TOMAUS O CAHAN AND THE GHOST.
Come hear my walking, my midnight walking,
A cause of dread, and a cause of dread,
With that corpse of faierie could get no stretching
Amongst the dead men, amongst the dead.
[The Corpse speaks.]
"Raise my dead body with no rejoicing
And a beef I'll give thee, a beef I'll give,
[Tomaus answers.]
"If I should settle on that condition
Where is the beef, and where is the beef?"
[The Corpse speaks.]
"It's old Shaun Bingham and Shaun Oge Bingham
My sureties be, my sureties be,
In the crooked letter I wrote a ticket
To Bél-in-Assan beside the sea."
"You will get a heaplet beneath the midden
So green and gloomy, green and gloomy,
Then take it with thee for thy provision
Beneath thy armpit—against thy journey."
The corpse was raised on Tomaus his back,
In the ways of night, in the ways of night,
Through roads that were narrow and hard and crooked,
By the pale moonlight, by the pale moonlight.
And long was the route, and the cross-track journey,
Through miry bogs and through dripping glooms,
Westward to Lugh-moy-more-na-mrauher[77]
Of the grass green tombs, of the grass green tombs.
[The Corpse speaks.]
"At thy right hand is a spade for digging,
Behind the door post it will be found,
With a strong thrust, thrust; with a thrust not timid,
And turn the ground, and turn the ground."