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Eine, Zwei! Eins, Zwei! Und durch und durch

Sein vorpals Schwert zerschnifer

schnück.

Da blieb es todt! Er, Kopf in Hand,
Geläumfig zog zurück!

Und schlugst Du ja den Jammerwoch?
Umarme mich, mein Böhm'sches Kind!
Freuden-Tag! O Halloo-Schlag!
Er chortelt froh-gesinnt.

Es brillig war, 2.

On my return home, I thought the matter over, and am inclined to agree with the lamented Von Schwindel, for various reasons, which may be summed up as follows:

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The Jabberwock is only a Jammerwoch with a cold in its head, like "the young Babood" for "the young May moon.' And this name, "the week of woe," is a mythical expression for the Seven Years' War, and hence for other devastations of the Fatherland. Humpty Dumpty's interpretation I of course utterly repudiate. He is a mere rationalizing Euhemerist. My theory is that the ballad is the product of the war against Napoleon I.; and the Jammerwoch, of course, is "the Corsican Fiend" himself. Now, apply this to the first stanza, which indicates the patriotic combination against him of the "Burggoven" (Burggrafen, the nobility in general); the "Räthe " (whether "Hof" or "Geheim"), the Bureaucracy; and the "schlichte Toven," the simple coves of the lower class, neither noble nor official. And note the touch of irony with which in the end the aristos leave these in the lurch, "wirrend und wimmelnd," and only "dig out" (ausgraben) the bureaucracy for their own purposes, keeping them "mum" (mohme) and voiceless.

There is something strikingly Teu

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, &c.

tonic in the attitude of the hero under the tree, where, after seeking for the Jammerwoch, he "took to thinking"! "Auf" also must be original, for "uffish thought" is manifestly intended as a translation of it. But who is the hero? I think that the sixth stanza will reveal this to any one possessed of a historico-critical sense. If it had been a North German who wrote the ballad, no doubt the hero would have been Scharnhörst, or Blücher, or some of the other Prussian heroes. But the language is rather Austrian (speaking of the Austrian Empire as it was at that date, without reference to nationalities); and no North German would have celebrated the "Böhm'sches Kind," which is, not as the English copy so strangely translates it, "beamish," nor even (which would have been happier) "my bumptious boy," but "my young Bohemian." And there

We

fore I think that Von Schwindel's memory must have failed him. Doubtless he was acquainted with other Lyres and other Swords as well as Körner's, and he may have confused them. may safely identify the hero with the Archduke Charles; who (it is true) did not slay the Jammerwoch, but did his best to do it, and was a genuine hero of the Austrian Empire.

339

PLEASANT RECOLLECTIONS OF FIFTY YEARS' RESIDENCE IN IRELAND.

VII.

BY JOHN HAMILTON OF ST. ERNAN'S.

THE RED WOMAN.

I WAS building a house for a tenant, and among the labourers employed was Johnny D—, a very industrious house tenant of a few acres.

One day as I was looking on, Johnny was sitting on the ground arranging the sprays of heather with which the house was being thatched.

His wife came with his dinner in a cloth. And when she saw him, she broke out into the most dolorous lamentation mixed with sobs.

"Ogh, Johnny, Johnny, is it there ye are, after all I said to you and prayed you? Ogh, Johnny, it's a widdy I'll be, as sure as ye're there! Ogh, Johnny, Johnny, ogh!"

"Ah now, Jinny," said he, "hould yer tongue, and don't be deaving us with yer nonsense, ye superstritious woman that ye are !"

But Jinny was not to be pacified; she continued her lamentations and upbraidings, Johnny taking very little heed.

I asked her to explain what it was all about.

"Ogh, sir, it's all about Johnny! Sure I was warned, and I warned him, I did. Didn't I, Johnny? Ogh yes, and for all that he would come. Ogh yes, ye slipped away, Johnny, afore it was light, and when I woke up ye was away, Johnny, and it's bad'll befall ye, it is, Johnny. Ogh, Johnny, I'm as good as a widdy, so I am!"

"Hould yer tongue, ye blathering, superstritious woman that ye are !" replied he.

"Well, but tell me," said I, "who gave you the warning? and what was it?" "Ogh, yer honour, then I'll tell ye the whole thing. Ye see I was sitting yes

terday at my fireside, for I was tired, and my wee baby on my lap, and I sees a shadow like come over the place, and I looks up and I sees a-a-a—] -plaze, yer honour, I can't say it was a thing, nor I can't say it was a Christen, but it had the appearance of a wee wee body, and I felt a creeping feel over me and a fright; but I had heard it was good to speak civil to the likes of it, so I said, says I, 'Would ye please walk in?' for it stood in the door.

