Read Ebook: Hero-Tales of Ireland by Curtin Jeremiah Compiler

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Ebook has 3531 lines and 137917 words, and 71 pages

Now what had happened to the boy? He had gone far into the forest on the day when he was belated, farther than ever before. In a thick and dense place he found a round, grassy opening; in the middle of this space was a large rock, shaped like a millstone, and lying on one side, the upper part was flat and level. He placed his birds on the rock, sprang up, and sat on it to rest; the time was just after midday. While he was sitting there, he heard a voice in the stone, which asked: "Do you want me to tell a story?" He was astonished, said nothing. Again the voice spoke, and he answered: "Yes, tell me a story."

The voice began, and told him a wonderful story, such as he had never heard before. He was delighted; never had he known such pleasure. About the middle of the afternoon, the story was finished; and the voice said: "Now, you must give me your birds for the story; leave them where you put them." He went away toward home, shot what birds he could find, but did not kill many.

He came the next day, with birds, and heard a second story; and so it went on till the eighth day, when the boy sent by the foster-mother followed secretly. That boy heard the story too, discovered himself, and promised not to tell. Two days later the widow sent a second boy to watch those two, and three days after that a third one. The boys were true to the orphan, however, and would not tell; the magic of the stories overcame them.

At last the woman went to the chief with her trouble; he sent a man to watch the boys. This man joined the boys, and would not tell. The chief then sent his most trusty friend, whom nothing could turn aside from his errand. He came on the boys and the man, while they were listening to a story, and threatened them, was very angry. The voice stopped then, and said: "I will tell no more to-day; but, you boys and you men, listen to me, take a message to the chief and the people,--tell them to come here to-morrow, to come all of them, for I have a great word to say to every person."

The boys and men went home, and delivered the message. On the following day, the whole people went out in a body. They cleared away the thick grass in the open space; and all sat down around the stone, from which the voice came as follows:--

"Now, you chief and you people, there was a world before this, and a people different from the people in the world now,--another kind of people. I am going to tell you of that people. I will tell you all about them,--what they did; how they fixed this world; and what they became themselves. You will come here every day till I have told all the stories of the former people; and each time you will bring a little present of what you have at home."

The stone began, told a story that day, told more the next day. The people came day after day, week after week, till the stone told all it knew. Then it said: "You have heard all the stories of the former world; you will keep them, preserve them as long as you live. In after times some man will remember nearly all of these stories; another will remember a good many; a third, not so many; a fourth man, a few; a fifth, one story; a sixth, parts of some stories, but not all of any story. No man will remember every story; only the whole people can remember all. When one man goes to another who knows stories, and he tells them, the first man will give him some present,--tobacco, a bit of venison, a bird, or whatever he has. He will do as you have done to me. I have finished."

Very interesting and important are these statements touching the origin of stories; they indicate in the Indian system revelation as often as it is needed. In Ireland, the origin of every Fenian tale is explained in a way somewhat similar. All the accounts of Fin Mac Cool and his men were given to Saint Patrick by Ossian, after his return from Tir nan Og, the Land of the Young, where he had lived three hundred years. These Fenian tales were written down at that time, it is stated; but Saint Patrick gave an order soon after to destroy two-thirds of the number, for they were so entertaining, he said, that the people of Erin would do nothing but listen to them.

In every case the Fenian tales of Ireland, like the tales of America, are made up of the adventures of heroes who are not human. Some writers assert that there have never been such persons on earth as Fin Mac Cool and his men; others consider them real characters in Irish history. In either case, the substantial character of the tales is not changed. If Fin and his men are historical personages, deeds of myth-heroes, ancient gods of Gaelic mythology, have been attributed to them, or they have been substituted for heroes who were in the tales previously. If Fin and his men are not historical, they are either the original non-human heroes, or a later company of similar character substituted in the tales for the original heroes, or for some successors of those heroes; at this date it would be difficult to decide how often such substitutions may have been made.

The following tale of Pitis and Klakherrit, though condensed, is complete; it is given here not because it is the best for illustration, but because it is accessible. The tale is dramatic; the characters are well known; it is ancient, and may be used to show how easily the character of stories may be modified without changing their structure, simply by changing the heroes. This tale of Pitis and Klakherrit is not more than third rate, if compared with other Indian tales, perhaps not so high in rank as that, still, it is a good story.

