diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:23:24 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:23:24 -0700 |
| commit | 4e13eb875539ed320e83d0cb492929ea75dbffe9 (patch) | |
| tree | 8d165a7a542e0d62f1aef57ed2b3a1117571a0cd | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4381-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 107698 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4381-h/4381-h.htm | 8141 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4381.txt | 5950 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4381.zip | bin | 0 -> 105201 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/trnsl10.txt | 5947 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/trnsl10.zip | bin | 0 -> 104310 bytes |
9 files changed, 20054 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4381-h.zip b/4381-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7662881 --- /dev/null +++ b/4381-h.zip diff --git a/4381-h/4381-h.htm b/4381-h/4381-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab01bef --- /dev/null +++ b/4381-h/4381-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8141 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Aran Islands, by John M. Synge +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: smaller ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Aran Islands, by John M. Synge + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Aran Islands + +Author: John M. Synge + +Posting Date: July 26, 2009 [EBook #4381] +Release Date: August, 2003 +First Posted: January 20, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARAN ISLANDS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE ARAN ISLANDS +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +JOHN M. SYNGE +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Introduction +</H3> + +<P> +The geography of the Aran Islands is very simple, yet it may need a +word to itself. There are three islands: Aranmor, the north island, +about nine miles long; Inishmaan, the middle island, about three +miles and a half across, and nearly round in form; and the south +island, Inishere—in Irish, east island,—like the middle island but +slightly smaller. They lie about thirty miles from Galway, up the +centre of the bay, but they are not far from the cliffs of County +Clare, on the south, or the corner of Connemara on the north. +</P> + +<P> +Kilronan, the principal village on Aranmor, has been so much changed +by the fishing industry, developed there by the Congested Districts +Board, that it has now very little to distinguish it from any +fishing village on the west coast of Ireland. The other islands are +more primitive, but even on them many changes are being made, that +it was not worth while to deal with in the text. +</P> + +<P> +In the pages that follow I have given a direct account of my life on +the islands, and of what I met with among them, inventing nothing, +and changing nothing that is essential. As far as possible, however, +I have disguised the identity of the people I speak of, by making +changes in their names, and in the letters I quote, and by altering +some local and family relationships. I have had nothing to say about +them that was not wholly in their favour, but I have made this +disguise to keep them from ever feeling that a too direct use had +been made of their kindness, and friendship, for which I am more +grateful than it is easy to say. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#chap01">Part I</A><BR> +<A HREF="#chap02">Part II</A><BR> +<A HREF="#chap03">Part III</A><BR> +<A HREF="#chap04">Part IV</A><BR> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Part I +</H3> + +<P> +I am in Aranmor, sitting over a turf fire, listening to a murmur of +Gaelic that is rising from a little public-house under my room. +</P> + +<P> +The steamer which comes to Aran sails according to the tide, and it +was six o'clock this morning when we left the quay of Galway in a +dense shroud of mist. +</P> + +<P> +A low line of shore was visible at first on the right between the +movement of the waves and fog, but when we came further it was lost +sight of, and nothing could be seen but the mist curling in the +rigging, and a small circle of foam. +</P> + +<P> +There were few passengers; a couple of men going out with young pigs +tied loosely in sacking, three or four young girls who sat in the +cabin with their heads completely twisted in their shawls, and a +builder, on his way to repair the pier at Kilronan, who walked up +and down and talked with me. +</P> + +<P> +In about three hours Aran came in sight. A dreary rock appeared at +first sloping up from the sea into the fog; then, as we drew nearer, +a coast-guard station and the village. +</P> + +<P> +A little later I was wandering out along the one good roadway of the +island, looking over low walls on either side into small flat fields +of naked rock. I have seen nothing so desolate. Grey floods of water +were sweeping everywhere upon the limestone, making at limes a wild +torrent of the road, which twined continually over low hills and +cavities in the rock or passed between a few small fields of +potatoes or grass hidden away in corners that had shelter. Whenever +the cloud lifted I could see the edge of the sea below me on the +right, and the naked ridge of the island above me on the other side. +Occasionally I passed a lonely chapel or schoolhouse, or a line of +stone pillars with crosses above them and inscriptions asking a +prayer for the soul of the person they commemorated. +</P> + +<P> +I met few people; but here and there a band of tall girls passed me +on their way to Kilronan, and called out to me with humorous wonder, +speaking English with a slight foreign intonation that differed a +good deal from the brogue of Galway. The rain and cold seemed to +have no influence on their vitality and as they hurried past me with +eager laughter and great talking in Gaelic, they left the wet masses +of rock more desolate than before. +</P> + +<P> +A little after midday when I was coming back one old half-blind man +spoke to me in Gaelic, but, in general, I was surprised at the +abundance and fluency of the foreign tongue. +</P> + +<P> +In the afternoon the rain continued, so I sat here in the inn +looking out through the mist at a few men who were unlading hookers +that had come in with turf from Connemara, and at the long-legged +pigs that were playing in the surf. As the fishermen came in and out +of the public-house underneath my room, I could hear through the +broken panes that a number of them still used the Gaelic, though it +seems to be falling out of use among the younger people of this +village. +</P> + +<P> +The old woman of the house had promised to get me a teacher of the +language, and after a while I heard a shuffling on the stairs, and +the old dark man I had spoken to in the morning groped his way into +the room. +</P> + +<P> +I brought him over to the fire, and we talked for many hours. He +told me that he had known Petrie and Sir William Wilde, and many +living antiquarians, and had taught Irish to Dr. Finck and Dr. +Pedersen, and given stories to Mr. Curtin of America. A little after +middle age he had fallen over a cliff, and since then he had had +little eyesight, and a trembling of his hands and head. +</P> + +<P> +As we talked he sat huddled together over the fire, shaking and +blind, yet his face was indescribably pliant, lighting up with an +ecstasy of humour when he told me anything that had a point of wit +or malice, and growing sombre and desolate again when he spoke of +religion or the fairies. +</P> + +<P> +He had great confidence in his own powers and talent, and in the +superiority of his stories over all other stories in the world. When +we were speaking of Mr. Curtin, he told me that this gentleman had +brought out a volume of his Aran stories in America, and made five +hundred pounds by the sale of them. +</P> + +<P> +'And what do you think he did then?' he continued; 'he wrote a book +of his own stories after making that lot of money with mine. And he +brought them out, and the divil a half-penny did he get for them. +Would you believe that?' +</P> + +<P> +Afterwards he told me how one of his children had been taken by the +fairies. +</P> + +<P> +One day a neighbor was passing, and she said, when she saw it on the +road, 'That's a fine child.' +</P> + +<P> +Its mother tried to say 'God bless it,' but something choked the +words in her throat. +</P> + +<P> +A while later they found a wound on its neck, and for three nights +the house was filled with noises. +</P> + +<P> +'I never wear a shirt at night,' he said, 'but I got up out of my +bed, all naked as I was, when I heard the noises in the house, and +lighted a light, but there was nothing in it.' +</P> + +<P> +Then a dummy came and made signs of hammering nails in a coffin. The +next day the seed potatoes were full of blood, and the child told +his mother that he was going to America. +</P> + +<P> +That night it died, and 'Believe me,' said the old man, 'the fairies +were in it.' +</P> + +<P> +When he went away, a little bare-footed girl was sent up with turf +and the bellows to make a fire that would last for the evening. +</P> + +<P> +She was shy, yet eager to talk, and told me that she had good spoken +Irish, and was learning to read it in the school, and that she had +been twice to Galway, though there are many grown women in the place +who have never set a foot upon the mainland. +</P> + +<P> +The rain has cleared off, and I have had my first real introduction +to the island and its people. +</P> + +<P> +I went out through Killeany—the poorest village in Aranmor—to a +long neck of sandhill that runs out into the sea towards the +south-west. As I lay there on the grass the clouds lifted from the +Connemara mountains and, for a moment, the green undulating +foreground, backed in the distance by a mass of hills, reminded me +of the country near Rome. Then the dun top-sail of a hooker swept +above the edge of the sandhill and revealed the presence of the sea. +</P> + +<P> +As I moved on a boy and a man came down from the next village to +talk to me, and I found that here, at least, English was imperfectly +understood. When I asked them if there were any trees in the island +they held a hurried consultation in Gaelic, and then the man asked +if 'tree' meant the same thing as 'bush,' for if so there were a few +in sheltered hollows to the east. +</P> + +<P> +They walked on with me to the sound which separates this island from +Inishmaan—the middle island of the group—and showed me the roll +from the Atlantic running up between two walls of cliff. +</P> + +<P> +They told me that several men had stayed on Inishmaan to learn +Irish, and the boy pointed out a line of hovels where they had +lodged running like a belt of straw round the middle of the island. +The place looked hardly fit for habitation. There was no green to be +seen, and no sign of the people except these beehive-like roofs, and +the outline of a Dun that stood out above them against the edge of +the sky. +</P> + +<P> +After a while my companions went away and two other boys came and +walked at my heels, till I turned and made them talk to me. They +spoke at first of their poverty, and then one of them said—'I dare +say you do have to pay ten shillings a week in the hotel?' 'More,' +I answered. +</P> + +<P> +'Twelve?' +</P> + +<P> +'More.' +</P> + +<P> +'Fifteen?' +</P> + +<P> +'More still.' +</P> + +<P> +Then he drew back and did not question me any further, either +thinking that I had lied to check his curiosity, or too awed by my +riches to continue. +</P> + +<P> +Repassing Killeany I was joined by a man who had spent twenty years +in America, where he had lost his health and then returned, so long +ago that he had forgotten English and could hardly make me +understand him. He seemed hopeless, dirty and asthmatic, and after +going with me for a few hundred yards he stopped and asked for +coppers. I had none left, so I gave him a fill of tobacco, and he +went back to his hovel. +</P> + +<P> +When he was gone, two little girls took their place behind me and I +drew them in turn into conversation. +</P> + +<P> +They spoke with a delicate exotic intonation that was full of charm, +and told me with a sort of chant how they guide 'ladies and +gintlemins' in the summer to all that is worth seeing in their +neighbourhood, and sell them pampooties and maidenhair ferns, which +are common among the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +We were now in Kilronan, and as we parted they showed me holes in +their own pampooties, or cowskin sandals, and asked me the price of +new ones. I told them that my purse was empty, and then with a few +quaint words of blessing they turned away from me and went down to +the pier. +</P> + +<P> +All this walk back had been extraordinarily fine. The intense +insular clearness one sees only in Ireland, and after rain, was +throwing out every ripple in the sea and sky, and every crevice in +the hills beyond the bay. +</P> + +<P> +This evening an old man came to see me, and said he had known a +relative of mine who passed some time on this island forty-three +years ago. +</P> + +<P> +'I was standing under the pier-wall mending nets,' he said, 'when +you came off the steamer, and I said to myself in that moment, if +there is a man of the name of Synge left walking the world, it is +that man yonder will be he.' +</P> + +<P> +He went on to complain in curiously simple yet dignified language of +the changes that have taken place here since he left the island to +go to sea before the end of his childhood. +</P> + +<P> +'I have come back,' he said, 'to live in a bit of a house with my +sister. The island is not the same at all to what it was. It is +little good I can get from the people who are in it now, and +anything I have to give them they don't care to have.' +</P> + +<P> +From what I hear this man seems to have shut himself up in a world +of individual conceits and theories, and to live aloof at his trade +of net-mending, regarded by the other islanders with respect and +half-ironical sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +A little later when I went down to the kitchen I found two men from +Inishmaan who had been benighted on the island. They seemed a +simpler and perhaps a more interesting type than the people here, +and talked with careful English about the history of the Duns, and +the Book of Ballymote, and the Book of Kells, and other ancient +MSS., with the names of which they seemed familiar. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of the charm of my teacher, the old blind man I met the day +of my arrival, I have decided to move on to Inishmaan, where Gaelic +is more generally used, and the life is perhaps the most primitive +that is left in Europe. +</P> + +<P> +I spent all this last day with my blind guide, looking at the +antiquities that abound in the west or north-west of the island. +</P> + +<P> +As we set out I noticed among the groups of girls who smiled at our +fellowship—old Mourteen says we are like the cuckoo with its +pipit—a beautiful oval face with the singularly spiritual +expression that is so marked in one type of the West Ireland women. +Later in the day, as the old man talked continually of the fairies +and the women they have taken, it seemed that there was a possible +link between the wild mythology that is accepted on the islands and +the strange beauty of the women. +</P> + +<P> +At midday we rested near the ruins of a house, and two beautiful +boys came up and sat near us. Old Mourteen asked them why the house +was in ruins, and who had lived in it. +</P> + +<P> +'A rich farmer built it a while since,' they said, 'but after two +years he was driven away by the fairy host.' +</P> + +<P> +The boys came on with us some distance to the north to visit one of +the ancient beehive dwellings that is still in perfect preservation. +When we crawled in on our hands and knees, and stood up in the gloom +of the interior, old Mourteen took a freak of earthly humour and +began telling what he would have done if he could have come in there +when he was a young man and a young girl along with him. +</P> + +<P> +Then he sat down in the middle of the floor and began to recite old +Irish poetry, with an exquisite purity of intonation that brought +tears to my eyes though I understood but little of the meaning. +</P> + +<P> +On our way home he gave me the Catholic theory of the fairies. +</P> + +<P> +When Lucifer saw himself in the glass he thought himself equal with +God. Then the Lord threw him out of Heaven, and all the angels that +belonged to him. While He was 'chucking them out,' an archangel +asked Him to spare some of them, and those that were falling are in +the air still, and have power to wreck ships, and to work evil in +the world. +</P> + +<P> +From this he wandered off into tedious matters of theology, and +repeated many long prayers and sermons in Irish that he had heard +from the priests. +</P> + +<P> +A little further on we came to a slated house, and I asked him who +was living in it. +</P> + +<P> +'A kind of a schoolmistress,' he said; then his old face puckered +with a gleam of pagan malice. +</P> + +<P> +'Ah, master,' he said, 'wouldn't it be fine to be in there, and to +be kissing her?' +</P> + +<P> +A couple of miles from this village we turned aside to look at an +old ruined church of the Ceathair Aluinn (The Four Beautiful +Persons), and a holy well near it that is famous for cures of +blindness and epilepsy. +</P> + +<P> +As we sat near the well a very old man came up from a cottage near +the road, and told me how it had become famous. +</P> + +<P> +'A woman of Sligo had a son who was born blind, and one night she +dreamed that she saw an island with a blessed well in it that could +cure her son. She told her dream in the morning, and an old man said +it was of Aran she was after dreaming. +</P> + +<P> +'She brought her son down by the coast of Galway, and came out in a +curagh, and landed below where you see a bit of a cove. +</P> + +<P> +'She walked up then to the house of my father—God rest his +soul—and she told them what she was looking for. +</P> + +<P> +'My father said that there was a well like what she had dreamed of, +and that he would send a boy along with her to show her the way. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no need, at all," said she; "haven't I seen it all in my +dream?" +</P> + +<P> +'Then she went out with the child and walked up to this well, and +she kneeled down and began saying her prayers. Then she put her hand +out for the water, and put it on his eyes, and the moment it touched +him he called out: "O mother, look at the pretty flowers!"' +</P> + +<P> +After that Mourteen described the feats of poteen drinking and +fighting that he did in his youth, and went on to talk of Diarmid, +who was the strongest man after Samson, and of one of the beds of +Diarmid and Grainne, which is on the east of the island. He says +that Diarmid was killed by the druids, who put a burning shirt on +him,—a fragment of mythology that may connect Diarmid with the +legend of Hercules, if it is not due to the 'learning' in some +hedge-school master's ballad. +</P> + +<P> +Then we talked about Inishmaan. +</P> + +<P> +'You'll have an old man to talk with you over there,' he said, 'and +tell you stories of the fairies, but he's walking about with two +sticks under him this ten year. Did ever you hear what it is goes on +four legs when it is young, and on two legs after that, and on three +legs when it does be old?' +</P> + +<P> +I gave him the answer. +</P> + +<P> +'Ah, master,' he said, 'you're a cute one, and the blessing of God +be on you. Well, I'm on three legs this minute, but the old man +beyond is back on four; I don't know if I'm better than the way he +is; he's got his sight and I'm only an old dark man.' +</P> + +<P> +I am settled at last on Inishmaan in a small cottage with a +continual drone of Gaelic coming from the kitchen that opens into my +room. +</P> + +<P> +Early this morning the man of the house came over for me with a +four-oared curagh—that is, a curagh with four rowers and four oars +on either side, as each man uses two—and we set off a little before +noon. +</P> + +<P> +It gave me a moment of exquisite satisfaction to find myself moving +away from civilisation in this rude canvas canoe of a model that has +served primitive races since men first went to sea. +</P> + +<P> +We had to stop for a moment at a hulk that is anchored in the bay, +to make some arrangement for the fish-curing of the middle island, +and my crew called out as soon as we were within earshot that they +had a man with them who had been in France a month from this day. +</P> + +<P> +When we started again, a small sail was run up in the bow, and we +set off across the sound with a leaping oscillation that had no +resemblance to the heavy movement of a boat. +</P> + +<P> +The sail is only used as an aid, so the men continued to row after +it had gone up, and as they occupied the four cross-seats I lay on +the canvas at the stern and the frame of slender laths, which bent +and quivered as the waves passed under them. +</P> + +<P> +When we set off it was a brilliant morning of April, and the green, +glittering waves seemed to toss the canoe among themselves, yet as +we drew nearer this island a sudden thunderstorm broke out behind +the rocks we were approaching, and lent a momentary tumult to this +still vein of the Atlantic. +</P> + +<P> +We landed at a small pier, from which a rude track leads up to the +village between small fields and bare sheets of rock like those in +Aranmor. The youngest son of my boatman, a boy of about seventeen, +who is to be my teacher and guide, was waiting for me at the pier +and guided me to his house, while the men settled the curagh and +followed slowly with my baggage. +</P> + +<P> +My room is at one end of the cottage, with a boarded floor and +ceiling, and two windows opposite each other. Then there is the +kitchen with earth floor and open rafters, and two doors opposite +each other opening into the open air, but no windows. Beyond it +there are two small rooms of half the width of the kitchen with one +window apiece. +</P> + +<P> +The kitchen itself, where I will spend most of my time, is full of +beauty and distinction. The red dresses of the women who cluster +round the fire on their stools give a glow of almost Eastern +richness, and the walls have been toned by the turf-smoke to a soft +brown that blends with the grey earth-colour of the floor. Many +sorts of fishing-tackle, and the nets and oil-skins of the men, are +hung upon the walls or among the open rafters; and right overhead, +under the thatch, there is a whole cowskin from which they make +pampooties. +</P> + +<P> +Every article on these islands has an almost personal character, +which gives this simple life, where all art is unknown, something of +the artistic beauty of medieval life. The curaghs and spinning-wheels, +the tiny wooden barrels that are still much used in the place of +earthenware, the home-made cradles, churns, and baskets, are all +full of individuality, and being made from materials that are common +here, yet to some extent peculiar to the island, they seem to exist +as a natural link between the people and the world that is about them. +</P> + +<P> +The simplicity and unity of the dress increases in another way the +local air of beauty. The women wear red petticoats and jackets of +the island wool stained with madder, to which they usually add a +plaid shawl twisted round their chests and tied at their back. When +it rains they throw another petticoat over their heads with the +waistband round their faces, or, if they are young, they use a heavy +shawl like those worn in Galway. Occasionally other wraps are worn, +and during the thunderstorm I arrived in I saw several girls with +men's waistcoats buttoned round their bodies. Their skirts do not +come much below the knee, and show their powerful legs in the heavy +indigo stockings with which they are all provided. +</P> + +<P> +The men wear three colours: the natural wool, indigo, and a grey +flannel that is woven of alternate threads of indigo and the natural +wool. In Aranmor many of the younger men have adopted the usual +fisherman's jersey, but I have only seen one on this island. +</P> + +<P> +As flannel is cheap—the women spin the yarn from the wool of their +own sheep, and it is then woven by a weaver in Kilronan for +fourpence a yard—the men seem to wear an indefinite number of +waistcoats and woollen drawers one over the other. They are usually +surprised at the lightness of my own dress, and one old man I spoke +to for a minute on the pier, when I came ashore, asked me if I was +not cold with 'my little clothes.' +</P> + +<P> +As I sat in the kitchen to dry the spray from my coat, several men +who had seen me walking up came in to me to talk to me, usually +murmuring on the threshold, 'The blessing of God on this place,' or +some similar words. +</P> + +<P> +The courtesy of the old woman of the house is singularly attractive, +and though I could not understand much of what she said—she has no +English—I could see with how much grace she motioned each visitor +to a chair, or stool, according to his age, and said a few words to +him till he drifted into our English conversation. +</P> + +<P> +For the moment my own arrival is the chief subject of interest, and +the men who come in are eager to talk to me. +</P> + +<P> +Some of them express themselves more correctly than the ordinary +peasant, others use the Gaelic idioms continually and substitute +'he' or 'she' for 'it,' as the neuter pronoun is not found in modern +Irish. +</P> + +<P> +A few of the men have a curiously full vocabulary, others know only +the commonest words in English, and are driven to ingenious devices +to express their meaning. Of all the subjects we can talk of war +seems their favourite, and the conflict between America and Spain is +causing a great deal of excitement. Nearly all the families have +relations who have had to cross the Atlantic, and all eat of the +flour and bacon that is brought from the United States, so they have +a vague fear that 'if anything happened to America,' their own +island would cease to be habitable. +</P> + +<P> +Foreign languages are another favourite topic, and as these men are +bilingual they have a fair notion of what it means to speak and +think in many different idioms. Most of the strangers they see on +the islands are philological students, and the people have been led +to conclude that linguistic studies, particularly Gaelic studies, +are the chief occupation of the outside world. +</P> + +<P> +'I have seen Frenchmen, and Danes, and Germans,' said one man, 'and +there does be a power a Irish books along with them, and they +reading them better than ourselves. Believe me there are few rich +men now in the world who are not studying the Gaelic.' +</P> + +<P> +They sometimes ask me the French for simple phrases, and when they +have listened to the intonation for a moment, most of them are able +to reproduce it with admirable precision. +</P> + +<P> +When I was going out this morning to walk round the island with +Michael, the boy who is teaching me Irish, I met an old man making +his way down to the cottage. He was dressed in miserable black +clothes which seemed to have come from the mainland, and was so bent +with rheumatism that, at a little distance, he looked more like a +spider than a human being. +</P> + +<P> +Michael told me it was Pat Dirane, the story-teller old Mourteen had +spoken of on the other island. I wished to turn back, as he appeared +to be on his way to visit me, but Michael would not hear of it. +</P> + +<P> +'He will be sitting by the fire when we come in,' he said; 'let you +not be afraid, there will be time enough to be talking to him by and +by.' +</P> + +<P> +He was right. As I came down into the kitchen some hours later old +Pat was still in the chimney-corner, blinking with the turf smoke. +</P> + +<P> +He spoke English with remarkable aptness and fluency, due, I +believe, to the months he spent in the English provinces working at +the harvest when he was a young man. +</P> + +<P> +After a few formal compliments he told me how he had been crippled +by an attack of the 'old hin' (i.e. the influenza), and had been +complaining ever since in addition to his rheumatism. +</P> + +<P> +While the old woman was cooking my dinner he asked me if I liked +stories, and offered to tell one in English, though he added, it +would be much better if I could follow the Gaelic. Then he began:— +</P> + +<P> +There were two farmers in County Clare. One had a son, and the +other, a fine rich man, had a daughter. +</P> + +<P> +The young man was wishing to marry the girl, and his father told him +to try and get her if he thought well, though a power of gold would +be wanting to get the like of her. +</P> + +<P> +'I will try,' said the young man. +</P> + +<P> +He put all his gold into a bag. Then he went over to the other farm, +and threw in the gold in front of him. +</P> + +<P> +'Is that all gold?' said the father of the girl. +</P> + +<P> +'All gold,' said O'Conor (the young man's name was O'Conor). +</P> + +<P> +'It will not weigh down my daughter,' said the father. +</P> + +<P> +'We'll see that,' said O'Conor. +</P> + +<P> +Then they put them in the scales, the daughter in one side and the +gold in the other. The girl went down against the ground, so O'Conor +took his bag and went out on the road. +</P> + +<P> +As he was going along he came to where there was a little man, and +he standing with his back against the wall. +</P> + +<P> +'Where are you going with the bag?' said the little man. 'Going +home,' said O'Conor. +</P> + +<P> +'Is it gold you might be wanting?' said the man. 'It is, surely,' +said O'Conor. +</P> + +<P> +'I'll give you what you are wanting,' said the man, 'and we can +bargain in this way—you'll pay me back in a year the gold I give +you, or you'll pay me with five pounds cut off your own flesh.' +</P> + +<P> +That bargain was made between them. The man gave a bag of gold to +O'Conor, and he went back with it, and was married to the young +woman. +</P> + +<P> +They were rich people, and he built her a grand castle on the cliffs +of Clare, with a window that looked out straight over the wild +ocean. +</P> + +<P> +One day when he went up with his wife to look out over the wild +ocean, he saw a ship coming in on the rocks, and no sails on her at +all. She was wrecked on the rocks, and it was tea that was in her, +and fine silk. +</P> + +<P> +O'Conor and his wife went down to look at the wreck, and when the +lady O'Conor saw the silk she said she wished a dress of it. +</P> + +<P> +They got the silk from the sailors, and when the Captain came up to +get the money for it, O'Conor asked him to come again and take his +dinner with them. They had a grand dinner, and they drank after it, +and the Captain was tipsy. While they were still drinking, a letter +came to O'Conor, and it was in the letter that a friend of his was +dead, and that he would have to go away on a long journey. As he was +getting ready the Captain came to him. +</P> + +<P> +'Are you fond of your wife?' said the Captain. +</P> + +<P> +'I am fond of her,' said O'Conor. +</P> + +<P> +'Will you make me a bet of twenty guineas no man comes near her +while you'll be away on the journey?' said the Captain. +</P> + +<P> +'I will bet it,' said O'Conor; and he went away. +</P> + +<P> +There was an old hag who sold small things on the road near the +castle, and the lady O'Conor allowed her to sleep up in her room in +a big box. The Captain went down on the road to the old hag. +</P> + +<P> +'For how much will you let me sleep one night in your box?' said +the Captain. +</P> + +<P> +'For no money at all would I do such a thing,' said the hag. +</P> + +<P> +'For ten guineas?' said the Captain. +</P> + +<P> +'Not for ten guineas,' said the hag. +</P> + +<P> +'For twelve guineas?' said the Captain. +</P> + +<P> +'Not for twelve guineas,' said the hag. +</P> + +<P> +'For fifteen guineas?' said the Captain. +</P> + +<P> +'For fifteen I will do it,' said the hag. +</P> + +<P> +Then she took him up and hid him in the box. When night came the +lady O'Conor walked up into her room, and the Captain watched her +through a hole that was in the box. He saw her take off her two +rings and put them on a kind of a board that was over her head like +a chimney-piece, and take off her clothes, except her shift, and go +up into her bed. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as she was asleep the Captain came out of his box, and he +had some means of making a light, for he lit the candle. He went +over to the bed where she was sleeping without disturbing her at +all, or doing any bad thing, and he took the two rings off the +board, and blew out the light, and went down again into the box. +</P> + +<P> +He paused for a moment, and a deep sigh of relief rose from the men +and women who had crowded in while the story was going on, till the +kitchen was filled with people. +</P> + +<P> +As the Captain was coming out of his box the girls, who had appeared +to know no English, stopped their spinning and held their breath +with expectation. +</P> + +<P> +The old man went on— +</P> + +<P> +When O'Conor came back the Captain met him, and told him that he had +been a night in his wife's room, and gave him the two rings. O'Conor +gave him the twenty guineas of the bet. Then he went up into the +castle, and he took his wife up to look out of the window over the +wild ocean. While she was looking he pushed her from behind, and she +fell down over the cliff into the sea. +</P> + +<P> +An old woman was on the shore, and she saw her falling. She went +down then to the surf and pulled her out all wet and in great +disorder, and she took the wet clothes off her, and put on some old +rags belonging to herself. +</P> + +<P> +When O'Conor had pushed his wife from the window he went away into +the land. +</P> + +<P> +After a while the lady O'Conor went out searching for him, and when +she had gone here and there a long time in the country, she heard +that he was reaping in a field with sixty men. +</P> + +<P> +She came to the field and she wanted to go in, but the gate-man +would not open the gate for her. Then the owner came by, and she +told him her story. He brought her in, and her husband was there, +reaping, but he never gave any sign of knowing her. She showed him +to the owner, and he made the man come out and go with his wife. +</P> + +<P> +Then the lady O'Conor took him out on the road where there were +horses, and they rode away. +</P> + +<P> +When they came to the place where O'Conor had met the little man, he +was there on the road before them. +</P> + +<P> +'Have you my gold on you?' said the man. +</P> + +<P> +'I have not,' said O'Conor. +</P> + +<P> +'Then you'll pay me the flesh off your body,' said the man. They +went into a house, and a knife was brought, and a clean white cloth +was put on the table, and O'Conor was put upon the cloth. +</P> + +<P> +Then the little man was going to strike the lancet into him, when +says lady O'Conor— +</P> + +<P> +'Have you bargained for five pounds of flesh?' +</P> + +<P> +'For five pounds of flesh,' said the man. +</P> + +<P> +'Have you bargained for any drop of his blood?' said lady O'Conor. +</P> + +<P> +'For no blood,' said the man. +</P> + +<P> +'Cut out the flesh,' said lady O'Conor, 'but if you spill one drop +of his blood I'll put that through you.' And she put a pistol to his +head. +</P> + +<P> +The little man went away and they saw no more of him. +</P> + +<P> +When they got home to their castle they made a great supper, and +they invited the Captain and the old hag, and the old woman that had +pulled the lady O'Conor out of the sea. +</P> + +<P> +After they had eaten well the lady O'Conor began, and she said they +would all tell their stories. Then she told how she had been saved +from the sea, and how she had found her husband. +</P> + +<P> +Then the old woman told her story; the way she had found the lady +O'Conor wet, and in great disorder, and had brought her in and put +on her some old rags of her own. +</P> + +<P> +The lady O'Conor asked the Captain for his story; but he said they +would get no story from him. Then she took her pistol out of her +pocket, and she put it on the edge of the table, and she said that +any one that would not tell his story would get a bullet into him. +</P> + +<P> +Then the Captain told the way he had got into the box, and come over +to her bed without touching her at all, and had taken away the +rings. +</P> + +<P> +Then the lady O'Conor took the pistol and shot the hag through the +body, and they threw her over the cliff into the sea. +</P> + +<P> +That is my story. +</P> + +<P> +It gave me a strange feeling of wonder to hear this illiterate +native of a wet rock in the Atlantic telling a story that is so full +of European associations. +</P> + +<P> +The incident of the faithful wife takes us beyond Cymbeline to the +sunshine on the Arno, and the gay company who went out from Florence +to tell narratives of love. It takes us again to the low vineyards +of Wurzburg on the Main, where the same tale was told in the middle +ages, of the 'Two Merchants and the Faithful Wife of Ruprecht von +Wurzburg.' +</P> + +<P> +The other portion, dealing with the pound of flesh, has a still +wider distribution, reaching from Persia and Egypt to the Gesta +Rornanorum, and the Pecorone of Ser Giovanni, a Florentine notary. +</P> + +<P> +The present union of the two tales has already been found among the +Gaels, and there is a somewhat similar version in Campbell's Popular +Tales of the Western Highlands. +</P> + +<P> +Michael walks so fast when I am out with him that I cannot pick my +steps, and the sharp-edged fossils which abound in the limestone +have cut my shoes to pieces. +</P> + +<P> +The family held a consultation on them last night, and in the end it +was decided to make me a pair of pampooties, which I have been +wearing to-day among the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +They consist simply of a piece of raw cowskin, with the hair +outside, laced over the toe and round the heel with two ends of +fishing-line that work round and are tied above the instep. +</P> + +<P> +In the evening, when they are taken off, they are placed in a basin +of water, as the rough hide cuts the foot and stocking if it is +allowed to harden. For the same reason the people often step into +the surf during the day, so that their feet are continually moist. +</P> + +<P> +At first I threw my weight upon my heels, as one does naturally in a +boot, and was a good deal bruised, but after a few hours I learned +the natural walk of man, and could follow my guide in any portion of +the island. +</P> + +<P> +In one district below the cliffs, towards the north, one goes for +nearly a mile jumping from one rock to another without a single +ordinary step; and here I realized that toes have a natural use, for +I found myself jumping towards any tiny crevice in the rock before +me, and clinging with an eager grip in which all the muscles of my +feet ached from their exertion. +</P> + +<P> +The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these +people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general +simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of +physical perfection. Their way of life has never been acted on by +anything much more artificial than the nests and burrows of the +creatures that live round them, and they seem, in a certain sense, +to approach more nearly to the finer types of our aristocracies—who +are bred artificially to a natural ideal—than to the labourer or +citizen, as the wild horse resembles the thoroughbred rather than +the hack or cart-horse. Tribes of the same natural development are, +perhaps, frequent in half-civilized countries, but here a touch of +the refinement of old societies is blended, with singular effect, +among the qualities of the wild animal. +</P> + +<P> +While I am walking with Michael some one often comes to me to ask +the time of day. Few of the people, however, are sufficiently used +to modern time to understand in more than a vague way the convention +of the hours, and when I tell them what o'clock it is by my watch +they are not satisfied, and ask how long is left them before the +twilight. +</P> + +<P> +The general knowledge of time on the island depends, curiously +enough, on the direction of the wind. Nearly all the cottages are +built, like this one, with two doors opposite each other, the more +sheltered of which lies open all day to give light to the interior. +If the wind is northerly the south door is opened, and the shadow of +the door-post moving across the kitchen floor indicates the hour; as +soon, however, as the wind changes to the south the other door is +opened, and the people, who never think of putting up a primitive +dial, are at a loss. +</P> + +<P> +This system of doorways has another curious result. It usually +happens that all the doors on one side of the village pathway are +lying open with women sitting about on the thresholds, while on the +other side the doors are shut and there is no sign of life. The +moment the wind changes everything is reversed, and sometimes when I +come back to the village after an hour's walk there seems to have +been a general flight from one side of the way to the other. +</P> + +<P> +In my own cottage the change of the doors alters the whole tone of +the kitchen, turning it from a brilliantly-lighted room looking out +on a yard and laneway to a sombre cell with a superb view of the +sea. +</P> + +<P> +When the wind is from the north the old woman manages my meals with +fair regularity; but on the other days she often makes my tea at +three o'clock instead of six. If I refuse it she puts it down to +simmer for three hours in the turf, and then brings it in at six +o'clock full of anxiety to know if it is warm enough. +</P> + +<P> +The old man is suggesting that I should send him a clock when I go +away. He'd like to have something from me in the house, he says, the +way they wouldn't forget me, and wouldn't a clock be as handy as +another thing, and they'd be thinking of me whenever they'd look on +its face. +</P> + +<P> +The general ignorance of any precise hours in the day makes it +impossible for the people to have regular meals. +</P> + +<P> +They seem to eat together in the evening, and sometimes in the +morning, a little after dawn, before they scatter for their work, +but during the day they simply drink a cup of tea and eat a piece of +bread, or some potatoes, whenever they are hungry. +</P> + +<P> +For men who live in the open air they eat strangely little. Often +when Michael has been out weeding potatoes for eight or nine hours +without food, he comes in and eats a few slices of home-made bread, +and then he is ready to go out with me and wander for hours about +the island. +</P> + +<P> +They use no animal food except a little bacon and salt fish. The old +woman says she would be very ill if she ate fresh meat. +</P> + +<P> +Some years ago, before tea, sugar, and flour had come into general +use, salt fish was much more the staple article of diet than at +present, and, I am told, skin diseases were very common, though they +are now rare on the islands. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</P> + +<P> +One of the largest Duns, or pagan forts, on the islands, is within a +stone's throw of my cottage, and I often stroll up there after a +dinner of eggs or salt pork, to smoke drowsily on the stones. The +neighbours know my habit, and not infrequently some one wanders up +to ask what news there is in the last paper I have received, or to +make inquiries about the American war. If no one comes I prop my +book open with stones touched by the Fir-bolgs, and sleep for hours +in the delicious warmth of the sun. The last few days I have almost +lived on the round walls, for, by some miscalculation, our turf has +come to an end, and the fires are kept up with dried cow-dung—a +common fuel on the island—the smoke from which filters through into +my room and lies in blue layers above my table and bed. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately the weather is fine, and I can spend my days in the +sunshine. When I look round from the top of these walls I can see +the sea on nearly every side, stretching away to distant ranges of +mountains on the north and south. Underneath me to the east there is +the one inhabited district of the island, where I can see red +figures moving about the cottages, sending up an occasional fragment +of conversation or of old island melodies. +</P> + +<P> +The baby is teething, and has been crying for several days. Since +his mother went to the fair they have been feeding him with cow's +milk, often slightly sour, and giving him, I think, more than he +requires. +</P> + +<P> +This morning, however, he seemed so unwell they sent out to look for +a foster-mother in the village, and before long a young woman, who +lives a little way to the east, came in and restored him to his +natural food. +</P> + +<P> +A few hours later, when I came into the kitchen to talk to old Pat, +another woman performed the same kindly office, this time a person +with a curiously whimsical expression. +</P> + +<P> +Pat told me a story of an unfaithful wife, which I will give further +down, and then broke into a moral dispute with the visitor, which +caused immense delight to some young men who had come down to listen +to the story. Unfortunately it was carried on so rapidly in Gaelic +that I lost most of the points. +</P> + +<P> +This old man talks usually in a mournful tone about his ill-health, +and his death, which he feels to be approaching, yet he has +occasional touches of humor that remind me of old Mourteen on the +north island. To-day a grotesque twopenny doll was lying on the +floor near the old woman. He picked it up and examined it as if +comparing it with her. Then he held it up: 'Is it you is after +bringing that thing into the world,' he said, 'woman of the house?' +</P> + +<P> +Here is the story:— +</P> + +<P> +One day I was travelling on foot from Galway to Dublin, and the +darkness came on me and I ten miles from the town I was wanting to +pass the night in. Then a hard rain began to fall and I was tired +walking, so when I saw a sort of a house with no roof on it up +against the road, I got in the way the walls would give me shelter. +</P> + +<P> +As I was looking round I saw a light in some trees two perches off, +and thinking any sort of a house would be better than where I was, I +got over a wall and went up to the house to look in at the window. +</P> + +<P> +I saw a dead man laid on a table, and candles lighted, and a woman +watching him. I was frightened when I saw him, but it was raining +hard, and I said to myself, if he was dead he couldn't hurt me. Then +I knocked on the door and the woman came and opened it. +</P> + +<P> +'Good evening, ma'am,' says I. +</P> + +<P> +'Good evening kindly, stranger,' says she, 'Come in out of the +rain.' Then she took me in and told me her husband was after dying +on her, and she was watching him that night. +</P> + +<P> +'But it's thirsty you'll be, stranger,' says she, 'Come into the +parlour.' Then she took me into the parlour—and it was a fine clean +house—and she put a cup, with a saucer under it, on the table +before me with fine sugar and bread. +</P> + +<P> +When I'd had a cup of tea I went back into the kitchen where the +dead man was lying, and she gave me a fine new pipe off the table +with a drop of spirits. +</P> + +<P> +'Stranger,' says she, 'would you be afeard to be alone with himself?' +</P> + +<P> +'Not a bit in the world, ma'am,' says I; 'he that's dead can do no +hurt,' Then she said she wanted to go over and tell the neighbours +the way her husband was after dying on her, and she went out and +locked the door behind her. +</P> + +<P> +I smoked one pipe, and I leaned out and took another off the table. +I was smoking it with my hand on the back of my chair—the way you +are yourself this minute, God bless you—and I looking on the dead +man, when he opened his eyes as wide as myself and looked at me. +</P> + +<P> +'Don't be afraid, stranger,' said the dead man; 'I'm not dead at all +in the world. Come here and help me up and I'll tell you all about +it.' +</P> + +<P> +Well, I went up and took the sheet off of him, and I saw that he had +a fine clean shirt on his body, and fine flannel drawers. +</P> + +<P> +He sat up then, and says he— +</P> + +<P> +'I've got a bad wife, stranger, and I let on to be dead the way I'd +catch her goings on.' +</P> + +<P> +Then he got two fine sticks he had to keep down his wife, and he put +them at each side of his body, and he laid himself out again as if +he was dead. +</P> + +<P> +In half an hour his wife came back and a young man along with her. +Well, she gave him his tea, and she told him he was tired, and he +would do right to go and lie down in the bedroom. +</P> + +<P> +The young man went in and the woman sat down to watch by the dead +man. A while after she got up and 'Stranger,' says she, 'I'm going +in to get the candle out of the room; I'm thinking the young man +will be asleep by this time.' She went into the bedroom, but the +divil a bit of her came back. +</P> + +<P> +Then the dead man got up, and he took one stick, and he gave the +other to myself. We went in and saw them lying together with her +head on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +The dead man hit him a blow with the stick so that the blood out of +him leapt up and hit the gallery. +</P> + +<P> +That is my story. +</P> + +<P> +In stories of this kind he always speaks in the first person, with +minute details to show that he was actually present at the scenes +that are described. +</P> + +<P> +At the beginning of this story he gave me a long account of what had +made him be on his way to Dublin on that occasion, and told me about +all the rich people he was going to see in the finest streets of the +city. +</P> + +<P> +A week of sweeping fogs has passed over and given me a strange sense +of exile and desolation. I walk round the island nearly every day, +yet I can see nothing anywhere but a mass of wet rock, a strip of +surf, and then a tumult of waves. +</P> + +<P> +The slaty limestone has grown black with the water that is dripping +on it, and wherever I turn there is the same grey obsession twining +and wreathing itself among the narrow fields, and the same wail from +the wind that shrieks and whistles in the loose rubble of the walls. +</P> + +<P> +At first the people do not give much attention to the wilderness +that is round them, but after a few days their voices sink in the +kitchen, and their endless talk of pigs and cattle falls to the +whisper of men who are telling stories in a haunted house. +</P> + +<P> +The rain continues; but this evening a number of young men were in +the kitchen mending nets, and the bottle of poteen was drawn from +its hiding-place. +</P> + +<P> +One cannot think of these people drinking wine on the summit of this +crumbling precipice, but their grey poteen, which brings a shock of +joy to the blood, seems predestined to keep sanity in men who live +forgotten in these worlds of mist. +</P> + +<P> +I sat in the kitchen part of the evening to feel the gaiety that was +rising, and when I came into my own room after dark, one of the sons +came in every time the bottle made its round, to pour me out my +share. +</P> + +<P> +It has cleared, and the sun is shining with a luminous warmth that +makes the whole island glisten with the splendor of a gem, and fills +the sea and sky with a radiance of blue light. +</P> + +<P> +I have come out to lie on the rocks where I have the black edge of +the north island in front of me, Galway Bay, too blue almost to look +at, on my right, the Atlantic on my left, a perpendicular cliff +under my ankles, and over me innumerable gulls that chase each other +in a white cirrus of wings. +</P> + +<P> +A nest of hooded crows is somewhere near me, and one of the old +birds is trying to drive me away by letting itself fall like a stone +every few moments, from about forty yards above me to within reach +of my hand. +</P> + +<P> +Gannets are passing up and down above the sound, swooping at times +after a mackerel, and further off I can see the whole fleet of +hookers coming out from Kilronan for a night's fishing in the deep +water to the west. +</P> + +<P> +As I lie here hour after hour, I seem to enter into the wild +pastimes of the cliff, and to become a companion of the cormorants +and crows. +</P> + +<P> +Many of the birds display themselves before me with the vanity of +barbarians, performing in strange evolutions as long as I am in +sight, and returning to their ledge of rock when I am gone. Some are +wonderfully expert, and cut graceful figures for an inconceivable +time without a flap of their wings, growing so absorbed in their own +dexterity that they often collide with one another in their flight, +an incident always followed by a wild outburst of abuse. Their +language is easier than Gaelic, and I seem to understand the greater +part of their cries, though I am not able to answer. There is one +plaintive note which they take up in the middle of their usual +babble with extraordinary effect, and pass on from one to another +along the cliff with a sort of an inarticulate wail, as if they +remembered for an instant the horror of the mist. +</P> + +<P> +On the low sheets of rock to the east I can see a number of red and +grey figures hurrying about their work. The continual passing in +this island between the misery of last night and the splendor of +to-day, seems to create an affinity between the moods of these +people and the moods of varying rapture and dismay that are frequent +in artists, and in certain forms of alienation. Yet it is only in +the intonation of a few sentences or some old fragment of melody +that I catch the real spirit of the island, for in general the men +sit together and talk with endless iteration of the tides and fish, +and of the price of kelp in Connemara. +</P> + +<P> +After Mass this morning an old woman was buried. She lived in the +cottage next mine, and more than once before noon I heard a faint +echo of-the keen. I did not go to the wake for fear my presence +might jar upon the mourners, but all last evening I could hear the +strokes of a hammer in the yard, where, in the middle of a little +crowd of idlers, the next of kin laboured slowly at the coffin. +To-day, before the hour for the funeral, poteen was served to a +number of men who stood about upon the road, and a portion was +brought to me in my room. Then the coffin was carried out sewn +loosely in sailcloth, and held near the ground by three cross-poles +lashed upon the top. As we moved down to the low eastern portion of +the island, nearly all the men, and all the oldest women, wearing +petticoats over their heads, came out and joined in the procession. +</P> + +<P> +While the grave was being opened the women sat down among the flat +tombstones, bordered with a pale fringe of early bracken, and began +the wild keen, or crying for the dead. Each old woman, as she took +her turn in the leading recitative, seemed possessed for the moment +with a profound ecstasy of grief, swaying to and fro, and bending +her forehead to the stone before her, while she called out to the +dead with a perpetually recurring chant of sobs. +</P> + +<P> +All round the graveyard other wrinkled women, looking out from under +the deep red petticoats that cloaked them, rocked themselves with +the same rhythm, and intoned the inarticulate chant that is +sustained by all as an accompaniment. +</P> + +<P> +The morning had been beautifully fine, but as they lowered the +coffin into the grave, thunder rumbled overhead and hailstones +hissed among the bracken. +</P> + +<P> +In Inishmaan one is forced to believe in a sympathy between man and +nature, and at this moment when the thunder sounded a death-peal of +extraordinary grandeur above the voices of the women, I could see +the faces near me stiff and drawn with emotion. +</P> + +<P> +When the coffin was in the grave, and the thunder had rolled away +across the hills of Clare, the keen broke out again more +passionately than before. +</P> + +<P> +This grief of the keen is no personal complaint for the death of one +woman over eighty years, but seems to contain the whole passionate +rage that lurks somewhere in every native of the island. In this cry +of pain the inner consciousness of the people seems to lay itself +bare for an instant, and to reveal the mood of beings who feel their +isolation in the face of a universe that wars on them with winds and +seas. They are usually silent, but in the presence of death all +outward show of indifference or patience is forgotten, and they +shriek with pitiable despair before the horror of the fate to which +they are all doomed. +</P> + +<P> +Before they covered the coffin an old man kneeled down by the grave +and repeated a simple prayer for the dead. +</P> + +<P> +There was an irony in these words of atonement and Catholic belief +spoken by voices that were still hoarse with the cries of pagan +desperation. +</P> + +<P> +A little beyond the grave I saw a line of old women who had recited +in the keen sitting in the shadow of a wall beside the roofless +shell of the church. They were still sobbing and shaken with grief, +yet they were beginning to talk again of the daily trifles that veil +from them the terror of the world. +</P> + +<P> +When we had all come out of the graveyard, and two men had rebuilt +the hole in the wall through which the coffin had been carried in, +we walked back to the village, talking of anything, and joking of +anything, as if merely coming from the boat-slip, or the pier. +</P> + +<P> +One man told me of the poteen drinking that takes place at some +funerals. +</P> + +<P> +'A while since,' he said, 'there were two men fell down in the +graveyard while the drink was on them. The sea was rough that day, +the way no one could go to bring the doctor, and one of the men +never woke again, and found death that night.' +</P> + +<P> +The other day the men of this house made a new field. There was a +slight bank of earth under the wall of the yard, and another in the +corner of the cabbage garden. The old man and his eldest son dug out +the clay, with the care of men working in a gold-mine, and Michael +packed it in panniers—there are no wheeled vehicles on this +island—for transport to a flat rock in a sheltered corner of their +holding, where it was mixed with sand and seaweed and spread out in +a layer upon the stone. +</P> + +<P> +Most of the potato-growing of the island is carried on in fields of +this sort—for which the people pay a considerable rent—and if the +season is at all dry, their hope of a fair crop is nearly always +disappointed. +</P> + +<P> +It is now nine days since rain has fallen, and the people are filled +with anxiety, although the sun has not yet been hot enough to do +harm. +</P> + +<P> +The drought is also causing a scarcity of water. There are a few +springs on this side of the island, but they come only from a little +distance, and in hot weather are not to be relied on. The supply for +this house is carried up in a water-barrel by one of the women. If +it is drawn off at once it is not very nauseous, but if it has lain, +as it often does, for some hours in the barrel, the smell, colour, +and taste are unendurable. The water for washing is also coming +short, and as I walk round the edges of the sea, I often come on a +girl with her petticoats tucked up round her, standing in a pool +left by the tide and washing her flannels among the sea-anemones and +crabs. Their red bodices and white tapering legs make them as +beautiful as tropical sea-birds, as they stand in a frame of +seaweeds against the brink of the Atlantic. Michael, however, is a +little uneasy when they are in sight, and I cannot pause to watch +them. This habit of using the sea water for washing causes a good +deal of rheumatism on the island, for the salt lies in the clothes +and keeps them continually moist. +</P> + +<P> +The people have taken advantage of this dry moment to begin the +burning of the kelp, and all the islands are lying in a volume of +grey smoke. There will not be a very large quantity this year, as +the people are discouraged by the uncertainty of the market, and do +not care to undertake the task of manufacture without a certainty of +profit. +</P> + +<P> +The work needed to form a ton of kelp is considerable. The seaweed +is collected from the rocks after the storms of autumn and winter, +dried on fine days, and then made up into a rick, where it is left +till the beginning of June. +</P> + +<P> +It is then burnt in low kilns on the shore, an affair that takes +from twelve to twenty-four hours of continuous hard work, though I +understand the people here do not manage well and spoil a portion of +what they produce by burning it more than is required. +</P> + +<P> +The kiln holds about two tons of molten kelp, and when full it is +loosely covered with stones, and left to cool. In a few days the +substance is as hard as the limestone, and has to be broken with +crowbars before it can be placed in curaghs for transport to +Kilronan, where it is tested to determine the amount of iodine +contained, and paid for accordingly. In former years good kelp would +bring seven pounds a ton, now four pounds are not always reached. +</P> + +<P> +In Aran even manufacture is of interest. The low flame-edged kiln, +sending out dense clouds of creamy smoke, with a band of red and +grey clothed workers moving in the haze, and usually some +petticoated boys and women who come down with drink, forms a scene +with as much variety and colour as any picture from the East. +</P> + +<P> +The men feel in a certain sense the distinction of their island, and +show me their work with pride. One of them said to me yesterday, +'I'm thinking you never saw the like of this work before this day?' +</P> + +<P> +'That is true,' I answered, 'I never did.' +</P> + +<P> +'Bedad, then,' he said, 'isn't it a great wonder that you've seen +France and Germany, and the Holy Father, and never seen a man making +kelp till you come to Inishmaan.' +</P> + +<P> +All the horses from this island are put out on grass among the hills +of Connemara from June to the end of September, as there is no +grazing here during the summer. +</P> + +<P> +Their shipping and transport is even more difficult than that of the +homed cattle. Most of them are wild Connemara ponies, and their +great strength and timidity make them hard to handle on the narrow +pier, while in the hooker itself it is not easy to get them safely +on their feet in the small space that is available. They are dealt +with in the same way as for the bullocks I have spoken of already, +but the excitement becomes much more intense, and the storm of +Gaelic that rises the moment a horse is shoved from the pier, till +it is safely in its place, is indescribable. Twenty boys and men +howl and scream with agitation, cursing and exhorting, without +knowing, most of the time, what they are saying. +</P> + +<P> +Apart, however, from this primitive babble, the dexterity and power +of the men are displayed to more advantage than in anything I have +seen hitherto. I noticed particularly the owner of a hooker from the +north island that was loaded this morning. He seemed able to hold up +a horse by his single weight when it was swinging from the masthead, +and preserved a humorous calm even in moments of the wildest +excitement. Sometimes a large mare would come down sideways on the +backs of the other horses, and kick there till the hold seemed to be +filled with a mass of struggling centaurs, for the men themselves +often leap down to try and save the foals from injury. The backs of +the horses put in first are often a good deal cut by the shoes of +the others that arrive on top of them, but otherwise they do not +seem to be much the worse, and as they are not on their way to a +fair, it is not of much consequence in what condition they come to +land. +</P> + +<P> +There is only one bit and saddle in the island, which are used by +the priest, who rides from the chapel to the pier when he has held +the service on Sunday. +</P> + +<P> +The islanders themselves ride with a simple halter and a stick, yet +sometimes travel, at least in the larger island, at a desperate +gallop. As the horses usually have panniers, the rider sits sideways +over the withers, and if the panniers are empty they go at full +speed in this position without anything to hold to. +</P> + +<P> +More than once in Aranmor I met a party going out west with empty +panniers from Kilronan. Long before they came in sight I could hear +a clatter of hoofs, and then a whirl of horses would come round a +corner at full gallop with their heads out, utterly indifferent to +the slender halter that is their only check. They generally travel +in single file with a few yards between them, and as there is no +traffic there is little fear of an accident. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes a woman and a man ride together, but in this case the man +sits in the usual position, and the woman sits sideways behind him, +and holds him round the waist. +</P> + +<P> +Old Pat Dirane continues to come up every day to talk to me, and at +times I turn the conversation to his experiences of the fairies. +</P> + +<P> +He has seen a good many of them, he says, in different parts of the +island, especially in the sandy districts north of the slip. They +are about a yard high with caps like the 'peelers' pulled down over +their faces. On one occasion he saw them playing ball in the evening +just above the slip, and he says I must avoid that place in the +morning or after nightfall for fear they might do me mischief. +</P> + +<P> +He has seen two women who were 'away' with them, one a young married +woman, the other a girl. The woman was standing by a wall, at a spot +he described to me with great care, looking out towards the north. +</P> + +<P> +Another night he heard a voice crying out in Irish, 'mhathair ta me +marbh' ('O mother, I'm killed'), and in the morning there was blood +on the wall of his house, and a child in a house not far off was +dead. +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday he took me aside, and said he would tell me a secret he +had never yet told to any person in the world. +</P> + +<P> +'Take a sharp needle,' he said, 'and stick it in under the collar of +your coat, and not one of them will be able to have power on you.' +</P> + +<P> +Iron is a common talisman with barbarians, but in this case the idea +of exquisite sharpness was probably present also, and, perhaps, some +feeling for the sanctity of the instrument of toil, a folk-belief +that is common in Brittany. +</P> + +<P> +The fairies are more numerous in Mayo than in any other county, +though they are fond of certain districts in Galway, where the +following story is said to have taken place. +</P> + +<P> +'A farmer was in great distress as his crops had failed, and his cow +had died on him. One night he told his wife to make him a fine new +sack for flour before the next morning; and when it was finished he +started off with it before the dawn. +</P> + +<P> +'At that time there was a gentleman who had been taken by the +fairies, and made an officer among them, and it was often people +would see him and him riding on a white horse at dawn and in the +evening. +</P> + +<P> +'The poor man went down to the place where they used to see the +officer, and when he came by on his horse, he asked the loan of two +hundred and a half of flour, for he was in great want. +</P> + +<P> +'The officer called the fairies out of a hole in the rocks where +they stored their wheat, and told them to give the poor man what he +was asking. Then he told him to come back and pay him in a year, and +rode away. +</P> + +<P> +'When the poor man got home he wrote down the day on a piece of +paper, and that day year he came back and paid the officer.' +</P> + +<P> +When he had ended his story the old man told me that the fairies +have a tenth of all the produce of the country, and make stores of +it in the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +It is a Holy Day, and I have come up to sit on the Dun while the +people are at Mass. +</P> + +<P> +A strange tranquility has come over the island this morning, as +happens sometimes on Sunday, filling the two circles of sea and sky +with the quiet of a church. +</P> + +<P> +The one landscape that is here lends itself with singular power to +this suggestion of grey luminous cloud. There is no wind, and no +definite light. Aranmor seems to sleep upon a mirror, and the hills +of Connemara look so near that I am troubled by the width of the bay +that lies before them, touched this morning with individual +expression one sees sometimes in a lake. +</P> + +<P> +On these rocks, where there is no growth of vegetable or animal +life, all the seasons are the same, and this June day is so full of +autumn that I listen unconsciously for the rustle of dead leaves. +</P> + +<P> +The first group of men are coming out of the chapel, followed by a +crowd of women, who divide at the gate and troop off in different +directions, while the men linger on the road to gossip. +</P> + +<P> +The silence is broken; I can hear far off, as if over water, a faint +murmur of Gaelic. +</P> + +<P> +In the afternoon the sun came out and I was rowed over for a visit +to Kilronan. +</P> + +<P> +As my men were bringing round the curagh to take me off a headland +near the pier, they struck a sunken rock, and came ashore shipping a +quantity of water, They plugged the hole with a piece of sacking +torn from a bag of potatoes they were taking over for the priest, +and we set off with nothing but a piece of torn canvas between us +and the Atlantic. +</P> + +<P> +Every few hundred yards one of the rowers had to stop and bail, but +the hole did not increase. +</P> + +<P> +When we were about half way across the sound we met a curagh coming +towards us with its sails set. After some shouting in Gaelic, I +learned that they had a packet of letters and tobacco for myself. We +sidled up as near as was possible with the roll, and my goods were +thrown to me wet with spray. +</P> + +<P> +After my weeks in Inishmaan, Kilronan seemed an imposing centre of +activity. The half-civilized fishermen of the larger island are +inclined to despise the simplicity of the life here, and some of +them who were standing about when I landed asked me how at all I +passed my time with no decent fishing to be looking at. +</P> + +<P> +I turned in for a moment to talk to the old couple in the hotel, and +then moved on to pay some other visits in the village. +</P> + +<P> +Later in the evening I walked out along the northern road, where I +met many of the natives of the outlying villages, who had come down +to Kilronan for the Holy Day, and were now wandering home in +scattered groups. +</P> + +<P> +The women and girls, when they had no men with them, usually tried +to make fun with me. +</P> + +<P> +'Is it tired you are, stranger?' said one girl. I was walking very +slowly, to pass the time before my return to the east. +</P> + +<P> +'Bedad, it is not, little girl,' I answered in Gaelic, 'It is lonely +I am.' +</P> + +<P> +'Here is my little sister, stranger, who will give you her arm.' +</P> + +<P> +And so it went. Quiet as these women are on ordinary occasions, when +two or three of them are gathered together in their holiday +petti-coats and shawls, they are as wild and capricious as the women +who live in towns. +</P> + +<P> +About seven o'clock I got back to Kilronan, and beat up my crew from +the public-houses near the bay. With their usual carelessness they +had not seen to the leak in the curagh, nor to an oar that was +losing the brace that holds it to the toll-pin, and we moved off +across the sound at an absurd pace with a deepening pool at our +feet. +</P> + +<P> +A superb evening light was lying over the island, which made me +rejoice at our delay. Looking back there was a golden haze behind +the sharp edges of the rock, and a long wake from the sun, which was +making jewels of the bubbling left by the oars. +</P> + +<P> +The men had had their share of porter and were unusually voluble, +pointing out things to me that I had already seen, and stopping now +and then to make me notice the oily smell of mackerel that was +rising from the waves. +</P> + +<P> +They told me that an evicting party is coming to the island tomorrow +morning, and gave me a long account of what they make and spend in a +year and of their trouble with the rent. +</P> + +<P> +'The rent is hard enough for a poor man,' said one of them, 'but +this time we didn't pay, and they're after serving processes on +every one of us. A man will have to pay his rent now, and a power of +money with it for the process, and I'm thinking the agent will have +money enough out of them processes to pay for his servant-girl and +his man all the year.' +</P> + +<P> +I asked afterwards who the island belonged to. +</P> + +<P> +'Bedad,' they said, 'we've always heard it belonged to Miss—and she +is dead.' +</P> + +<P> +When the sun passed like a lozenge of gold flame into the sea the +cold became intense. Then the men began to talk among themselves, +and losing the thread, I lay half in a dream looking at the pale +oily sea about us, and the low cliffs of the island sloping up past +the village with its wreath of smoke to the outline of Dun Conor. +</P> + +<P> +Old Pat was in the house when I arrived, and he told a long story +after supper:— +</P> + +<P> +There was once a widow living among the woods, and her only son +living along with her. He went out every morning through the trees +to get sticks, and one day as he was lying on the ground he saw a +swarm of flies flying over what the cow leaves behind her. He took +up his sickle and hit one blow at them, and hit that hard he left no +single one of them living. +</P> + +<P> +That evening he said to his mother that it was time he was going out +into the world to seek his fortune, for he was able to destroy a +whole swarm of flies at one blow, and he asked her to make him three +cakes the way he might take them with him in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +He started the next day a while after the dawn, with his three cakes +in his wallet, and he ate one of them near ten o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +He got hungry again by midday and ate the second, and when night was +coming on him he ate the third. After that he met a man on the road +who asked him where he was going. +</P> + +<P> +'I'm looking for some place where I can work for my living,' said +the young man. +</P> + +<P> +'Come with me,' said the other man, 'and sleep to-night in the barn, +and I'll give you work to-morrow to see what you're able for.' +</P> + +<P> +The next morning the farmer brought him out and showed him his cows +and told him to take them out to graze on the hills, and to keep +good watch that no one should come near them to milk them. The young +man drove out the cows into the fields, and when the heat of the day +came on he lay down on his back and looked up into the sky. A while +after he saw a black spot in the north-west, and it grew larger and +nearer till he saw a great giant coming towards him. +</P> + +<P> +He got up on his feet and he caught the giant round the legs with +his two arms, and he drove him down into the hard ground above his +ankles, the way he was not able to free himself. Then the giant told +him to do him no hurt, and gave him his magic rod, and told him to +strike on the rock, and he would find his beautiful black horse, and +his sword, and his fine suit. +</P> + +<P> +The young man struck the rock and it opened before him, and he found +the beautiful black horse, and the giant's sword and the suit lying +before him. He took out the sword alone, and he struck one blow with +it and struck off the giant's head. Then he put back the sword into +the rock, and went out again to his cattle, till it was time to +drive them home to the farmer. +</P> + +<P> +When they came to milk the cows they found a power of milk in them, +and the farmer asked the young man if he had seen nothing out on the +hills, for the other cow-boys had been bringing home the cows with +no drop of milk in them. And the young man said he had seen nothing. +</P> + +<P> +The next day he went out again with the cows. He lay down on his +back in the heat of the day, and after a while he saw a black spot +in the north-west, and it grew larger and nearer, till he saw it was +a great giant coming to attack him. +</P> + +<P> +'You killed my brother,' said the giant; 'come here, till I make a +garter of your body.' +</P> + +<P> +The young man went to him and caught him by the legs and drove him +down into the hard ground up to his ankles. +</P> + +<P> +Then he hit the rod against the rock, and took out the sword and +struck off the giant's head. +</P> + +<P> +That evening the farmer found twice as much milk in the cows as the +evening before, and he asked the young man if he had seen anything. +The young man said that he had seen nothing. +</P> + +<P> +The third day the third giant came to him and said, 'You have killed +my two brothers; come here, till I make a garter of your body.' +</P> + +<P> +And he did with this giant as he had done with the other two, and +that evening there was so much milk in the cows it was dropping out +of their udders on the pathway. +</P> + +<P> +The next day the farmer called him and told him he might leave the +cows in the stalls that day, for there was a great curiosity to be +seen, namely, a beautiful king's daughter that was to be eaten by a +great fish, if there was no one in it that could save her. But the +young man said such a sight was all one to him, and he went out with +the cows on to the hills. When he came to the rocks he hit them with +his rod and brought out the suit and put it on him, and brought out +the sword and strapped it on his side, like an officer, and he got +on the black horse and rode faster than the wind till he came to +where the beautiful king's daughter was sitting on the shore in a +golden chair, waiting for the great fish. +</P> + +<P> +When the great fish came in on the sea, bigger than a whale, with +two wings on the back of it, the young man went down into the surf +and struck at it with his sword and cut off one of its wings. All +the sea turned red with the bleeding out of it, till it swam away +and left the young man on the shore. +</P> + +<P> +Then he turned his horse and rode faster than the wind till he came +to the rocks, and he took the suit off him and put it back in the +rocks, with the giant's sword and the black horse, and drove the +cows down to the farm. +</P> + +<P> +The man came out before him and said he had missed the greatest +wonder ever was, and that a noble person was after coming down with +a fine suit on him and cutting off one of the wings from the great +fish. +</P> + +<P> +'And there'll be the same necessity on her for two mornings more,' +said the farmer, 'and you'd do right to come and look on it.' +</P> + +<P> +But the young man said he would not come. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning he went out with his cows, and he took the sword +and the suit and the black horse out of the rock, and he rode faster +than the wind till he came where the king's daughter was sitting on +the shore. When the people saw him coming there was great wonder on +them to know if it was the same man they had seen the day before. +The king's daughter called out to him to come and kneel before her, +and when he kneeled down she took her scissors and cut off a lock of +hair from the back of his head and hid it in her clothes. +</P> + +<P> +Then the great worm came in from the sea, and he went down into the +surf and cut the other wing off from it. All the sea turned red with +the bleeding out of it, till it swam away and left them. +</P> + +<P> +That evening the farmer came out before him and told him of the +great wonder he had missed, and asked him would he go the next day +and look on it. The young man said he would not go. +</P> + +<P> +The third day he came again on the black horse to where the king's +daughter was sitting on a golden chair waiting for the great worm. +When it came in from the sea the young man went down before it, and +every time it opened its mouth to eat him, he struck into its mouth, +till his sword went out through its neck, and it rolled back and +died. +</P> + +<P> +Then he rode off faster than the wind, and he put the suit and the +sword and the black horse into the rock, and drove home the cows. +</P> + +<P> +The farmer was there before him and he told him that there was to be +a great marriage feast held for three days, and on the third day the +king's daughter would be married to the man that killed the great +worm, if they were able to find him. +</P> + +<P> +A great feast was held, and men of great strength came and said it +was themselves were after killing the great worm. +</P> + +<P> +But on the third day the young man put on the suit, and strapped the +sword to his side like an officer, and got on the black horse and +rode faster than the wind, till he came to the palace. +</P> + +<P> +The king's daughter saw him, and she brought him in and made him +kneel down before her. Then she looked at the back of his head and +saw the place where she had cut off the lock with her own hand. She +led him in to the king, and they were married, and the young man was +given all the estate. +</P> + +<P> +That is my story. +</P> + +<P> +Two recent attempts to carry out evictions on the island came to +nothing, for each time a sudden storm rose, by, it is said, the +power of a native witch, when the steamer was approaching, and made +it impossible to land. +</P> + +<P> +This morning, however, broke beneath a clear sky of June, and when I +came into the open air the sea and rocks were shining with wonderful +brilliancy. Groups of men, dressed in their holiday clothes, were +standing about, talking with anger and fear, yet showing a lurking +satisfaction at the thought of the dramatic pageant that was to +break the silence of the seas. +</P> + +<P> +About half-past nine the steamer came in sight, on the narrow line +of sea-horizon that is seen in the centre of the bay, and +immediately a last effort was made to hide the cows and sheep of the +families that were most in debt. +</P> + +<P> +Till this year no one on the island would consent to act as bailiff, +so that it was impossible to identify the cattle of the defaulters. +Now however, a man of the name of Patrick has sold his honour, and +the effort of concealment is practically futile. +</P> + +<P> +This falling away from the ancient loyalty of the island has caused +intense indignation, and early yesterday morning, while I was +dreaming on the Dun, this letter was nailed on the doorpost of the +chapel:— +</P> + +<P> +'Patrick, the devil, a revolver is waiting for you. If you are +missed with the first shot, there will be five more that will hit +you. +</P> + +<P> +'Any man that will talk with you, or work with you, or drink a pint +of porter in your shop, will be done with the same way as yourself.' +</P> + +<P> +As the steamer drew near I moved down with the men to watch the +arrival, though no one went further than about a mile from the +shore. +</P> + +<P> +Two curaghs from Kilronan with a man who was to give help in +identifying the cottages, the doctor, and the relieving officer, +were drifting with the tide, unwilling to come to land without the +support of the larger party. When the anchor had been thrown it gave +me a strange throb of pain to see the boats being lowered, and the +sunshine gleaming on the rifles and helmets of the constabulary who +crowded into them. +</P> + +<P> +Once on shore the men were formed in close marching order, a word +was given, and the heavy rhythm of their boots came up over the +rocks. We were collected in two straggling bands on either side of +the roadway, and a few moments later the body of magnificent armed +men passed close to us, followed by a low rabble, who had been +brought to act as drivers for the sheriff. +</P> + +<P> +After my weeks spent among primitive men this glimpse of the newer +types of humanity was not reassuring. Yet these mechanical police, +with the commonplace agents and sheriffs, and the rabble they had +hired, represented aptly enough the civilisation for which the homes +of the island were to be desecrated. +</P> + +<P> +A stop was made at one of the first cottages in the village, and the +day's work began. Here, however, and at the next cottage, a +compromise was made, as some relatives came up at the last moment +and lent the money that was needed to gain a respite. +</P> + +<P> +In another case a girl was ill in the house, so the doctor +interposed, and the people were allowed to remain after a merely +formal eviction. About midday, however, a house was reached where +there was no pretext for mercy, and no money could be procured. At a +sign from the sheriff the work of carrying out the beds and utensils +was begun in the middle of a crowd of natives who looked on in +absolute silence, broken only by the wild imprecations of the woman +of the house. She belonged to one of the most primitive families on +the island, and she shook with uncontrollable fury as she saw the +strange armed men who spoke a language she could not understand +driving her from the hearth she had brooded on for thirty years. For +these people the outrage to the hearth is the supreme catastrophe. +They live here in a world of grey, where there are wild rains and +mists every week in the year, and their warm chimney corners, filled +with children and young girls, grow into the consciousness of each +family in a way it is not easy to understand in more civilised +places. +</P> + +<P> +The outrage to a tomb in China probably gives no greater shock to +the Chinese than the outrage to a hearth in Inishmaan gives to the +people. +</P> + +<P> +When the few trifles had been carried out, and the door blocked with +stones, the old woman sat down by the threshold and covered her head +with her shawl. +</P> + +<P> +Five or six other women who lived close by sat down in a circle +round her, with mute sympathy. Then the crowd moved on with the +police to another cottage where the same scene was to take place, +and left the group of desolate women sitting by the hovel. +</P> + +<P> +There were still no clouds in the sky and the heat was intense. The +police when not in motion lay sweating and gasping under the walls +with their tunics unbuttoned. They were not attractive, and I kept +comparing them with the islandmen, who walked up and down as cool +and fresh-looking as the sea-gulls. +</P> + +<P> +When the last eviction had been carried out a division was made: +half the party went off with the bailiff to search the inner plain +of the island for the cattle that had been hidden in the morning, +the other half remained on the village road to guard some pigs that +had already been taken possession of. +</P> + +<P> +After a while two of these pigs escaped from the drivers and began a +wild race up and down the narrow road. The people shrieked and +howled to increase their terror, and at last some of them became so +excited that the police thought it time to interfere. They drew up +in double line opposite the mouth of a blind laneway where the +animals had been shut up. A moment later the shrieking began again +in the west and the two pigs came in sight, rushing down the middle +of the road with the drivers behind them. +</P> + +<P> +They reached the line of the police. There was a slight scuffle, and +then the pigs continued their mad rush to the east, leaving three +policemen lying in the dust. +</P> + +<P> +The satisfaction of the people was immense. They shrieked and hugged +each other with delight, and it is likely that they will hand down +these animals for generations in the tradition of the island. +</P> + +<P> +Two hours later the other party returned, driving three lean cows +before them, and a start was made for the slip. At the public-house +the policemen were given a drink while the dense crowd that was +following waited in the lane. The island bull happened to be in a +field close by, and he became wildly excited at the sight of the +cows and of the strangely-dressed men. Two young islanders sidled up +to me in a moment or two as I was resting on a wall, and one of them +whispered in my ear—'Do you think they could take fines of us if we +let out the bull on them?' +</P> + +<P> +In face of the crowd of women and children, I could only say it was +probable, and they slunk off. +</P> + +<P> +At the slip there was a good deal of bargaining, which ended in all +the cattle being given back to their owners. It was plainly of no +use to take them away, as they were worth nothing. +</P> + +<P> +When the last policeman had embarked, an old woman came forward from +the crowd and, mounting on a rock near the slip, began a fierce +rhapsody in Gaelic, pointing at the bailiff and waving her withered +arms with extraordinary rage. +</P> + +<P> +'This man is my own son,' she said; 'it is I that ought to know him. +He is the first ruffian in the whole big world.' +</P> + +<P> +Then she gave an account of his life, coloured with a vindictive +fury I cannot reproduce. As she went on the excitement became so +intense I thought the man would be stoned before he could get back +to his cottage. +</P> + +<P> +On these islands the women live only for their children, and it is +hard to estimate the power of the impulse that made this old woman +stand out and curse her son. +</P> + +<P> +In the fury of her speech I seem to look again into the strangely +reticent temperament of the islanders, and to feel the passionate +spirit that expresses itself, at odd moments only, with magnificent +words and gestures. +</P> + +<P> +Old Pat has told me a story of the goose that lays the golden eggs, +which he calls the Phoenix:— +</P> + +<P> +A poor widow had three sons and a daughter. One day when her sons +were out looking for sticks in the wood they saw a fine speckled +bird flying in the trees. The next day they saw it again, and the +eldest son told his brothers to go and get sticks by themselves, for +he was going after the bird. +</P> + +<P> +He went after it, and brought it in with him when he came home in +the evening. They put it in an old hencoop, and they gave it some of +the meal they had for themselves;—I don't know if it ate the meal, +but they divided what they had themselves; they could do no more. +</P> + +<P> +That night it laid a fine spotted egg in the basket. The next night +it laid another. +</P> + +<P> +At that time its name was on the papers and many heard of the bird +that laid the golden eggs, for the eggs were of gold, and there's no +lie in it. +</P> + +<P> +When the boys went down to the shop the next day to buy a stone of +meal, the shopman asked if he could buy the bird of them. Well, it +was arranged in this way. The shopman would marry the boys' +sister—a poor simple girl without a stitch of good clothes—and get +the bird with her. +</P> + +<P> +Some time after that one of the boys sold an egg of the bird to a +gentleman that was in the country. The gentleman asked him if he had +the bird still. He said that the man who had married his sister was +after getting it. +</P> + +<P> +'Well,' said the gentleman, 'the man who eats the heart of that bird +will find a purse of gold beneath him every morning, and the man who +eats its liver will be king of Ireland.' +</P> + +<P> +The boy went out—he was a simple poor fellow—and told the shopman. +</P> + +<P> +Then the shopman brought in the bird and killed it, and he ate the +heart himself and he gave the liver to his wife. +</P> + +<P> +When the boy saw that, there was great anger on him, and he went +back and told the gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +'Do what I'm telling you,' said the gentleman. 