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diff --git a/old/43973.txt b/old/43973.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c93cafd..0000000 --- a/old/43973.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8116 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, -First Series, by Lady Gregory - -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/license - - -Title: Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, First Series - -Author: Lady Gregory - -Annotator: W. B. Yeats - -Release Date: October 18, 2013 [EBook #43973] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISIONS AND BELIEFS (1/2) *** - - - - -Produced by Douglas L. Alley, III, Barbara Tozier, Bill -Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - - - _By Lady Gregory_ - - DRAMA - - - Seven Short Plays - Folk-History Plays, 2 vols. - New Comedies - The Image - The Golden Apple - Our Irish Theatre. A Chapter of Autobiography - - IRISH FOLK LORE AND LEGEND - - Visions and Beliefs, 2 vols. - Cuchulain of Muirthemne - Gods and Fighting Men - Saints and Wonders - Poets and Dreamers - The Kiltartan Poetry Book - -[Illustration: Coole Lake - -From a picture by Robert Gregory in Sir Hugh Lane's Collection] - - - - - VISIONS AND BELIEFS IN - THE WEST OF IRELAND - COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY - LADY GREGORY: WITH TWO ESSAYS - AND NOTES BY W. B. YEATS - - - - "_There's no doubt at all but that there's the same - sort of things in other countries; but you hear - more about them in these parts because the Irish - do be more familiar in talking of them._" - - - - - - _FIRST SERIES_ - - - - - - G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS - NEW YORK AND LONDON - =The Knickerbocker Press= - 1920 - - COPYRIGHT, 1920 - BY - LADY GREGORY - - - - - =The Knickerbocker Press, New York= - - - - - PREFACE - - -The Sidhe cannot make themselves visible to all. They are -shape-changers; they can grow small or grow large, they can take what -shape they choose; they appear as men or women wearing clothes of -many colours, of today or of some old forgotten fashion, or they are -seen as bird or beast, or as a barrel or a flock of wool. They go by -us in a cloud of dust; they are as many as the blades of grass. They -are everywhere; their home is in the forths, the lisses, the ancient -round grass-grown mounds. There are thorn-bushes they gather near -and protect; if they have a mind for a house like our own they will -build it up in a moment. They will remake a stone castle, battered by -Cromwell's men, if it takes their fancy, filling it with noise and -lights. Their own country is Tir-nan-Og--the Country of the Young. It -is under the ground or under the sea, or it may not be far from any -of us. As to their food, they will use common things left for them -on the hearth or outside the threshold, cold potatoes it may be, or -a cup of water or of milk. But for their feasts they choose the best -of all sorts, taking it from the solid world, leaving some worthless -likeness in its place; when they rob the potatoes from the ridges -the diggers find but rottenness and decay; they take the strength -from the meat in the pot, so that when put on the plates it does not -nourish. They will not touch salt; there is danger to them in it. -They will go to good cellars to bring away the wine. - -Fighting is heard among them, and music that is more beautiful than -any of this world; they are seen dancing on the rocks; they are often -seen playing at the hurling, hitting balls towards the goal. In each -one of their households there is a queen, and she has more power than -the rest; but the greatest power belongs to their fool, the Fool of -the Forth, Amadan-na-Briona. He is their strongest, the most wicked, -the most deadly; there is no cure for any one he has struck. - -When they are friendly to a man they give him help in his work, -putting their strength into his body. Or they may tell him where to -find treasure, hidden gold; or through certain wise men or women -who have learned from them or can ask and get their knowledge they -will tell where cattle that have strayed may be found, or they will -cure the sick or tell if a sickness is not to be cured. They will -sometimes work as if against their own will or intention, giving back -to the life of our world one who had received the call to go over to -their own. They call many there, summoning them perhaps through the -eye of a neighbour, the evil eye, or by a touch, a blow, a fall, a -sudden terror. Those who have received their touch waste away from -this world, lending their strength to the invisible ones; for the -strength of a human body is needed by the shadows, it may be in their -fighting, and certainly in their hurling to win the goal. Young men -are taken for this, young mothers are taken that they may give the -breast to newly born children among the Sidhe, young girls that they -may themselves become mothers there. - -While these are away a body in their likeness, or the likeness of a -body, is left lying in their place. They may be given leave to return -to their village after a while, seven years it may be, or twice or -three times seven. But some are sent back only at the end of the -years allotted them at the time of their birth, old spent men and -women, thought to have been dead a long time, given back to die and -be buried on the face of the earth. - -There are two races among the Sidhe. One is tall and handsome, gay, -and given to jesting and to playing pranks, leading us astray in -the fields, giving gold that turns to withered leaves or to dust. -These ride on horses through the night-time in large companies and -troops, or ride in coaches, laughing and decked with flowers and -fine clothes. The people of the other race are small, malicious, -wide-bellied, carrying before them a bag. When a man or woman is -about to die, a woman of the Sidhe will sometimes cry for a warning, -keening and making lamentation. At the hour of death fighting may be -heard in the air or about the house--that is, when the man in danger -has friends among the shadows, who are fighting on his behalf. - -The dead are often seen among them, and will give help in danger to -comrade or brother or friend. Sometimes they have a penance to work -out, and will come and ask the living for help, for prayers, for the -payment of a debt. They may wander in some strange shape, or be bound -in the one place, or go through the air as birds. When the Sidhe pass -by in a blast of wind we should say some words of blessing, for there -may be among them some of our own dead. The dead are of the nature -of the Saints, mortals who have put on immortality, who have known -the troubles of the world. The Sidhe have been, like the Angels, from -before the making of the earth. In the old times in Ireland they were -called gods or the children of gods; now it is laid down they are -those Angels who were cast out of heaven, being proud. - -This is the news I have been given of the people of the Sidhe by many -who have seen them and some who have known their power. - - A. G. - - COOLE, February, 1916. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - I.--SEA-STORIES 3 - - II.--SEERS AND HEALERS 35 - - BIDDY EARLY 35 - - MRS. SHERIDAN 70 - - MR. SAGGARTON 92 - - "A GREAT WARRIOR IN THE BUSINESS" 103 - - OLD DERUANE 112 - - III.--THE EVIL EYE--THE TOUCH--THE PENALTY 127 - - IV.--AWAY 169 - - WITCHES AND WIZARDS AND IRISH FOLK-LORE 247 - - NOTES 265 - - - - - I - - SEA-STORIES - - - - - I - - SEA-STORIES - - -_"The Celtic Twilight" was the first book of Mr. Yeats's that I read, -and even before I met him, a little time later, I had begun looking -for news of the invisible world; for his stories were of Sligo and -I felt jealous for Galway. This beginning of knowledge was a great -excitement to me, for though I had heard all my life some talk of -the faeries and the banshee_ (_having indeed reason to believe in -this last_), _I had never thought of giving heed to what I, in common -with my class, looked on as fancy or superstition. It was certainly -because of this unbelief that I had been told so little about them. -Even when I began to gather these stories, I cared less for the -evidence given in them than for the beautiful rhythmic sentences in -which they were told. I had no theories, no case to prove, I but -"held up a clean mirror to tradition."_ - -_It is hard to tell sometimes what has been a real vision and what -is tradition, a legend hanging in the air, a "vanity" as our people -call it, made use of by a story-teller here and there, or impressing -itself as a real experience on some sensitive and imaginative -mind. For tradition has a large place in "the Book of the People" -showing a sowing and re-sowing, a continuity and rebirth as in -nature. "Those," "The Others," "The Fallen Angels" have some of the -attributes of the gods of ancient Ireland; we may even go back yet -farther to the early days of the world when the Sons of God mated -with the Daughters of Men. I believe that if Christianity could be -blotted out and forgotten tomorrow, our people would not be moved at -all from the belief in a spiritual world and an unending life; it has -been with them since the Druids taught what Lucan called "the happy -error of the immortality of the soul." I think we found nothing so -trivial in our search but it may have been worth the lifting; a clue, -a thread, leading through the maze to that mountain top where things -visible and invisible meet._ - -_To gather folk-lore one needs, I think, leisure, patience, -reverence, and a good memory. I tried not to change or alter -anything, but to write down the very words in which the story had -been told. Sometimes Mr. Yeats was with me at the telling; or I would -take him to hear for himself something I had been told, that he might -be sure I had missed or added nothing. I filled many copybooks, and -came to have a very faithful memory for all sides of folk-lore, -stories of saints, of heroes, of giants and enchanters, as well as -for these visions. For this I have had to "pay the penalty" by losing -in some measure that useful and practical side of memory that is -concerned with names and dates and the multiplication table, and the -numbers on friends' houses in a street._ - -_It was on the coast I began to gather these stories, and I went -after a while to the islands Inishmor, Inishmaan, Inisheer, and so I -give the sea-stories first._ - -_I was told by: - - -A Man on the Height near Dun Conor:_ - -It's said there's everything in the sea the same as on the land, and -we know there's horses in it. This boy here saw a horse one time out -in the sea, a grey one, swimming about. And there were three men from -the north island caught a horse in their nets one night when they -were fishing for mackerel, but they let it go; it would have broke -the boat to bits if they had brought it in, and anyhow they thought -it was best to leave it. One year at Kinvara, the people were missing -their oats that was eaten in the fields, and they watched one night -and it was five or six of the sea-horses they saw eating the oats, -but they could not take them, they made off to the sea. - -And there was a man on the north island fishing on the rocks one -time, and a mermaid came up before him, and was partly like a fish -and the rest like a woman. But he called to her in the name of God to -be off, and she went and left him. - -There was a boy was sent over here one morning early by a friend of -mine on the other side of the island, to bring over some cattle that -were in a field he had here, and it was before daylight, and he came -to the door crying, and said he heard thirty horses or more galloping -over the roads there, where you'd think no horse could go. - -Surely those things are on the sea as well as on the land. My father -was out fishing one night off Tyrone and something came beside the -boat, that had eyes shining like candles. And then a wave came in, -and a storm rose of a moment, and whatever was in the wave, the -weight of it had like to sink the boat. And then they saw that it was -a woman in the sea that had the shining eyes. So my father went to -the priest, and he bid him always to take a drop of holy water and a -pinch of salt out in the boat with him, and nothing would harm him. - - -_A Galway Bay Lobster-Seller:_ - -They are on the sea as well as on the land, and their boats are often -to be seen on the bay, sailing boats and others. They look like our -own, but when you come near them they are gone in an instant. (_Note_ -1.) - -My mother one time thought she saw our own boat come in to the pier -with my father and two other men in it, and she got the supper ready, -but when she went down to the pier and called them there was nothing -there, and the boat didn't come in till two hours after. - -There were three or four men went out one day to fish, and it was a -dead calm; but all of a sudden they heard a blast and they looked, -and within about three mile of the boat they saw twelve men from the -waist, the rest of them was under water. And they had sticks in their -hands and were striking one another. And where they were, and the -blast, it was rough, but smooth and calm on each side. - -There's a sort of a light on the sea sometimes; some call it a "Jack -O'Lantern" and some say it is sent by _them_ to mislead them. (_Note_ -2.) - -There's many of them out in the sea, and often they pull the boats -down. (_Note_ 3.) It's about two years since four fishermen went out -from Aran, two fathers and two sons, where they saw a big ship coming -in and flying the flag for a pilot, and they thought she wanted to be -brought in to Galway. And when they got near the ship, it faded away -to nothing and the boat turned over and they were all four drowned. - -There were two brothers of my own went to fish for the herrings, and -what they brought up was like the print of a cat, and it turned with -the inside of the skin outside, and no hair. So they pulled up the -nets, and fished no more that day. There was one of _them_ lying on -the strand here, and some of the men of the village came down of a -sudden and surprised him. And when he saw he was taken he began a -great crying. But they only lifted him down to the sea and put him -back into it. Just like a man they said he was. And a little way out -there was another just like him, and when he saw that they treated -the one on shore so kindly, he bowed his head as if to thank them. - -Whatever's on the land, there's the same in the sea, and between the -islands of Aran they can often see the horses galloping about at the -bottom. (_Note_ 4.) - -There was a sort of a big eel used to be in Tully churchyard, used to -come and to root up the bodies, but I didn't hear of him of late--he -may be done away with now. - -There was one Curran told me one night he went down to the strand -where he used to be watching for timber thrown up and the like. -And on the strand, on the dry sands, he saw a boat, a grand one -with sails spread and all, and it up farther than any tide had ever -reached. And he saw a great many people round about it, and it was -all lighted up with lights. And he got afraid and went away. And four -hours after, after sunrise, he went there again to look at it, and -there was no sign of it, or of any fire, or of any other thing. The -Mara-warra (mermaid) was seen on the shore not long ago, combing out -her hair. She had no fish's tail, but was like another woman. - - -_John Corley:_ - -There is no luck if you meet a mermaid and you out at sea, but storms -will come, or some ill will happen. - -There was a ship on the way to America, and a mermaid was seen -following it, and the bad weather began to come. And the captain said, -"It must be some man in the ship she's following, and if we knew which -one it was, we'd put him out to her and save ourselves." So they drew -lots, and the lot fell on one man, and then the captain was sorry -for him, and said he'd give him a chance till tomorrow. And the next -day she was following them still, and they drew lots again, and the -lot fell on the same man. But the captain said he'd give him a third -chance, but the third day the lot fell on him again. And when they were -going to throw him out he said, "Let me alone for a while." And he went -to the end of the ship and he began to sing a song in Irish, and when -he sang, the mermaid began to be quiet and to rock like as if she was -asleep. So he went on singing till they came to America, and just as -they got to the land the ship was thrown up into the air, and came down -on the water again. There's a man told me that was surely true. - -And there was a boy saw a mermaid down by Spiddal not long ago, but -he saw her before she saw him, so she did him no harm. But if she'd -seen him first, she'd have brought him away and drowned him. - -Sometimes a light will come on the sea before the boats to guide them -to the land. And my own brother told me one day he was out and a -storm came on of a sudden, and the sail of the boat was let down as -quick and as well as if two men were in it. Some neighbour or friend -it must have been that did that for him. Those that go down to the -sea after the tide going out, to cut the weed, often hear under the -sand the sound of the milk being churned. There's some didn't believe -that till they heard it themselves. - - -_A Man from Roundstone:_ - -One night I was out on the boat with another man, and we saw a big ship -near us with about twenty lights. She was as close to us as that rock -(about thirty yards), but we saw no one on board. And she was like some -of the French ships that sometimes come to Galway. She went on near us -for a while, and then she turned towards the shore and then we knew -that she was not a right ship. And she went straight on to the land, -and when she touched it, the lights went out and we saw her no more. - -There was a comrade of mine was out one night, and a ship came after -him, with lights, and she full of people. And as they drew near the -land, he heard them shouting at him and he got afraid, and he went -down and got a coal of fire and threw it at the ship, and in a minute -it was gone. - - -_A Schoolmaster:_ - -A boy told me last night of two men that went with poteen to the -Island of Aran. And when they were on the shore they saw a ship -coming as if to land, and they said, "We'll have the bottle ready -for those that are coming." But when the ship came close to the land, -it vanished. And presently they got their boat ready and put out to -sea. And a sudden blast came and swept one of them off. And the other -saw him come up again, and put out the oar across his breast for him -to take hold of it. But he would not take it but said, "I'm all right -again now," and sank down again and was never seen no more. - - -_John Nagle:_ - -For one there's on the land there's ten on the sea. When I lived at -Ardfry there was never a night but there was a voice heard crying -and roaring, by them that were out in the bay. A baker he was from -Loughrea, used to give short weight and measure, and so he was put -there for a punishment. - -I saw a ship that was having a race with another go suddenly down -into the sea, and no one could tell why. And afterwards one of the -Government divers was sent down to look for her, and he told me he'd -never as long as he'd live go down again, for there at the bottom he -found her, and the captain and the saloon passengers, and all sitting -at the table and eating their dinner, just as they did before. - - -_A Little Girl:_ - -One time a woman followed a boat from Galway twenty miles out, and -when they saw that she was some bad thing, wanting some of them, -they drowned her. - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -I was at home and I got some stories from a man I had suspected of -having newses. And he told me that when he was a youngster he was -at a height where there used to be a great many of them. And all of -a sudden he saw them fly out to where a boat was coming from Duras -with seaweed. And they went in two flights, and so fast that they -swept the water away from each side the boat, and it was left on the -sand, and this they did over and over, just to be humbugging the man -in the boat, and he was kept there a long time. When they first rose -up, they were like clouds of dust, but with all sorts of colours, and -then he saw their faces turned, but they kept changing colour every -minute. (_Note_ 5.) Laughing and humbugging they seemed to be. - -My uncle that used to go out fishing for mackerel told me that one -night some sort of a monster came under the boat and it wasn't a -fish, and it had them near upset. - - -_At an evening gathering in Inishmaan, by a Son of the House:_ - -There was a man on this island was down on the beach one evening with -his dog, and some black thing came up out of the sea, and the dog -made for it and began to fight it. And the man began to run home and -he called the dog, and it followed him, but every now and again it -would stop and begin to fight again. And when he got to the house he -called the dog in and shut the door, and whatever was outside began -hitting against the door but it didn't get in. But the dog went in -under the bed in the room, and before morning it was dead. - - -_The Man of the House:_ - -A horse I've seen myself on the sea and on the rocks--a brown one, -just like another. And I threw a stone at it, and it was gone in a -minute. We often heard there was fighting amongst _these._ And one -morning before daybreak I went down to the strand with some others, -and the whole of the strand, and it low tide, was covered with blood. - - -_Colman Kane:_ - -I knew a woman on this island and she and her daughter went down to -the strand one morning to pick weed, and a wave came and took the -daughter away. And a week after that, the mother saw her coming to -the house, but she didn't speak to her. - -There was a man coming from Galway here and he had no boatman. And on -the way he saw a man that was behind him in the boat, that was putting -up the sail and taking the management of everything, and he spoke no -word. And he was with him all the way, but when the boat came to land, -he was gone, and the man isn't sure, but he thinks it was his brother. - -You see that sand below on the south side. When the men are out with -the mackerel boats at early morning, they often see those sands -covered with boys and girls. - -There were some men out fishing in the bay one time, and a man came -and held on to the boat, and wanted them to make room for him to get -in, and after a time he left them. He was one of _those_. And there -was another of them came up on the rocks one day, and called out to -Martin Flaherty that was going out and asked what was his name. - -There's said to be another island out there that's enchanted, and -there are some that see it. And it's said that a fisherman landed on -it one time, and he saw a little house, and he went in, and a very -nice-looking young woman came out and said, "What will you say to -me?" and he said, "You are a very nice lady." And a second came and -asked him the same thing and a third, and he made the same answer. -And after that they said, "You'd best run for your life," and so he -did, and his curragh was floating along and he had but just time to -get into it, and the island was gone. But if he had said "God bless -you," the island would have been saved. - - -_A Fisherman on Kilronan Pier:_ - -I don't give in to these things myself, but they'd make you believe -them in the middle island. Mangan, that I lodged with there, told me -of seeing a ship when he was out with two other men, that followed them -and vanished. And he said one of the men took to his bed from that -time and died. And Doran told me about the horse he saw, that was in -every way like a horse you'd see on land. And a man on the south island -told me how he saw a calf one morning on the strand, and he thought it -belonged to a neighbour, and was going to drive it up to his field, -when its mother appeared on the sea, and it went off to her. - -They are in the sea as well as on the land. That is well known by -those that are out fishing by the coast. When the weather is calm, -they can look down sometimes and see cattle and pigs and all such -things as we have ourselves. And at nights their boats come out and -they can be seen fishing, but they never last out after one o'clock. - -The cock always crows on the first of March every year at one -o'clock. And there was a man brought a cock out with him in his boat -to try them. And the first time when it crowed they all vanished. -That is how they were detected. - -There are more of them in the sea than on the land, and they -sometimes try to come over the side of the boat in the form of -fishes, for they can take their choice shape. - - -_Pat O'Hagan:_ - -There were two fine young women--red-haired women--died in my village -about six months ago. And I believe they're living yet. And there -are some have seen them appear. All I ever saw myself was one day I -was out fishing with two others, and we saw a canoe coming near us, -and we were afraid it would come near enough to take away our fish. -And as we looked it turned into a three-masted ship, and people in -it. I could see them well, dark-coloured and dressed like sailors. -But it went away and did us no harm. - -One night I was going down to the curragh, and it was a night in -harvest, and the stars shining, and I saw a ship fully rigged going -towards the coast of Clare where no ship could go. And when I looked -again, she was gone. - -And one morning early, I and other men that were with me, and one of -them a friend of the man here, saw a ship coming to the island, and he -thought she wanted a pilot, and put out in the curragh. But when we got -to where she was, there was no sign of her, but where she was the water -was covered with black gulls, and I never saw a black gull before, -thousands and crowds of them, and not one white bird among them. And -one of the boys that was with me took a tarpin and threw it at one of -the gulls and hit it on the head, and when he did, the curragh went -down to the rowlocks in the water--up to that--and it's nothing but a -miracle she ever came up again, but we got back to land. I never went -to a ship again, for the people said it was on account of me helping in -the Preventive Service it happened, and that if I'd hit at one of the -gulls myself, there would have been a bad chance for us. But those were -no right gulls, and the ship was no living ship. - - -_The Old Man in the Kitchen:_ - -It's in the middle island the most of them are, and I'll tell you a -thing that I know of myself that happened not long ago. There was a -young girl, and one evening she was missing, and they made search for -her everywhere and they thought that she was drowned or that she had -gone away with some man. And in the evening of the next day there was -a boy out in a curragh, and as he passed by a rock that is out in the -sea there was the girl on it, and he brought her off. And surely she -could not go there by herself. I suppose she wasn't able to give much -account of it, and now she's after going to America. (_Note_ 6.) - -And in Aran there were three boys and their uncle went out to a ship -they saw coming, to pilot her into the bay. But when they got to where -she was, there was no ship, and a sea broke over the canoe, and they -were drowned, all fine strong men. But a man they had with them that -was no use or of no account, he came safe to land. And I know a man in -this island saw curraghs and curraghs full of people about the island -of a Sunday morning early, but I never saw them myself. And one Sunday -morning in my time there were scores and scores lying their length by -the sea on the sand below, and they saw a woman in the sea, up to her -waist, and she racking her hair and settling herself and as clean and -as nice as if she was on land. Scores of them saw that. - -There's a house up there where the family have to leave a plate of -potatoes ready every night, and all's gone in the morning. (_Note_ 7.) - -They are said to have all things the same as ourselves under the -sea, and one day a cow was seen swimming as if for the headland, but -before she got to it she turned another way and went down. And one -time I got a small muc-warra (porpoise) and I went to cut it up to -get what was good of it, for it had about two inches of fat, and when -I cut it open the heart and the liver and every bit of it were for -all the world like a pig you would cut up on land. - -There's a house in the village close by this that's haunted. My -sister was sitting near it one day, and it empty and locked, and some -other little girls, and they heard a noise in it, and at the same -time the flags they were sitting on grew red-hot, that they had to -leave them. And another time the woman of the house was sick, and a -little girl that was sitting by the fire in the kitchen saw standing -in the door the sister of the woman that was sick, and she a good -while dead, and she put up her arm, as if to tell her not to notice -her. And the poor woman of that house, she had no luck, nothing but -miscarriages or dead babies. And one child lived to be nine months -old, and there was less flesh on it at the end of the nine months -than there was the day it was born. She has a little girl now that's -near a year old, but her arm isn't the size of that, and she's -crabbed and not like a child as she should be. Many a one that's long -married without having a child goes to the fortune-teller in Galway, -and those that think anything of themselves go to Roundstone. - - -_A Man near Loughmore:_ - -I know a woman was washed and laid out, and it went so far that two -half-penny candles were burned over her. And then she sat up, came -back again, and spoke to her husband, and told him how to divide his -property, and to manage the children well. And her step-son began to -question her, and he might have got a lot out of her but her own son -stopped him and said to let her alone. And then she turned over on -her side and died. She was not to say an old woman. It's not often -the old are taken. What use would there be for them? But a woman to -be taken young, you know there's demand for her. It's the people in -the middle island know about these things. There were three boys from -there lost in a curragh at the point near the lighthouse, and for -long after their friends were tormented when they came there fishing, -and they would see ships there when the people of this island that -were out at the same time couldn't see them. There were three or four -out in a curragh near the lighthouse, and a conger-eel came and upset -it, and they were all saved but one, but he was brought down and for -the whole day they could hear him crying and screeching under the -sea. And they were not the only ones, but a fisherman that was there -from Galway had to go away and leave it, because of the screeching. - -There was a coast-guard's wife there was all but gone, but she was -saved after. And there's a boy here now was for a long time that -they'd give the world he was gone altogether, with the state he was, -in, and now he's as strong as any boy in the island; and if ever any -one was away and came back again, it was him. Children used often to -be taken, but there's a great many charms in use in these days that -saves them. A big sewing-needle you'll see the woman looking for to -put with a baby, and as long as that's with it, it's safe. But anyway -they're always put back again into the world before they die in the -place of some young person. And even a beast of any consequence if -anything happens to it, no one in the island would taste it; there -might be something in it, some old woman or the like. - -There were a few young men from here were kept in Galway for a day, -and they went to a woman there that works the cards. And she told -them of deaths that would come in certain families. And it wasn't a -fortnight after that five boys were out there, just where you see the -curragh now, and they were upset and every one drowned, and they were -of the families that she had named on the cards. - -My uncle told me that one night they were all up at that house up -the road, making a match for his sister, and they stopped till near -morning, and when they went out, they all had a drop taken. And -he was going along home with two or three others and one of them, -Michael Flaherty, said he saw people on the shore. And another of -them said that there were not, and my uncle said, "If Flaherty said -that and it not true, we have a right to bite the ear off him, and -it would be no harm." And then they parted, and my uncle had to pass -by the beach, and then he saw whole companies of people coming up -from the sea, that he didn't know how he'd get through them, but they -opened before him and let him pass. - -There were men going to Galway with cattle one morning from the beach -down there, and they saw a man up to his middle in the sea--all of -them saw it. - -There was a man was down early for lobsters on the shore at the -middle island, and he saw a horse up to its middle in the sea, and -bowing its head down as if to drink. And after he had watched it -awhile it disappeared. - -There was a woman walking over by the north shore--God have mercy on -her--she's dead since--and she looked out and saw an island in the -sea, and she was a long time looking at it. It's known to be there, -and to be enchanted, but only few can see it. - -There was a man had his horse drawing seaweed up there on the rocks, -the way you see them drawing it every day, in a basket on the mare's -back. And on this day every time he put the load on, the mare would -let its leg slip and it would come down again, and he was vexed and -he had a stick in his hand and he gave the mare a heavy blow. And -that night she had a foal that was dead, not come to its full growth, -and it had spots over it, and every spot was of a different colour. -And there was no sire on the island at that time, so whatever was the -sire must have come up from the sea. (_Note_ 8.) - - -_A Man Watching the Weed-gatherers:_ - -There's no doubt at all about the sea-horses. There was a man out at -the other side of the island, and he saw one standing on the rocks -and he threw a stone at it and it went off in the sea. He said it was -grand to see it swimming, and the mane and the tail floating on the -top of the water. - - -_A Woman from the Connemara Side:_ - -I was told there was a mare that had a foal, and it had never had -a horse. And one day the mare and foal were down by the sea, and a -horse put up its head and neighed, and away went the foal to it and -came back no more. - -And there was a man on this island watched his field one night where -he thought the neighbours' cattle were eating his grass, and what he -saw was horses and foals coming up from the sea. And he caught a foal -and kept it, and set it racing, and no horse or no pony could ever come -near it, till one day the race was on the strand, and away with it into -the sea, and the jockey along with it, and they never were seen again. - - -_Mrs. O'Dea and Mrs. Daly:_ - -There was a cow seen come up out of the sea one day and it walked -across the strand, and its udder like as if it had been lately -milked. And Tommy Donohue was running up to tell his father to come -down and see it, and when he looked back it was gone out to sea again. - -There was a man here was going to build a new house, and he brought -a wise woman to see would it be in the right place. And she made -five heaps of stones in five places, and said, "Whatever heap isn't -knocked in the night, build it there." And in the morning all the -heaps were knocked but one, and so he built it there. (_Note_ 9.) - -One time I was out over by that island with another man, and we saw -three women standing by the shore, beating clothes with a beetle. And -while we looked, they vanished, and then we heard the cry of a child -passing over our heads twenty feet in the air. - -I know they go out fishing like ourselves, for Father Mahony told me -so; and one night I was out myself with my brother, beyond where that -ship is, and we heard talk going on, so we knew that a boat was near, -and we called out to let them know we heard them, and then we saw the -boat and it was just like any other one, and the talk went on, but we -couldn't understand what they were saying. And then I turned to light -my pipe, and while I lighted it, the boat and all in it were gone. - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -I got a story from an old man down by the sea at Tyrone. He says -there was a man went down one night to move his boat from the shore -where it was to the pier. And when he had put out, he found it was -going out to sea, instead of to touch the pier, and he felt it very -heavy in the water, and he looked behind him and there on the back of -the boat were six men in shiny black clothes like sailors, and there -was one like a harvest-man dressed in white flannel with a belt round -his waist. And he asked what they were doing, and the man in white -said he had brought the others out to make away with them there, and -he took and cut their bodies in two and threw them one by one over -the boat, and then he threw himself after them into the sea. And the -boat went under water too, and the poor man himself lost his wits, -but it came up again and he said he had never seen as many people as -he did in that minute under the water. And then he got home and left -the boat, and in the morning he came down to it, and there was blood -in it; and first he washed it and then he painted it, but for all he -could do, he couldn't get rid of the blood. - - -_Peter Donohue:_ - -There was a woman, a friend of this man's, living out in the middle -island, and one day she came down to where a man of this island was -putting out his curragh to come back, and she said, "I just saw a -great crowd of them--that's the Sheogue--going over to your island -like a cloud." And when he got home he went up to a house there -beyond, where the old woman used to be selling poteen on the sly. And -while he was there her little boy came running in and cried, "Hide -away the poteen, for the police are on the island! Such a man called -to me from his curragh to give warning, for he saw the road full of -them with the crowd of them and they with their guns and cutlasses -and all the rest." But the man was in the house first knew well what -it was, after what he heard from the woman on the other island, and -that they were no right police, and sure enough no other one ever saw -them. And that same day, my mother had put out wool to dry in front -of where that house is with the three chimneys, near the Chapel. -And I was there talking to some man, one on each side of the yard, -and the wall between us. And the day was as fine as this day is and -finer, and not a breath of air stirring. And a woman that lived near -by had her wool out drying too. And the wool that was in my mother's -yard began to rise up, as if something was under it, and I called to -the other man to help me to hold it down, but for all we could do it -went up in the air, a hundred feet and more, till we could see it no -more. And after a couple of hours it began to drop again, like snow, -some on the thatch and some on the rocks and some in the gardens. And -I think it was a fortnight before my mother had done gathering it. -And one day she was spinning it, I don't know what put it in my mind, -but I asked her did she lose much of that wool. And what she said -was, "If I didn't get more than my own, I didn't get less." That's -true and no lie, for I never told a lie in my life--I think. But the -wool belonging to the neighbouring woman was never stirred at all. - -And the woman that had the wool that wasn't stirred, she is the woman -I married after, and that's now my wife. - -There was a man, one Power, died in this island, and one night that -was bright there was a friend of his going out for mackerel, and he -saw these sands full of people hurling, and he well knew Power's -voice that he heard among them. - -There was a cousin of my own built a new house, and when they were -first in it and sitting round the fire, the woman of the house that -was singing for them saw a great blot of blood come down the chimney -on to the floor, and they thought there would be no luck in the house -and that it was a wrong place. But they had nothing but good luck -ever after. - - -_Peter Dolan:_ - -There was a man that died in the middle island, that had two wives. -And one day he was out in the curragh he saw the first wife appear. -And after that one time the son of the second wife was sick, and the -little girl, the first wife's daughter, was out tending cattle, and -a can of water with her and she had a waistcoat of her father's put -about her body, where it was cold. And her mother appeared to her in -the form of a sheep, and spoke to her, and told her what herbs to -find, to cure the step-brother, and sure enough they cured him. And -she bid her leave the waistcoat there and the can, and she did. And -in the morning the waistcoat was folded there, and the can standing -on it. And she appeared to her in her own shape another time, after -that. Why she came like a sheep the first time was that she wouldn't -be frightened. The girl is in America now, and so is the step-brother -that got well. (_Note_ 10.) - - -_A Galway Woman:_ - -One time myself, I was up at the well beyond, and looking into it, -a very fine day, and no breath of air stirring, and the stooks were -ripe standing about me. And all in a minute a noise began in them, -and they were like as if knocking at each other and fighting like -soldiers all about me. - - -_Mary Moran:_ - -There was a girl here that had been to America and came back, and one -day she was coming over from Liscannor in a curragh, and she looked -back and there behind the curragh was the "Gan ceann" the headless -one. And he followed the boat a great way, but she said nothing. But -a gold pin that was in her hair fell out, and into the sea, that she -had brought from America, and then it disappeared. And her sister was -always asking her where was the pin she brought from America, and she -was afraid to say. But at last she told her, and the sister said, -"It's well for you it fell out, for what was following you would -never have left you, till you threw it a ring or something made of -gold." It was the sister herself that told me this. - -Up in the village beyond they think a great deal of these things and -they won't part with a drop of milk on May Eve, and last Saturday -week that was May Eve there was a poor woman dying up there, and she -had no milk of her own, and as is the custom, she went out to get a -drop from one or other of the neighbours. But not one would give it -because it was May Eve. I declare I cried when I heard it, for the -poor woman died on the second day after. - -And when my sister was going to America she went on the first of May -and we had a farewell party the night before, and in the night a -little girl that was there saw a woman from that village go out, and -she watched her, and saw her walk round a neighbour's house, and pick -some straw from the roof. - -And she told of it, and it happened a child had died in that house -and the father said the woman must have had a hand in it, and there -was no good feeling to her for a long while. Her own husband is lying -sick now, so I hear. - - - - - II - - SEERS AND HEALERS - - - - - II - - SEERS AND HEALERS - - - BIDDY EARLY - -_In talking to the people I often heard the name of Biddy Early, and -I began to gather many stories of her, some calling her a healer and -some a witch. Some said she had died a long time ago, and some that -she was still living. I was sure after a while that she was dead, but -was told that her house was still standing, and was on the other side -of Slieve Echtge, between Feakle and Tulla. So one day I set out and -drove Shamrock, my pony, to a shooting lodge built by my grandfather -in a fold of the mountains, and where I had sometimes, when a young -girl, stayed with my brothers when they were shooting the wild deer -that came and sheltered in the woods. It had like other places on our -estate a border name brought over from Northumberland, but though we -called it Chevy Chase the people spoke of its woods and outskirts -as Daire-caol, the Narrow Oak Wood, and Daroda, the Two Roads, and -Druim-da-Rod, their Ridge. I stayed the night in the low thatched -house, setting out next day for Feakle "eight strong miles over the -mountain." It was a wild road, and the pony had to splash his way -through two unbridged rivers, swollen with the summer rains. The red -mud of the road, the purple heather and foxglove, the brown bogs -were a contrast to the grey rocks and walls of Burren and Aidhne, -and there were many low hills brown when near, misty blue in the -distance; then the Golden Mountain, Slieve nan-Or, "where the last -great battle will be fought before the end of the world." Then I was -out of Connacht into Clare, the brown turning to green pasture as I -drove by Raftery's Lough Greine._ - -_I put up my pony at a little inn. There were portraits of John -Dillon and Michael Davitt hanging in the parlour, and the landlady -told me Parnell's likeness had been with them, until the priest had -told her he didn't think well of her hanging it there. There was also -on the wall, in a frame, a warrant for the arrest of one of her sons, -signed by, I think, Lord Cowper, in the days of the Land War. "He got -half a year in gaol the same year Parnell did. He got sick there, -and though he lived for some years the doctor said when he died the -illness he got in gaol had to do with his death."