There was a King one time was very much put out because he had no son, and he went at last to consult his Chief Adviser. And the Chief Adviser said: ‘It is easy enough managed if you do as I tell you. Let you send some one,’ says he, ‘to such a place to catch a fish. And when the fish is brought in, give it to the Queen, your wife, to eat.’

So the King sent as he was bade, and the fish was caught and brought in, and he gave it to the cook, and bade her put it before the fire, but to be careful with it, and not to let any blob or blister rise on it. But it is impossible to cook a fish before the fire without the skin of it rising in some place or other, and so there came a blob on the skin, and the cook put her finger on it to smooth it down, and then she put her finger into her mouth to cool it, and so she got a taste of the fish. And then it was sent up to the Queen, and she ate it, and what was left of it was thrown out into the yard, and there was a mare in the yard, and a greyhound, and they ate the bits that were thrown out.

And before a year was out the Queen had a young son, and the cook had a young son, and the mare had two foals, and the greyhound had two pups.

And the two young men were sent off for a while to some place to be cared, and when they came back they were so much like one another no person could say which was the Queen’s son and which was the cook’s. And the Queen was vexed at that, and she went to the Chief Adviser and said: ‘Tell me some way that I can know which is my own son, for I don’t like to be giving the same eating and drinking to the cook’s son as to my own.’ ‘It is easy to know that,’ said the Chief Adviser, ‘if you will do as I tell you. Go you outside, and stand at the door they will be coming in by, and when they see you, your own son will bow his head, but the cook’s son will only laugh.’

So she did that, and when her own son bowed his head her servants put a mark on him, that she would know him again. And when they were all sitting at their dinner after that, she said to Shawneen, that was the cook’s son: ‘It is time for you to go away out of this, for you are not my son.’ And her own son, that we will call Shamus, said: ‘Do not send him away; are we not brothers?’ But Shawneen said: ‘I would have been long ago out of this house if I knew it was not my own father and mother owned it.’ And for all Shamus could say to him, he would not stop. But before he went they were by the well that was in the garden, and he said to Shamus: ‘If harm ever happens to me, that water on the top of the well will be blood, and the water below will be honey.’

Then he took one of the pups, and one of the two horses that was foaled after the mare eating the fish, and the wind that was after him could not catch him, and he caught the wind that was before him. And he went on till he came to a cooper’s house, and he asked did he want a servant. ‘Well,’ says the cooper, ‘I have thirteen goats—twelve goats and a puck—and let you bring them out and be minding them to-morrow.’ ‘I will do that for you,’ says Shawneen. So the cooper engaged him, and on the morrow he brought out the goats to the place he was bade, that was the top of a mountain. And there was a gentleman’s demesne, and walls about it, and he looked in at the gate and he saw grass growing up as high as the trees. ‘Why wouldn’t my poor goats go in there,’ says he, ‘and be grazing in it, and not to be out on that red mountain where there is not a rib of grass, and what they are eating is clay?’ So he drove in the goats through the gate, and they were eating the grass, and he heard some person coming, and he went up in a tree. He saw a giant coming into the field. The giant looked at him. ‘I see where you are in the tree,’ says he. ‘And I think you too big for one mouthful,’ says he; ‘and I think you too small for two mouthfuls, and I don’t know what will I do with you unless I will grind you up and make snuff for my nose.’ ‘As you are strong be merciful,’ says Shawneen up in the tree. ‘Come down out of that, you little dwarf,’ says the giant, ‘or I’ll tear you and the tree asunder.’ So Shawneen came down. ‘Would you sooner be driving red-hot knives into one another’s hearts,’ says the giant, ‘or would you sooner be fighting one another on red-hot flags?’ ‘Fighting on red-hot flags is what I’m used to at home,’ says Shawneen; ‘and your dirty feet will be sinking in them and my feet will be rising.’ So then they began the fight. The ground that was hard they made soft, and the ground that was soft they made hard, and they made spring-wells come up through the green flags. They were like that all through the day, no one getting the upper hand of the other; and at last a little bird came and sat on the bush and said to Shawneen: ‘If you won’t make an end of him by sunset, he’ll make an end of you.’ Then Shawneen put out his strength, and he brought the giant down on his knees. ‘Give me my life,’ says the giant, ‘and I’ll give you the best gift I have.’ ‘What gift is that?’ says Shawneen. ‘A Sword that nothing can stand against,’ says the giant. ‘Where is it to be found?’ says Shawneen. ‘In that red door you see there in the hill.’ So Shawneen went and got it out. ‘Where will I try the Sword?’ says he. ‘Try it on that ugly black stump of a tree,’ says the giant. ‘I see nothing blacker or uglier than your own head,’ says Shawneen. And with that he made one stroke, and cut off the giant’s head that it went into the air, and he caught it on the Sword as it was coming down, and made two halves of it. ‘It is well for you I did not join to the body again,’ says the head, ‘or you would never have been able to strike it off again.’ ‘I did not give you the chance of that,’ says Shawneen. And he brought away the great Sword with him.

