[From Yn Lioar Manninagh Vol 3 pp157/191] - (see pp129 for 1st part)

GHOSTS AND SPIRITS (SCAANYN).

THE GIAU NY SPYRRYD.

" There is a cave in the shore, near the Sound of the Calf, and the sea flows some distance into it at high-tide I have heard people say it goes through to the dark caves at Port Erin breakwater. It has always been said that a spirit haunts it, and very few people will venture into it. I have been told of people who saw him that he had a head like a big pot, with three great horns. I have heard my father say he was once in the cave, and heard a great noise outside of him, as if some heavy animal was walking in the gravel stones, which lie in a great heap at the cave’s mouth."

" Mr. L. was telling me some time ago, when he was living at Ballasalla, there was a young lady from Castletown visiting at their house one day in the winter, and he accompanied her back to town. About half-way there is a large orchard, with very high walls around it, 15 or 20 feet high, and as he was walking beside the lady he saw a man walking close beside them and his head higher than the tallest trees, but the lady never saw him at all. When they came to this garden he slipped over the wall without any difficulty and disappeared. Mr. L. was a very strong and courageous man, but he allowed he was much frightened."

" A friend of mine, well, the wife’s father’s wife’s sister (!) had been confined, and her husband was bad with jough, and he was lying alongside her and she could not get him awakened. A voice came to the window, shouting : ‘ Nancy ! ‘ (she fancied it was one of her sisters come to see her) and she gave an answer at once— which she ought not to have done until the third call—and at once a man stood bending over her. He was lifting her shoulders off the bed, and the husband fast asleep, and she could not get him awake. Says he to her : ‘ Lhiams dt’e’ill, as ilhams dt’uill ‘ (thy flesh is mine, and thy blood is mine). She did not know what to say, and ejaculated : ‘ Shee Chris’ orrim, cre shoh.’ As soon as she said that he was gone and left her, and then she awoke her husband in a minute."

" Down at the big mill, at the Ennagh, there lived a man, and he told me the following (and I believe it to be true, because he was a good man, and is dead now) : There was a young woman who was haunted by a man in the night leaning over her at her bed. To protect herself she got a young man to lie the floor-side of her. The ghost came, and the young man felt the weight of the ghost passing over him, and he was lying on his back, and gives the ghost a kick-up, and he got such a slap in the face that he could not see for a long while. He tormented the girl for all that, that night."

" There is a creek to the east of Douglas, called Port Onchan, but the Douglas people call it North Bay at present, and I heard a man telling he heard once a great stir below, as if they were pulling up their boats, and he went down to the beach to see how was the boats coming in there, as there was no harbour but for a few yawls. It was the herring fishing season at Douglas. And he saw a great number of large fishing boats on the beach, and a great crowd of fishermen pulling their boats up from the sea. And he gave them a hand and helped them until all the boats were above the tide line, and they thanked very much. He asked them if they had caught many herrings, and they answered that the worldly fleet had done very well, but their fleet had done very little, so they all disappeared by daybreck, boats and all, and the man was left to make the best of his way home."

SPIRITS AND GHOSTS.

" One of my neighbours was telling me he went to the Spanish Head before daylight in the morning to look after some snares he had set the evening before. As it was moonlight he thought the day was near, and there came to him a man walking up the precipice, and he could swear he was nine feet in height, but he walked on and took no notice."

" A blacksmith in Croit-y-Kaaby, Port St. Mary, was asked to put a cross of iron on the grave to prevent the spirit from coming out, but it happened the ghos' was out, and could not get in, and he was corree (angry) at that, and shouted : ‘ Trog shoh' (lift that), and the man has never done any good afterwards."

" There was a drunken man, and there was talk that some ghos’ was coming home. So another man dressed himself like a ghost to fricken the drunken fellow. So he stood at the churchyard gate, and when the drunken man came up, he looked at him and said: ‘There is two of us to-night. ‘ And the man that was for the ghos’ to him looked round, and there was another ghos’ standing behind him, and he fell and fainted."

" It appears evident somewhere there has been somethings, at any rate, stalking along in the night. There’s a man in Port Erin who told me he wanted to go early to Douglas. When he was coming up the Round Table there was a pass coming up by the water from the bogs towards the Round Table. He told me that there was a man came up alongside him in a fine starry night, and spoke to him, and got no answer. He was telling the description. He wore a long, small, swallow-tail coat, a very high drum hat on; he spoke to him, no answer either. Well, he did not know what to make of it ; he was not fearful, and they came along together up the Round Table, and when they got there this man took up one way and left him, and he went on his way.—Two or three o’clock, sometime before, someone had been coming along the bogs and was attacked by something like a bull, and almost in danger of life, it appears. Clague, that’s the man, supposed that it was a man-spirit who had come to put him past the danger."

