"Yes; I will be telling you now. And the reason why I did not tell you before was because it is not a wise or a good thing to tell ancient stories about the sea while still on the running wave. Macrae should not have done that thing. It may be we shall suffer for it when next we go out with the nets. We were to go to-night: but no, not I, no, no, for sure, not for all the herring in the Sound." "Is it an ancient _sgeul_, Ivor?" "Ay. I am not for knowing the age of these things. It may be as old as the days of the Féinn for all I know. It has come down to us. Alasdair MacAlasdair of Tiree, him that used to boast of having all the stories of Colum and Brighde, it was he told it to the mother of my mother, and she to me." "What is it called?" "Well, this and that; but there is no harm in saying it is called the Dark Nameless One." "The Dark Nameless One!" "It is this way. But will you ever have been hearing of the MacOdrums of Uist?" "Ay: the Sliochd-nan-ròn." "That is so. God knows. The Sliochd-nan-ròn ... the progeny of the Seal.... Well, well, no man knows what moves in the shadow of life. And now I will be telling you that old ancient tale, as it was given to me by the mother of my mother." * * * * * On a day of the days, Colum was walking alone by the sea-shore. The monks were at the hoe or the spade, and some milking the kye, and some at the fishing. They say it was on the first day of the _Faoilleach Geamhraidh_, the day that is called _Am fheill Brighde_. The holy man had wandered on to where the rocks are, opposite to Soa. He was praying and praying, and it is said that whenever he prayed aloud, the barren egg in the nest would quicken, and the blighted bud unfold, and the butterfly cleave its shroud. Of a sudden he came upon a great black seal, lying silent on the rocks, with wicked eyes. "My blessing upon you, O Ròn," he said with the good kind courteousness that was his. "_Droch spadadh ort_," answered the seal. "A bad end to you, Colum of the Gown." "Sure, now," said Colum angrily, "I am knowing by that curse that you are no friend of Christ, but of the evil pagan faith out of the north. For here I am known ever as Colum the White, or as Colum the Saint: and it is only the Picts and the wanton Normen who deride me because of the holy white robe I wear." "Well, well," replied the seal, speaking the good Gaelic as though it were the tongue of the deep sea, as God knows it may be for all you, I, or the blind wind can say: "Well, well, let that thing be: it's a wave-way here or a wave-way there. But now if it is a Druid you are, whether of Fire or of Christ, be telling me where my woman is, and where my little daughter." At this, Colum looked at him for a long while. Then he knew. "It is a man you were once, O Ròn?" "Maybe ay and maybe no." "And with that thick Gaelic that you have, it will be out of the north Isles you come?" "That is a true thing."