| i moran sake wari | Sian a RGEC I a Ey OR et! Does, BP awe hike Vas / tno i ti EL 3s Fin LLG! ; f ~-<-— as \ Mm i ae 7 Se ee es is ee ee a tr A ATTA SRN SAAS - Pes be 2% Be mes NU St - b ANCIENT LEGENDS, MYSTIC CHARMS, AND SUPERSTITIONS OF IRELAND. WITH SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. BY LAR Yea VWVielele byes (‘‘ SPERANZA.”) TO WHICH IS APPENDED A CHAPTER ON ‘“‘THE ANCIENT RACE OF IRELAND,” bYTHE LATE SIR WILLIAM WILDE, VOL. II. London: WARD AND ISON Ae YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, 1887, [All rights reserved.] Ji t sg W f a / [ ey 5 , . =" =. . ae fe ees CONTENTS. LEGENDS OF ANIMALS. CONCERNING Docs ° 5 CONCERNING CATS A The King of the Cats The. Demon Cat Cat Nature 5 : . ; SEANCHAN THE BARD AND THE KING OF THE CATS THE BARDS . A Kinc ARTHUR AND THE CAT CONCERNING COWS Fairy Wiles THE DEAD HAND THE WICKED WIDOW THE BUTTER MYSTERY . CONCERNING BIRDS— The Magpie . ° The Wren . . . The Raven and Water Wagtail The Cuckoo and Robin Redbreast . CONCERNING LIVING CREATURES— The Cricket 2 PAGE 10 14 16 19 24 31 37 4I 45 48 51 55 by 58 58 58 ~ 60 CONCERNING LIVING CREATURES (continued )— The Beetle The Hare The Weazel THE PROPERTIES OF HERBS AND THEIR USE IN MEDICINE . A Love Potion Love Dreams To Cause Love MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS Against Sorrow To win Love For the Night Fire (the Fever) For a Pain in the Side For the Measles For the Mad Fever Against Enemies To Extract a Thorn To Cause Hatred between Lovers For Love How to have Money Always For the Great Worm For Sore Eyes . For Pains in the Body Against Drowning In Time of Battle . For the Red Rash To Tame a Horse . ; : : : A very Ancient Charm against Wounds or Poisons For a Sore Breast For a Wound . For the Evil Eye For St. Anthony’s Fire How to go Invisible PAGE 60 61 62 66 PE: 73 73 74 78 79 80. 80 80 81 81 82 82 82 83 83 83 84 85 85 86 86 86 87 87 87 Vv CONTENTS. MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS (continued ae For Pains : ; : : ; : 88 For a Sprain : . : : : Ai Pies, To Cause Love - 4 A , § 89 For the Bite of a Mad Dog : ; ; 1. (89 For Toothache . : : : ; : go For Freckles ‘ ¥. : e : ee. OL Fora Burn. : - : ; ‘ gI For the Memory . : : ‘ : eoeOL For the Falling Sickness 2 ; eae Nilyge gl For Chin-cough . : : : 5 eo For Rheumatism : : ; : : 93 For a Stye on the Eyelid . ; : : os To Cure Warts : : : : ; 93 For a Stitch in the Side . : : : » 94 For Weak Eyes : : : : : 94 For Water on the Brain . ‘ : , ear Od: For Hip Disease : ; ‘ : : 94 For the Mumps. : : ou : Se aIAOS For Epilepsy : ‘ : ; : 95 For Depression of Heart : : . bn ROG For the Fairy Dart. ; ; ; 96 VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND ere : : ‘ | 07 To find Stolen Goods . : ‘ ; : 107 A Prayer against the Plague : : ; Fy e1oy A Blessing . : : ; : : 108 A Cure for Cattle . i : : : ee lOm A Charm for Safety . : ; : : 109 An Elixir of Potency , : ; : . 109 For the Bite of a Mad Dog. : : 109 Dreams . ° ; ; : ; = . 109 Fairy Doctors . ° : ; : 5 110 Charms by Crystals : : ; ; to Alectromania . Pete se ake: : riz Fairy Power vi CONTENTS. v OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS : . That Forbode Evil : ; To Attract Bees - SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ISLANDS— Concerning the Dead . : ; The Coastguard’s Fate - Relics . ° : . LEGENDS OF THE SAINTS. ST. PATRICK e . ‘ ; Z The Well of the Book ‘ : é St. Patrick and the Serpent . St. Patrick and the Princesses : The Poison Cup ; : Divination . . ‘ ‘ ‘ The Blind Poet , ' 4 The Story of Breccan : Bardic Privileges ; : ST. CIARON . ‘ : : ST. MARTIN . ‘ : ST. BRIDGET : : : ST. KIERAN , ST. KEVIN 5 ‘ : CHRISTIAN LEGENDS : : SWEARING STONES AND RELICS— The Cremave . ; ; Relics for clearing from Guilt ‘ Innis-Murry ., : é MYSTERIES OF FAIRY POWER. THE EviL STROKE : : THE CHANGELING , : THE Farry Doctor ‘ THE POET’s SPELL , : CHARM FOR THE Farry STROKE PAGE 114 114 117 118 120 120 121 122 123 124 124 125 126 127 127 129 130 34 137 138 140 142 143 144 146 149 153 156 CONTENTS. THE FARMER’S FATE THE Farry RATH . THE HOLY WELLS. THE Hoty WELILs . ‘ The White Stones . The Sacred Trout ST, AUGUSTINE’S WELL THE GRILLED TROUT LEGEND OF NEAL-MOR St. JOHN’s WELL THE WELL OF FIONN Ma- Cour ST. SEENAN’S WELL KIL-NA-GREINA , : THE WELL OF WORSHIP THE BrRIDE’S WELL THE [IRISH FAKIR SACRED TREES . : : TOBER-NA-DARA LoucH NEAGH . : 3 ; THE DOCTOR AND THE FAIRY PRINCESS AYHOLY WELL. 7 5 A SACRED ISLAND THE LAKE OF REVENGE SCENES AT A HOLY WELL . LouGH FOYLE Tue HEN’s CASTLE . SLIABH-MISH, COUNTY KERRY . THE SKELLIGS OF KERRY POPULAR NOTIONS CONCERNING THE SIDHE RACE. THE SIDHE RACE : d THE HuRLING MATCH PAGE 160 161 163 164 165 166 168 170 171 172 175 178 179 180 185 187 188 I9I 195 197 199 200 201 202 204. 206 208 vill CONTENTS. Tue RIDE WITH THE FAIRIES THE FAIRY SPY . THE DARK HORSEMAN : SHEELA-NA-SKEAN : CAPTAIN WEBB, THE ROBBER CHIEF Tue Mayo CAPTAIN AND FEENISH THE MARE SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. THE BARDIC RACE ° : 3 ‘ ? THE ANCIENT RACE : THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND EARLY IRISH ART Our ANCIENT CAPITAL ‘ SIR WILLIAM WILDE ON “THE ANCIENT RACES OF IRELAND” . , . PAGE 217 222 224 230 235 237 242 247 250 267 285 ga9 PEGE N Dae Or ANINATES. THERE are no traces in Irish legend of animal worship, but many concerning the influence of animals upon human life, and of their interference with human affairs. The peasants believe that the domestic animals know all about us, especially the dog andthe cat. They listen to every- thing that is said; they watch the expression of the face, and can even read the thoughts. The Irish say it is not safe to ask a question of a dog, for he may answer, and should he do so the questioner will surely die. The position of the animal race in the life scheme is certainly full of mystery. Gifted with extraordinary intelli- gence, yet with dumb souls vainly struggling for utterance, they seem like prisoned spirits in bondage, suffering the punishment, perhaps, for sin in some former human life, and now waiting the completion of the cycle of expiation that will advance them again to the human state. The three most ancient words in the Irish language are, it is said, Zor, a tower; Cw, a hound, and Go, acow. The latter word is the same as is found in the Greek Losphorus, and in the nomenclature of many places throughout Europe. VOL. ‘Il, 2 WSs SS Wee ‘e 3 aaa ie Nees x ne SONS AO BA FA WAS NSN 2) } \ ) \ —/ aN CoNCERNING Docs. SoME very weird superstitions exist in Ireland concerning the howling of dogs. Ifa dog is heard to howl near the house of a sick person, all hope of his recovery is given up, and the patient himself sinks into despair, knowing that his doom is sealed. But the Irish are not alone in holding this superstition. ‘The Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans all looked on the howling of the dog as ominous. The very word howling may be traced in the Latin w/ulu, the Greek foluluzo, the Hebrew hululue, and the Irish ud/uloo. In Ireland the cry raised at the funeral ceremony was called the Caoin, or keen, probably from yawy, a dog. And this doleful lamentation was also common to other nations of antiquity. ‘The Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans had their hired mourners, who, with dishevelled hair and mournful cadenced hymns, led on the melancholy parade of death. Thus the Trojan women keened over Hector, the chorus being led by the beautiful Helen herself. The howling of the dog was considered by these nations as the first note of the funeral dirge and the signal that the coming of death was near. But the origin of the superstition may be traced back to CONCERNING DOGS. 3 Egypt, where dogs and dog-faced gods were objects of worship; probably because Sirius, the Dog-star, appeared precisely before the rising of the Nile, and thereby gave the people a mystic and supernatural warning to prepare for the overflow. The Romans held that the howling of dogs was a fatal presage of evil, and it is noted amongst the direful omens that preceded the death of Czesar. Horace also says that Canidia by her spells and sorceries could bring ghosts of dogs from hell ; and Virgil makes the dog to howl at the approach of Hecate. It is remarkable that when dogs see spirits (and they are keenly sensitive to spirit influence) they never bark, but only howl. The Rabbins say that “when the Angel of Death enters a city the dogs do howl. But when Elias ap- pears then the dogs rejoice and are merry.” And Rabbi Jehuda the Just states, that once upon a time when the Angel of Death entered a house the dog howled and fled ; but being presently brought back he lay down in fear and trembling, and so died. This strange superstition concerning the howling of dogs, when, as is supposed, they are conscious of the approach of the Spirit of Death, and see him though he is shrouded and invisible to human eyes, may be found pervading the legends of all nations from the earliest period down to the present time ; for it still exists in full force amongst all classes, the educated, as well as the unlettered peasantry ; and to this day the howling of a dog where a sick person is lying is regarded in Ireland in all grades of society with pale dismay as a certain sign of approaching death. eA a A S ~ ~ sida \ i iN S} \ aX 4 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. ea The Irish may have obtained the superstition through Egypt, Phoenicia, or Greece, for it is the opinion of some erudite writers that the Irish wolf-dog (Canis gracius Liibernicus) was descended from the dogs of Greece. It is strange and noteworthy that although the dog is so faithful to man, yet it is never mentioned in the Bible without an expression of contempt; and Moses in his code of laws makes the dog an unclean animal, probably to deter the Israelites from the Egyptian worship of this animal. It was the lowest term of offence—‘ Is thy servant a dog?” False teachers, persecutors, Gentiles, unholy men, and others sunk in sin and vileness were called dogs ; while at the same time the strange prophetic power of these animals was universally acknowledged and recognized. The Romans sacrificed a dog at the Lupercalia in February. And to meet a dog with her whelps was considered in the highest degree unlucky. Of all living creatures the name of “‘ dog” applied to any one expressed the lowest form of insult, contempt, and reproach. Yet, of all animals, the dog has the noblest qualities, the highest intelligence, and the most enduring affection for man. The Irish wolf-dog had a lithe body, a slender head, and was fleet as the wind. The form of the animal is produced constantly in Irish ornamentation, but the body always terminates in endless twisted convolutions. The great Fionn MaCoul had a celebrated dog called “ Bran,” who is thus described in the bardic legends: “A ferocious, small- headed, white-breasted, sleek-haunched hound ; having the CONCERNING DOGS. 5 eyes of a dragon, the claws of a wolf, the vigour of a lion, and the venom of a serpent.” In the same poem Fionn himself is described in highly ornate bardic language, as he leads the hound by a chain of silver attached to a collar of gold: ‘‘ A noble, handsome, fair-featured Fenian prince; young, courteous, manly, puissant ; powerful in action; the tallest of the warriors ; the strongest of the champions; the most beautiful of the human race.” Bran, like his master, was gifted in a remarkable degree with the foreknowledge of evil, and thus he was enabled to give his young lord many warnings to keep him from danger. Once, when victory was not for the Fenian host, Bran showed the deepest sorrow. “He came to Fionn, weary and wet, and by this hand,” says the chronicler, “ his appearance was pitiful. He lay down before the chief, and cried bitterly and howled. “Tis likely, my dog,’ saith Fionn, ‘that our heads are in great danger this day.’”’ Another time, the Fenian host having killed a huge boar, Ossian, the bard and prophet, ordered it to be burnt as of demon race. Bran, hearing this, went out readily and knowingly, and he brings in.three trees in his paw; no one knew from whence ; but the trees were put into the fire and the great pig was burnt, and the ashes of the beast were cast into the sea. The Fenian princes generally went to the hunt accompanied altogether by about three thousand hounds ; Bran leading, the wisest and fleetest of all. The chiefs formed a goodly 7) i h\\ Ge ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. army, a thousand knights or more—each wearing a silken shirt and a chotan of fine silk, a green mantle and fine purple cloak over to protect it; a golden diademed helmet on the head, and a javelin in each man’s hand. Once, a chief, being jealous of the splendour of the Fenian princes, became their bitter enemy, and set himself to curse Bran above all hounds in the land. But Fionn answered, “If thou shouldest curse Bran, my wise, intelligent dog, not a room east or west in thy great mansion, but I will burn with fire.” So Bran rested on the mountain with Fionn, his lord and master, and was safe from harm. Yet, so fate decreed, Bran finally met his death by means ofa woman. One day a snow-white hart, with hoofs that shone like gold, was scented on the hill, and all the hounds pursued, Bran leading. Hour after hour passed by, and still the hart fled on, the hounds following, till one by one they all dropped off from weariness, and not one was left save Bran. Then the hart headed for the lake, and reaching a high cliff, she plunged from it straight down into the water ; the noble hound leaped in at once after her, and seized the hart as she rose to the surface; but at that instant she changed into the form of a beautiful lady, and laying her hand upon the head of Bran, she drew him down beneath the water, and the beautiful lady and Fionn’s splen- did hound disappeared together and were seen no more. But in memory of the event the cliff from which he leaped is called Coegg-y-Bran; while the lake and castle beside it are called Zzernach Bran (the lordship of Bran) to this day. So the name and memory of Fionn’s hound, and his wisdom CONCERNING DOGS. 7 and achievements are not forgotten by the people ; and many dogs of the chase are still called after him, for the name is thought to bring good luck to the hunter and sportsman. But the Cailleach Biorar (the Hag of the Water) is held in much dread, for it is believed that she still lives in a cave on the hill, and is ready to work her evil spells whenever opportunity offers, and her house is shown under the cairn, also the beaten path she traversed to the lake. Many efforts have been made to drain the lake, but the Druid priestess, the Hag of the Water, always interferes, and casts some spell to prevent the completion of the work. The water of the lake has, it is said, the singular property of turning the hair a silvery white; and the great Fionn having once bathed therein, he emerged a withered old man, and was only restored to youth by means of strong spells and incantations. In Cormac’s Glossary there is an interesting account of how the first lapdog came into Ireland, for the men of Britain were under strict orders that no lapdog should be given to the Gael, either of solicitation or of free will, for gratitude or friendship. Now it happened that Cairbré Musc went to visit a friend of his in Britain, who made him right welcome and offered him everything he possessed, save only his lapdog, for that was forbidden by the law. Yet this beautiful lapdog was . the one only possession that Cairbré coveted, and he laid his plans cunningly to obtain it. There was a law at that time in Britain to this effect: SSS NG : BS S y Seal =} 8 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. ‘Every criminal shall be given as a forfeit for his crime to the person he has injured.” Now Cairbré had a wonderful dagger, around the haft of which was an adornment of silver and gold. It was a precious jewel, and he took fat meat and rubbed it all over the haft, with much grease. ‘Then he set it before the lap- dog, who began to gnaw at the haft, and continued gnawing all night till the morning, so that the haft was spoiled and was no longer beautiful. Then on the morrow, Cairbré made complaint that his beautiful dagger was destroyed, and he demanded a just recompense. “That is indeed fair,” said his friend, “I shall pay a price for the trespass.” ‘‘T ask no other price,” said Cairbré, “ than what the law of Britain allows me, namely, the criminal for his crime.” So the lapdog was given to Cairbré, and it was called ever after Mug-Eimé, the slave of the haft, which name clung to it because it passed into servitude as a forfeit for the trespass. Now when Cairbré brought it back to Erin with him, all the kings of Ireland began to wrangle and contend for possession of the lapdog, and the contention at last ended in this wise—it was agreed that the dog should abide for a certain time in the house of each king. Afterwards the dog littered, and each of them had a pup of the litter, and from this stock descends every lapdog in Ireland from that time till now. After a long while the lapdog died, and the bare shell being brought to the blind poet Maer to try his power of divina- tion, he at once exclaimed, through the prophetic power and CONCERNING DOGS. 9 vision in him, “ O Mug-Eimé! this is indeed the head of Mug- Eimé, the slave of the haft, that was brought into Ireland and given over to the fate of a bondsman, and to the punishment of servitude as a forfeit.” The word hound entered into many combinations as a name for various animals. Thus the rabbit was called, ‘the hound of the brake ;” the hare was “the brown hound ;” the moth was called “the hound of fur,” owing to the voracity with which it devoured raiment. And the other is still called by the Irish Jadradh-Visgue (the dog of the water). The names of most creatures of the animal kingdom were primitive, the result evidently of observation. Thus the hedgehog was named “the ugly little fellow.” The ant was “the slender one.” The trout, Breac, or “the spotted,” from the skin. And the wren was called “the Druid bird,” because if any one understood the chirrup, they would haye a knowledge of coming events as foretold by the bird. 2 Si a, Ah wy ‘ - Ned a Neeticasthh NGe2 , NESS AS BS it AM a INO NOKS \—} CONCERNING CATs. —0:—— Cats have been familiar to the human household from all antiquity, but they were probably first domesticated in Egypt, where, so far back as two thousand years ago, a temple was dedicated to the goddess of cats—Bubastis Pasht—repre- sented witha cat’s head. The Greeks had this feline pet of the house from Egypt, and from Greece the cat race, such as we have it now, was disseminated over Europe. It was a familiar element in Greek household life, and if anything was broken, according to Aristophanes, the phrase went then as now, “The cat did it.” But cats were never venerated in Greece with religious adoration as in Egypt, the only country that gave them Divine honour, and where, if a cat died, the whole family shaved off their eyebrows in token of mourning. The Irish have always looked on cats as evil and myste- riously connected with some demoniacal influence. On entering a house the usual salutation is, ‘God save all here, except the cat.” Even the cake on the griddle may be blessed, but no one says, ‘‘God bless the cat.” It is believed that the devil often assumes the form of these animals. The familiar of a witch is always a black CONCERNING CATS. If cat; and it is supposed that black cats have powers and faculties quite different from all others of the feline tribe. They are endowed with reason, can understand conversa- tions, and are quite able to talk if they considered it advisable and judicious to join in the conversation. Their: temperament is exceedingly unamiable, they are artful, malignant, and skilled in deception, and people should be very cautious in caressing them, for they have the venom- ous heart and the evil eye, and are ever ready to do an injury. Yet the liver of a black cat has the singular power to excite love when properly administered. If ground to powder and infused into a potion, the recipient is fated to love passion- ately the person who offers it and has worked the charm. An instance of this is narrated as having happened not very long ago. A farmer’s daughter, a pretty coquette, attracted the attention of the young squire of the place. But though he was willing to carry on a flirtation, the young gentleman had no idea of debasing his proud lineage by an alliance. Yet a marriage was exactly what the girl desired, and which she was determined to accomplish. So she and a friend, an accomplice, searched the village till they found a black cat, black as night, with only three white hairs on the breast. Him they seized, and having tied up the animal in a bag, they proceeded to throw him from:one to the other over a low wall, till the poor beast was quite dead. Then. at midnight they began their unholy work. The liver and heart were extracted in the name of the Evil One, and then. boiled down until they became so dry that they could easily be reduced to a powder, which was kept for use when opportunity offered. This soon came; the young squire WS =} \ \ i \\ ei IVS) \ 142 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. a arrived one evening as usual, to pay a visit to the pretty Nora, and began to make love to the girl with the ordinary amount of audacity and hypocrisy. But Nora had other ‘views, so she made the tea by her little fire in a Jack teapot, for this was indispensable, and induced her lover to stay and partake of it with her, along with a fresh griddle cake. ‘Then cunningly she infused the powder into his cup and ‘watched him as he drank the tea with feverish anxiety. The result was even beyond her hopes. A violent and ardent passion seemed suddenly to have seized the young man, and he not only made earnest love to the pretty Nora, but offered her his hand in marriage, vowing that he would kill himself if she refused to become his lawful bride. To avoid such a catastrophe, Nora gently yielded to his request, and from that evening they were engaged. Daily visits followed from the young squire, and each time that he came Nora took care to repeat the charm of the love powder, so that the love was kept at fever heat, and finally the wedding day was fixed. The family of the young squire were, however, not quite ‘contented, especially as rumours of witchcraft and devil’s dealings were bruited about the neighbourhood. And on the very eve of the marriage, just as the young man was pouring forth his vows of eternal love to the bride ex- pectant, the door was burst open and a body of men entered, headed by the nearest relations of the squire, who proceeded at once to belabour the young bridegroom with hazel sticks in the most vigorous manner. In vain the bride tried to interpose. She only drew the blows on herself, and finally the young man was carried away half CONCERNING CATS. 13 stunned, lifted into the carriage and driven straight home, where he was locked up in his own room, and not allowed to hold any communication with the bride-elect. The daily doses of the powder having thus ceased, he: began to recover from the love madness, and finally the fever passed away. And he looked back with wonder and horror on the fatal step he had so nearly taken. Now he saw there was really witchcraft in it, which the power of the: hazel twigs had completely broken. And the accomplice: having confessed the sorcery practised on him by Nora and herself, he hated the girl henceforth as much as he had once loved her. And after a little he went away on foreign travel, and remained abroad for three years. When he returned, he found that Nora had degenerated into a withered little witch-faced creature, who was shunned by every one, and jeered at for the failure of her wicked spells, which had all come to nothing, though she had the Evil One himself to aid her; for such is the fate of all who deal in sorcery and devil’s magic, especially with the help of Satan’s chief instrument of witchcraft—the black cat. But there is a certain herb of more power even than the cat’s liver to produce love. Though what this herb is, only the adept knows and can reveal. The influence it exercises lasts, it is said, for twenty-one years, and then ceases and cannot be renewed. A gentleman, now living, once ate of this herb, which was given to him by his wife’s serving-maid, and in con- a4 bi S Row ~ Seen SS A iy — i\\ wd | nd d4 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. sequence he was fated to love the girl for the specified time. Not being then able to endure his wife’s presence, he sent her away from the house, and devoted himself exclusively to the servant. Nineteen years have now passed by, and the poor lady is still waiting patiently to the end of the twenty-one years, believing that the witch- spell will then cease, and that her husband’s love will be hers once more. For already he has been inquiring after her and his children, and has been heard lamenting the madness that forced him to drive them from the house for the sake of the menial, who usurped his wife’s place by means of some wicked sorcery which he had no power to resist. THE KING OF THE CATS. A most important personage in feline history is the King of the Cats. He may be in your house a common looking fellow enough, with no distinguishing mark of exalted rank about him, so that it is very difficult to verify his genuine claims to royalty. Therefore the best way is to cut off a tiny little bit of his ear. If he is really the royal personage, he will immediately speak out and declare who he is; and perhaps, at the same time, tell you some very disagreeable truths about yourself, not at all pleasant to have discussed by the house cat. A man once, in a fit of passion, cut off the head of the domestic pussy, and threw it on the fire. On which the head exclaimed, in a fierce voice, “Go tell your wife that you have cut off the head of the King of the Cats; but wait! CONCERNING CATS. I5 I shall come back and be avenged for this insult,” and the eyes of the cat glared at him horribly from the fire And so it happened; for that day year, while the master of the house was playing with a pet kitten, it suddenly flew at his throat and bit him so severely that he died soon after. A story is current also, that one night an old woman was sitting up very late spinning, when a knocking came to the door. ‘Who is there?” she asked. No answer ; but still the knocking went on. ‘“ Who is there?” she asked a second time. No answer; and the knocking continued. *‘Who is there ?” she asked the third time, in a very angry passion. Then there came a small voice—“ Ah, Judy, agrah, let me in, for I am cold and hungry; open the door, Judy, agrah, and let me sit by the fire, for the night is cold out here. Judy, agrah, let me in, let me in!” The heart of Judy was touched, for she thought it was some small child that had lost its way, and she rose up from her spinning, and went and opened the door—when in walked a large black cat with a white breast, and two white kittens after her. They all made over to the fire and began to warm and dry themselves, purring all the time very loudly; but Judy said never a word, only went on spinning. Then the black cat spoke at last—‘‘ Judy, agrah, don’t stay up so late again, for the fairies wanted to hold a council here to-night, and to have some supper, but you have prevented them; so they were very angry and de- 16 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. termined to kill you, and only for myself and my two daughters here you would be dead by this time. So take my advice, don’t interfere with the fairy hours again, for the night is theirs, and they hate to look on the face of a mortal when they are out for pleasure or business. So I ran on to tell you, and now give me a drink of milk, for I must be off.” And after the milk was finished the cat stood up, and called her daughters to come away. ‘Good night, Judy, agrah,” she said. “You have been very civil to me, and I'll not forget it to you. Good night, good night.” With that the black cat and the two kittens whisked up the chimney; but Judy looking down saw something glittering on the hearth, and taking it up she found it was a piece of silver, more than she ever could make in a month by her spinning, and she was glad in her heart, and never again sat up so late to interfere with the fairy hours, but the black cat and her daughters came no more again to the house. THE. DEMON ;CAE The cat of the foregoing legend had evidently charming manners, and was well intentioned ; but there are other cats of evil and wicked ways, that are, in fact, demons or witches, who assume the cat-form, in order to get easy entrance to a house, and spy over everything. There was a woman in Connemara, the wife of a fisher- man, and as he always had very good luck, she had plenty CONCERNING CATS. 17 of fish at all times stored away in the house ready for market. But to her great annoyance she found that a great cat used to come in at night and devour all the best and finest fish. So she kept a big stick by her and determined to watch. One day, as she and a woman were spinning together, the house suddenly became quite dark ; and the door was burst open as if by the blast of the tempest, when in walked a huge black cat, who went straight up to the fire, then turned round and growled at them. “Why, surely this is the devil!” said a young girl, who was by, sorting the fish. ‘T’ll teach you how to call me names,” said the cat.; and, jumping at her, he scratched her arm till the blood came. “There now,” he said, ‘you will be more civil another time when a gentleman comes to see you.” And with that he walked over to the door and shut it close to prevent any of them going out, for the poor young girl, while crying loudly from fright and pain, had made a desperate rush to get away. Just then a man was going by, and hearing the cries he pushed open the door and tried to get in, but the cat stood on the threshold and would let no one pass. On this, the man attacked him with his stick, and gave him a sound blow; the cat, however, was more than his match in the fight, for it flew at him and tore his face and hands so badly that the man at last took to his heels and ran away as fast as he could. ‘* Now it’s time for my dinner,” said the cat, going up to examine the fish that was laid out on the tables. “I hope Votesth: a 18 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. the fish is good to-day. Now don’t disturb me, nor make a fuss; I can help myself.” With that he jumped up and began to devour all the best fish, while he growled at the woman. *‘ Away, out of this, you wicked beast!” she cried, giving it a blow with the tongs that would have broken its back, only it was a devil; “‘ out of this! No fish shall you have to-day.” But the cat only grinned at her, and went on tearing and spoiling and devouring the fish, evidently not a bit the worse for the blow. On this, both the women attacked it with sticks, and struck hard blows enough to kill it, on which the cat glared at them, and spit fire; then making a leap, it tore their hands and arms till the blood came, and the frightened women rushed shrieking from the house. But presently the mistress returned, carrying with her a bottle of holy water ; and looking in, she saw the cat still devouring the fish, and not minding. So she crept over quietly and threw the holy water on it without a word. No sooner was this done than a dense black smoke filled the place, through which nothing was seen but the two red eyes of the cat, burning like coals of fire. Then the smoke gradually cleared away, and she saw the body of the creature burning ‘slowly till it became shrivelled and black like a cinder, and finally disappeared. And from that time the fish remained untouched and safe from harm, for the power of the Evil One was broken, and the demon cat was seen no more. Cats are very revengeful, and one should be very careful CONCERNING CATS. 19 not to offend them. A lady was in the habit of feeding the cat from her own table at dinner, and no doubt giving it choice morsels ; but one day there was a dinner party, and pussy was quite forgotten. So she sulked and plotted revenge ; and that night, after the lady was in bed, the cat, who had hid herself in the room, sprang at the throat of her friend and mistress, and bit her so severely that in a week the lady died of virulent blood poisoning. Yet it is singular that the blood of the black cat is esteemed of wonderful power when mixed with herbs, for charms ; and also of great efficacy in potions for the cure of disease ; but three drops of the blood are sufficient, and it is generally obtained by nipping off a small piece of the tail. CATS NATURE. The observation of cats is very remarkable, and also their intense curiosity. They examine everything in a house, and in a short time know all about it as well as the owner. They are never deceived by stuffed birds, or any such weak human delusions. They fathom it all at one glance, and then turn away with apathetic indifference, as if saying, in cat language—“ We know all about it.” A favourite cat in a gentleman’s house was rather fond of nocturnal rambles and late hours, perhaps copying his master, but no matter what his engagements were the cat always returned regularly next morning precisely at nine 20 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. r o'clock, which was the breakfast hour, and rang the house bell at the hall door. This fact was stated to me on undoubted authority ; and, in truth, there is nothing too wonderful to believe about the intellect of cats; no matter what strange things may be narrated of them, nothing should be held improbable or impossible to their intelligence. But cats are decidedly malific; they are selfish, revengeful, treacherous, cunning, and generally dangerous. ‘The evil spirit in them is easily aroused. It is an Irish supersti- tion that if you are going a journey, and meet a cat, you should turn back. But the cat must meet you on the road, not simply be in the house; and it must look you full in the face. ‘Then cross yourself and turn back ; for a witch or a devil is in your path. It is believed also that if a black cat is killed and a bean placed in the heart, and the animal afterwards buried, the beans that grow from that seed will confer extraordinary power; for if a man places one in his mouth, he will become invisible, and can go anywhere he likes without being seen. Cats have truly something awful in them. According to the popular belief they know everything that is said, and can take various shapes through their demoniac power. A cat once lived in a farmer’s family for many years, and understood both Irish and English perfectly. Then the family grew afraid of it, for they said it would certainly talk some day. So the farmer put it into a bag, determined to get rid of it on the mountains. But on the way he met a pack of hounds, and the dogs smelt at the bag and dragged it open, on which the cat jumped out; but the hounds CONCERNING CATS. 21 were On it in a moment, and tore the poor animal to pieces. However, before her death she had time to say to the farmer in very good Irish—‘It is well for you that I must die to-day, for had I lived I meant to have killed you this very night.” These were the last dying words of the cat uttered in her death agonies, before the face of many credible witnesses, so there can be no doubt on the matter. Cats were special objects of mysterious dread to the ancient Irish, They believed that many of them were men and women metamorphosed into cats by demoniacal power. Cats also were the guardians of hidden treasure, and had often great battles among themselves on account of the hidden gold; when a demon, in the shape of the chief cat, led on the opposing forces on each side, and compelled all the cats in the district to take part in the conflict. The Druidical or royal cat, the chief monarch of all the cats in Ireland, was endowed with human speech and faculties, and possessed great and singular privileges. “A slender black cat, wearing a chain of silver,” so it is de- scribed. There is a legend that a beautiful princess, a king’s daughter, having gone down to bathe one day, was there enchanted by her wicked stepmother, who hated her; and by the spell of the enchantment she was doomed to be one year a cat, another a swan, and another an otter; but with the privilege of assuming her natural shape one day in each year, under certain conditions. It is to be regretted that we have no account as to the mode in which the Princess Faithlean exercised her brief enjoyment of human rights ; for the narration would have had a mystic and deep psycho- 22 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. logical interest if the fair young victim had only retained during all her transformations the memory of each of her successive incarnations as the cat, the swan, and the otter. This abnormal mode of existence, however, was not un- usual amongst the Irish. Fionn himself had a wife who for seven years was alive by day and dead by night; and the Irish Princess Zeba, being enchanted by her wicked stepfather, the king of Munster, died and came to life again each alternate year. All nations seem to have appreciated the mysterious and almost human qualities of cat nature; the profound cunning, the impertinent indifference, the intense selfishness, yet capable of the most hypocritical flatteries when some point has to be gained. There traits-are not merely the product of brute instinct with unvarying action and results, but the manifestation of a calculating intellect, akin to the human. Then their grace and flexile beauty make them very attractive ; while the motherly virtues of the matron cat are singularly interesting as a study of order, education, and training for the wilful little kitten, quite on the human lines of salutary discipline. Humboldt declared that he could spend a whole day with immense profit and advantage to himself as a philosopher, by merely watching a cat with her kittens, the profound wisdom of the mother and the incomparable grace of the children. For cats are thoroughly well-bred, born aristocrats; never abrupt, fussy, or obtrusive like the dog, but gentle, grave, and dignified in manner. Cats never run, they glide softly, and always with perfect and beautiful curves of motion; and they express their = som CONCERNING CATS. 23 affection, not violently, like the dog, but with the most graceful, caressing movements of the head. Their intellect also is very remarkable, they easily acquire the meaning of certain words, and have a singular and exact knowledge of hours. Mr. St. George Mivart, in his interesting and exhaustive work on cats, has devoted a whole chapter to the psychology of the cat; in which he shows that the race possesses evident mental qualities and peculiar intelligence, with alsoa decided and significant language of sounds and gestures to express the emotions of the cat mind. The highly reflective and observant nature of the cat is also admirably described in that very clever novel called “ The Poison Tree,” recently translated from the Bengalee. There the house-cat is drawn with the most lifelike touches, as she sits watching the noble and beautiful lady at work on her embroidery, while her little child is playing beside her with all the pretty toys scattered over the carpet: ‘‘The cat’s disposition was grave: her face indicated much wisdom, and a heart devoid of fickleness. She evidently was thinking—‘ the condition of human creatures is frightful; their minds are ever given to sewing of canvas, playing with dolls, or some such silly employment ; their thoughts are not turned to good works, such as providing suitable food for cats. What will become of them hereafter!’ ‘Then, seeing no means by which the disposition of mankind could be improved, the cat, heaving a sigh, slowly departs.” SEANCHAN THE BARD AND THE KING OF THE oem THERE is an amusing legend preserved in Ossianic tradition of the encounter between Seanchan, the celebrated chief poet of Ireland, and the King of all the Cats, who dwelt in a cave near Clonmacnoise. In ancient Ireland the men of learning were esteemed beyond all other classes ; all the great ollaves and professors and poets held the very highest social position, and took precedence of the nobles, and ranked next to royalty. The leading men amongst them lived luxuriously in the great Bardic House; and when they went abroad through the country they travelled with a train of minor bards, fifty or more, and’ were entertained free of cost by the kings and chiefs, who considered themselves highly honoured by the presence of so distinguished a company at their court. If the reception was splendid and costly, the praise of the entertainer was chanted by all the poets at the feast; but if any slight were offered, then the Ard-Filé poured forth his stinging satire in such bitter odes, that many declared they SEANCHAN THE BARD AND THE KING OF THE CATS. 25 “= would sooner die that incur the anger of the poets or be made the subject of their scathing satire. All the learned men and professors, the ollaves of music, poetry, oratory, and of the arts and sciences generally, formed a great Bardic Association, who elected their own president, with the title of Chief Poet of all Ireland, and they also elected chief poets for each of the provinces. Learned women, likewise, and poetesses, were included in the Bardic Association, with distinct and recognized privi- leges, both as to revenue and costly apparel. Legal enact- ments even were made respecting the number of colours allowed to be worn in their mantles—the poet being allowed six colours, and the poetess five in her robe and mantle ; the number of colours being a distinct recognition and visible sign of rank, and therefore very highly esteemed. But, in time, as a consequence of their many and great privileges, the pride and insolence of the learned class, the ollamhs, poets, and poetesses, became so insufferable, that even the kings trembled before them. This is shown in the Ossianic tale, from which we may gather that Seanchan the Bard, when entertained at the court of King Guaire, grew jealous of the attention paid to the nobles while he was present. So he sulked at the festival, and made himself eminently disagreeable, as will be seen by the following legend :— When Seanchan, the renowned Bard, was made 47a-Filé, or Chief Poet of Ireland, Guaire, the king of Connaught, to do him honour, made a great feast for him and the whole Bardic Association. And all the professors went to the king’s house, the great ollaves of poetry and history and 26 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. music, and of the arts and sciences ; and the learned, aged females, Grug and Grag and Grangait ; and all the chief poets and poetesses of Ireland, an amazing number. But Guaire the king entertained them all splendidly, so that the ancient pathway to his palace is still called “The Road of the Dishes.” And each day he asked, “ How fares it with my noble guests?” But they were all discontented, and wanted things he could not get for them. So he was very sorrow- ful, and prayed to God to be delivered from “the learned men and women, a vexatious class.” Still the feast went on for three days and three nights. And they drank and made merry. And the whole Bardic Association entertained the nobles with the choicest music and professional accomplishments. But Seanchan sulked and would neither eat nor drink, for he was jealous of the nobles of Connaught. And when he saw how much they consumed of the best meats and wine, he declared he would taste no food till they and their servants were all sent away out of the house. And when Guaire asked him again, ‘How fares my noble guest, and this great and excellent people?” Seanchan answered, “‘I have never had worse days, nor worse nights, nor worse dinners in my life.” And he ate nothing for three whole days. Then the king was sorely grieved that the whole Bardic Association should be feasting and drinking while Seanchan, the chief poet of Erin, was fasting and weak. So he sent his favourite serving-man, a person of mild manners and cleanliness, to offer special dishes to the bard. SEANCHAN THE BARD AND THE KING OF THE CATS. 27 “ Take them away,” said Seanchan; “I’ll have none of them.” ‘And why, oh, Royal Bard ?” asked the servitor. “Because thou art an uncomely youth,” answered Sean- chan. ‘Thy grandfather was chip-nailed—I have seen him ; I shall eat no food from thy hands.” Then the king called a beautiful maiden to him, his foster daughter, and said, ‘“ Lady, bring thou this wheaten cake and this dish of salmon to the illustrious poet, and serve him thyself.” So the maiden went. But when Seanchan saw her he asked: ‘‘ Who sent thee hither, and why hast thou brought me food ?” “My lord the king sent me, oh, Royal Bard,” she answered, ‘‘ because I am comely to look upon, and he bade me serve thee with food myself.” “Take it away,” said Seanchan, ‘‘thou art an unseemly girl, I know of none more ugly. I have seen thy grand- mother ; she sat on a wall one day and pointed out the way with her hand to some travelling lepers. How could I touch thy food?” So the maiden went away in sorrow. And then Guaire the king was indeed angry ; and he ex- claimed, ‘‘ My malediction on the mouth that uttered that! May the kiss of a leper be on Seanchan’s lips before he dies !” Now there was a young serving-girl there, and she said to Seanchan, ‘‘ There is a hen’s egg in the place, my lord, may I bring it to thee, oh, Chief Bard ?” “Tt will suffice,” said Seanchan; “bring it that I may ent But when she went to look for it, behold the egg was gone. 28 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. rv “Thou hast eaten it,” said the bard, in wrath. ‘“Not so, my lord,” she answered ; ‘“‘but the mice, the nimble race, have carried it away.” “Then I will satirize them ina poem,” said Seanchan ; and forthwith he chanted so bitter a satire against iets that ten mice fell dead at once in his presence. “’'Tis well,” said Seanchan ; “ but the cat is the one most to blame, for it was her duty to suppress the mice. There- fore I shall satirize the tribe of the cats, and their chief lord, Irusan, son of Arusan. For I know where he lives with his wife Spit-fire, and his daughter Sharp-tooth, with her brothers, the Purrer and the Growler. But I shall begin with Irusan himself, for he is king, and answerable for all the cats.” And he said—*Trusan, monster of claws, who strikes at the mouse, but lets it go ; weakest of cats. The otter did well who bit off the tips of thy progenitor’s ears, so that every cat since is jagged-eared. Let thy tail hang down; it is right, for the mouse jeers at thee.” Now Irusan heard the words in his cave, and he said to his daughter, Sharp-tooth : “ Seanchan has satirized me, but I will be avenged.” ‘Nay, father,” she said, ‘bring him here alive, that we may all take our revenge.” ‘“‘T shall go then and bring him,” said Irusan ; *‘so send thy brothers after me.” Now when it was told to Seanchan that the King of the Cats was on his way to come and kil] him, he was timorous, and besought Guaire and all the nobles to stand by and protect him. And _ before long a vibrating, impressive, < SEANCHAN THE BARD AND THE KING OF THE CATS. 29 impetuous sound was heard, like a raging tempest of fire in full blaze. -And when the cat appeared he seemed to them of the size of a bullock; and this was his appearance— rapacious, panting, jagged-eared, snub-nosed, sharp-toothed, nimble, angry, vindictive, glare-eyed, terrible, sharp-clawed. Such was his similitude. But he passed on amongst them, not minding till he came to Seanchan; and him he seized by the arm and jerked him up on his back, and made off the way he came before any one could touch him; for he had no other object in view but to get hold of the poet. Now Seanchan, being in evil plight, had recourse to flattery. ‘‘ Oh, Irusan,” he exclaimed, “ how truly splendid thou art, such running, such leaps, such strength, and such agility! But what evil have I done, oh, Irusan, son of Arusan? spare me, I entreat. I invoke the saints between thee and me, oh, great King of the Cats.” But not a bit did the cat let go his hold for all this fine talk, but went straight on to Clonmacnoise where there was a forge; and St. Kieran happened to be there standing at the door. ‘What !” exclaimed the saint ; ‘‘is that the Chief Bard of Erin on the back of a cat? Has Guaire’s hospitality ended in this?” And he ran for a red-hot bar of iron that was in the furnace, and struck the cat on the side with it, so that the iron passed through him, and he fell down lifeless. ‘““ Now my curse on the hand that gave that blow!” said the bard, when he got upon his feet. ‘¢ And wherefore?” asked St. Kieran. “‘ Because,” answered Seanchan, “I would rather Irusan had killed me, and eaten me every bit, that so I might 30 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. bring disgrace on Guaire for the bad food he gave me; for it was all owing to his wretched dinners that I got into this plight.” And when all the other kings heard of Seanchan’s misfor- tunes, they sent to beg he would visit their courts. But he would have neither kiss nor welcome from them, and went on his way to the bardic mansion, where the best of good living was always to be had. And ever after the kings were afraid to offend Seanchan. So as long as he lived he had the chief place at the feasts, and all the nobles there were made to sit below him, and Seanchan was content. And in time he and Guaire were reconciled ; and Seanchan and all the ollamhs, and the whole Bardic Association, were feasted by the king for thirty days in noble style, and had the choicest of viands and the best of French wines to drink, served in goblets of silver. And in return for his splendid hospitality the Bardic Association decreed, unanimously, a vote of thanks to the king. And they praised him in poems as “Guaire the Generous,” by which name he was ever after known in history, for the words of the poet are immortal. THE Barops. Oe: THE Irish kings in ancient times kept up splendid hospitality at theirrespective courts, and never sat down to an entertainment, it was said, without a hundred nobles at least being present. Next in rank and superb living to the royal race came the learned men, the ollamhs and poets; they were placed next the king, and above the nobles at the festivals, and very gorgeous was the appearance of the Ard-Filé on these occasions, in his white robes clasped with golden brooches, and a circlet of gold upon his head ; while by his side lay the golden harp, which he seized when the poetic frenzy came upon him, ana swept the chords to songs of love, or in praise of immortal heroes. The queen alone had the privilege to ask the poet to recite at the royal banquets, and while he declaimed, no man dared to interrupt him by a single word. A train of fifty minor bards always attended the chief poet, and they were all entertained free of cost wherever they visited, throughout Ireland, while the Ard-Filé was borne on men’s shoulders to the palace of the king, and there presented with a rich robe, a chain, and a girdle of gold. Of one bard, it is recorded that the king gave him, 32 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. ‘in addition, his horse and armour, fifty rings to his hand, one thousand ounces of pure gold, and his chess-board. The game of chess is frequently referred to in the old bardic tales ; and chess seems to have been a favourite pas- time with the Irish from the most remote antiquity. The pieces must have been of great size, for it is narrated that the great Cuchullen killed a messenger who had told him a lie, by merely flinging a chessman at him, which pierced his brain. The royal chess-board was very costly and richly decorated. One is described in a manuscript of the twelfth century: “It was a board of silver and pure gold, and every angle was illuminated with precious stones. And there was a man-bag of woven brass wire.” But the ancestors of the same king had in their hall a chess-board with the pieces formed of the bones of their hereditary enemies. The dress of the bards added to their splendour, for the Brehon laws enacted that the value of the robes of the chief poet should be five milch cows, and that of the poetess three cows ; the queen’s robes being of the value of seven cows, including a diadem and golden veil, and a robe of scarlet silk, embroidered in divers colours. The scions of the royal house had also the right to seven colours in their mantle ; while the poet was allowed six, and the poetess five —the number of colours being a sign of dignity and rank. Learning was always highly esteemed in Ireland, and in ancient Erin the /izera/7 ranked next to the kings. The great and wise Ol/amh-Fodla, king of Ireland in Druidic times, built and endowed a college at Tara, near the royal palace, which was called MJur- Ollamh, “the Wall of the Learned.” All the arts and sciences were represented THE BARDS. 33 there by eminent professors, the great ollaves ot music, his- tory, poetry, and oratory; and they lived and feasted together, and formed the great Bardic Association, ruled over by their own president, styled the Ard-Filé, or chief poet of Ireland, from Lilidecht (philosophy or the highest wisdom) ; for the poets, above all men, were required to be pure and free from all sin that could be a reproach to learning. From them was demanded— “Purity of hand, Purity of mouth, Purity of learning, Purity of marriage ;” and any ollamh that did not preserve these four purities, lost half his income and his dignity, the poet being esteemed not only the highest of all men for his learning and intellect, but also as being the true revealer of the supreme wisdom. Music was sedulously taught and cultivated at the college of the ollamhs; for all the ancient life of Ireland moved to music. The Brehons seated on a hill intoned the laws to the listening people; the Senachies chanted the genealogies of the kings ; and the Poets recited the deeds of the heroes, or sang to their gold harps those exquisite airs that still enchant the world, and which have been wafted down along the centuries, an echo, according to tradition, of the soft, pathetic, fairy music, that haunted the hills and glens of ancient Ireland. The chief poet was required to know by heart four hun- dred poems, and the minor bards two hundred. And they were bound to recite any poem called for by the kings at the VOL, II. 4 34 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. festivals. On one occasion a recitation was demanded of the legend of the Zaine-bo- Cualgnia, or The Great Cattle Raid, of which Maeve, queen of Connaught, was the heroine, but none of the bards knew it. This was felt to be a great dis- grace, and Seanchan and the bards set forth to traverse Ire- land in search of the story of the Taine, under Geasa, or a solemn oath, not to sleep twice in the same place till it was found. At length it was revealed to them that only the dead Fergus-Roy knew the poem, and forthwith they proceeded to his grave, and fasted and prayed for three days, while they invoked him to appear. And on their invocation Fergus- Roy uprose in awful majesty, and stood in his grave clothes before them, and recited the Taine from beginning to end, to the circle of listening bards. Then, having finished, he descended again into the grave, and the earth closed over him. During this expedition, Guaire the Generous took charge of all the wives and the poetesses of the Bardic Association, so as they should not trouble the bards while on their wanderings in search of the ballad of the Taine. Yet they do not seem to have been great feeders, these learned ladies; for it is related of one of them, Brigit the poetess, that although she ate only one hen’s egg at a meal, yet she was called “ Brigit of the great appetite.” It was on their return from the search for the Taine that the bards decreed a vote of thanks to Guaire the king, In order to keep up the dignity of the great bardic clan, an income was paid by the State to each of the professors and poets according to his eminence ; that of the chief poet THE BARDS, 35 being estimated by antiquarians at about five thousand a year of our money, for the lofty and learned Bardic Associa- tion disdained commerce and toil. The Fileas lived only on inspiration and the hospitality of their royal and noble patrons, which they amply repaid by laudatory odes and sonnets. But, if due homage were denied them, they de- nounced the ungenerous and niggard defaulter in the most scathing and bitter satires. Of one chief it is recorded that he absolutely went mad and died in consequence of the malignant poems that were made on him by a clever satirical bard. At last the Brehons found it necessary to take cogni- zance of this cruel and terrible implement of social torture, and enactments were framed against it, with strict regula- tions regarding the quality and justice of the satires poured out by the poets on those who had the courage to resist their exactions and resent their insolence. F inally, however, the Ollamhs, poets, and poetesses became so intolerable, that the reigning king of Ireland about the seventh century made a great effort to extirpate the whole bardic race, but failed ; they were too strong for him, though he succeeded in, at least, materially abridging their privileges, lessening their revenues, and reducing their numbers; and though they still continued to exist as the Bardic Association, yet they never afterwards regained the power and dignity which they once held in the land, before their pride and insolent con- tempt of all classes who were not numbered amongst the ollamhs and fileas, had aroused such violent animosity. The Brehon laws also decreed, as to the distraint of a poet, that his horsewhip be taken from him, “as a warning that he 36 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. is not to make use of it until he renders justice.” Perhaps: by the horsewhip was meant the wand or staff which the poets carried, made of wood, on which it is conjectured they may have inscribed their verses in the Ogham character. The Brehons seem to have made the most minute regula- tions as to the life of the people, even concerning the domestic cats. In the Sexchas Mor (The Great An- tiquity), it is enacted that the cat is exempt from liability for eating the food which he finds in the kitchen, ‘‘ owing to negligence in taking care of it.” But if it were taken from the security of a vessel, then the cat is in fault, and he may safely be killed. The cat, also, is exempt from liability for injuring an idler in catching mice while mousing; but half-fines are due from him for the profitable worker he may injure, and the excitement of his mousing takes the other half. For the distraint of a dog, a stick was placed over his trough, in order that he be not fed. And there was a distress of two days for a black and white cat if descended from the great champion, which was taken from the ship of Breasal Breac, in which were white-breasted black cats; the: same for the lapdog of a queen. KinG ARTHUR AND THE Car. wie WHILE on the subject of cats, the curious and interesting legend of “ King Arthur’s Fight with the Great Cat” should not be passed over; for though not exactly Irish, yet it is at least Celtic, and belongs by affinity to our ancient race. It is taken from a prose romance of the fifteenth century, entitled, “Merlin; or, The Early Life of King Arthur,” recently edited, from the unique Cambridge Manuscript, by Mr. Wheatly. Merlin told the king that the people beyond the Lake of Lausanne greatly desired his help, “for there repaireth a devil that destroyeth the country. It is a cat so great and ugly that it is horrible to look on.” For one time a fisher came to the lake with his nets, and he promised to give our Lord the first fish he took. It was a fish worth thirty shillings; and when he saw it so fair and great, he said to himself softly, “God shall not have this; but I will surely give him the next.” Now the next was still better, and he said, “ Our Lord may wait yet awhile; but the third shall be His without doubt.” So he cast his net, but drew out only a little kitten, as black as any coal. 38 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. And when the fisher saw it he said he had need of it at home for rats and mice ; and he nourished it and kept it in his house, till it strangled him and his wife and children. Then the cat fled to a high mountain, and destroyed and slew all that came in his way, and was great and terrible to behold. When the king heard this he made ready and rode to the Lac de Lausanne, and found the country desolate and void of people, for neither man nor woman would inhabit the place for fear of the cat. And the king was lodged a mile from the mountain, with Sir Gawvain and Merlin and others. And they clomb the mountain, Merlin leading the way. And when they were come up, Merlin said to the king, “Sir, in that rock liveth the cat ;” and he showed him a great cave, large and deep, in the mountain. ‘“‘ And how shall the cat come out ?” said the king. “That shall ye see hastily,” quoth Merlin; “ but look you, be ready to defend, for anon he will assail you.” “Then draw ye all back,” said the king, ‘“ for I will prove his power.” And when they withdrew, Merlin whistled loud, and the cat leaped out of the cave, thinking it was some wild beast, for he was hungry and fasting; and he ran boldly to the king, who was ready with his spear, and thought to smite him through the body. But the fiend seized the spear in his mouth and broke it in twain. Then the king drew his sword, holding his shield also. before him. And as the cat leaped at his throat, he struck him so fiercely that the creature fell to the ground; but soon KING ARTHUR AND THE CAT. 39 was up again, and ran at the king so hard that his claws gripped through the hauberk to the flesh, and the red blood followed the claws. Now the king was nigh falling to earth; but when he saw the red blood he was wonder-wrath, and with his sword in his right hand and his shield at his breast, he ran at the cat vigorously, who sat licking his claws, all wet with blood. But when he saw the king coming towards him, he leapt up to seize him by the throat, as before, and stuck his fore- feet so firmly in the shield that they stayed there ; and the king smote him on the legs, so that he cut them off to the knees, and the cat fell to the ground. Then the king ran at him with his sword; but the cat stood on his hind-legs and grinned with his teeth, and coveted the throat of the king, and the king tried to smite him on the head ; but the cat strained his hinder feet and leaped at the king’s breast, and fixed his teeth in the flesh, so that the blood streamed down from breast and shoulder. Then the king struck him fiercely on the body, and the cat fell head downwards, but the feet stayed fixed in the hauberk. And the king smote them asunder, on which the cat fell to the ground, where she howled and brayed so loudly that it was heard through all the host, and she began to creep towards the cave; but the king stood between her and the cave, and when she tried to catch him with her teeth he struck her dead. Then Merlin and the others ran to him and asked how it was with him, “Well, blessed be our Lord !” said the king, “for I have slain this devil; but, verily, I never had such doubt of 4O ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND, myself, not even when I slew the giant on the mountain ; therefore I thank the Lord.” (This was the great giant of St. Michael’s Mount, who supped all the season on seven knave children chopped in a charger of white silver, with powder of precious spices, and goblets full plenteous of Portugal wine.) “Sir,” said the barons, “ ye have great cause for thankful- ness.” Then they looked on the feet that were left in the shield and in the hauberk, and said, “Such feet were never seen before!” And they took the shield and showed it to the host with great joy. So the king let the shield be with the cat’s feet ; but the other feet he had laid in a coffin to be kept. And the mountain was called from that day “The Mountain of the Cat,” and the name will never be changed while the world endureth. CoNCERNING Cows. ——. THE most singular legends of Ireland relate to bulls and cows, and there are hundreds of places all commencing with the word Bo (one of the most ancient words in the Irish language), which recall some mystic or mythical story of a cow, especially of a white heifer, which animal seems to have been an object of the greatest veneration from all antiquity. In old times there arose one day a maiden from the sea, a beautiful Berooch, or mermaid, and all the people on the Western Coast of Erin gathered round her and wondered at her beauty. And the great chief of the land carried her home to his house, where she was treated like a queen. And she was very gentle and wise, and after some time she acquired the language, and could talk to the people quite well in their own Irish tongue, to their great delight and wonder. ‘Then she informed them that she had been sent to their country by a great spirit, to announce the arrival in Ireland of the three sacred cows—JLo-finn, Lo- Ruadh, and Bo-Dhu—the white, the red, and the black cows, who were destined to fill the land with the most 42 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. splendid cattle, so that the people should never know want while the world lasted. This was such good news that the people in their delight carried the sea-maiden from house to house in procession, in order that she might tell it herself to every one; and they crowned her with flowers, while the musicians went before her, singing to their harps. After dwelling with them a little longer she asked to be. taken back to the sea, for she had grown sad at being away so long from her own kindred. So, on May Eve, a great crowd accompanied her down to the strand, where she took leave of them, telling them that on that day year they should all assemble at the same place to await the arrival of the three cows. Then she plunged into the sea and was seen no more. However, on that day year all the people of Ireland assembled on the shore to watch, as they had been directed by the beautiful sea-maiden ; and all the high cliffs and all the rocks were covered with anxious spectators from the early dawn. Nor did they wait in vain. Exactly at noon the waves were stirred with a mighty commotion, and three cows rose up from the sea—a white, a red, and a black— all beautiful to behold, with sleek skins, large soft eyes, and curved horns, white as ivory. They stood upon the shore for a while, looking around them. Then each one went in a different direction, by three roads; the black went south, the red went north, and the milk-white heifer—the Bo-Finn —crossed the plain of Ireland to the very centre, where stood the King’s palace. And every place she passed was. named after her, and every well she drank at was called: CONCERNING COWS. 43; Lough-na-Bo, or Tober-Bo-Finn (the well of the white cow), so her memory remains to this day. In process of time the white heifer gave birth to twins, a male and female calf, and from them descended a great. race, still existing in Ireland; after which the white cow disappeared into a great cave by the sea, the entrance to. which no man knows. And there she remains, and will remain, in an enchanted sleep, until the true king of Eiré, the lord of Ireland, shall come to waken her ; but the lake near the cave is still known as Zough-na-Bo-banna (the lake of the snow-white cow). Yet some say that it was the king’s daughter was carried off by enchantment to the cave, in the form of a cow, and she will never regain her form until she sleeps on the summit of each of the three highest mountains in Ireland; but only the true king of Eiré can wake her from her sleep, and bring her to “the rock of the high place,” whence she will be restored at last to her own beautiful form. Another legend says that a red-haired woman struck the beautiful Bo-Finn with her staff, and smote her to. death ;. and the roar which the white cow gave in dying was heard throughout the whole of Ireland, and all the people trem- bled. This is evidently an allegory. The beautiful Bo- Finn—the white cow—is Ireland herself; and the red-haired woman who smote her to death was Queen Elizabeth, ‘in whose time, after her cruel wars, the cry of the slaughtered people was heard all over the land, and went up to heaven for vengeance against the enemies of Ireland; and the kingdom was shaken as by an earthquake, by the roar of the oppressed against the tyrant.” 44 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. UDhe path of the white cow across Ireland is marked by small rude stone monuments, still existing. They show ‘the exact spot where she rested each night and had her bed, and the adjoining lands have names connected with the tradition—as, “The plain of the Fenian cows 7" ine ial of worship ;” “The pool of the spotted ox,” called after him because he always waited to drink till the white cow came, for they were much attached to each other. There are also Druid stones at one resting-place, with ‘Ogham marks on them. Some time ago an endeavour was made to remove and carry off the stones of one of the Monuments ; but the man who first put a spade in the ground was “struck,” and remained bedridden seven years. The plain of the death of the Bo-danna (the white cow), where she gave the roar that shook all Ireland, is called “the plain of lamentation.” It never was tilled, and never will be tilled. The people hold it as a sacred spot, and until recently it was the custom to have dances there every Sunday. But these old usages are rapidly dying out; for though meant originally as mystic ceremonies, yet by degrees they degenerated to such licentious revelry that the wrath of the priesthood fell on them, and they were discontinued. There is a holy well near ‘the plain of lamentation,” called Zobar-na-Bo (the well of the white cow); and these ancient names, coming down the stream of time from the far-off Pagan era, attest the great antiquity of the legend of the coming to Ireland of the mystic and beautiful Bo-Finn, There is another legend concerning the arrival of the three cows—the white, the red, and the black—which is said to be taken from the Book of Enoch. CONCERNING COWS. 45 Four cows sprang at once from the earth—two white, a red, and a black—and one of the four went over to the white cow and taught it a mystery. And it trembled and became a man, and this was the first man that appeared in Erin. And the man fashioned a ship and dwelt there with the cows while a deluge covered the earth. And when the- waters ceased, the red and the black cows went their way,, but the white remained. The story is supposed by Bryant to be a literal rendering. of some ancient hieroglyph, descriptive of the three races of mankind, and of the dispersion of the primal human. family, FAIRY: WILES. The fairies are very desirous to abduct handsome cows: and carry them off to the fairy palace under the earth; and if a farmer happens to find one of his stock ailing or diseased, the belief is that the fairies have carried off the real good animal, and sent an old wizened witch to take the form of the farmer’s cow. Itis therefore to neutralize the fairy spells that the cattle are driven through the fire on St. John’s Eve ;. and other devices are employed—a bunch of. primroses is. very effective tied on the tail, or a hot coal run down the cow’s back to singe the hair. One evening a boy was driving home his father’s cows. when a fairy blast arose in the form of a whirlwind of dust, on which the cows took fright, and one of them ran upon a fairy rath. ‘The boy followed to turn her back, when he was met and stopped by an old witch-woman. 46 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. “Let her alone, Alanna,” she cried, “she is on our ground now, and you can’t take her away. So just run home and tell your father that on this day twelvemonth the cow will be restored to him, and bring a fine young calf along with her. But the fairies want her badly now, for our beautiful queen down there is fretting her life out for want of some milk that has the scent of the green grass in it and of the fresh upper air. Now don’t fret, Alanna, but trust my words. ‘There, take yon hazel stick and strike the cow boldly three times on the head, that so the way may be ‘clear we have to travel.” With that the boy struck the animal as he was desired, for the old witch-woman was so nice and civil that he liked to oblige her, and immediately after she and the cow vanished away as if they had sunk into the earth. However, the father minded the time, and when that day year came round he sent his son to the fairy rath to see if the witch had kept her promise, and there truly was the ‘cow standing quite patiently, and a fine white calf by her ‘side. So there were great rejoicings when he brought them home, for the fairies had kept their promise and behaved honourably, as indeed they always do when properly treated and trusted. Not but that the fairies will do wicked things sometimes, and, above all, steal the milk when they get a chance, or skim the cream off the milk crocks. A farmer had a fine cow that was the pride of his farm and gave splendid milk, but suddenly the animal seemed ailing and queer; for she gave no milk, but went every CONCERNING COWS. A7 morning and stood under the old hawthorn-tree quite quietly as if some one were milking her. So the man watched the place at milking time, and as usual down the field came the cow and took up her position close under the old hawthorn. Then the farmer beheld the trunk of the tree open, and out of the cleft came a little witch-woman all in red, who milked the cow in a vessel she had with her, and then she retreated into the tree again. Here was devil’s work in earnest, so thought the farmer, and he hastened off for the greatest fairy doctor in the coun- try. And when he came the cow was singed all along its back with a live coal; and then an incantation was said over it, but no one heard the words the fairy doctor uttered; after this he gave the animal a strong potion to drink, but no one knew the herbs of which it was made. However, the next day the cow was quite restored, and gave her milk as heretofore, and the spell was broken for ever and ever, after they had drawn a circle round the old hawthorn-tree with a red-hot piece of iron taken from the hearth; for neither witch nor fairy can pass a circle of fire. THE .DEAD tr Anu WITCHCRAFT is sometimes practised by the people to pro- duce butter in the churn, the most efficacious being to stir the milk round with the hand of a dead man, newly taken. from the churchyard; but whoever is suspected of this. practice is looked upon with great horror and dread by the neighbours. A woman of the mainland got married toa fine young fellow of one of the islands. She was a tall, dark woman who seldom spoke, and kept herself very close and reserved from every one. But she minded her business; for she had always more butter to bring to market than any one else, and could therefore undersell the other farmers’ wives. Then strange rumours got about concerning her, and the people began to whisper among themselves that something was wrong, and that there was witchcraft in it, especially as it. was known that whenever she churned she went into an inner room off the kitchen, shut the door close, and would allow no one to enter. So they determined to watch and find out the secret, and one day a girl from the neighbour- hood, when the woman was out, got in through a window THE DEAD HAND. 49 and hid herself under the bed, waiting there patiently till the churning began. At last in came the woman, and having carefully closed the door began her work with the milk, churning in the usual way without any strange doings that might seem to have magic in them. But presently she stopped, and going over to a box unlocked it, and from this receptacle, to the girl’s horror, she drew forth the hand of a dead man, with which she stirred the milk round and round several times, going down on her knees and muttering an incantation all the while. Seven times she stirred the milk with the dead hand, and seven times she went round the churn on her knees mutter- ing some strange charm. After this she rose up and began to gather the butter from the churn with the dead hand, filling a pail with as much butter as the milk of ten cows. When the pail was quite full she dipped the dead hand three times in the milk, then dried it and put it back again in the box. The girl, as soon as she could get away unperceived, fled in horror from the room, and spread the news amongst the people. At once a crowd gathered round the house with angry cries and threats to break open the door to search for the dead hand. At last the woman appeared calm and cold as usual, and told them they were taking a deal of trouble about nothing, for there was no dead hand in the house. However, the people rushed in and searched, but all they saw was a huge fire on the hearth, though the smell of burning flesh was distinctly perceptible, and by this they knew that she had VOUsni ls 5 50 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. burnt the dead hand. Yet this did not save her from the vengeance of the neighbours. She was shunned by every one; no one would eat with her, or drink with her, or talk to her, and after a while she and her husband quitted the island and were never more heard of. However, after she left and the butter was brought to the market, all the people had their fair and equal rights again, of which the wicked witchcraft of the woman had defrauded them for so long, and there was great rejoicing in the island over the fall and punishment of the wicked witch of the dead hand. THE MAICKED: AM pow: THE evil spells over milk and butter are generally practised by women, and arise from some feeling of malice or envy against a prosperous neighbour. But the spell will not work unless some portion of the milk is first given by consent. The people therefore are very reluctant to give away milk, unless to some friend that they could not suspect of evil. Tramps coming in to beg for a mug of milk should always be avoided, they may be witches in disguise; and even if milk is given, it must be drunk in the house, and not carried away out of it. In every case the person who enters must give a hand to the churn, and say, “ God bless all here.” A young farmer, one of the fine handsome fellows of the West, named Hugh Connor, who was also well off and rich, took to wife a pretty young girl of the village called Mary, one of the Leydons, and there was no better girl in all the country round, and they were very comfortable and happy together. But Hugh Connor had been keeping company before his marriage with a young widow of the place, who had designs on him, and was filled with rage when Mary Leydon was selected for Connor’s bride, in place of herself. Then a desire for vengeance rose up in her heart, and she 52 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. laid her plans accordingly. First she got a fairy woman to teach her some witch secrets and spells, and then by great pre- tence of love and affection for Mary Connor, she got frequent admission to the house, soothing and flattering the young wife ; and on churning days she would especially make it a. point to come in and offer a helping hand, and if the cakes. were on the griddle, she would sit down to watch and turn them. But it so happened that always on these days the cakes were sure to be burned and spoiled, and the butter would not rise in the churn, or if any did come, it was sour and bad, and of no use for the market. But still the widow kept on visiting, and soothing, and flattering, till Mary Connor thought she was the very best friend to her in the whole wide world, though it was true that whenever the widow came to the house something evil happened. The best dish fell down of itself off the dresser and broke; or the rain got in through the roof, and Mary’s new cashmere: gown, a present that had come to her all the way from Dublin, was quite ruined and spoiled. But worse came, for the cow sickened, and a fine young brood of turkeys walked: straight into the lake and got drowned. And still worst of all, the picture of the Blessed Virgin Mother, that was. pinned up to the wall, fell down one day, and was blown into the fire and burned. After this, what luck could be on the house? and Mary’s. heart sank within her, and she fairly broke down, and cried her very life out in a torrent of tears. Now it so happened that an old woman witha blue cloak, and the hood of it over her head, a stranger, was passing by at the time, and she stepped in and asked Mary kindly what THE WICKED WIDOW. 53 ailed her. So Mary told her all her misfortunes, and how everything in the house seemed bewitched for evil. *‘ Now,” said the stranger, ‘‘I see it all, for I am wise, and know the mysteries. Some one with the Evil Eye comes to your house. We must find out who it is.” Then Mary told her that the nearest friend she had was the widow, but she was so sweet and kind, no one could suspect her of harm. “We'll see,” said the stranger, “only do as I bid you, and have everything ready when she comes.” ‘She will be here soon,” said Mary, ‘‘for it is churning day, and she always comes to help exactly at noon.” “Then I'll begin at once ; and now close the door fast,” said the stranger. And with that she threw some herbs on the fire, so that a great smoke arose. ‘Then she took all the plough irons that were about, and one of them she drove into the ground close beside the churn, and put a live coal beside it; and the other irons she heated red-hot in the fire, and still threw on more herbs to make a thick smoke, which Mary thought smelt like the incense in the church. Then witha hot iron rod from the fire, the strange woman made the sign of the cross on the threshold, and another over the hearth. After which a loud roaring was heard outside, and the widow rushed in crying out that a hot stick was running through her heart, and all her body was on fire. And then she dropped down on the floor in a fit, and her face became quite black, and her limbs worked in convulsions. ‘*‘ Now,” said the stranger, “‘ you see who it is put the Evil Eye on all your house; but the spell has been broken at 54 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. last. Send for the men to carry her back to her own house, and never let that witch-woman cross your threshold again.” After this the stranger disappeared, and was seen no more in the village. Now when all the neighbours heard the story, they would have no dealings with the widow. She was shunned and hated ; and no respectable person would be seen talking to her, and she went by the name of the Evil Witch. So her life was very miserable, and not long after she died of sheer vexation and spite, all by herself alone, for no one would go near her; and the night of the wake no one went to offer a prayer, for they said the devil would be there in per- son to look after his own. And no one would walk with her coffin to the grave, for they said the devil was waiting at the churchyard gate for her ; and they firmly believe to this day that her body was carried away on that night from the graveyard by the powers of darkness. But no one ventured to test the truth of the story by opening the coffin, so the weird legend remains still unsolved. But as for Hugh Connor and the pretty Mary, they pros- pered after that in all things, and good luck and the blessing of God seemed to be evermore on them and their house, and their cattle, and their children. At the same time, Mary never omitted on churning days to put a red-hot horse-shoe under the churn, according as the stranger had told her, who she firmly believed was a good fairy in disguise, who came to help her in the time of her sore trouble and anxiety. Dee sDuUrraR. MYSTERY: THERE were two brothers who had a small farm and dairy between them, and they were honest and industrious, and worked hard to get along, though they had barely enough, after all their labour, just to keep body and soul together. One day while churning, the handle of the dash broke, and nothing being near to mend it, one of the brothers cut off a branch from an elder-tree that grew close to the house, and tied it to the-dash fora handle. Then the churning went on, but, to their surprise, the butter gathered so thick that all the crocks in the house were soon full, and still there was more left. ‘The same thing went on every churning day, so the brothers became rich, for they could fill the market with their butter, and still had more than enough for every buyer. At last, being honest and true men, they began to fear that there was witchcraft in it, and that they were wronging their neighbours by abstracting their butter, and bringing it to their own churn in some strange way. So they both went off together to a great fairy doctor, and told him the whole story, and asked his advice. ** Foolish men,” he said to them, ‘“ why did you come to 56 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. me? for now you have broken the spell, and you will never have your crocks filled with butter any more. Your good fortune has passed away, for know the truth now. You were not wronging your neighbours ; all was fair and just that you did, but this is how it happened. Long ago, the fairies passing through your land had a dispute and fought a battle, and having no arms, they flung lumps of butter at each other, which got lodged in the branches of the elder-tree in great quantities, for it was just after May Eve, when butter is plenty. This is the butter you have had, for the elder- tree has a sacred power which preserved it until now, and it came down to you through the branch you cut for a handle to the dash. But the spell is broken now that you have uttered the mystery, and you will have no more butter from the elder-tree.” Then the brothers went away sorrowful, and never after did the butter come beyond the usual quantity. However, they had already made so much money that they were con- tent. And they stocked their farm, and all things prospered with them, for they had dealt uprightly in the matter, and the blessing of the Lord was on them. CoNCERNING Birps. In all countries superstitions of good or evil are attached to certain birds. The raven, for instance, has a wide-world reputation as the harbinger of evil and ill-luck. The wild geese portend a severe winter ; the robin is held sacred, for no one would think of harming a bird who bears on his breast the blessed mark of the blood of Christ ; while the wren is hunted to death with intense and cruel hate on St. stephen’s Day. THEe MAGPIE: There is no Irish name for the Magpie. It is generally called Francagh, a Frenchman, though no one knows why. Many queer tales are narrated of this bird, arising from its quaint ways, its adroit cunning and habits of petty larceny. Its influence is not considered evil, though to meet one alone in the morning when going a journey is an ill omen, but to meet more than one magpie betokens good fortune, according to the old rhyme which runs thus— ** One for Sorrow, Two for Mirth, Three for Marriage, Four for a Birth.” ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. THE WREN. The wren is mortally hated by the Irish ; for on one oc- casion, when the Irish troops were approaching to attack a portion of Cromwell’s army, the wrens came and perched on the Irish drums, and by their tapping and noise aroused the English soldiers, who fell on the Irish troops and killed them all. So ever since the Irish hunt the wren on St. Stephen’s Day, and teach their children to run it through with thorns and kill it whenever it can be caught. A dead wren was also tied to a pole and carried from house to house by boys, who demanded money; if nothing was given the wren was buried on the door-step, which was considered a great insult to the family and a degradation. THE RAVEN AND WATER WAGTAIL, If ravens come cawing about a house it is a sure sign of death, for the raven is Satan’s own bird; so also is the water wagtail, yet beware of killing it, for it has three drops of the devil’s blood in its little body, and ill-luck ever goes with it, and follows it. THE CUCKOO AND ROBIN REDBREAST. It is very unlucky to kill the cuckoo or break its eggs, for it brings fine weather; but most unlucky of all things is to kill the robin redbreast. The robin is God’s own bird, sacred and holy, and held in the greatest veneration because CONCERNING BIRDS. 59 of the beautiful tradition current amongst the people, that it was the robin plucked out the sharpest thorn that was. piercing Christ’s brow on the cross; and in so doing the breast of the bird was dyed red with the Saviour’s blood, and so has remained ever since a sacred and blessed sign to preserve the robin from harm and make it beloved of all men. ConcERNING Living CREATURES. THE CRIGK Eds ‘THE crickets are believed to be enchanted. People do not like to express an exact opinion about them, so they are ‘spoken of with great mystery and awe, and no one would venture to kill them for the whole world. But they are by no means evil; on the contrary, the presence of the cricket is considered lucky, and their singing keeps away the fairies at night, who are always anxious, in their selfish way, to have the whole hearth left clear for themselves, that they may sit round the last embers of the fire, and drink the cup ‘of milk left for them by the farmer’s wife, in peace and ‘quietness, The crickets are supposed to be hundreds of years old, and their talk, could we understand it, would no ‘doubt be most interesting and instructive. THE BEETLE. The beetle is not killed by the people for the following reason : they have a tradition that one day the chief priests CONCERNING LIVING CREATURES. 6r sent messengers in every direction to look for the Lord! | Jesus, and they came to a field where a man was reaping, il and asked him— ‘Did Jesus of Nazareth pass this way ?” ‘““ No,” said the man, ‘‘I have not seen Him.” “But I know better,” said a little clock running up, “ for He was here to-day and rested, and has not long gone away.’ ‘““That is false,” said a great big black beetle, coming forward ; “‘ He has not passed since yesterday, and you will never find Him on this road; try another.” So the people kill ‘the clock because he tried to betray fe Christ ; but they spare the beetle and will not touch him,, |) a because he saved the Lord on that day. THe ARE, Hares are considered unlucky, as the witches constantly assume their form in order to gain entrance to a field where they can bewitch the cattle. A man once fired at a hare he met in the early morning, and having wounded it, fol- lowed the track of the blood till it disappeared within a cabin. On entering he found Nancy Molony, the greatest witch in all the county, sitting by the fire, groaning and holding her side. And then the man knew that she had been out in the form of the hare, and he rejoiced over her discomfiture. Still it is not lucky to kill a hare before sunrise, even when it crosses your path; but should it cross ¢hree times, then turn back, for danger is on the road before you. 62 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. A tailor one time returning home very late at night from a wake, or better, very early in the morning, saw a hare sitting on the path before him, and not inclined to run away. As he approached, with his stick raised to strike her, he distinctly heard a voice saying, ‘‘ Don’t kill it.” However, he struck the hare three times, and each time heard the voice say, “Don’t kill it.” But the last blow knocked the poor hare quite dead; and immediately a great big weasel sat up, and began to spit at him. This greatly frightened the tailor who, however, grabbed the hare, and ran off as fast as he could. Seeing him look so pale and frightened, his wife asked the cause, on which he told her the whole story ; and they both knew he had done ‘wrong, and offended some powerful witch, who would be avenged. However, they dug a grave for the hare and buried it; for they were afraid to eat it, and thought that now perhaps the danger was over. But next day the man became suddenly speechless, and died off before the seventh day was over, without a word evermore passing his lips ; and then all the neighbours knew that the witch-woman had taken her revenge. THE-WEASEL, Weasels are spiteful and malignant, and old withered witches sometimes take this form. It is extremely unlucky to meet a weasel the first thing in the morning; still it would be hazardous to kill it, for it might be a witch and take revenge. Indeed one should be very cautious about killing a weasel at any time, for all the other weasels will CONCERNING LIVING CREATURES. 63 resent your audacity, and kill your chickens when an op- portunity offers. The only remedy is to kill one chicken yourself, make the sign of the cross solemnly three times over it, then tie it to a stick hung up in the yard, and the weasels will have no more power for evil, nor the witches who take their form, at least during the year, if the stick is jeft standing ; but the chicken may be eaten when the sun goes down. A goose is killed on St. Michael’s Day because the son of a king, being then at a feast, was choked by the bone of a goose ; but was restored by St. Patrick. Hence the king ordered a goose to be sacrified every year on the anniver- sary of the day to commemorate the event, and in honour of St. Michael. A fowl is killed on St. Martin’s Day, and the blood sprinkled on the house. In Germany a black cock is substituted. A crowing hen, a whistling girl, and a black cat, are con- sidered most unlucky. Beware of them in a house. If a cock comes on the threshold and crows, you may expect visitors. To see three magpies on the left hand when on a journey is unlucky ; but two on the right hand is a good omen. If you hear the cuckoo on your right hand you will have luck all the year after. 64 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. “Whoever kills a robin redbreast will never bave good. luck were they to live a thousand years. A water wagtail near the house betokens bad news on its: way to you. If the first lamb of the season is born black, it foretells. mourning garments for the family within the year. It is very lucky for a hen and her chickens to stray into your house. Also it is good to meet a white lamb in the early morning with the sunlight on its face. It is unlucky to meet a magpie, a cat, or a lame woman. when going a journey. Or for a cock to meet a person in the doorway and crow before him—then the journey should be put off. If one magpie comes chattering to your door it is a sign of death; but if two prosperity will follow. For a magpie to come to the door and look at you is a sure death-sign,. and nothing can avert the doom. A flight of rooks over an army betokens defeat ; if over a. house, or over people when driving or walking, death will follow. It is very unlucky to ask a man on his way to fish where he is going. And many would turn back, knowing that it was an evil spell. When a swarm of bees suddenly quits the hive it is a sign CONCERNING LIVING CREATURES. 65 that death is hovering near the house. But the evil may be averted by the powerful prayers and exorcism of the priest. The shoe of a horse or of an ass nailed to the door-post will bring good luck; because these animals were in the stall when Christ was born, and are blessed for evermore. But the shoe must be found, 1o0t given, in order to bring luck. In whatever quarter you are looking when you first hear the cuckoo in the season, you will be travelling in that direc- tion before the year is over. It was the privilege of the chief bards to wear mantles made of birds’ plumage. A short cape flung on the shoulders made of mallards’ necks and crests must have been very gorgeous in effect, glittering like jewels, when the torch-light played on the colours at the festivals. THE PROPERTIES OF HERBS AND THEIR Use in Mepicine. —.0:-—— THE Irish, according to the saying of a wise man of the race, are the last of the 305 great Celtic nations of antiquity spoken of by Josephus, the Jewish historian ; and they alone preserve inviolate the ancient venerable language, minstrelsy, and Bardic traditions, with the strange and mystic secrets of herbs, through whose potent powers they can cure disease, cause love or hatred, discover the hidden mysteries of life and death, and dominate over the fairy wiles or the malific demons. The ancient people used to divine future events, victory in wars, safety in a dangerous voyage, triumph of a pro- jected undertaking, success in love, recovery from sickness, or the approach of death; all through the skilful use of herbs, the knowledge of which had come down to them through the earliest traditions of the human race. One of these herbs, called the Fairy-gent plant, was celebrated for its potent power of divination ; but only the adepts knew the mystic manner of its preparation for use. THE PROPERTIES OF HERBS, &C. 67 There was another herb of which a drink was made, called the Bardic potion, for the Bards alone had the secret of the herb, and of the proper mode of treatment by which its mystic power could be revealed. This potion they gave their infant children at their birth, for it had the singular property of endowing the recipient with a fairy sweetness of voice of the most rapturous and thrilling charm. And instances are recorded of men amongst the Celtic Bards, who, having drunk of this potion in early life, were ever after endowed with the sweet voice, like fairy music, that swayed the hearts of the hearers as they chose to love or war, joy or sadness, as if by magic influence, or lulled them into the sweet calm of sleep. Such, according to the Bardic legends, was the extraordinary power of voice possessed by the great Court Minstrel of Fionn Ma-Coul, who resided with the great chief at his palace of Almhuin, and always sat next him at the royal table. The virtue of herbs is great, but they must be gathered at night, and laid in the hand of a dead man to hold. There are herbs that produce love, and herbs that produce sterility ; but only the fairy doctor knows the secrets of their power, and he will reveal the knowledge to no man unless to an adept. The wise women learn the mystic powers from the fairies, but how they pay for the knowledge none dare to tell. The fairy doctors are often seized with trembling while uttering a charm, and look round with a scared glance of terror, as if some awful presence were beside them, But the people have the most perfect faith in the herb-men and wise women, and the faith may often work the cure. 68 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. There are seven herbs of great value and power; they are ground ivy, vervain, eyebright, groundsel, foxglove, the bark of the elder-tree, and the young shoots of the hawthorn. Nine balls of these mixed together may be taken, and afterwards a potion made of bog-water and salt, boiled in a vessel, with a piece of money and an elf-stone. The elf-stone is generally found near a rath ; it has great virtues, but being once lifted up by the spade it must never again touch the earth, or all its virtue is gone. (This elf-stone is in reality only an ancient stone arrow-head.) The Jlead Cailleath, or wood anemone, is used as a plaister for wounds. The hazel-tree has many virtues. It is sacred and powerful against devils’ wiles, and has mysteries and secret properties known to the wise and the adepts. The ancient Irish believed that there were fountains at the head of the chief rivers of Ireland, over each of which grew nine hazel-trees that at certain times produced beautiful red nuts. These nuts fell on the surface of the water, and the salmon in the river came up and ate of them, which caused the red spots on the salmon. And whoever could catch and eat one of these salmon would be indued with the sub- limest poetic intellect. Hence the phrase current amongst the people: “ Had I the net of science ;” “Had I eaten of the salmon of knowledge.”” And this supernatural know- ledge came to the great Fionn through the touch of a salmon, and made him foreknow all events. THE PROPERTIES OF HERBS, &C. 69 Of all herbs the yarrow is the best for cures and potions, It is even sewn up in clothes as a preventive of disease. The Liéss-more, or great herb, has also strong healing power, and is used as a charm. There is an herb, also, or fairy grass, called the Faud Shaughran, or the “stray sod,” and whoever treads the path it grows on is compelled by an irresistible impulse to trave] on without stopping, all through the night, delirious and restless, over bog and mountain, through hedges and ditches, till wearied and bruised and cut, his garments torn, his hands bleeding, he finds himself in the morning twenty or thirty miles, perhaps, from his own home. And those who fall under this strange influence have all the time the sensation of flying and are utterly unable to pause or turn back or change their career. ‘There is, how- ever, another herb that can neutralize the effects of the Faud Shaughran, but only the initiated can utilize its mystic properties. Another grass is the Aair-Gortha, or the ‘“hunger- stricken sod,” and if the hapless traveller accidently treads on this grass by the road-side, while passing on a journey, either by night or day, he becomes at once seized with the most extraordinary cravings of hunger and weakness, and unless timely relief is afforded he must certainly die. When a child is sick a fairy woman is generally sent for, who makes a drink for the patient of those healing herbs of which she only has the knowledge. A childless woman 70 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. 4s considered to have the strongest power over the secrets. of herbs, especially those used for the maladies of children. There is an herb, grown on one of the western islands off the coast of Connemara, which is reported to have great 4 and mystic power. But no one will venture to pronounce Hii its name. If it is desired to know for certain whether one | lying sick will recover, the nearest relative must go out and look for the herb just as the sun is rising. And while hold- ing it in the hand, an ancient form of incantation must be said. Ifthe herb remains fresh and green the patient will certainly recover; but if it wither in the hand while the words of the incantation are said over it, then the sick person is doomed. He will surely die. It was from their great knowledge of the properties of herbs that the Tuatha-de-Dananns obtained the reputation of being sorcerers and necromancers. At the great battle of Moytura in Mayo, fought about three thousand years ago, Dianecht, the great, wise Druid physician to the army, prepared a bath of herbs and plants in the line of the battle, of such wonderful curative efficacy that the wounded who were plunged into it came out whole, it being a sovereign’ remedy for all diseases. But the king of the Tuatha having lost his hand in the combat, the bath had: no power to heal him. So Dianecht made him a silver hand, and the monarch was ever after known in history as Nuad Airgeat lamh (Nuad of the silver hand). All herbs pulled on May Day Eve have a sacred healing THE PROPERTIES OF HERBS, &C. 71 power, if pulled in the name of the Holy Trinity; but if in the name of Satan, they work evil. Some herbs are malific if broken by the hand. So the plant is tied to a dog's foot, and when he runs it breaks, without a hand touching it, and may be used with safety. A man pulled a certain herb on May Eve to cure his son who was sick to death. The boy recovered, but disap- peared and was never heard of after, and the father died that day year. He had broken the fatal herb with the hand and so the doom fell on him. Another man did the like, and gave the herb to his son to eat, who immediately began to bark like a dog, and so continued till he died. The fatal herbs have signs known only to the fairy doctors, who should always be consulted before treating the sick in the family. There are seve herbs that nothing natural or supernatural can injure; they are vervain, John’s-wort, speedwell, eye- bright, mallow, yarrow, and self-help. But they must be pulled at noon on a bright day, near the full of the moon, to have full power. It is firmly believed that the herb-women who perform curses receive their knowledge from the fairies, who impart to them the mystical secrets of herbs and where to find them ; but these secrets must not be revealed except on the death-bed, and then only to the eldest of the family. Many mysterious rites are practised in the making and the giving of potions; and the messenger who carries the draught to the sufferer must never look behind him nor fe ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. utter a word till he hands the medicine to the patient, who instantly swallows a cup of the mixture before other hands have touched it. A celebrated doctor in the south was an old woman, who had lived seven years with the fairies. She performed wonderful cures, and only required a silver tenpence to be laid on her table for the advice given and for the miraculous herb potion. A LOVESPOTIOM: Some of the country people have still a traditional remem- brance of very powerful herbal remedies, and love potions are even now frequently in use. They are generally pre- pared by an old woman ; but must be administered by the person who wishes to inspire the tender passion. At the same time, to give a love potion is considered a very awful act, as the result may be fatal, or at least full of danger. A fine, handsome young man, of the best character and conduct, suddenly became wild and reckless, drunken and disorderly, from the effect, it was believed, of a love potion administered to him by a young girl who was passionately in love with him. When she saw the change produced in him by her act, she became moody and nervous, as if a constant terror were over her, and no one ever saw her smile again. Finally, she became half deranged, and after a few years of a strange, solitary life, she died of melancholy and despair. This was said to be “The Love-potion Curse.” THE PROPERTIES OF HERBS, &e. LOVE DREAMS. The girl who wishes to see her future husband must go out and gather certain herbs in the light of the full moon of the new year, repeating this charm— ** Moon, moon, tell unto me When my true love I sha!1 see ? What fine clothes am I to wear? How many children shall I bear? For if my love comes not to me Dark and dismal my life will be.” Then the girl, cutting three pieces of clay from the sod with a black-hafted knife, carrys them home, ties them up in the left stocking with the right garter, places the parcel under her pillow, and dreams a true dream of the man she is to marry and of all her future fate. LO mCATIISE WOVE: Ten leaves of the hemlock dried and powdered and mixed in food or drink will make the person you like to love you in return. Also keep a sprig of mint in your hand till the herb grows moist and warm, then take hold of the hand of the woman you love, and she will follow you as long as the two hands close over the herb. No invocation is necessary ; but silence must be kept between the two parties for ten minutes, to give the charm time to work with due efficacy. MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. THE healing art in all the early stages of a nation’s life, and amongst all primitive tribes, has been associated with religion. For the wonderful effects produced by certain herbs and modes of treatment were believed by the simple and unlettered people to be due to supernatural influences acting in a mystic and magical manner on the person afflicted. The medicine men were therefore treated with the pro- foundest awe and respect. And the medicine women came in also for their share of veneration and often of supersti- tious dread ; for their mysterious incantations were supposed to have been taught to them by fairies and the spirits of the mountain. The Irish from the.most remote antiquity were devoted to mystical medicine, and had a remarkable knowledge of cures and remedies for disease, obtained through the power and action of herbs on the human frame. The physicians of the pagan era formed a branch of the Druid priesthood, and were treated with distinguished MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. 7 > honour. They had special places assigned to them at the royal banqueting table at Tara, and a certain revenue was secured to them that they might live honourably. When in attendance on a patient the doctor was entitled by law to his diet, along with four of his pupils; but if he: failed to cure from deficiency of skill, he was obliged to refund the fees and pay back all the expenses of his keep ; a measure which no doubt greatly stimulated the serious. attention of the learned ollamhs of healing to the case in hand. So great indeed was the importance attached to the healing art in Ireland, that even prior to the Christian era, a building of the nature of an hospital was erected at Tara, near to the palace of the king. This was called “The House of Sorrow,” and the sick and wounded were provided there with all necessary care. On one occasion it is recorded that a great chief and prince out of Munster was brought to ‘‘The House of Sorrow” to be treated of wounds received in battle, but the attendant, through treachery, placed poison in the wounds, and then closed them so carefully that there was no external sign, though the groans of the wounded man were terrible to hear. Then the learned Fioneen was sent for, ‘‘the prophetic physician,” as he was called, from his great skill in diagnosis ; and when he arrived with three of his pupils at the hospital they found the chief lying prostrate, groaning in horrible agony. “What groan is that?” asked the master, of the first pupil. “Tt is from a poisoned barb,” he answered. 76 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND, i “And what groan is that?” asked the master, of the i second pupil. “Tt is from a hidden reptile,” he answered, t “And what groan is that?” asked Fioneen, of the third ra pupil. at | “It is from a poisoned seed,” he answered. ii hi Then Fioneen set to work, and, having cauterized the 1 4 1) wounds with red-hot irons, the poisonous bodies were ex- it hl tracted from beneath the skin, and the chief was healed. ti iH In later times the Irish physicians were much celebrated i for their learning, and numerous Irish medical manuscripts are in existence, both in Ireland and England, and are also scattered through the public libraries of the continent. They are chiefly written in Latin, with a commentary in Irish, and show a thorough knowledge on the part of the writers of the works of Hippocrates, Galen, Aristotle, and others as celebrated. For after the introduction of Chris- tianity Latin was much cultivated in the Irish schools, and the priests and physicians not only wrote but could converse fluently in Latin, which language became the chief medium of communication between them and the learned men of | the continent. But the most ancient mode of procedure A amongst the Irish ollamhs and adepts was of a medico- lt religious character; consisting of herb cures, fairy cures, Hh charms, invocations, and certain magical ceremonies. A number of these cures have been preserved traditionally by the people, and form a very interesting study of early medical superstitions, as they have been handed down through successive generations; for the profession of a physician was hereditary in certain families, and the accu- MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. mulated lore of centuries was transmitted carefully from. father to son by this custom and usage. Many of the ancient cures and charms are strange and mystic, and were accompanied by singular mysterious forms, which no doubt in many cases aided the cure; especially amongst a people so imaginative and susceptible to spiritual influences as the Irish. Others show a fervent faith and have a pathetic simplicity of expression, such as we find in > “The Charm against Sorrow,” and others, from the original Irish, of equal pathos and tenderness, to be quoted further: on. The utterance evidently of a people of deep, almost: sublime, faith in the Divine power of the Ruler of the world,. and of the ever-present ministration of saints and angels to humanity. Every act of the Irish peasant’s life has always been con-. nected with the belief in unseen spiritual agencies. The people live in an atmosphere of the supernatural, and nothing would induce them to slight an ancient form or break through a traditional usage. They believe that the. result would be something awful; too terrible to be spoken of save in a whisper, should the customs of their forefathers be lightly interfered with. In the Western Islands especially, the old superstitions that have come down from the ancient times are observed with the most solemn reverence, and the people, in fact, as to their habits and ideas, remain much the same as St. Patrick left them fourteen hundred years ago. The swift currents of thought that stir the great centres of civilization, 78 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. and impel the human intellect on its path of progress, have never reached them ; all the waves of the centuries drift by their shores and leave them unchanged. It is therefore in the islands and along the western ‘coast that one gathers most of those strange legends, charms, mysteries, and world-old superstitions which have lingered longer in Ireland than in any other part of Europe. Many of those included in the following selection were narrated by the peasants, either in Irish, or in the expressive Irish-English, which still retains enough of the ancient idiom ‘to make the language impressively touching and picturesque. ‘The ancient charms which have come down by tradition from a remote antiquity are peculiarly interesting from their deep human pathos, blended with the sublime trust in the Divine invisible power, so characteristic of the Irish tem- perament in all ages. A faith that believes implicitly, trusts devoutly, and hopes infinitely ; when the soul in its sorrow turns to heaven for the aid which cannot be found on earth, or given by earthly hands. The following charms from the Irish express much of this mingled spirit of faith and hope :-— AGAINST SORROW. A charm set by Mary for her Son, before the fair man and the turbulent woman laid Him in the grave. The charm of Michael with the shield ; Of the palm-branch of Christ ; Of Bridget with her veil. The charm which God set for Himself when the divinity within Him was darkened. MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. 79 A charm to be said by the cross when the night is black and the soul is heavy with sorrow. A charm to be said at sunrise, with the hands on the breast, when the eyes are red with weeping, and the mad- ness of grief is strong. A charm that has no words, only the silent prayer. TO WIN LOVE. ““O Christ, by your five wounds, by the nine orders of angels, if this woman is ordained for me, let me hold her hand now, and breathe her breath. O my love, I set a charm to the top of your head; to the sole of your foot ; to each side of your breast, that you may not leave me nor forsake me. -As a foal after the mare, as a child after the mother, may you follow and stay with me till death comes to part us asunder. AMEN.” Another. A charm of most desperate love, to be written with a raven’s quill in the blood of the ring finger of the left hand. “‘ By the power that Christ brought from heaven, mayest thou love me, woman! As the sun follows its course, mayest thou follow me. As light to the eye, as bread to the hungry, as joy to the heart, may thy presence be with me, O woman that I love, till death comes to part us asunder.” ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. FOR THE NIGHT-FIRE (THE FEVER). ““God save thee, Michael, archangel! God save thee!” ‘What aileth thee, O man?” “A headache and a sickness and a weakness of the heart. O Michael, archangel, canst thou cure me, O angel. of the Lord ?” “May three things cure thee, O man. May the shadow of Christ fallon thee! May the garment of Christ cover thee! May the breath of Christ breathe on thee! And when I come again thou wilt be healed.” These words are said over the patient while his arms are lifted in the form of a cross, and water is sprinkled. on his head. FOR A PAIN IN. THBeSiiaee ‘God save you, my three brothers, God save you! And how far have ye to go, my three brothers ?” ‘To the Mount of Olivet, to bring back gold for a cup to: hold the tears of Christ.” “Go, then. Gather the gold; and may the tears or Christ fall on it, and thou wilt be cured, both body and soul.” These words must be said while a drink is given to the patient. FOR THE MEASLES, «The child has the measles,’ said John the Baptist. ** «The time is short till he is well,’ said the Son of God. MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. 81 ‘* “When ?’ said John the Baptist. *¢ ¢ Sunday morning, before sunrise,’ said the Son of God.” This is to be repeated three times, kneeling at a cross, for three mornings before sunrise, and the child will be cured by the Sunday following. POR Haya rere Vib Ik. Three stones must be charmed by the hands of a wise fairy doctor, and cast by his hand, saying as he does so— “The first stone I cast is for the head in the mad fever ; the second stone I cast is for the heart in the mad fever ; the third stone I cast is for the back in the mad fever. “Tn the name of the Trinity, let peace come. AMEN.” AGAINST ENEMIES. Three things are of the Evil One— An evil eye; An evil tongue ; An eyil mind. Three things are of God ; and these three are what Mary told to her Son, for she heard them in heaven— The merciful word ; The singing word ; And the good word. May the power of these three holy things be on all the men and women of Erin for evermore. VOL. IL i ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. TO EXTRACT A THORN. “The briar that spreads, the thorn that grows, the sharp spike that pierced the brow of Christ, give you power to’ draw this thorn from the flesh, or let it perish inside ; in the name of the Trinity. Amen.” TO CAUSE HATRED BETWEEN LOVERS. Take a handful of clay from a new-made grave, and shake it between them, saying— “Hate ye one another! May ye be as hateful to each other as sin to Christ, as bread eaten without blessing is to God.” FOR LOVE. This is a charm I set for love ; a woman’s charm of love and desire ; a charm of God that none can break— “You for me, and I for thee, and for none else ; your face to mine, and your head turned away from all others.” This is to be repeated three times secretly, over a drink given to the one beloved. HOW TO HAVE MONEY ALWAYS. Kill a. black cock, and go to the meeting of three cross- roads where a murderer is buried. Throw the dead bird over your left shoulder then and there, after nightfall, in MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. 83 v8) the name of the devil, holding a piece of money in your mand all the while. And ever after, no matter what you spend, you will always find the same piece of money un- FOR THE GREAT WORM: ‘T killa hound. I kill a small hound. I kill a deceitful hound. I kill a worm, wherein there is terror; I kill all hi me, that I may do valiantly, and give no more time to the - s wicked brood. Seven angels from Paradise will help worm to live than while I recite this prayer. AMEN.” FOR SORE EYES. ‘Take away the pain, Q Mary, mother, and scatter the mist from the eyes. For all power is given to the mother of Christ.to give light to the eyes, and to drive the red mist back to the billows whence it came.” FOR PAINS IN THE BODY. Rub the part affected with flax and tow, heated in the fire, repeating in Irish— ‘©Tn the name of a rough man and a mild woman, and of = The ancient serpent-idol was called in Irish, *f The Great Worm.” C 5 eS .— = — ie anr hen st *hw _ wa ¥ L, = os be = a St. Patrick destroyed it, and had it thrown into the sea. ‘There are Se eee be found in Ireland. not even erass snakes o no serpents now to De found im ireland, not eyen grass shakes or t SCOrpions. r 84 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. the Lamb of God, be healed from your pains and your sins. So be it. AMEN.” This custom refers to the tradition that one day the Lord Christ, being weary, asked leave to rest ina house, but was refused by the master of the house, a rough, rude man. Then the wife, being a mild woman, had pity on the way- farer, and brought Him in to rest, and gave Him a cup of water to drink, and spake kindly to Him. After which the man was suddenly taken with severe pains, and seemed like to die in his agony. On this Christ called for some flax and tow, and, breathing on it, placed it on the part affected, by which means the man was quite healed. And then the Lord Christ went, His way, but not before the man had humbly asked pardon for his rudeness to a stranger. The tradition of this cure has remained ever since, and a hot plaster of flax and tow is used by the peasantry in- variably for all sudden pains, and found to be most effica- cious as a cure. AGAINST DROWNING. “May Christ and His saints stand between you and harm. Mary and her Son. St. Patrick with his staff. Martin with his mantle. Bridget with her veil. Michael with his shield. And God over all with His strong right hand.” MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. IN; TIME OF BATTLE. “OQ Mary, who had the victory over all women, give me victory now over my enemies, that they may fall to the ground, as wheat when it is mown.” FORGPHI. LEDSRASE. ‘Who will heal me from the red, thirsty, shivering, cold disease that came from the foreigner, and kills people with its poisonous pain?” ‘The prayer of Mary to her Son, the prayer of Columbkill to God; these will heal thee. AMEN.” Another. Say this oration three times over the patient, making the sign of the cross each time— “‘ Bridget, Patrick, Solomon, and the great Mary, banish this redness off you.” Then take butter, breathe on it quite close, and give it to the person to chafe himself therewith. To ascertain if he will recover, put a handful of yarrow in his hand while he is sleeping; if it is withered in the morning, he will die; but if it remains fresh, the disease will leave him. ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. TO. TAME ‘A ‘HORSE Whisper the Creed in his right ear on a Friday, and again in his left ear on a Wednesday. Do this weekly till he is tamed ; for so he will be. A VERY ANCIENT CHARM AGAINST WOUNDS OR POISONS, “The poison of the serpent, the venom of the dog, the sharpness of the spear, doth not well in man. The blood of one dog, the blood of many dogs, the blood of the hound of Fliethas—these I invoke. It is not a wart to which my spittle is applied. I strike disease; I strike wounds. I strike the disease of the dog that bites, of the thorn that wounds, of the iron that strikes. I invoke the three daughters of Fliethas against the serpent. Benediction on this body to be healed; benediction on the spittle; benediction on him who casts out the disease. In the name of God. AMEN.” FOR A SORE BREAST, To be said in Irish, while a piece of butter is rubbed over the breast :-— ““O Son, see how swelled is the breast of the woman! O you that bore a Son, look at it yourself! O “Mary! O King of Heaven, let this woman be healed! AMEN.” MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. 87 FOR A WOUND. Close the wound tightly with the two fingers, and repeat these words slowly— ‘‘Tn the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Mary. The wound was red, the cut was deep, and the flesh was sore ; but there will be no more blood, and no more pain, till the blessed Virgin Mary bears a child again.” PORES Ee Vile ry Ee. This is a charm Mary gave to St. Bridget, and she wrote it down, and hid it in the hair of her head, without deceit— ‘Tf a fairy, or a man, or a woman hath overlooked thee, there are three greater in heaven who will cast all evil from thee into the great and terrible sea. Pray to them, and to the seven angels of God, and they will watch over thee. AMEN.” BORSSTAAN THON YS FIRE. ‘The fire of earth is hot, and the fire of hell is hotter ; but the love of Mary is above all. Who will quench the fire? Who will heal the sick? May the fire of God con- sume the Evil One! AMEN.” HOW TO GO INVISIBLE. Get a raven’s heart, split it open with a black-hafted knife; make three cuts and place a black bean in each cut. Then SAS a ee $F ms ie 88 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. plant it, and when the beans sprout put one in your mouth, and say— ** By virtue of Satan’s heart, And by strength of my great art, I desire to be invisible.” And so it will be as long as the bean is kept in the mouth. FOR PAINS. “J kill the evil; I kill the worm in the flesh, the worm in the grass. I put a venomous charm in the murderous pain. The charm that was set by Peter and Paul; the charm that kills the worm in the flesh, in the tooth, in the body.” This oration to be said three times, while the patient is rubbed with butter on the place of the pain. Another. A happy mild charm, a charm which Christ discovered. The charm that kills the worm in the flesh. “ May Peter take, may Paul take, may Michael take, the pain away, the cruel pain that kills the back and the life, and darkens the eyes.” This oration written, and tied to a hare’s foot, is always to be worn by the person afflicted, hung round the neck. FOR A SPRAIN. In the Western Isles the following charm is used for a sprain— MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. 89 A strand of black wool is wound round and round the ankle, while the operator recites in a low voice— ‘‘ The Lord rade and the foal slade, He lighted and He righted ; Set joint to joint and bone to bone, And sinew unto sinew. In the name of God and the Saints, Of Mary and her Son, Let this man be healed. AMEN.” A similar charm was used in Germany in the tenth cen- tury, according to Jacob Grimm. TO CAUSE LOVE. Golden butter on a new-made dish, such as Mary set before Christ. This to be given in the presence of a mill, of a stream, and the presence of a tree; the lover saying softly— “© woman, loved by me, mayest thou give me thy heart, thy soul and body. AMEN.” BOR LUE BIVE SOR, AyMAD DOG, An oration which Colum-Cille set to a wound full of poison— “ Arise, O Carmac, O Clunane, through Christ be thou healed. By the hand of Christ be thou healed in blood, in marrow, and in bone. AMEN.” This oration to be pronounced over a man or a woman, go ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. ‘dl a horse or a cow, but never over a hog oradog. The wound Ba to be rubbed with butter during the oration. i Mi | FOR SLOOTHACHE: Go to a graveyard; kneel upon any grave; say three paters and three aves for the soul of the dead lying beneath. Then take a handful of grass from the grave, chew it well, casting forth each bite without swallowing any portion. After this process the sufferer, were he to live a hundred years, will never have toothache any more. Another. Bhi The patient must vow a vow to God, the Virgin, and the ra) new moon, never to comb his hair on a Friday, in remem- brance of relief should he be cured ; and whenever or wher- ever he first sees the new moon, he must fall on his knees } ' and say five prayers in gratitude for the cure, even if cross- ing a river at the time. Another. Carry in your pocket the two jaw-bones of a haddock ; tor ever since the miracle of the loaves and fishes, these bones are an infallible remedy-against toothache, and the older they are the better, as nearer the time of the miracle. Also this charm is to be sewn on the clothes— ‘“ As Peter sat on a marble stone, The Lord came to him all alone, MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. ‘Peter, Peter, what makes you shake ?’ ‘“O Lord and Master, it is the toothache.’ Then Christ said, ‘ Take these for My sake, And never more you'll have toothache.’ ” To avoid toothache never shave on a Sunday. FOR FRECKLES. Anoint a freckled face with the blood of a bull, or ofa hare, and it will put away the freckles and make the skin fair and clear. Also the distilled water of walnuts is good. FOR A BURN. There is a pretty secret to cure a burn without a scar: “Take sheep’s suet and the rind of the elder-tree, boil both together, and the ointment will cure a burn without leaving a mark.” POR roe MEMORY. The whitest of frankincense beaten fine, and drunk in white wine, wonderfully assisteth the memory, and is profit- able for the stomach also. FOR THE FALLING SICKNESS. Take a hank of grey yarn, a lock of the patient’s hair, some parings of his nails, and bury them deep in the earth, G2 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. repeating, in Irish, as a burial service, “‘ Let the great sick- ness lie there for ever. By the power of Mary and the soul of Paul, let the great sickness lie buried in the clay, and never more rise out of the ground. AMEN.” If the patient, on awaking from sleep, calls out the name of the person who uttered these words, his recovery is certain. If a person crosses over the patient while he is in the fit, or stands between him and the fire, then the sickness will cleave to him and depart from the other that was afflicted. FOR CHIN-COUGH. A griddle cake made of meal, to be given, not bought or made ; but a cake gzven of love or of charity, not for begging; a cake given freely, with a prayer and a blessing; and from the breakfast of a man and his wife who had the same name before marriage ; this is the cure. The touch of a piebald horse. Even a piebald horse pawing before the door helps the cure. The child to be passed seven times under and over an ass, while a red string is tied on the throat of the patient. Nine hairs from the tail of a black cat, chopped up and soaked in water, which is then swallowed, and the cough will be relieved. ‘One day when out snipe shooting,” a gentleman writes, MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. 93 ‘“‘T saw a horrid-looking insect staring up at me. I called to a man close by, and asked him the name of it. He told me it was called the Zhordal/, and was reckoned a great cure for the chin-cough ; for if any one got it safe in a bottle and kept it prisoner till it died, the disease would go away from the patient. It was just the time to try the cure, for my child was laid up with the epidemic. So I bottled my friend and daily examined the state of his health. It lasted for a fortnight, and at the end of that time the child had quite recovered, and the horrible-looking insect creature lay dead. FOR RHEUMATISM. The operator makes passes, like the mesmerist, over the member affected by the rheumatic pain, never touching the part, but moving his hand slowly over it at some distance, while he mutters a form of words in a low voice. FOR A STYE ON-THE EYELID. Point a gooseberry-thorn at it nine times, saying, “ Away, away, away!” and the stye will vanish presently and disappear. TO CURE WARTS. On meeting a funeral, take some of the clay from under the feet of the men who bear the coffin and apply it to the wart, wishing strongly at the same time that it may dis- appear ; and so it will be. ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. FOR A®STITCH IN THE VSiVe. Rub the part affected with unsalted butter, and make the sign of the cross seven times over the place. FOR WEAK EYES. A decoction of the flowers of daisies boiled down is an excellent wash, to be used constantly. FOR WATER ON THE BRAIN. Cover the head well with wool, then place oil-skin over, and the water will be drawn up out of the head. When the wool is quite saturated the brain will be free and the child cured. FOR HIP DISEASE: Take three green stones, gathered from a running brook, between midnight and morning, while no word is said. In silence it must be done. Then uncover the limb and rub each stone several times closely downwards from the hip to the toe, saying in Irish— ‘* Wear away, wear away, There you shall not stay, Cruel pain—away, away.” MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS. 95 FOR THE MUMPS. Wrap the child in a blanket, take it to the pigsty, rub the child’s head to the back of a pig, and the mumps will leave it and pass from the child to the animal. Another. Take nine black stones gathered before sunrise, and bring the patient with a rope round his neck to a holy well—not speaking all the while. Then cast in three stones in the name of God, three in the name of Christ, and three in the name of Mary. Repeat this process for three mornings and the disease will be cured. FORPEPILE RS ¥. Take nine pieces of young elder twig; run a thread of silk of three strands through the pieces, each piece being an inch long. ‘Tie this round the patient’s neck next the skin. Should the thread break and the amulet fall, it must be buried deep in the earth and another amulet made like the first, for if once it touches the ground the charm is lost. Another. Take nine pieces of a dead man’s skull, grind them to powder, and then mix with a decoction of wall rue. Give the patient a spoonful of this mixture every morning fasting, till the whole potion is swallowed. None must be left, or the dead man would come to look for the pieces of his skull. 96 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. FOR DEPRESSION OF HEART. When a person becomes low and depressed and careless about everything, as if all vital strength and energy had gone, he is said to have got a fairy blast. And blast-water must be poured over him by the hands of a fairy doctor while saying, “In the name of the saint with the sword, who has strength before God and stands at His’ right hand.” Great care being taken that no portion of the water is pro- faned. Whatever is left after the operation, must be poured on the fire. FOR THE -FAIRY DART: Fairy darts are generally aimed at the fingers, causing the joints to swell and grow red and inflamed. An eminent fairy-woman made the cure of fairy darts her speciality, and she was sent for by all the country round, and was generally successful. But she had no power unless asked to make the cure, and she took no reward at the time; not till the patient was cured, and the dart extracted. ‘The treatment included a great many prayers and much anointing with a salve, of which she only had the secret. ‘Then she proceeded to extract the dart with great solemnity, working with a small instrument, on the point of which she finally produced the dart. ‘This proved to be a bit of flax artfully laid under the skin by the malicious fairies, causing all the evil, and of course on seeing the flax no one could doubt the power of the operator, and the grateful patient paid his fee. VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. THERE is a book, a little book, and the house which has it will never be burned; the ship that holds it will never founder ; the woman who keeps it in her hand will be safe in childbirth. But none except a fairy man knows the name of the book, and he will not reveal it for love or money ; only on his death-bed will he tell the secret of the name to the one person he selects. The adepts and fairy doctors keep their mysteries very secret, and it is not easy to discover the words of a charm, for the operator loses his power if the words are said with- out the proper preliminaries, or if said by a profane person without faith, for the operator should not have uttered the mystery in the hearing of one who would mock, or treat the matter lightly ; therefore he is punished. Some years ago an old man lived in Mayo who had great knowledge of charms, and of certain love philtres that no woman could resist. But before his death he enclosed the written charms in a strong iron box, with directions that no one was to dare to open it except the eldest son of an eldest son in a direct line from himself. Some people pretend that they have read the charms; and VOL. II. 8 LS I Oe ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. 98 one of them has the strange power to make every one in the house begin to danee, and they can never cease dancing till another spell has been said over them. But the guardian of the iron box is the only one who knows the magic secret of the spell, and he exacts a good price before he utters it, and so reveals or destroys the witchcraft of the dance. The juice of deadly night-shade distilled, and given in a drink, will make the person who drinks believe whatever you will to tell him, and choose him to believe. A bunch of mint tied round the wrist is a sure remedy for disorders of the stomach. A sick person’s bed must be placed north and south, not cross ways. Nettles gathered in a churchyard and boiled down fora drink, have the power to cure dropsy. The touch from the hand of a seventh son cures the bite of a mad dog. This is also an Italian superstition. The hand of a dead man was a powerful incantation, but it was chiefly used by women. The most eminent fairy women always collected the mystic herbs for charms and cures by the light of a candle held by a dead man’s hand at midnight or by the full moon. When a woman first takes ill in her confinement, unlock instantly every press and drawer in the house, but when the VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. 99 child is born, lock them all up again at once, for if care is not taken the fairies will get in and hide in the drawers and presses, to be ready to steal away the little mortal baby when they get the opportunity, and place some ugly, wizened changeling in the cradle beside the poor mother. Therefore every key should be turned, every lock made fast ; and if the fairies are hidden inside, let them stay there until all danger is over for the baby by the proper precautions being taken, such asa red coal set under the cradle, and a branch of mountain ash tied over it, or of the alder-tree, according to the sex of the child, for both trees have mystic virtues, probably because of the ancient superstition that the first man was created from an alder-tree, and the first woman from the mountain ash. The fairies, however, are sometimes successful in carrying off a baby, and the mother finds in the morning a poor weakly little sprite in the cradle in place of her own splen- did child. But should the mortal infant happen to grow up ugly, the fairies send it back, for they love beauty above all things; and the fairy chiefs greatly desire a handsome mortal wife, so that a handsome girl must be well guarded, or they will carry her off. The children of such unions grow up beautiful and clever, but are also wild, reckless and extravagant. ‘They are known at once by the beauty of their eyes and hair, and they have a magic fascination that no one can resist, and also a fairy gift of music and song. If a person is bitten by a dog, the dog must be killed, whether mad or not, for it might become mad; then, so I0O ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. also would the person who had been touched by the saliva of the animal. If, by accident, you find the back tooth of a horse, carry it about with you as long as you live, and you will never want money ; but it must be found by chance. When a family has been carried off by fever, the house where they died may be again inhabited with safety if a certain number of sheep are driven in to sleep there for three nights. An iron ring worn on the fourth finger was considered effective against rheumatism by the Irish peasantry from ancient times. Paralysis is cured by stroking, but many forms and mystic incantations are, also used during the process ; and only cer- tain persons have the power in the hands that can effect a cure by the magic of the stroke. The seed of docks tied to the left arm of a woman will prevent her being barren. A spoonful of agua vite sweetened with sugar, and a little grated bread added, that it may not annoy the brain or the liver, will preserve from lethargy and apoplexy and all cold diseases. The juice of carrots boiled down is admirable for purify- ing the blood. Cc VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. IOI ta Clippings of the hair and nails of a child tied up in a linen rt 5 cloth and placed under the cradle will cure convulsions. Lober Matre (Mary’s well), near Dundalk, has a great reputation for cures. And thousands used to visit it on Lady Day for weak eyesight, and the lowness of heart. Nine times they must go round the well on their knees, always westward. Then drink a cup of the water, and not only are they cured of their ailment, but are as free from sin as the angels in heaven. When children are pining away, they are supposed to be fairy-struck; and the juice of twelve leaves of foxglove may be given; also in cases of fever the same. A bunch of mint tied round the wrist keeps off infection and disease. There is a well near the Boyne where King James washed his sword after the battle, and ever since the water has power to cure the king’s evil. When a seventh son is born, if an earth-worm is put into the infant’s hand and kept there till it dies, the child will have power to charm away all diseases. The ancient arrowheads, called elf-stones by the people, are used as charms to guard the cattle. tis not safe to take an unbaptized child in your arms without making the sign of the cross over it. 102 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. "It is unlucky to give a coal of fire out of the house before the child is baptized. And a piece of iron should be sewn in the infant’s clothes, and kept there till after the baptism. Take a piece of bride-cake and pass it three times through a wedding-ring, then sleep on it, and you will seein a dream the face of your future spouse. It is unlucky to accept a lock of hair, or a four-footed beast from a lover. People ought to remember that egg-shells are favourite retreats of the fairies, therefore the judicious eater should always break the shell after use, to prevent the fairy sprite from taking up his lodgment therein. Finvarra, the king of the fairies of the west, keeps up the most friendly relations with most of the best families of Galway, especially with the Kirwans of Castle Hacket, for Finvarra is a gentleman, every inch of him, and the Kir- wans always leave out kegs of wine for him at night of the best Spanish wine. And in return it is said, the wine vaults at Castle Hacket are never empty, though the wine flows freely for all comers. If a living worm is put into the hand of a child before he is baptized, and kept there till the worm is dead, that child will have power in after life to cure all diseases to which children are subject. After being cured from a sickness, take an oath never to VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. 103 comb the hair on a Friday,-that so the memory of the grace received may remain by this sign till your death. Or whenever you first see the new moon, kneel down and say an ave and a pater ; this also is for memory of grace done. People born in the morning cannot see spirits or the fairy world ; but those born at night have power over ghosts, and can see the spirits of the dead. Unbaptised children are readily seized by the fairies. The best preventive is a little salt tied up in the child’s dress when it is laid to sleep in the cradle. If pursued at night by an evil spirit, or the ghost of one dead, and you hear footsteps behind you, try and reach a stream of running water, for if you can cross it, no devil or ghost will be able to follow you. If a chair fall as a person rises, it is an unlucky omen. The fortunate possessor of the four-leaved shamrock will have luck in gambling, luck in racing, and witchcraft will have no power over him. But he must always carry it about his person, and never give it away, or even show it to another. A purse made from a weasel’s skin will never want for money ; but the purse must be found, not given or made. If a man is ploughing, no one should cross the path of the horses. 104 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. It is unlucky to steal a plough, or to take anything by stealth from a smith’s forge. When yawning make the sign of the cross instantly over the mouth, or the evil spirit will makea rush down and take up his abode within you. Never give away water before breakfast, nor milk while churning is going on. A married woman should not walk upon graves, or her child will have a club-foot. If by accident she treads on a grave she must instantly kneel down, say a prayer, and make the sign of the cross on the sole of her shoe three times over. Never take an infant in your arms, nor turn your head to look at it without saying, “ God bless it.” This keeps away the fatal influence of the Evil Eye. If a bride steers a boat on the day of her marriage, the winds and the waves have no power over it, be the tempest ever so fierce or the stream ever so rapid. Do not put out a light while people are at supper, or there will be one less at the table before the year is out. Never give any salt or fire while churning is going on. To upset the salt is exceedingly unlucky and a bad omen; to avert evil gather up the salt and fling it over the right shoulder into the fire, with the left hand. VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. IOS If you want a person to win at cards, stick a crooked pin in his coat. The seventh son of a seventh son has power over all diseases, and can cure them by laying on of hands; and a son born after his father’s death has power over fevers. There is one hour in every day when whatever you wish will be granted, but no one knows what that hour is. It is all a chance if we come onit. ‘There is also one hour in the day when ghost-seers can see spirits—but only one— at no other time have they the power, yet they never know the hour, the coming of it is a mystery. In some parts of Ireland the people, it is said, on first seeing the new moon, fall on their knees and address her in a loud voice with the prayer: ““O moon; leave us well as thou hast found us!” It is unlucky to meet a cat, a dog, or a woman, when going out first in the morning; but unlucky above all is it to meet a woman with red hair the first thing in the morning when going on a journey, for her presence brings ill-luck and certain evil. It is unlucky to pass under a hempen rope; the person who does so will die a violent death, or is fated to commit an evil act in after life, so it is decreed. The cuttings of your hair should not be thrown where 106 ANCIENT LEGBNDS OF IRELAND. birds can find them ; for they will take them to build their nests, and then you will have headaches all the year after. The cause of a club-foot is this—The mother stood on a cross. in a churchyard before her child was born—so evil came. To cure fever, place the patient on the sandy shore when the tide is coming in, and the retreating waves will carry away the disease and leave him well. To make the skin beautiful, wash the face in May dew upon May morning just at sunrise. If the palm of the hand itches you will be getting money; if the elbow, you will be changing beds; if thé ear itches and is red and hot, some one is speaking ill of you. If three drops of water are given to an infant before it is baptized, it will answer the first three questions put to it. To know the name of the person you are destined to marry, put a snail on a plate of flour—cover it over and leave it all night ; in the morning the initial letter of the name will be found traced on the flour by the snail. If one desires to know if a sick person will recover, take nine smooth stones from the running water ; fling them over the right shoulder, then lay them in a turf fire to remain untouched for one night. If the disease is to end fatally VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. 107 the stones in the morning will emit a clear sound like a bell when struck together. A white-thorn stick is a very unlucky companion on a journey ; but a hazel switch brings good luck and has power over the devil. A hen that crows is very unlucky and should be killed; very often the hen is stoned, for it is believed that she is bewitched by the fairies. It is asserted that on Christmas morning the ass kneels down in adoration of Christ, and if a person can manage to touch the cross on the back of the animal at that particular moment the wish of his heart will be granted, whatever it may be. When taking possession of a new house, every one should bring in some present, however trifling, but nothing should be taken away, and a prayer should be said in each corner of your bedroom, and some article of your clothing be deposited there at the same time. LOREEN Do LORE NG GOODS: Place two keys on a sieve, in the form of a cross. Two men hold the sieve, while a third makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of the suspected party, and calls out his name loudly, three times over. If innocent, the keys ee 108 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. rémain stationary; but if guilty, the keys revolve slowly round the sieve, and then there is no doubt as to who is the thief. A PRAYER AGAINST THE PLAGUE, “O Star of Heaven, beloved of the Lord, drive away the foul constellation that has slain the people with the wound of dreadful death. O Star of the Sea, save us from the poison-breath that kills, from the enemy that slays in the night. AMEN.” A BLESSING, ‘““Q aged old woman of the grey locks, may eight hun- dred blessings twelve times over be on thee! Mayest thou be free from desolation, O woman of the aged frame! And may many tears fall on thy grave.” A CURE’ FOR CATits Take nine leaves of the male crowfoot, plucked on a Sunday night; bruise them on a stone that never was moved since the world began, and never can be moved. Mix with salt and spittle, and apply the plaster to the ear of the sick beast. Repeat this three times for a man, and twice for a horse. VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. ADCHARMSFOR SAPETY. Pluck ten blades of yarrow, keep nine, and cast the tenth away for tithe to the spirits. Put the nine in your stocking, under the heel of the right foot, when going a journey, and the Evil One will have no power over you. ANE ELA Re OF SPORENCY. (FROM A MANUSCRIPT OF DATE 1770.) Two ounces of cochineal, one ounce of gentian root, two drachms of saffron, two drachms of snakeroot, two drachms of salt of wormwood, and the rind of ten oranges. The whole to be steeped in a quart of brandy, and kept for use. GMCS SRL Neneh oy KONE Rei beaes Ieee? Six ounces of rue, four ounces of garlic, two ounces of Venice treacle, and two ounces of pewter filings. Boil for two hours in a close vessel, in two quarts of ale, and give a spoonful fasting each morning till the cure is effected The liquor is to be strained before use. DREAMS. Never tell your dreams fasting, and always tell them first to a woman called Mary. IIo ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. “To dream of a hearse with white plumes is a wedding; but to dream of a wedding is grief, and death will follow. To dream of a woman kissing you is deceit; but of a man, friendship; and to dream of a horse is exceedingly lucky. To dream of a priest is bad; even to dream of the devil is better. Remember, also, either a present or a purchase from a priest is unlucky. FAIRY... DOC EGEs, The fairy doctors are generally females. Old women, especially, are considered to have peculiar mystic and supernatural power. They cure chiefly by charms and incantations, transmitted by tradition through many gene- rations; and by herbs, of which they have a surprising knowledge. The fairies have an aversion to the sight of blood; and the peasants, therefore, have a great objection to being bled, lest ‘the good people” would be angry. Besides, they have much more faith in charms and incantations than in any dispensary doctor that ever practised amongst them. CHARMS BY CRYSTALS. The charms by crystals are of great antiquity in Ireland —a mode of divination, no doubt, brought from the East VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. II! by the early wandering tribes. Many of these stones have been found throughout the country, and are held in great veneration. ‘They are generally globular, and appear to have been originally set in royal sceptres or sacred shrines. A very ancient crystal globe of this kind, with miraculous curative powers, is still to be seen at Currahmore, the seat of the Marquis of Waterford, and it is believed to have been brought from the Holy Land by one of the Le Poers, who had it as a gift from Godfrey de Bouillon. ‘The ball is of rock crystal, a little larger than an orange, and is circled round the middle by a silver band. It is still con- stantly borrowed by the people to effect cures upon cattle suffering from murrain or other distempers. This is done by placing the ball in a running stream, through which the cattle are driven backwards and forwards many times. The peasants affirm that the charm never fails in success, and the belief in its miraculous powers is so widespread that people from the most distant parts of Ireland send to Currahmore to borrow it. Even to this day the faith in its magic power continues unabated, and requests for the loan come from every quarter. The Marquis of Waterford leaves it in the care of his steward, and it is freely lent to all comers; but to the credit of the people it may be noted, that the magic crystal is always brought back to Currahmore with the most scrupulous care.* * Extract from a letter by the Marchioness of Waterford, on the Currahmore Crystal. ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. ALECTROMANTIA. Should a person be bewitched by an evil neighbour, he must take two black cocks, lay a charm over the head of one and let it loose; but the other must be boiled down, feathers and all, and eaten. Then the malice of the neigh- bour will have no effect on him or his. Ancient Egypt and Greece had likewise superstitions on the subject of sacrificing a cock. Even the last words of Socrates had reference to this subject. It is remarkable also that in the Christian legend it was a cock that testified indignantly by his crowing against Peter’s treachery and cowardice, and aroused in him the remorse that was evidenced by his tears. FAIRY POWER. It is on Fridays that the fairies have the most power to work evil; therefore Friday is an unlucky day to begin work, or to go on a journey, or to have a wedding ; for the spirits are then present everywhere, and hear and see every- thing that is going on, and will mar and spoil all they can, just out. of malice and jealousy of the mortal race. It is then they strike cattle with their elfin arrows, lame a horse, steal the milk, and carry off the handsome children, leaving an ugly changeling in exchange, who is soon known to be a fairy sprite by its voracious appetite, without any natural increase in growth. This superstition makes the peasant-women often very VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES. 3 cruel towards weakly children; and the trial by fire is some- times resorted to in order to test the nature of the child who is suspected of being a changeling. For this purpose a fairy woman is usually sent for, who makes a drink for the little patient of certain herbs of whose power she alone has the secret knowledge ; and a childless woman is considered the best to make the potion. Should there be no improve- ment in the child after the treatment with herbs, then the witch-women sometimes resort to terrible measures to test the fairy nature of the sufferer. A child who was suspected of being a changeling, because he was wasted and thin and always restless and fretful, was ordered by the witch-woman to be placed for three nights on a shovel outside the door from sunset to sunrise, during which time he was given foxglove to chew, and cold water was flung over him to banish the fire-devil. The screams of the child at night were frightful, calling on his mother to come and take him in ; but the fairy doctor told the mother not to fear; the fairies were certainly tormenting him, but by the third night their power would cease, and the child would be quite restored. However, on the third night the poor little child lay dead. OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS. AvuGURIES and prophecies of coming fate may also be ob- tained from the flight of birds, the motion of the winds, from sneezing, dreams, lots, and the signs from a verse of the Psalter or Gospels. The peasantry attach great importance to the first verses of St. John’s Gospel, and maintain that when the cock crows in the morning he is repeating these verses (from the 1st to the 14th), and if we understood the language of animals and birds, we could often hear them quoting these same verses. A charm against sickness is an amulet worn round the neck, enclosing a piece of paper, on which is written the first three verses of St. John’s Gospel. OMENS. THAT FORBODEVEVITE: To stick a penknife in the mast of a boat when sailing is most unlucky. To meet a man with red hair, or a woman with a red petticoat, the first thing in the morning. OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS. To kill the robin redbreast. To pass a churn and not give a helping hand. To meet a funeral and not go back three steps with it. To have a hare cross your path before sunrise. To take away a lighted sod on May days or churning days ; for fire is the most sacred of all things, and you take away the blessing from the house along with it. The Irish are very susceptible to omens. They say, ‘‘Beware of a childless woman who looks fixedly at your ehild.” Fire is the holiest of all things. Walk three times round a fire on St. John’s Eve, and you will be safe from disease for all that year. It is particularly unlucky to meet a red-haired man the first thing in the morning. There is a tradition that Judas Iscariot had red hair, and from this the superstitious dread of the evil interference of a red-haired man may have originated. Never begin work on a Friday. Never remove from a house or leave a situation on Saturday. Never begin to make a dress on Saturday, or the wearer will die within the year. Never mend a rent in a dress while on, or evil and malicious reports will be spread about you. 116 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. Some days are unlucky to certain families—as Tuesday to the Tudors. Henry VIII., Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth all died upon a Tuesday. To throw a slipper after a party going a journey is lucky. Also to breakfast by candle-light on Christmas morning. It is fatal at a marriage to tie a knot in a red handker- chief, and only an enemy would do it. To break the spell the handkerchief should be burned. The first days of the year and of the week are the luckiest. Never begin a journey on a Friday or Saturday, nor move from your residence, nor change a situation. Never cut out a dress or begin to make it on a Friday, nor fix a marriage, for of all days the fairies have the most malific power on a Friday. They are present then, and hear all that is said, therefore beware of speaking ill of them, for they will work some evil if offended. Never pay away money on the first Monday of the year, ot you will lose your luck in gaining money all the year after. Presents may be given on New Year’s Day, but no money should be paid away. Those who marry in autumn will die in spring. The yew-tree, the ash, and the elder-tree were sacred. The willow has a mystery in it of sound. The harp of King Brian-Boru was made of willow wood. OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 117 When a servant leaves her place, if her mistress gives her a piece of bread let her put by some of it carefully, for as long as she has it good luck will follow her. LOPATTRACT BEES. Gather foxglove, raspberry leaves, wild marjorum, mint, camomile, and valerian; mix them with butter made on May Day, and let the herbs also be gathered on May Day. Boil them all together with honey, then rub the vessel into which the bees should gather, both inside and out, with the mixture ; place it in the middle of a tree, and the bees will soon come. Foxglove or “fairy fingers” is called ‘the great herb” from its wonderful properties. a a Ss SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ISLANDS. —.0.—— CONCERNING THE DEAD. Ir is ill luck when going with a funeral to meet a man on a white horse. No matter how high the rank of the rider may be, the people must seize the reins and force him to turn back and join the procession at least for a few yards. The three most powerful divinations are by fire, by water, and by clay. These are the three great powers—the power that ascends, which is fire; the power that falls, which is water ; and the power that lies level on the earth, and has the mystery of the dead, which is clay. If a short cut should be taken while carrying a corpse to the grave the dead will be disturbed in the coffin, for it is a slight and an insult to the corpse. When a death was expected it was usual to have a good deal of bread ready baked in the house in order that the evil spirits might be employed eating it, and so let the soul of the dying depart in peace. Twelve candles stuck in clay should also be placed round the dying. SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ISLANDS. IIlg If two funerals meet at the same churchyard, the last corpse that enters will have to supply the dead with water till the next corpse arrives. Never take a child in your arms after being at a wake where a corpse was laid out unless you first dip your hands in holy water. The moment the soul leaves the body the evil spirits try to seize it, but the guardian angel fights against them, and those around must pray earnestly that the angel may conquer. After death the body must not be disturbed, nor should the funeral chant be raised for one hour. There are many superstitions prevalent in the Western Islands which are implicitly believed and acted on. Fisher- men when going to sea must always enter the boat by the right side, no matter how inconvenient. A coal of fire thrown after the fisherman brings him good fortune. A sick person must not be visited on a Friday, nor by any person who has just quitted a wake and looked upon the dead. The hair and nails of a sick person must not be cut till after recovery. If a corpse falls to the ground the most fatal events will happen to the family. The lid must not be nailed on the coffin of a new-born child, or the mother that bore it will never have another. uh ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND, THE COASTGUARD'S: FATE, One day a coastguard man was out in his boat with some of the islanders when a terrible storm arose with thunder and lightning. The poor people fell on their knees and prayed devoutly, but the man laughed at them, called them fools and cowards, and said he also could make lightning and thunder as well as the God they were praying to. So he immediately prepared a small cannon he had on board, and set a match to the powder and fired it off. But before the echo died away a stream of lightning passed over him, and he fell dead in the boat a blackened corpse—a dreadful sign of the vengeance of heaven on his blasphemous daring. RELICS: If a false oath is taken upon a relic the vengeance of God falls upon the swearer, and the doom that few can bear and live rests upon him and upon all his descendants even to the seventh generation. They are shunned by the people, and looked upon as unlucky and accursed. There aresome living even now from whom the curse of the past is not lifted, because the seventh generation has not yet passed by. PiEaC Ne Sone Phe SATIN TS: sO. oT. PATRICK. Many saints in old time used to come and take up their abode on these wild desolate islands for the rest and sanctity of solitude, and innumerable evidences of their presence still remain in the ancient ruins of the so-called cells or churches built in the rudest form, but always placed’ in a picturesque locality beside a well, which ever since has been held sacred, and no woman is allowed to wash her feet in the water. In one of these islands is a stone bed called ‘The Bed of the Holy Ghost,” and many people go from the mainland to lie a night in this bed, though the sea is always rough and dangerous, believing that it heals all diseases, and it brings good luck to all, and to women the blessing of children. If the lark sings on St. Bridget’s Day it is a good omen, and a sign of fine weather. And whoever hears it the first thing in the morning will have good luck in all he does for that whole day. St. Bridget was granted by the Lord to have every second Sunday fine so that she might preach to the converts that came to her. 122 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. ‘Then St. Patrick greatly desired that his day should also be fine so that the people might gather together in remem- brance of him, and this also was granted. So from that time forth the Saints’ Day, the 17th of March, is always fine, for so it was decreed from the ancient times when he was upon earth. On St. Patrick’s Day it is the usage in the islands to affix large crosses made of straw and flowers on the door-posts, and a black cock is sacrificed in honour of the saint, though no one can tell why it is considered necessary that blood should be spilt, except that the idea of sacrifice is found in all religions and rituals of worship. At first the object most loved or most prized was sacrificed—a child, or a costly jewel. Then the human sacrifice began to be re- placed by the offering of an animal, who was made the medium of expiation. And the god was satisfied so that blood was spilled to purify from sin. It is remarkable that relics of this ancient ritual of sacri- fice can still be found even in the enlightened households of this advanced nineteenth century. An ox is still slaugh- tered at Christmas, though Baal is forgotten; and a lamb is sacrificed at Easter, as the Druids offered the firstlings of the flock to the Sun-god; while a goose is slain on St. Michael’s. Day as a burnt-offering to the saint. THE WELL.OF THE BOOK: When St. Patrick was one time amongst the Pagan Irish they grew very fierce and seemed eager to kill him. ‘Then, ST. PATRICK. 123 his life being in great danger, he kneeled down before them and prayed to God for help and for the conversion of their souls. And the fervour of the prayer was so great that as the saint rose up the mark of his knees was left deep on the stone, and when the people saw the miracle they believed. Now when he came to the next village the people said if he performed some wonder for them they also would believe and pray to his God. So St. Patrick drew a great circle on the ground and bade them stand outside it; and then he prayed, and lo! the water rushed up from the earth, and a well pure and bright as crystal filled the circle. And the people believed and were baptized. The well can be seen to this day, and is called Zover-na- Lauer (The Well of the Book), because St. Patrick placed his own prayer-book in the centre of the circle before the water rose. See RICK GAN DS LEE SoHRE ENE. There is a lake in one of the Galtee mountains where there is a great serpent chained to a rock, and he may be heard constantly crying out, “‘O Patrick, is the Zan, or Monday, long from us?” For when St. Patrick cast this serpent in the lake he bade him be chained to the rock till La-an-Luan (The Day of Judgment). But the serpent mistook the word, and thought the saint meant Lwan, Monday. So he still expects to be freed from one Monday to another, and the clanking of his chains on that day is awful to hear as he strives to break them and get free. 124 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. ‘In another lake there is a huge-winged creature, it is said, which escaped the power of St. Patrick, and when he gambols in the water such storms arise that no boat can withstand the tumult of the waves. ST. PATRICK AND THE PRINCESSES: One day the two daughters of the King of Meath, named Ethna and Fedalma, went down to the river to bathe, and there they beheld St. Patrick and his band of converts all draped in white robes, for they were celebrating morning prayers. And the princesses seeing strange men in white garments thought they were of the race of the male fairies, the Daine-Sidhe. And they questioned them. Then St. Patrick expounded the truth to them, and the maidens asked him many questions: ‘Who is your God? Is He handsome? Are His daughters as handsome as we are? Is He rich? Is He young oraged? Is He to die, or does iHemive forever? 4 Now St. Patrick having satisfied them on all these points the maidens, Ethna and Fedalma, were baptized, and became zealous workers for the Christian cause. THE POISON CUR: St. Patrick went on to Tara, and there he lit the Paschal fire and celebrated the Easter mysteries. But the Druids were wroth, for it was against their ordinances for any fire Si. PATRICK. 