" At the ruined chapel in St. Michael Island, Derbyhaven, many vessels have been wrecked. A man says, who lives at Castletown, he had seen a sailor, in ribbon and shoes, coming up from the shore about sunset, and seen him, times, go up the land."

" A ship was struck at St. Michael Island, and a company of men engaged to hack it up, and the night, about 12 o’clock, they saw a white thing, like a human being standing at the chapel door, and he was groaning, so the men refused to carry any more timber up. The ship was ‘ James Crossfield,’ of Liverpool, and 40 hands drowned." [wrecked Jan 1867]

" A spirit can never speak unless you speak unto him first. If you meet a spirit and are forced to speak to him you’ll ask : ‘ In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what’s you want of me ? ‘ He’ll speak to you then, and tell you all you want."

" A man met a ghos’ ; there were knots at the ghos’ ; he wanted the knots loosened. The man who spoke to him could not get rid of him, or away, and he tried to loose it, but it became tighter, and he puts his hand in his pocket to pull out his knife to cut it. As soon as done, it dropped to the ground, and he had to loose it with his teeth. He was laid up for a long time."

MERMAIDS AND MERMEN.

" At Casstruan, near Blackhead, two men said they had seen a mermaid, and she had web between the fingers. They used to be plentiful, and the fishermen would then throw them bread and butter and oat-cakes."

"There is a bird to this day, and the Manx supposed it was a mermaid, and it shouts ‘ howla, ‘ and is a sure sign there will be storm in a few hours. It’s like a drake, but far bigger, black back and white belly, and the bill of a duck, and its name is ‘Errag wooar', the English call it Shag or Cormorant."

" When the merman was whistling in the night, it would indicate storm, and I have often heard it over at Maughold Head at the spring time."

" Somewhere near Balladoole, out Castletown, some folks found a mermaid, ebbed in a puddle of water ; they put her to sea again, however, and it was said she told them : ‘ One butt in Ballacreggan [sic ? Ballacaigen] was worth all Balladoole. ‘ It appears that gold and silver was in it'.

" On the Kellys there is a charm ; near shore, in Port Erin, a mermaid was ebbed, and their ancestors, out of mercy, put her to sea again. So the mermaid gave them the blessing for doing this, and never one of the women should be any time in labour, and they think the blessing is going on still."

GIANTS

" There were three giants on South Barrule, and they tried who could throw farthest. The one threw one to the Four Roads (now taken up), the other to a field at Ballacreggan, and the third on Cronk Skibylt, and the one who threw it to the Skibylt threw it the farthest."

" There is a square stone near the middle of the field, 20 ton weight, facing Ballacreggan, downside, and a stone at the Four Roads, at the blacksmith’s, with a hole in the top. It is said to this stone and the hole, they tied their horses to, and it was a mark for a place of worship. Another stone, seven or eight feet high, top-like and upright, is in Ballacreggan, near up the breast of the place, and supposed to be a place of worship."

" There is a field at the Sound called the Rellick still, there were found many skulls in it, when it was first ploughed, and there was another at the Smelt, with skeletons of men found in some of the graves, seven feet long, and they were always supposed to be the remains of the Druids, by the old people."

WILD HUNTERS.

" Formerly the road from Belle Vue Hotel, Port Erin, was not what it is now, and very narrow and bad, and one night my father was coming home late at night, and there was such a terrible, thundering noise and cracking of whips and barking of dogs, and the whole host passing, and he was frightful, and just got out of the road and slipped in the doorway, and he could not see them."

" Up Spaldrick one night, one o’clock, there was a sudden noise in the road, and like rattling of chains, and such harassing and tearing away, and the man who met them just shouted : ‘ Lord bless me, what’s that?’ and no harm was done to him."

"There were the wild hunters hunting in the mountain at the Howe, a lot of them, and the dogs were yowling and the whips cracking. Mr. Creggin’s mother was listening, and there was a voice amongst them like her son’s, shouting : ‘ Hout, hout.’"

" It is said that coming from Port St. Mary, at the narrow row, from the Howe, there used to be a terrible crash of horsemen, with flat red caps."

" At Cronk ny Mooar there used to be such cracking of whips and hunting, and they went away like a regiment."

Compare the Wild Hunters (the Gabriel Ratchets) of whom Hamerton sings :-

" Hark, 'tis the goblin of the wood,
Rushing down the dark hill side,
Wih steeds that neigh and hounds that bay."

LHIANAN SHEE.

