104 NETHER LOCHABER. 



" Then shall my dolt 1 bring his muim' a good store 

 Of game from the mountain and fish from the shore ; 

 Cattle, and sheep, and goats graze where they may 

 My dalta will find ere the dawn of the day. 



' ' Thy father and uncles, with target and sword, 

 Will back each bold venture by ferry and ford ; 

 From thy hand I shall yet drain a beaker of wine, 

 And the toast shall be Health and the lowing of kine ! 



" Then rest thee, my foster-son, sleep and be still, 

 The first star of night twinkles bright on the hill ; 

 My brave boy is sleeping kind angels watch o'er him, 

 And safe to the light of the morning restore him. 

 Lullaby, lullaby, what should he fear, 

 Well can his father wield broadsword and spear ! " 



To the proper understanding of this curious composition, a few 

 words of comment and elucidation may be necessary. The lullaby 

 must be understood as sung by a foster-mother to her foster-son, 

 the Gaelic words from which the exigencies of verse oblige us to 

 retain in our paraphrase. In lulling her charge to sleep, the 

 foster-mother fondly anticipates the time when the boy on her 

 knee shall have become a full-grown and perfect man ; her ^can- 

 ideal of a perfect man, observe, being that, like the heroes of 

 ancient song, he should be brawny limbed, strong of hand, and 

 swift of foot, able and willing at all risks to seize and appropriate 

 his neighbour's goods, especially his cattle, whenever necessity an 

 empty larder or honour urged him to the adventure. The coolness 

 with which the old lady commits her foster-son to the immediate 

 care and guardianship of the heavenly powers, in the self-same 

 breath in which she hopes and believes that he will, when he 

 becomes a man, prove an active and expert thief a stealer of beeves 

 from the pastures of neighbouring tribes, in utter defiance of the 

 decalogue is ludicrous in the extreme. To understand it aright, 

 we must recollect that in former times it was accounted not only 

 lawful but honourable among hostile tribes to commit depredations 



