Folk Tales of Breffny

build a house would stand to the end of time, a stronghold past the art of man to overthrow or the fury of the wind to batter down. He gave out that all the bullocks in his dominions were to be slau

Ireland a skeleton and a warning to the eyes of man. But the aged and wise have understanding to know of the tribulation laid out for the good and the just, they putting their sorrows over them in this world where the evil have prosperit

one cow only was her riches on the earth. (And surely them that had heart to molest her like would be robbing the dead of the raiment is with them in th

with a sorrowful countenance on him, and the garments did cover him were rags. She invited him wit

the mountainy ways since the screech of dawn. The sun was splitting the bushes at the noon o

the last drop was in the countryside. He drank it down, m

ritory of Ireland, since the rising sun brought light on his path. There is a king in these parts, stranger,

st [26]mug of sweet milk?" says he, like on

hed you. I had but the one cow only, the grandest milker in the land, and she was drive

for that chieftain's soul. Maybe it's red hot they'll be, and he impr

ond. For the cow and the milk and the butter are the gold of the dwellers on the land," says the widow. "But l

way they flew round him in the darkening night. "May the blessing of the King of Heaven be [27]upon you. May He send yo

esence. He was gone the like of a spir

and from it came a cow, white as the driven snow, she travelling faster nor the wind. The widow seen all as clear as we do be regarding the rising of the sun in the Eastern sky. Whatever power was laid on her e

y art and part to be looking on her. The milk she gave was richer nor

nd no man beheld her more, nor evenly heard tell of the like. But the Gap of Glan confronts