the pretty boy. As he grew up he did not throw any discredit upon his christening, for he learned Latin as fast as another would sup milk, and instead of playing commons or pitch-and-toss, like other boys, he was always counting his beads; and instead of spending his time a courting, as any other pretty gentleman would, he resolved to be a clargyman, and was full of holy thoughts; so he one day came up here, on a visit to his blood relation, king M'Thoul, who owned all these mountains and vallies, and was now grown old, and as a body may say, a little the worse of the wear, in mind as well as body. How,' says young Kevin, to king M'Thoul, 'does your lordship now spend your time, seeing you are grown too old, to hunt the bucks. and boars, through the glen? Why its no other way I spend my time, than seeing my geese swimming about the lake; and once on a time I had the greatest sport you ever saw with the gander, for he used to take flight about all those hills, and come back again to his old master; but now he has grown old too, and can fly by no manner of means.' 'What will you give me,' says Kevin, ‘if I make him fly again for you?' Why I'll give you,' says the easy softhearted king, all the ground he flies round, even suppose he flew round the whole glen.' So, blessed St. Kevin took the old gander in his hand, and bid him fly away. And, my dear life, away he went, round he flew the whole valley, up even to the tops of the hills, enclosed the place where the churches now stand, and the fine meadows along the river, and then came back to St. Kevin. Now,' says the saint,' King M'Thoul, be as good as your word; give me this place, and I will dedicate it to God. And the king, if he were sorry, kept his grief to himself, and putting a handsome face on the thing, he made. over to the saint for ever and a day, this valley, and all belonging to it; and so then he began to build these fine churches, and that great tower. Oh Sir, its a pity you were not here on the Patron day, the third of the month, which fell on

last." "Where

is the Patron held ?" "There, Sir, to the right of the church yard formerly they used to hold it even amongst the graves; but the clergy would not allow such doings any more, for they said it was not dacent nor Christhen like, to disturb the dead with their cursing and fighting." " Why Irwin," says I, "what is it they do, of a Patron day here?" "Why, Sir, the people come from all parts, here, and there are tents set up, and the people pray, and go their rounds, and do their duty about the holy places in the morning, and towards evening, they eat, drink, and dance, and talk, and the young ones court and make matches; and every body makes himself as gay and happy as he can in honour of the saint."

name as Kevin, being thus pronounced in Irish. The letter m, with the aspirate annexed, (either h or a point) sounds like v. The diphthong a has been generally modified into the single sound e. The letter g aspirated in the middle of a word almost loses its sound, as in Tighearna, which becomes Tierna. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the Irish c was always the same as k. Ledwich in a chapter, full of lies, and quibbles, and ignorance, (manners, good Dr. Lanigan) would make us believe that Coemgen was not a man but a mountain,"

"Well," said I, "I do think that if the priests thought the dead heard all this carousing just over them, they might as well suppose they took in bad part carousing and drunkenness beside them, in a place only divided from their tombs by a stone wall." Here a rather sickly but interesting young man, who sat on the wall, interposed. "Whatis that you say, Joe Irwin? how can you tell the gentleman that the people did not, on the patron day, come in on the church yard? Were they not dancing there? and was there not a merrygo-round set up in it? and did I not see them playing pitch-andtoss on one grave, and a fellow cheating the people with a strap on another?-and did I not see some sick with all the porter and spirits they drank, leaning against the headstones; and one lying stretched out, dead drunk, on the bishop's tombstone yonder ?" Oh, my good lad, was this the way these people kept the day sacred to their patron saint? dead in trespasses and sins, did they thus grovel, and lie and sleep, over the dust of their forefathers? Alas, alas, that any people, calling themselves Christians, should turn an observance intended to be of a sacred character, into a practice involving all that is base, abominable, and revolting! Where were the priests? was there no attempt to stop it on their part?" "Oh, indeed, Sir, their Reverences were here sure enough, and so was the minister,who, to tell the truth, did his best, all out, to put a stop to what was wrong but the dear man might as well hold his tongue and go home, which indeed he did-for they no more minded him than if he was speaking to the gray stones on the hills yonder." "And what did the priests do?" Why, they were about the place all day, and they dined very quietly and dacently in the meadow there beyond, three or four of them, altogether by themselves; and when the fighting began, Father came down as mad as buck or bear, and if he did not lay about him, right and lift, it's no matter. A terrible riot there was in one of the public houses— two boys were in at it a bloody set-to, fighting it out in a roomwhen the priest came to the door and commanded them at their peril to let him in. The boys locked themselves in and fought away, and kept never minding his reverence-so the priest with a dash of his boot burst in the door; one of the chaps, and the worst of them, got out of the window-but if the clargy did not belabour the other, never believe you me." Here was a curious, and I believe, a true picture of Irish character and conduct on the part of the people and their clergy. Instead of using the wondrous moral influence they hold over the people in order to put a stop to this unchristian observance of a holy day-instead of breaking up the Patron altogether, which undoubtedly they might do, they attend, they let the barbarous and passionate creatures excite themselves into faction and fury, by drinking whiskey from morning till evening, and then attempt with horsewhips and main force to beat and bang men out of their beastliness.

