Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

140 Fictions of the Irish Celts.
coloured, heavy-headed, dull-buzzing, approaching him.
A great plum or a small apple would fit on every one of
his coarse hairs. Two dead eyes Avqre locked in his
head, an empty long-falling snout he had, and rougli
white teeth.
When the doomed boy saw this hellish beast rushing
right on him to devour him, he felt it full time to seek
an escape. So with swift, mighty springs he made to the
edge of that large field, and at its bounds he found him-
self stopped by a stormy, dangerous, coarse-waved, light-
leaping, strongly-diffused, streamy, troublesome river
and thought within himself whether it would be better
to tiy to swim across it, not knowing anything of the art,
or face the cursed-of-form, diabohcal, odious-coloured,
hideous-countenanced, amazingly-hateful, and malicious
beast. He had heard of persons ignorant of swimming,
who crossed wide streams under terror, and was sure
that he would do the deed if ever fear, surprise, terror,
timidity, fright, or loss of reason helped any one.
But, while he was considering what he should do, he
looked back, and the big animal, with his gluttonous
mouth open, was just behind. It was not a courageous
look of defiance he gave him, but he took a high, powerful,
ver}' light spring into the slowly-flowing ri\er, and
struck out ^•igorously with his arms for life. But deep
and thick with mud was that pool, and choked with
reeds, and no boat with sail or oar could work its way
out. It was then he considered indeed that it was to the
suffocating sea he had come, and that he should not leave
it till he had been permanently drowned, and unworlded,
and till the ravenous birds, open-beaked, should have
taken away his skin, his flesh, and his blood. In that
state he gave out a wondrous, hard, slender, complaining,
frightened cry. The waters were oozing into
his open mouth, and cold death was creeping up his
limbs, when he heard the voices of the Gruagach and
his daughter over him. He was lying in a large trough
filled with water and irrains, his face downwards, his
;