Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/283

 Some Characteristics of Irish Folklore. 255

in popular recognition. The reason of this error, and it amounts to an error, is that collectors record tales and not customs. The temptation is obvious. But none the less it is to be deplored. The branches of the tree have been hidden by the leaves, or, one might almost say, the flowers. Surely the anthropological value lies as much, or more, in contributory causes and the manner of the telling than in the tale. Yet book after book of tales may be opened wherein no mention is made of the ceilidhs, or gatherings round the fireside on winter evenings when tales are told, and told again. A man will come into a neigh- bour's house, saying, " God save you all " — he may add, " barring the cat ! " If the answer be, " God save you kindly," he sits down among the assembled group. If other answer is given he must go away. In this fashion people pick out some dozen of their friends and make a merry party. If a man wants to prove an alibi, should he get into trouble, he will at once say he was keeping his ceilidh, or " kallying." " I was making me kally." " I was out on me ceilidh."

Another social gathering is known as a j'oiji. At a join the guests either subscribe for a barrel of porter, or each brings his own drink, and they play cards. Somewhat similar, though with more serious import, is a inehil. If some one is ill, or very hard up, his neighbours come for a day's digging, and he supplies them with boxty and drink. Boxty, as made in Cavan, Leitrim, and Fermanagh, is raw, grated potatoes, wrung through a cloth, mixed with flour, boiled first, then stewed and fried. Bullockeen (veal) and boxty are the traditional wedding breakfast in Cavan and Leitrim.^

A section of Irish folklore that deserved better study, and record, and may now be largely irrecoverable, is the herbalist lore of the island, a true native cultural tradi- tion — or traditional culture. If herbal charms and herbal

6 Told me by Miss B. Hunt.