The Boy Apprent iced

to an Enchanter
Illustrated Edition
The Boy Apprenticed
to an Enchanter

Padraic Colum

Illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker

DODO (%) PRESS
THE BOY APPRENTICED TO AN ENCHANTER

BY

PADRAIC COLUM

ILLUSTRATED BY

DUGALD STUART WALKER

1920

gi)

ELLA YOUNG

IN MEMORY OF THE MANY STORIES

SHE HAS TOLD ME
CONTENTS

PROLOGUE THE HORSES OF KING MANUS

PART ONE THE STORY OF EEAN THE FISHERMAN’S SON

PART TWO THE STORY OF BIRD-OF-GOLD WHO WAS THE

BRAMBLE GATHERER’S DAUGHTER

PART THREE THE TWO ENCHANTERS

 Digitized by the Internet Archive
In 2025

https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781409993759
 PROLOGUE
THE HORSES OF KING MANUS

As for the youth who had tried to steal the white horse that the King
owned, he was bound hand and foot and taken into the castle of the
King. There he was thrown down beside the trestles of the great
table, and the hot wax from the candles that lighted the supper
board dripped down upon him. And it was told to him that at the
morrow’s sunrise he would be slain with the sword.

Then the King called upon one to finish the story that was being told
when the neigh of the white horse was heard in the stable. The story
could not be finished for him, however, because the one who had
been telling it was now outside, guarding the iron door of the stable
with a sword in his hand. And King Manus, sitting at the supper
board, could not eat nor refresh himself because there was no one at
hand to finish the story for him. And that is the way that the story of
The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter used to begin.

But first I shall have to tell you about King Manus and his three
horses.

King Manus ruled over the Western Island, and he had a castle that
was neither higher nor wider than any other King’s castle. But he
had a stable that was more strongly built than any other King’s
stable. It had double walls of stone; it had oak beams; it had an iron
door with four locks to it. And before this door two soldiers with
drawn swords in their hands stayed night and day.

In those days, if one went before a King and asked him for a gift the
King might not refuse to give what was asked of him. But King
Manus was hard to come to by those with requests. For before the
chamber where he sat or slept there stood a servant to take the
request, and if it were one that might not be brought to him, to make
an excuse for the King.

It was all because of the King’s three horses — a white horse, a red
horse, and a black horse. The white horse was as swift as the
plunging wave of the sea, the red horse was as swift as fire in the
heather, and the speed of the black horse was such that he could
overtake the wind of March that was before him, and the wind of
March that was behind could not overtake him.

Many had tried to get one of the King’s horses by request or by

robbery. But those who would ask for a gift were kept away from the
King, while the stone walls, double thick, with the door of iron with
four locks to it, kept robbers outside. Besides there were the two
soldiers with drawn swords in their hands to prevent the horses
being taken out of the stable by any one except their own grooms.
And so it was thought very certain that King Manus would never-
lose his famous horses.

But this very night, when the King and his lords were at supper, the
neigh of a horse in the stable was heard. Then it was that the story-
teller stopped in his story. The trampling of a horse was heard.
Straight out King Manus ran, and his harper and his story-teller and
his lords ran with him. When they came to the stable they saw that
the two soldiers were sitting before the iron door fast asleep, with
the swords on the ground before them. And the locks were off the
door of iron.

Just as they came there the iron door of the stable opened and the
King’s white horse was led out. He who had the rein was a strange
youth dressed in a foreign dress. The youth was about to spring on
the horse’s back when those who were with the King sprang upon
him and held him and held the bridle of the horse.

And having secured the youth they went into the stable, and they
found the red horse and the black horse eating at their mangers.
They led the white horse back and put him in his own stall. The
watchers who had been before the stable door could not be wakened,
so those who were with the King carried them to another place, and
left two others, the harper and the story-teller, to keep watch, with
the soldiers’ swords in their hands. As for the youth who had tried to
steal the white horse, he was placed as has been told you, and every
one there knew what doom would befall him.

It was then that the King called upon one to finish the story that was
being told him when the white horse neighed. It was then that he sat
at the supper board, not able to take rest nor refreshment on account
of his not having heard the story to its end. And it was then that one
of the lords said to the King, “Let the youth who is lying bound
beside the trestles of the table tell us what it was that made him go
into such danger to steal one of the horses of King Manus.”

The King liked that saying, and he said, “Since my story-teller abides
outside guarding the door of the stable, I will have this youth tell us
the story of why he entered into such danger to steal one of my
horses. And more than that. I declare that if he shows us that he was
ever in greater danger than he is in this night I shall give him his life.
But if it is not so shown the story he tells will avail him nothing, and
he shall perish by the sword at the morrow’s sunrise.”

Then the youth was taken from where he lay by the trestles of the
table, and the cords that bound him were loosened. He was put in
the story-teller’s place and fresh candles were lighted and set upon
the table.

“Your danger is great,” said the King, “and it will be hard for you to
show us that you were ever in such danger before. Begin your story.
And if it is not a story of a narrow and a close escape there will be
little time left for you to prepare for your death by the sword.”

Thereupon the youth in the foreign dress looked long into the wine
cup that was handed him, and he drank a draught of the wine, and
he saluted the King and the lords who sat by the King, and he said:

“Once I was in greater danger, for its mouth was close to me, and no
hope whatever was given me of my saving my life. I will tell the
story, and you shall judge whether my danger then was greater than
is my danger now.”

And thereupon the youth in the foreign dress, who had tried to steal
the white horse that King Manus owned, began the story which is set
down here in the very words in which he told it.
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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

PART I
THE STORY OF SEAN THE FISHERMAN’S SON

I. THE COMING OF THE ENCHANTER

My father (said the youth) was a fisherman, and he lived on this

Western Island. It may be that he is still living here. His name was
Anluan, and he was very poor. My own name is Eean, and the event
that begins my story took place when I was twice seven years of age.

My father and I had gone down to the shore of the Western Oman.
He was fishing in the pools of the sea, and I was putting willow rods
into the mouths of the fish caught so that I might carry them in my
hands to the market that very day and sell them there. I looked out
and saw a speck upon the water, a speck that came nearer. I kept
watching it while my father dragged the pool with his net. The speck
became a boat, and the boat came on without sails or oars. It was a
shining boat, a boat of brass. I called to my father and my father
straightened himself up and watched it. In the boat that came toward
us of its own accord there was a man standing.

The boat came into the full water between the rocks, and then it sank
down, this boat of brass, until its rim touched the water. It remained
still as if anchored. The man who was in the prow of the boat
stepped out on the sand between my father and me.
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

He looked a man of high degree — like a prince or a potentate. He

had a dark face and a dark, curly beard, and he had eyes that were
like hawks’ eyes. He had ona straight coat of a blue material covered
all over with curious figures, and in his hand he held a long polished
staff that had the shape of two serpents twisting together. He looked
at me and I was frightened of him, and I turned to my father. But my
father was standing there, holding the fishing pole in his hands, his
mouth open, gasping like one of the fishes upon the rocks.

The stranger looked me over again — looked me over from my feet

to my head, and then he said to my father, “There is no need that he
should do aught about these fishes. I have need of an apprentice, and
it would be well for you both if he should come with me.”

My father then found his voice, and he said, “If my son does not sell
these fishes in the market to-day he cannot bring back the bag of
meal for our household.”

Said the man from the strange boat, “Bring me to your house and I
shall put down gold for every copper that your son would get in the
market.”

My father made a sign to me to throw the fishes back into the water.
This I did, but I did it fearfully. And then my father stepped out of
the pool of the sea and he made a sign to the stranger to follow us.
We walked from the seashore and up the path of the cliffs, and we
went through the heather of the headlands, following the goat tracks
till we came to the wattled house where we lived. The man from the
strange boat followed my father, and I came last of all. And when I
went in and stood on the floor of our house my heart was thumping
within me at the thought of what was before.

And there was the pot boiling over the fire with a few green herbs in
it. There was Saba, my mother, stirring the last handful of meal
amongst the green herbs. And there were my brothers, all older than
I, sitting by the fire, waiting for the herbs and the meal to be ready.

When my mother looked toward us she saw the man from the
strange boat. She thought that some crime had been committed by
me or my father to bring a man of such high degree amongst us. She
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

and my brothers were greatly afraid, for they were poor, and those
who were high were harsh to them. But the stranger spoke softly,
saying, “Good fortune has come to you from the sea to-day.” And
when they all turned toward him he said, “I who am very
knowledgeable will take your son with me as an apprentice, and I
shall instruct him in arts and crafts and mysteries.”

My mother said, “The boy is young, sir, and we thought he would be

with us for a time longer.”

But the man from the strange boat said, “I would not take him to
instruct him in arts and crafts and mysteries if he were a day older
than he is now.” He said no more, but he went to the table and he
laid down on it piece after piece of shining gold.

My father went to the table and held his hands around the gold. My
mother looked on me who was just twice seven years old that day. I
know she thought that she could never bear to part with me. But
then she looked on her other sons, and she saw that they were men
grown, and she thought they should have more to eat than the meal
and the green herbs that were in the pot. She threw her arms around
me and I knew it was a last clasp.

“He will have to go into far places to learn the arts and crafts and
mysteries that I would teach him,” the stranger said. “Will he ever
come back to me?” cried my mother. “He will come back to you
when his cunning baffles my cunning,” was what the stranger said.

My father took the gold that was on the table and made it into a
heap. My mother took her arms from around my neck, and my
brothers kissed me farewell. Then the man from the strange boat
opened the door of our wattled house and went out, and I followed
him.

We did not go back to the place where he had left his boat of brass.
We went to another place where there was a harbor with ships.
There we found a ship ready to sail for Urth.

My master sent me on board to ask the captain if he would take us

on a voyage beyond Urth. The captain said that if my master would
guide them past the Magnetberg he would give him the ship to sail
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

where he would after the cargo had been landed. My master said he
would do this, and we went on board the ship. It was evening now,
and a breeze came up, and the ship sailed away, bringing me from
the place where I was born and reared and toward the strange
countries that were beyond the rim of the sea. I asked one of the
sailors what was the Magnetberg, and he told me that it was a
mountain of loadstone that drew the iron out of ships that came near
it and left them loosened timbers upon the water.
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

II. THE INACCESSIBLE ISLAND

You have heard me so far, O King. Know now that the one to whom
I was apprenticed was an Enchanter. His name is Zabulun, and in all
the world there are only three Enchanters more powerful than he.
The first is Chiron the Centaur, who is half man and half horse, and
who taught Achilles and made him the greatest of the princes who
had gone against Troy. The second is Hermes Trismegistus, the wise
Egyptian. And the third is Merlin the Enchanter, whose home is in
an island that is west of your Western Island.

When the night came on, Zabulun took the steering gear into his
hands, and he steered the ship by a star that he alone knew. When
the morning came we saw on the sea all around us the masts and the
spars and the timbers of ships that had come too near the
Magnetberg, and that had lost their nails and bolts, and had become
loosened timbers on the waters. Those on the ship were greatly
afraid, and the captain walked up and down, pulling at his beard.
The night came on, and again my master took the steering gear into
~ his own hands and steered the ship by a star that he alone knew of.
And when the morning came there were no masts and spars of ships,
and no loosened timbers afloat on the waters. The captain laughed
and made all on the ship rejoice that they had passed the dangerous
neighborhood of the Magnetberg — that mountain of loadstone that
drew the iron out of ships as a magnet draws pins on a table.

We came to Urth. The great cargo that was on the ship was for the
King of Urth, and it was taken off and sent over the mountain to the
King’s city in packs that the sailors carried on their backs. Then the
captain gave the ship over to my master to sail it where he would.

He did not come upon the land nor did he look upon the country at
all. But when the last pack had been carried off the ship, he said to
me: “You will have to do this, my first command to you. Go on the
land. Stay by a pool that is close to the forest. Birds will come down
to that pool — birds of the whiteness of swans, but smaller. Set
snares and catch some of these birds, not less than four, and bring
them to me uninjured.”
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

And I went on the land and came to the pool that was close to the
forest. And there I saw the birds that were of the whiteness of swans,
but smaller. I watched them for a while so that I might know their
ways. Then I made a crib of rods and set it to catch the birds. One
went under the crib, and I pulled the string and caught the first bird.
And then, hours afterward, I caught another. And waiting and
watching very carefully, I caught a third. The fourth bird was wary,
and I feared I should not catch it, for night was coming down and
the birds were making flocks to fly away. One remained near the
crib, and its neck was stretched toward it. But then it shook its
wings, and I thought it was going to fly to the others. It went under
the crib. Then I pulled the string and caught the fourth bird.

I brought the birds to the ship and my master gave them grains to
feed on. At night we sailed away. My master held the steering gear
while it was dark, but when light came he gave it to me to hold.
Then he unloosed one of the birds. It flew in the middle distance,
winging slowly, and remaining a long time in sight. He told me to
hold the course of the ship to the flight of the bird.

At night he took the steering gear again into his hands and held the
ship on her course. In the daylight he unloosed another bird and
bade me steer by its flight. And this was done for two more days.

The morning after the last of the white birds had been freed my
master bade me look out for land. I saw something low upon the
water. “It is the Inaccessible Island,” said my master, “where I have
my dwelling and my working place.” He steered the ship to where
the water flowed swiftly into a great cave that was like a dragon’s
mouth. In that cave there was a place for the mooring of ships. The
Enchanter moored the ship in its place, and then he took me up the
rocky landing place.

There was a flight of great steps leading from the landing place — it
was ina cave as I have told you — up to the light of day. There were
a thousand wide black steps in that flight. The Enchanter took into
his hands the black staff that was shaped as two serpents twisting
together, and he took me with him up the stairway.
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

We came out on a level place and I saw a high castle before me.
There was no wall around the castle, and there was no gate to be
opened. But when I came near it I found I could take no step
onward. I went up, and I went down, and I tried to go onward, but I
could not. Then Zabulun the Enchanter said to me:

“Around this castle of mine is a wall of air. No one can see the wall,
but no one can pass it. And a bridge of air crosses my wall of air.
Come now with me and I will take you over the bridge.”

As the wall of air that went round the Enchanter’s castle was not to
be seen, neither was the bridge that went across the wall of air. But I
saw my master mounting up and walking across as on a bridge. And
although I saw nothing before me nor beneath me, I mounted upon
something and walked across something. Following him I went
downward and into the courtyard of the castle.

Within that courtyard there was a horse of brass with a giant man of
brass upon it, the giant man holding a great bow in his hands. My
master said to me, “If one came over the bridge of air without my
authority, the arrow of that bow would be loosened, and he who
came across the bridge would be slain by this giant man of brass.”
We went within the castle. In the hall were benches and tables, and
there were statues holding torches in their hands standing by the
wall. Also in that hall there was the statue of a woman holding a dart
in her hand. When my master came within, the statue that held the
dart flung it, and the dart struck a gleaming carbuncle that was in
the wall. Lights came into the torches that the statues held, and all
the hall was lighted up.

I sat with my master at a table, and the statues moved to us, bringing
us wine and fruits. We ate and drank, and afterward a golden figure
came to the Enchanter, and, sitting down before him, played a game
of chess with him.

The next day my master showed me more of the wonders of the

Inaccessible Island. No ships came near, for there was no way to
come to that island except by following the birds that were of the
whiteness of a swan and that flew always in the middle . distance.
On this island Zabulun the Enchanter had lived for longer than the
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

lifetimes of many men, studying magic and all the ways of

enchantment. And for three years I, Eean, the son of the fisherman of
the Western Island, stayed with him, learning such things as were
proper for one apprenticed to an Enchanter to know.
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Ill. THE ENCHANTER GOES TO BABYLON

In the three years that were passed in the Inaccessible Island, nothing
that is worth my telling happened, O King. But at the end of the
three years my master said to me, “We will leave the Inaccessible
Island, for I have a mighty business before me.” And when I asked,
“Where do we go, O master?” he answered, “We go to Babylon.”

