Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/71

 Rh “Because he thought little of the learning I was giving him.”

“I give you the quarters of heaven, of the earth, and of the sea, against my body and my soul, that a second night I will not sleep in one bed, that a second meal at the one table I will not eat, till I go in search of him.”

“Oh, my son, evil is the oath you have taken, and it were better for you to stay in Erin, nor leave it altogether without an heir.”

“More to me is my brother than all Erin.”

When Maunus arose in the morning he took leave of his father, and went down to the sea, and went on board ship, and stopped not till he came to Spain. He spent a day and a year there. The king asked him,—

“Whence are you? I would like to get word of you.”

“Oh, you will get it. Maunus am I, son of the High King of Erin, who left the court and pleasant home of my father a year since, yesterday, to search for my brother, Bioultach.”

“Oh,” said the king, “Bioultach spent a day and year with me here, and if he is alive he is with the King of Greece.”

“I will wait no longer till I see him.”

“Oh,” said the king, “if you reach Greece, do not rise in without permission, for you have no knowledge how to handle a sword.”