Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/268

 260 hare, or rabbit, that they never so much as mention their names themselves nor endure even to hear them named by others. If a fisherman of Claddagh happened to see one of these animals or hear its name mentioned he would not on that day venture to sea: and the cause of this strange superstition they neither know themselves nor can any one else account for it." A butcher of Galway is said to have taken advantage of it, and had a fox carried through Claddagh every Friday, thus preventing the men going to sea that day, and thereby kept up the price of meat on the Saturday market.

If you want a fair wind bury a cat to its neck in the sand on the sea-shore, turning its face to the point from which the adverse wind blows, and leave it there to die. Or, erect a pile of stones on the shore, bearing a resemblance to one of the goblins, and expect a fair wind in return; but this is a serious affair, and never can be done by the same individual twice.—Hardiman's Notes to O'Flaherty's History.

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Wells dedicated to saints are held in great veneration, and patrons are held at them on their saint day. Some are good for the eyes, some for sores, and some for various ailments, even for sterile women and cattle. St. Patrick's. Well, in Maumean, cures murrain in cattle, while a well on Bendouglas or Benlettery makes a person's head hoar if they wash in it. Some are evidently pre-Christian: one on Cashla Bay has a large conical mound or kitchen-midden, over fifty feet high, made up of sea-shells; as part of the obligation is to live on shell-fish while attending the patron—which are cooked on the top of the mound.

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called soigheds, or "fairy darts," are used by the "good people," and any one that is "fairy struck" has been hit with one of them. If you find one, either on the ground or in the tillage, you should not bring it into the house, or bury it, or throw it away, but you should