Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

42 Fictions of the Irish Celts.
had to send him for some groceries next Saturday for all
that, for it was Christmas eve. " Now, Jack," says she,
" I want some cinnamon, mace, and cloves, and half a
pound of raisins ; will you be able to think of
"
'em %
" Able, indeed ! I'll be repatin' 'em every inch o' the
way, and that won't let me forget them." So he never
stopped as he ran along, saying " cinnamon, mace, and
cloves, and half a pound of raisins ;" and this time he'd
have come home in glor}', only he struck his foot again'
a stone, and fell down, and hurt himself
At last he got up, and as he went limping on he strove
to remember his errand, but it was changed in his mind
to " pitch, and tar, and turpentine, and half a yard of
sacking "— '' pitch, and tar, and turpentine, and half a
yard of sacking." These did not help the Christmas
dinner much, and his mother was so tired of minding
him that she sent him along with a clever black man
(match-maker), up to the county Carlow, to get a wife to
take care of him.
Well, the black man never let him open his mouth all
the time the coortin' was goin' on ; and at last the whole
party— his friends, and her friends, were gathered into
the priest's parlour. The black man staid close to him
for 'fraid he'd do a bull ; and when Jack was married
half a-year, if he thought his life was bad enough before,
he thought it ten times worse now ; and told his mother
if she'd send his wife back to her father, he'd never make
a mistake again going to fair or market. But the wife
cock-crowed over the mother as well as over Jack ; and
if they didn't live happy, that we may !
The ensuing household story has rather more ot a
Norse than Celtic air about it, though there are appa-
rently no traces of it in Grimm's or Dasent's collections,
except in the circumstances of the flight. Parts of the