Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/264

 256 each side, who hand the tongs from one to the other. Then the cow is given a physic made of the scraping from nine pots (either common pots or kettles will do), with a little gunpowder. A cow that was so treated got back her milk in six weeks—a positive proof of the efficiency of the cure.

In Donegal women have what they call "heart-fever," or a sort of "alloverness." Wise women are able to cure it by "measuring." They measure round the body over the heart with a green string.

A witch or "blinker" in general is a woman. In Donegal they do not appear to be as cute as those of the co. Wexford; as the latter, if they injure their neighbour, benefit themselves, while in Donegal they act solely for malice, without the least gain to themselves. Not long ago in the co. Donegal there was a famous blinker called "Mag." Nothing could pass her; everything she looked on came to grief, and, in some cases at least, nearly instantaneously. A man and his pair of horses were returning from ploughing; he had to pass Mag's door; she happened to come out as he did so, and one of the horses dropped down dead. A neighbour had two fat pigs; they did their best to keep Mag from seeing them; she came, however, one day, and the next, one was dead. She was death on chickens, ducklings, and goslings; if Mag saw them when they first came out they never thrived.

ST. BRIGID'S WELL.

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Not far from the picturesque little village of Stranorlar, renowned as the last resting-place of Isaac Butt, the founder of the Home Rule movement, lies a calm, placid sheet of water known to the peasantry as Loch Lawne. In its southern side, about three feet from the pebbly shore, is the famous Well of St. Brigid, surrounded by a mound of small white stones brought from almost every part of Ulster, and surmounted by pieces of linen, sticks, and crutches left by those who had the happiness of being cured by its healing waters. It has long been considered a pious custom for the pilgrim, on his first visit, to place three white stones on the ever-increasing mound.