my head in
place of his head, and the horns on top of my head, so that the brute
might think that it was the buck. I went out. When I was going out the
giant laid his hand on me, and he said, 'There thou art, thou pretty
buck; thou seest me, but I see thee not.' When I myself got out, and I
saw the world about me, surely, oh, king! joy was on me. When I was out
and had shaken the skin off me, I said to the brute, 'I am out now in
spite of you.'

"'Aha!' said he, 'hast thou done this to me. Since thou wert so
stalwart that thou hast got out, I will give thee a ring that I have
here; keep the ring, and it will do thee good.'

"'I will not take the ring from you,' said I, 'but throw it, and I will
take it with me.' He threw the ring on the flat ground, I went myself
and I lifted the ring, and I put it on my finger. When he said me then,
'Is the ring fitting thee?' I said to him, 'It is.' Then he said,
'Where art thou, ring?' And the ring said, 'I am here.' The brute went
and went towards where the ring was speaking, and now I saw that I was
in a harder case than ever I was. I drew a dirk. I cut the finger from
off me, and I threw it from me as far as I could out on the loch, and
there was a great depth in the place. He shouted, 'Where art thou,
ring?' And the ring said, 'I am here,' though it was on the bed of
ocean. He gave a spring after the ring, and out he went in the sea. And
I was as pleased then when I saw him drowning, as though you should
grant my own life and the life of my two sons with me, and not lay any
more trouble on me.

"When the giant was drowned I went in, and I took with me all he had of
gold and silver, and I went home, and surely great joy was on my people
when I arrived. And as a sign now look, the finger is off me."

"Yes, indeed, Conall, you are wordy and wise," said the king. "I see
the finger is off you. You have freed your two sons, but tell me a case
in which you ever were that is harder than to be looking on your son
being hanged tomorrow, and you shall get the soul of your eldest son."

"Then went my father," said Conall, "and he got me a wife, and I was
married. I went to hunt. I was going beside the sea, and I saw an
island over in the midst of the loch, and I came there where a boat was
with a rope before her, and a rope behind her, and many precious things
within her. I looked myself on the boat to see how I might get part of
them. I put in the one foot, and the other foot was on t