The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-14

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 and of Punishment for Those Who.
 Remarrying, Neglect Their First
 Children.
 On the western side of Teelin Bay un- der Sieve League. close to the curing station, is a ruined chapel of St. Aedh mac Bricc. A little above it, on the side of the hill. is a station" with crosses and sacred stones. which latter, when applied to the ailing part, give health; and here I found sticks which had been left ty a lame man who had been cured quite. recently, and also decaying crutch which had been left there, as I was told, some thirty years before.
 4 little higher up the bay is a sacred well called '@Tobur na m-ban-naemb," i. e., Well of the Female Saints. From the name, and from the proximity of this well to the chapel of St. Aedh may Bricc, I am inclined to think that it may be connected with a legend to be found in the life of that saint which tells how he raised from the dead three murdered maidens, and how at the spot where this occurred a fountain broke forth, which, says the writer, IS still called fons pueallarum, or the Maidens' Fountain (Codex Salmanticensis, col. S42l. Here I found rosaries, handker- chiefs, buttons, shreds of clothing, a sardine box, bottles, crockery, a clock wheel, Jews harp.
 Near the summit of Slieve League is another sacred well, dedicated to St. Aedh himself; and here also I found sticks and a crutch, crockery, glass, fishhooks, buckles, laces, nails, a pipe stem, rubber piping, string, rags tied to sticks, bicycle clip. At the famous well of Ct. Columbia, in Glencolumkili, l found cups, mugs, glasses, bottles, pots, crosses, with rags tied to some of them; tins, a purse, a glass heart with God save Ireland" inscribed upon it, hair pins. laces, a pen, shreds of wool, fern heather. etc. Here, too, little lower down the hill, in St. Columbia's house, is stone which is reputed to have the power of curing bad eyes.
 At the sacred well on the summit of Croagh Patrick, which is now covered over with a structure of corrugated iron CD, I found handkerchiefs, rags beotlaces, string, hairpins buttons, a pipe-stem, buckles, a horse shoe, paper, clips, rosaries, bottles, a comb. No doubt some of these things suggest that the tourist has been among us and left his mark without implying any greater amount of faith than we ourselves may have displayed by dropping crooked pins into so-called wishing wells. But most of the offerings are certainly gen. uine.
 Near the shore of Lough Gill, in Sligo, is a well, also sacred to St. Columbia. Here a regular stone altar has been built, with crucifix and candles and all the accessories of a developed ritual. But overhanging the we'll is an ash tree on which found some shreds of rags, while near by is rude stone slab locally called a druids' altar. However that may be, the possible conjunction in the same spot of these symbols of the older and the newer faith is won derfully stimulating to the imagina- ton.
 The belief that those who would ben efie by the virtues of these sacred wells must leave behind them something closely connected with themselves is forcibly illustrated by a story which was told me of a well at Doon, near Kilmacrenan, which I did not myself visit. Thither, some years ago, came a woman who was suffering from blind ness. She washed her eyes at the well and recovered sight As she went away rejoicing she left, accidentally as it would seem, her umbrella behind her. In spite of the warnings of her car driver she went bacw to recover it and at once became blind again.
 In the case of a well at Faughart, de- scribed in Murray's Guide book, as in one of the instances given by Professor Rhys the water to be effective, must be drunk out of a human skull.
 Of the fairies I could not hear very much They are tradition rather than , living belief in the part of Donegal which know best. The holly tree was specially sacred to them, and was not disturbed for fear of displeasing them. In the old days of illicit distilling the distiller would always scatter the first half pint or so of the spirit that came from the still into the air. This was caught by the fairies and neve rreached the ground. Fishermen, too, returning from fishing would declare that they had heard the fairy people Adding in the face of the cliffs.
 In many of the fairy stories collected by Professor Rhys and others egg shells play an important part, especially in detecting changeling children; and I was myself always taught by my nurse to put my spoon through the bottom of the egg-shell after eating an egg, Ito keep away the fairies" l. e., suppose, to damage the shell and make it use- less for fairy purposes; and l am to this day slightly uncomfortable if that im- portant ceremony is omitted. To this my informant could not give me any parallels from his own experience. But he told me that some years ago the fishermen round Teelin Bay had curi- ous superstition that it was very un- lucky to eat eggs before going to sea, and if any one was known to have done so he would not be allowed in the boat that day.
 The following tale was told me by one of the boatmen who took me across to Inishmurray, off the Sligo coast It is