kenny on the occasion of fairs being held in it. I am indebted to our excellent town clerk, Patrick Watters, Esq., for the reference to this pastime, which had escaped my researches. It appears that on the 10th June, 1703, John Blunden being then mayor, the corporation came to the following resolution : Ordered, that the bell-man do every market-day give public notice, that there will be a fair held within the walls of this city on the feast day of the nativity of St. John the Baptist, and on the feast of St. Kennys next, and all persons to be custom free; and that the clerk do post up papers on the gates accordingly; and that two pieces of plate of 20s. vallue each be prepared by Mr. Mayor, at the charge of this City, to be runn for by four maids, as the Mayor shall appoint. And on the 22nd August, 1713, it was Ordered, that the Town Clerk do post up that the fair held on St. Canice's day, being the 11th October next, be custom free to all buyers and sellers for seven years then to come; and that a plate of 23s. value, yearly, be run for by five young women to be approved of by the Mayor; and that Mr. Receiver do have it advertised in the Dublin Gazette,' at the City charge. It will be seen that all the popular pastimes of the practice of which in Kilkenny, in the olden time, the municipal records afford us positive evidence, are almost exclusively of Norman or Anglo-Saxon derivation; but there is one bye-law which may be taken as affording a clue to the use of games which were of purely Celtic origin. On the 25th June, 1638, this order was made-"No Mayor to go to any wake to eat or drink, on pain of £10." From this I think it is reasonable to suppose that the wake orgies-those remnants of Pagan rites, all traces of which now, at length, in the nineteenth century, have been, I believe, happily obliterated amongst the usages of our peasantry, by the determined discouragement and denunciation of the Roman Catholic clergy-may have been indulged in by the citizens of Kilkenny two hundred years since. 1 Having searched the file of the Dublin Gazette, for the year 1713, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, I find that the advertisement, ordered as above, was never inserted. 2 The public, generally, are under the impression that the pastors of the peasantry have exerted themselves to put down wakes, merely from the unseemliness of the indulgence of mirth and games, however innocent in their character, in the chamber, or the house of death. I so thought myself untili recently, when I was undeceived by Mr. Hackett, of Middleton, a gentleman whose research on the subject of existing traces of Pagandom in Ireland, is well known to archæologists.Subsequent inquiries amongst those who are likely to be best informed as to popular customs,from mixing in the games and observances of the peasantry in early youth, and who have, therefore, had occular demonstration of the facts to which they testified, have fully corroborated Mr. Hackett's statement as to the gross obscenity of the wake orgies, and his speculations as to their Heathen origin. Whilst we must rejoice that customs so revolting to all notions of delicacy and civilization, and so largely calculated to demoralize our people, have been put down, and I trust eradicated, it is yet to be regretted that some record is not likely to be preserved of the main features of observances so curious, and calculated to be so interesting to archæological investigators, as being obviously Pagan rites (however diluted and modified in the lapse of ages), coming down to our own day in the practice of the peasantry of at least three of the provinces of Ireland; but so marked are they in every part by the allpervading licentiousness of Paganism, that to spare the feelings of the modest reader, though the Christmas waits, still called here, must be a relic of the latter; and we have still also faint remains of the two former in the May-bush boys and the St. John's day bonfires. Neither is there any reference to athletic exercises, such as hurling or wrestling, nor to horse-racing and such like amusements, which must have been in use. It would seem, however, that in the last century, the young women of the town, like the damsels of the days of Fionn M'Cumhaill, according to the legend, were in the habit of running on foot for a prize, and that this kind of sport was held out as an inducement to strangers, as were the "mysteries" of previous centuries, to visit Kil In the last century, the May observances of the lower orders in Kilkenny, although not interfered with by the regulations of the corporation, appear to have been regarded by the citizens in the light of a public nuisance, if we may rely on the following curious letter, published in Finn's Leinster Journal, of the 4th May, 1768 :— "To the Printer of the Leinster Journal. "SIR-Though the following piece of advice may appear something like-After Death the Doctor-it may, however (like a remedy taken for the ague when the fit is over), contribute in some measure to prevent the next periodical fit of the mob of this town. "For many years past the peace of this city has been disturbed every May-eve, by a vast multitude of audacious fellows, who assemble together to collect May-balls among the new-married folks. They sally out with Herculean clubs in their hands, and as those unmeaning May-balls are seldom or never given without a piece of drink-money to boot, such bloody battles ensue in different quarters of the town, such confusion and uproar, as would induce a passing stranger to believe that a furious band of wild Indians had broken in upon us; that Magistracy was asleep, or that it had lost all power and influence over the subject. The mischief that follows from this barbarous and unheeded custom is more feelingly understood than can be expressed. Not to mention the fractures, contusions, &c., which are well known to happen on such occasions, and by which many of those miscreants are disabled for a considerable time from working for themselves, and for the support of those who entirely depend upon their sound legs and arms, many Gentlemen's gardens are wantonly robbed of all their beauties, the cultivation of which cost the owner a vast deal of trouble and expense; the hedges and fences, in the outlets of our City, are stript of full-grown hawthorns, whose late blooming pride and fragrancy is now miserably dying away on dunghills before cabin doors, by way of May-bushes, no longer, alas! to afford a nuptial bed to the newmarried linnet and his mate, but fastened in the ground for the vilest purposes-To hang filthy clouts upon. "And shall Magistracy stand by, looking on such mischievous abuses like an uncon. cerned spectator?