in

dividing the word of life, in speaking peace to the wounded conscience, through the blood of the all-atoning Jesus? Had his ministry been blessed in the moral culture of his people—and was he a constraining instrument of Divine grace in turning men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God?'" "Why no," says my formant, "I have not heard that there were such seals to his sanctity as these; but it is firmly believed he worked miracles. He was proficient at curing the ague, rheumatism, sore eyes, falling-sickness."—" Well, but was he a man of austere life? did he deny himself daily, and carry his cross? Questionless, he was an ascetic and mortified man, another St. Jerome, or St. Anthony?" "Why, no, not that either; for, if I am rightly informed, he could eat until he was full, and drink until his head was light, as well as any other Father at a station; and it has been said, that coming home at night from these reverend festivities, it was generally found necessary for two of the neigh

bours to walk alongside of his Holiness, to keep him decently and safely straight upon his saddle. It is questionable whether Caffraria, Tartary, or Hindoostan, can produce any superstition more revolting or absurd than this Ierolatria or Priest-worship of the Irish."*

* Extract from a Communication of Doclor Picknell, Physician to the Dispensary of Cork, April 4, 1823. Published in the Transactions of the Fellows of the College of Physicians of Dublin, vol. 4, p. 189.

This communication states that Mary Riordan, a native of Cork, aged 28 years, was afflicted with a most surprising complaint; whereby at intervals she discharged by vomiting, &c. quantities of insects of the Beetle species, some more than half an inch long, in all stages of their existence-some as larvæ, some as pupæ, and some in their winged state; which, as soon as they were discharged, flew about the room. The Doctor, in anxiety to elicit every circumstance which might tend to develope the mode of the introduction of these insects, asked the patient had she been in the habit of eating clay? Her answer was, that when she was about 15 years of age, two Clergymen of her persuasion died, and she being told by some old woman, that if she would drink daily during a certain period a portion of water, in which was infused clay taken from the graves of those clergymen, she would be secured for ever against disease and sin; she accordingly walked to Kinsale, a distance of twelve miles, where one of the clergymen was interred; and succeeded in bringing away an apron and hankerchief full of the clay from the grave. To this she added some mugs full of clay from the other clergyman's

But (as perhaps in the course of my travels I may find occasion to recur to this subject,) I proceed to take my leave of Skull, and ask you, reader, to accompany me to the northwest. Bear patiently with me, and I shall at my leisure take you to Killarney. On my way to Bantry, I passed the dark and lofty Mount Gabriel to the left, and took my dreary way over a comfortless tract of country, the peninsula of Ivaugh, the ancient territory of O'Mahony Fune; princes these O'Mahonys were of bogs and rocks enough : and here the tribe of the O'Mahonys has contrived to increase and multiply, and has replenished those wastes with Paddies, pigs, and potatoes. Let no one say, after looking at these moors, studded over with cabins, grave, who was buried in the city of Cork. Her practice was to infuse from time to time, according to the exigency, in a vessel of water, a portion of the holy clay;-the mixture being always allowed to rest until the grosser particles of clay subsided. She had been in the daily use of the water medicated according to this disgusting formula. The Beetles discharged from the woman, were principally of the Bleps Mortisaga species, which is well known to inhabit Churchyards.

and these cabins crowded with children, pigs, goats, cocks and hens, that a poor Irishman is not an industrious creature. No; No; look at that string of men, women, boys, and girls, toiling up the mountain-side with sea-weed and sea-sand, în baskets on their backs. See them reclaiming, from amidst rocks and bogs, patches of ground on which to cultivate their only food, the potato; and no one witnessing this struggle of human industry against nature, but must acknowledge that the Irish can be industrious.

As I descended the highest ridge of the mountain-chain which divides Dunmanus bay from the southern coast I had just quitted, I observed a druidical circle composed of a number of upright rocks. From the position of this circle of Loda, as Ossian would call it, there is a magnificent mountain and sea view, and at a short distance from the circle are two upright pillars of stone, somewhat like obelisks, about fifteen feet high. Such straight upright shafts of stone are often connected with, and seem to belong to

the arrangements of that now obscure superstition that raised these circles, and which in some parts of Ireland are called Fin M'Coul's Fingers. I asked a man who was ploughing in an adjoining field, what placed these stones there. He said, that all he knew about them was, that the old people called them "the dance of the strange children." These, such a double-sighted antiquarian as Vallancy would pronounce to be the Tuatha Danaan, who, dwelling originally in Greece, on a fine day took a short sail from thence to Norway or Lochlin, in order to learn the art of magic; to raise circles of power to Loda, and call up magical mists to confound and envelope their enemies. Having acquired all this knowledge, they came and settled in Ireland, where they amused themselves raising stone circles, and setting up rocking-stones and cromleachs, until, in an evil hour for them, and perhaps for the world, the swaggering, bragging, hectoring Dons, the Milesians, chose to come in forty ships, to possess this inviting island, whose