Matheson Collection > Aislinge Meic Conglinne

96 TJie Vision of MacConglinne.
a hairy calf-skin be placed under thee to the
north-east before the fire, thy side resting exactly
against a rail of alder. And let an active,
white-handed, sensible, joyous woman wait upon
5 thee, who must be of good repute, of good dis-
course, red-lipped, womanly, eloquent, of a good
kin, wearing a necklace, and a cloak, and a
brooch, with a black edge between the two peaks of
her cloak, that sorrow may not come upon her ;
10 with the three nurses of her dignity upon her, with
three dimples of love and delight in her counten-
ance, without an expression of harshness in her
forehead, who shall have a joyous, comely appear-
ance, a purple five-folded cloak about her, a red-
1 5 gold brooch in her cloak, a fair broad face, a good
^ blue eye in her head, two blue-black brows of the
colour of the black chafer over those eyes, ruddy
even cheeks, red thin lips, white clear teeth in
her head as though they were pearls, soft tender
20 white fore-arms, two smooth snowy sides, beau-
teous shapely thighs, straight well-proportioned
'/ia^sk<irj^hl calves, thin white-skinned feet, long & londcr - fingers,
/ long pale-red nails. So that the gait and move-
ments of the maiden may be graceful and quick,
25 so that her gentle talk and address may be melo-
dious as strings, soft and sweet ; so that, from her
crown to her sole, there may be neither fault, nor
stain, nor blemish, on which a sharj) watchful
observer may hit.
30 " ' Let this maiden give thee thy thrice nine
morsels, MacConglinne, each morsel of which
shall be as big as a heath-fowl's egg. These morsels
thou must put in thy mouth with a swinging jerk^