Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second Series
General
Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second Series
Atlantic Coast (Ireland) -- Social life and customs; Folklore -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs
Butter, that's a thing that's very much meddled with. On the first
of May before sunrise it's very apt to be all taken away out of
the milk. And if ever you lend your churn or your dishes to your
neighbour, she'll be able to wish away your butter after that. There
was a woman used to lend a drop of milk to the woman that lived next
door, and one day she was churning, churning, and no butter came. And
at last some person came into the house and said, "It's hard for you
to have butter here, and if you want to know where it is, look into
the next house." So she went in and there was her neighbour letting
on to be churning in a quart bottle, and rolls of butter beside her.
So she made as if to choke her, and the woman run out into the garden
and picked some mullein leaves, and said, "Put these leaves in under
your churn, and you'll find your butter come back again." And so she
did. And she found it all in the churn after.
To sprinkle a few drops of holy water about the churn, and to put a
coal of fire under it, that you should always do--as was always done
in the old time--and the _others_ will never touch it.
* * * * *
There was a woman in the town was churning, and when the butter came
she went out of the house to bring some water for to wash it and to
make it up. And there was a tailor sitting sewing on the table. And
the woman from next door came in and asked the loan of a coal of
fire, and that's a thing that's never refused from one poor person
to another in the morning. So he bid her take it. And presently she
came in again and said that the coal of fire had gone out, and asked
another, and this she did the third time. But the tailor knew well
what she was doing, and that every coal of fire she brought away,
there was a roll of butter out of the churn went with it. So whatever
prayers he said is not known, but he brought the butter all back
again, and into a can on the floor, and no hands ever touched it. So
when the woman of the house came back, "There's your butter in the
can," said he. And she wondered how it came out of the churn to be in
three rolls in the can. And then he told her all that had happened.
* * * * *
There was a man was churning, churning, every day and no butter would
come only froth. So some wise woman told him to go before sunrise to a
running stream and bring a bottle of the water from it. And so he did
before sunrise, and had to go near four miles to it. And from that day
he had rolls and rolls of butter coming every time he churned.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account