At Innis-Murry, Sligo, there is a large table-stone supported on eight
perpendicular stones as a pedestal. And on the table are seventy-three
stones, from five to twenty inches in circumference, which have been
lying there from the most ancient times; for to remove them would be at
the peril of one’s life.
On these seventy-three stones all the anathematic spirit of the island
is concentrated. If the islanders suffer any injury, real or supposed,
they come and turn these stones, uttering a malediction over their
enemy, and should he be guilty he will assuredly die, or suffer some
calamity before the year is out.
A Scripture reader, having boldly taken away one of these stones to
show the folly of the superstition, was obliged to restore it and to
quit the island, or his life would not have been safe.
There is another stone on the island where alone can fires be lighted,
should all the domestic fires become extinct, and the spark must be
struck from the stone itself.
Innis-Murry is a desolate spot, rarely visited; the approach is so
dangerous on account of the sunken rocks. The crops are scanty, and
the soil is poor and light, growing only a short herbage of a spiral
and sharp kind. Neither scythe nor sickle could be used in the entire
island. Meal is unknown, and dairy produce scarcely to be had, as the
grass can only support a few sheep; but the islanders have fish in
abundance, crabs, lobsters, and mackerel especially.
A traveller, who visited the island about fifty years ago, describes
the manners and mode of living as most primitive; but the women have
the reputation of being exceedingly virtuous, and the households are
happy and well conducted. At that time a rude stone image was venerated
by the people, called “Father Molosh,” but supposed to be an ancient
pagan idol, probably Moloch. The priest, however, has since had it
destroyed.