f will go and give you instructions
what way to use the kitchen.

_Manus_: Not at all! What I do I'd as lief do
in your own royal parlour! _(Blows whistle; two dark-skinned
men come in with vessels.)_ Give me here
those pots and pans!

_Queen_: What now is about to take place?

_Dall Glic_: I not to be blind, I would say those
to be very foreign-looking men.

_King_: It would seem as if the world was grown
to be very queer.

_Queen_: So it is, and the mastery being given
to a cook.

_Manus_: So it should be too! It is the King
of Shades and Shadows would have rule over the
world if it wasn't for the cooks!

_King_: There's some sense in that now.

_(Strange men are moving and arranging baskets
and vessels.)_

_Manus_: There was respect for cooks in the
early days of the world. What way did the Sons
of Tuireann get their death but going questing
after a cooking spit at the bidding of Lugh of the
Long Hand! And if a spit was worthy of the death
of heroes, what should the man be worth that is
skilled in turning it? What is the difference
between man and beast? Beast and bird devour
what they find and have no power to change it.
But we are Druids of those mysteries, having
magic and virtue to turn hard grain to tender cakes,
and the very skin of a grunting pig to crackling
causing quarrels among champions, and it singing
upon the coals. A cook! If I am I am not without
good generations before me! Who was the first
old father of us, roasting and reddening the fruits
of the earth from hard to soft, from bitter to kind,
till they are fit for a lady's platter? What is it
leaves us in the hard cold of Christmas but the
robbery from earth of warmth for the kitchen
fire of _(takes off cap)_ the first and foremost of all
master cooks--the Sun!

_Princess_: You are surely not ashamed of your
trade!

_Manus_: To work now, to work. I'll engage to
turn out a dinner fit for Pharaoh of Egypt or
Pharamond King of the Franks! Here, Queen, is
a silver-breast phoenix--draw out the feathers--they
are pure silver--fair and clean. _(Queen plucks
eagerly.)_ King, take your golden sceptre and stir
this pot.

_(Gives him one.)_

_King: (Interested.)_ What now is in it?

_Manus_: A broth that will rise over the side
and be consumed and split if you stop stirring
it for one minute only! _(King stirs furiously.)_
Princess _(She is looking on and he goes over to her)_,
there are honey cakes to roll out, but I will not