Otway muses on the metaphor of birds

Otway muses on the metaphor of birds

Lough Derg--Station Island--Caesar Otway--Morality

"Having thus given the modern and ancient state of this purgatory, it is time to think of leaving it; and I confess I prepared to turn my back on this strong hold of superstition, without a desire ever again to visit it..."

Caesar Otway, 1780-1842

Otway, Caesar, Sketches in Ireland: Descriptive of Interesting, and Hitherto Unnoticed Districts, in the North and South, pp. 173-76

W. Curry, jun. and co.; [etc., etc.], Dublin; First published, in part, in the Christian examiner. cf. Pref. A series of letters signed "C. O.", the first four entitled "Sketches in Donegal", the last five "Sketches in the south of Ireland."

1827

Digitised by Google, sponsored by New York Public Library, archived on Hathi Trust digital library

Public domain

1 p., ℓ., iv, vi, 411 p. 19 cm.

English

Description and travel

Text

DD_0039

54.608689,-7.870387

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433066646450

"Having thus given the modern and ancient state of this purgatory, it is time to think of leaving it; and I confess I prepared to turn my back on this strong hold of superstition, without a desire ever again to visit it. I considered that I was withdrawing myself from the exhibition of a stationary satire upon human reason, where the craft of the cunning had made a successful experiment on the extreme credulity of uneducated man. A large flock of well-fledged comfortable geese, headed by a very solemn looking grey gander, were sailing under the shelter side of the island, and hove in sight just as we were about to depart. I think geese are very much belied when made the representatives of stupidity or folly; but in the common acceptation, they might be considered, in the absence of pilgrims, as fit substitutes to frequent this island. A black cormorant with outstretched neck, passed over our heads on his way to exercise his voracious propensities on some of his fishing haunts on the lake : if the Pythagorean system could be entertained in fancy for a moment, it might be imagined that in the metempsychocis, this all devouring bird represented one of the old priors of this purgatory, who had lived on human credulity, and fattened on the terrors and fears of man. As I put my foot into the boat, and pushed off from the island, I observed that the priest’s house which was contiguous to the little pier that served as a place for embarking and disembarking, had a large window that fully commanded the ferry, and from whence could be observed the whole line of march of the pilgrims, as they descended from the ridge of hills that surrounded the lake and approached the ferry; in fact, no man could draw near the ferry, or embark for the island without being accurately noticed by one stationed in this window…"

Monograph