Jack and the Devil's Purse (18 page)

He said, ‘I am Blind Rory.’

He said, ‘I want to buy a net.’

‘What do you want a net for, boy?’ he said. ‘To catch fish?’

‘No,’ says Jack, ‘I don’t want a net to catch fish. I want a net to catch a mermaid.’

‘What?’ says Blind Rory, and his voice, sure it echoed right through the cave. ‘Boy, do you mean to tell me that you’ve come all this distance and ought to have more sense – a young man o’ your age who would want to catch a mermaid? The best thing you can do, son, is go straight back the way you came and forget that you ever saw a mermaid!’

Jack said, ‘Look, I’ve got money and I want to buy a net fae you. And you’re the only person in the country that can give me a net.’

The old man said, ‘Look, I’m telling ye:
if I give ye a net, whatever you get in it is yours.
’

‘Well,’ says Jack, ‘that’s what I want.

‘But,’ he says, ‘what if ye get in it is
no
what ye want . . . ye’ll have to keep it!’

‘Well,’ says Jack, ‘that’ll be up to me.’

‘Well,’ says the old man, ‘if ye’re persistent and you want a net, I’ll give ye a net. But remember, what ye catch in it will be yours and yours only! And I canna gie ye nae help after that. But I’ll give ye a net, I’ll no charge ye for it, laddie. Ye’ve come too far. But ye willna tak nae advice fae me, and you’ve been well warned by your mother,’ as Jack had tellt him about his mother and his auntie, and the old men of the village. ‘And you will no listen. But I’m tellin ye again, the best thing you can do is forget about me, the net and the mermaid and go straight back as if nothing had happened to ye!’

‘No,’ says Jack, ‘I want ye to give me a net to catch a mermaid.’

‘Well,’ says the old man, ‘ye’re really determined. Go over there to that wall.’ And over Jack goes. He says:

‘Shove your hand in that big canvas bag.’

Jack shoved his hand in the big canvas bag. And he pulled out this net, like a poke with corks on it round the top, like a long bag.

‘
That
,’ says the old man, ‘is the net you want and I’m givin it to you free. You’re the first man that ever come into this cave since ever I took over here, and I hope you’ll be the last. But remember, the minute you take this net out o’ this place you canna come back, or I canna give you no help. Whatever ye catch in it is yer own, or whatever ye get you must keep!’

‘Well,’ says Jack, ‘that’s what I want.’

‘Well,’ says the old man, ‘we’ll say no more about it.’ He said to the lassie, ‘Give him somethin to eat.’

The lassie gave him a good feed. They sat down. And he
never mentioned it no more to the old man, and they cracked a long, long while. Jack bade the old man and his granddaughter goodbye, took his net in his pack and set sail for home.

He travelled and he travelled, on and on and on and on, travelled all the way back the way he’d come till he landed back in his mother’s house. And his mother was surprised to see him.

‘Well, laddie,’ she said, ‘ye’ve been away a long, long while.’

‘Aye, Mother,’ he said, ‘but it was worthwhile.’

‘Maybe,’ says the old woman, ‘maybe it was worthwhile, maybe it wasna. Did ye see Blind Rory?’

‘Aye, Mother,’ he said, ‘I saw a lot o’ folk. And they all gien me the same advice. What is it about the mermaid that youse folk dinna like?’

She said, ‘Jack, ye’re too young to understand.’

He says, ‘I’m no young – I’m twenty years of age! And I’m bound to ken what I want – I want the mermaid!’

‘Right,’ says his mother, ‘you go ahead and you catch your mermaid, but remember: ye paid nae heed tae naebody. So whatever happens to ye when ye get a mermaid and what ye do wi it is up to yersel.’

‘Well,’ says Jack, ‘can folk no let it be that way and let me do what I want?’

So his old mother gives him his supper and he goes to his bed, and he takes the net with him in case his mother would destroy it. Up to his bed with him, puts the net below his head. All night he couldna sleep, he couldna wait till daylight, till he got back to the beach.

Now this place where Jack was supposed to see the mermaid was a long, narrow lagoon where the water came in, it was awful, awful deep. And there was a narrow channel
in-between. And every time he seen her playing in this wee round pool, when he ran down to get close to her she escaped through the channel. And he made up his mind that he was going to get a net that he could set in the channel, so that when she went back out – she wouldna see it coming in – but he would catch her on the road back out.

Right, so the next day was a lovely sunny day and away he goes. He sets his net, and he sits and he sits and he sits, he sits and sits till it gets kind o’ gloamin over dark and a mist comes down. He hears splishing and splashing in the water.

