THE WISDOM OF THE KING

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    The High?Queen of the Island of Woods had died in childbirth, and her child ut to h a woman who lived in a hut of mud and wicker, within the border of the wood. One night the woman sat rog the cradle, and p over the beauty of the child, and praying that the gods might grant him wisdom equal to his beauty. There came a knock at the door, and she got up, not a little w, for the  neighbours were in the dun of the High? King a mile away; and the night was now late. Who is knog? she cried, and a thin voiswered, Open! for I am a e of the grey hawk, and I e from the darkness of the great wood. In terror she drew back the bolt, and a grey?clad woman, of a great age, and of a height more than human, came in and stood by the head of the cradle. The nurse shrank back against the wall, uo take her eyes from the woman, for she saw by the gleaming of the firelight that the feathers of the grey hawk were upon her head instead of hair. But the child slept, and the fire danced, for the one was too ignorant and the other too full of gaiety to know what a dreadful being stood there. Open! cried another voice, for I am a e of the grey hawk, and I watch over his  in the darkness of the great wood. The nurse opehe dain, though her fingers could scarce hold the bolts for trembling, and anrey woman, not less old thaher, and with like feathers instead of hair, came in and stood by the first. In a little, came a third grey woman, and after her a fourth, and then another and another and another, until the hut was full of their immense bodies. They stood a long time in perfect silend stillness, for they were of those whom the dropping of the sand has roubled, but at last otered in a low thin voice: Sisters, I knew him far away by the redness of his heart under his silver skin; and then another spoke: Sisters, I knew him because his heart fluttered like a bird under a  of silver cords ; and then aook up the word: Sisters, I knew  him because his heart sang like a bird that is happy in a silver cage. And after that they sang together, those who were  rog the cradle with long wrinkled fingers; and their voices were now tender and caressing, now like the wind blowing in the great wood, and this was their song: Out of sight is out of mind: Long have man and woman?kind, Heavy of will and light of mood, Taken away our wheaten food, Taken away our Altar stone; Hail and rain and thunder alone, And red hearts we turn to grey, Are true till Time gutter away.

    When the song had died out, the e who had first spoken, said: We have nothing more to do but to mix a drop of our blood into his blood. And she scratched her arm with the sharp point of a spindle, which she had made the nurse bring to her, a a drop of blood, grey as the mist, fall upon the lips of the child; and passed out into the darkness. Thehers passed out in silene by one; and all the while the child had not opened his pink eyelids or the fire ceased to dance, for the one was too ignorant and the other too full of gaiety to know what great beings had bent over the cradle.

    When the es were gohe nurse came to her ce again, and hurried to the dun of the High?King, and cried out in the midst of the assembly hall that the Sidhe, whether food or evil she knew not, had bent over the child that night; and the king and his poets and men of law, and his huntsmen, and his cooks, and his chief warriors went with her to the hut and gathered about the cradle, and were as noisy as magpies, and the child sat up and looked at them.

    Two years passed over, and the king died fighting against the Fer Bolg; and the poets and the men of law ruled in the name of the child, but looked to see him bee the master himself before long, for no one had seen so wise a child, and tales of his endless questions about the household of the gods and the making of the world went hither and thither among the wicker houses of the poor. Everything had been well but for a miracle that began to trouble all men; and all women, who, ialked of it without ceasing. The feathers of the grey hawk had begun to grow in the childs hair, and though, his  them tinually, in but a little while they would be more numerous thahis had not been a matter of great moment, for miracles were a little thing in those days, but for an a law of Eri that none who had any blemish of body could sit upohrone; and as a grey hawk was a wild thing of the air which had never sat at the board, or listeo the songs of the poets in the light of the fire, it was not possible to think of one in whose hair its feathers grew as other than marred and blasted; nor could the people separate from their admiration of the wisdom that grew in him a horror as at one of unhuman blood. Yet all were resolved that he should reign, for they had suffered much from foolish kings and their own disorders, and moreover they desired to watch out the spectacle of his days; and no one had any other fear but that his great wisdom might bid him obey the law, and call some other, who had but a ind, tn in his stead.

    When the child was seven years old the poets and the men of law were called together by the chief poet, and all these matters weighed and sidered. The child had already seen that those about him had hair only, and, though they had told him that they too had had feathers but had lost them because of a sin itted by their forefathers, they khat he would learruth when he began to wander into the try round about.

    After much sideration they decreed a new law anding every one upon pain of death to miificially the feathers of the grey hawk into his hair; and they sent men with s and slings and bows into the tries round about to gather a sufficy of feathers. They decreed also that any who told the truth to the child should be flung from a cliff into the sea.

