Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/361

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346
THE CELTIC REVIEW

decide. Anyhow, its name seems connected, of course, with the root for ‘water,’ ap, ab, aw, af. For plants, hazels are indispensable to their whelmed cities or towns. Cyll is Welsh for ‘hazel,’ and may be visible in the French-Breton name of the Penbont (Fr. Painpont) forest, Broceliande, written in various ways. It is, perhaps, Bro-cyll, simply; or celyn ‘holly,’ may be the tree.[1] Hence, as Mr. Andrew Lang suggests, whelmed cities, etc., have their totems. There is tabu, too. But these considerations open up an entirely different field.


GAISGEACH NA SGÉITHE DEIRGE

Kenneth Macleod

(Continued from p. 266.)

[Thog Gaisgeach na Sgéithe Deirge air an so gu falbh, ’s gabhar lorg a dha shùla chon a’ chuain. Chuir e dà ghleann is dà mheall agus thog e giuthsach nan eun, nuair a ghiulain osag-thoisich na gaoithe osann d’ a chridhe, agus chaidh stad ’na cheum. ‘Is truime osann na eubh air mo chridhe,’ ars’ esan, ’s e tilleadh. Faicear àilleagan nam ban ’na suidhe air a’ chnoc mhaol bhuidhe.] ‘Co aca ’s fhearr leatsa fantainn an so, air an eilean so leat fhein, na falbh leamsa?’ ars’ esan ris an Ionmhainn. ‘Is fhearr leamsa falbh leat fhein na le fir na h-uir-thahnhanta[2] gu leir,’ ars’ an Ionmhainn. Thog e leis i air fras-mhullach a ghuaille ’s air uallach a dhroma, ’s ghabh e gus an teine. Leum e thairis ’s an Ionmhainn air a mhuin. Faicidh[3] e Ridire Chuirn is Ridire Chlaidhimh a’ tighinn ’na chòdhail, agus boil is buaireas ’nan sùilean. ‘Dé an gaisgeach mòr,’ ars’ iadsan, ‘a bha as do dheigh an sid, agus a’ thill nuair a chunnaic e ar leithidean-ne de dhà ghaisgeach a’ tighinn?’ ‘So dhuibhse.’ ars’ esan, ‘an Ionmhainn mhnatha so, agus tri fiaclan ur n-athar, agus ceann agus lamh agus cridhe an fhir a bhuail an dòrm air. Deanaibh fuireach



  1. See Broceliande: Rennes, 1839.
  2. Fir cruinne no treathann fo ’n ghrein, E.V.
  3. Faiceas, E. V.