The works of John MSynge .. . llowed to remain after a merely formal evic-tion. About midday, however, a house wasreached where there was no pretext for mercy,and no money could be procured. At a signfrom the sheriff the work of carrying out thebeds and utensils was begun in the middle ofa crowd of natives who looked on in absolutesilence, broken only by the wild imprecationsof the woman of the house. She belonged toone of the most primitive families on theisland, and she shook with uncontrollable furyas she saw the strange armed men who spokea language she could not understand drivingher from
The works of John MSynge .. . llowed to remain after a merely formal evic-tion. About midday, however, a house wasreached where there was no pretext for mercy,and no money could be procured. At a signfrom the sheriff the work of carrying out thebeds and utensils was begun in the middle ofa crowd of natives who looked on in absolutesilence, broken only by the wild imprecationsof the woman of the house. She belonged toone of the most primitive families on theisland, and she shook with uncontrollable furyas she saw the strange armed men who spokea language she could not understand drivingher from the hearth she had brooded on forthirty years. For these people the outrage tothe hearth is the supreme catastrophe. Theylive here in a world of grey, where there arewild rains and mists every week in the year,and their warm chimney corners, filled withchildren and young girls, grow into the con-sciousness of each family in a way it is noteasy to understand in more civilised places. The outrage to a tomb in China probably 86. The Evictions •^ THE ARAN ISLANDS gives no greater shock to the Chinese than theoutrage to a hearth in Inishmaan gives to thepeople. When the few trifles had been carried out,and the door blocked with stones, the oldwoman sat down by the threshold and coveredher head with her shawl. Five or six other women who lived close bysat down in a circle round her, with mute sym-pathy. Then the crowd moved on with thepolice to another cottage where the same scenewas to take place, and left the group of deso-late women sitting by the hovel. There were still no clouds in the sky, andthe heat was intense. The police when not inmotion lay sweating and gasping under thewalls with their tunics unbuttoned. They werenot attractive, and I kept comparing them withthe islandmen, who walked up and down ascool and fresh-looking as the sea-gulls. When the last eviction had been carried outa division was made: half the party went offwith the bailiff to search the inner plain of
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