ジョン・ミリングトン・シング著姉崎正見訳「アラン島」（９）
此の灰色の雲と海の間で幾週間か暮した事のない者には、女の赤い着物が、殊に今朝のやうにたくさん群がつてゐるのを目に止める樂しさはわからないであらう。
若い牛が、近日中に開かれる本土の市場へ船積される筈だと聞いた。それで夜明け少し前、私はそれを見ようと波止揚へ下りて行つた。
灣は催してゐる雨氣に灰色に蔽はれてゐたが、雲の、うすさに海の上には銀のやうな明るさがあり、コニマラの山山には常ならぬ靑さが濃かつた。
私が砂山を越えて行くと、灰色の帆をかけた漁船が滑るやうに靜かに漕ぎ出して行つたり、また波止場へ向つて進んで來たりしてゐた。赤毛の牛の群が、岩と海の境目にある縁の長い草の道でもつて目新しい色の調和を作りながら、大概は女に追はれて方方から集まつて來つつあつた。
波止場その物も牡牛と大勢の人で混み合つてゐた。群集の中にあたりの者たちに威張つてゐるらしい普通の人とは違つた一人の娘が居た。彼女の妙な恰好をした鼻柱や狭い頰は妖精のやうな顏を思はせたが、髮の毛と皮膚の美しさは獨特の魅力であつた。
空（から）の漁船が横付けになつても、まだその甲板は波止場の面より数呎低かつた。それで牛は大騒ぎして檣頭から綱で吊り下ろされた。或る牛は持主を殆んど海へ引張り込まんばかりに猛然と逃げようとしたが、彼等は驚くべき巧妙さでそれを取扱ひ、何の間違ひも起さなかつた。
屋根のない船艙に若い牛を立たせ得るだけぎつしり詰めると、持主は女房や姉妹たちと甲板に飛び下りて出發し初めた。此の女房や姉妹たちは、ゴルウェーで男達の濫費を防ぐ爲に附いて行くのである。直ぐその後で、老いぼれてヨロヨロした一般の漁船がコニマラから泥炭を積んで波止場の方へやつて來た。荷卸をやつてゐる間に、男達がすつかり波止場の縁に腰かけて、持主が怒つて氣が荒くなるまでに木材の腐つてゐる事をとやかく云つた。
さてボートが波止場に來られなくなつた程汐が退いたので、場所を東南の細長い砂地に移し、其處で殘りの牛は寄波の中を船へ積み込まれた。漁船は岸から八十ヤードぐらゐの所に碇泊し、カラハが牛を引張つて漕ぎ去り漕ぎ戻つた。各々の牡牛は順順に捕へられ、革の吊帶を體に廻はされた。その吊帶で牛は船の上に引き揚げられるのである。今一つの綱が角に結ばれて、カラハの艫にゐる人に渡される。それから年は寄波の中へ無理に下ろされ、餘り長く苦しませないやうにして波の深みから出された。少し泳ぐやうになると、漁船の方へ牽いて行き、半ば溺れた状態で船の中へ引き揚げられた。
砂地では自由がきくので、激しい反抗心を起すらしく、中には危險な取組を冒してやつと捕へられる牛もあつた。最初の一遍で成功するとは限らず、私は三歳の牛が角で二人の男をつり上げ、もう一人を角で五十ヤードも砂地を引きずつて、やつと鎭められたのを見た。
こんな仕事のなされてゐる間中、お内儀さんたちや子供たちの群は岸の縁に集まつて、ひやかしとも賞讃ともつかない事を叫び續ける。
家に歸つてみると、此處のお婆さんの娘も本土へ行つた女の一人で、その九ケ月位の赤ん坊はお婆さんに預けられてあつた。
はひつて行くと、お婆さんは晩飯の用意に忙しく、此の時間にいつもやつて來るパット・ディレイン爺さんが搖加藍を搖つてゐた。その搖藍はみすぼらしい柳細工で、下に搖框（ゆりわく）の役をする滑りの惡い二つの木がつけてある。部屋ゐる間中、とてつもなく亂暴に床の上でバタンバタンする音が聞こえてゐた。赤ん坊は目を醒ますと床の上を這ひ廻る。するとお婆さんは節の非常に面白い、譯のわからない色色な子守歌を歌ふ。
此の家にゐるもう一人の娘もまた市に行つたので、お婆さんが私と赤ん坊の兩人、おまけに爐邊の穴にゐる一群のひよこまでも世話をしなければならなくなつた。茶を賴んだ時や、お婆さんが水汲みに行つた時は、私が搖藍をゆすぶる番になつた。
＊
No one who has not lived for weeks among these grey clouds and seas can realise the joy with which the eye rests on the red dresses of the women, especially when a number of them are to be found together, as happened early this morning.
