THE MOUNTAIN FLAX. 309 



very remote period, it was believed that wherever 

 these social neighbour-like gatherings took place the 

 mann were present invisibly, and gave their assist- 

 ance, astonishing the workers by the speed with 

 which the task was accomplished. " Many hands 

 make light work/' says the proverb, and I suppose 

 that it never occurred to any of these damsels that 

 their own merriment and lively conversation in the 

 midst of these labours made them appear less weari- 

 some than when pursued in solitary silence. I must, 

 however, distinctly state that this admission does 

 not authorise any impertinent remarks on the al- 

 leged volubility of the daughters of Eve, the indul- 

 gence of which has by a most gratuitous assump- 

 tion been supposed to afford them relief during 

 their hardest labours. For it is to be remembered 

 that the more taciturn sex are constrained to ac- 

 knowledge a similar assistance from the world in- 

 visible in the form of an opportunity for a " long 

 chat " for when a seiserac, or ploughing-match, on 

 the same joint-stock principles occurs, there are also 

 the mann assisting in the shape of extra, but un- 

 seen, horses, causing the husbandmen great amaze- 

 ment at the large quantity of ground which they 

 find to be ploughed in the day. How it was ascer- 

 tained that these invisible beings assumed the shape 

 of horses I must leave to the imagination of the 

 reader. The monks of olden time being, probably, 

 unable to eradicate this superstition turned it, as 

 we are informed by Valiancy, to practical account 

 by inculcating the belief, that if the ouris or seiserac 

 were commenced on the Sabbath, or continued one 



