THE HELP OF GOD IN THE ROAD.
PREFACE.
This story was written down by my friend, C. M. Hodgson, from the mouth of one of his brother tenants, James Mac Donough, near Oughterard, in Connemara. Mac Donough called it "Conal, King of the Cats." In a Kerry version of this story it is a poor scholar and a thief who make the bet as to whether honesty or roguery is the best for a man to follow. The people they meet give it in favour of the thief. The poor scholar loses everything, eventually his two eyes. His going under the tombstone is properly motivated by saying that he meant to die there and would then be buried and have a tombstone. The rest of the story is pretty much the same as ours. My friend, the late Patrick O'Leary, found a story called the "Three Crows," something like this, where the crows talk as the cats do in our story, and where they end by picking out the two bad men's eyes, but there is no bet made, the man is simply robbed and blinded for no particular reason.
THE STORY
There were two merchants travelling along the road. One of them said to the other that the help of God was in the road. The other said it was not.
"How shall we find that out?"
"We'll leave it to the judgment of the first man we will meet."
It was short they went till they met a man. They asked him was the help of God in the road. He told them that it was not. Whatever the bet was that they had made about it, he [i.e., the man who said that the help of God was in the road] had to pay.
Well, they walked along for another while, and this man said that he would not give it up [or admit], that the help of God was not in the road.
"What bet will you make now?" says the other man.
"I've nothing left now except my eye, but I'll bet it with you," says he.
"Well, leave the decision to the first man who shall meet us."
The next man they met said the same as the first man, that the help of God was not in the road.
The other man did nothing but put his finger into the eye and pluck it out.
[Yet the man said] "I'll bet the other eye with you that the help of God is in the road, and let it be left to the judgment of the next man who shall meet us."
It was short they went [had gone] when a man met them. They asked him was the help of God in the road. The man said that it was not.
He plucked the other eye out of him then.
"Now," said he [the blind man], "take me with you and leave me in the church."
He took him with him and left him in under a flagstone in the church.
At that time the cats used to be collecting in gatherings. [They collected in that same church that night]. When they were all gathered together, Conall, the king of the cats, said that himself would tell a story if it were not that he was afraid that some one would be listening.
"Let us get up and search," said some of the cats. They searched through the churchyard and they found no one.
"It is a year from to-night that I went in to the king's daughter. I rubbed my tale to her mouth, and her father is perished looking for a cure [for her]. There are twelve cats in her stomach."
"Is there anything at all to cure her?" says one of the cats.
"There is," said Conall; "if she were to get a drop of the water that is in the well here, it would cure her. If one of those [twelve cats inside her] were to get away they could kill all the kingdom."
"Is there anything else of cure in the well?"
"There is," said Conall; "if any one were blind, and he to put a drop of that water on his eyes he would get his sight."
When they had gone away then in the morning, and were departed, the man that was listening to them rose up from [under] the flag. There was a herd or shepherd going by. He came to this man who was blind and spoke to him.
"Well, now," says the blind man, "is there any well here?"
"There is," says the herd.
"Leave me at the brink of the well."
He left him there.
He just put down his hand and splashed a drop of the water in on his two eyes; and he had his sight then as well as ever he had.
"Well now," says he to the herd, "would you be so kind as to give me a bottle?"
"I will," says the herd.
He filled the bottle with the water of the well and off he went. He was travelling until he came to the king's house. He asked to let him in.
The man who was on guard said that he would not let him in, that the king's daughter was sick and ill.
He sent for the king. He told him [by the messenger] that there was a man at the gate who would cure his daughter.
The king came out, and told the gate keeper to let in the man.
When he came in the king took him back into the chamber where his daughter was. When he looked at her [he saw that] she was as big as a horse.
"Now," said he to the king, "send for your men at arms, bring them in here."
When the men at arms were inside, he closed the door outside. He told them, anything that she should throw out, they must cut the head off it.
He gave her a drop of the water that was in the bottle to drink. The moment she drank it she threw from her a live cat out of her stomach. The head was cut off it before it reached the ground. They did the same with the twelve cats that she threw out of her stomach. She rose up then as sound and as well as ever she was.
The merchant was about to go away then, but the king would not allow him to depart. He said that he must marry his daughter.
[They were married and happy.]
They were one day going in their coach, and they saw the merchant who had made the bet that the help of God was not in the road. He spoke to him, and the merchant asked him where did he get all his riches.
"I got it in the place where you left me, in the church."
He [the other merchant] went away then at night, and he went in under the same flag, and it happened to the cats that they came together that night. When they were all assembled together. "Tell a story, O Conall, king of the cats," said one of them.
"I would tell a story," said he, "but I told one this very night last year, and a man was listening to me, and he cured the king's daughter with a bottle of the water that was in the well."
"We'll rise up [and look]" said the cat; "there won't be anyone listening to you to-night."
They rose up and they searched until they came to the place where the man was under the flag. They pulled him out and tore him asunder.
That is how it happened to him on account of the bet he had made that the help of God was not in the road.