    The years passed, and the child grew from childhood into boyhood and from boyhood into manhood, and from being curious about all things he became busy with strange and subtle thoughts which came to him in dreams, and with distins between things lo..e same and with the resemblance of things long held different. Multitudes came from other lands to see him and to ask his sel, but there were guards set at the frontiers, who pelled all that came to wear the feathers of the grey hawk in their hair. While they listeo him his words seemed to make all darkness light and filled their hearts like music; but, alas, when they  returo their own lands his words seemed far off, and what they could remember toe and subtle to help them to live out their hasty days. A number indeed did live differently afterwards, but their new life was less excellent than the old: some among them had long served a good cause, but when they heard him praise it and their labour, they returo their own lands to find what they had loved less lovable and their arm lighter itle, for he had taught them how little a hair divides the false and true; others, again, who had served no cause, but wrought in peace the welfare of their own households, when he had expouhe meaning of their purpose, found their bones softer and their will less ready for toil, for he had shown them greater purposes; and numbers of the young, when they had heard him upon all these things, remembered certain words that became like a fire in their hearts, and made all kindly joys and traffic between man and man as nothing, a different ways, but all into vague regret.

    When any asked him ing the on things of life;<s></s> disputes about the mear of a territory, or about the straying of cattle, or about the penalty of blood; he would turn to those  him for advice; but this was held to be from courtesy, for none khat these matters were hidden from him by thoughts and dreams that filled his mind like the marg and ter?marg of armies. Far less could any know that his heart wandered lost amid throngs of overing thoughts and dreams, shuddering at its own ing solitude.

    Among those who came to look at him and to listen to him was the daughter of a little king who lived a great way off; and when he saw her he loved, for she was beautiful, with a strange and pale beauty uhe women of his land; but Dana, the great mother, had decreed her a heart that was but as the heart of others, and when she sidered the mystery of the hawk feathers she was troubled with a great horror. He called her to him when the assembly was over and told her of her beauty, and praised her simply and frankly as though she were a fable of the bards; and he asked her humbly to give him her love, for he was only subtle in his dreams.

    Overwhelmed with his greatness, she half sented, a half refused, for she loo marry some warrior who could carry her over a mountain in his arms. Day by day the king gave her gifts; cups with ears of gold and findrinny wrought by the craftsmen of distant lands; cloth from over sea, which, though woven with curious figures, seemed to her less beautiful than the bright cloth of her own try; and still she was ever between a smile and a frowween yielding and withholding. He laid down his wisdom at her feet, and told how the heroes when they die return to the world and begin their labour anew; how the kind and mirthful Men of Dea drove out the huge and gloomy and misshapen People from Uhe Sea; and a multitude of things that even the Sidhe have fotteher because they happened so long ago or because they have not time to think of them; and still she half refused, and still he hoped, because he could not believe that a beauty so much like wisdom could hide a o.

    There was a tall young man in the dun who had yellow hair, and was skilled iling and iraining of horses; and one day when the king walked in the orchard, which was between the foss and the forest, he heard his voice among the salley bushes which hid the waters of the foss. My blossom, it said, I hate them for making you weave these dingy feathers into your beautiful hair, and all that the bird of prey upohrone may sleep easy o nights; and then the low, musical voice he loved answered: My hair is not beautiful like yours; and now that I have plucked the feathers out of your hair I will put my hands through it, thus, and thus, and thus; for it casts no shadow of terror and darkness upon my heart. Then the king remembered many things that he had fotten without uanding them, doubtful words of his poets and his men of law, doubts that he had reasoned away, his own tinual solitude; and he called to the lovers in a trembling voice.

    They came from among the salley bushes and threw themselves at his feet and prayed for pardon, aooped dolucked the feathers out of the hair of the woman and then turned away towards the dun without a word. He strode into the hall of assembly, and having gathered his poets and his men of law about him, stood upon the dais and spoke in a loud, clear voice: Men of law, why did you make me sin against the laws of Eri? Men of verse, why did you make me sin against the secrecy of wisdom, for law was made by man for the welfare of man, but wisdom the gods have made, and no man shall live by its light, for it and the hail and the rain and the thunder follow a way that is deadly to mortal things? Men of law and men of verse, live acc to your kind, and call Eocha of the Hasty Mind tn over you, for I set out to find my kindred.

    He then came down among them, and drew out of the hair of first one and then ahe feathers of the  grey hawk, and, having scattered them over the rushes upon the floor, passed out, and none dared to follow him, for his eyes gleamed like the eyes of the birds of prey; and no man saw him again or heard his voice.

    Some believed that he found his eternal abode among the demons, and some that he dwelt heh with the dark and dreadful goddesses, who sit all night about the pools in the forest watg the stellations rising aing in those desolate mirrors.

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