2 28 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



and partly broiled, till it jumped back to the well, and still showed the 

 mark of the bars, in 1839. 1 



A little south of the well, at the northern end of the bay, on which are 

 the castle and harbour, are traces of an extensive kitchen-midden. It has so 

 far yielded little but shells. It is opposite the laneway, near the ruined 

 house where the low cliffs begin. We found shells of oyster, limpet, and 

 periwinkle ; more rarely, teeth and broken bones, with charcoal and blackened 

 stones. It lies about 6 inches under the sward, and is 1 to 2 feet thick, 

 running along the clay bank, where a good section is exposed. 



The bay and rocks near it are the scene of another legend which once had 

 a bad effect in giving idlers an excuse for pessimism and apathy in any 

 attempt to improve the island. Once on a time the shore ran out to a great 

 rock in the strand, and on its edge stood a weaver's cottage. One clay a man, 

 who had alone escaped from a wreck, landed at the rock. The weaver seized, 

 not his beam, but a heavy stick, and ran out to ask the stranger who he was ; 

 the waif, unable to speak Irish, gave no intelligible reply, so the suspicious 

 and angry weaver struck him with all his strength on the forehead, killing 

 him on the spot. Now, the murdered man was brother to the Pope and 

 the Emperor of Eome, and by some unknown means the news reached them. 

 The Pontiff laid a most severe curse, not only on the murderer, but on the 

 whole island for all time. 2 



Tobeefelamukky (0. S. 85). — The Well of Mary's Feast lies in a marshy 

 field behind the Abbey, to the north, and is in a state of great neglect. It 

 possibly shared the dedication of the Abbey, which was Carmelite, and then 

 Cistercian, and so naturally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Despite its 

 marshy site and the two very wet years on which I visited it, there was no 

 water in it. It is covered by a shapeless heap of slabs ; at 15 feet to the east 

 is an equally shapeless and rude altar only a couple of feet high. On the 

 last are three dedicatory slabs. The first has a cross of the Maltese type 

 with expanded arms, and the words " I.H.S. Pray to | God and the B.V.M," 

 with the date 1701. It is most curious to find this in English rather than 

 Latin — or even Irish, though inscriptions in the native tongue are rare. The 

 next is almost illegible, being filled up and coated with rough white lichen. 

 It reads, so far as I can decipher, " Pray to God this day | and to the 

 Bless | ed Virgin Mary | a.d. 47 Q," and, " in 1790 D. M. Philip ..." A name 



1 Caesar Otway, "Tour in Connaught," p. 2S0. I have collected storing of cures in an article on 

 the Clare Holy Wells in Folk-lore, xxii, p. 20S (part 2). Holy fish are not unknown in the 

 Mediterranean countries, e.g., near Tripoli and in Turkey; also in India, Persia, and China. 



2 Told by E. O'Malley to Dr. C. R. Browne. Proc. It. I. Acad., vol. v, ser. iii, p. 66. The 

 interesting folk-lore of Cliara is given there, pp. G3 to 70. 



