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diff --git a/37187.txt b/37187.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a038e8a --- /dev/null +++ b/37187.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4071 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ulster Folklore, by Elizabeth Andrews + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ulster Folklore + +Author: Elizabeth Andrews + +Release Date: August 24, 2011 [EBook #37187] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ULSTER FOLKLORE *** + + + + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Linda Hamilton, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + +ULSTER FOLKLORE + + + + + [Illustration: PLATE I. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + HARVEST KNOT.] + + + + + ULSTER FOLKLORE + + BY + ELIZABETH ANDREWS, F.R.A.I. + + WITH FOURTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS + + LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK + 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + 1913 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +In 1894 I was at the meeting of the British Association at Oxford, and +had the good fortune to hear Professor Julius Kollmann give his paper on +"Pygmies in Europe," in which he described the skeletons which had then +recently been discovered near Schaffhausen. As I listened to his account +of these small people, whose average height was about four and a half +feet, I recalled the description of Irish fairies given to me by an old +woman from Galway, and it appeared to me that our traditional "wee-folk" +were about the size of these Swiss dwarfs. I determined to collect what +information I could, and the result is given in the following pages. I +found that the fairies are, indeed, regarded as small; but their height +may be that of a well-grown boy or girl, or they may not be larger than +a child beginning to walk. I once asked a woman if they were as small as +cocks and hens, but she laughed at the suggestion. + +I had collected a number of stories, and had become convinced that in +these tales we had a reminiscence of a dwarf race, when I read some of +Mr. David MacRitchie's works, and was gratified to find that the +traditions I had gathered were in accordance with the conclusions he had +drawn from his investigations in Scotland. A little later I made his +acquaintance, and owe him many thanks for his great kindness and the +encouragement he has given me in my work. + +As will be seen in the following pages, tradition records several small +races in Ulster: the Grogachs, who are closely allied to the fairies, +and also to the Scotch and English Brownies; the short Danes, whom I am +inclined to identify with the Tuatha de Danann; the Pechts, or Picts; +and also the small Finns. My belief is that all these, including the +fairies, represent primitive races of mankind, and that in the stories +of women, children, and men being carried off by the fairies, we have a +record of warfare, when stealthy raids were made and captives brought to +the dark souterrain. These souterrains, or, as the country people call +them, "coves," are very numerous. They are underground structures, built +of rough stones without mortar, and roofed with large flat slabs. Plate +II. shows a fine one at Ardtole, near Ardglass, Co. Down. The total +length of this souterrain is about one hundred and eight feet, its width +three feet, and its height five feet three inches.[1] The entrance to +another souterrain is shown in the Sweathouse at Maghera[2] (Plate +III.). + +As a rule, although the fairies are regarded as "fallen angels," they +are said to be kind to the poor, and to possess many good qualities. "It +was better for the land before they went away" is an expression I have +heard more than once. The belief in the fairy changeling has, however, +led to many acts of cruelty. We know of the terrible cases which +occurred in the South of Ireland some years ago, and I met with the same +superstition in the North. I was told a man believed his sick wife was +not herself, but a fairy who had been substituted for her. Fortunately +the poor woman was in hospital, so no harm could come to her. + +Much of primitive belief has gathered round the fairy--we have the fairy +well and the fairy thorn. It is said that fairies can make themselves so +small that they can creep through keyholes, and they are generally +invisible to ordinary mortals. They can shoot their arrows at cattle and +human beings, and by their magic powers bring disease on both. They +seldom, however, partake of the nature of ghosts, and I do not think +belief in fairies is connected with ancestral worship. + +Sometimes I have been asked if the people did not invent these stories +to please me. The best answer to this question is to be found in the +diverse localities from which the same tale comes. I have heard of the +making of heather ale by the Danes, and the tragic fate of the father +and son, the last of this race, in Down, Antrim, Londonderry, and Kerry. +The same story is told in many parts of Scotland, although there it is +the Picts who make the heather ale. I have been told of the woman +attending the fairy-man's wife, acquiring the power of seeing the +fairies, and subsequently having her eye put out, in Donegal and Derry, +and variants of the story come to us from Wales and the Holy Land. + +I am aware that I labour under a disadvantage in not being an Irish +scholar, but most of those in Down, Antrim, and Derry from whom I heard +the tales spoke only English, and in Donegal the peasants who related +the stories knew both languages well, and I believe gave me a faithful +version of their Irish tales. + +Some of these essays appeared in the _Antiquary_, others were read to +the Archaeological Section of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, but +are now published for the first time _in extenso_. All have been +revised, and additional notes introduced. To these chapters on folklore +I have added an article on the Rev. William Hamilton, who, in his +"Letters on the North-East Coast of Antrim," written towards the close +of the eighteenth century, gives an account of the geology, antiquities, +and customs of the country. + +The plan of the souterrain at Ballymagreehan Fort, Co. Down, was kindly +drawn for me by Mr. Arthur Birch. I am much indebted to the Council of +the Royal Anthropological Institute for their kindness in allowing me to +reproduce the plan of the souterrain at Knockdhu from Mrs. Hobson's +paper, "Some Ulster Souterrains," published in the _Journal_ of the +Institute, vol. xxxix., January to June, 1909. My best thanks are also +due to Mrs. Hobson for allowing me to make use of her photograph of the +entrance to this souterrain. The other illustrations are from +photographs by Mr. Robert Welch, M.R.I.A., who has done so much to make +the scenery, geology, and antiquities of the North of Ireland better +known to the English public. + + BELFAST, + _August, 1913_. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See "Ardtole Souterrain, Co. Down," by F. J. Bigger and W. +J. Fennell in _Ulster Journal of Archaeology_, 1898-99, pp. 146, 147. + +[2] I am much indebted to Mr. S. D. Lytle of that town for +kind permission to reproduce this view. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION V + + FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES 1 + + A DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. LONDONDERRY 14 + + ULSTER FAIRIES, DANES, AND PECHTS 24 + + FOLKLORE CONNECTED WITH ULSTER RATHS AND SOUTERRAINS 36 + + TRADITIONS OF DWARF RACES IN IRELAND AND IN + SWITZERLAND 47 + + FOLKLORE FROM DONEGAL 64 + + GIANTS AND DWARFS 84 + + THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D. 105 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PLATES + + I. HARVEST KNOT _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + II. SOUTERRAIN AT ARDTOLE, ARDGLASS, CO. DOWN 1 + + III. ENTRANCE TO SWEATHOUSE, MAGHERA 14 + + IV. RUSH AND STRAW CROSSES 17 + + V. HARVEST KNOTS 19 + + VI. "CHURN" 20 + + VII. ENTRANCE TO SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU 30 + + VIII. THE OLD FORT, ANTRIM 36 + + IX. GREY MAN'S PATH, FAIR HEAD 49 + + X. TORMORE, TORY ISLAND 73 + + XI. VALLEY NEAR ARMOY, WHENCE, ACCORDING TO + LEGEND, EARTH WAS TAKEN TO FORM RATHLIN 90 + + XII. FLINT SPEARHEAD AND BASALT AXES FOUND UNDER + FORT IN LENAGH TOWNLAND 97 + + + PLANS + + SOUTERRAIN AT BALLYMAGREEHAN 6 + + SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU 30 + + + + + [Illustration: PLATE II. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + SOUTERRAIN AT ARDTOLE, ARDGLASS CO. DOWN.] + + + + +Fairies and their Dwelling-places[3] + + +In the following notes I have recorded a few traditions gathered from +the peasantry in Co. Down and other parts of Ireland regarding the +fairies. The belief is general that these little people were at one time +very numerous throughout the country, but have now disappeared from many +of their former haunts. At Ballynahinch I was told they had been blown +away fifty years ago by a great storm, and the caretaker of the old +church and graveyard of Killevy said they had gone to Scotland. They +are, however, supposed still to inhabit the more remote parts of the +country, and the old people have many stories of fairy visitors, and of +what happened in their own youth and in the time of their fathers and +grandfathers. + +We must not, however, think of Irish fairies as tiny creatures who +could hide under a mushroom or dance on a blade of grass. I remember +well how strongly an old woman from Galway repudiated such an idea. The +fairies, according to her, were indeed small people, but no mushroom +could give them shelter. She described them as about the size of +children, and as far as I can ascertain from inquiries made in many +parts of Ulster and Munster, this is the almost universal belief among +the peasantry. Sometimes I was told the fairies were as large as a +well-grown boy or girl, sometimes that they were as small as children +beginning to walk; the height of a chair or a table was often used as a +comparison, and on one occasion an old woman spoke of them as being +about the size of monkeys. + +The colour red appears to be closely associated with these little +people. In Co. Waterford, if a child has a red handkerchief on its head, +it is said to be wearing a fairy cap. I have frequently been told of the +small men in red jackets running about the forts; the fairy women +sometimes appear in red cloaks; and I have heard more than once that +fairies have red hair. + +A farmer living in one of the valleys of the Mourne Mountains said he +had seen one stormy night little creatures with red hair, about the size +of children. I asked him if they might not have been really children +from some of the cottages, but his reply was that no child could have +been out in such weather. + +An old woman living near Tullamore Park, Co. Down, described vividly +how, going out to look after her goat and its young kid, she had heard +loud screams and seen wild-looking figures with scanty clothing whose +hair stood up like the mane of a horse. She spoke with much respect of +the fairies as the gentry, said they formerly inhabited hills in +Tullamore Park, and that care was taken not to destroy their +thorn-bushes. She related the following story: As a friend of hers was +sitting alone one night, a small old woman, dressed in a white cap and +apron, came in and borrowed a bowl of meal. The debt was repaid, and the +meal brought by the fairy put in the barrel. The woman kept the matter +secret, and was surprised to find her barrel did not need replenishing. +At last her husband asked if her store of meal was not coming to an end; +she replied that she would show him she had sufficient, and lifted the +cover of the barrel. To her astonishment it was almost empty; no doubt, +had she kept her secret, she would have had an unlimited supply of meal. + +I have heard several similar stories, and have not found that any evil +consequences were supposed to follow from partaking of food brought by +the fairies. Men have been carried off by them, have heard their +beautiful music, seen them dancing, or witnessed a fairy battle without +bringing any misfortune on themselves. On the other hand, according to a +story I heard at Buncrana, Co. Donegal, a little herd-boy paid dearly +for having entered one of their dwellings. As he was climbing among the +rocks, he saw a cleft, and creeping through it came to where a fairy +woman was spinning with her "weans," or children, around her. His sister +missed him, and after searching for a time, she too, came to the cleft, +and looking down saw her brother, and called to him to come out. He +came, but was never able to speak again. + +In another case deafness followed intercourse with the fairies. An +elderly man at Maghera, Co. Down, told me that his brother when four or +five years old went out with his father. The child lay down on the +grass. After a while the father heard a great noise, and looking up saw +little men about two feet in height dancing round his son. He called to +them to be gone, and they ran towards a fort and disappeared. The child +became deaf, and did not recover his hearing for ten years. He died at +the age of seventeen. + +To cut down a fairy thorn or to injure the house of a fairy is regarded +as certain to bring misfortune. An old woman also living at Maghera, +related how her great-grandmother had received a visit from a small old +woman, who forbade the building of a certain turf-stack, saying that +evil would befall anyone who injured the chimneys of her house. The +warning was disregarded, the turf-stack built, and before long four cows +died. + +I was told that when a certain fort in Co. Fermanagh was levelled to +the ground misfortune overtook the men who did the work, although, +apparently, they were only labourers, many of them dying suddenly. It +was also said that where this fort had stood there were caves or hollows +in the ground into which the oxen would fall when ploughing. An attempt +to bring a fort near Newcastle under cultivation is believed to have +caused the sudden death of the owner. + +The fairies are celebrated as fine musicians; they ride on small horses; +the women grind meal, and the sound of their spinning is often heard at +night in the peasants' cottages. The following story is related as +having occurred at Camlough, near Newry. + +A woman was spinning one evening when three fairies came into the house, +each bringing a spinning-wheel. They said they would help her with her +work, and one of them asked for a drink of water. The woman went to the +well to fetch it. When there she was warned, apparently by a friendly +fairy, that the others had come only to mock and harm her. Acting on the +advice of this friend, the woman, as soon as she had given water to the +three, turned again to the open door, and stood looking intently towards +a fort. They asked what she was gazing at, and the reply was: "At the +blaze on the fort." No sooner had she uttered these words than the three +fairies rushed out with such haste that one of them left her +spinning-wheel behind, which, according to the story, is now to be seen +in Dublin Castle. The woman then shut her door, and put a pin in the +keyhole, thus effectually preventing the return of her visitors. + +In this story we have probably an allusion to the signal fires which +are believed by the peasantry to have been lit on the forts in time of +danger, one fort being always within view of another. These forts, or +raths, appear to have been the favourite abode of the fairies. To use +the language of the peasantry, these little people live in the "coves of +the forths," an expression which puzzled me until I found that coves, or +caves, meant underground passages--in other words, souterrains. + +There are a number of these souterrains in the neighbourhood of +Castlewellan, and with a young friend, who helped me to take a few rough +measurements, I explored several. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF BALLYMAGREEHAN SOUTERRAIN.] + +Ballymagreehan Fort is a short distance from Castlewellan, near the +Newry Road. It is a small fort, and on the top we saw the narrow +entrance to the souterrain. Passing down through this, we found +ourselves in a short passage, or chamber, which led us to another +passage at right angles to the first. It is about forty feet in length +and three feet in width; the height varies from four to five feet. The +roof is formed of flat slabs, and the walls are carefully built of round +stones, but without mortar. At one end this passage appeared to +terminate in a wall, but at the other it was only choked with fallen +stones and debris, and I should think had formerly extended farther. + +Herman's Fort is another small fort on the opposite side of +Castlewellan, in the townland of Clarkill. Climbing to the top of it, we +came to an enclosure where several thorn-bushes were growing. The farmer +who kindly acted as our guide showed us two openings. One of these led +to a narrow chamber fully six feet high, the other to a passage more +than thirty feet in length and about three feet wide, while the height +varied from three and a half feet in one part to more than five feet in +another. I was told that water is always to be found near these forts, +and was shown a well which had existed from time immemorial; the sides +were built of round stones without mortar, in the same way as the walls +of the passage. + +We heard here of another souterrain about a mile distant, called +Backaderry Cove. It is on the side of a hill close to the road leading +from Castlewellan to Dromara. A number of thorn-bushes grow near the +place, but there is no mound, either natural or artificial. Creeping +through the opening, we found ourselves in a passage about forty feet in +length; a chamber opens off it nine feet in length, and between five and +six feet in height, while the height of the passage varies from four and +a half to five and a half feet. There is a tradition that this passage +formerly connected Backaderry with Herman's Fort. + +Ballyginney Fort is near Maghera. I only saw the entrance to the +souterrain, but from what I heard I believe that here also there is a +chamber opening off the passage. The farmer on whose land the fort is +situated told me that one dry summer he had planted flax in the field +adjoining the fort. The small depth of soil above the flat slabs +affected the crop, so that by the difference in the flax it was easy to +trace where the passage ran below the field. + +We have seen that the fairies are believed to inhabit the souterrains; +they are also said to live inside certain hills, and in forts where, so +far as is known, no underground structure exists. I may mention as an +example the large fort on the Shimna River, near Newcastle, where I was +told their music was often to be heard. There may be many souterrains +whose entrance has been choked up, and of which no record has been +preserved. Mr. Bigger gave last session an interesting account of one +discovered at Stranocum; another was accidentally found last September +in a field about three miles from Newry. Mr. Mann Harbison, who visited +the souterrain, writes to me that the excavation has been made in a +circular portion which is six feet wide and five feet high. A gallery +opens out of this chamber, and is in some places not more than three +feet six inches high. + +The building of the forts and souterrains is ascribed by the country +people to the Danes, a race of whom various traditions exist. They are +said to have had red hair; sometimes they are spoken of as large men, +sometimes as short men. One old woman, who had little belief in fairies, +told me that in the old troubled times in Ireland people lived inside +the forts; these people were the Danes, and they used to light fires on +the top as a signal from one fort to another. I heard from an elderly +man of Danes having encamped on his grandmother's farm. Smoke was seen +rising from an unfrequented spot, and when an uncle went to investigate +the matter he found small huts with no doors, only a bundle of sticks +laid across the entrance. In one of the huts he saw a pot boiling on the +fire, and going forward he began to stir the contents. Immediately a +red-haired man and woman rushed in; they appeared angry at the +intrusion, and when he went out threw a plate after him. + +The traditions in regard both to Danes and fairies are very similar in +different parts of Ireland. In Co. Cavan the country people spoke of the +beautiful music of the fairies, and told me of their living in a fort +near Lough Oughter. One woman said they were sometimes called Ganelochs, +and were about the size of children, and an old man described them as +little people about one or two feet high, riding on small horses. + +In Co. Waterford I was told that the fairies were not ghosts: they lived +in the air. One man might see them while they would be invisible to +others. + +In an interesting lecture on the "Customs and Superstitions of the +Southern Irish," the Rev. J. B. Leslie, who has kindly allowed me to +quote from his manuscript, describes the fairies as "a species of beings +neither men nor angels nor ghosts.... They are connected in the popular +imagination with the Danish forts which are common in the country. In +these they seem to have their abode underground. At night they hold here +high revels--in grand banqueting-halls--and in these revels there must +always, I believe, be a living human being. The fairies are often called +the 'good people'; some think they are 'fallen angels.' They are usually +thought of as harmless creatures, unless, of course, they are interfered +with, when the power they wield is very great. They are very fond of +games; some testify that they have seen them play football, others +hurley, while playing at marbles is a special pastime, and I have even +heard of persons who have discovered 'fairy marbles' near or in these +forts. No one will interfere with the forts; they fear the power and +anger of the fairies." + +While the fairies are generally associated with the forts, I heard both +in Co. Down and Co. Kerry of their living in caves in the mountains, and +a lad whom I met near the Gap of Dunloe described them as having cloven +feet and black hair. + +A boatman at Killarney spoke of the Leprechauns as little men about +three feet in height, wearing red caps. He thought the fairies might be +taller, and spoke of their living in the forts. He said these forts had +been built by the Danes, who must have been small men, when they made +the passages so low. We thus see that fairies and Danes are both +associated with these ancient structures. Although the Irish peasant +speaks of these Danes having been conquered by Brian Boru, the structure +and position of the raths and souterrains point to their having been the +work of one of the earlier Irish races rather than of the medieval +Norsemen. Their name appears to identify them with the Tuatha de Danann +whose necromantic power is celebrated in Irish tales, and of whom, +according to O'Curry, one class of fairies are the representatives. I +know that some high authorities regard the Tuatha de Danann and the +fairies as alike mythological beings. The latter are certainly in +popular legend endowed with superhuman attributes; they can transport +people long distances, creep through keyholes, and the fairy changeling, +when placed on the fire, can escape up the chimney and grin at his +tormentors. If we ask the country people who are the fairies, the reply +is frequently, "Fallen angels." According to an old woman in Donegal, +these angels fell, some on the sea, some on the earth, while some +remained in the air; the fairies were those who fell on the earth. + +These "fallen angels" may be the representatives of the spirits whom the +pagan Irish worshipped and strove to propitiate, and some of the tales +relating to the fairies may have their origin in the mythology of a +primitive people. But the raths and souterrains are certainly the work +of human hands, and I would suggest that in the legends connected with +them we have a reminiscence of a dwarf race who rode on ponies, were +good musicians, could spin and weave, and grind corn. The traditions +would point to their being red-haired. + +Mr. Mann Harbison has kindly written to me on this subject, and +expresses his belief that the souterrains "were constructed by a +diminutive race, probably allied to the modern Lapps, who seem to be the +survivors of a widely distributed race." In another letter he says: "The +universal idea of fairies is very suggestive. The tall Celts, when they +arrived, saw the small people disappear in a mysterious way, and, +without stopping to investigate, imagined they had become invisible. If +they had had the courage or the patience to investigate, they would have +found that they had passed into their souterrain." + +In his work "Fians, Fairies, and Picts," Mr. David MacRitchie argues +that these three names belong to similar if not identical dwarf races in +Scotland. The Tuatha de Danann he also regards as of the same race as +the fairies, or, to give them their Irish name, the Fir Sidhe, the men +of the green mounds. + +The remains of the ancient cave-dwellers point to a primitive race of +small size inhabiting Europe. Dr. Munro, in his work "Prehistoric +Problems," refers to the skeletons discovered at Spy in Belgium by MM. +Lohest and De Pudzt. He describes them as examples of a very early and +low type of the human race, and states that Professor Fraipont, who +examined them anatomically, "came to the conclusion that the Spy men +belonged to a race relatively of small stature, analogous to the modern +Laplanders, having voluminous heads, massive bodies, short arms, and +bent legs. They led a sedentary life, frequented caves, manufactured +flint implements after the type known as Mousterien, and were +contemporary with the Mammoth."