about you, and say what is it you see that does not foretel
famine--famine--famine! Doesn't the dark wet day, an' the rain, rain,
rain, foretel it? Doesn't the rotten' crops, the unhealthy air, an' the
green damp foretel it? Doesn't the sky without a sun, the heavy clouds,
an' the angry fire of the West, foretel it? Isn't the airth a page of
prophecy, an' the sky a page of prophecy, where every man may read of
famine, pestilence, an' death? The airth is softened for the grave,
an' in the black clouds of heaven you may see the death-hearses movin'
slowly along--funeral afther funeral--funeral afther funeral--an'
nothing to folly them but lamentation an' wo, by the widow an'
orphan--the fatherless, the motherless, an' the childless--wo an'
lamentation--lamentation an' wo."

Donnel Dhu, like every prophecy man of his kind--a character in Ireland,
by the way, that has nearly, if not altogether, disappeared--was
provided with a set of prophetic declamations suited to particular
occasions and circumstances, and these he recited in a voice of high and
monotonous recitative, that caused them to fall with a very impressive
effect upon the minds and feeling of his audience. In addition to this,
the very nature of his subject rendered a figurative style and suitable
language necessary, a circumstance which, aided by a natural flow of
words, and a felicitious illustration of imagery--for which, indeed, all
prophecy-men were remarkable--had something peculiarly fascinating and
persuasive to the class of persons he was in the habit of addressing.
The gifts of these men, besides, were exercised with such singular
delight, that the constant repetition of their oracular exhibitions by
degrees created an involuntary impression on themselves, that ultimately
rose to a kind of wild and turbid enthusiasm, partaking at once of
imposture and fanaticism. Many of them were, therefore, nearly as
much the dupes of the delusions that proceeded from their own heated