2 44 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



boring their ears and passing a goatskin thong through one. There are also 

 traditional child-birth charms in high repute. A child with the whooping- 

 cough was passed three times under a she-ass and a drop of ass's milk 

 sprinkled on it in the name of the Trinity. 



Opposite these islands beliefs are abundant, including belief that stumbling 

 over a grave foretells death in a year (certainly not verified in the case of 

 antiquaries). The flint arrow-head is a fairy dart, but it also cures cattle struck 

 by it if passed three times over and under the animal with proper incantations. 

 There are fairies of the air, sea, and earth. One man danced to " the music of 

 their sweet pipings," and died within a year. 1 The hearth should be swept 

 clean, and new fire put down for their use at night. Ghosts of persons, 

 dogs, 8 and a white cow have their place in local belief. The ghostly cow com- 

 memorated in the name of Inishbofin was turned into a rock by a witch ; and 

 water-horses inhabit the lakes, and try to tempt the unwary to ride, and then 

 drown them like Sioda M'Xamara's water-horse in County Clare. 3 The devil 

 is feared as an agent of mischief as well as of sin ; he even appeared to a 

 woman in chapel and told her he did it because people were so careless there. 

 Cases of demoniacal possession are remembered traditionally ; protective 

 straw crosses are placed in the roof of a house on All Hallows' Eve ; a very 

 solemn oath with one hand on a skull 4 used formerly to be taken in the 

 Ballycroy district. 



A much-dreaded rite, at least in 1839, near Louisburgh, was turning " the 

 stone of Duan McShaun." 5 One of the magically endowed craft of the black- 

 smith was said to have been overmatched in cursing by a man (whom he had 

 prosecuted for stealing cabbages) who turned the stone against him so that he 

 died. 6 Another man turned it against the parish clerk and the window of 

 Louisburgh church was blown in ; and lastly, the great wind of January 6th, 

 1838, was supposed to have been caused by a malignant old woman turning 

 the Leae. 7 



It is very unlucky to dig a grave on a Monday, to take a tobacco pipe off a 

 grave, to build an addition to the west side of a house, or any addition if the 

 house is built at a haunt of fairies. It is, of course, most unlucky to meddle 



1 Proc. E. I. A., vol. iv, ser. iii, p. 104. 



2 I bave heard of ghost dogs near Beluiullet, Bangor, and Portaeloy ; for similar beliefs see 

 " Folk-love," xxi, p. 482. For cow ghosts, see Otway, " Erris," p. 34. 



3 "Folk-lore," xxi, p. 486. 



4 Proc, vol. iv, ser. iii, p. 105 ; Otway's " Tour in Connaught," p. 237 n. 



5 " Tour in Connaught," p. 295. 



6 For a malignant turning of stones at Kilmoon, Co. Clare, see " Folk-lore," vol. xxi, p. 49. 



' ''Tour in Connaught," p. 296. A similar belief prevailed in Inismurray; Hill, a man who 

 turned the flag, was drowned; and the counter-belief sprang up that whoever got bis wish from the 

 stone never got an answer to a prayer to Heaven. 



