1887.1 • 14o [Mooney. 



A father, whose son was nearly at the point of death, applied to a man 

 noted for his healing powers, who told him that the boy could be saved 

 but that something must go in his place. " Well," said the father, "take 

 anything that I have but a Christian." The other said it would not do for 

 him to accept anything, but that he would put his own horse in the place 

 of the boy. He then told the father to watch the horse, which was just 

 coming up from the sea with a load of sand. The moment the carl 

 reached the spot where the sand was to be put, the horse dropped dead. 

 When the man arrived at home his son was well. 



In another instance a woman was sick, and her husband called in a man 

 who told him to take every living thing out of the house before he pro- 

 ceeded to cure her. The husband put his cliildren out of the house, but 

 forgot "a sow with a litter of bonnivis"* in one corner. The other man 

 then recited certain prayers and restored the woman to health, but when 

 the family came back again into the house they found the sow and the 

 bonnivs dead. 



At another time a man's wife was sick and the operator was sent for. 

 He recited some words and the woman began to recover, but the next 

 morning a fine cow belonging to her husband was found lying in the field, 

 groaning and unable to rise. The cow grew worse as the woman grew 

 better, and when the cow died the woman was well. 



In the same connection may be mentioned a custom which prevails 

 among the fishermen of Mayo and Connamara. Every master of a fish- 

 ing boat carries a dog with him when out at sea, and should a storm arise, 

 the dog's legs are tied together and it is thrown overboard, in the belief 

 that the sea will at once become calm. This practice e.xists in Ireland to-day, 

 in the nineteenth century, and is exactly what formerly existed among the 

 Indians on the great lakes, as we learn from the trader, Alexander Henry. 

 In 1766, while crossing Lake Huron in a canoe with a party of Ojibwas, 

 a storm came up, which was attributed by the Indians to the anger 

 of the snake god, whom he had oflended the day before by attempting 

 to kill a rattlesnake. After calling on the snake god for help, " One of the 

 chiefs took a dog, and after tying its four legs together threw it overboard, 

 at the same time calling on the snake to preserve us from being drowned, 

 and desiring him to satisfy his hunger with the carcass of the dog."f We 

 read in the Bible how, nearly three thousand years ago, the prophet 

 Jonah, fleeing from the will of God, was on board a ship in the 3Iediter- 

 ranean when they were overtaken by a storm. After calling upon their 

 several gods, and using every effort to right the vessel, the sailors cast lots 

 to discover who was responsible for the storm, and the lot fell upon the . 

 prophet. " Then said they unto him. What shall we do unto thee, that 

 the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought and was tempestuous. 

 And he said unto them, Take me up and cast me forth into the sea ; so 



* Gaelic, banab', a sucking pig. 

 t Henry, Travels, 178, 1809. 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXIV. 125. S. PRINTED JUNE 4, 1887. 



