FOLK LORE.
Legends of the Co. Clare (Vol. viii., p. 436.).—The Lake of Inchiquin, one legend of which has been already published in "N. & Q.," is said to have been once a populous and flourishing city, and still on a calm night you may see the towers and spires gleaming through the clear wave. But for some dreadful and unabsolved crime, a holy man of those days whelmed all beneath the deep waters. The "dark spirit" of its king, who ruled also over the surrounding country, resides in a cavern in one of the hills which border the lake, and once every seven years at midnight, he issues forth mounted on his white charger, and urges him at full speed over hill and crag, until he has completed the circuit of the lake; and thus he is to continue, till the silver hoofs of his steed are worn out, when the curse will be removed, and the city reappear in all its splendour. The cave extends nearly a mile under the hill; the entrance is low and gloomy, but the roof rises to a considerable height for about half the distance, and then sinks down to a narrow passage, which leads into a somewhat lower division of the cave. The darkness, and the numbers of bats which flap their wings in the face of the explorer, and whirl round his taper, fail not to impress him with a sensation of awe.
Francis Robert Davies.
Slow-worm Superstition (Vol. viii., pp. 33. 479.).—I believe that the superstition alluded to is
not confined to one country, nor to one species of reptile. I remember to have heard some countrymen in Cornwall, who had killed an adder, say that it would not cease to writhe until the sun had gone down. Like many other so-called superstitions, it is probably founded on a close observation of a natural phenomenon; and I feel quite sure that I have seen in print, although I cannot now call to mind where, that it is to be accounted for by the fact, that in these cold-blooded animals the nervous irritability does not cease until checked or destroyed by the chilling dews of evening.
Honoré de Mareville.
Guernsey.
THE VELLUM-BOUND JUNIUS.
(Vol. v., pp. 303. 333. 607.; Vol. viii., p. 8.)