that a great part of Ireland had been swallowed by the sea, and that the sunken part often rose and was seen hanging in the horizon: such was the popular notion. . . . But it is only to an unmixed, aboriginal people that such a tradition as this could descend unimpaired, through the long and tedious stream of ages" (p. 139).

Sir Samuel Ferguson says:-"No distinct traditions of the FirVolgs remain in the islands. . . . The traditions of the people of Aran are either hagiological, or have reference to the exploits of such personages as Croohore-na-Suidine O'Brien, Emun Laidie O'Flaherty, or Oliver Cromwell. The saints or their miracles supply the great historical topics of these simple people."

O'Flaherty also says (p. 98):-" The Aranites, in their simplicity, consider these remains of Druidism [open temples, altars, stone pillars, sacred mounts of fire worship, miraculous fountains, and evident vestiges of oak groves (p. 97), numerous fire-temples (p. 127)] still sacred and inviolable; being, they imagine, the inchanted haunts and property of aerial beings, whose power of doing mischief they greatly dread and studiously propitiate. For entertaining this kind of religious respect, they have another powerful motive: they believe that the cairns, or circular mounts, are the selpulchres, as some of them really are, of native chiefs and warriors of antiquity, of whose military fame and wondrous achievements they have abundance of legendary stories. The well-attended, winter-evening tales of the Scealuidhe, or story-tellers, are the only historical entertainments of this primitive, simple, and sequestered people. In this credulous and superstitious propensity, they exactly resemble their brethren, the Scots of the Highlands and Isles. Indeed, the solitude and romantic wildness of their 'seagirt' abode, and the venerable memorials of Christian piety and Celtic worship so numerously scattered over the surface of the Aran Isles, fairly account for the enthusiasm, credulity, and second-sight of these islanders." On p. 102 he states that :-" No portion of the Irish population has preserved the primitive manners, language, and recollections, with more fidelity than the secluded inhabitants of Aran."

The following is from Burke (loc. cit. p. 91):

name.

"The Irish of the 'oak' is Dara, and many an Aranite bears that Now, there was a blessed saint, 'Mac Dara,' who lived in those islands ages ago, and there was a renowned statue of him made of oak, which the people venerated with an idolatrous veneration. It was in vain that the Catholic clergy called on them to desist from kneeling before that graven image, and from swearing on it rather

than on the Book of the Gospels, on which all men swore. Malachy O'Queely, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, was, however, resolved to put down an exhibition which he considered a scandal to the Catholic Church, and so, coming to the islands in 1645, he tore down the statue, and flung it into the sea; but ill-luck awaited him." The same year he was cut to pieces by the Parliamentary forces at Sligo.

In common with the west coast Irish the Aranites believe in fairies, banshees, ghosts, &c. Whirlwinds contain small men who gather up the weeds out of the people's way.

Mr. W. Lane Joynt informs us of a tradition of a black dog that comes up out of the sea and kills eels.

A thirteenth child is a piper, toul gorés pebud; but Colman Faherty Thomas (cf. Pl. xx. figs. 1, 2) is a thirteenth child, but cannot play the bagpipes.

There do not appear to be many superstitions relating to fishing; the sight of a cat brings ill-luck to the fishing, as does also the meeting of a red-haired woman.

When a funeral is passing down the road the front door of a house is always closed. The corpse is carried out through the back door.

The following is said to be common to both Aran and Co. Galway. If anyone at a marriage repeats the benediction after the priest, and ties a knot at the mention of each of the three sacred names on a handkerchief, or a piece of string, the marriage will be childless for fifteen years, unless the knotted string is burnt in the meantime.

Boulders are peculiarly numerous south-east of Eararna, and folk say that once upon a time a local giant was passing the time of day with his Connemara brother, then they came to abuse, and ended by throwing stones at one another, these boulders being the missiles thrown by the latter. It is true that boulders from Connemara are plentifully scattered all over Aranmore through ice-action, but unfortunately for this story these particular stones are local in origin.

There is a sacred well at Kilmurvey called Tuber Carna, the water of which is reputed to be unboilable, and if dead fish are put into it they will come to life again. The sick too will be cured if any one prays at the well for their recovery. The water of one well curdles milk.

Rags are attached to sprays of the bramble or ivy at most of the holy wells; an elder bush over a well close by Tempul Brecain is similarly decorated. Offerings are placed at some of the blessed places, as, for instance, on the altar of St. Columb Kill at Killeany, and buttons, fish-hooks, iron nails, shells, pieces of crockery, &c., are deposited in the holy well at Tempul-an-Cheathruir-aluinn, or

"The Church of the Four Comely Ones." Numerous rounded pebbles are placed by the well and on the altar of St. Columb Kill.

Women pray at St. Eany's Well, by the Angels' Walk,' when they desire children, and the men pray at the rag-well by the Church of the Four Comely Ones at Onaght. Women are also said to resort to St. Brecain's bed for the same object.

On the night before going to America the people will sleep in the open, beside one of the holy wells, in order that they may have good fortune.

When any member of a family falls sick, another member makes a promise that if the sick one recovers, the person promising will sleep one, two, or three nights in one of the saint's beds. One bed at the Seven Churches (probably St. Brecain's bed) is said to be occupied pretty regularly.

Suspended priests are considered capable of working cures by touch of the hand.

We have already alluded (p. 814) to the reputed therapeutic effect of wearing a piece of the skin of a seal.

