onous hedge in front of him. For a second he stood
dismayed, but then, leveling his spear, he rushed against the hedge of
serpents, and they, shooting poison at him, sank beneath the sand. But
the poison did not harm him, because of his water-dress and crystal
helmet.

When he had passed over the sandy plain, he had to climb a great steep,
jagged rock. When he got to the top of the rock he saw spread out before
him a stony waste without a tuft or blade of grass. At some distance in
front of him he noticed a large dark object, which he took to be a rock,
but on looking at it more closely he saw that it was a huge, misshapen,
swollen mass, apparently alive. And it was growing bigger and bigger
every moment. Enda stood amazed at the sight, and before he knew where
he was the loathsome creature rose from the ground, and sprang upon him
before he could use his spear, and, catching him in its horrid grasp,
flung him back over the rocks on to the sandy plain. Enda was almost
stunned, but the hissing of the serpents rising from the sand around him
brought him to himself, and, jumping to his feet, once more he drove
them down beneath the surface. He then approached the jagged rock, on
the top of which he saw the filthy monster glaring at him with bloodshot
eyes. Enda poised his spear and hurled it against his enemy. It entered
between the monster's eyes, and from the wound the blood flowed down
like a black torrent and dyed the plain, and the shrunken carcass
slipped down the front of the rocks and disappeared beneath the sand.
Enda once more ascended the rock, and without meeting or seeing anything
he passed over the stony waste, and at last he came to a leafy wood.
He had not gone far in the wood until he heard the sound of fairy
music, and walking on he came upon a mossy glade, and there he found the
fairies dancing around their queen. They were so small, and were all so
brightly dressed, that they looked like a mass of waving flowers; but
when he was seen by them they vanished like a glorious dream, and no one
remained before him but the fairy queen. The queen blushed at finding
herself alone, but on stamping her little foot three times upon the
ground, the frightened fairies all crept back again.

"You are welcome, Enda," said the queen. "My little subjects have been
alarmed by your strange dress and crystal helmet. I pray you take them
off; you do not need them here."

Enda did as he was bidden, and he laid down his wate