Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/110

82 to write down in the oldest and most classical dialect of the Celtic tongue.

The front door of the cabin is taken from its hinges and placed on the concrete floor, for the best jig and reel dancers to give an exhibition of their skill. This jollity is kept up till the early hours of the morning.

Rarely do these marriages turn out unsatisfactorily. It is almost an unheard-of thing for a husband to ill-treat his wife, as is unfortunately the case so often amongst the humbler classes elsewhere. There is no nation in which we believe the family ties can be closer. The first thought of those who emigrate to America is to remit money to the old folk in the cabin at home; and as soon as the emigrants have assured comfort, they will also send home passage-money to pay for the emigration of younger brothers and sisters.

In these days of advanced civilisation, it is difficult for strangers to understand the quaint ways of a peasantry so close in proximity and yet so distant in thought from themselves. There is, however, much to admire in the character of these simpler folk, if only for their high standard of morality and their wedded faithfulness to each other.

accompanying note from one of my pupils describes occurrences which have come to his knowledge in his own neighbourhood in Ireland.

i. Andrew Bohan, living in Glenmacnass, County Wicklow, received an injury to his leg which resulted in subsequent amputation at the knee. The doctors who performed the