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 would be a worm in it, and if it smelled the herb that was brought in at the door, it might change to another place.  I don’t know what the herb was; but I would have been dead if I had it on another hour—­it burned so much—­and I had to get the lump lanced after, for it wasn’t the evil I had.

’Connolly cured many a one; Jack Hall, that fell into a pot of water they were after boiling potatoes in, and had the skin scalded off him, and that Dr. Lynch could do nothing for, he cured.  He boiled down herbs with a bit of lard, and after that was rubbed in three times, he was well.

’And Cahill that was deaf, he cured with the Riv mar seala, that herb in the potatoes that milk comes out of.’

Farrell says:—­’The Bainne bo blathan (primrose) is good for the headache, if you put the leaves of it on your head.  But as for the Lus-mor, it’s best not to have anything to do with that.’  For the Lus-mor is good to bring back children that are ‘away,’ and belongs to the class of herbs consecrated to the uses of magic, apart from any natural healing power.  The Druids are said to have taken their knowledge of these properties from the magical teachers of the Chaldeans; but anyhow the belief in them lives on in Ireland and in other Celtic countries to this day.

A man from East Galway says:  ’To bring anyone back from being with the fairies, you should get the leaves of the Lus-mor, and give them to him to drink.  And if he only got a little touch from them, and had some complaint in him at the same time, that makes him sick like, that will bring him back.  But if he is altogether in the fairies, then it won’t bring him back, for he’ll know what it is, and he’ll refuse to drink it.

’There was a man I know, Andy Hegarty, had a little chap—­a little summach of four years—­and one day Andy was away to sell a pig in the market at Mount Bellew, and the mother was away some place with the dinner for the men in the field; and the little chap was in the house with the grandmother, and he sitting by the fire.  And he said to the grandmother:  “Put down a skillet of potatoes for me, and an egg.”  And she said:  “I will not; for what do you want with them? you’re just after eating.”  And he said:  “Take care but I’ll throw you over the roof of that house.”  And then he said:  “Andy”—­that was his father—­“is after selling the pig to a jobber, and the jobber has given it back to him again; and he’ll be at no loss by that, for he’ll get a half-a-crown more at the end.”  So when the grandmother heard that, she wouldn’t stop in the house with him, but ran out—­and he only four years old.  When the mother came back, and was told about it, she went out and got some of the leaves of the Lus-mor, and she brought them in and put them on the child; and he went away, and their own child came back again.  They didn’t see him going, or the other coming; but they knew it by him.’