of the
bards; that I have won the prize in the race against the white steed of
the plains; it is for the princess to say if the robe which I give her
will fit in the hollow of her small white hand."

"Yes," said the king. "You are victor in the contests; let the princess
declare if you have fulfilled the last condition."

The princess took the robe from Fergus, closed her fingers over it, so
that no vestige of it was seen.

"Yes, O king!" said she, "he has fulfilled the last condition; but
before ever he had fulfilled a single one of them, my heart went out to
the comely champion of the Feni. I was willing then, I am ready now, to
become the bride of the huntsman's son."

THE FAIRY TREE OF DOOROS[10]

Once upon a time the fairies of the west, going home from a
hurling-match with the fairies of the lakes, rested in Dooros Wood for
three days and three nights. They spent the days feasting and the nights
dancing in the light of the moon, and they danced so hard that they wore
the shoes off their feet, and for a whole week after the leprechauns,
the fairies' shoemakers, were working night and day making new ones, and
the rip, rap, tap, tap of their little hammers were heard in all the
hedgerows.

The food on which the fairies feasted was little red berries, which were
so like those that grow on the rowan tree that if you only looked at
them you might mistake one for the other; but the fairy berries grow
only in fairyland, and are sweeter than any fruit that grows here in
this world, and if an old man, bent and gray, ate one of them, he became
young and active and strong again; and if an old woman, withered and
wrinkled, ate one of them, she became young and bright and fair; and if
a little maiden who was not handsome ate of them, she became lovelier
than the flower of beauty.

The fairies guarded the berries as carefully as a miser guards his gold,
and whenever they were about to leave fairyland they had to promise in
the presence of the king and queen that they would not give a single
berry to mortal man, nor allow one to fall upon the earth; for if a
single berry fell upon the earth a slender tree of many branches,
bearing clusters of berries, would at once spring up, and mortal men
might eat of them.

But it chanced that this time they were in Dooros Wood they kept up the
feasting and dancing so long, and were so full of joy because of their
victory over the lake fairies, that one little, weeny fairy, n