along Galway Bay, and greatly facilitated the craniometry of Dr. Charles Browne in his ethnological researches; many (some to my knowledge) professed themselves better for the "operation." Worms were charmed away by tying the "worm knot" on the sufferer, but I have not learned the special ritual Many cures are effected by transferring the trouble to a hen, or an inanimate object. In the Mullet, an old woman, some twenty-five years since, charmed "the Rose" (or erysipelas) in the following manner. She took ten pebbles from a stream or well, threw back one and brought the nine to her patient. She then prayed on each, put the "blessed side" downward and rubbed each affected part in the name of the Trinity and the "King of the Rose." Lastly she threw them back where she got them, praying that the patient might never suffer again from the "Rose" while they remained there.[1]
There are certain cinder and ash charms. In Lettermullen, Co. Galway, peat ash is tied in a red rag on a cow's tail to prevent the fairies milking her. At the same place peat ashes and straw crosses are put in a child's clothing when it is taken to be vaccinated to keep off the fairies. A burning peat, or coal, is taken, usually on wet sea-weed, in boats, for luck. Roderic O'Flaherty in 1684 tells of women gathering duileasg sea-weed on the Saints' Rock in Galway Bay to procure the release of a captive friend.
A less unselfish charm was practised on Blacksod Bay about 1839 by a girl called Katty Kane, who kept a young man (with whom she fell in love) in harbour, by contrary winds, raised by a cat charm. At last she prevailed; he married her, and the wind at once turned favourable. The charm is not described. As we saw the blood of a kitten was used to cure a sick child.
Toothache can be charmed by rubbing the gum with a dead man's finger, by kissing an ass on the teeth or by written charms. A "mote," or a bit of barley beard, can be charmed from the eye by a wise woman rinsing her mouth till the water remains clear and then taking another mouthful, saying a charm or prayer when the troublesome object is found in her mouth. The touch of a seventh son cures "the Evil," and the ringworm
- ↑ Proc. R.I. Acad., vol. iii. ser. iii. p. 635.
