wandering about in the cold moonlight, zealously seeking for protecting "angry weed," to charm them against the fearful displeasure of their parents, for the ensuing year. The revered and grey-tressed patriarch of the family, with fearful inquisitive looks and quivering lips, silently tottered about on his crutches, to inspect the lusty "livelongs" which each of his beloved grandchildren had suspended from the roof on Midsummer Eve. If the plant still looked green and healthy, his countenance lighted up into a faint smile, and a pious ejaculation escaped from his thin lips; but if he met with one which shewed the sickly symptoms of decay, how woefully would the fond old man look round for the child who had hung it up, impressed with the heart-sickening certainty, that the sunk eye and pale cheek of his little darling were sorrowful foretokens of the untimely death predicted by the fatal live-long. A troop of the youngest boys were kneeling round a bucket of ice-cold water, into which the old people, from time to time, threw small pieces of coin, for the shivering younglings to pick up from the bottom with their freezing lips. Some of the maidens were pouring molten lead through the bow of a rusty key into a bowl of pure fountain-water, and tracing indistinct semblances to different objects in the various shapes which the lead assumed. If any of them happened to cast the likeness of a ship, her future lord was doomed to be a hardy sailor. If fancy could warp a mis-shapen lump of the cooled metal into the similitude of a horse, a helmet, or a sword, the happy lass tempted her fate no farther, but merrily danced away, rich in the dear hope of being wedded to a gallant soldier. If the dim resemblance accorded not with her sympathies or inclinations, the dissatisfied and pouting girl would try her luck again, again to be defeated in her hopes: until, at length, wearied and disgusted, she rose from the mystic well with a sad heart and a heavy brow, to seek for consolation, and promises of better fortune in a different rite. During one of those moments of universal, silence which often happen in the most roystering assemblages, a loud and rather melodious voice was heard at a little distance gaily chanting an old beggarman's song, to one of the merriest tunes that ever flowed from the lips of mirth and happiness. In a few moments the children came tumbling in,and joyfully announced the unexpected arrival of Larry Donovan. The welcome information was received with an unanimous burst of enthusiastic rapture, which had hardly subsided when Larry Donovan, the ancient buchaugh, mounted on a grey drowsylooking, lop-eared ass, made his appearance at the open doorway. Men, women, and children were all collected about the threshold to greet the arrival of the white-bearded, jovial beggarman, who continued to troll his old song amid the hearty kead-mille-a-faltha's*, that were showered upon him from every quarter. He vigorously raised himself from his pad, and reaching over the heads of the delighted youngsters, warmly grasped the trembling, out-stretched hand of the old patriarch. This action betrayed a pair of thin mis-shapen legs that dangled impotently behind Larry's muscular calves, under whose efficient covert they had hitherto been concealed. "Who have you there, Larry ?” cried twenty voices at once. "Och! boys, boys," replied the happy mendicant, "I'll engage my fellow-traveller and kinsman here, will make every one of your young hearts dance with joy this merry night :--who did you think, boys, I'd mount upon my Rory and bring along with me to the house of revelry and feasting, but honest Dennis O'Neil, the old piper of Innismury." Dennis now shewed his grizzled face over the broad shoulder of his compan→ ion, and struck into the heart of the tune of Larry Donovan's much-loved song, pealing forth such cheering notes from his pipes, as he entered the house, that every eye beamed with transport and every toe was set in merry motion. The floor was quickly cleared for dancing, and after Larry and the piper had quaffed a piggin of pure Pothient between them, the latter gave the sig * Kead-mille-a-faltha, a hundred thousand welcomes. nal for the lads and lasses to take their places. Every brow was beaming with joy and expectation, the young men were looking lovingly into the blue eyes of their maiden partners, when, after a moment's pause, the top couple started off to the galloping measures of "Kiss in the Furze." I had now an opportunity of more particularly surveying the figure and appearance of the buchaugh. He was a tall handsome-looking old fellow, with a bright eagle glance, a high unfurrowed forehead, a full cheek and a profusion of long white locks floating carelessly down his back and bosom. He was wrapped up in a coarse blue cloak, fastened