by whom the Israelites were persecuted; and if any documents shall be discovered among the Egyptian records now extant, which will enable us to settle the chronology of this dynasty throughout, we shall, no doubt, be enabled to determine the names and titles of these Pharaohs, as well as to assign the true date of the Exodus. At present, however, there is an insuperable difficulty. The 18th dynasty lasted 393 years, as Josephus repeatedly asserts: yet the sum of the king's reign, as given by him, is only 333. Now the deficiency seems to be at that very time at which the Exodus occurred. The series of kings as given by Eusebius and Africanus agrees with that given by Josephus pretty well, as far as respects the first 196 years of the dynasty, and the last 91: the discrepancies, at least, are capable of being accounted for; but as respects the intermediate space, which should be 106 years, the order of the sovereigns and the length of their reigns is irreconcileably different in all the three authors. Josephus makes the sum ouly 46, Africanus 62, and Eusebius 90. It is not improbable that the Pharaoh who was drowned was omitted in the Egyptian records, from which this catalogue was extracted, and that the reigns of his predecessors have been shortened, while the total sum was allowed to remain. On this point, however, we may reasonably hope, that we shall obtain further information. In the mean time, we may be satisfied with knowing, that as far as the Egyptian chronology is laid down with accuracy, it fully confirms the Scriptures to the most minute point.

I had intended to have added some farther remarks, but fear I have already exceeded the limits that you will be willing to allow

me.

E. H.

LIST OF WELLS AND OTHER PLACES OF SUPERSTITIOUS PILGRIMAGE. &c. IN CONNAUGHT.

UNION OF WESTPORT.

AUGHAGOWER-Adjoining the chapel, which is situated in a romantic valley, is a well, round which the devotees perform their accustomed rites, and repeat their lip-service. Within the enclosure of the chapel-yard are several spots walled off for the more convenient performance of stations-Three or four large trees grow in the chapel-yard, one of which in particular is held in great veneration, as it is reported to be coeval with St. Patrick.

According to the tradition of the people of this neighbourhood, an old road, six feet wide, formerly existed in a right line from this well to Croagh-Patrick, a distance of five miles, which was, on one occasion, so thronged with pilgrims, that St. Patrick, when going to say Mass on the mountain, and finding that he had left his Missal behind him at Aughagower, made it known to the person next him, by whom the circumstance was made known to those in the

rear.

The fact was thus rapidly communicated from pilgrim to

pilgrim, till the mishap was re-echoed to the well. The book thus sought was found, and transmitted safely from one to another till it reached, and was finally deposited, in an incredibly short space of time, in the hands of the owner. About thirty years ago no pilgrim was thought to have performed his pilgrimage aright to any neighbouring station, until he had visited this place, and gone through the appointed devotions. It has happily fallen into less repute of late; but the Parish Priest, anxious for the increase of income, which the resourse to it brought, has denounced Balla, and recommended that his parishioners should confine themselves to the performances at Aughagower.

GLOSH-An ancient well, which has been deprived of its sanctity within the last five years, owing to some supposed profanation; but they who trade in souls, have found no difficulty in replacing the mart, and all the imagined virtues of Glosh have been transferred to

KILLGEEVER-Whither the pilgrims now resort―lacerate their knees, and repeat the due number of Paters, Aves, and creeds, as at the former.

OUGHAWAL-In the well at this station are a number of holy trout-blessed angels as they are called-who are fed, and daily attended on by a blind man--a candidate, no doubt, for the honors of canonization. He is so familiar with these consecrated fishes, that they all flock to his hand, when immersed in the water; and he draws them forth, on all necessary occasions, to bless the eyes of the credulous worshippers, by whom they are supplied with bread and worms, with a minute inspection of their sacred fins. It is profane for any hand but his to touch them.* A similar exhibition I have witnessed on the opposite side of the road to Lord Riverston's house, (King James's Peer) in the County of Galway. A devotee in his Lordship's service, has taken great pains in forming walks through an angle of copse-wood, in the midst of which is a limpid well, fed by a chrystal stream. In this well he carefully preserves the holy fish, one of which, named after the apostle of Ireland, was held in particular reverence. The stations of the cross are erected at due distances, for the convenience of pilgrims; and each is marked out by a wooden cross, bearing on the transverse beam, its own proper inscription. These fish are the legiti mate representatives of Dagon, the Fish-god, and the attending hermits of his priests, or Hiecrophants.