And then, when it was the first day after the new moon, we
descended the black stairway that led into the cave where the waters
came. There we found a boat of brass that was like the boat that
came to the Western Island on the day when my father and I were
fishing in the pools of the sea. We went into that boat of brass, and it
took us through the water, steering itself. We rested on lonely
islands, and at last we came to a mainland, and there the Enchanter
left the boat to sink beneath the water. As travelers then we went on.
We came to a town, and there my master bought for himself and me
the dresses of merchants. Then we came to the river that flows
toward Babylon. Men go down the river in round boats that are
~ made of rods woven together. In every boat a live ass is carried, and
when the cargo is landed the boats are broken up, for they cannot go
back against the current of the river. And the cargo is loaded on the
ass and brought into the market in Babylon. And whatsoever the
merchants buy in Babylon is loaded on the ass, and the ass is driven
back over the mountains into the country that they came from, these
men.

And in such boats we went down the river and came into Babylon.
No city in the world is as mighty or as wonderful as Babylon. It has
three hundred and sixty-five streets, and in every street there are
three hundred and sixty-five palaces, and to every palace there are
three hundred and sixty-five steps leading up to its door of gold and
ebony. The streets when we came into them were thronged with
mighty, black-bearded men. I was much in dread when I stood in
those great streets, and looked on the mighty men who went through
them.

In the center of the city were the palace and the wide-spreading
gardens of the King. In those gardens, as my master told me, were
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

one or two of all the beautiful or terrible animals of the world. Those
gardens I will speak of again, O King, for it was within them that I
came upon the danger that was greater than the danger that I am
now in.

But first the Enchanter showed me that great wonder that was near
the gardens — the Tower of Babylon. It was a red tower mounting
very high into the air. Outside of it there were steps that went round
it and to the very top of it — a thousand steps. And on the top of the
tower, resting against the Spear of Nimrod, was the Magic Mirror of
Babylon. Zabulun the Enchanter made me look to the top, and I was
made fearful by looking so high.

Oh, that I might tell you, King Manus, of the wonders of the Tower
of Babylon! In the shadow of it there slept two mighty ones — the
two Genii who guarded Babylon, Harut and Marut they were
named. Giant beings they were. As they slept there the beard of each
was spread across his mighty chest, and it was a beard so broad that
no horse of the mighty horses that the King owned could leap across
it. Very great but very old were Harut and Marut, the Genii who
guarded Babylon.

I was made fearful by looking to the top of the tower. And then I was
made still more fearful by the words that Zabulun said to me. “We
have come here,” he said, “to steal the Magic Mirror of the
Babylonians.

“Tt is there on the top of the tower,” said the Enchanter, “resting
against the Spear of Nimrod. One looking into that mirror sees all
the Kings of the world. The one who threatens Babylon is shown
with a spear raised in his hand. And if a King should bring an army
against Babylon, the number of its men and the ways by which it
comes would be shown in the mirror. The Babylonians, by means of
this Magic Mirror of theirs, are always ready for their enemies, and
because of this no King in all the world will venture to make war on
Babylon.

“But we shall steal the mirror and make the Tower of Babylon fall.
Know that I, Zabulun, was once a Prince of Babylon. They
dishonored me, the men of Babylon, and drove me out of their city.

10
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

And for that I shall make an end of their pride and an end of their
security.

“Fear not. It will not be hard to steal the mirror and throw down the
tower. Know that the King of the city is a foolish King, and that he
cares only for his gardens and for the beautiful and terrible beasts
that he can bring into them. And as for the Genii who guard Babylon
— behold them! They are mighty beings, truly, Harut and Marut!
Immeasurably old are they, and they pass their days in sleep beside
the tower that they guard. I say to you that it will not be hard to
overthrow the tower, and take away from the Babylonians the Magic
Mirror that is their security.”

As Zabulun spoke the terrible beasts in the King’s gardens roared

mightily, and Harut and Marut, the mighty beings who slept in the
shadow of the Tower of Babylon, turned in their sleeping. The flocks
of birds that had built nests in their beards (the oldest owl and the
littlest humming bird were amongst them) flew up and rested on the
steps of the tower.

_ The black-bearded men of Babylon passed in their throngs, while he

who was once a prince in their city, and who was now Zabulun the
Enchanter, stood there with his staff in his hands and smiling to
himself. And I, Eean, The Boy Apprenticed to the Enchanter, felt as if
I were falling, falling down from the top of the tower.

11
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

IV. THE PALACE OF THE KING OF BABYLON

And now at the supper board of King Manus those who were eating,
or drinking, or whispering to each other as the youth began his
story, became silent and eager when he spoke of Babylon and the
Tower of Babylon. The King himself was fain to hear about that city
that was the greatest in the world, and about the King who was the
mightiest of all Kings, and he commanded the attendants to cease
going here and there. So the servers and chamberlains and stewards,
with the dishes, and napkins, and rods of office in their hands, stood
still behind those who were seated at the table. The lords leaned
forward with their eyes upon the youth who sat in the story-teller’s
place, and the King made a sign for him to tell on. But the youth
Eean was speechless for a while. Such was the memory of the high
Tower of Babylon upon him that had he been standing he would
have fallen down. His head sank on the arm rest of the chair, and
those near him who touched his hand felt it chilled. Then King
Manus signed for a chamberlain to go to him, and he went and
wiped Eean’s brow with a napkin, and then brought him a goblet of
the richest wine. He raised up his head and drank, and looked down
the table, and saw the high candles that burned brightly, and saw the
face of the King and the faces of the lords who sat with the King. But
for a while his look was the look of a man whose spirit is in another
place. He heard the words that were spoken around him — words
that were about the King of Babylon, and the King of Babylon’s
palace. The youth caught at these words, and went on to speak of
what befell him.

The walls of the King’s palace (said Eean, The Boy Apprenticed to an
Enchanter) make seven circles, one wall rising higher than the other,
and each wall having a different color. The first wall is white, the
second wall is black, and the third wall is scarlet; the fourth wall is
blue, the fifth wall is orange, the sixth wall is plated with silver, and
the seventh wall is plated with gold. I was filled with wonder when I
looked on the walls of the King’s palace.

The Enchanter that day had put on the dress of a merchant, but
under it he had left his own garb — the straight dress that had the

12
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

curious figures upon it. He took into his hand the staff that was
made of two serpents twisting together, and he told me that the time
had come to go to the palace and speak with the King.

At an early hour, before it was yet market time, we went through the
streets of the city. The soldiers let us pass through the Gate of Brass
along a way that has on each side great lions carved in stone. We
came to the palace, and my master spoke to the doorkeepers and
they permitted us to enter. We went through the outer courts where
there were soldiers who carried naked swords in their hands. And
because my master gave himself out to be a merchant from far-off
parts, and because the King greatly desired to speak with those who
came from far-off parts, we were brought into the presence of the
King of Babylon.

He looked, O King Manus, like a King that was of a long line of

Kings. His black beard was powdered with gold, and spices burned
before him. But his face was white, and it was like to the face of a
man in a dream. Only one person stood near him — a dwarf from
the Country of the Dwarfs. He had on his head a crown of scarlet
feathers.

When we came before him, and after we had bowed, the King
looked upon us. He spoke to my master, and said, “What have you
to sell, merchant?”

And my master, before he spoke, let fall his merchant’s robe, and he
showed himself in the straight garb that was covered with curious
figures — the garb of a Magus it was.

“What I have to sell,” he said, “is the meaning of dreams, O King.”

And now, O King Manus, I have to tell of a cheat worked upon a

King, and of a cheat worked by my master, Zabulun the Enchanter,
upon the King of Babylon. Pretending to speak of the meaning of
dreams he led the King to destruction, hoping thereby to encompass
the destruction of Babylon.

The King turned to his ancient dwarf and he said, “Remind me of

my dreams.” And then the ancient dwarf said to the King, “Of the

13
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

three dreams that seemed remarkable to you, O King, the first was
the Dream of the Three Dishes.”

“It is even so,” said the King. “I dreamed that there were three dishes
set before me, no more than three dishes. And then I dreamed that
afterward these three dishes were hidden from me and were not to
be found. There was no one to tell me the signification of this
dream.”

“The signification of this dream,” said Zabulun the Enchanter

cunningly, “is easy to discover. In the lore of the Chaldeans a dish
signifies a treasure. You have dreamed of a threefold treasure that is
hidden away.”

But the dwarf who was beside the King spoke up and said, “Why
does a dish signify a treasure?” “That is something I may not
reveal,” said my master, Zabulun the Enchanter, and he turned to
the dwarf the staff that was formed of two serpents twisting
together. The end of the staff lifted itself as though the serpents were
rising up. The dwarf covered his eyes, and cried out, “O Magus!”

“Remind me of the second dream that was considered remarkable,”

said the King. And the dwarf said, “The second dream was the
Dream of the Laden Ass.”

“Tt is even so,” said the King. “I dreamed that I looked down the
Way of the Lions, and there came along the way a laden ass. Of that
dream also those skilled in the signification of dreams could tell me
nothing.”

“And yet the dream is plain,” said the Enchanter, looking full into
the eyes of the King. “A laden ass signifies a treasure found — your
dream is of a treasure being brought into your palace.”

“It is so,” said the ancient dwarf with the crown of scarlet feathers
upon his head. “In dreams an ass is always laden with treasure.”

“And what was my third dream?” said the King.

“Your third dream,” said the ancient dwarf, “was the Dream of the
Arrows.”

14
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

“It is even so,” said the King. “I dreamed of arrows that were shot
upward to a great height.”

And then the King was silent, and he and the dwarf looked long
upon Zabulun the Enchanter. But Zabulun took a step nearer to
them, and he said:

“In the lore of the Chaldeans, arrows shot upward signify a very
high tower. I can tell you now the significance of your three dreams,
O King. They are of a treasure that is to come into your possession.
The treasure is hidden. It is hidden beneath a tower. The height to
which the arrows were shot shows that the treasure is hidden under
the highest of towers — under the Tower of Babylon.”

At the mention of the Tower of Babylon, O King of the Western

Island, a great fear came over me, for I knew that it was now that
Zabulun’s plan for the taking of the Magic Mirror was being put into
practice. And it seemed to me that fear came over the ancient dwarf
too, for he fell down upon his face. But rage grew in the King, and
his black brows drew together in a frown.

' “Are you one who would have the King make search for treasure
beneath the Tower of Babylon?” he cried out.

“No search need be made there,” said Zabulun the Enchanter. “And
yet if the King should dream of treasure again it is proper that he
should sacrifice a black cock upon the place where the treasure has
been shown to be hidden. If that be done the dream will be banished
and will come to the King no more. I speak as a Magus. But now I
have shown you the meaning of the three dreams, and there is no
more to be shown.” And saying this the Enchanter put the garb of a
merchant over the robe of the Magus. A cup was handed to him and
a cup was handed to me also. This was to signify to us that our
speech with the King was at an end. There was wine in our cups, but
bitterness had been mixed with the wine, to signify that what had
been told the King was not pleasing to him.

We went from the presence of the King, and when we were far
outside the palace my master said to me:

15
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

“It will come about that the King will search for the treasure that I
have put into his dreams. Moreover, he will speak to others of this
treasure, and they, too, will search for it. It will come about that these
many searchers, digging for the treasure, will break upon the
foundations of the Tower of Babylon. Thereupon I will take the
Magic Mirror and make myself the master of the Babylonians.”

This he said to me as I went with him from the King’s palace along
the Way of the Lions. I was affrighted, and it seemed to me that the
lions that were in stone looked ragefully down on us as we passed.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

V. THE KING OF BABYLON

We lived for a whole moon in Babylon, my master Zabulun and I,

before the danger that was greater than the danger that is upon me
now showed itself to me. Just before the hour of the market we
would go through the streets of the city and toward the great market
place. Throngs of people would be there, gathered together for
buying or selling, or for talk of the happenings of the day before. My
master would take me to a shady place, and we would sit there,
resting or refreshing ourselves with draughts of the wine of the
palm.

And Zabulun would tell me that the King we had spoken with was
the most foolish King who had ever ruled over Babylon. “Great and
terrible he seems when he sits upon his throne in his palace,”
Zabulun would say, “but for all that he is foolish, and he delights
more to come into the market and hear the talk of strangers than to
sit in his council chamber.”

_ Again and again Zabulun would speak of the King, and he would
say: “Often he comes here, and he sits in the market place and talks
with all comers, which is against the customs of the Kings of
Babylon. We will see him come here, and we will watch him do what
is reported of him.”

Seated in the market in a shady place I would watch the throngs that
moved about there. I saw the merchants who had come down the
river in such round boats as we had voyaged in. They brought casks
of the wine of the palm to the market. And I saw those who had
come from Arabia with spices, and my master would tell me how
these spices had been gathered. Some had frankincense that grows
on trees that are guarded by winged serpents. Only with smoke of
burning styrax could they drive the serpents from the trees. And
others had cassia that is found in a shallow lake guarded by fierce,
bat-like creatures. To gather it men have to cover themselves all over
with the hides of cattle, leaving openings for their eyes only. And
there are the merchants who have the ladanum that settles on low
bushes, and that sticks to the beards of he-goats that go amongst the
bushes. Others have the cinnamon that is used by birds to build their

17
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

nests against high cliffs. Men cannot climb these cliffs to gather the
sticks of cinnamon, but they make the birds bring into their nests
such weights as break the nests down and so strew on the ground
the sticks of cinnamon. They slaughter cattle under the cliffs, and the
birds fly into their nests with great pieces of the meat, and the weight
of these pieces of meat breaks down the nests. And so men gather
cinnamon in Arabia.

And one day my master showed me the King of Babylon as he came

into the market place.

He wore a black cloak that had only one stripe of purple in it, and a
boy went beside him holding an Indian hound in a leash. Having
come into the market the King seated himself in a special place, and
he drank wine and ate honey cakes, and talked with the strangers
that were brought before him, and let himself be gaped at by throngs
of people. And then, from one to another of those who were around
him, my master and I heard it said, “The King, surely, has had re-
markable dreams.”

a
Hy

In three days my master was sent for by the King, and he came into
the palace again bringing me with him, and he was saluted as a

18
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Magus. The King’s dreams were told to him. The first dream was of
a drinking cup that blazed with fire, and the second dream was of a
ram-headed man with golden horns, and the third dream was of a
soldier in a black cloak. All those dreams, according to those in the
palace who considered dreams, were of a treasure. Zabulun, my
master, agreed that assuredly they were of a treasure, knowing that
whatever the King dreamed of after he had put the thought of a
treasure into the minds of those in the palace would be thought to be
of that and of nothing else.

Then speaking as a Magus he told them that the blazing fire of the
drinking cup, the golden horns on the ram-headed man, and the
blackness of the soldier’s cloak all signified the Tower of Babylon.
The King and the ancient dwarf became very silent when my master
spoke of the tower. It was then that the Enchanter took the staff that
was made of two serpents twisting together into his right hand, and
declared that in order to make the dream of the tower cease to
trouble him, the King should sacrifice a black cock in the lowest
place of the tower.

Wine was brought us then, and my master and I drank, and this time
no bitterness had been put into the wine. We were given permission
to go, and we went from the palace.

As for the King and the ancient dwarf who was with him, they took
horses and they rode to the Tower of Babylon, the dwarf bringing
with him a black cock for the sacrifice. Harut and Marut, the sleeping
guardians of Babylon, they looked on, but they went past them and
within the tower. In the lowest place in the tower they made prepa-
rations for the sacrifice of the black cock.

