Part 1

Where the Forest Murmurs

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

PHARAIS: A Romance of the Isles. THE MOUNTAIN LOVERS: A Romance. THE SIN-EATER, and other Tales. THE WASHER OF THE FORD. REISSUE SHORTER TALES, with others. I. Spiritual Tales. II. Barbaric Tales. III. Tragic Romances. (Reissued by David Nutt.)

THE LAUGHTER OF PETERKIN: Old Celtic Tales Retold. FROM THE HILLS OF DREAM: Poems. THE DOMINION OF DREAMS. THE DIVINE ADVENTURE. THE WINGED DESTINY.

To appear Shortly.

TORCHES OF LOVE AND DEATH: Poems Old and New. THE IMMORTAL HOUR: Two Dramas and a Fragment.

WHERE THE FOREST MURMURS. NATURE ESSAYS. BY FIONA MACLEOD

‘There through the branches go the ravens of unresting thought.’--W. B. YEATS.

LONDON: PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICES OF ‘COUNTRY LIFE,’ LTD. TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C., & BY GEORGE NEWNES, LTD. SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNERS’ SONS MCMVI

Fiona Macleod.]

But today I saw one, on these still garths of shadow and silence, who put a hollow reed to his lips and played a white spell of beauty. Then I knew Love and Sorrow to be one, as in the old myth of Oengus of the White Birds and The Grey Shadows.

(F. M.)]

Indian Saying]

MR. P. ANDERSON GRAHAM

DEAR MR. GRAHAM--To whom so fittingly as to you could I inscribe this book? It was you who suggested it; you who in Country Life published at intervals, longer or shorter as the errant spirit of composition moved me, the several papers which make it one book; you without whose encouragement and good counsel this volume would probably not have been written. Then, perchance, it might have gone to that Y-Brasil Press in the Country of the Young wherefrom are issued all the delightful books which, though possible and welcome in Tir-na-n’ Og, are unachieved in this more difficult world, except in dreams and hopes. It would be good to have readers among the kindly Shee ... do not the poets there know an easy time, having only to breathe their thought on to a leaf and to whisper their music to a reed, and lo the poem is public from the caverns of Tir-fo-tuinn to the hills of Flatheanas! ... but, till one gets behind the foam yonder, the desire of the heart is for comrades here. These hours of beauty have meant so much to me, somewhat in the writing, but much more in the long, incalculable hours and days out of which the writing has risen like the blue smoke out of woods, that I want to share them with others, who may care for the things written of as you and I care for them, and among whom may be a few who, likewise, will be moved to garner from each day of the eternal pageant one hour of unforgettable beauty.

FIONA MACLEOD.

“The Divine Adventure.” F. M.]

CONTENTS

PAGE WHERE THE FOREST MURMURS 1

THE MOUNTAIN CHARM 13

THE CLANS OF THE GRASS 26

THE TIDES 37

THE HILL-TARN 47

AT THE TURN OF THE YEAR 56

THE SONS OF THE NORTH WIND 66

ST. BRIDGET OF THE SHORES 76

THE HERALDS OF MARCH 87

THE TRIBE OF THE PLOVER 99