SIB WALTER SCOTT. 123 



guides up the rocky pass the supposed page Amadine, 

 but really Edith of Lorn, the chieftain asks her — 



" Dost thou not rest thee on my arm % 

 Do not my plaid-folds hold thee warm 1 

 Hath not the wild bull's treble hide 

 This targe for thee and me supplied ? " * 



One ordinary use to which the hide of the wild bull was 

 applied is here alluded to. 



Nor must we forget the beautiful description, in 

 " The Lady of the Lake," of the way in which the 

 island home of the banished Douglas was adorned : — - 



"For all around, the. walls to grace, 

 Hung trophies of the tight or chase : 

 A target there, a bugle here, 

 A battle-axe, a hunting spear, 

 And broadswords, bows, and arrows store, 

 With the tusk'd trophies of the boar. 

 Here grins the wolf as when he died, 

 And there the wild-cat's brindled hide 

 The frontlet of the elk adorns, 

 Or mantles o'er the bison's horns." f 



The bison here is the wild bull, frequently, though 

 improperly called so, both in ancient and in modern 

 times, for the true bison has not existed in Scotland, or 

 even in Great Britain, during the historic period. 



In another of his works, " The Bride of Lammer- 

 moor/'J Sir Walter makes the wild bull figure in his 

 story, though at a later period, when he had become a 

 park animal. He gives, however, a sketch of the 



* " The Lord of the Isles," canto v., stanza 18. 



f " The Lady of the Lake," canto i., stanza 27. J Chapter v. 



