rishman Arives at the Blue Mountains]

'Where are you going to?' he said.

'I am going about asking for the Blue Mountains,' said the Irishman.

'The Blue Mountains?' said the old man.

'Yes,' said the Irishman.

'I never heard the name before; but if they do exist I shall find them
out. I am master of all the birds in the world, and have only to blow
my whistle and every one will come to me. I shall then ask each of
them to tell where it came from, and if there is any way of finding
out the Blue Mountains that is it.'

So he blew his whistle, and when he blew it then all the birds of the
world began to gather. The old man questioned each of them as to where
they had come from, but there was not one of them that had come from
the Blue Mountains. After he had run over them all, however, he missed
a big Eagle that was wanting, and wondered that it had not come. Soon
afterwards he saw something big coming towards him, darkening the sky.
It kept coming nearer and growing bigger, and what was this after all
but the Eagle? When she arrived the old man scolded her, and asked
what had kept her so long behind.

'I couldn't help it,' she said; 'I had more than twenty times further
to come than any bird that has come here to-day.'

'Where have you come from, then?' said the old man.

'From the Blue Mountains,' said she.

'Indeed!' said the old man; 'and what are they doing there?'

'They are making ready this very day,' said the Eagle, 'for the
marriage of the daughter of the King of the Blue Mountains. For three
years now she has refused to marry anyone whatsoever, until she should
give up all hope of the coming of the man who released her from the
spell. Now she can wait no longer, for three years is the time that
she agreed with her father to remain without marrying.'

The Irishman knew that it was for himself she had been waiting so
long, but he was unable to make any better of it, for he had no hope
of reaching the Blue Mountains all his life. The old man noticed how
sad he grew, and asked the Eagle what she would take for carrying this
man on her back to the Blue Mountains.

'I must have threescore cattle killed,' said she, 'and cut up into
quarters, and every time I look over my shoulder he must throw one of
them into my mouth.'

As soon as the Irishman and the old man heard her demand they went out
hunting, and before evening they had killed threescore cattle. They
made quarters of them, as the Eagle told