Mooney.] *^^^ [May 3. 



features fair and beautiful, and also prevents headake and fevers during 

 the year. An old riddle thus alludes to this custom : 



" I washt my face in water that never raind or run, 

 And dried it on a towel that never was woven or spun." 



In the north, the girls on May morning recite a charm calld the 

 " comedher " to attract the lover. The name is, probably, a corruiition of 

 " come hither," and when a young man appears to be fascinated by a girl, 

 she is said to hav put her comedher on him. There is a wonderful virtue 

 in the dew which forms on May morning, when gatherd before sunrise, 

 and some of the knowing women do a thriving business in this line. The 

 May dew is frequently preservd in bottles and rubd on sores, in the name 

 of the Trinity, to quicken the healing process. Herbs gatherd on May 

 eve possess mysterious powers for good or evil, according as they ar pulld 

 in the name of the Trinity or of the devil, and the virtue of the prepara- 

 tion is increast when compounded with butter made on May morning. It 

 may be of interest to Americans to learn that many of these old May-day 

 charms ar stil known amongst the mountaineers of the Southern Allega- 

 nies, who hav long since lost most of the folk-lore inherited from their 

 transatlantic forefathers. 



There ar a number of miscellaneous customs and beliefs connected 

 with May-day. In many parts of the country, it is considerd unlucky to 

 do any regular work, but the day is spent in mending the fences. This 

 custom is, perhaps, akin to the former English ceremony of surveying 

 the parish boundaries about this time,* a practice, probably, as old as the 

 Roman Terminalia, or feast of Terminus, the god of fields and boundaries. 

 In Kerry, and probably throughout the south, this is also the day for 

 "settling the dues," or arranging what stock shal be kept by each of the 

 partners in a common pasture. In making this settlement, the unit of 

 measurement is calld a collop, the name applied to a sufHciency of pastur- 

 age for one cow,t which is held to equal the amount required for eighteen 

 geese, six sheep, hogs or asses, or two mules, while a horse is equivalent 

 to a collop and a half. Thus, if one man pastures six sheep in a field, his 

 partner has the right to put in as many asses or eighteen geese, while a 

 single horse is held to consume as much pasturage as nine sheep. Goats 

 ar not put into the calculation, being usually sent to range the unculti- 

 vated mountain slopes. The pasturage sufficient for a sheep, hog or ass 

 is calld a due, and according to this primitiv agricultural table, three 

 bils (of geese) make a mouth or due, and six dues make a collop. 



In Clare, a ribbon is left out on May eve, and according as it is found 

 to hav lengthend or shortend in the morning, so wil the prosperity of 

 the family increase or decrease during the year. In Cork, the sun dances 

 in the water on this morning as wel as on Easter, and it was formerly the 



* Just before Holy Thursday, near the end of the Lenten season ; see Brand, Antiqui- 

 ties, i. 197. 

 ■}• Gaelic colbt-ac, a cow, calf or heifer. 



