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diff --git a/7098-8.txt b/7098-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e2ad6e --- /dev/null +++ b/7098-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5227 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the +Atlantic, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson +#4 in our series by Thomas Wentworth Higginson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic + +Author: Thomas Wentworth Higginson + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7098] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 10, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCHANTED ISLANDS OF ATLANTIC *** + + + + +Produced by Nathan Harris, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +TALES OF THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS OF THE ATLANTIC + + +BY + +THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON + + +TO + +General Sir George Wentworth Higginson, K. C. B. + +_Gyldernscroft, Marlow, England_ + + + +THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED, IN TOKEN OF KINDRED AND OF OLD FAMILY +FRIENDSHIPS, CORDIALLY PRESERVED INTO THE PRESENT GENERATION + + +THESE LEGENDS UNITE THE TWO SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC AND FORM A PART OF THE +COMMON HERITAGE OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING RACE + + + + +Preface + +Hawthorne in his _Wonder Book_ has described the beautiful Greek +myths and traditions, but no one has yet made similar use of the wondrous +tales that gathered for more than a thousand years about the islands of +the Atlantic deep. Although they are a part of the mythical period of +American history, these hazy legends were altogether disdained by the +earlier historians; indeed, George Bancroft made it a matter of actual +pride that the beginning of the American annals was bare and literal. But +in truth no national history has been less prosaic as to its earlier +traditions, because every visitor had to cross the sea to reach it, and +the sea has always been, by the mystery of its horizon, the fury of its +storms, and the variableness of the atmosphere above it, the foreordained +land of romance. + +In all ages and with all sea-going races there has always been something +especially fascinating about an island amid the ocean. Its very existence +has for all explorers an air of magic. An island offers to us heights +rising from depths; it exhibits that which is most fixed beside that which +is most changeable, the fertile beside the barren, and safety after +danger. The ocean forever tends to encroach on the island, the island upon +the ocean. They exist side by side, friends yet enemies. The island +signifies safety in calm, and yet danger in storm; in a tempest the sailor +rejoices that he is not near it; even if previously bound for it, he puts +about and steers for the open sea. Often if he seeks it he cannot reach +it. The present writer spent a winter on the island of Fayal, and saw in a +storm a full-rigged ship drift through the harbor disabled, having lost +her anchors; and it was a week before she again made the port. + +There are groups of islands scattered over the tropical ocean, +especially, to which might well be given Herman Melville's name, "Las +Encantadas," the Enchanted Islands. These islands, usually volcanic, have +no vegetation but cactuses or wiry bushes with strange names; no +inhabitants but insects and reptiles--lizards, spiders, snakes,--with vast +tortoises which seem of immemorial age, and are coated with seaweed and +the slime of the ocean. If there are any birds, it is the strange and +heavy penguin, the passing albatross, or the Mother Cary's chicken, which +has been called the humming bird of ocean, and here finds a place for its +young. By night these birds come for their repose; at earliest dawn they +take wing and hover over the sea, leaving the isle deserted. The only busy +or beautiful life which always surrounds it is that of a myriad species of +fish, of all forms and shapes, and often more gorgeous than any +butterflies in gold and scarlet and yellow. + +Once set foot on such an island and you begin at once to understand the +legends of enchantment which ages have collected around such spots. Climb +to its heights, you seem at the masthead of some lonely vessel, kept +forever at sea. You feel as if no one but yourself had ever landed there; +and yet, perhaps, even there, looking straight downward, you see below you +in some crevice of the rock a mast or spar of some wrecked vessel, +encrusted with all manner of shells and uncouth vegetable growth. No +matter how distant the island or how peacefully it seems to lie upon the +water, there may be perplexing currents that ever foam and swirl about it +--currents which are, at all tides and in the calmest weather, as dangerous +as any tempest, and which make compass untrustworthy and helm powerless. +It is to be remembered also that an island not only appears and disappears +upon the horizon in brighter or darker skies, but it varies its height and +shape, doubles itself in mirage, or looks as if broken asunder, divided +into two or three. Indeed the buccaneer, Cowley, writing of one such +island which he had visited, says: "My fancy led me to call it Cowley's +Enchanted Isle, for we having had a sight of it upon several points of the +compass, it appeared always in so many different forms; sometimes like a +ruined fortification; upon another point like a great city." + +If much of this is true even now, it was far truer before the days of +Columbus, when men were constantly looking westward across the Atlantic, +and wondering what was beyond. In those days, when no one knew with +certainty whether the ocean they observed was a sea or a vast lake, it was +often called "The Sea of Darkness." A friend of the Latin poet, Ovid, +describing the first approach to this sea, says that as you sail out upon +it the day itself vanishes, and the world soon ends in perpetual +darkness:-- + + "Quo Ferimur? Ruit ipsa Dies, orbemque relictum + Ultima perpetuis claudit natura tenebris." + +Nevertheless, it was the vague belief of many nations that the abodes of +the blest lay somewhere beyond it--in the "other world," a region half +earthly, half heavenly, whence the spirits of the departed could not cross +the water to return;--and so they were constantly imagining excursions +made by favored mortals to enchanted islands. To add to the confusion, +actual islands in the Atlantic were sometimes discovered and actually lost +again, as, for instance, the Canaries, which were reached and called the +Fortunate Isles a little before the Christian era, and were then lost to +sight for thirteen centuries ere being visited again. + +The glamour of enchantment was naturally first attached by Europeans to +islands within sight of their own shores--Irish, Welsh, Breton, or +Spanish,--and then, as these islands became better known, men's +imaginations carried the mystery further out over the unknown western sea. +The line of legend gradually extended itself till it formed an imaginary +chart for Columbus; the aged astronomer, Toscanelli, for instance, +suggesting to him the advantage of making the supposed island of Antillia +a half-way station; just as it was proposed, long centuries after, to find +a station for the ocean telegraph in the equally imaginary island of +Jacquet, which has only lately disappeared from the charts. With every +step in knowledge the line of fancied stopping-places rearranged itself, +the fictitious names flitting from place to place on the maps, and +sometimes duplicating themselves. Where the tradition itself has vanished +we find that the names with which it associated itself are still assigned, +as in case of Brazil and the Antilles, to wholly different localities. + +The order of the tales in the present work follows roughly the order of +development, giving first the legends which kept near the European shore, +and then those which, like St. Brandan's or Antillia, were assigned to the +open sea or, like Norumbega or the Isle of Demons, to the very coast of +America. Every tale in this book bears reference to some actual legend, +followed more or less closely, and the authorities for each will be found +carefully given in the appendix for such readers as may care to follow the +subject farther. It must be remembered that some of these imaginary +islands actually remained on the charts of the British admiralty until +within a century. If even the exact science of geographers retained them +thus long, surely romance should embalm them forever. + +CAMBRIDGE, MASS. + + + +Contents + +I. The Story of Atlantis + +II. Taliessin of the Radiant Brow + +III. The Swan-Children of Lir + +IV. Usheen in the Island of Youth + +V. Bran the Blessed + +VI. The Castle of the Active Door + +VII. Merlin the Enchanter + +VIII. Sir Lancelot of the Lake + +IX. The Half-Man + +X. King Arthur at Avalon + +XI. Maelduin's Voyage + +XII. The Voyage of St. Brandan + +XIII. Kirwan's Search for Hy-Brasail + +XIV. The Isle of Satan's Hand + +XV. Antillia, the Island of the Seven Cities + +XVI. Harald the Viking + +XVII. The Search for Norumbega + +XVIII. The Guardians of the St. Lawrence + +XIX. The Island of Demons + +XX. Bimini and the Fountain of Youth + +_Notes_ + + + + +I + +THE STORY OF ATLANTIS + + +The Greek sage Socrates, when he was but a boy minding his father's +goats, used to lie on the grass under the myrtle trees; and, while the +goats grazed around him, he loved to read over and over the story which +Solon, the law-giver and poet, wrote down for the great-grandfather of +Socrates, and which Solon had always meant to make into a poem, though he +died without doing it. But this was briefly what he wrote in prose:-- + +"I, Solon, was never in my life so surprised as when I went to Egypt for +instruction in my youth, and there, in the temple of Sais, saw an aged +priest who told me of the island of Atlantis, which was sunk in the sea +thousands of years ago. He said that in the division of the earth the gods +agreed that the god Poseidon, or Neptune, should have, as his share, this +great island which then lay in the ocean west of the Mediterranean Sea, +and was larger than all Asia. There was a mortal maiden there whom +Poseidon wished to marry, and to secure her he surrounded the valley where +she dwelt with three rings of sea and two of land so that no one could +enter; and he made underground springs, with water hot or cold, and +supplied all things needful to the life of man. Here he lived with her for +many years, and they had ten sons; and these sons divided the island among +them and had many children, who dwelt there for more than a thousand +years. They had mines of gold and silver, and pastures for elephants, and +many fragrant plants. They erected palaces and dug canals; and they built +their temples of white, red, and black stone, and covered them with gold +and silver. In these were statues of gold, especially one of the god +Poseidon driving six winged horses. He was so large as to touch the roof +with his head, and had a hundred water-nymphs around him, riding on +dolphins. The islanders had also baths and gardens and sea-walls, and they +had twelve hundred ships and ten thousand chariots. All this was in the +royal city alone, and the people were friendly and good and +well-affectioned towards all. But as time went on they grew less so, and +they did not obey the laws, so that they offended heaven. In a single day +and night the island disappeared and sank beneath the sea; and this is why +the sea in that region grew so impassable and impenetrable, because there +is a quantity of shallow mud in the way, and this was caused by the +sinking of a single vast island." + +"This is the tale," said Solon, "which the old Egyptian priest told to +me." And Solon's tale was read by Socrates, the boy, as he lay in the +grass; and he told it to his friends after he grew up, as is written in +his dialogues recorded by his disciple, Plato. And though this great +island of Atlantis has never been seen again, yet a great many smaller +islands have been found in the Atlantic Ocean, and they have sometimes +been lost to sight and found again. + +There is, also, in this ocean a vast tract of floating seaweed, called by +sailors the Sargasso Sea,--covering a region as large as France,--and this +has been thought by many to mark the place of a sunken island. There are +also many islands, such as the Azores, which have been supposed at +different times to be fragments of Atlantis; and besides all this, the +remains of the vanished island have been looked for in all parts of the +world. Some writers have thought it was in Sweden, others in Spitzbergen, +others in Africa, in Palestine, in America. Since the depth of the +Atlantic has been more thoroughly sounded, a few writers have maintained +that the inequalities of its floor show some traces of the submerged +Atlantis, but the general opinion of men of science is quite the other +way. The visible Atlantic islands are all, or almost all, they say, of +volcanic origin; and though there are ridges in the bottom of the ocean, +they do not connect the continents. + +At any rate, this was the original story of Atlantis, and the legends +which follow in these pages have doubtless all grown, more or less, out of +this first tale which Socrates told. + + + +II + +TALIESSIN OF THE RADIANT BROW + +In times past there were enchanted islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the +coast of Wales, and even now the fishermen sometimes think they see them. +On one of these there lived a man named Tegid Voel and his wife called +Cardiwen. They had a son, the ugliest boy in the world, and Cardiwen +formed a plan to make him more attractive by teaching him all possible +wisdom. She was a great magician and resolved to boil a large caldron full +of knowledge for her son, so that he might know all things and be able to +predict all that was to happen. Then she thought people would value him in +spite of his ugliness. But she knew that the caldron must burn a year and +a day without ceasing, until three blessed drops of the water of knowledge +were obtained from it; and those three drops would give all the wisdom she +wanted. + +So she put a boy named Gwion to stir the caldron and a blind man named +Morda to feed the fire; and made them promise never to let it cease +boiling for a year and a day. She herself kept gathering magic herbs and +putting them into it. One day when the year was nearly over, it chanced +that three drops of the liquor flew out of the caldron and fell on the +finger of Gwion. They were fiery hot, and he put his finger to his mouth, +and the instant he tasted them he knew that they were the enchanted drops +for which so much trouble had been taken. By their magic he at once +foresaw all that was to come, and especially that Cardiwen the enchantress +would never forgive him. + +Then Gwion fled. The caldron burst in two, and all the liquor flowed +forth, poisoning some horses which drank it. These horses belonged to a +king named Gwyddno. Cardiwen came in and saw all the toil of the whole +year lost. Seizing a stick of wood, she struck the blind man Morda +fiercely on the head, but he said, "I am innocent. It was not I who did +it." "True," said Cardiwen; "it was the boy Gwion who robbed me;" and she +rushed to pursue him. He saw her and fled, changing into a hare; but she +became a greyhound and followed him. Running to the water, he became a +fish; but she became another and chased him below the waves. He turned +himself into a bird, when she became a hawk and gave him no rest in the +sky. Just as she swooped on him, he espied a pile of winnowed wheat on the +floor of a barn, and dropping upon it, he became one of the wheat-grains. +Changing herself into a high-crested black hen, Cardiwen scratched him up +and swallowed him, when he changed at last into a boy again and was so +beautiful that she could not kill him outright, but wrapped him in a +leathern bag and cast him into the sea, committing him to the mercy of +God. This was on the twenty-ninth of April. + +Now Gwyddno had a weir for catching fish on the sea-strand near his +castle, and every day in May he was wont to take a hundred pounds' worth +of fish. He had a son named Elphin, who was always poor and unsuccessful, +but that year the father had given the son leave to draw all the fish from +the weir, to see if good luck would ever befall him and give him something +with which to begin the world. + +When Elphin went next to draw the weir, the man who had charge of it said +in pity, "Thou art always unlucky; there is nothing in the weir but a +leathern bag, which is caught on one of the poles." "How do we know," said +Elphin, "that it may not contain the value of a hundred pounds?" Taking up +the bag and opening it, the man saw the forehead of the boy and said to +Elphin, "Behold, what a radiant brow" (Taliessin). "Let him be called +Taliessin," said Elphin. Then he lifted the boy and placed him sorrowfully +behind him; and made his horse amble gently, that before had been +trotting, and carried him as softly as if he had been sitting in the +easiest chair in the world, and the boy of the radiant brow made a song to +Elphin as they went along. + + "Never in Gwyddno's weir + Was there such good luck as this night. + Fair Elphin, dry thy cheeks! + Being too sad will not avail, + Although thou thinkest thou hast no gain. + Too much grief will bring thee no good; + Nor doubt the miracles of the Almighty: + Although I am but little, I am highly gifted. + From seas, and from mountains, + And from the depths of rivers, + God brings wealth to the fortunate man. + Elphin of lively qualities, + Thy resolution is unmanly: + Thou must not be oversorrowful: + Better to trust in God than to forebode ill. + Weak and small as I am, + On the foaming beach of the ocean, + In the day of trouble I shall be + Of more service to thee than three hundred salmon. + Elphin of notable qualities, + Be not displeased at thy misfortune: + Although reclined thus weak in my bag, + There lies a virtue in my tongue. + While I continue thy protector + Thou hast not much to fear." + +Then Elphin asked him, "Art thou man or spirit?" And in answer the boy +sang to him this tale of his flight from the woman:-- + + "I have fled with vigor, I have fled as a frog, + I have fled in the semblance of a crow scarcely finding rest; + I have fled vehemently, I have fled as a chain of lightning, + I have fled as a roe into an entangled thicket; + I have fled as a wolf-cub, I have fled as a wolf in the wilderness, + I have fled as a fox used to many swift bounds and quirks; + I have fled as a martin, which did not avail; + I have fled as a squirrel that vainly hides, + I have fled as a stag's antler, of ruddy course, + I have fled as an iron in a glowing fire, + I have fled as a spear-head, of woe to such as have a wish for it; + I have fled as a fierce bull bitterly fighting, + I have fled as a bristly boar seen in a ravine, + I have fled as a white grain of pure wheat; + Into a dark leathern bag I was thrown, + And on a boundless sea I was sent adrift; + + + Which was to me an omen of being tenderly nursed, + And the Lord God then set me at liberty." + +Then Elphin came with Taliessin to the house of his father, and Gwyddno +asked him if he had a good haul at the fish-weir. "I have something better +than fish." "What is that?" asked the father. "I have a bard," said +Elphin. "Alas, what will he profit thee?" said Gwyddno, to which Taliessin +replied, "He will profit him more than the weir ever profited thee." Said +Gwyddno, "Art thou able to speak, and thou so little?" Then Taliessin +said, "I am better able to speak than thou to question me." + +From this time Elphin always prospered, and he and his wife cared for +Taliessin tenderly and lovingly, and the boy dwelt with him until he was +thirteen years old, when Elphin went to make a Christmas visit to his +uncle Maelgwyn, who was a great king and held open court. There were four +and twenty bards there, and all proclaimed that no king had a wife so +beautiful as the queen, or a bard so wise as the twenty-four, who all +agreed upon this decision. Elphin said, on the contrary, that it was he +himself who had the most beautiful wife and the wisest bard, and for this +he was thrown into prison. Taliessin learning this, set forth from home to +visit the palace and free his adoptive father, Elphin. + +In those days it was the custom of kings to sit in the hall and dine in +royal state with lords and bards about them who should keep proclaiming +the greatness and glory of the king and his knights. Taliessin placed +himself in a quiet corner, waiting for the four and twenty bards to pass, +and as each one passed by, Taliessin made an ugly face, and gave a sound +with his finger on his lips, thus, "Blerwm, Blerwm." Each bard went by and +bowed himself before the king, but instead of beginning to chant his +praises, could only play "Blerwm, Blerwm" on the lips, as the boy had +done. The king was amazed and thought they must be intoxicated, so he sent +one of his lords to them, telling them to behave themselves and remember +where they were. Twice and thrice he told them, but they could only repeat +the same foolishness, until at last the king ordered one of his squires to +give a blow to the chief bard, and the squire struck him a blow with a +broom, so that he fell back on his seat. Then he arose and knelt before +the king, and said, "Oh, honorable king, be it known unto your grace that +it is not from too much drinking that we are dumb, but through the +influence of a spirit which sits in the corner yonder in the form of a +child." Then the king bade a squire to bring Taliessin before him, and he +asked the boy who he was. He answered:-- + + "Primary chief bard I am to Elphin, + And my original country is the region of the summer stars; + I am a wonder whose origin is not known; + I have been fostered in the land of the Deity, + I have been teacher to all intelligences, + I am able to instruct the whole universe. + I was originally little Gwion, + And at length I am Taliessin." + +Then the king and his nobles wondered much, for they had never heard the +like from a boy so young. The king then called his wisest bard to answer +Taliessin, but he could only play "Blerwm" on his lips as before, and +each of the king's four and twenty bards tried in the same way and could +do nothing more. Then the king bade Taliessin sing again, and he began:-- + + "Discover thou what is + The strong creature from before the flood, + Without flesh, without bone, + Without vein, without blood, + Without head, without feet; + It will neither be older nor younger + Than at the beginning; + Great God! how the sea whitens + When first it comes! + Great are its gusts + When it comes from the south; + Great are its evaporations + When it strikes on coasts. + It is in the field, it is in the wood, + Without hand and without foot, + Without signs of old age, + It is also so wide, + As the surface of the earth; + And it was not born, + Nor was it seen. + It will cause consternation + Wherever God willeth. + On sea and on land + + It neither sees, nor is seen. + Its course is devious, + And will not come when desired. + On land and on sea + It is indispensable. + It is without equal, + It is many-sided; + It is not confined, + It is incomparable; + It comes from four quarters; + It is noxious, it is beneficial; + It is yonder, it is here; + It will decompose, + But it will not repair the injury; + It will not suffer for its doings, + Seeing it is blameless. + One Being has prepared it, + Out of all creatures, + By a tremendous blast, + To wreak vengeance + On Maelgwyn Gwynedd." + +And while he was thus singing his verse near the door, there came +suddenly a mighty storm of wind, so that the king and all his nobles +thought the castle would fall on their heads. They saw that Taliessin had +not merely been singing the song of the wind, but seemed to have power to +command it. Then the king hastily ordered that Elphin should be brought +from his dungeon and placed before Taliessin, and the chains came loose +from his feet, and he was set free. + +As they rode away from the court, the king and his courtiers rode with +them, and Taliessin bade Elphin propose a race with the king's horses. +Four and twenty horses were chosen, and Taliessin got four and twenty +twigs of holly which he had burnt black, and he ordered the youth who was +to ride Elphin's horse to let all the others set off before him, and bade +him as he overtook each horse to strike him with a holly twig and throw it +down. Then he had him watch where his own horse should stumble and throw +down his cap at the place. The race being won, Taliessin brought his +master to the spot where the cap lay; and put workmen to dig a hole there. +When they had dug deeply enough they found a caldron full of gold, and +Taliessin said, "Elphin, this is my payment to thee for having taken me +from the water and reared me until now." And on this spot stands a pool of +water until this day. + + + +III + +THE SWAN-CHILDREN OF LIR + + +King Lir of Erin had four young children who were cared for tenderly at +first by their stepmother, the new queen; but there came a time when she +grew jealous of the love their father bore them, and resolved that she +would endure it no longer. Sometimes there was murder in her heart, but +she could not bear the thought of that wickedness, and she resolved at +last to choose another way to rid herself of them. One day she took them +to drive in her chariot:--Finola, who was eight years old, with her three +younger brothers,--Aodh, Fiacre, and little Conn, still a baby. They were +beautiful children, the legend says, with skins white and soft as swans' +feathers, and with large blue eyes and very sweet voices. Reaching a lake, +she told them that they might bathe in the clear water; but so soon as +they were in it she struck them with a fairy wand,--for she was of the +race of the Druids, who had magical power,--and she turned them into four +beautiful snow-white swans. But they still had human voices, and Finola +said to her, "This wicked deed of thine shall be punished, for the doom +that awaits thee will surely be worse than ours." Then Finola asked, "How +long shall we be in the shape of swans?" "For three hundred years," said +the woman, "on smooth Lake Darvra; then three hundred years on the sea of +Moyle" (this being the sea between Ireland and Scotland); "and then three +hundred years at Inis Glora, in the Great Western Sea" (this was a rocky +island in the Atlantic). "Until the Tailkenn (St. Patrick) shall come to +Ireland and bring the Christian faith, and until you hear the Christian +bell, you shall not be freed. Neither your power nor mine can now bring +you back to human shape; but you shall keep your human reason and your +Gaelic speech, and you shall sing music so sweet that all who hear it +shall gladly listen." + +She left them, and ere long their father, King Lir, came to the shore and +heard their singing. He asked how they came to have human voices. "We are +thy four children," said Finola, "changed into swans by our stepmother's +jealousy." "Then come and live with me," said her sorrowing father. "We +are not permitted to leave the lake," she said, "or live with our people +any more. But we are allowed to dwell together and to keep our reason and +our speech, and to sing sweet music to you." Then they sang, and the king +and all his followers were at first amazed and then lulled to sleep. + +Then King Lir returned and met the cruel stepmother at her father's +palace. When her father, King Bove, was told what she had done, he was hot +with anger. "This wicked deed," he said, "shall bring severer punishment +on thee than on the innocent children, for their suffering shall end, but +thine never shall." Then King Bove asked her what form of existence would +be most terrible to her. She replied, "That of a demon of the air." "Be it +so," said her father, who had also Druidical power. He struck her with his +wand, and she became a bat, and flew away with a scream, and the legend +says, "She is still a demon of the air and shall be a demon of the air +until the end of time." + +After this, the people of all the races that were in Erin used to come +and encamp by the lake and listen to the swans. The happy were made +happier by the song, and those who were in grief or illness or pain forgot +their sorrows and were lulled to rest. There was peace in all that region, +while war and tumult filled other lands. Vast changes took place in three +centuries--towers and castles rose and fell, villages were built and +destroyed, generations were born and died;--and still the swan-children +lived and sang, until at the end of three hundred years they flew away, as +was decreed, to the stormy sea of Moyle; and from that time it was made a +law that no one should kill a swan in Erin. + +Beside the sea of Moyle they found no longer the peaceful and wooded +shores they had known, but only steep and rocky coasts and a wild, wild +sea. There came a great storm one night, and the swans knew that they +could not keep together, so they resolved that if separated they would +meet at a rock called Carricknarone. Finola reached there first, and took +her brothers under her wings, all wet, shivering, and exhausted. Many such +nights followed, and in one terrible winter storm, when they nestled +together on Carricknarone, the water froze into solid ice around them, and +their feet and wings were so frozen to the rock that when they moved they +left the skin of their feet, the quills of their wings, and the feathers +of their breasts clinging there. When the ice melted, and they swam out +into the sea, their bodies smarted with pain until the feathers grew once +more. + +One day they saw a glittering troop of horsemen approaching along the +shore and knew that they were their own kindred, though from far +generations back, the Dedannen or Fairy Host. They greeted each other with +joy, for the Fairy Host had been sent to seek for the swans; and on +returning to their chiefs they narrated what had passed, and the chiefs +said, "We cannot help them, but we are glad they are living; and we know +that at last the enchantment will be broken and that they will be freed +from their sorrows." So passed their lives until Finola sang, one day, +"The Second Woe has passed--the second period of three hundred years," +when they flew out on the broad ocean, as was decreed, and went to the +island of Inis Glora. There they spent the next three hundred years, amid +yet wilder storms and yet colder winds. No more the peaceful shepherds and +living neighbors were around them; but often the sailor and fisherman, in +his little coracle, saw the white gleam of their wings or heard the sweet +notes of their song and knew that the children of Lir were near. + +But the time came when the nine hundred years of banishment were ended, +and they might fly back to their father's old home, Finnahà. Flying for +days above the sea, they alighted at the palace once so well known, but +everything was changed by time--even the walls of their father's palace +were crumbled and rain-washed. So sad was the sight that they remained one +day only, and flew back to Inis Glora, thinking that if they must be +forever solitary, they would live where they had lived last, not where +they had been reared. + +One May morning, as the children of Lir floated in the air around the +island of Inis Glora, they heard a faint bell sounding across the eastern +sea. The mist lifted, and they saw afar off, beyond the waves, a vision of +a stately white-robed priest, with attendants around him on the Irish +shore. They knew that it must be St. Patrick, the Tailkenn, or Tonsured +One, who was bringing, as had been so long promised, Christianity to +Ireland. Sailing through the air, above the blue sea, towards their native +coast, they heard the bell once more, now near and distinct, and they knew +that all evil spirits were fleeing away, and that their own hopes were to +be fulfilled. As they approached the land, St. Patrick stretched his hand +and said, "Children of Lir, you may tread your native land again." And the +sweet swan-sister, Finola, said, "If we tread our native land, it can only +be to die, after our life of nine centuries. Baptize us while we are yet +living." When they touched the shore, the weight of all those centuries +fell upon them; they resumed their human bodies, but they appeared old and +pale and wrinkled. Then St. Patrick baptized them, and they died; but, +even as he did so, a change swiftly came over them; and they lay side by +side, once more children, in their white night-clothes, as when their +father Lir, long centuries ago, had kissed them at evening and seen their +blue eyes close in sleep and had touched with gentle hand their white +foreheads and their golden hair. Their time of sorrow was ended and their +last swan-song was sung; but the cruel stepmother seems yet to survive in +her bat-like shape, and a single glance at her weird and malicious little +face will lead us to doubt whether she has yet fully atoned for her sin. + + + +IV + +USHEEN IN THE ISLAND OF YOUTH + + +The old Celtic hero and poet Usheen or Oisin, whose supposed songs are +known in English as those of Ossian, lived to a great old age, surviving +all others of the race of the Feni, to which he belonged; and he was asked +in his last years what had given him such length of life. This is the tale +he told:-- + +After the fatal battle of Gavra, in which most of the Feni were killed, +Usheen and his father, the king, and some of the survivors of the battle +were hunting the deer with their dogs, when they met a maiden riding on a +slender white horse with hoofs of gold, and with a golden crescent between +his ears. The maiden's hair was of the color of citron and was gathered in +a silver band; and she was clad in a white garment embroidered with +strange devices. She asked them why they rode slowly and seemed sad, and +not like other hunters; and they replied that it was because of the death +of their friends and the ruin of their race. When they asked her in turn +whence she came, and why, and whether she was married, she replied that +she had never had a lover or a husband, but that she had crossed the sea +for the love of the great hero and bard Usheen, whom she had never seen. +Then Usheen was overcome with love for her, but she said that to wed her +he must follow her across the sea to the Island of Perpetual Youth. There +he would have a hundred horses and a hundred sheep and a hundred silken +robes, a hundred swords, a hundred bows, and a hundred youths to follow +him; while she would have a hundred maidens to wait on her. But how, he +asked, was he to reach this island? He was to mount her horse and ride +behind her. So he did this, and the slender white horse, not feeling his +weight, dashed across the waves of the ocean, which did not yield beneath +his tread. They galloped across the very sea, and the maiden, whose name +was Niam, sang to him as they rode, and this so enchantingly that he +scarcely knew whether hours passed or days. Sometimes deer ran by them +over the water, followed by red-eared hounds in full chase; sometimes a +maiden holding up an apple of gold; sometimes a beautiful youth; but they +themselves rode on always westward. + +At last they drew near an island which was not, Niam said, the island +they were seeking; but it was one where a beautiful princess was kept +under a spell until some defender should slay a cruel giant who held her +under enchantment until she should either wed him or furnish a defender. +The youth Usheen, being an Irishman