ate
illustration of the above passage. "I have a little book
that contains a prophecy of the milk-white hind an' the
bloody panther, an' a foreboding of the slaughter there's to
be in the Valley of the Black Pig, as foretould by Beal
Derg, or the prophet wid the red mouth, who never was known
to speak but when he prophesied, or to prophesy but when he
spoke."

"The Lord bless an' keep us!--an' why was he called the Man
with the Red Mouth, Barney?"

"I'll tell you that: first, bekase he always prophesied
about the slaughter an' fightin' that was to take place in
the time to come; an', secondly, bekase, while he spoke, the
red blood always trickled out of his mouth, as a proof that
what he foretould was true."

"Glory be to God! but that's wondherful all out. Well,
we'll!"

"Ay, an' Beal Deig, or the Red Mouth, is still livin'."

"Livin! why, is he a man of our own time?"

"Our own time! The Lord help you! It's more than a thousand
years since he made the prophecy. The case you see is this:
he an' the ten thousand witnesses are lyin' in an enchanted
sleep in one of the Montherlony mountains."

"An' how is that known, Barney?"

"It's known, Every night at a certain hour one of the
witnesses--an' they're all sogers, by the way--must come out
to look for the sign that's to come."

"An' what is that, Barney?"

"It's the fiery cross; an' when he sees one on aich of the
four mountains of the north, he's to know that the same
sign's abroad in all the other parts of the kingdom. Beal
Derg an' his men are then to waken up, an' by their aid the
Valley of the Black Pig is to be set free forever."

"An' what is the Black Pig, Barney?"

"The Prospitarian church, that stretches from Enniskillen to
Darry, an' back again from Darry to Enniskillen."

"Well, well, Barney, but prophecy is a strange thing, to be
sure! Only think of men livin' a thousand years!"

"Every night one of Beal Derg's men must go to the mouth of
the cave, which opens of itself, an' then look out for the
sign that's expected. He walks up to the top of the
mountain, an' turns to the four corners of the heavens, to
thry if he can see it; an' when he finds that he cannot, he
goes back to Beal Derg. who, afther the other touches him,