"What we saw was the great serpent or fish"

"What we saw was the great serpent or fish"

Travelogues--James Spencer Knox--Lough Derg--Description

Knox describes the fear of his Irish boatmen at the appearance of a lake monster, which he sees as a rock just above the waterline

James Spencer Knox, 1789-1862

Pastoral Annals. By an Irish Clergyman [i.e. James S. Knox], pp. 389-91

R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, London

1840

Digitised by Google, sponsored by Princeton Library

Public domain

Monograph

English

Travelogue

DD_0279

54.608669,-7.877939

https://books.google.com.mm/books?id=kIIuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=lough%20derg&f=false

"The men rowed towards the shore in a straight line, leaving 'Station Island,' a few hundred yards on the left, and had gone but a short distance, when one of them drew his comrade's attention towards an object about a stone's-cast off. Both instantly let fall their oars, and throwing themselves upon their knees, began simultaneously a succession of prayings, and breast beatings, and crossings innumerable. At first I thought the whole of this strange spectacle was feigned, and truly I had reason enough to look upon acting as the 'lex loci;' but a narrower inspection of the countenances of these startled heroes, satisfied me that their consternation was unaffected. Following with my own, the direction of their eyes, I perceived what seemed to me a ridge of rock, about twenty feet in length, rising above the surface of the water, to which the slight ripple already noticed had given the appearance of motion. I had caught one of the fallen oars as it floated past the help at which I sat, and handing it to the boatman nearest, desired that he would recover the other, and row towards the rock. The first injunction was obeyed, but the second met with a positive refusal - neither of the men would consent to approach it, nor explain why. Resolved not to be foiled in an affair which these 'histrionics' had made important, I snatched back the oar I had picked up, the man offering no resistance, and commenced using it as a scull. When I found that I should be permitted to have my own way, I stopped, and inquired again of my cowardly companions the grounds of their alarm. One of them at last said, that what we saw was the great serpent or fish, which appeared every now and then, at such times as the offering of the altars had been insufficient; that is, when the priests were dissatisfied with the contributions of the people."

Monograph