Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/50

36 girl of the modern Irish version, she is the sweet wholesome maid of the open hill and valley, moulded by the influence of storm and sunshine into their own fresh and changeful likeness.

Deirdre had grown to womanhood, and as yet she had never seen a man. But one wintry gloomy night a hunter who had lost his way sank down, exhausted with cold and hunger and overcome with drowsiness, outside the green mound in which Deirdre dwelt. "Sleep-wandering" came upon him, and he thought that he was at the abode of fairies, and that within he heard the fairies making music. In his dreams the hunter called out that if there were anyone in the house they should for the sake of the Good Being let him in.

"Deirdre heard the voice, and she said to the nurse-mother, 'Foster-mother, what is that?' 'A thing of little worth,' she replied; 'it is the birds of the air gone astray from each other, and seeking to come together again. Let them hie away to the forest of trees.'

"Again 'sleep-wandering' came upon the man, and he called out in his sleep that if there were anyone within the knoll, for the sake of the Being of the Elements they should let him in. 'What is that, nurse-mother?' said Deirdre. 'A thing of little worth,' she said again; 'it is but the birds of the flocks astray from each other, seeking one another and their home; but let them hie away to the forest of trees. There is neither house nor home for them here this night." Three times the benumbed and famished man called aloud, and three times the foster-mother gave her charge the same reply.

Oh! nurse-mother,' said the girl at length, 'the bird is asking shelter in the name of the God of the Elements, and thou thyself didst teach me that whatever is asked in