[4] + +Let us compare this description with that in the ballad of "The Wee, Wee +Man":[5] + + "His legs were scarce a shathmont's[6] length, + And thick and thimber was his thigh; + Between his brows there was a span, + And between his shoulders there was three." + +I do not, however, mean to suggest that the builders of the raths and +souterrains were contemporary with the men of Spy, but rather that a +small race of primitive men may have existed until a comparatively late +period in this country. Leading a desultory warfare with their +neighbours, they would carry off women and children, and injure the +cattle with their stone weapons. We should note that in the traditions +of the peasantry, and also in the old ballads, those who have been +carried off by the fairies can frequently be released from captivity, +and they return, not as ghosts, but as living men or women. May we not +see in these legends traces of a struggle between a primitive race, +whose gods may have been, like themselves, of diminutive stature, and +their more civilized neighbours, who accepted the teaching of the early +Christian missionaries? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Communicated to Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, January +18, 1898. + +[4] P. 141. + +[5] "Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs," published anonymously, +but known to have been collected by David Herd (vol. i., p. 95, ed. +1776). + +[6] The fist closed with thumb extended, and may be considered +a measure of about six inches. + + + + +A Day at Maghera, Co. Londonderry[7] + + +One fine morning last August I found myself in the quaint old town of +Maghera. My first visit was to the post-office, where I bought some +picture-cards, and inquired my way to Killelagh Church, the Cromlech, +and the Sweat-house, as it is called, where formerly people indulged in +a vapour-bath to cure rheumatism and other complaints. I was told to +follow the main street. This I did, and when I came to the outskirts of +the town I tried to get a guide, and spoke to a boy at one of the +cottages. He, however, knew very little, but fortunately saw an elderly +man coming down the road, who consented to show me the way, and proved +an excellent guide. His name is Daniel McKenna, a coach-builder by +trade. His father, who was teacher in Maghera National School for +thirty-five years, knew Irish well, and I understand gave Dr. Joyce +information in regard to some of the place-names in Co. Derry. Taking a +road which led in a north-westerly direction, we came to the Cromlech, +and a few yards farther on saw the old Church of Killelagh. + +[Illustration: PLATE III. ENTRANCE TO SWEATHOUSE, MAGHERA.] + +My guide pointed out that the doorstep was much worn, doubtless by the +feet of those who during many centuries had passed over it; he showed +me, too, the strong walls, and said the mortar had been cemented with +the blood of bullocks. This probably recalls an ancient custom, when an +animal--in still earlier times it might be a human being[8]--was slain +to propitiate or drive away the evil spirits and secure the stability of +the building. A similar tradition exists in regard to Roughan Castle, +the stronghold of Phelim O'Neill, in Co. Tyrone. + +Leaving Killelagh Church, we continued our walk, and I asked my guide +about the customs and traditions of the country. He told me that on +Hallow Eve Night salt is put on the heads of children to protect them +from the fairies. These fairies, or wee folk, are about three feet in +height, some not so tall; they are of different races or tribes, and +have pitched battles at the Pecht's graveyard. This is a place covered +with rough mounds and very rough stones, and is looked on as a great +playground of the fairies; people passing through it are often led +astray by them. The Pechts, or Picts, were described to me as having +long black hair, which grew in tufts; they were small people, about four +feet six inches in height, thick set, nearly as broad as they were long, +strong in arms and shoulders, and with very large feet. When a shower of +rain came on, they would stand on their heads and shelter themselves +under their feet. Some years ago I was told a similar story in Co. +Antrim of the Pechts lying down and using their feet as umbrellas.[9] + +I regretted we had not time to visit a large fort we passed on the way +to Ballyknock Farmhouse. Here we left the road, and, passing through +some fields, came to the old Sweat-house. As you will see from the +photograph kindly given to me by Mr. Lytle of Maghera, the entrance is +on the side of a bank. It is a much more primitive structure than those +at the Struel Wells, near Downpatrick. No mortar has been used in its +construction, and I should say it is an old souterrain, or part of a +souterrain. The following are rough measurements: + + Height of entrance 2 feet. + Width of entrance 15 inches. + Height of interior 5 feet 5 inches. + Width of interior 3 feet. + Length of interior 9 feet. + + [Illustration: PLATE IV. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + RUSH AND STRAW CROSSES.] + +This building, as already mentioned, was used by those suffering from +rheumatism, and near the entrance is a well in which the patients bathed +to complete the cure. + +While we were resting I asked about rush crosses, which are put up in +many cottages at Maghera, and, gathering some rushes, Daniel McKenna +showed me how they were made. He told me that on St. Bridget's Eve, +January 31, children are sent out to pull rushes, which must not be cut +with a knife. When these rushes are brought in, the family gather round +the fire and make the crosses, which are sprinkled with holy water. The +wife or eldest daughter prepares tea and pancakes, and the plate of +pancakes is laid on the top of the rush cross. Prayers are said, and the +family partake of St. Bridget's supper. The crosses are hung up over +doors and beds to bring good luck. In former times sowans or flummery +was eaten instead of pancakes. I have heard of similar customs in other +places. At Tobermore those who bring in the rushes ask at the door, "May +St. Bridget come in?" "Yes, she may," is the answer. The rushes are put +on a rail under the table while the family partake of tea. Afterwards +the crosses are made, and, as at Maghera, hung up over doors and +beds.[10] + +This custom probably comes to us from pre-Christian times. The cross in +its varied forms is a very ancient symbol, sometimes representing the +sun, sometimes the four winds of heaven. Schlieman discovered it on the +pottery of the Troad; it is found in Egypt, India, China, and Japan, and +among the people of the Bronze Period it appears frequently on pottery, +jewellery, and coins. + +Now, St. Bridget had a pagan predecessor, Brigit, a poetess of the +Tuatha de Danann, and whom we may perhaps regard as a female Apollo. +Cormac, in his "Glossary," tells us she was a daughter of the Dagda and +a goddess whom all poets adored, and whose two sisters were Brigit the +physician and Brigit the smith. Probably the three sisters represent the +same divine or semi-divine person whom we may identify with the British +goddess Brigantia and the Gaulish Brigindo. + +May we not see, then, in these rush crosses a very ancient symbol, used +in pagan times, and which was probably consecrated by early Christian +missionaries, and given a new significance? + + [Illustration: PLATE V. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + HARVEST KNOTS.] + +The harvest knots or bows are connected with another old custom which +was, until recently, observed at Maghera. When the harvest was gathered +in, the last handful of oats, the corn of this country, was left +standing. It was plaited in three parts and tied at the top, and was +called by the Irish name "luchter." The reapers stood at some distance, +and threw their sickles at the luchter, and the man who cut it was +exempt from paying his share of the feast. Daniel McKenna told me he had +seen some fine sickles broken in trying to hit the luchter. It was +afterwards carried home; the young girls plaited harvest knots and put +them in their hair, while the lads wore them in their caps and +buttonholes. A dance followed the feast. The knots, with the ears of +corn attached, are, I am told, the true old Irish type, while it is +thought that the smaller ones were made after a pattern brought from +England by the harvest reapers on their return home. I heard of the same +custom at Portstewart and also in the Valley of the Roe, where the last +sheaf of oats was called the "hare," and the throwing of the sickles was +termed the "churn." In some places the last sheaf itself was called the +"churn," but by whatever name it was known the man who hit it was +regarded as the victor, and was given the best seat at the feast, or a +reward of some kind. An old woman above ninety years of age repeated to +me a song about the churn, or kirn, and she and many others remember +well the custom and the feast which followed, when both whisky and tea +were served. + +In some districts the last sheaf is termed the "Cailleagh,"[11] or old +wife. + +A similar custom in Devonshire has been described by Mr. Pearse Chope +in the _London Devonian Year Book_ for 1910, p. 127. Here corn is wheat, +and a sheaf of the finest ears, termed the "neck," is carried by one of +the men to an elevated spot; the reapers form themselves into a ring, +and each man holding his hook above his head, they all join in "the +weird cry, 'A neck! a neck! a neck! We ha' un! we ha' un! we ha' un!' +This is repeated several times, with the occasional variation: 'A neck! +a neck! a neck! God sa' un! God sa' un! God sa' un!' After this ceremony +the man with the neck has to run to the kitchen, and get it there dry, +while the maids wait with buckets and pitchers of water to 'souse' him +and the neck." Mr. Chope adds that in most cases the neck is more or +less in the form of a woman, and undoubtedly represented the spirit of +the harvest, and that "the main idea of the ceremony seems to have been +that in cutting the corn the spirit was gradually driven into the last +handful.... As it was needful to cut the corn and bury the seed, so it +was necessary to kill the corn spirit in order that it might rise again +in fresh youth and vigour in the coming crop."[12] + +I think we may safely assume that the Irish churn had a similar origin, +and that in throwing the sickles the aim of the ancient reapers was to +kill the spirit of the corn. + + [Illustration: PLATE VI. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + "CHURN"] + +We have seen that in the North of Ireland the last sheaf is +frequently termed the "hare," and in many other countries the corn +spirit takes the form of an animal. In his recent volumes of the _Golden +Bough_, entitled "Spirits of the Corn and the Wild," Dr. Frazer mentions +many animals, such as the wolf, goat, fox, dog, bull, cow, horse, hare, +which represent the corn spirit lurking in the last patch of standing +corn. He tells us that "at harvest a number of wild animals, such as +hares, rabbits, and partridges, are commonly driven by the progress of +the reaping into the last patch of standing corn, and make their escape +from it as it is being cut down.... Now, primitive man, to whom magical +changes of shape seem perfectly credible, finds it most natural that the +spirit of the corn, driven from his home in the ripe grain, should make +his escape in the form of the animal, which is seen to rush out of the +last patch of corn as it falls under the scythe of the reaper."[13] + +To return to Maghera. The morning passed swiftly as I listened to my +guide's description of these old customs, and it was after two o'clock +when I said good-bye to him at his cottage, and found myself again in +the main street of Maghera. I now wished to visit the Fort of Dunglady, +and after a refreshing cup of tea, engaged a car. The driver knew the +country well, and, going uphill and downhill, we passed through the +village of Culnady, and were soon close to this fine fort. A few +minutes' walk, and I stood on the outer rampart, and gazed across the +inner circles at the cattle grazing on the central enclosure. + +This fort was visited in 1902 by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of +Ireland, when a very interesting paper, written by Miss Jane Clark of +Kilrea, was read. She mentions that Dr. O'Donovan considered this fort +one of the most interesting he had met with; not so magnificent as the +Dun of Keltar at Downpatrick, but much better fortified, and states that +a map of the time of Charles I. represents Dunglady Fort as a prominent +object, and shows three houses built upon it, one of considerable size. +Quoting from an unpublished letter of Mr. J. Stokes, she refers to the +triple rampart, which makes the diameter of the whole to be three +hundred and thirty feet. There was formerly a draw well in the middle of +the fort, and at one time it was used as a burial-ground by members of +the Society of Friends. Miss Clark also referred to a smaller fort at +Culnady, which had been demolished. The two mounds in the centre of this +rath had been formed of earth on a stone foundation. + +A rapid drive brought me back to Maghera in time for a short visit to +the ruins of the Church of St. Lurach, popularly known in the district +as St. Lowry. There is a curious sculpture of the Crucifixion over the +west doorway, which is shown in the sketch of this doorway by Petrie in +Lord Dunraven's "Notes on Irish Architecture."[14] + +I must now conclude this account of my visit to Maghera, but may I +mention that farther north there are other interesting antiquities? The +large cromlech, called the Broadstone, is some miles from Kilrea. There +are several forts in the neighbourhood of that town, which draws its +supply of water from a fairy well. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Read before the Archaeological Section of the Belfast +Naturalists' Field Club, January 15, 1913. + +[8] In "My Schools and Schoolmasters" (chap. x., pp. 222-223, +ed. 1854), Hugh Miller describes the goblin who haunted Craig House, +near Cromarty Firth, as a "grey-headed, grey-bearded, little old man," +and the apparition was thus explained by a herdboy: "_Oh! they're +saying_ it's the spirit of the man that was killed on the +foundation-stone just after it was laid, and then built intil the wa' by +the masons, that he might keep the castle by coming back again; and +_they're saying_ that a' the verra auld houses in the kintra had +murderit men builded intil them in that way, and that they have a' o' +them this bogle." + +In "The Study of Man," Professor Haddon gives a number of allusions to +the human sacrifice in the building of bridges (pp. 347-356). + +[9] See p. 27. + +[10] In Plate IV. the larger cross is of rushes, the smaller +one is made of straw. + +[11] Mr. McKean kindly informs me that he has found this name +or its modification "Collya" in Counties Armagh, Monaghan, and Tyrone; +also near Cushendall, Co. Antrim, where the ceremony is called "cutting +the Cailleagh." He was told this Cailleagh was an old witch, and by +"killing" her and taking her into the house you got good luck. At +Ballyatoge, at the back of Cat Carn Hill, near Belfast, in the descent +to Crumlin, the custom is called "cutting the Granny." At Ballycastle, +Co. Antrim, the plait or braid is called the "car-line." + +[12] Dr. Frazer also describes this Devonshire custom (see +_Golden Bough_, "Spirits of the Corn and the Wild," vol. i., pp. +264-267). + +[13] "Spirits of the Corn and the Wild," vol. i., pp. 304, +305. + +[14] Vol. i., p. 115. + + + + +Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts[15] + + +The fairy lore of Ulster is doubtless dying out, but much may yet be +learned about the "gentle" folk, and as we listen to the stories told by +the peasantry, we may well ask ourselves what is the meaning of these +old legends. + +Fairies are regarded on the whole as a kindly race of beings, although +if offended they will work dire vengeance. They have no connection with +churchyards, and are quite distinct from ghosts. One old woman, who had +much to say about fairies, when asked about ghosts, replied rather +scornfully, that she did not believe in them. The fairies are supposed +to be small--"wee folk"--but we must not think of them as tiny creatures +who could hide in a foxglove. To use a North of Ireland phrase, they are +the size of a "lump of a boy or girl!" and have been often mistaken for +ordinary men or women, until their sudden disappearance marked them as +unearthly. + +A farmer in Co. Antrim told me that once when a man was taking stones +from a cave in a fort, an old man came and asked him would it not be +better to get his stones elsewhere than from those ancient buildings. +The other, however, continued his work; but when the stranger suddenly +disappeared, he became convinced that his questioner was no ordinary +mortal. In after-life he often said sadly: "He was a poor man, and would +always remain a poor man, because he had taken stones from that cave." +The cave was no doubt a souterrain. + +An elderly woman in Co. Antrim told me that when a child she one evening +saw "a little old woman with a green cloak coming over the burn." She +helped her to cross, and afterwards took her to the cottage, where her +mother received the stranger kindly, told her she was sorry she could +not give her a bed in the house, but that she might sleep in one of the +outhouses. The children made Grannie as comfortable as they could, and +in the morning went out early to see how she was. They found her up and +ready to leave. The child who had first met her said she would again +help her across the burn--"But wait," she added, "until I get my +bonnet." She ran into the house, but before she came out the old woman +had disappeared. + +When the mother heard of this she said: "God bless you, child! Don't +mind Grannie; she is very well able to take care of herself." And so it +was believed that Grannie was a fairy. + +I have also heard of a little old man in a three-cornered hat, at first +mistaken for a neighbour, but whose sudden disappearance proved him to +be a fairy. + +In the time of the press-gang a crowd was seen approaching some +cottages. Great alarm ensued, and the young men fled; but it was soon +discovered that these people did not come from a man-of-war--they were +fairies. + +A terrible story, showing how the fairies can punish their captives, was +told me by an old woman at Armoy, in Co. Antrim, who vouched for it as +being "candid truth." A man's wife was carried away by the fairies; he +married again, but one night his first wife met him, told him where she +was, and besought him to release her, saying that if he would do so she +would leave that part of the country and not trouble him any more. She +begged him, however, not to make the attempt unless he were confident he +could carry it out, as if he failed she would die a terrible death. He +promised to save her, and she told him to watch at midnight, when she +would be riding past the house with the fairies; she would put her hand +in at the window, and he must grasp it and hold tight. He did as she +bade him, and although the fairies pulled hard, he had nearly saved her, +when his second wife saw what was going on, and tore his hand away. The +poor woman was dragged off, and across the fields he heard her piercing +cries, and saw next morning the drops of blood where the fairies had +murdered her. + +Another woman was more fortunate; she was carried off by the fairies at +Cushendall, but was able to inform her friends when she and the fairies +would be going on a journey, and she told them that if they stroked her +with the branch of a rowan-tree she would be free. They did as she +desired. She returned to them, apparently having suffered no injury, and +in the course of time she married. + +This story was told me by a man ninety years of age, living in +Glenshesk, in the north of Co. Antrim. He spoke of the fairies as being +about two feet in height, said they were dressed in green, and had been +seen in daylight making hats of rushes. In Donegal I was also told that +the fairies wore high peaked hats made of plaited rushes; but there, as +in most parts of Ulster, and indeed of Ireland, the fairies are said to +wear red, not green. In Antrim the fairies, like their Scotch kinsfolk, +dress in green, but even there are often said to have red or sandy hair. + +The Pechts are spoken of as low, stout people, who built some of the +"coves" in the forts. An old man, living in the townland of Drumcrow, +Co. Antrim, showed me the entrance to one of these artificial caves, and +gave me a vivid description of its builders. "The Pechts," he said, +"were low-set, heavy-made people, broad in the feet--so broad," he +added, with an expressive gesture, "that in rain they could lie down and +shelter themselves under their feet." He spoke of them as clad in skins, +while an old woman at Armoy said they were dressed in grey. I have +seldom heard of the Pechts beyond the confines of Antrim, although an +old man in Donegal spoke of them as short people with large, unwieldy +feet. + +The traditions regarding the Danes vary; sometimes they are spoken of as +a tall race, sometimes as a short race. There is little doubt that the +tall race were the medieval Danes, while in the short men we have +probably a reminiscence of an earlier race. + +A widespread belief exists throughout Ireland that the Danes made +heather beer, and that the secret perished with them. According to an +old woman at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, the Danes had the land in +old times, but at last they were conquered, and there remained alive +only a father and son. When pressed to disclose how the heather beer was +made, the father said: "Kill my son, and I will tell you our secret"; +but when the son was slain, he cried: "Kill me also, but our secret you +shall never know!" I have the authority of Mr. MacRitchie for stating +that a similar story is known in Scotland from the Shetlands to the Mull +of Galloway, but there it is told of the Picts. + +We all remember Louis Stevenson's ballad of heather ale--how the son was +cast into the sea: + + "And there on the cliff stood the father, + Last of the dwarfish men. + + "True was the word I told you: + Only my son I feared; + For I doubt the sapling courage + That goes without the beard. + But now in vain is the torture, + Fire shall never avail; + Here dies in my bosom + The secret of heather ale." + +The secret appears, however, to have been preserved for many centuries. +After visiting Islay in 1772, the Welsh traveller and naturalist, +Pennant, states that "Ale is frequently made in this island from the +tops of heath, mixing two-thirds of that plant with one of malt."