When the last notes had died away a cheer arose,
loud as the voice of the storm in the glen when the live
thunder is revelling on the mountain tops."

As soon as the bard descends the mound the Skald from the northern
lands takes his place, amid shouts of welcome.

"He touched his harp, and in the perfect silence was heard the
strains of the mermaid's song, and through it the pleasant
ripple of summer waters on the pebbly beach. Then the theme
was changed, and on the air was borne the measured sweep of
countless oars and the swish of waters around the prows of
contending galleys, and the breezy voices of the sailors and
the sea-bird's cry. Then his theme was changed to the mirth
and laughter of the banquet hall, the clang of meeting
drinking-horns and songs of battle. When the last strain
ended, from the mighty host a great shout went up loud as the
roar of winter billows breaking in the hollows of the shore."

Then comes the hero of the tale, Fergus, the huntsman's son.

"He touched his harp with gentle fingers, and a sound, low and
soft as a faint summer breeze passing through forest trees,
stole out, and then was heard the rustle of birds through the
branches, and the dreamy murmur of waters lost in deepest
woods, and all the fairy echoes whispering when the leaves are
motionless in the noonday heat; then followed notes, cool and
soft as the drip of summer showers on the parched grass, and
then the song of the blackbird sounding as clearly as it
sounds in long silent spaces of the evening, and then in one
sweet jocund burst the multitudinous voices that hail the
breaking of the morn. And the lark, singing and soaring above
the minstrel, sank mute and motionless upon his shoulder, and
from all the leafy woods the birds came thronging out and
formed a fluttering canopy above his head.

"When the bard ceased playing no shout arose from the mighty
multitude, for the strains of his harp, long after its chords
were stilled, held their hearts spell-bound."

This passage reveals the poetry of the author's style, and it shows
how charged it is with qualities that are peculiar to the Celtic
temperament: a style in which expressions like "the song of the
blackbird sounding as clearly as it sounds in long silent spaces of
the evening," or "she answered his salute by a wave of her little
hand, that was a