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distributed, and then, according to the ability of the deceased, cakes and ale, and sometimes whiskey, are dealt to the company :

"Deal on, deal on, my merry men all,

Deal on your cakes and your wine,
For whatever is dealt at her funeral to-day
Shall be dealt to-morrow at mine."

After a fit of universal sorrow, and the comfort of a universal dram, the scandal of the neighbourhood, as in higher circles, occupies the company. The young lads and lasses romp with one another, and when the fathers and mothers are at last overcome with sleep and whiskey (vino et somno), the youth become more enterprising, and are frequently successful. It is said, that more matches are made at wakes than at weddings.

Page 81. Kilt.-This word frequently occurs in the preceding pages, where it means not killed but much hurt. In Ireland, not only cowards, but the brave "die many times before their death."-There killing is no murder.

ESSAY ON IRISH BULLS.

Summos posse viros, et magna exempla daturos,
Vervecum in patria, crassoque sub aëre nasci.

JUVENAL.

IRISH BULLS.

INTRODUCTION.

WHAT mortal, what fashionable mortal, is there who has not, in the midst of a formidable circle, been reduced to the embarrassment of having nothing to say? Who is there that has not felt those oppressive fits of silence which ensue after the weather, and the fashions, and the politics, and the scandal, and all the commonplace topics of the day have been utterly exhausted? Who is there that, at such a time, has not tried in vain to call up an idea, and found that none would come when they did call, or that all that came were impertinent, and must be rejected, some as too grave, others too gay, some too vulgar, some too refined for the hearers, some relating to persons, others to circumstances that must not be mentioned? Not one will do!

and all this time the silence lasts, and the difficulty of breaking it increases every instant in an incalculable proportion.

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