He says, ‘That’s her!’ Then he pulls the string and his net opens up. And he runs down . . . ‘sheook’ – in she goes to the bag. He catches the bag and he sees the long hair, and the fish’s tail and the hands, the face. He pulls the net tight and he flings it on his back. Then he makes back to his mother’s house with it as hard as he could. But by sheer good luck who was up at his mother’s house at the same time seeing his mother, because she wasna keeping very well, but his old auntie.

In comes Jack to the house: ‘Mother, Mother,’ he says, ‘light the lamps!’

‘What for, laddie?’

He says, ‘I got a mermaid!’

The old woman was surprised, ‘Mermaid, laddie,’ she says, ‘there’s nae such a thing as a mermaid. I tellt ye that . . .’

‘But Mother,’ he says, ‘listen! I got the mermaid and I’ve got her in the net, I got her in my net. Blind Rory’s net did the trick – I got my mermaid!’

‘All right,’ says his mother, ‘I’ll light the lamps.’ So his old auntie rose and she lighted the two paraffin lamps. And Jack dropped the net on the floor and shaked it out. He looked.

Sister dear, you want to see what he shaked out – an old
woman about seventy years of age! And every tooth the length of my finger, and her two eyes staring in her head and her hair straggly, and this fish’s tail on her and her hands with big long nails and them curled. And she’s looking at Jack, she’s spitting at him. But she could speak as good as they:

‘
Aye
,’ she said, ‘
laddie, you catcht me. You catcht me and I’m yours and you’ll keep me
.’

Now the old auntie who had come in about, she looked. The old auntie gave one roar and she said, ‘Laddie, laddie, laddie, Jack! Jack, do ye ken what ye’ve gotten? You wouldna listen to naebody.’

‘Aye,’ he said, ‘I ken what I’ve gotten – I’ve got a mermaid.’

She says, ‘Laddie, that’s nae mermaid. You’ve got yourself
a sea witch
!’

‘What,’ he says, ‘Auntie?’

She said, ‘You’ve got yourself
a sea witch
.’

‘Aye,’ says the old witch, ‘you’ve got me! You’ve catcht me in Blind Rory’s net and I’m yours. And you’ll look after me. I’ll do everything in my power to mak you suffer for what you’ve done to me.’

‘I’ll take ye back to the sea,’ says Jack, ‘and fling ye in.’

‘Na, na,’ says the sea witch, ‘that’ll no do nae good!’ She spits on the two old women, Jack’s mother and his auntie, and her eyes are blazing at them.

The old women were that feart o’ her they wouldna come near her. So, she commanded Jack to do everything for her, give her something to eat, make her a bed and do everything:

‘Now,’ she said to Jack, ‘Jack, every day you’ll carry me to the shore and you’ll carry me back, and you’ll let me bathe and you’ll wait for me. Ye’ll tend me hand and foot for the rest o’ yer days! That’s yer punishment when ye wouldna
listen: ye had no right settin a net and catchin me. I am a sea witch. You shall be punished for the rest o’ your days.’

Jack was in an awful state. He was sorry then. He said, ‘I wish I would hae listened to my old auntie and listened to the old men and listened to Blind Rory.’ But there was nothing he could do about it now. He said, ‘I’ll fling her back in the sea, Mother.’

‘You mightna fling me back in the sea,’ says the old witch, ‘because I’ll just be back here the next minute. And I’ll go on punishin you for the rest o’ your days.’

‘Well,’ said Jack, ‘so it may be, we’ll see.’

‘
We’ll
see!’ said the sea witch.

So Jack never got a minute’s peace. Day out and day in she made him do everything for her. She wanted the best of fish, she wanted the best of meat, she wanted carried and a bed made for her, she wanted everything done for her, she wanted carried to the sea and carried back from the sea twice a day. And the farther Jack was carrying her the heavier she was getting. Till Jack got that weak he could hardly move with her, and he didna ken what to do. He was in an awful state.

The old auntie had banned herself from coming near the house. And the old women hid themselves, they couldna come near the sea witch.

Jack’s mother tellt him, ‘As long as it’s in this house I’m no comin back to the house. I’m goin off wi my old sister.’ The two old women cleared out and left Jack with the witch. And he was in the house by himself.

But yin day he managed to get away by himself, and he cut along the shore. The sea witch was sleeping, and he made for his old auntie’s house. He was out of breath from running because he didna want to be long away. He landed in and his old auntie was sitting.

