Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/177

one aspect of Elysium, examples of which have already been considered. Another instance occurs in the Voyage of Maelduin, where the voyagers reach a sea, beneath which Is descried a country with castles, men, and cattle; but In a tree Is a great beast eating an ox, and the sight so terrifies them that they sail quickly away. In another story Murough Is invited to come below the waters. He dives down and reaches the land of King Under-Waves, whom he sees sitting on a golden throne; a year spent there feasting seems but a few days. Welsh tradition has also many stories of water-worlds, as well as of fairy brides, daughters of the lord of the lake, and cattle which came thence.⁶² In a Christianized Irish version of the conception a bishop from time to time visited a monastery beneath the waters of a lake, finally disappearing from his own monastery, none knew whither.⁶³