At a place called Memtachnokolton lived the Pitis people; they were numerous, all children of one father. They lived as they liked for a long time, till one of them who had gone hunting did not return in the evening. Next day two of his brothers went to look for him, and found his headless body four or five miles away, at the side of a deer-trail. They carried the body home, and buried it.

On the following day, another went to hunt, and spent the night out in like manner. Next day his headless body was found, brought home, and buried. Each day a Pitis went to hunt till the last one was killed; and the way they died was this:--

Not very far south of the deer-trail were the Klak people, at Klakkewilton. They lived together in one great house, and were all blind except one Klakherrit, who was young and strong, bad, a great liar, and very fond of gambling. This Klakherrit hated the Pitis people, and wanted to kill them all; he used to go out and watch for them. When a Pitis went hunting, and was following the deer, Klakherrit sat down at the trail, some distance ahead; and, as the Pitis came up, he would groan, and call out, "Oh, I have a big splinter in my foot; I cannot take it out alone, help me!"

The Pitis pitied him always, and said: "I will pull it out for you;" then he sat down, took the foot in his hand, looked at it, and pulled at the splinter.

"Oh, you cannot pull it out with your fingers; you must take it between your teeth." The Pitis took the end of the splinter between his teeth, and began to pull; that moment Klakherrit cut his head off, and carried it to Klakkewilton, leaving the body by the roadside.

When Klakherrit killed the last Pitis, he took his skin, put it on and became just like Pitis. He went then to Memtachnokolton, and said to the Pitis women and children, "I killed a deer to-day; but Klakherrit ran off with it, so I come home with nothing."

"We have enough to eat; never mind," said the women, who thought he was their man.

About dark that evening, Klakherrit, the counterfeit Pitis, killed all the women and children except one little child, a boy, who escaped by some wonderful fortune, and hid under the weeds. Klakherrit burned the village then, and went home, thinking: "I have killed every Pitis."

Next morning little Pitis came out of his hiding-place, and wandered around the burnt village, crying. Soon an old woman, Tsosokpokaila, heard the child, found him, took him home, called him grandson, and reared him; she gave him seeds to eat which she took from her own people,--a great many of them lived in her village. She was a small person, but active.

In a few days, little Pitis began to talk; and soon he was able to run around, and play with bows and arrows. The old woman said to him then: "My grandson, you must never go to the south nor to the east. Go always to the north or west, and don't go far; you needn't think to meet any of your people, they are dead, every one of them."

All this time Klakherrit went out every morning, and listened long and carefully; hearing no sound of a Pitis, he went in one day, and said to his blind relatives: "I hear nothing, I see nothing of the Pitis people; they are all dead."

There was one old man in the house, an uncle of Klakherrit, and he answered: "My nephew, I can't see anything; but some day you may see a Pitis. I don't think all the Pitis people are dead yet; I think some are living in this world somewhere."

Klakherrit said nothing, but went out every morning as before; at last he saw far away in the west a little smoke rising, a slender streak of it. "Some people are living off there," thought he; "who can they be, I must know." He hurried to the house for his choicest clothes, and weapons, and made ready. He took his best bow, and a large quiver of black fox-skin, this he filled with arrows; then he put beads of waterbone on his neck, and a girdle of shining shells around his waist. When dressed to his wish, he started, and went straight toward the fire. As he came near it, he walked slowly, to see who was there; for a time he saw no one, but he heard pounding at the other side of a big pine-tree. He went around slowly to the other side, and saw a man pounding something. He would pound a while, and then pick up nuts, crack the shells with his teeth, and eat the kernels. This person was Kaisusherrit; and he was so busy that he did not see Klakherrit, who stood looking on a good while. "Hallo, my friend!" said Klakherrit, at last, "why are you alone; does no one else live around here?"

Kaisusherrit said nothing; he went on pounding pine cones, getting nuts out of them, didn't look at the stranger. Around his neck he had a net bag filled with pine nuts. After a while he stopped pounding, cracked some nuts, put the kernels in his mouth, and then pounded pine cones again.

