the Grey Castle they saw the Giant\n come rushing out of the gate. He was clad all in iron and he\n had a sword in one hand and a spear in the other. The four\n youths spread themselves out so that they might be able to\n close round the Giant. But for all his bigness the Giant was\n quick enough. He struck one of them with his spear and\n brought him down on his knees. He struck the other with his\n sword and brought him down on his side. He struck the other\n with his iron-covered hand and brought him down on his back.\n And all that was left now was Feet-in-the-Ashes with his\n holly-stick.\n\n What could a youth with a holly-stick in his hand do against\n a Giant that had a spear and a sword in his hands and was\n besides that all covered with iron? Feet-in-the-Ashes turned\n and ran. He ran towards the Castle and went round it. And\n when he was at the east side the Giant was at the North and\n when he was at the south the Giant was at the East. Round and\n round the Castle they went and the Giant with his strength\n and his quickness was wearing out Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n Feet-in-the-Ashes wanted something to fling at him. He took\n the stone out of his pocket--the round black stone. He held\n it in his hand. He made three circles in the air with it. He\n flung the stone. It struck the Giant on the breast and the\n iron rang as the stone struck it. Down fell the Giant.\n Feet-in-the-Ashes ran off to where his companions lay. Many\n times he looked back but he did not see the Giant following\n him. The three youths were lying in their wounds and in\n their pain. Feet-in-the Ashes took out his pot of balsam and\n rubbed them all over. Their wounds healed. First one stood up\n and then the second stood up and then the third stood up and\n the three were whole and well. \"Where is the Giant?\" each of\n them asked.\n\n \"Lying where he fell,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n \"And who threw him down?\" said the first of the youths.\n\n \"I threw him down with a cast of a stone,\" said\n Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n \"Let us go and see,\" said the second of the youths. They went\n towards the west side of the Grey Castle like men following a\n bear who might turn on them. The Giant was lying still. \"He\n is dead,\" said one, \"He is dead indeed,\" said another. \"He is\n dead forever,\" said a third. \"He is dead by the cast of my\n stone,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n They went up to where the Giant was and looked all over him.\n \"There is the stone that overthrew him,\" said one of the\n youths, \"that round black stone. Where did you get it?\"\n\n \"On the moor,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n \"On the moor,\" said the others looking at him.\n\n \"Yes,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes, \"Picked it up this morning on\n the moor just as the cock crew.\"\n\n One of the three youths took the round black stone in his\n hand. \"I'll bring the stone with me,\" said he. \"We'll go into\n the Castle now and see what our finding there will be.\"\n\n They went into the Castle. The three youths told\n Feet-in-the-Ashes they would help him to find what he had\n come to seek--the three teeth out of the head of the King of\n Ireland. They searched and they searched all over the Castle.\n At last one of them opened an iron press and there on a shelf\n was a silver cup and in the cup were three teeth.\n Feet-in-the-Ashes knew they were what he had come for. He\n left the cup beside him.\n\n They took provisions from the Giant's store, put them on the\n table and began to eat. But first one and then another and\n then the third of the three youths made an excuse and left\n the table. Feet-in-the-Ashes went on with his breakfast. Then\n he left the Castle to look for the three youths that had\n been his companions. He did not find them. He went down to\n the sea-shore. He saw his boat and the sails were raised on\n it. In the boat were the three youths and they were making\n ready to put out to sea. Feet-in-the-Ashes shouted to them.\n Then one of the youths came to the side of the deck and spoke\n back to him.\n\n \"You found the Stone of Victory without knowing it,\" said he,\n \"and you let us take it in our hands. Now we cannot give it\n back to you for our lives depend on our keeping it and\n bringing it away. And,\" said he, \"we fear to stay on the land\n with you because you have such luck that you could take the\n Stone from us. The boat we came in is gone. We take your boat\n and we think that you have such luck that you will find\n another way of getting off the island. Remember that what you\n came for was not the Stone of Victory but the King's teeth,\n and we helped to find them for you.\"\n\n They had hoisted the sails and now a wind came and the boat\n that was from his grandmother's crutch was blown out of the\n harbour and Feet-in-the-Ashes was left without any companion\n on the Island.\n\n\"Cluck, cluck, cluck,\" said the Hen-grouse, \"he found the Stone of\nVictory, but what good were his findings to him when he didn't know\nwhat he had found and he let it be taken from him?\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"But if he hadn't to find it he couldn't have slain the Giant and\ntaken the cup out of the iron cupboard--that much good the Stone of\nVictory did him,\" said the Cock-grouse.\n\n\"I'm sorry to think that that's all he got from the Stone of Victory,\"\nsaid the Hen-grouse.\n\n\"Well, that's all he got from it, and be quiet now till I tell you the\nrest of the story,\" said the Cock-grouse.\n\n He went into the courtyard of the Grey Castle and he found\n there a great eagle that was chained to a great rock. The\n eagle came towards him as far as the chain would let him.\n \"Feed me,\" said the eagle.\n\n \"Will you carry me to Ireland's ground if I feed you?\" said\n Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n \"If you feed me every time I open my mouth, I will,\" said the\n eagle.\n\n \"That I'll try to do, good eagle,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n He went through courtyard and pen-fold but not a sheep nor a\n pig nor a bullock could he find. It seemed as if he would not\n be able to find meat for the eagle after all. He went down to\n the sea-shore and he came upon a pool filled with thin bony\n fish called skates. He took a basket of these and put it on\n his back. He came back to the courtyard and he unlocked the\n chain that held the eagle.\n\n \"Feed me,\" said the eagle, and he opened his mouth.\n\n \"Close your eyes and I'll fill you mouth,\" said\n Feet-in-the-Ashes.\n\n The eagle closed his eyes. Feet-in-the-Ashes flung a score\n of skates into his mouth. \"Hard meat, hard meat,\" said the\n eagle, but he gulped them down. Feet-in-the-Ashes, holding\n the cup in his hands and carrying the basket of skates on his\n back, put himself between the wings of the eagle. The eagle\n flew up and over the Grey Castle and faced for the plain of\n the sea.\n\n They travelled from the morning light until the full\n noontide. The eagle opened his mouth again. Feet-in-the-Ashes\n put nothing into it. The eagle finding nothing in his mouth\n dropped down to the sea.\n\n \"Close you eyes,\" said Feet-in-the-Ashes, \"and I'll fill your\n mouth.\" The eagle closed his eyes and Feet-in-the-Ashes put\n another score of skates into his mouth. The eagle gulped them\n all down. \"Whenever I open my mouth you will have to feed\n me,\" he said. Feet-in-the-Ashes did not like to hear this,\n for a score more of skates were all that was left.\n\n The eagle rose up again and on and on he flew until the night\n was coming over the water. He opened his mouth again.\n Feet-in-the-Ashes put in five more skates. The eagle kept his\n mouth open and said \"Feed me.\"\n\n There was nothing to be done then but to put in the rest of\n the skates. Feet-in-the-Ashes flung them all in, and the\n eagle rose up and flew and they travelled while there was\n darkness on the water, and when the sun rose again\n Feet-in-the-Ashes saw they were flying over the land of\n Ireland. The eagle opened his mouth. Feet-in-the-Ashes had\n nothing to put into it. \"Fly on, good eagle,\" said he, \"and\n leave me down at the King's Castle.\" \"Feed me,\" said the\n eagle. \"I will give you what you never had before--a whole\n bullock--when we come to the King's Castle.\" \"Cows far off\n have long horns,\" said the eagle mocking him. With that he\n flung Feet-in-the-Ashes off his back.\n\n Sore would his fall have been if it had been on any other\n place but a soft bog. On the softest of soft bogs he fell. He\n made a hole in the ground, but no bone in his body was broken\n and he still held the cup in his hands. He rose up covered\n with the mud of the bog, and he started off for the King's\n Castle.\n\n\"Cluck, cluck,\" said the Hen-grouse, \"and did he not go to see his\ngrandmother at all?\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"If he did it's not in the story,\" said the Cock-grouse. \"That very\nday, as I would have you know, the King was standing outside the gate\nof his Castle with his powerful captains and his strong-armed guards\naround him. 'A year it is to-day,' said the King, 'since the Giant\ncame and struck me in the mouth, knocking out and taking away three of\nmy teeth, and since that day I have had neither health nor prosperity.\nAnd you know,' said he, 'that my daughter and a quarter of my Kingdom\nis to go to the one who will avenge the insult and bring back my\nthree teeth.' 'Such and such a thing prevented me from going,' said\none of his Captains, 'but now that so and so is done, I can go and\navenge the insult offered to you.' 'So and so kept me from going,'\nsaid another of the Captains, 'but now that such and such a thing is\ndone I can go to-morrow and bring you back your three teeth.' 'I am\ntired of hearing you all talk,' said the King, 'and it's my belief\nthat my teeth will be lost and my daughter unwedded till the day of\ndoom.'\"\n\n It was then that Feet-in-the-Ashes appeared before them,\n \"Good health to you, King,\" said he.\n\n \"Good health to you, good man,\" said the King, \"and what, may\n I ask, have you come here for?\"\n\n He was covered with the feathers of the eagle and the mud of\n the bog, and, as you may be sure, the King and the captains\n and the guards looked sourly at him.\n\n \"I have come first of all, King,\" said he, \"to give you\n advice.\"\n\n \"And what is your advice?\" asked the King.\n\n \"My advice to you is that you send away all these you have\n around you--your captains and your guards--and that you turn\n them into dog-boys or horse-boys or anything else in which\n they would give useful service, for as they are here, they\n can neither serve nor guard you.\"\n\n \"All that may be true,\" said the King, \"but what right have\n you to say it?\"\n\n Feet-in-the-Ashes said nothing but he held the cup up to the\n King and the King saw three teeth in it and he took them out\n and placed them in his mouth and the teeth went into their\n places and there firmly they stayed.\n\n Then Feet-in-the-Ashes told how he had gone to the Green\n Island and how he had avenged the insult offered to the king\n and how he had got what he had gone to search for. Then he\n demanded the King's daughter in marriage and a quarter of the\n Kingdom, and both were made over to him on the spot. As for\n the powerful captains and the strong-armed guards, some of\n them were made horse-boys and some were made dog-boys and\n Feet-in-the-Ashes was made Captain over the new guards. When\n he came to rule a quarter of the Kingdom he was given a horse\n and made a duke and he was called by a better name than\n Feet-in-the-Ashes. But what that name was I don't remember\n now.\n\n\"Cluck, cluck, cluck,\" said the Hen-grouse, \"and did he go to visit\nthe grandmother at all?\"\n\n\"If he did,\" said the Cock-grouse, \"that's another story, and if it\nwas ever told I don't remember it. Pray go to the right, my lady, for\nI'm hungry for the sweet buds of the heather.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: The King of the Birds]\n\n\n\n\nThe King of the Birds\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe thirteen little wrens sat on the Apple-yard wall in the King's\nGarden and their mother was there to teach them to fly. One called\nthem the little wrens, but really each one was as big as their mother.\nShe had a tail, however, that was most cunningly cocked and they had\nno tails, and the consequence was that when they made their little\nflights they always went sideways. Moreover, their beaks were still\nyellow and wide and open and this is always a sign of the young bird.\n\n\"All I ask of you,\" said the mother, \"is that when you go into the\nWorld you remember that you are the Children of the King of the\nBirds.\"\n\n\"Now why does our Mother call us the Children of the King of the\nBirds?