The Seven Years of Seeking 131

rested from their seeking, and repaired the
ship, and took in such stores as they might
gather during their sojourn. Though often
it befell that while they were still afar the wind
wafted them the fragrance of rare spices so
that their eyes brightened and their faces
reddened with joyful anticipation, yet ever
when they landed they found that not yet,
not yet had they reached the island garden
of their quest. Men, too, of the same fash-
ion as themselves they met with on shores
far apart, but strange were these of aspect and
speech and manner of life. With them they
tarried as long as they might, gaining some
knowledge of their tongue, and revealing to
them the true God and the Lord crucified.

In the latter time of their sea-faring they
were blown far over the northern side of the
great sea, in such wise that the pilot star
burned well-nigh overhead in the heavens.
Here they descried tall islands of glittering
rock, white and blue, crowned with minsters
and castles and abbeys of glass, but they
heard no sound of bells or of men’s voices
or of the stir of life.

Once as they were swept along in near