Ossian Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

ALEXANDER MAGDONALD.
With pith and marrow, and great bone and brawn,
And tough sinews.
To draw well in when time of danger comes,
Or else let free ;
Careful to keep it always with smart hand
In the right middle.
Donald MacCarmaig -let us choose for this.
And John Maclan —
Two most audacious fellows and expert,
Of the men of Canna.
Six are chosen as a reserve, in case any of those I have spoken of
should fail, or that the fuiy of the sea should pluck him overboard,
then one of these could take his place.
Now let these six agile men be ready,
Handy, lively,
To get up, and leap, and run
Fore and aft her.
Quick as a hare upon the hill-tops,
And the hounds'near by.
They must climb the hard smooth ropes.
Fine and hempen,
Like a squirrel in the spring-time
Up a tree side.
They must be skillful, hardy, active.
Sure, and restless,
And spring to rope, or chain, or sail, or any
Needful order.
Guiding the good ship, without weakness.
Of Vic Dhomhnuill.
Now, when everything appertaining to the sailing had been got
under famous regulation, and every gallant hero drew without
softness, without fear, without trembling, to the exact place where
he had been ordered to go, they raised up the sails about the