Mooney.] 41 U [May 3, 



pit before her, on "which she must turn and run with all speed toward the 

 house, repeating a terrible charm as she goes. The shape pursues her, 

 but as it comes nearer it loses the appearance of her lover and becomes a 

 horrible demon, uttering the most blood-chilling cries. Should it over- 

 take her, the unfortunate girl would be torn in pieces, but if she can enter 

 the house and lock the door before the monster comes up she is safe, 

 allho in almost every case she falls on the floor in a dead faint from terror. 

 Sometimes the baffled demon peers in through the window, but, strangely 

 enough, no one but the girl herself can see the apparition or hear the 

 horrible sounds. At the moment of the occurrence the future husband, 

 whose spirit is thus made to appear, is conscious of some mysterious dis- 

 turbance in himself, without being aware of the cause. The working of 

 this diabolic spel always results unfortunately, and the children born to 

 the girl after marriage ar almost certain to be idiotic or deformd. 



A writer in the GeiitlenKin's Magazine givs a somewhat different account 

 of this ceremony. According to his statement, if the girl winds on and 

 feels nothing pull at the other end, it is a sign that she wil die unmarried; 

 if something pulls, she asks the question, when her future husband wil giv 

 his name or appear to her, but sometimes a demon wil approach instead, 

 and this is a token that her death is not far off.* Vallancey says that the 

 Lord's Prayer is recited backwards while winding up the yarn on the 

 ball.t 



Lady Wilde hints mysteriously at another awful incantation performd 

 in Iront. of a looking glass in the devil's name — something so unspeakably 

 fearful in its nature that one young girl who tried it was found the next 

 night with distorted features lying dead belore the mirror, while the glass 

 itselt was shatterd to pieces. The same author continues : 



"Another spell is the building of the house. Twelve couples are taken, 

 each being made of two holly twigs tied together with a hempen thread : 

 these are all named and stuck round in a circle in the clay. A live coal 

 is then placed in the centre, and whichever couple catches fire first will 

 assuredly be married. Then the future husband is invoked in the name 

 of the Evil One to appear and quench the flame. On one occasion a dead 

 man in his shroud answered the call and silently drew away the girl from 

 the rest of the party. The fright turned her brain and she never recov- 

 ered her reason afterward. "J 



This season is also a great time for fairies, ghosts and witches. In 

 Connemara, the churn-dash is trimd with crann caoran, or rowan twigs, 

 on November eve, to prevent the stealing of the cream by the witches dur- 

 ing the coming year. The author just quoted also states that if the cattle 

 fall sick about this time the blame is laid upon the witches. § 



* O'Hanlon (1865), in English Traditions and Foreign Customs, Gentleman's Magazine 

 Library, 139,, Boston, n.d. (1885). 

 t Viillancey, Collectanea, iii. Part ii, 460. 

 X Lady Wilde,. i,20y-21«. 

 I. Ibid., 2a. 



