130 THE IKISH PEOPLE. 



the people of the Mullet were by no means in great 

 or squalid poverty, and I was surprised that the 

 miserable hovels, that on every side presented them- 

 selves, could turn out so many well-dressed people. 



" The people of Erris are pleasant, good-humoured, 

 and good-natured, of great simplicity of character 

 connected with shrewdness. . . . Very few men 

 in Achill island wore hats ; their long glibs were 

 their protection ; the women were in russet-brown 

 wolsey gown, and madder-red short petticoat with 

 yellow kerchief tied close to their heads. They are 

 in the same state as they were a thousand years 

 ago. They are as healthy and long-lived as any 

 other people perhaps ; they must sometimes want 

 medical aid, and yet there is not a doctor within 

 thirty miles of them. 



" No race of men was ever known to have changed 

 characters so rapidly as the Cromwellian settlera 

 The English always became more Irish than the 

 Irish themselves; but no race adopted the wild 

 extravagant character of the Irish as the Crom- 

 wellians did. All the Erris families of settlers, 

 twelve of whose names have come down to us, 

 became Papists, except three out of the twelve 

 families. The people of Erris are an amiable, 

 confiding race, with the manners and habits of a 

 thousand years ago." 



