GIANT’S CAUSEWAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2200, 26 May 1908, Page 4

GIANT’S CAUSEWAY.

AN IRISH LEGEND.

“Like many anotlier Irishman, I read with extreme interest in “The Saturday Journal” of the current destruction of the famous Giant’s Causeway _ JSpressfcn. to use in, this connection, for the Causeway h.-Ids ecxual, if not superior, place to Galway Cove,-Tara, Blarney Castle, and half a hundred . other places in tho sentimental history of Ireland. Were it being removed for the purposes of economical polity tho crime would bo heinous enough, but for pleasure-seekers in another ,land 1 It is both vandalism and sacrilege, Tho legend of the famous Causeway will doubtless interest your readers. There was at the time, so the story goes, great rivalry between the giants of Ireland and Scotland on the counts of both size and bravery. In order to promote personal combata, the Causeway was built, for by this means the giants could cross rrom one country to the other and meet in deadly conflict, lno Irish champion was one Fin M’Cool (not MacCumhall), who - had met and vanquished all the other giants of both countries, and for many years rested on his laurels. His house was on the cliffs over the Cause"?y> and there, tended by a devoted wife, he passed many years of undisputed fame. But one day bold Fin M Cool heard of a new Scotch'giant, who was reputed to be of enormous size, and who was anxious to transfer the championship t 0 Scottish soil. Fin quickly accepted a challenge, and, having worked himself up into a terrible rage,, awaited the coming of his Scotch 100. One day, as Fin ] a y asleep after breakfast, his wife came running to him. ‘Oh, Fin I’ said she, ‘the Scotch giant is coming, and ’tis true what was told us, for lie is five times as big as you are.’ So Fin peeped put of tho window, and saw tint' I’is wife was right, and he got frig!::.red; for, after having been cli,i ,..i ,jn for so many years, ho did not like being killed and eaten, for, as everyone knows, tho Scotch of those days were man-eaters! So porr Fin cried out to his wife: ‘Oh, what shall I do, lor what you say is true, and lie’ll eat me?’ Then, for the first time, a woman’s wit saved the situation. ‘I know,’ says Mrs M’Cool, as quiet as life, ‘you lie down in the corner, and I’ll cover you up, and ' when the Scotch giant comes in,” says she, coolly, ‘l’ll toll him a story.’ And Fin was mighty pleased, because ho looked out of'the window again, and saw that the water on the Causeway, which, reached up to his own waist, was not half-way mi to the knees' of the Scotch giant. So he, i . . iUsei :' 1 • ' .......

lay down in a corner of tho room, niul Mrs M’Cool throw over him a rug made of 300 skins, that was as big as a turnip field, and Fin lay quiet as a mouse. ‘Good day to you,’ says Mi's Pin, very coolly, as tho Scotch giant came, to tho door. ‘I liopo,’ sitys she, ‘that you are quite well,’ says she, ‘for Fiu was tor’blo fierce and wild when lie left hero this morning,’ says she. And with that the Scotch giant looked a bit uneasy, but lio says to her, says lie, ‘Oh, so I frightened tho bold Fiir away, have IP’ .‘Frightened, is it?’ says Mi's M’Cool, ‘not lie. Why, ho’s killed two giants nearly as big ns you this very morning,’ says she, ‘and run another twice as big as you lor his natural life,’ says sho. ‘Oh, it’s fair mad Fin is this morning!’ With that the Scotch giant looKed round. ‘What’s that 1 soe in the corner ?’ says lie. ‘Oh, that,’ says Airs M’Cool. ‘That, why that’s the baby—por dnrlin’l’ says she, ‘and it’s sore ho is teething now. He’ll bo near as big as Ins father wlion ho grows lip,’ says she, ‘but lio was a mighty small baby—a- thrnn’een,” says sho. And with that tho Scotch giant thought ‘Well, if that’s tho baby, Fin will bo big enough to oat mo.!’ And so ‘Good-bye,’ says he to

Airs M’Cool. ‘l’m busy to-day, so I’ll como over another time and light Fin.’ And away ho ran back to Scotland so fast that the sea, was thrashed up into froth like it is at the foot of tile Causoway itself. And the story spread in Scotland of tho Irish giant whose baby was as big as a mountain, and whose snore was like a storm, and no more Scotch giants ever went to Ireland.”