Brendans Fabulous Voyage | Page 8

remark about the water in the Eden of
Birds seems to me to be very likely plagiarised from the wine-river in
Lucian's _Traveller's Tale_. Hence they went north for three days, were
beating about for about twenty, and then eastward for three more, and
then came back for Maundy Thursday to the isle of the provider, who
again met them. All went on as before, and a week after Pentecost they
started again from the Eden of the Birds.
It will thus be observed that the real times of voyaging in each year are
limited to the months of February and March, and from about the early

part of June to the middle of December.
Forty days after starting in this new year they were much alarmed by a
vast fish which seemed to be coming after them to devour them, but it
was killed by another monster, breathing fire, which appeared against it
from the East, and tore it into three pieces.
The next day they came to a large and grassy island, where they found
the tail portion of the monster fish. On this island they beached the ship,
pitched the tent, and stayed three months, during which the sea was too
stormy for travel. They lived for the three months on part of the
monster, the rest of which was devoured by beasts, but another portion
of a fish was afterwards washed up, and they made a salt provision of
it--though as to Brendan himself, it is remarked that he was a consistent
vegetarian, having never, since his ordination, eaten anything wherein
had been the breath of life. Three days after this, the sea being stiller,
they set out again towards the North.
One day they saw an island in the distance, and Brendan told them that
there were three companies, of children, of young men, and of elders,
and that one of the three brethren last come was there to make his
earthly pilgrimage. They came to shore. The island was so flat that it
seemed level with the sea. It had no trees nor anything that wind can
shake. It was vast, and was covered with something which the Latin
text calls _scaltæ_--a word which I have failed to find in Ducange or in
any other authority which I have been able to consult. It is, however,
evidently, from the context, some kind of ground fruit, and may
perhaps be the strawberry or the Blaeberry--although the Latin for these
seems to be generally fragum and bacca myrtilii. This fruit was white
or _purpureus_--wherein another difficulty arises as to the meaning of
purpureus. The individual berries were as big as large balls, and tasted
like honey. In this island were the three companies, who seemed to be
moving and standing in a kind of sacred dance, two moving round
while the one which had taken the farthest place stood still and sang,
'The Saints shall go from strength to strength: the God of gods will
appear in Zion.' It is vexatious that here the question of colour again
arises, as something very picturesque is evidently intended to be

described. The company of children were clad in pure and glistering
white, but the Latin, which is verbally followed by the French, gives
the colour of the young men's garments as hyacinthine, and that of the
elders' as purple. I have consulted all the authorities upon the question
that I can. The result is that it is disputed whether hyacinthine means
red or blue or both, and whether the Latin purple was red or
plum-coloured. I hazard the conjecture that there is here an attempt to
symbolize innocence, vigour, and ripeness, and that as the first colour
is certainly white, the others may be red and what we call purple.
The voyagers landed at the fourth hour (10 A.M.) and the dance went
on until noon, when the three companies sang together the lxvii., the
lxx., and the cxvi. Psalms, adding again, 'the God of gods will appear in
Zion.' At 3 P.M. they sang likewise Psalms cxxx., cxxxiii., and what is
called in the Septuagint the cxlvii., viz., the last nine verses of that so
called in the A.V. At even they sang the lxv., the civ., the cxiii., and
then the whole 15 songs of degrees, during which they sat. When this
was done, a bright cloud overshadowed the island, a cloud so bright
that it blinded the sight of the voyagers, but they could still hear the
sacred song going on without ceasing until midnight (_vigilie
matutinæ_) when they heard sung Psalms cxlviii., cxlix., and cl., and
then what are called '12 Psalms according to the Psalter, up to "The
fool hath said in his heart,"'--an apparent reference to the present
Roman Breviary arrangement by which the