The general character of the clergy appears from what has already been related. Parkyns saw them in remote places and in their least spiritual aspect. For instance, in describing the feast on St. Michael’s day at Addy Harisho, he wrote: “An old priest came up to me and offered, on the part of himself and his brethren, to perform, if I pleased, the religious dance and song used by them on such occasions. I never shall forget their ludicrous efforts to appear graceful, at the same time staggering every step; while the expression of devotion they affected to assume was reduced to a languid smile and thickening eyelids, expressive of nothing but liquor. A hiccup or two occasionally interfered with the solemn words they were chanting; and the stately movements they had begun with changed gradually, and by degrees the dance became a reel, or rather reeling movement, the words only which accompanied it remaining solemn. At last an old priest, suddenly forgetting the original chant, changed its words to those of a jovial drinking ditty: ‘Don’t you stop the liquor, and I will dance for ever!’ Instead of the marks of disapprobation from his fellow-priests, they only burst into a loud laugh, and, declaring the entertainment to be changed for the better, all with one consent followed his example and his tune.”[170] Nevertheless, Parkyns wrote of the priests with tolerance and good humour. And it is worthy of note that two other British writers who knew the country well have had a good word to say for the clergy. Plowden, after mentioning some of their faults, observed: “It is just to say that they have preserved the Christian faith, impure indeed, but still alive, in the midst of foreign invasion, domestic degradation, and the extinction of Government, and that it is under their protection that agriculture flourishes, and villages are built where deserts would else be seen.”[171] Mr. Augustus Wylde, among several remarks in a similar sense, said: “I have found the clergy, if left alone, peaceable, simple-minded men, very hospitable and always willing to do me a good turn, and ready to help me and pass me on to their neighbouring friends, and I expect other travellers would find them the same as long as they treated them properly.”[172]