_ - -_I had been told how to find Biddy Early's house "beyond the little -humpy bridge," and I walked on till I came to it, a poor cottage -enough, high up on a mass of rock by the roadside. There was only a -little girl in the house, but her mother came in afterwards and told -me that Biddy Early had died about twenty years before, and that -after they had come to live in the house they had been "annoyed for -a while" by people coming to look for her. She had sent them away, -telling them Biddy Early was dead, though a friendly priest had said -to her, "Why didn't you let on you were her and make something out of -them?" She told me some of the stories I give below, and showed me -the shed where the healer had consulted with her invisible friends. I -had already been given by an old patient of hers a "bottle" prepared -for the cure, but which she had been afraid to use. It lies still -unopened on a shelf in my storeroom. When I got back at nightfall to -the lodge in the woods I found many of the neighbours gathered there, -wanting to hear news of "the Tulla Woman" and to know for certain if -she was dead. I think as time goes on her fame will grow and some of -the myths that always hang in the air will gather round her, for I -think the first thing I was told of her was, "There used surely to -be enchanters in the old time, magicians and freemasons. Old Biddy -Early's power came from the same thing."_ (_Note_ 11.) - - -_An Old Woman in the Lodge Kitchen_ says: - -Do you remember the time John Kevin beyond went to see Biddy Early, -for his wife, she was sick at the time. And Biddy Early knew -everything, and that there was a forth behind her house, and she -said, "Your wife is too fond of going out late at night." - - -_I was told by a Gate-keeper:_ - -There was a man at Cranagh had one of his sheep shorn in the night, -and all the wool taken. And he got on his horse and went to Feakle -and Biddy Early, and she told him the name of the man that did it, -and where it was hidden, and so he got it back again. - -There was a man went to Biddy Early, and she told him that the woman -he'd marry would have her husband killed by his brother. And so it -happened, for the woman he married was sitting by the fire with her -husband, and the brother came in, having a drop of drink taken, and -threw a pint at him that hit him on the head and killed him. It was -the man that married her that told me this. - - -_Mrs. Kearns:_ - -Did I know any one that was taken by them? Well, I never knew one -that was brought back again. Himself went one time to Biddy Early -for his uncle, Donohue, that was sick, and he found her there and her -fingers all covered with big gold rings, and she gave him a bottle, -and she said: "Go in no house on your way home, or stop nowhere, or -you'll lose it." But going home he had a thirst on him and he came to -a public-house, and he wouldn't go in, but he stopped and bid the boy -bring him out a drink. But a little farther on the road the horse got -a fall, and the bottle was broke. - - -_Mrs. Cregan:_ - -It's I was with this woman here to Biddy Early. And when she saw -me, she knew it was for my husband I came, and she looked in her -bottle and she said, "It's nothing put upon him by my people that's -wrong with him." And she bid me give him cold oranges and some other -things--herbs. He got better after. - - -_Daniel Curtin:_ - -Did I ever hear of Biddy Early? There's not a man in this countryside -over forty year old that hasn't been with her some time or other. -There's a man living in that house over there was sick one time, and -he went to her, and she cured him, but says she, "You'll have to lose -something, and don't fret after it." So he had a grey mare and she -was going to foal, and one morning when he went out he saw that the -foal was born, and was lying dead by the side of the wall. So he -remembered what she said to him and he didn't fret. - -There was one Dillane in Kinvara, Sir William knew him well, and he -went to her one time for a cure. And Father Andrew came to the house -and was mad with him for going, and says he, "You take the cure out -of the hands of God." And Mrs. Dillane said, "Your Reverence, none of -us can do that." "Well," says Father Andrew, "then I'll see what the -devil can do and I'll send my horse tomorrow, that has a sore in his -leg this long time, and try will she be able to cure him." - -So next day he sent a man with his horse, and when he got to Biddy -Early's house she came out, and she told him every word that Father -Andrew had said, and she cured the sore. So after that, he left the -people alone; but before it, he'd be dressed in a frieze coat and a -riding whip in his hand, driving away the people from going to her. - -She had four or five husbands, and they all died of drink one after -another. Maybe twenty or thirty people would be there in the day -looking for cures, and every one of them would bring a bottle of -whiskey. Wild cards they all were, or they wouldn't have married her. -She'd help too to bring the butter back. Always on the first of May, -it used to be taken, and maybe what would be taken from one man would -be conveyed to another. - - -_Mr. McCabe:_ - -Biddy Early? Not far from this she lived, above at Feakle. I got -cured by her myself one time. Look at this thumb--I got it hurted one -time, and I went out into the field after and was ploughing all the -day, I was that greedy for work. And when I went in I had to lie on -the bed with the pain of it, and it swelled and the arm with it, to -the size of a horse's thigh. I stopped two or three days in the bed -with the pain of it, and then my wife went to see Biddy Early and -told her about it, and she came home and the next day it burst, and -you never seen anything like all the stuff that came away from it. A -good bit after I went to her myself, where it wasn't quite healed, -and she said, "You'd have lost it altogether if your wife hadn't been -so quick to come." She brought me into a small room, and said holy -words and sprinkled holy water and told me to believe. The priests -were against her, but they were wrong. How could that be evil doing -that was all charity and kindness and healing? - -She was a decent looking woman, no different from any other woman of -the country. The boy she was married to at the time was lying drunk -in the bed. There were side-cars and common cars and gentry and -country people at the door, just like Gort market, and dinner for all -that came, and everyone would bring her something, but she didn't -care what it was. Rich farmers would bring her the whole side of a -pig. Myself, I brought a bottle of whiskey and a shilling's worth -of bread, and a quarter of sugar and a quarter pound of tea. She was -very rich, for there wasn't a farmer but would give her the grass -of a couple of bullocks or a filly. She had the full of a field of -fillies if they'd all been gathered together. She left no children, -and there's no doubt at all that the reason of her being able to do -cures was that she was _away_ seven years. She didn't tell me about -it but she spoke of it to others. - -When I was coming away I met a party of country people on a cart from -Limerick, and they asked where was her house, and I told them: "Go on -to the cross, and turn to the left, and follow the straight road till -you come to the little humpy bridge, and soon after that you'll come -to the house." - -But the priests would be mad if they knew that I told any one the way. - -She died about twelve year ago; I didn't go to the wake myself, or -the funeral, but I heard that her death was natural. - -No, Mrs. Early is no relation to Biddy Early--the nuns asked her the -same thing when she was married. A cousin of hers had her hand cut with -a jug that was broke, and she went up to her and when she got there, -Biddy Early said: "It's a thing you never should do, to beat a child -that breaks a cup or a jug." And sure enough it was a child that broke -it, and she beat her for doing it. But cures she did sure enough. - - -_Bartley Coen:_ - -There was a neighbour of my own, Andrew Dennehy: - -I was knocked up by him one night to go to the house, because he -said _they_ were calling to him. But when they got there, there was -nothing to be found. But some see these things, and some can't. It's -against our creed to believe in them. And the priests won't let on -that they believe in them themselves, but they are more in dread of -going about at night than any of us. They were against, Biddy Early -too. There was a man I knew living near the sea, and he set out to -go to her one time. And on his way he went into his brother-in-law's -house, and the priest came in there, and bid him not to go on. "Well, -Father," says he, "cure me yourself if you won't let me go to her to -be cured." And when the priest wouldn't do that (for the priests can -do many cures if they like to), he went on to her. And the minute -he came in, "Well," says she, "you made a great fight for me on the -way." For though it's against our creed to believe it, she could hear -any earthly thing that was said in every part, miles off. But she had -two red eyes, and some used to say, "If she can cure so much, why -can't she cure her own eyes?" - -No, she wasn't _away_ herself. It is said it was from a son of her -own she got the knowledge, a little chap that was astray. And one day -when he was lying sick in the bed he said: "There's such and such a -woman has a hen down in the pot, and if I had the soup of the hen, I -think it would cure me." So the mother went to the house, and when -she got there, sure enough, there was a hen in the pot on the fire. -But she was ashamed to tell what she came for, and she let on to have -only come for a visit, and so she sat down. But presently in the heat -of the talking she told what the little chap had said. "Well," says -the woman, "take the soup and welcome, and the hen too if it will do -him any good." So she brought them with her, and when the boy saw the -soup, "It can't cure me," says he, "for no earthly thing can do that. -But since I see how kind and how willing you are, and did your best -for me, I'll leave you a way of living." And so he did, and taught -her all she knew. That's what's said at any rate. - - -_Mr. Fahy:_ - -Well, that's what's believed, that it's from her son Biddy Early got -it. After his death always lamenting for him she was, till he came -back, and gave her the gift of curing. - -She had no red eyes, but was a fresh clean-looking woman; sure any -one might have red eyes when they'd got a cold. - -She wouldn't refuse even a person that would come from the very -bottom of the black North. - - * * * * * - -"I was with Biddy Early myself one time, and got a cure from her for -my little girl that was sick. A bottle of whiskey I brought her, and -the first thing she did was to open it and to give me a glass out of -it. "For," says she, "you'll maybe want it my poor man." But I had -plenty of courage in those days." - -The priests were against her; often Father Boyle would speak of her -in his sermons. They can all do those cures themselves, but that's a -thing it's not right to be talking about. - - -_The Little Girl of Biddy Early's House:_ - -The people do be full of stories of all the cures she did. Once after -we came to live here a carload of people came, and asked was Biddy -Early here, and my mother said she was dead. When she told the priest -he said she had a right to shake a bottle and say she was her, and -get something from them. It was by the bottle she did all, to shake -it, and she'd see everything when she looked in it. Sometimes she'd -give a bottle of some cure to people that came, but if she'd say to -them, "You'll never bring it home," break it they should on the way -home, with all the care they'd take of it. - -She was as good, and better, to the poor as to the rich. Any poor -person passing the road, she'd call in and give a cup of tea or a -glass of whiskey to, and bread and what they wanted. - -She had a big chest within in that room, and it full of pounds of tea -and bottles of wine and of whiskey and of claret, and all things in -the world. One time she called in a man that was passing and gave -him a glass of whiskey, and then she said to him, "The road you were -going home by, don't go by it." So he asked why not, and she took -the bottle--a long shaped bottle it was--and looked into it, holding -it up, and then she bid him look through it, and he'd see what would -happen him. But her husband said, "Don't show it to him, it might -give him a fright he wouldn't get over." So she only said, "Well, go -home by another road." And so he did and got home safe, for in the -bottle she had seen a party of men that wouldn't have let him pass -alive. She got the rites of the Church when she died, but first she -had to break the bottle. - -It was from her brother that she got the power, when she had to go to -the workhouse, and he came back, and gave her the way of doing the -cures. - - -_The Blacksmith I met near Tulla:_ - -I know you to be a respectable lady and an honourable one because I -know your brothers, meeting them as I do at the fair of Scariff. No -fair it would be if they weren't there. I knew Biddy Early well, a -nice fresh-looking woman she was. It's to her the people used to be -flocking, to the door and even to the window, and if they'd come late -in the day, they'd have no chance of getting to her, they'd have to -take lodgings for the night in the town. She was a great woman. If -any of the men that came into the house had a drop too much drink -taken, she'd turn them out if they said an unruly word. And if any -of them were fighting or disputing or going to law, she'd say, "Be -at one, and ye can rule the world." The priests were against her and -used to be taking the cloaks and the baskets from the country people -to keep them back from going to her. - -I never went to her myself--for you should know that no ill or harm -ever comes to a blacksmith. - - -_An Old Midwife:_ - -Tell me now is there anything wrong about you or your son that you -went to that house? I went there but once myself, when my little girl -that was married was bad, after her second baby being born. I went to -the house and told her about it, and she took the bottle and shook it -and looked in it, and then she turned and said something to himself -[her husband] that I didn't hear--and she just waved her hand to me -like that, and bid me go home, for she would take nothing from me. -But himself came out and told that what she was after seeing in the -bottle was my little girl, and the coffin standing beside her. So I -went home, and sure enough on the tenth day after, she was dead. - - * * * * * - -_The lodge people came rushing out to see the picture of Biddy -Early's house and ask, "Did she leave the power to any one else?" and -I told of the broken bottle. But Mr. McCabe said, "She only had the -power for her own term, and-no one else could get it from her."_ - - * * * * * - -_I asked old Mr. McCabe if he had lost anything when she cured him, -and he said: "Not at that time, but sometimes I thought afterwards it -came on my family when I lost so many of my children. A grand stout -girl went from me, stout and broad, what would ail her to go?"_ - - -_I was told by Mat King:_ - -Biddy Early surely did thousands of cures. Out in the stable she used -to go, where her _friends_ met her, and they told her all things. -There was a little priest long ago used to do cures,--Soggarthin -Mina, they used to call him,--and once he came in this house he -looked up and said, "There--it's full of them--there they are." - - * * * * * - -There was a man, one Flaherty, came to his brother-in-law's house one -day to borrow a horse. And the next day the horse was sent back, but -he didn't come himself. And after a few days more they went to ask -for him, but he had never come back at all. So the brother-in-law -went to Biddy Early's and she and some others were drinking whiskey, -and they were sorry that they were near at the bottom of the bottle. -And she said: "That's no matter, there's a man on his way now, -there'll soon be more." And sure enough there was, for he brought -a bottle with him. So when he came in, he told her about Flaherty -having disappeared. And she described to him a corner of a garden -at the back of a house and she said, "Go look and you'll find him -there," and so they did, dead and buried. - -Another time a man's cattle was dying, and he went to her and she -said, "Is there such a place as Benburb, having a forth up on the -hill beyond there? for it's there they're gone." And sure enough, it -was towards that forth they were straying before they died. - - -_An Old Man on the Beach:_ - -The priests were greatly against Biddy Early. And there's no doubt -it was from the faeries she got the knowledge. But who wouldn't go -to hell for a cure if one of his own was sick? And the priests don't -like to be doing cures themselves. Father Flynn said to me (rather -incoherent in the high wind), if I do them, I let the devil into me. -But there was Father Carey used to do them, but he went wrong, with -the people bringing too much whiskey to pay him--and Father Mahony -has him stopped now. - - -_Maher of Slieve Echtge:_ - -I knew a man went to Biddy Early, and while she was in the other room -he made the tongs red hot and laid them down, and when she came back -she took them up and burned herself. And he said, if she had known -anything she'd have known not to touch it, that it was red hot. So -he walked off and asked for no cure. - - -_The Spinning-Woman:_ - -Biddy Early was a witch, wherever she got it. There was a priest at -Feakle spoke against her one time, and soon after he was passing -near her house and she put something on the horse so that he made a -bolt into the river and stopped there in the middle, and wouldn't go -back or forward. Some people from the neighbourhood went to her, and -she told them all about the whole place, and that one time there was -a great battle about the castle, and that there is a passage going -from here to the forth beyond on Dromore Hill, and to another place -that's near Maher's house. And she said that there is a cure for all -sicknesses hidden between the two wheels of Ballylee mill. And how -did she know that there was a mill here at all? Witchcraft wherever -she got it; away she may have been in a trance. She had a son, and -one time he went to the hurling beyond at some place in Tipperary, -and none could stand against him; he was like a deer. - - * * * * * - -I went to Biddy Early one time myself, about my little boy that's now -in America that was lying sick in the house. But on the way to her I -met a sergeant of police and he asked where was I going, and when I -told him, he said, to joke with me, "Biddy Early's dead." "May the -devil die with her," says I. Well, when I got to the house, what do -you think, if she didn't know that, and what I said. And she was vexed -and at the first, she would do nothing for me. I had a pound for her -here in my bosom. But when I held it out she wouldn't take it, but she -turned the rings on her fingers, for she had a ring for every one, and -she said, "A shilling for this one, sixpence for another one." But all -she told me was that the boy was nervous, and so he was, she was right -in that, and that he'd get well, and so he did. - -There was a man beyond in Cloon, was walking near the gate the same -day and his little boy with him, and he turned his foot and hurt it, -and she knew that. She told me she slept in Ballylee mill last night, -and that there was a cure for all things in the world between the two -wheels there. Surely she was _away_ herself, and as to her son, she -brought him back with her, and for eight or nine year he lay in the -bed in the house. And he'd never stir so long as she was in it, but no -sooner was she gone away anywhere than he'd be out down the village -among the people, and then back again before she'd get to the house. - -She had three husbands, I saw one of them when I was there, but I -knew by the look of him he wouldn't live long. One man I know went to -her and she sent him on to a woman at Kilrush--one of her own sort, -and they helped one another. She said to some woman I knew: "If you -have a bowl broke or a plate throw it out of the door, and don't -make any attempt to mend it, it vexes _them_." - - -_Mrs. McDonagh:_ - -Our religion doesn't allow us to go to fortune tellers. They don't -get the knowledge from God, and so it must be from demons. - -The priests took the bottle from Biddy Early before she died, and -they found black things in it. - - * * * * * - -I never went to Biddy Early myself. I think there was a good deal of -devilment in the things she did. The priests can do cures as well as -she did, but they don't like to do them, unless they're curates that -like to get the money. - - * * * * * - -There was a man in Cloughareeva and his wife was that bad she would -go out in her shift at night into the field. And he went to Biddy -Early and she said, "Within three days a disgraced priest will come -to you and will cure her." - -And after three days the disgraced priest that had been put out for -drink came bowling into the house, and they reached down from the -shelf a bottle of whiskey. Father Boyle was mad when he heard of it, -but he cured her all the same. - - * * * * * - -There was a man on this estate, and he sixty years, and he took to -the bed, and his wife went to Biddy Early and she said, "It can't -be by _them_ he's taken, what use would it be to them, he being so -old." And Biddy Early is the one that should surely know. I went to -her myself one time, to get a cure for myself when I fell coming down -that hill up there, and got a hurt on my knee. And she gave me one -and she told me all about the whole place, and that there was a bowl -broken in the house, and so there was. The priests can do cures by -the same power that she had, but those that have much stock don't -like to be doing them; for they're sure to lose all. - - * * * * * - -I knew one went to Biddy Early about his wife, and as soon as she saw -him, she said, "On the fourth day a discarded priest will call in and -cure your wife"; and so he did--one Father James. - - -_Mrs. Nelly:_ - -The old man here that lost his hair went to Biddy Early but he didn't -want to go, and we forced him and persuaded him. And when he got to -the house she said, "It wasn't of your own free will you came here," -and she wouldn't do anything for him. - -She didn't like either for you to go too late. Dolan's sister was -sick a long time, and when the brother went at the last to Biddy -Early she gave him a bottle with a cure. But on the way home the -bottle was broke, and the car, and the horse got a fright and ran -away. She said to him then, "Why did you go to cut down the bush of -white thorn you see out of the window?" And then she told him an old -woman in the village had overlooked him--Murphy's sister--and she -gave him a bottle to sprinkle about her house. I suppose she didn't -like that bush being interfered with, she had too much charms. - -And when Doctor Folan was sent for to see her he was led astray, and -it is beyond Ballylee he found himself. And surely she was _taken_ if -ever any one was. - - -_An Old Woman:_ - -I went up to Biddy Early's one time with another woman. A fine stout -woman she was, sitting straight up on her chair. She looked at me and -she told me that my son was worse than what I was, and for myself -she bid me to take what I was taking before, and that's dandelions. -Five leaves she bid me pick and lay them out on the table with three -pinches of salt on the three middle ones. As to my son, she gave me a -bottle for him but he wouldn't take it and he got better without. - -The priests were against her, but there was one of them passed near -her house one day, and his horse fell forward. And he sent his boy -to her and she said, "Tell him to spit on the horse and to say, -'God bless it,'" and he did and it rose again. He had looked at it -proud-like without saying "God bless it" in his heart. - - -_Daniel Shea:_ - -It was all you could do to get to Biddy Early with your skin whole, -the priests were so set against her. I went to her one time myself, -and it was hard when you got near to know the way, for all the people -were afraid to tell it. - -It was about a little chap of my own I went, that some strange thing -had been put upon. When I got to her house there were about fifty to -be attended to before me, and when my turn came she looked in the -bottle, a sort of a common greenish one that seemed to have nothing -in it. And she told me where I came from, and the shape of the -house and the appearance of it, and of the lake you see there, and -everything round about. And she told me of a lime-kiln that was near, -and then she said, "The harm that came to him came from the forth -beyond that." And I never knew of there being a forth there, but -after I came home I went to look, and there sure enough it was. - -And she told me how it had come on him, and bid me remember a day -that a certain gentleman stopped and spoke to me when I was out -working in the hayfield, and the child with me playing about. And I -remembered it well, it was old James Hill of Creen, that was riding -past, and stopped and talked and was praising the child. And it was -close by that forth beyond that James Hill was born. - -It was soon after that day that the mother and I went to Loughrea, -and when we came back, the child had slipped on the threshold of the -house and got a fall, and he was screeching and calling out that his -knee was hurt, and from that time he did no good, and pined away and -had the pain in the knee always. - -And Biddy Early said, "While you're talking to me now the child lies -dying," and that was at twelve o'clock in the day. And she made up a -bottle for me, herbs I believe it was made of, and she said, "Take care -of it going home, and whatever may happen, don't drop it"; and she -wrapped it in all the folds of my handkerchief. So when I was coming -home and got near Tillyra I heard voices over the wall talking, and -when I got to the Roxborough gate there were many people talking and -coming to where we were. I could hear them and see them, and the man -that was with me. But when I heard them I remembered what she said, -and I took the bottle in my two hands and held it, and so I brought it -home safely. And when I got home they told me the child was worse, and -that at twelve o'clock the day before he lay as they thought dying. And -when I brought the bottle to him, he pulled the bed-clothes up over his -head, and we had the work of the world to make him taste it. But from -the time he took it, the pain in the knee left him and he began to get -better, and Biddy Early had told me not to let many days pass without -coming to her again, when she gave me the bottle. But seeing him so -well, I thought it no use to go again, and it was not on May Day, but -it was during the month of May he died. He took to the bed before that, -and he'd be always calling to me to come inside the bed where he was, -and if I went in, he'd hardly let me go. But I got afraid, and I didn't -like to be too much with him. - -He was but eight years old when he died, but Ned Cahel that used to -live beyond there then told me privately that when I'd be out of the -house and he'd come in, the little chap would ask for the pipe, and -take it and smoke it, but he'd never let me see him doing it. And he -was old-fashioned in all his ways. - -Another thing Biddy Early told me to do was to go out before sunrise -to where there'd be a boundary wall between two or three estates, and -to bring a bottle, and lay it in the grass and gather the dew into -it. But there were hundreds of people she turned away, because she'd -say, "What's wrong with you has nothing to do with my business." - -There was a Clare woman with me when I went there, and she told me -there was a boy from a village near her was brought tied in a cart -to Biddy Early, and she said, "If I cure you, will you be willing to -marry me?" And he said he would. So she cured him and married him. I -saw him there at her house. It might be that she had the illness put -upon him first. - -The priests don't do cures by the same means, and they don't like to -do them at all. It was in my house that you see that Father Gregan did -one on Mr. Phayre. And he cured a girl up in the mountains after, and -where is he now but in a madhouse. They are afraid of the power they -do them by, that it will be too strong for them. Some say the bishops -don't like them to do cures because the whiskey they drink to give them -courage before they do them is very apt to make drunkards of them. It's -not out of the prayer-book they read, but out of the Roman ritual, and -that's a book you can read evil out of as well as good. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy of the Saggartons in the house went to Biddy Early -and she told him the house of his bachelor [the girl he would marry] -and he did marry her after. And she cured him of a weakness he had -and cured many, but it was seldom the bottle she'd give could be -brought home without being spilled. I wonder did she go to _them_ -when she died. She got the cure among them anyway. - - -_Mrs. Dillon:_ - -My mother got crippled in her bed one night--God save the hearers--and -it was a long time before she could walk again with the pain in her -back. And my father was always telling her to go to Biddy Early, and so -at last she went. But she could do nothing for her, for she said, "What -ails you has nothing to do with my business." And she said, "You have -lost three, and one was a grand little fair-haired one, and if you'd -like to see her again, I'll show her to you." And when she said that, -my mother had no courage to look and to see the child she lost, but -fainted then and there. And then she said, "There's a field of corn -beyond your house and a field with hay, and it's not long since that -the little fellow that wears a Llanberis cap fell asleep there on a -cock of hay. And before the stooks of corn are in stacks he'll be taken -from you, but I'll save him if I can." And it was true enough what she -said, my little brother that was wearing a Llanberis cap had gone to -the field, and had fallen asleep on the hay a few days before. But no -harm happened him, and he's all the brother I have living now. Out in -the stable she used to go to meet her _people_. - - -_Mrs. Locke:_ - -It was my son was thatching Heniff's house when he got the touch, and -he came back with a pain in his back and in his shoulders, and took -to the bed. And a few nights after that I was asleep, and the little -girl came and woke me and said, "There's none of us can sleep, with -all the cars and carriages rattling round the house." But though I -woke and heard her say that, I fell into a sound sleep again and -never woke till morning. And one night there came two taps at the -window, one after another, and we all heard it and no one there. And -at last I sent the eldest boy to Biddy Early and he found her in the -house. She was then married to her fourth man. And she said he came -a day too soon and would do nothing for him. And he had to walk away -in the rain. And the next day he went back and she said, "Three days -later and you'd have been too late." And she gave him two bottles, -the one he was to bring to a boundary water and to fill it up, and -that was to be rubbed to the back, and the other was to drink. And -the minute he got them he began to get well, and he left the bed and -could walk, but he was always delicate. When we rubbed his back we -saw a black mark, like the bite of a dog, and as to his face, it was -as white as a sheet. - -I have the bottle here yet, though it's thirty year ago I got it. She -bid the boy to bring whatever was left of it to a river, and to pour -it away with the running water. But when he got well I did nothing -with it, and said nothing about it--and here it is now for you to -see. I never let on to Father Folan that I went to her, but one time -the Bishop came, MacInerny. I knew he was a rough man, and I went to -him and made my confession, and I said, "Do what you like with me, -but I'd walk the world for my son when he was sick." And all he said -was, "It would have been no wonder if the two feet had been cut off -from the messenger." And he said no more and put nothing on me. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy I saw went to Biddy Early, and she gave him a bottle -and told him to mind he did not lose it in the crossing of some road. -And when he came to the place it was broke. - - * * * * * - -Often I heard of Biddy Early, and I knew of a little girl was sick -and the brother went to Biddy Early to ask would she get well. And -she said, "They have a place ready for her, room for her they have." -So he knew she would die, and so she did. - -The priests can do things too, the same way as she could, for there -was one Mr. Lyne was dying, a Protestant, and the priest went in and -baptized him a Catholic before he died, and he said to the people -after, "He's all right now, in another world." And it was more than -the baptizing made him sure of that. - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Brennan, in the house beyond, went one time to Biddy Early, -where the old man was losing his health. And all she told him was to -bid him give over drinking so much whiskey. So after she said that, -he used only to be drinking gin. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy went to Biddy Early for his father, and she said, "It's -not any of my business that's on him, but it's good for yourself that -you came to me. Weren't you sowing potatoes in such a field one day -and didn't you find a bottle of whiskey, and bring it away and drink -what was in it?" And that was true and it must have been a bottle -_they_ brought out of some cellar and dropped there, for they can bring -everything away, and put in its place what will look like it. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy near Feakle got the touch in three places, and he -got a great desire to go out night-walking, and he got sick. And they -asked Biddy Early and she said, "Watch the hens when they come in to -roost at night, and catch a hold of the last one that comes." So the -mother caught it, and then she thought she'd like to see what would -Biddy Early do with it. So she brought it up to her house and laid it -on the floor, and it began to rustle its wings, and it lay over and -died. It was from her brother Biddy Early got the cure. He was sick a -long time, and there was a whitethorn tree out in the field, and he'd -go and lie under it for shade from the sun. And after he died, every -day for a year she'd go to the whitethorn tree, and it is there she'd -cry her fill. And then he brought her under and gave her the cure. It -was after that she was in service beyond Kinvara. She did her first -cure on a boy, after the doctors giving him up. - - -_An Old Man from Kinvara:_ - -My wife is paralysed these thirty-six years, and the neighbours -said she'd get well if the child died, for she got it after her -confinement, all in a minute. But the child died in a year and eleven -months, and she got no better. And then they said she'd get taken -after twenty-one years, but that passed, and she's just the same way. -And she's as good a Christian as any all the time. - -I went to Biddy Early one time about her. She was a very old woman, -all shaky, and the crankiest woman I ever saw. And the husband was -a fine young man, and he lying in the bed. It was a man from Kinvara -half-paralysed I brought with me, and she would do nothing for him at -first, and then the husband bid her do what she could. So she took -the bottle and shook it and looked in it, and she said what was in -him was none of her business. And I had work to get him a lodging -that night in Feakle, for the priests had all the people warned -against letting any one in that had been to her. She wouldn't take -the whiskey I brought, but the husband and myself, we opened it and -drank it between us. - -She gave me a bottle for my wife, but when I got to the workhouse, -where I had to put her in the hospital, they wouldn't let me through -the gate for they heard where I had been. So I had to hide the bottle -for a night by a wall, on the grass, and I sent my brother's wife to -find it, and to bring it to her in the morning into the workhouse. -But it did her no good, and Biddy Early told her after it was because -I didn't bring it straight to her, but had left it on the ground for -the night. - - * * * * * - -Biddy Early beat all women. No one could touch her. I knew a girl, -a friend of my own, at Burren and she was sick a long while and the -doctors could do nothing for her, and the priests read over her but -they could do nothing. And at last the husband went to Biddy Early and -she said, "I can't cure her, and the woman that can cure her lives in -the village with her." So he went home and told this and the women of -the village came into the house and said, "God bless her," all except -one, and nothing would make her come into the house. But they watched -her, and one night when a lot of them were sitting round the fire -smoking, she let a spit fall on the floor. So they gathered that up -(with respects to you), and brought it in to the sick woman and rubbed -it to her, and she got well. It might have done as well if they brought -a bit of her petticoat and burned it and rubbed the ashes on her. But -there's something strange about spits, and if you spit on a child or a -beast it's as good as if you'd say, "God bless it." - - -_John Curtin:_ - -I was with Biddy Early one time for my brother. She was out away in -Ennis when we got to the house, and her husband that she called Tommy. -And the kitchen was full of people waiting for her to come in. So then -she came, and the day was rainy, and she was wet, and she went over -to the fire, and began to take off her clothes, and to dry them, and -then she said to her husband: "Tommy, get the bottle and give them -all a drop." So he got the bottle and gave a drink to everyone. But -my brother was in behind the door, and he missed him and when he came -back to the fire she said: "You have missed out the man that has the -best heart of them all, and there he is behind the door." And when my -brother came out she said, "Give us a verse of a song," and he said, -"I'm no songster," but she said, "I know well that you are, and a good -dancer as well." She cured him and his wife after. - -There was a neighbour of mine went to her too, and she said: "The -first time you got the touch was the day you had brought a cart of -turf from that bog at Ballinabucky to Scahanagh. And when you were -in the road you got it, and you had to lie down on the creel of turf -till you got to the public road." And she told him that he had a pane -of glass broke in his window and that was true enough. She must have -been away walking with the faeries every night or how did she know -that, or where the village of Scahanagh was? - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Kenny has been twice to Biddy Early. Once for her brother who -was ill, and light-headed and sent to Galway. And Biddy Early shook -the bottle twice, and she said, "It is none of my business, and it's -a heavy cold that settled in his head." And she would not take the -shilling. A red, red woman she was. - - -_Mary Glyn:_ - -I am a Clare woman, but the last fifty years I spent in Connacht. -Near Feakle I lived, but I only saw Biddy Early once, the time she -was brought to the committee and to the courthouse. She lived in a -little house near Feakle that time, and her landlord was Dr. Murphy -in Limerick, and he sent men to evict her and to pull the house -down, and she held them in the door and said: "Whoever will be the -first to put a bar to the house, he'll remember it." And then a man -put his bar in between two stones, and if he did, he turned and got -a fall someway and he broke the thigh. After that Dr. Murphy brought -her to the court, "Faeries and all," he said, for he brought the -bottle along with her. So she was put out, but Murphy had cause to -remember it, for he was living in a house by himself, and one night -it caught fire and was burned down, and all that was left of him -was one foot that was found in a corner of the walls. She had four -husbands, and the priest wouldn't marry her to the last one, and -it was by the teacher that she was married. She was a good-looking -woman, but like another, the day I saw her. My husband went to her -the time Johnny, my little boy, was dying. He had a great pain in his -temple, and she said: "He has enough in him to kill a hundred; but if -he lives till Monday, come and tell me." But he was dead before that. -And she said, "If you came to me before this, I'd not have let you -stop in that house you're in." But Johnny died; and there was a blush -over his face when he was going, and after that I couldn't look at -him, but those that saw him said that _he_ wasn't in it. I never saw -him since, but often and often the father would go out thinking he -might see him. But I know well he wouldn't like to come back and to -see me fretting for him. - -We left the house after that and came here. A travelling woman that -came in to see me one time in that house said, "This is a fine airy -house," and she said that three times, and then she said, "But in that -corner of it you'll lose your son," and it happened, and I wish now -that I had minded what she said. A man and his family went into that -house after, and the first summer they were in it, he and his sons -were putting up a stack of hay in the field with pitchforks, and the -pitchfork in his hand turned some way into his stomach and he died. - - * * * * * - -It is Biddy Early had the great name, but priests were against her. -There went a priest one time to stop her, and when he came near the -door the horse fell that was in his car. Biddy Early came out then -and bid him to give three spits on the horse, and he did that, and it -rose up then and there. It was himself had put the evil eye on it. -"It was yourself did it, you bodach," she said to the priest. And he -said, "You may do what you like from this out, and I will not meddle -with you again." - - -_Mrs. Crone:_ - -I was myself digging potatoes out in that field beyond, and a woman -passed by the road, but I heard her say nothing, but a pain came on -my head and I fell down, and I had to go to my bed for three weeks. -My mother went then to Biddy Early. Did you ever hear of her? And -she looked in the blue bottle she had, and she said my name. And she -saw me standing before her, and knew all about me and said, "Your -daughter was digging potatoes with her husband in the field, and a -woman passed by and she said, 'It is as good herself is with a spade -as the man,'" for I was a young woman at the time. She gave my mother -a bottle for me, and I took three drinks of it in the bed, and then I -got up as well as I was before. - - -_Peter Feeney:_ - -Biddy Early said to a man that I met in America and that went to her -one time, that this place between Finevara and Aughanish is the most -haunted place in all Ireland. - -Surely Biddy Early was _away_ herself. That's what I always heard. And -I hear that at a hurling near Feakle the other day there was a small -little man, and they say he was a friend of hers and has got her gift. - - - MRS. SHERIDAN - -_Mrs. Sheridan, as I call her, was wrinkled and half blind, and had -gone barefoot through her lifetime. She was old, for she had once met -Raftery, the Gaelic poet, at a dance, and he died before the famine -of '47. She must have been comely then, for he had said to her: "Well -planed you are; the carpenter that planed you knew his trade"; and she -was ready of reply and answered him back, "Better than you know yours," -for his fiddle had two or three broken strings. And then he had spoken -of a neighbour in some way that vexed her father, and he would let him -speak no more with her. And she had carried a regret for this through -her long life, for she said: "If it wasn't for him speaking as he did, -and my father getting vexed, he might have made words about me like he -did for Mary Hynes and for Mary Brown." She had never been to school -she told me, because her father could not pay the penny a week it would -have cost. She had never travelled many miles from the parish of her -birth, and I am sure had never seen pictures except the sacred ones -on chapel walls; and yet she could tell of a Cromwellian castle built -up and of a drawbridge and of long-faced, fair-haired women, and of -the yet earlier round house and saffron dress of the heroic times, I -do not know whether by direct vision, or whether as Myers wrote: "It -may even be that a World-soul is personally conscious of all its past, -and that individual souls, as they enter into deeper consciousness -enter into something which is at once reminiscence and actuality.... -Past facts were known to men on earth, not from memory only but by -written record; and these may be records, of what kind we know not, -which persist in the spiritual world. Our retrocognitions seem often a -recovery of isolated fragments of thought and feeling, pebbles still -hard and rounded amid the indecipherable sands over which the mighty -waters are 'rolling evermore.'"_ - -_She had never heard of the great mystic Jacob Behmen, and yet when -an unearthly visitor told her the country of youth is not far from -the place where we live, she had come near to his root idea that "the -world standeth in Heaven and Heaven in the World, and are in one -another as day and night."