¢ 
Mooney.] i 292 [Vet 19, 
churn and in preserving the cream from witches, and has also been used 
by burglars in connection with a candle as the ‘“‘hand of glory.’’ A piece 
of the linen sheet used in laying out the corpse wil cure a headache or 
swelling when tied around the affected part, while the wake candles ar 
esteemd for curing burns, and ar also used to singe the hair from the udder 
of a cow before milking her for the first time after calving. Another old 
_belief, found also in England and Scotland, is that blood wil gush from the 
mouth and nose of the corpse of a murderd person when touchd by the 
murderer, either with his hand or with a rod. Suspected persons hav been 
subjected to this ordeal within recent years, and in some districts of the 
west it is even stil regarded as a regular legal procedure. The rod must 
never be cut from a holly tree, as in that case the blood would gush forth 
even tho the holder wer innocent. According to Lady Wilde, a seeming 
corpse, if not quite dead, wil utter a loud cry if touchd by the hand of 
che nearest relativ.* On the spot where a corpse bas lain a peculiar grass 
known as Meur Gortac (faer gurthakh), or ‘‘hungry grass,’’ springs up, 
and any one stepping upon this grass will be seizd with such a sudden 
feeling of weakness and hunger that he wil be unable to leav the spot 
without help. An oaten cake or some oatmeal carried in the pocket coun- 
teracts the evil influence. By some persons, however, a fairy origin is 
ascribed to this grass. 
LracHTaA—THE Future Lire. 
Rude stone heaps or Leachta (l'ydkhtha), erected in memory of the dead, 
ar found in Ireland as wel as in almost every other vart of the globe, this 
form of monument being at once the most ancient and universal, from the 
fact that it is the most simple in construction, while the necessary materials 
ar almost always at hand. The leachta ar most numerous in the extreme 
west and south, where they ar stil built, but ar more or les common all 
over the island. They ar not tombs, but simple memorials of the dead, 
and ar known by the names of the persons whom they commemorate. I 
hav been informd that in Connemara the leachta sometimes cover actual 
graves ; but, if so, this is not in accordance with the general custom with- 
in the Christian period. They ar frequently, and perhaps usually, built 
in memory of some one who has met with a violent death, by murder or 
accident, in which case the monument is erected upon the site of the 
tragedy. They ar also erected by the nearest friends of the deceasd 
wherever the coffin is set down fora moment while on its way to the 
churchyard, the spot chosen being usually at the meeting of two roads. 
It is probable also that they ar sometimes intended to commemorate per- 
sons lost at sea, whose bodies cannot be recoverd for burial. The leacht 
is usually a simple heap of stones of convenient size carelessly thrown to- 
gether, but in some cases the stones of the original structure ar selected 
and piled up with some degree of care, and brightend up from time to 
time with a coat of whitewash, and the whole is surmounted by a cross. 
* Lady Wilde, Ancient Legends of Ireland, i, 154, London, 1887. 
