Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/105

 the sword of Gwrnach the Giant will slay the boar, and Gwrnach will never give it of his own free will, either for a price or as a gift, nor canst thou compel him.'

'It will be easy for me to do this.' And Uspathadden grew more angry, and in a breath set him many other tasks. 'These also I shall perform,' said Kilhugh. 'Horses I shall have and chivalry and my lord and kinsman Arthur. I shall obtain all these things. I shall gain thy daughter and she shall wear the snowy wimple. Thou shalt trim thy thickets and shave thy beard and thou shalt die, Uspathadden Penkower.'

Then upon a golden morning of March, they set out, Arthur and his warriors and huntsmen, Kilhugh and the last son of Custennin. They rode on, with their eyes looking for Dillus Varvawc, and their minds dwelling on the nine bushels of flax to be unsown out of the earth, every seed of it. They crossed mountains pathless like the sea, and under forests that never knew the sun even in winter, and there were many days when Kilhugh's greyhounds had no heart to sport about him like sea-swallows. Some men went this way and some that; and one day upon a mountain, when the sun had set fire to the gorse and last year's bracken, Gwythyr the son of Greigawl heard a wailing and a grievous cry. He sprang towards the sound and traced it to an antheap right in the course of the torrent of fire that was rolling up the mountain. To save the inhabitants he drew his sword and mowed the gorse and bracken surrounding the nest. Thus the fire passed by at a distance on either side, and the ants thanked Gwythyr, saying: