ST. MARTIN'S EVE. 553 



ould slump or a rock, they calls out to him that he had Sylvesther fast, 

 and bid him run off his line to give him play while the thieves wor 

 dropping the boat quietly down the river until they saw all the line 

 was gone out, and then staling up the stream again, they bid him to 

 wind up ; all the time the boys were breaking their sides with the 

 laughing at the poor ould gomilaugh* who thought he had nothing 

 to do but to finish Sylvesther with the gaff hook, when they gave 

 the boat a sudden jerk and snapped off his rod like a pipe stopper." 



" Why have you given the name of Sylvester," I enquired, "to 

 this untakable fish ? " 



" There's some curosity in that too, Sir," replied Rattigan, "it's 

 an ould laygind they have about these parts, that in the aw-tient times 

 of all, when the good people wor very brief ." 



" What doyoumeanjby, ' when the good people were very brief?"' 



" I mane, Sir, when the fairies the Lord beteene us and harm, 

 were fine and plenty ; it was then, gintlernen, that this same Syl- 

 vesther was as clane and likely a boy as any in this barony or the 

 next : he was called Syl Coogan, and he lived up beyant there near 

 the falls of Doonass. Well, there wasn't the fellow of Syl in the 

 three parishes for football, or hurling, or pitching the bar, or such 

 like divarsions; and it's he that was the dickens entirely after the 

 cailleens,-\- for day an' night he'd be coorting and coaxing the dar- 

 lings until he could wind them round his finger, just as asy as your 

 honour winds that line upon the wheel in your hand. 



" It's no wonder that so much love brought a little fighting with 

 it, and many 's the battle Syl had to stand with the sweethearts of the 

 girls that threwn them up through the manes of his deluding tongue ; 

 but his head was as hard as his heart was tindher, and he didn't mind 

 a crack or two on the skull no more than if it was made of brogue 

 leather ; and so he went on with his coorses, fighting and coorting 

 the whole country out of a face till he was the admiration of all the 

 kings and princes who hard tell of his doings, and even of the Pope 

 himself, who, they say, had an eye on him to make a Plynnypotin- 

 shirry of him. Well, it's an ould] saying, it's a long lane has no 

 turning as poor Syl soon found out. One fine Martinmas eve a 

 thought came into his head that he 'd cross the Shannon to go to the 

 wake of Biddy Hogan, a mother's cousin of his own, nigh hand to 

 Ballyskillawn, where there was great givings out of whiskey and 

 tobackay, and the greatest gathering of boys and girls that ever was 

 seen in these parts. Becoorse wherever there was fun going on, Syl 

 was sure to have his pig in the middle of the fair, and, though he was 

 warned against going upon the water on St. Martin's eve, that all 

 the world knows is neither lucky nor right, he would not be said by 

 any of the neighbours, but off he sts with a great goiragh J of a 

 laugh, bidding them keep their pisherogues for the fairy-struck 

 cattle. Down he goes then to the river-side, whistling and singing 

 all manner of rollicking tunes, and thinking what sport he'd have at 

 the wake amongst the cailleens playing at Shuffle the Brogue, and 

 The Ould Man, for he banged Banagher clean out at them sort of 



* An idiot. f Girls. + A roar. Charms on spells. 



