hting and hunting
as the only occupations worthy of a free-born man, now peacefully
illuminated manuscripts or wrought at useful handicrafts. Yet still in
secret they dreaded and tried to appease the wrath of the Dagda,
Brigit of the Holy Fire, AEngus the Ever-Young, and the awful Washers
of the Ford, the Choosers of the Slain; and to this dread was now
joined the new fear of the cruel demons who obeyed Satan, the Prince
of Evil.

The Young Countess

At this time there dwelt in Ireland the Countess Cathleen, young,
good, and beautiful. Her eyes were as deep, as changeful, and as pure
as the ocean that washed Erin's shores; her yellow hair, braided in
two long tresses, was as bright as the golden circlet on her brow or
the yellow corn in her garners; and her step was as light and proud
and free as that of the deer in her wide domains. She lived in a
stately castle in the midst of great forests, with the cottages of her
tribesmen around her gates, and day by day and year by year she
watched the changing glories of the mighty woods, as the seasons
brought new beauties, till her soul was as lovely as the green woods
and purple hills around. The Countess Cathleen loved the dim,
mysterious forest, she loved the tales of the ancient gods, and of

"Old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago;"

_Wordsworth._

but more than all she loved her clansmen and vassals: she prayed for
them at all the holy hours, and taught and tended them with loving
care, so that in no place in Ireland could be found a happier tribe
than that which obeyed her gentle rule.

Dearth and Famine

One year there fell upon Ireland, erewhile so happy, a great
desolation--"For Scripture saith, an ending to all good things must
be"[15]--and the happiness of the Countess Cathleen's tribe came to an
end in this wise: A terrible famine fell on the land; the seed-corn
rotted in the ground, for rain and never-lifting mists filled the
heavy air and lay on the sodden earth; then when spring came barren
fields lay brown where the shooting corn should be; the cattle died in
the stall or fell from weakness at the plough, and the sheep died of
hunger in the fold; as the year passed through summer towards autumn
the berries failed in the sun-parched woods, and the withered leaves,
fallen long before the time, lay rotting on the dank earth; the timid
wild things of the forest, hares, rabbits, squirrels, died in their
holes or fell easy vict