“Tell me, in English, Ivor,” I said, after a silence, wherein I pondered the Gaelic words, “what is the meaning of
“‘And may there be no calling in the Flow, this Srùth-màra,
And may there be no burden in the Ebb’?”
“Yes, I will be telling you what is the meaning of that. When the great tide that wells out of the hollow of the sea, and sweeps towards all the coasts of the world, first stirs, when she will be knowing that the Ebb is not any more moving at all, she sends out nine long waves. And I will be forgetting what these waves are: but one will be to shepherd the sea-weed that is for the blessing of man; and another is for to wake the fish that sleep in the deeps; and another is for this, and another will be for that; and the seventh is to rouse the Wave-Haunter and all the creatures of the water that fear and hate man; and the eighth no man knows, though the priests say it is to carry the Whisper of Mary; and the ninth——”
“And the ninth, Ivor?”
“May it be far from us, from you and from me, and from those of us. An’ I will be sayin’ nothing against it, not I; nor against anything that is in the sea. An’ you will be noting that!
“Well, this ninth wave goes through the water on the forehead of the tide. An’ wherever it will be going it calls. An’ the call of it is—‘Come away, come away, the sea waits! Follow!… Come away, come away, the sea waits! Follow!’[10] An’ whoever hears that must arise and go, whether he be fish or pollack, or seal or otter, or great skua or small tern, or bird or beast of the shore, or bird or beast of the sea, or whether it be man or woman or child, or any of the others.”
“Any of the others, Ivor?”
“I will not be saying anything about that,” replied McLean gravely; “you will be knowing well what I mean, and if you do not it is not for me to talk of that which is not to be talked about.
“Well, as I was for saying, that calling of the ninth wave of the Tide is what Ian Mòr of the hills speaks of as ‘the whisper of the snow that falls on the hair, the whisper of the frost that lies on the cold face of him that will never be waking again.’”