rang like bells, chiming out
'Labraid Lorc is King, is King of the two Fair Islands.' But no gift
that Mananaun gives is ever taken back and the keys were still left
with Labraid Lorc. Yet he thought he would let the keys go out of his
possession so that the Fair Islands would sink back into the sea. But
that they might not stay at the bottom of the sea for ever he took the
keys and he put them in a pit at the sea-shore and he covered the pit
with a round stone, and knowing that it would be only a lucky person
who would come to that stone, he wrote in Ogham writing on it YOU HAVE
LUCK TO HAVE SEEN THIS SIDE OF THE STONE BUT YOU WILL HAVE MORE LUCK
WHEN YOU SEE THE OTHER SIDE.

[Illustration: "Ernan is Lord, is Lord of the Fair Islands."]

"As he left the silver keys there the Fair Islands began to sink in the
water. So slow were they in sinking that the cattle and sheep that
pastured on the islands were taken off in boats and the people who
lived in villages on the Islands came away with all they owned. But at
last the Islands sank altogether out of sight. And after they went
down into the sea King Labraid Lorc was seen no more.

"And you, O Boy, are the lucky one that the King hid the silver keys
for. When you take them into your hands the Islands will begin to
rise above the water and when they are altogether risen and are called
the Fair Islands again you will be Lord of them. And
Kingfisher-all-Blue, the one we thought had no care but for himself,
brought you to this good fortune."

* * * * *

Day after day the Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said went down to the
sea-shore and worked to lift up the round stone that was over the pit
in which King Labraid Lorc had put his silver keys. And one day he was
able to raise up the stone. There lay the great keys, shining in their
silver brightness. He took them up, and when he brought them near each
other they struck together and they rang like bells. "Mananaun" was
the the name they chimed out. And they chimed again "Ernan is Lord, is
Lord of the Fair Islands."

Looking out to sea, the boy Ernan saw waters rising up as though
whales were spouting fountains. And the next day, when he came to the
sea-shore, he saw that Islands had risen and that they were already
covered with green.

No longer he listened to what the Birds said but he watched the
Islands every day and he saw trees and grass come upon them. And when
the people came and sai