\" said one little wren to the other. \"I think we're really very\nsmall. And I think our Mother is very small. And there's our Father\nbehind that ivy-leaf and he's very small too.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"And wherever you go, be sure to conduct yourselves like the Children\nof the King of the Birds,\" said the Mother.\n\n\"It's because we were reared in such a fine nest,\" said another\nlittle wren. \"No other birds in the world had ever a finer nest than\nwe have had. That's the reason we're called the Children of the King\nof the Birds.\"\n\n\"Men call the Wren the King of the Birds,\" said the Father Wren, as he\nflew up on a tree, \"and surely men ought to know who is the King of\nthe Birds.\"\n\n\"Why do men call the Wren the King of the Birds?\" said the little\nwrens.\n\n\"I will tell you,\" said the Mother. \"As we fly from the wall to the\ntree, and from the tree back to the wall, I will tell you why men\nhonor the wren as the King of the Birds.\"\n\nShe spent a whole day telling the little wrens the story and the Boy\nWho Knew What the Birds Said was there, and he heard the whole of\nit.--\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe King of the Hither-side of the Mountain conquered the two villages\nof Half-a-Loaf and Windy-Gap, and the very day he conquered he ordered\nthe two Headmen to come before him.\n\n\"You two Headmen are to see that your villages, Half-a-Loaf and\nWindy-Gap, send me my rightful tribute,\" said the King to them.\n\n\"There isn't much we can send....\" said the Headman of Half-a-Loaf.\n\n\"A string of salmon,\" said the Headman of Windy-Gap.\n\n\"A basket of plover's eggs,\" said the Headman of Half-a-Loaf.\n\n\"No,\" said the King, \"the tribute that each of your villages must send\nme is the King of the Birds.\"\n\nThe two Headmen went back to their villages, and that very day each\ntold at the council what tribute the King had ordered them to send.\n\"The King of the Birds,\" said the people of Half-a-Loaf, \"that's the\nEagle surely.\" \"The King of the Birds,\" said the people of Windy-Gap.\n\"What Bird might that be? We'll have to give thought to this.\"\n\nThe people of Windy-Gap thought about it and thought about it, but the\npeople of Half-a-Loaf declared there was no doubt at all about it--the\nEagle was the King of the Birds. And while the people of Windy-Gap\nwere thinking and pondering the people of Half-a-Loaf were sending\ntheir young men off to catch an eagle.\n\nBut an eagle is a hard fowl to catch, and the people of Half-a-Loaf\nfound they had to send all of their young men out and to send them out\nevery day. And the young men climbed high hills and stony ditches, and\nthey searched the east and they hunted the west; they went out at\nsunrise and they came back at sunset, but never an eagle did they\nbring with them.\n\n\"It may be that the Eagle is the King of the Birds,\" said the people\nof Windy-Gap, \"but we had better consider it.\"\n\nThey thought about it from sunrise to sunset; they thought about it\nwhile they plowed their fields and sowed them, while they spun their\ncloth and made their coats, while they mended their nets and mended\ntheir shoes, while they thatched their roofs and planted their\napple-trees.\n\nAnd in Half-a-Loaf there was few left to plow the fields and sow them,\nto spin cloth and to make coats, to mend nets and to mend shoes, to\nthatch roofs and to plant apple-trees--there was few left to do these\nthings for all the young men were out on the mountain hunting for an\neagle.\n\n\"The people of Windy-Gap will be ruined,\" said the people of\nHalf-a-Loaf, \"they have done nothing yet to catch the Eagle. When the\nKing gets no tribute from them he'll come down and sell them and their\nvillage. Call the young men back that have gone into the fields to\nwork and send them up the mountain again.\"\n\nAt last the people of Half-a-Loaf caught their Eagle--a great golden\nEagle he was. They built for him a shed and they fed him on what lambs\nthey had that year.\n\n\"We're safe anyway,\" said the people of Half-a-Loaf, \"but the\nunfortunate folk in Windy-Gap have lost their chance. They'll not have\ntime to catch an eagle now.\"\n\nThe time was coming near when the two villages would have to send\ntheir tribute to the King.\n\n\"We have our Eagle,\" said the people of Half-a-Loaf, \"But O, Bad\nFortune! we have hardly a crop growing. This will be a hard year for\nus--we haven't lambs to grow into sheep even.\"\n\n\"We have our crops,\" said the people of Windy-Gap, \"but, Bad Cess to\nit! What are we to do about paying our tribute to the King?\"\n\nAnd still they couldn't decide whether it was the Eagle or the Cuckoo\nor the Woodpecker that was King of the Birds. They were still\nconsidering it when the King's Messenger came to bid them come with\ntheir tribute to the King's Castle.\n\nWhat were the people of Windy-Gap to do? They searched round and about\nbut no bird at all could they find. And then as he was being marched\noff the Headman put his hand under the thatch of his house and took\nout a Wren that was sheltering there. He put the Wren under his hat\nand went off with the King's Messenger.\n\nAnd there, before him on the way to the King's Castle was the Headman\nof Half-a-Loaf. The riders of the village were with him and they bore\ntheir golden Eagle most triumphantly.\n\n\"Give to my Falconer the King of the Birds,\" said the King.\n\nThe Headman of Half-a-Loaf presented the Eagle.\n\n\"It is well,\" said the King, \"and where have you,\" said he to the\nHeadman of Windy-Gap, \"bestowed the King of the Birds?\"\n\nThe Headman put his hand under his hat and handed over the Wren to the\nKing's Falconer.\n\n\"Tush,\" said the King, \"Why do you call this the King of the Birds?\"\n\nThe Headman of Windy-Gap was going to say \"Because his family is\ngreat,\" but he said instead \"Because he flies the highest, my lord.\"\n\n\"If it be truth it's unknown to me,\" said the King, \"but it shall be\ntried out.\"\n\nThen said he to the Royal Falconer, \"Let the Eagle and the Wren soar\ntogether. And when the Eagle outsoars the Wren it shall be proved that\nthe Headman of Windy-Gap is a catiff, and his village and everyone in\nit will be sold to the Saracens. But if it so happens that the Wren\noutsoars the Eagle, the tribute sent from the village of Windy-Gap\nmust be accepted.\"\n\nThe Eagle and the Wren rose from the same perch and soared up\ntogether. Up and up the Eagle went. \"So far my father went, but I\nshall go farther,\" said the Eagle. Higher and higher he rose. \"So far\nmy grandfather went but I shall go farther.\" Farther and farther he\nsoared. \"So far went my great-grandfather, and no eagle again will fly\nso high.\" His wings were stiff and tired. \"No bird will ever out-soar\nthis flight of mine,\" said the Eagle.\n\nHe went to close his wings so that he might rest them as he went down.\nBut as he did the Wren came from under his wings.\n\nUp went the Wren, down went the Eagle. Up and up went the Wren. He had\nbeen resting while the Eagle had been flying, and now he was able to\nsoar past the point the Eagle had reached at his dead-best.\n\nThe Eagle flew down and lighted on the Falconer's perch. \"Has he flown\nhigh, Falconer?\" asked the King. \"No bird has flown so high,\" said the\nFalconer. \"By the rime on his wings he has gone into the line of\nfrost.\"\n\n\"The Eagle is King of the Birds and no one can deny it,\" said the\nKing. \"The village of Windy-Gap has not sent me my tribute.\"\n\n\"Mercy,\" said the Headman of Windy-Gap.\n\n\"The village and all in it shall be sold to the Saracens,\" said the\nKing.\n\nJust then the Wren came down and lighted on the perch beside the\nEagle. \"Where did the Wren fly to?\" said the King. \"By my glove,\" said\nthe Falconer \"he soared past the line of frost, and went into the line\nof snow, for what's on his feathers is a drop of snow.\"\n\n\"The Wren is King of the Birds,\" said the Headman of Windy-Gap.\n\n\"Yes, King of the Birds,\" said the King, \"and, therefore, my lawful\ntribute.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"No bird will ever out-soar this flight of mine,\" said\nthe Eagle.]\n\nAnd so, for ever after the villages sent to the King, not an Eagle,\nbut a Wren as tribute. And in no village ever after were the lands\nunplowed and the fields unsown, the cloth unspun and the coats not\nmade, the roofs unthatched and the apple-trees unplanted. And in every\nvillage in the hollow and on the height the people shouted for the\nWren--\"The Wren, the Wren, the King of all Birds.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: Bloom-of-Youth and the Witch of the Elders]\n\n\n\n\nBloom-of-Youth and the Witch of the Elders\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBloom-of-youth was a young, young girl. But, young as she was, she\nwould have to be married, her step-mother said. Then married she was\nwhile she was still little enough to walk through the doorway of her\nstep-mother's hut without stooping her head.\n\nHer husband was a hunter and he took her to live in a hut at the edge\nof a wood. He was out hunting the whole of the day. Now what did\nBloom-of-Youth do while she had the house to herself? Little enough\nindeed. She swept the floor and she washed the dishes and she laid\nthem back on their shelf. Then she went to the well for pails of\nwater. When she went out she stayed long, for first she would look\ninto the well at her own image and then she would make a wreath of\nflowers and put it on her head and look at herself again. After that,\nmaybe, she would delay to pick berries and eat them. Then she would go\nwithout hurrying along the path, singing to herself.--\n\n 'Said when he saw\n Me all in blue,\n \"Who is the maid\n The sky must woo?\"\n\n 'Said when he saw\n Me all in green,\n \"Who is the maid\n The grass calls queen?\"'\n\nWhen she would have got back to the hut the fire on the hearth would\nhave gone out and she would have to light it again and then sweep the\nfloor clear of the ashes that had blown upon it. After that she would\nhave little time to do anything else except prepare a meal against\nthe time when her husband would be back from his hunting.\n\nOne morning her husband left his coat down on the bench. \"My coat is\ntorn; sew it for me,\" he said. Bloom-of-Youth said she would do that.\nBut she did no more to the coat than take it up and leave it down\nagain on the bench.\n\nThe next day her husband said \"My vest is torn too; have it and the\ncoat sewn for me.\" He left the vest beside the coat and went out to\nhis hunting.\n\nBloom-of-Youth did nothing to the coat and nothing to the vest, and\nevery day for a week her husband went out without coat or vest upon\nhim.\n\nOne day he put on his torn coat and his torn vest and went out to his\nhunting. When he came home that evening he had a bundle of wool with\nhim.\n\n\"Your step-mother,\" said he, \"sends you this bundle of wool and she\nbids you spin it that there may be cloth for new clothes for me.\" \"I\nwill spin it,\" said Bloom-of-Youth.\n\nBut the next day when her husband went away she did what she had\nalways done before. She went to the well and she looked for long at\nher image; she put a wreath of flowers on her head and she looked at\nher image again; she picked berries and ate them; she went along the\npath without hurrying, singing to herself.--\n\n 'Said when he saw\n Me all in blue\n \"Who is the maid\n The sky must woo?\"\n\n 'Said when he saw\n Me all in green\n \"Who is the maid\n The grass calls queen?\"'\n\nShe had to light the fire again when she came in and sweep away the\nashes that had gathered on the floor and after she had done all that\nit was time to prepare the meal for the evening. But before her\nhusband came home she took the spinning wheel out of the corner and\nput it near the light of the doorway.\n\n\"I see,\" said her husband, \"that you are going to spin the wool for my\nclothes.\"\n\n\"I am when to-morrow comes,\" said Bloom-of-Youth.\n\nBut the next day she did as she done every day and no wool was spun.\nThe day after she put wool on the wheel and gave it a few turns. In a\nweek from that evening she had one ball of thread spun.\n\n\"Your step-mother bids me ask you how much of the wool have you spun?\"\nsaid her husband to her one evening. Bloom-of-Youth was so much afraid\nthat her husband would send her to her step-mother through the dark,\ndark wood, that she said \"I have spun many balls.\"\n\n\"Your step-mother bade me count the balls you have spun,\" said her\nhusband.\n\n\"I will go up to the loft and throw them down to you and then you will\nthrow them back to me and we will count them that way,\" said\nBloom-of-Youth.\n\nShe went up to the loft and she flung down the ball she had spun.\n\n\"One,\" said her husband, and he threw it back to her.\n\nShe flung him the ball again.