Part 18 (1/2)

KIL ARTHUR.

There was a time long ago, and if we had lived then, we shouldn't be living now.

In that time there was a law in the world that if a young man came to woo a young woman, and her people wouldn't give her to him, the young woman should get her death by the law.

There was a king in Erin at that time who had a daughter, and he had a son too, who was called Kil Arthur, son of the monarch of Erin.

Now, not far from the castle of the king there was a tinker; and one morning he said to his mother: ”Put down my breakfast for me, mother.”

”Where are you going?” asked the mother.

”I'm going for a wife.”

”Where?”

”I am going for the daughter of the king of Erin.”

”Oh! my son, bad luck is upon you. It is death to ask for the king's daughter, and you a tinker.”

”I don't care for that,” said he.

So the tinker went to the king's castle. They were at dinner when he came, and the king trembled as he saw him.

Though they were at table, the tinker went into the room.

The king asked: ”What did you come for at this time?”

”I came to marry your daughter.”

”That life and strength may leave me if ever you get my daughter in marriage! I'd give her to death before I would to a tinker.”

Now Kil Arthur, the king's son, came in, caught the tinker and hanged him, facing the front of the castle. When he was dead, they made seven parts of his body, and flung them into the sea.

Then the king had a box made so close and tight that no water could enter, and inside the box they fixed a coffin; and when they had put a bed with meat and drink into the coffin, they brought the king's daughter, laid her on the bed, closed the box, and pushed it into the open sea. The box went out with the tide and moved on the water for a long time; where it was one day it was not the next,--carried along by the waves day and night, till at last it came to another land.

Now, in the other land was a man who had spent his time in going to sea, till at length he got very poor, and said: ”I'll stay at home now, since G.o.d has let me live this long. I heard my father say once that if a man would always rise early and walk along the strand, he would get his fortune from the tide at last.”

One morning early, as this man was going along the strand, he saw the box, and brought it up to the sh.o.r.e, where he opened it and took out the coffin. When the lid was off the coffin, he found a woman inside alive.

”Oh!” said he, ”I'd rather have you there than the full of the box of gold.”

”I think the gold would be better for you,” said the woman.

He took the stranger to his house, and gave her food and drink. Then he made a great cross on the ground, and clasping hands with the woman, jumped over the arms of the cross, going in the same direction as the sun. This was the form of marriage in that land. They lived together pleasantly. She was a fine woman, worked well for her husband, and brought him great wealth, so that he became richer than any man; and one day, when out walking alone, he said to himself: ”I am able to give a grand dinner now to Ri Fohin, Sladaire Mor [king under the wave, the great robber], who owns men, women, and every kind of beast.”

Then he went home and invited Ri Fohin to dinner. He came with all the men, women, and beasts he had, and they covered the country for six miles.

The beasts were fed outside by themselves, but the people in the house.