Stories of Red Hanrahan | Page 4

time outside, it was daylight he
found within. And presently he met with an old man that had been
gathering summer thyme and yellow flag-flowers, and it seemed as if
all the sweet smells of the summer were with them. And the old man
said: 'It is a long time you have been coming to us, Hanrahan the
learned man and the great songmaker.'
And with that he brought him into a very big shining house, and every
grand thing Hanrahan had ever heard of, and every colour he had ever
seen, were in it. There was a high place at the end of the house, and on
it there was sitting in a high chair a woman, the most beautiful the
world ever saw, having a long pale face and flowers about it, but she
had the tired look of one that had been long waiting. And there was
sitting on the step below her chair four grey old women, and the one of
them was holding a great cauldron in her lap; and another a great stone
on her knees, and heavy as it was it seemed light to her; and another of
them had a very long spear that was made of pointed wood; and the last
of them had a sword that was without a scabbard. Red Hanrahan stood
looking at them for a long Hanrahan-time, but none of them spoke any
word to him or looked at him at all. And he had it in his mind to ask
who that woman in the chair was, that was like a queen, and what she
was waiting for; but ready as he was with his tongue and afraid of no
person, he was in dread now to speak to so beautiful a woman, and in
so grand a place. And then he thought to ask what were the four things
the four grey old women were holding like great treasures, but he could

not think of the right words to bring out.
Then the first of the old women rose up, holding the cauldron between
her two hands, and she said 'Pleasure,' and Hanrahan said no word.
Then the second old woman rose up with the stone in her hands, and
she said 'Power'; and the third old woman rose up with the spear in her
hand, and she said 'Courage'; and the last of the old women rose up
having the sword in her hands, and she said 'Knowledge.' And everyone,
after she had spoken, waited as if for Hanrahan to question her, but he
said nothing at all. And then the four old women went out of the door,
bringing their tour treasures with them, and as they went out one of
them said, 'He has no wish for us'; and another said, 'He is weak, he is
weak'; and another said, 'He is afraid'; and the last said, 'His wits are
gone from him.' And then they all said 'Echtge, daughter of the Silver
Hand, must stay in her sleep. It is a pity, it is a great pity.'
And then the woman that was like a queen gave a very sad sigh, and it
seemed to Hanrahan as if the sigh had the sound in it of hidden streams;
and if the place he was in had been ten times grander and more shining
than it was, he could not have hindered sleep from coming on him; and
he staggered like a drunken man and lay down there and then.
When Hanrahan awoke, the sun was shining on his face, but there was
white frost on the grass around him, and there was ice on the edge of
the stream he was lying by, and that goes running on through Daire-
caol and Druim-da-rod. He knew by the shape of the hills and by the
shining of Lough Greine in the distance that he was upon one of the
hills of Slieve Echtge, but he was not sure how he came there; for all
that had happened in the barn had gone from him, and all of his journey
but the soreness of his feet and the stiffness in his bones.
It was a year after that, there were men of the village of Cappaghtagle
sitting by the fire in a house on the roadside, and Red Hanrahan that
was now very thin and worn and his hair very long and wild, came to
the half-door and asked leave to come in and rest himself; and they bid
him welcome because it was Samhain night. He sat down with them,
and they gave him a glass of whiskey out of a quart bottle; and they
saw the little inkpot hanging about his neck, and knew he was a scholar,

and asked for stories about