And far away , before the setting sun , he saw a blue fairy sea , and golden fairy islands , and he said , `` Those are the islands of the blest . '' Then he and his friends got into a hooker , and sailed away and away to the westward , and were never heard of more . But the people who would not hear him were changed into gorillas , and gorillas they are until this day . And when St. Brandan and the hermits came to that fairy isle they found it overgrown with cedars and full of beautiful birds ; and he sat down under the cedars and preached to all the birds in the air . And they liked his sermons so well that they told the fishes in the sea ; and they came , and St. Brandan preached to them ; and the fishes told the water-babies , who live in the caves under the isle ; and they came up by hundreds every Sunday , and St. Brandan got quite a neat little Sunday-school . And there he taught the water - babies for a great many hundred years , till his eyes grew too dim to see , and his beard grew so long that he dared not walk for fear of treading on it , and then he might have tumbled down . And at last he and the five hermits fell fast asleep under the cedar - shades , and there they sleep unto this day . But the fairies took to the water-babies , and taught them their lessons themselves . And some say that St. Brandan will awake and begin to teach the babies once more : but some think that he will sleep on , for better for worse , till the coming of the Cocqcigrues . But , on still clear summer evenings , when the sun sinks down into the sea , among golden cloud-capes and cloud-islands , and locks and friths of azure sky , the sailors fancy that they see , away to westward , St. Brandan 's fairy isle . But whether men can see it or not , St. Brandan 's Isle once actually stood there ; a great land out in the ocean , which has sunk and sunk beneath the waves . Old Plato called it Atlantis , and told strange tales of the wise men who lived therein , and of the wars they fought in the old times . And from off that island came strange flowers , which linger still about this land : - the Cornish heath , and Cornish moneywort , and the delicate Venus 's hair , and the London-pride which covers the Kerry mountains , and the little pink butterwort of Devon , and the great blue butterwort of Ireland , and the Connemara heath , and the bristle-fern of the Turk waterfall , and many a strange plant more ; all fairy tokens left for wise men and good children from off St. Brandan 's Isle . Now when Tom got there , he found that the isle stood all on pillars , and that its roots were full of caves . There were pillars of black basalt , like Staffa ; and pillars of green and crimson serpentine , like Kynance ; and pillars ribboned with red and white and yellow sandstone , like Livermead ; and there were blue grottoes like Capri , and white grottoes like Adelsberg ; all curtained and draped with seaweeds , purple and crimson , green and brown ; and strewn with soft white sand , on which the water-babies sleep every night . But , to keep the place clean and sweet , the crabs picked up all the scraps off the floor and ate them like so many monkeys ; while the rocks were covered with ten thousand sea-anemones , and corals and madrepores , who scavenged the water all day long , and kept it nice and pure . But , to make up to them for having to do such nasty work , they were not left black and dirty , as poor chimney-sweeps and dustmen are . No ; the fairies are more considerate and just than that , and have dressed them all in the most beautiful colours and patterns , till they look like vast flower-beds of gay blossoms . If you think I am talking nonsense , I can only say that it is true ; and that an old gentleman named Fourier used to say that we ought to do the same by chimney-sweeps and dustmen , and honour them instead of despising them ; and he was a very clever old gentleman : but , unfortunately for him and the world , as mad as a March hare . And , instead of watchmen and policemen to keep out nasty things at night , there were thousands and thousands of water-snakes , and most wonderful creatures they were .
They were all named after the Nereids , the sea-fairies who took care of them , Eunice and Polynoe , Phyllodoce and Psamathe , and all the rest of the pretty darlings who swim round their Queen Amphitrite , and her car XXXXX cameo shell .
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