I told them that I had often been in France, and one of the boys
began counting up the numerals in French to show what he had learnt
from their buyers. A little later, when the talk was beginning to
flag, I turned to a young man near me--the best fiddler, I was
told, on the island--and asked him to play us a dance. He made
excuses, and would not get his fiddle; but two of the girls slipped
off and brought it. The young man tuned it and offered it to me, but
I insisted that he should take it first. Then he played one or two
tunes, without tone, but with good intonation and rhythm. When it
was my turn I played a few tunes also; but the pitch was so low I
could not do what I wanted, and I had not much success with the
people, though the fiddler himself watched me with interest. 'That
is great playing,' he said, when I had finished; and I never seen
anyone the like of you for moving your hand and getting the sound
out of it with the full drag of the bow.' Then he played a polka and
four couples danced. The women, as usual, were in their naked feet,
and whenever there was a figure for women only there was a curious
hush and patter of bare feet, till the heavy pounding and shuffling
of the men's boots broke in again. The whirl of music and dancing in
this little kitchen stirred me with an extraordinary effect. The
kindliness and merrymaking of these islanders, who, one knows, are
full of riot and severity and daring, has a quality and
attractiveness that is absent altogether from the life of towns, and
makes one think of the life that is shown in the ballads of
Scotland.

After the dance the host, who had come in, sang a long English
doggerel about a poor scholar who went to Maynooth and had great
success in his studies, so that he was praised by the bishop. Then
he went home for his holiday, and a young woman who had great riches