'Go down now and tell +the shopman and his wife to come up here to play a game of cards +with me, for it's lonesome I am this evening.' +</P> + +<P> +When the boy was gone he mixed a vomit and poured the lot of it into +a few naggins of whiskey, and he put a strong cloth on the table +under the cards. +</P> + +<P> +The man came up with his wife and they began to play. +</P> + +<P> +The shopman won the first game and the gentleman made them drink a +sup of the whiskey. +</P> + +<P> +They played again and the shopman won the second game. Then the +gentleman made him drink a sup more of the whiskey. +</P> + +<P> +As they were playing the third game the shopman and his wife got +sick on the cloth, and the boy picked it up and carried it into the +yard, for the gentleman had let him know what he was to do. Then he +found the heart of the bird and he ate it, and the next morning when +he turned in his bed there was a purse of gold under him. +</P> + +<P> +That is my story. +</P> + +<P> +When the steamer is expected I rarely fail to visit the boat-slip, +as the men usually collect when she is in the offing, and lie +arguing among their curaghs till she has made her visit to the south +island, and is seen coming towards us. +</P> + +<P> +This morning I had a long talk with an old man who was rejoicing +over the improvement he had seen here during the last ten or fifteen +years. +</P> + +<P> +Till recently there was no communication with the mainland except by +hookers, which were usually slow, and could only make the voyage in +tolerably fine weather, so that if an islander went to a fair it was +often three weeks before he could return. Now, however, the steamer +comes here twice in the week, and the voyage is made in three or +four hours. +</P> + +<P> +The pier on this island is also a novelty, and is much thought of, +as it enables the hookers that still carry turf and cattle to +discharge and take their cargoes directly from the shore. The water +round it, however, is only deep enough for a hooker when the tide is +nearly full, and will never float the steamer, so passengers must +still come to land in curaghs. The boat-slip at the corner next the +south island is extremely useful in calm weather, but it is exposed +to a heavy roll from the south, and is so narrow that the curaghs +run some danger of missing it in the tumult of the surf. +</P> + +<P> +In bad weather four men will often stand for nearly an hour at the +top of the slip with a curagh in their hands, watching a point of +rock towards the south where they can see the strength of the waves +that are coming in. +</P> + +<P> +The instant a break is seen they swoop down to the surf, launch +their curagh, and pull out to sea with incredible speed. Coming to +land Is attended with the same difficulty, and, if their moment is +badly chosen, they are likely to be washed sideways and swamped +among the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +This continual danger, which can only be escaped by extraordinary +personal dexterity, has had considerable influence on the local +character, as the waves have made it impossible for clumsy, +foolhardy, or timid men to live on these islands. +</P> + +<P> +When the steamer is within a mile of the slip, the curaghs are put +out and range themselves—there are usually from four to a dozen—in +two lines at some distance from the shore. +</P> + +<P> +The moment she comes in among them there is a short but desperate +struggle for good places at her side. The men are lolling on their +oars talking with the dreamy tone which comes with the rocking of +the waves. The steamer lies to, and in an instant their faces become +distorted with passion, while the oars bend and quiver with the +strain. For one minute they seem utterly indifferent to their own +safety and that of their friends and brothers. Then the sequence is +decided, and they begin to talk again with the dreamy tone that is +habitual to them, while they make fast and clamber up into the +steamer. +</P> + +<P> +While the curaghs are out I am left with a few women and very old +men who cannot row. One of these old men, whom I often talk with, +has some fame as a bone-setter, and is said to have done remarkable +cures, both here and on the mainland. Stories are told of how he has +been taken off by the quality in their carriages through the hills +of Connemara, to treat their sons and daughters, and come home with +his pockets full of money. +</P> + +<P> +Another old man, the oldest on the island, is fond of telling me +anecdotes—not folktales—of things that have happened here in his +lifetime. +</P> + +<P> +He often tells me about a Connaught man who killed his father with +the blow of a spade when he was in passion, and then fled to this +island and threw himself on the mercy of some of the natives with +whom he was said to be related. They hid him in a hole—which the +old man has shown me—and kept him safe for weeks, though the police +came and searched for him, and he could hear their boots grinding on +the stones over his head. In spite of a reward which was offered, +the island was incorruptible, and after much trouble the man was +safely shipped to America. +</P> + +<P> +This impulse to protect the criminal is universal in the west. It +seems partly due to the association between justice and the hated +English jurisdiction, but more directly to the primitive feeling of +these people, who are never criminals yet always capable of crime, +that a man will not do wrong unless he is under the influence of a +passion which is as irresponsible as a storm on the sea. If a man +has killed his father, and is already sick and broken with remorse, +they can see no reason why he should be dragged away and killed by +the law. +</P> + +<P> +Such a man, they say, will be quiet all the rest of his life, and if +you suggest that punishment is needed as an example, they ask, +'Would any one kill his father if he was able to help it?' +</P> + +<P> +Some time ago, before the introduction of police, all the people of +the islands were as innocent as the people here remain to this day. +I have heard that at that time the ruling proprietor and magistrate +of the north island used to give any man who had done wrong a letter +to a jailer in Galway, and send him off by himself to serve a term +of imprisonment. +</P> + +<P> +As there was no steamer, the ill-doer was given a passage in some +chance hooker to the nearest point on the mainland. Then he walked +for many miles along a desolate shore till he reached the town. When +his time had been put through he crawled back along the same route, +feeble and emaciated, and had often to wait many weeks before he +could regain the island. Such at least is the story. +</P> + +<P> +It seems absurd to apply the same laws to these people and to the +criminal classes of a city. The most intelligent man on Inishmaan +has often spoken to me of his contempt of the law, and of the +increase of crime the police have brought to Aranmor. On this +island, he says, if men have a little difference, or a little fight, +their friends take care it does not go too far, and in a little time +it is forgotten. In Kilronan there is a band of men paid to make out +cases for themselves; the moment a blow is struck they come down and +arrest the man who gave it. The other man he quarreled with has to +give evidence against him; whole families come down to the court and +swear against each other till they become bitter enemies. If there +is a conviction the man who is convicted never forgives. He waits +his time, and before the year is out there is a cross summons, which +the other man in turn never forgives. The feud continues to grow, +till a dispute about the colour of a man's hair may end in a murder, +after a year's forcing by the law. The mere fact that it is +impossible to get reliable evidence in the island—not because the +people are dishonest, but because they think the claim of kinship +more sacred than the claims of abstract truth—turns the whole +system of sworn evidence into a demoralising farce, and it is easy +to believe that law dealings on this false basis must lead to every +sort of injustice. +</P> + +<P> +While I am discussing these questions with the old men the curaghs +begin to come in with cargoes of salt, and flour, and porter. +</P> + +<P> +To-day a stir was made by the return of a native who had spent five +years in New York. He came on shore with half a dozen people who had +been shopping on the mainland, and walked up and down on the slip in +his neat suit, looking strangely foreign to his birthplace, while +his old mother of eighty-five ran about on the slippery seaweed, +half crazy with delight, telling every one the news. +</P> + +<P> +When the curaghs were in their places the men crowded round him to +bid him welcome. He shook hands with them readily enough, but with +no smile of recognition. +</P> + +<P> +He is said to be dying. +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday—a Sunday—three young men rowed me over to Inisheer, the +south island of the group. +</P> + +<P> +The stern of the curagh was occupied, so I was put in the bow with +my head on a level with the gunnel. A considerable sea was running +in the sound, and when we came out from the shelter of this island, +the curagh rolled and vaulted in a way not easy to describe. +</P> + +<P> +At one moment, as we went down into the furrow, green waves curled +and arched themselves above me; then in an instant I was flung up +into the air and could look down on the heads of the rowers, as if +we were sitting on a ladder, or out across a forest of white crests +to the black cliff of Inishmaan. +</P> + +<P> +The men seemed excited and uneasy, and I thought for a moment that +we were likely to be swamped. In a little while, however I realised +the capacity of the curagh to raise its head among the waves, and +the motion became strangely exhilarating. Even, I thought, if we +were dropped into the blue chasm of the waves, this death, with the +fresh sea saltness in one's teeth, would be better than most deaths +one is likely to meet. +</P> + +<P> +When we reached the other island, it was raining heavily, so that we +could not see anything of the antiquities or people. +</P> + +<P> +For the greater part of the afternoon we sat on the tops of empty +barrels in the public-house, talking of the destiny of Gaelic. We +were admitted as travellers, and the shutters of the shop were +closed behind us, letting in only a glimmer of grey light, and the +tumult of the storm. Towards evening it cleared a little and we came +home in a calmer sea, but with a dead head-wind that gave the rowers +all they could do to make the passage. +</P> + +<P> +On calm days I often go out fishing with Michael. When we reach the +space above the slip where the curaghs are propped, bottom upwards, +on the limestone, he lifts the prow of the one we are going to +embark in, and I slip underneath and set the centre of the foremost +seat upon my neck. Then he crawls under the stern and stands up with +the last seat upon his shoulders. We start for the sea. The long +prow bends before me so that I see nothing but a few yards of +shingle at my feet. A quivering pain runs from the top of my spine +to the sharp stones that seem to pass through my pampooties, and +grate upon my ankles. We stagger and groan beneath the weight; but +at last our feet reach the slip, and we run down with a half-trot +like the pace of bare-footed children. +</P> + +<P> +A yard from the sea we stop and lower the curagh to the right. It +must be brought down gently—a difficult task for our strained and +aching muscles—and sometimes as the gunnel reaches the slip I lose +my balance and roll in among the seats. +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday we went out in the curagh that had been damaged on the day +of my visit to Kilronan, and as we were putting in the oars the +freshly-tarred patch stuck to the slip which was heated with the +sunshine. We carried up water in the bailer—the 'supeen,' a shallow +wooden vessel like a soup-plate—and with infinite pains we got free +and rode away. In a few minutes, however, I found the water spouting +up at my feet. +</P> + +<P> +The patch had been misplaced, and this time we had no sacking. +Michael borrowed my pocket scissors, and with admirable rapidity cut +a square of flannel from the tail of his shirt and squeezed it into +the hole, making it fast with a splint which he hacked from one of +the oars. +</P> + +<P> +During our excitement the tide had carried us to the brink of the +rocks, and I admired again the dexterity with which he got his oars +into the water and turned us out as we were mounting on a wave that +would have hurled us to destruction. +</P> + +<P> +With the injury to our curagh we did not go far from the shore. +After a while I took a long spell at the oars, and gained a certain +dexterity, though they are not easy to manage. The handles overlap +by about six inches—in order to gain leverage, as the curagh is +narrow—and at first it was almost impossible to avoid striking the +upper oar against one's knuckles. The oars are rough and square, +except at the ends, so one cannot do so with impunity. Again, a +curagh with two light people in it floats on the water like a +nut-shell, and the slightest inequality in the stroke throws the +prow round at least a right angle from its course. In the first +half-hour I found myself more than once moving towards the point I +had come from, greatly to Michael's satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +This morning we were out again near the pier on the north side of +the island. As we paddled slowly with the tide, trolling for +pollock, several curaghs, weighed to the gunnel with kelp, passed us +on their way to Kilronan. +</P> + +<P> +An old woman, rolled in red petticoats, was sitting on a ledge of +rock that runs into the sea at the point where the curaghs were +passing from the south, hailing them in quavering Gaelic, and asking +for a passage to Kilronan. +</P> + +<P> +The first one that came round without a cargo turned in from some +distance and took her away. +</P> + +<P> +The morning had none of the supernatural beauty that comes over the +island so often in rainy weather, so we basked in the vague +enjoyment of the sunshine, looking down at the wild luxuriance of +the vegetation beneath the sea, which contrasts strangely with the +nakedness above it. +</P> + +<P> +Some dreams I have had in this cottage seem to give strength to the +opinion that there is a psychic memory attached to certain +neighbourhoods. +</P> + +<P> +Last night, after walking in a dream among buildings with strangely +intense light on them, I heard a faint rhythm of music beginning far +away on some stringed instrument. +</P> + +<P> +It came closer to me, gradually increasing in quickness and volume +with an irresistibly definite progression. When it was quite near +the sound began to move in my nerves and blood, and to urge me to +dance with them. +</P> + +<P> +I knew that if I yielded I would be carried away to some moment of +terrible agony, so I struggled to remain quiet, holding my knees +together with my hands. +</P> + +<P> +The music increased continually, sounding like the strings of harps, +tuned to a forgotten scale, and having a resonance as searching as +the strings of the cello. +</P> + +<P> +Then the luring excitement became more powerful than my will, and my +limbs moved in spite of me. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment I was swept away in a whirlwind of notes. My breath and +my thoughts and every impulse of my body, became a form of the +dance, till I could not distinguish between the instruments and the +rhythm and my own person or consciousness. +</P> + +<P> +For a while it seemed an excitement that was filled with joy, then +it grew into an ecstasy where all existence was lost in a vortex of +movement. I could not think there had ever been a life beyond the +whirling of the dance. +</P> + +<P> +Then with a shock the ecstasy turned to an agony and rage. I +Struggled to free myself, but seemed only to increase the passion of +the steps I moved to. When I shrieked I could only echo the notes of +the rhythm. +</P> + +<P> +At last with a moment of uncontrollable frenzy I broke back to +consciousness and awoke. +</P> + +<P> +I dragged myself trembling to the window of the cottage and looked +out. The moon was glittering across the bay, and there was no sound +anywhere on the island. +</P> + +<P> +I am leaving in two days, and old Pat Dirane has bidden me goodbye. +He met me in the village this morning and took me into 'his little +tint,' a miserable hovel where he spends the night. +</P> + +<P> +I sat for a long time on his threshold, while he leaned on a stool +behind me, near his bed, and told me the last story I shall have +from him—a rude anecdote not worth recording. Then he told me with +careful emphasis how he had wandered when he was a young man, and +lived in a fine college, teaching Irish to the young priests! +</P> + +<P> +They say on the island that he can tell as many lies as four men: +perhaps the stories he has learned have strengthened his +imagination. When I stood up in the doorway to give him God's +blessing, he leaned over on the straw that forms his bed, and shed +tears. Then he turned to me again, lifting up one trembling hand, +with the mitten worn to a hole on the palm, from the rubbing of his +crutch. +</P> + +<P> +'I'll not see you again,' he said, with tears trickling on his face, +'and you're a kindly man. When you come back next year I won't be in +it. I won't live beyond the winter. But listen now to what I'm +telling you; let you put insurance on me in the city of Dublin, and +it's five hundred pounds you'll get on my burial.' +</P> + +<P> +This evening, my last in the island, is also the evening of the +'Pattern'—a festival something like 'Pardons' of Brittany. +</P> + +<P> +I waited especially to see it, but a piper who was expected did not +come, and there was no amusement. A few friends and relations came +over from the other island and stood about the public-house in their +best clothes, but without music dancing was impossible. +</P> + +<P> +I believe on some occasions when the piper is present there is a +fine day of dancing and excitement, but the Galway piper is getting +old, and is not easily induced to undertake the voyage. +</P> + +<P> +Last night, St. John's Eve, the fires were lighted and boys ran +about with pieces of the burning turf, though I could not find out +if the idea of lighting the house fires from the bonfires is still +found on the island. +</P> + +<P> +I have come out of an hotel full of tourists and commercial +travelers, to stroll along the edge of Galway bay, and look out in +the direction of the islands. The sort of yearning I feel towards +those lonely rocks is indescribably acute. This town, that is +usually so full of wild human interest, seems in my present mood a +tawdry medley of all that is crudest in modern life. The nullity of +the rich and the squalor of the poor give me the same pang of +wondering disgust; yet the islands are fading already and I can +hardly realise that the smell of the seaweed and the drone of the +Atlantic are still moving round them. +</P> + +<P> +One of my island friends has written to me:— +</P> + +<P> +DEAR JOHN SYNGE,—I am for a long time expecting a letter from you +and I think you are forgetting this island altogether. +</P> + +<P> +Mr.—died a long time ago on the big island and his boat was on +anchor in the harbour and the wind blew her to Black Head and broke +her up after his death. +</P> + +<P> +Tell me are you learning Irish since you went. We have a branch of +the Gaelic League here now and the people is going on well with the +Irish and reading. +</P> + +<P> +I will write the next letter in Irish to you. Tell me will you come +to see us next year and if you will you'll write a letter before +you. All your loving friends is well in health.—Mise do chara go +huan. +</P> + +<P> +Another boy I sent some baits to has written to me also, beginning +his letter in Irish and ending it in English:— +</P> + +<P> +DEAR JOHN,—I got your letter four days ago, and there was pride and +joy on me because it was written in Irish, and a fine, good, +pleasant letter it was. The baits you sent are very good, but I lost +two of them and half my line. A big fish came and caught the bait, +and the line was bad and half of the line and the baits went away. +My sister has come back from America, but I'm thinking it won't be +long till she goes away again, for it is lonesome and poor she finds +the island now.—I am your friend. ... +</P> + +<P> +Write soon and let you write in Irish, if you don't I won't look on +it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Part II +</H3> + +<P> +THE evening before I returned to the west I wrote to Michael—who +had left the islands to earn his living on the mainland—to tell him +that I would call at the house where he lodged the next morning, +which was a Sunday. +</P> + +<P> +A young girl with fine western features, and little English, came +out when I knocked at the door. She seemed to have heard all about +me, and was so filled with the importance of her message that she +could hardly speak it intelligibly. +</P> + +<P> +'She got your letter,' she said, confusing the pronouns, as is often +done in the west, 'she is gone to Mass, and she'll be in the square +after that. Let your honour go now and sit in the square, and Michael +will find you.' +</P> + +<P> +As I was returning up the main street I met Michael wandering down +to meet me, as he had got tired of waiting. +</P> + +<P> +He seemed to have grown a powerful man since I had seen him, and was +now dressed in the heavy brown flannels of the Connaught labourer. +After a little talk we turned back together and went out on the +sandhills above the town. Meeting him here a little beyond the +threshold of my hotel I was singularly struck with the refinement of +his nature, which has hardly been influenced by his new life, and +the townsmen and sailors he has met with. +</P> + +<P> +'I do often come outside the town on Sunday,' he said while we were +talking, 'for what is there to do in a town in the middle of all the +people when you are not at your work?' +</P> + +<P> +A little later another Irish-speaking labourer—a friend of +Michael's—joined us, and we lay for hours talking and arguing on +the grass. The day was unbearably sultry, and the sand and the sea +near us were crowded with half-naked women, but neither of the young +men seemed to be aware of their presence. Before we went back to the +town a man came out to ring a young horse on the sand close to where +we were lying, and then the interest of my companions was intense. +</P> + +<P> +Late in the evening I met Michael again, and we wandered round the +bay, which was still filled with bathing women, until it was quite +dark, I shall not see him again before my return from the islands, +as he is busy to-morrow, and on Tuesday I go out with the steamer. +</P> + +<P> +I returned to the middle island this morning, in the steamer to +Kilronan, and on here in a curagh that had gone over with salt fish. +As I came up from the slip the doorways in the village filled with +women and children, and several came down on the roadway to shake +hands and bid me a thousand welcomes. +</P> + +<P> +Old Pat Dirane is dead, and several of my friends have gone to +America; that is all the news they have to give me after an absence +of many months. +</P> + +<P> +When I arrived at the cottage I was welcomed by the old people, and +great excitement was made by some little presents I had bought +them—a pair of folding scissors for the old woman, a strop for her +husband, and some other trifles. +</P> + +<P> +Then the youngest son, Columb, who is still at home, went into the +inner room and brought out the alarm clock I sent them last year +when I went away. +</P> + +<P> +'I am very fond of this clock,' he said, patting it on the back; 'it +will ring for me any morning when I want to go out fishing. Bedad, +there are no two clocks in the island that would be equal to it.' +</P> + +<P> +I had some photographs to show them that I took here last year, and +while I was sitting on a little stool near the door of the kitchen, +showing them to the family, a beautiful young woman I had spoken to +a few times last year slipped in, and after a wonderfully simple and +cordial speech of welcome, she sat down on the floor beside me to +look on also. +</P> + +<P> +The complete absence of shyness or self-consciousness in most of +these people gives them a peculiar charm, and when this young and +beautiful woman leaned across my knees to look nearer at some +photograph that pleased her, I felt more than ever the strange +simplicity of the island life. +</P> + +<P> +Last year when I came here everything was new, and the people were a +little strange with me, but now I am familiar with them and their +way of life, so that their qualities strike me more forcibly than +before. +</P> + +<P> +When my photographs of this island had been examined with immense +delight, and every person in them had been identified—even those +who only showed a hand or a leg—I brought out some I had taken in +County Wicklow. Most of them were fragments, showing fairs in +Rathdrum or Aughrim, men cutting turf on the hills, or other scenes +of inland life, yet they gave the greatest delight to these people +who are wearied of the sea. +</P> + +<P> +This year I see a darker side of life in the islands. The sun seldom +shines, and day after day a cold south-western wind blows over the +cliffs, bringing up showers of hail and dense masses of cloud. +</P> + +<P> +The sons who are at home stay out fishing whenever it is tolerably +calm, from about three in the morning till after nightfall, yet they +earn little, as fish are not plentiful. +</P> + +<P> +The old man fishes also with a long rod and ground-bait, but as a +rule has even smaller success. +</P> + +<P> +When the weather breaks completely, fishing is abandoned, and they +both go down and dig potatoes in the rain. The women sometimes help +them, but their usual work is to look after the calves and do their +spinning in the house. +</P> + +<P> +There is a vague depression over the family this year, because of +the two sons who have gone away, Michael to the mainland, and +another son, who was working in Kilronan last year, to the United +States. +</P> + +<P> +A letter came yesterday from Michael to his mother. It was written +in English, as he is the only one of the family who can read or +write in Irish, and I heard it being slowly spelled out and +translated as I sat in my room. A little later the old woman brought +it in for me to read. +</P> + +<P> +He told her first about his work, and the wages he is getting. Then +he said that one night he had been walking in the town, and had +looked up among the streets, and thought to himself what a grand +night it would be on the Sandy Head of this island—not, he added, +that he was feeling lonely or sad. At the end he gave an account, +with the dramatic emphasis of the folk-tale, of how he had met me on +the Sunday morning, and, 'believe me,' he said, 'it was the fine +talk we had for two hours or three.' He told them also of a knife I +had given him that was so fine, no one on the island 'had ever seen +the like of her.' +</P> + +<P> +Another day a letter came from the son who is in America, to say +that he had had a slight accident to one of his arms, but was well +again, and that he was leaving New York and going a few hundred +miles up the country. +</P> + +<P> +All the evening afterwards the old woman sat on her stool at the +corner of the fire with her shawl over her head, keening piteously +to herself. America appeared far away, yet she seems to have felt +that, after all, it was only the other edge of the Atlantic, and now +when she hears them talking of railroads and inland cities where +there is no sea, things she cannot understand, it comes home to her +that her son is gone for ever. She often tells me how she used to +sit on the wall behind the house last year and watch the hooker he +worked in coming out of Kilronan and beating up the sound, and what +company it used to be to her the time they'd all be out. +</P> + +<P> +The maternal feeling is so powerful on these islands that it gives a +life of torment to the women. Their sons grow up to be banished as +soon as they are of age, or to live here in continual danger on the +sea; their daughters go away also, or are worn out in their youth +with bearing children that grow up to harass them in their own turn +a little later. +</P> + +<P> +There has been a storm for the last twenty-four hours, and I have +been wandering on the cliffs till my hair is stiff with salt. +Immense masses of spray were flying up from the base of the cliff, +and were caught at times by the wind and whirled away to fall at +some distance from the shore. When one of these happened to fall on +me, I had to crouch down for an instant, wrapped and blinded by a +white hail of foam. +</P> + +<P> +The waves were so enormous that when I saw one more than usually +large coming towards me, I turned instinctively to hide myself, as +one blinks when struck upon the eyes. +</P> + +<P> +After a few hours the mind grows bewildered with the endless change +and struggle of the sea, and an utter despondency replaces the first +moment of exhilaration. +</P> + +<P> +At the south-west corner of the island I came upon a number of +people gathering the seaweed that is now thick on the rocks. It was +raked from the surf by the men, and then carried up to the brow of +the cliff by a party of young girls. +</P> + +<P> +In addition to their ordinary clothing these girls wore a raw +sheepskin on their shoulders, to catch the oozing sea-water, and +they looked strangely wild and seal-like with the salt caked upon +their lips and wreaths of seaweed in their hair. +</P> + +<P> +For the rest of my walk I saw no living thing but one flock of +curlews, and a few pipits hiding among the stones. +</P> + +<P> +About the sunset the clouds broke and the storm turned to a +hurricane. Bars of purple cloud stretched across the sound where +immense waves were rolling from the west, wreathed with snowy +phantasies of spray. Then there was the bay full of green delirium, +and the Twelve Pins touched with mauve and scarlet in the east. +</P> + +<P> +The suggestion from this world of inarticulate power was immense, +and now at midnight, when the wind is abating, I am still trembling +and flushed with exultation. +</P> + +<P> +I have been walking through the wet lanes in my pampooties in spite +of the rain, and I have brought on a feverish cold. +</P> + +<P> +The wind is terrific. If anything serious should happen to me I +might die here and be nailed in my box, and shoved down into a wet +crevice in the graveyard before any one could know it on the +mainland. +</P> + +<P> +Two days ago a curagh passed from the south island—they can go out +when we are weather-bound because of a sheltered cove in their +island—it was thought in search of the Doctor. It became too rough +afterwards to make the return journey, and it was only this morning +we saw them repassing towards the south-east in a terrible sea. +</P> + +<P> +A four-oared curagh with two men in her besides the rowers— +probably the Priest and the Doctor—went first, followed by the +three-oared curagh from the south island, which ran more danger. +Often when they go for the Doctor in weather like this, they bring +the Priest also, as they do not know if it will be possible to go +for him if he is needed later. +</P> + +<P> +As a rule there is little illness, and the women often manage their +confinements among themselves without any trained assistance. In +most cases all goes well, but at times a curagh is sent off in +desperate haste for the Priest and the Doctor when it is too late. +</P> + +<P> +The baby that spent some days here last year is now established in +the house; I suppose the old woman has adopted him to console +herself for the loss of her own sons. +</P> + +<P> +He is now a well-grown child, though not yet able to say more than a +few words of Gaelic. His favourite amusement is to stand behind the +door with a stick, waiting for any wandering pig or hen that may +chance to come in, and then to dash out and pursue them. There are +two young kittens in the kitchen also, which he ill-treats, without +meaning to do them harm. +</P> + +<P> +Whenever the old woman comes into my room with turf for the fire, he +walks in solemnly behind her with a sod under each arm, deposits +them on the back of the fire with great care, and then flies off +round the corner with his long petticoats trailing behind him. +</P> + +<P> +He has not yet received any official name on the island, as he has +not left the fireside, but in the house they usually speak of him as +'Michaeleen beug' (i.e. 'little small-Michael'). +</P> + +<P> +Now and then he is slapped, but for the most part the old woman +keeps him in order with stories of 'the long-toothed hag,' that +lives in the Dun and eats children who are not good. He spends half +his day eating cold potatoes and drinking very strong tea, yet seems +in perfect health. +</P> + +<P> +An Irish letter has come to me from Michael. I will translate it +literally. +</P> + +<P> +DEAR NOBLE PERSON,—I write this letter with joy and pride that you +found the way to the house of my father the day you were on the +steamship. I am thinking there will not be loneliness on you, for +there will be the fine beautiful Gaelic League and you will be +learning powerfully. +</P> + +<P> +I am thinking there is no one in life walking with you now but your +own self from morning till night, and great is the pity. +</P> + +<P> +What way are my mother and my three brothers and my sisters, and do +not forget white Michael, and the poor little child and the old grey +woman, and Rory. I am getting a forgetfulness on all my friends and +kindred.—I am your friend ... +</P> + +<P> +It is curious how he accuses himself of forgetfulness after asking +for all his family by name. I suppose the first home-sickness is +wearing away and he looks on his independent wellbeing as a treason +towards his kindred. +</P> + +<P> +One of his friends was in the kitchen when the letter was brought to +me, and, by the old man's wish, he read it out loud as soon as I had +finished it. When he came to the last sentence he hesitated for a +moment, and then omitted it altogether. +</P> + +<P> +This young man had come up to bring me a copy of the 'Love Songs of +Connaught,' which he possesses, and I persuaded him to read, or +rather chant me some of them. When he had read a couple I found that +the old woman knew many of them from her childhood, though her +version was often not the same as what was in the book. She was +rocking herself on a stool in the chimney corner beside a pot of +indigo, in which she was dyeing wool, and several times when the +young man finished a poem she took it up again and recited the +verses with exquisite musical intonation, putting a wistfulness and +passion into her voice that seemed to give it all the cadences that +are sought in the profoundest poetry. +</P> + +<P> +The lamp had burned low, and another terrible gale was howling and +shrieking over the island. It seemed like a dream that I should be +sitting here among these men and women listening to this rude and +beautiful poetry that is filled with the oldest passions of the +world. +</P> + +<P> +The horses have been coming back for the last few days from their +summer's grazing in Connemara. They are landed at the sandy beach +where the cattle were shipped last year, and I went down early this +morning to watch their arrival through the waves. The hooker was +anchored at some distance from the shore, but I could see a horse +standing at the gunnel surrounded by men shouting and flipping at it +with bits of rope. In a moment it jumped over into the sea, and some +men, who were waiting for it in a curagh, caught it by the halter +and towed it to within twenty yards of the surf. Then the curagh +turned back to the hooker, and the horse was left to make its own +way to the land. +</P> + +<P> +As I was standing about a man came up to me and asked after the +usual salutations:— +</P> + +<P> +'Is there any war in the world at this time, noble person?' I told +him something of the excitement in the Transvaal, and then another +horse came near the waves and I passed on and left him. +</P> + +<P> +Afterwards I walked round the edge of the sea to the pier, where a +quantity of turf has recently been brought in. It is usually left +for some time stacked on the sandhills, and then carried up to the +cottages in panniers slung on donkeys or any horses that are on the +island. +</P> + +<P> +They have been busy with it the last few weeks, and the track from +the village to the pier has been filled with lines of +red-petticoated boys driving their donkeys before them, or cantering +down on their backs when the panniers are empty. +</P> + +<P> +In some ways these men and women seem strangely far away from me. +They have the same emotions that I have, and the animals have, yet I +cannot talk to them when there is much to say, more than to the dog +that whines beside me in a mountain fog. +</P> + +<P> +There is hardly an hour I am with them that I do not feel the shock +of some inconceivable idea, and then again the shock of some vague +emotion that is familiar to them and to me. On some days I feel this +island as a perfect home and resting place; on other days I feel +that I am a waif among the people. I can feel more with them than +they can feel with me, and while I wander among them, they like me +sometimes, and laugh at me sometimes, yet never know what I am +doing. +</P> + +<P> +In the evenings I sometimes meet with a girl who is not yet half +through her teens, yet seems in some ways more consciously developed +than any one else that I have met here. She has passed part of her +life on the mainland, and the disillusion she found in Galway has +coloured her imagination. +</P> + +<P> +As we sit on stools on either side of the fire I hear her voice +going backwards and forwards in the same sentence from the gaiety of +a child to the plaintive intonation of an old race that is worn with +sorrow. At one moment she is a simple peasant, at another she seems +to be looking out at the world with a sense of prehistoric +disillusion and to sum up in the expression of her grey-blue eyes +the whole external despondency of the clouds and sea. +</P> + +<P> +Our conversation is usually disjointed. One evening we talked of a +town on the mainland. +</P> + +<P> +'Ah, it's a queer place,' she said: 'I wouldn't choose to live in +it. It's a queer place, and indeed I don't know the place that +isn't.' +</P> + +<P> +Another evening we talked of the people who live on the island or +come to visit it. +</P> + +<P> +'Father is gone,' she said; 'he was a kind man but a queer man. +Priests is queer people, and I don't know who isn't.' +</P> + +<P> +Then after a long pause she told me with seriousness, as if speaking +of a thing that surprised herself, and should surprise me, that she +was very fond of the boys. +</P> + +<P> +In our talk, which is sometimes full of the innocent realism of +childhood, she is always pathetically eager to say the right thing +and be engaging. +</P> + +<P> +One evening I found her trying to light a fire in the little side +room of her cottage, where there is an ordinary fireplace. I went in +to help her and showed her how to hold up a paper before the mouth +of the chimney to make a draught, a method she had never seen. Then +I told her of men who live alone in Paris and make their own fires +that they may have no one to bother them. She was sitting in a heap +on the floor staring into the turf, and as I finished she looked up +with surprise. +</P> + +<P> +'They're like me so,' she said; 'would anyone have thought that!' +</P> + +<P> +Below the sympathy we feel there is still a chasm between us. +</P> + +<P> +'Musha,' she muttered as I was leaving her this evening, 'I think +it's to hell you'll be going by and by.' +</P> + +<P> +Occasionally I meet her also in the kitchen where young men go to +play cards after dark and a few girls slip in to share the +amusement. At such times her eyes shine in the light of the candles, +and her cheeks flush with the first tumult of youth, till she hardly +seems the same girl who sits every evening droning to herself over +the turf. +</P> + +<P> +A branch of the Gaelic League has been started here since my last +visit, and every Sunday afternoon three little girls walk through +the village ringing a shrill hand-bell, as a signal that the women's +meeting is to be held,—here it would be useless to fix an hour, as +the hours are not recognized. +</P> + +<P> +Soon afterwards bands of girls—of all ages from five to +twenty-five—begin to troop down to the schoolhouse in their reddest +Sunday petticoats. It is remarkable that these young women are +willing to spend their one afternoon of freedom in laborious studies +of orthography for no reason but a vague reverence for the Gaelic. +It is true that they owe this reverence, or most of it, to the +influence of some recent visitors, yet the fact that they feel such +an influence so keenly is itself of interest. +</P> + +<P> +In the older generation that did not come under the influence of the +recent language movement, I do not see any particular affection for +Gaelic. Whenever they are able, they speak English to their +children, to render them more capable of making their way in life. +Even the young men sometimes say to me— +</P> + +<P> +'There's very hard English on you, and I wish to God I had the like +of it.' +</P> + +<P> +The women are the great conservative force in this matter of the +language. They learn a little English in school and from their +parents, but they rarely have occasion to speak with any one who is +not a native of the islands, so their knowledge of the foreign +tongue remains rudimentary. In my cottage I have never heard a word +of English from the women except when they were speaking to the pigs +or to the dogs, or when the girl was reading a letter in English. +Women, however, with a more assertive temperament, who have had, +apparently, the same opportunities, often attain a considerable +fluency, as is the case with one, a relative of the old woman of the +house, who often visits here. +</P> + +<P> +In the boys' school, where I sometimes look in, the children +surprise me by their knowledge of English, though they always speak +in Irish among themselves. The school itself is a comfortless +building in a terribly bleak position. In cold weather the children +arrive in the morning with a sod of turf tied up with their books, a +simple toll which keeps the fire well supplied, yet, I believe, a +more modern method is soon to be introduced. +</P> + +<P> +I am in the north island again, looking out with a singular +sensation to the cliffs across the sound. It is hard to believe that +those hovels I can just see in the south are filled with people +whose lives have the strange quality that is found in the oldest +poetry and legend. Compared with them the falling off that has come +with the increased prosperity of this island is full of +discouragement. The charm which the people over there share with the +birds and flowers has been replaced here by the anxiety of men who +are eager for gain. The eyes and expression are different, though +the faces are the same, and even the children here seem to have an +indefinable modern quality that is absent from the men of Inishmaan. +</P> + +<P> +My voyage from the middle island was wild. The morning was so +stormy, that in ordinary circumstances I would not have attempted +the passage, but as I had arranged to travel with a curagh that was +coming over for the Parish Priest—who is to hold stations on +Inishmaan—I did not like to draw back. +</P> + +<P> +I went out in the morning and walked up the cliffs as usual. Several +men I fell in with shook their heads when I told them I was going +away, and said they doubted if a curagh could cross the sound with +the sea that was in it. +</P> + +<P> +When I went back to the cottage I found the Curate had just come +across from the south island, and had had a worse passage than any +he had yet experienced. +</P> + +<P> +The tide was to turn at two o'clock, and after that it was thought +the sea would be calmer, as the wind and the waves would be running +from the same point. We sat about in the kitchen all the morning, +with men coming in every few minutes to give their opinion whether +the passage should be attempted, and at what points the sea was +likely to be at its worst. +</P> + +<P> +At last it was decided we should go, and I started for the pier in a +wild shower of rain with the wind howling in the walls. The +schoolmaster and a priest who was to have gone with me came out as I +was passing through the village and advised me not to make the +passage; but my crew had gone on towards the sea, and I thought it +better to go after them. The eldest son of the family was coming +with me, and I considered that the old man, who knew the waves +better than I did, would not send out his son if there was more than +reasonable danger. +</P> + +<P> +I found my crew waiting for me under a high wall below the village, +and we went on together. The island had never seemed so desolate. +Looking out over the black limestone through the driving rain to the +gulf of struggling waves, an indescribable feeling of dejection came +over me. +</P> + +<P> +The old man gave me his view of the use of fear. +</P> + +<P> +'A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned,' he said, +'for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't. But we do be afraid +of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again.' +</P> + +<P> +A little crowd of neighbours had collected lower down to see me off, +and as we crossed the sandhills we had to shout to each other to be +heard above the wind. +</P> + +<P> +The crew carried down the curagh and then stood under the lee of the +pier tying on their hats with strings and drawing on their oilskins. +</P> + +<P> +They tested the braces of the oars, and the oarpins, and everything +in the curagh with a care I had not seen them give to anything, then +my bag was lifted in, and we were ready. Besides the four men of the +crew a man was going with us who wanted a passage to this island. As +he was scrambling into the bow, an old man stood forward from the +crowd. +</P> + +<P> +'Don't take that man with you,' he said. 'Last week they were taking +him to Clare and the whole lot of them were near drownded. Another +day he went to Inisheer and they broke three ribs of the curagh, and +they coming back. There is not the like of him for ill-luck in the +three islands.' +</P> + +<P> +'The divil choke your old gob,' said the man, 'you will be talking.' +</P> + +<P> +We set off. It was a four-oared curagh, and I was given the last +seat so as to leave the stern for the man who was steering with an +oar, worked at right angles to the others by an extra thole-pin in +the stern gunnel. +</P> + +<P> +When we had gone about a hundred yards they ran up a bit of a sail +in the bow and the pace became extraordinarily rapid. +</P> + +<P> +The shower had passed over and the wind had fallen, but large, +magnificently brilliant waves were rolling down on us at right +angles to our course. +</P> + +<P> +Every instant the steersman whirled us round with a sudden stroke of +his oar, the prow reared up and then fell into the next furrow with +a crash, throwing up masses of spray. As it did so, the stern in its +turn was thrown up, and both the steersman, who let go his oar and +clung with both hands to the gunnel, and myself, were lifted high up +above the sea. +</P> + +<P> +The wave passed, we regained our course and rowed violently for a +few yards, then the same manoeuvre had to be repeated. As we worked +out into the sound we began to meet another class of waves, that +could be seen for some distance towering above the rest. +</P> + +<P> +When one of these came in sight, the first effort was to get beyond +its reach. The steersman began crying out in Gaelic, 'Siubhal, +siubhal' ('Run, run'), and sometimes, when the mass was gliding +towards us with horrible speed, his voice rose to a shriek. Then the +rowers themselves took up the cry, and the curagh seemed to leap and +quiver with the frantic terror of a beast till the wave passed +behind it or fell with a crash beside the stern. +</P> + +<P> +It was in this racing with the waves that our chief danger lay. If +the wave could be avoided, it was better to do so, but if it +overtook us while we were trying to escape, and caught us on the +broadside, our destruction was certain. I could see the steersman +quivering with the excitement of his task, for any error in his +judgment would have swamped us. +</P> + +<P> +We had one narrow escape. A wave appeared high above the rest, and +there was the usual moment of intense exertion. It was of no use, +and in an instant the wave seemed to be hurling itself upon us. With +a yell of rage the steersman struggled with his oar to bring our +prow to meet it. He had almost succeeded, when there was a crash and +rush of water round us. I felt as if I had been struck upon the back +with knotted ropes. White foam gurgled round my knees and eyes. The +curagh reared up, swaying and trembling for a moment, and then fell +safely into the furrow. +</P> + +<P> +This was our worst moment, though more than once, when several waves +came so closely together that we had no time to regain control of +the canoe between them, we had some dangerous work. Our lives +depended upon the skill and courage of the men, as the life of the +rider or swimmer is often in his own hands, and the excitement was +too great to allow time for fear. +</P> + +<P> +I enjoyed the passage. Down in this shallow trough of canvas that +bent and trembled with the motion of the men, I had a far more +intimate feeling of the glory and power of the waves than I have +ever known in a steamer. +</P> + +<P> +Old Mourteen is keeping me company again, and I am now able to +understand the greater part of his Irish. +</P> + +<P> +He took me out to-day to show me the remains of some cloghauns, or +beehive dwellings, that are left near the central ridge of the +island. After I had looked at them we lay down in the corner of a +little field, filled with the autumn sunshine and the odour of +withering flowers, while he told me a long folk-tale which took more +than an hour to narrate. +</P> + +<P> +He is so blind that I can gaze at him without discourtesy, and after +a while the expression of his face made me forget to listen, and I +lay dreamily in the sunshine letting the antique formulas of the +story blend with the suggestions from the prehistoric masonry I lay +on. The glow of childish transport that came over him when he +reached the nonsense ending—so common in these tales—recalled me +to myself, and I listened attentively while he gabbled with +delighted haste: 'They found the path and I found the puddle. They +were drowned and I was found. If it's all one to me tonight, it +wasn't all one to them the next night. Yet, if it wasn't itself, not +a thing did they lose but an old back tooth '—or some such +gibberish. +</P> + +<P> +As I led him home through the paths he described to me—it is thus +we get along—lifting him at times over the low walls he is too +shaky to climb, he brought the conversation to the topic they are +never weary of—my views on marriage. +</P> + +<P> +He stopped as we reached the summit of the island, with the stretch +of the Atlantic just visible behind him. +</P> + +<P> +'Whisper, noble person,' he began, 'do you never be thinking on the +young girls? The time I was a young man, the devil a one of them +could I look on without wishing to marry her.' +</P> + +<P> +'Ah, Mourteen,' I answered, 'it's a great wonder you'd be asking me. +What at all do you think of me yourself?' +</P> + +<P> +'Bedad, noble person, I'm thinking it's soon you'll be getting +married. Listen to what I'm telling you: a man who is not married is +no better than an old jackass. He goes into his sister's house, and +into his brother's house; he eats a bit in this place and a bit in +another place, but he has no home for himself like an old jackass +straying on the rocks.' +</P> + +<P> +I have left Aran. The steamer had a more than usually heavy cargo, +and it was after four o'clock when we sailed from Kilronan. +</P> + +<P> +Again I saw the three low rocks sink down into the sea with a moment +of inconceivable distress. It was a clear evening, and as we came +out into the bay the sun stood like an aureole behind the cliffs of +Inishmaan. A little later a brilliant glow came over the sky, +throwing out the blue of the sea and of the hills of Connemara. +</P> + +<P> +When it was quite dark, the cold became intense, and I wandered +about the lonely vessel that seemed to be making her own way across +the sea. I was the only passenger, and all the crew, except one boy +who was steering, were huddled together in the warmth of the +engine-room. +</P> + +<P> +Three hours passed, and no one stirred. The slowness of the vessel +and the lamentation of the cold sea about her sides became almost +unendurable. Then the lights of Galway came in sight, and the crew +appeared as we beat up slowly to the quay. +</P> + +<P> +Once on shore I had some difficulty in finding any one to carry my +baggage to the railway. When I found a man in the darkness and got +my bag on his shoulders, he turned out to be drunk, and I had +trouble to keep him from rolling from the wharf with all my +possessions. He professed to be taking me by a short cut into the +town, but when we were in the middle of a waste of broken buildings +and skeletons of ships he threw my bag on the ground and sat down on +it. +</P> + +<P> +'It's real heavy she is, your honour,' he said; 'I'm thinking it's +gold there will be in it.' +</P> + +<P> +'Divil a hap'worth is there in it at all but books,' I answered him +in Gaelic. +</P> + +<P> +'Bedad, is mor an truaghe' ('It's a big pity'), he said; 'if it was +gold was in it it's the thundering spree we'd have together this +night in Galway.' +</P> + +<P> +In about half an hour I got my luggage once more on his back, and we +made our way into the city. +</P> + +<P> +Later in the evening I went down towards the quay to look for +Michael. As I turned into the narrow street where he lodges, some +one seemed to be following me in the shadow, and when I stopped to +find the number of his house I heard the 'Failte' (Welcome) of +Inishmaan pronounced close to me. +</P> + +<P> +It was Michael. +</P> + +<P> +'I saw you in the street,' he said, 'but I was ashamed to speak to +you in the middle of the people, so I followed you the way I'd see +if you'd remember me.' +</P> + +<P> +We turned back together and walked about the town till he had to go +to his lodgings. He was still just the same, with all his old +simplicity and shrewdness; but the work he has here does not agree +with him, and he is not contented. +</P> + +<P> +It was the eve of the Parnell celebration in Dublin, and the town +was full of excursionists waiting for a train which was to start at +midnight. When Michael left me I spent some time in an hotel, and +then wandered down to the railway. +</P> + +<P> +A wild crowd was on the platform, surging round the train in every +stage of intoxication. It gave me a better instance than I had yet +seen of the half-savage temperament of Connaught. The tension of +human excitement seemed greater in this insignificant crowd than +anything I have felt among enormous mobs in Rome or Paris. +</P> + +<P> +There were a few people from the islands on the platform, and I got +in along with them to a third-class carriage. One of the women of +the party had her niece with her, a young girl from Connaught who +was put beside me; at the other end of the carriage there were some +old men who were talking Irish, and a young man who had been a +sailor. +</P> + +<P> +When the train started there were wild cheers and cries on the +platform, and in the train itself the noise was intense; men and +women shrieking and singing and beating their sticks on the +partitions. At several stations there was a rush to the bar, so the +excitement increased as we proceeded. +</P> + +<P> +At Ballinasloe there were some soldiers on the platform looking for +places. The sailor in our compartment had a dispute with one of +them, and in an instant the door was flung open and the compartment +was filled with reeling uniforms and sticks. Peace was made after a +moment of uproar and the soldiers got out, but as they did so a pack +of their women followers thrust their bare heads and arms into the +doorway, cursing and blaspheming with extraordinary rage. +</P> + +<P> +As the train moved away a moment later, these women set up a frantic +lamentation. I looked out and caught a glimpse of the wildest heads +and figures I have ever seen, shrieking and screaming and waving +their naked arms in the light of the lanterns. +</P> + +<P> +As the night went on girls began crying out in the carriage next us, +and I could hear the words of obscene songs when the train stopped +at a station. +</P> + +<P> +In our own compartment the sailor would allow no one to sleep, and +talked all night with sometimes a touch of wit or brutality and +always with a beautiful fluency with wild temperament behind it. +</P> + +<P> +The old men in the corner, dressed in black coats that had something +of the antiquity of heirlooms, talked all night among themselves in +Gaelic. The young girl beside me lost her shyness after a while, and +let me point out the features of the country that were beginning to +appear through the dawn as we drew nearer Dublin. She was delighted +with the shadows of the trees—trees are rare in Connaught—and +with the canal, which was beginning to reflect the morning light. +Every time I showed her some new shadow she cried out with naive +excitement— +</P> + +<P> +'Oh, it's lovely, but I can't see it.' +</P> + +<P> +This presence at my side contrasted curiously with the brutality +that shook the barrier behind us. The whole spirit of the west of +Ireland, with its strange wildness and reserve, seemed moving in +this single train to pay a last homage to the dead statesman of the +east. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Part III +</H3> + +<P> +A LETTER HAS come from Michael while I am in Paris. It is in +English. +</P> + +<P> +MY DEAR FRIEND,—I hope that you are in good health since I have +heard from you before, its many a time I do think of you since and +it was not forgetting you I was for the future. +</P> + +<P> +I was at home in the beginning of March for a fortnight and was very +bad with the Influence, but I took good care of myself. +</P> + +<P> +I am getting good wages from the first of this year, and I am afraid +I won't be able to stand with it, although it is not hard, I am +working in a saw-mills and getting the money for the wood and +keeping an account of it. +</P> + +<P> +I am getting a letter and some news from home two or three times a +week, and they are all well in health, and your friends in the +island as well as if I mentioned them. +</P> + +<P> +Did you see any of my friends in Dublin Mr.—or any of those +gentlemen or gentlewomen. +</P> + +<P> +I think I soon try America but not until next year if I am alive. +</P> + +<P> +I hope we might meet again in good and pleasant health. +</P> + +<P> +It is now time to come to a conclusion, good-bye and not for ever, +write soon—I am your friend in Galway. +</P> + +<P> +Write soon dear friend. +</P> + +<P> +Another letter in a more rhetorical mood. +</P> + +<P> +MY DEAR MR. S.,—I am for a long time trying to spare a little time +for to write a few words to you. +</P> + +<P> +Hoping that you are still considering good and pleasant health since +I got a letter from you before. +</P> + +<P> +I see now that your time is coming round to come to this place to +learn your native language. There was a great Feis in this island +two weeks ago, and there was a very large attendance from the South +island, and not very many from the North. +</P> + +<P> +Two cousins of my own have been in this house for three weeks or +beyond it, but now they are gone, and there is a place for you if +you wish to come, and you can write before you and we'll try and +manage you as well as we can. +</P> + +<P> +I am at home now for about two months, for the mill was burnt where +I was at work. After that I was in Dublin, but I did not get my +health in that city.—Mise le mor mheas ort a chara. +</P> + +<P> +Soon after I received this letter I wrote to Michael to say that I +was going back to them. This time I chose a day when the steamer +went direct to the middle island, and as we came up between the two +lines of curaghs that were waiting outside the slip, I saw Michael, +dressed once more in his island clothes, rowing in one of them. +</P> + +<P> +He made no sign of recognition, but as soon as they could get +alongside he clambered on board and came straight up on the bridge +to where I was. +</P> + +<P> +'Bhfuil tu go maith?' ('Are you well?') he said. 'Where is your +bag?' +</P> + +<P> +His curagh had got a bad place near the bow of the steamer, so I was +slung down from a considerable height on top of some sacks of flour +and my own bag, while the curagh swayed and battered itself against +the side. +</P> + +<P> +When we were clear I asked Michael if he had got my letter. +</P> + +<P> +'Ah no,' he said, 'not a sight of it, but maybe it will come next +week.' +</P> + +<P> +Part of the slip had been washed away during the winter, so we had +to land to the left of it, among the rocks, taking our turn with the +other curaghs that were coming in. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as I was on shore the men crowded round me to bid me +welcome, asking me as they shook hands if I had travelled far in the +winter, and seen many wonders, ending, as usual, with the inquiry if +there was much war at present in the world. +</P> + +<P> +It gave me a thrill of delight to hear their Gaelic blessings, and +to see the steamer moving away, leaving me quite alone among them. +The day was fine with a clear sky, and the sea was glittering beyond +the limestone. Further off a light haze on the cliffs of the larger +island, and on the Connaught hills, gave me the illusion that it was +still summer. +</P> + +<P> +A little boy was sent off to tell the old woman that I was coming, +and we followed slowly, talking and carrying the baggage. +</P> + +<P> +When I had exhausted my news they told me theirs. A power of +strangers—four or five—a French priest among them, had been on the +island in the summer; the potatoes were bad, but the rye had begun +well, till a dry week came and then it had turned into oats. +</P> + +<P> +'If you didn't know us so well,' said the man who was talking, +'you'd think it was a lie we were telling, but the sorrow a lie is +in it. It grew straight and well till it was high as your knee, then +it turned into oats. Did ever you see the like of that in County +Wicklow?' +</P> + +<P> +In the cottage everything was as usual, but Michael's presence has +brought back the old woman's humour and contentment. As I sat down +on my stool and lit my pipe with the corner of a sod, I could have +cried out with the feeling of festivity that this return procured +me. +</P> + +<P> +This year Michael is busy in the daytime, but at present there is a +harvest moon, and we spend most of the evening wandering about the +island, looking out over the bay where the shadows of the clouds +throw strange patterns of gold and black. As we were returning +through the village this evening a tumult of revelry broke out from +one of the smaller cottages, and Michael said it was the young boys +and girls who have sport at this time of the year. I would have +liked to join them, but feared to embarrass their amusement. When we +passed on again the groups of scattered cottages on each side of the +way reminded me of places I have sometimes passed when travelling at +night in France or Bavaria, places that seemed so enshrined in the +blue silence of night one could not believe they would reawaken. +</P> + +<P> +Afterwards we went up on the Dun, where Michael said he had never +been before after nightfall, though he lives within a stone's-throw. +The place gains unexpected grandeur in this light, standing out like +a corona of prehistoric stone upon the summit of the island. We +walked round the top of the wall for some time looking down on the +faint yellow roofs, with the rocks glittering beyond them, and the +silence of the bay. Though Michael is sensible of the beauty of the +nature round him, he never speaks of it directly, and many of our +evening walks are occupied with long Gaelic discourses about the +movements of the stars and moon. +</P> + +<P> +These people make no distinction between the natural and the +supernatural. +</P> + +<P> +This afternoon—it was Sunday, when there is usually some +interesting talk among the islanders—it rained, so I went into the +schoolmaster's kitchen, which is a good deal frequented by the more +advanced among the people. I know so little of their ways of fishing +and farming that I do not find it easy to keep up our talk without +reaching matters where they cannot follow me, and since the novelty +of my photographs has passed off I have some difficulty in giving +them the entertainment they seem to expect from my company. To-day I +showed them some simple gymnastic feats and conjurer's tricks, which +gave them great amusement. +</P> + +<P> +'Tell us now,' said an old woman when I had finished, 'didn't you +learn those things from the witches that do be out in the country?' +</P> + +<P> +In one of the tricks I seemed to join a piece of string which was +cut by the people, and the illusion was so complete that I saw one +man going off with it into a corner and pulling at the apparent +joining till he sank red furrows round his hands. +</P> + +<P> +Then he brought it back to me. +</P> + +<P> +'Bedad,' he said, 'this is the greatest wonder ever I seen. The cord +is a taste thinner where you joined it but as strong as ever it +was.' +</P> + +<P> +A few of the younger men looked doubtful, but the older people, who +have watched the rye turning into oats, seemed to accept the magic +frankly, and did not show any surprise that 'a duine uasal' (a noble +person) should be able to do like the witches. +</P> + +<P> +My intercourse with these people has made me realise that miracles +must abound wherever the new conception of law is not understood. On +these islands alone miracles enough happen every year to equip a +divine emissary Rye is turned into oats, storms are raised to keep +evictors from the shore, cows that are isolated on lonely rocks +bring forth calves, and other things of the same kind are common. +</P> + +<P> +The wonder is a rare expected event, like the thunderstorm or the +rainbow, except that it is a little rarer and a little more +wonderful. Often, when I am walking and get into conversation with +some of the people, and tell them that I have received a paper from +Dublin, they ask me—'And is there any great wonder in the world at +this time?' +</P> + +<P> +When I had finished my feats of dexterity, I was surprised to find +that none of the islanders, even the youngest and most agile, could +do what I did. As I pulled their limbs about in my effort to teach +them, I felt that the ease and beauty of their movements has made me +think them lighter than they really are. Seen in their curaghs +between these cliffs and the Atlantic, they appear lithe and small, +but if they were dressed as we are and seen in an ordinary room, +many of them would seem heavily and powerfully made. +</P> + +<P> +One man, however, the champion dancer of the island, got up after a +while and displayed the salmon leap—lying flat on his face and then +springing up, horizontally, high in the air—and some other feats of +extraordinary agility, but he is not young and we could not get him +to dance. +</P> + +<P> +In the evening I had to repeat my tricks here in the kitchen, for +the fame of them had spread over the island. +</P> + +<P> +No doubt these feats will be remembered here for generations. The +people have so few images for description that they seize on +anything that is remarkable in their visitors and use it afterwards +in their talk. +</P> + +<P> +For the last few years when they are speaking of any one with fine +rings they say: 'She had beautiful rings on her fingers like +Lady—,' a visitor to the island. +</P> + +<P> +I have been down sitting on the pier till it was quite dark. I am +only beginning to understand the nights of Inishmaan and the +influence they have had in giving distinction to these men who do +most of their work after nightfall. +</P> + +<P> +I could hear nothing but a few curlews and other wild-fowl whistling +and shrieking in the seaweed, and the low rustling of the waves. It +was one of the dark sultry nights peculiar to September, with no +light anywhere except the phosphorescence of the sea, and an +occasional rift in the clouds that showed the stars behind them. +</P> + +<P> +The sense of solitude was immense. I could not see or realise my own +body, and I seemed to exist merely in my perception of the waves and +of the crying birds, and of the smell of seaweed. +</P> + +<P> +When I tried to come home I lost myself among the sandhills, and the +night seemed to grow unutterably cold and dejected, as I groped +among slimy masses of seaweed and wet crumbling walls. +</P> + +<P> +After a while I heard a movement in the sand, and two grey shadows +appeared beside me. They were two men who were going home from +fishing. I spoke to them and knew their voices, and we went home +together. +</P> + +<P> +In the autumn season the threshing of the rye is one of the many +tasks that fall to the men and boys. The sheaves are collected on a +bare rock, and then each is beaten separately on a couple of stones +placed on end one against the other. The land is so poor that a +field hardly produces more grain than is needed for seed the +following year, so the rye-growing is carried on merely for the +straw, which is used for thatching. +</P> + +<P> +The stooks are carried to and from the threshing fields, piled on +donkeys that one meets everywhere at this season, with their black, +unbridled heads just visible beneath a pinnacle of golden straw. +</P> + +<P> +While the threshing is going on sons and daughters keep turning up +with one thing and another till there is a little crowd on the +rocks, and any one who is passing stops for an hour or two to talk +on his way to the sea, so that, like the kelp-burning in the +summer-time, this work is full of sociability. +</P> + +<P> +When the threshing is over the straw is taken up to the cottages and +piled up in an outhouse, or more often in a corner of the kitchen, +where it brings a new liveliness of colour. +</P> + +<P> +A few days ago when I was visiting a cottage where there are the +most beautiful children on the island, the eldest daughter, a girl +of about fourteen, went and sat down on a heap of straw by the +doorway. A ray of sunlight fell on her and on a portion of the rye, +giving her figure and red dress with the straw under it a curious +relief against the nets and oilskins, and forming a natural picture +of exquisite harmony and colour. +</P> + +<P> +In our own cottage the thatching—it is done every year—has just +been carried out. The rope-twisting was done partly in the lane, +partly in the kitchen when the weather was uncertain. Two men +usually sit together at this work, one of them hammering the straw +with a heavy block of wood, the other forming the rope, the main +body of which is twisted by a boy or girl with a bent stick +specially formed for this employment. +</P> + +<P> +In wet weather, when the work must be done indoors, the person who +is twisting recedes gradually out of the door, across the lane, and +sometimes across a field or two beyond it. A great length is needed +to form the close network which is spread over the thatch, as each +piece measures about fifty yards. When this work is in progress in +half the cottages of the village, the road has a curious look, and +one has to pick one's steps through a maze of twisting ropes that +pass from the dark doorways on either side into the fields. +</P> + +<P> +When four or five immense balls of rope have been completed, a +thatching party is arranged, and before dawn some morning they come +down to the house, and the work is taken in hand with such energy +that it is usually ended within the day. +</P> + +<P> +Like all work that is done in common on the island, the thatching is +regarded as a sort of festival. From the moment a roof is taken in +hand there is a whirl of laughter and talk till it is ended, and, as +the man whose house is being covered is a host instead of an +employer, he lays himself out to please the men who work with him. +</P> + +<P> +The day our own house was thatched the large table was taken into +the kitchen from my room, and high teas were given every few hours. +Most of the people who came along the road turned down into the +kitchen for a few minutes, and the talking was incessant. Once when +I went into the window I heard Michael retailing my astronomical +lectures from the apex of the gable, but usually their topics have +to do with the affairs of the island. +</P> + +<P> +It is likely that much of the intelligence and charm of these people +is due to the absence of any division of labour, and to the +correspondingly wide development of each individual, whose varied +knowledge and skill necessitates a considerable activity of mind. +Each man can speak two languages. He is a skilled fisherman, and can +manage a curagh with extraordinary nerve and dexterity He can farm +simply, burn kelp, cut out pampooties, mend nets, build and thatch a +house, and make a cradle or a coffin. His work changes with the +seasons in a way that keeps him free from the dullness that comes to +people who have always the same occupation. The danger of his life +on the sea gives him the alertness of the primitive hunter, and the +long nights he spends fishing in his curagh bring him some of the +emotions that are thought peculiar to men who have lived with the +arts. +</P> + +<P> +As Michael is busy in the daytime, I have got a boy to come up and +read Irish to me every afternoon. He is about fifteen, and is +singularly intelligent, with a real sympathy for the language and +the stories we read. +</P> + +<P> +One evening when he had been reading to me for two hours, I asked +him if he was tired. +</P> + +<P> +'Tired?' he said, 'sure you wouldn't ever be tired reading!' +</P> + +<P> +A few years ago this predisposition for intellectual things would +have made him sit with old people and learn their stories, but now +boys like him turn to books and to papers in Irish that are sent +them from Dublin. +</P> + +<P> +In most of the stories we read, where the English and Irish are +printed side by side, I see him looking across to the English in +passages that are a little obscure, though he is indignant if I say +that he knows English better than Irish. Probably he knows the local +Irish better than English, and printed English better than printed +Irish, as the latter has frequent dialectic forms he does not know. +</P> + +<P> +A few days ago when he was reading a folk-tale from Douglas Hyde's +Beside the Fire, something caught his eye in the translation. +</P> + +<P> +'There's a mistake in the English,' he said, after a moment's +hesitation, 'he's put "gold chair" instead of "golden chair."' +</P> + +<P> +I pointed out that we speak of gold watches and gold pins. +</P> + +<P> +'And why wouldn't we?' he said; 'but "golden chair" would be much +nicer.' +</P> + +<P> +It is curious to see how his rudimentary culture has given him the +beginning of a critical spirit that occupies itself with the form of +language as well as with ideas. +</P> + +<P> +One day I alluded to my trick of joining string. +</P> + +<P> +'You can't join a string, don't be saying it,' he said; 'I don't +know what way you're after fooling us, but you didn't join that +string, not a bit of you.' +</P> + +<P> +Another day when he was with me the fire burned low and I held up a +newspaper before it to make a draught. It did not answer very well, +and though the boy said nothing I saw he thought me a fool. +</P> + +<P> +The next day he ran up in great excitement. +</P> + +<P> +'I'm after trying the paper over the fire,' he said, 'and it burned +grand. Didn't I think, when I seen you doing it there was no good in +it at all, but I put a paper over the master's (the school-master's) +fire and it flamed up. Then I pulled back the corner of the paper +and I ran my head in, and believe me, there was a big cold wind +blowing up the chimney that would sweep the head from you.' +</P> + +<P> +We nearly quarrelled because he wanted me to take his photograph in +his Sunday clothes from Galway, instead of his native homespuns that +become him far better, though he does not like them as they seem to +connect him with the primitive life of the island. With his keen +temperament, he may go far if he can ever step out into the world. +</P> + +<P> +He is constantly thinking. +</P> + +<P> +One day he asked me if there was great wonder on their names out in +the country. +</P> + +<P> +I said there was no wonder on them at all. +</P> + +<P> +'Well,' he said, 'there is great wonder on your name in the island, +and I was thinking maybe there would be great wonder on our names +out in the country.' +</P> + +<P> +In a sense he is right. Though the names here are ordinary enough, +they are used in a way that differs altogether from the modern +system of surnames. +</P> + +<P> +When a child begins to wander about the island, the neighbours speak +of it by its Christian name, followed by the Christian name of its +father. If this is not enough to identify it, the father's +epithet—whether it is a nickname or the name of his own father—is +added. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes when the father's name does not lend itself, the mother's +Christian name is adopted as epithet for the children. +</P> + +<P> +An old woman near this cottage is called 'Peggeen,' and her sons are +'Patch Pheggeen,' 'Seaghan Pheggeen,' etc. +</P> + +<P> +Occasionally the surname is employed in its Irish form, but I have +not heard them using the 'Mac' prefix when speaking Irish among +themselves; perhaps the idea of a surname which it gives is too +modern for them, perhaps they do use it at times that I have not +noticed. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes a man is named from the colour of his hair. There is thus +a Seaghan Ruadh (Red John), and his children are 'Mourteen Seaghan +Ruadh,' etc. +</P> + +<P> +Another man is known as 'an iasgaire' ('the fisher'), and his +children are 'Maire an iasgaire' ('Mary daughter of the fisher'), +and so on. +</P> + +<P> +The schoolmaster tells me that when he reads out the roll in the +morning the children repeat the local name all together in a whisper +after each official name, and then the child answers. If he calls, +for instance, 'Patrick O'Flaharty,' the children murmur, 'Patch +Seaghan Dearg' or some such name, and the boy answers. +</P> + +<P> +People who come to the island are treated in much the same way. A +French Gaelic student was in the islands recently, and he is always +spoken of as 'An Saggart Ruadh' ('the red priest') or as 'An Saggart +Francach' ('the French priest'), but never by his name. +</P> + +<P> +If an islander's name alone is enough to distinguish him it is used +by itself, and I know one man who is spoken of as Eamonn. There may +be other Edmunds on the island, but if so they have probably good +nicknames or epithets of their own. +</P> + +<P> +In other countries where the names are in a somewhat similar +condition, as in modern Greece, the man's calling is usually one of +the most common means of distinguishing him, but in this place, +where all have the same calling, this means is not available. +</P> + +<P> +Late this evening I saw a three-oared curagh with two old women in +her besides the rowers, landing at the slip through a heavy roll. +They were coming from Inishere, and they rowed up quickly enough +till they were within a few yards of the surf-line, where they spun +round and waited with the prow towards the sea, while wave after +wave passed underneath them and broke on the remains of the slip. +Five minutes passed; ten minutes; and still they waited with the +oars just paddling in the water, and their heads turned over their +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +I was beginning to think that they would have to give up and row +round to the lee side of the island, when the curagh seemed suddenly +to turn into a living thing. The prow was again towards the slip, +leaping and hurling itself through the spray. Before it touched, the +man in the bow wheeled round, two white legs came out over the prow +like the flash of a sword, and before the next wave arrived he had +dragged the curagh out of danger. +</P> + +<P> +This sudden and united action in men without discipline shows well +the education that the waves have given them. When the curagh was in +safety the two old women were carried up through the surf and +slippery seaweed on the backs of their sons. +</P> + +<P> +In this broken weather a curagh cannot go out without danger, yet +accidents are rare and seem to be nearly always caused by drink, +Since I was here last year four men have been drowned on their way +home from the large island. First a curagh belonging to the south +island which put off with two men in her heavy with drink, came to +shore here the next evening dry and uninjured, with the sail half +set, and no one in her. +</P> + +<P> +More recently a curagh from this island with three men, who were the +worse for drink, was upset on its way home. The steamer was not far +off, and saved two of the men, but could not reach the third. +</P> + +<P> +Now a man has been washed ashore in Donegal with one pampooty on +him, and a striped shirt with a purse in one of the pockets, and a +box for tobacco. +</P> + +<P> +For three days the people have been trying to fix his identity. Some +think it is the man from this island, others think that the man from +the south answers the description more exactly. To-night as we were +returning from the slip we met the mother of the man who was drowned +from this island, still weeping and looking out over the sea. She +stopped the people who had come over from the south island to ask +them with a terrified whisper what is thought over there. +</P> + +<P> +Later in the evening, when I was sitting in one of the cottages, the +sister of the dead man came in through the rain with her infant, and +there was a long talk about the rumours that had come in. She pieced +together all she could remember about his clothes, and what his +purse was like, and where he had got it, and the same for his +tobacco box, and his stockings. In the end there seemed little doubt +that it was her brother. +</P> + +<P> +'Ah!' she said, 'It's Mike sure enough, and please God they'll give +him a decent burial.' +</P> + +<P> +Then she began to keen slowly to herself. She had loose yellow hair +plastered round her head with the rain, and as she sat by the door +sucking her infant, she seemed like a type of the women's life upon +the islands. +</P> + +<P> +For a while the people sat silent, and one could hear nothing but +the lips of the infant, the rain hissing in the yard, and the +breathing of four pigs that lay sleeping in one corner. Then one of +the men began to talk about the new boats that have been sent to the +south island, and the conversation went back to its usual round of +topics. +</P> + +<P> +The loss of one man seems a slight catastrophe to all except the +immediate relatives. Often when an accident happens a father is lost +with his two eldest sons, or in some other way all the active men of +a household die together. +</P> + +<P> +A few years ago three men of a family that used to make the wooden +vessels—like tiny barrels—that are still used among the people, +went to the big island together. They were drowned on their way +home, and the art of making these little barrels died with them, at +least on Inishmaan, though it still lingers in the north and south +islands. +</P> + +<P> +Another catastrophe that took place last winter gave a curious zest +to the observance of holy days. It seems that it is not the custom +for the men to go out fishing on the evening of a holy day, but one +night last December some men, who wished to begin fishing early the +next morning, rowed out to sleep in their hookers. +</P> + +<P> +Towards morning a terrible storm rose, and several hookers with +their crews on board were blown from their moorings and wrecked. The +sea was so high that no attempt at rescue could be made, and the men +were drowned. +</P> + +<P> +'Ah!' said the man who told me the story, 'I'm thinking it will be a +long time before men will go out again on a holy day. That storm was +the only storm that reached into the harbour the whole winter, and +I'm thinking there was something in it.' +</P> + +<P> +Today when I went down to the slip I found a pig-jobber from +Kilronan with about twenty pigs that were to be shipped for the +English market. +</P> + +<P> +When the steamer was getting near, the whole drove was moved down on +the slip and the curaghs were carried out close to the sea. Then +each beast was caught in its turn and thrown on its side, while its +legs were hitched together in a single knot, with a tag of rope +remaining, by which it could be carried. +</P> + +<P> +Probably the pain inflicted was not great, yet the animals shut +their eyes and shrieked with almost human intonations, till the +suggestion of the noise became so intense that the men and women who +were merely looking on grew wild with excitement, and the pigs +waiting their turn foamed at the mouth and tore each other with +their teeth. +</P> + +<P> +After a while there was a pause. The whole slip was covered with a +mass of sobbing animals, with here and there a terrified woman +crouching among the bodies, and patting some special favourite to +keep it quiet while the curaghs were being launched. +</P> + +<P> +Then the screaming began again while the pigs were carried out and +laid in their places, with a waistcoat tied round their feet to keep +them from damaging the canvas. They seemed to know where they were +going, and looked up at me over the gunnel with an ignoble +desperation that made me shudder to think that I had eaten of this +whimpering flesh. When the last curagh went out I was left on the +slip with a band of women and children, and one old boar who sat +looking out over the sea. +</P> + +<P> +The women were over-excited, and when I tried to talk to them they +crowded round me and began jeering and shrieking at me because I am +not married. A dozen screamed at a time, and so rapidly that I could +not understand all that they were saying, yet I was able to make out +that they were taking advantage of the absence of their husbands to +give me the full volume of their contempt. Some little boys who were +listening threw themselves down, writhing with laughter among the +seaweed, and the young girls grew red with embarrassment and stared +down into the surf. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment I was in confusion. I tried to speak to them, but I +could not make myself heard, so I sat down on the slip and drew out +my wallet of photographs. In an instant I had the whole band +clambering round me, in their ordinary mood. +</P> + +<P> +When the curaghs came back—one of them towing a large kitchen table +that stood itself up on the waves and then turned somersaults in an +extraordinary manner—word went round that the ceannuighe (pedlar) +was arriving. +</P> + +<P> +He opened his wares on the slip as soon as he landed, and sold a +quantity of cheap knives and jewellery to the girls and the younger +women. He spoke no Irish, and the bargaining gave immense amusement +to the crowd that collected round him. +</P> + +<P> +I was surprised to notice that several women who professed to know +no English could make themselves understood without difficulty when +it pleased them. +</P> + +<P> +'The rings is too dear at you, sir,' said one girl using the Gaelic +construction; 'let you put less money on them and all the girls will +be buying.' +</P> + +<P> +After the jewellery' he displayed some cheap religious +pictures—abominable oleographs—but I did not see many buyers. +</P> + +<P> +I am told that most of the pedlars who come here are Germans or +Poles, but I did not have occasion to speak with this man by +himself. +</P> + +<P> +I have come over for a few days to the south island, and, as usual, +my voyage was not favourable. +</P> + +<P> +The morning was fine, and seemed to promise one of the peculiarly +hushed, pellucid days that occur sometimes before rain in early +winter. From the first gleam of dawn the sky was covered with white +cloud, and the tranquillity was so complete that every sound seemed +to float away by itself across the silence of the bay. Lines of blue +smoke were going up in spirals over the village, and further off +heavy fragments of rain-cloud were lying on the horizon. We started +early in the day, and, although the sea looked calm from a distance, +we met a considerable roll coming from the south-west when we got +out from the shore. +</P> + +<P> +Near the middle of the sound the man who was rowing in the bow broke +his oar-pin, and the proper management of the canoe became a matter +of some difficulty. We had only a three-oared curagh, and if the sea +had gone much higher we should have run a good deal of danger. Our +progress was so slow that clouds came up with a rise in the wind +before we reached the shore, and rain began to fall in large single +drops. The black curagh working slowly through this world of grey, +and the soft hissing of the rain gave me one of the moods in which +we realise with immense distress the short moment we have left us to +experience all the wonder and beauty of the world. +</P> + +<P> +The approach to the south island is made at a fine sandy beach on +the north-west. This interval in the rocks is of great service to +the people, but the tract of wet sand with a few hideous fishermen's +houses, lately built on it, looks singularly desolate in broken +weather. +</P> + +<P> +The tide was going out when we landed, so we merely stranded the +curagh and went up to the little hotel. The cess-collector was at +work in one of the rooms, and there were a number of men and boys +waiting about, who stared at us while we stood at the door and +talked to the proprietor. +</P> + +<P> +When we had had our drink I went down to the sea with my men, who +were in a hurry to be off. Some time was spent in replacing the +oar-pin, and then they set out, though the wind was still +increasing. A good many fishermen came down to see the start, and +long after the curagh was out of sight I stood and talked with them +in Irish, as I was anxious to compare their language and temperament +with what I knew of the other island. +</P> + +<P> +The language seems to be identical, though some of these men speak +rather more distinctly than any Irish speakers I have yet heard. In +physical type, dress, and general character, however, there seems to +be a considerable difference. The people on this island are more +advanced than their neighbours, and the families here are gradually +forming into different ranks, made up of the well-to-do, the +struggling, and the quite poor and thriftless. These distinctions +are present in the middle island also, but over there they have had +no effect on the people, among whom there is still absolute +equality. +</P> + +<P> +A little later the steamer came in sight and lay to in the offing. +While the curaghs were being put out I noticed in the crowd several +men of the ragged, humorous type that was once thought to represent +the real peasant of Ireland. Rain was now falling heavily, and as we +looked out through the fog there was something nearly appalling in +the shrieks of laughter kept up by one of these individuals, a man +of extraordinary ugliness and wit. +</P> + +<P> +At last he moved off toward the houses, wiping his eyes with the +tail of his coat and moaning to himself 'Ta me marbh,' ('I'm +killed'), till some one stopped him and he began again pouring out a +medley of rude puns and jokes that meant more than they said. +</P> + +<P> +There is quaint humour, and sometimes wild humour, on the middle +island, but never this half-sensual ecstasy of laughter. Perhaps a +man must have a sense of intimate misery, not known there, before he +can set himself to jeer and mock at the world. These strange men +with receding foreheads, high cheekbones, and ungovernable eyes seem +to represent some old type found on these few acres at the extreme +border of Europe, where it is only in wild jests and laughter that +they can express their loneliness and desolation. +</P> + +<P> +The mode of reciting ballads in this island is singularly harsh. I +fell in with a curious man to-day beyond the east village, and we +wandered out on the rocks towards the sea. A wintry shower came on +while we were together, and we crouched down in the bracken, under a +loose wall. When we had gone through the usual topics he asked me if +I was fond of songs, and began singing to show what he could do. +</P> + +<P> +The music was much like what I have heard before on the islands—a +monotonous chant with pauses on the high and low notes to mark the +rhythm; but the harsh nasal tone in which he sang was almost +intolerable. His performance reminded me in general effect of a +chant I once heard from a party of Orientals I was travelling with +in a third-class carriage from Paris to Dieppe, but the islander ran +his voice over a much wider range. +</P> + +<P> +His pronunciation was lost in the rasping of his throat, and, though +he shrieked into my ear to make sure that I understood him above the +howling of the wind, I could only make out that it was an endless +ballad telling the fortune of a young man who went to sea, and had +many adventures. The English nautical terms were employed +continually in describing his life on the ship, but the man seemed +to feel that they were not in their place, and stopped short when +one of them occurred to give me a poke with his finger and explain +gib, topsail, and bowsprit, which were for me the most intelligible +features of the poem. Again, when the scene changed to Dublin, +'glass of whiskey,' 'public-house,' and such things were in English. +</P> + +<P> +When the shower was over he showed me a curious cave hidden among +the cliffs, a short distance from the sea. On our way back he asked +me the three questions I am met with on every side—whether I am a +rich man, whether I am married, and whether I have ever seen a +poorer place than these islands. +</P> + +<P> +When he heard that I was not married he urged me to come back in the +summer so that he might take me over in a curagh to the Spa in +County Glare, where there is 'spree mor agus go leor ladies' ('a big +spree and plenty of ladies'). +</P> + +<P> +Something about the man repelled me while I was with him, and though +I was cordial and liberal he seemed to feel that I abhorred him. We +arranged to meet again in the evening, but when I dragged myself +with an inexplicable loathing to the place of meeting, there was no +trace of him. +</P> + +<P> +It is characteristic that this man, who is probably a drunkard and +shebeener and certainly in penury, refused the chance of a shilling +because he felt that I did not like him. He had a curiously mixed +expression of hardness and melancholy. Probably his character has +given him a bad reputation on the island, and he lives here with the +restlessness of a man who has no sympathy with his companions. +</P> + +<P> +I have come over again to Inishmaan, and this time I had fine +weather for my passage. The air was full of luminous sunshine from +the early morning, and it was almost a summer's day when I set sail +at noon with Michael and two other men who had come over for me in a +curagh. +</P> + +<P> +The wind was in our favour, so the sail was put up and Michael sat +in the stem to steer with an oar while I rowed with the others. +</P> + +<P> +We had had a good dinner and drink and were wrought up by this +sudden revival of summer to a dreamy voluptuous gaiety, that made us +shout with exultation to hear our voices passing out across the blue +twinkling of the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Even after the people of the south island, these men of Inishmaan +seemed to be moved by strange archaic sympathies with the world. +Their mood accorded itself with wonderful fineness to the +suggestions of the day, and their ancient Gaelic seemed so full of +divine simplicity that I would have liked to turn the prow to the +west and row with them for ever. +</P> + +<P> +I told them I was going back to Paris in a few days to sell my books +and my bed, and that then I was coming back to grow as strong and +simple as they were among the islands of the west. +</P> + +<P> +When our excitement sobered down, Michael told me that one of the +priests had left his gun at our cottage and given me leave to use it +till he returned to the island. There was another gun and a ferret +in the house also, and he said that as soon as we got home he was +going to take me out fowling on rabbits. +</P> + +<P> +A little later in the day we set off, and I nearly laughed to see +Michael's eagerness that I should turn out a good shot. +</P> + +<P> +We put the ferret down in a crevice between two bare sheets of rock, +and waited. In a few minutes we heard rushing paws underneath us, +then a rabbit shot up straight into the air from the crevice at our +feet and set off for a wall that was a few feet away. I threw up the +gun and fired. +</P> + +<P> +'Buail tu e,' screamed Michael at my elbow as he ran up the rock. I +had killed it. +</P> + +<P> +We shot seven or eight more in the next hour, and Michael was +immensely pleased. If I had done badly I think I should have had to +leave the islands. The people would have despised me. A 'duine +uasal' who cannot shoot seems to these descendants of hunters a +fallen type who is worse than an apostate. +</P> + +<P> +The women of this island are before conventionality, and share some +of the liberal features that are thought peculiar to the women of +Paris and New York. +</P> + +<P> +Many of them are too contented and too sturdy to have more than a +decorative interest, but there are others full of curious +individuality. +</P> + +<P> +This year I have got to know a wonderfully humorous girl, who has +been spinning in the kitchen for the last few days with the old +woman's spinning-wheel. The morning she began I heard her exquisite +intonation almost before I awoke, brooding and cooing over every +syllable she uttered. +</P> + +<P> +I have heard something similar in the voices of German and Polish +women, but I do not think men—at least European men—who are always +further than women from the simple, animal emotions, or any speakers +who use languages with weak gutturals, like French or English, can +produce this inarticulate chant in their ordinary talk. +</P> + +<P> +She plays continual tricks with her Gaelic in the way girls are fond +of, piling up diminutives and repeating adjectives with a humorous +scorn of syntax. While she is here the talk never stops in the +kitchen. To-day she has been asking me many questions about Germany, +for it seems one of her sisters married a German husband in America +some years ago, who kept her in great comfort, with a fine 'capull +glas' ('grey horse') to ride on, and this girl has decided to escape +in the same way from the drudgery of the island. +</P> + +<P> +This was my last evening on my stool in the chimney corner, and I +had a long talk with some neighbours who came in to bid me +prosperity, and lay about on the floor with their heads on low +stools and their feet stretched out to the embers of the turf. The +old woman was at the other side of the fire, and the girl I have +spoken of was standing at her spinning-wheel, talking and joking +with every one. She says when I go away now I am to marry a rich +wife with plenty of money, and if she dies on me I am to come back +here and marry herself for my second wife. +</P> + +<P> +I have never heard talk so simple and so attractive as the talk of +these people. This evening they began disputing about their wives, +and it appeared that the greatest merit they see in a woman is that +she should be fruitful and bring them many children. As no money can +be earned by children on the island this one attitude shows the +immense difference between these people and the people of Paris. +</P> + +<P> +The direct sexual instincts are not weak on the island, but they are +so subordinated to the instincts of the family that they rarely lead +to irregularity. The life here is still at an almost patriarchal +stage, and the people are nearly as far from the romantic moods of +love as they are from the impulsive life of the savage. +</P> + +<P> +The wind was so high this morning that there was some doubt whether +the steamer would arrive, and I spent half the day wandering about +with Michael watching the horizon. +</P> + +<P> +At last, when we had given her up, she came in sight far away to the +north, where she had gone to have the wind with her where the sea +was at its highest. +</P> + +<P> +I got my baggage from the cottage and set off for the slip with +Michael and the old man, turning into a cottage here and there to +say good-bye. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of the wind outside, the sea at the slip was as calm as a +pool. The men who were standing about while the steamer was at the +south island wondered for the last time whether I would be married +when I came back to see them. Then we pulled out and took our place +in the line. As the tide was running hard the steamer stopped a +certain distance from the shore, and gave us a long race for good +places at her side. In the struggle we did not come off well, so I +had to clamber across two curaghs, twisting and fumbling with the +roll, in order to get on board. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed strange to see the curaghs full of well-known faces +turning back to the slip without me, but the roll in the sound soon +took off my attention. Some men were on board whom I had seen on the +south island, and a good many Kilronan people on their way home from +Galway, who told me that in one part of their passage in the morning +they had come in for heavy seas. +</P> + +<P> +As is usual on Saturday, the steamer had a large cargo of flour and +porter to discharge at Kilronan, and, as it was nearly four o'clock +before the tide could float her at the pier, I felt some doubt about +our passage to Galway. +</P> + +<P> +The wind increased as the afternoon went on, and when I came down in +the twilight I found that the cargo was not yet all unladen, and +that the captain feared to face the gale that was rising. It was +some time before he came to a final decision, and we walked +backwards and forwards from the village with heavy clouds flying +overhead and the wind howling in the walls. At last he telegraphed +to Galway to know if he was wanted the next day, and we went into a +public-house to wait for the reply. +</P> + +<P> +The kitchen was filled with men sitting closely on long forms ranged +in lines at each side of the fire. A wild-looking but beautiful girl +was kneeling on the hearth talking loudly to the men, and a few +natives of Inishmaan were hanging about the door, miserably drunk. +At the end of the kitchen the bar was arranged, with a sort of +alcove beside it, where some older men were playing cards. Overhead +there were the open rafters, filled with turf and tobacco smoke. +</P> + +<P> +This is the haunt so much dreaded by the women of the other islands, +where the men linger with their money till they go out at last with +reeling steps and are lost in the sound. Without this background of +empty curaghs, and bodies floating naked with the tide, there would +be something almost absurd about the dissipation of this simple +place where men sit, evening after evening, drinking bad whisky and +porter, and talking with endless repetition of fishing, and kelp, +and of the sorrows of purgatory. +</P> + +<P> +When we had finished our whiskey word came that the boat might +remain. +</P> + +<P> +With some difficulty I got my bags out of the steamer and carried +them up through the crowd of women and donkeys that were still +struggling on the quay in an inconceivable medley of flour-bags and +cases of petroleum. When I reached the inn the old woman was in +great good humour, and I spent some time talking by the kitchen +fire. Then I groped my way back to the harbour, where, I was told, +the old net-mender, who came to see me on my first visit to the +islands, was spending the night as watchman. +</P> + +<P> +It was quite dark on the pier, and a terrible gale was blowing. +There was no one in the little office where I expected to find him, +so I groped my way further on towards a figure I saw moving with a +lantern. +</P> + +<P> +It was the old man, and he remembered me at once when I hailed him +and told him who I was. He spent some time arranging one of his +lanterns, and then he took me back to his office—a mere shed of +planks and corrugated iron, put up for the contractor of some work +which is in progress on the pier. +</P> + +<P> +When we reached the light I saw that his head was rolled up in an +extraordinary collection of mufflers to keep him from the cold, and +that his face was much older than when I saw him before, though +still full of intelligence. +</P> + +<P> +He began to tell how he had gone to see a relative of mine in Dublin +when he first left the island as a cabin-boy, between forty and +fifty years ago. +</P> + +<P> +He told his story with the usual detail:— +</P> + +<P> +We saw a man walking about on the quay in Dublin, and looking at us +without saying a word. Then he came down to the yacht. 