" I remember an old man, they called him Harry Ballahaue, he was haunted by a Lhiannan Shee. He was heir to a nice little farm, but he never did but very little work. He slept in the barn, and young people used to go to the door to listen, and they could hear him talking to something, but could not hear but one voice. I have heard my mother say, when she was a young girl at service at Glendown, two of the boys went in their stockings to listen at the barn door. ‘ Put it in a meddyr ‘ (a small tub), he said. Then he muttered, "Geaishtagh, vel ad? ‘ (Listening’, are they ?) I will give them something else,’ and they had to run away as fast as they could. He had a great deal of talk one night, and people passing by could hear there was something uncommon in the barn that night. Someone asking him next morning what was up with him last night:- ‘ Yonder dirty thing was in labour,’ said be. He was right enough, and a very good seaman before the Lhiannan came to him. He had an elder brother, and the Lhiannan haunted him, until he died. After his death she haunted this Harry. He once went out herring-fishing with some other men, and they left him on deck to keep watch, and he had a line, fishing hake. One of the men heard him talking, and he said : ‘Jerk oo faagail mee ayns shoh hene, cre t'ou laghal ? ' (Will you leave me here itself, what do you want, is it a herring you want ?) and he took a herring in his hand and offered it to her, but the man that was looking on, and listening, could not see nor hear her. Harry was sitting in the cabin next morning’, and one of the crew was coming down, and there was no one seen but himself in, he was telling her to ‘ shift and make room for the man to sit down.’ The man that was to be heir to the farm got married when very young, in dread that Harry would die, and the Lhiannan Shee haunt him ; but I suppose she did not want a third husband, for she must have been old when Harry died."

" There was a Lhiannan Shee, a white woman, over at Struan dy Snail, living with a man, and she was as a partner continually, and they had children. They were not seen, though the boys would hear them talk and tell their children to keep quiet and go away. He could know in an instant that they were listening, she could tell him. She and the children could not be seen."

" I was once coming from Port Erin Chapel, and came across the hill from the old gate leading to the mountain ; it was a very fine night and I was on the top of the hill. I met a young lady in a yellow silk dress rustling. as she passed me by, she had a white parasol in her left hand hanging down by her side, but neither of us spoke, so the people were telling me it was a Lhiannan Shee, and if I would have spoken to her she would have followed me."

" They are like a woman and chase men. Some man was living in Surby, and his wife was from home one evening, and he went to meet her at night across the fields. He met a woman and thought it was his wife, and spoke to her, and she followed him long enough afterwards. He got clear of her somehow-, but I forget the charm,"

" I heard my mother say, when she was a young woman, at Barrule, they were getting peat, and in the middle of the day it began quite foggy, and cleared up after a little while, and they saw an old gentleman, dressed very fine, and his lady, walking side by side ; she had no bonnet on, but a cap ; they thought it was a minister of the parish like, but they disappeared so sudden down the brough or cliff, that she believed it was a lhiannan shee, a man and a woman."

" I remember going to sea with a man of the name of Maddrell, when I was young, and he told me he was once a long time from home, and at last got a freight for Castletown. They arrived there at 11 o’clock at night, and it was very windy, hut moonlight, so he made up his mind to walk home. He lived at Fistard, and when he came to Kentraugh Bridge there was a young girl walked up alongside, and he wondered what would she be there for at such an hour, thought she must have strayed, so he asked her, but she only looked up in his face ; but she gave him no reply, and he asked her many questions, but no word from her. When they got to Ballacreggan lie turned down the road towards Port St. Mary, and she came that way, too, so he thought she must be a ihiannan shee ; he spoke to her again, saying : ‘ If you don’t tell me what you are, I’ll make a sacrifice of you, by God,’ and she grinned in his face and was gone like a flash of lightning."

WITCHES (BUTCHES).

" I have heard of witches using water in their enchantment. I heard a woman telling once of another woman in the Parish of Arbory, who was standing at a running stream, very early one morning, and held in her hand a big cushag, and was dipping the cushag in the stream, and sprinkling herself and all round her with water, continually repeating the name of some farmer, and saying : ‘ Baiinney as eem yn doinney shou dootrs’ (the milk and butter of this man for me). The Vicar of Arbory was out at the same time for an early walk, and came near to her, unperceived, and heard her repeating this. He said to her : "Give some of the blessing to me," but she made no answer, but walked away. So the next time they were churning at the vicarage, they were not able to get the churning done—-the churn was so full of butter."

" I have heard people say, on the day of Elliot’s engagement with Thurot, at Ramsey, that some man near Dalby, met an old woman standing by a stream of water, and she asked the man to lift her over the water, for the fight between the ships would continue until she got to them."

" A man in the North told a Bradda man of six or seven lumps of girls that had been to school on Sunday, and were passing a house, and came home taken sick. The doctor was sent for, but they got no bettar. So they goes toBallawhane and Logh-yn-Guiy, and were told they got something like harem (harm), and the man got herb and got the door fixed, because the woman stood there while he was pounding the herb, she wanted to come between, because the herbs were stinging her, and they gets bettar. You see, the woman had begrudged their dress, and they gives a cure for it for the like."

" An old woman, she was in the shape of a brown hare, running from the cow-house, she had a wicked heart !—If you have a beast, and know her (the witch), get the dirt under your feet, and throw it on the creature who harmed you, it will cure it. " (This belief is even now current in the South).

While I was staying in Port Erin, in July, my landlady’s daughter just happened to come in while we were talking of butches. How all the faces glowed with quiet and deep mirth—of semi-avowal, though. She had been to chapel, Surby way, and said she was wondering, for all at once she saw the young women around get fluttered and covering their eyes with their hands, and exclaiming excitedly : " Oh dear, oh dear, there she is, the old hag !" They were afraid the poor old woman was bewitching them. It appears there is an old innocent woman living in the neighbourhood, who is both abhorred and threatened, if not in constant fear, because the people believe her to be an old butch, who makes mischief of all sorts, and harms both men and cattle, and has the power actually to change into a hare at will. It shows how deeply rooted the belief is to this day.

" I have heard many stories of witchmen and witchwomen, who were able to change themselves into hares. ‘There is one in particular whom my father and mother knew very well. They lived in B—f——, and owned a farm. There were many evil deeds dope by him, the people said. ‘There was another farmer lying near them, and he had a very handsome grey colt, and when the colt was broken in he was avorking her one day, and she was doing very well. But the witchman passed them on the road, and immediately the colt lay down, and seemed to be in great pain. So the farmer followed him, and made him come back and lay his hands on the mare, and after that was done, the mare got up again and was all right. There was a young man from the Mull one day at B—f—, twisting yarn for nets. So this witchman came to the house where he was at work, and the Mull man was a very witty chap ; and the witchman, commencing talking about the land at Cregneish, told him the fields where there was sweet grass and the fields where the grass was very bitter. I suppose he had been tasting the grass in every field in the form of a hare!"

" There was a farm house near Ballacreggan, called Ringwallan, and the farmer ivas very unfortunate in his cattle, which was often sick and dying, and there was a hare often seen about the cow-house, but they were unable to shoot him. But it happened one Sunday morning in May, the farmer’s son and the manservant had been seeing their girls on the Saturday night, and came home before sunrise in the morning, and went into the cowhouse, but the hare came in as well. They had two swift dogs at the house, and one of them went and called the dogs, and gave the hare chaser which ran towards the hill above Ballacreggan, and the two young men after them. It appears the dogs were coming hard upon the hare until near the top of the hill, when the hare leaped over the hedge, and the young men were running for the place as fast as they could. They were hearing the dogs barking. When they got to the place. there was—the witchman with a stone in each . hand, keeping the dogs from eating him ! He said he was going to Fistard to see his daughter, and those dogs had nearly worried him. I think those hares hovering round cattle are witches. We used to keep a cow, but one died, and after that there were six more, one after another, and there was a hare seen many times lying beside some of them."

" At Ballacurrie lived an old woman who was thought to be a witch,. She once changed herself into a hare, and the greyhound after her, and just gripped her when she was running through the gate ; and they found her after that with the blood running from her thigh, just the place where she was bitten by the dog’."

MANXMAN FIGHTING AN IRISH GIANT.

" I have heard a legend about a man that lived in the Howe and another in the Corvallie. They both were equal in strength. The one was called Cassemysh and the other Harry yn Corvallie. They sometimes, on a calm summer evening, got into a rowing boat and rowed across to Ardglass, in Ireland, to meet with the Irish girls when milking the cows. The girls made them some drink, which they called ‘ Shelebuc.’ I have heard the old men say that Cassemysh had very short thighs, only the length of the shuttle they were mending nets with. There was an Irish giant in those days who sometimes canie to the maids when milking, and took by force all the shelebuc he could lay hands on and frightened the maids away. He happened to come one evening when those two Manxmen were there. So the maids and menservants took their flight, but the two Manxmen waited until he came near. ‘Take hold of him, Harry,’ said Cassemysh. ‘ Take hold of him yourself,’ said Harry. So Cassemysh got up to try his strength with the Irish giant, and both got in grips. ‘ Give the first tug,’ said the giant. ‘No,’ said Casseniysh, ‘ I submit the honour of the country.’ So the giant gave the first tug, but failed to get Cassemysh down, and Cassernysh caugh him by the thighs and threw him, so they killed the giant between them and rid Ireland of the monster. And they were always welcome after that, and got plenty of shelebuc whenever they came to that part of the country. .Shelebuc was made of ale and milking the cows’ milk among it.

ANIMALS, &c.

" I have heard that a family that kept a black cat without a speck of any other colour, would never have anyone drowned at sea."

" I have heard of old women shutting the black cat in the cup-board to make stormy weather."

" Black pigs can see the wind, according to the belief of the old fishermen."

" The blackbird used to be in the mountain, so my grandfather told me often, and it made the Ushag reaisht make an exchange for a day or two ; but he refused to give up again his new abode, and he said : ‘ Vel oo cheet?’ the lhandoo said : ‘ Cha cheet, as cha jig dy braa.’"

" All the fish met to choose a king; the one and the othe said he would be king, and the Liehbage (flook) said he would be king, and turned his mouth like smiling (he twisted his mouth, grinning like), and ever since his mouth was left kept that way."

" Va dooinney ginsh dou dy jagh e dy helg un oie, as haink moddey bane huggey, as ye moddey feer yindasagh ; ren ny moddey ec e hene roie ersooyl, as faagail e, agh cha vaik e rieu moddey goll-rish yn moddey shen."

Another rendering—" Two men were often going a-hunting with their dogs in the moonlight, and as they were one fine clear moon-light in the fields between Cregneish and the Sound, the dogs came back to them and would not leave their side, and presently they saw a white dog coming across the field towards them. He had a curly mane like a lion, and went past them, and they said they never saw a dog like him in all their life."

" Two men were working in a field, and lying down after dinner and went to sleep, and one was waking and he saw then something like a white butterfly come out of the other man’s mouth that was asleep. And the butterfly flew away and the wakened man followed it, and it flew on till he came to a place something a hedge like, where there was a big hole, and went in there. He came out again after a little while, and went back again to the sleeping man and went into his mouth again. Soon after the man awoke, and he said he had been adreaming of a crockful of gold, in the hole in the hedge. Well, so the two men got up to look at the hedge, and found a crockful of gold in it. The butterfly was supposed to be a spirit."

" People get frightened on a foggy day, and a neighbour saw something groaning, some big monster lying on the ground in Cregneish parish."

" If a beast should die, the old people used to get a cartful of turf pieces and burnt the carcase on it — it was done as a protection."

" Booaillee’ signifies a fold, and there are a great many of the little fields called so, because the old people made those places to shut in their sheep and cattle at night to keep out the tarroo ushtey."

" I was one night coming home from Colby on the road to Bradda, and all at once there were some hundred of little black dogs running about me, but they did not do me any harm."

WELLS AND WELL WORSHIP.

" At a place over Ballakillowie there is a well called the chibbyr dy vull, which harboured a tarroo ushtey. It would come out of a bog and give a jump, and every jump it made it would be growing, when it was coming out of the well ; it would grow large and go after the cows One of these bulls came into the Ballacurrney [? Ballacurrey] fields, and began to go after the cattle to consort with, and chased them, etc., etc."

" I have often heard tell of a well on the top of South Barrule with very fine water. When you had found it and drunk of it, and went a few yards away, you lost sight of it, and could not find it again that day, search for it as much as you like : it could only be found once in a day."

" On Mull Hill there is a well called ‘ Chibbyr ny cabbyl ‘ (horse well), and the fairies had an exhibition at this well. Coming home from Port Erin one night at a late hour, a relative met with the fairies, and they took him to the exhibition and showed him all the wonders, and he said he never saw such wonderful things in all his life. He had been at the Dublin exhibition once, but it was nothing in comparison to the fairies’; he could not describe anything, for every thing was too wonderful. He was there until the rnorning dawned, and the exhibition got closed, and he found himself at the Chibbyr ny cabbyl, but he would not have it that he dreamed those things, and that he was asleep at all."

Chibbyr Beltain (or Chibbyr ny Tain) is an old sacred well on the Moor side of Surby, and adjacent to an old rellick (graveyard) now ploughed up. "To this well people used to go, and take water out for cures like for harm, and they would leave something at it, tied to the briars, that grew at the sides, a mark or a rag of cotton or lifleii for a return."

Other version : "You go there and get a drink, and also water for a cure of pain. We tied a bit of clout on a briar, and said ‘ I lift the water for the good of such and such a certain man, in the name of God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

Another : "The person lifted the water, and washed himself with it for a charm, so to wash the sore where the pain was, and would leave a rag along the well, and the water was taken at the time the tide is ebbing."

I examined the well carefully with a trowel, and plunged my whole arm into it, scouring its floor, which consisted of an accumulation of white, diminuated pebble stones, and is scooped out in the Silurian rock. I could not bring up any other objects, such as pins, or buttons, or coin. The water is as clear as crystal, and very cold. I was fortunate enough to obtain some old rags which were tied to some briar twigs, and some others which were strewn on the grounds which I took away for the future "Manx National Museum," as a valuable relic of fading beliefs of the Manninagh Dooie.

