A.M.

Crellin

Manx Folklore: Fairy Legends,

Customs & Superstitions

chiollagh books
mannin
 

Manx Folklore


 CHIOLLAGH BOOKS

 

[] William Cashen, William Cashen’s ‘Manx Folk-Lore’ ()  ---

[] Thomas H. Kinrade, Life at the Lhen, Kirk Andreas: ‘Notes on the Lhane Mooar and Largagh
Districts of Kirk Andreas’ ()  ---

[] Charles Roeder, Skeealyn Cheeil-ChioleeManx Folk-Tales ()  ---

[] W.W. Gill, Customs and Traditions, Cures and Charms, Fairies and Phantoms ()
 ---

-- 

 

[] A.W. Moore, Manx Folk-Songs ()  ---

[] Mona Douglas, Manx Folk-Song, Folk Dance, FolkloreCollected Writings ()
 ---

[] A.M. Crellin, Manx FolkloreFairy Legends, Customs and Superstitions ()
 ---

     

 A.M. Crellin

Manx Folklore:
Fairy Legends,
Customs and Superstitions

Edited
by
Stephen Miller

Chiollagh Books
Isle of Mann
 ‘Print-on-Demand’

Titles in this series are prepared with the same editorial care and attention as with all titles
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The down-grade in quality is unfortunate, but this is not in any way a reflection upon the
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This edition first published in  by

Chiollagh Books
 Central Drive
Onchan
Isle of Mann
British Isles
 

This Edition ©  by Chiollagh Books

Introduction ©  by Stephen Miller

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 ---

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
 Contents

   

₍  ₎ Fairies stopping the Churning, ₍  ₎ Fairies ₍  ₎ Fairies bothering the Miser

washing their Clothes, ₍  ₎ Fairy Fight, ₍  ₎ Smelling
the Fairies and receiving Harm, ₍  ₎ Fairy Music, ₍  ₎
A Skeptic 

    ₍  ₎ Meeting Two Glashtins

₍  ₎ Two Fairies spotted in Daylight, ₍  ₎ Harm from 

the Fairies
₍  ₎ Meeting a Buggane at Night, ₍  ₎ The Sound
    of the Buggane

₍  ₎ Horse seeing the Fairies at Night, ₍  ₎ Fairy  

seen in Ballaugh Glen ₍  ₎ A Crowd of Fairies
spotted near Gob-e-Volley, ₍  ₎ Fairies disturbed at ₍  ₎ Haunts of the Phynodderee
Night, ₍  ₎ Fairies seen at Night in Tellets Wood

 
₍  ₎ Sight of Ghosts a sign of Death, ₍  ₎ Headless
₍  ₎ Fairies trying to steal the Sleeping Girls Ghost haunting the Highway, ₍  ₎ Ghost haunting
the Highway
 
 
₍ – ₎ How to stop the Fairies from stealing the
Baby ₍  ₎ Meeting the Devil at Night

      

₍  ₎ Harm given to the Farmer begrudging the ₍ – ₎ Herb Doctors, ₍  ₎ Fasting Spittle, ₍ –₎
Fairies some Potatoes Herb Doctors, ₍ – ₎ The Dead Hand, ₍  ₎ Birth-
marks, ₍ – ₎ Warts, ₍  ₎ Curing Fits
  
  
₍  ₎ Fairies angry at finding no Cake, ₍  ₎ Giving
Bonnag to the Fairy, ₍  ₎ Fairies stopping for ₍ – ₎ The Evil Eye
Dinner

  -
₍  ₎ Miscellaneous
₍  ₎ Leaving out Bread and Clean Water for the
Fairies 

     ₍  ₎ The Witch of Cranstal

₍  ₎ Fairy Fleet a Warning of Stormy Weather , , 

  ₍  ₎ Birth, ₍  ₎ Baptism, ₍ – ₎ Weddings,

₍ – ₎ Wakes, ₍ – ₎ Funerals
₍  ₎ Fairy Dogs
        

₍ – ₎ Corpse Light, ₍  ₎ Sounds of Psalm ₍  ₎ Hatching Eggs

Singing, ₍  ₎ Bees a Sign of Death, ₍  ₎ Missing
Sleeve taken for a Sign    

  ₍ – ₎ Disturbing a Keeil

₍ – ₎ Candlemas Day, ₍  ₎ Good Friday, ₍  ₎  

August the First
₍  ₎ Saying about the Frost
 
 
₍  ₎ First Footing
₍ – ₎ Fisherfolk Beliefs
   

₍ – ₎ Saturday
 Introduction

Manx Folklore: Fairy Legends, Customs and but only produced one further report) and to the end
Superstitions brings together material collected by she revealed her frustration with the Society. ‘Having
members of the ‘Folk Lore Committee’ of the Isle of only a few Folklore notes … and in the absence of
Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society which any other matter of that nature, I propose giving a
appeared in the Society’s journal, Yn Lioar short account of the “Qualtagh”.’
Manninagh (‘The Manx Book’) in a series of annual
reports. The Secretary of the Committee was Miss It was to be largely left to Charles Roeder, a German
A.M. Crellin together with the Reverends Kermode, national resident in Manchester, together with
Harrison, and Savage, with the membership Edward Faragher (Ned Beg Hom Ruy) of Cregneash,
completed by Dr Tellet. to collect what we have extant today from the closing
decades of the th century.
The Secretary evidently had a difficult time
pursuading other members of the Antiquarians to Although only a small corpus of material was
collect material. The  Report starts with the collected by Crellin and her colleagues, it is
comment that ‘the following recent instances are of nevertheless worthy of reproduction. There is a
some interest, and may serve to show what collectors valuable focus both on fairy legends and medical
may expect if they will only be on the look-out for folklore.
them.’ This is a first hint of the frustration that
Crellin was to feel with members of the Society and
which was to be amplified in her introduction to the Stephen Miller
next annual report‘Year by year the old people, who   
alone are the store houses of these tales and
traditions, are dying out. I am convinced that there is     
still very much left for us to learn from them and
gather together, which must be done now or not at The material here has been re-arranged under
all.’ (Report for ) headings proposed by myself. The titles of the fairy
legends are likewise of my own devising. The
The Report for  mentions the failure of her idea typography has been brought into line with house
that members of the Society could club together to style. Editorial matter has not been reproduced.
subscribe to the Folklore Society. Again she calls for
members to collect‘I cannot help thinking that
many interesting little items are lost through sheer 
indifference; and I am afraid, too, that that most fatal
of Manx proverbs, “Traa-dy-lioar,” [Time Enough]   
has far too great a fascination for many of us.’
“Report of the Anthropological Section (Folklore).”
The Report for  continues again in this vein. Yn Lioar Manninagh,  (): .
Most of the report was contributed by Reverend
John Quine, Vicar of Lonan. ‘I only wish they [the   
Antiquarians] would follow his plan of making notes,
and either send them to me or let the Society have “Report of the Folklore and Place-Name Section.”
the benefit of them in one way or another. There is, I Yn Lioar Manninagh,  (): ‒.
am sure, still much to be gleaned.’
  