Zabulun and I sat in the market place and waited, for my master said
to me, “That which happens to the King, no matter how great it may
be, he will speak of it in the market. We shall wait here and see if the
King will come here on his way back from the tower.”

So in the market place we sat, my master and I. And in the tower the
King and the ancient dwarf took the black cock and fastened him by
a leg to a ring that was in a very light board in the floor. The cock,
fluttering upward, lifted the board. Looking down they saw a

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

chamber beneath. They went down into that chamber, the King and
the ancient dwarf, and behold! they found in it a treasure of silver
pieces, each piece marked with the mark of a King of the old times in
Babylon.

Soon Zabulun, seated in the shade in the market place, showed me

the King and the ancient dwarf as they came amongst the throng.
The King seated himself in his special place and drank wine and ate
cakes of honey. My master, watching him from afar, knew that he
talked about the treasure he had found. For the dwarf who went
with him opened a leather bag and showed certain pieces that made
those around them gape in wonder.

Not long were the King and the ancient dwarf there before the Hour
of the Market came to its close. Those in the market left and went to
their homes. My master and I likewise departed. But those who had
listened to the King brought with them the memory of the wonder
they had been told about. A treasure was hidden beneath the tower
— that was the thought that now possessed every one. And when
dusk had fallen upon the city companies of men made their way
toward the tower, carrying with them spades and mattocks. The next
day, when the King came with the ancient dwarf, he found that all
around the tower, and all around the place where Harut and Marut
slept, trenches and holes had been dug.

He himself, with a company of men, went down into the lower

chamber where the treasure of silver pieces had been found, and
there they began to delve. The King found no treasure that day.

When he came out of the lower chamber he found many around the
tower digging and delving. He forbade them to do this, and he set
guards around the tower. But in the night those who were set to
guard the tower began to delve.

The digging and delving within and around the tower went on in
secret as well as openly. My master took me to show me what was
being done. “Foolish is the King, and foolish are the people of
Babylon,” he said. “What I have told you will befall them. Very soon
they will strike at the foundations of the tower, and the tower will

20
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

stand no more. Then will I take to myself the Magic Mirror, and
make myself the master of the Babylonians.”

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

VI. THE GENII WHO GUARDED BABYLON

O King of the Western Island (said Eean, The Boy Apprenticed to an

Enchanter), I was there in Babylon for the whole of a moon before
the danger that was greater than my present danger overtook me.
Often Zabulun, my master, went to the palace of the King, bringing
me with him. And the King would now receive us in his cool
chamber, and he would permit my master to seat himself on a
purple cushion in his presence. The King would ask him about the
ways of governing a kingdom, or he would tell him of his wonderful
gardens, and of the strange and terrible beasts he had there. Or else
he would talk about a mighty treasure that was to be found, and of
the beasts he would buy for his gardens when that treasure came
into his hands. Zabulun would tell the King of beasts he had seen or
heard of — of the aurochs with its mighty horns, of the unicorn that
was so white and so swift, of the satyr that is so marvelous that no
one knew whether it was a wonderful beast or a wild man. And
often, as they sat there talking, the King would have his servants stir
up the beasts in his gardens so that their roarings might be heard by
those in the palace.

Over the King and the King’s ancient dwarf there had come a
change, I thought. For the dwarf with the crown of crimson feathers
on his head would stand silent before the throne, silent even though
the King spoke to him, silent as if listening to the sound that the
spades and mattocks made on the ground around the Tower of
Babylon. And the King no longer had the look of a ruler on his face,
but had the look of a watcher and a waiter. There had come a change
over my master also. Zabulun the Enchanter had eyes like yellow
lamps, and they had become wider and more gleaming as the
digging and delving around the Tower of Babylon went on. I could
see his eyes widening in the dark when I could hardly see his face.
And I began to have a great fear of Zabulun, even though he was
kind to me, and had taught me many things.

And now I come to the day when that danger beset me that was
greater than my present danger. That morning I had walked in the
King’s gardens with Zabulun, my master. I saw the great palm trees

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

that grew there. So high and so shapely they grew that I was made to
think again of the Tower of Babylon, and I was shaken by my
thought. I looked along the great avenue of palms, and I saw down
to the lake where the King’s blue herons flew. And from the lake
coming toward us I saw a young girl. She had laid the long blue
feathers of the heron across her breast, and I saw her white forehead
and her white knees, for her dress was the dress of a woman of the
mountains. But she, seeing Zabulun and I, sprang as a young deer
springs, and went amongst the palm trees. I kept thinking of that
girl, and how free she was, and how no terror of a falling tower beset
her as she went by the lake where the King’s blue herons flew or
rested,

Again Zabulun, my master, sat in the King’s presence, and the

ancient dwarf and I attended on them. The dwarf’s head hung down
where he stood, and he muttered. The King’s voice was low when he
spoke, but Zabulun spoke loudly. Also his yellow eyes shone as he
twisted around his finger a purple strip that had been torn off the
King’s robe.

- And suddenly there came the mighty roaring of beasts in the King’s
gardens. The dwarf looked at the King, and the King spoke to the
dwarf, and there was astonishment on both their countenances, for
no command had been given to have the beasts stirred up. The King
rose from where he sat and went to the doorway. I, too, saw what he
saw. The doorkeepers, and even the soldiers who had naked swords
in their hands, were fleeing as before some terror. The King shouted
his commands, but no one heeded them. I looked upon the King, and
the King’s wrath was terrible to behold.

And then I saw the King himself draw back in fear. What was it that
approached? I, too, looked, and there, O King Manus, as I declare to
you, I saw Harut and Marut, the giant guardians of Babylon, come
through the outer courts and toward the chamber where the King
stood.

They were naked but for their great beards and their flowing hair.
They came with great strides, but their heads and their hands were
swaying about like the heads and hands of men suddenly waked out

23
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

of a deep slumber. The ancient dwarf saw them approach, and he

screamed out and fled.

The King went out of the chamber and into the hall where the great
pillars were. I called to my master, and he arose from the cushions
where he sat, and he looked upon the two who came nearer. Along
the line of the pillars Harut and Marut came, but Zabulun the
Enchanter looked upon them without fear.

The King fell upon his knees as they came near him. My master’s
face did not become fearful, but he, too, went down on his knees as if
powerful and unseen hands had forced him down. His eyes did not
lose their look of scorn, but he knelt even as the King knelt. The King
and the Enchanter were both Princes of Babylon, and when Harut
and Marut showed themselves in their might, there was that within
them that forced them to sink down on their knees.

And nearer and nearer Harut and Marut came, their heads swaying
about and their arms hanging down. Nearer and nearer they drew.
They touched the head of the King, and the King lay prone on the
ground as though the life had left him. They came to where Zabulun
the Enchanter knelt. But not on Zabulun’s head did they lay their
hands. They took him by the arms and they held him. Turning
around they dragged him along the line of the pillars. I saw him
being drawn across the outer court and through one of the great
doorways of the King’s palace.

And then it seemed that I was the only one left in the palace of the
Kings of Babylon. The King did not stir where he lay prone, and the
dwarf did not return, and the doorkeepers did not show themselves
any more. I ran from the chamber, and out through one of the great
doors, and into a place where branches of trees seemed to shield me
from the terror that had fallen upon the palace. And I did not know
then that I was running from terror clear into the mouth of danger.

For dire things had happened outside as well as within the palace of
the King. The beasts that were in the gardens had broken out of their
pits and their cages. I saw the beasts and I felt them all around me. I
saw the hippopotami as they lay with their backs against the crimson
wall of the palace. I saw the zebras stamp between the yellow wall

24
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

and the blue wall, and ostriches run between the black and the white
walls. And when I looked back from where I was in the gardens I
saw monkeys climb on the golden and silver walls, frightened by the
lions that went roaring through the courts of the palace. I ran on and
on, down the great avenue of palms and toward the lake where the
King’s blue herons flew or rested.

Tran on. But I had gone aside from the avenue of the palms, seeing a
great buffalo that stood in my way. Something caught at my feet as I
ran on the clear ground, and being pitched I fell into a deep pit. I lay
there, and I looked to the sky, and I saw that the pit narrowed to the
top, and for that reason was hard to climb out of. It was higher again
by my own height, as I saw when I stood upward thinking of a way
that might get me out.

But then there came a sound that made me look downward, a

hissing sound. And when I looked down I saw into what place I had
fallen — into the Pit of the Serpent. In the shadow of the pit there
was a dreadful snake. It was still in its coils, but its head was raised,
and it was swaying toward me.

Then, O King of the Western Island, I was in a danger greater than I

am in now. This snake was mighty enough to crush a man, and from
that pit there was no escape without help, and at that moment there
was no help. The snake raised itself higher, and its eyes fastened my
eyes. Judge, then, of my danger, and whether it was not greater than
the danger I am in now as I sit here with the gleam of the slaying
sword before my eyes.

And then I heard a whisper that seemed to come to me from the sky.
I drew my eyes from the snake’s eyes and I looked to the top of the
pit. One was bending from the opening — a girl, and she had in her
hands a little drum. She began to beat on the drum, and the snake’s
head that was swaying toward me began to sway sideways. ‘The girl
beat again on the drum, and the snake’s head swayed and swayed
and went down upon its coils. At last the dreadful head was at rest,
and the eyes of the snake no longer fastened themselves upon my
eyes.

25
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

The girl who stood above the pit put down a board for me to climb
up by. I climbed, and I stood outside the pit, and I looked upon the
girl, and I saw the blue heron’s feathers laid across her breast. Then I
sank down on the ground, and for a while I knew no more of the
world’s happenings.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

VII. AGAIN THE HORSES OF KING MANUS

It was as if the eyes of the snake were still upon him. Eean stopped
in his story, and his eyes were wide as if they looked upon a terrible
thing. One of the servers brought him a cup of wine and placed it in
his hands, but although he kept his fingers around it, he did not raise
it to his lips.

Nor did he appear to hear what was being said around the King’s
supper table: “A great danger the boy was in, truly.” “The danger he
is in now is not as great as the danger he has told us of.” “We must
hear the end of this story.” “It seems that he is too fearful to tell us
any more.” This last speech came to the ears of King Manus. “Be not
so fearful, boy,” said the King. “You have been in a greater danger
than ever I heard a man speak of, and by my sword, you are in less
danger now than you were then. Drink the wine that is in it and keep
the cup you have for a remembrance. I would have you at your ease,
too, for we will sit here and listen to the rest of your story.”

_ When the King said this the lords who were sitting around the
supper board applauded, and then the stewards signed to the
attendants to bring more lights in. Fresh candles were put upon the
board, and fresh torches were put into the sconces, and fresh logs
were put upon the hearth. When all this was done the King and his
lords turned their faces to Eean, for they were ready to listen to the
rest of the story. But the boy had not seated himself in the story-
teller’s chair: still he was standing with the wine cup between his
hands, and still his eyes were widened as if a terrible thing was
before him.

It was then, as they were waiting for him to begin, that the neigh of a
horse was heard again. It was a very shrill neigh, and every one in
the supper hall was startled by it. Out they rushed, King and lords,
stewards, servers, and attendants, and they neither stopped nor
stayed until they came before the King’s great stable. Then they
could hardly believe what their eyes looked upon: the iron door of
the stable was open wide; the watchers were there, but their heads
were bent in sleep and their swords were upon the ground. Through
the open door of the stable came the whinnyings and the plungings

PU
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

and the tramplings of a horse. Quickly they went into the stable.
There, by the light of the torches that the attendants held, they saw
the white horse and the red horse still in their stalls, but the black
horse they saw rearing above a figure that was prone upon the
ground.

The blaze of their torches made the black horse swerve so that his
hoofs did not come down upon the figure that was upon the stable
floor. The horse was taken hold of and put back into his stall. Then
the attendants raised up the one who was upon the ground.
“Another one come to steal my horses,” cried King Manus. “Well,
this one shall pay the penalty that the other has been delivered
from.”

They took up the one who was on the floor of the stable. They locked
the stable door again and they put a double watch before it. They
brought the one whom they had taken into the supper hall; a lad,
younger even than Eean, this second robber seemed.

Eean was standing by the story-teller’s seat as they came into the
supper hall. Looking upon the one they brought in he cried out in
the voice of the heart-broken, “O Bird-of-Gold, why didst thou peril
thyself by staying here? Too faithful to me thou hast been!” Hearing
this speech, all looked on the one who was called Bird-of-Gold: it
was then that they saw they had taken, not a youth as they had
supposed, but a young girl whose dress was a youth’s dress.

In the light of the torches and candles they looked at her

wonderingly. She had knitted brows and heavy eyelids that gave to
her face the look of one who ponders deeply. And there was such
fire behind the depths of her eyes that it seemed as if her thought
was always burning. But her lips were colorless and her cheeks were
thin and sunken; her hair and her eyes and her eyebrows were dead
black. And when they went to bind her as they had bound Eean they
saw that her hands were finely shaped and yet strong and hard.

“Who is she?” said King Manus.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

“T have told you of her,” said Eean. “This is she who found me in the
Pit of the Serpent and who drew me away from the venom of the
snake.”

There was silence for a while, and then the King said, “The chance
that was given you shall be given her also. If she can show us that
she was in a danger greater than the danger she is in now her life
shall not be taken. If she cannot show that she shall be slain by the
sword on tomorrow’s sunrise.”

At that some of the trouble that was on Eean’s face seemed to leave
it. He cried out, “O Bird-of-Gold, tell the King the story of your ad-
ventures from the beginning. Bethink thee, Bird-of-Gold, of the
terrible things you have gone through and speak to the King and the
lords of them. This King is very generous, and you may win our
lives from him.”

The girl who was called Bird-of-Gold turned to the King her face that
seemed to him to be like the face of a slave and a victorious warrior.
Her hands were bound before her and her black hair fell over her
breast. Like one who was ever ready in deed and word, as soon as
King Manus made a gesture, she began:

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

PART II
THE STORY OF BIRD-OF-GOLD WHO WAS THE BRAMBLE
GATHERER’S DAUGHTER

I. HOW THE BRAMBLE GATHERER’S DAUGHTER WENT

TOWARD HER FORTUNE

I am called Bird-of-Gold (said the girl, beginning her story), but that
name did not belong to me until I was a girl grown. Before that I had
no name. In the city where I was born and where I lived I was
known as “The bramble gatherer’s child.”

My father was the poorest of all the men of that town. He gathered
brambles and thorns in the wilderness and brought them in a bundle
to the hut where we lived. Then, while he was gathering another
bundle on another day, I would go through the town selling the
brambles and thorns for stuff for the people’s fires. My mother I
never knew. I grew up with my father, and we two had even less
than the sparrows. I had no playmate nor no friend, and what I got
for the thorns and brambles I sold brought us but little to eat.

One day as I passed along the street of the city it came into my mind
that I was grown to be a girl. The thought that I should go from the
city grew in me from that time. My father would miss me, but he
would flourish the better if there was one, and not two, to eat the
scanty meal that the price of the brambles and thorns gained for us.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

I got for myself the cap and jacket of a boy. Then one morning when
my father had gone from the hut and had turned his face to the
wilderness and his back to the city, I went out of the door and turned
to the wilderness also. I took a direction that would bring me far
from where my father had gone. I had dressed myself as a boy, and
my thought was that I would come upon a merchant who would let
me do service for him, and who, perhaps, would take me on a
voyage. And I thought that I might win some fortune for myself, and
that then I could return and take my father out of toil and hardship.

I came to the wilderness and I went through it. When the sun was
halfway in the heavens I came to where there was a road. There was
a pillar before me and that pillar had writing upon it. I read what
was written there. The words were: They who take the road to the ‘right
will come to their fortune at last, and they who take the road to the left will
be ever as they have been. When I read that writing I took the road that
was to my right.

