hills a hundred miles high, and valleys a hundred miles deep; across plains where living man had never been before, and through great woods that were so far from the world that the birds themselves had never reached them, until at length and at last he reached the Well of the World’s End and there he found Swift Sword before him, with the net of the King of Ireland’s Druid.
With three blows of the sword Swift Sword blew the Well of the World’s End dry, and they took from the bottom the nine grains of wheat. They spread the net in the Eastern World and caught in it a hundred thousand pigeons, amongst them one great wild pigeon, which was Blue Gold.
They gave him to eat the nine grains of wheat, and there stood up a handsome prince before them -- Blue Gold.
With him they traveled back away and away, until they came to the Lake of the Singing Shore, and to the little house where they found Pearl Mouth, who was rejoiced to get her Blue Gold back again.
Then the four of them set out, and traveled away and away, over mountains and valleys and great long plains, until they came to her father, the King of Persia, from whom she demanded the bottle of loca and the Riches of the World to give them to Ciad and repay him for his services.
The King of Persia said: “No man could ever take these from me, but I give them willingly to the brave champion, Ciad.”
He and Swift Sword spent that night in the King of Persia’s castle, and in the morning set out for home. When they came to the Plain of Blood, they shook one drop from the bottle of loca on Swift Sword’s army, and all of them stood up alive and well.
Ciad then parted with Swift Sword, who was going on to conquer the East, and he himself -- for his time was now getting short -- did not turn aside, but went direct for home. And on the evening of the day on which the three years and a day would have expired, Ciad stood upon the spot on the seashore from which he had set out, and there he found Dark Eye awaiting him.
He gave her the bottle of loca, and her stepmother’s spells were at once taken off her. They went to the island on which he had left his two brothers, Ceud and Mith-Ceud; he shook on them one drop from the bottle of loca, and the two were again alive and well. All of them set out, and sailed to Ciad’s father’s castle -- he and his two brothers and Dark Eye, with the bottle of loca and the Riches of the World.
A messenger was sent at once to France, to invite the King to come to his daughter’s marriage, and to bring his sons and his great lords with him. And another messenger brought to the King of Ireland’s Druid his magic net and a third of the Riches of the World, and invited the King of Ireland and all his court to come to the marriage also. One hundred kings sat down to the wedding feast. The wedding lasted ninety-nine days and ninety-nine nights, and the last night was better than the first.
Ciad and Dark Eye lived a long life and a happy one, and may you and I do the same.
The Bee, the Harp, the Mouse, and the Bum-Clock
ONCE there was a widow, and she had one son, called Jack. Jack and his mother owned just three cows. They lived well and happy for a long time; but at last hard times came down on them, and the crops failed, and poverty looked in at the door, and things got so sore against the poor widow that for want of money and for want of necessities she had to make up her mind to sell one of the cows. “Jack,” she said one night, “go over in the morning to the fair to sell the branny cow.”
Well and good: in the morning my brave Jack was up early, and took a stick in his fist and turned out the cow, and off to the fair he went with her; and when Jack came into the fair, he saw a great crowd gathered in a ring in the street. He went into the crowd to see what they were looking at, and there in the middle of them he saw a man with a wee, wee harp, a mouse, and a bum-clock [cockroach], and a bee to play the harp. And when the man put them down on the ground and whistled, the bee began to play the harp, and the mouse and the bum-clock stood up on their hind legs and got hold of each other and began to waltz. And as soon as the harp began to play and the mouse and the bum-clock to dance, there wasn’t a man or woman, or a thing in the fair, that didn’t begin to dance also; and the pots and pans, and the wheels and reels jumped and jigged, all over the town, and Jack himself and the branny cow were as bad as the next.
There was never a town in such a state before or since, and after a while the man picked up the bee, the harp, and the mouse, and the bum-clock and put them into his pocket, and the men and women, Jack and the cow, the pots and pans, wheels and reels, that had hopped and jigged, now stopped, and every one began to laugh as if to break its heart. Then the man turned to Jack.
“Jack,” says he, “how would you like to be master of all these animals ?”
“Why,” says Jack, “I should like it fine.”
“Well, then,” says the man, “how will you and me make a bargain about them?”
“I have no money,” says Jack.
“But you have a fine cow,” says the man. “I will give you the bee and the harp for it.”
“O, but,” Jack says, says he, “my poor mother at home is very sad and sorrowful entirely, and I have this cow to sell and lift her heart again.”
“And better than this she cannot get,” says the man. “For when she sees the bee play the harp, she will laugh if she never laughed in her life before.”
“Well,” says Jack, says he, “that will be grand.”
He made the bargain. The man took the cow; and Jack started home with the bee and the harp in his pocket, and when he came home, his mother welcomed him back.
“And Jack,” says she, “I see you have sold the cow.”
“I have done that,” says Jack.
“Did you do well?” says the mother.
“I did well, and very well,” says Jack.
“How much did you get for her?” says the mother.
“O,” says he, “it was not for money at all I sold her, but for something far better.”
“O, Jack! Jack! ” says she, “what have you done?”
“Just wait until you see, mother,” says he, “and you will soon say I have done well.”
Out of his pocket he takes the bee and the harp and sets them in the middle of the floor, and whistles to them, and as soon as he did this the bee began to play the harp, and the mother she looked at them and let a big, great laugh out of her, and she and Jack began to dance, the pots and pans, the wheels and reels began to jig and dance over the floor, and the house itself hopped about also.
When Jack picked up the bee and the harp again the dancing all stopped, and the mother laughed for a long time. But when she came to herself, she got very angry entirely with Jack, and she told him he was a silly, foolish fellow, that there was neither food nor money in the house, and now he had lost one of her good cows also. “We must do something to live,” says she. “Over to the fair you must go tomorrow morning, and take the black cow with you and sell her.”
And off in the morning at an early hour brave Jack started, and never halted until he was in the fair. When he came into the fair, he saw a big crowd gathered in a ring in the street. Said Jack to himself, “I wonder what are they looking at.”
Into the crowd he pushed, and saw the wee man this day again with a mouse and a bum-clock, and he put them down in the street and whistled. The mouse and the bum-clock stood up on their hind legs and got hold of each other and began to dance there and jig, and as they did there was not a man or woman in the street who didn’t begin to jig also, and Jack and the black cow, and the wheels and the reels, and the pots and pans, all of them were jigging and dancing all over the town, and the houses themselves were jumping and hopping about, and such a place Jack or any one else never saw before.
When the man lifted the mouse and the bum-clock into his pocket, they all stopped dancing and settled down, and everybody laughed right hearty. The man turned to Jack. “Jack,” said he, “I am glad to see you; how would you like to have these animals?”
