and he gathered sticks and ferns, and put them all
around, and began to set fire to them.

'Then the fairy king came and asked what was he doing. "I am burning you
out of the place," he said, "till you give back speech to my wife." So
the king agreed to that, and they made friends again; and the young man
went home, and found his wife speaking. And she wrote a letter then to
her father and mother, the King and Queen of Spain; and they were very
glad to hear that she was well, and they sent her money and clothes of
all sorts.

'Then the fairy king came and asked the young man to go with him to
Germany to help him to bring back a wife for himself from the king's
court there. So he agreed to go; and before he went, the wife said:
"When you come back, you will bring a title for yourself and put an O to
your name. And it is what you must do," she said, "when you are near the
land, cut off your hand, and throw it on the shore, and bring it back to
me after."

'So they went to Germany, and brought away a wife for the fairy king.
And when they were coming home and were near the strand, the young man
cut off his hand, and threw it on the land.

'And his wife put the hand on to him again after; and he was O'Connor
from that time, that was the first of all; and the fairy king put an O
to his name, and he was O'Neill, that was second.

'But now at this time, there isn't a Tom, Dick, or John, but puts an O
before his name.'

* * * * *

An old one-eyed man gave me a new version of Deirdre's story. He said:
'The King of Ulster and his men were out hunting one time; and they met
with the fairy king, Mannanan of the Hill. They sat down with him; and
himself and the King of Ulster began to play cards together, and
whichever of them won could put some command upon the other. It was
Mannanan won; and what he put on the King of Ulster was to follow after
him to whatever place he would go.

'With that he changed into the shape of a hare, and away with him, and
the hounds after him, and the king and his men after them again; but
they lost sight of him. But the hounds followed on till they came to a
hill, and an old stump of a tree on top of it; and they began scratching
at the stump where it was rotten. And when there was a hole scratched in
it, the king looked down; and he saw steps; and he and his men went down
the steps; and they passed through gardens and beside a pond with
flowers about it; and t