⸺ ⸺ _discedat ab aris, Cui tulit hesterna gaudiis nocte Venus._ L. 2. Eleg. 1.
⸺ _From the Altars let him keep, That in his Lady’s Arms last Night did sleep._
By this Question in the last Chapter of _Proverbs_, as I take it, _Who can find a virtuous Woman?_ One would be apt to surmise that _Solomon_ had travell’d into this Country; and to see the People eat Clover Grass, a Man might swear ’em all a-kin to grazing _Nebuchadnezzar_. The Genius of the _Irish_ is not a-whit admirable, for one Age here grows not wiser than another, like other Nations; which gives great Suspicion of a _Metempsischosis_, or _Pythagoras_’s Transmigration of the Soul to be true: Seeing, by the Conversation I had among the Bogtrotters, that the younger Folks only inherit the small Sense of their Progenitors; whose profound Knowledge was heretofore so great, as to tye Ploughs to their Horses Tails. Their Bogs are many, whence they have all their Fuel, for they burn nothing but Turf; Spiders are very plentiful, but not venomous; and the common Texture spun out of their Intrails, makes a Sort of Hangings, which the _Irish_ for Cheapness prefer much before good Tapestry. In some Parts they make their Bread with the Bark of Holly, from which tearing off the green Superfluities, they work it up round like a Football, and bake it in the Embers. Their Butter being mixt with Salt and Garlick, and put into the Skin which follows the Calf from the Cow, they bury in a Turf-Pit for 8 or 9 Months together, which does not only make it of a strong Taste, but likewise dies it with all the Colours in the Rainbow: And Briskins, or the Roots of wild Tansie, they love as well. Tho’ the Streets in every Town are very dirty, yet their Scavengers Carts are no bigger than Wheelbarrows; and the Use of Clogs or Pattins is an Abomination with most Women. The most epidemical Distemper among Strangers is the bloody Flux; for which, Eggs fry’d in Brandy is a good _Catholicon_. Few or no Patients happen among the lying-in Women; for (like the _Hebrews_, as their pious Midwives pretended) they are brought to Bed without any Help; wash and do all without Nurses; and in less than half a Week do not only go abroad, but also give Earnest for being with Child again. Their newborn Infants are as hardy, and will endure Cold as well as any _Laplander_; or the strongest Bear subject to the Czar of _Muscovy_. The _Irish_ Soil mimicks Nature like the vivifying Mud of _Nile_; for I have seen the Hairs which fall from Horses Tails into Puddles of Water on the Road, transubstantiated (if I may be so bold as to use that Word, without any Offence to his Unholiness the Pope) into Worms; wherefore it is no Wonder that Priests, by the Art of _Legerdemain_, can convert good Bread and Wine into real Flesh and Blood.