Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER VII: THE VOYAGE OF MAELDUN 275abundance of food and drink, all out of her one pail, each manfinding in it what he most desired. When she had departed theyasked Maeldūn if they should woo the maiden for him. “Howwould it hurt you to speak with her?” says Maeldūn. They do so, [320]and she replies: “I know not, nor have ever known, what sin is.”Twice over this is repeated. “To-morrow,” she says at last, “youshall have your answer.” When the morning breaks, however,they find themselves once more at sea, with no sign of the islandor fortress or lady.The Island of the Shouting BirdsThey hear from afar a great cry and chanting, as it were asinging of psalms, and rowing for a day and night they comeat last to an island full of birds, black, brown, and speckled, allshouting and speaking. They sail away without landing.The Island of the AnchoriteHere they found a wooded island full of birds, and on it asolitary man, whose only clothing was his hair. They asked himof his country and kin. He tells them that he was a man ofIreland who had put to sea 198 with a sod of his native countryunder his feet. God had turned the sod into an island, adding afoot's breadth to it and one tree for every year. The birds are hiskith and kin, and they all wait there till Doomsday, miraculouslynourished by angels. He entertained them for three nights, andthen they sailed away.The Island of the Miraculous FountainThis island had a golden rampart, and a soft white soil likedown. In it they found another anchorite clothed only in his hair.There was a fountain in it which yields whey or water on Fridays [321]and Wednesdays, milk on Sundays and feasts of martyrs, and ale198Probably we are to understand that he was an anchorite seeking for anislet on which to dwell in solitude and contemplation. The western islands ofIreland abound in the ruins of huts and oratories built by single monks or littlecommunities.