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Presently we returned to the hut : the whisky had began 

 to operate on the corps de ballet in the kitchen, for the pipes 

 played louder, and the girls danced with additional esprit. 

 To think of bed, with such a company beside us, would be 

 idle : my cousin accordingly recharged his meerschaum, and, 

 between many a puff, gave me the following memoir of the 

 otter-hunter. 



" The old man is a character. In his early days he was 

 a travelling pedlar, a dealer in furs and Connemara stock- 

 ings. He had always an unconquerable fancy for angling and 

 otter-killing ; and, with a pack upon his shoulders and a fish- 

 spear in his hand, he traversed the kingdom in the double 

 pursuit of pleasure and profit. 



" When he disposed of his merchandize, he returned home 

 laden with the skins he had collected in his wanderings. He 

 has frequently brought thirty furs together to Limerick for 

 sale ; and as they were then a valuable commodity, he 

 acquired in a few years a considerable property. 



" In one of his excursions, however, Antony managed to 

 pick up a wife. She was young and handsome ; and, tiring 

 of his unsettled life, persuaded the unhappy otter-killer to 

 forego his favourite calling, and turn his fish-spear into a 

 spigot. In short, he took a house in town, became a pub- 

 lican, got extensive business, gave credit, and soon was 

 drunken and embarrassed ; his wife flirted, his property 

 melted away, and his frail rib at last levanted with an English 

 showman. Antony was astounded, but he bore misfortune 

 like a philosopher. Renouncing whisky, except in limited 

 quantities, he resumed the otter-trap, which had been rusting 

 in a garret ; and one fine moonlight night, turned the key in 

 the door, abandoned goods and chattels to the landlord, and 

 disappeared, ' leaving his curse with Limerick/ 



" No Bedouin returned from captivity to his parent's tent 

 no Swiss revisited his native valley, with more delight, than 

 the cornuted otter-killer, when he hurried back to his beloved 

 mountains. From that moment he forswore the town ; and, 

 excepting on his annual visit to the furrier. Antony has 

 avoided the busier haunts of mankind. Having added bleed- 



the priest, for attempting to abuse the credulity of the peasantry, 

 by detailing the fairy revels in which he alleged that he parti- 

 cipated. 



