Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/705

Rh the skirt of her dress thrice over the spot in pain and mutter a secret prayer, or charm. A schoolmistress praised a boy without adding a blessing, so he took ill. She was called on to spit thrice on him with a blessing at each act, and, when he was no better, her enemies said she had spat on the blanket, not on the boy. He was accordingly sent to some people at Downpatrick Head, and they cured him by a scapegoat-like charm. Two black hens were taken to a boundary fence, one was killed and one let go; the first was boiled, without being plucked or cleaned, and the broth given to the patient, who recovered. Some suspected that inverted Paternosters were used in some of these cures, but their evident good intention makes it improbable. Capt. Henri at Portacloy had a sick cow which an old weaver Redmond M'Gragh pronounced elf-shot, and claimed to have cured by measuring the cow's length and girth and marking her with the cross. However, he gave her an herbal drink in which three halfpence were boiled, and Henri, who had given her a dose of salts, scolded the girls for bringing in a fairy man, who, however, got all the credit. Near Ballycastle, in Tirawley, it was usual to tie red rags on the horns of cattle to keep off "the Gentry," for if horses or cows ate raw potatoes, or any other hurtful matter, they were supposed to be elf-shot. In north Erris, near Portacloy, a cord was tied on a lamb to protect it from foxes, and, on Cliara, a red line was tied round the waist of a woman in labour and round the wrist of a new-born child to keep off the fairies. A strip of ass-skin is also a valuable amulet in labour cases, or by calling in a ploughman, a seventh son or a known lucky man, to raise and gently shake the patient. After a birth the father used to count and throw nine articles of clothing over the mother on Lettermore.

There are a multitude of small charms for averting various troubles. If a cow is sold on New Year's Day it is supposed to run dry if a few drops of milk are not drawn into the purchaser's boot. Head measuring, to close up the skull in headache, is practised, the measurer doing it twice to show that the head has got smaller. This prevails all along the west coast and