125 to be lit until the chief Druid himself had kindled the sacred fire. Therefore they sought to poison St. Patrick, and a cupful of poison was given him by one of the Druids; but the danger was revealed to him, and thereupon he pro- nounced certain words over the liquor, and whoever pro- nounceth these words over poison shall receive no injury from it. He also then composed the prayer, “In nomine Dei Patris,” and recited it over the cup of poison. The number of companions with whom St. Patrick travelled through the country was seven score and ten, and before his time only three classes of persons were allowed to speak in public in Erin—the chronicler, to relate events ; the poet, to eulogize and satirize; and the Brehon, to pass judgment according tothe law. But after St. Patrick’s arrival every utterance of the three professions was subject to “the men of the white language ””—that is, the Gospel—and only such utterances were allowed as did not clash with the Gospel. DIVINATION. In ancient Pagan’ times in Ireland the poets were sup- posed to possess the gift of prophecy, and by certain means could throw themselves into a state in which they had lucid vision of coming events. This state, called Zbas for Osna, was produced by incantations and the offering of the flesh of a red pig, a dog, or a cat to their idols. Then the poet, laying the two palms of his hands on his two cheeks, lay 126 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. down and slept; his idol gods being beside him. And when he awoke he could see all things and foretell all things. He could make verses with the ends of his fingers, and repeat the same without studying, and in this way proved his right to be chief poet at the court of the king. Also he laid his staff upon the head of a person, and thus he found out his name, and the name of his father and mother, and all unknown things that were proposed to him. And this prophetic power was also obtained by /mbas for Osna, though a different kind of offering was made to the idol. But Patrick abolished these practices, and declared that whoever used them should enjoy neither heaven nor earth ; and he substituted for them the Corus Cerda (the Law of Poetry), in which no offerings were made to demons ; for the profession of the poet, he said, was pure, and should not be subject to the power of the devil. He left to the poets, however, the gift of extemporaneous recital, because it was acquired through great knowledge and diligent study, but all other rites he strictly forbade to the poets of Erin. THE-BLIND- POET As a proof of the magnetic, lucid vision obtained by the great ollamhs of poetry, it is recorded of the blind poet, Louad Dall, that his attendants having brought him the skull of an animal found upon the strand, they asked him to declare its history. And thereupon placing the end of his wand upon the skull, he beheld with the inner vision, and said— ST. PATRICK. Te “The tempestuous waters have destroyed Breccan, and this is the skull of his lapdog; and but little of greatness now remains, for Breccan and his people have perished in the waves.” And this was “ divination by the staff ”—a power possessed only by the chief poets, and by none else. DHE, STORY OF BRECCAN, The story of Breccan is related in Cormac’s Glossary. He was a merchant who traded between Ireland and Scotland with fifty corracles. Now there was a great whirlpool at Kathlin Island caused by the meeting of the seas, and they formed a caldron vast enough to swallow all Ireland. And it happened on a time that Breccan and all his corracles were lost and engulfed in this caldron. Not aman was left to tell the tale of how or where they had perished. Thus it was that the skull of a small animal being discovered on the beach, it was brought to the blind poet, who laying his staff on it obtained the inner vision by which he revealed the fate of Breccan and his fifty corracles. BAR DIGSCRI VILE GES: Now St. Patrick left the poets all their rights of divination by wisdom, and all their ancient rights over story-telling with the music of the harp, three hundred and fifty stories being allowed to the chief poet. He also secured just judgments for their professional rights; so that if land was 128 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. nientioned in their songs as having been walled and trenched by them, that was considered to be sufficient legal evidence of title to the soil. | But what they received of St. Patrick was better, he affirmed, My i than all the evil rites to devils which they had abandoned ; along with the profane practice of magic by the two palms, called Zibas for Osna, by which lucid vision and the spirit of prophecy was supposed to come on them after invo- cations to idols and demons—all which evil practices St. Patrick abolished, but left to the poets the skilled hand in Ww music and the fluent tongue in recitation ; for which none : i i il can equal the Bards of Ireland throughout all the world. The ogham writing on the poet’s staff is mentioned in very | old manuscripts as in use in the Pagan period, before St. ; ed Patrick’s time, though no specimen of ogham writing has ayaa yet been found of earlier date than the Christian era. , St. Patrick introduced Latin and the Latin letters, which superseded ogham. And after his time Latin was taught very generally in the Irish schools. St. Patrick also confirmed as right and proper for obser- vance, whatever was just in the Brehon laws, so as it was not at variance with the law of Christ, for the people had been guided by the Brehon laws from all antiquity, and it was not easy to overthrow them. SBesides, many or most of them were framed with strict regard to justice and morality. When St. Patrick was dying, an angel of the Lord was ST. CIARON. 129 sent to him, who announced to the great and holy saint that God had granted this favour to his prayers—namely, that his jurisdiction over the Church was ordained to be for ever at Armagh ; and that Patrick, as the Apostle of Ireland, should be the judge of all the Irish at the last day, and none other, according to the promise made to the other apostles, “‘ Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the tribes.of Israel.” St. CIARON. “oO” —— —— Ve THIs eminent saint died at the early age of thirty-three; and it is said that his death was caused by the prayers of the other saints of Ireland, who were jealous of his power and fame for sanctity. St. Ciaron knowing that death was coming upon him, composed a verse which has been pre- served as an appeal against the cruel fate that ended his life while he was yet in his prime. And the pathos of the quatrain is very tender and natural— **T ask is it right, O King of Stars, To reap a cornfield before it is ripe ? It is eating fruit before the time, It is plucking the blossom from a hazel when it is white.” VOL. II. Io a Sr. MARTIN. —:0: — Gr, MARTIN was a bad man before his conversion, and, above all, was exceedingly close-fisted, as they say, to the poor ; giving nothing and grasping all. So he was very rich but hated by every one. One day, when going out, he charged the servant to have a fine batch of loaves ready made and baked by the time he returned. While she was kneading the dough in came a poor man and begged for some as he was hungry ; but she told him she dare not give away anything or the master would beat her. Still the poor man begged the harder, and at last she gave him dough enough for a couple of loaves. However, when the girl’s back was turned, he threw the dough into the oven and went his way without a word. Now,. when the dough was ready, the girl opened the oven to put in the loaves, but, behold, it was already quite full of baked bread and would hold no more, So when Martin came home she told him all the truth ; and his heart smote him, and he cried out, “ An angel of the Lord has been here; God has sent His messenger to rebuke me of my sins!” And he ran out to search for the man along the ST. MARTIN. 131 road, and at last saw him a great way off. Then Martin flung off his cloak that he might run the faster ; and when he came up to the man he fell on his knees before him on the ground, and cried out, “ Oh, my Lord, I repent me of my sins; pray to God for me, for I know you are His angel.” And from that moment Martin’s heart was changed, and the devil left him; and he became a true saint and servant of God, and, above all, the saint and patron of the poor. Nevertheless, St. Bridget was offended with St. Martin, because she thought he did not receive her with sufficient hospitality and consideration. Perhaps some of the old stinginess of nature still clung to him. And she thus pro- nounced her malediction over him— ‘Oh, little man, the sea-wave shall come up over thy house, and thy name shall lie in ashes, while my name and fame shall be glorious all over the world.” And this was fulfilled ; for the sea actually broke in and covered the saint’s dwelling; and the house of St. Martin can still be seen low down beneath the waves, but if any one tries to reach it the house fades away into the mist and is seen no more. There is an old superstition still observed by the people, that blood must be spilt on St. Martin’s Day ; so a goose is killed, or a black cock, and the blood is sprinkled over the floor and on the threshold. And some of the flesh is given to the first beggar that comes by, in the name and in honour of St. Martin. In the Arran Isles St. Martin’s Day is observed with particular solemnity, and it was held necessary, from ancient 132 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. times, to spill blood on the ground in honour of the saint. For this purpose a cock was sacrificed ; but if such could not be procured people have been known to cut their finger in order to draw blood, and let it fall upon the earth. The custom arose in this way :—St. Martin, having given away all his goods to the poor, was often in want of food, and one day he entered a widow’s house and begged for something to eat. The widow was poor, and having no food in the house, she sacrificed her young child, boiled it, and set it before the saint for supper. Having eaten, and taken his departure, the woman went over to the cradle to weep for her lost child ; when lo! there he was, lying whole and well, in a beautiful sleep, as if no evil had ever happened to him; and to commemorate this miracle and from gratitude to the saint, a sacrifice of some living thing is made yearly in his honour. The blood is poured or sprinkled on .the ground, and along the door-posts, and both within and without the threshold, and at the four corners of each room in the house. For this symbol of purification by blood the rich farmers sacrifice a sheep ; while the poorer people kill a black cock or a white hen, and sprinkle the blood according to ancient usage. Afterwards the whole family dine upon the sacri- ficial victim. In some places it was the custom for the master of the house to draw a cross on the arm of each member of the family and mark it out in blood. This was a very sacred sign which no fairy or evil spirit, were they ever so strong, could overcome; and whoever was signed with the blood was safe. ST. MARTIN. 133 There is a singular superstition forbidding work of a certain kind to be done on St. Martin’s Day, the 11th of November. No woman should spin on that day ; no miller should grind his corn, and no wheel should be turned. And this custom was long held sacred, and is still observed in the Western Islands. is ee SS ae = Va A = - ra VRE pete ae = = : - i = oY i Witcccattt ST. BRIDGER tna a ere At one time a certain leper came to St. Bridget to beg a cow from her. “ Which would you prefer?” said the holy Bridget, ‘to be healed of your disease or to have the cow?” ‘© T would be healed,” he answered. Then she touched him, and he became whole and went away rejoicing. After this Bridget’s fame spread all over Ireland; anda man of the Britons, and his son, came to be healed ; but she was at Mass, and sent to them to wait till Mass was over. Now the Britons are a hasty people, and the man said, ‘You healed your own people yesterday and you shall heal us to-day.” Then Bridget came forth and prayed over them, and they were healed. Another time, two lepers came to beg, and Bridget said, “T have but this one cow—take it between you and go in peace.” But one leper was proud, and made answer: “I shall ST. BRIDGET. 135 divide my goods with no man. Give me the cow and I shall go.” And she gave it to him. Then the other leper said, ‘“‘Give me your prayers, holy Bridget, I ask no more.” And she gave him her blessing. And as he turned to i depart a man came in, and offered a cow as a present to | the holy woman. ‘Now the Lord has blessed you,” she said to the humble leper. ‘*Take this cow and depart to your home.” So the man drove the cow before him, and presently came up with the proud leper just at the ford of the river. “‘ Cross you first,” said the proud leper, “there is not room for two,” and the humble leper crossed in safety with his cow ; but when the other entered the ford, the river rose, and he and his cow were carried away and drowned, for the blessing of St. Bridget was not on him. Another time, two lepers came to be healed, and Bridget ordered one of them to wash the other; which he did, and the man was healed. “‘Now,” she said, “do to your comrade as he has done to you ; wash him with water that he may be made clean of his leprosy.” ‘¢Oh, veiled woman,” he answered, ‘‘ why should I, that am clean now in body and limb, touch this filthy leper of the blue-grey skin? Ask me not to do this thing.” Then Bridget took water and washed the leper herself. Immediately the other who had been healed, cried out, “ A fire is raging under my skin;” and the disease came 136 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. again on him worse than ever. Thus was he punished for his pride. The lark is sacred to St. Bridget because its song woke her every morning to prayers, when she had service for the women who were her converts. The influence of St. Bridget remains a permanent power in Ireland even to this day, and she is much feared by the enemy of souls and the illdoer. When Earl Strongbow was dying, he affirmed that he saw St. Bridget approaching his bed, and she struck him on the foot, and the wound she gave him mortified, and of this he died. This happened six hundred years after Bridget’s death. St. Bridget, throughout her long life, held the highest position and dignity in the Irish Church. She erected a temple in Kildare, ordained bishops, and was head and chief of all the sacred virgins. She also held equal rank with the archbishop ; if he had an episcopal chair (cathedra episcopalis), so St. Bridget had a virginal chair (cathedra puellaris), and was pre-eminent above all the abbesses of Ireland, or of the Scots, for sanctity and power. OT. KIERAN. ST. KIERAN, also, did good service five hundred years after his death ; for when a great chief and his band plundered Clonmacnoise and carried off the jewels from the shrine, the spirit of St. Kieran was seen in the doorway, crosier in hand, striking at the plunderers; and when they fled to their boat, St. Kieran raised up a strong wind that drove back the boat, and finally the chief robber was taken and put to death, having first confessed his crime, and testified as to St. Kieran’s wrath against him. St. KEVIN. SSD Ir is related of St. Kevin that after he had been seven years at Glendalough, a weariness of life came over him, and a longing to hear the voice of man once more. Then Satan came to him in the form of an angel, bright and beautiful, and persuaded him that he should quit the valley and travel abroad and see the world, while yet his youth was left to him. And St. Kevin was near yielding to the words of the tempter, when fortunately St. Munna came by that way, and he at once saw through the trick, and showed to St. Kevin that the advice was from the devil, and not from God. And St. Kevin promised St. Munna that he would never leave the valley till his death. However, God, not wishing that the saint should eat his heart away in idleness, bade him build a monastery on the east of the lake, the place where the resurrection was to be; and he sent his angel to show him the exact spot. But St. Kevin, when he saw the place so wild and rude, could not help telling the friendly angel that it was very rugged and difficult to build on; and the stones were heavy and hard to be moved. Then the angel, to prevent any diffi- ST. KEVIN. 139 culty in the building, rendered the stones light and easy to move, and so the work of building went on to the glory of God ; and St. Kevin rejoiced in the task set before him. And the monk who tells the story adds, that from that day in all the place which the angel appointed for the building, there is now no stone that cannot be lightly moved and easily worked all through the valley of Glendalough. GHRISTIAN: L-EGENge! —:0: — THE Round Tower of Clonmacnoise was never finished, for the monks objected to the price demanded by the chief mason ; and one day that he was at the top of the tower, they said he should never come down till he lowered the price ; and they removed the scaffolding. Then he said, ‘‘It is easier to pull down than to build a tower,” and he began to cast down stone by stone, so that he could descend in safety. On this the monks grew alarmed, and prayed him to desist and the price should be paid; so he came down at their request, but would never again lay hand to the work, so the tower remains unfinished to this, day. The first bells ever used in all Ireland were hung at Clonmacnoise, but the people of Athlone, being jealous, came at night to steal the bells, and succeeded in. carrying them away in a boat. However, before they got out of sight of the church, the boat went down, and the bells were never recovered, though the river was dragged from Athlone to Shannon Bridge. At the seven churches of Clonmacnoise is to be seen the CHRISTIAN LEGENDS. 141 great cross of St. Kieran, beautifully carved of a stone not common to the country, called the Grecian stone, and if a woman can clasp the cross round with her arms she will never die in childbirth. At a pattern held there one time, a soldier from Athlone shot off the hand of a figure of St. Kieran, which was over the grand entrance, but returning home he fell from the boat, and was drowned in the very spot where the bells went down a hundred years before. At Saints’ Island, in the Shannon, the ruins of a monas- tery, which was destroyed by King John, may still be seen. When the monks, broken-hearted and beggared, were leaving their beautiful home, one of them kneeled down and prayed to God for forgiveness of his enemies. Immediately a well of pure water sprang up where the monk had knelt ; and the water even to this day is held by the people to have the power to cure all diseases, if the soul of the patient, as he drinks of the well, is free from all malice and the desire of revenge upon those who may have injured him. SWEARING PTONES AND RELICS. at Ue THE CREMAVE. In the old churchyard of the monastery at Saints’ Island, there is also an ancient black marble flagstone ; and the monks gave it power as 4 Revealer of Truth, and it is called the Cremave, or Swearing Stone. Any one suspected of sin or crime is brought here from the country round, and if the accused swears falsely, the stone has the power to set a mark upon him and his race for seven generations. But if no mark appears then he is known to be innocent; and as long as the world lasts, the stone is to have this power, for so the monks decreed ; and with many holy and mystic ceremonies they gave it con- secration, as the “Revealer of Truth.” And though the English burned the monastery and defaced the altar and carried off the holy vessels, yet they had no power over the Cremave, or Swearing Stone, which remains to this day. Many years ago, so runs the tale, a murder was com- mitted in the neighbourhood, and a certain man being sus- pected as the murderer, he was forced to go to the “clear- ing stone”; for the people said, “If he is innocent, the SWEARING STONES AND RELICS. 143 Cremave will clear him; and if guilty, let him suffer for his crime.” So, on the appointed day, he went with his friends and the accuser to the Swearing Stone; and there he was met by the priest, who adjured him to speak the truth in presence of all the people and before the face of God. The man laid his hand upon the stone, and solemnly swore that he was innocent; but instantly his right arm was shrivelled up, his feet failed, and he was carried home a miserable cripple, and so remained to the end of his life. Some weeks after, a daughter was born to him, who bore across her forehead the impress of a bloody hand; and every one of his descendants have some strange mark, by which the people know that the race is accursed to the seventh generation ; after which time the doom will be lifted, and the expiation made for the crime and the perjury will be considered sufficient by the Lord in heaven, who will then grant to the race pardon and grace at last. RELICS bORSGLEARING EROM GUILT” Another relic held in reverence for swearing on by an accused person is St. Finian’s Dish. This was found about one hundred and fifty years ago, buried in the ruins of an old abbey. It is of silver with stones set in it, which, the people say, are the eyes of Christ looking at them while they swear. And when the dish is shaken a rattling noise is heard, which they believe is made by the Virgin Mary’s bones that are enclosed therein. 144 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. “Should a false oath be taken on the relic, the perjurer will at once be stricken by disease, and die before the year is out. And so great is the terror inspired by this belief, that men have fainted from fear when brought up to swear on it. This is done by placing the hand on the cross that is en- graved in the centre of the dish, while the two eyes of Christ are fixed on the swearer who comes for clearance from guilt. The Ghar-Barra, or Crosier of St. Barry, is also a holy relic once overlaid with gold, on which it was the custom to take a clearing oath; as the people held it in great reverence, and nothing was more dreaded than the conse- quence of a false oath on the Ghar-Barra. Once a man who swore falsely thereon had his mouth turned awry, and it so remained to his life’s end, a proof of the saint’s hatred for the sin of perjury. The relic is kept covered carefully with green cloth, and whoever is brought to take a clearing oath thereon must first lay down a small piece of silver for the guardian of the shrine. INNIS-MURRY. At Innis-Murry, Sligo, there is a large table-stone sup- ported on eight perpendicular stones as a pedestal. And on the table are seventy-three stones, from five to twenty inches ‘n circumference, which have been lying there from the most ancient times; for to remove them would be at the peril of one’s life. SWEARING STONES AND RELICS. T45 On these seventy-three stones all the anathematic spirit of the island is concentrated. If the islanders suffer any in- jury, real or supposed, they come and turn these stones, uttering a malediction over their enemy, and should he be guilty he will assuredly die, or suffer some calamity before the year is out. A Scripture reader, having boldly taken away one of these stones to show the folly of the superstition, was obliged to restore it and to quit the island, or his life would not have been safe. There is another stone on the island where alone can fires be lighted, should all the domestic fires become extinct, and the spark must be struck from the stone itself. Innis-Murry is a desolate spot, rarely visited ; the ap- proach is so dangerous on account of the sunken rocks. The crops are scanty, and the soil is poor and light, growing only a short herbage of a spiral and sharp kind. Neither scythe nor sickle could be used in the entire island. Meal is unknown, and dairy produce scarcely to be had, as the grass can only support a few sheep ; but the islanders have fish in abundance, crabs, lobsters, and mackerel especially. A traveller, who visited the island about fifty years ago, describes the manners and mode of living as most primitive ; but the women have the reputation of being exceedingly virtuous, and the households are happy and well conducted. At that time a rude stone image was venerated by the people, called ‘ Father Molosh,” but supposed to be an ancient pagan idol, probably Moloch, The priest, how- ever, has since had it. destroyed. VOL. II. imi MYSTERIES OF FAIRY POWER. THe Evit STROKE. SoME persons are possessed naturally with the power of the Evil Stroke, but it is not considered at all so unlucky as the Evil Eye; for the person who has it does not act from intentional malice but from necessity, from a force within him which acts without his will, and often to his deep regret ; as in hurling matches, where a chance stroke of his may do serious injury, and even the dust of the earth raised by his foot has blinded his opponent for a week, One day a young man, while wrestling with another , in play at a fair, where they met by chance, struck him on the arm, which immediately became fixed and powerless as stone. His friends brought him home, but -nothing would restore the power of the arm or bring back the life; so after he had lain in this state for three days his family sent for the young man who had struck him, to ask for his help. When he came and saw the arm stiff as stone, he anointed it all over with his spittle, making also the THE EVIL STROKE. 147 sign of the cross; and after some time the arm began to move again with life, and finally was quite restored. But the young man of the Evil Stroke was so dismayed at this proof of the strange power in him, that he would never again join in sports for fear of some unlucky accident. The power, however, is sometimes very useful, as in the case of attack from a bull or a ferocious dog; for a touch from the hand of a person possessing the Evil Stroke at once quells the madness in the animal, who will crouch down trembling with fear, and become as incapable of doing injury as if suddenly and powerfully mesmerized. But the power does not come by volition, only at in- tervals; and the person possessing it does not himself know the moment when it can be effectively exercised. Women, also, have the mysterious gift of this strange occult force, and one young girl was much dreaded in the country in consequence ; for anything struck by her, beast or man, became instantly paralyzed, as if turned to stone. One day, at a hurling match, she threw a lump of clay at the winner in anger, because her own lover had failed to win the prize. Immediately the young victor fell down stunned and lifeless, and was so carried home to his mother. Then they sent in all haste for the young girl to restore him to consciousness; but she was so frightened at her own evil work that she went and hid herself. Finding it then impossible to bring her, his friends sent for the fairy doctor, who, by dint of many charms and much stroking, at last restored the young man to life. The girl, however, was in such dread of the curses of the mother, that she fled, and took service in a distant part of the 148 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. country. And all the people rejoiced much over her departure from amongst them. Vet it was considered lucky in some ways to have a fairy-stricken child in the house, for the fairies generally did a good turn by the family to compensate for the evil. And so there was always plenty of butter in the churn, and the cattle did not sicken wherever there was a stricken child. It is also lucky to employ a half-simpleton about the farm, and to be kind to the deaf and dumb, and other afflicted creatures. No one in Ireland would harm them or turn them out of their way, and they always get food and drink for the asking, without any payment being thought of or accepted. THE CHANGELING. eS ae A WOMAN was one night lying awake while her husband slept, when the door suddenly opened and a tall dark man entered, of fierce aspect, followed by an old hag with a child in her arms—a little, misshapen, sickly-looking little thing. They both sat down by the fire to warm them- selves, and after some time the man looked over at the cradle that stood beside the mother’s bed with her boy in it, and kept his eyes on it for several minutes. Then he rose, and when the mother saw him walking over direct to the cradle, she fainted and knew no more. When she came to herself she called to her husband, and bade him light a candle; this he did, on which the old hag in the corner rose up at once and blew it out. Then he lit it a second time, and it was blown out; and still a third time he lit the candle, when again it was blown out, and a great peal of laughter was heard in the darkness. On this the man grew terribly angry, and taking up the tongs he made a blow at the hag; but she slipped away, and struck him on the arm with a stick she held 150 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. in her hand. Then he grew more furious, and beat her on the head till she roared, when he pushed her outside and locked the door. After this he lit the candle in peace; but when they looked at the cradle, lo! in place of their own beautiful boy, a hideous little creature, all covered with hair, lay grinning at them. Great was their grief and lamentation, and both the man and his wife wept and wailed aloud for the loss of their child, and the cry of their sorrow was bitter to hear. Just then the door suddenly opened, and a young woman came in, with a scarlet handkerchief wound round her head. “What are you crying for,” she asked, “at this time of night, when every one should be asleep ?”’ “Took at this child in the cradle,” answered the man, “and you will cease to wonder why we mourn and are sad at heart.” And he told her all the story. When the young woman went over to the cradle and looked at the child, she laughed, but said nothing. ‘Your laughter is stranger than our tears,” said the man. “Why do you laugh in the face of our sorrows ie “Because,” she said, “this is my child that was stolen from me to-night; for I am one of the fairy race, and my people, who live under the fort on the hill, thought your boy was a fine child, and so they changed the babies in the cradle ; but, after all, I would rather have my own, ugly as he is, than any mortal child in the world. So now [ll tell you how to get back your own son, and I'll take away mine at once. Go to the old fort on the hill when THE CHANGELING. 151 the moon is full, and take with you three sheafs of corn and some fire, and burn them one after the other, And when the last sheaf is burning, an old man will come up through the smoke, and he will ask you what it is you desire. Then tell him you must have your child back, or you will burn down the fort, and leave no dwelling-place for his people on the hill. Now, the fairies cannot stand against the power of fire, and they will give you back your child at the mere threat of burning the fort. But mind, take good care of him after, and tie a nail from a horse- shoe round his neck, and then he will be safe.” With that the young woman took up the ugly little imp from the cradle in her arms, and was away before they could see how she got out of the house. Next night, when the moon was full, the man went to the old fort with the three sheafs of corn and the fire, and burned them one after the other; and as the second was lighted there came up an old man and asked him what was his desire. “IT must have my child again that was stolen,” he an- swered, “or I’ll burn down every tree on the hill, and not leave you a stone of the fort where you can shelter any more with your fairy kindred.” Then the old man vanished, and there was a great silence, but no one appeared. On this the father grew angry, and he called out in a loud voice, “I am lifting the third sheaf now, and I’ll burn and destroy and make desolate your dwelling-place, if my child is not returned.” Then a great tumult and clamour was heard in the fort, Tien 152 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. and a voice said, “Let it be. The power of the fire is too strong for us. Bring forth the child.” And presently the old man appeared, carrying the child in his arms. “Take him,” he said. ‘‘ By the spell of the fire, and the corn you have conquered. But take my advice, draw a circle of fire, with a hot coal this night, round the cradle when you go home, and the fairy power cannot touch him any more, by reason of the fire. So the man did as be was desired, and by the spell of fire and of corn the child was saved from evil, and he grew and prospered. And the old fort stands to this day safe from harm, for the man would allow no hand to move a stone or harm a tree; and the fairies still dance there on the rath, when the moon is full, to the music of the fairy pipes, and no one hinders them. THE Fairy Docror. ——.0:—— Ir a healthy child suddenly droops and withers, that child is fairy-struck, and a fairy doctor must be at once called in. Young girls also, who fall into rapid decline, are said to be fairy-struck ; for they are wanted in Fairy-land as brides for some chief or prince, and so they pine away without visible cause till they die. The other malign influences that act fatally on life are the Wind and the Evil Eye. The evil power of the Wind is called a fairy-blast ; while, of one suffering from the Evil Eye, they say he has been “ overlooked.” The fairy doctor must pronounce from which of these three causes the patient is suffering. The fairy-stroke, or the fairy-blast, or the Evil Eye; but he must take no money for the opinion given. He is paid in some other way ; by free gracious offerings in gratitude for help given. A person who visited a great fairy doctor for advice, thus describes the process of cure at the interview :— ‘The doctor always seems as if expecting you, and had full knowledge of your coming. He bids you be seated, and after looking fixedly on your face for some moments, 154 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. his proceedings begin. He takes three rods of witch hazel, each three inches long, and marks them separately, * For the Stroke,’ ‘For the Wind,’ ‘For the Evil Eye.’ This is to ascertain from which of these three evils you suffer. He then takes off his coat, shoes, and stockings ; rolls up his shirt sleeves, and stands with his face to the sun in earnest prayer. After prayer he takes a dish of pure water and sets it by the fire, then kneeling down, he puts the three hazel rods he had marked into the fire, and leaves them there till they are burned black as charcoal. All the time his prayers are unceasing; and when the sticks are burned, he rises, and again faces the sun in silent prayer, standing with his eyes uplifted and hands crossed. After this he draws a circle on the floor with the end of one of the burned sticks, within which circle he stands, the dish of pure water beside him. Into this he flings the three hazel rods, and watches the result earnestly. The moment one sinks he addresses a prayer to the sun, and taking the rod out of the water he declares by what agency the patient is afflicted. ‘Then he grinds the rod to powder, puts it in a bottle which he fills up with water from the dish, utters an incantation or prayer over it, in a low voice, with clasped hands held over the bottle. But what the words of the prayer are no one knows, they are kept as solemn mysteries, and have been handed down from father to son through many generations, from the most ancient times. The potion is then given to be carried home, and drunk that night at midnight in silence and alone. Great care must be taken that the bottle never touches the ground ; and the person carrying it must speak no word, and never THE FAIRY DOCTOR. Io5 look round till home is reached. The other two sticks he buries in the earth in some place unseen and unknown. If none of the three sticks sink in the water, then he uses herbs as a cure. Vervain, eyebright, and yarrow are favourite remedies, and all have powerful properties known, to the adept; but the words and prayers he utters over, them are kept secret, and whether they are good or bad, or addressed to Deity or to a demon, none but himself Canecell,2 These are the visible mysteries of the fairy doctor while working out his charms and incantations. But other fairy doctors only perform the mysteries in private, and allow no one to see their mode of operation or witness the acts of prayers. If a potion is made up of herbs it must be paid for in silver ; but charms and incantations are never paid for, or they would lose their power. A present, however, may be accepted as an offering of gratitude. THE POET'S SPELL. 70s A VERY ancient story, as old as the tenth century, is nar- rated, and firmly believed by the people, that once on a time when the reapers were at work, a fine handsome young married woman, who was in the field with them, suddenly fell down dead. This caused a great fear and consternation, especially as it was asserted that just before the fatal event, a fairy blast had passed over the field, carrying a cloud of dust and stones with it; and there could be no doubt but that the fairies had rushed by in the cloud, and struck the woman dead as they passed. Then her people sent for the great wise poet of the tribe, who was reputed to have the power by his song to break the strongest fairy spells: and he chanted low music over her, and uttered mystic incantations, the words of which no man heard ; but after a while the woman unclosed her eyes and rose up, restored to life. When they questioned her, she told them all she knew. “In sickness I was,” she said, “and I appeared to be dead, for I could neither speak nor moye, till the song of the poet gave me power. Then the life rose up in me again, and the strength, and I was healed.” CHARM FOR THE Fairy STROKE. —-0:—— THERE is a very ancient and potent charm which may be tried with great effect in case of a suspected fairy-stroke. Place three rows of salt on a table in three lines, three equal measures to each row. The person performing the spell then encloses the rows of salt with his arm, leaning his head down over them, while he repeats the Lord’s Prayer three times over each row—that is, nine times in all. Then he takes the hand of the one who has been fairy-struck, and says over it, “ By the power of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let this disease depart, and the spell of the evil spirits be broken! I adjure, I command you to leave this man [naming him]. In thename of God I pray; in the name of Christ I adjure; in the name of the Spirit of God I command and compel you to go back and leave this man free! AmEeN! Amen! AMEN !” THe FARMER'S FATE. La —_— __—— Ue Tue peasants have the greatest dread of the fairy-stroke, and consider it the most dangerous indication of fairy hostility. When a person is struck, he becomes wholly ‘nsensible to external things, as if his soul had been taken out of him and carried away. A farmer once began to build a barn on a fairy circle, to the great horror of the neighbours, who warned him of the danger; but he only laughed at their nonsense, and built and finished his barn on the fairy rath. However, riding home one evening after sunset, he was suddenly “struck,” and fell insensible to the ground. They carried him home and laid him on his bed, where he lay for several days, his eyes fixed and staring without any motion of the eyelids, and no indication of life remaining, except his colour, which never changed. All the doctors came and looked at him, but could do nothing.’ There was no fracture nor injury of any kind to his frame ; so the doctors shook their heads and went their way, saying they would call again in a day or two. But the family objected to delay, and sent at once for the great fairy doctor of the district. ‘The moment he came he threw herbs on the fire, when a fragrant smell filled the room like church incense. ‘Then he pounded some herbs and mixed THE FARMER’S FATE. 159 a liquid with them, but what the herbs were, no one knew. And with this mixture he touched the brow and the lips and the hands of the man, and sprinkled the rest over his insen- sible form. After this he told them to keep silence round him for two hours, when he would return and finish the cure. And so it happened, for in two hours the life came back to the man, though he could not speak. But strength came gradually ; and by the next day he rose up, and said he had dreamed a dream, and heard a voice Saying to him, “ Pull down the barn, for ill-luck is on it.” Accordingly he gave orders to his men, and every stick and stone was carried away, and the fairy rath left free again for the fairies to dance on, as in the olden time, when they were the gods of the earth, long before men came to dispute their rights, and take possession of their ancient pleasure grounds—an indignity no high-spirited fairy could calmly endure. For in their councils they had decreed that the fairy rath, at least, should be sacred for all time, and woe to the man who builds his house thereon. An evil fate is on him and on the house for evermore. Down it must come, or the evil spell will never be lifted. There is no hope for it, for the most dangerous and subtle of all enemies is an angry fairy. Nor should the paths even be crossed by work of human hand, which the fairies traverse from one palace to another. Their line of march must not be impeded. Finvarra and his men would resent such a gross insult to the royal fairy rights, and severely punish the audacious and offending mortal. Not even the Grand Jury would be allowed to interfere, for if they did, every man of them would be demolished in some way or other by fairy power. THe Fairy RATH. Tur fairies, beside being revengeful, are also very arrogant, and allow no interference with their old-established rights. There is a rath in the Queen’s County, only four yards in diameter, but held so sacred as the fairies’ dancing ground that no one ever dared to remove a handful of earth from the mound; and at night the sweetest low music may be heard floating round the hill, as if played by silver bagpipes. One evening a boy lay down on the rath to listen to the music, and, without thinking, began to gather up balis of the clay and fling them hither and thither in sport, when suddenly he was struck down by a violent blow and became senseless. There he was found by his people, who went to search for him ; and when he came to himself he bleated like a calf, and it was along time before he recovered his reason, for the power of the fairies is great, and none can resist it. THE HOLY WELIS a amagh (Ps THERE is no superstition stronger in Ireland than a belief in the curative power of the sacred wells that are scattered over the country ; fountains of health and healing which some saint had blessed, or by which some saint had dwelt in the far-off ancient times. But well-worship is even older than Christianity. It is part of the early ritual of humanity, brought from the Eastern lands by the first Aryan tribes who migrated westward, passing along from the Mediter- ranean to the Atlantic shores, The Delphic oracle in its origin was nothing more than a holy well, shadowed by trees, on which were hun g the votive offerings of the praying peasants, long before the riya] kings brought to the sacred spot their yotive tributes of silver and gold, and crowns of precious stones. In Ireland the beautiful, picturesque, and tree-shadowed wells of the country were held sacred by the Druid priests, as is evident from the many remarkable Druidical remains that have been found in thejr vicinity—ruins of temples and Strange carvings. Much also of the ancient Druidic ceremonial the people, such as the pillar-stones, and stones with bas been preserved by symbolic: dances, the traditions of VOL. It. I2 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. 