264 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Headaciie is treated by the method of head-measuring described 

 in the report on the Mullet, ^"orms in cattle by the tying of 

 the worm knot. The remedy advised for toothache is rather a 

 terrifying one : it is that the person affected should go to a burial 

 ground, bite some of the grass from a grave and cliew it. Enlarged 

 glands in the neck may, it is believed, be cured by rubbing them with 

 a dead man's hand. It is doubtful, however, if these are used no\v. 

 For post-partum haemorrhage a red cord is tied around each of the 

 woman's fingers. 



"WTiisky, especially poteen, is looked upon almost as a specific for 

 everything. It is used internally for most complaints, and externally 

 for sprains and bruises, and also for rheumatism. A remedy which has 

 been taken for a cold is punch, made thus — poteen is heated in a 

 saucepan, then sugar is added and then cold poteen. A large number 

 of herbs are used, but particulars could only be obtained about the 

 following : — 



Watercress [Nasturtium officinale) is taken boiled with whisky and 

 loaf sugar for bronchitis. 



Flag-root [Iris pseud-acortis) is pounded and applied as a dressing 

 to wounds. 



Crowfoot {Ranunculus acris) is pounded up with fresh butter and 

 used as an ointment for "the rose " (erysipelas). 



3. Legends and- Traditions. — Of these there are probably a number 

 still extant among the older people, but so far, as could be learned, few, 

 if any, of the younger people seem to know them, or else they are 

 unwilling to speak about them. Men seldom can speak of anything 

 before their grandfathers' time, and no one was met with who seemed 

 to know anything about the tower on Golam Head, wliich is probably 

 only one of the old coastguard signal towers built during the great 

 French war. iSTo man was met with who had heard of any tradition 

 about the old castle of the M'Hughs in Letttrmullen. Oilither church 

 is said to have been built by one of the M'Donoghs. O'Donovan 

 mentions that the people of this district in his time (about 1845) 

 had a tradition respecting Greatman's Bay {Cnan an fir moir) 

 "The people here relate that the Great man who gave his name to 

 this bay was a giant ; that he lived a long time ago, and seized 

 and plundered all the vessels that passed that way. They still show 

 a large hollow rock which they call his churn, Cuineog an fir moir ; 

 and three other rocks called JBrannradh an fir moir, which supported 

 the caldron in which he boiled the whales which he caught with a 

 fishing-rod," 



