1697.] IRISH CATHOLICS. 255 



whither he is going, and why he will leave them ? Questions 

 very edifying and much to the purpose ! They tell him he 

 need only acquaint them what he wants, and assure him very 

 obligingly he shall immediately have all he can ask. 



When he has render'd up his poor Soul to the mercy of his 

 Creator, they lay his Corps in a bed of State, the Richest 

 and most Sumptuous they can get. Some time after he is 

 carry'd on the same Bed to be bury'd, upon the shoulders of 

 twelve Men, in such manner that every body may see him : 

 A great number of People march confusedly before and after 

 the Corps. Immediately next to it go the Priests on Horse- 

 back, Habited as I have told you, in long Violet-colour'd 

 Piobes, and after them come the hir'd female Mourners 

 cloath'd in White, and walking together under a sort of 

 Linen Tent open a-top. These Mourners or Weepers torment 

 themselves incessantly, and at every step almost passionately 

 demand of the deceas'd Person, Why he would so abandon 

 the World ? What he wanted, and why he would not let 

 it be known, since undoubtedly he wuuld have receiv'd 

 satisfaction in all he could ask ? 



These I'oolish questions surpriz'd me less from the Mouths 

 of these People, than they did from the IrisJi} Catholicks, 



1 " Of these orighial /rj.s-A most of the Persons of Quality understand 

 English, and lea,d a Liiie totaWj unbarl)ariz\l ; but the common People 

 are half Savages, and differ very Jittle from their Ancestors as described 

 sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago by Strabo, Solinus, Pomponius 

 M(l'(, and the most remote Authors. Their Religion is a kind of 

 Popish-Christian Religion ; but the Superstitions and Fooleries of 

 Popery, -which they have adopted, are mix'd with such a Number of 

 other Puerilities, that it is impossible to say justly what the Religion of 

 those People is. . . . 



"... When any among them is sick, they never talk to him of any- 

 thing but his Recovery, and never of God or Salvation ; but sometimes 

 the sick Man desires the Communion, and then they look upon it that 

 he despairs of Life : From that Moment they expose him in a publick 

 Place, or upon a great Road ; they call every Passenger with loud Cries, 

 and each Man puts a hundred impertinent Questions to the poor dying 

 Person : They ask him, why he will leave this World, which is so very 



