Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/520

 508 runic cross, round which the thickly-set tombs of the centre of the island cluster, is in itself worth quoting in full. I have no means of analysing the early and late, and the religious and secular elements, and therefore refrain from conjecture. The burying-ground covers the centre of the island; is deep in the damp profusion of grass and under-growth; and is surrounded by an oval dyke, now over-grown—in Pennant's time "a dyke of stones, with a regular, narrow entrance". Within the enclosure are two mounds, which would probably reward excavation.

I give Mr. Dixon's version of the legend, slightly condensed:—After the death of St. Maree, his cell on the island continued to be the resort of holy men. During the time of the Norwegian power in the district, a prince and princess of Norway were married by the island hermit, and here the prince left his bride when called away to war. Before parting they agreed that, when the prince returned, a white flag should be displayed from his barge if all was well, if not, a black flag; the princess was to meet her husband with like signals of good or evil fate. The prince remained away, and meanwhile jealousy and doubt entered the heart of the princess. She determined to test his constancy, and when the prince's barge, flying the white flag, at length entered the loch, she commanded her barge to be launched. A black flag hung from the stern, a bier was placed on the centre, on which she lay counterfeiting death, her maidens mourning round her, and the barge was rowed slowly down the loch to meet the prince. Seeing the black flag, he leapt from his own deck, and, raising the shroud, seemed to see the face of his dead bride. In an agony of grief he stabbed himself; and the princess, rising with a cry, drew the dagger from his heart and thrust it in her own. The two lovers were buried on the island, where their graves still lie, foot to foot, in the silence of the woodland, each marked by the runic cross.