Although it is the relic of pagan days, the mistletoe was hung up in churches during Christmas, but because young people, instead of praying and assisting properly at mass, were kissing, courting and rehearsing the marriage ceremony over eligibles, thereby causing the whole congregation to pass from one uproar of laughter into another, both the mistletoe and the kisses were abolished, and the holly, with its numerous thorns, substituted for the mistletoe, thereby warning them of the fact that going through marriage was like drawing them through a thicket of holly and briars, the thorns of which might pierce them to the quick.
Mother Carey's Chickens or Stormy Petrels.—This was the term applied to flocks of small web-footed birds about the size of a chicken or even smaller than blackbirds. Their appearance is neat and they are always on the wing. They are found pretty numerous at times in the Blasket Islands and Skellig Rocks, but their whole time is spent on the ocean. The reason they are called "Mother Carey's Chickens" is because fishermen and local sailors say they are the first and most reliable birds to give sailors warning of the approach of a storm by rushing in flocks towards them whistling "Wee, wee!" But I do not know how correct that can be, for I find that their greatest delight is in rough weather and storms. The meaning of the expression, "Mother Carey," is said to be "Mother Dear," and is intended for the Virgin Mary, due to the fact that she was considered the patroness of sailors.
In the daytime these birds never seem to swim, but while on the wing allow their feet to touch the water, and naturalists say from its walking appearance upon the waves like the Apostle Peter, the name "Petrel" was applied to them.
Whenever superstitious sailors of other countries see a flock of these merry sea birds following their ship, they try to kill them, owing to the birds' delight in storms. They believe bad luck follows their trail, that they cause storms, and they call them the "devil's birds," but the truth is that as they don't appear to dive like other sea birds they more easily pick up their food from the surge than in calm water. (See my "History of the Skellig and Blasket Islands" for an account of these birds.)
Mug.—The large wooden mug, cups and gallons are now out of use. However, a few can still be found in country homes.
Mugs.—A name given to a party of striplings who went around first kissing the pretty girls and making mouths at the coarse and older ones. In course of time, rough and ignorant characters joined in and became such a nuisance that the girls protested against them and called them "Mugs," no doubt after the Muns of England, who carried on much the same practice with the breaking of windows, wrenching of knockers added. The latter too was extended to those parts by the rowdy element.
Pagan Wells, Lises and Fairy Tales.—Lises are found everywhere in the barony. They were erected within view of each other, so that in event of an attack on one lis or a fort a fire kept burning would be extinguished as an alarm signal. These forts are surrounded by the best quality of land in their immediate vicinity. Fairy tales are connected with every one of them. Some people frightened the lives in little children with fairy tales and ghost stories. Those stories had this much of a foundation in our locality: In the beginning of the Eighteenth Century when the British law prohibited the exportation or sale of wool to any other country but to themselves, farmers became engaged in smuggling wool to France, where they received as high as two shilling, sixpence (sixty cents) a pound from France. Cutters brought wines and brandies with them, which were often hidden in specially prepared chambers in forts, lises and cahirs, near the sea coast. To keep children away so as not to give information, they told them that the men seen in those forts and lises were fairies. This helped to prolong the life of the old tales. Every cave to the west of Dingle was filled with wool, trying to smuggle it to a convenient place for loading it into ships. The French pretended they were carrying from Ireland emigrants called the "Wild Geese," i. e., Catholics who were forbidden by law to live in Ireland. The magistrates who were supposed to stop it were engaged in this illicit trade. Amongst the most objectionable was their description of the headless coach leaving a burial ground going in the direction of some dying person and returning with its victim, the Banshee's lonely wail, the appearance of a golden-haired woman courting with fairy pleasure some fine young man trying to take him into fairyland. However, worse still were their representations of dances at the ancient crossroads by young men and maidens years in their graves, long funeral processions of the dead at night through certain roads in which a living companion of the dead would pretend to see and recognize some of his dead neighbors and at the same time he would order those in his company who could see nothing wrong to step aside and let the dead pass.
The least objectionable fables are the mermaids and their enchanted capes and the enchanted music of the dead, how St. Patrick tricked the snakes and serpents, the appearance of strange and mysterious ships at sea leading sailors and fishermen to their doom, the Broack-an-rubber, Feon Macoal, Diamond and Grana, chieftains clad in white armor riding on horses shod with gold shoes galloping through the country every May morning and serpents in lake.
Pagan wells, too, were deemed sacred because old Druids washed and dressed the wounds of soldiers and persons injured in them.