\n\n\"Two,\" said her husband, and he flung it back to her. Then he said\n\"three,\" and then \"four,\" and then \"five,\" and so on until he had\ncounted twelve. \"You have done well,\" said he, \"and now before the\nweek is out take the twelve balls to your step-mother's house and she\nwill weave the thread into cloth for clothes for me.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBloom-of-Youth was greatly frightened. To her step-mother's house she\nwould have to go with a dozen balls of thread in a few days. The next\nday she hurried back from the well and she sat at her wheel before the\ndoor spinning and spinning. But, do her best, she could not get a good\nthread spun in the long length of the day.\n\nAnd while she was spinning and spinning and getting her thread knotted\nand broken a black and crooked woman came and stood before the door.\n\"You're spinning hard I see,\" said she to Bloom-of-Youth.\n\nBloom-of-Youth gave her no answer but put her head against the wheel\nand cried and cried.\n\n\"And what would you say,\" said the black and crooked woman, \"if I took\nthe bundle of wool from you now and brought it back to you to-morrow\nspun into a dozen balls of thread?\"\n\n\"It is not what I would say; it is what I should give you,\" said\nBloom-of-Youth.\n\n\"Give me!\" said the black and crooked woman. \"What could you give me?\"\nBut as she said it she gave Bloom-of-Youth a baleful look from under\nher leafy eyebrows. \"No, no, you need give me nothing for spinning the\nwool for you. All that I'll ask from you is that you tell me my name\nwithin a week from this day.\"\n\n\"It will be easy to find out her name within a week,\" said\nBloom-of-Youth to herself. She took the bundle of wool out of the\nbasket and gave it to her. The black and crooked woman put the wool\nunder her arm and then she lifted up her stick and shook it at\nBloom-of-Youth.\n\n\"And if you don't find out my name within a week you will have to give\nme your heart's blood--a drop of heart's blood for every ball of wool\nI spin for you.\" The hag went away then. Bloom-of-Youth was greatly\nfrightened, but after a while she said to herself \"I need not be\nafraid, for in a week I'll surely find out the name of the black and\ncrooked woman who can't live far from this.\"\n\nThe next day the hag came to the door and left twelve balls of wool on\nthe bench outside the house. \"In a week, in a week,\" said she, \"you'll\nhave my name or I'll have twelve drops of your heart's blood to make\nthe leaves of my Elder Tree fresh and fine.\"\n\nBloom-of-Youth went with the twelve balls of wool to her step-mother's\nhouse, and every person she met on the way she asked if he or she knew\nthe name of the black and crooked woman. But no one could tell her the\nhag's real name. All they could tell was that she was the Witch of the\nElders and that she lived beside the Big Stones that were at the other\nside of the wood.\n\nBloom-of-Youth was afraid: her face lost its color and her eyes grew\nwide and her heart would beat from one side of her body to the other.\nAnd every day the Witch of the Elders would come to the door and say\n\"Have you my name yet, Bloom-of-Youth, have you my name yet? Two days\ngone, five to come on; three days gone, four to come on; four days\ngone, three to come on; five days gone, two to come on.\" Six days went\nby and on the seventh she would have to go to the Big Stones at the\nother side of the wood and let the Witch of the Elders take twelve\ndrops of her heart's blood.\n\nThe night before the week's end her husband, when he sat down by the\nfire said \"I saw something and I heard something very strange when I\nwas at the other side of the wood this evening.\" \"What was it you\nsaw?\" said Bloom-of-Youth. \"Lights were all round the Big Stones and\nthere was a noise of spinning inside the ring they make. That's what I\nsaw.\" \"And what was it you heard?\" said Bloom-of-Youth. \"Someone\nsinging to the wheels,\" said her husband. \"And this is what I heard\nsung.--\n\n Spin, wheel, spin; sing, wheel, sing;\n Every stone in my yard, spin, spin, spin;\n The thread is hers, the wool is mine;\n Twelve drops from her heart will make my leaves shine!\n How little she knows, the foolish thing,\n That my name is Bolg and Curr and Carr,\n That my name is Lurr and Lappie.\n\n\"O sing that song again,\" said Bloom-of-Youth, \"Sing that song again.\"\n\nHer husband sang it again, and Bloom-of-Youth went to bed, singing to\nherself.--\n\n My name is Bolg and Curr and Carr,\n My name is Lurr and Lappie.\n\nThe next day as soon as her husband had gone to his hunting\nBloom-of-Youth went through the wood and towards the Big Stones that\nwere at the other side of it. And as she went through the wood she\nsang.--\n\n Spin, wheel, spin; sing, wheel, sing;\n Every branch on the tree, spin, spin, spin;\n The wool is hers, the thread is fine;\n For loss of my heart's blood I'll never dwine;\n Her name is Bolg and Curr and Carr,\n Her name is Lurr and Lappie.\n\nShe went singing until she was through the wood and near the Big\nStones. She went within the circle. There, besides a flat stone that\nwas on the ground, she saw the black and crooked old woman.\n\n\"You have come to me, Bloom-of-Youth,\" said she. \"Do you see the\nhollow that is in this stone? It is into this hollow that the drops of\nyour heart's blood will have to run.\"\n\n\"The drops of my heart's blood may remain my own.\"\n\n\"No, no, they won't remain your own any longer than when it is plain\nyou can't tell my name.\"\n\n\"Is it Bolg?\" said Bloom-of-Youth.\n\n\"Bolg is one of my names,\" screamed the Witch of the Elders, \"but one\nof my names won't let you go free.\"\n\n\"Is it Curr?\"\n\n\"Curr is another of my names, but two of my names won't let you go\nfree.\"\n\n\"Is it Carr?\"\n\n\"Carr is another of my names, but three of my names will not let you\ngo free.\"\n\n\"I know your other names too,\" said Bloom-of-Youth.\n\n\"Say them, say them,\" screamed the Witch of the Elders.\n\nBut when she tried to think of them Bloom-of-Youth found that the last\ntwo names had gone out of her mind. Not for all the drops that were in\nher heart could she remember them.\n\n\"No, no, you can't say them,\" said the Witch of the Elders. \"And now\nbend your breast over the hollow in the stone. I'll let out twelve\ndrops of your heart's blood with my pointed rod. Bend your breast over\nthe hollow.\"\n\n[Illustration: But just as the Witch was dragging her to the stone a\nrobin began to sing.]\n\nBut just as the Witch was dragging her to the stone a robin began to\nsing on a branch outside the Stones. It was the same tune as\nBloom-of-Youth had sung her song to as she went through the wood. Now\nall the words in her song came back to her.--\n\n Spin, wheel, spin; sing, wheel, sing;\n Every branch on the tree, spin, spin, spin;\n The wool is hers, the thread is mine;\n For loss of my heart's blood I'll never dwine!\n Her name is Bolg and Curr and Carr,\n Her name is Lurr and Lappie.\n\nShe said the last two names and as she did the Witch of the Elders\nscreamed and ran behind the stones. Bloom-of-Youth saw no more of her.\n\nThat evening her husband brought home the web of cloth that her\nstep-mother had woven. The next day Bloom-of-Youth began to make\nclothes for him out of it. Never again did she make delays at the well\nbut she came straight home with her pails of water. The fire was\nalways clear upon the hearth and she had never to light it the second\ntime and then sweep away the ashes that had gathered on the floor. She\nmade good clothes for her husband out of the web of cloth her\nstep-mother had woven. And every evening she spun on her wheel and\nthere was never a time afterwards when she had not a dozen balls of\nthread in the house.\n\n The wool is hers and the thread is mine;\n For loss of my heart's blood I never will dwine,\n And I throw my ball over to you.\n\nIt was the Woodpecker that told this story to the Boy Who Knew What\nthe Birds Said.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: The Hen-wife's Son and the Princess Bright Brow]\n\n\n\n\nThe Hen-wife's Son and the Princess Bright Brow\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nEveryone in and around the King's Castle despised Mell, the Hen-wife's\nSon, said the Stonechecker, the bird that built within the stones of\nthe Tower. And it was not because there was anything mean about the\nlad himself: it was because his mother, the Hen-wife, had the lowest\noffice about the King's Castle.\n\nThis is what a Hen-wife did: She had to mind the fowl and keep count\nof them, she had to gather the eggs and put them into a basket and\nsend them to the King's Steward every day. And for doing this she had\nas wages the right to go to the back-door of the Steward's house and\nget from the under-servants two meals a day for herself and Mell, her\nson.\n\nAnd everybody, as I said, despised this son of hers--horse-boys and\ndog-boys and the grooms around the Castle. But of course no one\ndespised Mell more than did the King's daughter, Princess Bright Brow.\n\nShe used to go into a wood and whisper along the branch of a tree. And\none day the Hen-wife's son whom she despised so much made answer to\nher. He was lying along the branch of the tree watching his mother's\ngoat that grazed on the grass below. Now this is what Princess Bright\nBrow said to the tree and this is what she used to say to it every\nday.--\n\n Oak-tree, oak-tree, above the rest,\n Which of the heroes loves me best?\n\nMell was lying along the Branch as I have said, and he made answer\nback to her.--\n\n Princess, Princess, he's at your call,\n And the Hen-wife's son loves you best of all!\n\nThe King's daughter looked up and she saw the Hen-wife's son on the\nbranch, and she went into a great rage. She gave orders to the grooms\nthat the Hen-wife's son was to be whipped every time he looked at her.\nMany's the time after that Mell got the lash. But he loved Bright Brow\nso much that he could not forbear looking at her.\n\n\nII\n\nNow, one very early morning Mell took his mother's goat out to graze\non the green. And as he went along he saw on the grass a beautiful\nmantle. He took it up and he thought to himself \"How well it would\nlook upon Princess Bright Brow!\" And he thought again \"if she would\ntake this beautiful green mantle from me maybe she would let me look\nupon her when she is wearing it.\"\n\nHe put the mantle across his shoulders and sat down and thought and\nthought. And while he was thinking he felt the mantle being pulled\nfrom behind. He turned round and he saw a woman standing there. She\nhad brighter colors in her dress and she wore more ornaments than any\none he had ever seen in the King's Castle. He knew by such signs that\nshe was a Fairy Woman out of the Green Rath.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Mell,\" said she, \"Mell, the Hen-wife's son, give to me the mantle\nthat the King of the Fairy Riders let fall from his shoulders last\nnight.\"\n\n\"If it is his, and if you have come to bring it to him, why you must\nhave it,\" said Mell, and he took the mantle off his shoulders and\nhanded it to her.\n\n\"The King would wish that I should recompense you,\" said the Fairy\nWoman. She took a jewel that was on the collar of the mantle and gave\nit to Mell. \"If you take this jewel in your hand,\" said she, \"and wish\nto be in this place or that place you will be there in an instant, and\nanyone you take by the hand you can bring with you.\" And when Mell\ntook the jewel from her, the Fairy Woman, carrying the green mantle,\nwent into the green rath.\n\nThen Mell took his goat by the horns and turned towards his hut. And\nthere, outside the gate of the Castle he saw the King's daughter,\nPrincess Bright Brow. She was watching the falconer training the young\nhawks and the grooms and the riders of the Castle were behind her.\nWhen she saw Mell with his hands on the goat's horns she grew high in\nrage and she turned to the grooms to give an order that he be beaten\nwith the whips they held.\n\nBut Mell ran to her and he caught her hand and holding the jewel he\nsaid \"I wish that I was in the Island of the Shadow of the Stars and\nthat this young girl was with me.\" The hawk flew at him and the hound\nsprang at him and the whips struck at him and while he was still\nexpecting the feel of teeth and claws and lash he was away and was in\nanother country altogether. There was neither hawk nor hound nor hut\nnor castle nor groom nor falconer. Two beings only were there and they\nwere Mell the Hen-wife's son and the King's daughter, Princess Bright\nBrow.\n\n\"In what country are we?\" said Princess Bright Brow.\n\n\"Unless we are in the Island of the Shadow of the Stars I don't know\nwhere we are,\" said Mell, the Hen-wife's Son.\n\n\"You are the Hen-wife's son and you have brought me here by\nenchantment,\" said Bright Brow.