182 Celtic Fairy Tales

object of your journey. You are going in quest of your
mother and sister.’ ‘Well,’ said I, ‘I am so far on the
way if ‘I only knew where to go for them.’ ‘I'll tell you
where they are,’ said she; ‘they are in the kingdom of the
Red Shield, and the King of the Red Shield is resolved
to marry your. mother, and his son is resolved to marry
your. sister. JI’ll tell you how the town is situated. A
canal of seven times seven paces breadth surrounds it. On
the canal there is a drawbridge, which is guarded during
the day by two creatures that no weapon can pierce, as
they are covered all over: with scales, except two spots
below the neck in which their death-wounds lie. Their
names are Roar and Rustle. “When night comes the bridge
is raised, and the monsters sleep. A very fugh and big
wall surrounds the king’s palace.’ .

“Stretch out your leg, Kayn, till I put a salve of herbs and
healing to it. Salve and binding herb and the poultice are
cooling; the worm is channering. Pressure and haste hard
bind me, for I must hear Mass in the great chureh at Rome,
and be in Norway. Delore: I sleep.

Kayn Mac Loy said :

. “May it be no foot Ps: Kaen or a foot to any one after.one,
or I be Kayn son of Loy, if I stretch out my foot for. you to
put a salve of herbs and: healing on it, till you tell me if you
went farther in seareh of your mother and sister, or if you
returned home, or what befell you.”

“Ah!” said the big man, “the mischief is upon you ;
that tale is long to tell; but I will tell you another tale. I
set off, and reached the big town of. the Red Shield; and ‘it
-was‘surrounded by a canal, as the old woman: told me;