in the way of tradition, which, I
hoped, might prove amusing at least; but disappointment met me on every
hand. The old woman could not even detail distinctly how the Dona had
come into her possession: it was brought into her family, she said, by a
priest. The country people had imagined wonders relative to the contents
of the box. The chief treasure it was supposed to contain was a lock of
the Virgin Mary's hair!!!

""After much inquiry, I received the following vague detail from a
person in this country; and let me remark, by the by, that though the
possession of the Dona was matter of boast to the Maguires, yet I could
not gain the slightest information respecting it from even the most
intelligent of the name. But now for the detail:--

""Donagh O'Hanlon, an inhabitant of the upper part of this country
(Fermanagh), went, about 600 years ago (longer than which time, in the
opinion of a celebrated antiquary, the kind of engraving on it could
not have been made), on a pious pilgrimage to Rome. His Holiness of the
Vatican, whose name has escaped the recollection of the person who gave
this information, as a reward for this supererogatory journey, presented
him with the Dona. As soon as Donagh returned, the Dona was placed in
the monastery of Aughadurcher (now Aughalurcher). But at the time, when
Cromwell was in this country, the monastery was destroyed, and this
_Ark_ of the _Covenant_ hid by some of the faithful at a small lake,
named Lough Eye, between Lisbellaw and Tempo. It was removed thence
when peace was restored, and again placed in some one of the neighboring
chapels, when, as before in Aughalurcher, the oaths were administered
with all the superstition that a depraved imagination could, invent, as
"that their thighs might rot off," "that they might go mad," etc., etc.

""When Kings James and William made their appearance, it was again
concealed in Largy, an old Castle at Sir H. Brooke's deer-park. Father
Antony Maguire, a priest of the Roman Church, dug it up from under the
stairs in this old castle, after the battle of the Boyne, deposited it
in a chapel, and it was used as before.

""After Father Antony's death it fell into the possession of his niece,
who took it over to the neighborhood of Florence-court. But the Maguires
were not satisfied that a thing so sacred should depart from the family,
and at their request it was brought back."

"For the confirmation of the former part of this account, the info