Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/99

 Rh under the corner of his bed. The giant said that he would not give that old sword to anyone, but that he would give him the sword of the three edges that never left the leavings of a blow behind it, or if it did, it would take it with the second blow.

"I won't have that," said the short green man, "I must get the rusty sword; and if I don't get that, I must go for my master, and he shall strike the head off you."

"It is better for me to give it to you," said the giant, "and whatever place you will strike a blow with that sword, it will go to the sand (i.e., cut to the earth) though it were iron were before it." Then he gave him the rusty sword.

The son of the king of Ireland, the gunman, the earman, the footman, the blowman, and the man who broke stones with the side of his thigh, went forward after that, until evening came, and the end of the day, until the horse was going under the shade of the docking, and the docking would not wait for him. The March wind that was behind them would not overtake them, and they would overtake the wind of March that was before them, and they were that night (arrived) in the eastern world, where was the lady.

The lady asked the king of Ireland's son what it was he wanted, and he said that he was looking for herself as wife.

"You must get me," said she, "if you loose my geasa off me."

He got lodging with all his servants in the castle that evening, and in the night she came and said to him, "Here is a scissors for you, and unless you have that scissors for me to-morrow morning, the head will be struck off you."