46 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



fiendish proposition the besotted wretch who owned the 

 house consented ; and the affectionate and confiding 

 creature was cruelly robbed of sight on that hearth, 

 for which he had resigned his native element ! Next 

 morning, writhing in agony, the mutilated seal was 

 embarked, taken outside Clare Island, and for the last 

 time committed to the waves. 



" A week passed over, and things became worse 

 instead of better ; the cattle of the truculent wretch 

 died fast, and the infernal hag gave him the pleasurable 

 tidings that her arts were useless, and that the destruc- 

 tive visitation upon his cattle exceeded her skill and 

 cure. 



" On the eighth night after the seal had been devoted 

 to the Atlantic, it blew tremendously. In the pauses 

 of the storm a wailing noise at times was faintly heard 

 at the door. The servants, who slept in the kitchen, 

 concluded that the Banshee came to forewarn them of 

 an approaching death, and buried their heads in the 

 bed-coverings. When morning broke, the door was 

 opened and the seal was there lying dead upon the 

 threshold ! " 



" Stop, Julius ! " I exclaimed, " give me a moment's 

 time to curse all concerned in this barbarism." 



" Be patient, Frank," said my cousin, " the finale will 

 probably save you that trouble. The skeleton of the 

 once plump animal for, poor beast, it perished from 

 hunger, being incapacitated from blindness to procure 

 its customary food was buried in a sand-hill, and from 

 that moment misfortunes followed the abettors and per- 

 petrators of this inhuman deed. The detestable hag 

 who had denounced the inoffensive seal was, within 

 a twelvemonth, hanged for murdering the illegitimate 



