Part 30 (1/2)

”You will not,” said she; ”you will put him in this box.”

Then Fin put him in the box. She went aside and got some fresh shamrock and went into the box with Gilla. Then she told Fin to push the box out to sea, and putting down the cover fastened it inside.

Fin pushed the box out into the sea, and away it went driven by wind and waves, till one day Scehide looked out through a hole and saw two sparrows flying and a dead one between them. The two living sparrows let the dead one down on an island. Soon they rose up again, and the dead one was living.

Said Scehide to herself, ”There might be something on that island that would cure my husband as it cured the dead bird.”

Now the sea put the box in on the island. Scehide unfastened the cover, came out, and walked around the island. Nothing could she find but a small spring of water in a rock. ”It's in this the cure may be,” thought she, as she looked at the water. Then taking off one of her shoes she put it full of the water, took it to the box, and poured it on Gilla na Grakin. That moment he stood up alive and well. Gilla walked along the sh.o.r.e till he found two pieces of wood. He threw one across the other, gave them a tip of his hand, a fine large s.h.i.+p stood there at the sh.o.r.e, and in it he sailed with Scehide back to Erin.

When they landed he turned the vessel into two sticks again with a tip of the hand, and set out with his wife for the castle of Fin Macc.u.mhail in TirConal.

They came to the castle of Fin at midnight. Gilla knocked and said, ”Put my wages out to me.”

”Well,” said Fin inside, ”there is no man, alive or dead, that has wages on me but Gilla na Grakin, and I would rather see that fellow here than the wages of three men.”

”Well, rise up now and you'll see him,” said Gilla.

Fin rose up, saw his man, gave him his wages with thanks and Gilla departed.

At the break of day they saw a great house before them. A man walked out with a kerchief bound on his head.

When Gilla na Grakin came up, he knew the man, and raising his hand, struck him dead with a blow.

”I have satisfaction on Lun Dubh, now,” said Gilla to the wife. The two went into the house and stayed there, and may be there yet for anything we know. We are the luck and they are the winners.

FIN MACc.u.mHAIL, THE SEVEN BROTHERS AND THE KING OF FRANCE.

When Fin Macc.u.mhail with seven companies of the Fenians of Erin was living at Tara of the Kings, he went hunting one day with the seven companies; and while out on the mountains seven young men came towards him and when they came up and stood before him he asked their names of them.

Each gave his name in turn, beginning with the eldest, and their names were Strong, son of Strength; Wise, son of Wisdom; Builder, son of Builder; Whistler, son of Whistler; Guide, son of Guide; Climber, son of Climber; Thief, son of Thief.

The seven young men pleased Fin; they were looking for service, so he hired them for a year and a day.

When Fin and the Fenians of Erin went home that night from the hunt there was a message at the castle before them from the king of France to Fin Macc.u.mhail and the Fenians of Erin, asking them to come over to him on a most important affair.

Fin held a council straightway and said, ”France is a thousand miles from this and the sea between it and Erin; how can we go to the king of France?”

Then Strong, son of Strength, spoke up and said: ”What is the use of hiring us if we can't do this work and the like of it? If you'll make a s.h.i.+p here, or in any place, I'll pull it in the sea.”

”And I,” said Builder, ”will make a s.h.i.+p fit for you or any king on earth with one blow of this axe in my hand.”

”That's what I want,” said Fin, ”and now do you make that s.h.i.+p for me.”

”I will,” said Builder.

”Well,” said Strong, ”I'll put your s.h.i.+p in the sea.”

Builder made the s.h.i.+p there at Tara of the Kings and then Strong brought it to the seash.o.r.e and put it in the water. Fin and the Fenians of Erin went on board, and Guide took the s.h.i.+p from Erin to France.