236 ABDUCTION 



I compared them with the artificial society I had consorted 

 with, and found among them some traces of natural virtues* 

 which ultra civilization has banished from the rest of mankind. 

 There may be here, no doubt, much ignorance and supersti- 

 tion to be regretted, and false opinions and falser modes of 

 action to be corrected but even for their vices I can find an 

 apology, and their worst crimes will appear, upon examination, 

 to be either consequent upon moral neglect, or arising from 

 rude and barbarous notions of what appears to them nothing 

 but retributive justice. 



The grave offences with which these wild people are prin- 

 cipally charged, appear to be abduction and murder; and 

 both are of frequent recurrence. The first, indeed, is so pre- 

 valent, that any lady bent upon celibacy had better avoid 

 Ballycroy, and particularly so if she has obtained the reputa- 

 tion of being opulent. This crime, however, is seldom of a 

 dark character, and is generally traceable to local causes, and 

 the very unceremonious mode in which parents conclude 

 matches between their children without consulting the in- 

 clinations of the parties most concerned in the affair. Proba- 

 bly the whole matter is arranged between the fathers during 

 an accidental meeting at a fair, or likelier yet, over an egg- 

 shell* drinking-bout in a poteen-house. The due proportions 

 of cattle and dry-money^ which are to be given and received 

 are regularly specified ; and the youthful couple who are to 

 be united by the silken bond of Hymen are first acquainted 

 with their purposed happiness after the priest has been sent 

 for to solemnize the nuptials. No wonder, therefore, if the 

 lady have another liaison, that she intimates her feelings to the 

 fortunate man. He finds no difficulty in enlisting a sufficient 

 number of his faction to " hoist away" the intended bride, and 

 carry her to some distant hill or island. Then a wonderful 

 series of bargain-making commences : upon the lady's side it 

 being insisted that the abductor shall forthwith make her " an 

 honest woman :" while the gallant usually demurs to the 

 "amende honorable" until the " consideration" for doing the 

 same is propounded and guaranteed. Now it is that the priest 

 engages deeply in the negociation. He assumes the first 



* It may be easily imagined that glass is a scarce article in Ballycroy. 

 Accordingly, in the still and drinking houses, an egg-shell is used as a 

 substitute. 



f " Dry money" is synonymous with " hard cash." 



