and erysipelas can also be cured by butter rubbed on by a person of the opposite sex to the patient twice a week with prayer. The cross is signed over the mouth when yawning so as to expel evil influences. If a nail runs into one it should be taken out and put into the fire. Hair cuttings are hid in a hole in a wall, some say to preserve the strength of the owner, others, because they must be recovered by him at the general resurrection, but I suspect that the real cause is fear of witchcraft. All these are in use in the Mullet and Ballycroy and other places in Erris.
I leave the lore relating to crowing hens and rats to the section on animals (XVIII. infra), but may add yet another cure for sick cattle on Cliara—their ear is bored and a thong of goatskin knotted through it.
Henri tells a curious local story of how the cholera was kept out of Erris before 1839. It passed from Sligo through Tirawley in the form of a hideous witch, with horrid hair, breathing out fumes and dropping pestilence. A pious man saw her, as he said his tenth prayer, and she was wading the Owenmore and about to enter Erris; by the inspiration of his angel he threw a stone at her and she stopped, and western Mayo was preserved.[1]
(To be continued.)
Folk Tales from the Nāga Hills of Assam.
The following tales, collected from the Angami Nāgas of Assam, were collected by Mr. C. R. Pawsey of the Indian Civil Service, and have been forwarded by Mr. J. H. Hutton, C.I.E., I.C.S., who has added some notes. A further instalment of these folk tales will be published in future issues of Folk-Lore.
No. I.
Gakripu's Guile.
In the winter a man was going into the country, once upon a time, in order to sell a goat, and another man who had many
- ↑ A man at Gorumna "went silly" till the addition was levelled; see Proc. R.I. Acad., v. ser. iii. p. 260.
