IRELAND.
A Dublin Paper of last week stated, that many of the country people were seen running and riding all over the midland counties of Ireland, carrying with them a piece of burning turf, a small piece of which they leave at every house, with the following exhortation :— " The plague has broken out ; take this, and while it burns offer up seven Paters, three Ayes, and a Credo, in the name of God and the holy St. John that the plague may be stopped." The person leaving it, lays each householder under an "obligation" to set fire to his piece of turf, and run to seven other houses, where no holy fire has been left, and leave it in each; under a penalty of falling a victim to the cholera himself! Men women, and children, were seen scouring the country with this charmed turf in everydirection, each endeavouring to be fore- most in finding houses where none has been left. One man had to run thirty miles before he could perform his task. The stories of its origin are various : one is, that the holy fire was first blessed by a priest; another, that it was kindled by lightning. The priests, however, pro- fess entire ignorance of the whole matter.
On Saturday week, the preventive boat left Pulteneytown-wick with four of her own men and an individual named Miller on board. The weather having come on very rough, the boat was upset, and all were drowned. Miller has left a widow and nine children. All the bodies were shortly afterwards picked up. On the Monday following, a boat belonging to the port of Buckie was, during a very heavy gale, run down by an Inverness smack, and all on board, also five, met with a watery grave.—Inverness Journal.
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