Blair Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

ALEXANDER MACDOXALD. 15
THEN THEY ROWED TO THE SAILING PLACE.
And they hoist up the new-blessed sails
Tanntly on high,
And rattle in six oars and ten
And lay them by,
Clear of the pegs that hold the sails
Along her thigh ;
Then, Clan-Ranald from his nobles order' d
Good ocean skippers to sail by —
Men who fear'd not any spectre,
Or sight of terror came them nigh.*
Then was it ordered, after choice had been made, that every
man should look after his own particular charge. Immediately
on this, there was a shout raised for a steersman to take the
helm, in these words : —
Let this broad heavy hero sit at the helm,
Powerful, ready ;
No dash of the rising or falling sea
Must make him unsteady ;
A well-spread prop full of vigour,
Broad-seated, thick —
Stout and sure, and skillful and wary,
Cautious, yet quick.
* The Birlinn having arrived at the sailing place, we have here to sup-
pose that Clan-Ranald himself, or some one else deputed hy him for the
purpose, placing himself in a conspicuous situation, calls out the meu, one
by one as they stand grouped before him, waiting for their instructions.
He singles them out, however, not by name, but by a description of some
of their personal characteristics, and of their capacity for making them-
selves useful on beard the untried Galley, which they had just been row-
ing, The poet had possibly a real personage in his eye for every picture
he draws, and assigned to each good boatman of his acquaintance the post
he would have been fitted to fill in the circumstances imagined ; describ-
ing at the same time his appearance so accurately, that he might readily
be recognised by those who knew him.