The Hags came back with a half-filled pitcher, and they ordered us to
go to our bed. We went, and they sat for a while drinking porringers of
water. “Crom Duv will be here the first thing in the morning,” I heard
one of them say. They put their heads on the pillows and in the turn of
a hand they were dead-fast-sound asleep. I told my foster-sisters then
what I had done and why I had done it. They were very frightened, but
seeing the Hags so sound asleep they composed themselves and slept too.
Before the screech of day Crom Duv came to the house. I went outside and
saw the Giant. I said I was the servant of the Hags, and that they were
sleeping still. He said, “They are my runners and summoners, my brewers,
bakers and candle-makers, and they have no right to be sleeping so
late.” Then he went away.
I knew that the three Hags would slumber until we took the pillows from
under their heads. We left them sleeping while we put down a fire and
made our break-fast. Then, when we were ready for our journey, we took
the pillows from under their heads. The three Hags started up then,
but we were out on the door, and had taken the first three steps of our
journey.
V
Without hap or mishap we came at last to the domain of the King of
Senlabor. Baun went to sing for the King’s foster-daughters, and Deelish
went to work at the little loom in the King’s chamber. We were not long
at the court of the King of Senlabor when two youths came there from the
court of the King of Ireland--Dermott and Downal were their names. There
was a famous sword-smith with the King of Senlabor and these two came
to learn the trade from him. And my two foster-sisters fell so deeply in
love with the two youths that every night the pillow on each side of me
was wet with their tears.
I went to work in the King’s kitchen. Now the King had a dish of such
fine earthware and with such beautiful patterns upon it that he never
let it be carried from the Kitchen to the Feast-Hall, nor from the
Feast-Hall to the Kitchen without going himself behind the servant who
carried it. One day the servant brought it into the Kitchen to be washed
and the King came behind the servant. I took the dish and cleaned it
with thrice-boiled water and dried it with cloths of three different
kinds. Then I covered it with sweet-smelling herbs and left it in a bin
where it was sunk in soft bran. The King was pleased to see the good
care I took of his dish, and he said before his servant that he would
do me any favor I would ask. There and then I told him about my two
foster-sisters Baun and Deelish, and how they were in love with the two
youths Dermott and Downal who had come from the court of the King of
Ireland. I asked that when these two youths were being given wives, that
the King should remember my foster-sisters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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