Lady Gregory has collected two volumes of the Visions and
Beliefs in the West of Ireland (Putnam, 2 vole., 22s. 6d. net), to which Mr. Yeats has contributed an essay and notes. The stories are told with admirable simplicity and lack of comment, and the book should thus prove a. source of valuable evidencefar students of folk-lore. Witchcraft and demonology are peren- nially fascinating, and the stories are, of course, very interesting reading. Though simply told, there is, as one might expect, a great deal of 'picturesqueness in the style of the narration. The following story, taken at random, is typical There was a woman down by the sea that had a-very severe time when her baby was born, and they did not think she or the baby would live after. So the husband went and brought Father Rivers and he said, ` Which would you sooner lose—the wife or the child—for one must go ? ' And the husband said, ' If the wife is taken I might as well close the door.' And then Father Rivers said, She's going up and down like the swinging of a clock, but for all that I'll strive to keep her for you, but maybe you must lose two or more.' So he read some prayers over hers and the next day, the baby died,. and a fine cow out in the field, but the woman recovered and is living still. But Father Rivers died within two years. They never live long when goy do these cures, because that they say prayers that they ought not to say."
On another page there is an account of a similar cure in which it is related that the village had a very good priest at that time ; he was accustomed to take a drop of liquor, " and so he had the courage to do:cures."
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