[Transcriber's notes]
This text is derived from THE CATHOLIC WORLD,
http://www.archive.org/details/catholicworld01pauluoft
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39367
and
http://www.archive.org/details/catholicworld02pauluoft
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40068
and
http://www.archive.org/details/catholicworld03pauluoft
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41032
It is the collection of serialized chapters for the convenience of the reader who wishes to read the whole work.
[End Transcriber's notes]
I could have wished that the incidents which I am about to describe inthe following tale had taken place in some locality with a lessCeltic, and to English tongues a more pronounceable, name thanBoher-na-Milthiogue. I had at first commenced the tale with the worditself, thus: "Boher-na-Milthiogue, though in a wild and remote partof Ireland," etc. But I was afraid that, should an English reader takeup and open the book, he would at the very first word slap it togetheragain between the palms of his hands, saying, "Oh, that is quiteenough for me!" Now, as my English readers have done me vastly goodservice on former occasions, I should be sorry to frighten them at theoutset of this new tale; and I have therefore endeavored to lead themquietly into it. With my Irish friends no such circumlocution wouldhave been necessary. Perhaps, if I dissever and explain the word, itmay enable even my English readers in some degree to approach asuccessful attempt at its pronunciation. I am aware, however, of thedifficulty they experience in this respect, and that their attempts atsome of our easiest names of Irish places are reallylaughable—laughable, at least, to our Celtic familiarity with thecorrect sound.
Boher is the Irish for "bridge," and milthiogue for a "midge;"Boher-na-Milthiogue, "the midge's bridge."
There now, if my English friends cannot yet pronounce the wordproperly, which I still doubt, they can at least understand what itmeans. It were idle, I fear to hope, that they can see any beauty init; and yet that it is beautiful there can be no Celtic doubtwhatever.
Perhaps it might have been well to have written thus far in the shapeof a preface; but as nobody nowadays reads prefaces, the matter wouldhave been as bad as ever. I shall therefore continue now as I hadintended to have commenced at first.
Boher-na-Milthiogue, though in a wild and remote part of Ireland, isnot without a certain degree of natural and romantic beauty, suitingwell the features of the scene in which it lies.
Towering above a fertile and well-cultivated plain frown and smile thebrother and sister mountains of Slieve-dhu and Slieve-bawn, the solidmasonry of whose massive and perpendicular precipices was built by nohuman architect. The ponderous and scowling rocks of Slieve-dhu, thebrother, are dark and indistinct; while, separated from it by a narrowand abrupt ravine, those of Slieve-bawn, the sister, are of a whitishspotted gray, contrasting cheerfully with those of her gloomy brother.
There is generally a story in Ireland about mountains or rivers or oldruins which present any peculiarity of shape or feature. Now it is anundoubted fact, which any tourist can satisfy himself of, thatalthough from sixty to a hundred yards asunder, there are huge bumpsupon the side of Slieve-bawn, corresponding to which in every respectas to size and shape are cavities precisely opposite them in the sideof Slieve-dhu. The story in this case is, that although formerly themountains were, like a loving brother and sister, clasped in eachother's arms, the