Mooney.] s-urt: [April 15, 



Lyoc Enue.* Prayers were offered and this lyoe turned over. For in- 

 stance, if one person belied anotiier, or gave scandal by any means, then 

 the person would go and offer those prayers and turn the lyoc, and who- 

 soever of them would be in the fault, he was sure to die ; but what- 

 ever time of the year this would occur, it was sure to be followed by bad 

 weather, thunder and rain. So the farming class was almost ruined by 

 this work, and the people practicing it more and more, until at last the 

 clergy got the lyoc taken away and thrown into the deepest spot of Lough 

 Corrib — and more was the pity, for the people were not so often at that 

 time going to petty sessions as they do now ; they were leaving it all to 

 God and Lyoc Emi£." 



In another letter, dated January 20, 1887, the same writer thus men- 

 tions a noted waterfall in the same neighborhood : "There is a waterfall 

 convenient to this place that cures pains of the back. The patient goes in 

 his or her nakedness, for about ten minutes, under this waterfall, and the 

 third time is sure of being all right. The only thing given down for this 

 is, that a priest in the time of Shawii-na-Sogyarth\ was concealed for 

 twenty-four hours under this waterfall." Whatever may be thought of 

 the theory in this instance, it is plain that the treatment is exactly that 

 adopted by the best surgeons in dealing with sprains and similar ailments, 

 including "pains of the back," viz., subjecting' the afiected part to the 

 action of a stream of cold water falling from a considerable elevation. 



The pool of Bethesda at Jerusalem has already been noticed in this con- 

 nection, and a comparison of the present Irish beliefs and customs in this 

 regard with the Bible story ofNaaman will show that they are substan- 

 tially those which existed among the Jews nearly three thousand years 

 ago. Naaman was a Syrian general, living at Damascus. He was afflicted 

 with leprosy, and at last, by the advice of his friends, undertook a long 

 JDurnej'^ to Samaria to procure the help of the prophet Elisha. When he 

 had reached the latter city, "Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, 

 Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to 

 thee and thou shalt be clean. * * * Then went he down and dipped 

 himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of 

 God ; and his flesh came again, like unto the flesh of a little child, and he 

 was clean.":]: In this case the Syrian practice seems to have been difler- 

 ent from that of the Jews, as Naaman had expected that the prophet 

 would cure him by simply touching the diseased part and invoking the 

 name of his God. 



There can be no doubt that these " blessed wells " of Ireland are min- 

 eral springs of great medicinal virtues, as the wliole country is a mineral 

 region, containing coal and iron in abundance, with limestone cliffs along 



* Gaelic, Leac Aong'us " Eneas rock, or slab. " 



t Gaelic, Seag'an na Sagart, "John of the Priests ;" the name given by the people to a 

 " priest hunter " during the time of the penal laws. 

 X 2d Kings v : 10, 14. 



