Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 2

THE KNIGHT OF THE RED SHIELD. 439
got the ship, which was called an Iubhrach Bhal-
LACH, The speckled barge.*
Tbej put her out, and they gave her prow to sea, and her stern
to shore.
They hoisted the speckled, flapping, bare-topped sails
Up against the tall, tough, splintery masts.
They had a pleasant Httle breeze as they might choose themselves,
"Would bring heather from the hill, leaf from grove, willow from
its roots.
Would put thatch of the houses in furrows of the ridges.
The day that neither the son nor the father could do it,
That same was neither Httle nor much for them,
But using it and taking it as it might come,
The sea plunging and surging.
The red sea the blue sea lashing
And striking hither and thither about her planks.
Tlie whorled dun whelk that was down on the ground of the
ocean,
Would give a snao on her gunwale and crack on her floor,
She would cut a slender oaten straw with the excellence of her
going.
Tliey gave three days driving her thus. " I lu}'-
self am growing tired of this," said the Knight of the
Cairn to the Kuight of the Sword. " It seems to me
time to get news from the mast."
" Thou thyself art the most greatly beloved here,
oh Knight of the Cairn, and shew that thou wilt have
honour going up ; and if thou goest not up, we will
have the more sport with thee," said the Son of the
Green Spring by Valour.
Up went the Knight of the Cairn with a rush, and
he fell down clatter in a faint on the deck of the ship.
* These words would bear many translations according to
dictionaries, such as the spotted stately woman, the variegated
abounding in bows. The meaning seems to be a gaily painted
boat.