_ - - -_I was told by Mrs. Sheridan:_ - -There was a woman, Mrs. Keevan, killed near the big tree at Raheen, and -her husband was after that with Biddy Early, and she said it was not -the woman that had died at all, but a cow that died and was put in her -place. All my life I've seen _them_ and enough of them. One day I was -with Tom Mannion by the big hole near his house, and we saw a man and -a woman come from it, and a great troop of children, little boys they -seemed to be, and they went through the gate into Coole, and there we -could see them running and running along the wall. And I said to Tom -Mannion, "It may be a call for one of us." And he said, "Maybe it's for -some other one it is." But on that day week he was dead. - -One time I saw the old Colonel standing near the road, I know well -it was him. But while I was looking at him, he was changed into the -likeness of an ass. - -I was led astray myself one day in Coole when I went to gather sticks -for the fire. I was making a bundle of them, and I saw a boy beside -me, and a little grey dogeen with him, and at first I thought it was -William Hanlon, and then I saw it was not. And he walked along with me, -and I asked him did he want any of the sticks and he said he did not, -and he seemed as we were walking to grow bigger and bigger. And when -he came to where the caves go underground he stopped, and I asked him -his name, and he said, "You should know me, for you've seen me often -enough." And then he was gone, and I know that he was no living thing. - -There was a child I had, and he a year and a half old, and he got -a quinsy and a choking in the throat and I was holding him in my -arms beside the fire, and all in a minute he died. And the men -were working down by the river, washing sheep, and they heard the -crying of a child from over there in the air, and they said, "That's -Sheridan's child." So I knew sure enough that he was _taken_. - -Come here close and I'll tell you what I saw at the old castle there -below (Ballinamantane). I was passing there in the evening and I -saw a great house and a grand one with screens (clumps of trees) at -the ends of it, and the windows open--Coole house is nothing like -what it was for size or grandeur. And there were people inside and -ladies walking about, and a bridge across the river. For they can -build up such things all in a minute. And two coaches came driving -up and across the bridge to the castle, and in one of them I saw -two gentlemen, and I knew them well and both of them had died long -before. As to the coaches and the horses I didn't take much notice of -them for I was too much taken up with looking at the two gentlemen. -And a man came and called out and asked me would I come across the -bridge, and I said I would not. And he said, "It would be better for -you if you did, you'd go back heavier than you came." I suppose they -would have given me some good thing. And then two men took up the -bridge and laid it against the wall. Twice I've seen that same thing, -the house and the coaches and the bridge, and I know well I'll see it -a third time before I die. (_Note_ 12.) - -One time when I was living at Ballymacduff there was two little boys -drowned in the river there, one was eight years old and the other -eleven years. And I was out in the fields, and the people looking -in the river for their bodies, and I saw a man coming away from it, -and the two boys with him, he holding a hand of each and leading -them away. And he saw me stop and look at them and he said, "Take -care would you bring them from me, for you have only one in your own -house, and if you take these from me, she'll never come home to you -again." And one of the little chaps broke from his hand and ran to -me, and the other cried out to him, "Oh, Pat, would you leave me!" So -then he went back and the man led them away. And then I saw another -man, very tall he was, and crooked, and watching me like this with -his head down and he was leading two dogs the other way, and I knew -well where he was going and what he was going to do with them. - -And when I heard the bodies were laid out, I went to the house to -have a look at them, and those were never the two boys that were -lying there, but the two dogs that were put in their places. I knew -this by a sort of stripes on the bodies such as you'd see in the -covering of a mattress; and I knew the boys couldn't be in it, after -me seeing them led away. - -And it was at that time I lost my eye, something came on it, and I -never got the sight again. All my life I've seen _them_ and enough of -them. One time I saw one of the fields below full of them, some were -picking up stones and some were ploughing it up. But the next time I -went by there was no sign of it being ploughed at all. They can do -nothing without some live person is looking at them, that's why they -were always so much after me. Even when I was a child I could see -them, and once they took my walk from me, and gave me a bad foot, and -my father cured me, and if he did, in five days after he died. - -But there's no harm at all in them, not much harm. - - * * * * * - -There was a woman lived near me at Ballymacduff, and she used to go -about to attend women; Sarah Redington was her name. And she was -brought _away_ one time by a man that came for her into a hill, -through a door, but she didn't know where the hill was. And there -were people in it, and cradles and a woman in labour, and she helped -her and the baby was born, and the woman told her it was only that -night she was brought away. And the man led her out again and put -her in the road near her home and he gave her something rolled in a -bag, and he bid her not to look at it till she'd get home, and to -throw the first handful of it away from her. But she wouldn't wait to -get home to look at it, and she took it off her back and opened it, -and there was nothing in it but cow-dung. And the man came to her and -said, "You have us near destroyed looking in that, and we'll never -bring you in again among us." - -There was a man I know well was away with them, often and often, and -he was passing one day by the big tree and they came about him and he -had a new pair of breeches on, and one of them came and made a slit -in them, and another tore a little bit out, and then they all came -running and tearing little bits till he hadn't a rag left. Just to be -humbugging him they did that. And they gave him good help, for he had -but an acre of land, and he had as much on it as another would have on -a big farm. But his wife didn't like him to be going and some one told -her of a cure for him, and she said she'd try it and if she did, within -two hours after she was dead; killed they had her before she'd try it. -He used to say that where he was brought was into a round very big -house, and Cairns that went with them told me the same. (_Note_ 13.) - -Three times when I went for water to the well, the water spilled -over me, and I told Bridget after that they must bring the water -themselves, I'd go for it no more. And the third time it was done -there was a boy, one of the Heniffs, was near, and when he heard what -happened me he said, "It must have been the woman that was at the -well along with you that did that." And I said there was no woman at -the well along with me. "There was," said he; "I saw her there beside -you, and the two little tins in her hand." - -One day after I came to live here at Coole, a strange woman came into -the house, and I asked what was her name and she said, "I was in it -before ever you were in it," and she went into the room inside and I -saw her no more. - -But Bridget and Peter saw her coming in, and they asked me who she -was, for they never saw her before. And in the night when I was -sleeping at the foot of the bed, she came and threw me out on the -floor, that the joint of my arm has a mark in it yet. And every night -she came, and she'd spite me or annoy me in some way. And at last -we got Father Nolan to come and to drive her out. And as soon as he -began to read, there went out of the house a great blast, and there -was a sound as loud as thunder. And Father Nolan said, "It's well for -you she didn't have you killed before she went." - - * * * * * - -There's something that's not right about an old cat and it's well not -to annoy them. I was in the house one night, and one came in, and he -tried to bring away the candle that was lighted in the candlestick, -and it standing on the table. And I had a little rod beside me, and I -made a hit at him with it, and with that he dropped the candle and -made at me as if to tear me. And I went on my knees and asked his -pardon three times, and when I asked it the third time he got quiet -all of a minute, and went out at the door. - -And as to hares--bid Master Robert never to shoot a hare, for you -wouldn't know what might be in it. There were two women I knew, -mother and daughter, and they died. And one day I was out by the -wood, and I saw two hares sitting by the wall, and the minute I saw -them I knew well who they were. And the mother made as though she'd -kill me, but the daughter stopped her. Bad they must have been to -have been put into that shape, and indeed I know that they weren't -too good. I saw the mother another time come up near the door as if -to see me, and when she got near, she turned herself into a red hare. - -The priests can do cures out of their book, and the time the cure is -done is when they turn the second leaf. There was a boy near Kinvara -got a hurt and he was brought into a house and Father Grogan was got -to do a cure on him. And he did it, and within two days the priest's -brother was made a fool of, and is locked up in a madhouse ever -since, and it near seven years ago. (_Note_ 14.) - -There was a boy of the Nally's died near a year ago; and when I heard -he was dead I went down to the house, and there I saw him outside and -two men bringing him away, and one of them said to me, "We couldn't -do this but for you being there watching us." That's the last time I -saw any of them. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy got a fall from a cart near the house beyond, and he -was brought in to Mrs. Raynor's and laid in the bed and I went in to -see him. And he said what he saw was a little boy run across the road -before the cart, and the horse took fright and ran away and threw -him from it. And he asked to be brought to my house, for he wouldn't -stop where he was; "for" says he, "the woman of this house gave me no -drink and showed me no kindness, and she'll be repaid for that." And -sure enough within the year she got the dropsy and died. And he was -carried out of the door backwards, but the mother brought him to her -own house and wouldn't let him come to mine, and 'twas as well, for I -wouldn't refuse him, but I don't want to be annoyed with _them_ any -more than I am. - -Did you know Mrs. Byrne that lived in Doolin? Swept she was after -her child was born. And near a year after I saw her coming down the -road near the old castle. "Is that you, Mary?" I said to her, "and -is it to see me you are coming?" But she went on. It was in May when -_they_ are all changing. (_Note_ 15.) There was a priest, Father -Waters, told me one time that he was after burying a boy, one Fahy, -in Kilbecanty churchyard. And he was passing by the place again in -the evening, and there he saw a great fire burning, but whether it -was of turf or of sticks he couldn't tell, and there was the boy he -had buried sitting in the middle of it. - -I know that I used to be away among them myself, but how they brought -me I don't know, but when I'd come back, I'd be cross with the husband -and with all. I believe when I was with them I was cross that they -wouldn't let me go, and that's why they didn't keep me altogether, -they didn't like cross people to be with them. The husband would ask -me where I was, and why I stopped so long away, but I think he knew I -was _taken_ and it fretted him, but he never spoke much about it. But -my mother knew it well, but she'd try to hide it. The neighbours would -come in and ask where was I, and she'd say I was sick in the bed--for -whatever was put there in place of me would have the head in under the -bed-clothes. And when a neighbour would bring me in a drink of milk, -my mother would put it by and say, "Leave her now, maybe she'll drink -it tomorrow." And maybe in a day or two I'd meet someone and he'd say, -"Why wouldn't you speak to me when I went into the house to see you?" -And I was a young fresh woman at that time. Where they brought me to -I don't know, or how I got there, but I'd be in a very big house, and -it round, the walls far away that you'd hardly see them, and a great -many people all round about. I saw there neighbours and friends that -I knew, and they in their own clothing and with their own appearance, -but they wouldn't speak to me nor I to them, and when I'd meet them -again I'd never say to them that I saw them there. But the others had -striped clothes of all colours, and long faces, and they'd be talking -and laughing and moving about. What language had they? Irish of course, -what else would they talk? - -And there was one woman of them, very tall and with a long face, -standing in the middle, taller than any one you ever saw in this -world, and a tall stick in her hand; she was the mistress. She had -a high yellow thing on her head, not hair, her hair was turned back -under it, and she had a long yellow cloak down to her feet and -hanging down behind. Had she anything like that in the picture in -her hand? [a crown of gold balls or apples.] It was not on her head, -it was lower down here about the body, and shining, and a thing [a -brooch] like that in the picture, but down hanging low like the -other. And that picture you have there in you hand, I saw no one like -it, but I saw a picture like it hanging on the wall. (_Note_ 16.) It -was a very big place and very grand, and a long table set out, but -I didn't want to stop there and I began crying to go home. And she -touched me here in the breast with her stick, she was vexed to see -me wanting to go away. They never brought me away since. Grand food -they'd offer me and wine, but I never would touch it, and sometimes -I'd have to give the breast to a child. - -Himself died, but it was _they_ took him from me. It was in the -night and he lying beside me, and I woke and heard him move, and I -thought I heard some one with him. And I put out my hand and what I -touched was an iron hand, like knitting needles it felt. And I heard -the bones of his neck crack, and he gave a sort of a choked laugh, -and I got out of the bed and struck a light and I saw nothing, but I -thought I saw some one go through the door. And I called to Bridget -and she didn't come, and I called again and she came and she said she -struck a light when she heard the noise and was coming, and someone -came and struck the light from her hand. And when we looked in the -bed, himself was lying dead and not a mark on him. - - * * * * * - -There was a woman, Mrs. Leary, had something wrong with her, and she -went to Biddy Early. And nothing would do her but to bring my son -along with her, and I was vexed. What call had she to bring him with -her? And when Biddy Early saw him she said, "You'll travel far, but -wherever you go you'll not escape them." The woman he went up with -died about six months after, but he went to America, and he wasn't -long there when what was said came true, and he died. They followed -him as far as he went. - -And one day since then I was on the road to Gort, and Madden said to -me, "Your son's on the road before you." And I said, "How could that -be, and he dead?" But still I hurried on. And at Coole gate I met a -little boy and I asked did he see any one and he said, "You know -well who I saw." But I got no sight of him at all myself. - -I saw the coach one night near Kiltartan Chapel. Long it was and -black, and I saw no one in it. But I saw who was sitting up driving -it, and I knew it to be one of the Miskells that was taken before -that. (_Note_ 17.) - - * * * * * - -One day I was following the goat to get a sup of milk from her, and -she turned into the field and up into the castle of Lydican and went -up from step to step up the stairs to the top, and I followed and on -the stairs a woman passed me, and I knew her to be Colum's wife. And -when we got to the room at the top, I looked up, and there standing -on the wall was a woman looking down at me, long-faced and tall and -with grand clothes, and on her head something yellow and slippery, -not hair but like marble. (_Note_ 18.) And I called out to ask her -wasn't she afraid to be up there, and she said she was not. And a -shepherd that used to live below in the castle saw the same woman one -night he went up to the top, and a room and a fire and she sitting by -it, but when he went there again there was no sign of her nor of the -room, nothing but the stones as before. - - * * * * * - -I never saw them on horses; but when I came to live at Peter Mahony's -he used to bring in those red flowers [ragweed] that grow by the -railway, when their stalks were withered, to make the fire. And one -day I was out in the road, and two men came over to me and one was -wearing a long grey dress. And he said to me, "We have no horses to -ride on and have to go on foot, because you have too much fire." So -then I knew it was their horses we were burning. (_Note_ 19.) - - * * * * * - -I know the cure for anything they can do to you, but it's few I'd -tell it to. It was a strange woman came in and told it to me, and -I never saw her again. She bid me spit and use the spittle, or to -take a graineen of dust from the navel, and that's what you should -do if any one you care for gets a cold or a shivering, or _they_ put -anything upon him. - - * * * * * - -One time I went up to a forth beyond Raheen to pick up a few sticks, -and I was beating one of the sticks on the ground to break it, and -a voice said from below, "Is it to break down the house you want?" -And a thing appeared that was like a cat, but bigger than any cat -ever was. And another time in a forth a man said, "Here's gold for -you, but don't look at it till you go home." And I looked and I saw -horse-dung and I said, "Keep it yourself, much good may it do you." -They never gave me anything did me good, but a good deal of torment -I had from them. And they're often walking the road, and if you met -them you wouldn't know them from any other person; but I'd know them -well enough, but I'd say nothing--and that's a grand bush we're -passing by--whether it belongs to them I don't know, but wherever -they get shelter, there they might be--but anyway it's a very fine -bush--God bless it. - -And when you speak of them you should always say the day of the week. -Maybe you didn't notice that I said, "This is Friday" just when we -were hardly in at the gate. - - * * * * * - -It's very weak I am, and took to my bed since yesterday. _They've_ -changed now out of where they were near the castle, and it's inside -Coole demesne they are. It was an old man told me that, I met him on -the road there below. First I thought he was a young man, and then I -saw he was not, and he grew very nice-looking after, and he had plaid -clothes. "We're moved out of that now," he said, "and it's strangers -will be coming in it. And you ought to know me," he said. And when I -looked at him I thought I did. - -And one day I was down in Coole I saw their house, more like a big -dairy, with red tiles and a high chimney and a lot of smoke out of -it, and there was a woman at the door and two or three outside. But -they'll do you no harm, for the man told me so. "They needn't be -afraid," he said, "we're good neighbours, but let them not say too -much if the milk might go from the cows now and again." - -I was over beyond Raheen one time, and I saw a woman milking and she -at the wrong side of the cow. And when she saw me she got up, and -she had a bucket that was like a plate, and it full of milk and she -gave it to a man that was waiting there, that I thought first was one -of the O'Heas, and they went away. And the cow was a grand fine one, -but who it belonged to I didn't know--maybe to themselves. - - * * * * * - -It's about a week ago one night some one came into the room in -the dark, and I saw it was my son that I lost--he that went to -America--James. He didn't die, he was whipped away--I knew he wasn't -dead, for I saw him one day on the road to Gort on a coach, and he -looked down and he said, "That's my poor mother." And when he came in -here, I couldn't see him, but I knew him by his talk. And he said, -"It's asleep she is," and he put his two hands on my face and I never -stirred. And he said, "I'm not far from you now." For he is with the -others inside Coole near where the river goes down the swallow hole. -To see me he came, and I think he'll be apt to come again before -long. And last night there was a light about my head all the night -and no candle in the room at all. - - * * * * * - -Yes, the Sidhe sing, and they have pipers among them, a bag on each -side and a pipe to the mouth, I think I never told you of one I saw. - -I was passing a field near Kiltartan one time when I was a girl, where -there was a little lisheen, and a field of wheat, and when I was -passing I heard a piper beginning to play, and I couldn't but begin -to dance, it was such a good tune; and there was a boy standing there, -and he began to dance too. And then my father came by, and he asked why -were we dancing, and no one playing for us. And I said there was, and -I began to search through the wheat for the piper, but I couldn't find -him, and I heard a voice saying, "You'll see me yet, and it will be -in a town." Well, one Christmas eve I was in Gort and my husband with -me, and that night at Gort I heard the same tune beginning again--the -grandest I ever heard--and I couldn't but begin to dance. And Glynn the -chair-maker heard it too, and he began to dance with me in the street, -and my man thought I had gone mad, and the people gathered round us, -for they could see or hear nothing. But I saw the piper well, and he -had plaid clothes, blue and white, and he said, "Didn't I tell you that -when I saw you again it would be in a town?" - - * * * * * - -I never saw fire go up in the air, but in the wood beyond the tree at -Raheen I used often to see like a door open at night, and the light -shining through it, just as it might shine through the house door, -with the candle and the fire inside, if it would be left open. - -Many of _them_ I have seen--they are like ourselves only wearing -bracket clothes (_Note_ 20.), and their bodies are not so strong or -so thick as ours, and their eyes are more shining than our eyes. I -don't see many of them here, but Coole is alive with them, as plenty -as grass; I often go awhile and sit inside the gate there. I saw them -make up a house one time near the natural bridge, and I saw them -coming over the gap twice near the chapel, a lot of little boys, and -two men and a woman, and they had old talk and young talk. One of -them came in here twice, and I gave him a bit of bread, but he said, -"There's salt in it" and he put it away. (_Note_ 21.) - - * * * * * - -When Annie Rivers died the other day, there were two funerals in it, -a big funeral with a new coffin and another that was in front of -them, men walking, the handsomest I ever saw, and they with black -clothes about their body. I was out there looking at them, and there -was a cow in the road, and I said, "Take care would you drive away -the cow." And one of them said, "No fear of that, we have plenty of -cows _on the other side of the wall_." But no one could see them but -myself. I often saw them and it was they took the sight of my eyes -from me. And Annie Rivers was not in the grand coffin, she was with -_them_ a good while before the funeral. - - * * * * * - -That time I saw the two funerals at Rivers's that I was telling you -about, I heard Annie call to those that were with her, "You might as -well let me have Bartley; it would be better for the two castles to -meet." And since then the mother is uneasy about Bartley, and he -fell on the floor one day and I know well he is _gone_ since the day -Annie was buried. And I saw others at the funeral, and some that you -knew well among them. And look now, you should send a coat to some -poor person, and your own friends among the dead will be covered, for -you could see the skin here. [_She made a gesture passing her hand -down each arm, exactly the same gesture as old Mary Glynn of Slieve -Echtge had made yesterday when she said, "Have you a coat you could -send me, for my arms are bare?" and I had promised her one._] - - * * * * * - -Would I have gone among them if I had died last month? I think not. I -think that I have lived my time out, since my father was taken. - -He was a young man at that time, and one time I was out in the field, -and I got a knock on the foot, and a lump rose; there is the mark -of it yet. It was after that I was on the road with my father, near -Kinvara, and a man came and began to beat him. And I thought that he -was going to beat me, and I got in near the wall and my father said, -"Spare the girl!" "I will do that, I will spare her," said the man. -He went away then, and within a week my father was dead. - -And my mother told me that before the burying, she saw the corpse on -the bed, sitting on the side of the bed, and his feet hanging down. I -saw my father often since then, but not this good while now. He had -always a young appearance when I saw him. - -A big woman came to the window and looked in at me, the time I was on -the bed lately. "Rise up out of that," she said. I saw her another -time on the road, and the wind blew her dress open, and I could see -that she had nothing at all on underneath it. - -In May they are as thick everywhere as the grass, but there's no fear -at all for you or for Master Robert. I know that, for _one_ told it -to me. - - * * * * * - -"Tir-nan-og" that is not far from us. One time I was in the chapel -at Labane, and there was a tall man sitting next me, and he dressed -in grey, and after the Mass I asked him where he came from. "From -Tir-nan-og," says he. "And where is that?" I asked him. "It's not far -from you," he said; "it's near the place where you live." I remember -well the look of him and him telling me that. The priest was looking -at us while we were talking together. (_Note_ 22.) - - * * * * * - -_She died some years ago and I am told: - -"There is a ghost in Mrs. Sheridan's house. They got a priest to say -Mass there, but with all that there is not one in it has leave to lay -a head on the pillow till such time as the cock crows."_ - - - MR. SAGGARTON - -_I was told one day by our doctor, a good fowler an physician, now, -alas, passed away, of an old man in Clare who had knowledge of "the -Others," and I took Mr. Yeats to see him._ - -_We found him in his hayfield, and he took us to his thatched -lime-white house and told us many things. A little later we went -there again to verify what I had put down. I remember him as very -gentle and courteous, and that a cloth was spread and tea made for us -by his daughters, he himself sitting at the head of the table._ - -_Mr. Yeats at that time wore black clothes and a soft black hat, but -gave them up later, because he was so often saluted as a priest. -But this time another view was taken, and I was told after a while -that the curate of the Clare parish had written to the curate of a -Connacht parish that Lady Gregory had come over the border with "a -Scripture Reader" to try and buy children for proselytizing purposes. -But the Connacht curate had written back to the Clare curate that he -had always thought him a fool, and now he was sure of it._ - - -_The old man I have called Mr. Saggarton said:_ - -Our family diminished very much till at last there were but three -brothers left, and they separated. One went to Ennis and another came -here and the other to your own place beyond. It was a long time before -they could make one another out again. It was my uncle used to go away -among _them_. When I was a young chap, I'd go out in the field working -with him, and he'd bid me go away on some message, and when I'd come -back it might be in a faint I'd find him. It was he himself was taken; -it was but his shadow or some thing in his likeness was left behind. -He was a very strong man. You might remember Ger Kelly what a strong -man he was, and stout, and six feet two inches in height. Well, he and -my uncle had a dispute one time, and he made as if to strike at him, -and my uncle, without so much as taking off his coat, gave one blow -that stretched him on the floor. And at the barn at Bunahowe he and -my father could throw a hundred weight over the collar beam, what no -other could do. (_Note_ 23.) My father had no notion at all of managing -things. He lived to be eighty years, and all his life he looked as -innocent as that little chap turning the hay. My uncle had the same -innocent look; I think they died quite happy. - -One time the wife got a touch, and she got it again, and the third -time she got up in the morning and went out of the house and never -said where she was going. But I had her watched, and I told the boy -to follow her and never to lose sight of her, and I gave him the sign -to make if he'd meet any bad thing. So he followed her, and she kept -before him, and while he was going along the road something was up -on top of the wall with one leap--a red-haired man it was, with no -legs and with a thin face. (_Note_ 24.) But the boy made the sign and -got hold of him and carried him till he got to the bridge. At the -first he could not lift the man, but after he made the sign he was -quite light. And the woman turned home again, and never had a touch -after. It's a good job the boy had been taught the sign. Make that -sign with your thumbs if ever when you're walking out you feel a sort -of a shivering in the skin, for that shows there's some bad thing -near, but if you hold your hands like that, if you went into a forth -itself, it couldn't harm you. And if you should any time feel a sort -of a pain in your little finger, the surest thing is to touch it with -human dung. Don't neglect that, for if they're glad get one of us, -they'd be seven times better pleased to get the like of you. - -Youngsters they take mostly to do work for them, and they are death -on handsome people, for they are handsome themselves. To all sorts -of work they put them, and digging potatoes and the like, and they -have wine from foreign parts, and cargoes of gold coming in to them. -Their houses are ten times more beautiful and ten times grander than -any house in this world. And they could build one of them up in that -field in ten minutes. Clothes of all colours they wear, and crowns -like that one in the picture, and of other shapes. (_Note_ 25.) They -have different queens, not always the same. The people they bring -away must die some day; as to themselves, they were living from past -ages, and they can never die till the time when God has His mind made -up to redeem them. - -And those they bring away are always glad to be brought back again. -If you were to bring a heifer from those mountains beyond and to put -it into a meadow, it would be glad to get back again to the mountain, -because it is the place it knows. - -Coaches they make up when they want to go driving, with wheels and -all, but they want no horses. There might be twenty of them going out -together sometimes, and all full of them. - -They are everywhere around us, and may be within a yard of us now in -the grass. But if I ask you, "What day is tomorrow," and you said, -"Thursday," they wouldn't be able to overhear us. They have the power -to go in every place, even on to the book the priest is using. - -There was one John Curran lived over there towards Bunahowe, and he -had a cow that died, and they were striving to rear the calf--boiled -hay they were giving it, the juice the hay was boiled in. And you -never saw anything to thrive as it did. And one day some man was -looking at it and he said, "You may be sure the mother comes back -and gives it milk." And John Curran said, "How can that be, and she -dead?" But the man said, "She's not dead, she's in the forth beyond. -And if you go towards it half an hour before sunrise you'll find -her, and you should catch a hold of her and bring her home and milk -her, and when she makes to go away again, take a hold of her tail -and follow her." So he went out next morning, half an hour before -sunrise, up toward the forth, and brought her home and milked her, -and when the milking was done she started to go away and he caught a -hold of the tail and was carried along with her. And she brought him -into the forth, through a door. And behind the door stood a barrel, -and what was in the barrel is what they put their finger in, and -touch their forehead with when they go out, for if they didn't do -that all people would be able to see them. And as soon as he got in, -there were voices from all sides. "Welcome, John Curran, welcome, -John Curran." And he said: "The devil take you, how well you know my -name; it's not a welcome I want, it's my cow to bring home again." -So in the end he got the cow and brought her home. And he saw there -a woman that had died out of the village about ten years before, and -she suckling a child. (_Note_ 26.) - -Surely I knew Biddy Early, and my uncle was a friend of hers. It -was from the same power they got the cures. My uncle left me the -power, and I was well able to do them and did many, but my stock -was all dying and what could I do? So I gave a part of the power to -Mrs. Tobin that lives in Gort, and she can cure a good many things. -Biddy Early told me herself that where she got it was when she was a -servant girl in a house, there was a baby lying in the cradle, and he -went on living for a few years. But he was friendly to her and used -to play tunes for her and when he went away he gave her the bottle -and the power. She had but to look in it and she'd see all that had -happened and all that was going to happen. But he made her make a -promise never to take more than a shilling for any cure she did, -and she would not have taken fifty pounds if you offered it to her, -though she might take presents of bread and wine and such things. - -The cure for all things in the world? Surely she had it and knew -where it was. And I knew it myself too--but I could not tell you of -it. Seven parts I used to make it with, and one of them is a thing -that's in every house. - - * * * * * - -There's a lake beyond there, and my uncle one day told us by name of -a man that would be drowned there at twelve o'clock that day. And so -it happened. - - * * * * * - -One time I was walking on the road to Galway, near the sea, and -another man along with me. And I saw in a field beside the road -a very small woman walking down towards us, and she smiling and -carrying a can of water in her hand, and she was dressed in a blue -spencer. So I asked the other man did he see her, and he said he did -not, and when I came up to the wall she was gone. - - * * * * * - -One time myself when I went to look for a wife, I went to the house, -and there was a hen and some chickens before the door. Well, after I -went home one of the chickens died. And what do you think they said, -but that it was I overlooked it. - - * * * * * - -They hate me because I do cures, and they hated Biddy Early too. The -priests do them but not in the same way--they do them by the power of -Almighty God. - - * * * * * - -My wife got a touch from them, and they have a watch on her ever -since. It was the day after I married and I went to the fair at -Clarenbridge. And when I came back the house was full of smoke, but -there was nothing on the hearth but cinders, and the smoke was more -like the smoke of a forge. And she was within lying on the bed, and -her brother was sitting outside the door crying. So I went to the -mother and asked her to come in, and she was crying too. And she knew -well what had happened, but she didn't tell me, but she sent for the -priest. And when he came he sent me for Geoghegan and that was only -an excuse to get me away, and what he and the mother tried to bring -her to do was to face death, and they knew I wouldn't allow that if -I was there. But the wife was very stout and she wouldn't give in to -them. So the priest read more, and he asked would I be willing to -lose something, and I said, so far as a cow or a calf I wouldn't mind -losing that. Well, she partly recovered, but from that day, no year -went by but I lost ten lambs maybe or other things. And twice they -took my children out of the bed, two of them I have lost. And the -others they gave a touch to. That girl there,--see the way she is, -and can't walk. In one minute it came on her out in the field, with -the fall of a wall. (_Note_ 27.) - -It was one among _them_ that wanted the wife. A woman and a boy we -often saw come to the door, and she was the matchmaker. And when we -would go out, they would have vanished. - - * * * * * - -Biddy Early's cure that you heard of, it was the moss on the water -of the mill-stream between the two wheels of Ballylee. It can cure -all things brought about by _them_, but not any common ailment. But -there is no cure for the stroke given by a queen or a fool. There -is a queen in every house or regiment of them. It is of those they -steal away they make queens for as long as they live or that they are -satisfied with them. - -There were two women fighting at a spring of water, and one hit the -other on the head with a can and killed her. And after that her -children began to die. And the husband went to Biddy Early and as -soon as she saw him she said, "There's nothing I can do for you, your -wife was a wicked woman, and the one she hit is a queen among them, -and she is taking your children one by one and you must suffer till -twenty-one years are up." And so he did. - -The stroke of a fool, there's no cure for either. There are many -fools among them dressed in strange clothes like one of the mummers -that used to be going through the country. But it might be the fools -are the wisest after all. There are two classes, the Dundonians that -are like ourselves, and another race, more wicked and more spiteful. -Very small they are and wide, and their belly sticks out in front, so -that what they carry they don't carry it on the back, but in front, -on the belly in a bag. (_Note_ 28.) - - * * * * * - -They were fighting when Johnny Casey died; that's what often happens. -Everyone has friends among them, and the friends would be trying -to save you when the others would be trying to bring you away. -Youngsters they pick up here and there, to help them in their fights -and in their work. They have cattle and horses, but all of them have -only three legs. - -They don't have children themselves, only the women that are brought -away among them, they have children, but they don't live for ever, -like the Dundonians. - -The handsome they like, and the good dancers. And if they get a boy -amongst them, the first to touch him, he belongs to her. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy was a splendid dancer, and straight and firm, for -they don't like those that go to right or left as they walk. Well, -one night he was going to a house where there was a dance, and when -he was about half-way to it, he came to another house, where there -was music and dancing going on. So he turned in, and there was a room -all done up with curtains and with screens, and a room inside where -the people were sitting, and it was only those that were dancing sets -that came to the outside room. - - * * * * * - -As to their treasure, it's best to be without it. There was a man -living by a forth, and where his house touched the forth, he built a -little room and left it for them, clean and in good order, the way -they'd like it. And whenever he'd want money, for a fair or the like, -he'd find it laid on the table in the morning. And when he had it -again, he'd leave it there, and it would be taken away in the night. -But after that going on for a time he lost his son. - - * * * * * - -There was a room at Crags where things used to be thrown about, and -everyone could hear the noises there. They had a right to clear it -out and settle it the way they'd like it. You should do that in your -own big house. Set a little room for them--with spring water in it -always--and wine you might leave--no, not flowers--they wouldn't want -so much as that--but just what would show your good will. - -Now I have told you more than I told my wife. - - - "A GREAT WARRIOR IN THE BUSINESS" - -_It was on the bounds of Connemara I heard of this healer, and went to -see his wife in her little rock-built cabin among the boulders, to ask -if a cure could be done for Mr. Yeats, who was staying at a friend's -house near, and who was at that time troubled by uncertain eyesight._ - -_One evening later we walked beside the sea to the cottage where we -were to meet the healer; a storm was blowing and we were glad when -the door was opened and we found a bright turf fire._ - -_He was short and broad, with regular features, and his hair was -thick and dark, though he was an old man. He wore a flannel-sleeved -waistcoat, and his trousers were much patched on the knees. He sat -on a low bench in the wide chimney nook, holding a soft hat in his -hands which kept nervously moving. The woman of the house came over -now and then to look at the iron tripod on the hearth. She, like the -healer, spoke only Irish. The man of the house sat between us and -interpreted, holding a dip candle in his hands. A dog growled without -ceasing at one side of the hearth, a reddish cat sat at the other. -The woman seemed frightened and angry at times as the old man spoke, -and clutched the baby to her breast._ - - -_I was told by the man of the house, Coneely:_ - -There's a man beyond is a great warrior in this business, and no man -within miles of the place will build a house or a cabin or any other -thing without him going there to say if it's in a right place. - -It was Fagan cured me of a pain I had in my arm, I couldn't get rid -of. He gave me a something to drink, and he bid me go to a quarry and -to touch some of the stones that were lying outside it and not to -touch others of them. Anyway I got well. - -And one time down by the hill we were gathering in the red seaweed, -and there was a boy there that was leading a young horse, the same -way he'd been leading him a year or more. But this day of a sudden he -made a snap to bite him, and secondly he reared as if to jump on top -of him, and thirdly turned around and made at him with the hoofs. And -the boy threw himself to one side and escaped, but with the fright he -got he went into his bed and stopped there. And the next day Fagan -came and told him everything that had happened, and he said, "I saw -thousands on the strand near where it was last night." - - -_Fagan's wife said to me in her house:_ - -Are you _right_? You are? Then you're my friend. Come here close and -tell me is there anything himself can do for you? - -I do the fortunes no more since I got great abuse from the priest for -it. Himself got great abuse from the priest too--Father Haverty--and -he gave him plaster of Paris,--I mean by that he spoke soft and -blathered him, but he does them all the same, and Father Kilroy gave -him leave when he was here. - -It was from his sister he got the cure. Taken she was when her baby -was born. She died in the morning and the baby at night. We didn't -tell John of it for a month after, where he was away, caring horses. -But he knew of it before he came home, for she followed him there one -day he was out in the field, and when he didn't know her she said, -"I'm your sister Kate." And she said, "I bring you a cure that you -may cure both yourself and others." And she told him of the herb and -the field he'd find it growing, and that he must choose a plant with -seven branches, the half of them above the clay and the half of them -covered up. And she told him how to use it. - -Twenty years she's gone, but she's not dead yet, but the last time he -saw her he said that she was getting grey. Every May and November he -sees her, he'll be seeing her soon now. When her time comes to die, -she'll be put in the place of some other one that's taken, and so -she'll get absolution. (_Note_ 29.) - -He has cured many. But sometimes they are vexed with him, for some -cure he has done, when he interferes with some person they're meaning -to bring away. And many's the good beating they gave him out in the -fields for doing that. - -Myself they gave a touch to, here in the thigh, so that I lost my -walk; vexed with me they are for giving up the throwing of the cup. - -A nurse she's been all the time among them. And don't believe those -that say they have no children. A boy among them is as clever as any -boy here, but he must be matched with a woman from earth. And the -same way with their women, they must get a husband here. And they -never can give the breast to a child, but must get a nurse from here. - -One time I saw them myself, in a field and they hurling. Bracket caps -they wore and bracket clothes that were of all colours. - -Some were the same size as ourselves and some looked like gossoons -that didn't grow well. But himself has the second sight and can see -them in every place. - -There's as many of them in the sea as on the land, and sometimes they -fly like birds across the bay. - -The first time he did a cure it was on some poor person like -ourselves, and he took nothing for it, and in the night the sister -came and bid him not to do it any more without a fee. And that time -we lost a fine boy. - -They'll all be watching round when a person is dying; and suppose it -was myself, there'd be my own friends crying, crying, and themselves -would be laughing and jesting, and glad I'd go. (_Note_ 30.) - -There is always a mistress among them. When one of us goes among them -they would all be laughing and jesting, but when that tall mistress you -heard of would tip her stick on the ground, they'd all draw to silence. - - * * * * * - -Tell me the Christian name of your friend you want the cure for. -"William Butler," I'll keep that. (_Note_ 31.) And when himself -gathers the herb, if it's for a man, he must call on the name of some -other man, and call him a king--Righ--and if it's for a woman he must -call on the name of some other woman and call her a queen that is -calling on the king or the queen of the plant. - - -_Fagan said to W. B. Yeats and to me:_ - -It's not from _them_ the harm came to your eyes. I see them in all -places--and there's no man mowing a meadow that doesn't see them at -some time or other. As to what they look like, they'll change colour -and shape and clothes while you look round. Bracket caps they always -wear. There is a king and a queen and a fool in each house of them, -that is true enough--but they would do you no harm. The king and the -queen are kind and gentle, and whatever you'll ask them for they'll -give it. They'll do no harm at all if you don't injure them. You might -speak to them if you'd meet them on the road, and they'd answer you, -if you'd speak civil and quiet and show respect, and not be laughing or -humbugging--they wouldn't like that. One night I was in bed with the -wife beside me, and the child near me, near the fire. And I turned and -saw a woman sitting by the fire, and she made a snap at the child, and -I was too quick for her and got hold of it, and she was at the door and -out of it in one minute, before I could get to her. - -Another time in the field a woman came beside me, and I went on to a -gap in the wall and she was in it before me. And then she stopped me -and she said: "I'm your sister that was taken; and don't you remember -how I got the fever first and you tended me, and then you got it -yourself, and one had to be taken and I was the one." And she taught me -the cure, and the way to use it. And she told me that she was in the -best of places, and told me many things that she bound me not to tell. -And I asked was it here she was kept ever since, and she said it was, -but she said, "In six months I'll have to move to another place, and -others will come where I am now, and it would be better for you if we -stopped here, for the most of us here now are your neighbours and your -friends." And it was she gave me the second sight. (_Note_ 32.) - -Last year I was digging potatoes and a man came by, one of _them_, -and one that I knew well before. And he said, "You have them this -year, and we'll have them the next two years." And you know the -potatoes were good last year and you see that they are bad now, and -have been made away with. (_Note_ 33.) And the sister told me that -half the food in Ireland goes to them, but that if they like they can -make out of cow-dung all they want, and they can come into a house -and use what they like and it will never be missed in the morning. - - * * * * * - -_The old man suddenly stooped and took a handful of hot ashes in -his hand, and put them in his pocket. And presently he said he'd be -afraid tonight going home the road. When we asked him why, he said -he'd have to tell what errand he had been on._ - -_He said one eye of W. B. Y.'s was worse than the other, and asked if -he had ever slept out at nights. We asked if he goes to enquire of_ -them (_the Others_) _what is wrong with those who came to him and he -said, "Yes, when it has to do with their business--but in this case -it has nothing to do with it."