66

Having rested myself sufficiently, I proceeded with my guide through the grave-yard towards the largest of the ruined churches, which is called the cathedral. In passing along, Mr. Irwin di

rected my attention to an old grave-stone with a round hole in it. "This, Sir," said he, "is the tomb of Garadh Duff,* or Black and Yellow, the horse-stealer, whom St. Kevin killed for telling him a lie. It happened as follows: Black and Yellow one day was com ing over the ford, there above, not far from Lough-na-peche, riding a fine black mare with a foal at her foot; and meeting the saint, blessed Kevin asked him, where Garadh did you get that fine beast?' 'Oh, I bought her from one of the Byrnes.' That's a lie, I know by your face, you thief.' Oh, by all the books in Rome,' says Garadh, 'what I say is true.' 'Dare you tell me SOnow, in order to make a liar and a thief and holy show of you to the world's end,-I'll fix your foal and mare, there in that rock,

6

*The Bollandists in their life of St. Coemgen give us a story which may be a different version of the above tradition:

"Once on a time when St. Coegmen was old, a certain robber fixed his haunts in these mountains leading a most truculent life, murdering and marauding all around, and never, in all his felonious courses, did he one good deed, act of kindness or charity, save and except that every morning before he went forth to rob, he invoked the name of St. Coemgen to be his protector, and so it happened that one day he was surrounded by his pursuers, who put him to death, cut off his head, and immediately after this deed was done, an angel appeared to Coemgen as he sat in his oratory, and revealed to him that a man who had constantly invoked his name, was cut short, and that at this very instant a legion of devils were hurrying off his soul to hell. "Now," says the angel to the blessed of God," do thou act valiantly, and as a soldier of Christ go to the rescue; and though there is an end put to his body, haste and snatch his soul from hell." Whereupon the saint was lifted up into the air, by the heavenly messenger, and off he flew upon the winds of heaven; pursued the demons, overtook them, and after a contest from the noon of one day to the dawn of the next, he overcame the hosts of hell, and rescued the poor soul. In the mean time the monks were in the greatest distress, not knowing what was become of their aged abbot; when lo! he came down from on high, floating upon the wind like a white-winged swan; and the moment he got on firm ground, he cried to his monastics, "Oh my brethren, proceed to such a glen, where, under such a heap of stones, you will find the body of the bandit with his head between his legs; bring it back with you, and bury it in our churchyard; for be it known to you all, that his soul is now with God."

I cannot resist the temptation of giving another savoury extract from these voluminous hagiologists, showing what affection and aid our blessed man afforded to thieves. "Two robbers sentenced to death, In campo Liffi,' which I translate, "meo periculo," Hoggin Green, Dublin," when brought to the place of execution, and just before they were turned off, offered up their prayers to St. Coemgen-one prayed for the salvation of his soul, the other for the salvation of his life. The saint, though sitting at Glendalough, heard their prayers, and asked of God, that they should be acceded to, and so they were; one of them was banged in a trice, and his soul flew to heaven. When it came to the other's turn, the executioner performed his function in his best stile, but though the man would bang, he would not die; then they tried to decapitate him, but in vain; the ax flew from his neck, as it would from a forge anvill. To make my story short, they did their best to drive life out of the until nightfall, and then the sheriff, in despair, asked the malefactor" what ails you, man, that you wont die ?" "O!" says the convict, "we both prayed to St. Coemgen; my comrade prayed for his soul's safety, and his soul went off to glory. I have prayed for my life, and so ever since you have tried to take it from me, I have seen St. Coemgen about me; and now he kept the rope from choaking me, and again the ax from chopping off my head, and so you may do your best, I set you at defiance." When this extraordinary matter was told to the king, he commanded that a pardon should be made out for the man, in honour of God, and the saiut; and so the thief went about his business singing, as he well might, the praises of St. Coemgen.

man,

and the print of their hoofs shall remain for ever, and you yourself must die and go to purgatory.' "Well, if I must die,' said the thief, please me, holy father, in one thing, bury me in your own church-yard, and leave a hole in my tombstone, so that if any stray horse or cow should pass by, I may just push up my arm and make a snap at their leg, if it was nothing else but to mind me of my humour, and that I may keep my temper during the long day of the grave.'

