So when she was rested she fell to speech again: "Dear lad, this was
the first gift, and I could not but deem that some one had heard me
make my moan unseen and had given me that good gift. So what must I do
but try it again, and one day I went down into the cave and fell to
bewailing me that I had nought to deck me with, neither of gold nor
silver, as other maidens had, for in sooth I had seen them with such
things. And when I had done, I went forth on to the ledge, and this
time I trod cautiously lest I should kick the dainty thing into the
water, and lo, there lay this pretty thing." And she drew forth from
her bosom a necklace of gold and gems; gold and emerald, gold and
sapphire, gold and ruby; and it flashed in the sun, and Osberne
thought it a fair toy indeed, but knew not that scarce a queen had got
aught so fair in her treasure. "Ye may wot well that I dare not show
either this or the pipe to my aunts, who would have taken them away
from me and cried horror at them; for oft would they cry out at the
evil things that dwelt in the ness and all the ills they brought on
the children of men. So I play on the pipe when none are by, and I
deck myself sitting in the sun with this fair necklace. Look thou,
lad, for it is a joy to show me unto thee so decked." And she did back
her raiment from her thin neck, and it was white as snow under the
woolen, and she did on the necklace, and Osberne thought indeed that
it sat well there, and that her head and neck looked grand and
graithly.
Then she said: "One other gift I gat from these cave-folk, if there be
such in the cave. On a day I was ailing, and could scarce hold up my
head for weariness and sickness; so I stole down hither and clomb with
all trouble and peril down to the cave, and fell to bewailing my
sickness, and scarce had I done ere I felt exceeding drowsy, and so
laid me down on the floor of the cave and fell asleep there, feeling
sick no longer even then. And when I awoke, after some three hours as
I deemed, there was nought amiss with me, and I climbed up to grass
again strong and merry, and making nought of the climb. And even so
have I done once and again, and never have the good folk failed me
herein. Hast thou ever had dealings with such-like creatures?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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