The King's Threshold; and On Baile's Strand Part 7

_Barach._ That was before you went on s.h.i.+pboard and were blinded for putting a curse on the wind?

_Fintain._ Queen Aoife had a son that was red haired and pale faced like herself, and everyone said that he would kill Cuchullain some day, but I would not have that spoken of.

_Barach._ n.o.body could do that. Who was his father?

_Fintain._ n.o.body but Aoife knew that, not even he himself.

_Barach._ Not even he himself! Was Aoife a G.o.ddess and lecherous?

_Fintain._ I overheard her telling that she never had but one lover, and that he was the only man who overcame her in battle. There were some who thought him one of the Riders of the Sidhe, because the child was great of limb and strong beyond others. The child was begotten over the mountains; but come nearer and I will tell you something.

_Barach._ You have thought something?

_Fintain._ When I hear the young girls talking about the colour of Cuchullain's eyes, and how they have seven colours, I have thought about it. That young man has Aoife's face and hair, but he has Cuchullain's eyes.

_Barach._ How can he have Cuchullain's eyes?

_Fintain._ He is Cuchullain's son.

_Barach._ And his mother has sent him hither to fight his father.

_Fintain._ It is all quite plain. Cuchullain went into Aoife's country when he was a young man that he might learn skill in arms, and there he became Aoife's lover.

_Barach._ And now she hates him because he went away, and has sent the son to kill the father. I knew she was a G.o.ddess.

_Fintain._ And she never told him who his father was, that he might do it. I have thought it all out, fool. I know a great many things because I listen when n.o.body is noticing and I keep my wits awake. What ails you now?

_Barach._ I have remembered that I am hungry.

_Fintain._ Well, forget it again, and I will tell you about Aoife's country. It is full of wonders. There are a great many Queens there who can change themselves into wolves and into swine and into white hares, and when they are in their own shapes they are stronger than almost any man; and there are young men there who have cat's eyes and if a bird chirrup or a mouse squeak they cannot keep them shut, even though it is bedtime and they sleepy; and listen, for this is a great wonder, a very great wonder: there is a long narrow bridge, and when anybody goes to cross it, that the Queens do not like, it flies up as this bench would if you were to sit on the end of it. Everybody who goes there to learn skill in arms has to cross it. It was in that country too that Cuchullain got his spear made out of dragon bones. There were two dragons fighting in the foam of the sea, and their grandam was the moon, and nine Queens came along the sh.o.r.e.

_Barach._ I won't listen to your story.

_Fintain._ It is a very wonderful story. Wait till you hear what the nine Queens did. Their right hands were all made of silver.

_Barach._ No, I will have my dinner first. You have eaten the fowl I left in front of the fire. The last time you sent me to steal something you made me forget all about it till you had eaten it up.

_Fintain._ No, there is plenty for us both.

_Barach._ Come with me where it is.

_Fintain._ [_Who is being led towards the door at the back by BARACH._]

O, it is all right, it is in a safe place.

_Barach._ It is a fine fowl. It was the biggest in the yard.

_Fintain._ It had a good smell, but I hope that the wild dogs have not smelt it. [_Voices are heard outside the door at the side._] Here is our master. Let us stay and talk with him. Perhaps Cuchullain will give you a new cap with a feather. He told me that he would give you a new cap with a feather, a feather with an eye that looks at you, a peac.o.c.k's feather.

_Barach._ No, no.

[_He begins pulling FINTAIN towards the door._

_Fintain._ If you do not get it now, you may never get it, for the young man may kill him.

_Barach._ No, no, I am hungry. What a head you have, blind man! Who but you would have remembered that the hen-wife slept for a little at noon every day!

_Fintain._ [_Who is being led along very slowly and unwillingly._] Yes, I have a good head. The fowl should be done just right, but one never knows when a wild dog may come out of the woods.

[_They go out through the big door at the back. As they go out CUCHULLAIN and certain YOUNG KINGS come in at the side door.

CUCHULLAIN, though still young, is a good deal older than the others. They are all very gaily dressed, and have their hair fastened with b.a.l.l.s of gold. The young men crowd about CUCHULLAIN with wondering attention._

_First Young King._ You have hurled that stone beyond our utmost mark Time after time, but yet you are not weary.

_Second Young King._ He has slept on the bare ground of Fuad's Hill This week past, waiting for the bulls and the deer.

_Cuchullain._ Well, why should I be weary?

_First Young King._ It is certain His father was the G.o.d who wheels the sun, And not King Sualtam.

_Third Young King._ [_To a YOUNG KING who is beside him._]

He came in the dawn, And folded Dectara in a sudden fire.

_Fourth Young King._ And yet the mother's half might well grow weary, And it new come from labours over sea.

_Third Young King._ He has been on islands walled about with silver, And fought with giants.

[_They gather about the ale vat and begin to drink._

_Cuchullain._ Who was it that went out?

_Third Young King._ As we came in?

_Cuchullain._ Yes.

_Third Young King._ Barach and blind Fintain.

_Cuchullain._ They always flock together; the blind man Has need of the fool's eyesight and strong body, While the poor fool has need of the other's wit, And night and day is up to his ears in mischief That the blind man imagines. There's no hen-yard But clucks and cackles when he pa.s.ses by As if he'd been a fox. If I'd that ball That's in your hair and the big stone again, I'd keep them tossing, though the one is heavy And the other light in the hand. A trick I learnt When I was learning arms in Aoife's country.

_First Young King._ What kind of woman was that Aoife?

_Cuchullain._ Comely.

_First Young King._ But I have heard that she was never married, And yet that's natural, for I have never known A fighting woman, but made her favours cheap, Or mocked at love till she grew sandy dry.

_Cuchullain._ What manner of woman do you like the best?

A gentle or a fierce?

_First Young King._ A gentle, surely.