_ (_Note_ 34.) - - -_Coneely said next day:_ - -I walked home with the old man last night, he was afraid to go by -himself. He pointed out to me on the way a graveyard where he had got -a great beating from _them_ one night. He had a drop too much taken -after being at a funeral, and he went there and gathered the plant -wrong. And they came and punished him, that his head is not better of -it ever since. - -He told me the way he knows in the gathering of the plant what is -wrong with the person that is looking for a cure. He has to go on -his knees and say a prayer to the king and the queen and the gentle -and the simple among them, and then he gathers it, and if there are -black leaves about it, or white ones, but chiefly a black leaf folded -down, he knows the illness is some of their business; but for this -young man the plant came fresh and green and clean. He has been among -them and has seen the king and the queen, and he says that they are -no bigger than the others, but the queen wears a wide cap, and the -others have bracket caps. - -He never would allow me to build a shed there beside the house, -though I never saw anything there myself. - - - OLD DERUANE - -_Old Deruane lived in the middle island of Aran, Inishmaan, where I -have stayed more than once. He was one of the evening visitors to the -cottage I stayed in, when the fishers had come home and had eaten, and -the fire was stirred and flashed on the dried mackerel and conger eels -hanging over the wide hearth, and the little vessel of cod oil had a -fresh wick put in it and lighted. The men would sit in a half-circle -on the floor, passing the lighted pipe from one to another; the women -would find some work with yarn or wheel. The talk often turned on the -fallen angels or the dead, for the dwellers in those islands have not -been moulded in that dogma which while making belief in the after-life -an essential, makes belief in the shadow-visit of a spirit yearning -after those it loved a vanity, a failing of the great essential, common -sense, and sets down one who believes in such things as what Burton -calls in his Anatomy "a melancholy dizzard."_ - - -_I was told by Old Deruane:_ - -I was born and bred in the North Island, and ten old fathers of mine -are buried there. - -I can speak English, because I went to earn in England in the -hard times, and I was for five quarters in a country town called -Manchester; and I have threescore and fifteen years. - -I knew two fine young women were brought away after childbirth, and -they were seen after in the North Island going about with _them_. One -of them I saw myself there, one time I was out late at night going to -the east village. I saw her pattern walking on the north side of the -wall, on the road near me, but she said nothing. And my body began -to shake, and I was going to get to the south side of the wall, to -put it between us; but then I said, "Where is God?" and I walked on -and passed her, and she looked aside at me but she didn't speak. And -I heard her after me for a good while, but I never looked back, for -it's best not to look back at them. - -And there was another woman had died, and one evening late I was -coming from the schoolmaster, for he and I are up to one another, and -he often gives me charity. And then I saw her or her pattern walking -along that field of rock you passed by just now. But I stopped and I -didn't speak to her, and she went on down the road, and when she was -about forty fathoms below me I could hear her abusing some one, but -no one there. I thought maybe it was that she was vexed at me that -I didn't question her. She was a young woman too. I'll go bail they -never take an old man or woman--what would they do with them? If by -chance they'd come among them they'd throw them out again. - -Another night I was out and the moon shining, I knew by the look of it -the night was near wore away. And when I came to the corner of the road -beyond, my flesh began to shake and my hair rose up, and every hair was -as stiff as that stick. So I knew that some evil thing was near, and -I got home again. This island is as thick as grass with them, or as -sand; but good neighbours make good neighbours, and no woman minding a -house but should put a couple of the first of the potatoes aside on the -dresser, for there's no house but they'll visit it some time or other. -Myself, I always brush out my little tent clean of a night before I lie -down, and the night I'd do it most would be a rough night. How do we -know what poor soul might want to come in? - -I saw them playing ball one day when the slip you landed at was being -made, and I went down to watch the work. There were hundreds of them -in the field at the top of it, about three feet tall, and little caps -on them; but the men that were working there, they couldn't see -them. (_Note_ 35.) And one morning I went down to the well to leave -my pampooties in it to soak--it was a Sabbath morning and I was going -to Mass--and the pampooties were hard and wore away my feet, and I -left them there. And when I came back in a few minutes they were -gone, and I looked in every cleft, but I couldn't find them. And when -I was going away, I felt _them_ about me, and coming between my two -sticks that I was walking with. And I stopped and looked down and -said, "I know you're there," and then I said, "_Gentlemen_, I know -you're here about me," and when I said that word they went away. Was -it they took my pampooties? Not at all--what would they want with -such a thing as pampooties? It was some children must have taken -them, and I never saw them since. - -One time I wanted to settle myself clean, and I brought down my -waistcoat and a few little things I have, to give them a rinse in -the sea-water, and I laid them out on a stone to dry, and I left -one of my sticks on them. And when I came back after leaving them -for a little time, the stick was gone. And I was vexed at first to -be without it, but I knew that they had taken it to be humbugging -me, or maybe for their own use in fighting. For there is nothing -there is more fighting among than them. So I said, "Welcome to it, -_Gentlemen_, may it bring you luck; maybe you'll make more use of it -than ever I did myself." - -One night when I was sleeping in my little tent, I heard a great noise -of fighting, and I thought it was down at Mrs. Jordan's house, and that -maybe the children were troublesome in the bed, she having a great -many of them. And in the morning as I passed the house I said to her, -"What was on you in the night?" And she said there was nothing happened -there, and that she heard no noise. So I said nothing but went on; and -when I came to the flag-stones beyond her house, they were covered with -great splashes and drops of blood. So I said nothing of that either, -but went on. What time of the year? Wait till I think, it was this very -same time of the year, the month of May. - -One time I was out putting seed in the ground, and the ridges all -ready and the seaweed spread in them; and it was a fine day, but I -heard a storm in the air, and then I knew by signs that it was they -were coming. And they came into the field and tossed the seaweed and -the seed about, and I spoke to them civil and then they went in to -a neighbour's field, and from that down to the sea, and there they -turned into a ship, the grandest that ever I saw. - -There was a man on this island went out with two others fishing in his -curragh, and when they were about a mile out they saw a ship coming -towards them, and when they looked again, instead of having three masts -she had none, and just when they were going to take up the curragh to -bring it ashore, a great wave came and turned it upside down. And the -man that owned her got such a fright that he couldn't walk, and the -other two had to hold him under the arms to bring him home. And he went -to his bed, and within a week after, he was dead. - -One night I heard a crying down the road, and the next day, there was a -child of Tom Regan's dead. And it was a few months after that, that I -heard a crying again. And the next day another of his children was gone. - -There was a fine young man was buried in the graveyard below, and -a good time after that, there was work being done in it, and they -came on his coffin, and the mother made them open it, and there was -nothing in it at all but a broom, and it tied up with a bit of a rope. - -There was a man was passing by that Sheoguy place below, "Breagh" we -call it. And he saw a man come riding out of it on a white horse. And -when he got home that night there was nothing for him or for any of -them to eat, for the potatoes were not in yet. And in the morning he -asked the wife was there anything to eat, and she said a neighbour -had sent in a pan of meal. So she made that into stirabout, and he -took but a small bit of it out of her hand to leave more for the -rest. And then he took a sheet, and bid her make a bag of it, and he -got a horse and rode to the place where he saw the man ride out, for -he knew he was the master of _them_. And he asked for the full of the -bag of meal, and said he'd bring it back again when he had it. And -the man brought the bag in, and filled it for him and brought it out -again. And when the oats were ripe, the first he cut, he got ground -at the mill and brought it to the place and gave it in. And the man -came out and took it, and said whatever he'd want at any time, to -come to him and he'd get it. - -In a bad year they say they bring away the potatoes and that may be so. -They want provision, and they must get them at one place or another. - - -_Mr. McArdle joins in and says:_ - -This I can tell you and be certain of, and I remember well that the -man in the third house to this died after being sick a long time. And -the wife died after, and she was to be buried in the same place, and -when they came to the husband's coffin they opened it, and there was -nothing in it at all, neither brooms nor anything else. - -There's a boy, I know him well, that was up at that forth above the -house one day, and a blast of wind came and blew the hat off him. And -when he saw it going off in the air he cried out, "Do whatever is -pleasing to you, but give me back my cap!" And in the moment it was -settled back again on to his head. - - -_Old Deruane goes on:_ - -There are many can do cures, because they have something walking -with them, what one may call a ghost from among the Sheogue. A few -cures I can do myself, and this is how I got them. I told you that -I was for five quarters in Manchester, and where I lodged were two -old women in the house, from the farthest end of Mayo, for they were -running from Mayo at the time because of the hunger. And I knew that -they were likely to have a cure, for St. Patrick blessed the places -he was not in more than the places he was in, and with the cure he -left and the fallen angels, there are many in Mayo can do them. - -Now it's the custom in England never to clean the table but once -in the week and that on a Saturday night. And on that night all is -set out clean, and all the crutches of bread and bits of meat and -the like are gathered together in a tin can, and thrown out in the -street, and women that have no other way of living come round then -with a bag that would hold two stone, and they pick up all that's -thrown out in the street, and live on it for a week. And often I -didn't eat the half of what was before me, and I wouldn't throw it -out, but I'd bring it to the two old women that were in the house, so -they grew very fond of me. - -Well, when the time came that I thought to draw towards home, I brought -them one day to a public-house and made a drop of punch for them, and -then I picked the cure out of them, for I was wise in those days. - -Those that get a touch I could save from being brought away, but I -couldn't bring back a man that's away, for it's only those that have -been living among them for a while that can do that. There was a -neighbour's child was sick, and I got word of it, and I went to the -house, for the woman there had showed me kindness. And I went in to the -cradle and I lifted the quilt off the child's face and you could see by -it, and I knew the sign, that there was some of their work there. And -I said, "You are not likely to have the child long with you, Ma'am." -And she said, "Indeed I know I won't have him long." So I said nothing -but I went out, and whatever I did, and whatever I got there, I brought -it again and gave it to the child, and he began to get better. And the -next day I brought the same thing again, and gave it the child, and I -looked at it and I said to the mother, "He'll live to comb his hair -grey." And from that time he got better, and now there's no stronger -child in the island, and he the youngest in the house. - -After that the husband got sick, and the woman said to me one day, -"If there's anything you can do to cure him, have pity on me and on -my children, and I'll give you what you'll wish." But I said, "I'll -do what I can for you, but I'll take nothing from you except maybe -a grain of tea or a glass of porter, for I wouldn't take money for -this, and I refused L2 one time for a cure I did." So I went and I -brought back the cure, and I mixed it with flour and made it into -three little pills that it couldn't be lost, and gave them to him, -and from that time he got well. - -There's a woman lived down the road there, and one day I went in to -the house, when she was after coming from Galway town, and I asked -charity of her. And it was in the month of August when the bream -fishing was going on, and she said, "There's no one need be in want -now, with fresh fish in the sea and potatoes in the gardens"; and -gave me nothing. But when I was out the door she said, "Well, come -back here." And I said, "If you were to offer me all you brought from -Galway, I wouldn't take it from you now." - -And from that time she began to pine and to wear away and to lose her -health, and at the end of three years, she walked outside her house -one day, and when she was two yards from her own threshold she fell -on the ground, and the neighbours came and lifted her up on a door -and brought her into the house, and she died. - -I think I could have saved her then--I think I could, when I saw her -lying there. But I remembered that day, and I didn't stretch out a -hand and I spoke no word. - - * * * * * - -I'm going to rise out of the cures and not to do much more of them, -for _they_ have given me a touch here in the right leg, so that it's -the same as dead. And a woman of my village that does cures, she is -after being struck with a pain in the hand. - -Down by the path at the top of the slip from there to the hill, -that's the way they go most nights, hundreds and thousands of them. -There are two old men in the island got a beating from them; one of -them told me himself and brought me out on the ground, that I'd see -where it was. He was out in a small field, and was after binding up -the grass, and the sky got very black over him and very dark. And he -was thrown down on the ground, and got a great beating, but he could -see nothing at all. He had done nothing to vex them, just minding his -business in the field. - -And the other was an old man too, and he was out on the roads, and they -threw him there and beat him that he was out of his mind for a time. - -One night sleeping in that little cabin of mine, I heard them ride -past, and I could hear by the feet of the horses that there was a -long line of them. - - * * * * * - -This is a story was going about twenty years ago. There was a curate -in the island, and one day he got a call to the other island for the -next day. And in the evening he told the servant maid that attended him -to clean his boots good and very good, for he'd be meeting good people -where he was going. And she said, "I will, Holy Father, and if you'll -give me your hand and word to marry me for nothing, I'll clean them -grand." And he said "I will; whenever you get a comrade I'll marry you -for nothing, I give you my hand and word." So she had the boots grand -for him in the morning. Well, she got a sickness after, and after -seven months going by, she was buried. And six months after that, the -curate was in his parlour one night and the moon shining, and he saw a -boy and a girl outside the house, and they came to the window, and he -knew it was the servant girl that was buried. And she said, "I have a -comrade now, and I came for you to marry us as you gave your word." And -he said, "I'll hold to my word since I gave it," and he married them -then and there, and they went away again. (_Note_ 36.) - - - - - III - - THE EVIL EYE--THE TOUCH--THE - PENALTY - - - - - III - - THE EVIL EYE--THE TOUCH--THE - PENALTY - - -_"Some friendly Teyamena, sorry to see my suffering plight, said to -me: 'This is because thou hast been eye-struck--what! you do not -understand 'eye-struck'? Certainly they have looked in your eyes, -Khalil. We have lookers_ (_God cut them off!_) _among us, that with -their only_ (_malignant_) _eye-glances may strike down a fowl flying; -and you shall see the bird tumble in the air with loud shrieking -kak-ka-ka-ka-ka. Wellah their looking can blast a palm-tree so that -you shall see it wither away. These are things well ascertained by -many faithful witnesses."_--DOUGHTY'S _Travels in the Arabian Desert_. - - * * * * * - -_There is one visit I have always been a little remorseful about. It -was in Mayo where I had gone to see the broken walls and grass-grown -hearthstone that remain of the house where Raftery the poet was born. -I was taken to see an old woman near, and the friend who was with me -asked her about "Those." I could see she was unwilling to speak, and -I would not press her, for there are some who fear to vex invisible -hearers; so we talked of America where she had lived for a little -while. But presently she said, "All I ever saw of_ them _myself was -one night when I was going home, and they were behind in the field -watching me. I couldn't see them but I saw the lights they carried, two -lights on the top of a sort of dark oak pole. So I watched them and -they watched me, and when we were tired watching one another the lights -all went into one blaze, and then they went away and it went out." She -told also one or two of the traditional stories, of the man who had a -hump put on him, and the woman "taken" and rescued by her husband, who -she had directed to seize the horse she was riding with his left hand._ - -_Then she gave a cry and took up her walking stick from the hearth, -burned through, and in two pieces, though the fire had seemed to be but -a smouldering heap of ashes. We were very sorry, but she said "Don't be -sorry. It is well it was into it the harm went." I passed the house two -or three hours afterwards; shutters and door were closed, and I felt -that she was fretting for the stick that had been "to America and back -with me, and had walked every part of the world," and through the loss -of which, it may be, she had "paid the penalty."_ - -_I told a neighbour about the doctor having attended a man on the -mountains--and how after some time, he found that one of the children -was sick also, but this had been hidden from him, because if one had -to die they wanted it to be the child._ - -_"That's natural," he said. "Let the child pay the penalty if it has -to be paid. That's a thing that might happen easy enough."_ - - -_I was told by M. McGarity:_ - -There was a boy of the Cloonans I knew was at Killinane thatching -Henniff's house. And a woman passed by, and she looked up at him, but -she never said, "God bless the work." And Cloonan's mother was in -the road to Gort and the woman met her and said, "Where did your son -learn thatching?" And that day he had a great fall and was brought -home hurt, and the mother went to Biddy Early. And she said, "Didn't -a red-haired woman meet you one day going into Gort and ask where -did your son learn thatching? And didn't she look up at him as she -passed? It was then it was done." And she gave a bottle and he got -well after a while. (_Note_ 37.) - - * * * * * - -Some say the evil eye is in those who were baptized wrong, but I -believe it's not that, but if, when a woman is carrying, some one -that meets her says, "So you're in that way," and she says, "The -devil a fear of me," as even a married woman might say for sport or -not to let on, the devil gets possession of the child at that moment, -and when it is born it has the evil eye. - - -_Margaret Bartly:_ - -There was a woman below in that village where I lived to my grief and -my sorrow, and she used to be throwing the evil eye, but she is in -the poor-house now--Mrs. Boylan her name is. Four she threw it on, -not children but big men, and they lost the walk and all, and died. -Maybe she didn't know she had it, but it is no load to any one to say -"God bless you." I faced her one time and told her it would be no -load to her when she would see the man in the field, and the horses -ploughing to say "God bless them," and she was vexed and she asked -did I think she had the evil eye, and I said I did. So she began -to scold and I left her. That was five years ago, and it is in the -poor-house in Ballyvaughan she is this two years; but she can do no -harm there because she has lost her sight. - - -_Mrs. Nelly of Knockmogue:_ - -There was a girl lived there near the gate got sick. And after -waiting a long time and she getting no better the mother brought in -a woman that lived in the bog beyond, that used to do cures. And -when she saw the girl, she knew what it was, and that she had been -overlooked. And she said, "Did you meet three men on the road one -day, and didn't one of them, a dark one, speak to you and give no -blessing?" And she said that was so. And she would have done a cure -on her, but we had a very good priest at that time, Father Hayden, a -curate, and he used to take a drop of liquor and so he had courage -to do cures. And he said this was a business for him, and he cured -her, and the mother gave him money for it. - -It was by herbs that woman used to do cures, and whatever power she -got in the gathering of them, she was able to tell what would happen. -But she was in great danger all her life from gathering the herbs, for -_they_ don't like any one to be cured that they have put a touch on. - - -_Mrs. Clerey:_ - -I can tell you what happened to two sons of mine. A woman that passed -by them said, "You've often threatened me by night, and my curse is -on you now." And the one answered her back but the other didn't. And -after that they both took sick, but the one that didn't answer her -was the worst. And they pined a long time. And I brought the one -that was so bad over to Kilronan to the priest and he read over him. -It was a lump in his mouth he had, that you could hardly put down a -spoonful of milk, and there was a good doctor there and he sliced -it, and he got well. But the priest often told me that but for what -he did for him he would never have got well. For there's no doubt -there's _some_ in the world it's not well to talk with. - -The time my son got the pain, he came in roaring and said he got -a stab in the knee. It was surely some evil thing that put it on -him. There are some that have the evil eye, and that don't know it -themselves. Father McEvilly told me that. He said a woman that was -carrying, and that was not married, but that got married while she -was carrying, she might put the evil eye on you, and not know it at -all. And he said anyway it would be no great load to say "God bless -you" to any one you might meet. - -The priests can do cures if they like, but those that have stock -don't like to be doing it, Father Folan won't do it, but Father -McEvilly would. - -One time my brother got a great pain, and my father sent me to Father -Gallagher, to ask could he cure and read the Mass of the Holy Ghost -over him. But when I asked him he called out, "I won't do that, I -won't read for any one." He was afraid to go as far as that for fear -it might fall on his stock, that he had a great deal of. - - -_James Fahey:_ - -Do you think the _drohuil_ is not in other places besides Aran? My -mother told me herself that she was out at a dance one evening, and -there was a fine young man there and he dancing till he had them all -tired; and a woman that was sitting there said "He can do what he -likes with his legs," and at that instant he fell dead. My mother -told me that herself, and she heard the woman say it, and so did many -others that were there. - - -_Frank McDaragh:_ - -There's none can do cures well in this island like Biddy Early used -to do. I want to know of some good man or woman in that line to go -to, for that little girl of my own got a touch last week. Coming home -from Mass she was, and she felt a pain in her knee, and it ran down -to the foot and up again, and since then the feet are swelled, you -might see them. - - -_Mrs. Meade:_ - -And about here they all believe in the faeries--and I hear them -say--but I don't give much heed to it--that Mrs. Hehir the butcher's -sister that died last week--but I don't know much about it. But -anyhow she was married three years, and had a child every year, and -this time she died. And when the coffin was leaving the house, the -young baby began to scream, and to go into convulsions, for all the -world as if it was put on the fire. - - -_Another says about this same woman, Mrs. Hehir:_ - -It's overlooked she was when she went out for a walk with a scholar -from the seminary that is going to be a priest, and she without a shawl -over her head. It's then she was overlooked; they seeing what a fine -handsome woman she was, she was took away to be nurse to _themselves_. - - -_Mrs. Quade:_ - -A great pity it was about Mrs. Hehir and she leaving three young -orphans. But sure they do be saying a great big black bird flew into -the house and around about the kitchen--and it was the next day the -sickness took her. - - -_The Doctor:_ - -Mrs. Hehirs was a difficult case to diagnose, and I could not give it -a name. At the end she was flushed and delirious; and when one of the -women attending her said, "She looks so well you wouldn't think it -was herself that was in it at all," I knew what was in their minds. -Afterwards I was told that the day the illness began she had been -churning, and a strange woman came in and said, "Give me a hold of -the staff and I'll do a bit of the churning for you." But she refused -and the woman said, "It's the last time you'll have the chance of -refusing anyone that asks you" and went out, and she was not seen -again, then or afterwards. - - -_J. Madden:_ - -There's one thing should never be done, and that's to say "That's -a fine woman," or such a thing and not to say "God bless her." I -never believed that till a man that lives in the next holding to my -own told me what happened to a springer he had. She was as fine a -creature as ever you seen, and one day a friend of his came in to see -him, and when he was going away, "That's a grand cow," says he, but -he didn't say "God bless it." Well, the owner of the cow went into -the house and he sat down by the fire and lit a pipe, and when he -had the pipe smoked out he came out again, and there she was lying -down and not able to stir. So he remembered what happened and he -went after his friend, and found him in a neighbour's house. And he -brought him back with him, and made him go into the field and say, -"God bless it," and spit on the cow. And with that she got up and -walked away as well as before. - - -_John McManus:_ - -They can only take a child or a horse or such things through the eye -of a sinner. If his eye falls on it, and he speaks to praise it and -doesn't say "God bless it," they can bring it away then. But if you -say it yourself in your heart, it will do as well. - - * * * * * - -There was a man lived about a mile beyond Spiddal, and he was one day -at a play, and he was the best at the hurling and the throwing and -every game. And a woman of the crowd called out to him, "You're the -straightest man that's in it." And twice after that a man that was -beside him and that heard that said, saw him pass by with his coat on -before sunrise. And on the fifth day after that he was dead. - -He left four or five sons and some of them went to America and the -eldest of them married and was living in the place with his wife. -And he was going to Galway for a fair, and his wife was away with -her father and mother on the road to Galway and she bid him to come -early, that she'd have some commands for him to do. So it was before -sunrise when he set out, and he was going over a little side road -through the fields, and he came on the biggest fair he ever saw, and -the most people in it. And they made a way for him to pass through -and a man with a big coat and a tall hat came out from them and -said, "Do you know me?" And he said, "Are you my father?" And the -man said, "I am, and but for me you'd be sorry for coming here, but -I saved you, but don't be coming out so early in the morning again." -And he said, "It was a year ago that Jimmy went to America. And that -was time enough." And then he said, "And it was you that drove your -sister away, and gave her no fortune." And that was true enough. - - * * * * * - -One time there was two brothers standing in a gap in that field -you're looking at. And a woman passed by, I wouldn't like to tell you -her name, for we should speak no evil of her and she's dead now,--the -Lord have mercy on her. And when she passed they heard her say in -Irish, "The devil take you," but whether she knew they were there or -not, I don't know. And the elder of the brothers called out, "The -devil take yourself as well." But the younger one said nothing. And -that night the younger one took sick, and through the night he was -calling out and talking as if to people in the room. And the next day -the mother went to a woman that gathered herbs, the mother of the -woman that does cures by them now, and told her all that happened. - -And she took a rag of an old red coat, and went down to the last -village, and into the house of the woman that had put it, the evil -eye, on him. And she sat there and was talking with her, and watched -until she made a spit on the floor, and then she gathered it up on -the rag and came to the sick man in the bed and rubbed him with it, -and he got well on the minute. - -It was hardly ever that woman would say "God bless the work" as she -passed, and there were some would leave the work and come out on the -road and hold her by the shoulder till she'd say it. - - -_A Man on the Boat:_ - -There are many can put on the _drohuil_. I knew a child in our -village and a neighbour came in and said, "That's a fine child"; and -no sooner was he gone than the child got a fit. So they brought him -back and made him spit on the child and it got well after. Those that -have that power, I believe it's born with them, and it's said they -can do it on their own children as well as on ours. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy called Faherty, nephew to Faherty that keeps the -licensed house, and he was a great one for all games, and at every -pattern, and whenever anything was going on. And one time he went -over to Kilronan where they had some sports, and it the 24th of June. -And they were throwing the weight, and he took it up and he threw it -farther than the police or any that were there; and the second time -he did the same thing. And when he was going to throw it the third -time, his uncle came to him and said "It's best for you to leave it -now; you have enough done." But he wouldn't mind him, and threw it -the third time, and farther than they all. - -And the next year at that time on the 24th of June, he was stretched -on his bed, and he died. And some one was talking about the day he did -so much at Kilronan, and the father said: "I remember him coming into -the house after that, and he put up his arm on the dresser as if there -was something ailed him." And the boy spoke from his bed and said, "You -ought to have said 'God bless you' then. If my mother had been living -then she'd have said it, and I wouldn't be lying here now." - - * * * * * - -There were two other fine young men died in the same year, and one -night after, the three of them appeared to a sick man, Jamsie Power, -on the south island, and talked with him. But they didn't stay long -because, they said, they had to go on to the coast of Clare. - - * * * * * - -My own first-born child wasn't spared. He was born in February and -all the neighbours said they never saw so fine a child. And one night -towards the end of March, I was in the bed, and the child on my -arm between me and the wall, sleeping warm and well, and the wife -was settling things about the house. And when she got into bed, she -wanted to take the child, and I said, "Don't stir him, where he's -so warm and so well"; but she took him in her own arm. And in the -morning he was dead. And up to the time he was buried, you'd say he -wasn't dead at all, so fresh and so full in the face he looked. - -There was a neighbour about the same time had a child and it was -in the bed with them, but it was sick. And one night he was sure -he heard some one say outside the house, "It's time he should be -stretched out to me." So he got up and opened the window, and he -threw a vessel of dirty water over whatever was outside, and he heard -no more, and his child got well and grew up strong. - - -_An Island Woman:_ - -And there's some people the fishermen wouldn't pass when they are -going to the boats, but would turn back again if they'd meet them. -One day two boys of mine, Michael and Danny, were down on the rocks, -bream-fishing with lines, and I had a job of washing with the wife of -the head coast-guard. But when it came to one o'clock something came -over me, and I thought the boys might have got the hunger, and I went -to Mrs. Patterson and said I must leave work for that day, and I went -and bought a three-halfpenny loaf and brought it down to where they -were fishing, and when I got there I saw that Michael the younger one -was limping, and I said, "It must be from the hunger you're not able -to walk." "Oh, no," he said, "but it's a pain I got in my heel, and I -can't put it to the ground." And when we got home he went into his bed, -and he didn't leave it for three months. And one day I said to him, -"What was it happened you, did you meet any one on the road that day -that said anything to you?" And he said, "I did, I met a woman of the -village and she said, 'It's good to be you and to have a fine basket of -bream,' and she said no more than that, and that very minute the pain -came on my heel. But I won't tell you her name, for fear there'd be a -row." But I made him tell me, and I promised never to say a word to her -and I never did; but he's not the first she did that to. - - -_An Old Man with a Basket:_ - -They can put the _drohuil_ here and I suppose in all parts, and you -should watch not to let any one meet you unless they would say, "God -bless you," and spit. - - * * * * * - -There was a woman in this island lost her walk for a year and a half, -till they went to Galway to a woman that throws the cups, and she bid -them go into the next house where there was a black man living, and -give him tobacco to be smoking, and take up the spit and rub his leg. -And she got well after that. - -There was another man in that island besides that neighbour of mine -that would give the _drohuil_--the evil eye. Tom Griffith his name was. -There was one Flanagan came back from Clare one day with three bonifs -he bought there. And Griffith came out as he passed and said, "No -better bonifs than those ever came into the island." And when Flanagan -came home, there was a little hill in the front of his house and two of -them fell down against it on their side. And when Mrs. Flanagan came -out to see the bonifs, there was only one of them living before her. - - * * * * * - -There's a man in this island now puts the evil eye--the _drohuil_. It's -about four years since I heard of him doing it last. There was a nice -young woman he passed and he said, "You're the best walker in Aran." -And that day she got a pain in her leg and she took to her bed, and -there she lay for six months, and then she sent for him, and he was -made--with respects to you--to throw a spit on her. And after that she -got well and got up again. And there was a child died about the same -time, and the friends said it was he did it. Ned Buckley is his name. -Devil a foot he ever goes to a wedding or such like; they wouldn't ask -him, they'd be afraid of him. But he goes to Mass--at least he did in -his bloom--but he's an old man now. Does the priest know about him? -It's not likely he does. There's no one would like to go and make an -attack on him like that. And anyway the priests don't like any one to -speak to them of such things, they'd sooner not hear about them. - - -_Mrs. Folan:_ - -There was one of my brothers overlooked, no doubt at all about that. -He was the best rower of a canoe that ever was, and there was a match -at Kinvara today and he won it, and there was a match at Ballyvaughan -tomorrow and he was in it, and the foam was as high as mountains, -that the hooker could hardly stand, and he won there. And when he was -come to the pier and the people all running to carry him in their -arms, the way the jockey is carried after a race, he was ruz up his -own height off the ground, and no one could see what did it. - -He was wrong in the head after that, and he would sit by the hearth -without speaking. My mother that would be out binding the wheat would -say to me now and again "There he is coming across to us," and she -put it on me to think it, but I could see nothing, for it is not -everyone can see those things. Then she would ask the father when we -went in, did he stir from the fireside, and when he said he never -stirred she knew it was his shadow she saw and that he had not long -to live, and it was not long till he was gone. - - -_Mr. Stephens:_ - -There was a man coming along the road from Gort to Garryland one -night, and he had a drop taken, and before him on the road he saw a -pig walking. And having a drop in, he gave a shout and made a kick at -it and bid it get out of that. - -And from the time he got home, his arm had swelled from the shoulder -to be as big as a bag, and he couldn't use his hand with the pain in -it. And his wife brought him after a few days to a woman that used to -do cures at Rahasane. - -And on the road all she could do would hardly keep him from lying -down to sleep on the grass. And when they got to the woman, she knew -all that happened, and says she: "It's well for you that your wife -didn't fall asleep on the grass, for if you had done that but for an -instant, you'd be a gone man." - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -There was a woman lived near Ballinasloe and she had two children, -and they both died, one after the other. And when the third was born, -she consulted an old woman, and she said to watch the cradle all day -where it was standing by the side of the fire. And so she did, and -she saw a sort of a shadow come into it, and give the child a touch. -And she came in, and drove it away. And the second day the same thing -happened, and she was afraid that the third time the child would go, -the same as the others. So she went to the old woman again, and she -bid her take down the hanger from the chimney, and the tongs and the -waistcoat of the child's father and to lay them across the cradle, -with a few drops of water from a blessed well. So she did all this -and laid these three things in the cradle, but she saw the shadow or -whatever it was come again, and she ran in and drove it away. - -But when she told the old woman she said "You need trouble yourself -no more about it being touched or not, for no harm will come to it if -you keep those three things on it for twelve days." So she did that, -and reared eight children after, and never lost one. - - -_An Old Woman from Kinvara:_ - -Did I know any one was taken? My own brother was, and no mistake -about it. It was one day he was out following two horses with the -plough, and it was about five o'clock, for a gentleman was passing -when he got the touch, and one of his tenants asked him the time, and -he said five o'clock. And what way it came I don't know, but he fell -twice on the stones--God bless the hearers and the place I'm telling -it in. And at ten o'clock the next morning he was dead in his bed. -Young he was, not twenty year, and nothing ailed him when he went -out, but the place he was ploughing in that day was a bad pass. Sure -and certain I am it's by _them_ he was taken. I used often to hear -crying in the field after, but I never saw him again. - - -_A Connemara Woman:_ - -There was a boy going to America, and when he was going he said to -the girl next door "Wherever I am, when you are married I'll come -back to the wedding"; and not long after he went to America he died. -And when the girl was married and all the friends and neighbours -in the house, he appeared in the room, but no one saw him but his -comrade he used to have here, and the girl's brother saw him too, -but no one else. And the comrade followed him and went close to him -and said, "Is it you indeed?" And he said, "It is, and from America -I came tonight." And he asked, "How long did that journey take?" and -he said, "Three-quarters of an hour," and then he went away. And the -comrade was never the better of it, or he got the touch or the other -called him, very true friends as they were, and he soon died. But the -girl is now middle-aged and is living in that house we are just after -passing and is married to one Kelly. - -Whether all that die go among them I can't say, but it is said they -can take no one without the touch of a Christian hand, or the want of -a blessing from a Christian that would be noticing them. - - -_A North Galway Woman:_ - -There are many young women taken in childbirth. I lost a sister of my -own in that way. - -There's a place in the river at Newtown where there's stepping-stones -in the middle you can get over by, and one day she was crossing, -and there in the middle of the river, and she standing on a stone, -she felt a blow on the face. And she looked round to see who gave -it and there was no one there, so then she knew what had happened, -and she came to the mother's house, and she carrying at the time. I -was a little slip at that time, with my books in my hand coming from -school, and I ran in and said to my mother, "Here's Biddy coming," -and she said, "What would bring her at this time of day?" But she -came in and sat down on a chair and she opened the whole story, and -my mother said to quiet her, "It was only a pain in the ear you got, -and you thought it was a blow." And she said, "I never got a blow -that hurted me like that." And the next day, and every day after -that, the ear would swell a little in the afternoon, and then she -began to eat nothing, and five minutes after her baby was born she -died. And my mother used to watch for her for three or four years -after, thinking she'd come back, but she never did. - - * * * * * - -There was a forth near our house in Meath, and when I was a baby a -woman was carrying me in her arms, and she walked down the four steps -that led into it, and there was a nice garden around it, and she -slipped and fell, and my cheek struck against one of the steps--you can -see the mark yet that I got there. And the woman told my mother and -said, "It's a wonder the child wasn't taken altogether then and there." - -One day I was out digging in the field for my brothers, and there -was a sort of a half-ditch between the oats and the potatoes, and I -was digging it down, and of a sudden a sleep came on me and I lay -down. And I suppose I had been asleep about twenty minutes when I was -waked with a hard clout on the face. And I thought it was one of my -brothers and I called out, "You have no right to give me a clout like -that." But my brother was away down the field, and came when he heard -me calling. And I felt a pain in my side as well, and I went into the -house and didn't leave it for two months after with pleurisy, and the -pain never left me till after I was married. I