with great nuts, which the crew gathered for eating. Then as they rowed
away they heard one man say, "Where are they now?" and another cried,
"They are going away." Still again they visited an island where a great
stream of water shot up into the air and made an arch like a rainbow that
spanned the land.

They walked below it without getting wet, and hooked down from it many
large salmon; besides that, many fell out above their heads, so that they
had more than they could carry away with them. These are by no means all
of the strange adventures of Maelduin and his men.

The last island to which they came was called Raven's Stream, and there
one of the men, who had been very homesick, leaped out upon shore. As soon
as he touched the land he became a heap of ashes, as if his body had lain
in the earth a thousand years. This showed them for the first time during
how vast a period they had been absent, and what a space they must have
traversed. Instead of thirty enchanted islands they had visited thrice
fifty, many of them twice or thrice as large as Ireland, whence the
voyagers first came. In the wonderful experiences of their long lives they
had apparently lost sight of the search which they had undertaken, for the
murderers of Maelduin's father, since of them we hear no more. The island
enchantment seems to have banished all other thoughts.



XII

THE VOYAGE OF ST. BRANDAN