I went along that road thinking every minute that I should come
upon something that would bring me to my fortune. The light faded
as.I went along, and soon I had to look about for some tree or cave
that would give me a shelter for the night. At last I saw a hut and I
went toward it. When I came before the broken door I knew the
place I had been brought to. It was my father’s hut — the hut I had
left that morning. And as I stood before it I saw my father coming
from the other side with the bundle of brambles and thorns upon his
back. Then I said to myself, “How lying was the writing that said
that they who took the road to their right would come at last to their
fortune.”

I went into the hut with my father. In the darkness that was there he
did not see that I had on the cap and jacket of a boy. He laid the
bundle of brambles and thorns down on the floor while I went to
prepare the meal for both of us. And while my father was lighting a
fire I took off the cap and jacket of a boy and I put on my girl’s dress.

My father, when he had eaten his meal, said to me, “To-day when I
had gathered the brambles and had made them into a bundle I lay
with my head on the bundle and went to sleep. I awakened feeling
some warmth near where my head lay. I looked to see if perchance

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

fire had come upon the brambles and thorns, and, lo! what I saw laid
on the bundle was the egg of a bird. The egg was still warm, and the
bird that laid it must have flown as I awakened.”

My father showed me the egg. It was strangely marked and was

heavy for its size. I looked at it, and my father said, “Take it to the
merchant tomorrow, and maybe he will give a coin for it, for surely
it is remarkable.”

The next day, when my father had gone into the wilderness, I went
to the shop of the merchant. I showed him the egg that had the
strange markings upon it, and I asked him if he would give me
something for it. And when the merchant had taken the egg in his
hand he said, “This is something to be shown the King. It is
undoubtedly the egg of the Bird of Gold.”

I was greatly stirred when I heard the merchant say this, and I
thought that perhaps my fortune would come to me through this
egg. I went back to the hut, and in the morning, before my father
started off for his bramble gathering, two officers came and they
took my father and me to the palace and before the King. And the
King said, “It is known that of all creatures in the world the Bird of
Gold is best worth possessing. For her claws can be made into an
amulet that will bring wealth to the one who wears it, and the one
who eats her heart can never be slain by his enemy. I would have the
Bird of Gold whose egg you have found. You know where she
abides. Catch her and bring her to me, and I shall reward you.”

So spoke the King of our little country. My father and I went into the
wilderness to search for the Bird of Gold around the place where the
egg had been laid. And in the very place where before he had lain
my father put down his bundle of brambles and thorns. Laying his
head upon the bundle, he went to sleep.

I watched beside the brambles and thorns. And after a time a bird
came running along the ground, and went fluttering up on the
bundle and made a nest for herself there. Small she was and all
golden except for the blue that was under her throat, and the blue
that was upon her feet. As she was making a nest for herself Iput my

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hands upon her and caught her. I held her to my breast to keep her
from fluttering away.

And I said aloud, “O bird, now I shall be rewarded for taking thee.
For the King would make an amulet of thy feet that he may have
wealth, and he would eat thy heart that his enemies may not be able
to slay him. Greatly will he reward me for having taken thee, O Bird
of Gold.”

And as I spoke to her and held her to my breast the bird made a cry
that sounded as “Alas, Alas!” I looked upon her again and my heart
was filled with sorrow for the bird I had taken. Why should her
claws be made into an amulet for the King, and why should her
heart be eaten by him? I sat there thinking while my father slept,
holding the bird very gently to my breast. And when she cried again
“Alas, Alas!” I opened my hands and I let her fly away. She fluttered
near for a while as if to show herself to me, and then she rose up and
flew away.

My father awakened, and he said, “It is near dark, and the Bird of
Gold will not come now. Perhaps we will find her on another day.
The King should reward us for our search, and now we will go and
tell him of it.”

So we rose up and we went into the city. And when we came before
him, my father spoke to the King and told him that the Bird of Gold
was not to be seen in the places where we had searched. Then the
King would have sent us away without doing any evil to us only that
one who was near him cried out: “Behold, O King, and decree a
punishment for these two deceivers. One has declared that the Bird
of Gold did not come near where they searched. But look on the
dress of the girl: All around her breast are the feathers of the Bird of
Gold.”

Thereupon I looked down and I saw that the bird’s golden feathers
were all strewn around the place where I had held her to me. I was
grasped by the hands and brought before the King. And he cried out,
“Have you the bird hidden?” I said: “No, O King. I let the bird fly
out of my hands.” Then the King spoke to one who stood beside

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him, and he commanded that I should be taken and put upon a ship
and thrown into the depths of the sea.

I was taken from my father who wept and cried after me, and I was
brought down to the river and put upon a ship. The one who was
commanded by the King to take me and throw me into the depths of
the sea was a man with a great hooked nose and a purple beard. On
his hand was a ring with a great emerald in it. He was the captain of
the King’s ships.

I was put upon the ship, and the next day we sailed down the river
and came out on the sea. Now, although the King had commanded
that I be thrown into the depths of the sea, I was not then in as great
a danger as I am in now, O King of the Western Island. For the
captain of his ships hated all the words that the King gave him, and
those whom the King would slay he would save, and those whom
the King would save he would have slain. When we came into the
open sea, so that he might obey the King’s word and at the same
time make a mock of it, he had me thrown into the water, but with a
rope around my waist. After I had been plunged into the water he
had me drawn out of it, and I was left living on the ship. And from
the captain who had had me plunged into the sea in such ways and
from the sailors on the ship I got the name by which I have been
known ever since — Bird of Gold.

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Il. THE MAN WHO WAS HIGH IN FORTUNE

We landed in a country (said Bird-of-Gold, continuing her story) that

was three days’ voyage from the river’s mouth. Then the sailors put
swords into their belts and marched toward a mountain that was
half a day’s journey from the coast. They pitched black tents and
they built a citadel, and they made themselves into a band of
robbers. He who had been the captain of the King’s ships was the
chief of this band.

Every day they went off to rob caravans and to make war upon the
men who guarded the caravans. And always they came back, my
master and his forty robbers, with no man of their band slain and
with no man wounded. Very rich and powerful did they grow with
the plunder they took from the caravans, and my master, the man
with the hooked nose and the purple beard, grew to be a King
almost. Men far and near sent him presents and men came to him
promising obedience, and he had state such as had the King of my
country. But he kept no men with him except his forty robbers.

. Every one said of my master, the captain of the band, that nothing
could come to him except good fortune, so great and so prosperous
did he grow. Men marveled that so many good things came to him
and so many evil things were staved off from him. And all his band
swore by his good fortune. But one day a wise King who liked him
greatly sent my master a message that said: “I rejoice in your good
fortune, friend, but am also troubled by it. He who is so lucky must
pay a great price sooner or later for his luck. Pay the price now,
before it is exacted from you, and remain great and prosperous. Let
the price you pay be that possession that is dearest to you.”

My master, having received this message, paid heed to what was

said in it, for the King who sent it was renowned for his wisdom. He
made up his mind to sacrifice the possession that was dearest to him
so that he might remain great and prosperous. And the possession
that he considered dearest was the ring that he wore with the great
emerald in it. He went down to the seaboard taking me with him, for
he would let none of the forty men know what he was about to do,
and he took a boat and he went, I being with him, over the depths of

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the sea. Then he drew from off his finger the ring that had the great
emerald in it, and he let it drop down into the depths of the sea.
Afterward he sent a message back to the King, his friend, saying that
he had paid the price before it was exacted of him, and that his
prosperity now would never fail, and that men would ever swear by
his good fortune.

After that he and his forty men went forth and won more plunder
than ever they had won before. Also more men came from far and
near, bringing him presents and promising him obedience.

And now, being so prosperous and so feared, my master planned to

attack a city and make himself the master of the King’s treasure. He
told his plan to his forty men and they rejoiced one and all, and they
talked to each other as if that treasure was already in their hands. I
prepared the meal that was to be given him before he collected his
men for the march.

The meal was of fish. The fisherman who had just come from the sea
laid his net before me and I took out of it an exceedingly large and
beautiful fish. I divided the fish and began to make it clean. I found
within the fish something it had swallowed. It was a ring. And when
I cleaned the ring I found that it was of gold and that in it was a most
precious stone — a stone of emerald.

I brought the fish to my master cooked. And to make him rejoice I

brought at the same time the ring to him. I told him that for the ring
he had dropped into the depths of the sea another ring had come
back to him, and that this was on account of the great good fortune
that was ever with him.

He took the ring from me and he looked it all over. He cried out that
this was not another ring but the same ring, and that the characters
of his name were engraved upon it. And he said that it was by no
means on account of his good fortune that this ring had come back to
him. Thereupon he rose up and went outside, and gave command to
his band that they were to disarm themselves and tie up their horses,
and hold themselves back from making any attack that day. He then
went into his tent and sat at the darkest part of it, his purple beard

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touching the ground, and all the while lamenting that his dearest
possession had come back to him out of the depths of the sea.

The forty men disarmed themselves and tied up their horses and sat
in little bands playing games together. I would have stayed about the
encampment making bread for the band, only that as I came near the
tent where the kneading board was I heard a bird’s cry.

I looked, and I saw on the wellhead near the Bird of Gold. The bird
fluttered and flew as if she wanted me to watch her. I followed
where she went and I was led far from the encampment. At the edge
of the wilderness she went amongst low bushes, and after that I
could not see her any more.

Because I had seen the Bird of Gold once more I went back toward
the encampment thinking about the days when I had lived in the hut
.of my father, the bramble gatherer, and about the day when I had
left that hut, and had gone across the wilderness, and had seen the
pillar on which was written that if I followed the road to the right I
should come to my fortune, and about how I had come, not to my
fortune, but back to the hut I had left; and I went on, thinking of how
Thad first heard of the Bird of Gold, and of how I had given her
liberty when I might have held her for the great reward the King
would have given. I went toward the encampment thinking these
thoughts about myself, and thinking, too, of my master who had
such fortune that men swore by the goodness of it.

I made my way toward the tent where the kneading board was. And
then I saw tents overturned and lying upon the ground. I saw the
horses of the band straying over the plain. And when I looked to the
citadel I saw it smoking with a fire that was burning it.

There was no stir in all the encampment. I knew then that an army
had come and had attacked my master and his forty men in the time
that I was following the Bird of Gold or coming back from the place
where she had led me. I went amongst the tents and I saw that the
men had been killed. And I saw the purple beard of my master, cut
off by some insolent enemy and left lying upon the ground.

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Then I ran over the trampled grass and made for the wilderness.
And when I came into the wilderness I hid myself amongst the
bushes that the Bird of Gold had flown into. I thought that a great
army was pursuing me, and in truth I was very fearful.

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Ill. HOW BIRD-OF-GOLD CAME TO HER FORTUNE

I hid at the near side of the wilderness (said the girl, Bird-of-Gold),
for I was too fearful to go back to the encampment and too fearful to
go farther on. I ate the wild fruits that grew on the bushes, and at
night I covered myself with dried leaves and branches and slept in a
hole. I thought how he had been destroyed, that man whose good
fortune had been above every one else’s good fortune, and I did not
know how such a one as I could keep alive. I was fearful while I
slept, and when I awoke and sat upon a heap of leaves in that empty
wilderness I was most miserable. I remembered the writing on the
pillar that told me to take the road to the right on the day I left my
father’s hut and I put a curse upon the road I took. I cursed it
because it had brought me, not to my fortune as the writing said it
would bring me, but back to the hut I had left. And things were even
worse with me from that time than they were before, for my return
had brought me to the encounter with the King, and to the voyage
with the captain of the King’s ships, and to the dangerous place
where I was now.

But then I began to think that although that road had brought me to
my father’s hut it had not brought me back to a life that was as it had
been before. What had happened after I had come back to the hut
had brought me farther away than that road could have led to.
Perhaps the writing on the pillar was not lying, after all. It had said:
They who take the road to the right will come at last to their fortune.
Perhaps my fortune was farther away than I had thought.

Then I said to myself that my journeys were not yet ended, and that
if I went on I should yet come to what the writing on the pillar had
promised. I sat still for a while with this thought in my mind, and
then I rose up and went through the wilderness, going straight on
toward a star that was still in the sky.

I left the wilderness with its low shrubs at last, and I came out on a
wide, green plain. Before going on that plain I ate again of the wild
fruit that was on the bushes and I brought some of the wild fruit
with me. I went on and on over the miles of grass. And when it was
midday I saw a whiteness upon the plain before me.

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I went toward that whiteness and in a while I saw that it was all in
movement. There were white living creatures there. I went on, and I
came near to where there was a hollow in the plain; and I saw in that
hollow a mighty flock of ducks. They were tame, for they did not rise
up and fly as I came near.

I looked on them with great astonishment. I had never seen so many

ducks together. I looked them all over and I made a guess that there
were a thousand ducks there. And I had never seen such beauty in
ducks before. For these ducks were of a gleaming whiteness, and
moreover they had a shapeliness that I had never seen in such
creatures before. I thought and thought, but I could not think how
they had come into this unpeopled plain in such a vast flock.

I sat down on the grass and I watched them feeding, thinking surely
that some one would come and drive the flock to some market or to
some great farm. I watched, and the ducks ate and ate in the hollow
where they stayed. When the darkness came the thousand ducks put
their heads each under a wing and settled down on the ground. I
pulled grass to make a bed for myself, and ate the fruit I had brought
with me, and lay down in a cold place near the hollow.

I was awakened by the thousand ducks quacking loudly, and I

looked and saw that they had spread themselves over the plain and
were moving in a direction. I thought I should follow the ducks, and
I did, and I was able to chase away two or three foxes that would
have hunted them.

They were beautiful, these thousand ducks, as they went over the
green plain. They were shapely and active, and they had a
wonderful soft whiteness. The drakes were not colored differently,
but they had crests and tails that curled. When they knew I was with
them they did not go straying here and there, but kept themselves
together as a flock and went marching in a direction. I thought that
they might bring me to my fortune. And then I thought that this
great flock of ducks, so strangely without an owner, was my fortune.

I was faint and hungry, but I went on rejoicing in the beauty of the
ducks. I gave them time to feed and they fed. At last I came to the
gate of a town. The watcher was astonished at the greatness of the

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flock and he called to the townspeople to come out and fill their eyes
with the spectacle. They came and asked me, “Who are you, O girl?”
and I made answer, “I am the girl whose fortune is in ducks.” The
people came on the walls of the town and looked over them, while
the ducks spread themselves out, standing still. And more and more
the people marveled at the number and the extraordinary beauty of
the ducks.

The people set a place apart for the ducks and they gave me a shelter
in which I might rest and refresh myself. After a while I heard them
say, “The officers of the great King of Babylon should see this girl
and her ducks. There is a marvel here for the great King to hear
about.” People came to see the ducks as a spectacle, and one would
say to the other, “No prince by any river in China has such a
wonderful collection of ducks.”

And then I was told that the officers of the great King of Babylon
would come to look on my flock. These officers had come into the
country to get for the King’s gardens birds and beasts that were
remarkable.

- They came and looked on the flock, and marveled that, whether they
rested or were feeding, the thousand ducks harkened to my call and
went as I bade them go. They spoke, admiring their shape and
whiteness. And then a dwarf who had a crown of crimson feathers
on his head came amongst them and the officers spoke to him This
dwarf told me they would take the flock for the King, and that they
would take me also to the great city, where I would have the office of
minding the ducks in the King’s gardens.

So I brought the thousand ducks down to a great barge that was on

the river, and I went on the barge, and the officers of the King with
the dwarf that had the crown of crimson feathers on his head went
aboard of it, and we sailed down the river, and we came into the
great city. For two days the King had me show the wondrous flock
in the market place as a spectacle for the people. All Babylon came
and admired the number and the comeliness of the ducks. Afterward
they were brought to the lake that was in the King’s gardens. As time
went on many of the flock were taken by the purveyors and killed
and eaten in the palace. But still they remained a wonder for their

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number and their comeliness. The King often came down to look on
the thousand ducks, swimming on the water, or staying in their
companies around the lake.

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IV. BIRD-OF-GOLD IN THE KING’S GARDENS

No place in the whole world is more beautiful than the King’s

gardens in Babylon (Bird-of-Gold said). My white ducks, when they
swam upon the lake, went amongst water lilies that were silver-
white or all golden. Beside the lake the irises grew, depths and
depths of blue and gold and cloud-colored irises. I should never
have left the side of that lake if I had not wanted to be amongst the
trees that grew in the gardens above — palm trees of many kinds,
and great cedar trees in the dark branches of which the doves built
their nests. Greatly did I admire the trees in the King’s gardens, for I
had come from a country where there were no trees. All the palms
were there the date palm, and the royal palm, and the palm of the
desert. They stood nobly by themselves or they made solemn
avenues that led to monuments of the Kings of Babylon. In the grass
there were golden poppies and little roses that just lifted themselves
above the ground. There were great monuments, too — statues of
Kings and lions and chariots, and these reminded people of terrors
and magnificences, and they were as a great wind that blew through
the gardens.

And there were tulips on the ground, and there were golden fruits
amongst gleaming leaves, and red pomegranates on the high trees,
and there were spice trees that filled the garments of those who
passed with fragrance. And all in a garden to themselves were the
roses — a thousand rose trees, each tree with a thousand opened
flowers. I wept when I saw that garden of roses, and I do not know
why I wept.

All the birds that were lovely to look at or charming to hear singing
were in that garden. The black birds with golden wings from my
own country were there, and the birds of paradise from the Land of
the Burning Mountain. And it was told that the nightingales of
Persia and Babylon and Arabia brought their young here that they
might learn to sing the more perfectly. Also there were mocking
birds that mocked every bird’s song but the song of the nightingale.

As for the beasts in the King’s gardens, the first one I made friends
with was a lynx. He was not in a cage, but went roaming about,

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watching everything with eyes that never winked. And after I had
come to know him and had made friends with him, the lynx brought
me to the cages and the pits of the other beasts and with them I made
friends.

Of all the creatures that were there the one I was most fearful of was
the queen serpent that was in the Pit of the Serpent. But the serpent
allured me, and I used to sit above the pit, the lynx beside me, and
watch her as she uncoiled herself and swayed her head about. And
as I watched her I would beat on a little drum that I carried with me.
I began to see that as I beat the drum and made music for her the
serpent’s head would cease to sway and she would lower it, and
then she would rest upon her coils as if she were sleeping. So I grew
to have power over the serpent, and many times when I saw her try
to draw down a bird that had come to the edge of the pit, 1 would
beat upon the drum until her head sank down, when the bird would
rouse itself out of the spell that the serpent’s eyes had for it, and fly
away. So I stayed in the King’s gardens, part of the day with the
thousand ducks that were about the lake, and part of the day with
the ever-watchful lynx that went here and went there.

One day I came up from the lake after having decked myself with
the blue herons’ feathers that lay about. I saw two where none but
the King or the King’s ancient dwarf ever came. One was a man who
wore a straight garment that had curious figures woven upon it, and
who carried in his hand a staff that was formed of two serpents
twining together. The one who was with him was a boy, and my
heart went out to him because he was young, and I had seen no one
who was young in my days in Babylon. The two walked in the
gardens, and I ran and hid from them.

A day came soon after when I came up from the lake and did not
find the lynx who was my friend. I went searching for him, and at
last I came upon him. He had gone up into one of the great chariots
that were for a monument to a King. I saw him watching across the
chariot. I went beside him, and the lynx did not move, but kept
watching, watching.

Before I saw what was coming I heard a great trampling noise. I saw
trees break and fall down. Flocks of birds came flying toward me,

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and I saw the deer start up and run. Then I saw enormous shapes
coming striding through the gardens. They were as men, but as men
high as towers. As they came on, trees fell down before them, and
beasts broke out of their pits and cages and crouched before them.
The beasts were filled with fear, and they roared and screeched and
trumpeted as if fearful things were about to happen to them. The
giant men passed where I stood in the great chariot and they came to
the gateway that led into the courts of the King’s palace. They put
their hands to the stones above the gateway, and the heavy,
mortared stones fell, leaving them a space high enough for them to
pass through. I looked from the King’s palace toward the city, and I
saw the Way of the Lions and it was black with people that fled from
the palace — soldiers and servants and attendants. I saw the beasts
of the gardens bound or crash through the broken gateway, entering
the courts of the palace.

I saw the giant men come forth from the palace. Now they held a
man by the arms and dragged him along. They crossed the gardens
dragging the man, and for a time I watched the dust that their
progress made.

As I watched I saw some one come fleeing from the palace. He ran
on, coming straight to the place from where I watched. He stumbled
as he ran, and I saw him fall into the Pit of the Serpent. It had
seemed to me as I watched him that this was the boy who had
walked with the strange man in the gardens.

In my hands I had the little drum whose sound could put a spell
upon the queen serpent. I ran toward the pit holding the drum. And
when I bent over I saw that the head of the serpent was very near to
the boy. I beat upon the drum, and the serpent heard, and her head
ceased to sway about. Then her head went down, and she remained
in her coils upon the ground of the pit.

I drew the boy up, and I led him to the lake and I bathed his face and
his hands. The day had almost passed before he was able to speak to
me. Then he told me who he was, and what the events were that had
happened in the King’s palace. And that boy is the one who is before
you now, O King of the Western Island, Eean, the fisherman’s son,
who was apprenticed to the Enchanter.

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V. HOW BIRD-OF-GOLD WENT TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER

Long did it take Eean to tell me the whole of the story, and when he
had told and I had gathered and put together all of it, I said to him,
“Not yet has the tower fallen, and ere it comes down one might go to
the top and take the Magic Mirror of the Babylonians and put it in
the hands of the King.”

“The King may be dead,” Eean said, “or else he may be in such a
state that he cannot see or hear any more.”

We were then sitting under the greatest of the cedar trees, and he
was eating pomegranates from my lap. I looked from out the shade
of the cedar tree, and I saw the King of Babylon walking in his
gardens.

The King was fearful; he looked to the right and to the left as he went
on. When he saw a little deer that was standing still he was startled,
and he turned back. As he came nigh the cedar tree he saw me
standing there before him. I prostrated myself and I said, “O King,
fear not for Babylon. The tower has not yet fallen, and the Magic
Mirror will yet be placed in your hands.” But the King only said, “Go
to the tower and bring back to me the black cock that I tied to a
board but did not sacrifice.” Thereupon the King went within the
palace.

I called upon Eean to come, and we went down the Way of the
Lions, and through the Gate of Brass, and out into the city. It was the
Hour of the Market, but there were no people in the market place.
We went on, Eean and I, and we came before the tower. There we
saw a throng such as would have filled many markets, and they
were standing round and gazing on the tower.

I had never looked before on the Tower of Babylon. It was built

tower upon tower to the height of four towers, and its color was red.
Around the whole height of it went a stairway showing steps on this
side and that as it went winding around. On the top of the topmost
tower I saw a gleam, and I knew it was the Magic Mirror of the
Babylonians.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

That gleam dazzled me and put into my mind the thought of going
to the top of the tower. I, out of all that throng, would go and bring
down the Magic Mirror! I went amongst them and they let me pass,
for I had on me now the dress of one who belonged to the palace. I
stood before the throng and I saw where a great space of rock was
worn smooth — it was the rock against which Harut and Marut had
lain.

I came to the first steps of the tower, and I climbed three of them. I
heard the murmur of those who spoke of me, and I stood still. Then
up the first round of the steps I went, keeping my mind from the
thought of the great height that was above me. I came at last to
where the second tower grew from the top of the first, and I stood
and looked down, and I saw that the men below had already become
little. It was then that I felt terror of the height that was above me.

I began to climb the steps of the second tower, fearful to look down
and fearful to think of the number of steps that were before me. I
went on and up, all in a terrible silence, and feeling that at the step
above me something unbelievable would happen.

_ After a great length of time I came out on the space that was the top
of the second tower. On that breadth I rested. As I waited there the
coldness of death seemed to come over me.

But the coldness passed, and I felt the air again. I found the steps that
went up and around the third of the towers. As I went on I felt that
those steps leaned down on me and crushed me, and that with my
feet alone I never could surmount them. Then I went down on my
hands and knees and I climbed and climbed until my hands were
bruised and the parts behind my knees ached. I thought that
suddenly the steps would cease to be, and that I should find no place
for my hands, and that thereupon I would fall down all the height I
had climbed up. But step came after step, and at last I came out on
that space that was the top of the third tower.

Above me was the fourth tower. I stood holding myself against it,
and I looked down all the distance I had climbed. I saw the great
river shining whitely: like pebbles in the bed of a river were the
throngs below. But now my fear went from me. The silence was all

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

around me, but I was exultant because of the silence through which I
climbed. The height troubled me no more, rather it made me
exultant, making me feel as the eagle feels. I came out on the top of
the fourth tower, and there was nothing above me except the silent
sky.

And there was the Magic Mirror of the Babylonians. It rested against
the great spear that was Nimrod’s, and it was turned toward the city
and toward the King’s palace.

I looked into the Magic Mirror. As I looked into it I saw a writing

come upon it. I read the writing, and it said: Bring the Magic Mirror of
the Babylonians to the King of Babylon, but burthen yourself not with the
Spear of Nimrod.

And that writing faded, and another writing appeared on the mirror.
And the writing read: Zabulun the Enchanter hat been brought by Harut
and Marut into the cave that it below the sea. For forty days they will watch
over him, but then they will fall into a slumber. Zabulun will come forth
from the cave that it beneath the sea, and in anger he will pursue him who
revealed hit plan for the taking of the Magic Mirror. Take one of the rings
that are around the mirror. It will reveal when Zabulun comes from the
cave, and it will show how near he.comes in his pursuit of Eean, the boy
who was apprenticed to him.

That writing faded, and I saw the rings that were around the mirror.
I loosened one and I took it off the mirror and I put it around the
wrist of my hand. The color of the ring changed to the green of the
sea.

I took the Magic Mirror in my hands and I went down the stairway.
Down I went, from the fourth to the third, and from the third to the
second of the towers. As I went down the stairway around the first
of the towers I heard the murmurs of the throng. High above my
head I raised the Magic Mirror, and I went toward them holding it
SO.

And as I went amongst the throng I heard a voice cry out, “The
tower trembles, the tower rocks.” It was the voice of Eean. As the cry
arose the throngs drew back from before the tower. They ran, and I

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

ran carrying the mirror, and Eean ran beside me. And when we came
to the market place we two were alone.

We stood in the empty market place and we looked toward the

Tower of Babylon. In its great height it stood there, strong and
wonderful. I, heard the shouting of people around it. Then I saw the
great tower swing like a child’s swing. Dust rose up, cloud after
cloud, and cloud over cloud. The cries of people came from out the
clouds.

We stood there until we saw the sun shine through a cloud of dust.
Then we knew that the Tower of Babylon was indeed fallen. Never
again did we go near the place, but from travelers I have heard that
where the tower stood there is emptiness, and that great blocks of
stone are scattered far and wide.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

VI. HOW EEAN AND BIRD-OF-GOLD WENT FROM BABYLON

We went into the King’s gardens, carrying with us the Magic Mirror
of the Babylonians. We saw the great cedar tree, and we went and sat
under its branches and spoke of what we should do. The Magic
Mirror would have to be given to the King, but for long Eean was
fearful of going into the palace.

At last we went to the doors. They were unguarded, and we went

within the palace. We came to the chamber where the King was wont
to sit upon his throne, and we saw the King there, and around him
there were bearded men with fierce eyes; by their fashion of carrying
swords we knew them to be the leaders of the King’s armies. These
fierce-eyed men stood with their feet upon the steps of the throne,
speaking in anger to the King. They did not see us as we came into
the chamber. But in a while one caught sight of us, and he uttered a
fierce word. I went to them, holding the Magic Mirror raised in my
hands. The King raised his head, and he saw the mirror, and he cried
out to us.

I went and left the Magic Mirror on the throne, beside the King. I
lifted my voice and I told him how I had taken the mirror from the
top of the tower, and that now the tower was overthrown, but the
mirror was saved for the Babylonians. Then the King said to the
fierce-eyed men, “This is the Magic Mirror of the Babylonians, and I
say to you that Babylon is yet in safety.” Again he said to them,
“Speak now and say what is to be done about this girl who brought
the mirror down from the tower.”

One of the fierce-eyed men said, “Who is the boy who is with her?”

The King looked on Eean and knew who he was. He said, “This is
the boy who was with the Enchanter on whom be evil.”

The man said, “Banish the girl and the boy also, but do no evil to
them inasmuch as they have brought to us the Magic Mirror of the
Babylonians.”

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

The King said, “Take them from the city, but let some treasure be
given to them because they have brought to me the Magic Mirror of
the Babylonians.”

One of the fierce-eyed men took us, and he brought us into a

chamber in which there were many open jars. In some of the jars
there were gold, and in others there were silver coins. The fierce-
eyed man who was with us spoke to me, and he said I might take
from the jar with the gold coins. I took many of them, and I tied
them in different parts of my dress. Then he bade us follow him, and
he led us out of the palace and to a place where a chariot with two
horses was standing.

He put Eean and me into the chariot, and he bade the charioteer
drive with us out of the city. The charioteer, a silent man, stood up in
his chariot, and lashed the horses. We drove through one street, and
then another and another street, and all the streets were empty. The
charioteer called to the guards of a gateway, and the gate was
opened, and we passed out of the city. We drove on until we came to
where there was a great river. Then the charioteer halted, and he
_ called across the river, and a man with a ferry came from the other
side. He was a very ancient man, and he had a beard of great length.
The charioteer said to him, “Old Man of the River, take these two
across and away from us!”

We went into the ferry, and the ferryman took his pole and pushed
across to the other side of the river. The man in the chariot turned his
horses and drove back to Babylon.

When the ferryman had left us on the other side of the river, Kean
said to me, “Where now shall we go?” I made answer and said, “We
shall go to my country, and to the place where my father is. And it
may be that Zabulun when he comes from the cave that is under the
sea will not be able to find you there.”

iow!
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

VII. HOW EEAN AND BIRD-OF-GOLD WERE PURSUED BY

ZABULUN THE ENCHANTER AND HOW THEY WENT TO THE
CAVE OF CHIRON THE CENTAUR

O King of the Western Island, our wanderings began on the day

when the ferryman left us on the farther side of the river. We went to
the country where my father dwelt. We found the old man still
gathering brambles and thorns for his livelihood, and out of the
treasure that had been given me I gave him riches, and he had not to
go thorn-and-bramble gathering any more.

We had only been a little time in the hut that my father built when a
new color came upon the ring I had taken off the Magic Mirror. Its
color had been sea green, but now a red line came across it. By that
we knew that Zabulun the Enchanter had left the cave that was
under the sea. And the red line began to grow over the sea green of
the ring, and we knew by this sign that he had begun to follow on
our traces. Then said Eean to me, “I will go from this place and seek
a hiding, and it may be that I shall baffle Zabulun who follows me.” I
said to Eean, “I shall go with you where you go.” “Nay,” said Eean,
“it is not on your account that Zabulun pursues us. He has no rage
nor hatred against you, O Bird-of-Gold, and if I should go from this
place by myself you would not be troubled by him.”

Then I said to him, “O Eean, I had no playmate nor companion until

I met you in the King’s gardens. Now I could not bear to see you go
from me, and where you go I shall go too.”

