Almost suffocated, and not surprised that it was deserted _pro tempo_, I hastened away, and was attracted towards a ruinous barn by a full chorus of female voices--where a group of young females were seated round an old hag who formed the centre of the circle; they were all busily employed at their _wheels_, which I observed went merrily round in exact time with their song, and so intently were they engaged by both, that my proximity was unperceived. At last the song ceased--the wheel stood still--and every eye was fixed on the old _primum mobile_ of the circle, who, after a short pause, began a _solo_ that gave much satisfaction to her young auditors, and taking up the strain, they again turned their wheels round in unison.--The whole was sung in Irish, and as soon as I was observed, suddenly ceased; the girls looked down and tittered--and the old woman addressed me _sans ceremonie_, and in a language I now heard for the first time.
Supposing that some one among the number must understand English, I explained with all possible politeness the cause of my intrusion on this little harmonic society. The old woman looked up in my face and shook her head; I thought contemptuously--while the young ones, stifling their smiles, exchanged looks of compassion doubtlessly at my ignorance of their language.
“So many languages a man knows,” said Charles V., “so many times is he a man,” and it is certain I never felt myself less invested with the dignity of one, than while I stood twirling my stick, and “biding the encounter of the eyes,” and smiles of these “spinners in the sun.” Here you will say was prejudice opposed to prejudice with a vengeance; but I comforted myself with the idea that the natives of Greenland, the most gross and savage of mortals, compliment a stranger by saying, “he is as well bred as a Greenlander.”
While thus situated, a sturdy looking young fellow with that figure and openness of countenance so peculiar to the young Irish peasants, and with his hose and brogues suspended from a stick over his shoulder, approached and hailed the party in Irish: the girls instantly pointed his attention towards me; he courteously accosted me in English, and having learnt the nature of my dilemma, offered to be my guide--“it will not take me above a mile out of my way, and if it did _two_, it would make no _odds_,” said he. I accepted his offer, and we proceeded together over the summit of the mountain.