t he no sooner caught her than a
hoodie sprang out of her. "Would that the falcon grey, of sharpest eye
and swiftest wing, were here!" No sooner said he this than the falcon
was after the hoodie, and she was not long putting her to earth; and as
the hoodie fell on the bank of the loch, out of her jumps the trout.
"Oh! that thou wert by me now, oh otter!" No sooner said than the otter
was at his side, and out on the loch she leaped, and brings the trout
from the midst of the loch; but no sooner was the otter on shore with
the trout than the egg came from his mouth. He sprang and he put his
foot on it. 'Twas then the sea-maiden appeared, and she said, "Break
not the egg, and you shall get all you ask." "Deliver to me my wife!"
In the wink of an eye she was by his side. When he got hold of her hand
in both his hands, he let his foot down on the egg, and the sea-maiden
died.

A LEGEND OF KNOCKMANY

What Irish man, woman, or child has not heard of our renowned Hibernian
Hercules, the great and glorious Fin M'Coul? Not one, from Cape Clear
to the Giant's Causeway, nor from that back again to Cape Clear. And,
by-the-way, speaking of the Giant's Causeway brings me at once to the
beginning of my story. Well, it so happened that Fin and his men were
all working at the Causeway, in order to make a bridge across to
Scotland; when Fin, who was very fond of his wife Oonagh, took it into
his head that he would go home and see how the poor woman got on in his
absence. So, accordingly, he pulled up a fir-tree, and, after lopping
off the roots and branches, made a walking-stick of it, and set out on
his way to Oonagh.

Oonagh, or rather Fin, lived at this time on the very tip-top of
Knockmany Hill, which faces a cousin of its own called Cullamore, that
rises up, half-hill, half-mountain, on the opposite side.

There was at that time another giant, named Cucullin--some say he was
Irish, and some say he was Scotch--but whether Scotch or Irish, sorrow
doubt of it but he was a targer. No other giant of the day could stand
before him; and such was his strength, that, when well vexed, he could
give a stamp that shook the country about him. The fame and name of him
went far and near; and nothing in the shape of a man, it was said, had
any chance with him in a fight. By one blow of his fists he flattened a
thunderbolt and kept it in his pocket, in the shape of a pancake, to
show to all his enemies, when they were about to fight him. Un