xon Britain_ (1888), pp. 79-83.

[389] _Topography of Ireland_, lib. ii. cap. 19.

[390] _Hist. of Ireland_, ii. 361.

[391] _Irish Nennius_, p. 205; Lang, _Custom and Myth_, p. 265; _Revue
Celtique_, ii. 202.

[392] _View of the State of Ireland_, p. 99.

[393] Moryson, _Hist. of Ireland_, ii. 367.

[394] Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme_, 204.

[395] Camden, _Britannia_, iii. 455; iv. 459.

[396] The significance of the word "gossip" is worth noting. Halliwell
says it "signified a _relation_ or sponsor in baptism, all of whom were
to each other and to the parents _God-sibs_, that is, _sib_, or related
by means of religion." This meaning does not seem to have died out in
the days of Spenser, and his use of the word to describe the
relationship of the men of Ossory to wolves is very significant. For
the history of this important word see Hearn's _Aryan Household_, 290.

[397] Otway, _Sketches in Erris_, 383-4.

[398] _Folklore Record_, iv. 98.

[399] _Ulster Journ. Arch._, ii. 161, 162. They have also another
primitive trait. Their trade emblems are carved on their tombstones.
_Roy. Irish Acad._, vii. 260.

[400] This I gather from _Ulster Journ. Arch._, ii. 164, where it is
stated that the hare is unpropitious.

[401] _Folklore Journal_, ii. 259.

[402] _Folklore Journal_, ii. 259; _Folklore Record_, iv. 104. Miss
Ffennell kindly informed me at the meeting of the Folklore Society
where I read a paper on the subject, that she had frequently heard the
islanders of Achill, off the coast of Ireland, state their belief that
they were descended from seals.

[403] Published by the _Irish Archaeological Society_, p. 27; there is a
Seal Island off the coast of Donegal (Joyce, _Irish Place-Names_, ii.
282); and some Shetland legends of the seal will be found in _Soc.
Antiq. Scot._, i. 86-89. Seals are eaten for food in the island of
Harris (see Martin, _Western Islands_, 36), and one called the Virgin
Mary's Seal is offered to the minister (Reeves, _Adamnan Vita.
Columb._, 78, note _g_). The attitude of the Irish to seals is shown by
the two following notes:--"At Erris, in Ireland, seals are considered
to be human beings under enchantment, and they consider it unlucky to
have anything to do with seals, and to have one live near their
dwelling is considered as productive of evil to life and property. A
story current, in 1841, describes how a young fisherman came in a fog
upon an island whereon lived these enchan