Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/35

 Rh and a child with one eye, in the house, and a stack of corn at the door.”

The father then gave him a ship and sent him over to Erin. He was travelling ever till he found out the house; and he went into it. He asked if that was the house of young Gobaun. The woman said it was.

“He said to me there was a woman with one hand, and a child with one eye in the house, and a stack of corn at the door.”

“Don't you see,” said she, “that I have only one hand, and don't you see this stick in the hand of the child? I don't know what moment he won't put it in his eye and take the eye out of himself; and don't you see the stack of corn outside at the door?”

He asked then for the three tools.

“What three tools?” said she.

“They are Corner against Corner, Crooked against Crooked, and Engine against deceit.”

She understood then that they (i.e. her husband and his father) would never come home, if she did not understand these words.

“The three tools that are called Crooked against Crooked, Corner against Corner, and Engine against deceit, they are down in this chest.”

She went then and opened the chest, and told him to stoop down to the bottom, that she was not tall enough. He stooped, and when she got him