Folklore

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A Folklore Survey of

Thos. J. Westropp

To cite this article: Thos. J. Westropp (1911) A Folklore Survey of County Clare, Folklore, 22:1, 49-60, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1911.9719463

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1911.9719463

Published online: 06 Feb 2012.

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should'n a kept the cheeld so long. Make haste, put on your hat, and take the cheeld down to the old pixy, for if he knaws us be keepin' un yer he'll lead us a pretty dance. You knaws what ticklish little chaps they be." The farmer hastened to put on his hat and wrap up the little child, who by this time was laughing and chirping merrily. The farmer went to the place where he had seen the pixy, found no traces of the little man, and returned home. His wife was very worried, although she cuddled and kissed the little baby, wishing all the time it were her own. Late that evening the farmer again sallied forth with the baby wrapped up warmly, and to his great delight heard again the mournful wail,—" Where's my shilo ? I've lost my shilo I" He called out to the old man, who was quickly at his side, and in his great delight seized the baby and rushed off with it without thanking the farmer. That night with their toast and cider the old couple bemoaned their fate at having kept the child so long, as they feared the pixies would be angry and pay them out But to their great surprise next morning on coming down stairs they found the kitchen fire lit the breakfast ready, and the house swept; and when the farmer went into the yard and fields he found the com threshed, and the work that would have taken him the whole day all finished. And every morning they found that during the night every bit of the work of the farm had been done and of the house; so that they had to hire no labour, grew quite rich, and were happy ever after. W. P. MERRICK. Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016

A FOLKLORE SURVEY OP COUNTY CLARE (continued from vol xxi, p. 487). XL Charms, Amulets, and Magical Rites. Cursing Stones.—In some cases the use of the round stonet generally,—but not by the peasantry,—called "cursing stones" is not for magical purposes, and there is often no belief in their efficacy for good or evil. For example, the rounded stones on D 50 Collectanea.

St, John's altar at Klllonc "Abbey," and those at Kinallia and Ross, appear to be used only as a rude rosary to keep count of the prayers and " rounds " offered at these shrines. At the well and altar lie under old ash-trees at the end of a lake, with the gables and two east windows of the convent showing between the tall trunks (Plate III). On the altar lie, or rather lay, seven of the cake-like concretions found in the shale of the district; on my last visit I only saw five. These stones used to be moved, one at each "round," as the penitent went on the knees along the grassy slope and ended each time by prayer on the altar steps. At the lonely little oratory and cave of St. Colman MacDuach, under the high cliff of Kinallia in Glen- columbcille, we find several of these stones and a flat slab with two parallel shallow (lutings, (each with one end rounded), lying on the altar (Plate IV.). At Ross, near Loop Head, numerous rounded stones from the neighbouring shingte beach lie on the altar in the Saints' church,—one of them hollowed like a shallow saucer. I have seen no religious rites at either of the latter churches, and so can tell nothing of the part played by these objects. church, near Lisdoonvarna, has a primitive altar, carefully built of large rude limestone blocks, in the grave­ yard, and on it lie several of the shale concretions.1 I have seen other examples at Glenquin, Kilcredaun, and elsewhere. The " bad member" of the group is the set of" cursing stones" at , between Killeany and Lisdoonvarna. They lie on a dry-stone wall under an old wind-bent tree at the holy well, adjoining the ruin in the field to the west of the church, and were brought to more than local knowledge some fifteen or sixteen years ago. A farmer was prosecuted by a beggar woman for Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 beating and laming her. He put forward as his defence, (at petty sessions, 1 think, at Corofin), that "she swore to turn the stones of Kilmoon " against him. It was believed that, if a person went fasting to the place and did seven rounds "against the sun," turning each stone in the tame unlucky direction, the mouth of the person against whom the stones were turned would be twisted

