Part 21 (1/2)

And theof the wild rovers of the sea, and the lust of pleasure

Then Colum said, ”But for God's mercy, I would curse you, O false fish”

Then he spoke likewise to the dogfish, and the dogfish sang of slaughter and the chase, and the joy of blood

And Colum said, ”hell shall be your portion”

Then there was peace And the herring said:

”In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost”

Whereat all that hty multitude, before they sank into the deep, waved their fins and their claws, each after its kind, and repeated as with one voice:

”_An ain ann Athar, 's an Mhic, 's an Spioraid Naoilory that was upon the Sound of Iona was as though God trailed a starry net upon the waters, with a shi+ning star in every little hollow, and a flowing old on every wave

Then Colum the White put out both his arms, and blessed the children of God that are in the deeps of the sea and that are in the deeps of the air

That is how Sabbath cas upon Ioua that is called Iona, and within the air above Ioua, and within the sea that is around Ioua

And the glory is Colum's

To illustrate the history of the island I select the following episode froht of the Culdees The name culdee is somewhat loosely used both by mediaeval and iven to the Brotherhood of the Columban Church till two hundred years after Columba's death The word may be taken to mean the Cleric of God; perhaps, later, it was the equivalent of anchorite This episode is, in date, about AD 800 or soon after

On the wane of thethe ruin of Bail'-tiorail, sails were seen far east of Stroether The boats coalleys which he had lost when the south-gale had blown theainst Skye; but no rimly, and let the swords that whirl be broken, or the spears that are flat becoe of death

An hour later, a startled ent fro were the fleet of Sweno the Hammerer Why had he come so far southward, and ere oars so swift and the stained sails distended before the wind? They were soon to know

Sweno hireat man he was, broad and burly, with a sword-slash across his face that brought his brows in a perpetual frown above his savage blood-shot eyes

In feords he told how he had alley, with only half its crew, and of these many ounded It was the last of the fleet of Haco the Laugher A fleet of fifteen war-birlinns had set out froone into the strife, laughing loud as was his wont, and he and all his ht with joy and foa

”Well,” said Olaus the White grihed for the last ti out of the death-tide where he sank, there was only one galley left No s lived thereafter to tell the tale These nine we took out of their boat, which was beloaves soon Haco and histhe sea-shadows by now”

A loud snarling went froe shouts filled the air Swords were lifted up against the sky; and the fierce glitter of blue eyes and the bristling of tawny beards were fair to see, thought the captive wolets behind the bars of a cage

Sweno the Hammerer frowned a deep frohen he heard that Olaus was there with only the _Svart-Alf_ out of the galleys which had gone the southay

”If the islanders come upon us noith their birlinns we shall have to hed

”Ay, but the running shall be after the birlinns, Sweno”

”I hear there are fifty and nine men of these Culdees yonder under the sword-priest, Maoliosa?”