"Then it looked in my face with the wee bright eyes of it, and it said, 'Jinny,' said it, 'where's Johnny?' "Says I, 'Johnny's at Mr. Hamilton's work, earning a shilling for us.'

'But

"That's good, Jinny,' says it. mark me, Jinny, he's not to go tomorrow. Let him bide at home.'

"I was going to ax another question at it, but all of a moment it was away, and not a bit of it was there at all."

"Nor never was there at all," cried Johnny, "nor never was nowhere, but in that woman's superstritious head. Ye dhreamt it, Jinny-ye dhreamt it, woman."

"Ogh, Johnny, Johnny dear, ye'll know to yer cost it was no dhream. It was a real, real, real thing, so it was."

"Well then,” said Johnny, "do ye see that" (holding up a stalk of heather): "if ye saw it and heard it, I say, if it come from above to call me, why I'm ready to go; and if it come from t'other place, I don't care that for it-let him go home" (with a scornful gesticulation pointing downwards).

So Jinny gave up the argument and went. And Johnny and Jinny are now enjoying a ripe old age, many years after the warning.

One of his fellow-labourers, winking to the others, said:

"Ah now, Johnny, you shouldn't despise Jinny that way. Sure you know people do see and hear quare things betimes, besides superstitions."

"Maybe they do," said he; "but for all that she's nothing but a superstritious poor thing, so she is."

The other whispered to me, "If yer honour would ax him about the red woman?"

"What's that you say?" said Johnny. I replied, "What is it, Johnny, about the red woman ?"

"Ogh, no matter, sir; don't be heeding the likes of them."

"Johnny," said the other, "shall I tell his honour?"

"You! ye couldn't; ye'd tell it all wrong, and make a nonsense of it, so ye would."

"Well, Johnny, if you would stop me, ye must just tell it yerself, or else I will." "You hear that," said I; "so, Johnny, you may as well."

66

Ay, and better than let him. A pretty sort of a story he'd make of it; so I will tell it to yer honour. But it's all true as yer standing there, troth it is. "So, ye see, I was a lad of eighteen, or some under twenty years, and my mother was a widdy woman, and we two lived together in a wee house. So, sir, on the fair-day of M

I went

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"So, after a word here and a word there, I said, says I, Boys, have ye never a bit for a body that's hungry?'

"Troth yer late, Johnny,' says they; 'there's lashings of drink, though; and one of them hands me a glass of whisky. So I took it off, and lit a pipe, and had a smoke and another glass.

"What made ye so hungry, Johnny?' says one.

"Becase,' says I, 'I et nothing all day. Maybe ye'd be hungry yerself if ye were as empty.'

"Well, Johnny,' says he; 'it's a pity but ye come a bit sooner, for there was a big pile of fine red herrins there, and every one got one that inclined for it, and now there's none but the one left for the corp, in course.'

"Well,' says I, 'I must be off home to my mother. But sure a corp can't ate, and what's the use of keeping a herrin' for the red woman that's in glory, I hope, while a cratur is hungry for it?'

"Why, Johnny,' says they, 'it's custom to have it, and no one would go for to take the last herrin' away from the corp.'

"But I didn't see it at all, at all; so I says, 'Gi' me that herrin' and I'll eat it for my supper, if all the corps and the red women in the county must want.'

"So they wouldn't give it, and so I makes a grab at the herrin', and away wi' me; and they riz the hullabaloo

after me, but I made for the door, and put the herrin' in my breeches pocket as I ran, and away for home I made like fire.

"When I ran across one field, I hears a puffin' and russellin' after me, and I looks behind me-and, sir, it's true as death-didn't I see the red woman after me, and her winding-sheet flying out, and her long red hair in the wind, and her long thin arm reached out at me, and her screechin' 'Johnny, my herrin'; Johnny, my herrin'.'

"Well, if I didn't run! I was swift on my foot then. But she got nearer and nearer. 'Well,' says I to myself, 'there's a tearing big shough [ditch] at the bottom of this field; a corp can never lep it.' So I took heart, and made desperate at it, and jumped it clean, and away along the stubble, but there it was in the field with me. I heard it screeching 'Johnny, my herrin'!' and I dursn't look back for my life.

"The next fence was a thicket of black sallys and brier bushes, and, thinks I, the sheet or the long hair of it will stick in the bramble, and this give me courage again. So I made a great push, and thrust myself through the hedge, and away across the bog for home.

"I don't know how she ever got through that bramble, but before I was half across the bog there she was at my heels screeching.

"Well, sir, I got sight of our house on the hill-side, and that put hope in me; so I made the last dash for it, and I felt her breath blowin' on my neck as I ran up to the door. It was shut, and she put her cowld hand on my collar, and give me one push that sent me flyin' bang through the door, and left me dead on the floor inside.

