Chapter XXX.
HOW YWAIN HAD FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FAUNS.

So Ywain lay there upon the earth, and his laughter ebbed from him: and he set him to gather his wits together as a huntsman gathers his hounds that have been chasing over wide. And in part he gathered them but not all: for it seemed that some part of him was beyond calling and would not return. But of that he left thinking, and was content: and his heart was emptied of all thoughts save three only. For he had great desire of eating and of fellowship and of dancing: and the sun filled him with strength and the air quivered before his eyes, and he leaped up upon his feet.

Then he looked down between the beechen boles and saw where other two fauns came swiftly up the hill, leaping towards him with great leaps: and they were no children but goatmen grown with little beards upon their faces. And he stood still to meet with them, for he knew not what their dealing might be: but they came joyously to him and favoured him with their hands and with their looks and with their voices. And when they had greeted him they began to lead him away into the valley: and Ywain went with them gladly and the children followed after, lagging and sporting one with another.

And as they went Ywain beheld the grown fauns curiously: and he saw how one was by seeming older and one younger, as it might be two youths of eighteen year and twenty. Yet their faces were not two but one, for they were made after one and the same pattern: and they differed in no wise save in the hair of their beards. For of one the beard was soft and like the down within the rose-hips, and of the other it was hard and like the beards of barley. But in their lips and in their eyes was nothing diverse, and Ywain saw them as a man may see one only face in two several mirrors: also their voices chanted together tuneably, like voices of young sheep in a flock.

And they showed Ywain how they were called: for they pointed each at other and so named their names, and the older one was called Panikos and the younger one was called Paniskos. Then Ywain spoke their names and laughed and he showed them his own name also: and he laughed again, for they used it strangely, bleating somewhat in their speech. Then in the like manner they showed him other words, and he learned of them easily: for they spoke of no far matters but only of such as were according with his appetite. And in especial they spoke of eating and of drinking and of music: and also, as he supposed, of hunting and of sleeping. And though Ywain knew not yet what they would say concerning these things, yet he knew certainly that they spoke thereof. And he perceived their joy, and had fellowship with them: for he saw how they lived far off from carefulness and perplexity, and how their life was mingled continually with the beauty of the earth.