Mullinavat, county of Kilkenny.
[Footnote 1: Every good housewife is supposed to sweep the kitchen floor
previously to her going to bed; and the old women who are best skilled in
"fairy lore" affirm, that if, through any inadvertence, she should leave
the dust thus collected behind the door at night, this dust or sweepings
will have the power of opening the door to the fairies, should they come
the way. It is also believed that, if the broom should be left behind the
door, without being placed standing on its handle, it will possess the
power of admitting the fairies. Should the water in which the family had
washed their feet, before going to bed, be left in the vessel, on the
kitchen floor, without having a coal of fire put into it, if not thrown out
in the yard, it will act as porter to the fairies or good people.]
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_The Duke of Wellington and Marshal Ney. Parallel Passage in the Life of
Washington and Major André._--J. R. of Cork (Vol. vi., p. 480.) tells how
Wellington was in his youth smitten with the charms of a lady, who, in
after-life having appealed to him to save the life of Ney, was not simply
unsuccessful in her object but was ordered to quit Paris forthwith. J. B.
Burke, in the _Patrician_, vol. vi. p. 372., tells how Washington
endeavoured to win the love of Mary Phillipse, and how he failed: how years
rolled on, and the rejected lover as Commander-in-Chief of the American
forces was supplicated by the same Mary, then the wife of Roger Morris, to
spare the life of Andre. The appeal failed, and one of the General's aides
was ordered to conduct the lady beyond the lines.