Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-03-05

Shaun O'Flaherty stopped rowing and
crossed himself and said
"'Teigue Rue, I'm greatly afeard
"'Afeard of WHAT says Teigue Rue.
"'Of the pasta wohr he says. Sure,
this is her favurite locality between
Dhu-Corrig and the Coos-an-dorcha
that is to say, the Black rock and the
Coos of Darkness-and sure they say
that it is through Cooree's window she
comes out and goes i'll again through
the same and has her nest there.
Then Teigue Rue spoke words about
the piast, and though l we'll remember
them | won say them in your honOr's
presence. and he fell to beating Shaun
O'Flaherty to make him quit his non
sense and be rowing the same as for
merly. Then the gOSSOon screamed with
an awful and terrible cry that was
heard by all the people of the valley
that runs up back from Dhu-C Orrig, and
the men stopped their fighting and
looked where the boy was looking, and
that was up at the big gray cliff.
Then, God and all his holy saints
preserve us they saw something that
was enough to kill them all at once
with the fright! From Cooree's window
the piast was coming out, and first she
raised her head up along the cliff side,
stretching herself like a serpent or a
huge black eel. and the head continued
going up till it passed beyond the cliff
top so that they could see the head of
the piast against the sky and the stars,
and her body all the time working slow
ly out of the cave. She was named like
a horse and had ears like a horse, and
her eyes were like two red fires in her
head. In that manner she raised her
head up among the stars. and then max
ing an arch with her neck turned her
eyes downward, and at first she did not
see them. but stretched her head along
the cliff shore to Dhu-CoI1ig and then
backward along the coast as far as
Coos-an-dorcha and into the COOS, wind
ing her head and neck round the rock
at the mouth of the COOS. After that she
raises her head again, but not so high
as before, and in the bright water she
sees the black boat, and without hurry
comes down upon it, the two men sit
ting there without a word, as silent and
as steady as stones, with faces like white
paper. Then with her long tongue she
reaps them into her mouth, they still
without word or a noise, and chews
them very deliberately. The cracking
of their bones in the mouth of the piast,
that boy used to say afterward, was like
the cracking of brush in II fire, and
the shower of blood that fell from
her jaws along tho hairs of her mouth,
every hair as long as an oar, was like
the sound of hail upon water. And aft
er that she raised up her head to swal.
low them more conveniently after the
manner of birds when they drink.
Then the boy escaped l said.
Yes, sir; the boy escaped. When
she raised her head in that manner,
God gave him courage SO that he slip
ped over the gunwale of the boat upon
the seaward side and sheltered himself
so. 1t was not long before the piast
came down again. The boy did not see
her on account of the place where he
was. but h heard her breathing and
smelt the breath of her like seaweed,
only vely strong. and indeed it is aston
iShing how he cuntrived to keep himself
ahOat, considering the great fear that
was upon him. She returned to the
boat twice after that. for no doubt she
smelt him, and he knew her coming on
each occasion by reason of the breath
ing and of the Very strong smell. In
the end he heard loud noise, and he
said to himself that it WAS the noise of
the hinder part; the piast falling into
the water, and that now he would be
safer in the boat than i'll the sea. Ac-
,ordingly, though with very great diff
Guilty. owing to the fear that was upon |
him, he climbed over the gunwale and
gathered the sail around him and lay
down in the bottom OF the boat.
Tho boat was picked up next morn
ing by the Coos-beg men, for she was
carried eastward by the tide. and when
they unrOlled the sail the boy was an
idiot. and he continued in that state,
and languishing besides. till the eve
Of ST. Johns day in the next year,
when he died, saving only that for nine
days before his death his understanding
to him. and he told the story
many times to different people.
lis it your opinion, then, l said, |
q that the piast has taken the two young
gentlemen, my neighbors:'
God alone, said Crohoor, knows
that, with whom is the knowledge of |
all things. But if it be so and the piast
aas them, Almighty God and his only |
Son be our defense, for the power of |
man and the mind of man furnish no |
protection against the like of her
But. Crohoor, you said Il short time |
ago that man beat that reptile in bat
tie and banished her into the rocks and |
the sea.
so l said, sir, but it is thought that |
the man who did it was more than a
man. and that though he lived before |
the coming of st. Patrick, yet the power
of the Almighty was in him
Such, my friend, is the explanation |
of the disappearance offered by Gro
hoor-beg. O 'Brieu by nation,' who |
of a size and bulk corresponding, a poor |
fisherman and cottier of the island called |
Lau-wohr, who can't speak English and |
never read line in any printed book, |
but who, l verify believe, is not only a |
nobler and better but a wiser man, too. |
than most of the professional men with |
whom l am acquainted. And though |
his theory, being grounded on an in
credible superstition, is to be rejected, |
it is not at all more irrational than sew |
eral which l have heard soberly ad- |
vanced by educated persons.
SAMUEL WATKINS.
CHAPTER TX