Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second Series

gave me my first knowledge of the healing power of certain plants, some it seemed having a natural and some a mysterious power. And I said that she had "died last wint

had been among had talked: "Irish of course-what else would they talk?" And I remember also that when Blake told Crabb Robinson of the intercourse he had had with Voltaire and was ask

g

g

told b

ut the name of that Saint through the Press, he'd tell me his remedies, and all the world would be cured. For I can't do all cures though there are a great many I can do. I cured Pat Carty when the doctor couldn't do it, and a woman in Gort that was paralysed and

s walking near Gort, and she called out, "There's the Fool of the Forth coming after me." So her friends that were with her called out though they c

nt to England, and then he cured all the world, so that the doctors had no way of living. So one time he got on a ship to go to America, and the doctors had bad men engaged to shipwreck him out of the ship; he wasn't drowned but he was broken to pieces on the rocks, and the book was lost along with him. But

erbs, and with a bit of threepenny sugar, and to boil it and to drink it for pains in the bo

matic tansy); it's very good for

bs-the father of the ground. This is very hard to pull, an

(loosestrife) that will

(mullein), the bless

uttercup) and it's good f

ure the wide world, and it was these brought our Lord from the Cross, after the ruffians that was with the Jews did all the harm to Him. And not one could be go

ld cure seven diseases. I'm all the days of my life gathering them, and I know them all, but it isn't easy to make them out. Sunday evening is the best time to get them, and I was never inter

. Q

good, and it will take away lumps. You must go down when it's growing on the scraws, and pull it with three pulls, and mind would the wind change when you are pulling it or your head will be gone. Warm it on the tongs when you bring it and put it on the l

, they don't like that. And he told her to go to bed, for he wanted to kill her, and he couldn't touch her while she was handling the flax. And every time he'd tell her to go to bed, she'd give him some answer, and she'd go on

. W

it when you like, but if not they mightn't like it. I knew a woman was cutting it one time, and a voice, an enchanted voice, called out, "Don't cut that if you're not paid, or you'll be

an on th

the death of some one's child that was in America, and all the island gathered to hear it read. And all the people were pressing to each other there. And when we were coming home, he had a bit of a ki

an would have in two. Did the woman in Spiddal say what gave him the touch? Oh well, she said all sorts of things. But I wouldn't like to meddle too much with such as her, for it's by witchcraft I believe it's done. There was a woman of the same sort over in Roundstone, and I knew a man went to her about his wife, and first

e used to cure all the dumb that came to her, and th

Clo

down in the bottom of a spring well. She was always asking me would I go and get it for her, but I took advice, and I was advised not to do it. So then she went herself and she got it out, a very green herb it was, not watercress, but it had a bunch of green

delion it was. There are two sorts, the white that has no harm in it, that's what I

Heff

ne time and my father went to him, and he gave him an herb for it but he told him not to come into the house by the door the wind would be blowing in at. They thought it was the evil I had, that is given by them by a touch, and that is why he said about the wind, for if it was the evil, there

er they were after boiling potatoes in, and had the skin scalde

of lard, and after that was ru

he thought that it would fall on herself. And anyway, she died before him. But Connor at Oldtown gave up doing cures, and his stock began to die, and he co

Phe

ache, if you put the leaves of it on your head. But as for

. W

ine young man I used to know and he got his death on the head of a pig that came at himself and another man at the gate of Ramore, and that never left them, but was at them all the time till they came to a stream of water. And when he got home, he took to his bed with a headache, and at last he was brought a drink of the garblus and no sooner did he drink it than he was dead. I reme

