All-Hallow Eve; or, The Test of Futurity.

lity with a less Celtic, and to English tongues a more pronounceable, name than Boher-na-Milthiogue. I had at first co

ould be sorry to frighten them at the outset of this new tale; and I have therefore endeavored to lead them quietly into it. With my Irish friends no such circumlocution would have been necessary. Perhaps, if I dissever and explain the word, it may enable even my English readers in some de

d milthiogue for a "midge;" Boher-n

bt, they can at least understand what it means. It were idle, I fear to hope, that they ca

ce; but as nobody nowadays reads prefaces, the matter would have been as bad as

nd, is not without a certain degree of natural and romantic be

ve and perpendicular precipices was built by no human architect. The ponderous and scowling rocks of Slieve-dhu, the brother, are dark and indistinct; while, separ

ding to which in every respect as to size and shape are cavities precisely opposite them in the side of Slieve-dhu. The story in this case is, that although formerly the mountains were, like a loving brother and sister, clasped in each other's arms, they quarrelled one dark night (I believe about the cause of t

roportion and regularity of which might almost be a matter of surprise, looking like huge stripes down the

a glittering lake-glittering when the sun shines; dark,

tself rejoices I believe to be this; but why do I sa

re, into the sixteenth of the distance by the main road. In this instance the proverb would not be fulfilled, that "the longest way round was the shortest way home." Across one of the winter-torrent beds which runs down the mountain side, almost at the entrance of the ravine, is a r

ew. The singularity of their movements, and the peculiarity of their distribution in the air, cannot fail to attract the observation of the most careless beholder. In separate and distinct batches of some hundreds of millions each, they rise in almost solid masses until they are lost sight of, as they attain the level of the heathered brow of the mountain behind them, becoming visible again as they descend into the bright sunshine that lies upon the white rocks of Slieve-bawn. In no instance can you perceive individual or scattered midges; each bat

spot this fine summer's evening-would be a curious and proper study for an entomologist; but I have no time here to do more than describe the facts, were I even competent to enter into the inquiry. Fancy say fifty milli

and another turn rendering them almost invisible, all their movements being as if guided by a single will-we are not only lost in wonder, but we are perfectly unable to account for or comprehend it. I have often been surprised, and so, no doubt, may many of my readers have been, at the

s aside, the simple facts recorded have been the