'  Bedad,  it  is  not,  little  girl,'  I  answered  in
Gaelic,  'it  is  lonely  I  am.'

'Here  is  my  little  sister,  stranger,  who
will  give  you  her  arm.'

And  so  it  went  on.  Quiet  as  these  women
are  on  ordinary  occasions,  when  two  or  three
of  them  are  gathered  together  in  their
holiday  petticoats  and  shawls,  they  are  as
-^wild  and  capricious  as  the  women  who  live
in  towns.
About  seven  o'clock  I  got  back  to
Kilronan,  and  beat  up  my  crew  from  the
public-houses  near  the  bay.  With  their
usual  carelessness  they  had  not  seen  to  the
leak  in  the  curagh,  nor  to  an  oar  that  v/as

65  E


THE  ARAN  ISLANDS

losing  the  brace  that  holds  it  to  the  toll-pin,
and  we  moved  off  across  the  sound  at  an
absurd  pace  with  a  deepening  pool  at  our  feet.
A  superb  evening  light  was  lying  over  the
island,  which  made  me  rejoice  at  our  delay.
Looking  back  there  was  a  golden  haze  behind
the  sharp  edges  of  the  rock,  and  a  long  wake
from  the  sun,  which  was  making  jewels  of
the  bubbling  left  by  the  oars.
The  men  had  had  their  share  of  porter
and  were  unusually  voluble,  pointing  out
things  to  me  that  I  had  already  seen,  and
stopping  now  and  then  to  make  me  notice
the  oily  smell  of  mackerel  that  was  rising
from  the  waves.
They  told  me  that  an  evicting  party  is
coming  to  the  island  to-morrow  morning,
and  gave  me  a  long  account  of  what  they
make  and  spend  in  the  year,  and  of  their
trouble  with  the  rent.
