or blacker than the raven's skull, or redder than its share of blood,[1] that was a'pouring out.
He put himself under gassa[2] and obligations of the year, that he would not eat two meals at one table, or sleep two nights in one house, until he should find a woman whose hair was as black as the raven's head, and her skin as white as the snow, and her two cheeks as red as the blood.
There was no woman in the world like that; but one woman only, and she was in the eastern world.
The day on the morrow he set out, and money was not plenty, but he took with him twenty pounds. It was not far he went until he met a funeral, and he said that it was as good for him to go three steps with the corpse. He had not the three steps walked until there came a man and left his writ down on the corpse for five pounds. There was a law in Ireland at that time that any man who had a debt upon another person (i.e., to whom another person owed a debt) that person's people could not bury him, should he be dead, without paying his debts, or without the leave of the person to whom the dead man owed the debts. When the king of Ireland's son saw the sons and daughters of the dead crying, and they without money to give the man, he said to himself: "It's a great pity that these poor people have not the money," and he put his hand in his pocket and paid the five pounds himself for the corpse. After that, he said he would go as far as the church to see it buried. Then there came another man, and left his writ on the body for five pounds more.
