1887.] lOd [Mooney. 



better idea of the present beliefs and practices in this connection than many- 

 pages o (description. The writer is one of the people, and has been 

 familiar all his life with the customs which he describes so accurately. 

 The extract is given in his own words, with the exception of a few slight 

 grammatic changes. The letter is written from Curuamona, near Clon- 

 bur, about twenty miles north-west from the town of Galway : 



" Thubber Muira and Feheen, in Ballintubber. Noted to cure any kind of 

 sickness that may occur in a family. Station days are the eve of any of 

 the Lady Days — eighth of September, fifteenth of August and second of 

 February. The stations are performed thus : 



"The person will kneel before the wells barefooted, will say so many- 

 prayers, and will take in his right hand seven pebbles, of stones which 

 are for the purpose at the mouths of the wells. After walking around the 

 well he will drop a pebble at each round, will kneel again and say more 

 prayers, and so on until finished. There is one remarkable thing about 

 these wells. After promising a station at these wells, if a person goes and 

 prays there, he will see a small worm ; and if the worm lives (i. e., is 

 alive) the patient will recover, and if seen dead the patient will 'die. 

 After performing a station here, if it be a male person he will drop a but- 

 ton in the well, sometimes a piece of coin, etc. ; and if it be a female, she 

 will pull some threads oat of ber shawl or some part of her clothes, which 

 she ties on the bush that covers these wells. Persons abroad promise sta- 

 tions at these wells and get some of their friends on this side to perform 

 them, which must be done by two persons together." 



In this instance there are two wells at the saine locality. The name of 

 the principal one, Thubber Muira,* or "Mary's well," shows that it is 

 dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and consequently the favorite times for 

 visiting it are the " Lady Days," or days specially devoted to her honor. 

 These are named in the order of their importance, which is the reverse of 

 the chronologic order. Feheenf is the name of a saint of local celebrity, 

 and is sometimes rendered by Festus. It is to be noted that the name of 

 the place, Ballintubber, :j: signifies the "town of the well," showing that 

 the village owes its name, and perhaps also its origin in the remote past, 

 to the presence of the spring in its vicinity. The water is probably used 

 as previously stated, according to the nature of the complaint. 



A second extract from the same letter furnishes an excellent illustration 

 of some of the beliefs connected with these wells, aside from their healing 

 powers. After describing Thubber Enue, or Eneas' well, which springs 

 out of a rock in the hill of Doon, in the same region, and is especially 

 noted for the cure of sore eyes, the writer goes on to say, "There was 

 another remarkable affair about this well— a kind of a round stone, called 



* Gaelic, Tobar Muire. The three wells and the leac described in this letter are also- 

 noticed in Wilde's Lough Corrib, already referred to. pages 267-9. 

 t Gaelic, Fec'irt. 

 t Gaelic, Baile'n-Tobair. 



PROC. AMEK. PHILOS. SOC. XXIV. 125. T. PRINTED JUNE 4, 1887. 



