I
THE FESTIVAL OF THE BIRDS
Before dawn, on the morning of the hundredth Sabbath after Colum the
White had made glory to God in Hy, that was theretofore called Ioua and
thereafter I-shona and is now Iona, the Saint beheld his own Sleep in a
vision.
Much fasting and long pondering over the missals, with their golden and
azure and sea-green initials and earth-brown branching letters, had made
Colum weary. He had brooded much of late upon the mystery of the living
world that was not man’s world.
On the eve of that hundredth Sabbath, which was to be a holy festival in
Iona, he had talked long with an ancient greybeard out of a remote isle
in the north, the wild Isle of the Mountains, where Scathach the Queen
hanged the men of Lochlin by their yellow hair.
This man’s name was Ardan, and he was of the ancient people. He had come
to Hy because of two things. Maolmòr, the King of the northern Picts,
had sent him to learn of Colum what was this god-teaching he had brought
out of Eiré: and for himself he had come, with his age upon him, to see
what manner of man this Colum was, who had made Ioua, that was
“Innis-nan-Dhruidhneach”—the Isle of the Druids—into a place of new
worship.
For three hours Ardan and Colum had walked by the sea-shore. Each
learned of the other. Ardan bowed his head before the wisdom. Colum knew
in his heart that the Druid saw mysteries.
In the first hour they talked of God. Colum spake, and Ardan smiled in
his shadowy eyes. “It is for the knowing,” he said, when Colum ceased.
“Ay, sure,” said the Saint: “and now, O Ardan the wise, is my God thy
God?”
But at that Ardan smiled not. He turned the grave, sad eyes of him to
the west. With his right hand he pointed to the Sun that was like a
great golden flower. “Truly, He is thy God and my God.” Colum was
silent. Then he said: “Thee and thine, O Ardan, from Maolmòr the Pictish
king to the least of thy slaves, shall have a long weariness in Hell.
That fiery globe yonder is but the Lamp of the World: and sad is the
case of the man who knows not the torch from the torch-bearer.”
And in the second hour they talked of Man. Ardan spake, and Colum smiled
in his deep, grey eyes.
“It is for laughter that,” he said, when Ardan ceased.
“And why will that be, O Colum of Eiré?” said Ardan. Then the smile went
out of Colum’s grey eyes, and he turned and looked about him.
He beheld, near, a crow, a horse, and a hound.
“These are thy brethren,” he said scornfully.
But Ardan answered quietly, “Even so.”
The third hour they talked about the beasts of the earth and the fowls
of the air.
At the last Ardan said: “The ancient wisdom hath it that these are the
souls of men and women that have been, or are to be.”
Whereat Colum answered: “The new wisdom, that is old as eternity,
declareth that God created all things in love. Therefore are we at one,
O Ardan, though we sail to the Isle of Truth from the West and the East.
Let there be peace between us.”
“Peace,” said Ardan.
That eve, Ardan of the Picts sat with the monks of Iona. Colum blessed
him and said a saying. Oran of the Songs sang a hymn of beauty. Ardan
rose, and put the wine of guests to his lips, and chanted this rune:
O Colum and monks of Christ,
It is peace we are having this night:
Sure, peace is a good thing,
And I am glad with the gladness.
We worship one God,
Though ye call him Dè—
And I say not, _O Dia_!
But cry _Bea’uil_!
For it is one faith for man,
And one for the living world,
And no man is wiser than another—
And none knoweth much.
None knoweth a better thing than this:
The Sword, Love, Song, Honour, Sleep.
None knoweth a surer thing than this:
Birth, Sorrow, Pain, Weariness, Death.
Sure, peace is a good thing;
Let us be glad of Peace:
We are not men of the Sword,
But of the Rune and the Wisdom.
I have learned a truth of Colum,
He hath learned of me:
All ye on the morrow shall see
A wonder of the wonders.
The thought is on you, that the Cross
Is known only of you:
Lo, I tell you the birds know it
That are marked with the Sorrow.
Listen to the Birds of Sorrow,
They shall tell you a great Joy:
It is Peace you will be having,
With the Birds.
No more would Ardan say after that, though all besought him.
Many pondered long that night. Oran made a song of mystery. Colum
brooded through the dark; but before dawn he slept upon the fern that
strewed his cell. At dawn, with waking eyes, and weary, he saw his Sleep
in a vision.
It stood grey and wan beside him.
“What art thou, O Spirit?” he said.
“I am thy Sleep, Colum.”
“And is it peace?”
“It is peace.”
“What wouldest thou?”
“I have wisdom. Thy heart and thy brain were closed. I could not give
you what I brought. I brought wisdom.”
“Give it.”
“Behold!”
And Colum, sitting upon the strewed fern that was his bed, rubbed his
eyes that were heavy with weariness and fasting and long prayer. He
could not see his Sleep now. It was gone as smoke that is licked up by
the wind.
But on the ledge of the hole that was in the eastern wall of his cell he
saw a bird. He leaned his elbow upon the leabhar-aifrionn that was by
his side.[1] Then he spoke.
“Is there song upon thee, O Bru-dhearg?”
Then the Red-breast sang, and the singing was so sweet that tears came
into the eyes of Colum, and he thought the sunlight that was streaming
from the east was melted into that lilting sweet song. It was a hymn
that the Bru-dhearg sang, and it was this:
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Christ upon the Cross:
My little nest was near,
Hidden in the moss.
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Christ was pale and wan:
His eyes beheld me singing
_Bron, Bron, mo Bron!_[2]
Holy, Holy, Holy,
“Come near, O wee brown bird!”
Christ spake: and lo, I lighted
Upon the Living Word.
Holy, Holy, Holy,
I heard the mocking scorn!
But _Holy_, _Holy_, _Holy_
I sang against a thorn!
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Ah, his brow was bloody:
Holy, Holy, Holy,
All my breast was ruddy.
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Christ’s-Bird shalt thou be:
Thus said Mary Virgin
There on Calvary.
Holy, Holy, Holy,
A wee brown bird am I:
But my breast is ruddy
For I saw Christ die.
Holy, Holy, Holy,
By this ruddy feather,
Colum, call thy monks, and
All the birds together.
And at that Colum rose. Awe was upon him, and joy.
He went out and told all to the monks. Then he said Mass out on the
green sward. The yellow sunshine was warm upon his grey hair. The love
of God was warm in his heart.
“Come, all ye birds!” he cried.
And lo, all the birds of the air flew nigh. The golden eagle soared from
the Cuchullins in far-off Skye, and the osprey from the wild lochs of
Mull; the gannet from above the clouds, and the fulmar and petrel from
the green wave: the cormorant and the skua from the weedy rock, and the
plover and the kestrel from the machar: the corbie and the raven from
the moor, and the snipe and the bittern and the heron: the cuckoo and
cushat from the woodland: the crane from the swamp, the lark from the
sky, and the mavis and the merle from the green bushes: the yellowyite,
the shilfa, and the lintie, the gyalvonn and the wren and the redbreast,
one and all, every creature of the wings, they came at the bidding.
“Peace!” cried Colum.
“Peace!” cried all the Birds, and even the Eagle, the Kestrel, the
Corbie, and the Raven cried _Peace_, _Peace_!
“I will say the Mass,” said Colum the White.
And with that he said the Mass. And he blessed the birds.
When the last chant was sung, only the Bru-dhearg remained.
“Come, O Ruddy-Breast,” said Colum, “and sing to us of the Christ.”
Through a golden hour thereafter the Red-breast sang. Sweet was the joy
of it.
At the end Colum said, “Peace! In the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost.”