gustine's dress, and Cormac is my name,
The Abbot of this good Abbey by grace of God I am.
I went forth to pray, at the dawn of day; and when my prayers were said,
I hearken'd awhile to a little bird that sung above my head."
The monks to him made answer, "Two hundred years have gone o'er,
Since our Abbot Cormac went through the gate, and never was heard of
more.
Matthias now is our Abbot, and twenty have pass'd away.
The stranger is lord of Ireland; we live in an evil day."
"Days will come and go," he said, "and the world will pass away,
In Heaven a day is a thousand years, a thousand years are a day."

IV.

"Now, give me absolution; for my time is come," said he.
And they gave him absolution as speedily as might be.
Then, close outside the window, the sweetest song they heard
That ever yet since the world began was utter'd by any bird.
The monks look'd out and saw the bird, its feathers all white and clean;
And there in a moment, beside it, another white bird was seen.
Those two they sang together, waved their white wings, and fled;
Flew aloft, and vanished; but the good old man was dead.
They buried his blessed body where lake and greensward meet;
A carven cross above his head, a holly-bush at his feet;
Where spreads the beautiful water to gay or cloudy skies,
And the purple peaks of Killarney from ancient woods arise.

WILLIAM ALLINGHAM.

Morraha

(_As told by an Irish Peasant._)

Morraha rose in the morning, and washed his hands and face, and said his
prayers, and ate his food; and he asked God to prosper the day for him;
and he went down to the brink of the sea, and he saw a currach, short
and green, coming towards him; and in it there was but one youthful
champion, and he playing hurly from prow to stern of the currach. He had
a hurl of gold and a ball of silver; and he stopped not until the
currach was in on the shore; and he drew her up on the green grass, and
put fastening on her for a day and a year, whether he should be there
all that time, or should only be on land for an hour by the clock. And
Morraha saluted the young man in words intelligent, intelligible, such
as were spoken at that time; and the other saluted him in the same
fashion, and asked him would he play a game of cards with him; and
Morraha said he had not the wherewithal; and the other answered that he
was never without a candle or the making of it; and he put his hand in
his po