' And
everyone, after she had spoken, waited as if for Hanrahan to question
her, but he said nothing at all. And then the four old women went out
of the door, bringing their tour treasures with them, and as they
went out one of them said, 'He has no wish for us'; and another said,
'He is weak, he is weak'; and another said, 'He is afraid'; and the
last said, 'His wits are gone from him.' And then they all said
'Echtge, daughter of the Silver Hand, must stay in her sleep. It is a
pity, it is a great pity.'
And then the woman that was like a queen gave a very sad sigh, and it
seemed to Hanrahan as if the sigh had the sound in it of hidden
streams; and if the place he was in had been ten times grander and
more shining than it was, he could not have hindered sleep from
coming on him; and he staggered like a drunken man and lay down there
and then.
When Hanrahan awoke, the sun was shining on his face, but there was
white frost on the grass around him, and there was ice on the edge of
the stream he was lying by, and that goes running on through Daire-
caol and Druim-da-rod. He knew by the shape of the hills and by the
shining of Lough Greine in the distance that he was upon one of the
hills of Slieve Echtge, but he was not sure how he came there; for
all that had happened in the barn had gone from him, and all of his
journey but the soreness of his feet and the stiffness in his bones.
It was a year after that, there were men of the village of
Cappaghtagle sitting by the fire in a house on the roadside, and Red
Hanrahan that was now very thin and worn and his hair very long and
wild, came to the half-door and asked leave to come in and rest
himself; and they bid him welcome because it was Samhain night.
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