The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

ers more powerful than he. The first is Chiron the Centaur, who is half man and half horse, and who taught Achilles and made him the greatest of the princes who had gone

, and had become loosened timbers on the waters. Those on the ship were greatly afraid, and the captain walked up and[Pg 26] down, pulling at his beard. The night came on, and again my master took the steering gear into his own hands and steered the ship by a star that he alone knew of. And when the morni

taken off and sent over the mountain to the King's city in packs that the sailors carried

upon the country at all. But when the last pac

to the forest. Birds will come down to that[Pg 27] pool-birds of the whiteness of swans, but smal

One went under the crib, and I pulled the string and caught the first bird. And then, hours afterward, I caught another. And waiting and watching very carefully, I caught a third. The fourth bird was wary, and I feared I should not catch it, for night was coming dow

ar while it[Pg 28] was dark, but when light came he gave it to me to hold. Then he unloosed one of the birds. It flew in the middl

he ship on her course. In the daylight he unloosed another bird an

and," said my master, "where I have my dwelling and my working place." He steered the ship to where the water flowed swiftly into a great cave that was like a dr

p to the light of day. There were a thousand wide black steps in that flight. The Enchanter took into his han

nd there was no gate to be opened. But when I came near it I found I could take no step onward. I went

wall, but no one can pass it. And a bridge of air crosses my wa

of air. But I saw my master mounting up and walking across as on a bridge. And although I saw[Pg 30] nothing before me nor bene

nd he who came across the bridge would be slain by this giant man of brass." We went within the castle. In the hall were benches and tables, and there were statues holding torches in their hands standing by the wall. Also in that hall there was the statu

e and fruits. We ate and drank, and afterward a golden figure came to[Pg 31]

teness of a swan and that flew always in the middle distance. On this island Zabulun the Enchanter had lived for longer than the lifetimes of many men, studying magic and all the ways of enchantm