What a book it will be! It will reveal to us the secret of what Oisìn sang, what Merlin knew, what Columba dreamed, what Adamnan hoped: what this little "lamp of Christ" was to pagan Europe; what incense of testimony it flung upon the winds; what saints and heroes went out of it; how the dust of kings and princes were brought there to mingle with its sands; how the noble and the ignoble came to it across long seas and perilous countries. It will tell, too, how the Danes ravaged the isles of the west, and left not only their seed for the strengthening of an older race, but imageries and words, words and imageries so alive to-day that the listener in the mind may hear the cries of the viking above the voice of the Gael and the more ancient tongue of the Pict. It will tell, too, how the nettle came to shed her snow above kings' heads, and the thistle to wave where bishops' mitres stood; how a simple people out of the hills and moors, remembering ancient wisdom or blindly cherishing forgotten symbols, sought here the fount of youth; and how, slowly, a long sleep fell upon the island, and only the grasses shaken in the wind, and the wind itself, and the broken shadows of dreams in the minds of the old, held the secret of Iona. And, at the last--with what lift, with what joy--it will tell how once more the doves of hope and peace have passed over its white sands, this little holy land! This little holy land! Ah, white doves, come again! A thousand thousand wait. FOOTNOTES: [2] A more polished later version, though attributed to Columba, runs:-- "An I mo chridhe, I mo ghràidh An àite guth mhanach bidh géum ba; Ach mu'n tig an saoghal gu crich, Bithidh I mar a bha." (In effect: _In Iona that is my heart's desire, Iona that is my love, the lowing of cows shall yet replace the voices of monks: but before the end is come Iona shall again be as it was._) [3] In a beautiful old Scoto-Gaelic ballad, the "Bàs Fhraoich," occurs the line, _Thuit i air an tràigh na neul_, "she fell on the shore as a mist," though here finely used for a swoon only. [4] An allusion to the Hebridean proverb, _Ma dh' itheas tu cridh an eòin, bidh do chridhe air chrith ri d' bheò_ ("If you eat the bird's heart, your heart will palpitate for ever.") [5] The Irish pipes are called "Piob-theannaich" to distinguish them from the "Piob" or "Piob-Mhòr" of the Highlands. [6] _The Dominion of Dreams_, 1st Ed. [7] See Notes, p. 429. BY SUNDOWN SHORES "_Cette âme qui se lamente En cette plaine dormante C'est la nôtre n'est-ce pas? La mienne, dis, et la tienne, Dont s'exhale l'humble antienne Par ce tiède soir, tout, bas?_" By Sundown Shores "_'N hano ann Tad, ar Mab hac ar Spered-Zantel, Homan' zo'r ganaouenn zavet en Breiz-Izel! Zavet gant eur paour-kèz, en Ar-goat, en Ar-vor, Kanet anez-hi, pewienn, hac ho pezo digor._"