Pigmeorum, Veni," and remember with him, that God visiteth His children
in dreams. Tall, glimmering queen, come near, and let me see again the
shadowy blossom of thy dim hair.




"AND FAIR, FIERCE WOMEN"


One day a woman that I know came face to face with heroic beauty, that
highest beauty which Blake says changes least from youth to age, a
beauty which has been fading out of the arts, since that decadence we
call progress, set voluptuous beauty in its place. She was standing at
the window, looking over to Knocknarea where Queen Maive is thought to
be buried, when she saw, as she has told me, "the finest woman you ever
saw travelling right across from the mountain and straight to her." The
woman had a sword by her side and a dagger lifted up in her hand, and
was dressed in white, with bare arms and feet. She looked "very strong,
but not wicked," that is, not cruel. The old woman had seen the Irish
giant, and "though he was a fine man," he was nothing to this woman,
"for he was round, and could not have stepped out so soldierly"; "she
was like Mrs.-----" a stately lady of the neighbourhood, "but she had
no stomach on her, and was slight and broad in the shoulders, and was
handsomer than any one you ever saw; she looked about thirty." The old
woman covered her eyes with her hands, and when she uncovered them the
apparition had vanished. The neighbours were "wild with her," she told
me, because she did not wait to find out if there was a message, for
they were sure it was Queen Maive, who often shows herself to the
pilots. I asked the old woman if she had seen others like Queen Maive,