We saw, however, both men and women working at a distance in the fields.
I was thirsty; and going up to an ancient crone, employed in the manner which I have described, I asked her for water; she looked me in the face, appeared to consider a moment, then tottering into her hut, presently reappeared with a small pipkin of milk, which she offered to me with a trembling hand.

I drank the milk; it was sour, but I found it highly refreshing.

I then took out a penny and offered it to her, whereupon she shook her head, smiled, and, patting my face with her skinny hand, murmured some words in a tongue which I had never heard before.
I walked on by my father's side, holding the stirrup-leather of his horse; presently several low uncouth cars passed by, drawn by starved cattle: the drivers were tall fellows, with dark features and athletic frames--they wore long loose blue cloaks with sleeves, which last, however, dangled unoccupied: these cloaks appeared in tolerably good condition, not so their under garments.

On their heads were broad slouching hats: the generality of them were bare-footed.

As they passed, the soldiers jested with them in the patois of East Anglia, whereupon the fellows laughed, and appeared to jest with the soldiers; but what they said who knows, it being in a rough guttural language, strange and wild.
The soldiers stared at each other, and were silent.
'A strange language that!' said a young officer to my father, 'I don't understand a word of it; what can it be ?' 'Irish!' said my father, with a loud voice, 'and a bad language it is, I have known it of old, that is, I have often heard it spoken when I was a guardsman in London.