and the
spring tides that would come again during the summer. I took out my
diary to tell him the times of the moon, but he would hardly listen
to me. When I stopped, he gave his ass a cut with his stick, 'Go on
now,' he said; 'I wouldn't believe those almanacs at all; they do
not tell the truth about the moon.'

The greatest event in West Kerry is the horse-fair, known as Puck
Fair, which is held in August. If one asks anyone, many miles east
or west of Killorglin, when he reaped his oats or sold his pigs or
heifers, he will tell you it was four or five weeks, or whatever it
may be, before or after Puck. On the main roads, for many days past,
I have been falling in with tramps and trick characters of all
kinds, sometimes single and sometimes in parties of four or five,
and as I am on the roads a great deal I have often met the same
persons several days in succession--one day perhaps at
Ballinskelligs, the next day at Feakle Callaigh, and the third in
the outskirts of Killorglin.

Yesterday cavalcades of every sort were passing from the west with
droves of horses, mares, jennets, foals and asses, with their owners
going after them in flat or railed carts, or riding on ponies.

The men of this house--they are going to buy a horse--went to the
fair last night, and I followed at an early hour in the morning. As
I came near Killorglin the road was much blocked by the latest
sellers pushing eagerly forward, and early purchasers who were
anxiously leading off their young horses before the roads became
dangerous from the crush of drunken drivers and riders.

Just outside the town, near the first public-house, blind beggars
were kneeling on the pathway, praying with almost Oriental
volubility for the souls of anyone who would throw them a coin.

'May the Holy Immaculate Mother of Jesus Christ,' said one of them,
'intercede for you in the hour of need. Relieve a poor blind
creature, and may Jesus Christ relieve yourselves in the hour of
death. May He have mercy, I'm saying, on your brothers and fathers
and sisters for evermore.'

Further on stalls were set out with cheap cakes and refreshments,
and one could see that many houses had been arranged to supply the
crowds who had come in. Then I came to the principal road that goes
round the fair-green, where there was a great concourse of horses,
trotting and walking and galloping; most of them were of the cheaper
class of animal, and were selling, apparently to the people'