1 See Plate V, reproduced here from Plate IX In the JTrtciediHgt eftht Keyal frit A AtaJtmy, Ser. III. vol. vl, by kind permission of the Council of that body. Collectanea. 5*

under his ear, and his face permanently distorted.8 It is said that the magistrate, in consequence of the strong local belief in the possibility of such injury, regarded the farmer's act as one of bona fide self-defence, and advised him to end the grievance by satisfying the damaged would-be practitioner of the black art with a sum of money. Sacrificing black cocks and beasts.—Besides the rites of the "cursing stones," avowedly malignant ceremonies have been performed at two, if not three, places in East Clare. At Carnelly, near Clare Castle, at an unknown period remote even in 1840, "a black cock, without a white feather," was offered to the Devil on the so-called "Druid's altar,"—two fallen pillars near an earthen ring beside the avenue,—to avenge the sacrificer on an enemy, but in this case it brought an equivalent misfortune on the sacrificer himself. The Duchess de Rovigo, an heiress of the last Stamer of Carnelly, used the story, combined with irrelevant family legends and pseudo-archajology, in a poem dated 1839, but I obtained it, as given above, from a more reliable source, her mother, in 187s and 1882, as well as from my brothers and sisters, who heard it in " the forties." When I was at the dolmen near the house at Maryfort in 1869, an old servant, Mrs. Eliza Egan (ne'e Armstrong), said to me,—" Don't play at that bad place where the dhrudes [druids], glory be to God I, offered black cocks to the Devil I" Possibly a legend like that at Carnelly hung round the place at that time, but I found none in later years. The third case, however, admits of no doubt. It occurred in 1879, not very far from the place last mentioned. A "black beast" was cut into quarters and offered at the four corners of a

Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 field to bring ill luck on the owners. It was locally believed to have been offered to Satan, but this was indignantly denied by the reputed offerers of the unhallowed sacrifice. I heard this from many persons in the immediate neighbourhood, (including one member of the family against whom the charm was directed), from 1879 onwards. Local feeling is, or was recently, so strong that I do not publish the names and fuller details in my possession.

•This rite Is referred to by Sir Samuel Ferguson in Lays of the Western Cat!,—"Daily in the mystic ring they turned the maledietive stones," (" Burial of King Cormac "). 52 Collectanea.

Amulets.—Ihtit are very rarely found in Clare, although their religious equivalents are common. An amber bead, used as a charm in childbirth, was long preserved at (Plate VI). It bore in ogham characters " L.M.C.B.D.V.," which, as Prof. R. A. S. Macalister notes,* closely corresponds to an ogham inscription on a stone near Fahan, County Kerry, viz. " L.M.C.B.T.M.," (as T is equivalent to D, and V partially to Mh), (Plate IV). The letters are probably the initials of a formula or prayer like those on religious medals. Dr. G. U. MacNamara appositely quotes from the Homiliti of St Eloi of Limoges, (born circa 588), " let no woman hang amber round her neck... or have recourse either to enchanters... or to engravers of amulets," and "do not tie strings round the necks of women."4 An unbreakable equivalent to the "Luck of Edenhall" has been kept, for time out of mind, by the head of the Westropp family in Munster. On it the preservation of the estates was said to depend, but, as they are now sold, the "luck" must find another field for the exercise of its benevolent tutelage. The legend existed in four distantly-related branches of the family. As told by John Westropp of Lismehane (Clare), before 1780, to the father of one of my informants,* the legend ran much as follows:—" When the first of our family in Ireland went to see the Kilkerin property [on the Shannon in the south-west of Clare], he taw a black bird, [a raven, or crow, or cormorant, in the various versions], rise out of the river with a fish in its mouth, which it dropped and commenced to eat. When Westropp approached it flew away, and, as he saw something shining in the sun, he went to the fish and found a gold ring."* The tale varied as to the bird between the Weslropps of Fortanne (Clare) and those of Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 Cork, and the latter located it only "on the Shannon." The ring, now held by CoL John Massy Westropp of Doonass (Clare), is of plain gold, and probably dates from the earlier part of the seventeenth century, with arms of tocjfturs de tyt forming a cross

* Tkt Trantartient cf tkt Jieyat Iriik Atademy, vol. xxxi, pp. 318-9. * Limerick Htli Clui Jeutnal, vol. il, pp. 319-220. 1 George WesUopp of Quinsborough. •Tart of Kilkerin wu mortgaged to Mounlfort Westropp late in 1671, and t>« teemi to have purchased it before the end of 1672, and owned it in 1674. Plate III. Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016

