But if they lack
Both O and Mac,
No Irishmen are they.”
The truth of this well-known distich may now be questioned, though it was correct a few centuries since.
It is but natural to suppose that a conquered people should look upon themselves as inferior to their conquerors; and this rage for adopting English surnames which prevails at present, is, in the opinion of the writer, a clear proof of the prevalence of this feeling, that the Irish consider themselves inferior to the English. Spenser, while he advises that the Irish be compelled to reject their O’s and Macs, and to adopt English surnames, dissuades his own countrymen from adopting Irish ones, as some of them had done, in the following words, which the writer, being as Irish as Spenser was English, now adopts as his own:—“Is it possible that any should so farre growe out of frame, that they should in so short space, quite forget their countrey and their own names! that is a most dangerous lethargie, much worse than that of Messala Corvinus, who being a most learned man, thorough sickness forgat his own name.”—State of Ireland, Dub. ed. p. 107.
And again:—
“Could they ever conceive any such dislike of their own natural countreys as that they would be ashamed of their name, and byte at the dugge from which they sucked life?”—Ibid, p. 108.
THE ICHNEUMON.
Of this animal many very absurd stories have been told, amongst which not the least ridiculous is, that it watches its opportunity when the huge crocodile of the Nile slumbers upon the river bank, and, artfully inducing the monster to yawn by tickling his nostril with its tail, rushes fearlessly and with wondrous agility between the terrible jaws and their formidable rows of teeth, and, forcing its daring way down its throat, retains possession of its strange citadel until it has destroyed its unwieldy victim, when it gnaws its way out, and leaves the carcase to wither in the sun. Other travellers have pretended to contradict the above story, but their mode of doing so involves a piece of absurdity no less glaring than the equally unfounded legend they assume to themselves the merit of correcting; for by their account the Ichneumon does not enter the throat of the crocodile with a hostile intent at all, neither does it use its tail to cause that creature to open its jaws, for of that is there no need, seeing that the crocodile opens them of his own will, and likewise with pleasure allows the Ichneumon to enter for the purpose of clearing his throat of swarms of tormenting insects which lodge therein, and by their stinging produce intolerable pain. I can however assure my readers that this subject has been, since the above conflicting statements reached us, effectually cleared up; and you may confidently rely upon it that the Ichneumon no more enters the crocodile’s mouth whether as a friend or as an enemy, whether to destroy him or destroy his tormentors the flies, than that he attacks him while awake.
The Ichneumon is shaped somewhat like a ferret, but is rather more slender in its form, and its head is likewise longer and narrower; it is also an animal of far greater activity and lightness of movement, being able to clear at one spring a distance of a couple of yards. It is further a most expert climber, and it will be a very high wall indeed that will confine it within an enclosure. The colour of the Ichneumon is a brownish grey, or a light brown barred with white; the animal indeed appears speckled with a dirty white, but it is so only in appearance, the fact being, that each several hair has brown and white rings upon it. Upon the back, sides, and tail, these rings are small, and the hair longer than upon the head and extremities of its limbs; hence these latter parts appear of a darker hue. The hair upon the feet is very short and thin, and they are nearly as naked as those of the common rat. The tail of the Ichneumon is very long, usually one-sixth longer than its body, and upon its extremity is a tuft of very long black hair. The hair of this creature is drier, thicker, and weaker, than in any other member of the same genus.