eo  Charms  of  an  evil  nature.  These  are  ceremonies  used  by  such
women,  and  believed  to  be  of  efficacy  by  the  people.  It  is  an
undoubted  fact  that  the  woman  here  named — and  truly  named —
was  called  in  by  honest  Ned  Donnelly,  who,  I  believe,  is  alive,
and  could  confirm  the  truth  of  it.  I  remember  her  well,  as  I  do
the  occasion  on  which  she  was  called  in  by  Ned  or  his  friends.
I  also  remember  that  a  neighbour  of  ours,  a  tailor  named  Cor-


NOTES  399

mick  M'Elroy — father,  by  the  way,  to  little  Billy  Cormick,  who
figures  so  conspicuously  at  the  wedding — called  her  in  to  cure,  by
the  force  of  charms,  some  cows  he  had  that  were  sick.
si  The  hump,  which  constitutes  a  round-shouldered  man.  If
the  reader  has  ever  seen  Hogarth's  Illustrations  of  Hudibras,  and
remembers  the  redoubtable  hero  as  he  sits  on  horseback,  he  will
be  at  no  loss  in  comprehending  what  a  cruiht  means.  Cruiht
is  the  Irish  for  harp,  and  the  simile  is  taken  from  the  projection
between  the  shoulders  of  the  harper  which  was  caused  by  carrying
that  instrument.
62  There  is  always  a  struggle  for  this  at  an  Irish  wedding,  where
every  man  is  at  liberty — even  the  priest  himself — to  anticipate  the
bridegroom  if  he  can.
es  Cracker  is  the  small,  hard  cord  which  is  tied  to  a  rustic  whip,
in  order  to  make  it  crack.  When  a  man  is  considered  to  be  in-
ferior to  another  in  anything,  the  people  say,  "  he  wouldn't  make
a  cracker  to  his  whip."

64  Drank.
65  Flush  is  a  pool  of  water  that  spreads  nearly  across  a  road.
