Mooney.] diO [^^lay 3, 



prominent feature — Ducking for apples — The snap apple — "Lamb's 

 wool" — Festivities — Love charms and omens — Nut burning — The ten 

 beans — Cabbage pulling — The three basins — Dream charms — Hemp seed 

 — Winnowing — Tarruing na Sruith — The lime-kiln conjuration — Other 

 mj'stic spels — Fairy travels — The Puca — The dead again upon earth — The 

 celebration in Donegal. Saint Martin's Day — Origin — Unaccountable be- 

 liefs in connection with this saint — Drawing blood — Legends — Sprinkling 

 and marking with blood — Legends of the origin ot the custom — Belief in 

 regard to the turning of wheels. Saint Stephen's D ly — An ancient Keltic 

 festival — Reasons given for hunting the wren — The wren, the king of 

 birds — The wren boys — Carrying the wren — The custom unknown in the 

 extreme north — Gaelic and English verses sung — English originals of 

 some of them. The Gkristmas Holidays, New Tear and Twelfth-night — 

 Origin of the winter festival — Leading features common throughout 

 Europe — The Yule festival — The mummers — Description of a company — 

 Drawing blood on Christmas — The Christmas block and candle — The 

 three-prongd candle on Twelfth-night — The twelv rush candles — Mis- 

 cellaneous Christmas beliefs — Origin of New Year — Beliefs in connection 

 with the day — The rain test — Twelfth-night — Water turned to wine — 

 Weather predictions — A sacred season — End of the holiday period. 



The world has grown so familiar with the stories of misrule, suffering 

 and violence in Ireland, that we ar apt to forget that there is another side 

 to the picture, and that every nation has a home life as wel as a political 

 existence. The little every day cares and pleasures of the household, the 

 merrymakings and social gatherings of neighbors, and the occasional 

 holidays, make up the real life of a people, and he who is ignorant of these 

 knows not the nation, however familiar he may be with the history of its 

 kings and rulers, their battles, victories and defeats. The heroes of 

 Gettysburg and Spotsylvania wer men who enjoyed a good dinner, or a 

 quiet smoke after a hard day's work, as much as any of us, and, as boys, 

 took fully as much delight in a Fourth of July celebration or a raid on a 

 watermelon patch. The dreaded Moonlighter or the unspeakable Fenian 

 wil walk as many miles to a country dance as ever did Carleton's rollick- 

 ing Ned M'Keown, is just as anxious about the condition of the potatoes 

 and the health of the pig, finds as much satisfaction in listening to a fiddler 

 at a wedding or a story teller at a wake, and in his young days was just 

 as eager in hunting the wren on Saint Stephen's day or feeding the bon- 

 fires on Saint John's eve. 



What ar calld the popular customs of a nation ar always best pre- 

 servd by the agricultural and village portion of the population, a class 

 especially numerous in Ireland from the fact that the i)eculiar political 

 conditions of the country compel the great bulk of the people to draw 

 their living directly from the soil, leaving them but scant opportunity to 

 acquire an education or to become familiar with modern progress. In 

 spite of all this, however, the old customs ar decaying here as elsewhere. 



