this brown cap, which
while you wear it will render you invisible to the fairies, while they are
all visible to you; this box of salve, by rubbing some of which to your
lips, you will have the power of commanding every fairy and spirit in the
world to obey your will; and, lastly, this little _kippeen_[1], which at
your word may be transformed into any mode of conveyance you wish. Besides
all this, you shall come with me to my palace, where all the treasures of
the earth shall be at your disposal. But mind, I give you this caution,
that if you ever permit the brown cap or the _kippeen_ to be out of your
possession for an instant, you'll lose them for ever; and if you suffer
any person to touch your lips while you remain in the underground kingdom,
you will instantly become visible, and your power over the fairies will be
at an end.'

[1] A little stick.

"'Well,' thinks I, 'there's nothing so very difficult in _that_.' So
having got the cap, the _kippeen_, and the box of salve, into my
possession, I opened the box, and out jumped the little fellow.

"'Now, Felix,' says he, 'touch your lips with the salve, for we are just
at the entrance of my dominions.'

"I did as he desired me, and, _Dharra Dhie!_ if the little chap wasn't
changed into a big black-looking giant, sitting afore my eyes on a great
rock.

"'Lord save us!' says I to myself, 'it's a marcy and a wondher how he ever
squeezed himself into that weeshy box.' 'Why thin, Sir,' says I to him,
'maybe your honour would have the civilitude to tell me your name.'

"'With the greatest of pleasure, Felix,' says he smiling; 'I'm called
Mahoon, the Giant.'

"'Tare an' agers! are you though? Well, if I thought'--but he gave me no
time to think; for calling on me to follow him, he began climbing up the
_Giant's Stairs_ as asy as I'd walk up a ladder to the hay-loft. Well, he
was at the top afore you could cry 'trapstick,' and it wasn't long till I
was at the top too, and there we found a gate opening into the hill, and a
power of lords and ladies waiting to resave Mahoon, who I larned was their
king, and who had been away from his kingdom for twenty years, by rason of
his being shut up in the box by some great fairy-man.

"Well, when we got inside the gates, I found myself in a most beautiful
city, where nobody seemed to mind anything but diversion. The music was
the most illigant thing you ever hard in your born days, and there wasn't
one less than forty Munster