The Crucifixion Of The Outcast
A MAN, with thin brown hair and a pale
face, half ran, half walked, along the road
that wound from the south to the Town
of the Shelly River. Many called him Cum-
Hal, the son of ad many called
him the Swift, Wild Horse; and he was
a glee man, and he wore a short parti-
coloured doublet, and had pointed shoes,
and a bulging wallet. Also he was of the
blood of the Ernaans, and his birth-place
was the ~ield of Gold; but his eating and
sleeping places were the four provinces of
Eri, and his abiding place was not upon
the ridge of the earth. His eyes strayed
from the Abbey tower of the White Friars
and the town battlements to a row of
crosses which stood out against the sky
upon a hill a little to the eastward of the
town, and he ched his fist, and shook
it at the crosses. He khey were
y, for the birds were fluttering
36
about them; ahought how, as like
as not, just suabond as
himself was hanged on one of them; and
he muttered; If it were hanging or bow-
stringing, or stoning or beheading, it would
be bad enough. But to have the birds
peg your eyes and the wolves eating
your feet ! I would that the red wind
of the Druids had withered in his cradle
the soldier of Dathi, whht the
tree of death out of barbarous lands, or
that the lightning, when it smote Dathi
at the foot of the mountain, had smitten
him also, or that his grave had been dug
by the green-haired and green-toothed
merrows deep at the roots of the deep
sea.
While he spoke, he shivered from head
to foot, and the sweat came out upon
his face, and he knew not why, for
he had looked upon many crosses. He
passed over two hills and uhe battle-
ment Ed gate, and then round by a left-
27
was studded with great nails, and whenhe k it, he roused the lay brother
who was the porter, and of him he asked
a pla the guest-house. Then the lay
brother took a glowing turf on a shovel,
ahe way to a big and naked out-
house strewn with very dirty rushes; and
t lighted a rush-dle fixed between two
of the stones of the wall, ahe glow-
ing turf upon the hearth and gave him
two unlighted sods and a wisp of straw,
and showed him a bla hanging from a
nail, and a shelf with a loaf of bread and
a jug of water, and a tub in a far
er. Then the lay brother left him
a back to his place by the door.
And Cumhal the son of ac began
to blow upon the glowing turf, that he
might light the two sods and the wisp
of straw; but his blowing profited him
nothing, for the sods and the straw were
damp. So he took off his pointed shoes,
and drew the tub out of the er with
the thought of washing the dust of the
highway from his feet; but the water was
so dirty that he could not see the bottom
He was very hungry, for he had en
all that day; so he did not waste much
anger upoub, but took up the black
Ioaf, and bit into it, and then spat out the
bite, for the bread was hard and mouldy.
Still he did not give way to his wrath, for
he had not druhese many hours;
having a hope of heath beer or wi his
days end, he had left the bro