'Are you the +men from Aran?' said he. +</P> + +<P> +'We are,' said we. +</P> + +<P> +'You're to come with me so,' said he. 'Why?' said we. +</P> + +<P> +Then he told us it was Mr. Synge had sent him and we went with him. +Mr. Synge brought us into his kitchen and gave the men a glass of +whisky all round, and a half-glass to me because I was a boy—though +at that time and to this day I can drink as much as two men and not +be the worse of it. We were some time in the kitchen, then one of +the men said we should be going. I said it would not be right to go +without saying a word to Mr. Synge. Then the servant-girl went up +and brought him down, and he gave us another glass of whisky, and he +gave me a book in Irish because I was going to sea, and I was able +to read in the Irish. +</P> + +<P> +I owe it to Mr. Synge and that book that when I came back here, +after not hearing a word of Irish for thirty years, I had as good +Irish, or maybe better Irish, than any person on the island. +</P> + +<P> +I could see all through his talk that the sense of superiority which +his scholarship in this little-known language gave him above the +ordinary seaman, had influenced his whole personality and been the +central interest of his life. +</P> + +<P> +On one voyage he had a fellow-sailor who often boasted that he had +been at school and learned Greek, and this incident took place:— +</P> + +<P> +One night we had a quarrel, and I asked him could he read a Greek +book with all his talk of it. +</P> + +<P> +'I can so,' said he. +</P> + +<P> +'We'll see that,' said I. +</P> + +<P> +Then I got the Irish book out of my chest, and I gave it into his +hand. +</P> + +<P> +'Read that to me,' said I, 'if you know Greek.' +</P> + +<P> +He took it, and he looked at it this way, and that way, and not a +bit of him could make it out. +</P> + +<P> +'Bedad, I've forgotten my Greek,' said he. +</P> + +<P> +'You're telling a lie,' said I. 'I'm not,' said he; 'it's the divil +a bit I can read it.' +</P> + +<P> +Then I took the book back into my hand, and said to him—'It's the +sorra a word of Greek you ever knew in your life, for there's not a +word of Greek in that book, and not a bit of you knew.' +</P> + +<P> +He told me another story of the only time he had heard Irish spoken +during his voyages:— +</P> + +<P> +One night I was in New York, walking in the streets with some other +men, and we came upon two women quarrelling in Irish at the door of +a public-house. +</P> + +<P> +'What's that jargon?' said one of the men. +</P> + +<P> +'It's no jargon,' said I. +</P> + +<P> +'What is it?' said he. +</P> + +<P> +'It's Irish,' said I. +</P> + +<P> +Then I went up to them, and you know, sir, there is no language like +the Irish for soothing and quieting. The moment I spoke to them they +stopped scratching and swearing and stood there as quiet as two +lambs. +</P> + +<P> +Then they asked me in Irish if I wouldn't come in and have a drink, +and I said I couldn't leave my mates. +</P> + +<P> +'Bring them too,' said they. +</P> + +<P> +Then we all had a drop together. +</P> + +<P> +While we were talking another man had slipped in and sat down in the +corner with his pipe, and the rain had become so heavy we could +hardly hear our voices over the noise on the iron roof. +</P> + +<P> +The old man went on telling of his experiences at sea and the places +he had been to. +</P> + +<P> +'If I had my life to live over again,' he said, 'there's no other +way I'd spend it. I went in and out everywhere and saw everything. I +was never afraid to take my glass, though I was never drunk in my +life, and I was a great player of cards though I never played for +money.' +</P> + +<P> +'There's no diversion at all in cards if you don't play for money' +said the man in the corner. +</P> + +<P> +'There was no use in my playing for money' said the old man, 'for +I'd always lose, and what's the use in playing if you always lose?' +</P> + +<P> +Then our conversation branched off to the Irish language and the +books written in it. +</P> + +<P> +He began to criticise Archbishop MacHale's version of Moore's Irish +Melodies with great severity and acuteness, citing whole poems both +in the English and Irish, and then giving versions that he had made +himself. +</P> + +<P> +'A translation is no translation,' he said, 'unless it will give you +the music of a poem along with the words of it. In my translation +you won't find a foot or a syllable that's not in the English, yet +I've put down all his words mean, and nothing but it. Archbishop +MacHale's work is a most miserable production.' +</P> + +<P> +From the verses he cited his judgment seemed perfectly justified, +and even if he was wrong, it is interesting to note that this poor +sailor and night-watchman was ready to rise up and criticise an +eminent dignitary and scholar on rather delicate points of +versification and the finer distinctions between old words of +Gaelic. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of his singular intelligence and minute observation his +reasoning was medieval. +</P> + +<P> +I asked him what he thought about the future of the language on +these islands. +</P> + +<P> +'It can never die out,' said he, 'because there's no family in the +place can live without a bit of a field for potatoes, and they have +only the Irish words for all that they do in the fields. They sail +their new boats—their hookers—in English, but they sail a curagh +oftener in Irish, and in the fields they have the Irish alone. It +can never die out, and when the people begin to see it fallen very +low, it will rise up again like the phoenix from its own ashes.' +</P> + +<P> +'And the Gaelic League?' I asked him. +</P> + +<P> +'The Gaelic League! Didn't they come down here with their organisers +and their secretaries, and their meetings and their speechifyings, +and start a branch of it, and teach a power of Irish for five weeks +and a half!' [a] +</P> + +<P> +'What do we want here with their teaching Irish?' said the man in +the corner; 'haven't we Irish enough?' +</P> + +<P> +'You have not,' said the old man; 'there's not a soul in Aran can +count up to nine hundred and ninety-nine without using an English +word but myself.' +</P> + +<P> +It was getting late, and the rain had lessened for a moment, so I +groped my way back to the inn through the intense darkness of a late +autumn night. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[a] This was written, it should be remembered, some years ago. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Part IV +</H3> + +<P> +No two journeys to these islands are alike. This morning I sailed +with the steamer a little after five o'clock in a cold night air, +with the stars shining on the bay. A number of Claddagh fishermen +had been out all night fishing not far from the harbour, and without +thinking, or perhaps caring to think, of the steamer, they had put +out their nets in the channel where she was to pass. Just before we +started the mate sounded the steam whistle repeatedly to give them +warning, saying as he did so— +</P> + +<P> +'If you were out now in the bay, gentlemen, you'd hear some fine +prayers being said.' +</P> + +<P> +When we had gone a little way we began to see the light from the +turf fires carried by the fishermen flickering on the water, and to +hear a faint noise of angry voices. Then the outline of a large +fishing-boat came in sight through the darkness, with the forms of +three men who stood on the course. The captain feared to turn aside, +as there are sandbanks near the channel, so the engines were stopped +and we glided over the nets without doing them harm. As we passed +close to the boat the crew could be seen plainly on the deck, one of +them holding the bucket of red turf, and their abuse could be +distinctly heard. It changed continually, from profuse Gaelic +maledictions to the simpler curses they know in English. As they +spoke they could be seen writhing and twisting themselves with +passion against the light which was beginning to turn on the ripple +of the sea. Soon afterwards another set of voices began in front of +us, breaking out in strange contrast with the dwindling stars and +the silence of the dawn. +</P> + +<P> +Further on we passed many boats that let us go by without a word, as +their nets were not in the channel. Then day came on rapidly with +cold showers that turned golden in the first rays from the sun, +filling the troughs of the sea with curious transparencies and +light. +</P> + +<P> +This year I have brought my fiddle with me so that I may have +something new to keep up the interest of the people. I have played +for them several tunes, but as far as I can judge they do not feel +modern music, though they listen eagerly from curiosity. Irish airs +like 'Eileen Aroon' please them better, but it is only when I play +some jig like the 'Black Rogue'—which is known on the island—that +they seem to respond to the full meaning of the notes. Last night I +played for a large crowd, which had come together for another +purpose from all parts of the island. +</P> + +<P> +About six o'clock I was going into the schoolmaster's house, and I +heard a fierce wrangle going on between a man and a woman near the +cottages to the west, that lie below the road. While I was listening +to them several women came down to listen also from behind the wall, +and told me that the people who were fighting were near relations +who lived side by side and often quarrelled about trifles, though +they were as good friends as ever the next day. The voices sounded +so enraged that I thought mischief would come of it, but the women +laughed at the idea. Then a lull came, and I said that they seemed +to have finished at last. +</P> + +<P> +'Finished!' said one of the women; 'sure they haven't rightly begun. +It's only playing they are yet.' +</P> + +<P> +It was just after sunset and the evening was bitterly cold, so I +went into the house and left them. +</P> + +<P> +An hour later the old man came down from my cottage to say that some +of the lads and the 'fear lionta' ('the man of the nets'—a young +man from Aranmor who is teaching net-mending to the boys) were up at +the house, and had sent him down to tell me they would like to +dance, if I would come up and play for them. +</P> + +<P> +I went out at once, and as soon as I came into the air I heard the +dispute going on still to the west more violently than ever. The +news of it had gone about the island, and little bands of girls and +boys were running along the lanes towards the scene of the quarrel +as eagerly as if they were going to a racecourse. I stopped for a +few minutes at the door of our cottage to listen to the volume of +abuse that was rising across the stillness of the island. Then I +went into the kitchen and began tuning the fiddle, as the boys were +impatient for my music. At first I tried to play standing, but on +the upward stroke my bow came in contact with the salt-fish and +oil-skins that hung from the rafters, so I settled myself at last on +a table in the corner, where I was out of the way, and got one of +the people to hold up my music before me, as I had no stand. I +played a French melody first, to get myself used to the people and +the qualities of the room, which has little resonance between the +earth floor and the thatch overhead. Then I struck up the 'Black +Rogue,' and in a moment a tall man bounded out from his stool under +the chimney and began flying round the kitchen with peculiarly sure +and graceful bravado. +</P> + +<P> +The lightness of the pampooties seems to make the dancing on this +island lighter and swifter than anything I have seen on the +mainland, and the simplicity of the men enables them to throw a +naive extravagance into their steps that is impossible in places +where the people are self-conscious. +</P> + +<P> +The speed, however, was so violent that I had some difficulty in +keeping up, as my fingers were not in practice, and I could not take +off more than a small part of my attention to watch what was going +on. When I finished I heard a commotion at the door, and the whole +body of people who had gone down to watch the quarrel filed into the +kitchen and arranged themselves around the walls, the women and +girls, as is usual, forming themselves in one compact mass crouching +on their heels near the door. +</P> + +<P> +I struck up another dance—'Paddy get up'—and the 'fear lionta' and +the first dancer went through it together, with additional rapidity +and grace, as they were excited by the presence of the people who +had come in. Then word went round that an old man, known as Little +Roger, was outside, and they told me he was once the best dancer on +the island. +</P> + +<P> +For a long time he refused to come in, for he said he was too old to +dance, but at last he was persuaded, and the people brought him in +and gave him a stool opposite me. It was some time longer before he +would take his turn, and when he did so, though he was met with +great clapping of hands, he only danced for a few moments. He did +not know the dances in my book, he said, and did not care to dance +to music he was not familiar with. When the people pressed him again +he looked across to me. +</P> + +<P> +'John,' he said, in shaking English, 'have you got "Larry Grogan," +for it is an agreeable air?' +</P> + +<P> +I had not, so some of the young men danced again to the 'Black +Rogue,' and then the party broke up. The altercation was still going +on at the cottage below us, and the people were anxious to see what +was coming of it. +</P> + +<P> +About ten o'clock a young man came in and told us that the fight was +over. +</P> + +<P> +'They have been at it for four hours,' he said, 'and now they're +tired.' +</P> + +<P> +Indeed it is time they were, for you'd rather be listening to a man +killing a pig than to the noise they were letting out of them.' +</P> + +<P> +After the dancing and excitement we were too stirred up to be +sleepy, so we sat for a long time round the embers of the turf, +talking and smoking by the light of the candle. +</P> + +<P> +From ordinary music we came to talk of the music of the fairies, and +they told me this story, when I had told them some stories of my +own:— +</P> + +<P> +A man who lives in the other end of the village got his gun one day +and went out to look for rabbits in a thicket near the small Dun. He +saw a rabbit sitting up under a tree, and he lifted his gun to take +aim at it, but just as he had it covered he heard a kind of music +over his head, and he looked up into the sky. When he looked back +for the rabbit, not a bit of it was to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +He went on after that, and he heard the music again. +</P> + +<P> +Then he looked over a wall, and he saw a rabbit sitting up by the +wall with a sort of flute in its mouth, and it playing on it with +its two fingers! +</P> + +<P> +'What sort of rabbit was that?' said the old woman when they had +finished. 'How could that be a right rabbit? I remember old Pat +Dirane used to be telling us he was once out on the cliffs, and he +saw a big rabbit sitting down in a hole under a flagstone. He called +a man who was with him, and they put a hook on the end of a stick +and ran it down into the hole. Then a voice called up to them— +</P> + +<P> +'"Ah, Phaddrick, don't hurt me with the hook!" +</P> + +<P> +'Pat was a great rogue,' said the old man. 'Maybe you remember the +bits of horns he had like handles on the end of his sticks? Well, +one day there was a priest over and he said to Pat—"Is it the +devil's horns you have on your sticks, Pat?" "I don't rightly know" +said Pat, "but if it is, it's the devil's milk you've been drinking, +since you've been able to drink, and the devil's flesh you've been +eating and the devil's butter you've been putting on your bread, for +I've seen the like of them horns on every old cow through the +country."' +</P> + +<P> +The weather has been rough, but early this afternoon the sea was +calm enough for a hooker to come in with turf from Connemara, though +while she was at the pier the roll was so great that the men had to +keep a watch on the waves and loosen the cable whenever a large one +was coming in, so that she might ease up with the water. +</P> + +<P> +There were only two men on board, and when she was empty they had +some trouble in dragging in the cables, hoisting the sails, and +getting out of the harbour before they could be blown on the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +A heavy shower came on soon afterwards, and I lay down under a stack +of turf with some people who were standing about, to wait for +another hooker that was coming in with horses. They began talking +and laughing about the dispute last night and the noise made at it. +</P> + +<P> +'The worst fights do be made here over nothing,' said an old man +next me. 'Did Mourteen or any of them on the big island ever tell +you of the fight they had there threescore years ago when they were +killing each other with knives out on the strand?' +</P> + +<P> +'They never told me,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +'Well,' said he, 'they were going down to cut weed, and a man was +sharpening his knife on a stone before he went. A young boy came +into the kitchen, and he said to the man—"What are you sharpening +that knife for?"' +</P> + +<P> +'"To kill your father with," said the man, and they the best of +friends all the time. The young boy went back to his house and told +his father there was a man sharpening a knife to kill him. +</P> + +<P> +'"Bedad," said the father, "if he has a knife I'll have one, too." +</P> + +<P> +'He sharpened his knife after that, and they went down to the +strand. Then the two men began making fun about their knives, and +from that they began raising their voices, and it wasn't long before +there were ten men fighting with their knives, and they never +stopped till there were five of them dead. +</P> + +<P> +'They buried them the day after, and when they were coming home, +what did they see but the boy who began the work playing about with +the son of the other man, and their two fathers down in their +graves.' +</P> + +<P> +When he stopped, a gust of wind came and blew up a bundle of dry +seaweed that was near us, right over our heads. +</P> + +<P> +Another old man began to talk. +</P> + +<P> +'That was a great wind,' he said. 'I remember one time there was a +man in the south island who had a lot of wool up in shelter against +the corner of a wall. He was after washing it, and drying it, and +turning it, and he had it all nice and clean the way they could card +it. Then a wind came down and the wool began blowing all over the +wall. The man was throwing out his arms on it and trying to stop it, +and another man saw him. +</P> + +<P> +'"The devil mend your head!" says he, "the like of that wind is too +strong for you." +</P> + +<P> +'"If the devil himself is in it," said the other man, "I'll hold on +to it while I can." +</P> + +<P> +'Then whether it was because of the word or not I don't know, but +the whole of the wool went up over his head and blew all over the +island, yet, when his wife came to spin afterwards she had all they +expected, as if that lot was not lost on them at all.' +</P> + +<P> +'There was more than that in it,' said another man, 'for the night +before a woman had a great sight out to the west in this island, and +saw all the people that were dead a while back in this island and +the south island, and they all talking with each other. There was a +man over from the other island that night, and he heard the woman +talking of what she had seen. The next day he went back to the south +island, and I think he was alone in the curagh. As soon as he came +near the other island he saw a man fishing from the cliffs, and this +man called out to him— +</P> + +<P> +'"Make haste now and go up and tell your mother to hide the +poteen"—his mother used to sell poteen—"for I'm after seeing the +biggest party of peelers and yeomanry passing by on the rocks was +ever seen on the island." It was at that time the wool was taken +with the other man above, under the hill, and no peelers in the +island at all.' +</P> + +<P> +A little after that the old men went away, and I was left with some +young men between twenty and thirty, who talked to me of different +things. One of them asked me if ever I was drunk, and another told +me I would be right to marry a girl out of this island, for they +were nice women in it, fine fat girls, who would be strong, and have +plenty of children, and not be wasting my money on me. +</P> + +<P> +When the horses were coming ashore a curagh that was far out after +lobster-pots came hurrying in, and a man out of her ran up the +sandhills to meet a little girl who was coming down with a bundle of +Sunday clothes. He changed them on the sand and then went out to the +hooker, and went off to Connemara to bring back his horses. +</P> + +<P> +A young married woman I used often to talk with is dying of a +fever—typhus I am told—and her husband and brothers have gone off +in a curagh to get the doctor and the priest from the north island, +though the sea is rough. +</P> + +<P> +I watched them from the Dun for a long time after they had started. +Wind and rain were driving through the sound, and I could see no +boats or people anywhere except this one black curagh splashing and +struggling through the waves. When the wind fell a little I could +hear people hammering below me to the east. The body of a young man +who was drowned a few weeks ago came ashore this morning, and his +friends have been busy all day making a coffin in the yard of the +house where he lived. +</P> + +<P> +After a while the curagh went out of sight into the mist, and I came +down to the cottage shuddering with cold and misery. +</P> + +<P> +The old woman was keening by the fire. +</P> + +<P> +'I have been to the house where the young man is,' she said, 'but I +couldn't go to the door with the air was coming out of it. They say +his head isn't on him at all, and indeed it isn't any wonder and he +three weeks in the sea. Isn't it great danger and sorrow is over +every one on this island?' +</P> + +<P> +I asked her if the curagh would soon be coming back with the priest. +'It will not be coming soon or at all to-night,' she said. 'The wind +has gone up now, and there will come no curagh to this island for +maybe two days or three. And wasn't it a cruel thing to see the +haste was on them, and they in danger all the time to be drowned +themselves?' +</P> + +<P> +Then I asked her how the woman was doing. +</P> + +<P> +'She's nearly lost,' said the old woman; 'she won't be alive at all +tomorrow morning. They have no boards to make her a coffin, and +they'll want to borrow the boards that a man below has had this two +years to bury his mother, and she alive still. I heard them saying +there are two more women with the fever, and a child that's not +three. The Lord have mercy on us all!' +</P> + +<P> +I went out again to look over the sea, but night had fallen and the +hurricane was howling over the Dun. I walked down the lane and heard +the keening in the house where the young man was. Further on I could +see a stir about the door of the cottage that had been last struck +by typhus. Then I turned back again in the teeth of the rain, and +sat over the fire with the old man and woman talking of the sorrows +of the people till it was late in the night. +</P> + +<P> +This evening the old man told me a story he had heard long ago on +the mainland:— +</P> + +<P> +There was a young woman, he said, and she had a child. In a little +time the woman died and they buried her the day after. That night +another woman—a woman of the family—was sitting by the fire with +the child on her lap, giving milk to it out of a cup. Then the woman +they were after burying opened the door, and came into the house. +She went over to the fire, and she took a stool and sat down before +the other woman. Then she put out her hand and took the child on her +lap, and gave it her breast. After that she put the child in the +cradle and went over to the dresser and took milk and potatoes off +it, and ate them. Then she went out. The other woman was frightened, +and she told the man of the house when he came back, and two young +men. They said they would be there the next night, and if she came +back they would catch hold of her. She came the next night and gave +the child her breast, and when she got up to go to the dresser, the +man of the house caught hold of her, but he fell down on the floor. +Then the two young men caught hold of her and they held her. She +told them she was away with the fairies, and they could not keep her +that night, though she was eating no food with the fairies, the way +she might be able to come back to her child. Then she told them they +would all be leaving that part of the country on the Oidhche +Shamhna, and that there would be four or five hundred of them riding +on horses, and herself would be on a grey horse, riding behind a +young man. And she told them to go down to a bridge they would be +crossing that night, and to wait at the head of it, and when she +would be coming up she would slow the horse and they would be able +to throw something on her and on the young man, and they would fall +over on the ground and be saved. +</P> + +<P> +She went away then, and on the Oidhche Shamhna the men went down and +got her back. She had four children after that, and in the end she +died. +</P> + +<P> +It was not herself they buried at all the first time, but some old +thing the fairies put in her place. +</P> + +<P> +'There are people who say they don't believe in these things,' said +the old woman, 'but there are strange things, let them say what they +will. There was a woman went to bed at the lower village a while +ago, and her child along with her. For a time they did not sleep, +and then something came to the window, and they heard a voice and +this is what it said— +</P> + +<P> +'"It is time to sleep from this out." +</P> + +<P> +'In the morning the child was dead, and indeed it is many get their +death that way on the island.' +</P> + +<P> +The young man has been buried, and his funeral was one of the +strangest scenes I have met with. People could be seen going down to +his house from early in the day, yet when I went there with the old +man about the middle of the afternoon, the coffin was still lying in +front of the door, with the men and women of the family standing +round beating it, and keening over it, in a great crowd of people. A +little later every one knelt down and a last prayer was said. Then +the cousins of the dead man got ready two oars and some pieces of +rope—the men of his own family seemed too broken with grief to know +what they were doing—the coffin was tied up, and the procession +began. The old woman walked close behind the coffin, and I happened +to take a place just after them, among the first of the men. The +rough lane to the graveyard slopes away towards the east, and the +crowd of women going down before me in their red dresses, cloaked +with red pethcoats, with the waistband that is held round the head +just seen from behind, had a strange effect, to which the white +coffin and the unity of colour gave a nearly cloistral quietness. +</P> + +<P> +This time the graveyard was filled with withered grass and bracken +instead of the early ferns that were to be seen everywhere at the +other funeral I have spoken of, and the grief of the people was of a +different kind, as they had come to bury a young man who had died in +his first manhood, instead of an old woman of eighty. For this +reason the keen lost a part of its formal nature, and was recited as +the expression of intense personal grief by the young men and women +of the man's own family. +</P> + +<P> +When the coffin had been laid down, near the grave that was to be +opened, two long switches were cut out from the brambles among the +rocks, and the length and breadth of the coffin were marked on them. +Then the men began their work, clearing off stones and thin layers +of earth, and breaking up an old coffin that was in the place into +which the new one had to be lowered. When a number of blackened +boards and pieces of bone had been thrown up with the clay, a skull +was lifted out, and placed upon a gravestone. Immediately the old +woman, the mother of the dead man, took it up in her hands, and +carried it away by herself. Then she sat down and put it in her +lap—it was the skull of her own mother—and began keening and +shrieking over it with the wildest lamentation. +</P> + +<P> +As the pile of mouldering clay got higher beside the grave a heavy +smell began to rise from it, and the men hurried with their work, +measuring the hole repeatedly with the two rods of bramble. When it +was nearly deep enough the old woman got up and came back to the +coffin, and began to beat on it, holding the skull in her left hand. +This last moment of grief was the most terrible of all. The young +women were nearly lying among the stones, worn out with their +passion of grief, yet raising themselves every few moments to beat +with magnificent gestures on the boards of the coffin. The young men +were worn out also, and their voices cracked continually in the wail +of the keen. +</P> + +<P> +When everything was ready the sheet was unpinned from the coffin, +and it was lowered into its place. Then an old man took a wooden +vessel with holy water in it, and a wisp of bracken, and the people +crowded round him while he splashed the water over them. They seemed +eager to get as much of it as possible, more than one old woman +crying out with a humorous voice— +</P> + +<P> +'Tabhair dham braon eile, a Mhourteen.' ('Give me another drop, +Martin.') +</P> + +<P> +When the grave was half filled in, I wandered round towards the +north watching two seals that were chasing each other near the surf. +I reached the Sandy Head as the light began to fail, and found some +of the men I knew best fishing there with a sort of dragnet. It is a +tedious process, and I sat for a long time on the sand watching the +net being put out, and then drawn in again by eight men working +together with a slow rhythmical movement. +</P> + +<P> +As they talked to me and gave me a little poteen and a little bread +when they thought I was hungry, I could not help feeling that I was +talking with men who were under a judgment of death. I knew that +every one of them would be drowned in the sea in a few years and +battered naked on the rocks, or would die in his own cottage and be +buried with another fearful scene in the graveyard I had come from. +</P> + +<P> +When I got up this morning I found that the people had gone to Mass +and latched the kitchen door from the outside, so that I could not +open it to give myself light. +</P> + +<P> +I sat for nearly an hour beside the fire with a curious feeling that +I should be quite alone in this little cottage. I am so used to +sitting here with the people that I have never felt the room before +as a place where any man might live and work by himself. After a +while as I waited, with just light enough from the chimney to let me +see the rafters and the greyness of the walls, I became +indescribably mournful, for I felt that this little corner on the +face of the world, and the people who live in it, have a peace and +dignity from which we are shut for ever. +</P> + +<P> +While I was dreaming, the old woman came in in a great hurry and +made tea for me and the young priest, who followed her a little +later drenched with rain and spray. +</P> + +<P> +The curate who has charge of the middle and south islands has a +wearisome and dangerous task. He comes to this island or Inishere on +Saturday night—whenever the sea is calm enough—and has Mass the +first thing on Sunday morning. Then he goes down fasting and is +rowed across to the other island and has Mass again, so that it is +about midday when he gets a hurried breakfast before he sets off +again for Aranmore, meeting often on both passages a rough and +perilous sea. +</P> + +<P> +A couple of Sundays ago I was lying outside the cottage in the +sunshine smoking my pipe, when the curate, a man of the greatest +kindliness and humour, came up, wet and worn out, to have his first +meal. He looked at me for a moment and then shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +'Tell me,' he said, 'did you read your Bible this morning?' +</P> + +<P> +I answered that I had not done so. +</P> + +<P> +'Well, begod, Mr. Synge,' he went on, 'if you ever go to Heaven, +you'll have a great laugh at us.' +</P> + +<P> +Although these people are kindly towards each other and to their +children, they have no feeling for the sufferings of animals, and +little sympathy for pain when the person who feels it is not in +danger. I have sometimes seen a girl writhing and howling with +toothache while her mother sat at the other side of the fireplace +pointing at her and laughing at her as if amused by the sight. +</P> + +<P> +A few days ago, when we had been talking of the death of President +McKinley, I explained the American way of killing murderers, and a +man asked me how long the man who killed the President would be +dying. +</P> + +<P> +'While you'd be snapping your fingers,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +'Well,' said the man, 'they might as well hang him so, and not be +bothering themselves with all them wires. A man who would kill a +King or a President knows he has to die for it, and it's only giving +him the thing he bargained for if he dies easy. It would be right he +should be three weeks dying, and there'd be fewer of those things +done in the world.' +</P> + +<P> +If two dogs fight at the slip when we are waiting for the steamer, +the men are delighted and do all they can to keep up the fury of the +battle. +</P> + +<P> +They tie down donkeys' heads to their hoofs to keep them from +straying, in a way that must cause horrible pain, and sometimes when +I go into a cottage I find all the women of the place down on their +knees plucking the feathers from live ducks and geese. +</P> + +<P> +When the people are in pain themselves they make no attempt to hide +or control their feelings. An old man who was ill in the winter took +me out the other day to show me how far down the road they could +hear him yelling 'the time he had a pain in his head.' +</P> + +<P> +There was a great storm this morning, and I went up on the cliff to +sit in the shanty they have made there for the men who watch for +wrack. Soon afterwards a boy, who was out minding sheep, came up +from the west, and we had a long talk. +</P> + +<P> +He began by giving me the first connected account I have had of the +accident that happened some time ago, when the young man was drowned +on his way to the south island. +</P> + +<P> +'Some men from the south island,' he said, 'came over and bought +some horses on this island, and they put them in a hooker to take +across. They wanted a curagh to go with them to tow the horses on to +the strand, and a young man said he would go, and they could give +him a rope and tow him behind the hooker. When they were out in the +sound a wind came down on them, and the man in the curagh couldn't +turn her to meet the waves, because the hooker was pulling her and +she began filling up with water. +</P> + +<P> +'When the men in the hooker saw it they began crying out one thing +and another thing without knowing what to do. One man called out to +the man who was holding the rope: "Let go the rope now, or you'll +swamp her." +</P> + +<P> +'And the man with the rope threw it out on the water, and the curagh +half-filled already, and I think only one oar in her. A wave came +into her then, and she went down before them, and the young man +began swimming about; then they let fall the sails in the hooker the +way they could pick him up. And when they had them down they were +too far off, and they pulled the sails up again the way they could +tack back to him. He was there in the water swimming round, and +swimming round, and before they got up with him again he sank the +third time, and they didn't see any more of him.' +</P> + +<P> +I asked if anyone had seen him on the island since he was dead. +</P> + +<P> +'They have not,' he said, 'but there were queer things in it. Before +he went out on the sea that day his dog came up and sat beside him +on the rocks, and began crying. When the horses were coming down to +the slip an old woman saw her son, that was drowned a while ago, +riding on one of them, She didn't say what she was after seeing, and +this man caught the horse, he caught his own horse first, and then +he caught this one, and after that he went out and was drowned. Two +days after I dreamed they found him on the Ceann gaine (the Sandy +Head) and carried him up to the house on the plain, and took his +pampooties off him and hung them up on a nail to dry. It was there +they found him afterwards as you'll have heard them say.' +</P> + +<P> +'Are you always afraid when you hear a dog crying?' I said. +</P> + +<P> +'We don't like it,' he answered; 'you will often see them on the top +of the rocks looking up into the heavens, and they crying. We don't +like it at all, and we don't like a cock or hen to break anything in +the house, for we know then some one will be going away. A while +before the man who used to live in that cottage below died in the +winter, the cock belonging to his wife began to fight with another +cock. The two of them flew up on the dresser and knocked the glass +of the lamp off it, and it fell on the floor and was broken. The +woman caught her cock after that and killed it, but she could not +kill the other cock, for it was belonging to the man who lived in +the next house. Then himself got a sickness and died after that.' +</P> + +<P> +I asked him if he ever heard the fairy music on the island. +</P> + +<P> +'I heard some of the boys talking in the school a while ago,' he +said, 'and they were saying that their brothers and another man went +out fishing a morning, two weeks ago, before the cock crew. When +they were down near the Sandy Head they heard music near them, and +it was the fairies were in it. I've heard of other things too. One +time three men were out at night in a curagh, and they saw a big +ship coming down on them. They were frightened at it, and they tried +to get away, but it came on nearer them, till one of the men turned +round and made the sign of the cross, and then they didn't see it +any more.' +</P> + +<P> +Then he went on in answer to another question: +</P> + +<P> +'We do often see the people who do be away with them. There was a +young man died a year ago, and he used to come to the window of the +house where his brothers slept, and be talking to them in the night. +He was married a while before that, and he used to be saying in the +night he was sorry he had not promised the land to his son, and that +it was to him it should go. Another time he was saying something +about a mare, about her hoofs, or the shoes they should put on her. +A little while ago Patch Ruadh saw him going down the road with +brogaarda (leather boots) on him and a new suit. Then two men saw +him in another place. +</P> + +<P> +'Do you see that straight wall of cliff?' he went on a few minutes +later, pointing to a place below us. 'It is there the fairies do be +playing ball in the night, and you can see the marks of their heels +when you come in the morning, and three stones they have to mark the +line, and another big stone they hop the ball on. It's often the +boys have put away the three stones, and they will always be back +again in the morning, and a while since the man who owns the land +took the big stone itself and rolled it down and threw it over the +cliff, yet in the morning it was back in its place before him.' +</P> + +<P> +I am in the south island again, and I have come upon some old men +with a wonderful variety of stories and songs, the last, fairly +often, both in English and Irish, I went round to the house of one +of them to-day, with a native scholar who can write Irish, and we +took down a certain number, and heard others. Here is one of the +tales the old man told us at first before he had warmed to his +subject. I did not take it down, but it ran in this way:— +</P> + +<P> +There was a man of the name of Charley Lambert, and every horse he +would ride in a race he would come in the first. +</P> + +<P> +The people in the country were angry with him at last, and this law +was made, that he should ride no more at races, and if he rode, any +one who saw him would have the right to shoot him. After that there +was a gentleman from that part of the country over in England, and +he was talking one day with the people there, and he said that the +horses of Ireland were the best horses. The English said it was the +English horses were the best, and at last they said there should be +a race, and the English horses would come over and race against the +horses of Ireland, and the gentleman put all his money on that race. +</P> + +<P> +Well, when he came back to Ireland he went to Charley Lambert, and +asked him to ride on his horse. Charley said he would not ride, and +told the gentleman the danger he'd be in. Then the gentleman told +him the way he had put all his property on the horse, and at last +Charley asked where the races were to be, and the hour and the day. +The gentleman told him. +</P> + +<P> +'Let you put a horse with a bridle and saddle on it every seven +miles along the road from here to the racecourse on that day,' said +Lambert, 'and I'll be in it.' +</P> + +<P> +When the gentleman was gone, Charley stripped off his clothes and +got into his bed. Then he sent for the doctor, and when he heard him +coming he began throwing about his arms the way the doctor would +think his pulse was up with the fever. +</P> + +<P> +The doctor felt his pulse and told him to stay quiet till the next +day, when he would see him again. +</P> + +<P> +The next day it was the same thing, and so on till the day of the +races. That morning Charley had his pulse beating so hard the doctor +thought bad of him. +</P> + +<P> +'I'm going to the races now, Charley,' said he, 'but I'll come in +and see you again when I'll be coming back in the evening, and let +you be very careful and quiet till you see me.' +</P> + +<P> +As soon as he had gone Charley leapt up out of bed and got on his +horse, and rode seven miles to where the first horse was waiting for +him. Then he rode that horse seven miles, and another horse seven +miles more, till he came to the racecourse. +</P> + +<P> +He rode on the gentleman's horse and he won the race. +</P> + +<P> +There were great crowds looking on, and when they saw him coming in +they said it was Charley Lambert, or the devil was in it, for there +was no one else could bring in a horse the way he did, for the leg +was after being knocked off of the horse and he came in all the +same. +</P> + +<P> +When the race was over, he got up on the horse was waiting for him, +and away with him for seven miles. Then he rode the other horse +seven miles, and his own horse seven miles, and when he got home he +threw off his clothes and lay down on his bed. +</P> + +<P> +After a while the doctor came back and said it was a great race they +were after having. +</P> + +<P> +The next day the people were saying it was Charley Lambert was the +man who rode the horse. An inquiry was held, and the doctor swore +that Charley was ill in his bed, and he had seen him before the race +and after it, so the gentleman saved his fortune. +</P> + +<P> +After that he told me another story of the same sort about a fairy +rider, who met a gentleman that was after losing all his fortune but +a shilling, and begged the shilling of him. The gentleman gave him +the shilling, and the fairy rider—a little red man—rode a horse +for him in a race, waving a red handkerchief to him as a signal when +he was to double the stakes, and made him a rich man. +</P> + +<P> +Then he gave us an extraordinary English doggerel rhyme which I took +down, though it seems singularly incoherent when written out at +length. These rhymes are repeated by the old men as a sort of chant, +and when a line comes that is more than usually irregular they seem +to take a real delight in forcing it into the mould of the +recitative. All the time he was chanting the old man kept up a kind +of snakelike movement in his body, which seemed to fit the chant and +make it part of him. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + THE WHITE HORSE<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + My horse he is white,<BR> + Though at first he was bay,<BR> + And he took great delight<BR> + In travelling by night<BR> + And by day.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + His travels were great<BR> + If I could but half of them tell,<BR> + He was rode in the garden by Adam,<BR> + The day that he fell.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + On Babylon plains<BR> + He ran with speed for the plate,<BR> + He was hunted next day<BR> + By Hannibal the great.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + After that he was hunted<BR> + In the chase of a fox,<BR> + When Nebuchadnezzar ate grass,<BR> + In the shape of an ox.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +We are told in the next verses of his going into the ark with Noah, +of Moses riding him through the Red Sea; then +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + He was with king Pharaoh in Egypt<BR> + When fortune did smile,<BR> + And he rode him stately along<BR> + The gay banks of the Nile.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + He was with king Saul and all<BR> + His troubles went through,<BR> + He was with king David the day<BR> + That Goliath he slew.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +For a few verses he is with Juda and Maccabeus the great, with +Cyrus, and back again to Babylon. Next we find him as the horse that +came into Troy. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + When ( ) came to Troy with joy,<BR> + My horse he was found,<BR> + He crossed over the walls and entered<BR> + The city I'm told.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I come on him again, in Spain,<BR> + And he in full bloom,<BR> + By Hannibal the great he was rode,<BR> + And he crossing the Alps into Rome.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The horse being tall<BR> + And the Alps very high,<BR> + His rider did fall<BR> + And Hannibal the great lost an eye.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Afterwards he carries young Sipho (Scipio), and then he is ridden by +Brian when driving the Danes from Ireland, and by St. Ruth when he +fell at the battle of Aughrim, and by Sarsfield at the siege of +Limerick. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + He was with king James who sailed<BR> + To the Irish shore,<BR> + But at last he got lame,<BR> + When the Boyne's bloody battle was o'er.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + He was rode by the greatest of men<BR> + At famed Waterloo,<BR> + Brave Daniel O'Connell he sat<BR> + On his back it is true.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + * * * * * * *<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Brave Dan's on his back,<BR> + He's ready once more for the field.<BR> + He never will stop till the Tories,<BR> + He'll make them to yield.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Grotesque as this long rhyme appears, it has, as I said, a sort of +existence when it is crooned by the old man at his fireside, and it +has great fame in the island. The old man himself is hoping that I +will print it, for it would not be fair, he says, that it should die +out of the world, and he is the only man here who knows it, and none +of them have ever heard it on the mainland. He has a couple more +examples of the same kind of doggerel, but I have not taken them +down. +</P> + +<P> +Both in English and in Irish the songs are full of words the people +do not understand themselves, and when they come to say the words +slowly their memory is usually uncertain. +</P> + +<P> +All the morning I have been digging maidenhair ferns with a boy I +met on the rocks, who was in great sorrow because his father died +suddenly a week ago of a pain in his heart. +</P> + +<P> +'We wouldn't have chosen to lose our father for all the gold there +is in the world,' he said, 'and it's great loneliness and sorrow +there is in the house now.' +</P> + +<P> +Then he told me that a brother of his who is a stoker in the Navy +had come home a little while before his father died, and that he had +spent all his money in having a fine funeral, with plenty of drink +at it, and tobacco. +</P> + +<P> +'My brother has been a long way in the world,' he said, 'and seen +great wonders. He does be telling us of the people that do come out +to them from Italy, and Spain, and Portugal, and that it is a sort +of Irish they do be talking—not English at all—though it is only a +word here and there you'd understand.' +</P> + +<P> +When we had dug out enough of roots from the deep crannies in the +rocks where they are only to be found, I gave my companion a few +pence, and sent him back to his cottage. +</P> + +<P> +The old man who tells me the Irish poems is curiously pleased with +the translations I have made from some of them. +</P> + +<P> +He would never be tired, he says, listening while I would be reading +them, and they are much finer things than his old bits of rhyme. +</P> + +<P> +Here is one of them, as near the Irish as I am able to make it:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + RUCARD MOR.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I put the sorrow of destruction on the bad luck,<BR> + For it would be a pity ever to deny it,<BR> + It is to me it is stuck,<BR> + By loneliness my pain, my complaining.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + It is the fairy-host<BR> + Put me a-wandering<BR> + And took from me my goods of the world.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + At Mannistir na Ruaidthe<BR> + It is on me the shameless deed was done:<BR> + Finn Bheara and his fairy-host<BR> + Took my little horse on me from under the bag.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + If they left me the skin<BR> + It would bring me tobacco for three months,<BR> + But they did not leave anything with me<BR> + But the old minister in its place.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Am not I to be pitied?<BR> + My bond and my note are on her,<BR> + And the price of her not yet paid,<BR> + My loneliness, my pain, my complaining.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The devil a hill or a glen, or highest fort<BR> + Ever was built in Ireland,<BR> + Is not searched on me for my mare;<BR> + And I am still at my complaining.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I got up in the morning,<BR> + I put a red spark in my pipe.<BR> + I went to the Cnoc-Maithe<BR> + To get satisfaction from them.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I spoke to them,<BR> + If it was in them to do a right thing,<BR> + To get me my little mare,<BR> + Or I would be changing my wits.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor?<BR> + It is not here is your mare,<BR> + She is in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn<BR> + With the fairy-men these three months.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I ran on in my walking,<BR> + I followed the road straightly,<BR> + I was in Glenasmoil<BR> + Before the moon was ended.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I spoke to the fairy-man,<BR> + If it was in him to do a right thing,<BR> + To get me my little mare,<BR> + Or I would be changing my wits.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Do you hear Rucard Mor?<BR> + It is not here is your mare,<BR> + She is in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn<BR> + With the horseman of the music these three months.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I ran off on my walking,<BR> + I followed the road straightly,<BR> + I was in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn<BR> + With the black fall of the night.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + That is a place was a crowd<BR> + As it was seen by me,<BR> + All the weavers of the globe,<BR> + It is there you would have news of them.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I spoke to the horseman,<BR> + If it was in him to do the right thing,<BR> + To get me my little mare,<BR> + Or I would be changing my wits.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor?<BR> + It is not here is your mare,<BR> + She is in Cnoc Cruachan,<BR> + In the back end of the palace.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I ran off on my walking,<BR> + I followed the road straightly,<BR> + I made no rest or stop<BR> + Till I was in face of the palace.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + That is the place was a crowd<BR> + As it appeared to me,<BR> + The men and women of the country,<BR> + And they all making merry.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Arthur Scoil (?) stood up<BR> + And began himself giving the lead,<BR> + It is joyful, light and active,<BR> + I would have danced the course with them.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + They drew up on their feet<BR> + And they began to laugh,—<BR> + 'Look at Rucard Mor,<BR> + And he looking for his little mare.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I spoke to the man,<BR> + And he ugly and humpy,<BR> + Unless he would get me my mare<BR> + I would break a third of his bones.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor?<BR> + It is not here is your mare,<BR> + She is in Alvin of Leinster,<BR> + On a halter with my mother.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I ran off on my walking,<BR> + And I came to Alvin of Leinster.<BR> + I met the old woman—<BR> + On my word she was not pleasing.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I spoke to the old woman,<BR> + And she broke out in English:<BR> + 'Get agone, you rascal,<BR> + I don't like your notions.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Do you hear, you old woman?<BR> + Keep away from me with your English,<BR> + But speak to me with the tongue<BR> + I hear from every person.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'It is from me you will get word of her,<BR> + Only you come too late—<BR> + I made a hunting cap<BR> + For Conal Cath of her yesterday.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I ran off on my walking,<BR> + Through roads that were cold and dirty.<BR> + I fell in with the fairy-man,<BR> + And he lying down in the Ruadthe.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'I pity a man without a cow,<BR> + I pity a man without a sheep,<BR> + But in the case of a man without a horse<BR> + It is hard for him to be long in the world.'<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P> +This morning, when I had been lying for a long time on a rock near +the sea watching some hooded crows that were dropping shellfish on +the rocks to break them, I saw one bird that had a large white +object which it was dropping continually without any result. I got +some stones and tried to drive it off when the thing had fallen, but +several times the bird was too quick for me and made off with it +before I could get down to him. At last, however, I dropped a stone +almost on top of him and he flew away. I clambered down hastily, and +found to my amazement a worn golf-ball! No doubt it had been brought +out in some way or other from the links in County Glare, which are +not far off, and the bird had been trying half the morning to break +it. +</P> + +<P> +Further on I had a long talk with a young man who is inquisitive +about modern life, and I explained to him an elaborate trick or +corner on the Stock Exchange that I heard of lately. When I got him +to understand it fully, he shouted with delight and amusement. +</P> + +<P> +'Well,' he said when he was quiet again, 'isn't it a great wonder to +think that those rich men are as big rogues as ourselves.' +</P> + +<P> +The old story-teller has given me a long rhyme about a man who +fought with an eagle. It is rather irregular and has some obscure +passages, but I have translated it with the scholar. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + PHELIM AND THE EAGLE<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + On my getting up in the morning<BR> + And I bothered, on a Sunday,<BR> + I put my brogues on me,<BR> + And I going to Tierny<BR> + In the Glen of the Dead People.<BR> + It is there the big eagle fell in with me,<BR> + He like a black stack of turf sitting up stately.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I called him a lout and a fool,<BR> + The son of a female and a fool,<BR> + Of the race of the Clan Cleopas, the biggest rogues in the land.<BR> + That and my seven curses<BR> + And never a good day to be on you,<BR> + Who stole my little cock from me that could crow the sweetest.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Keep your wits right in you<BR> + And don't curse me too greatly,<BR> + By my strength and my oath<BR> + I never took rent of you,<BR> + I didn't grudge what you would have to spare<BR> + In the house of the burnt pigeons,<BR> + It is always useful you were to men of business.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'But get off home<BR> + And ask Nora<BR> + What name was on the young woman that scalded his head.<BR> + The feathers there were on his ribs<BR> + Are burnt on the hearth,<BR> + And they eat him and they taking and it wasn't much were thankful.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'You are a liar, you stealer,<BR> + They did not eat him, and they're taking<BR> + Nor a taste of the sort without being thankful,<BR> + You took him yesterday<BR> + As Nora told me,<BR> + And the harvest quarter will not be spent till I take a tax of you.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Before I lost the Fianna<BR> + It was a fine boy I was,<BR> + It was not about thieving was my knowledge,<BR> + But always putting spells,<BR> + Playing games and matches with the strength of Gol MacMorna,<BR> + And you are making me a rogue<BR> + At the end of my life.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'There is a part of my father's books with me,<BR> + Keeping in the bottom of a box,<BR> + And when I read them the tears fall down from me.<BR> + But I found out in history<BR> + That you are a son of the Dearg Mor,<BR> + If it is fighting you want and you won't be thankful.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The Eagle dressed his bravery<BR> + With his share of arms and his clothes,<BR> + He had the sword that was the sharpest<BR> + Could be got anywhere.<BR> + I and my scythe with me,<BR> + And nothing on but my shirt,<BR> + We went at each other early in the day.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + We were as two giants<BR> + Ploughing in a valley in a glen of the mountains.<BR> + We did not know for the while which was the better man.<BR> + You could hear the shakes that were on our arms under each other,<BR> + From that till the sunset,<BR> + Till it was forced on him to give up.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I wrote a 'challenge boxail' to him<BR> + On the morning of the next day,<BR> + To come till we would fight without doubt at the dawn of the day.<BR> + The second fist I drew on him I struck him on the hone of his jaw,<BR> + He fell, and it is no lie there was a cloud in his head.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The Eagle stood up,<BR> + He took the end of my hand:—<BR> + 'You are the finest man I ever saw in my life,<BR> + Go off home, my blessing will be on you for ever,<BR> + You have saved the fame of Eire for yourself till the Day of the Judgment.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Ah! neighbors, did you hear<BR> + The goodness and power of Felim?<BR> + The biggest wild beast you could get,<BR> + The second fist he drew on it<BR> + He struck it on the jaw,<BR> + It fell, and it did not rise<BR> + Till the end of two days.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Well as I seem to know these people of the islands, there is hardly +a day that I do not come upon some new primitive feature of their +life. +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday I went into a cottage where the woman was at work and very +carelessly dressed. She waited for a while till I got into +conversation with her husband, and then she slipped into the corner +and put on a clean petticoat and a bright shawl round her neck. Then +she came back and took her place at the fire. +</P> + +<P> +This evening I was in another cottage till very late talking to the +people. When the little boy—the only child of the house—got +sleepy, the old grandmother took him on her lap and began singing to +him. As soon as he was drowsy she worked his clothes off him by +degrees, scratching him softly with her nails as she did so all over +his body. Then she washed his feet with a little water out of a pot +and put him into his bed. +</P> + +<P> +When I was going home the wind was driving the sand into my face so +that I could hardly find my way. I had to hold my hat over my mouth +and nose, and my hand over my eyes while I groped along, with my +feet feeling for rocks and holes in the sand. +</P> + +<P> +I have been sitting all the morning with an old man who was making +sugawn ropes for his house, and telling me stories while he worked. +He was a pilot when he was young, and we had great talk at first +about Germans, and Italians, and Russians, and the ways of seaport +towns. Then he came round to talk of the middle island, and he told +me this story which shows the curious jealousy that is between the +islands:— +</P> + +<P> +Long ago we used all to be pagans, and the saints used to be coming +to teach us about God and the creation of the world. The people on +the middle island were the last to keep a hold on the fire-worshipping, +or whatever it was they had in those days, but in the long run a saint +got in among them and they began listening to him, though they would +often say in the evening they believed, and then say the morning after +that they did not believe. In the end the saint gained them over and +they began building a church, and the saint had tools that were in use +with them for working with the stones. When the church was halfway up +the people held a kind of meeting one night among themselves, when the +saint was asleep in his bed, to see if they did really believe and no +mistake in it. +</P> + +<P> +The leading man got up, and this is what he said: that they should +go down and throw their tools over the cliff, for if there was such +a man as God, and if the saint was as well known to Him as he said, +then he would be as well able to bring up the tools out of the sea +as they were to throw them in. +</P> + +<P> +They went then and threw their tools over the cliff. +</P> + +<P> +When the saint came down to the church in the morning the workmen +were all sitting on the stones and no work doing. +</P> + +<P> +'For what cause are you idle?' asked the saint. +</P> + +<P> +'We have no tools,' said the men, and then they told him the story +of what they had done. +</P> + +<P> +He kneeled down and prayed God that the tools might come up out of +the sea, and after that he prayed that no other people might ever be +as great fools as the people on the middle island, and that God +might preserve theft dark minds of folly to them fill the end of the +world. And that is why no man out of that island can tell you a +whole story without stammering, or bring any work to end without a +fault in it. +</P> + +<P> +I asked him if he had known old Pat Dirane on the middle island, and +heard the fine stories he used to tell. +</P> + +<P> +'No one knew him better than I did,' he said; 'for I do often be in +that island making curaghs for the people. One day old Pat came down +to me when I was after tarring a new curagh, and he asked me to put +a little tar on the knees of his breeches the way the rain wouldn't +come through on him. +</P> + +<P> +'I took the brush in my hand, and I had him tarred down to his feet +before he knew what I was at. "Turn round the other side now," I +said, "and you'll be able to sit where you like." Then he felt the +tar coming in hot against his skin and he began cursing my soul, and +I was sorry for the trick I'd played on him.' +</P> + +<P> +This old man was the same type as the genial, whimsical old men one +meets all through Ireland, and had none of the local characteristics +that are so marked on lnishmaan. +</P> + +<P> +When we were tired talking I showed some of my tricks and a little +crowd collected. When they were gone another old man who had come up +began telling us about the fairies. One night when he was coming +home from the lighthouse he heard a man riding on the road behind +him, and he stopped to wait for him, but nothing came. Then he heard +as if there was a man trying to catch a horse on the rocks, and in a +little time he went on. The noise behind him got bigger as he went +along as if twenty horses, and then as if a hundred or a thousand, +were galloping after him. When he came to the stile where he had to +leave the road and got out over it, something hit against him and +threw him down on the rock, and a gun he had in his hand fell into +the field beyond him. +</P> + +<P> +'I asked the priest we had at that time what was in it,' he said, +'and the priest told me it was the fallen angels; and I don't know +but it was.' +</P> + +<P> +'Another time,' he went on, 'I was coming down where there is a bit +of a cliff and a little hole under it, and I heard a flute playing +in the hole or beside it, and that was before the dawn began. +Whatever anyone says there are strange things. There was one night +thirty years ago a man came down to get my wife to go up to his +wife, for she was in childbed. +</P> + +<P> +'He was something to do with the lighthouse or the coastguard, one +of them Protestants who don't believe in any of these things and do +be making fun of us. Well, he asked me to go down and get a quart of +spirits while my wife would be getting herself ready, and he said he +would go down along with me if I was afraid. +</P> + +<P> +'I said I was not afraid, and I went by myself. +</P> + +<P> +'When I was coming back there was something on the path, and wasn't +I a foolish fellow, I might have gone to one side or the other over +the sand, but I went on straight till I was near it—till I was too +near it—then I remembered that I had heard them saying none of +those creatures can stand before you and you saying the De +Profundis, so I began saying it, and the thing ran off over the sand +and I got home. +</P> + +<P> +'Some of the people used to say it was only an old jackass that was +on the path before me, but I never heard tell of an old jackass +would run away from a man and he saying the De Profundis.' +</P> + +<P> +I told him the story of the fairy ship which had disappeared when +the man made the sign of the cross, as I had heard it on the middle +island. +</P> + +<P> +'There do be strange things on the sea,' he said. 'One night I was +down there where you can see that green point, and I saw a ship +coming in and I wondered what it would be doing coming so close to +the rocks. It came straight on towards the place I was in, and then +I got frightened and I ran up to the houses, and when the captain +saw me running he changed his course and went away. +</P> + +<P> +'Sometimes I used to go out as a pilot at that time—I went a few +times only. Well, one Sunday a man came down and said there was a +big ship coming into the sound. I ran down with two men and we went +out in a curagh; we went round the point where they said the ship +was, and there was no ship in it. As it was a Sunday we had nothing +to do, and it was a fine, calm day, so we rowed out a long way +looking for the ship, till I was further than I ever was before or +after. When I wanted to turn back we saw a great flock of birds on +the water and they all black, without a white bird through them. +They had no fear of us at all, and the men with me wanted to go up +to them, so we went further. When we were quite close they got up, +so many that they blackened the sky, and they lit down again a +hundred or maybe a hundred and twenty yards off. We went after them +again, and one of the men wanted to kill one with a thole-pin, and +the other man wanted to kill one with his rowing stick. I was afraid +they would upset the curagh, but they would go after the birds. +</P> + +<P> +'When we were quite close one man threw the pin and the other man +hit at them with his rowing stick, and the two of them fell over in +the curagh, and she turned on her side and only it was quite calm +the lot of us were drowned. +</P> + +<P> +'I think those black gulls and the ship were the same sort, and +after that I never went out again as a pilot. It is often curaghs go +out to ships and find there is no ship. +</P> + +<P> +'A while ago a curagh went out to a ship from the big island, and +there was no ship; and all the men in the curagh were drowned. A +fine song was made about them after that, though I never heard it +myself. +</P> + +<P> +'Another day a curagh was out fishing from this island, and the men +saw a hooker not far from them, and they rowed up to it to get a +light for their pipes—at that time there were no matches—and when +they up to the big boat it was gone out of its place, and they were +in great fear.' +</P> + +<P> +Then he told me a story he had got from the mainland about a man who +was driving one night through the country, and met a woman who came +up to him and asked him to take her into his cart. He thought +something was not right about her, and he went on. When he had gone +a little way he looked back, and it was a pig was on the road and +not a woman at all. +</P> + +<P> +He thought he was a done man, but he went on. When he was going +through a wood further on, two men came out to him, one from each +side of the road, and they took hold of the bridle of the horse and +led it on between them. They were old stale men with frieze clothes +on them, and the old fashions. When they came out of the wood he +found people as if there was a fair on the road, with the people +buying and selling and they not living people at all. The old men +took him through the crowd, and then they left him. When he got home +and told the old people of the two old men and the ways and fashions +they had about them, the old people told him it was his two +grandfathers had taken care of him, for they had had a great love +for him and he a lad growing up. +</P> + +<P> +This evening we had a dance in the inn parlour, where a fire had +been lighted and the tables had been pushed into the corners. There +was no master of the ceremonies, and when I had played two or three +jigs and other tunes on my fiddle, there was a pause, as I did not +know how much of my music the people wanted, or who else could be +got to sing or play. For a moment a deadlock seemed to be coming, +but a young girl I knew fairly well saw my difficulty, and took the +management of our festivities into her hands. At first she asked a +coastguard's daughter to play a reel on the mouth organ, which she +did at once with admirable spirit and rhythm. Then the little girl +asked me to play again, telling me what I should choose, and went on +in the same way managing the evening till she thought it was time to +go home. Then she stood up, thanked me in Irish, and walked out of +the door, without looking at anybody, but followed almost at once by +the whole party. +</P> + +<P> +When they had gone I sat for a while on a barrel in the public-house +talking to some young men who were reading a paper in Irish. Then I +had a long evening with the scholar and two story-tellers—both old +men who had been pilots—taking down stories and poems. We were at +work for nearly six hours, and the more matter we got the more the +old men seemed to remember. +</P> + +<P> +'I was to go out fishing tonight,' said the younger as he came in, +'but I promised you to come, and you're a civil man, so I wouldn't +take five pounds to break my word to you. And now'—taking up his +glass of whisky—'here's to your good health, and may you live till +they make you a coffin out of a gooseberry bush, or till you die in +childbed.' +</P> + +<P> +They drank my health and our work began. +</P> + +<P> +'Have you heard tell of the poet MacSweeny?' said the same man, +sitting down near me. +</P> + +<P> +'I have,' I said, 'in the town of Galway.' +</P> + +<P> +'Well,' he said, 'I'll tell you his piece "The Big Wedding," for +it's a fine piece and there aren't many that know it. There was a +poor servant girl out in the country, and she got married to a poor +servant boy. MacSweeny knew the two of them, and he was away at that +time and it was a month before he came back. When he came back he +went to see Peggy O'Hara—that was the name of the girl—and he +asked her if they had had a great wedding. Peggy said it was only +middling, but they hadn't forgotten him all the same, and she had a +bottle of whisky for him in the cupboard. He sat down by the fire +and began drinking the whisky. When he had a couple of glasses taken +and was warm by the fire, he began making a song, and this was the +song he made about the wedding of Peggy O'Hara.' +</P> + +<P> +He had the poem both in English and Irish, but as it has been found +elsewhere and attributed to another folk-poet, I need not give it. +</P> + +<P> +We had another round of porter and whisky, and then the old man who +had MacSweeny's wedding gave us a bit of a drinking song, which the +scholar took down and I translated with him afterwards:— +</P> + +<P> +'This is what the old woman says at the Beulleaca when she sees a +man without knowledge— +</P> + +<P> +'Were you ever at the house of the Still, did you ever get a drink +from it? Neither wine nor beer is as sweet as it is, but it is well +I was not burnt when I fell down after a drink of it by the fire of +Mr. Sloper. +</P> + +<P> +'I praise Owen O'Hernon over all the doctors of Ireland, it is he +put drugs on the water, and it lying on the barley. +</P> + +<P> +'If you gave but a drop of it to an old woman who does be walking +the world with a stick, she would think for a week that it was a +fine bed was made for her.' +</P> + +<P> +After that I had to get out my fiddle and play some tunes for them +while they finished their whisky. A new stock of porter was brought +in this morning to the little public-house underneath my room, and I +could hear in the intervals of our talk that a number of men had +come in to treat some neighbors from the middle island, and were +singing many songs, some of them in English or of the kind I have +given, but most of them in Irish. +</P> + +<P> +A little later when the party broke up downstairs my old men got +nervous about the fairies—they live some distance away—and set off +across the sandhills. +</P> + +<P> +The next day I left with the steamer. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Aran Islands, by John M. Synge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARAN ISLANDS *** + +***** This file should be named 4381-h.htm or 4381-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/8/4381/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</BODY> + +</HTML> + + diff --git a/4381.txt b/4381.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b46eae5 --- /dev/null +++ b/4381.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5950 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Aran Islands, by John M. Synge + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Aran Islands + +Author: John M. Synge + +Posting Date: July 26, 2009 [EBook #4381] +Release Date: August, 2003 +First Posted: January 20, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARAN ISLANDS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +THE ARAN ISLANDS + + +BY + +JOHN M. SYNGE + + + + + + +Introduction + +The geography of the Aran Islands is very simple, yet it may need a +word to itself. There are three islands: Aranmor, the north island, +about nine miles long; Inishmaan, the middle island, about three +miles and a half across, and nearly round in form; and the south +island, Inishere--in Irish, east island,--like the middle island but +slightly smaller. They lie about thirty miles from Galway, up the +centre of the bay, but they are not far from the cliffs of County +Clare, on the south, or the corner of Connemara on the north. + +Kilronan, the principal village on Aranmor, has been so much changed +by the fishing industry, developed there by the Congested Districts +Board, that it has now very little to distinguish it from any +fishing village on the west coast of Ireland. The other islands are +more primitive, but even on them many changes are being made, that +it was not worth while to deal with in the text. + +In the pages that follow I have given a direct account of my life on +the islands, and of what I met with among them, inventing nothing, +and changing nothing that is essential. As far as possible, however, +I have disguised the identity of the people I speak of, by making +changes in their names, and in the letters I quote, and by altering +some local and family relationships. I have had nothing to say about +them that was not wholly in their favour, but I have made this +disguise to keep them from ever feeling that a too direct use had +been made of their kindness, and friendship, for which I am more +grateful than it is easy to say. + + + + +Part I + + +I am in Aranmor, sitting over a turf fire, listening to a murmur of +Gaelic that is rising from a little public-house under my room. + +The steamer which comes to Aran sails according to the tide, and it +was six o'clock this morning when we left the quay of Galway in a +dense shroud of mist. + +A low line of shore was visible at first on the right between the +movement of the waves and fog, but when we came further it was lost +sight of, and nothing could be seen but the mist curling in the +rigging, and a small circle of foam. + +There were few passengers; a couple of men going out with young pigs +tied loosely in sacking, three or four young girls who sat in the +cabin with their heads completely twisted in their shawls, and a +builder, on his way to repair the pier at Kilronan, who walked up +and down and talked with me. + +In about three hours Aran came in sight. A dreary rock appeared at +first sloping up from the sea into the fog; then, as we drew nearer, +a coast-guard station and the village. + +A little later I was wandering out along the one good roadway of the +island, looking over low walls on either side into small flat fields +of naked rock. I have seen nothing so desolate. Grey floods of water +were sweeping everywhere upon the limestone, making at limes a wild +torrent of the road, which twined continually over low hills and +cavities in the rock or passed between a few small fields of +potatoes or grass hidden away in corners that had shelter. Whenever +the cloud lifted I could see the edge of the sea below me on the +right, and the naked ridge of the island above me on the other side. +Occasionally I passed a lonely chapel or schoolhouse, or a line of +stone pillars with crosses above them and inscriptions asking a +prayer for the soul of the person they commemorated. + +I met few people; but here and there a band of tall girls passed me +on their way to Kilronan, and called out to me with humorous wonder, +speaking English with a slight foreign intonation that differed a +good deal from the brogue of Galway. The rain and cold seemed to +have no influence on their vitality and as they hurried past me with +eager laughter and great talking in Gaelic, they left the wet masses +of rock more desolate than before. + +A little after midday when I was coming back one old half-blind man +spoke to me in Gaelic, but, in general, I was surprised at the +abundance and fluency of the foreign tongue. + +In the afternoon the rain continued, so I sat here in the inn +looking out through the mist at a few men who were unlading hookers +that had come in with turf from Connemara, and at the long-legged +pigs that were playing in the surf. As the fishermen came in and out +of the public-house underneath my room, I could hear through the +broken panes that a number of them still used the Gaelic, though it +seems to be falling out of use among the younger people of this +village. + +The old woman of the house had promised to get me a teacher of the +language, and after a while I heard a shuffling on the stairs, and +the old dark man I had spoken to in the morning groped his way into +the room. + +I brought him over to the fire, and we talked for many hours. He +told me that he had known Petrie and Sir William Wilde, and many +living antiquarians, and had taught Irish to Dr. Finck and Dr. +Pedersen, and given stories to Mr. Curtin of America. A little after +middle age he had fallen over a cliff, and since then he had had +little eyesight, and a trembling of his hands and head. + +As we talked he sat huddled together over the fire, shaking and +blind, yet his face was indescribably pliant, lighting up with an +ecstasy of humour when he told me anything that had a point of wit +or malice, and growing sombre and desolate again when he spoke of +religion or the fairies. + +He had great confidence in his own powers and talent, and in the +superiority of his stories over all other stories in the world. When +we were speaking of Mr. Curtin, he told me that this gentleman had +brought out a volume of his Aran stories in America, and made five +hundred pounds by the sale of them. + +'And what do you think he did then?' he continued; 'he wrote a book +of his own stories after making that lot of money with mine. And he +brought them out, and the divil a half-penny did he get for them. +Would you believe that?' + +Afterwards he told me how one of his children had been taken by the +fairies. + +One day a neighbor was passing, and she said, when she saw it on the +road, 'That's a fine child.' + +Its mother tried to say 'God bless it,' but something choked the +words in her throat. + +A while later they found a wound on its neck, and for three nights +the house was filled with noises. + +'I never wear a shirt at night,' he said, 'but I got up out of my +bed, all naked as I was, when I heard the noises in the house, and +lighted a light, but there was nothing in it.' + +Then a dummy came and made signs of hammering nails in a coffin. The +next day the seed potatoes were full of blood, and the child told +his mother that he was going to America. + +That night it died, and 'Believe me,' said the old man, 'the fairies +were in it.' + +When he went away, a little bare-footed girl was sent up with turf +and the bellows to make a fire that would last for the evening. + +She was shy, yet eager to talk, and told me that she had good spoken +Irish, and was learning to read it in the school, and that she had +been twice to Galway, though there are many grown women in the place +who have never set a foot upon the mainland. + +The rain has cleared off, and I have had my first real introduction +to the island and its people. + +I went out through Killeany--the poorest village in Aranmor--to a +long neck of sandhill that runs out into the sea towards the +south-west. As I lay there on the grass the clouds lifted from the +Connemara mountains and, for a moment, the green undulating +foreground, backed in the distance by a mass of hills, reminded me +of the country near Rome. Then the dun top-sail of a hooker swept +above the edge of the sandhill and revealed the presence of the sea. + +As I moved on a boy and a man came down from the next village to +talk to me, and I found that here, at least, English was imperfectly +understood. When I asked them if there were any trees in the island +they held a hurried consultation in Gaelic, and then the man asked +if 'tree' meant the same thing as 'bush,' for if so there were a few +in sheltered hollows to the east. + +They walked on with me to the sound which separates this island from +Inishmaan--the middle island of the group--and showed me the roll +from the Atlantic running up between two walls of cliff. + +They told me that several men had stayed on Inishmaan to learn +Irish, and the boy pointed out a line of hovels where they had +lodged running like a belt of straw round the middle of the island. +The place looked hardly fit for habitation. There was no green to be +seen, and no sign of the people except these beehive-like roofs, and +the outline of a Dun that stood out above them against the edge of +the sky. + +After a while my companions went away and two other boys came and +walked at my heels, till I turned and made them talk to me. They +spoke at first of their poverty, and then one of them said--'I dare +say you do have to pay ten shillings a week in the hotel?' 'More,' +I answered. + +'Twelve?' + +'More.' + +'Fifteen?' + +'More still.' + +Then he drew back and did not question me any further, either +thinking that I had lied to check his curiosity, or too awed by my +riches to continue. + +Repassing Killeany I was joined by a man who had spent twenty years +in America, where he had lost his health and then returned, so long +ago that he had forgotten English and could hardly make me +understand him. He seemed hopeless, dirty and asthmatic, and after +going with me for a few hundred yards he stopped and asked for +coppers. I had none left, so I gave him a fill of tobacco, and he +went back to his hovel. + +When he was gone, two little girls took their place behind me and I +drew them in turn into conversation. + +They spoke with a delicate exotic intonation that was full of charm, +and told me with a sort of chant how they guide 'ladies and +gintlemins' in the summer to all that is worth seeing in their +neighbourhood, and sell them pampooties and maidenhair ferns, which +are common among the rocks. + +We were now in Kilronan, and as we parted they showed me holes in +their own pampooties, or cowskin sandals, and asked me the price of +new ones. I told them that my purse was empty, and then with a few +quaint words of blessing they turned away from me and went down to +the pier. + +All this walk back had been extraordinarily fine. The intense +insular clearness one sees only in Ireland, and after rain, was +throwing out every ripple in the sea and sky, and every crevice in +the hills beyond the bay. + +This evening an old man came to see me, and said he had known a +relative of mine who passed some time on this island forty-three +years ago. + +'I was standing under the pier-wall mending nets,' he said, 'when +you came off the steamer, and I said to myself in that moment, if +there is a man of the name of Synge left walking the world, it is +that man yonder will be he.' + +He went on to complain in curiously simple yet dignified language of +the changes that have taken place here since he left the island to +go to sea before the end of his childhood. + +'I have come back,' he said, 'to live in a bit of a house with my +sister. The island is not the same at all to what it was. It is +little good I can get from the people who are in it now, and +anything I have to give them they don't care to have.' + +From what I hear this man seems to have shut himself up in a world +of individual conceits and theories, and to live aloof at his trade +of net-mending, regarded by the other islanders with respect and +half-ironical sympathy. + +A little later when I went down to the kitchen I found two men from +Inishmaan who had been benighted on the island. They seemed a +simpler and perhaps a more interesting type than the people here, +and talked with careful English about the history of the Duns, and +the Book of Ballymote, and the Book of Kells, and other ancient +MSS., with the names of which they seemed familiar. + +In spite of the charm of my teacher, the old blind man I met the day +of my arrival, I have decided to move on to Inishmaan, where Gaelic +is more generally used, and the life is perhaps the most primitive +that is left in Europe. + +I spent all this last day with my blind guide, looking at the +antiquities that abound in the west or north-west of the island. + +As we set out I noticed among the groups of girls who smiled at our +fellowship--old Mourteen says we are like the cuckoo with its +pipit--a beautiful oval face with the singularly spiritual +expression that is so marked in one type of the West Ireland women. +Later in the day, as the old man talked continually of the fairies +and the women they have taken, it seemed that there was a possible +link between the wild mythology that is accepted on the islands and +the strange beauty of the women. + +At midday we rested near the ruins of a house, and two beautiful +boys came up and sat near us. Old Mourteen asked them why the house +was in ruins, and who had lived in it. + +'A rich farmer built it a while since,' they said, 'but after two +years he was driven away by the fairy host.' + +The boys came on with us some distance to the north to visit one of +the ancient beehive dwellings that is still in perfect preservation. +When we crawled in on our hands and knees, and stood up in the gloom +of the interior, old Mourteen took a freak of earthly humour and +began telling what he would have done if he could have come in there +when he was a young man and a young girl along with him. + +Then he sat down in the middle of the floor and began to recite old +Irish poetry, with an exquisite purity of intonation that brought +tears to my eyes though I understood but little of the meaning. + +On our way home he gave me the Catholic theory of the fairies. + +When Lucifer saw himself in the glass he thought himself equal with +God. Then the Lord threw him out of Heaven, and all the angels that +belonged to him. While He was 'chucking them out,' an archangel +asked Him to spare some of them, and those that were falling are in +the air still, and have power to wreck ships, and to work evil in +the world. + +From this he wandered off into tedious matters of theology, and +repeated many long prayers and sermons in Irish that he had heard +from the priests. + +A little further on we came to a slated house, and I asked him who +was living in it. + +'A kind of a schoolmistress,' he said; then his old face puckered +with a gleam of pagan malice. + +'Ah, master,' he said, 'wouldn't it be fine to be in there, and to +be kissing her?' + +A couple of miles from this village we turned aside to look at an +old ruined church of the Ceathair Aluinn (The Four Beautiful +Persons), and a holy well near it that is famous for cures of +blindness and epilepsy. + +As we sat near the well a very old man came up from a cottage near +the road, and told me how it had become famous. + +'A woman of Sligo had a son who was born blind, and one night she +dreamed that she saw an island with a blessed well in it that could +cure her son. She told her dream in the morning, and an old man said +it was of Aran she was after dreaming. + +'She brought her son down by the coast of Galway, and came out in a +curagh, and landed below where you see a bit of a cove. + +'She walked up then to the house of my father--God rest his +soul--and she told them what she was looking for. + +'My father said that there was a well like what she had dreamed of, +and that he would send a boy along with her to show her the way. + +"There's no need, at all," said she; "haven't I seen it all in my +dream?" + +'Then she went out with the child and walked up to this well, and +she kneeled down and began saying her prayers. Then she put her hand +out for the water, and put it on his eyes, and the moment it touched +him he called out: "O mother, look at the pretty flowers!"' + +After that Mourteen described the feats of poteen drinking and +fighting that he did in his youth, and went on to talk of Diarmid, +who was the strongest man after Samson, and of one of the beds of +Diarmid and Grainne, which is on the east of the island. He says +that Diarmid was killed by the druids, who put a burning shirt on +him,--a fragment of mythology that may connect Diarmid with the +legend of Hercules, if it is not due to the 'learning' in some +hedge-school master's ballad. + +Then we talked about Inishmaan. + +'You'll have an old man to talk with you over there,' he said, 'and +tell you stories of the fairies, but he's walking about with two +sticks under him this ten year. Did ever you hear what it is goes on +four legs when it is young, and on two legs after that, and on three +legs when it does be old?' + +I gave him the answer. + +'Ah, master,' he said, 'you're a cute one, and the blessing of God +be on you. Well, I'm on three legs this minute, but the old man +beyond is back on four; I don't know if I'm better than the way he +is; he's got his sight and I'm only an old dark man.' + +I am settled at last on Inishmaan in a small cottage with a +continual drone of Gaelic coming from the kitchen that opens into my +room. + +Early this morning the man of the house came over for me with a +four-oared curagh--that is, a curagh with four rowers and four oars +on either side, as each man uses two--and we set off a little before +noon. + +It gave me a moment of exquisite satisfaction to find myself moving +away from civilisation in this rude canvas canoe of a model that has +served primitive races since men first went to sea. + +We had to stop for a moment at a hulk that is anchored in the bay, +to make some arrangement for the fish-curing of the middle island, +and my crew called out as soon as we were within earshot that they +had a man with them who had been in France a month from this day. + +When we started again, a small sail was run up in the bow, and we +set off across the sound with a leaping oscillation that had no +resemblance to the heavy movement of a boat. + +The sail is only used as an aid, so the men continued to row after +it had gone up, and as they occupied the four cross-seats I lay on +the canvas at the stern and the frame of slender laths, which bent +and quivered as the waves passed under them. + +When we set off it was a brilliant morning of April, and the green, +glittering waves seemed to toss the canoe among themselves, yet as +we drew nearer this island a sudden thunderstorm broke out behind +the rocks we were approaching, and lent a momentary tumult to this +still vein of the Atlantic. + +We landed at a small pier, from which a rude track leads up to the +village between small fields and bare sheets of rock like those in +Aranmor. The youngest son of my boatman, a boy of about seventeen, +who is to be my teacher and guide, was waiting for me at the pier +and guided me to his house, while the men settled the curagh and +followed slowly with my baggage. + +My room is at one end of the cottage, with a boarded floor and +ceiling, and two windows opposite each other. Then there is the +kitchen with earth floor and open rafters, and two doors opposite +each other opening into the open air, but no windows. Beyond it +there are two small rooms of half the width of the kitchen with one +window apiece. + +The kitchen itself, where I will spend most of my time, is full of +beauty and distinction. The red dresses of the women who cluster +round the fire on their stools give a glow of almost Eastern +richness, and the walls have been toned by the turf-smoke to a soft +brown that blends with the grey earth-colour of the floor. Many +sorts of fishing-tackle, and the nets and oil-skins of the men, are +hung upon the walls or among the open rafters; and right overhead, +under the thatch, there is a whole cowskin from which they make +pampooties. + +Every article on these islands has an almost personal character, +which gives this simple life, where all art is unknown, something of +the artistic beauty of medieval life. The curaghs and spinning-wheels, +the tiny wooden barrels that are still much used in the place of +earthenware, the home-made cradles, churns, and baskets, are all +full of individuality, and being made from materials that are common +here, yet to some extent peculiar to the island, they seem to exist +as a natural link between the people and the world that is about them. + +The simplicity and unity of the dress increases in another way the +local air of beauty. The women wear red petticoats and jackets of +the island wool stained with madder, to which they usually add a +plaid shawl twisted round their chests and tied at their back. When +it rains they throw another petticoat over their heads with the +waistband round their faces, or, if they are young, they use a heavy +shawl like those worn in Galway. Occasionally other wraps are worn, +and during the thunderstorm I arrived in I saw several girls with +men's waistcoats buttoned round their bodies. Their skirts do not +come much below the knee, and show their powerful legs in the heavy +indigo stockings with which they are all provided. + +The men wear three colours: the natural wool, indigo, and a grey +flannel that is woven of alternate threads of indigo and the natural +wool. In Aranmor many of the younger men have adopted the usual +fisherman's jersey, but I have only seen one on this island. + +As flannel is cheap--the women spin the yarn from the wool of their +own sheep, and it is then woven by a weaver in Kilronan for +fourpence a yard--the men seem to wear an indefinite number of +waistcoats and woollen drawers one over the other. They are usually +surprised at the lightness of my own dress, and one old man I spoke +to for a minute on the pier, when I came ashore, asked me if I was +not cold with 'my little clothes.' + +As I sat in the kitchen to dry the spray from my coat, several men +who had seen me walking up came in to me to talk to me, usually +murmuring on the threshold, 'The blessing of God on this place,' or +some similar words. + +The courtesy of the old woman of the house is singularly attractive, +and though I could not understand much of what she said--she has no +English--I could see with how much grace she motioned each visitor +to a chair, or stool, according to his age, and said a few words to +him till he drifted into our English conversation. + +For the moment my own arrival is the chief subject of interest, and +the men who come in are eager to talk to me. + +Some of them express themselves more correctly than the ordinary +peasant, others use the Gaelic idioms continually and substitute +'he' or 'she' for 'it,' as the neuter pronoun is not found in modern +Irish. + +A few of the men have a curiously full vocabulary, others know only +the commonest words in English, and are driven to ingenious devices +to express their meaning. Of all the subjects we can talk of war +seems their favourite, and the conflict between America and Spain is +causing a great deal of excitement. Nearly all the families have +relations who have had to cross the Atlantic, and all eat of the +flour and bacon that is brought from the United States, so they have +a vague fear that 'if anything happened to America,' their own +island would cease to be habitable. + +Foreign languages are another favourite topic, and as these men are +bilingual they have a fair notion of what it means to speak and +think in many different idioms. Most of the strangers they see on +the islands are philological students, and the people have been led +to conclude that linguistic studies, particularly Gaelic studies, +are the chief occupation of the outside world. + +'I have seen Frenchmen, and Danes, and Germans,' said one man, 'and +there does be a power a Irish books along with them, and they +reading them better than ourselves. Believe me there are few rich +men now in the world who are not studying the Gaelic.' + +They sometimes ask me the French for simple phrases, and when they +have listened to the intonation for a moment, most of them are able +to reproduce it with admirable precision. + +When I was going out this morning to walk round the island with +Michael, the boy who is teaching me Irish, I met an old man making +his way down to the cottage. He was dressed in miserable black +clothes which seemed to have come from the mainland, and was so bent +with rheumatism that, at a little distance, he looked more like a +spider than a human being. + +Michael told me it was Pat Dirane, the story-teller old Mourteen had +spoken of on the other island. I wished to turn back, as he appeared +to be on his way to visit me, but Michael would not hear of it. + +'He will be sitting by the fire when we come in,' he said; 'let you +not be afraid, there will be time enough to be talking to him by and +by.' + +He was right. As I came down into the kitchen some hours later old +Pat was still in the chimney-corner, blinking with the turf smoke. + +He spoke English with remarkable aptness and fluency, due, I +believe, to the months he spent in the English provinces working at +the harvest when he was a young man. + +After a few formal compliments he told me how he had been crippled +by an attack of the 'old hin' (i.e. the influenza), and had been +complaining ever since in addition to his rheumatism. + +While the old woman was cooking my dinner he asked me if I liked +stories, and offered to tell one in English, though he added, it +would be much better if I could follow the Gaelic. Then he began:-- + +There were two farmers in County Clare. One had a son, and the +other, a fine rich man, had a daughter. + +The young man was wishing to marry the girl, and his father told him +to try and get her if he thought well, though a power of gold would +be wanting to get the like of her. + +'I will try,' said the young man. + +He put all his gold into a bag. Then he went over to the other farm, +and threw in the gold in front of him. + +'Is that all gold?' said the father of the girl. + +'All gold,' said O'Conor (the young man's name was O'Conor). + +'It will not weigh down my daughter,' said the father. + +'We'll see that,' said O'Conor. + +Then they put them in the scales, the daughter in one side and the +gold in the other. The girl went down against the ground, so O'Conor +took his bag and went out on the road. + +As he was going along he came to where there was a little man, and +he standing with his back against the wall. + +'Where are you going with the bag?' said the little man. 