le additions to the picture; and his hat--But stop,--let me
not presume;--his hat it would be a vain attempt to describe. There
are two things not to be described, which, to know what they are, you
must see.

These two things are Taglioni's dancing and an Irish fiddler's hat.
The one is a wonder in action;--the other, an enigma in form.

Houligan's fiddle was as great a curiosity as himself, and, like its
master, somewhat the worse for wear. It had been broken some score of
times, and yet, by dint of glue, was continued in what an antiquary
would call "a fine state of preservation;" that is to say, there was
rather more of glue than wood in the article. The stringing of the
instrument was as great a piece of patchwork as itself, and exhibited
great ingenuity on the part of its owner. Many was the knot above the
finger-board and below the bridge; that is, when the fiddle was in the
best order; for in case of fractures on the field of action, that is to
say, at wake, patron, or fair, where the fiddler, unlike the girl he
was playing for, had not two strings to his bow; in such case, I say,
the old string should be knotted, wherever it might require to be, and
I have heard it insinuated that the music was not a bit the worse of
it. Indeed, the only economy that poor Houligan ever practised was in
the strings of his fiddle, and those were an admirable exemplification
of the proverb of "making both ends meet." Houligan's waistcoat, too,
was a curiosity, or rather, a cabinet of curiosities; for he
appropriated its pockets to various purposes;--snuff, resin, tobacco, a
clasp-knife with half a blade, a piece of flint, a doodeen,[4] and some
bits of twine and ends of fiddle-strings were all huddled together
promiscuously. Houligan himself called his waistcoat Noah's ark; for,
as he said himself, there was a little of everything in it, barring[5]
money, and that would never stay in his company. His fiddle, partly
enfolded in a scanty bit of old baize, was tucked under his left arm,
and his right was employed in helping him to hobble along by means of a
black-thorn stick, when he was overtaken by the three travellers
already named, and saluted by all, with the addition of a query, as to
where he was going.

"An' where would I be goin' but to the berrin'?" said Houligan.

"Throth it's the same answer I expected," said Lanigan. "It would be
nothing at all without you."

"I've played at many a weddin'," said Hooligan, "