162 sun-worship, and other pagan rites, which were incorporated into the Christian ritual of well-worship by the early con- verts, and are still retained, though, through the lapse of ages, they have entirely lost their original significance, and are now only practised as ancient customs, for which the Irish have great reverence, as having come down to them from their forefathers. The ceremonial is the same at all these places of devout pilgrimage. The pilgrims go round the well a certain number of times, either three or nine, creeping on their hands and knees, but always from east to west, following the apparent motion of the sun, and reciting paters and aves all the time. At the close of each round they build up a small pile of stones ; for at the last day the angels will reckon these stones, and he who has said the most prayers will have the highest place in heaven, each saint keeping count for his own votaries. The patient then descends the broken steps to the well and, kneeling down, bathes his forehead and hands in the water, after which oblation the pain or disease he suffered from will be gradually removed, and depart from him for evermore. At some wells there is often a rude stone monument of the ancient times, and the eyes of the pilgrim must be kept steadily fixed on it while reciting the prayers. Whenever a white-thorn or an ash-tree shadows the place, the well is held to be peculiarly sacred; and on leaving, having first drunk of the water, the patient ties a votive offering to the branches—generally a coloured handkerchiet or a bright red strip cut from a garment ; and these offerings are never removed. They remain for.years fluttering in the THE HOLY WELLS, 163 wind and the rain, just as travellers have described the votive offerings on the sacred trees that shadow the holy wells of Persia. They are signs and tokens of gratitude to the patron saint, and are meant to show the devil that he has no longer Power to harm the praying pilgrim, or torment him with pains and aches as heretofore. It is not supposed that the water of the well has any natural medicinal proper- ties. The curative efficacy is wholly due to the observance of the ritual in honour of the Saint, whose spirit and influ- ence is still over the well, by which he lived, and of which he drank while living on the earth. ce THE WHITE STONES. At many of the wells quantities of beautiful white stones are found that glitter in the sun, and these are highly es- teemed by the pilgrims to build up their prayer monuments. One day some women were eagerly collecting these stones, after each round of praying, in order to build up a monu- ment ; when suddenly a strain of soft, exquisite music seemed to rise up from the water and float by them. In their joy and wonder the women clapped their hands and laughed aloud, when instantly the music ceased, and the pile of Stones fell down. By which sign they knew that they should not haye laughed while the angels were singing ; and they fell on their knees and prayed. ee A holy well once lost all its power because a murder had been committed near it 3 and another because it was cursed 164 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. v by a priest in consequence of the immorality that pervailed at the patterns. THE SACRED TROUT. The water of the sacred well must never be used for household purposes—cooking, washing, or the like. But after the well.was cursed by the priest, and the tents were struck, and no pattern was held there any longer, it lost all its sanctity, and was no longer held sacred by the people, who began to fill their pails, and carry the water away home for cooking and household use; while also they all washed their clothes down at the well, just as if no sanctity had ever been in the water. However, one day a woman having put down a pot of water to boil, found that no amount of fire would heat it. Still it remained ice-cold, as if just drawn from the well. So she looked carefully into the pot, and there beheld the Sacred Speckled Trout sailing round and round quite con- tented and happy. On seeing this she knew that the curse was lifted from the well, and she ran and told the priest. His reverence having seen the Sacred Trout with his own eyes, ordered it to be carried back to the well, the water of which at once regained all its sacred powers by the blessing of the priest ; and he gave the people leave thenceforth to hold their pattern there, so as they behaved themselves like decent God-fearing Christians for the future. But the water was not allowed to be carried away any more to their houses for household purposes ; the desecration of the holy water of a sacred well being strictly forbidden as dangerous and unlucky. St. Auqustine’s Wext. ene ——— ———— -0. AT a holy well in the south, dedicated to St. Augustine, the friars began to build a convent. And during all the hours of work bells were heard ringing sweetly and voices singing ; but one day a woman came and washed her feet in the water of the well, and thereupon all the bells ceased and the singing stopped, and the work could not go on. So the friars chose another site, and they drew a circle round it, within which no woman was to set her foot ; and ie after this the bells began to ring again and the voices sang. ih and the work went on safely till the convent was completed | = in the name of God and St. Augustine ; but no woman i during all that time ever set foot on the holy ground. rey ae ene "! ne ~ ee ee i > hNaR ae THE GRILLED TROUT. SOs In Sligo there is a well called Zoder-na-alt, beautifully shadowed by trees, the branches of which are thickly hung with all sorts of votive offerings from those who have been cured by the water; and miracle-men attended, who pro- fessed to heal diseases by charms, prayers, and incantations. A man who had been born blind once recited his ex- periences there. “Oh, Christians, look on me! Iwas blind from my birth and saw no light till I came to the blessed well; now I see the water and the speckled trout down at the bottom, with the white cross on his back. Glory be to God for the cure.” And when the people heard that he could really see the speckled trout, of course they all believed in the miracle. For a tradition exists that a sacred trout has lived there from time immemorial, placed in the well by the saint who first sanctified the water. Now there was an adventurous man who desired much to get possession of this trout, and he watched till at last he caught it asleep. Then he carried it off and put it on the gridiron. The trout bore the grilling of one side very patiently ; but when the man tried to turn it on the fire, the trout suddenly THE GRILLED TROUT. 167 jumped up and made off as hard as it could back to the well, where it still lives, and can be seen at times by those who have done proper penance and paid their dues to the priest, with one side all streaked and marked brown by the bars of the gridiron, which can never be effaced. LEGEND of NEAL-mor, at eh THERE is a great hole or well near the river Suir, always filled with water, whose depth no man has yet fathomed. Near it is a castle, which in old times belonged to a power- ful chief called (Veal-mor. One day while his servants were saving the hay, a violent tempest of wind and rain came on, which quite destroyed the crop. Then Neal-mor was filled with rage, and he mounted his horse and drew his sword, and rode forth to the field; and there he challenged the Lord God Himself to battle. And he swung his sword round his head and struck at the air, as if he would kill and slay the Great Invisible Spirit. On which suddenly a strange thing happened, for a great whirlwind arose and the earth opened, and Neal-mor, still astride on his horse and with his sword in his hand, was lifted high up into the air and then cast down alive into the great hole, called Poul-mor, which may be seen to this day, and the castle is still stand- ing by the margin. But no trace of Neal-mor or his steed was ever again beheld. They perished utterly by the vengeance of God. But some time after his disappearance, a rude stone LEGEND OF NEAL-MOR. 169 figure seated on a horse, was cast up out of the earth; and then all men knew the fate of the terrible chief who had braved the wrath of God, for here was his image and the sign of his destruction. This stone figure is still preserved at the castle, and tradition says that if it were removed the whole castle would crumble to pieces in a single night and be cast into the Poud-mor. ST. Jouy’s WELL. —— 0 At St. John’s well, County Cork, there is a large stone, believed to be the real true head of John the Baptist, grown hard and solid from time and the action of the elements. And the stone has certainly a rude resemblance to a human head. Suspected persons are brought to swear on it for a clear- ing from guilt; for it is held in high reverence. Compacts are also made there, which are held inviolate, for no one who swears with his hand on the stone, would ever dream of breaking the oath, and each person present as witness scratches a cross on the surface with a sharp piece of slate. A number of pagan remains are in the vicinity, but they are now held in reverence as places of Christian sanctity. Some time ago an ancient stone image was dug up from the earth, which antiquarians pronounced to be a pagan idol, probably the Irish Siva. This was at first consecrated as Saint Gobnath, but afterwards the priest destroyed the image with his own hands. All the paths round the well are marked deep by the lines of praying pilgrims, who go round it on their knees. And ST. JOHN’S WELL. I7I there are piles of the little stones that mark the prayers of the penitents, all ready for the angels to count. Most of the stones are of pure quartz, white and glistening, and these are highly esteemed. THE Went or Fionn MA-Cout. THE ancient churches and cells of the saints were generally placed in the vicinity of a well, which then be- came sanctified and endowed with miraculous healing power. Or the well may have been held sacred by the Druids, and the scene of their pagan rites ; therefore selected by the saint specially as his dwelling-place, so that he might bring it under the fosterage and holy influence of Christianity. The grave of the great Fionn was laid by a celebrated well in the County Cork, and it is certain that a massive human jawbone was found there not long ago, far exceeding in size the bones of the present race of men. This jaw-bone was sent to London to be inspected by the learned philoso- phers, but was never returned—a great and grievous wrong to the renowned Irish chief, for no doubt the mighty Fionn will want it badly at the last day, when he is gathering up his bones to appear before the Lord. St. SEENAN’S WELL. “Os —_— THERE is a place on the shore of Scattery Island, where, according to the most ancient tradition, a sacred well once existed, with miraculous curative powers. But no one could ever discover the place, for at high water the sea covered every point up to the edge of the land, and the shifting sand made all efforts to find the locality of the well vain and fruitless. But one day a young man who was lame in both legs from the effects of a fall, and much disabled in consequence, was going along the shore with some companions, when he suddenly sank up to his waist in the sand. With much difficulty, and after a long while, his comrades managed to haul him up, when to their amazement they found that his legs were now quite straight, and he stood up before them four inches taller than before he sank down into the sand. So at once they knew that the sacred well must have worked the cure, and they dug and dug and cleared away the sand, till at last they came on some ancient steps, and down below lay the well, clear and fresh, and untouched by 174 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. the salt of the sea, the holy well of St. Seenan, that their fathers and forefathers had vainly looked for. Now there was great rejoicing in the country when the news spread ; and all the people from far and near who had pains and ailments rushed off to the well and drank of the waters and poured libations of it over their persons, wherever the pain or the disease lay, and in a short time wonderful cures were effected. So next day still greater crowds arrived to try their good luck. But when they came to the place, not a vestige of the well could be found. The sand and the sea had covered all, and from that day to this the holy well of St. Seenan has never been seen by mortal eyes. Kit-NA-GREINA. —0:—— Lober Kil-na-Greina (the well of the fountain of the sun) was discovered only about eighty years ago, by a strange chance in the County Cork. The land was a desolate marsh, no one built on it, and nothing grew on it or near it. But a large grey stone lay there, with a natural hollow in the centre that would hold about a gallon of water, and close by were the remains of an old pagan fort. One day, the farmer who owned the land carried off this great grey stone to use as a drinking trough for his cattle. But not long after all the cattle grew sick, and then all the children sickened, so the farmer said there was ill luck in the business, and he carried back the stone to its old place, on which all the household recovered their health. Thereupon the farmer began to think there must be some- thing wonderful and mysterious in the locality, so he had the marsh thoroughly drained, after which process they came upon an ancient stone circle, and in the midst was a well ot beautiful fresh water. Some people said there was writing on the stones, and strange carvings ; but it was generally be- 176 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. lieved to be a Druid temple and oracle, for there was a tradi- tion that a woman called the Ban-na-Naomha (the nymph of ae the well) had once lived there—and that she had the gift | HM of prophecy, and uttered oracles to those who sought her at | the shrine by the well ; and there was a little wooden image of her, also, that used to speak to the people—so it was said and believed. It is certain, however, that a pagan temple once i) existed there, for which reason St. Patrick cursed the land | i Hh and turned it into a marsh, and the well was hidden for a t | i | thousand years, according to St. Patrick’s word. 1 1 li On the discovery of the well the whole country flocked to | H ail it for cures. Tents were erected and a pattern was organized, | which went on for some years with great success, and many i Hh authentic instances are recorded of marvellous miracles } performed there. The ritual observed was very strict at the beginning, three draughts of water were taken by the pilgrims, the number of drinks three, the number of rounds on their knees were three, thus making the circuit of the well nine times. After each round the pilgrim laid a stone on the ancient altar in the Druid circle, called ‘the well of the sun,” and these let | stones, named in Irish ‘‘ the stones of the sun,” are generally : pure white, and about the size of a pigeon’s egg. They have a beautiful appearance after rain when the sun shines on them, and were doubtless held sacred to the sun in pagan al times. The angels will reckon these stones at the last day, ; but each particular saint will take charge of his own votaries and see that the stones are properly counted, for each man will receive forgiveness according to their number. But gradually the revelry at the pattern gave occasion for —EE KIL-NA-GREINA. 177 so much scandal, that the priest denounced the well from the altar, along with all the wickedness it fostered and en- couraged. Still the people would not give up the pattern, and the drinking, and dancing, and gambling, and fighting went on worse than ever, until one day a man was killed. After this a curse seemed to have fallen on the place. The well lost all its miraculous powers, no cures were effected ; the maimed, the halt, and the blind prayed before it, and went the rounds, and piled the stones as usual, but no help came, and worst sign of all, a great pagan stone on which a cross had been erected, fell down of its own accord, and the cross lay shattered on the ground. Then all the people knew that the curse of blood and of St. Patrick was indeed over the well; so it was deserted, and the tents were struck, and no pattern was ever held there any more, for the virtue of healing had gone from “the fountain of the sun,” and never has come back to it through all the years. Even the Ban-Naomha, the nymph of the fountain, who used to manifest herself occasionally to the regenerate under the form of a trout, disappeared at the same time, and though she may be heard of at other sacred wells, was never again seen by the devout pilgrims who watched for her appearance at the Zoder-kil-na-Greina. THE WeLL of Worsuip. aon At Zober-Mire, the well of the field of worship, County Cork, there are also many pagan monuments, and it is evident that the vicinity was one of the strongholds of the Druids in ancient times, where they had a temple, a burial- ground, and stones for sacrifice; a much larger population existed also round the temple than can now be numbered in the same locality. as BRIDE’s Wit siian —-"0;——_. NEar the last-named well is the Bride’s Well, Zober-Breda (the holy well of St Bridget). here of fabulous antiquity, the Egyptian model, ancient white-thorn co which one may see dark hair of the Iris There is a stone oratory with a doorway fashioned after sloping towards the top; also an vered with votive offerings, amongst many a long lock of the splendid h southern women, who adopt this antique traditional symbol of self-sacrifice to sh gratitude to the patron saint, St. Bridget took the name of the pagan goddess Brighita in order to destroy and obliterate t transfer the devotion of the people to the Christian cere- monies, and Zober-Breda is now considered of the hig ghest sanctity, being under the special patronage of St. Bridget. Ow their he idolatrous rites and THe IRISH -AKiR: “92 Ve * Many of the professional prayer-men, or Fakirs, resort to the Tober-Breda during the pattern, and manage to obtain gifts and contributions and all sorts of excellent things in ex- change for their prayers from the rich farmers and young girls, to whom they promise good luck, and perhaps also a lover who will be handsome and young. These Irish Fakirs, or sacred fraternity of beggars, lead a pleasant, thoroughly idle life. They carry a wallet and a staff, and being looked on as holy men endowed with strange spiritual gifts, they are entirely supported by the voluntary gifts of the people, who firmly believe in the mysterious efficiency of their prayers and blessings and prognostics of luck. One of these Fakirs towards the end of his life was glad to find shelter in the poor-house. He was then eighty years of age, but a tall, erect old man, with flowing white beard and hair, keen eyes, and of most venerable aspect. A gentleman who saw him there, being much struck with his dignified and remarkable appearance, induced him to tell the story of his life, which was marked by several strange and curious incidents. THE IRISH FAKIR,. 181 He said he was a farmer’s son, but from his earliest youth hated work, and only liked to spend the long summer day lying on the grass gazing up into the clouds dreaming and thinking where they were all sailing to, and longing to float away with them to other lands. Meanwhile his father raged and swore and beat him, often cruelly, because he would not work. But all the same, he could not bring himself to be digging from morning to night, and herding cattle, and keeping company only with labourers. So when he was about twenty he formed a plan to run away ; for, he thought, if the stupid old Fakirs who are lame and blind and deaf find people ready to support them, all for nothing, might not he have a better chance for getting board and lodging without work, since he had youth and health and could tell them stories to no end of the great old ancient times. So one night he quitted his father’s house secretly, and went forth on his travels into the wide world, only to meet bitter disappointment and rude repulse, for the farmers would have nothing to say to him, nor the farmers’ wives. Every one eyed him with suspicion. “Why,” they said, ‘should a great stalwart young fellow over six feet high go about the country begging? He was a tramp and meant no good.” And they chased him away from their grounds. Then he thought he would disguise himself as a regular Fakir ; so he got a long Cloak, and took a wallet and a staff, and hid his raven black hair under a close skul] cap, and tried to look as old as he could. But the regular Fakirs soon found him out, and their 182 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF JRELAND. spite and rage was great, for all of them were either lame of a leg or blind of an eye, and they said: ‘ Why should this great broad-shouldered young fellow with the black eyes come and take away our chances of living, when he ought to be able to work and earn enough to keep himself without robbing us of our just rights?” And they grumbled and snarled at him like so many dogs, and set people to spy on him and watch him. Still he was determined to try his luck on every side ; so he went to all the stations round about and prayed louder and faster than any pilgrim or Fakir amongst the whole lot. But wherever he went he saw a horrible old hag for ever following him. Her head was wrapped up in an old red shawl, and nothing was seen of her face except two eyes, that glared on him like coals of fire whichever way he turned. And now, in truth, his life became miserable to him because of this loathsome hag. So he went from station to station to escape her; but still she followed him, and the sound of her stick on the ground was ever after him like the hammering of a nail into his coffin, for he felt sure he would die of the torment and horror. At last he thought he would try Zobar-Lreda for his next station, as it was several miles off and she might not be able to follow him so far. So he went, and not a sign of her was to be seen upon the road. ‘This rejoiced his heart, and he kneeled down at the well and was saying his prayers louder and faster than ever when he looked up, and there, kneeling right opposite to him at the other side of the road, was the detestable old witch. But she took no notice of THE IRISH FAKIR, 183 him, only went on Saying her prayers and telling her beads as if no one were by. Presently, however, she stooped down to wash her face in the well, and, as she threw up the water with her hands, she let the red shawl slip down over her shoulders, and then the young man beheld to his astonishment a beautiful young girl before him with a complexion like the lily and the rose, and soft brown hair falling in showers of curls over her snow-white neck, He had only a glimpse for a moment while she cast the water in her face, and then she drew the red shawl again over her head and shoulders and was the old hag once more that had filled him with horror. But that one glimpse was enough to make his heart faint with love ; and now for the first time she turned her burning eyes full on him, and kept them fixed until he seemed to Swoon away in an ecstasy of happiness, and knew nothing more till he found her seated beside him, holding his hand in hers, and _ still looking intently on his face with her glittering eyes. 3 “Come away,” she whispered ; “follow me. We must leave this crowd of pilgrims. I have much to say to you.” So he rose up, and they went away together to a secluded spot, far from the noise and tumult of the station. Then she threw off the shawl, and took the bandage from her face, and said, “ Look on me. Can you love me? I have followed you day by day for love of you. Can you love me in return, and join your fate to mine? I have money enough for both, and I’ll teach you the mysteries by which we Can gain more.” And from that day forth they two travelled together all eo 184 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. over the country; and'they practised many strange mys- teries and charms, for Elaine, his wife, was learned in all the secrets of herb lore. And the people paid them well for their help and knowledge, so that they never wanted anything, and lived like princes, though never an evil act was done by their hands, nor did a word of strife ever pass between them. Thus they lived happily for many years, till an evil day came when Elaine was struck by sickness, and she died. Then the soul of the man seemed to die with her, and all his knowledge left him, and sad and weary, and tired of all things, he finally came to end his days in the poor-house, old, poor, and broken-hearted. Yet still he had the bearing of one born for a higher destiny, and the noble dignity as of a discrowned king. Such was the strange story told to the gentleman by the aged Fakir in the poor-house, a short time before his death. SACRED TREES, —:0:—— THE large old hawthorns, growing singly in a field or by an ancient well, are considered yery sacred; and no one would venture to cut them down, for the fairies dance under the branches at night, and would resent being interfered with. There is a Holy Stone in an island of the Shannon, called St. Patrick’s Stone. It is shadowed by an aged hawthorn, the perfume of which can be scented far off on the mainland in the flowering season. At the top of this stone is a large hollow, always filled with water by the rain or the dew, which is kept from evaporation by the heavy > shadows of the branching hawthorn. It is believed that the water of this hollow has great healing power, and sometimes when a patient is brought from a distance, a rude stone shed is built under the tree, and there he is laid till the cure is completed by the water of the Holy Stone. On leaving he ties a votive offering to the tree, which is always covered with these memorials of grati- tude. 186 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. “In autumn. the people go to bewail the dead at St. Patrick’s Stone ; and the mournful Irish chant may be often heard rising up in the still evening air with weird and solemn effect. TOBER-NA-DaARa, —0: —— Tobver-na-Dara (the well of tears) was so called because it overflowed one time for a mile round, from the tears of the Irish wives and mothers who came there to weep for their fallen kindred, who had been slain in a battle, fighting against Cromwell’s troopers of the English army. LougH NEAGH. WONDERFUL tales are related about the formation of Lough Neagh ; and the whole country round abounds with traditions. One of them affirms that the great Fionn Ma-Coul, being in a rage one day, took up a handful of earth and flung it into the sea; and the handful was of such a size that where it fell it formed the Isle of Man, and the hollow caused by its removal became the basin of the present Lough Neagh. Another legend is that a holy well once existed in the locality, blessed and sanctified by a saint with wonderful miraculous powers of healing; provided that every patient on leaving, after cure, carefully closed the wicket-gate that shut in the well. But once, however, a woman having forgotten this information, left the gate open, when instantly the indignant waters sprang from their bed and pursued the offender, who fled in terror before the advancing waves, until at last she sank down exhausted, when the waters closed over her, and she was no more seen. But along the track of her flight the waters remained, and formed the great lake now existing, which is exactly the length LOUGH NEAGH. 189 the woman traversed in her flight from the angry spirit of the lake. Mysterious influences still haunt the locality all round Lough Neagh; for it is the most ancient dwelling-place of the fairies, and when they pass at night, from one island to another, soft music is heard floating by, and then the boatmen know that the fairies are out for a pleasure trip; and one man even averred that he saw them going by in the track of the moonbeam, a crowd of little men all dressed in green with red caps, and the ladies in silver gossamer. And he liked these pretty creatures, and always left a little poteen for them in the bottle when he was on the island. In return for which attention they gave him the best of good luck in fishing and in everything else; for never a gauger came next or nigh his place while the fairies protected him, and many a time they led the gauger into a bog, and other- wise discomfited him, when he and his men were after a still. So the fisherman loved his little friends, and they took great care of him; for even in the troublous times of ’93, when the wreckers were all over the country, they did him no harm ; though indeed the same wreckers knew where to find a good glass of something when they came his way, and he always gave it to them with a heart and a half; for didn’t they tell him they were going to free Ireland from the Sassenach tyranny. Down deep, under the waters of Lough Neagh, can still be seen, by those who have the gift of fairy vision, the columns and walls of the beautiful palaces once inhabited by the fairy race when they were the gods of the earth ; and Igo ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. this tradition of a buried town beneath the waves has been prevalent for centuries amongst the people. Giraldus Cambrensis states, that in his time the tops of towers, “built after the fashion of the country,” were dis- tinctly visible in calm, clear weather, under the surface of the lake ; and still the fairies haunt-the ruins of their former splendour, and hold festivals beneath the waters when the full moon is shining ; for the boatmen, coming home late at night, have often heard sweet music rising up from beneath the waves and the sound of laughter, and seen glimmering lights far down under the water, where the ancient fairy palaces are supposed to be. THe Doctor AND THE FAIRY PRINCESS. —_—— 0 /—— LATE one night, so the story goes, a great doctor, who lived near Lough Neagh, was awoke by the sound of a carriage driving up to his door, followed by a loud ring. Hastily throwing on his clothes, the doctor ran down, when he saw a little sprite of a page standing at the carriage door, and a grand gentleman inside, “Oh, doctor, make haste and come with me,” exclaimed the gentleman. “Lose no time, for a great lady has been taken ill, and she will have no one to attend her but you. So come along with me at once in the carriage.” On this the doctor ran up again to finish his dressing, and to put up all that might be wanted, and was down again in a moment. “Now quick,” said the gentleman, “ you are an excellent good fellow. Sit down here beside me, and do not be alarmed at anything you may see.” So on they drove like mad—and when they came to the ferry, the doctor thought they would wake up the ferryman. 192 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND, and take the boat; but no, in they plunged, carriage and horses, and all, and were at the other side in no time without a drop of water touching them. Now the doctor began to suspect the company he was in; but he held his peace, and they went on up Shane’s Hill, till they stopped at a long, low, black house, which they entered, and passed along a narrow dark passage, groping their way, till, all at once, a bright light lit up the walls, and some attendants having opened a door, the doctor found himself in a gorgeous chamber all hung with silk and gold; and on a silken couch lay a beautiful lady, who exclaimed with the most friendly greeting— ‘Oh, doctor, I am so glad to see you. How good of you to come.” ‘‘ Many thanks, my lady,” said the doctor, “I am at your ladyship’s service.” And he stayed with her till a male child was born ; but when he looked round there was no nurse, so he wrapped it in swaddling clothes and laid it by the mother. ‘‘Now,” said the lady, “mind what I tell you. They will try to put a spell on you to keep you here; but take my advice, eat no food and drink no wine, and you will be safe; and mind, also, that you express no surprise at anything you see; and take no more than five golden guineas, though you may be offered fifty or a hundred, as your fee. ‘““Thank you, madam,” said the doctor, “I shall obey you in all things.” With this the gentleman came into the room, grand and noble as a prince, and then he took up the child, looked at it and laid it again on the bed. THE DOCTOR AND THE FAIRY PRINCESS. 193 Now there was a large fire in the room, and the gentleman took the fire shovel and drew all the burning coal to the front, leaving a great space at the back of the grate; then he took up the child again and laid it in the hollow at the back of the fire and drew all the coal over it till it was covered ; but, mindful of the lady’s advice, the doctor said never a word. Then the room suddenly changed to another still more beautiful, where a grand feast was laid out, of all sorts of meats and fair fruits and bright red wine in cups of sparkling crystal. ‘* Now, doctor,” said the gentleman, “sit down with us and take what best pleases you.” “Sir,” said the doctor, “I have made a vow neither to eat nor drink till I reach my home again, So please let me return without further delay.” “ Certainly,” said the gentleman, “but first let me pay you for your trouble,” and he laid down a bag of gold on the table and poured out a quantity of bright pieces, “T shall only take what is my right and no more,” said the doctor, and he drew over five golden guineas, and placed them in his purse. “And now, may I have the carriage to convey me back, for it is growing late?” On this the gentleman laughed. “You have been learning secrets from my lady,” he said. « However, you have behaved right well, and you shall be brought back safely.” So the carriage came, and the doctor took his cane, and was carried back as the first time through the water—horses, carriage, and all—and so on till he reached his home all right just before daybreak. But when he opened his purse to take out the golden guineas, there he saw a splendid VOL, Il 14 194 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND, diamond ring along with them in the purse worth a king’s ransom, and when he examined it he found the two letters of his own name carved inside. So he knew it was meant for him, a present from the fairy prince himself. All this happened a hundred years ago, but the ring still remains in the doctor’s family, handed down from father to son, and it is remarked, that whoever wears it as the owner for the time has good luck and honour and wealth all the days of his life. “‘ And by the light that shines, this story is true,” added the narrator of the tale, using the strong form of asseveration by which the Irish-speaking peasants emphasize the truth of their words. Pie tLOl yes MELT, er (eens On the north side of Lough Neagh there is still a holy well of great power and sanctity. Three ancient white-thorn trees overshadow it, and about a mile distant is the frag- mentary ruin of a wooden cross, erected in the olden time to mark the limit of the sacred ground. It was the custom up to a recent date for the pilgrims to go round this well thirteen times barefoot on the 27th of June, drink of the water, wash in it, and then, holding themselves freed from all past sin, return to the old worldly life, and begin again after the usual fashion the old routine of business or pleasure, or reckless folly, conscious that they could come once more the following year and clear off all the accumulated stains of an ill life by a lavation in the holy well. A number of yellow crystals are found near, which the people say grow in the rocks in one night upon Midsummer Eve. And these crystals have power to avert all evil and bring luck and blessing to a house and family, and certain words are said while gathering them, known only to the adepts. The crystals are, however, very plentiful, and are i ——<—S 196 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. found scattered for a space of two miles round the well, and in the crannies of the rocks. When burned in a crucible they become pure lime in one hour, and the powder ferments with spirits of vitriol; yet the waters of the well when analyzed present no appearance of lime. At one time an effort was made to change the name of Lough Neagh to Lough Chichester, in honour of the Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, but the Irish would not accept the new baptism, and the old name still remains unchanged. A SAcRED IsLanp. —0:—— AT Toome Island there is the ruin of an ancient church, where the dead walk on November Eve. It is a solemn and sacred place, and nothing is allowed to be taken from it ; neither stone nor branch of the shadowing trees, for fear of angering the spirits. One day three men who were on the island cut down some branches of an elder-tree that grew there to repair a private still, and carried them off in their boat; but when just close to the shore a violent gust of wind upset the boat, and the men were drowned. The wood, however, floated back to the island, and a cross was made of it which was erected on the beach, to commemorate the fate of the doomed men. It is recorded, also, that a certain stone having been taken away by some masons from the ancient ruin, to build into the wall of the parish church, which they were erecting in the place, the water in the town well suddenly began to diminish, and at last dried up, to the great consternation and terror of the inhabitants, who were at their wits’ end to know the cause; when luckily an old woman of the place dreamed a dream about the abduction of the stone, which gave the solution of the mystery. ay I me a od 198 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. At once the people took the matter into their own hands, and they went in a body and cast down the wall till they came on the stone, which was then placed in a boat, and carried back with solemn ceremonial to the island, where it was replaced in its original site, and, immediately after, the water flowed back again into the well, and the supply became even more copious than ever. THE LAKE oF REVENGE. Near the great mountain of Croagh-Patrick there is a lake called Clonvencagh, or the Lake of Revenge, to which evil- disposed persons used to resort in order to imprecate maledictions on their enemies. It was the custom also to erect monuments round the well by placing on end a long flagstone, and heaping round it a pyramid of sand in order to keep it fixed firmly in its place. Over these pillar-stones certain mystic rites were then performed by the pilgrims, and prayers were said which took the form of the most terrible imprecations. It was therefore with awe and terror that one man said of another, ‘‘ He has been cursed by the stone.” Eg A i et SCENES AT A Hony WELL. = 0.-—— ScENES of holy faith, of tender love, and human pity are, how- ever, happily more frequent amongst the devotees at the holy wells of Ireland than the fierce mutterings of malediction. At these sacred places may be seen the mother praying for her child, the girl. for her lover, the wife for her husband; going the rounds on their bare knees, with the crucifix in their clasped hands and their eyes-raised to heaven in silent prayer, with a divine faith that this prayer will be answered; and who can say but that the fervour of the supplication has often brought down the blessing of healing for the sick, or comfort for the sorrowing? ‘The picturesque grouping round the holy well, the background of purple mountains, the antique stone cross at which the pilgrims kneel, the costumes and often the beautiful faces of the praying women, with their long dark hair and purple Irish eyes, form a scene of wonderful poetic and dramatic interest, which has been immortalized by Sir Frederick Burton in his great national picture, Zhe Blind Girl at the Holy Well— a work that at once made the young painter famous, and laid the foundation of the subsequent career of this dis- tinguished and perfect artist. LOW He sO ye. —— /0/-—— LouGcH FoyLre means the borrowed lake, for in old times there were two weird sisters dwelling beyond the Shannon, who were skilled in necromancy. And the elder sister said to the younger— “Give me the loan of your silver lake, for I have none ; and I promise to restore it to you next Monday.” So the younger, being good-natured, rolled up the lake in a sheet and despatched it over hills and dales to her sister. But when the time came for return, the elder sister, being deceitful and cunning, made answer to the messenger sent for it— « “Truly, I said Monday, but I meant the Day of Judg- ment, So I shall keep the lake till then.” And the lake therefore remains in her country to this day, while the great hollow whence it was taken can still be seen in Connaught, bare and barren, waiting for the waters that never will return. THE “HENS (CAgtes AT the head of Lough Corrib, deep in the water about a gunshot from the land, stands the ancient castle of Cazsleen- na-Cearca, said to have been built.in one night by a cock and a hen, but in reality it was founded by the ill-fated Roderick O’Connor, the last king of Ireland. Strange lights are sometimes seen flitting through it, and on some particular midnight a crowd of boats gather round it, filled with men dressed in green with red sashes. And they row about till the cock crows, when they suddenly vanish and the cries of children are heard in the air. Then the people know that there has been a death somewhere in the region, and that the Sidhe have been stealing the young mortal children, and leaving some ill-favoured brat in the cradle in place of the true child. The old castle has many historic memories; the cele- brated Grazna Uarle, the great chieftainess of the West, made it her abode for some time, and carried thither the young heir of Howth, whom she had abducted from Howth Castle, when on one of her piratical expeditions. After- wards, during the Wars of Elizabeth, a distinguished lady THE HEN’S CASTLE. 