Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/218



HE traditionary story of O'Cahan's possessions (a family who rose into consequence when the O'Connors became obscure) is this: The chief O'Neal granted to O'Cahan, as a reward for some important service (Go rasir capell ciar), "as far as your brown horse can run in one day." This he accepted, and took a direct line eastward from Bum Tollaght, in the parish of Comber, to the river Bann, including the whole of that fertile district which lies between the mountain and the sea. The fishery of the Bann was also a part of this possession; and to accommodate him in drawing his nets a certain tribute of salt for the use of the castle of Grianan Oiligh was taken in exchange for as much land as an oxhide would enclose; this, aided by the old Carthaginian device of cutting the hide into small thongs (an hereditary artifice, no doubt), extended his territory considerably beyond the river. In Camden's description of the county of Coleraine (Gibson's Camden, folio 1018) we have the following: "The Cahans were of greatest authority in these parts, the chief O'Cahan  being the person who (in the barbarous election of O'Neal, performed with barbarous ceremony on a high hill in the open air) has the honourable office of throwing a shoe over the head of the O'Neal then chosen." Throwing a shoe after a person setting out on a journey or other enterprise is still considered by the common people as lucky and conducive to success.—(Vol. i. pp. 321-322.)

At the baptising of Ossian the office was performed by St. Patrick, who, being of a great age at the time, walked with a pole which had in the end a long sharp point of iron to secure his steps. Whilst in