'Going +home,' said O'Conor. + +'Is it gold you might be wanting?' said the man. 'It is, surely,' +said O'Conor. + +'I'll give you what you are wanting,' said the man, 'and we can +bargain in this way--you'll pay me back in a year the gold I give +you, or you'll pay me with five pounds cut off your own flesh.' + +That bargain was made between them. The man gave a bag of gold to +O'Conor, and he went back with it, and was married to the young +woman. + +They were rich people, and he built her a grand castle on the cliffs +of Clare, with a window that looked out straight over the wild +ocean. + +One day when he went up with his wife to look out over the wild +ocean, he saw a ship coming in on the rocks, and no sails on her at +all. She was wrecked on the rocks, and it was tea that was in her, +and fine silk. + +O'Conor and his wife went down to look at the wreck, and when the +lady O'Conor saw the silk she said she wished a dress of it. + +They got the silk from the sailors, and when the Captain came up to +get the money for it, O'Conor asked him to come again and take his +dinner with them. They had a grand dinner, and they drank after it, +and the Captain was tipsy. While they were still drinking, a letter +came to O'Conor, and it was in the letter that a friend of his was +dead, and that he would have to go away on a long journey. As he was +getting ready the Captain came to him. + +'Are you fond of your wife?' said the Captain. + +'I am fond of her,' said O'Conor. + +'Will you make me a bet of twenty guineas no man comes near her +while you'll be away on the journey?' said the Captain. + +'I will bet it,' said O'Conor; and he went away. + +There was an old hag who sold small things on the road near the +castle, and the lady O'Conor allowed her to sleep up in her room in +a big box. The Captain went down on the road to the old hag. + +'For how much will you let me sleep one night in your box?' said +the Captain. + +'For no money at all would I do such a thing,' said the hag. + +'For ten guineas?' said the Captain. + +'Not for ten guineas,' said the hag. + +'For twelve guineas?' said the Captain. + +'Not for twelve guineas,' said the hag. + +'For fifteen guineas?' said the Captain. + +'For fifteen I will do it,' said the hag. + +Then she took him up and hid him in the box. When night came the +lady O'Conor walked up into her room, and the Captain watched her +through a hole that was in the box. He saw her take off her two +rings and put them on a kind of a board that was over her head like +a chimney-piece, and take off her clothes, except her shift, and go +up into her bed. + +As soon as she was asleep the Captain came out of his box, and he +had some means of making a light, for he lit the candle. He went +over to the bed where she was sleeping without disturbing her at +all, or doing any bad thing, and he took the two rings off the +board, and blew out the light, and went down again into the box. + +He paused for a moment, and a deep sigh of relief rose from the men +and women who had crowded in while the story was going on, till the +kitchen was filled with people. + +As the Captain was coming out of his box the girls, who had appeared +to know no English, stopped their spinning and held their breath +with expectation. + +The old man went on-- + +When O'Conor came back the Captain met him, and told him that he had +been a night in his wife's room, and gave him the two rings. O'Conor +gave him the twenty guineas of the bet. Then he went up into the +castle, and he took his wife up to look out of the window over the +wild ocean. While she was looking he pushed her from behind, and she +fell down over the cliff into the sea. + +An old woman was on the shore, and she saw her falling. She went +down then to the surf and pulled her out all wet and in great +disorder, and she took the wet clothes off her, and put on some old +rags belonging to herself. + +When O'Conor had pushed his wife from the window he went away into +the land. + +After a while the lady O'Conor went out searching for him, and when +she had gone here and there a long time in the country, she heard +that he was reaping in a field with sixty men. + +She came to the field and she wanted to go in, but the gate-man +would not open the gate for her. Then the owner came by, and she +told him her story. He brought her in, and her husband was there, +reaping, but he never gave any sign of knowing her. She showed him +to the owner, and he made the man come out and go with his wife. + +Then the lady O'Conor took him out on the road where there were +horses, and they rode away. + +When they came to the place where O'Conor had met the little man, he +was there on the road before them. + +'Have you my gold on you?' said the man. + +'I have not,' said O'Conor. + +'Then you'll pay me the flesh off your body,' said the man. They +went into a house, and a knife was brought, and a clean white cloth +was put on the table, and O'Conor was put upon the cloth. + +Then the little man was going to strike the lancet into him, when +says lady O'Conor-- + +'Have you bargained for five pounds of flesh?' + +'For five pounds of flesh,' said the man. + +'Have you bargained for any drop of his blood?' said lady O'Conor. + +'For no blood,' said the man. + +'Cut out the flesh,' said lady O'Conor, 'but if you spill one drop +of his blood I'll put that through you.' And she put a pistol to his +head. + +The little man went away and they saw no more of him. + +When they got home to their castle they made a great supper, and +they invited the Captain and the old hag, and the old woman that had +pulled the lady O'Conor out of the sea. + +After they had eaten well the lady O'Conor began, and she said they +would all tell their stories. Then she told how she had been saved +from the sea, and how she had found her husband. + +Then the old woman told her story; the way she had found the lady +O'Conor wet, and in great disorder, and had brought her in and put +on her some old rags of her own. + +The lady O'Conor asked the Captain for his story; but he said they +would get no story from him. Then she took her pistol out of her +pocket, and she put it on the edge of the table, and she said that +any one that would not tell his story would get a bullet into him. + +Then the Captain told the way he had got into the box, and come over +to her bed without touching her at all, and had taken away the +rings. + +Then the lady O'Conor took the pistol and shot the hag through the +body, and they threw her over the cliff into the sea. + +That is my story. + +It gave me a strange feeling of wonder to hear this illiterate +native of a wet rock in the Atlantic telling a story that is so full +of European associations. + +The incident of the faithful wife takes us beyond Cymbeline to the +sunshine on the Arno, and the gay company who went out from Florence +to tell narratives of love. It takes us again to the low vineyards +of Wurzburg on the Main, where the same tale was told in the middle +ages, of the 'Two Merchants and the Faithful Wife of Ruprecht von +Wurzburg.' + +The other portion, dealing with the pound of flesh, has a still +wider distribution, reaching from Persia and Egypt to the Gesta +Rornanorum, and the Pecorone of Ser Giovanni, a Florentine notary. + +The present union of the two tales has already been found among the +Gaels, and there is a somewhat similar version in Campbell's Popular +Tales of the Western Highlands. + +Michael walks so fast when I am out with him that I cannot pick my +steps, and the sharp-edged fossils which abound in the limestone +have cut my shoes to pieces. + +The family held a consultation on them last night, and in the end it +was decided to make me a pair of pampooties, which I have been +wearing to-day among the rocks. + +They consist simply of a piece of raw cowskin, with the hair +outside, laced over the toe and round the heel with two ends of +fishing-line that work round and are tied above the instep. + +In the evening, when they are taken off, they are placed in a basin +of water, as the rough hide cuts the foot and stocking if it is +allowed to harden. For the same reason the people often step into +the surf during the day, so that their feet are continually moist. + +At first I threw my weight upon my heels, as one does naturally in a +boot, and was a good deal bruised, but after a few hours I learned +the natural walk of man, and could follow my guide in any portion of +the island. + +In one district below the cliffs, towards the north, one goes for +nearly a mile jumping from one rock to another without a single +ordinary step; and here I realized that toes have a natural use, for +I found myself jumping towards any tiny crevice in the rock before +me, and clinging with an eager grip in which all the muscles of my +feet ached from their exertion. + +The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these +people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general +simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of +physical perfection. Their way of life has never been acted on by +anything much more artificial than the nests and burrows of the +creatures that live round them, and they seem, in a certain sense, +to approach more nearly to the finer types of our aristocracies--who +are bred artificially to a natural ideal--than to the labourer or +citizen, as the wild horse resembles the thoroughbred rather than +the hack or cart-horse. Tribes of the same natural development are, +perhaps, frequent in half-civilized countries, but here a touch of +the refinement of old societies is blended, with singular effect, +among the qualities of the wild animal. + +While I am walking with Michael some one often comes to me to ask +the time of day. Few of the people, however, are sufficiently used +to modern time to understand in more than a vague way the convention +of the hours, and when I tell them what o'clock it is by my watch +they are not satisfied, and ask how long is left them before the +twilight. + +The general knowledge of time on the island depends, curiously +enough, on the direction of the wind. Nearly all the cottages are +built, like this one, with two doors opposite each other, the more +sheltered of which lies open all day to give light to the interior. +If the wind is northerly the south door is opened, and the shadow of +the door-post moving across the kitchen floor indicates the hour; as +soon, however, as the wind changes to the south the other door is +opened, and the people, who never think of putting up a primitive +dial, are at a loss. + +This system of doorways has another curious result. It usually +happens that all the doors on one side of the village pathway are +lying open with women sitting about on the thresholds, while on the +other side the doors are shut and there is no sign of life. The +moment the wind changes everything is reversed, and sometimes when I +come back to the village after an hour's walk there seems to have +been a general flight from one side of the way to the other. + +In my own cottage the change of the doors alters the whole tone of +the kitchen, turning it from a brilliantly-lighted room looking out +on a yard and laneway to a sombre cell with a superb view of the +sea. + +When the wind is from the north the old woman manages my meals with +fair regularity; but on the other days she often makes my tea at +three o'clock instead of six. If I refuse it she puts it down to +simmer for three hours in the turf, and then brings it in at six +o'clock full of anxiety to know if it is warm enough. + +The old man is suggesting that I should send him a clock when I go +away. He'd like to have something from me in the house, he says, the +way they wouldn't forget me, and wouldn't a clock be as handy as +another thing, and they'd be thinking of me whenever they'd look on +its face. + +The general ignorance of any precise hours in the day makes it +impossible for the people to have regular meals. + +They seem to eat together in the evening, and sometimes in the +morning, a little after dawn, before they scatter for their work, +but during the day they simply drink a cup of tea and eat a piece of +bread, or some potatoes, whenever they are hungry. + +For men who live in the open air they eat strangely little. Often +when Michael has been out weeding potatoes for eight or nine hours +without food, he comes in and eats a few slices of home-made bread, +and then he is ready to go out with me and wander for hours about +the island. + +They use no animal food except a little bacon and salt fish. The old +woman says she would be very ill if she ate fresh meat. + +Some years ago, before tea, sugar, and flour had come into general +use, salt fish was much more the staple article of diet than at +present, and, I am told, skin diseases were very common, though they +are now rare on the islands. + +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. + +One of the largest Duns, or pagan forts, on the islands, is within a +stone's throw of my cottage, and I often stroll up there after a +dinner of eggs or salt pork, to smoke drowsily on the stones. The +neighbours know my habit, and not infrequently some one wanders up +to ask what news there is in the last paper I have received, or to +make inquiries about the American war. If no one comes I prop my +book open with stones touched by the Fir-bolgs, and sleep for hours +in the delicious warmth of the sun. The last few days I have almost +lived on the round walls, for, by some miscalculation, our turf has +come to an end, and the fires are kept up with dried cow-dung--a +common fuel on the island--the smoke from which filters through into +my room and lies in blue layers above my table and bed. + +Fortunately the weather is fine, and I can spend my days in the +sunshine. When I look round from the top of these walls I can see +the sea on nearly every side, stretching away to distant ranges of +mountains on the north and south. Underneath me to the east there is +the one inhabited district of the island, where I can see red +figures moving about the cottages, sending up an occasional fragment +of conversation or of old island melodies. + +The baby is teething, and has been crying for several days. Since +his mother went to the fair they have been feeding him with cow's +milk, often slightly sour, and giving him, I think, more than he +requires. + +This morning, however, he seemed so unwell they sent out to look for +a foster-mother in the village, and before long a young woman, who +lives a little way to the east, came in and restored him to his +natural food. + +A few hours later, when I came into the kitchen to talk to old Pat, +another woman performed the same kindly office, this time a person +with a curiously whimsical expression. + +Pat told me a story of an unfaithful wife, which I will give further +down, and then broke into a moral dispute with the visitor, which +caused immense delight to some young men who had come down to listen +to the story. Unfortunately it was carried on so rapidly in Gaelic +that I lost most of the points. + +This old man talks usually in a mournful tone about his ill-health, +and his death, which he feels to be approaching, yet he has +occasional touches of humor that remind me of old Mourteen on the +north island. To-day a grotesque twopenny doll was lying on the +floor near the old woman. He picked it up and examined it as if +comparing it with her. Then he held it up: 'Is it you is after +bringing that thing into the world,' he said, 'woman of the house?' + +Here is the story:-- + +One day I was travelling on foot from Galway to Dublin, and the +darkness came on me and I ten miles from the town I was wanting to +pass the night in. Then a hard rain began to fall and I was tired +walking, so when I saw a sort of a house with no roof on it up +against the road, I got in the way the walls would give me shelter. + +As I was looking round I saw a light in some trees two perches off, +and thinking any sort of a house would be better than where I was, I +got over a wall and went up to the house to look in at the window. + +I saw a dead man laid on a table, and candles lighted, and a woman +watching him. I was frightened when I saw him, but it was raining +hard, and I said to myself, if he was dead he couldn't hurt me. Then +I knocked on the door and the woman came and opened it. + +'Good evening, ma'am,' says I. + +'Good evening kindly, stranger,' says she, 'Come in out of the +rain.' Then she took me in and told me her husband was after dying +on her, and she was watching him that night. + +'But it's thirsty you'll be, stranger,' says she, 'Come into the +parlour.' Then she took me into the parlour--and it was a fine clean +house--and she put a cup, with a saucer under it, on the table +before me with fine sugar and bread. + +When I'd had a cup of tea I went back into the kitchen where the +dead man was lying, and she gave me a fine new pipe off the table +with a drop of spirits. + +'Stranger,' says she, 'would you be afeard to be alone with himself?' + +'Not a bit in the world, ma'am,' says I; 'he that's dead can do no +hurt,' Then she said she wanted to go over and tell the neighbours +the way her husband was after dying on her, and she went out and +locked the door behind her. + +I smoked one pipe, and I leaned out and took another off the table. +I was smoking it with my hand on the back of my chair--the way you +are yourself this minute, God bless you--and I looking on the dead +man, when he opened his eyes as wide as myself and looked at me. + +'Don't be afraid, stranger,' said the dead man; 'I'm not dead at all +in the world. Come here and help me up and I'll tell you all about +it.' + +Well, I went up and took the sheet off of him, and I saw that he had +a fine clean shirt on his body, and fine flannel drawers. + +He sat up then, and says he-- + +'I've got a bad wife, stranger, and I let on to be dead the way I'd +catch her goings on.' + +Then he got two fine sticks he had to keep down his wife, and he put +them at each side of his body, and he laid himself out again as if +he was dead. + +In half an hour his wife came back and a young man along with her. +Well, she gave him his tea, and she told him he was tired, and he +would do right to go and lie down in the bedroom. + +The young man went in and the woman sat down to watch by the dead +man. A while after she got up and 'Stranger,' says she, 'I'm going +in to get the candle out of the room; I'm thinking the young man +will be asleep by this time.' She went into the bedroom, but the +divil a bit of her came back. + +Then the dead man got up, and he took one stick, and he gave the +other to myself. We went in and saw them lying together with her +head on his arm. + +The dead man hit him a blow with the stick so that the blood out of +him leapt up and hit the gallery. + +That is my story. + +In stories of this kind he always speaks in the first person, with +minute details to show that he was actually present at the scenes +that are described. + +At the beginning of this story he gave me a long account of what had +made him be on his way to Dublin on that occasion, and told me about +all the rich people he was going to see in the finest streets of the +city. + +A week of sweeping fogs has passed over and given me a strange sense +of exile and desolation. I walk round the island nearly every day, +yet I can see nothing anywhere but a mass of wet rock, a strip of +surf, and then a tumult of waves. + +The slaty limestone has grown black with the water that is dripping +on it, and wherever I turn there is the same grey obsession twining +and wreathing itself among the narrow fields, and the same wail from +the wind that shrieks and whistles in the loose rubble of the walls. + +At first the people do not give much attention to the wilderness +that is round them, but after a few days their voices sink in the +kitchen, and their endless talk of pigs and cattle falls to the +whisper of men who are telling stories in a haunted house. + +The rain continues; but this evening a number of young men were in +the kitchen mending nets, and the bottle of poteen was drawn from +its hiding-place. + +One cannot think of these people drinking wine on the summit of this +crumbling precipice, but their grey poteen, which brings a shock of +joy to the blood, seems predestined to keep sanity in men who live +forgotten in these worlds of mist. + +I sat in the kitchen part of the evening to feel the gaiety that was +rising, and when I came into my own room after dark, one of the sons +came in every time the bottle made its round, to pour me out my +share. + +It has cleared, and the sun is shining with a luminous warmth that +makes the whole island glisten with the splendor of a gem, and fills +the sea and sky with a radiance of blue light. + +I have come out to lie on the rocks where I have the black edge of +the north island in front of me, Galway Bay, too blue almost to look +at, on my right, the Atlantic on my left, a perpendicular cliff +under my ankles, and over me innumerable gulls that chase each other +in a white cirrus of wings. + +A nest of hooded crows is somewhere near me, and one of the old +birds is trying to drive me away by letting itself fall like a stone +every few moments, from about forty yards above me to within reach +of my hand. + +Gannets are passing up and down above the sound, swooping at times +after a mackerel, and further off I can see the whole fleet of +hookers coming out from Kilronan for a night's fishing in the deep +water to the west. + +As I lie here hour after hour, I seem to enter into the wild +pastimes of the cliff, and to become a companion of the cormorants +and crows. + +Many of the birds display themselves before me with the vanity of +barbarians, performing in strange evolutions as long as I am in +sight, and returning to their ledge of rock when I am gone. Some are +wonderfully expert, and cut graceful figures for an inconceivable +time without a flap of their wings, growing so absorbed in their own +dexterity that they often collide with one another in their flight, +an incident always followed by a wild outburst of abuse. Their +language is easier than Gaelic, and I seem to understand the greater +part of their cries, though I am not able to answer. There is one +plaintive note which they take up in the middle of their usual +babble with extraordinary effect, and pass on from one to another +along the cliff with a sort of an inarticulate wail, as if they +remembered for an instant the horror of the mist. + +On the low sheets of rock to the east I can see a number of red and +grey figures hurrying about their work. The continual passing in +this island between the misery of last night and the splendor of +to-day, seems to create an affinity between the moods of these +people and the moods of varying rapture and dismay that are frequent +in artists, and in certain forms of alienation. Yet it is only in +the intonation of a few sentences or some old fragment of melody +that I catch the real spirit of the island, for in general the men +sit together and talk with endless iteration of the tides and fish, +and of the price of kelp in Connemara. + +After Mass this morning an old woman was buried. She lived in the +cottage next mine, and more than once before noon I heard a faint +echo of-the keen. I did not go to the wake for fear my presence +might jar upon the mourners, but all last evening I could hear the +strokes of a hammer in the yard, where, in the middle of a little +crowd of idlers, the next of kin laboured slowly at the coffin. +To-day, before the hour for the funeral, poteen was served to a +number of men who stood about upon the road, and a portion was +brought to me in my room. Then the coffin was carried out sewn +loosely in sailcloth, and held near the ground by three cross-poles +lashed upon the top. As we moved down to the low eastern portion of +the island, nearly all the men, and all the oldest women, wearing +petticoats over their heads, came out and joined in the procession. + +While the grave was being opened the women sat down among the flat +tombstones, bordered with a pale fringe of early bracken, and began +the wild keen, or crying for the dead. Each old woman, as she took +her turn in the leading recitative, seemed possessed for the moment +with a profound ecstasy of grief, swaying to and fro, and bending +her forehead to the stone before her, while she called out to the +dead with a perpetually recurring chant of sobs. + +All round the graveyard other wrinkled women, looking out from under +the deep red petticoats that cloaked them, rocked themselves with +the same rhythm, and intoned the inarticulate chant that is +sustained by all as an accompaniment. + +The morning had been beautifully fine, but as they lowered the +coffin into the grave, thunder rumbled overhead and hailstones +hissed among the bracken. + +In Inishmaan one is forced to believe in a sympathy between man and +nature, and at this moment when the thunder sounded a death-peal of +extraordinary grandeur above the voices of the women, I could see +the faces near me stiff and drawn with emotion. + +When the coffin was in the grave, and the thunder had rolled away +across the hills of Clare, the keen broke out again more +passionately than before. + +This grief of the keen is no personal complaint for the death of one +woman over eighty years, but seems to contain the whole passionate +rage that lurks somewhere in every native of the island. In this cry +of pain the inner consciousness of the people seems to lay itself +bare for an instant, and to reveal the mood of beings who feel their +isolation in the face of a universe that wars on them with winds and +seas. They are usually silent, but in the presence of death all +outward show of indifference or patience is forgotten, and they +shriek with pitiable despair before the horror of the fate to which +they are all doomed. + +Before they covered the coffin an old man kneeled down by the grave +and repeated a simple prayer for the dead. + +There was an irony in these words of atonement and Catholic belief +spoken by voices that were still hoarse with the cries of pagan +desperation. + +A little beyond the grave I saw a line of old women who had recited +in the keen sitting in the shadow of a wall beside the roofless +shell of the church. They were still sobbing and shaken with grief, +yet they were beginning to talk again of the daily trifles that veil +from them the terror of the world. + +When we had all come out of the graveyard, and two men had rebuilt +the hole in the wall through which the coffin had been carried in, +we walked back to the village, talking of anything, and joking of +anything, as if merely coming from the boat-slip, or the pier. + +One man told me of the poteen drinking that takes place at some +funerals. + +'A while since,' he said, 'there were two men fell down in the +graveyard while the drink was on them. The sea was rough that day, +the way no one could go to bring the doctor, and one of the men +never woke again, and found death that night.' + +The other day the men of this house made a new field. There was a +slight bank of earth under the wall of the yard, and another in the +corner of the cabbage garden. The old man and his eldest son dug out +the clay, with the care of men working in a gold-mine, and Michael +packed it in panniers--there are no wheeled vehicles on this +island--for transport to a flat rock in a sheltered corner of their +holding, where it was mixed with sand and seaweed and spread out in +a layer upon the stone. + +Most of the potato-growing of the island is carried on in fields of +this sort--for which the people pay a considerable rent--and if the +season is at all dry, their hope of a fair crop is nearly always +disappointed. + +It is now nine days since rain has fallen, and the people are filled +with anxiety, although the sun has not yet been hot enough to do +harm. + +The drought is also causing a scarcity of water. There are a few +springs on this side of the island, but they come only from a little +distance, and in hot weather are not to be relied on. The supply for +this house is carried up in a water-barrel by one of the women. If +it is drawn off at once it is not very nauseous, but if it has lain, +as it often does, for some hours in the barrel, the smell, colour, +and taste are unendurable. The water for washing is also coming +short, and as I walk round the edges of the sea, I often come on a +girl with her petticoats tucked up round her, standing in a pool +left by the tide and washing her flannels among the sea-anemones and +crabs. Their red bodices and white tapering legs make them as +beautiful as tropical sea-birds, as they stand in a frame of +seaweeds against the brink of the Atlantic. Michael, however, is a +little uneasy when they are in sight, and I cannot pause to watch +them. This habit of using the sea water for washing causes a good +deal of rheumatism on the island, for the salt lies in the clothes +and keeps them continually moist. + +The people have taken advantage of this dry moment to begin the +burning of the kelp, and all the islands are lying in a volume of +grey smoke. There will not be a very large quantity this year, as +the people are discouraged by the uncertainty of the market, and do +not care to undertake the task of manufacture without a certainty of +profit. + +The work needed to form a ton of kelp is considerable. The seaweed +is collected from the rocks after the storms of autumn and winter, +dried on fine days, and then made up into a rick, where it is left +till the beginning of June. + +It is then burnt in low kilns on the shore, an affair that takes +from twelve to twenty-four hours of continuous hard work, though I +understand the people here do not manage well and spoil a portion of +what they produce by burning it more than is required. + +The kiln holds about two tons of molten kelp, and when full it is +loosely covered with stones, and left to cool. In a few days the +substance is as hard as the limestone, and has to be broken with +crowbars before it can be placed in curaghs for transport to +Kilronan, where it is tested to determine the amount of iodine +contained, and paid for accordingly. In former years good kelp would +bring seven pounds a ton, now four pounds are not always reached. + +In Aran even manufacture is of interest. The low flame-edged kiln, +sending out dense clouds of creamy smoke, with a band of red and +grey clothed workers moving in the haze, and usually some +petticoated boys and women who come down with drink, forms a scene +with as much variety and colour as any picture from the East. + +The men feel in a certain sense the distinction of their island, and +show me their work with pride. One of them said to me yesterday, +'I'm thinking you never saw the like of this work before this day?' + +'That is true,' I answered, 'I never did.' + +'Bedad, then,' he said, 'isn't it a great wonder that you've seen +France and Germany, and the Holy Father, and never seen a man making +kelp till you come to Inishmaan.' + +All the horses from this island are put out on grass among the hills +of Connemara from June to the end of September, as there is no +grazing here during the summer. + +Their shipping and transport is even more difficult than that of the +homed cattle. Most of them are wild Connemara ponies, and their +great strength and timidity make them hard to handle on the narrow +pier, while in the hooker itself it is not easy to get them safely +on their feet in the small space that is available. They are dealt +with in the same way as for the bullocks I have spoken of already, +but the excitement becomes much more intense, and the storm of +Gaelic that rises the moment a horse is shoved from the pier, till +it is safely in its place, is indescribable. Twenty boys and men +howl and scream with agitation, cursing and exhorting, without +knowing, most of the time, what they are saying. + +Apart, however, from this primitive babble, the dexterity and power +of the men are displayed to more advantage than in anything I have +seen hitherto. I noticed particularly the owner of a hooker from the +north island that was loaded this morning. He seemed able to hold up +a horse by his single weight when it was swinging from the masthead, +and preserved a humorous calm even in moments of the wildest +excitement. Sometimes a large mare would come down sideways on the +backs of the other horses, and kick there till the hold seemed to be +filled with a mass of struggling centaurs, for the men themselves +often leap down to try and save the foals from injury. The backs of +the horses put in first are often a good deal cut by the shoes of +the others that arrive on top of them, but otherwise they do not +seem to be much the worse, and as they are not on their way to a +fair, it is not of much consequence in what condition they come to +land. + +There is only one bit and saddle in the island, which are used by +the priest, who rides from the chapel to the pier when he has held +the service on Sunday. + +The islanders themselves ride with a simple halter and a stick, yet +sometimes travel, at least in the larger island, at a desperate +gallop. As the horses usually have panniers, the rider sits sideways +over the withers, and if the panniers are empty they go at full +speed in this position without anything to hold to. + +More than once in Aranmor I met a party going out west with empty +panniers from Kilronan. Long before they came in sight I could hear +a clatter of hoofs, and then a whirl of horses would come round a +corner at full gallop with their heads out, utterly indifferent to +the slender halter that is their only check. They generally travel +in single file with a few yards between them, and as there is no +traffic there is little fear of an accident. + +Sometimes a woman and a man ride together, but in this case the man +sits in the usual position, and the woman sits sideways behind him, +and holds him round the waist. + +Old Pat Dirane continues to come up every day to talk to me, and at +times I turn the conversation to his experiences of the fairies. + +He has seen a good many of them, he says, in different parts of the +island, especially in the sandy districts north of the slip. They +are about a yard high with caps like the 'peelers' pulled down over +their faces. On one occasion he saw them playing ball in the evening +just above the slip, and he says I must avoid that place in the +morning or after nightfall for fear they might do me mischief. + +He has seen two women who were 'away' with them, one a young married +woman, the other a girl. The woman was standing by a wall, at a spot +he described to me with great care, looking out towards the north. + +Another night he heard a voice crying out in Irish, 'mhathair ta me +marbh' ('O mother, I'm killed'), and in the morning there was blood +on the wall of his house, and a child in a house not far off was +dead. + +Yesterday he took me aside, and said he would tell me a secret he +had never yet told to any person in the world. + +'Take a sharp needle,' he said, 'and stick it in under the collar of +your coat, and not one of them will be able to have power on you.' + +Iron is a common talisman with barbarians, but in this case the idea +of exquisite sharpness was probably present also, and, perhaps, some +feeling for the sanctity of the instrument of toil, a folk-belief +that is common in Brittany. + +The fairies are more numerous in Mayo than in any other county, +though they are fond of certain districts in Galway, where the +following story is said to have taken place. + +'A farmer was in great distress as his crops had failed, and his cow +had died on him. One night he told his wife to make him a fine new +sack for flour before the next morning; and when it was finished he +started off with it before the dawn. + +'At that time there was a gentleman who had been taken by the +fairies, and made an officer among them, and it was often people +would see him and him riding on a white horse at dawn and in the +evening. + +'The poor man went down to the place where they used to see the +officer, and when he came by on his horse, he asked the loan of two +hundred and a half of flour, for he was in great want. + +'The officer called the fairies out of a hole in the rocks where +they stored their wheat, and told them to give the poor man what he +was asking. Then he told him to come back and pay him in a year, and +rode away. + +'When the poor man got home he wrote down the day on a piece of +paper, and that day year he came back and paid the officer.' + +When he had ended his story the old man told me that the fairies +have a tenth of all the produce of the country, and make stores of +it in the rocks. + +It is a Holy Day, and I have come up to sit on the Dun while the +people are at Mass. + +A strange tranquility has come over the island this morning, as +happens sometimes on Sunday, filling the two circles of sea and sky +with the quiet of a church. + +The one landscape that is here lends itself with singular power to +this suggestion of grey luminous cloud. There is no wind, and no +definite light. Aranmor seems to sleep upon a mirror, and the hills +of Connemara look so near that I am troubled by the width of the bay +that lies before them, touched this morning with individual +expression one sees sometimes in a lake. + +On these rocks, where there is no growth of vegetable or animal +life, all the seasons are the same, and this June day is so full of +autumn that I listen unconsciously for the rustle of dead leaves. + +The first group of men are coming out of the chapel, followed by a +crowd of women, who divide at the gate and troop off in different +directions, while the men linger on the road to gossip. + +The silence is broken; I can hear far off, as if over water, a faint +murmur of Gaelic. + +In the afternoon the sun came out and I was rowed over for a visit +to Kilronan. + +As my men were bringing round the curagh to take me off a headland +near the pier, they struck a sunken rock, and came ashore shipping a +quantity of water, They plugged the hole with a piece of sacking +torn from a bag of potatoes they were taking over for the priest, +and we set off with nothing but a piece of torn canvas between us +and the Atlantic. + +Every few hundred yards one of the rowers had to stop and bail, but +the hole did not increase. + +When we were about half way across the sound we met a curagh coming +towards us with its sails set. After some shouting in Gaelic, I +learned that they had a packet of letters and tobacco for myself. We +sidled up as near as was possible with the roll, and my goods were +thrown to me wet with spray. + +After my weeks in Inishmaan, Kilronan seemed an imposing centre of +activity. The half-civilized fishermen of the larger island are +inclined to despise the simplicity of the life here, and some of +them who were standing about when I landed asked me how at all I +passed my time with no decent fishing to be looking at. + +I turned in for a moment to talk to the old couple in the hotel, and +then moved on to pay some other visits in the village. + +Later in the evening I walked out along the northern road, where I +met many of the natives of the outlying villages, who had come down +to Kilronan for the Holy Day, and were now wandering home in +scattered groups. + +The women and girls, when they had no men with them, usually tried +to make fun with me. + +'Is it tired you are, stranger?' said one girl. I was walking very +slowly, to pass the time before my return to the east. + +'Bedad, it is not, little girl,' I answered in Gaelic, 'It is lonely +I am.' + +'Here is my little sister, stranger, who will give you her arm.' + +And so it went. Quiet as these women are on ordinary occasions, when +two or three of them are gathered together in their holiday +petti-coats and shawls, they are as wild and capricious as the women +who live in towns. + +About seven o'clock I got back to Kilronan, and beat up my crew from +the public-houses near the bay. With their usual carelessness they +had not seen to the leak in the curagh, nor to an oar that was +losing the brace that holds it to the toll-pin, and we moved off +across the sound at an absurd pace with a deepening pool at our +feet. + +A superb evening light was lying over the island, which made me +rejoice at our delay. Looking back there was a golden haze behind +the sharp edges of the rock, and a long wake from the sun, which was +making jewels of the bubbling left by the oars. + +The men had had their share of porter and were unusually voluble, +pointing out things to me that I had already seen, and stopping now +and then to make me notice the oily smell of mackerel that was +rising from the waves. + +They told me that an evicting party is coming to the island tomorrow +morning, and gave me a long account of what they make and spend in a +year and of their trouble with the rent. + +'The rent is hard enough for a poor man,' said one of them, 'but +this time we didn't pay, and they're after serving processes on +every one of us. A man will have to pay his rent now, and a power of +money with it for the process, and I'm thinking the agent will have +money enough out of them processes to pay for his servant-girl and +his man all the year.' + +I asked afterwards who the island belonged to. + +'Bedad,' they said, 'we've always heard it belonged to Miss--and she +is dead.' + +When the sun passed like a lozenge of gold flame into the sea the +cold became intense. Then the men began to talk among themselves, +and losing the thread, I lay half in a dream looking at the pale +oily sea about us, and the low cliffs of the island sloping up past +the village with its wreath of smoke to the outline of Dun Conor. + +Old Pat was in the house when I arrived, and he told a long story +after supper:-- + +There was once a widow living among the woods, and her only son +living along with her. He went out every morning through the trees +to get sticks, and one day as he was lying on the ground he saw a +swarm of flies flying over what the cow leaves behind her. He took +up his sickle and hit one blow at them, and hit that hard he left no +single one of them living. + +That evening he said to his mother that it was time he was going out +into the world to seek his fortune, for he was able to destroy a +whole swarm of flies at one blow, and he asked her to make him three +cakes the way he might take them with him in the morning. + +He started the next day a while after the dawn, with his three cakes +in his wallet, and he ate one of them near ten o'clock. + +He got hungry again by midday and ate the second, and when night was +coming on him he ate the third. After that he met a man on the road +who asked him where he was going. + +'I'm looking for some place where I can work for my living,' said +the young man. + +'Come with me,' said the other man, 'and sleep to-night in the barn, +and I'll give you work to-morrow to see what you're able for.' + +The next morning the farmer brought him out and showed him his cows +and told him to take them out to graze on the hills, and to keep +good watch that no one should come near them to milk them. The young +man drove out the cows into the fields, and when the heat of the day +came on he lay down on his back and looked up into the sky. A while +after he saw a black spot in the north-west, and it grew larger and +nearer till he saw a great giant coming towards him. + +He got up on his feet and he caught the giant round the legs with +his two arms, and he drove him down into the hard ground above his +ankles, the way he was not able to free himself. Then the giant told +him to do him no hurt, and gave him his magic rod, and told him to +strike on the rock, and he would find his beautiful black horse, and +his sword, and his fine suit. + +The young man struck the rock and it opened before him, and he found +the beautiful black horse, and the giant's sword and the suit lying +before him. He took out the sword alone, and he struck one blow with +it and struck off the giant's head. Then he put back the sword into +the rock, and went out again to his cattle, till it was time to +drive them home to the farmer. + +When they came to milk the cows they found a power of milk in them, +and the farmer asked the young man if he had seen nothing out on the +hills, for the other cow-boys had been bringing home the cows with +no drop of milk in them. And the young man said he had seen nothing. + +The next day he went out again with the cows. He lay down on his +back in the heat of the day, and after a while he saw a black spot +in the north-west, and it grew larger and nearer, till he saw it was +a great giant coming to attack him. + +'You killed my brother,' said the giant; 'come here, till I make a +garter of your body.' + +The young man went to him and caught him by the legs and drove him +down into the hard ground up to his ankles. + +Then he hit the rod against the rock, and took out the sword and +struck off the giant's head. + +That evening the farmer found twice as much milk in the cows as the +evening before, and he asked the young man if he had seen anything. +The young man said that he had seen nothing. + +The third day the third giant came to him and said, 'You have killed +my two brothers; come here, till I make a garter of your body.' + +And he did with this giant as he had done with the other two, and +that evening there was so much milk in the cows it was dropping out +of their udders on the pathway. + +The next day the farmer called him and told him he might leave the +cows in the stalls that day, for there was a great curiosity to be +seen, namely, a beautiful king's daughter that was to be eaten by a +great fish, if there was no one in it that could save her. But the +young man said such a sight was all one to him, and he went out with +the cows on to the hills. When he came to the rocks he hit them with +his rod and brought out the suit and put it on him, and brought out +the sword and strapped it on his side, like an officer, and he got +on the black horse and rode faster than the wind till he came to +where the beautiful king's daughter was sitting on the shore in a +golden chair, waiting for the great fish. + +When the great fish came in on the sea, bigger than a whale, with +two wings on the back of it, the young man went down into the surf +and struck at it with his sword and cut off one of its wings. All +the sea turned red with the bleeding out of it, till it swam away +and left the young man on the shore. + +Then he turned his horse and rode faster than the wind till he came +to the rocks, and he took the suit off him and put it back in the +rocks, with the giant's sword and the black horse, and drove the +cows down to the farm. + +The man came out before him and said he had missed the greatest +wonder ever was, and that a noble person was after coming down with +a fine suit on him and cutting off one of the wings from the great +fish. + +'And there'll be the same necessity on her for two mornings more,' +said the farmer, 'and you'd do right to come and look on it.' + +But the young man said he would not come. + +The next morning he went out with his cows, and he took the sword +and the suit and the black horse out of the rock, and he rode faster +than the wind till he came where the king's daughter was sitting on +the shore. When the people saw him coming there was great wonder on +them to know if it was the same man they had seen the day before. +The king's daughter called out to him to come and kneel before her, +and when he kneeled down she took her scissors and cut off a lock of +hair from the back of his head and hid it in her clothes. + +Then the great worm came in from the sea, and he went down into the +surf and cut the other wing off from it. All the sea turned red with +the bleeding out of it, till it swam away and left them. + +That evening the farmer came out before him and told him of the +great wonder he had missed, and asked him would he go the next day +and look on it. The young man said he would not go. + +The third day he came again on the black horse to where the king's +daughter was sitting on a golden chair waiting for the great worm. +When it came in from the sea the young man went down before it, and +every time it opened its mouth to eat him, he struck into its mouth, +till his sword went out through its neck, and it rolled back and +died. + +Then he rode off faster than the wind, and he put the suit and the +sword and the black horse into the rock, and drove home the cows. + +The farmer was there before him and he told him that there was to be +a great marriage feast held for three days, and on the third day the +king's daughter would be married to the man that killed the great +worm, if they were able to find him. + +A great feast was held, and men of great strength came and said it +was themselves were after killing the great worm. + +But on the third day the young man put on the suit, and strapped the +sword to his side like an officer, and got on the black horse and +rode faster than the wind, till he came to the palace. + +The king's daughter saw him, and she brought him in and made him +kneel down before her. Then she looked at the back of his head and +saw the place where she had cut off the lock with her own hand. She +led him in to the king, and they were married, and the young man was +given all the estate. + +That is my story. + +Two recent attempts to carry out evictions on the island came to +nothing, for each time a sudden storm rose, by, it is said, the +power of a native witch, when the steamer was approaching, and made +it impossible to land. + +This morning, however, broke beneath a clear sky of June, and when I +came into the open air the sea and rocks were shining with wonderful +brilliancy. Groups of men, dressed in their holiday clothes, were +standing about, talking with anger and fear, yet showing a lurking +satisfaction at the thought of the dramatic pageant that was to +break the silence of the seas. + +About half-past nine the steamer came in sight, on the narrow line +of sea-horizon that is seen in the centre of the bay, and +immediately a last effort was made to hide the cows and sheep of the +families that were most in debt. + +Till this year no one on the island would consent to act as bailiff, +so that it was impossible to identify the cattle of the defaulters. +Now however, a man of the name of Patrick has sold his honour, and +the effort of concealment is practically futile. + +This falling away from the ancient loyalty of the island has caused +intense indignation, and early yesterday morning, while I was +dreaming on the Dun, this letter was nailed on the doorpost of the +chapel:-- + +'Patrick, the devil, a revolver is waiting for you. If you are +missed with the first shot, there will be five more that will hit +you. + +'Any man that will talk with you, or work with you, or drink a pint +of porter in your shop, will be done with the same way as yourself.' + +As the steamer drew near I moved down with the men to watch the +arrival, though no one went further than about a mile from the +shore. + +Two curaghs from Kilronan with a man who was to give help in +identifying the cottages, the doctor, and the relieving officer, +were drifting with the tide, unwilling to come to land without the +support of the larger party. When the anchor had been thrown it gave +me a strange throb of pain to see the boats being lowered, and the +sunshine gleaming on the rifles and helmets of the constabulary who +crowded into them. + +Once on shore the men were formed in close marching order, a word +was given, and the heavy rhythm of their boots came up over the +rocks. We were collected in two straggling bands on either side of +the roadway, and a few moments later the body of magnificent armed +men passed close to us, followed by a low rabble, who had been +brought to act as drivers for the sheriff. + +After my weeks spent among primitive men this glimpse of the newer +types of humanity was not reassuring. Yet these mechanical police, +with the commonplace agents and sheriffs, and the rabble they had +hired, represented aptly enough the civilisation for which the homes +of the island were to be desecrated. + +A stop was made at one of the first cottages in the village, and the +day's work began. Here, however, and at the next cottage, a +compromise was made, as some relatives came up at the last moment +and lent the money that was needed to gain a respite. + +In another case a girl was ill in the house, so the doctor +interposed, and the people were allowed to remain after a merely +formal eviction. About midday, however, a house was reached where +there was no pretext for mercy, and no money could be procured. At a +sign from the sheriff the work of carrying out the beds and utensils +was begun in the middle of a crowd of natives who looked on in +absolute silence, broken only by the wild imprecations of the woman +of the house. She belonged to one of the most primitive families on +the island, and she shook with uncontrollable fury as she saw the +strange armed men who spoke a language she could not understand +driving her from the hearth she had brooded on for thirty years. For +these people the outrage to the hearth is the supreme catastrophe. +They live here in a world of grey, where there are wild rains and +mists every week in the year, and their warm chimney corners, filled +with children and young girls, grow into the consciousness of each +family in a way it is not easy to understand in more civilised +places. + +The outrage to a tomb in China probably gives no greater shock to +the Chinese than the outrage to a hearth in Inishmaan gives to the +people. + +When the few trifles had been carried out, and the door blocked with +stones, the old woman sat down by the threshold and covered her head +with her shawl. + +Five or six other women who lived close by sat down in a circle +round her, with mute sympathy. Then the crowd moved on with the +police to another cottage where the same scene was to take place, +and left the group of desolate women sitting by the hovel. + +There were still no clouds in the sky and the heat was intense. The +police when not in motion lay sweating and gasping under the walls +with their tunics unbuttoned. They were not attractive, and I kept +comparing them with the islandmen, who walked up and down as cool +and fresh-looking as the sea-gulls. + +When the last eviction had been carried out a division was made: +half the party went off with the bailiff to search the inner plain +of the island for the cattle that had been hidden in the morning, +the other half remained on the village road to guard some pigs that +had already been taken possession of. + +After a while two of these pigs escaped from the drivers and began a +wild race up and down the narrow road. The people shrieked and +howled to increase their terror, and at last some of them became so +excited that the police thought it time to interfere. They drew up +in double line opposite the mouth of a blind laneway where the +animals had been shut up. A moment later the shrieking began again +in the west and the two pigs came in sight, rushing down the middle +of the road with the drivers behind them. + +They reached the line of the police. There was a slight scuffle, and +then the pigs continued their mad rush to the east, leaving three +policemen lying in the dust. + +The satisfaction of the people was immense. They shrieked and hugged +each other with delight, and it is likely that they will hand down +these animals for generations in the tradition of the island. + +Two hours later the other party returned, driving three lean cows +before them, and a start was made for the slip. At the public-house +the policemen were given a drink while the dense crowd that was +following waited in the lane. The island bull happened to be in a +field close by, and he became wildly excited at the sight of the +cows and of the strangely-dressed men. Two young islanders sidled up +to me in a moment or two as I was resting on a wall, and one of them +whispered in my ear--'Do you think they could take fines of us if we +let out the bull on them?' + +In face of the crowd of women and children, I could only say it was +probable, and they slunk off. + +At the slip there was a good deal of bargaining, which ended in all +the cattle being given back to their owners. It was plainly of no +use to take them away, as they were worth nothing. + +When the last policeman had embarked, an old woman came forward from +the crowd and, mounting on a rock near the slip, began a fierce +rhapsody in Gaelic, pointing at the bailiff and waving her withered +arms with extraordinary rage. + +'This man is my own son,' she said; 'it is I that ought to know him. +He is the first ruffian in the whole big world.' + +Then she gave an account of his life, coloured with a vindictive +fury I cannot reproduce. As she went on the excitement became so +intense I thought the man would be stoned before he could get back +to his cottage. + +On these islands the women live only for their children, and it is +hard to estimate the power of the impulse that made this old woman +stand out and curse her son. + +In the fury of her speech I seem to look again into the strangely +reticent temperament of the islanders, and to feel the passionate +spirit that expresses itself, at odd moments only, with magnificent +words and gestures. + +Old Pat has told me a story of the goose that lays the golden eggs, +which he calls the Phoenix:-- + +A poor widow had three sons and a daughter. One day when her sons +were out looking for sticks in the wood they saw a fine speckled +bird flying in the trees. The next day they saw it again, and the +eldest son told his brothers to go and get sticks by themselves, for +he was going after the bird. + +He went after it, and brought it in with him when he came home in +the evening. They put it in an old hencoop, and they gave it some of +the meal they had for themselves;--I don't know if it ate the meal, +but they divided what they had themselves; they could do no more. + +That night it laid a fine spotted egg in the basket. The next night +it laid another. + +At that time its name was on the papers and many heard of the bird +that laid the golden eggs, for the eggs were of gold, and there's no +lie in it. + +When the boys went down to the shop the next day to buy a stone of +meal, the shopman asked if he could buy the bird of them. Well, it +was arranged in this way. The shopman would marry the boys' +sister--a poor simple girl without a stitch of good clothes--and get +the bird with her. + +Some time after that one of the boys sold an egg of the bird to a +gentleman that was in the country. The gentleman asked him if he had +the bird still. He said that the man who had married his sister was +after getting it. + +'Well,' said the gentleman, 'the man who eats the heart of that bird +will find a purse of gold beneath him every morning, and the man who +eats its liver will be king of Ireland.' + +The boy went out--he was a simple poor fellow--and told the shopman. + +Then the shopman brought in the bird and killed it, and he ate the +heart himself and he gave the liver to his wife. + +When the boy saw that, there was great anger on him, and he went +back and told the gentleman. + +'Do what I'm telling you,' said the gentleman. 'Go down now and tell +the shopman and his wife to come up here to play a game of cards +with me, for it's lonesome I am this evening.' + +When the boy was gone he mixed a vomit and poured the lot of it into +a few naggins of whiskey, and he put a strong cloth on the table +under the cards. + +The man came up with his wife and they began to play. + +The shopman won the first game and the gentleman made them drink a +sup of the whiskey. + +They played again and the shopman won the second game. Then the +gentleman made him drink a sup more of the whiskey. + +As they were playing the third game the shopman and his wife got +sick on the cloth, and the boy picked it up and carried it into the +yard, for the gentleman had let him know what he was to do. Then he +found the heart of the bird and he ate it, and the next morning when +he turned in his bed there was a purse of gold under him. + +That is my story. + +When the steamer is expected I rarely fail to visit the boat-slip, +as the men usually collect when she is in the offing, and lie +arguing among their curaghs till she has made her visit to the south +island, and is seen coming towards us. + +This morning I had a long talk with an old man who was rejoicing +over the improvement he had seen here during the last ten or fifteen +years. + +Till recently there was no communication with the mainland except by +hookers, which were usually slow, and could only make the voyage in +tolerably fine weather, so that if an islander went to a fair it was +often three weeks before he could return. Now, however, the steamer +comes here twice in the week, and the voyage is made in three or +four hours. + +The pier on this island is also a novelty, and is much thought of, +as it enables the hookers that still carry turf and cattle to +discharge and take their cargoes directly from the shore. The water +round it, however, is only deep enough for a hooker when the tide is +nearly full, and will never float the steamer, so passengers must +still come to land in curaghs. The boat-slip at the corner next the +south island is extremely useful in calm weather, but it is exposed +to a heavy roll from the south, and is so narrow that the curaghs +run some danger of missing it in the tumult of the surf. + +In bad weather four men will often stand for nearly an hour at the +top of the slip with a curagh in their hands, watching a point of +rock towards the south where they can see the strength of the waves +that are coming in. + +The instant a break is seen they swoop down to the surf, launch +their curagh, and pull out to sea with incredible speed. Coming to +land Is attended with the same difficulty, and, if their moment is +badly chosen, they are likely to be washed sideways and swamped +among the rocks. + +This continual danger, which can only be escaped by extraordinary +personal dexterity, has had considerable influence on the local +character, as the waves have made it impossible for clumsy, +foolhardy, or timid men to live on these islands. + +When the steamer is within a mile of the slip, the curaghs are put +out and range themselves--there are usually from four to a dozen--in +two lines at some distance from the shore. + +The moment she comes in among them there is a short but desperate +struggle for good places at her side. The men are lolling on their +oars talking with the dreamy tone which comes with the rocking of +the waves. The steamer lies to, and in an instant their faces become +distorted with passion, while the oars bend and quiver with the +strain. For one minute they seem utterly indifferent to their own +safety and that of their friends and brothers. Then the sequence is +decided, and they begin to talk again with the dreamy tone that is +habitual to them, while they make fast and clamber up into the +steamer. + +While the curaghs are out I am left with a few women and very old +men who cannot row. One of these old men, whom I often talk with, +has some fame as a bone-setter, and is said to have done remarkable +cures, both here and on the mainland. Stories are told of how he has +been taken off by the quality in their carriages through the hills +of Connemara, to treat their sons and daughters, and come home with +his pockets full of money. + +Another old man, the oldest on the island, is fond of telling me +anecdotes--not folktales--of things that have happened here in his +lifetime. + +He often tells me about a Connaught man who killed his father with +the blow of a spade when he was in passion, and then fled to this +island and threw himself on the mercy of some of the natives with +whom he was said to be related. They hid him in a hole--which the +old man has shown me--and kept him safe for weeks, though the police +came and searched for him, and he could hear their boots grinding on +the stones over his head. In spite of a reward which was offered, +the island was incorruptible, and after much trouble the man was +safely shipped to America. + +This impulse to protect the criminal is universal in the west. It +seems partly due to the association between justice and the hated +English jurisdiction, but more directly to the primitive feeling of +these people, who are never criminals yet always capable of crime, +that a man will not do wrong unless he is under the influence of a +passion which is as irresponsible as a storm on the sea. If a man +has killed his father, and is already sick and broken with remorse, +they can see no reason why he should be dragged away and killed by +the law. + +Such a man, they say, will be quiet all the rest of his life, and if +you suggest that punishment is needed as an example, they ask, +'Would any one kill his father if he was able to help it?' + +Some time ago, before the introduction of police, all the people of +the islands were as innocent as the people here remain to this day. +I have heard that at that time the ruling proprietor and magistrate +of the north island used to give any man who had done wrong a letter +to a jailer in Galway, and send him off by himself to serve a term +of imprisonment. + +As there was no steamer, the ill-doer was given a passage in some +chance hooker to the nearest point on the mainland. Then he walked +for many miles along a desolate shore till he reached the town. When +his time had been put through he crawled back along the same route, +feeble and emaciated, and had often to wait many weeks before he +could regain the island. Such at least is the story. + +It seems absurd to apply the same laws to these people and to the +criminal classes of a city. The most intelligent man on Inishmaan +has often spoken to me of his contempt of the law, and of the +increase of crime the police have brought to Aranmor. On this +island, he says, if men have a little difference, or a little fight, +their friends take care it does not go too far, and in a little time +it is forgotten. In Kilronan there is a band of men paid to make out +cases for themselves; the moment a blow is struck they come down and +arrest the man who gave it. The other man he quarreled with has to +give evidence against him; whole families come down to the court and +swear against each other till they become bitter enemies. If there +is a conviction the man who is convicted never forgives. He waits +his time, and before the year is out there is a cross summons, which +the other man in turn never forgives. The feud continues to grow, +till a dispute about the colour of a man's hair may end in a murder, +after a year's forcing by the law. The mere fact that it is +impossible to get reliable evidence in the island--not because the +people are dishonest, but because they think the claim of kinship +more sacred than the claims of abstract truth--turns the whole +system of sworn evidence into a demoralising farce, and it is easy +to believe that law dealings on this false basis must lead to every +sort of injustice. + +While I am discussing these questions with the old men the curaghs +begin to come in with cargoes of salt, and flour, and porter. + +To-day a stir was made by the return of a native who had spent five +years in New York. He came on shore with half a dozen people who had +been shopping on the mainland, and walked up and down on the slip in +his neat suit, looking strangely foreign to his birthplace, while +his old mother of eighty-five ran about on the slippery seaweed, +half crazy with delight, telling every one the news. + +When the curaghs were in their places the men crowded round him to +bid him welcome. He shook hands with them readily enough, but with +no smile of recognition. + +He is said to be dying. + +Yesterday--a Sunday--three young men rowed me over to Inisheer, the +south island of the group. + +The stern of the curagh was occupied, so I was put in the bow with +my head on a level with the gunnel. A considerable sea was running +in the sound, and when we came out from the shelter of this island, +the curagh rolled and vaulted in a way not easy to describe. + +At one moment, as we went down into the furrow, green waves curled +and arched themselves above me; then in an instant I was flung up +into the air and could look down on the heads of the rowers, as if +we were sitting on a ladder, or out across a forest of white crests +to the black cliff of Inishmaan. + +The men seemed excited and uneasy, and I thought for a moment that +we were likely to be swamped. In a little while, however I realised +the capacity of the curagh to raise its head among the waves, and +the motion became strangely exhilarating. Even, I thought, if we +were dropped into the blue chasm of the waves, this death, with the +fresh sea saltness in one's teeth, would be better than most deaths +one is likely to meet. + +When we reached the other island, it was raining heavily, so that we +could not see anything of the antiquities or people. + +For the greater part of the afternoon we sat on the tops of empty +barrels in the public-house, talking of the destiny of Gaelic. We +were admitted as travellers, and the shutters of the shop were +closed behind us, letting in only a glimmer of grey light, and the +tumult of the storm. Towards evening it cleared a little and we came +home in a calmer sea, but with a dead head-wind that gave the rowers +all they could do to make the passage. + +On calm days I often go out fishing with Michael. When we reach the +space above the slip where the curaghs are propped, bottom upwards, +on the limestone, he lifts the prow of the one we are going to +embark in, and I slip underneath and set the centre of the foremost +seat upon my neck. Then he crawls under the stern and stands up with +the last seat upon his shoulders. We start for the sea. The long +prow bends before me so that I see nothing but a few yards of +shingle at my feet. A quivering pain runs from the top of my spine +to the sharp stones that seem to pass through my pampooties, and +grate upon my ankles. We stagger and groan beneath the weight; but +at last our feet reach the slip, and we run down with a half-trot +like the pace of bare-footed children. + +A yard from the sea we stop and lower the curagh to the right. It +must be brought down gently--a difficult task for our strained and +aching muscles--and sometimes as the gunnel reaches the slip I lose +my balance and roll in among the seats. + +Yesterday we went out in the curagh that had been damaged on the day +of my visit to Kilronan, and as we were putting in the oars the +freshly-tarred patch stuck to the slip which was heated with the +sunshine. We carried up water in the bailer--the 'supeen,' a shallow +wooden vessel like a soup-plate--and with infinite pains we got free +and rode away. In a few minutes, however, I found the water spouting +up at my feet. + +The patch had been misplaced, and this time we had no sacking. +Michael borrowed my pocket scissors, and with admirable rapidity cut +a square of flannel from the tail of his shirt and squeezed it into +the hole, making it fast with a splint which he hacked from one of +the oars. + +During our excitement the tide had carried us to the brink of the +rocks, and I admired again the dexterity with which he got his oars +into the water and turned us out as we were mounting on a wave that +would have hurled us to destruction. + +With the injury to our curagh we did not go far from the shore. +After a while I took a long spell at the oars, and gained a certain +dexterity, though they are not easy to manage. The handles overlap +by about six inches--in order to gain leverage, as the curagh is +narrow--and at first it was almost impossible to avoid striking the +upper oar against one's knuckles. The oars are rough and square, +except at the ends, so one cannot do so with impunity. Again, a +curagh with two light people in it floats on the water like a +nut-shell, and the slightest inequality in the stroke throws the +prow round at least a right angle from its course. In the first +half-hour I found myself more than once moving towards the point I +had come from, greatly to Michael's satisfaction. + +This morning we were out again near the pier on the north side of +the island. As we paddled slowly with the tide, trolling for +pollock, several curaghs, weighed to the gunnel with kelp, passed us +on their way to Kilronan. + +An old woman, rolled in red petticoats, was sitting on a ledge of +rock that runs into the sea at the point where the curaghs were +passing from the south, hailing them in quavering Gaelic, and asking +for a passage to Kilronan. + +The first one that came round without a cargo turned in from some +distance and took her away. + +The morning had none of the supernatural beauty that comes over the +island so often in rainy weather, so we basked in the vague +enjoyment of the sunshine, looking down at the wild luxuriance of +the vegetation beneath the sea, which contrasts strangely with the +nakedness above it. + +Some dreams I have had in this cottage seem to give strength to the +opinion that there is a psychic memory attached to certain +neighbourhoods. + +Last night, after walking in a dream among buildings with strangely +intense light on them, I heard a faint rhythm of music beginning far +away on some stringed instrument. + +It came closer to me, gradually increasing in quickness and volume +with an irresistibly definite progression. When it was quite near +the sound began to move in my nerves and blood, and to urge me to +dance with them. + +I knew that if I yielded I would be carried away to some moment of +terrible agony, so I struggled to remain quiet, holding my knees +together with my hands. + +The music increased continually, sounding like the strings of harps, +tuned to a forgotten scale, and having a resonance as searching as +the strings of the cello. + +Then the luring excitement became more powerful than my will, and my +limbs moved in spite of me. + +In a moment I was swept away in a whirlwind of notes. My breath and +my thoughts and every impulse of my body, became a form of the +dance, till I could not distinguish between the instruments and the +rhythm and my own person or consciousness. + +For a while it seemed an excitement that was filled with joy, then +it grew into an ecstasy where all existence was lost in a vortex of +movement. I could not think there had ever been a life beyond the +whirling of the dance. + +Then with a shock the ecstasy turned to an agony and rage. I +Struggled to free myself, but seemed only to increase the passion of +the steps I moved to. When I shrieked I could only echo the notes of +the rhythm. + +At last with a moment of uncontrollable frenzy I broke back to +consciousness and awoke. + +I dragged myself trembling to the window of the cottage and looked +out. The moon was glittering across the bay, and there was no sound +anywhere on the island. + +I am leaving in two days, and old Pat Dirane has bidden me goodbye. +He met me in the village this morning and took me into 'his little +tint,' a miserable hovel where he spends the night. + +I sat for a long time on his threshold, while he leaned on a stool +behind me, near his bed, and told me the last story I shall have +from him--a rude anecdote not worth recording. Then he told me with +careful emphasis how he had wandered when he was a young man, and +lived in a fine college, teaching Irish to the young priests! + +They say on the island that he can tell as many lies as four men: +perhaps the stories he has learned have strengthened his +imagination. When I stood up in the doorway to give him God's +blessing, he leaned over on the straw that forms his bed, and shed +tears. Then he turned to me again, lifting up one trembling hand, +with the mitten worn to a hole on the palm, from the rubbing of his +crutch. + +'I'll not see you again,' he said, with tears trickling on his face, +'and you're a kindly man. When you come back next year I won't be in +it. I won't live beyond the winter. But listen now to what I'm +telling you; let you put insurance on me in the city of Dublin, and +it's five hundred pounds you'll get on my burial.' + +This evening, my last in the island, is also the evening of the +'Pattern'--a festival something like 'Pardons' of Brittany. + +I waited especially to see it, but a piper who was expected did not +come, and there was no amusement. A few friends and relations came +over from the other island and stood about the public-house in their +best clothes, but without music dancing was impossible. + +I believe on some occasions when the piper is present there is a +fine day of dancing and excitement, but the Galway piper is getting +old, and is not easily induced to undertake the voyage. + +Last night, St. John's Eve, the fires were lighted and boys ran +about with pieces of the burning turf, though I could not find out +if the idea of lighting the house fires from the bonfires is still +found on the island. + +I have come out of an hotel full of tourists and commercial +travelers, to stroll along the edge of Galway bay, and look out in +the direction of the islands. The sort of yearning I feel towards +those lonely rocks is indescribably acute. This town, that is +usually so full of wild human interest, seems in my present mood a +tawdry medley of all that is crudest in modern life. The nullity of +the rich and the squalor of the poor give me the same pang of +wondering disgust; yet the islands are fading already and I can +hardly realise that the smell of the seaweed and the drone of the +Atlantic are still moving round them. + +One of my island friends has written to me:-- + +DEAR JOHN SYNGE,--I am for a long time expecting a letter from you +and I think you are forgetting this island altogether. + +Mr.--died a long time ago on the big island and his boat was on +anchor in the harbour and the wind blew her to Black Head and broke +her up after his death. + +Tell me are you learning Irish since you went. We have a branch of +the Gaelic League here now and the people is going on well with the +Irish and reading. + +I will write the next letter in Irish to you. Tell me will you come +to see us next year and if you will you'll write a letter before +you. All your loving friends is well in health.--Mise do chara go +huan. + +Another boy I sent some baits to has written to me also, beginning +his letter in Irish and ending it in English:-- + +DEAR JOHN,--I got your letter four days ago, and there was pride and +joy on me because it was written in Irish, and a fine, good, +pleasant letter it was. The baits you sent are very good, but I lost +two of them and half my line. A big fish came and caught the bait, +and the line was bad and half of the line and the baits went away. +My sister has come back from America, but I'm thinking it won't be +long till she goes away again, for it is lonesome and poor she finds +the island now.--I am your friend. ... + +Write soon and let you write in Irish, if you don't I won't look on +it. + + + + +Part II + + +THE evening before I returned to the west I wrote to Michael--who +had left the islands to earn his living on the mainland--to tell him +that I would call at the house where he lodged the next morning, +which was a Sunday. + +A young girl with fine western features, and little English, came +out when I knocked at the door. She seemed to have heard all about +me, and was so filled with the importance of her message that she +could hardly speak it intelligibly. + +'She got your letter,' she said, confusing the pronouns, as is often +done in the west, 'she is gone to Mass, and she'll be in the square +after that. Let your honour go now and sit in the square, and Michael +will find you.' + +As I was returning up the main street I met Michael wandering down +to meet me, as he had got tired of waiting. + +He seemed to have grown a powerful man since I had seen him, and was +now dressed in the heavy brown flannels of the Connaught labourer. +After a little talk we turned back together and went out on the +sandhills above the town. Meeting him here a little beyond the +threshold of my hotel I was singularly struck with the refinement of +his nature, which has hardly been influenced by his new life, and +the townsmen and sailors he has met with. + +'I do often come outside the town on Sunday,' he said while we were +talking, 'for what is there to do in a town in the middle of all the +people when you are not at your work?' + +A little later another Irish-speaking labourer--a friend of +Michael's--joined us, and we lay for hours talking and arguing on +the grass. The day was unbearably sultry, and the sand and the sea +near us were crowded with half-naked women, but neither of the young +men seemed to be aware of their presence. Before we went back to the +town a man came out to ring a young horse on the sand close to where +we were lying, and then the interest of my companions was intense. + +Late in the evening I met Michael again, and we wandered round the +bay, which was still filled with bathing women, until it was quite +dark, I shall not see him again before my return from the islands, +as he is busy to-morrow, and on Tuesday I go out with the steamer. + +I returned to the middle island this morning, in the steamer to +Kilronan, and on here in a curagh that had gone over with salt fish. +As I came up from the slip the doorways in the village filled with +women and children, and several came down on the roadway to shake +hands and bid me a thousand welcomes. + +Old Pat Dirane is dead, and several of my friends have gone to +America; that is all the news they have to give me after an absence +of many months. + +When I arrived at the cottage I was welcomed by the old people, and +great excitement was made by some little presents I had bought +them--a pair of folding scissors for the old woman, a strop for her +husband, and some other trifles. + +Then the youngest son, Columb, who is still at home, went into the +inner room and brought out the alarm clock I sent them last year +when I went away. + +'I am very fond of this clock,' he said, patting it on the back; 'it +will ring for me any morning when I want to go out fishing. Bedad, +there are no two clocks in the island that would be equal to it.' + +I had some photographs to show them that I took here last year, and +while I was sitting on a little stool near the door of the kitchen, +showing them to the family, a beautiful young woman I had spoken to +a few times last year slipped in, and after a wonderfully simple and +cordial speech of welcome, she sat down on the floor beside me to +look on also. + +The complete absence of shyness or self-consciousness in most of +these people gives them a peculiar charm, and when this young and +beautiful woman leaned across my knees to look nearer at some +photograph that pleased her, I felt more than ever the strange +simplicity of the island life. + +Last year when I came here everything was new, and the people were a +little strange with me, but now I am familiar with them and their +way of life, so that their qualities strike me more forcibly than +before. + +When my photographs of this island had been examined with immense +delight, and every person in them had been identified--even those +who only showed a hand or a leg--I brought out some I had taken in +County Wicklow. Most of them were fragments, showing fairs in +Rathdrum or Aughrim, men cutting turf on the hills, or other scenes +of inland life, yet they gave the greatest delight to these people +who are wearied of the sea. + +This year I see a darker side of life in the islands. The sun seldom +shines, and day after day a cold south-western wind blows over the +cliffs, bringing up showers of hail and dense masses of cloud. + +The sons who are at home stay out fishing whenever it is tolerably +calm, from about three in the morning till after nightfall, yet they +earn little, as fish are not plentiful. + +The old man fishes also with a long rod and ground-bait, but as a +rule has even smaller success. + +When the weather breaks completely, fishing is abandoned, and they +both go down and dig potatoes in the rain. The women sometimes help +them, but their usual work is to look after the calves and do their +spinning in the house. + +There is a vague depression over the family this year, because of +the two sons who have gone away, Michael to the mainland, and +another son, who was working in Kilronan last year, to the United +States. + +A letter came yesterday from Michael to his mother. It was written +in English, as he is the only one of the family who can read or +write in Irish, and I heard it being slowly spelled out and +translated as I sat in my room. A little later the old woman brought +it in for me to read. + +He told her first about his work, and the wages he is getting. Then +he said that one night he had been walking in the town, and had +looked up among the streets, and thought to himself what a grand +night it would be on the Sandy Head of this island--not, he added, +that he was feeling lonely or sad. At the end he gave an account, +with the dramatic emphasis of the folk-tale, of how he had met me on +the Sunday morning, and, 'believe me,' he said, 'it was the fine +talk we had for two hours or three.' He told them also of a knife I +had given him that was so fine, no one on the island 'had ever seen +the like of her.' + +Another day a letter came from the son who is in America, to say +that he had had a slight accident to one of his arms, but was well +again, and that he was leaving New York and going a few hundred +miles up the country. + +All the evening afterwards the old woman sat on her stool at the +corner of the fire with her shawl over her head, keening piteously +to herself. America appeared far away, yet she seems to have felt +that, after all, it was only the other edge of the Atlantic, and now +when she hears them talking of railroads and inland cities where +there is no sea, things she cannot understand, it comes home to her +that her son is gone for ever. She often tells me how she used to +sit on the wall behind the house last year and watch the hooker he +worked in coming out of Kilronan and beating up the sound, and what +company it used to be to her the time they'd all be out. + +The maternal feeling is so powerful on these islands that it gives a +life of torment to the women. Their sons grow up to be banished as +soon as they are of age, or to live here in continual danger on the +sea; their daughters go away also, or are worn out in their youth +with bearing children that grow up to harass them in their own turn +a little later. + +There has been a storm for the last twenty-four hours, and I have +been wandering on the cliffs till my hair is stiff with salt. +Immense masses of spray were flying up from the base of the cliff, +and were caught at times by the wind and whirled away to fall at +some distance from the shore. When one of these happened to fall on +me, I had to crouch down for an instant, wrapped and blinded by a +white hail of foam. + +The waves were so enormous that when I saw one more than usually +large coming towards me, I turned instinctively to hide myself, as +one blinks when struck upon the eyes. + +After a few hours the mind grows bewildered with the endless change +and struggle of the sea, and an utter despondency replaces the first +moment of exhilaration. + +At the south-west corner of the island I came upon a number of +people gathering the seaweed that is now thick on the rocks. It was +raked from the surf by the men, and then carried up to the brow of +the cliff by a party of young girls. + +In addition to their ordinary clothing these girls wore a raw +sheepskin on their shoulders, to catch the oozing sea-water, and +they looked strangely wild and seal-like with the salt caked upon +their lips and wreaths of seaweed in their hair. + +For the rest of my walk I saw no living thing but one flock of +curlews, and a few pipits hiding among the stones. + +About the sunset the clouds broke and the storm turned to a +hurricane. Bars of purple cloud stretched across the sound where +immense waves were rolling from the west, wreathed with snowy +phantasies of spray. Then there was the bay full of green delirium, +and the Twelve Pins touched with mauve and scarlet in the east. + +The suggestion from this world of inarticulate power was immense, +and now at midnight, when the wind is abating, I am still trembling +and flushed with exultation. + +I have been walking through the wet lanes in my pampooties in spite +of the rain, and I have brought on a feverish cold. + +The wind is terrific. If anything serious should happen to me I +might die here and be nailed in my box, and shoved down into a wet +crevice in the graveyard before any one could know it on the +mainland. + +Two days ago a curagh passed from the south island--they can go out +when we are weather-bound because of a sheltered cove in their +island--it was thought in search of the Doctor. It became too rough +afterwards to make the return journey, and it was only this morning +we saw them repassing towards the south-east in a terrible sea. + +A four-oared curagh with two men in her besides the rowers-- +probably the Priest and the Doctor--went first, followed by the +three-oared curagh from the south island, which ran more danger. +Often when they go for the Doctor in weather like this, they bring +the Priest also, as they do not know if it will be possible to go +for him if he is needed later. + +As a rule there is little illness, and the women often manage their +confinements among themselves without any trained assistance. In +most cases all goes well, but at times a curagh is sent off in +desperate haste for the Priest and the Doctor when it is too late. + +The baby that spent some days here last year is now established in +the house; I suppose the old woman has adopted him to console +herself for the loss of her own sons. + +He is now a well-grown child, though not yet able to say more than a +few words of Gaelic. His favourite amusement is to stand behind the +door with a stick, waiting for any wandering pig or hen that may +chance to come in, and then to dash out and pursue them. There are +two young kittens in the kitchen also, which he ill-treats, without +meaning to do them harm. + +Whenever the old woman comes into my room with turf for the fire, he +walks in solemnly behind her with a sod under each arm, deposits +them on the back of the fire with great care, and then flies off +round the corner with his long petticoats trailing behind him. + +He has not yet received any official name on the island, as he has +not left the fireside, but in the house they usually speak of him as +'Michaeleen beug' (i.e. 'little small-Michael'). + +Now and then he is slapped, but for the most part the old woman +keeps him in order with stories of 'the long-toothed hag,' that +lives in the Dun and eats children who are not good. He spends half +his day eating cold potatoes and drinking very strong tea, yet seems +in perfect health. + +An Irish letter has come to me from Michael. I will translate it +literally. + +DEAR NOBLE PERSON,--I write this letter with joy and pride that you +found the way to the house of my father the day you were on the +steamship. I am thinking there will not be loneliness on you, for +there will be the fine beautiful Gaelic League and you will be +learning powerfully. + +I am thinking there is no one in life walking with you now but your +own self from morning till night, and great is the pity. + +What way are my mother and my three brothers and my sisters, and do +not forget white Michael, and the poor little child and the old grey +woman, and Rory. I am getting a forgetfulness on all my friends and +kindred.