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CURRAN. 303 genealogy and family history, and they recount all the exploits, the virtues, and even the very dresses, conversa- tions, and endearing manners of the deceased. To those who understand these funereal songs, for they are chaunted in Irish, the scene is deeply affecting, and even with those who do not, the piercing tone of grief excites the deepest sympathy, and the whole assemblage are bathed in tears: great numbers of candles are lighted in the room, and every thing wears the aspect of melancholy. But, to relieve the mourners from the woe-fraught scene, an adja- cent room is appropriated to purposes directly opposite, as if to banish the woe excited in the first. Here there appears a display of different ages, characters, and passions, all the young and the old; the serious and the comical; the grave and the gay of the lower classes assemble. No where does the real genius and humour of the people so strongly appear, tragedy, comedy, broad farce, pantomime, match-making, love-making, speech-making, song-making and story-telling, and all that is comical in the genuine Irish character, develop themselves with the most fantasti- cal freedom in the rustic melo-drame; the contrasted scenes succeed each other as quick as thought; there is a melan- choly in their mirth, and a mirth in their melancholy, like that which pervades their national music, and the opposite passions alternately prevail, like light and shade playing upon the surface of a sullen stream. The people come many miles to one of those serio-comic assemblies; refresh- ments of cakes, whiskey, and ale are distributed between the acts to the visitants, who sit up all night; but the grand feast is reserved to precede the funereal obsequies. A whole hecatomb of geese, turkies, fowls, and lambs are sacrificed some days before for the occasion, and the friends, acquaintances, and neighbours of the deceased are regaled with an abundant cold collation, and plenty of ale, spirits, and wine: while the company of the lower order assemble in the exterior barn or court-yard, and are feasted with baskets of cakes and tubs of ale. When the funeral sets out for the place of interment, the road for miles is covered