down with Billy sticking between his horns. Hundreds
were looking on dazed at the sight, and through them the bull rushed,
and over the top of the Queen, killing her dead, and away he galloped
where you wouldn't know day by night, or night by day, over high
hills, low hills, sheep-walks, and bullock-traces, the Cove of Cork,
and old Tom Fox with his bugle horn. When at last they stopped, "Now
then," says the bull to Billy, "you and I must undergo great scenery,
Billy. Put your hand," says the bull, "in my left ear, and you'll get
a napkin, that, when you spread it out, will be covered with eating
and drinking of all sorts, fit for the King himself." Billy did this,
and then he spread out the napkin, and ate and drank to his heart's
content, and he rolled up the napkin and put it back in the bull's ear
again. "Then," says the bull, "now put your hand into my right ear and
you'll find a bit of a stick; if you wind it over your head three
times, it will be turned into a sword and give you the strength of a
thousand men besides your own, and when you have no more need of it as
a sword, it will change back into a stick again." Billy did all this.
Then says the bull, "At twelve o'clock the morrow I'll have to meet
and fight a great bull." Billy then got up again on the bull's back,
and the bull started off and away where you wouldn't know day by
night, or night by day, over low hills, high hills, sheep-walks, and
bullock-traces, the Cove of Cork, and old Tom Fox with his bugle horn.
There he met the other bull, and both of them fought, and the like of
their fight was never seen before or since. They knocked the soft
ground into hard, and the hard into soft; the soft into spring wells,
the spring wells into rocks, and the rocks into high hills. They
fought long, and Billy Beg's bull killed the other, and drank his
blood. Then Billy took the napkin out of his ear again and spread it
out and ate a hearty good dinner. Then says the bull to Billy, says
he, "At twelve o'clock to-morrow, I'm to meet the bull's brother that
I killed the day, and we'll have a hard fight." Billy got on the
bull's back again, and the bull started off and away where you
wouldn't know day by night, or night by day, over high hills, low
hills, sheep-walks and bulloch-traces, the Cove of Cork, and old Tom
Fox with his bugle horn. There he met the bull's brother that he
killed the day before, and they set to, and they fought, and the like
of the fight was ne