_Red Lighted Coals of Fire Given Out of the House._--Old women in country villages prevented fire to be given out of their houses, and insisted on all men smoking extinguishing all the fire in their pipes before leaving the house was, I believe, the most ignorant superstition I ever saw practiced. A farmer's wife feared that if you should carry a lighted pipe from their house into another, it would enable the person carrying same to transfer milk and butter from one farmer to another, and he could do many other things. _Rounds._--Paying rounds around holy wells and shrines are very much on the decline. _Shea-Hated by the Mermaids of the Sea._--It is almost impossible for persons bearing the name of Shea or O'Shea to obtain partners to join them fishing in any harbor in the barony, due to the fact that people are afraid that if they had an O'Shea or Shea in their boats or canoes they would be drowned. For this belief a thousand reasons are sometimes given. However, after setting aside tales appertaining to mermaids, spirits of the deep, legends and superstitions, the striking fact remains that of the names of persons drowned in this peninsula within the last century the surname of Shea or O'Shea outstrip all others, and this is the more remarkable when taken into consideration that through fear in storms very few of them will take the risks of their fellow fishermen. Possibly when caught in sea trouble the want of confidence arising from superstition may have something to do with it. _Snap Apple Nights, or All Hallow Eve._--This night falls on the 31st of October. Up until near the end of the last century, it was a night of sport by young people in those parts by trying to extract fun and prophecy from fruit and beans. Amongst other things, they place beans together in pairs in the ashes close to the heat of the fire for the supposed lovers, one named for the boy and the other for the girl. If the beans burn brightly and quietly together, it indicated that the young man and the young girl so indicated would be married, but if they cracked and jumped apart from each other they would never be married. From the ashes many a strange tale would be foretold. After one pair jumped apart, another pair of beans would be tried and some other likely lovers named for each. Young persons also would dip for apples in tubs of water and endeavor to bring one up in the mouth by pressing it against the bottom of the tub. Sometimes an apple would hang from a cord and they would try to catch it with their mouths while in circular motion. In catching apples, hands should not be used. I knew of one girl who privately melted lead several times and each time threw it into water, in hopes that she could foresee her future husband to be a ploughman possessing horses, cattle and ploughs. I know that she got married to a farmer, not because the lead and water conveyed anything of the kind, but her heart and mind was set on having a farmer as her husband.