Spiritual Tales / Re-issue of the Shorter Stories of Fiona Macleod; Rearranged, with Additional Tales

by William Sharp

THE THREE MARVELS OF IONA

[I]
THE FESTIVAL OF THE BIRDS

Before dawn, on the morning of the hundredth Sabbath after Colum the White had made glory to God in Hy, that was theretofore called Ioua and thereafter I-shona and is now Iona, the Saint beheld his own Sleep in a vision.

Much fasting and long pondering over the missals, with their golden and azure and sea-green initials and earth-brown branching letters, had made Colum weary. He had brooded much of late upon the mystery of the living world that was not man’s world.

On the eve of that hundredth Sabbath, which was to be a holy festival in Iona, he had talked long with an ancient greybeard out of a remote isle in the north, the wild Isle of the Mountains, where Scathach the Queen hanged the men of Lochlin by their yellow hair.

This man’s name was Ardan, and he was of the ancient people. He had come to Hy because of two things. Maolmòr, the King of the northern Picts, had sent him to learn of Colum what was this god-teaching he had brought out of Eiré: and for himself he had come, with his age upon him, to see what manner of man this Colum was, who had made Ioua, that was “Innis-nan-Dhruidhneach”—the Isle of the Druids—into a place of new worship.

For three hours Ardan and Colum had walked by the sea-shore. Each learned of the other. Ardan bowed his head before the wisdom. Colum knew in his heart that the Druid saw mysteries.

In the first hour they talked of God. Colum spake, and Ardan smiled in his shadowy eyes. “It is for the knowing,” he said, when Colum ceased.

“Ay, sure,” said the Saint: “and now, O Ardan the wise, is my God thy God?”

But at that Ardan smiled not. He turned the grave, sad eyes of him to the west. With his right hand he pointed to the Sun that was like a great golden flower. “Truly, He is thy God and my God.” Colum was silent. Then he said: “Thee and thine, O Ardan, from Maolmòr the Pictish king to the least of thy slaves, shall have a long weariness in Hell. That fiery globe yonder is but the Lamp of the World: and sad is the case of the man who knows not the torch from the torch-bearer.”

And in the second hour they talked of Man. Ardan spake, and Colum smiled in his deep, grey eyes.

“It is for laughter that,” he said, when Ardan ceased.

“And why will that be, O Colum of Eiré?” said Ardan. Then the smile went out of Colum’s grey eyes, and he turned and looked about him.

He beheld, near, a crow, a horse, and a hound.

“These are thy brethren,” he said scornfully.

But Ardan answered quietly, “Even so.”

The third hour they talked about the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air.

At the last Ardan said: “The ancient wisdom hath it that these are the souls of men and women that have been, or are to be.”

Whereat Colum answered: “The new wisdom, that is old as eternity, declareth that God created all things in love. Therefore are we at one, O Ardan, though we sail to the Isle of Truth from the West and the East. Let there be peace between us.”

“Peace,” said Ardan.

That eve, Ardan of the Picts sat with the monks of Iona. Colum blessed him and said a saying. Oran of the Songs sang a hymn of beauty. Ardan rose, and put the wine of guests to his lips, and chanted this rune:

O Colum and monks of Christ,

It is peace we are having this night:

Sure, peace is a good thing,

And I am glad with the gladness.

We worship one God,

Though ye call him Dè—

And I say not, O Dia!

But cry Bea’uil!

For it is one faith for man,

And one for the living world,

And no man is wiser than another—

And none knoweth much.

None knoweth a better thing than this:

The Sword, Love, Song, Honour, Sleep.

None knoweth a surer thing than this:

Birth, Sorrow, Pain, Weariness, Death.

Sure, peace is a good thing;

Let us be glad of Peace:

We are not men of the Sword,

But of the Rune and the Wisdom.

I have learned a truth of Colum,

He hath learned of me:

All ye on the morrow shall see

A wonder of the wonders.

The thought is on you, that the Cross

Is known only of you:

Lo, I tell you the birds know it

That are marked with the Sorrow.

Listen to the Birds of Sorrow,

They shall tell you a great Joy:

It is Peace you will be having,

With the Birds.

No more would Ardan say after that, though all besought him.

Many pondered long that night. Oran made a song of mystery. Colum brooded through the dark; but before dawn he slept upon the fern that strewed his cell. At dawn, with waking eyes, and weary, he saw his Sleep in a vision.

It stood grey and wan beside him.

“What art thou, O Spirit?” he said.

“I am thy Sleep, Colum.”

“And is it peace?”

“It is peace.”

“What wouldest thou?”

“I have wisdom. Thy heart and thy brain were closed. I could not give you what I brought. I brought wisdom.”

“Give it.”

“Behold!”

And Colum, sitting upon the strewed fern that was his bed, rubbed his eyes that were heavy with weariness and fasting and long prayer. He could not see his Sleep now. It was gone as smoke that is licked up by the wind.

But on the ledge of the hole that was in the eastern wall of his cell he saw a bird. He leaned his elbow upon the leabhar-aifrionn that was by his side.[1] Then he spoke.

“Is there song upon thee, O Bru-dhearg?”

