or home, laden, he too, with gifts, among which are enumerated
horses, dogs, hawks, and other requisites of a handsome outfit for
hunting or fowling. Indeed, the bridegroom himself accompanied them as
far as the darkness of the cavern through which they had to pass; and at
parting he added to his presentations that of a bloodhound, so small as
to be carried, forbidding any of the train to alight anywhere until the
hound should leap from his bearer. When Herla found himself once more
within his own realm he met with an old shepherd, and inquired for
tidings of his queen by name. The shepherd looked at him astonished,
scarcely understanding his speech; for he was a Saxon, whereas Herla
was a Briton. Nor, as he told the king, had he heard of such a queen,
unless it were a queen of the former Britons, whose husband, Herla, was
said to have disappeared at yonder rock with a dwarf, and never to have
been seen again. That, however, was long ago, for it was now more than
two hundred years since the Britons had been driven out and the Saxons
had taken possession of the land. The king was stupefied, for he deemed
he had only been away three days, and could hardly keep his seat. Some
of his followers, forgetful of the pigmy king's prohibition, alighted
without waiting for the dog to lead the way, and were at once crumbled
into dust. Herla and those who were wiser took warning by the fate of
their companions. One story declared that they were wandering still; and
many persons asserted that they had often beheld the host upon its mad,
its endless journey. But Map concludes that the last time it appeared
was in the year of King Henry the Second's coronation, when it was seen
by many Welshmen to plunge into the Wye in Herefordshire.[138]

Cases in which dancing endures for a whole twelvemonth have already been
mentioned. This might be thought a moderate length of time for a ball,
even for a fairy ball; but some have been known to last longer. Two
celebrated fiddlers of Strathspey were inveigled by a venerable old man,
who ought to have known better, into a little hill near Inverness, where
they supplied the music for a brilliant assembly which lasted in fact
for a hundred years, though to them it seemed but a few hours. They
emerged into daylight again on a Sunday; and when they had learned the
real state of affairs, and recovered from their astonishment at the
miracle which had been wrought in them, they went, as was meet, to
church.