94 



WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



The master knows the house well. The night was 

 getting dark, and it's the worst ground in Connaught. 

 Well, I was within a mile of Morteein's, when it became 

 as black as pitch ; and I had the shaking bog to cross, 

 that you can hardly pass in daytime, where, if a man 

 missed his way, he would be swallowed up in a moment. 

 The rain began, and the poor dogs were famished with 

 cold and hunger. God ! I was sure I must stay there, 

 starving till the morning ; when, on a sudden, little 

 lights danced before me, and showed me the hard 

 tammocks as plain as if the sun was up. I was in a 

 cruel fright, and the dogs whimpered, and would not 

 stir from my foot. I was afraid to stay where I was, 

 as I knew the gentle-people were about me ; and I was 

 unwilling to attempt the quagh,* for fear the light 

 would leave me, and then I would get neither back nor 

 forward. Well, the wind began to rise ; the rain grew 

 worse ; I got desperate, and resolved to speak to the 

 fairies civilly. ' Gentlemen and ladies,' says I, making 

 a bow to the place where the lights were dancing, 

 ' may be ye would be so obliging as to light me across 

 the bog.' In a minute there was a blaze from one end 

 of the quagh to the other, and a hundred lights were 

 flashing over the bogs. I took heart and ventured ; 

 and wherever I put my foot, the place was as bright as 

 day, and I crossed the swamp as safely as if I had been 

 walking on a gravelled road. Every inch the light came 

 with me, till I reached the boreein\ leading to Morteein 

 Crassagh's ; then, turning about, I made the fairies a 

 low bow : ' Gentlemen and ladies,' says I, ' I'm humbly 

 thankful for your civility, and I wish ye now a merry 

 night of it.' God preserve us ! The words were hardly 



* A morass. f A horsepath leading into bogs. 



