400 Mr. G. A. K. Marshall on 



is prominent and bendeth forward about throe-quarters of 

 an inch. Whatever beast happeneth to feed Avhere this 

 venomous worm hath crept (some say if he do but tread 

 there) is certainly poisoned, yet may be infallibly cured if 

 timely remedy be applied; the case is twofold, yet in effect 

 but one, both proceeding from the very worm itself. Some 

 there are that take this worm and, putting it into the hand 

 of a new-born child, close the hand about it, tying it up 

 with the worm closed in it till it be dead. This child ever 

 after, by stroking the beast affected recovers it, and so it 

 will if the water wherein the chiltl washes be sprinkled on 

 the beast. I have known a man that thus would cure his 

 neighbours' cattle though he never saw them. The other 

 method of cure, which I like much better, is by boring an 

 augur-hole in a well-grown willow-tree, and in it imprisoning 

 but not immediately killing the worm, so close by a wooden 

 peg that no air may get in, and therein leaving him to die 

 at leisure. The leaves and tender branches of this tree ever 

 after if bruised in water, and the affected beast therewith 

 be sprinkled, he is cured. The All-wise and Ever-gracious 

 God having thus in His Providence ordered it that not only 

 this venemous reptile, but divers others, and who knows if 

 not all, did we know the right method of using them, 

 should have in themselves their own antidotes, that so we 

 might have a remedy at hand as the poet sayeth : — 

 ' Una eademque inanus vulnus opemijue fevat.' '' 



The authoress also shows that a superstitious dread of the 

 larva still persists among the Irish folk. In all the descrip- 

 tions the terrifying eye-like marks have a prominent place. 

 A " clergyman's (laughter, walking near a ditch, 'saw her 

 little dog barking and snapping at a most curious-looking 

 creature with staring google eyes.'" One of the country- 

 folk said that the creature " had a round head like a cat's, 

 and goggle eyes." " He was afraid to touch it, as its eyes 

 glared like a frog's, and said it bit or stung cattle, when 

 their heads swelled up; and a man was once bit on the 

 leg, which swelled up, and ho nearly died." A labourer, 

 going to fetch a tin basin from a field, " found a Connagh 

 sitting in it, glaring at him." A woman lost one of these 

 caterpillars which she was carryuig on a stick, and was 

 reproved by her father "for not having killed the Connagh 

 by smashing it with a stone, ' as now it would sting the 

 cattle.' " The authoress, who is an experienced collector 



