THEIR HEIGHT, FORM, AND STRENGTH. 127 



but generally the lover makes the only reparation 

 in his power-, and the deceived females and deserted 

 children are seldom seen in Erris." 



135. In 1836 (the very year the Dublin University 

 Magazine man penned his fascinating falsehoods), 

 P. Knight, Member of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, London, who had known the Mayo and 

 Sligo labourers for twenty years, writes* : " The 

 men of Sligo are good-humoured, good-natured, 

 hospitable, generous, of middle size, active, intel- 

 ligent, and, when an opportunity offers, industrious. 

 I have found them on the public works as hard- 

 working and attentive as any people I have met 

 with. The mountaineers are remarkably stout and 

 healthy, though seldom wearing shoes. Their 

 journeys are extraordinary. A fellow in Ballycroy 

 (Mayo) thinks nothing of taking a ten-gallon keg 

 of whiskey, weighing 1501bs. at least, and crossing 

 the mountains to Newport, twenty miles away, and 

 returning home in the evening, without the slightest 

 appearance of fatigue, and carelessly resuming his 

 usual occupation. The people of Ballycroy (in Mayo) 

 are an active, hardy, intelligent race of men, 

 hospitable to an extreme, satisfied with little, 

 not seeking what others call comforts. Ballycroy 

 and Achill are inhabited by people called Ultaigh 

 * In Erris and the Western Highlands, pp. 105, 112, 120, 123.- 