--I am your friend ... + +It is curious how he accuses himself of forgetfulness after asking +for all his family by name. I suppose the first home-sickness is +wearing away and he looks on his independent wellbeing as a treason +towards his kindred. + +One of his friends was in the kitchen when the letter was brought to +me, and, by the old man's wish, he read it out loud as soon as I had +finished it. When he came to the last sentence he hesitated for a +moment, and then omitted it altogether. + +This young man had come up to bring me a copy of the 'Love Songs of +Connaught,' which he possesses, and I persuaded him to read, or +rather chant me some of them. When he had read a couple I found that +the old woman knew many of them from her childhood, though her +version was often not the same as what was in the book. She was +rocking herself on a stool in the chimney corner beside a pot of +indigo, in which she was dyeing wool, and several times when the +young man finished a poem she took it up again and recited the +verses with exquisite musical intonation, putting a wistfulness and +passion into her voice that seemed to give it all the cadences that +are sought in the profoundest poetry. + +The lamp had burned low, and another terrible gale was howling and +shrieking over the island. It seemed like a dream that I should be +sitting here among these men and women listening to this rude and +beautiful poetry that is filled with the oldest passions of the +world. + +The horses have been coming back for the last few days from their +summer's grazing in Connemara. They are landed at the sandy beach +where the cattle were shipped last year, and I went down early this +morning to watch their arrival through the waves. The hooker was +anchored at some distance from the shore, but I could see a horse +standing at the gunnel surrounded by men shouting and flipping at it +with bits of rope. In a moment it jumped over into the sea, and some +men, who were waiting for it in a curagh, caught it by the halter +and towed it to within twenty yards of the surf. Then the curagh +turned back to the hooker, and the horse was left to make its own +way to the land. + +As I was standing about a man came up to me and asked after the +usual salutations:-- + +'Is there any war in the world at this time, noble person?' I told +him something of the excitement in the Transvaal, and then another +horse came near the waves and I passed on and left him. + +Afterwards I walked round the edge of the sea to the pier, where a +quantity of turf has recently been brought in. It is usually left +for some time stacked on the sandhills, and then carried up to the +cottages in panniers slung on donkeys or any horses that are on the +island. + +They have been busy with it the last few weeks, and the track from +the village to the pier has been filled with lines of +red-petticoated boys driving their donkeys before them, or cantering +down on their backs when the panniers are empty. + +In some ways these men and women seem strangely far away from me. +They have the same emotions that I have, and the animals have, yet I +cannot talk to them when there is much to say, more than to the dog +that whines beside me in a mountain fog. + +There is hardly an hour I am with them that I do not feel the shock +of some inconceivable idea, and then again the shock of some vague +emotion that is familiar to them and to me. On some days I feel this +island as a perfect home and resting place; on other days I feel +that I am a waif among the people. I can feel more with them than +they can feel with me, and while I wander among them, they like me +sometimes, and laugh at me sometimes, yet never know what I am +doing. + +In the evenings I sometimes meet with a girl who is not yet half +through her teens, yet seems in some ways more consciously developed +than any one else that I have met here. She has passed part of her +life on the mainland, and the disillusion she found in Galway has +coloured her imagination. + +As we sit on stools on either side of the fire I hear her voice +going backwards and forwards in the same sentence from the gaiety of +a child to the plaintive intonation of an old race that is worn with +sorrow. At one moment she is a simple peasant, at another she seems +to be looking out at the world with a sense of prehistoric +disillusion and to sum up in the expression of her grey-blue eyes +the whole external despondency of the clouds and sea. + +Our conversation is usually disjointed. One evening we talked of a +town on the mainland. + +'Ah, it's a queer place,' she said: 'I wouldn't choose to live in +it. It's a queer place, and indeed I don't know the place that +isn't.' + +Another evening we talked of the people who live on the island or +come to visit it. + +'Father is gone,' she said; 'he was a kind man but a queer man. +Priests is queer people, and I don't know who isn't.' + +Then after a long pause she told me with seriousness, as if speaking +of a thing that surprised herself, and should surprise me, that she +was very fond of the boys. + +In our talk, which is sometimes full of the innocent realism of +childhood, she is always pathetically eager to say the right thing +and be engaging. + +One evening I found her trying to light a fire in the little side +room of her cottage, where there is an ordinary fireplace. I went in +to help her and showed her how to hold up a paper before the mouth +of the chimney to make a draught, a method she had never seen. Then +I told her of men who live alone in Paris and make their own fires +that they may have no one to bother them. She was sitting in a heap +on the floor staring into the turf, and as I finished she looked up +with surprise. + +'They're like me so,' she said; 'would anyone have thought that!' + +Below the sympathy we feel there is still a chasm between us. + +'Musha,' she muttered as I was leaving her this evening, 'I think +it's to hell you'll be going by and by.' + +Occasionally I meet her also in the kitchen where young men go to +play cards after dark and a few girls slip in to share the +amusement. At such times her eyes shine in the light of the candles, +and her cheeks flush with the first tumult of youth, till she hardly +seems the same girl who sits every evening droning to herself over +the turf. + +A branch of the Gaelic League has been started here since my last +visit, and every Sunday afternoon three little girls walk through +the village ringing a shrill hand-bell, as a signal that the women's +meeting is to be held,--here it would be useless to fix an hour, as +the hours are not recognized. + +Soon afterwards bands of girls--of all ages from five to +twenty-five--begin to troop down to the schoolhouse in their reddest +Sunday petticoats. It is remarkable that these young women are +willing to spend their one afternoon of freedom in laborious studies +of orthography for no reason but a vague reverence for the Gaelic. +It is true that they owe this reverence, or most of it, to the +influence of some recent visitors, yet the fact that they feel such +an influence so keenly is itself of interest. + +In the older generation that did not come under the influence of the +recent language movement, I do not see any particular affection for +Gaelic. Whenever they are able, they speak English to their +children, to render them more capable of making their way in life. +Even the young men sometimes say to me-- + +'There's very hard English on you, and I wish to God I had the like +of it.' + +The women are the great conservative force in this matter of the +language. They learn a little English in school and from their +parents, but they rarely have occasion to speak with any one who is +not a native of the islands, so their knowledge of the foreign +tongue remains rudimentary. In my cottage I have never heard a word +of English from the women except when they were speaking to the pigs +or to the dogs, or when the girl was reading a letter in English. +Women, however, with a more assertive temperament, who have had, +apparently, the same opportunities, often attain a considerable +fluency, as is the case with one, a relative of the old woman of the +house, who often visits here. + +In the boys' school, where I sometimes look in, the children +surprise me by their knowledge of English, though they always speak +in Irish among themselves. The school itself is a comfortless +building in a terribly bleak position. In cold weather the children +arrive in the morning with a sod of turf tied up with their books, a +simple toll which keeps the fire well supplied, yet, I believe, a +more modern method is soon to be introduced. + +I am in the north island again, looking out with a singular +sensation to the cliffs across the sound. It is hard to believe that +those hovels I can just see in the south are filled with people +whose lives have the strange quality that is found in the oldest +poetry and legend. Compared with them the falling off that has come +with the increased prosperity of this island is full of +discouragement. The charm which the people over there share with the +birds and flowers has been replaced here by the anxiety of men who +are eager for gain. The eyes and expression are different, though +the faces are the same, and even the children here seem to have an +indefinable modern quality that is absent from the men of Inishmaan. + +My voyage from the middle island was wild. The morning was so +stormy, that in ordinary circumstances I would not have attempted +the passage, but as I had arranged to travel with a curagh that was +coming over for the Parish Priest--who is to hold stations on +Inishmaan--I did not like to draw back. + +I went out in the morning and walked up the cliffs as usual. Several +men I fell in with shook their heads when I told them I was going +away, and said they doubted if a curagh could cross the sound with +the sea that was in it. + +When I went back to the cottage I found the Curate had just come +across from the south island, and had had a worse passage than any +he had yet experienced. + +The tide was to turn at two o'clock, and after that it was thought +the sea would be calmer, as the wind and the waves would be running +from the same point. We sat about in the kitchen all the morning, +with men coming in every few minutes to give their opinion whether +the passage should be attempted, and at what points the sea was +likely to be at its worst. + +At last it was decided we should go, and I started for the pier in a +wild shower of rain with the wind howling in the walls. The +schoolmaster and a priest who was to have gone with me came out as I +was passing through the village and advised me not to make the +passage; but my crew had gone on towards the sea, and I thought it +better to go after them. The eldest son of the family was coming +with me, and I considered that the old man, who knew the waves +better than I did, would not send out his son if there was more than +reasonable danger. + +I found my crew waiting for me under a high wall below the village, +and we went on together. The island had never seemed so desolate. +Looking out over the black limestone through the driving rain to the +gulf of struggling waves, an indescribable feeling of dejection came +over me. + +The old man gave me his view of the use of fear. + +'A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned,' he said, +'for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't. But we do be afraid +of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again.' + +A little crowd of neighbours had collected lower down to see me off, +and as we crossed the sandhills we had to shout to each other to be +heard above the wind. + +The crew carried down the curagh and then stood under the lee of the +pier tying on their hats with strings and drawing on their oilskins. + +They tested the braces of the oars, and the oarpins, and everything +in the curagh with a care I had not seen them give to anything, then +my bag was lifted in, and we were ready. Besides the four men of the +crew a man was going with us who wanted a passage to this island. As +he was scrambling into the bow, an old man stood forward from the +crowd. + +'Don't take that man with you,' he said. 'Last week they were taking +him to Clare and the whole lot of them were near drownded. Another +day he went to Inisheer and they broke three ribs of the curagh, and +they coming back. There is not the like of him for ill-luck in the +three islands.' + +'The divil choke your old gob,' said the man, 'you will be talking.' + +We set off. It was a four-oared curagh, and I was given the last +seat so as to leave the stern for the man who was steering with an +oar, worked at right angles to the others by an extra thole-pin in +the stern gunnel. + +When we had gone about a hundred yards they ran up a bit of a sail +in the bow and the pace became extraordinarily rapid. + +The shower had passed over and the wind had fallen, but large, +magnificently brilliant waves were rolling down on us at right +angles to our course. + +Every instant the steersman whirled us round with a sudden stroke of +his oar, the prow reared up and then fell into the next furrow with +a crash, throwing up masses of spray. As it did so, the stern in its +turn was thrown up, and both the steersman, who let go his oar and +clung with both hands to the gunnel, and myself, were lifted high up +above the sea. + +The wave passed, we regained our course and rowed violently for a +few yards, then the same manoeuvre had to be repeated. As we worked +out into the sound we began to meet another class of waves, that +could be seen for some distance towering above the rest. + +When one of these came in sight, the first effort was to get beyond +its reach. The steersman began crying out in Gaelic, 'Siubhal, +siubhal' ('Run, run'), and sometimes, when the mass was gliding +towards us with horrible speed, his voice rose to a shriek. Then the +rowers themselves took up the cry, and the curagh seemed to leap and +quiver with the frantic terror of a beast till the wave passed +behind it or fell with a crash beside the stern. + +It was in this racing with the waves that our chief danger lay. If +the wave could be avoided, it was better to do so, but if it +overtook us while we were trying to escape, and caught us on the +broadside, our destruction was certain. I could see the steersman +quivering with the excitement of his task, for any error in his +judgment would have swamped us. + +We had one narrow escape. A wave appeared high above the rest, and +there was the usual moment of intense exertion. It was of no use, +and in an instant the wave seemed to be hurling itself upon us. With +a yell of rage the steersman struggled with his oar to bring our +prow to meet it. He had almost succeeded, when there was a crash and +rush of water round us. I felt as if I had been struck upon the back +with knotted ropes. White foam gurgled round my knees and eyes. The +curagh reared up, swaying and trembling for a moment, and then fell +safely into the furrow. + +This was our worst moment, though more than once, when several waves +came so closely together that we had no time to regain control of +the canoe between them, we had some dangerous work. Our lives +depended upon the skill and courage of the men, as the life of the +rider or swimmer is often in his own hands, and the excitement was +too great to allow time for fear. + +I enjoyed the passage. Down in this shallow trough of canvas that +bent and trembled with the motion of the men, I had a far more +intimate feeling of the glory and power of the waves than I have +ever known in a steamer. + +Old Mourteen is keeping me company again, and I am now able to +understand the greater part of his Irish. + +He took me out to-day to show me the remains of some cloghauns, or +beehive dwellings, that are left near the central ridge of the +island. After I had looked at them we lay down in the corner of a +little field, filled with the autumn sunshine and the odour of +withering flowers, while he told me a long folk-tale which took more +than an hour to narrate. + +He is so blind that I can gaze at him without discourtesy, and after +a while the expression of his face made me forget to listen, and I +lay dreamily in the sunshine letting the antique formulas of the +story blend with the suggestions from the prehistoric masonry I lay +on. The glow of childish transport that came over him when he +reached the nonsense ending--so common in these tales--recalled me +to myself, and I listened attentively while he gabbled with +delighted haste: 'They found the path and I found the puddle. They +were drowned and I was found. If it's all one to me tonight, it +wasn't all one to them the next night. Yet, if it wasn't itself, not +a thing did they lose but an old back tooth '--or some such +gibberish. + +As I led him home through the paths he described to me--it is thus +we get along--lifting him at times over the low walls he is too +shaky to climb, he brought the conversation to the topic they are +never weary of--my views on marriage. + +He stopped as we reached the summit of the island, with the stretch +of the Atlantic just visible behind him. + +'Whisper, noble person,' he began, 'do you never be thinking on the +young girls? The time I was a young man, the devil a one of them +could I look on without wishing to marry her.' + +'Ah, Mourteen,' I answered, 'it's a great wonder you'd be asking me. +What at all do you think of me yourself?' + +'Bedad, noble person, I'm thinking it's soon you'll be getting +married. Listen to what I'm telling you: a man who is not married is +no better than an old jackass. He goes into his sister's house, and +into his brother's house; he eats a bit in this place and a bit in +another place, but he has no home for himself like an old jackass +straying on the rocks.' + +I have left Aran. The steamer had a more than usually heavy cargo, +and it was after four o'clock when we sailed from Kilronan. + +Again I saw the three low rocks sink down into the sea with a moment +of inconceivable distress. It was a clear evening, and as we came +out into the bay the sun stood like an aureole behind the cliffs of +Inishmaan. A little later a brilliant glow came over the sky, +throwing out the blue of the sea and of the hills of Connemara. + +When it was quite dark, the cold became intense, and I wandered +about the lonely vessel that seemed to be making her own way across +the sea. I was the only passenger, and all the crew, except one boy +who was steering, were huddled together in the warmth of the +engine-room. + +Three hours passed, and no one stirred. The slowness of the vessel +and the lamentation of the cold sea about her sides became almost +unendurable. Then the lights of Galway came in sight, and the crew +appeared as we beat up slowly to the quay. + +Once on shore I had some difficulty in finding any one to carry my +baggage to the railway. When I found a man in the darkness and got +my bag on his shoulders, he turned out to be drunk, and I had +trouble to keep him from rolling from the wharf with all my +possessions. He professed to be taking me by a short cut into the +town, but when we were in the middle of a waste of broken buildings +and skeletons of ships he threw my bag on the ground and sat down on +it. + +'It's real heavy she is, your honour,' he said; 'I'm thinking it's +gold there will be in it.' + +'Divil a hap'worth is there in it at all but books,' I answered him +in Gaelic. + +'Bedad, is mor an truaghe' ('It's a big pity'), he said; 'if it was +gold was in it it's the thundering spree we'd have together this +night in Galway.' + +In about half an hour I got my luggage once more on his back, and we +made our way into the city. + +Later in the evening I went down towards the quay to look for +Michael. As I turned into the narrow street where he lodges, some +one seemed to be following me in the shadow, and when I stopped to +find the number of his house I heard the 'Failte' (Welcome) of +Inishmaan pronounced close to me. + +It was Michael. + +'I saw you in the street,' he said, 'but I was ashamed to speak to +you in the middle of the people, so I followed you the way I'd see +if you'd remember me.' + +We turned back together and walked about the town till he had to go +to his lodgings. He was still just the same, with all his old +simplicity and shrewdness; but the work he has here does not agree +with him, and he is not contented. + +It was the eve of the Parnell celebration in Dublin, and the town +was full of excursionists waiting for a train which was to start at +midnight. When Michael left me I spent some time in an hotel, and +then wandered down to the railway. + +A wild crowd was on the platform, surging round the train in every +stage of intoxication. It gave me a better instance than I had yet +seen of the half-savage temperament of Connaught. The tension of +human excitement seemed greater in this insignificant crowd than +anything I have felt among enormous mobs in Rome or Paris. + +There were a few people from the islands on the platform, and I got +in along with them to a third-class carriage. One of the women of +the party had her niece with her, a young girl from Connaught who +was put beside me; at the other end of the carriage there were some +old men who were talking Irish, and a young man who had been a +sailor. + +When the train started there were wild cheers and cries on the +platform, and in the train itself the noise was intense; men and +women shrieking and singing and beating their sticks on the +partitions. At several stations there was a rush to the bar, so the +excitement increased as we proceeded. + +At Ballinasloe there were some soldiers on the platform looking for +places. The sailor in our compartment had a dispute with one of +them, and in an instant the door was flung open and the compartment +was filled with reeling uniforms and sticks. Peace was made after a +moment of uproar and the soldiers got out, but as they did so a pack +of their women followers thrust their bare heads and arms into the +doorway, cursing and blaspheming with extraordinary rage. + +As the train moved away a moment later, these women set up a frantic +lamentation. I looked out and caught a glimpse of the wildest heads +and figures I have ever seen, shrieking and screaming and waving +their naked arms in the light of the lanterns. + +As the night went on girls began crying out in the carriage next us, +and I could hear the words of obscene songs when the train stopped +at a station. + +In our own compartment the sailor would allow no one to sleep, and +talked all night with sometimes a touch of wit or brutality and +always with a beautiful fluency with wild temperament behind it. + +The old men in the corner, dressed in black coats that had something +of the antiquity of heirlooms, talked all night among themselves in +Gaelic. The young girl beside me lost her shyness after a while, and +let me point out the features of the country that were beginning to +appear through the dawn as we drew nearer Dublin. She was delighted +with the shadows of the trees--trees are rare in Connaught--and +with the canal, which was beginning to reflect the morning light. +Every time I showed her some new shadow she cried out with naive +excitement-- + +'Oh, it's lovely, but I can't see it.' + +This presence at my side contrasted curiously with the brutality +that shook the barrier behind us. The whole spirit of the west of +Ireland, with its strange wildness and reserve, seemed moving in +this single train to pay a last homage to the dead statesman of the +east. + + + + +Part III + + +A LETTER HAS come from Michael while I am in Paris. It is in +English. + +MY DEAR FRIEND,--I hope that you are in good health since I have +heard from you before, its many a time I do think of you since and +it was not forgetting you I was for the future. + +I was at home in the beginning of March for a fortnight and was very +bad with the Influence, but I took good care of myself. + +I am getting good wages from the first of this year, and I am afraid +I won't be able to stand with it, although it is not hard, I am +working in a saw-mills and getting the money for the wood and +keeping an account of it. + +I am getting a letter and some news from home two or three times a +week, and they are all well in health, and your friends in the +island as well as if I mentioned them. + +Did you see any of my friends in Dublin Mr.--or any of those +gentlemen or gentlewomen. + +I think I soon try America but not until next year if I am alive. + +I hope we might meet again in good and pleasant health. + +It is now time to come to a conclusion, good-bye and not for ever, +write soon--I am your friend in Galway. + +Write soon dear friend. + +Another letter in a more rhetorical mood. + +MY DEAR MR. S.,--I am for a long time trying to spare a little time +for to write a few words to you. + +Hoping that you are still considering good and pleasant health since +I got a letter from you before. + +I see now that your time is coming round to come to this place to +learn your native language. There was a great Feis in this island +two weeks ago, and there was a very large attendance from the South +island, and not very many from the North. + +Two cousins of my own have been in this house for three weeks or +beyond it, but now they are gone, and there is a place for you if +you wish to come, and you can write before you and we'll try and +manage you as well as we can. + +I am at home now for about two months, for the mill was burnt where +I was at work. After that I was in Dublin, but I did not get my +health in that city.--Mise le mor mheas ort a chara. + +Soon after I received this letter I wrote to Michael to say that I +was going back to them. This time I chose a day when the steamer +went direct to the middle island, and as we came up between the two +lines of curaghs that were waiting outside the slip, I saw Michael, +dressed once more in his island clothes, rowing in one of them. + +He made no sign of recognition, but as soon as they could get +alongside he clambered on board and came straight up on the bridge +to where I was. + +'Bhfuil tu go maith?' ('Are you well?') he said. 'Where is your +bag?' + +His curagh had got a bad place near the bow of the steamer, so I was +slung down from a considerable height on top of some sacks of flour +and my own bag, while the curagh swayed and battered itself against +the side. + +When we were clear I asked Michael if he had got my letter. + +'Ah no,' he said, 'not a sight of it, but maybe it will come next +week.' + +Part of the slip had been washed away during the winter, so we had +to land to the left of it, among the rocks, taking our turn with the +other curaghs that were coming in. + +As soon as I was on shore the men crowded round me to bid me +welcome, asking me as they shook hands if I had travelled far in the +winter, and seen many wonders, ending, as usual, with the inquiry if +there was much war at present in the world. + +It gave me a thrill of delight to hear their Gaelic blessings, and +to see the steamer moving away, leaving me quite alone among them. +The day was fine with a clear sky, and the sea was glittering beyond +the limestone. Further off a light haze on the cliffs of the larger +island, and on the Connaught hills, gave me the illusion that it was +still summer. + +A little boy was sent off to tell the old woman that I was coming, +and we followed slowly, talking and carrying the baggage. + +When I had exhausted my news they told me theirs. A power of +strangers--four or five--a French priest among them, had been on the +island in the summer; the potatoes were bad, but the rye had begun +well, till a dry week came and then it had turned into oats. + +'If you didn't know us so well,' said the man who was talking, +'you'd think it was a lie we were telling, but the sorrow a lie is +in it. It grew straight and well till it was high as your knee, then +it turned into oats. Did ever you see the like of that in County +Wicklow?' + +In the cottage everything was as usual, but Michael's presence has +brought back the old woman's humour and contentment. As I sat down +on my stool and lit my pipe with the corner of a sod, I could have +cried out with the feeling of festivity that this return procured +me. + +This year Michael is busy in the daytime, but at present there is a +harvest moon, and we spend most of the evening wandering about the +island, looking out over the bay where the shadows of the clouds +throw strange patterns of gold and black. As we were returning +through the village this evening a tumult of revelry broke out from +one of the smaller cottages, and Michael said it was the young boys +and girls who have sport at this time of the year. I would have +liked to join them, but feared to embarrass their amusement. When we +passed on again the groups of scattered cottages on each side of the +way reminded me of places I have sometimes passed when travelling at +night in France or Bavaria, places that seemed so enshrined in the +blue silence of night one could not believe they would reawaken. + +Afterwards we went up on the Dun, where Michael said he had never +been before after nightfall, though he lives within a stone's-throw. +The place gains unexpected grandeur in this light, standing out like +a corona of prehistoric stone upon the summit of the island. We +walked round the top of the wall for some time looking down on the +faint yellow roofs, with the rocks glittering beyond them, and the +silence of the bay. Though Michael is sensible of the beauty of the +nature round him, he never speaks of it directly, and many of our +evening walks are occupied with long Gaelic discourses about the +movements of the stars and moon. + +These people make no distinction between the natural and the +supernatural. + +This afternoon--it was Sunday, when there is usually some +interesting talk among the islanders--it rained, so I went into the +schoolmaster's kitchen, which is a good deal frequented by the more +advanced among the people. I know so little of their ways of fishing +and farming that I do not find it easy to keep up our talk without +reaching matters where they cannot follow me, and since the novelty +of my photographs has passed off I have some difficulty in giving +them the entertainment they seem to expect from my company. To-day I +showed them some simple gymnastic feats and conjurer's tricks, which +gave them great amusement. + +'Tell us now,' said an old woman when I had finished, 'didn't you +learn those things from the witches that do be out in the country?' + +In one of the tricks I seemed to join a piece of string which was +cut by the people, and the illusion was so complete that I saw one +man going off with it into a corner and pulling at the apparent +joining till he sank red furrows round his hands. + +Then he brought it back to me. + +'Bedad,' he said, 'this is the greatest wonder ever I seen. The cord +is a taste thinner where you joined it but as strong as ever it +was.' + +A few of the younger men looked doubtful, but the older people, who +have watched the rye turning into oats, seemed to accept the magic +frankly, and did not show any surprise that 'a duine uasal' (a noble +person) should be able to do like the witches. + +My intercourse with these people has made me realise that miracles +must abound wherever the new conception of law is not understood. On +these islands alone miracles enough happen every year to equip a +divine emissary Rye is turned into oats, storms are raised to keep +evictors from the shore, cows that are isolated on lonely rocks +bring forth calves, and other things of the same kind are common. + +The wonder is a rare expected event, like the thunderstorm or the +rainbow, except that it is a little rarer and a little more +wonderful. Often, when I am walking and get into conversation with +some of the people, and tell them that I have received a paper from +Dublin, they ask me--'And is there any great wonder in the world at +this time?' + +When I had finished my feats of dexterity, I was surprised to find +that none of the islanders, even the youngest and most agile, could +do what I did. As I pulled their limbs about in my effort to teach +them, I felt that the ease and beauty of their movements has made me +think them lighter than they really are. Seen in their curaghs +between these cliffs and the Atlantic, they appear lithe and small, +but if they were dressed as we are and seen in an ordinary room, +many of them would seem heavily and powerfully made. + +One man, however, the champion dancer of the island, got up after a +while and displayed the salmon leap--lying flat on his face and then +springing up, horizontally, high in the air--and some other feats of +extraordinary agility, but he is not young and we could not get him +to dance. + +In the evening I had to repeat my tricks here in the kitchen, for +the fame of them had spread over the island. + +No doubt these feats will be remembered here for generations. The +people have so few images for description that they seize on +anything that is remarkable in their visitors and use it afterwards +in their talk. + +For the last few years when they are speaking of any one with fine +rings they say: 'She had beautiful rings on her fingers like +Lady--,' a visitor to the island. + +I have been down sitting on the pier till it was quite dark. I am +only beginning to understand the nights of Inishmaan and the +influence they have had in giving distinction to these men who do +most of their work after nightfall. + +I could hear nothing but a few curlews and other wild-fowl whistling +and shrieking in the seaweed, and the low rustling of the waves. It +was one of the dark sultry nights peculiar to September, with no +light anywhere except the phosphorescence of the sea, and an +occasional rift in the clouds that showed the stars behind them. + +The sense of solitude was immense. I could not see or realise my own +body, and I seemed to exist merely in my perception of the waves and +of the crying birds, and of the smell of seaweed. + +When I tried to come home I lost myself among the sandhills, and the +night seemed to grow unutterably cold and dejected, as I groped +among slimy masses of seaweed and wet crumbling walls. + +After a while I heard a movement in the sand, and two grey shadows +appeared beside me. They were two men who were going home from +fishing. I spoke to them and knew their voices, and we went home +together. + +In the autumn season the threshing of the rye is one of the many +tasks that fall to the men and boys. The sheaves are collected on a +bare rock, and then each is beaten separately on a couple of stones +placed on end one against the other. The land is so poor that a +field hardly produces more grain than is needed for seed the +following year, so the rye-growing is carried on merely for the +straw, which is used for thatching. + +The stooks are carried to and from the threshing fields, piled on +donkeys that one meets everywhere at this season, with their black, +unbridled heads just visible beneath a pinnacle of golden straw. + +While the threshing is going on sons and daughters keep turning up +with one thing and another till there is a little crowd on the +rocks, and any one who is passing stops for an hour or two to talk +on his way to the sea, so that, like the kelp-burning in the +summer-time, this work is full of sociability. + +When the threshing is over the straw is taken up to the cottages and +piled up in an outhouse, or more often in a corner of the kitchen, +where it brings a new liveliness of colour. + +A few days ago when I was visiting a cottage where there are the +most beautiful children on the island, the eldest daughter, a girl +of about fourteen, went and sat down on a heap of straw by the +doorway. A ray of sunlight fell on her and on a portion of the rye, +giving her figure and red dress with the straw under it a curious +relief against the nets and oilskins, and forming a natural picture +of exquisite harmony and colour. + +In our own cottage the thatching--it is done every year--has just +been carried out. The rope-twisting was done partly in the lane, +partly in the kitchen when the weather was uncertain. Two men +usually sit together at this work, one of them hammering the straw +with a heavy block of wood, the other forming the rope, the main +body of which is twisted by a boy or girl with a bent stick +specially formed for this employment. + +In wet weather, when the work must be done indoors, the person who +is twisting recedes gradually out of the door, across the lane, and +sometimes across a field or two beyond it. A great length is needed +to form the close network which is spread over the thatch, as each +piece measures about fifty yards. When this work is in progress in +half the cottages of the village, the road has a curious look, and +one has to pick one's steps through a maze of twisting ropes that +pass from the dark doorways on either side into the fields. + +When four or five immense balls of rope have been completed, a +thatching party is arranged, and before dawn some morning they come +down to the house, and the work is taken in hand with such energy +that it is usually ended within the day. + +Like all work that is done in common on the island, the thatching is +regarded as a sort of festival. From the moment a roof is taken in +hand there is a whirl of laughter and talk till it is ended, and, as +the man whose house is being covered is a host instead of an +employer, he lays himself out to please the men who work with him. + +The day our own house was thatched the large table was taken into +the kitchen from my room, and high teas were given every few hours. +Most of the people who came along the road turned down into the +kitchen for a few minutes, and the talking was incessant. Once when +I went into the window I heard Michael retailing my astronomical +lectures from the apex of the gable, but usually their topics have +to do with the affairs of the island. + +It is likely that much of the intelligence and charm of these people +is due to the absence of any division of labour, and to the +correspondingly wide development of each individual, whose varied +knowledge and skill necessitates a considerable activity of mind. +Each man can speak two languages. He is a skilled fisherman, and can +manage a curagh with extraordinary nerve and dexterity He can farm +simply, burn kelp, cut out pampooties, mend nets, build and thatch a +house, and make a cradle or a coffin. His work changes with the +seasons in a way that keeps him free from the dullness that comes to +people who have always the same occupation. The danger of his life +on the sea gives him the alertness of the primitive hunter, and the +long nights he spends fishing in his curagh bring him some of the +emotions that are thought peculiar to men who have lived with the +arts. + +As Michael is busy in the daytime, I have got a boy to come up and +read Irish to me every afternoon. He is about fifteen, and is +singularly intelligent, with a real sympathy for the language and +the stories we read. + +One evening when he had been reading to me for two hours, I asked +him if he was tired. + +'Tired?' he said, 'sure you wouldn't ever be tired reading!' + +A few years ago this predisposition for intellectual things would +have made him sit with old people and learn their stories, but now +boys like him turn to books and to papers in Irish that are sent +them from Dublin. + +In most of the stories we read, where the English and Irish are +printed side by side, I see him looking across to the English in +passages that are a little obscure, though he is indignant if I say +that he knows English better than Irish. Probably he knows the local +Irish better than English, and printed English better than printed +Irish, as the latter has frequent dialectic forms he does not know. + +A few days ago when he was reading a folk-tale from Douglas Hyde's +Beside the Fire, something caught his eye in the translation. + +'There's a mistake in the English,' he said, after a moment's +hesitation, 'he's put "gold chair" instead of "golden chair."' + +I pointed out that we speak of gold watches and gold pins. + +'And why wouldn't we?' he said; 'but "golden chair" would be much +nicer.' + +It is curious to see how his rudimentary culture has given him the +beginning of a critical spirit that occupies itself with the form of +language as well as with ideas. + +One day I alluded to my trick of joining string. + +'You can't join a string, don't be saying it,' he said; 'I don't +know what way you're after fooling us, but you didn't join that +string, not a bit of you.' + +Another day when he was with me the fire burned low and I held up a +newspaper before it to make a draught. It did not answer very well, +and though the boy said nothing I saw he thought me a fool. + +The next day he ran up in great excitement. + +'I'm after trying the paper over the fire,' he said, 'and it burned +grand. Didn't I think, when I seen you doing it there was no good in +it at all, but I put a paper over the master's (the school-master's) +fire and it flamed up. Then I pulled back the corner of the paper +and I ran my head in, and believe me, there was a big cold wind +blowing up the chimney that would sweep the head from you.' + +We nearly quarrelled because he wanted me to take his photograph in +his Sunday clothes from Galway, instead of his native homespuns that +become him far better, though he does not like them as they seem to +connect him with the primitive life of the island. With his keen +temperament, he may go far if he can ever step out into the world. + +He is constantly thinking. + +One day he asked me if there was great wonder on their names out in +the country. + +I said there was no wonder on them at all. + +'Well,' he said, 'there is great wonder on your name in the island, +and I was thinking maybe there would be great wonder on our names +out in the country.' + +In a sense he is right. Though the names here are ordinary enough, +they are used in a way that differs altogether from the modern +system of surnames. + +When a child begins to wander about the island, the neighbours speak +of it by its Christian name, followed by the Christian name of its +father. If this is not enough to identify it, the father's +epithet--whether it is a nickname or the name of his own father--is +added. + +Sometimes when the father's name does not lend itself, the mother's +Christian name is adopted as epithet for the children. + +An old woman near this cottage is called 'Peggeen,' and her sons are +'Patch Pheggeen,' 'Seaghan Pheggeen,' etc. + +Occasionally the surname is employed in its Irish form, but I have +not heard them using the 'Mac' prefix when speaking Irish among +themselves; perhaps the idea of a surname which it gives is too +modern for them, perhaps they do use it at times that I have not +noticed. + +Sometimes a man is named from the colour of his hair. There is thus +a Seaghan Ruadh (Red John), and his children are 'Mourteen Seaghan +Ruadh,' etc. + +Another man is known as 'an iasgaire' ('the fisher'), and his +children are 'Maire an iasgaire' ('Mary daughter of the fisher'), +and so on. + +The schoolmaster tells me that when he reads out the roll in the +morning the children repeat the local name all together in a whisper +after each official name, and then the child answers. If he calls, +for instance, 'Patrick O'Flaharty,' the children murmur, 'Patch +Seaghan Dearg' or some such name, and the boy answers. + +People who come to the island are treated in much the same way. A +French Gaelic student was in the islands recently, and he is always +spoken of as 'An Saggart Ruadh' ('the red priest') or as 'An Saggart +Francach' ('the French priest'), but never by his name. + +If an islander's name alone is enough to distinguish him it is used +by itself, and I know one man who is spoken of as Eamonn. There may +be other Edmunds on the island, but if so they have probably good +nicknames or epithets of their own. + +In other countries where the names are in a somewhat similar +condition, as in modern Greece, the man's calling is usually one of +the most common means of distinguishing him, but in this place, +where all have the same calling, this means is not available. + +Late this evening I saw a three-oared curagh with two old women in +her besides the rowers, landing at the slip through a heavy roll. +They were coming from Inishere, and they rowed up quickly enough +till they were within a few yards of the surf-line, where they spun +round and waited with the prow towards the sea, while wave after +wave passed underneath them and broke on the remains of the slip. +Five minutes passed; ten minutes; and still they waited with the +oars just paddling in the water, and their heads turned over their +shoulders. + +I was beginning to think that they would have to give up and row +round to the lee side of the island, when the curagh seemed suddenly +to turn into a living thing. The prow was again towards the slip, +leaping and hurling itself through the spray. Before it touched, the +man in the bow wheeled round, two white legs came out over the prow +like the flash of a sword, and before the next wave arrived he had +dragged the curagh out of danger. + +This sudden and united action in men without discipline shows well +the education that the waves have given them. When the curagh was in +safety the two old women were carried up through the surf and +slippery seaweed on the backs of their sons. + +In this broken weather a curagh cannot go out without danger, yet +accidents are rare and seem to be nearly always caused by drink, +Since I was here last year four men have been drowned on their way +home from the large island. First a curagh belonging to the south +island which put off with two men in her heavy with drink, came to +shore here the next evening dry and uninjured, with the sail half +set, and no one in her. + +More recently a curagh from this island with three men, who were the +worse for drink, was upset on its way home. The steamer was not far +off, and saved two of the men, but could not reach the third. + +Now a man has been washed ashore in Donegal with one pampooty on +him, and a striped shirt with a purse in one of the pockets, and a +box for tobacco. + +For three days the people have been trying to fix his identity. Some +think it is the man from this island, others think that the man from +the south answers the description more exactly. To-night as we were +returning from the slip we met the mother of the man who was drowned +from this island, still weeping and looking out over the sea. She +stopped the people who had come over from the south island to ask +them with a terrified whisper what is thought over there. + +Later in the evening, when I was sitting in one of the cottages, the +sister of the dead man came in through the rain with her infant, and +there was a long talk about the rumours that had come in. She pieced +together all she could remember about his clothes, and what his +purse was like, and where he had got it, and the same for his +tobacco box, and his stockings. In the end there seemed little doubt +that it was her brother. + +'Ah!' she said, 'It's Mike sure enough, and please God they'll give +him a decent burial.' + +Then she began to keen slowly to herself. She had loose yellow hair +plastered round her head with the rain, and as she sat by the door +sucking her infant, she seemed like a type of the women's life upon +the islands. + +For a while the people sat silent, and one could hear nothing but +the lips of the infant, the rain hissing in the yard, and the +breathing of four pigs that lay sleeping in one corner. Then one of +the men began to talk about the new boats that have been sent to the +south island, and the conversation went back to its usual round of +topics. + +The loss of one man seems a slight catastrophe to all except the +immediate relatives. Often when an accident happens a father is lost +with his two eldest sons, or in some other way all the active men of +a household die together. + +A few years ago three men of a family that used to make the wooden +vessels--like tiny barrels--that are still used among the people, +went to the big island together. They were drowned on their way +home, and the art of making these little barrels died with them, at +least on Inishmaan, though it still lingers in the north and south +islands. + +Another catastrophe that took place last winter gave a curious zest +to the observance of holy days. It seems that it is not the custom +for the men to go out fishing on the evening of a holy day, but one +night last December some men, who wished to begin fishing early the +next morning, rowed out to sleep in their hookers. + +Towards morning a terrible storm rose, and several hookers with +their crews on board were blown from their moorings and wrecked. The +sea was so high that no attempt at rescue could be made, and the men +were drowned. + +'Ah!' said the man who told me the story, 'I'm thinking it will be a +long time before men will go out again on a holy day. That storm was +the only storm that reached into the harbour the whole winter, and +I'm thinking there was something in it.' + +Today when I went down to the slip I found a pig-jobber from +Kilronan with about twenty pigs that were to be shipped for the +English market. + +When the steamer was getting near, the whole drove was moved down on +the slip and the curaghs were carried out close to the sea. Then +each beast was caught in its turn and thrown on its side, while its +legs were hitched together in a single knot, with a tag of rope +remaining, by which it could be carried. + +Probably the pain inflicted was not great, yet the animals shut +their eyes and shrieked with almost human intonations, till the +suggestion of the noise became so intense that the men and women who +were merely looking on grew wild with excitement, and the pigs +waiting their turn foamed at the mouth and tore each other with +their teeth. + +After a while there was a pause. The whole slip was covered with a +mass of sobbing animals, with here and there a terrified woman +crouching among the bodies, and patting some special favourite to +keep it quiet while the curaghs were being launched. + +Then the screaming began again while the pigs were carried out and +laid in their places, with a waistcoat tied round their feet to keep +them from damaging the canvas. They seemed to know where they were +going, and looked up at me over the gunnel with an ignoble +desperation that made me shudder to think that I had eaten of this +whimpering flesh. When the last curagh went out I was left on the +slip with a band of women and children, and one old boar who sat +looking out over the sea. + +The women were over-excited, and when I tried to talk to them they +crowded round me and began jeering and shrieking at me because I am +not married. A dozen screamed at a time, and so rapidly that I could +not understand all that they were saying, yet I was able to make out +that they were taking advantage of the absence of their husbands to +give me the full volume of their contempt. Some little boys who were +listening threw themselves down, writhing with laughter among the +seaweed, and the young girls grew red with embarrassment and stared +down into the surf. + +For a moment I was in confusion. I tried to speak to them, but I +could not make myself heard, so I sat down on the slip and drew out +my wallet of photographs. In an instant I had the whole band +clambering round me, in their ordinary mood. + +When the curaghs came back--one of them towing a large kitchen table +that stood itself up on the waves and then turned somersaults in an +extraordinary manner--word went round that the ceannuighe (pedlar) +was arriving. + +He opened his wares on the slip as soon as he landed, and sold a +quantity of cheap knives and jewellery to the girls and the younger +women. He spoke no Irish, and the bargaining gave immense amusement +to the crowd that collected round him. + +I was surprised to notice that several women who professed to know +no English could make themselves understood without difficulty when +it pleased them. + +'The rings is too dear at you, sir,' said one girl using the Gaelic +construction; 'let you put less money on them and all the girls will +be buying.' + +After the jewellery' he displayed some cheap religious +pictures--abominable oleographs--but I did not see many buyers. + +I am told that most of the pedlars who come here are Germans or +Poles, but I did not have occasion to speak with this man by +himself. + +I have come over for a few days to the south island, and, as usual, +my voyage was not favourable. + +The morning was fine, and seemed to promise one of the peculiarly +hushed, pellucid days that occur sometimes before rain in early +winter. From the first gleam of dawn the sky was covered with white +cloud, and the tranquillity was so complete that every sound seemed +to float away by itself across the silence of the bay. Lines of blue +smoke were going up in spirals over the village, and further off +heavy fragments of rain-cloud were lying on the horizon. We started +early in the day, and, although the sea looked calm from a distance, +we met a considerable roll coming from the south-west when we got +out from the shore. + +Near the middle of the sound the man who was rowing in the bow broke +his oar-pin, and the proper management of the canoe became a matter +of some difficulty. We had only a three-oared curagh, and if the sea +had gone much higher we should have run a good deal of danger. Our +progress was so slow that clouds came up with a rise in the wind +before we reached the shore, and rain began to fall in large single +drops. The black curagh working slowly through this world of grey, +and the soft hissing of the rain gave me one of the moods in which +we realise with immense distress the short moment we have left us to +experience all the wonder and beauty of the world. + +The approach to the south island is made at a fine sandy beach on +the north-west. This interval in the rocks is of great service to +the people, but the tract of wet sand with a few hideous fishermen's +houses, lately built on it, looks singularly desolate in broken +weather. + +The tide was going out when we landed, so we merely stranded the +curagh and went up to the little hotel. The cess-collector was at +work in one of the rooms, and there were a number of men and boys +waiting about, who stared at us while we stood at the door and +talked to the proprietor. + +When we had had our drink I went down to the sea with my men, who +were in a hurry to be off. Some time was spent in replacing the +oar-pin, and then they set out, though the wind was still +increasing. A good many fishermen came down to see the start, and +long after the curagh was out of sight I stood and talked with them +in Irish, as I was anxious to compare their language and temperament +with what I knew of the other island. + +The language seems to be identical, though some of these men speak +rather more distinctly than any Irish speakers I have yet heard. In +physical type, dress, and general character, however, there seems to +be a considerable difference. The people on this island are more +advanced than their neighbours, and the families here are gradually +forming into different ranks, made up of the well-to-do, the +struggling, and the quite poor and thriftless. These distinctions +are present in the middle island also, but over there they have had +no effect on the people, among whom there is still absolute +equality. + +A little later the steamer came in sight and lay to in the offing. +While the curaghs were being put out I noticed in the crowd several +men of the ragged, humorous type that was once thought to represent +the real peasant of Ireland. Rain was now falling heavily, and as we +looked out through the fog there was something nearly appalling in +the shrieks of laughter kept up by one of these individuals, a man +of extraordinary ugliness and wit. + +At last he moved off toward the houses, wiping his eyes with the +tail of his coat and moaning to himself 'Ta me marbh,' ('I'm +killed'), till some one stopped him and he began again pouring out a +medley of rude puns and jokes that meant more than they said. + +There is quaint humour, and sometimes wild humour, on the middle +island, but never this half-sensual ecstasy of laughter. Perhaps a +man must have a sense of intimate misery, not known there, before he +can set himself to jeer and mock at the world. These strange men +with receding foreheads, high cheekbones, and ungovernable eyes seem +to represent some old type found on these few acres at the extreme +border of Europe, where it is only in wild jests and laughter that +they can express their loneliness and desolation. + +The mode of reciting ballads in this island is singularly harsh. I +fell in with a curious man to-day beyond the east village, and we +wandered out on the rocks towards the sea. A wintry shower came on +while we were together, and we crouched down in the bracken, under a +loose wall. When we had gone through the usual topics he asked me if +I was fond of songs, and began singing to show what he could do. + +The music was much like what I have heard before on the islands--a +monotonous chant with pauses on the high and low notes to mark the +rhythm; but the harsh nasal tone in which he sang was almost +intolerable. His performance reminded me in general effect of a +chant I once heard from a party of Orientals I was travelling with +in a third-class carriage from Paris to Dieppe, but the islander ran +his voice over a much wider range. + +His pronunciation was lost in the rasping of his throat, and, though +he shrieked into my ear to make sure that I understood him above the +howling of the wind, I could only make out that it was an endless +ballad telling the fortune of a young man who went to sea, and had +many adventures. The English nautical terms were employed +continually in describing his life on the ship, but the man seemed +to feel that they were not in their place, and stopped short when +one of them occurred to give me a poke with his finger and explain +gib, topsail, and bowsprit, which were for me the most intelligible +features of the poem. Again, when the scene changed to Dublin, +'glass of whiskey,' 'public-house,' and such things were in English. + +When the shower was over he showed me a curious cave hidden among +the cliffs, a short distance from the sea. On our way back he asked +me the three questions I am met with on every side--whether I am a +rich man, whether I am married, and whether I have ever seen a +poorer place than these islands. + +When he heard that I was not married he urged me to come back in the +summer so that he might take me over in a curagh to the Spa in +County Glare, where there is 'spree mor agus go leor ladies' ('a big +spree and plenty of ladies'). + +Something about the man repelled me while I was with him, and though +I was cordial and liberal he seemed to feel that I abhorred him. We +arranged to meet again in the evening, but when I dragged myself +with an inexplicable loathing to the place of meeting, there was no +trace of him. + +It is characteristic that this man, who is probably a drunkard and +shebeener and certainly in penury, refused the chance of a shilling +because he felt that I did not like him. He had a curiously mixed +expression of hardness and melancholy. Probably his character has +given him a bad reputation on the island, and he lives here with the +restlessness of a man who has no sympathy with his companions. + +I have come over again to Inishmaan, and this time I had fine +weather for my passage. The air was full of luminous sunshine from +the early morning, and it was almost a summer's day when I set sail +at noon with Michael and two other men who had come over for me in a +curagh. + +The wind was in our favour, so the sail was put up and Michael sat +in the stem to steer with an oar while I rowed with the others. + +We had had a good dinner and drink and were wrought up by this +sudden revival of summer to a dreamy voluptuous gaiety, that made us +shout with exultation to hear our voices passing out across the blue +twinkling of the sea. + +Even after the people of the south island, these men of Inishmaan +seemed to be moved by strange archaic sympathies with the world. +Their mood accorded itself with wonderful fineness to the +suggestions of the day, and their ancient Gaelic seemed so full of +divine simplicity that I would have liked to turn the prow to the +west and row with them for ever. + +I told them I was going back to Paris in a few days to sell my books +and my bed, and that then I was coming back to grow as strong and +simple as they were among the islands of the west. + +When our excitement sobered down, Michael told me that one of the +priests had left his gun at our cottage and given me leave to use it +till he returned to the island. There was another gun and a ferret +in the house also, and he said that as soon as we got home he was +going to take me out fowling on rabbits. + +A little later in the day we set off, and I nearly laughed to see +Michael's eagerness that I should turn out a good shot. + +We put the ferret down in a crevice between two bare sheets of rock, +and waited. In a few minutes we heard rushing paws underneath us, +then a rabbit shot up straight into the air from the crevice at our +feet and set off for a wall that was a few feet away. I threw up the +gun and fired. + +'Buail tu e,' screamed Michael at my elbow as he ran up the rock. I +had killed it. + +We shot seven or eight more in the next hour, and Michael was +immensely pleased. If I had done badly I think I should have had to +leave the islands. The people would have despised me. A 'duine +uasal' who cannot shoot seems to these descendants of hunters a +fallen type who is worse than an apostate. + +The women of this island are before conventionality, and share some +of the liberal features that are thought peculiar to the women of +Paris and New York. + +Many of them are too contented and too sturdy to have more than a +decorative interest, but there are others full of curious +individuality. + +This year I have got to know a wonderfully humorous girl, who has +been spinning in the kitchen for the last few days with the old +woman's spinning-wheel. The morning she began I heard her exquisite +intonation almost before I awoke, brooding and cooing over every +syllable she uttered. + +I have heard something similar in the voices of German and Polish +women, but I do not think men--at least European men--who are always +further than women from the simple, animal emotions, or any speakers +who use languages with weak gutturals, like French or English, can +produce this inarticulate chant in their ordinary talk. + +She plays continual tricks with her Gaelic in the way girls are fond +of, piling up diminutives and repeating adjectives with a humorous +scorn of syntax. While she is here the talk never stops in the +kitchen. To-day she has been asking me many questions about Germany, +for it seems one of her sisters married a German husband in America +some years ago, who kept her in great comfort, with a fine 'capull +glas' ('grey horse') to ride on, and this girl has decided to escape +in the same way from the drudgery of the island. + +This was my last evening on my stool in the chimney corner, and I +had a long talk with some neighbours who came in to bid me +prosperity, and lay about on the floor with their heads on low +stools and their feet stretched out to the embers of the turf. The +old woman was at the other side of the fire, and the girl I have +spoken of was standing at her spinning-wheel, talking and joking +with every one. She says when I go away now I am to marry a rich +wife with plenty of money, and if she dies on me I am to come back +here and marry herself for my second wife. + +I have never heard talk so simple and so attractive as the talk of +these people. This evening they began disputing about their wives, +and it appeared that the greatest merit they see in a woman is that +she should be fruitful and bring them many children. As no money can +be earned by children on the island this one attitude shows the +immense difference between these people and the people of Paris. + +The direct sexual instincts are not weak on the island, but they are +so subordinated to the instincts of the family that they rarely lead +to irregularity. The life here is still at an almost patriarchal +stage, and the people are nearly as far from the romantic moods of +love as they are from the impulsive life of the savage. + +The wind was so high this morning that there was some doubt whether +the steamer would arrive, and I spent half the day wandering about +with Michael watching the horizon. + +At last, when we had given her up, she came in sight far away to the +north, where she had gone to have the wind with her where the sea +was at its highest. + +I got my baggage from the cottage and set off for the slip with +Michael and the old man, turning into a cottage here and there to +say good-bye. + +In spite of the wind outside, the sea at the slip was as calm as a +pool. The men who were standing about while the steamer was at the +south island wondered for the last time whether I would be married +when I came back to see them. Then we pulled out and took our place +in the line. As the tide was running hard the steamer stopped a +certain distance from the shore, and gave us a long race for good +places at her side. In the struggle we did not come off well, so I +had to clamber across two curaghs, twisting and fumbling with the +roll, in order to get on board. + +It seemed strange to see the curaghs full of well-known faces +turning back to the slip without me, but the roll in the sound soon +took off my attention. Some men were on board whom I had seen on the +south island, and a good many Kilronan people on their way home from +Galway, who told me that in one part of their passage in the morning +they had come in for heavy seas. + +As is usual on Saturday, the steamer had a large cargo of flour and +porter to discharge at Kilronan, and, as it was nearly four o'clock +before the tide could float her at the pier, I felt some doubt about +our passage to Galway. + +The wind increased as the afternoon went on, and when I came down in +the twilight I found that the cargo was not yet all unladen, and +that the captain feared to face the gale that was rising. It was +some time before he came to a final decision, and we walked +backwards and forwards from the village with heavy clouds flying +overhead and the wind howling in the walls. At last he telegraphed +to Galway to know if he was wanted the next day, and we went into a +public-house to wait for the reply. + +The kitchen was filled with men sitting closely on long forms ranged +in lines at each side of the fire. A wild-looking but beautiful girl +was kneeling on the hearth talking loudly to the men, and a few +natives of Inishmaan were hanging about the door, miserably drunk. +At the end of the kitchen the bar was arranged, with a sort of +alcove beside it, where some older men were playing cards. Overhead +there were the open rafters, filled with turf and tobacco smoke. + +This is the haunt so much dreaded by the women of the other islands, +where the men linger with their money till they go out at last with +reeling steps and are lost in the sound. Without this background of +empty curaghs, and bodies floating naked with the tide, there would +be something almost absurd about the dissipation of this simple +place where men sit, evening after evening, drinking bad whisky and +porter, and talking with endless repetition of fishing, and kelp, +and of the sorrows of purgatory. + +When we had finished our whiskey word came that the boat might +remain. + +With some difficulty I got my bags out of the steamer and carried +them up through the crowd of women and donkeys that were still +struggling on the quay in an inconceivable medley of flour-bags and +cases of petroleum. When I reached the inn the old woman was in +great good humour, and I spent some time talking by the kitchen +fire. Then I groped my way back to the harbour, where, I was told, +the old net-mender, who came to see me on my first visit to the +islands, was spending the night as watchman. + +It was quite dark on the pier, and a terrible gale was blowing. +There was no one in the little office where I expected to find him, +so I groped my way further on towards a figure I saw moving with a +lantern. + +It was the old man, and he remembered me at once when I hailed him +and told him who I was. He spent some time arranging one of his +lanterns, and then he took me back to his office--a mere shed of +planks and corrugated iron, put up for the contractor of some work +which is in progress on the pier. + +When we reached the light I saw that his head was rolled up in an +extraordinary collection of mufflers to keep him from the cold, and +that his face was much older than when I saw him before, though +still full of intelligence. + +He began to tell how he had gone to see a relative of mine in Dublin +when he first left the island as a cabin-boy, between forty and +fifty years ago. + +He told his story with the usual detail:-- + +We saw a man walking about on the quay in Dublin, and looking at us +without saying a word. Then he came down to the yacht. 'Are you the +men from Aran?' said he. + +'We are,' said we. + +'You're to come with me so,' said he. 'Why?' said we. + +Then he told us it was Mr. Synge had sent him and we went with him. +Mr. Synge brought us into his kitchen and gave the men a glass of +whisky all round, and a half-glass to me because I was a boy--though +at that time and to this day I can drink as much as two men and not +be the worse of it. We were some time in the kitchen, then one of +the men said we should be going. I said it would not be right to go +without saying a word to Mr. Synge. Then the servant-girl went up +and brought him down, and he gave us another glass of whisky, and he +gave me a book in Irish because I was going to sea, and I was able +to read in the Irish. + +I owe it to Mr. Synge and that book that when I came back here, +after not hearing a word of Irish for thirty years, I had as good +Irish, or maybe better Irish, than any person on the island. + +I could see all through his talk that the sense of superiority which +his scholarship in this little-known language gave him above the +ordinary seaman, had influenced his whole personality and been the +central interest of his life. + +On one voyage he had a fellow-sailor who often boasted that he had +been at school and learned Greek, and this incident took place:-- + +One night we had a quarrel, and I asked him could he read a Greek +book with all his talk of it. + +'I can so,' said he. + +'We'll see that,' said I. + +Then I got the Irish book out of my chest, and I gave it into his +hand. + +'Read that to me,' said I, 'if you know Greek.' + +He took it, and he looked at it this way, and that way, and not a +bit of him could make it out. + +'Bedad, I've forgotten my Greek,' said he. + +'You're telling a lie,' said I. 'I'm not,' said he; 'it's the divil +a bit I can read it.' + +Then I took the book back into my hand, and said to him--'It's the +sorra a word of Greek you ever knew in your life, for there's not a +word of Greek in that book, and not a bit of you knew.' + +He told me another story of the only time he had heard Irish spoken +during his voyages:-- + +One night I was in New York, walking in the streets with some other +men, and we came upon two women quarrelling in Irish at the door of +a public-house. + +'What's that jargon?' said one of the men. + +'It's no jargon,' said I. + +'What is it?' said he. + +'It's Irish,' said I. + +Then I went up to them, and you know, sir, there is no language like +the Irish for soothing and quieting. The moment I spoke to them they +stopped scratching and swearing and stood there as quiet as two +lambs. + +Then they asked me in Irish if I wouldn't come in and have a drink, +and I said I couldn't leave my mates. + +'Bring them too,' said they. + +Then we all had a drop together. + +While we were talking another man had slipped in and sat down in the +corner with his pipe, and the rain had become so heavy we could +hardly hear our voices over the noise on the iron roof. + +The old man went on telling of his experiences at sea and the places +he had been to. + +'If I had my life to live over again,' he said, 'there's no other +way I'd spend it. I went in and out everywhere and saw everything. I +was never afraid to take my glass, though I was never drunk in my +life, and I was a great player of cards though I never played for +money.' + +'There's no diversion at all in cards if you don't play for money' +said the man in the corner. + +'There was no use in my playing for money' said the old man, 'for +I'd always lose, and what's the use in playing if you always lose?' + +Then our conversation branched off to the Irish language and the +books written in it. + +He began to criticise Archbishop MacHale's version of Moore's Irish +Melodies with great severity and acuteness, citing whole poems both +in the English and Irish, and then giving versions that he had made +himself. + +'A translation is no translation,' he said, 'unless it will give you +the music of a poem along with the words of it. In my translation +you won't find a foot or a syllable that's not in the English, yet +I've put down all his words mean, and nothing but it. Archbishop +MacHale's work is a most miserable production.' + +From the verses he cited his judgment seemed perfectly justified, +and even if he was wrong, it is interesting to note that this poor +sailor and night-watchman was ready to rise up and criticise an +eminent dignitary and scholar on rather delicate points of +versification and the finer distinctions between old words of +Gaelic. + +In spite of his singular intelligence and minute observation his +reasoning was medieval. + +I asked him what he thought about the future of the language on +these islands. + +'It can never die out,' said he, 'because there's no family in the +place can live without a bit of a field for potatoes, and they have +only the Irish words for all that they do in the fields. They sail +their new boats--their hookers--in English, but they sail a curagh +oftener in Irish, and in the fields they have the Irish alone. It +can never die out, and when the people begin to see it fallen very +low, it will rise up again like the phoenix from its own ashes.' + +'And the Gaelic League?' I asked him. + +'The Gaelic League! Didn't they come down here with their organisers +and their secretaries, and their meetings and their speechifyings, +and start a branch of it, and teach a power of Irish for five weeks +and a half!' [a] + +'What do we want here with their teaching Irish?' said the man in +the corner; 'haven't we Irish enough?' + +'You have not,' said the old man; 'there's not a soul in Aran can +count up to nine hundred and ninety-nine without using an English +word but myself.' + +It was getting late, and the rain had lessened for a moment, so I +groped my way back to the inn through the intense darkness of a late +autumn night. + +[a] This was written, it should be remembered, some years ago. + + + + +Part IV + + +No two journeys to these islands are alike. This morning I sailed +with the steamer a little after five o'clock in a cold night air, +with the stars shining on the bay. A number of Claddagh fishermen +had been out all night fishing not far from the harbour, and without +thinking, or perhaps caring to think, of the steamer, they had put +out their nets in the channel where she was to pass. Just before we +started the mate sounded the steam whistle repeatedly to give them +warning, saying as he did so-- + +'If you were out now in the bay, gentlemen, you'd hear some fine +prayers being said.' + +When we had gone a little way we began to see the light from the +turf fires carried by the fishermen flickering on the water, and to +hear a faint noise of angry voices. Then the outline of a large +fishing-boat came in sight through the darkness, with the forms of +three men who stood on the course. The captain feared to turn aside, +as there are sandbanks near the channel, so the engines were stopped +and we glided over the nets without doing them harm. As we passed +close to the boat the crew could be seen plainly on the deck, one of +them holding the bucket of red turf, and their abuse could be +distinctly heard. It changed continually, from profuse Gaelic +maledictions to the simpler curses they know in English. As they +spoke they could be seen writhing and twisting themselves with +passion against the light which was beginning to turn on the ripple +of the sea. Soon afterwards another set of voices began in front of +us, breaking out in strange contrast with the dwindling stars and +the silence of the dawn. + +Further on we passed many boats that let us go by without a word, as +their nets were not in the channel. Then day came on rapidly with +cold showers that turned golden in the first rays from the sun, +filling the troughs of the sea with curious transparencies and +light. + +This year I have brought my fiddle with me so that I may have +something new to keep up the interest of the people. I have played +for them several tunes, but as far as I can judge they do not feel +modern music, though they listen eagerly from curiosity. Irish airs +like 'Eileen Aroon' please them better, but it is only when I play +some jig like the 'Black Rogue'--which is known on the island--that +they seem to respond to the full meaning of the notes. Last night I +played for a large crowd, which had come together for another +purpose from all parts of the island. + +About six o'clock I was going into the schoolmaster's house, and I +heard a fierce wrangle going on between a man and a woman near the +cottages to the west, that lie below the road. While I was listening +to them several women came down to listen also from behind the wall, +and told me that the people who were fighting were near relations +who lived side by side and often quarrelled about trifles, though +they were as good friends as ever the next day. The voices sounded +so enraged that I thought mischief would come of it, but the women +laughed at the idea. Then a lull came, and I said that they seemed +to have finished at last. + +'Finished!' said one of the women; 'sure they haven't rightly begun. +It's only playing they are yet.' + +It was just after sunset and the evening was bitterly cold, so I +went into the house and left them. + +An hour later the old man came down from my cottage to say that some +of the lads and the 'fear lionta' ('the man of the nets'--a young +man from Aranmor who is teaching net-mending to the boys) were up at +the house, and had sent him down to tell me they would like to +dance, if I would come up and play for them. + +I went out at once, and as soon as I came into the air I heard the +dispute going on still to the west more violently than ever. The +news of it had gone about the island, and little bands of girls and +boys were running along the lanes towards the scene of the quarrel +as eagerly as if they were going to a racecourse. I stopped for a +few minutes at the door of our cottage to listen to the volume of +abuse that was rising across the stillness of the island. Then I +went into the kitchen and began tuning the fiddle, as the boys were +impatient for my music. At first I tried to play standing, but on +the upward stroke my bow came in contact with the salt-fish and +oil-skins that hung from the rafters, so I settled myself at last on +a table in the corner, where I was out of the way, and got one of +the people to hold up my music before me, as I had no stand. I +played a French melody first, to get myself used to the people and +the qualities of the room, which has little resonance between the +earth floor and the thatch overhead. Then I struck up the 'Black +Rogue,' and in a moment a tall man bounded out from his stool under +the chimney and began flying round the kitchen with peculiarly sure +and graceful bravado. + +The lightness of the pampooties seems to make the dancing on this +island lighter and swifter than anything I have seen on the +mainland, and the simplicity of the men enables them to throw a +naive extravagance into their steps that is impossible in places +where the people are self-conscious. + +The speed, however, was so violent that I had some difficulty in +keeping up, as my fingers were not in practice, and I could not take +off more than a small part of my attention to watch what was going +on. When I finished I heard a commotion at the door, and the whole +body of people who had gone down to watch the quarrel filed into the +kitchen and arranged themselves around the walls, the women and +girls, as is usual, forming themselves in one compact mass crouching +on their heels near the door. + +I struck up another dance--'Paddy get up'--and the 'fear lionta' and +the first dancer went through it together, with additional rapidity +and grace, as they were excited by the presence of the people who +had come in. Then word went round that an old man, known as Little +Roger, was outside, and they told me he was once the best dancer on +the island. + +For a long time he refused to come in, for he said he was too old to +dance, but at last he was persuaded, and the people brought him in +and gave him a stool opposite me. It was some time longer before he +would take his turn, and when he did so, though he was met with +great clapping of hands, he only danced for a few moments. He did +not know the dances in my book, he said, and did not care to dance +to music he was not familiar with. When the people pressed him again +he looked across to me. + +'John,' he said, in shaking English, 'have you got "Larry Grogan," +for it is an agreeable air?' + +I had not, so some of the young men danced again to the 'Black +Rogue,' and then the party broke up. The altercation was still going +on at the cottage below us, and the people were anxious to see what +was coming of it. + +About ten o'clock a young man came in and told us that the fight was +over. + +'They have been at it for four hours,' he said, 'and now they're +tired.' + +Indeed it is time they were, for you'd rather be listening to a man +killing a pig than to the noise they were letting out of them.' + +After the dancing and excitement we were too stirred up to be +sleepy, so we sat for a long time round the embers of the turf, +talking and smoking by the light of the candle. + +From ordinary music we came to talk of the music of the fairies, and +they told me this story, when I had told them some stories of my +own:-- + +A man who lives in the other end of the village got his gun one day +and went out to look for rabbits in a thicket near the small Dun. He +saw a rabbit sitting up under a tree, and he lifted his gun to take +aim at it, but just as he had it covered he heard a kind of music +over his head, and he looked up into the sky. When he looked back +for the rabbit, not a bit of it was to be seen. + +He went on after that, and he heard the music again. + +Then he looked over a wall, and he saw a rabbit sitting up by the +wall with a sort of flute in its mouth, and it playing on it with +its two fingers! + +'What sort of rabbit was that?' said the old woman when they had +finished. 'How could that be a right rabbit? I remember old Pat +Dirane used to be telling us he was once out on the cliffs, and he +saw a big rabbit sitting down in a hole under a flagstone. He called +a man who was with him, and they put a hook on the end of a stick +and ran it down into the hole. Then a voice called up to them-- + +'"Ah, Phaddrick, don't hurt me with the hook!" + +'Pat was a great rogue,' said the old man. 'Maybe you remember the +bits of horns he had like handles on the end of his sticks? Well, +one day there was a priest over and he said to Pat--"Is it the +devil's horns you have on your sticks, Pat?" "I don't rightly know" +said Pat, "but if it is, it's the devil's milk you've been drinking, +since you've been able to drink, and the devil's flesh you've been +eating and the devil's butter you've been putting on your bread, for +I've seen the like of them horns on every old cow through the +country."' + +The weather has been rough, but early this afternoon the sea was +calm enough for a hooker to come in with turf from Connemara, though +while she was at the pier the roll was so great that the men had to +keep a watch on the waves and loosen the cable whenever a large one +was coming in, so that she might ease up with the water. + +There were only two men on board, and when she was empty they had +some trouble in dragging in the cables, hoisting the sails, and +getting out of the harbour before they could be blown on the rocks. + +A heavy shower came on soon afterwards, and I lay down under a stack +of turf with some people who were standing about, to wait for +another hooker that was coming in with horses. They began talking +and laughing about the dispute last night and the noise made at it. + +'The worst fights do be made here over nothing,' said an old man +next me. 'Did Mourteen or any of them on the big island ever tell +you of the fight they had there threescore years ago when they were +killing each other with knives out on the strand?' + +'They never told me,' I said. + +'Well,' said he, 'they were going down to cut weed, and a man was +sharpening his knife on a stone before he went. A young boy came +into the kitchen, and he said to the man--"What are you sharpening +that knife for?"' + +'"To kill your father with," said the man, and they the best of +friends all the time. The young boy went back to his house and told +his father there was a man sharpening a knife to kill him. + +'"Bedad," said the father, "if he has a knife I'll have one, too." + +'He sharpened his knife after that, and they went down to the +strand. Then the two men began making fun about their knives, and +from that they began raising their voices, and it wasn't long before +there were ten men fighting with their knives, and they never +stopped till there were five of them dead. + +'They buried them the day after, and when they were coming home, +what did they see but the boy who began the work playing about with +the son of the other man, and their two fathers down in their +graves.' + +When he stopped, a gust of wind came and blew up a bundle of dry +seaweed that was near us, right over our heads. + +Another old man began to talk. + +'That was a great wind,' he said. 'I remember one time there was a +man in the south island who had a lot of wool up in shelter against +the corner of a wall. He was after washing it, and drying it, and +turning it, and he had it all nice and clean the way they could card +it. Then a wind came down and the wool began blowing all over the +wall. The man was throwing out his arms on it and trying to stop it, +and another man saw him. + +'"The devil mend your head!" says he, "the like of that wind is too +strong for you." + +'"If the devil himself is in it," said the other man, "I'll hold on +to it while I can." + +'Then whether it was because of the word or not I don't know, but +the whole of the wool went up over his head and blew all over the +island, yet, when his wife came to spin afterwards she had all they +expected, as if that lot was not lost on them at all.' + +'There was more than that in it,' said another man, 'for the night +before a woman had a great sight out to the west in this island, and +saw all the people that were dead a while back in this island and +the south island, and they all talking with each other. There was a +man over from the other island that night, and he heard the woman +talking of what she had seen. The next day he went back to the south +island, and I think he was alone in the curagh. As soon as he came +near the other island he saw a man fishing from the cliffs, and this +man called out to him-- + +'"Make haste now and go up and tell your mother to hide the +poteen"--his mother used to sell poteen--"for I'm after seeing the +biggest party of peelers and yeomanry passing by on the rocks was +ever seen on the island." It was at that time the wool was taken +with the other man above, under the hill, and no peelers in the +island at all.' + +A little after that the old men went away, and I was left with some +young men between twenty and thirty, who talked to me of different +things. One of them asked me if ever I was drunk, and another told +me I would be right to marry a girl out of this island, for they +were nice women in it, fine fat girls, who would be strong, and have +plenty of children, and not be wasting my money on me. + +When the horses were coming ashore a curagh that was far out after +lobster-pots came hurrying in, and a man out of her ran up the +sandhills to meet a little girl who was coming down with a bundle of +Sunday clothes. He changed them on the sand and then went out to the +hooker, and went off to Connemara to bring back his horses. + +A young married woman I used often to talk with is dying of a +fever--typhus I am told--and her husband and brothers have gone off +in a curagh to get the doctor and the priest from the north island, +though the sea is rough. + +I watched them from the Dun for a long time after they had started. +Wind and rain were driving through the sound, and I could see no +boats or people anywhere except this one black curagh splashing and +struggling through the waves. When the wind fell a little I could +hear people hammering below me to the east. The body of a young man +who was drowned a few weeks ago came ashore this morning, and his +friends have been busy all day making a coffin in the yard of the +house where he lived. + +After a while the curagh went out of sight into the mist, and I came +down to the cottage shuddering with cold and misery. + +The old woman was keening by the fire. + +'I have been to the house where the young man is,' she said, 'but I +couldn't go to the door with the air was coming out of it. They say +his head isn't on him at all, and indeed it isn't any wonder and he +three weeks in the sea. Isn't it great danger and sorrow is over +every one on this island?' + +I asked her if the curagh would soon be coming back with the priest. +'It will not be coming soon or at all to-night,' she said. 'The wind +has gone up now, and there will come no curagh to this island for +maybe two days or three. And wasn't it a cruel thing to see the +haste was on them, and they in danger all the time to be drowned +themselves?' + +Then I asked her how the woman was doing. + +'She's nearly lost,' said the old woman; 'she won't be alive at all +tomorrow morning. They have no boards to make her a coffin, and +they'll want to borrow the boards that a man below has had this two +years to bury his mother, and she alive still. I heard them saying +there are two more women with the fever, and a child that's not +three. The Lord have mercy on us all!' + +I went out again to look over the sea, but night had fallen and the +hurricane was howling over the Dun. I walked down the lane and heard +the keening in the house where the young man was. Further on I could +see a stir about the door of the cottage that had been last struck +by typhus. Then I turned back again in the teeth of the rain, and +sat over the fire with the old man and woman talking of the sorrows +of the people till it was late in the night. + +This evening the old man told me a story he had heard long ago on +the mainland:-- + +There was a young woman, he said, and she had a child. In a little +time the woman died and they buried her the day after. That night +another woman--a woman of the family--was sitting by the fire with +the child on her lap, giving milk to it out of a cup. Then the woman +they were after burying opened the door, and came into the house. +She went over to the fire, and she took a stool and sat down before +the other woman. Then she put out her hand and took the child on her +lap, and gave it her breast. After that she put the child in the +cradle and went over to the dresser and took milk and potatoes off +it, and ate them. Then she went out. The other woman was frightened, +and she told the man of the house when he came back, and two young +men. They said they would be there the next night, and if she came +back they would catch hold of her. She came the next night and gave +the child her breast, and when she got up to go to the dresser, the +man of the house caught hold of her, but he fell down on the floor. +Then the two young men caught hold of her and they held her. She +told them she was away with the fairies, and they could not keep her +that night, though she was eating no food with the fairies, the way +she might be able to come back to her child. Then she told them they +would all be leaving that part of the country on the Oidhche +Shamhna, and that there would be four or five hundred of them riding +on horses, and herself would be on a grey horse, riding behind a +young man. And she told them to go down to a bridge they would be +crossing that night, and to wait at the head of it, and when she +would be coming up she would slow the horse and they would be able +to throw something on her and on the young man, and they would fall +over on the ground and be saved. + +She went away then, and on the Oidhche Shamhna the men went down and +got her back. She had four children after that, and in the end she +died. + +It was not herself they buried at all the first time, but some old +thing the fairies put in her place. + +'There are people who say they don't believe in these things,' said +the old woman, 'but there are strange things, let them say what they +will. There was a woman went to bed at the lower village a while +ago, and her child along with her. For a time they did not sleep, +and then something came to the window, and they heard a voice and +this is what it said-- + +'"It is time to sleep from this out." + +'In the morning the child was dead, and indeed it is many get their +death that way on the island.' + +The young man has been buried, and his funeral was one of the +strangest scenes I have met with. People could be seen going down to +his house from early in the day, yet when I went there with the old +man about the middle of the afternoon, the coffin was still lying in +front of the door, with the men and women of the family standing +round beating it, and keening over it, in a great crowd of people. A +little later every one knelt down and a last prayer was said. Then +the cousins of the dead man got ready two oars and some pieces of +rope--the men of his own family seemed too broken with grief to know +what they were doing--the coffin was tied up, and the procession +began. The old woman walked close behind the coffin, and I happened +to take a place just after them, among the first of the men. The +rough lane to the graveyard slopes away towards the east, and the +crowd of women going down before me in their red dresses, cloaked +with red pethcoats, with the waistband that is held round the head +just seen from behind, had a strange effect, to which the white +coffin and the unity of colour gave a nearly cloistral quietness. + +This time the graveyard was filled with withered grass and bracken +instead of the early ferns that were to be seen everywhere at the +other funeral I have spoken of, and the grief of the people was of a +different kind, as they had come to bury a young man who had died in +his first manhood, instead of an old woman of eighty. For this +reason the keen lost a part of its formal nature, and was recited as +the expression of intense personal grief by the young men and women +of the man's own family. + +When the coffin had been laid down, near the grave that was to be +opened, two long switches were cut out from the brambles among the +rocks, and the length and breadth of the coffin were marked on them. +Then the men began their work, clearing off stones and thin layers +of earth, and breaking up an old coffin that was in the place into +which the new one had to be lowered. When a number of blackened +boards and pieces of bone had been thrown up with the clay, a skull +was lifted out, and placed upon a gravestone. Immediately the old +woman, the mother of the dead man, took it up in her hands, and +carried it away by herself. Then she sat down and put it in her +lap--it was the skull of her own mother--and began keening and +shrieking over it with the wildest lamentation. + +As the pile of mouldering clay got higher beside the grave a heavy +smell began to rise from it, and the men hurried with their work, +measuring the hole repeatedly with the two rods of bramble. When it +was nearly deep enough the old woman got up and came back to the +coffin, and began to beat on it, holding the skull in her left hand. +This last moment of grief was the most terrible of all. The young +women were nearly lying among the stones, worn out with their +passion of grief, yet raising themselves every few moments to beat +with magnificent gestures on the boards of the coffin. The young men +were worn out also, and their voices cracked continually in the wail +of the keen. + +When everything was ready the sheet was unpinned from the coffin, +and it was lowered into its place. Then an old man took a wooden +vessel with holy water in it, and a wisp of bracken, and the people +crowded round him while he splashed the water over them. They seemed +eager to get as much of it as possible, more than one old woman +crying out with a humorous voice-- + +'Tabhair dham braon eile, a Mhourteen.' ('Give me another drop, +Martin.') + +When the grave was half filled in, I wandered round towards the +north watching two seals that were chasing each other near the surf. +I reached the Sandy Head as the light began to fail, and found some +of the men I knew best fishing there with a sort of dragnet. It is a +tedious process, and I sat for a long time on the sand watching the +net being put out, and then drawn in again by eight men working +together with a slow rhythmical movement. + +As they talked to me and gave me a little poteen and a little bread +when they thought I was hungry, I could not help feeling that I was +talking with men who were under a judgment of death. I knew that +every one of them would be drowned in the sea in a few years and +battered naked on the rocks, or would die in his own cottage and be +buried with another fearful scene in the graveyard I had come from. + +When I got up this morning I found that the people had gone to Mass +and latched the kitchen door from the outside, so that I could not +open it to give myself light. + +I sat for nearly an hour beside the fire with a curious feeling that +I should be quite alone in this little cottage. I am so used to +sitting here with the people that I have never felt the room before +as a place where any man might live and work by himself. After a +while as I waited, with just light enough from the chimney to let me +see the rafters and the greyness of the walls, I became +indescribably mournful, for I felt that this little corner on the +face of the world, and the people who live in it, have a peace and +dignity from which we are shut for ever. + +While I was dreaming, the old woman came in in a great hurry and +made tea for me and the young priest, who followed her a little +later drenched with rain and spray. + +The curate who has charge of the middle and south islands has a +wearisome and dangerous task. He comes to this island or Inishere on +Saturday night--whenever the sea is calm enough--and has Mass the +first thing on Sunday morning. Then he goes down fasting and is +rowed across to the other island and has Mass again, so that it is +about midday when he gets a hurried breakfast before he sets off +again for Aranmore, meeting often on both passages a rough and +perilous sea. + +A couple of Sundays ago I was lying outside the cottage in the +sunshine smoking my pipe, when the curate, a man of the greatest +kindliness and humour, came up, wet and worn out, to have his first +meal. He looked at me for a moment and then shook his head. + +'Tell me,' he said, 'did you read your Bible this morning?' + +I answered that I had not done so. + +'Well, begod, Mr. Synge,' he went on, 'if you ever go to Heaven, +you'll have a great laugh at us.' + +Although these people are kindly towards each other and to their +children, they have no feeling for the sufferings of animals, and +little sympathy for pain when the person who feels it is not in +danger. I have sometimes seen a girl writhing and howling with +toothache while her mother sat at the other side of the fireplace +pointing at her and laughing at her as if amused by the sight. + +A few days ago, when we had been talking of the death of President +McKinley, I explained the American way of killing murderers, and a +man asked me how long the man who killed the President would be +dying. + +'While you'd be snapping your fingers,' I said. + +'Well,' said the man, 'they might as well hang him so, and not be +bothering themselves with all them wires. A man who would kill a +King or a President knows he has to die for it, and it's only giving +him the thing he bargained for if he dies easy. It would be right he +should be three weeks dying, and there'd be fewer of those things +done in the world.' + +If two dogs fight at the slip when we are waiting for the steamer, +the men are delighted and do all they can to keep up the fury of the +battle. + +They tie down donkeys' heads to their hoofs to keep them from +straying, in a way that must cause horrible pain, and sometimes when +I go into a cottage I find all the women of the place down on their +knees plucking the feathers from live ducks and geese. + +When the people are in pain themselves they make no attempt to hide +or control their feelings. An old man who was ill in the winter took +me out the other day to show me how far down the road they could +hear him yelling 'the time he had a pain in his head.' + +There was a great storm this morning, and I went up on the cliff to +sit in the shanty they have made there for the men who watch for +wrack. Soon afterwards a boy, who was out minding sheep, came up +from the west, and we had a long talk. + +He began by giving me the first connected account I have had of the +accident that happened some time ago, when the young man was drowned +on his way to the south island. + +'Some men from the south island,' he said, 'came over and bought +some horses on this island, and they put them in a hooker to take +across. They wanted a curagh to go with them to tow the horses on to +the strand, and a young man said he would go, and they could give +him a rope and tow him behind the hooker. When they were out in the +sound a wind came down on them, and the man in the curagh couldn't +turn her to meet the waves, because the hooker was pulling her and +she began filling up with water. + +'When the men in the hooker saw it they began crying out one thing +and another thing without knowing what to do. One man called out to +the man who was holding the rope: "Let go the rope now, or you'll +swamp her." + +'And the man with the rope threw it out on the water, and the curagh +half-filled already, and I think only one oar in her. A wave came +into her then, and she went down before them, and the young man +began swimming about; then they let fall the sails in the hooker the +way they could pick him up. And when they had them down they were +too far off, and they pulled the sails up again the way they could +tack back to him. He was there in the water swimming round, and +swimming round, and before they got up with him again he sank the +third time, and they didn't see any more of him.' + +I asked if anyone had seen him on the island since he was dead. + +'They have not,' he said, 'but there were queer things in it. Before +he went out on the sea that day his dog came up and sat beside him +on the rocks, and began crying. When the horses were coming down to +the slip an old woman saw her son, that was drowned a while ago, +riding on one of them, She didn't say what she was after seeing, and +this man caught the horse, he caught his own horse first, and then +he caught this one, and after that he went out and was drowned. Two +days after I dreamed they found him on the Ceann gaine (the Sandy +Head) and carried him up to the house on the plain, and took his +pampooties off him and hung them up on a nail to dry. It was there +they found him afterwards as you'll have heard them say.' + +'Are you always afraid when you hear a dog crying?' I said. + +'We don't like it,' he answered; 'you will often see them on the top +of the rocks looking up into the heavens, and they crying. We don't +like it at all, and we don't like a cock or hen to break anything in +the house, for we know then some one will be going away. A while +before the man who used to live in that cottage below died in the +winter, the cock belonging to his wife began to fight with another +cock. The two of them flew up on the dresser and knocked the glass +of the lamp off it, and it fell on the floor and was broken. The +woman caught her cock after that and killed it, but she could not +kill the other cock, for it was belonging to the man who lived in +the next house. Then himself got a sickness and died after that.' + +I asked him if he ever heard the fairy music on the island. + +'I heard some of the boys talking in the school a while ago,' he +said, 'and they were saying that their brothers and another man went +out fishing a morning, two weeks ago, before the cock crew. When +they were down near the Sandy Head they heard music near them, and +it was the fairies were in it. I've heard of other things too. One +time three men were out at night in a curagh, and they saw a big +ship coming down on them. They were frightened at it, and they tried +to get away, but it came on nearer them, till one of the men turned +round and made the sign of the cross, and then they didn't see it +any more.' + +Then he went on in answer to another question: + +'We do often see the people who do be away with them. There was a +young man died a year ago, and he used to come to the window of the +house where his brothers slept, and be talking to them in the night. +He was married a while before that, and he used to be saying in the +night he was sorry he had not promised the land to his son, and that +it was to him it should go. Another time he was saying something +about a mare, about her hoofs, or the shoes they should put on her. +A little while ago Patch Ruadh saw him going down the road with +brogaarda (leather boots) on him and a new suit. Then two men saw +him in another place. + +'Do you see that straight wall of cliff?' he went on a few minutes +later, pointing to a place below us. 