His white steed and reached Ireland, careless of the happiness he had left: for those who deserted the island might never Scarred with battle, and as he grasped it memories of old wars returned to him, so that he was sick with longing to go homeĪnd hurl the cutting metal through the ribs of his enemies and see the good red flood burst from their hearts. A floating spear was found near the shore one day, rusted and There, with his wifeĪnd a merry band of youths and maids, he spent a hundred years-one long joy of killing for from dawn till dark the deer metĭeath at his hand, bleeding from the stroke of dart and knife. Where birds were so many that the trees shook with the burden of them, and the air rang with their song. He paused on the way to slay a giant who held a princess in his enchantment, and reached, at length, a land A daring Irish lad reached it, borne by a horse as white as the foam, Many days’ sail from Europe was the Island of Youth. Lived in the castle of the sea-born fairy, Morgan le Fee, were probably near the British or Irish coasts. Island of Lancelot the island where King Arthur wrestled and bested the Half Man Avalon, the Isle of the Blest, where Arthur On Salisbury moor, and after gaining respect and fear as a magician and prophet, sailed back across the waste. As some believe, it was from this cataclysm that has sprung the world-wide legend of a deluge.įrom some of the enchanted lands, perhaps near the American shore, Merlin went to England, piled the monoliths of Stonehenge It has been claimed that Atlantis may still be traced in an elevation of the ocean floor about seven hundred miles wide andĪ thousand miles long, its greatest length from northeast to southwest, and the Azores at its eastern edge-mountain tops not A few of the inhabitants escaped to Europe in their ships a few, also, to America. In wealth and comfort they forgot the laws of heaven so in a day and a night this continent went down, burying its millionsĪnd its treasures beneath the waters. They were a folk of peace and kindness, but as they increased Head of the god nearly touched the temple roof who had gardens, canals, sea walls, and pleasant walks who had ten thousandĬhariots in their capital alone the port of twelve hundred ships. Savor who prayed in temples of white, red and black stone, sheathed in shining metals whose sculptors made vast statues, one, representing Poseidon driving winged horses, being so large that the Was already venerable beyond estimate yet he recounted the work and pleasures of the Atlantans, who were a multitude, whoĭrank from hot and cold springs, who had mines of silver and gold, pastures for elephants, and plants that yielded a sweet When the Egyptian priest told it to Solon it Perhaps the most ancient story in the world tells of the sinking of Atlantis. If the mariner kept on he would be lost in hopeless gloom. It was believed that as one sailed toward our continent the day faded, and that Of water that stretched beyond the sunset. But in the earlier Christian era all was mystery on those plains These elusive islands may be European concepts of our Indians.
Old world through voyages made by men whose very nations are dead and long forgotten for the savages and ogres that inhabited Some of these tales reach back to the Greek myths: survivals of the oldest histories, or possibly connected America with the So of rocks lying between New England and the Latin shores bare, dangerous domes and ledges where sea fowl nest, and whereĪ crumbling skeleton tells of a sailor who outlived a wreck to endure a more dreadful death from cold and thirst and hunger. Some legends pertaining to them appear to do with places no farther from the homes of the simple, if imaginative, tellers than the Azores,Ĭanaries, and Cape Verdes but others indicate a former knowledge of our own America, and a few may relate to that score or It was the habit of these lands never to be where the seeker could readily find them. Where the surges creamed against the coral beaches and cliffs of jasper and marble, the mer-peopleĪrose to view and called to the land men in song, while the fish in the shallows were like wisps of rainbow. Ready for the gathering, and the very skies above these places of enchantment were more serene and deep than those of the Far different were those wandering Edens of the sea,įor they had mountains, volcanoes, cities, and gardens men of might and women lovelier than the dawn lived there in brotherlyĪnd sisterly esteem birds as bright as flowers, and with throats like flutes, peopled the groves, where luscious fruit hung Trees, and a man or a deer may walk on them without breaking through. The little rafts bearing that name are thick enough to nourish Lakes and are sent to and fro by the gales: floating islands. Somewhere-anywhere-in the Atlantic, islands drifted like those tissues of root and sedge that break from the edges of northern How Spaniards were Found to be Mortal 56.
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