A potent love-charm used by women is a piece of skin taken from the arm
of a corpse and tied on the person while sleeping whose love is sought.
The skin is then removed after some time, and carefully put away before
the sleeper awakes or has any consciousness of the transaction. And as
long as it remains in the woman’s possession the love of her lover will
be unchanged. Or the strip of skin is placed under the head to dream
on, in the name of the Evil One, when the future husband will appear in
the dream.
A young girl who was servant in the large and handsome house of a rich
family tried this charm for fun, thinking she would dream of one of her
fellow-servants, and next morning her mistress asked the result.
“Throth, ma’am,” she answered, “there never was such a foolish trick,
for it was of the master himself I was dreaming all night, and of no
one else.”
Soon after the lady died, and the girl, remembering her dream, watched
her opportunity to tie a piece of skin taken from a corpse recently
buried round the arm of her master while he slept. After this he became
violently in love with the girl, though she was exceedingly ugly,
and within the year he married her, his love all the while remaining
fervent and unchanged.
But exactly one year and a day after her marriage her bedroom took fire
by accident, and the strip of skin, which she had kept carefully hidden
in her wardrobe, was burnt, along with all her grand wedding-clothes.
Immediately the magic charm was broken, and the hatred of the gentleman
for his low-born wife became as strong as the love he had once felt for
her.
In her rage and grief at finding nothing but coldness and insult, she
confessed the whole story; and, in consequence, the horror she inspired
amongst the people was so great that no one would serve her with food
or drink, or sit near her, or hold any intercourse with her; and she
died miserably and half mad before the second year was out—a warning
and a terror to all who work spells in the name of the Evil One.
THE FENIAN KNIGHTS.
A LEGEND OF THE WEST.
There is a fort near the Killeries in Connemara called _Lis-na-Keeran_.
One day the powerful chief that lived there invited the great Fionn
Ma-Coul, with his son Oscar and a band of Fenian knights, to a great
banquet. But when the guests arrived they found no chairs prepared for
them, only rough benches of wood placed round the table.
So Oscar and his father would take no place, but stood watching, for
they suspected treachery. The knights, however, fearing nothing, sat
down to the feast, but were instantly fixed to the benches so firmly by
magic, that they could neither rise nor move.
Then Fionn began to chew his thumb, from which he always derived
knowledge of the future, and by his magic power he saw clearly a great
and terrible warrior riding fiercely towards the fort, and Fionn knew
that unless he could be stopped before crossing a certain ford, they
must all die, for they had been brought to Lis-na-Keeran only to be
slain by their treacherous host; and unless the warrior was killed and
his blood sprinkled on the Fenian knights, they must remain fixed on
the wooden benches for ever.
So Oscar of the Lion heart rushed forth to the encounter. And he flung
his spear at the mighty horseman, and they fought desperately till the
setting of the sun. Then at last Oscar triumphed; victory was his; and
he cut off the head of his adversary, and carried it on his spear all
bleeding to the fort, where he let the blood drop down upon the Fenian
knights that were transfixed by magic. On this they at once sprang up
free and scatheless, all except one, for on him unhappily no blood had
fallen, and so he remained fixed to the bench. His companions tried to
drag him up by main force, but as they did so the skin of his thighs
was left on the bench, and he was like to die.
Then they killed a sheep, and wrapped the fleece round him warm from
the animal to heal him. So he was cured, but ever after, strange to
relate, seven stone of wool were annually shorn from his body as long
as he lived.
* * * * *
The manner in which Fionn learned the mystery of obtaining wisdom from
his thumb was in this wise.
It happened one time when he was quite a youth that he was taken
prisoner by a one-eyed giant, who at first was going to kill him,
but then he changed his mind and sent him to the kitchen to mind the
dinner. Now there was a great and splendid salmon broiling on the fire,
and the giant said—
“Watch that salmon till it is done; but if a single blister rise on the
skin you shall be killed.”
Then the giant threw himself down to sleep while waiting for the dinner.
So Fionn watched the salmon with all his eyes, but to his horror saw
a blister rising on the beautiful silver skin of the fish, and in his
fright and eagerness he pressed his thumb down on it to flatten it;
then the pain of the burn being great, he clapped the thumb into his
mouth and kept it there to suck out the fire. When he drew it back,
however, he found, to his surprise that he had a knowledge of all that
was going to happen to him, and a clear sense of what he ought to do.
And it came into his mind that if he put out the giant’s eye with an
iron rod heated in the fire, he could escape from the monster. So he
heated the rod, and while the giant slept he plunged it into his eye,
and before the horrid being recovered from the shock, Fionn escaped,
and was soon back safe amongst his own people, the Fenian knights; and
ever after in moments of great peril and doubt, when he put his thumb
into his mouth and sucked it, the vision of the future came on him,
and he could foresee clearly whatever danger lay in his path, and how
to avoid it. But it was only in such extreme moments of peril that the
mystic power was granted to him. And thus he was enabled to save his
own life and the lives of his chosen Fenian guard when all hope seemed
well-nigh gone.