THE ISLE OF WEEPING.
After leaving this, they had not been long sailing when they discovered
another large island, with a great multitude of people on it. They were
all black, both skin and clothes, with black head-dresses also; and they
kept walking about, sighing and weeping and wringing their hands,
without the least pause or rest.
It fell to the lot of Maildun's second foster brother to go and examine
the island. And when he went among the people, he also grew sorrowful,
and fell to weeping and wringing his hands, with the others. Two of the
crew were sent to bring him back; but they were unable to find him among
the mourners; and, what was worse, in a little time they joined the
crowd, and began to weep and lament like all the rest.
Maildun then chose four men to go and bring back the others by force,
and he put arms in their hands, and gave them these directions--
"When you land on the island, fold your mantles round your faces, so as
to cover your mouths and noses, that you may not breathe the air of the
country; and look neither to the right nor to the left, neither at the
earth nor at the sky, but fix your eyes on your own men till you have
laid hands on them."
They did exactly as they were told, and having come up with their two
companions, namely, those who had been sent after Maildun's foster
brother, they seized them and brought them back by force. But the other
they could not find. When these two were asked what they had seen on the
island, and why they began to weep, their only reply was--
"We cannot tell; we only know that we did what we saw the others doing."
And after this the voyagers sailed away from the island, leaving
Maildun's second foster brother behind.
FOOTNOTES:
[LXXIV.] The incident of the big miller occurs in the Voyage of the Sons
of O'Corra, as well as in the Voyage of Maildun. The two accounts are
somewhat different; and I have combined both here.