Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/108

 to the Blackbird of Cilgwri to inquire. But the Blackbird answered out of his hawthorn leaves:

'When I first came here there was a smith's anvil in this place; and from that time no work has been done upon it save the pecking of my beak every evening; and what is left is not the size of a nut; yet I swear that during all that time I have never heard of Mabon. But go to the Stag of Redynvre. He is older than I.'

Gwrhyr tracked the Stag to the oak-trees of Redynvre, and asked if he knew Mabon. The Stag of Redynvre answered:

'When first I came hither, there was a plain all around me, without any trees save one oak sapling, which grew up to be an oak with a hundred branches. And that oak has since perished, so that now nothing remains of it but the withered stump; and from that day to this I have been here; yet have I never heard of the man for whom you inquire. Nevertheless, being an embassy from Arthur, I will be your guide to the place where there is an animal which was made before I was.' He directed them to the Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, and Gwrhyr found her among the beeches of the steep-sided and solitary coombe. She was hooting to her echoes: in Cwm Cawlwyd there were four echoes, one after the other, and the last seemed to be on the other side of the moon.

'Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, four owls in one,' said Gwrhyr, 'here is an embassy from Arthur; knowest thou aught of Mabon the son of Modron, who was taken after three nights from his mother?'

'If I knew I would tell you. When first I came hither, the wide valley you see was a wooded glen. And a race of men came and uprooted the trees. And there grew there a second wood; and this wood is the third. My wings, are they not withered stumps? Yet all this time,