1889.] 4UJ [Mooney. 



bites. Again it is a salt herring, which must be stolen and eaten, bones 

 and all. Sometimes the girl takes ten pins, and, throwing one over her left 

 shoulder, sticks the remaining nine into an apple, which she places under 

 her pillow on retiring. But the most elaborate method of augury is that 

 performd with the eg. For this purpose the first eg ever laid by a black 

 hen must be procured and boild until hard, when the yolk is taken out 

 and the cavity fild with salt. On retiring at night the girl eats the eg and 

 then gets into bed backward. A glass of water has been placed on the 

 table at the bedside, but she must endure the burning thirst until the hour 

 of midnight, when her destind partner wil infallibly appear and offer her 

 a drink. In no case must a word be spoken or a drop of water taken after 

 eating the eg. 



Hemp seed is also sown by the maiden, who probably repeats a secret 

 formula at the same time, and it is understood that, on looking back over 

 her lett shoulder, she wil see the apparition of her future spouse gathering 

 the hemp. Akin to this is the practice of winnowing grain at the barn 

 door, with the same result of seeing the figure of the destind husband be- 

 fore the task is ended. 



Most of these methods of love divination, altho common enough, ar 

 considerd somewhat uncanny, but those now to be described ar regarded 

 with undisguised horror, as being veritable compacts with the powers of 

 darkness, and few can be found who wil admit ever having tried them, 

 while the majority profess ignorance of the whole subject. 



Chief among these unholy rites is that known in Gaelic as Tarruiiig na 

 Sruif {Thorinj na sruh), or, "the dragging of the stream." The one 

 who thus seeks the aid of the demons takes her smock, or, if a man, his 

 shirt — the garment must always be that worn next the skin — and, going 

 under cover of the darkness to a "mairn" stream, washes it in the water, 

 drawing it always against the current, "ami ainm an d'eam'ain 'sa d'iab'- 

 ail,"* i.e., in the name of the fiend and the devil. The smock is drawn 

 against the stream because the whole performance is believd to be in 

 direct opposition to the laws of God. Returning to the house the girl 

 sweeps the hearth clean, and then hangs the garment on a chair before the 

 fire, expecting, just as the clock strikes twelv, to see the ghostly shape of 

 her future husband enter the room and turn the smock. In some cases a 

 razor and looking-glass ar added in order that the lover may shave him- 

 self. 



Stil more terrible is the conjuration of the ball of yarn and the lime 

 kiln. As described by one informant, the girl who dares risk the event of 

 this awful spel goes at night to the nearest lime kiln — in which an oracu- 

 lar spirit is supposed always to reside — and in the name of the devil throws 

 into it a ball of yarn, retaining one end of the thread in her hand. She 

 begins to wind up the yarn, but soon feels a pull at the other end and 

 asks, " Who pulls my yarn?" when the spirit within the kiln calls out the 

 name of her future husband, whose figure she then sees rising out of the 



* Pronounced, An dnim an yoivan sa yowl. 



PIIOC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXVI. 130. 2z. PRINTED MAY 28, 1889. 



