be 
1888. ] 27 ‘ [Mooney. 
verse like a psalm in gibberish Irish and bade the people say it after him. 
It ran like this, being translated : 
Yellow Macauly has come from Spain, 
He brought sweet music out of a bag, 
Singing See-saw, Sulla Vick Dhau, 
Sulla, Sulla Vick Dhau righ.* 
“Tf any one failed to repeat this verse after him he was ordered to prison 
by the judges, and the guards seized him to cut off his head ; or if any 
one laughed the judge sentenced him, saying in Irish, ‘Seize that man, he 
is a pagan ; he is mocking the Christian faith. Let him die!’ ’’} 
Another of these dramatic performances, which seems also to be un- 
known at present, is thus described by the same author: ‘‘The Hiero- 
phant (sic) or teacher of the games, orders all the men out of the room ; 
a young girl is then dressed with a hide thrown over her and horns on her 
head, to simulate a cow, while her maidens form a circle and slowly dance 
round her to music, on which a loud knocking is heard at the door. ‘Who 
wants to enter?’ asks the Hierophant. He is answered, ‘The guards de- 
mand admittance for the bull who is without.’ Admittance is refused, and 
the maidens and the cow affect great alarm. Still the knocking goes on, 
and finally the door is burst open and the bull enters. He is also robed 
with a hide and wears horns, and is surrounded by a band of young men 
as his guards. He endeavors to seize the cow, who is defended by her 
maidens, forming the dramatic incidents of the play. A general mock 
fight now takes place between the guards and the maidens, and the scene 
ends with uproarious hilarity and the capture of the cow.’’t 
The modern games ar generally simple tests of endurance or agility, 
rough practical jokes perpetrated upon innocent victims or courting games 
resembling “‘forfeits.’’ It is a common thing for some activ young fellow 
to open the proceedings by jumping up, throwing off his coat and climb- 
ing hand over hand along the rafter to the highest point of the roof and 
down to the wall on the other side in the same way. This is at once 
accepted as a challenge by every athletic young man present and for a 
few minutes they ar swarming along the rafters like so many monkeys. 
Then come tests of endurance, in which the young men of two parishes 
or townlands ar generally ranged against each other. In one of these 
known as Broigin (Brogeen), ‘‘The Slipper,’’? one man kneels down with 
his open hand held out in front of him, while another stands over him 
with a short piece of rope or a knotted handkerchief, which is sometimes 
dipd in water so as to giv a more stinging blow. Bracing himself firmly, 
he brings the rope down with all his force on the open palm of the kneeler, 
who endeavors to grasp it as it strikes him, and must endure the blows 
until he succeeds, when it is his turn to inflict the same punishment upon 
some one of the opposite party. This is the play describd by Carleton 
* Properly (Genitive case), Solomon, Mic Ddib‘i rig’; ‘‘ Solomon, son of King David.” 
+Lady Wilde, Ancient Legends of Ireland, i, 229-231, London, 1887. 
tIdem, 233. 