So he brought the goats home at evening, and everybody wondered at all the milk they gave that night. And when the cooper was eating his supper he said: ‘I think I only hear two roars from beyond to-night, in place of three.’

The next morning Shawneen went out again with the goats, and he saw another demesne with good grass in it, and he brought in the goats. All happened the same as the first day, but the giant that came this time had two heads, and they fought together, and the little bird came and spoke to Shawneen as before. And when the giant was brought down by Shawneen he said: ‘Give me my life and I will give you the best thing I have.’ ‘What thing is that?’ says Shawneen. ‘It is a Cloak of Darkness you can put on, and you will see everyone but no one can see you.’ ‘Where is it?’ says Shawneen. ‘It’s inside that little red door at the side of the hill.’ So Shawneen went and brought out the Cloak. And then he cut off the giant’s two heads, and caught them coming down, and made four halves of them. And they said it was well for him he had not given them time to join the body.

That night when the goats came home all the vessels that could be found were filled up with milk.

The next morning Shawneen went out again, and all happened as before, and the giant this time had four heads, and Shawneen made eight halves of them. And the giant told him to go to a little blue door in the side of the hill, and there he got a pair of Shoes of Swiftness, that when you put them on would make you run faster than the wind.

That night the goats gave so much milk there was no place to hold it. ‘Oh, what can we do for vessels to hold the milk?’ says the cooper, and they were milking the poor goats on the ground, and it was given to poor people and men passing the road. I was passing that way myself, and I got a drink of it. ‘Why is it,’ says the cooper, ‘the goats are giving so much milk these days? Are you bringing them to any other grass?’ ‘I am not,’ says Shawneen, ‘but I have a good stick, and whenever they would stop still or lie down I give them blows of it, that they jump over walls and stones and ditches; that’s the way to make them give plenty of milk.’ And that night at supper the cooper said: ‘I hear no roars at all.’

The next day Shawneen brought the goats to the first meadow he went to, and there came before him the mother of the three giants, that was the strongest of them all. ‘Was it you killed my three sons?’ says she. ‘It was,’ says Shawneen. ‘I thought,’ says she, ‘the man wasn’t born in Ireland that could do that much.’ So they took a hold of one another and went wrestling, and neither of them got the better of the other through the length of the day. And it is the way it was, the two farthest back teeth in the mother’s mouth were crutches to her, that reached down to the ground, the way Shawneen would not get a good grip of her at one side or the other. And at the fall of day the little bird came and sat on the bush and said: ‘Why wouldn’t you give a tip to the crutch?’ So with that he gave a tip of his boot to the tooth, that knocked it out of her head, and the mother fell, and before she died she gave him up her estate.

Shawneen left the cooper’s house then, and he went on till he came to a large garden, and he went up in the branches of a cherry-tree, and he was eating the cherries and throwing the stones down. There came in a young lady, and she looked up and she saw him in the tree. ‘Oh, you are an unruly lad,’ says she, ‘for that tree belongs to the King that is my father, and what right have you to go plundering it down?’ So he came down then out of the tree, and he asked what could he do for her. ‘Go out and bring me news,’ says she, ‘is the Black Duke coming to make a good fight against the Fiery Dragon.’ The Fiery Dragon now was a fish that used to come every seven years, and he should get the primest lady in the land to eat and to banish. And it was the King’s daughter was to be given to him on that very day, unless the Black Duke or some other champion would get the better of him. And it was given out that whatever man would kill the Dragon would get the King’s daughter for his wife.

