The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crock of Gold, by James Stephens

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Crock of Gold

Author: James Stephens

Release Date: January, 1999 [Etext #1605]
Posting Date: November 20, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROCK OF GOLD ***

THE CROCK OF GOLD

By James Stephens

CONTENTS

BOOK I THE COMING OF PAN
BOOK II THE PHILOSOPHER'S JOURNEY
BOOK III THE TWO GODS
BOOK IV THE PHILOSOPHER'S RETURN
BOOK V THE POLICEMEN
BOOK VI THE THIN WOMAN'S JOURNEY AND THE HAPPY MARCH

BOOK I. THE COMING OF PAN

CHAPTER I

IN the centre of the pine wood called Coilla Doraca there lived not long
ago two Philosophers. They were wiser than anything else in the world
except the Salmon who lies in the pool of Glyn Cagny into which the nuts
of knowledge fall from the hazel bush on its bank. He, of course, is the
most profound of living creatures, but the two Philosophers are next to
him in wisdom. Their faces looked as though they were made of parchment,
there was ink under their nails, and every difficulty that was submitted
to them, even by women, they were able to instantly resolve. The Grey
Woman of Dun Gortin and the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath asked them the
three questions which nobody had ever been able to answer, and they were
able to answer them. That was how they obtained the enmity of these two
women which is more valuable than the friendship of angels. The Grey
Woman and the Thin Woman were so incensed at being answered that they
married the two Philosophers in order to be able to pinch them in bed,
but the skins of the Philosophers were so thick that they did not know
they were being pinched. They repaid the fury of the women with such
tender affection that these vicious creatures almost expired of chagrin,
and once, in a very ecstacy of exasperation, after having been kissed
by their husbands, they uttered the fourteen hundred maledictions which
comprised their wisdom, and these were learned by the Philosophers who
thus became even wiser than before.

In due process of time two children were born of these marriages. They
were bor