COR 
1888. ] 290 [Mooney. 
round,’’ to some holy place in gratitude for recovery from sickness or for 
some other reason, and should death prevent the performance of the en- 
gagement, some near relativ of the deceasd wil undertake its fulfilment, 
that the soul may not suffer on account of the unredeemd promis. Stolen 
property, no matter how trifling in value, also blocks up the way to par- 
adise. They tel astory in Galway of a young man who appeard to his 
mother soon after death and told her that the only thing that was keeping 
him out of heaven was ‘‘the ful of a stocking of oats’? which he had 
stolen and desired her to return in his name. It is especially unfortunate 
to die without having returnd borrowd salt, as the soul wil be loaded 
down in purgatory with a hundred times the weight of the amount bor- 
rowd until atonement has been made. On this account salt lent to a 
neighbor is generally considerd as a free gift which need not be repaid, 
the giver saying. ‘‘I won’t lend it to you, but if Irun short I’l come to 
you for some.”” When it is considerd as lent, however, the loan must be 
repaid with a greater quantity to make sure. 
The dead often mingle unseen with their former friends, watching over 
them and taking note of their actions. In general ghosts ar regarded with 
dread, but when the spirit is supposd to be that of some dear friend or of 
some sufferer in purgatory the feeling is one of loveand pity. The lights 
sometimes seen at night on the surface of the ocean along the west coast 
ar the spirits of the dead moving about, and the howling of the blast on a 
stormy night is the wailing of the suffering souls wandering to and fro in 
search of shelter, On such nights the children ar told to go to bed and 
make room for them to come in, while the parents sweep the floor and 
arrange seats near the fire for the accommodation of the unseen visitors. 
On November night, or Hallow E’en, the dead all rise from their graves 
and revisit their former haunts, and on this night the houses ar set in 
order and food and water left so that the spirits can help themselvs and be 
merry until daylight reddens in the east. Should any one feel the pres- 
ence of a ghost and call it by its ful name it wil be obliged to make itself 
visible. One must not turn round at night when he hears footsteps follow- 
ing him, as the sound may be caused by a ghost, whose glance would be 
fatal. Neither must one turn back on seeing a ghost, or try to avoid it, 
but go directly up to it and ask it in the name of the Trinity, ‘‘ Who ar 
you and what do you want?” There is along prayer known as the Pas- 
sion Prayer, which releases a soul from purgatory every time it is recited 
on Saturday. 
There is a general belief in the transmigration, not only of souls but 
also of bodies and inanimate objects. For this reason small articles ar 
sometimes buried with the corpse for its greater comfort in the other 
world, and the body which has been deprived of its proper adornment 
through the poverty or meanness of the relativs. wil suffer in the next 
world on account of the neglect. In Hall’s Ireland is an account of a man 
who came into the shop of a merchant in Clonmel, in Tipperary, in order 
to get a suit of clothes for his father. The merchant told him that he 
PROC. AMER. PHILOS. 80C. xxv. 128. 21. PRINTED DEC. 17, 1888. 