[16] + +Probably these islanders were descendants of the Picts or Pechts. + +I do not know if there is any record of the making of heather beer in +Ireland in later times, but I heard the story of the lost secret in +Down, in Kerry, in Donegal, in Antrim, and everywhere the father and the +son were the last of the Danes. Does not this point to the Irish Danes +being a kindred race to the Picts? If we may be allowed to hold that the +Tuatha de Danann are not altogether mythical, I should be inclined to +believe that they are the short Danes of the Irish peasantry, who built +the forts and souterrains. I visited some Danes' graves near +Ballygilbert, in Co. Antrim; it appeared to me that there were +indications of a stone circle, the principal tomb was in the centre, the +walls built without mortar, and I was told that formerly it had been +roofed in with a flat stone. Various ridges were pointed out to me as +marking the small fields of these early people. I was also shown their +houses, built, like the graves, without mortar. Within living memory +these old structures were much more perfect than at present, many of +them having the characteristic flat slab as a roof; but fences were +needed, and the Danes' houses offered a convenient and tempting supply +of stones. In the same neighbourhood I was shown a building of +uncemented stone with flat slabs for the roof, and was told it had been +built by the fairies. + + [Illustration: _SOUTERRAIN of KNOCKDHU Co. Antrim + PLAN + Drawn by Florence Hobson from the measurements made by M Hobson_] + +In the same district I visited a fine souterrain at the foot of +Knockdhu, which was afterwards fully explored and measured by Mrs. +Hobson. She describes it as "a souterrain containing six chambers, with +a length of eighty-seven feet exclusive of a flooded chamber."[17] Mrs. +Hobson photographed the entrance to this souterrain, which is reproduced +in Plate VII. + + [Illustration: PLATE VII. + ENTRANCE TO SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU.] + +From the foregoing traditions it will be seen that Pechts, Danes, and +fairies are all associated with the remains of primitive man. I may add +that the small pipes sometimes turned up by the plough are called in +different localities Danes', Pechts', or fairies' pipes. + +The peasantry regard the Pechts and the Danes as thoroughly human; with +the fairies it is otherwise. They are unearthly beings, fallen angels +with supernatural powers; but, while quick to revenge an injury or a +slight, on the whole friendly to mankind. "It was better for the country +before they went away," was the remark made to me by an old woman from +Garvagh, Co. Derry, and I have heard the same sentiment expressed by +others. They are always spoken of with much respect, and are often +called the "gentry" or the "gentle folk." + +We hear of fairy men, fairy women, and fairy children. They may +intermarry with mortals, and an old woman told me she had seen a fairy's +funeral. Now, do these stories give us only a materialistic view of the +spirit world held by early man, or can we also trace in them a +reminiscence of a pre-Celtic race of small stature? The respect paid to +the fairy thorn is no doubt a survival of tree-worship, and in the +banshee we have a weird being who has little in common with mortal +woman. On the other hand, the fairies are more often connected with the +artificial Forts and souterrains than with natural hills and caves. +These forts and souterrains, as we have seen, are also the habitations +of Danes and Pechts. They are sacred spots--to injure them is to court +misfortune; but I have not heard them spoken of as sepulchres. + +I have already mentioned that I have rarely, if ever, found among the +peasantry any tradition of fairies a few inches in height. In one of the +tales in "Silva Gadelica" (xiv.) we read, however, of the lupracan being +so small that the close-cropped grass of the green reached to the thigh +of their poet, and the prize feat of their great champion was the hewing +down of a thistle at a single stroke. Such a race could not have built +the souterrains, and probably owe their origin to the imagination of the +medieval story-teller. The lupracan were not, however, always of such +diminutive size. In a note to this story Mr. Standish H. O'Grady quotes +an old Irish manuscript[18] in which a distinctly human origin is +ascribed to these luchorpan or wee-bodies. "Ham, therefore, was the +first that was cursed after the Deluge, and from him sprang the +wee-bodies (pygmies), fomores, 'goatheads' (satyrs), and every other +deformed shape that human beings wear." The old writer goes on to tell +us that this was the origin of these monstrosities, "which are not, as +the Gael relate, of Cain's seed, for of his seed nothing survived the +Flood."[19] + +It is true that in this passage the lupracan or wee-bodies are +associated with goatheads; but whether these are purely fabulous beings, +or point to an early race whose features were supposed to resemble those +of goats, or who perhaps stood in totem relationship to goats, it would +be difficult to say. What we have here are two medieval traditions, the +one stating that the pygmies are descendants of Cain, the other classing +them among the descendants of Ham. Does the latter contain a germ of +truth, and is it possible that at one time a people resembling the +pygmies of Central Africa inhabited these islands? + +Those who have visited the African dwarfs in their own haunts have been +struck by the resemblance between their habits and those ascribed to the +northern fairies, elves, and trolls. + +Sir Harry Johnston states that anyone who has seen much of the merry, +impish ways of the Central African pygmies "cannot but be struck by +their singular resemblance in character to the elves and gnomes and +sprites of our nursery stories." He warns us, however, against reckless +theorizing, and says: "It may be too much to assume that the negro +species ever inhabited Europe," but adds that undoubtedly to his +thinking "most fairy myths arose from the contemplation of the +mysterious habits of dwarf troglodyte races lingering on still in the +crannies, caverns, forests, and mountains of Europe after the invasion +of neolithic man."[20] Captain Burroughs refers to the stories of these +mannikins to be found in all countries, and adds that "it was of the +highest interest to find some of them in their primitive and aboriginal +state."[21] He speaks of the red and black Akka, and Sir Harry Johnston +also describes the two types of pygmy, one being of a reddish-yellow +colour, the other as black as the ordinary negro. In the yellow-skinned +type there is a tendency on the part of the head hair to be reddish, +more especially over the frontal part of the head. The hair is never +absolutely black--it varies in colour between greyish-greenish-brown, +and reddish.[22] We have seen how Irish fairies and Danes have red hair, +but I should infer of a brighter hue than these African dwarfs. The +average height of the pygmy man is four feet nine inches, of the pygmy +woman four feet six inches,[23] and although we cannot measure fairies, +I think the Ulster expression, "a lump of a boy or girl," would +correspond with this height. I do not know the size of the fairy's foot, +but, as we have seen, both Danes and Pechts have large feet, and so has +the African pygmy.[24] One of the great marks of the fairies is their +vanishing and leaving no trace behind, and Sir Harry Johnston speaks of +the baboon-like adroitness of the African dwarfs in making themselves +invisible in squatting immobility.[25] + +Dr. Robertson Smith has shown that "primitive man has to contend not +only with material difficulties, but with the superstitious terror of +the unknown, paralyzing his energies and forbidding him freely to put +forth his strength to subdue nature to his use."[26] In speaking of the +Arabian "jinn," he states "that even in modern accounts _jinn_ and +various kinds of animals are closely associated, while in the older +legends they are practically identified,"[27] and he adds that the +stories point distinctly "to haunted spots being the places where evil +beasts walk by night."[28] He also shows that totems or friendly +demoniac beings rapidly develop into gods when men rise above pure +savagery,[29] and he cites the ancestral god of Baalbek, who was +worshipped under the form of a lion.[30] + +If we see, then, that early man, terrified by the wild beasts, whether +lions or reptiles, ascribed to them superhuman powers, may not a similar +mode of thought have caused one race to invest with supernatural +attributes another race, strangers to them, and possibly of inferior +mental development? The big negro is often afraid to withhold his banana +from the pygmy, and the dwarfish Lapps and Finns have long been regarded +as powerful sorcerers by their more civilized neighbours. In like manner +the little woman, inhabiting her underground dwelling at the foot of the +sacred thorn-bush, might well be looked upon as an uncanny being, and in +after-ages popular imagination might transform her into the weird +banshee, the woman of the fairy mound, whose wailing cry betokens death +and disaster. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] Reprinted from the _Antiquary_, August, 1906. + +[16] "Voyage to the Hebrides in 1772," p. 229. For a full +discussion of the subject, see Mr. MacRitchie's "Memories of the Picts," +in the _Scottish Antiquary_ for 1900. + +[17] See "Some Ulster Souterrains," _Journal of the Royal +Anthropological Institute_, vol. xxxix., January-June, 1909. The plan +was drawn by Miss Florence Hobson from the measurements made by Mrs. +Hobson. + +[18] Rawl., 486, f.49, 2. + +[19] "Silva Gadelica" (translation and notes), pp. 563, 564. + +[20] "Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii., pp. 516, 517. + +[21] "Land of the Pygmies," pp. 173, 174. + +[22] "Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii. See pp. 527, 530; also +coloured frontispiece. + +[23] "Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii., p. 532. + +[24] _Ibid._, p. 532. + +[25] _Ibid._, p. 513. + +[26] "The Religion of the Semites," p. 115. + +[27] _Ibid._, pp. 122, 123. + +[28] _Ibid._, p. 123. + +[29] _Ibid._, note _b_, p. 424. + +[30] _Ibid._, p. 425. + + + + +Folklore connected with Ulster Raths and Souterrains[31] + + +As the title of this paper I have given "Folklore connected with +Ulster Raths and Souterrains," but if I used the language of the +country-people I should speak, not of raths and souterrains, but of +forths and coves. In these coves it is believed the fairies dwell, and +here they keep as prisoners women, children, even men. These +subterranean dwellings may not be known to mortals. I heard of a lad +being kept for several days in the fort of the Shimna, near Newcastle, +Co. Down, and I was told that the great rath at Downpatrick had been a +very gentle place, meaning one inhabited by fairies. In neither of these +forts is there, as far as is known, a souterrain, nor is there one in +the old fort at Antrim, a typical rath. In many cases we do find the +entrance to a souterrain is in a fort. I may mention Ballymagreehan +Fort, the stone fort near Altnadua Lough in Co. Down, and Crocknabroom, +near Ballycastle. Although not in Ulster, I may also refer to a fine +example of a rath with a souterrain in it, the Mote of Greenmount, +described by the Rev. J. B. Leslie in his "History of Kilsaran, Co. +Louth."[32] + + [Illustration: PLATE VIII. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + THE OLD FORT, ANTRIM.] + +Many souterrains have no fort above them. Take, for example, the one +near Scollogstown, Co. Down, with its numerous bridges, which it would +be decidedly unpleasant to face if little men were behind them shooting +arrows. Also Cloughnabrick Cave, near Ballycastle, which is not built +with stones, but hollowed out of the basaltic rock. + +Fairies are not the only race connected with raths and souterrains. We +have two others, Danes and Pechts. It is generally believed that the +Danes built the forts; hence we find many of them called "Danes' forts." +I will describe one named from the townland in which it is situated, +Ballycairn Fort. It stands on a high bank overlooking the Bann, about a +mile north of Coleraine. The entire height is about twenty-six feet; at +perhaps twelve feet from the ground a flat platform is reached, and at +one end of this the upper part of the fort rises in a circular form for +about fourteen or fifteen feet. I was told the Danes who built it were +short, stout people, and as they had no wheelbarrows they carried the +earth in their leathern aprons. Here we seem to come in contact with a +very primitive people, probably wearing the skins of wild animals, and +who are said, like the fairies, to have sandy or red hair. + +As far as is known no souterrain exists in Ballycairn Fort, although I +was shown a stone at the side which my guide said might be the entrance +to a "cove"; it appeared to me to be simply a piece of rock appearing +above the sod, or possibly a boulder. There is a tradition of fairies +living in this fort, as it is said that in "long ago" times the farmers +used to threaten their boys if they were not doing right, that the +fairies would come out of the fort and carry them away. + +Many of the souterrains in this part of the world are now blocked up, +and of some the entrance is no longer known, although they have been +explored within living memory; others have been destroyed. There was a +souterrain a short distance from Ballycairn fort in a field opposite to +Cranogh National School. The master of this school told me that fifteen +or sixteen years ago these underground buildings existed, but now they +have been all quarried away. He also mentioned a tradition that there +was a subterranean passage under the Bann. + +On the opposite bank of the river, near Portstewart, I heard of several +of these underground dwellings. + +One was on the land of an old farmer eighty-four years of age. He told +me he had been in this cave, but no one could get in now. It had been +hollowed out by man, but the walls were not built of stones. There were +several rooms; you dropped from one to another through a narrow hole. +The rooms were large, but low in the roof; in one of them a quantity of +limpet-shells were found. He added that some said that the Danes had +built these caves, others that the clans made them as places of refuge. +He added that the Danes of those days had sandy hair and were short +people; not like the sturdy Danes of the present day. These are well +known to the seafaring population of Ulster, and we sometimes find the +old Danes spoken of as a tall, fair race; probably this is a true +description of the medieval sea-rovers. The short Danes I should be +inclined to identify with the Tuatha de Danann, and I believe that, +notwithstanding the magical portents which abound in the tales that have +come down to us, we have here a very early people who had made some +progress in the arts. + +This double use of the name Dane seems at times to have perplexed the +older writers. The Rev. William Hamilton, in his "Letters on the +North-East Coast of Antrim," published towards the end of the eighteenth +century, gives a description of the coal-mines of Ballycastle[33] and of +the very ancient galleries, with the pillars, left by the prehistoric +miners, supporting the roof, which had been discovered some twelve years +before he wrote. He tells us that the people of the place ascribed them +to the Danes, but argues that these were never peaceable possessors of +Ireland, and that it is not "to the tumultuary and barbarous armies of +the ninth and tenth centuries ... we are to attribute the slow and +toilsome operations of peace." He mentions how the stalactite pillars +found in these galleries marked their antiquity, and ascribes them to +some period prior to the eighth century, "when Ireland enjoyed a +considerable share of civilization." + +In the same way John Windele, writing in the _Ulster Journal of +Archaeology_ for 1862, speaks of the mines in Waterford having been +worked by the ancient inhabitants, and adds: "One almost insulated +promontory is perforated like a rabbit-burrow, and is known as the +'Danes' Island,' the peasantry attributing these ancient mines, like all +other relics of remote civilisation, to the Danes."[34] + +From my own experience I can corroborate this statement. An artificial +island in Lough Sessiagh, in Co. Donegal, was shown to me as the work of +the Danes. The forts on Horn Head and at Glenties are also ascribed to +them. + +The use of the souterrains was not confined to prehistoric times. The +one at Greenmount appears to have been inhabited by the medieval Danes, +as a Runic inscription, engraved on a plate of bronze, has been +discovered in it, the only one as yet found in Ireland. In 1317 every +man dwelling in an ooan, or caher's souterrain, was summoned to join the +army of Domched O'Brian.[35] The French traveller, Jorevin de Rocheford, +speaks of subterranean vaults where the peasants assembled to hear +Mass,[36] and in still more recent times the smuggler and the distiller +of illicit whisky found them convenient places of concealment. + +In a former paper I referred to the lost secret of the heather beer, and +the tragic ending of the last of the Danes.[37] As the story was told me +near Ballycairn Fort, the father said: "Give my son the first lilt of +the rope, and I will reveal our secret"; but when the son was dead the +father cried: "Slay me also, for none shall ever know how the heather +beer was brewed!" + +In a paper read to this club Mr. McKean[38] mentioned that this story +had been told to him in Kerry, where I, too, heard it. It appears to be +almost universal in Ulster. When visiting Navan Fort, the ancient +Emania, near Armagh, I was told that on this fort the Danes made heather +beer. I asked if any heather grew in the neighbourhood, but the answer +was, not now. There are variants of the tale. In some parts of Donegal +it is wine, not beer, that the Danes are said to have made. As a rule +the slaughter is taken for granted, and very little said about it; but a +farmer in Co. Antrim gave me a full account of the massacre, how at a +great feast a Roman Catholic sat beside each Dane, and at a given signal +plunged his dirk into his neighbour's side, until only one man and his +son remained alive; then followed the usual sequel. + +These short Danes are said to have had large feet, and one man described +their arms as so long that they could pick anything off the ground +without stooping. Long arms are also a characteristic of the traditional +dwarf of Japan, probably an ancestor of the Aino.[39] As I mentioned in +a previous paper,[40] large feet are also a traditional characteristic +of the Pechts, who are generally said to have been clad in skins or in +grey clothes. They have occasionally superhuman attributes ascribed to +them. The same man who spoke of the long arms of the Danes said the +Pechts could creep through keyholes--they were like "speerits"--and he +evidently regarded both them and the fairies as evil spirits. At the +same time he said they would thresh corn or work for a man, but if they +were given food, they would be offended, and go away. + +I think the close connection between Danes, Pechts, and fairies will be +apparent to all, although the fairy has more supernatural +characteristics, and in the banshee assumes a very weird form. Lady +Fanshawe has described the apparition she saw when staying, in 1649, +with the Lady Honora O'Brien, as a woman in white, with red hair and +ghastly complexion, who thrice cried "Ahone!" and vanished with a sigh +more like wind than breath. This was apparently the ghost of a murdered +woman, who was said to appear when any of the family died, and that +night a cousin of their hostess had passed away.[41] Similar stories, as +we all know, exist at the present day. + +Except in the case of the banshee, fairies rarely partake of the nature +of ghosts, and I should note that in her description of the apparition +Lady Fanshawe does not use the word "banshee." In many respects the +fairies are akin to mortals--there are fairy men, fairy women, and fairy +children. Fairies often live under bushes, and I was told in Co. Armagh +that it would be a very serious matter to cut down a "lone" thorn-bush; +those growing in rows were evidently less sacred. Did the thorn-bush +hide the entrance to the subterranean dwelling? + +The fairies are quick to revenge an injury or an encroachment on their +territory. A fire which occurred at Dunree on Lough Swilly was +attributed to the fairies, who were supposed to be angry because the +military had carried the works of their modern fort too near the fairy +rock. In some places the raths have been cultivated, but, as a rule, +this is looked upon as very unlucky, and sure to bring dire misfortune +on the man who attempts it. On the other hand, there appears to be no +objection to growing crops on the top of a souterrain. Many are, it is +true, afraid to enter these dark abodes, and others consider it unwise +to carry anything out of them. I have never heard them spoken of as +tombs, and the fairies are regarded, not as ghosts, but as fallen +angels, to whom no Church holds out a hope of salvation. Only in one +instance did a woman tell me that as fairies were good to the poor, she +thought there would be hope for them hereafter. The Irish fairy remains +a pagan; the ancient well of pre-Christian days may be consecrated to +the Christian saint, and patterns held beside it, but no pious pilgrim +prays on the rath or below the fairy rock. + +We may now ask ourselves the meaning of these legends. The rath and +souterrain are undoubtedly the work of primitive man, yet here we have +the Sidh, inhabited by the fairy and the Tuatha de Danann. In the +"Colloquy of the Ancients"[42] we are told it was out of a Sidh, Finn's +chief musician, the dwarf Cnu deiriol came, and from another Sidh came +Blathnait, whom the small man espoused. It was fairy music which Cnu +taught to the musicians of the Fianna. It was out of a Sidh in the south +that Cas corach, son of the Olave of the Tuatha de Danann, came to the +King of Ulidia.