-No-that same justice and humanity, which has already redressed so many grievances in this City, will certainly prescribe the following remedy, to be used before the mob's fit returns again. "RECIPE-Twenty-four drams or hours imprisonment; as many blisters as can be placed upon the scapulars; their names recorded with infamy on the Grand-jury's list;' for all those club-bearers, and for all those hedge-robbers, if any of them can be discovered and can be convicted at the next Quarter Sessions; if not, let suca public and previous warnings be given for the time to come, by the inferior officers of the City, as may deter those wicked bullies, and those wild boars who have trampled upon, and ravished all the sweets of our little Edens, as well as all givers of May. balls, from ever doing the like again. I am, Sir, not a sufferer, but a hearty wellwisher of the City of Kilkenny, and your constant reader, "FLORUS." 2 It would appear from the file of Finn's Leinster Journal, for the year 1768, that at that period hurling was quite an aristocratic amusement in the rural districts, and there are frequent challenges recorded, between the gentlemen of Kilkenny, Tipperary, and the Queen's County, to hurling matches, which were held on the fair-green of Urlingford, the commons of Gowran, and the green of Gurteen, near Durrow. kenny on the occasion of fairs being held in it. I am indebted to our excellent town clerk, Patrick Watters, Esq., for the reference to this pastime, which had escaped my researches. It appears that on the 10th June, 1703, John Blunden being then mayor, the corporation came to the following resolution : Ordered, that the bell-man do every market-day give public notice, that there will be a fair held within the walls of this city on the feast day of the nativity of St. John the Baptist, and on the feast of St. Kennys next, and all persons to be custom free; and that the clerk do post up papers on the gates accordingly; and that two pieces of plate of 20s. vallue each be prepared by Mr. Mayor, at the charge of this City, to be runn for by four maids, as the Mayor shall appoint. And on the 22nd August, 1713, it was— Ordered, that the Town Clerk do post up that the fair held on St. Canice's day, being the 11th October next, be custom free to all buyers and sellers for seven years then to come; and that a plate of 23s. value, yearly, be run for by five young women to be approved of by the Mayor; and that Mr. Receiver do have it advertised in the Dublin Gazette, at the City charge. It will be seen that all the popular pastimes of the practice of which in Kilkenny, in the olden time, the municipal records afford us positive evidence, are almost exclusively of Norman or Anglo-Saxon derivation; but there is one bye-law which may be taken as affording a clue to the use of games which were of purely Celtic origin. On the 25th June, 1638, this order was made "No Mayor to go to any wake to eat or drink, on pain of £10." From this I think it is reasonable to suppose that the wake orgies-those remnants of Pagan rites, all traces of which now, at length, in the nineteenth century, have been, I believe, happily obliterated amongst the usages of our peasantry, by the determined discouragement and denunciation of the Roman Catholic clergy-may have been indulged in by the citizens of Kilkenny two hundred years since. 1 Having searched the file of the Dublin Gazette, for the year 1713, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, I find that the advertisement, ordered as above, was never inserted. The public, generally, are under the impression that the pastors of the peasantry have exerted themselves to put down wakes, merely from the unseemliness of the indulgence of mirth and games, however innocent in their character, in the chamber, or the house of death. I so thought myself untili recently, when I was undeceived by Mr. Hackett, of Middleton, a gentleman whose research on the subject of existing traces of Pagandom in Ireland, is well known to archæologists.Subsequent inquiries amongst those who are likely to be best informed as to popular customs,from mixing in the games and observances of the peasantry in early youth, and who have, therefore, had occular demonstration of the facts to which they testified, have fully corroborated Mr. Hackett's statement as to the gross obscenity of the wake orgies, and his speculations as to their Heathen origin. Whilst we must rejoice that customs so revolting to all notions of delicacy and civilization, and so largely calculated to demoralize our people, have been put down, and I trust eradicated, it is yet to be regretted that some record is not likely to be preserved of the main features of observances so curious, and calculated to be so interesting to archæological investigators, as being obviously Pagan rites (however diluted and modified in the lapse of ages), coming down to our own day in the practice of the peasantry of at least three of the provinces of Ireland; but so marked are they in every part by the allpervading licentiousness of Paganism, that to spare the feelings of the modest reader, Such, and other means of recreation, as simple or as barbarous, were the resources of our ancestors; and fed and surfeited as the present generation has been by the ever-teeming harvests of exciting fiction and intellectual amusement-the lecture, the theatre, the opera, the concert with every taste gratified