ell];
The best advice in the presence of God
To me has been vouchsafed.
The King whose servant I am will not let
Anything deceive me.

The third selection is an example of later Gaelic. This stirring
Hebridean poem is sometimes spoken of as from the ancient Gaelic.
Probably by this is meant merely old Gaelic, mediaeval or even later.
The translation is by Mr. Thomas Pattison, and is included in his
'Gaelic Bards.' He has the following note upon it:--

"This effusion, although in its original form it is only a
kind of wild chant,--almost indeed half prose,--yet is the
germ of the ballad. It occurs in many of the tales contained
in that collection,--the repository of old Gaelic lore,--the
'Popular Tales of the West Highlands,' sometimes more and
sometimes less perfect. The original will be found in the
second volume of the Tales.... The vigorous and elastic
spirit that pervades these verses must have strung the heart
of many a hardy mariner, who loved to feel the fresh and
briny breeze drive his snoring birlinn bounding like a living
creature over the tumbling billows of the inland loch, or the
huge swell of the majestic main."

IN HEBRID SEAS

We turned her prow into the sea,
Her stern into the shore,
And first we raised the tall tough masts,
And then the canvas hoar;

Fast filled our towering cloud-like sails,
For the wind came from the land,
And such a wind as we might choose
Were the winds at our command:

A breeze that rushing down the hill
Would strip the blooming heather,
Or rustling through the green-clad grove,
Would whirl its leaves together.

But when it seized the aged saugh,
With the light locks of gray,
It tore away its ancient root,
And there the old trunk lay!

It raised the thatch too from the roof,
And scattered it along;
Then tossed and whirled it through the air,
Singing a pleasant song.

It heaped the ruins on the land:--
Though sire and son stood by,
They could no help afford, but gaze
With wan and troubled eye!

A flap, a flash, the green roll dashed,
And laughed against the red;
Upon our boards, now here, now there,
It knocked its foamy head.

She could have split a slender straw,
So clean and well she went,
As still obedient to the helm
Her stately course she bent.

We watched the big beast eat