I have heard with amusement of a merry jest devised, I understand, by three students of Trinity. It appears that a week or so ago one of them turned up at a Dublin literary society where he had engaged himself to deliver a lecture, and read a paper on "Oulad Shai, the Eskimo Poet." His two companions obliged the audience, whose knowledge of Oulad Shai was not large, by delivering the first and second supporting speeches and many members of the society spoke as well. The lecture proved to be of such excellence that the lecturer was invited by another Dublin society to deliver it anew at one of its own meetings last week. I am assured by members of both audiences that the paper was framed in a masterly fashion. Citations from Oulad Shai's works were numerous and well chosen, while his emotional and intellectual development was perfectly clear.
I have not heard the paper myself, and, naturally, cannot form an independent judgement. One of the poems recited, however, has been repeated to me, and I pass it on for the benefit of my readers. It runs as follows:
"`There is no one stronger than I,' said Talik the bear. `There is no one more cunning than I,' said man. And the penguin laughed."
The Irish Times, April 17th, 1931.