And to grips they go. They would make the boggy bog of the rocky rock. In the hardest place they would sink to the knee, in the softest up to the thighs; and they would bring wells of spring water from the face of every rock.[1] The giant gave John a sore wrench or two.
‘Foil! foil!!’ says he. ‘If I had here the Brown Bear of the Green Glen, thy leap would not be so hearty.’
And no sooner spoke he the word than the worthy bear was at his side.
‘Yes! yes!’ says the giant, ‘son of Erin’s king, now I know thy matter better than thou dost thyself.’
So it was that the giant ordered his shepherd to bring home the best wether he had in the hill, and to throw his carcass before the great door. ‘Now, John,’ says the giant, ‘an eagle will come and she will settle on the carcass of this wether, and there is a wart on the ear of this eagle which thou must cut off with this sword, but a drop of blood thou must not draw.’ [[275]]
The eagle came, but she was not long eating when John drew close to her, and with one stroke he cut the wart of her without drawing one drop of blood. (Och! is not that a fearful lie?) ‘Now,’ said the eagle, ‘come on the root of my two wings, for I know thy matter better than thou dost thyself.’
He did this, and they were now on sea and now on land, and now on the wing, till they reached the Green Isle.
‘Now, John,’ says she, ‘be quick and fill thy three bottles. Remember that the black dogs are away just now.’ (‘What dogs?’—Black dogs. Dost thou not know that they always had black dogs chasing the Gregorach?)
When he filled the bottles with the water out of the well, he sees a little house beside him. John said to himself that he would go in, and that he would see what was in it. And the first chamber he opened, he saw a full bottle. (‘And what was in it?’ What should be in it but whisky.) He filled a glass out of it, and he drank it; and when he was going, he gave a glance, and the bottle was as full as it was before. ‘I will have this bottle along with the bottles of water,’ says he. Then he went into another chamber, and he saw a loaf. He took a slice out of it, but the loaf was as whole as it was before. ‘Ye gods! I won’t leave thee,’ says John. He went on thus till he came to another chamber. He saw a great cheese; he took a slice of the cheese, but it was as whole as ever. ‘I will have this along with the rest,’ says he. Then he went to another chamber, and he saw laid there the very prettiest little jewel of a woman he ever saw. ‘It were a great pity not to kiss thy lips, my love,’ says John.
Soon after John jumped on top of the eagle, and she took him on the self-same steps till they reached the house of the big giant. And they went paying rent to the giant, and there was the sight of tenants and giants and meat and drink.