Westropp — Brasil and the Legendary Islands of the N. Atlantic. 257 



name P. Lee is written in it. Morough Ley petitioned to be reinstated in his 

 lands under the Act of Settlement, in 1664, but in vain ; being of a hereditary 

 medical family (as his name impKes), he probably made his living by aid of a 

 family book of medicine from 1 668, and his new-found skill caused the legend.' 

 OTlaherty mentions O'Brasil, or Beg Ara, as " set down on cards of navi- 

 gation," whether " real and firm land, kept hidden by special ordinance of 

 God, .... or else some illusion of airy clouds, .... or the craft of evil 

 spirits " ; he then tells of the illusions at Skerde.^ 



The Aran people now believe that Brasil is seen only once in seven years. 

 They call it the Great Land. In Clare, I have heard from several fishermen 

 at Kilkee and elsewhere that they had seen it; they also told legends of 

 people lost when trying to reach it. 



I myself have seen the illusion some three times ia my boyhood, and even 

 made a rough coloured sketch after the last event, in the snmmer of 1872. It 

 was a clear evening, with a fine golden sunset, when, just as the sun went 

 down, a dark island suddenly appeared far out to sea, but not on the horizon. 

 It had two hills, one wooded ; between these, from a low plaia, rose towers 

 and curls of smoke. My mother, brother, Ealph Hugh Westropp, and several 

 friends saw it at the same time ; one person cried that he could " see 

 New York " ! "With such realistic appearance (and I have since seen apparent 

 islands in 1887 in Clare, and m. 1910 in Mayo), it is not wonderful that the_ 

 behef should have been so strong, probably from the time when Neolithic 

 man first looked across the Atlantic from our western coast. It coloured Irish 

 thought ; stood for the pagan Elysium and the Christian Paradise of the Saiats ; 

 affected the early map-makers ; and sent Columbus over the trackless deep to 

 see wonders greater than Maelduin and Brendan were fabled to haA'e seen, 

 till Antilha, Verde, and Brazil became replaced by real islands and countries ; 

 and the birds, flowers, and fruit of the Imrama by those of the gorgeous forests 

 of the Amazon in the real Brazil. " Admiration is the first step leading up to 

 knowledge, for he that wondereth shall reign." 



8._C0NCLUSI0NS. 



I venture to suggest the following conclusions, leaving to scientific men 

 the questions of subsidence and the formation of the ocean-beds, which some 

 have put back to the dateless Miocene : — 



1. The outer isles, Brazil, Brendan's, and Ailbe's, are purely mytliical, or, 



' " hiar Cunnaught," Hardiman's Notes, p. 69. 



'-"hiai' Connaught," p. 68. I may add to the above works, "Irish Folk-lore," by 

 Lageniensis (Rev. J. O'Hanlon), Hy Breaaal, p. 114 ; Tir na nOg, p. 290. Crofton Croker's section 

 on the last, in "Fairy Legends," only refers to towns under lakes. 



[35*] 



