Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/193

 Further Notes from County Leitrim, 185

walked, an old woman in the field hard by was gathering the dew from the long grass into her hands, saying, " Come all to me, come all to me, come all to me." Without knowing he did so, the priest said, " And half to me, and half to me, and half to me." He thought no more of the matter until he got home, when he was told that the morning's churn had given three times the usual quantity of butter. By-and-bye the neighbours came complaining to him that not a bit of butter could any of them get. The good man expressed his sorrow, but said he was at a loss to know how he could help them. Then one old man reminded him that it was May morning, and that the witches could take butter that day by gather- ing the dew-drops from the long grass. " Ah !" said the priest, " now I remember when I was out early this morn- ing I saw an old woman sweeping the dew into her hands, and saying, ' Come all to me,' and now I remember I said ' And half to me, and half to me.' "

So he divided that morning's churning as far as it would go, and they sent to the house of the old witch, who had nothing but an old billy-goat, and found three tubs of freshly churned butter there ; so that, with what the priest gave them, just made up what was wanting, and it was a merry May Day they spent that day anyway. (Ann Whelan, Driny.)

Of the means adopted to take butter, information is naturally scanty. A prelude to the operations is said to be to pull down a little of the thatch over the door of the house selected. A more curious and gruesome idea is that a hand taken from a person newly buried has this power. The story runs, that a woman in Ballinamore was suspected of this, and watch having been made, she was discovered dipping the hand in the churn, saying, " Gather far and near, gather far and near."^

Another plan was discovered by a man who was return-

^ Lady Wilde notes this idea, and has a story entitled " The Dead Hand" in her Legends.