Lying on the top of the salt-box was a bunch of fairy flax, and
sewed in the folds of her own scapular was the dust of what had once
been a four-leaved shamrock, an invaluable specific "for seein' the good
people," if they happened to come within the bounds of vision. Over the
door in the inside, over the beds, and over the cattle in the outhouses,
were placed branches of withered palm, that had been consecrated by the
priest on Palm Sunday; and when the cows happened to calve, this good
woman tied, with her own hands, a woollen thread about their tails, to
prevent them from being overlooked by evil eyes, or elf-shot* by the
fairies, who seem to possess a peculiar power over females of every
species during the period of parturition. It is unnecessary to mention
the variety of charms which she possessed for that obsolete malady the
colic, the toothache, headache, or for removing warts, and taking motes
out of the eyes; let it suffice to inform our readers that she was well
stocked with them; and that, in addition to this, she, together with her
husband, drank a potion made up and administered by an herb-doctor, for
preventing forever the slightest misunderstanding or quarrel between man
and wife. Whether it produced this desirable object or not our readers
may conjecture, when we add, that the herb-doctor, after having taken a
very liberal advantage of their generosity, was immediately compelled to
disappear from the neighborhood, in order to avoid meeting with Bartley,
who had a sharp lookout for him, not exactly on his own account, but
"in regard," he said, "that it had no effect upon Mary, at all, at all;"
whilst Mary, on the other hand, admitted its efficacy upon herself, but
maintained, "that Bartley was worse nor ever afther it.
Pages:
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224