in waste, he bade us farewell and went and listed for
a sodger. But if matters were bad enough before he went away, they
became much worse after; for now when the unfortunates came to the door
for alms, instead of letting them stand in pace till they were tired, and
took themselves off, I would mock them and point at them, and twit them
with their sores and other misfortunes, and not unfrequently I would
fling scalding water over them, which would send them howling and honing
away, till at last there was not an unfortunate but feared to come within
a mile of my door. Moreover I began to misconduct myself at chapel, more
especially at the Aifrionn or Mass, for no sooner was the bell rung, and
the holy corpus raised, than I would shout and hoorah, and go tumbling
and toppling along the floor before the holy body, as I just now tumbled
along the road before you, so that the people were scandalized, and would
take me by the shoulders and turn me out of doors, and began to talk of
ducking me in the bog. The priest of the parish, however, took my part,
saying that I ought not to be persecuted, for that I was not accountable
for what I did, being a possessed person, and under the influence of
divils. 'These, however,' said he, 'I'll soon cast out from her, and
then the woman will be a holy cratur, much better than she ever was
before.' A very learned man was Father Hogan, especially in casting out
divils, and a portly, good-looking man too, only he had a large rubicon
nose, which people said he got by making over free with the cratur in
sacret. I had often looked at the nose, when the divil was upon me, and
felt an inclination to seize hold of it, just to see how it felt. Well,
he had me to his house several times, and there he put holy cloths upon
me, and tied holy images to me, and read to me out of holy books, and
sprinkled holy water over me, and put questions to me, and at last was so
plased with the answers I gave him, that he prached a sermon about me in
the chapel, in which he said that he had cast six of my divils out of me,
and should cast out the seventh, which was the last, by the next Sabbath,
and then should present me to the folks in the chapel as pure a vessel as
the blessed Mary herself--and that I was destined to accomplish great
things, and to be a mighty instrument in the hands of the Holy Church,
for that he intended to write a book about me, describing the miracle he
had performed in casting the seve