244 Alexander Goodman More. [1372 



for the enjoyment of a day's pleasure on the water ; but a 

 different interest once attached to her, and her notoriety as 

 a smuggling depot is well if not regretfully remembered. 

 There was moreover another institution at Inishkea, 

 regarding which almost as much reticence was advisable 

 as in the case of the contraband industry ; and even now 

 it is said to be unwise for him who touches at Inishkea to 

 evince curiosity concerning a mysterious being called the 

 " Neve-ogue." 



But stories about the Neve-ogue had got abroad, and 

 been seized on as proofs of the "benightedness of the 

 western Irish. The inhabitants of the island were repre- 

 sented as preserving, with great care, an image once 

 probably the figure-head of a ship, perhaps a relic of the 

 Invincible Armada which they believed to possess power 

 over storms, and which, from time to time, they sought to 

 propitiate with gifts of red flannel, wrapping each succes- 

 sive offering round it, till, according to one narrator, the 

 " Neve-ogue " was too distended in bulk to be enclasped 

 by a man's arms. Other particulars, still less flattering to 

 the islanders, were^occasion ally added ; and a letter headed 

 "Idolatry in the igth century," of which the Neve-ogue was 

 the theme, had lately appeared in print. Common belief 

 ascribed the authorship of this epistle to visitors from 

 Achill. One effectj of the outcry forthwith raised was the 

 prompt demolition of the Neve-ogue, which, whatever 

 may have been the truth about the homage formerly paid 

 it, was now treated with scant ceremony, being seized by 

 the priest and thrown into the sea. But the islanders 

 were none the less fiercely indignant at the language 

 which (they were assured) had been applied to them by 

 the writer of the letter, and a bad situation prevailed at 

 Inishkea. 



It was a further unfortunate circumstance that on July 

 1 6th the principal inhabitant or "king of Inishkea" was 

 away from home. In his absence, the very fact which 

 would otherwise have insured a friendly reception (i. e. 

 Mr. More's having been to Inishkea the year before) 

 sufficed to create suspicion and even hostility. For then, as 

 now, he had come from Achill. What more natural than 



