LEGENDS OF SAINTS AND BIRDS.t
WE have here a collection of stories that have come down to us from the dim ages. There is a peculiar charm about these old tales of primitive times, and the writer of this little book evidently feels it, and, what is more, can convey it to the reader. The legends tell us how the saints lived among fields and woods and in open spaces by the seashore, and how birds, and sometimes bears and other fierce beasts, would come to ask for food or help, and occasionally to render some service to the holy men and women. The monks and nuns treated the wild creatures like equals, as quite little children now treat their cats and dogs, and the animals responded with confidence. One of the most attractive stories is called " St. Kenneth of the Gulls," and tells bow one day on the sea-coast of Glamorganshire the seagulls found a baby in a boat and adopted him. They made kind and thoughtful nurses, and when he wanted food they called on the forest doe for help, which she gladly gave. After a while a shepherd discovered the boy and took him home to his wife; but the gulls followed and brought him back to • The Bruce. By Master John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen. Trans- lated by George Eyre-Todd. London: Gowans and Gray. [5s. net.] t Legends of Saints and Birds. By A. A. Hilton. London: Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co. [2s. Gd.]
the nest. He grew up to be a hermit, and spent the last years of his life, as he hid done the first, with the gulls and the deer. Another legend is that of " Angus, the Servant of God." He had the gift of writing, and his chief wish was to study the lives of the saints and make a poem about them. He was also a great preacher, but in the midst of his fame he suddenly disappeared and became a labourer on a monastery-farm in Ireland. There is a charming account of how by helping a child with his lessons he came to realise that his true task lay, not in using his bodily strength, but in the work of his brain. "St. Guthlac and the Ravens" is another excellent story, and the picture of some of these wise birds sitting in a tree is very good. Indeed, all the illustra- tions deserve praise. They are simple, but at the same time there is plenty of amusing and quaint detail in them. At the end of the book there are tables of the approximate dates of the saints, notes on their shrines and emblems, and a short explanation of a few words that might be difficult for children to understand.
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