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 Dan . ' A couple of thousand years or more . The fact is they began as Gods . The Phoenicians brought some over when they came to buy tin ; and the Gauls , and the Jutes , and the Danes , and the Frisians , and the Angles brought more when they landed .
They were always landing in those XXXXX , or being driven back to their ships , and they always brought their Gods with them .
Butterfly-wings Gauls Hy-Brasil Jutes centuries day days fire flit lightning