inaugurated], the shaykhs of the propitiated tribe return the branches to the fire, and let them burn to ashes.”[720] How strikingly this parallels the use and the symbolism of the Fiery Cross, in the Scottish Highlands, as portrayed in The Lady of the Lake. Sir Roderick Dhu would summon Clan Alpine against the King. “A heap of withered boughs was piled, Of juniper and rowan wild, Mingled with shivers from the oak, Rent by the lightning’s recent stroke. Brian the Hermit by it stood, Barefooted, in his frock and coat. . . . . . . . . . . . ’Twas all prepared;--and from the rock A goat, the patriarch of the flock, Before the kindling fire was laid, And pierced by Roderick’s ready blade. Patient the sickening victim eyed The life-blood ebb in crimson tide Down his clogged beard and shaggy limb, Till darkness glazed his eyeballs dim. The grisly priest, with murmuring prayer, A slender crosslet framed with care, A cubit’s length in measure due; The shaft and limbs were rods of yew, Whose parents in Inch-Cailliach wave Their shadows o’er Clan Alpine’s grave.” Lifting up this fragment of the tree from the grave of the patriarch of the Clan,[721] the old priest sounded anathemas against those who should be untrue to their covenant obligations as clansmen, when they recognized this symbol of their common brotherhood. “Burst with loud roar their answer hoarse, ‘Woe to the traitor, woe!’ Ben-an’s gray scalps the accents knew, The joyous wolf from covert drew, The exulting eagle screamed afar,-- They knew the voice of Alpine’s war. “The shout was hushed on lake and fell, The monk resumed his muttered spell: Dismal and low its accents came, The while he scathed the cross with flame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . The crosslet’s points of sparkling wood He quenched among the bubbling blood, And, as again the sign he reared, Hollow and hoarse his voice was heard: ‘When flits this cross from man to man, Vich-Alpine’s summons to his clan, Burst be the ear that fails to heed! Palsied the foot that shuns to speed! . . . . . . . . . . . . . Then Roderick with impatient look From Brian’s hand the symbol took: ‘Speed, Malise, speed!’ he said, and gave The crosslet to his henchman brave. ‘The muster-place be Lanrick mead-- Instant the time--Speed, Malise, speed!’”[722] “At sight of the Fiery Cross,” says Scott, “every man, from sixteen years old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, was obliged instantly to repair, in his best arms and accoutrements, to the place of rendezvous.... During the civil war of 1745-6, the Fiery Cross often made its circuit; and upon one occasion it passed through the whole district of Breadalbane, a tract of thirty-two miles, in three hours.”[723] BLOOD-DRINKING.