t or small accordingly, and that
cake was to be all that she could give him when he went on his travels.

The lad went away with the can to the well, and filled it with water,
and then came away home again; but the can being broken, the most part
of the water had run out before he got back. So his cake was very small;
yet small as it was, his mother asked him if he was willing to take the
half of it with her blessing, telling him that, if he chose rather to
take the whole, he would only get it with her curse. The young man,
thinking he might have to travel a far way, and not knowing when or how
he might get other provisions, said he would like to have the whole
cake, come of his mother's malison what might; so she gave him the
whole cake, and her malison along with it. Then he took his brother
aside, and gave him a knife to keep till he should come back, desiring
him to look at it every morning, and as long as it continued to be
clear, then he might be sure that the owner of it was well; but if it
grew dim and rusty, then for certain some ill had befallen him.

So the young man went to seek his fortune. And he went all that day, and
all the next day; and on the third day, in the afternoon, he came up to
where a shepherd was sitting with a flock of sheep. And he went up to
the shepherd and asked him to whom the sheep belonged; and he answered:

"To the Red Ettin of Ireland
Who lives in Ballygan,
He stole King Malcolm's daughter,
The king of fair Scotland.
He beats her, he binds her,
He lays her on a hand;
And every day he strikes her
With a bright silver wand.
'Tis said there's one predestinate
To be his mortal foe;
But sure that man is yet unborn,
And long may it be so!"

After this the shepherd told him to beware of the beasts he should next
meet, for they were of a very different kind from any he had yet seen.

So the young man went on, and by and by he saw a multitude of very
dreadful, terrible, horrible beasts, with two heads, and on every head
four horns! And he was sore frightened, and ran away from them as fast
as he could; and glad was he when he came to a castle that stood on a
hillock, with the door standing wide open to the wall. And he went in to
the castle for shelter, and there he saw an old wife sitting beside the
kitchen fire. He asked the wife if he might stay for the night, as he
was tired with a long journey; and the wife said he might, but it