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The Spae-Woman
I
There are many things to tell you still, my kind foster-child, but little time have I to tell you them, for the barnacle-geese are flying over the house, and when they have all flown by I shall have no more to say. And I have to tell you yet how the King of Ireland's Son won home with Fedelma, the Enchanter's daughter, and how it came to pass that the Seven Wild Geese that were Caintigern's brothers were disenchanted and became men again. But above all I have to tell you the end of that story that was begun in the house of the Giant Crom Duv--the story of Flann and Morag.
The barnacle-geese are flying over the house as I said. And so they were crossing and flying on the night the King of Ireland's Son and Fedelma whom he had brought from the Land of Mist stayed in the house of the Little Sage of the Mountain. On that night the Little Sage told them from what bird had come the wing that thatched his house. That was a wonderful story. And he told them too about the next place they should go to--the Spae-woman's house. There, he said he would find people that they knew--Flann, the King's Son's comrade, and Caintigern, the wife of the King of Ireland, and Fedelma's sister, Gilveen.
In the morning the Little Sage of the Mountain took them down the hillside to the place where Fedelma and the King's Son would get a horse to ride to the Spae-Woman's house. The Little Sage told them from what people the Spae-Woman came and why she lived amongst the poor and foolish without name or splendor or riches. And that, too, was a wonderful story.
Now as the three went along the river-side they saw a girl on the other side of the river and she was walking from the place towards which they were going. The girl sang to herself as she went along, and the King's Son and Fedelma and the Little Sage of the Mountain heard what she sang,--
A berry, a berry, a red rowan berry,
A red rowan berry brought mc beauty and love.
But drops of my heart's blood, drops of my heart's blood,
Seven drops of my heart's blood I have given away.
Seven wild geese were men, seven wild geese were men,
Seven drops of my heart's blood are there for your spell.
A kiss for my love, a kiss for my love,
May his kiss go to none till he meet me again.
If to one go his kiss, if to one go his kiss,
He may meet, he may meet, and not know me again.
The girl on the other bank of the river passed on, and the King's Son and Fedelma with the Little Sage of the Mountain came to the meadow where the horse was. A heavy, slow-moving horse he seemed. But when they mounted him they found he had the three qualities of Finn's steeds--a quick rush against a hill, the gait of a fox, easy and proud, on the level ground, and the jump of a deer over harriers. They left health and good luck with the Little Sage of the Mountain, and on the horse he gave them they rode on to the Spae-Woman's house.
