The heart : and, as they looked, a soft murmurous 

 Ch j^ e " sound came from them, drowsy-sweet, full of 

 and the P eace : an( ^ as tnev hung there like a breath 

 Clan of in frost they became white as snow. 

 Peace. Ye are the Doves of the Spirit," said 



Christ, " and to you I will commit that which 

 ye have seen. Henceforth shall your plumage 

 be white and your voices be the voices of 

 peace." 



The young Christ turned, for He heard 

 Mary calling to the sheep and goats, and knew 

 that dayset was come and that in the valleys 

 the gloaming was already rising like smoke 

 from the urns of the twilight. When He 

 looked back He saw by the pool neither the 

 Son of Joy nor the Son of Sorrow, but seven 

 white doves were in the cedar beyond the 

 pool, cooing in low ecstasy of peace and 

 awaiting through sleep and dreams the rose- 

 red pathways of the dawn. Down the long 

 grey reaches of the ebbing day He saw seven 

 birds rising and falling on the wind, black as 

 black water in caves, black as the darkness of 

 night in old pathless woods. 



And that is how the first doves became 

 white, and how the first crows became black 

 and were called by a name that means the 

 clan of darkness, the children of the wind. 

 254 