suppose I must have -been on some way of theirs, or some place that belonged to them and -that was known to be an enchanted place, and my father used often to -see it lighted up with candles. - - -_A Man Herding Sheep:_ - -I'll tell you now what happened to a little one of my own. She was -just five years. And the day I'm speaking of she was running to -school down the path before me, as strong and as funny as the day she -was born, and laughing and looking back at me. And that night she -went to bed as well as ever she was. And it was about eleven o'clock -in the night she awoke and gave a great cry, and she said there was -a great pain in her knee, and it was in no other part of her. And in -the morning she had it yet, and her walk had gone, and I lifted her -and brought her out into the street, and she couldn't walk one step -if you were to give her the three isles of Aran. And she lived for -two nights after that. - -When the doctor came and I told him, he said it was the strangest -case he ever heard of, and the schoolmistress said, "I thought if I'd -brought that child to the hill beyond and threw her down into the sea -it would do her no harm, she was that strong." - -But if such things happen, it happened to her, and touched she was. -It was not death, it was being took away. - - -_An Old Woman in an Aran village:_ - -I'll tell you what happened a son of my own that was so strong and so -handsome and so good a dancer, he was mostly the pride of the island. -And he was that educated that when he was twenty-six years, he could -write a letter to the Queen. And one day a pain came in the thigh, -and a little lump came inside it, and a hole in it that you could -hardly put the point of a pin in, and it was always drawing. And he -took to his bed and was there for eleven months. And every night when -it would be twelve o'clock, he would begin to be singing and laughing -and going on. And what the neighbours said was, that it was at that -hour there was some other left in his place. I never went to any one -or any witchcraft, for my husband wouldn't let me but left it to the -will of God; and anyway at the end of the eleven months he died. - -And his sister was in America, and the same thing came to her there, -a little lump by the side of the face, and she came home to die. But -she died quiet and was like any other in the night. - -And a daughter-in-law of mine died after the second birth, and even -the priest said it was not _dead_ she was, he that was curate then. I -was surprised the priest to say that, for they mostly won't give in -to it, unless it's one that takes a drop of drink. - - -_An Old Man in the Kitchen:_ - -I had a son that it was mostly given in to in Aran to be the best -singer to give out a couple of verses, so that he'd hardly go out of -the house but some one would want to be bringing him into theirs. And -he took sick of a sudden, with a pain in the shoulder. I went to the -doctor and he says, "Does your wife take tea?" "She does when she can -get it;" says I, and he told me then to put the spout of the kettle -to where the pain was. And after that he went to Galway Hospital, but -he got no better there and a Sister of Mercy said to him at last, -"I'm thinking by the look of you, your family at home is poor." -"That's true enough," says he. Then says she: "It's best for you to -stop here, and they'll be free from the cost of burying you." But -he said he'd sooner go die at home, if he had but two days to live -there. So he came back and he didn't last long. It's always the like -of him that's taken, that are good for singing or dancing or for any -good thing at all. And young women are often taken in that way, both -in the middle island and in this. - - -_Patrick Madden:_ - -I'll tell you how I lost the first son I had. He was just three years -old and as fine and as strong as any child you'd see. And one day my -wife said she'd bring the child to her mother's house to stop the -evening with her, for I was going out. And there was a neighbour of -ours, a man that lived near us, and no one was the better of being -spoken to by him. And as they were passing his house he came out, -and he said, "That's the finest child that's in the island." And a -woman that was passing at the same time stopped and said, "It was the -smallest that ever I saw the day it was born, God bless it." And the -mother knew what she meant, and she wanted to say "God bless him," -but it was like as if a hand took and held her throat, and choked -her that she couldn't say the words. And when I came to the mother's -house, and began to make fun with the child, I saw a round mark on -the side of his head, the size of a crown piece. And I said to the -wife, "Why would you beat the child in the head, why don't you get -a little rod to beat him if he wants it?" And she said that she had -never touched him at all. - -And at that time I was very much given to playing cards, and that -night I went out to a friend's house to play. And the wife before -she went to bed broiled a bit of fish and put it on a plate with -potatoes, and put it in a box in the room, for fear it might be -touched by a cat or a rat or such like. But I was late coming in and -didn't mind to eat it. And the next night I was out again. And when -we were playing cards we'd play first with tobacco and we'd go on to -tea, and we'd end up with whiskey. And the next morning when the wife -opened the box she laughed and she said "You didn't drink your tea -when you were out last night, for I see you have your dinner eaten." -And I said, "Why should you say that? I never touched it." And she -held up the plate and showed me that the potatoes were taken off it; -but the fish wasn't touched, for it was a bit of a herring and salty. - -Well, the child was getting sick all the day, and I didn't go out -that evening. And in the night we could hear the noise as if of -scores of rats, going about the room. And every now and again I -struck a light, but so soon as the light was in it we'd hear nothing. -But the noise would begin again as soon as it was dark, and sometimes -it would seem as if they came up on the bed, and I could feel the -weight of them on my chest as if they would smother me. - -And in the morning I chanced to open the box where the dinner used to -be put, and it as big a box as any in Aran, and when I opened it I -saw it was all full of blood, up the sides and to the top, that you -couldn't put your hand in without it getting bloody. I said nothing -but shut the lid down again. But after, when I came into the house, -I saw the wife rubbing at it with a thing they call flannel they got -at Killinny, and I asked her what was she doing, and she said, "I'm -cleaning the box, where it's full of blood." And after that I gave up -the child and I had no more hope for its life. But if they had told -me that about the neighbour speaking to him, I'd have gone over, and -I'd have killed him with my stick, but I'd have made him come and -spit on him. After that we didn't hear the noise the same again, but -we heard like the sound of a clock all through the night and every -night. And the child got a swelling under the feet, and he couldn't -put a foot to the ground. But that made little difference to him, for -he didn't hold out a week. - - * * * * * - -I lost another son after--but he died natural, there was nothing of -that sort. And I have one son remaining now, and one day he went to -sleep out in a field and that's a bad thing to do. And the sister -found him there, and when she woke him he couldn't get up hardly, or -move his hand, and she had to help him to the house. - - -_Pat Doherty:_ - -I know a gentleman too got the touch, one of the Butlers. It was on -a day he made a great leap he got it. And he went to the bed and for -three or four days he couldn't stir, and red marks came out over him -shaped like a bow. And then I went for the priest and brought him to -see him, and when he heard of the marks, "I'm as bad as that myself," -he said, making fun; "for I'm after making a journey in a curragh." -But when the clothes were stripped back and he saw his skin, "Oh, -murder!" he said, and he put on his stole and got out a book. And he -said, "Did you hear what I did to the man at Iona? He went to the -well with a tin can for water, and when he got to the well, a few -yards away from it, it was spilled. And he went back and filled it -again, and the second time at the well it was spilled, and he fell -along with it, and he got a little cut in the fall, and he began to -bleed, and all the people said as much blood as would be in three men -came away from him. And they sent for me, and the minute I came the -bleeding stopped, and he was all right again and the cut closed up." - -And then he put his head down and what he read I don't know, but he -hardly got to the turn of the road outside the house, when the boy -stood up from the bed and asked for something to eat. - - * * * * * - -Another time I was drawing turf that came in the boats from Connemara -to Kilronan pier. And of a sudden there came a swelling in my arm, -and it was next day the size of an egg, and it turned black. And I -couldn't lift the arm, and Healy the coast-guard said to me to go to -Doctor Lydon. And I said I would, but in the way I met with Father -Jordan and I showed it to him. And he said; "What do you want with -your Healy and your Lydons? Let me see it." And he pressed his hand -on it two or three times like that, and the swelling began to go, and -when I got home they were clearing weed on the shore, and I was able -to go down and to give them a hand with it. - - -_A Piper:_ - -There was a cousin of my own used to feel some heavy thing coming on -him in the bed in the night time. And he went to the friars at Esker -to take it off of him, and they took it off. But Father Williams -said, "If this is gone from you some other thing will be put on you." -And sure enough it wasn't a twelvemonth after, he was carting planks -and the horse fell, and the planks fell on his foot and broke it in -two pieces. And after that again he got a fall, over some stones, and -he died with throwing off blood. - -I had a fall myself in Galway the other day that I couldn't move -my arm to play the pipes if you gave me Ireland. And a man said to -me--and they are very smart people in Galway--that two or three got a -fall and a hurt in that same place. "There is places in the sea where -there is drowning," he said, "and places on the land as well where -there do be accidents, and no man can save himself from them, for it -is the Will of God." - - -_Mrs. Scanlon:_ - -Some people call Mrs. Tobin "Biddy Early." She has done a good many -cures. Her brother was _away_ for a while and it was from him she -got the knowledge. I believe that it's before sunrise that she -gathers the herbs, anyway no one ever saw her gathering them. (_Note_ -38.) She has saved many a woman from being brought away when their -child was born, by whatever she does. She told me herself that one -night when she was going to the lodge gate to attend the woman there, -three magpies came before her and began roaring into her mouth, to -try to drive her back. Father Folan must know about her, but he is a -dark man and says nothing, and anyway the priests know as much, and -are as much in dread as any one else. - -I wish I had sent for her for my own little boy. It's often he asked -me to bring him to the friars at Loughrea. But he never would tell -how or where he got the touch. It came like a lump in the back, and -he got weaker and smaller till you could put him into a tin can, and -he twenty years. Often I asked him about it, but he'd say nothing. I -believe that they are afraid to tell or they would be worse treated. -I asked him was it at the jumping, for they used to be jumping over a -pole, and he said it was not, and that he never took a jump that was -too much for him. - -But some that saw his back said he had been beat. And when the Doctor -came in to see him, he was lying on the bed, and he turned him over -and looked at him and said, "If he had all Lady Gregory's estate he -couldn't live a week." And sure enough within five days he died. And -many of the neighbours said they never heard such a storm of wind as -rose about the house that night. I never saw him since, and I went -late and early, in the mill and down by the river. But it's maybe a -hundred or two hundred miles he was brought away. - - -_Tom Flatley:_ - -There is a priest now, a curate down in Cloughmore, is doing great -cures. There is often silence between him and the parish priest, Father -Rock, for he wouldn't like him to be doing them. There was a little -chap went to bed one night as well as yourself, and in the morning he -rose up with one of his ears as deaf as that he wouldn't hear you if -he died. And the mother brought him to Father Dolan and he came out as -well as ever he was. It was but a fortnight ago that happened, and I -didn't hear did the misfortune fall on any of the stock. - -But wherever there is a cure something will go, and what would a -sheep or a heifer be beside a misfortune on a child? - -There was a priest near Ennis, a woman I knew went to for a cure, -and he wouldn't do it. "_Tha me bocht_," he said, "I am poor, but I -will not do it." "I will pay you well," said the woman. "I will not -do it," said he, "for my heart was killed two years ago with one I -did. And it isn't money I'd ask of you if I did it," he said, "but to -offer you my blessing and the blessing of God." - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -There was a woman down by the sea that had a very severe time when her -baby was born, and they did not think she or the baby would live after. -So the husband went and brought Father Rivers and he said, "Which would -you sooner lose--the wife or the child--for one must go?" And the -husband said, "If the wife is taken I might as well close the door." -And then Father Rivers said, "She's going up and down like the swinging -of a clock, but for all that I'll strive to keep her for you, but maybe -you must lose two or more." So he read some prayers over her, and the -next day the baby died, and a fine cow out in the field, but the woman -recovered and is living still. But Father Rivers died within two years. -They never live long when they do these cures, because that they say -prayers that they ought not to say. - - * * * * * - -There's Father Heseltine of Killinan has lost his health and no -person knows where he is. They say he's gone abroad because he did a -cure on one of his sisters. - - -_Mrs. Cassilis:_ - -A young mare I lost. It was on the 15th August, something came on it -in the field, and it did no good, and the son was tending it. And on -S. Colman's Day he was taken with a weakness in the chapel that they -had to bring him home, and he did not go fasting to the chapel. He -got well, but the mare died. I didn't mind that, I knew something -must go, and it was better the mare to go than the son. - -There were many said, the mare not to have died there would be no -chance for him. So I am well content, for whatever way we'll struggle -we might get another mare. But a person to go, there is no one for -you to get in his place. - - -_A County Galway Magistrate:_ - -That time I was laid up at Luke Manning's they sent for Father -Heseltine to "read a gospel" over me. He said when he came in, "You'll -lose something tonight." I heard him say this, but what he read over me -I don't know, it seemed a sort of muttering. At all events I got well -after it, and the next morning, a sheep was found dead. - - -_Pat Hayden:_ - -My father was gardener here at Coole in the time of Mr. Robert's -grandfather. He was sick one time, and he thought to go to the -friars at Esker for a cure, and he asked Mr. Gregory for the loan -of a horse, and he bade him to take it. So he saddled and bridled -the horse, and he set out one morning and went to the friars, and -whatever they did they cured him, and he came back again. But in the -morning the horse was found dead in the stable. I suppose whatever -they took off him they put upon the horse. And when Mr. Gregory came -out in the morning, "How is Pat?" he says to one of the men. "Pat -is well," says he, "but the horse he brought with him is dead in the -stable." "So long as Pat is well," said Mr. Gregory, "I wouldn't mind -if five horses in the stable were dead." - - -_Mrs. Manning:_ - -There was a friar in Esker could do cures. Many I've seen brought to -him tied in a cart, and able to walk home after. Father Callaghan he -was. There was one man brought to him, wrong in his head he was, and -he cured him and he gave him some sort of a Gospel rolled up, and bid -him to put it about his neck, and never to take it off. Well, he went -to America after that and was as well as another and got work, and sent -home L10 one time to Father Callaghan he was that grateful to him. - -But one day in America he was shaving, and whether he cut the string -or that he took it off I don't know, but he laid the charm down on a -table. And when he looked for it again, if he was to burn the house -down he couldn't find it. And it all came back on him again, and he -was as bad as he was before. - -So the wife wrote home to Father Callaghan, and he sent out another -thing of the same sort; and bid him wear it, and from the time he put -it on, he got well again. A priest has the power to do cures, but if -he does he can keep nothing, one thing will die after another. - -Biddy Early could do the same thing, she had to cast the sickness on -some other thing--it might be a dog or a goat or a bird. - - * * * * * - -Priests can do cures if they will, but they are afraid to do them -because their stock will die, and because they are afraid of loss -in the other world as well as in this. There's a neighbour of your -own lost his milch cow the other day for a small one he did,--Father -Mulhall that is. - - * * * * * - -There was Father Rivers was called in to a woman that was bad, -between Roxborough and Dunsandle. And he said to the father, "Which -would you sooner keep, the wife or the child?" And he said, "Sure -I'd sooner have the wife than all the children of the world." So -Father Rivers went in and cured her so that she got well, but he put -whatever she had on the son, so that he grew up an idiot. Harmless he -used to be, not doing much. Well, when he came to twenty years, the -mother said, "Come outside into the field, and cut the eyes of a few -stone of potatoes for me." But he took up the graip that was at the -door and made at her to kill her. And she ran in and shut the door, -and then he made for the window and broke it. And at that time Mr. -Singleton from Ceramina was passing by, and he stopped and called -some men and they took him and took the graip from him, and he was -brought away to Ballinasloe Asylum, but he didn't live more than six -months after. Waiting all that time he was to do his revenge, but -hadn't the power to do it till the twenty years were up. - - * * * * * - -There is a man that is living strong and well in the village of Lochlan -and that has sixteen or seventeen children, and one time something came -on him and he wore away till there was no more strength in him than -in that thraneen. And there was an old woman used to be doing cures -with herbs, and he sent for her, and she went out into the field and -she picked two or three leaves of a plant she knew of. And as she was -carrying it through the fields to the house she fell dead. - -And his strength came back to him when the death fell on her and he -was as well and as strong as ever he was. I will bring you three of -those leaves if I have to walk two miles--three-cornered leaves they -are (penny royal). No harm will come upon me, for I am nothing but an -old hag. Before sunrise they must be picked, and the best day to do -it is a Friday. - - -_An Old Army Man:_ - -I knew a man had charms for headache and for toothache and other -things, and he did a great many cures, but all his own children began -to die. So then he put away the charms, and made a promise not to do -cures for others again; and after that he lost no more children. - - * * * * * - -Priests can do cures as well as Biddy Early did, and there was a -man of the neighbours digging potatoes in that field beyond, and -a woman passed by, and she never said anything. And presently the -top of his fingers got burned off, and he called out with the pain, -a blast he got from her as she passed. Often he'd come into this -house, and crying out with the hurt of the pain. And at last he went -to the priests at Esker, and they cured him, but they said, "Your -own priests could have done the same for you." And when he came back -there were two cows dead. - -And the same thing when Carey's wife--that is a tenant of your -own--was sick, they called in Father Gardiner and he cured her, and -he told them to watch by her for two or three days. And then the -priest went out to see the stabling, and Carey with him, for Carey -had always a pair of good horses. And when they went into the stable, -the horses were dead before them. - - * * * * * - -It was Flaherty gave his life for my sister that was his wife. When -she fell sick he brought her to Biddy Early in the mountains beyond. -And she cured her the first time. But she said, "If you bring her -again, you'll pay the penalty." But when she fell sick again he -brought her, but he stopped a mile from the house. But she knew it -well, and told the wife where he was, and that time the horse died. -But the third time she fell sick he went again, knowing full well -he'd pay the penalty; and so he did and died. But she was cured; and -married one O'Dea afterwards. - -The priests know well about these things, but they won't let on to -have seen them, and the people don't much like to be telling them -about them. But there was Father Gallagher that did cures by means of -them, and at last he got a touch himself, and was sent for a while to -an asylum, and now he has promised to leave them alone. Fallen angels -some say they are. I know a man that saw them hurling up there in -Hanlon's field. Red caps they wore and looked very diminutive, but -they were hurling away like Old Boots. - - * * * * * - -The way the bad luck came on Tom Hurley was when a cow fell sick on -him and lay like dead. He had a right to leave it or to kill it; but -the father-in-law cut a bit off the leg of it and it rose again, and -they sold it for seven pounds at the fair of Tubber. But he had no -luck since then, but lost four or five head of cattle, near all that -he owned. - - * * * * * - -There was a man did a cure on his son that came from America sick. -He didn't like to see him ailing, and one night he did the cure. But -before sunrise the sight of one of his eyes was gone. - - -_A Mountainy Man:_ - -There's some people living about three miles from here on Slieve-Mor, -and they came from the North at the time of the famine, and they can -do cures, but they don't like to say much about it--for the people of -the North all have it. Their names are natural, McManus, and Irwin -and Taylor. There's one of them gave a cure for a man that was sick, -and he grew better, but a calf died. And the son was going to him -again, but the mother said: "Let him alone, let him die, or we'll -lose all the stock"; for she'd sooner have the husband die than any -other beast. So the son was out and he met the man, and he said, "It -is to me you're coming?" And the son said it was, for he didn't like -to tell about what his mother said or about the death of the calf. -So the man got him a bottle, and said he'd come home with him, but -when they were on the road they met some one that spoke of the death -of the calf. So when the man heard that, he was angry and he said, -"If I knew that I wouldn't have helped you," and he broke the bottle -against the wall. So the father died, and the wife kept the stock--a -very unkind woman she was. - - * * * * * - -There was a woman of my village never put a shoe on her feet from the -time of her birth till the time of her death. Doing a penance she -said she was. And she never married and would never eat meat. - - * * * * * - -As to cures, there's none can do them like the priests can, if they -will. There was a woman I knew, and her little boy was sick and -couldn't move. And she got the priest to come and do a cure on him, -but no one knew what he did. And often he said to the woman: "You -have a horse and a pony, and which do you value the most?" And she -said she valued the pony the most. And next day the horse had died, -but the little boy got well. - - -_A Man of the Islands:_ - -There's an old woman here now--there she is passing the road--that -does cures with herbs. But last year she got a sore hand and she had -to go to the hospital, and before she came back they took two fingers -off her. And there's no luck about bone-setters either. There's one -here on the island and a good many go to him. But he had but one son -and he never did any good, and now he's gone away from him. - - -_John Curtis:_ - -When Father Callan was a curate he did a cure for me one time for my -cattle, and I gave him half a sovereign in his hand for it, in this -road. It was the time I had so much trouble, and my brothers trying -to rob me, and but for our landlord I wouldn't have kept the farm. -And all my stock began to die. There was hardly a day I'd come out -but I'd see maybe two or three sheep lying there in the field with -froth at their mouths, and they turning black. The same thing was -happening Tommy Hare's stock, and he went to Father Callan and he -came to the house and read some sort of a Mass and took the sickness -off them. So then I went to him myself, and he said he'd read a Mass -in the chapel for me, and so he did. And the stock were all right -from that time, and the day he came to see them and that I gave him -the money, there ran a dog out of Roche's house and came behind the -priest and gave him a bite in the leg, that he had to go to Dublin to -cut it out. Why did the dog do it? He did it because he was mad when -he saw the stock getting well. And weren't the Roches queer people -that they wouldn't kill the dog when the priest wanted it, the way -he'd be in no danger if the dog would go mad after? - - - - - IV - - AWAY - - - - - IV - - AWAY - - -_Pwyll, Prince of Dyved ... let loose the dogs in the wood and -sounded the horn and began the chase. And as he followed the dogs he -lost his companions; and while he listened to the hounds he heard the -cry of other hounds, a cry different from his own, and coming in the -opposite direction.... And he saw a horseman coming towards him on a -large light-grey steed with a hunting horn round his neck, and clad -in garments of grey woollen in the fashion of a hunting garb, and -the horseman drew near and spoke to him thus:... "A crowned King I -am in the land whence I come.... There is a man whose dominions are -opposite to mine, who is ever warring against me, and by ridding me -of this oppression which thou can'st easily do, shalt thou gain my -friendship." "Gladly will I do this," said he. "Show me how I may." -"I will show thee. Behold, thus it is thou mayest. I will send thee -to Annwyvn in my stead, and I will give thee the fairest lady thou -didst ever behold to be thy companion, and I will put my form and -semblance upon thee, so that not a page of the chamber nor an officer -nor any other man that has always followed me shall know that it is -not I. And this shall be for the space of a year from tomorrow and -then we will meet in this place." ... "Verily," said Pwyll, "what -shall I do concerning my kingdom?" Said Arawn: "I will cause that no -one in all thy dominions, neither man nor woman, shall know that I am -not thou, and I will go there in thy stead."_--"The Mabinogion." - - -_I was told by a Man of Slieve Echtge:_ - -That girl of the Cohens that was away seven year, she was bid tell -nothing of what she saw, but she told her mother some things and told -of some she met there. There was a woman--a cousin of my own--asked -was her son over there, and she had to press her a long time, but at -last she said he was. And he was taken too with little provocation, -fifty years ago. We were working together, myself and him and a lot -of others, making that trench you see beyond, to drain the wood. And -it was contract work, and he was doing the work of two men and was -near ready to take another piece. And some of them began to say to -him, "It's a shame for you to be working like that, and taking the -bread out of the hands of another," and I standing there. And he -said he didn't care, and he took the spade and sent the scraws out -flying, to the right and to the left. And he never put a spade into -the ground again, for that night he was taken ill, and died shortly -after. Watched he was, and taken by _them_. - - * * * * * - -As to the woman brought back again, it was told me by a boy going to -school there at the time, so I know there's no lie in it. It was -one of the Taylors, a rich family in Scariff. His wife was sick and -pining away for seven years, and at the end of that time one day he -came in he had a drop of drink taken, and he began to be a bit rough -with her. And she said, "Don't be rough with me now, after bearing -so well with me all these seven years. But because you were so good -and so kind to me all that time," says she, "I'll go away from you -now and I'll let your own wife come back to you." And so she did, for -it was some old hag she was, and the wife came back again and reared -a family. And before she went away, she had a son that was reared a -priest, and after she came back, she had another son that was reared -a priest, so that shows a blessing came on them. (_Note_ 39.) - - -_A Man on the Beach:_ - -I remember when a great many young girls were taken, it is likely by -_them_. And two year ago two fine young women were brought away from -Aranmor one in a month and one in a week after the birth. And lately I -heard that her own little girl and another little girl that was with -her saw one of them appear in a cabin outside when she came to have a -look at the child she left, but she didn't want to appear herself. - - -_John Flatley:_ - -There was a man I knew, Andy White, had a little chap, a little -_summach_ of four years. And one day Andy was away to sell a pig in -the market at Mount Bellew, and the mother was away someplace with -the dinner for the men in the field, and the little chap was in the -house with the grandmother, and he sitting by the fire. And he said -to the grandmother: "Put down a skillet of potatoes for me, and an -egg." And she said: "I will not; what do you want with them, sure -you're not long after eating." And he said, "Take care but I'll throw -you over the roof of the house." And then he said, "Andy"--that was -his father--"is after selling the pig to a jobber, and the jobber -has it given back to him again, and he'll be at no loss by that, for -he'll get a half-a-crown more at the end." So when the grandmother -heard that she wouldn't stop in the house with him but ran out, and -he only four years old. - -When the mother came back and was told about it she went out and she -got some of the leaves of the Lus-Mor, and she brought them in and -put them on him; and he went, and her own child came back again. They -didn't see him going or the other coming, but they knew it by him. -But if her child had died among them, and they can die there as well -as in this world, then he wouldn't come back, but that shape in his -place would take the appearance of death. - - -_Mrs. Cooke:_ - -There's a man in Kildare that lost his wife. And every night at -twelve o'clock she came back, to look at her child. And it was told -the husband that if he had twelve men with him with forks when she -came in, they would be able to stop her from going out again. - -So the next night he was there, and with him his twelve friends with -forks. And when she came in they shut the door, and when she could -not get out she sat down and was quiet. - -And one night she was sitting by the hearth with them all, she said -to her husband, "It's a strange thing that Lenchar would be sitting -there so quiet, with the bottom after being knocked out of his churn." - -So the husband went to Lenchar's house, and he found it was true -what she had said, and the bottom was after being knocked out of -his churn. But after that he left her, and lived in the village and -wouldn't go near her any more. - - * * * * * - -Myself, I saw when I was but a child a woman come to the door that -had been seven years with the good people, but do you think that -could be true? And she had two strong girls with her. My brother was -ill at the time, where he had his hip hurt with the shaft of a cart -he was backing into the shed, and my father asked her could she cure -him. And she said, "I will, if you will give me the reward I ask -for." "What is that?" said he. And she stooped down and pointed at a -little kettle that stood below the dresser, and it was the last thing -my mother had bought in this world before she died. So he was vexed -because she cast her eye on that, and he bid her go out of the house -for she wouldn't get it, and so she went away. - -But I remember well her being there and telling us that while the -seven years were going by, she was often glad to come outside the -houses in the night-time, and pick a bit of what was in the pigs' -troughs. And she bid us always to leave a bit somewhere about the -house for them that couldn't come in and ask for it. And though my -father was a cross man and didn't believe in such things, to the day -of his death he never dared to go up to bed without leaving a bit of -food outside the door. (_Note_ 40.) - - -_A Herd:_ - -The McGarritys in the house beyond, they have plenty of money. It was -money they got _out_, buried money, and _they_ are after them. - -There is one of them--Ned--is rather silly; I meet him often on the -farm stretched by the side of the wall. He met with something one -night and he is not the same since then. - -There is another of them was walking one evening by the brink of the -bushes and he met with two fillies--he thought them to be fillies--and -one of them called out, "How are you, John?" and he legged it home as -fast as he could. It is likely it was the father or the uncle. - -Sure leaving town one time he was brought away to the railway -station, and some of the people brought him hither again and set him -towards home and he was brought back to the very same place. They -had a right to have got the priest to say a few Masses in that house -before they went to live in it at all. - -It was the time their uncle was dying there was a whistle heard -outside and the man in the bed answered it, and it was that very -night he died. To keep money you would get _out_ like, that is not -right unless you might give the first of it in a few Masses. It was -the man the money was took from gave that whistle. - - -_Mrs. Donnely:_ - -My mother told me that when she was a young girl, and before the -time of side-cars, a man that was living in Duras married a girl -from Ardrahan side. And it was the custom in those days for a newly -married girl to ride home on a horse, behind her next-of-kin. - -And she was sitting behind her uncle on the horse, and when they were -passing by Ardrahan churchyard he felt her to shiver and nearly to -slip off the horse, and he put his hand behind for to support her, -and all he could feel in his hand was for all the world like a piece -of tow. So he asked her what ailed her, and she said that she thought -of her mother when she was passing by the churchyard. A year after -that when her baby was born, then she died. But everyone said the -night she was taken was on her wedding-night. - -And sure a sister-in-law of my own was taken the same way that poor -Mrs. Hehir was. It was a couple of days after her baby was born, and -I went to see her, and she Fardy's daughter and niece to Johnson that -has the demesne land. And she was sitting up on the bed and so well -and so strong that her mother says to me, "Catherine, try could you -get a chicken any place; I think she'll be able to eat it tomorrow." -"Chicken's is scarce, ma'am," says I, "but anyway I'll do my best and -someway or other I'll find one." - -Well, after that we left, and her husband being tired with the nights -he'd been sitting up came with us to sleep at the house of his uncle, -Johnson. And hardly had he got to the house when bad news followed -him. And when he got home his wife was dead before him. Hardly were -we out of the house when she said to her mother "Take off my boots." -"Sure, you have no boots on," said the mother. "Well," says she, "lay -me at the foot of the bed." And presently she says, "Send in to the -McInerneys and ask them if the coffin they have is a better one than -mine." And the mother saw she was going, and sent for the husband, -but she was gone before he could come. And she so well and sitting up -in the bed. But Hehir's wife was out of bed altogether, and brought -her husband his tea in the hayfield before she was took. - - * * * * * - -And now I'll tell your ladyship a story that's all truth and no lie. -There was an uncle of my own living near Kinvara, and one night his -wife was coming home from Kinvara town, and she passed three men that -were lying by the roadside. And the first of them said to her in -Irish, "Go home, my poor woman." And the second said, "Go home if you -can." And when she got home and told the story, she said the voice of -the second was like the voice of her brother that was dead. - -And from that day she began to waste away, and was wasting for -seven year, until she died. And at the last some person said to her -husband, "It's time for you to ask her what way she's been spending -these seven years." - -So he went into the room where she was on the bed, and said, "I -believe it's time to ask you now what way have you been spending -these seven years." And she said, "I'll tell you presently when you -come in again, but leave me now for a while." And he went back into -the kitchen and took his pipe for to have a smoke before he'd go back -and ask her again. And the servant girl that was in the house was the -first to go into the room, and found her cold and dead before her. - -They had her took away before she had the time to tell what she had -been doing all those seven years. - - -_J. Kenny:_ - -I was in a house one night with a man used to go away with the -faeries. He got up in the night and opened the house door and went -out. About four hours he was away, and when he came back he seemed -to be very angry. I saw him putting off his clothes. - - -_Nora Whelan:_ - -Indeed Moneen has a great name for things that do be going on there -beside that big forth. Sure there's many can hear them galloping, -galloping all the night. You know Stephen's house at the meadow? -Well, his daughter got a touch from them one night when she heard -them going past with horses and with carriages, and she the only one -in the house that felt them. She got silly like for a bit, but she's -getting better now. - - * * * * * - -An old woman from Loughrea told me that a woman, I believe it was from -Shragwalla close to the town, was taken away one time for fourteen -years when she went out into the field at night with nothing on but her -shift. And she was swept there and then, and an old hag put into the -bed in her place, and she suckling her young son at the time. - -It was a great many years after that, there was a pedlar used to be -going about, and in his travels he went to England. And up in the -north of England he saw a rich house and went into the kitchen of it, -and there he saw that same woman, in a corner working. And he went up -to her and said, "I know where you come from." "Where's that?" says -she, and he gave her the name of her own village. Well, she laughed -and she went out of the kitchen, and I don't know did she buy -anything from him. But anyhow not long after that she come back and -walked into her own house. - -The husband never knew her, but the boy that was then fourteen year -come up and touched her, and the father cried out, "Leave off putting -your hand to that fine dress," for she had very rich clothes on. But -she stood up and said, "I'm no other than your wife come back again, -and the first thing you have to do is to bring in all you can carry -of turf, and to make a big fire here in the middle of the floor." - -Well, the old hag was in the room within, in the bed where she'd been -lying a long time, and they thinking she was dying. And when the -smoke of the fire went in at the door she jumps up and away with her -out of the house, and tale or tidings of her they never had again. - -My mother often told me about her sister's child--my cousin--that -used to spend the nights in the big forth at Moneen. Every night she -went there, and she got thin and tired like. She used to say that she -saw grand things there, and the horses galloping and the riding. But -then she'd say, "I must tell no more than that, or I'll get a great -beating." She wasted away, but one night they were so sure that she -was dead they had the pot boiling full of water to wash her. But she -recovered again and lived five years after that. - - * * * * * - -Sure there was a faery in the house out beyond fourteen years. Katie -Morgan she was called. She never kept the bed, but she'd sit in the -corner of the kitchen on a mat, and from a good stout lump of a girl -that she was she wasted to nothing, and her teeth grew as long as -your fingers and then they dropped out. And she'd eat nothing at all -only crabs and sour things. And she'd never leave the house in the -day-time, but in the night she'd go out and pick things out of the -fields she could eat. And the hurt she got or whatever it was touched -her, it was one day that she was swinging on the corner gate just -there by the forth. She died as quiet as another. But you wouldn't -like to be looking at her after the teeth fell out. - - -_Martin Rabitt:_ - -There's some people it's lucky to meet and others it's unlucky, and -if you set off to go to America or around the world, and one of the -unlucky ones comes and speaks to you on the boat, you might as well -turn back and come home again. - -My own sister was taken away, she and her husband within twenty-four -hours, and not a thing upon them, and she with a baby a week old. -Well, the care of that child fell on me, and sick or sorry it never -was but thriving always. - -And a friend of mine told me the same thing. His wife was taken away in -child-birth--and the five children she left that did be always ailing -and sickly--from that day there never was a hap'orth ailed them. - -Did the mother come back to care them? Sure and certain she did, and -I'm the one can tell that. For I slept in the room with my sister's -child after she dying; and as sure as I stand here talking to you, -she was back in the room that night. - -Walking towards nightfall myself, I've seen the shadows dancing -before me, but I wasn't afeared, no more than I am of you. And I've -felt them other times crying and groaning about the house. - - * * * * * - -As to the faeries, up beyond Ballymore there's a woman that was said -to be with them for seven years. But she came back after that and had -an impediment in her speech ever since. - - -_Martin King:_ - -There's a little forth on this side of Clough behind Glyn's house, and -there was a boy in Clough was said to have passed a night and a day -in it. I often saw him, and he was dull looking, but for cleverness -there was no one could touch him. I saw a picture of a train he drew -one time, with not a bolt nor a ha'porth left out; and whatever he put -his hand to he could do it, and he with no more teaching than any other -poor boy in the town. I believe that he went to America afterwards. - - * * * * * - -And I remember a boy was about my own age over at Annagh at the other -side of the water, and it's said that he was away for two years. -Anyway for all that time he was sick in bed, and no one ever saw bit -or sup cross his lips in all that time, though the food that was -left in the room would disappear, whatever happened it. He recovered -after and went to America. - - * * * * * - -There was a girl near taken, in the Prestons' house. I saw her myself -in the bed, near gone. But of a sudden she sat up and looked on the -floor and began to curse, and then they left her for they can't bear -curses. They have the hope of Heaven or they wouldn't leave one on -the face of the earth, and they are afraid of God. They'll not do you -much harm if you leave them alone; it's best not to speak to them at -all if you should meet them. If they bring any one away they'll leave -some old good-for-nothing thing in its place, and the same way with a -cow or a calf or such things. But a sheep or a lamb it's beyond their -power to touch, because of our Lord. - - -_An Old Butcher:_ - -I was born myself by daylight, and my mother often told me that I'd -never see anything worse than myself. There's some can see those -things and some that can't. - -But one time I went up by the parish of Killisheen to look for -half-beef, I having at the time a contract for the workhouse. And I -went astray on the mountains, and near Killifin I came to a weaver's -house and went in. And there was sitting in the corner such a -creature as I never saw before, with nothing on him but a shirt, and -eyes that would go through you. And I wouldn't stop in the house but -went out again. And the weaver followed me and says he, "Is it afraid -of him you are?" "It is," says I. "I thought you would be," says he, -"and would you believe that he's my own son, and as fine a young chap -as ever you seen until seven year ago when I sent him to Clough on -a message, and he fell going over a wall, and it's then he got the -touch, and it's like this he's been ever since." "Does he ask to eat -much?" says I. "He'd eat the whole world," says he. "Then it's not -your son that's in it, you may be sure of that," says I, and I turned -and went away and never went back there again. - -And it's not many year ago that such a lot of fine women were taken -from Clough, very sudden, after childbirth--fine women--I knew them -all myself. And I'll tell you a thing I heard of in the country. -There was a woman died, and left her child. And every night at