Then they too sang, and as they did it,one brought to Usheen a harp of silver and bade him sing of earthly joys.He found himself chanting, as he thought, with peculiar spirit and melody,but as he told them of human joys they kept still and began to weep, tillat last one of them seized the silver harp and flung it away into a poolof water, saying, "It is the saddest harp in all the world."Then he forgot all the human joys which seemed to those happy people onlyas sorrows compared with their own; and he dwelt with them thenceforwardin perpetual youth. For a hundred years he chased the deer and wentfishing in strangely carved boats and joined in the athletic sports of theyoung men; for a hundred years the gentle Niam was his wife.But one day, when Usheen was by the beach, there floated to his feet whatseemed a wooden staff, and he drew it from the waves. It was the batteredfragment of a warrior's lance. The blood stains of war were still on it,and as he looked at it he recalled the old days of the Feni, the wars andtumult of his youth; and how he had outlived his tribe and all had passedaway. Niam came softly to him and rested against his shoulder, but it didnot soothe his pain, and he heard one of the young men watching him say toanother, "The human sadness has come back into his eyes." The peoplearound stood watching him, all sharing his sorrow, and knowing that histime of happiness was over and that he would go back among men.
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