203: of the sept of the O’Flaherties, Bevinda O’Flahertie, shut herself up there with her only daughter and heiress, and a. following of twenty resolute men. But further to ensure her safety, she wrote to the Queen, requesting permission to arm the guard ; Queen Elizabeth in return sent an auto- graph letter granting the request, but addressed to “ her good friend, Captain Bevan O’F lahertie,” evidently thinking that the custodian of such a castle must certainly be a man. In the solemn solitude of this picturesque and stately Caisleen-na-Cearca, the great lake fortress of Lough Corrib, with its rampart of purple mountains and its water pathway fifty miles long, the young heiress grew up tall and beautiful, the pride of the west. And in due time she married Blake of Menlo Castle. And from this historic pair is descended. the present baronet and owner of the property, Sir John Blake of Menlo. Cromwell ruthlessly dismantled the castle, and it has remained a ruin ever since; but the massive walls, and the: beautiful twelfth century ornamentation of doors and win- dows still attest the ancient grandeur of the edifice, before: “the curse of Cromwell” fell upon it, and upon the country and on the people of Ireland. SLIABH-MisH, County KERRY. —.:0:—— Every one knows that Sliabh-Mish, County Kerry, is haunted. ‘The figure of a man, accompanied by a huge black dog, is frequently seen standing on a high crag, but as the traveller approaches, the forms disappear, although they rise up again before him on another crag, and so continue appearing and ‘disappearing as he journeys on.. Many travellers have seen them, but no one has ever yet been able to meet the man and the dog face to face on the mountain side, for they seem to melt away in the mist, and are seen no more on reaching the spot. It happened, once upon a time, that a man journeying alone over the mountain path, took out his snuff- box to solace himself with a pinch, and was putting it up again in his waistcoat pocket, when he heard a voice near him saying, “‘ Not yet ! not yet! I am near you, wait.” He looked round, but not a soul was to be seen. How- ever, he thought it right to be friendly, so he shook some ‘snuff from the box in the palm of his hand and held it out in the air. But his hair stood on end, and he trembled with fright, when he felt invisible fingers on his hand picking up the snuff, and when he drew it back the snuff had dis- appeared. SLIABH-MISH, COUNTY KERRY. 205, “God and the saints between us and heayen !” exclaimed the poor man, ready to drop down from terror. “Amen,” responded the clear voice of some invisible speaker close beside him. Then the man quickly made the sign of the cross over the hand touched by the spirit, and so went on his way unharmed. ee RT THE SKELLIGS OF KERRY. —:0: — ‘THE Skellig Rocks are situated about eleven miles from the mainland, and are considered of great sanctity. In the Middle Ages, during the penitential weeks of Lent, the monks used to leave the adjacent convent and retire to the Skelligs Rocks for silence, prayer, and abstinence, Several ancient stone-roofed cells are still in existence at the top of the rock, showing where they dwelt. These cells are of the most ancient cyclopean order of building known in Ireland, and are far older than the church near them, which does not date earlier than the seventh century. Certainly no place more awful in its loneliness and deso- lation could be imagined than the summit of the bleak rock, reached only by a narrow way, almost inaccessible, even to those accustomed to climb precipitous paths, but which makes the ordinary traveller giddy with fear and dread. As marriages were not allowed in Lent, it became a cus- tom for the young people of both sexes to make a pilgrimage to the Skellig Rocks during the last Lenten week. A pro- cession was formed of the young girls and bachelors, and tar-barrels were lighted to guide them on the dangerous THE SKELLIGS OF KERRY, 207 paths. The idea was to spend the week in prayer, penance, and lamentation ; the girls praying for good husbands, the bachelors repenting of their sins. But the proceedings gradually degenerated into such a mad carnival of dancing, drinking, and fun, that the priests denounced the pilgrimage, and forbade the annual migration to the Skelligs. Still the practice was continued until the police had orders to clear the rocks. . Thus ended the ancient custom of “going to the Skelligs ;” for the mayor having pronounced judgment over the usage as ‘‘ subversive of all morality and decorum,” it was entirely discontinued ; and the wild fun and frolic of the Skelligs is now but a tradition preserved in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. POPULAR NOTIONS CON- CERNING THE SIDHE RACE. — 10. From the earliest ages the world has believed in the exist- ance of a race midway between the angel and man, gifted with power to exercise a strange mysterious influence over human destiny. The Persians called this mystic race Peris ; the Egyptians and the Greeks named them demons, not as evil, but as mysterious allies of man, invisible though ever present ; capable of kind acts but implacable if offended. The Irish called them the Sidhe, or spirit-race, or the Feaah-Ree, a modification of the word Peri. Their country is the Zt7-na-oge, the land of perpetual youth, where they live a life of joy and beauty, never knowing disease or death, which is not to come on them till the judgment day, when they are fated to pass into annihilation, to perish utterly and be seen no more. They can assume any form, and they make horses out of bits of straw, on which they ride over the country, and to Scotland and back. They have no religion, but a great dread of the Scapular (Latin words from the Gospels written by a priest and hung round the neck). Their power is great over unbaptized children, and POPULAR NOTIONS CONCERNING THE SIDHE RACE. 209 such generally grow up evil and have the evil eye, and bring ill luck, unless the name of God is instantly invoked when they look at any one fixedly and in silence. All over Ireland the fairies have th very beautiful, with long yellow hair Sweeping the ground, and lithe light forms. They love milk and honey, and sip the nectar from the cups of the flowers, which is their fairy wine. Underneath the lakes, and dee hills, they have their fairy palace they live in splendour and luxur dancing and laughter and all gods of the earth. If our eyes were touched by a fairy salve we could see them dancing on the hill in the moon- light. They are served on vessels of gold, and each fairy chief, to mark his rank, wears a circlet of gold round his head. The Sidhe race were once angels in heaven, but were cast out as a punishment for their pride. Some fell to earth, others were cast into the sea, while many were seized by demons and carried down to hell, whence they issue as evil Spirits, to tempt men to destruction under various disguises ; chiefly, however, as beautiful young maidens, endowed with the power of song and gifted with the most enchanting wiles. Under the influence of these beautiful] sirens a man will commit any and every crime, utterly black they carry him down to for ever tortured by the demons to w € reputation of being P down in the heart of the S of pearl and gold, where y, with music and song and Joyous things as befits the Then when his soul is hell, where he remains hom he sold himself The fairies are very numerous, more numerous than the human race. In their palaces underneath the hills and in the lakes and the sea they hide away much treasure. All TOU It 15 210 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. the treasure of wrecked ships is theirs; and all the gold that men have hidden and buried in the earth when danger was on them, and then died and left no sign of the place to their descendants. And all the gold of the mine and the jewels of the rocks belong to them ; and in the Sifra, or fairy- house, the walls are silver and the pavement is gold, and the banquet-hall is lit by the glitter of the diamonds that stud the rocks. If you walk nine times round a fairy rath at the full of the moon, you will find the entrance to the Sifra ; but if you enter, beware of eating the fairy food or drinking the fairy wine. The Sidhe will, indeed, wile and draw many a young man into the fairy dance, for the fairy women are beautiful, so beautiful that a man’s eyes grow dazzled who looks on them, with their long hair floating like the ripe golden corn and their robes of silver gossamer ; they have perfect forms, and their dancing is beyond all expression graceful; but if a man is tempted to kiss a Svgh-oge, or young fairy spirit, in the dance, he is lost for ever—the madness of love will fall on him, and he will never again be able to return to earth or to leave the enchanted fairy palace. He is dead to his kindred and race for ever more. On Fridays the fairies have special power over all things, and chiefly on that day they select and carry off the young mortal girls as brides for the fairy chiefs. But after seven years, when the girls grow old and ugly, they send them back to their kindred, giving them, however, as compensa- tion, a knowledge of herbs and philtres and secret spells, by which they can kill or cure, and have power over men both for good and evil. POPULAR NOTIONS CONCERNING THE SIDHE RACE. 2Er It is in this way the wise women and fairy doctors have acquired their knowledge of the mysteries and the magic of herbs. But the fairies do not always keep the mortal women in a seven years’ bondage. They sometimes only take. away young girls for a dance in the moonlight, and then leave them back in their own home lulled in a sweet sleep. But the vision of the night was so beautiful that the young girls long to dream again and be made happy with the soft enchantments of the music and dance. The fairies are passionately fond of music ; it is therefore dangerous fora young girl to sing when she is all alone by the lake, for the spirits will draw her down to them to sing to them in the fairy palace under the waves, and her people will see her no more. Yet sometimes when the moonlight 1s on the water, and the waves break against the crystal ‘columns of the fairy palace far down in the depths, they can hear her voice, and they know that she is singing to the fairies in the spirit land beneath th lake. There was a girl in one of the villages that could see things no one else saw, and hear music no one else heard, for the fairies loved her and used* toc night in a dream to dance with the fairy But, above all, she was loved by Finvarra to dance w € waters of the arry her away by chiefs and princes. the king, and used ith him all night till sunrise though her form seemed to be lying asleep on the bed. One day she told some of her young companions th she was going that night to a great fairy dance on the rath, and if they chose she would bring them and put a salve on their eyes so that they would see wonders. at 212 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. The young girls went with her, and on coming to the rath she said— “Now put your foot on my foot and look over my left shoulder, and you will see the king and queen and all the beautiful lords and ladies with gold bands round their heads. dancing on the grass. But take care when you see them to make no sign of the cross, nor speak the name of -God, or they will vanish away, and perhaps even your life would be in danger.” On hearing this the girls ran away in fear and terror without ever using the spell or seeing the fairies. But the other remained, and told her friends next day that she had danced all night to the fairy music, and had heard the sweetest singing, so that she longed to go back and live for ever with the spirits on the hill. And her wish was granted, for she died soon after, and on the night of her death soft music was heard floating round the house, though no one was visible. And it was said also that beautiful flowers grew on her grave, though no hand planted them there, and shadowy forms used to gather in the moonlight and sing a low chant over the place where: she was laid. The fairies can assume all forms when they have special ends in view, such as to carry off a handsome girl to Fairy- land. For this purpose they sometimes appear at the: village festivities as tall, dark, noble-looking gentlemen, and they wile away the young girls as partners in the dance by their grand air and the grace of their dancing. And ever after the young girl who has danced with them moves and dances with a special fairy grace, though sometimes she: POPULAR NOTIONS CONCERNING THE SIDHE RACE. 213 pines away and seems to die, but every one knows that her soul has been carried off to the Tir-na-oge, where she will be made the bride of the fairy king and live in luxury and splendour evermore. Yet, though the fairies are fond of pleasure, they are very temperate in their mode of living, and are besides honest in their dealings and faithful to their promises. If they borrow wine from the gentry they always repay it in blessings, and never indulge much in eating or drinking. No one ever saw an intoxicated fairy, but they have no objection to offer to mortals the subtle red wine at the fairy banquets, which lulls the soul to sleep and makes the reason powerless, The young men that they beguile into their fairy palaces become their bond-slaves, and are set to hard tasks. One man said he had marched with Finvarra’s men all the way from Mayo to Cork, but there they had to leave him as they were going to Spain and could not take him across the sea on their white horses. They also much desire the aid of a powerful mortal hand to assist them in their fairy wars, for they have often dis- putes and battles amongst themselves for the possession of some coveted rath or dancing ground. Once a fairy prince came to a great chieftain of Connaught, one of the Kirwans, and begged for aid against a hostile fairy tribe that had invaded his territories. The required aid being given, the fairies and their mortal auxiliaries plunged into the lake and fought the enemy and conquered ; after which the Connaught men returned to shore laden with rich presents of silver and gold and crystal wine-cups as the expression of gratitude from the fairy prince. 214 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. It is said that Kirwan of Castle Hackett, the great Con- naught chief, also received a beautiful fairy bride on that. occasion, and it is certain that all the female descendants of the family are noted for their beauty, their grace in dancing, and their sweet voices in speaking. Lady Clon- curry, mother of the present Lord Cloncurry, was of this race, and in her youth was the acknowledged leading beauty of the Irish Court and celebrated for the rare fascination of her manner and voice. THE Huriing Matcu. “OS THE fairies, with their true artistic love of all the gentle graces of life, greatly dislike coarse and violent gestures, and all athletic sports, such as hurling and wrestling ; and they often try to put an end to them by some evil turn. One day a great cloud of dust came along the road during a hurling match and stopped the game. On this the people grew alarmed, for they said the fairies are out hunting and will do us harm by blinding us ; and thousands of the Sidhe swept by, raising a terrific dust, though no mortal eye could see them. Then one man, a good player and musician, ran for his fiddle and begain to play some vigorous dance Lines a for now,” said he, ‘the fairies will begin to dance and forget us, and they will be off in no time to hold a revel on the rath to the music of their own fairy pipes.” And so it was, for at once the whirlwind of dust swept on to the hill of the fairy rath, and the hurling ground was left clear for the game to go on again in safety. It must be acknowledged that the fairies are a little selfish, or they would not have interfered with the great 210 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND, national sport of hurling, which is the favourite amusement of the country, and used to be held asa high festival, and arranged with all the ceremonial of a tournament; at least before the bad times destroyed all the fun and frolic of the peasant life. The prettiest girl of the village was chosen as the hurling girl—the Colleen-a-bhatlia. Dressed in white, and accom- panied by her maidens, she proceeded to the hurling ground, the piper and fiddlers going before her playing gay dance tunes. There she was met by the procession of the young men surrounding the chief hurler always a stalwart youth of over six feet. And the youth and the maiden joined hands and began the dance—all the people cheering. This was called the opening of the hurling. And for the next match another pair would be selected, each village girl anxiously hoping to be the Colleen-a-bhailia chosen to lead the ceremonial dance for the second or following games. Naturally the hurling tournament ended with a festive supper, much love-making, and many subsequent marriages between the pretty colleens and stalwart young hurlers, despite all the envy and jealousy of the fairies, who maliciously tried to mar the pleasures of the festival. THE RipE with THE Fairies. —--0:—— THE fairies take great delight in horsemanship, and are splendid riders. Many fine young men are enticed to ride with them, when they dash along with the fairies like the wind, Finvarra himself leading, on his great black horse with the red nostrils, that look like flames of fire. And ever after the young men are the most fearless riders in the country, so the people know at once that they have hunted with the fairies. And after the hunt some favourite of the party is taken to a magnificent supper in the fairy palace, and when he has drank of the bright red wine they lull him to sleep with soft music. But never again can he find the fairy palace, and he looks in vain for the handsome horseman on his fine black steed, with all the gay young huntsmen in their green velvet dresses, who rushed over the field with him, like a flash of the storm wind. They have passed away for ever from his vision, like a dream of the night. Once on a time a gentleman, also one of the Kirwans of Galway, was riding by the fairy hill—where all the fairies of the West hold their councils and meetings, under the tule of Finvarra the king—when a strange horseman, 218 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. mounted on a fiery black steed, suddenly appeared. But as the stranger bid him the time of day with distinguished grace, Mr. Kirwan returned his greeting courteously, and they rode on together side by side, discoursing pleasantly —for the stranger seemed to know every one and every- thing, though Mr. Kirwan could not remember ever having seen him before. “Now,” said the black horseman, “I know that you are to be at the races to-morrow, so just let me give you a hint: if you wish to be certain of winning, allow me to send you my man to ride your horse. He never failed in-a race yet, and he shall be with you early, before the start.” With that, at a turn of the road, the stranger disappeared; for he was no other than Finvarra himself, who had a friendly liking for the tribe of the Kirwans, because all the men were generous who came of the blood, and all the women handsome. Next morning, as Mr. Kirwan was setting out for the race, his groom told him that a. young jockey was waiting to see him. He was the strangest looking little imp, Mr. Kirwan thought, he had ever set eyes on, but he felt compelled to give him all the rights and power that was necessary for the race, and the young imp was off in a moment, like a flash of lightning. Mr. Kirwan knew no more—he seemed like one in a dream—till the silver cup was handed to him as winner of the race, and congratulations poured down on him, and every one asked eagerly where he got the wonderful jockey who seemed to make the horse fly like the spirit THE RIDE WITH THE FAIRIES. 21G of the wind itself. But the jockey by this time had dis- appeared. However, the stranger on the black horse was there, and he constrained Mr. Kirwan to come with him to dinner; and they rode on pleasantly, as before, till they reached a grand, beautiful house, with a crowd of gorgeous servants waiting on the steps to receive the lord and master and his guest. One of them led Mr. Kirwan to his room to dress for dinner, and there he found a costly suit of violet velvet ready, in which the valet arrayed him. ‘Then he entered the dining-hall. It was all lit up splendidly, and there were garlands of flowers twining round crystal columns, and golden cups set with jewels for the wine, and golden dishes. The host seemed an accomplished man of the world, and did the honours with perfect grace. Conversation flowed freely, while soft music was heard at intervals from invisible players, and Mr. Kirwan could not resist the: charm and beauty of the scene, nor the bright red wine that his host poured out for him into the jewelled cups. Then, when the banquet was over, a great crowd of ladies and gentlemen came in and danced to sweet low music, and they circled round the guest and tried to draw him into the dance. But when he looked at them it seemed: to him that they were all the dead he had once known + for his own brother was there, that had been drowned: in the lake a year before; and a man who had been killed by a fall when hunting; and others whose faces he knew well. And they were all pale as death, but their eyes burned like coals of fire. 220 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. And as he looked and wondered, a lovely lady came over to him, wearing a necklace of pearls. And she clasped his wrist with her little hand, and tried to draw him into the circle. ‘‘Dance with me,” she whispered, “dance with me again. Look at me, for you once loved me.” And when he looked at her he knew that she was dead, and the clasp of her hand was like a ring of fire round his wrist; and he drew back in terror, for he saw that she was the beautiful girl he had loved in his youth, and to whom he had given a necklace of pearls, but who died before he could make her his bride. Then his heart sank with fear and dread, and he said to his host— “Take me from this place. I know the dancers ; they are dead. Why have you brought them up from their graves?” But the host only laughed and said, “ You must take more wine to keep up your courage.” And he poured him out a goblet of wine redder than rubies. And when he drank it, all the pageant and the music and the crowd faded away from before his eyes, and he fell into a profound sleep, and knew no more till he found himself at home, laid on his bed. And the servant told him that a strange horseman had accompanied him to the door late in the night, who had charged them to lay the master gently in his bed and by no means to awake him till noon next day, for he was weary after the race; and he bade them take the hunter to the stables and tend him carefully, for the animal was covered with foam, and all trembling. THE RIDE WITH THE FAIRIES. 225 At noon Mr. Kirwan awoke, and rose up as well as ever ;, but of all the fairy revels nothing remained to him but the mark round his wrist of the clasp of a woman’s hand, that seemed burned into his flesh. So he knew the night’s adventure was no mere dream of the fancy, and the mark of the dead hand remained with him to his last hour, and the form of the young girl with her necklace of pearls often came before him in a vision of the night ; but he never again visited the fairy palace, and never: saw the dark horseman any more. As to the silver cup, he: flung it into the lake, for he thought it had come to him by devil’s magic and would bring no good luck to him or to his race. So it sank beneath the waves, and the silver cup was. seen no more. THE FAIRY PY. ‘SOMETIMES the fairies appear like old men and women, and thus gain admission to houses that they may watch and ‘spy, and bewitch the butter, and abduct the children, and carry off the young girls for fairy brides. There was a man in the west who was bedridden for seven years, and could do no work and had to be lifted by others when he moved. Yet the amount of food he con- sumed was enormous, and as every one pitied him, people ‘were constantly bringing him all sorts of good things ; and he ate up everything but grew no stronger. Now on Sundays when the family went to mass, they locked him up, but left him plenty of food, for there was no one in the house to help him. One Sunday, however, they left chapel earlier than usual, and as they were going by the shore they saw a great crowd of strangers hurling, and in the midst of them, hurling and running and leaping, was the sick man, as well and jolly as ever a man could be. ‘They called out to him, on which he turned round to face them, but that instant he disappeared. So the family hastened home, unlocked the door, and THE FAIRY SPY. 223 went straight up to the room, where they found the man in bed as usual, thin and weak and unable to move; but he had eaten up all the food and was now crying out for more. On this the family grew very angry and cried, ‘You have been deceiving us. You are in league with the witch-folk ; but we'll soon see what you really are, for if you don’t get up out of that bed at once, we’ll make down a fire and lay you on it, and make you walk.” Then he cried and roared ; but they seized him to drag him to the fire. So when he saw they were in earnest he jumped up and rushed to the door, and before they could touch him he had disappeared, and was seen no more. Now, indeed, they knew that he was in league with the devil, and they burned his bed and everything belonging to him, and poured holy water on the room. And when all was burned, nothing remained but a black stone with Strange signs on it. And by this, no doubt, he performed his enchantments. And the people were afraid of it and gave it to the priest, who has it to this day, so there can be no doubt as to the truth of the story. And the priest knows the hidden meaning of the strange signs which give power to the stone; but will reveal the secret to no one, lest the people might try to work devil’s magic with it, and unlawful spells by the power of the stone and the power of the signs. THE Dark HoRSEMAN. 20." OnE day a fine, handsome young fellow, called Jemmy Nowlan, set off to walk to the fair at Slane, whither some cattle of his had been sent off for sale that same morning early. And he was dressed in his best clothes, spruce and. neat; and not one in all the county round could equal Jemmy Nowlan for height, strength, or good looks. So he went along quite gay and merry in himself, till he came to a lonely bit of the road where never a soul was to be seen ;. but just then the sky became black-dark, as if thunder were in the air, and suddenly he heard the tramp of a horse behind him. On turning round he saw a very dark, elegant looking gentleman, mounted on a Dlack horse, riding swiftly towards him. “Jemmy Nowlan,” said the dark horseman, “I have been looking for you all along the road. Get up now, quickly, behind me, and J’ll carry you in no time to the great fair of Slane ; for, indeed, I am going there myself, and it would be very pleasant to have your company.” ‘Thank your honour kindly,” said Jemmy ; “but it’s not for the likes of me to ride with your lordship; so I would THE DARK HORSEMAN. 225 rather walk, if it's pleasing to your honour ; but thanks all the same.” Truth to tell, Jemmy in his own mind had a fear of the strange gentleman and his black horse, and distrusted them both, for had he not heard the people tell strange stories of how young men had been carried off by the fairies, and held prisoners by their enchantments down deep in the heart of the hill under the earth, where never a mortal could see them again or know their fate; and they were only allowed to come up and see their kindred on the nights the dead walked, and then they walked with them as they rose from the graves? So again he began to make his excuses, and meanwhile kept looking round for some path by which he could escape if possible. “Come now,” said the dark horseman, ‘this is all non- sense, Jemmy Nowlan; you really must come with me.” And with that he stooped down and touched him lightly on the shoulder with his whip, and in an instant Jemmy found himself seated on the horse, and galloping away like the wind with the dark horseman ; and they never stopped nor stayed till they came to a great castle in a wood, where a whole set of servants in green and gold were waiting on the steps to receive them. And they were the smallest people Jemmy had ever seen in his life; but he made no remark, for they were very civil, and crowded round to know what they could do for him. “Take him to a room and let him dress,” said the gentle- man, who appeared to own the castle. And in the room Jemmy found a beautiful suit of velvet, and a cap and feather. And when the little servants had dressed him Wigling he 16 FP TE” ALF ETAT CLT OT 226 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. they led him to the large hall that was all lit up and hung with garlands of flowers; and music and dancing were going on, and many lovely ladies were present, but not one in the hall was handsomer than Jemmy Nowlan in his velvet suit and cap and feather. “Will you dance with me, Jemmy Nowlan ?” said one lovely lady. “No, Jemmy; you must dance with me,” said another. And they all fought for him, so he danced with them all, one after the other, the whole night through, till he was dead tired and longed to lie down and sleep. “Take Jemmy Nowlan to his room, and put him to bed,” said the gentleman to a red-haired man ; “ but first he must tell me a story.” “JT have no story, your honour,” said Jemmy, “for Iam not book-learned ; but I am very tired, let me lie down and sleep.” “ Sleep, indeed, ”’ said the gentleman ; “not if I can help it. Here, Davy”—and he called the red-haired man— “take Jemmy Nowlan and put him out; he can tell no story. I will have no one here who can’t tell me a story. Put him out, he is not worth his supper.” So the red-haired man thrust Jemmy out at the castle gate, and he was just settling himself to sleep on a bench outside, when three men came by bearing a coffin. “Oho, Jemmy Nowlan,” they said, “you are welcome. We just wanted a fourth man to carry the coffin.” And they made him get under it with them, and away they marched over hedge and ditch, and field and bog, through briars and thorns, till they reached the old church- yard in the valley, and then they stopped. THE DARK HORSEMAN. “Who will dig a grave?” said one. ‘Let us draw lots,” said another, And the lot fell on Jemmy. So they gave him a spade, and he worked and worked till the grave was dug broad za and deep. os “ This is not the right place at all for a grave,” said the leader of the party when the grave was finished. <‘J’ll have no one buried in this spot, for the bones of my father rest Here.” Ht So they had to take up the coffin again, and carry it on |, over field and bog till they reached another churchyard, : H, where Jemmy was obliged to dig a second grave ; and when ut it was finished, the leader cried out— i “Who shall we place in the coffin?” Hi And another voice answered— ‘““We need draw no lots; lay Jemmy Nowlan in the ‘coffin !” And the men seized hold of him and tried to cast him ‘to the ground. But Jemmy was strong and powerful, and fought them all. Still they would not let go their hold, it ithough he dealt them such blows as would have killed any ‘other men. And at last he felt faint, for he had no weapon ito fight with, and his strength was going. Then he saw that the leader carried a hazel switch in his ‘hand, and he knew that a hazel switch brought luck ; so |) Ba he made a sudden spring and seized it, and whirled it A ithree times round his head, and struck right and left at his assailants, when a strange and wondrous thing happened ; for the three men who were ready to kill him, fell down at once to the ground, and remained there still as the dead. 228 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. And the coffin stood white in the moonlight by itself, and no hand touched it, and no voice spoke. But Jemmy never waited to look or think, for the fear of the men was on him, lest they should rise up again; so he fled away, still holding the hazel twig in his hand, and ran on over field and bog, through briars and thorns, till he found himself again at the castle gate. Then all the grand servants came out, and the little men, and they said— ‘You are welcome, Jemmy Nowlan. Come in; his lord- ship is waiting for you.” And they brought him to a room where the lord was lying on a velvet couch, and he said— “Now, young man, tell me a story, for no one in my castle is allowed to eat, drink, or sleep till they have related something wonderful that has happened to them.” “Then, my lord,” said Jemmy, “I can tell you the most wonderful of stories; and very proud I am to be able to amuse your lordship.” So he told him the story of the three men and the coffin, and the lord was so pleased that he ordered the servants to bring the youth a fine supper, and the best of wine, and Jemmy ate like a prince from gold dishes, and drank from crystal cups of the wine, and had the best of everything ; but after the supper he felt rather queer and dazed-like, and fell down on the ground asleep like one dead. After that he knew nothing till he awoke next morning, and found himself lying under a haystack in his own field, and all his beautiful clothes were gone—the velvet suit and cap and feather that he had looked so handsome in at the dance, when all the fine ladies fell in love with him. Nothing THE DARK HORSEMAN, 229 was left to him of all the night’s adventure save the hazel twig, which he still held firmly in his hand. And a very sad and down-hearted man was Jemmy Nowlan that day, especially when the herd came to tell him that none of the cattle were sold at the fair, for the men were waiting for the master, and wondering why he did not come to look after his money, while all the other farmers were selling their stock at the finest prices. And Jemmy Nowlan has never yet made out why the fairies played him such a malicious and ill turn as to prevent him selling his cattle. But if ever again he meets that dark Stranger on the black horse, he is determined to try the strength of his shillelagh on his head, were he ever such a grand man among the fairies. For at least he might have left him the velvet suit; and it was a shabby thing to take it away just when he couldn’t help himself, and had fallen down from fair weakness and exhaustion after all the dancing and the wine he drank at supper, when the lovely ladies poured it out for him with their little hands covered with jewels, It was truly a bad and a shabby trick, as Jemmy said to himself that May morning, when he stood up from under the hay-rick ; and just shows us never to trust the fairies, for with all their sweet words and pleasant ways and bright red wine, they are full of malice and envy and deceit, and are always ready to ruin a poor fellow and then laugh at him, just for fun, and for the spite and jealousy they have against the human race. SHEELA-NA- KEAN. BOs Tuere is an old ruin of a farmhouse in the County Cork, near Fermoy, that has an evil reputation, and no one would build it up or inhabit it. Years and years ago a rich old farmer lived there, who was reputed to have hoards of gold hid away in his sleeping- room. Some said he never slept without the sack of gold being laid under his pillow. However, one night he was found cruelly murdered, and all the gold in the house was missing, except a few pieces stained with blood, that had evidently been dropped by the murderers in their flight. The old man at the time was living quite alone. His wife was dead, and his only son was away in a distant part of the country. But on news of the murder the son returned, and a close investigation was made. Suspicion finally fell on the housekeeper and a lover she used to bring to the house. They were arrested in consequence and brought to rial. The housekeeper, S/ee/a-na-Skean, or Sheela of the Knife, as she was called afterwards, was a dark, fierce, powerful woman, noted for her violent and vindictive temper. The lover was a weak, cowardly fellow, who at SHEELA-NA-SKEAN. 231 the last turned evidence to save his life. He had taken no part, he said, in the actual murder, though he had helped Sheela to remove and bury the gold. According to his story, Sheela entered the old man’s room at night, and taking a sharp, short sword that always hung at the head of his bed, she stabbed him fiercely over and over till not a breath of life was left. Then, calling her lover, they ran- sacked the room, and found quantities of golden guineas, which they put in a bag and carried out to the field, where they buried it in a safe spot, known only to themselves ; but this place neither Sheela nor the lover would reveal unless they received a pardon. The murder, however, was too atrocious for pardon, and Sheela was hung amid the howlings and execrations of the people. But she remained fierce and defiant to the last, still refusing obstinately to reveal the place where the money was buried. The lover, meanwhile, had died in prison from fright, for after sentence was pronounced, he fell down ina fit, from which he never recovered. So the secret of the gold died with them. After this the son came to live in the place; and the tradition of the hidden gold was still kept alive in the family, but all efforts to find it proved useless. Now a strange thing happened. The farmer dreamed for three nights in succession that if he went at midnight to an old ruined castle in the neighbourhood, he would hear words that might tell him the secret of the gold ; but he must go alone. So after the third dream the farmer resolved to do as he was ordered, and he went forth at midnight to the 232 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. place indicated. His two sons, grown-up young men, anxiously awaited his return. And about an hour after midnight the father came home pale as a ghost, haggard and trembling. They helped him to his bed, and after a little he was able to tell them his adventures. He said, on reaching the old ruin he leaned up straight against the wall, and waited for the promised words in silence. Then a breath seemed to pass over his face, and he heard a low voice whispering in his ear— “‘Tf you want to find the bag of gold, take out the third stone.” “But here,” said the farmer, mournfully, ‘“‘the voice stopped, before the place was named where the gold lay ; for at that instant a terrific screech was heard, and the ghost of Sheela appeared gigantic and terrible; her hands dripping with blood, and her eyes flaming fire; and she rushed to attack me, brandishing a short, sharp sword round her head, the very same, perhaps, with which she had com- mitted the murder. At sight of this awful apparition I fled homeward, Sheela still pursuing me with leaps and yells till I reached the boundary of the castle grounds, when she sank into the earth and disappeared. But,” continued the farmer, ‘I am certain, from the voice, that the bag of gold lies hid under the third stone in 4 He could say no more, for at that instant the door of the bedroom was violently flung open, as if by a strong storm wind, the candle was blown out, and the unfortunate man was lifted from his bed by invisible hands, and dashed upon the floor with a terrible crash. In the darkness the young men could hear the groans, but they saw no one. SHEELA-NA-SKEAN, 233 When the candle was relit they went over to help their father, but found he was already dead, with a black mark round his throat as if from strangulation, by a powerful hand. So the secret of the gold remained still undis- covered. After the funeral was over, and all affairs settled, the brothers agreed that they would still search for the gold in the old ruins of the castle, undeterred by the apparition of the terrible Sheela. So on a certain midnight they set forth with spades and big sticks for defence, and proceeded to examine every third stone in the huge walls, to the height of a man from the ground, seeking some secret mark or sign by which, perhaps, the true stone might be discovered. But as they worked a thin blue light suddenly appeared at some distance in the inner court of the castle, and by it stood the ghost of their father, pointing with his out- stretched hand to a certain stone in the wall. Now, they thought, that must certainly be the spot where the gold is hid ; and they rushed on, but before they could reach the place, the terrible form of Sheela appeared, more awful than words could describe, clothed in white, and with a circle of flame round her head. And she seized the ghost with her gory hands, and dragged him away with horrible yells and imprecations. And far off in the darkness they could hear the fight going on, and the yells of Sheela as she pursued the ghost. “Now,” said the young men, “ let us work while they are fighting ;” and they worked away at the third stone from the end, where the blue light had rested—a large flat stone, but easily lifted ; and when they had rolled it away from the place, 234 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. there underneath lay a huge bag of bright golden guineas. And as they raised it up from the earth a terrific unearthly din was heard in the distance, and a shrill scream rang on the air. Then arush of the wind came by them and the blue light vanished, but they heeded nothing, only lifted the bag from the clay, and carried it away with them through the darkness and storm. And the yells seemed to pursue them till they reached the boundary of the castle grounds, then all was still ; and they traversed the rest of the way in peace, and reached home safely. From that time the ghost of Sheela-na-Skean ceased to haunt the castle, but lamenting and cries used sometimes to be heard at night in and around the old farmhouse: so the brothers pulled it down and leit it a ruin, and built a handsome residence with some of their treasure; for now they had plenty of gold, and they lived happily and pros- pered ever after, with all their family and possessions. And on the spot where-the gold was found they erected a cross, in memory of their father, to whom they owed all their wealth, and through whom this prosperity had come ; for by him the evil spirit of S/ee/a-na-Skean was conquered at last, and the gold restored to the family of the murdered farmer. —0:—— AxBout a hundred years ago, a most notorious robber, called Captain Webb, used to make the County Mayo his head- quarters ; and dreadful tales are still current amongst the people of his deeds of violence and cruelty. Many beautiful young girls he carried off by force or- fraud ; and when he grew tired of them it was his practice to strip the unhappy victims naked, and plunge them down a deep hole near Lough Corrib, which is still known through- out the county as “ Captain Webb’s Hole.” One day, however, fate worked out a revenge on the audacious highwayman by the hands of a woman. He had committed a daring robbery on the highroad— plundered a carriage, shot the horses, and carried off a noble and lovely girl, who was returning home with her mother from an entertainment, which had been given by a great lord in the vicinity. Consequently, as the robber knew, the ladies were dressed magnificently, and wore the most costly jewels. After stripping the mother of all her ornaments he left her half dead upon the highway ; but wrapping a cloak round the young lady, Captain Webb. CAPTAIN WEBB, THE RosBBer Cuier. =36 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. flung her on the horse before him and galloped off to one of the many hiding-places he had through the country. For some time he gave up all his other favourites