After being fulled, new cloth was folded and placed on a table. The women, who had been engaged in the fulling, then gathered round it and sang the following charm seven times. During the singing they kept time to the music by raising their hands simultaneously and beating the cloth with the tips of their fingers. After each repetition of the charm the cloth was turned over end: “Well do I say my verse, As I descend the glen, One verse, two verses, etc., down to seven and a half verses. Let not the wearer of the cloth be wounded, And may he never be torn, And when he goes to battle or conflict, The full succour of the Lord be his. [The little sea-gull yonder swimming And the white wave that she loves, She swims pleasantly And I swim cheerfully spinning; When I sow my flax And spin my lint I will make linen from the awns And get seven marks for the yard.] Water-cress pulled through flag-stone, And given to wife unawares, Deer’s shank in the herring’s head, And in the slender body of the speckled salmon.” Then, striking the cloth faster, the singers say: “Let this be second cloth, and not enemy’s spoil, Nor property of clerk or priest. But his own property, and may he enjoy and wear it.” It is said there is a bone in the herring’s head that resembles a deer’s foot. Some say the word should not be “deer’s shank” (_Lurg an fhéidh_), but “deer’s antlers” (_Cuibhn’an fhéidh_). The part of the song within brackets seems to belong to the music more than to the meaning. The final wish is that the cloth when turned, or made into a second suit, may prove as good as new, and not, like cloth found on dead bodies, a perquisite of the priest’s. In olden times the seventh yard (_slat_) of chequered cloth (_Clò Breac_) was given to the factor and priest, as well as the seventh lamb from the fold. CHARM FOR GENERAL USE. “Thou wilt be the friend of God, And God will be thy friend; Iron will be your two soles, And twelve hands shall clasp thy head; Thy afflictions be in tree or holly, Or rock at sea, Or earth on land; A protecting shield be about thee, Michael’s shield be about thee; Colum-Kil’s close-fitting coat of mail Protect thee from Elfin bolts And from the enclosures of pain, (?) From the trouble of this world And the other world. The woman, on her knee And on her eye, On her choicest flesh, And on the veins of her heart, Till it reach the place whence it came. Every jealous envious woman That propagates her flesh and blood, On herself be her desire, and envy, and malice.” “THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.”