"He had swallowed up a very wicked man"

"He had swallowed up a very wicked man"

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

Knox asks questions about the monster, which appears to devour sinners but largely emerges just above the water

James Spencer Knox, 1789-1862

Pastoral Annals. By an Irish Clergyman [i.e. James S. Knox], p. 391

R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, London

1840

Digitised by Google, sponsored by Princeton Library

Public domain

Monograph

English

Travelogue

DD_0280

54.608669,-7.877939

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

"I asked, how long it was, since the [lake] monster had last paid a visit to our upper world. About seventy years, was the reply; that is, that it had shewn its back frequently after the present fashion, but had not raised itself entirely out of the water since that period. To my next question, of what the monster had done on the occasion referred to, they said, after some hesitation, that he had swallowed up a very wicked man who had returned a blow, to a priest in the chapel, and late in the evening had gone alone in a boat upon the lake. I asked had the boat been found? 'Yes, to be sure it was,' rejoined both voices together; 'does your Reverence think the beast, or whatever it is,' (for they seemed frightened at having named the 'great unknown' so familiarly, and by the way not once turn their eyes in the direction where it lay.) 'Yes, to be sure, Sir; does your Reverence think it would bear spite against a boat of wood, when it had the man to punish?'"

Monograph