` What was she like ? ' said Dan . ` Long , low , and narrow , bearing one mast with a red sail , and rowed by fifteen oars a-side , ' the knight answered . ` At her bows was a deck under which men might lie , and at her stern another shut off by a painted door from the rowers ' benches . Here Hugh and I slept , with Witta and the Yellow Man , upon tapestries as soft as wool . I remember ' -- he laughed to himself -- ` when first we entered there a loud voice cried , `` Out swords ! Out swords ! Kill , kill ! '' Seeing us start Witta laughed , and showed us it was but a great-beaked grey bird with a red tail . He sat her on his shoulder , and she called for bread and wine hoarsely , and prayed him to kiss her . Yet she was no more than a silly bird . But -- ye knew this ? ' He looked at their smiling faces . ` We were n't laughing at you , ' said Una . ` That must have been a parrot . It 's just what Pollies do . ' ` So we learned later . But here is another marvel . The Yellow Man , whose name was Kitai , had with him a brown box . In the box was a blue bowl with red marks upon the rim , and within the bowl , hanging from a fine thread , was a piece of iron no thicker than that grass stem , and as long , maybe , as my spur , but straight .
In this iron , said Witta , abode an Evil Spirit which XXXXX , the Yellow Man , had brought by Art Magic out of his own country that lay three years ' journey southward .
Dan Hugh Kitai Man Pollies Una Witta first oars rowers