and not easily frightened, naturally +offered his services as defender, and they waited three days and nights to +carry on the conflict. He had fought at home--so the legend says--with +wild boars, with foreign invaders, and with enchanters, but he never had +quite so severe a contest as with this giant; but after he had cut off his +opponent's head and had been healed with precious balm by the beautiful +princess, he buried the giant's body in a deep grave and placed above it a +great stone engraved in the Ogham alphabet--in which all the letters are +given in straight lines. + +After this he and Niam again mounted the white steed and galloped away +over the waves. Niam was again singing, when soft music began to be heard +in the distance, as if in the centre of the setting sun. They drew nearer +and nearer to a shore where the very trees trembled with the multitude of +birds that sang upon them; and when they reached the shore, Niam gave one +note of song, and a band of youths and maidens came rushing towards them +and embraced them with eagerness. Then they too sang, and as they did it, +one brought to Usheen a harp of silver and bade him sing of earthly joys. +He found himself chanting, as he thought, with peculiar spirit and melody, +but as he told them of human joys they kept still and began to weep, till +at last one of them seized the silver harp and flung it away into a pool +of water, saying, "It is the saddest harp in all the world." + +Then he forgot all the human joys which seemed to those happy people only +as sorrows compared with their own; and he dwelt with them thenceforward +in perpetual youth. For a hundred years he chased the deer and went +fishing in strangely carved boats and joined in the athletic sports of the +young men; for a hundred years the gentle Niam was his wife. + +But one day, when Usheen was by the beach, there floated to his feet what +seemed a wooden staff, and he drew it from the waves. It was the battered +fragment of a warrior's lance. The blood stains of war were still on it, +and as he looked at it he recalled the old days of the Feni, the wars and +tumult of his youth; and how he had outlived his tribe and all had passed +away. Niam came softly to him and rested against his shoulder, but it did +not soothe his pain, and he heard one of the young men watching him say to +another, "The human sadness has come back into his eyes." The people +around stood watching him, all sharing his sorrow, and knowing that his +time of happiness was over and that he would go back among men. So indeed +it was; Niam and Usheen mounted the white steed again and galloped away +over the sea, but she had warned him when they mounted that he must never +dismount for an instant, for that if he once touched the earth, she and +the steed would vanish forever, that his youth too would disappear, and +that he would be left alone on earth--an old man whose whole generation +had vanished. + +They passed, as before, over the sea; the same visions hovered around +them, youths and maidens and animals of the chase; they passed by many +islands, and at last reached the shore of Erin again. As they travelled +over its plains and among its hills, Oisin looked in vain for his old +companions. A little people had taken their place,--small men and women, +mounted on horses as small;--and these people gazed in wonder at the +mighty Usheen. "We have heard," they said, "of the hero Finn, and the +poets have written many tales of him and of his people, the Feni. We have +read in old books that he had a son Usheen who went away with a fairy +maiden; but he was never seen again, and there is no race of the Feni +left." Yet refusing to believe this, and always looking round for the +people whom he had known and loved of old, he thought within himself that +perhaps the Feni were not to be seen because they were hunting fierce +wolves by night, as they used to do in his boyhood, and that they were +therefore sleeping in the daytime; but again an old man said to him, "The +Feni are dead." Then he remembered that it was a hundred years, and that +his very race had perished, and he turned with contempt on the little men +and their little horses. Three hundred of them as he rode by were trying +to lift a vast stone, but they staggered under its weight, and at last +fell and lay beneath it; then leaning from his saddle Usheen lifted the +stone with one hand and flung it five yards. But with the strain the +saddle girth broke, and Usheen came to the ground; the white steed shook +himself and neighed, then galloped away, bearing Niam with him, and Usheen +lay with all his strength gone from him--a feeble old man. The Island of +Youth could only be known by those who dwelt always within it, and those +mortals who had once left it could dwell there no more. + + + +V + +BRAN THE BLESSED + + +The mighty king Bran, a being of gigantic size, sat one day on the cliffs +of his island in the Atlantic Ocean, near to Hades and the Gates of Night, +when he saw ships sailing towards him and sent men to ask what they were. +They were a fleet sent by Matholweh, the king of Ireland, who had sent to +ask for Branwen, Bran's sister, as his wife. Without moving from his rock +Bran bid the monarch land, and sent Branwen back with him as queen. + +But there came a time when Branwen was ill-treated at the palace; they +sent her into the kitchen and made her cook for the court, and they caused +the butcher to come every day (after he had cut up the meat) and give her +a blow on the ear. They also drew up all their boats on the shore for +three years, that she might not send for her brother. But she reared a +starling in the cover of the kneading-trough, taught it to speak, and told +it how to find her brother; and then she wrote a letter describing her +sorrows and bound it to the bird's wing, and it flew to the island and +alighted on Bran's shoulder, "ruffling its feathers" (says the Welsh +legend) "so that the letter was seen, and they knew that the bird had been +reared in a domestic manner." Then Bran resolved to cross the sea, but he +had to wade through the water, as no ship had yet been built large enough +to hold him; and he carried all his musicians (pipers) on his shoulders. +As he approached the Irish shore, men ran to the king, saying that they +had seen a forest on the sea, where there never before had been a tree, +and that they had also seen a mountain which moved. Then the king asked +Branwen, the queen, what it could be. She answered, "These are the men of +the Island of the Mighty, who have come hither to protect me." "What is +the forest?" they asked. "The yards and masts of ships." "What mountain is +that by the side of the ships?" "It is Bran my brother, coming to the +shoal water and rising." "What is the lofty ridge with the lake on each +side?" "That is his nose," she said, "and the two lakes are his fierce +eyes." + +Then the people were terrified: there was yet a river for Bran to pass, +and they broke down the bridge which crossed it, but Bran laid himself +down and said, "Who will be a chief, let him be a bridge." Then his men +laid hurdles on his back, and the whole army crossed over; and that saying +of his became afterwards a proverb. Then the Irish resolved, in order to +appease the mighty visitor, to build him a house, because he had never +before had one that would hold him; and they decided to make the house +large enough to contain the two armies, one on each side. They accordingly +built this house, and there were a hundred pillars, and the builders +treacherously hung a leathern bag on each side of each pillar and put an +armed man inside of each, so that they could all rise by night and kill +the sleepers. But Bran's brother, who was a suspicious man, asked the +builders what was in the first bag. "Meal, good soul," they answered; and +he, putting his hand in, felt a man's head and crushed it with his mighty +fingers, and so with the next and the next and with the whole two hundred. +After this it did not take long to bring on a quarrel between the two +armies, and they fought all day. + +After this great fight between the men of Ireland and the men of the +Isles of the Mighty there were but seven of these last who escaped, +besides their king Bran, who was wounded in the foot with a poisoned dart. +Then he knew that he should soon die, but he bade the seven men to cut off +his head and told them that they must always carry it with them--that it +would never decay and would always be able to speak and be pleasant +company for them. "A long time will you be on the road," he said. "In +Harlech you will feast seven years, the birds of Rhiannon singing to you +all the while. And at the Island of Gwales you will dwell for fourscore +years, and you may remain there, bearing the head with you uncorrupted, +until you open the door that looks towards the mainland; and after you +have once opened that door you can stay no longer, but must set forth to +London to bury the head, leaving it there to look toward France." + +So they went on to Harlech and there stopped to rest, and sat down to eat +and drink. And there came three birds, which began singing a certain song, +and all the songs they had ever heard were unpleasant compared with it; +and the songs seemed to them to be at a great distance from them, over the +sea, yet the notes were heard as distinctly as if they were close by; and +it is said that at this repast they continued seven years. At the close of +this time they went forth to an island in the sea called Gwales. There +they found a fair and regal spot overlooking the ocean and a spacious hall +built for them. They went into it and found two of its doors open, but the +third door, looking toward Cornwall, was closed. "See yonder," said their +leader Manawydan; "that is the door we may not open." And that night they +regaled themselves and were joyful. And of all they had seen of food laid +before them, and of all they had heard said, they remembered nothing; +neither of that, nor of any sorrow whatsoever. There they remained +fourscore years, unconscious of having ever spent a time more joyous and +mirthful. And they were not more weary than when first they came, neither +did they, any of them, know the time they had been there. It was not more +irksome for them to have the head with them, than if Bran the Blessed had +been with them himself. And because of these fourscore years, it was +called "The Entertaining of the Noble Head." + +One day said Heilwyn the son of Gwyn, "Evil betide me, if I do not open +the door to know if that is true which is said concerning it." So he +opened the door and looked towards Cornwall. And when they had looked they +were as conscious of all the evils they had ever sustained, and of all the +friends and companions they had ever lost, and of all the misery that had +befallen them, as if all had happened in that very spot; and especially of +the fate of their lord. And because of their perturbation they could not +rest, but journeyed forth with the head towards London. And they buried +the head in the White Mount. + +The island called Gwales is supposed to be that now named Gresholm, eight +or ten miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire; and to this day the Welsh +sailors on that coast talk of the Green Meadows of Enchantment lying out +at sea west of them, and of men who had either landed on them or seen them +suddenly vanishing. Some of the people of Milford used to declare that +they could sometimes see the Green Islands of the fairies quite +distinctly; and they believed that the fairies went to and fro between +their islands and the shore through a subterranean gallery under the sea. +They used, indeed, to make purchases in the markets of Milford or +Langhorne, and this they did sometimes without being seen and always +without speaking, for they seemed to know the prices of the things they +wished to buy and always laid down the exact sum of money needed. And +indeed, how could the seven companions of the Enchanted Head have spent +eighty years of incessant feasting on an island of the sea, without +sometimes purchasing supplies from the mainland? + + + +VI + +THE CASTLE OF THE ACTIVE DOOR + + Perfect is my chair in Caer Sidi; + Plague and age hurt not who's in it-- + They know, Manawydan and Pryderi. + Three organs round a fire sing before it, + And about its points are ocean's streams + And the abundant well above it-- + Sweeter than white wine the drink in it. + + +Peredur, the knight, rode through the wild woods of the Enchanted Island +until he arrived on clear ground outside the forest. Then he beheld a +castle on level ground in the middle of a meadow; and round the castle +flowed a stream, and inside the castle there were large and spacious halls +with great windows. Drawing nearer the castle, he saw it to be turning +more rapidly than any wind blows. On the ramparts he saw archers shooting +so vigorously that no armor would protect against them; there were also +men blowing horns so loud that the earth appeared to tremble; and at the +gates were lions, in iron chains, roaring so violently that one might +fancy that the castle and the woods were ready to be uprooted. Neither the +lions nor the warriors resisted Peredur, but he found a woman sitting by +the gate, who offered to carry him on her back to the hall. This was the +queen Rhiannon, who, having been accused of having caused the death of her +child, was sentenced to remain seven years sitting by the gate, to tell +her story to every one, and to offer to carry all strangers on her back +into the castle. + +But so soon as Peredur had entered it, the castle vanished away, and he +found himself standing on the bare ground. The queen Rhiannon was left +beside him, and she remained on the island with her son Pryderi and his +wife. Queen Rhiannon married for her second husband a person named +Manawydan. One day they ascended a mound called Arberth which was well +known for its wonders, and as they sat there they heard a clap of thunder, +followed by mist so thick that they could not see one another. When it +grew light again, they looked around them and found that all dwellings and +animals had vanished; there was no smoke or fire anywhere or work of human +hands; all their household had disappeared, and there were left only +Pryderi and Manawydan with their wives. Wandering from place to place, +they found no human beings; but they lived by hunting, fishing, and +gathering wild honey. After visiting foreign lands, they returned to their +island home. One day when they were out hunting, a wild boar of pure white +color sprang from a bush, and as they saw him they retreated, and they saw +also the Turning Castle. The boar, watching his opportunity, sprang into +it, and the dogs followed, and Pryderi said, "I will go into this castle +and get tidings of the dogs." "Go not," said Manawydan; "whoever has cast +a spell over this land and deprived us of our dwelling has placed this +castle here." But Pryderi replied, "Of a truth I cannot give up my dogs." +So he watched for the opportunity and went in. He saw neither boar nor +dogs, neither man nor beast; but on the centre of the castle floor he saw +a fountain with marble work around it, and on the margin of the fountain a +golden bowl upon a marble slab, and in the air hung chains, of which he +could see no end. He was much delighted with the beauty of the gold and +the rich workmanship of the bowl and went up to lay hold of it. The moment +he touched it, his fingers clung to the bowl, and his feet to the slab; +and all his joyousness forsook him so that he could not utter a word. And +thus he stood. + +Manawydan waited for him until evening, but hearing nothing either of him +or of the dogs, he returned home. When he entered, Rhiannon, who was his +wife and who was also Pryderi's mother, looked at him. "Where," she said, +"are Pryderi and the dogs?" "This is what has happened to me," he said; +and he told her. "An evil companion hast thou been," she said, "and a good +companion hast thou lost." With these words she went out and proceeded +towards the Castle of the Active Door. Getting in, she saw Pryderi taking +hold of the bowl, and she went towards him. "What dost thou here?" she +said, and she took hold of the bowl for herself; and then her hands became +fast to it, and her feet to the slab, and she could not speak a word. Then +came thunder and a fall of mist; thereupon the Castle of the Active Door +vanished and never was seen again. Rhiannon and Pryderi also vanished. + +When Kigva, the wife of Pryderi, saw this, she sorrowed so that she cared +not if she lived or died. No one was left on the island but Manawydan and +herself. They wandered away to other lands and sought to earn their +living; then they came back to their island, bringing with them one bag of +wheat which they planted. It throve and grew, and when the time of harvest +came it was most promising, so that Manawydan resolved to reap it on the +morrow. At break of day he came back to begin; but found nothing left but +straw. Every stalk had been cut close to the ground and carried away. + +Going to another field, he found it ripe, but on coming in the morning he +found but the straw. "Some one has contrived my ruin," he said; "I will +watch the third field to see what happens. He who stole the first will +come to steal this." + +He remained through the evening to watch the grain, and at midnight he +heard loud thunder. He looked and saw coming a host of mice such as no man +could number; each mouse took a stalk of the wheat and climbed it, so that +it bent to the ground; then each mouse cut off the ear and ran away with +it. They all did this, leaving the stalk bare, and there was not a single +straw for which there was not a mouse. He struck among them, but could no +more fix his sight on any of them, the legend says, than on flies and +birds in the air, except one which seemed heavier than the rest, and moved +slowly. This one he pursued and caught, put it in his glove and tied it +with a string. Taking it home, he showed it to Kigva, and told her that he +was going to hang the mouse next day. She advised against it, but he +persisted, and on the next morning took the animal to the top of the Mound +of Arberth, where he placed two wooden forks in the ground, and set up a +small gallows. + +While doing this, he saw a clerk coming to him in old, threadbare +clothes. It was now seven years since he had seen a human being there, +except the friends he had lost and Kigva who survived them. The clerk bade +him good day and said he was going back to his country from England, where +he had been singing. Then the clerk asked Manawydan what he was doing. +"Hanging a thief," said he; and when the clerk saw that it was a mouse, he +offered a pound to release it, but Manawydan refused. Then a priest came +riding up and offered him three pounds to release the mouse; but this +offer was declined. Then he made a noose round the mouse's neck, and while +he did this, a bishop's whole retinue came riding towards him. The bishop +seemed, like everybody else, to be very desirous of rescuing the mouse; he +offered first seven pounds, and then twenty-four, and then added all his +horses and equipages; but Manawydan still refused. The bishop finally +asked him to name any price he pleased. "The liberation of Rhiannon and +Pryderi," he said. "Thou shalt have it," said the bishop. "And the removal +of the enchantment," said Manawydan. "That also," said the bishop, "if you +will only restore the mouse." "Why?" said the other. "Because," said the +bishop, "she is my wife." "Why did she come to me?" asked Manawydan. "To +steal," was the reply. "When it was known that you were inhabiting the +island, my household came to me, begging me to transform them into mice. +The first and second nights they came alone, but the third night my wife +and the ladies of the court wished also to accompany them, and I +transformed them also; and now you have promised to let her go." "Not so," +said the other, "except with a promise that there shall be no more such +enchantment practised, and no vengeance on Pryderi and Rhiannon, or on +me." This being promised, the bishop said, "Now wilt thou release my +wife?" "No, by my faith," said Manawydan, "not till I see Pryderi and +Rhiannon free before my eyes." "Here they are coming," said the bishop; +and when they had been embraced by Manawydan, he let go the mouse; the +bishop touched it with a wand, and it became the most beautiful young +woman that ever was seen. "Now look round upon the country," said the +bishop, "and see the dwellings and the crops returned," and the +enchantment was removed. + +"The Land of Illusion and the Realm of Glamour" is the name given by the +old romancers to the south-west part of Wales, and to all the islands off +the coast. Indeed, it was believed, ever since the days of the Greek +writer, Plutarch, that some peculiar magic belonged to these islands; and +every great storm that happened among them was supposed to be caused by +the death of one of the wondrous enchanters who dwelt in that region. When +it was over, the islanders said, "Some one of the mighty has passed away." + + + +VII + +MERLIN THE ENCHANTER + + +In one of the old books called Welsh Triads, in which all things are +classed by threes, there is a description of three men called "The Three +Generous Heroes of the Isle of Britain." One of these--named Nud or +Nodens, and later called Merlin--was first brought from the sea, it is +stated, with a herd of cattle consisting of 21,000 milch cows, which are +supposed to mean those waves of the sea that the poets often describe as +White Horses. He grew up to be a king and warrior, a magician and prophet, +and on the whole the most important figure in the Celtic traditions. He +came from the sea and at last returned to it, but meanwhile he did great +works on land, one of which is said to have been the building of +Stonehenge. + +This is the way, as the old legends tell, in which the vast stones of +Stonehenge came to be placed on Salisbury Plain. It is a thing which has +always been a puzzle to every one, inasmuch as their size and weight are +enormous, and there is no stone of the same description to be found within +hundreds of miles of Salisbury Plain, where they now stand. + +The legend is that Pendragon, king of England, was led to fight a great +battle by seeing a dragon in the air. The battle was won, but Pendragon +was killed and was buried on Salisbury Plain, where the fight had taken +place. When his brother Uther took his place, Merlin the enchanter advised +him to paint a dragon on a flag and bear it always before him to bring +good fortune, and this he always did. Then Merlin said to him, "Wilt thou +do nothing more on the Plain of Salisbury, to honor thy brother?" The King +said, "What shall be done?" Then Merlin said, "I will cause a thing to be +done that will endure to the world's end." Then he bade Utherpendragon, as +he called the new king, to send many ships and men to Ireland, and he +showed him stones such as seemed far too large and heavy to bring, but he +placed them by his magic art upon the boats and bore them to England; and +he devised means to transport them and to set them on end, "for they shall +seem fairer so than if they were lying." And there they are to this day. + +This was the way in which Merlin would sometimes obtain the favor and +admiration of young ladies. There was a maiden of twelve named Nimiane or +Vivian, the daughter of King Dionas, and Merlin changed himself into the +appearance of "a fair young squire," that he might talk with her beside a +fountain, described in the legends as "a well, whereof the springs were +fair and the water clear and the gravel so fair that it seemed of fine +silver." By degrees he made acquaintance with the child, who told him who +she was, adding, "And what are you, fair, sweet friend?" "Damsel," said +Merlin, "I am a travelling squire, seeking for my master, who has taught +me wonderful things." "And what master is that?" she asked. "It is one," +he said, "who has taught me so much that I could here erect for you a +castle, and I could make many people outside to attack it and inside to +defend it; nay, I could go upon this water and not wet my feet, and I +could make a river where water had never been." + +"These are strange feats," said the maiden, "and I wish that I could thus +disport myself." "I can do yet greater things," said Merlin, "and no one +can devise anything which I cannot do, and I can also make it to endure +forever." "Indeed," said the girl, "I would always love you if you could +show me some such wonders." "For your love," he answered, "I will show you +some of these wondrous plays, and I will ask no more of you." Then Merlin +turned and described a circle with a wand and then came and sat by her +again at the fountain. At noon she saw coming out of the forest many +ladies and knights and squires, holding each other by the hand and singing +in the greatest joy; then came men with timbrels and tabours and dancing, +so that one could not tell one-fourth part of the sports that went on. +Then Merlin caused an orchard to grow, with all manner of fruit and +flowers; and the maiden cared for nothing but to listen to their singing, +"Truly love begins in joy, but ends in grief." The festival continued from +mid-day to even-song; and King Dionas and his courtiers came out to see +it, and marvelled whence these strange people came. Then when the carols +were ended, the ladies and maidens sat down on the green grass and fresh +flowers, and the squires set up a game of tilting called quintain upon the +meadows and played till even-song; and then Merlin came to the damsel and +asked if he had done what he promised for her. "Fair, sweet friend," said +she, "you have done so much that I am all yours." "Let me teach you," he +answered, "and I will show you many wonders that no woman ever learned so +many." + +Merlin and this young damsel always remained friends, and he taught her +many wonderful arts, one of which was (this we must regret) a spell by +which she might put her parents to sleep whenever he visited her; while +another lesson was (this being more unexceptionable) in the use of three +words, by saying which she might at any time keep at a distance any men +who tried to molest her. He stayed eight days near her, and in those days +taught her many of the most "wonderful things that any mortal heart could +think of, things past and things that were done and said, and a part of +what was to come; and she put them in writing, and then Merlin departed +from her and came to Benoyk, where the king, Arthur, rested, so that glad +were they when they saw Merlin." + +The relations between Merlin and Arthur are unlike those ever held +towards a king even by an enchanter in any legend. Even in Homer there is +no one described, except the gods, as having such authority over a ruler. +Merlin came and went as he pleased and under any form he might please. He +foretold the result of a battle, ordered up troops, brought aid from a +distance. He rebuked the bravest knights for cowardice; as when Ban, Bors, +and Gawain had concealed themselves behind some bushes during a fight. "Is +this," he said to King Arthur and Sir Bors, "the war and the help that you +do to your friends who have put themselves in adventure of death in many a +need, and ye come hither to hide for cowardice." Then the legend says, +"When the king understood the words of Merlin, he bowed his head for +shame," and the other knights acknowledged their fault. Then Merlin took +the dragon banner which he had given them and said that he would bear it +himself; "for the banner of a king," he said, "should not be hid in +battle,--but borne in the foremost front." Then Merlin rode forth and +cried with a loud voice, "Now shall be shown who is a knight." And the +knights, seeing Merlin, exclaimed that he was "a full noble man"; and +"without fail," says the legend, "he was full of marvellous powers and +strength of body and great and long stature; but brown he was and lean and +rough of hair." Then he rode in among the enemy on a great black horse; +and the golden dragon which he had made and had attached to the banner +gave out from its throat such a flaming fire that the air was black with +its smoke; and all King Arthur's men began to fight again more stoutly, +and Arthur himself held the bridle reins in his left hand, and so wielded +his sword with his right as to slay two hundred men. + +There was no end to Merlin's disguises--sometimes as an old man, +sometimes as a boy or a dwarf, then as a woman, then as an ignorant clown; +--but the legends always give him some object to accomplish, some work to +do, and there was always a certain dignity about him, even when helping +King Arthur, as he sometimes did, to do wrong things. His fame extended +over all Britain, and also through Brittany, now a part of France, where +the same poetic legends extended. This, for instance, is a very old Breton +song about him:-- + + MERLIN THE DIVINER + + Merlin! Merlin! where art thou going + So early in the day, with thy black dog? + Oi! oi! oi! oi! oi! oi! oi! oi! oi! oi! oi! + Oi! oi! oi! oi! oi! + + I have come here to search the way, + To find the red egg; + The red egg of the marine serpent, + By the seaside, in the hollow of the stone. + + I am going to seek in the valley + The green water-cress, and the golden grass, + And the top branch of the oak, + In the wood by the side of the fountain. + + Merlin! Merlin! retrace your steps; + Leave the branch on the oak, + And the green water-cress in the valley, + As well as the golden grass; + And leave the red egg of the marine serpent + In the foam by the hollow of the stone. + Merlin! Merlin! retrace thy steps; + There is no diviner but God. + +Merlin was supposed to know the past, the present, and the future, and to +be able to assume the form of any animal, and even that of a +_menhir_, or huge standing stone. Before history began he ruled in +Britain, then a delightful island of flowery meadows. His subjects were +"small people" (fairies), and their lives were a continued festival of +singing, playing, and enjoyment. The sage ruled them as a father, his +familiar servant being a tame wolf. He also possessed a kingdom, beneath +the waves, where everything was beautiful, the inhabitants being charming +little beings, with waves of long, fair hair falling on their shoulders in +curls. Fruits and milk composed the food of all, meat and fish being held +in abhorrence. The only want felt was of the full light of the sun, which, +coming to them through the water, was but faint, and cast no shadow. + +Here was the famous workshop where Merlin forged the enchanted sword so +celebrated by the bards, and where the stones were found by which alone +the sword could be sharpened. Three British heroes were fated to wield +this blade in turn; viz., Lemenisk the leaper (_Leim_, meaning leap), +Utherpendragon, and his son King Arthur. By orders of this last hero, when +mortally wounded, it was flung into the sea, where it will remain till he +returns to restore the rule of his country to the faithful British race. + +The bard once amused and puzzled the court by entering the hall as a +blind boy led by a greyhound, playing on his harp, and demanding as +recompense to be allowed to carry the king's banner in an approaching +battle. Being refused on account of his blindness he vanished, and the +king of Brittany mentioned his suspicions that this was one of Merlin's +elfin tricks. Arthur was disturbed, for he had promised to give the child +anything except his honor, his kingdom, his wife, and his sword. However, +while he continued to fret, there entered the hall a poor child about +eight years old, with shaved head, features of livid tint, eyes of light +gray, barefooted, barelegged, and a whip knotted over his shoulders in the +manner affected by horseboys. Speaking and looking like an idiot, he asked +the king's permission to bear the royal ensign in the approaching battle +with the giant Rion. The courtiers laughed, but Arthur, suspecting a new +joke on Merlin's part, granted the demand, and then Merlin stood in his +own proper person before the company. + +He also seems to have taught people many things in real science, +especially the women, who were in those days more studious than the men, +or at least had less leisure. For instance, the legend says of Morgan le +fay (or la fée), King Arthur's sister, "she was a noble clergesse (meaning +that she could read and write, like the clergy), and of astronomy could +she enough, for Merlin had her taught, and she learned much of egromancy +(magic or necromancy); and the best work-woman she was with her hands that +any man knew in any land, and she had the fairest head and the fairest +hands under heaven, and shoulders well-shapen; and she had fair eloquence +and full debonair she was, as long as she was in her right wit; and when +she was wroth with any man, she was evil to meet." This lady was one of +Merlin's pupils, but the one whom he loved most and instructed the most +was Nimiane or Vivian, already mentioned, who seems to have been to him +rather a beloved younger sister than anything else, and he taught her so +much that "at last he might hold himself a fool," the legend says, "and +ever she inquired of his cunning and his mysteries, each thing by itself, +and he let her know all, and she wrote all that he said, as she was well +learned in clergie (reading and writing), and learned lightly all that +Merlin taught her; and when they parted, each of them commended the other +to God full tenderly." + +The form of the enchanter Merlin disappeared from view, at last--for the +legends do not admit that his life ever ended--across the sea whence he +came. + +The poet Tennyson, to be sure, describes Nimiane or Vivian--the Lady of +the Lake--as a wicked enchantress who persuaded Merlin to betray his +secrets to her, and then shut him up in an oak tree forever. But other +legends seem to show that Tennyson does great injustice to the Lady of the +Lake, that she really loved Merlin even in his age, and therefore +persuaded him to show her how to make a tower without walls,--that they +might dwell there together in peace, and address each other only as +Brother and Sister. When he had told her, he fell asleep with his head in +her lap, and she wove a spell nine times around his head, and the tower +became the strongest in the world. Some of the many legends place this +tower in the forest of Broceliande; while others transport it afar to a +magic island, where Merlin dwells with his nine bards, and where Vivian +alone can come or go through the magic walls. Some legends describe it as +an enclosure "neither of iron nor steel nor timber nor of stone, but of +the air, without any other thing but enchantment, so strong that it may +never be undone while the world endureth." Here dwells Merlin, it is said, +with nine favorite bards who took with them the thirteen treasures of +England. These treasures are said to have been:-- + +1. A sword; if any man drew it except the owner, it burst into a flame +from the cross to the point. All who asked it received it; but because of +this peculiarity all shunned it. + +2. A basket; if food for one man were put into it, when opened it would +be found to contain food for one hundred. + +3. A horn; what liquor soever was desired was found therein. + +4. A chariot; whoever sat in it would be immediately wheresoever he wished. + +5. A halter, which was in a staple below the feet of a bed; and whatever +horse one wished for in it, he would find it there. + +6. A knife, which would serve four-and twenty men at meat all at once. + +7. A caldron; if meat were put into it to boil for a coward, it would +never be boiled; but if meat were put in it for a brave man, it would be +boiled forthwith. + +8. A whetstone; if the sword of a brave man were sharpened thereon, and +any one were wounded therewith, he would be sure to die; but if it were +that of a coward that was sharpened on it, he would be none the worse. + +9. A garment; if a man of gentle birth put it on, it suited him well; but +if a churl, it would not fit him. + +10, 11. A pan and a platter; whatever food was required was found therein. + +12. A chessboard; when the men were placed upon it, they would play of +themselves. The chessboard was of gold, and the men of silver. + +13. The mantle of Arthur; whosoever was beneath it could see everything, +while no one could see him. + +It is towards this tower, some legends say, that Merlin was last seen by +some Irish monks, sailing away westward, with a maiden, in a boat of +crystal, beneath a sunset sky. + + + +VIII + +SIR LANCELOT OF THE LAKE + + +Sir Lancelot, the famous knight, was the son of a king and queen against +whom their subjects rebelled; the king was killed, the queen taken +captive, when a fairy rose in a cloud of mist and carried away the infant +Lancelot from where he had been left beneath a tree. The queen, after +weeping on the body of her husband, looked round and saw a lady standing +by the water-side, holding the queen's child in her arms. "Fair, sweet +friend," said the queen, "give me back my child." The fairy made no reply, +but dived into the water; and the queen was taken to an abbey, where she +was known as the Queen of Great Griefs. The Lady of the Lake took the +child to her own home, which was an island in the middle of the sea and +surrounded by impassable walls. From this the lady had her name of Dame du +Lac, or the Lady of the Lake (or Sea), and her foster son was called +Lancelot du Lac, while the realm was called Meidelant, or the Land of +Maidens. + +Lancelot dwelt thenceforward in the castle, on the island. When he was +eight years old he received a tutor who was to instruct him in all +knightly knowledge; he learned to use bow and spear and to ride on +horseback, and some cousins of his were also brought thither by the Lady +of the Lake to be his comrades. When he was eighteen he wished to go to +King Arthur's court that he might be a knight. + +On the eve of St. John, as King Arthur returned from the chase, and by +the high road approached Camelot, he met a fair company. In the van went +two youths, leading two white mules, one freighted with a silken pavilion, +the other with robes proper for a newly made knight; the mules bore two +chests, holding the hauberk and the iron boots. Next came two squires, +clad in white robes and mounted on white horses, carrying a silver shield +and a shining helmet; after these, two others, with a sword in a white +sheath and a white charger. Behind followed squires and servants in white +coats, three damsels dressed in white, the two sons of King Bors; and, +last of all, the fairy with the youth she loved. Her robe was of white +samite lined with ermine; her white palfrey had a silver bit, while her +breastplate, stirrups, and saddle were of ivory, carved with figures of +ladies and knights, and her white housings trailed on the ground. + +When she perceived the king, she responded to his salutation, and said, +after she had lowered her wimple and displayed her face: "Sir, may God +bless the best of kings! I come to implore a boon, which it shall cost you +nothing to grant." "Damsel, even it should cost me dear, you should not be +refused; what is it you would have me do?" "Sir, dub this varlet a knight, +and array him in the arms he bringeth, whenever he desireth." "Your mercy, +damsel! to bring me such a youth! Assuredly, I will dub him whenever he +will; but it shameth me to abandon my custom, for 'tis my wont to furnish +with garments and arms such as come thither to receive chivalry." The lady +replied that she desired the youth to carry the arms she had intended him +to wear, and if she were refused, she would address herself elsewhere. Sir +Ewain said that so fair a youth ought not to be denied, and the king +yielded to her entreaty. She returned thanks, and bade the varlet retain +the mules and the charger, with the two squires; and after that, she +prepared to return as she had come, in spite of the urgency of the king, +who had begged her to remain in his court. "At least," he cried, "tell us +by what name are you known ?" "Sir," she answered, "I am called the Lady +of the Lake." + +For a long way, Lancelot escorted the fairy, who said to him as she took +leave: "King's son, you are derived from lineage the most noble on earth; +see to it that your worth be as great as your beauty. To-morrow you will +ask the king to bestow on you knighthood; when you are armed, you will not +tarry in his house a single night. Abide in one place no longer than you +can help, and refrain from declaring your name until others proclaim it. +Be prepared to accomplish every adventure, and never let another man +complete a task which you yourself have undertaken." With that, she gave +him a ring that had the property of dissolving enchantment, and commended +him to God. + +On the morrow, Lancelot arrayed himself in his fairest robes, and sued +for knighthood, as he had been commanded to do. Sir Ewain attended him to +court, where they dismounted in front of the palace; the king and queen +advanced to meet them; each took Sir Ewain by a hand, and seated him on a +couch, while the varlet stood in their presence on the rushes that strewed +the floor. All gazed with pleasure, and the queen prayed that God might +make him noble, for he possessed as much beauty as was possible for man to +have. + +After this he had many perilous adventures; he fought with giants and +lions; he entered an enchanted castle and escaped; he went to a well in +the forest, and, striking three times on a cymbal with a hammer hung there +for the purpose, called forth a great giant, whom he slew, afterwards +marrying his daughter. Then he went to rescue the queen of the realm, +Gwenivere, from captivity. In order to reach the fortress where she was +prisoner, he had to ride in a cart with a dwarf; to follow a wheel that +rolled before him to show him the way, or a ball that took the place of +the wheel; he had to walk on his hands and knees across a bridge made of a +drawn sword; he suffered greatly. At last he rescued the queen, and later +than this he married Elaine, the daughter of King Pelles, and her father +gave to them the castle of Blyaunt in the Joyous Island, enclosed in iron, +and with a deep water all around it. There Lancelot challenged all knights +to come and contend with him, and he jousted with more than five hundred, +overcoming them all, yet killing none, and at last he returned to Camelot, +the place of King Arthur's court. + +One day he was called from the court to an abbey, where three nuns +brought to him a beautiful boy of fifteen, asking that he might be made a +knight. This was Sir Lancelot's own son, Galahad, whom he had never seen, +and did not yet know. That evening Sir Lancelot remained at the abbey with +the boy, that he might keep his vigil there, and on the morrow's dawn he +was made a knight. Sir Lancelot put on one of his spurs, and Bors, +Lancelot's cousin, the other, and then Sir Lancelot said to the boy, "Fair +son, attend me to the court of the king;" but the abbess said, "Sir, not +now, but we will send him when it shall be time." + +On Whitsunday, at the time called "underne," which was nine in the +morning, King Arthur and his knights sat at the Round Table, where on +every seat there was written, in letters of gold, the name of a knight +with "here ought to sit he," or "he ought to sit here;" and thus went the +inscriptions until they came to one seat (or _siège_ in French) +called the "Siege Perilous," where they found newly written letters of +gold, saying that this seat could not be occupied until four hundred and +fifty years after the death of Christ; and that was this very day. Then +there came news of a marvellous stone which had been seen above the water, +with a sword sticking in it bearing the letters, "Never shall man take me +hence, but only he by whose side I ought to hang, and he shall be the best +knight of the world." Then two of the knights tried to draw the sword and +failed to draw it, and Sir Lancelot, who was thought the best knight in +all the world, refused to attempt it. Then they went back to their seats +around the table. + +Then when all the seats but the "Siege Perilous" were full, the hall was +suddenly darkened; and an old man clad in white, whom nobody knew, came +in, with a young knight in red armor, wearing an empty scabbard at his +side, who said, "Peace be with you, fair knights." The old man said, "I +bring you here a young knight that is of kings' lineage," and the king +said, "Sir, ye are right heartily welcome." Then the old man bade the +young knight to remove his armor, and he wore a red garment, while the old +man placed on his shoulders a mantle of fine ermine, and said, "Sir, +follow after." Then the old man led him to the "Siege Perilous," next to +Sir Lancelot, and lifted the cloth and read, "Here sits Sir Galahad," and +the youth sat down. Upon this, all the knights of the Round Table +marvelled greatly at Sir Galahad, that he dared to sit in that seat, and +he so tender of age. Then King Arthur took him by the hand and led him +down to the river to see the adventure of the stone. "Sir," said the king +to Sir Galahad, "here is a great marvel, where right good knights have +tried and failed." "Sir," said Sir Galahad, "that is no marvel, for the +adventure was not theirs, but mine; I have brought no sword with me, for +here by my side hangs the scabbard," and he laid his hand on the sword and +lightly drew it from the stone. + +It was not until long after, and when they both had had many adventures, +that Sir Lancelot discovered Galahad to be his son. Sir Lancelot once came +to the sea-strand and found a ship without sails or oars, and sailed away +upon it. Once, when he touched at an island, a young knight came on board +to whom Lancelot said, "Sir, you are welcome," and when the young knight +asked his name, told him, "My name is Sir Lancelot du Lac." "Sir," he +said, "then you are welcome, for you are my father." "Ah," said Lancelot, +"are you Sir Galahad?" Then the young knight kneeled down and asked his +blessing, and they embraced each other, and there was great joy between +them, and they told each other all their deeds. So dwelt Sir Lancelot and +Sir Galahad together within that ship for half a year, and often they +arrived at islands far from men where there were but wild beasts, and they +found many adventures strange and perilous which they brought to an end. + +When Sir Lancelot at last died, his body was taken to Joyous-Gard, his +home, and there it lay in state in the choir, with a hundred torches +blazing above it; and while it was there, came his brother Sir Ector de +Maris, who had long been seeking Lancelot. When he heard such noise and +saw such lights in the choir, he alighted and came in; and Sir Bors went +towards him and told him that his brother Lancelot was lying dead. Then +Sir Ector threw his shield and sword and helm from him, and when he looked +on Sir Lancelot's face he fell down in a swoon, and when he rose he spoke +thus: "Ah, Sir Lancelot," said he, "thou wert dead of all Christen +knights! And now I dare say, that, Sir Lancelot, there thou liest, thou +wert never matched of none earthly knight's hands; and thou wert the +curtiest knight that ever beare shield; and thou wert the truest friend to +thy lover that ever bestrood horse, and thou wert the truest lover of a +sinful man that ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest man that ever +strooke with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that ever came +among presse of knights; and thou wert the meekest man and the gentlest +that ever eate in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest knight to +thy mortall foe that ever put speare in the rest." + + + +IX + +THE HALF-MAN + + +King Arthur in his youth was fond of all manly exercises, especially of +wrestling, an art in which he found few equals. The old men who had been +the champions of earlier days, and who still sat, in summer evenings, +watching the youths who tried their skill before them, at last told him +that he had no rival in Cornwall, and that his only remaining competitor +elsewhere was one who had tired out all others. + +"Where is he?" said Arthur. + +"He dwells," an old man said, "on an island whither you will have to go +and find him. He is of all wrestlers the most formidable. You will think +him at first so insignificant as to be hardly worth a contest; you will +easily throw him at the first trial; but after a while you will find him +growing stronger; he seeks out all your weak points as by magic; he never +gives up; you may throw him again and again, but he will conquer you at +last." + +"His name! his name!" said Arthur. + +"His name," they answered, "is Hanner Dyn; his home is everywhere, but on +his own island you will be likely to find him sooner or later. Keep clear +of him, or he will get the best of you in the end, and make you his slave +as he makes slaves of others whom he has conquered." + +Far and wide over the ocean the young Arthur sought; he touched at island +after island; he saw many weak men who did not dare to wrestle with him, +and many strong ones whom he could always throw, until at last when he was +far out under the western sky, he came one day to an island which he had +never before seen and which seemed uninhabited. Presently there came out +from beneath an arbor of flowers a little miniature man, graceful and +quick-moving as an elf. Arthur, eager in his quest, said to him, "In what +island dwells Hanner Dyn?" "In this island," was the answer. "Where is +he?" said Arthur. "I am he," said the laughing boy, taking hold of his +hand. + +"What did they mean by calling you a wrestler?" said Arthur. + +"Oh," said the child coaxingly, "I am a wrestler. Try me." + +The king took him and tossed him in the air with his strong arms, till +the boy shouted with delight. He then took Arthur by the hand and led him +about the island--showed him his house and where the gardens and fields +were. He showed him the rows of men toiling in the meadows or felling +trees. "They all work for me," he said carelessly. The king thought he had +never seen a more stalwart set of laborers. Then the boy led him to the +house, asked him what his favorite fruits were, or his favorite beverages, +and seemed to have all at hand. He was an unaccountable little creature; +in size and years he seemed a child; but in his activity and agility he +seemed almost a man. When the king told him so, he smiled, as winningly as +ever, and said, "That is what they call me--Hanner Dyn, The Half-Man." +Laughing merrily, he helped Arthur into his boat and bade him farewell, +urging him to come again. The King sailed away, looking back with +something like affection on his winsome little playmate. + +It was months before Arthur came that way again. Again the merry child +met him, having grown a good deal since their earlier meeting. "How is my +little wrestler?" said Arthur. "Try me," said the boy; and the king tossed +him again in his arms, finding the delicate limbs firmer, and the slender +body heavier than before, though easily manageable. The island was as +green and more cultivated, there were more men working in the fields, and +Arthur noticed that their look was not cheerful, but rather as of those +who had been discouraged and oppressed. + +It was, however, a charming sail to the island, and, as it became more +familiar, the king often bade his steersman guide the pinnace that way. He +was often startled with the rapid growth and increased strength of the +laughing boy, Hanner Dyn, while at other times he seemed much as before +and appeared to have made but little progress. The youth seemed never +tired of wrestling; he always begged the king for a trial of skill, and +the king rejoiced to see how readily the young wrestler caught at the +tricks of the art; so that the time had long passed when even Arthur's +strength could toss him lightly in the air, as at first. Hanner Dyn was +growing with incredible rapidity into a tall young fellow, and instead of +the weakness that often comes with rapid growth, his muscles grew ever +harder and harder. Still merry and smiling, he began to wrestle in +earnest, and one day, in a moment of carelessness, Arthur received a back +fall, perhaps on moist ground, and measured his length. Rising with a +quick motion, he laughed at the angry faces of his attendants and bade the +boy farewell. The men at work in the fields glanced up, attracted by the +sound of voices, and he saw them exchange looks with one another. + +Yet he felt his kingly dignity a little impaired, and hastened ere long +to revisit the island and teach the saucy boy another lesson. Months had +passed, and the youth had expanded into a man of princely promise, but +with the same sunny look. His shoulders were now broad, his limbs of the +firmest mould, his eye clear, keen, penetrating. "Of all the wrestlers I +have ever yet met," said the king, "this younker promises to be the most +formidable. I can easily throw him now, but what will he be a few years +hence?" The youth greeted him joyously, and they began their usual match. +The sullen serfs in the fields stopped to watch them, and an aged Druid +priest, whom Arthur had brought with him, to give the old man air and +exercise in the boat, opened his weak eyes and closed them again. + +As they began to wrestle, the king felt, by the very grasp of the youth's +arms, by the firm set of his foot upon the turf, that this was to be +unlike any previous effort. The wrestlers stood after the old Cornish +fashion, breast to breast, each resting his chin on the other's shoulder. +They grasped each other round the body, each setting his left hand above +the other's right. Each tried to force the other to touch the ground with +both shoulders and one hip, or with both hips and one shoulder; or else to +compel the other to relinquish his hold for an instant--either of these +successes giving the victory. Often as Arthur had tried the art, he never +had been so matched before. The competitors swayed this way and that, +writhed, struggled, half lost their footing and regained it, yet neither +yielded. All the boatmen gathered breathlessly around, King Arthur's men +refusing to believe their eyes, even when they knew their king was in +danger. A stranger group was that of the sullen farm-laborers, who left +their ploughs and spades, and, congregating on a rising ground, watched +without any expression of sympathy the contest that was going on. An old +wrestler from Cornwall, whom Arthur had brought with him, was the judge; +and according to the habit of the time, the contest was for the best two +bouts in three. By the utmost skill and strength, Arthur compelled Hanner +Dyn to lose his hold for one instant in the first trial, and the King was +pronounced the victor. + +The second test was far more difficult; the boy, now grown to a man, and +seeming to grow older and stronger before their very eyes, twice forced +Arthur to the ground either with hip or shoulder, but never with both, +while the crowd closed in breathlessly around; and the half-blind old +Druid, who had himself been a wrestler in his youth, and who had been +brought ashore to witness the contest, called warningly aloud, "Save +thyself, O king!" At this Arthur roused his failing strength to one final +effort, and, griping his rival round the waist with a mighty grasp, raised +him bodily from the ground and threw him backward till he fell flat, like +a log, on both shoulders and both hips; while Arthur himself fell fainting +a moment later. Nor did he recover until he found himself in the boat, his +head resting on the knees of the aged Druid, who said to him, "Never +again, O king! must you encounter the danger you have barely escaped. Had +you failed, you would have become subject to your opponent, whose strength +has been maturing for years to overpower you. Had you yielded, you would, +although a king, have become but as are those dark-browed men who till his +fields and do his bidding. For know you not what the name Hanner Dyn +means? It means--Habit; and the force of habit, at first weak, then +growing constantly stronger, ends in conquering even kings!" + + + +X + +KING ARTHUR AT AVALON + + +In the ruined castle at Winchester, England, built by William the +Conqueror, there is a hall called "The Great Hall," where Richard Coeur de +Lion was received by his nobles when rescued from captivity; where Henry +III. was born; where all the Edwards held court; where Henry VIII. +entertained the emperor Charles V.; where Queen Mary was married to Philip +II.; where Parliament met for many years. It is now a public hall for the +county; and at one end of it the visitor sees against the wall a vast +wooden tablet on which the names of King Arthur's knights of the Round +Table are inscribed in a circle. No one knows its date or origin, though +it is known to be more than four hundred years old, but there appear upon +it the names most familiar to those who have read the legends of King +Arthur, whether in Tennyson's poems or elsewhere. There are Lancelot and +Bedivere, Gawaine and Dagonet, Modred and Gareth, and the rest. Many books +have been written of their deeds; but a time came when almost all those +knights were to fall, according to the legend, in one great battle. +Modred, the king's nephew, had been left in charge of the kingdom during +Arthur's absence, and had betrayed him and tried to dethrone him, meaning +to crown himself king. Many people joined with him, saying that under +Arthur they had had only war and fighting, but under Modred they would +have peace and bliss. Yet nothing was farther from Modred's purpose than +bliss or peace, and it was agreed at last that a great battle should be +fought for the kingdom. + +On the night of Trinity Sunday, King Arthur had a dream. He thought he +sat in a chair, upon a scaffold, and the chair was fastened to a wheel. He +was dressed in the richest cloth of gold that could be made, but far +beneath him he saw a pit, full of black water, in which were all manner of +serpents and floating beasts. Then the wheel began to turn, and he went +down, down among the floating things, and they wreathed themselves about +him till he cried, "Help! help!" + +Then his knights and squires and yeomen aroused him, but he slumbered +again, not sleeping nor thoroughly waking. Then he thought he saw his +nephew, Sir Gawaine, with a number of fair ladies, and when King Arthur +saw him, he said, "O fair nephew, what are these ladies who come with +you?" "Sir," said Sir Gawaine, "these are the ladies for whose protection +I fought while I was a living man, and God has given them grace that they +should bring me thither to you, to warn you of your death. If you fight +with Sir Modred to-morrow, you must be slain, and most of your people on +both sides." So Sir Gawaine and all the ladies vanished, and then the king +called upon his knights and squires and yeomen, and summoned his lords and +bishops. They agreed to propose to Sir Modred that they should have a +month's delay, and meanwhile agreed to meet him with fourteen persons on +each side, besides Arthur and Modred. + +Each of these leaders warned his army, when they met, to watch the other, +and not to draw their swords until they saw a drawn sword on the other +side. In that case they were to come on fiercely. So the small party of +chosen men on each side met and drank wine together, and agreed upon a +month's delay before fighting; but while this was going on an adder came +out of a bush and stung a knight on the foot, and he drew his sword to +slay it and thought of nothing farther. At the sight of that sword the two +armies were in motion, trumpets were blown instantly, and the men of each +army thought that the other army had begun the fray. "Alas, this unhappy +day!" cried King Arthur; and, as the old chronicle says, "nothing there +was but rushing and riding, fencing and striking, and many a grim word was +there spoken either to other, and many a deadly stroke." + +The following is the oldest account of the battle, translated into quaint +and literal English by Madden from the book called "Layamon's Brut"; +"Innumerable folk it came toward the host, riding and on foot, as the rain +down falleth! Arthur marched to Cornwall, with an immense army. Modred +heard that, and advanced against him with innumerable folk,--there were +many fated! Upon the Tambre they came together; the place hight Camelford, +evermore lasted the same word. And at Camelford was assembled sixty +thousand, and more thousands thereto; Modred was their chief. Then +thitherward 'gan ride Arthur the mighty, with innumerable folk,--fated +though it were! Upon the Tambre they encountered together; elevated their +standards; advanced together; drew their long swords; smote on the helms; +fire outsprang; spears splintered; shields 'gan shiver; shafts brake in +pieces. There fought all together innumerable folk! Tambre was in flood +with blood to excess; there might no man in the fight know any warrior, +nor who did worse, nor who better, so was the conflict mingled! For each +slew downright, were he swain, were he knight. + +"There was Modred slain, and deprived of life-day, and all his knights +slain in the fight. There were slain all the brave, Arthur's warriors, +high and low, and all the Britons of Arthur's board, and all his +dependents, of many kingdoms. And Arthur wounded with broad +slaughter-spear; fifteen dreadful wounds he had; in the least one might +thrust two gloves! Then was there no more remained in the fight, of two +hundred thousand men that there lay hewed in pieces, except Arthur the +king alone, and two of his knights. Arthur was wounded wondrously much. +There came to him a lad, who was of his kindred; he was Cador's son, the +earl of Cornwall; Constantine the lad hight, he was dear to the king. +Arthur looked on him, where he lay on the ground, and said these words, +with sorrowful heart: 'Constantine, thou art welcome; thou wert Cador's +son. I give thee here my kingdom, and defend thou my Britons ever in thy +life, and maintain them all the laws that have stood in my days, and all +the good laws that in Uther's days stood. And I will fare to Avalon, to +the fairest of all maidens, to Argante the queen, an elf most fair, and +she shall make my wounds all sound, make me all whole with healing +draughts. And afterwards I will come to my kingdom, and dwell with the +Britons with mickle joy.' Even with the words there approached from the +sea that was a short boat, floating with the waves; and two women therein, +wondrously formed; and they took Arthur anon, and bare him quickly, and +laid him softly down, and forth they 'gan depart. Then was it accomplished +that Merlin whilom said, that mickle care should be of Arthur's departure. +The Britons believe yet that he is alive, and dwelleth in Avalon with the +fairest of all elves; and the Britons ever yet expect when Arthur shall +return. Was never the man born, of any lady chosen, that knoweth, of the +sooth, to say more of Arthur. But whilom was a sage hight Merlin; he said +with words,--his sayings were sooth,--that an Arthur should yet come to +help the English." + +Another traditional account which Tennyson has mainly followed in a poem, +is this: The king bade Sir Bedivere take his good sword Excalibur and go +with it to the water-side and throw it into the water and return to tell +what he saw. Then Sir Bedivere took the sword, and it was so richly and +preciously adorned that he would not throw it, and came back without it. +When the king asked what had happened, Sir Bedivere said, "I saw nothing +but waves and wind," and when Arthur did not believe him, and sent him +again, he made the same answer, and then, when sent a third time, he threw +the sword into the water, as far as he could. Then an arm and a hand rose +above the water and caught it, and shook and brandished it three times and +vanished. + +Then Sir Bedivere came back to the king; he told what he had seen. +"Alas," said Arthur, "help me from hence, for I fear I have tarried over +long." Then Sir Bedivere took King Arthur upon his back, and went with him +to the water's side. And when they had reached there, a barge with many +fair ladies was lying there, with many ladies in it, and among them three +queens, and they all had black hoods, and they wept and shrieked when they +saw King Arthur. + +"Now put me in the barge," said Arthur, and the three queens received him +with great tenderness, and King Arthur laid his head in the lap of one, +and she said, "Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long, until your +wound was cold?" And then they rowed away, and King Arthur said to Sir +Bedivere, "I will go unto the valley of Avalon to heal my grievous wound, +and if I never return, pray for my soul." He was rowed away by the weeping +queens, and one of them was Arthur's sister Morgan le Fay; another was the +queen of Northgalis, and the third was the queen of Waste Lands; and it +was the belief for years in many parts of England that Arthur was not +dead, but would come again to reign in England, when he had been nursed +long enough by Morgan le Fay in the island of Avalon. + +The tradition was that King Arthur lived upon this island in an enchanted +castle which had the power of a magnet, so that every one who came near it +was drawn thither and could not get away. Morgan le Fay was its ruler +(called more correctly Morgan la fée, or the fairy), and her name Morgan +meant sea-born. By one tradition, the queens who bore away Arthur were +accompanied in the boat by the bard and enchanter, Merlin, who had long +been the king's adviser, and this is the description of the island said to +have been given by Merlin to another bard, Taliessin:-- + +"'We came to that green and fertile island which each year is blessed +with two autumns, two springs, two summers, two gatherings of fruit,--the +land where pearls are found, where the flowers spring as you gather them-- +that isle of orchards called the "Isle of the Blessed." No tillage there, +no coulter to tear the bosom of the earth. Without labor it affords wheat +and the grape. There the lives extend beyond a century. There nine +sisters, whose will is the only law, rule over those who go from us to +them. The eldest excels in the art of healing, and exceeds her sisters in +beauty. She is called Morgana, and knows the virtues of all the herbs of +the meadow. She can change her form, and soar in the air like a bird; she +can be where she pleases in a moment, and in a moment descend on our +coasts from the clouds. Her sister Thiten is renowned for her skill on the +harp.' + +"'With the prince we arrived, and Morgana received us with fitting +honour. And in her own chamber she placed the king on a bed of gold, and +with delicate touch, she uncovered the wound. Long she considered it, and +at length said to him that she could heal it if he stayed long with her, +and willed her to attempt her cure. Rejoiced at this news, we intrusted +the king to her care, and soon after set sail.'" + +Sir Thomas Malory, who wrote the book called the "Historie of King +Arthur," or more commonly the "Morte d'Arthur," utters these high thoughts +concerning the memory of the great king:-- + +"Oh, yee mightie and pompeous lords, shining in the glory transitory of +this unstable life, as in raigning over great realmes and mightie great +countries, fortified with strong castles and toures, edified with many a +rich citie; yee also, yee fierce and mightie knights, so valiant in +adventurous deeds of armes; behold, behold, see how this mightie +conquerour king Arthur, whom in his humaine life all the world doubted, +see also the noble queene Guenever, which sometime sat in her chaire +adorned with gold, pearles, and precious stones, now lye full low in +obscure fosse or pit, covered with clods of earth and clay; behold also +this mightie champion Sir Launcelot, pearelesse of all knighthood, see now +how hee lyeth groveling upon the cold mould, now being so feeble and faint +that sometime was so terrible. How and in what manner ought yee to bee so +desirous of worldly honour so dangerous! Therefore mee thinketh this +present booke is right necessary often to be read, for in it shall yee +finde the most gracious, knightly, and vertuous war of the most noble +knights of the world, whereby they gat praysing continually. Also mee +seemeth, by the oft reading thereof, yee shall greatly desire to accustome +your selfe in following of those gracious knightly deedes, that is to say, +to dread God, and to love righteousnesse, faithfully and couragiously to +serve your soveraigne prince; and the more that God hath given you the +triumphall honour, the meeker yee ought to bee, ever feareing the +unstablenesse of this deceitfull world." + + + +XI + +MAELDUIN'S VOYAGE + + +An Irish knight named Maelduin set forth early in the eighth century to +seek round the seas for his father's murderers. By the advice of a wizard, +he was to take with him seventeen companions, neither less nor more; but +at the last moment his three foster brothers, whom he had not included, +begged to go with him. He refused, and they cast themselves into the sea +to swim after his vessel. Maelduin had pity on them and took them in, but +his disregard of the wizard's advice brought punishment; and it was only +after long wanderings, after visiting multitudes of unknown and often +enchanted islands, and after the death or loss of the three foster +brothers, that Maelduin was able to return to his native land. + +One island which they visited was divided into four parts by four fences, +one of gold, one of silver, one of brass, one of crystal. In the first +division there dwelt kings, in the second queens, in the third warriors, +and in the fourth maidens. The voyagers landed in the maidens' realm; one +of these came out in a boat and gave them food, such that every one found +in it the taste he liked best; then followed an enchanted drink, which +made them sleep for three days and three nights. When they awakened they +were in their boat on the sea, and nothing was to be seen either of island +or maidens. + +The next island had in it a fortress with a brazen door and a bridge of +glass, on which every one who ascended it slipped and fell. A woman came +from the fortress, pail in hand, drew water from the sea and returned, not +answering them when they spoke. When they reached at last the brazen door +and struck upon it, it made a sweet and soothing sound, and they went to +sleep, for three days and nights, as before. On the fourth day a maiden +came who was most beautiful; she wore garments of white silk, a white +mantle with a brooch of silver with studs of gold, and a gold band round +her hair. She greeted each man by his name, and said, "It is long that we +have expected you." She took them into the castle and gave them every kind +of food they had ever desired. Maelduin was filled with love for her and +asked her for her love; but she told him that love was sin and she had no +knowledge of sin; so she left him. On the morrow they found their boat, +stranded on a crag, while lady and fortress and island had all vanished. + +Another island on which they landed was large and bare, with another +fortress and a palace. There they met a lady who was kinder. She wore an +embroidered purple mantle, gold embroidered gloves, and ornamented +sandals, and