Then the Red-breast sang, and the singing was so sweet that tears came into the eyes of Colum, and he thought the sunlight that was streaming from the east was melted into that lilting sweet song. It was a hymn that the Bru-dhearg sang, and it was this:

Holy, Holy, Holy,

Christ upon the Cross:

My little nest was near,

Hidden in the moss.

Holy, Holy, Holy,

Christ was pale and wan:

His eyes beheld me singing

Bron, Bron, mo Bron![2]

Holy, Holy, Holy,

“Come near, O wee brown bird!”

Christ spake: and lo, I lighted

Upon the Living Word.

Holy, Holy, Holy,

I heard the mocking scorn!

But Holy, Holy, Holy

I sang against a thorn!

Holy, Holy, Holy,

Ah, his brow was bloody:

Holy, Holy, Holy,

All my breast was ruddy.

Holy, Holy, Holy,

Christ’s-Bird shalt thou be:

Thus said Mary Virgin

There on Calvary.

Holy, Holy, Holy,

A wee brown bird am I:

But my breast is ruddy

For I saw Christ die.

Holy, Holy, Holy,

By this ruddy feather,

Colum, call thy monks, and

All the birds together.

And at that Colum rose. Awe was upon him, and joy.

He went out and told all to the monks. Then he said Mass out on the green sward. The yellow sunshine was warm upon his grey hair. The love of God was warm in his heart.

“Come, all ye birds!” he cried.

And lo, all the birds of the air flew nigh. The golden eagle soared from the Cuchullins in far-off Skye, and the osprey from the wild lochs of Mull; the gannet from above the clouds, and the fulmar and petrel from the green wave: the cormorant and the skua from the weedy rock, and the plover and the kestrel from the machar: the corbie and the raven from the moor, and the snipe and the bittern and the heron: the cuckoo and cushat from the woodland: the crane from the swamp, the lark from the sky, and the mavis and the merle from the green bushes: the yellowyite, the shilfa, and the lintie, the gyalvonn and the wren and the redbreast, one and all, every creature of the wings, they came at the bidding.

“Peace!” cried Colum.

“Peace!” cried all the Birds, and even the Eagle, the Kestrel, the Corbie, and the Raven cried Peace, Peace!

“I will say the Mass,” said Colum the White.

And with that he said the Mass. And he blessed the birds.

When the last chant was sung, only the Bru-dhearg remained.

“Come, O Ruddy-Breast,” said Colum, “and sing to us of the Christ.”

Through a golden hour thereafter the Red-breast sang. Sweet was the joy of it.

At the end Colum said, “Peace! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Thereat Ardan the Pict bowed his head, and in a loud voice repeated—

“Sìth (shee)! An ainm an Athar, ’s an mhic, ’s an Spioraid Naoimh!”

And to this day the song of the Birds of Colum, as they are called in Hy, is Sìth—Sìth—Sìth—an—ainm—Chriosd——

“Peace—Peace—Peace—in the name of Christ!”

[II]
THE SABBATH OF THE FISHES AND THE FLIES

For three days Colum had fasted, save for a mouthful of meal at dawn, a piece of rye-bread at noon, and a mouthful of dulse and spring-water at sundown. On the night of the third day, Oran and Keir came to him in his cell. Colum was on his knees, lost in prayer. There was no sound there, save the faint whispered muttering of his lips, and on the plastered wall the weary buzzing of a fly.

“Master!” said Oran in a low voice, soft with pity and awe, “Master!”

But Colum took no notice. His lips still moved, and the tangled hairs below his nether lip shivered with his failing breath.

“Father!” said Keir, tender as a woman, “Father!”

Colum did not turn his eyes from the wall. The fly droned his drowsy hum upon the rough plaster. It crawled wearily for a space, then stopped. The slow hot drone filled the cell.

“Master,” said Oran, “it is the will of the brethren that you break your fast. You are old, and God has your glory. Give us peace.”

“Father,” urged Keir, seeing that Colum kneeled unnoticingly, his lips still moving above his black beard, with the white hair of him falling about his head like a snowdrift slipping from a boulder. “Father, be pitiful! We hunger and thirst for your presence. We can fast no longer, yet have we no heart to break our fast if you are not with us. Come, holy one, and be of our company, and eat of the good broiled fish that awaiteth us. We perish for the benediction of thine eyes.”

Then it was that Colum rose, and walked slowly towards the wall.

“Little black beast,” he said to the fly that droned its drowsy hum and moved not at all; “little black beast, sure it is well I am knowing what you are. You are thinking you are going to get my blessing, you that have come out of hell for the soul of me!”

At that the fly flew heavily from the wall, and slowly circled round and round the head of Colum the White.

“What think you of that, brother Oran, brother Keir?” he asked in a low voice, hoarse because of his long fast and the weariness that was upon him.

“It is a fiend,” said Oran.

“It is an angel,” said Keir.

Thereupon the fly settled upon the wall again, and again droned his drowsy hot hum.

“Little black beast,” said Colum, with the frown coming down into his eyes, “is it for peace you are here, or for sin? Answer, I conjure you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!”

“An ainm an Athar, ’s an mhic, ’s an Spioraid Naoimh,” repeated Oran below his breath.

“An ainm an Athar, ’s an mhic, ’s an Spioraid Naoimh,” repeated Keir below his breath.

Then the fly that was upon the wall flew up to the roof and circled to and fro. And it sang a beautiful song, and its song was this: