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Daniel
O’ Connell and the Trickster
There
was a man living at Carhan, near Caherciveen, in the
time of Daniel O’ Connell. He was poor and he
had a large family. One day he was selling two
pigs- a white one and a black one- at Tralee fair.
A buyer asked him how much he wanted for the white one,
along with the black one. The poor man thought,
and no wonder, that the buyer wanted only the white pig;
so he named the price. The buyer immediately
marked both pigs and took from his pocket only that
which had been asked for the white one. “ What do you
mean?” asked the poor man. “You only inquired about
the white pig” “That’s a lie!” said the
buyer. “Didn‘t I ask you how much you wanted for the
white one along with the black one?” The poor man
could do nothing but give him the two pigs for the price
of one. He returned home and told his story to his
wife and to all the neighbors.
It
wasn’t long till it spread all over the district, and
everybody was sorry for the poor man. He told his
story to Daniel O’Connell, who had great sympathy for
him. “We’ll get our own back on that buyer
later on,” said O’Connell. “Are you willing to cut
off the lobe of your right ear?” “I am
,” said he. O’Connell cut of the lobe of
the man’s right ear, put it into an envelope, and took
it home. He asked the poor man to accompany him to
Tralee next day to play a trick on the buyer.
“He has a tobacco shop in Tralee,” said O’Connell;
“and we’ll call into him. After a while, you
must take out your pipe and take a whiff or two from it.
I will then pass the remark that you don’t smoke very
much, and you must reply that you would smoke
seven times as much, if you had the tobacco. I
will then say that I’ll give you all the tobacco you
want.”
The following day, they both went to Tralee and went
into the tobacco shop. The poor man pulled out his
pipe, reddened it, drew a few whiffs, and put it back
into his pocket.
“You don’t smoke very much,” said O’Connell to
him.
“I’d smoke seven times as much, if I had it,” said
the poor man.
“Well, I’ll give you plenty of tobacco,” said
O’Connell. He ordered the buyer to give the poor man
as much tobacco as would reach from his toe to the lobe
of his right ear and asked how much it would cost.
“Eight shillings” said the buyer. “That’s
agreed” said O’Connell . The buyer then began to
measure the length from the man’s toe to the lobe of
his right ear, but when he reached the ear, he found
that the lobe was missing. He pretended nothing.
“We have caught you!” said O’Connell. “That’s
not the lobe of his right ear. It is back in Carhan, if
you know where that place is. So you must measure
from his toe to Carhan!” The buyer was dumbfounded.
He could say nothing. The O’Connell ordered him
to pay the man for the black pig, and he would not
insist on the tobacco at all. The buyer paid
the money, and even something extra, and went off to his
kitchen covered with shame. And no wonder!-
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