“Do they bann (banne = the Scotch ‘ban’) much in the country you come from?” inquired he, as we jumped over the dark peat-hags, planting our feet on the white stones, which afforded a precarious help through them.
“I fear some of them do.”
“But I’ve not heard you curse.”
“No; I don’t think it right.”
“Where does the Pope (Pave) live?”
“At Rome.”
“They call it the great —— of Babylon, don’t they? Is Babylon far from Rome?”
“It does not exist now. It was destroyed for the wickedness of its inhabitants, and according to the prophecy it has become something like this spot here, a possession for the cormorant and the bittern, and pools of water.”
“Ah! I had forgotten about that; I know the New Testament very well, but not the Old.”