180 GLOOSCAP AND OTHER STORIES Ilei, ho, he hum! Hei, ho, he, hum! Our country, now lost, Seems now to us, To be blue, like the clear, blue sky." Now the Badger might sing and make sport if he pleased. The Culloo had not brought him there for fun, but to give him a dreadful pun¬ ishment for his mischief and his sins. So the giant Culloo seized him and threw him over the edge of the cliff, that he might be dashed to pieces upon the rocks below. Down headlong fell the Badger at a terrible rate, but even then his merriment did not fail him. His enemy, the Culloo, was closely pur¬ suing him. The Badger heard him coming, swishing his wings. "Hurrah for a race!" called out the Badger, making a noise to imitate the swish of the Culloo's great wings. But as the Badger came nearer to the earth he grew sober. He was falling so fast, he knew that he would soon be dashed to pieces against the rocks. "Oh, spare my poor backbone!" he shouted— and he said it just in time, for in another in¬ stant he was dashed into fragments against the rocks! Now the backbone of the Badger had been enchanted into safety by the magical cry,