Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/67

Rh powers. Into this well the bones of the ox were thrown each evening, and every following morning he appeared ready for his daily labour. One evening, however, when nothing but a small part of the eastern gable remained to be finished, one of the workmen, named McMahon, broke one of the shin-bones to get the marrow, and, though every care was taken to collect the splinters, the next morning the ox appeared with his leg broken, and totally incapable of continuing his share of the work. So melancholy a spectacle overcame the patience of the saint, and he prayed that the gable should never fall till it crushed a McMahon. Most part of it, however, is fallen; but enough remains to make every McMahon in the parish dread lest he should be the victim of its final ruin.—(pp. 161-162.)

Those who speak Irish when they would wish strongly to assert any fact use a phrase which signifies in English that to prove what they say they would venture their head into the Theim-orrim. This is said to have been an instrument used by one of the religious establishments of the country partly for the discovery and partly for the punishment of guilt. It was a kind of trap into which the suspected person put his head. If considered innocent, he was suffered to withdraw it in safety; but if guilty, the instrument strangled him or chopped off his head.—(pp. 164-165.)

Among the mountains the country people make use of dwelling-houses in several cases of sickness. These are small hovels partly scooped out of the side of a hill, and finished with rods with a very small entrance. In one of them, when heated like an oven with charred turf, the patient stretches himself upon some straw, and the entrance is closed up. He there lies in a state of violent perspiration, caused by the close heat. This operation is, as usual among the ignorant, considered a sovereign remedy against almost every disorder, but is chiefly used for rheumatic pains.—(p. 165.)

Holywood, county Down.

Amongst their other amusements, the game of shinny, as it is called by some, and common by others, is worthy of note. Common is derived from a Celtic word "com," which signifies "crooked," as it is played with a stick bent at its lower extremity, somewhat like a reaping-hook. The ball, which is struck to and fro, in which the