w married, and everything went on well. But one day, and it
was the namesake of the day when his father had promised him to the
sea-maiden, they were sauntering by the side of the loch, and lo and
behold! she came and took him away to the loch without leave or asking.
The king's daughter was now mournful, tearful, blind-sorrowful for her
married man; she was always with her eye on the loch. An old soothsayer
met her, and she told how it had befallen her married mate. Then he
told her the thing to do to save her mate, and that she did.

She took her harp to the sea-shore, and sat and played; and the
sea-maiden came up to listen, for sea-maidens are fonder of music than
all other creatures. But when the wife saw the sea-maiden she stopped.
The sea-maiden said, "Play on!" but the princess said, "No, not till I
see my man again." So the sea-maiden put up his head out of the loch.
Then the princess played again, and stopped till the sea-maiden put him
up to the waist. Then the princess played and stopped again, and this
time the sea-maiden put him all out of the loch, and he called on the
falcon and became one and flew on shore. But the sea-maiden took the
princess, his wife.

Sorrowful was each one that was in the town on this night. Her man was
mournful, tearful, wandering down and up about the banks of the loch,
by day and night. The old soothsayer met him. The soothsayer told him
that there was no way of killing the sea-maiden but the one way, and
this is it--"In the island that is in the midst of the loch is the
white-footed hind of the slenderest legs and the swiftest step, and
though she be caught, there will spring a hoodie out of her, and though
the hoodie should be caught, there will spring a trout out of her, but
there is an egg in the mouth of the trout, and the soul of the
sea-maiden is in the egg, and if the egg breaks, she is dead."

Now, there was no way of getting to this island, for the sea-maiden
would sink each boat and raft that would go on the loch. He thought he
would try to leap the strait with the black horse, and even so he did.
The black horse leaped the strait. He saw the hind, and he let the
black dog after her, but when he was on one side of the island, the
hind would be on the other side. "Oh! would the black dog of the
carcass of flesh were here!" No sooner spoke he the word than the
grateful dog was at his side; and after the hind he went, and they were
not long in bringing her to earth. Bu