Browne — Ethnography of the Mullet, Lrnhkea, ^ FoHacloy. 611 



(d.) Health. — It Tras found to be a difficult matter to obtain 

 reliable information on this point, but there seems to be, on the whole, 

 but little serious disease, and the people appear to be strong and 

 healthy. The affections suffered from are mainly due to the nature 

 of their food and occupations, and the unwholesome state of their 

 dwellings. 



Consanguineous Marriages. — The intermarriage of relations seems 

 to be very common, not only on the islands, but also on the mainland, 

 where it is most common in small fishing hamlets difficult of access, 

 such as Fallmore, Tip, and Portacloy. While visiting Inishkea 

 inquiries were made as to these unions, and several of the inhabitants 

 assured me that intermarriage between the -people of the !North and 

 South Islands was not common, it being a far more usual thing for 

 the islanders to marry people fi'om the opposite shore of the !Mullet ; 

 thus, the South Island people seem to intermarry a good deal with 

 the inhabitants of Pallmore, a very primitive village at the extreme 

 end of the peninsula, which has only being provided with a road, 

 such as it is, since 1881. On both islands, however, the majority of 

 the marriages seem to take place between members of the community. 



It does not seem as if it were usual for first cousins to marry, but 

 matches between relatives of all degrees farther out seem to be of 

 very common occurrence. 



Through the kindness of the Eev. H. Hewson, P.P. of Belmullet, 

 I am enabled to give actual figures, as he has kept the record of 

 dispensations for these marriages since 1875 ; from that date until 

 August, 1894, there were in the Parish of Kilmore, which contains 

 about 700 families, altogether 276 marriages, and of these 61 or 22*1 

 per cent, obtained dispensations, as the parties were relatives. In the 

 Parish of Belmullet, number of families 460, there were in the same 

 period 247 with 26 consanguineous (or 10*5 per cent.) and Kilcommon, 

 with about 620 families, had 276 marriages, for 72 of which, or 26*1 

 per cent., dispensations were granted. The average in the whole 

 three parishes was thus 19-5 per cent. To these may be added some 

 10 or 12 more cases of marriages of first cousins dispensed by the 

 bishop of the diocese. There does not seem to be any marked result 

 from this long continued close intermarriage, except the very marked 

 local types observable in the more isolated places, which seem to have 

 been fixed or preserved by this cause. This is especially the case in 

 the islands whose inhabitants, while bearing a general resemblance 

 to each other, differ much in appearance from their neighbours of tht; 

 mainland. 