To face />. 52. Collectanea, 53

with the cadency mark of the mullet, and a wreath, the last relic of the effaced crest. "A famous antiquary in Cork" told my Cither that it was the ring of a Spanish knight, lost in the Armada,—none of whose ships were wrecked within very many miles of Kilkerin,—while the bows of the wreath were the sacred tetragrammaton,—such was local archaeology in 18401 The "raven" version was that most popular, but it was a cormorant that figured in the oldest version recovered by me. Another highly valued gold ring is preserved by the Molony family of Kiltanon. It belonged to an ancestor's brother, a Roman Catholic Bishop of Kilaloe, about 1690, but no supersti­ tion attached to it so far as I could learn from the last generations of the family. I have been told also of a "lucky" flint arrow head, or "thunderbolt," preserved by another family in the north of the county,7 but know nothing of its qualities. It was lately, and I believe is still, the custom at Scattery Island on the lower Shannon for each boat to bring a pebble from St. Senan's grave, or even from the beach. In 1816 a leaf from his "alder" (elder-tree) was equally effectual in pre­ serving from wreck. A "slip" of the mountain ash or a forked hazel twig protects against fairies. A red string round the neck protects a child against fairies and a lamb against fairies and foxes. Wishing.—Thomas Dineley, travelling in Clare in 1680, heard of a stone on Loop Head "whereon if any one turns on his heel and thinks of any one " of the other sex for a mate " he shall never fail of his thought" Many had cut their names, but dared not make the turns, for the stone was balanced at the edge of a fearful

Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 precipice. It seems to have disappeared, but was remembered as "Clough an umphy" even in the middle of the last century.1 At Urlanmore Castle, between and Newmarket-on- 'ThU was told to me In 1885, and I did not note the name. I find a "thunderbolt or head of spear'' named in a Ms. "Journey to Kerry" (1709) In Trinity College, Dublin, and the belief in the fairy origin of such object. Is tutorial in Clare; stone spindle whorls are reputed "fairy querns. ' *VlK*ri*t and Anhtolo&al Association of 54 Collectanea.

Fergus,1 a reputed "wishing seat" remained in 1902, in a side wall of the ruin. There were others in yew-trees at the Turret of Doonass, over the beautiful Salmon Leap of the Shannon, and in the garden of Fortanne near . Whether these originated in the belief of the peasantry or in a conceit of the owners I know not, but their repute dates back before the memory of the living. It was also said in Ennis that a wish made "on the right day" in the cave of Lismulbreeda, a few miles to the south-west of the town near the road, was fulfilled. I could not learn the all-important day. If you wish " reasonably " on seeing a shooting star, before its flash has faded, you will also get your desire. When the new moon is first seen, turn thrice " sunward " (left to right), preferably bowing and spitting at each turn; this brings luck or satisfies the wish specified. A horse-shoe, or piece of iron, when accidentally found, should be thrown with a silent wish over the left shoulder. The wish fails if spoken aloud or if you ice where the iron falls. It is also good to pray, or wish, on eating any vegetable or seeing a flower for the first time in the year, or on the arrival of the swallow or the cuckoo. You will get your wish if you count nine stars for nine successive nights. You should bless (or wish good to) ploughing or other such work, or a person or animal that you praise. " God save all here " was a common salute on entering a cottage, and I have known the formula "except the cat" added to this courtesy. Foundation tacrifica.—Want skulls were buried under the floor or in recesses in the walls of a house. When the drawing-room floor of Edenvalcwncar Ennis was recently taken up, four horse tkulli were found, one in each corner. At Moyreisk, a house of the Vescy Fitrgerald family near Quin, horse skulls were found in Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 recesses in the wall, and the same arrangement occurred at my old home Attyflin, near Limerick, and elsewhere. These burials may probably be regarded,—like the broken querns placed in house foundations at Terry Island in Donegal," and cats built up alive

'Newmarket can be located on the parUh map, (vol. xxi, p. 180), as at KMnasoola, to the east of the Fergus estuary. The local Irish name of the tillage Is now, as In the caity fourteenth century, Corrasoola. '•The main wing was built by George W. Stacpoole circa 1795181a »> Tht VltUr Journal ef Ankaolcgy, O.S. vol. L (1853), p. 14^ Plate IV. Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016

