He'd make verses in Gaelic quite aisy most plazing to READ;
And he knew how to plaze the fair maids with his soothering SPEECH.
He could clear out a fair at his aise with his ash clehalPEEN;
But ochone he's now laid in his grave in the churchyard of Keel.
CHAPTER V.
THE DEVIL AND HIS 'TERRITORY.'
Bad as the devil is he has done us some service in Ireland by providing us with a fund of anecdotes and sayings full of drollery and fun. This is all against his own interests; for I remember reading in the works of some good old saint—I think it is St. Liguori—that the devil is always hovering near us watching his opportunity, and that one of the best means of scaring him off is a good honest hearty laugh.
Those who wish to avoid uttering the plain straight name 'devil' often call him 'the Old Boy,' or 'Old Nick.'