Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/169

 Remains at Innmurray. \ 6 1

by the Iif>ard of Works show neither special ;ircYr.i:fAoy/icn\ knowle(l;^c nor sentiment, and yet excavations and re- searches have been made without quah'fied archatolo^ical supervision in a very important rlistrict in the JJin^le pro- montory, ajifjarcntly with money intended for other purposes, and now it is proposed to meddle with one of the most sacred sites in the British Islands! The exploration of the Hill of Tara is a matter of national importance, and should be attempted only by experts.

To return to Mr. Wakcman's book. 'i"hc arch;i;ologist will find the wonderful ^roup of remains in this lonely island described with care and delineated with accuracy. There are numerous allusions to customs which will interest the folk-lorist, as, for instance, the rounded stones f'" cursing" or " swearing" stonesj on certain altars, which, when thrice turned widdcrshin.s, locsc a curse at each revolution, but the curses come home to roost should the accused be innocent ; and the use of the two holed-stones. " Women who expect shortly to become mothers are wont hither to resort, for the purpose of praying; for a happy issue from the perils of their impending travail. The natives assert that death in childbirth is an unknown calamity upon the island. The postulants kneel, passing their thumbs into the front, and their fingers into the side openings, by which means a firm grasp of the angles of the stone is obtained. They are thus enabled to rise from their act of oVx:isancc with a minimum of strain or difficulty" ''p. yyj. Toberna- coragh, "the Well of Assistance", was drained of its water, which was poured into the sea with the offering of prayers when the weather was too tempestuous. In the original paper Mr. Wakeman was the first to draw attention to the old Irish hot-air bath, or sweat-house, of which there is an example here. There is one cemetery for the men and another for the women. " It is universally believed by the islanders that if a woman be buried in the men's ground the corpse will be removed during the night by unseen hands to the v/omen's cemetery, and vice versd."

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