Tt fat* /*. $4- Collectanea. 55

in the walls of houses in Dublin14 and elsewhere,—as substitutes for human sacrifices. That such sacrifices were not unknown to the early Irish seems implied in the startling story of St. Columba's disciple buried as a voluntary sacrifice in the foundations of a new building.1' Burial and skull beliefs.—There are two noted cases of super­ stitious beliefs attached by the pagan Irish to human burials, and Tirechan implies that it was common among the early Irish " quia utuntur gentiles in sepulchri armati, prumptis armis facie ad faciem usque ad diem "Erdath," apud Magos (Druidcs), id est Judicii diem Domini." Laoghaire, the last avowed pagan King of Ireland, followed the teaching of his great father, King Niall of the Nine Hostages, and, when he died in 458, was buried in the south-east side of his (existing) fort, Rath Laoghaire, at Tara, in his armour, holding his spear and with his face turned towards his enemies in Leinster. So also in 537 his kinsman Eoghan Bel was buried in Rath o bh fiachrach, standing upright and holding his spear, and facing the north against Ulster. The Ultonians, believing that the influence of the mighty dead caused their defeats in Connaught, made a raid in great force, exhumed and carried off his body, and buried it face downwards in low ground near Lough Gill14 The finding of human bones, with a skull beneath them, in the rampart of the "Rath of the Synods" at Tara, may imply a similar belief. There is also a Norse example of exhuming, beheading, and burying a chiefs body with the skull underneath, to destroy his posthumous power.18 Another, and more repellent, skull charm is found in Clare, but,

"I have been told by the late Sir T. Drew and by several builders of the Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 discovery of cats' bodies apparently enclosed alive in recesses. 11 In pagan Ireland the custom of burial alive is said to have existed, e.g. Cairbre Niafcr, son of Ross, buried a free hostage alive, (" Dindsenchas," Revue Celtique, vol. xv, pp. 319-20). M For these two cases much information has been collected by O'Donovan in the Genealogies, Tribes, and Custom) ef Ify /•'iackrack, (Irish Archaeological Society, 1S44), and Annotations of Tirechan in the Book ef Armagh,/ 10 a 2 j for Laoghaire see G. Tetrie, Tara Hill, p. 170 (from Leabharna h Uldhre, f 76). "Skeletons were discovered on Iniskea Island laid with their faces down­ wards and with ashes at their feet {Ordnance Survey Letlert, (Co. Mayo), pp. 307-8.) 56 Collectanea.

for obvious reasons, it is hard to get any information. I have noticed on three occasions skulls with nails driven into them. In the last case, at Killone near Ennis, I was told by old people in that district that this was secretly done by persons suffering from chronic headache. There is some belief relating to moss upon skulls which I could not get explained, but I was asked not to pull it off. To take a human bone from a graveyard causes a ghost to follow and disturb you until the bone is replaced in consecrated ground. I heard of a young Englishman carrying off the end joint of a finger bone from Quin Abbey," and being so worried that next day he walked some miles to the nearest graveyard to get rid of it A curious story of a haunting skull, stolen from a Clare graveyard and for many years refusing to be buried, is known to me, but is too long and too little connected with Clare folklore to be told here. Strange to say, despite the deepest regard for the dead, their remains are treated with little respect in most of the graveyards, which display skulls, bones, and literally stacks of coffin planks. Many remember the enormous pile of skulls and bones at Quin "Abbey" before 1878, and lesser piles at Killone, Dromcreehy, Kilmaccreehy, Doora, and ,—at the last church neatly sucked. There is a strong feeling against removing a body from the place of its first burial to one in another parish, and this has led to more than one case of removal and private burial in perhaps the same churchyard. In the case of the Kcane family, who made temporary use of an old vault at until a new burial place was ready, the coffins disappeared, and were long afterwards found buried in the adjoining cemetery with the name plates under them. I remember hearing, at the time of the Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 alleged desecration, the belief expressed that the disappearance was only to prevent removal to another parish. It was firmly believed that sickness and death would come into the other parish with the remains. Cum.—The mud and water in the socket of the cross at Kilvoydan, near Corofin, cure warts, and so does the water in DoughnambraherM "Font," a basin stone near an old "killeen'*

>*/.«. Dabkcuk na m tratAlr, or FrUr'a Vat See sketch by Miss G. C Suqxxile In Mate IV. KI I.I.KAN Y CHURCH, CO. CLARE.

Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 (Al.'IAK WITH KoUNI) SKINK.S TO KlOHT.)

Tt fiut p. 56. Collectanea. 57

graveyard1T in parish. The basin is half filled with round pebbles, but I could not discover whether they played any part in the cure. Other wart cures are effected by the milk of the "Seven Sisters** plant1* applied seven times with prayers, or by rubbing a wedding ring or a stolen scrap of meat three times round each wart in the name of each Person of the Trinity. In the meat cure the piece was afterwards buried, and, as it decayed, the wart disappeared. People at Fortanne near Tulla used to try to cure the whooping cough by bringing the child to running water, putting a frog held by its hind legs three times into the child's mouth, and then letting the creature swim away uninjured, taking the disease with it1' Near Corofin the favourite cures for this illness were to pass the child under an ass, or to give the sufferer any food or cure pre­ scribed by a man on a white horse when met accidentally, or to give the patient the " leavings of a ferret," i.e. food left uneaten by that animal10 A posthumous seventh son has marvellous gifts of healing; near Tulla he can cure a swelled or sore throat by blowing down it*1 I was told also that he can aid a woman in childbirth by shaking her gently in his arms, but, as this was told in reply to a leading question (contrary to my custom), I give it with reserve.** "Head-measuring" to "close the skull" and cure headache was found by Dr. MacNamara in use near Corofin. I never heard of it, but certainly much still remains to be discovered in the county. Toothache was cured by holding to the face the once removable head of Christ carved on the then prostrate cross of Dysert

Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 O'Dea.** I was also told, but on uncertain authority, that a

" One at the site of a destroyed and forgotten church. "The spurge, the small variety of which is called the "Five Sisters" In Co. limerick, but not, I believe, In Co. Clare. "So Mrs. Connors at Fortanne. "So Dr. G. MacNamara. u So Mrs. O'Callaghan and Margaret Molony. «• I mentioned the cure used In the old tale of " Rose Moan," and was told It prevailed In Clare, but have never had the statement confirmed. " A fine high cross of probably late In the eleventh century. Three of Its panels are shown In Plate XIV, vol. asi., p. 340. 58 Collectanea,

charm for toothache was to rub the gum with a human fingerbone. At Lough Eenagh, in the same parish, people used to pick and chew the bark of an ancient hawthorn bush at a holy well as a cure for toothache. Cattle cures at Loughs Eenagh and Fergus will be given later. The water of the seven streams of Tecskagh, a wild glen in the heart of the terraced limestone hills in the north-west corner of parish, cures all sickness (nausea), indigestion, and stomach complaints; it first cured the famous Glasgeivnagh cow." In the same district difficult childbirth could be aided by hanging on the sufferer's bed the clothing of a man whose wife was reputed to have been unfaithful to him. Prophylactics.—It is lucky to kill a bird or an animal on St Martin's Eve," and near Bodyke in Kilnoe parish some of the blood of a hen was put on the four corners of a house, and the rest mopped up by a rag and hidden in the rafters. Holy water and "quickbean" slips are sprinkled and set in potato drills in that parish, but secretly, or they lose their efhcacy.M In Kilnaboy and other parishes near Corofin, meal used to be tied up in a corner of an infant's clothes for luck when it was taken to baptism. A patch of untilled land was left untouched when an old- established grass field was ploughed in parish. A small sheaf is sometimes left in the corner of a field in the Tulla district at an offering to St Brigit. This is to improve the crop, but tnuit be done with care, as in one case a hazel stick was put into such a sheaf to " take" the butter of the owner of the crop. A family relic of Dr. G. MacNamara is a small wooden image of the infant Saviour, which prevents the house where it is kept from taking fire, and extinguishes fire when Hung into another Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 house, even when the latter is burning fiercely. This recalls St Dcclan's crozicr, which put out the fire of a burning "fort"

