several Irish cabins covered with
thatch, and another for shriving or confession; and there are: separate
places assigned for those who come from the four provinces of Ireland.

"In all, the pilgrims remain on the island nine days; they eat but once
in the twenty-four hours, of oatmeal and water. They have liberty to
refresh themselves with the water of the lake, which, as Roth says, 'is
of such virtue, that though thou shouldst fill thyself with it, yet
will it not offend; but is as if it flowed from some mineral.'

"The pilgrims at night lodge or lie on straw, without pillow or pallet,
rolling themselves in their mantles, and wrapping their heads in their
breeches; only on some one of the eight nights they must lie on one of
the saints' beds, whichever they like."

* * * * *

I was, at the time of performing this station, in the middle of
my nineteenth year--of quick perception--warm imagination--a mind
peculiarly romantic--a morbid turn for devotion, and a candidate for the
priesthood, having been made slightly acquainted with Latin, and more
slightly still with Greek.

At this period, however, all my faculties merged like friendly streams
into the large current of my devotion. Of religion I was completely
ignorant, although I had sustained a very conspicuous part in the
devotions of the family, and signalized myself frequently; by taking
the lead in a rosary. I had often out-prayed and out-fasted an old
circulating pilgrim, who occasionally visited our family; a feat on
which few would have ventured; and I even arrived to such a pitch of
perfection at praying, that with the assistance of young and powerful
lungs, I was fully able to distance him at any English prayer in which
we joined. But in Latin, I must allow, that owing to my imperfect
knowledge of its pronunciation, and to some twitches of conscience I
felt on adventuring to imitate, him by overleaping this impediment, he
was able to throw me back a considerable distance in his turn; so that
when we both started for a _De Profundis_, I was always sure to come
in second. Owing to all this I was considered a young man of promise,
being, moreover, as my master often told my father, a youth of
prodigious parts and great cuteness. Indeed, on this subject my master's
veracity could not be questioned; because when I first commenced Latin,
I was often heard repeating the prescribed tasks in my sleep. Many of
his relations had already, ev