"
[10] Scotland. Inishglory is an island in the Bay of Erris, on
the Mayo coast.
Upon this, Aoife was smitten with repentance, and she said, "Since I
may not henceforth undo what has been done, I give you this, that ye
shall keep your human speech, and ye shall sing a sad music such as no
music in the world can equal, and ye shall have your reason and your
human will, that the bird-shape may not wholly destroy you." Then she
became as one possessed, and cried wildly like a prophetess in her
trance:--
"Ye with the white faces! Ye with the stammering
Gaelic on your tongues!
Soft was your nurture in the King's house--
Now shall ye know the buffeting wind!
Nine hundred years upon the tide.
"The heart of Lir shall bleed!
None of his victories shall stead him now!
Woe to me that I shall hear his groan,
Woe that I have deserved his wrath!"
Then they caught and yoked her horses, and Aoife went on her way till
she reached the palace of Bov the Red. Here she and her folk were
welcomed and entertained, and Bov the Red inquired of her why she had
not brought with her the children of Lir.
"I brought them not," she replied, "because Lir loves thee not, and he
fears that if he sends his children to thee, thou wouldst capture them
and hold them for hostages.
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