KERRY, CONNEMARA AND CLARE 235 



of the little Killary that night ; the sea knows how 

 to rise outside the harbour. 



The Connemara people are softly naturally 

 witty, without the peculiar phrasing which makes 

 them so delightful up here. Long English words 

 are a great trouble to them, they speak Irish so 

 much ; one old woman and her husband went to 

 Dublin where the old man was run over by a 

 motor and taken to hospital. 



Someone who knew the old woman met her 

 next day looking sad and asked for old Pat's 

 symptoms. 



" He was punctured in his destinies, ma'am," 

 the old Connemara woman repeated slowly, as 

 one who has got something off by heart at last. 

 " An' the docther said he would succumb ..." 

 Here she brightened into the confidence of the one 

 who knows best, "but he did not, ma'am. He died." 



It was extremely difficult to sympathise with a 

 straight face once one had got intestines for 

 destinies. 



The Connemara people tell you a tale of how 

 the Mortimers came to Westport. In Cromwell's 

 day one of his generals sent a messenger across 

 for a boatload of brogues, his men's being worn 

 out. The man who received the letter read it 

 as a boatload of rogues, so gathered up all the 

 Mortimers he could find and sent them across. 

 So the old people tell you with contempt for the 

 English name. 



