I have heard them tell each other, with the motion of their thoughts,
now spreading out and now gathering close to their heads. They have
mild, beautiful faces, but, Aengus, son of Forbis, I fear all these
beings, I fear the people of Sidhe, and I fear the art which draws
them about us.'

'Why,' said the old man, 'do you fear the ancient gods who made the
spears of your father's fathers to be stout in battle, and the little
people who came at night from the depth of the lakes and sang among
the crickets upon their hearths? And in our evil day they still watch
over the loveliness of the earth. But I must tell you why I have
fasted and laboured when others would sink into the sleep of age, for
without your help once more I shall have fasted and laboured to no
good end. When you have done for me this last thing, you may go and
build your cottage and till your fields, and take some girl to wife,
and forget the ancient gods. I have saved all the gold and silver
pieces that were given to me by earls and knights and squires for
keeping them from the evil eye and from the love-weaving enchantments
of witches, and by earls' and knights' and squires' ladies for
keeping the people of the Sidhe from making the udders of their
cattle fall dry, and taking the butter from their churns. I have
saved it all for the day when my work should be at an end, and now
that the end is at hand you shall not lack for gold and silver pieces
enough to make strong the roof-tree of your cottage and to keep
cellar and larder full. I have sought through all my life to find the
secret of life. I was not happy in my youth, for I knew that it would
pass; and I was not happy in my manhood, for I knew that age was
coming; and so I gave myself, in youth and manhood and age, to the
search for the Great Secret. I longed for a life whose abundance
would fill centuries, I scorned the life of fourscore winters. I