We live for ages on stormy Moyle, In loneliness and fear; The kindly words of loving friends We never more shall hear. Four joyous children long ago; Four snow-white swans to-day; And on Moyle's wild sea Our robe shall be The cold and briny spray. III. Far down on the misty stream of time, When three hundred years are o'er, Three hundred more in storm and cold, By Glora's desolate shore; Till Decca fair is Largnen's spouse; Till north and south unite; Till the hymns are sung, And the bells are rung, At the dawn of the pure faith's light. IV. Arise, my brothers, from Darvra's wave, On the wings of the southern wind; We leave our father and friends to-day In measureless grief behind. Ah! sad the parting, and sad our flight To Moyle's tempestuous main; For the day of woe Shall come and go, Before we meet again! The four swans then spread their wings, and rose from the surface of the water in sight of all their friends, till they reached a great height in the air, then resting, and looking downwards for a moment, they flew straight to the north, till they alighted on the Sea of Moyle between Erin and Alban. The men of Erin were grieved at their departure, and they made a law, and proclaimed it throughout the land, that no one should kill a swan in Erin from that time forth. FOOTNOTES: [XVIII.] demon of the air was held in great abhorrence by the ancient Irish. [XIX.] The Milesian people; the colony who conquered and succeeded the Dedannans. (See note 1 at end.) [XX.] The Dedannans were regarded as gods, and were immortal or semi-immortal. (See note 1 at the end.) [XXI.] It must be remembered that the children of Lir had some obscure foreknowledge of the coming of Christianity. CHAPTER V. THE FOUR WHITE SWANS ON THE SEA OF MOYLE. As to the children of Lir, miserable was their abode and evil their plight on the Sea of Moyle. Their hearts were wrung with sorrow for their father and their friends; and when they looked towards the steep, rocky, far-stretching coasts, and saw the great, dark wild sea around them, they were overwhelmed with fear and despair. They began also to suffer from cold and hunger, so that all the hardships they had endured on Lake Darvra appeared as nothing compared with their suffering on the sea-current of Moyle. And so they lived, till one night a great tempest fell upon the sea. Finola, when she saw the sky filled with black, threatening clouds, thus addressed her brothers-- "Beloved brothers, we have made a bad preparation for this night; for it is certain that the coming storm will separate us; and now let us appoint a place of meeting, or it may happen that we shall never see each other again."