'It is there the fairies do be +playing ball in the night, and you can see the marks of their heels +when you come in the morning, and three stones they have to mark the +line, and another big stone they hop the ball on. It's often the +boys have put away the three stones, and they will always be back +again in the morning, and a while since the man who owns the land +took the big stone itself and rolled it down and threw it over the +cliff, yet in the morning it was back in its place before him.' + +I am in the south island again, and I have come upon some old men +with a wonderful variety of stories and songs, the last, fairly +often, both in English and Irish, I went round to the house of one +of them to-day, with a native scholar who can write Irish, and we +took down a certain number, and heard others. Here is one of the +tales the old man told us at first before he had warmed to his +subject. I did not take it down, but it ran in this way:-- + +There was a man of the name of Charley Lambert, and every horse he +would ride in a race he would come in the first. + +The people in the country were angry with him at last, and this law +was made, that he should ride no more at races, and if he rode, any +one who saw him would have the right to shoot him. After that there +was a gentleman from that part of the country over in England, and +he was talking one day with the people there, and he said that the +horses of Ireland were the best horses. The English said it was the +English horses were the best, and at last they said there should be +a race, and the English horses would come over and race against the +horses of Ireland, and the gentleman put all his money on that race. + +Well, when he came back to Ireland he went to Charley Lambert, and +asked him to ride on his horse. Charley said he would not ride, and +told the gentleman the danger he'd be in. Then the gentleman told +him the way he had put all his property on the horse, and at last +Charley asked where the races were to be, and the hour and the day. +The gentleman told him. + +'Let you put a horse with a bridle and saddle on it every seven +miles along the road from here to the racecourse on that day,' said +Lambert, 'and I'll be in it.' + +When the gentleman was gone, Charley stripped off his clothes and +got into his bed. Then he sent for the doctor, and when he heard him +coming he began throwing about his arms the way the doctor would +think his pulse was up with the fever. + +The doctor felt his pulse and told him to stay quiet till the next +day, when he would see him again. + +The next day it was the same thing, and so on till the day of the +races. That morning Charley had his pulse beating so hard the doctor +thought bad of him. + +'I'm going to the races now, Charley,' said he, 'but I'll come in +and see you again when I'll be coming back in the evening, and let +you be very careful and quiet till you see me.' + +As soon as he had gone Charley leapt up out of bed and got on his +horse, and rode seven miles to where the first horse was waiting for +him. Then he rode that horse seven miles, and another horse seven +miles more, till he came to the racecourse. + +He rode on the gentleman's horse and he won the race. + +There were great crowds looking on, and when they saw him coming in +they said it was Charley Lambert, or the devil was in it, for there +was no one else could bring in a horse the way he did, for the leg +was after being knocked off of the horse and he came in all the +same. + +When the race was over, he got up on the horse was waiting for him, +and away with him for seven miles. Then he rode the other horse +seven miles, and his own horse seven miles, and when he got home he +threw off his clothes and lay down on his bed. + +After a while the doctor came back and said it was a great race they +were after having. + +The next day the people were saying it was Charley Lambert was the +man who rode the horse. An inquiry was held, and the doctor swore +that Charley was ill in his bed, and he had seen him before the race +and after it, so the gentleman saved his fortune. + +After that he told me another story of the same sort about a fairy +rider, who met a gentleman that was after losing all his fortune but +a shilling, and begged the shilling of him. The gentleman gave him +the shilling, and the fairy rider--a little red man--rode a horse +for him in a race, waving a red handkerchief to him as a signal when +he was to double the stakes, and made him a rich man. + +Then he gave us an extraordinary English doggerel rhyme which I took +down, though it seems singularly incoherent when written out at +length. These rhymes are repeated by the old men as a sort of chant, +and when a line comes that is more than usually irregular they seem +to take a real delight in forcing it into the mould of the +recitative. All the time he was chanting the old man kept up a kind +of snakelike movement in his body, which seemed to fit the chant and +make it part of him. + + + + + THE WHITE HORSE + + My horse he is white, + Though at first he was bay, + And he took great delight + In travelling by night + And by day. + + His travels were great + If I could but half of them tell, + He was rode in the garden by Adam, + The day that he fell. + + On Babylon plains + He ran with speed for the plate, + He was hunted next day + By Hannibal the great. + + After that he was hunted + In the chase of a fox, + When Nebuchadnezzar ate grass, + In the shape of an ox. + +We are told in the next verses of his going into the ark with Noah, +of Moses riding him through the Red Sea; then + + He was with king Pharaoh in Egypt + When fortune did smile, + And he rode him stately along + The gay banks of the Nile. + + He was with king Saul and all + His troubles went through, + He was with king David the day + That Goliath he slew. + +For a few verses he is with Juda and Maccabeus the great, with +Cyrus, and back again to Babylon. Next we find him as the horse that +came into Troy. + + When ( ) came to Troy with joy, + My horse he was found, + He crossed over the walls and entered + The city I'm told. + + I come on him again, in Spain, + And he in full bloom, + By Hannibal the great he was rode, + And he crossing the Alps into Rome. + + The horse being tall + And the Alps very high, + His rider did fall + And Hannibal the great lost an eye. + +Afterwards he carries young Sipho (Scipio), and then he is ridden by +Brian when driving the Danes from Ireland, and by St. Ruth when he +fell at the battle of Aughrim, and by Sarsfield at the siege of +Limerick. + + He was with king James who sailed + To the Irish shore, + But at last he got lame, + When the Boyne's bloody battle was o'er. + + He was rode by the greatest of men + At famed Waterloo, + Brave Daniel O'Connell he sat + On his back it is true. + + * * * * * * * + + Brave Dan's on his back, + He's ready once more for the field. + He never will stop till the Tories, + He'll make them to yield. + +Grotesque as this long rhyme appears, it has, as I said, a sort of +existence when it is crooned by the old man at his fireside, and it +has great fame in the island. The old man himself is hoping that I +will print it, for it would not be fair, he says, that it should die +out of the world, and he is the only man here who knows it, and none +of them have ever heard it on the mainland. He has a couple more +examples of the same kind of doggerel, but I have not taken them +down. + +Both in English and in Irish the songs are full of words the people +do not understand themselves, and when they come to say the words +slowly their memory is usually uncertain. + +All the morning I have been digging maidenhair ferns with a boy I +met on the rocks, who was in great sorrow because his father died +suddenly a week ago of a pain in his heart. + +'We wouldn't have chosen to lose our father for all the gold there +is in the world,' he said, 'and it's great loneliness and sorrow +there is in the house now.' + +Then he told me that a brother of his who is a stoker in the Navy +had come home a little while before his father died, and that he had +spent all his money in having a fine funeral, with plenty of drink +at it, and tobacco. + +'My brother has been a long way in the world,' he said, 'and seen +great wonders. He does be telling us of the people that do come out +to them from Italy, and Spain, and Portugal, and that it is a sort +of Irish they do be talking--not English at all--though it is only a +word here and there you'd understand.' + +When we had dug out enough of roots from the deep crannies in the +rocks where they are only to be found, I gave my companion a few +pence, and sent him back to his cottage. + +The old man who tells me the Irish poems is curiously pleased with +the translations I have made from some of them. + +He would never be tired, he says, listening while I would be reading +them, and they are much finer things than his old bits of rhyme. + +Here is one of them, as near the Irish as I am able to make it:-- + + + RUCARD MOR. + + I put the sorrow of destruction on the bad luck, + For it would be a pity ever to deny it, + It is to me it is stuck, + By loneliness my pain, my complaining. + + It is the fairy-host + Put me a-wandering + And took from me my goods of the world. + + At Mannistir na Ruaidthe + It is on me the shameless deed was done: + Finn Bheara and his fairy-host + Took my little horse on me from under the bag. + + If they left me the skin + It would bring me tobacco for three months, + But they did not leave anything with me + But the old minister in its place. + + Am not I to be pitied? + My bond and my note are on her, + And the price of her not yet paid, + My loneliness, my pain, my complaining. + + The devil a hill or a glen, or highest fort + Ever was built in Ireland, + Is not searched on me for my mare; + And I am still at my complaining. + + I got up in the morning, + I put a red spark in my pipe. + I went to the Cnoc-Maithe + To get satisfaction from them. + + I spoke to them, + If it was in them to do a right thing, + To get me my little mare, + Or I would be changing my wits. + + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor? + It is not here is your mare, + She is in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn + With the fairy-men these three months.' + + I ran on in my walking, + I followed the road straightly, + I was in Glenasmoil + Before the moon was ended. + + I spoke to the fairy-man, + If it was in him to do a right thing, + To get me my little mare, + Or I would be changing my wits. + + 'Do you hear Rucard Mor? + It is not here is your mare, + She is in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn + With the horseman of the music these three months.' + + I ran off on my walking, + I followed the road straightly, + I was in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn + With the black fall of the night. + + That is a place was a crowd + As it was seen by me, + All the weavers of the globe, + It is there you would have news of them. + + I spoke to the horseman, + If it was in him to do the right thing, + To get me my little mare, + Or I would be changing my wits. + + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor? + It is not here is your mare, + She is in Cnoc Cruachan, + In the back end of the palace.' + + I ran off on my walking, + I followed the road straightly, + I made no rest or stop + Till I was in face of the palace. + + That is the place was a crowd + As it appeared to me, + The men and women of the country, + And they all making merry. + + Arthur Scoil (?) stood up + And began himself giving the lead, + It is joyful, light and active, + I would have danced the course with them. + + They drew up on their feet + And they began to laugh,-- + 'Look at Rucard Mor, + And he looking for his little mare.' + + I spoke to the man, + And he ugly and humpy, + Unless he would get me my mare + I would break a third of his bones. + + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor? + It is not here is your mare, + She is in Alvin of Leinster, + On a halter with my mother.' + + I ran off on my walking, + And I came to Alvin of Leinster. + I met the old woman-- + On my word she was not pleasing. + + I spoke to the old woman, + And she broke out in English: + 'Get agone, you rascal, + I don't like your notions.' + + 'Do you hear, you old woman? + Keep away from me with your English, + But speak to me with the tongue + I hear from every person.' + + 'It is from me you will get word of her, + Only you come too late-- + I made a hunting cap + For Conal Cath of her yesterday.' + + I ran off on my walking, + Through roads that were cold and dirty. + I fell in with the fairy-man, + And he lying down in the Ruadthe. + + 'I pity a man without a cow, + I pity a man without a sheep, + But in the case of a man without a horse + It is hard for him to be long in the world.' + + + + +This morning, when I had been lying for a long time on a rock near +the sea watching some hooded crows that were dropping shellfish on +the rocks to break them, I saw one bird that had a large white +object which it was dropping continually without any result. I got +some stones and tried to drive it off when the thing had fallen, but +several times the bird was too quick for me and made off with it +before I could get down to him. At last, however, I dropped a stone +almost on top of him and he flew away. I clambered down hastily, and +found to my amazement a worn golf-ball! No doubt it had been brought +out in some way or other from the links in County Glare, which are +not far off, and the bird had been trying half the morning to break +it. + +Further on I had a long talk with a young man who is inquisitive +about modern life, and I explained to him an elaborate trick or +corner on the Stock Exchange that I heard of lately. When I got him +to understand it fully, he shouted with delight and amusement. + +'Well,' he said when he was quiet again, 'isn't it a great wonder to +think that those rich men are as big rogues as ourselves.' + +The old story-teller has given me a long rhyme about a man who +fought with an eagle. It is rather irregular and has some obscure +passages, but I have translated it with the scholar. + + + + + PHELIM AND THE EAGLE + + On my getting up in the morning + And I bothered, on a Sunday, + I put my brogues on me, + And I going to Tierny + In the Glen of the Dead People. + It is there the big eagle fell in with me, + He like a black stack of turf sitting up stately. + + I called him a lout and a fool, + The son of a female and a fool, + Of the race of the Clan Cleopas, the biggest rogues in the land. + That and my seven curses + And never a good day to be on you, + Who stole my little cock from me that could crow the sweetest. + + 'Keep your wits right in you + And don't curse me too greatly, + By my strength and my oath + I never took rent of you, + I didn't grudge what you would have to spare + In the house of the burnt pigeons, + It is always useful you were to men of business. + + 'But get off home + And ask Nora + What name was on the young woman that scalded his head. + The feathers there were on his ribs + Are burnt on the hearth, + And they eat him and they taking and it wasn't much were thankful.' + + 'You are a liar, you stealer, + They did not eat him, and they're taking + Nor a taste of the sort without being thankful, + You took him yesterday + As Nora told me, + And the harvest quarter will not be spent till I take a tax of you.' + + 'Before I lost the Fianna + It was a fine boy I was, + It was not about thieving was my knowledge, + But always putting spells, + Playing games and matches with the strength of Gol MacMorna, + And you are making me a rogue + At the end of my life.' + + 'There is a part of my father's books with me, + Keeping in the bottom of a box, + And when I read them the tears fall down from me. + But I found out in history + That you are a son of the Dearg Mor, + If it is fighting you want and you won't be thankful.' + + The Eagle dressed his bravery + With his share of arms and his clothes, + He had the sword that was the sharpest + Could be got anywhere. + I and my scythe with me, + And nothing on but my shirt, + We went at each other early in the day. + + We were as two giants + Ploughing in a valley in a glen of the mountains. + We did not know for the while which was the better man. + You could hear the shakes that were on our arms under each other, + From that till the sunset, + Till it was forced on him to give up. + + I wrote a 'challenge boxail' to him + On the morning of the next day, + To come till we would fight without doubt at the dawn of the day. + The second fist I drew on him I struck him on the hone of his jaw, + He fell, and it is no lie there was a cloud in his head. + + The Eagle stood up, + He took the end of my hand:-- + 'You are the finest man I ever saw in my life, + Go off home, my blessing will be on you for ever, + You have saved the fame of Eire for yourself till the Day of the Judgment.' + + Ah! neighbors, did you hear + The goodness and power of Felim? + The biggest wild beast you could get, + The second fist he drew on it + He struck it on the jaw, + It fell, and it did not rise + Till the end of two days. + +Well as I seem to know these people of the islands, there is hardly +a day that I do not come upon some new primitive feature of their +life. + +Yesterday I went into a cottage where the woman was at work and very +carelessly dressed. She waited for a while till I got into +conversation with her husband, and then she slipped into the corner +and put on a clean petticoat and a bright shawl round her neck. Then +she came back and took her place at the fire. + +This evening I was in another cottage till very late talking to the +people. When the little boy--the only child of the house--got +sleepy, the old grandmother took him on her lap and began singing to +him. As soon as he was drowsy she worked his clothes off him by +degrees, scratching him softly with her nails as she did so all over +his body. Then she washed his feet with a little water out of a pot +and put him into his bed. + +When I was going home the wind was driving the sand into my face so +that I could hardly find my way. I had to hold my hat over my mouth +and nose, and my hand over my eyes while I groped along, with my +feet feeling for rocks and holes in the sand. + +I have been sitting all the morning with an old man who was making +sugawn ropes for his house, and telling me stories while he worked. +He was a pilot when he was young, and we had great talk at first +about Germans, and Italians, and Russians, and the ways of seaport +towns. Then he came round to talk of the middle island, and he told +me this story which shows the curious jealousy that is between the +islands:-- + +Long ago we used all to be pagans, and the saints used to be coming +to teach us about God and the creation of the world. The people on +the middle island were the last to keep a hold on the fire-worshipping, +or whatever it was they had in those days, but in the long run a saint +got in among them and they began listening to him, though they would +often say in the evening they believed, and then say the morning after +that they did not believe. In the end the saint gained them over and +they began building a church, and the saint had tools that were in use +with them for working with the stones. When the church was halfway up +the people held a kind of meeting one night among themselves, when the +saint was asleep in his bed, to see if they did really believe and no +mistake in it. + +The leading man got up, and this is what he said: that they should +go down and throw their tools over the cliff, for if there was such +a man as God, and if the saint was as well known to Him as he said, +then he would be as well able to bring up the tools out of the sea +as they were to throw them in. + +They went then and threw their tools over the cliff. + +When the saint came down to the church in the morning the workmen +were all sitting on the stones and no work doing. + +'For what cause are you idle?' asked the saint. + +'We have no tools,' said the men, and then they told him the story +of what they had done. + +He kneeled down and prayed God that the tools might come up out of +the sea, and after that he prayed that no other people might ever be +as great fools as the people on the middle island, and that God +might preserve theft dark minds of folly to them fill the end of the +world. And that is why no man out of that island can tell you a +whole story without stammering, or bring any work to end without a +fault in it. + +I asked him if he had known old Pat Dirane on the middle island, and +heard the fine stories he used to tell. + +'No one knew him better than I did,' he said; 'for I do often be in +that island making curaghs for the people. One day old Pat came down +to me when I was after tarring a new curagh, and he asked me to put +a little tar on the knees of his breeches the way the rain wouldn't +come through on him. + +'I took the brush in my hand, and I had him tarred down to his feet +before he knew what I was at. "Turn round the other side now," I +said, "and you'll be able to sit where you like." Then he felt the +tar coming in hot against his skin and he began cursing my soul, and +I was sorry for the trick I'd played on him.' + +This old man was the same type as the genial, whimsical old men one +meets all through Ireland, and had none of the local characteristics +that are so marked on lnishmaan. + +When we were tired talking I showed some of my tricks and a little +crowd collected. When they were gone another old man who had come up +began telling us about the fairies. One night when he was coming +home from the lighthouse he heard a man riding on the road behind +him, and he stopped to wait for him, but nothing came. Then he heard +as if there was a man trying to catch a horse on the rocks, and in a +little time he went on. The noise behind him got bigger as he went +along as if twenty horses, and then as if a hundred or a thousand, +were galloping after him. When he came to the stile where he had to +leave the road and got out over it, something hit against him and +threw him down on the rock, and a gun he had in his hand fell into +the field beyond him. + +'I asked the priest we had at that time what was in it,' he said, +'and the priest told me it was the fallen angels; and I don't know +but it was.' + +'Another time,' he went on, 'I was coming down where there is a bit +of a cliff and a little hole under it, and I heard a flute playing +in the hole or beside it, and that was before the dawn began. +Whatever anyone says there are strange things. There was one night +thirty years ago a man came down to get my wife to go up to his +wife, for she was in childbed. + +'He was something to do with the lighthouse or the coastguard, one +of them Protestants who don't believe in any of these things and do +be making fun of us. Well, he asked me to go down and get a quart of +spirits while my wife would be getting herself ready, and he said he +would go down along with me if I was afraid. + +'I said I was not afraid, and I went by myself. + +'When I was coming back there was something on the path, and wasn't +I a foolish fellow, I might have gone to one side or the other over +the sand, but I went on straight till I was near it--till I was too +near it--then I remembered that I had heard them saying none of +those creatures can stand before you and you saying the De +Profundis, so I began saying it, and the thing ran off over the sand +and I got home. + +'Some of the people used to say it was only an old jackass that was +on the path before me, but I never heard tell of an old jackass +would run away from a man and he saying the De Profundis.' + +I told him the story of the fairy ship which had disappeared when +the man made the sign of the cross, as I had heard it on the middle +island. + +'There do be strange things on the sea,' he said. 'One night I was +down there where you can see that green point, and I saw a ship +coming in and I wondered what it would be doing coming so close to +the rocks. It came straight on towards the place I was in, and then +I got frightened and I ran up to the houses, and when the captain +saw me running he changed his course and went away. + +'Sometimes I used to go out as a pilot at that time--I went a few +times only. Well, one Sunday a man came down and said there was a +big ship coming into the sound. I ran down with two men and we went +out in a curagh; we went round the point where they said the ship +was, and there was no ship in it. As it was a Sunday we had nothing +to do, and it was a fine, calm day, so we rowed out a long way +looking for the ship, till I was further than I ever was before or +after. When I wanted to turn back we saw a great flock of birds on +the water and they all black, without a white bird through them. +They had no fear of us at all, and the men with me wanted to go up +to them, so we went further. When we were quite close they got up, +so many that they blackened the sky, and they lit down again a +hundred or maybe a hundred and twenty yards off. We went after them +again, and one of the men wanted to kill one with a thole-pin, and +the other man wanted to kill one with his rowing stick. I was afraid +they would upset the curagh, but they would go after the birds. + +'When we were quite close one man threw the pin and the other man +hit at them with his rowing stick, and the two of them fell over in +the curagh, and she turned on her side and only it was quite calm +the lot of us were drowned. + +'I think those black gulls and the ship were the same sort, and +after that I never went out again as a pilot. It is often curaghs go +out to ships and find there is no ship. + +'A while ago a curagh went out to a ship from the big island, and +there was no ship; and all the men in the curagh were drowned. A +fine song was made about them after that, though I never heard it +myself. + +'Another day a curagh was out fishing from this island, and the men +saw a hooker not far from them, and they rowed up to it to get a +light for their pipes--at that time there were no matches--and when +they up to the big boat it was gone out of its place, and they were +in great fear.' + +Then he told me a story he had got from the mainland about a man who +was driving one night through the country, and met a woman who came +up to him and asked him to take her into his cart. He thought +something was not right about her, and he went on. When he had gone +a little way he looked back, and it was a pig was on the road and +not a woman at all. + +He thought he was a done man, but he went on. When he was going +through a wood further on, two men came out to him, one from each +side of the road, and they took hold of the bridle of the horse and +led it on between them. They were old stale men with frieze clothes +on them, and the old fashions. When they came out of the wood he +found people as if there was a fair on the road, with the people +buying and selling and they not living people at all. The old men +took him through the crowd, and then they left him. When he got home +and told the old people of the two old men and the ways and fashions +they had about them, the old people told him it was his two +grandfathers had taken care of him, for they had had a great love +for him and he a lad growing up. + +This evening we had a dance in the inn parlour, where a fire had +been lighted and the tables had been pushed into the corners. There +was no master of the ceremonies, and when I had played two or three +jigs and other tunes on my fiddle, there was a pause, as I did not +know how much of my music the people wanted, or who else could be +got to sing or play. For a moment a deadlock seemed to be coming, +but a young girl I knew fairly well saw my difficulty, and took the +management of our festivities into her hands. At first she asked a +coastguard's daughter to play a reel on the mouth organ, which she +did at once with admirable spirit and rhythm. Then the little girl +asked me to play again, telling me what I should choose, and went on +in the same way managing the evening till she thought it was time to +go home. Then she stood up, thanked me in Irish, and walked out of +the door, without looking at anybody, but followed almost at once by +the whole party. + +When they had gone I sat for a while on a barrel in the public-house +talking to some young men who were reading a paper in Irish. Then I +had a long evening with the scholar and two story-tellers--both old +men who had been pilots--taking down stories and poems. We were at +work for nearly six hours, and the more matter we got the more the +old men seemed to remember. + +'I was to go out fishing tonight,' said the younger as he came in, +'but I promised you to come, and you're a civil man, so I wouldn't +take five pounds to break my word to you. And now'--taking up his +glass of whisky--'here's to your good health, and may you live till +they make you a coffin out of a gooseberry bush, or till you die in +childbed.' + +They drank my health and our work began. + +'Have you heard tell of the poet MacSweeny?' said the same man, +sitting down near me. + +'I have,' I said, 'in the town of Galway.' + +'Well,' he said, 'I'll tell you his piece "The Big Wedding," for +it's a fine piece and there aren't many that know it. There was a +poor servant girl out in the country, and she got married to a poor +servant boy. MacSweeny knew the two of them, and he was away at that +time and it was a month before he came back. When he came back he +went to see Peggy O'Hara--that was the name of the girl--and he +asked her if they had had a great wedding. Peggy said it was only +middling, but they hadn't forgotten him all the same, and she had a +bottle of whisky for him in the cupboard. He sat down by the fire +and began drinking the whisky. When he had a couple of glasses taken +and was warm by the fire, he began making a song, and this was the +song he made about the wedding of Peggy O'Hara.' + +He had the poem both in English and Irish, but as it has been found +elsewhere and attributed to another folk-poet, I need not give it. + +We had another round of porter and whisky, and then the old man who +had MacSweeny's wedding gave us a bit of a drinking song, which the +scholar took down and I translated with him afterwards:-- + +'This is what the old woman says at the Beulleaca when she sees a +man without knowledge-- + +'Were you ever at the house of the Still, did you ever get a drink +from it? Neither wine nor beer is as sweet as it is, but it is well +I was not burnt when I fell down after a drink of it by the fire of +Mr. Sloper. + +'I praise Owen O'Hernon over all the doctors of Ireland, it is he +put drugs on the water, and it lying on the barley. + +'If you gave but a drop of it to an old woman who does be walking +the world with a stick, she would think for a week that it was a +fine bed was made for her.' + +After that I had to get out my fiddle and play some tunes for them +while they finished their whisky. A new stock of porter was brought +in this morning to the little public-house underneath my room, and I +could hear in the intervals of our talk that a number of men had +come in to treat some neighbors from the middle island, and were +singing many songs, some of them in English or of the kind I have +given, but most of them in Irish. + +A little later when the party broke up downstairs my old men got +nervous about the fairies--they live some distance away--and set off +across the sandhills. + +The next day I left with the steamer. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Aran Islands, by John M. Synge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARAN ISLANDS *** + +***** This file should be named 4381.txt or 4381.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/8/4381/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/4381.zip b/4381.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6372555 --- /dev/null +++ b/4381.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8346807 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #4381 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4381) diff --git a/old/trnsl10.txt b/old/trnsl10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7f468c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/trnsl10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5947 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Aran Islands, by John M. Synge +#8 in our series by John M. Synge + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission. +The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the +information they need to understand what they may and may not +do with the etext. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get etexts, and +further information, is included below. We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: The Aran Islands + +Author: John M. Synge + +Release Date: August, 2003 [Etext# 4381] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 20, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Aran Islands, by John M. Synge +******This file should be named trnsl10.txt or trnsl10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, trnsl11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, trnsl10a.txt + +Edited by Charles Aldarondo Aldarondo@yahoo.com + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +etexts, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2001 as we release over 50 new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 4000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts. We need +funding, as well as continued efforts by volunteers, to maintain +or increase our production and reach our goals. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of November, 2001, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, +Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, +Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, +Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, +Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, +and Wyoming. + +*In Progress + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fundraising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fundraising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + + +Edited by Charles Aldarondo Aldarondo@yahoo.com + + + + +THE ARAN ISLANDS + +BY JOHN M. SYNGE + + + + + + +Introduction + + + + + +The geography of the Aran Islands is very simple, yet it may need a +word to itself. There are three islands: Aranmor, the north island, +about nine miles long; Inishmaan, the middle island, about three +miles and a half across, and nearly round in form; and the south +island, Inishere--in Irish, east island,--like the middle island but +slightly smaller. They lie about thirty miles from Galway, up the +centre of the bay, but they are not far from the cliffs of County +Clare, on the south, or the corner of Connemara on the north. + +Kilronan, the principal village on Aranmor, has been so much changed +by the fishing industry, developed there by the Congested Districts +Board, that it has now very little to distinguish it from any +fishing village on the west coast of Ireland. The other islands are +more primitive, but even on them many changes are being made, that +it was not worth while to deal with in the text. + +In the pages that follow I have given a direct account of my life on +the islands, and of what I met with among them, inventing nothing, +and changing nothing that is essential. As far as possible, however, +I have disguised the identity of the people I speak of, by making +changes in their names, and in the letters I quote, and by altering +some local and family relationships. I have had nothing to say about +them that was not wholly in their favour, but I have made this +disguise to keep them from ever feeling that a too direct use had +been made of their kindness, and friendship, for which I am more +grateful than it is easy to say. + + + + + + +Part I + + + + + +I am in Aranmor, sitting over a turf fire, listening to a murmur of +Gaelic that is rising from a little public-house under my room. + +The steamer which comes to Aran sails according to the tide, and it +was six o'clock this morning when we left the quay of Galway in a +dense shroud of mist. + +A low line of shore was visible at first on the right between the +movement of the waves and fog, but when we came further it was lost +sight of, and nothing could be seen but the mist curling in the +rigging, and a small circle of foam. + +There were few passengers; a couple of men going out with young pigs +tied loosely in sacking, three or four young girls who sat in the +cabin with their heads completely twisted in their shawls, and a +builder, on his way to repair the pier at Kilronan, who walked up +and down and talked with me. + +In about three hours Aran came in sight. A dreary rock appeared at +first sloping up from the sea into the fog; then, as we drew nearer, +a coast-guard station and the village. + +A little later I was wandering out along the one good roadway of the +island, looking over low walls on either side into small flat fields +of naked rock. I have seen nothing so desolate. Grey floods of water +were sweeping everywhere upon the limestone, making at limes a wild +torrent of the road, which twined continually over low hills and +cavities in the rock or passed between a few small fields of +potatoes or grass hidden away in corners that had shelter. Whenever +the cloud lifted I could see the edge of the sea below me on the +right, and the naked ridge of the island above me on the other side. +Occasionally I passed a lonely chapel or schoolhouse, or a line of +stone pillars with crosses above them and inscriptions asking a +prayer for the soul of the person they commemorated. + +I met few people; but here and there a band of tall girls passed me +on their way to Kilronan, and called out to me with humorous wonder, +speaking English with a slight foreign intonation that differed a +good deal from the brogue of Galway. The rain and cold seemed to +have no influence on their vitality and as they hurried past me with +eager laughter and great talking in Gaelic, they left the wet masses +of rock more desolate than before. + +A little after midday when I was coming back one old half-blind man +spoke to me in Gaelic, but, in general, I was surprised at the +abundance and fluency of the foreign tongue. + +In the afternoon the rain continued, so I sat here in the inn +looking out through the mist at a few men who were unlading hookers +that had come in with turf from Connemara, and at the long-legged +pigs that were playing in the surf. As the fishermen came in and out +of the public-house underneath my room, I could hear through the +broken panes that a number of them still used the Gaelic, though it +seems to be falling out of use among the younger people of this +village. + +The old woman of the house had promised to get me a teacher of the +language, and after a while I heard a shuffling on the stairs, and +the old dark man I had spoken to in the morning groped his way into +the room. + +I brought him over to the fire, and we talked for many hours. He +told me that he had known Petrie and Sir William Wilde, and many +living antiquarians, and had taught Irish to Dr. Finck and Dr. +Pedersen, and given stories to Mr. Curtin of America. A little after +middle age he had fallen over a cliff, and since then he had had +little eyesight, and a trembling of his hands and head. + +As we talked he sat huddled together over the fire, shaking and +blind, yet his face was indescribably pliant, lighting up with an +ecstasy of humour when he told me anything that had a point of wit +or malice, and growing sombre and desolate again when he spoke of +religion or the fairies. + +He had great confidence in his own powers and talent, and in the +superiority of his stories over all other stories in the world. When +we were speaking of Mr. Curtin, he told me that this gentleman had +brought out a volume of his Aran stories in America, and made five +hundred pounds by the sale of them. + +'And what do you think he did then?' he continued; 'he wrote a book +of his own stories after making that lot of money with mine. And he +brought them out, and the divil a half-penny did he get for them. +Would you believe that?' + +Afterwards he told me how one of his children had been taken by the +fairies. + +One day a neighbor was passing, and she said, when she saw it on the +road, 'That's a fine child.' + +Its mother tried to say 'God bless it,' but something choked the +words in her throat. + +A while later they found a wound on its neck, and for three nights +the house was filled with noises. + +'I never wear a shirt at night,' he said, 'but I got up out of my +bed, all naked as I was, when I heard the noises in the house, and +lighted a light, but there was nothing in it.' + +Then a dummy came and made signs of hammering nails in a coffin. The +next day the seed potatoes were full of blood, and the child told +his mother that he was going to America. + +That night it died, and 'Believe me,' said the old man, 'the fairies +were in it.' + +When he went away, a little bare-footed girl was sent up with turf +and the bellows to make a fire that would last for the evening. + +She was shy, yet eager to talk, and told me that she had good spoken +Irish, and was learning to read it in the school, and that she had +been twice to Galway, though there are many grown women in the place +who have never set a foot upon the mainland. + +The rain has cleared off, and I have had my first real introduction +to the island and its people. + +I went out through Killeany--the poorest village in Aranmor--to a +long neck of sandhill that runs out into the sea towards the +south-west. As I lay there on the grass the clouds lifted from the +Connemara mountains and, for a moment, the green undulating +foreground, backed in the distance by a mass of hills, reminded me +of the country near Rome. Then the dun top-sail of a hooker swept +above the edge of the sandhill and revealed the presence of the sea. + +As I moved on a boy and a man came down from the next village to +talk to me, and I found that here, at least, English was imperfectly +understood. When I asked them if there were any trees in the island +they held a hurried consultation in Gaelic, and then the man asked +if 'tree' meant the same thing as 'bush,' for if so there were a few +in sheltered hollows to the east. + +They walked on with me to the sound which separates this island from +Inishmaan--the middle island of the group--and showed me the roll +from the Atlantic running up between two walls of cliff. + +They told me that several men had stayed on Inishmaan to learn +Irish, and the boy pointed out a line of hovels where they had +lodged running like a belt of straw round the middle of the island. +The place looked hardly fit for habitation. There was no green to be +seen, and no sign of the people except these beehive-like roofs, and +the outline of a Dun that stood out above them against the edge of +the sky. + +After a while my companions went away and two other boys came and +walked at my heels, till I turned and made them talk to me. They +spoke at first of their poverty, and then one of them said--'I dare +say you do have to pay ten shillings a week in the hotel?' 'More,' +I answered. + +'Twelve?' + +'More.' + +'Fifteen?' + +'More still.' + +Then he drew back and did not question me any further, either +thinking that I had lied to check his curiosity, or too awed by my +riches to continue. + +Repassing Killeany I was joined by a man who had spent twenty years +in America, where he had lost his health and then returned, so long +ago that he had forgotten English and could hardly make me +understand him. He seemed hopeless, dirty and asthmatic, and after +going with me for a few hundred yards he stopped and asked for +coppers. I had none left, so I gave him a fill of tobacco, and he +went back to his hovel. + +When he was gone, two little girls took their place behind me and I +drew them in turn into conversation. + +They spoke with a delicate exotic intonation that was full of charm, +and told me with a sort of chant how they guide 'ladies and +gintlemins' in the summer to all that is worth seeing in their +neighbourhood, and sell them pampooties and maidenhair ferns, which +are common among the rocks. + +We were now in Kilronan, and as we parted they showed me holes in +their own pampooties, or cowskin sandals, and asked me the price of +new ones. I told them that my purse was empty, and then with a few +quaint words of blessing they turned away from me and went down to +the pier. + +All this walk back had been extraordinarily fine. The intense +insular clearness one sees only in Ireland, and after rain, was +throwing out every ripple in the sea and sky, and every crevice in +the hills beyond the bay. + +This evening an old man came to see me, and said he had known a +relative of mine who passed some time on this island forty-three +years ago. + +'I was standing under the pier-wall mending nets,' he said, 'when +you came off the steamer, and I said to myself in that moment, if +there is a man of the name of Synge left walking the world, it is +that man yonder will be he.' + +He went on to complain in curiously simple yet dignified language of +the changes that have taken place here since he left the island to +go to sea before the end of his childhood. + +'I have come back,' he said, 'to live in a bit of a house with my +sister. The island is not the same at all to what it was. It is +little good I can get from the people who are in it now, and +anything I have to give them they don't care to have.' + +From what I hear this man seems to have shut himself up in a world +of individual conceits and theories, and to live aloof at his trade +of net-mending, regarded by the other islanders with respect and +half-ironical sympathy. + +A little later when I went down to the kitchen I found two men from +Inishmaan who had been benighted on the island. They seemed a +simpler and perhaps a more interesting type than the people here, +and talked with careful English about the history of the Duns, and +the Book of Ballymote, and the Book of Kells, and other ancient +MSS., with the names of which they seemed familiar. + +In spite of the charm of my teacher, the old blind man I met the day +of my arrival, I have decided to move on to Inishmaan, where Gaelic +is more generally used, and the life is perhaps the most primitive +that is left in Europe. + +I spent all this last day with my blind guide, looking at the +antiquities that abound in the west or north-west of the island. + +As we set out I noticed among the groups of girls who smiled at our +fellowship--old Mourteen says we are like the cuckoo with its +pipit--a beautiful oval face with the singularly spiritual +expression that is so marked in one type of the West Ireland women. +Later in the day, as the old man talked continually of the fairies +and the women they have taken, it seemed that there was a possible +link between the wild mythology that is accepted on the islands and +the strange beauty of the women. + +At midday we rested near the ruins of a house, and two beautiful +boys came up and sat near us. Old Mourteen asked them why the house +was in ruins, and who had lived in it. + +'A rich farmer built it a while since,' they said, 'but after two +years he was driven away by the fairy host.' + +The boys came on with us some distance to the north to visit one of +the ancient beehive dwellings that is still in perfect preservation. +When we crawled in on our hands and knees, and stood up in the gloom +of the interior, old Mourteen took a freak of earthly humour and +began telling what he would have done if he could have come in there +when he was a young man and a young girl along with him. + +Then he sat down in the middle of the floor and began to recite old +Irish poetry, with an exquisite purity of intonation that brought +tears to my eyes though I understood but little of the meaning. + +On our way home he gave me the Catholic theory of the fairies. + +When Lucifer saw himself in the glass he thought himself equal with +God. Then the Lord threw him out of Heaven, and all the angels that +belonged to him. While He was 'chucking them out,' an archangel +asked Him to spare some of them, and those that were falling are in +the air still, and have power to wreck ships, and to work evil in +the world. + +From this he wandered off into tedious matters of theology, and +repeated many long prayers and sermons in Irish that he had heard +from the priests. + +A little further on we came to a slated house, and I asked him who +was living in it. + +'A kind of a schoolmistress,' he said; then his old face puckered +with a gleam of pagan malice. + +'Ah, master,' he said, 'wouldn't it be fine to be in there, and to +be kissing her?' + +A couple of miles from this village we turned aside to look at an +old ruined church of the Ceathair Aluinn (The Four Beautiful +Persons), and a holy well near it that is famous for cures of +blindness and epilepsy. + +As we sat near the well a very old man came up from a cottage near +the road, and told me how it had become famous. + +'A woman of Sligo had a son who was born blind, and one night she +dreamed that she saw an island with a blessed well in it that could +cure her son. She told her dream in the morning, and an old man said +it was of Aran she was after dreaming. + +'She brought her son down by the coast of Galway, and came out in a +curagh, and landed below where you see a bit of a cove. + +'She walked up then to the house of my father--God rest his +soul--and she told them what she was looking for. + +'My father said that there was a well like what she had dreamed of, +and that he would send a boy along with her to show her the way. + +"There's no need, at all," said she; "haven't I seen it all in my +dream?" + +'Then she went out with the child and walked up to this well, and +she kneeled down and began saying her prayers. Then she put her hand +out for the water, and put it on his eyes, and the moment it touched +him he called out: "O mother, look at the pretty flowers!"' + +After that Mourteen described the feats of poteen drinking and +fighting that he did in his youth, and went on to talk of Diarmid, +who was the strongest man after Samson, and of one of the beds of +Diarmid and Grainne, which is on the east of the island. He says +that Diarmid was killed by the druids, who put a burning shirt on +him,--a fragment of mythology that may connect Diarmid with the +legend of Hercules, if it is not due to the 'learning' in some +hedge-school master's ballad. + +Then we talked about Inishmaan. + +'You'll have an old man to talk with you over there,' he said, 'and +tell you stories of the fairies, but he's walking about with two +sticks under him this ten year. Did ever you hear what it is goes on +four legs when it is young, and on two legs after that, and on three +legs when it does be old?' + +I gave him the answer. + +'Ah, master,' he said, 'you're a cute one, and the blessing of God +be on you. Well, I'm on three legs this minute, but the old man +beyond is back on four; I don't know if I'm better than the way he +is; he's got his sight and I'm only an old dark man.' + +I am settled at last on Inishmaan in a small cottage with a +continual drone of Gaelic coming from the kitchen that opens into my +room. + +Early this morning the man of the house came over for me with a +four-oared curagh--that is, a curagh with four rowers and four oars +on either side, as each man uses two--and we set off a little before +noon. + +It gave me a moment of exquisite satisfaction to find myself moving +away from civilisation in this rude canvas canoe of a model that has +served primitive races since men first went to sea. + +We had to stop for a moment at a hulk that is anchored in the bay, +to make some arrangement for the fish-curing of the middle island, +and my crew called out as soon as we were within earshot that they +had a man with them who had been in France a month from this day. + +When we started again, a small sail was run up in the bow, and we +set off across the sound with a leaping oscillation that had no +resemblance to the heavy movement of a boat. + +The sail is only used as an aid, so the men continued to row after +it had gone up, and as they occupied the four cross-seats I lay on +the canvas at the stern and the frame of slender laths, which bent +and quivered as the waves passed under them. + +When we set off it was a brilliant morning of April, and the green, +glittering waves seemed to toss the canoe among themselves, yet as +we drew nearer this island a sudden thunderstorm broke out behind +the rocks we were approaching, and lent a momentary tumult to this +still vein of the Atlantic. + +We landed at a small pier, from which a rude track leads up to the +village between small fields and bare sheets of rock like those in +Aranmor. The youngest son of my boatman, a boy of about seventeen, +who is to be my teacher and guide, was waiting for me at the pier +and guided me to his house, while the men settled the curagh and +followed slowly with my baggage. + +My room is at one end of the cottage, with a boarded floor and +ceiling, and two windows opposite each other. Then there is the +kitchen with earth floor and open rafters, and two doors opposite +each other opening into the open air, but no windows. Beyond it +there are two small rooms of half the width of the kitchen with one +window apiece. + +The kitchen itself, where I will spend most of my time, is full of +beauty and distinction. The red dresses of the women who cluster +round the fire on their stools give a glow of almost Eastern +richness, and the walls have been toned by the turf-smoke to a soft +brown that blends with the grey earth-colour of the floor. Many +sorts of fishing-tackle, and the nets and oil-skins of the men, are +hung upon the walls or among the open rafters; and right overhead, +under the thatch, there is a whole cowskin from which they make +pampooties. + +Every article on these islands has an almost personal character, +which gives this simple life, where all art is unknown, something of +the artistic beauty of medieval life. The curaghs and +spinning-wheels, the tiny wooden barrels that are still much used in +the place of earthenware, the home-made cradles, churns, and +baskets, are all full of individuality, and being made from +materials that are common here, yet to some extent peculiar to the +island, they seem to exist as a natural link between the people and +the world that is about them. + +The simplicity and unity of the dress increases in another way the +local air of beauty. The women wear red petticoats and jackets of +the island wool stained with madder, to which they usually add a +plaid shawl twisted round their chests and tied at their back. When +it rains they throw another petticoat over their heads with the +waistband round their faces, or, if they are young, they use a heavy +shawl like those worn in Galway. Occasionally other wraps are worn, +and during the thunderstorm I arrived in I saw several girls with +men's waistcoats buttoned round their bodies. Their skirts do not +come much below the knee, and show their powerful legs in the heavy +indigo stockings with which they are all provided. + +The men wear three colours: the natural wool, indigo, and a grey +flannel that is woven of alternate threads of indigo and the natural +wool. In Aranmor many of the younger men have adopted the usual +fisherman's jersey, but I have only seen one on this island. + +As flannel is cheap--the women spin the yarn from the wool of their +own sheep, and it is then woven by a weaver in Kilronan for +fourpence a yard--the men seem to wear an indefinite number of +waistcoats and woollen drawers one over the other. They are usually +surprised at the lightness of my own dress, and one old man I spoke +to for a minute on the pier, when I came ashore, asked me if I was +not cold with 'my little clothes.' + +As I sat in the kitchen to dry the spray from my coat, several men +who had seen me walking up came in to me to talk to me, usually +murmuring on the threshold, 'The blessing of God on this place,' or +some similar words. + +The courtesy of the old woman of the house is singularly attractive, +and though I could not understand much of what she said--she has no +English--I could see with how much grace she motioned each visitor +to a chair, or stool, according to his age, and said a few words to +him till he drifted into our English conversation. + +For the moment my own arrival is the chief subject of interest, and +the men who come in are eager to talk to me. + +Some of them express themselves more correctly than the ordinary +peasant, others use the Gaelic idioms continually and substitute +'he' or 'she' for 'it,' as the neuter pronoun is not found in modern +Irish. + +A few of the men have a curiously full vocabulary, others know only +the commonest words in English, and are driven to ingenious devices +to express their meaning. Of all the subjects we can talk of war +seems their favourite, and the conflict between America and Spain is +causing a great deal of excitement. Nearly all the families have +relations who have had to cross the Atlantic, and all eat of the +flour and bacon that is brought from the United States, so they have +a vague fear that 'if anything happened to America,' their own +island would cease to be habitable. + +Foreign languages are another favourite topic, and as these men are +bilingual they have a fair notion of what it means to speak and +think in many different idioms. Most of the strangers they see on +the islands are philological students, and the people have been led +to conclude that linguistic studies, particularly Gaelic studies, +are the chief occupation of the outside world. + +'I have seen Frenchmen, and Danes, and Germans,' said one man, 'and +there does be a power a Irish books along with them, and they +reading them better than ourselves. Believe me there are few rich +men now in the world who are not studying the Gaelic.' + +They sometimes ask me the French for simple phrases, and when they +have listened to the intonation for a moment, most of them are able +to reproduce it with admirable precision. + +When I was going out this morning to walk round the island with +Michael, the boy who is teaching me Irish, I met an old man making +his way down to the cottage. He was dressed in miserable black +clothes which seemed to have come from the mainland, and was so bent +with rheumatism that, at a little distance, he looked more like a +spider than a human being. + +Michael told me it was Pat Dirane, the story-teller old Mourteen had +spoken of on the other island. I wished to turn back, as he appeared +to be on his way to visit me, but Michael would not hear of it. + +'He will be sitting by the fire when we come in,' he said; 'let you +not be afraid, there will be time enough to be talking to him by and +by.' + +He was right. As I came down into the kitchen some hours later old +Pat was still in the chimney-corner, blinking with the turf smoke. + +He spoke English with remarkable aptness and fluency, due, I +believe, to the months he spent in the English provinces working at +the harvest when he was a young man. + +After a few formal compliments he told me how he had been crippled +by an attack of the 'old hin' (i.e. the influenza), and had been +complaining ever since in addition to his rheumatism. + +While the old woman was cooking my dinner he asked me if I liked +stories, and offered to tell one in English, though he added, it +would be much better if I could follow the Gaelic. Then he began:-- + +There were two farmers in County Clare. One had a son, and the +other, a fine rich man, had a daughter. + +The young man was wishing to marry the girl, and his father told him +to try and get her if he thought well, though a power of gold would +be wanting to get the like of her. + +'I will try,' said the young man. + +He put all his gold into a bag. Then he went over to the other farm, +and threw in the gold in front of him. + +'Is that all gold?' said the father of the girl. + +'All gold,' said O'Conor (the young man's name was O'Conor). + +'It will not weigh down my daughter,' said the father. + +'We'll see that,' said O'Conor. + +Then they put them in the scales, the daughter in one side and the +gold in the other. The girl went down against the ground, so O'Conor +took his bag and went out on the road. + +As he was going along he came to where there was a little man, and +he standing with his back against the wall. + +'Where are you going with the bag?' said the little man. 'Going +home,' said O'Conor. + +'Is it gold you might be wanting?' said the man. 'It is, surely,' +said O'Conor. + +'I'll give you what you are wanting,' said the man, 'and we can +bargain in this way--you'll pay me back in a year the gold I give +you, or you'll pay me with five pounds cut off your own flesh.' + +That bargain was made between them. The man gave a bag of gold to +O'Conor, and he went back with it, and was married to the young +woman. + +They were rich people, and he built her a grand castle on the cliffs +of Clare, with a window that looked out straight over the wild +ocean. + +One day when he went up with his wife to look out over the wild +ocean, he saw a ship coming in on the rocks, and no sails on her at +all. She was wrecked on the rocks, and it was tea that was in her, +and fine silk. + +O'Conor and his wife went down to look at the wreck, and when the +lady O'Conor saw the silk she said she wished a dress of it. + +They got the silk from the sailors, and when the Captain came up to +get the money for it, O'Conor asked him to come again and take his +dinner with them. They had a grand dinner, and they drank after it, +and the Captain was tipsy. While they were still drinking, a letter +came to O'Conor, and it was in the letter that a friend of his was +dead, and that he would have to go away on a long journey. As he was +getting ready the Captain came to him. + +'Are you fond of your wife?' said the Captain. + +'I am fond of her,' said O'Conor. + +'Will you make me a bet of twenty guineas no man comes near her +while you'll be away on the journey?' said the Captain. + +'I will bet it,' said O'Conor; and he went away. + +There was an old hag who sold small things on the road near the +castle, and the lady O'Conor allowed her to sleep up in her room in +a big box. The Captain went down on the road to the old hag. + +'For how much will you let me sleep one night in your box?' said +the Captain. + +'For no money at all would I do such a thing,' said the hag. + +'For ten guineas?' said the Captain. + +'Not for ten guineas,' said the hag. + +'For twelve guineas?' said the Captain. + +'Not for twelve guineas,' said the hag. + +'For fifteen guineas?' said the Captain. + +'For fifteen I will do it,' said the hag. + +Then she took him up and hid him in the box. When night came the +lady O'Conor walked up into her room, and the Captain watched her +through a hole that was in the box. He saw her take off her two +rings and put them on a kind of a board that was over her head like +a chimney-piece, and take off her clothes, except her shift, and go +up into her bed. + +As soon as she was asleep the Captain came out of his box, and he +had some means of making a light, for he lit the candle. He went +over to the bed where she was sleeping without disturbing her at +all, or doing any bad thing, and he took the two rings off the +board, and blew out the light, and went down again into the box. + +He paused for a moment, and a deep sigh of relief rose from the men +and women who had crowded in while the story was going on, till the +kitchen was filled with people. + +As the Captain was coming out of his box the girls, who had appeared +to know no English, stopped their spinning and held their breath +with expectation. + +The old man went on-- + +When O'Conor came back the Captain met him, and told him that he had +been a night in his wife's room, and gave him the two rings. O'Conor +gave him the twenty guineas of the bet. Then he went up into the +castle, and he took his wife up to look out of the window over the +wild ocean. While she was looking he pushed her from behind, and she +fell down over the cliff into the sea. + +An old woman was on the shore, and she saw her falling. She went +down then to the surf and pulled her out all wet and in great +disorder, and she took the wet clothes off her, and put on some old +rags belonging to herself. + +When O'Conor had pushed his wife from the window he went away into +the land. + +After a while the lady O'Conor went out searching for him, and when +she had gone here and there a long time in the country, she heard +that he was reaping in a field with sixty men. + +She came to the field and she wanted to go in, but the gate-man +would not open the gate for her. Then the owner came by, and she +told him her story. He brought her in, and her husband was there, +reaping, but he never gave any sign of knowing her. She showed him +to the owner, and he made the man come out and go with his wife. + +Then the lady O'Conor took him out on the road where there were +horses, and they rode away. + +When they came to the place where O'Conor had met the little man, he +was there on the road before them. + +'Have you my gold on you?' said the man. + +'I have not,' said O'Conor. + +'Then you'll pay me the flesh off your body,' said the man. They +went into a house, and a knife was brought, and a clean white cloth +was put on the table, and O'Conor was put upon the cloth. + +Then the little man was going to strike the lancet into him, when +says lady O'Conor-- + +'Have you bargained for five pounds of flesh?' + +'For five pounds of flesh,' said the man. + +'Have you bargained for any drop of his blood?' said lady O'Conor. + +'For no blood,' said the man. + +'Cut out the flesh,' said lady O'Conor, 'but if you spill one drop +of his blood I'll put that through you.' And she put a pistol to his +head. + +The little man went away and they saw no more of him. + +When they got home to their castle they made a great supper, and +they invited the Captain and the old hag, and the old woman that had +pulled the lady O'Conor out of the sea. + +After they had eaten well the lady O'Conor began, and she said they +would all tell their stories. Then she told how she had been saved +from the sea, and how she had found her husband. + +Then the old woman told her story; the way she had found the lady +O'Conor wet, and in great disorder, and had brought her in and put +on her some old rags of her own. + +The lady O'Conor asked the Captain for his story; but he said they +would get no story from him. Then she took her pistol out of her +pocket, and she put it on the edge of the table, and she said that +any one that would not tell his story would get a bullet into him. + +Then the Captain told the way he had got into the box, and come over +to her bed without touching her at all, and had taken away the +rings. + +Then the lady O'Conor took the pistol and shot the hag through the +body, and they threw her over the cliff into the sea. + +That is my story. + +It gave me a strange feeling of wonder to hear this illiterate +native of a wet rock in the Atlantic telling a story that is so full +of European associations. + +The incident of the faithful wife takes us beyond Cymbeline to the +sunshine on the Arno, and the gay company who went out from Florence +to tell narratives of love. It takes us again to the low vineyards +of Wurzburg on the Main, where the same tale was told in the middle +ages, of the 'Two Merchants and the Faithful Wife of Ruprecht von +Wurzburg.' + +The other portion, dealing with the pound of flesh, has a still +wider distribution, reaching from Persia and Egypt to the Gesta +Rornanorum, and the Pecorone of Ser Giovanni, a Florentine notary. + +The present union of the two tales has already been found among the +Gaels, and there is a somewhat similar version in Campbell's Popular +Tales of the Western Highlands. + +Michael walks so fast when I am out with him that I cannot pick my +steps, and the sharp-edged fossils which abound in the limestone +have cut my shoes to pieces. + +The family held a consultation on them last night, and in the end it +was decided to make me a pair of pampooties, which I have been +wearing to-day among the rocks. + +They consist simply of a piece of raw cowskin, with the hair +outside, laced over the toe and round the heel with two ends of +fishing-line that work round and are tied above the instep. + +In the evening, when they are taken off, they are placed in a basin +of water, as the rough hide cuts the foot and stocking if it is +allowed to harden. For the same reason the people often step into +the surf during the day, so that their feet are continually moist. + +At first I threw my weight upon my heels, as one does naturally in a +boot, and was a good deal bruised, but after a few hours I learned +the natural walk of man, and could follow my guide in any portion of +the island. + +In one district below the cliffs, towards the north, one goes for +nearly a mile jumping from one rock to another without a single +ordinary step; and here I realized that toes have a natural use, for +I found myself jumping towards any tiny crevice in the rock before +me, and clinging with an eager grip in which all the muscles of my +feet ached from their exertion. + +The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these +people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general +simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of +physical perfection. Their way of life has never been acted on by +anything much more artificial than the nests and burrows of the +creatures that live round them, and they seem, in a certain sense, +to approach more nearly to the finer types of our aristocracies--who +are bred artificially to a natural ideal--than to the labourer or +citizen, as the wild horse resembles the thoroughbred rather than +the hack or cart-horse. Tribes of the same natural development are, +perhaps, frequent in half-civilized countries, but here a touch of +the refinement of old societies is blended, with singular effect, +among the qualities of the wild animal. + +While I am walking with Michael some one often comes to me to ask +the time of day. Few of the people, however, are sufficiently used +to modern time to understand in more than a vague way the convention +of the hours, and when I tell them what o'clock it is by my watch +they are not satisfied, and ask how long is left them before the +twilight. + +The general knowledge of time on the island depends, curiously +enough, on the direction of the wind. Nearly all the cottages are +built, like this one, with two doors opposite each other, the more +sheltered of which lies open all day to give light to the interior. +If the wind is northerly the south door is opened, and the shadow of +the door-post moving across the kitchen floor indicates the hour; as +soon, however, as the wind changes to the south the other door is +opened, and the people, who never think of putting up a primitive +dial, are at a loss. + +This system of doorways has another curious result. It usually +happens that all the doors on one side of the village pathway are +lying open with women sitting about on the thresholds, while on the +other side the doors are shut and there is no sign of life. The +moment the wind changes everything is reversed, and sometimes when I +come back to the village after an hour's walk there seems to have +been a general flight from one side of the way to the other. + +In my own cottage the change of the doors alters the whole tone of +the kitchen, turning it from a brilliantly-lighted room looking out +on a yard and laneway to a sombre cell with a superb view of the +sea. + +When the wind is from the north the old woman manages my meals with +fair regularity; but on the other days she often makes my tea at +three o'clock instead of six. If I refuse it she puts it down to +simmer for three hours in the turf, and then brings it in at six +o'clock full of anxiety to know if it is warm enough. + +The old man is suggesting that I should send him a clock when I go +away. He'd like to have something from me in the house, he says, the +way they wouldn't forget me, and wouldn't a clock be as handy as +another thing, and they'd be thinking of me whenever they'd look on +its face. + +The general ignorance of any precise hours in the day makes it +impossible for the people to have regular meals. + +They seem to eat together in the evening, and sometimes in the +morning, a little after dawn, before they scatter for their work, +but during the day they simply drink a cup of tea and eat a piece of +bread, or some potatoes, whenever they are hungry. + +For men who live in the open air they eat strangely little. Often +when Michael has been out weeding potatoes for eight or nine hours +without food, he comes in and eats a few slices of home-made bread, +and then he is ready to go out with me and wander for hours about +the island. + +They use no animal food except a little bacon and salt fish. The old +woman says she would be very ill if she ate fresh meat. + +Some years ago, before tea, sugar, and flour had come into general +use, salt fish was much more the staple article of diet than at +present, and, I am told, skin diseases were very common, though they +are now rare on the islands. + +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. + +One of the largest Duns, or pagan forts, on the islands, is within a +stone's throw of my cottage, and I often stroll up there after a +dinner of eggs or salt pork, to smoke drowsily on the stones. The +neighbours know my habit, and not infrequently some one wanders up +to ask what news there is in the last paper I have received, or to +make inquiries about the American war. If no one comes I prop my +book open with stones touched by the Fir-bolgs, and sleep for hours +in the delicious warmth of the sun. The last few days I have almost +lived on the round walls, for, by some miscalculation, our turf has +come to an end, and the fires are kept up with dried cow-dung--a +common fuel on the island--the smoke from which filters through into +my room and lies in blue layers above my table and bed. + +Fortunately the weather is fine, and I can spend my days in the +sunshine. When I look round from the top of these walls I can see +the sea on nearly every side, stretching away to distant ranges of +mountains on the north and south. Underneath me to the east there is +the one inhabited district of the island, where I can see red +figures moving about the cottages, sending up an occasional fragment +of conversation or of old island melodies. + +The baby is teething, and has been crying for several days. Since +his mother went to the fair they have been feeding him with cow's +milk, often slightly sour, and giving him, I think, more than he +requires. + +This morning, however, he seemed so unwell they sent out to look for +a foster-mother in the village, and before long a young woman, who +lives a little way to the east, came in and restored him to his +natural food. + +A few hours later, when I came into the kitchen to talk to old Pat, +another woman performed the same kindly office, this time a person +with a curiously whimsical expression. + +Pat told me a story of an unfaithful wife, which I will give further +down, and then broke into a moral dispute with the visitor, which +caused immense delight to some young men who had come down to listen +to the story. Unfortunately it was carried on so rapidly in Gaelic +that I lost most of the points. + +This old man talks usually in a mournful tone about his ill-health, +and his death, which he feels to be approaching, yet he has +occasional touches of humor that remind me of old Mourteen on the +north island. To-day a grotesque twopenny doll was lying on the +floor near the old woman. He picked it up and examined it as if +comparing it with her. Then he held it up: 'Is it you is after +bringing that thing into the world,' he said, 'woman of the house?' + +Here is the story:-- + +One day I was travelling on foot from Galway to Dublin, and the +darkness came on me and I ten miles from the town I was wanting to +pass the night in. Then a hard rain began to fall and I was tired +walking, so when I saw a sort of a house with no roof on it up +against the road, I got in the way the walls would give me shelter. + +As I was looking round I saw a light in some trees two perches off, +and thinking any sort of a house would be better than where I was, I +got over a wall and went up to the house to look in at the window. + +I saw a dead man laid on a table, and candles lighted, and a woman +watching him. I was frightened when I saw him, but it was raining +hard, and I said to myself, if he was dead he couldn't hurt me. Then +I knocked on the door and the woman came and opened it. + +'Good evening, ma'am,' says I. + +'Good evening kindly, stranger,' says she, 'Come in out of the +rain.' Then she took me in and told me her husband was after dying +on her, and she was watching him that night. + +'But it's thirsty you'll be, stranger,' says she, 'Come into the +parlour.' Then she took me into the parlour--and it was a fine clean +house--and she put a cup, with a saucer under it, on the table +before me with fine sugar and bread. + +When I'd had a cup of tea I went back into the kitchen where the +dead man was lying, and she gave me a fine new pipe off the table +with a drop of spirits. + +'Stranger,' says she, 'would you be afeard to be alone with himself?' + +'Not a bit in the world, ma'am,' says I; 'he that's dead can do no +hurt,' Then she said she wanted to go over and tell the neighbours +the way her husband was after dying on her, and she went out and +locked the door behind her. + +I smoked one pipe, and I leaned out and took another off the table. +I was smoking it with my hand on the back of my chair--the way you +are yourself this minute, God bless you--and I looking on the dead +man, when he opened his eyes as wide as myself and looked at me. + +'Don't be afraid, stranger,' said the dead man; 'I'm not dead at all +in the world. Come here and help me up and I'll tell you all about +it.' + +Well, I went up and took the sheet off of him, and I saw that he had +a fine clean shirt on his body, and fine flannel drawers. + +He sat up then, and says he-- + +'I've got a bad wife, stranger, and I let on to be dead the way I'd +catch her goings on.' + +Then he got two fine sticks he had to keep down his wife, and he put +them at each side of his body, and he laid himself out again as if +he was dead. + +In half an hour his wife came back and a young man along with her. +Well, she gave him his tea, and she told him he was tired, and he +would do right to go and lie down in the bedroom. + +The young man went in and the woman sat down to watch by the dead +man. A while after she got up and 'Stranger,' says she, 'I'm going +in to get the candle out of the room; I'm thinking the young man +will be asleep by this time.' She went into the bedroom, but the +divil a bit of her came back. + +Then the dead man got up, and he took one stick, and he gave the +other to myself. We went in and saw them lying together with her +head on his arm. + +The dead man hit him a blow with the stick so that the blood out of +him leapt up and hit the gallery. + +That is my story. + +In stories of this kind he always speaks in the first person, with +minute details to show that he was actually present at the scenes +that are described. + +At the beginning of this story he gave me a long account of what had +made him be on his way to Dublin on that occasion, and told me about +all the rich people he was going to see in the finest streets of the +city. + +A week of sweeping fogs has passed over and given me a strange sense +of exile and desolation. I walk round the island nearly every day, +yet I can see nothing anywhere but a mass of wet rock, a strip of +surf, and then a tumult of waves. + +The slaty limestone has grown black with the water that is dripping +on it, and wherever I turn there is the same grey obsession twining +and wreathing itself among the narrow fields, and the same wail from +the wind that shrieks and whistles in the loose rubble of the walls. + +At first the people do not give much attention to the wilderness +that is round them, but after a few days their voices sink in the +kitchen, and their endless talk of pigs and cattle falls to the +whisper of men who are telling stories in a haunted house. + +The rain continues; but this evening a number of young men were in +the kitchen mending nets, and the bottle of poteen was drawn from +its hiding-place. + +One cannot think of these people drinking wine on the summit of this +crumbling precipice, but their grey poteen, which brings a shock of +joy to the blood, seems predestined to keep sanity in men who live +forgotten in these worlds of mist. + +I sat in the kitchen part of the evening to feel the gaiety that was +rising, and when I came into my own room after dark, one of the sons +came in every time the bottle made its round, to pour me out my +share. + +It has cleared, and the sun is shining with a luminous warmth that +makes the whole island glisten with the splendor of a gem, and fills +the sea and sky with a radiance of blue light. + +I have come out to lie on the rocks where I have the black edge of +the north island in front of me, Galway Bay, too blue almost to look +at, on my right, the Atlantic on my left, a perpendicular cliff +under my ankles, and over me innumerable gulls that chase each other +in a white cirrus of wings. + +A nest of hooded crows is somewhere near me, and one of the old +birds is trying to drive me away by letting itself fall like a stone +every few moments, from about forty yards above me to within reach +of my hand. + +Gannets are passing up and down above the sound, swooping at times +after a mackerel, and further off I can see the whole fleet of +hookers coming out from Kilronan for a night's fishing in the deep +water to the west. + +As I lie here hour after hour, I seem to enter into the wild +pastimes of the cliff, and to become a companion of the cormorants +and crows. + +Many of the birds display themselves before me with the vanity of +barbarians, performing in strange evolutions as long as I am in +sight, and returning to their ledge of rock when I am gone. Some are +wonderfully expert, and cut graceful figures for an inconceivable +time without a flap of their wings, growing so absorbed in their own +dexterity that they often collide with one another in their flight, +an incident always followed by a wild outburst of abuse. Their +language is easier than Gaelic, and I seem to understand the greater +part of their cries, though I am not able to answer. There is one +plaintive note which they take up in the middle of their usual +babble with extraordinary effect, and pass on from one to another +along the cliff with a sort of an inarticulate wail, as if they +remembered for an instant the horror of the mist. + +On the low sheets of rock to the east I can see a number of red and +grey figures hurrying about their work. The continual passing in +this island between the misery of last night and the splendor of +to-day, seems to create an affinity between the moods of these +people and the moods of varying rapture and dismay that are frequent +in artists, and in certain forms of alienation. Yet it is only in +the intonation of a few sentences or some old fragment of melody +that I catch the real spirit of the island, for in general the men +sit together and talk with endless iteration of the tides and fish, +and of the price of kelp in Connemara. + +After Mass this morning an old woman was buried. She lived in the +cottage next mine, and more than once before noon I heard a faint +echo of-the keen. I did not go to the wake for fear my presence +might jar upon the mourners, but all last evening I could hear the +strokes of a hammer in the yard, where, in the middle of a little +crowd of idlers, the next of kin laboured slowly at the coffin. +To-day, before the hour for the funeral, poteen was served to a +number of men who stood about upon the road, and a portion was +brought to me in my room. Then the coffin was carried out sewn +loosely in sailcloth, and held near the ground by three cross-poles +lashed upon the top. As we moved down to the low eastern portion of +the island, nearly all the men, and all the oldest women, wearing +petticoats over their heads, came out and joined in the procession. + +While the grave was being opened the women sat down among the flat +tombstones, bordered with a pale fringe of early bracken, and began +the wild keen, or crying for the dead. Each old woman, as she took +her turn in the leading recitative, seemed possessed for the moment +with a profound ecstasy of grief, swaying to and fro, and bending +her forehead to the stone before her, while she called out to the +dead with a perpetually recurring chant of sobs. + +All round the graveyard other wrinkled women, looking out from under +the deep red petticoats that cloaked them, rocked themselves with +the same rhythm, and intoned the inarticulate chant that is +sustained by all as an accompaniment. + +The morning had been beautifully fine, but as they lowered the +coffin into the grave, thunder rumbled overhead and hailstones +hissed among the bracken. + +In Inishmaan one is forced to believe in a sympathy between man and +nature, and at this moment when the thunder sounded a death-peal of +extraordinary grandeur above the voices of the women, I could see +the faces near me stiff and drawn with emotion. + +When the coffin was in the grave, and the thunder had rolled away +across the hills of Clare, the keen broke out again more +passionately than before. + +This grief of the keen is no personal complaint for the death of one +woman over eighty years, but seems to contain the whole passionate +rage that lurks somewhere in every native of the island. In this cry +of pain the inner consciousness of the people seems to lay itself +bare for an instant, and to reveal the mood of beings who feel their +isolation in the face of a universe that wars on them with winds and +seas. They are usually silent, but in the presence of death all +outward show of indifference or patience is forgotten, and they +shriek with pitiable despair before the horror of the fate to which +they are all doomed. + +Before they covered the coffin an old man kneeled down by the grave +and repeated a simple prayer for the dead. + +There was an irony in these words of atonement and Catholic belief +spoken by voices that were still hoarse with the cries of pagan +desperation. + +A little beyond the grave I saw a line of old women who had recited +in the keen sitting in the shadow of a wall beside the roofless +shell of the church. They were still sobbing and shaken with grief, +yet they were beginning to talk again of the daily trifles that veil +from them the terror of the world. + +When we had all come out of the graveyard, and two men had rebuilt +the hole in the wall through which the coffin had been carried in, +we walked back to the village, talking of anything, and joking of +anything, as if merely coming from the boat-slip, or the pier. + +One man told me of the poteen drinking that takes place at some +funerals. + +'A while since,' he said, 'there were two men fell down in the +graveyard while the drink was on them. The sea was rough that day, +the way no one could go to bring the doctor, and one of the men +never woke again, and found death that night.' + +The other day the men of this house made a new field. There was a +slight bank of earth under the wall of the yard, and another in the +corner of the cabbage garden. The old man and his eldest son dug out +the clay, with the care of men working in a gold-mine, and Michael +packed it in panniers--there are no wheeled vehicles on this +island--for transport to a flat rock in a sheltered corner of their +holding, where it was mixed with sand and seaweed and spread out in +a layer upon the stone. + +Most of the potato-growing of the island is carried on in fields of +this sort--for which the people pay a considerable rent--and if the +season is at all dry, their hope of a fair crop is nearly always +disappointed. + +It is now nine days since rain has fallen, and the people are filled +with anxiety, although the sun has not yet been hot enough to do +harm. + +The drought is also causing a scarcity of water. There are a few +springs on this side of the island, but they come only from a little +distance, and in hot weather are not to be relied on. The supply for +this house is carried up in a water-barrel by one of the women. If +it is drawn off at once it is not very nauseous, but if it has lain, +as it often does, for some hours in the barrel, the smell, colour, +and taste are unendurable. The water for washing is also coming +short, and as I walk round the edges of the sea, I often come on a +girl with her petticoats tucked up round her, standing in a pool +left by the tide and washing her flannels among the sea-anemones and +crabs. Their red bodices and white tapering legs make them as +beautiful as tropical sea-birds, as they stand in a frame of +seaweeds against the brink of the Atlantic. Michael, however, is a +little uneasy when they are in sight, and I cannot pause to watch +them. This habit of using the sea water for washing causes a good +deal of rheumatism on the island, for the salt lies in the clothes +and keeps them continually moist. + +The people have taken advantage of this dry moment to begin the +burning of the kelp, and all the islands are lying in a volume of +grey smoke. There will not be a very large quantity this year, as +the people are discouraged by the uncertainty of the market, and do +not care to undertake the task of manufacture without a certainty of +profit. + +The work needed to form a ton of kelp is considerable. The seaweed +is collected from the rocks after the storms of autumn and winter, +dried on fine days, and then made up into a rick, where it is left +till the beginning of June. + +It is then burnt in low kilns on the shore, an affair that takes +from twelve to twenty-four hours of continuous hard work, though I +understand the people here do not manage well and spoil a portion of +what they produce by burning it more than is required. + +The kiln holds about two tons of molten kelp, and when full it is +loosely covered with stones, and left to cool. In a few days the +substance is as hard as the limestone, and has to be broken with +crowbars before it can be placed in curaghs for transport to +Kilronan, where it is tested to determine the amount of iodine +contained, and paid for accordingly. In former years good kelp would +bring seven pounds a ton, now four pounds are not always reached. + +In Aran even manufacture is of interest. The low flame-edged kiln, +sending out dense clouds of creamy smoke, with a band of red and +grey clothed workers moving in the haze, and usually some +petticoated boys and women who come down with drink, forms a scene +with as much variety and colour as any picture from the East. + +The men feel in a certain sense the distinction of their island, and +show me their work with pride. One of them said to me yesterday, +'I'm thinking you never saw the like of this work before this day?' + +'That is true,' I answered, 'I never did.' + +'Bedad, then,' he said, 'isn't it a great wonder that you've seen +France and Germany, and the Holy Father, and never seen a man making +kelp till you come to Inishmaan.' + +All the horses from this island are put out on grass among the hills +of Connemara from June to the end of September, as there is no +grazing here during the summer. + +Their shipping and transport is even more difficult than that of the +homed cattle. Most of them are wild Connemara ponies, and their +great strength and timidity make them hard to handle on the narrow +pier, while in the hooker itself it is not easy to get them safely +on their feet in the small space that is available. They are dealt +with in the same way as for the bullocks I have spoken of already, +but the excitement becomes much more intense, and the storm of +Gaelic that rises the moment a horse is shoved from the pier, till +it is safely in its place, is indescribable. Twenty boys and men +howl and scream with agitation, cursing and exhorting, without +knowing, most of the time, what they are saying. + +Apart, however, from this primitive babble, the dexterity and power +of the men are displayed to more advantage than in anything I have +seen hitherto. I noticed particularly the owner of a hooker from the +north island that was loaded this morning. He seemed able to hold up +a horse by his single weight when it was swinging from the masthead, +and preserved a humorous calm even in moments of the wildest +excitement. Sometimes a large mare would come down sideways on the +backs of the other horses, and kick there till the hold seemed to be +filled with a mass of struggling centaurs, for the men themselves +often leap down to try and save the foals from injury. The backs of +the horses put in first are often a good deal cut by the shoes of +the others that arrive on top of them, but otherwise they do not +seem to be much the worse, and as they are not on their way to a +fair, it is not of much