Blair Collection > Beside the fire

112 GULEESH NA GUSS DHU.
they could, to carry off with them the king's young-
daughter.
Guleesh and his companions were standing together
at the head of the hall, where there was a fine altar
dressed up, and two bishops behind it waiting to marry
the girl, as soon as the right time should come. Nobody
could see the sheehogues, for they said a word as they
came in, that made them all invisible, as if they had not
been in it at all.
" Tell me which of them is the king's daughter," said
Guleesh, when he was becoming a little used to the noise
and the light.
" Don't you see her there from you ? " said the little
man that he was talking to.
Guleesh looked where the little man was pointing with
his finger, and there he saw the loveliest woman that
was, he thought, upon the ridge of the world. The rose
and the lily were fighting together in her face, and one
could not tell which of them got the victory. Her arms
and hands were like the lime, her mouth as red as a
strawberry, when it is ripe, her foot was as small and as
light as another one's hand, her form was smooth and
slender, and her hair was falling down from her head in
buckles of gold. Her garments and dress were woven
with gold and silver, and the bright stone that was in
the ring on her hand was as shining as the sun.
Guleesh was nearly blinded with all the loveliness and
beauty that was in her ; but when he looked again, he
saw that she was crying, and that there was the trace of
tears in her eyes. " It can't be," said Guleesh, " that
there's grief on her, when everybody round her is so full
of sport and merriment."
"Musha, then, she is grieved," said the little man;
" for it's against her own will she's marrying, and she