Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/41

 Social Development of the Folk-tale. 27

conscious of the hardness of her fate, which bound her to a king indeed, but one old enough to be her father. Then it was that, seeing one day a raven drinking the blood of a newly-killed calf upon the snow, she confided to Levarcham her desire to have a husband as handsome as those three colours, black like the raven, red like blood, and white as snow. Levarcham tells her of Naisi, the brave and nobly- born son of Usnach. The story, in the oldest version, proceeds as follows :

" One day Naisi, alone upon the rampart of the fort, was singing. So melodious was his voice that all who heard it were soothed and ravished with the sound; the kine also and other animals, hearing it, gave milk two-thirds more than the usual supply. Valorous were the three sons of Usnach. If the entire province of Ulster had been attacked, they three, set back to back, would have secured victory to the Ultonians, so superior was the prowess of their defence, and the vigilance with which they would have protected each other. In the chase, they were fleet as hounds ; they outstripped the wild beasts in their flight and killed them.

"When Naisi was alone without, Deirdre slipped out and passed him by. On the moment, failing to recognise her —

" ' She is lovely,' he said, 'the heifer who passes by.'

" ' There must be fine heifers where the bulls are,' she replied.

" ' The foremost bull of the province is beside you,' he replied, alluding to the King of Ulster.

" ' If I were to make choice between you two, I would choose a bull, young like thyself,' she said.

" ' Not so,' cried Naisi ; for the prophecy of Cathbad came to his recollection.

" ' Do you say that to get rid of me ? '

" ' Be it so/ he replied.

" At these words she flung herself on him, and seizing him by the two ears, she said, ' Behold thy two ears