ing match going
on; and one side had a young man at the head of it, and it was beating
the other. So the next day he went to the wood, and he cut a hurl; and
he was all that day and the next shaping it; and his mother asked was
he going to a match, and he said he was only amusing himself with it.

'The next night he went up to the field to give a hand; and the king of
the fairies came up to him, and asked would he join his side that was
the weakest, and he said he would. And he drove the ball to the goal
every time, and they gave the other side a great beating. And the king
of the fairies thanked him, and said they had been able to do nothing
till they had a living person along with them.

'Then the king asked would he come along with him to bring away the King
of Spain's daughter that he wanted for a wife. And the young man agreed
to that. And the king raised them both into the air as if they were a
wisp of straw; and they flew away on the air like two feathers.

'When they came to the court of the King of Spain, there was a great
ball going on; and they went in, but no one could see them. And the
fairy king said to the young man that he would know which was the
princess by hearing her sneeze. And presently the most beautiful young
lady that was there gave a sneeze; and the young man said, "God bless
her." "Don't say that again," said the fairy king, "or she'll be lost to
us." So she sneezed twice after that, and he said nothing. And then the
fairy king said: "Let you take hold of her now and bring her out, and I
will make something in her own shape to put in her place, the way they
won't miss her." So the young man took a hold of her and brought her
outside; and then the fairy king came out, and they went away like
feathers in the air.

'And when they came to Irish land, the fairy king said: "Now you may
give her to me." "Indeed I will not," said the young man, "after all the
trouble I went through; but I will keep her for myself to be my own
wife." "If you do," said the fairy king "you will have nothing better
than a stone, for she will have no speech."

'But the young man brought her to his own house; and his mother seeing
her in her ball dress, thought it was one of the ladies from Castle
Hacket come for a visit, and she was astonished when the son said she
was to be his wife. But all the time she could not speak; and at last
the young man went up to the field on the hill, and he brought a
tar-barrel with him,