The  Report asked ‘… I do wish other of our
numerous members would exert themselves and do a No material relevant to this collection appeared
little more while the old people are still living …
superstition still lingers, and is dying hard in many   
parts of the Island.’
“Report of the Anthropological Section ()
The Report for  was the last that appeared under Folklore.” Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No  ():
her name (the Folklore Section survived her death ‒.

i
   

“Report of Anthropological Section. (.) Folk-

Lore.” Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No  (): ‒.

  

“Report of Anthropological Section (). Folk Lore.”

Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No  (): ‒.

  

“Report of Anthropological Section. Folk-Lore ().”

Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No  (): ‒.

  

“Folk Lore Report—March, .” Yn Lioar

Manninagh, , No  (): ‒.



The volume numbers and dates of publication given

above are correctYn Lioar Manninagh has a
complex history of appearance.

See also, A.M. Crellin, “On some Things Manx now

Obsolete.” Yn Lioar Manninagh,  (): ‒.
Notes on weaving, rushlights, spoon-making, the
flail, household furnishings and utensils.
 Manx Folklore—Fairy Legends, Customs and Superstitions

THE FAIRIES ₍  ₎  

₍  ₎     A few years ago, when the Manx Northern Railway
was being made, a Manxman who was working on it
When butter would not come they would beat the along with Scotch navvy, informed the latter that the
churn with fresh nettles then lay them on the top. ‘fairies was taken in his house every night, sure as life,’
they were ‘Singin’ and noisin,’ and making a terrible
₍  ₎     row.’ The navvy said he would like to hear them, so
one evening he repaired to the Manxman’s cottage. At
N— (Arbory) could often hear the fairies beetling and midnight the host said he was going to bed, ‘he’ wasn’t
bleaching their clothes down at the stream. going to sit up and hear ‘them things,’ not he: so off he
went, leaving the canny Scotchman in possession of
₍  ₎   the kitchen. Before long a cheerful chirping sound was
heard: evidently the ‘fairies’ were coming! and, shortly
The old ‘trammans’ (elder trees) at Ballakoig having after, a little army of crickets was seen emerging from
been cut down, the fairies came every night to weep the holes and crannies round the hearth. It was too
and lament. So many met that a fight ensued, and the much for the navvy; he could not resist killing them
following morning the people of the house found the all, and, laying their little dead bodies side by side on
‘sthreet’ strewn with fairies’ thumbs. the hearthstone, went and woke up the Manxman and
told him that in the morning he would find the ‘fairies’
₍  ₎       lying there dead. Need it be added that after that
night, no more fairies were ever ‘taken’ in that house!
Mrs C— (Arbory), about December , going to the
stream for water, passed through a terrible
stink–‘between a burnt rag and a stink.’ Again, at the FAIRIES MET BY DAY
stream the stink was so ‘thick’ she could scarcely
breathe. She said nothing till she got home, then she ₍  ₎     
told them she had ‘smelled the fairies.’
John Radcliffe, of Sulby told me that he was one
She knew a case ( or  years ago) of a girl who, afternoon, sometime during the winter of  or ,
when walking with her sister, said ‘O, Lord! what a shooting in Tellets Wood (Lezayre), and he saw two
stink!’ The sister smelled it, but said nothing. Since little figures of very diminutive proportions, peering at
then this other has lost her sense of smellnever smelt him from behind a tree. He thought at first they were
anything since. And she is alive yet! the children of a man who was cutting timber further
up the wood, and he took no more notice of them. On
₍  ₎   getting up to the man he asked him who the children
were, and the man said he could not tell. He had been
Old Bill Pherick was coming home late one night working most of the day and saw no children in the
across the mountains from Druidale, and heard the wood. Radcliffe said the figures he saw were very
fairies singing, just as he was going over the river by small, and appeared to be clothed in some brown
the thorn tree that grows therethe tune they had was material. He believes firmly they were fairies.
‘Bollan Ven,’ and, as he wanted to learn it from them,
he went back three times before he could pick it up ₍  ₎    
and remember it, but the third time he was successful;
just then the sun got up, and the fairies immediately K— (Andreas), when a lad, went with another boy
dispersed, for they always to at sun-rise. He came after birds’ nesses. At — there was a very large briar,
home whistling the tune, and since then it has always uncut for years. The other lad was peering through,
been very popular, and very much played on the fiddle; with his face almost touching the briar, when his face,
the words of the song ‘Yn Bollan Bane’ are sung to it. which was ‘as straight as yours,’ suddenly slipped all to
Many people think that Bill Pherick invented the one side, and was never right again. The people said it
tune; but he didn’t, he got it straight from the fairies. was the fairies.


 .. 

