The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1905-03-17

spinning wheel every enc has his or her
task In the planting season the wOm-
Ell work in the fields with the men and
at the hay harvest they do everything
but NOW
In the early days of May shouldering
his turf spade and accompanied by u
handful of helping neiSlbors. the Irish
man goes to the peat bog to cut his
winter fuel The turf is cut twelve
inches deep and four square out of the
soft black peat, layer after layer, each
blacker, denSer and containing more
carbon than the one before, to depth
Of eight. twelve and in the best boys
even twenty feet. With one stroke of
his double spade. the blades of which
are set at right angles, the digger cuts
a clean turf and throws it over his
shoulder to the bank above. There u
man with a barrow gathers the turfS
and wheels them away to dry ground.
where they are spread out and left I'M
til the sun has drawn the water from
them. Then they are piled up and lat
err carted home to build the turf stack
by the. cottage door. quite like an Amer
lean wood pile
hC WOilCh anu 1T St.iSUlio
have plenty to do indoors. spinning and
weaving the Irish linens and home
spuns which are famous round the
world and working on their wonderful
embroderies This work the girls turn
into play at their "Sprigsing camps.
where all the lasses from one hillside
or valley gather. bringing with them
their embrOidering materials and their
stools. They meet in the home OF
each girl in turn. forming circle in
the center of the kitchen. while the
boys Of the district sit around the
wallis. TESTING with the girls and telling
stories. At about IL O'Clock the camp
breaks up. and the boys. shOulderins
the stools. convoy the girls home.
In other cottages women sit knitting
around the enormous fireplace. the men
smoking their black clay pipes and
swapping stories which keep the chill
dren wide awake long after they should
be in bed At these sessions the sha-
nachy. or travelling story teller. always
meets with hOSpitable reception In
olden times. before the spread of news
papers and printed books, story telling
was a regular profession Nowadays
v
the best story teller is frequently the
beggar man who, travelling over great
areas. meets the shanaciies of many
parts and acquires Il vast fund of tales.
true and otherwise Most exciting are
his narratives of the doingS of Finn
Macoul and his warriors, Of giants
fairies and bansheeS. In more than
one of his romanceS the hero is the good
ST. Patrick himself of whom he tells
such tales as that of his conversion OF
OsSian. son of Finn.
Ossian met s beautiful maiden, rid
ing on an enchanted white horse near
the lakes Of Killarney. She told him
she was Nam of the Golden Hair.
daughter of the king of Tir-n-an-oS, and
that she had come To Erin TO see him.
whose great renown had reached her
own country. He fell promptly in love
with Mann. of course. and went back
with her to Tir-n-an-og- where they
were married. He remained with Mann
for 200 years. Then he lOnged TO set
Erin again and his old friends, and
Nam said he might go if he would
promise to come back, and she LET him
take the enchanted white horse TO ride
on Great was OSSianS sorrow when he
reached Erin to find that the FenlanS
were all dead and that the race of men
was small and weak. He sought to
show the pygmies what feats Of
strength a man of the old time could
do when the girth of his saddle broke
and the enchanted horse ran away,
leaving Ossian behind. small and weak.
like the others, and old. Ossian heard
of st. Patrick, who was introducing
new worship into Ireland, and he blam-
ed him for the sad state Of the country
He went to see the saint and remon-
strate with him and stayed with him
four years. each trying during that
time to bring the other to his way Of
thinking. At last the heather was con-
verted, after he had been given a