360 Proceeding fi of the Royal Irish Academy. 



like a Ijasin ; it contains almost a gallon of water ; it is cuitous how it 

 came there, for there is not a pebble of granite here." 



The people of the same island keep as a special holiday the 11th 

 of April, St. Leo's day, and will not do any work on it, while the 

 inhabitants of Inishbofin do not observe it at all. 



2. Legends and Traditions. — There are many legends and tradi- 

 tional tales about places on the islands, of which the few which could 

 be collected are given below ; the main outlines only, in which all 

 versions agree, are related, as each story was lieard from more than 

 one person, and the versions differed in detail. 



Lough Bofin {The Lake of the White Cow). — A very long time ago, 

 so long that nobody knows exactly when, Inishshark was a well- 

 known island, and was inhabited ; but Inishbofin was unknown, as, 

 owing to enchantment, it was invisible. One day two fishermen were 

 lost in a dense fog, and drifted on until they found themselves beside 

 a rock, on which they landed and made a fire.^ As soon as the fii'e 

 touched the rock, the fog suddenly lifted, and the men foujid them- 

 selves on the shingly beach (now called the ]N"orth Beach) of a strange 

 island ; on one side of the shingly belt on which they were was the 

 sea, and on the other a lough, and close to them was an old woman 

 driving a white cow down to the water. She drove the cow rato the 

 lake, and struck her with a stick, when she was at once turned into a 

 rock. One of the fishermen, who had followed out of curiosity, was 

 very angry at what he saw, and in his rage he struck the woman, and 

 at once both he and she were transformed into stones. The rock and 

 stones may be seen there still. The cow used to rise up out of the 

 lake, and walk about the island when any great event was about to 

 happen, but it is now more than thirty years since she was last seen. 

 It is from this cow that the island takes its name (Inis bo-finne). 



Car rig Giiairim. — An old chief of the islands named Guairim (or 

 Gorham), whose castle was situated just above Bofin harbour, had 

 a dispute with the monks of St. Colman's Abbey about the payment 

 of tithe, and, not content with not paying, he, with the assistance of a 

 family named Halligan, took the settlement of the dispute into his 

 own hands by seizing six of the monks, whom he slew by the road- 

 side in Middlequarter, at a spot where their blood is said to be seen 

 still on the anniversaries of the murder. Gorham did not escape 

 unpunished for this bloodthirsty act ; he was taken over to Einvyle 



^ Another version is — " One of tbein knocked the ashes out of his pipe, for 

 they Lad pipes then, though we do not Imow what they used to smoke in them." 



