THE BLARNEY STONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1731, 24 January 1885, Page 27

THE BLARNEY STONE.

Blarney is five miles from Cork, and there is the talismanic eloquence, one of tho greatest of the many humbugs in Ireland. Blarney itself is a thriving manufacturing village which producer excellent cloth, and the castle is a picturesque ruin, once tho stronghold of the Earls of Clancarty. The origin of the magic power ascribed to the^ stone is not known, but whoever kisses it acquires, in the language of one varaion of the legend, "the gift of gentle insinuating speech, with soft talk in all ita ramifications, whether employed in vows light as air, such as lead captive the fomale heart, or elaborate mystifications of a grosser grain, such aa may do for the House of Commons." This magniloquence is of a piece with the description Father .Prout cave Sir Walter Scott, who . made a pilgrimage to Blarney in 1825. "You behold, Kir Walter, tbe most valuable remnant of Ireland's ancient glory, tha most precious lot of her Phoenician inheritance. Possessed of this treasure, she may well be designated

First flDwer ot the earth, acd first gem of tho sea, for neither the musical stone of Memnon that so 'sweetly played in tune,' nor the oracular stone of Delphi, nor the lapidary talisman of Lydian Q-yges, nor the colossal granite shaped into a Tphinx in Upper Egypt, nor Stonehenge, nor the Pelasgic walls of Palestrina, offer bo many attractions. The long-sought lapis philosophorurth, compared with this jewel, dwindles into insignificance ; nay, the savoury fragment which was substituted for the infant Jupiter when Saturn had the mania for devouring his children ; the Luxor obelisk ; the treaty stone of Limerick, with all its historic endearments ; the zodiacal monument of Danderah, with all its astronomic importance ; the Elgin marbles, with all their sculptured ; the Arundolian, with all .their lettered riches — cannot for a moment stand in competition with the Blarney, block. What atone in the world save this alone can communicate to the tongue that suavity of speech and that splendid effrontery so necessary to get through life?" The authentic stone can only be reached by a perilous suspension from the top of the castle tower ; but the more sensible visitors satisfy any ambition they may have to add unconscionab'e garrulity to their other vices by touching a less horrifying part of the masonry with their lips. —Harper's Monthly.