110 A NATURAL. 



long and wavy line of molten silver undulated across the 

 surface of the sea and there were wild cliffs and bolder 

 headlands in glorious relief. No scene on earth could be more 

 peaceful or romantic. 



I was indulging in delicious reverie, when something like a 

 bird flitted hastily by again, and there was a heavy plump in 

 the water. I looked up, a wild unearthly looking creature 

 stood on the cliff above, in the very act of launching a huge 

 stone at me ! Just then a female figure rose beside him, and 

 with threats and blows drove him from the rock. It was my 

 fair friend of the curragh, who seeing me take the lonely path 

 I did, hastened after to warn me of the danger. She told me 

 that the assailant was a dangerous lunatic ; he was treacherous 

 beyond description, and his antipathy to women and strangers 

 was remarkable. Many accidents had occurred from his 

 savage disposition. He feared men and rarely attacked them ; 

 but if he saw a female at a distance from the village, he would 

 lurk with malignant perseverance for hours behind a bank or 

 cliff to attack her unawares. Some of the island women had 

 narrowly escaped death from this truculent monster, and few 

 of the males but had at some time or other suffered injury 

 from his hands ; a stone w r as his favourite missile, which he 

 threw with wonderful force and precision. To my inquiry 

 " Why this dangerous being was not removed to some 

 asylum ?" my protectress replied with a smile, " He was but 

 a poor natural, after all ; he was born in the island, and God 

 forbid that they should send him among strangers." On 

 conversing with my cousin afterwards, he told me that, in the 

 west of Ireland, the peasantry had a superstitious veneration 

 for idiots and madmen, and, like the Turks, believed that 

 insanity and inspiration were only synonymes. 



The illicit whisky made in this island holds a first rank 

 in the estimation of the poteein fancier. The cause of its 

 superior excellency may arise from the insular situation of the 

 place, enabling the distiller to carry on his business leisurely, 

 and thus avoid the bad consequences attendant on hurrying 

 the process, for to rapid and defective distillation may be 

 ascribed the burnt flavour, so common in whisky produced 

 within the range of the Revenue. The barley, also, grown in 

 this and the other adjacent islands, is excellent and as the 

 spirit is drawn from a copper still, it has many advantages to 

 'ecommend it. The illicit apparatus in common use is, with 



