Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/89

 Rh The king's son asked him why it was he was breaking stones with his half (i.e., one) thigh.

"Oh," says he, "if I were to strike them with the double thigh I'd make powder of them."

"Will you hire with me?"

"I will if I get the place of a house and garden."

"You'll get that if the thing I have in my head succeeds with me."

Then they all went forward together—the son of the king of Ireland, the short green man, the gunman, the earman, the footman, the blowman, and the man that broke stones with the side of his thigh, and they would overtake the March wind that was before them, and the March wind that was behind them would not overtake them, until the evening came and the end of the day.

The king of Ireland's son looked from him, and he did not see any house in which he might be that night. The short green man looked from him, and he saw a house, and there was not the top of a quill outside of it, nor the bottom of a quill inside of it, but only one quill alone, which was keeping shelter and protection on it. The king's son said that he did not know where he should pass that night, and the short green man said that they would be in the house of the giant over there that night.

They came to the house, and the short green man drew the coolaya-coric (pole of combat), and he did not leave child with woman, foal with mare, pigeen with pig, or badger in glen, that he did not turn over three times with the quantity of sound he knocked out of the coolaya-coric. The giant came out, and he said: "I feel the smell of the melodious lying Irishman under (i.e., in) my little sod of country."

"I'm no melodious lying Irishman," said the short green man; "but my master is out there at the head of