And he said: "What reward would you give to
whoever would bring you out of this great danger?" "Is there anything in
my hand worth offering you?" said Ciabhan. "There is," said the rider,
"that you would give your service to whoever would give you his help."
Ciabhan agreed to that, and he put his hand into the rider's hand.
With that the rider drew him on to the horse, and the curragh came on
beside them till they reached to the shore of Tir Tairngaire, the Land
of Promise. They got off the horse there, and came to Loch Luchra, the
Lake of the Dwarfs, and to Manannan's city, and a feast was after being
made ready there, and comely serving-boys were going round with smooth
horns, and playing on sweet-sounding harps till the whole house was
filled with the music.
Then there came in clowns, long-snouted, long-heeled, lean and bald and
red, that used to be doing tricks in Manannan's house. And one of these
tricks was, a man of them to take nine straight willow rods, and to
throw them up to the rafters of the house, and to catch them again as
they came down, and he standing on one leg, and having but one hand
free. And they thought no one could do that trick but themselves, and
they were used to ask strangers to do it, the way they could see them
fail.
So this night when one of them had done the trick, he came up to
Ciabhan, that was beyond all the Men of Dea or the Sons of the Gael that
were in the house, in shape and in walk and in name, and he put the nine
rods in his hand.
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