Donegal Fairy Tales - McManus Seumas. Страница 19

“I’m laughing for the joy of killing you,” said Feach-An-Choille.

“Wouldn’t it be better to laugh after?” said Ciad.

Then he raised his spear, and he and the Feach went at the fight. The noise and the din and the fierceness of the fight was such that the boars came down from the hills, and the deer came up from the valleys, and the birds from the woods of the world loaded the tree tops around, to watch. If Feach-An-Chruic was a great fighter, Feach-An-Choille was a far greater, but as great as he was, Ciad’s courageous spirit was still greater, and when the sun was behind the trees in the west, Ciad put the Feach down.

“You’re a brave man,” said the Feach, when he was down. “What can I do for you?”

“You can give me the bottle of loca and the Riches of the World,” said Ciad.

“I cannot,” said the Fezch. “I’m sorry. I had the bottle of loca and the Riches of the World only one night, when the King of Persia took them from me. And now,” said the Feach, “you may as well return home, for you can never get them from the King of Persia.”

“Why cannot I?” said Ciad.

“Because,” he said, “the King of Persia, when he got the Riches of the World, called together at once the Seven Wizards of the East, and had them lay spells on him, so that no man could ever conquer him.”

“I’m sorry for that,” said Ciad, “but I’ll not return home; I’ll travel on to meet my fate.”

Ciad traveled on for a long time. He came to a plain that was covered with dead men, and on one of the dead men he saw a gold boot and a silver boot. He got hold of the gold boot and tried to pull it off, and the man whom he thought was dead struck him with the other boot and tossed him.

“Who are you ?” said Ciad.

“I am Swift Sword, son of the King of Spain, one blow of whose sword has the power of one thousand men for one thousand years, and would blow the sea dry,” he said. “This is my army that I brought into the Eastern World, and all of them are killed.”

“I am glad to find you,” said Ciad, “for I am your cousin Ciad, the son of the King of Norway. Come with me.”

Ciad and Swift Sword set out, and traveled on and on until they came to the lake of the Singing Shore, and traveled by it until they reached a small house. As they came up to the house they saw a white pigeon fly from the chimney at every step they took.

Ciad thought this very strange and that he would go in and find out what it meant. Inside he saw a very beautiful young lady sitting by the fire. She had in her hand a wand covered with scales. She was plucking the scales from it, one by one, and flinging them into the fire, and for every scale she flung into the fire a white pigeon got up and flew from the chimney.

“The blessing of Crom on you,” said Ciad. “I am Ciad, the son of the King of Norway. I am traveling in search of the King of Persia, to get from him the bottle of loca and the Riches of the World. I should like to know the name of the beautiful damsel I am addressing.”

She said, “I am Pearl Mouth, daughter of the King of Persia, and am living here all alone, very far from my country and my people.”

“How is that?” said Ciad.

She said: “A year ago I married Blue Gold, the son of the King of Africa, and on my marriage day he was carried away by force by Mountain of Fierceness, son of the King of Greece, and turned into a pigeon in the Eastern Skies. I have sat here for a year sending off these messengers to find him, but not one of them has come back.”

“I am very sorry for you,” said Ciad.

“And I am very sorry for you,” said Pearl Mouth.

“How is that?” said Ciad.

“Because my father, the King of Persia,” she said, “cannot be conquered by living man; so you can never force from him the bottle of loca and the Riches of the World.”

“Then I’ll die in trying,” said Ciad.

“Isn’t it better to get them and live ?” Pearl Mouth said.

“But I cannot do that,” Ciad said.

“If you are a very great hero there is just a chance for you,” said Pearl Mouth.

Ciad asked her what that chance was, and she told him that if he would find Mountain of Fierceness, the son of the King of Greece, and conquer him and bring back to her Blue Gold, she would get for him from her father what he wanted.

“Then,” he said, “I will do that.”

“Not so easily,” said Pearl Mouth, “for no one in the world can overcome Mountain of Fierceness unless he has the buaidh [pronounced ”boo-ee,“ and means ”power of victory“] of Soul of Steel, Prince of India.”

“Then,” said Ciad, “I will set off and find that.”

Away he started, and did not stop until he reached India. He demanded buaidh from Soul of Steel.

“That I will not give you,” said Soul of Steel.

“Then,” Ciad said, “I will fight you for it.”

“You will only throw away your life,” said Soul of Steel, “for no man can conquer me but one.”

“And who is that one?” said Ciad.

“The man who can kill the Giant of the Great Seas,” said Soul of Steel.

“Then,” said Ciad, “I’m that man;” and he told his story to Soul of Steel.

Soul of Steel said he was a great hero, surely, and that he was glad to give him buaidh.

“Break a branch,” he said, “from that oak tree that grows before my castle, and it will give you buaidh.”

Ciad went to the oak tree and broke a branch, but when it fell to the ground, it sprang up into a great tree, and with every other branch he broke the same thing happened.

Soul of Steel came out and gave him his cloak. He said, “Spread this under the branch.”

He broke another branch, which fell on the cloak, and he carried it off, and went in search of Mountain of Fierceness.

He traveled away and away before him, far further than I can tell you, and twice as far as you could tell me, over height, hill, and hollow, mountain, moor and scrug, lone valley and green glen, until at last and at length, he found, in Africa, Mountain of Fierceness with all his men, gathered together on a hilltop. He walked up to them, and asked what was happening.

They said Mountain of Fierceness was being married to the Queen of the Indies. He pushed his way to where the priests were marrying them.

Mountain of Fierceness asked the stranger what he wanted.

Ciad said, “I have come to conquer you.”

“That, my good man, you can’t do,” said Mountain of Fierceness. “It’s better for you to return to your home, for I’m getting married.”

“I’ll never return until I’ve taken your life or, made you grant me one request,” said Ciad.

“I’ll not give you my life, and I’ll not grant you one request,” said Mountain of Fierceness. “But I’ll spit you on the point of my spear if you don’t leave this and go whence you came.”

Then Ciad asked him to step out for a fight.

“I don’t want to take your life or any man’s to-day,” said Mountain of Fierceness, “as I am to be married. Yet no man can overcome me unless he has buaidh from Soul of Steel, the Prince of India.”

“And that I have,” said Ciad, throwing the oak branch at his feet.

Mountain of Fierceness looked at this, and then said: “Will you spare my life?”

“On one condition,” said Ciad, “and that is that you tell me where Blue Gold, Prince of Africa, whom you carried off from his wife a year ago, is, and how I may get him.”

“Where he is and what he is, I can tell you,” said Mountain of Fierceness, “and how you may get him, but I very much doubt if ever you can get him. He is a wild pigeon in the Eastern Skies -- nothing can catch him but the magic net of the King of Ireland’s Druid, and this net could only be purchased by one-third of the Riches of the World; and nothing can disenchant him but nine grains of wheat that lie at the bottom of the Well of the World’s End, which can only be emptied by three thousand men in three thousand years.”