[43] + +In Derrick's "Image of Ireland," written in 1578, and published in +1581, the Olympian gods call upon certain little mountain gods, whom I +should be inclined to identify with the fairies, to come to their aid: + + "Let therefore little Mountain Gods + A troupe (as thei maie spare) + Of breechlesse men at all assaies, + Both leauvie and prepare + With mantelles down unto the shoe + To lappe them in by night; + With speares and swordes and little dartes + To shield them from despight."[44] + +May I, in conclusion, express my belief that in the traditions of +fairies, Danes, and Pechts the memory is preserved of an early race or +races of short stature, but of considerable strength, who built +underground dwellings, and had some skill in music and in other arts? +They appear to have been spread over a great part of Europe. It is +possible that, as larger races advanced, these small people were driven +southwards to the mountains of Switzerland, westward towards the +Atlantic, and northward to Lapland, where their descendants may still be +found. No doubt there is a large supernatural element, especially in the +stories of the fairies; but the same may be said of the tales of witches +in the seventeenth century. The witch was undoubtedly human, yet she was +believed, and sometimes believed herself, to possess superhuman powers, +and to be in communication with unearthly beings. We must also remember +the widespread belief in local spirits or gods, and a taller race of +invaders might well fear the magic of an earlier people long settled in +the country, even if the latter were inferior in bodily and mental +characteristics. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Read before the Archaeological Section of the Belfast +Naturalists' Field Club, February 12, 1908. + +[32] Pp. 12-20. Several sections of this rath are given; also a +view showing Greenmount in 1748, and a plan of the same date--both from +Wright's "Louthiana," published in that year. + +[33] Part I., Letter IV., Edition 1822. + +[34] _Ulster Journal of Archaeology_, 1861-62, p. 212. + +[35] See "Prehistoric Stone Forts of Northern Clare," by Thomas +J. Westropp, M.A., M.R.I.A. (_Journal of the Royal Society of +Antiquaries of Ireland_, vol. vi., fifth series, 1896). + +[36] See "Illustrations of Irish History," by C. Litton +Falkiner, p. 416. He considers it probable that Jorevin de Rochefort was +Albert Jouvin de Rochefort, Tresorier de France. + +[37] See Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts, p. 28. + +[38] See Annual Report of Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, +1907-08, "A Holiday Trip to West Kerry," p. 73. + +[39] See Mr. David MacRitchie's "Northern Trolls," read at the +Folklore Congress, Chicago, 1893, p. 12. + +[40] See Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts, p. 27. + +[41] See "Memoirs of Anne, Lady Fanshawe," edited by Herbert C. +Fanshawe, pp. 57-59. + +[42] Translated by Mr. S. H. O'Grady in "Silva Gadelica," +volume with translation and notes. (For Cnu and Blathnait, see pp. +115-117.) + +[43] _Ibid._, pp. 187, 188. + +[44] P. 38, Edinburgh, 1883; edited by John Small, M.A., +F.S.A.Scot. + + + + +Traditions of Dwarf Races in Ireland and in Switzerland[45] + + +In the traditions alike of Switzerland and of Ireland we hear of a +dwarfish people, dwellers in mountain caves or in artificial +souterrains, who are gifted with magical powers. The quaint figure of +the Swiss dwarf with his peaked cap has been made familiar to us by the +carvings of the peasantry, and in Antrim and Donegal the Irish fairy is +said to wear a peaked cap of plaited rushes. With rushes he also makes a +covering for his feet.[46] + +Closely allied to the fairy is the Grogach, with his large head and +soft body, who appears to have no bones as he comes tumbling down the +hills. These Grogachs I heard of in North-East Antrim, and in them, as +in the fairies, the supernatural characteristics preponderate. I was +told that both were full of magic, and had come from Egypt. + +We have, however, two other small races who are usually regarded by the +peasantry as strictly human, the Pechts and the Danes.[47] Two +traditions regarding Danes exist: sometimes we hear of tall Danes, +doubtless the medieval sea-rovers; sometimes of small Danes, the +builders of many of the raths and souterrains. + +While the Danes are the great builders throughout Ireland, some of +the raths and souterrains, especially those in North-East Antrim, are +said to have been made by the Pechts. Last summer I visited one of +these, the cave of Finn McCoul. It is a souterrain situated in +Glenshesk, about three miles from Ballycastle. The ground above it is +perfectly flat, no fort or any inequality to mark the spot; indeed, the +farmer who kindly opened it for me had at first a difficulty in knowing +in what part of the field to dig, as the entrance had been covered. On +my second visit, however, I found he had discovered the spot. Entering a +narrow passage, I crept through an opening from one and a half to two +feet high, and found myself in a narrow chamber eight or nine feet long +and little over four feet in height. The roof was formed of large flat +slabs, which I was told were whinstone (basalt). At the opposite end of +this chamber there was another narrow opening, leading, I presume, to a +passage. I did not, however, venture farther; but I understand this +artificial cave extends for about twenty perches underground, and has +several chambers. + + [Illustration: PLATE IX. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + GREY MAN'S PATH, FAIR HEAD.] + +I was told that this cave was the hiding-place of Finn McCoul. His +garden was pointed out to me on rising ground at some little distance, +and I was also informed that about fifty years ago his castle stood on +the hill; but nothing now remains of it, the stones having been used +when roads were made. + +The following story was related to me on the spot: A Scotch giant came +over to fight Finn McCoul, but was conquered and slain. To celebrate +this victory Finn invited the Grey Man of the Path to a feast; but as +hares and rabbits would have been too small to furnish a repast for this +giant, Finn took his dog and went out to hunt red deer. They were +unsuccessful, and in anger he slew his dog Brown,[48] which afterwards +caused him much sorrow. + +In the Grey Man of the Path we have, doubtless, a purely mythical +character, an impersonation of the mists which gather round Benmore,[49] +while Finn McCoul, or MacCumaill, is one of Ireland's greatest +traditional heroes. According to a well-known legend, he was a giant, +and united Scotland and Ireland by a stupendous mole, of which the cave +at Staffa and the Giant's Causeway are the two remaining fragments. In +Glenshesk he is only a tall man, between seven and eight feet in height. +Sometimes he is said to have been chief of the Pechts; sometimes he is +spoken of as their master, and it is said they worked as slaves to him +and the Fians. + +According to tradition, the Pechts were very numerous, and must have +carried the heavy slabs for the roof of Finn McCoul's cave a distance of +several miles. Although usually looked on as strictly human, +supernatural characteristics are sometimes attributed to them. Like the +Swiss "Servan," both they and the Grogachs have been known to thresh +corn or do other work for the farmers. + +I was told at Ballycastle of one man who always laid out at night the +bundles of corn he expected the Grogach to thresh, and each morning the +appointed task was accomplished. One night he forgot to lay the corn on +the floor of the barn, and threw his flail on the top of the stack. The +poor Grogach imagined that he was to thresh the whole, and set to work +manfully; but the task was beyond his strength, and in the morning he +was found dead. The farmer and his wife buried him, and mourned deeply +the loss of their small friend. + +Clough-na-murry Fort is said to be a "gentle"[50] place, yet an old man +living near it told me he did not believe in the Grogachs; he thought it +was the Danes who had worked for the farmers. He said these Danes were a +persevering people, and that when they were in distress they would +thresh corn for the farmers, if food were left out for them. Others say +that the Danes were too proud to work. + +One does not hear much of Brownies in Ulster; but I have been told they +were hairy people who did not require clothes, but would thresh or cut +down a field of corn for a farmer. On one occasion, out of gratitude for +the work done, some porridge was left for them on plates round the fire. +They ate it, but went away crying sadly: + + "I got my mate an' my wages, + An' they want nae mair o' me." + +Although, according to some, the Grogachs gladly accept food, others say +that they and the Pechts are offended if it is offered to them, and +leave to return no more. + +I have not often heard of clothes being offered to the Pechts or +Grogachs, but the Rev. John G. Campbell relates a story of a Brownie in +Shetland who ground grain in a hand-quern at night. He was rewarded for +his labours by a cloak and hood left for him at the mill. These +disappeared in the morning, and with them the Brownie, who never came +back.[51] + +A similar tale is told of a Swiss dwarf. At Ems, in Canton Valais, a +miller engaged the services of a "Gottwerg," and the little man worked +early and late, sometimes rising in the night to see that all was in +order. The mill produced twice as much as formerly, and at the end of +the year the dwarf was rewarded by a garment made of the best wool. He +put it on, jumped for joy, and crying out, "Now I am a handsome man, I +have no more need to grind rye," he disappeared, and was not seen +again.[52] + +In these tales from Ireland, Scotland, and Switzerland, may there not be +a reminiscence of a conquered race of small stature, but considerable +strength, who worked either as slaves or for some small gift? No doubt +they were badly fed, and their clothing would be of the scantiest. + +Like the Danes and the Pechts, the fairies live underground. There is a +widespread story of a fairy woman who begs a cottager not to throw water +out at the doorstep, as it falls down her chimney. The request is +invariably granted. + +Some of these "wee folk" dwell in palaces under the sea. I heard a +story at Ballyliffan, in Co. Donegal, of men being out in a boat which +was nearly capsized by a heavy sea raised by a fairy. At last one sailor +cried out to throw a nail against the advancing wave; this was done, and +the nail hit the fairy. That night a woman, skilled in healing, received +a message calling upon her to go to the courts below the sea. She +consented, extracted the nail, and cured the fairy woman, but was +careful not to eat any food offered to her. This fairy is said to have +promised a man a pot of gold if he would marry her, but he refused. + +An old man at Culdaff told me another tale of the sea. A fishing-boat +was nearly overwhelmed, when a fairy-boat was seen riding on the top of +a great wave, and a voice from it cried: "Do not harm that boat; an old +friend of mine is in it." The voice belonged to a man who was supposed +to be dead; but he had been carried off by the fairies, and would not +allow them to injure his old friend. + +If the Irish fairy has power over the waves, the Swiss dwarf can divert +the course of the devastating landslip. I was told by an elderly man in +the Bernese Oberland of the destruction of Burglauenen, a village near +Grindelwald. All the cottages were overwhelmed by a landslip except one +poor hut, which had given shelter to a dwarf, who was seen, seated on a +stone, directing the moving mass away from the abode of his friends. A +similar story is told of the destruction of Niederdorf, in the +Simmenthal.[53] One Sunday evening a feeble little man clad in rags came +to the village; he knocked at several houses, praying the inmates to +give him, for the love of God, a night's shelter. Everywhere he was +refused--one hard-hearted woman telling him to go and break +stones--until he came to a poor basket-maker and his wife, who gave him +the best they had, and when he left he promised that God would reward +them. A week later the village was destroyed by a terrible landslip, but +here also the dwarf saved the dwelling of those who had befriended him. + +In this story and in many others the Swiss dwarf appears as a good +Christian, but sometimes a rude and terrible form of paganism is +attributed to him. In the tale of the "Gotwergini im Loetschental"[54] +these dwarfs are accused of devouring children, and are said to have +buried an old woman alive. She was apparently one of themselves. When +they were laying her in the pit she wept bitterly, and begged that she +might go free, saying she could still cook. But the dwarfs showed no +pity: placing some bread and wine beside her, they covered in the grave. +Is this an instance of the primitive barbarism of killing those no +longer able to work, which is said still to exist among the Todas of +India, and of which traces have been found in the customs of Scandinavia +and other countries?[55] + +The Irish fairy never appears as a Christian.[56] He is regarded by the +peasant as a fallen angel, and no Church holds out to him the hope of +salvation. I was told in Inishowen that a priest walking between +Clonmany and Ballyliffan was surrounded by the "wee folk," who asked +anxiously if they could be saved. He threw his book towards them, bade +them catch it, and he would give them an answer; but at the sight of the +breviary they scattered and fled.[57] + +The Protestant Bible and hymn-book are equally dreaded by them, and are +used as a spell against their influence. I was told in the North of +Antrim of a woman who was nearly carried off by the fairies because her +friends had omitted to leave these books beside her. Luckily her +husband, who was sleeping by the fire, awoke in time to save her. A pair +of scissors, a darning-needle, or any piece of iron, would have been +efficacious as a charm, so would the husband's trousers, if thrown +across the bed. + +While, as we have seen, the fairies are endowed with many supernatural +qualities, they have much in common with ordinary mortals; there are +fairy men, fairy women, and fairy children. I have more than once heard +of a fairy's funeral; they intermarry with mortals, and I have been told +that those who bear the name of Ferris are descended from fairies. I +presume Ferris is a corruption of Fir Sidhe. Fairies are never +associated with churchyards, nor are they usually looked on as the +spirits of the departed. The banshee may, indeed, partake to some extent +of a ghostly character. Lady Wilde speaks of her as the "spirit of +death--the most weird and awful of all the fairy powers," and adds, "but +only certain families of historic lineage or persons gifted with music +and song are attended by this spirit."[58] + +It has often been stated that the banshee is an appanage of the great, +but this is not the belief of the peasantry of Ulster: many families in +humble life have a banshee attached to them. When in a curragh on Lough +Sessiagh, in Co. Donegal, the neighbouring hill of Ben Olla was pointed +out to me, and I was also shown a small cottage in which a girl named +Olla had lived. She was carried off by the fairies, and her wailing was +heard before the death of her mother, and again before the death of +several members of her family. A farmer, or even a labourer, may have a +banshee attached to his family--a little white creature was the +description given to me by a woman who said she had seen one; others say +that banshees are like birds. + +To leave these weird apparitions, it will be seen that the ordinary +fairy, the Grogach, the Pecht, and the Dane, all inhabit underground +dwellings, although the fairy and Grogach are regarded more in the light +of supernatural beings. To cut down a fairy or a "Skiough" bush is to +court misfortune, sometimes to attempt an impossible task. In Glenshesk +some men tried to cut down a Skiough bush, but the hatchet broke; after +several failures they gave up, and the bush still flourishes. Another +bush was transplanted, but returned during the night. + +To the Danes and Pechts the building of all the raths and souterrains +is ascribed, and in North-East Antrim the Pechts are said to have been +so numerous that, when making a fort, they could stand in a long line, +and hand the earth from one to another, no one moving a step. A +similar story is told of the Scotch Pechts by the Rev. Andrew Small +in his "Antiquities of Fife" (1823).[59] Speaking of the Round Tower +of Abernethy, "The story goes," he says, "that it was built by the +Pechts ... and that while the work was going on they stood in a row +all the way from the Lomond Hill to the building, handing the stones +from one to another.... That it has been built of freestone from the +Lomond Hill is clear to a demonstration, as the grist or nature of +the stone points out the very spot where it has been taken from--namely, +a little west, and up from the ancient wood of Drumdriell, about a mile +straight south from Meralsford." According to popular tradition in +Scotland, these Pechts or Picts were great builders, and many of the +edifices ascribed to them belong to a comparatively late period. Mr. +MacRitchie suggests that in the erection of some of these the Picts +may have been employed as serfs or slaves.[60] He believes the Pechts +to be the Picts of history. Mr. W. C. Mackenzie, on the other hand, +has suggested that they are an earlier dwarf race, the Pets or Peti, +who have been confused by the peasantry with the Picts.[61] This is +a matter I must leave to others to decide; but I may remark in passing +that in an ancient poem on the Cruithnians, preserved in the book of +Lecan, we have a suggestion that these Cruithnians or Picts were a +smaller race than their enemies, the Tuath Fidga. We are told how + + "God vouchsafed unto them, in munificence, + For their faithfulness--for their reward-- + To protect them from the poisoned arms + Of the repulsive horrid giants."[62] + +Then follows an account of the cure discovered by the Cruithnian +Druid--how he milked thrice fifty cows into one pit, and bathing in this +pit appears to have healed the warriors and preserved them from harm. + +In an article on "The Fairy Mythology of Europe in its Relation to Early +History,"[63] Mr. A. S. Herbert identifies the early dwarf race with +Palaeolithic man, and states that from such skeletons as have been +unearthed "it is believed that they were a people of Mongolian or +Turanian origin, short, squat, yellow-skinned, and swarthy." + +Professor J. Kollmann, of Basle, speaking of dwarf races, describes "the +flat, broad face, with a flat, broad, low nose and large nose +roots."[64] + +Compare these statements with the description given by Harris in the +eighteenth century of the native inhabitants of the northern and eastern +coasts of Ireland. "They are," he says, "of a squat sett Stature, have +short, broad Faces, thick Lips, hollow Eyes, and Noses cocked up, and +seem to be a distinct people from the Western Irish, by whom they are +called Clan-galls--_i.e._, the offspring of the Galls. The curious may +carry these observations further. Doubtless a long intercourse and +various mixtures of the natives have much worn out these distinctions, +of which I think there are yet visible remains."[65] + +We have, indeed, had in Ireland from very early times a mingling of +various races, but in the North we are in the home of the Irish Picts or +Cruithnians, and possibly this description of Harris may indicate that +some of the inhabitants in his day bore marks of a dwarfish ancestry. I +have already drawn attention to a statement in an old Irish +manuscript[66] that the Luchorpan or wee-bodies, the Fomores and others, +were of the race of Ham. Keating also speaks of the Fomorians being +sea-rovers of the race of Cam (Ham), who fared from Africa,[67] and +states that among the articles of tribute exacted by them from the race +of Neimhidh were two-thirds of the children. Unless these were all +slaughtered, we have here an intermingling of races, and in the same way +it would be quite possible that Finn McCoul might be a tall man, and yet +the leader of the small Pechts. The capture of women and children has +been a common practice among savage races, and this I believe to be the +origin of many fairy-tales, rather than any reference to the abode of +the dead. Throughout the "Colloquy of the Ancients," Finn and the Fianna +frequently enter the green sidh--the mound where the Tuatha de Danann +dwell, and from which the fairies derive their name "fir-sidh." +Sometimes they fight as allies of the inmates; frequently they +intermarry with them.[68] Throughout this colloquy the dwellers in the +sidh possess many magical powers, but they hardly appear as gods of the +ancient Irish, and the verse in Fiacc's hymn referring to the worship of +the Sidis is not among the stanzas regarded as genuine by Professor +Bury.[69] + +We see that both in Ireland and Switzerland there are many legends of +dwarf races who inhabit underground dwellings. In Switzerland their +skeletons have been found. Those discovered by Dr. Nuesch at +Schweizersbild, near Schaffhausen, have been minutely described by Dr. +J. Kollmann, Professor of Anatomy at Basle.[70] This burial-place dates +from the early Neolithic period; in it are found skeletons belonging to +men of ordinary height, and in close proximity the graves of dwarfs. + +The neighbourhood of Schaffhausen appears to be rich in the remains of +early man; several skeletons have been found in the cave of Dachsenbueel, +two of them of small men, "such as in Africa would be accounted +pygmies."