[Yn Lioar Manninagh Vol 2 p68]

REPORT OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SECTION (FOLKLORE).

The following; recent instances are of some interest, and may serve to show what collectors may expect if they will only be on the look-out for them:

CHARMING A SICK COW.

In July, 1892, one of the cows at Ballachurry, Andreas, was very seriously ill, and there seemed no chance of her recovering. One morning, when "the Masther" was from home, the head man put the mare into the dog-cart and drove off on his own account to fetch the "Charmer" from Kirk Bride. On the return of "the Masther" that evening, the following was the account given to him of what had taken place in his absence by those who were looking on: When the "Charmer" arrived he went into the cowhouse, where the cow was lying ill. He first went to her right side, and kneeling down, muttered some words which those standing around could not catch, then, taking some of the straw from under her, he began to make with it a "thumb rope." After a while he got up, and went to the other side of the cow, and kneeling down, took some more straw, with which he continued making the "thumb rope." When it was finished he hung it round her neck, telling those around him that it was to be left there until it fell off. He gave the cow nothing to eat, nor did he do anything else to her. For a, short time she got up and looked about her, and seemed better. In a very few days after this she quite recovered, and soon was perfectly strong and well.

THE FAIRIES.

A few years ago, when the Manx Northern Railway was being made, a Manxman who was working on it along with a Scotch navvy, informed the latter that the "fairies was taken in his house every night, sure as life," they were Singin' and noisin', and making a terrible row." The navvy said he would like to hear them, so one evening he repaired to the Manxman's cottage. At midnight the host said he was going to bed, "he" wasn't, going to sit up and hear "them things," not he : so off he went, leaving the canny Scotchman in possession of the kitchen. Before long a cheerful chirping sound was heard : evidently the "fairies" were coming! and, shortly after, a little army of crickets was seen emerging from the holes and crannies round the hearth. It was too much for the navvy ; he could not resist killing them all, and, laying their little dead bodies side by side on the hearthstone, went and woke up the Manxman and told him that in the morning he would find the "fairies" lying there dead. Need it be added that after that night, no more fairies were ever "taken" in that house!

A. M. CRELLIN,

March, 1893.