was just riding up to the palace door. Seventeen maidens +waited there for her. She offered to keep the strangers as guests, and +that each of them should have a wife, she herself wedding Maelduin. She +was, it seems, the widow of the king of the island, and these were her +seventeen daughters. She ruled the island and went every day to judge the +people and direct their lives. If the strangers would stay, she said that +they should never more know sorrow, or hardships, or old age; she herself, +in spite of her large family, being young and beautiful as ever. They +stayed three months, and it seemed to all but Maelduin that the three +months were three years. When the queen was absent, one day, the men took +the boat and compelled Maelduin to leave the island with them; but the +queen rode after them and flung a rope, which Maelduin caught and which +clung to his hand. She drew them back to the shore; this happened thrice, +and the men accused Maelduin of catching the rope on purpose; he bade +another man catch it, and his companions cut off his hand, and they +escaped at last. + +On one island the seafarers found three magic apples, and each apple gave +sufficient food for forty nights; again, on another island, they found the +same apples. In another place still, a great bird like a cloud arrived, +with a tree larger than an oak in its claws. After a while two eagles came +and cleaned the feathers of the larger bird. They also stripped off the +red berries from the tree and threw them into the ocean until its foam +grew red. The great bird then flew into the ocean and cleaned itself. This +happened daily for three days, when the great bird flew away with stronger +wings, its youth being thus renewed. + +They came to another island where many people stood by the shore talking +and joking. They were all looking at Maelduin and his comrades, and kept +gaping and laughing, but would not exchange a word with them. Then +Maelduin sent one of his foster brothers on the island; but he ranged +himself with the others and did as they did. Maelduin and his men rowed +round and round the island, and whenever they passed the point where this +comrade was, they addressed him, but he never answered, and only gaped and +laughed. They waited for him a long time and left him. This island they +found to be called The Island of Joy. + +On another island they found sheep grazing, of enormous size; on another, +birds, whose eggs when eaten caused feathers to sprout all over the bodies +of those who eat them. On another they found crimson flowers, whose mere +perfume sufficed for food, and they encountered women whose only food was +apples. Through the window flew three birds: a blue one with a crimson +head; a crimson one with a green head; a green one with a golden head. +These sang heavenly music, and were sent to accompany the wanderers on +their departing; the queen of the island gave them an emerald cup, such +that water poured into it became wine. She asked if they knew how long +they had been there, and when they said "a day," she told them that it was +a year, during which they had had no food. As they sailed away, the birds +sang to them until both birds and island disappeared in the mist. + +They saw another island standing on a single pedestal, as if on one foot, +projecting from the water. Rowing round it to seek a way into it they +found no passage, but they saw in the base of the pedestal, under water, a +closed door with a lock--this being the only way in which the island could +be entered. Around another island there was a fiery rampart, which +constantly moved in a circle. In the side of that rampart was an open +door, and as it came opposite them in its turning course, they beheld +through it the island and all therein; and its occupants, even human +beings, were many and beautiful, wearing rich garments, and feasting with +gold vessels in their hands. The voyagers lingered long to gaze upon this +marvel. + +On another island they found many human beings, black in color and +raiment, and always bewailing. Lots were cast, and another of Maelduin's +foster brothers was sent on shore. He at once joined the weeping crowd, +and did as they did. Two others were sent to bring him back, and both +shared his fate, falling under some strange spell. Then Maelduin sent four +others, and bade them look neither at the land nor at the sky; to wrap +their mouths and noses with their garments, and not breathe the island +air; and not to take off their eyes from their comrades. In this way the +two who followed the foster brother on shore were rescued, but he remained +behind. + +Of another island they could see nothing but a fort, protected by a great +white rampart, on which nothing living was to be seen but a small cat, +leaping from one to another of four stone pillars. They found brooches and +ornaments of gold and silver, they found white quilts and embroidered +garments hanging up, flitches of bacon were suspended, a whole ox was +roasting, and vessels stood filled with intoxicating drinks. Maelduin +asked the cat if all this was for them; but the cat merely looked at him +and went on playing. The seafarers dined and drank, then went to sleep. As +they were about to depart, Maelduin's third foster brother proposed to +carry off a tempting necklace, and in spite of his leader's warnings +grasped it. Instantly the cat leaped through him like a fiery arrow, +burned him so that he became ashes, and went back to its pillar. Thus all +three of the foster brothers who had disregarded the wizard's warning, and +forced themselves upon the party, were either killed or left behind upon +the enchanted islands. + +Around another island there was a demon horse-race going on; the riders +were just riding in over the sea, and then the race began; the voyagers +could only dimly perceive the forms of the horses, but could hear the +cries of their riders, the strokes of the whips, and the words of the +spectators, "See the gray horse!" "Watch the chestnut horse!" and the +voyagers were so alarmed that they rowed away. The next island was covered +with trees laden with golden apples, but these were being rapidly eaten by +small, scarlet animals which they found, on coming nearer, to be all made +of fire and thus brightened in hue. Then the animals vanished, and +Maelduin with his men landed, and though the ground was still hot from the +fiery creatures, they brought away a boat load of the apples. Another +island was divided into two parts by a brass wall across the middle. There +were two flocks of sheep, and those on one side of the wall were white, +while the others were black. A large man was dividing and arranging the +sheep, and threw them easily over the wall. When he threw a white sheep +among the black ones it became black, and when he threw a black sheep +among the white ones, it became white instantly. The voyagers thought of +landing, but when Maelduin saw this, he said, "Let us throw something on +shore to see if it will change color. If it does, we will avoid the +island." So they took a black branch and threw it toward the white sheep. +When it fell, it grew white; and the same with a white branch on the black +side. "It is lucky for us," said Maelduin, "that we did not land on this +island." + +They came next to an island where there was but one man visible, very +aged, and with long, white hair. Above him were trees, covered with great +numbers of birds. The old man told them that he like them had come in a +curragh, or coracle, and had placed many green sods beneath his feet, to +steady the boat. Reaching this spot, the green sods had joined together +and formed an island which at first gave him hardly room to stand; but +every year one foot was added to its size, and one tree grew up. He had +lived there for centuries, and those birds were the souls of his children +and descendants, each of whom was sent there after death, and they were +all fed from heaven each day. On the next island there was a great roaring +as of bellows and a sound of smiths' hammers, as if striking all together +on an anvil, every sound seeming to come from the strokes of a dozen men. +"Are they near?" asked one big voice. "Silence!" said another; and they +were evidently watching for the boat. When it rowed away, one of the +smiths flung after them a vast mass of red-hot iron, which he had grasped +with the tongs from the furnace. It fell just short, but made the whole +sea to hiss and boil around them as they rowed away. + +Another island had a wall of water round it, and Maelduin and his men saw +multitudes of people driving away herds of cattle and sheep, and shouting, +"There they are, they have come again;" and a woman pelted them from below +with great nuts, which the crew gathered for eating. Then as they rowed +away they heard one man say, "Where are they now?" and another cried, +"They are going away." Still again they visited an island where a great +stream of water shot up into the air and made an arch like a rainbow that +spanned the land. + +They walked below it without getting wet, and hooked down from it many +large salmon; besides that, many fell out above their heads, so that they +had more than they could carry away with them. These are by no means all +of the strange adventures of Maelduin and his men. + +The last island to which they came was called Raven's Stream, and there +one of the men, who had been very homesick, leaped out upon shore. As soon +as he touched the land he became a heap of ashes, as if his body had lain +in the earth a thousand years. This showed them for the first time during +how vast a period they had been absent, and what a space they must have +traversed. Instead of thirty enchanted islands they had visited thrice +fifty, many of them twice or thrice as large as Ireland, whence the +voyagers first came. In the wonderful experiences of their long lives they +had apparently lost sight of the search which they had undertaken, for the +murderers of Maelduin's father, since of them we hear no more. The island +enchantment seems to have banished all other thoughts. + + + +XII + +THE VOYAGE OF ST. BRANDAN + + +The young student Brandan was awakened in the morning by the crowing of +the cock in the great Irish abbey where he dwelt; he rose, washed his face +and hands and dressed himself, then passed into the chapel, where he +prayed and sang until the dawn of the day. "With song comes courage" was +the motto of the abbey. It was one of those institutions like great +colonies,--church, library, farm, workshop, college, all in one,--of which +Ireland in the sixth century was full, and which existed also elsewhere. +Their extent is best seen by the modern traveller in the remains of the +vast buildings at Tintern in England, scattered over a wide extent of +country, where you keep coming upon walls and fragments of buildings which +once formed a part of a single great institution, in which all the life of +the community was organized, as was the case in the Spanish missions of +California. At the abbey of Bangor in Wales, for instance, there were two +thousand four hundred men,--all under the direction of a comparatively +small body of monks, who were trained to an amount of organizing skill +like that now needed for a great railway system. Some of these men were +occupied, in various mechanic arts, some in mining, but most of them in +agriculture, which they carried on with their own hands, without the aid +of animals, and in total silence. + +Having thus labored in the fields until noonday, Brandan then returned +that he might work in the library, transcribing ancient manuscripts or +illustrating books of prayer. Having to observe silence, he wrote the name +of the book to give to the librarian, and if it were a Christian work, he +stretched out his hand, making motions with his fingers as if turning over +the leaves; but if it were by a pagan author, the monk who asked for it +was required to scratch his ear as a dog does, to show his contempt, +because, the regulations said, an unbeliever might well be compared to +that animal[1]. Taking the book, he copied it in the Scriptorium or +library, or took it to his cell, where he wrote all winter without a fire. +It is to such monks that we owe all our knowledge of the earliest history +of England and Ireland; though doubtless the hand that wrote the histories +of Gildas and Bede grew as tired as that of Brandan, or as that of the +monk who wrote in the corner of a beautiful manuscript: "He who does not +know how to write imagines it to be no labor; but though only three +fingers hold the pen, the whole body grows weary." In the same way Brandan +may have learned music and have had an organ in his monastery, or have had +a school of art, painting beautiful miniatures for the holy missals. This +was his early life in the convent. + +[Footnote 1: _Adde ut aurem tangas digito sicut canis cum pede +pruriens solet, quia nec immerito infideles tali animati comparantur_. +--MARTÈNE, _De Antiq. Monach. ritibus_, p. 289, qu. by Montalembert, +Monks of the West (tr.) VI. 190.] + +Once a day they were called to food; this consisting for them of bread +and vegetables with no seasoning but salt, although better fare was +furnished for the sick and the aged, for travellers and the poor. These +last numbered, at Easter time, some three or four hundred, who constantly +came and went, and upon whom the monks and young disciples waited. After +the meal the monks spent three hours in the chapel, on their knees, still +silent; then they confessed in turn to the abbot and then sought their +hard-earned rest. They held all things in common; no one even received a +gift for himself. War never reached them; it was the rarest thing for an +armed party to molest their composure; their domains were regarded as a +haven for the stormy world. Because there were so many such places in +Ireland, it was known as The Isle of Saints. + +Brandan was sent after a time to other abbeys, where he could pursue +especial studies, for they had six branches of learning,--grammar, +rhetoric, dialectics, geometry, astronomy, and music. Thus he passed three +years, and was then advised to go to an especial teacher in the mountains, +who had particular modes of teaching certain branches. But this priest--he +was an Italian--was suffering from poverty, and could receive his guest +but for a few weeks. One day as Brandan sat studying, he saw, the legend +says, a white mouse come from a crack in the wall, a visitor which climbed +upon his table and left there a grain of wheat. Then the mouse paused, +looked at the student, then ran about the table, went away and reappeared +with another grain, and another, up to five. Brandan, who had at the very +instant learned his lesson, rose from his seat, followed the mouse, and +looking through a hole in the wall, saw a great pile of wheat, stored in a +concealed apartment. On his showing this to the head of the convent, it +was pronounced a miracle; the food was distributed to the poor, and "the +people blessed his charity while the Lord blessed his studies." + +In the course of years, Brandan became himself the head of one of the +great abbeys, that of Clonfert, of the order of St. Benedict, where he had +under him nearly three thousand monks. In this abbey, having one day given +hospitality to a monk named Berinthus, who had just returned from an ocean +voyage, Brandan learned from him the existence, far off in the ocean, of +an island called The Delicious Isle, to which a priest named Mernoc had +retired, with many companions of his order. Berinthus found Mernoc and the +other monks living apart from one another for purposes of prayer, but when +they came together, Mernoc said, they were like bees from different +beehives. They met for their food and for church; their food included only +apples, nuts, and various herbs. One day Mernoc said to Berinthus, "I will +conduct you to the Promised Isle of the Saints." So they went on board a +little ship and sailed westward through a thick fog until a great light +shone and they found themselves near an island which was large and +fruitful and bore many apples. There were no herbs without blossoms, he +said, nor trees without fruits, and there were precious stones, and the +island was traversed by a great river. Then they met a man of shining +aspect who told them that they had without knowing it passed a year +already in the island; that they had needed neither food nor sleep. Then +they returned to the Delicious Island, and every one knew where they had +been by the perfume of their garments. This was the story of Berinthus, +and from this time forward nothing could keep Brandan from the purpose of +beholding for himself these blessed islands. + +Before carrying out his plans, however, he went, about the year 560, to +visit an abbot named Enda, who lived at Arran, then called Isle of the +Saints, a priest who was supposed to know more than any one concerning the +farther lands of the western sea. He knew, for instance, of the enchanted +island named Hy-Brasail, which could be seen from the coast of Ireland +only once in seven years, and which the priests had vainly tried to +disenchant. Some islands, it was believed, had been already disenchanted +by throwing on them a few sparks of lighted turf; but as Hy-Brasail was +too far for this, there were repeated efforts to disenchant it by shooting +fiery arrows towards it, though this had not yet been successful. Then +Enda could tell of wonderful ways to cross the sea without a boat, how his +sister Fanchea had done it by spreading her own cloak upon the waves, and +how she and three other nuns were borne upon it. She found, however, that +one hem of the cloak sank below the water, because one of her companions +had brought with her, against orders, a brazen vessel from the convent; +but on her throwing it away, the sinking hem rose to the level of the rest +and bore them safely. St. Enda himself had first crossed to Arran on a +large stone which he had ordered his followers to place on the water and +which floated before the wind; and he told of another priest who had +walked on the sea as on a meadow and plucked flowers as he went. Hearing +such tales, how could St. Brandan fear to enter on his voyage? + +He caused a boat to be built of a fashion which one may still see in +Welsh and Irish rivers, and known as a curragh or coracle; made of an +osier frame covered with tanned and oiled skins. He took with him +seventeen priests, among whom was St. Malo, then a mere boy, but +afterwards celebrated. They sailed to the southwest, and after being forty +days at sea they reached a rocky island furrowed with streams, where they +received the kindest hospitality, and took in fresh provisions. They +sailed again the next day, and found themselves entangled in contrary +currents and perplexing winds, so that they were long in reaching another +island, green and fertile, watered by rivers which were full of fish, and +covered with vast herds of sheep as large as heifers. Here they renewed +their stock of provisions, and chose a spotless lamb with which to +celebrate Easter Sunday on another island, which they saw at a short +distance. + +This island was wholly bare, without sandy shores or wooded slopes, and +they all landed upon it to cook their lamb; but when they had arranged +their cooking-apparatus, and when their fire began to blaze, the island +seemed to move beneath their feet, and they ran in terror to their boat, +from which Brandan had not yet landed. Their supposed island was a whale, +and they rowed hastily away from it toward the island they had left, while +the whale glided away, still showing, at a distance of two miles, the fire +blazing on his back. + +The next island they visited was wooded and fertile, where they found a +multitude of birds, which chanted with them the praises of the Lord, so +that they called this the Paradise of Birds. + +This was the description given of this island by an old writer named +Wynkyn de Worde, in "The Golden Legend":-- + +"Soon after, as God would, they saw a fair island, full of flowers, +herbs, and trees, whereof they thanked God of his good grace; and anon +they went on land, and when they had gone long in this, they found a full +fayre well, and thereby stood a fair tree full of boughs, and on every +bough sat a fayre bird, and they sat so thick on the tree that uneath +[scarcely] any leaf of the tree might be seen. The number of them was so +great, and they sang so merrilie, that it was an heavenlie noise to hear. +Whereupon St. Brandan kneeled down on his knees and wept for joy, and made +his praise devoutlie to our Lord God, to know what these birds meant. And +then anon one of the birds flew from the tree to St. Brandan, and he with +the flickering of his wings made a full merrie noise like a fiddle, that +him seemed he never heard so joyful a melodie. And then St. Brandan +commanded the foule to tell him the cause why they sat so thick on the +tree and sang so merrilie. And then the foule said, some time we were +angels in heaven, but when our master, Lucifer, fell down into hell for +his high pride, and we fell with him for our offences, some higher and +some lower, after the quality of the trespasse. And because our trespasse +is so little, therefore our Lord hath sent us here, out of all paine, in +full great joy and mirthe, after his pleasing, here to serve him on this +tree in the best manner we can. The Sundaie is a daie of rest from all +worldly occupation, and therefore that day all we be made as white as any +snow, for to praise our Lorde in the best wise we may. And then all the +birds began to sing evensong so merrilie that it was an heavenlie noise to +hear; and after supper St. Brandan and his fellows went to bed and slept +well. And in the morn they arose by times, and then those foules began +mattyns, prime, and hours, and all such service as Christian men used to +sing; and St. Brandan, with his fellows, abode there seven weeks, until +Trinity Sunday was passed." + +Having then embarked, they wandered for months on the ocean, before +reaching another island. That on which they finally landed was inhabited +by monks who had as their patrons St. Patrick and St. Ailbée, and they +spent Christmas there. A year passed in these voyages, and the tradition +is that for six other years they made just the same circuit, always +spending Holy Week at the island where they found the sheep, alighting for +Easter on the back of the same patient whale, visiting the Isle of Birds +at Pentecost, and reaching the island of St. Patrick and St. Ailbée in +time for Christmas. + +But in the seventh year they met with wholly new perils. They were +attacked, the legend says, first by a whale, then by a griffin, and then +by a race of cyclops, or one-eyed giants. Then they came to an island +where the whale which had attacked them was thrown on shore, so that they +could cut him to pieces; then another island which had great fruits, and +was called The Island of the Strong Man; and lastly one where the grapes +filled the air with perfume. After this they saw an island, all cinders +and flames, where the cyclops had their forges, and they sailed away in +the light of an immense fire. The next day they saw, looking northward, a +great and high mountain sending out flames at the top. Turning hastily +from this dreadful sight, they saw a little round island, at the top of +which a hermit dwelt, who gave them his benediction. Then they sailed +southward once more, and stopped at their usual places of resort for Holy +Week, Easter, and Whitsuntide. + +It was on this trip that they had, so the legend says, that strange +interview with Judas Iscariot, out of which Matthew Arnold has made a +ballad. Sailing in the wintry northern seas at Christmas time, St. Brandan +saw an iceberg floating by, on which a human form rested motionless; and +when it moved at last, he saw by its resemblance to the painted pictures +he had seen that it must be Judas Iscariot, who had died five centuries +before. Then as the boat floated near the iceberg, Judas spoke and told +him his tale. After he had betrayed Jesus Christ, after he had died, and +had been consigned to the flames of hell,--which were believed in very +literally in those days,--an angel came to him on Christmas night and said +that he might go thence and cool himself for an hour. "Why this mercy?" +asked Judas Iscariot. Then the angel said to him, "Remember the leper in +Joppa," and poor Judas recalled how once when the hot wind, called the +sirocco, swept through the streets of Joppa, and he saw a naked leper by +the wayside, sitting in agony from the heat and the drifting sand, Judas +had thrown his cloak over him for a shelter and received his thanks. In +reward for this, the angel now told him, he was to have, once a year, an +hour's respite from his pain; he was allowed in that hour to fling himself +on an iceberg and cool his burning heat as he drifted through the northern +seas. Then St. Brandan bent his head in prayer; and when he looked up, the +hour was passed, and Judas had been hurried back into his torments. + +It seems to have been only after seven years of this wandering that they +at last penetrated within the obscure fogs which surrounded the Isle of +the Saints, and came upon a shore which lay all bathed in sunny light. It +was a vast island, sprinkled with precious stones, and covered with ripe +fruits; they traversed it for forty days without arriving at the end, +though they reached a great river which flowed through the midst of it +from east to west. There an angel appeared to them, and told them that +they could go no farther, but could return to their own abode, carrying +from the island some of those fruits and precious stones which were +reserved to be distributed among the saints when all the world should be +brought to the true faith. In order to hasten that time, it appears that +St. Malo, the youngest of the sea-faring monks, had wished, in his zeal, +to baptize some one, and had therefore dug up a heathen giant who had +been, for some reason, buried on the blessed isle. Not only had he dug the +giant's body up, but St. Malo had brought him to life again sufficiently +for the purpose of baptism and instruction in the true faith; after which +he gave him the name of Mildus, and let him die once more and be reburied. +Then, facing homeward and sailing beyond the fog, they touched once more +at The Island of Delights, received the benediction of the abbot of the +monastery, and sailed for Ireland to tell their brethren of the wonders +they had seen. + +He used to tell them especially to his nurse Ita, under whose care he had +been placed until his fifth year. His monastery at Clonfert grew, as has +been said, to include three thousand monks; and he spent his remaining +years in peace and sanctity. The supposed islands which he visited are +still believed by many to have formed a part of the American continent, +and he is still thought by some Irish scholars to have been the first to +discover this hemisphere, nearly a thousand years before Columbus, +although this view has not yet made much impression on historians. The +Paradise of Birds, in particular, has been placed by these scholars in +Mexico, and an Irish poet has written a long poem describing the delights +to be found there:-- + + "Oft, in the sunny mornings, have I seen + Bright yellow birds, of a rich lemon hue, + Meeting in crowds upon the branches green, + And sweetly singing all the morning through; + And others, with their heads grayish and dark, + Pressing their cinnamon cheeks to the old trees, + And striking on the hard, rough, shrivelled bark, + Like conscience on a bosom ill at ease. + + "And diamond-birds chirping their single notes, + Now 'mid the trumpet-flower's deep blossoms seen, + Now floating brightly on with fiery throats-- + Small winged emeralds of golden green; + And other larger birds with orange cheeks, + A many-color-painted, chattering crowd, + Prattling forever with their curved beaks, + And through the silent woods screaming aloud." + + + +XIII + +KIRWAN'S SEARCH FOR HY-BRASAIL + + +The boy Kirwan lay on one of the steep cliffs of the Island of Innismane-- +one of the islands of Arran, formerly called Isles of the Saints. He was +looking across the Atlantic for a glimpse of Hy-Brasail. This was what +they called it; it was a mysterious island which Kirwan's grandfather had +seen, or thought he had seen--and Kirwan's father also;--indeed, there was +not one of the old people on the island who did not think he had seen it, +and the older they were, the oftener it had been seen by them, and the +larger it looked. But Kirwan had never seen it, and whenever he came to +the top of the highest cliff, where he often went bird-nesting, he climbed +the great mass of granite called The Gregory, and peered out into the +west, especially at sunset, in hopes that he would at least catch a +glimpse, some happy evening, of the cliffs and meadows of Hy-Brasail. But +as yet he had never espied them. All this was more than two hundred years +ago. + +He naturally went up to The Gregory at this hour, because it was then +that he met the other boys, and caught puffins by being lowered over the +cliff. The agent of the island employed the boys, and paid them a sixpence +for every dozen birds, that he might sell the feathers. The boys had a +rope three hundred feet long, which could reach the bottom of the cliff. +One of them tied this rope around his waist, and then held it fast with +both hands, the rope being held above by four or five strong boys, who +lowered the cragman, or "clifter," as he was called, over the precipice. +Kirwan was thus lowered to the rocks near the sea, where the puffins bred; +and, loosening the rope, he prepared to spend the night in catching them. +He had a pole with a snare on the end, which he easily clapped on the +heads of the heavy and stupid birds; then tied each on a string as he +caught it, and so kept it to be hauled up in the morning. He took in this +way twenty or thirty score of the birds, besides quantities of their large +eggs, which were found in deep clefts in the rock; and these he carried +with him when his friends came in the morning to haul him up. It was a +good school of courage, for sometimes boys missed their footing and were +dashed to pieces. At other times he fished in his father's boat, or drove +calves for sale on the mainland, or cured salt after high tide in the +caverns, or collected kelp for the farmers. But he was always looking +forward to a time when he might get a glimpse of the island of Hy-Brasail, +and make his way to it. + +One day when all the fleet of fishing-boats was out for the herring +fishery, and Kirwan among them, the fog came in closer and closer, and he +was shut apart from all others. His companion in the boat--or dory-mate, +as it would be called in New England--had gone to cut bait on board +another boat, but Kirwan could manage the boat well enough alone. Long he +toiled with his oars toward the west, where he fancied the rest of the +fleet to be; and sometimes he spread his little sprit-sail, steering with +an oar--a thing which was, in a heavy sea, almost as hard as rowing. At +last the fog lifted, and he found himself alone upon the ocean. He had +lost his bearings and could not tell the points of the compass. Presently +out of a heavy bank of fog which rose against the horizon he saw what +seemed land. It gave him new strength, and he worked hard to reach it; but +it was long since he had eaten, his head was dizzy, and he lay down on the +thwart of the boat, rather heedless of what might come. Growing weaker and +weaker, he did not clearly know what he was doing. Suddenly he started up, +for a voice hailed him from above his head. He saw above him the high +stern of a small vessel, and with the aid of a sailor he was helped on +board. + +He found himself on the deck of a sloop of about seventy tons, John +Nisbet, master, with a crew of seven men. They had sailed from Killebegs +(County Donegal), in Ireland, for the coast of France, laden with butter, +tallow, and hides, and were now returning from France with French wines, +and were befogged as Kirwan had been. The boy was at once taken on board +and rated as a seaman; and the later adventures of the trip are here given +as he reported them on his return with the ship some months later. + +The mist continued thicker and thicker for a time, and when it suddenly +furled itself away, they found themselves on an unknown coast, with the +wind driving them shoreward. There were men on board who were familiar +with the whole coast of Ireland and Scotland, but they remembered nothing +like this. Finding less than three fathoms of water, they came to anchor +and sent four men ashore to find where they were; these being James Ross +the carpenter and two sailors, with the boy Kirwan. They took swords and +pistols. Landing at the edge of a little wood, they walked for a mile +within a pleasant valley where cattle, horses, and sheep were feeding, and +then came in sight of a castle, small but strong, where they went to the +door and knocked. No one answered, and they walked on, up a green hill, +where there were multitudes of black rabbits; but when they had reached +the top and looked around they could see no inhabitants, nor any house; on +which they returned to the sloop and told their tale. After this the whole +ship's company went ashore, except one left in charge, and they wandered +about for hours, yet saw nothing more. As night came on they made a fire +at the base of a fallen oak, near the shore, and lay around it, talking, +and smoking the lately discovered weed, tobacco; when suddenly they heard +loud noises from the direction of the castle and then all over the island, +which frightened them so that they went on board the sloop and stayed all +night. + +The next morning they saw a dignified, elderly gentleman with ten unarmed +followers coming down towards the shore. Hailing the sloop, the older +gentleman, speaking Gaelic, asked who and whence they were, and being +told, invited them ashore as his guests. They went on shore, well armed; +and he embraced them one by one, telling them that they were the happiest +sight that island had seen for hundreds of years; that it was called +Hy-Brasail or O-Brazile; that his ancestors had been princes of it, but +For many years it had been taken possession of by enchanters, who kept it +almost always invisible, so that no ship came there; and that for the same +reason he and his friends were rendered unable to answer the sailors, even +when they knocked at the door; and that the enchantment must remain until +a fire was kindled on the island by good Christians. This had been done +the night before, and the terrible noises which they had heard were from +the powers of darkness, which had now left the island forever. + +And indeed when the sailors were led to the castle, they saw that the +chief tower had just been demolished by the powers of darkness, as they +retreated; but there were sitting within the halls men and women of +dignified appearance, who thanked them for the good service they had done. +Then they were taken over the island, which proved to be some sixty miles +long and thirty wide, abounding with horses, cattle, sheep, deer, rabbits, +and birds, but without any swine; it had also rich mines of silver and +gold, but few people, although there were ruins of old towns and cities. +The sailors, after being richly rewarded, were sent on board their vessel +and furnished with sailing directions to their port. On reaching home, +they showed to the minister of their town the pieces of gold and silver +that were given them at the island, these being of an ancient stamp, +somewhat rusty yet of pure gold; and there was at