Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/401

Rh —The solution of the problem ignores polygamy, but sanctions marriage by consent of parties without knowledge of parents. It declares the severance of the marital bond by the performance of funeral rites, and the right of the preserver to the life of the preserved. It also declares that when a person might have protected one whom he was bound to protect and failed to do so all claim to that person was lost. It seems also to point out that funeral rites may be performed by means of water as well as by fire or earth.

Legends from Co. Meath.—(a) In a little round room in the moat of Diamor are nine kegs of gold guarded against all comers by a black dog as large as a calf, which has a white spot on its side. Whoever intends to get the gold must first kill the dog by giving it three stabs with a knife in the white spot.

The man who told this yarn declares that when the Danes—to whom everything of an uncanny nature is attributed—left the country they hid huge quantities of gold, which is still guarded by dogs and cats.

(b) A man who lived near Lough Sheelin, finding that something was eating his corn every night, sat up to see what it was. After some time, to his astonishment a number of horses came up out of the lake, driven by a most beautiful woman. So impressed was the man by this mermaid's beauty that he seized her in his arms and carried her to his house. Before very long he induced her to marry him, she making the stipulation that she was never to be allowed to see the lake again. For over twenty years they lived most happily together, and had several children. At last one day when the men were hay-making the mother strolled out to look at them and saw the distant