Ossian Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

118 MODERN (iAELIC BARDS.
Now this counsel of uie, avIio your safety am seekiug,
Take you for your guidance, young clansmen of mine ;
When you go to the inn where the strangers sit speaking,
More than one draught, for your life's sake, decline.
Take the dish which they offer; be cautious and wary —
There is no man you meet with but may be a foe ;
\Vhile you drink, remain standing, and then do not tarry,
But turn round and haste ye — delay not, but go.
For sunnuer take spring-time — for autumn take winter —
And away and away to wild solitudes hie;
Where the heat and the cold the crag shiver and splinter.
And see you sleep lightly wherever you lie.
The squirrel is rare, but the hunter deceive hini,
And draw him away from his nest in the tree;
And the falcon is noble, but men will not leave him
His daring, his speed, and the blue heavens free.
"More than one draught, for your life's sake, decline." At
this place Mrs. Grant makes the following remark : — " The single
draught in this verse is particularly expressive of the constant
apprehensions which haunt the mind of him who knows that his
life is hunted with malicious diligence. The ancients tell of dogs
on the borders of the Nile who always drank running, for fear of
the crocodile. This is one of the liveliest images of habitual
terror." There are other parts of the song equally expressive.
There is another song of the Children of the Mist, which is
called, "Cruachan a Cheathaich;" or The Braes of the Mist. It
is in print, and well known ; but I translate from a copy taken down
from the singing of an Islayman, who is a smith, and well
acquainted with the traditional poetry and legends of the High-
lands. Neither this man nor the transcriber knew that the song
had ever been published. Each thought he was doing his best to
save an ancient fragment that was just about to perish. This