he first with
one horn, the last with twelve horns.

And they carded the thread, and turned their spinning wheels, and wound
and wove.

All were singing together an ancient rhyme, but no word did they speak
to the mistress of the house. Strange to hear and frightful to look upon
were these twelve women, with their horns and their wheels; and the
mistress felt near to death, and she tried to rise that she might call
for help, but she could not move, nor could she utter a word or a cry,
for the spell of the witches was upon her.

Then one of them called to her in Irish, and said, "Rise, woman, and
make us a cake." Then the mistress searched for a vessel to bring water
from the well that she might mix the meal and make the cake, but she
could find none.

And they said to her, "Take a sieve, and bring water in it." And she
took the sieve and went to the well; but the water poured from it, and
she could fetch none for the cake, and she sat down by the well and
wept.

Then came a voice by her, and said, "Take yellow clay and moss and bind
them together, and plaster the sieve so that it will hold."

This she did, and the sieve held the water for the cake; and the voice
said again: "Return, and when thou comest to the north angle of the
house cry aloud three times, and say, 'The mountain of the Fenian women
and the sky over it is all on fire.'"

And she did so.

When the witches inside heard the call, a great and terrible cry broke
from their lips, and they rushed forth with wild lamentations and
shrieks, and fled away to Slievenamon, where was their chief abode. But
the Spirit of the Well bade the mistress of the house to enter and
prepare her home against the enchantments of the witches, if they
returned again.

And first, to break their spells, she sprinkled the water in which she
had washed her child's feet (the feet-water) outside the door on the
threshold; secondly, she took the cake which the witches had made in her
absence, of meal mixed with the blood drawn from the sleeping family,
and she broke the cake in bits, and placed a bit in the mouth of each
sleeper, and they were restored; and she took the cloth they had woven,
and placed it half in and half out of the chest with the padlock; and,
lastly, she secured the door with a great crossbeam fastened in the
jambs, so that they could not enter, and having done these things she
waited.

Not long were the witches in coming, and they raged and called for
ve