M So commonly told by the older folk at Tullycoramaun. •See MS. Kawlinson, D Jll.f loS.ba. St. Martin conferred the tonsure on St. Patrick, in recognition of which the latter gave him a pig for every monk on the eve of his feast. The origin of the Michaelmas sheep and Michael's portion in Ireland is given similarly by the Rev. G. Keating in hi* Miliary «f Inland (middle of seventeenth century), Ilk. ii. sec it. "So the Molony family of Coolrcagh lownland. Plate VI. Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 Collectanea. 59

near his church of Ardmore.87 The most usual preventative all over Clare is, however, to plant house-leek on a gable or hole in the wall or thatch of a house. The very strange and unusual custom prevailed of sailing a new boat round the Sacred Isle of Iniscatha " in a course opposite to the sun." At Inisglora ships used to lower their topsails to St. Brendan, while in Aran the sails are dipped in honour of St Gregory, opposite his reputed tomb, a dry-stone turret on the shore of Gregory's Sound Roderic O'Flaherty, in t686, tells of a similar observance by boats passing between Mason Head and Cruach MacDara on the northern shore of Galway Bay, and of the melancholy fate of a captain who neglected this act of homage to St Sinnach MacDara in 167a.88 The unpleasant custom of spitting on a child, or a new suit of clothes, "for luck," was still practised some thirty years ago, if not now, and a pinch was equally lucky for the wearer of the new suit Various protective phrases are in common use, even amongst •ome of the gentry. "God bless us" and "Glory be to God" are used without the least sense of unfitness when telling of some horrible crime or accident "Good hour be it spoken," "Good word be it spoken," "The Lord be with us" (or "about us"), and these phrases with the names of the Virgin or the Saints inserted, arc used in telling of any ghastly or uncanny thing or being, after a presumptuous or profane speech, or after praising a person or aninuL (The local taints, save Senan and Patrick, are rarely men­ tioned nowadays.) "My Christmas box on you" and "My Patrick's pot on you " are of a different class, being merely hints

Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 for a present or a drink. Miscellaneous charms.—Seven hairs were knotted in the mane of a horse or the tail of a cow to protect against fairies. If the

»" VlU S. Dcgknl- (13th cent), Btllandutt' Tome V, ondei July 14. "A long lut or these beliefs can be collected from lfely Dutton'i Statistical Survey */ lie (Uunty Clart (1S08), p. 306, the excellent letter of 1816 on Kilrosh Parish by «™»'e. Re*. Jas. Graham, in Mason's Panxkiat Survey, vol U, p. 4JJ. *nd S.F. (Samuel Ferguson) In Dublin University Mapstine, roL xviiL (1816), pp. 547.9. I heard many of the beliefs in 1875 and 1878 from the fishermena t Scatter/ and . 6o Collectanea.

corpse of a drowned person cannot be found, a sheaf of straw is blessed and thrown into the stream, and is expected to follow every move of the body and stop over its resting-place. (It was tried successfully in 1894 near Ennis.)*9 To bathe in the waters of the Shannon confers the gift of impudence,*0—an idea which there seems much to justify. THOS. J. WESTROPP.

(To bt continued.)

Firrv HAUSA FOLK-TALES (continued).

31. The City of Women. (B. G.)

This is about a certain bachelor. He had no wife. So he went and made a farm. Then a certain Tortoise came, and said, "0, farm of the bachelor, rise up in disorder 1" When the bachelor came and saw, he said,—" Oh, who is doing this to me?" Then he said,—"Very well, I shall wait, so that I may see who is making my farm disordered." When he had finished farming, he hid at the edge of the bush and waited. On the arrival of the Tortoise, he (Tortoise) said,—"O, farm of the bachelor, rise up in disorder I" So the farm became disordered. Then the bachelor came and took a hoe and beat him on the back. But the Tortoise said,—" Oh, bachelor, leave me, leave me. I will give you a wife." Then he said,—" Now, go, bachelor, make a bundle of stalks." Then, when he had made a bundle, Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 19:10 07 June 2016 he said,—" Here it is, I have done iL" He (Tortoise) said,— "Very well, get inside, I will carry you," so said the Tortoise. So he said,—" Very well." The Tortoise carried him to a certain town, where (there were) only women; there was not even one man. When the Tortoise had brought him to the town where there were no men, he said,—" Listen to (see) the crying." Then he undid the bundle. When the poorer women saw the roan, they

MSo Dr. G. U. MacNsmara. *•Dublin Univtrtitj Atagatine, vol. *viL (1841), p. 36a