Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/222

 2 14 A. W. Moore.

well as on the last night of the year, ivy leaves marked with the names of a family were put into water, and if one of the leaves withered, it was supposed that the person whose name was on it would die before the end of the year,^ Of similar significance, as regards the powers of water, was the use of it in a bowl for the purposes of divination by a notorious witch, who prophesied that the herring fleet would never return.- As the prophecy came true, the witch was put to death in the usual manner by being rolled down the steep side of Slieauwhallian in a spiked barrel.^ By the use of w^ater, too, it was supposed to be possible to divine who was a witch, and who was not, as the witch would float, while she who had been falsely accused of practising witchcraft would sink.* Not only could water detect a witch, but it had also the quite dis- tinct function of contributing to the making of a witch, as will be seen from the annexed story, told to my informant by a man still living, who said that he had it from the victim herself about the year 1875, when she was an old woman : —

An old crone, who had practised witchcraft and charms during a great part of her life, had grown very feeble, and so, being wishful to endow her daughter with her magical knowledge, made her go through the following perform- ance. A white sheet was laid on the floor, and beside it was placed a tub of clean water. The girl was made to undress and go into the water, and, after thoroughly washing herself, to get out and wrap herself in the sheet. While she stood in the sheet she had to repeat after her mother a number of words, the exact nature of which, as she was in an abject state of terror, she had forgotten, only remarking that their general purport was that she swore to give up all belief in the Almighty's power, and to trust in that of the Evil One instead. The mother died

1 Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man, pp. 125 and 140.

' Notes and Queries, No. 341, 1852.

3 Folk- Lore of the Isle of Man, p. 80. "^ Ibid.