A Good Many Fishermen Came Down To See The Start, And
Long After The Curagh Was Out Of Sight I Stood And Talked With Them
In Irish, As I Was Anxious To Compare Their Language And Temperament
With What I Knew Of The Other Island.
The language seems to be identical, though some of these men speak
rather more distinctly than any Irish speakers I have yet heard.
In
physical type, dress, and general character, however, there seems to
be a considerable difference. The people on this island are more
advanced than their neighbours, and the families here are gradually
forming into different ranks, made up of the well-to-do, the
struggling, and the quite poor and thriftless. These distinctions
are present in the middle island also, but over there they have had
no effect on the people, among whom there is still absolute
equality.
A little later the steamer came in sight and lay to in the offing.
While the curaghs were being put out I noticed in the crowd several
men of the ragged, humorous type that was once thought to represent
the real peasant of Ireland. Rain was now falling heavily, and as we
looked out through the fog there was something nearly appalling in
the shrieks of laughter kept up by one of these individuals, a man
of extraordinary ugliness and wit.
At last he moved off toward the houses, wiping his eyes with the
tail of his coat and moaning to himself 'Ta me marbh,' ('I'm
killed'), till some one stopped him and he began again pouring out a
medley of rude puns and jokes that meant more than they said.
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