Prof. Rhys alludes to this well in his paper on "Folklore," March, 1892, P 75. I greatly doubt if his speculation as to the derivation of its name is plausible or correct. The name occurs already in the Island, end of the 14th century, in Cross Ivar Builthan, and Cross Vor Byulthan, there is yet a farm at this day, south of Ballasalla, called Balthane.

SIGNS AND CUSTOMS.

"A man in Surby met a funeral procession, at night, and heard the Clerk’s voice, and a funeral took place a few days after."

Signs of death :

" The coming of crowds, they see nobody, but hear them cry."

" There is like a fire, and screaming and crying."

" A drop of water, three times ; if you look for it, it shifts somewhere else, and a few days after there is a funeral."

"There is a blaze of fire, that goes slowly, when one is to die."

" At a late hour, a daughter of mine came home from Port Erin, she came into such a thickness of darkness, she could not get on. She stayed a while, and tried again, and came into a crowd of people like, supposed to have been a funeral."

‘‘ When you sneeze, you say : ‘‘ God bless you."

" Leave no knots on the corpse or in the rope."

" Salt is put on the breast of the dead, to keep them from swelling."

ANTIQUITIES.

Neolithic Flint Implements : Twelve years ago, I discovered small quantities behind Port St. Mary, on the strand, in the direction of the lime-kiln, toward the Chasms. I interested then a friend of mine, who lived at the Howe, and, to make him conversant with form and appearance of these implements, I submitted to him, for careful examination, a fine selection of flint knives, scrapers, and cores, so that he might look out for them when ploughing the fields, and working the flat lands iu the South. I saw him this summer, and he told me that he had found since large numbers, as good as those I showed him, and he collected a whole box full. As to their range, he told me he found them all over the low-lying district in the South, specially in the hollows, and that they range commonly all through Port St. Mary, Ballacreggan, Ballaqueeney, to Ballacurry, and he discovered them likewise at the Fairy Hill, at Santon, and in Ronaldsway. I may add that I discovered also a very rich settlement of these flint-implement makers, some 12 years ago, at the Brooghs, leading to Cass-ny-Awin, specimens of which, of a very fine make, I presented, some years ago, to the Ramsey Natural History Society, along with many others from various parts in the North of the Island.

CHARMS.

To STOP THE BLOOD.—(Very powerful.)

I.—-" Oh, Lord, hear my prayer, attend my suit, and in Thy faithfulness give Thou answer unto my prayer, and in Thy righteousness Thy servant also bring not into judgment to be tried, because no man in Thy sight can be justified. Adam and Eve did first sin begin ; but when Christ came He gave it the shock, and in His name I do discharge xy’s blood to stop and bleed no more."

II. (described as not as good as 1.)—" Hear my prayer, oh Lord! Give ear to my supplication. In Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness : for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. For the enemy prosecuted my soul. He has smitten my life down to the ground : he has caused me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead."

FOR TOOTHACHE (Beishtyn).

" In the namc of God : Amen. As Jesus passed through the gates of Jerusalem, He heard one of His disciples weeping and wailing’. Jesus said unto him, ~ Simon Peter, why weepest and wailest thou :- ‘ Then Peter said unto his Lord, ‘ The pain in my tooth is so grievous I cannot do nothing.’ Jesus; said unto him; ‘Arise, Simon Peter and follow me, in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost ; ‘ and the pain in the tooth shall cease, and whosoever shall keep these words in remembrance or in writing, shall never be troubled with the pain in the tooth. In the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."

PISHAG NOI GUINT (Elfshot).

"Abraham ren lhie ec cassyn Veesey Chris’. ‘ Jrree seose, Abraham,’ dooyrt eh, ‘ as \walkal marym.’ ‘ Cha voddyii~s,’ dooyrt eh, ‘ son ta mee er ny vwoailley lesh guint. " My she ass yn air haink eh ayn lhig da goll reesht ; as my she ass yn thalloo haink eh ayn Ihig da goll reesht ; as my she ass yn arkey haink eh ayn lhig da goll reesht ; as my she drogh persoon erbee ta er wishal eh, lhig da chyndaa er hene reesht. Ayns ennym ayn Ayr, as vn Mac, as yn Spyrryd Noa.' "

" Abraham lay at the feet of Jesus Christ. ‘Arise up, Abraham,’ said he, ‘and walk along with me.’ ‘ I cannot,’ sad he, ‘for I am struck with elfshot. " If it came out of the air, let it turn back again ; and if it came out of the earth, let it return back again ; if it came under the tide of the sea, let it return again ; and if any evil-disposed person has wished, let it return upon himself again. In the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost.’

FOR SCALDING.

" Three angels that came from the north—the one fire, the other frost, the other waiting on the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Then you blow on the scald, and as you go on, you say, "Out, fire; in, frost," three times.

