240 THE LOST SECRET OF HEATHER ALE 



sons who took up a position guarding the isthmus 

 uniting the Mull to the mainland, and not only defied 

 capture, but inflicted considerable loss upon their assail- 

 ants. They sustained this unequal conflict by means of 

 the famous biadh-nan-treun or food of heroes, a kind 

 of pemmican which enabled Pictish hunters to endure 

 incredible privation. Day after day went by, and still 

 these stout fellows held the passage a narrow neck 

 between two seas, called Tarbet to this day, which in the 

 Gaelic means ' drawboat,' for here fisher-folk drag their 

 boats across the isthmus to avoid the dangerous seas that 

 churn about the Mull. Six times the sun rose from 

 behind the Galloway uplands, and swung its course over 

 the blue crests of Mona; six times it found its setting 

 where the graceful cone of Slieve Donard starts aloft 

 from the wavy outline of Erin. A seventh time it rose ; 

 the narrow strand was strewn with Scottish slain, for none 

 might cross that way and live. But now the store of this 

 stalwart little band was at low ebb. Hunger must soon 

 accomplish what Scottish swords and javelins could not 

 achieve. Yet had the victors strongest reason for pre- 

 venting the death by starvation of their stubborn enemy, 

 for well they knew that these four Picts were of the 

 family with whom reposed the secret of the heather ale. 

 They might have avoided the loss of some of their best 

 fighters by simply sitting down and starving the fugitives 

 to death, but they desired to take them alive. On this 

 seventh day, then, they offered the Picts life and freedom 

 if they would reveal the coveted secret. 



' Agreed ! ' cried the father of the family, ' on one con- 

 dition. I must not live to witness the dishonour of my 

 race. Take me and my two younger sons and slay us : 



