The Pirate
amongst her hair like those of a wild animal from its cover, blew
fiercely till the whole was in an intense glow. She paused a moment from
her toil, and muttering that the elemental spirit must be thanked,
recited, in her usual monotonous, yet wild mode of chanting, the
following verses:--
"Thou so needful, yet so dread,
With cloudy crest, and wing of red;
Thou, without whose genial breath
The North would sleep the sleep of death;
Who deign'st to warm the cottage hearth,
Yet hurl'st proud palaces to earth,--
Brightest, keenest of the Powers,
Which form and rule this world of ours,
With my rhyme of Runic, I
Thank thee for thy agency."
She then severed a portion from the small mass of sheet-lead which lay
upon the table, and, placing it in the crucible, subjected it to the
action of the lighted charcoal, and, as it melted, she sung,--
"Old Reimkennar, to thy art
Mother Hertha sends her part;
She, whose gracious bounty gives
Needful food for all that lives.
From the deep mine of the North,
Came the mystic metal forth,
Doom'd, amidst disjointed stones,
Long to cere a champion's bones,
Disinhumed my charms to aid--
Mother Earth, my thanks are paid."
She then poured out some water from the jar into a large cup, or goblet,
and sung once more, as she slowly stirred it round with the end of her
staff:--
"Girdle of our islands dear,
Element of Water, hear
Thou whose power can overwhelm
Broken mounds and ruin'd realm
On the lowly Belgian strand;
All thy fiercest rage can never
Of our soil a furlong sever
From our rock-defended land;
Play then gently thou thy part,
To assist old Norna's art."
She then, with a pair of pincers, removed the crucible from the
chafing-dish, and poured the lead, now entirely melted, into the bowl of
water, repeating at the same time,--
"Elements, each other greeting,
Gifts and powers attend your meeting!"
The melted lead, spattering as it fell into the water, formed, of
course, the usual combination of irregular forms which is familiar to
all who in childhood have made the experiment, and from which, according
to our childish fancy, we may have selected portions bearing some
resemblance to domestic articles--the tools of mechanics, or the like.
Norna seemed to busy herself in some such researches, for she examined
the mass of lead with scrupulous attention, and detached it into
different portions, without apparently being able to find a fragment in
the form which she desired.
At length she again muttered, rather as speaking to herself than to her
guests, "He, the Viewless, will not be omitted,--he will have his
tribute even in the work to which he gives nothing.--Stern compeller of
the clouds, thou also shalt hear the voice of the Reimkennar."
Thus speaking, Norna once more threw the lead into the crucible, where,
hissing and spattering as the wet metal touched the sides of the red-hot
vessel, it was soon again reduced into a state of fusion. The sibyl
meantime turned to a corner of the apartment, and opening suddenly a
window which looked to the north-west, let in the fitful radiance of the
sun, now lying almost level upon a great mass of red clouds, which,
boding future tempest, occupied the edge of the horizon, and seemed to
brood over the billows of the boundless sea. Turning to this quarter,
from which a low hollow moaning breeze then blew, Norna addressed the
Spirit of the Winds, in tones which seemed to resemble his own:--
"Thou, that over billows dark
Safely send'st the fisher's bark,--
Giving him a path and motion
Through the wilderness of ocean;
Thou, that when the billows brave ye,
O'er the shelves canst drive the navy,--
Did'st thou chafe as one neglected,
While thy brethren were respected?
To appease thee, see, I tear
This full grasp of grizzled hair;
Oft thy breath hath through it sung,
Softening to my magic tongue,--
Now, 'tis thine to bid it fly
Through the wide expanse of sky,
'Mid the countless swarms to sail
Of wild-fowl wheeling on thy gale;
Take thy portion and rejoice,--
Spirit, thou hast heard my voice!"
Norna accompanied these words with the action which they described,
tearing a handful of hair with vehemence from her head, and strewing it
upon the wind as she continued her recitation. She then shut the
casement, and again involved the chamber in the dubious twilight, which
best suited her character and occupation. The melted lead was once more
emptied into the water, and the various whimsical conformations which it
received from the operation were examined with great care by the sibyl,
who at length seemed to intimate, by voice and gesture, that her spell
had been successful. She selected from the fused metal a piece about the
size of a small nut, bearing in shape a close resemblance to that of the
human heart, and, approaching Minna, again spoke in song:--
"She who sits by haunted well,
Is subject to the Nixie's spell;
She who walks on lonely beach
To the Mermaid's charmed speech;
She who walks round ring of green,
Offends the peevish Fairy Queen;
And she who takes rest in the Dwarfie's cave,
A weary weird of woe shall have.
"By ring, by spring, by cave, by shore,
Minna Troil has braved all this and more:
And yet hath the root of her sorrow and ill
A source that's more deep and more mystical still."
Minna, whose attention had been latterly something disturbed by
reflections on her own secret sorrow, now suddenly recalled it, and
looked eagerly on Norna as if she expected to learn from her rhymes
something of deep interest. The northern sibyl, meanwhile, proceeded to
pierce the piece of lead, which bore the form of a heart, and to fix in
it a piece of gold wire, by which it might be attached to a chain or
necklace. She then proceeded in her rhyme,--
"Thou art within a demon's hold,
More wise than Heims, more strong than Trolld;
No siren sings so sweet as he,--
No fay springs lighter on the lea;
No elfin power hath half the art
To soothe, to move, to wring the heart,--
Life-blood from the cheek to drain,
Drench the eye, and dry the vein.