\n\nShe wanted to go from him, but where was she to go to? All the country\nwas strange to her. And so, if she made two steps away from him she\nsoon made two steps back to him. And the end of this part of the story\nis that Bright Brow became friendly to the Hen-wife's Son.\n\nHe gathered fruits off trees and he snared birds and he took the fish\nout of rivers and he found sheltered places to sleep in. And often the\nPrincess Bright Brow was good and kind to him. And Mell the Hen-wife's\nson was now as happy as anyone in the world. \"Since we are so friendly\nto each other now,\" said Bright Brow to him one day, \"will you not\ntell me how you were able to come here and bring me with you?\"\n\n\"It was because of the jewel I wear at my breast,\" said Mell. And then\nhe told how he had found the green mantle on the ground and how the\nFairy Woman gave him the jewel and what power the jewel had.\n\nIf Mell was content to be on the Island, Bright Brow was not. And so\none evening when he was asleep she lifted up the mantle and took the\njewel that was on his breast. Then holding it in her hand she said \"I\nwish I was back in my father's Castle.\" In an instant she was back\nthere. Now all her maids were around her and all of them were crying\n\"Where have you been, King's daughter, where have you been?\" And\nBright Brow told them that the King of the Fairy Riders had taken her\naway to show her all the great heroes of the world so that when the\ntime came for her to choose a husband she could make her choice of the\nbest amongst them.\n\nAs for Mell, the Hen-wife's son: when he wakened up and found that\nBright Brow had gone and that the jewel was gone there was no one in\nthe world more sad and lonely than he was. He thought that she might\ncome back to him, but the moon came and the sun came and Bright Brow\ncame not. He longed to be a bird that he might fly after her to her\nfather's Castle.\n\nHe stayed on the Island of the Shadow of the Stars for a long time\nfor, now that the jewel was gone from him, there was no way of getting\nfrom the Island. Then a King who had built a high tower went to the\ntop of it one day and saw the Island of the Shadow of the Stars. He\nsent out his long ships and his leathern-jerkined men to it. They\nfound Mell and they brought him to the King. Then Mell became one of\nthe King's men and he went into battle and he learnt the use of all\narms.\n\n\nIII\n\nThe Hen-wife's son went through the Eastern and the Western Worlds and\nhe came back to where his mother's hut was. He rode round the walls of\nthe King's Castle. Everything that he thought was magnificent before\nseemed small to him now. The trees that grew within the walls seemed\nnot much bigger than the bushes the old women put clothes to dry on.\n\nSitting on his black horse he looked across the wall that he once\nthought was so high and he saw the Hen-wife's hut. His mother came out\nto feed the hens and to count them and to gather up the eggs and put\nthem in a basket. \"She's alive and I'll see her again,\" said Mell. He\nrode round the wall to the King's Garden to try to get sight of the\nPrincess Bright Brow. He saw no sight of her. He rode on and he came\nto the gate at the other side and he saw outside the Cook-house the\nhorse-boys and dog-boys and grooms that he used to know.\n\nHe saw them and he knew them, but they did not know him. He was\nsurprised to see that they had not learnt to straighten up their\nshoulders nor to walk as if there was a fine thought in their heads.\nThey were all around the Cook-house, and a great noise of rattling was\ncoming from within it.\n\n\"What noise is that in the Cook-house?\" Mell asked a groom.\n\n\"The Cook's son is going out to fight,\" said the groom, \"and he is\nstriking the pot-lids with the ladles to let everyone in the\nCook-house know how fierce he is.\"\n\n\"And who is the Cook's son going to fight?\" asked Mell the Hen-wife's\nson.\n\n\"He is going to fight a great Champion that has come up from the sea\nin a boat that moves itself. This Champion demands that the King pay\ntribute to him. And the King has offered his daughter and half his\nkingdom to the youth who will go down to the sea-shore and defeat this\nChampion. And to-day the Cook's son is going out to make trial.\"\n\nAnd while the groom was saying all this the Cook's son came out of the\nCook-house. His big face was all gray. His knees were knocking each\nother. The breastplate of iron he had on was slipping to one side and\nthe big sword he had put in his belt was trailing on the ground.\n\n\"I would like to see what sort of a fight this Champion will make,\"\nsaid Mell, the Hen-wife's son. He followed the Cook's son to the\nsea-shore. But the Cook's son, when he had come to the shore, looked\nround and found a little cave in the face of the rock and climbed into\nit.\n\nThen a boat that moved of itself came in from the sea, and a Champion\nall in red sprang out of it. And when he had touched the shingles he\nstruck his sword on his shield and he shouted \"If the King of this\nLand has a Champion equal to the fray let him forth against me. And\nif the King of the Land has no such Champion, let him pay me tribute\nfrom his Kingdom.\"\n\nMell looked to the cave where the Cook's son had hidden himself and\nall he saw there was a bush being pulled towards the opening to hide\nit.\n\nThen Mell the Hen-wife's son drew his sword and went down the beach\ntowards the Red Champion. They fought for half the day. At the end of\nthat time the Red Champion said \"Good is the champion that the King of\nthis Land has sent against me. I did not know he had such a good\nchampion.\"\n\nThey fought all over the strand making the places that were stony,\nwet, and the places that were wet, stony, and then, when the sun was\ngoing down, the Red Champion was not able to do anything more than\nguard himself from the strokes of Mell's sword while he drew towards\nhis boat.\n\n\"You will have the honors of the fight to-day,\" said he to Mell.\n\n[Illustration: The Red Champion said, \"Good is the Champion that the\nKing of this Land has sent against me.\"]\n\n\"I shall have the honors and something else beside,\" said Mell. Then\nhe struck at the red plume that was on his enemy's cap. He cut it\noff as the Red Champion sprang into the boat that moved of itself. As\nthe sun was sinking the Champion in the boat went over the sea.\n\nNow the Cook's son had been watching the whole fight from the cave.\nWhen he saw the Red Champion going off in his boat he came running\ndown to the shore. The Hen wife's son was lying with his hands and his\nface in the water trying to cool himself after the combat and the red\nplume that he had struck off the Champion's cap was lying near him.\nThe Cook's son took up the plume.\n\n\"Let me keep this as a remembrance of your fight, brave warrior,\" said\nhe to the Hen-wife's son.\n\n\"You may keep it,\" said Mell. Then with the red plume in his hands the\nCook's son ran back towards the Castle.\n\n\nIV\n\nMell the Hen-wife's son put on his best garments and he went to the\nCastle that evening and he was received by the King as a champion\nfrom foreign parts. And the King invited him to supper for three\nnights.\n\nPrincess Bright Brow was at the supper and Mell watched and watched\nher. He saw that she was pale and that she kept sighing. And of the\ndamsel who came to sit beside him at the table Mell asked \"Why is the\nKing's daughter so sad and troubled-looking?\"\n\n\"She has reason for being sad and troubled,\" said the damsel who was\ncalled Sea Swan, \"for she thinks she may have to marry one whom she\nthinks little of.\"\n\n\"Why should that be?\" said Mell.\n\n\"Because her father has promised to give her and half his Kingdom to\nthe one who will defeat the Red Champion who has come from across the\nsea and who demands that the King give him tribute from the land. And\nthe only one who has gone forth against the Champion is the Cook's\nson--a gray-faced fellow that only a kitchen-maid would marry. And if\nit happens that the Cook's son overcomes the Red Champion, well then\nPrincess Bright Brow will have to marry him.\"\n\nAnd later on Sea Swan said to Mell \"The King's daughter is so troubled\nthat she would go away to the Island of the Shadow of the Stars if she\nhad the jewel that would bring her there. She had it once, but a Fairy\nWoman came out of the green rath and made Bright Brow give it to her.\"\n\nWhen the feast was at its height the King stood up and bade the Cook's\nson come near the High Chair and tell how he had fought with the Red\nChampion that day. And the Cook's son came up holding the red plume in\nhis hand. He told a story of how he had fought with the Red Champion\nall the day and how he had beaten him to his boat and how he had made\nhim take his boat out to sea, and how, as the Champion had sprung into\nthe boat, he had struck at him and had cut the red plume from his cap.\n\"And I shall go down the sea-shore to-morrow,\" said the Cook's son\nvery bravely, \"and if the Red Champion dares come back I shall take\noff his head instead of his plume.\" Then he left the red plume beside\nthe King's daughter and her father made Bright Brow hold up her\nforehead for the Cook's son to kiss. And all in the supper-room\nclapped their hands for the Cook's son.\n\nThe next day Mell the Hen-wife's son stood outside the Cook-house and\nhe heard a tremendous rattling within. \"That is the Cook's son\npreparing to go out to battle,\" said one of the grooms. \"He is\nstriking the ladles upon the pot-lids to show how fierce he is.\" Just\nas that was being said the Cook's son walked out of the Cook-house. He\nlooked around him very haughtily. Then he walked away with his big\nsword trailing behind him and his breast-plate all to one side. Mell\nthe Hen-wife's son followed him.\n\nWhen he came to the sea-shore he stood for a while looking out to sea\nwith his knees knocking together. Then he went where he had gone the\nday before. He climbed into a cave in the face of the cliff and he\ndrew the bush to the entrance of it so that it was quite hidden.\n\nMell the Hen-wife's son looked out to sea and he saw the boat that\nmoved of itself come towards the shore. The Red Champion was in it. He\nsprang out on the strand, struck his sword on his shield and made\nproclamation: Unless the King of the Land sent a champion who could\noverthrow him he would make him pay tribute for his Kingdom.\n\nThen down to meet him came Mell the Hen-wife's son, his sword in his\nhand. He and the Red Champion saluted each other and then they fought\ntogether trampling over the beach, making the soft places hard and the\nhard places soft with the dint of their trampling. \"A good champion,\nby my faith you are,\" said the Red Champion to Mell, when\nthree-quarters of the day had been spent in fighting. And after that\nthe Red Champion tried only to guard himself from the thrusts and the\nstrokes of Mell's sword. He drew away from Mell and towards his boat.\nHe put his two feet in it and pushed away. \"You have the honors of the\nday's fight, champion,\" said he. \"I shall have something beside the\nhonors,\" said Mell and he struck at the Red Champion's belt. Down on\nthe shingles fell the silver-studded belt and the Red Champion pushed\noff in his boat.\n\nWhen the Cook's son saw from his cave that the Red Champion had gone\nhe came down to the water's edge where Mell was lying with his face\nand hands in the water to cool himself after the combat. The\nsilver-studded belt was lying beside Mell. The Cook's son took it up\nwithout saying a word and he went off towards the Castle.\n\nThat night Mell the Hen-wife's son sat by himself in the supper room\nof the King's Castle. He watched and watched the face of the Princess\nBright Brow. She looked more pale and troubled than on the night\nbefore. And after the harpers had played the King called upon the\nCook's son to come up to the High Chair and tell how he had battled\nwith the Red Champion. He came up with the silver-studded belt in his\nhand and he told a story of how he had beaten the Red Champion back\ninto the sea. And when the story was told the King bade Bright Brow go\nover to him and kiss the Cook's son on his heavy gray cheek.\n\n\nV\n\nThe next day when he stood before the Cook-house, Mell the Hen-wife's\nson heard a greater rattling than before. The Cook's son struck the\npot-lids with the ladles more fiercely than before and he cried out in\na high voice \"This is the last time that I shall ever stand amongst\nthe pots and the pans, the lids and the ladles, for I go to fight the\nRed Champion for the last time, and after this I will sit beside the\nKing's Chair and the King's daughter, Princess Bright Brow, will sit\nupon my knee.\"\n\nHe marched down to the sea-shore, his long sword trailing behind him.\nHe walked through the street with his head high, but when he drew near\nthe sea-shore his gait became less grand. His knees began to knock\ntogether. He looked out to the sea and when he saw the boat that moved\nof itself coming towards the shore he clambered into the cave and he\ndrew the bushes round to cover up the entrance.