Part 5 (1/2)

And yet the mother's half might well grow weary, And it new come from labours over sea.

THIRD YOUNG KING.

He has been on islands walled about with silver, And fought with giants.

(They gather about the ale vat and begin to drink.)

CUCHULLAIN.

Who was it that went out?

THIRD YOUNG KING.

As we came in?

CUCHULLAIN.

Yes.

THIRD YOUNG KING.

Barach and blind Fintain.

CUCHULLAIN.

They always flock together; the blind man Has need of the fool's eyesight and strong body, While the poor fool has need of the other's wit, And night and day is up to his ears in mischief That the blind man imagines. There's no hen-yard But clucks and cackles when he pa.s.ses by As if he'd been a fox. If I'd that ball That's in your hair and the big stone again, I'd keep them tossing, though the one is heavy And the other light in the hand. A trick I learnt When I was learning arms in Aoife's country.

FIRST YOUNG KING.

What kind of woman was that Aoife?

CUCHULLAIN.

Comely.

FIRST YOUNG KING.

But I have heard that she was never married, And yet that's natural, for I have never known A fighting woman, but made her favours cheap, Or mocked at love till she grew sandy dry.

CUCHULLAIN.

What manner of woman do you like the best?

A gentle or a fierce.

FIRST YOUNG KING.

A gentle surely.

CUCHULLAIN.

I think that a fierce woman's better, a woman That breaks away when you have thought her won, For I'd be fed and hungry at one time.