FAIRIES MET BY NIGHT ₍  ₎       

₍  ₎       John Radcliffe also told me the following very
interesting tale. It appears that one moonlight night
One day this winter we had no bread for tea, at he was shooting pigeons in Tellets Wood, some years
Orrisdale. On inquiring the reason the next time the ago, toward the end of November, when most of the
baker’s cart came, the boy who drove it said that the leaves had fallen from off the trees. He had his dog
horse saw fairies after dark, and so, as it was getting with him, and was also accompanied by a man
dusk, he had gone home instead of coming on with named Kewley. The light was fairly good in the
the bread! wood, and just as they were about preparing to return
home, a strange sound reached their ears as if
₍  ₎      numbers of cattle were galloping toward them from
the top of the wood. Radcliffe and Kewley
There was a spot in Ballaugh Glen which had a very immediately separated some distance apart in order
bad name. A young man and his sister were coming to let, what they supposed to be cattle, pass. The
down there late one night, when, just as they were noise was terrific, and the dog crouched down on the
passing the place, something came up against her, ground beside Radcliffe. Both men felt as if numbers
she touched her brother’s arm to draw his attention, of cattle were rushing past them at a furious rate, but
but he whispered her to say nothing, and then they they could see nothing. They went home, and next
both saw a fairy, with a red hat and red jacket, cross day Radcliffe revisited the exact spot where he and
the road before them, and disappear into some old his friend had been standing the previous night, in
buildings. order to ascertain if he could find the tracks or marks
of any animals amongst the leaves on the ground, but
₍  ₎      could only see footmarks of himself, his friend, and
 -- his dog. No other leaves appeared disturbed. He is
quite unable to account for the strange sound, and
Thomas Radcliffe, of Sulby village, shoemaker, told although he is a man of strong nerve and fine
me that, ‘a few years back,’ he was walking home physique he cannot never be induced again to visit
from Ballaugh one moonlight night, in the month of that wood after dark.
December, with a man named Quayle, and, on
getting near Gob-e-Volley ₍near midnightEd.],
they distinctly saw  or  little people in front of FAIRY ABDUCTIONS
them running across the road, and as they looked,
the figures ran into the quarry. At first they took ₍  ₎       
them to be some little children; but, on second
thoughts, they considered it strange that children When Mrs C—’s mother was ‘a lump of a girl,’ she
should be about so late at night. So Radcliffe and his was sitting one night with her sister, waiting on a
friend went into the opening off the road, where they sick sow. The two girls fell asleep at the door.
saw the figures go, in order to ascertain who they Suddenly the old granny heard ‘tremendous noising
were, and what they were doing; but, on getting into of murther,’ etc. Thenin Manx‘But I will,
the quarry, no trace of them could be found, nor any though.’ ‘But you won’t though.’ ‘But I will.’ ‘But you
sound heard. They looked and searched everywhere won’t.’ Then a scream, and a rushing sound, as of
for some considerable time with no success! Radcliffe something ‘blown downstairs and out of the house.’
says he is quite sure they were fairies. The granny, frightened, called out to the girls, who
were asleep. Next morning a large pool of blood was
₍  ₎     found outside the door of the cottage. ‘The fairies
had tried to steal the sleeping girls, but a person who
On another occasion this same man was returning had been carried off by them prevented them; this so
from Snaefell, and, coming down into a ravine where angered the fairies that they killed her. It could not
there were trees, he disturbed a crowd of creatures, have been a fairy they killed, as they have no blood.’
whose voices were like turkeys, but most
undoubtedly, supernatural. Going a little further on,
he saw in some fields the circling dances of ‘will o’
the wisps,’ and a little further on they appeared again
as darting and gambolling lights. This same man said
that, in the field behind their house, his father had
seen strange supernatural figures moving about, and
crying in unearthly voices, ‘Eternity! Eternity! how
long thou art,’ or the like words.


  

FAIRY CHANGLINGS ₍  ₎     

₍  ₎       At the limekilns by the mouth of Ballaugh river a
   woman was baking ‘bonnags,’ and a little child
appeared, to whom she gave a ‘bonnag.’ As soon as
Bread and cheese must be left out at night for the it touched her hand, the child disappeared.
fairies, lest they should take the baby and change it.
₍  ₎    
₍  ₎      
   ₍  ₎ Not many years ago a man of the name of ‘Gill-y-
Currie,’ living in Jurby, was accustomed always on
The belief in fairies was very strong; there was no Sundays, when he came from church and was
limit to the things that the little people could do, and preparing for his own dinner, to put spoons under
many and strange were the precautions taken against the table for the fairies in order that they might help
them. On going into a workingman’s cottage, some themselves.
ten years ago, the baby was found alone an asleep in
the cradle, the mother having gone for water. A
Bible and a pair of tongs were lying in the cradle; FAIRIES AND HOUSE-WATER
these had been put there by the mother to preserve
the child from harm during her absence. ₍  ₎      
  

FAIRY REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS The old people used always to leave bread and water
in the house for the fairies when they went to bed at
₍  ₎       night, and if there was no water in the house they
    would even go out and fetch some rather than
neglect doing this.
The following story is told by a woman still living.
Her father had a field of potatoes, and he noticed
that some of them were often taken during the night. FAIRIES OF SEA AND SHORE
He thought it was the work of the fairies, so he
resolved to sit all night in the field and watch. His ₍  ₎       
family tried hard to dissuade him from so doing, for
they feared some harm would happen to him, The fishermen say that fairy boats sometimes came
However, he would, and he did. Next morning he out among the herring fleet. When seen, the men
came back to the house, white and trembling with said to each other that it was time for them to go
fear, but would not tell anyone what had happened ashore, as there was sure to be a storm.
or what he had seen. He took to his bed, and shortly
after died in great agony. Then it was believed that
the little people had revenged themselves upon him FAIRY DOGS
for his meanness in grudging them a few potatoes.
₍  ₎  

FAIRIES AND FOOD C— (Arbory), returning home one night (February

), passed through a great thickness of Fairy
₍  ₎       Dogsthe road being covered with small black
things. He cried, ‘O! Lord! whatever is this!’ and they
E.C— (Bride) remembers a girl baking at his house, disappeared.
and forgetting to break the ‘thollag rheiny’ (‘sallag
rhenny,’ ‘dividing cake’). When she got into bed she
received a blow in the eye which knocked sparks out. FAIRIES BANISHED
This she knew to be from the fairies, and she went
down and baked another cake and broke it for them. ₍  ₎    

A man living near byvery miserlywas bothered

with noise every night, and could get no sleep. He
came down and threw something to them, saying
‘Here, take it, you little devils.’ He was no more
troubled.


 .. 

GLASHTINS two men, who had seemingly come from the cottage,
were following him. He wished to get clear of the
₍  ₎    glen, and walked faster up Cronk-a-Thona hill; but
the two men overtook him, and passed in a great
He saw two (about  years ago) with ‘tails three hurry, and without speaking; and he noticed a
yards on the ground.’ He ran and got to the house, peculiar thing, discernible notwithstanding the
which received a blow that shook it!’’ darkness, that their faces were as black as coal. That
same night the father and son, who lived in the
Glenroy cottage were lost at sea, on the passage
BUGGGANES between Whitehaven and Liverpool.

₍  ₎      ₍  ₎     

Margaret Ester Christian, an old woman living in The old entrance to West Hill House, Castle-
Sulby, told me last week, that one night she was townnow closedwas said to be haunted by a head
coming from Ramsey late ₍after midnight—Ed.], without a body, which moved up and down and
when she was a girl of  years of age, and near the travelled along the top of the wall alongside the old
Crossag’s Road she saw a figure in the road beside road. So strong was the belief in this, that no one
her which looked like a ‘cat’ but as she walked along would willingly pass up that way after nightfall.
the figure also walked, and gradually it grew larger
and larger, until it assumed the proportions of a ‘big ₍  ₎    
horse.’ She ran along as fast as she could, and after a
little time the figure, whatever it was, vanished. She T. E— was returning from L— after midnight, on a
was very much alarmed. clear still night, when he heard a groan in the road
ahead of him. He then saw a dark patch much
₍  ₎      resembling the shadow of a man’s head, as thrown on
the grown by moonlight; but there was no moon.
C— (Maughold) describes its cry as being something The road was dry and white, and it was not shadow;
between the bellowing of a bull and a man being there was nothing there only a dark space. As he did
choked! not like the look of it, and could not explain it, he
thought it wisest to pass by on the other side! Soon
after, a man driving along the road was thrown from
THE PHYNODDEREE his trap and killed. ‘Well, it was strange uncommon
what the thing was; but there was something there
₍  ₎     anyway!’