. A

eryone was sorry for the poor man, and him being worth ninety pounds. And they sent to the Curragh and to every place for vets, but not one could do anything at all. And at last they sent up in to the mountains for a faery doctor, and he went into the stable and shut the door, and whatever he did there no one knows, but when he came out he said that the horse would get up on the ninth day, and be as well as ever. And so he did sure enough, but whether he kept well, I don't kno

s Ma

stymon to Creevagh, but I saw a man come all that way to her, and he fainted when he sat down in the chair, he was so far gone. But she gave him a drink of it, and he came in a second time and she gave it again, and he didn't come a third time for he didn't want it. But I don't mind if I tell you the c

says, no one knows. There was a big man I know had a sore on his leg and the doctor couldn't cure him, and Doctor Moran said a bit of the bone would have to come out. So at last he went to Jim Carthy and he told

hat he got well, and now he is one of the

e Echtg

own, and she'd throw out what was left on the grass. And there was a fleet of turkeys about the house and they used to be picking it up

is, not Biddy Early, but one of her sort,

nd the skins, and he heard that the man that brought them away had them sold to a butcher in Loughrea. So he follow

things too. When Jack Fahy lost his wool, he went to h

to it for seven years-and we at school. And no one could beat him at the

bugging him, and humbugging is always bad. And there was a young horse in the field where the youngsters were and it began to gallop, and it fell over a stump and lay on the ground kicking as if in a fit. And t

t in the cow's ear. And so he did and in a few minutes he began to feel a great pain in his foot. So when the mother saw that, she took the bottle

o taken up with pride and with conceit they won't believe that to cure that sickness you must take what comes from your own nature. She's dead since of it, I hear. But I'll tell you the cure, the way you'll know it. If you are attending a funera

go to her, and she'd measure it over her thumb like this; and w

the side. There's the meena madar, a nice little planteen with a nice little blue flowereen above on it, that's used for a running sore or an evil. And the charm to be said when you're picking it has in it the name of some old curer or magician, and you can say that into a bit of to

s Ma

e 1) and some I could do myself, but I wouldn't like to be doing them unles

in the head, it's a charm you should use, and to whisper it into a bit of tow, and to put it on the mouth of whoever would have the pai

iet

ugh

on of

k of th

Man on t

likeness of the devil; and with druith they could do anything, and could put the sea between yo

. Q

ross to the graveyard that's near the house before sunrise and to pick some of the grass that's growing over the remains. And so she did, an

time I read in the Scriptures that the use of charms is forbidden, so I had it on my conscience, and the next time I went to confession I asked the priest was it any harm for me to use it, and I said it to him in Irish. And in English it means "Charm of St. Peter, Charm of S

er, she used to cure ulcers with it and cancers. It was with un

Phe

no bad thing can hurt you. And a cure can be made for bad eyes from the ivy that grow

Cre

r, and went away to a blessed well a little outside Gort, and there she saw a woman dressed all in white, and she gave her some of the water, and when she br

r in a hurry, and on a horse, and he'd want her to get up behind him, she'd say, "No," that sh

man she told her of, and not to say anything about the child but to say, "The calf is sick" and to ask for

all the people brought turf and made a big fire outside, and stripped the witch and the daughter to burn them. And when they were brought out to be burned the woman said, "Bring me out a bit of flax and I'll show you a pishogue." So they brought out a bit of flax and she made two skeins of it, and twiste

ing out with the pain of it. And she came down, and I was in the house myself and I saw her fill the bowl with oatenmeal, and she tied a cloth over it, and put it on the hear

me, and they had a bottle of poteen to bring her, but on the road they drank the poteen. But they got her an

families can do cures, just like King's blood used to cure th

op it in a minute when nothing else can, and there's o

n Ra

ggarth said to me, any man that will use charms to do cures with will be damned." I persuaded him to do it after, but I never felt that it did me much good. Because

n County

hould go and three stop away, and she would pass her hand over me, and would make me hold on to the branch of an apple tree up high, that I would hang from it, and she would be swinging me as you would swing a child. And she laid me on the grass and passed her hands over me, and what she said over me I don't know. And at the end of the nine visits I was cured, and the pain left me. At the time she died I wanted to go lay

ter Mi

to do it; it is a thing I never did, for the man would never be the better of it, and it would not take any of t

Hol

aking out she had no pain at all. So my mother gave her a drink, and with that he was on the floor and around the floor crying and roaring. "The devil take you," says he, and the pain upon

Ste

woman stretched beyond them, and one of them offered him a drink of the tea she had been using, and he didn't want it but he took a drink of it, and then he took a coal off the hearth and put it on his pipe to light it and went out to his comrade. And no sooner was he there than he began to roar and to

ther woman is in labour; if she does, that woman's pain wi

th the spring tide