I 



Browne — The Ethnography of Garumna and Lettermullen. 251 



formerly for the quality of the poteen made there, which was never 

 distilled from treacle or adulterated. 



It is made only from malted barley and oats. The proportion of 

 oats used is one part to three of barley malt. Querns are used for 

 grinding the malt. 



Much ingenuity is often displayed in the methods employed to 

 evade the police ; the spirits have even been made in boats at sea in 

 some cases. The prices obtained were considered remunerative for the 

 labour and risk incurred. The poteen sold at from 8 shillings to 10 

 or 12 shillings per gallon according to quality. The stills were made 

 by a travelling tinker who lived in the client's house while making 

 them. The worm was, and is, always of copper, and is the most 

 expensive part of the apparatus. 



Trades are few ; there are seven weavers who make the homespun 

 flannel and frieze largely used by the people, for making which 

 they receive tenpence a yard. Tlie looms and warping frames are of 

 primitive type. There are five boat-builders in the islands, who can 

 build all the types of boats in local use ; three or four tailors, and 

 a. carpenter. 



There are several general shops at which goods of all kinds may be 

 ■obtained, and since the causeways have been opened carts from the 

 mainland come through the main roads of the islands and sell goods of 

 various sorts. 



There is no regular work for labourers, but occasional work is paid 

 fit the rate of Is. 6d. a day and the man's food. None of the men from 

 this district migrate to England or Scotland as field labourers, but 

 some of them go to the couuty Clare to dig potatoes, where they are 

 boarded and lodged and get about 9 shillings a week. 



In some parts of Garumna turf is cut for export to the Aran 

 Islands and the opposite coast of Clare. A good deal of the denudation 

 -of the surface of the island is due to this cause, as Garumna has been 

 fur generations the principal source of the fuel supply to Aran and 

 Lettermullen. The price obtained could not be ascertained. The 

 turf exported is mostly carried in boats of about four tons, termed, 

 according to their rig, pookliauns and giouthoges. 



The women, besides their ordinary domestic duties, take part in 

 all field work of every description, cut and carry turf and seaweed for 

 manure. In the case of the Lettermullen women they have to carry 

 the turf home in baskets on their backs, a distance of over four miles. 

 They shear the sheep, an operation looked on as woman's work, and, 

 s.% a rule, only carried out piecemeal, just as much wool being taken as 



