"Withhold, brother," said Merlin {48a} who stood near, "be not too hasty;
thank him rather for that he hath kept your name in respected memory on
earth." "In great respect, forsooth," quoth he, "by such a blockhead as
this. Are you, sirrah, versed in the four and twenty metres? Can you
trace the line of Gog and Magog and of Brutus son of Silvius {48b} down
to a century before the destruction of Troy? Can you prophesy when, and
how the wars between the lion and the eagle, and between the stag and the
red deer will end? Can you?" "Ho there! let me ask him a question,"
said another who stood by a huge seething cauldron, {48c} "draw near, and
tell me the meaning of this:-
"Upon the face of earth I'll be
"Until the judgment day,
"And whether I be fish or flesh
"No man can ever say." {48d}
"I would know your name, sir," said I, "so that I might the more
befittingly give answer." "I am Taliesin, Chief of the Western Bards,
{48e} and those are lines from my mystery-song." "I know not what your
meaning may be, if it be not the yellow plague which destroyed Maelgwn
Gwynedd, {49a} slew you upon the sea, and divided you between the ravens
and fishes.
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