The Blue Mountains

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

There were once a Scotsman and an Englishman and an Irishman serving

in the army together, who took it into their heads to run away on the

first opportunity they could get. The chance came and they took it.

They went on travelling for two days through a great forest, without

food or drink, and without coming across a single house, and every

night they had to climb up into the trees through fear of the wild

beasts that were in the wood. On the second morning the Scotsman saw

from the top of his tree a great castle far away. He said to himself

that he would certainly die if he stayed in the forest without

anything to eat but the roots of grass, which would not keep him alive

very long. As soon, then, as he got down out of the tree he set off

towards the castle, without so much as telling his companions that he

had seen it at all; perhaps the hunger and want they had suffered had

changed their nature so much that the one did not care what became of

the other if he could save himself. He travelled on most of the day,

so that it was quite late when he reached the castle, and to his great

disappointment found nothing but closed doors and no smoke rising from

the chimneys. He thought there was nothing for it but to die after

all, and had lain down beside the wall, when he heard a window being

opened high above him. At this he looked up, and saw the most

beautiful woman he had ever set eyes on.

‘Oh, it is Fortune that has sent you to me,’ he said.

‘It is indeed,’ said she. ‘What are you in need of, or what has sent

you here?’

‘Necessity,’ said he. ‘I am dying for want of food and drink.’

‘Come inside, then,’ she said; ‘there is plenty of both here.’

Accordingly he went in to where she was, and she opened a large room

for him, where he saw a number of men lying asleep. She then set food

before him, and after that showed him to the room where the others

were. He lay down on one of the beds and fell sound asleep. And now we

must go back to the two that he left behind him in the wood.

When nightfall and the time of the wild beasts came upon these, the

Englishman happened to climb up into the very same tree on which the

Scotsman was when he got a sight of the castle; and as soon as the day

began to dawn and the Englishman looked to the four quarters of

heaven, what did he see but the castle too! Off he went without saying

a word to the Irishman, and everything happened to him just as it had

done to the Scotsman.

The poor Irishman was now left all alone, and did not know where the

others had gone to, so he just stayed where he was, very sad and

miserable. When night came he climbed up into the same tree as the

Englishman had been on the night before. As soon as day came he also

saw the castle, and set out towards it; but when he reached it he

could see no signs of fire or living being about it. Before long,

however, he heard the window opened above his head, looked up, and

beheld the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He asked if she

would give him food and drink, and she answered kindly and heartily

that she would, if he would only come inside. This he did very

willingly, and she set before him food and drink that he had never

seen the like of before. In the room there was a bed, with diamond

rings hanging at every loop of the curtains, and everything that was

in the room besides astonished him so much that he actually forgot

that he was hungry. When she saw that he was not eating at all, she

asked him what he wanted yet, to which he replied that he would

neither eat nor drink until he knew who she was, or where she came

from, or who had put her there.

‘I shall tell you that,’ said she. ‘I am an enchanted Princess, and my

father has promised that the man who releases me from the spell shall

have the third of his kingdom while he is alive, and the whole of it

after he is dead, and marry me as well. If ever I saw a man who looked

likely to do this, you are the one. I have been here for sixteen years

now, and no one who ever came to the castle has asked me who I was,

except yourself. Every other man that has come, so long as I have been

here, lies asleep in the big room down there.’

‘Tell me, then,’ said the Irishman, ‘what is the spell that has been

laid on you, and how you can be freed from it.’

‘There is a little room there,’ said the Princess, ‘and if I could get

a man to stay in it from ten o’clock till midnight for three nights on

end I should be freed from the spell.’

‘I am the man for you, then,’ said he; ‘I will take on hand to do it.’

Thereupon she brought him a pipe and tobacco, and he went into the

room; but before long he heard a hammering and knocking on the outside

of the door, and was told to open it.

[Illustration: The Princess Revives the Irishman]

‘I won’t,’ he said.

