Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/309

 Folklore and History in Ircla)id. 299

procession. Then to the Castle, the haunt of the spirit or goblin Button-cap, whose appearance on a cannon heralded any commotion, so he was probably visible on these occasions, as will be evident. At the Castle the Mayor elect was sworn into office, after which, says M'Skimmin, " a bull was fastened to a ring in the market-place, and baited with bull-dogs. In the evening the Mayor gave a banquet, known as the Mayor's Feast, to various members of the Corporation. It was a matter of great pomp up to the nineteenth century. Baiting ceased," he says, "about 1804," but eight years later one " Arthur Chichester gave a bull to be baited, in order to revive that humane sport "- — and the Mayor had to disperse the mob. After the bull- baiting was stopped an animal was still killed on that day, and the flesh given to the poor, each claimant receiving also half a loaf. According to the Statutes of Knockfergus "if anie man doe bye anie horse or beefe after sone sett untill the next daye at 6 of the clock in the morninge, to forfeyte 7s. 8d. to the maior." Moreover, the Mayor as Clerk of the Market had the tongues of all bullocks or cows killed on Friday whose flesh was sold in the market on Saturday.

" In Waterford and other towns," says the author of Sketches in Ireland Sixty Years Ago, " on the election of every mayor, he was surrounded by a mob, who shouted out, ' a rope, a rope, a rope ! ' and the new mayor never failed to grant their demands. A rope two inches in diameter, with a competent leather collar and buckle, had been previously prepared, and was then delivered to the claimants, who bore it away in triumph, and deposited it in the city jail-yard, to remain there till wanted. We have an extract before us from the old corporation books of Waterford dated 1814, October, in which month the slaughtering season commenced : ' Ordered, that a bull- rope be provided at the charge of the city revenue.' Under this sanction the populace assumed the authority of seizing all the bulls, and driving them to the bull-ring to be baited