and every leisure moment filled up, it seems scarcely possible to conceive a state of existence when the same mental aliment was not forthcoming, and when what if written at all, they should be confided to the guardianship of a dead language. In this place I can but refer to their nature in the most general terms. These wake games were never performed in the houses of persons who felt really afflicted by the bereavement which they might be supposed to have endured in the demise of a member of their family. They were reserved for the deaths of old people who had survived the ordinary span of life, or young children who could not be looked upon as an irreparable loss. They were placed under the conduct of some peasant of the district who excelled in rustic wit and humour, and this person, under the title of " Borekeen," may be termed the hierophant of the observances, whose orders were carried into force by subordinate officers, all arrayed in fantastic habiliments. The " 'game" usually first performed was termed "Bout," and was joined in by men and women, who all acted a very obscene part which cannot be described. The next scene generally was termed "Making the Ship," with its several parts of "laying the keel," forming the "stem and stern," and erecting "the mast," the latter of which was done by a female using a gesture and expression, proving beyond doubt that it was a relic of Pagan rites. The "Bull and the Cow" was another game strongly indicative of a Pagan origin, from circumstances too indelicate to be particularised. The game called "Hold the Light," in which a man is blindfolded and flogged, has been looked upon as a profane travestie of the passion of our Lord; and religion might also be considered as brought into contempt by another of the series, in which a person caricaturing a priest, and wearing a rosary, composed of small potatoes strung together, enters into conflict with the "Borekeen," and is put down and expelled from the room by direction of the latter. If the former games be deemed remnants of Pagan rites and of ante-Christian origin, these latter may be looked upon as anti-Christian, and devised with a view of making religion ridiculous, at a time when the masses had a lingering predilection for Paganism. "Turning the Spit" and "Selling the Pig" are the names of two other of those games; in that called "Drawing the Ship out of the Mud" the men engaged actually presented themselves before the rest of the assembly, females as well as males, in a state of nudity, whilst in another game the female performers attired themselves in mens' clothes and conducted themselves in a very strange manner. Brief as are these particulars, they will give sufficient idea of the obscene and demoralising tendency of the wake orgies, and show the necessity which existed for their total suppression. It is, however, right to say that the peasantry who practised them had no idea of outraging propriety or religion in their perfor mance, holding an unquestioning faith in the old traditions that such observances were right and proper at wakes, whilst under any other circumstances they would shrink with horror from such indelicate exhibitions. Amongst those obscene practices, some of the ordinary "small plays" in which young people in every class of society indulge, were engaged in at wakes; but it is probable they were of comparatively modern introduction; of the latter, those chiefly used were "Cutchacutchcoo" and "Hunt the Slipper," known amongst the peasantry by the name of "Brogue about." The "Drohedy Dance," supposed to be the ancient Morris dance, was also sometimes had recourse to at wakes. Mr. Hackett traces a similarity to our wake orgies, in the rites still used by many savage peoplesfor instance, the games of the Mandan Indians commemorative of the "Big Canoe," or Ark; and he has drawn my attention to a passage in the" Annals of the Propagation of the Faith," in which a missionary priest reported that he had experienced compara. tively little difficulty in converting the Feejee islanders to an acknowledgment of Christianity but he found it utterly impossible to induce the natives to omit the obscenities enacted between death and interment. This may be merely a coincidence, but it is, at least, a remarkable one. has become for us a very necessity of our daily lives, was either utterly unknown, or was enjoyed as a luxury, rarely and with extreme difficulty to be obtained. INAUGURATION OF CATHAL CROBHDHEARG O'CONOR, KING OF CONNAUGHT. TRANSLATED BY MR. JOHN O'DALY, WITH NOTES BY JOHN O'DONOVAN, ESQ., LL.D., M.R.I.A. THE following tract, on the inauguration of Cathal Crobhdhearg (the red-handed) O'Conor, last king of Connaught, was written by Donogh Bacach (the lame), son of Tanaidhe O'Maelconaire, who was present at the ceremony, and whose privilege it was to place the royal rod in the hands of the king, when he assumed the sovereignty of Connaught. I made the copy from a manuscript written by Eoghan O'Keeffe,' a celebrated Munster poet and scribe in the year 1684, which is the only copy I ever met with. Eoghan O'Keeffe, the transcriber, was born at Glenville, in the county of Cork, in the year 1656, and died, parish priest of Doneraile, in 1720. He wrote several excellent poems, on national events, in his native tongue-one of which, on the defeat of the Irish at the battle of Aughrim, where St. Ruth's jealousy of the Irish officers caused the destruction of James' last army, is in my collection, and begins thus: “Ar d-treasgar-ne an Eaċdruim, do fíol Eibir, "The slaughter of Heber's race on Aughrim's plain, Has left me awhile, comfortless, on a mountain side." I have made copies of almost all his compositions from the originals, some of which are in the Hudson collection, in the Royal Irish Academy, while others have been carried to a foreign land. To Dr. O'Donovan's kindness the reader is indebted for the valuable notes which accompany the text. 1 For a further account of Eoghan O'Keeffe and his brother bards, see my Poets and Poetry of Munster, second edition, p. 38. |