\n\nThe boat that moved of itself came to the strand. The Red Champion\nsprang out on the shingles. He made his proclamation. Then up to him\ncame Mell the Hen-wife's son. \"I will strive with you,\" said he, \"as I\nstrove with you yesterday and the day before. And how shall we fight?\nShall it be with swords or by wrestling?\" \"By wrestling let it be\nto-day,\" said the Red Champion.\n\nThey laid hands on each other and began to wrestle. And in their bout\nof wrestling they made holes in the ground and they made hillocks on\nthe ground, and when the day was about to close Mell overthrew the Red\nChampion. He left him stark on the ground. Then he took the cord he\nhad round his waist and he bound the Red Champion--hands and feet,\nwaist and chest he bound him.\n\nThe Cook's son came up to them then. \"As you took the red plume and as\nyou took the silver-studded belt, take the Champion too,\" said Mell.\nThen the Cook's son took the Red Champion, all bound as he was, and\nputting him across his shoulders went staggering up the beach and\ntowards the King's Castle.\n\n\nVI\n\nMell the Hen-wife's son sat in the supper-room of the Castle again\nthat night. The King's daughter, Princess Bright Brow, was there and\nshe was as white as white rose-leaves and tears were falling down her\ncheeks. And when the wine had been drunk out of the cups the King\nstood up and called upon the Cook's son to come up to the High Chair\nand tell all how he had overthrown and had bound the Red Champion who\nwould have put a tribute upon the Kingdom. The Cook's son came up to\nthe High Chair and he told them a story that was wonderful indeed. And\nwhen the story was told the King said \"Loose the Red Champion whom you\nbound, and when he has knelt here and prayed to us for forgiveness the\nKing's daughter will take your hands and will marry you.\" \"Look,\" said\nthe damsel Sea Swan to Mell the Hen Wife's son, \"how the Princess\nBright Brow is pulling the hairs from her head in her grief.\"\n\nThe Red Champion was brought in bound and the Cook's son began to try\nto unbind him. But not one knot could he loosen. He tried and he tried\nand he broke his nails trying. \"This is strange indeed,\" said the\nKing, \"for it used to be said that whoever bound one could loosen\none.\"\n\nHe tried again and he tried again and not one cord could he loosen\nfrom another. Then the King's daughter Princess Bright Brow looked up.\n\"How strange it would be,\" said she, \"if it was not the Cook's son who\nbound the Red Champion.\"\n\nThen up the Hall came Mell the Hen-wife's son. He stood over the Red\nChampion and he pulled a cord here and he pulled a cord there and in a\nminute he was unbound. All in the hall began to murmur \"Surely the one\nwho unloosed him bound him,\" said many people.\n\n\"He is the one who bound me,\" said the Red Champion, pointing out Mell\nthe Hen-wife's son, \"and besides it was he who cut the red plume off\nmy cap and who took the silver-studded belt from me.\"\n\n\"Speak up and deny what he says,\" said the King to the Cook's son.\n\nBut when the Cook's son tried to speak he stuttered and stammered and\nhis knees began to knock together and his hands went shaking. And when\nthe company looked at him there was not one there who believed he had\nfought the Red Champion. And when the Cook's son looked round and saw\nthere was not one there who believed in him he gathered the\nsupper-things of the table like an attendant and went out of the room.\n\n\"And now,\" said the King to Mell, the Hen-wife's son, \"since there is\nno doubt but it was you who conquered the champion to you I give my\ndaughter's hand. Take her now for your wife and take half of my\nkingdom with her.\"\n\nThen Bright Brow lifted her face to him and she put her hands in his\nhands.\n\n\"Mell,\" said she, \"Mell the Hen-wife's son, I knew for long that you\nwould come to me like this. Forgive me and love me,\" said she, \"and I\nwill love you from this night.\"\n\nAnd so Mell the Hen-wife's son and the King's daughter, Princess\nBright Brow, came together again. He married her and came to rule\nover half her father's kingdom. They lived happy ever afterwards, of\ncourse. And Mell brought his mother out of the hut beside the\npoultry-coop and he took her to live in the Castle. And in the end his\nmother married the Steward who had become a widower and she became the\nmost respected dame in and about the King's Castle. And as for the\nCook's son he is still in the Cook-house amongst the pots and the\npans, the lids and the ladles.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: The Giant and the Birds]\n\n\n\n\nThe Giant and the Birds\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Cock scraped and the Hens scraped and when the Hens went away the\nCock scraped by himself. He called the Hens back, and they all scraped\ndeeper and deeper. Then something was shown; it was bright and round,\nand the Cock and the three Hens scraped until the whole of it was to\nbe seen. It was a great ring of brass.\n\n\"Tell us how you knew the bright thing was there, Hero-son of my\nheart?\" said the Little Slate-colored Hen that was the Cock's mother.\n\n\"Do, do,\" said the Feather-legged Hen.\n\n\"Tell us, Top of Wisdom,\" said the Blue Hen.\n\n\"You all know,\" said the Cock, \"that the earth rocks underneath the\nplace where I crow in the morning.\"\n\n\"We know, O Unvanquishable,\" said the three Hens.\n\n\"The earth never rocked here,\" said the Cock, \"hence I knew that\nsomething powerful was under the ground at this place. It was the ring\nof brass. Now it will be found and brought into the house. And when I\nstand here and crow in the morning the earth will rock as it does in\nevery other place in the world.\"\n\n\"It will, it will,\" said the Feather-legged Hen.\n\n\"It must, O Top of Valor,\" said the Blue Hen.\n\n\"And you will tell us how the ring of brass came to be there, Hero-son\nof my heart,\" said the Little Slate-colored Hen that was the Cock's\nmother.\n\n\"In the course of the evening I may do so,\" said the Cock\ncondescendingly.\n\nWhen they were beside the sunny wall, the Hens on the ground\nscattering dust over their feathers and their lord standing on one leg\nwith his comb hanging over one eye the Cock said \"No Cock of our\nbreed ever told this story before. They would not frighten the hens\nwith it. However, since you have persuaded me I will tell you the\ntale. My grandfather told it to my father who told it to me. It is the\nstory of the Big Man who came to this place and who wore the ring of\nbrass that we uncovered to-day.\"\n\nHe did not put it over his head as you might think from the size of\nthe ring. No. He wore it on his arm. Never was a bigger man seen by\nanyone living. The whole countryside stood outside their houses to see\nhim come over the hills. When he came to where the stones are he\nstooped down to take a drink and he drank the well dry. The people\ncame out of the house to meet him, and he spoke to them, and out of\nwhat he said to them they drew his story.\n\nAs I am to a Bantam, the Big Man was to the other men of the country.\nAnd if they were surprised at his bigness, he was astonished at their\nsmallness. For he came from a time when all were as big as he. A\nhundred and a hundred years before he had hunted with his companions,\nand he was then called, not Big Man, but Little Fawn.\n\nAnd one day--a hundred and a hundred years ago it was--he had gone to\nchase a deer. The deer fled into a cave. He followed with his hounds\nand his sword, his trumpet and his missile-ball. He went astray and\nfell asleep in the Cave. And when he wakened up, his hounds were heaps\nof dust beside him. He went into the world, and he found that his\ncompanions were dead for a hundred and a hundred years and that the\nmen of the earth had become smaller and smaller. In the Cave he left\nhis sword and his trumpet and his missile-ball.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe Cock put his two feet on the ground and shook his red comb from\nover his left to over his right eye. Then said he, Everyone in the\nhouse was friendly to Little Fawn except one person--Murrish the\nCook-woman. From the first day he came there were disputes between\nthem. \"Big men have big appetites,\" said she to him the day he\ncame, \"and so to-night I will give you two eggs for your supper.\" But\nwhen she handed him the eggs Little Fawn said \"It was not the eggs of\nthe hedge-sparrow we were wont to eat in my time.\" \"Eggs of the\nhedge-sparrow!\" said Murrish, \"I have handed you the biggest eggs laid\nby the best hens in the country.\" \"In my time there were bigger eggs\nin the nest of the hedge-sparrow,\" said Little Fawn.\n\n[Illustration: All flew from the mountain except one bird and he was\nthe greatest amongst them all.]\n\nThe next day she gave him a barley-cake for his breakfast. He ate it\nand then sent the boy--Ardan was his name--to ask what else she was\ngoing to give him.\n\n\"Give him!\" said Murrish the Cook-woman, \"I have given him a whole\nbarley cake, and that is enough for two men's breakfasts.\"\n\n\"Tell her,\" said Little Fawn, \"that I often saw an ivy-leaf that was\nas big as her barley cake.\"\n\n\"Tell him,\" said Murrish the Cook-woman, \"that I am not here to listen\nto old men's romances.\"\n\nNow when he heard that his words were taken as old men's romances\nLittle Fawn was an angry man. He was hungry, for the food he got did\nnot stay his appetite, but what Murrish said in doubt of his word gave\nhim more hurt than his hunger did. For in his day and amongst his\ncompanions a lie was never told and nothing a man said was ever\ndoubted.\n\nThe next day he sent back the dish for more butter.\n\n\"Tell him,\" said Murrish the Cook-woman, \"that I put a whole pat of\nbutter on his dish--enough to do two men for two days.\"\n\n\"Tell her,\" said Little Fawn, \"that often I saw a rowan berry that was\nbigger as her pat of butter.\"\n\n\"The child just out of the cradle would not believe that story,\" said\nMurrish the Cook-woman.\n\nShe sent him a quarter of mutton for his dinner. Little Fawn told\nArdan to ask Murrish for more, as the dinner she gave him left him\nhungry still.\n\n\"Did he not get a whole quarter of mutton for his dinner?\" said\nMurrish.\n\n\"A whole quarter of mutton, did she say?\" said Little Fawn. \"Often I\nsaw a quarter of a blackbird that was bigger than her quarter of\nmutton.\"\n\n\"A quarter of a blackbird bigger than my quarter of mutton! Tell him\nthat if he never lied before, he lies now,\" said Murrish.\n\n\"Does she say that?\" said Little Fawn. \"Then I swear I shall never\nrest in the house nor be easy in my mind until I bring her an ivy leaf\nthat is as big as her barley loaf, and a rowan berry that is as big as\nher pat of butter, and if I bring these,\" said he, \"it may not be\nneedful for me to get her the blackbird that is as big in one quarter\nas the quarter of mutton that she gave me for my dinner.\"\n\nThere and then he went from the house and Ardan the boy went with him.\nThey went east and they went west, they went towards the north and\ntowards the south, but no ivy leaf did they find that was as big as a\nbarley loaf, and no rowan berry did they see that was as big as a pat\nof butter. Little Fawn was troubled and downcast. They came back to\nthe house, and Murrish the Cook-woman was pleased when she heard from\nArdan that they found no ivy leaf and saw no rowan berry that was as\nbig as her barley loaf or her pat of butter. \"There is only one thing\nI can do now,\" said Little Fawn, \"and that is to bring her the\nblackbird that is as big in one quarter as the quarter of mutton she\ngave me for my dinner. And that,\" said he to Ardan, \"will take time\nand trouble and the meeting of danger to bring about.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\n\"Time and trouble,\" said the Feather-legged Hen, \"time and trouble!\"\n\n\"Why did he say time and trouble, O Top of Wisdom?\" said the Blue Hen.\n\n\"Hush now,\" said the Little Slate-colored Hen that was the Cock's\nmother. \"Hush now, and let the Hero-son of my heart tell what's best\nin the story....\"\n\n * * * * *\n\n\"Little Fawn was an old man, white-haired and feeble when he came to\nthe house,\" said the Cock, and now he was nearly blind. His mind would\nnot be at rest, he told Ardan, until he brought to Murrish and showed\nher a blackbird that was as big in one quarter as the quarter of\nmutton she gave him for his dinner. \"But before I can take that\nblackbird,\" said he, \"I must have a hound. There is a hound in the\nyard, but I have tried her and found she is weak and fearful. She will\nhave puppies, and one of her puppies, maybe, will do.\" And he told\nArdan to tell him when the puppies came to the hound that was in the\nyard.\n\nThen one day Ardan came and told him that there was a litter of\npuppies with the hound. \"That is well,\" said Little Fawn, \"and in a\nwhile we will try if one has the strength and courage enough to help\nus to take the blackbird.\"\n\nHe told Ardan what to do. He was to take the skin that had been\nstripped off a dead horse and he was to nail this skin upon a door in\nthe yard. Then he was to do a curious thing. He was to take up each\npuppy and fling it against the door.\n\nArdan did all this and Little Fawn stood by and heard the puppies\nyowling as they fell on the ground. They scampered away. Then he heard\nnothing except Ardan's laugh.\n\n\"Why are you laughing, my boy?\" said Little Fawn.\n\n\"I laugh to see what the last puppy is doing,\" said Ardan.\n\n\"And what is he doing?\" said Little Fawn.\n\n\"He has not fallen to the ground like the others. He has caught hold\nof the horseskin with his teeth and he is holding on to it.\"\n\n\"That puppy will do,\" said Little Fawn. \"He has strength and courage.\nTake him and rear him away from the others, and when he comes to his\nfull strength you and I will take him to hunt the blackbird that is as\nbig in one quarter as the quarter of mutton Murrish the Cook-woman\ngave me for my dinner. We must make our word good this time, good\nlad.\" Ardan took away the puppy (Conbeg they called him) from the\nothers and reared him up. Little Fawn tested his strength and courage\nin many ways. At length he was satisfied. One day he put a leash on\nConbeg and he told the boy to come with him. Little Fawn and Ardan and\nConbeg the young hound went away from the house.\n\n\"'Tis the best part of the story,\" said the Little Slate-colored Hen\nthat was the Cock's mother.\n\n * * * * *\n\n\"It is, it is,\" said the Feather-legged Hen.\n\n\"And how well he tells it, the Top of Wisdom,\" said the Blue Hen.\n\n\"I tell it as my father told me and as his father told him,\" said the\nCock changing legs. \"The first place they went was into the Cave where\nthe Big Man had lain for a hundred and a hundred years. They found\nthere the heap of dust that was his two hounds, and they found too the\nmissile-ball of brass and the trumpet and the great sword. They left\nthe Cave and they turned south, and they went on and on till they came\nto the mountain that is called Slieve-na-Mon. The boy and the man and\nthe hound rested themselves for a while on the level on the top of the\nmountain.\n\nThen Little Fawn told Ardan to take the trumpet and put it to his\nmouth. He blew on the trumpet. O louder than ever I crowed was the\nnoise he made on that trumpet. The trees that were growing on the\nmountain top shook at the sound.\n\n\"Blow again,\" said Little Fawn.\n\nAnd Ardan blew again and he blew louder.\n\n\"Now look into the sky,\" said Little Fawn, \"and tell me what you see\ncoming towards us.\"\n\nArdan looked for a long time, and at last he saw what he thought was a\ncloud coming towards the mountain-top. And then he saw that the cloud\nwas a flock of birds. They came to the mountain-top and lighted on the\nground--Peewits, Blackbirds, Starlings, Finches, Linnets--and each was\nbigger than any bird he had ever seen. The birds were hardly afraid of\nthe hound, but Conbeg went amongst them and drove them away.\n\nAnd then another cloud was seen coming across the sky, and this cloud\ncame to be a flock of birds too, and they came to the mountain-top and\nlighted on the ground--Linnets, Finches, Starlings, Blackbirds,\nPeewits--and each bird was bigger than the birds in the first flock.\n\"Loose the hound on them,\" said Little Fawn. Ardan unslipped Conbeg\nand the hound went amongst the birds. But they were not afraid and\nthey attacked the hound, and only his strength and courage was so\ngreat they would have driven him off the mountain-top.\n\nThey rose up and they flew away, and as they did another flock of\nbirds came towards the mountain-top. They lighted on the\nground--Peewits, Blackbirds, Starlings, Finches, Linnets--tremendous\nbirds. Ardan loosed Conbeg on them. Then with beaks open and claws\noutstretched they flew at Ardan and Little Fawn. Little Fawn took his\ngreat sword in hand and he attacked them with such strength that the\ngreat birds flew off.\n\nAll flew from the mountain except one bird. He was a Blackbird and the\ngreatest amongst them all. When Ardan told Little Fawn that this bird\nwas left alone on a rock the Big Man told him to unloose Conbeg.\n\nThe hound dashed at the Blackbird but the blackbird flew at him and\nattacked him with beak and claws. With a sweep of his wing he threw\nConbeg on the ground. Then he rose up in the air and flew towards\nArdan and Little Fawn.\n\n\"You will escape him,\" said Ardan, \"but me he will kill as he has\nkilled Conbeg.\" \"Put the missile-ball into my hand and guide my aim,\"\nsaid Little Fawn. Ardan put the missile-ball of brass into the Big\nMan's hand and guided his aim. Little Fawn threw the missile-ball and\nthe Blackbird fell down on the ground. But the bird was not killed.\n\n\"A frightening tale, a frightening tale,\" said the Blue Hen.\n\n\"So it is, so it is,\" said the Feather-legged Hen.\n\n\"But you have done well to tell the Hens the story, Hero-son of my\nheart,\" said the Little Slate-colored Hen that was the Cock's mother.\n\n * * * * *\n\n\"More has to be told,\" said the Cock, \"and it is needful that it\nshould be told now. Murrish the Cook-woman was in the kitchen. In\ndashed Conbeg the hound, his eyes blazing with the fierceness of the\nchase. Murrish was so frightened that she ran to the door. And coming\nto the door she saw Little Fawn with a net on his shoulder. He came\ninto the house and he put the net on the floor, and he showed Murrish\nwhat was in the net--a tremendous bird--a Blackbird that was as big in\none quarter as the quarter of mutton she had on the table. And when\nthe net was laid down on the ground the Blackbird flew up and he\ncarried the middle of the roof away with him as he flew through it and\nhe tumbled beams and rafters down upon Murrish. My grandfather saw the\nBlackbird flying towards the mountain that is called Slieve-na-Mon,\nand my grandfather told my father who told me.\" \"You spoke the truth\nwhen you said that you saw a blackbird as big in one quarter as the\nquarter of mutton I gave you for your dinner,\" said Murrish the\nCook-woman to Little Fawn. \"And I believe you when you say you saw an\nivy leaf as big as my barley loaf and a rowan berry as big as my pat\nof butter.\" \"I would only show you,\" said Little Fawn \"that the men I\nlived amongst had truth on their lips as they had strength in their\nhands and courage in their hearts.\"\n\nAnd from that day Little Fawn and Murrish the Cook-woman lived in\npeace and good fellowship, and Ardan and Conbeg grew up together and\nbecame famous, one and the other. They lived happy for long, but as\nthe books say--\n\n The end of every ship is drowning,\n The end of every kiln is burning,\n The end of every feast is wasting,\n The end of every laugh is sighing.\n\nAnd if they were here once, they are here no more.\n\n\"And if they are not, we are,\" said the Slate-colored Hen that was the\nCock's mother. \"We're here,\" said she, \"and the earth, I promise you,\nwill shake under your feet to-morrow, no matter where you crow,\nHero-son of my heart.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: The Sea-Maiden who became a Sea-Swan]\n\n\n\n\nThe Sea-Maiden who became a Sea-Swan\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Sea-Swan told the story to the pigeons of the rock, and the Boy\nWho Knew What the Birds said heard every word of it. I was once a\nSea-Maiden, she said, and my name was Eevil, and I was known through\nall the Kingdoms that are Under-Wave for my beautiful hair--my long,\nbeautiful, green hair. Something was in me that made me want to dance,\nand I used to rise up through the water, and dance on the shore of the\nisland that is called Hathony.\n\nMananaun, as you, creatures, know, is Lord of the Sea, and what he\ncommands in the Kingdoms-Under-Wave has to be. Now Mananaun made a\npromise to a King of an Earth-Kingdom, and the promise was that he\nwould give this King whatever he asked for. The King died according to\nthe ways of men, and his son, whose name was Branduv, came to rule\nhim.\n\nBranduv called Mananaun out of the sea, and he asked that he renew the\npromise he had made to his father. The Lord of the Sea did not want a\npromise to lapse because of the death of a man, and he renewed it to\nthe man's son. Then Mananaun told him he would take him and show him\nthe Kingdoms of the Sea and whatever he saw that he desired there\nwould be given to him. He took him in his boat of glass \"The Ocean\nSweeper\" to visit the Kingdoms of the Sea.\n\nThey came to Moy Mell, the Plain of Pleasure, and there Mananaun gave\nBranduv a branch of everlasting blossoms; they came to another Kingdom\nand there Mananaun gave him a sword that was the best wrought in the\nworld; they came to a third Kingdom and there Mananaun gave him a pair\nof hounds that could run down the silver-antlered stag. But as yet\nBranduv the King had asked no gift from Mananaun.\n\nThey came to Mananaun's own Kingdom, Silver-Cloud Plain, and there\nBranduv was left alone while Mananaun drank the Ale of the Ever-Living\nOnes. The King saw from the shores of Silver-Cloud Plain \"The Ocean\nSweeper,\" and he directed that the boat bring him to the island. And\nthe boat travelled as the one in it wished.\n\nOnly one thing had ever made me fearful of dancing on the shore of the\nIsland of Hathony--that was the presence there of a pair of Ravens.\nThese Ravens had once been Sea-maidens, but they had desired men for\nhusbands, and they had gone to them. The men forsook them, and they\nhad become first Witches and afterwards Ravens. Ever since their\nchange they wished harm to the Maidens of the Sea. I had been\nfrightened of them, but now I had seen them flapping about so often\nthat I was no longer or I was only a little, afraid.\n\nI came up through the sea and I danced upon the shore of the island,\nand the play of the waves was in my dance, and my long soft green\nhair fell over my foam-white, foam soft body. I danced on, O my\nlisteners, and as no one had ever seen me looked upon, I thought no\none looked upon me now.\n\nBut this King of the earthly Kingdom saw me. He saw me as I danced by\nthe waves, and I was the fairest thing he had ever looked upon. At\nfirst he was all wonder and no robber's thoughts were in his mind. But\nthe Ravens came to him. One perched on one shoulder and one perched on\nthe other, and one said \"If you carry Eevil off you will have the\nfairest wife in all the world,\" and the other said \"If you leave her\nhere you will never look on anything as fair again.\"\n\nThe Ravens flapped before him to guide him to a place in the dark\nrocks where he might hide and to which I might come. He followed where\nthey led. But I saw his shadow on a rock. I drew back and the sea took\nme and drew me into its depths. \"The sea has taken her,\" said Branduv\nto the Ravens.\n\n\"Mananaun is Lord of the Sea,\" said one of the Ravens.\n\n\"And Mananaun has promised you a gift, and he cannot refuse what you\nwill ask,\" said the other Raven.\n\nThen the Ravens flapped away and Mananaun came to where the King was\nstanding. \"You have asked me for a gift,\" said Mananaun, \"think now of\nwhat you desire before I take you back to your own island.\" Then said\nBranduv, \"What I ask is that you bestow upon me the Sea-maiden who was\ndancing here, Eevil.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nMananaun in anger lifted his spear. But then he remembered he was\nbound by a promise to Branduv. He lowered the spear he had raised. \"I\nwill give you any other gift you ask,\" said he, \"even my own boat 'The\nOcean Sweeper.'\"\n\n\"I hold you to your promise,\" said Branduv, \"and I declare to you\nthat I shall take no other gift unless it be the maiden who was here\ndancing by the sea.\"\n\n\"It must be then that I give her you,\" said Mananaun, and his face was\ndark.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nDown he went to the Kingdom-Under-Wave and he came to the black\nmansion where lived the Seven Spinning Women of the Sea. He spoke as\nspeaks a King who has a hard thing to do. \"A law has to be broken,\"\nsaid he. \"What law, Lord?\" said the Spinning Women. \"The law that\nsaves our Maidens from taking part in the stormy lives of men.\" \"We\nwould rather that anything else but this should happen, Lord,\" said\nthe Seven Spinning Women. \"This thing must happen,\" said Mananaun,\n\"and the Maiden Eevil must go to Branduv the King.\" \"She must be\nprepared for this,\" said the Seven Spinning Women.\n\nThey came to me and they told me that the man whose shadow I had seen\non the rock now claimed me for his wife and that Mananaun would not\ngainsay him. When I heard this, O my listeners, the life nearly left\nme.