Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/373

 Folk-faUs from Ucsfeni Jj'claud. 341

he had never seen before, till they reached a house where there was going to be a wedding. The king and his men took him into a loft, where they could look through a hole and see the wedding party. The bride was crossing into another room when she sneezed twice, and her friends said nothing. Then she sneezed again, and Anthony cried out, " God bless you !" And the king and his companions were off in a minute. The people of the house heard him groan- ing, and thought he was a robber, and were going to send for the police. He told them he was not a robber, and that he was afraid they would not believe him if he told them how he came there. After a while they did believe his story, and he stayed with them a week. They drove him home in a carriage, and they were two days on the journey. He was put down at Ballymiles Bridge, and walked from there to his home. His wife and his neighbours thought he had gone to England ; and his wife had gone to a cousin near Kiltymagh looking for him, and to Meelich to her friends there. I asked him if he had read or dreamt this story. And he said, " I did neither read or dream it. I saw the king and rode with him. It is as true as the Gospel the priest read on Sunday."

Charms in Childbed.

I have heard of a woman who was very ill at the time one of her babies was born, l^efore it was born, the woman who attended her took a handkerchief that belonged to the woman's husband, who was in England, and put it round her. I have also heard of women who put on their husband's waistcoats on such occasions.

L. M'Manus.