Afterward I asked him if there were in the world any Enchanters

who were as powerful as Zabulun. He told me of Chiron the
Centaur, and of Hermes Trismegistus, the wise Egyptian, and of
Merlin whose home is on an island that is west of your Western
Island. I thought that only from one of these Enchanters might we
get aid against Zabulun.

The red grew over the sea green of the ring, and we knew that the
farther the red grew the nearer did Zabulun approach us. I
wondered how we might get to one of the great Enchanters. Hermes
Trismegistus, being in Egypt, was far, and Merlin, on the island

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

beyond the Western Island, was farther still. I thought of Chiron the
Centaur, and it seemed to me that him we might be able to find.

Now my father had lived a long time in the world, and he had heard
many things, and he had thought over the things he had heard in the
years when he had gathered brambles and thorns in the wilderness. I
went to my father for word of Chiron the Centaur.

“Chiron the Centaur dwells all alone in a cave that is in the side of a
mountain. The mountain is covered all over with a deep and an
ancient forest,” my father told me. And again he said, “Once I knew
the direction in which that mountain is, and to-morrow I shall go
into the wilderness, and as I walk about it may be that the memory
of it will come back to me.”

He came back from the wilderness in the evening and he said,

“Away toward where the morning star shines there is a great waste.
If one skirts this waste one comes to a river the waters of which are
as cold as snow. The river flows down from the mountain on the side
of which is the cave of Chiron the Centaur. All this I heard in the
clays of my youth.”

Over more and more of the sea green of the ring the red had grown.
By this sign we knew that Zabulun was coming close to us. I spoke
to Eean and I said that we both should make ready to go to the cave
of Chiron the Centaur. Then when the morning star shone very
brightly we took leave of my father and we went toward where it
shone.

We came to the great waste, and we skirted it as we had been told.

On we went, and we came to the river, the waters of which were
cold as snow. We turned our faces toward the place from which the
river flowed until we saw a mountain that was all covered with
forest.

Deep and ancient and silent was that upward-growing forest. So

frightened of its silence were we that we never let go of each other's
hands. For days we went seeking the cave, and at last we heard cries
— they might have been from birds, they might have been from the

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

winds — that said, “Who comes to trouble the rest of Chiron the
ancient Centaur?”

We went toward where the cries came from and we saw the mouth
of the cave. We mounted the track that led to it, and in fear we went
within.

And there was Chiron the ancient Centaur. His head and his breast,
his shoulders and his arms were a man’s, and his body and his feet
and his tail were a horse’s. His great beard was white, and his
horse’s body was shrunken, but his eyes were like pools in which
there are living fires. The power of all the kings in the world was in
his eyes.

Chiron lay beside a fire in which fragrant woods burned. He turned

his eyes upon it, and we heard cries as if the winds in the cave made
them, “Who comes to trouble the rest of Chiron the ancient
Centaur?”

I went down on my knees and I prayed him, “O Chiron, wisest of all

who deal in enchantments,” I said, “there is one named Zabulun, an
evil Enchanter, who pursues us. We have come to beg you to tell us
how we may escape him.”

“Not to me should you have come,” the voice of Chiron boomed out.
“What have I to do with men who are as far from wisdom as
Zabulun? Only one who is like him may strive with him. Go to
another, go to another.”

“To whom shall we go, O Centaur?” I prayed.

“Hermes Trismegistus in Egypt is nearer to Zabulun than I am. Go to

him and he may tell you how to baffle Zabulun. Tell him that you
have seen the Phoenix in the cave of Chiron the Centaur.”

As he said this there flew into the cave the great bird that is called
the Phoenix. I may not describe her to you, O King. She flew to the
fire of fragrant-smelling woods and she held herself above it. She
fanned the flame with her wings, and the fire rose up and caught her
breast. Then the bird sank down on the fire, and we saw her burn
under the eyes of Chiron the Centaur. The flame died out, and what

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

we saw Of the bird that burned, and the wood that made the fire, was
a heap of ashes.

Then out of that heap of ashes came a bird. It was smaller than the
bird that burned, but more radiant. As the bird stayed with the ashes
beneath her feet she grew by some great thing that was within her,
and then she rose over the ashes and fanned them with her wings:
Again I looked upon the Phoenix.

“Go to Hermes Trismegistus in Egypt, and tell him that you saw the
long-lived Phoenix burn herself in the cave of Chiron the Centaur,
and come again out of the burning. And when you tell this to
Hermes in Egypt he will tell you what you may do to make yourself
free of Zabulun.”

The Phoenix flew from the cave. Then Chiron turned his eyes upon
_us and he spoke to us of the

way we should go to find Hermes Trismegistus in Egypt. When he

had told us all we went backward out of his cave, and then turned
and went through the depths of the silent forest, taking the way the
Centaur bade us take.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

VIII. HOW EEAN AND BIRD-OP-GOLD CAME TO HERMES

TRISMEGISTUS IN EGYPT

We found a ship, and I paid for the voyage out of the riches I had,
and we came to Egypt. The ring upon my hand showed that we were
now far away from the one who pursued us, from Zabulun the
Enchanter.

But we two lost our way in Egypt, and we wandered about, reaching
nowhere. Then Zabulun gained upon us again, as the ring showed.
We hid in a village by the river, and we stayed there until the season
when the cranes fly overhead on their way to Ethiopia.

Then we went from that village, and we came again upon the way
that had been lost. We followed that way and we came to the great
pyramid in which Hermes Trismegistus had his cell. Down into the
deepest chamber we went, and we came before Hermes the
Egyptian.

He sat before a table that was of diamond and that had wonderful
figures upon it. He was youthful, and light seemed to come from his
forehead. As wonderful as the eyes of Chiron was the brow of
Hermes Trismegistus.

We knelt at the threshold of his cell, and I said, “O thrice-great

Hermes! We have been in the cave of Chiron the Centaur, and we
have seen the long-lived Phoenix burn herself to ashes, and come out
of the ashes more radiant than before. Chiron was kind to us, and he
sent us to you, O thrice-great Hermes. We are pursued by an
Enchanter whose name is Zabulun, and we have come to you to pray
you to tell us how we may make ourselves free from him.”

Hermes Trismegistus said, “I know of Zabulun, the wrong-doing

Enchanter. But what have I to do with one who is so removed from
wisdom?”

I prayed him again, saying, “Save us from this wrong-doing

Enchanter who would destroy us. He has come near us often, and he
will assuredly overtake us if you do not give us help, O thrice-great
Hermes.”

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Then Hermes said, “Near the Western Island there dwells an

Enchanter whose name is Merlin. Not one of the great Enchanters is
he, nor like to Chiron or myself, for he chooses to love rather than to
be wise. He is nearer to Zabulun than we are, but yet he is not a
wrong-doing Enchanter. Go to Merlin and say to him that you have
been within the cell of Hermes Trismegistus, and that you have
heard from him to answer to the riddle that the Sphinx asks, and
Merlin, will show you how you both may be saved from Zabulun,
the wrong-doing Enchanter.

“But to come to Merlin’s island, which is west of the Western Island,

you will have first to go amongst the Atlantes, who live by the
Western Ocean. They eat no living thing and they never have
dreams. When you come to them, seek out the wisest amongst them,
and ask him to tell you of Merlin, and of how you may come to him.

“To come to the Atlantes you will have to pass by the Sphinx in the
desert. Few ever pass her, for she has a riddle that she asks of every
one. And the one who cannot answer her riddle is torn to pieces by
the Sphinx. But I shall tell you the answer to give to the riddle that
_ the Sphinx asks.”

Then Hermes, thrice-great Hermes, told us the Sphinx’s riddle and

the answer that we should make to it. He told us the way we should
go to pass by the Sphinx and come to the people that are called the
Atlantes. We left the cell of Hermes, and passed out of the pyramid,
and went on our way.

We came to where the great Sphinx stretches herself out in the sand,
and by the light of a great moon we saw her lion’s paws and her
womans face. We heard the purring sound that comes through the
lips of the Sphinx, and we halted between her paws.

“What is Man?” said the Sphinx, asking her riddle.

The paws that stretched alongside of us were quiet, and the voice of
the Sphinx was very quiet. We saw her face far above us, and it was
calm, though there was much scorn and fierceness in it.

“What is Man?” said the Sphinx.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Then I replied as Hermes Trismegistus had taught me to reply, “Man

is he whose Mother is the Earth and whose Father is the Stars.”

“Go,” said the Sphinx.

Then we clambered across the great paws of the Sphinx, and we

went on our way. Along the border of the desert we went, and when
the great moon had changed herself to a little moon that was hardly
to be seen in the sky we came amongst the Atlantes, the people who
eat no living thing and who never have dreams.

The ring showed us that Zabulun, the wrongdoing Enchanter, had

not drawn near us for many days. We were far away from him when
we came amongst the Atlantes. But soon he came near us again. By
that time I had found him who was wisest amongst this people, and
I asked him to tell me of Merlin, and of how I might come to him.

“Not often does the island on which Merlin dwells show itself,” said
he who was wisest amongst the Atlantes. “On the mid day of
summer it is to be seen. Then it draws near to the Western Island,
and if you will cast upon the water nine cocks’ combs and four
peacocks’ feathers, Merlin will let you come upon his island.”

Thereupon he who was wisest amongst them gave us the cocks’

combs and four peacocks’ feathers. They reverenced Hermes of
Egypt, the people that are called the Atlantes, and because we had
spoken with Hermes and had been in his cell, they brought us on
board a ship that had great leathern sails, and in that ship they
carried us to your island, O King.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

IX. HOW EEAN AND BIRD-OF-GOLD CAME TO KING MANUS’S

STABLES

We came to your island, O King (said Bird-of-Gold, continuing her

story), but no sooner did we step from the ship to the landing stones
than we suffered a loss. The ring that was around my wrist broke
and fell into the sea, and thereafter we had no sign that would show
how close Zabulun was in pursuit of us.

We set off for that part of the land that Merlin’s island comes near to.
One day our way was through a dark valley and we lay down there
to sleep. I awakened after some hours of slumber, and I looked
toward Eean, and I saw that he was still sleeping. I left him to his
sleep, but when hours passed I went over to awaken him. But I could
not awaken him from that slumber, do what I would. For three days
and three nights he slept in that valley while I watched beside him.

At last he awoke saying, “What day is this, and how near is Zabulun
to us?” I told him that we were two days from the mid day of
summer, and that we had no sign now to show us how close the
- Enchanter might be. We were greatly troubled, O King, for we knew
not how we might come to Merlin’s island by the mid day of
summer.

It was then that we heard of your horses, King Manus. We were told
of their swiftness, and we said to each other, “Only by the speed of
these horses can we reach the place that Merlin’s island comes near,
and by Merlin’s aid save ourselves from the power of Zabulun, the
wrongdoing Enchanter.”

At nightfall we came before your palace and your stable. Now it was
not hard for us to open the doors of your stable. Your watchers
drank of a drug that I made, O King. Eean brought a cup to them,
and they, thinking the drink had been sent to them from your supper
table, drank it. At once they fell into a slumber. Then we opened the
four locks of the iron door with the keys that were in their belts. Eean
went within the stable while I kept watch at the gate of the orchard.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Alas, Eean was taken before he could mount the white horse, and
before I went to take the bridle of the red one. I saw him being
brought within the palace, and I saw two new watchers take their
places beside the door.

For a long time I stood in the shadow of the orchard gate not
knowing what to do. Then I thought that I should still take one of the
horses and go to the place where Merlin might be spoken to, and so
win aid for Eean, my beloved companion. I made another drug, and
I put it into a drink, and I brought the cup to those who were at the
stable door. These, too, were unsuspecting; they thought I had
brought it from the supper table, and they drank, and they, too, lost
their senses.

Then I opened the iron door of the stable the way we had opened it
before and I went within. I saw the red horse in his stall and I put my
hand upon his neck. As I did this the black horse broke loose, and he
plunged at me, and he caught me by the flesh of the shoulders and
he flung me down. He reared above me, and was about to bring his
hoofs crashing down upon me. Then indeed I should have been
trampled to death but that you and your men came in, O King.

You came with torches and you drove that fierce black horse away
from my body. Never was I in such danger of death as I was in then.
I do not think I am now in such danger as when I lay under the feet
of that fierce black horse. But it is for you to judge, O King.

Bird-of-Gold finished her story, and, closing her eyes, she laid her
head upon her hands. All at that supper table looked toward King
Manus. Eean seemed to hear nothing of her story, for all the time his
eyes were upon the King’s face.

Said King Manus, “She has been in danger as great as the danger she
is in now, for verily, that black horse of mine is a manslayer. The girl,
too, shall go free.”

Then the King drank another cup of wine and was silent for a while.
Then he said, speaking again: “They have fled a great way, these
two. I should not be glad if they lost the match with this Zabulun. By
the open hand of my father, they may take my two horses, the white

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one and the red one, and ride to that part of the Western Island that
Merlin’s island comes near. For payment to me, let them ask Merlin
the Enchanter what moves I should make in that game of chess that,
for half my lifetime, I have been playing with King Connal.”

When King Manus said this the last binding was taken off Eean and
off Bird-of-Gold, and they went to him and they kissed his hands.
Eean promised that they would bring the horses back to the stable,
and he promised, too, that he would ask Merlin about the moves in
the game of chess, and would bring back the answer to the King.

In the middle of it all, one of the stewards came to the King, and said
there was one in the palace who knew the youth Eean and who
could not be withheld from coming to him. As they were speaking
about him, he came into the supper room, an old man, whom they
all recognized as the one who watched before the door of the King’s
chamber, to prevent those who came with requests that might not be
granted being brought before the King.

He went straight to where Eean stood, and holding up a torch he

looked upon him. He no sooner looked than he cried out, “It is he —
indeed, indeed it is he!” And Eean, his hands grasping the old man,
said, “It is Anluan! It is my father!”

Then it was told to Eean how Anluan had left the nets of a fisherman
after his son had gone with Zabulun as his apprentice; and it was
told, too, how he had come to the palace, and how he had been made
the officer at the King’s doorway on account of his extraordinary
patience, a patience that he had learned when he handled the net,
and that wore out the most insistent of those who came with
requests to the King.

There was much rejoicing over the meeting between Eean and his
father Anluan. Then Anluan turned to her whose hand Eean held, to
Bird-of-Gold, and having wept over her he began to question her
about her accomplishments. It was at this point that the stewards
took Anluan away, for the pair had now to make ready for their ride
to that part of the Western Island that Merlin’s island came near to
on the mid day of summer which would be the morrow of that very
night. Refreshments were given them at the King’s table, the newest

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of meats and the oldest of wines, and they went out of the hall, and
they mounted the horses that the grooms of King Manus now
brought out for them, Eean taking the white horse, and Bird-of-Gold
the red horse. A bound and a bound, and the white and the red
started off, spurning the cobblestones of the courtyard, riding
toward their meeting with that Enchanter who would give them
freedom from Zabulun, Merlin, the Enchanter of the Isle of Britain.

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PART It
THE TWO ENCHANTERS

I. MERLIN AND VIVIEN

A great Enchanter indeed was Merlin. He served with his

~ enchantments the King of the Isle of Britain from the time he was a
stripling to the time when he was two score years of age. Then, when
he might have passed from being a lesser to being a great Enchanter,
Merlin vanished altogether and was seen no more at the court of the
King of the Isle of Britain. All the great works he had planned were
left undone, all the instruments he had gathered were left unused, all
the books he had brought together were left unopened, and the King
whom he had served so long was left to whistle for his Enchanter.

