Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/88

 56 became a grey flagstone, and a holly tree growing through him. When the ragged green man saw that he was destroyed, he bowed down and wept his fill; then he went back to the Island of the Torrent.

“Oh,” said the men to him, “is it not long that you have been within? But where is Bioultach?”

“Oh! go ye home. Bioultach is destroyed; he is away from you, a day and a year's voyage before you could reach him. He is a grey flagstone, and over him are heaps of ice and snow.”

“We will not go home ever. We have no business at home, but we will be travelling till we get as far as he is.”

“Do ye think that together ye could tie the giant?”

“Oh, I do not know.”

“Well, I will bring you there in the space of an hour.”

He took them with him as far as Bioultach, till they saw him and wept together.

“Let us go in to see the Bocaw More.”

When they went in he was conversing with his wife.

“Oh! you have come, and your help is not with you.”

“Perhaps you are not a better man than my help.”