Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/208

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
146
THE COURT OF CRINNAWN.

asked them what they were seeking. "We come from the priests to proclaim a peace on you, they will trouble you no more." "That is well for them," said Crinnawn, "come with me now until ye see me putting back the roofs of the houses." They went with him as far as the river, and then he blew a blast out of each nostril. The roofs of the houses rose up as well as they were when they were first put on. There was wonder on the priests, and they said: "The power of enchantment is not yet dead, nor banished out of the country yet." From that day out neither priest nor anyone else would go near the Court of Crinnawn.

A year after the death of Mary Kerrigan, there was a pattern in Cultya Bronks. There were plenty of young men gathered in it, and amongst them was Paudyeen, the son of Mary Kerrigan. They drank whiskey till they were in madness. When they were going home, Paudyeen O'Kerrigan said: "There is money in plenty in the court up there, and if ye have courage we can get it." As the drink was in them, twelve of them said: "We have courage, and we will go to the court." When they came to the door, Paudyeen O'Kerrigan said: "Open the door, or we will break it." Crinnawn came out and said: "Unless ye go home I will put a month's sleep on ye." They thought to get a hold of Crinnawn, but he put a blast of wind out of his two nostrils that swept the young men to a lis (old circular rath) called Lisdrumneal, and put a heavy sleep on them, and a big cloud over them, and there is no name on the place from that out, but Lis-trum-nail (the fort of the heavy cloud).

On the morning, the day on the morrow, the young men were not to be found either backwards or forwards, and there was great grief amongst the people. That