at his breast with a wooden skewer. A broad leathern belt was buckled round his middle, to which his little meal-can, and flat whiskey bottle were carefully fastened, and a nut-brown doothien or stunted tobacco pipe, was twisted in the band of his old slouched hat. He was engaged in deep confab with the aged grandsire of the family, bur his ear was still attentive to the rapid flow of the tune, and he regularly beat time with the iron point of his oaken pike. As soon as the dance was ended, preparations for the supper were set about with infinite vigour and alacrity. A neighbour's son disappeared for a few seconds, and returned with a colossal "cobler's nob," which, Meleager like, he presented on bended knee to our host's eldest daughter, the blooming little Alice, and gave the signal for every youth to salute his willing partner by imprinting a warm kiss on the ripe luscious cheek of the blushing damsel. to the ears of the hungry; the blue flames curled and twined round the black crocks in snake-like coils; the moaning wind sang a melancholy foretoken of the death of the waning year; the burning turf, and the bright embers of the crumbling log, assumed strange images in the eyes of superstition and fancy; and the whole party drew closely round the glimmering hearth, drinking with greedy ears the honeyed words of the old Buchaugh. He was rich in the legendary histories of all the great families in the kingdom; explained the origin of such bitter maledictions as "the curse of Cromwell," and "the screech of the morning;" sang ancient ditties, and told affecting love-stories, and superstitious tales of midnight goblins, ladies clad in white garments tinged with crimson blood, and gaunt warriors galloping through dark glens in sable armour and plumes of waving fire; fearful visions of dying men; and rich descriptions of fairy revels among old ruins, or on the bright greensward, in the chill moonlight beam. I He had travelled from a village on the other side of Sligo, with the ancient piper behind him, alternately playing boisterous tunes and singing roaring catches, to scare away the mischievous elves and fearful goblins that flit about in the dark, and play lawless pranks upon sober travellers with impunity, on All Hallowmas Eve. "Wicked flesh and blood too," quoth he, “is often abroad on such a night as this. remember, this time seven years, a poor sinful soul of a footpad formed a plan to waylay me, as I passed from father Fitzpatrick's snug little cabin, on the bog's side, to old Biddy Maguire's merry-making on the hill. The simple fool thought, perhaps, that my old cloak, like Thady Aroon's, was lined with rich gold; but no such thing, boys: Larry Donovan never takes more from charitable Christians, than just enough to make his heart glad, and his tongue chirrup for the night, living like the happy birds in the forest, without a single thought of the morrow. Well, boys, the footpad not having The simmering waters soon began to a distinct recollection of my figure, atsend forth the most delicious of sounds tire, and phiznomy, or perhaps being The young man's gift was immediately ushered into an iron pot, a kish of turf and a fresh log were brought inthe good wife spitted a fine turkey, and a quarter of fat kid (which, when drest, tasted as delicious as fawn's flesh,) and little Nicodemus, our host's youngest boy, with a mortified and reluctant air, took his allotted station in the chimney corner, and sullenly and slowly turned round the richly-fraught spit with a heavy old-fashioned iron hand-dog. * Pig's head. hoodwinked by the thoughts of the ugly business he was going about, instead of my own poor body, actually fell upon little Jack Delany, that keeps the shebeen-house in the valley. It is an old saying and a true one, that a bad cause makes a weak heart; and by this pike in my grasp, little Delany overcame the cowardly cur of a footpad, (who was no Irishman, do you mark,) knocked the dirty poltroon down, and resolutely robbed him. Now, whether Delany was justified in going so far, Larry Donovan won't pretend to decide ; for I'm told it was a poser for the rosy, good-humoured priest himself. But when Jack lies on his low deathbed, with the clammy dews standing on his brow, the moaning bibe combing her yellow locks, and singing the deathwail at his casement, then will this, and all poor Delany's other actions, appear to his darkening eye in their true colours." The supper-table was now prepared. The bright holiday pewter-plates and dishes gleamed upon the board, to the utter exclusion of the wooden bowl and rude trencher. The cobler's nob grinned ghastly in the centre, surrounded by huge piles of laughing potatoes, while the light brown kid and frothy turkey harmoniously mingled their tempting odours. Caulcannon and apple-pies were