CROAGH PATRICK-Or the Reek, has been already well described.

WESTPORT CHAPEL-Is surrounded by paintings of the Virgin,

Without an ocular view of these angelic fish the design of the pilgrimage is frustrated-The performance of this station is only to be considered as meritorious when a glimpse is had of these finny wonders. This secures their being fed. The pilgrims go round the well on their bare knees three times, repeating at the beginning and end, seven Paters, seven Aves, and a creed.

Peter, &c. at each of which the votary is instructed to kneel, and repeat his supplications to those pseudo-mediators. They may be daily seen performing these rounds.

BALLINTUBBER-ABBEY-(De fonte S. Patricii, founded by Cathal. O'Connor, de pugno rubro, 1216,) is a place of great resort; a part of it is still used as a chapel-over an arch in one part of the wall are the representations of four cherubs, in rude alto relievo, and round the altar seven of the twelve apostles, the rest of which were destroyed by the soldiers of an English militia regiment. I conjecture them to be mere monumental effigies, to which the deluded people bow down and worship. I understand not the gross distinction of Dulia and Latria; and of this I am persuaded, that these blinded boors are incapable of comprehending it. Well may a designing priesthood obliterate the second commandment from the Decalogue, for the weighty reason assigned by Shakspeare for the similar obliteration of the eighth-its condemnation of their practice. That great poet, who was so well acquainted with human nature, has ascribed the following sentiments to some base character:

Lucio.-Thou concludest like the sanctimonious hypocrite, that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table.

2d. Gent.-Thou shalt not steal?

Lucio.-Ay, that be razed.

1st. Gent.- Why it was a commandment to command the Captain and all the rest from their functions; they put forth to steal; there's not a soldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well, that prays for peace."-Measure for Measure.

But to return to Ballintubber-In the burying ground adjoining is a remarkable ash tree, concerning which the peasantry record. and believe the following legend-According to their tradition, it grows over the grave of John Mullowny, formerly a priest, otherwise Sheana Saggart, whose soul is not supposed to rest in peace, but to be thus tortured beneath this lusus naturæ. Having been employed by one of the Bingham family to discover concealed priests and popish school-masters, he at length came to the end of his ignominious course, and was interred close to this ash tree, which, becoming suddenly endued with a rational abhorrence of so sacrilegious a wretch, shot down its leading branch into his detested carcase, pierced through his very entrails, and there keeps him in hold unto the day of judgment a lasting monument of the wrath of God against all opposers of the true and infallible church. Who can doubt that Popery is the only genuine form of Christianity, and that Protestantism is the basest of all heresies, while this miraculous ash tree, continues to tell its tale of horror to all Ireland? If the country were not so destitute of wood, this delusion must have yielded to a practical acquaintance with the monstrosities to which the ash tree, in its vagaries, is so often subject.

Some of the people repeat the following epitaph on this Mullowny.

Here lies John,
Who still went on,

Polling Priests and Friars;

A greater knave

Ne'er filled a grave,

The veriest of liars.

His work in life

Was breeding strife,

Our CLARGY to undo;

But all is well,

He's now in hell,

And they their work pursue.

He always used

To plague the old

I mean the rap Mullowney;

But God forbid,

That he should quit

Hell's flames and scorching fire;

But still remain

In constant pain,

And that's the Priest's desire.

How great must be the ignorance of Christian principle, and how great the deflection from Christian practise, when sentiments such as these are countenanced, and utterance given to such execrable and appalling maledictions! What can we discover in these doggrels, of that love for erring souls, that zeal for the divine glory, and that compassion for the lost, which pervades the religion of the Sinner's Friend?

