“Do it yourself first,” said the giant.

The tailor gave a prod of the knife, and he let the broth out of the skin.

“Now you do that,” said he.

“I will,” said the giant, giving such a prod of the knife into his own stomach that he killed himself.  That is the way the tailor killed the third giant.

He went to the king then, and desired him to send him out his wife and his money, saying that he would throw down the court again if he did not do so immediately.  They were afraid then that he would throw down the court, and they sent the wife to him.

When the tailor was a day gone, himself and his wife, they repented and followed him to take his wife away from him again.  The people who went after him followed him until they came to the place where the lion was, and the lion said to them, “The tailor and his wife were here yesterday.  I saw them going by, and if you will loose me now, I am swifter than you, and I will follow them until I overtake them.”  When they heard that, they released the lion.

The lion and the people of Dublin went on, and pursued the tailor, until they came to the place where the fox was, and the fox greeted them, and said, “The tailor and his wife were here this morning, and if you will loose me, I am swifter than you, and I will follow them, and overtake them.”  They therefore set the fox free.

The lion and the fox and the army of Dublin went on then, trying to catch the tailor, and they kept going until they came to the place where the old white garraun was, and the old white garraun told them that the tailor and his wife were there in the morning, and “Loose me,” said he; “I am swifter than you, and I’ll overtake them.”  They released the old white garraun then, and the old white garraun, the fox, the lion, and the army of Dublin pursued the tailor and his wife, and it was not long before they came up with them.

When the tailor saw them coming, he got out of the coach with his wife, and he sat down on the ground.

When the old white garraun saw the tailor sitting on the ground, he said, “That’s the position he was in when he made the hole for me, that I couldn’t get out of, when I went down into it.  I’ll go no nearer to him.”

“No!” said the fox, “but that’s the way he was when he was making the thing for me, and I’ll go no nearer to him.”

“No!” says the lion, “but that’s the very way he had, when he was making the plough that I was caught in.  I’ll go no nearer to him.”

They all left him then and returned.  The tailor and his wife came home to Galway.

FOOTNOTES: 

[32] From Beside the Fire, Douglas Hyde (David Nutt).

HOW THE SEA BECAME SALT

This story was told long ago by our Northern forefathers who brought it with them in their dragon ships when they crossed the North Sea to settle in England.  In those days men were apt to invent stories to account for things about them which seemed peculiar, and loving the sea as they did, it is not strange that they had remarked the peculiarity of the ocean water and had found a reason why it is so different from the water in the rivers and steams.