18S9.] ^^* [iM coney. 



Ireland, on this eve, the peasants "assemble with sticks and clul)s (the 

 emblems of laceration), going from house to house, collecting money, 

 bread-cake, butter, cheese, eggs, etc., etc., for the feast, repeating verses 

 in honor of the solemnity, demanding preparations for the festival in the 

 name of St. Columb-kill, desiring them to lay aside ihe fatted calf and to 

 bring forth the black sheep. The good women are employed in making the 

 griddle cake and candles ; these last are sent trom house to house in the 

 vicinity and are lighted upon the (Saman) next day, before which they 

 pray, or are supposed to pray, for the departed souls of the donor. Every 

 house abounds in the best viands they can afford ; apples and nuts are 

 devoured in abundance."* In a previous passage, he explains the allusion 

 to the black sheep by stating that such an animal was formerly sacrificed 

 by the druids on this occasion for the benefit of the souls of the departed. 

 He also mentions several love charms which wil now be described. 



Quite a number of experiments ar tried by the girls with beans or nuts 

 to test the affection of their sweethearts. Sometimes two nuts ar named 

 after a pair of lovers and placed in front of the fire. If either cracks or 

 jumps away from its place, the one whose name it bears wil prove incon- 

 stant. Should it blaze up brightly, its namesake has an affection for the 

 one represented by the other nut, and if the two burn quietly together the 

 lovers wil be married. In Kerry, the trial is sometimes made with beans, 

 large ones being used to represent the young men, while smaller ones 

 serv for the young women. If neither one of the pair jumps away from 

 the other, they ar lighted and allowd to burn to a coal, after which they 

 ar put into a glas of water. Should both sink, it is a sign that the lovers 

 wil be married ; if neither, they wil never be wedded ; but if only one 

 sinks, it is, as the people say, "between I wil and I won't." Again, 

 white beans to represent the girls, and black beans for their lovers, ar 

 placed in pairs on a pan over the fire. If the black bean remains by the 

 side of the white one, the girl knows her lover is true to her, but if it pops 

 over to the neighborhood of another white bean, she knows that the recre- 

 ant sweetheart has been won from her by the rival whose name the white 

 bean bears. 



The lover sometimes roasts ten beans, and then, throwing one of them 

 over the shoulder and taking the other nine in the mouth with a sup of 

 "mairn " water, he goes to three houses in succession and listens secretly 

 on the outside.f The first name belonging to one of the opposit sex 

 heard spoken inside the house wil be that of the future husband or wife, 

 as the case may be. If the same name be heard at the next and the 

 third house the omen receivs additional confirmatien, but should a differ- 

 ent name be heard in the second house, that wil be the name of the destind 



* Vallancey, Collectanea, iii, Part ii, 459. 



t The selection often objects, one of which is afterwards thrown away, is of common 

 occurrence in Irish folk-lore, and wjl be met with again in this chapter. For another 

 instance, see the author's paper on " The Medical Mythology of Ireland," in Proc. Am. 

 Philos. Soc, xxiv, No. 125, p. 144, Philadelphia, 1887. A " mairn "—properly mering — 

 stream is a boundary ditch between two fields. 