"My friend, you are alone in this place. I came here by myself; there are only two of us. I saw your smoke this morning; and I said, before I started, 'I will go and see a good man to-day.' I thought that you were here, and I found you."

Kaisusherrit said nothing, but pounded away.

"My friend, why not talk to me; why not say something? Let us gamble: there is plenty of shade under the trees here; we might as well play."

Kaisusherrit was silent, didn't take his eyes off the pine cones.

"Why not talk to me, my friend? If you don't talk to me, who will; there are only two of us in this place. I came to see you this morning, to have a talk with you. I thought you would tell me what is going on around here where you live; and I would tell you what I know. Stop eating; let's gamble, and have a good talk."

Klakherrit talked, and teased, and begged, all the forenoon. He didn't sit down once; he was on his feet all the time. At last, a little after noon, Kaisusherrit looked up, and said: "Why do you make all this fuss? That is not the way for one grown person to talk to another. You act like some little boy, teasing, and talking, and hanging around. Why don't you sit down quietly, and tell me who you are, what you know, and where you live? Then I can tell you what I like, and talk to you."

Klakherrit sat down, and told who he was. Then he began again: "Well, my friend, let us play; the shade is good here under the trees."

"Why do you want to play?" asked Kaisusherrit; "do you see anything here that you like? I have nothing to bet against your things."

"Oh, you have," said Klakherrit,--"you have your pounding stone, your net full of nuts, your pine cones."

"Very well," said Kaisusherrit; "I will bet my things against yours;" and he placed them in one pile. Klakherrit took off his weapons and ornaments, and tied them up with Kaisusherrit's things in one bundle, so that the winner might have them all ready to carry away. Kaisusherrit brought sticks to play with, and grass to use with the sticks. He sat down then with his back to the tree, and motioned to the other to sit down in front. The bundle was near the tree, and each had a pile of grass behind him.

"Let us go away from this tree to the shade out there; I don't like to be near a tree," said Klakherrit.

"Oh, I can't go there; I must have my back against a tree when I play," said Kaisusherrit. "Oh, come, I like that place; let us go out there." "No, my back aches unless I lean against a tree; I must stay here." "Never mind this time; come on, I want to play out there," urged Klakherrit. "I won't go," said Kaisusherrit; "I must play here."

They talked and disputed about the place till the middle of the afternoon: but Kaisusherrit wouldn't stir; and Klakherrit, who was dying to play, agreed at last to let Kaisusherrit put his back to the tree, and to sit opposite himself. They began, and were playing about two hours, when Klakherrit was getting the advantage; he was winning. Both were playing their best now, and watching each other. Kaisusherrit said then in his mind, "You, Klakherrit's grass, be all gone, be grass no more, be dust." The grass in Klakherrit's hand turned to dust. He reached behind to get more grass, but found none; then he looked to see where it was. That moment Kaisusherrit snatched the bundle, and ran up the tree. Klakherrit sprang to his feet, looked through the branches; and there he saw Kaisusherrit with the bundle on his back.

"Oh, my friend," cried he, "what is the matter; what are you doing?" Kaisusherrit said nothing, sat on a limb, and looked at the stranger. "Oh, my friend, why go up in the tree? Come, let us finish the game; maybe you'll win all my things. Come down."

Klakherrit talked and talked. Kaisusherrit began to come down slowly, stopping every little while; he reached the lower limbs. Klakherrit thought he was coming surely; all at once he turned, and hurried up again, went to the very top, and sat there. Klakherrit walked around the tree, persuading and begging. Kaisusherrit slipped down a second time, was near the ground, seemed to be getting off the tree; Klakherrit was glad. Kaisusherrit didn't get off, though; he went up to the next limb, smiled, and looked at Klakherrit, who was getting terribly angry. Kaisusherrit went higher. Klakherrit could hold in no longer; he was raging. He ran, picked up sharp rocks, and hurled them at Kaisusherrit. The first one hit the limb on which he was sitting, and cut it right off; but he was very quick and sprang on to another. Klakherrit hurled stone after stone at the tree, with such force and venom that a limb fell whenever a stone struck it. At dusk there wasn't a limb left on the tree; but Kaisusherrit was there yet. He was very quick and resolute, and dodged every stone. Klakherrit drew breath a moment, and began again to hurl stones at Kaisusherrit; wherever one struck the tree, it took the bark off. At dark the tree was all naked and battered, not a branch nor a bit of bark left. Kaisusherrit was on it yet; but Klakherrit couldn't see him. Klakherrit had to go home; when he went into the house, he said, "Well, I've met a man to-day who is lucky; he won all my things in play."

