(an t-ar), one of the oldest names in the Gaelic White 

 language) ; ' thrice the age of an eagle, the age Weather, 

 of an oak.' The stag lives a hundred years, or 

 so it is universally believed : therefore the eagle 

 lives three hundred, and the oak's age is at least 

 nine hundred years. I recall, in connection 

 with the eagle, a singular saying which I heard 

 many years ago and have not since heard or 

 anywhere encountered, to the effect that be- 

 tween dusk and dawn a bat's flight will be the 

 equivalent of a thousand miles, that between 

 dawn and dusk a swallow will cover a 

 thousand miles, and that a thousand miles is 

 the measure of an eagle's flight between sun- 

 rise and sunset. 



Well, I must leave Maol-Aitionnach, and 

 the snow -held hills. Everywhere, now, the 

 White Weather may have spread. Far south, 

 listeners may hear the honk-honk of the travel- 

 ling solander, that most musical and thrilling 

 of all nocturnal sounds or of winter-dawns : 

 or, like phantom - voices from the world of 

 dreams, the kuilliyak-ee, kuilliyak-o of the 

 wild swans, the Clann righ fo gheasan, the 

 Enchanted sons of Kings, who, as they wheel 

 through the snowy twilight under the dawn- 

 star may remember the dim lands of the north, 

 and a great mountain that rises among white 

 and silent hills and looks down upon a black 

 335 



