Part 36 (1/2)

When the young man came up Fin said, ”There is a single man facing us.”

Conan Maol said, ”Let some one go against him, ask who he is and what he wants.”

”I never give an account of myself to any man,” said Conlan, ”till I get an account from him.”

”There is no man among us,” said Conan, ”bound in that way but Cuculin.”

They called on Cuculin; he came up and the two fought. Conlan knew by the description his mother had given that Cuculin was his father, but Cuculin did not know his son. Every time Conlan aimed his spear he threw it so as to strike the ground in front of Cuculin's toe, but Cuculin aimed straight at him.

They were at one another three days and three nights. The son always sparing the father, the father never sparing the son.

Conan Maol came to them the fourth morning. ”Cuculin,” said he, ”I didn't expect to see any man standing against you three days, and you such a champion.”

When Conlan heard Conan Maol urging the father to kill him, he gave a bitter look at Conan, and forgot his guard. Cuculin's spear went through his head that minute, and he fell. ”I die of that blow from my father,”

said he.

”Are you my son?” said Cuculin.

”I am,” said Conlan.

Cuculin took his sword and cut the head off him sooner than leave him in the punishment and pain he was in. Then he faced all the people, and Fin was looking on.

”There's trouble on Cuculin,” said Fin. ”Chew your thumb,” said Conan Maol, ”to know what's on him.”

Fin chewed his thumb, and said, ”Cuculin is after killing his own son, and if I and all my men were to face him before his pa.s.sion cools, at the end of seven days, he'd destroy every man of us.”

”Go now,” said Conan, ”and bind him to go down to Bale strand and give seven days' fighting against the waves of the sea, rather than kill us all.”

So Fin bound him to go down. When he went to Bale strand Cuculin found a great white stone. He grasped his sword in his right hand and cried out: ”If I had the head of the woman who sent her son into peril of death at my hand, I'd split it as I split this stone,” and he made four quarters of the stone. Then he strove with the waves seven days and nights till he fell from hunger and weakness, and the waves went over him.

OISIN IN TIR NA N-OG.

There was a king in Tir na n-Og (the land of Youth) who held the throne and crown for many a year against all comers; and the law of the kingdom was that every seventh year the champions and best men of the country should run for the office of king.

Once in seven years they all met at the front of the palace and ran to the top of a hill two miles distant. On the top of that hill was a chair and the man that sat first in the chair was king of Tir na n-Og for the next seven years. After he had ruled for ages, the king became anxious; he was afraid that some one might sit in the chair before him, and take the crown off his head. So he called up his Druid one day and asked: ”How long shall I keep the chair to rule this land, and will any man sit in it before me and take the crown off my head?”

”You will keep the chair and the crown forever,” said the Druid, ”unless your own son-in-law takes them from you.”

The king had no sons and but one daughter, the finest woman in Tir na n-Og; and the like of her could not be found in Erin or any kingdom in the world. When the king heard the words of the Druid, he said, ”I'll have no son-in-law, for I'll put the daughter in a way no man will marry her.”

Then he took a rod of Druidic spells, and calling the daughter up before him, he struck her with the rod, and put a pig's head on her in place of her own. Then he sent the daughter away to her own place in the castle, and turning to the Druid said: ”There is no man that will marry her now.”

When the Druid saw the face that was on the princess with the pig's head that the father gave her, he grew very sorry that he had given such information to the king; and some time after he went to see the princess.

”Must I be in this way forever?” asked she of the Druid.

”You must,” said he, ”till you marry one of the sons of Fin Macc.u.mhail in Erin. If you marry one of Fin's sons, you'll be freed from the blot that is on you now, and get back your own head and countenance.”