"Partholon's people increased until from twenty-four couples
there came five thousand people, who lived in amity and
contentment although they had no wits."

"They had no wits!" Finnian commented.

"They had no need of wits," Tuan said.

"I have heard that the first-born were mindless," said Finnian.
"Continue your story, my beloved."

"Then, sudden as a rising wind, between one night and a morning,
there came a sickness that bloated the stomach and purpled the
skin, and on the seventh day all of the race of Partholon were
dead, save one man only." "There always escapes one man," said
Finnian thoughtfully.

"And I am that man," his companion affirmed.

Tuan shaded his brow with his hand, and he remembered backwards
through incredible ages to the beginning of the world and the
first days of Eire'. And Finnian, with his blood again running
chill and his scalp crawling uneasily, stared backwards with him.



CHAPTER V

"Tell on, my love," Finnian murmured