I heard that the young cattle were to be shipped for a fair on the mainland, which is to take place in a few days, and I went down on the pier, a little after dawn, to watch them.
The bay was shrouded in the greys of coming rain, yet the thinness of the cloud threw a silvery light on the sea, and an unusual depth of blue to the mountains of Connemara.
As I was going across the sandhills one dun-sailed hooker glided slowly out to begin her voyage, and another beat up to the pier. Troops of red cattle, driven mostly by the women, were coming up from several directions, forming, with the green of the long tract of grass that separates the sea from the rocks, a new unity of colour.
The pier itself was crowded with bullocks and a great number of the people. I noticed one extraordinary girl in the throng who seemed to exert an authority on all who came near her. Her curiously-formed nostrils and narrow chin gave her a witch-like expression, yet the beauty of her hair and skin made her singularly attractive.
When the empty hooker was made fast its deck was still many feet below the level of the pier, so the animals were slung down by a rope from the mast-head, with much struggling and confusion. Some of them made wild efforts to escape, nearly carrying their owners with them into the sea, but they were handled with wonderful dexterity, and there was no mishap.
When the open hold was filled with young cattle, packed as tightly as they could stand, the owners with their wives or sisters, who go with them to prevent extravagance in Galway, jumped down on the deck, and the voyage was begun. Immediately afterwards a rickety old hooker beat up with turf from Connemara, and while she was unlading all the men sat along the edge of the pier and made remarks upon the rottenness of her timber till the owners grew wild with rage.
The tide was now too low for more boats to come to the pier, so a move was made to a strip of sand towards the south-east, where the rest of the cattle were shipped through the surf. Here the hooker was anchored about eighty yards from the shore, and a curagh was rowed round to tow out the animals. Each bullock was caught in its turn and girded with a sling of rope by which it could be hoisted on board. Another rope was fastened to the horns and passed out to a man in the stem of the curagh. Then the animal was forced down through the surf and out of its depth before it had much time to struggle. Once fairly swimming, it was towed out to the hooker and dragged on board in a half-drowned condition.
The freedom of the sand seemed to give a stronger spirit of revolt, and some of the animals were only caught after a dangerous struggle. The first attempt was not always successful, and I saw one three-year-old lift two men with his horns, and drag another fifty yards along the sand by his tail before he was subdued.
While this work was going on a crowd of girls and women collected on the edge of the cliff and kept shouting down a confused babble of satire and praise.
When I came back to the cottage I found that among the women who had gone to the mainland was a daughter of the old woman's, and that her baby of about nine months had been left in the care of its grandmother.
As I came in she was busy getting ready my dinner, and old Pat Dirane, who usually comes at this hour, was rocking the cradle. It is made of clumsy wicker-work, with two pieces of rough wood fastened underneath to serve as rockers, and all the time I am in my room I can hear it bumping on the floor with extraordinary violence. When the baby is awake it sprawls on the floor, and the old woman sings it a variety of inarticulate lullabies that have much musical charm.
Another daughter, who lives at home, has gone to the fair also, so the old woman has both the baby and myself to take care of as well as a crowd of chickens that live in a hole beside the fire, Often when I want tea, or when the old woman goes for water, I have to take my own turn at rocking the cradle.