Roan

“ The roan horse is young and will learn: the roan horse buckles into harness and feels the foam on the collar at the end of a haul: the roan horse points four legs to the sky and rolls in the red clover: the roan horse has a rusty jag of hair between the ears hanging to a white star between the eyes. ”

“ Scarcely realizing previously the indomitable spirit of the girl, before the sound of her mare's flying hoofs had ceased to echo along the hard road, I had given my roan the rein, and was spurring speedily after. I intended to keep within sound at least, nor would I desert her until she was safe in the care of friends. ”

“ ROAN (O. Fr. rouan, rouen; Ital. roano, rovano; perhaps connected with rufus, red) , a word applied to a variety of colour in an animal's coat, especially that of a horse, where there is a mixture of grey or white hair with the prevailing tint of bay, chestnut or sorrel. ”

“ Hard by the kitchen garden were graves, tagged and numbered. From the oak tree by the kitchen door, in tattered, weatherbeaten garments, hung the bodies of two men. The faces, shriveled and defaced, bore no likeness to the faces of men. The roan horse snorted beneath them, and the rider caressed and soothed it and tied it farther away. ”

“ The sight of a horseman, no matter how far away, was sufficient to send him plunging down the roughest mountainside, into the depths of the cedar brakes, and over rocks and lava flows, where no mounted man could follow. He was too fleet of foot for the older cows, and the roan soon found himself alone in his glory. He then became what is known to the cowboys of the western ranges as an "outlaw," an animal, either horse, bovine, or even human, that, deserted by all its friends, runs alone and has little to do with the rest of his kind ”

“ To many this clothing of verdure is most restful and pleasing. I missed the sharp outlines, the delicate artistic sky lines, sharply defined in uplifted bare granite peaks and ridges, with the purple and violet color of the northern mountains, and which it seems to me that limestone and granite formations give. There are none of the great gorges and awful abysses of the White Mountains, both valleys and mountains here being more uniform in outline. There are few precipices and jutting crags, and less is visible of the giant ribs and bones of the planet.
Yet Roan is a noble mountain. ”

“ I have never seen a quitter that was that color. It is remarkable how often the roan horse figures in the living romance of our literature. Who that has ever read it has forgotten the strawberry roan mare of the big-hearted robber in “Lorna Doone”—to my mind as fine a novel as was ever written—a kind of Shakespeare in prose in the wild woods. Do you remember Browning’s “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix,” and the roan that dropped dead but never gave up the race? By the way, there are, in that poem, two of as fine descriptive verses of horses in motion as I ever read ”

“ It was at first a source of consolation to me to think that every stride removed me from the reach of those whose denunciations I had so unfortunately incurred; grand maître, chasseurs, and ‘aspirants’—they were all behind me. Ay, for that matter, so were the dogs and the piqueurs, and, for aught I knew, the fox with them. When I discovered, however, that the roan continued her speed still unabated, I began to be somewhat disconcerted. It was true the ground was perfectly smooth and safe—a long allée of the wood, with turf shorn close as a pleasure-ground. ”

“ His hair was sandy, his face tawny brown, his shirt a gray blue, and every one knew his dusty roan horse; by nature, by temperament and by personal selection he was suited to blend into a landscape of sage-dotted plains or sand. Tireless as a lobo on the trail, swift as a bobcat in fight, hunted men had been known to ride in and give themselves up when they heard that Pete Glass was after them. ”

“ Presently he touched the flank of his roan with a spur and the animal began to pick its way down the steep trail among the loose rubble. Not for an instant did the rider relax his vigilance as he descended. ”

“ The sole intelligence I heard that night related to the roan: the enfeebled constitution of that unlucky animal had given way under rough travel and wild weather; he was reported to be dying; hearing which, I could scarcely deny him great good sense, however I might lament his lack of endurance.
"The sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep," applies, of course, to horses as well as hard-worked men.
My new host was a thorough specimen of the upland yeoman—half hunter, half farmer, and all over a cattle-dealer. ”