If there were one to blame for that it was the daughter of King
Dionas. She was young, but she was ungentle. What she saw, that
she would have. One day a stranger was passing with her father, and
when he looked on her he said, “A young hawk she is, a young
hawk that has not yet flown at any prey.” That very day the
daughter of King Dionas walked on the plain that was at a distance
from her father’s castle. The stranger who had spoken of her to the
King was there, and he looked long upon her.

“Who art thou who lookest on me so?” said the child.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

“Thou art Nimiane, who art also called Vivien,” said the stranger.

“Yea,” said she, “but who art thou, man?”

“Tam called Merlin,” he said, “and I am the Enchanter to the King of

the Isle of Britain.”

“Show me thine enchantments,” said Vivien, who feared not to

speak to any man.

Now Merlin had looked on all the ladies who were at the court of the
King of the Isle of Britain, and on the maidens who were in far
countries and distant castles, and besides, the ladies of the times of
old had been shown him in his Magic Glass, but never before had he
seen any one who seemed so lovely to him as this child. She was
bright eyed as a bird. She had a slim body, and pale cheeks, and
quick, quick hands. Her hair was red and in thick tangles. “Show me
thine enchantments,” she cried to him again.

Merlin bade her come with him and she came. He brought her to a
high place, a place that was of rock with rocks piled all about it. On
the ground he made magical figures. Then he said magical words.
And all the time Vivien, slim Vivien with her tangle of red hair,
stood upon the rocks and kept her eyes upon him.

Upon the ground that was all rock Merlin made a garden with roses
blowing and clear waters flowing, with birds singing amongst the
leaves and fishes swimming in the streams. He made trees grow, too,
with honey-tasting fruits upon them.

Vivien went through the garden, plucking the flowers and tasting
the fruits that grew there. She turned to Merlin and looked at him
again with her bright eyes. “Canst thou make a castle for me?” said
she.

Then Merlin made his magical figures and said his magical words
over again. The stones that were strewn about everywhere came
together and built themselves up into a castle. When the castle rose
before them Vivien took Merlin by the hand, and they went through
its doorway and up the stairway and into the castle turret. And

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

when they looked from the turret Vivien said, “Would that no one
should know of this garden and this castle but thou and I!”

He told her that the castle and the garden would be hidden. Then
when they were leaving the garden he put a mist all around, a mist
that those who came that way could not see through and were made
fearful of venturing into.

And so the castle and the garden were all unknown to men. But
Vivien would come, passing through the mist, and going into the
garden and up into the turret. At first she would not have Merlin
near her. Afterward it came to pass that she would summon him. A
bugle hung in the turret of the castle, and she would blow upon it,
and he would come and stay by her.

He was two score years of age, and she was five years less than a
score. Nevertheless he thought it better to watch her dancing with
bright green leaves in her red hair than to know all that would bring
him from being a lesser to being a great Enchanter. Of the maidens
and great ladies he had seen, some, he told her, were like light, and
some were like flowers, and some were like a flame of fire. But she,
he said, was like the wind. And he took thought no more for the
King of the Isle of Britain, nor for the great work he was to do for
him, and he spent his days in watching Vivien, and in listening to
Vivien, and in making magic things for Vivien’s delight.

Her father once took her away from the place near where the hidden
garden and the hidden castle stood. Vivien was in another country
now. And when she went amongst those who were strangers to her
she found out that nothing mattered to her except the looks and the
words of Merlin. The castle and the garden — she did not think of
them, nor of the magic things he had made for her. Her thoughts
were only on Merlin, who was so wise and who could do such
wonders.

When she came back, and when she met him in the hidden garden,
she caught hold of his hands, and she would not let go of them. Nor
would she tell Merlin why this change had come over her, and why
she would keep close to him now and not apart. At last she said to

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him, “What ladies and what maidens have you known, O my master
Merlin?”

Then Merlin took his Magic Glass into his hands, and in it he showed
her all the ladies who were at the court of the King of the Isle of
Britain, and he showed her all the lovely maidens who lived in far
countries and in distant castles whom he knew. Vivien threw herself
on the ground with her face to the rock after she had looked into the
glass.

Then afterward she watched him in a way different from the way
she had watched him before. What he said and what he did she
remembered well. Soon she understood his magic figures and could
make them. She came to understand his magic words and to be able
to repeat them. And Merlin would say to her, “O my little hawk, fly
at this — and this — and this.”

One day as they wandered through a forest Vivien asked him to tell
her the mightiest spell that he knew. The Enchanter told it to her. She
stood still, with all her quick mind in her face, while he put aside the
tangles of her red hair and spoke into her ear.

It was a spell that would hold in a place the one whom it was spoken
over. When he had told her he went at her bidding and seated
himself under a forest tree. Vivien, laughing, made a magic circle
around him and repeated the spell that he had given her. When she
did this the Enchanter was enchanted. Merlin stayed under the forest
tree, and there he would stay, for he could not move until the spell
that was said over him was unsaid by Vivien.

And Vivien danced around him, her red hair shaking, her bright
eyes gleaming, her quick hands waving. She called to him, “Merlin,
Merlin Enchanter, come to me.” But Merlin, under the forest tree,
could not move. She ran through the woods and he could not follow
after her. In a while she came back and stood beside him.

Said Merlin to her, “Why have you worked this spell upon me, and
why have you left me here so that I cannot move?” She knelt down
on the ground beside where he pat.

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“O Merlin,” said she, “I would leave you here enchanted, for fear
you should leave me and go amongst the maidens and the ladies
who are so lovely.” And when she said that her face was so hard that
he knew she would hold him there.

But Merlin smiled, and he said to her, “I would stay always where
you are, Vivien, blossom of the furze.”

“Nay,” said she, “you would go from me. Why should you not? You
have great works to do for the King of the land. And when you see
again the ladies and the maidens who are the loveliest in the world
you will not come back again to Vivien. I shall hate the castle and the
garden that you made for me, and I shall hate every one who will
come near me. I shall hold you, Merlin, here, even until the wolves
come out at night and devour you and me.”

“T will build a castle for you in an empty country, and no one shall
ever be there but you and me,” said Merlin.

“Nay,” said Vivien, “they will search the world for you, Merlin, and
when they find you, you will have to go with them.”

Then Merlin, as if it were a magic thing that would please her,

brought out his thought about the Island of the White Tower. Away
beyond the Western Island, in a sea that is never sailed on, that
island lies. Only on Midsummer Day does it come near to the
Western Island so that men may see it. There, said Merlin, they
might go. Those who would search for him could never come to him
there. He told her more and more about the Island of the White
Tower, and Vivien listened in delight to all he told her. And when he
had sworn he would take her to it she unsaid the spell with which
she had bespelled him, and he rose up from where he had been held,
and he sprang across the magic figure that was drawn upon the
ground. And with Vivien Merlin went through the forest.

The fishermen who cast their nets by the shores of the Western
Ocean have this story of Merlin and Vivien. They tell how in a boat
of crystal twelve creatures sailed to the Island of the White Tower.
And two were Merlin and Vivien, and nine were the nine prime
bards of the Isle of Britain who went with Merlin, and one was the

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tame wolf that was Merlin’s servant. They sailed out upon a
Midsummer's Day, and from that good day to this no hint or hair of
the Enchanter has been seen by King nor clown in all the Isle of
Britain.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

I. ZABULUN THE ENCHANTER

It was Anluan, the father of Eean, Anluan who had once been a
fisherman by the shores of the Western Ocean, who told this story of
the Enchanter of the Isle of Britain. The fishermen know the story,
and they, more often than any others, have seen the Island of the
White Tower as it shows itself on the rim of the Western Ocean.

The story was told after the white horse and the red horse had
clattered across the stones of the courtyard, bringing Eean and Bird-
of-Gold toward their meeting with Merlin. Candles thicker than a
man’s wrist had been put upon the supper table; fresh torches had
been set in the sconces along the walls; and logs of resinous wood
had been piled upon the hearth. All this was done so that the King
and his lords might drink their last cups of wine before they went
into the sleeping chambers.

And now, in the light of shining candles and blazing torches and
mounting hearth fires, the squires and the servers went amongst the
company filling the wine cups up. Some had already the wine in
their cups, and were waiting for King Manus to raise his in a health.
Then the strangest of strange things happened. No wind came into
the hall, but suddenly the candles upon the table and the torches
along the walls went out. The servers went to relight the torches at
the hearth, but the hearth blaze had died down, and all the logs were
black.

And blackness was in the chamber where, a minute before, candles

and torches and hearth fires were blazing. The King and his lords
stood around the table, while the servers and squires ran through
every chamber of the castle to find a spark of light.

But not even a spark could they find; not the light of a rush candle
even was to be found in any hall or chamber in the castle. And on
every stairway the same story was told, how suddenly light and fire
had gone black out.

But now the grooms came in with flints and steel and tow. Every one
tried to strike a spark, but no spark came for all their striking. And

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

now, all over the castle, there were outbursts of woe: the cooks were
lamenting that they would have no fires, and the women were
weeping because lights could not be brought them. It was then that
King Manus bade his lords stand around laying their hands upon the
table.

The next thing was that a figure appeared at the doorway. All saw it,
for there was a line of faint light around it. It was the figure of a tall
man. “Speak,” said King Manus with his hand stretched to the
figure.

“If you will have me speak,” said the man.

“The lights and the fires have been quenched in the castle. How has
this come to be?”

“It is in the power of an Enchanter of the second degree to quench

light and fire,” said the man in the darkness. “Further, King Manus:
the fire and light that is extinguished cannot be brought back until
the Enchanter lifts his ban.”

“Have you come to tell me this?” asked the King.

“T have come to make a request of you, King Manus,” said the man
in the darkness.

Then Anluan, the father of Eean, he whose duty it was to let none
that might have a request come face to face with the King, groped
around the room that he might place himself before his master. But
ere he came to where King Manus stood the man with the line of
light around had come so close that he and the King looked into each
other's eyes.

“O King,” said the stranger, “I have answered what you asked of me.
Now I make my request. It is that the black horse that is in your
stable be given to me.”

There was a stir in the darkened hall, and then there was an outcry.
It was from Anluan, the father of Eean. “0, King Manus, beware of
the man who knows of the powers of Enchanters. He may be the one
who would ride in chase of Eean, my son!”

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

“He has made a request of me,” said King Manus. “By the open hand
of my father, it will have to be granted him.”

“Tt is for the one horse that can follow the others,” Anluan cried.

“I have never refused a request! Alas, alas, in one night the three
horses that were my pride are taken from ime !”

“Strike now, and light candle and torch and hearth fire,” said the one
who had come amongst them.

Flint was struck upon steel; sparks came and made the tow blaze;
candle and torch and hearth fire were lighted again. Then all looked
at the one who had come amongst them.

Tall he was, with a dark and bony face, and eyes that were like a
hawk’s eyes. His dress was a plain cloak that had a hood that went
over his head. And yet, although he had not the staff nor the robe of
an Enchanter, it did not need Anluan’s cry to tell the company that
here was the one to whom his son had been apprenticed — Zabulun
the Enchanter!

~ “Why do you go in chase of my son?” Anluan cried.

“Harut and Marut laid hands upon me. Am I to have no more

mastery because of that?” said Zabulun. “For forty days I was laid in
the cave that is under the sea, and do men think that all power is
gone from me because of that? I thought all that time that what I
worked for would come to pass, and that the Magic Mirror of
Babylon would be lost in the ruin of the Tower of Babylon and that
destruction would come upon the Babylonians. This would have
been if the boy who was my apprentice had been faithful to me. But
he spoke the words that restored the mirror to the Kings of Babylon.
And I, whose name, as I thought, would stand forever as one who
had worked a great destruction, am as naught — my name is a name
to laugh at. And shall he pass from my mastership, the boy who let
this befall me? Not so; he has still to be my aid. I have paid you, his
father, gold for his seven years’ service, and his service still belongs
to me.”

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Then, turning to King Manus, Zabulun said, “You have granted my

request. Command now that your grooms go to the stable and bring
out the black horse that I am to ride.”

King Manus gave the commands. Then out of the door of the castle
they all went and into the courtyard. The still light of the dawn, the
dawn of Midsummer’s Day, was coming over the world. The grooms
went to the stable, and in full sight of all unlocked the great stable
door and brought out the black horse whose swiftness was such that
he could overtake the wind of March that was before him, while the
wind of March that was behind could not overtake him. They
brought forth the black horse and they held him while the dark-
faced man put himself astride. Then the hoofs of the last of the
King’s horses struck fire out of the stones of the courtyard, while a
cry went up from Anluan, the one-time fisherman.

And away went Zabulun the Enchanter, away, away in pursuit of

Eean and Bird-of-Gold, and the light of the Midsummer Day came
into the world.

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Ill. THE LAST FLIGHT OF EEAN AND BIRD-OF GOLD

As the first light of the Midsummer Day came over the world the
two who were fleeing before him were speaking of Zabulun the
Enchanter. “That we may baffle him,” one said.

“And what if we cannot baffle him this time?” said the other.

“Then he will take me and make me do terrible services for him” —

it was Eean who said this —”and, worse than all the services he will
make me do, he will separate us.”

“No, no,” said Bird-of-Gold. “If he takes us this time, I shall do

everything to make myself useful to the Enchanter. I have thought
out ways in which I can serve him. He will not separate us and we
will be together still.”

“O, Bird-of-Gold,” said Eean, “I am fearful lest he should slay you

for taking the Magic Mirror off the Tower of Babylon. But I have a
sword and he shall not harm you.”

“T shall escape him,” Bird-of-Gold said, “and as he followed you and

me across the world, so I shall follow him and you, and we shall
never be apart.”

They had learnt in their wanderings all ways of guiding themselves,

and as they galloped on they were heading for the Western Ocean.
Darkness was around them at first. But the sky was wide and clear,
and Bird-of-Gold, when she raised her head, could see and name the
bright planets. There was Mars with his red pulse. Bird-of-Gold
likened this planet to the steed that she bestrode, and as she rode on
she sang to herself the song that the shepherd boys in her own coun-
try used to sing about another star:

That star, I know, is Betelguise;

Yet, as I walk the hills by day,
I hardly know his splendid name—
That star is far away.

But when at night I travel on,

Te)
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Or watch across an empty land,

Then Betelguise, my star of stars,
No thing is nearer hand.

Then send a ray that Imay own

The fortune that is mine:
O Betelguise, my star of stars,
My forehead’s for your sign!

And after all the countries he had wandered through, Eean was now
back on the ground of his own country. He heard the cry of the
curlews overhead. He saw the lakes that looked as if even the birds
had forgotten them, so lonely they were, lonely, but with deep
memories. He saw the cairns of stones above the long dead heroes.
Once he saw a fox upon a cairn, and it seemed to him that this was
the very fox he had chased away from his mother’s coop the day
before the Enchanter had taken him away from the Western Island.

With strong hearts King Manus’s horses galloped on. But the heart of
Eean was strained with the thought of the distance that was still
before them. First, a great mountain that had to be crossed. Then a
wide plain. Then that other mountain from the top of which one
could see the Western Ocean in the daylight. And Zabulun the
Enchanter might come upon them in the hills or on the plain and say
a word that might stop their horses’ gallop.

But they came to the last mountain top, and they saw the waters of
the Western Ocean with gleams of gold coming upon them. Adown
the heather-covered hillside their horses hurried. And as the broad
sun rose over the broad ocean the feet of the white and the red horse
were scattering the foam along the shore.

And as they watched they saw Merlin’s island grow out of the
dimness of the sea. Then the sun became fuller and it lighted up the
White Tower, and Eean and Bird-of-Gold knew they had come to
their journey’s end indeed. They sprang off their horses, and they
dipped their hands in the sea, and they kissed each other.

“Now we must cast over on the island the tokens that the Atlantes
gave us,” Eean said, “the cocks’ combs and the peacocks’ feathers. If

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they come to Merlin, he will let us cross to his island, and we can
swim our horses over. But how shall we know if the tokens come to
him?”