"After a bit I come to, and I was feared to look for fraid I'd see the corp with its red hair glow'ring at me; but I took heart and peeped up, and saw nothing but the moon shining in at the broken door.

"So I put my hand in my pocket to feel for the herrin', and, troth, there it was all safe.

"Then I picked myself up and looked about me, and there was a glimmer of a live coal in the chimney; so I gathered a few dry turfs about it, and blew it into a nice wee fire. And then I took the tongs, and I laid them across the coals, and I took the herrin', and laid that across the tongs, and I roasted it, and a potato to that; and I et it, yer honour, so I did, and I didn't care the snap of my fingers for all the red women and all the corps in Ireland, so I didn't, that's the truth."

"Well, Johnny," said I, "I think that's as curious as Jinny's story."

"Ay, sir, and a great heap curiouser : but the differ is in it, what she says is no better than a superstritious dhrame, and what I tell you is as true as that sun's in the heavens, so it is. Ay ! ye all may laugh, but ye wouldn't dare laugh if ye saw it as I did."

VIII.

GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD.

IN the year 182- I had occasion to make a road across a tideway, about a furlong wide, and, at spring-tides, fourteen feet deep in the middle.

I was assured, by an engineer whom I consulted, that there must be an arch or two of considerable size, as a large extent of an inland bay discharged its waters through this channel. I was obstinate enough to dispute this, and said I would force the tide to take a new course through certain sand-beds, which were only covered with shallow water at full tide.

We set to work with a hundred wheelbarrows; the ground was favourable, being high at each side, and of a very stiff clay, full of round stones, often large ones: these answered for coating the sloping sides of the mound of clay which we began to drive forward from both sides-the purpose in view being to make a practicable road from the mainland into an island.

The whole population for miles around took an extraordinary interest in this work; and it frequently happened

that I was roused at daybreak by drums and fifes, or by horns blowing, which announced the arrival of fifty or a hundred stout fellows, with spades on their shoulders.

They would then divide into two parties-one to dig the clay and fill the barrows, the other to wheel-and with a will they did work, for a whole long summer day; making one bargain, which was, that I should give neither food nor money. A drink of whisky and water, once or twice in the day, was all that they would accept; and in the evening they shouldered their spades, and with three cheers for the work, would set out on their walk home, sometimes fully ten miles off. One morning in July a loud drumming told me of the arrival of a strong party from a village six miles off; they were the members of a yeomanry corps, and all Orangemen, fine stout fellows, but hot-blooded.

They had hardly arrived when a fiddle and fife proclaimed another arrival, and I was a little dismayed when I found about an equal force on the ground from a mountainous property about seven miles off in an opposite direction, every man of them not only Roman Catholics, but exactly of that class and character most opposite to my Orange friends; in fact, it was more than supposed that most of them were Ribbonmen. However, before I could interfere, the two parties met on the green field where our work went on.

I had to cross from the island in a boat, and certainly felt rather alarmed when I saw the two parties approach each other. Just as I arrived they recognized one another, and the Orangemen, perceiving the accident which brought two sets of men the same day, they greeted the others with a hurrah. "Hurrah for the boys of T!" which was replied to with energy, "Hurrah for the B- boys!"

Nothing could be more friendly than their bearing towards each other.

It was arranged that they should that day prove which, B or T could show the best men.

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How they did work! The object of the B men was to fill the barrows so full as to overload the T-men, or so quick as to have time to rest on their spades and cry :

"Five pounds for a T-man to take this barrow away from before me; I'm kilt waiting for one of them Tmen! where are they all?"

But the T- men were active fellows, and sometimes brought back empty barrows quicker than the B- -8 could fill, and then the cry was on their side:

"Five pounds for a B man to fill a barrow;" and then the wheeler would sit down on his barrow and say, "Boys, hasn't one of ye never a pipe, till I take a smoke, while I'm waiting for a B- boy to fill to me!"

So they worked, alternately, till late in the evening; neither party would be the first to stop, though many of them were sorely tired, to which it was probably owing that I succeeded in persuading them to stop at last, and to give three cheers for B- and Twhich they did heartily; and striking up each their own tune, they marched off in the best of humour.

The work went on prosperously for some time. But at last, when the mole projecting from the mainland and that from the island approached each other, the current became so strong, that it not only carried away all the material as fast as we threw it in, but it cut the channel in the middle deeper every tide. I began to fear my engineer was right, after all. However, something must be done; and after due consideration I told my men, There's but one way to do it: the tides are at the lowest now, and to-morrow's tide must come over the bank of sand there; we must close the opening between the two mounds in one tide."

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They looked doubtful, but said if I led them they would do all that men could do. We mustered all the hands we could. Horses, and carts too, came and drew stones along the sand below, and work they did like madmen.

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