once an eager desire on +the part of certain of the townsmen to go with them. Within a week an +expedition was fitted out, containing several godly ministers, who wished +to visit and discover the inhabitants of the island; but through some +mishap of the seas this expedition was never heard of again. + + +Partly for this reason and partly because none of Captain Nesbit's crew +wished to return to the island, there came to be in time a feeling of +distrust about all this rediscovery of Hy-Brasail or O-Brazile. There were +not wanting those who held that the ancient gold pieces might have been +gained by piracy, such as was beginning to be known upon the Spanish main; +and as for the boy Kirwan, some of his playmates did not hesitate to +express the opinion that he had always been, as they phrased it, the +greatest liar that ever spoke. What is certain is that the island of +Brazil or Hy-Brasail had appeared on maps ever since 1367 as being near +the coast of Ireland; that many voyages were made from Bristol to find it, +a hundred years later; that it was mentioned about 1636 as often seen from +the shore; and that it appeared as Brazil Rock on the London Admiralty +Charts until after 1850. If many people tried to find it and failed, why +should not Kirwan have tried and succeeded? And as to his stretching his +story a little by throwing in a few enchanters and magic castles, there +was not a voyager of his period who was not tempted to do the same. + + + +XIV + +THE ISLE OF SATAN'S HAND + + +The prosperous farmer Conall Ua Corra in the province of Connaught had +everything to make him happy except that he and his wife had no children +to cheer their old age and inherit their estate. Conall had prayed for +children, and one day said in his impatience that he would rather have +them sent by Satan than not have them at all. A year or two later his wife +had three sons at a birth, and when these sons came to maturity, they were +so ridiculed by other young men, as being the sons of Satan, that they +said, "If such is really our parentage, we will do Satan's work." So they +collected around them a few villains and began plundering and destroying +the churches in the neighborhood and thus injuring half the church +buildings in the country. At last they resolved to visit also the church +of Clothar, to destroy it, and to kill if necessary their mother's father, +who was the leading layman of the parish. When they came to the church, +they found the old man on the green in front of it, distributing meat and +drink to his tenants and the people of the parish. Seeing this, they +postponed their plans until after dark and in the meantime went home with +their grandfather, to spend the night at his house. They went to rest, and +the eldest, Lochan, had a terrible dream in which he saw first the joys of +heaven and then the terrors of future punishment, and then he awoke in +dismay. Waking his brothers, he told them his dream, and that he now saw +that they had been serving evil masters and making war upon a good one. +Such was his bitterness of remorse that he converted them to his views, +and they agreed to go to their grandfather in the morning, renounce their +sinful ways and ask his pardon. + +This they did, and he advised them to go to a celebrated saint, Finnen of +Clonard, and take him as their spiritual guide. Laying aside their armor +and weapons, they went to Clonard, where all the people, dreading them and +knowing their wickedness, fled for their lives, except the saint himself, +who came forward to meet them. With him the three brothers undertook the +most austere religious exercises, and after a year they came to St. Finnen +and asked his punishment for their former crimes. "You cannot," he said, +"restore to life those you have slain, but you can at least restore the +buildings you have devastated and ruined." So they went and repaired many +churches, after which they resolved to go on a pilgrimage upon the great +Atlantic Ocean. They built for themselves therefore a curragh or coracle, +covered with hides three deep. It was capable of carrying nine persons, +and they selected five out of the many who wished to join the party. There +were a bishop, a priest, a deacon, a musician, and the man who had +modelled the boat; and with these they pushed out to sea. + +It had happened some years before that in a quarrel about a deer hunt, +the men of Ross had killed the king. It had been decided that, by way of +punishment, sixty couples of the people of Ross should be sent out to sea, +two and two, in small boats, to meet what fate they might upon the deeps. +They were watched that they might not land again, and for many years +nothing more had been heard from them. The most pious task which these +repenting pilgrims could undertake, it was thought, would be to seek these +banished people. They resolved to spread their sail and let Providence +direct their course. They went, therefore, northwest on the Atlantic, +where they visited several wonderful islands, on one of which there was a +great bird which related to them, the legend says, the whole history of +the world, and gave them a great leaf from a tree--the leaf being as large +as an ox-hide, and being preserved for many years in one of the churches +after their return. At the next island they heard sweet human voices, and +found that the sixty banished couples had established their homes there. + +The pilgrims then went onward in their hidebound boat until they reached +the coast of Spain, and there they landed and dwelt for a time. The bishop +built a church, and the priest officiated in it, and the organist took +charge of the music. All prospered; yet the boat-builder and the three +brothers were never quite contented, for they had roamed the seas too +long; and they longed for a new enterprise for their idle valor. They +thought they had found this when one day they found on the sea-coast a +group of women tearing their hair, and when they asked the explanation, +"Señor," said an old woman, "our sons and our husbands have again fallen +into the hand of Satan." At this the three brothers were startled, for +they remembered well how they used, in youth, to rank themselves as +Satan's children. Asking farther, they learned that a shattered boat they +saw on the beach was one of a pair of boats which had been carried too far +out to sea, and had come near an islet which the sailors called _Isla de +la Man Satanaxio_, or The Island of Satan's Hand. It appeared that in +that region there was an islet so called, always surrounded by chilly +mists and water of a deadly cold; that no one had ever reached it, as it +constantly changed place; but that a demon hand sometimes uprose from it, +and plucked away men and even whole boats, which, when once grasped, +usually by night, were never seen again, but perished helplessly, victims +of Satan's Hand. + +When the voyagers laughed at this legend, the priest of the village +showed them, on the early chart of Bianco, the name of "De la Man +Satanagio," and on that of Beccaria the name "Satanagio" alone, both these +being the titles of islands. Not alarmed at the name of Satan, as being +that of one whom they had supposed, in their days of darkness, to be their +patron, they pushed boldly out to sea and steered westward, a boat-load of +Spanish fishermen following in their wake. Passing island after island of +green and fertile look, they found themselves at last in what seemed a +less favored zone--as windy as the "roaring forties," and growing chillier +every hour. Fogs gathered quickly, so that they could scarcely see the +companion boat, and the Spanish fishermen called out to them, "Garda da la +Man do Satanaxio!" ("Look out for Satan's hand!") + +As they cried, the fog became denser yet, and when it once parted for a +moment, something that lifted itself high above them, like a gigantic +hand, showed itself an instant, and then descended with a crushing grasp +upon the boat of the Spanish fishermen, breaking it to pieces, and +dragging some of the men below the water, while others, escaping, swam +through the ice-cold waves, and were with difficulty taken on board the +coracle; this being all the harder because the whole surface of the water +was boiling and seething furiously. Rowing away as they could from this +perilous neighborhood, they lay on their oars when the night came on, not +knowing which way to go. Gradually the fog cleared away, the sun rose +clearly at last, and wherever they looked on the deep they saw no traces +of any island, still less of the demon hand. But for the presence among +them of the fishermen they had picked up, there was nothing to show that +any casualty had happened. + +That day they steered still farther to the west with some repining from +the crew, and at night the same fog gathered, the same deadly chill came +on. Finding themselves in shoal water, and apparently near some island, +they decided to anchor the boat; and as the man in the bow bent over to +clear away the anchor, something came down upon him with the same awful +force, and knocked him overboard. His body could not be recovered, and as +the wind came up, they drove before it until noon of the next day, seeing +nothing of any land and the ocean deepening again. By noon the fog +cleared, and they saw nothing, but cried with one voice that the boat +should be put about, and they should return to Spain. For two days they +rowed in peace over a summer sea; then came the fog again and they laid on +their oars that night. All around them dim islands seemed to float, +scarcely discernible in the fog; sometimes from the top of each a point +would show itself, as of a mighty hand, and they could hear an occasional +plash and roar, as if this hand came downwards. Once they heard a cry, as +if of sailors from another vessel. Then they strained their eyes to gaze +into the fog, and a whole island seemed to be turning itself upside down, +its peak coming down, while its base went uppermost, and the whole water +boiled for leagues around, as if both earth and sea were upheaved. + +The sun rose upon this chaos of waters. No demon hand was anywhere +visible, nor any island, but a few icebergs were in sight, and the +frightened sailors rowed away and made sail for home. It was rare to see +icebergs so far south, and this naturally added to the general dismay. +Amid the superstition of the sailors, the tales grew and grew, and all the +terrors became mingled. But tradition says that there were some veteran +Spanish sailors along that coast, men who had sailed on longer voyages, +and that these persons actually laughed at the whole story of Satan's +Hand, saying that any one who had happened to see an iceberg topple over +would know all about it. It was more generally believed, however, that all +this was mere envy and jealousy; the daring fishermen remained heroes for +the rest of their days; and it was only within a century or two that the +island of Satanaxio disappeared from the charts. + + + +XV + +ANTILLIA, THE ISLAND OF THE SEVEN CITIES + + +The young Spanish page, Luis de Vega, had been for some months at the +court of Don Rodrigo, king of Spain, when he heard the old knights +lamenting, as they came out of the palace at Toledo, over the king's last +and most daring whim. "He means," said one of them in a whisper, "to +penetrate the secret cave of the Gothic kings, that cave on which each +successive sovereign has put a padlock," + +"Till there are now twenty-seven of them," interrupted a still older +knight. + +"And he means," said the first, frowning at the interruption, "to take +thence the treasures of his ancestors." + +"Indeed, he must do it," said another, "else the son of his ancestors +will have no treasure left of his own." + +"But there is a spell upon it," said the other. "For ages Spain has been +threatened with invasion, and it is the old tradition that the only +talisman which can prevent it is in this cave." + +"Well," said the scoffer, "it is only by entering the cave that he can +possess the talisman." + +"But if he penetrates to it, his power is lost." + +"A pretty talisman," said the other. "It is only of use to anybody so +long as no one sees it. Were I the king I would hold it in my hands. And I +have counselled him to heed no graybeards, but to seize the treasure for +himself. I have offered to accompany him." + +"May it please your lordship," said the eager Luis, "may I go with you?" + +"Yes," said Don Alonzo de Carregas, turning to the ardent boy. "Where the +king goes I go, and where I go thou shalt be my companion. See, señors," +he said, turning to the others, "how the ready faith of boyhood puts your +fears to shame. To his Majesty the terrors of this goblin cave are but a +jest which frightens the old and only rouses the young to courage. The +king may find the recesses of the cavern filled with gold and jewels; he +who goes with him may share them. This boy is my first recruit: who +follows?" + +By this time a whole group of courtiers, young and old, had assembled +about Don Alonzo, and every man below thirty years was ready to pledge +himself to the enterprise. But the older courtiers and the archbishop +Oppas were beseeching the king to refrain. "Respect, O king," they said, +"the custom held sacred by twenty-seven of thy predecessors. Give us but +an estimate of the sum that may, in thy kingly mind, represent the wealth +that is within the cavern walls, and we will raise it on our own domains, +rather than see the sacred tradition set at nought." The king's only +answer was, "Follow me," Don Alonzo hastily sending the boy Luis to +collect the younger knights who had already pledged themselves to the +enterprise. A gallant troop, they made their way down the steep steps +which led from the palace to the cave. The news had spread; the ladies had +gathered on the balconies, and the bright face of one laughing girl looked +from a bower window, while she tossed a rose to the happy Luis. Alas, it +fell short of its mark and hit the robes of Archbishop Oppas, who stood +with frowning face as the youngster swept by. The archbishop crushed it +unwittingly in the hand that held the crosier. + +The rusty padlocks were broken, and each fell clanking on the floor, and +was brushed away by mailed heels. They passed from room to room with +torches, for the cavern extended far beneath the earth; yet they found no +treasure save the jewelled table of Solomon. But for their great +expectations, this table alone might have proved sufficient to reward +their act of daring. Some believed that it had been brought by the Romans +from Solomon's temple, and from Rome by the Goths and Vandals who sacked +that city and afterwards conquered Spain; but all believed it to be +sacred, and now saw it to be gorgeous. Some describe it as being of gold, +set with precious stones; others, as of gold and silver, making it yellow +and white in hue, ornamented with a row of pearls, a row of rubies, and +another row of emeralds. It is generally agreed that it stood on three +hundred and sixty feet, each made of a single emerald. Being what it was, +the king did not venture to remove it, but left it where it was. +Traversing chamber after chamber and finding all empty, they at last found +all passages leading to the inmost apartment, which had a marble urn in +the centre. Yet all eyes presently turned from this urn to a large +painting on the wall which displayed a troop of horsemen in full motion. +Their horses were of Arab breed, their arms were scimitars and lances, +with fluttering pennons; they wore turbans, and their coarse black hair +fell over their shoulders; they were dressed in skins. Never had there +been seen by the courtiers a mounted troop so wild, so eager, so +formidable. Turning from them to the marble urn, the king drew from it a +parchment, which said: "These are the people who, whenever this cave is +entered and the spell contained in this urn is broken, shall possess this +country. An idle curiosity has done its work.[2] + +[Footnote 2: "_Latinas letras á la margen puestas + Decian:--'Cuando aquesta puerta y arca + Fueran abiertas, gentes como estas + Pondrán por tierra cuanto España abarca._" + --LOPE DE VEGA.] + +The rash king, covering his eyes with his hands, fled outward from the +cavern; his knights followed him, but Don Alonzo lingered last except the +boy Luis. "Nevertheless, my lord," said Luis, "I should like to strike a +blow at these bold barbarians." "We may have an opportunity," said the +gloomy knight. He closed the centre gate of the cavern, and tried to +replace the broken padlocks, but it was in vain. In twenty-four hours the +story had travelled over the kingdom. + +The boy Luis little knew into what a complex plot he was drifting. In the +secret soul of his protector, Don Alonzo, there burned a great anger +against the weak and licentious king. He and his father, Count Julian, and +Archbishop Oppas, his uncle, were secretly brooding plans of wrath against +Don Rodrigo for his ill treatment of Don Alonzo's sister, Florinda. Rumors +had told them that an army of strange warriors from Africa, who had +hitherto carried all before them, were threatening to cross the straits +not yet called Gibraltar, and descend on Spain. All the ties of fidelity +held these courtiers to the king; but they secretly hated him, and wished +for his downfall. By the next day they had planned to betray him to the +Moors. Count Julian had come to make his military report to Don Rodrigo, +and on some pretext had withdrawn Florinda from the court. "When you come +again," said the pleasure-loving king, "bring me some hawks from the +south, that we may again go hawking." "I will bring you hawks enough," was +the answer, "and such as you never saw before." "But Rodrigo," says the +Arabian chronicler, "did not understand the full meaning of his words." + +It was a hard blow for the young Luis when he discovered what a plot was +being urged around him. He would gladly have been faithful to the king, +worthless as he knew him to be; but Don Alonzo had been his benefactor, +and he held by him. Meanwhile the conspiracy drew towards completion, and +the Arab force was drawing nearer to the straits. A single foray into +Spain had shown Musa, the Arab general, the weakness of the kingdom; that +the cities were unfortified, the citizens unarmed, and many of the nobles +lukewarm towards the king. "Hasten," he said, "towards that country where +the palaces are filled with gold and silver, and the men cannot fight in +their defence." Accordingly, in the early spring of the year 711, Musa +sent his next in command, Tarik, to cross to Spain with an army of seven +thousand men, consisting mostly of chosen cavalry. They crossed the +straits then called the Sea of Narrowness, embarking the troops at Tangier +and Ceute in many merchant vessels, and landing at that famous promontory +called thenceforth by the Arab general's name, the Rock of Tarik, +Dschebel-Tarik, or, more briefly, Gibraltar. + +Luis, under Don Alonzo, was with the Spanish troops sent hastily down to +resist the Arab invaders, and, as these troops were mounted, he had many +opportunities of seeing the new enemies and observing their ways. They +were a picturesque horde; their breasts were covered with mail armor; they +wore white turbans on their heads, carried their bows slung across their +backs, and their swords suspended to their girdles, while they held their +long spears firmly grasped in their hands. The Arabs said that their +fashion of mail armor had come to them from King David, "to whom," they +said, "God made iron soft, and it became in his hands as thread." More +than half of them were mounted on the swift horses which were peculiar to +their people; and the white, red, and black turbans and cloaks made a most +striking picture around the camp-fires. These men, too, were already +trained and successful soldiers, held together both by a common religion +and by the hope of spoil. There were twelve thousand of them by the most +probable estimate,--for Musa had sent reinforcements,--and they had +against them from five to eight times their number. But of the Spaniards +only a small part were armed or drilled, or used to warfare, and great +multitudes of them had to put their reliance in clubs, slings, axes, and +short scythes. The cavalry were on the wings, where Luis found himself, +with Count Julian and Archbishop Oppas to command them. Soon, however, Don +Alonzo and Luis were detached, with others, to act as escort to the king, +Don Rodrigo. + +The battle began soon after daybreak on Sunday, July 19, 711. As the +Spanish troops advanced, their trumpets sounded defiance and were answered +by Moorish horns and kettledrums. While they drew near, the shouts of the +Spaniards were drowned in the _lelie_ of the Arabs, the phrase _Lá +ilá-ha ella-llah_--there is no deity but God. As they came nearer yet, +there is a tradition that Rodrigo looking on the Moslem, said, "By the +faith of the Messiah, these are the very men I saw painted on the walls of +the cave at Toledo." Yet he certainly bore himself like a king, and he +rode on the battle-field in a chariot of ivory lined with gold, having a +silken awning decked with pearls and rubies, while the vehicle was drawn +by three white mules abreast. He was then nearly eighty, and was dressed +in a silken robe embroidered with pearls. He had brought with him in carts +and on mules his treasures in jewels and money; and he had trains of mules +whose only load consisted of ropes, to bind the arms of his captives, so +sure was he of making every Arab his prisoner. Driving along the lines he +addressed his troops boldly, and arriving at the centre quitted his +chariot, put on a horned helmet, and mounted his white horse Orelio. + +This was before the invention of gunpowder, and all battles were hand to +hand. On the first day the result was doubtful, and Tarik rode through the +Arab ranks, calling on them to fight for their religion and their safety. +As the onset began, Tarik rode furiously at a Spanish chief whom he took +for the king, and struck him down. For a moment it was believed to be the +king whom he had killed, and from that moment new energy was given to the +Arabs. The line of the Spaniards wavered; and at this moment the whole +wing of cavalry to which Luis belonged rode out from its place and passed +on the flank of the army, avoiding both Spaniard and Arab. "What means +this?" said Luis to the horseman by his side. "It means," was the answer, +"that Bishop Oppas is betraying the king." At this moment Don Alonzo rode +up and cheered their march with explanations. "No more," he said, "will we +obey this imbecile old king who can neither fight nor govern. He and his +troops are but so many old women; it is only these Arabs who are men. All +is arranged with Tarik, and we will save our country by joining the only +man who can govern it." Luis groaned in dismay; it seemed to him an act of +despicable treachery; but those around him seemed mostly prepared for it, +and he said to himself, "After all, Don Alonzo is my chief; I must hold by +him;" so he kept with the others, and the whole cavalry wing followed +Oppas to a knoll, whence they watched the fight. It soon became a panic; +the Arabs carried all before them, and the king himself was either killed +or hid himself in a convent. + +Many a Spaniard of the seceding wing of cavalry reproached himself +afterwards for what had been done; and while the archbishop had some +influence with the conquering general and persuaded him to allow the +Christians everywhere to retain a part of their churches, yet he had, +after all, the reward of a traitor in contempt and self-reproach. This he +could bear no longer, and organizing an expedition from a Spanish port, he +and six minor bishops, with many families of the Christians, made their +way towards Gibraltar. They did not make their escape, however, without +attracting notice and obstruction. As they rode among the hills with their +long train, soldiers, ecclesiastics, women, and children, they saw a +galloping band of Arabs in pursuit. The archbishop bade them turn +instantly into a deserted castle they were just passing, to drop the +portcullis and man the walls. That they might look as numerous as +possible, he bade all the women dress themselves like men and tie their +long hair beneath their chins to resemble beards. He then put helmets on +their heads and lances in their hands, and thus the Arab leader saw a +formidable host on the walls to be besieged. In obedience, perhaps, to +orders, he rode away and after sufficient time had passed, the +archbishop's party rode onward towards their place of embarkation. Luis +found himself beside a dark-eyed maiden, who ambled along on a white mule, +and when he ventured to joke her a little on her late appearance as an +armed cavalier, she said coyly, "Did you think my only weapons were +roses?" Looking eagerly at her, he recognized the laughing face which he +had once seen at a window; but ere he could speak again she had struck her +mule lightly and taken refuge beside the archbishop, where Luis dared not +venture. He did not recognize the maiden again till they met on board one +of the vessels which the Arabs had left at Gibraltar, and on which they +embarked for certain islands of which Oppas had heard, which lay in the +Sea of Darkness. Among these islands they were to find their future home. + +The voyage, at first rough, soon became serene and quiet; the skies were +clear, the moon shone; the veils of the Spanish maidens were convenient by +day and useless at evening, and Luis had many a low-voiced talk on the +quarter-deck with Juanita, who proved to be a young relative of the +archbishop. It was understood that she was to take the veil, and that, +young as she was, she would become, by and by, the lady abbess of a +nunnery to be established on the islands; and as her kinsman, though +severe to others, was gentle to her, she had her own way a good deal-- +especially beneath the moon and the stars. For the rest, they had daily +services of religion, as dignified and sonorous as could have taken place +on shore, except on those rare occasions when the chief bass voice was +hushed in seasickness in some cabin below. Beautiful Gregorian masses rose +to heaven, and it is certain that the Pilgrim fathers, in their two months +on the Atlantic, almost a thousand years later, had no such rich melody as +floated across those summer seas. Luis was a favorite of Oppas, the +archbishop, who never seemed to recognize any danger in having an +enamoured youth so near to the demure future abbess. He consulted the +youth about many plans. Their aim, it seemed, was the great island called +Antillia, as yet unexplored, but reputed to be large enough for many +thousand people. Oppas was to organize the chief settlement, and he +planned to divide the island into seven dioceses, each bishop having a +permanent colony. Once established, they would trade with Spain, and +whether it remained Moorish or became Christian, Oppas was sure of +friendly relations. + +The priests were divided among the three vessels, and among them there +was that occasional jarring from which even holy men are not quite free. +The different bishops had their partisans, but none dared openly face the +imperial Oppas. His supposed favorite Luis was less formidable; he was +watched and spied upon, while his devotion to the dignified Juanita was +apparent to all. Yet he was always ready to leave her side when Oppas +called, and then they discussed together the future prospects of the +party: when they should see land, whether it would really be Antillia, +whether they should have a good landfall, whether the island would be +fertile, whether there would be native inhabitants, and if so, whether +they should be baptized and sent to Spain as slaves, or whether they +should be retained on the island. It was decided, on the whole, that this +last should be done; and what with the prospect of winning souls, and the +certainty of having obedient subjects, the prospect seemed inviting. + +One morning, at sunrise, there lay before them a tropic island, soft and +graceful, with green shrubs and cocoanut trees, and rising in the distance +to mountains whose scooped tops and dark, furrowed sides spoke of extinct +volcanoes--yet not so extinct but that a faint wreath of vapor still +mounted from the utmost peak of the highest among them. Here and there +were seen huts covered with great leaves or sheaves of grass, and among +these they saw figures moving and disappearing, watching their approach, +yet always ready to disappear in the recesses of the woods. Sounding +carefully the depth of water with their imperfect tackle, they anchored +off the main beach, and sent a boat on shore from each vessel, Luis being +in command of one. The natives at first hovered in the distance, but +presently came down to the shore to meet the visitors, some even swimming +off to the boats in advance. They were of a yellow complexion, with good +features, were naked except for goat-skins or woven palm fibres, or reeds +painted in different colors; and were gay and merry, singing and dancing +among themselves. When brought on board the ships, they ate bread and +figs, but refused wine and spices; and they seemed not to know the use of +rings or of swords, when shown to them. Whatever was given to them they +divided with one another. They cultivated fruit and grain on their island, +reared goats, and seemed willing to share all with their newly found +friends. Luis, always thoughtful, and somewhat anxious in temperament, +felt many doubts as to the usage which these peaceful islanders would +receive from the ships' company, no matter how many bishops and holy men +might be on board. + +All that day there was exploring by small companies, and on the next the +archbishop landed in solemn procession. The boats from the ships all met +at early morning, near the shore, the sight bringing together a crowd of +islanders on the banks; men, women, and children, who, with an instinct +that something of importance was to happen, decked themselves with +flowers, wreaths, and plumes, the number increasing constantly and the +crowd growing more and more picturesque. Forming from the boats, a +procession marched slowly up the beach, beginning with a few lay brethren, +carrying tools for digging; then acolytes bearing tall crosses; and then +white-robed priests; the seven bishops being carried on litters, the +archbishop most conspicuously of all. Solemn chants were sung as the +procession moved through the calm water towards the placid shore, and the +gentle savages joined in kneeling while a solemn mass was said, and the +crosses were uplifted which took possession of the new-found land in the +name of the Church. + +These solemn services occupied much of the day; later they carried tents +on shore, and some of them occupied large storehouses which the natives +had built for drying their figs; and to the women, under direction of +Juanita, was allotted a great airy cave, with smaller caves branching from +it, where the natives had made palm baskets. Day after day they labored, +transferring all their goods and provisions to the land,--tools, and +horses, and mules, clothing, and simple furniture. Most of them joined +with pleasure in this toil, but others grew restless as they transferred +all their possessions to land, and sometimes the women especially would +climb to high places and gaze longingly towards Spain. + +One morning a surprise came to Luis. Every night it was their custom to +have a great fire on the beach, and to meet and sing chants around it. One +night Luis had personally put out the blaze of the fire, as it was more +windy than usual, and went to sleep in his tent. Soon after midnight he +was awakened by a glare of a great light upon his tent's thin walls, and +hastily springing up, he saw their largest caravel on fire. Rushing out to +give the alarm, he saw a similar flame kindled in the second vessel, and +then, after some delay, in the third. Then he saw a dark boat pulling +hastily towards the shore, and going down to the beach he met their most +trusty captain, who told him that the ships had been burnt by order of the +archbishop, in order that their return might be hopeless, and that their +stay on the island might be forever. + +There was some lamentation among the emigrants when they saw their +retreat thus cut off, but Luis when once established on shore did not +share it; to be near Juanita was enough for him, though he rarely saw her. +He began sometimes to feel that the full confidence of the archbishop was +withdrawn from him, but he was still high in office, and he rode with +Oppas over the great island, marking it out by slow degrees into seven +divisions, that each bishop might have a diocese and a city of his own. +Soon the foundations began to be laid, and houses and churches began to be +built, for the soft volcanic rock was easily worked, though not very solid +for building. The spot for the cathedral was selected with the unerring +eye for a fine situation which the Roman Catholic Church has always shown, +and the adjoining convent claimed, as it rose, the care of Juanita. As +general superintendent of the works, it was the duty of Luis sometimes to +be in that neighborhood, until one unlucky day when the two lovers, +lingering to watch the full moon rise, were interrupted by one of the +younger bishops, a black-browed Spaniard of stealthy ways, who had before +now taken it upon himself to watch them. Nothing could be more innocent +than their dawning loves, yet how could any love be held innocent on the +part of a maiden who was the kinswoman of an archbishop and was his +destined choice for the duties of an abbess? The fact that she had never +yet taken her preliminary vows or given her consent to take them, counted +for nothing in the situation; though any experienced lady-superior could +have told the archbishop that no maiden could be wisely made an abbess +until she had given some signs of having a vocation for a religious life. + +From that moment the youthful pair met no more for weeks. It seemed +always necessary for Luis to be occupied elsewhere than in the Cathedral +city; as the best architect on the island, he was sent here, there, and +everywhere; and the six other churches rose with more rapidity because the +archbishop preferred to look after his own. The once peaceful natives +found themselves a shade less happy when they were required to work all +day long as quarry-men or as builders, but it was something, had they but +known it, that they were not borne away as slaves, as happened later on +other islands to so many of their race. To Luis they were always loyal for +his cheery ways, although there seemed a change in his spirits as time +went on. But an event happened which brought a greater change still. + +A Spanish caravel was seen one day, making towards the port and showing +signals of distress. Luis, having just then found an excuse for visiting +the Cathedral city, was the first to board her and was hailed with joy by +the captain. He was a townsman of the youth's and had given him his first +lessons in navigation. He had been bound, it seemed, for the Canary +Islands, and had put in for repairs, which needed only a few days in the +quiet waters of a sheltered port. He could tell Luis of his parents, of +his home, and that the northern part of Spain, under Arab sway, was +humanely governed, and a certain proportion of Christian churches allowed. +In a few days the caravel sailed again at nightfall; but it carried with +it two unexpected passengers; the archbishop lost his architect, and the +proposed convent lost its unwilling abbess. + +From this point both the Island of the Seven Cities and its escaping +lovers disappear from all definite records. It was a period when +expeditions of discovery came and went, and when one wondrous tale drove +out another. There exist legends along the northern coast of Spain in the +region of Santander, for instance, of a youth who once eloped with a +high-born maiden and came there to dwell, but there may have been many +such youths and many such maidens--who knows? Of Antillia itself, or the +Island of the Seven Cities, it is well known that it appeared on the maps +of the Atlantic, sometimes under the one name and sometimes under another, +six hundred years after the date assigned by the story that has here been +told. It was said by Fernando Columbus to have been revisited by a +Portuguese sailor in 1447; and the name appeared on the globe of Behaim in +1492. + +The geographer Toscanelli, in his famous letter to Columbus, recommended +Antillia as likely to be useful to Columbus as a way station for reaching +India, and when the great explorer reached Hispaniola, he was supposed to +have discovered the mysterious island, whence the name of Antilles was +given to the group. Later, the first explorers of New Mexico thought that +the pueblos were the Seven Cities; so that both the names of the imaginary +island have been preserved, although those of Luis de Vega and his +faithful Juanita have not been recorded until the telling of this tale. + + + +XVI + +HARALD THE VIKING + + +Erik the Red, the most famous of all Vikings, had three sons, and once +when they were children the king came to visit Erik and passed through the +playground where the boys were playing. Leif and Biorn, the two oldest, +were building little houses and barns and were making believe that they +were full of cattle and sheep, while Harald, who was only four years old, +was sailing chips of wood in a pool. The king asked Harald what they were, +and he said, "Ships of war." King Olaf laughed and said, "The time may +come when you will command ships, my little friend." Then he asked Biorn +what he would like best to have. "Corn-land," he said; "ten farms." "That +would yield much corn," the king replied. Then he asked Leif the same +question, and he answered, "Cows." "How many?" "So many that when they +went to the lake to be watered, they would stand close round the edge, so +that not another could pass." "That would be a large housekeeping," said +the king, and he asked the same question of Harald. "What would you like +best to have?" "Servants and followers," said the child, stoutly. "How +many would you like?" "Enough," said the child, "to eat up all the cows +and crops of my brothers at a single meal." Then the king laughed, and +said to the mother of the children, "You are bringing up a king." + +As the boys grew, Leif and Harald were ever fond of roaming, while Biorn +wished to live on the farm at peace. Their sister Freydis went with the +older boys and urged them on. She was not gentle and amiable, but full of +energy and courage: she was also quarrelsome and vindictive. People said +of her that even if her brothers were all killed, yet the race of Erik the +Red would not end while she lived; that "she practised more of shooting +and the handling of sword and shield than of sewing or embroidering, and +that as she was able, she did evil oftener than good; and that when she +was hindered she ran into the woods and slew men to get their property." +She was always urging her brothers to deeds of daring and adventure. One +day they had been hawking, and when they let slip the falcons, Harald's +falcon killed two blackcocks in one flight and three in another. The dogs +ran and brought the birds, and he said proudly to the others, "It will be +long before most of you have any such success," and they all agreed to +this. He rode home in high spirits and showed his birds to his sister +Freydis. "Did any king," he asked, "ever make so great a capture in so +short a time?" "It is, indeed," she said, "a good morning's hunting to +have got five blackcocks, but it was still better when in one morning a +king of Norway took five kings and subdued all their kingdoms." Then +Harald went away very humble and besought his father to let him go and +serve on the Varangian Guard of King Otho at Constantinople, that he might +learn to be a warrior. + +So Harald was brought from his Norwegian home by his father Erik the Red, +in his galley called the _Sea-serpent_, and sailed with him through +the Mediterranean Sea, and was at last made a member of the Emperor Otho's +Varangian Guard at Constantinople. This guard will be well remembered by +the readers of Scott's novel, "Count Robert of Paris," and was maintained +by successive emperors and drawn largely from the Scandinavian races. Erik +the Red had no hesitation in leaving his son among them, as the young man +was stout and strong, very self-willed, and quite able to defend himself. +The father knew also that the Varangian Guard, though hated by the people, +held to one another like a band of brothers; and that any one brought up +among them would be sure of plenty of fighting and plenty of gold,--the +two things most prized by early Norsemen. For ordinary life, Harald's +chief duties would be to lounge about the palace, keeping guard, wearing +helmet and buckler and bearskin, with purple underclothes and golden +clasped hose; and bearing as armor a mighty battle-axe and a small +scimitar. Such was the life led by Harald, till one day he had a message +from his father, through a new recruit, calling him home to join an +expedition to the western seas. "I hear, my son," the message said, "that +your good emperor, whom may the gods preserve, is sorely ill and may die +any day. When he is dead, be prompt in getting your share of the plunder +of the palace and come back to me." + +The emperor died, and the order was fulfilled. It was the custom of the +Varangians to reward themselves in this way for their faithful services of +protection; and the result is that, to this day, Greek and Arabic gold +crosses and chains are to be found in the houses of Norwegian peasants and +may be seen in the museums of Christiania and Copenhagen. No one was +esteemed the less for this love of spoil, if he was only generous in +giving. The Norsemen spoke contemptuously of gold as "the serpent's bed," +and called a generous man "a hater of the serpent's bed," because such a +man parts with gold as with a thing he hates. + +When the youth came to his father, he found Erik the Red directing the +building of one of the great Norse galleys, nearly eighty feet long and +seventeen wide and only six feet deep. The boat had twenty ribs, and the +frame was fastened together by withes made of roots, while the oaken +planks were held by iron rivets. The oars were twenty feet long, and were +put through oar holes, and the rudder, shaped like a large oar, was not at +the end, but was attached to a projecting beam on the starboard +(originally steer-board) side. The ship was to be called a Dragon, and was +to be painted so as to look like one, having a gilded dragon's head at the +bow and a gilded tail on the stern; while the moving oars would look like +legs, and the row of red and white shields, hung along the side of the +boat, would resemble the scales of a dragon, and the great square sails, +red and blue, would look like wings. This was the vessel which young +Harald was to command. + +He had already made trips in just such vessels with his father; had +learned to attack the enemy with arrow and spear; also with stones thrown +down from above, and with grappling-irons to clutch opposing boats. He had +learned to swim, from early childhood, even in the icy northern waters, +and he had been trained in swimming to hide his head beneath his floating +shield, so that it could not be seen. He had learned also to carry tinder +in a walnut shell, enclosed in wax, so that no matter how long he had been +in the water he could strike a light on reaching shore. He had also +learned from his father acts of escape as well as attack. Thus he had once +sailed on a return trip from Denmark after plundering a town; the ships +had been lying at anchor all night in a fog, and at sunlight in the +morning lights seemed burning on the sea. But Erik the Red said, "It is a +fleet of Danish ships, and the sun strikes on the gilded dragon crests; +furl the sail and take to the oars." They rowed their best, yet the Danish +ships were overtaking them, when Erik the Red ordered his men to throw +wood overboard and cover it with Danish plunder. This made some delay, as +the Danes stopped to pick it up, and in the same way Erik the Red dropped +his provisions, and finally his prisoners; and in the delay thus caused he +got away with his own men. + +But now Harald was not to go to Denmark, but to the new western world, +the Wonderstrands which Leif had sought and had left without sufficient +exploration. First, however, he was to call at Greenland, which his father +had first discovered. It was the custom of the Viking explorers, when they +reached a new country, to throw overboard their "seat posts," or +_setstokka_,--the curved part of their doorways,--and then to land +where they floated ashore. But Erik the Red had lent his to a friend and +could not get them back, so that he sailed in search of them, and came to +a new land which he called Greenland, because, as he said, people would be +attracted thither if it had a good name. Then he established a colony +there, and then Leif the Lucky, as he was called, sailed still farther, +and came to the Wonderstrand, or Magic Shores. These he called Vinland or +Wine-land, and now a rich man named Karlsefne was to send a colony thither +from Greenland, and the young Harald was to go with it and take command of +it. + +Now as Harald was to be presented to the rich Karlsefne, he thought he +must be gorgeously arrayed. So he wore a helmet on his head, a red shield +richly inlaid with gold and iron, and a sharp sword with an ivory handle +wound with golden thread. He had also a short spear, and wore over his +coat a red silk short cloak on which was embroidered, both before and +behind, a yellow lion. We may well believe that the sixty men and five +women who composed the expedition were ready to look on him with +admiration, especially as one of the women was his own sister, Freydis, +now left to his peculiar care, since Erik the Red had died. The sturdy old +hero had died still a heathen, and it was only just after his death that +Christianity was introduced into Greenland, and those numerous churches +were built there whose ruins yet remain, even in regions from which all +population has gone. + +So the party of colonists sailed for Vinland, and Freydis, with the four +older women, came in Harald's boat, and Freydis took easily the lead among +them for strength, though not always, it must be admitted, for amiability. + +The boats of the expedition having left Greenland soon after the year +1000, coasted the shore as far as they could, rarely venturing into open +sea. At last, amidst fog and chilly weather, they made land at a point +where a river ran through a lake into the sea, and they could not enter +from the sea except at high tide. It was once believed that this was +Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, but this is no longer believed. Here +they landed and called the place Hóp, from the Icelandic word _hópa_, +meaning an inlet from the ocean. Here they found grape-vines growing and +fields of wild wheat; there were fish in the lake and wild animals in the +woods. Here they landed the cattle and the provisions which they had +brought with them; and here they built their huts. They went in the +spring, and during that summer the natives came in boats of skin to trade +with them--men described as black, and ill favored, with large eyes and +broad cheeks and with coarse hair on their heads. These, it is thought, +may have been the Esquimaux. The first time they came, these visitors held +up a white shield as a sign of peace, and were so frightened by the +bellowing of the bull that they ran away. Then returning, they brought +furs to sell and wished to buy weapons, but Harald tried another plan: he +bade the women bring out milk, butter, and cheese from their dairies, and +when the Skraelings saw that, they wished for nothing else, and, the +legend says, "the Skraelings carried away their wares in their stomachs, +but the Norsemen had the skins they had purchased." This happened yet +again, but at the second visit one of the Skraelings was accidentally +killed or injured. + +The next time the Skraelings came they were armed with slings, and raised +upon a pole a great blue ball and attacked the Norsemen so furiously that +they were running away when Erik's sister, Freydis, came out before them +with bare arms, and took up a sword, saying, "Why do you run, strong men +as you are, from these miserable dwarfs whom I thought you would knock +down like cattle? Give me weapons, and I will fight better than any of +you." Then the rest took courage and began to fight, and the Skraelings +were driven back. Once more the strangers came, and one of them took up an +axe, a thing which he had not before seen, and struck at one of his +companions, killing him. Then the leader took the axe and threw it into +the water, after which the Skraelings retreated, and were not seen again. + +The winter was a mild one, and while it lasted, the Norsemen worked +busily at felling wood and house-building. They had also many amusements, +in most of which Harald excelled. They used to swim in all weathers. One +of their feats was to catch seals and sit on them while swimming; another +was to pull one another down and remain as long as possible under water. +Harald could swim for a mile or more with his armor on, or with a +companion on his shoulder. In-doors they used to play the tug of war, +dragging each other by a walrus hide across the fire. Harald was good at +this, and was also the best archer, sometimes aiming at something placed +on a boy's head, the boy having a cloth tied around his head, and held by +two men, that he might not move at all on hearing the whistling of the +arrow. In this way Harald could even shoot an arrow under a nut placed on +the head, so that the nut would roll down and the head not be hurt. He +could plant a spear in the ground and then shoot an arrow upward so +skilfully that it would turn in the air and fall with the point in the end +of the spear-shaft. He could also shoot a blunt arrow through the thickest +ox-hide from a cross-bow. He could change weapons from one hand to the +other during a fencing match, or fence with either hand, or throw two +spears at the same time, or catch a spear in motion. He could run so fast +that no horse could overtake him, and play the rough games with bat and +ball, using a ball of the hardest wood. He could race on snowshoes, or +wrestle when bound by a belt to his antagonist. Then when he and his +companions wished a rest, they amused themselves with harp-playing or +riddles or chess. The Norsemen even played chess on board their vessels, +and there are still to be seen, on some of these, the little holes that +were formerly used for the sharp ends of the chessmen, so that they should +not be displaced. + +They could not find that any European had ever visited this place; but +some of the Skraelings told them of a place farther south, which they +called "the Land of the Whiteman," or "Great Ireland." They said that in +that place there were white men who clothed themselves in long white +garments, carried before them poles to which white cloths were hung, and +called with a loud voice. These, it was thought by the Norsemen, must be +Christian processions, in which banners were borne and hymns were chanted. +It has been thought from this that some expedition from Ireland--that of +St. Brandan, for instance--may have left a settlement there, long before, +but this has never been confirmed. The Skraelings and the Northmen were +good friends for a time; until at last one of Erik's own warriors killed a +Skraeling by accident, and then all harmony was at an end. + +They saw no hope of making a lasting settlement there, and, moreover, +Freydis who was very grasping, tried to deceive the other settlers and get +more than her share of everything, so that Harald himself lost patience +with her and threatened her. It happened that one of the men of the party, +Olaf, was Harald's foster-brother. They had once had a fight, and after +the battle had agreed that they would be friends for life and always share +the same danger. For this vow they were to walk under the turf; that is, a +strip of turf was cut and held above their heads, and they stood beneath +and let their blood flow upon the ground whence the turf had been cut. +After this they were to own everything by halves and either must avenge +the other's death. This was their brotherhood; but Freydis did not like +it; so she threatened Olaf, and tried to induce men to kill him, for she +did not wish to bring upon herself the revenge that must come if she slew +him. + +This was the reason why the whole enterprise failed, and why Olaf +persuaded Harald, for the sake of peace, to return to Greenland in the +spring and take a load of valuable timber to sell there, including one +stick of what was called massur-wood, which was as valuable as mahogany, +and may have been at some time borne by ocean currents to the beach. It is +hardly possible that, as some have thought, the colonists established a +regular trade in this wood for no such wood grows on the northern Atlantic +shores. However this may be, the party soon returned, after one winter in +Vinland the Good; and on the way back Harald did one thing which made him +especially dear to his men. + +A favorite feat of the Norsemen was to toss three swords in the air and +catch each by the handle as it came down. This was called the +_handsax_ game. The young men used also to try the feat of running +along the oar-blades of the rowers as they were in motion, passing around +the bow of the vessel with a spring and coming round to the stern over the +oars on the other side. Few could accomplish this, but no one but Harald +could do it and play the _handsax_ game as he ran; and when he did +it, they all said that he was the most skilful man at _idrottie_ ever +seen. That was their word for an athletic feat. But presently came a time +when not only his courage but his fairness and justice were to be tried. + +It happened in this way. There was nothing of which the Norsemen were +more afraid than of the _teredo_, or shipworm, which gnaws the wood +of ships. It was observed in Greenland and Iceland that pieces of wood +often floated on shore which were filled with holes made by this animal, +and they thought that in certain places the seas were full of this worm, +so that a ship would be bored and sunk in a little while. It is said that +on this return voyage Harald's vessel entered a worm-sea and presently +began to sink. They had, however, provided a smaller boat smeared with +sea-oil, which the worms would not attack. They went into the boat, but +found that it would not hold more than half of them all. Then Harald said, +"We will divide by lots, without regard to the rank; each taking his +chance with the rest." This they thought, the Norse legend says, "a +high-minded offer." They drew lots, and Harald was among those assigned to +the safer boat. He stepped in, and when he was there a man called from the +other boat and said, "Dost thou intend, Harald, to separate from me here?" +Harald answered, "So it turns out," and the man said, "Very different was +thy promise to my father when we came from Greenland, for the promise was +that we should share the same fate." + +Then Harald said, "It shall not be thus. Go into the boat, and I will go +back into the ship, since thou art so anxious to live." Then Harald went +back to the ship, while the man took his place in the boat, and after that +Harald was never heard of more. + + + +XVII + +THE SEARCH FOR NORUMBEGA + + +Sir Humphrey Gilbert, colonel of the British forces in the Netherlands, +was poring over the manuscript narrative of David Ingram, mariner. Ingram +had in 1568-69 taken the widest range of travel that had ever been taken +in the new continent, of which it was still held doubtful by many whether +it was or was not a part of Asia. "Surely," Gilbert said to his +half-brother, Walter Raleigh, a youth of twenty-three, "this knave hath +seen strange things. He hath been set ashore by John Hawkins in the Gulf +of Mexico and there left behind. He hath travelled northward with two of +his companions along Indian trails; he hath even reached Norumbega; he +hath seen that famous city with its houses of crystal and silver." + +"Pine logs and hemlock bark, belike," said Raleigh, scornfully. + +"Nay," said Gilbert, "he hath carefully written it down. He saw kings +decorated with rubies six inches long; and they were borne on chairs of +silver and crystal, adorned with precious stones. He saw pearls as common +as pebbles, and the natives were laden down by their ornaments of gold and +silver. The city of Bega was three-quarters of a mile long and had many +streets wider than those of London. Some houses had massive pillars of +crystal and silver." + +"What assurance can he give?" asked Raleigh. + +"He offers on his life to prove it." + +"A small offer, mayhap. There be many of these lying mariners whose lives +are as worthless as the stories they relate. But what said he of the +natives?" + +"Kindly disposed," was the reply, "so far as he went, but those dwelling +farther north, where he did not go, were said to be cannibals with teeth +like those of dogs, whereby you may know them." + +"Travellers' tales," said Raleigh. "_Omne ignotum pro mirifico_." + +"He returned," said Gilbert, disregarding the interruption, "in the +_Gargarine_, a French vessel commanded by Captain Champagne." + +"Methinks something of the flavor represented by the good captain's name +hath got into your Englishman's brain. Good ale never gives such +fantasies. Doth he perchance speak of elephants?" + +"He doth," said Sir Humphrey, hesitatingly. "Perchance he saw them not, +but heard of them only." + +"What says he of them?" asked Raleigh. + +"He says that he saw in that country both elephants and ounces; and he +says that their trumpets are made of elephants' teeth." + +"But the houses," said Raleigh; "tell me of the houses." + +"In every house," said Gilbert, reading from the manuscript, "they have +scoops, buckets, and divers vessels, all of massive silver with which they +throw out water and otherwise employ them. The women wear great plates of +gold covering their bodies, and chains of great pearls in the manner of +curvettes; and the men wear manilions or bracelets on each arm and each +leg, some of gold and some of silver." + +"Whence come they, these gauds?" + +"There are great rivers where one may find pieces of gold as big as the +fist; and there are great rocks of crystal, sufficient to load many ships." + +This was all which was said on that day, but never was explorer more +eager than Gilbert. He wrote a "Discourse of a Discoverie for a New +Passage to Cathaia and the East Indies"--published without his knowledge +by George Gascoigne. In 1578 he had from Queen Elizabeth a patent of +exploration, allowing him to take possession of any uncolonized lands in +North America, paying for these a fifth of all gold and silver found. The +next year he sailed with Raleigh for Newfoundland, but one vessel was lost +and the others returned to England. In 1583, he sailed again, taking with +him the narrative of Ingram, which he reprinted. He also took with him a +learned Hungarian from Buda, named Parmenius, who went for the express +purpose of singing the praise of Norumbega in Latin verse, but was drowned +in Sir Humphrey's great flag-ship, the _Delight_. This wreck took +place near Sable Island, and as most of the supplies for the expedition +went down in the flag-ship, the men in the remaining vessels grew so +impatient as to compel a return. There were two vessels, the _Golden +Hind_ of forty tons, and the _Squirrel_ of ten tons, this last +being a mere boat then called a frigate, a small vessel propelled by both +sails and oars, quite unlike the war-ship afterwards called by that name. +On both these vessels the men were so distressed that they gathered on the +bulwarks, pointing to their empty mouths and their ragged clothing. The +officers of the _Golden Hind_ were unwilling to return, but consented +on Sir Humphrey's promise that they should come back in the spring; they +sailed for England on the 31st of August. All wished him to return in the +_Golden Hind_ as a much larger and safer vessel; the _Squirrel_, +besides its smallness, being encumbered on the deck with guns, ammunition, +and nettings, making it unseaworthy. But when he was begged to remove into +the larger vessel, he said, "I will not forsake my little company going +homeward with whom I have passed so many storms and perils." One reason +for this was, the narrator of the voyage says, because of "hard reports +given of him that he was afraid of the sea, albeit this was rather +rashness than advised resolution, to prefer the wind of a vain report to +the weight of his own life." + +On the very day of sailing they caught their first glimpse of some large +species of seal or walrus, which is thus described by the old narrator of +the expedition:-- + +"So vpon Saturday in the afternoone the 31 of August, we changed our +course, and returned backe for England, at which very instant, euen in +winding about, there passed along betweene vs and towards the land which +we now forsooke a very lion to our seeming, in shape, hair and colour, not +swimming after the maner of a beast by moouing of his feete, but rather +sliding vpon the water with his whole body (excepting the legs) in sight, +neither yet in diuing vnder, and againe rising aboue the water, as the +maner is, of Whales, Dolphins, Tunise, Porposes, and all other fish: but +confidently shewing himselfe aboue water without hiding: Notwithstanding, +we presented our selues in open view and gesture to amase him, as all +creatures will be commonly at a sudden gaze and sight of men. Thus he +passed along turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide, with +ougly demonstration of long teeth, and glaring eies, and to bidde vs a +farewell (comming right against the Hinde) he sent forth a horrible voyce, +roaring or bellowing as doeth a lion, which spectacle wee all beheld so +farre as we were able to discerne the same, as men prone to wonder at +euery strange thing, as this doubtlesse was, to see a lion in the Ocean +sea, or fish in shape of a lion. What opinion others had thereof, and +chiefly the Generall himselfe, I forbeare to deliuer: But he tooke it for +Bonum Omen [a good omen], reioycing that he was to warre against such an +enemie, if it were the deuill." + +When they came north of the Azores, very violent storms met them; most +"outrageous seas," the narrator says; and they saw little lights upon the +mainyard called then by sailors "Castor and Pollux," and now "St. Elmo's +Fire"; yet they had but one of these at a time, and this is thought a sign +of tempest. On September 9, in the afternoon, "the general," as they +called him, Sir Humphrey, was sitting abaft with a book in his hand, and +cried out more than once to those in the other vessel, "We are as near to +heaven by sea as by land." And that same night about twelve o'clock, the +frigate being ahead of the _Golden Hind_, the lights of the smaller +vessel suddenly disappeared, and they knew that she had sunk in the sea. +The event is well described in a ballad by Longfellow. + +The name of Norumbega and the tradition of its glories survived Sir +Humphrey Gilbert. In a French map of 1543, the town appears with castle +and towers. Jean Allfonsce, who visited New England in that year, +describes it as the capital of a great fur country. Students of Indian +tongues defined the word as meaning "the place of a fine city"; while the +learned Grotius seized upon it as being the same as Norberga and so +affording a relic of the visits of the Northmen. As to the locality, it +appeared first on the maps as a large island, then as a smaller one, and +after 1569 no longer as an island, but a part of the mainland, bordering +apparently on the Penobscot River. Whittier in his poem of "Norumbega" +describes a Norman knight as seeking it in vain. + + "He turned him back, 'O master dear, + We are but men misled; + And thou hast sought a city here + To find a grave instead. + + * * * * * + + "'No builded wonder of these lands + My weary eyes shall see; + A city never made with hands + Alone awaiteth me.'" + +So Champlain, in 1604, could find no trace of it, and said that "no such +marvel existed," while Mark Lescarbot, the Parisian advocate, writing in +1609, says, "If this beautiful town ever existed in nature, I would like +to know who pulled it down, for there is nothing here but huts made of +pickets and covered with the barks of trees or skins." Yet it kept its +place on maps till 1640, and even Heylin in his "Cosmography" (1669) +speaks of "Norumbega and its fair city," though he fears that the latter +never existed. + +It is a curious fact that the late Mr. Justin Winsor, the eminent +historian, after much inquiry among the present descendants of the Indian +tribes in Maine, could never find any one who could remember to have heard +the name of Norumbega. + + + +XVIII + +THE GUARDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE + + +When in 1611 the Sieur de Champlain went back to France to report his +wonderful explorations in Canada, he was soon followed by a young +Frenchman named Vignan, who had spent a whole winter among the Indians, in +a village where there was no other white man. This was a method often +adopted by the French for getting more knowledge of Indian ways and +commanding their confidence. Vignan had made himself a welcome guest in +the cabins, and had brought away many of their legends, to which he added +some of his own. In particular, he declared that he had penetrated into +the interior until he had come upon a great lake of salt water, far to the +northwest. This was, as it happened, the very thing which the French +government and all Europe had most hoped to find. They had always believed +that sooner or later a short cut would be discovered across the newly +found continent, a passage leading to the Pacific Ocean and far Cathay. +This was the dream of all French explorers, and of Champlain in +particular, and his interest was at once excited by anything that looked +toward the Pacific. Now Vignan had prepared himself with just the needed +information. He said that during his winter with the Indians he had made +the very discovery needed; that he had ascended the river Ottawa, which +led to a body of salt water so large that it seemed like an ocean; that he +had just seen on its shores the wreck of an English ship, from which +eighty men had been taken and slain by the savages, and that they had with +them an English boy whom they were keeping to present to Champlain. + +This tale about the English ship was evidently founded on the recent +calamities of Henry Hudson, of which Vignan had heard some garbled +account, and which he used as coloring for his story. The result was that +Champlain was thoroughly interested in the tale, and that Vignan was +cross-examined and tested, and was made at last to certify to the truth +of it before two notaries of Rochelle. Champlain privately consulted the +chancellor de Sillery, the old Marquis de Brissac, and others, who all +assured him that the matter should be followed up; and he resolved to make +it the subject of an exploration without delay. He sailed in one vessel, +and Vignan in another, the latter taking with him an ardent young +Frenchman, Albert de Brissac. + +M. de Vignan, talking with the young Brissac on the voyage, told him +wonderful tales of monsters which were, he said, the guardians of the St. +Lawrence River. There was, he said, an island in the bay of Chaleurs, near +the mouth of that river, where a creature dwelt, having the form of a +woman and called by the Indians Gougou. She was very frightful, and so +enormous that the masts of the vessel could not reach her waist. She had +already eaten many savages and constantly continued to do so, putting them +first into a great pocket to await her hunger. Some of those who had +escaped said that this pocket was large enough to hold a whole ship. This +creature habitually made dreadful noises, and several savages who came on +board claimed to have heard them. A man from St. Malo in France, the Sieur +de Prevert, confirmed this story, and said that he had passed so near the +den of this frightful being, that all on board could hear its hissing, and +all hid themselves below, lest it should carry them off. This naturally +made much impression upon the young Sieur de Brissac, and he doubtless +wished many times that he had stayed at home. On the other hand, he +observed that both M. de Vignan and M. de Prevert took the tale very +coolly and that there seemed no reason why he should distrust himself if +they did not. Yet he was very glad when, after passing many islands and +narrow straits, the river broadened and they found themselves fairly in +the St. Lawrence and past the haunted Bay of Chaleurs. They certainly +heard a roaring and a hissing in the distance, but it may have been the +waves on the beach. + +But this was not their last glimpse of the supposed guardians of the St. +Lawrence. As the ship proceeded farther up the beautiful river, they saw +one morning a boat come forth from the woods, bearing three men dressed to +look like devils, wrapped in dogs' skins, white and black, their faces +besmeared as black as any coals, with horns on their heads more than a +yard long, and as this boat passed the ship, one of the men made a long +address, not looking towards them. Then they all three fell flat in the +boat, when Indians rowed out to meet them and guided them to a landing. + +Then many Indians collected in the woods and began a loud talk which they +could hear on board the ships and which lasted half an hour. Then two of +their leaders came towards the shore, holding their hands upward joined +together, and meanwhile carrying their hats under their upper garments and +showing great reverence. Looking upward they sometimes cried, "Jesus, +Jesus," or "Jesus Maria." Then the captain asked them whether anything ill +had happened, and they said in French, "Nenni est il bon," meaning that it +was not good. Then they said that their god Cudraigny had spoken in +Hochelaga (Montreal) and had sent these three men to show to them that +there was so much snow and ice in the country that he who went there would +die. This made the Frenchmen laugh, saying in reply that their god +Cudraigny was but a fool and a noddy and knew not what he said. "Tell +him," said a Frenchman, "that Christ will defend them from all cold, if +they will believe in him." The Indians then asked the captain if he had +spoken with Jesus. He answered No; but that his priests had, and they had +promised fair weather. Hearing this, they thanked the captain and told the +other Indians in the woods, who all came rushing out, seeming to be very +glad. Giving great shouts, they began to sing and dance as they had done +before. They also began to bring to the ships great stores of fish and of +bread made of millet, casting it into the French boats so thickly that it +seemed to fall from heaven. Then the Frenchmen went on shore, and the +people came clustering about them, bringing children in their arms to be +touched, as if to hallow them. Then the