There was once a man of these parts and he had a great longing for to find a treasure.

It chanced one evening that he seen a gankeynogue in the field, sitting in under a bush, and he says:

“Yon lad will surely be worth a powerful weight of gold.”

With that he went over and caught a hold of the gankey.

“Let you discover a treasure,” says he, “or else I’ll keep you like a dog on a chain from this out.”

“Keep away!” says the gankey. “How would a poor creature like myself be finding treasure for a strong farmer!” [198]

“Let you not let on to be miserable,” says the man, “for well I know it’s great wealth you enjoy.”

“Is it me!” says the gankeynogue. “Sure I support a lengthy family entirely by my own industry.”

But the farmer would not believe a word of the sort. He carried the gankey to his house and put him into a big oak chest.

“You’ll never get out except for to show me where treasure is lodged,” he allows.

But the gankeynogue wasn’t in notion of giving the least information. He sat up in the oak chest, hammering, shouting and singing until he had the people’s heads light.

All the while the farmer was determined to get the better of him and he never agreed to let him go.

The lad was his tenth day in the chest when the man of the house came running in that evening, shouting at the top of his voice:

“Darragh fort’s on fire! Darragh fort’s on fire!”

With that the gankey began the most woeful lamentations, and he hammering like mad to get out of the chest.

“What ails you at all?” asks the farmer. [199]

“My wife and family are in that place,” says the gankey. “Let me away to bring them safe from the fir............