twelve -o'clock she'd come back, and brought it out of the bed to the fire, -and she'd comb it and wash it. And at last six men came and watched -and stopped her at the door, and she went very near to tear them all -asunder. But they got the priest, and he took it off her. Well, the -husband had got another wife, and the priest came and asked him would -he put her away, and take the first again. And so he did, and he -brought her to the chapel to be married to her again, and the whole -congregation saw her there. That was rather hard on the second wife? -Well, but wasn't it a great thing for the first poor creature to be -brought back? Sure there's many of those poor souls wandering about. - -Sure enough, some are brought away and kept for years, but sometimes -they come back again. There was a woman beyond at Cahirmacun was away -for a year, and came back and reared a family after. They know well -what happened them, but they don't speak of it. There was a young -fellow got a touch there near Ballytown, and a little chap met him -wandering in the field. And he bid him put out food for him every -night, for he had none of their food ate yet, and so they hadn't got -full power over him. So food was left for him, and after a time he -came back as well as another. - - -_A Connemara man:_ - -There are many that die and don't go out of the world at all. The -priests know that. There was a boy dying in a house up the road, and -the priest came to him and he was lying as if dead, that he could -not speak nor hear, and the priest said, "_The boys_ have a hand in -this." He meant by that, the faeries. I was outside the house myself -at the time, for the boy was a friend of mine, and I didn't like him -to die. And you never saw such a storm as arose when the priest was -coming to the house, a storm of wind, and a cloud over the moon. But -after a while the boy died, and the storm went down and the moon -shone out as bright as before. - -There was a man was said to go away of nights with _them_. When he -got the call, away he must go if he liked it or not. - -And one day he was out in the bay with some others, and all of a sudden -he said, "Let me go home, my horse is like to die." And they wouldn't -mind him for a time, but at last they turned and rowed home, and they -found his horse that was well when he went out, stretched on the field. - -Another time he was with a man that had a grand three-year-old filly -and was showing it to him. And he said, "You won't have her long"; -and it wasn't long after that she died. - - -_Mrs. Feeney:_ - -There was a man died and his wife died, and an uncle took charge of -the children. The man had a shop but the uncle lived a little way -from the shop, and he would leave the children alone through the -night. There were two men making a journey, and a storm rose up, and -they asked could they have a part of the night in the house where the -shop was, and the uncle said they could, and he went to his own house. - -The men were sitting up by the fire and the children were sleeping at -the other side of the room. And one of the men said to the other "God -rest the soul of the man that died here. He was a good man." And the -other said, "The wife wasn't so good." And just then they heard a noise -below, and they saw the wife that had died coming into the room and -she went across and lay down on the bed where the baby was. And the -baby that was crying before got quiet then and made no sound at all. - -But as to the two men, bad as the storm was outside, they thought -better to be out in it than to stop in the room where the woman was, -so they went away. It was to quiet the baby she used to come back. - - * * * * * - -There was an old woman I remember, Mrs. Sheridan, and she had to -go with them for two or three hours every night for a while, and -she'd make great complaints of the hardship she'd meet with, and how -she'd have to spend the night going through little boreens or in the -churchyard at Kinvara, or they'd bring her down to the seashore. They -often meet with hardships like that, those they bring with them, so -it's no wonder they're glad to get back. This world's the best. - - * * * * * - -There was a woman living over there near Aughsulis, and a few years -ago she lost a fine young milch cow, with its first calf. And she -and the three boys in the house salted it down and they ate the half -of it and they couldn't eat the other half, it was too hard or too -tough, and they put it under the dung that was in the yard, the way -it would melt into it. And when the springtime came, they turned up -the dung, and in the place it was buried they found nothing but three -planks of the wood that's cut in Connemara--deal they call it. So -the cow never died, but was brought away with _themselves_. For many -a young boy and young woman goes like that, and there's no doubt at -all that Mary Hynes was taken. There's some living yet can remember -her coming to the pattern was there beyond, and she was said to be -the handsomest girl in Ireland. (_Note_ 41.) - - * * * * * - -There's a man now living between this place and Kinvara, Fannen his -name is, and he goes away with them, and he's got delicate and silly -like. One night he was in that bad place that's near the chapel of -Kinvara, and he found a great crowd of them about him and a man on a -white horse was with them, and tried to keep him, and he cried and -struggled and they let him go at last. But now the neighbours all -say he does be going with them, and he told me himself he does. I -wouldn't be afraid of him when I'd meet him on the road, but many of -the neighbours would be afraid. - -And two of his sons have got silly. They found a bar of gold one time -out playing in the field, and the money they got for it they put -it in the bank. But I believe it's getting less now, and what good -did it do them when they went like that? One of the boys was to be -a priest, but they had to give that up when he got silly. It was no -right money. And they'd best not have touched it. - - -_Mrs. Finnegan:_ - -Dreams, we should not pay too much attention to, and we should judge -them well, that is, if a dream is bad or good, we should say "It's a -good dream"; and we should never tell a dream to anyone fasting; and -it's said if you tell your dream to a tree fasting, it will wither -up. And it's better to dream of a person's downfall than of him being -up. When the good people take a cow or the like, you'll know if they -did it by there being no fat on what's left in its place and no eyes -in it. When my own springer died so sudden this year, I was afraid -to use it. But Pat Hevenor said, "It's a fool you are, and it might -save you the price of a bag of meal to feed the bonifs with a bit of -it." And he brought the cart and brought it home to me. So I put down -a bit to boil for the bonifs to try it, for I heard that if it was -_their_ work, it would go to water. But there was fat rising to the -top, that I have enough in the shed to grease the cart wheels for a -year. So then I salted a bit of it down. - -If they take any one with them, yourself or myself it might be, -they'll put some old spent man in his place, that they had with them -a long time, and the father and the mother and the children will -think it is the child or the father or the mother that is in it. And -so it may be he'd get absolution. But as for the old faeries that -were there from the beginning, I don't know about them. (_Note_ 42.) - -It's said that if we know how to be neighbourly with them, they'd be -neighbourly and friendly with us. It's said it was they brought away -the potatoes in the bad time, when all the potatoes turned black. But -it wasn't for spite, it was because they wanted them themselves. - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -There was a woman in Ballinamore died after the baby being born. -And the husband took another wife and she very young, that everyone -wondered she'd like to go into the house. And every night the first -wife came to the loft, and looked down at her baby, and they couldn't -see her; but they'd know she was there by the child looking up and -smiling at her. - -So at last some one said that if they'd go up in the loft after the -cock crowing three times they'd see her. And so they did, and there -she was, with her own dress on, a plaid shawl she had brought from -America, and a cotton skirt with some edging at the bottom. - -So they went to the priest, and he said Mass in the house, and they -didn't see so much of her after that. But after a year, the new wife -had a baby. And one day she bid the first child to rock the cradle. -But when she sat down to it, a sort of a sickness came over her, and -she could do nothing, and the same thing always happened, for her -mother didn't like to see her caring the second wife's baby. - -And one day the wife herself fell in the fire and got a great many -burns, and they said that it was _she_ did it. - -So they went to the blessed well Tubbermacduagh near Kinvara, and -they were told to go there every Friday for twelve weeks, and they -said seven prayers and gathered seven stones every time. And since -then she doesn't come to the house, but the little girl goes out -and meets her mother at a faery bush. And sometimes she speaks to -her there, and sometimes in her dreams. But no one else but her own -little girl has seen her of late. - - * * * * * - -There was one time a tailor, and he was a wild card, always going to -sprees. And one night he was passing by a house, and he heard a voice -saying, "Who'll take the child?" And he saw a little baby held out, -and the hands that were holding it, but he could see no more than -that. So he took it, and he brought it to the next house, and asked -the woman there to take it in for the night. - -Well, in the morning the woman in the first house found a dead child -in the bed beside her. And she was crying and wailing and called all -the people. And when the woman from the neighbouring house came, -there in her arms was the child she thought was dead. But if it -wasn't for the tailor that chanced to be passing by and to take it, -we know very well what would have happened it. - - * * * * * - -That's a thing happens to many, to have faery children put upon them. - - -_A Man at Corcomroe:_ - -There was one Delvin, that lies under a slab yonder, and for seven -years he was brought away every night, and into this abbey. And he -was beat and pinched, and when he'd come home he'd faint; but he used -to say that the place that he went to was grander than any city. One -night he was with a lot of others at a wake, and they knew the time -was coming for him to go, and they all took hold of him. But he was -drawn out of the door, and the arms of those that were holding him -were near pulled out of their sockets. - - * * * * * - -Mischievous they are, but they don't do much harm. Some say they are -fallen angels, and hope yet to be saved. - - -_A Slieve Echtge Woman:_ - -I knew another was away for seven years--and it was in the next -townland to this she lived. Bridget Clonkelly her name was. There -was a large family of them, and she was the youngest, and a very -fine-looking fair-haired girl she was. I knew her well, she was the -one age with myself. - -It was in the night she used to go to them, and if the door was shut, -she'd come in by the key-hole. The first time they came for her, she -was in bed between her two sisters, and she didn't want to go, And -they beat her and pinched her, till her brother called out to know -what was the matter. - -She often told me about them, and how she was badly treated because -she wouldn't eat their food. She got no more than about three cold -potatoes she could eat all the time she was with them. - -All the old people about here put out food every night, the first of -the food before they have any of it tasted themselves. And she said -there was a red-haired girl among them, that would throw her into the -river she got so mad with her. But if she'd had their food ate, she'd -never have got away from them at all. - -She married a serving-man after, and they went to Sydney, and if -nothing happened in the last two years they're doing well there now. - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -Near my own house by the sea there was a girl went out one day to get -nuts near the wood, and she heard music inside the wood. And when -she went home she told her mother. But the next day she went again, -and the next, and she stopped so long that the mother sent the other -little girl to look for her, but she could see no one. But she came -in after a time, and she went inside into the room, and while she was -there the mother heard music from the room; but when the girl came -out she said she heard nothing. But the next day after that she died. - -The neighbours all came in to the wake, and there was tobacco and -snuff there, but not much, for it's the custom not to have so much -when a young person dies. But when they looked at the bed, it was no -young person they saw in it, but an old woman with long teeth that -you'd be frightened, and the face wrinkled, and the hands. So they -didn't stop but went away, and she was buried the next day. And in -the night the mother would hear music all about the house, and lights -of all colours flashing about the windows. - -She was never seen again except by a boy that was working about the -place. He met her one evening at the end of the house, dressed in her -own clothes. But he could not question her where she was, for it's -only when you meet them by a bush you can question them there. - - -_A Man of Slieve Echtge:_ - -There was a man, and he a cousin of my own, lost his wife. And one -night he heard her come into the room, where he was in bed with the -child beside him, and he let on to be asleep, and she took the child -and brought her out to the kitchen fire and sat down beside it and -suckled it. - -And then she put it back into the bed again, and he lay still and -said nothing. The second night she came again, and he had more -courage and he said, "Why have you got no boots on?" For he saw that -her feet were bare. And she said, "Because there's iron nails in -them." So he said, "Give them to me," and he got up and drew all the -nails out of them, and she brought them away. - -The third night she came again, and when she was suckling the child -he saw that she was still barefoot, and he asked why didn't she wear -the boots. "Because," says she, "you left one sprig in them, between -the upper and the lower sole, But if you have courage," says she, -"you can do more than that for me. Come tomorrow night to the gap up -there beyond the hill, and you'll see the riders going through, and -the one you'll see on the last horse will be me. And bring with you -some fowl droppings and urine, and throw them at me as I pass, and -you'll get me again." Well he got so far as to go to the gap, and to -bring what she told him, and when they came riding through the gap, -he saw her on the last horse, but his courage failed him, and he let -it drop, and he never got the chance to see her again. - -Why she wanted the nails out of her boots? Because it's well known -_they_ will have nothing to do with iron. And I remember when every -child would have an old horse nail hung round its neck with a bit of -straw, but I don't see it done now. - - * * * * * - -There was another man though, one of the family of the Coneys beyond -there, and his wife was away from him four years. And after that -he put out the old hag was in her place, and got his wife back and -reared children after that, and one of them was trained a priest. - - * * * * * - -There was a drunken man in Scariff, and one night he had drink taken -he couldn't get home, and fell asleep by the roadside near the -bridge. And in the night he awoke and heard _them_ at work with cars -and horses. And one said to another, "This work is too heavy, we'll -take the white horse belonging to so and so"--giving the name of a -rich man in the town. So as soon as it was light he went to this man, -and told him what he had heard them say. But he would only laugh at -him and say, "I'll pay no attention to what a drunkard dreams." But -when he went out after to the stable, his white horse was gone. - - * * * * * - -That's easy understood. They are shadows, and how could a shadow move -anything? But they have power over mankind that they can bring them -away to do their work. - - * * * * * - -There was a woman used to go out among them at night, and she said to -her sister, "I'll be out on a white horse and I'll stop and knock at -your door," and so she would do sometimes. - -And one day there was a man asked her for a debt she owed, and she -said, "I have no money now." But then she put her hand behind her -and brought it back filled with gold. And then she rubbed it in her -hand, and when she opened the hand there was nothing in it but dried -cow-dung. And she said, "I could give you that but it would be no use -to you." - - -_An Old Woman Talking of Cruachmaa:_ - -I remember my father being there, and telling me of a girl that was -away for seven years, and all thought she was dead. And at the end -of the seven years she walked back one day into her father's house, -and she all black-looking. And she said she was married there and -had two children, but they died and then she was driven away. And -she stopped on at her father's house, but the neighbours used to say -there was never a day but she'd go up the hill and be there crying -for one or two hours. - - -_An Old Woman who only Speaks Irish:_ - -I remember a young man coming to the island fourteen years ago that had -never been in it before and that knew everything that was in it, and -could tell you as much as to the stones of the chimney in every house. -And after a few days he was gone and never came again, for they brought -him about to every part. But I saw him and spoke to him myself. - - -_Mr. Sullivan:_ - -There was a man had buried his wife, and she left three children. And -then he took a second wife, and she did away with the children, hurried -them off to America, and the like. But the first wife used to be seen -up in the loft, and she making a plan of revenge against the other wife. - -The second one had one son and three daughters; and one day the son -was out digging the field, and presently he went into what is called -a faery hole. And there was a woman came before him, and, says she, -"what are you doing here trespassing on my ground?" And with that she -took a stone and hit him in the head, and he died with the blow of -the stone she gave him. And all the people said it was by the faeries -he was taken. - - -_Peter Henderson:_ - -There was a first cousin of mine used sometimes to go out the house, -that none would see him going, And one night his brother followed -him, and he went down a path to the sea, and then he went into a hole -in the rocks, that the smallest dog wouldn't go into. And the brother -took hold of his feet and drew him out again. He went to America -after that, and is living there now; and sometimes in his room -they'll see him kicking and laughing as if _some_ were with him. - -One night when some of the neighbours from these islands were with him, -he told them he'd been back to Inishmaan, and told all that was going -on. And some would not believe him. And he said, "You'll believe me -next time." So the next night he told them again he had been there, and -he brought out of his pocket a couple of boiled potatoes and a bit of -fish and showed them, so then they all believed it. - - -_An Old Man from the State of Maine says, hearing this:_ - -I knew him in America, and he used often to visit this island, and -would know about all of them were living, and would bring us word of -them, and all he'd tell us would turn out right. He's living yet in -America. - - -_An Aran Woman:_ - -There was a woman in Killinny was dying, and it was she used to be -minding the Lodge over there, and when she was near death her own -little girl went out, and she saw her standing, and a black-haired -woman with her. And she came back and said to her father "Don't be -fretting, my mother's not there in the bed, I saw her up by the Lodge -and a black woman with her, that took her in with her." And there was a -man from Arklow there, and he said, "That's not your wife at all that's -in the bed--that's not Maggie Mulkair. That is a black woman and Maggie -Mulkair is red-haired." And the husband looked in the bed, and so it -wasn't Maggie Mulkair that was in it, but at that minute she died. It's -well known they bring back the old to put in the place of the young. - - * * * * * - -There was a girl in the County Clare, and she went to get married, -and she and the husband were riding back on the one horse and it -slipped and fell. And when she got to the house, she sat quiet and -not a word out of her. And everybody said she used to be a pleasant, -jolly girl, but this was like an old woman. - -And she sat there by the hob for three days and she didn't turn her -face to the people. But the husband said, "Let her alone, maybe -she's shy yet." But his mother got angry at last and she said, "I'd -sooner be rubbing stones on the clothes than watching an idle woman." -And she went out to the flax and she said to the girl, "You'd best -get the dinner ready before the men come in." But when she came in -there was nothing done; and she gave her a blow with some pieces of -the flax that were in her hand, and said, "Get out of this for a -good-for-nothing woman!" And with that she went up the chimney and -was gone. And the mother got the dinner ready, and then she went out, -not knowing in the world how to tell the husband what she had done. -But when she got to the field where they were working, there was the -girl walking down the hill, and she took the two hands of the mother -and said, "It's well for me you hadn't patience to last two days more -or I'd never have got back, but I never touched any of the food while -I was with them." - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -There was a girl one time, and a boy wanted to marry her, but the -father and mother wouldn't let her have him, for he had no money. And -he died, and they made a match for her with another. And one day she -was out going to her cousins' house, and he came before her and put -out his hand and said, "You promised yourself to me, and come with -me now." And she ran, and when she got to the house she fell on the -floor. And the cousins thought she had taken a drop of drink, and -they began to scold her. - -Another day after that she was walking with her husband and her -brother, and a little white dog with them, and they came to a little -lake. And he appeared to her again, and the husband and the brother -didn't see him, but the dog flew at him, and began barking at him and -he was hitting at the dog with a stick, and all the time trying to -get hold of the girl's hand. And the husband and the brother wondered -what the dog was barking at and why it drew down to the lake in the -end, and out into the water. For it was into it that he was wanting -to draw the girl. - - * * * * * - -It's a strange thing that you'll see a man in his coffin and buried; -and maybe a fortnight after, the neighbours will tell you they saw -him walking about. There was one Flaherty lived up at Johnny Reed's -and he died. And a few days later Johnny Reed's sister and another -woman went out with baskets of turnips to the field where the sheep -were, to throw them out for them. And when they got to the field they -could see Flaherty walking, just in the same clothes he had before he -died, long skirts and a jacket, and frieze trousers. So they left the -turnips and came away. - - * * * * * - -There was a man up there near Loughrea, one of the Mahers, was away -for seven years. In the night he'd be taken, and sometimes in the -daytime when he was in the bed sick, that's the time he'd be along -with them; riding out and going out across the bay, going as fast as -the wind in the sky. Did he like to be with them? Not at all, he'd -sooner be at home; and it is bad for the health too to be going out -these rough nights. There were three men near him that had horses, -Daniel O'Dea and Farragher and Flynn, and he told them they should -sell their horses. And Daniel O'Dea and Farragher sold theirs, but -the other man wouldn't mind him. And after a few days his horse died. -Of course they had been with him at night riding their own horses, -and that's how he knew what would happen and gave the warning. - - -_The Spinning Woman:_ - -There was a man got married, and he began to pine away, and after a -few weeks the mother asked him what ailed him. And he opened his coat -and showed her his breast inside, that it was all torn and bloody. And -he said: "That's the way I am; and that's what she does to me in the -nights." So the mother brought her out and bid her to pick the green -flax, and she was against touching it, but the mother made her. And no -sooner had she touched three blades of it but she said, "I'm gone now," -and away with her. And when they went back to the room they found the -daughter lying in a deep sleep, where she had just been put back. - - -_An Old Woman at Kinvara:_ - -There was a woman put in her coffin for dead, but a man that was -passing by knew that she wasn't dead, and he brought her away and -married her and lived with her for seven years, and had seven children -by her. And one day he brought her to a fair near the place she came -from, and the people that saw her said: "If that woman that died ever -had a sister, that would be her sister." So he let it out to them then -about her. But his mother always minded her, that she wouldn't wet her -hands. But one day the mother was hurried, and the woman made a cake. -And after making it she washed her hands, and with that they had her -again and she went from the husband and from her children. - - -_A Herd:_ - -One time I was tending this farm for Flaherty, and I came in late one -evening after being out with cattle, and I sent my wife for an ounce -of tobacco, and I stopped in the house with the child. And after a -time I heard the rattle of the door, and the wife came in half out of -her mind. She said she was walking the road and she met four men, and -she knew that they were not of this world, and she fell on the road -with the fright she got, but she thought one of them was her brother, -and he put his hand under her head when she fell, so that she got no -hurt. And for a long time after she wasn't in her right mind, and -she'd bring the child out in the field, to see her brother. And at -last I brought her to the priest, and when we were on the way there -she called out that those fields of stones were full of them, and -they all dressed in tall hats and black coats. But the priest read -something over her and she's been free from them since then. - - * * * * * - -There were three women died within a year, one here, John Harragher's -wife, and two at Inishmaan. And the year after they were all seen -together, riding on white horses at the other side of the island. - - * * * * * - -There were two young women lived over in that village you see there, -and they were not good friends, for they were in two public houses. -And one of them died in January, after her baby being born. Some said -it was because of her mother or the nurse giving her strong tea, but -it wasn't that, it was because her time had come. And when the other -woman heard it she said to her husband, "Give me the concertina, and -I'll play till you dance for joy that Mrs. Considine is gone." But in -April her own child was born, and though the doctor tried to save her -he couldn't and she died. - -And since then they're often seen to appear walking together. People -wonder to see them together, and they not friends while they lived. -But it's bad to give way to temper, and who is nearer to us than a -neighbour? - - -_A Young Woman:_ - -I know a girl that lost her mother soon after she was born. And surely -the mother came back to her every night and suckled her, for she'd lie -as quiet as could be, without a bottle or a hap'orth and they'd hear -her sucking. And one night the grandmother felt her daughter that was -gone lying in the clothes, and made a grab at her, but she was gone. -Maybe she'd have kept her if she'd taken her time, for there's charms -to bring such back. But the little girl grew, that she was never the -same in the morning that she was the night before, and there's no finer -girl in the island now. I call to my own mother sometimes when things -go wrong with me, and I think I'm always the better of it. And I often -say those that are gone are troubled with those they leave behind. But -God have mercy on all the mothers of the world! - - -_Mrs. Maher:_ - -There was a woman with her husband passing by Esserkelly, and she had -left her child at home. And a man came and called her in, and promised -to leave her on the road where she was before. So she went, and there -was a baby in the place she was brought to, and they asked her to -suckle it. And when she had come out again she said, "One question I'll -ask. What were those two old women sitting by the fire?" And the man -said, "We took the child today, and we'll have the mother tonight and -one of them will be put in her place, and the other in the place of -some other person." And then he left her where she was before. - -But there's no harm in them, no harm at all. - - -_Tom Hislop:_ - -Scully told me he was by the hedge up there by Ballinamantane one -evening and a blast came, and as it passed he heard something crying, -crying, and he knew by the sound that it was a child that they were -carrying away. - - * * * * * - -And a woman brought in at Esserkelly heard a baby crying and a woman -singing to it not to fret, for such a woman would die that night or -the next and would come to mind her. And the very next night the -woman she heard the name of died in childbirth. - - * * * * * - -At Aughanish there were two couples came to the shore to be married, -and one of the new-married women was in the boat with the priest, and -they going back to the island. And a sudden blast of wind came, and -the priest said some blessed Aves that were able to save himself, but -the girl was swept. - - -_Peter Hanrahan:_ - -No, I never went to Biddy Early. What would they want with the like -of me? It's the good and the pious they come for. - -I remember fourteen years ago how eleven women were taken in -childbirth from this parish. But as to the old, what business would -they have with them? They'd be nothing but a bother to them. There -was a woman living by the road that goes to Scahanagh, and one day a -carriage stopped at her door, and a grand lady came out of it, and -asked would she come and give the breast to her child, and she said -she couldn't leave her own children. But the lady said no harm would -happen her, and brought her away to a big house, but when she got -there she wouldn't stop, but went home again. And in the morning the -woman's cow was dead. And the husband that had a card for carding -flax looked through it; and in the place of the cow, there was -nothing but an old man. - - * * * * * - -And there was a man and a girl that gave one another a hard promise -he never to marry any other woman, and she never to marry any other -man. But he broke his promise and married another. And the girl died, -and one night he saw a sort of a shadow coming across the grass, and -she spoke to him, and it was the girl he had promised to marry, and -she kept him in talk till midnight. And she came every night after -that, and would stop till midnight, and he began to waste away and -to get thin, and his wife asked him what was on him, and she picked -out of him what it was. And after that the girl asked him to come and -save her, and she would be on the second first horse going through -a gap. And he went, and when he got there his courage failed, and he -did nothing to save her, but after that he never saw her again. - - -_Mrs. Roche:_ - -There was a woman used to go away with them, and they'd leave her at -the doorstep in the morning, and she wouldn't be the better for a -long time of all she'd gone through. She got out of it after, and was -a fine woman when I knew her. - - * * * * * - -My mother told me of a woman that used to go with them, and one night -they were passing by a house, and there was no clean water in it, -and it was readied up. And they said, "We'll have the blood of the -man of the house." And there was a big pot of broth on the fire for -the morning, for the poor people had no tea in those days; and the -woman said, "Won't broth do you?" And they took the broth. And in the -morning early, the woman after she was left back went to the house, -and there was the woman of the house getting ready the broth, for it -looked just like it did before. And she said, "Throw it out before -you lose your husband." For she knew that the first that would taste -it would die, and that it's to the man of the house that the first -share is always given. - - * * * * * - -My mother was always wanting to call one of her children Pat, the -name of her own father, but my father always made her give them some -different name. But when one of the youngest was born he said, "Give -him what name you like." So they gave him the name of her father; -and he was like the apple of her eye, she was so fond of him. But a -sickness came on him and he wasted away, and she went to a strange -forge and brought forge water away, for she wouldn't take it from our -own forge, and gave him a drink of it. And I saw her and I said to -her, "I'll tell my father you're giving forge water to Paddy." And -she said, "If you do I'll kill you," so I said nothing. And she gave -him a second drink of it and not a third, for he was gone before he -could get it. If it had been her own child, it would have saved him, -but she told me after she knew it was another, his kneecaps were so -big and other parts of his body. - -There was another little one she lost. She was sitting one time nursing -it outside the door, and a lady and a gentleman came up the road, and -the lady said, "Who are you nursing the child for?" And she said, -"For no one in the world but God and myself." And then the lady and -the gentleman were gone and no sign of them, though it was a straight -road, you know that long straight road in Galway that goes by Prospect, -and it wasn't many days after that when the child got ill, and in a -few days it was dead. And when it was lying there stretched out on -two chairs, the lady came in again and looked at it and said, "What a -pity!" And then she said, "It's gone to a better place." "I hope it -may be so," said my mother, stiff like that; and she went away. - -I was delicate one time myself, and I lost my walk, and one of the -neighbours told my mother it wasn't myself that was there. But my -mother said she'd soon find that out, for she'd tell me that she was -going to get a herb that would cure me, and if it was myself I'd want -it, but if I was another I'd be against it. So she came in and she -said to me, "I'm going to Dangan to look for the _lus-mor_, that will -soon cure you." And from that day I gave her no peace till she'd go -to Dangan and get it; so she knew that I was all right. She told me -all this afterwards. - - -_M. Cushin:_ - -It is about the forths they are, not about the churchyards. The -Amadan is the worst of them all. - -They say people are brought away by them. I knew a girl one time near -Ballyvaughan was said to be with them for nine months. She never eat -anything all that time, but the food used to go all the same. - -There was a man called Hession died at that time and after the -funeral she began to laugh, and they asked her what was she laughing -at, and she said, "You would all be laughing yourselves if you could -open the coffin and see what it is you were carrying in it." The -priest heard of her saying that and he was vexed. - -Did they open the coffin? They did not, where would be the use, for -whatever was in it would be in the shape of some person, young or -old. They would see nothing by looking at that. - - * * * * * - -There was a woman near Feakle, Mrs. Colman, brought away for seven -years; she was the priest's sister. But she came back to her husband -after, and she cured till the day of her death came every kind of -sores, just putting her hand on them and saying, "In the Name of the -Father, of the Son, and the Holy Ghost." - -There was a man in Gort was brought for a time to Tir-ran-og, that is -a part of heaven. - - -_A North Galway Woman:_ - -There was a woman died near this after her baby being born, and there -was only the father to mind it. And a girl of the neighbours that -came in to watch it one night said that surely she saw the mother -come back to it, and stoop down to the cradle and give it the breast. -And anyway she grew and throve better than any other child around. -And there was a woman died near Monivea, and sometimes in the daytime -they'd see her in the garden combing the children's hair. - - * * * * * - -There was a Connemara man digging potatoes in that field beyond, and -he told us that back in Connemara there was a woman died, and a few -nights after she came back and the husband saw her. And she said, -"Let you not put a hand on me _yourself_, but I'll come back tomorrow -night and others with me, and let me not cross the threshold when we -are going out, but let your brother be there that has the strength of -six men in him, and let him hold me." And so they did, and she reared -four children after. - - * * * * * - -There was a woman died two houses from this, and it wasn't many days -after she being buried the woman in the next house, Sibby her name -is, came in here in the morning, and she told me she saw her coming -in here the night before. And the sweat was on Sibby's face and she -said, "God knows I am speaking the truth. Why would I put a lie on -that poor woman?" And why would she indeed? - -And she said that in the night when she was in her bed, and two or -three children along with her, the woman that had died came beside -the bed and called her, and then she went out and said, "I'll come -again and I'll bring my company with me." - -And so she did, for she came back and her company with her, and they -with umbrellas and hats in their hands, dressed grand, just now like -the servants at Newtown. And she stooped over the bed again, and she -said, "It was through Thomas I was lost." For there was one of her -sons was called Thomas, and coming home one day he got a little turn -of his foot, that the mother was doing what she could for with herbs -and the like for a long time, so that he got well all but a little -limp. So that's why she said that it was through Thomas she was lost. -And she said, "There'll be a station at Athenry on such a day, and -send three of the children"--and she named the three--"to do it for -me." And so they did, and she was seen no more. And I'm sure it was -no lie Sibby was telling. And she told the priest about what she saw -and all he said was, "Well, if you saw that you're happy." - - * * * * * - -There was a woman died, and every night she'd come back and bring the -baby to the fire, and dress it and suckle it. And the brother got to -speak with her one night, and she said, "Oh why wasn't I put in the -coffin with my own dress on that I was wearing? It's ashamed I was to -go into such a crowd and such a congregation with nothing about me but -a white sheet. And if it wasn't that I saw a boy of the neighbours -among them that I knew before, I would have been very lonely." - - * * * * * - -There were two boys that were comrades, and if you'd see Dermot -you'd say, "Where is Pat?" And if you'd see Pat you'd say, "Where is -Dermot?" And one of them died, and everybody wondered at the comrade -not being all the day to the corpse-house. And when he came in the -evening he took a pinch of snuff, and he held it to the nose of the -boy that was laid out on the table and he saw it sniff a little. So -he made up the fire and he called another boy, and they laid the body -down behind the fire; and if they did away with it, the boy himself -came walking in at the door. - - * * * * * - -There was a girl I heard of brought away among _them_--and there was -the finest of eating to be had. But there's always a friend in such -places, and she got warning not to eat a bit of the food without -she'd get salt with it. So when they put her down to eat, she asked -a grain of salt, but not a grain was to be had. So she would eat -nothing. But I believe they did away with her after. - - -_John Phelan:_ - -Mike Folan was here the other day telling us newses, and he told the -strangest thing ever I heard--that happened to his own first cousin. -She died and was buried, and a year after, her husband was sitting -by the fire, and she came back and walked in. He gave a start, but -she said, "Have no fear of me, I was never in the coffin and never -buried, but I was kept away for the year." So he took her again and -they reared four children after that. She was Mike Folan's own first -cousin and he saw the four children himself. - - -_An Old Army Man:_ - -My family were of the Glynns of Athenry. I had an aunt that married a -man of the name of Roche, and their child was taken. So they brought -it to the Lady Well near Athenry, where there's patterns every -fifteenth of August, to duck it. And such a ducking they gave it that -it walked away on crutches, and it swearing. And their own child they -got back again, but he didn't live long after that. - - * * * * * - -There was a man I know, that was my comrade often, used to be taken -away for nights, and he'd speak of the journeys he had with them. And -he got severe treatment and didn't want to go, but they'd bring him -by force. He recovered after, and joined the army, and I was never so -surprised as I was the day he walked in when I was in India. - - -_Mrs. Brown:_ - -There was a woman in Tuam, Mrs. Shannon knew her well, was said to -be away for seven years. And she was always sitting in the corner -by the fire, not speaking, but a kind of a sound like moaning she'd -make to herself; and they'd always bring her her dinner over in the -corner, and if any one came in to see her--and many came hearing she -was away--she'd draw the shawl over her face. And at the end of the -seventh year she began to get a little life and strength coming in -to her, and within a week she was strong and well, and lived a good -many years after. And it's not long since some one that had a falling -out with her daughters said to them, "It's well known your mother -was away in Cruachmaa." And the poor girls when they heard that said -cried a great deal. - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -Some people from Lismara I was talking to told me there was a girl -the mother thought to be away, and she'd go out in the evening. And -the mother followed her one time, and after she went a bit into the -fields she saw her with an old woman very strangely dressed, with a -white cap with an edging, and a green shawl and a black apron and a -red petticoat. And the woman was smoking, and she gave the girl a -smoke of the pipe. And the mother went home, and by and by the girl -came in, and she smelling of tobacco. And the mother asked where was -she? And she said, in some neighbour's house; and the mother knew she -wasn't there, but that she was going with the faeries. And two or -three days after that, they had her taken altogether; and the clergy -that attended her said it was some old hag that was put in her place. - - -_Mrs. Oliver:_ - -There was Farly Folan's wife going, going, and all the night they -thought that she was at the last puff. But the minute the cock crew, -she sat up straight and strong. "I had a hard fight for it," she -said, "but care me well now ye have me back again." And she lived a -bit, but not long, after that. - -That child of the Latteys that is silly, she was walking about today -shaking hands with everyone that would come into the house. And the -reason she's like that is, when she was born the breath had left her -and the mother began to cry and to scream and to roar, and then the -breath came back. She had a right to have let her go and not to have -brought her back. - -There's a girl of Fardy Folan's is said to be away. Anyway she's a -fool, and a blow from her would kill you, it is always like that with -a fool. And it was her mother I told you of that was as they thought -gone, and that sat up again and said, "Take care of me now, I had a -hard fight for it." But indeed she didn't live long after that. - - -_Mrs. Feeney:_ - -When one is taken, the body is taken as well as the spirit, and some -good-for-nothing thing left in its place. What they take them for -is to work for them, and to do things they can't do themselves. You -might notice it's always the good they take. That's why when we see a -child good for nothing we say, "Ah, you little faery." - - * * * * * - -There was a man lost his wife and a hag was put in her place, and she -came back and told him to come out at night where she'd be riding with -the rest, and to throw something belonging to her after her--he'd know -her by her being on a white horse. And so he did and got her back -again. And when they were going home he said, "I'll have the life of -that old hag that was put in your place." But when they got to the -house, she was out of it before him, and was never heard of again. - -There was a man telling me it was in a house where the woman was -after a youngster, and she died, that is, we'll call it died, but she -was _taken_, that the husband saw her coming back to give the breast -to the child and to wash it. And the second night he got hold of her -and held her until morning, and when the cock crowed she sat down -again and stayed; they had no more power over her. - - * * * * * - -Surely some go among them for seven years. There was Kitty Hayes -lived at Kilcloud, for seven years she had everything she could want, -and music and dancing could be heard around her house every night, -and all she did prospered; but she ate no food all that time, only -she took a drink of the milk after the butter being churned. But at -the end of the seven years all left her, and she was glad at the last -to get Indian meal. - - * * * * * - -There was a man driving cattle from Craughwell to Athenry for a fair. -And it was before sunrise and dark, and presently he saw a light by -the side of the road, and he was glad of it, for he had no matches -and he wanted to light his pipe to smoke it. So he turned aside, -and there were some people sitting there, and they brought him in, -through a sort of a door and asked him to sit down. And so he did, -and he saw that they were all strangers, not one he knew among them. -And there was a fire and they put food and drink on the table, and -asked him what would he have. And there opposite him he saw his own -cows that were brought in too, and he knew that he was in a faery -place. But in all these places there's always one well-wisher, so -while he was sitting there, an old woman came to him and whispered in -his ear, "Don't for your life eat a bit or drink a drop of what they -give you, or you'll never go away again." So he would take nothing. -If it hadn't been for the old woman, he might have taken something, -just not to vex them. And at sunrise they let him out, and he was on -the road again and his cattle before him. - -Well, when he was coming back from the fair, there were two men with -him, and he pointed them out the place where all this happened, for -when three persons are together, there's no fear of anything and they -can say what they like. And the others told him it was a faery place -and many strange things had happened there. And they told him how -there was a woman had a baby lived close by there, and before it was -a week old her husband had to leave her because of his brother having -died. And no sooner was she left alone than she was _taken_, and they -sent for the priest to say Mass in the house, but she was calling out -every sort of thing they couldn't understand, and within a few days -she was dead. - -And after death the corpse began to change, and first it looked like -an old woman, and then like an old man, and they had to bury it the -next day. And before a week was over she began to appear. They always -appear when they leave a child like that. And surely she was taken -to nurse the faery children, just like poor Mrs. Raynor was last year. - - * * * * * - -There's a well near Kinvara, Tubbermacduagh it's called, and it's all -hung with rags, and piles of seven stones about it, for it's a great -place to bring children to, to get them back when they've been changed -by the faeries. Nine days they should be going to it, and saying -prayers each day. And you'll see the child that's coming back will be -like itself one day and like an old person another day and sometimes -it will feel a picking, picking at it and it in its mother's arms. -McCullagh's daughter that was _taken_ is often to be seen there. - - * * * * * - -When any one is taken something is put in their place--even when a -cow or the like goes. There was one of the Simons used to be going -about the country skinning cattle and killing them, even for the -country people if they were sick. One day he was skinning a cow that -was after dying by the roadside, and another man with him. And Simon -said, "It's a pity he can't sell this meat to some butcher, he might -get something for it." But the other man made a ring of his fingers -like this, and looked through it and then bade Simon to look, and -what he saw was an old piper; and when he thought he was skinning the -cow, what he was doing was cutting off his leather breeches. So it's -very dangerous to eat beef you buy from any of those sort of common -butchers. You don't know what might have been put in its place. - - -_A Man at Corcomroe:_ - -There was Shane Rua that was away every night for seven years. He told -his brother-in-law that told me that in that hill behind the abbey -there is the most splendid town that was ever seen. Often he was in it, -and ought not to have been talking about it, but he said he wouldn't -give them the satisfaction of it, he didn't care what they did to him. -But he fainted that night they took him from the wake, and you know -what a strong man Peter Nestor was, and _he_ couldn't hold him. - -Buried he is now beside that wall. - - * * * * * - -Cloran the plumber's mother was taken away, it's always said. The way -it's known is, it was not long after her baby was born but she was -doing well. And one morning very early a man and his wife were going -in a cart to Loughrea one Thursday for the market, and they met some -of _those people_ and they asked the woman that had her own child -with her, would she give a drink to their child that was with them, -and while she was doing it they said, "We won't be in want of a nurse -tonight, we'll have Mrs. Cloran of Cloon." And when they got back in -the evening, Mrs. Cloran was dead before them. - -They said it of Glynn's wife last year. And anyway, her mother was -taken in the same way before her. