_Mistletoe._--Kissing under the mistletoe was a custom which is now almost dead and gone, at least in West Kerry. In our part of the county it was a very innocent amusement, and I never heard of a single instance in which it was abused. The custom was this: At Christmas a piece of mistletoe was hung up over the doorway leading into the kitchen or some other favorable place, and whenever a young girl stood under it a young man claimed--and nearly always exercised--a right to kiss the girl and pluck off a berry for each kiss. Sometimes in the town of Dingle two or three young men would stand on a street corner having a piece of mistletoe with them and would kiss every girl that happened to come their way. A girl who would make persons believe that she was running away trying to avoid being kissed by the boys was sure to be hunted until caught; then the mistletoe would be held over her head until she was given at least a half-dozen kisses by each of her captors. Although it is the relic of pagan days, the mistletoe was hung up in churches during Christmas, but because young people, instead of praying and assisting properly at mass, were kissing, courting and rehearsing the marriage ceremony over eligibles, thereby causing the whole congregation to pass from one uproar of laughter into another, both the mistletoe and the kisses were abolished, and the holly, with its numerous thorns, substituted for the mistletoe, thereby warning them of the fact that going through marriage was like drawing them through a thicket of holly and briars, the thorns of which might pierce them to the quick. _Mother Carey's Chickens or Stormy Petrels._--This was the term applied to flocks of small web-footed birds about the size of a chicken or even smaller than blackbirds. Their appearance is neat and they are always on the wing. They are found pretty numerous at times in the Blasket Islands and Skellig Rocks, but their whole time is spent on the ocean. The reason they are called "Mother Carey's Chickens" is because fishermen and local sailors say they are the first and most reliable birds to give sailors warning of the approach of a storm by rushing in flocks towards them whistling "Wee, wee!" But I do not know how correct that can be, for I find that their greatest delight is in rough weather and storms. The meaning of the expression, "Mother Carey," is said to be "Mother Dear," and is intended for the Virgin Mary, due to the fact that she was considered the patroness of sailors. In the daytime these birds never seem to swim, but while on the wing allow their feet to touch the water, and naturalists say from its walking appearance upon the waves like the Apostle Peter, the name "Petrel" was applied to them.