Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/113

 He sent men northward and southward and forced the boar to keep on towards the Severn. Mabon the huntsman came up with him at last in the water. Arthur and the champions of Britain stood upon the banks. Four men entered the river and caught Turk Truith by his feet, dowsing him as a shepherd dowses a sheep at the washing-places. Mabon spurred his horse into the water and seized the razor. On the other side a man took the scissors. But they could not hold the comb. Turk Truith had worked himself into the shallows and found his feet. Neither horse nor hound could overtake him or come in sight of him again until he reached Cornwall. There they wrested the comb from him, but the sword of Gwrnach was never stained in his blood. They could only drive him straight forward along the narrow valleys of Cornwall into the deep sea. Two of the hounds followed him into the sea. Nor was it ever known what became of Turk Truith or of the hounds.

In Cornwall Arthur rested and anointed himself after the hunting. The lesser adventures had still to be achieved by Kilhugh. He found the basket from which Uspathadden desired to eat at the marriage feast: if the whole world came together all could eat and be filled from this basket. He found the harp that was to be played at the feast: whatever melody a man desired it would play of itself. He took the blood of the jet-black sorceress which was necessary to moisten and spread out the hair of Uspathadden before he could be shaved.

With these things Kilhugh set out for the castle of Olwen and Uspathadden, and in his train rode the last son of Custennin and a company of good men who wished ill to the giant. King Kaw of North Britain, who had wrenched the tusk from Yskithyrwyn, was the