Clare Island Survey — History and Archaeology. 2 46 



with an earthen fort ; but I did not find that the promontory forts on Achillbeg 

 or Cliara were so regarded. It is also thought unlucky to move into a new 

 house ; but if it becomes necessary, some of the danger may be forestalled by 

 moving on Monday eastward and on Tuesday westward. The fairy legends 

 of Inishturk are reserved for the section on that Island. 



In the southern islands — Bofin and Shark — people avoid mentioning a 

 priest or a fox 1 while fishing. This belief as to the fox prevails all down the 

 coast despite the fact that the creature's saintly namesake, Sinnach mac Dara, 

 is a deeply reverenced patron on Galway Bay. It is most unlucky to praise a 

 child without adding the prophylactic, " God bless it," for should illness 

 ensue, even some time after the praise, the people would certainly attribute it 

 to the evil eye. 2 Another preventive is by signing the cross in the name of 

 the Trinity. One old woman, in 1893, living on Bofin, was reputed to have 

 this terrible gift of the evil eye, injuring by it both her neighbours and_ 

 their domestic animals ; and Lady Wilde records a case on Inishark. 



One peculiar belief is that if one buys a cow at the New Year without 

 putting some of her milk in one's boots, she is sure to " run dry." 



The people on Bofin believe firmly in fairies ; nay, one man has seen 

 crowds of female elves clad in brown, while others have seen a number of 

 little men in green, with two leaders in black. It is usual to spit on children 

 to charm them from fairies. The " Fir dearg " and the Banshee, but 

 apparently not the Leprechaun and the Puca, are believed in as common 

 phenomena in these islands. Lastly, if a fairy changeling is left at a house, the 

 only efficient way to get rid of it and to recover the real child is to set a pot to 

 boil and to threaten to put the unwelcome substitute into it, when it will 

 vanish, and the lost child be restored to the family. 3 



3. INISHTURK. (Plates VII-VIII.) 



Inishturk has been allotted to the parish of Kilgeever, 4 and the barony of 

 Murrisk, in Co. Mayo, opposite to which it lies, about 7 miles from the nearest 

 shore. The name obviously means Boar Island ; but it seems improbable that 

 so formidable an animal was found in an island so far divided from the rest 

 of the world, unless he emulated the swimming powers of the Welsh boar, 



1 Knitting mittens for foxes and uttering praises to conciliate them were in use in more northern 

 Mayo in 1839— Otway, "Erris,"p. 145. 



2 Otway describes a case of reputed evil eye near Rossport (" Erris," p. 3S0). 



3 Dr. Browne, Proc. P. I. A., series iii, vols, iii, iv, v ; Professor A. C. Haddon in " Folk-lore," 

 vol. iv, p. 49 ; Lady Wilde, " Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland," 1890 ; "Ancient 

 Legends, ilystic Charms, &c," 1887; and Otwny's " Tour in Connaught," 1839. 



1 Called in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary, Gilgavower and Kilgavower. 