There seem a number of places which have the

tradition of having had a Phynodderee, it would be THE DEVIL
interesting if a complete list could be made. In
Lonan there are three, namely, Ballalheaney, in ₍  ₎     
Glenroy; Ballamilgyn, overlooking Laxey Gardens,
between the valleys; and Ballayolgane, in Agneish. A small farmer, who lived near Orrisdale, was
There was also one at Gorden, in Patrick. returning home late one night, across the fields near
Bishop’s Court, when, so he said, the Devil came up
to him, and, to rid himself of this most undesirable
GHOSTS company, he repeated aloud the verse of a well-
known hymn. The Devil immediately took to his
₍  ₎        heels, and, with a hiss, went off with his bag in the
direction of Orrisdale; where, as the neighbours
A. and his son, living in a cottage (now ruinous) in remarked, he would not get much, as John Christian
Glenroy, were seafaring men: the father skipper and Crellin, formerly of the th Dragoons, was living
the son a hand on a Douglas and Whitehaven coal- there at the time.
schooner. The lane from the cottage is along the
river bank to join the highroad at the ford over the
Glenroy river. As A.’s father was passing the ford
coming Douglas way one night, he heard behind him
the gate at the end of this cottage lane click as if
opened, and click again as if being closed, by some
one coming through. Presently he discovered that


  

CHARMERS AND CURES She is now hale and hearty, without a mark or sign
where the lump had been.
₍  ₎  
₍  ₎  
The belief in these people was and still is very strong;
both men and women have practised the art, and ‘Fasting Spittle,’ moisture taken from the mouth
they generally would be consulted in preference to when awakening in the morning, is looked upon as a
medical men. Doubtless there was much virtue in the grand cure for any lump or growth of any kind.
herbs they gathered and prepared, but they
themselves would confess that there was a great deal ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
of imagination about the power which they were
supposed to possess. The herbs were chopped up fine The lad s suffering from enlarged tonsils, so they
and boiled in milk for the patient, and great care had communicated with a man, clever at doctoring cows,
to be taken that the remains were never thrown away, etc, some miles off, asking him to cut a certain herb,
they must either be burned in the fire or thrown in which, if he would do, the herb and the tonsils would
the river. both wither away together.

₍  ₎   ₍  ₎ ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎

A man charmer could not teach another woman, Not very my years ago a young girl was taken
neither could a man teach a man; it must always be seriously ill; no one could make out what was amiss
learned from the opposite sex. It is very difficult to with her, and her case was said to have completely
learn the exact formula used, as great reticence is baffled the doctors. She almost lost all power of
shown on this point. articulate speech, would bark like a dog, foam at the
mouth, and was in very great pain. So her parents
₍  ₎   ₍  ₎ took her to an old woman who was considered clever,
no doubt she was a ‘Charmer’; and she said to them,
There was a famous woman charmer a few years ago ‘Go and dig a lot of large worms and put them in a
in the north of the Island. People came to hear from bag, and put them on her as a poultice, and she will
far and near, and they brought their sick in recover.’ And they did so, and put on the poultice,
wheelbarrows. She would keel down before the sick and immediately she began to feel relief. It appeared
person, make the sign of the cross on the floor with that she had been suffering from tape-worm, or some
her finger, and then on the sore of the patient, saying species of Entozoa, and the outward application of
over to herself some words in Manx perhaps the those in the bag was supposed to stir up and attract
Lord’s Prayer backwards. those within. She did get rid of them, and recovered
her health entirely.
This woman’s daughter-in-law had frequently seen
her charming sick persons, but of course for the ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
reasons given above had not tried to learn the charm
from her. This daughter-in-law has a sister living Had seen cure by a woman muttering in Manx ‘In
who, some  or  years ago, had a lump begin to the Name,’ etc, with her thumb on her eye.
form outside her throat which distressed her very
much, as it continued to grow, and none of the ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
doctors appeared to understand or be able to cure it.
When the lump was about the size of a walnut the Mrs K— had performed a cure she had often seen
sister went to see her, and found her in tears, and her mother perform. She used nine pieces of iron
very unhappy. She examined it closely, and (nails etc) which were arranged crosswise on the sore.
pronounced it to be a tumour, telling her it might There was no rubbing or anything, but the usual
grow to be  lbs in weight. She offered a cure, only invocation.
she must have faith in God that she would be cured,
or it was no use trying. So she told her to go down ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
on her knees every morning when she got up, and to
take ‘fasting spittle’ on her finger, and to draw her On July th, one of the cows at Ballachurry
finger three times each way across the lump, saying Andreas, was very seriously ill, and there seemed no
‘In the same of the Father,’ etc, and on no account to chance of her recovering. One morning, when ‘the
miss a single morning, but continue to do this daily, Masther’ was from home, the head man put the mare
and the lump would disappear. The woman did as into the dog-cart and drove off on his own account to
she was told, and soon the lump began to wither fetch the ‘Charmer’ from Kirk Bride. On the return
away, and before long it had disappeared entirely. of ‘the Masther’ that evening, the following was the


 .. 

account given to him of what had taken place in his ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎

absence by those who were looking on: When the
‘Charmer’ arrived he went into the cowhouse, where Had used knotted thread (tied round hand or fingers,
the cow was lying ill. He first went to her right side, etc), which was then buried, and as it decayed the
and kneeling down, muttered some words which warts disappeared.
those standing around could not catch, then, taking
some of the straw from under her, began to make ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎
with it a ‘thumb rope.’ After a while he got up, and
went to the other side of the cow, and kneeling A black slug was rubbed on the warts, then a thorn
down, took some more straw, with which he run through the slug: when withered, the wart would
continued making the ‘thumb rope.’ When it was be gone.
finished he hung it round her neck, telling those
around him that it was to be left there until it fell off. ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎
He gave the cow nothing to eat, nor did he do
anything else to her. For a short time she got up and On the first Wednesday of the new moon cause the
looked about her, and seemed better. In a very few patient to look at the moon on his bended knees;
days after this she quite recovered, and soon was then, from under his right foot, take some mould and
perfectly strong and well. rub it over the warts. Before the end of that moon
the warts will have disappeared.
₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
₍  ₎  
Mr Quine says that the belief in charms to stop
bleeding is very strong; what the particular charm is I Lace, Ballacreggan, and another man said that some
do not know. He says that people still procure earth years ago lights were seen frequently at night in Jurby
from new graves in the churchyard, but he does not Church, and that he and his friend, being out late at
know how it is used. night, saw the light and made up their minds to go
and see what was the cause. They went. Lace pushed
₍  ₎    ₍  ₎ the door, which opened easily, and went in. His
friend, being afraid, stood at the door. On entering,
A poor woman in a neighbouring parish having a he (Lace) saw at the Clerk’s desk a man reading the
child suffering from some strumous affection, took Bible, with a candle in a skull on a stick. On
the little one to the churchyard and sprinkled it with questioning him as to what brought him there at that
the earth from a new-made grave. This, however, not hour, he said his daughter was subject to fits, and he
proving a perfect cure, she next took the child to a was advised by a wise man to read certain chapters at
house where an old man was ‘laid out’ preparatory to midnight in church, with a skull and candle. It was
his being put in the coffin, and she drew the hand of said she gradually got better.
the corpse over the features of the child two or three
timeswith what effect were are not told.
DROGH HOOIL—THE EVIL EYE
₍  ₎    ₍  ₎
₍  ₎    ₍  ₎
A woman in this parish a short time ago, took a child
of her sister’s who had a trifling blemish or The belief in the ‘Evil Eye’ (‘Drogh Hooil’) was very
‘birthmark’ on its face, to three different houses strong in the Island, even until quite recently, though
where she heard of a corpse, and had the mark now we hear little about it. This power for evil was
stroked with the dead hand, expecting the operation considered to run in families, so that certain families
to be effectual in removing the blemish. were held in terror and visits from them received
with fear. It was considered best, at their departure,
₍  ₎  to follow and gather up some of the dust from their
footprints, and scatter this over any animal upon
Mrs H—, when an infant, was cured by her which it was feared they had cast an ‘evil eye.’ The
grandmother, who closed doors and windows, and dust had to be gathered at once, and before the
sealed the keyholes, then roasted the heart of a person had crossed a stream of water, otherwise it
freshly-killed sheep, which was stuck full of pins, to a would be of no use. Many instances can be given.
perfect cinder. When this was done she opened the
front door. (The beast must be newly killed.) One woman told, how many years ago, her mother
kept poultry; another woman, who was supposed to
have the ‘drogh hooil,’ came to buy eggs from her,
but she refused to sell to her, and gave them to


  

someone else; on leaving the house, she with the ‘evil ₍  ₎    ₍  ₎
eye,’ passing the fowls, made some remark about
them; a few moments later the woman of the house Here is a case of the ‘evil eye’ which happened so
went out and found one of the fowls dead, with its lately as in December, last year ().
head twisted round; she brought it into the house,
and going out again, found another in the same state. A young calf of some three months old, which
belonged to Ballachurry, in Andreas, was very
Then she knew that the ‘evil eye’ had been put upon suddenly taken ill, it rushed wildly about is stall,
them by that other woman when she passed them. shouting and bellowing, with its eyes starting out of
She, therefore, put them at once on the top of the its head, and altogether behaving in a wild and most
fire and burnt them, for anything that has died of the extraordinary manner, almost as though possessed.
‘evil eye’ must be burnt, it must never be eaten or
used in any way. This same woman had also a young In an hour’s time it was dead. On making inquiries
pig, and a cousin of the above mentioned woman, of a neighbouring farmer, who has a large stock of
who had also a bad reputation, came to buy eggs, but cattle, as to the nature and cause of this peculiar
was refused like the other. So she went away, but had illness, the owner of the dead calf was told that only
hardly gone when the pig fell ill, foamed at the once in his long experience of farming had this
mouth, and died. farmer had a calf so afflicted, and upon that occasion
it was said to be suffering from the ‘evil eye.’ Some
Soon afterwards the woman got another; in a few dust from the road leading to the cowhouse was
days the same person passed by the house with a swept up into a shovel, and sprinkled over the calf,
friend, and wondered whether this pig would be the result being that the animal shortly recovered.
bewitched like the last. The relator of this story was This is the best known cure for the ‘evil eye,’ and I
sitting in her own cottage, a few yards off the other, believe that is very commonly done in the Island at
when she heard her fowls flying up on the roof, the present time, especially in the north. The owner
making a great noise as if much frightened; she ran of the dead calf (J.C. Crellin) was only sorry that he
out and found that her mother’s new little pig had did not know about the cure in time, that he might
jumped out of its stye, and was rushing wildly about, have tried it, and so, according to the usual results,
foaming at the mouth, apparently ill in the same have saved its life!
manner as its predecessor had been.
₍  ₎    ₍  ₎
She was very much alarmed, and called loudly to her
mother to come out, which she did, and other A sheep was taken very ill ₍March ] which
neighbours soon collected. The mother said she belonged to a man in the north of the Island. In
would go off to a man, more than three miles away, order to cure it he swept up some of the dust and dirt
who was a clever ‘Herb Doctor,’ and would get a cure from the highroad close by in a shovel; this he
from him, the neighbours thought it was no use, as sprinkled over the back of the sheep. Shortly after
the pig would not live that long; however, she went. doing so the sheep recovered, and very soon was
Meanwhile, the narrator had caught up the pig by perfectly strong and well again! This sheep,
the hind leg, and, running into the road where the evidently, had suffered from the ‘evil eye!’ However,
woman with the ‘evil eye’ had passed, covered the pig it shows that there is still a certain amount of faith in
with dust from her footprints, saying, at the same these kind of charms.
time, ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost.’ This seemed to have a beneficial ₍  ₎    ₍  ₎
effect.
A man with the ‘evil eye’ went to see a woman, but
The mother ran on and found the herb doctor, who she was out working in a field near by. She saw him
at once assured her that the pig would not die; he go from her house to the cow-house, and wondering
gave her some herbs for it, telling her that it would what he wanted there, so soon as he had left, went to
eat them greedily. Hardly believing him, she see. Under the cow she found three eggs placed in
hastened back, and when she had arrived near home, the form of a triangle. She knew that his was
called out, ‘Is the pig alive?’ And they said, ‘Yes.’ And unnatural and meant harm; so she took them away
she ran on, and boiled the herbs according to the and destroyed them. That same night the cow fell ill,
wise man’s direction, and the pig eat them greedily and never properly recovered, and before very long
and recovered. had to be killed.


 .. 

