Part 23 (1/2)

In the following rendering I have omitted the verses given by Joyce at the end of each adventure. They merely recapitulate the prose narrative, and are not found in the earliest ma.n.u.script authorities.

*The Island of the Slaves*

Maeldun and his crew had rowed all day and half the night when they came to two small bare islands with two forts in them, and a noise was heard from them of armed men quarrelling. Stand off from me, cried one of them, for I am a better man than thou. Twas I slew Ailill of the Edge-of-Battle and burned the church of Doocloone over him, and no kinsman has avenged his death on me. And _thou_ hast never done the like of that.

Then Maeldun was about to land, and German(194) and Diuran the Rhymer cried that G.o.d had guided them to the spot where they would be. But a great wind arose suddenly and blew them off into the boundless ocean, and Maeldun said to his foster-brothers: Ye have caused this to be, casting yourselves on board in spite of the words of the Druid. And they had no answer, save only to be silent for a little s.p.a.ce.

*The Island of the Ants*

They drifted three days and three nights, not knowing whither to row, when at the dawn of the third day they heard the noise of breakers, and came to an island as soon as the sun was up. Here, ere they could land, they met a swarm of ferocious ants, each the size of a foal, that came down the strand and into the sea to get at them; so they made off quickly, and saw no land for three days more.

*The Island of the Great Birds*

This was a terraced island, with trees all round it, and great birds sitting on the trees. Maeldun landed first alone, and carefully searched the island for any evil thing, but finding none, the rest followed him, and killed and ate many of the birds, bringing others on board their boat.

*The Island of the Fierce Beast*

A great sandy island was this, and on it a beast like a horse, but with clawed feet like a hounds. He flew at them to devour them, but they put off in time, and were pelted by the beast with pebbles from the sh.o.r.e as they rowed away.

*The Island of the Giant Horses*

A great, flat island, which it fell by lot to German and Diuran to explore first. They found a vast green racecourse, on which were the marks of horses hoofs, each as big as the sail of a s.h.i.+p, and the sh.e.l.ls of nuts of monstrous size were lying about, and much plunder. So they were afraid, and took s.h.i.+p hastily again, and from the sea they saw a horse-race in progress and heard the shouting of a great mult.i.tude cheering on the white horse or the brown, and saw the giant horses running swifter than the wind.(195) So they rowed away with all their might, thinking they had come upon an a.s.sembly of demons.

*The Island of the Stone Door*

A full week pa.s.sed, and then they found a great, high island with a house standing on the sh.o.r.e. A door with a valve of stone opened into the sea, and through it the sea-waves kept hurling salmon into the house. Maeldun and his party entered, and found the house empty of folk, but a great bed lay ready for the chief to whom it belonged, and a bed for each three of his company, and meat and drink beside each bed. Maeldun and his party ate and drank their fill, and then sailed off again.

*The Island of the Apples*

By the time they had come here they had been a long time voyaging, and food had failed them, and they were hungry. This island had precipitous sides from which a wood hung down, and as they pa.s.sed along the cliffs Maeldun broke off a twig and held it in his hand. Three days and nights they coasted the cliff and found no entrance to the island, but by that time a cl.u.s.ter of three apples had grown on the end of Maelduns rod, and each apple sufficed the crew for forty days.

*The Island of the Wondrous Beast*

This island had a fence of stone round it, and within the fence a huge beast that raced round and round the island. And anon it went to the top of the island, and then performed a marvellous feat, viz., it turned its body round and round inside its skin, the skin remaining unmoved, while again it would revolve its skin round and round the body. When it saw the party it rushed at them, but they escaped, pelted with stones as they rowed away. One of the stones pierced through Maelduns s.h.i.+eld and lodged in the keel of the boat.

*The Island of the Biting Horses*

Here were many great beasts resembling horses, that tore continually pieces of flesh from each others sides, so that all the island ran with blood. They rowed hastily away, and were now disheartened and full of complaints, for they knew not where they were, nor how to find guidance or aid in their quest.

*The Island of the Fiery Swine*

With great weariness, hunger, and thirst they arrived at the tenth island, which was full of trees loaded with golden apples. Under the trees went red beasts, like fiery swine, that kicked the trees with their legs, when the apples fell and the beasts consumed them. The beasts came out at morning only, when a mult.i.tude of birds left the island, and swam out to sea till nones, when they turned and swam inward again till vespers, and ate the apples all night.

Maeldun and his comrades landed at night, and felt the soil hot under their feet from the fiery swine in their caverns underground. They collected all the apples they could, which were good both against hunger and thirst, and loaded their boat with them and put to sea once more, refreshed.

*The Island of the Little Cat*

The apples had failed them when they came hungry and thirsting to the eleventh island. This was, as it were, a tall white tower of chalk reaching up to the clouds, and on the rampart about it were great houses white as snow. They entered the largest of them, and found no man in it, but a small cat playing on four stone pillars which were in the midst of the house, leaping from one to the other. It looked a little on the Irish warriors, but did not cease from its play. On the walls of the houses there were three rows of objects hanging up, one row of brooches of gold and silver, and one of neck-torques of gold and silver, each as big as the hoop of a cask, and one of great swords with gold and silver hilts. Quilts and s.h.i.+ning garments lay in the room, and there, also, were a roasted ox and a flitch of bacon and abundance of liquor. Hath this been left for us? said Maeldun to the cat. It looked at him a moment, and then continued its play. So there they ate and drank and slept, and stored up what remained of the food. Next day, as they made to leave the house, the youngest of Maelduns foster-brothers took a necklace from the wall, and was bearing it out when the cat suddenly leaped through him like a fiery arrow, and he fell, a heap of ashes, on the floor. Thereupon Maeldun, who had forbidden the theft of the jewel, soothed the cat and replaced the necklace, and they strewed the ashes of the dead youth on the sea-sh.o.r.e, and put to sea again.

*The Island of the Black and the White Sheep*