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy I know lived between our house and Clough, and his -hand was lame all his life from a burn he got when he was a child. -And one evening in winter he walked out of the house and was never -heard of or seen again, or any account of him. And it was not the -time of year to go look for work, and anyway, he could never make a -living with his lame hand. - - -_Mrs. Casey:_ - -My sister told me that near Tyrone or Cloughballymore there was a man -walking home one night late, and he had to pass by a smith's forge -where one Kinealy used to work. And when he came near, he heard the -noise of the anvil, and he wondered Kinealy would be working so late in -the night. But when he went in he saw that they were strange men that -were in it. So he asked them the time, and they told him, and he said, -"I won't be home this long time yet." And one of the men said, "You'll -be home sooner than what you think." And another said, "There's a man -on a grey horse gone the road, you'll get a lift from him." And he -wondered that they'd know the road he was going to his home. But sure -enough as he was walking he came up with a man on a grey horse, and -he gave him a lift. But when he got home his wife saw that he looked -strange-like, and she asked what ailed him, and he told her all that -happened. And when she looked at him she saw that he was taken. So he -went into the bed, and the next evening he was dead. And all the people -that came in knew by the appearance of the corpse that it was an old -man had been put in his place, and that he was taken when he got on the -grey horse. For there's something not right about a grey horse or a -white horse, or about a red-haired woman. - - * * * * * - -There was a girl buried in Kilisheen, one of the Shaws, and when she -was laid out on the bed a woman that went in to look at her saw that -she opened her eyes, and made a sort of a face at her. But she said -nothing, but sat down by the hearth. But another woman came in after -that and the same thing happened, and she told the mother, and she -began to cry and to roar that they'd say such a thing of her poor -little girl. But it wasn't the little girl that was in it at all but -some old person. And the man that nailed down the coffin left the nails -loose, and when they came to Kilisheen churchyard he looked in, and not -one thing was inside it but the sheet and a bundle of shavings. - - * * * * * - -There was a man lived beyond on the Kinvara road, and his child died -and he buried it. But he was passing the place after, and he asked -a light for his pipe in some house, and after lighting it he threw -the sod, and it glowing, just where he buried the child, and what do -you think but it came back to him again, and he brought it to its -mother. For they can't bear fire. - - * * * * * - -There was a tailor working in a house one time, and the woman of -the house was near wore out with a baby that was always petting and -crying for the breast-milk and never quiet, and he as thin as the -tongs. Well, one day she made a big fire, and went out for a can of -water to put in the pot. And the tailor had taken notice of the child -and knew he was a _lad_. So no sooner was the woman gone than he took -hold of him and said, "I know well what you are, and I'll put you at -the back of the fire unless you'll give me a tune." So when he felt -the fire he said he would; and where did he bring his bagpipes from -but down from the rafters, and played them till the woman came back -again. So when she had the fire well settled up round the pot, he -told her what the child was that had her wore out screeching for the -breast. And he made as though to put him on the fire. And with that -it made one leap and was out of the door, and brought the bagpipes -with it and was never seen again. Aren't they the schemers now to do -such things as that? - - -_Honor Whelan:_ - -There is a boy now of the Egans, but I wouldn't for the world let -them think I spoke of him, but it's two years since he came from -America. And since that time he never went to Mass or to church or -to market or to stand on the cross-roads or to the hurling or to -nothing. And if any one comes into the house, it's into the room -he'll slip not to see them. And as to work, he has the garden dug to -bits, and the whole place smeared with cow-dung, and such a crop as -was never seen, and the alders all plaited that they look grand. - -One day he went as far as Castle Daly church, but as soon as he got -to the door he turned straight round again as if he hadn't power to -pass it. I wonder he wouldn't get the priest to read a Mass for him -or some such thing. But the crop he has is grand, and you may know -well that he has _some_ that help him. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy in the bed for seven years, and when the seven years -were at an end there was a tailor working in the house, and he kept his -eye on him, and sat working where he could see into the room. And so -all of a sudden he got up, and walked out into the kitchen and called -to his mother for his breeches. For it was himself come back again. - - * * * * * - -There was a man used to disappear every night, and no one knew where -he went. But one morning a boy that was up saw him on the side of the -mountain beyond, putting on his boots. So then it was known he had -been at these hurlings. - - * * * * * - -There was a sister of my own went away among them in a trance. She -went to America after, but didn't live long. - - -_Mrs. Hayden of Slieve Echtge:_ - -There was a woman one time travelling here with my sister from -Loughrea, and she had her child in the cart with her. And as they went -along the road, a man came out of a sort of a hollow with bushes beside -the road, and he asked the woman to come along with him for a minute. -And she reddened, but my sister bid her go, and so she went. And the -man brought her into a house, and there lying on a bed was a baby, and -she understood she was to give suck to it and so she did, and came -away; and when she was away out, she saw that the man that brought her -was her brother that was dead, and that is the reason she was chosen. - -There was another woman, my husband knew her, was taken and an old -hag put in her place, that keeps to her bed all the time. And when -the seven years were at an end, she got restless like, for they must -change every seven years. - -So she told the husband the way he should redeem his wife, and where -he'd see her with the riders if he'd go out to some place at night. -And so he did, and threw what he had at her and she sitting on a -horse behind a young man. And when they came home, the old hag was -gone. She said the young man was very kind to her and had never done -anything to offend her. And she had two or three children and left -them behind. But for all that she was glad to come back to her own -house. When children are left like that, the mother being brought -back again, it's then they want a nurse for them, to give them milk -and to attend them. - - * * * * * - -I know a man was away among them. Every night he would be taken and -his wife got used to it after some time; at first she didn't like him -to be taken out of the bed beside her. And in harvest, to see that -man reap--he'd reap three times as much as any other help he had--of -course that's well known. - - -_One Dempsey:_ - -There was a girl at Inniskill in the east of the country, of the same -name as my own, was lying on a mat for eight years. When she first -got the touch the mother was sick, and there was no room in the bed, -so they laid a mat on the floor for her, and she never left it for -the eight years; but the mother died soon after. - -She never got off the mat for any one to see. But one night there was a -working-man came to the house, and they gave him lodging for the night, -and he watched from the other room, and in the night he saw the outer -door open, and three or four boys come in, and a piper with them or a -fiddler--I'm not sure which--and he played to them and they danced, and -the girl got up off the mat and joined them. And in the morning when -he was sitting at breakfast he looked over to her where she was lying -and said, "You were the best dancer among them last night." - -There was a priest came when she had been about two years lying there -and said something should be done for her, and he came to the house -and read Masses, and then he took her by the hand and bid her stand -up. But she snatched the hand away and said, "Get away you devil." -At last Father Lahiff came to Inniskill, and he came and whatever he -did, he drove away what was there, and brought the girl back again, -and since then she walks and does the work of the house as well as -another. And Father Lahiff said in the Chapel it was a shame for no -priest to have done that for her before. - - -(_Later._) - -Sibby Dempsey of my own name that lives in the next house to me is away -still. Every time I go back she can tell me if anything happened me, -and where I was or what I did. And more than that, she can tell the -future and what will happen you. But there's not many like to go to -her, for the priest is against her, and if he'd hear you went to her -house he'd be speaking against you at the altar on Sundays. But she -has a good many cured. Some she cured that were going to be brought to -the asylum in Ballinasloe. By charms she does it, wherever she gathers -herbs, she that never left the bed these ten years. Twenty years she -was when she got the touch, and it's on her ten years now. - -There was a woman had a little girl, and her side got paralysed that -she couldn't stir, and she went to the priest, Father Dwyer--he's -dead since. For the priests can do all cures, but they wouldn't like -to be doing them, to bring themselves into danger. And she asked him -to do a cure on the little girl, but what he said was, "Do you ask me -to take God's own mercy from Himself?" So when she heard that, she -went away, and she went to Sibby Dempsey. And she is the best writer -that ever you saw, and she got a pen and wrote some words on a bit -of paper, and gave them to the old woman to put on the little girl's -arm, and so she did, and on the moment she was cured. - -We don't talk much to her now, we don't care to meddle much with -those that have been brought back, so we keep out of her way. She'll -most likely go to America. - - * * * * * - -To bring any one back from being in the faeries you should get the -leaves of the _lus-mor_ and give them to him to drink. And if he only -got a little touch from them and had some complaint in him at the -same time, that makes him sick-like, that will bring him back. But if -he is altogether in the faeries, then it won't bring him back, for -he'll know what it is and he'll refuse to drink it. - -In a trance the soul goes from the body, but to be among the Sheogue -the body is taken and something left in its place. - - -(_Later._) - -That girl I was telling you about in my own village, Sibby Dempsey, -I had a letter about her the other day when I was in Cashel, and she -that had been in her bed seventeen years is walking out and going -to Mass, a nice respectable woman. They told me no more than that -in the letter, but Tom Carden the policeman that had been there for -his holiday told that there had come a wandering woman--one of her -own sort, it's likely--to the house one night, and asked a lodging -in the name of God. Sibby called out, and asked Maggie, the girl, -who was that? And the woman stopped the night, and whatever they did -was between themselves, and in the morning the wandering woman went -away, and Sibby got up out of the bed, that she never had left for -seventeen years. Now she never was there all that time in my belief, -for if it was an oak stick was lying there through all those years -wouldn't it be rotten? It is in the faeries she was, and it not -herself used to be in it in the night-time. (_Note_ 43.) - - -(_Later._) Sibby Dempsey is getting ready now for her wedding. She is -all right now; she has gone through her years. - -But what do you say to what happened her father shortly after she -being brought back? His horse fell with him coming home one evening -and both his legs were broke, and the horse was killed. That is the -revenge they took for the girl being taken away from them. - - -_One Lanigan:_ - -My own mother was away for twenty-one years, and at the end of every -seven years she thought it would be off her, but she never could -leave the bed. She could not sit up and make a little shirt or such a -thing for us. It was of the fever she died at last. - -The way she got the touch was one day after we left the place we used -to be in. And we got our choice place in the estate, and my father -chose Cahirbohil, but a great number of the neighbours went to Moneen. -And one day a woman that had been our neighbour came over from Moneen, -and my mother showed her everything and told her of her way of living. -And she walked a bit of the way with her, and when they were parting -the woman said, "You'll soon be the same as such a one," and as she -turned away she felt a pain in her hand. And from that day she lost her -health. My father went to Biddy Early, but she said it was too late, -she could do nothing, but she would take nothing from him. - - * * * * * - -There was a man out at Roxborough, Colevin was his name, was known to -be away with them. And one day there were a lot of the people footing -turf, and a blast of wind came and passed by. And after it passed a -joking fellow that was among them called out, "Is Colevin with you?" -And the blast turned and knocked an eye out of him, that he never had -the sight of it again. - - -_J. Joyce:_ - -There was a little chap I used to go to school with was away. He was in -bed for three or four years, and then he could only walk on two sticks, -till one day his father was going into Clough and he wanted to go, and -the father said, "They'll be laughing at you going on your two sticks." -So then he said, "Well, I'll go on one," and threw one away and after -that he got rid of the other as well--and got all right. He never would -tell anything about where he was, but if any one asked him he'd begin -to cry. He was very smart at his books, and very handy, so that when he -got well he got a good offer of work and went to America. - - -_An Islander:_ - -There was a girl on the middle island used to be away every night, -and they never missed her, for there was something left in her place, -but she got thin in the face and wasted away. She told the priest at -last, and he bid her go and live in some other place, and she went to -America, and there she is still. And she told them after, it was a -comrade she had among them used to call her and to bring her about to -every place, and that if she took a bit of potato off the skib in the -house, it might be on Black Head she'd be eating it. And to parties -the other girl would bring her, and she'd be sitting on her lap at them. - -But those that are brought away would be glad to be back. It's a poor -thing to go there after this life. Heaven is the best place, Heaven -and this world we're in now. - - -_A Man whose Son is Said to be Away:_ - -I don't know what's wrong with my son unless that he's a real -regular Pagan. He lies in the bed the most of the day and he won't -go out till evening and he won't go to Mass. And he has a memory for -everything he ever heard or read. I never knew the like. Most people -forget what they read in a book within one year after. - - -_A Travelling Man:_ - -A man I met in America told me that one time before they left this -country they were working in a field. And in the next field but one -they saw a little funeral, a very little one, and it passed into a -forth. And there was a child sick in the house near by; and that -evening she died. But they had her taken away in the daytime. - - -_Mr. Feeney:_ - -It's a saying that the Sheogue take away the blackberries in the month -of November; anyway we know that when the potatoes are taken it's by -the _gentry_, and surely this year they have put their fancy on them. - -I know the brothers of a man that was away for seven years, and he -was none the better for it and had no riches after. It was in that -place beyond--where you'd see nothing but hills and hollows--but when -he was brought in, he saw what was like a gentleman's avenue, and it -leading to a grand house. He didn't mind being among them, when once -he got used to it and was one of the force. Of course they wouldn't -like you to touch a bush that would belong to them. They might want -it for shelter; or it might only be because it belongs to them that -they wouldn't like it touched. - - * * * * * - -There was one of the Readys, John, was away for seven years lying in -the bed, but brought away at nights. And he knew everything. And one -Kearney up in the mountains, a cousin of his own, lost two hoggets and -came and told him. And he saw the very spot where they were and bid him -to bring them back again. But they were vexed at that and took away the -power, so that he never knew anything again, no more than another. - - * * * * * - -Surely I believe that any woman taken in childbirth is taken among -them. For I knew of a woman that died some years ago and left her -young child. And the woman that was put to look after it neglected -it. And one night the two doors were blown open, and a blast of wind -came in and struck her, and she never was the better of it after. - - -_A Herd:_ - -There was a house I stopped in one night near Tallaght where I was -going for a fair, and there was a sick girl in the house, and she -lying in a corner near the fire. - -And some time after, I was told that no one could do anything for -her, but that one evening a labouring man that was passing came in -and asked a night's lodging. And he was sitting by the fire on a -stool and the girl behind him. - -And every now and again when no one was looking he'd take a coal of -fire and throw it under the stool on to where she was lying till he -had her tormented. And in the morning there was the girl lying, and -her face all torn and scarred. And he said, "It's not you that was in -it these last few months." And she said, "No, but I wouldn't be in it -now but for you. And see how the old hag that was in it treated me, -she was so mad with the treatment that you gave her last night." - - * * * * * - -There was one Cronan on the road to Galway, I knew him well, was away -with them seven years. It was at night he used to be brought away, -and when they called him, go he should. They'd leave some sort of a -likeness of him in his place. He had a wart on his back, and his wife -would rub her hand down to feel was the wart there, before she'd -know was it himself was in it or not. He told some of the way he used -to be brought riding about at night, and that he was often in that -castle below at Ballinamantane. And he saw then a great many of his -friends that were dead. - -And Mrs. Kelly asked him did ever he see her son Jimmy that died -amongst them. And he told her he did, and that mostly all the people -that he knew, that had died out of the village, were amongst them now. - -Himself and his pony would go up to the sky. - -And if his wife had a clutch of geese, they'd be ten times better than -any other ones, and the wheat and the stock and all they had was better -and more plentiful than what any one else had. Help he got from them of -course. And at last the wife got the priest in to read a Mass and to -take it off him. But after that all that they had went to flitters. - - -_A Hillside Woman:_ - -Surely there are many taken; my own sister that lived in the house -beyond, and her husband and her three children, all in one year. -Strong they were and handsome and good--the best--and that's the sort -that are taken. They got in the priest when first it came on the -husband, and soon after a fine cow died and a calf. But he didn't -begrudge that if he'd get his health, but it didn't save him after. -Sure Father Andrews in Kilbrennan said not long ago in the chapel -that no one had gone to _heaven_ for the last ten years. - -But whatever life God has granted them, when it's at an end go they -must, whether they're among them or not. And they'd sooner be among -them than to go to Purgatory. - -There was a little one of my own taken. Till he was a year old he was -the stoutest and the best and the finest of all my children, and then -he began to pine till he wasn't thicker than that straw; but he lived -for about four years. - -How did it come on him? I know that well. He was the grandest ever you -saw, and I proud of him, and I brought him to a ball in this house -and he was able to drink punch. And I was stopped one day at a house -beyond, and a neighbouring woman came in with her child and she says, -"If he's not the stoutest he's the longest," and she took off her apron -and the string to measure them both. I had no right to let her do that -but I thought no harm at the time. But it was from that night he began -to screech and from that time he did no good. He'd get stronger through -the winter, and about the Pentecost, in the month of May, he'd always -fall back again, for that's the time they're at the worst. - -I didn't have the priest in. It does them no good, but harm, to have -a priest take notice of them when they're like that. - -It was in the month of May at the Pentecost he went at last. He was -always pining, but I didn't think he'd go so soon. At the end of the -bed he was lying with the others, and he called to me and put up his -arms. But I didn't want to take too much notice of him or to have -him always after me, so I only put down my foot to where he was. And -he began to pick straws out of the bed and to throw them over the -little sister beside him, till he had thrown as much as would thatch -a goose. And when I got up, there he was dead, and the little sister -asleep beside him all covered with straws. - - -_Mrs. Madden:_ - -There were three women living at Ballinakill--Mary Grady, the mother, -and Mary Flanagan the daughter, and Ellen Lydon that was a by-child -of hers; and they had a little dog called Floss that was like a -child to them. And the grandmother went first and then the little -dog, and then Mary Flanagan within a half year. And there was a boy -wanted to marry Ellen Lydon that was left alone. But his father and -mother wouldn't have her, because of her being a by-child. And the -priest wouldn't marry them not to give offence. So it wasn't long -before she was taken too, and those that saw her after death knew -that it was the mother that was there in place of her. And when the -priest was called the day before she died he said, "She's gone since -twelve o'clock this morning, and she'll die between the two Masses -tomorrow," for it was Father Hubert, that had understanding of these -things. And so she did. - -There was a man had a son, and he was lying in the bed a long time. -And one day, the day of the races, he asked the father and mother -were they going to them, and they said they were not. "Well," says -he, "I'll show you as good sport as if you went." - -And he had a dog, and he called to it and said something to it, -and it began to make a run and to gallop and to jump backwards and -forwards over the half-door, for there was a very high half-door to -the house. "So now," says he, "didn't you see as good sport as if you -were in the Newtown race-course?" - - * * * * * - -There was my own uncle that lived where the shoemaker's shop is now, -and two of his children were brought away from him. And the third he -was determined he'd keep, and he put it to sleep between the wife and -himself in the bed. And one night a hand came at the window and tried -to take the child, and he knew who the hand belonged to, and he saw -it was a woman of the village that was dead. So he drove her away and -held the child, and he was never troubled again after that. - - -_H. Henty:_ - -There was an old man on the road one night near Burren and he heard -a cry in the air over his head, the cry of a child that was being -carried away. And he called out some words and the child was let -down into his arms and he brought it home. And when he got there -he was told that it was dead. So he brought in the live child, and -you may be sure that it was some sort of a thing that was good for -nothing that was put in its place. - -It's the good and the handsome they take, and those that are of use, -or whose name is up for some good action. Idlers they don't like, but -who would like idlers? - - * * * * * - -There is a forth away in County Clare, and they say it's so long -that it has no end. And there was a pensioner, one Gavornan, came -back from the army, and a soldier has more courage than another, and -he said he'd go try what was in it, and he got two other men to go -with him, and they went a long, long way, and saw nothing. And then -they came to where there was the sound of a woman beetling. And then -they began to meet people they knew before, that had died out of the -village, and they all told them to go back, but still they went on. - -And then they met the parish priest of Ballyvaughan, Father Cregan -that was dead. And he told them to go back and so they turned and -went. They were just beginning to come to the grandeur when they were -turned away. Those that are brought away among them never come back, -or if they do they're not the same as they were before. - - -_Honor Whelan:_ - -There was a woman beyond at Ardrahan died, and she came back one night -and her husband saw her at the dresser, looking for something to eat. -And she slipped away from him that time, but the next time she came -he got hold of her, and she bid him come for her to the fair at some -place, and watch for her at the Customs' gap and she'd be on the last -horse that would pass through. And then she said, "It's best for you -not come yourself but send your brother." So the brother came and she -dropped down to him and he brought her to his house. But in a week -after he was dead and buried. And she lived a long time, and never -would speak three words to any one that would come into the house, but -working, working all the day. I wouldn't have liked to live in the -house with her after her being away like that. I don't think the old go -among them when they die, but believe me, it's not many of the young -they spare, but bring them away till such time as God sends for them. -It's about fourteen years since so many young women were brought away -after their child being born--Peter Roche's wife, and James Shannan's -wife, and Clancy's wife of Lisdaragh--hundreds were carried off in that -year--they didn't bring so many since then. I suppose they brought -enough then to last them a good time. - -All go among them when they die except the old people. And it's -better to be there than in the pains of Purgatory. As to Purgatory, I -don't think it is after being with _them_ we have to go there. But -I know we're told to give some clothing to the poor, and it will be -thrown down afterwards to quench the flames for us. - - -_A Policeman's Wife:_ - -There was a girl in County Clare was away, and the mother used to -hear horses coming about the door every night. And one day the mother -was picking flax in the house, and of a sudden there came in her hand -an herb with the best smell and the sweetest that ever was smelt -(_Note_ 44). And she closed it with her hand, and called to the son -that was making up a stack of hay outside "Come in, Denis, for I -have the best smelling herb that ever you saw." And when he came in -she opened her hand, and the herb was gone clear and clean. She got -annoyed at last with the horses coming about the door, and some told -her to gather all the fire into the middle of the floor and to lay -the little girl upon it, and to see could she come back again. So -she did as she was told, and brought the little girl out of the bed -and laid her on the coals. And she began to scream and to call out, -and the neighbours came running in, and the police heard of it, and -they came and arrested the mother and brought her to the Court-house -before the magistrate, Mr. MacWalter, and my own husband was one of -the police that arrested her. And when the magistrate heard all, he -said she was an ignorant woman, and that she did what she thought -right, and he would give her no punishment. And the girl got well -and was married. It was after she was married I knew her. - - -_An Old Woman at Chiswick:_ - -There was a woman went to live in a house where the faeries were -known to be very much about. And the first day she was there one of -them came in and asked her for the loan of a pot, and she gave it. -And the next day she came in again and asked for the loan of some -meal, and when she got it the woman said, "I hope you'll find it -to be fine enough." "It is," she said, "and to show you I think it -fine and good, I'll mix it here and boil the stirabout and we'll eat -it together." And so they did. And she said "We'll always be your -friends; and what you may miss in the morning, never grudge it, for -you'll have more than what you lost before night." And her tribe was -going away, and when she was going out the door, she made a hole with -her heel in the stone, and she filled it up with mud and earth, and -she said "If we die or if anything happens to us, blood will come in -this hole and fill it." - - * * * * * - -There was a girl used to be away with them, you'd never know when it -was she herself that was in it or not till she'd come back, and then -she'd tell she had been away. She didn't like to go, but she had to -go when they called to her. And she told her mother always to treat -kindly whoever was put in her place, sometimes one would be put, -and sometimes another, for she'd say "If you are unkind to whoever's -there, they'll be unkind to me." - - * * * * * - -Three of my uncles were taken by them, young men; some sort of a little -cold they got between them, and there wasn't more than two months -before the first of them going and the last. They were seen after by a -man that lived in the house between there and the school, and that used -often to see them, and to bring them in to dinner with him. - - - - - WITCHES AND WIZARDS AND IRISH - FOLK-LORE - - - - - WITCHES AND WIZARDS AND IRISH - FOLK-LORE - - - I - -Ireland was not separated from general European speculation when much -of that was concerned with the supernatural. Dr. Adam Clarke tells -in his unfinished autobiography how, when he was at school in Antrim -towards the end of the eighteenth century, a schoolfellow told him -of Cornelius Agrippa's book on Magic and that it had to be chained -or it would fly away of itself. Presently he heard of a farmer who -had a copy and after that made friends with a wandering tinker who -had another. Lady Gregory and I spoke of a friend's visions to an old -countryman. He said "he must belong to a society"; and the people -often attribute magical powers to Orangemen and to Freemasons, and -I have heard a shepherd at Doneraile speak of a magic wand with -Tetragramaton Agla written upon it. The visions and speculations -of Ireland differ much from those of England and France, for in -Ireland, as in Highland Scotland, we are never far from the old -Celtic mythology; but there is more likeness than difference. Lady -Gregory's story of the witch who in semblance of a hare, leads the -hounds such a dance, is the best remembered of all witch stories. It -is told, I should imagine, in every countryside where there is even a -fading memory of witchcraft. One finds it in a sworn testimony given -at the trial of Julian Cox, an old woman indicted for witchcraft -at Taunton in Somersetshire in 1663 and quoted by Joseph Glanvill. -"The first witness was a huntsman, who swore that he went out with a -pack of hounds to hunt a hare, and not far from Julian Cox her house -he at last started a hare: the dogs hunted her very close, and the -third ring hunted her in view, till at last the huntsman perceiving -the hare almost spent and making towards a great bush, he ran on -the other side of the bush to take her up and preserve her from the -dogs; but as soon as he laid hands on her, it proved to be Julian -Cox, who had her head grovelling on the ground, and her globes (as he -expressed it) upward. He knowing her, was so affrighted that his hair -on his head stood an end; and yet spake to her, and ask'd her what -brought her there; but she was so far out of breath that she could -not make him any answer; his dogs also came up full cry to recover -the game, and smelled at her and so left off hunting any further. And -the huntsman with his dogs went home presently sadly affrighted." Dr. -Henry More, the Platonist, who considers the story in a letter to -Glanvill, explains that Julian Cox was not turned into a hare, but -that "Ludicrous Daemons exhibited to the sight of this huntsman and -his dogs, the shape of a hare, one of them turning himself into such -a form, another hurrying on the body of Julian near the same place," -making her invisible till the right moment had come. "As I have heard -of some painters that have drawn the sky in a huge landscape, so -lively, that the birds have flown against it, thinking it free air, -and so have fallen down. And if painters and jugglers, by the tricks -of legerdemain can do such strange feats to the deceiving of the -sight, it is no wonder that these aerie invisible spirits have far -surpassed them in all such prestigious doings, as the air surpasses -the earth for subtlety." Glanvill has given his own explanation of -such cases elsewhere. He thinks that the sidereal or airy body is -the foundation of the marvel, and Albert de Rochas has found a like -foundation for the marvels of spiritism. "The transformation of -witches," writes Glanvill, "into the shapes of other animals ... is -very conceivable; since then, 'tis easy enough to imagine, that the -power of imagination may form those passive and pliable vehicles into -those shapes," and then goes on to account for the stories where an -injury, say to the witch hare, is found afterwards upon the witch's -body precisely as a French hypnotist would account for the stigmata -of a saint. "When they feel the hurts in their gross bodies, that -they receive in their airy vehicles, they must be supposed to have -been really present, at least in these latter; and 'tis no more -difficult to apprehend, how the hurts of those should be translated -upon their other bodies, than how diseases should be inflicted by the -imagination, or how the fancy of the mother should wound the foetus, -as several credible relations do attest." - -All magical or Platonic writers of the times speak much of the -transformation or projection of the sidereal body of witch or wizard. -Once the soul escapes from the natural body, though but for a moment, -it passes into the body of air and can transform itself as it please -or even dream itself into some shape it has not willed. - - "Chameleon-like thus they their colour change, - And size contract and then dilate again." - -One of their favourite stories is of some famous man, John Haydon -says Socrates, falling asleep among his friends, who presently see a -mouse running from his mouth and towards a little stream. Somebody -lays a sword across the stream that it may pass, and after a little -while it returns across the sword and to the sleeper's mouth again. -When he awakes he tells them that he has dreamed of himself crossing -a wide river by a great iron bridge. - -But the witch's wandering and disguised double was not the worst shape -one might meet in the fields or roads about a witch's house. She was -not a true witch unless there was a compact (or so it seems) between -her and an evil spirit who called himself the devil, though Bodin -believes that he was often, and Glanvill always, "some human soul -forsaken of God," for "the devil is a body politic." The ghost or devil -promised revenge on her enemies and that she would never want, and she -upon her side let the devil suck her blood nightly or at need. - -When Elizabeth Style made a confession of witchcraft before the -Justice of Somerset in 1664, the Justice appointed three men, William -Thick and William Read and Nicholas Lambert, to watch her, and -Glanvill publishes an affidavit of the evidence of Nicholas Lambert. -"About three of the clock in the morning there came from her head -a glistering bright fly, about an inch in length which pitched at -first in the chimney and then vanished." Then two smaller flies came -and vanished. "He, looking steadfastly then on Style, perceived -her countenance to change, and to become very black and ghastly -and the fire also at the same time changing its colour; whereupon -the Examinant, Thick and Read, conceiving that her familiar was -then about her, looked to her poll, and seeing her hair shake very -strangely, took it up and then a fly like a great miller flew out -from the place and pitched on the table board and then vanished away. -Upon this the Examinant and the other two persons, looking again in -Style's poll, found it very red and like raw beef. The Examinant -ask'd her what it was that went out of her poll, she said it was a -butterfly, and asked them why they had not caught it. Lambert said, -they could not. I think so too, answered she. A little while after, -the informant and the others, looking again into her poll, found the -place to be of its former colour. The Examinant asked again what -the fly was, she confessed it was her familiar and that she felt it -tickle in her poll, and that was the usual time for her familiar to -come to her." These sucking devils alike when at their meal, or when -they went here and there to do her will or about their own business, -had the shapes of pole-cat or cat or greyhound or of some moth or -bird. At the trials of certain witches in Essex in 1645 reported -in the English state trials a principal witness was one "Matthew -Hopkins, gent." Bishop Hutchinson, writing in 1730, describes him as -he appeared to those who laughed at witchcraft and had brought the -witch trials to an end. "Hopkins went on searching and swimming poor -creatures, till some gentlemen, out of indignation of the barbarity, -took him, and tied his own thumbs and toes as he used to tie others, -and when he was put into the water he himself swam as they did. That -cleared the country of him and it was a great pity that they did not -think of the experiment sooner." Floating when thrown into the water -was taken for a sign of witchcraft. Matthew Hopkins's testimony, -however, is uncommonly like that of the countryman who told Lady -Gregory that he had seen his dog and some shadow fighting. A certain -Mrs. Edwards of Manintree in Essex had her hogs killed by witchcraft, -and "going from the house of the said Mrs. Edwards to his own house, -about nine or ten of the clock that night, with his greyhound with -him, he saw the greyhound suddenly give a jump, and run as she had -been in full course after a hare; and that when this informant made -haste to see what his greyhound so eagerly pursued, he espied a white -thing, about the bigness of a kitlyn, and the greyhound standing -aloof from it; and that by and by the said white imp or kitlyn danced -about the greyhound, and by all likelihood bit off a piece of the -flesh of the shoulder of the said greyhound; for the greyhound came -shrieking and crying to the informant, with a piece of flesh torn -from her shoulder. And the informant further saith, that coming into -his own yard that night, he espied a black thing proportioned like -a cat, only it was thrice as big, sitting on a strawberry bed, and -fixing the eyes on this informant, and when he went towards it, it -leaped over the pale towards this informant, as he thought, but ran -through the yard, with his greyhound after it, to a great gate, which -was underset with a pair of tumble strings, and did throw the said -gate wide open, and then vanished; and the said greyhound returned -again to this informant, shaking and trembling exceedingly." At the -same trial Sir Thomas Bowes, Knight, affirmed "that a very honest -man of Manintree, whom he knew would not speak an untruth, affirmed -unto him, that very early one morning, as he passed by the said Anne -West's door" (this is the witch on trial) "about four o'clock, it -being a moonlight night, and perceiving her door to be open so early -in the morning, looked into the house and presently there came three -or four little things, in the shape of black rabbits, leaping and -skipping about him, who, having a good stick in his hand, struck at -them, thinking to kill them, but could not; but at last caught one -of them in his hand, and holding it by the body of it, he beat the -head of it against his stick, intending to beat out the brains of -it; but when he could not kill it that way, he took the body of it -in one hand and the head of it in another, and endeavoured to wring -off the head; and as he wrung and stretched the neck of it, it came -out between his hands like a lock of wool; yet he would not give over -his intended purpose, but knowing of a spring not far off, he went -to drown it; but still as he went he fell down and could not go, but -down he fell again, so that he at last crept upon his hands and knees -till he came at the water, and holding it fast in his hand, he put -his hand down into the water up to the elbow, and held it under water -a good space till he conceived it was drowned, and then letting go -his hand, it sprung out of the water up into the air, and so vanished -away." However, the sucking imps were not always invulnerable for -Glanvill tells how one John Monpesson, whose house was haunted by -such a familiar, "seeing some wood move that was in the chimney of -a room, where he was, as if of itself, discharged a pistol into it -after which they found several drops of blood on the hearth and in -divers places of the stairs." I remember the old Aran man who heard -fighting in the air and found blood in a fish-box and scattered -through the room, and I remember the measure of blood Odysseus poured -out for the shades. - -The English witch trials are like the popular poetry of England, -matter-of-fact and unimaginative. The witch desires to kill some -one and when she takes the devil for her husband he as likely as -not will seem dull and domestic. Rebecca West told Matthew Hopkins -that the devil appeared to her as she was going to bed and told her -he would marry her. He kissed her but was as cold as clay, and he -promised to be "her loving husband till death," although she had, -as it seems, but one leg. But the Scotch trials are as wild and -passionate as is the Scottish poetry, and we find ourselves in the -presence of a mythology that differs little, if at all, from that -of Ireland. There are orgies of lust and of hatred and there is a -wild shamelessness that would be fine material for poets and romance -writers if the world should come once more to half-believe the tale. -They are divided into troops of thirteen, with the youngest witch for -leader in every troop, and though they complain that the embraces of -the devil are as cold as ice, the young witches prefer him to their -husbands. He gives them money, but they must spend it quickly, for it -will be but dry cow dung in two circles of the clock. They go often -to Elfhame or Faeryland and the mountains open before them and as -they go out and in they are terrified by the "rowtling and skoylling" -of the great "elf bulls." They sometimes confess to trooping in the -shape of cats and to finding upon their terrestrial bodies when they -awake in the morning the scratches they had made upon one another in -the night's wandering, or should they have wandered in the images -of hares the bites of dogs. Isobell Godie who was tried at Lochlay -in 1662 confessed that "We put besoms in our beds with our husbands -till we return again to them ... and then we would fly away where we -would be, even as straws would fly upon a highway. We will fly like -straws when we please; wild straws and corn straws will be horses to -us, and we put them betwixt our feet and say horse and hillock in the -devil's name. And when any see these straws in a whirlwind and do -not sanctify themselves, we may shoot them dead at our pleasure."