e between them that there was nothing in the world
but what was looking on and listening to the combat.

They fought till late in the afternoon, when the giant was getting the
upper hand; and then the cowboy thought that if the giant should kill
him, his father and mother would never find him or set eyes on him
again, and he would never get the daughter of the king of Erin. The
heart in his body grew strong at this thought. He sprang on the giant,
and with the first squeeze and thrust he put him to his knees in the
hard ground, with the second thrust to his waist, and with the third to
his shoulders.

"I have you at last; you're done for now!", said the cowboy. Then he
took out his knife, cut the five heads off the giant, and when he had
them off he cut out the tongues and threw the heads over the wall.

Then he put the tongues in his pocket and drove home the cattle. That
evening the Gruagach couldn't find vessels enough in all his place to
hold the milk of the five golden cows.

But when the cowboy was on the way home with the cattle, the son of the
king of Tisean came and took the giant's heads and claimed the princess
in marriage when the Gruagach Gaire should laugh.

After supper the cowboy would give no talk to his master, but kept his
mind to himself, and went to the bed of silk to sleep.

On the morning the cowboy rose before his master, and the first words
he said to the Gruagach were:

"What keeps you from laughing, you who used to laugh so loud that the
whole world heard you?"

"I'm sorry," said the Gruagach, "that the daughter of the king of Erin
sent you here."

"If you don't tell me of your own will, I'll make you tell me," said
the cowboy; and he put a face on himself that was terrible to look at,
and running through the house like a madman, could find nothing that
would give pain enough to the Gruagach but some ropes made of untanned
sheepskin hanging on the wall.

He took these down, caught the Gruagach, fastened him by the three
smalls, and tied him so that his little toes were whispering to his
ears. When he was in this state the Gruagach said: "I'll tell you what
stopped my laughing if you set me free."

So the cowboy unbound him, the two sat down together, and the Gruagach
said:--

"I lived in this castle here with my twelve sons. We ate, drank, played
cards, and enjoyed ourselves, till one day when my sons and I were
playing, a slender brown hare came rushing in, jumped on to the hea