ULPHA KIRK. 245 



good mark to the weary traveller coining in, 

 like me when day is closing in. 



PISCATOK. And, I am glad to see you, for I 

 began to fear some accident might have befallen 

 you. The site of the kirk perhaps suggested 

 to the Poet the leading idea in the sonnet 

 commencing, 



" The Kirk of Ulpha to the pilgrim's eye, 

 Is welcome as a star, that doth present 

 Its shining forehead through the peaceful rent 

 Of a black cloud diffused o'er half the sky : 

 Or as a fruitful palm-tree towering high 

 O'er the parched waste beside an Arab's tent." 



AMICUS. Ha ! how, that last line brings back 

 past times and scenes, and the comfort I have 

 had when journeying in the wilds of Ceylon at 

 the sight of the palm, the cocoa-nut palm, which 

 there is almost a domestic tree, marking always 

 human dwellings, for nowhere else, never in the 

 wild woods out of the protection of man, do you 

 meet with it. The natives view it in this light ; 

 they say, it never flourishes " except you walk 

 under it and talk under it," and there is reason 

 in the saying, for if not guarded, it is sure to be 

 thrown down in the wilder parts of the country 

 by the elephants, for the sake of its leaves. 



B 3 