₍  ₎    ₍  ₎ At last the poor woman told her husband that he
really must go to a herb doctor not far off, and get
Another old man tells a story. His father, C—, was something from him to cure the child. So he went,
going to Ballaugh Old Church, and a neighbour but as it was after sunset the herb doctor declined
called to go with him. C—’s cow was eating crushed cutting anything that evening, but told him to come
gorse from a wooden tub in the cow-house, and the again next day, when they should be ready, for the
neighbour looked in and said, ‘Fine cow that, C—.’ herbs must always be gathered before sunset.
They went to church and came back together, parting However, the child’s father was not able to go for
at the door. C— went into his house and found his them the following day, and that evening the baby’s
wife distracted, for the cow had stopped eating the screams ‘bet all,’ the mother had never hard such a
moment the man spoke about her, and would not time with it. So the next day her husband went for
now touch her food. The wife thought she was sick, the herbs, and found the ‘doctor’ in great wrath. He
and C— seeing that something was wrong, followed told him never to do that again, but to come at once
after the man, and taking a handful of snow from his for the herbs and not appear so indifferent about
footprints, sprinkled it over the food in the tub, them them; no wonder the baby was so much worse that
the cow recovered, and began to eat again evening, when the herbs were lying cut and waiting to
contentedly. the fetched.

₍  ₎    ₍  ₎ The husband rather shamefacedly took home the
herb, which were all cut up fine; the mother was to
This man tried on another occasion to work harm. boil them in new milk and give the baby teaspoonful.
He asked a neighbour who was killing a pig to give This she did, and immediately the baby became
him a bait of fresh pork, to bait, as he said, a very long better. To make doubly sure, she repeated the same
line on the shore. It was given to him, but the other the following day, and, on the third day, she boiled
found next morning that, instead of using it for bait the herbs in water, gave her baby a teaspoonful, and
as pretended, he had taken it into his cowhouse and then washed him all over in the decoction. After this
hidden it under the cows, in order to do them some she had no more trouble with him, as he was perfectly
injury. He was a notorious character in this sort of well.
way. The power these people were supposed to wield
was enormous. At Orrisdale, in January, , a With regard to the ‘sweeping of the dust’ to
beautiful brood of early chickens were hatched. For counteract the ‘evil eye,’ the first question the herb
two or three weeks they throve and were strong and doctor put to the father was whether his wife had
healthy, then one by one they all died off, and it was done this, and he said she had done very wrong in
remarked at the time that it seemed as though some omitting it, for, had the dust been sprinkled over the
one who owed a grudge had put the ‘evil eye’ upon baby, with the word ‘In the name of the Father, and
them. Then an instance was given of a woman who of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,’ the child would
had a fine, healthy baby, until a neighbour came in never have suffered as it did.
one day who owed the mother a grudge. She saw it,
and from that time the child grew sick and weakly, ₍  ₎    ₍  ₎
and it was supposed that she had put the ‘evil eye’ on
it. There was a woman who had a most troublesome
cow, which, after it had its first calf, refused to be
₍  ₎    ₍  ₎ milked, so that its legs had to be tied, and it had to be
held to prevent its kicking and crushing the woman
The Irish ever have been disliked by the Manx when she milked it. Having told a neighbour what
people. One old woman told me how, one day, when trouble she had every day with it, he said to her, ‘Go
she had her baby of about six weeks old in her arms, to the High Bridge (Ballaugh), at one o’clock at
an old Irish woman and her daughter came in; they night, when all is still, and take some one with you,
were strangers to her, but they took up the baby and and sweep all the dust off the bridge, and bring it
made a great fuss and ado about it, which at the time back with you; then go into the cowhouse, and, if the
the mother very much disliked; she feared they would cow is quiet and ‘chewing the cud,’ do not disturb her,
be doing it harm. They had hardly gone when the but sprinkle the dust round about her.’ So she went
baby began to scream, and it screamed and screamed, and did as she was told. Next morning when she went
nothing would pacify it; it screamed until it was fairly as usual to milk, the cow seemed quieter though tied
tired out. The child’s mother was greatly alarmed, and and held by the men, so she said to the men, ‘Loose
wished her mother to go out and ‘sweep up the dust’ the ropes,’ and they did so, and she said, ‘Let her
after the woman, but she ridiculed the idea and would alone,’ they let her alone, and the cow stood still. Ever
not do so. Every day at the same hour the baby began afterwards they cow was gentle and docile as could be.
to scream, and this continued for nearly a fortnight.


  

₍  ₎    ₍  ₎ ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎

I have heard of several instances of a calf having been The custom still prevails of blowing horns in the
burnt to avert the influence of the ‘evil eye,’ or evening before a wedding outside the house where
prevent a man’s cattle from being bewitched. I have the bridge and bridegroom live. These dreary sounds,
also heard of a cock having been sacrificed by a man produced generally from cow’s horns, continue for
who imagined that he was under the influence of several hours.
witchcraft.
₍  ₎  ₍  ₎
₍  ₎ 
Sometimes, also, a large boulder held in the two
The people have a strange dislike to bury an animal, hands would be rolled backwards and forwards
assigning as a reason that by so doing they would be against the gable of the cottage.
cheating the fowls of the air and the beasts of the
field of their rightful food, and fearing lest they ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎
should cause more to follow. The body is to be left
on the surface of the ground to decay away, and, as It was always customary, when paying a first visit to a
may be imagined, the result is sometimes not bride, to bring some little present in the hand. This
agreeable. Some twelve years ago a farmer in might be instead of, or in addition to, anything given
Ballaugh who had lost a calf caused it to be buried in before the wedding.
a field. When his wife and daughter heard of this
they went and had the carcass dug up, and placed on ₍  ₎ 
the sands of the sea shore. The late Dr Wood, some
few years ago, saw the carcass of a dog on the railway ‘Wakes’ were commonly kept in a house where
line near Michael, and had the greatest difficulty in anyone lay dead. Three or four of the neighbours
getting it buried, though he insisted that it was taking it in turn to sit up at night in the room with
dangerous to health. the corpse, all the family retired to rest excepting
one, who would sit up to provide for the wants of
those who were watching. They were provided with
WITCHCRAFT books, and tobacco, and candles, and so passed the
night, the house being for the time spoken of as ‘the
₍  ₎     wake house.’

The ‘Witch of Cranstal’ having dipped her stick in ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎

some filthy mixture, drew it across a field, and put a
cow to graze in the other part of the field. Although Some years ago I happened to be present one evening
there was no fence, other than the charmed line, in the death chamber when the corpse of the
neither was the cow tethered, yet the hay grew and deceased was about to be placed in the coffin. As I
was cut in the half where the cow was not put by her. was standing by the bed I heard the undertaker say in
a whisper to the nurse, who was there, ‘Have you
loosed everything?’ She announced that all was right.
BIRTH MARRIAGE DEATH The body was then placed in the coffin. Being
curious to know what this conversation referred to, I
₍  ₎  asked, and was told that it was an old custom here to
loose everything before putting a body into the
It is considered unlucky for a child to carry a baby coffin, so that there might be no impediment or
down stairs before it has been taken up, and to this hindrance at the Resurrection.
day a Manx nurse will see that the newly-born is
taken up at the first opportunity. ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎

It was the custom at funerals for the mourners who

₍  ₎  were near relations and wore crepe hatbands to keep
their hats on during the service in church, and on the
It was in former days considered very unlucky not to second Sunday after the funeral the relations would
have every child baptized, and parents were most come to the morning service in church, and sit
careful see that this was always doneof course, in during the whole of the service. Mourners always sat.
those days, only by the ‘parson.’