The next moment the door came flying in, and those outside along with

it. They knocked him down, and kicked him, and knelt on his body till

it came to midnight; but as soon as the cock crew they all

disappeared. The Irishman was little more than alive by this time. As

soon as daylight appeared the Princess came, and found him lying full

length on the floor, unable to speak a word. She took a bottle, rubbed

him from head to foot with something from it, and thereupon he was as

sound as ever; but after what he had got that night he was very

unwilling to try it a second time. The Princess, however, entreated

him to stay, saying that the next night would not be so bad, and in

the end he gave in and stayed.

When it was getting near midnight he heard them ordering him to open

the door, and there were three of them for every one that there had

been the previous evening. He did not make the slightest movement to

go out to them or to open the door, but before long they broke it up,

and were in on top of him. They laid hold of him, and kept throwing

him between them up to the ceiling, or jumping above him, until the

cock crew, when they all disappeared. When day came the Princess went

to the room to see if he was still alive, and taking the bottle put it

to his nostrils, which soon brought him to himself. The first thing he

said then was that he was a fool to go on getting himself killed for

anyone he ever saw, and was determined to be off and stay there no

longer. When the Princess learned his intention she entreated him to

stay, reminding him that another night would free her from the spell.

‘Besides,’ she said, ‘if there is a single spark of life in you when

the day comes, the stuff that is in this bottle will make you as sound

as ever you were.’

With all this the Irishman decided to stay; but that night there were

three at him for every one that was there the two nights before, and

it looked very unlikely that he would be alive in the morning after

all that he got. When morning dawned, and the Princess came to see if

he was still alive, she found him lying on the floor as if dead. She

tried to see if there was breath in him, but could not quite make it

out. Then she put her hand on his pulse, and found a faint movement in

it. Accordingly she poured what was in the bottle on him, and before

long he rose up on his feet, and was as well as ever he was. So that

business was finished, and the Princess was freed from the spell.

The Princess then told the Irishman that she must go away for the

present, but would return for him in a few days in a carriage drawn by

four grey horses. He told her to ‘be aisy,’ and not speak like that to

him. ‘I have paid dear for you for the last three nights,’ he said,

‘if I have to part with you now;’ but in the twinkling of an eye she

had disappeared. He did not know what to do with himself when he saw

that she was gone, but before she went she had given him a little rod,

with which he could, when he pleased, waken the men who had been

sleeping there, some of them for sixteen years.

After being thus left alone, he went in and stretched himself on three

chairs that were in the room, when what does he see coming in at the

door but a little fair-haired lad.

‘Where did you come from, my lad?’ said the Irishman.

‘I came to make ready your food for you,’ said he.

‘Who told you to do that?’ said the Irishman.

‘My mistress,’ answered the lad—‘the Princess that was under the

spell and is now free.’

By this the Irishman knew that she had sent the lad to wait on him.

The lad also told him that his mistress wished him to be ready next

morning at nine o’clock, when she would come for him with the

carriage, as she had promised. He was greatly pleased at this, and

next morning, when the time was drawing near, went out into the

garden; but the little fair-haired lad took a big pin out of his

pocket, and stuck it into the back of the Irishman’s coat without his

noticing it, whereupon he fell sound asleep.

Before long the Princess came with the carriage and four horses, and

asked the lad whether his master was awake. He said that he wasn’t.

‘It is bad for him,’ said she, ‘when the night is not long enough for

him to sleep. Tell him that if he doesn’t meet me at this time

to-morrow it is not likely that he will ever see me again all his

life.’

As soon as she was gone the fair-haired lad took the pin out of his

master’s coat, who instantly awoke. The first word he said to the lad

was, ‘Have you seen her?’

‘Yes,’ said he, ‘and she bade me tell you that if you don’t meet her

at nine o’clock to-morrow you will never see her again.’