Another (from Sulby).

" The three bright angels coming from the north : one brings fire, one brings frost. Come in frost, and go out fire. In the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost."

If you give the charm gratis it has the desired effect!

" Those Charmers were not willing to learn them to others. The father learns them to the son, and the mother to the daughter, so the family possess them as heirship, though they make no charges, but whatever you like to give them. There is a man in Ballakilpheric that charms the erysipelas, and he gets lots of money for it, the people come to him from all parts of the Island. There is no one else has his charm. He cures almost immediately if not left too long."—I just happened the very time to be with some friendly family at Ballakilpheric when the son came in with a bad hand, swollen with erysipelas, and his mother, an old and intelligent woman, just looked it over and at once sent word to that very man to come and bespeak it. She told the cures he performed were really surprising.

FOR STRAYING.

" Carry the cross-bone of the Bollan fish constantly about you, and it will prevent you from losing your way. "—-It is still commonly carried by the fishermen in their pocket, and I had one given to me by a good Manx friend of mine, and, may I confess it, it has been sometimes a " Sesame open " to me in my expeditions in quest of information. The sudden production of the corpus delicti acted often like an electric spark, when I dandled it before their eyes, and then innocently asked them if they knew what that thing was, and why they supposed I carried it about my person ? I vowed I had never strayed in my life, thanks to that good little friend. Did they believe in it, too ? The confession came, often slowly enough, though, and under protest ; the ice was broken, however.

THE DUMB CROSS.

" They were making a hedge at Clague’s Park, and as they went to work one morning one of the men, Thom Crellin, was suddenly struck with a pain in the knee, so that he could not do a stroke. He tried to walk home, but could not ; so one of his mates said, ‘ Let’s see what can be done,’ so he puts the dumb cross on and tells him to sit down a little while to see how he would go on, and it was not long till the pain began to be better, and he worked the whole day."

" When you make the dumb cross, you lift the right foot and cross it over and under and put it on the ground again, and do that three times and say at the same time, ‘ In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.’"

" If you have a thorn in the finger, and have pulled it out, even then a dumb cross is good ; well, and if it does no good, it does no harm."

" I was one eve out cutting the grass off the hedge, and it was foggy ad mizzly. I got up to get a bundle of grass home. Whik I was there, as usual, one of the daughters came over the fields, she could not see me, but knew where I was. did not give her an answer till she called the third time. She told me that some woman wanted to see me. I hurried on as fast as I could, and as I was going a step down the hedge of the field, a little sting of pain struck in my foot. When I came home three women were there. I thought not one of them could have done you any harm, because they did not know where I was. The wife took the notice, she would sweep the floor and threw it over me."

Horseshoe—" If there is any power in it, it is the first shoe of an entire (not gelded) horse."

TEETH.

" There is an old bone tooth, give a new one for it," you say. When you have pulled out an old bad tooth, then throw it over left shoulder towards the churchyard, with your back to it.

FRIGHTENING.

" When you are frightened, you say : ‘ Shee Yee dy row marym (the pace of God be with you.")

BUTCHING.

" When you are butched gather the dust from under the steps, or house of the person who intends harming you, and sprinkle it over you and others you would protect, and throw the rest into the fire."

WOMEN IN CONFINEMENT.

" When in that condition, take a Bible or prayer book, or the husband’s clothes, or the tongs ; the same when the child is left alone in the cradle."

PROTECTION OF BABIES.

" You put a spot of soot on the arm for babies, as a protection; also a needle in the clothes, when babies are taken out first to prevent butching." " A woman went out with her baby, and she put a cross of soot on his thom or front, hidden under."

LOSING.

‘‘ If you have any dealings in irons, poker, knife, or coin, or if your horse has lost a shoe, pick it up and shove it in a place and forget it. If you die it will bother you and your spirit afterwards; but if you tells you have the above things or the horseshoe in such and such a place, it never bothers you after death."

" Shove a piece of iron in any place, intending to take it out again, tell it. I’ll say to the article : ‘ If I don’t come to get thee again while I live, I’ll never come after my death,’ and it will never bother your spirit."

FAIRY AND HERB DOCTORS.

" The fairy doctors and herb doctors have great difficulty when operating. Great darkness is coming on while lifting the herb for curing harm to creatures and beasts. It is supposed it is caused by the evil spirit who wants to prevent them."

" I heard my mother, who lived in the Mull, tell a charm for a burn : that a mother died and left some little children behind her, and before the corpse was put in the coffin one of the little ones got scalded and was crying, when the dead mother sat up and told them the words to say, and then laid down again dead enough; but the child was all right, and that was the charm the people had now for a scald."

" I have seen my father charming a scald, but I don’t know what were the words, for a man cannot learn those charms to another man ; but a man to a woman, and a woman to a man, otherwise it has lost its virtue."