“ But not only can we perceive how it is that roan is capricious, but the lower animals are, as we shall hereafter see, capricious in their affections, aversions, and sense of beauty. There is also good reason to suspect that they love novelty, for its own sake. ”

“ The roans, of every variety of colour and form, are composed of white mixed with bay, or red, or black. In some it seems to be a natural mixture of the colours; in others it appears as if one colour was powdered or sprinkled over another. They are pretty horses for ladies or light carriages, and many of them easy in their paces, but they do not usually display much blood, nor are they celebrated for endurance. If they should have white fore legs, with white hoofs, they are too often tender-footed, or become so with even a little hard work.—The Horse. ”

“ The Raven! In a solitary glen sits down on a stone the roaming pedestrian, beneath the hush and gloom of a thundery sky that has not yet begun to growl, and hears no sounds but that of an occasional big rain-drop, plashing on the bare bent; the crag high overhead sometimes utters a sullen groan—the pilgrim, starting, listens, and the noise is repeated, but instead of a groan, a croak—croak—croak! manifestly from a thing with life. ”

“ But still it sickeneth me with parting’s ban and bane ✿ Minding mine olden plight with friend and partisan. When he had made an end of these verses, he heard a raven croak beside the house and wept, saying, “Glory be to God! The raven croaketh not save over a ruined homestead.” Then he moaned and groaned and recited these couplets:—
What ails the Raven that he croaks my lover’s house hard by, ✿ And in my vitals lights a fire that flameth fierce and high? ”

“ Not even a wandering sea-bird was to be seen, and the only sound that disturbed the dread silence of the place was the roar of the breakers mingling with the muffled groanings and heavings of the still struggling and mighty forces of Nature in the heart of the island—forces which, ninety-five years before, had found a vent and destroyed every living thing, man and beast, in one dreadful outburst of flame, whose awful reflection was seen a hundred leagues away. ”

“ Seven wild men were brought from that island (which is called the New Land) to Rouen with their canoe, clothing, and weapons. They are of a sooty color, with thick lips, and bearing marks on the face drawn like blue veins along the cheek-bones from the ear to the middle of the chin; with black hair and coarse like a horse’s mane; having no beard throughout the whole life; no hair on any part of the body, except on the head and eyebrows. They wear a girdle to cover their nakedness, in which girdle is a sort of pouch; they form a dialect with their lips; religion they have none. ”

“ When day broke the two Ravens began talking to one another.
“Good-morning, Father Raven,” said the old bird on the nest, “who is this sleeping under our tree?”
“That,” replied Father Raven, “is a foolish home-bred Boy who has no experience of the world. In trying to catch a fox last night he lost his horse, his gun, his sword, his dog, and even his clothes, and now he has not the least idea where to find them.” ”

“ A horse would not have been put into an open shed over night lest witches might come and take him for their dark purposes. If necessity compelled a horse to be left in such a house over night, a cross of rowan tied with red thread was tied to the animal's tail. ”

“ It strikes me, that the true interpretation of this device, and the introduction of the lion and the lizard-like animal under the horse's feet, may be found in the 13th verse of Psalm xci.:
"Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet."
I should like to learn from some of your correspondents, whether this Psalm, or this portion of it, was used in the solemnities attendant on the installation of a knight, which would tend much to confirm my conjecture. ”

“ A terrific roar was born out of the womb of inter-stellar silence—a roar that smote the eardrums of those who heard, that pressed ponderously against the heart and whipped the blood into throat and nostrils and eyes. ”

“ And as when a bearded lion, a ravening lion on the hills, hears the bleating of a fawn afar off, and rushes forth from his lair to seize it, his readiest meal, even so the mighty Heracles, in longing for the lad, sped through the trackless briars, and ranged over much country. ”

“ Soon a mingled roar, like bellowing, neighing, and bleating, resounded half a mile to the south, and immense herds appeared, tumbling, rising, and rushing, a confused mass of terrified beasts, and fled by with frightful rapidity. ”