He raised the bag in which were the cocks’ combs and the four
peacocks’ feathers. He cast the bag toward the island. Through the
air it went like a flying bird.

They mounted their horses again, ready to swim them across when
they got some signal from the island. And the signal came. It was the
howl of the wolf that was Merlin’s servant.

Now they were to swim their horses across. As they went into the
water, Bird-of-Gold looked back. Down through the heather of the
hillside a rider was coming. He was on a black horse. They knew
him for Zabulun, the Enchanter from whom they were fleeing.
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

IV. HOW EEAN WON HIS RELEASE FROM ZABULUN THE

ENCHANTER

Merlin, with the tame wolf that was his servant beside him, was
standing by the White Tower on the morning of that Midsummer
Day. And Vivien was upon the tower, singing to her colored birds
and looking out over the sea.

Vivien, who played with her colored birds, had still the look of a
child in her face. Her hair was no longer in tangles; it was softer than
it was once, and it fell softly over her shoulders. Her eyes, for all the
child’s look that was in her face, were as if they had seen many
things come and change and pass.

Like a King, or like one who had been always near a King, was
Merlin the Enchanter. He smiled, and his smile was calm and royal.
But one might have said that his eyes were strangely close to each
other and that his lips were strangely red.

His beard was long and gray. He wore a white robe with a belt of
green leaves around it, and a chaplet of oak leaves was on his head.
Vivien was dressed in green, with a golden belt clasped around her,
and with green leaves in her soft hair.

So they were standing by and on the tower, Merlin, Vivien, and

Merlin’s tame wolf, when the tokens that were from the Atlantes
came. Merlin laid his hand upon the wolf, and the wolf gave the
howl that was the signal for Eean and Bird-of-Gold to come on the
Island of the White Tower. The Enchanter saw them ride their horses
into the water. And then another token came to him — the token that
one magician sends to another, a Bird of Foam it was, and Zabulun
sent it.

Deep were the waters, but great-hearted were the horses of King
Manus, the white horse and the red horse, and with Eean and Bird-
of-Gold astride of them they swam to the Island of the White Tower.
They came to the sloping shore, and the riders helped the horses up
to the hard ground. The white and the red horse stood shivering

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from their plunge into the ocean. Afterward they threw themselves
on the grass and lay as still as if they were dead.

Not to the horses, but out to the sea did Eean and Bird-of-Gold look.
The black horse with Zabulun astride him was swimming now.
Swiftly to the White Tower where they saw Merlin stand they went.

“O, Merlin,” Eean cried, “to you we have come to save us from the
Enchanter who has pursued us from one end of the world to the
other.”

“From whom have you come, you who have sent such tokens?” said
Merlin.

“From Hermes Trismegistus in his secret cell.. And Hermes bade us

say to you that we have heard from him the answer to the riddle that
the Sphinx asks, and that we crossed the desert to come to you,
answering the Sphinx.”

“Who is the Magician who pursues you?” “Zabulun, once a Prince in

Babylon, O Merlin.” “Is it he who pursues you? — Zabulun! I shall
have a welcome for Zabulun.”

“Save us, O Merlin, from Zabulun,” Bird-of-Gold cried.

Vivien came down from the tower. “It is Zabulun who comes to our
island in chase of these two, my Vivien,” Merlin said. “Now you
shall see me match my power with Zabulun’s.”

“A match between magicians, how entertaining it will be!” cried

Vivien, clapping her hands.

“O lady, if Zabulun is not baffled it will be death or separation for

us,” said Bird-of-Gold to her.

“Merlin will baffle him — you will find that Merlin will baffle him,”
said Vivien. “You see, he has done nothing to impress me for an
age.”

Now Merlin had sent the tame wolf that was his servant upon an
errand, and the wolf at this moment returned leading nine men who
wore white robes and who had chaplets of oak leaves upon their

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

brows. These were the nine prime bards of the Isle of Britain who
had come to the Island of the White Tower with Merlin, their chief.

They stood as he bade them, four on one side and five on the other,
with the Enchanter of the Isle of Britain between them. Merlin bade
Eean stand with the four bards. He touched them with his staff, and
the row of bards and Eean with them became all as alike as ten peas
in a pea pod. And Merlin went to Bird-of-Gold and touched her also,
and she became like the lady Vivien exactly.

Now the black horse that bore Zabulun came to the sloping bank of
the Island of the White Tower, and Zabulun sprang off his back and
drew the black horse up on the bank. The horse breathed mightily,
and then like the others lay down on the grass.

With great and sure strides Zabulun came to the White Tower where
Merlin stood. “Hail, Merlin,” he cried in a loud voice.

“Hail, Zabulun.”

“You know of an apprentice of mine who has come to your island.”

“Find him, O mighty magician.”

Zabulun looked and saw the ten men who looked exactly alike, and
the two women whom one could not tell one from the other. He
turned to Merlin then and he said, “What a simple trick you would
play upon me! Nine bards you have, and there are ten before us. One
of them is Eean, the boy apprenticed to me.”

“Then you will take him, Zabulun.”

It is certain that Merlin did not think that Zabulun would do what he
did now. He changed himself into a hound. Running amongst the
ten that were there he snuffed at them. By the smell of the horse he
had ridden he would find Eean.

But as he ran amongst them Merlin touched each of the ten bards
and Eean with them with his staff. They all became pigeons and flew
up into the air. One had a feather awry. This was Eean on whom
Zabulun had laid a paw just as he was being transformed.

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Instantly Zabulun changed himself into a hawk and strove to rise

above the flock of pigeons. As he did he saw the one that had a
feather awry. Over him he came.

Then Eean, seeing the hawk above him, dropped instantly to the
earth. The others flew down with him, crowding around to hide the
ruffled feather. They came before the door of Merlin’s house. They
flew in and lighted down on the floor while the hawk came
sweeping up to the doorway.

Merlin touched the pigeons with his staff and again transformed
them. They became ten rings of gold that lay upon the floor. As the
hawk flew in and perched on a chair to fix his eyes upon them, the
rings of gold rolled into the fire.

Then Zabulun transformed himself into a tongs, and went hunting

through the fire for the rings. He picked up one ring and flung it out
on the floor, he picked up another ring and flung it out on the floor,
and so on, until the ten rings were out of the fire. Merlin touched the
rings with his staff, and they were transformed into ten grains of
corn. Upon these ten grains Vivien and Bird-of-Gold threw handful
after handful of grains of corn.

But now Zabulun changed himself into a cock with strong legs and
wide claws and a hungry beak. With his claws he scratched through
the heap of grain. With his beak he picked the grains up. Vivien and
Bird-of-Gold kept throwing on the floor handful after handful of
corn to cover the ten grains.

But the beak of the cock went so fiercely and so hungrily amongst
them that only a few grains more than the ten were left upon the
floor when Vivien and Bird-of-Gold found out they had no more
handfuls to fling. Then it seemed as if the cock with his sharp eye
would soon pick out the grain that was Eean.

Then with his staff Merlin touched nine of the grains, leaving one
untouched. The one he left untouched was Eean. The nine were
changed into weasels, and they faced the cock fiercely. Then was
Zabulun startled. Instead of picking at the grain that was Eean he
fluttered up from the ground, and went out of the door of the house.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Merlin touched the grain that was left and Eean stood up. Bird-of-
Gold clapped her hands for joy on seeing him again. But Eean ran
out of the door of the house after the cock that was Zabulun the
Enchanter. He snatched up a strong staff as he ran.

Zabulun had changed back into his own form. But now Eean had no
fear of him. He ran toward him. And Zabulun took up a staff that
was lying there and made to defend himself.

Then began the battle between Eean and Zabulun. Eean struck at
Zabulun, and Zabulun struck at Eean, and each defended himself
with the staff that he had. They fought their way across the island,
from one side to the other. They fought until their staves were
broken and until they were covered with bruises. Then they threw
away their staves and gripped one another. All around the island
they wrestled. Strong were the hands of Zabulun upon Eean, and yet
Eean was not thrown by Zabulun. Eean felt his own hands were
strong upon Zabulun, and yet he could not throw him. Soon Eean
lost sense of everything except two gripping and rocking figures.

They wrestled their way across the island, down to the shore where
they had landed and where the three horses of King Manus were
lying. They wrestled until the sea water came over their feet. Again
things became clear to Eean. He knew that if he could overthrow the
Enchanter he would win his freedom from him.

He fastened upon Zabulun a grip that seemed to be stronger than his

own life. He heaved with a power that seemed to bring up his last
breath. He bent Zabulun over. He brought him down, his head in the
water. He flung himself upon the prone Enchanter.

“What would you have of me?” Zabulun said at last.

“Release. Say you have no more mastership in me.”

“I say it. | have no more mastership in you. You have release from
wu
me.

“T let you rise.”

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Then Eean took his grip off Zabulun. The Enchanter rose up and
took himself out of the water.

So Zabulun was defeated, and so release was given to Kean, The Boy
Apprenticed to the Enchanter. Zabulun mounted the black horse that
was King Manus’s and had him swim the water. He rode across the
plain and over one mountain and another mountain until he came to
the castle of King Manus. There he left the horse to neigh for his
grooms.

What became of Zabulun afterward is not written in the book that is

the History of the Enchanters. Some say that from that Midsummer’s
Day he ceased to be named with the great Enchanters. The powers
he had gained, they say, shrank from him. Afterward a famous
juggler appeared in the world. He used to go into the halls of Kings
on festival nights and do marvelous feats with balls and rings and
knives, and play music on all manner of instruments, going from
King’s castle to King’s castle. That juggler, they say — but they may
be mistaken —was Zabulun, once Prince of Babylon, and once
master of the Inaccessible Island.

Eean and Bird-of-Gold went within the White Tower, and conversed
from noon to dusk with Merlin and the lady Vivien. Before that Mid-
summer’s Day had passed into darkness, they mounted the white
steed and the red steed and had them swim across the waters. When
they came to the farther shore they let the horses stand for a while.
Then mounting them again they rode over the mountains and across
the plains and came again to the castle of King Manus.

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

V. THE RETURN OF KING MANUS’S HORSES

Again Manus, King of the Western Island, sat in his supper hall. The
torches were in their sconces, the candles were lighted on the table,
the hearth fire was blazing on the hearth, and his lords once again
sat to the right and the left of him. But this time they sat without
laughter and without high words.

The harper and the story-teller were at the table too, but they neither
made music nor told stories. They had tried, both, that evening, but
no one had listened to them. Outside, the iron door of the stable
gaped wide, and the grooms and horse boys and watchers stood idly
around’ or went quarreling amongst themselves. It was very
difficult, as you may imagine, for the harper to play upon his harp
when he would hear the King say into his wine cup, “O, Raven, my
black horse, where art thou now?” And it was equally difficult for
the story-teller to get on with his tale when he would see the King
looking at him with unseeing eyes and hear him say, “O, my white
and my red horses, what would I not give if I saw you back in my
courtyard again?”

So you can imagine the silence that was upon the supper board that
was wont to resound with conversation and story-telling, with music
and pledges of the wine cup. “O, Raven, my black horse, where art
thou now?” said the King once again; and then, “What would I not
give to have my white and my red horse in the courtyard again?”
And these were all the words that King Manus could be got to say.

And then, suddenly, a loud neigh was heard outside. Straightway

King Manus ran out of the supper hall. The lords, the minstrel, and
the story-teller, the stewards, servers, and attendants, ran with him.
And when they came as far as the wide door of the castle they ran
into the grooms and the horse boys who were running from the
stable. All ran together. And there, in the middle of the courtyard,
without a rider upon his back, was Raven, the King’s black horse.

They brought him into his stall in the stable, and they combed him
and they groomed him; they gave him the red wheat and the white
barley to eat and the clear spring water to drink. King Manus could

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 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

hardly be prevailed upon to leave Raven’s stall and come back into
the supper hall. But at length they got him back into his seat, and
then the supper board resounded with pledges of the wine cup as
the King and his lords drank to each other merrily.

Again there was neighing in the courtyard, this time a double

neighing. Straightway the King ran out and all who were near ran
with him. They ran into the grooms and the horse boys who were
running from the stable. There in the courtyard were the white horse
and the red horse. They were not unmounted, however, for Eean and
Bird-of-Gold were upon them.

This time King Manus grew into such glee that he swore by the open
hand of his father that he would make a duke of every lord who was
with him that night. There were great rejoicings. Some tossed their
torches so high that they frightened the owls out of the cornices on
the castle. The grooms brought the white horse and the red horse
into their stalls in the stable, and they fed them with red wheat and
white barley, and gave them the clear spring water to drink.

Then they went to carry Eean and Bird-of Gold into the supper hall.
They were not to be found for a while, for Anluan, Eean’s father, had
led them away. He was seen to weep over Eean, and to take the
hands of Bird-of-Gold and kiss her while he called her daughter.
And to Anluan King Manus gave the privilege of bringing them to
the supper board.

The King put Eean into the story-teller’s seat, but he had Bird-of-
Gold sit beside him on his left hand. The feast began all over again,
and went on from egg to apple. And when wine had been drunk
King Manus called upon Eean to tell the story of his journey to
Merlin’s Island and the full tale of how he had defeated Zabulun the
Enchanter.

When all was told the King gave presents to Eean and Bird-of-Gold
and he swore that for a year and a day he would have them live with
him in his castle. “And,” said he, “this girl, Bird-of-Gold, has been
very loving and faithful to you as you have been to her, and for a
further benefit to you I shall have the old blind sage come down
from his attic in the castle and marry you here and now.” Eean and

83
 The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

Bird-of-Gold took each other’s hands as he said this, and the old
blind sage was brought down from his attic chamber, and he
married Bird-of-Gold and Eean by the rays of the rising sun.

For a year and a day they lived in King Manus’s royal castle. Now
Eean had learnt so much of the arts and crafts and mysteries that
belong to an Enchanter that he was able to do great works for the
King. Castles he built that gave security, and bridges that brought
people together, and mills that ground for the people abundance of
corn. He had become so strong and so sure of himself since his
encounter with Zabulun that all he set out to perform he did well.
And his wife, Bird-of-Gold, loved him so much that her thought
never went back to the country she had come from. Always, they
say, she kept a flock of white ducks; perhaps they reminded her of
the thousand ducks that was the fortune she brought into Babylon.

But the story-teller must not forget to tell you about the question that
Eean asked Merlin the Enchanter on King Manus’s behalf. It was
about a game of chess that King Manus had been playing with his
brother-in-law, King Connal, for half their lifetimes without either
having victory in sight. Moreover, they had inherited the game from
their fathers, and it was now being played for fifty years. Merlin told
Eean what the moves should be, and the day after he came to the
castle, Eean took the chess board and showed them to the King. With
that instruction he played. The game of chess was finished three
days afterwards, and great fame and honor came to King Manus.

84
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Padraic Colum (1881-1972) was an Irish poet, novelist,
dramatist, biographer and collector of folklore. He was
one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival. At the
age of seventeen, he passed an exam for and was
awarded a clerkship in the Irish Railway Clearing
House. He stayed in this job until 1903. During this
period, Colum started to write and met a number of the
leading Irish writers of the time. His earliest published
poems appeared in The United Irishman. His first book,
Wild Earth (1907) collected many of these poems. In
1911 he founded the short-lived literary journal The
Irish Review. In 1914, Colum travelled to the USA
where he took up children's writing and published a
number of collections of stories for children, beginning
with The King of Ireland's Son (1916). In 1922 he
started writing novels. Amongst his other works are
Three Plays (1916), The Boy Who Knew What the
Birds Said (1918), The Children of Odin: The Book of
Northern Myths (1920) and The Golden Fleece and the
Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles (1921).

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