62 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Unbaptized infants are buried in killeens or burial grounds by 

 themselves. 



The funeral customs are the same as described in Bofin except 

 that the belief about the ill luck in giving the wood out of the house 

 for the cofBn does not prevail here. Tobacco is served out to those 

 present at a funeral, and the unused pipes are placed on the grave as; 

 in Ballycroy. 



3. Food. — The people take three meals in the day ; many families 

 take strong tea at each ; the dietary consists of tea, flour-bread, 

 potatoes, eggs, and fish (fresh or salted according to season). Indian 

 meal stirabout is eaten when the potatoes are exhausted. 



Clothing. — The work-day clothing is mostly home-spun ; stockings 

 and flannels are all home manufacture, and of rather course quality, 

 Some native dyes such as lichen and purple loose-strife are in use 

 occasionally. The men are clothed very thickly, wearing layer upon 

 layer of thick heavy homespun flannel, which makes them appear 

 much stouter than they really are. 



Most of the women's clothing, and the men's best attire, is im- 

 ported. 



Dwellings. — The houses are much the same as those of Inishbofin, 

 but poorer, usually containing only two apartments, the kitchen and 

 the room. Owing to the absence of lime on the islands, the houses 

 are built of dry stone, and plastered inside ; many are now being 

 whitewashed. Many of these houses are very old ; I have been in one 

 stated by the inhabitants to be over two hundred years standing. The 

 houses are thatched with sougan thatch over scraws as described in 

 the report on Bofin. 



The end of the kitchen farthest from the fire is used as in the 

 other islands as a sort of pen for cattle and pigs at night ; it is paved, 

 and has a small channel running out to drain away moisture, At the 

 time of my visit there were only five or six houses on Clare Island, 

 into which the cattle and pigs were not taken every night. The 

 general style of the interior is the same as that of the houses in 

 Bofin or Ballycroy, except that in one wall of the kitchen there is 

 a recess called the cailUogh^ which contains a bed which can be 

 curtained off from the room. The furniture is scanty, consisting in 

 the kitchen of a table or two, a few stools, a dresser, covered with 

 coarse earthenware, a bench, and a spinning-wheel. 



Above the " couples " at the stable end of the kitchen is a sort of 

 loft in which implements, dried fish, &c., are stored. The domestic 

 utensils are the usual three-legged pot, a griddle, a big chest, some. 