“ As once our fingers met, O love,
So shall our lips be fain thereof.
The Raven.
He sang: Come wrack and iron and flame,
For what shall breach the wall but fame?
The King’s Daughter.
Be swift to rise and set, O Sun,
Lest life ’twixt hope and death be done.
The Raven.
King’s daughter sitting in tower so high,
A gift for my tale ere forth I fly,
The gold from thy finger fair and fine,
Thou hadst it from no love of thine. ”

“ And when the lion emits his tremendous roar and rises, bodily, into the air in his mortal spring, mouth wide open, its crimson cavern glaring, teeth gleaming, eyes blazing, mane erect, paws spread, claws wide, the stoutest heart might well quail. ”

“ And Roon said: “There are a thousand home gods, the little gods that sit before the hearth and mind the fire — there is one Roon.”
Roon saith in a whisper, in a whisper when none heareth, when the sun is low: “What doeth Māna-Yood-Sushāī?” Roon is no god that thou mayest worship by thy hearth, nor will he be benignant to thy home. ”

“ But let them come my way, you little red rogue,
'Tis I will betray you to huntsman and dog.
Och, Modereen Rue!
The little red rogue, he's the colour of bracken,
O'er mountains, o'er valleys, his pace will not slacken,
Tantara! Tantara! he is off now, and, faith!
'Tis a race 'twixt the little red rogue and his death.
Och, Modereen Rue!
[Pg 315] Och, Modereen Rue, I've no cause to be grieving
For the little red rogues with their tricks and their thieving.
The hounds they give tongue, and the quarry's in sight,
The hens on the roost may sleep easy to-night. ”

“ The lion shall have Troy, to make his den
Within her pleasant courts, in Priam's high seat
Shall blink the vulture, sated of his meat;
And in the temples emptied of their Gods
Bats shall make quick the night, and panting toads
Make day a loathing to the light it brings.
Listen! Listen! they flock out; heed their wings. ”

“ Of how much Celtic poetry, modern as well as ancient, is not this, though variously expressed, the refrain: “Melodious is the crane, and O melodious is the crane, in the marshlands of Druim-dá-thrén! ’tis she that may not save her brood alive!” ”

“ The lion was proud of his voice and he roared with all his might.
“No, no,” cried the ant, “I’ll not marry you, Mr. Lion. Your loud roar frightens me. It shakes the very hills. Go away.”
The lion had not been gone long when a proud rooster came strutting along that way.
“How pretty you are, Miss Ant! Will you marry me?” said the rooster.
“Sing,” said the ant, “so I may hear your voice.”
[49]
The rooster was very proud of his shrill voice and he crowed with all his might.
“No, no,” cried the ant, “I’ll not marry you, Mr. Rooster. Your shrill crow frightens me. Go away.” ”

“ When the King sent for his twelve huntsmen next morning they walked through the ante-room without even casting a glance at the spinning-wheels.’
Then the King said once more to the Lion: ‘You have deceived me again; they are men, for they never once looked at the spinning-wheels.’
The Lion replied: ‘They knew they were being tried, and they did violence to their feelings.’ But the King declined to believe in the Lion any longer. ”

“ No one but those who have been in the country, and have fallen in with this animal in its wild and savage state, can have any idea of the appalling effect of a lion’s roar. What is heard in a menagerie is weak, and can give but a faint conception of it. ”

“ It seemed that they were about to secure themselves and their flocks against evil by way of charm and spell, for round about the ale [Pg 238] -house they bent their steps—the way of the sun—brandishing rowan boughs and chanting a fragment of ancient rhyme:
'By the rowan's power—
By the thorn's might
Safe i' the bower
Be all our insight! '
Having perambulated round their buildings and wall three successive times they disappeared within, and the watcher heard to his gratification the sound of bolt and bar being pushed home. ”

“ In that garden there is an enormous lion which devours every one who enters with the hope of marrying me. Arm thyself, therefore, cap-a-pee, and cover your armour with gummy flax. As soon as you have entered the garden the lion will rush toward you; attack him manfully, and when you are weary, leave him. ”

“ The ordinary rooster did not trouble himself to crow save at midnight and in the morning, but the swart bird of which we speak detected the vaam of any unseen presence, and announced the same by crowing at any hour. ”