Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/239

 Rh the eastern world, and not to sleep a wink, but one night only, in the one house before you come back again.”

She went with herself, and stopped not till she came to the castle of the King of Rye in the eastern world, and knocked at the Cuillë Coric, and the King of Rye came out and asked her what she was seeking.

“I am seeking,” said she, “your sword of light and the divided stone of your druidism.”

“Well, do you not see on the hill yonder all the heads of the champions who came to seek them from me, and never went man of them back to tell the story? and you are come, a woman, to seek!”

“Well,” said she, “it was not under protection of your shield I came at all, but under the protection of my own shield and blade.”

She and the King of Rye then went at one another, and the King of Rye was getting the better of her, and she asked him to give her quarter for her life till morning.

“Hold out your hand till I cut off the tips of your little finger that I may be able to recognise you, and you will not get quarter for your life but this turn, (not) if you come to-morrow.”

She went with herself and stopped that night at the smith's house; and the smith said to her,—

“It's a bad journey you've come on your