I am watching a sweetly beautiful film right now called “Dorset Days: the life of Longhorn Jim” – how lovely is the Bride Valley and how much do I long for it. Jim has a priest bless his herds, and uses this beautiful old prayer from the sublime Carmina Gadelica, a ‘milking croon’. It is part of our own earthing ourselves to look back:
Come, Brendan, from the ocean,
Come, Ternan, most potent of men,
Come, Michael valiant, down
And propitiate to me the cow of my joy.
Ho my heifer, ho heifer of my love,
Ho my heifer, ho heifer of my love.
My beloved heifer, choice cow of every shieling,
For the sake of the High King take to thy calf.
Come, beloved Colum of the fold,
Come, great Bride of the flocks,
Come, fair Mary from the cloud,
And propitiate to me the cow of my love.
Ho my heifer, ho heifer of my love.
The stock-dove will come from the wood,
The tusk will come from the wave,
The fox will come but not with wiles,
To hail my cow of virtues.
Ho my heifer, ho heifer of my love.
