38 The Ancient Gods Pursuing

the stones Hilary saw in a dream the place
wherein they lay; and the great stones, he
was aware, were not true stones of the rock,
but petrified trees, and in his spirit he knew
that these trees of stone were growths of that
Forbidden Tree with the fruit of which the
Serpent tempted our first mother in Para-
dise. On the morrow when they rose, he
strove to overthrow the huge pillars, but to
this labour their strength was not equal.
This same day was the day of St. John,
the longest in all the year, and they travelled
far, till at last in the long afternoon they
arrived in sight of a cluster of little home-
steads, clay huts thatched with bracken and
fenced about with bushes of poison-thorn,
and of tilled crofts sloping down the hillside
to a clear river wending through the valley.
As Hilary and his companions approached
they saw that it was a day of rejoicing and
merry-making among the people, for they
were all abroad, feasting and drinking from
great mead horns in the open air, and shout-
ing barbarous songs to the noise of rude in-
struments. When it grew to such duskiness
as there may be in a midsummer night
countless fires were lit, near at hand and