The record-union., 1893-05-20


ality and upon their strong, long legs.
indeed this often reaches grotesQueness
IN Doth respects. While the Irish peas
antry, particularly of the South, are fire.
quently diminutive in form and some
times ferrety in character, these folk
seem TO possess an inner consciousness
OF selt-importance cut in glowing charac-
ters ana large lines, while in no few in
stances they are so straight that fine arcs
sweep from their heels to the back of
their necks, often giving them the ap-
pearance OF carrying, and with some dis
ualn, Invisible but mighty commissions
on the tops of their heads. 1t is weird
sight to see scores Of such as these ap-
p6arlng around the curve of some mighty
mountain road, accompanying the emil
grant TO Stranorlar, wailing and almost
keening as for the dead, halting and en-
pracing, often struggling for priority in
walking beside the hero Of the hour, and
often so overcome with the violence of
their grief as to make despairing rushes
with the loved one back towards the old
mountain home.
L have many times fallen in with these
cavalcades winding down from the Der
ryveah and Glendowau Mountains, or
from the Boultypatrick, Gatigan or Aghla
Hills, and have walked and halted, and
parleyed and soothed in common with
the honest souls for miles on their way
towards the railway at Stranorlar. On
one occasion the conveying" party was
from the far West, from away over by
the bowling cliffs of Maghery Bay, where
life is very dull and drear at best. 1t was
crowd whose faces and strange attire
bespoke great poverty. Two children,
lad of II and girl Of perhaps IA, were
going away. The mother was to re-
main behind until these waits could send
| for her. For the whole company it was
the event of their lives, this few miles
mountain iOnrnau ha for
brave young emigrants, the consideration
Tor the walllng mother, and the latter's
grlet were touching to behold.
Half the time the lads companions had
their arms about his neck. The girls
would carry the sister on their shoul-
ders, and i'll seats made by interlacing
their fingers, while the mother and the
children's luggage had been piled in an
old squeaking mountain-but, or cart,
which was tenderly drawn by hand. The
women crowded about the cart with all
manner of endearing and reassuring
words of comfort, but the poor woman
could not be comtorted. AS she lay pros
trate upon the bundles there only came
from her white lips the endless moan:
"Crosh orrin! crosh orrin! My past
chee boght! my pastchee boghtn' MAY
the cross encompass me! My poor chill
dren! my poor chlldrenD
Once when wandering in County Gal
way dONIl ny OIQ OlORiIOIG, L saw q
stranger conveying" party than could
be found in any other portion of Ireland.
had been saunterlng among the Gonna
mara "knitterS," ''tullers." poteen-ma-
kers and antiquities Of the ancient Celts,
with which this region abounds, and my
mind was full OF the pagan and early
barbaric life whose rude stone monu-
ments were on every hand. Suddenly
looking down upon the sea l beheld
scene in keeping with the times OF which
l dreamed. a fleet of rotten dories,
ragged smacks and curraghs, or skin
keeled craft, precisely the same as used in
these ISLANDS 1000 years ago, was ap-
preaching the shore.
The occupants were skinny and white.
They were dressed in rags and with little
OF these. The men wore skin shoes
from which the hair had not been re-
moved, which the natives called pam
pootas" The women were baretooted
and barelegged to their knees, and their
bCnnetleSS heads were covered with great
shocks OF coarse black hair. 1t was a
Dantean picture of hunger and want,
framed in setting OF ancient, barDaric
times. They were u party of nearly 100
GOdtorsaken Arran Islanders, accom-
panylng family OF emigranls To Clogh-
more, whence the latter would walk to
the train at Galway. They nearly all
stood upright as they neared the main
land and were chanting the Widest
most dolorous Celtic strain human ears
ever heard.
What a host of shuddering reflections
this sea pageant of poverty stricken peas
antry crowd upon you! Your eye fol-
lows the dark ShOre-Iine. Behind are the
mountains. There are The peasantry and
the ruins. Two thousand years ago there
stood the WatCh-tower, the raths, the
places tor pagan pyrolatry. In the val
leys were the herds and the helots. The
signals flashed from crag To crag. Some
savage chief, with his thousands of serfs,
has come to give battle perhaps to old
Beola himself. The believing herds are
huddled in the glen. The shrieking
women are herding within the raths. On
come the fierce invaders by land. Here
skulking along the bays and bights, come
the invaders by sea. Their shields are of
rawhide. Their war raiment is OF raw
hide. Their navy is atioat upon rawhide
Then, slaughter by land and sea, while
the day lasts. Fire and sword, rapine
and pillage while lasts the night. The
grass grows richer i'll the valleys for the
blood left there that day!
They set the. departing ones upon
shore in silence and teuderIy. No words
could depict the agony of that separation.
These Went forth 10 unknown dangers in
untried lands-those went back to hope
less starvation upon the barren Arran
Isles. But not at once. Past old Clogh-
more, past Ballywen, yes, past far Caher,
the curraghs and the dories and their
motley crews followed those that went,
walling farewells, hercely shrieking gl'ahS
and straining their eyes until the last
luttering rays disappeared beyond the
COnnamara Hills over against ancient
Galway. Not until then did they, still
waiting, turn towards the novels among
the bowling Arran rocks.
l can never forget conveying" Incl
Hnnf and hiuh I
witnessed, and, indeed, in which | par
ticipated. l had been visiting the battle
field of Aughrim, where, ON that awful
Sunday of 1851 was a battle such as we
who have been in battle know; where
Ginkel's hosts, in that mad charge upon
leaderless heroes, ruined the fortunes of
the Stuart dynasty, and where the whirl-
wind of death which swept over Au-
ghrim's morass and bog set the final seal
OF serviJude, but never of servility, upon
the people of Ireland, and, turning into
the old Dublin and Galway road towards
Ballinasloe, was at once one of singular
Conveying party from the rural dis
tricts of Kilreekill. The strangest feature
OF this, so invariably friendly process
sion, was its double character and It's re-
markably contentious nature.
Some tremendous excitement seemed to
wildly influence both lines of march. on
one side of the way was bright Irish
maiden surrounded and protected, as it
were, by parents, relatives, and at least
two-score aggressively-det follow
ers. On the other was a smart-looking
Irish youth in a state approaching frenzy,
surrounded aud restrained from some
violent purpose by a like retinue of fam
lily, friends and loyal followers. Drop
ping quietly into line behind, among the
MIN mble-footed, least partisan, and one
might say commiseratingly blended fol-
lowers, speedily learned the cause of