The Blue Mountainspage 8 / 9
"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, until she should give up all hope of the coming of the man who freed her from the spell. Now she can wait no longer, for three years is the time that she agreed with her father to wait without marrying."
The Irishman knew that it was for himself she had been waiting so long, but 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 sixty cattle killed," she said, "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 that, they went out hunting, and before evening they had killed sixty 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 the had to get a ladder of fourteen steps so they could get on 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, and off she flew; 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 a but throwing a 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.