In Wicklow and West KerrySynge, J. M. (John Millington)
Philosophy
In Wicklow and West Kerry
Synge, J. M. (John Millington)
Ireland -- Social life and customs
I showed them some photographs of the Aran Islands and Wicklow,
which they looked at with eagerness. The little hostess was
especially taken with two or three that had babies or children in
their foreground; and as she put her hands on my shoulders, and
leaned over to look at them, with the confidence that is so usual in
these places, I could see that she had her full share of the passion
for children which is powerful in all women who are permanently and
profoundly attractive. While I was telling her what I could about
the children, I saw one of the men looking with peculiar amazement
at an old photograph of myself that had been taken many years ago in
an alley of the Luxembourg Gardens, where there were many statues in
the background. 'Look at that,' he whispered in Irish to one of the
girls, pointing to the statues; 'in those countries they do have
naked people standing about in their skins.'
I explained that the figures were of marble only, and then the
little hostess and all the girls examined them also. 'Oh! dear me,'
said the little hostess, 'Is deas an rud do bheith ag siubhal ins an
domhain mor' ('It's a fine thing to be travelling in the big world').
In the afternoon I went up and walked along the narrow central ridge
of the island, till I came to the highest point, which is nearly
three miles west of the village. The weather was gloomy and wild,
and there was something nearly appalling in the loneliness of the
place. I could look down on either side into a foggy edge of grey
moving sea, and then further off I could see many distant mountains,
or look out across the shadowy outline of Inishtooskert to the
Tearaught rock. While I was sitting on the little mound which marks
the summit of the island--a mound stripped and riddled by rabbits--a
heavy bank of fog began to work up from the south, behind
Valentia, on the other jaw of Dingle Bay. As soon as I saw it I
hurried down from the pinnacle where I was, so that I might get away
from the more dangerous locality before the clouds overtook me. In
spite of my haste I had not gone half a mile when an edge of fog
whisked and circled round me, and in a moment I could see nothing
but a grey shroud of mist and a few yards of steep, slippery grass.
Everything was distorted and magnified to an extraordinary degree;
but I could hear the moan of the sea under me, and I knew my
direction, so I worked along towards the village without trouble. In
some places the island, on this southern side, is bitten into by
sharp, narrow coves, and when the fog opened a little I could see
across them, where gulls and choughs were picking about on the
grass, looking as big as Kerry cattle or black mountain sheep.
Before I reached the house the cloud had turned to a sharp shower of
rain, and as I went in the water was dripping from my hat. 'Oh!
dear me,' said the little hostess, when she saw me, 'Ta tu an-rhluc
anois' ('You are very wet now '). She was alone in the house,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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