35o C A S T L E-B A R. 



are let in the lump, and applied to feeding cat- 

 tle. They put on two year old bullocks, and 

 keep them till full three, when they bring them 

 to the good grounds, and from thence take them 

 to Ballynafloe. Thefe mountains will not do 

 for year olds. Some of them are unhealthy for 

 cattle • for if they are left more than a month 

 or fix weeks on them, they are difordered with 

 lumps on their joints, fo that they cannot rife 

 from the ground; yet at the fame time ihall be 

 in good order, it difappears on a change of 

 pafture. Red deer run wild in the mountains 

 of Erris. 



To Caftle-bar, over an indifferent country, 

 and a vile ftoney road ; about that town the 

 hufbandry is admirable> They have three cuf- 

 toms, which 1 muft begin with ; firft. they har- 

 row by the tail, item the fellow who leads the 

 horfes of a plough, walks backward before 

 them the whole day long, and in order to make 

 them advance, ftrikes them in the face : their 

 heads I trow are not apt to turn.- Item, they 

 burn the corn inthcftraw, inftead of threfhing 

 it. Among their cuftoms it may be worth 

 mentioning, that at the wakes or funeral en- 

 tertainments, in addition to the circumltances 

 I related at Caftle Caldwell, both men and wo- 

 men, particularly the latter, are hired to cry, 

 that is, to howl the corps to the grave, which 

 they do in a moll horrid manner : they are not 

 fo difagreeable, how T ever, in Muhfter, as I was 

 told. The quantity of whifky and tobacco 

 confumed upon thefe occafions is pretty confi- 



derable, 



