The "Liberator" was by no means one of its most ardent admirers. A jealousy of all who threatened to rival his influence, was a marked feature in that gentleman's character, as his treatment of Lord Cloncurry, Mr. Sheil, Mr. Sharman Crawford, and even such mob orators as Jack Lawless and Feargus O'Connor, proved at various times. The moral miracle of Father Mathew distracted the attention of the myriad dupes who heretofore had gazed with the eyes of faith at the glittering bubble of Repeal, with its rainbow hues. Father Mathew was a rival" Liberator" of a greater and nobler kind; and the glare of the Conciliation Hall system, with its mock glitter and theatrical varnish, might lose its tinsel, and cease to be admired. It was no wonder, therefore, that O'Connell disliked Father Mathew! To the editor of one of the Repeal organs he said, "You are making far too much of Mathew!" And in various ways he quietly insinuated his opinions about the worthy friar. Lip praise in public he gave the worthy father enough of; for Joseph Surface was not a greater adept in the art of substituting sentiments for acts-words for deeds. He made a flaming speech at the meeting in Dublin, got up by Peter Purcell, for raising a testimonial to Father Mathew. After the Duke of Leinster had put down his name for one hundred pounds, Peter Purcell also gave in his for another hundred, when O'Connell cried to one near him, "What impudence Peter has! Put my name down for five pounds !"

One reason also why O'Connell disliked Father Mathew was because the latter could never be coerced by the big agitator, or bullied by him into any course of which he disapproved. In early life, when without experience of the sort of agitators who have abused the popular confidence, Father Mathew had on one occasion-the solitary instance in his life-interfered at an election in Cork: The occasion was very excusable: it was in favour of the family of Hutchinson, who had done great service to the Catholics, and who had a claim on their friendship. Upon the understanding entered into with certain popular leaders, he had prevailed upon some poor voters to vote for the emancipation candidate. They were ousted in consequence by their landlord, but not a penny could Eather Mathew procure from the roaring friends of "the people." From that day Father Mathew determined to have nothing to do with politics, and he thought, upon reflection, that a clergyman should avoid that part which, of all others, inflames the feelings and rouses the prejudices of mankind. O'Connell could not dupe or drive him, and therefore the man who never was so happy as when he had crushed some rival influence, and made it either useless or subservient to his own selfish purpose, did not like Mr. Mathew. The movement for Irish manufacture, in which Dr. Flanagan was so active, was never let alone by the agitator until he had daubed it all over with the ruddle of repeal, when, of course, like a tainted sheep, it ceased to be regarded as wholesome by the sensible part of the community. But despite all the efforts of Father Mathew, the Repeal party did enormous injury to the teetotal movements, as will now be

seen.

When teetotalism had been adopted, it was thought advisable to supply the masses with some cheap and innocent amusement. Acting on that view, bands had been formed, temperance festivals encouraged, parties of rural enjoyment set going, and various amusements started for the people. Reading-rooms were established as a matter of course. But the year of dupes was at hand, in which the repeal bubble was at last blown big enough to burst. Popular excitement was created. A vast and portentous organisation was formed through the length and breadth of the island, and a display of physical force was made to cow the Duke of Wellington and to crush Sir Robert Peel! The temperance societies, with their banners and their bands were sucked into the vortex, and political enthusiasm, with its shadowy visions of regeneration, and its active development of a spurious and sectarian nationality, seized hold of the popular mind under the spells of the sorcerer who evoked the phantom of repeal. A mortal blow was thus struck at the teetotal movement. For despite of all that Father Mathew could do, despite of his manly and even heroic refusal to compromise the independence of the society of which he was the president, the cajolery of the agitator, and the inflammatory poetry of Young Ireland were too powerful for his influence.

But a terrible day was then at hand when with wailing hearts the people of this country were to experience the evils left by the false agitation which our present Whig viceroy has recently denounced in his letter, applying for the continued suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. The famine was at hand amongst a people who had been taught for years to hate England, and upon whom every species of delusive art that a charlatan in politics could invent had been practised with a cruel recklessness. The scourge of God's wrath was upon our land. The day was coming when years of folly, of agitation fomented to fill this man's purse-to satisfy that man's paltry ambition-agitation, destroying the sense of Ireland, and revolting the sympathy of England-were to be avenged by the spectacle of the people whose fancies had been so falsely excited, and whose minds had been so cruelly misguided, lying helpless before the nation so insulted and abused-the slandered, reviled, and calumniated England! Then came the ruin of our gentry, the destruction of our peasantry, the agony of all ranks. The heart of the people beat no more with exultation. They found at last that for years they had been cajoled, that they had been fol lowing an ignis fatuus, and confiding in a charlatan. They saw their country afflicted with the most woeful of heaven's visitations, and they witnessed the most unparalleled exertions ever made by a government to save a people from destruction. They heard of Pope Pius the Ninth expressing with honourable candour his admiration of the exertions made to save the people, whose "friends" could only cavil and sneer, and display their noble energies in abusing the hands that fed the population, or in denouncing the impotent rebels who had spoiled the trade of agitation, and torn the masks from the faces of the political brawlers who bought the people at a farthing a-week, a penny a-month, and a shilling a-year, and sold them to the treasury for a place to this cousin, the promise of one to another, and an impunity to themselves from the clumsy hands of a maladroit attorney-general. In such a day-one of sorrow and of shame-one to be thought of for a long time with agony to numbers—all moral advancement was neglected for the cause of mere physical sustentation.

But though the teetotal movement has received a heavy check by the social consequences of the famine, a vast deal of good has been effected. A popular opinion has been raised against drunkenness; and the fact that tens of thousands of Irishmen were induced to abandon spirituous liquors, is in itself a great moral fact in the history of our country. No one can despair of extraordinary moral alterations in this country who calmly reflects on the apparent hopelessness, some years since, of expecting a change in the national love of strong drinks.

