The Washer of the Ford: Legendary moralities and barbaric talesSharp, William
General
The Washer of the Ford: Legendary moralities and barbaric tales
Sharp, William
Mythology, Celtic -- Fiction; Scotland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Then the little one put his hands above Isla's heart. There was a
flame there, that the Grave quenched not.
"O flame of love!" sighed the child, and he clasped it to his breast:
and it was a moonshine glory about the two hearts that he had, the
heart of Isla and the heart of Eilidh, that were thenceforth one.
At dawn he was no longer there. Already the sunrise was warm upon him
where he lay, newborn, upon the breast of Eilidh.
"It is the end," murmured Isla when he waked. "She has never come.
For sure now, the darkness and the silence."
Then he remembered the words of Maol the Druid, he that was a seer and
had told him of Orchil, the dim goddess who is under the brown earth,
in a vast cavern, where she weaves at two looms. With one hand she
weaves life upward through the grass: with the other she weaves death
downward through the mould: and the sound of the weaving is Eternity,
and the name of it in the green world is Time. And, through all,
Orchil weaves the weft of Eternal Beauty, that passeth not, though its
soul is Change.
And these were the words of Orchil, on the lips of Maol the Druid,
that was old, and knew the mystery of the Grave:
_When thou journeyest towards the Shadowy Gate take neither
Fear with thee nor Hope, for both are abashed hounds of
silence in that place: but take only the purple nightshade
for sleep, and a vial of tears and wine, tears that shall be
known unto thee and old wine of love. So shalt thou have thy
silent festival, ere the end._
So therewith Isla, having in his weariness the nightshade of sleep,
and in his mind the slow dripping rain of familiar tears, and deep in
his heart the old wine of love, bowed his head.
It was well to have lived, since life was Eilidh. It was well to cease
to live, since Eilidh came no more.
Then suddenly he raised his head. There was music in the green world
above. A sun-ray opened the earth about him: staring upward he beheld
Angus Ogue.
"Ah, fair face of the god of youth," he sighed. Then he saw the white
birds that fly about the head of Angus Ogue, and he heard the music
that his breath made upon the harp of the wind.
"Arise," said Angus; and, when he smiled, the white birds flashed
their wings and made a mist of rainbows.
"Arise," said Angus Ogue again; and, when he spoke, the spires of the
grass quivered to a wild sweet haunting air.
So Isla arose, and the sun shone upon him, and his shadow passed into
the earth. Orchil wove it into her web of death.
"Why dost thou wait here by the Stone of Sorrow, Isla that was called
Ula at the end?"
"I wait for Eilidh, who cometh not."
At that the wind-listening god stooped and laid his head upon the
grass.
"I hear the coming of a woman's feet," he said, and he rose.
"Eilidh! Eilidh!" cried Isla, and the sorrow of his cry was a moan in
the web of Orchil.
Angus Ogue took a branch, and put the cool greenness against his
cheek.
"I hear the beating of a heart," he said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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