Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 391, 5 November 1903, Page 2

Ways of Living.

LITTLE-KNOWN IRISH LEGENDS. pretty Leuton legends, q'lite ra2v|P unknown to the genera.! student of folk-lore, still turvi?G among the peasantry of Ireland, as also ia that remote district of the Highlands which has retained its Roman Catholicism in an unbroken line—the small corner of North Britain to which the story of the Reformation bas hardly yet penetrated. Such eupsrstitions, however, are fading fast to thin tradition, for fantasy vanishes rcmance-kiUiag code o? the School Board. A few examples of some curious Lenten customs and beliefs of simple country folk may be of interest just now,

Lrn'sbh Babies. By tbe Irish peasant motherhood in LsMit is held to be attended with speoial dagger, and the rooted superstition still endures that a child born during the long fast is predestined to a sad and melancholy temperament, mora especially if the baby be a girl. «She will be thruly good, the little darlin'/ augur village soothsayers, ' but she will have the tfaroubles and the sorrows, and be afflicted with sore griefs,' and not the least of these is the assurance that *a daughter of Lent will sever be a wife/ ' A Lenten sob/ they say, ' should be a priest with special gifts of grace to overcome the sins and temptations of the world/ so that many a simple Irish cotter offers up devout and fervent thanks when she becomes ' the blessed mother of a Lenten boy. 5 J Signs and Omens The Irish peasant is subject at all seasane to the sense of shadowy supernatural agencies, whose tigns and omens are interpreted according to the superstitions of his particular locality and household. But at no other time is his helplessness against such fateful and inexorable agencies brought home to him as in L3ut Moreover, at this time the auguries and omens assume aa especially depressing complexion. Thus the 'keen' of the Banshee, alwajs an eerie presager of d ath, when it occurs dunn? Lent has the gloomy significance of a double funeral. Peasant mothers in Ireland still carry their children to holy wells—for faith in the efficacy of these is strong, and every village boasts such well or sacred stream. Here the little ones are made to creep en hands and knees, beating their iufant breasts the while they pray and plead for Lenten mercy on their own and the manifold sins and wickednesses of theiv fellows, and are bathed in the blessed water, which is credited with a miraculous power of averting sickness and washing away sin. The oeremony is completed by tying to a tree in the neighbourhood of these consecrated springs shreds of coloured rag as a thank offering and prop i iation to the particular patron saint, who is believed to preside over the birth of the child and to hold its future in his keeping. 'Sacred Ashes/ Crossing the forehead with a finger dipped in the sacred aihes is a religious rite belonging to the first day of Lsnf, and devoutly observed by most Irish peasants. Indeed, it is a very firm conviction with them that neglect of this token of humility and consciousness of sin will assuredly and speedily incur Heaven's vengeance. A plentiful sprinkling of ashes across the doorway on each Lanten Friday keeps a household free of evil presences and wards iff poverty and sickness. Especially devout believers strew ashes beneath their beds the while they mutter incantations devised to keep away the demons of the night; and if epidemic illness occur daring Lent the sprinkling is made to take a cruciform shape. ' May the holy saints protect the children from the scarletsickness,' reiterates a mother as she shapes the holy sign of the cross in ashes beneath the cabin bed. The shamrock—tne sacred trefoil—worn on St. Patrick's D*y, is held to ward iff, for that day at least, the dangers ever threatening the rustic imagination, bat especially menacing during the forty days' abstinence enjciaed by the churches. The Colleen's Faith. 1 Forty days in which to do forty good deeds—and tuffer forty misfortunes,' say wise old women, scrupulously safeguarding each member of their household by means of a ' blessed leaf/ the carrying of which by day and night is believed to temper the severity of the misfortune to which this season exposes them. Many an Irish coll-en in pretty .faith embarks the cup-like flowers of the Lenten lily on the water of stream or bog, her heart full of confidence that her craft will return at Easter laden.with the blessings she invoked at their launching. And groups of men and women assemble joyously at dawn on Etster D*y in Irißh villages to s<re the sun 'dance over the hills' or out of the s3a ia exultation for the triumph of the Eesurrection. For the spell of gloom is thus broken, aad the dangers which for forty days have menaced an otherwise light-hearted paople vanish before a sunrise which heralds tbe High Mass of Eaßter morning,