It was a great deal too like what Pelagia here says those philosophers talk about--right and wrong, and that sort of thing.' 'I don't doubt it.' 'Now I like a really good saga, about gods and giants, and the fire kingdoms and the snow kingdoms, and the Aesir making men and women out of two sticks, and all that.' 'Ay,' said the Amal, 'something like nothing one ever saw in one's life, all stark mad and topsy-turvy, like one's dreams when one has been drunk; something grand which you cannot understand, but which sets you thinking over it all the morning after.' 'Well,' said Goderic, 'my mother was an Alruna-woman, so I will not be the bird to foul its own nest.

But I like to hear about wild beasts and ghosts, ogres, and fire-drakes, and nicors--something that one could kill if one had a chance, as one's fathers had.' 'Your fathers would never have killed nicors,' said Wulf, 'if they had been--' 'Like us--I know,' said the Amal.

'Now tell me, prince, you are old enough to be our father; and did you ever see a nicor ?' 'My brother saw one, in the Northern sea, three fathoms long, with the body of a bison-bull, and the head of a cat, and the beard of a man, and tusks an ell long, lying down on its breast, watching for the fishermen; and he struck it with an arrow, so that it fled to the bottom of the sea, and never came up again.' 'What is a nicor, Agilmund ?' asked one of the girls.
'A sea-devil who eats sailors.

There used to be plenty of them where our fathers came from, and ogres too, who came out of the fens into the hall at night, when the warriors were sleeping, to suck their blood, and steal along, and steal along, and jump upon you--so!' Pelagia, during the saga, had remained looking into the fountain, and playing with the water-drops, in assumed indifference.

Perhaps it was to hide burning blushes, and something very like two hot tears, which fell unobserved into the ripple.