rees and beam!" they cried to the door.

"I cannot," said the door, "for the beam is fixed in the jambs and I
have no power to move."

"Open, open, cake that we have made and mingled with blood!" they cried
again.

"I cannot," said the cake, "for I am broken and bruised, and my blood
is on the lips of the sleeping children."

Then the witches rushed through the air with great cries, and fled back
to Slievenamon, uttering strange curses on the Spirit of the Well, who
had wished their ruin; but the woman and the house were left in peace,
and a mantle dropped by one of the witches in her flight was kept hung
up by the mistress in memory of that night; and this mantle was kept by
the same family from generation to generation for five hundred years
after.

CONALL YELLOWCLAW

Conall Yellowclaw was a sturdy tenant in Erin: he had three sons. There
was at that time a king over every fifth of Erin. It fell out for the
children of the king that was near Conall, that they themselves and the
children of Conall came to blows. The children of Conall got the upper
hand, and they killed the king's big son. The king sent a message for
Conall, and he said to him--"Oh, Conall! what made your sons go to
spring on my sons till my big son was killed by your children? but I
see that though I follow you revengefully, I shall not be much better
for it, and I will now set a thing before you, and if you will do it, I
will not follow you with revenge. If you and your sons will get me the
brown horse of the king of Lochlann, you shall get the souls of your
sons."

"Why," said Conall, "should not I do the pleasure of the king, though
there should be no souls of my sons in dread at all. Hard is the matter
you require of me, but I will lose my own life, and the life of my
sons, or else I will do the pleasure of the king."

After these words Conall left the king, and he went home: when he got
home he was under much trouble and perplexity. When he went to lie down
he told his wife the thing the king had set before him. His wife took
much sorrow that he was obliged to part from herself, while she knew
not if she should see him more.

"Oh, Conall," said she, "why didst not thou let the king do his own
pleasure to thy sons, rather than be going now, while I know not if
ever I shall see thee more?"

When he rose on the morrow, he set himself and his three sons in order,
and they took their journey towards Lochlann, and they made no stop but