for the sake of the beautiful girl, and carried her about with him on all his wild expeditions, so great was the madness of his love for her. But at length he grew tired even of her beauty, and re- solved to get rid of her, in the same way as he had got rid of the others, by a cruel and sudden death. So one day, when she was out riding beside him, as he always forced her to do, he brought her to the fatal hole where so many of his victims had perished, intending to cast her down headlong as he had done to so many others ; but first he told her to dismount, and to take off all her rich garments of silk and gold and her jewels, for she would need them no longer. . ‘For pity, then,” she said, “do not look on me while I undress, for it is not seemly or right to look on a woman undressing ; but turn your back, and I shall unclasp my robe and fling it off.” So the captain turned his back as she desired him, for he could not refuse her last request ; but still, he kept close to the edge of the hole ready to throw her in; when, suddenly she sprang upon him, and, placing both hands on his shoulders, pushed him over the edge down into the fathom- less gulf, from which no mortal ever rose alive, and in this manner the country was freed for evermore from the terrible robber fiend, by the courage of a brave and beautiful girl. THe Mayo Rosser and FEENISH THE MARE. —-0: —— ANOTHER desperate character that made an evil reputation. in the same county was Captain Macnamara. Though a man of family and good means and of splendid appearance, he led a life of the wildest excess, and stopped at no crime so as he could gratify the passion or the caprice of the moment, or find money to spend on his pleasures, with the reckless, senseless, foolish extravagance of an evil, dissolute nature; for he had early squandered away all his own patrimony, and now only lived by fraud, lying, and insolent contempt of the rights and claims of others. Just at the time when his finances were at the lowest, he was summoned to attend his trial at the county assizes for some malpractices concerning land and stock belonging to a wealthy widow lady, who had a fine place in the neigh- bourhood, though she seldom lived there, being constantly abroad, in Paris or Rome, with her only son, a young lad, the heir of the property. It happened, however, that she returned home just in time for the trial, which interested her, 238 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. <= As it concerned an audacious appropriation of some of her best land, from which the stock had been drawn off and sold ‘by Macnamara. Highly indignant at the insult offered to her, the wealthy widow appeared in court resolved on vengeance ; and was received by all the officials with the utmost dis- ‘tinction and deference. The defendant was put through a most torturing examination, in which all his evil practices were laid bare with ruthless severity. But the widow heeded nothing of the record of wicked deeds ; she only saw before her a splendid stalwart man in the prime of life, with a magnifi- -cent presence, flashing eyes, and raven hair. At once she was subjugated, as if by magic, by the handsome prisoner in the dock, and calling over her counsel, she gave orders that the suit should be stopped and no damages claimed. After this, as was natural, a warm intimacy sprang up between plaintiff and defendant, which ended in a short time by the marriage of the rich widow and the spendthrift captain ; the widow’s only son and heir to the estate being brought home from school to live with them, for, as the captain observed, it was necessary that the boy should be early in- ‘structed in the management of the property. One evening, however, Macnamara set a rope across a lonely part of the road which he knew the lad must pass when riding home. In consequence the horse stumbled, and threw the rider ; and at night when the servants and people went out with torches to look for the young heir, he was found lying quite dead by the roadside. The whole property now devolved to the widow, who gave up the management entirely to Macnamara; and he lost no time in making good use of the large sums of money that THE MAYO ROBBER AND FEENISH THE MARE. 239 ‘came under his control, by constantly plunging into renewed ‘courses of dissolute extravagance. How the home life went on no one knew, for little was seen of the wife while the husband carried on his orgies ; but after a year had passed by, the country heard with surprise of the death of the rich widow, as she was still called—suddenly, it was said, by a fit, a stroke. She was found lying dead in her bed one morning, and the husband was in the greatest grief—this was the ‘orthodox narrative. But strange whispers at the same time went through the neighbourhood, that round the neck of the poor dear lady was found a black mark, and many had grave suspicions of foul play, though they feared to take any measures against the captain, so great was the terror he inspired. Meantime, he consoled himself with another wife, a young girl who had been a favourite of his long before his first wife’s death. And they led a reckless life together till all the widow’s money was gambled away or spent in dis- solute frolics. Then he joined a wild band of sharpers and ‘desperadoes who fought and cheated every one at the fairs and races, and were the terror of the whole country. But, ‘especially they warred upon the Big Joyces of Connemara, who thereupon swore to be revenged. Now the captain had a famous mare called Feenish, who ‘could fly like the wind and live for days without food. And he taught her all sorts of strange tricks—to stand on her hind legs, to go in at a window and to walk upstairs ; and the way the robber chief got the secret of power over men and animals was in this wise. There was an old raven lived near him up in a big tree, nO a A acum nl at a —_——— 240 ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND. and one day Macnamara stole the eggs, took them home, boiled them and then set them back again in the nest, to see what the old bird would do. Now he saw the wisdom of the raven, for she flew off at once to a neighbouring mountain, and having found a certain stone of magic virtue carried it back in her beak to the nest. With this stone she rubbed the eggs all over, till the life came back into them ;: and in due time the young ravens were flying about as strong and joyous as the rest. Macnamara having observed this process, watched his op- portunity, and one day when the raven was absent, he stole the magic stone from the nest. His first trial of the power was to rub himself all over, as he had seen the raven do: with the eggs; and with a very remarkable result, for he at once became possessed of marvellous gifts. He could fore- see events, and force people to do his will ; he knew when danger was near, and what path to take to avoid his enemies when they were on his track. Then he rubbed Feenish, the mare, all over, and instantly she became as wise as a Chris- tian, and knew every word that was said to her. So Macnamara, armed with all these new powers, went on with his wild wicked life, and robbed and plundered worse than ever; and the blood of many a man, besides, was on his hands. At last the Joyce faction resolved to make an end of the audacious robber, and all the Big Joyces of Connemara gathered in force and pursued him from place to place and over bog and mountain through half the country. At one time Macnamara plunged into a bog ; where Feenish lost her four shoes ; then he made her swim the river at Cong after THE MAYO ROBBER AND FEENISH THE MARE, ZA a hard day’s ride through mountain passes ; but when the poor mare got to the other side she fell down dead, to the great grief of the robber chief, who had her buried on an island in Lough Corrib that still bears her name— Innis- Feenish. However, when he had laid his faithful friend in the clay, all energy forsook him, and all his good luck de- parted—his riches melted away, his children squandered his property, and his two sons met a violent death ; finally, broken in spirit, beggared, and alone in the world, the last of his race, he found himself with nothing left of his ill- gotten gains except an old grey pony. On this animal he rode to Cork, where he took his passage in an emigrant ship to America, and sailed away from the old country, laden with the curses of all who had ever known him; and from that hour he was heard of no more. So ended the wicked career of the spendthrift and gambler and the sus- pected murderer of many victims, -——— IN OE OT Ene DPS aes Saal As SKETCHES OF THE TRiSha es THE BARDIG® hese Tue magi, the Sephoe, the gymnosophists, and the Trish adepts, held much the same creed and the same dogmas with regard to the conduct of life necessary to heighten the spiritual power. They all abstained from animal food at such times as the rush of inspiration was on them and the madness of prophetic rage; and at all times they favoured solitude, living apart in the House of Learning or Bardic College, where they admitted no obtrusive intimacies with lower intellects to disturb their lofty and exalted moods of thought. The means, also, by which they obtained mastery over diseases and the minds of men, with the strange and subtle use they made of herbs, were all kept secret amongst themselves; for they held that the prying eyes of shallow unbelievers should never be suffered to intrude upon the sacred mysteries. And it is certain that the bards possessed strange and mystic powers of wisdom beyond and above all other men. It was therefore very THE BARDIC RACE, 243 dangerous to offend a poet. If any one refused him a request he would take the lobe of the person’s ear and grind it between his fingers, and the man would die. Yet the bards were capable of much human emotion, and were the sweet singers of Sympathy when sorrow touched a household. The following elegy from the Irish, written about two hundred years ago by the Ard-Filé, or chief poet of the tribe, has many natural, pathetic touches, and when chanted in Irish to the harp had power to melt the hearts of all the hearers to tears, ANSELEGY: O Boyne, once famed for battles, sports, and conflicts, And great heroes of the race of Conn, Art thou grey after all thy blooms ? O aged old woman of grey-green pools, O wretched Boyne of many tears, Where is the glory of thy sires ? The glory of Art with the swift arrow ; Of Meiltan, with the swift-darting spears ; Of the lordly race of the O’Neil ? To thee belonged red victory, When the Fenian wrath was kindled, And the heroes in thousands rode to war, And the bridles clanked on the steeds, O river of kings and the sons of kings, Of the swift bark and the silver fish, I lay my blessing on thee with my tears, For thou art the watcher by a grave— My treasures lie in the earth at thy side— O Boyne of many tears, | GF OS ES Salas co cites Ie | a} SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. My sons lie there in their strength, My little daughter in her beauty— Rory, and Brian, and Rose— These have I given against my will. My blood, my heart, my bone and kin, My love and my life, to the grave. The blessing of men was on them, The blessing of thousands that loved them, From Kells of the Crosses to Drogheda— Eight thousand blessings to Dowth of the Trees. Peace be on the earth where they lie! By the royal stream of the kings, In the land of the great O’Neil. The Bardic song amongst all nations was the first ex- pression of the human soul, with all its strong, passionate emotions and heroic impulses. It is remarkable that, although several invasions of Ireland are on record, yet but one language seems to have existed there from the earliest times down to the coming of the Anglo-Normans in the twelfth century. The Bards held it as their peculiar duty to raise this language to its highest perfection, and the laws of Celtic poetry, especially, were most elaborate and the structure of the verse exceedingly difficult. Ten years of study were allowed the students at the Druids’ College to gain perfection in the art, and also to practise the memory ; for at the royal festivals the Ard-Filé was expected to recite fully and perfectly whatever heroic tale might be called for by the king at the banquet. On great occasions also, when the meeting was held in the open air, the chiefs sat round in a circle on mounds of turf, while the bards, standing in the centre, recited the heroic narrative to the accompaniment of the harp, the chorus joining in the lyrical portions at THE BARDIC RACE. 245 intervals, and a circle of harpists at the outermost ring of the assemblage introduced occasional symphonies of pure instrumental music to give the bards time for rest between the parts of the recitation. There were three chief measures in music in use amongst the poets—“ the Sorrowful,” or the chant for the dead ; “the Delightful,” reserved for dances and festivities ; and “the Reposing,” devoted entirely to love sonnets and the plaintive softness of lyrical expression. But the Loss-Catha, or battle-hymn, was the great war-song to which the warriors marched to battle, and which inspired them with the heroic madness that braved death for victory. Everything connected with the bards is interesting. They were so gifted, so learned, and so beautiful. For even genius was not considered enough, without beauty, to warrant a young man being enrolled in the ranks of the poets. A noble, stately presence was indispensable, and the poet was required not only to be gifted, but to be handsome. Then he was promoted through all the grades until he reached the last and highest, called “The Wisdom of the Gods,” but the knowledge then acquired by the initiated was kept sacred from the crowd, and the adept swore by the sun, the stars, and the hosts of heaven never to reveal the mysteries acquired by his initiation, to the profane. The high-born maidens amongst the noble families were also trained by the Druids in poetry and music, and in the exercise of the chase, such as archery and throwing the lance, to give their bodies health, vigour, and beauty, while those endowed with peculiar intellect were admitted into the bardic orders, and became the priestess, prophetess, or poetess of the 246 SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. tribe ; who inspired men by her eloquence and had power by her incantations over the deep mysteries of life. Such was Eodain, the chief poetess of Erin, the guide and inspirer of Eugene, the king of the South, the prophetess of her nation, who saved him and his kingdom from ruin by her wisdom, and redeemed him by her counsels from his dis- solute and evil life. THE ANCIENT RACE. — .07— Bur thousands of years ago, long before kings, bards, and Druids, with all their learning and comparative civiliza- tion, flourished in Ireland, and before the traditions of a beautiful fairy race were brought from the far East by a people accustomed to the sight of beauty, grace, and splendour, an ancient race existed in the world—a mysterious, primitive wave of human life that spread over all Europe, perhaps over all the earth, and even surged upon the shores of our own Western island ; possibly a pre-Adamic race, inferior in all points, physical as well as mental, to the Adamic race that succeeded them. They have left no name or history, yet evidences of their nature, habits, intellect, and modes of life can be scien- tifically deduced from the abundant strange and curious antiquarian remains to be seen in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, of which Sir William Wilde in his illustrated catalogue has given such a perfect and com- prehensive description. Records of a period so remote that the use of metals even was unknown; yet these ancient records reveal the story of the rude, half-developed, early 248 SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. humanity of the world in as clear a symbol to the expert and the archeologist, as if written in alphabetical letters on monoliths, like those of Babylon. Without, therefore, being forced into shadowy theory or nebular hypothesis, we may readily construct the whole life of the primitive man, his mode of being and doing, of dressing and of eating, of living, dying, and sepulture, simply from the rude implements fashioned by his hand that cover the walls of the Academy, and are the letters in which an eternal page of human history is written. But, this first pre-Adamic rudimental humanity was not wholly extirpated by the subsequent Adamic race. kRe- presentatives of them still remained throughout the world, and are yet existing, though these half-souled specimens of an early, inferior humanity, are gradually dying out and disappearing before the advance of the higher Adamic race, the destined lords and rulers of earth. In Ireland the inferior primitive tribes became the bond- slaves for the higher humanity—the Tuatha-de-Dananns and Milesians that succeeded them; and specimens of this slave people can still be seen in remote districts in Ireland along the coast-line of the West, and in the secluded mountain passes. They are held in much contempt by the descendants of the nobler race, and are stigmatized even now as “‘the slave people,” and the bondsmen of their forefathers. It seems, then, an incontrovertible truth that the early inhabitants of Ireland, as of all Europe—in fact, the whole pre-Adamite humanity of the world—lived and died through- out how many ages we know not in a state little higher THE ANCIENT RACE. 249 than the animal creation, without the knowledge of even the simplest elements of civilization, which all the Adamic races possess, from their higher organization and intellect, and which they seem to have had from the date of their earliest appearance on earth. The clothing of the primitive man was of the skins of animals fastened with thongs, or tunics made of rushes, such as were found some years agoin Spain, on the skeleton forms of pre-historic date buried in a cave of the Sierra Nevada. Their only weapons and tools were of stone, manufactured by another stone. Their ornaments were of shells and fish-bones ; and their dwellings such only as instinct has suggested to all animals. There are abundant evidences in our National Museum to prove the existence of this primary stratum of barbarism underlying all the culture of modern Europe ; and we might almost hesitate to link so low a type of humanity with our own if we did not recognize in it also that characteristic instinct of man, entirely wanting in the animals—an irrepressible tendency towards progression and improvement, and, above all, to ornamentation, which is a distinctive human quality. PAIN PLT Le TOT — CDA SES cet “pati ts —s THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND. We commence the study of this early race with the first rude stone implement with which a savage man killed an animal scarcely more savage. Then, simple designs of ornamentation are discernible—the first twilight dawning of soul through matter. The rude stone implement be- comes decorated, more symmetrical in form, more adapted to its uses. There is evidence of a growing sense of beauty, and heightened reasoning powers. After the introduction of metals, we trace the original stone forms reproduced first in simple unalloyed copper, afterwards in that perfect and beautiful bronze of a ruddy yellow, like gold, which no modern bronze has ever equalled. There is no violent disruption of ideas, as if the new incoming race had entirely vanquished and crushed the earlier and elder; but, on the contrary, a gradual and continuous development of the original ideas of this elder race itself, always co-working with whatever new influences may have come to it from without. Many writers have held the belief that the first colonists of Ireland were a_ highly-civilized people, clothed with THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND. 251 Tyrian silk, fine linen of Egypt, and adorned with costly ornaments of gold. But stern facts refute this theory. The same primitive race who used only stone weapons were unacquainted with the art of weaving, and knew of no other garment than the untanned skin of the animal they killed for food. Theorists might still, however, argue, doubt, and disbelieve, if one of the ancient race*had not himself risen, as it were, from the grave, after a sleep of thousands of years, to give his testimony concerning his people. In 1821 this primitive Irishman, clad completely in skins laced with thongs, was found in a peat bog, ten feet below the surface. The teeth, long dark hair and beard, were perfect. Portions of this dress have been pre- served in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. The material used in sewing was fine gut, and the regularity and closeness of the stitching are most remarkable. Specimens of the antique skin moccassins and skin caps have been also found at various times in the peat bogs, and secured for the Museum, so that we have the dress of the ancient Irishman complete. Long after this period of barbarism, but still at a time so distant that it is anterior to all historic record, we find that the Irish had attained some knowledge of metals and the art of weaving. The Museum contains numerous highly-finished illustrations of the beautifully-formed, slen- der, leafshaped swords and daggers of bronze, which began gradually to supersede the use of the primitive celt. Many of these swords are of the pure Grecian type, formed ap- parently on the model of the leaf of the aloe or the agave. One sword found on an ancient battle-field is curved like GPS 2S Spa ot 2 252 SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. a Turkish yataghan ; andin ‘‘ The Book of Rights” “curved swords of battle” are frequently referred to. But the specimens of the broad scythe-shaped sword, “which is 9 especially and peculiarly Irish,” are the most numerous, as many as forty-one of these heavy, thick, round-pointed battle-axe swords being in the Museum. The same progress of artistic development is observable in the ancient swords as was noticed in the primitive celt —as the art advanced, the manufacturer began to exercise his artistic faculties in fanciful and costly decoration. ‘The blade was adorned with either cast or engraved ornamenta- tion, and the hilt inlaid or studded with gold. Thus, Brian Boroimhe is described as carrying a gold-hilted sword in his right hand at the battle of Clontarf. It is very remarkable that, throughout the whole series, from the rudest to the most highly finished, a peculiar idea is traceable in the ornamentation, by which they can at once be recognized as Irish; and this idea seems to have travelled from Irish Paganism to Irish Christianism. ‘The ornamen- tation on the sepulchral stones of New Grange is repeated on the stone celts; it is carried on into the age of Bronze; it decorated the swords and spears of the kings, as well as their costly diadems and ornaments of gold, and still con- tinued to be traced, with a kind of loving fidelity to the ancient symbols, upon the manuscripts illuminated by priestly hands, so late as the tenth and eleventh centuries. For the illustration of the costume of the early Irish, after it passed from primitive helpless barbarism to comparative civilization, by the aid of the knowledge of metals and the art of weaving, fortunately we are not left to mere theories ; THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND. 253 c4 for, by a singular chance, the representative of the advanced period, like him of the barbaric age, arises also from the grave of the Past to bear witness for himself, In 1824, a male body, completely clad in woollen antique garments, was found in a bog near Sligo, six feet below the surface ; and so perfect was the body when first discovered, that a magistrate was called upon to hold an inquest on it. The garments also were in such complete preservation, that a photograph was made of a person clad in this antique suit, with the exception of the shoes, which were too small for an adult of our day, and a drawing from this photograph is one of the best and most beautifully executed illustrations of the Museum catalogue. The costume of this ancient Irish gentleman is exceedingly picturesque, consisting of trews of a plaid pattern, made wide above, like Turkish trousers, but fitting close to the leg and ankle; over them was a tunic of soft cloth, most elaborately gored and gus- setted, showing high perfection in the tailoring art. The skirt of the tunic, which extends to the knee, is set on full, and measures eight feet in circumference at the bottom. The sleeves are tight, and open to the elbow, like an Albanian jacket ; and over all was thrown the immemorial Irish mantle, so invariably worn, so indispensable a portion of Irish costume that it passed into a proverb among our neighbours, the Welsh, “like an Irishman for the cloak.” This graceful garment, as found upon the hero of the bog, and now visible in our Museum, is composed of brown, soft cloth, made straight on the upper edge, which is nine feet long, but cut nearly into the segment of a circle on the lower. The form resembles closely that worn by the Cala- os aetna se a a ET EF St — 254 SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. brian peasant at this day. These cloaks were often of great value ; kings were paid tribute of them. ‘They were made of various colours, each colour being a symbol to denote the rank of the wearer. The number of colours also in a dress had a significant value, and was regulated by law. Thus, one colour only was allowed to slaves; two for sol- diers ; three for goodly heroes, or young, lords ; six for the learned men; five for a poetess ; and seven was the regal number for kings and queens. In the “‘ Book of Rights,” the earliest accessible authority on the subject of costume prior to the Norman Invasion, we read of cloaks of various colours presented in tribute to the kings—cloaks of purple, red cloaks, green, white, black ; in fact, cloaks of all colours. Some are mentioned as bordered with gold. The tunic is also described frequently, ‘‘ with golden borders—with gold ornaments—with golden hems.” Another form of cloak was fashioned with a hood like the Arab bornous, and was bordered with a deep fringe of goat’s hairs. Trish costume seems, in fact, to have been half- Oriental, half-Northern, like the compound race that peopled the island. ‘The trews were the same as the Germanic bracce ; while the tunic was Albanian, and the mantle Eastern; as well as the high, conical head-dress, which is identical in form with the Persian cap of the present day. On this subject Sir William Wilde remarks— ‘«« Every day’s observation and research bring to light new affinities with early Irish costume. In the great French work, ‘Herculaneum et Pompeii,’ there is a battle scene, copied from a mosaic at Pompeii, in which the arms and THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND. 255 dress of the combatants are almost identical with those of ancient Ireland. The vanquished wear tight-fitting trousers, close tunics, several of which are plaided, and cloaks with the hood coming over the head precisely like the Irish cochall. The chief figures wear torques round the neck, and bracelets on the wrists, and the hood is retained in its place by a narrow frontlet, apparently of gold. The colours of the garments are also peculiarly Irish. In some, the cloak is yellow; the mantle, dark red ; and the tunic, purple bordered with white; the latter, spangled with triple stars of gold, precisely after the fashion figured in the ‘ Book of Kells.” The chariot in which the principal figure stands resembles some figured on our ancient crosses, and the charioteer wears a pointed Cap, green tunic, and tartan vest. All the vanquished wear beards, and their hoods envelop their chins.” The study of ancient costume has especial interest for the historian, as the culture, civilization, and commercial rela- tions of a people can be readily deduced from it; and in the numerous and curious illustrations of the catalogue, taken from ancient records, illuminated manuscripts, and the ancient crosses and sepulchral monuments of the country, everything has been brought together that could throw light on this obscure subject. One most remarkable illustration is a full-length portrait of Dermot M’Morrough, king of Leinster, taken from an illuminated copy of Giraldus Cambrensis in the possession of Sir Thomas Philips, which portrait was very probably drawn from the life. From all that is known on the subject, it would appear that linen and cloth of every degree of fineness, according Se POA iis Scapa cay i th Lge stl ted pe ae ne Pr 256 SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST, to the rank of the wearer, were the principal materials used in ancient Irish dress. No remains of silk garments have been discovered ; nor do the historical records, as far as we are aware, make any mention of silk being employed in per- sonal wear. It is remarkable also, that while a traditional belief exists that linen has been known from time imme- morial in Ireland, yet the Academy does not possess a single specimen of ancient linen. The linen shirts worn at the time of the Norman Invasion are said to have been of im- mense size, and dyed a saffron colour. But there is un- deniable proof, that the tartan, or cloth of divers colours, which we are accustomed to associate only with Scotland, was worn universally in Ireland in ancient times. Portions of tartans are preserved in the Museum, and probably each grade of rank and clan possessed a characteristic plaid as well as a special dress. <A love of variegated and glowing colours, and a tendency to gorgeous decoration, seem to have been always instinctive to the Irish nature. The female dress of Ireland at a period subsequent to the barbaric age is also illustrated not from conjecture, but from actual observation ; for in 1843 a complete female antique dress was discovered many feet below the surface in a bog (these museums of Nature, where she stores up and pre- serves her specimens of antique life with a care and perfec- tion that no mortal curator can ever hope to equal), and is now to be seen in the Academy’s museum. It consists of a boddice with a long waist, open in front, and attached to a full plaited skirt ; which, like the Albanian fustanell, consists of several narrow gored breadths, gathered into small plaits at top, and spreading into a broad quilling “x THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND, Zo at the bottom ; each plait being stitched on the inside to preserve the form. The bottom of the skirt measures twenty-two and a half feet in circumference, and there are ninety-two plaits, most elaborately arranged, so that the joining of each of the nar- row breadths should fall within a plait. The material is of a brown woollen cloth. No pictorial representations exist of female costume earlier than the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, but from the sculptured effigies on tombs, we find it consisted of either a flowing robe and veil, or of the plaited skirt and tight boddice already described, while the head-dress varied according to the fashion of the day. The subject of personal decoration is perfectly illustrated in the Museum; the Academy possessing one of the largest collections in Europe, beginning at the first rude effort at adornment of the barbaric age, up to the rich golden orna- ments of a later, though still pre-historic period. It is not pleasant to national pride, after feeding on the gorgeous fables of our earliest annalists, to contemplate the primitive Irishman fastening his mantle of untanned deet- skin with a fish-bone or a thorn, as we know the Germans did in the time of Tacitus ; yet, unhappily, antiquarian re- search will not allow us to doubt the fact of the simple savageness of the first colonists. But when the intellect of the rude man stirred within him, he began to carve the bones of the animals he killed into articles of ornament and use. Thus the slender bones of fowls were fashioned into cloak pins, especially the leg bone, where the natural enlarge- ment at one end suggested the form, and afforded surface VOL Ii 18 gS acca th 258 SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. for artistic display. From this first rude essay of the child- man can be traced the continuous development of his ideas in decorative art, from the carving of bones to the casting of metal, up to the most elaborate working in enamel, gold, and precious stones. Our Museum is rich in these objects, containing more than five hundred specimens. Pins, fibulze, * and brooches having been discovered in Ireland in immense quantities and variety, some of which are unsurpassed for beauty of design and workmanship. “Tn these articles,” Sir William remarks, “‘ the process of development is displayed in a most remarkable manner ; for, from the simple unadorned pin or spike of copper, bronze or brass (the metallic representation of the thorn), to the most elaborately wrought ring-brooch of precious metal, the patterns of which are now used by our modern jewellers—every stage of art, both in form and handicraft, is clearly defined, not one single link is wanting. In the first stage all the artist’s powers were lavished on the decoration of the pin itself, or in the development of the head, which was enlarged and decorated into every possible shape and conceivable pattern. When it was almost impossible to improve the head, a ring or loop was added, passed through a hole in the neck. In the next stage, the ring was doubled, or many rings added. Finally, the ring was enlarged, flattened out, decorated, enamelled, covered with filigree, and jewelled, until, in those magnificent specimens of silver and gold * This word ‘‘ fibule” is a heathenish and imported term, quite foreign to the Irish tongue. There is no other word known in the Irish language to designate a brooch, be it of bone or be it of gold, than Dealg, which signifies a thorn. THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND. 259 found in Ireland of late years, it reached a degree of per- fection which modern art can with difficulty imitate.” The forms of many of the Irish brooches, pins, and fibulz, are identical with numbers found in Scandinavia, but the peculiar ornamentation—a curiously involved spiral or s€rpent coil, which can be traced back through all ages of Irish art to the most remote antiquity—is met nowhere else ; neither in Etruscan nor Teutonic art, though some assert its origin can be traced to Assyria and Egypt. How- ever, this Opus Hibernicum, as it was termed by the learned Kemble, is one of the tests by which an antiquary can distinguish national from imported work. It is also re- markable that the ornaments of like form found so copiously in Scandinavia are all of bronze, while the Irish are of gold, a metal which, there is every reason to believe, existed in Ireland abundantly in former times, and is still found in small quantities. That it was used for ornament, even coeval with the stone celt, is also probable, as the rudest savage can make the ductile metal assume any form by simply flattening it between two stones. Many centuries before the Christian era, according to the annals, gold was smelted in Wicklow, to the east of the Liffey. Goblets and brooches were covered with it, and the artificer’s name was Ucadan ; but no further mention of native gold occurs throughout our ancient his- tories. However, two thousand years after, the story of the old annalist was singularly confirmed; for, in the year 1796, in the same part of Wicklow, perhaps on the very site of the furnace of Ucadan, upwards of £10,000 worth of native gold was obtained in about two months, 260 SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST, _and small quantities have been gathered there from time to time ever since. The subject of the gold antiquities is one full of interest, and even of mystery. The quantity of antique manufactured gold ornaments dug up in Ireland, even in recent times, has been estimated as exceeding half a million of money. As much more may be lying beneath our feet, for, every year, as new cuttings are made for railroads, or bogs are drained, deposits of gold ornaments come to light. Two or three years ago a deposit of massive gold bracelets, in value nearly £5,000, as bright and beautiful as if just finished, was dug up in Carlow; and, still more recently, several antique golden frontlets were found by a labourer while working in a field, who, utterly unconscious of their value, threw them to his children, and the author of the Catalogue actually discovered, one day, the son of the man cutting them up into nose-rings for his pigs. ‘They were happily rescued, and are now in the Academy. ‘The form is beau- tiful and classic; it is a half-moon diadem, resembling accurately some seen in Etruscan sculpture. What inestimable treasures may have been thus lost! not merely from ignorance, but also from cupidity ; for numbers of gold articles have disappeared in the smelting-pot of the jewellers, who bought them from the country people at per- haps a fractional part of their value. The very small annual sum allowed to the Academy by Government is another cause why the work of destruction still goes on. Valuable gold ornaments are frequently offered there for sale—too valuable, unhappily, for the Academy to purchase, and with an indignant regret that is almost like a sense of shame, the THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND. 261 members are obliged to leave them to their fate. Of course legislation could remedy all this, as it has done in Denmark, where the State has secured the possession of all antiquities found in the country for the National Museum, without any wrong being done to the finder, who is paid the full value of all he brings. But in Denmark there is a strong national pride in the subject, and the peasant, who is early taught by the local authorities the value of such things, would as soon think of destroying an antiquity as of burning his Bible. It is still a question among the learned whether this €normous amount of manufactured gold, far exceeding all yet discovered in England and Scandinavia, was altogether native, or to some extent imported. An analysis of some of the gold has been made, to test the identity of its con- stituents with the gold of Wicklow, and in the instance selected the gold was found similar. This fact and the ornamentation are proofs to uphold the native theory ; while opponents state that they came in the way of com- merce from the Carthaginians who traded here. Orna- ments identical with the Irish in form—the twisted torques, the bracelets, the diadems, and frontlets, having been found in the interior of Africa, and along the Gold Coast; in India, Barbary, Spain, and the islands of the Mediterranean. Several ancient Irish musical instruments, the chief of which were the harp and trumpet, and numerous fragments of harps have been found also in the oldest crannoges, proving how ancient was the knowledge and the practice of music in Ireland—a fact confirmed by the Welsh Annals, which state that the Irish surpassed all nations in their proficiency on the harp. 262 SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST. The Museum possesses sixteen antique bronze trumpets, one of which—the finest specimen yet found in Europe— measures about eight feet in length, and the joining is curiously riveted with metal studs, a fact proving its antiquity, as it must have been formed in an age un- acquainted with the art of soldering. With regard to coins, Sir William Wilde utterly denies that bronze ring- money was ever used in Ireland, as stated by Sir William Betham, who borrowed his idea from Vallancy ; for all the articles hitherto described as ring-money, are now proved undeniably to belong to chain-dress or armour. The ancient medium of barter seems to have been so many head of cattle, or so many ounces of gold. A native coinage was utterly unknown. ‘The amount of bronze dis- covered in Ireland is enormous, and proves the long dura- tion of a period when it was in general use, before iron was known. Specimens of every object necessary to a people’s life have been found fabricated of it—weapons, tools, armour, swords, and spears ; culinary vessels, caldrons, spoons, and other minor requisites ; hair-pins for the flow- ing locks of the women ; brooches for the graceful mantles of the chiefs, but not of the dark, dingy, modern compound that bears the name. Irish antique bronze was a metal of bright, glowing, golden beauty, and the effect of an army marching with spears of this metal in the flashing sunlight, we can imagine to have been truly magnificent. The people of this remote age must have attained con- siderable skill in the manufacturing arts—must have had laws, religion, and social culture—yet how little would have been known of them if these mute witnesses of a past THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND, 263 humanity had not been interpreted by science. Archeology and philology are the only solvents of the past; and no theory can henceforth be tolerated that will not stand the test of being assayed by them. ‘The philologist traces the origin and affinities of our people in the roots of the Irish language ; while their habits, modes of life, their position in the scale of civilization throughout the long duration of the unwritten age, can only be read in the letters of stone, bronze, and gold upon the walls of our Academy. Irish manuscripts, though the oldest in North-western Europe, date back scarcely further than the fifth or sixth century. Beyond that period we enter a region of darkness, through which no literature or letters radiate their light ; yet, unassisted by either, the archeologist can reconstruct the primitive world and the primitive man with greater truth and certainty than if he possessed both ; for the facts of a museum are changeless and enduring, and can suffer no mutation from prejudice or ignorance, yet we must remember that it is science alone that gives value to these facts. Without its aid a museum would be only an aggregate of curious lumber. The archzologist must combine, in a synthetic and compre- hensive view—must arrange in their proper sequence—must elucidate by a world-wide learning, these sibyline fragments of the past; or this writing on the wall, though it express the most irrefragable truths of history, will remain an unde- ciphered hieroglyphic, as useless and unprofitable to the student as the alphabet of an unknown language, which he is unable to form into intelligible words. All this Sir William Wilde accomplished for the Museum of the Aca- demy, and in his clear and well-arranged volumes we can a