Standish O'Grady; selected essays and passages

^0 STANDISH O'GRADY
beauty and mystery of natural objects. In the second the
attention is directed to the genii who inhabit the lakes and
rivers ; in others the divine suggestions are diflFused
through the water itself. For example, Finn mac Cool,
according to Ossian, delighted to slumber by the great
cataract of Assaroe, to listen to the breakers thundering
against lorrus, and the washing of water against the sides
of ships. A wizard of the supernatural Fomorian race
put the following query to Finn :
—
" I saw to the south a bright-faced Queen
With couch of crystal and robe of green.
Whose numerous offspring sprightly and small.
Plain through her skin you can see them all."
Finn explains that the bright-faced Queen is the
river Boyne ; her couch of crystal the shining floor
of the stream ; her green robe its glassy borders ; and
her offspring seen through the translucent skin the
salmon and trout swimming below.
This pretty thought could not have appeared in the
elder literature, and is too ingenious and light-hearted
for modern. It is one of those conceits or cleverisms
in which primitive peoples delight.
Ireland is so rich in beautiful streams and lakes, it
seems but natural and fitting that in the bardic history
of Ireland their imagined origin should have been closely
and circumstantially related. When the whole of that
literature is collected and examined, it will be found that
Ireland does not contain a single river or lake of any
importance concerning which the imagination of our