\n\nThis comfort the Seven Spinning Women gave me: I was to stay on his\nisland so that I might become used to the earthly kingdom, but that I\nwas not to see Branduv until the green had left my hair and the brown\nthat the sun makes had come into my cheeks. So I came to Branduv's\nisland. I lived by the sea-shore and the women of the island attended\nme.\n\nHow different was this earthly land from the Kingdom-Under-Wave. With\nus there was but the one mild season, the one mild light. Here there\nwas glaring day and terrible darkness, bitter winds and hot beams of\nthe sun. With us there were songs and tales, but the songs were about\nlove or about the beautiful things we had seen. Here the tales and\nsongs were about battles and forays and slaying with the sword. What\nthey told of their loves was terrible, so much violence and\nunfaithfulness was in them.\n\nThe soft green tints were going out of my hair and the sun was putting\nbrownness in my cheeks. Soon my hair would be wheaten-colored like the\nhair of the women of the islands and my cheeks would be brown like\ntheirs. And then the day would come when I should have to be with the\nman whom I looked upon as my enemy.\n\nI used to stay by the shore and speak with the birds that came in from\nthe sea, for I knew their language. Never again could I go back to the\nKingdom-Under-Wave. Green shade after green shade left my hair, brown\ntint after brown tint came into my cheeks, and what could I do but\nenvy the birds that could make their flight from the islands of men.\nAnd when the green had nearly gone altogether from my hair I\nthought of a desperate thing I might do.\n\n[Illustration: I put it to my lips, I drank it when he took a step\ntowards me.]\n\nI sent a message to my sisters, and I sent it by many birds, so that\nif they did not get it by one they might get it by another. And I\nasked in my message that they send me a draft from the Well under the\nSea, and that they send it in the cup that the Seven Spinning Women\nguarded. It would be terrible for any of my sisters to come to\nBranduv's island with the draft and the cup, but I begged that they\nwould do it for me.\n\nThe days went by and the green color was now only a shade in my hair,\nand brownness was on my cheeks, and the women said \"Before this old\nmoon is gone our King will come here to wed you.\"\n\nThen one day I found on the shore the cup that my sisters had brought\nand the draft from the Secret Well was in it. I took the cup in my\nhands and I brought it where I lived. \"Come to us,\" said the women,\n\"so that we may undo your hair and tell the King when he may come to\nwed you.\" They loosened my hair and then they said \"there is no shade\nof green here at all. Bid the King come as early as he likes\nto-morrow.\"\n\nI lay that night with the cup beside me. When I rose I knew that day I\nshould drink from the cup my sisters had sent me--drink the draft that\nwould change me into what I wished to be--a bird of the sea.\n\nAnd while I sat with the cup beside me and my hair spread out,\nBranduv, the King of the Island, came to the door of the house. It may\nhave been that I was becoming used to the sight of people of the\nearthly kingdoms, for, as I looked upon him he did not seem terrible\nto me. He looked noble, I thought, and eager to befriend me and love\nme. But the cup was in my hands when he came to the door. I put it to\nmy lips when he entered the house. I drank it when he took a step\ntowards me. And thereupon I became what I had wished to be--a\nSea-Swan.\n\nO my listeners! Maybe it would have been well for me if I had wed that\nKing, and be now as the women of the islands. For now as I fly over\nthe sea the King's look comes before me, and I think that he was\neager to befriend me and eager to love me. So I am not content when I\nam flying over the sea. And I am lonely when I am on these islands,\nfor I am now a Swan, and what has a Swan to do with the lives of men?\n\n * * * * *\n\nSuch was the story that the Sea-Swan told the pigeons of the rock, and\nthe Boy who knew what the Birds said heard it all, and remembered\nevery word of it.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: What the Peacock and the Crow Told Each Other]\n\n\n\n\nWhat The Peacock and the Crow Told Each Other When the Crow Came to\nSteal the Peacock's Feathers\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n Said the Lapwing \"Crow,\n I never have seen\n Such a one as you,\n Such a one as you\n For stealing eggs.\"\n\n Said the Crow \"Caw, caw,\n I never have seen\n Such a one myself,\n And I am, I am sure\n Longer in the world.\"\n\nThen the Crow flew away and the Lapwing went on complaining.\n\nThe Crow flew away and he came to where the Peacock was walking in the\nKing's Garden. He asked the Peacock did he ever listen to stories.\n\n\"No,\" said the Peacock as he mounted the steps of the terrace. \"No.\nCertainly not. I do not demean myself by listening to any of the\nstories they tell down below there.\" He spread out his tail, and, that\nhe might view his own magnificence, he turned his blue, shining neck.\n\nHoodie the grey-headed Crow with the bright sharp eyes hopped after\nhim.\n\n\"Jewels! Kings! Magicians! Palaces! Dragons! What do geese, grouse and\nfarmyard fowl know of such things? And yet they presume to tell\nstories! Tell stories that have nothing in them of Jewels, Kings,\nMagicians, Palaces, or Dragons!\"\n\n\"Nothing at all about such things,\" said Hoodie the Crow, as he\nplucked a feather out of the Peacock's tail.\n\n\"Yet they will not listen to me,\" said Purpurpurati the Peacock. \"They\naffect even to scorn my voice! They pretend that it is less resonant\nthan the cock in the farmyard and less musical than the bird's that\nsings at night.\"\n\n\"They'd say anything,\" said Hoodie the Crow, keeping behind the\nPeacock's tail.\n\nPurpurpurati the Peacock mounted higher on the terrace. \"I shall walk\nbefore the statue of the beautiful Queen yonder,\" he said, \"and I\nshall tell you a story. The reason that I shall tell you is that the\nQueen always listens to me. But I would have her think that it is to\nyou that I am telling the story.\"\n\n\"I'll listen to you,\" said Hoodie the Crow and he plucked another\nfeather out of the Peacock's tail.\n\n\"When the Queen has been pleased with the sight of my tail, I shall\nbegin,\" said Purpurpurati, and he spread out his tail. Hoodie the Crow\nplucked out three feathers.\n\n\"How pleased she looks,\" said he.\n\n\"Yes, she is always pleased by my appearance,\" the Peacock said, and\nhe turned round and walked the other way.\n\n\"Did I ever tell you,\" said Hoodie, hiding the feathers behind a bush.\n\"Did I ever tell you how the Pigeon went to the Crow to learn the art\nof nest-making?\"\n\n\"I do not know about such things,\" said Purpurpurati the Peacock.\n\n\"I'll tell you and then you'll know,\" said Hoodie the Crow.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n The Crow is the Master-builder among the Birds and so it was\n to the Crow that the Pigeon went to learn the art of\n nest-making. \"We begin with the sticks,\" said the Crow. \"I\n know,\" said the Pigeon. \"First we take one stick and lay it\n lengthwise.\" \"I know,\" said the Pigeon. \"Then we put a stick\n across it,\" said the Crow. \"I know,\" said the Pigeon. \"And\n then we put another stick lower down,\" said the Crow. \"I\n know,\" said the Pigeon. \"Then we put another stick\n lengthwise.\" \"I know,\" said the Pigeon. \"Musha,\" said the\n Crow, \"If you know so much, why do you come here at all?\n Away with you! Fly home now and build the nest yourself.\"\n The Pigeon flew home, but of course he was not able to build\n his nest, for he knew nothing about the laying of sticks and\n the bringing of straws, and he was too young and foolish to\n learn when he got the chance. And that is why the Pigeon to\n this day cannot build a nest.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Why do you tell such foolish stories?\" said Purpurpurati the Peacock\nwhen Hoodie had finished.\n\n\"We have no other stories in our family,\" said Hoodie the Crow. \"We\ndon't know about Jewels and Magicians and Palaces and Kings and\nDragons.\"\n\n\"The Magician,\" said Purpurpurati the Peacock, \"The Magician lived in\na Palace of red marble that was all surrounded by a forest of black,\nblack trees. I lived there too and I ate golden grains out of pails of\nsilver. That was long ago and it was in far India.\n\n\"The Magician had precious stones of every kind and he would have me\nwalk beside him to the Cavern where he kept his precious stones, and\nas he handled them over he would tell me of the virtues that each\nstone possessed. And one day the Magician looking upon me said 'This\nPeacock I will slay, for the beauty of his neck makes dull my\nturquoises and the crest on his head is more shapely than my Persian\njewel-work.'\"\n\n\"Dear me, dear me!\" said Hoodie the Crow.\n\nHearing him say this, said the Peacock \"I flew into the branches of a\ndark, dark tree. And as I rested there the fair lady who walked about\nthe Garden--White-as-a-Pearl she was called and she was the Magician's\ndaughter--walked under the dark, dark trees, and I saw that she was\nweeping.\n\n\"I knew why she wept. She wept for the young man whom her father had\nimprisoned in a tower. This young man was the son of a King, and the\nMagician was his father's brother. And if the young man died the\nMagician would become King in his brother's Kingdom. But the lady\nWhite-as-a-Pearl did not want the young man to die.\n\n\"A little snow-white dove flew down from the tower and spoke in words\nto White-as-a-Pearl and asked her what word she had to send to the\nyoung man.\n\n\"'You must tell him terrible news, my little snow white dove,' said\nWhite-as-a-Pearl. 'My father will have him go forth to fight with a\ndragon. And this is a terrible dragon. Every young man who has gone\nforth against him has been slain.'\n\n[Illustration: O most beauteous of all the birds, do you know of any\narms by which a hero can slay a dragon?]\n\n\"The little snow white dove flew back to the tower and the Princess\nWhite-as-a-Pearl stood under the dark, dark trees and wept again. And\nwhen she saw me on my branch she said 'O most beauteous of all the\nbirds, do you know of any arms by which a hero can slay a terrible\ndragon?'\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Then I came down off my branch and I walked beside the Princess, and\nas I walked beside her I told her the wonderful secrets I knew.\"\n\n\"And what were the secrets,\" said Hoodie the Crow plucking a last\nfeather from the peacock's tail. \"What were the secrets anyway?\"\n\n\"Can I tell them to a Crow?\" said Purpurpurati the Peacock. \"But I\nwill tell them. I told her the secrets I had learnt from the Magician\nwhen he spoke of the virtues of his precious stones--a ruby in a man's\nhelmet would make a dragon's eyes go blind. A turquoise on his arm\nwould make a dragon's blood turn to water. A sapphire on his spear\nwould make a dragon's heart burst within him.\n\n\"So the Princess White-as-a-Pearl went to her father's cavern and took\nthe precious stones I spoke of and gave them to the King's son. And he\nwent forth the next day and when he came to him the dragon's eyes were\nblinded, and his blood turned to water and his heart burst within him.\nAnd the King's son cut off his head and brought it into the Palace.\nThen the Magician fled amongst the dark, dark trees and I was given\nthe red marble palace to live in.\"\n\n\"I lived in Lapland,\" said Hoodie the Crow. \"And who do you think I\nknew there?\"\n\n\"No one of any dignity,\" said Purpurpurati the Peacock.\n\n\"I knew your White-as-a-Pearl. She had become an old ugly\nwitch-woman.\"\n\n\"Base crow!\" said Purpurpurati and he walked up the steps and went\naway.\n\nThen Hoodie the Crow dressed himself in the feathers he had stolen\nfrom the Peacock and went away and walked across the field admiring\nhimself. But a Fox that had promised to bring a Peacock to his\nMother-in-law saw Hoodie the Crow and stole up beside him and caught\nhim in his mouth and carried him away. And that was the end of Hoodie\nwho was such a clever crow. \"This Peacock is very tough,\" said the\nFox's Mother-in-law as she ate Hoodie. \"What would your Ladyship\nhave?\" said Rory the Fox. \"Peacock is always tough.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: The Treasure of King Labraid Lorc]\n\n\n\n\nThe Treasure of King Labraid Lorc\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nKingfisher-all-Blue used to sit on the branch that went furthest\nacross the stream with his head bent down and looking as if he were\ntrying to think his head off. Only in the most lonesome places, far\nfrom where the hens cackled and the geese gabbled and the cocks crew,\nwould the Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said find him. And when he did\nfind him Kingfisher-all-Blue would not open his beak to say one\nword--no, not even when the Boy would say \"Where did you get your\nbeautiful color?