consequence in what condition they come to +land. + +There is only one bit and saddle in the island, which are used by +the priest, who rides from the chapel to the pier when he has held +the service on Sunday. + +The islanders themselves ride with a simple halter and a stick, yet +sometimes travel, at least in the larger island, at a desperate +gallop. As the horses usually have panniers, the rider sits sideways +over the withers, and if the panniers are empty they go at full +speed in this position without anything to hold to. + +More than once in Aranmor I met a party going out west with empty +panniers from Kilronan. Long before they came in sight I could hear +a clatter of hoofs, and then a whirl of horses would come round a +corner at full gallop with their heads out, utterly indifferent to +the slender halter that is their only check. They generally travel +in single file with a few yards between them, and as there is no +traffic there is little fear of an accident. + +Sometimes a woman and a man ride together, but in this case the man +sits in the usual position, and the woman sits sideways behind him, +and holds him round the waist. + +Old Pat Dirane continues to come up every day to talk to me, and at +times I turn the conversation to his experiences of the fairies. + +He has seen a good many of them, he says, in different parts of the +island, especially in the sandy districts north of the slip. They +are about a yard high with caps like the 'peelers' pulled down over +their faces. On one occasion he saw them playing ball in the evening +just above the slip, and he says I must avoid that place in the +morning or after nightfall for fear they might do me mischief. + +He has seen two women who were 'away' with them, one a young married +woman, the other a girl. The woman was standing by a wall, at a spot +he described to me with great care, looking out towards the north + +Another night he heard a voice crying out in Irish, 'mhathair ta me +marbh' ('O mother, I'm killed'), and in the morning there was blood +on the wall of his house, and a child in a house not far off was +dead. + +Yesterday he took me aside, and said he would tell me a secret he +had never yet told to any person in the world. + +'Take a sharp needle,' he said, 'and stick it in under the collar of +your coat, and not one of them will be able to have power on you.' + +Iron is a common talisman with barbarians, but in this case the idea +of exquisite sharpness was probably present also, and, perhaps, some +feeling for the sanctity of the instrument of toil, a folk-belief +that is common in Brittany. + +The fairies are more numerous in Mayo than in any other county, +though they are fond of certain districts in Galway, where the +following story is said to have taken place. + +'A farmer was in great distress as his crops had failed, and his cow +had died on him. One night he told his wife to make him a fine new +sack for flour before the next morning; and when it was finished he +started off with it before the dawn. + +'At that time there was a gentleman who had been taken by the +fairies, and made an officer among them, and it was often people +would see him and him riding on a white horse at dawn and in the +evening. + +'The poor man went down to the place where they used to see the +officer, and when he came by on his horse, he asked the loan of two +hundred and a half of flour, for he was in great want. + +'The officer called the fairies out of a hole in the rocks where +they stored their wheat, and told them to give the poor man what he +was asking. Then he told him to come back and pay him in a year, and +rode away. + +'When the poor man got home he wrote down the day on a piece of +paper, and that day year he came back and paid the officer.' + +When he had ended his story the old man told me that the fairies +have a tenth of all the produce of the country, and make stores of +it in the rocks. + +It is a Holy Day, and I have come up to sit on the Dun while the +people are at Mass. + +A strange tranquility has come over the island this morning, as +happens sometimes on Sunday, filling the two circles of sea and sky +with the quiet of a church. + +The one landscape that is here lends itself with singular power to +this suggestion of grey luminous cloud. There is no wind, and no +definite light. Aranmor seems to sleep upon a mirror, and the hills +of Connemara look so near that I am troubled by the width of the bay +that lies before them, touched this morning with individual +expression one sees sometimes in a lake. + +On these rocks, where there is no growth of vegetable or animal +life, all the seasons are the same, and this June day is so full of +autumn that I listen unconsciously for the rustle of dead leaves. + +The first group of men are coming out of the chapel, followed by a +crowd of women, who divide at the gate and troop off in different +directions, while the men linger on the road to gossip. + +The silence is broken; I can hear far off, as if over water, a faint +murmur of Gaelic. + +In the afternoon the sun came out and I was rowed over for a visit +to Kilronan. + +As my men were bringing round the curagh to take me off a headland +near the pier, they struck a sunken rock, and came ashore shipping a +quantity of water, They plugged the hole with a piece of sacking +torn from a bag of potatoes they were taking over for the priest, +and we set off with nothing but a piece of torn canvas between us +and the Atlantic. + +Every few hundred yards one of the rowers had to stop and bail, but +the hole did not increase. + +When we were about half way across the sound we met a curagh coming +towards us with its sails set. After some shouting in Gaelic, I +learned that they had a packet of letters and tobacco for myself. We +sidled up as near as was possible with the roll, and my goods were +thrown to me wet with spray. + +After my weeks in Inishmaan, Kilronan seemed an imposing centre of +activity. The half-civilized fishermen of the larger island are +inclined to despise the simplicity of the life here, and some of +them who were standing about when I landed asked me how at all I +passed my time with no decent fishing to be looking at. + +I turned in for a moment to talk to the old couple in the hotel, and +then moved on to pay some other visits in the village. + +Later in the evening I walked out along the northern road, where I +met many of the natives of the outlying villages, who had come down +to Kilronan for the Holy Day, and were now wandering home in +scattered groups. + +The women and girls, when they had no men with them, usually tried +to make fun with me. + +'Is it tired you are, stranger?' said one girl. I was walking very +slowly, to pass the time before my return to the east. + +'Bedad, it is not, little girl,' I answered in Gaelic, 'It is lonely +I am.' + +'Here is my little sister, stranger, who will give you her arm.' + +And so it went. Quiet as these women are on ordinary occasions, when +two or three of them are gathered together in their holiday +petti-coats and shawls, they are as wild and capricious as the women +who live in towns. + +About seven o'clock I got back to Kilronan, and beat up my crew from +the public-houses near the bay. With their usual carelessness they +had not seen to the leak in the curagh, nor to an oar that was +losing the brace that holds it to the toll-pin, and we moved off +across the sound at an absurd pace with a deepening pool at our +feet. + +A superb evening light was lying over the island, which made me +rejoice at our delay. Looking back there was a golden haze behind +the sharp edges of the rock, and a long wake from the sun, which was +making jewels of the bubbling left by the oars. + +The men had had their share of porter and were unusually voluble, +pointing out things to me that I had already seen, and stopping now +and then to make me notice the oily smell of mackerel that was +rising from the waves. + +They told me that an evicting party is coming to the island tomorrow +morning, and gave me a long account of what they make and spend in a +year and of their trouble with the rent. + +'The rent is hard enough for a poor man,' said one of them, 'but +this time we didn't pay, and they're after serving processes on +every one of us. A man will have to pay his rent now, and a power of +money with it for the process, and I'm thinking the agent will have +money enough out of them processes to pay for his servant-girl and +his man all the year.' + +I asked afterwards who the island belonged to. + +'Bedad,' they said, 'we've always heard it belonged to Miss--and she +is dead.' + +When the sun passed like a lozenge of gold flame into the sea the +cold became intense. Then the men began to talk among themselves, +and losing the thread, I lay half in a dream looking at the pale +oily sea about us, and the low cliffs of the island sloping up past +the village with its wreath of smoke to the outline of Dun Conor. + +Old Pat was in the house when I arrived, and he told a long story +after supper:-- + +There was once a widow living among the woods, and her only son +living along with her. He went out every morning through the trees +to get sticks, and one day as he was lying on the ground he saw a +swarm of flies flying over what the cow leaves behind her. He took +up his sickle and hit one blow at them, and hit that hard he left no +single one of them living. + +That evening he said to his mother that it was time he was going out +into the world to seek his fortune, for he was able to destroy a +whole swarm of flies at one blow, and he asked her to make him three +cakes the way he might take them with him in the morning. + +He started the next day a while after the dawn, with his three cakes +in his wallet, and he ate one of them near ten o'clock. + +He got hungry again by midday and ate the second, and when night was +coming on him he ate the third. After that he met a man on the road +who asked him where he was going. + +'I'm looking for some place where I can work for my living,' said +the young man. + +'Come with me,' said the other man, 'and sleep to-night in the barn, +and I'll give you work to-morrow to see what you're able for.' + +The next morning the farmer brought him out and showed him his cows +and told him to take them out to graze on the hills, and to keep +good watch that no one should come near them to milk them. The young +man drove out the cows into the fields, and when the heat of the day +came on he lay down on his back and looked up into the sky. A while +after he saw a black spot in the north-west, and it grew larger and +nearer till he saw a great giant coming towards him. + +He got up on his feet and he caught the giant round the legs with +his two arms, and he drove him down into the hard ground above his +ankles, the way he was not able to free himself. Then the giant told +him to do him no hurt, and gave him his magic rod, and told him to +strike on the rock, and he would find his beautiful black horse, and +his sword, and his fine suit. + +The young man struck the rock and it opened before him, and he found +the beautiful black horse, and the giant's sword and the suit lying +before him. He took out the sword alone, and he struck one blow with +it and struck off the giant's head. Then he put back the sword into +the rock, and went out again to his cattle, till it was time to +drive them home to the farmer. + +When they came to milk the cows they found a power of milk in them, +and the farmer asked the young man if he had seen nothing out on the +hills, for the other cow-boys had been bringing home the cows with +no drop of milk in them. And the young man said he had seen nothing. + +The next day he went out again with the cows. He lay down on his +back in the heat of the day, and after a while he saw a black spot +in the north-west, and it grew larger and nearer, till he saw it was +a great giant coming to attack him. + +'You killed my brother,' said the giant; 'come here, till I make a +garter of your body.' + +The young man went to him and caught him by the legs and drove him +down into the hard ground up to his ankles. + +Then he hit the rod against the rock, and took out the sword and +struck off the giant's head. + +That evening the farmer found twice as much milk in the cows as the +evening before, and he asked the young man if he had seen anything. +The young man said that he had seen nothing. + +The third day the third giant came to him and said, 'You have killed +my two brothers; come here, till I make a garter of your body.' + +And he did with this giant as he had done with the other two, and +that evening there was so much milk in the cows it was dropping out +of their udders on the pathway. + +The next day the farmer called him and told him he might leave the +cows in the stalls that day, for there was a great curiosity to be +seen, namely, a beautiful king's daughter that was to be eaten by a +great fish, if there was no one in it that could save her. But the +young man said such a sight was all one to him, and he went out with +the cows on to the hills. When he came to the rocks he hit them with +his rod and brought out the suit and put it on him, and brought out +the sword and strapped it on his side, like an officer, and he got +on the black horse and rode faster than the wind till he came to +where the beautiful king's daughter was sitting on the shore in a +golden chair, waiting for the great fish. + +When the great fish came in on the sea, bigger than a whale, with +two wings on the back of it, the young man went down into the surf +and struck at it with his sword and cut off one of its wings. All +the sea turned red with the bleeding out of it, till it swam away +and left the young man on the shore. + +Then he turned his horse and rode faster than the wind till he came +to the rocks, and he took the suit off him and put it back in the +rocks, with the giant's sword and the black horse, and drove the +cows down to the farm. + +The man came out before him and said he had missed the greatest +wonder ever was, and that a noble person was after coming down with +a fine suit on him and cutting off one of the wings from the great +fish. + +'And there'll be the same necessity on her for two mornings more,' +said the farmer, 'and you'd do right to come and look on it.' + +But the young man said he would not come. + +The next morning he went out with his cows, and he took the sword +and the suit and the black horse out of the rock, and he rode faster +than the wind till he came where the king's daughter was sitting on +the shore. When the people saw him coming there was great wonder on +them to know if it was the same man they had seen the day before. +The king's daughter called out to him to come and kneel before her, +and when he kneeled down she took her scissors and cut off a lock of +hair from the back of his head and hid it in her clothes. + +Then the great worm came in from the sea, and he went down into the +surf and cut the other wing off from it. All the sea turned red with +the bleeding out of it, till it swam away and left them. + +That evening the farmer came out before him and told him of the +great wonder he had missed, and asked him would he go the next day +and look on it. The young man said he would not go. + +The third day he came again on the black horse to where the king's +daughter was sitting on a golden chair waiting for the great worm. +When it came in from the sea the young man went down before it, and +every time it opened its mouth to eat him, he struck into its mouth, +till his sword went out through its neck, and it rolled back and +died. + +Then he rode off faster than the wind, and he put the suit and the +sword and the black horse into the rock, and drove home the cows. + +The farmer was there before him and he told him that there was to be +a great marriage feast held for three days, and on the third day the +king's daughter would be married to the man that killed the great +worm, if they were able to find him. + +A great feast was held, and men of great strength came and said it +was themselves were after killing the great worm. + +But on the third day the young man put on the suit, and strapped the +sword to his side like an officer, and got on the black horse and +rode faster than the wind, till he came to the palace. + +The king's daughter saw him, and she brought him in and made him +kneel down before her. Then she looked at the back of his head and +saw the place where she had cut off the lock with her own hand. She +led him in to the king, and they were married, and the young man was +given all the estate. + +That is my story. + +Two recent attempts to carry out evictions on the island came to +nothing, for each time a sudden storm rose, by, it is said, the +power of a native witch, when the steamer was approaching, and made +it impossible to land. + +This morning, however, broke beneath a clear sky of June, and when I +came into the open air the sea and rocks were shining with wonderful +brilliancy. Groups of men, dressed in their holiday clothes, were +standing about, talking with anger and fear, yet showing a lurking +satisfaction at the thought of the dramatic pageant that was to +break the silence of the seas. + +About half-past nine the steamer came in sight, on the narrow line +of sea-horizon that is seen in the centre of the bay, and +immediately a last effort was made to hide the cows and sheep of the +families that were most in debt. + +Till this year no one on the island would consent to act as bailiff, +so that it was impossible to identify the cattle of the defaulters. +Now however, a man of the name of Patrick has sold his honour, and +the effort of concealment is practically futile. + +This falling away from the ancient loyalty of the island has caused +intense indignation, and early yesterday morning, while I was +dreaming on the Dun, this letter was nailed on the doorpost of the +chapel:-- + +'Patrick, the devil, a revolver is waiting for you. If you are +missed with the first shot, there will be five more that will hit +you. + +'Any man that will talk with you, or work with you, or drink a pint +of porter in your shop, will be done with the same way as yourself.' + +As the steamer drew near I moved down with the men to watch the +arrival, though no one went further than about a mile from the +shore. + +Two curaghs from Kilronan with a man who was to give help in +identifying the cottages, the doctor, and the relieving officer, +were drifting with the tide, unwilling to come to land without the +support of the larger party. When the anchor had been thrown it gave +me a strange throb of pain to see the boats being lowered, and the +sunshine gleaming on the rifles and helmets of the constabulary who +crowded into them. + +Once on shore the men were formed in close marching order, a word +was given, and the heavy rhythm of their boots came up over the +rocks. We were collected in two straggling bands on either side of +the roadway, and a few moments later the body of magnificent armed +men passed close to us, followed by a low rabble, who had been +brought to act as drivers for the sheriff. + +After my weeks spent among primitive men this glimpse of the newer +types of humanity was not reassuring. Yet these mechanical police, +with the commonplace agents and sheriffs, and the rabble they had +hired, represented aptly enough the civilisation for which the homes +of the island were to be desecrated. + +A stop was made at one of the first cottages in the village, and the +day's work began. Here, however, and at the next cottage, a +compromise was made, as some relatives came up at the last moment +and lent the money that was needed to gain a respite. + +In another case a girl was ill in the house, so the doctor +interposed, and the people were allowed to remain after a merely +formal eviction. About midday, however, a house was reached where +there was no pretext for mercy, and no money could be procured. At a +sign from the sheriff the work of carrying out the beds and utensils +was begun in the middle of a crowd of natives who looked on in +absolute silence, broken only by the wild imprecations of the woman +of the house. She belonged to one of the most primitive families on +the island, and she shook with uncontrollable fury as she saw the +strange armed men who spoke a language she could not understand +driving her from the hearth she had brooded on for thirty years. For +these people the outrage to the hearth is the supreme catastrophe. +They live here in a world of grey, where there are wild rains and +mists every week in the year, and their warm chimney corners, filled +with children and young girls, grow into the consciousness of each +family in a way it is not easy to understand in more civilised +places. + +The outrage to a tomb in China probably gives no greater shock to +the Chinese than the outrage to a hearth in Inishmaan gives to the +people. + +When the few trifles had been carried out, and the door blocked with +stones, the old woman sat down by the threshold and covered her head +with her shawl. + +Five or six other women who lived close by sat down in a circle +round her, with mute sympathy. Then the crowd moved on with the +police to another cottage where the same scene was to take place, +and left the group of desolate women sitting by the hovel. + +There were still no clouds in the sky and the heat was intense. The +police when not in motion lay sweating and gasping under the walls +with their tunics unbuttoned. They were not attractive, and I kept +comparing them with the islandmen, who walked up and down as cool +and fresh-looking as the sea-gulls. + +When the last eviction had been carried out a division was made: +half the party went off with the bailiff to search the inner plain +of the island for the cattle that had been hidden in the morning, +the other half remained on the village road to guard some pigs that +had already been taken possession of. + +After a while two of these pigs escaped from the drivers and began a +wild race up and down the narrow road. The people shrieked and +howled to increase their terror, and at last some of them became so +excited that the police thought it time to interfere. They drew up +in double line opposite the mouth of a blind laneway where the +animals had been shut up. A moment later the shrieking began again +in the west and the two pigs came in sight, rushing down the middle +of the road with the drivers behind them. + +They reached the line of the police. There was a slight scuffle, and +then the pigs continued their mad rush to the east, leaving three +policemen lying in the dust. + +The satisfaction of the people was immense. They shrieked and hugged +each other with delight, and it is likely that they will hand down +these animals for generations in the tradition of the island. + +Two hours later the other party returned, driving three lean cows +before them, and a start was made for the slip. At the public-house +the policemen were given a drink while the dense crowd that was +following waited in the lane. The island bull happened to be in a +field close by, and he became wildly excited at the sight of the +cows and of the strangely-dressed men. Two young islanders sidled up +to me in a moment or two as I was resting on a wall, and one of them +whispered in my ear--'Do you think they could take fines of us if we +let out the bull on them?' + +In face of the crowd of women and children, I could only say it was +probable, and they slunk off. + +At the slip there was a good deal of bargaining, which ended in all +the cattle being given back to their owners. It was plainly of no +use to take them away, as they were worth nothing. + +When the last policeman had embarked, an old woman came forward from +the crowd and, mounting on a rock near the slip, began a fierce +rhapsody in Gaelic, pointing at the bailiff and waving her withered +arms with extraordinary rage. + +'This man is my own son,' she said; 'it is I that ought to know him. +He is the first ruffian in the whole big world.' + +Then she gave an account of his life, coloured with a vindictive +fury I cannot reproduce. As she went on the excitement became so +intense I thought the man would be stoned before he could get back +to his cottage. + +On these islands the women live only for their children, and it is +hard to estimate the power of the impulse that made this old woman +stand out and curse her son. + +In the fury of her speech I seem to look again into the strangely +reticent temperament of the islanders, and to feel the passionate +spirit that expresses itself, at odd moments only, with magnificent +words and gestures. + +Old Pat has told me a story of the goose that lays the golden eggs, +which he calls the Phoenix:-- + +A poor widow had three sons and a daughter. One day when her sons +were out looking for sticks in the wood they saw a fine speckled +bird flying in the trees. The next day they saw it again, and the +eldest son told his brothers to go and get sticks by themselves, for +he was going after the bird. + +He went after it, and brought it in with him when he came home in +the evening. They put it in an old hencoop, and they gave it some of +the meal they had for themselves;--I don't know if it ate the meal, +but they divided what they had themselves; they could do no more. + +That night it laid a fine spotted egg in the basket. The next night +it laid another. + +At that time its name was on the papers and many heard of the bird +that laid the golden eggs, for the eggs were of gold, and there's no +lie in it. + +When the boys went down to the shop the next day to buy a stone of +meal, the shopman asked if he could buy the bird of them. Well, it +was arranged in this way. The shopman would marry the boys' +sister--a poor simple girl without a stitch of good clothes--and get +the bird with her. + +Some time after that one of the boys sold an egg of the bird to a +gentleman that was in the country. The gentleman asked him if he had +the bird still. He said that the man who had married his sister was +after getting it. + +'Well,' said the gentleman, 'the man who eats the heart of that bird +will find a purse of gold beneath him every morning, and the man who +eats its liver will be king of Ireland.' + +The boy went out--he was a simple poor fellow--and told the shopman. + +Then the shopman brought in the bird and killed it, and he ate the +heart himself and he gave the liver to his wife. + +When the boy saw that, there was great anger on him, and he went +back and told the gentleman. + +'Do what I'm telling you,' said the gentleman. 'Go down now and tell +the shopman and his wife to come up here to play a game of cards +with me, for it's lonesome I am this evening.' + +When the boy was gone he mixed a vomit and poured the lot of it into +a few naggins of whiskey, and he put a strong cloth on the table +under the cards. + +The man came up with his wife and they began to play. + +The shopman won the first game and the gentleman made them drink a +sup of the whiskey. + +They played again and the shopman won the second game. Then the +gentleman made him drink a sup more of the whiskey. + +As they were playing the third game the shopman and his wife got +sick on the cloth, and the boy picked it up and carried it into the +yard, for the gentleman had let him know what he was to do. Then he +found the heart of the bird and he ate it, and the next morning when +he turned in his bed there was a purse of gold under him. + +That is my story. + +When the steamer is expected I rarely fail to visit the boat-slip, +as the men usually collect when she is in the offing, and lie +arguing among their curaghs till she has made her visit to the south +island, and is seen coming towards us. + +This morning I had a long talk with an old man who was rejoicing +over the improvement he had seen here during the last ten or fifteen +years. + +Till recently there was no communication with the mainland except by +hookers, which were usually slow, and could only make the voyage in +tolerably fine weather, so that if an islander went to a fair it was +often three weeks before he could return. Now, however, the steamer +comes here twice in the week, and the voyage is made in three or +four hours. + +The pier on this island is also a novelty, and is much thought of, +as it enables the hookers that still carry turf and cattle to +discharge and take their cargoes directly from the shore. The water +round it, however, is only deep enough for a hooker when the tide is +nearly full, and will never float the steamer, so passengers must +still come to land in curaghs. The boat-slip at the corner next the +south island is extremely useful in calm weather, but it is exposed +to a heavy roll from the south, and is so narrow that the curaghs +run some danger of missing it in the tumult of the surf. + +In bad weather four men will often stand for nearly an hour at the +top of the slip with a curagh in their hands, watching a point of +rock towards the south where they can see the strength of the waves +that are coming in. + +The instant a break is seen they swoop down to the surf, launch +their curagh, and pull out to sea with incredible speed. Coming to +land Is attended with the same difficulty, and, if their moment is +badly chosen, they are likely to be washed sideways and swamped +among the rocks. + +This continual danger, which can only be escaped by extraordinary +personal dexterity, has had considerable influence on the local +character, as the waves have made it impossible for clumsy, +foolhardy, or timid men to live on these islands. + +When the steamer is within a mile of the slip, the curaghs are put +out and range themselves--there are usually from four to a dozen--in +two lines at some distance from the shore. + +The moment she comes in among them there is a short but desperate +struggle for good places at her side. The men are lolling on their +oars talking with the dreamy tone which comes with the rocking of +the waves. The steamer lies to, and in an instant their faces become +distorted with passion, while the oars bend and quiver with the +strain. For one minute they seem utterly indifferent to their own +safety and that of their friends and brothers. Then the sequence is +decided, and they begin to talk again with the dreamy tone that is +habitual to them, while they make fast and clamber up into the +steamer. + +While the curaghs are out I am left with a few women and very old +men who cannot row. One of these old men, whom I often talk with, +has some fame as a bone-setter, and is said to have done remarkable +cures, both here and on the mainland. Stories are told of how he has +been taken off by the quality in their carriages through the hills +of Connemara, to treat their sons and daughters, and come home with +his pockets full of money. + +Another old man, the oldest on the island, is fond of telling me +anecdotes--not folktales--of things that have happened here in his +lifetime. + +He often tells me about a Connaught man who killed his father with +the blow of a spade when he was in passion, and then fled to this +island and threw himself on the mercy of some of the natives with +whom he was said to be related. They hid him in a hole--which the +old man has shown me--and kept him safe for weeks, though the police +came and searched for him, and he could hear their boots grinding on +the stones over his head. In spite of a reward which was offered, +the island was incorruptible, and after much trouble the man was +safely shipped to America. + +This impulse to protect the criminal is universal in the west. It +seems partly due to the association between justice and the hated +English jurisdiction, but more directly to the primitive feeling of +these people, who are never criminals yet always capable of crime, +that a man will not do wrong unless he is under the influence of a +passion which is as irresponsible as a storm on the sea. If a man +has killed his father, and is already sick and broken with remorse, +they can see no reason why he should be dragged away and killed by +the law. + +Such a man, they say, will be quiet all the rest of his life, and if +you suggest that punishment is needed as an example, they ask, +'Would any one kill his father if he was able to help it?' + +Some time ago, before the introduction of police, all the people of +the islands were as innocent as the people here remain to this day. +I have heard that at that time the ruling proprietor and magistrate +of the north island used to give any man who had done wrong a letter +to a jailer in Galway, and send him off by himself to serve a term +of imprisonment. + +As there was no steamer, the ill-doer was given a passage in some +chance hooker to the nearest point on the mainland. Then he walked +for many miles along a desolate shore till he reached the town. When +his time had been put through he crawled back along the same route, +feeble and emaciated, and had often to wait many weeks before he +could regain the island. Such at least is the story. + +It seems absurd to apply the same laws to these people and to the +criminal classes of a city. The most intelligent man on Inishmaan +has often spoken to me of his contempt of the law, and of the +increase of crime the police have brought to Aranmor. On this +island, he says, if men have a little difference, or a little fight, +their friends take care it does not go too far, and in a little time +it is forgotten. In Kilronan there is a band of men paid to make out +cases for themselves; the moment a blow is struck they come down and +arrest the man who gave it. The other man he quarreled with has to +give evidence against him; whole families come down to the court and +swear against each other till they become bitter enemies. If there +is a conviction the man who is convicted never forgives. He waits +his time, and before the year is out there is a cross summons, which +the other man in turn never forgives. The feud continues to grow, +till a dispute about the colour of a man's hair may end in a murder, +after a year's forcing by the law. The mere fact that it is +impossible to get reliable evidence in the island--not because the +people are dishonest, but because they think the claim of kinship +more sacred than the claims of abstract truth--turns the whole +system of sworn evidence into a demoralising farce, and it is easy +to believe that law dealings on this false basis must lead to every +sort of injustice. + +While I am discussing these questions with the old men the curaghs +begin to come in with cargoes of salt, and flour, and porter. + +To-day a stir was made by the return of a native who had spent five +years in New York. He came on shore with half a dozen people who had +been shopping on the mainland, and walked up and down on the slip in +his neat suit, looking strangely foreign to his birthplace, while +his old mother of eighty-five ran about on the slippery seaweed, +half crazy with delight, telling every one the news. + +When the curaghs were in their places the men crowded round him to +bid him welcome. He shook hands with them readily enough, but with +no smile of recognition. + +He is said to be dying. + +Yesterday--a Sunday--three young men rowed me over to Inisheer, the +south island of the group. + +The stern of the curagh was occupied, so I was put in the bow with +my head on a level with the gunnel. A considerable sea was running +in the sound, and when we came out from the shelter of this island, +the curagh rolled and vaulted in a way not easy to describe. + +At one moment, as we went down into the furrow, green waves curled +and arched themselves above me; then in an instant I was flung up +into the air and could look down on the heads of the rowers, as if +we were sitting on a ladder, or out across a forest of white crests +to the black cliff of Inishmaan. + +The men seemed excited and uneasy, and I thought for a moment that +we were likely to be swamped. In a little while, however I realised +the capacity of the curagh to raise its head among the waves, and +the motion became strangely exhilarating. Even, I thought, if we +were dropped into the blue chasm of the waves, this death, with the +fresh sea saltness in one's teeth, would be better than most deaths +one is likely to meet. + +When we reached the other island, it was raining heavily, so that we +could not see anything of the antiquities or people. + +For the greater part of the afternoon we sat on the tops of empty +barrels in the public-house, talking of the destiny of Gaelic. We +were admitted as travellers, and the shutters of the shop were +closed behind us, letting in only a glimmer of grey light, and the +tumult of the storm. Towards evening it cleared a little and we came +home in a calmer sea, but with a dead head-wind that gave the rowers +all they could do to make the passage. + +On calm days I often go out fishing with Michael. When we reach the +space above the slip where the curaghs are propped, bottom upwards, +on the limestone, he lifts the prow of the one we are going to +embark in, and I slip underneath and set the centre of the foremost +seat upon my neck. Then he crawls under the stern and stands up with +the last seat upon his shoulders. We start for the sea. The long +prow bends before me so that I see nothing but a few yards of +shingle at my feet. A quivering pain runs from the top of my spine +to the sharp stones that seem to pass through my pampooties, and +grate upon my ankles. We stagger and groan beneath the weight; but +at last our feet reach the slip, and we run down with a half-trot +like the pace of bare-footed children. + +A yard from the sea we stop and lower the curagh to the right. It +must be brought down gently--a difficult task for our strained and +aching muscles--and sometimes as the gunnel reaches the slip I lose +my balance and roll in among the seats. + +Yesterday we went out in the curagh that had been damaged on the day +of my visit to Kilronan, and as we were putting in the oars the +freshly-tarred patch stuck to the slip which was heated with the +sunshine. We carried up water in the bailer--the 'supeen,' a shallow +wooden vessel like a soup-plate--and with infinite pains we got free +and rode away. In a few minutes, however, I found the water spouting +up at my feet. + +The patch had been misplaced, and this time we had no sacking. +Michael borrowed my pocket scissors, and with admirable rapidity cut +a square of flannel from the tail of his shirt and squeezed it into +the hole, making it fast with a splint which he hacked from one of +the oars. + +During our excitement the tide had carried us to the brink of the +rocks, and I admired again the dexterity with which he got his oars +into the water and turned us out as we were mounting on a wave that +would have hurled us to destruction. + +With the injury to our curagh we did not go far from the shore. +After a while I took a long spell at the oars, and gained a certain +dexterity, though they are not easy to manage. The handles overlap +by about six inches--in order to gain leverage, as the curagh is +narrow--and at first it was almost impossible to avoid striking the +upper oar against one's knuckles. The oars are rough and square, +except at the ends, so one cannot do so with impunity. Again, a +curagh with two light people in it floats on the water like a +nut-shell, and the slightest inequality in the stroke throws the +prow round at least a right angle from its course. In the first +half-hour I found myself more than once moving towards the point I +had come from, greatly to Michael's satisfaction. + +This morning we were out again near the pier on the north side of +the island. As we paddled slowly with the tide, trolling for +pollock, several curaghs, weighed to the gunnel with kelp, passed us +on their way to Kilronan. + +An old woman, rolled in red petticoats, was sitting on a ledge of +rock that runs into the sea at the point where the curaghs were +passing from the south, hailing them in quavering Gaelic, and asking +for a passage to Kilronan. + +The first one that came round without a cargo turned in from some +distance and took her away. + +The morning had none of the supernatural beauty that comes over the +island so often in rainy weather, so we basked in the vague +enjoyment of the sunshine, looking down at the wild luxuriance of +the vegetation beneath the sea, which contrasts strangely with the +nakedness above it. + +Some dreams I have had in this cottage seem to give strength to the +opinion that there is a psychic memory attached to certain +neighbourhoods. + +Last night, after walking in a dream among buildings with strangely +intense light on them, I heard a faint rhythm of music beginning far +away on some stringed instrument. + +It came closer to me, gradually increasing in quickness and volume +with an irresistibly definite progression. When it was quite near +the sound began to move in my nerves and blood, and to urge me to +dance with them. + +I knew that if I yielded I would be carried away to some moment of +terrible agony, so I struggled to remain quiet, holding my knees +together with my hands. + +The music increased continually, sounding like the strings of harps, +tuned to a forgotten scale, and having a resonance as searching as +the strings of the cello. + +Then the luring excitement became more powerful than my will, and my +limbs moved in spite of me. + +In a moment I was swept away in a whirlwind of notes. My breath and +my thoughts and every impulse of my body, became a form of the +dance, till I could not distinguish between the instruments and the +rhythm and my own person or consciousness. + +For a while it seemed an excitement that was filled with joy, then +it grew into an ecstasy where all existence was lost in a vortex of +movement. I could not think there had ever been a life beyond the +whirling of the dance. + +Then with a shock the ecstasy turned to an agony and rage. I +Struggled to free myself, but seemed only to increase the passion of +the steps I moved to. When I shrieked I could only echo the notes of +the rhythm. + +At last with a moment of uncontrollable frenzy I broke back to +consciousness and awoke. + +I dragged myself trembling to the window of the cottage and looked +out. The moon was glittering across the bay, and there was no sound +anywhere on the island. + +I am leaving in two days, and old Pat Dirane has bidden me goodbye. +He met me in the village this morning and took me into 'his little +tint,' a miserable hovel where he spends the night. + +I sat for a long time on his threshold, while he leaned on a stool +behind me, near his bed, and told me the last story I shall have +from him--a rude anecdote not worth recording. Then he told me with +careful emphasis how he had wandered when he was a young man, and +lived in a fine college, teaching Irish to the young priests! + +They say on the island that he can tell as many lies as four men: +perhaps the stories he has learned have strengthened his +imagination. When I stood up in the doorway to give him God's +blessing, he leaned over on the straw that forms his bed, and shed +tears. Then he turned to me again, lifting up one trembling hand, +with the mitten worn to a hole on the palm, from the rubbing of his +crutch. + +'I'll not see you again,' he said, with tears trickling on his face, +'and you're a kindly man. When you come back next year I won't be in +it. I won't live beyond the winter. But listen now to what I'm +telling you; let you put insurance on me in the city of Dublin, and +it's five hundred pounds you'll get on my burial.' + +This evening, my last in the island, is also the evening of the +'Pattern'--a festival something like 'Pardons' of Brittany. + +I waited especially to see it, but a piper who was expected did not +come, and there was no amusement. A few friends and relations came +over from the other island and stood about the public-house in their +best clothes, but without music dancing was impossible. + +I believe on some occasions when the piper is present there is a +fine day of dancing and excitement, but the Galway piper is getting +old, and is not easily induced to undertake the voyage. + +Last night, St. John's Eve, the fires were lighted and boys ran +about with pieces of the burning turf, though I could not find out +if the idea of lighting the house fires from the bonfires is still +found on the island. + +I have come out of an hotel full of tourists and commercial +travelers, to stroll along the edge of Galway bay, and look out in +the direction of the islands. The sort of yearning I feel towards +those lonely rocks is indescribably acute. This town, that is +usually so full of wild human interest, seems in my present mood a +tawdry medley of all that is crudest in modern life. The nullity of +the rich and the squalor of the poor give me the same pang of +wondering disgust; yet the islands are fading already and I can +hardly realise that the smell of the seaweed and the drone of the +Atlantic are still moving round them. + +One of my island friends has written to me:-- + +DEAR JOHN SYNGE,--I am for a long time expecting a letter from you +and I think you are forgetting this island altogether. + +Mr.--died a long time ago on the big island and his boat was on +anchor in the harbour and the wind blew her to Black Head and broke +her up after his death. + +Tell me are you learning Irish since you went. We have a branch of +the Gaelic League here now and the people is going on well with the +Irish and reading. + +I will write the next letter in Irish to you. Tell me will you come +to see us next year and if you will you'll write a letter before +you. All your loving friends is well in health.--Mise do chara go +huan. + +Another boy I sent some baits to has written to me also, beginning +his letter in Irish and ending it in English:-- + +DEAR JOHN,--I got your letter four days ago, and there was pride and +joy on me because it was written in Irish, and a fine, good, +pleasant letter it was. The baits you sent are very good, but I lost +two of them and half my line. A big fish came and caught the bait, +and the line was bad and half of the line and the baits went away. +My sister has come back from America, but I'm thinking it won't be +long till she goes away again, for it is lonesome and poor she finds +the island now.--I am your friend. ... + +Write soon and let you write in Irish, if you don't I won't look on +it. + + + + + + +Part II + + + + + +THE evening before I returned to the west I wrote to Michael--who +had left the islands to earn his living on the mainland--to tell him +that I would call at the house where he lodged the next morning, +which was a Sunday. + +A young girl with fine western features, and little English, came +out when I knocked at the door. She seemed to have heard all about +me, and was so filled with the importance of her message that she +could hardly speak it intelligibly. + +'She got your letter,' she said, confusing the pronouns, as is often +done in the west, 'she is gone to Mass, and she'll be in the square +after that. Let your honour go now and sit in the square, and Michael +will find you.' + +As I was returning up the main street I met Michael wandering down +to meet me, as he had got tired of waiting. + +He seemed to have grown a powerful man since I had seen him, and was +now dressed in the heavy brown flannels of the Connaught labourer. +After a little talk we turned back together and went out on the +sandhills above the town. Meeting him here a little beyond the +threshold of my hotel I was singularly struck with the refinement of +his nature, which has hardly been influenced by his new life, and +the townsmen and sailors he has met with. + +'I do often come outside the town on Sunday,' he said while we were +talking, 'for what is there to do in a town in the middle of all the +people when you are not at your work?' + +A little later another Irish-speaking labourer--a friend of +Michael's--joined us, and we lay for hours talking and arguing on +the grass. The day was unbearably sultry, and the sand and the sea +near us were crowded with half-naked women, but neither of the young +men seemed to be aware of their presence. Before we went back to the +town a man came out to ring a young horse on the sand close to where +we were lying, and then the interest of my companions was intense. + +Late in the evening I met Michael again, and we wandered round the +bay, which was still filled with bathing women, until it was quite +dark, I shall not see him again before my return from the islands, +as he is busy to-morrow, and on Tuesday I go out with the steamer. + +I returned to the middle island this morning, in the steamer to +Kilronan, and on here in a curagh that had gone over with salt fish. +As I came up from the slip the doorways in the village filled with +women and children, and several came down on the roadway to shake +hands and bid me a thousand welcomes. + +Old Pat Dirane is dead, and several of my friends have gone to +America; that is all the news they have to give me after an absence +of many months. + +When I arrived at the cottage I was welcomed by the old people, and +great excitement was made by some little presents I had bought +them--a pair of folding scissors for the old woman, a strop for her +husband, and some other trifles. + +Then the youngest son, Columb, who is still at home, went into the +inner room and brought out the alarm clock I sent them last year +when I went away. + +'I am very fond of this clock,' he said, patting it on the back; 'it +will ring for me any morning when I want to go out fishing. Bedad, +there are no two clocks in the island that would be equal to it.' + +I had some photographs to show them that I took here last year, and +while I was sitting on a little stool near the door of the kitchen, +showing them to the family, a beautiful young woman I had spoken to +a few times last year slipped in, and after a wonderfully simple and +cordial speech of welcome, she sat down on the floor beside me to +look on also. + +The complete absence of shyness or self-consciousness in most of +these people gives them a peculiar charm, and when this young and +beautiful woman leaned across my knees to look nearer at some +photograph that pleased her, I felt more than ever the strange +simplicity of the island life. + +Last year when I came here everything was new, and the people were a +little strange with me, but now I am familiar with them and their +way of life, so that their qualities strike me more forcibly than +before. + +When my photographs of this island had been examined with immense +delight, and every person in them had been identified--even those +who only showed a hand or a leg--I brought out some I had taken in +County Wicklow. Most of them were fragments, showing fairs in +Rathdrum or Aughrim, men cutting turf on the hills, or other scenes +of inland life, yet they gave the greatest delight to these people +who are wearied of the sea. + +This year I see a darker side of life in the islands. The sun seldom +shines, and day after day a cold south-western wind blows over the +cliffs, bringing up showers of hail and dense masses of cloud. + +The sons who are at home stay out fishing whenever it is tolerably +calm, from about three in the morning till after nightfall, yet they +earn little, as fish are not plentiful. + +The old man fishes also with a long rod and ground-bait, but as a +rule has even smaller success. + +When the weather breaks completely, fishing is abandoned, and they +both go down and dig potatoes in the rain. The women sometimes help +them, but their usual work is to look after the calves and do their +spinning in the house. + +There is a vague depression over the family this year, because of +the two sons who have gone away, Michael to the mainland, and +another son, who was working in Kilronan last year, to the United +States. + +A letter came yesterday from Michael to his mother. It was written +in English, as he is the only one of the family who can read or +write in Irish, and I heard it being slowly spelled out and +translated as I sat in my room. A little later the old woman brought +it in for me to read. + +He told her first about his work, and the wages he is getting. Then +he said that one night he had been walking in the town, and had +looked up among the streets, and thought to himself what a grand +night it would be on the Sandy Head of this island--not, he added, +that he was feeling lonely or sad. At the end he gave an account, +with the dramatic emphasis of the folk-tale, of how he had met me on +the Sunday morning, and, 'believe me,' he said, 'it was the fine +talk we had for two hours or three.' He told them also of a knife I +had given him that was so fine, no one on the island 'had ever seen +the like of her.' + +Another day a letter came from the son who is in America, to say +that he had had a slight accident to one of his arms, but was well +again, and that he was leaving New York and going a few hundred +miles up the country. + +All the evening afterwards the old woman sat on her stool at the +corner of the fire with her shawl over her head, keening piteously +to herself. America appeared far away, yet she seems to have felt +that, after all, it was only the other edge of the Atlantic, and now +when she hears them talking of railroads and inland cities where +there is no sea, things she cannot understand, it comes home to her +that her son is gone for ever. She often tells me how she used to +sit on the wall behind the house last year and watch the hooker he +worked in coming out of Kilronan and beating up the sound, and what +company it used to be to her the time they'd all be out. + +The maternal feeling is so powerful on these islands that it gives a +life of torment to the women. Their sons grow up to be banished as +soon as they are of age, or to live here in continual danger on the +sea; their daughters go away also, or are worn out in their youth +with bearing children that grow up to harass them in their own turn +a little later. + +There has been a storm for the last twenty-four hours, and I have +been wandering on the cliffs till my hair is stiff with salt. +Immense masses of spray were flying up from the base of the cliff, +and were caught at times by the wind and whirled away to fall at +some distance from the shore. When one of these happened to fall on +me, I had to crouch down for an instant, wrapped and blinded by a +white hail of foam. + +The waves were so enormous that when I saw one more than usually +large coming towards me, I turned instinctively to hide myself, as +one blinks when struck upon the eyes. + +After a few hours the mind grows bewildered with the endless change +and struggle of the sea, and an utter despondency replaces the first +moment of exhilaration. + +At the south-west corner of the island I came upon a number of +people gathering the seaweed that is now thick on the rocks. It was +raked from the surf by the men, and then carried up to the brow of +the cliff by a party of young girls. + +In addition to their ordinary clothing these girls wore a raw +sheepskin on their shoulders, to catch the oozing sea-water, and +they looked strangely wild and seal-like with the salt caked upon +their lips and wreaths of seaweed in their hair. + +For the rest of my walk I saw no living thing but one flock of +curlews, and a few pipits hiding among the stones. + +About the sunset the clouds broke and the storm turned to a +hurricane. Bars of purple cloud stretched across the sound where +immense waves were rolling from the west, wreathed with snowy +phantasies of spray. Then there was the bay full of green delirium, +and the Twelve Pins touched with mauve and scarlet in the east. + +The suggestion from this world of inarticulate power was immense, +and now at midnight, when the wind is abating, I am still trembling +and flushed with exultation. + +I have been walking through the wet lanes in my pampooties in spite +of the rain, and I have brought on a feverish cold. + +The wind is terrific. If anything serious should happen to me I +might die here and be nailed in my box, and shoved down into a wet +crevice in the graveyard before any one could know it on the +mainland. + +Two days ago a curagh passed from the south island--they can go out +when we are weather-bound because of a sheltered cove in their +island--it was thought in search of the Doctor. It became too rough +afterwards to make the return journey, and it was only this morning +we saw them repassing towards the south-east in a terrible sea. + +A four-oared curagh with two men in her besides the rowers-- +probably the Priest and the Doctor--went first, followed by the +three-oared curagh from the south island, which ran more danger. +Often when they go for the Doctor in weather like this, they bring +the Priest also, as they do not know if it will be possible to go +for him if he is needed later. + +As a rule there is little illness, and the women often manage their +confinements among themselves without any trained assistance. In +most cases all goes well, but at times a curagh is sent off in +desperate haste for the Priest and the Doctor when it is too late. + +The baby that spent some days here last year is now established in +the house; I suppose the old woman has adopted him to console +herself for the loss of her own sons. + +He is now a well-grown child, though not yet able to say more than a +few words of Gaelic. His favourite amusement is to stand behind the +door with a stick, waiting for any wandering pig or hen that may +chance to come in, and then to dash out and pursue them. There are +two young kittens in the kitchen also, which he ill-treats, without +meaning to do them harm. + +Whenever the old woman comes into my room with turf for the fire, he +walks in solemnly behind her with a sod under each arm, deposits +them on the back of the fire with great care, and then flies off +round the corner with his long petticoats trailing behind him. + +He has not yet received any official name on the island, as he has +not left the fireside, but in the house they usually speak of him as +'Michaeleen beug' (i.e. 'little small-Michael'). + +Now and then he is slapped, but for the most part the old woman +keeps him in order with stories of 'the long-toothed hag,' that +lives in the Dun and eats children who are not good. He spends half +his day eating cold potatoes and drinking very strong tea, yet seems +in perfect health. + +An Irish letter has come to me from Michael. I will translate it +literally. + +DEAR NOBLE PERSON,--I write this letter with joy and pride that you +found the way to the house of my father the day you were on the +steamship. I am thinking there will not be loneliness on you, for +there will be the fine beautiful Gaelic League and you will be +learning powerfully. + +I am thinking there is no one in life walking with you now but your +own self from morning till night, and great is the pity. + +What way are my mother and my three brothers and my sisters, and do +not forget white Michael, and the poor little child and the old grey +woman, and Rory. I am getting a forgetfulness on all my friends and +kindred.--I am your friend ... + +It is curious how he accuses himself of forgetfulness after asking +for all his family by name. I suppose the first home-sickness is +wearing away and he looks on his independent wellbeing as a treason +towards his kindred. + +One of his friends was in the kitchen when the letter was brought to +me, and, by the old man's wish, he read it out loud as soon as I had +finished it. When he came to the last sentence he hesitated for a +moment, and then omitted it altogether. + +This young man had come up to bring me a copy of the 'Love Songs of +Connaught,' which he possesses, and I persuaded him to read, or +rather chant me some of them. When he had read a couple I found that +the old woman knew many of them from her childhood, though her +version was often not the same as what was in the book. She was +rocking herself on a stool in the chimney corner beside a pot of +indigo, in which she was dyeing wool, and several times when the +young man finished a poem she took it up again and recited the +verses with exquisite musical intonation, putting a wistfulness and +passion into her voice that seemed to give it all the cadences that +are sought in the profoundest poetry. + +The lamp had burned low, and another terrible gale was howling and +shrieking over the island. It seemed like a dream that I should be +sitting here among these men and women listening to this rude and +beautiful poetry that is filled with the oldest passions of the +world. + +The horses have been coming back for the last few days from their +summer's grazing in Connemara. They are landed at the sandy beach +where the cattle were shipped last year, and I went down early this +morning to watch their arrival through the waves. The hooker was +anchored at some distance from the shore, but I could see a horse +standing at the gunnel surrounded by men shouting and flipping at it +with bits of rope. In a moment it jumped over into the sea, and some +men, who were waiting for it in a curagh, caught it by the halter +and towed it to within twenty yards of the surf. Then the curagh +turned back to the hooker, and the horse was left to make its own +way to the land. + +As I was standing about a man came up to me and asked after the +usual salutations:-- + +'Is there any war in the world at this time, noble person?' I told +him something of the excitement in the Transvaal, and then another +horse came near the waves and I passed on and left him. + +Afterwards I walked round the edge of the sea to the pier, where a +quantity of turf has recently been brought in. It is usually left +for some time stacked on the sandhills, and then carried up to the +cottages in panniers slung on donkeys or any horses that are on the +island. + +They have been busy with it the last few weeks, and the track from +the village to the pier has been filled with lines of +red-petticoated boys driving their donkeys before them, or cantering +down on their backs when the panniers are empty. + +In some ways these men and women seem strangely far away from me. +They have the same emotions that I have, and the animals have, yet I +cannot talk to them when there is much to say, more than to the dog +that whines beside me in a mountain fog. + +There is hardly an hour I am with them that I do not feel the shock +of some inconceivable idea, and then again the shock of some vague +emotion that is familiar to them and to me. On some days I feel this +island as a perfect home and resting place; on other days I feel +that I am a waif among the people. I can feel more with them than +they can feel with me, and while I wander among them, they like me +sometimes, and laugh at me sometimes, yet never know what I am +doing. + +In the evenings I sometimes meet with a girl who is not yet half +through her teens, yet seems in some ways more consciously developed +than any one else that I have met here. She has passed part of her +life on the mainland, and the disillusion she found in Galway has +coloured her imagination. + +As we sit on stools on either side of the fire I hear her voice +going backwards and forwards in the same sentence from the gaiety of +a child to the plaintive intonation of an old race that is worn with +sorrow. At one moment she is a simple peasant, at another she seems +to be looking out at the world with a sense of prehistoric +disillusion and to sum up in the expression of her grey-blue eyes +the whole external despondency of the clouds and sea. + +Our conversation is usually disjointed. One evening we talked of a +town on the mainland. + +'Ah, it's a queer place,' she said: 'I wouldn't choose to live in +it. It's a queer place, and indeed I don't know the place that +isn't.' + +Another evening we talked of the people who live on the island or +come to visit it. + +'Father is gone,' she said; 'he was a kind man but a queer man. +Priests is queer people, and I don't know who isn't.' + +Then after a long pause she told me with seriousness, as if speaking +of a thing that surprised herself, and should surprise me, that she +was very fond of the boys. + +In our talk, which is sometimes full of the innocent realism of +childhood, she is always pathetically eager to say the right thing +and be engaging. + +One evening I found her trying to light a fire in the little side +room of her cottage, where there is an ordinary fireplace. I went in +to help her and showed her how to hold up a paper before the mouth +of the chimney to make a draught, a method she had never seen. Then +I told her of men who live alone in Paris and make their own fires +that they may have no one to bother them. She was sitting in a heap +on the floor staring into the turf, and as I finished she looked up +with surprise. + +'They're like me so,' she said; 'would anyone have thought that!' + +Below the sympathy we feel there is still a chasm between us. + +'Musha,' she muttered as I was leaving her this evening, 'I think +it's to hell you'll be going by and by.' + +Occasionally I meet her also in the kitchen where young men go to +play cards after dark and a few girls slip in to share the +amusement. At such times her eyes shine in the light of the candles, +and her cheeks flush with the first tumult of youth, till she hardly +seems the same girl who sits every evening droning to herself over +the turf. + +A branch of the Gaelic League has been started here since my last +visit, and every Sunday afternoon three little girls walk through +the village ringing a shrill hand-bell, as a signal that the women's +meeting is to be held,--here it would be useless to fix an hour, as +the hours are not recognized. + +Soon afterwards bands of girls--of all ages from five to +twenty-five--begin to troop down to the schoolhouse in their reddest +Sunday petticoats. It is remarkable that these young women are +willing to spend their one afternoon of freedom in laborious studies +of orthography for no reason but a vague reverence for the Gaelic. +It is true that they owe this reverence, or most of it, to the +influence of some recent visitors, yet the fact that they feel such +an influence so keenly is itself of interest. + +In the older generation that did not come under the influence of the +recent language movement, I do not see any particular affection for +Gaelic. Whenever they are able, they speak English to their +children, to render them more capable of making their way in life. +Even the young men sometimes say to me-- + +'There's very hard English on you, and I wish to God I had the like +of it.' + +The women are the great conservative force in this matter of the +language. They learn a little English in school and from their +parents, but they rarely have occasion to speak with any one who is +not a native of the islands, so their knowledge of the foreign +tongue remains rudimentary. In my cottage I have never heard a word +of English from the women except when they were speaking to the pigs +or to the dogs, or when the girl was reading a letter in English. +Women, however, with a more assertive temperament, who have had, +apparently, the same opportunities, often attain a considerable +fluency, as is the case with one, a relative of the old woman of the +house, who often visits here. + +In the boys' school, where I sometimes look in, the children +surprise me by their knowledge of English, though they always speak +in Irish among themselves. The school itself is a comfortless +building in a terribly bleak position. In cold weather the children +arrive in the morning with a sod of turf tied up with their books, a +simple toll which keeps the fire well supplied, yet, I believe, a +more modern method is soon to be introduced. + +I am in the north island again, looking out with a singular +sensation to the cliffs across the sound. It is hard to believe that +those hovels I can just see in the south are filled with people +whose lives have the strange quality that is found in the oldest +poetry and legend. Compared with them the falling off that has come +with the increased prosperity of this island is full of +discouragement. The charm which the people over there share with the +birds and flowers has been replaced here by the anxiety of men who +are eager for gain. The eyes and expression are different, though +the faces are the same, and even the children here seem to have an +indefinable modern quality that is absent from the men of Inishmaan. + +My voyage from the middle island was wild. The morning was so +stormy, that in ordinary circumstances I would not have attempted +the passage, but as I had arranged to travel with a curagh that was +coming over for the Parish Priest--who is to hold stations on +Inishmaan--I did not like to draw back. + +I went out in the morning and walked up the cliffs as usual. Several +men I fell in with shook their heads when I told them I was going +away, and said they doubted if a curagh could cross the sound with +the sea that was in it. + +When I went back to the cottage I found the Curate had just come +across from the south island, and had had a worse passage than any +he had yet experienced. + +The tide was to turn at two o'clock, and after that it was thought +the sea would be calmer, as the wind and the waves would be running +from the same point. We sat about in the kitchen all the morning, +with men coming in every few minutes to give their opinion whether +the passage should be attempted, and at what points the sea was +likely to be at its worst. + +At last it was decided we should go, and I started for the pier in a +wild shower of rain with the wind howling in the walls. The +schoolmaster and a priest who was to have gone with me came out as I +was passing through the village and advised me not to make the +passage; but my crew had gone on towards the sea, and I thought it +better to go after them. The eldest son of the family was coming +with me, and I considered that the old man, who knew the waves +better than I did, would not send out his son if there was more than +reasonable danger. + +I found my crew waiting for me under a high wall below the village, +and we went on together. The island had never seemed so desolate. +Looking out over the black limestone through the driving rain to the +gulf of struggling waves, an indescribable feeling of dejection came +over me. + +The old man gave me his view of the use of fear. + +'A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned,' he said, +'for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't. But we do be afraid +of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again.' + +A little crowd of neighbours had collected lower down to see me off, +and as we crossed the sandhills we had to shout to each other to be +heard above the wind. + +The crew carried down the curagh and then stood under the lee of the +pier tying on their hats with strings and drawing on their oilskins. + +They tested the braces of the oars, and the oarpins, and everything +in the curagh with a care I had not seen them give to anything, then +my bag was lifted in, and we were ready. Besides the four men of the +crew a man was going with us who wanted a passage to this island. As +he was scrambling into the bow, an old man stood forward from the +crowd. + +'Don't take that man with you,' he said. 'Last week they were taking +him to Clare and the whole lot of them were near drownded. Another +day he went to Inisheer and they broke three ribs of the curagh, and +they coming back. There is not the like of him for ill-luck in the +three islands.' + +'The divil choke your old gob,' said the man, 'you will be talking.' + +We set off. It was a four-oared curagh, and I was given the last +seat so as to leave the stern for the man who was steering with an +oar, worked at right angles to the others by an extra thole-pin in +the stern gunnel. + +When we had gone about a hundred yards they ran up a bit of a sail +in the bow and the pace became extraordinarily rapid. + +The shower had passed over and the wind had fallen, but large, +magnificently brilliant waves were rolling down on us at right +angles to our course. + +Every instant the steersman whirled us round with a sudden stroke of +his oar, the prow reared up and then fell into the next furrow with +a crash, throwing up masses of spray. As it did so, the stern in its +turn was thrown up, and both the steersman, who let go his oar and +clung with both hands to the gunnel, and myself, were lifted high up +above the sea. + +The wave passed, we regained our course and rowed violently for a +few yards, then the same manoeuvre had to be repeated. As we worked +out into the sound we began to meet another class of waves, that +could be seen for some distance towering above the rest. + +When one of these came in sight, the first effort was to get beyond +its reach. The steersman began crying out in Gaelic, 'Siubhal, +siubhal' ('Run, run'), and sometimes, when the mass was gliding +towards us with horrible speed, his voice rose to a shriek. Then the +rowers themselves took up the cry, and the curagh seemed to leap and +quiver with the frantic terror of a beast till the wave passed +behind it or fell with a crash beside the stern. + +It was in this racing with the waves that our chief danger lay. If +the wave could be avoided, it was better to do so, but if it +overtook us while we were trying to escape, and caught us on the +broadside, our destruction was certain. I could see the steersman +quivering with the excitement of his task, for any error in his +judgment would have swamped us. + +We had one narrow escape. A wave appeared high above the rest, and +there was the usual moment of intense exertion. It was of no use, +and in an instant the wave seemed to be hurling itself upon us. With +a yell of rage the steersman struggled with his oar to bring our +prow to meet it. He had almost succeeded, when there was a crash and +rush of water round us. I felt as if I had been struck upon the back +with knotted ropes. White foam gurgled round my knees and eyes. The +curagh reared up, swaying and trembling for a moment, and then fell +safely into the furrow. + +This was our worst moment, though more than once, when several waves +came so closely together that we had no time to regain control of +the canoe between them, we had some dangerous work. Our lives +depended upon the skill and courage of the men, as the life of the +rider or swimmer is often in his own hands, and the excitement was +too great to allow time for fear. + +I enjoyed the passage. Down in this shallow trough of canvas that +bent and trembled with the motion of the men, I had a far more +intimate feeling of the glory and power of the waves than I have +ever known in a steamer. + +Old Mourteen is keeping me company again, and I am now able to +understand the greater part of his Irish. + +He took me out to-day to show me the remains of some cloghauns, or +beehive dwellings, that are left near the central ridge of the +island. After I had looked at them we lay down in the corner of a +little field, filled with the autumn sunshine and the odour of +withering flowers, while he told me a long folk-tale which took more +than an hour to narrate. + +He is so blind that I can gaze at him without discourtesy, and after +a while the expression of his face made me forget to listen, and I +lay dreamily in the sunshine letting the antique formulas of the +story blend with the suggestions from the prehistoric masonry I lay +on. The glow of childish transport that came over him when he +reached the nonsense ending--so common in these tales--recalled me +to myself, and I listened attentively while he gabbled with +delighted haste: 'They found the path and I found the puddle. They +were drowned and I was found. If it's all one to me tonight, it +wasn't all one to them the next night. Yet, if it wasn't itself, not +a thing did they lose but an old back tooth '--or some such +gibberish. + +As I led him home through the paths he described to me--it is thus +we get along--lifting him at times over the low walls he is too +shaky to climb, he brought the conversation to the topic they are +never weary of--my views on marriage. + +He stopped as we reached the summit of the island, with the stretch +of the Atlantic just visible behind him. + +'Whisper, noble person,' he began, 'do you never be thinking on the +young girls? The time I was a young man, the devil a one of them +could I look on without wishing to marry her.' + +'Ah, Mourteen,' I answered, 'it's a great wonder you'd be asking me. +What at all do you think of me yourself?' + +'Bedad, noble person, I'm thinking it's soon you'll be getting +married. Listen to what I'm telling you: a man who is not married is +no better than an old jackass. He goes into his sister's house, and +into his brother's house; he eats a bit in this place and a bit in +another place, but he has no home for himself like an old jackass +straying on the rocks.' + +I have left Aran. The steamer had a more than usually heavy cargo, +and it was after four o'clock when we sailed from Kilronan. + +Again I saw the three low rocks sink down into the sea with a moment +of inconceivable distress. It was a clear evening, and as we came +out into the bay the sun stood like an aureole behind the cliffs of +Inishmaan. A little later a brilliant glow came over the sky, +throwing out the blue of the sea and of the hills of Connemara. + +When it was quite dark, the cold became intense, and I wandered +about the lonely vessel that seemed to be making her own way across +the sea. I was the only passenger, and all the crew, except one boy +who was steering, were huddled together in the warmth of the +engine-room. + +Three hours passed, and no one stirred. The slowness of the vessel +and the lamentation of the cold sea about her sides became almost +unendurable. Then the lights of Galway came in sight, and the crew +appeared as we beat up slowly to the quay. + +Once on shore I had some difficulty in finding any one to carry my +baggage to the railway. When I found a man in the darkness and got +my bag on his shoulders, he turned out to be drunk, and I had +trouble to keep him from rolling from the wharf with all my +possessions. He professed to be taking me by a short cut into the +town, but when we were in the middle of a waste of broken buildings +and skeletons of ships he threw my bag on the ground and sat down on +it. + +'It's real heavy she is, your honour,' he said; 'I'm thinking it's +gold there will be in it.' + +'Divil a hap'worth is there in it at all but books,' I answered him +in Gaelic. + +'Bedad, is mor an truaghe' ('It's a big pity'), he said; 'if it was +gold was in it it's the thundering spree we'd have together this +night in Galway.' + +In about half an hour I got my luggage once more on his back, and we +made our way into the city. + +Later in the evening I went down towards the quay to look for +Michael. As I turned into the narrow street where he lodges, some +one seemed to be following me in the shadow, and when I stopped to +find the number of his house I heard the 'Failte' (Welcome) of +Inishmaan pronounced close to me. + +It was Michael. + +'I saw you in the street,' he said, 'but I was ashamed to speak to +you in the middle of the people, so I followed you the way I'd see +if you'd remember me.' + +We turned back together and walked about the town till he had to go +to his lodgings. He was still just the same, with all his old +simplicity and shrewdness; but the work he has here does not agree +with him, and he is not contented. + +It was the eve of the Parnell celebration in Dublin, and the town +was full of excursionists waiting for a train which was to start at +midnight. When Michael left me I spent some time in an hotel, and +then wandered down to the railway. + +A wild crowd was on the platform, surging round the train in every +stage of intoxication. It gave me a better instance than I had yet +seen of the half-savage temperament of Connaught. The tension of +human excitement seemed greater in this insignificant crowd than +anything I have felt among enormous mobs in Rome or Paris. + +There were a few people from the islands on the platform, and I got +in along with them to a third-class carriage. One of the women of +the party had her niece with her, a young girl from Connaught who +was put beside me; at the other end of the carriage there were some +old men who were talking Irish, and a young man who had been a +sailor. + +When the train started there were wild cheers and cries on the +platform, and in the train itself the noise was intense; men and +women shrieking and singing and beating their sticks on the +partitions. At several stations there was a rush to the bar, so the +excitement increased as we proceeded. + +At Ballinasloe there were some soldiers on the platform looking for +places. The sailor in our compartment had a dispute with one of +them, and in an instant the door was flung open and the compartment +was filled with reeling uniforms and sticks. Peace was made after a +moment of uproar and the soldiers got out, but as they did so a pack +of their women followers thrust their bare heads and arms into the +doorway, cursing and blaspheming with extraordinary rage. + +As the train moved away a moment later, these women set up a frantic +lamentation. I looked out and caught a glimpse of the wildest heads +and figures I have ever seen, shrieking and screaming and waving +their naked arms in the light of the lanterns. + +As the night went on girls began crying out in the carriage next us, +and I could hear the words of obscene songs when the train stopped +at a station. + +In our own compartment the sailor would allow no one to sleep, and +talked all night with sometimes a touch of wit or brutality and +always with a beautiful fluency with wild temperament behind it. + +The old men in the corner, dressed in black coats that had something +of the antiquity of heirlooms, talked all night among themselves in +Gaelic. The young girl beside me lost her shyness after a while, and +let me point out the features of the country that were beginning to +appear through the dawn as we drew nearer Dublin. She was delighted +with the shadows of the trees--trees are rare in Connaught--and +with the canal, which was beginning to reflect the morning light. +Every time I showed her some new shadow she cried out with naive +excitement-- + +'Oh, it's lovely, but I can't see it.' + +This presence at my side contrasted curiously with the brutality +that shook the barrier behind us. The whole spirit of the west of +Ireland, with its strange wildness and reserve, seemed moving in +this single train to pay a last homage to the dead statesman of the +east. + + + + + + +Part III + + + + + +A LETTER HAS come from Michael while I am in Paris. It is in +English. + +MY DEAR FRIEND,--I hope that you are in good health since I have +heard from you before, its many a time I do think of you since and +it was not forgetting you I was for the future. + +I was at home in the beginning of March for a fortnight and was very +bad with the Influence, but I took good care of myself. + +I am getting good wages from the first of this year, and I am afraid +I won't be able to stand with it, although it is not hard, I am +working in a saw-mills and getting the money for the wood and +keeping an account of it. + +I am getting a letter and some news from home two or three times a +week, and they are all well in health, and your friends in the +island as well as if I mentioned them. + +Did you see any of my friends in Dublin Mr.--or any of those +gentlemen or gentlewomen. + +I think I soon try America but not until next year if I am alive. + +I hope we might meet again in good and pleasant health. + +It is now time to come to a conclusion, good-bye and not for ever, +write soon--I am your friend in Galway. + +Write soon dear friend. + +Another letter in a more rhetorical mood. + +MY DEAR MR. S.,--I am for a long time trying to spare a little time +for to write a few words to you. + +Hoping that you are still considering good and pleasant health since +I got a letter from you before. + +I see now that your time is coming round to come to this place to +learn your native language. There was a great Feis in this island +two weeks ago, and there was a very large attendance from the South +island, and not very many from the North. + +Two cousins of my own have been in this house for three weeks or +beyond it, but now they are gone, and there is a place for you if +you wish to come, and you can write before you and we'll try and +manage you as well as we can. + +I am at home now for about two months, for the mill was burnt where +I was at work. After that I was in Dublin, but I did not get my +health in that city.--Mise le mor mheas ort a chara. + +Soon after I received this letter I wrote to Michael to say that I +was going back to them. This time I chose a day when the steamer +went direct to the middle island, and as we came up between the two +lines of curaghs that were waiting outside the slip, I saw Michael, +dressed once more in his island clothes, rowing in one of them. + +He made no sign of recognition, but as soon as they could get +alongside he clambered on board and came straight up on the bridge +to where I was. + +'Bhfuil tu go maith?' ('Are you well?') he said. 