GOD'S LEATHER FOR GOD'S WEATHER.

Mataura Ensign, 15 December 1911, Page 8

GOD'S LEATHER FOR GOD'S WEATHER.

The old form of match-making still prevails in Gal way, on the principle of the highest bidder, who is willing to give so many cows, pigs, or hens as a dowry for the prospective- bride. One marriage was delayed for six months, because the father of the bride-elect would not consent to give more than two pigs, and the parent of the bridegroom demanded three! In the end the three were given, and the marriage proved a very happy one. The peasants still wear the picturesque costume so well known in Ireland—the long blue cloak with a. hood, and 1 the red petticoat, and very gay they look on a market day, when they assemble in Galway—to which, market they will! walk many miles, as it is the greatevent of the year—often walking barefoot until they draw near the town, and then putting on their boots ,for the sake of apeparance. Even among the wealthier class of people, it is quite common to see the children running barefoot. There was one family, who were considered the rich people of their particular neighborhood, as they were the possessors of two cows and several pigs, and a donkey—and yet I never saw the children (a bright little girl with curly hair , and: a sober, sedate boy, who helped his mother with the little farm) with shoos- or stockings on. When the mother was remonstrated with for allowing the child to go so far on his bare feet to fetch the turf in wet weather, her reply was unanswerable: "Sure then there is nothing like God's leather for Cod's cwather at all, at all!" Who but an Irish woman would have such a ready answer? If one wishes to get a high opinion of human nature, and learn something of unselfishness and contentment, one could not do better than spend a month among the peasants of Galway, and learn from them the secret of true happiness, which is in implicit faith in an all-wise, over-ruling Providence. —"Peasant life in Galway," in 'The Cottager and Artisan.'