Blair Collection > Galic antiquities

164 GAUL:
fliall I relieve thee, Gaul ; or where fliall Evirchoma find food in
die land of foes ? — I remember the tale of Cafdu-conglas.
" When I was young, in my father's arms, his courfe was one
night on the deep with Crifollis, beam of love. The florm drove
us on a rock. Three gray trees dwelt lonely th^re, and thook in the
troubled air their leaf-lefs heads. At their molTy root a few red berries
crept. Thefe Cafdu-conglas pulled. He pulled them, but he tailed
not. Thou needefl them, he faid, Crifollis ; and, to-morrow, the
deer of his own mountain will fupply Cafdu-conglas. — The morn-
ing came ; the evening returned : but the rock is ftill their dwell-
ing. — My father wove a bark of the branches of the gray trees * ;
but his foul is feeble for want of food. ' Crifollis,' he faicl, ' I fleep.
When the calm fliall come, be thou gone with thy child to Idron-
lo ; the hour of my waking is diflant.' — Never fliall the Jhills ox
I-rdronlo behold me,' {he replied, ' without my love. O why
didft thou not tell me thy foul had failed ! both might have been
fuftained by the mountain-berries. But the breafl:s of Crifollis will
fup-
" Ifrona, horrible ifle ! covered with or any place nearly inclofed by the fea :
thick and ever-during mift : thou, noi- as Dciginijh, Craiginijb, Sec.
feme abode of wild and venomous beads:
thou land of pain, where fame and friend- * The Curachs (or vimcnel alvei of So-
fhip are ftrangers. — I tremble to go near linus) which were the firft boats of the
thee." Caledonians, were made of wicker, and
As the name of Ckn-Freoin is ftill re- covered again with hides. The name,
tained by a valley in the neighbourhood for fome time, feems to have continued,
of Clyde, it is probable the fcene of this after the conflrudion of their vefiels was
poem was fomewhcre on that coaft, the much improved, as the ancient poems
inhabitants of which were generally at give fometimes the name of Curach to
variance with the people of Morven. The veffels of a confiderable fize. That which
{ituation of many places ihew, that an- brought St Columba and his companions
ciently, /, or Inisy did not always fignify to Zona, was called Curach, though near
an ifland, but fometimes a promontory, 40. feet long, if we may credit tradition.