Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/241

 Rh The slaying of Bran's pup seems a variant of Oisin's "Blackbird Hunt" (cf. Kennedy, Fictions, 240), whilst the story, as a whole, seems to be mixed up with that of the "Fight of Bran with the Black Dog,"of which there is a version translated by the Rev. D. Mac Innes—"Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition," Vol. I., p. 7, et seq.

It would seem from our text that the Black Dog was Bran's child, so that the fight is an animal variant of the father and son combat, as found in the Cuchullain saga. A good version of "Finn's Visit to Lochlann" (to be printed in Vol. III. of "Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition") tells how Finn took with him Bran's leash; and how the Lochlanners sentenced him to be exposed in a desolate valley, where he was attacked by a savage dog whom he tamed by showing the leash. Vol. XII. of Campbell's "MSS. of Gaelic Stories" contains a poem entitled, "Bran's Colour." This should be compared with our text.—A.N.]

Page 19. The king of Ireland's son. This title should properly be, "The son of a king in Ireland". As this name for the prince is rather cumbrous, I took advantage of having once heard him called the king of Ireland's son, and have so given it here. In another longer and more humorous version of this story, which I heard from Shamus O'Hart, but which I did not take down in writing, the short green man is the "Thin black man" ; the gunman is, not ; the ear-man is ; (ear for hearing), not ; and the blowman is not , but (blowing nostril). This difference is the more curious, considering that the men lived only a couple of miles apart, and their families had lived in the same place for generations.

Page 27. This description of a house thatched with feathers is very common in Irish stories. On the present occasion the house is thatched with one single feather, so smooth that there was no projecting point or quill either above or below the feather-roof. For another instance, see the "Well of D'yerree in Dowan," page 131. In a poem from "The Dialogue of the Sages," the lady Credé's house is described thus:—

"Of its sunny chamber the corner stones Are all of silver and precious gold, In faultless stripes its thatch is spread Of wings of brown and crimson red.