Vlll DEDICATORY EPISTLE. 



the boat, you may very fairly appropriate to 

 your own share. 



In like manner, I will vouch for the truth 

 of my legends. I do not mean to say that I 

 will record my conviction that St. Columba 

 did curse the Enchanted Throw, or that 

 Prince Slievan and his bride did vanish on 

 a moonbeam ; but I do vouch for this, that 

 those who told me the legends did firmly 

 believe both the one and the other. That 

 the legends are not fabricated, but compiled ; 

 they were collected from the fishing attend- 

 ants, and are the reminiscences of many 

 an hour of bright sunshine and breezeless 

 water, when neither trout nor salmon could 

 be persuaded to break the surface. 



Of the facts connected with the destruc- 

 tion of the intrusive slob- weirs I do not speak 

 from personal knowledge, for that summer, 

 you may remember, I spent in Norway ; 

 nor will I answer for the very words put 

 into the mouths of my characters, any more 



