Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry | Page 8

Many were their efforts to subdue some
peculiarities of his temper which then began to appear. Phelim,
however, being an only son, possessed high vantage ground. Along
with other small matters which he was in the habit of picking up, might
be reckoned a readiness at swearing. Several other things also made
their appearance in his parents' cottage, for whose presence there,
except through his instrumentality, they found it rather difficult to
account. Spades, shovels, rakes, tubs, frying-pans, and many

other-articles of domestic use, were transferred, as if by magic, to
Larry's cabin.
As Larry and his wife were both honest, these things were, of course,
restored to their owners, the moment they could be ascertained. Still,
although this honest couple's integrity was known, there were many
significant looks turned upon Phelim, and many spirited prophecies
uttered with especial reference to him, all of which hinted at the
probability of his dying something in the shape of a perpendicular
death. This habit, then, of adding to their furniture, was one cause of
the hostility between him and his parents; we say one, for there were at
least, a good round dozen besides. His touch, for instance, was fatal to
crockery; he stripped his father's Sunday clothes of their buttons, with
great secrecy and skill; he was a dead shot at the panes of his neighbors'
windows; a perfect necromancer at sucking eggs through pin-holes;
took great delight in calling home the neighboring farmers'
workingmen to dinner an hour before it was ready; and was in fact a
perfect master in many other ingenious manifestations of character, ere
he reached his twelfth year.
Now, it was about this period that the small-pox made its appearance in
the village. Indescribable was the dismay of Phelim's parents, lest he
among others might become a victim to it. Vaccination, had not then
surmounted the prejudices with which every discovery beneficial to
mankind is at first met; and the people were left principally to the
imposture of quacks, or the cunning of certain persons called "fairy
men" or "sonsie women." Nothing remained now but that this
formidable disease should be met by all the power and resources of
superstition. The first thing the mother did was to get a gospel
consecrated by the priest, for the purpose of guarding Phelim against
evil. What is termed a Gospel, and worn as a kind of charm about the
person, is simply a slip of paper, on which are written by the priest the
few first verses of the Gospel of St. John. This, however, being worn
for no specific purpose, was incapable of satisfying the honest woman.
Superstition had its own peculiar remedy for the small-pox, and
Sheelah was resolved to apply it. Accordingly she borrowed a
neighbor's ass, drove it home with Phelim, however, on its back, took
the interesting youth by the nape of the neck, and, in the name of the
Trinity, shoved him three times under it, and three times over it. She

then put a bit of bread into its mouth, until the ass had mumbled it a
little, after which she gave the savory morsel to Phelim, as a bonne
bouche. This was one preventive against the small-pox; but another
was to be tried.
She next clipped off the extremities of Phelim's elf locks, tied them in
linen that was never bleached, and hung them beside the Gospel about
his neck. This was her second cure; but there was still a third to be
applied. She got the largest onion possible, which, having cut into nine
parts, she hung from the roof tree of the cabin, having first put the
separated parts together. It is supposed that this has the power of
drawing infection of any kind to itself. It is permitted to remain
untouched, until the disease has passed from the neighborhood, when it
is buried as far down in the earth as a single man can dig. This was a
third cure; but there was still a fourth. She borrowed ten asses' halters
from her neighbors, who, on hearing that they were for Phelim's use,
felt particular pleasure in obliging her. Having procured these, she
pointed them one by one at Phelim's neck, until the number nine was
completed. The tenth, she put on him, and with the end of it in her hand,
led him like an ass, nine mornings, before sunrise, to a south-running
stream, which he was obliged to cross. On doing this, two conditions
were to be fulfilled on the part of Phelim; he was bound, in the first
place, to keep his mouth filled, during the ceremony, with a certain
fluid which must be nameless: in the next, to be silent from the moment
he left home until his return.
Sheelah having satisfied herself that everything