civilisation. A comparative study of the grouped deities of the Celtic world with those of other districts may help to elucidate the history of religions in Europe generally, especially by bringing to light the earlier substratum from which the poltheistic systems have sprung. It is as a contribution to this wider study that the present paper has been written, and, if it stimulates others to further inquiry, its purpose will have been amply fulfilled.
THE LOCH AT THE BACK OF THE WORLD
Rev. Lauchlan MacLean Watt
The Loch at the Back of the World is the sweetest place of all my dreaming.
It was far away, in ages long forgot, that the waters under Moruisg and the great hills up the glen said, ‘We must rise, and seek the sea. We have heard the song of ocean, and the beating of his sorrow on the sands afar. Come, let us go and hear what he is saying all the long nights and days.’
So they rose, and sought the sunlight, and trickled through the heather, and gurgled down the braes. And wild birds sang above them in their going, and the lithe grasses trembled as they passed, and the irises, all queenly in the marsh, woke from their dreams, and wondering, gazed abroad. And they gathered in a deep, shady hollow under a moss-grown crag, and made a pool where the dun-deer stooped to drink, and fairies peered, and saw their queer, quaint faces reflected under the stars. And then, still on they pressed; and the springs, hid under the hills, heard the chatter of their passing, and leaped from the cool deeps where they slumbered, and joined in the progress seawards. Great rocks and precipices barred the way, but the waters found a door, and washed away the shingle, and deepened the rough channels
