Some Characteristics of Irish Folklore. 265
scenes of their earthly life. Sacrifices were made to them on All Souls' Day. Blood must be spilt.-^ Sacrifice and blood-spilling are particularly observed on Martinmas Eve, which has its own prohibitions. To this day in Co. Mayo a chicken should be killed and its blood offered to St. Martin on his Eve, but, "no one would think of killing any kind of feathered thing on St. Martin's Day.-^
The Christmas Customs I have notes on, almost without exception, suggest post-Christian influences. Bonfires are absent from my list, but candles take their place. Lighting the Christmas Candle is an act not to be omitted in many a house, and not only in the peasant's cabin. In Co. Mayo a candle is placed in the window of each cottage and left to burn all night : no Christmas Candle is ever put out, it must burn itself away. The door is left open. In West Clare the candles are lit in the windows on Little Christmas Day, or Woman's Christmas (Cork), that is to say. Twelfth Night. Those who die at midnight on Christmas Eve escape Purgatory, and a case is quoted in MacDonagh's Irish Life and Character (pp. 376-7) of a dying man being assisted by his relatives with a pillow to attain this desir- able end.
Though Shrovetide, Easter, Whitsun, Lammas, and Michaelmas, may not offer the Brand Committee as much material as those seasons already noted, they will yet not fail to contribute an Irish share in the compilation. Shrovetide (Scraft) is the chief marriage season in the country, as after it no weddings may be celebrated, at least among the Roman Catholic population, till Easter, and Easter comes in the press of Spring work, if any work can be said to press in Ireland, outside the corners dominated by modern methods and commerce. Matrimonial customs therefore culminate, and end, on Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, Skellig Night. So on that day the boys go from house to house to get the girls to come out and dance with
2^ Wilde, Ancient Cures, p. 117. -Sent me by Miss R. S. Macnamara.
