cathedral; and they were of gold and silver, fretted into foliage, and between and around them were woven wreaths of flowers.  And the flowers were of diamonds, and rubies, and topaz, and the leaves of emerald.  And the arches met in the middle of the roof where hung, by a golden chain, an immense lamp made of a hollowed pearl, white and translucent.  And in the middle of this lamp was a mighty carbuncle, blood-red, that kept spinning round and round, shedding its light to the very ends of the huge hall, which thus seemed to be filled with the shining of the setting sun.

Now at one end of the hall was a marvelous, wondrous, glorious couch of velvet, silk and gold, and on it sate fair Burd Helen combing her beautiful golden hair with a golden comb.  But her face was all set and wan, as if it were made of stone.  When she saw Childe Rowland she never moved, and her voice came like the voice of the dead as she said: 

  “God pity you, poor luckless fool! 
   What have you here to do?”

Now at first Childe Rowland felt he must clasp this semblance of his dear sister in his arms, but he remembered the lesson which the Great Magician Merlin had taught him, and drawing his father’s brand which had never yet been drawn in vain, and turning his eyes from the horrid sight, he struck with all his force at the enchanted form of fair Burd Helen.

And lo, when he turned to look in fear and trembling, there she was her own self, her joy fighting with her fears.  And she clasped him in her arms and cried: 

  “Oh, hear you this, my youngest brother,
   Why didn’t you bide at home? 
   Had you a hundred thousand lives,
   Ye couldn’t spare ne’er a one!

  “But sit you down, my dearest dear,
   Oh! woe that ye were born,
   For, come the King of Elfland in,
   Your fortune is forlorn.”

So with tears and smiles she seated him beside her on the wondrous couch, and they told each other what they each had suffered and done.  He told her how he had come to Elfland.  She told him how she had been carried off, shadow and all, because she ran round a church widershins, and how her brothers had been enchanted, and lay intombed as if dead, as she had been.  Because they had not had the courage to obey the Great Magician’s lesson to the letter, and cut off her head.

Now after a time Childe Rowland, who had travelled far and travelled fast, became very hungry, and forgetting all about the second lesson of the Magician Merlin, asked his sister for some food; and she, being still under the spell of Elfland, could not warn him of his danger.  She could only look at him sadly as she rose up and brought him a golden basin full of bread and milk.

Now in those days it was manners before taking food from anyone to say thank you with your eyes, and so just as Childe Rowland was about to put the golden bowl to his lips, he raised his eyes to his sister’s.