He was very sorry when he heard this, and could not understand why the

sleep should have fallen upon him just when she was coming. He

decided, however, to go early to bed that night, in order to rise in

time next morning, and so he did. When it was getting near nine

o’clock he went out to the garden to wait till she came, and the

fair-haired lad along with him; but as soon as the lad got the chance

he stuck the pin into his master’s coat again and he fell asleep as

before. Precisely at nine o’clock came the Princess in the carriage

with four horses, and asked the lad if his master had got up yet; but

he said ‘No, he was asleep, just as he was the day before.’ ‘Dear!

dear!’ said the Princess, ‘I am sorry for him. Was the sleep he had

last night not enough for him? Tell him that he will never see me here

again; and here is a sword that you will give him in my name, and my

blessing along with it.’

With this she went off, and as soon as she had gone the lad took the

pin out of his master’s coat. He awoke instantly, and the first word

he said was, ‘Have you seen her?’ The lad said that he had, and there

was the sword she had left for him. The Irishman was ready to kill the

lad out of sheer vexation, but when he gave a glance over his shoulder

not a trace of the fair-haired lad was left.

Being thus left all alone, he thought of going into the room where all

the men were lying asleep, and there among the rest he found his two

comrades who had deserted along with him. Then he remembered what the

Princess had told him—that he had only to touch them with the rod she

had given him and they would all awake; and the first he touched were

his own comrades. They started to their feet at once, and he gave them

as much silver and gold as they could carry when they went away. There

was plenty to do before he got all the others wakened, for the two

doors of the castle were crowded with them all the day long.

The loss of the Princess, however, kept rankling in his mind day and

night, till finally he thought he would go about the world to see if

he could find anyone to give him news of her. So he took the best

horse in the stable and set out. Three years he spent travelling

through forests and wildernesses, but could find no one able to tell

him anything of the Princess. At last he fell into so great despair

that he thought he would put an end to his own life, and for this

purpose laid hold of the sword that she had given him by the hands of

the fair-haired lad; but on drawing it from its sheath he noticed that

there was some writing on one side of the blade. He looked at this,

and read there, ‘You will find me in the Blue Mountains.’ This made

him take heart again, and he gave up the idea of killing himself,

thinking that he would go on in hope of meeting some one who could

tell him where the Blue Mountains were. After he had gone a long way

without thinking where he was going, he saw at last a light far away,

and made straight for it. On reaching it he found it came from a

little house, and as soon as the man inside heard the noise of the

horse’s feet he came out to see who was there. Seeing a stranger on

horseback, he asked what brought him there and where he was going.

‘I have lived here,’ said he, ‘for three hundred years, and all that

time I have not seen a single human being but yourself.’

‘I have been going about for the last three years,’ said the Irishman,

‘to see if I could find anyone who can tell me where the Blue

Mountains are.’

‘Come in,’ said the old man, ‘and stay with me all night. I have a

book which contains the history of the world, which I shall go through

to-night, and if there is such a place as the Blue Mountains in it we

shall find it out.’

The Irishman stayed there all night, and as soon as morning came rose

to go. The old man said he had not gone to sleep all night for going

through the book, but there was not a word about the Blue Mountains in

it. ‘But I’ll tell you what,’ he said, ‘if there is such a place on

earth at all, I have a brother who lives nine hundred miles from here,

and he is sure to know where they are, if anyone in this world does.’

The Irishman answered that he could never go these nine hundred miles,

for his horse was giving in already. ‘That doesn’t matter,’ said the

old man; ‘I can do better than that. I have only to blow my whistle

and you will be at my brother’s house before nightfall.’

So he blew the whistle, and the Irishman did not know where on earth

he was until he found himself at the other old man’s door, who also

told him that it was three hundred years since he had seen anyone, and

asked him where he was going.

‘I am going to see if I can find anyone that can tell me where the

Blue Mountains are,’ he said.

‘If you will stay with me to-night,’ said the old man, ‘I have a book

of the history of the world, and I shall know where they are before

daylight, if there is such a place in it at all.’

