Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/71

 Schoepperle 55 O Torcall of Lochlin, throw off the red sins that ye cherish And I will be giving you the washen shroud that they wear in Heaven." 11 It is Mary Magdeline, symbol supreme of repentance. His eyes have been purged of their blindness; his heart is led by the sad song of the dead woman and the cry of her child. A prayer comes of his heart at the sound, and he weeps for pity. "Which is best O Torcall," this Washer asks him, "the sword or peace?" The hard stubborn heart is softened at last, and he answers "Peace." "Take your harp," Mary said, "and go unto the Ford. But lo, now I clothe you with a white shroud. And if you fear the drowning flood, follow the bells that were your tears; and if the dark affright you, follow the song of prayer that came out of your heart. " l9 In this second vision of TorcaU's,; the pagan figure has become a symbol of Christian promise. The writer has handled the legend with great freedom, but the lineaments of the Gaelic tradition are discernible. Throughout, the Washer of the Ford is peculiarly the Weird of men that love battle and strife; the garments that she washes are the gear of the doomed warriors who meet her; the prophecy inplicit in her action is further expounded in a dialogue between her and the man who is to die. The figure of the Sin-Eater is familiar in India and Turkistan, 20 and there are spirit-women that wash clothes in the moonlight on river banks in the folk-lore of many countries. 21 William Sharp who was an omniverous reader, may have been acquainted with such beliefs from the essays which Prof. King cites and from many other sources as well as from Gaelic tradition. It would seem gratuitous to doubt, however, that he heard of the Washer of the Ford where he says he heard of her, in the highlands and islands of Scotland which know her still and which he surely knew. He heard of her no doubt only as the vague prophetess we have in- u lbid., p. 178. "Ibid., p. 180. 20 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3 IX, The Scapegoat, p. 43-6. 21 For France, cf. Sebillot, Le Folk-Lore de France. See Index s.v. lavan- dieres de nuit; Folk Lore XI, 426; G. Sand, Legendes rustiques, p. 30; Laisnel de la Salle, Le Berry (Les literatures populates XL), p. 140. For Korea, cf. Folk Lore XI, 332. "There are spirits too about rivers that take various shapes, commonly that of a woman washing clothes in the moonlight." traditions do not retain, if they ever possessed, the distinctive features which we have enumerated of the Gaelic Washers of the Ford. For the figure of the Sin Eater, cf. G. Henderson, Survivals in Belief among the Celts, p. 84.