Page:Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book (1963).djvu/62

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Beautifully made in many ways is this our world, cunningly adorned. I saw a strange thing singing in a house; its shape was more wonderful than aught among men. Its beak was underneath, its feet and hands birdlike, yet fly it cannot nor walk at all. Yet eager for movement it starts to work with various arts. It often goes around again and again among noble men. It sits at the banquet-board, awaits its turn till comes its time to display its skill among those who are near. It partakes of nothing that the men there have for their pleasure. Brave, eager for glory it remains dumb, yet it has in its foot beautiful sounds, a glorious gift of song. Wondrous it seems to me how this very thing can play with words through its foot beneath adorned with trappings. It has on its neck when it guards its treasure, bare, proud with rings, its two companions, brother and sister. It&rsquo;s a great thing surely for a wise singer to think what this is.

It is a Bagpipe, pictured in the likeness of a bird over a man&rsquo;s shoulder, head down (its beak, the chanter, on which the tune is played) and feet in the air (the two drones, brother and sister, which make the continuous sound). &ldquo;When it guards its treasure&rdquo; (l. 19) means the bellows, when inflated.