PARISH OF BALLIOVEY-UNION OF BALLYHANE.

ST. KILLEEN'S WELL, at the base of the Partree mountains, owes its origin, not to any ancient worthy of the olden time immortalized in the annals of canonization; nor is his saintship to be confounded with St. Kilian, the German Missionary of the 7th century; nor with the Abbot of Birr of the same name, and who flourished about the same period-No; his history is not to be sought in the annals of a remote antiquity, for the record of his exploits may be found in the well-authenticated memorials of the Wexford Rebellion. Having distinguished himself on that occasion, in the unsuccessful struggles of his country, for the re-establishment of the ancient religion and the extirpation of heresy, he found it necessary, for the preservation of his valuable life, to fly for shelter to this remote and retired spot. The room in which he lived is still habitable, and shown to pilgrims. Here he became noted for his austerities, and was constantly observed standing beneath the foliage of a beautiful ash tree, whose height is not above five feet, but whose spreading branches cover a square of about thirty perches. It is the belief of the people, that the branches of this famed tree can never be diminished by human hands. From its root gushes forth a limpid spring, which by his constant labour he formed into a graceful well, to thegreat joy, and for the spiritual and temporal benefit,of the inhabitants. He surrounded it in the course of two years with a wall and two serpentine walks; one, of greater circumference, intended for the

performance of suitable penances by notorious profligates, and the other, including a less area, for honest characters, who only commit venial offences. He was rising rapidly into wealth from the offerings of pilgrims, when he was again called from this scene of his unobtrusive piety, to take his share in the emancipation of his country, on the invasion of the French. From this enterprise he was not permitted to return, nor has he been since heard of. It is to be presumed that one so holy could not have fallen before the British bayonet; and it only remains for us to conjecture that, like Elijah, he was translated to heaven in a chariot of fire. The penances are still performed here by a people ready to follow his rebellious, as well as his austere, course; and so great is the veneration in which he is held, and so great the resort to this place of pilgrimage, that a large heap of pebbles, drawn from the shore of Lough Mask, attests the devotion and number of his votaries, one pebble having been thrown there by each, in attestation of their having performed the appointed rounds. There are at least three cart loads of these pebbles heaped thus together.

BALLYHANE.-There is a well here of great virtue. It is resorted to by the votaries in fulfilment of vows for the recovery of relatives from sickness or danger. A leachd, or monument, surmounted by a cross is contiguous to it; and both men and women dressed very objectionably, run round this monument and well for about fifteen minutes, when they throw themselves on an adjoining bank, and resign themselves to the service of God? Rather of the goddess Venus and her licentious rites. Hindooism in Ireland is not more pure or decorous than it is in Hindostan. The modifications of demon worship may vary, but the results are the same, from the grove of Daphne to the well of Ballyhane. The use of this well is supposed to render women prolific.

UNION OF CASTLEBAR.

BALLIU This well, dedicated to St. Catherine, is in an old burial-ground, about a mile from the Turlough road, and possesses great expiatory repute. It is resorted to on the demise of the head of any family by his next representative, who, for three successive Sundays, performs penance here, the efficacy of which is such, as to diminish his pains in purgatory. On the interference of the P. P. with the Saint of this well, and by his special permission, the surviving friend of any departed transgressor against Mother Church, who has neglected any visit of obligation to Croagh Patrick, or any other place of penance, may here perform vicariously for him the allotted task, and thus exempt him from the purgatorian sufferings to which he has been doomed for so heinous an omission.

PATRICK'S WELL, adjoining the round tower of Turlough, is walled in and covered with large stones. There is a small entrance by which one person can enter at a time, and wash away all those stains of sin which Sacred Scripture had taught us, poor Protestants, could only be cleansed in that fountain which Jehovah himself has opened upon Calvary, for sin and for uncleanness. This well is chiefly resorted to in fine summer weather, by the youth of both