Maiden, ere we farther go,
Dost thou note me, ay or no?"
Minna replied in the same rhythmical manner, which, in jest and earnest,
was frequently used by the ancient Scandinavians,--
"I mark thee, my mother, both word, look, and sign;
Speak on with the riddle--to read it be mine."
"Now, Heaven and every saint be praised!" said Magnus; "they are the
first words to the purpose which she hath spoken these many days."
"And they are the last which she shall speak for many a month," said
Norna, incensed at the interruption, "if you again break the progress of
my spell. Turn your faces to the wall, and look not hitherward again,
under penalty of my severe displeasure. You, Magnus Troil, from
hard-hearted audacity of spirit, and you, Brenda, from wanton and idle
disbelief in that which is beyond your bounded comprehension, are
unworthy to look on this mystic work; and the glance of your eyes
mingles with, and weakens, the spell; for the powers cannot brook
distrust."
Unaccustomed to be addressed in a tone so peremptory, Magnus would have
made some angry reply; but reflecting that the health of Minna was at
stake, and considering that she who spoke was a woman of many sorrows,
he suppressed his anger, bowed his head, shrugged his shoulders, assumed
the prescribed posture, averting his head from the table, and turning
towards the wall. Brenda did the same, on receiving a sign from her
father, and both remained profoundly silent.
Norna then addressed Minna once more,--
"Mark me! for the word I speak
Shall bring the colour to thy cheek.
This leaden heart, so light of cost,
The symbol of a treasure lost,
Thou shalt wear in hope and in peace,
That the cause of your sickness and sorrow may cease,
When crimson foot meets crimson hand
In the Martyrs' Aisle, and in Orkney-land."
Minna coloured deeply at the last couplet, intimating, as she failed not
to interpret it, that Norna was completely acquainted with the secret
cause of her sorrow. The same conviction led the maiden to hope in the
favourable issue, which the sibyl seemed to prophesy; and not venturing
to express her feelings in any manner more intelligible, she pressed
Norna's withered hand with all the warmth of affection, first to her
breast and then to her bosom, bedewing it at the same time with her
tears.
With more of human feeling than she usually exhibited, Norna extricated
her hand from the grasp of the poor girl, whose tears now flowed freely,
and then, with more tenderness of manner than she had yet shown, she
knotted the leaden heart to a chain of gold, and hung it around Minna's
neck, singing, as she performed that last branch of the spell,--
"Be patient, be patient, for Patience hath power
To ward us in danger, like mantle in shower;
A fairy gift you best may hold
In a chain of fairy gold;
The chain and the gift are each a true token,
That not without warrant old Norna has spoken;
But thy nearest and dearest must never behold them,
Till time shall accomplish the truths I have told them."
The verses being concluded, Norna carefully arranged the chain around
her patient's neck so as to hide it in her bosom, and thus ended the
spell--a spell which, at the moment I record these incidents, it is
known, has been lately practised in Zetland, where any decline of
health, without apparent cause, is imputed by the lower orders to a
demon having stolen the heart from the body of the patient, and where
the experiment of supplying the deprivation by a leaden one, prepared in
the manner described, has been resorted to within these few years. In a
metaphorical sense, the disease may be considered as a general one in
all parts of the world; but, as this simple and original remedy is
peculiar to the isles of Thule, it were unpardonable not to preserve it
at length, in a narrative connected with Scottish antiquities.[21]
A second time Norna reminded her patient, that if she showed, or spoke
of, the fairy gifts, their virtue would be lost--a belief so common as
to be received into the superstitions of all nations. Lastly,
unbuttoning the collar which she had just fastened, she showed her a
link of the gold chain, which Minna instantly recognised as that
formerly given by Norna to Mordaunt Mertoun. This seemed to intimate he
was yet alive, and under Norna's protection; and she gazed on her with
the most eager curiosity. But the sibyl imposed her finger on her lips
in token of silence, and a second time involved the chain in those folds
which modestly and closely veiled one of the most beautiful, as well as
one of the kindest, bosoms in the world.
Norna then extinguished the lighted charcoal, and, as the water hissed
upon the glowing embers, commanded Magnus and Brenda to look around, and
behold her task accomplished.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] The MacRaws were followers of the MacKenzies, whose chief has the
name of Caberfae, or Buckshead, from the cognisance borne on his
standards. Unquestionably the worthy piper trained the seal on the same
principle of respect to the clan-term which I have heard has been taught
to dogs, who, unused to any other air, dance after their fashion to the
tune of Caberfae.
[21] The spells described in this chapter are not altogether imaginary.
By this mode of pouring lead into water, and selecting the part which
chances to assume a resemblance to the human heart, which must be worn
by the patient around her or his neck, the sage persons of Zetland
pretend to cure the fatal disorder called the loss of a heart.
CHAPTER IX.
See yonder woman, whom our swains revere,