Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Legends of the " Good People.''' 141
mouth full of the contents of the trough, and his arms
striking out. " If you wished for a bath," said the master,
" better would a vessel of clean water be than where the
pigs take their food."
He cleared his rjiouth and his eyes, and sorrow was
upon him to be seen by the maiden ; and, when he turned
away his eyes in shame, he discovered the fierce, ravenous,
life-seeking wald beast of the big, lonesome field, grunting
and rummaging in the litter, and it was as small and as
tame as the rest of the enchanter's pigs.
With bitter grief he again betook himself to his rest,
his soul divided between love for the maid of the sweet
eyes and lips, and dread of the battle.* The Gruagach
told him to sleep soundly till he should be called, as he
himself was then going to gird the horses in their battle
harness for the morrow. The blood rushed again to his
head, while a shivering fit seized on his limbs. In the
middle of his despair a raw gray light fell on his eyes
and his bed was the dry grass of a moat; and little
wonder it was that he should be shivering, for his clothes
were the pillow that supported his head.
But the love of the sighe-maid was still strong in his
soul, and he vowed he would never lie two nights in the
same bed till he had discovered her. For a year and a
day he searched through the length and breadth of Erinn,
and his resting-place at night was a sheltered grassy nook
near a Sighe-Brugheen or a Danish fort. At the end of
a year and a day, he was again at the spot where he had
discovered the Castle of Uncertainty ; and in his sleep
that night he had a vision of his fairy love, who told him
to give over his pursuit of her, as she had been obliged
by her father to take a husband. Next morning he
found the charm gone, and his soul freed from the
sighe-spell. He reformed his ways, and became the
* There is a third adventur.', of cours?, but it does not possess
much novelty or interest.
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