` We hate 'em too . ' ` Exactly , ' said Puck . ` Can you wonder that the People of the Hills do n't care to be confused with that painty-winged , wand-waving , sugar-and-shake-your-head set of impostors ? Butterfly wings , indeed ! I 've seen Sir Huon and a troop of his people setting off from Tintagel Castle for Hy-Brasil in the teeth of a sou ' - westerly gale , with the spray flying all over the Castle , and the Horses of the Hills wild with fright . Out they 'd go in a lull , screaming like gulls , and back they 'd be driven five good miles inland before they could come head to wind again . Butterfly-wings ! It was Magic -- Magic as black as Merlin could make it , and the whole sea was green fire and white foam with singing mermaids in it . And the Horses of the Hills picked their way from one wave to another by the lightning flashes ! That was how it was in the old days ! ' ` Splendid , ' said Dan , but Una shuddered . ` I 'm glad they 're gone , then ; but what made the People of the Hills go away ? ' Una asked . ` Different things . I 'll tell you one of them some day -- the thing that made the biggest flit of any , ' said Puck . ` But they did n't all flit at once . They dropped off , one by one , through the centuries . Most of them were foreigners who could n't stand our climate . They flitted early . ' ` How early ? '
said XXXXX . '
Dan Huon Hy-Brasil Merlin Puck Una day days lightning mermaids