So Shawneen went down by the road to the sea, and he came to a cluster of brambles and of bushes that was beside the road, and he looked in, and who was hiding in it but the Black Duke. ‘Why wouldn’t you go fight?’ says Shawneen; ‘and thousands of people and carriages there looking on.’ ‘Oh, I am in dread,’ says the Black Duke; for he was a great coward, and he was afeard to go on and to face the Fiery Dragon. ‘Give me here your suit of armour,’ says Shawneen. So he got the suit of armour and he went on to the brink of the sea, and it was like the Cliffs of Moher; all the people were looking down from it, and there on the strand the King’s daughter was sitting and she crying, and tied in a silver chair. And she saw Shawneen coming, and he wearing the Black Duke’s suit. ‘Let me lie a while with my head on your knee,’ says he, ‘and you can waken me when the Dragon is coming.’ So he did that, and she saw the Fiery Dragon coming, and its mouth open and a fiery flame from it, and nine miles of the sea was dry with all he drank of it. So she wakened Shawneen, and they had a great fight, and he got the better of the Fiery Dragon. ‘Oh, let me go out of this for the night,’ says the Dragon, ‘and I’ll come back in the early morning out of the salt sea.’ So Shawneen let him go, and as to himself, he put on the Shoes of Swiftness that no one would overtake him, and he went back to the cooper’s house for the night.

Well, the next day he came again, and there was no news or tidings of the Black Duke, and all happened as before, and he drove back the Fiery Dragon till the next morning.

And the third day Shawneen came again, and he lay down to take a sleep while he was waiting, with his head in the lap of the King’s daughter. And this time she thought some way he was maybe not the Black Duke, and she took her scissors and cut off a bunch of his hair. ‘Are you cutting all the hair off my head?’ says he. ‘I am cutting it,’ says she, ‘till I’ll know who was it made an end of the Fiery Dragon.’ So she made a little packet of it and put it away, and, another thing, she drew off a golden shoe from his foot. And when she saw the Dragon coming she awoke him, and he said: ‘This time I will put the Dragon in a way he will eat no more King’s daughters.’ So he took out the Sword he had got from the giant, and he drove the Dragon to his knees out in the sea, and down to the hip, and gave him a blow that split him in two halves from the head to the tail, and there was an end of him. And he put on the Cloak of Darkness he had taken from the giant, that no one saw what way did he go, and away with him to the cooper’s house.

Then the King made ready the wedding, and he sent for the Black Duke that was to marry his daughter, and he was made much of and was the right-hand man, and there was music and shouting before him, and the greatest wedding given out that ever was. But the King’s daughter knew well it was not the Black Duke had saved her, and she took out the bunch of hair she had, and she said she would marry no one but the man whose hair would match that: and she showed the gold shoe and said she would marry no one but the man whose foot would fit it. And the Black Duke tried to put on the shoe, but so much as his toe would not go into it; and as for his hair, it did not match at all to the bunch of hair she had cut from the man that saved her.

So then the King gave a great ball to bring all the chief men of the country together, to try would the shoe fit any of them. And they were all going to carpenters and joiners getting bits of their feet cut off to try could they wear the shoe, but it was no use; not one of them could get it on. Then the King went to his Chief Adviser and asked what could he do. And the Chief Adviser bade him to give another ball. ‘And this time,’ he said, ‘give it to poor as well as rich.’

So the ball was given and many came flocking to it, but the shoe would not fit any one of them. And there were two Fools passing the way and they said: ‘There is a wedding going on, the greatest that ever was in the world; and let us go in now,’ they said, ‘and we will be eating meat.’ So they went in and sat by the kitchen fire, and the King asked had everyone in the house or out of the house tried to see would the bunch of hair fit to their poll, and they said all unless the two Fools that were sitting by the kitchen fire. So they were brought up and bade to take their caps off, but the hair did not match their own. And the Chief Adviser said: ‘Is everyone here belonging to the district?’ ‘They are all here,’ said the King, ‘unless the boy that minds the cooper’s goats. And I would not like him to be coming up here,’ he said. So Shawneen was sent for, and he was told what the King said, and that vexed him, where he knew the two Fools had got their chance. And he got his sword and came running up the stairs as if to strike off the King’s head. But when he got to the top of the stairs the King’s daughter saw him and she gave a cry and ran into his arms. And they tried the shoe and it fitted him, and his hair matched to the bunch that had been cut off. That was a good thought the King’s daughter had to cut a bit of his hair; and there is nothing in the world so quick as a woman’s thought. A man’s thought is quick enough, but a woman’s thought is quicker again.

And Shawneen took the Black Duke and bound him with gads, that no one would be able to loosen but himself, and everyone was striving to loosen the gads, but they could not; and Shawneen was bade come and try his hand at them, but he said he would not till the Royal Family themselves would come asking him. So they came, and the gads loosened of themselves, and Shawneen and the King’s daughter were married; and a great feast was given for three days and three nights, and there was every sort of fiddlers and of pipers at the wedding.

