Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/202

194 then if the beast devours me in the night, passers-by will see my body." Just then he saw a light in the woods. "I will go there," said he, "and tell the people of the house where to find my body." He went there and the man of the house came out, and seeing John so sad made him tell him the reason for it. John told him that it was his fate to be torn to pieces by a four-footed beast. The man said, "Come in and I will try to protect you from the beast." John went in, and the man gave a good supper to John, and a bitch called Fiss. Then he said to the bitch, "Fiss, go and guard this house to-night, and don't let any man or beast come near it." Fiss went, and in the night a great bull came, tearing up the ground, and roaring and snorting, bellowing and pawing with his foot, and when he came near the house he commanded John to be brought out, and said that all the world would tremble at the sight of what he would do to him. Fiss attacked him, and before morning the bull had to go away defeated. So for that night John was safe. In the morning, the man of the house said to him, "John, go to my brother's house now, but take my little bitch, Fiss, with you to protect you." John took the bitch and went to the brother's house. The brother asked him why he looked so sad, and John told him that it had been prophesied of him that he was to be killed by a four-footed beast. The man told him to come in and that he would protect him for the night. John went in, and the man said, "Whose dog is that? it looks like my brother's." John answered, "Oh, he gave it to me to guard me against the beast." The man said, "All right," and gave him and his bitch, and his own bitch, Lice, a good supper. In the night the bull came roaring and bellowing, snorting and tearing up the ground ten times fiercer than before. He demanded John to be sent out, and he said that all the world would shake at the sight of what he was going to do to him. Then the two bitches, Fiss and Lice, who had been commanded to watch the house, flew at him, and a terrible battle was fought, so that the bull had to go away before morning, beaten. So John was again safe. "Now," said the man, next morning, "go to my brother's house, and since my brother has been so kind to you I will give you this bitch, Lice." So John travelled on till he came to the third brother's