story
says that he got back his goat, his sheep and his bullock and made it an
excuse that he had seen three magpies on the road for not going to the
fair to buy a shawl for his wife Ann. The robbers were very frightened
when he told them about the threshers coming and they went away from
that part of the country.

As for Gilly, he thought he would go back to the Old Woman of Beare for
his name. He took the path by the edge of the lake. And as he journeyed
along with his holly-stick in his hand he heard the Swan of Endless
Tales chanting.

THE TOWN OF THE RED CASTLE

I

Flann was the name that the Old Woman of Beare gave to Gilly of the
Goatskin when he came back to tell her that the Swan of Endless Tales
had been hatched out of the Crystal Egg. He went from her house then and
came to where the King of Ireland's Son waited for him. The two comrades
went along a well-traveled road. As they went on they fell in with men
driving herds of ponies, men carrying packs on their backs, men with
tools for working gold and silver, bronze and iron. Every man whom they
asked said, "We are going to the Town of the Red Castle, and to the
great fair that will be held there." The King's Son and Flann thought
they should go to the Town of the Red Castle too, for where so many
people would be, there was a chance of hearing what went before and what
came after the Unique Tale. So they went on.

And when they had come to a well that was under a great rock those whom
they were with halted. They said it was the custom for the merchants
and sellers to wait there for a day and to go into the Town of the Red
Castle the day following. "On this day," they said, "the people of the
Town celebrate the Festival of Midsummer, and they do not like a great
company of people to go into their Town until the Festival is over."

The King of Ireland's Son and Flann went on, and they were let into the
town. The people had lighted great fires in their market-place and they
were driving their cattle through the fires: "If there be evil on you,
may it burn, may it burn," they were crying. They were afraid that
witches and enchanters might come into the town with the merchants and
the sellers, and that was the reason they did not permit a great company
to enter.

The fires in all their houses had been quenched that day, and they might
not be lighted except from the fires the cattle had gone through. The
fires were left blazing high and the Ki