And at the end of that time, one morning there came a deer outside the window, with bells on it, and they ringing. And it called out: ‘Here is the hunt; where are the huntsman and the hounds?’ So when Shawneen heard that, he got up and took his horse and his hound and went hunting the deer. When it was in the hollow he was on the hill, and when it was on the hill he was in the hollow; and that went on all through the day, and when night fell it went into a wood. And Shawneen went into the wood after it, and all he could see was a mud-wall cabin, and he went in, and there he saw an old woman, about two hundred years old, and she sitting over the fire. ‘Did you see a deer pass this way?’ says Shawneen. ‘I did not,’ says she. ‘But it’s too late for you to be following a deer; let you stop here the night.’ ‘What will I do with my horse and hound?’ says Shawneen. ‘Here are two ribs of hair,’ says she, ‘and let you tie them up with those ribs.’ So Shawneen went out and tied up the horse and the hound, and when he came in again the old woman said: ‘It was you killed my three grandsons,’ she said, ‘and I’m going to kill you now.’ And she put on a pair of boxing gloves, each one of them nine stone weight, and the nails in them fifteen inches long. Then they began to fight, and Shawneen was getting the worst of it. ‘Help, hound!’ he cried out then. ‘Squeeze, hair!’ called out the old woman, and the rib of hair that was around the hound’s neck squeezed him to death. ‘Help, horse!’ cried Shawneen. ‘Squeeze, hair!’ screeched out the hag, and the rib of hair that was about the horse’s neck began to tighten and to squeeze him to death. Then the old woman made an end of Shawneen, and threw him outside the door.

To go back now to Shamus. He was out in the garden one day, and he took a look at the well, and what did he see but that the water at the top was blood, and what was underneath was honey. So he went into the house again, and he said to his mother: ‘I will never eat a second meal at the same table, or sleep a second night in the same bed, till I know what is happening to Shawneen.’

So he took the other horse then and the hound, and he set off over hills where cock never crows and wind never blows, and the old boy himself never sounds his horn. And at last he came to the cooper’s house, and when he came in the cooper said: ‘You are welcome, and I can give you better treatment than I did the last time you came in to me;’ for he thought it was Shawneen was in it, they were so much like one another. ‘That is good,’ says Shamus to himself. ‘My brother has been in this place.’ And he gave the cooper the full of a basin of gold in the morning before he left the place.

Then he went on till he came to the King’s house, and when he was at the door the King’s daughter came running down the stairs. ‘Oh, you are welcome back to me!’ says she, for she thought it was Shawneen, her husband, was in it. And all the people said: ‘It is a wonder you to have gone hunting three days after your marriage, and to stop so long away.’

Well, the next morning the deer came, and bells ringing on her, under the windows, and called out: ‘The hunt is here; where are the huntsman and the hounds?’ Then Shamus got up and took his horse and his hound, and followed her over hills and hollows till they came to the wood, and there he saw nothing but the mud-wall cabin, and the old woman sitting by the fire, and she bade him stop the night there, and gave him two ribs of hair to tie up his horse and his hound. But Shamus was wittier than Shawneen, and before he went out he threw the ribs of hair into the fire secretly. When he came in the old woman said: ‘Your brother killed my three grandsons, and I killed him, and I’ll kill you along with him.’ And she put her gloves on, and they began the fight, and then Shamus called out: ‘Help, horse!’ ‘Squeeze, hair!’ called out the hag. ‘I can’t squeeze; I’m in the fire,’ says the hair. And the horse came in and gave her a blow of the hoof. ‘Help, hound!’ says Shamus then. ‘Squeeze, hair!’ says the hag. ‘I can’t; I’m in the fire,’ says the second hair. Then the hound put his teeth in her, and Shamus brought her down, and she cried for mercy. ‘Give me my life,’ says she, ‘and I’ll tell you where you’ll get your brother again, and his hound and his horse.’ ‘Where is that?’ says Shamus. ‘Do you see that rod over the fire?’ says she. ‘Let you take it down and go outside the door, where you will see three green stones, and strike them with the rod, for they are your brother and his horse and his hound, and they will come to life again.’ ‘I will do that, but I will make a green stone of yourself first,’ says Shamus; and he cut off her head with his sword. Then he went out and struck the stones, and sure enough there was Shawneen and his horse and hound, alive and well. And they began striking other stones that were there, and the rod rose the charm from them, and men came out that had been turned to stones, hundreds and thousands of them.

Then they went home, and Shawneen and his wife lived happy ever after, and they had children by the basketful, and threw them out by the shovelful. I was passing one time myself, and they called me in and gave me a cup of tea.