SUPERSTITIONS AND HAUNTINGS 269 



He was completely bewildered. He had seen 

 nothing, and my friends felt very much as the 

 three old wine-bibbers did here in the Club, when 

 the pantry boy's white rabbit strayed into the 

 smoking-room, and they each left stealthily and 

 two taking vows of abstinence believing that they 

 had got it at last. The one man in the room who 

 knew that it was a real rabbit took care to ap- 

 parently see nothing as he watched the old sinners' 

 glances of agony towards Mr. Bun, who was 

 brushing his nose in the comer. 



In Kerry they have stranger superstitions than 

 we have in Limerick. When any one of the country 

 people dies the curtains are pinned back. All the 

 beds in the house are stripped and the mattresses 

 taken off. The chairs are aU turned upside down 

 while the poor body is laid on a bare table, sur- 

 rounded by holy emblems. 



All this precaution is taken so that the evil 

 spirits, who would love to come in, shall find no 

 place to sit down or rest and will go away speedily. 



The oaths of the Irish people are many and they 

 delight in taking them . . . with variations as to 

 truth. 



" Be the five crasses " is an apparently solemn 

 one which has now practically died out. It 

 sounded very imposing but as the man who made 

 it crossed his fingers and thumbs as he spoke, it 

 meant nothing to him. " Be the piper that played 

 before Moses," is a very common affirmation. 