smoking on all sides; piggins of pure Pothien shone brightly on different parts of the loaded table; and we took our seats as old Dennis played a festal flourish on his sonorous pipe. After the repast, dancing was resumed, and the old mendicant cheerily accompanied the music with several verses of the old song, ""Twas on a day, Och ! Ro! And dancing also." The diversion was kept up for many hours, when the exhausted young men and maidens again flocked round the entertaining Buchaugh. I had wound myself into the very inmost recesses of his affectionate old breast, by a lucky as15 ATHENEUM VOL. 11. sertion that there were wandering mendicants in Fairy-land, as well as among the Milesians. A blended expression of surprise and rapture sat on his happy countenance, and he listened with dumb attention to my recital of part of the Beggar's petition to Mab the Fairy Queen. As I concluded my quotation from the alms-begging prayer of the pigmy mendicant to her fairy grace, when she was rioting perhaps on "a moon-parched grain of purest wheat," or "The broke heart of a nightingale the old Buchaugh cordially grasped my After a preliminary draught, and the usual guttural "notes of preparation," he thus began:-"Many, many long years ago, when the good wife in the bee-hive chair was as blooming a lass as any of the young blossoms that gather around her, I was slowly pacing along the sea-shore, near the little vil lage of Stradbally, when a barefooted little fellow ran up to me, ready to explode, with a message from old Thady Aroon, the great Buchaugh, who lay at the last extremity of life in one of the little cabins in the village. I found the old man at holy devotion with a venerable priest; and as soon as his prayers were ended he motioned me to approach, and, convulsively pressing my hand to his weakly-throbbing heart, in a tremulous and broken voice spoke to me as follows;- Donovan,' said he, 'you're my own cousin-german, and I am sure you've as honest a heart as ever beat in the bosom of man. You know well enough how long I've been wandering over the land, curing the sick, amusing the lusty, carrying love-tokens over mountains and rivers, and bearing fond requests to young maidens from their lovers, to look up to the bright moon at midnight, and think that those who dearly loved them, although far, far away, were at that moment lifting their eyes to the same place, and fondly musing upon them. In the course of a long life I have contrived to glean a mighty sum of money, which you will find carefully sewed up in my old patched cloak, with many valuable bonds and good notes from some of the great ones of the land. These I deliver up to thee, in the presence of this good and holy man, solemnly enjoining thee to act faithfully, and do the bidding of thy dying kinsman. By the side of the Blackwater you will find my only and beloved daughter, in a white little cottage, which was lately inhabited by my pious sister Bridget, whose death-lament was sung a few weeks ago and my sweet bud is now left desolate and unprotected. She is married; but her husband breathes the air of a foreign and far-distant land. He is a young East Indian, whom his parents sent over to a relation in Dublin, for the purpose of receiving a liberal education. He saw my mild and beautiful child, loved her, and was beloved, ardently beloved, in return. Although springing from a proud and ancient family, he disdained not to wed with the humble blood of a wandering Buchaugh. True love levels all distinctions and degrees. The youth was suddenly called to the Indies by his father, and he left my daughter with her aunt, until he should have somewhat smoothed the severity of his proud father's displeasure, which he expected would at first rage most vehemently, on hearing that the child of his hopes had married without his consent, and to the daughter of a beggar too-a wandering Buchaugh on the mountains of Erin. He knows not that Peggy's old father can give her the dowry of a Duchess, neither does the girl herself. I have confided the secret of my wealth to none on earth before this day. I fear, from the young man's silence, that his father has roughly thrust him from his roof for his indiscretion; and my dying wish is, that you, my friend, should accompany my Peggy to Calcutta, seek out her beloved husband, and place them above the frowns and scorns of the cold world, and his cruel haughty relatives, by endowing them with this my tattered cloak. "The old man died a few hours after, and I sought out the young bride's cottage at the place mentioned by the old Buchaugh. "There I heard the thrushes warbling, After a long search, I at length discovered the jewel; and truly never did the warm eye of youth gaze on a more lovely object. The deep melancholy in which I found her absorbed, her pale countenance and mourning raiment, interested me beyond measure. I was then young and warm-hearted, and looked upon her with feelings little short of pure devotion. 