The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 445
Among the St, Gall manuscripts are charms in Old Irish for extracting a thorn and against various diseases such as headache and sudden tumours, etc. The same charm given in the St. Gall fragments against headache is given in the Book of Nunna Minster against sore eyes. In the Stowe Missal are found charms for healing the eye and another for a thorn, the latter being curiously like a modern charm given by Lady Wilde in her Ancient Legends etc. of Ireland}^
In Gaeldom, each act, both public and private, had its own charm or incantation or blessing. In olden days the king or chief was chosen and the clan undertook its public duties after the performance of magic rites and under the direction of a soothsayer ; today, in the Western Isles of Ireland and Scotland, the huntsman going to hunt, the fisherman to fish or lay his nets, the agriculturalist to sow or reap his harvest, and the weaver or spinner to wind his yarn, go forth to their work with some familiar charm-prayer or charm-hymn, (or, as they are often beautifully called, " The Blessings "), in their mouths. The milkmaid calling her cows or churn- ing her butter, the young girl fearful of some neighbour's evil eye, and the cottager sweeping up her hearth in the evening, laying herself down to rest for the night, or rising up in the morning, soothes her fears or smoothes her way by some whispered paider or ortha, a prayer or a verse- charm. The whole of life is encompassed by invisible dangers, which it is the business of the charm to turn aside.
Nor, where all the ills of life are conceived of as being wrought by the malignant action of evil powers and remov- able by incantations, can any actual dividing line be drawn between the magic charm and the religious prayer. In the charm, the power of the Being to whom prayer is offered may be conceived of as more entirely transferred to the words of the spell itself, but in the larger number of cases I imagine that the belief is still in some Higher Power, "^NoX. ii., p. S2.