In passing through the cemetery, I observed the wrecks of what had once been yew trees-from the stumps that yet remain, they must have been of great age and size; they have been destroyed and carried away by the people, who have a passion, like all the children of superstition for relic-making-one of these stumps is still curious in its ruins; in its hollow a holly-tree had grown, and that to a very considerable size; it had run down a long lap root through the centre of its decayed friend, and there it flourished until some greedy Protestant, (for no Catholic, as my guide informed me, would do it) wishing to make a piece of furniture of the yew, cut a large piece of its trunk with a saw, and carried it away; and thus the holly wanting its accustomed support on the following winter, was cast down by the storm-there they both now lie, like the son and his venerable sire, involved in one common scathe and ruin. "Sir," says an old beggar-woman who came up as I was looking at this tree-" take a bit in faith of this sacred wood, and keep it in your pocket, with a holy intention, and God and his blessed Saint Kevin will keep you from storm at sea, and fire on land; but neither luck or grace will attend any one who, like that black-hearted Protestant from Rathdown, came with his saw and unlucky tools, to take away, and make of consecrated wood, a table, over which he will drink a health to the devil." I think I never saw hatred and religious anger so strongly depicted on any countenance, as on the pale, wrinkled, and but just before supplicating visage of this poor mendicant.

(To be continued.)

REVIEW.

Mahometanism Unveiled: an Inquiry, in which that Arch-Heresy, its Diffusion and Continuance, are examined on a new Principle, tending to confirm the Evidences and aid the Propagation of the Christian Faith. By the Rev. Charles Forster, B. D. Chancellor of Ardfert, and Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Limerick.-Two vols. 8vo.-London: J. Duncan. 1829.

In these strange times in which we live, we are sometimes tempted to think that we have reached a period which presents an exception to that declaration of the wise man, that there is no new thing under the sun. We see in the present day many sights new to our eyes, and hear many things quite strange to our

ears. The present age is one that exhibits much eccentricity, and manifests not a few specimens of very wild and daring presumption, both in opinion and in practice. But we know not whether we have seen any thing that has more the character of unsanctioned novelty and wild eccentricity than the opinion of Mahometanism put forward in the work now under consideration; and we confess that our surprise and disappointment on this subject were the greater, when we considered the school to which the Rev. Author is supposed to belong: we did think, when we saw the work announced, that we had some security that it would have kept closer to the "quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus."

In some few things we do agree with the Rev. Author. With him, we consider Mahometanism as presenting, at this time especially, a subject of deep interest. It holds a place in the field of God's providence of no small magnitude; and we feel assured, that it has its proportionate attention in those Scriptures of truth, which tell us things to come. We agree with the Author, in believing that this arch-heresy in the East seems parallel with the great apostacy in the West. We believe their rise to have been contemporaneous, and that their destruction will be about the same time, and brought about by similar means.

We have, as well as the Rev. Author, given no small degree of attention to the rise, the progress, the permanence, and the moral and social character of Mahometanism; but we confess we have not found all these things so very hard to be accounted for in this world of sin and darkness, as to call so loudly as the Author seems to think, for an "inquiry into its character, and the causes of its success, upon new and untried ground." And when we follow our Author into his solution of these things, we confess that we do differ from him toto cælo, and think that he has put forward positions of the most objectionable nature, and which do surprise us, as coming from a minister of the religion of Jesus Christ. His remarks sometimes force from us a very distressing apprehension that he will be thought by his readers to have formed too favourable an estimate of the heresy which he undertakes to unveil, and be suspected himself, perhaps, of holding inadequate notions of the peculiar character and excellency of the religion of Jesus Christ.

Our Author, in the beginning of his introduction, goes through a very elaborate consideration of the way in which several Authors have endeavoured to account for the rise, progress, and permanence of Mahometanism; and having, as he thinks, proved the unsatisfactory nature of all their attempts, he puts forward the first step in his " new and untried" solution. We shall let the Author speak

for himself:

"The acknowledged difficulties which thus cling to this important question, and which have raised in some minds a painful feeling of doubt and dissatisfaction, produced in the mind of the present writer a very different effect. The case of Mahometanism had long presented itself to him as a subject of the highest interest; and with the conviction that the question of its success was still