Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/81

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THE KING OF IRELAND'S SON.
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out on a gap that was in it. (And how could she catch the wild-geese? Wouldn't they fly away in the air? She caught them, then. That's how I heard it.) And only that the woman kept back some of the milk from her, she would have killed them all.

There was a man of the Fenians, a blind man, and when the pup was let out, he asked the people near him how did the young hound do. They told him that the young hound killed all the wild-geese and birds that were in the glen, but a few that went out on a gap. "If she had to get all the milk that came from the cow without spot," says the blind man, "she wouldn't let a bird at all go from her." And he asked then "how was the hound coming home?" "She's coming now," said they, "and a fiery cloud out of her neck," (How out of her neck? Because she was going so quick.) "and she coming madly."

"Grant me my request now," said the blind man. "Put me sitting in the chair, and put a coal[1](?) in my hand; for unless I kill her she'll kill us."

The hound came, and he threw the coal at her and killed her, and he blind.

But if that pup had to get all the milk, she'd come and she'd lie down quietly, the same as Bran used to lie ever.


THE KING OF IRELAND'S SON.

There was a king's son in Ireland long ago, and he went out and took with him his gun and his dog. There was snow out. He killed a raven. The raven fell on the snow. He never saw anything whiter than the snow,

  1. Gual.