Page:Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland (Curtin).djvu/82

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Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland.

began to cry and lament as if her heart would break when she saw the state the giant was in. "Oh! you 'll be with me no longer; you 'll be killed now: what can I do alone without you?" and she tried to please him, and washed his wounds.

"Don't be afraid," said the giant; "this one, whoever he is, will not kill me, for there is no man in the world that can kill me." Then the giant went to bed, and was well in the morning.

Next day the giant and the boy began in the middle of the forenoon, and fought till the middle of the afternoon. The giant was covered with wounds, and he had not given one blow to the boy, and could not see him, for he was always in his cloak of darkness. So the giant had to ask for rest till next morning.

While the young woman was washing and dressing the wounds of the giant she cried and lamented all the time, saying: "What 'll become of me now? I 'm afraid you 'll be killed this time; and how can I live here without you?"

"Have no fear for me," said the giant; "I 'll put your mind at rest. In the bottom of the sea is a chest locked and bound, in that chest is a duck, in the duck an egg; and I never can be killed unless some one gets the egg from the duck in the chest at the bottom of the sea, and rubs it on the mole that is under my right breast."