The senior author is indebted to Mr. David O'Callaghan, the National school-master, for the following notes on Folk-lore, which were given him more than a year ago :

"An droc ryl, or The Evil Eye.-The 'Evil Eye' is very much dreaded in Aran, hence you had better not praise any Aranite, or any of his live stock, in his presence without saying 'God bless him or them.' Otherwise, if any accident afterwards occurred to either one or the other, it would be due to your having an Evil Eye. Anyone affected by the Evil Eye is cured by the person possessed of it spitting on the patient, and at the same time saying 6 dia ort, ('God bless you'). Numberless are the tales told of the Evil Eye and of those who have succumbed to it, and of those who have been cured. Among the latter is one which was related to me lately as happening to the narrator himself :

“Well, master,' he says, 'and you don't think there is such a thing as the Evil Eye?' 'No, Pat,' said I; 'I don't think there is.' 'You don't think there is? Well! I tell you there is, and I am the man that can tell it to you. You see me now,' he says; 'I suppose you don't think much of me to-day; yet, thirty or forty years ago, I was one of the best men in Aran. I was one night at a dance, and

"An' it's here the Guardian Angels of Aran come, of a summer's night, to take their diversion." 999

(Cf. Miss Banim, l. c. p. 133.)

though you would not believe me now, I was then a fine dancer. I was praised by all in the house while I was dancing, but just in the midst of the dance I fell down dead on the floor.' 'Dead, Pat?' said I. Yes, dead,' said he; for I had not a kick in me then, nor for two days after. Well, my friends, knowing what was the matter with me, got every person in the house to throw a spit on me, saying at the same time, 'God bless you,' but to no purpose. I remained dead, thrown in a bed in the corner near the fire, for two days, when a young woman comes in and spits on me, saying 'God bless you, Patrick, you are very ill;' when I went of one jump from the corner to the middle of the floor, and began to dance; and I was well from that out.' 'Of course, Pat,' I said, 'you married that girl?' 'God bless you,' said Pat, I thought you had sense till now. I did not, nor would I not, if there was not another girl in Aran.' This is as close a translation, as possible, of Pat's story as told to me in Irish.

"Some days are considered here unlucky upon which to begin any work of importance, to get married, or even to bury the dead. Monday is one of those days, and la crois na bladna, or the cross day of the year, is another, and so is lá crois na bliadna, the feast of the Holy Innocents. Whatever day of the week this festival falls on is considered an unlucky day in every week throughout the year following. No person will be buried on that day in any week throughout the following year, nor on Mondays. If they have occasion to bury a corpse on these days, they turn a sod on the grave the previous day, and by this means they think to avoid the misfortune attached to a burial on an unlucky day."

Burke (loc. cit. p. 101) says:-" The spinning-wheel in Aran, the old crones say, should never spin on a Saturday." He also says (p. 99) that the belief also occurs here that "fern-seed " renders a person invisible.

Dr. John Lynch ("Gratianus Lucius") was the first to refute ("Cambrensus Eversus," 1662; pp. 125-129 of Kelly's edition: Celtic Society, 1848) "the tissue of flagrant blunders" given by Giraldus de Barry-Giraldus Cambrensis-that in Aran "human bodies are never buried and never rot, but lie exposed under the air, proof against corruption. . . . No rat is found in that island.” “My own opinion is," writes Dr. Lynch, "that Giraldus bungled his narrative by applying to Aran what is told of Inisgluair, an island off the coast of Erris, in the county of Mayo: for the bodies buried in that island do not decay, but even the hair and nails grow, so that one could recognise his grandfather."

VI. ARCHEOLOGY.

An ethnographical study of a people would be incomplete without a reference to its archæology. In the present instance the amount of material is so great as to preclude an adequate treatment. The antiquities of the Aran Islands have never been systematically described and published; and yet nowhere else in the British Islands are there so many and so varied remains associated within a like limited area. The islands may not inaptly be described as an unique museum of antiquities.

1. Survivals.-It is worth while recording some of the survivals from olden time which characterize these islands.

Certain details in the costume of the people are ancient, but none more so than the persistence of the raw-hide sandals or brogues.

The curraghs are similar, in general character, to those common along the west coast; the simple oars are pivotted on thole pins.

Stone anchors are still used; more frequently in the Middle and South islands.

Querns are not used at present, but it is not long since they were employed.

2. Christian Antiquities.—Although of supreme interest and value in other branches of knowledge, the Christian antiquities have but little bearing on ethnological inquiries, as the religion, art, and largely also, the architecture, are alien; and a colony of monks and nuns does not affect the population from a racial point of view.

3. Pagan Antiquities.-The most impressive of the pre-Christian antiquities are the great duns or forts for which these islands are famous. At the present time there are four forts in a good state of preservation in Aranmore: Dun Angus, Dun Eoganacht, Dun Eochla, and Dubh Cathair, the "black fort." Hardiman says (p. 76):— "At the village of Eochoill, about half-a-mile south-east of Dun Eochla, there are strongly marked traces of another dun or fort. Its original name [like those of Dun Eoganacht and Dun Eochla] is also lost; but the people relate that it was the strongest fort on the island. . . . About half-a-mile south-west of the village of Kilronan are the remains of another dun, but entirely in ruins." In Inishmaan there are Dun Conchobhair (Dun Connor), and Mothair Dun. Hardiman states that "Cathair nam-ban-civitas mulierum-on the South Island is now entirely in ruins. There is not at this day extant any tradition concerning it, or even its name."

No one who has written on the Aran Islands has failed to refer