Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/202

176 He wasn't very long in bed when a young woman who wasn't known in the neighbourhood, came in, and asked the woman of the house where was her son; and she said he was out. "Oh, no," says she, "for he's in his bed." "He is not," says the mother. "Indeed he is," says the young woman; and she says, "if you please tell him to get up, for that I want him, for I cannot go back without him." So the old woman went up and wakened her son, and he came down and asked the young woman what did she want.

She says: "Weren't you out fishing to-day on the lake? Do you remember the dart you flung at the big wave?"

"I do," says he.

"That's in my mistress's forehead," says she, "and nobody can take it out but your two hands; and if you do not come she will die before the sun sets, for nothing can take it out of her head but you; and if you come I promise to see you all right, safe and sound, back to your own home. I promise that on my knees," says she.

So the gentleman set off; and he travelled on, and he never saw a lake till he came back again, but he went on a beautiful road the whole way till he came to a palace at the bottom of the lake. His mother never left from the door till she saw them descend to the bottom of the lake.

As he entered the great hall he saw the queen sitting on her throne, and the dart in her forehead; and she welcomed him beneath the lake. She says: "You remember you were fishing to-day? You remember the giant wave that came to wreck your small boat?"' "I do," says the gentleman. "Well, that wave was me," says she, "for I fell in love with you and thought I would have you in this happy home with me, and be my prince and lover for ever and a day; and when you saw the wave coming you were so frightened that you flung the dart with rage and might at it, and that dart sank in my forehead as you plainly see; and nothing can take it out but your own two hands, but be sure