Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/417

 Misce llanea. 381

This legend is of some interest philologically, as it indicates that Wednesday (Di-ciadain) was the day of the first fast. Thurs- day (Diar-daoin) the day after the fast. Friday (Di-h-aoine) the fast-day. The legend clearly shows that these days of the week derived their names from "aoin" (a fast), and that these fast- days were considered so sacred that the first woman who ventured to comb her hair on a Wednesday was believed to have been punished with sterility for her profanity. (I was acquainted with some people in my young days who would not comb their hair on Sunday.) This view is strongly corroborated by a Lewis proverb : " O aoin gu h-an-aoin," i.e. " From the calmness of sacred fast to the most admired disorder." It was considered unlucky to marry on Friday, and even at the present day Thursday is the day usually selected for " tying the nuptial knot." In reading the Apostolical Constitution a few months ago I discovered that Wednesday and Friday were held as sacred fast-days, as the sub- joined note shows :

" Wednesday and Friday Fasts. — The reason for fasting on the days specified is given in the Apostolical Constitution thus : because on the fourth day judgment went forth against the Lord, Judas then promising his betrayal for money, and on the prepara- tion {fast), because the Lord suffered on that day the death of the cross." {The Church of the Sub- Apostolic Age, by Professor Heron, p. 185.)

// — Slthichean Cnoc-mor Ar?wl. (The Fairies of the big Knoll of Arnol.) Arnol, parish of Barvas, Lewis.

The fairies of the Cnoc-mbr and the family who lived in the immediate neighbourhood of the " Bruth " (dwelling of fairies) were on such good terms as neighbours that the same " coire " (boiler) did duty for both establishments. The " coire," however, was not the property of the fairies, but of the family of the Adamic race. When the fairies got the use of the "coire" in loan it was a sine qua non to their returning it safely at the ap- pointed time, that the person who handed it to them said as he did so : " Dleasaidh coire cneimh, 'us a chur slan d'a thigh " ("A boiler merits a bone and returning it safely home "). Things went on thus pleasantly and neighbourly enough between the " Bruth" dwellers and the family for some time. One day, however, as the