Browne — Ethnograj^hy of the Mullet. Inishkea, ^ Portacloy. 623 



is concluded. The burial grounds are kept much better than in many 

 other parts of the "West ; and on Inishkea, as well as in the Mullet, it 

 it is customary to decorate the graves with large white pebbles, and to 

 place at the head a neatly made wooden cross. A curious custom 

 exists, some instances of which were observed at Tarmoncarra, of 

 placing tobacco pipes on the graves ; these are the pipes which were 

 left unused after the wake. What the reason is for so placing them 

 could not be ascertained, but it is considered extremely unlucky to 

 remove them. 



Unbaptised infants are interred in separate burying grounds by 

 themselves, several of which are in the district. 



It is now no longer customary for the people of the Mullet to bury 

 their dead in Inisglora, the last instance of this having occured over 

 thirty years ago. Formerly many families used regularly to make use 

 of this island as a cemetery, always taking a body over from a point 

 of the mainland opposite, which was stated by tradition to have once 

 been connected with the main, but to have got separated afterwards 

 by a channel which has gradually widened. 



Maxwell,^ writing in 1832, says — "There are no people on earth 

 more punctilious in the interment of their dead than the peasantry of 

 this remote district. A strange and unaccountable custom exists of 

 burying different families resident on the main in island cemeteries., 

 and great difficulty and often great danger attends the conveyance of 

 a corpse to its insulated resting place. No inducement will make 

 these wild people inter a body apart from the tomb of its fathers, and, 

 if a boat will live, the corpse will be transported to the family tomb. 

 At times the weather renders this impracticable, but the deceased is 

 kept for many days unburied in the hope that the storm may subside ; 

 and only when frail mortality evinces unequivocal tokens of decay 

 will the relatives consent to unite its dust with the ashes of a stranger." 



A considerable number of migratory labourers leave this district 

 annually to do harvesting work in England, on the proceeds of which 

 work they in part support themselves during the winter. The number 

 doing thus has decreased somewhat of late years. 



There is not much to be said about the everyday mode of life. 

 The men fish and attend to their holdings ; the women manage house- 

 hold affairs and assist at field work in times of pressure. The people 

 are early risers in the summer months, and, as a rule, retire to bed 

 early, few lights being seen in the hamlets after nine or ten p.m. 



1 Maxwell, W. H., " "Wild sports of the West," chap. xix. 

 R.I. A. PB,0C,, SEE, in., VOL. III. 2 T 



