[403] Published by the _Irish Archæological Society_, p. 27; there is a Seal Island off the coast of Donegal (Joyce, _Irish Place-Names_, ii. 282); and some Shetland legends of the seal will be found in _Soc. Antiq. Scot._, i. 86-89. Seals are eaten for food in the island of Harris (see Martin, _Western Islands_, 36), and one called the Virgin Mary's Seal is offered to the minister (Reeves, _Adamnan Vita. Columb._, 78, note _g_). The attitude of the Irish to seals is shown by the two following notes:--"At Erris, in Ireland, seals are considered to be human beings under enchantment, and they consider it unlucky to have anything to do with seals, and to have one live near their dwelling is considered as productive of evil to life and property. A story current, in 1841, describes how a young fisherman came in a fog upon an island whereon lived these enchanted men in their human form, but when they quitted it they turned to seals again" (Otway, _Sketches of Erris_, 398, 403). Off Downpatrick Head they used to take seals, but have given up the practice, because once two young fellows had urged their curraghs into a cave where the seals were known to breed, and they were killing them right and left when, in the farthest end of the cave and sitting up on its bent tail in a corner, there sat an old seal. One of the boys was just making ready to strike him, when the seal cried out, "Och, boys! och, ma bouchals, spare your old grandfather, Darby O'Dowd." He then proceeded to tell the boys his story. "It's true I was dead and dacently buried, but here I am for my sins turned into a sale as other sinners are and will be, and if you put an end to me and skin me maybe it's worser I'll be, and go into a shark or a porpoise. Lave your ould forefather where he is, to live out his time as a sale. Maybe for your own sakes you will ever hereafter leave off following and parsecuting and murthering sales who may be nearer to yourselves nor you think." The story is universally believed, and on the strength of it the people have given up seal hunting (Otway, _Sketches of Erris_, 230). [404] _Kinship and Marriage in Arabia_, 188. _Cf._ Mr. Jacobs' articles in _Archæological Review_, "Are there totem clans in the Old Testament?" vol. iii. pp. 145-164. [405] _Origins of English History_, 297. [406] _Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._, x. 436; Lang's _Custom and Myth_, 265; Elton's _Origins of English History_, 299-300; _Revue Celtique_, i. 50; iii. 176. [407] _Rev. Celtique_, vi. 232. [408] Aubrey's _Remaines of Gentilisme_, 102. [409] _Folklore Record_, i. 243. [410] Xiphilinus in _Mon. Hist. Brit._, p. lvii. [411] _Choice Notes, Folklore_, p. 16. [412] _Vulgar Errors_, p. 320. [413] Aubrey, _Gentilisme and Judaisme_, 109; Napier, _Folklore of West of Scotland_, 26. Consult Mr. Billson's valuable paper on "The Easter Hare" in _Folklore_, iii. 441-466. [414] Gregor, _Folklore of North-East Scotland_, 129, 199. [415] O'Curry, _Manners of the Anc. Irish_, i. p. ccclxx.