No More Learning

Shake
yourself out of the earth, you great weed of a man! '

Costello had risen to his feet, and as the piper came up to him seized
him by the neck of his jacket, and lifting him out of his saddle threw
him on to the ground.

'Let me alone, let me alone,' said the other, but Costello still shook
him.

'I have news from Dermott's daughter, Winny. ' The great fingers were
loosened, and the piper rose gasping.

'Why did you not tell me,' said Costello, 'that you came from her? You
might have railed your fill. '

'I have come from her, but I will not speak unless I am paid for my
shaking. '

Costello fumbled at the bag in which he carried his money, and it was
some time before it would open, for the hand that had overcome many men
shook with fear and hope. 'Here is all the money in my bag,' he said,
dropping a stream of French and Spanish money into the hand of the
piper, who bit the coins before he would answer.

'That is right, that is a fair price, but I will not speak till I have
good protection, for if the Dermotts lay their hands upon me in any
boreen after sundown, or in Cool-a-vin by day, I will be left to rot
among the nettles of a ditch, or hung on the great sycamore, where they
hung the horse-thieves last Beltaine four years. ' And while he spoke he
tied the reins of his garron to a bar of rusty iron that was mortared
into the wall.

'I will make you my piper and my body-servant,' said Costello, 'and no
man dare lay hands upon the man, or the goat, or the horse, or the dog
that is Tumaus Costello's. '

'And I will only tell my message,' said the other, flinging the saddle
on the ground, 'in the corner of the chimney with a noggin in my hand,
and a jug of the Brew of the Little Pot beside me, for though I am
ragged and empty, my forebears were well clothed and full until their
house was burnt and their cattle harried seven centuries ago by the
Dillons, whom I shall yet see on the hob of hell, and they screeching';
and while he spoke the little eyes gleamed and the thin hands clenched.

Costello led him into the great rush-strewn hall, where were none of
the comforts which had begun to grow common among the gentry, but a
feudal gauntness and bareness, and pointed to the bench in the great
chimney; and when he had sat down, filled up a horn noggin and set it
on the bench beside him, and set a great black jack of leather beside
the noggin, and lit a torch that slanted out from a ring in the wall,
his hands trembling the while; and then turned towards him and said:
'Will Dermott's daughter come to me, Duallach, son of Daly?
'

'Dermott's daughter will not come to you, for her father has set women
to watch her, but she bid me tell you that this day sennight will be
the eve of St. John and the night of her betrothal to Namara of the
Lake, and she would have you there that, when they bid her drink to him
she loves best, as the way is, she may drink to you, Tumaus Costello,
and let all know where her heart is, and how little of gladness is in
her marriage; and I myself bid you go with good men about you, for I
saw the horse-thieves with my own eyes, and they dancing the "Blue
Pigeon" in the air. ' And then he held the now empty noggin towards
Costello, his hand closing round it like the claw of a bird, and cried:
'Fill my noggin again, for I would the day had come when all the water
in the world is to shrink into a periwinkle-shell, that I might drink
nothing but Poteen. '

Finding that Costello made no reply, but sat in a dream, he burst out:
'Fill my noggin, I tell you, for no Costello is so great in the world
that he should not wait upon a Daly, even though the Daly travel the
road with his pipes and the Costello have a bare hill, an empty house,
a horse, a herd of goats, and a handful of cows. '

'Praise the Dalys if you will,' said Costello as he filled the noggin,
'for you have brought me a kind word from my love. '

For the next few days Duallach went hither and thither trying to raise
a bodyguard, and every man he met had some story of Costello, how he
killed the wrestler when but a boy by so straining at the belt that
went about them both that he broke the big wrestler's back; how when
somewhat older he dragged fierce horses through a ford in the Unchion
for a wager; how when he came to manhood he broke the steel horseshoe
in Mayo; how he drove many men before him through Rushy Meadow at
Drum-an-air because of a malevolent song they had about his poverty;
and of many another deed of his strength and pride; but he could find
none who would trust themselves with any so passionate and poor in a
quarrel with careful and wealthy persons like Dermott of the Sheep and
Namara of the Lake.

Then Costello went out himself, and after listening to many excuses
and in many places, brought in a big half-witted fellow, who followed
him like a dog, a farm-labourer who worshipped him for his strength,
a fat farmer whose forefathers had served his family, and a couple of
lads who looked after his goats and cows; and marshalled them before
the fire in the empty hall. They had brought with them their stout
cudgels, and Costello gave them an old pistol apiece, and kept them
all night drinking Spanish ale and shooting at a white turnip which
he pinned against the wall with a skewer. Duallach of the Pipes sat
on the bench in the chimney playing 'The Green Bunch of Rushes,' 'The
Unchion Stream,' and 'The Princes of Breffeny' on his old pipes, and
railing now at the appearance of the shooters, now at their clumsy
shooting, and now at Costello because he had no better servants. The
labourer, the half-witted fellow, the farmer and the lads were all well
accustomed to Duallach's railing, for it was as inseparable from wake
or wedding as the squealing of his pipes, but they wondered at the
forbearance of Costello, who seldom came either to wake or wedding, and
if he had would scarce have been patient with a scolding piper.

On the next evening they set out for Cool-a-vin, Costello riding a
tolerable horse and carrying a sword, the others upon rough-haired
garrons, and with their stout cudgels under their arms. As they rode
over the bogs and in the boreens among the hills they could see
fire answering fire from hill to hill, from horizon to horizon, and
everywhere groups who danced in the red light on the turf, celebrating
the bridal of life and fire. When they came to Dermott's house they
saw before the door an unusually large group of the very poor, dancing
about a fire, in the midst of which was a blazing cartwheel, that
circular dance which is so ancient that the gods, long dwindled to
be but fairies, dance no other in their secret places. From the door
and through the long loop-holes on either side came the pale light of
candles and the sound of many feet dancing a dance of Elizabeth and
James.

They tied their horses to bushes, for the number so tied already showed
that the stables were full, and shoved their way through a crowd of
peasants who stood about the door, and went into the great hall where
the dance was. The labourer, the half-witted fellow, the farmer and the
two lads mixed with a group of servants who were looking on from an
alcove, and Duallach sat with the pipers on their bench, but Costello
made his way through the dancers to where Dermott of the Sheep stood
with Namara of the Lake pouring Poteen out of a porcelain jug into horn
noggins with silver rims.