 .. 

₍  ₎  ₍  ₎ ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎

It is unlucky for a funeral to be straggling, as it J. R— who recently resided in the parish of Andreas,
indicates another soon to follow. Also, that a funeral but who now lives in Sulby, told me that one night, a
will not take a route that involves going away from few years back, he was walking home from Ramsey
the church; and, in the case of a Nonconformist and, on getting close to Regaby gate, he saw a bright
funeral, a family would not have their service in the light (like a ball of fire) in front of him travelling
chapel, as, the house lying between the chapel and along the road. The light suddenly turned towards
the church, it involved turning their backs on the the hedge on the right hand side, adjoining the road,
church if they went to the chapel first. and rested upon the hedge for some little time. The
light then went into the field. He followed it and saw
it going over the field for some distance. It then took
DEATH SIGNS AND OTHERS a semi-circular route and again went on to the
highroad further up and disappeared. When J. R—
₍  ₎   ₍  ₎ arrived home he told his wife what he had seen, and
said he felt sure that a neighbour, who was seriously
It is commonly believed by those sufficiently ill at the time, would die. The neighbour died two
credulous in such matters, that sparks or flames of days afterwards, and that week J. R— was invited to
fire seen, or imagined to be seen, passing a dwelling attend the funeral. He said that he attended the
is a sure sign of death or disaster to some of the funeral, and that, owing to the bad state of the road,
inmates. the coffin had to be taken over the hedge into the
adjoining field (this was at the exact spot he had seen
₍  ₎   ₍  ₎ the light a few night previously). The coffin was
carried over the field and taken again into the high-
Another story of the same kind was told me by an road at the very place the light disappeared. He said
old woman, who remembers well having heard in her ‘this was one of the most curious sights he had ever
youth of some neighbours of hers who were coming seen.’
up through Ballaugh village late one night, and they
saw, as they thought, fire coming out of one of the ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
chimneys of a house, which blazed up quickly and
then went out. The inmates of the house knew The same informant says he has often seen this in his
nothing at all about it, as they were all fast asleep in younger days (he is now  years of age): That if you
bed. A short time after, one of them died. Light and kicked up a sod of turf with the foot a bright light
sparks are also often seen moving about a room immediately showed itselfthat it would quickly
shortly before a death in a house. disappear, and then show itself again several yards
awaythat if you followed it, it would go further on,
₍  ₎   ₍  ₎ and you might chase it for hours, and it would still
skip away and elude you. Though people were wont
The belief in mysterious lights appearing about the to regard this in more ignorant times superstitiously,
time of a death in the neighbourhood is not by any it plainly enough proceeds from natural causes. We
means exploded, though it is difficult to get the do not hear of ‘will o’ th’ wisps’ now-a-days, for the
people to speak of them except among their more good reason that the Curragh is so much better
credulous neighbours. The lights are said by some to drained than formerly.
go from the house where the corpse lies, direct to the
churchyard before the interment had taken place. In ₍  ₎    
other cases they merely hover about the house. Mr
C—, of Balla—, in Ballaugh, told the writer that he The same informant told me he had on several
was looking out about three o’clock one morning occasions distinctly heard the singing of the funeral
from his bedroom window, about a year ago, and saw psalm as if by the Parish Clerk and others, before a
a light in the field by R—’s housethe nearest to his burial. This used to be a very common superstition in
ownthat he put on his clothes and went downstairs, the Island. I have often heard of it from old people.
when he saw the light go towards the high-
roadthat he went in the same direction, but by the ₍  ₎     
time he got to the road it had disappeared, and he
never saw it after. That he said to his wife, ‘R—’s It’s a sign of death, min; yes, it is, for there was three
wife, who is now lying ill, will be gone within a swarms came them three years, one after another,
month.’ She died very shortly afterwards. He had into the chimley of the house, an’ I lost three, one
probably seen an ‘ignis fatuus,’ as the ground below after the other; a big lump of a boy, and two gells, it
R—’s house is wet and marshy. was terrible loss. Do you remember the year Parson


  

died? Well, Tom was goin’ to work one morning, ₍  ₎   
and he toul (‘told’) me as he was goin’ along he saw a
swarm of bees go down the Parson’s chimley. I said There was a custom in this parish, and elsewhere in
to him, there’ll be a death there soon. Sure enough, the Island, for the young people, on the first Sunday
the Parson died that year. in August, to go in companies to the highest
mountains.
₍  ₎      

It happened that the sleeve of a dress which was THE QUAALTAGH

being made disappeared, and, though search was
made everywhere, could not be found. This was said ₍  ₎  
to be ‘a sign,’ ‘a sign’ meaning a coming death or
disaster; needless, perhaps, to say, the sleeve turned I purpose giving a short account of the ‘Quaaltagh’ or
up again all right, and nothing terrible happened! ‘First Foot,’ a subject which I think may be very fitly
dealt with by this section.

