128 THE IRISH PEOPLE. 



or Ulster men, who went there with O'Donnell in 

 the time of James the First. They retain the Ulster 

 dialect, intermarry almost exclusively with one 

 another, are hardy, low-sized, dark-featured, bold, 

 daring, intrepid, not good-tempered, but hospitable 

 to aa extreme. A stranger is seldom seen without 

 being saluted : ' You are welcome to this country, 

 stranger.' They are very intelligent, and of 

 Northern cunning, and are the material of a fine 

 people." 



136. Petrie, mentioned at p. 61, wrote to Captain 

 Larcom, 1837: "The Sligo people about Lough 

 Gill are a peculiar race, quite Gothic in appearance, 

 fair oomplexioned, with light hair, blue eyes, and 

 not handsome. The women are remarkable for the 

 strength and thickness of their limbs. Sometimes 

 you meet with handsome, dark^haired, oval-faced, 

 gracefully-formed females ; on inquiry you will 

 generally find that they are foreign to the district ; 

 that they are MacLoughlins from the North, for 

 instance, or some such, who came into the country 

 ' after the wars ! ' " 



137. In 1839, in Sketches in Erris and Tyrawley, 

 and in 1841, in his Tour in Connaught, the Rev. 

 Caesar Otway, an Anglican clergyman, speaking of 

 the fair of Killala, Mayo, says : " I love to look at 

 a fair, to witness the cordial meetings and greetings 