We honour Father Mathew as a man who has given us good grounds for not despairing of the social regeneration of our people. We respect him for his moral elevation of character, his freedom from selfishness, and his contempt for all vulgar ambition. We see in him a man who has done great public benefits to his own detriment. His private resources he cheerfully expended in the cause of temperance, and has given up his time and care to the service of his countrymen. Such a man, who never abused his great influence for political purposes, deserves to be honoured and regarded with affection as one of the worthies of our island. Praise he has had in abundance. Statesmen in both houses of parliament have acknowledged his public services. Journals of opposite parties have testified to his disinterestedness. He has won at the same time the respect of the rich and the affection of the poor. May his health be still spared by Providence to enable him to pursue his virtuous career; and when, at some distant day, he will be called to receive the reward due to those who toil in their Maker's service, may his example allure many to follow in the footsteps of Mathew the philanthropist !

IRISH POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

CHAPTER III

MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS, FAIRY LORE, AND ENCHANTMENT.

IRISH FAIRY ARCHEOLOGY-THE UNCHURCHED-HOW TO GET BACK A WIFE-THE WORM CHARM, A BLARNEY TALE-THE KOSCOMMON DOCTOR, A LEGEND OF RATH CROGHAN-INTERIOR OF THE FAIRY PALACE HOW TO ESCAPE-THE FEE-FAIRY MEDICINE-TESTS FOR FAIRYSTRICKEN-THE CHANGELING-THE LUSMORE AND THE BACKGONE-THE PIPER OF BALLINAGAR-THE KEEN-THE FAIRY PATH, A LEGEND OF LOUGH CORRIB.

See, in particular, Keightley's "Fairy Mythology," vol. i. London, 1833.

cantations, as precisely at that hour she was to pass by with a grand cavalcade of fairy ladies and gentlemen. He was to know her by seeing her mounted on a white horse at the rere of the whole party. First of all he was to provide himself with some holy water and a prayer-book, as well as some sprigs of yarrow (archillea millifolium), which should be cut by moonlight with a blackhandled knife, certain mystic words having been first pronounced on the herb. He was also to carry with him a rosary, and above all, to procure a large worm in young,f the use of which was a substitute to the good people for his wife, as it is very hard to bring back an ailing let alone a dead person from fairyland without a substitute. Having arrived at the appointed place, he was to sprinkle with holy water the yarrow, and also make a circle round him with it on the road, so large that the fairy procession should pass through some part of it in their progress.

Having made the circle, he was next to draw the figure of a cross with a hazel wand, commencing at the eastern and ending at the western point of the compass. He should then repeat certain prayers with his face to the moon, and waiting until the cavalcade approached, he was at once to fix his eye on the white horse of his wife, and

as soon as she approached to pull her off, if possible, without going outside the circle himself. If he failed in this she was lost to him for ever. The mystic rites and all the necessary ceremonial were performed, and Biddy Sullivan was restored to her people. ‡

The fairies, though they are so knowledgeable, sometimes require the aid and assistance of mere earthly practitioners, particularly in the obstetric line of business. Many are the stories related of and by the Irish nidwife-ay, more than ever Carleton told, for all his legendary lore, and graphic powers of description. Don't we ourselves remember, as if it were but yesterday, sitting by, when Judy Mullowney, the luckiest woman in all the barony of Ballintubber, and that's a great sayingused to tell, when she had a drop in, and was what you might call mogalore, how her grandmother was taken off of a fine frosty night, by a gentleman in top boots and riding a grey mare, all the ways to Shee-More, in the county Leitrim, just under Fionn Mac Coul,|| to attend a beautiful lady that was "in the straw" there, and how she was blindfolded, and never seen the daylight for three days and three nights till she came home again. But what is the use in talking about Judy's grandmother,

A black-handled knife is an indispensable instrument in performing certain rites, and we shall have occasion to describe its virtues by-and-by. It is employed in the ceremonial of Hallow-Eve, and also in the mystic ceremonies performed at the rising of the new moon, as well as in certain diabolic mysteries made use of to induce love, &c. &c.

The large earth-worm known to fishermen as the caillaigh is held in great veneration, under the belief that it is a fairy woman, in that condition which worms wish to be who love their lords. It is therefore carefully avoided by females, particularly in the morning before breakfast, as should it be crossed at this time, and be accidentally killed by them, they think they incur the risk of having their children fairy-stricken. This creature must not here be confounded with the caillaigh ruah, or barbel of our rivers and streams.

At Tumon, in the county Tyrone, there is a graveyard set apart for females who die in childbed, and aged strangers; it is called Relig-na-mban, the women's burying-ground. There is a tradition attached to this old cemetery, that if any woman sets foot therein she will die within a twelvemonth; consequently all the females remain outside during the interments. In the same locality there is also a Killeen, or Relig-na-leinieb, or infants' burying-ground for unbaptised children. (See our former article, chap. ii. p. 560.) In the same place there is also a Relig na-befear-gonta, or strangers' burying-ground, literally the wounded man's graveyard. Strangers are always interred here. This ancient superstition concerning the separation of the dead is of great antiquity, and probably of Eastern origin. In all old cemeteries, the north side of the churchyard was always set apart for burying strangers in. This at Tumon was, no doubt, such an one.

$ About half drunk-pretty well, I thank you.

On the top of this picturesque hill there was some years ago a rude stone effigy of this celebrated Irish champion.

¶ There is no Irish term for midwife but bean cobraċ, i. e., assisting woman.