[71] Professor Kollmann mentions several other places in +Switzerland where skeletons of dwarfs have been found, as also in the +Grotte des Enfants on the Bay of Genoa. He also speaks of dwarf races +existing at the present day in Sicily, Sardinia, Sumatra, the Philippine +Islands, besides the well-known Veddas of Ceylon, the Andaman Islanders, +and the African pygmies. He believes that these small people represent +the oldest form of human beings, and that from them the taller races +have been evolved. + +How long did these primitive people continue to exist in Ireland and +in Switzerland? It would be difficult to say. Tradition ascribes to them +a strong physique, but even if they could hold their own with the taller +races in the Neolithic period, it must have been hard for them to +contend with those who used weapons of bronze or iron, and, as we have +seen, iron is specially obnoxious to the fairies. The people, however, +who built the large number of souterrains dotted over Antrim and Down +could not be easily exterminated. Many of them may have been enslaved or +gradually absorbed in the rest of the population; others would take +refuge in retired spots, such as are still spoken of as "gentle" or +haunted by fairies. If I might hazard a conjecture, I should say that +both in Ireland and in Switzerland dwarf races had survived far into +Christian times, perhaps to a comparatively recent period. The Irish +fairy may possibly represent those who refused to accept the teaching of +St. Patrick and St. Columbkill, while St. Gall and other Irish monks may +have numbered Swiss dwarfs among their converts. Be this as it may, we +have certainly in Ulster the tradition of two dwarf races, the small +Danes and the Pechts, who are undoubtedly human. We are shown their +handiwork, and, primitive as are their underground dwellings, the +builders of the souterrains had advanced far beyond the stage when man +could only find shelter in the caves provided for him by Nature. How +many centuries did he take to learn the lesson? It is a far-reaching +question, but here fairy-tales and popular legends are silent. They keep +no count of time, although they may bring to us whispers from long-past +ages. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[45] Reprinted from the _Antiquary_, October, 1909. + +[46] May it not be that Cinderella's glass shoe was really +green and derived its name from the Irish word _glas_, denoting that +colour, which is familiar to us in place-names? I make this conjecture +with diffidence. I know the usual explanation is that the shoe was made +of a kind of fur called in Old French vair, and that a transcriber +changed this word into _verre_. Miss Cox, in her "Cinderella," mentions +that she had only found six instances of a glass shoe. As Littre says in +the article on _vair_ in his Dictionary, a _soulier de verre_ is absurd. +A fur slipper, however, does not appear very suitable for a ball. + +[47] See Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts, p. 27 _et seq._ + +[48] This is, no doubt, a corruption of Bran. + +[49] The Grey Man's Path is a fissure on the face of Benmore or +Fair Head, by which a good climber can ascend the cliff. It has been +suggested that this Grey Man is one of the old gods, possibly Manannan, +the Irish sea-god. In the _Ulster Journal of Archaeology_ for 1858, vol. +vi., p. 358, there is an account given of the Grey Man appearing near +the mouth of the Bush River to two youths, who believed they would have +seen his cloven foot had he not been standing in the water. They had at +first mistaken the apparition for an ordinary man. + +[50] A place inhabited by fairies, or "gentlefolk." + +[51] "Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland," +p. 188. + +[52] Dr. J. Jegerlehner, "Was die Sennen erzaehlen, Maerchen und +Sagen aus dem Wallis," pp. 102, 103. + +[53] See "Der Untergang des Niederdorfs" in "Sagen und +Sagengeschichten aus dem Simmenthal," vol. ii., pp. 29-44, by D. +Gempeler. + +[54] See "Am Herdfeuer der Sennen, Neue Maerchen und Sagen aus +dem Wallis," pp. 26-31, by Dr. J. Jegerlehner. + +[55] See "Folklore as an Historical Science," by Sir G. +Laurence Gomme, pp. 67-78. + +[56] I have heard of only one exception. + +[57] Patrick Kennedy, in "A Belated Priest," tells how the +"good people" surrounded a priest on a dark night, and asked him to +declare that at the Last Day their lot would not be with Satan. He +replied by the question, "Do you adore and love the Son of God?" There +came no answer but weak and shrill cries, and with a rushing of wings +the fairies disappeared (see "Fictions of the Irish Celts," p. 89). + +In "The Priest's Supper," the good people are anxious to know if their +souls will be saved at the Last Day, but when an interview with a priest +is suggested to them they fly away (see "Fairy Legends and Traditions of +the South of Ireland," by T. Crofton Croker, pp. 36-42). + +[58] "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of +Ireland," vol. i., p. 250. + +[59] It is quoted by Mr. David MacRitchie in "Testimony of +Tradition," p. 67. + +[60] "Testimony of Tradition," p. 68. + +[61] See "The Picts and Pets" in the _Antiquary_ for May, 1906, +p. 172. + +[62] "The Irish Version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius," +edited, with a translation and notes, by James H. Todd, D.D., F.T.C. +(Dublin, 1848). The verse quoted is given at p. lxix, additional notes. + +[63] See the _Nineteenth Century_, February, 1908. + +[64] See "Ein dolichokephaler Schaedel aus dem Dachsenbueel und +die Bedeutung der kleinen Menschenrassen fuer das Abstammungsproblem der +Grossen." His words are: "In dem platten, breiten Gesicht sitzt dann +eine platte, breite, niedrige Nase, mit breiter Nasenwuerzel." He is +speaking of the characteristics of the present dwarf races found +throughout the world, and quotes the authority of Hagen. + +[65] Sir James Ware's "Antiquities of Ireland," translated, +revised, and improved, with many material additions, by Walter Harris, +Esq., vol. ii., chap. ii., p. 17 (Dublin, 1764). The above is taken from +one of the additional notes by Harris. + +[66] Quoted by Mr. Standish H. O'Grady in "Silva Gadelica" +(translation and notes), pp. 563, 564. See Ante p. 32. + +[67] Keating's "History of Ireland," book i., chap. viii. +Translation by P. W. Joyce, LL.D., M.R.I.A. + +[68] See Cael's "Wooing of Credhe" in "The Colloquy of the +Ancients"; "Silva Gadelica," by Standish H. O'Grady, volume with +translation and notes, pp. 119-122. + +[69] See "Life of St. Patrick," p. 264. + +[70] See Der Mensch, "Separat-Abzug aus den Denkschriften der +Schweiz Naturforschenden Gesellschaft," Band xxxv, 1896. + +[71] See the paper already referred to, "Ein dolichokephaler +Schaedel," etc. Professor J. Kollmann's words are: "Die man in Africa +wohl zu den Pygmaeen zaehlen wurde." + + + + +Folklore from Donegal[72] + + +The stories current among the peasantry are varied, especially in +Donegal, where we hear of giants and fairies, of small and tall Finns, +of short, stout Firbolgs or Firwolgs, of Danes who made heather ale, and +sometimes of Pechts with their large feet. + +According to one legend, the fairies were angels who had remained +neutral during the great war in heaven. They are sometimes represented +as kindly, but often as mischievous. Near Dungiven, in Co. Derry, I was +told of a friendly fairy who, dressed as an old woman, came one evening +to a cottage where a poor man and his wife lived. She said to the wife +that if the stone at the foot of the table were lifted she would find +something that would last her all her days. As soon as the visitor was +gone, the wife called to her husband to bring a crowbar; they raised the +stone, and under it was a crock of gold. + +The old man who related this story to me had himself found in a bog a +crock covered with a slate. He hoped it might be full of gold, but it +only contained bog butter, which he used for greasing cart-wheels. + +A carman at Rosapenna told me how the fairies would lead people astray, +carrying one man off to Scotland. A girl had her face twisted through +their influence, and had to go to the priest to be cured. "He was," the +man added, "one of the old sort, who could work miracles, of whom there +are not many nowadays." Near Finntown a girl had offended the fairies by +washing clothes in a "gentle" burn, or stream haunted by the little +people. Her eyes were turned to the back of her head. She, too, invoked +the aid of a priest, and his blessing restored them to their proper +place. + +Donegal fairies appear able to adapt themselves to modern conditions. I +was told at Finntown they did not interfere with the railway, as they +sometimes enjoyed a ride on the top of the train. Although usually only +seen in secluded spots, they occasionally visit a fair or market, but +are much annoyed if recognized. + +In the following story we have an illustration of intercourse between +fairies and human beings: An old woman at Glenties was called upon by a +strange man to give her aid at the birth of a child. At first she +refused, but he urged her, saying it was not far, and in the end she +consented. When he brought her to his dwelling she saw a daughter whom +she had supposed to be dead, but who was now the wife of the fairy man. +The daughter begged her not to let it be known she was her mother, and, +giving her a ring, bade her look on it at times and she would know when +they could meet. She also added that her husband would certainly offer a +reward, but she implored her mother not to accept it, but to ask that +the red-haired boy might be given to her. "He will not be willing to +part from him," the daughter added; "but if you beg earnestly, he will +give him to you in the end." The mother attended her daughter, and when +his child was born the fairy man offered her a rich reward, but she +refused, praying only that the red-haired boy might be given to her. At +first the father refused, but when she pleaded her loneliness, he +granted her request. The daughter was well pleased, told her mother they +might meet at the fair on the hill behind Glenties, but warned her that +even if she saw the fairy man she must never speak to him. The old woman +returned to her home, taking her grandson, the red-haired boy, with her. +She kept the ring carefully, and it gave her warning when she would meet +her daughter on the hill at Glenties. These interviews were for a long +time a great comfort to mother and daughter, but one day, in the joy of +her heart, the mother shook hands with and spoke to the fairy man. He +turned to her angrily asking how she could see him, and with that he +blew upon her eyes, so that she could no longer discern fairies. The +precious ring also disappeared, and she never again saw her daughter. + +Variants of this story were told to me by an old woman at +Portstewart, and by a man whom I met near Lough Salt during the +Rosapenna Conference of Field Clubs. In these versions there is no +mention of the red-haired boy, nor of the old woman being the mother of +the fairy man's wife; she is simply called in to attend to her. When +rubbing ointment on the infant, she accidentally draws her hand across +one of her eyes and acquires the power of seeing the fairies. Shortly +afterwards she meets the fairy man at a market or fair, and inquires for +his wife. He is annoyed at being recognized, asks with which eye she +sees him, blows upon it, and puts it out.[73] + +In another Donegal legend the fairies gain possession of a bride, and +would have kept her in captivity had not their plans been frustrated by +a mortal. This is the story as told to me near Gweedore, and also at +Kincasslagh, a small seaport in the Rosses. Owen Boyle lived with his +mother near Kincasslagh, and worked as a carpenter. One Hallow Eve, on +his return home, he found a calf was missing, and went out to look for +it. He was told it was behind a stone near the spink or rock of +Dunathaid, and when he got there he saw the calf, but it ran away and +disappeared through an opening in the rock. Owen was at first afraid to +follow, but suddenly he was pushed in, and the door closed behind him. +He found himself in a company of fairies, and heard them saying: "This +is good whisky from O'Donnel's still. He buried a nine-gallon keg in the +bog; it burst, the hoops came off, and the whisky has come to us." One +of the fairies gave Owen a glass, saying he might be useful to them that +night. They asked if he would be willing to go with them, and, being +anxious to get out of the cave, he at once consented. They all mounted +on horses, and away they went through Dungloe, across the hills to +Dochary, then to Glenties, and through Mount Charles to Ballyshannon, +and thence to Connaught. They came to a house where great preparations +were being made for a wedding. The fairies told Owen to go in and dance +with any girl who asked him. He was much pleased to see that he was now +wearing a good suit of clothes, and gladly joined in the dance. After a +time there was a cry that the bride would choose a partner, and the +partner she chose was Owen Boyle. They danced until the bride fell down +in a faint, and the fairies, who had crept in unseen, bore her away. +They mounted their horses and took the bride with them, sometimes one +carrying her and sometimes another. They had ridden thus for a time when +one of the fairies said to Owen: "You have done well for us to-night." +"And little I have got for it," was the reply; "not even a turn of +carrying the bride." "That you ought to have," said the fairy, and +called out to give the bride to Owen. Owen took her, and, urging his +horse, outstripped the fairies. They pursued him, but at Bal Cruit +Strand he drew with a black knife a circle round himself and the bride, +which the fairies could not cross. One of them, however, stretched out a +long arm and struck the bride on the face, so that she became deaf and +dumb. When the fairies left him, Owen brought the girl to his mother, +and in reply to her questions, said he had brought home one to whom all +kindness should be shown. They gave her the best seat by the fire; she +helped in the housework, but remained speechless. + +A year passed, and on Hallow Eve Owen went again to Dunathaid. The door +of the cave was open. He entered boldly, and found the fairies enjoying +themselves as before. One of them recognized him, and said: "Owen Boyle, +you played us a bad trick when you carried off that woman." "And a +pretty woman you left with me! She can neither hear nor speak!" "Oh!" +said another, "if she had a taste of this bottle, she could do both!" +When Owen heard these words he seized the bottle, ran home with it, and, +pouring a little into a glass, gave it to the poor girl to drink. +Hearing and speech were at once restored. Owen returned the bottle to +the fairies, and, before long, he set out for Connaught, taking the girl +with him to restore her to her parents. When he arrived, he asked for a +night's lodging for himself and his companion. The mother, although she +said she had little room, admitted them, and soon Owen saw her looking +at the girl. "Why are you gazing at my companion?" he asked. "She is so +like a daughter of mine who died a twelvemonth ago." "No," replied Owen; +"she did not die; she was carried off by the fairies, and here she is." +There was great rejoicing, and before long Owen was married to the girl, +the former bridegroom having gone away. He brought her home to +Kincasslagh, and not a mile from the village, close to Bal Cruit Strand, +may be seen the ring which defended her and Owen from the fairies. It is +a very large fairy ring, but why the grass should grow luxuriantly on it +tradition does not say. + +During the Field Club Conference at Rosapenna a variant of this story +was told me by a lad on the heights above Gortnalughoge Bay. Here the +man who rode with the fairies was John Friel, from Fanad. They went to +Dublin and brought away a young girl from her bed, leaving something +behind, which the parents believed to be their dead daughter. Meanwhile +the young girl was taken northwards by the fairies. As they drew near to +Fanad, John Friel begged to be allowed to carry her, and quickly taking +her to his own cottage, kept her there with his mother. The girl was +deaf and dumb, but there was no mention of the magic circle or of the +blow from the fairy's hand. At the end of the year John Friel, like Owen +Boyle, pays another visit to the fairies, overhears their conversation, +snatches the bottle, and a few drops from it restore speech and hearing +to the girl. He takes her to Dublin. Her parents cannot at first believe +that she is truly their daughter, but the mother recognizes her by a +mark on the shoulder, and the tale ends with great rejoicing.[74] + +In these stories we see the relations between fairies and mortals. The +fairy man marries a human wife; he appears solicitous for her health, +and is willing to pay a high reward to the nurse, but the caution his +wife gives to her mother shows her fear of him, and when the latter +forgets this warning and speaks to the husband, he effectively stops all +intercourse between her and her daughter. + +In another story we see that it was the living girl who was carried off, +and only a false image left to deceive her parents.[75] It is true that, +through the magic of the fairies, she becomes deaf and dumb, but when +this is overcome, she returns home safe and sound. The black knife used +by Owen Boyle was doubtless an iron knife, that metal being always +obnoxious to the fairies. + +Stories of children being carried off by fairies are numerous. There was +a man lived near Croghan Fort, not far from Lifford, who was short, and +had a cataract--or, as the country-people call it, a pearl--on his eye. +He was returning home after the birth of his child, when he met the +fairies carrying off the infant. They were about to change a benwood +into the likeness of a child, saying: + + "Make it wee, make it short; + Make it like its ain folk; + Put a pearl in its eye; + Make it like its Dadie." + +Here the man interrupted them, throwing up sand, and exclaiming: "In +the name of God, this to youse and mine to me!" They flung his own child +at him, but it broke its hinch, or thigh, and was a cripple all its +days. + + [Illustration: PLATE X. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + TORMORE, TORY ISLAND.] + +It is not often that fairies are associated with the spirits of the +departed, but in Tory Island and in some other parts of Donegal it is +believed that those who are drowned become fairies. In Tory Island I +also heard that those who exceeded in whisky met the same fate. + +According to the inhabitants of this island, fairies can make themselves +large or small; their hair may be red, white, or black; but they dress +in black--a very unusual colour for fairies to appear in. It may perhaps +be explained by remembering that Tory Island, or Toirinis, was a +stronghold of the Fomorians, whom Keating describes as "sea rovers of +the race of Cam, who fared from Africa."[76] I need hardly add that +"Cam" is an old name for "Ham." I should infer that the fairies of Tory +Island represent a dark race. + +King Balor, it is true, is not of diminutive stature. I heard much of +this chieftain with the eye at the back of his head, which, if +uncovered, would kill anyone exposed to its gaze. He knew it had been +said in old times that he should die by the hand of his daughter's son, +and he determined his daughter should remain childless. He shut her up +in Tormore, with twelve ladies to wait on her. Balor had no smith on the +island, but at Cloghanealy, on the mainland, there lived a smith who had +the finest cow in the world, named Glasgavlen. He kept a boy to watch +it, but, notwithstanding this precaution, two of Balor's servants +carried off the cow. When the herd-boy saw it was gone, he wept +bitterly, for the smith had told him his head would be taken off if he +did not bring her back. Suddenly a fairy, Geea Dubh, came out of the +rock, and told the boy the cow was in Tory, and if he followed her +advice he would get it back. She made a curragh for him, and he crossed +over to Tory, but he did not get the cow. The tale now becomes confused. +We hear of twelve children, and how Balor ordered them all to be +drowned, but his daughter's son was saved. The fairy told the herd-boy +that, if the child were taken care of, it would grow up like a crop +which, when put into the earth one day, sprouts up the next. + +The boy took service under Balor, and the child was sent to the ladies, +who brought him up for three years. At the end of that time the herd boy +took him to the mainland, where he grew up a strong youth, and worked +for the smith. On one occasion Balor sent messengers across to the +mainland, but the lad attacked them and cut out their tongues. The +maimed messengers returned to Tory, and when Balor saw them he knew that +he who had done this deed was the dreaded grandson. He set out to kill +him; but when the youth saw Balor approaching the forge, he drew the +poker from the fire and thrust it into the eye at the back of the King's +head. + +The wounded Balor called to his grandson to come to him, and he would +leave him everything. The youth was wise; he did not go too near Balor, +but followed him from Falcarragh to Gweedore. "Are you near me?" was the +question put by the King as he walked along, water streaming from his +wounded eye; and this water formed the biggest lough in the world, three +times as deep as Lough Foyle. + +I have given this story as it was told to me by an elderly man in a +cottage on Tory Island. + +A version of it is related by the late Most Rev. Dr. MacDevitt in the +"Donegal Highlands." It is referred to by Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., in +"Highways and Byways in Donegal and Antrim," and a very full narrative +is given by Dr. O'Donovan in a note in his edition of the "Annals of the +Four Masters."[77] Dr. O'Donovan states that he had the story from Shane +O'Dugan, whose ancestor is said to have been living in Tory in the time +of St. Columbkille. Here we read of the stratagem by which Balor, +assuming the shape of a red-haired little boy, carried off the famous +cow Glasgavlen from the chieftain MacKineely, and it is not the herdboy, +but the chieftain himself, who is wafted across to Tory Island and +introduced to Balor's daughter. Three sons are born; Balor orders them +all to be drowned, but the eldest is saved by the friendly banshee and +taken to his father, who places him in fosterage under his brother, the +great smith Gavida. After a time MacKineely falls a victim to the +vengeance of Balor, and is beheaded on the stone Clough-an-neely, where +the marks of his blood may still be seen. + +Balor now deems himself secure. He often visits the forge of Gavida, and +one day, when there, boasts of his conquest of MacKineely. No sooner has +he uttered the proud words than the young smith seizes a glowing rod +from the furnace and thrusts it through Balor's basilisk eye so far that +it comes out at the other side of his head. + +It will be noted that in this version Balor's death is instantaneous; +nothing is said about the deep lough formed by the water from his eye. + +According to O'Flaherty's "Ogygia," Balor was killed at the second +battle of Moyture "by a stone thrown at him by his grandson by his +daughter from a machine called Tabhall (which some assert to be a +sling)."