Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/209

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THE COURT OF CRINNAWN.
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day went by without any account from the young men. People said that it was Crinnawn that killed them, for some saw them going to the court. The fathers and mothers of the young men went to the friars, and prayed them to go to Crinnawn and to find out from him where the young men were, dead or alive.

They went to Crinnawn, and Crinnawn told them the trick the young men thought to do on him, and the thing he did with them. "If it be your will, bestow forgiveness on them this time," said the friars; "they were mad with whiskey, and they won't be guilty again." "On account of ye to ask it of me, I will loose them this time; but if they come again, I will put a sleep of seven years on them. Come with me now till you see them."

"It's bad walkers, we are," said the friars, "we would be a long time going to the place where they are."

"Ye won't be two minutes going to it," said Crinnawn, "and ye will be back at home in the same time."

Then he brought them out, and put a blast of wind out of his mouth, and swept them to Lisdrumneal, and he himself was there as soon as they.

They saw the twelve young men asleep under a cloud in the lis, and there was great wonder on them. "Now," said Crinnawn, "I will send them home." He blew upon them, and they rose up like birds in the air, and it was not long until each one of them was at home, and the friars as well, and you may be certain that they did not go to the Court of Crinnawn any more.

Crinnawn was living in the court years after that. One day the friars went on a visit to him, but he was not to be found. People say that the friars got great riches after Crinnawn. At the end of a period of time the roof fell off the court, as everyone was afraid