Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland. Jeremiah Curtin
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sister had her husband as a man in the daytime; but at night he was a seal.
The second man put the same question to the middle sister, and got the same answer; so the second sister had her husband in the same form as the first.
When the third sister came to where the white dog lived, he asked her: "How will you have me to be in the daytime—as I am now in the day, or as I am now at night?"
"As you are now in the day."
So the white dog was a dog in the daytime, but the most beautiful of men at night.
After a time the third sister had a son; and one day, when her husband was going out to hunt, he warned her that if anything should happen the child, not to shed a tear on that account.
While he was gone, a great gray crow that used to haunt the place came and carried the child away when it was a week old.
Remembering the warning, she shed not a tear for the loss.
All went on as before till another son was born. The husband used to go hunting every day, and again he said she must not shed a tear if anything happened.
When the child was a week old a great gray crow came and bore him away; but the mother did not cry or drop a tear.
All went well till a daughter was born. When she was a week old a great gray crow came and swept her away. This time the mother dropped one tear on a handkerchief, which she took out of her pocket, and then put back again.
When the husband came home from hunting and heard what the crow had done, he asked the wife, "Have you shed tears this time?"
"I have dropped one tear," said she.
Then he was very angry; for he knew what harm she had done by dropping that one tear.
Soon after their father invited the three sisters to visit him and be present at a great feast in their honor. They sent messages, each from her own place, that they would come.
The king was very glad at the prospect of seeing his children; but the queen was grieved, and thought it a great disgrace that her youngest daughter had no one to come home with her but a white dog.
The white dog was in dread that the king would n't leave him inside with the company, but would drive him from the castle to the yard, and that the dogs outside would n't leave a patch of skin on his back, but would tear the life out of him.
The youngest daughter comforted him. "There is no danger to you," said she, "for wherever I am, you 'll be, and wherever you go, I 'll follow and take care of you."
When all was ready for the feast at the castle, and the company were assembled, the king was for banishing the white dog; but the youngest daughter would not listen to her father—would not let the white dog out of her sight, but kept him near her at the feast, and divided with him the food that came to herself.
When the feast was over, and all the guests had gone, the three sisters went to their own rooms in the castle.
Late in the evening the queen took the cook with her, and stole in to see what was in her daughters' rooms. They were all asleep at the time. What should she see by the side of her youngest daughter but the most beautiful man she had ever laid eyes on.
Then she went to where the other two daughters were sleeping; and there, instead of the two men who brought them to the feast, were two seals, fast asleep.
The queen was greatly troubled at the sight of the seals. When she and the cook were returning, they came upon the skin of the white dog. She caught it up as she went, and threw it into the kitchen fire.
The skin was not five minutes in the fire when it gave a crack that woke not only all in the castle, but all in the country for miles around.
The husband of the youngest daughter sprang up. He was very angry and very sorry, and said: "If I had been able to spend three nights with you under your father's roof, I should have got back my own form again for good, and could have been a man both in the day and the night; but now I must go."
He rose from the bed, ran out of the castle, and away he went as fast as ever his two legs could carry him, overtaking the one before him, and leaving the one behind. He was this way all that night and the next day; but he could n't leave the wife, for she followed from the castle, was after him in the night and the day too, and never lost sight of him.
In the afternoon he turned, and told her to go back to her father; but she would not listen to him. At nightfall they came to the first house they had seen since leaving the castle. He turned and said: "Do you go inside and stay in this house till morning; I 'll pass the night outside where I am."
The wife went in. The woman of the house rose up, gave her a pleasant welcome, and put a good supper before her. She was not long in the house when a little boy came to her knee and called her "mother."
The woman of the house told the child to go back to his place, and not to come out again.
"Here are a pair of scissors," said the woman of the house to the king's daughter, "and they will serve you well. Whatever ragged people you see, if you cut a piece off their rags, that moment they will have new clothes of cloth of gold."
She stayed that night, for she had good welcome. Next morning when she went out, her husband said: "You 'd better go home now to your father."
"I 'll not go to my father if I have to leave you," said she.
So he went on, and she followed. It was that way all the day till night came; and at nightfall they saw another house at the foot of a hill, and again the husband stopped and said: "You go in; I 'll stop outside till morning."
The woman of the house gave her a good welcome. After she had eaten and drunk, a little boy came out of another room, ran to her knee, and said, "Mother." The woman of the house sent the boy back to where he had come from, and told him to stay there.
Next morning, when the princess was going out to her husband, the woman of the house gave her a comb, and said: "If you meet any person with a diseased and a sore head, and draw this comb over it three times, the head will be well, and covered with the most beautiful golden hair ever seen."
She took the comb, and went out to her husband. "Leave me now," said he, "and go back to your own father."
"I will not," said she, "but I will follow you while I have the power." So they went forward that day, as on the other two.
At nightfall they came to a third house, at the foot of a hill, where the princess received a good welcome. After she had eaten supper, a little girl with only one eye came to her knee and said, "Mother."
The princess began to cry at sight of the child, thinking that she herself was the cause that it had but one eye. Then she put her hand into her pocket where she kept the handkerchief on which she had dropped the tear when the gray crow carried her infant away. She had never used the handkerchief since that day, for there was an eye on it.
She opened the handkerchief, and put the eye in the girl's head. It grew into the socket that minute, and the child saw out of it as well as out of the other eye; and then the woman of the house sent the little one to bed.
Next morning, as the king's daughter was going out, the woman of the house gave her a whistle, and said: "Whenever you put this whistle to your mouth and blow on it, all the birds of the air will come to you from every quarter under the sun. Be careful of the whistle, as it may serve you greatly."
"Go back to your father's castle," said the husband when she came to him, "for I must leave you to-day."
They went on together a few hundred yards, and then sat on a green hillock, and he told the wife: "Your mother has come between us; but for her we might have lived together all our days. If I had been allowed to pass three nights with you in your father's house, I should have got back my form of a man both in the daytime and the night. The Queen of Tir na n-Og [the land of youth] enchanted and put