Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/260

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246
SHIANA

top of Knock na nullaun,[1] and west along the top of Carrig na Modry,[2] and over Ballan Vauma,[3] and west by the top of Coom a' Ghyair.[4]

The day was getting warm, and he began to feel thirsty. He went into a house and asked for a drink. The woman of the house knew him. She had a good right to know him. Many a time before had he given her a good "hand-reach" of money. But for him there would be very little heard of her in the place. She brought him a jug of goats' milk and a big piece of bread and a roll of butter. He ate the food, and they talked. She knew, as everybody knew, that he was burdened with some great trouble of his own. She perceived it at that moment more plainly than ever. She did not pretend, though, that she noticed anything. He got up and walked out, and where should he face but straight up Mullach an Esh.[5] She looked after him, and I can tell you she was surprised when she saw him facing the mountain. She did not know what she ought to do. What she did was to turn in home and to spend part of the day crying. She felt sure that something harmful was coming over him. She threw herself on her knees and began to pray for him, beseeching God to keep him safe from all evil.

He went on up the mountain until he was on the fine wide platform which is up on the summit. If it was a large view he had in the morning from the moss-plot, still larger was the view he had now, but

  1. Cnoc na n-Ulán, a corruption of cnoc na ngollán, "the hill of the pillar-stones."
  2. Caraig na Madraí, "the Dogs' Rock."
  3. Beul an Ṁáma, "the mouth of the Pass."
  4. Cúm an Ġaḋair, "the Hound's Hollow."
  5. Mullaċ an Ois, "the Fawn's Peak."