s, and she was eighteen years old. But sure I thought that
the differ of a few thousand years in our ages would be nothing to me,
and I hoped it would be nothing to her either.

"I was living in a rath and wearing a green jacket then. All the
others in the rath promised that they'ld help me. The King's daughter
was to be married to the son of the King of another country on
November Eve; and you know there's no better time to steal a girl than
the night she's to be married, and November Eve is a fine time, too,
so it was settled that we'ld go over to France and steal her on that
night. But, as you know, we needed a mortal to help us. How else could
we be bringin' her across from France? If we could put her on a horse
behind a man, she'ld have flesh and blood to take a grip of, but if
she was put up behind one of us, she might as well try to hold to a
puff of smoke. You know that.

"We got ready, making sure that we'ld find some fool of a mortal ready
for us when the time came, and sure enough, when we'd been out for a
little look at the country before starting, and were coming back,
there sat this same Guleesh na Guss Dhu, between the rath and the
gable of his father's house, that was near by, staring up at the moon,
like he'd never seen one before. There was no need to try to catch him
or to bring him with us, or the likes of that. All we had to do was to
let him hear us as we passed and let him see the door of the rath
open, and in he came of himself to see what it was all about. We
hadn't let him see ourselves yet, but he heard us all calling: 'My
horse and bridle and saddle! My horse and bridle and saddle!' and what
did he do but call out after us: 'My horse and bridle and saddle!'

"There was the beam of a plough lying near, and I changed it into a
horse for him, and pleased he was when he saw it standing forninst
him, with its bridle of gold and saddle of silver and all. The minute
he saw it he jumped on it, and then we let him see all ourselves and
our horses, and he nearly fell off again, with the sight of the crowd
of us.

"Then I said to him: 'Are you coming with us to-night, Guleesh?'

"'I am,' he said.

"And with that we set off, and we overtook the wind that was before
us, and the wind that was behind us did not overtake us. And we never
stopped till we came to the sea. Then every one of us said: 'Hie over
cap! Hie over cap!' and Guleesh said it after us, and the next second
we was all up in the air,