two will stop as
they are." So they told him to do that, and he put the tops of two of
his fingers on the two outside rushes, and blew the middle one away.
"There is a trick now for you, Tadg O'Cealaigh," he said then. "By my
word, that is not a bad trick," said O'Cealaigh. But one of his men
said: "That there may be no good luck with him that did it. And give me
the half of that money now, Tadg," he said, "and I will do the same
trick for you myself." "I will give you the half of what I got if you
will do it," said the stranger. So the other put the rushes on his hand,
but if he did, when he tried to do the trick, his two finger-tips went
through the palm of his hand. "Ob-Ob-Ob!" said the stranger, "that is
not the way I did the trick. But as you have lost the money," he said,
"I will heal you again."

"I could do another trick for you," he said; "I could wag the ear on
one side of my head and the ear on the other side would stay still." "Do
it then," said O'Cealaigh. So the man of tricks took hold of one of his
ears and wagged it up and down. "That is a good trick indeed," said
O'Cealaigh. "I will show you another one now," he said.

With that he took from his bag a thread of silk, and gave a cast of it
up into the air, that it was made fast to a cloud. And then he took a
hare out of the same bag, and it ran up the thread; and then took out a
little dog and laid it on after the hare, and it followed yelping on its
track; and after that again he brought out a little serving-boy and bade
him to follow dog and hare up the thread. Then out of another bag he had
with him he brought out a beautiful, well-dressed young woman, and bade
her to follow after the hound and the boy, and to take care and not let
the hare be torn by the dog. She went up then quickly after them, and it
was a delight to Tadg O'Cealaigh to be looking at them and to be
listening to the sound of the hunt going on in the air.

All was quiet then for a long time, and then the man of tricks said: "I
am afraid there is some bad work going on up there." "What is that?"
said O'Cealaigh. "I am thinking," said he, "the hound might be eating
the hare, and the serving-boy courting the girl." "It is likely enough
they are," said O'Cealaigh. With that the stranger drew in the thread,
and it is what he found, the boy making love to the girl and the hound
chewing the bones of the hare. There was great anger on the man of
tricks when he saw that, and he took his swo