Dated in the State of Nevada, this 4th day of July, 1915.
Erin, though far from your mountains now, with me, you are still Achusla Geal Machree.
All Fools' Day.—This falls on the first of April, when it is customary to play tricks upon each other. The young people find great diversion in sending persons on errands which end in disappointment for the sendee and merriment for the sender, the laugh at all times being in proportion to the trouble given.
Among some of the tricks played was at a very early hour in the morning to knock at a window and call a farmer out of bed, telling him that cattle had destroyed his potatoes and corn fields. He would run with all his might, sometimes half undressed, to find no cattle before him.
Pieces of paper would be pinned onto the tails of a coat and valuable looking packages containing a stone or a piece of iron would be left in the track of a passerby so that if he kicked it he would remember it. Sometimes a stiff purse would be placed on the road or footpath with a string attached to it, and it would be jerked away by those hiding behind a fence, gate or doorway when the fool would be in the act of grasping for it. Probably this custom originated in France and was borrowed by England, to whom we are indebted for it.
Ancient Crossroads and Burial Customs.—At funerals to the west of Dingle, a custom prevails of lowering the coffin containing the remains at certain ancient crossroads and praying for the dead. This is not practiced on the Castle Gregory side of Brandon Mountain, but there, on lowering the coffin into the grave, the nails are drawn from the cover of the coffin.
The custom of lowering the coffin at crossroads is a very ancient one, not alone in the Dingle district, but in other countries outside of Ireland. The origin of it was due to persons who committed suicide not allowed to be interred in consecrated ground, were buried upon the nearest crossroad thereto, i. e., at the junction of four roads.[12] Whenever a funeral passed by, the corpse was lowered, people knelt and prayed for the soul of the persons buried at the crossroads.