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maiden’s breast
Is like the snow on Rona’s crest,
High seated in the middle sky,
In bright and barren purity;
But by the sunbeam gently kiss’d,
Scarce by the gazing eye ‘tis miss’d,
Ere down the lonely valley stealing,
Fresh grass and growth its course revealing,
It cheers the flock, revives the flower,
And decks some happy shepherd’s bower.”
“A comfortable doctrine, and most justly spoken,” said the Udaller, seizing the blushing Brenda, as she was endeavouring to escape — ” Never think shame for the matter, my girl. To be the mistress of some honest man’s house, and the means of maintaining some old Norse name, making neighbours happy, the poor easy, and relieving strangers, is the most creditable lot a young woman can look to, and I heartily wish it to all here. — Come, who speaks next? — good husbands are going — Maddie Groatsettar — my pretty Clara, come and have your share.”
The Lady Glowrowrum shook her head, and “ could not,” she said, “altogether approve”
“Enough said — enough said,” replied Magnus; “ no compulsion; but the play shall go on till we are tired of it. Here, Minna — I have got you at command. Stand forth, my girl — there are plenty of things to be ashamed of besides old-fashioned and innocent pleasantry. — Come, I will speak for you myself — though I am not sure I can remember rhyme enough for it.”
There was a slight colour which passed rapidly over Minna’s face, but she instantly regained her composure, and stood erect by her father, as one superior to any little jest to which her situation might give rise.
Her father, after some rubbing of his brow, and other mechanical efforts to assist his memory, at length recovered verse sufficient to put the following query, though in less gallant strains than those of Halcro: —
Magnus Troil
“Mother, speak, and do not tarry,
Here’s a maiden fain would marry.
Shall she marry, ay or not?
If she marry, what’s her lot?”
A deep sigh was uttered within the tabernacle of the soothsayer, as if she compassionated the subject of the doom which she was obliged to pronounce. She then, as usual, returned her response: —
Norna
“Untouch’d by love, the maiden’s breast
Is like the snow on Rona’s crest;
So pure, so free from earthly dye,
It seems, whilst leaning on the sky,
Part of the heaven to which ‘tis nigh;
But passion, like the wild March rain,
May soil the wreath with many a stain.
We gaze — the lovely vision’s gone —
A torrent fills the bed of stone,
That, hurrying to destruction’s shock,
Leaps headlong from the lofty rock.”
The Udaller heard this reply with high resentment. “ By the bones of the Martyr,” he said, his bold visage becoming suddenly ruddy, “this is an abuse of courtesy! and, were it any but yourself that had classed my daughter’s name and the word destruction together, they had better have left the word unspoken. But come forth of the tent, thou old galdragon,” he added, with a smile — ”I should have known that thou canst not long joy in anything that smacks of mirth, God help thee! “ His summons received no answer; and, after waiting a moment, he again addressed her — ”Nay, never be sullen with me, kinswoman, though I did speak a hasty word — thou knowest I bear malice to no one, least of all to thee — so come forth, and let us shake hands. — Thou mightst have foretold the wreck of my ship and boats, or a bad herring-fishery, and I should have said never a word;.but Minna or Brenda, you know, are things which touch me nearer. But come out, shake hands, and there let there be an end on’t.”
Norna returned no answer whatever to his repeated invocations, and the company began to look upon each other with some surprise, when the Udaller, raising the skin which covered the entrance of the tent, discovered that the interior was empty. The wonder was now general, and not unmixed with fear; for it seemed impossible that Norna could have, in any manner, escaped from the tabernacle in which she was enclosed, without having been discovered by the company. Gone, however, she was, and the Udaller, after a moment’s consideration, dropt the skin-curtain again over the entrance of the tent.
“My friends,” he said, with a cheerful countenance, “we have long known my kinswoman, and that her ways are not like those of the ordinary folks in the world. But she means well by Hialtland, and hath the love of a sister for me, and for my house; and no guest of mine needs either to fear evil, or to take offence, at her hand. I have little doubt she will be with us at dinner-time.”
“Nov/, Heaven forbid!” said Mrs. Baby Yeilowley — ” for, my gude Leddy Glowrowrum, to tell your leddyship the truth, I likena cummers that can come and gae like a glance of the sun, or the whisk of a whirlwind.”
“Speak lower, speak lower,” said the Lady Glowrowrum, “and be thankful that yon carlin hasna ta’en the house-side away wi’ her. The like of her have played warse pranks, and so has she hersell, unless she is the sairer lied on.”
Similar murmurs ran through the rest of the company, until the Udaller uplifted his stentorian and imperative voice to put them to silence, and invited, or rather commanded, the attendance of his guests to behold the boats set off for the haaf or deep-sea fishing.
“The wind has been high since sunrise,” he said, “and had kept the boats in the bay; but now it was favourable, and they would sail immediately.”
This sudden alteration of the weather occasioned sundry nods and winks amongst the guests, who were not indisposed to connect it with Norna’s sudden disappearance; but without giving vent to observations which could not but be disagreeable to their host, they followed his stately step to the shore, as the herd of deer follows the leading stag, with all manner of respectful observance.1
1 Note X. Fortune-telling Rhymes.
Chapter XXII
There was a laughing devil in his sneer,
That raised emotions both of rage and fear;
And where his frown of hatred darkly fell,
Hope withering fled — and Mercy sigh’d farewell.
The Corsair, Canto L
The ling or white fishery is the principal employment of the natives of Zetland, and was formerly that upon which the gentry chiefly depended for their income, and the poor for their subsistence. The fishing season is therefore, like the harvest of an agricultural country, the busiest and most important, as well as the most animating, period of the year.
The fishermen of each district assemble at particular stations, with their boats and crews, and erect upon the shore small huts, composed of shingle and covered with turf, for their temporary lodging, and skeos, or drying-houses, for the fish; so that the lonely beach at once assumes the appearance of an Indian town. The banks to which they repair for the Haaf fishing, are often many miles distant from the station where the fish is dried; so that they are always twenty or thirty hours absent, frequently longer; and under unfavourable circumstances of wind and tide, they remain at sea, with a very small stock of provisions, and in a boat of a construction which seems extremely slender, for two or three days, and are sometimes heard of no more. The departure of the fishers, therefore, on this occupation, has in it a character of