THE FOOT GOING ASLEEP (Callan Jiargan).

The Collan, or Codley jiargan, is a sensation of pain, generally felt in the foot, of a prickling nature; the charm, as given in Kelly’s Dictionary, and recopied in Moore’s Folklore, has neither sense nor meaning ; it goes—

Ping, ping, prash (should be : bing, hing, wass)
Cur yn cadley jiargan ass my hass.

the version I received has it

Collan bing is defined by Cregeen as a sound in the ear as of a bell, and Gallon in Scotch means a noise, an absurd hammering at anything.

" Of ‘The Vervain,’ a little is sewed in the babies’ clothes for protection, and also tea made of it and drunk for the same purpose."

" The Wooishleeyn (penny wort) is used for preparing a poultice, and is good for a scald ; it is put also in ‘ serve ‘ for erysipelas ‘ for a charm on it, ‘ mixed with nine other things. It is also good for a ‘ blass ‘ or pimple on the arm. The preparation of this poultice and the other ingredients required is a secret of the charmer which he refuses to divulge at any price, and it remains known only to the family."

It was held to be a lucky thing to possess a three cornered field ( magher trass corneilagh).

LOSING THE SENSE OF SMELLING.

‘‘ I have often heard it said that there have been persois walking late in the nght in lonely places, and getting into some curious smell, and when they mentioned it to any of the company they could never smell anything again, and it is attributed to the fairies."

PUTTING A BIG CURSE ON THE SMELL.

"A fisherman and three others went to the fishing one clay in the winter, from Fleshwick ; but, the wind increasing to a gale, they could not get back to the bay, and had to go to Dalby Point, where they left the boat, and had to walk home in the night. When they got to Cronk-ny-Irree-Laa, they saw a small light going along between themselves and the mountain, and they got into that horrid suffocating smell, and this young man, whose name was Quayle, put a big curse on the smell ; but one of the others told him not to mind it ; and he said no man could pass through it without minding ; but they did not take away his sense of smelling. The four of them lived in Ballakilpheric, and all got to their homes without any accident. Quayle lived with his mother, an old woman, in an old thatched cottage, and she was in bed when he came. The house had a loft in the parlour end, and his mother slept below in the parlour, and himself in the loft above. The loft was very old, and had some of the floor broken. There was a small window in the gable, and a chest beside it. After he had something to eat he went to bed, and the moment the light was extinguished he heard the window opened and a great deal of whispering, and he could hear some things jumping off the chest on the floor in scores ; so they at last surrounded his bed and held him that he was unable to move, and they were lifting up the bedclothes and blowing wind on every part of his body, colder than ice, until he was near frozen to death, and was almost despairing of life.

But at last he made one great effort, and tumbled out of the bed, on the side where the floor was broken, and slipped down through the hole in the loft, and got in bed with his mother. So he got clear of them, nor did they molest him no more."

PET NAMES.

Of children : Yn ushag villish, ‘Nushag veg. Eayn beg.Boght meen. Boght millish. Graih beg. Graih my chree. Guilley beg. Dooisey (doodee) beg. Lhannoo beg. Bobbee boght. My yuilley coar.

Of women : My graih meen. Graih millish. Ben voght. Ben vie. Ben aalin. Ben coar. Ben my chree. Christian names, for instance : Ysbal veen. Ysbal voght.

Of men : Dooiney meen. Dooinney coar, mie, aalin. Scollag aeg. Christian names, br instance : Illiam veen,—-My heshey . ghraihagh.

Cows : Brownie, Cordy, Milly, Charley, Bobbie, etc.

" There is but very little pet names in the Manx language for cattle or horses. I once wandered on a Sunday morning in Ireland until I came to a place called Sandy Cove, and saw an old man, a cow-herd, and he had about a hundred heifers and cows, and it appeared that they had been in mischief, for he was driving them away, and I was amused to hear him call them all by their Irish names, and when he was calling any one of them he always said, along with the name : ‘ Ye blaggard.’

Sheep : They call them often after any striking feature, or the place they came from, as Keyrrey boly vooai (big-bellied sheep), Rea mane ealik (ram of one horn), Keyrrey Earystane, Orrysdale, etc., sheep of Earystane, etc.

When calling a calf to be fed, they say even now : " Baa beg, ushtey." We had once an Irish girl who used to call : " Suck, suck," but it would take no notice, until it was addressed : " Baa beg, ushtey." To drive the cattle away they shout "sthoo;" to the horse they shout " wachch."

" If any stranger would enter the house, an old woman I know used to rub the dog’s nose with the visitor’s hands, as a common thing, to befriend the animal, which otherwise was too savage to be kept in order and quietness."

 (continued)