beaches, on the sandy machars, by the meadow St. 

 path, the glen-track, the white shore-road, the Bridget 

 islanders know that the new year is disclosed shores 

 at last, that food, warmth, and gladness are 

 coming out of the south. As ' the Fair 

 Woman of February,' though whatever other 

 designation St. Bride goes by, she is often 

 revealed. Her humble yellow fires are lit 

 among the grasses, on the shore-ways, during 

 this month. Everywhere in the Gaelic lands 

 1 Candlemas-Queen ' is honoured at this time. 

 Am Fheill Bhride, the Festival of St. Bridget, 

 was till recently a festival of joy throughout 

 the west, from the Highland Line to the last 

 weedy shores of Barra or the Lews : in the 

 isles and in the remote Highlands, still is. 



It is an old tale, this association of St. 

 Bridget with February. It goes further back 

 than the days of the monkish chroniclers who 

 first attempted to put the disguise of verbal 

 Christian raiment on the most widely -loved 

 and revered beings of the ancient Gaelic 

 pantheon. Long before the maiden Brigida 

 (whether of Ireland or Scotland matters little) 

 made her fame as a * daughter of God ' ; long 

 before to Colum in Iona or to Patrick 'the 

 great Cleric' in Ireland 'Holy St. Bride' 

 revealed in a vision the service she had done 

 to Mary and the Child in far-away Bethlehem 



77 



