e with
the flow of the river then he thought he would go against the flow of
the river now, and so he might come back to the glens and ridges and
deep boggy places he had traveled from.

He met a Fisherman who was drying his nets and he asked him what name
the river had. The Fisherman said it had two names. The people on the
right bank called it the Day-break River and the people on the left bank
called it the River of the Morning Star. And the Fisherman told him he
was to be careful not to call it the River of the Morning Star when he
was on the right bank nor the Daybreak River when he was on the left, as
the people on either side wanted to keep to the name their fathers had
for it and were ill-mannered to the stranger who gave it a different
name. The Fisherman told Flann he was sorry he had told him the two
names for the River and that the best thing he could do was to forget
one of the names and call it just the River of the Morning Star as he
was on the left bank.

Flann went on with the day widening before him and when the height of
the noon was past he came to the glens and ridges and deep boggy places
he had traveled from. He went on with the bright day going before him
and the brown night coming behind him, and at dusk he came to the black
and burnt place where the Hags of the Long Teeth had their house of
stone.

He saw the house with a puff of smoke coming through every crevice
in the stones. He went to the shut door and knocked on it with the
knocking-stone.

"Who's without?" said one of the Hags.

"Who's within?" said Flann.

"The Three Hags of the Long Teeth," said one of the Hags, "and if you
want to know it," said she, "they are the runners and summoners, the
brewers and candle-makers for Crom Duv, the Giant."

Flann struck a heavier blow with the knocking-stone and the door broke
in. He stepped into the smoke-filled house.

"No welcome to you, whoever you are," said one of the three Hags who
were seated around the fire.

"I am the lad who was called Gilly of the Goatskin, and whom you reared
up here," said he, "and I have come back to you."

The three Hags turned from the fire then and screamed at him.

"And what brought you back to us, humpy fellow?" said the first Hag.

"I came back to make you tell me what Queen and King were my mother and
father."

"Why should you think a King and Queen were your father and mother?"
they said to him.

"Because I have on my breast the stars of a