[78] + +If Balor is the grim hero of Tory Island, on the mainland we hear much +of Finn McCoul. I was informed that he had an eye at the back of his +head, and was so tall his feet came out at the door of his house. How +large the house was, tradition does not say. The island of Carrickfinn +opposite to Bunbeg is said to have been a favourite hunting-ground of +Finn McCoul. When crossing over to this island, I was told by the +boatman that the Danes were stout, small, and red-haired, and that they +lived in the caves. The Finns, he said, were even smaller, dark yellow +people. + +Near Loughros Bay I saw the Cashel na Fian, but whether it was built by +tall or small Finns I do not know. Part of the wall was standing, built +in the usual fashion with stones without mortar. + +This cashel was on a height, and near it I was shown some old fields, +the ridges farther apart than those of the present day, and I was told +they might be the fields of those who built the cashel, or perhaps of +the Firbolgs. The old man who acted as my guide softened the _b_ in the +Irish manner, and spoke of those people as the Firwolgs; he said they +were short and stout, and cultivated the lands near the sea. + +To the Danes are ascribed the kitchen-middens on Rosguill, and the lad +I met above Gortnalughoge Bay, told me they lived and had their houses +on the water, I should infer after the fashion of the lake-dwellers. He +could not tell me the height of these Danes, but those who built the +forts and cashels have often been described to me as short and +red-haired. As I have stated on former occasions, I should be inclined +to identify these short Danes with the Tuatha de Danann. I visited one +of their cashels above Dungiven, under which there is a souterrain, and +I also went to one on a hill above Downey's pier at Rosapenna. I believe +it is the Downey's Fort marked on the Ordnance Survey map. It appeared +to be regarded as an uncanny spot; treasure is said to be hidden under +it, and I had a difficulty in getting anyone to take me to it. A little +girl, however, acted as guide, and a young farmer, who had at first +refused, joined me on the top. I took some very rough measurements of +this cashel. From the outer circumference it was about 60 by 60 feet; +the walls had fallen inwards, so it was impossible to say how thick they +had been originally, but the space free from stones in the centre +measured about 25 by 25 feet. + +The young farmer told me of some rocks at a place he called Dooey, on +which crosses were inscribed. I believe that near Mevagh, in addition to +the spiral markings, which were visited by many members of the +Conference, there is another rock on which crosses are also inscribed. + +Firbolgs, Danes, Finns, and Pechts, of whom I have spoken on former +occasions, are all strictly human; and if the fairy has been more +spiritualized, I think, in many of the traditions, we may see how +closely he is allied to ancient and modern pygmies. + +Fairies intermarry freely with the human race; they are not exempt from +death, and sometimes come to a violent end. At Kincasslagh a graphic +story was told me by an old woman of how two banshees attacked a man +when he was crossing the "banks" at Mullaghderg. His faithful dog had +been chained at home, but, knowing the danger, escaped, saved his +master, and killed one of the banshees. Her body was found next morning +in the sand: she had wonderful eyes, small legs, and very large feet. I +may mention that large feet are characteristic of the Pechts. + +It is true that those who are drowned may become fairies, but if a +fisherman be missing, who shall say whether he lies at the bottom of the +ocean or has been carried captive to a lonely cave. In later times, when +the fairies were associated with fallen angels, one who had not received +the last rites of the Church might naturally be supposed to become a +fairy. + +In the tales of the giants we are brought face to face with beings of +great strength, but in a low stage of civilization. Balor, we have seen, +had no smith on Tory Island, and in a story of the fight between the +giant Fargowan and a wild boar, his sister Finglas goes to his +assistance with her apron filled with stones. Misled by the echo, she +jumps backwards and forwards across Lough Finn until at last her long +hair becomes entangled and she is drowned. It is believed that her +coffin was found when the railway was being made; the boards were 14 +feet long. Sometimes the works of Nature are ascribed to the giants; we +have all heard of Finn McCoul as the artificer of the Giant's Causeway, +and near Glenties I was shown perched blocks, which had been thrown by +the giants. On the other hand, these giants, with all their magic, are +often very human; perhaps we are listening to the tales of a small race, +who exaggerated the feats of their large but savage neighbours. Writing +in 1860, J. F. Campbell, in his introduction to the "Tales of the West +Highlands," says: "Probably, as it seems to me, giants are simply the +nearest savage race at war with the race who tell the tales. If they +performed impossible feats of strength, they did no more than Rob Roy, +whose putting-stone is now shown to Saxon tourists ... in the shape of a +boulder of many tons."[79] Turning to fairies, the same writer says: "I +believe there was once a small race of people in these islands, who are +remembered as fairies.... They are always represented as living in green +mounds. They pop up their heads when disturbed by people treading on +their houses. They steal children. They seem to live on familiar terms +with the people about them when they treat them well, to punish them +when they ill-treat them.... There are such people now. A Lapp is such a +man; he is a little flesh-eating mortal, having control over the beasts, +and living in a green mound, when he is not living in a tent or sleeping +out of doors, wrapped in his deerskin shirt."[80] + +Since these words were written, our knowledge of dwarf races has been +greatly increased; their skeletons have been found in Switzerland and +other parts of Europe. We are all familiar with the pygmies of Central +Africa, and the members of this Club will remember the interesting +photographs of them shown by Sir Harry Johnston. Besides the Andamnan +Islanders, we have dwarf races in various parts of Asia, and doubtless +we have all read with interest the account of the New Guinea dwarfs, +sent by the members of the British Expedition, who are investigating +that Island under many difficulties. + +Dr. Eric Marshall describes these pygmies as "averaging four feet six +inches to four feet eight inches in height, wild, shy, treacherous +little devils; these little men wander over the heavy jungle-clad hills, +subsisting on roots and jungle produce, hunting the wallaby, pig, and +cassowary, and fishing in the mountain torrents.... The only metal tool +they possessed was a small, wedge-shaped piece of iron, one inch by two +inches, inserted into a wooden handle, and answering the purpose of an +axe, and with this the whole twenty-acre clearing had been made. None +but those who have worked and toiled in this dense jungle can really +appreciate the perseverance and patience necessary to accomplish this, +for many of the trees are from twelve to fifteen feet in +circumference."[81] + +Throughout Donegal we find many traces of the primitive belief that men +or women can change themselves into animals. At Rosapenna I was told of +a hare standing on its hind-legs like an old woman and sucking a cow, +the inference being plainly that the witch had transformed herself into +a hare. I heard similar stories at Glenties. Here I was told of a man +who killed a young seal, but was startled when the mother, weeping, +cried out in Irish: "My child, my child!" Never again did he kill a +seal. + +A story illustrating the same belief is told by John Sweeney, an +inspector of National Schools, who wrote about forty years ago a series +of letters describing Donegal and its inhabitants.[82] In his account of +Arranmore he says: "Until lately the islanders could not be induced to +attack a seal, they being strongly under the impression that these +animals were human beings metamorphosed by the power of their own +witchcraft. In confirmation of this notion, they used to repeat the +story of one Rodgers of their island, who, being alone in his skiff +fishing, was overtaken by a storm, and driven on the shore of the Scotch +Highlands. Having landed, he approached a house which was close to the +beach, and on entering it was accosted by name. Expressing his surprise +at finding himself known in a strange country, and by one whom he had +never seen, the old man who addressed him bared his head, and, pointing +to a scar on his skull, reminded Rodgers of an encounter he had with a +seal in one of the caves of Arranmore. 'I was,' he said, 'that seal, and +this is the mark of the wound you inflicted on me. I do not blame you, +however, for you were not aware of what you were doing.'" + +I fear I have lingered too long over these old-world stories. To me +they point to a far-distant past, when Ulster was covered with forests, +in which the red deer and perhaps the Irish elk roamed, and inhabited by +rude tribes, some of them of dwarfish stature, others tall; but these +giants were apparently even less civilized than their smaller +neighbours. Wars were frequent; the giant could hurl the unwieldy mass +of stone, and the dwarfish man could send his arrow tipped with flint. +Even more common was the stealthy raid, when women and children were +carried off to the gloomy souterrain. How long did these rude tribes +survive? It would be difficult to say; possibly until after the days of +St. Patrick and St. Columkill. + +I will not, however, indulge in a fancy sketch. The pressing need is not +to interpret but to collect these old tales. The antiquary of the +future, with fuller knowledge at his command, may be better able to +decipher them; but if they are allowed to perish, one link with the past +will be irretrievably lost. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[72] Read before the Archaeological Section of the Belfast +Naturalists' Field Club, February 8, 1911. + +[73] In "Celtic Folklore," vol. i., p. 210 _et seq._, Sir John +Rhys relates a similar story. Here the woman is brought to a place which +appears to her to be the finest she has ever seen. When the child is +born the father gives her ointment to anoint its eyes, but entreats her +not to touch her own with it. Inadvertently she rubs her finger across +her eye, and now she sees that the wife is her former maidservant +Eilian, and that she lies on a bundle of rushes and withered leaves in a +cave. Not long afterwards the woman sees the husband in the market at +Carnarvon, and asks for Eilian. He is angry, and, inquiring with which +eye she sees him, puts it out with a bulrush. + +From Palestine we have another variant of this story. The Rev. J. E. +Hanauer, in "Folklore of the Holy Land," pp. 210 _et seq._, tells of a +woman at El Welejeh who had spoken unkindly to a frog. The next night, +on waking, she found herself in a cave surrounded by strange, +angry-looking people; one of these "Jan" reproached her bitterly, saying +that the frog was his wife, and threatening her with dire consequences +unless a son were born. She assisted at the birth of the child, who was +fortunately a boy, and was given a _mukhaleh_ or _kohl_ vessel, and was +bidden to rub some of this _kohl_ on the infant's eyes. When she had +done this, she rubbed some on one of her own eyes, but before she had +time to put any on the other the vessel was angrily taken from her. She +was rewarded with onion-leaves, which in the morning turned to gold. +Some time afterwards this woman was shopping at El Kuds, when she saw +the Jennizeh pilfering from shop to shop. She spoke to her and kissed +the baby, but the other answered fiercely, and, poking her finger into +the woman's eye, put it out. + +[74] In "Guleesh na Guss Dhu," Dr. Douglas Hyde gives us a +similar tale from Co. Mayo. See "Beside the Fire," pp. 104-128. + +[75] In "Folk Tales from Breffny," by B. Hunt, there is a story +(pp. 99-103), "The Cutting of the Tree," which tells of how the fairies, +when baffled in their endeavour to carry off the mistress of the house, +left in the kitchen a wooden image "cut into the living likeness of the +woman of the house." + +[76] See _ante_, p. 60. + +[77] Pp. 18-21. + +[78] "Ogygia," part iii., chap. xii. + +[79] Pp. xcix, c. + +[80] Pp. c, ci. + +[81] See _Morning Post_, December 28, 1910. In his work, +"Pygmies and Papuans," which gives the results of this expedition, Mr. +A. F. R. Wollaston also describes these pygmies (see especially pp. +159-161). + +[82] I was shown a MS. copy of some of these letters by a +relative of the writer at Burtonport. I believe they were written for a +newspaper, and were afterwards republished in "The Derry People," under +the title "The Rosses Thirty Years Ago." They contain much interesting +information in regard to the traditions current among the peasantry. + + + + +Giants and Dwarfs[83] + + +The population of Ulster is derived from many sources, and in its +folklore we shall find traces of various tribes and people. I shall +begin with a tale which may have been brought by English settlers. + +In "Folklore as an Historical Science" Sir G. Laurence Gomme has given +several variants of the story of the Pedlar of Swaffham and London +Bridge. Most of these come from England, Scotland, and Wales, but among +them there are also a Breton and a Norse version. I have found a local +variant in Donegal. An elderly woman told me that at Kinnagoe a "toon" +or small hamlet about three miles from Buncrana, there lived a man whose +name, she believed, was Doherty. He dreamt one night that on London +Bridge he should hear of a treasure. He set out at once for London, and +when he came there walked up and down the bridge until he was wearied. +At last a man accosted him and asked him why he loitered there. In +reply, Doherty told his dream, upon which the other said: "Ah, man! Do +you believe in drames? Why, I dreamt the other night that at a place +called Kinnagoe a pot of gold is buried. Would I go to look for it? I +might loss my time if I paid attention to drames." "That's true," +answered Doherty, who now hurried home, found the pot of gold, bought +houses and land, and became a wealthy man. + +Whether this story embodies an earlier Irish legend I do not know, but I +should say that the mention of London Bridge points to its having been +brought over by English settlers. Sir G. L. Gomme tells us that "the +earliest version of this legend is quoted from the manuscripts of Sir +Roger Twysden, who obtained it from Sir William Dugdale, of Blyth Hall, +in Warwickshire, in a letter dated January 29, 1652-53. Sir William says +of it that 'it was the tradition of the inhabitants, as it was told me +there.'" + +May not some of the planters brought over by the Irish Society have +carried this legend from their English home, giving it in the name +Kinnagoe a local habitation? + +Most of our folklore comes, however, from a very early period. Our +Irish fairy, although regarded as a fallen angel, is not the medieval +elf, who could sip honey from a flower, but a small old man or woman +with magical powers, swift to revenge an injury, but often a kindly +neighbour. No story is told more frequently than that of the old fairy +woman who borrows a "noggin" of meal, repays it honestly, and rewards +the peasant woman by saying that her kist will never be empty, generally +adding the condition as long as the secret is kept. The woman usually +observes the condition until her husband becomes too inquisitive. When +she reveals the secret the kist is empty. + +Another widespread tale is that of the fairy woman who comes to the +peasant's cottage, sometimes to beg that water may not be thrown out at +the door, as it comes down her chimney and puts out the fire; sometimes +to ask, for a similar reason, that the "byre," or cowhouse, may be +removed to another site. In some tales it is a fairy man who makes the +request. If it is refused, punishment follows in sickness among the +cattle; if complied with, the cows flourish and give an extra supply of +milk. In one instance the "wee folk" provided money to pay a mason to +build the new cowhouse. We may smile, and ask how the position of the +cowhouse could affect the homes of the fairies; but if these small +people lived in the souterrains, as tradition alleges, we may even at +the present day find these artificial caves under inhabited houses. At a +large farmhouse on the border of Counties Antrim and Londonderry I was +told one ran under the kitchen. At another farm near Castlerock, Co. +Londonderry, the owner opened a trapdoor in his yard, and allowed me to +look down into a souterrain. At Finvoy, Co. Antrim, I was shown one of +these caves over which a cottage formerly stood. A souterrain also runs +under the Glebe House at Donaghmore, Co. Down. The following extract is +from a work[84] in preparation, by the Rev. Dr. Cowan, Rector of the +parish, who, in describing this souterrain, writes: "The lintel to the +main entrance is the large stone which forms the base of the old Celtic +cross, which stands a few yards south of the church. Underneath the +cross is the central chamber, which is sixty-two feet long, three feet +wide and upwards of four feet high, with branches in the form of +transepts about thirty feet in length. From these, again, several +sections extend ... one due north terminating at the Glebe House (a +distance of two hundred yards) underneath the study, where, according to +tradition, some rich old vicar in past times fashioned the extreme end +into the dimensions of a wine-cellar." + +According to another tradition--an older one, no doubt--this chamber +under the study was the dressing-room of the small Danes, who after +their toilet proceeded through the underground passages to church. They +had to pass through many little doors, down stairs, through parlours, +until they came to the great chamber under the cross where the minister +held forth. I shall not attempt to guess to what old faith this minister +or priest belonged, or what were the rites he celebrated; but the stairs +probably represent the descent from one chamber to another, and the +little doors the bridges found in some souterrains, and, I believe, at +Donaghmore, where one stone juts out from the floor, and a little +farther on another comes down from the roof, leaving only a narrow +passage, so that one must creep over and under these bridges to get to +the end of the cave. + +The Danes are regarded by the country people as distinctly human, and +yet there is much in them that reminds us of the fairies; indeed, I was +told by two old men--one in Co. Antrim, and the other in Co. Derry--that +they and the wee-folk are much the same. In a former paper[85] I +referred to the difference in dress ascribed to the fairies in various +parts of the country. I am inclined to believe that this indicates a +variety of tribes among the aboriginal inhabitants. In the fairies who +dress in green may we not have a tradition of people who stained +themselves with woad or some other plant? These fairies are chiefly +heard of in North-East Antrim. In some parts of that county they are +said to wear tartan, but in other parts of Ulster the fairies are +usually, although not universally, described as dressing in red. Do +these represent a people who dyed themselves with red ochre, or who +simply went naked? In Tory Island I was told the fairies dressed in +black; and Keating informs us that the Fomorians, who had their +headquarters at Toirinis, or Tory Island, were "sea-rovers of the race +of Cam, who fared from Africa."[86] + +Stories of the fairies or wee-folk are to be found everywhere in +Ulster, and the Danes are also universally known; but one hears of the +Pechts, chiefly in the north-east of Antrim, where the Grogach is also +known. The following story was told to me in Glenariff, Co. Antrim: + +A Grogach herded the cattle of a farmer, and drove them home in the +evening. He was about the size of a child, and was naked. A fire was +left burning at night so that he might warm himself, and after a time +the daughter of the house made him a shirt. When the Grogach saw this he +thought it was a "billet" for him to go, and, crying bitterly, he took +his departure, and left the shirt behind him. As I pointed out on a +former occasion,[87] in many respects the Grogach resembles the Swiss +dwarf. The likeness to the Brownie is also very marked. At Ballycastle I +was told the Grogach was a hairy man about four feet in height, who +could bear heat or cold without clothing. + +Patrick Kennedy has described a Gruagach as a giant, and states that the +word "Gruagach" has for root _gruach_--"hair," giants and magicians +being "furnished with a large provision of that appendage."[88] This +Gruagach was closely related to the fairies, and, indeed, we shall find +later in a Donegal story a giant ogress spoken of as a fairy woman. In +Scotland, as well as in the South of Ireland, the name is Gruagach, but +in Antrim I heard it pronounced "Grogach." I was also told near +Cushendall that the Danes were hairy people. + +One does not hear so much about giants in Antrim as in Donegal, but in +Glenariff I was told of four, one of whom lifted a rock at Ballycastle +and threw it across the sea to Rathlin--a distance of five or six miles. +Great as this feat was, a still greater was reported to me near +Armoy,[89] where I was shown a valley, and was told the earth had been +scooped out and thrown into the sea, where it formed the Island of +Rathlin. + +The grave of the giant Gig-na-Gog is to be seen some miles from Portrush +on the road to Beardiville.[90] I could not, however, hear anything of +Gig-na-Gog, except that he was a giant. + +In the stories of giants we no doubt often have traditions of a tall +race, who are sometimes represented as of inferior mental capacity. At +other times we appear to be listening to an early interpretation of the +works of Nature. The Donegal peasant at the present day believes that +the perched block on the side of the hill has been thrown by the arm of +a giant. In the compact columns of the Giant's Causeway and of Fingal's +Cave at Staffa primitive man saw a work of great skill and ingenuity, +which he attributed to a giant artificer; and Finn McCoul is credited +with having made a stupendous mole, uniting Scotland and Ireland. This +Finn McCoul has many aspects. He does not show to much advantage in the +following legend, which I heard on the banks of Lough Salt in Donegal: +Finn was a giant but there was a bigger giant named Goll, who came to +fight Finn, and Finn was afraid. His wife bade him creep into the +cradle, and she would give an answer to Goll. When the latter appeared, +he asked where was Finn. The wife replied he was out, and she was alone +with the baby in the cradle. Goll looked at the child, and thought, if +that is the size of Finn's infant, what must Finn himself be? and +without more ado he turned and took his departure.[91] This Finn had an +eye at the back of his head, and was so tall his feet came out at the +door of his house. We are not told, however, what was the size of the +house. + + [Illustration: PLATE XI. