As the days went by the lure of the river and pleasant memories of his
shipmates bore in with a constant urge on the soul of the poet that he
might once more journey Beyond the Fields We Know and come to the
floor of Yann; and one day it fell out that turning into Go-by Street
that leads up from the Embankment toward the Strand and which you and
I always do go by and perhaps never see in passing, he found the door
which one enters on the way to the Land of Dream.
Twice of late has Lord Dunsany entered that door in Go-by Street and
returned to the Valley of the Yann and each time come back with a
tale; one, of his search for the _Bird of the River,_ the other of the
mighty hunter who avenged the destruction of Perdondaris, where on his
earlier voyage the captain tied up his ship and traded within the
city. That all may be clear to those who read these new tales and to
whom no report has previously come Beyond the Fields We Know the
publishers reprint in this volume _Idle Days on the Yann_.
IDLE DAYS ON THE YANN
So I came down through the wood to the bank of Yann and found, as had
been prophesied, the ship _Bird of the River_ about to loose her
cable.
The captain sate cross-legged upon the white deck with his scimitar
lying beside him in its jewelled scabbard, and the sailors toiled to
spread the nimble sails to bring the ship into the central stream of
Yann, and all the while sang ancient soothing songs.
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