I looked among my tribes I saw love and obedience: whenever
I appeared among the strangers they fled away. And the wolves feared me
then, and the great, grim bear went bounding on heavy paws. I charged
him at the head of my troop and rolled him over and over; but it is not
easy to kill the bear, so deeply is his life packed under that stinking
pelt. He picked himself up and ran, and was knocked down, and ran again
blindly, butting into trees and stones. Not a claw did the big bear
flash, not a tooth did he show, as he ran whimpering like a baby, or
as he stood with my nose rammed against his mouth, snarling up into his
nostrils.

"I challenged all that moved. All creatures but one. For men had again
come to Ireland. Semion, the son of Stariath, with his people, from whom
the men of Domnann and the Fir Bolg and the Galiuin are descended. These
I did not chase, and when they chased me I fled.

"Often I would go, drawn by my memoried heart, to look at them as they
moved among their fields; and I spoke to my mind in bitterness: 'When
the people of Partholon were gathered in counsel my voice was heard; it
was sweet to all who heard it, and the words I spoke were wise. The eyes
of women brightened and softened when they looked at me. They loved to
hear him when he sang who now wanders in the forest with a tusky herd.'"

CHAPTER VIII

"OLD age again overtook me. Weariness stole into my limbs, and anguish
dozed into my mind. I went to my Ulster cave and dreamed my dream, and I
changed into a hawk.

"I left the ground. The sweet air was my kingdom, and my bright eye
stared on a hundred miles. I soared, I swooped; I hung, motionless as a
living stone, over the abyss; I lived in joy and slept in peace, and had
my fill of the sweetness of life.

"During that time Beothach, the son of Iarbonel the Prophet, came to
Ireland with his people, and there was a great battle between his men
and the children of Semion. Long I hung over that combat, seeing every
spear that hurtled, every stone that whizzed from a sling, every sword
that flashed up and down, and the endless glittering of the shields. And
at the end I saw that the victory was with Iarbonel. And from his people
the Tuatha De' and the Ande' came, although their origin is forgotten,
and learned people, because of their excellent wisdom and intelligence,
say that they came from heaven.

"These are the people of Faery. All these are the gods.

"For long, long years I w