"My son," said Klakherrit's father, who was very old, "you have been telling us that you are a great player; but I thought all the time that you would meet a person some day who would beat you. You have travelled much to find such a one; you have found him."

Next morning Klakherrit went out, and saw a smoke in the west. "That is my friend," said he; "I must see him." He took his best dress and weapons, and soon reached the fire. "Hallo, my friend," said Klakherrit, "I've come to play with you to-day." "Very well," answered Kaisusherrit, who was wearing Klakherrit's clothes that he had carried up the tree. "But, my friend, you won't do as you did yesterday?" "Oh, no; I'll play nicely to-day, I'll play to please you." They tied the stakes in one bundle, brought sticks and grass. Kaisusherrit put his back to a tree much larger than the first one. Klakherrit wished to play in the open; Kaisusherrit wouldn't go there. They disputed and quarrelled till Klakherrit had to yield; but he made up his mind not to let Kaisusherrit go up the tree this time.

They played as before till the middle of the afternoon, when Klakherrit was winning. Kaisusherrit turned the grass into dust, and was up the tree before Klakherrit could stop him. The deeds of the day before were repeated with greater force. Kaisusherrit was more cynical in his conduct. Klakherrit was more enraged; he cut all the limbs, and stripped all the bark from this tree with stone-throwing. At dark he had to go home, leaving Kaisusherrit unhurt.

On the third morning, Klakherrit was watching for smoke; he wanted to win back what he had lost in the west. Soon he saw a herd of deer pass, followed by a Pitis.

It was the end of summer; little Pitis had grown very fast, was a young man now. While Klakherrit was gambling, Pitis told his grandmother that he wanted to hunt. "Oh, my grandson," said she, "you must never go hunting; all your people were killed while out hunting. I don't want you to hunt; I don't want you to be killed."

"I don't want to be killed, my grandmother; but I don't like to stay around the house here all the time. I want to find food and bring it home; I want, besides, to see where my people were killed. I want to see the place where they died; I want to look at the person who killed them."

"My grandson, I don't like to hear you talk in that way; I don't want you to go far from this house. There is a very bad person south of us: he is the one who killed all your people; he is Klakherrit."

"My grandmother, I can't help going,--I must go; I must see the place where my people were killed. If I can find him, I must look at Klakherrit, who killed all my relatives."

Next morning, young Pitis rose, and dressed himself beautifully. He took a good bow, and a quiver of black fox-skin; his arrows were pointed with white flint; in his hair he had Winishuyat to warn him of danger. "My grandmother," said he, at parting, "do the best you can while I am gone." The old woman began to cry, and said, "Oh, my grandson, be on the watch, and guard yourself well; take good care, my grandson."

Pitis started off; and, when out of sight, Winishuyat said, "My brother, a little ahead of us are deer. All your relatives were killed by Klakherrit for the sake of these deer. The deer obeyed your people, and went wherever they told them." Pitis saw twenty deer, and, a few moments later, twenty more. He shouted; they ran around, stopped, and looked at him. "I want you, deer," said Pitis, "to go toward the south, and go past Klakherrit's house, so that he can see you and I can see him."

Pitis shouted three times; and Klakherrit, who was watching for Kaisusherrit's smoke, heard him. The forty deer went on one after another in a line, Pitis following. When Klakherrit saw them, he ran into the house, and called to his relatives: "Deer are coming; and a Pitis is with them!"

"Oh, my nephew," cried the blind uncle, "you kept saying all the time that there was not another Pitis in this world; but I knew there were some left somewhere. Didn't I say that you would see Pitis people; didn't I tell you that you hadn't killed all that people, my nephew? You will meet a Pitis to-day."

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