describes it as "a pile of stones on the shore bearing a rude resemblance to a small house or castle." In Mayo in 1839 it was conical of nine stones with the door to the point of the wind, and certain legendary spells recited at its construction.[1] We found it was intended to bring the fish into the nets or to raise a favourable wind. The same is true near Carna, on Galway Bay. I had the good fortune to see a cashlaun, near a lonely house on the shore; in September, 1899, it consisted of eighteen stones in a ring, with a well-marked opening towards the wind. By getting up early I secured a photograph[2] before my presence was suspected, and a short time later it had been scattered, and no one would confess to its use. There is a suspicion of "its being done for no good thing," which renders any enquiry a very delicate matter. The little Dr. Charles Browne and I learned was told carelessly, and, when we showed interest, the conversation was turned, which was not the case with most other spells.
The horrible charm of the Dead Hand is used for "taking" milk and butter, i.e. forcing the cattle of the owner to give more milk taken from those of his neighbours. It is the dried right hand of a corpse, cut off, smoked and subjected to certain spells. Other formulae are used when the milk for churning is stirred with the disgusting object, then the yield of butter exceeds the natural produce. It naturally, like the preceding charm, is a source of suspicion and ill will; the "classical case" in eastern Co. Limerick brought three brothers into the petty sessions, and (what they never expected) lost them all their customers.[3]
In one of the Islands (most probably Aran, but the locality was varied) a woman married to a fine young islander used to sell surprising quantities of butter. Suspicion was aroused, and on search a "dead hand" was found. The angry neighbours mobbed her, burned the hand, and forced her and her husband to leave the island. Lady Wilde does not give the place, but
