corpse of a drowned person cannot be found, a sheaf of straw is blessed and thrown into the stream, and is expected to follow every move of the body and stop over its resting-place. (It was tried successfully in 1894 near Ennis.)[1] To bathe in the waters of the Shannon confers the gift of impudence,[2]—an idea which there seems much to justify.
(To be continued.)
Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales (continued).
31. The City of Women. (B. G.)
This is about a certain bachelor. He had no wife. So he went and made a farm. Then a certain Tortoise came, and said, "O, farm of the bachelor, rise up in disorder!" When the bachelor came and saw, he said,—"Oh, who is doing this to me?" Then he said,—"Very well, I shall wait, so that I may see who is making my farm disordered." When he had finished farming, he hid at the edge of the bush and waited. On the arrival of the Tortoise, he (Tortoise) said,—"O, farm of the bachelor, rise up in disorder!" So the farm became disordered. Then the bachelor came and took a hoe and beat him on the back. But the Tortoise said,—"Oh, bachelor, leave me, leave me. I will give you a wife." Then he said,—"Now, go, bachelor, make a bundle of stalks." Then, when he had made a bundle, he said,—"Here it is, I have done it." He (Tortoise) said,—"Very well, get inside, I will carry you," so said the Tortoise. So he said,—"Very well." The Tortoise carried him to a certain town, where (there were) only women; there was not even one man. When the Tortoise had brought him to the town where there were no men, he said,—"Listen to (see) the crying." Then he undid the bundle. When the poorer women saw the man, they
- ↑ So Dr. G. U. MacNamara.
- ↑ Dublin University Magazine, vol. xvii. (1841), p. 360.
