Minna  dreamed  that  she  was  in  one  of  the  most
lonely  recesses  of  the  beach,  called  Swartaster,  where
the  incessant  operation  of  the  waves,  indenting  a
calcarious  rock,  has  formed  a  deep  halier,  which,  in
the  language  of  the  island,  means  a  subterranean
cavern,  into  which  the  tide  ebbs  and  flows.  Many
of  these  run  to  an  extraordinary  and  unascertained
depth  under  ground,  and  are  the  secure  retreat  of
cormorants  and  seals,  which  it  is  neither  easy  nor
safe  to  pursue  to  their  extreme  recesses.  Amongst
these,  this  halier  of  Swartaster  was  accounted  pecu-
liarly inaccessible,  and  shunned  both  by  fowlers  and
by  seamen,  on  account  of  sharp  angles  and  turnings
in  the  cave  itself,  as  well  as  the  sunken  rocks  which
rendered  it  very  dangerous    for  skiffs  or  boats  to


392  THE  PIRATE.
advance  far  into  it,  especially  if  there  was  the  usual
swell  of  an  island  tide.  From  the  dark-browed  mouth
of  this  cavern,  it  seemed  to  Minna,  in  her  dream,
that  she  beheld  a  mermaid  issue,  not  in  the  classical
dress  of  a  Nereid,  as  in  Claud  Halcro's  mask  of  the
preceding  evening,  but  with  comb  and  glass  in  hand,
according  to  popular  belief,  and  lashing  the  waves
with  that  long  scaly  train,  which,  in  the  traditions
of  the  country,  forms  so  frightful  a  contrast  with  the
fair  face,  long  tresses,  and  displayed  bosom,  of  a
human  and  earthly  female,  of  surpassing  beauty.
She  seemed  to  beckon  to  Miana,  while  her  wild  notes
rang  sadly  in  her  ear,  and  denounced,  in  prophetic
sounds,  calamity  and  woe.
