The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-11-29
MUSIC ORIGINATED in ERIN, Ac
coRDING TO IRISH LEGEND.

There are many legends concern
| ing the origin of music, but the fol-
| lowing account, which puts forth the
claims of the Emerald Isle, is GER
| tainly one of the prettiest of them
| all:
In olden times, before music was in
vented in Erin, a chief named Cool,
and his wife, Canola, lived together
| unhappily, in constant quarreling and
disagreement Cool was hasty, hot
| headed and easily displeased. sCanola
was fretful, impatient, sharp OF tongue
and temper.
One day. Cool came in tired and hum
| CRY from hunting Perceiving that no
| fire was made ready fer cooking, he
| became so angry he raised his hand
to lay it hard upon her At that Ca
nola fed and Cool pursued.
Now there was never woman in
all Erin so feet of foot as Canola, and
her husband could not overtake her.
| BY the border of Tough Neagh she
| fled; along the sands where are wind
pipes among the reeds and sedge;
where the curlew and the plover
whistle shrill overhead like the ami
/ mate voice of that wild, free world in
| which they dwell; where hedges and
/ yellow broom stripe the -gray-green
fields inland, and the gray-blue water
! stretches away in ~steely CLEAN to
/ the dim horizon. Over the great,
! grassy hills of Tyrone, by the border
| of the swift, sparkling Foyle-on and
on she fed till she drew near the bold
north coast, where the green noun
tains stand tall on their buttresses
of rock, over the never-resting sea.
! There first she stopped her speed;
for, suddenly, in that lonely and des-
a olate spot, she heard a strange, sweet
sound unlike anything her ears had
i ever known before. 1t rose melodl-
Z ously in plaintive cry, and then sank
, gently again to soft murmur, many
, times repeated over and over.
4 Canola drew nearer and nearer to
the strange sound, till she came at
last to the edge of the sea, and there,
stranded on the coast, she saw the
skeleton of a great fish; and the wind,
tplaying through it's dried ribs, was
: that which made the sweet sounds.
Being enraptured, she stood still to
listen. 1t was indeed then that rCeol
drew near in his pursuit of her. He
too. heard the melodieus sound, and
when he took witness to himself that
his wife was Fascinated by what came
to her ears, he turned aside into
!. grove hard by, where the sallies ano
offers drop their cascades of glimmer
| ing silver upcS1 tho moss-grown sod
, where the poplar leaves and the ash
: seeds clash like soft cymbals in thu
: breeze.
There he cut down a slim sapling
: scooped the wood of 1T into a bow
land strung lengths of deer.gut within
!. Then he drew his fingers across tht
: Estrings, and a 7sonnd that was still
lsweeter than that made by the wint
| in the bones of the great fish issHee
therefrom. Il .s
Now Ganola, hearing it, drew nearel
!. the place from which, it proceeded
. When she came to the edge Sof thu
:, lwoed her eyes fell upon, Cool, 8but IN
I Istead of again giving speed ito he
Z fleet feet, she let them draw he
knearer to where her husband stood
Z and he. noting her approach, held on
his arms, and she entered in between
them and fell on his breast. So thel
they kissed one another and returne'
z TO their home hand in hand.
And ever after from that day Coo
and Canola lived in concord and hal
I mony together having eased all thei
u troubles before the gentle muse o
: music.
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