He stayed there all night, but there was not a word in the book about

the Blue Mountains. Seeing that he was rather cast down, the old man

told him that he had a brother nine hundred miles away, and that if

information could be got about them from anyone it would be from him;

‘and I will enable you,’ he said, ‘to reach the place where he lives

before night.’ So he blew his whistle, and the Irishman landed at the

brother’s house before nightfall. When the old man saw him he said he

had not seen a single man for three hundred years, and was very much

surprised to see anyone come to him now.

[Illustration: The Irishman Arrives at the Blue Mountains]

‘Where are you going to?’ he said.

‘I am going about asking for the Blue Mountains,’ said the Irishman.

‘The Blue Mountains?’ said the old man.

‘Yes,’ said the Irishman.

‘I never heard the name before; but if they do exist I shall find them

out. I am master of all the birds in the world, and have only to blow

my whistle and every one will come to me. I shall then ask each of

them to tell where it came from, and if there is any way of finding

out the Blue Mountains that is it.’

So he blew his whistle, and when he blew it then all the birds of the

world began to gather. The old man questioned each of them as to where

they had come from, but there was not one of them that had come from

the Blue Mountains. After he had run over them all, however, he missed

a big Eagle that was wanting, and wondered that it had not come. Soon

afterwards he saw something big coming towards him, darkening the sky.

It kept coming nearer and growing bigger, and what was this after all

but the Eagle? When she arrived the old man scolded her, and asked

what had kept her so long behind.

‘I couldn’t help it,’ she said; ‘I had more than twenty times further

to come than any bird that has come here to-day.’

‘Where have you come from, then?’ said the old man.

‘From the Blue Mountains,’ said she.

‘Indeed!’ said the old man; ‘and what are they doing there?’

‘They are making ready this very day,’ said the Eagle, ‘for the

marriage of the daughter of the King of the Blue Mountains. For three

years now she has refused to marry anyone whatsoever, until she should

give up all hope of the coming of the man who released her from the

spell. Now she can wait no longer, for three years is the time that

she agreed with her father to remain without marrying.’

The Irishman knew that it was for himself she had been waiting so

long, but he was unable to make any better of it, for he had no hope

of reaching the Blue Mountains all his life. The old man noticed how

sad he grew, and asked the Eagle what she would take for carrying this

man on her back to the Blue Mountains.

‘I must have threescore cattle killed,’ said she, ‘and cut up into

quarters, and every time I look over my shoulder he must throw one of

them into my mouth.’

As soon as the Irishman and the old man heard her demand they went out

hunting, and before evening they had killed threescore cattle. They

made quarters of them, as the Eagle told them, and then the old man

asked her to lie down, till they would get it all heaped up on her

back. First of all, though, they had to get a ladder of fourteen

steps, to enable them to get on to the Eagle’s back, and there they

piled up the meat as well as they could. Then the old man told the

Irishman to mount, and to remember to throw a quarter of beef to her

every time she looked round. He went up, and the old man gave the

Eagle the word to be off, which she instantly obeyed; and every time

she turned her head the Irishman threw a quarter of beef into her

mouth.

As they came near the borders of the kingdom of the Blue Mountains,

however, the beef was done, and, when the Eagle looked over her

shoulder, what was the Irishman at but throwing the stone between her

tail and her neck! At this she turned a complete somersault, and threw

the Irishman off into the sea, where he fell into the bay that was

right in front of the King’s Palace. Fortunately the points of his

toes just touched the bottom, and he managed to get ashore.

When he went up into the town all the streets were gleaming with

light, and the wedding of the Princess was just about to begin. He

went into the first house he came to, and this happened to be the

house of the King’s hen-wife. He asked the old woman what was causing

all the noise and light in the town.

‘The Princess,’ said she, ‘is going to be married to-night against her

will, for she has been expecting every day that the man who freed her

from the spell would come.’

‘There is a guinea for you,’ said he; ‘go and bring her here.’

The old woman went, and soon returned along with the Princess. She and

the Irishman recognised each other, and were married, and had a great

wedding that lasted for a year and a day.