Explore "Waverley" by Walter Scott on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When the first salutations had passed, Fergus said to his sister, "My dear Flora, before I return to the barbarous ritual of our forefathers, I must tell you that Captain Waverley is a worshipper of the Celtic muse, not the less so perhaps that he does not understand a word of her language. I have told him you are eminent as a translator of Highland poetry, and that MacMurrough admires your version of his songs upon the same principle that Captain Waverley admires the original -- because he does not comprehend them. Will you have the goodness to read or recite to our guest in English the extraordinary string of names which MacMurrough has tacked together in Gaelic? My life to a moorfowl's feather, you are provided with a version; for I know you are in all the bard's councils, and acquainted with his songs long before he rehearses them in the hall."
"How can you say so, Fergus? You know how little these verses can possibly interest an English stranger, even if I could translate them as you pretend."