Mark Coek! 



high ground ahoye. And after another mile or so, 'Which way are ye wantin' 

 to be goin', me darlin' ? says Shamus, conversationally ; but the divil a word 

 did she reply, and just then, as they came in sight of the chapel, the horse 

 fell lame. 'Bad luck to it for a road! Sure the crathur's picked up a stone. 

 Howld on while I get down and see it,' said Shamus. And down he got; 

 and no sooner was he down on the wan side than she was down on the other, 

 and away over the field toward the chapel. ' Hallo there, me colleen ! is that 

 the way ye pay yere fare ? ' Thorum pogue, me colleen ! Give me a kiss for 

 my trouble ; and faix, if ye won't stop to give it, I'm aftlier ye any way to 

 take it;' and away he went afther her; and she ran and he ran, and she got to 

 the chapel first, and over the graves and the stones went Shamus, tumbling 

 up and down, and round the chapel after her three times ran Shamus. ' Sure 

 I'll just wait and catch her as she comes round,' he thought, and just then 

 round she came right into his very arrums. ' Now, ye'll pay toll av them 

 swate lips, my purty crathur,' says Shamus, and he throws up her hood ; and 

 sure he was just blindfolded wid horror when he saw there was no lips to 

 kiss, and she'd niver a head on her shoulders at all, and was just a Dullahan — 

 a 'good woman'; and Shamus near swooned wid fright to think he'd been 

 liuggin' a Dullahan ; and just then a pale blue gashly light came up out av 

 an open grave, where there was grate worrums a foot or more long, ache wid a 

 light like a corpse candle on its head ; and then, all of a sudden, a crowd av 

 Dullahans jimiped up from behind the tombs and gravestones all round him, 

 and began dancing and pitchin' their heads — which they carried under their 

 arrums — from wan to the other and up in the air, and the horrible pranks 

 they played gave Shamus the blue shivers; and they made a ring round 

 him and danced the likes was never seen. Then ' a health ! ' they cried, ' a 

 health to Shamus O'Dowd;' and Shamus, remembering his bottle, thought 

 best to pull it out, and — not wishin' to show bad manners — handed it to 

 the young woman who seemed the chief among them. 'A health to 

 Shamus o' Dowd ! " cried she, pouring some of the liquor into her own 

 mouth (which she carried under her arrum just then), and handing the 

 bottle back to Shamus, ' Drink a health, Shamus ! ' cries she, as she pitched 

 her head up in the air with a wheeze and a groan like a broken bagpipe, 

 '"Sure, thin, I couldn't do less in manners,' says Shamus; 'and here's 