‘Oh, it’s you Jack!’ she says, ‘what happened to you now? Where is she?’

‘I think she’s sleeping,’ he said, ‘till the sun goes down. Then I have to take her back to the sea. Auntie, ye’ll have to help me! I’m sair wrought, I dinna ken what to do wi her. She’s got me punished to death. When she shouts on me I carry her down the stair, because she canna move without a wet tail. When her tail gets dry I have to carry her down and back to the sea, keep her tail wet.’

‘Well,’ says the auntie,’ you wouldna listen to me, would you? Nor you wouldna listen to Rory. But now you’ve proved your point. And you were well warned. But if ye ever get free o’ this woman, this is bound to be a lesson to ye. But I’ll tell ye, now listen to me and do what I tell ye tonight when ye get a chance: you’ll go back up, Jack, and you’ll tak her down when she wants down to the kitchen. Put her beside the fire for to gie her her supper. Once her back’s turned to ye, ye’ll snap off her hair wi yer mother’s big shears. And ye’ll mak a rope out o’ her hair. Tie it round her middle and tie her hands and tie up her tail wi it – from her ain hair – and fling her into the sea, let her go to the bottom!’

‘Right!’ says Jack, ‘I’ll do that.’ Back he goes.

But he was nae sooner coming in the door when he heard this roar, ‘Are ye there, are ye there, are ye there?’ This was the sea witch roaring, ‘Come at once and carry me down!’

Jack ran . . . but before he went up the stairs he searched his mother’s house, in the kitchen, and he got his mother’s big pair of shears. He put them on the mantelpiece. Up the stairs he went and he carried this thing down with the long hair and the big long teeth, this sea witch. He put her sitting alongside the fire.

She says, ‘Get me something to eat, the best o’ fish, Jack!’
Oh, she wanted everything under the sun, it had to be everything o’ the best.

But she was sitting eating. She could eat, ye ken, her two hands were like any human being’s, only for her tail.

Jack got round her back and he took the shears. He catcht all her hair – oh, long hair, it was hanging on the floor – and he snip, snip, snip, snipped the whole lot off. And she screamed at him and swung round. If she had had feet instead of a tail she would have torn him to ribbons. But Jack kept out of her reach.

And she flapped and flapped and flapped and screamed and carried on right round the floor, roaring and screaming the worst way she could what she was going to do to him. But Jack kept catching this hair. And he twisted it into a rope, and jumped on top o’ her, and he catcht her. With the long hair he tied her two hands at her back, he wrapped all this round her. And he put her across his shoulder. She’s screaming murder! And he carried her on his back back to the lagoon. He flung her in! And down she went. And he stood. The bubbles came up, bubbles came up.

He must have stood for ten minutes and then he says, ‘That’s the end o’ her. That’s her finished.’

He was just going to turn and walk away when he sees the bubbles coming back up again. And up from the water comes this head, and looks at him. Jack looks and he sees the bonniest mermaid that ever he’s seen in his life, the original yin that he saw the first time.

And she sat just within reach o’ him. She came out, her head out of the water and she spoke to him:

‘Well, Jack,’ she said, ‘for a long while you’ve tried to catch me. And ye ken what you’ve catcht. You’ve catcht a sea witch. That’s the end o’ her. But ye’ll never catch me because
I’ll no be nae use to ye. The best thing ye can do is forget all about me, and never again – let that be a lesson to you – never, never try and catch a mermaid!’ And she disappeared.

Jack turned round. He walked home and tellt this story to his mother. From that day on till the day that he went off the Earth, Jack never again tried to catch a mermaid.

And that’s the last o’ my story.

Many years ago, in a faraway land, there wonst lived a fisherman, and him and his wife didna have any family. He stayed by the beach and all their life’s work depended on what he could catch. Some days he caught very little and some days he caught a lot. When he caught a lot of fish his wife was very happy, but when he caught very little his wife was very upset. So it was very hard to please her because she was a very unpleasant woman. The poor fisherman loved her dearly and they didna have any children, so he tried his best every day to catch as much as possible.

One day he cast his nets and the sun was shining beautiful in a deep pool that he’d never fished before behind some rocks, wonderful rocks covered with seaweed. And he said, ‘Today I must catch something!’

And then he pulled the net out. Lo and behold, he pulled . . . it seemed to be stuck in some way. He pulled it and he pulled it, but there was not one fish in the net. But he pulled it out – then it came up – a man was caught in his net, tangled, and his arms were through the net. And the fisherman pulled, and he pulled and he pulled. He was upset.