So Perceval Set Out Once More, and soon found himself upon a path which was little trodden. He followed it through the forest until, at the edge of a glade, he saw a magnificent wooden cross. He could see two hermits at the Cross; one was making a great commotion, and was clutching a fistful of twigs with which he kept beating the Cross, as furiously as if he meant to knock it down; and he went on beating it as long as his breath lasted. But the other hermit was on his knees with clasped hands, worshipping the Cross a hundred times over without stopping. Perceval stared at the hermits for a good while, baffled at seeing one beating it so earnestly and the other so intent on its worship. Then he rode swiftly down towards them, and demanded to know of the hermit if it was folly or wisdom that drove him to beat the Cross. He was just about to tell him when Perceval’s attention was suddenly seized by something else: for out of the forest ran a beast as white as new-fallen snow, bigger than a hare but smaller than a fox: out into the glade she raced in alarm, for she bore a litter of twelve in her belly who were yelping like a pack of hounds, and she fled across the glade in terror, horrified by their baying. Perceval leaned on the butt of his lance, gazing at the beast in wonder; and he felt great pity for her, for she looked gentle and very beautiful, with eyes like two emeralds. She turned to Perceval for protection, and was just about to leap on to the neck of his horse when the litter burst from her belly: out they came, alive, as dogs. She scrambled across the ground and huddled as close to the Cross as she could; but her brood surrounded her and attacked her and tore her to pieces with their teeth; but they could not eat her flesh or pull her away from the Cross. And thereupon they turned raving mad and went racing off into the woods like wild things. Perceval beheld this amazing sight and was filled with wonder: he had never seen anything like it. And the hermits came to where the beast lay in pieces, and each took a share and placed it in golden vessels.