see," he said, "how I was tricked by a fool of
a mortal? Oh, she was the beauty of the world, and he took her from me
with a word, as easily as you'ld steal the butter out of a churn. And
that was not all.

"I said to myself that I was not done with my revenge on them yet. She
could not speak and it was a sore punishment on the both of them. Yet
she stayed on at the priest's house. The priest wrote letters to her
father, as I heard, and gave them to merchants who were travelling,
but none of them ever reached him. And Guleesh got mighty serious
about his soul all at once, so that he had to be at the priest's house
every day, and every day he saw the Princess. She could never talk to
him, but she learned to make signs that he could understand. And so it
went on for a year.

"And then, when it was November Eve again, and we had been out of
the rath and were all coming into it again in a great crowd, there sat
Guleesh, the same as before. He couldn't see us, but he must have
heard us, for you could see that he was listening with all his ears.
And I thought now was the fine time to be having the laugh on him. By
that time everybody was shouting: 'My horse and bridle and saddle! My
horse and bridle and saddle!' and Guleesh shouted as before: 'My horse
and bridle and saddle! My horse and bridle and saddle!'

"'Now is my chance to be even with him,' thought I, and I said: 'Ah,
Guleesh, my boy, is that yourself that's to the fore again? You'll get
no horse to-night and you'll play no more tricks on us. How are you
getting on with your Princess? Does she talk to you much? Or do you
just like to sit and look at her?'

"And when I said that, he looked so pale and so sad that I almost
screamed with joy, and I couldn't keep myself from whispering to the
man that was next to me: 'And isn't he the stupid omadhaun, not to
know that there's an herb growing close to his own door that would
give her back her speech if he'd only boil it and give it to her?'

"'It's the stupid omadhaun he is,' said the other man.

"Oh, and it was me that was the omadhaun, to be saying it at all. Oh,
why couldn't I hold my jaw? But it was like some spell was on me, and
I had to say it. I had to say it! I couldn't have kept it back if I'd
tried. And he heard every word!

"It's little more there is to tell. The next morning, as soon as there
was light, there was Guleesh searching for any herb that was strange
to him around the door. And it was not lon