captain in return arranged the +women in order and gave them beads made of tin, and other trifles, and +gave knives to the men. All that night the Indians made great fires and +danced and sang along the shore. But when the Frenchmen had finally +reached the mouth of the Ottawa and had begun to ascend it, under Vignan's +guidance, they had reasons to remember the threats of the god Cudraigny. + +Ascending the Ottawa in canoes, past cataracts, boulders, and precipices, +they at last, with great labor, reached the island of Allumette, at a +distance of two hundred and twenty-five miles. Often it was impossible to +carry their canoes past waterfalls, because the forests were so dense, so +that they had to drag the boats by ropes, wading among rocks or climbing +along precipices. Gradually they left behind them their armor, their +provisions, and clothing, keeping only their canoes; they lived on fish +and wild fowl, and were sometimes twenty-four hours without food. +Champlain himself carried three French arquebuses or short guns, three +oars, his cloak, and many smaller articles; and was harassed by dense +clouds of mosquitoes all the time. Vignan, Brissac, and the rest were +almost as heavily loaded. The tribe of Indians whom they at last reached +had chosen the spot as being inaccessible to their enemies; and thought +that the newcomers had fallen from the clouds. + +When Champlain inquired after the salt sea promised by Vignan, he learned +to his indignation that the whole tale was false. Vignan had spent a +winter at the very village where they were, but confessed that he had +never gone a league further north. The Indians knew of no such sea, and +craved permission to torture and kill him for his deceptions; they called +him loudly a liar, and even the children took up the cry and jeered at +him. They said, "Do you not see that he meant to cause your death? Give +him to us, and we promise you that he shall not lie any more." Champlain +defended him from their attacks, bore it all philosophically, and the +young Brissac went back to France, having given up hope of reaching the +salt sea, except, as Champlain himself coolly said, "in imagination." The +guardians of the St. Lawrence had at least exerted their spell to the +extent of saying, Thus far and no farther. Vignan never admitted that he +had invented the story of the Gougou, and had bribed the Indians who acted +the part of devils,--and perhaps he did not,--but it is certain that +neither the giantess nor the god Cudraigny has ever again been heard from. + + + +XIX + +THE ISLAND OF DEMONS + + +Those American travellers who linger with delight among the narrow lanes +and picturesque, overhanging roofs of Honfleur, do not know what a strange +tragedy took place on a voyage which began in that quaint old port three +centuries and a half ago. When, in 1536, the Breton sailor Jacques Cartier +returned from his early explorations of the St. Lawrence, which he had +ascended as high as Hochelaga, King Francis I. sent for him at the lofty +old house known as the House of the Salamander, in a narrow street of the +quaint town of Lisieux. It now seems incredible that the most powerful +king in Europe should have dwelt in such a meagre lane, yet the house +still stands there as a witness; although a visitor must now brush away +the rough, ready-made garments and fishermen's overalls which overhang its +door. Over that stairway, nevertheless, the troubadours, Pierre Ronsard +and Clement Marot, used to go up and down, humming their lays or touching +their viols; and through that door De Lorge returned in glory, after +leaping down into the lions' den to rescue his lady's glove. The house +still derives its name from the great carved image of a reptile which +stretches down its outer wall, from garret to cellar, beside the doorway. + +In that house the great king deigned to meet the Breton sailor, who had +set up along the St. Lawrence a cross bearing the arms of France with the +inscription _Franciscus Primus, Dei gratia Francorum Rex regnat_; and +had followed up the pious act by kidnapping the king Donnacona, and +carrying him back to France. This savage potentate was himself brought to +Lisieux to see his French fellow-sovereign; and the jovial king, eagerly +convinced, decided to send Cartier forth again, to explore for other +wonders, and perhaps bring back other kingly brethren. Meanwhile, however, +as it was getting to be an affair of royalty, he decided to send also a +gentleman of higher grade than a pilot, and so selected Jean François de +la Roche, Sieur de Roberval, whom he commissioned as lieutenant and +governor of Canada and Hochelaga. Roberval was a gentleman of credit and +renown in Picardy, and was sometimes jocosely called by Francis "the +little king of Vimeu." He was commissioned at Fontainebleau, and proceeded +to superintend the building of ships at St. Malo. + +Marguerite Roberval, his fair-haired and black-eyed niece, was to go with +him on the voyage, with other ladies of high birth, and also with the +widowed Madame de Noailles, her _gouvernante_. Roberval himself +remained at St. Malo to superintend the building of the ships, and +Marguerite and her _gouvernante_ would sit for hours in a beautiful +nook by the shipyards, where they could overlook the vessels in rapid +construction, or else watch the wondrous swirl of the tide as it swept in +and out, leaving the harbor bare at low tide, but with eight fathoms of +water when the tide was full. The designer of the ships often came, cap in +hand, to ask or answer questions--one of those frank and manly French +fishermen and pilots, whom the French novelists describe as "_un solide +gaillard_," or such as Victor Hugo paints in his "Les Travailleurs de +la Mer." The son of a notary, Etienne Gosselin was better educated than +most of the young noblemen whom Marguerite knew, and only his passion for +the sea and for nautical construction had kept him a shipbuilder. No +wonder that the young Marguerite, who had led the sheltered life of the +French maiden, was attracted by his manly look, his open face, his merry +blue eyes, and curly hair. There was about her a tinge of romance, which +made her heart an easier thing to reach for such a lover than for one +within her own grade; and as the voyage itself was a world of romance, a +little more or less of the romantic was an easy thing to add. Meanwhile +Madame de Noailles read her breviary and told her beads and took little +naps, wholly ignorant of the drama that was beginning its perilous +unfolding before her. When the Sieur de Roberval returned, the shipbuilder +became a mere shipbuilder again. + +Three tall ships sailed from Honfleur on August 22, 1541, and on one of +them, _La Grande Hermine_,--so called to distinguish it from a +smaller boat of that name, which had previously sailed with Cartier,--were +the Sieur de Roberval, his niece, and her _gouvernante_. She also had +with her a Huguenot nurse, who had been with her from a child, and cared +for her devotedly. Roberval naturally took with him, for future needs, the +best shipbuilder of St. Malo, Etienne Gosselin. The voyage was long, and +there is reason to think that the Sieur de Roberval was not a good sailor, +while as to the _gouvernante_, she may have been as helpless as the +seasick chaperon of yachting excursions. Like them, she suffered the most +important events to pass unobserved, and it was not till too late that she +discovered, what more censorious old ladies on board had already seen, +that her young charge lingered too often and too long on the quarter-deck +when Etienne Gosselin was planning ships for the uncle. When she found it +out, she was roused to just indignation; but being, after all, but a +kindly dowager, with a heart softened by much reading of the interminable +tales of Madame de Scudéry, she only remonstrated with Marguerite, wept +over her little romance, and threatened to break the sad news to the Sieur +de Roberval, yet never did so. Other ladies were less considerate; it all +broke suddenly upon the angry uncle; the youth was put in irons, and +threatened with flogging, and forbidden to approach the quarter-deck +again. But love laughs at locksmiths; Gosselin was relieved of his irons +in a day or two because he could not be spared from his work in designing +the forthcoming ship, and as both he and Marguerite were of a tolerably +determined nature, they invoked, through the old nurse, the aid of a +Huguenot minister on board, who had before sailed with Cartier to take +charge of the souls of some Protestant vagabonds on the ship, and who was +now making a second trip for the same reason. That night, after dark, he +joined the lovers in marriage; within twenty-four hours Roberval had heard +of it, and had vowed a vengeance quick and sure. + +The next morning, under his orders, the vessel lay to under the lee of a +rocky island, then known to the sailors as l'Isle des Demons from the +fierce winds that raged round it. There was no house there, no living +person, no tradition of any; only rocks, sands, and deep forests. With +dismay, the ship's company heard that it was the firm purpose of Roberval +to put the offending bride on shore, giving her only the old nurse for +company, and there to leave her with provisions for three months, trusting +to some other vessel to take the exiled women away within that time. The +very ladies whose love of scandal had first revealed to him the alleged +familiarities, now besought him with many tears to abandon the thought of +a doom so terrible. Vainly Madame de Noailles implored mercy for the young +girl from a penalty such as was never imposed in any of Madame de +Scudéry's romances; vainly the Huguenot minister and the Catholic +chaplain, who had fought steadily on questions of doctrine during the +whole voyage, now united in appeals for pardon. At least they implored him +to let the offenders have a man-servant or two with them to protect them +against wild beasts or buccaneers. He utterly refused until, at last +wearied out, his wild nature yielded to one of those sudden impulses which +were wont to sweep over it; and he exclaimed, "Is it that they need a +man-servant, then? Let this insolent caitiff, Gosselin, be relieved of his +irons and sent on shore. Let him be my niece's servant or, since a +Huguenot marriage is as good as any in the presence of bears and +buccaneers, let her call the hound her husband, if she likes. I have done +with her; and the race from which she came disowns her forever." + +Thus it was done. Etienne was released from his chains and sent on shore. +An arquebus and ammunition were given him; and resisting the impulse to +send his first shot through the heart of his tyrant, he landed, and the +last glimpse seen of the group as the _Grande Hermine_ sailed away, +was the figure of Marguerite sobbing on his shoulder, and of the unhappy +nurse, now somewhat plethoric, and certainly not the person to be selected +as a pioneer, sitting upon a rock, weeping profusely. The ship's sails +filled, the angry Roberval never looked back on his deserted niece, and +the night closed down upon the lonely Isle of Demons, now newly occupied +by three unexpected settlers, two of whom at least were happy in each +other. + +A few boxes of biscuits, a few bottles of wine, had been put on shore +with them, enough to feed them for a few weeks. They had brought flint and +steel to strike fire, and some ammunition. The chief penalty of the crime +did not lie, after all, in the cold and the starvation and the wild beasts +and the possible visits of pirates; it lay in the fact that it was the +Island of Demons where they were to be left; and in that superstitious age +this meant everything that was terrible. For the first few nights of their +stay, they fancied that they heard superhuman voices in every wind that +blew, every branch that creaked against another branch; and they heard, at +any rate, more substantial sounds from the nightly wolves or from the +bears which ice-floes had floated to that northern isle. They watched +Roberval sail away, he rejoicing, as the old legend of Thevet says, at +having punished them without soiling his hands with their blood (_ioueux +de les auior puniz sans se souiller les mains en leurs sang_). They +built as best they could a hut of boughs and strewed beds of leaves, until +they had killed wild beasts enough to prepare their skins. Their store of +hard bread lasted them but a little while, but there were fruits around +them, and there was fresh water near by. "Yet it was terrible," says +Thevet's old narrative, "to hear the frightful sounds which the evil +spirits made around them, and how they tried to break down their abode, +and showed themselves in various forms of frightful animals; yet at last, +conquered by the constancy and perseverance of these repentant Christians, +the tormentors afflicted or disquieted them no more, save that often in +the night they heard cries so loud that it seemed as if more than five +thousand men were assembled together" (_plus de cent mil homes qui +fussent ensemble_). + +So passed many months of desolation, and alas! the husband was the first +to yield. Daily he climbed the rocks to look for vessels; each night he +descended sadder and sadder; he waked while the others slept. Feeling that +it was he who had brought distress upon the rest, he concealed his +depression, but it soon was past concealing; he only redoubled his care +and watching as his wife grew the stronger of the two; and he faded slowly +away and died. His wife had nothing to sustain her spirits except the +approach of maternity--she would live for her child. When the child was +born and baptized in the name of the Holy Church, though without the +Church's full ceremonies, Marguerite felt the strength of motherhood; +became a better huntress, a better provider. A new sorrow came; in the +sixteenth or seventeenth month of her stay, the old nurse died also, and +not long after the baby followed. Marguerite now seemed to herself +deserted, even by Heaven itself; she was alone in that northern island +without comradeship; her husband, child, and nurse gone; dependent for +very food on the rapidly diminishing supply of ammunition. Her head swam; +for months she saw visions almost constantly, which only strenuous prayer +banished, and only the acquired habit of the chase enabled her, almost +mechanically, to secure meat to support life. Fortunately, those especial +sights and sounds of demons which had haunted her imagination during the +first days and nights on the island, did not recur; but the wild beasts +gathered round her the more when there was only one gun to alarm them; and +she once shot three bears in a day,--one a white bear, of which she +secured the skin. + +What imagination can depict the terrors of those lonely days and still +lonelier nights? Most persons left as solitary tenants of an island have +dwelt, like Alexander Selkirk, in regions nearer the tropics, where there +was at least a softened air, a fertile soil, and the Southern Cross above +their heads; but to be solitary in a prolonged winter, to be alone with +the Northern Lights,--this offered peculiar terrors. To be ice-bound, to +hear the wolves in their long and dreary howl, to protect the very graves +of her beloved from being dug up, to watch the floating icebergs, not +knowing what new and savage visitor might be borne by them to the island, +what a complication of terror was this for Marguerite! + +For two years and five months in all she dwelt upon the Isle of Demons, +the last year wholly alone. Then, as she stood upon the shore, some Breton +fishing-smacks, seeking codfish, came in sight. Making signals with fire +and calling for aid, she drew them nearer; but she was now dressed in furs +only, and seemed to them but one of the fancied demons of the island. +Beating up slowly and watchfully toward the shore, they came within +hearing of her voice and she told her dreary tale. At last they took her +in charge, and bore her back to France with the bearskins she had +prepared; and taking refuge in the village of Nautron, in a remote +province (Perigord), where she could escape the wrath of Roberval, she +told her story to Thevet, the explorer, to the Princess Marguerite of +Navarre (sister of Francis I.), and to others. Thevet tells it in his +"Cosmographie," and Marguerite of Navarre in her "Cent Nouvelles +Nouvelles." + +She told Thevet that after the first two months, the demons came to her +no more, until she was left wholly alone; then they renewed their visits, +but not continuously, and she felt less fear. Thevet also records of her +this touching confession, that when the time came for her to embark, in +the Breton ship, for home, there came over her a strong impulse to refuse +the embarkation, but rather to die in that solitary place, as her husband, +her child, and her servant had already died. This profound touch of human +nature does more than anything else to confirm the tale as substantially +true. Certain it is that the lonely island which appeared so long on the +old maps as the Isle of Demons (l'Isola de Demoni) appears differently in +later ones as the Lady's Island (l'Isle de la Demoiselle). + +The Princess Marguerite of Navarre, who died in 1549, seems also to have +known her namesake at her retreat in Perigord, gives some variations from +Thevet's story, and describes her as having been put on shore with her +husband, because of frauds which he had practised on Roberval; nor does +she speak of the nurse or of the child. But she gives a similar +description of Marguerite's stay on the island, after his death, and says, +that although she lived what might seem a bestial life as to her body, it +was a life wholly angelic as regarded her soul (_aînsî vivant, quant au +corps, de vie bestiale, et quant à l'esprit, de vie angelîcque_). She +had, the princess also says, a mind cheerful and content, in a body +emaciated and half dead. She was afterwards received with great honor in +France, according to the princess, and was encouraged to establish a +school for little children, where she taught reading and writing to the +daughters of high-born families. "And by this honest industry," says the +princess, "she supported herself during the remainder of her life, having +no other wish than to exhort every one to love and confidence towards God, +offering them as an example, the great pity which he had shown for her." + + + +XX + +BIMINI AND THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH + + +When Juan Ponce de Leon set forth from Porto Rico, March 13, 1512, to +seek the island of Bimini and its Fountain of Youth, he was moved by the +love of adventure more than by that of juvenility, for he was then but +about fifty, a time when a cavalier of his day thought himself but in his +prime. He looked indeed with perpetual sorrow--as much of it as a Spaniard +of those days could feel--upon his kinsman Luis Ponce, once a renowned +warrior, but on whom age had already, at sixty-five, laid its hand in +earnest. There was little in this slowly moving veteran to recall one who +had shot through the lists at the tournament, and had advanced with his +short sword at the bull fight,--who had ruled his vassals, and won the +love of high-born women. It was a vain hope of restored youth which had +brought Don Luis from Spain to Porto Rico four years before; and, when +Ponce de Leon had subdued that island, his older kinsman was forever +beseeching him to carry his flag farther, and not stop till he had reached +Bimini, and sought the Fountain of Youth. + +"For what end," he said, "should you stay here longer and lord it over +these miserable natives? Let us go where we can bathe in those enchanted +waters and be young once more. I need it, and you will need it ere long." + +"How know we," said his kinsman, "that there is any such place?" + +"All know it," said Luis. "Peter Martyr saith that there is in Bimini a +continual spring of running water of such marvellous virtue that the water +thereof, being drunk, perhaps with some diet, maketh old men young." And +he adds that an Indian grievously oppressed with old age, moved with the +fame of that fountain, and allured through the love of longer life, went +to an island, near unto the country of Florida, to drink of the desired +fountain, ... and having well drunk and washed himself for many days with +the appointed remedies, by them who kept the bath, he is reported to have +brought home a manly strength, and to have used all manly exercises. "Let +us therefore go thither," he cried, "and be like him." + +They set sail with three brigantines and found without difficulty the +island of Bimini among the Lucayos (or Bahamas) islands; but when they +searched for the Fountain of Youth they were pointed farther westward to +Florida, where there was said to be a river of the same magic powers, +called the Jordan. Touching at many a fair island green with trees, and +occupied by a gentle population till then undisturbed, it was not strange +if, nearing the coast of Florida, both Juan Ponce de Leon and his more +impatient cousin expected to find the Fountain of Youth. + +They came at last to an inlet which led invitingly up among wooded banks +and flowery valleys, and here the older knight said, "Let us disembark +here and strike inland. My heart tells me that here at last will be found +the Fountain of Youth." "Nonsense," said Juan, "our way lies by water." + +"Then leave me here with my men," said Luis. He had brought with him five +servants, mostly veterans, from his own estate in Spain. + +A fierce discussion ended in Luis obtaining his wish, and being left for +a fortnight of exploration; his kinsman promising to come for him again at +the mouth of the river St. John. The men left on shore were themselves +past middle age, and the more eager for their quest. They climbed a hill +and watched the brigantines disappear in the distance; then set up a +cross, which they had brought with them, and prayed before it bareheaded. + +Sending the youngest of his men up to the top of a tree, Luis learned +from him that they were on an island, after all, and this cheered him +much, as making it more likely that they should find the Fountain of +Youth. He saw that the ground was pawed up, as if in a cattle-range and +that there was a path leading to huts. Taking this path, they met fifty +Indian bowmen, who, whether large or not, seemed to them like giants. The +Spaniards gave them beads and hawk-bells, and each received in return an +arrow, as a token of friendship. The Indians promised them food in the +morning, and brought fish, roots, and pure water; and finding them chilly +from the coldness of the night, carried them in their arms to their homes, +first making four or five large fires on the way. At the houses there were +many fires, and the Spaniards would have been wholly comfortable, had they +not thought it just possible that they were to be offered as a sacrifice. +Still fearing this, they left their Indian friends after a few days and +traversed the country, stopping at every spring or fountain to test its +quality. Alas! they all grew older and more worn in look, as time went on, +and farther from the Fountain of Youth. + +After a time they came upon new tribes of Indians, and as they went +farther from the coast these people seemed more and more friendly. They +treated the white men as if come from heaven,--brought them food, made +them houses, carried every burden for them. Some had bows, and went upon +the hills for deer, and brought half a dozen every night for their guests; +others killed hares and rabbits by arranging themselves in a circle and +striking down the game with billets of wood as it ran from one to another +through the woods. All this game was brought to the visitors to be +breathed upon and blessed, and when this had to be done for several +hundred people it became troublesome. The women also brought wild fruit, +and would eat nothing till the guests had seen and touched it. If the +visitors seemed offended, the natives were terrified, and apparently +thought that they should die unless they had the favor of these wise and +good men. Farther on, people did not come out into the paths to gather +round them, as the first had done, but stayed meekly in their houses, +sitting with their faces turned to the wall, and with their property +heaped in the middle of the room. From these people the travellers +received many valuable skins, and other gifts. Wherever there was a +fountain, the natives readily showed it, but apparently knew nothing of +any miraculous gift; yet they themselves were in such fine physical +condition, and seemed so young and so active, that it was as if they had +already bathed in some magic spring. They had wonderful endurance of heat +and cold, and such health that, when their bodies were pierced through and +through by arrows, they would recover rapidly from their wounds. These +things convinced the Spaniards that, even if the Indians would not +disclose the source of all their bodily freshness, it must, at any rate, +lie somewhere in the neighborhood. Yet a little while, no doubt, and their +visitors would reach it. + +It was a strange journey for these gray and careworn men as they passed +up the defiles and valleys along the St. John's River, beyond the spot +where now spreads the city of Jacksonville, and even up to the woods and +springs about Magnolia and Green Cove. Yellow jasmines trailed their +festoons above their heads; wild roses grew at their feet; the air was +filled with the aromatic odors of pine or sweet bay; the long gray moss +hung from the live-oak branches; birds and butterflies of wonderful hues +fluttered around them; and strange lizards crossed their paths, or looked +with dull and blinking eyes from the branches. They came, at last, to one +spring which widened into a natural basin, and which was so deliciously +aromatic that Luis Ponce said, on emerging: "It is enough. I have bathed +in the Fountain of Youth, and henceforth I am young." His companions tried +it, and said the same: "The Fountain of Youth is found." + +No time must now be lost in proclaiming the great discovery. They +obtained a boat from the natives, who wept at parting with the white +strangers whom they had so loved. In this boat they proposed to reach the +mouth of the St. John, meet Juan Ponce de Leon, and carry back the news to +Spain. But one native, whose wife and children they had cured, and who had +grown angry at their refusal to stay longer, went down to the water's edge +and, sending an arrow from his bow, transfixed Don Luis, so that even his +foretaste of the Fountain could not save him, and he died ere reaching the +mouth of the river. If Don Luis ever reached what he sought, it was in +another world. But those who have ever bathed in Green Cove Spring, near +Magnolia, on the St. John's River, will be ready to testify that, had he +but stayed there longer, he would have found something to recall his +visions of the Fountain of Youth. + + + + +NOTES + + + +PREFACE + + + +A Full account of the rediscovery of the Canaries in 1341 will be found +in Major's "Life of Prince Henry of Portugal" (London, 1868), p. 138. For +the statement as to the lingering belief in the Jacquet Island, see +Winsor's "Columbus," p. 111. The extract from Cowley is given by Herman +Melville in his picturesque paper on "The Encantadas" (_Putnam's +Magazine_, III. 319). In Harris's "Voyages" (1702) there is a map +giving "Cowley's Inchanted Isl." (I. 78), but there is no explanation of +the name. The passage quoted by Melville is not to be found in Cowley's +"Voyage to Magellanica and Polynesia," given by Harris in the same volume, +and must be taken from Cowley's "Voyage round the Globe," which I have not +found in any library. + + +I. ATLANTIS + +For the original narrative of Socrates, see Plato's "Timaeus" and +"Critias," in each of which it is given. For further information see the +chapter on the Geographical Knowledge of the Ancients by W. H. +Tillinghast, in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America," I. +15. He mentions (I. 19, note) a map printed at Amsterdam in 1678 by +Kircher, which shows Atlantis as a large island midway between Spain and +America. Ignatius Donnelly's "Atlantis, the Antediluvian World" (N. Y. +1882), maintains that the evidence for the former existence of such an +island is irresistible, and his work has been very widely read, although +it is not highly esteemed by scholars. + + +II. TALIESSIN + +The Taliessin legend in its late form cannot be traced back beyond the +end of the sixteenth century, but the account of the transformation is to +be found in the "Book of Taliessin," a manuscript of the thirteenth +century, preserved in the Hengwt Collection at Peniarth. The Welsh bard +himself is supposed to have flourished in the sixth century. See Alfred +Nutt in "The Voyage of Bram" (London, 1897), II. 86. The traditions may be +found in Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of the "Mabinogion," 2d ed., +London, 1877, p. 471. The poems may be found in the original Welsh in +Skene's "Four Ancient Books of Wales," 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1868; and he +also gives a facsimile of the manuscript. + + +III. CHILDREN OF LIR + +The lovely legend of the children of Lir or Lear forms one of those three +tales of the old Irish Bards which are known traditionally in Ireland as +"The Three Sorrows of Story Telling." It has been told in verse by Aubrey +de Vere ("The Foray of Queen Meave, and Other Legends," London, 1882), by +John Todhunter ("Three Irish Bardic Tales," London, 1896); and also in +prose by various writers, among whom are Professor Eugene O'Curry, whose +version with the Gaelic original was published in "Atlantis," Nos. vii. +and viii.; Gerald Griffin in "The Tales of a Jury Room"; and Dr. Patrick +Weston Joyce in "Ancient Celtic Romances" (London, 1879). The oldest +manuscript copy of the tale in Gaelic is one in the British Museum, made +in 1718; but there are more modern ones in different English and Irish +libraries, and the legend itself is of much older origin. Professor +O'Curry, the highest authority, places its date before the year 1000. +("Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Irish History," p. 319.) + + +IV. USHEEN + +In the original legend, Oisin or Usheen is supposed to have told his tale +to St. Patrick on his arrival in Ireland; but as the ancient Feni were +idolaters, the hero bears but little goodwill to the saint. The Celtic +text of a late form of the legend (1749) with a version by Brian O'Looney +will be found in the transactions of the Ossianic Society for 1856 (Vol. +IV. p. 227); and still more modern and less literal renderings in P. W. +Joyce's "Ancient Celtic Romances" (London, 1879), p. 385, and in W. B. +Yeats's "Wanderings of Oisin, and Other Poems" (London, 1889), p. 1. The +last is in verse and is much the best. St. Patrick, who takes part in it, +regards Niam as "a demon thing." See also the essays entitled "L'Elysée +Transatlantique," by Eugene Beauvois, in the "Revue de L'Histoire des +Religions," VII. 273 (Paris, 1885), and "L'Eden Occidental" (same, VII. +673). As to Oisin or Usheen's identity with Ossian, see O'Curry's +"Lectures on the Manuscript Materials for Ancient Irish History" (Dublin, +1861), pp. 209, 300; John Rhys's "Hibbert Lectures" (London, 1888), p. +551. The latter thinks the hero identical with Taliessin, as well as with +Ossian, and says that the word Ossin means "a little fawn," from "os," +"cervus." (See also O'Curry, p. 304.) O'Looney represents that it was a +stone which Usheen threw to show his strength, and Joyce follows this +view; but another writer in the same volume of the Ossianic Society +transactions (p. 233) makes it a bag of sand, and Yeats follows this +version. It is also to be added that the latter in later editions changes +the spelling of his hero's name from Oisin to Usheen. + + +V. BRAN + +The story of Bran and his sister Branwen may be found most fully given in +Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of the "Mabinogion," ed. 1877, pp. 369, +384. She considers Harlech, whence Bran came, to be a locality on the +Welsh seacoast still known by that name and called also Branwen's Tower. +But Rhys, a much higher authority, thinks that Bran came really from the +region of Hades, and therefore from a distant island ("Arthurian Legend," +p. 250, "Hibbert Lectures," pp. 94, 269). The name of "the Blessed" came +from the legend of Bran's having introduced Christianity into Ireland, as +stated in one of the Welsh Triads. He was the father of Caractacus, +celebrated for his resistance to the Roman conquest, and carried a +prisoner to Rome. Another triad speaks of King Arthur as having dug up +Bran's head, for the reason that he wished to hold England by his own +strength; whence followed many disasters (Guest, p. 387). + +There were many Welsh legends in regard to Branwen or Bronwen (White +Bosom), and what is supposed to be her grave, with an urn containing her +ashes, may still be seen at a place called "Ynys Bronwen," or "the islet +of Bronwen," in Anglesea. It was discovered and visited in 1813 (Guest, p. +389). + +The White Mount in which Bran's head was deposited is supposed to have +been the Tower of London, described by a Welsh poet of the twelfth century +as "The White Eminence of London, a place of splendid fame" (Guest, p. +392). + + +VI. THE CASTLE OF THE ACTIVE DOOR + +This legend is mainly taken from different parts of Lady Charlotte +Guest's translation of the "Mabinogion," with some additions and +modifications from Rhys's "Hibbert Lectures" and "The Arthurian Legend." + + +VIII. MERLIN + +In later years Merlin was known mainly by a series of remarkable +prophecies which were attributed to him and were often said to be +fulfilled by actual events in history. Thus one of the many places where +Merlin's grave was said to be was Drummelzion in Tweeddale, Scotland. On +the east side of the churchyard a brook called the Pansayl falls into the +Tweed, and there was this prophecy as to their union:-- + + "When Tweed and Pansayl join at Merlin's grave, + Scotland and England shall one monarch have." + +Sir Walter Scott tells us, in his "Border Minstrelsy," that on the day of +the coronation of James VI. of Scotland the Tweed accordingly overflowed +and joined the Pansayl at the prophet's grave. It was also claimed by one +of the witnesses at the trial of Jeanne d'Arc, that there was a prediction +by Merlin that France would be saved by a peasant girl from Lorraine. +These prophesies have been often reprinted, and have been translated into +different languages, and there was published in London, in 1641, "The Life +of Merlin, surnamed Ambrosius, His Prophesies and Predictions interpreted, +and their Truth made Good by our English Annals." Another book was also +published in London, in 1683, called "Merlin revived in a Discourse of +Prophesies, Predictions, and their Remarkable Accomplishments." + + +VIII. LANCELOT + +The main sources of information concerning Lancelot are the "Morte +d'Arthur," Newell's "King Arthur and the Table Round," and the +publications of the Early English Text Society. See also Rhys's "Arthurian +Legend," pp. 127, 147, etc. + + +IX. THE HALF-MAN + +The symbolical legend on which this tale is founded will be found in Lady +Charlotte Guest's translation of the "Mabinogion" (London, 1877), II. p. +344. It is an almost unique instance, in the imaginative literature of +that period, of a direct and avowed allegory. There is often allegory, but +it is usually contributed by modern interpreters, and would sometimes +greatly astound the original fabulists. + + +X. ARTHUR + +The earliest mention of the island of Avalon, or Avilion, in