Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/87

 Rh He was opposite an island, and the haven froze round him. It was not long till he saw the ragged green man coming from the side of a stone, and he rubbing his eyes.

“Oh, Bioultach, are you frozen there?”

“And here I shall stay.”

“Oh, you will not stay. I will go to the forge and make an axe to break the (ice).”

He came back, and an axe with him. They broke the stone of ice. Bioultach came out. “Now, Bioultach, as we have come on two days unknown to the giant, he will send out two ball players, with hurls of gold and balls of silver; you will think they are the two champions you left behind at the Island of the Torrent. If any limb of their limbs touches you, or the ball, you are a grey flagstone, and over you heaps of ice and snow, as big as if you were there for a hundred years.”

When they went up, he saw the two champions coming. It seemed to him it was Splendour and Splendour-of-the-Sun were there. They ran to him, and he was running to them in his delight. The ragged green man threw them, so that they failed. They took out the ball. A man of them struck the ball a blow, and it was coming straight to Bioultach. He put up his hand to keep off the ball from his eye. He was struck on the palm of the hand, and he fell, and