And the man thinks that's wonderful, for he doesn't know that you
can do it no other way. All glamour again! Can you burst the rock open
and leave it open, so that it will always be so, for mortal and for
fairy?"
"Why should I want to be doin' that?" said the King.
"For the same reason makes the men want to do it, but you couldn't.
And those boats that cross the river, full of iron--can you make them,
and can you cross the running water in them?"
The King had no voice to answer. "And the pictures in the boxes,"
Naggeneen went on; "can you make pictures dance?"
"Sure," said the King, "I can make a man think he sees anything I
like--a woman dancing or a horse running, or anything."
"Glamour! Glamour! Glamour!" cried Naggeneen. "You can make him think
he sees! Yes, but he does not see. You can no more make a picture
dance than you can cross a river!" And Naggeneen turned on his heel
and walked off, as if he thought the King a poor creature that was not
worth talking to.
The King had no more courage left in him than if he had been talking
to the King of All Ireland instead of to Naggeneen.
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