ws out
of the ground. I see nothing, I smell nothing, but fish, fish, fish."

The gray-headed crow had a vicious eye fixed on the ass all the time he
was speaking. "You're saying all that," said she, "because they let the
little horse stay all night in the house and beat you out of it."

"My friend," said the seal, "it is evident that men deceive you by
appearances. I know men. I have followed their boats and have
listened to the wonderful sounds they make with their voices and with
instruments. Do they not draw fish out of the depths by enchantments? Do
they not build their habitations with music? Do they not draw the moon
out of the sea and set it for a light in their houses? And is it not
known that the fairest daughters of the sea have loved men?"

"When I'm awake long o' moonlit nights I feel like that myself," said
the ass. Then the recollections of these long, frosty nights made him
yawn. Then he brayed.

"What it is to live near men," said the seal in admiration. "What
wonderful sounds!"

"I'd cross the water and rub noses with you," said the ass, "only I'm
afraid of crocodiles."

"Crocodiles?" said the gray-headed crow.

"Yes," said the ass. "It's because I'm of a very old family, you know.
They were Egyptians. My people never liked to cross water in their own
country. There were crocodiles there."

"I don't want to waste any more time listening to nonsense," said the
gray-headed crow. She flew to the ass's back and plucked out some of the
felt. "I'll take this for my own habitation," she said, and flew back to
the cliff.

The ass would have kicked up his heels only two of his legs were
fastened with the straw rope. He turned away, and without a word of
farewell to the seal went scrambling up the bank of the island.

The seal stayed for a while moving his head about intelligently. Then
he slipped into the water and paddled off. "One feels their lives in
music," he said; "great tones vibrate round the island where men live.
It is very wonderful."

"That," said the King's Son, "is the first story in 'The Breastplate of
Instruction,'--'The Ass and the Seal.' And now you must tell me a story
while we are crossing the field of blue flowers."

"Then it will be a very little story," said Fedelma. They crossed a
little field of blue flowers, and Fedelma told

The Sending of the Crystal Egg

XI

The Kings of Murias heard that King Atlas had to bear The world upon his
back, so they sent him then