CALENDAR CUSTOMS It is gratifying to be able to say that the ‘quaaltagh’ is

still to the fore, and has lived to usher in another
₍  ₎   century. Of all the events of the years, few played a
more important part than the ‘first foot’ that crossed
The th day of February is called ‘Caillagh-ny- the threshold of any dwelling after the old year had
Groamagh’s Day.’ The story is as follows: ‘Caillagh- expired and the new year begun. The first person
ny-Groamagh,’ the gloomy or sulky witch, was said who entered the house, was to bring good or ill to
to have been an Irish witch who had been thrown the inmates. A fair haired person was considered a
into the sea by the people of Ireland with the better omen than a dark, [a] man was more
intention of drowning her. However, being a witch, acceptable as the ‘quaaltagh’ than a woman; but, be it
she declined to be drowned, and floated easily until who it might, the ‘first foot’ was to be warmly
she came to the Isle of Man, where she landed on the welcomed, brought in and fed; cake and wine and
morning of February th. It was a fine, bright day, other dainties were generally in readiness, be the time
and she set to work to gather ‘brasnags’–sticks to what it might, after the midnight hour, or when the
light a fire, by which she was able to dry herself. The morn of New Year’s Day was far advanced. On
spring that year was a wet one. It is said that every January lst of this year I heard of a fair-haired
th Feb-ruary morning she still goes out to gather ‘quaaltagh’ being warmly welcomed and fed in one of
‘brasnags’ to make a fire by which to dry herself; that our northern parishes, where he was visiting several
if it be fine up to noon, and she succeeds in doing so, houses for the purpose of collecting a rate, and,
then a wet spring will follow. But, if the morning be though the rate had to be paid, still he happened to
wet and she cannot get dry, then the spring will be a be the ‘quaaltagh,’ and ill-luck to the inmates if they
dry one. neglected their duty to make him welcome. And, in
another house in another parish, the cook was highly
₍  ₎   ₍  ₎ pleased because the ‘quaaltagh’ was a fine, strong,
healthy, ‘genal’ man, who was sure to bring good
On this day the old people say, ‘Laa fadther, Laa ail’ lucktrue, he was darkand his good qualities were
(‘Half of the Fodder, Half of the Fire’)–meaning so pronounced, that the colour of his hair became
that, as the winter is only half over, there should be quite a trivial matter.
as much straw, hay, and turnips for the cattle, and
turf for the fires, unconsumed, as had already been Originally the ‘quaaltagh’ were Carol Singers, who
used. came at midnight on December st to usher in the
new year. Until quite recently I cannot remember the
₍  ₎   time when a quaint carol, with an equally quaint
tune, was not sung under my bedroom window. I
I recollect any old lady, who always put away her have written down the words of the carol, as far as I
sewing on Good Friday, and gave as her reason that can recall them; other verses there were, which I have
no needle or any pointed piece of iron should be used forgotten; the tune I have had harmonized, and am
on the day of Our Saviour’s Passion in remembrance not aware of ever having seen it in print, or the carol
of the nailing to the cross. either. That carol was succeeded at least in this
district, by an adaptation of the hymn ‘While
Shepherd’s Watch,’ with the following refrain after
each verse:


 .. 

 DAYS OF THE WEEK

Happy New Year, happy New Year,
A bright and happy New Year. ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎
May the Stars shine bright
With their heavenly light The last day of the week seems to have been held in
And, God bless the glad New Year considerable reverence. Many of the old women
would put away their spinning at noon, and do no
The melody of the hymn and refrain were quaint and more that day. This was evidently in preparation for
pretty. I have also had them harmonized, and hope the Sunday, and it was said to be in accordance with
that if they are not already in print, it may be possible the injunction, ‘the evening and morning,’ etc.
to publish them in this magazine. As far as I know Others would not ‘cast on’ stitches for a new stocking
they have both entirely died out, but it would be a during the day, supposing the old one were finished.
pity if they should be lost altogether. In the present
day, at Christmas and the New Year, there are ₍  ₎  ₍  ₎
‘Singers,’ far too many of them, but carol singers are I
fear gone, certainly we hear now only hymns of Fishermen would not put to sea in their small boats.
various sorts sung to us; a very poor substitute, to my
thinking, for the old carols and the old times.
LUCKY TIME OF DAY

When you go to your stable, ₍  ₎  
your mind is on your horse;
Your mind is not on Jesus Christ, Always put eggs to hatch under a hen at high tide:
who died upon the Cross; ‘Full tide brings full eggs,’ i.e., chickens.
Who died upon the Cross,
and so happy may we be,
For we never did for Jesus Christ, DISTURBING KEEILS BRINGS HARM
as he has done for we.
May the Lord send you a joyful New Year, ₍  ₎    ₍  ₎
New Year, New Year
May the Lord send you a joyful New Year. A man in Algare had about the place a stone or
stones from Keill Abban (St Luke’s) built into a wall
When you go to your dining-room, or walls. One nightperhaps the night first after the
your mind is on your dinner; sacrilegeas he lay in his bed, he became aware that
Your mind is not on Jesus Christ, two men were in his room; but whether visible by a
who died to save the sinner; candle that was burning or by moonlight the narrator
Who died to save the sinner, could not say. Anyhow, he heard them in
and so happy may we be, etc conversation about himself. One proposed to kill
him. ‘No,’ said the other, ‘but let’s ‘straake’ (strike)
 him unmarciful.’ The man became ill, and spent his
When you go to your cellar, time very poorly all the rest of his days; in fact, it was
your mind is on your beer; not very long he lived after that any way.
Your mind is not on Jesus Christ,
who shed the bitter tear; ₍  ₎    ₍  ₎
Who shed the bitter tear,
and so happy may we be, etc. A treen chapel occupied the side of a field on The
Rheyn, in West Baldwin. Blackthorn, gorse, briars,
God bless the master of this house, etc, grew on the precincts; and the place was used to
and bless the mistress too, dry linen on the bushes. Kewley, the purchaser,
And all the little children, rooted up the bushes, and removed the stones of
that circle round his knee; foundations, the grave slabs, and some inscribed
That circle round his knee, stones to build into fences and farm buildings. One
and so happy may we be, inscribed stone is in the Government Office; but the
For we never did for Jesus Christ, others were lost. He levelled and ploughed over the
as he has done for we. ground, incorporating the area into the field. The
May the Lord send you a joyful New Year, story of the consequences, including the statement
New Year, New Year. that he was warned by neighbours not to touch the
May the Lord send you a joyful New Year. old chapel and the graves. Anyway:


  

His son who ploughed the place took an FISHING SUPERSTITIONS

unaccountable pain in his arms, and eventually died
before his father. ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎

The Kewley children were always ailing, and several Fishermen will send to a well-known charmer for
of them died. herbs before putting out to sea. This to give them
luck.
Everything went wrong with the prosperity of the ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
family:
They spit on their bait for luck.
He heard disturbing noises: e.g., in the dead hours of
the night all his horses seemed to have been let loose ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
out of the stable, and to be galloping furiously
around the farmyard as if terrified or lashed by a They will steal any small article from a lucky boat in
driver; but, on his getting up and going out, he could order to get the luck.
discover nothing, the horses being found standing
quietly in the stable, but a sound of hoofs was heard ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
galloping away past the haggart and the chapel field.
They deem it unlucky to leave the harbour in the
A windmill into which the stones of the graves were third boat; or, on a Friday; or, to take a white stone
built became a source of such constant anxiety that it as ballast; as an illustration of this last: a few years
was ultimately taken down. One version of the story ago one who had constant ill-luck in fishing obtained
implied that the mill was unaccountable and the nick-name ‘Clash Bane’ (‘White Stone’).
mysteriously set going at night, with the risk, of
course, of its getting on fire and burning the whole ₍  ₎   ₍  ₎
farmstead. He took down the mill and re-buried all
stones as near their original as possible. To whistle at sea, or to speak of a ‘mouse,’ or any
other supposed noxious ‘vermin,’ is considered
Kewley, in conclusion, was a Methodist local unlucky. To avert the ill, scratch the mast.
preacher, and an ‘uncommon good Manx scholar.’ In
the end, they sold the place, having gone back in the
world.

WEATHER SAYINGS

₍  ₎    

There is an old saying about the weather, that if frost

begins with the moon on the wane, there will not be
much of it.

