are there. In the middle of the island there is a high mountain for which two of the crew set out in order to obtain a view of the country. A broad river bars their way, and when they dip in their spears to try its depth the wood is consumed as if the river were of liquid fire. On the other bank is a huge man watching a herd of oxen. He calls to them not to disturb the calves, so they turn back and soon sail away again. Not long afterwards they come to an island on which there is a great mill with a giant as miller. He tells them that half of the corn of Ireland comes to his mill to be ground, for he grinds all that men begrudge one another.

When they reach an island of black people, all weeping continuously, one of the foster brothers lands. Immediately he, too, turns black and begins to weep, so they sail away without him. The next island is divided into four parts by fences of gold, silver, brass, and crystal. Kings are in one part, queens in another, warriors in a third, and maidens in the fourth. Maeldun and his men land and a maiden gives them food that looks like cheese but tastes as each man wishes it to taste, and an intoxicating drink that makes them sleep for three days. When they awake they find themselves out at sea far from all land.

It is some time before they approach land again. Finally they sight an island with a great fortress on it. A glass bridge leads to a brazen door in the building but when they try to go across it to the door, it flings them back, and when they strike the brazen door the sound it gives is so marvelously sweet that it puts them to sleep till the morning. Three times this happens, but on the fourth day a woman who every day has come out to the middle of the bridge to draw water through a trapdoor there calls each man by his name and invites them in. She entertains them well, but when Maeldun's men attempt to woo her for him she will answer only: "I know not, nor ever have known, what sin is." Finally,

she promises them an answer the following morning; but when it dawns the wanderers are once more at sea, and there is no sign of either fortress or lady.

They sail on and come in turn to an island of shouting birds, to an island where lives an anchorite who has sailed from Ireland on a sod of earth, to an island where there is a fountain which flows with whey, or milk, or wine and ale, according to the holiness of the day, to an island of giant smiths, over a sea of clear glass, and over a sea, thin like mist, in which, far below, they see fortresses and fruitful land. Next they see an island surrounded by the sea as by a high cliff so that they can look down upon its cities and its people. The people seem much disturbed when they see them on the sea above their homes, and the Irishmen conclude that the inhabitants of the island have some prophecy concerning the destruction of their land by men who will one day come over the cliffs. They sail away to an island where a great stream spouts out of one side of the island and, arching over it like a rainbow, falls on the shore on the farther side. By thrusting their spears into the stream they take out as many salmon as they wish and the place is filled with the stench of those that they cannot take awa”.

Sailing on they reach a great, square silver column, rising directly out of the sea and with its top among the clouds. From its summit a huge silver net is flung far out into the sea, and through a mesh of that net they sail. One of the men hacks away a piece. "Destroy it not," cautions Maeldun, "for what we see is the work of mighty men." Before they have left the place they hear a voice from the summit of the pillar, but the words are strange and they do not know the language it speaks. There is a delightful element of mystery in this episode, and only a delicate and whimsical fancy could picture the huge silver net and the voice, speaking an unknown tongue, calling out from the clouds that hide the top of the tower.

#

After they have grown very weary of the sea and fearful that their wanderings will never end, they come to an island on which there is a large fortified mansion. They land, and climbing a hill they see seventeen maidens preparing a bath in the courtyard. Soon a woman rides up on a race horse. The maidens lead the horse away and the woman bathes. In a little while a maiden comes out to the wanderers and invites them to enter, saying, "The Queen invites you." Within the fort they are well entertained, and Maeldun is wedded to the queen, and each of the maidens to one of his men. There they are promised eternal youth and all that they can desire, but, though Maeldun wishes to stay, his men grow weary. One day when the queen is away they set sail. Before they have gone very far, however, the queen comes to the shore and flings after them a clew of twine. Maeldun catches it and it clings to his hand, so she draws them back again. This happens twice, and the men at last believe Maeldun holds fast to the clue purposely, for they know he loves the queen. The next time one of the men catches it and again it clings, so they cut off his hand and sail away, while the queen weeps and wails on the shore. This incident suggests in many ways Odysseus' sojourn with Calypso, and Aeneas' with Dido. The Irish author, like Homer and Virgil, weaves the love element into his tale to heighten its interest, but he is too deeply interested in the fortunes of his hero to spend much time upon the woman, who is only an interesting incident in the hero's long voyage. The situation has a certain romantic beauty and sadness; though the hero may rest from his labors for a time in the enjoyment of a woman's love, he has his destiny to work out and he must not be turned aside, for long, from his task.

On the next island grow red berries which have a juice with intoxicating and soporific properties. After they have been at sea for a long time they land on an island where lives an anchorite, and with him they stay

a while. One day they see an enormous eagle, old and apparently about to die, fly to the island. It bathes in a fountain on the island, whereupon its youth is restored. One of the Irishmen then bathes there, too, and he never knows old age. The third foster brother is left in an island where every one is laughing and playing. The island they see next has about it a rampart of flame which circles round and round continually. In one part there is an opening and through it they see beautiful men and women richly dressed, with golden vessels in their hands. They hear festal music, too, and it delights them so that for a long time they cannot bear to leave the spot.

Finally they arrive at a bare rock on which lives a monk from Tory. The holy man tells them his wonderful story, and entertains them at noon with food miraculously sent by Heaven. As they are leaving he says to them, "Ye will all reach your country, and the man that slew thy father, O Maeldun, ye will find him in a fortress before you. And slay him not but forgive him; because God hath saved you from manifold great perils, and ye, too, are men deserving of death"

With hope in their hearts from the holy man's words they sail on to another island at which they stop to obtain provisions. One of the men chances to notice that a falcon which flies off is like those of Ireland. On the chance that it is flying toward Ireland they sail after it, and in a short time they come to the island where the murderer lives. They go up to the dun on the island and hear the men within talking as they eat.

"It were ill for us if we saw Maeldun now, one says. "Maeldun has been drowned," says another. "Maybe it is he," suggests a third, "who will waken you from sleep tonight."

"If he should come now," asks a fourth, "what should we do?"

"Not hard to answer that," replies the chief of them. "Great welcome should he have if he were to come, for he hath been a long space in great tribulation."

Then Maeldun strikes the door with the wooden clapper.

"Maeldun is here," he answers to the doorkeeper's inquiry.

They enter and are well received. They give thanks to Heaven and recount the long story of their wanderings.

So the long tale of Maeldun's adventures ends most satisfactorily with the hero's return home and his reconciliation with his father's murderer. Aed Finn's narrative shows many traces of Christian influence; and doubtless this reconciliation is the result of that influence. One need only recall Lugh's cruel vengeance on the sons of Turenn, or Finn's implacable hatred for Dermot of the Love Spot, to feel sure that such Christlike forgiveness had no place in pagan Gaelic legends. Some of the incidents, on the other hand, are unmistakably pagan. A Christian hero would scarcely have consulted a Druid about his voyage. Another example of similarity to an older legend is the bridge that would throw backward those who stepped upon it; a bridge like it appears in the Cuchulain stories as the approach to Skatha's dun. Perhaps Aed Finn-and, in fact, he claimed to have done no more-merely collected and arranged "The Voyage of Maeldun" from earlier tales, piously interpolating the adventures with the holy men and altering certain parts to greater agreement with the ideals of Christianized Ireland. The Irish are fond of blending pagan myths and Christian legends and frequently the product is pleasing. No more fascinating and delightful tale can be found than the story of the children of Lir, which is of this type. In "The Voyage of Maeldun," however, the episodes in which the holy men appear are the least interesting parts of the narrative.

The adventure in which the eagle