As they rode
over the bogs and in the boreens among the hills they could see fire
answering fire from hill to hill, from horizon to horizon, and
everywhere groups who danced in the red light on the turf,
celebrating the bridal of life and fire. When they came to Dermott's
house they saw before the door an unusually large group of the very
poor, dancing about a fire, in the midst of which was a blazing
cartwheel, that circular dance which is so ancient that the gods,
long dwindled to be but fairies, dance no other in their secret
places. From the door and through the long loop-holes on either side
came the pale light of candles and the sound of many feet dancing a
dance of Elizabeth and James.
They tied their horses to bushes, for the number so tied already
showed that the stables were full, and shoved their way through a
crowd of peasants who stood about the door, and went into the great
hall where the dance was. The labourer, the half-witted fellow, the
farmer and the two lads mixed with a group of servants who were
looking on from an alcove, and Duallach sat with the pipers on their
bench, but Costello made his way through the dancers to where Dermott
of the Sheep stood with Namara of the Lake pouring Poteen out of a
porcelain jug into horn noggins with silver rims.
'Tumaus Costello,' said the old man, 'you have done a good deed to
forget what has been, and to fling away enmity and come to the
betrothal of my daughter to Namara of the Lake.
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