accumulating a mass of speech which
must at the last explode or petrify. From this congestion of thought
there arose the first deep rumblings, precursors of uproar, and another
moment would have heard the thunder of her varied malediction, but that
Brigid Beg began to cry: for, indeed, the poor child was both tired
and parched to distraction, and Seumas had no barrier against a similar
surrender, but two minutes' worth of boyish pride. This discovery
withdrew the Thin Woman from her fiery contemplations, and in comforting
the children she forgot her own hardships.

It became necessary to find water quickly: no difficult thing, for the
Thin Woman, being a Natural, was like all other creatures able to sense
the whereabouts of water, and so she at once led the children in a
slightly different direction. In a few minutes they reached a well by
the road-side, and here the children drank deeply and were comforted.
There was a wide, leafy tree growing hard by the well, and in the shade
of this tree they sat down and ate their cakes.

While they rested the Thin Woman advised the children on many important
matters. She never addressed her discourse to both of them at once,
but spoke first to Seumas on one subject and then to Brigid on another
subject; for, as she said, the things which a boy must learn are not
those which are necessary to a girl. It is particularly important that a
man should understand how to circumvent women, for this and the capture
of food forms the basis of masculine wisdom, and on this subject she
spoke to Seumas. It is, however, equally urgent that a woman should be
skilled to keep a man in his proper place, and to this thesis Brigid
gave an undivided attention.

She taught that a man must hate all women before he is able to love a
woman, but that he is at liberty, or rather he is under express command,
to love all men because they are of his kind. Women also should love
all other women as themselves, and they should hate all men but one man
only, and him they should seek to turn into a woman, because women, by
the order of their beings, must be either tyrants or slaves, and it is
better they should be tyrants than slaves. She explained that between
men and women there exists a state of unremitting warfare, and that
the endeavour of each sex is to bring the other to subjection; but that
women are possessed by a demon called Pity which severely handicaps
their battle and perpetually gives victory to the