The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-10-06
4 PILGRIMAGE IN IRELAND.
HOW WESTERN PEASANTRI
VISIT ST. PATRICK'S SHRINE.

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dreds OF Women Among the Pilgrims
simple Hearted Religious Ceremo-
ny.
High above clew Bay, in County
Mayo, rises the great cone Of croag
Patrick, Like the sacred mountain Of
Japan, it stands conspicuous and all
most isolated, looking over the sea on
lone side to the mountains Of Achill
land on the other to the wild country
lof Murrisk. Though hardly one-third
lof Fujiyama's height, it is as sacred
to its own land, says the London
Chronicle" and for fourteen centuries
has been the chosen scene of Pilgrim
age.
For the Reek." as the Irish call it.
is closely connected with Ireland's mis-
isionary saint. Here he worked many
of his queer miracles, here he slew the
terrible buii OF Cormack lDhu and
brought it back to life; here the SER
pents and other dragons made their
last stand against him and were driven
writing into the water. Here we
may imagine him in reality as a poor,
wayworn scholar from the civilized
banks of the Loire, climbing the height
In mist and wind, that from there he.
might pray for this Wild and unknown
land of the West on the very edge OF
the mysterious oceans encirciing
stream. A few comrades We're with
him, who had followed their mah oi
courage into the realms of savage
heathendom. Around them were the
queens and chieftaius, the warriors and
Poets Of mingled myth and history,
whose records and arts we now search
after with such eagerness. But to the.
wandering teachers Of the young re-
ligion from the East these were only
the indistinguishabl heather, part of
those foredoomed multitudes of human
ity whom Christ had come to save.
On the mountains top he built rude
chapel The place may still be seen.
in a hollow like little crater, close to
the very summit. II has been rooted
over lately with a few sheets of CORFU
gated iron held down by piles Of rocks.
for Mayo IS poor county. and has
| BeAoSliiE III
trouble and hunger and war But that
corrugated iron marks the most sacred
spot of the West, and 1t is perhaps
characteristic that while the English
people used to make pilgrimages to- the
rich shrines in comfortable towns like
Canterbury or Btiry in the days when
England still had saints, the Irish peo-
lple make their pilgrimage to a desolate
mountain peak, swept by the rain and
wind, with no town nearer than poor
little Westport, and that many miles
away, The path BY which St Patrick
probably first assembled has been worn
by the feet and knees of generations.
For some reason, the pilgrimage has
, always been especially sought after by
J women who long for a blessing upon
their children. That longing has kept
1.-THE track well marked, and women
, who sought a special grace either OF
pardon or hope till lately climbed the
, lsteepest part Of the path on bare knees.
Last Sunday, being the Vigil Of the
Assumption, was the great pilgrims
, day. 1t was an ancient custom on that
day to celebrate the mass In st. Pat
rick's Chapel. When the terrible
! change came over ireland, after the
! famine, the custom died away with the
rest, but last year 1t came to life again
as part Of that reviving hope and In
telleetuaI movement which are rapidly
: renewing the face of the country.
From the earliest morning the pilgrims
: began to gather round the foot Of the
mountain. They came from Sligo and
Athlone, from Galway and the wilds
: of Connemara. They came from
! Tough Conn and every part Of Mayo.
+ The red petticoat women with bare
J legs came from Aehill. One could not
! estimate how many came. Was 1t
5000 OF 10000? 1t did not matter,
They were a great many and by s
! o'clock in the morning the struggling
lines from every quarter began to COM
verge upon the main pilgrims path,
! till from foot to summit 1t was like a
dark mountain stream.
That was a. long and difficult climb.
1t took nearly three hours, and the
wild weather made 1t more toilsome.
Where the mountain gave the path no
shelter from the west the wind rushed
|. down upon us and struck us Off our
|. feet as though with blows. Storms Of
! drenching rain kept sweeping over us,
! land, as we mounted, the rain turned to
hail and was driven against our faces
in charp dust Of ice. The track first
lied up the beds of streams and through
Doggy earth beaten to slime by feet.
!, But it mounted steadily the whole
time, and after about an hour and a
half each pilgrim in the long, dark
line reached the "butt" or shoulder of
the mountain, drenched through and
covered with black earth to the knee,
: but happy for the few yards of fat
walking along the ridge, with glimpses
, through the mist of green fields far
below, and of white seas, and of few
lonely tarns, which an old woman told
, had been 1.-THE receptacles Of the ser
|, Ipents." Then began the final struggle
: lup the cone itself. 1t mounts at a
livery steep angle, and where the bare
, rock does not come through it is COW
! cred with loose screens of slippery
iearth. To climb it that morning was
: Hike going up a. rickety ladder, with
, thousands in front and thousands upon
the rungs behind One could see no
: thing but the next uncertain step, and
= lit felt as though the fall of one would