'Where is your +bag?' + +His curagh had got a bad place near the bow of the steamer, so I was +slung down from a considerable height on top of some sacks of flour +and my own bag, while the curagh swayed and battered itself against +the side. + +When we were clear I asked Michael if he had got my letter. + +'Ah no,' he said, 'not a sight of it, but maybe it will come next +week.' + +Part of the slip had been washed away during the winter, so we had +to land to the left of it, among the rocks, taking our turn with the +other curaghs that were coming in. + +As soon as I was on shore the men crowded round me to bid me +welcome, asking me as they shook hands if I had travelled far in the +winter, and seen many wonders, ending, as usual, with the inquiry if +there was much war at present in the world. + +It gave me a thrill of delight to hear their Gaelic blessings, and +to see the steamer moving away, leaving me quite alone among them. +The day was fine with a clear sky, and the sea was glittering beyond +the limestone. Further off a light haze on the cliffs of the larger +island, and on the Connaught hills, gave me the illusion that it was +still summer. + +A little boy was sent off to tell the old woman that I was coming, +and we followed slowly, talking and carrying the baggage. + +When I had exhausted my news they told me theirs. A power of +strangers--four or five--a French priest among them, had been on the +island in the summer; the potatoes were bad, but the rye had begun +well, till a dry week came and then it had turned into oats. + +'If you didn't know us so well,' said the man who was talking, +'you'd think it was a lie we were telling, but the sorrow a lie is +in it. It grew straight and well till it was high as your knee, then +it turned into oats. Did ever you see the like of that in County +Wicklow?' + +In the cottage everything was as usual, but Michael's presence has +brought back the old woman's humour and contentment. As I sat down +on my stool and lit my pipe with the corner of a sod, I could have +cried out with the feeling of festivity that this return procured +me. + +This year Michael is busy in the daytime, but at present there is a +harvest moon, and we spend most of the evening wandering about the +island, looking out over the bay where the shadows of the clouds +throw strange patterns of gold and black. As we were returning +through the village this evening a tumult of revelry broke out from +one of the smaller cottages, and Michael said it was the young boys +and girls who have sport at this time of the year. I would have +liked to join them, but feared to embarrass their amusement. When we +passed on again the groups of scattered cottages on each side of the +way reminded me of places I have sometimes passed when travelling at +night in France or Bavaria, places that seemed so enshrined in the +blue silence of night one could not believe they would reawaken. + +Afterwards we went up on the Dun, where Michael said he had never +been before after nightfall, though he lives within a stone's-throw. +The place gains unexpected grandeur in this light, standing out like +a corona of prehistoric stone upon the summit of the island. We +walked round the top of the wall for some time looking down on the +faint yellow roofs, with the rocks glittering beyond them, and the +silence of the bay. Though Michael is sensible of the beauty of the +nature round him, he never speaks of it directly, and many of our +evening walks are occupied with long Gaelic discourses about the +movements of the stars and moon. + +These people make no distinction between the natural and the +supernatural. + +This afternoon--it was Sunday, when there is usually some +interesting talk among the islanders--it rained, so I went into the +schoolmaster's kitchen, which is a good deal frequented by the more +advanced among the people. I know so little of their ways of fishing +and farming that I do not find it easy to keep up our talk without +reaching matters where they cannot follow me, and since the novelty +of my photographs has passed off I have some difficulty in giving +them the entertainment they seem to expect from my company. To-day I +showed them some simple gymnastic feats and conjurer's tricks, which +gave them great amusement. + +'Tell us now,' said an old woman when I had finished, 'didn't you +learn those things from the witches that do be out in the country?' + +In one of the tricks I seemed to join a piece of string which was +cut by the people, and the illusion was so complete that I saw one +man going off with it into a corner and pulling at the apparent +joining till he sank red furrows round his hands. + +Then he brought it back to me. + +'Bedad,' he said, 'this is the greatest wonder ever I seen. The cord +is a taste thinner where you joined it but as strong as ever it +was.' + +A few of the younger men looked doubtful, but the older people, who +have watched the rye turning into oats, seemed to accept the magic +frankly, and did not show any surprise that 'a duine uasal' (a noble +person) should be able to do like the witches. + +My intercourse with these people has made me realise that miracles +must abound wherever the new conception of law is not understood. On +these islands alone miracles enough happen every year to equip a +divine emissary Rye is turned into oats, storms are raised to keep +evictors from the shore, cows that are isolated on lonely rocks +bring forth calves, and other things of the same kind are common. + +The wonder is a rare expected event, like the thunderstorm or the +rainbow, except that it is a little rarer and a little more +wonderful. Often, when I am walking and get into conversation with +some of the people, and tell them that I have received a paper from +Dublin, they ask me--'And is there any great wonder in the world at +this time?' + +When I had finished my feats of dexterity, I was surprised to find +that none of the islanders, even the youngest and most agile, could +do what I did. As I pulled their limbs about in my effort to teach +them, I felt that the ease and beauty of their movements has made me +think them lighter than they really are. Seen in their curaghs +between these cliffs and the Atlantic, they appear lithe and small, +but if they were dressed as we are and seen in an ordinary room, +many of them would seem heavily and powerfully made. + +One man, however, the champion dancer of the island, got up after a +while and displayed the salmon leap--lying flat on his face and then +springing up, horizontally, high in the air--and some other feats of +extraordinary agility, but he is not young and we could not get him +to dance. + +In the evening I had to repeat my tricks here in the kitchen, for +the fame of them had spread over the island. + +No doubt these feats will be remembered here for generations. The +people have so few images for description that they seize on +anything that is remarkable in their visitors and use it afterwards +in their talk. + +For the last few years when they are speaking of any one with fine +rings they say: 'She had beautiful rings on her fingers like +Lady--,' a visitor to the island. + +I have been down sitting on the pier till it was quite dark. I am +only beginning to understand the nights of Inishmaan and the +influence they have had in giving distinction to these men who do +most of their work after nightfall. + +I could hear nothing but a few curlews and other wild-fowl whistling +and shrieking in the seaweed, and the low rustling of the waves. It +was one of the dark sultry nights peculiar to September, with no +light anywhere except the phosphorescence of the sea, and an +occasional rift in the clouds that showed the stars behind them. + +The sense of solitude was immense. I could not see or realise my own +body, and I seemed to exist merely in my perception of the waves and +of the crying birds, and of the smell of seaweed. + +When I tried to come home I lost myself among the sandhills, and the +night seemed to grow unutterably cold and dejected, as I groped +among slimy masses of seaweed and wet crumbling walls. + +After a while I heard a movement in the sand, and two grey shadows +appeared beside me. They were two men who were going home from +fishing. I spoke to them and knew their voices, and we went home +together. + +In the autumn season the threshing of the rye is one of the many +tasks that fall to the men and boys. The sheaves are collected on a +bare rock, and then each is beaten separately on a couple of stones +placed on end one against the other. The land is so poor that a +field hardly produces more grain than is needed for seed the +following year, so the rye-growing is carried on merely for the +straw, which is used for thatching. + +The stooks are carried to and from the threshing fields, piled on +donkeys that one meets everywhere at this season, with their black, +unbridled heads just visible beneath a pinnacle of golden straw. + +While the threshing is going on sons and daughters keep turning up +with one thing and another till there is a little crowd on the +rocks, and any one who is passing stops for an hour or two to talk +on his way to the sea, so that, like the kelp-burning in the +summer-time, this work is full of sociability. + +When the threshing is over the straw is taken up to the cottages and +piled up in an outhouse, or more often in a corner of the kitchen, +where it brings a new liveliness of colour. + +A few days ago when I was visiting a cottage where there are the +most beautiful children on the island, the eldest daughter, a girl +of about fourteen, went and sat down on a heap of straw by the +doorway. A ray of sunlight fell on her and on a portion of the rye, +giving her figure and red dress with the straw under it a curious +relief against the nets and oilskins, and forming a natural picture +of exquisite harmony and colour. + +In our own cottage the thatching--it is done every year--has just +been carried out. The rope-twisting was done partly in the lane, +partly in the kitchen when the weather was uncertain. Two men +usually sit together at this work, one of them hammering the straw +with a heavy block of wood, the other forming the rope, the main +body of which is twisted by a boy or girl with a bent stick +specially formed for this employment. + +In wet weather, when the work must be done indoors, the person who +is twisting recedes gradually out of the door, across the lane, and +sometimes across a field or two beyond it. A great length is needed +to form the close network which is spread over the thatch, as each +piece measures about fifty yards. When this work is in progress in +half the cottages of the village, the road has a curious look, and +one has to pick one's steps through a maze of twisting ropes that +pass from the dark doorways on either side into the fields. + +When four or five immense balls of rope have been completed, a +thatching party is arranged, and before dawn some morning they come +down to the house, and the work is taken in hand with such energy +that it is usually ended within the day. + +Like all work that is done in common on the island, the thatching is +regarded as a sort of festival. From the moment a roof is taken in +hand there is a whirl of laughter and talk till it is ended, and, as +the man whose house is being covered is a host instead of an +employer, he lays himself out to please the men who work with him. + +The day our own house was thatched the large table was taken into +the kitchen from my room, and high teas were given every few hours. +Most of the people who came along the road turned down into the +kitchen for a few minutes, and the talking was incessant. Once when +I went into the window I heard Michael retailing my astronomical +lectures from the apex of the gable, but usually their topics have +to do with the affairs of the island. + +It is likely that much of the intelligence and charm of these people +is due to the absence of any division of labour, and to the +correspondingly wide development of each individual, whose varied +knowledge and skill necessitates a considerable activity of mind. +Each man can speak two languages. He is a skilled fisherman, and can +manage a curagh with extraordinary nerve and dexterity He can farm +simply, burn kelp, cut out pampooties, mend nets, build and thatch a +house, and make a cradle or a coffin. His work changes with the +seasons in a way that keeps him free from the dullness that comes to +people who have always the same occupation. The danger of his life +on the sea gives him the alertness of the primitive hunter, and the +long nights he spends fishing in his curagh bring him some of the +emotions that are thought peculiar to men who have lived with the +arts. + +As Michael is busy in the daytime, I have got a boy to come up and +read Irish to me every afternoon. He is about fifteen, and is +singularly intelligent, with a real sympathy for the language and +the stories we read. + +One evening when he had been reading to me for two hours, I asked +him if he was tired. + +'Tired?' he said, 'sure you wouldn't ever be tired reading!' + +A few years ago this predisposition for intellectual things would +have made him sit with old people and learn their stories, but now +boys like him turn to books and to papers in Irish that are sent +them from Dublin. + +In most of the stories we read, where the English and Irish are +printed side by side, I see him looking across to the English in +passages that are a little obscure, though he is indignant if I say +that he knows English better than Irish. Probably he knows the local +Irish better than English, and printed English better than printed +Irish, as the latter has frequent dialectic forms he does not know. + +A few days ago when he was reading a folk-tale from Douglas Hyde's +Beside the Fire, something caught his eye in the translation. + +'There's a mistake in the English,' he said, after a moment's +hesitation, 'he's put "gold chair" instead of "golden chair."' + +I pointed out that we speak of gold watches and gold pins. + +'And why wouldn't we?' he said; 'but "golden chair" would be much +nicer.' + +It is curious to see how his rudimentary culture has given him the +beginning of a critical spirit that occupies itself with the form of +language as well as with ideas. + +One day I alluded to my trick of joining string. + +'You can't join a string, don't be saying it,' he said; 'I don't +know what way you're after fooling us, but you didn't join that +string, not a bit of you.' + +Another day when he was with me the fire burned low and I held up a +newspaper before it to make a draught. It did not answer very well, +and though the boy said nothing I saw he thought me a fool. + +The next day he ran up in great excitement. + +'I'm after trying the paper over the fire,' he said, 'and it burned +grand. Didn't I think, when I seen you doing it there was no good in +it at all, but I put a paper over the master's (the school-master's) +fire and it flamed up. Then I pulled back the corner of the paper +and I ran my head in, and believe me, there was a big cold wind +blowing up the chimney that would sweep the head from you.' + +We nearly quarrelled because he wanted me to take his photograph in +his Sunday clothes from Galway, instead of his native homespuns that +become him far better, though he does not like them as they seem to +connect him with the primitive life of the island. With his keen +temperament, he may go far if he can ever step out into the world. + +He is constantly thinking. + +One day he asked me if there was great wonder on their names out in +the country. + +I said there was no wonder on them at all. + +'Well,' he said, 'there is great wonder on your name in the island, +and I was thinking maybe there would be great wonder on our names +out in the country.' + +In a sense he is right. Though the names here are ordinary enough, +they are used in a way that differs altogether from the modern +system of surnames. + +When a child begins to wander about the island, the neighbours speak +of it by its Christian name, followed by the Christian name of its +father. If this is not enough to identify it, the father's epithet-- +whether it is a nickname or the name of his own father--is added. + +Sometimes when the father's name does not lend itself, the mother's +Christian name is adopted as epithet for the children. + +An old woman near this cottage is called 'Peggeen,' and her sons are +'Patch Pheggeen,' 'Seaghan Pheggeen,' etc. + +Occasionally the surname is employed in its Irish form, but I have +not heard them using the 'Mac' prefix when speaking Irish among +themselves; perhaps the idea of a surname which it gives is too +modern for them, perhaps they do use it at times that I have not +noticed. + +Sometimes a man is named from the colour of his hair. There is thus +a Seaghan Ruadh (Red John), and his children are 'Mourteen Seaghan +Ruadh,' etc. + +Another man is known as 'an iasgaire' ('the fisher'), and his +children are 'Maire an iasgaire' ('Mary daughter of the fisher'), +and so on. + +The schoolmaster tells me that when he reads out the roll in the +morning the children repeat the local name all together in a whisper +after each official name, and then the child answers. If he calls, +for instance, 'Patrick O'Flaharty,' the children murmur, 'Patch +Seaghan Dearg' or some such name, and the boy answers. + +People who come to the island are treated in much the same way. A +French Gaelic student was in the islands recently, and he is always +spoken of as 'An Saggart Ruadh' ('the red priest') or as 'An Saggart +Francach' ('the French priest'), but never by his name. + +If an islander's name alone is enough to distinguish him it is used +by itself, and I know one man who is spoken of as Eamonn. There may +be other Edmunds on the island, but if so they have probably good +nicknames or epithets of their own. + +In other countries where the names are in a somewhat similar +condition, as in modern Greece, the man's calling is usually one of +the most common means of distinguishing him, but in this place, +where all have the same calling, this means is not available. + +Late this evening I saw a three-oared curagh with two old women in +her besides the rowers, landing at the slip through a heavy roll. +They were coming from Inishere, and they rowed up quickly enough +till they were within a few yards of the surf-line, where they spun +round and waited with the prow towards the sea, while wave after +wave passed underneath them and broke on the remains of the slip. +Five minutes passed; ten minutes; and still they waited with the +oars just paddling in the water, and their heads turned over their +shoulders. + +I was beginning to think that they would have to give up and row +round to the lee side of the island, when the curagh seemed suddenly +to turn into a living thing. The prow was again towards the slip, +leaping and hurling itself through the spray. Before it touched, the +man in the bow wheeled round, two white legs came out over the prow +like the flash of a sword, and before the next wave arrived he had +dragged the curagh out of danger. + +This sudden and united action in men without discipline shows well +the education that the waves have given them. When the curagh was in +safety the two old women were carried up through the surf and +slippery seaweed on the backs of their sons. + +In this broken weather a curagh cannot go out without danger, yet +accidents are rare and seem to be nearly always caused by drink, +Since I was here last year four men have been drowned on their way +home from the large island. First a curagh belonging to the south +island which put off with two men in her heavy with drink, came to +shore here the next evening dry and uninjured, with the sail half +set, and no one in her. + +More recently a curagh from this island with three men, who were the +worse for drink, was upset on its way home. The steamer was not far +off, and saved two of the men, but could not reach the third. + +Now a man has been washed ashore in Donegal with one pampooty on +him, and a striped shirt with a purse in one of the pockets, and a +box for tobacco. + +For three days the people have been trying to fix his identity. Some +think it is the man from this island, others think that the man from +the south answers the description more exactly. To-night as we were +returning from the slip we met the mother of the man who was drowned +from this island, still weeping and looking out over the sea. She +stopped the people who had come over from the south island to ask +them with a terrified whisper what is thought over there. + +Later in the evening, when I was sitting in one of the cottages, the +sister of the dead man came in through the rain with her infant, and +there was a long talk about the rumours that had come in. She pieced +together all she could remember about his clothes, and what his +purse was like, and where he had got it, and the same for his +tobacco box, and his stockings. In the end there seemed little doubt +that it was her brother. + +'Ah!' she said, 'It's Mike sure enough, and please God they'll give +him a decent burial.' + +Then she began to keen slowly to herself. She had loose yellow hair +plastered round her head with the rain, and as she sat by the door +sucking her infant, she seemed like a type of the women's life upon +the islands. + +For a while the people sat silent, and one could hear nothing but +the lips of the infant, the rain hissing in the yard, and the +breathing of four pigs that lay sleeping in one corner. Then one of +the men began to talk about the new boats that have been sent to the +south island, and the conversation went back to its usual round of +topics. + +The loss of one man seems a slight catastrophe to all except the +immediate relatives. Often when an accident happens a father is lost +with his two eldest sons, or in some other way all the active men of +a household die together. + +A few years ago three men of a family that used to make the wooden +vessels--like tiny barrels--that are still used among the people, +went to the big island together. They were drowned on their way +home, and the art of making these little barrels died with them, at +least on Inishmaan, though it still lingers in the north and south +islands. + +Another catastrophe that took place last winter gave a curious zest +to the observance of holy days. It seems that it is not the custom +for the men to go out fishing on the evening of a holy day, but one +night last December some men, who wished to begin fishing early the +next morning, rowed out to sleep in their hookers. + +Towards morning a terrible storm rose, and several hookers with +their crews on board were blown from their moorings and wrecked. The +sea was so high that no attempt at rescue could be made, and the men +were drowned. + +'Ah!' said the man who told me the story, 'I'm thinking it will be a +long time before men will go out again on a holy day. That storm was +the only storm that reached into the harbour the whole winter, and +I'm thinking there was something in it.' + +Today when I went down to the slip I found a pig-jobber from +Kilronan with about twenty pigs that were to be shipped for the +English market. + +When the steamer was getting near, the whole drove was moved down on +the slip and the curaghs were carried out close to the sea. Then +each beast was caught in its turn and thrown on its side, while its +legs were hitched together in a single knot, with a tag of rope +remaining, by which it could be carried. + +Probably the pain inflicted was not great, yet the animals shut +their eyes and shrieked with almost human intonations, till the +suggestion of the noise became so intense that the men and women who +were merely looking on grew wild with excitement, and the pigs +waiting their turn foamed at the mouth and tore each other with +their teeth. + +After a while there was a pause. The whole slip was covered with a +mass of sobbing animals, with here and there a terrified woman +crouching among the bodies, and patting some special favourite to +keep it quiet while the curaghs were being launched. + +Then the screaming began again while the pigs were carried out and +laid in their places, with a waistcoat tied round their feet to keep +them from damaging the canvas. They seemed to know where they were +going, and looked up at me over the gunnel with an ignoble +desperation that made me shudder to think that I had eaten of this +whimpering flesh. When the last curagh went out I was left on the +slip with a band of women and children, and one old boar who sat +looking out over the sea. + +The women were over-excited, and when I tried to talk to them they +crowded round me and began jeering and shrieking at me because I am +not married. A dozen screamed at a time, and so rapidly that I could +not understand all that they were saying, yet I was able to make out +that they were taking advantage of the absence of their husbands to +give me the full volume of their contempt. Some little boys who were +listening threw themselves down, writhing with laughter among the +seaweed, and the young girls grew red with embarrassment and stared +down into the surf. + +For a moment I was in confusion. I tried to speak to them, but I +could not make myself heard, so I sat down on the slip and drew out +my wallet of photographs. In an instant I had the whole band +clambering round me, in their ordinary mood. + +When the curaghs came back--one of them towing a large kitchen table +that stood itself up on the waves and then turned somersaults in an +extraordinary manner--word went round that the ceannuighe (pedlar) +was arriving. + +He opened his wares on the slip as soon as he landed, and sold a +quantity of cheap knives and jewellery to the girls and the younger +women. He spoke no Irish, and the bargaining gave immense amusement +to the crowd that collected round him. + +I was surprised to notice that several women who professed to know +no English could make themselves understood without difficulty when +it pleased them. + +'The rings is too dear at you, sir,' said one girl using the Gaelic +construction; 'let you put less money on them and all the girls will +be buying.' + +After the jewellery' he displayed some cheap religious +pictures--abominable oleographs--but I did not see many buyers. + +I am told that most of the pedlars who come here are Germans or +Poles, but I did not have occasion to speak with this man by +himself. + +I have come over for a few days to the south island, and, as usual, +my voyage was not favourable. + +The morning was fine, and seemed to promise one of the peculiarly +hushed, pellucid days that occur sometimes before rain in early +winter. From the first gleam of dawn the sky was covered with white +cloud, and the tranquillity was so complete that every sound seemed +to float away by itself across the silence of the bay. Lines of blue +smoke were going up in spirals over the village, and further off +heavy fragments of rain-cloud were lying on the horizon. We started +early in the day, and, although the sea looked calm from a distance, +we met a considerable roll coming from the south-west when we got +out from the shore. + +Near the middle of the sound the man who was rowing in the bow broke +his oar-pin, and the proper management of the canoe became a matter +of some difficulty. We had only a three-oared curagh, and if the sea +had gone much higher we should have run a good deal of danger. Our +progress was so slow that clouds came up with a rise in the wind +before we reached the shore, and rain began to fall in large single +drops. The black curagh working slowly through this world of grey, +and the soft hissing of the rain gave me one of the moods in which +we realise with immense distress the short moment we have left us to +experience all the wonder and beauty of the world. + +The approach to the south island is made at a fine sandy beach on +the north-west. This interval in the rocks is of great service to +the people, but the tract of wet sand with a few hideous fishermen's +houses, lately built on it, looks singularly desolate in broken +weather. + +The tide was going out when we landed, so we merely stranded the +curagh and went up to the little hotel. The cess-collector was at +work in one of the rooms, and there were a number of men and boys +waiting about, who stared at us while we stood at the door and +talked to the proprietor. + +When we had had our drink I went down to the sea with my men, who +were in a hurry to be off. Some time was spent in replacing the +oar-pin, and then they set out, though the wind was still +increasing. A good many fishermen came down to see the start, and +long after the curagh was out of sight I stood and talked with them +in Irish, as I was anxious to compare their language and temperament +with what I knew of the other island. + +The language seems to be identical, though some of these men speak +rather more distinctly than any Irish speakers I have yet heard. In +physical type, dress, and general character, however, there seems to +be a considerable difference. The people on this island are more +advanced than their neighbours, and the families here are gradually +forming into different ranks, made up of the well-to-do, the +struggling, and the quite poor and thriftless. These distinctions +are present in the middle island also, but over there they have had +no effect on the people, among whom there is still absolute +equality. + +A little later the steamer came in sight and lay to in the offing. +While the curaghs were being put out I noticed in the crowd several +men of the ragged, humorous type that was once thought to represent +the real peasant of Ireland. Rain was now falling heavily, and as we +looked out through the fog there was something nearly appalling in +the shrieks of laughter kept up by one of these individuals, a man +of extraordinary ugliness and wit. + +At last he moved off toward the houses, wiping his eyes with the +tail of his coat and moaning to himself 'Ta me marbh,' ('I'm +killed'), till some one stopped him and he began again pouring out a +medley of rude puns and jokes that meant more than they said. + +There is quaint humour, and sometimes wild humour, on the middle +island, but never this half-sensual ecstasy of laughter. Perhaps a +man must have a sense of intimate misery, not known there, before he +can set himself to jeer and mock at the world. These strange men +with receding foreheads, high cheekbones, and ungovernable eyes seem +to represent some old type found on these few acres at the extreme +border of Europe, where it is only in wild jests and laughter that +they can express their loneliness and desolation. + +The mode of reciting ballads in this island is singularly harsh. I +fell in with a curious man to-day beyond the east village, and we +wandered out on the rocks towards the sea. A wintry shower came on +while we were together, and we crouched down in the bracken, under a +loose wall. When we had gone through the usual topics he asked me if +I was fond of songs, and began singing to show what he could do. + +The music was much like what I have heard before on the islands--a +monotonous chant with pauses on the high and low notes to mark the +rhythm; but the harsh nasal tone in which he sang was almost +intolerable. His performance reminded me in general effect of a +chant I once heard from a party of Orientals I was travelling with +in a third-class carriage from Paris to Dieppe, but the islander ran +his voice over a much wider range. + +His pronunciation was lost in the rasping of his throat, and, though +he shrieked into my ear to make sure that I understood him above the +howling of the wind, I could only make out that it was an endless +ballad telling the fortune of a young man who went to sea, and had +many adventures. The English nautical terms were employed +continually in describing his life on the ship, but the man seemed +to feel that they were not in their place, and stopped short when +one of them occurred to give me a poke with his finger and explain +gib, topsail, and bowsprit, which were for me the most intelligible +features of the poem. Again, when the scene changed to Dublin, +'glass of whiskey,' 'public-house,' and such things were in English. + +When the shower was over he showed me a curious cave hidden among +the cliffs, a short distance from the sea. On our way back he asked +me the three questions I am met with on every side--whether I am a +rich man, whether I am married, and whether I have ever seen a +poorer place than these islands. + +When he heard that I was not married he urged me to come back in the +summer so that he might take me over in a curagh to the Spa in +County Glare, where there is 'spree mor agus go leor ladies' ('a big +spree and plenty of ladies'). + +Something about the man repelled me while I was with him, and though +I was cordial and liberal he seemed to feel that I abhorred him. We +arranged to meet again in the evening, but when I dragged myself +with an inexplicable loathing to the place of meeting, there was no +trace of him. + +It is characteristic that this man, who is probably a drunkard and +shebeener and certainly in penury, refused the chance of a shilling +because he felt that I did not like him. He had a curiously mixed +expression of hardness and melancholy. Probably his character has +given him a bad reputation on the island, and he lives here with the +restlessness of a man who has no sympathy with his companions. + +I have come over again to Inishmaan, and this time I had fine +weather for my passage. The air was full of luminous sunshine from +the early morning, and it was almost a summer's day when I set sail +at noon with Michael and two other men who had come over for me in a +curagh. + +The wind was in our favour, so the sail was put up and Michael sat +in the stem to steer with an oar while I rowed with the others. + +We had had a good dinner and drink and were wrought up by this +sudden revival of summer to a dreamy voluptuous gaiety, that made us +shout with exultation to hear our voices passing out across the blue +twinkling of the sea. + +Even after the people of the south island, these men of Inishmaan +seemed to be moved by strange archaic sympathies with the world. +Their mood accorded itself with wonderful fineness to the +suggestions of the day, and their ancient Gaelic seemed so full of +divine simplicity that I would have liked to turn the prow to the +west and row with them for ever. + +I told them I was going back to Paris in a few days to sell my books +and my bed, and that then I was coming back to grow as strong and +simple as they were among the islands of the west. + +When our excitement sobered down, Michael told me that one of the +priests had left his gun at our cottage and given me leave to use it +till he returned to the island. There was another gun and a ferret +in the house also, and he said that as soon as we got home he was +going to take me out fowling on rabbits. + +A little later in the day we set off, and I nearly laughed to see +Michael's eagerness that I should turn out a good shot. + +We put the ferret down in a crevice between two bare sheets of rock, +and waited. In a few minutes we heard rushing paws underneath us, +then a rabbit shot up straight into the air from the crevice at our +feet and set off for a wall that was a few feet away. I threw up the +gun and fired. + +'Buail tu e,' screamed Michael at my elbow as he ran up the rock. I +had killed it. + +We shot seven or eight more in the next hour, and Michael was +immensely pleased. If I had done badly I think I should have had to +leave the islands. The people would have despised me. A 'duine +uasal' who cannot shoot seems to these descendants of hunters a +fallen type who is worse than an apostate. + +The women of this island are before conventionality, and share some +of the liberal features that are thought peculiar to the women of +Paris and New York. + +Many of them are too contented and too sturdy to have more than a +decorative interest, but there are others full of curious +individuality. + +This year I have got to know a wonderfully humorous girl, who has +been spinning in the kitchen for the last few days with the old +woman's spinning-wheel. The morning she began I heard her exquisite +intonation almost before I awoke, brooding and cooing over every +syllable she uttered. + +I have heard something similar in the voices of German and Polish +women, but I do not think men--at least European men--who are always +further than women from the simple, animal emotions, or any speakers +who use languages with weak gutturals, like French or English, can +produce this inarticulate chant in their ordinary talk. + +She plays continual tricks with her Gaelic in the way girls are fond +of, piling up diminutives and repeating adjectives with a humorous +scorn of syntax. While she is here the talk never stops in the +kitchen. To-day she has been asking me many questions about Germany, +for it seems one of her sisters married a German husband in America +some years ago, who kept her in great comfort, with a fine 'capull +glas' ('grey horse') to ride on, and this girl has decided to escape +in the same way from the drudgery of the island. + +This was my last evening on my stool in the chimney corner, and I +had a long talk with some neighbours who came in to bid me +prosperity, and lay about on the floor with their heads on low +stools and their feet stretched out to the embers of the turf. The +old woman was at the other side of the fire, and the girl I have +spoken of was standing at her spinning-wheel, talking and joking +with every one. She says when I go away now I am to marry a rich +wife with plenty of money, and if she dies on me I am to come back +here and marry herself for my second wife. + +I have never heard talk so simple and so attractive as the talk of +these people. This evening they began disputing about their wives, +and it appeared that the greatest merit they see in a woman is that +she should be fruitful and bring them many children. As no money can +be earned by children on the island this one attitude shows the +immense difference between these people and the people of Paris. + +The direct sexual instincts are not weak on the island, but they are +so subordinated to the instincts of the family that they rarely lead +to irregularity. The life here is still at an almost patriarchal +stage, and the people are nearly as far from the romantic moods of +love as they are from the impulsive life of the savage. + +The wind was so high this morning that there was some doubt whether +the steamer would arrive, and I spent half the day wandering about +with Michael watching the horizon. + +At last, when we had given her up, she came in sight far away to the +north, where she had gone to have the wind with her where the sea +was at its highest. + +I got my baggage from the cottage and set off for the slip with +Michael and the old man, turning into a cottage here and there to +say good-bye. + +In spite of the wind outside, the sea at the slip was as calm as a +pool. The men who were standing about while the steamer was at the +south island wondered for the last time whether I would be married +when I came back to see them. Then we pulled out and took our place +in the line. As the tide was running hard the steamer stopped a +certain distance from the shore, and gave us a long race for good +places at her side. In the struggle we did not come off well, so I +had to clamber across two curaghs, twisting and fumbling with the +roll, in order to get on board. + +It seemed strange to see the curaghs full of well-known faces +turning back to the slip without me, but the roll in the sound soon +took off my attention. Some men were on board whom I had seen on the +south island, and a good many Kilronan people on their way home from +Galway, who told me that in one part of their passage in the morning +they had come in for heavy seas. + +As is usual on Saturday, the steamer had a large cargo of flour and +porter to discharge at Kilronan, and, as it was nearly four o'clock +before the tide could float her at the pier, I felt some doubt about +our passage to Galway. + +The wind increased as the afternoon went on, and when I came down in +the twilight I found that the cargo was not yet all unladen, and +that the captain feared to face the gale that was rising. It was +some time before he came to a final decision, and we walked +backwards and forwards from the village with heavy clouds flying +overhead and the wind howling in the walls. At last he telegraphed +to Galway to know if he was wanted the next day, and we went into a +public-house to wait for the reply. + +The kitchen was filled with men sitting closely on long forms ranged +in lines at each side of the fire. A wild-looking but beautiful girl +was kneeling on the hearth talking loudly to the men, and a few +natives of Inishmaan were hanging about the door, miserably drunk. +At the end of the kitchen the bar was arranged, with a sort of +alcove beside it, where some older men were playing cards. Overhead +there were the open rafters, filled with turf and tobacco smoke. + +This is the haunt so much dreaded by the women of the other islands, +where the men linger with their money till they go out at last with +reeling steps and are lost in the sound. Without this background of +empty curaghs, and bodies floating naked with the tide, there would +be something almost absurd about the dissipation of this simple +place where men sit, evening after evening, drinking bad whisky and +porter, and talking with endless repetition of fishing, and kelp, +and of the sorrows of purgatory. + +When we had finished our whiskey word came that the boat might +remain. + +With some difficulty I got my bags out of the steamer and carried +them up through the crowd of women and donkeys that were still +struggling on the quay in an inconceivable medley of flour-bags and +cases of petroleum. When I reached the inn the old woman was in +great good humour, and I spent some time talking by the kitchen +fire. Then I groped my way back to the harbour, where, I was told, +the old net-mender, who came to see me on my first visit to the +islands, was spending the night as watchman. + +It was quite dark on the pier, and a terrible gale was blowing. +There was no one in the little office where I expected to find him, +so I groped my way further on towards a figure I saw moving with a +lantern. + +It was the old man, and he remembered me at once when I hailed him +and told him who I was. He spent some time arranging one of his +lanterns, and then he took me back to his office--a mere shed of +planks and corrugated iron, put up for the contractor of some work +which is in progress on the pier. + +When we reached the light I saw that his head was rolled up in an +extraordinary collection of mufflers to keep him from the cold, and +that his face was much older than when I saw him before, though +still full of intelligence. + +He began to tell how he had gone to see a relative of mine in Dublin +when he first left the island as a cabin-boy, between forty and +fifty years ago. + +He told his story with the usual detail:-- + +We saw a man walking about on the quay in Dublin, and looking at us +without saying a word. Then he came down to the yacht. 'Are you the +men from Aran?' said he. + +'We are,' said we. + +'You're to come with me so,' said he. 'Why?' said we. + +Then he told us it was Mr. Synge had sent him and we went with him. +Mr. Synge brought us into his kitchen and gave the men a glass of +whisky all round, and a half-glass to me because I was a boy--though +at that time and to this day I can drink as much as two men and not +be the worse of it. We were some time in the kitchen, then one of +the men said we should be going. I said it would not be right to go +without saying a word to Mr. Synge. Then the servant-girl went up +and brought him down, and he gave us another glass of whisky, and he +gave me a book in Irish because I was going to sea, and I was able +to read in the Irish. + +I owe it to Mr. Synge and that book that when I came back here, +after not hearing a word of Irish for thirty years, I had as good +Irish, or maybe better Irish, than any person on the island. + +I could see all through his talk that the sense of superiority which +his scholarship in this little-known language gave him above the +ordinary seaman, had influenced his whole personality and been the +central interest of his life. + +On one voyage he had a fellow-sailor who often boasted that he had +been at school and learned Greek, and this incident took place:-- + +One night we had a quarrel, and I asked him could he read a Greek +book with all his talk of it. + +'I can so,' said he. + +'We'll see that,' said I. + +Then I got the Irish book out of my chest, and I gave it into his +hand. + +'Read that to me,' said I, 'if you know Greek.' + +He took it, and he looked at it this way, and that way, and not a +bit of him could make it out. + +'Bedad, I've forgotten my Greek,' said he. + +'You're telling a lie,' said I. 'I'm not,' said he; 'it's the divil +a bit I can read it.' + +Then I took the book back into my hand, and said to him--'It's the +sorra a word of Greek you ever knew in your life, for there's not a +word of Greek in that book, and not a bit of you knew.' + +He told me another story of the only time he had heard Irish spoken +during his voyages:-- + +One night I was in New York, walking in the streets with some other +men, and we came upon two women quarrelling in Irish at the door of +a public-house. + +'What's that jargon?' said one of the men. + +'It's no jargon,' said I. + +'What is it?' said he. + +'It's Irish,' said I. + +Then I went up to them, and you know, sir, there is no language like +the Irish for soothing and quieting. The moment I spoke to them they +stopped scratching and swearing and stood there as quiet as two +lambs. + +Then they asked me in Irish if I wouldn't come in and have a drink, +and I said I couldn't leave my mates. + +'Bring them too,' said they. + +Then we all had a drop together. + +While we were talking another man had slipped in and sat down in the +corner with his pipe, and the rain had become so heavy we could +hardly hear our voices over the noise on the iron roof. + +The old man went on telling of his experiences at sea and the places +he had been to. + +'If I had my life to live over again,' he said, 'there's no other +way I'd spend it. I went in and out everywhere and saw everything. I +was never afraid to take my glass, though I was never drunk in my +life, and I was a great player of cards though I never played for +money' + +'There's no diversion at all in cards if you don't play for money' +said the man in the corner. + +'There was no use in my playing for money' said the old man, 'for +I'd always lose, and what's the use in playing if you always lose?' + +Then our conversation branched off to the Irish language and the +books written in it. + +He began to criticise Archbishop MacHale's version of Moore's Irish +Melodies with great severity and acuteness, citing whole poems both +in the English and Irish, and then giving versions that he had made +himself. + +'A translation is no translation,' he said, 'unless it will give you +the music of a poem along with the words of it. In my translation +you won't find a foot or a syllable that's not in the English, yet +I've put down all his words mean, and nothing but it. Archbishop +MacHale's work is a most miserable production.' + +From the verses he cited his judgment seemed perfectly justified, +and even if he was wrong, it is interesting to note that this poor +sailor and night-watchman was ready to rise up and criticise an +eminent dignitary and scholar on rather delicate points of +versification and the finer distinctions between old words of +Gaelic. + +In spite of his singular intelligence and minute observation his +reasoning was medieval. + +I asked him what he thought about the future of the language on +these islands. + +'It can never die out,' said he, 'because there's no family in the +place can live without a bit of a field for potatoes, and they have +only the Irish words for all that they do in the fields. They sail +their new boats--their hookers--in English, but they sail a curagh +oftener in Irish, and in the fields they have the Irish alone. It +can never die out, and when the people begin to see it fallen very +low, it will rise up again like the phoenix from its own ashes.' + +'And the Gaelic League?' I asked him. + +'The Gaelic League! Didn't they come down here with their organisers +and their secretaries, and their meetings and their speechifyings, +and start a branch of it, and teach a power of Irish for five weeks +and a half!' [a] + +'What do we want here with their teaching Irish?' said the man in +the corner; 'haven't we Irish enough?' + +'You have not,' said the old man; 'there's not a soul in Aran can +count up to nine hundred and ninety-nine without using an English +word but myself.' + +It was getting late, and the rain had lessened for a moment, so I +groped my way back to the inn through the intense darkness of a late +autumn night. + +[a] This was written, it should be remembered, some years ago. + + + + + + +Part IV + + + + + +No two journeys to these islands are alike. This morning I sailed +with the steamer a little after five o'clock in a cold night air, +with the stars shining on the bay. A number of Claddagh fishermen +had been out all night fishing not far from the harbour, and without +thinking, or perhaps caring to think, of the steamer, they had put +out their nets in the channel where she was to pass. Just before we +started the mate sounded the steam whistle repeatedly to give them +warning, saying as he did so-- + +'If you were out now in the bay, gentlemen, you'd hear some fine +prayers being said.' + +When we had gone a little way we began to see the light from the +turf fires carried by the fishermen flickering on the water, and to +hear a faint noise of angry voices. Then the outline of a large +fishing-boat came in sight through the darkness, with the forms of +three men who stood on the course. The captain feared to turn aside, +as there are sandbanks near the channel, so the engines were stopped +and we glided over the nets without doing them harm. As we passed +close to the boat the crew could be seen plainly on the deck, one of +them holding the bucket of red turf, and their abuse could be +distinctly heard. It changed continually, from profuse Gaelic +maledictions to the simpler curses they know in English. As they +spoke they could be seen writhing and twisting themselves with +passion against the light which was beginning to turn on the ripple +of the sea. Soon afterwards another set of voices began in front of +us, breaking out in strange contrast with the dwindling stars and +the silence of the dawn. + +Further on we passed many boats that let us go by without a word, as +their nets were not in the channel. Then day came on rapidly with +cold showers that turned golden in the first rays from the sun, +filling the troughs of the sea with curious transparencies and +light. + +This year I have brought my fiddle with me so that I may have +something new to keep up the interest of the people. I have played +for them several tunes, but as far as I can judge they do not feel +modern music, though they listen eagerly from curiosity. Irish airs +like 'Eileen Aroon' please them better, but it is only when I play +some jig like the 'Black Rogue'--which is known on the island--that +they seem to respond to the full meaning of the notes. Last night I +played for a large crowd, which had come together for another +purpose from all parts of the island. + +About six o'clock I was going into the schoolmaster's house, and I +heard a fierce wrangle going on between a man and a woman near the +cottages to the west, that lie below the road. While I was listening +to them several women came down to listen also from behind the wall, +and told me that the people who were fighting were near relations +who lived side by side and often quarrelled about trifles, though +they were as good friends as ever the next day. The voices sounded +so enraged that I thought mischief would come of it, but the women +laughed at the idea. Then a lull came, and I said that they seemed +to have finished at last. + +'Finished!' said one of the women; 'sure they haven't rightly begun. +It's only playing they are yet.' + +It was just after sunset and the evening was bitterly cold, so I +went into the house and left them. + +An hour later the old man came down from my cottage to say that some +of the lads and the 'fear lionta' ('the man of the nets'--a young +man from Aranmor who is teaching net-mending to the boys) were up at +the house, and had sent him down to tell me they would like to +dance, if I would come up and play for them. + +I went out at once, and as soon as I came into the air I heard the +dispute going on still to the west more violently than ever. The +news of it had gone about the island, and little bands of girls and +boys were running along the lanes towards the scene of the quarrel +as eagerly as if they were going to a racecourse. I stopped for a +few minutes at the door of our cottage to listen to the volume of +abuse that was rising across the stillness of the island. Then I +went into the kitchen and began tuning the fiddle, as the boys were +impatient for my music. At first I tried to play standing, but on +the upward stroke my bow came in contact with the salt-fish and +oil-skins that hung from the rafters, so I settled myself at last on +a table in the corner, where I was out of the way, and got one of +the people to hold up my music before me, as I had no stand. I +played a French melody first, to get myself used to the people and +the qualities of the room, which has little resonance between the +earth floor and the thatch overhead. Then I struck up the 'Black +Rogue,' and in a moment a tall man bounded out from his stool under +the chimney and began flying round the kitchen with peculiarly sure +and graceful bravado. + +The lightness of the pampooties seems to make the dancing on this +island lighter and swifter than anything I have seen on the +mainland, and the simplicity of the men enables them to throw a +naive extravagance into their steps that is impossible in places +where the people are self-conscious. + +The speed, however, was so violent that I had some difficulty in +keeping up, as my fingers were not in practice, and I could not take +off more than a small part of my attention to watch what was going +on. When I finished I heard a commotion at the door, and the whole +body of people who had gone down to watch the quarrel filed into the +kitchen and arranged themselves around the walls, the women and +girls, as is usual, forming themselves in one compact mass crouching +on their heels near the door. + +I struck up another dance--'Paddy get up'--and the 'fear lionta' and +the first dancer went through it together, with additional rapidity +and grace, as they were excited by the presence of the people who +had come in. Then word went round that an old man, known as Little +Roger, was outside, and they told me he was once the best dancer on +the island. + +For a long time he refused to come in, for he said he was too old to +dance, but at last he was persuaded, and the people brought him in +and gave him a stool opposite me. It was some time longer before he +would take his turn, and when he did so, though he was met with +great clapping of hands, he only danced for a few moments. He did +not know the dances in my book, he said, and did not care to dance +to music he was not familiar with. When the people pressed him again +he looked across to me. + +'John,' he said, in shaking English, 'have you got "Larry Grogan," +for it is an agreeable air?' + +I had not, so some of the young men danced again to the 'Black +Rogue,' and then the party broke up. The altercation was still going +on at the cottage below us, and the people were anxious to see what +was coming of it. + +About ten o'clock a young man came in and told us that the fight was +over. + +'They have been at it for four hours,' he said, 'and now they're +tired.' + +Indeed it is time they were, for you'd rather be listening to a man +killing a pig than to the noise they were letting out of them.' + +After the dancing and excitement we were too stirred up to be +sleepy, so we sat for a long time round the embers of the turf, +talking and smoking by the light of the candle. + +From ordinary music we came to talk of the music of the fairies, and +they told me this story, when I had told them some stories of my +own:-- + +A man who lives in the other end of the village got his gun one day +and went out to look for rabbits in a thicket near the small Dun. He +saw a rabbit sitting up under a tree, and he lifted his gun to take +aim at it, but just as he had it covered he heard a kind of music +over his head, and he looked up into the sky. When he looked back +for the rabbit, not a bit of it was to be seen. + +He went on after that, and he heard the music again. + +Then he looked over a wall, and he saw a rabbit sitting up by the +wall with a sort of flute in its mouth, and it playing on it with +its two fingers! + +'What sort of rabbit was that?' said the old woman when they had +finished. 'How could that be a right rabbit? I remember old Pat +Dirane used to be telling us he was once out on the cliffs, and he +saw a big rabbit sitting down in a hole under a flagstone. He called +a man who was with him, and they put a hook on the end of a stick +and ran it down into the hole. Then a voice called up to them-- + +'"Ah, Phaddrick, don't hurt me with the hook!" + +'Pat was a great rogue,' said the old man. 'Maybe you remember the +bits of horns he had like handles on the end of his sticks? Well, +one day there was a priest over and he said to Pat--"Is it the +devil's horns you have on your sticks, Pat?" "I don't rightly know" +said Pat, "but if it is, it's the devil's milk you've been drinking, +since you've been able to drink, and the devil's flesh you've been +eating and the devil's butter you've been putting on your bread, for +I've seen the like of them horns on every old cow through the +country."' + +The weather has been rough, but early this afternoon the sea was +calm enough for a hooker to come in with turf from Connemara, though +while she was at the pier the roll was so great that the men had to +keep a watch on the waves and loosen the cable whenever a large one +was coming in, so that she might ease up with the water. + +There were only two men on board, and when she was empty they had +some trouble in dragging in the cables, hoisting the sails, and +getting out of the harbour before they could be blown on the rocks. + +A heavy shower came on soon afterwards, and I lay down under a stack +of turf with some people who were standing about, to wait for +another hooker that was coming in with horses. They began talking +and laughing about the dispute last night and the noise made at it. + +'The worst fights do be made here over nothing,' said an old man +next me. 'Did Mourteen or any of them on the big island ever tell +you of the fight they had there threescore years ago when they were +killing each other with knives out on the strand?' + +'They never told me,' I said. + +'Well,' said he, 'they were going down to cut weed, and a man was +sharpening his knife on a stone before he went. A young boy came +into the kitchen, and he said to the man--"What are you sharpening +that knife for?"' + +'"To kill your father with," said the man, and they the best of +friends all the time. The young boy went back to his house and told +his father there was a man sharpening a knife to kill him. + +'"Bedad," said the father, "if he has a knife I'll have one, too." + +'He sharpened his knife after that, and they went down to the +strand. Then the two men began making fun about their knives, and +from that they began raising their voices, and it wasn't long before +there were ten men fighting with their knives, and they never +stopped till there were five of them dead. + +'They buried them the day after, and when they were coming home, +what did they see but the boy who began the work playing about with +the son of the other man, and their two fathers down in their +graves.' + +When he stopped, a gust of wind came and blew up a bundle of dry +seaweed that was near us, right over our heads. + +Another old man began to talk. + +'That was a great wind,' he said. 'I remember one time there was a +man in the south island who had a lot of wool up in shelter against +the corner of a wall. He was after washing it, and drying it, and +turning it, and he had it all nice and clean the way they could card +it. Then a wind came down and the wool began blowing all over the +wall. The man was throwing out his arms on it and trying to stop it, +and another man saw him. + +'"The devil mend your head!" says he, "the like of that wind is too +strong for you." + +'"If the devil himself is in it," said the other man, "I'll hold on +to it while I can." + +'Then whether it was because of the word or not I don't know, but +the whole of the wool went up over his head and blew all over the +island, yet, when his wife came to spin afterwards she had all they +expected, as if that lot was not lost on them at all.' + +'There was more than that in it,' said another man, 'for the night +before a woman had a great sight out to the west in this island, and +saw all the people that were dead a while back in this island and +the south island, and they all talking with each other. There was a +man over from the other island that night, and he heard the woman +talking of what she had seen. The next day he went back to the south +island, and I think he was alone in the curagh. As soon as he came +near the other island he saw a man fishing from the cliffs, and this +man called out to him-- + +'"Make haste now and go up and tell your mother to hide the +poteen"--his mother used to sell poteen--"for I'm after seeing the +biggest party of peelers and yeomanry passing by on the rocks was +ever seen on the island." It was at that time the wool was taken +with the other man above, under the hill, and no peelers in the +island at all.' + +A little after that the old men went away, and I was left with some +young men between twenty and thirty, who talked to me of different +things. One of them asked me if ever I was drunk, and another told +me I would be right to marry a girl out of this island, for they +were nice women in it, fine fat girls, who would be strong, and have +plenty of children, and not be wasting my money on me. + +When the horses were coming ashore a curagh that was far out after +lobster-pots came hurrying in, and a man out of her ran up the +sandhills to meet a little girl who was coming down with a bundle of +Sunday clothes. He changed them on the sand and then went out to the +hooker, and went off to Connemara to bring back his horses. + +A young married woman I used often to talk with is dying of a +fever--typhus I am told--and her husband and brothers have gone off +in a curagh to get the doctor and the priest from the north island, +though the sea is rough. + +I watched them from the Dun for a long time after they had started. +Wind and rain were driving through the sound, and I could see no +boats or people anywhere except this one black curagh splashing and +struggling through the waves. When the wind fell a little I could +hear people hammering below me to the east. The body of a young man +who was drowned a few weeks ago came ashore this morning, and his +friends have been busy all day making a coffin in the yard of the +house where he lived. + +After a while the curagh went out of sight into the mist, and I came +down to the cottage shuddering with cold and misery. + +The old woman was keening by the fire. + +'I have been to the house where the young man is,' she said, 'but I +couldn't go to the door with the air was coming out of it. They say +his head isn't on him at all, and indeed it isn't any wonder and he +three weeks in the sea. Isn't it great danger and sorrow is over +every one on this island?' + +I asked her if the curagh would soon be coming back with the priest. +'It will not be coming soon or at all to-night,' she said. 'The wind +has gone up now, and there will come no curagh to this island for +maybe two days or three. And wasn't it a cruel thing to see the +haste was on them, and they in danger all the time to be drowned +themselves?' + +Then I asked her how the woman was doing. + +'She's nearly lost,' said the old woman; 'she won't be alive at all +tomorrow morning. They have no boards to make her a coffin, and +they'll want to borrow the boards that a man below has had this two +years to bury his mother, and she alive still. I heard them saying +there are two more women with the fever, and a child that's not +three. The Lord have mercy on us all!' + +I went out again to look over the sea, but night had fallen and the +hurricane was howling over the Dun. I walked down the lane and heard +the keening in the house where the young man was. Further on I could +see a stir about the door of the cottage that had been last struck +by typhus. Then I turned back again in the teeth of the rain, and +sat over the fire with the old man and woman talking of the sorrows +of the people till it was late in the night. + +This evening the old man told me a story he had heard long ago on +the mainland:-- + +There was a young woman, he said, and she had a child. In a little +time the woman died and they buried her the day after. That night +another woman--a woman of the family--was sitting by the fire with +the child on her lap, giving milk to it out of a cup. Then the woman +they were after burying opened the door, and came into the house. +She went over to the fire, and she took a stool and sat down before +the other woman. Then she put out her hand and took the child on her +lap, and gave it her breast. After that she put the child in the +cradle and went over to the dresser and took milk and potatoes off +it, and ate them. Then she went out. The other woman was frightened, +and she told the man of the house when he came back, and two young +men. They said they would be there the next night, and if she came +back they would catch hold of her. She came the next night and gave +the child her breast, and when she got up to go to the dresser, the +man of the house caught hold of her, but he fell down on the floor. +Then the two young men caught hold of her and they held her. She +told them she was away with the fairies, and they could not keep her +that night, though she was eating no food with the fairies, the way +she might be able to come back to her child. Then she told them they +would all be leaving that part of the country on the Oidhche +Shamhna, and that there would be four or five hundred of them riding +on horses, and herself would be on a grey horse, riding behind a +young man. And she told them to go down to a bridge they would be +crossing that night, and to wait at the head of it, and when she +would be coming up she would slow the horse and they would be able +to throw something on her and on the young man, and they would fall +over on the ground and be saved. + +She went away then, and on the Oidhche Shamhna the men went down and +got her back. She had four children after that, and in the end she +died. + +It was not herself they buried at all the first time, but some old +thing the fairies put in her place. + +'There are people who say they don't believe in these things,' said +the old woman, 'but there are strange things, let them say what they +will. There was a woman went to bed at the lower village a while +ago, and her child along with her. For a time they did not sleep, +and then something came to the window, and they heard a voice and +this is what it said-- + +'"It is time to sleep from this out." + +'In the morning the child was dead, and indeed it is many get their +death that way on the island.' + +The young man has been buried, and his funeral was one of the +strangest scenes I have met with. People could be seen going down to +his house from early in the day, yet when I went there with the old +man about the middle of the afternoon, the coffin was still lying in +front of the door, with the men and women of the family standing +round beating it, and keening over it, in a great crowd of people. A +little later every one knelt down and a last prayer was said. Then +the cousins of the dead man got ready two oars and some pieces of +rope--the men of his own family seemed too broken with grief to know +what they were doing--the coffin was tied up, and the procession +began. The old woman walked close behind the coffin, and I happened +to take a place just after them, among the first of the men. The +rough lane to the graveyard slopes away towards the east, and the +crowd of women going down before me in their red dresses, cloaked +with red pethcoats, with the waistband that is held round the head +just seen from behind, had a strange effect, to which the white +coffin and the unity of colour gave a nearly cloistral quietness. + +This time the graveyard was filled with withered grass and bracken +instead of the early ferns that were to be seen everywhere at the +other funeral I have spoken of, and the grief of the people was of a +different kind, as they had come to bury a young man who had died in +his first manhood, instead of an old woman of eighty. For this +reason the keen lost a part of its formal nature, and was recited as +the expression of intense personal grief by the young men and women +of the man's own family. + +When the coffin had been laid down, near the grave that was to be +opened, two long switches were cut out from the brambles among the +rocks, and the length and breadth of the coffin were marked on them. +Then the men began their work, clearing off stones and thin layers +of earth, and breaking up an old coffin that was in the place into +which the new one had to be lowered. When a number of blackened +boards and pieces of bone had been thrown up with the clay, a skull +was lifted out, and placed upon a gravestone. Immediately the old +woman, the mother of the dead man, took it up in her hands, and +carried it away by herself. Then she sat down and put it in her +lap--it was the skull of her own mother--and began keening and +shrieking over it with the wildest lamentation. + +As the pile of mouldering clay got higher beside the grave a heavy +smell began to rise from it, and the men hurried with their work, +measuring the hole repeatedly with the two rods of bramble. When it +was nearly deep enough the old woman got up and came back to the +coffin, and began to beat on it, holding the skull in her left hand. +This last moment of grief was the most terrible of all. The young +women were nearly lying among the stones, worn out with their +passion of grief, yet raising themselves every few moments to beat +with magnificent gestures on the boards of the coffin. The young men +were worn out also, and their voices cracked continually in the wail +of the keen. + +When everything was ready the sheet was unpinned from the coffin, +and it was lowered into its place. Then an old man took a wooden +vessel with holy water in it, and a wisp of bracken, and the people +crowded round him while he splashed the water over them. They seemed +eager to get as much of it as possible, more than one old woman +crying out with a humorous voice-- + +'Tabhair dham braon eile, a Mhourteen.' ('Give me another drop, +Martin.') + +When the grave was half filled in, I wandered round towards the +north watching two seals that were chasing each other near the surf. +I reached the Sandy Head as the light began to fail, and found some +of the men I knew best fishing there with a sort of dragnet. It is a +tedious process, and I sat for a long time on the sand watching the +net being put out, and then drawn in again by eight men working +together with a slow rhythmical movement. + +As they talked to me and gave me a little poteen and a little bread +when they thought I was hungry, I could not help feeling that I was +talking with men who were under a judgment of death. I knew that +every one of them would be drowned in the sea in a few years and +battered naked on the rocks, or would die in his own cottage and be +buried with another fearful scene in the graveyard I had come from. + +When I got up this morning I found that the people had gone to Mass +and latched the kitchen door from the outside, so that I could not +open it to give myself light. + +I sat for nearly an hour beside the fire with a curious feeling that +I should be quite alone in this little cottage. I am so used to +sitting here with the people that I have never felt the room before +as a place where any man might live and work by himself. After a +while as I waited, with just light enough from the chimney to let me +see the rafters and the greyness of the walls, I became +indescribably mournful, for I felt that this little corner on the +face of the world, and the people who live in it, have a peace and +dignity from which we are shut for ever. + +While I was dreaming, the old woman came in in a great hurry and +made tea for me and the young priest, who followed her a little +later drenched with rain and spray. + +The curate who has charge of the middle and south islands has a +wearisome and dangerous task. He comes to this island or Inishere on +Saturday night--whenever the sea is calm enough--and has Mass the +first thing on Sunday morning. Then he goes down fasting and is +rowed across to the other island and has Mass again, so that it is +about midday when he gets a hurried breakfast before he sets off +again for Aranmore, meeting often on both passages a rough and +perilous sea. + +A couple of Sundays ago I was lying outside the cottage in the +sunshine smoking my pipe, when the curate, a man of the greatest +kindliness and humour, came up, wet and worn out, to have his first +meal. He looked at me for a moment and then shook his head. + +'Tell me,' he said, 'did you read your Bible this morning?' + +I answered that I had not done so. + +'Well, begod, Mr. Synge,' he went on, 'if you ever go to Heaven, +you'll have a great laugh at us.' + +Although these people are kindly towards each other and to their +children, they have no feeling for the sufferings of animals, and +little sympathy for pain when the person who feels it is not in +danger. I have sometimes seen a girl writhing and howling with +toothache while her mother sat at the other side of the fireplace +pointing at her and laughing at her as if amused by the sight. + +A few days ago, when we had been talking of the death of President +McKinley, I explained the American way of killing murderers, and a +man asked me how long the man who killed the President would be +dying. + +'While you'd be snapping your fingers,' I said. + +'Well,' said the man, 'they might as well hang him so, and not be +bothering themselves with all them wires. A man who would kill a +King or a President knows he has to die for it, and it's only giving +him the thing he bargained for if he dies easy. It would be right he +should be three weeks dying, and there'd be fewer of those things +done in the world.' + +If two dogs fight at the slip when we are waiting for the steamer, +the men are delighted and do all they can to keep up the fury of the +battle. + +They tie down donkeys' heads to their hoofs to keep them from +straying, in a way that must cause horrible pain, and sometimes when +I go into a cottage I find all the women of the place down on their +knees plucking the feathers from live ducks and geese. + +When the people are in pain themselves they make no attempt to hide +or control their feelings. An old man who was ill in the winter took +me out the other day to show me how far down the road they could +hear him yelling 'the time he had a pain in his head.' + +There was a great storm this morning, and I went up on the cliff to +sit in the shanty they have made there for the men who watch for +wrack. Soon afterwards a boy, who was out minding sheep, came up +from the west, and we had a long talk. + +He began by giving me the first connected account I have had of the +accident that happened some time ago, when the young man was drowned +on his way to the south island. + +'Some men from the south island,' he said, 'came over and bought +some horses on this island, and they put them in a hooker to take +across. They wanted a curagh to go with them to tow the horses on to +the strand, and a young man said he would go, and they could give +him a rope and tow him behind the hooker. When they were out in the +sound a wind came down on them, and the man in the curagh couldn't +turn her to meet the waves, because the hooker was pulling her and +she began filling up with water. + +'When the men in the hooker saw it they began crying out one thing +and another thing without knowing what to do. One man called out to +the man who was holding the rope: "Let go the rope now, or you'll +swamp her." + +'And the man with the rope threw it out on the water, and the curagh +half-filled already, and I think only one oar in her. A wave came +into her then, and she went down before them, and the young man +began swimming about; then they let fall the sails in the hooker the +way they could pick him up. And when they had them down they were +too far off, and they pulled the sails up again the way they could +tack back to him. He was there in the water swimming round, and +swimming round, and before they got up with him again he sank the +third time, and they didn't see any more of him.' + +I asked if anyone had seen him on the island since he was dead. + +'They have not,' he said, 'but there were queer things in it. Before +he went out on the sea that day his dog came up and sat beside him +on the rocks, and began crying. When the horses were coming down to +the slip an old woman saw her son, that was drowned a while ago, +riding on one of them, She didn't say what she was after seeing, and +this man caught the horse, he caught his own horse first, and then +he caught this one, and after that he went out and was drowned. Two +days after I dreamed they found him on the Ceann gaine (the Sandy +Head) and carried him up to the house on the plain, and took his +pampooties off him and hung them up on a nail to dry. It was there +they found him afterwards as you'll have heard them say.' + +'Are you always afraid when you hear a dog crying?' I said. + +'We don't like it,' he answered; 'you will often see them on the top +of the rocks looking up into the heavens, and they crying. We don't +like it at all, and we don't like a cock or hen to break anything in +the house, for we know then some one will be going away. A while +before the man who used to live in that cottage below died in the +winter, the cock belonging to his wife began to fight with another +cock. The two of them flew up on the dresser and knocked the glass +of the lamp off it, and it fell on the floor and was broken. The +woman caught her cock after that and killed it, but she could not +kill the other cock, for it was belonging to the man who lived in +the next house. Then himself got a sickness and died after that.' + +I asked him if he ever heard the fairy music on the island. + +'I heard some of the boys talking in the school a while ago,' he +said, 'and they were saying that their brothers and another man went +out fishing a morning, two weeks ago, before the cock crew. When +they were down near the Sandy Head they heard music near them, and +it was the fairies were in it. I've heard of other things too. One +time three men were out at night in a curagh, and they saw a big +ship coming down on them. They were frightened at it, and they tried +to get away, but it came on nearer them, till one of the men turned +round and made the sign of the cross, and then they didn't see it +any more.' + +Then he went on in answer to another question: + +'We do often see the people who do be away with them. There was a +young man died a year ago, and he used to come to the window of the +house where his brothers slept, and be talking to them in the night. +He was married a while before that, and he used to be saying in the +night he was sorry he had not promised the land to his son, and that +it was to him it should go. Another time he was saying something +about a mare, about her hoofs, or the shoes they should put on her. +A little while ago Patch Ruadh saw him going down the road with +brogaarda (leather boots) on him and a new suit. Then two men saw +him in another place. + +'Do you see that straight wall of cliff?' he went on a few minutes +later, pointing to a place below us. 'It is there the fairies do be +playing ball in the night, and you can see the marks of their heels +when you come in the morning, and three stones they have to mark the +line, and another big stone they hop the ball on. It's often the +boys have put away the three stones, and they will always be back +again in the morning, and a while since the man who owns the land +took the big stone itself and rolled it down and threw it over the +cliff, yet in the morning it was back in its place before him.' + +I am in the south island again, and I have come upon some old men +with a wonderful variety of stories and songs, the last, fairly +often, both in English and Irish, I went round to the house of one +of them to-day, with a native scholar who can write Irish, and we +took down a certain number, and heard others. Here is one of the +tales the old man told us at first before he had warmed to his +subject. I did not take it down, but it ran in this way:-- + +There was a man of the name of Charley Lambert, and every horse he +would ride in a race he would come in the first. + +The people in the country were angry with him at last, and this law +was made, that he should ride no more at races, and if he rode, any +one who saw him would have the right to shoot him. After that there +was a gentleman from that part of the country over in England, and +he was talking one day with the people there, and he said that the +horses of Ireland were the best horses. The English said it was the +English horses were the best, and at last they said there should be +a race, and the English horses would come over and race against the +horses of Ireland, and the gentleman put all his money on that race. + +Well, when he came back to Ireland he went to Charley Lambert, and +asked him to ride on his horse. Charley said he would not ride, and +told the gentleman the danger he'd be in. Then the gentleman told +him the way he had put all his property on the horse, and at last +Charley asked where the races were to be, and the hour and the day. +The gentleman told him. + +'Let you put a horse with a bridle and saddle on it every seven +miles along the road from here to the racecourse on that day,' said +Lambert, 'and I'll be in it.' + +When the gentleman was gone, Charley stripped off his clothes and +got into his bed. Then he sent for the doctor, and when he heard him +coming he began throwing about his arms the way the doctor would +think his pulse was up with the fever. + +The doctor felt his pulse and told him to stay quiet till the next +day, when he would see him again. + +The next day it was the same thing, and so on till the day of the +races. That morning Charley had his pulse beating so hard the doctor +thought bad of him. + +'I'm going to the races now, Charley,' said he, 'but I'll come in +and see you again when I'll be coming back in the evening, and let +you be very careful and quiet till you see me.' + +As soon as he had gone Charley leapt up out of bed and got on his +horse, and rode seven miles to where the first horse was waiting for +him. Then he rode that horse seven miles, and another horse seven +miles more, till he came to the racecourse. + +He rode on the gentleman's horse and he won the race. + +There were great crowds looking on, and when they saw him coming in +they said it was Charley Lambert, or the devil was in it, for there +was no one else could bring in a horse the way he did, for the leg +was after being knocked off of the horse and he came in all the +same. + +When the race was over, he got up on the horse was waiting for him, +and away with him for seven miles. Then he rode the other horse +seven miles, and his own horse seven miles, and when he got home he +threw off his clothes and lay down on his bed. + +After a while the doctor came back and said it was a great race they +were after having. + +The next day the people were saying it was Charley Lambert was the +man who rode the horse. An inquiry was held, and the doctor swore +that Charley was ill in his bed, and he had seen him before the race +and after it, so the gentleman saved his fortune. + +After that he told me another story of the same sort about a fairy +rider, who met a gentleman that was after losing all his fortune but +a shilling, and begged the shilling of him. The gentleman gave him +the shilling, and the fairy rider--a little red man--rode a horse +for him in a race, waving a red handkerchief to him as a signal when +he was to double the stakes, and made him a rich man. + +Then he gave us an extraordinary English doggerel rhyme which I took +down, though it seems singularly incoherent when written out at +length. These rhymes are repeated by the old men as a sort of chant, +and when a line comes that is more than usually irregular they seem +to take a real delight in forcing it into the mould of the +recitative. All the time he was chanting the old man kept up a kind +of snakelike movement in his body, which seemed to fit the chant and +make it part of him. + + + + + + + THE WHITE HORSE + + My horse he is white, + Though at first he was bay, + And he took great delight + In travelling by night + And by day. + + His travels were great + If I could but half of them tell, + He was rode in the garden by Adam, + The day that he fell. + + On Babylon plains + He ran with speed for the plate, + He was hunted next day + By Hannibal the great. + + After that he was hunted + In the chase of a fox, + When Nebuchadnezzar ate grass, + In the shape of an ox. + + We are told in the next verses of his going into the ark with Noah, + of Moses riding him through the Red Sea; then + + He was with king Pharaoh in Egypt + When fortune did smile, + And he rode him stately along + The gay banks of the Nile. + + He was with king Saul and all + His troubles went through, + He was with king David the day + That Goliath he slew. + + For a few verses he is with Juda and Maccabeus the great, with + Cyrus, and back again to Babylon. Next we find him as the horse that + came into Troy. + + When ( ) came to Troy with joy, + My horse he was found, + He crossed over the walls and entered + The city I'm told. + + I come on him again, in Spain, + And he in full bloom, + By Hannibal the great he was rode, + And he crossing the Alps into Rome. + + The horse being tall + And the Alps very high, + His rider did fall + And Hannibal the great lost an eye. + + Afterwards he carries young Sipho (Scipio), and then he is ridden by + Brian when driving the Danes from Ireland, and by St. Ruth when he + fell at the battle of Aughrim, and by Sarsfield at the siege of + Limerick. + + He was with king James who sailed + To the Irish shore, + But at last he got lame, + When the Boyne's bloody battle was o'er. + + He was rode by the greatest of men + At famed Waterloo, + Brave Daniel O'Connell he sat + On his back it is true. + + * * * * * * * + + Brave Dan's on his back, + He's ready once more for the field. + He never will stop till the Tories, + He'll make them to yield. + +Grotesque as this long rhyme appears, it has, as I said, a sort of +existence when it is crooned by the old man at his fireside, and it +has great fame in the island. The old man himself is hoping that I +will print it, for it would not be fair, he says, that it should die +out of the world, and he is the only man here who knows it, and none +of them have ever heard it on the mainland. He has a couple more +examples of the same kind of doggerel, but I have not taken them +down. + +Both in English and in Irish the songs are full of words the people +do not understand themselves, and when they come to say the words +slowly their memory is usually uncertain. + +All the morning I have been digging maidenhair ferns with a boy I +met on the rocks, who was in great sorrow because his father died +suddenly a week ago of a pain in his heart. + +'We wouldn't have chosen to lose our father for all the gold there +is in the world,' he said, 'and it's great loneliness and sorrow +there is in the house now.' + +Then he told me that a brother of his who is a stoker in the Navy +had come home a little while before his father died, and that he had +spent all his money in having a fine funeral, with plenty of drink +at it, and tobacco. + +'My brother has been a long way in the world,' he said, 'and seen +great wonders. He does be telling us of the people that do come out +to them from Italy, and Spain, and Portugal, and that it is a sort +of Irish they do be talking--not English at all--though it is only a +word here and there you'd understand.' + +When we had dug out enough of roots from the deep crannies in the +rocks where they are only to be found, I gave my companion a few +pence, and sent him back to his cottage. + +The old man who tells me the Irish poems is curiously pleased with +the translations I have made from some of them. + +He would never be tired, he says, listening while I would be reading +them, and they are much finer things than his old bits of rhyme. + +Here is one of them, as near the Irish as I am able to make it:-- + + + + + + + RUCARD MOR. + + I put the sorrow of destruction on the bad luck, + For it would be a pity ever to deny it, + It is to me it is stuck, + By loneliness my pain, my complaining. + + It is the fairy-host + Put me a-wandering + And took from me my goods of the world. + + At Mannistir na Ruaidthe + It is on me the shameless deed was done: + Finn Bheara and his fairy-host + Took my little horse on me from under the bag. + + If they left me the skin + It would bring me tobacco for three months, + But they did not leave anything with me + But the old minister in its place. + + Am not I to be pitied? + My bond and my note are on her, + And the price of her not yet paid, + My loneliness, my pain, my complaining. + + The devil a hill or a glen, or highest fort + Ever was built in Ireland, + Is not searched on me for my mare; + And I am still at my complaining. + + I got up in the morning, + I put a red spark in my pipe. + I went to the Cnoc-Maithe + To get satisfaction from them. + + I spoke to them, + If it was in them to do a right thing, + To get me my little mare, + Or I would be changing my wits. + + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor? + It is not here is your mare, + She is in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn + With the fairy-men these three months.' + + I ran on in my walking, + I followed the road straightly, + I was in Glenasmoil + Before the moon was ended. + + I spoke to the fairy-man, + If it was in him to do a right thing, + To get me my little mare, + Or I would be changing my wits. + + 'Do you hear Rucard Mor? + It is not here is your mare, + She is in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn + With the horseman of the music these three months.' + + I ran off on my walking, + I followed the road straightly, + I was in Cnoc Bally Brishlawn + With the black fall of the night. + + That is a place was a crowd + As it was seen by me, + All the weavers of the globe, + It is there you would have news of them. + + I spoke to the horseman, + If it was in him to do the right thing, + To get me my little mare, + Or I would be changing my wits. + + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor? + It is not here is your mare, + She is in Cnoc Cruachan, + In the back end of the palace.' + + I ran off on my walking, + I followed the road straightly, + I made no rest or stop + Till I was in face of the palace. + + That is the place was a crowd + As it appeared to me, + The men and women of the country, + And they all making merry. + + Arthur Scoil (?) stood up + And began himself giving the lead, + It is joyful, light and active, + I would have danced the course with them. + + They drew up on their feet + And they began to laugh,-- + 'Look at Rucard Mor, + And he looking for his little mare.' + + I spoke to the man, + And he ugly and humpy, + Unless he would get me my mare + I would break a third of his bones. + + 'Do you hear, Rucard Mor? + It is not here is your mare, + She is in Alvin of Leinster, + On a halter with my mother.' + + I ran off on my walking, + And I came to Alvin of Leinster. + I met the old woman-- + On my word she was not pleasing. + + I spoke to the old woman, + And she broke out in English: + 'Get agone, you rascal, + I don't like your notions.' + + 'Do you hear, you old woman? + Keep away from me with your English, + But speak to me with the tongue + I hear from every person.' + + 'It is from me you will get word of her, + Only you come too late-- + I made a hunting cap + For Conal Cath of her yesterday.' + + I ran off on my walking, + Through roads that were cold and dirty. + I fell in with the fairy-man, + And he lying down in the Ruadthe. + + 'I pity a man without a cow, + I pity a man without a sheep, + But in the case of a man without a horse + It is hard for him to be long in the world.' + + + + + + + +This morning, when I had been lying for a long time on a rock near +the sea watching some hooded crows that were dropping shellfish on +the rocks to break them, I saw one bird that had a large white +object which it was dropping continually without any result. I got +some stones and tried to drive it off when the thing had fallen, but +several times the bird was too quick for me and made off with it +before I could get down to him. At last, however, I dropped a stone +almost on top of him and he flew away. I clambered down hastily, and +found to my amazement a worn golf-ball! No doubt it had been brought +out in some way or other from the links in County Glare, which are +not far off, and the bird had been trying half the morning to break +it. + +Further on I had a long talk with a young man who is inquisitive +about modern life, and I explained to him an elaborate trick or +corner on the Stock Exchange that I heard of lately. When I got him +to understand it fully, he shouted with delight and amusement. + +'Well,' he said when he was quiet again, 'isn't it a great wonder to +think that those rich men are as big rogues as ourselves.' + +The old story-teller has given me a long rhyme about a man who +fought with an eagle. It is rather irregular and has some obscure +passages, but I have translated it with the scholar. + + + + + + + PHELIM AND THE EAGLE + + On my getting up in the morning + And I bothered, on a Sunday, + I put my brogues on me, + And I going to Tierny + In the Glen of the Dead People. + It is there the big eagle fell in with me, + He like a black stack of turf sitting up stately. + + I called him a lout and a fool, + The son of a female and a fool, + Of the race of the Clan Cleopas, the biggest rogues in the land. + That and my seven curses + And never a good day to be on you, + Who stole my little cock from me that could crow the sweetest. + + 'Keep your wits right in you + And don't curse me too greatly, + By my strength and my oath + I never took rent of you, + I didn't grudge what you would have to spare + In the house of the burnt pigeons, + It is always useful you were to men of business. + + 'But get off home + And ask Nora + What name was on the young woman that scalded his head. + The feathers there were on his ribs + Are burnt on the hearth, + And they eat him and they taking and it wasn't much were thankful.' + + 'You are a liar, you stealer, + They did not eat him, and they're taking + Nor a taste of the sort without being thankful, + You took him yesterday + As Nora told me, + And the harvest quarter will not be spent till I take a tax of you.' + + 'Before I lost the Fianna + It was a fine boy I was, + It was not about thieving was my knowledge, + But always putting spells, + Playing games and matches with the strength of Gol MacMorna, + And you are making me a rogue + At the end of my life.' + + 'There is a part of my father's books with me, + Keeping in the bottom of a box, + And when I read them the tears fall down from me. + But I found out in history + That you are a son of the Dearg Mor, + If it is fighting you want and you won't be thankful.' + + The Eagle dressed his bravery + With his share of arms and his clothes, + He had the sword that was the sharpest + Could be got anywhere. + I and my scythe with me, + And nothing on but my shirt, + We went at each other early in the day. + + We were as two giants + Ploughing in a valley in a glen of the mountains. + We did not know for the while which was the better man. + You could hear the shakes that were on our arms under each other, + From that till the sunset, + Till it was forced on him to give up. + + I wrote a 'challenge boxail' to him + On the morning of the next day, + To come till we would fight without doubt at the dawn of the day. + The second fist I drew on him I struck him on the hone of his jaw, + He fell, and it is no lie there was a cloud in his head. + + The Eagle stood up, + He took the end of my hand:-- + 'You are the finest man I ever saw in my life, + Go off home, my blessing will be on you for ever, + You have saved the fame of Eire for yourself till the Day of the Judgment.' + + Ah! neighbors, did you hear + The goodness and power of Felim? + The biggest wild beast you could get, + The second fist he drew on it + He struck it on the jaw, + It fell, and it did not rise + Till the end of two days. + +Well as I seem to know these people of the islands, there is hardly +a day that I do not come upon some new primitive feature of their +life. + +Yesterday I went into a cottage where the woman was at work and very +carelessly dressed. She waited for a while till I got into +conversation with her husband, and then she slipped into the corner +and put on a clean petticoat and a bright shawl round her neck. Then +she came back and took her place at the fire. + +This evening I was in another cottage till very late talking to the +people. When the little boy--the only child of the house--got +sleepy, the old grandmother took him on her lap and began singing to +him. As soon as he was drowsy she worked his clothes off him by +degrees, scratching him softly with her nails as she did so all over +his body. Then she washed his feet with a little water out of a pot +and put him into his bed. + +When I was going home the wind was driving the sand into my face so +that I could hardly find my way. I had to hold my hat over my mouth +and nose, and my hand over my eyes while I groped along, with my +feet feeling for rocks and holes in the sand. + +I have been sitting all the morning with an old man who was making +sugawn ropes for his house, and telling me stories while he worked. +He was a pilot when he was young, and we had great talk at first +about Germans, and Italians, and Russians, and the ways of seaport +towns. Then he came round to talk of the middle island, and he told +me this story which shows the curious jealousy that is between the +islands:-- + +Long ago we used all to be pagans, and the saints used to be coming +to teach us about God and the creation of the world. The people on +the middle island were the last to keep a hold on the +fire-worshipping, or whatever it was they had in those days, but in +the long run a saint got in among them and they began listening to +him, though they would often say in the evening they believed, and +then say the morning after that they did not believe. In the end the +saint gained them over and they began building a church, and the +saint had tools that were in use with them for working with the +stones. When the church was halfway up the people held a kind of +meeting one night among themselves, when the saint was asleep in his +bed, to see if they did really believe and no mistake in it. + +The leading man got up, and this is what he said: that they should +go down and throw their tools over the cliff, for if there was such +a man as God, and if the saint was as well known to Him as he said, +then he would be as well able to bring up the tools out of the sea +as they were to throw them in. + +They went then and threw their tools over the cliff. + +When the saint came down to the church in the morning the workmen +were all sitting on the stones and no work doing. + +'For what cause are you idle?' asked the saint. + +'We have no tools,' said the men, and then they told him the story +of what they had done. + +He kneeled down and prayed God that the tools might come up out of +the sea, and after that he prayed that no other people might ever be +as great fools as the people on the middle island, and that God +might preserve theft dark minds of folly to them fill the end of the +world. And that is why no man out of that island can tell you a +whole story without stammering, or bring any work to end without a +fault in it. + +I asked him if he had known old Pat Dirane on the middle island, and +heard the fine stories he used to tell. + +'No one knew him better than I did,' he said; 'for I do often be in +that island making curaghs for the people. One day old Pat came down +to me when I was after tarring a new curagh, and he asked me to put +a little tar on the knees of his breeches the way the rain wouldn't +come through on him. + +'I took the brush in my hand, and I had him tarred down to his feet +before he knew what I was at. "Turn round the other side now," I +said, "and you'll be able to sit where you like." Then he felt the +tar coming in hot against his skin and he began cursing my soul, and +I was sorry for the trick I'd played on him.' + +This old man was the same type as the genial, whimsical old men one +meets all through Ireland, and had none of the local characteristics +that are so marked on lnishmaan. + +When we were tired talking I showed some of my tricks and a little +crowd collected. When they were gone another old man who had come up +began telling us about the fairies. One night when he was coming +home from the lighthouse he heard a man riding on the road behind +him, and he stopped to wait for him, but nothing came. Then he heard +as if there was a man trying to catch a horse on the rocks, and in a +little time he went on. The noise behind him got bigger as he went +along as if twenty horses, and then as if a hundred or a thousand, +were galloping after him. When he came to the stile where he had to +leave the road and got out over it, something hit against him and +threw him down on the rock, and a gun he had in his hand fell into +the field beyond him. + +'I asked the priest we had at that time what was in it,' he said, +'and the priest told me it was the fallen angels; and I don't know +but it was.' + +'Another time,' he went on, 'I was coming down where there is a bit +of a cliff and a little hole under it, and I heard a flute playing +in the hole or beside it, and that was before the dawn began. +Whatever anyone says there are strange things. There was one night +thirty years ago a man came down to get my wife to go up to his +wife, for she was in childbed. + +'He was something to do with the lighthouse or the coastguard, one +of them Protestants who don't believe in any of these things and do +be making fun of us. Well, he asked me to go down and get a quart of +spirits while my wife would be getting herself ready, and he said he +would go down along with me if I was afraid. + +'I said I was not afraid, and I went by myself. + +'When I was coming back there was something on the path, and wasn't +I a foolish fellow, I might have gone to one side or the other over +the sand, but I went on straight till I was near it--till I was too +near it--then I remembered that I had heard them saying none of +those creatures can stand before you and you saying the De +Profundis, so I began saying it, and the thing ran off over the sand +and I got home. + +'Some of the people used to say it was only an old jackass that was +on the path before me, but I never heard tell of an old jackass +would run away from a man and he saying the De Profundis.' + +I told him the story of the fairy ship which had disappeared when +the man made the sign of the cross, as I had heard it on the middle +island. + +'There do be strange things on the sea,' he said. 'One night I was +down there where you can see that green point, and I saw a ship +coming in and I wondered what it would be doing coming so close to +the rocks. It came straight on towards the place I was in, and then +I got frightened and I ran up to the houses, and when the captain +saw me running he changed his course and went away. + +'Sometimes I used to go out as a pilot at that time--I went a few +times only. Well, one Sunday a man came down and said there was a +big ship coming into the sound. I ran down with two men and we went +out in a curagh; we went round the point where they said the ship +was, and there was no ship in it. As it was a Sunday we had nothing +to do, and it was a fine, calm day, so we rowed out a long way +looking for the ship, till I was further than I ever was before or +after. When I wanted to turn back we saw a great flock of birds on +the water and they all black, without a white bird through them. +They had no fear of us at all, and the men with me wanted to go up +to them, so we went further. When we were quite close they got up, +so many that they blackened the sky, and they lit down again a +hundred or maybe a hundred and twenty yards off. We went after them +again, and one of the men wanted to kill one with a thole-pin, and +the other man wanted to kill one with his rowing stick. I was afraid +they would upset the curagh, but they would go after the birds. + +'When we were quite close one man threw the pin and the other man +hit at them with his rowing stick, and the two of them fell over in +the curagh, and she turned on her side and only it was quite calm +the lot of us were drowned. + +'I think those black gulls and the ship were the same sort, and +after that I never went out again as a pilot. It is often curaghs go +out to ships and find there is no ship. + +'A while ago a curagh went out to a ship from the big island, and +there was no ship; and all the men in the curagh were drowned. A +fine song was made about them after that, though I never heard it +myself. + +'Another day a curagh was out fishing from this island, and the men +saw a hooker not far from them, and they rowed up to it to get a +light for their pipes--at that time there were no matches--and when +they up to the big boat it was gone out of its place, and they were +in great fear.' + +Then he told me a story he had got from the mainland about a man who +was driving one night through the country, and met a woman who came +up to him and asked him to take her into his cart. He thought +something was not right about her, and he went on. When he had gone +a little way he looked back, and it was a pig was on the road and +not a woman at all. + +He thought he was a done man, but he went on. When he was going +through a wood further on, two men came out to him, one from each +side of the road, and they took hold of the bridle of the horse and +led it on between them. They were old stale men with frieze clothes +on them, and the old fashions. When they came out of the wood he +found people as if there was a fair on the road, with the people +buying and selling and they not living people at all. The old men +took him through the crowd, and then they left him. When he got home +and told the old people of the two old men and the ways and fashions +they had about them, the old people told him it was his two +grandfathers had taken care of him, for they had had a great love +for him and he a lad growing up. + +This evening we had a dance in the inn parlour, where a fire had +been lighted and the tables had been pushed into the corners. There +was no master of the ceremonies, and when I had played two or three +jigs and other tunes on my fiddle, there was a pause, as I did not +know how much of my music the people wanted, or who else could be +got to sing or play. For a moment a deadlock seemed to be coming, +but a young girl I knew fairly well saw my difficulty, and took the +management of our festivities into her hands. At first she asked a +coastguard's daughter to play a reel on the mouth organ, which she +did at once with admirable spirit and rhythm. Then the little girl +asked me to play again, telling me what I should choose, and went on +in the same way managing the evening till she thought it was time to +go home. Then she stood up, thanked me in Irish, and walked out of +the door, without looking at anybody, but followed almost at once by +the whole party. + +When they had gone I sat for a while on a barrel in the public-house +talking to some young men who were reading a paper in Irish. Then I +had a long evening with the scholar and two story-tellers--both old +men who had been pilots--taking down stories and poems. We were at +work for nearly six hours, and the more matter we got the more the +old men seemed to remember. + +'I was to go out fishing tonight,' said the younger as he came in, +'but I promised you to come, and you're a civil man, so I wouldn't +take five pounds to break my word to you. And now'--taking up his +glass of whisky--'here's to your good health, and may you live till +they make you a coffin out of a gooseberry bush, or till you die in +childbed.' + +They drank my health and our work began. + +'Have you heard tell of the poet MacSweeny?' said the same man, +sitting down near me. + +'I have,' I said, 'in the town of Galway.' + +'Well,' he said, 'I'll tell you his piece "The Big Wedding," for +it's a fine piece and there aren't many that know it. There was a +poor servant girl out in the country, and she got married to a poor +servant boy. MacSweeny knew the two of them, and he was away at that +time and it was a month before he came back. When he came back he +went to see Peggy O'Hara--that was the name of the girl--and he +asked her if they had had a great wedding. Peggy said it was only +middling, but they hadn't forgotten him all the same, and she had a +bottle of whisky for him in the cupboard. He sat down by the fire +and began drinking the whisky. When he had a couple of glasses taken +and was warm by the fire, he began making a song, and this was the +song he made about the wedding of Peggy O'Hara.' + +He had the poem both in English and Irish, but as it has been found +elsewhere and attributed to another folk-poet, I need not give it. + +We had another round of porter and whisky, and then the old man who +had MacSweeny's wedding gave us a bit of a drinking song, which the +scholar took down and I translated with him afterwards:-- + +'This is what the old woman says at the Beulleaca when she sees a +man without knowledge-- + +'Were you ever at the house of the Still, did you ever get a drink +from it? Neither wine nor beer is as sweet as it is, but it is well +I was not burnt when I fell down after a drink of it by the fire of +Mr. Sloper. + +'I praise Owen O'Hernon over all the doctors of Ireland, it is he +put drugs on the water, and it lying on the barley. + +'If you gave but a drop of it to an old woman who does be walking +the world with a stick, she would think for a week that it was a +fine bed was made for her.' + +After that I had to get out my fiddle and play some tunes for them +while they finished their whisky. A new stock of porter was brought +in this morning to the little public-house underneath my room, and I +could hear in the intervals of our talk that a number of men had +come in to treat some neighbors from the middle island, and were +singing many songs, some of them in English or of the kind I have +given, but most of them in Irish. + +A little later when the party broke up downstairs my old men got +nervous about the fairies--they live some distance away--and set off +across the sandhills. + +The next day I left with the steamer. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Aran Islands, by John M. Synge + diff --git a/old/trnsl10.zip b/old/trnsl10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7850b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/trnsl10.zip |