The South Isles of Aran Part 5

[Sidenote: THEIR HOLY WELLS.]

The reverence of the Aranite for holy wells is great, nor will he suffer in silence his faith in them to be ridiculed. "Can you," said a stranger, "be so silly as to believe that that well gushing out of the hillside was placed there by a saint, in dim and remote ages?" The peasant replied that a well on a mountain side or on a mountain top appeared to him to be miraculous. "And isn't it, sir, wonderful to see water on the top of a hill? And it must flow up the hill inside before it can flow down the hill outside;" and water flowing up the hill inside or outside was to his mind miraculous. The stranger answered that, "the water may have been forced up from some far-off lake on a higher level."

The peasant's answer was, "that may be so and it may not be so, but your honour does not give us any proof that it is so." Wells in all ages and in all places are a.s.sociated with the marvellous, even from the well of Zem-zem to that on the Aran rocks, and we are not so sure that the geological stranger was quite satisfactory as to his theory of wells on a mountain summit.

[Sidenote: THE ISLE OF O'BRAZIL.]

Speaking of the wonders by which the native of Aran is surrounded, what wonder can be greater than that of the mirage, an island that is said to rise after sunset from the Atlantic? A phantom island which the people call "O'Brazil, the Isle of the Blest," upon which a city like the New Jerusalem is built, and the old men say that that city hath no need of the sun nor of the moon to shine in it, neither does it need the light of the lamp any more at all. That island with that city has, they say, over and over again appeared far away on the Atlantic. Alison, we remember, somewhere in his charming account of the French in Egypt, gives a note on the mirage of the desert, where the parched-up soldiers of the French republic, in 1798, used to see far-distant lakes into which tumbled the waters of mighty waterfalls. On, on the French soldiers rushed. Alas! the phantom vanished; and so vanishes the phantom city seen on a summer evening from the lofty cliffs of the Aran islands.

To follow in search of this "Isle of the Blest" an Aranite peasant once resolved. He had heard of St. Brendan and of Christopher Columbus, and of those mariners who, sailing over the seas in search of fame and of gold, were fortunate enough to find both. The peasant, in spite of all persuasion, set sail.

[Sidenote: A PHANTOM-ISLAND.]

The phantom receded; he followed. Still following, he never returned to Aran again, and his mournful fate is thus sung by Gerald Griffin:--

1.

"On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye dwell, A shadowy land has appeared, as they tell; Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest, And they called it O'Brazil, the Isle of the Blest.

From year unto year on the ocean's blue rim, The beautiful spectre showed lovely and dim; The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay, And it looked like an Eden away--far away.

2.

"A peasant who heard of the wonderful tale, In the breeze of the Orient loosened his sail; From Aran, the holy, he turned to the west, For though Aran was holy, O'Brazil was blest.

He heard not the voice that called from the sh.o.r.e, He heard not the rising wind's menacing roar: Home, kindred, and safety, he left on that day, And he sped to O'Brazil away--far away.

3.

"Morn rose on the deep, and that shadowy isle, O'er the faint rim and distant reflected its smile; Noon burned on the wave, and that shadowy sh.o.r.e Seemed lovely, distant, and faint as before.

Lone evening came down on the wanderer's track, And to Aran again he looked timidly back; Oh! far on the verge of the ocean it lay, Yet the isle of the blest was away--far away!

4.

"Rash dreamer, return! oh, ye winds of the main, Bear him back to his own peaceful Aran again; Rash fool! for a vision of fanciful bliss To barter thy calm life of labour and peace.

The warning of reason was spoken in vain, He never revisited Aran again.

Night fell on the deep, amidst tempest and spray, And he died on the waters away--far away."

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Stokes' "Life of Dr. Petrie," pp. 49, 50.

[17] "Reminiscences of Frank Thorpe Porter, Esq.," 1875, p. 489.

CHAPTER V.

"Never Boreas' h.o.a.ry path, Never Eurus' poisonous breath, Never baleful stellar lights Taint _Aran_ with untimely blights."

BURNS.

[Sidenote: OLD AGE IN ARAN.]

The extreme old age to which the inhabitants live in Aran proves the excellence of the air and of the food. Neither asthma, nor gout, nor rheumatism are known in portions of the islands. Formerly there were forests of oak and of pine in Inishmore, which must have been peculiarly suited to those who suffered from diseases of the chest.

The fishery here begins in the spring, and great quant.i.ties of spillard, cod, ling, haddock, turbot, gurnet, and mackerel are caught. The natives look much to the herring fishery, which seldom disappoints their expectations. In May the pursuit of the sun-fish gives employment to many, and it appears, from evidence given before the Irish House of Commons in 1762, that sun-fish of average size were worth from 5 to 6 each. Then all manner of sh.e.l.lfish are in abundance in those waters--multivalves, bivalves, and univalves--lobsters, oysters, periwinkles. The Aranite may be said to be an amphibious animal--a fisherman and a farmer, but as a fisherman he is powerless to cope with them whose ships are built for the deep sea fishery.

[Sidenote: LAND COMMISSION IN ARAN.]

It was as a farmer we had the pleasure of seeing him, and in the court of the Land Commission, which sat in Kilronan on the 20th of July, 1886.

The Land Court presented an animated appearance on that day, the islanders crowding in to hear their cases. Unlike any Europeans that we know of, the men sat or squatted on the floor in manner as the Mahometans would in the mosques of Bussorah. Remarkably intelligent, they gave their evidence in court with an ease and precision, especially when examined in Irish, which it was refreshing to hear. Many of the cases stood over from the Land Commission sittings in the islands on June 25, 1885, on which occasion there were ninety-five listed for a hearing, and of these the following, the first heard, is a fair specimen of all the rest, the Commission being composed of Mr. Crean, B.L., Professor Baldwin, and Mr. Barry.

IRISH LAND COMMISSION.

Michael O'Donel, tenant.

Miss Digby, Landenstown, county Kildare, and the Hon. Thomas Kenelm Digby St. Lawrence (second son of Thomas, twenty-ninth baron, third Earl of Howth--by his second wife, Henrietta Digby, only child of Peter Barfoot, Esq., of Landenstown, county Kildare), landlords.

Mr. Concannon appeared as solicitor for the tenants; Mr. Stephens, solicitor, for the landlords.

Michael O'Donel sworn.

Mr. Concannon. O'Donel, are you tenant of this holding?

I am, your honour.

How long are you tenant?

Since I was born--and that's fifty years ago.

Do you swear that, that you were tenant since you were born? How long are you paying rent?

Since my father's death, about eight years ago last Pathrickmuss,--that's the time I'm the rale tenant. My father and his father were tenants on that holding since the Deluge at all events--couldn't swear longer than that.

Do you swear that?

Well, of coorse I couldn't swear it out and out.

What quant.i.ty of land have you in your holding?

Well, twenty-two acres exactly, be the same more or less. [Mr. Stephens, for the landlords, said that twenty-two acres was the true area of his farm.] Five of the twenty-two acres were nothing but rocks and stones, without one blade of gra.s.s in them, so that it was seventeen acres of productive land he had, at an annual rental of 3 18_s._ 6_d._, and it was not worth that.

To the court. The last change of rent was thirty years ago.

What buildings have you?

The house is my own, and the barn. Both are thatched. [Mr. Stephens did not claim the houses.] Improvements?--Well, there are walls, but did not measure them, and small gardens.