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + VALLEY NEAR ARMOY, WHENCE, ACCORDING TO LEGEND, EARTH WAS TAKEN TO FORM + RATHLIN.] + +In this tale Finn shows little courage, but as a rule he is represented +as a noted hero. I was told a long story at Glenties in Donegal of the +three sons Finn had by the Queen of Italy. He had seen her bathing in +Ireland, and he stole her clothes, so she had to stay until she could +get them back. After a time she found them, and returned to her own +country, where she gave birth to three sons--Dubh, Kian, and Glasmait. +When they were fourteen years of age the King of Italy sent them away +that they might go to their father Finn. + +They arrived in Ireland, and when Finn saw them he said: "If those three +be the sons of a King, they will come straight on; if not, they will ask +their way." The lads came straight on, knelt before Finn, and claimed +him as their father. He asked them who was their mother, and when they +said the Queen of Italy, Finn remembered the stolen clothes, and +received them as his sons. + +One day the followers of Finn could not find his dividing knife, and +Dubh determined to go in search of it. He put a stick in the fire, and +said he would be back before the third of it was burnt out. He followed +tracks, and came to a house where there was a great feast. He sat down +among the men, and saw they were cutting with Finn's knife. It was +passed from one to another until it came to Dubh, who, holding it in his +hand, sprang up and carried it off. + +When Dubh got home he wakened Kian and said: "My third of the stick is +burnt, and now do you see what you can do." Kian followed the tracks, +and got to the same place. He found the men drinking out of a horn. One +called for whisky, another for wine, and whatever was asked, the horn +gave. Kian heard them say it was Finn's horn, and that his knife had +been carried off the previous night. Kian waited, and when the horn came +he grasped it tightly and ran off home, where he found his third of the +stick was burnt. He waked Glasmait, and told him two-thirds of the night +had passed, and it was now his turn to go out. Glasmait followed the +same tracks, but when he came to the house blood was flowing from the +door, and, looking in, he saw the place full of corpses. One man only +remained alive. He told Glasmait how they had all been drinking when +someone ran off with Finn McCoul's horn. "One man blamed another," he +said; "they quarrelled and fought until everyone was killed except +myself. Now I beseech you throw the ditch[92] upon me and bury me. I do +not wish to be devoured by the fairy woman, who will soon be here. She +is an awful size, and upon her back is bound Finn McCoul's sword of +light,[93] which gives to its possessor the strength of a hundred men." +The man gave Glasmait some hints to aid him in the coming fight, and +added: "Now I have told you all, bury me quick." + +Glasmait threw the ditch upon him, and hid himself in a corner. The +Banmore, or large woman, now came in, and began her horrible repast. She +chose the fat men; three times she lifted Glasmait, but rejected him as +too young and lean. At last she lay down to sleep. Glasmait followed the +advice he had received. He touched her foot, but jumped aside to avoid +the kick. He touched her hand, but jumped aside to avoid her slap. When +she was again asleep, he drew his sword and cut the cords which bound +the sword of light to her back, and seized upon it. She roused herself, +and for two hours they fought, until in the end Glasmait ripped open her +body, when, behold, three red-haired boys sprang out and attacked him. +He slew two of them, but the third escaped. Glasmait returned home with +the sword of light, and found his third of the stick burnt. + +The three sons now presented their father with the dividing knife, the +drinking horn, and the sword of light, and there was great rejoicing +that these had been recovered. + +Some time after this a red-haired boy appeared, and begged to be taken +into Finn's service for a twelvemonth, saying he could kill birds and do +any kind of work. When asked what wages he looked for, he replied that +he hoped when he died, Finn and his men would put his body in a cart, +which would come for it, and bury him where the cart stopped. + +The red-haired boy worked well, but at the end of the year he suddenly +died. A cart drawn by a horse appeared, and Finn and his men tried to +place the body in it; but it could not be moved until the horse wheeled +round and did the work itself, starting immediately afterwards with its +load. Finn and his men followed, but a great mist came on, so that they +could not see clearly. At last they arrived at an old, black castle +standing in a glen. Here they found the table laid, and sat down to eat, +but before long the red-haired boy appeared alive, and cried vengeance +upon Finn and his sons. The men tried to draw their swords, but found +them fastened to the ground, and the red-haired boy cut off fifty heads. + +Now, however, the great Manannan appeared. He bade the red-haired boy +drop his sword, or he would give him a slap that would turn his face to +the back of his head. He also bade him replace the heads on the fifty +men. The red-haired boy had to submit, and after that he troubled Finn +no more. Manannan dispelled the mist, and brought Finn and his men back +to their own home, where they feasted for three days and three nights. + +This somewhat gruesome story contains several points of interest. The +stealing of the clothes is an incident which occurs with slight +variations in many folk-tales. In "The Stolen Veil"[94] Musaeus tells us +how the damsel of fairy lineage was detained when her veil was carried +off, and it was only after she had recovered it that she was able, in +the guise of a swan, to return to her home. + +We have read, too, of how the Shetlander captured the sealskin of the +Finn woman, without which she could not return as a seal to her +husband.[95] It should also be noted that the fairy ogress is a large +woman, apparently a giantess, while her three sons have the red hair so +often associated with the fairies. At the end of the tale Finn and his +men are saved by Manannan, the Celtic god of the sea, who has given his +name to the Isle of Man. In Balor of Tory Island the great Fomorian +chief, we have another giant, with an eye at the back of his head, which +dealt destruction to all who encountered its gaze. I was told in Tory +Island that when Balor was mortally wounded water fell so copiously from +his eye that it formed the biggest lough in the world, deeper even than +Lough Foyle.[96] + +These giants belonged to an olden time and a very primitive race. They +have passed away, and are no longer like the fairies--objects of fear or +awe. + +The fairies, being believed to be fallen angels, are especially +dreaded on Hallow Eve night. In some places oatmeal and salt are put on +the heads of the children to protect them from harm. I first heard of +this custom in the valley of the Roe, where there are a large number of +forts said to be inhabited by the fairies. The neighbourhood of Dungiven +on that river is rich in antiquities. I was told there was a souterrain +under the Cashel or "White Fort," said to have been built by the Danes. +There is another under Carnanban Fort, and not far from this there are +the stone circles at Aghlish. An old woman of ninety-six showed them to +me, and said it was a very gentle[97] place, and it would not be safe to +take away one of the stones. + + [Illustration: PLATE XII. [_R. Welch, Photo._ + FLINT SPEARHEAD AND BASALT AXES FOUND UNDER FORT IN LENAGH TOWNLAND.] + +Here we have an instance of the strong belief that to interfere in any +way with stone, tree, or fort, belonging to the fairies is certain to +bring disaster. About sixty-five years ago, when the railway was being +made between Belfast and Ballymena, an old fort with fairy bushes in the +townland of Lenagh stood on the intended track, and had to be removed. +The men working on the line were most unwilling to meddle with either +fort or bushes. One, however, braver than the rest began to cut down a +thorn, when he met with an accident which strengthened the others in +their refusal. In the end the fort had to be blown up, I believe by the +officials of the railway, and underneath it a very fine spearhead and +other implements were found.[98] + +A fort near Glasdrumman, Co. Down, was demolished by the owner, but the +country-people noted that the man who struck the first blow was injured +and died soon afterwards, while the owner himself became a permanent +invalid. A woman living near this fort related that in the evening after +the work was begun she heard an awful screech from the fort; presumably +the fairies were leaving their home. + +A curious story was told me by an old woman in the Cottage Hospital at +Cushendall. A man at Glenravel named M'Combridge went out one evening to +look for his heifer, but could not find it. He saw a great house in one +of his fields, where no house had been before, and, wondering much at +this, he went in. An old woman sat by the fire, and soon two men came in +leading the heifer. They killed it with a blow on the head and put it +into a pot. M'Combridge was too much afraid to make any objection; he +rose, however, to leave the house, but the old woman said: "Wait; you +must have some of the broth of your own heifer." Three times she made +him partake of the broth, and he was then unable to leave the house. She +put him to bed, and the man gave birth to a son. He fell asleep, but was +wakened by something touching his ear, and found himself on the grass +near his home, and the heifer close to his ear. + +This fantastic story no doubt represents a dream, but does it contain a +reminiscence of the couvade, where, after the birth of the child, the +father goes to bed? Sir E. B. Tylor, in the "Early History of Mankind," +has shown how widespread this custom was both in the Old and the New +World. + +In these stories, drawn from various parts of Ulster, we seem to hear +echoes of a very distant past. The giants often appear as savages of low +intelligence. In the fairies, I think, we may plainly see a tradition of +a dwarf race, although it is true that the country-people do not regard +them as human beings; indeed, I was told in Co. Tyrone that when the +fairies were annoying a man he threw his handkerchief at them, and asked +if among them all they could show one drop of blood. This, being +spirits, they could not do. In the Grogach the human element is more +pronounced, and both Danes and Pechts are usually regarded as men and +women like ourselves, although of smaller stature. It will thus be seen +that in Ulster we have traditions of giants, fairies, Grogachs, Danes, +and Pechts; and in Donegal I was also told of a small race of yellow +Finns. Can we identify any of these with the prehistoric races of the +British Isles and of Europe? + +It has been held by many that the relics of Palaeolithic man do not +occur in Ireland, but the Rev. Frederick Smith has found his implements, +some of them glaciated, at Killiney[99]; and Mr. Lewis Abbott, who has +made the implements of early man a special study, believes that +Palaeolithic man lived and worked in Ireland. In a letter to me he states +that this opinion is based on material in his possession. "I have," he +writes, "the Irish collection of my old friend, the late Professor +Rupert Jones; in this there are many immensely metamorphosed, deeply +iron-stained (and the iron, again, in turn further altered), implements +of Palaeolithic types.... They are usually very lustrous or highly +'patinated,' as it is called." In his recent paper, "On the +Classification of the British Stone Age Industries,"[100] in describing +the club studs, Mr. Abbott writes: "I have found very fine examples in +the Cromer Forest bed, and under and in various glacial deposits in +England and Ireland." How long Palaeolithic man survived in Ireland it +would be difficult to say, but in such characters as the fairy ogress we +are brought face to face with a very low form of savagery. It will be +noted that her sons are red-haired. Now, I have often found red hair +ascribed to fairies and Danes, but not to Pechts. This persistent +tradition has led me to ask whether red was the colour of the hair in +some early races of mankind. The following passage in Dr. Beddoe's +Huxley Lecture[101] favours an affirmative answer: "There are, of +course, facts, or reported facts, which would lead one to suspect that +red was the original hair colour of man in Europe--at least, when living +in primitive or natural conditions with much exposure, and that the +development of brown pigment came later, with subjection to heat and +malaria, and other influences connected with what we call +'civilisation.'" + +We have seen that the implements of early man are found in spots sacred +to the fairies. The Rev. Gath Whitley considers the Piskey dwarfs the +earliest Neolithic inhabitants of Cornwall, and describes them as a +small race who hunted the elk and the deer, and perhaps, like the +Bushmen, danced and sang to the light of the moon.[102] Our traditional +Irish fairies bear a strong resemblance to these Piskey dwarfs of +Cornwall, and also to the Welsh fairies of whom Sir John Rhys writes +that when fairyland is cleared of its glamour there seems to be +disclosed "a swarthy population of short, stumpy men, occupying the most +inaccessible districts of our country.... They probably fished and +hunted and kept domestic animals, including, perhaps, the pig, but they +depended largely on what they could steal at night or in misty weather. +Their thieving, however, was not resented, as their visits were believed +to bring luck and prosperity."[103] This description might apply to our +Ulster fairies, who in many of the stories appear as a very primitive +people. In some of the tales, however, the fairies are represented in a +higher state of civilisation. They can spin and weave; they inhabit +underground but well-built houses, and in the Irish records they are +closely associated with the Tuatha de Danann. + +I believe these Tuatha de Danann are the small Danes, who, according to +tradition, built the raths and souterrains. The late Mr. John Gray[104] +would ascribe a Mongoloid origin to them. In a letter written to me +shortly before his death he stated his belief that the Danes and Pechts +"were of the same race, and were identical with a short, round-headed +race which migrated into the British Isles about 2,000 B.C. at the +beginning of the Bronze Age.... The stature of these primitive Danes and +Pechts was five feet three inches, and they must have looked very small +men to the later Teutonic invaders of an average stature of five feet +eight and a half inches." + +In his papers, "Who built the British Stone Circles?"[105] and "The +Origin of the Devonian Race,"[106] Mr. Gray has fully described this +round-headed race, who buried in short cists, and whom he believes to +have been a colony from Asia Minor of Akkadians, Sumerians, or Hittites, +who migrated to England by sea in order to work the Cornish tin-mines +and the Welsh copper-mines. + +For a fuller exposition of these views I must refer the reader to Mr. +Gray's very interesting articles. + +In regard to the Tuatha de Danann, according to Keating,[107] they came +from Greece by way of Scandinavia. This might lead us to infer a +northern origin, or, at least, that they had taken a different route +from those who came by the Mediterranean to the West of Europe. They +appear to have known the use of metals and to have ploughed the land. + +Dr. O'Donovan, in writing of these Tuatha de Danann, says: "From the +many monuments ascribed to this colony by tradition and in ancient Irish +historical tales, it is quite evident that they were a real people, and +from their having been considered gods and magicians by the Gaedhil or +Scoti who subdued them, it may be inferred that they were skilled in +arts which the latter did not understand." Referring to the colloquy +between St. Patrick and Caoilte MacRonain, Dr. O'Donovan says that it +appears from this ancient Irish text that "there were very many places +in Ireland where the Tuatha de Dananns were then supposed to live as +sprites or fairies." He adds: "The inference naturally to be drawn from +these stories is that the Tuatha de Dananns lingered in the country for +many centuries after their subjugation by the Gaedhil, and that they +lived in retired situations, which induced others to regard them as +magicians."[108] + +What is here averred of the Tuatha de Danann may be true of other +primitive races who may have survived long in Ireland. It is difficult +to exterminate a people, and they could not be driven farther west. + +It appears to me that in the traditions of the Ulster peasantry we see +indications of a tall, savage people, and of various races of small men. +Some were in all probability veritable dwarfs, like those whose +skeletons have been found in Switzerland, near Schaffhausen. Others may +have been of the stature of the round-headed race described by Mr. John +Gray, but in tradition they all--fairy, Grogach, Pecht, and Dane--appear +as little people. In these tales we have not a clear outline--the +picture is often blurred--but as we see the red-haired Danes carrying +earth in their aprons to build the forts, the Pechts handing from one to +another the large slabs to roof the souterrains, and the Grogachs +herding cattle, we catch glimpses of the life of those who in long past +ages inhabited Ireland. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[83] Reprinted from the _Antiquary_, August, 1913. + +[84] "An Ancient Irish Parish, Past and Present." + +[85] See Ulster Fairies, Danes, and Pechts, p. 27. + +[86] Keating, "History of Ireland," book i., chap. viii. +(translation by P. W. Joyce, LL.D., M.R.I.A.). See _ante_, p. 60. + +[87] See Traditions of Dwarf Races in Ireland and in +Switzerland, pp. 50-52. + +[88] "Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts," second edition, +p. 123 note. + +[89] A village about six miles from Ballycastle, where there is +a round tower. + +[90] It is referred to in the "Guide to Belfast and the +Adjacent Counties," by the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, 1874, pp. +205, 206; also by Borlase in "Dolmens of Ireland," vol. i., p. 371. + +[91] A similar tale, but with more details, is related of Finn +by William Carleton. It was first published in Chambers' _Edinburgh +Journal_ in January, 1841, with the title, "A Legend of Knockmary," and +was reprinted in Carleton's collected works under the title "A Legend of +Knockmany." It is given by Mr. W. B. Yeates in his "Irish Fairy and Folk +Tales." In Carleton's tale Finn's opponent is not Goll, but Cuchullin. +In the notes first published in Chambers' _Journal_ reference is, +however, made to Scotch legends about Finn McCoul and Gaul, the son of +Morni, whom I take to be the same as Goll. A version of the story is +also given by Patrick Kennedy in "Legendary Fictions of the Irish +Celts," under the title "Fann MacCuil and the Scotch Giant," pp. +179-181. This Scotch giant is named Far Rua, and the fort to which he +journeys is in the bog of Allen. + +[92] In Ireland "ditch" is used for an earth fence. + +[93] Claive Solus was the name given to it by the old woman, +who narrated the story, and she translated it "sword of light." + +[94] See J. K. A. Musaeus, "Volksmaehrchen der Deutschen," edited +by J. L. Klee (Leipzig, 1842); "Der geraubte Schleier," pp. 371-429. + +[95] See "The Testimony of Tradition" (London, 1890, pp. 1-25), +by Mr. David MacRitchie, F.S.A.Scot.; also by the same author, "The +Aberdeen Kayak and its Congeners." Proceedings of the Society of +Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xlvi. (1911-12), pp. 213-241. Mr. +MacRitchie believes that the magic sealskin was a Kayak. + +[96] See p. 75. + +[97] Fairy-haunted. + +[98] This spearhead is in the possession of Mr. Robert Bell, a +member of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, from whom I heard this +narrative. + +[99] "The Stone Age in North Britain and Ireland," by the Rev. +Frederick Smith, Appendix, p. 396. + +[100] See _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, +vol. xli., 1911, p. 462. + +[101] "Colour and Race," delivered before the Anthropological +Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, October 31, 1905. + +[102] "Footprints of Vanished Races in Cornwall," by the Rev. +D. Gath Whitley, published in the _Journal of the Royal Institution of +Cornwall_, 1903, vol. xv., part ii., p. 283. + +[103] "Celtic Folklore," vol. ii., chap. xii., pp. 668, 669. + +[104] Treasurer to the Anthropological Institute. + +[105] Read before Section H of the British Association at the +Dublin Meeting, September, 1908, published in _Nature_, December 24, +1908, pp. 236-238. + +[106] Published in _London Devonian Year-Book_, 1910. + +[107] "History of Ireland," book i., chap. x. + +[108] See "Annals of the Four Masters," vol. i., note at p. +24. + + + + +The Rev. William Hamilton, D.D.