s,"
and God help St. Patrick if he lay upon them: they are sharp stones
placed circularly in the earth, with the spike ends of them up, one
circle within another; and the manner in which the pilgrim gets as far
as the innermost, resembles precisely that in which school-boys enter
the "Walls of Troy" upon their slates. I moved away from these upon
the sharp stones with which the whole island is surfaced, keeping the
chapel, or "Prison," as it is called, upon my right; then turning, I
came round again with a circumbendibus, to the spot from which I
set out. During this circuit, as well as I can remember, I repeated
fifty-five paters and aves, and five creeds, or five decades; and be it
known, that the fifty prayers were offered up to the Virgin Mary, and
the odd five to God! I then commenced getting round the eternal beds,
during which I repeated, I think, fifteen paters and aves more; and as
the bods decreased in circumference, the prayers decreased in length,
until a short circuit and three paters and aves finished the last and
innermost of these blessed couches. I really forgot how many times each
day the prison and these beds are to be surrounded, and how many hundred
prayers are to be repeated during the circuit, though each circuit is in
fact making the grand tour of the island; but I never shall forget that
I was the best part of a July day at it, when the soles of my feet were
flayed, and the stones hot enough to broil a beefsteak! When the first
day's station was over, it is necessary to say that a little rest would
have been agreeable? But no, this would not suit the policy of the
place; here it may be truly said that there is no rest for the wicked.
The only luxury allowed me was the privilege of feasting upon one of my
cakes (having not tasted food that blessed day until then); upon one of
my cakes, I say, and a copious supply of the water of the lake, which,
to render the repast more agreeable, was made lukewarm! This was to keep
my spirits up after the delicate day's labor I had gone through, and to
cheer me against the pleasant prospect of a hard night's praying without
sleep, which lay in the back ground! But when I saw everyone at this
refreshing meal with a good, thick, substantial bannock, and then looked
at the immateriality of my own, I could not help reverting to the woman
who made them for me, with a degree of vivacity not altogether in unison
with the charity of a Christian. The knavish creature defr