MANNERS OF THE INHABITANTS. 219 of the deceased, where they separate. In thinly- settled and healthy countries, the number of deaths are so few, that the decease of any of the inhabitants is attended with a feeling of melancholy unknown in populous towns, except among the immediate rela¬ tions of the deceased. Waking the dead is also general among the Irish labourers ; and they observe the same customs and festivities at Christmas and at Easter, as have long been common in Ireland. Patrick's day, and Sheelagh's day (the saint's 5 wife) the day following, are occasions on which the mass of the Newfoundland Irish revel in the full . glory of feasting and drinking. They are certainly 3 at those periods beyond any control; and they com¬ pletely forget themselves, fighting and drinking, until they are overcome by the one, or laid up by the other.* Their conduct, on these occasions, has been much reprobated. It would be well for themselves not to indulge in such excesses. But when we consider the hard labour to which they apply themselves during the year, and the terrible dangers they are about to encounter among the ice, immediately after the feast of their darling saint, and take also into account the associations connected with the customs of their mo¬ ther country, we must make very liberal allowances for them. Various customs, common to the different places from which the present inhabitants or their ances¬ tors came, are still kept up at Christmas. Dinners, * These excesses have become less frequent.