and the people in fact, as to their habits and ideas, remain much the same as
bi. Patrick left them fourteen hundred years ago. The swift currents of
thought that stir the great centres of civilization and impel the human
intellect on its path of progress, have never reached them; all the waves of
the centuries drift by their shores and leave them unchanged.
It is therefore in the islands and along the western coast that one gathers
most of those strange legends, charms, mysteries, and world-old
superstitions which have lingered longer in Ireland than in any other part of
Europe.
Many of those included in this following selection were narrated by the
peasants, either in Irish, or in the expressive Irish-English, which still retains
enough of the ancient idiom to make the language impressively touching
and picturesque. The ancient charms which have come down by tradition
from a remote antiquity are peculiarly interesting from their deep human
pathos, blended with the sublime trust in the Divine invisible power, so
characteristic of the Irish temperament in all ages. A faith that believes
implicitly, trusts devoutly, and hopes infinitely; when the soul in its sorrow
turns to heaven for the aid which cannot be found on earth, or given by
earthly hands. The following charms from the Irish express much of this
mingled spirit of faith and hope:--
AGAINST SORROW
A charm set by Mary for her Son, before the fair man and the turbulent
woman laid Him in the grave.
The charm of Michael with the shield;Of the palm-branch of Christ;Of Bridget with her veil.The charm which God set for Himself when the divinity within
Him was darkened.A. charm to be said by the cross when the night is black and the
soul is heavy with sorrow.A charm to be said at sunrise, with the hands on the breast when
the eyes are red with weeping, and the madness of grief is strong.A charm that has no words, only the silent prayer.