\" and \"Why is your beak so big, little\nKingfisher-all-Blue?\"\n\nNow one day when he had left behind him the hens that cackled, the\ngeese that gabbled and the cocks that crew, and had left behind him\ntoo the old raven that built in the lone tree he came where\nKingfisher-all-Blue sat upon the slenderest branch that went farthest\nacross the stream. And when Kingfisher-all-Blue saw him he lifted up\nhis head and he fixed his eye upon him and he cried out the one word\n\"Follow.\" Then he went flying down the stream as if he were not a bird\nat all but a streak of blue fire.\n\nKingfisher-all-Blue went flying along the stream and the Boy Who Knew\nWhat the Birds Said was able to follow him. They went on until the\nstream they followed came out on the sand of the sea-shore. Then\nKingfisher-all-Blue seated himself on a branch that was just above\nwhere the grains of sand and the blades of grass mixed with each other\nand he fixed his eye on a mound of sand and clay. And when the Boy Who\nKnew What the Birds Said came beside him Kingfisher-all-Blue said the\none word \"Find.\"\n\nThen the Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said began to take the sand and\nclay from the mound. He worked all day at it and Kingfisher-all-Blue\nsat on the branch above and watched him. And at evening, when all the\nsand and clay had been taken away by him the Boy Who Knew What the\nBirds Said came upon a stone that was as big and as round as the wheel\nof a cart.\n\nAnd when he had brushed away the grains of sand that was on the round\nstone he saw a writing. The writing was in OGHAM, but at that time\neven boys could read OGHAM. And the Ogham writing said YOU HAVE LUCK\nTO HAVE SEEN THIS SIDE OF THE STONE BUT YOU WILL HAVE MORE LUCK WHEN\nYOU SEE THE OTHER SIDE.\n\nWhen he read that he looked up to where the bird sat, but\nKingfisher-all-Blue only said \"I am done with you now,\" and then he\nflew back along the stream like a streak of blue fire.\n\nThe Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said stayed near the stone until the\ndark was coming on. Then he thought he would go home and in the\nmorning he would speak to Pracaun the Crow and ask her about the stone\nthat Kingfisher-all-Blue had brought him to and what good luck there\nwas at the other side of it.\n\nPracaun the Crow came to the standing stone in the morning and ate the\nboiled potato that the Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said brought her,\nand then the Boy spoke to her about the stone that Kingfisher-all-Blue\nhad brought him to, and he asked what good luck there was at the other\nside of it.\n\n\"Kingfisher-all-Blue has brought you to good luck that none of the\nrest of us could have shown you,\" said Pracaun the Crow. \"Under that\nround stone is the treasure of King Labraid Lorc.\"\n\n\"Who was King Labraid Lorc and what was his treasure?\" said the Boy\nWho Knew What the Birds Said.\n\n\"I will tell you first about King Labraid Lorc,\" said Pracaun the\nCrow. \"He was King of this part of the country and of two lovely\nIslands that are now sunken deep in the sea. Mananaun Mac Lir who is\nLord of the Sea was his friend and Labraid Lorc would have been a\nhappy King only for--well, I'll tell you in a while what troubles he\nhad.\n\n\"No one knew where the King had come from. He was not born King of\nthis part of the country nor of the lovely Islands that are now deep\nsunken under the sea. Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea had given him\nthe Islands, or rather he had given him the two keys that had brought\nthe Islands up from the bottom of the sea. Two silver keys they were,\nO lad. And when they were brought together they struck each other and\nrang like bells. And 'Labraid Lorc is King, King of the two Fair\nIslands' is what they chimed out. As long as he held the keys the\nIslands would remain above the water. But if he put the keys away the\nIslands would sink back into the sea.\n\n\"Once in every month the King had a man killed. This is how it was. He\nwould have a man to shave his beard and to trim his hair. This man\nnever came alive out of the King's Castle. As soon as the poor barber\nleft the King's chamber and passed down the hall soldiers would fall\nupon him and kill him with their swords. Every time when the King's\nbeard was shaved and his hair was trimmed a man was killed--twelve men\nin a year, a hundred and forty-four men in twelve years!\n\n\"Now a warning came to a woman that her son would be called upon to be\nthe next barber to the King. She was a widow and the young man was her\nonly son. She was wild with grief when she thought that he would be\nkilled by the soldiers' swords as soon as he had shaved the King's\nbeard and trimmed the King's hair.\n\n\"She went everywhere the King rode. She threw herself before him and\nasked for the life of her son. And at last the King promised that no\nharm would befall her son's life if he swore he would tell no person\nwhat he saw when he shaved the King's beard and trimmed the King's\nhair. After that he would be always the King's barber.\n\n\"The widow's son came before the King and he swore he would tell no\nperson what he saw when he shaved his beard and trimmed his hair. Then\nhe went into the King's Chamber. And when he came out from it the\nKing's soldiers did not fall upon him and kill him with their swords.\nThe widow's son went home out of the Castle.\n\n\"His mother cried over him with joy at seeing him back. The next day he\nwent to work at his trade and his mother watched him and was\ncontented in her mind. But the day after her son only worked by fits\nand starts, and the day after that he did no work at all but sat over\nthe fire looking into the burning coals.\n\n\"And after that the widow's son became sick and lay on his bed and no\none could tell what was the matter with him. He became more and more\nill and at last his mother thought that he had only escaped the\nsoldiers' swords to come home and die in his house. And when she\nthought of that she said to herself that she would go see the Druid\nwho lived at the back of the hill and beg him to come to see her son\nand strive to cure him. The Druid came and he looked into the eyes of\nthe young man and he said 'He has a secret upon his mind, and if he\ndoes not tell it he will die.'\n\n\"Then his mother told the Druid that he had sworn not to tell any\nperson what he saw when he shaved the King's beard and trimmed the\nKing's hair, and that what he saw was his secret. Said the Druid 'If\nhe wants to live he will have to speak out his secret. But it need not\nbe to any person. Let him go to the meeting of two roads, turn with\nthe sun and tell his secret to the first tree on his right hand. And\nwhen he feels he has told his secret your son will get the better of\nhis sickness.'\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"When this was told to the young man he got up off his bed and he\nwalked to where two roads met. He turned as the sun turns and he\nwhispered into the branches of the first tree on his right hand. And\nthe secret that he whispered was 'King Labraid Lorc has the ears of a\nhorse.' Then he turned from the tree and he went home. He slept, and\nin the morning when he woke he was well and he went to his work and he\nwas happy and cheerful.\n\n\"But the tree that he whispered his secret to was a willow, and, as you\nknow, out of the branches of the willow the harp is made. As the\nwidow's son went away a Harper seeking wood to make a new harp came\nthat way. He saw the willow and he knew that its branches were just\nright for the making of his harp. He cut them and he bent them and he\nformed a harp from them. And when the harp was firmly fixed the Harper\ncame with it to the King's Castle.\n\n\"The King gave a feast so that the first music that came from the harp\nshould be honored. He made the Harper sit near his own High Chair.\nThen, when the feast was at its height he called upon the Harper to\nstand up and strike the first music from the new harp.\n\n\"'The first music from the new harp shall be praise of the King,' said\nthe Harper when he stood up. He drew his fingers across the strings\nand all listened for the first music that would come. But the harp\nthat was made out of the willow branches that the widow's son had\nwhispered to murmured 'Labraid Lorc has the ears of a horse, Labraid\nLorc has the ears of a horse.' The King started up from his High\nChair. The Harper threw down the harp. Everyone was silent in the\nhall. Then one voice was heard saying 'It is true. The King Labraid\nLorc has the ears of a horse.'\n\n\"The King had the man who said it taken by his soldiers and flung from\nthe top of the Castle. No one else spoke. But the next day when he\nrode abroad the King heard the people behind the hedges saying\n'Labraid Lorc has the ears of a horse.'\n\n\"After that, whenever he came near them, people went from him, and at\nlast no one was left in his Castle. And there was no one to take him\nover to the fair Islands that Mananaun, Lord of the Sea, had given him\nfor a possession. And there was no one to bring over the fruits that\ngrew on the islands nor the cattle and sheep that pastured there.\n\n\"Then the King went to Mananaun, Lord of the Sea, and he offered him\nback the keys Mananaun had given him--the silver keys that struck each\nother when they were brought together and rang like bells, chiming out\n'Labraid Lorc is King, is King of the two Fair Islands.' But no gift\nthat Mananaun gives is ever taken back and the keys were still left\nwith Labraid Lorc. Yet he thought he would let the keys go out of his\npossession so that the Fair Islands would sink back into the sea. But\nthat they might not stay at the bottom of the sea for ever he took the\nkeys and he put them in a pit at the sea-shore and he covered the pit\nwith a round stone, and knowing that it would be only a lucky person\nwho would come to that stone, he wrote in Ogham writing on it YOU HAVE\nLUCK TO HAVE SEEN THIS SIDE OF THE STONE BUT YOU WILL HAVE MORE LUCK\nWHEN YOU SEE THE OTHER SIDE.\n\n[Illustration: \"Ernan is Lord, is Lord of the Fair Islands.\"]\n\n\"As he left the silver keys there the Fair Islands began to sink in the\nwater. So slow were they in sinking that the cattle and sheep that\npastured on the islands were taken off in boats and the people who\nlived in villages on the Islands came away with all they owned. But at\nlast the Islands sank altogether out of sight. And after they went\ndown into the sea King Labraid Lorc was seen no more.\n\n\"And you, O Boy, are the lucky one that the King hid the silver keys\nfor. When you take them into your hands the Islands will begin to\nrise above the water and when they are altogether risen and are called\nthe Fair Islands again you will be Lord of them. And\nKingfisher-all-Blue, the one we thought had no care but for himself,\nbrought you to this good fortune.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\nDay after day the Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said went down to the\nsea-shore and worked to lift up the round stone that was over the pit\nin which King Labraid Lorc had put his silver keys. And one day he was\nable to raise up the stone. There lay the great keys, shining in their\nsilver brightness. He took them up, and when he brought them near each\nother they struck together and they rang like bells. \"Mananaun\" was\nthe the name they chimed out. And they chimed again \"Ernan is Lord, is\nLord of the Fair Islands.\"\n\nLooking out to sea, the boy Ernan saw waters rising up as though\nwhales were spouting fountains. And the next day, when he came to the\nsea-shore, he saw that Islands had risen and that they were already\ncovered with green.\n\nNo longer he listened to what the Birds said but he watched the\nIslands every day and he saw trees and grass come upon them. And when\nthe people came and said \"Who can be Lord of these Islands?\" he held\nup the silver keys and brought them together so that they struck each\nother and rang like bells. \"Ernan is Lord, Lord of the Fair Islands\"\nwas what they chimed out. Each day the Islands grew fairer in the\nsight of the people, and Ernan was called, not \"The Boy Who Knew What\nthe Birds Said,\" but \"Ernan, Lord of the Fair Islands.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n[Illustration: THE END]\n\nPrinted in the United States of America.\n\n * * * * *\n\nTranscriber's Notes\n\nMinor punctuation and capitalization changes have been made for text\nconsistency. Some illustrations have been moved to avoid breaking up\nparagraphs.\n\nPage 125: Blue Ben has been changed to Blue Hen.","title":"The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":22969}