The maiden's hair was of the color of citron and was gathered ina silver band; and she was clad in a white garment embroidered withstrange devices. She asked them why they rode slowly and seemed sad, andnot like other hunters; and they replied that it was because of the deathof their friends and the ruin of their race. When they asked her in turnwhence she came, and why, and whether she was married, she replied thatshe had never had a lover or a husband, but that she had crossed the seafor the love of the great hero and bard Usheen, whom she had never seen.Then Usheen was overcome with love for her, but she said that to wed herhe must follow her across the sea to the Island of Perpetual Youth. Therehe would have a hundred horses and a hundred sheep and a hundred silkenrobes, a hundred swords, a hundred bows, and a hundred youths to followhim; while she would have a hundred maidens to wait on her. But how, heasked, was he to reach this island? He was to mount her horse and ridebehind her. So he did this, and the slender white horse, not feeling hisweight, dashed across the waves of the ocean, which did not yield beneathhis tread. They galloped across the very sea, and the maiden, whose namewas Niam, sang to him as they rode, and this so enchantingly that hescarcely knew whether hours passed or days.
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