358 Proceedinys of the Royal Irish Academy. 



bless it," and any evil or illness happens afterwards, tlie chances are 

 that the blame will be put on the "bad eye." The evil-eye may be 

 rendered harmless by making the sign of the cross in the name of the 

 Trinity. 



There is an old woman in Bofin who is considered to be a witch, 

 and is said to be in the habit of putting the " bad eye " on people and 

 on domestic animals. 



There are several beliefs about beasts and birds, such as that the 

 barnacles on the logs of drift wood, which often come ashore, develop 

 into geese, and that a gale of wind may be brought on by the simple 

 expedient of putting a black cat under a pot. Seals are thought to be 

 enchanted men, and will dive if they see a priest or a man in a black 

 coat; their appearance is said to portend bad weather. Who these 

 enchanted men were, and by whom they were placed under the en- 

 chantment, I could not ascertain, but the following mention of this 

 belief is made in a footnote by the late Mr. Hardiman, in his edition 

 of O'Flaherty's " H'lar Connaught" (p. 27) :— 



"Many traditions, connecting these harmless animals with the 

 marvellous, are related along our western shores. Among these there 

 is one of a curious nature, viz. that at some distant period of time 

 several of the Clan Coneelys (lilac Congaile), an old family of lar 

 Connaught, were by "Art magick," metamorphosed into seals! In 

 some places the story has its believers, who would no more kill a seal 

 or eat of a slaughtered one than they would of a human Coneely. It 

 is related as a fact that this ridiculous story has caused several of the 

 clan to change their name to Conolly." 



Pairies are firmly believed in by many, and one man who is sub- 

 ject to epileptic fits relates long stories of his dealings with them. 



Many tales are told about them and their doings, but few of them 

 oan be collected by a stranger, as the people are very reticent on the 

 subject. They are supposed to exercise a malign influence on infants, 

 especially before baptism, stealing them if good-looking, and supplying 

 their places with puny, wizened changelings. These are got rid of, 

 and the true child recovered by very simple means ; it is only neces- 

 sary to light a large fire and put on the pot to boil, and then to 

 threaten the changeling that he will be boiled, when he will vanish, 

 and the lost child be found in his place. 



"Woman who die in childbirth or from puerperal fever are believed 

 to be carried away by the fairies to act as wet-nurses. 



Mrs. Allies informed me that her baby is regularly spat upon by 

 the people when its nurse takes it out, in order to keep off the fairies 



