Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/356

 326 He told them "what was it to them?" They said he might give a civil answer to a civil question; "but," says another giant, "we always knew you to be Sharving the Surly." So he told them a rock fell on his toe, and the giants went down the mountain again.

He took out Pinkeen and says, "Where are Doolas Woods?" "I shall bring you to them," says the fairy.

As they got to the top of the mountain the giant looked back, but he could see no more of the giant-lands; a great fog shut them out. The fairy brought him down the mountain; and when he brought him to the border of the fairy-lands he cast a spell upon him for fear he'd enter the fairy-lands, and they would not get him back. He could not stir hand or foot under the spell.

Pinkeen went to the king of the fairies and told the king that he had a giant on the borderland; and the queen and all the fairies were happy to see him back again. The king sent four of his heralds to show him the fairy-tree, and as they came to where the giant was on the borderlands he told them to break the spell that was on him. They took up a yellow cowslip, and they plucked five crimson spots out of the heart of it, and they flung one north, one south, one east, and one west, and one up in the air, and the spell was broken. They showed him the tree; and as they did he was so overjoyed he gave such a snort that he blew the fairies back to the fairylands.

All this time there were two kings contending in the same province. The rightful king had been slain in battle by an intruding king, and all his belongings taken. He had a son and a daughter, who were taken prisoners; and the king could not decide whether he would slay them or let them go free.

He sent for his grand adviser, and his grand adviser told him that if they were slain that ill would become of it, for on that day would he be slain himself. The grand adviser told him to take the son, who was called Moranna, and to