Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/306

 296 Folklore and History in Irelafid.

of the clergy ; may a north wind blow him to the south, and a west wind blow him to the east ! May he have a dark night — a lee shore — a rank storm- — and a leaky vessel to carry him over the river Styx 1 May the dog Cerberus make a meal of his rump and Pluto a snuff-box of his scull ! and may the devil jump down his throat with a red hot harrow, with every pin tear out a gut, and blow him with a clean carcase to hell ! Amen ! "

According to Charles Kingsley the Irish conception of a Saint was an individual wdth great cursing powers. The gift has not died out of our land.

Those were the days when an Orange Corporation had the pedestal of King William's equestrian statue in College Green painted orange and blue, and decked it annually on the anniversary of the Boyne with orange lilies and ribbon, while a bow of green was placed beneath the uplifted foot of the horse.

Drinking was not confined to one city or faction, it would appear to have been a regular municipal accom- plishment, nor is it one peculiar to Ireland. Among the old city records of Waterford is this naive entry :

It was decreed by the Mayor and Council in 1496 that " whensoever it shall fortune any of the VI Sondayes of the Lenten in which, by the old and laudable custome of the citie the drinking is holde and kepte, to fall voide by the death of any person, or otherwise, than of the Maire for the tyme being, have none of the same drynking dayes the Council shall assyne the same day to the Maire," and in 1503 it was added that no one should be allowed to come to these Sunday " drinkings " except members of the Council. At Dingle, an old writer quoted in the Kilkenny Archaelogical Society's Transactions, describes how, " Upon the Sunday the Sovereign cometh into the Church with his Serjeant before him, and the Sheriffs and others of the Towne accompany him, and then they kneele downe every man by himself privately to make his prayers. After this