my father (said the youth) was a fisherman, and he lived on this western island. it may be that he is still living here. his name was anluan, and he was very poor. my own name is eean, and the event that begins my story took place when i was twice seven years of age.
my father and i had gone down to the shore of the western ocean. he was fishing in the pools of the sea, and i was putting willow rods into the mouths of the fish caught so that i might carry them in my hands to the market that very day and sell them there. i looked out and saw a speck upon the water, a speck that came nearer. i kept watching it while my father dragged the pool with his net. the speck became a boat, and the boat[pg 20] came on without sails or oars. it was a shining boat, a boat of brass. i called to my father and my father straightened himself up and watched it. in the boat that came toward us of its own accord there was a man standing.
the boat came into the full water between the rocks, and then it sank down, this boat of brass, until its rim touched the water. it remained still as if anchored. the man who was in the prow of the boat stepped out on the sand between my father and me.
he looked a man of high degree—like a prince or a potentate. he had a dark face and a dark, curly beard, and he had eyes that were like hawks’ eyes. he had on a straight coat of a blue material covered all over with curious figures, and in his hand he held a long polished staff that had the shape of two serpents twisting together. he looked at me and i was frightened of him, and i turned to my father. but my father was standing there, holding the fishing pole in his hands, his mouth open, gasping like one of the fishes upon the rocks.
[pg 21]
the stranger looked me over again—looked me over from my feet to my head, and then he said to my father, “there is no need that he should do aught about these fishes. i have need of an apprentice, and it would be well for you both if he should come with me.”
my father then found his voice, and he said, “if my son does not sell these fishes in the market to-day he cannot bring back the bag of meal for our household.”
said the man from the strange boat, “bring me to your house and i shall put down gold for every copper that your son would get in the market.”
my father made a sign to me to throw the fishes back into the water. this i did, but i did it fearfully. and then my father stepped out of the pool of the sea and he made a sign to the stranger to follow us. we walked from the seashore and up the path of the cliffs, and we went through the heather of the headlands, following the goat tracks till we came to the wattled house where we lived. the man from the strange boat followed my father, and i came last of all. and when[pg 22] i went in and stood on the floor of our house my heart was thumping within me at the thought of what was before.
and there was the pot boiling over the fire with a few green herbs in it. there was saba, my mother, stirring the last handful of meal amongst the green herbs. and there were my brothers, all older than i, sitting by the fire, waiting for the herbs and the meal to be ready.
when my mother looked toward us she saw the man from the strange boat. she thought that some crime had been committed by me or my father to bring a man of such high degree amongst us. she and my brothers were greatly afraid, for they were poor, and those who were high were harsh to them. but the stranger spoke softly, saying, “good fortune has come to you from the sea to-day.” and when they all turned toward him he said, “i who am very knowledgeable will take your son with me as an apprentice, and i shall instruct him in arts and crafts and mysteries.”
my mother said, “the boy is young, sir, and we thought he would be with us for a time longer.”[pg 23] but the man from the strange boat said, “i would not take him to instruct him in arts and crafts and mysteries if he were a day older than he is now.” he said no more, but he went to the table and he laid down on it piece after piece of shining gold.
my father went to the table and held his hands around the gold. my mother looked on me who was just twice seven years old that day. i know she thought that she could never bear to part with me. but then she looked on her other sons, and she saw that they were men grown, and she thought they should have more to eat than the meal and the green herbs that were in the pot. she threw her arms around me and i knew it was a last clasp.
“he will have to go into far places to learn the arts and crafts and mysteries that i would teach him,” the stranger said. “will he ever come back to me?” cried my mother. “he will come back to you when his cunning baffles my cunning,” was what the stranger said.
my father took the gold that was on the table and made it into a heap. my mother took her[pg 24] arms from around my neck, and my brothers kissed me farewell. then the man from the strange boat opened the door of our wattled house and went out, and i followed him.
we did not go back to the place where he had left his boat of brass. we went to another place where there was a harbor with ships. there we found a ship ready to sail for urth.
my master sent me on board to ask the captain if he would take us on a voyage beyond urth. the captain said that if my master would guide them past the magnetberg he would give him the ship to sail where he would after the cargo had been landed. my master said he would do this, and we went on board the ship. it was evening now, and a breeze came up, and the ship sailed away, bringing me from the place where i was born and reared and toward the strange countries that were beyond the rim of the sea. i asked one of the sailors what was the magnetberg, and he told me that it was a mountain of loadstone that drew the iron out of ships that came near it and left them loosened timbers upon the water.