[109] + +AN EARLY EXPONENT OF THE VOLCANIC ORIGIN OF THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY + + + "Here, hapless Hamilton, lamented name! + To fire volcanic traced the curious frame, + And, as his soul, by sportive fancy's aid, + Up to the fount of time's long current strayed, + Far round these rocks he saw fierce craters boil, + And torrent lavas flood the riven soil: + Saw vanquished Ocean from his bounds retire, + And hailed the wonders of creative Fire." + + DRUMMOND. + +These lines are taken from a poem, "The Giant's Causeway," written in +1811, when the nature of the basaltic rocks was regarded as doubtful, +and many held that their origin was to be traced to the action of water +rather than fire. Hamilton is rightly brought forward as a champion of +the volcanic theory. In his "Letters concerning the Northern Coast of +Antrim," published towards the close of the eighteenth century, he +adduces strong reasons to show that the Giant's Causeway is no isolated +freak of Nature, but part of a vast lava field which covered Antrim and +extended far beyond the Scottish islands. Nor does he confine his +attention to geology, but fulfils the promise on the title page, giving +an account of the antiquities, manners, and customs of the country. To +those who care to read of this part of the world before the days of +railroads and electric tramways, when Portrush was a small fishing +village, and the lough which divides Antrim from Down bore the name of +the ancient city of Carrickfergus, this old volume will possess many +attractions. Three copies lie before me; two belong to editions +published in the author's lifetime; the third was printed in Belfast in +1822, and contains a short memoir and a portrait of Dr. Hamilton. The +latter is taken from one of those black silhouettes by which, before the +art of photography was known, our grandfathers strove to preserve an +image of those they loved. In this imperfect likeness we can see below +the wig a massive forehead, and features which betoken no small +determination of character. We can well believe that we are gazing on +the face of a scholar, a man of science, a divine, of one who believed +that death, even in the tragic form in which it came to him, was but the +laying aside of a perishable machine, the casting away of an instrument +no longer able to perform its functions. + +William Hamilton was born in December, 1757, in Londonderry, where the +family had resided for nearly a century, his grandfather having been one +of the defenders of the city during the famous siege. Little is known of +his boyhood. Before he was fifteen he entered the University of Dublin, +and after a distinguished career obtained a fellowship in 1779. It was +while continuing his theological and literary studies that his attention +was drawn to the new sciences of chemistry and mineralogy. We can +imagine the ardent student attracting around him a band of kindred +spirits, who, meeting on one evening of the week under the name of +Palaeosophers, studied the Bible and ancient writings bearing on its +interpretation, and the next, calling themselves Neosophers, discussed +the phenomena of Nature, and the discoveries of Cavendish, or the views +of Buffon and Descartes. Nor did his marriage in 1780 to Sarah Walker +interrupt these pursuits. + +Hamilton was one of the founders of the Royal Irish Academy, and +dedicated his "Letters concerning the Coast of Antrim" to the Earl of +Charlemont, the first president of that body. The book opens with an +account of his visit to the Island of Raghery or Rathlin, where he was +charmed with the primitive manners of the people and the friendly +relations existing between them and their landlord. He examined the +white cliffs, the dark basaltic columns, and the ruins of the old +castle, where Robert Bruce is said to have made a gallant defence +against his enemies. Here he found cinders embedded in the mortar, +showing that the lime used in building the walls had been burnt with +coal. This is adduced as a proof that the coal-beds near Fair Head had +been known at an early period, possibly at a time anterior to the Danish +incursions of the ninth and tenth centuries--a view confirmed by the +discovery of an ancient gallery extending many hundred yards +underground, and in which the remains of the tools and baskets of the +prehistoric miners were found. + +In a later letter a history is given of the Giant's Causeway, and of the +various opinions which have been held regarding its origin. Beginning +with the old tradition[110] that the stones had been cut and placed in +position by the giant, Fin McCool or Fingal, when constructing a mighty +mole to unite Ireland to Scotland, Hamilton alludes to the crude notions +exhibited in some papers published in the early Transactions of the +Royal Society. He criticizes severely "A True Prospect of the Giant's +Causeway," printed in 1696 for the Dublin Society, showing how the +imagination of the artist had planted luxuriant forest-trees on the wild +bay of Port Noffer, and transformed basaltic rocks into comfortable +dwelling-houses. The two beautiful paintings made by Mrs. Susanna Drury +in 1740 are referred to in very different language, and anyone who has +seen engravings of these will endorse his opinion, and feel that this +lady has depicted, with almost photographic accuracy, the Causeway and +the successive galleries of basaltic columns, which lend a weird and +peculiar grandeur to the headlands of Bengore. + +A large portion of Hamilton's work is occupied with a minute +investigation of these headlands, and of the lofty promontory of Fair +Head. A description is given of the jointed columns of the Causeway, +whose surface presents a regular and compact pavement of polygon stones; +we are told that this basaltic rock contains metallic iron, and that he +has himself observed how, in the semicircular Bay of Bengore, the +compass deviates greatly from its meridian, and each pillar or fragment +of a pillar acts as a natural magnet. He also points out that columnar +rocks are found in many parts of Antrim, and traces the basaltic plateau +from the shores of Lough Foyle to the valley of the Lagan; nay more, he +bids us extend our gaze, and remember "that whatever be the reasonings +that fairly apply to the formation of the basaltes in our island, the +same must be extended with little interruption over the mainland and +western isles of Scotland, even to the frozen island of Iceland, where +basaltic pillars are to be found in abundance, and where the flames of +Hecla still continue to blaze."[111] + +Hamilton argues, in opposition to the views of many of his +contemporaries, that the vicinity of the Giant's Causeway to the sea has +nothing whatever to do with the peculiar structure of its jointed +columns, which he ascribes to their having been formed by the +crystallization of a molten mass. The following are his words: + +"Since, therefore, the basaltes and its attendant fossils[112] bear +strong marks of the effects of fire, it does not seem unlikely that its +pillars may have been formed by a process, exactly analogous to what is +commonly denominated crystallization by fusion.... For though during the +moments of an eruption nothing but a wasteful scene of tumult and +disorder be presented to our view, yet, when the fury of those flames +and vapours, which have been struggling for a passage, has abated, +everything then returns to its original state of rest; and those various +melted substances, which, but just before, were in the wildest state of +chaos, will now subside and cool with a degree of regularity utterly +unattainable in our laboratories."[113] + +It is true that modern geologists would not apply the term +"crystallization" to the process by which the basaltic columns have been +formed, but all would agree that they have assumed their peculiar shape +during the slow cooling of the molten lava of which they consist; thus +Professor James Thomson[114] states that the division into prisms has +arisen "by splitting, through shrinkage, of a very homogeneous mass in +cooling." + +It would be tedious to repeat the reasoning by which Hamilton, following +in the steps of the French geologists, Desmarest and Faujas de St. Fond, +establishes the volcanic origin of the basalt. It is true, he assumes +the position of an impartial narrator, and brings forward at +considerable length the objections which had been urged against this +theory, but only to show that each one of them admits of a full and +complete answer. Thus he states that the absence of volcanic cones does +not embarrass the advocates of the system: "According to them, the +basaltes has been formed under the earth itself and within the bowels of +those very mountains where it could never have been exposed to view +until, by length of time or some violent shock of nature, the incumbent +mass must have undergone a very considerable alteration, such as should +go near to destroy every exterior volcanic feature. In support of this, +it may be observed that the promontories of Antrim do yet bear very +evident marks of some violent convulsion, which has left them standing +in their present abrupt situation, and that the Island of Raghery and +some of the western isles of Scotland do really appear like the +surviving fragments of a country, great part of which might have been +buried in the ocean."[115] + +We thus see that Hamilton clearly perceived that great changes, +sufficient to sweep away lofty mountains, had taken place since those +old lava streams had flowed over the land. It is true that science has +advanced since his day with gigantic strides. Some things which he +regarded as doubtful have become certain, and others which he regarded +as certain have become doubtful, yet I trust that the preceding extracts +will show that his account of the basaltic rocks of Antrim may still be +read with interest and profit. + +As an antiquarian, Hamilton touches on the evidences of early culture in +Ireland. He mentions the large number of exquisitely wrought gold +ornaments found in the bogs, and translates for us a poem of St. +Donatus, which, although doubtless a fancy sketch, shows the reputation +enjoyed by the island in the ninth century. + + "Far westward lies an isle of ancient fame + By nature bless'd, and Scotia is her name, + An island rich--exhaustless is her store + Of veiny silver and of golden ore; + Her fruitful soil for ever teems with wealth, + With gems her waters, and her air with health. + Her verdant fields with milk and honey flow, + Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow; + Her waving furrows float with bearded corn, + And arms and arts her envy'd sons adorn. + No savage bear with lawless fury roves, + No rav'ning lion thro' her sacred groves; + No poison there infects, no scaly snake + Creeps through the grass, nor frog annoys the lake. + An island worthy of its pious race, + In war triumphant, and unmatch'd in peace."[116] + +In referring to the doctrines and practices of the ancient Irish +Church, Hamilton enters on the field of controversy. It shows how widely +his book was known when we find the _Giornale Ecclesiastico_ of Rome +taking exception to some of his views. This criticism led to the +insertion in the second edition of the work, of a letter[117] dealing +more fully with ecclesiastical matters. The reasoning, even when +supported by the high authority of Archbishop Ussher, may possibly fail +to convince us of the identity of the Church of St. Patrick and St. +Columba with the Church of the Reformation; but we shall find abundant +proof of the vigour and independence which characterized not only the +early monks, but the Irish schoolmen of the Middle Ages. + +Before this letter was published, Hamilton had accepted the living of +Clondevaddock in Donegal, and had taken up his abode amid the wild but +beautiful scenery surrounding Mulroy Bay. Here he expected to spend a +tranquil life, watching over the education of his large family, and +combining with his clerical duties the pursuit of science and +literature. In a favourable situation for observing variations of +temperature and the action of rain, wind, and tide, he pursued the +investigation of a subject which had already engaged his attention +before leaving Dublin. In a memoir[118] published after his death he +suggests that the cutting down of the forests may have affected a +sensible change in the climate of Ireland, and gives several instances +of the encroachment of the sea sand on fertile and inhabited land. +Perhaps the most striking is that of the town of Bannow in Wexford. It +was a flourishing borough in the early part of the seventeenth century, +while in his day the site was marked only by a few ruins, appearing +above heaps of barren sand, and where at the time of an election a +fallen chimney was used as the council table of that ancient and loyal +corporation. + +When we read the closing pages of this paper it is difficult to believe +that troubled times were so near at hand; and even when he wrote his +"Letters on the French Revolution," Hamilton could not have foreseen +that he was soon to fall before the same spirit of wild vengeance, which +claimed so many noble victims on the banks of the Seine and the Loire. + +He acted as magistrate as well as clergyman, and during nearly seven +years he was treated with respect and confidence by the people among +whom he lived. No doubt the majority of them did not regard him as their +pastor, but they appreciated his efforts for their temporal welfare; we +are told that the country was advancing in industry and prosperity, and +remained tranquil when other parts of Ulster were greatly disturbed. At +last, however, the revolutionary wave reached this remote district, and +a trivial incident inflamed the minds of the inhabitants against Dr. +Hamilton. + +On Christmas night, 1796, while the memorable storm which in the south +drove the French fleet from Bantry Bay was at its height, a brig, laden +with wine from Oporto, was shipwrecked on the coast of Fanet, not far +from Dr. Hamilton's dwelling. In those days the peasantry regarded +whatever was brought to them by the sea as lawful booty, and were little +disposed to brook the interference of magistrate or clergyman. We are +told "that Dr. Hamilton's active exertions on this melancholy occasion +gave rise to feelings of animosity on the part of some of his +parishioners." This animosity was fomented by popular agitators. A +stormy period ensued. One evening a band of insurgents surrounded the +parsonage demanding the release of some prisoners, and for more than +twenty-four hours the house was closely besieged. Two of the servants +made their way with difficulty to the beach, hoping to escape by sea and +bring succour from Derry, but they found holes had been bored in the +boats, which rendered them unserviceable. Dr. Hamilton acted with much +courage and coolness. He refused to accede to the demands of his +assailants, saying he was not to be intimidated by men acting in open +violation of the laws; at the same time, by repressing the ardour of the +guard of soldiers, he showed his anxiety to prevent bloodshed. In +company with a naval officer, he undertook the perilous task of passing +in disguise through the rebel cordon, and returned with a body of +militia. On seeing this reinforcement, the peasantry lost courage, and, +throwing away their arms, dispersed quickly to their homes, so that the +victory was achieved without loss of life. + +The country now became apparently more tranquil, and in early spring Dr. +Hamilton paid a visit to the Bishop of the diocese at Raphoe. He was +returning to his parish, when the roughness of the weather delayed his +crossing Lough Swilly, and he turned aside to see a brother clergyman +near Fahan. He was easily prevailed upon to pass the night in the +hospitable rectory of Sharon, and no doubt the visit of an old college +friend was hailed with delight by the crippled Dr. Waller, whose +infirmities obliged him to lead a secluded life. Probably the +conversation turned on the state of the country; Dr. Waller, his wife, +and her niece would inquire about the perils from which their guest had +recently escaped. Perhaps they would congratulate themselves on the +security of their neighbourhood compared with the wilder parts of +Donegal. Suddenly the tramp of a band of men was heard. It is said that +Dr. Hamilton's quick ear first caught the sound, and knew it to be his +death-knell; but he was not the only victim--his hostess fell before +him. Let us hear the story of that terrible tragedy as it was reported +to the Irish House of Commons. Speaking on March 6, 1797, four days +after the event, Dr. Brown said: + +"As that gentleman (Dr. Hamilton) was sitting with the family in Mr. +Waller's house, several shots were fired in upon them, the house was +broken open, and Mrs. Waller, in endeavouring to protect her helpless +husband by covering him with her body, was murdered. Mr. Hamilton, from +the natural love of life, had taken refuge in the lower apartments. +Thence they forced him, and as he endeavoured to hold the door they held +fire under his hand until they made him quit his hold. They then dragged +him a few yards from the house, and murdered him in the most inhuman and +barbarous manner."[119] + +From a letter written by Dr. Hall to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (March, +1797), we learn that the assassins retired unmolested and undiscovered. +Nor were any of them ever brought to justice, although popular +tradition, among both Catholics and Protestants, says that misfortune +dogged their footsteps, and each one of them came to an untimely end. +Dr. Hamilton's body remained exposed during the night, and was only +removed the following morning, when it was taken to Londonderry and +interred in the Cathedral graveyard. Here his name is recorded on the +family tombstone; and in 1890 his descendants erected a tablet to his +memory in the chancel of the Cathedral. + +Hamilton obtained the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1794, and shortly +before his death he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal +Society of Edinburgh. We have seen how he was cut off in the full vigour +of mind and body--his last memoir unprinted--and surely we may echo the +lament of his contemporaries, and feel that he was one who had conferred +honour on his native land. Yet, while they mourned his loss as a public +calamity, his friends would recall his words, and remember that to him +death was but the entrance to a new life--the casting away of a covering +which formed no part of his true self. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[109] Reprinted from the _Sun_, May, 1891. + +[110] See Letter I., part ii., edition 1822. + +[111] Letter VI., part ii., pp. 183, 184. Compare with this +passage the following enunciation of the results of modern geological +investigation. "A marked feature of this period in Europe was the +abundance and activity of its volcanoes.... From the south of Antrim, +through the west coast of Scotland, the Faroee Islands and Iceland, even +far into Arctic Greenland, a vast series of fissure eruptions poured +forth successive floods of basalt, fragments of which now form the +extensive volcanic plateaux of these regions." (Sir A. Geikie, +"Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad," pp. 347, 348). + +[112] Hamilton uses this word in its old meaning of rock or +stone. He expressly states that basalt does not contain the slightest +trace of animal or vegetable remains. + +[113] Letter VII., part ii., pp. 187, 188, 189. + +[114] See "Collected Papers," p. 430, edited by Sir Joseph +Larmor, Sec. R.S., M.P., and James Thomson, M.A. + +[115] Letter VII., part ii., p. 194. + +[116] Letter IV., part i., p. 52. + +[117] Letter V, part i. + +[118] See Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. vi., p. +27. + +[119] See report in the _Belfast Newsletter_, March 6-10, +1797. + + + + +INDEX + + + Abbott, W. J. Lewis, F.G.S., 99, 100 + + Abernethy Round Tower, 57 + + Aino, 42 + + Antrim, old fort at, 36 + + Ardtole souterrain, vi + + Armoy, 26, 90 + + Arranmore, 82 + + + Backaderry souterrain, 7 + + Ballycairn Fort, 37, 38, 41 + + Ballycastle, 39, 50, 89 + + Ballyginney Fort and Souterrain, 7, 8 + + Ballyliffan, 52, 55 + + Ballymagreehan Fort and Souterrain, 6 + + Balor, 73-76, 79 + + Banshee, 31, 35, 42, 43, 56, 78 + + Beddoe, Dr., 100, 101 + + Bell, Robert, 97 + + Boyle, Owen, saves bride from fairies, 68-71 + + Bridget, Eve of St., 17, 18 + + Brownie, 51, 89 + + Burglauenen, destruction of, 53 + + Bury, Professor, 61 + + + Cailleagh, 19 + + Campbell, J. F., 79, 80 + + Castlewellan, 6, 7 + + Chope, R. Pearse, B.A., 19, 20 + + "Churn," 19, 20 + + Cinderella, 47 + + Clark, Miss Jane, 22 + + Coal-mines, ancient, near Ballycastle, 39, 107-8 + + Columbkill, St., 63, 83 + + Cowan, Rev. Dr., 86, 87 + + Cruithnians, 58 + + Culdaff, 53 + + Culnady, 21, 22 + + Cushendall, 89, 98 + + + Danes, 8-11, 28-31, 34, 37-42, 45, 51, 57, 77, 78, 88, 89, 102, 104 + + Derrick's Image of Ireland, 44, 45 + + Donaghmore, Co. Down, souterrain at, 86, 87 + + Donatus, St., poem describing Scotia or Ireland, 112 + + Downpatrick, rath at, 22, 36 + + Drumcrow, 27 + + Drury, Mrs. Susanna, 108 + + Dunglady Fort, 21, 22 + + Dunloe, Gap of, 10 + + + Emania, 41 + + + Fair Head, 49, 107, 108 + + Fairies, capture of women and children by, 26, 69-73 + compared with African pygmies, 33, 34 + dress of, 27, 88 + a dwarf race, 13, 45, 104 + dwelling under sea, 52, 53 + inhabit forts and souterrains, 8, 31, 36, 86 + intermarriage with the human race, 65 _et seq._ + vanish, 25, 34 + + Fanshawe, Lady, 42, 43 + + Fargowan, 79 + + Fiacc's hymn, 61 + + Finglas, 79 + + Finn McCoul, 48-50, 76, 79, 90-95, 108 + + Finn, Lough, 79 + + Finns, 64, 78 + + Finntown, 65 + + Finvoy, 86 + + Frazer, J. G., D.C.L., 20, 21 + + Friel, John, saves young girl from the fairies, 71 + + + Gempeler, D., 53 + + Giants, 79, 89, 90, 96, 99 + + Giant's Causeway, 50, 90, 105, 108-111 + + Glasdrumman Fort, 97, 98 + + Glenties, 65, 66, 79 + + Goll, 91 + + Gomme, Sir G. L., 54, 84, 85 + + Gottwerg and Gottwergini, 52, 54 + + Gray, John, B.Sc., 102, 104 + + Greenmount, Mote at, 36, 37, 40 + + Grey Man of the Path, 49 + + Grogach, 47, 50, 51, 57, 89, 99, 104 + + Gweedore, 68, 75 + + + Ham, 32, 60, 73 + + Hamilton, Rev. W., D.D., F.T.C.D., 39, 105-118 + + Hanauer, Rev. J. E., 67 + + Harbison, Mann, 8, 11, 12 + + Harris, 59, 60 + + Harvest knots, 18, 19 + + Heather ale, 28, 29, 41 + + Herd (David), 13 + + Herman's Fort and Souterrain, 6, 7 + + Hobson, Mrs., viii, 30 + + Hunt, B., 72 + + Hyde, Dr. Douglas, 71 + + + Infant carried off by fairies, but saved by father, 72, 73 + + + Jegerlehner, Dr. J., 52, 54 + + Johnston, Sir Harry, 33, 34, 80 + + + Keating, 60, 88, 103 + + Killelagh Church, 14, 15 + + Kilrea, 23 + + Kincasslagh, 68, 70, 78 + + Knockdhu, souterrain at, 30 + + Kollmann, Professor Julius, v, 59, 61, 62 + + + Lenagh Townland, fort blown up, 97 + + Leprechaun, Lupracan, Luchorpan, 10, 32 + + Leslie, Rev. J. B., 9, 37 + + London Bridge legend, 84, 85 + + Luchter, 18 + + Lurach, St., church of, 22 + + Lytle, S. D., vi, 16 + + + Maghera, Co. Down, 4, 7 + + Maghera, Co. Londonderry, 14-23 + + Manannan, 49, 95, 96 + + McKean, E. J., B.A., 19, 41 + + McKenna, Daniel, 14, 17, 18 + + MacKenzie, W. C., F.S.A.Scot., 58 + + MacRitchie, David, F.S.A.Scot., v, 12, 28, 29, 42, 57, 58, 96 + + Marshall, Dr. Eric, 81 + + Mortar, cemented with the blood of bullocks, 15 + + Mourne Mountains, 2, 28 + + Munro, Dr., 12 + + + Neosophers, 107 + + New Guinea, pygmies in, 80, 81 + + Niederdorf, destruction of, 53, 54 + + Nuesch, Dr., 61 + + + O'Donovan, Dr., 22, 75, 76, 103 + + O'Grady, Standish H., 32, 44, 61 + + O'Neill, Phelim, castle of, 15 + + Oughter, Lough, 9 + + + Palaeolithic man, 59, 99, 100 + + Palaeosophers, 107 + + Patrick, St., 61, 63, 83 + + Pechts, 15, 16, 27, 31, 50, 57, 78, 99, 102, 104 + + Pennant, 29 + + Piskey Dwarfs of Cornwall, 101 + + Portstewart, 19, 38, 67 + + + Rathlin Island, 90, 107 + + Red hair ascribed to fairies and Danes, 2, 9, 34, 37, 100 + possibly the original hair colour in Europe, 100 + + Rhys, Sir John, 67, 101 + + Rochefort, Jorevin de, 40, 41 + + Roe, Valley of the, 19, 96, 97 + + Rosapenna, 65, 67, 71 + + Roughan Castle, 15 + + Rowan tree, 27 + + Rush crosses, 17, 18 + + + Schaffhausen, skeletons of dwarfs discovered near, v, 61, 62, 104 + + Seals, belief that human beings could change into, 81, 82 + + Sealskin of Finn woman, 96 + + Sea sand, encroachment on land, 114 + + Smith, Dr. Robertson, 34, 35 + + Smith, Rev. Frederick, 99 + + Sidh, 44, 61 + + Sidis, 61 + + Silva Gadelica, 32, 44, 61 + + Souterrains, 6-8, 16, 30, 31, 36-41, 86, 87 + + Spy, men of, 12, 13 + + Staffa, 50 + + Stone circles at Aghlish, 97 + + Stranocum, souterrain at, 8 + + Sweeney, John, 82 + + Sword of light, 93, 94 + + + Thomson, Professor James, 110 + + Tobermore, 17 + + Todas, 54 + + Tormore, 73 + + Tory Island, 73-76, 88, 96 + + Tuatha de Danann, 11, 12, 18, 29, 77, 102, 103 + + Tullamore Park, 2, 3 + + + Wee, wee man, 13 + + Whitley, Rev. Gath, 101 + + Windele, John, 40 + + + + +THE END + + +ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. + + + + +Transcriber's Note + + +Illustrations have been moved near the relevant section of the text. + +Inconsistencies have been retained in spelling, hyphenation and grammar, +except where indicated in the list below: + + - "FAIRHEAD" changed to "FAIR HEAD" on Page xiii + - Period added after "inches" on Page 16 + - Bracket added after "1854" in Footnote 8 + - Period changed to comma after "304" in Footnote 13 + - Comma changed to period after "1906" in Footnote 15 + - Quote added before "furnished" on Page 89 + - Period added after "669" in Footnote 103 + - Period and quote added after "regions" in Footnote 111 + - Period removed after "104" in Page 119 + - Period added after "B" on Page 120 + - "Niederdorff" changed to "Niederdorf" on Page 120 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ulster Folklore, by Elizabeth Andrews + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ULSTER FOLKLORE *** + +***** This file should be named 37187.txt or 37187.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/1/8/37187/ + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Linda Hamilton, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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