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  GINKWORLD: VOICES: stories  

 

 

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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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