connection +with the death of Arthur, is a slight one by the old English chronicler, +Geoffrey of Monmouth (Book XI. c. 2), and the event is attributed by him +to the year 542. Wace's French romance was an enlargement of Geoffrey; and +the narrative of Layamon (at the close of the twelfth century) an +explanation of that of Wace. Layamon's account of the actual death of +Arthur, as quoted in the text, is to be found in the translation, a very +literal one, by Madden (Madden's "Layamon's Brut," III. pp. 140-146). + +The earliest description of the island itself is by an anonymous author +known as "Pseudo-Gildas," supposed to be a thirteenth-century Breton +writer (Meyer's "Voyage of Bram," I. p. 237), and quoted by Archbishop +Usher in his "British Ecclesiastical Antiquities" (1637), p. 273, who thus +describes it in Latin hexameters:-- + + "Cingitur oceano memorabilis insula nullis + Desolata bonis: non fur, nec praedo, nec hostis + Insidiatur ibi: nec vis, nec bruma nec aestas, + Immoderata furit. Pax et concordia, pubes + Ver manent aeternum. Nec flos, nec lilia desunt, + Nec rosa, nec violae: flores et poma sub unâ + Fronde gerit pomus. Habitant sine labe cruoris + Semper ibi juvenes cum virgine: nulla senectus, + Nulla vis morbi, nullus dolor; omnia plena + Laetitiae; nihil hic proprium, communia quaeque. + + Regit virgo locis et rebus praesidet istis, + Virginibus stipata suis, pulcherrima pulchris; + Nympha decens vultu, generosis patribus orta, + Consilio pollens, medicinas nobilis arte. + At simul Arthurus regni diadema reliquit, + Substitutique sibi regem, se transtulit illic; + Anno quingeno quadragenoque secundo + Post incarnatum sine patris semine natum. + Immodicè laesus, Arthurus tendit ad aulam + Regis Avallonis; ubi virgo regia vulnus + Illius tractans, sanati membra reservat + Ipsa sibi: vivuntque simul; si credere fas est." + +A translation of this passage into rhyming English follows; both of these +being taken from Way's "Fabliaux" (London, 1815), II. pp. 233-235. + + "By the main ocean's wave encompass'd, stands + A memorable isle, fill'd with all good: + No thief, no spoiler there, no wily foe + With stratagem of wasteful war; no rage + Of heat intemperate, or of winter's cold; + But spring, full blown, with peace and concord reigns: + Prime bliss of heart and season, fitliest join'd! + Flowers fail not there: the lily and the rose, + With many a knot of fragrant violets bound; + And, loftier, clustering down the bended boughs, + Blossom with fruit combin'd, rich apples hang. + + "Beneath such mantling shades for ever dwell + In virgin innocence and honour pure, + Damsels and youths, from age and sickness free, + And ignorant of woe, and fraught with joy, + In choice community of all things best. + + O'er these, and o'er the welfare of this land, + Girt with her maidens, fairest among fair, + Reigns a bright virgin sprung from generous sires, + In counsel strong, and skill'd in med'cine's lore. + Of her (Britannia's diadem consign'd + To other brow), for his deep wound and wide + Great Arthur sought relief: hither he sped + (Nigh two and forty and five hundred years + Since came the incarnate Son to save mankind), + And in Avallon's princely hall repos'd. + His wound the royal damsel search'd; she heal'd; + And in this isle still holds him to herself + In sweet society,--so fame say true!" + + +XI. MAELDUIN + +This narrative is taken partly from Nutt's "Voyage of Bram" (I. 162) and +partly from Joyce's "Ancient Celtic Romances." The latter, however, allows +Maelduin sixty comrades instead of seventeen, which is Nutt's version. +There are copies of the original narrative in the Erse language at the +British Museum, and in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. The voyage, +which may have had some reality at its foundation, is supposed to have +taken place about the year 700 A.D. It belongs to the class known as +Imrama, or sea-expeditions. Another of these is the voyage of St. Brandan, +and another is that of "the sons of O'Corra." A poetical translation of +this last has been made by T. D. Sullivan of Dublin, and published in his +volume of poems. (Joyce, p. xiii.) All these voyages illustrated the wider +and wider space assigned on the Atlantic ocean to the enchanted islands +until they were finally identified, in some cases, with the continent +which Columbus found. + + +XII. ST. BRANDAN + +THE legend of St. Brandan, which was very well known in the Middle Ages, +was probably first written in Latin prose near the end of the eleventh +century, and is preserved in manuscript in many English libraries. An +English metrical version, written probably about the beginning of the +fourteenth century, is printed under the editorship of Thomas Wright in +the publications of the Percy Society, London, 1844 (XIV.), and it is +followed in the same volume by an English prose version of 1527. A partial +narrative in Latin prose, with an English version, may be found in W. J. +Rees's "Lives of the Cambro-British Saints" (Llandovery, 1853), pp. 251, +575. The account of Brandan in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists may +be found under May 16, the work being arranged under saints' days. This +account excludes the more legendary elements. The best sketch of the +supposed island appears in the _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_ for +1845 (p. 293), by D'Avezac. Professor O'Curry places the date of the +alleged voyage or voyages at about the year 560 ("Lectures on the +Manuscript Materials for Irish History," p. 289). Good accounts of the +life in the great monasteries of Brandan's period may be found in Digby's +"Mores Catholici" or "Ages of Faith"; in Montalembert's "Monks of the +West" (translation); in Villemarqué's "La Legende Celtique et la Poésie +des Cloistres en Irlande, en Cambrie et en Bretagne" (Paris, 1864). The +poem on St. Brandan, stanzas from which are quoted in the text, is by +Denis Florence McCarthy, and may be found in the _Dublin University +Magazine_ (XXXI. p. 89); and there is another poem on the subject--a +very foolish burlesque--in the same magazine (LXXXIX. p. 471). Matthew +Arnold's poem with the same title appeared in _Fraser's Magazine_ +(LXII. p. 133), and may be found in the author's collected works in the +form quoted below. + +The legends of St. Brandan, it will be observed, resemble so much the +tales of Sindbad the Sailor and others in the "Arabian Nights"--which have +also the island-whale, the singing birds, and other features--that it is +impossible to doubt that some features of tradition were held in common +with the Arabs of Spain. + +In later years (the twelfth century), a geographer named Honoré d'Autun +declared, in his "Image of the World," that there was in the ocean a +certain island agreeable and fertile beyond all others, now unknown to +men, once discovered by chance and then lost again, and that this island +was the one which Brandan had visited. In several early maps, before the +time of Columbus, the Madeira Islands appear as "The Fortunate Islands of +St. Brandan," and on the famous globe of Martin Behaim, made in the very +year when Columbus sailed, there is a large island much farther west than +Madeira, and near the equator, with an inscription saying that in the year +565, St. Brandan arrived at this island and saw many wondrous things, +returning to his own land afterwards. Columbus heard this island mentioned +at Ferro, where men declared that they had seen it in the distance. Later, +the chart of Ortelius, in the sixteenth century, carried it to the +neighborhood of Ireland; then it was carried south again, and was supposed +all the time to change its place through enchantment, and when Emanuel of +Portugal, in 1519, renounced all claim to it, he described it as "The +Hidden Island." In 1570 a Portuguese expedition was sent which claimed +actually to have touched the mysterious island, indeed to have found there +the vast impression of a human foot--doubtless of the baptized giant +Mildus--and also a cross nailed to a tree, and three stones laid in a +triangle for cooking food. Departing hastily from the island, they left +two sailors behind, but could never find the place again. + +Again and again expeditions were sent out in search of St. Brandan's +island, usually from the Canaries--one in 1604 by Acosta, one in 1721 by +Dominguez; and several sketches of the island, as seen from a distance, +were published in 1759 by a Franciscan priest in the Canary Islands, named +Viere y Clarijo, including one made by himself on May 3, 1759, about 6 +A.M., in presence of more than forty witnesses. All these sketches depict +the island as having its chief length from north to south, and formed of +two unequal hills, the highest of these being at the north, they having +between them a depression covered with trees. The fact that this resembles +the general form of Palma, one of the Canary Islands, has led to the +belief that it may have been an ocean mirage, reproducing the image of +that island, just as the legends themselves reproduce, here and there, the +traditions of the "Arabian Nights." + +In a map drawn by the Florentine physician, Toscanelli, which was sent by +him to Columbus in 1474 to give his impression of the Asiatic coast,-- +lying, as he supposed, across the Atlantic,--there appears the island of +St. Brandan. It is as large as all the Azores or Canary Islands or Cape de +Verde Islands put together; its southern tip just touches the equator, and +it lies about half-way between the Cape de Verde Islands and Zipangu or +Japan, which was then believed to lie on the other side of the Atlantic. +Mr. Winsor also tells us that the apparition of this island "sometimes +came to sailors' eyes" as late as the last century (Winsor's "Columbus," +112). + +He also gives a reproduction of Toscanelli's map now lost, as far as can +be inferred from descriptions (Winsor, p. 110). + +The following is Matthew Arnold's poem:-- + +SAINT BRANDAN + + Saint Brandan sails the northern main; + The brotherhoods of saints are glad. + He greets them once, he sails again; + So late!--such storms!--the Saint is mad! + + He heard, across the howling seas, + Chime convent-bells on wintry nights; + He saw, on spray-swept Hebrides, + Twinkle the monastery lights; + + But north, still north, Saint Brandan steer'd-- + And now no bells, no convents more! + The hurtling Polar lights are near'd, + The sea without a human shore. + + At last--(it was the Christmas-night; + Stars shone after a day of storm)-- + He sees float past an iceberg white, + And on it--Christ!--a living form. + + That furtive mien, that scowling eye, + Of hair that red and tufted fell-- + It is--oh, where shall Brandan fly?-- + The traitor Judas, out of hell! + + Palsied with terror, Brandan sate; + The moon was bright, the iceberg near. + He hears a voice sigh humbly: "Wait! + By high permission I am here. + + "One moment wait, thou holy man! + On earth my crime, my death, they knew; + My name is under all men's ban-- + Ah, tell them of my respite, too! + + "Tell them, one blessed Christmas-night-- + (It was the first after I came, + Breathing self-murder, frenzy, spite, + To rue my guilt in endless flame)-- + + "I felt, as I in torment lay + 'Mid the souls plagued by heavenly power, + An angel touch my arm and say: + _Go hence, and cool thyself an hour!_ + + "'Ah, whence this mercy, Lord?' I said; + _The Leper recollect_, said he, + _Who ask'd the passers-by for aid,_ + _In Joppa, and thy charity._ + + "Then I remember'd how I went, + In Joppa, through the public street, + One morn when the sirocco spent + Its storm of dust with burning heat; + + "And in the street a leper sate, + Shivering with fever, naked, old; + Sand raked his sores from heel to pate, + The hot wind fever'd him five-fold. + + "He gazed upon me as I pass'd, + And murmur'd: _Help me, or I die!_-- + To the poor wretch my cloak I cast, + Saw him look eased, and hurried by. + + "Oh, Brandan, think what grace divine, + What blessing must full goodness shower, + When fragment of it small, like mine, + Hath such inestimable power! + + "Well-fed, well-clothed, well-friended, I + Did that chance act of good, that one! + Then went my way to kill and lie-- + Forgot my good as soon as done. + + "That germ of kindness, in the womb + Of mercy caught, did not expire; + Outlives my guilt, outlives my doom, + And friends me in this pit of fire. + + "Once every year, when carols wake + On earth the Christmas-night's repose, + Arising from the sinner's lake, + I journey to these healing snows. + + "I stanch with ice my burning breast, + With silence balm my whirling brain; + O Brandan! to this hour of rest + That Joppan leper's ease was pain." + + Tears started to Saint Brandan's eyes; + He bow'd his head, he breathed a prayer-- + Then look'd, and lo, the frosty skies! + The iceberg, and no Judas there! + +The island of St. Brandan's was sometimes supposed to lie in the Northern +Atlantic, sometimes farther south. It often appears as the Fortunate Isle +or Islands, "Insulae Fortunatae" or "Beatae." + +On some early maps (1306 to 1471) there is an inlet on the western coast +of Ireland called "Lacus Fortunatus," which is filled with Fortunate +Islands to the number of 358 (Humboldt, "Examen," II. p. 159), and in one +map of 1471 both these and the supposed St. Brandan's group appear in +different parts of the ocean under the same name. When the Canary Islands +were discovered, they were supposed to be identical with St. Brandan's, +but the latter was afterwards supposed to lie southeast of them. After the +discovery of the Azores various expeditions were sent to search for St. +Brandan's until about 1721. It was last reported as seen in 1759. A full +bibliography will be found in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History," +I. p. 48, and also in Humboldt's "Examen," II. p. 163, and early maps +containing St. Brandan's will be found in Winsor (I. pp. 54, 58). The +first of these is Pizigani's (1387), containing "Ysolae dictae +Fortunatae," and the other that of Ortelius (1587), containing "S. +Brandain." + + +XIII. HY-BRASAIL + +"The people of Aran, with characteristic enthusiasm, fancy, that at +certain periods, they see Hy-Brasail, elevated far to the west in their +watery horizon. This has been the universal tradition of the ancient +Irish, who supposed that a great part of Ireland had been swallowed by the +sea, and that the sunken part often rose and was seen hanging in the +horizon: such was the popular notion. The Hy-Brasail of the Irish is +evidently a part of the Atlantis of Plato; who, in his 'Timaeus,' says +that that island was totally swallowed up by a prodigious earthquake." +(O'Flaherty's "Discourse on the History and Antiquities of the Southern +Islands of Aran, lying off the West Coast of Ireland," 1824, p. 139.) + +The name appeared first (1351) on the chart called the Medicean +Portulana, applied to an island off the Azores. In Pizigani's map (1367) +there appear three islands of this name, two off the Azores and one off +Ireland. From this time the name appears constantly in maps, and in 1480 a +man named John Jay went out to discover the island on July 14, and +returned unsuccessful on September 18. He called it Barsyle or Brasylle; +and Pedro d'Ayalo, the Spanish Ambassador, says that such voyages were +made for seven years "according to the fancies of the Genoese, meaning +Sebastian Cabot." Humboldt thinks that the wood called Brazil-wood was +supposed to have come from it, as it was known before the South American +Brazil was discovered. + +A manuscript history of Ireland, written about 1636, in the Library of +the Royal Irish Academy, says that Hy-Brasail was discovered by a Captain +Rich, who saw its harbor but could never reach it. It is mentioned by +Jeremy Taylor ("Dissuasives from Popery," 1667), and the present narrative +is founded partly on an imaginary one, printed in a pamphlet in London, +1675, and reprinted in Hardiman's "Irish Minstrelsy" (1831), II. p. 369. +The French Geographer Royal, M. Tassin, thinks that the island may have +been identical with Porcupine Bank, once above water. In Jeffrey's atlas +(1776) it appears as "the imaginary island of O'Brasil." "Brazil Rock" +appears on a chart of Purdy, 1834 (Humboldt's "Examen Critique," II. p. +163). Two rocks always associated with it, Mayda and Green Rock, appear on +an atlas issued in 1866. See bibliography in Winsor's "Narrative and +Critical History," I. p. 49, where there are a number of maps depicting it +(I. pp. 54-57). The name of the island is derived by Celtic scholars from +_breas_, large, and _i_, island; or, according to O'Brien's +"Irish Dictionary," its other form of O'Brasile means a large imaginary +island (Hardiman's "Irish Minstrelsy," I. p. 369). There are several +families named Brazil in County Waterford, Ireland ("Transactions of the +Ossianic Society, Dublin," 1854, I. p. 81). The following poem about the +island, by Gerald Griffin, will be found in Sparling's "Irish Minstrelsy" +(1888), p. 427:-- + +HY-BRASAIL, THE ISLE OF THE BLEST + + On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye dwell + A shadowy land has appeared, as they tell; + Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest, + And they called it Hy-Brasail, the isle of the blest. + From year unto year on the ocean's blue rim, + The beautiful spectre showed lovely and dim; + The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay, + And it looked like an Eden away, far away! + + A peasant who heard of the wonderful tale, + In the breeze of the Orient loosened his sail; + From Ara, the holy, he turned to the west, + For though Ara was holy, Hy-Brasail was blest. + He heard not the voices that called from the shore-- + He heard not the rising wind's menacing roar; + Home, kindred, and safety he left on that day, + And he sped to Hy-Brasail, away, far away! + + Morn rose on the deep, and that shadowy isle, + O'er the faint rim of distance, reflected its smile; + Noon burned on the wave, and that shadowy shore + Seemed lovelily distant, and faint as before; + Lone evening came down on the wanderer's track, + And to Ara again he looked timidly back; + O far on the verge of the ocean it lay, + Yet the isle of the blest was away, far away! + + Rash dreamer, return! O ye winds of the main, + Bear him back to his own peaceful Ara again, + Rash fool! for a vision of fanciful bliss, + To barter thy calm life of labor and peace. + The warning of reason was spoken in vain; + He never revisited Ara again! + Night fell on the deep, amidst tempest and spray, + And he died on the waters, away, far away! + + +XIV. ISLAND OF SATAN'S HAND + +The early part of this narrative is founded on Professor O'Curry's +Lectures on the manuscript materials of Irish history; it being another of +those "Imrama" or narratives of ocean expeditions to which the tale of St. +Brandan belongs. The original narrative lands the three brothers +ultimately in Spain, and it is a curious fact that most of what we know of +the island of Satanaxio or Satanajio--which remained so long on the maps-- +is taken from an Italian narrative of three other brothers, cited by +Formaleoni, "Il Pellegrinaccio di tre giovanni," by Christoforo Armeno +(Gaffarel, "Les Iles Fantastiques," p. 91). The coincidence is so peculiar +that it offered an irresistible temptation to link the two trios of +brothers into one narrative and let the original voyagers do the work of +exploration. The explanation given by Gaffarel to the tale is the same +that I have suggested as possible. He says in "Iles Fantastiques de +l'Atlantaque" (p. 12), "S'il nous était permis d'aventurer une hypothèse, +nous croirions voluntiers que les navigateurs de l'époque rencontrèrent, +en s'aventurant dans l'Atlantique, quelques-uns de ces gigantesques +icebergs, ou montagnes de glace, arrachés aux banquises du pôle nord, et +entraînés au sud par les courants, dont la rencontre, assez fréquente, +est, même aujourd'hui, tellement redoutée par les capitaines. Ces +icebergs, quand ils se heurtent contre un navire, le coulent à pic; et +comme ils arrivent à l'improviste, escortés par d'épais brouillards, ils +paraissent réellement sortir du sein des flots, comme sortait la main de +Satan, pour précipiter au fond de l'abîme matelots et navires." As to the +name itself there has been much discussion. On the map of Bianco (1436)-- +reproduced in Winsor, I. p. 54--the name "Ya de Lamansatanaxio" distinctly +appears, and this was translated by both Formaleoni and Humboldt as +meaning "the Island of the Hand of Satan." D'Avezac was the first to +suggest that the reference was to two separate islands, the one named "De +la Man" or "Danman," and the other "Satanaxio." He further suggests-- +followed by Gaffarel--that the name of the island may originally have been +San Atanagio, thus making its baptism a tribute to St. Athanasius instead +of to Satan. This would certainly have been a curious transformation, and +almost as unexpected in its way as the original conversion of the sinful +brothers from outlaws to missionaries. + + +XV. ANTILLIA + +The name Antillia appears first, but not very clearly, on the Pizigani +map of 1367; then clearly on a map of 1424, preserved at Weimar, on that +of Bianco in 1436, and on the globe of Beheim in 1492, which adds in an +inscription the story of the Seven Bishops. On some maps of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries there appears near it a smaller island under the +name of Sette Cidade, or Sete Ciudades, which is properly another name for +the same island. Toscanelli, in his famous letter to Columbus, recommended +Antillia as a good way-station for his voyage to India. The island is said +by tradition to have been re-discovered by a Portuguese sailor in 1447. +Tradition says that this sailor went hastily to the court of Portugal to +announce the discovery, but was blamed for not having remained longer, and +so fled. It was supposed to be "a large, rectangular island extending from +north to south, lying in the mid Atlantic about lat. 35 N." An ample +bibliography will be found in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History," +I. p. 48, with maps containing Antillia, I. pp. 54 (Pizigani's), 56, 58. + +After the discovery of America, Peter Martyr states (in 1493) that +Hispaniola and the adjacent islands were "Antillae insulae," meaning that +they were identical with the group surrounding the fabled Antillia +(Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History," I. p. 49); and Schöner, in the +dedicatory letter of his globe of 1523, says that the king of Castile, +through Columbus, has discovered _Antiglias Hispaniam Cubam quoque_. +It was thus that the name Antilles came to be applied to the islands +discovered by Columbus; just as the name Brazil was transferred from an +imaginary island to the new continent, and the name Seven Cities was +applied to the pueblos of New Mexico by those who discovered them. (See J. +H. Simpson, "Coronado's March in Search of the Seven Cities of Cibola," +Smithsonian Institution, 1869, pp. 209-340.) + +The sailor who re-discovered them said that the chief desire of the +people was to know whether the Moors still held Spain (Gaffarel, "Iles +Fantastiques," p. 3). In a copy of "Ptolemy" addressed to Pope Urban VI. +about 1380, before the alleged visit of the Portuguese, it was stated of +the people at Antillia that they lived in a Christian manner, and were +most prosperous, "Hie populus christianissime vivit, omnibus divitiis +seculi hujus plenus" (D'Avezac, "Nouvelles Annales des voyages," 1845, II. +p. 55). + +It was afterwards held by some that the island of Antillia was identical +with St. Michael in the Azores, where a certain cluster of stone huts +still bears the name of Seven Cities, and the same name is associated with +a small lake by which they stand. (Humboldt's "Examen Critique," Paris, +1837, II. p. 203; Gaffarel, "Iles Fantastiques," p. 3.) + + +XVI. HARALD THE VIKING + +The tales of the Norse explorations of America are now accessible in many +forms, the most convenient of these being in the edition of E. L. Slafter, +published by the Prince Society. As to the habits of the Vikings, the most +accessible authorities are "The Age of the Vikings," by Du Chaillu, and +"The Sea Kings of Norway," by Laing. The writings of the late Professor E. +N. Horsford are well known, but his opinions are not yet generally +accepted by students. His last work, "Leif's House in Vineland," with his +daughter's supplementary essay on "Graves of the Northmen," is probably +the most interesting of the series (Boston, 1893). In Longfellow's "Saga +of King Olaf" (II.), included in "Tales of a Wayside Inn," there is a +description of the athletic sports practised by the Vikings, which are +moreover described with the greatest minuteness by Du Chaillu. + + +XVII. NORUMBEGA + +The narrative of Champlain's effort to find Norumbega in 1632 may be +found in Otis's "Voyages of Champlain" (II. p. 38), and there is another +version in the _Magazine of American History_ (I. p. 321). The whole +legend of the city is well analyzed in the same magazine (I. p. 14) by Dr. +De Costa under the title "The Lost City of New England." In another volume +he recurs to the subject (IX. p. 168), and gives (IX. p. 200) a printed +copy of David Ingram's narrative, from the original in the Bodleian +Library. He also discusses the subject in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical +History" (IV. p. 77, etc.), where he points out that "the insular +character of the Norumbega region is not purely imaginary, but is based on +the fact that the Penobscot region affords a continued watercourse to the +St. Lawrence, which was travelled by the Maine Indians." Ramusio's map of +1559 represents "Nurumbega" as a large island, well defined (Winsor, IV. +p. 91); and so does that of Ruscelli (Winsor, IV. p. 92), the latter +spelling it "Nurumberg." Some geographers supposed it to extend as far as +Florida. The name was also given to a river (probably the Penobscot) and +to a cape. The following is Longfellow's poem on the voyage of Sir +Humphrey Gilbert:-- + +SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT + + Southward with fleet of ice + Sailed the corsair Death; + Wild and fast blew the blast, + And the east-wind was his breath. + + His lordly ships of ice + Glisten in the sun; + + On each side, like pennons wide, + Flashing crystal streamlets run. + + His sails of white sea-mist + Dripped with silver rain; + But where he passed there were cast + Leaden shadows o'er the main. + + Eastward from Campobello + Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed; + Three days or more seaward he bore, + Then, alas! the land-wind failed. + + Alas! the land-wind failed, + And ice-cold grew the night; + And nevermore, on sea or shore, + Should Sir Humphrey see the light. + + He sat upon the deck, + The Book was in his hand; + "Do not fear! Heaven is as near," + He said, "by water as by land!" + + In the first watch of the night, + Without a signal's sound, + Out of the sea, mysteriously, + The fleet of Death rose all around. + + The moon and the evening star + Were hanging in the shrouds; + Every mast, as it passed, + Seemed to rake the passing clouds. + + They grappled with their prize, + At midnight black and cold! + As of a rock was the shock; + Heavily the ground-swell rolled. + + Southward through day and dark, + They drift in close embrace, + With mist and rain, o'er the open main; + Yet there seems no change of place. + + Southward, forever southward, + They drift through dark and day; + And like a dream, in the Gulf-Stream + Sinking, vanish all away. + + +XVIII. GUARDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE + +For authorities for this tale see "Voyages of Samuel de Champlain," +translated by Charles Pomeroy Otis, Ph.D., with memoir by the Rev. E. F. +Slafter, A.M., Boston, 1880 (I. pp. 116, 289, II. p. 52). The incident of +the disguised Indians occurred, however, to the earlier explorer, Jacques +Cartier. (See my "Larger History of the United States," p. 112.) + + +XIX. ISLAND OF DEMONS + +The tale of the Isle of Demons is founded on a story told first by +Marguerite of Navarre in her "Heptameron" (LXVII. Nouvelle), and then +with much variation and amplification by the very untrustworthy traveller +Thevet in his "Cosmographie" (1571), Livre XXIII. c. vi. The only copy of +the latter work known to me is in the Carter-Brown Library at Providence, +R.I., and the passage has been transcribed for me through the kindness of +A. E. Winship, Esq., librarian, who has also sent me a photograph of a +woodcut representing the lonely woman shooting at a bear. A briefer +abstract of the story is in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History" (IV. +p. 66, note), but it states, perhaps erroneously, that Thevet knew +Marguerite only through the Princess of Navarre, whereas that author +claims--though his claim is never worth much--that he had the story from +the poor woman herself, "_La pauvre femme estant arriuvee en France ... +et venue en la ville de Nautron, pays de Perigort lors que i'y estois, me +feit le discours de toutes ses fortunes passées_." + +The Island of Demons appears on many old maps which may be found engraved +in Winsor, IV. pp. 91, 92, 93, 100, 373, etc.; also as "Isla de demonios" +in Sebastian Cabot's map (1544) reprinted in Dr. S. E. Dawson's valuable +"Voyages of the Cabots," in the Transactions of the Royal Society of +Canada for 1897. He also gives Ruysch's map (1508), in which a cluster of +islands appears in the same place, marked "Insulae daemonum." Harrisse, +in his "Notes sur la Nouvelle France" (p. 278), describes the three +sufferers as having been abandoned by Roberval _à trente six lieues des +côtes de Canada, dans une isle deserte qui fut depuis désignée sous le nom +de l'Isle de la Demoiselle, pres de l'embouchure de la Rivière St. Paul ou +des Saumons_. I have not, however, been able to identify this island. +Parkman also says ("Pioneers of France," p. 205) that Roberval's pilot, in +his _routier_, or logbook, speaks often of "Les Isles de la +Demoiselle," evidently referring to Marguerite. The brief account by the +Princess of Navarre follows:-- + +LXVII NOUVELLE + +Une pauvre femme, pour sauver la vie de son mary, hasarda la sienne, et +ne l'abandonna jusqu'à la mort. + +C'est que faisant le diet Robertval un voiage sur la mer, duquel il +estoit chef par le commandement du Roy son maistre, en l'isle de Canadas; +auquel lieu avoit délibéré, si l'air du païs euste esté commode, de +demourer et faire villes et chasteaulx; en quoy il fit tel commencement, +que chacun peut sçavoir. Et, pour habituer le pays de Chrestiens, mena +avecq luy de toutes sortes d'artisans, entre lesquelz y avoit un homme, +qui fut si malheureux, qu'il trahit son maistre et le mist en dangier +d'estre prins des gens du pays. Mais Dieu voulut que son entreprinse fut +si tost congneue, qu'elle ne peut nuyre au cappitaine Robertval, lequel +feit prendre ce meschant traistre, le voulant pugnir comme il l'avoit +mérité; ce qui eust esté faict, sans sa femme qui avoit suivy son mary par +les périlz de la mer; et ne le voulut abandonner à la mort, mais avecq +force larmes feit tant, avecq le cappitaine et toute la compaignye, que, +tant pour la pitié d'icelle que pour le service qu'elle leur avoit faict, +luy accorda sa requeste qui fut telle, que le mary et la femme furent +laissez en une petite isle, sur la mer, où il n'habitoit que bestes +saulvaiges; et leur fut permis de porter avecq eulx ce dont ilz avoient +nécessité. Les pauvres gens, se trouvans tous seulz en la compaignye des +bestes saulvaiges et cruelles, n'eurent recours que à Dieu seul, qui avoit +esté toujours le ferme espoir de ceste pauvre femme. Et, comme celle qui +avoit toute consolation en Dieu, porta pour sa saulve garde, nourriture et +consolation le Nouveau Testament, lequel elle lisoit incessamment. Et, au +demourant, avecq son mary, mettoit peine d'accoustrer un petit logis le +mieulx qui'l leur estoit possible; et, quand les lyons et aultres bestes +en aprochoient pour les dévorer, le mary avecq sa harquebuze, et elle, +avecq les pierres, se défendoient si bien, que, non suellement les bestes +ne les osoient approcher, mais bien souvent en tuèrent de très-bonnes à +manger; ainsy, avecq telles chairs et les herbes du païs, vesquirent +quelque temps, quand le pain leur fut failly. A la longue, le mary ne peut +porter telle nourriture; et, à cause des eaues qu'ilz buvoient, devint si +enflé, que en peu de temps il mourut, n'aiant service ne consolation que +sa femme, laquelle le servoit de médecin et de confesseur; en sorte qu'il +passa joieusement de ce désert en la céleste patrie. Et la pauvre femme, +demourée seulle, l'enterra le plus profond en terre qu'il fut possible; si +est-ce que les bestes en eurent incontinent le sentyment, qui vindrent +pour manger la charogne. Mais la pauvre femme, en sa petite +maisonnette, de coups de harquebuze défendoit que la chair de son mary +n'eust tel sépulchre. Ainsy vivant, quant au corps, de vie bestiale, et +quant à l'esperit, de vie angélicque, passoit son temps en lectures, +contemplations, prières et oraisons ayant un esperit joieux et content, +dedans un corps emmaigry et demy mort. Mais Celluy qui n'abandonne jamais +les siens, et qui, au désespoir des autres, monstre sa puissance, ne +permist que la vertu qu'il avoit myse en ceste femme fust ignorée des +hommes, mais voulut qu'elle fust congneue à sa gloire; et fiet que, au +bout de quelque temps, un des navires de ceste armée passant devant ceste +isle, les gens qui estoient dedans advisèrent, quelque fumée qui leur feit +souvenir de ceulx qui y avoient esté laissez, et délibérèrent d'aller +veoir ce que Dieu en avoit faict. La pauvre femme, voiant approcher el +navire, se tira au bort de la mer, auquel lieu la trouvèrent à leur +arrivée. Et, après en avoir rendu louange à Dieu, les mena en sa pauvre +maisonnette, et leur monstra de quoy elle vivoit durant sa demeure; ce que +leur eust esté incroiable, sans la congnoissance qu'ilz avoient que Dieu +est puissant de nourrir en un désert ses serviteurs, comme au plus grandz +festins du monde. Et, ne pouvant demeurer en tel lieu, emmenèrent la +pauvre femme avecq eulx droict à la Rochelle, où, après un navigage, ilz +arrivèrent. Et quand ilz eurent faict entendre aux habitans la fidélité et +persévérance de ceste femme, elle fut receue à grand honneur de toutes les +Dames, qui voluntiers luy baillèrent leurs filles pour aprendre à lire et +à escripre. Et, à cest honneste mestier-là, gaigna le surplus de sa vie, +n'aiant autre désîr que d'exhorter un chaucun à l'amour et confiance de +Nostre Seigneur, se proposant pour exemple la grande miséricorde dont il +avoit usé envers elle. + + +XX. BIMINI + +Parkman says expressly that "Ponce de Léon found the Island of Bimini," +but it is generally mentioned as having been imaginary, and is not clearly +identified among the three thousand islands and rocks of the Bahamas. +Peter Martyr placed the Fountain of Youth in Florida, which he may have +easily supposed to be an island. Some of the features of my description +are taken from the strange voyage of Cabeza da Vaca, which may be read in +Buckingham Smith's translation of his narrative (Washington, D.C., 1851), +or in a more condensed form in Henry Kingsley's "Tales of Old Travel," or +in my own "Book of American Explorers" (N.Y., Longmans, 1894). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the +Atlantic, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCHANTED ISLANDS OF ATLANTIC *** + +This file should be named 7098-8.txt or 7098-8.zip + +Produced by Nathan Harris, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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