Matheson Collection > Aislinge Meic Conglinne

88 TJie Vision of MacCongUnnc.
fort. And I fixed my ten pointed purple-bright
nails in its smooth old-bacon door, which had a
lock of cheese, flung it behind me, and passed
through.
5 " Then I saw the doorkeeper. Fair was the shape
of that man ; and his name was Bacon-lad, son of
Butter-lad, son of Lard ; with his smooth sandals
of old bacon on his soles, and leggings of potmeat
encircling his shins, with his tunic of corned beef,
10 and his girdle of salmon skin around him, with
his hood of flummery about him, with a seven-
filleted crown of butter on his head (in each
fillet of which was the produce of seven ridges of
pure leeks) ; with his seven badges of tripe about
15 his neck, and seven bosses of boiled lard on the
point of every badge of them ; his steed of bacon
under him, with its four legs of custard, with
its four hoofs of coarse oaten bread under it, with
its ears of curds, with its two eyes of honey in
20 its head, with its streams of old cream in its two
nostrils, and a flux of bragget streaming down be-
hind,^ with its tail of dulse, from which seven hand-
fuls were pulled every ordinary day; with its smooth
saddle of glorious choice lard upon it, with its face-
25 band of the side of a heifer around its head, with
its neck-band of old-wether spleen around its neck,
with its little bell of cheese suspended from the
neck-band, with its tongue of thick compact metal
hanging down from the bell ; and a whip in that
30 rider's hand, the cords whereof were twenty-nine
fair puddings of white-fat cows, and the substance
of every juicy drop that fell to the ground from the
end of each of these puddings would, with half a