Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/315



the wildest and least studied section of the wild western coasts of Ireland, the very fringe of the ancient world, is the shores and islands of the counties of Mayo and Galway Even at the close of the last century one found districts evidently but little altered from the time when, two centuries before, they had been described by the "chorographer," Roderic O'Flaherty, in his Hiar Connacht. I myself have photographed the "Cashlain Flaineen," the charm intended to lure the shoals of fish within the nets, and have put turf on the Beltane fire; have seen the canvas "curragh" left adrift by poor people "because it drowned a boy," and the pipes left on the graves as an offering to the dead. I have seen the mirage of the lost islands, and heard the reputed wailing of the spirits of those lost at sea. But the old order changeth; already schools and newspapers are at work, and soon the rites which were done and talked about without hesitation may be only done furtively and concealed from enquirers.

The old beliefs are getting forgotten by the older and despised by the younger people, and much must be lost when the old peasantry die. The work done by me had been better done by dwellers on that wild coast; but few indeed show interest in such a pursuit, and the old Ireland is passing away for ever, more and more speedily. I may therefore give the notes that I have collected, supplemented by those of my friends, and not excluding what I have reason to believe is genuine in the note