'Her head hung down on her white, white breast, I shewed her the antique silver ring, richly studded with diamonds, of old Aroon, and she resigned herself wholly to my direction, bitterly bewailing the death of the Buchaugh. We courageously set sail for the Indies, braving the fearful dangers of the great ocean, and arrived in safety at the doorgha father-in-law. He bore the honoured name of a proud Irish family, but unluckily springing from a younger branch, which his ancestors had impoverished by lavishing the whole of their possessions on the elder sons, he was driven to truck and barter for his support. He went on prosperously for many years, but, meeting with a sudden reverse of fortune in some great speculations, had sent for his son to marry a rich heiress, in order to prop up his falling fortunes, the tottering state of which he had much ado to conceal. What a flood of agony did these dreadful tidings pour on the heart of young Hector O'Hara, on his arrival at Calcutta! He often rallied his sinking spirits, and resolved to impart the secret of his marriage to his father; but the moment the old man appeared with his stern eye and care-worn brow, his resolution vanished. How could he hurry him into the grave, by saying he had wedded with the daughter of a beggar? How blast all those budding hopes, from the blossoming of which he anticipated such pleasure and advantages? "The father alternately endeavoured to threaten and cajole him into a consent to the marriage with the heiress-his mother on her bended knees besought him to save her from poverty and ruin; and his sisters turned with eyes full of tears and imploring looks upon him. Oppressed with their unrelenting persecution for many weeks, he had passed the night in dreaming agony. The whole family were gathered round him in the breastfast-room, assailing him with tears, threats, and bitter reproaches-his fevered blood rushed wildly through his veins; his heart beat convulsively in his breast: his sight grew dim; his brain whirled, and I fear the fatal consent was just quivering on his white lip, when the folding doors of the apartment suddenly burst open, and the pale face and slender figure of his Peggy appeared before him. "My wife! my dear wife!" was all that he could utter, and he bounded into her encircling arms. The father stood aghast, the women shrieked, and the young wife and her husband were still locked to each other's breast when I entered the room, and with a low obeisance introduced myself as a relation of the bride. The amazement of all instantly increased; and the face of old Hector assumed an expression of unfeigned horror and disgust, as I threw the old patched cloaked of the Buchaugh at his feet, loudly proclaiming it to be the marriage portion of his son's wife. The sudden jerk loosened some of the stitches, and a shower of bright gold covered the floor. In a few words I explained every thing. The winning ways of Peggy soon moved the hearts of the family in her favour; her husband was happy in her love; and the old gold and great money-bonds of the wandering Buchaugh effectually saved the sinking fortunes of the proud old Hector O'Hara. "The grateful young couple implored me to pass the remainder of my days under their roof; but my heart yearned for the land of my forefathers. How could I die happy in a foreign country, with only one of my own dear kinsfolk to close my eyes and wail over my cold corpse? How could I rest under any turf but that of old Erin? The sun seemed to look upon me with a strange aspect-the moon had not half the sweet quietness in her white face, the stars did not shed the same soft light as in my own native land. There were no smiling maidens to look out upon me as I passed-no brighteyed children to listen to my tales-no hoary grandsires to drop the tear at my pathetic ditties-no festal merry-meetings on All Hallow Eve-no willing voice to join with me in loudly chanting the soul-stirring anthem of Erin-gobragh. My heart was in Ireland, all my affections were centered in my own country; and I quickly bade adieu to my kind friends, and cheerily set sail again for my own little Isle of the Ocean." The old Buchaugh and the merry piper continued to amuse us for the greatest part of the night; nor did the rustic party break up before many of the youngsters were dozing in their seats, the piper's eyes twinkling with the effects of the strong Pothien, the merry cock crowing out his matinal salutation, and the grey dawn glimmering over the summit of the lofty Knock-na-ree. VALE CRUCIS. A Welsh Song, by Mr. Roscoe. VALE of the Cross, the shepherds tell, Vale of the Cross, the shepherds tell, |