Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/239

 Catalogue of Brand Material.

21 I

" Milk Day " in schools. Scholars made gifts to master or mistress and were treated to curds and cream. Probably Whitsuntide.

Servants hired and houses taken at fixed date in May, nomi- nally Whitsuntide.

LOCALITY,

Kildare.

Louth.

Ibid.

Cavan. Kildare.

(P. H. Ditchfield).

IRELAND. I. Natural Phenomena.

A child born on Whitsunday will

either kill or be killed. (Remedy,

mock-burial or naming after a

saint) - A blow from a Whit-Monday child

is dangerous. Let a fly die in his

hand as a precaution A Whit-Monday foal will be vicious,

unless mock-burial be performed A Whit-Monday calf is passed

through an earthen tunnel Whit-Monday chickens smothered It is unlucky to go near or on water

on Whit-Monday, unless a bride

steers the boat. The drowned ride over the waves

on white horses. - -

Sickness is dangerous. A sick person must not be left alone

or without light for fear of the fairies. Fairies steal young men on Whitsunday.

II. Observances.

House sprinkled with holy water to keep away fairies. Milk-food and bread eaten. Whitsuntide Garland, see Easter.

Children and cattle passed through the fire : blood poured out. Obsolete.

III. Local Observances.

Whit Sunday.

Penance on Holy Island (Scarifi Bay). 280 circuits of the island made, gradu- ally diminishing till they merely walk round the church - - - - Holy Island. Visits to St. Gobinet's Well - Ballyvourney.