Page:Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland (Curtin).djvu/326

 the ground near him. The queen of the Wilderness had fastened him to the tree because he would n't marry her; and she said: "If any man comes who will put your head on you, you 'll be free." And she laid the injunction on him to kill every man who tried to pass his way without putting the head on him.

Cucúlin went up, looked at him, and saw heaps of bones around the tree. The body said: "You can't go by here. I fight with every man who tries to pass."

"Well, I 'm not going to fight with a man unless he has a head on him. Take your head." And Cucúlin, picking up the head, clapped it on the body, and said, "Now I 'll fight with you!"

The man said: "I 'm all right now. I know where you are going. I 'll stay here till you come; if you conquer you 'll not forget me. Take the head off me now; put it where you found it; and if you succeed, remember that I shall be here before you on your way home."

Cucúlin went on, but soon met the bull of the Mist that covered seven miles of the wood with thick mist. When the bull saw him, he made at him and stuck a horn in his ribs and threw him three miles into the wood, against a great oak tree and broke three ribs in his side.

"Well," said Cucúlin, when he recovered, "if I