Matheson Collection > Folk tales and fairy lore in Gaelic and English

FOLK TALES AND FAIRY LORE. 45
the second brother went over to the edge of the
precipice, but, when he looked over, such dread seized
him that he would not take the world about which the
sun revolves to go down in the creel. At length
noble young Ulin, who was a stranger to fear or
panic, went into the creel, and, when going over the
edge of the rock, he cried to his brothers: " Return
home with the ship, and, if I live, I will reach you
soon or late."
He arrived at the foot of the rock safely, and it was
there that the fine place was, with a big castle sur-
rounded by a high rampart at a short distance from
him. He made for the castle, and whom did he meet
on the way but his own wife, who w^as stolen from
him by Big Black John a year before that time, and
whom he had with him in the castle; but he knew not
till then who stole her, or where she had been taken.
He wondered greatly to meet her in that place, but not
less did she wonder to meet him there.
She returned with him to the castle, and, after she
had tended him well with meat and drink, she
told him that Big Black John and his four warriors
were in the hunting ben, and that they would come
home in the evening. "But," said she, "we will
shut the gates before them, and, though they are
mighty, they cannot enter in spite of us."
The evening came, and Big Black John and his
companions with him. When he found the gates
closed before him, he called on the woman to open
them for him. But he got not as much as an answer.
He cried a second and a third time, but, though he
did, it was in vain. At last he understood that young
Ulin had come, and that he was in the castle. With