Siubhal beinne, siubhal coille,
Sinbhal gu rèidh fada, farsuinn,
Banachag Phadruig ma 'n casan,
'S gu faic mise slàn a rithisd sith.
An seun a chuir Moire mu 'buar,
Moch 'us anmoch 'sa tigh'n bhuaidh',
Ga'n gleidheadh o pholl, o eabar.
O fheithe, o adh'rcean a cheile,
O liana' na Craige-Ruaidhe,
'S o Luaths na Féinne.
Banachag Phadruig ma'r casan,
Gu'm bu slàn a thig sibh dhachaidh.
In English thus--
A Rhyme to be said in driving Cattle to Pasture.
Wandering o'er uplands, wandering through woods,
Hither and far away wander ye still,
St. Patrick's own milkmaid attend your steps
Till safe I see you return to me again.
The charm that Mary made to her cattle,
Early and late, going and coming from pasture,
Still keep you safe from quagmire and marsh,
From pitfalls and from each other's horns,
From the sudden swelling (of the torrent about) the Red Rock
And from Luath of the Fingalians.
St. Patrick's milkmaid attend your feet,
Safe and scaithless come ye home again.
The reference to "Luath," Cuchullin's matchless dog, so celebrated
in the Ossianic poems and old Fingalian tales, is curious. The ghosts
of the Fingalian heroes, existing in a sort of middle state--not yet
exactly saved nor wholly lost--with those of their famous dogs, were
believed to visit at times the scenes of their former exploits for the
sake of the hunting, in which they so much delighted, and a cow or
other animal, running about excitedly and wildly, and, to all human
investigation, causelessly, was supposed to be the work of a passing
Fingalian hunting party, invisible to mortal eyes, Luath, unmatched
in spirit-land as upon earth, still leading the chase as of old. On
the lines about St. Patrick's dairymaid or milkmaid Mr. Carmichael
has the following note, which will be read with interest, and which
we give in his own words:--
"'Banachag Phadriug mu'r casan.'
(St. Patrick's dairymaid be around your feet.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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