[1] -When they kill people, she goes on to say, the souls escape them -"but their bodies remain with us and will fly as horses to us all -as small as straws." It is plain that it is the "airy body" they -take possession of; those "animal spirits" perhaps which Henry More -thought to be the link between soul and body and the seat of all -vital function. The trials were more unjust than those of England, -where there was a continual criticism from sceptics; torture was used -again and again to distort confessions, and innocent people certainly -suffered; some who had but believed too much in their own dreams -and some who had but cured the sick at some vision's prompting. -Alison Pearson who was burnt in 1588 might have been Biddy Early or -any other knowledgeable woman in Ireland today. She was convicted -"for haunting and repairing with the Good Neighbours and queen of -Elfhame, these divers years and bypast, as she had confessed in her -depositions, declaring that she could not say readily how long she -was with them; and that she had friends in that court who were of her -own blood and who had great acquaintance of the queen of Elfhame. -That when she went to bed she never knew where she would be carried -before dawn." When they worked cures they had the same doctrine -of the penalty that one finds in Lady Gregory's stories. One who -made her confession before James I. was convicted for "taking the -sick party's pains and sicknesses upon herself for a time and then -translating them to a third person." - - - II - -There are more women than men mediums today; and there have been or -seem to have been more witches than wizards. The wizards of the -sixteenth and seventeenth centuries relied more upon their conjuring -book than the witches whose visions and experiences seem but half -voluntary, and when voluntary called up by some childish rhyme: - - Hare, hare, God send thee care; - I am in a hare's likeness now, - But I shall be a woman even now; - Hare, hare, God send thee care. - -More often than not the wizards were learned men, alchemists or -mystics, and if they dealt with the devil at times, or some spirit -they called by that name, they had amongst them ascetics and -heretical saints. Our chemistry, our metallurgy, and our medicine are -often but accidents that befell in their pursuit of the philosopher's -stone, the elixir of life. They were bound together in secret -societies and had, it may be, some forgotten practice for liberating -the soul from the body and sending it to fetch and carry them divine -knowledge. Cornelius Agrippa in a letter quoted by Beaumont has hints -of such a practice. Yet, like the witches, they worked many wonders -by the power of the imagination, perhaps one should say by their -power of calling up vivid pictures in the mind's eye. The Arabian -philosophers have taught, writes Beaumont, "that the soul by the -power of the imagination can perform what it pleases; as penetrate -the heavens, force the elements, demolish mountains, raise valleys -to mountains, and do with all material forms as it pleases." - - He shewed hym, er he wente to sopeer, - Forestes, parkes ful of wilde deer; - Ther saugh he hertes with hir hornes hye, - The gretteste that evere were seyn with ye. - - * * * * * - - Tho saugh he knyghtes justing in a playn; - And after this, he dide hym swich plaisaunce, - That he hym shewed his lady on a daunce - On which hymself he daunced, as hym thoughte. - And whan this maister, that this magyk wroughte, - Saugh it was tyme, he clapte his handes two, - And, farewel! al our revel was ago. - -One has not as careful a record as one has of the works of witches, -for but few English wizards came before the court, the only society -for psychical research in those days. The translation, however, of -Cornelius Agrippa's _De Occulta Philosophia_ in the seventeenth -century, with the addition of a spurious fourth book full of -conjurations, seems to have filled England and Ireland with whole -or half wizards. In 1703, the Reverend Arthur Bedford of Bristol -who is quoted by Sibley in his big book on astrology wrote to the -Bishop of Gloucester telling how a certain Thomas Perks had been to -consult him. Thomas Perks lived with his father, a gunsmith, and -devoted his leisure to mathematics, astronomy, and the discovery of -perpetual motion. One day he asked the clergyman if it was wrong to -commune with spirits, and said that he himself held that "there was -an innocent society with them which a man might use, if he made no -compacts with them, did no harm by their means, and were not curious -in prying into hidden things, and he himself had discoursed with -them and heard them sing to his great satisfaction." He then told -how it was his custom to go to a crossway with lantern and candle -consecrated for the purpose, according to the directions in a book -he had, and having also consecrated chalk for making a circle. The -spirits appeared to him "in the likeness of little maidens about a -foot and a half high ... they spoke with a very shrill voice like an -ancient woman" and when he begged them to sing, "they went to some -distance behind a bush from whence he could hear a perfect concert -of such exquisite music as he never before heard; and in the upper -part he heard something very harsh and shrill like a reed but as it -was managed did give a particular grace to the rest." The Reverend -Arthur Bedford refused an introduction to the spirits for himself -and a friend and warned him very solemnly. Having some doubt of his -sanity, he set him a difficult mathematical problem, but finding that -he worked it easily, concluded him sane. A quarter of a year later, -the young man came again, but showed by his face and his eyes that he -was very ill and lamented that he had not followed the clergyman's -advice for his conjurations would bring him to his death. He had -decided to get a familiar and had read in his magical book what he -should do. He was to make a book of virgin parchment, consecrate it, -and bring it to the cross-road, and having called up his spirits, -ask the first of them for its name and write that name on the first -page of the book and then question another and write that name on -the second page and so on till he had enough familiars. He had got -the first name easily enough and it was in Hebrew, but after that -they came in fearful shapes, lions and bears and the like, or hurled -at him balls of fire. He had to stay there among those terrifying -visions till the dawn broke and would not be the better of it till -he died. I have read in some eighteenth-century book whose name I -cannot recall of two men who made a magic circle and who invoked the -spirits of the moon and saw them trampling about the circle as great -bulls, or rolling about it as flocks of wool. One of Lady Gregory's -story-tellers considered a flock of wool one of the worst shapes that -a spirit could take. - -There must have been many like experimenters in Ireland. An Irish -alchemist called Butler was supposed to have made successful -transmutations in London early in the eighteenth century, and in the -_Life of Dr. Adam Clarke_, published in 1833, are several letters -from a Dublin maker of stained glass describing a transmutation and a -conjuration into a tumbler of water of large lizards. The alchemist -was an unknown man who had called to see him and claimed to do all by -the help of the devil "who was the friend of all ingenious gentlemen." - - W. B. Y. - - 1914. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[1] I have modernized the old lowland Scotch in these quotations from -_Pitcairn's Criminal Trials_. - - - - - NOTES - - - - - NOTES - - -NOTE 1. THE FAERY PEOPLE. The first detailed account of the Faery -People of the Gaelic race was made by the Reverend Robert Kirk in -1691. His book which remained in manuscript till it was discovered -by Sir Walter Scott in 1815 was called _The Secret Commonwealth_, -an essay "of the nature of the subterranean (and for the most part -invisible people) heretofore going under the names of elves, fays, -and faeries." Kirk was a Gaelic scholar, a translator into Gaelic of -the Psalms. He is described upon his tomb as _Lignae hibernae lumen_, -for in his day little distinction was made between the Irish and the -Scottish-Irish among whom he lived and whose words he has recorded. -He died a year after he had finished his manuscript or, as the people -of his parish say, was taken by the faeries. The Reverend William -Taylor, the present incumbent of Abberfoyle, Kirk's old living, -told Mr. Wentz that it was generally believed at the time of Kirk's -death, that the faeries had carried him off because he had looked too -deeply into their secrets. He seems to have fainted while walking -upon a faery knoll, a little way from his own door, and to have died -immediately. Mr. Wentz found one old Gaelic speaker who believed that -his spirit had been taken, but others who said there was nothing in -the grave but a coffin full of stones, for body and soul had been -taken. Mr. Lang prints a tradition that Kirk appeared to his cousin -Graham of Ducray and could have been saved if the cousin had dared to -throw a knife over the apparition's head. - -Kirk describes "the subterranean people" or "the abstruse people," -as he sometimes calls them, much as they are described today in -Galway or in Mayo. He is clear that they are not demons and like -Father Sinistrari, a Catholic theologian of Padua, quotes the -Scriptures in support of this opinion. The "abstruse people" are -not indeed, without sin though midway between men and angels, but -being in no way "drenched into so gross and dredgy bodies as we, are -especially given to the more spiritual and haughty sins." "Whatever -their own laws, be sure according to ours and equity natural civil -and revealed" they do wrong by "their stealing of nurses to their -children and that other sort of Plaginism in catching our children -away (may seem to heir some estate in those invisible dominions) -which never return. For the inconvenience of their succubi who tryst -with men it is abominable, but for swearing and intemperance they -are not observed so subject to this irregularity as to envy, spite, -hypocrisy, lying, and simulation." Some have thought the spirit -controls of our best mediums no better. "They are not subject to -sore sickness, but dwindle and decay at a certain period all about -ane age" and "they pass after a long healthy life into one orb and -receptacle fitted to their degree till they come under the general -cognism at the last day." They are the "Sleagh Math or the good -people" being called so by the "Irish" ... "to prevent the dint of -their ill-attempts" and being "of a middle nature betwixt man and -angel" have "intelligent, studious spirits, and light changeable -bodies (like those called astral) somewhat of the nature of a -condensed cloud and best seen in twilight. Their bodies are so -pliable through the subtlety of the spirits that agitate them that -they can make them appear or disappear at pleasure. Some have bodies -or vehicles so spongeous, thin, and desiccate, that they are fed -by only sucking into some fine spirituous liquors that pierce like -pure air and oil; others feed more gross on the foisone or substance -of corns and liquors or corn itself that grows upon the surface of -the earth which these faeries steal away, partly invisible, partly -preying on the grain as do crows and mice." Lady Gregory has a story -of the crying of new dropped lambs of faery in November and some -evidence that there is a reversal of the seasons, our winter being -their summer, and some such belief was known to Kirk for "when we -have plenty they have scarcity at their homes; and on the contrary -(for they are empowered to catch as much prey everywhere as they -please)." "Their bodies of congealed air are sometimes carried aloft, -other whiles grovel in different shapes and enter into any cranny or -cleft of the earth where air enters to their ordinary dwellings, the -earth being full of cavities and cells and there being no place nor -creature but is supposed to have other animals greater or lesser, -living in or upon it as inhabitants, and no such thing as a pure -wilderness in the whole universe" and we must always "labour for that -abstruse people as well as for ourselves." Unless Kirk is in error, -as seems probable, they are unlike the Irish faeries who shift but -twice a year in May and in November, when the ancient Irish perhaps -shifted from their winter houses to summer pastures or home again, -for they have formed the custom to "remove to other lodgings at the -beginning of each quarter of the year, so traversing till doomsday -some being impudent [impotent?] of staying in one place and finding -some ease by so purning [turning] and changing habitations," and at -these times they are much seen when "their chameleon-like bodies swim -in the air near the earth with bag and baggage." He is evidently -puzzled how to place them among the orders and admits that it is -uncertain "what at the last revolution will become of them when they -are locked up into ane unchangeable condition." He even believes that -they are so beset with anxiety upon this subject that have they "any -frolic fits of mirth 'tis as the confirmed grinning of a mort head." - -Many of the second-sighted men about him would have nothing of this -doctrine and still believed, it seems, the old Celtic theory of the -rebirth of the soul, a Manichaean and gnostic doctrine, for being -"unwary in their observations" they believed what the "abstruse -people" themselves declared "one averring those subterranean people -to be departed souls attending awhile in this inferior state and -clothed with bodies procured through their alms deeds in this life; -fluid, active ethereal vehicles to hold them that they may not -scatter or wander or be lost in the totum or the first nothing; but -if any were so impious as to have given no alms they say when the -souls of such do depart, they sleep in an uncertain state till they -resume the terrestrial body." These bodies, come at by the giving of -alms, suggest to one that body of Christ which, as Boehme taught, -alone enables the shade to escape from _turba magna_ the great wrath -and dream-like transformation into the shape of beasts. One remembers -also the celestial body of the seventeenth century Platonists. -The power attributed to almsgiving calls to mind those tales of -clothes given to the poor in some ghost's name thereby enabling the -ghost to be decked out in their double. Lady Gregory has found the -idea of rebirth in Aran, but in what seems the Cabalistic form not -the Celtic; and it occurs again and again in the Gaelic romances. -Cuchulain was the rebirth of Lug; and Mongan who was killed by -Arthur of Britain was the rebirth of Finn Mac Cool. Here and there -through the seventeenth century Platonists, Kirk's contemporaries, -one finds some story that might have been in Lady Gregory's book. -Glanvill in the second part of his _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ -published in 1674 has an Irish tale where the dead and the faeries -are associated as in Galway today. "A gentleman in Ireland near to -the Earl of Orrery's seat sending his butler one afternoon to buy -cards; as he passed a field, he, to his wonder, espied a company -of people sitting round a table, with a deal of good cheer before -them in the midst of a field. And he going up towards them, they all -arose and saluted him, and desired him to sit down with them." But -one of them said these words in his ear: "Do nothing this company -invites you to." "He therefore refused to sit down at the table, and -immediately the table and all that belonged to it were gone; and the -company are now dancing and playing upon musical instruments, and the -butler being desired to join himself to them; but he refusing this -also, they fall all to work, and he not being to be prevailed with -to accompany them in working, any more than in feasting and dancing, -they all disappeared, and the butler is now alone." For some days -attempts are made to carry away the butler. During one of these he is -levitated in the presence of the Earl of Orrery and certain of his -guests. Then the man who warned him to do nothing he was bid, came to -his bedside. "'I have been dead,' said the spectre or ghost, 'seven -years and you know that I lived a loose life. And ever since have -been hurried up and down in a restless condition with the company you -saw and shall be till the Day of Judgment.'" - -Throughout the Middle Ages, there must have been many discussions -upon those questions that divided Kirk's Highlanders. Were these -beings but the shades of men? Were they a separate race? Were they -spirits of evil? Above all, perhaps, were they capable of salvation? -Father Sinistrari in _De Daemonialitate et Incubis, et Succubis_, -reprinted in Paris with an English translation in 1879, tells a -story which must have been familiar through the Irish Middle Ages, -and the seed of many discussions. The Abbot Anthony went once upon -a journey to visit St. Paul, the first hermit. After travelling for -some days into the desert, he met a centaur of whom he asked his -road and the centaur, muttering barbarous and unintelligible words, -pointed to the road with his outstretched hand and galloped away -and hid himself in a wood. St. Anthony went some way further and -presently went into a valley and met there a little man with goat's -feet and horns upon his forehead. St. Anthony stood still and made -the sign of the cross being afraid of some devil's trick. But the -sign of the cross did not alarm the little man who went nearer and -offered some dates very respectfully as it seemed to make peace. When -the old Saint asked him who he was, he said: "I am a mortal, one of -those inhabitants of the desert called fauns, satyrs, and incubi, -by the Gentiles. I have come as an ambassador from my people. I ask -you to pray for us to our common God who came as we know for the -salvation of the world and who is praised throughout the world." We -are not told whether St. Anthony prayed but merely that he thought of -the glory of Christ and thereafter of Christ's enemies and turning -towards Alexandria said: "Woe upon you harlots worshipping animals as -God." This tale so artfully arranged as it seems to set the pious by -the ears may have been the original of a tale one hears in Ireland -today. I heard or read that tale somewhere before I was twenty, -for it is the subject of one of my first poems. But the priest in -the Irish tale, as I remember it, tells the little man that there -is no salvation for such as he and it ends with the wailing of the -faery host. Sometimes too, one reads in Irish stories of hoof-footed -creatures, and it may well be that the Irish theologians who read -of St. Anthony in Sinistrari's authority, St. Hieronymus, thought -centaur and homunculus were of like sort with the shades haunting -their own raths and barrows. Father Sinistrari draws the moral -that those inhabitants of the desert called "fauns and satyrs and -incubi by the Gentiles" had souls that could be shrived, but Irish -theologians in a country full of poems very upsetting to youth about -the women of the Sidhe who could pass, it may be even monastic walls, -may have turned the doubtful tale the other way. Sometimes we are -told following the traditions of the eleventh-century poems that the -Sidhe are "the ancient inhabitants of the country" but more often -still they are fallen angels who, because they were too bad for -heaven and not bad enough for hell, have been sent into the sea and -into the waste places. More probably still the question was never -settled, sometimes Christ was represented as throwing them into hell -till someone said he would empty the whole paradise, and thereupon -his hand slackened and some fell in this place and some in that -other, as though providence itself were undecided. Father Sinistrari -is conscious of weighty opponents but believes that Scripture is -upon his side. He quotes St. John, Chapter x., verse 16: "And other -sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring -and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one -shepherd." He argues that the commentators are wrong who say that -the fold is the synagogue and the other sheep the Gentiles, because -the true church has been from the beginning of the world, and has -had nothing to do with Jewish observances, for its revelations were -made to the first man and Jews and Gentiles have belonged to it. -If the Gentiles were not also of Christ's fold, he would not have -sent them prodigies to announce his birth, the star of the Magi, the -silencing of their oracle, a miraculous spring of oil at Rome, the -falling down of the images of Egyptian gods and so on. The other fold -should therefore, he thinks, refer to those "rational animals" who -sent their ambassador to St. Anthony and who were to hear Christ's -voice "either directly through Himself or through His apostles." -He argues that they are a race superior to the human and must not -be confused with angels and devils who are pure spirits being in a -final state of salvation or of judgment. He has written his book as a -guide to confessors who have frequently, it seems, to protect men and -women, often nuns or monks, who are plagued by spirits or tempted by -spirit lovers, and to apportion penalties to those who have fallen. -It is a great sin should they confuse their lovers with devils, for -then they "sin through intention," but otherwise it is a venal sin, -and seeing that incubi and succubi by reason of their "rational and -immortal" spirits are the equal of man and by reason of their bodies -being "more noble because more subtle," "more dignified than man," -a commerce that does not "degrade but rather dignify our nature" -(_et hoc homo jungens se incubo non vilificat, immo dignificat suam -naturam_). The incubus, (or succuba) however, does, he holds, commit -a very great sin considering that we belong to an inferior species. -It is difficult to drive them away, for unlike devils they are no -more subject to exorcism than we are ourselves, but just as we cannot -breathe in the higher peaks of the Alps because of the thinness of -the air, so they cannot come near to us if we make certain conditions -of the air. They are of different kinds but always one or other of -the four elements predominates, and those who are predominantly -fiery cannot come if we make the air damp, and those that are watery -cannot come if we use hot fumigations and so on. You can generally -judge the kind by remembering that a man attracts spirits according -to his own temperament, the sanguine, the spirits of fire, and the -lymphatic, those of watery nature, and those of a mixed nature, mixed -spirits; but it is easy to make mistakes. He tells of the case that -came into his own experience. He was asked to drive a spirit away -that was troubling a young monk and advised hot fumigations because -it was by their means "a very erudite theologian" drove away a spirit -who made passionate love in the form of "a very handsome young man -to a certain young nun" after holy candles burning all night and -"a crowd of relics and many exorcisms" had proved of but as little -value as her own vows and fasts. A vessel made of "glass-like earth" -containing "cubeb seed, roots of both aristolochies, great and small -cardamon, ginger, long pepper, caryophylias, cinnamon, cloves, mace, -nutmeg, calamite, storax, benzoin, aloes wood root, one ounce of -triasandates and three pounds of half brandy and water," was set upon -hot ashes to make it fume, and the door and window of the cell were -closed. The young friar, a deacon of the great Carthusian priory of -Padua, was further advised to carry about with him perfumes of musk, -amber, chive, peruvian bark, and the like, and to smoke tobacco and -drink brandy perfumed with musk. All was to no purpose for the spirit -appeared to him in many forms such as "a skeleton, a pig, an ass, -an angel, a bird" or "in the figure of one or other of the friars." -These appearances seem to have had no object except that like the -Irish faeries the spirit was pleased to make game of somebody. -Presently it came in the likeness of the abbot and heard the young -deacon's confession and recited with him the psalms _Exsurgat Deus_ -and _Qui habitat_ and the Gospel according to St. John, and bent its -knee at the words _Verbum caro factum est_, and then after sprinkling -with holy water and blessing bed and cell and commanding the spirit -to come there no more, it vanished. Presently in the likeness of the -young friar, it called at the vicar's room and asked for some tobacco -and brandy perfumed with musk of which it was, it said, extremely -fond, and having received them "disappeared in the twinkling of an -eye." Sinistrari, however, having decided that the demon must be -igneous or "at the very least aerial, since he delighted in hot -substances" and since the monk's temperament seemed "choleric and -sanguine," advised the vicar to direct his penitent to strew about -the cell and hang by the window and door bundles of "water-lily, -liverwort, spurge, mandrake, house-leek, plantain," and henbane and -other herbs of a damp nature which drove the spirit away though it -came once to the cell door to speak of Sinistrari all the evil it -could. He has other like stories; one to show the uselessness of mere -sacred places and objects, describes a woman followed to the steps of -the Cathedral altar and there stripped by invisible hands. - -One remembers a passage in PLUTARCH: "But to believe the gods have -carnal knowledge, and do delight in the outward beauty of creatures, -that seemeth to carry a very hard belief. Yet the wise Egyptians -think it probable enough and likely, that the spirit of the gods hath -given original of generation to women, and does beget fruits of their -bodies; howbeit they hold that a man can have no corporal company -with any divine nature." - -One hears today in Galway, stories of love adventures between -countrywomen or countrymen and the People of Faery--there are several -in this book and these adventures have been always a principal theme -to Gaelic poets. A goddess came to Cuchulain upon the battlefield, but -sometimes it is the mortal who must go to them. "Oh beautiful woman, -will you come with me to the wonderful country that is mine? It is -pleasant to be looking at the people there: beautiful people without -any blemish; their hair is of the colour of the flag flower, their -fair body is as white as snow, the colour of the foxglove is on every -cheek. The young never grow old there, the fields and the flowers are -as pleasant to be looking at as the blackbird's eggs; warm and sweet -streams of mead and wine flow through that country; there is no care -and no sorrow upon any person; we see others, but we ourselves are not -seen." Did Dame Kettler, a great lady of Kilkenny who was accused of -witchcraft early in the fifteenth century, find such a lover when she -offered up the combs of cocks and the bronzed tail feathers of nine -peacocks; or had she indeed, as her enemies affirmed at the trial, been -enamoured with "one of the meaner sort of hell"? - -NOTE 2. This light occurs again and again in modern spiritism as -in old legends. It shows in some form in almost every dark seance. -Grettir the Strong saw it over buried treasure. It surrounded the -head of Hereward the Wake in childhood, and in the middle of the -nineteenth century, Baron Reichenbach called it "odic light" and -published much evidence taken down from his "sensitives" who saw -it about crystals, magnets, and one another, and over new-made -graves. Holman Hunt represents in his _Flight into Egypt_ the souls -of the Innocents encircled by creeping and clinging fire. When this -fire encircles a good spirit it is generally described as white and -brilliant, but about the evil as lurid and smoky. - -NOTE 3. When I was a boy, there was a countryman in a Sligo madhouse -who was sane in all ways except that he saw, in pools and rivers, -beings who called and beckoned. I have myself known a landscape -painter who after painting a certain stagnant pool was nightly -afflicted by a dream of strange shapes, bidding him to drown himself -there. The obsession was so strong that he could not throw it off -during his waking hours, and for some days struggled with the -temptation. I was with him at the time and had noticed his growing -gloom and had questioned him about it. - -NOTE 4. Bran, in the _Voyage of Bran_ when sailing, meets Manannan the -sea-god. "And Manannan spoke to him in a song, and it is what he said: - -"It is what Bran thinks, he is going in his curragh over the -wonderful, beautiful, clear sea; but to me, from far off in my -chariot, it is a flowery plain he is riding on. - -"What is a clear sea to the good boat Bran is in, is a happy plain -with many flowers to me in my two-wheeled chariot. - -"It is what Bran sees, many waves beating across the clear sea; it is -what I myself see, red flowers without any fault. - -"The sea-horses are bright in summer-time, as far as Bran's eyes can -reach; there is a wood of beautiful acorns under the head of your -little boat. - -"A wood with blossom and with fruit, that has the smell of wine; a -wood without fault, without withering, with leaves of the colour of -gold." (_Gods and Fighting Men_, by Lady Gregory.) - -NOTE 5. Swedenborg describes these colours and I have a note of -similar visions as seen by a fellow-student of mine at the Dublin Art -School. Mrs. Besant in her _Ancient Wisdom_ and other writers of the -Modern Theosophical School describe them and moralize about them. - -NOTE 6. There are constant stories in the history of modern spiritism -of people carried through the air often for considerable distances. -It is not my business to weigh the evidence at this moment, for I am -concerned only with similarity of belief. The medium, Mrs. Guppy, -somewhere in the "sixties" was believed to have been carried from -Hampstead, a pen in one hand and an account book in the other, and -dropped on to the middle of a table in South Conduit Street. Lord -Dunraven was one of a number of witnesses who testified to having -seen the medium Hume float out of one window of the upper room, where -they were sitting, and in at another window. I read the other day in -a spiritistic paper, of two boys carried through the air in Italy and -dropped in front of a bishop who immediately handed them over to the -police. And of course the folk-lore of all countries and the legends -of the saints are full of such tales. - -NOTE 7. The offering to the Sidhe is generally made at Hallowe'en, -the old beginning of winter, and upon that night I was told when a -boy the offering was still made in the slums of Dublin. - -NOTE 8. Father Sinistrari speaks of a like commerce between beasts -and spirits. "Et non solum hoc evenit cum mulieribus, sed etiam cum -equabus, cum quibus commicetur; quae si libenter coitum admittunt, ab eo -curantur optime, ac ipsarum jubae varie artificiosis et inextricabilibus -nodis texuntur; si autem illum adversentur, eas male tractat, percutit, -macras reddit, et tandem necat, ut quotidiana constat experienta." - -NOTE 9. Houses built upon faery paths are thought to be unlucky. -Often the thatch will be blown away, or their inhabitants die or -suffer misfortune. - -NOTE 10. The number of quotations I can find to prove the -universality of the thought that the dead and other spirits change -their shape as they please is but lessened by the fewness of the -books that are near my hand in the country where I am writing. John -Heydon, "a servant of God and secretary of nature," writing in 1662 -in _The Rosie Cross Uncovered_ which is the last book of his _Holy -Guide_ says that a man may become one of the heroes: "A hero," he -writes, "is a daemon, or good genius, and a genius a partaker of -divine things and a companion of the holy company of unbodied souls -and immortal angels who live according to their vehicles a versatile -life, turning themselves proteus-like into any shape." - -And Mrs. Besant, a typical writer of the modern Theosophical School, -insists upon these changes of form, especially among those spirits that -are most free from the terrestrial body and explains it by saying that, -"astral matter takes form under every impulse of thought." Swedenborg -I have already quoted in my long essay, but to prove that the -shape-changer is a part of general literature--I have but Wordsworth -and Milton under my hand. When the white doe of Rylstone shows itself -at the church door according to its Sunday custom, one has one tale to -tell, another another, but an Oxford student will have it that it is -the faery that loved a certain "shepherd-lord." - - "'Twas said that she all shapes could wear." - -And Milton writes like any Platonist of his time: - - "For Spirits, when they please, - Can either sex assume, or both; so soft - And uncompounded is their essence pure, - Not ty'd or manacled with joint or limb, - Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, - Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose, - Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, - Can execute their aery purposes, - And works of love or enmity fulfil." - -NOTE 11. The seers and healers in this section differ but little -from clairvoyants and spirit mediums of the towns, and explain -their powers in much the same way. Indeed one of Lady Gregory's -story-tellers will have it that America is more full than Ireland -of faeries, and describes the mediums there to prove it. It is -often through some virtue in these country seers and healers that -the faeries or spirits are able to affect men and women and natural -objects. Mrs. Sheridan says that a child could not have been taken -if she had not been looking on, and one hears again and again that -even when the faeries fight among themselves or play at hurley, -there must be a man upon either side. We are all in a sense mediums, -if the village seer speaks truth, for through any unsanctified -emotion, love, affection, admiration, the spirits may attain power -over a child or horse or whatever is before our eyes, and perhaps, -as the controls of mediums will sometimes say, they can only see -the world through our eyes. Albert de Rochas, borrowing a theory -from the seventeenth century, has suggested with the general assent -of spiritists that the fluidic or sidereal body of the medium, the -mould upon which the physical body is, it may be, built up, is more -detachable than in persons who are not mediums, and that the spirits -make themselves visible by transforming it into their own shape or -into what shape they please and attain by its means a power over -physical objects. (See _L'Exteriorisation de la Motricite_.) Instead -of the expensive crystal of the Bond Street clairvoyant, Biddy Early -gazed into her bottle, but that is almost the whole difference. If -the dreams and visions of Connacht have more richness and beauty -than those of Camberwell, it is that Connacht, having no doubts as -to our survival of death, is not always looking for but one sort of -evidence, and so can let things happen as they will. The brother -or sister or the like who comes to the knowledgeable man or woman -after death is but the "guide" that has been so common in England -and America, since the Rochester rappings, and a country form of -Plutarch's "daemon." At other moments, however, "seer" or "healer" -resembles a witch or wizard rather than a modern medium. - - * * * * * - -In one thing, however, they always resemble the medium and not the -witch. They seem to have no dealings with the devil. The Irish Trials -for witchcraft of the English and continental type took place among -the English settlers. I have never come across a case of a "compact" -nor has Lady Gregory, nor have I read of one. - -NOTE 12. It is almost unthinkable to Lady Gregory and myself, who -know Mrs. Sheridan, that she can ever have seen a drawbridge in -a picture or heard one spoken of. Nor does this instance stand -alone. I have had in my own family what seemed the accurate calling -up of an unknown past but failing a link of difficult evidence -still unfound, coincidence, though exceedingly unlikely, is still -a possible explanation. I have come upon a number of other cases -which are, though no one case is decisive, a powerful argument taken -altogether. In _The Adventure_ (MacMillan), an elaborate vision -of this kind is recorded in detail and, accepting the record as -accurate, the verification is complete. Two ladies found themselves -in the garden of the Petit Trianon in the midst of what seemed to -be the court of Marie Antoinette, in just the same sudden way in -which some countryman finds himself among ladies and gentlemen -dressed in what seem the clothes of a long passed time. The record -purports to have been made in November and December 1901, whereas the -vision occurred in August. This lapse of time does not seem to me -to destroy the value of the evidence, if the record was made before -its corroboration by long and difficult research.[2] Accepting the -good faith of the narrators, both well-known women and of established -character, its evidence for some more obscure cause than unconscious -memory can only be weakened by the discovery in some book or magazine -accessible to the visionaries before their visit to the Trianon, -of historical information on such minute points as the dress Marie -Antoinette wore in a particular month, and the position of ornamental -buildings and rock work not now in existence. There is a great mass -of similar evidence in Denton's _Soul of Things_ though its value is -weakened by his not sufficiently allowing for thought transference -from his own mind to that of his sensitives. - -A "theosophist" or "occultist" of almost any modern school explains -such visions by saying they are "pictures in the astral light" and that -all objects and events leave their images in the astral light as upon -a photographic plate, and that we must distinguish between spirits -and these unintelligent pictures. I was once at Madame Blavatsky's -when she tried to explain predestination, our freedom and God's full -knowledge of the use that we should make of it. All things past and -to come were present to the mind of God and yet all things were free. -She soon saw that she had carried us out of our depth and said to one -of her followers with a mischievous, mocking voice: "You with your -impudence and your spectacles will be sitting there in the Akasa to -all eternity" and then in a more meditative voice, "No, not to all -eternity for a day will come when even the Akasa will pass away and -there will be nothing but God, chaos, that which every man is seeking -in his heart." Akasa, she was accustomed to explain as some Indian -word for the astral light. Perhaps that theory of the astral pictures -came always from the despair of some visionary to find understanding -for a more metaphysical theory. It is, however, ancient. To Cornelius -Agrippa it is the air that reflects, but the air is something more -than what the word means for us. "It is a vital spirit passing through -all beings giving life and substance to all things ... it immediately -receives into itself the influences of all celestial bodies, and then -communicates them to the other elements as also to all mixed bodies. -Also it receives into itself as if it were a divine looking-glass the -species of all things, as well natural as artificial," it enters into -men and animals "through their pores" and "makes an impression upon -them as well when they sleep as when they awake and affords matter -to divers strange dreams and divinations.... Hence it is that a man -passing by a place where a man was slain and the carcase newly laid is -moved by fear and dread; because the air in that place being full of -the dread species of man-slaughter does being breathed in, move and -trouble the spirit of the man with a like species ... whence it is -that many philosophers were of the opinion that the air is the cause -of dreams." Henry More is more precise and philosophical and believes -that this air which he calls _Spiritus Mundi_ contains all forms, so -that the parents when a child is begotten, or a witch when the double -is projected as a hare, but as it were, call upon the _Spiritus Mundi_ -for the form they need. The name "Astral Light" was given to this air -or spirit by the Abbe Constant who wrote under the pseudonym of Elephas -Levi and like Madame Blavatsky, claimed to be the voice of an ancient -magical society. In his _Dogma et Rituel de la Haute Magie_ published -in the fifties, he described in vague, eloquent words, influenced -perhaps by the recent discovery of the daguerreotype these pictures -which we continually confuse with the still animate shades. A more -clear exposition of a perhaps always incomprehensible idea is that of -Swedenborg who says that when we die, we live over again the events -that lie in all their minute detail in our memory, and this is the -explanation of the authors of _The Adventure_ who believe, as it seems, -that they were entangled in the memory of Marie Antoinette. I have met -students who claimed to have had knowledge of Levi's sources and who -believed that when at last a spirit has been, as it were, pulled out of -its coil, other spirits may use its memory, not only of events but of -words and of thoughts. Did Cornelius Agrippa identify soul with memory -when, after quoting Ovid to prove that the flesh cleaves to earth, the -ghost hovers over the grave, the soul sinks to Oxos, and the spirit -rises to the stars, he explains that if the soul has done well it -rejoices with the almost faultless spirit, but if it has done ill, the -spirit judges it and leaves it for the devil's prey and "the sad soul -wanders about hell without a spirit and like an image?" Remembering -these writings and sayings, I find new meaning in that description of -death taken down by Lady Gregory in some cottage: "The shadow goes -wandering and the soul is tired and the body is taking a rest." - -I was once talking with Professor James of experiences like to those -in _The Adventure_ and said that I found it easiest to understand -them by believing in a memory of nature distinguished from individual -memory, though including and enclosing it. He would, however, have -none of my explanation and preferred to think the past, present, and -future were only modes of our perception and that all three were in -the divine mind, present at once. It was Madame Blavatsky's thought, -and Shelley's in the _Sensitive Plant_: - - "That garden sweet, that lady fair, - And all sweet shapes and odours there, - In truth have never passed away; - 'Tis we, 'tis ours, are changed, not they. - - "For love, and beauty, and delight, - There is no death nor change; their light - Exceeds our organs, which endure - No light, being themselves obscure." - -NOTE 13. The ancient Irish had quadrilateral houses built of logs, -and round houses of clay and wattles. O'Sullivan, in his introduction -to O'Curry's _Manners and Customs_, writes: "The houses built in -_Duns_ and in _stone caiseal_, and those surrounded by mounds of -earth, were, probably in all cases round houses." A _Bo Aires_, -or farmer with ten cows was supposed to have a house at least -twenty-seven feet wide but the houses of better off men must have -made one room of considerable size, a whole household sleeping on -beds, sometimes with low partitions between, raying out from the -wall like spokes of a wheel. Petrie thought the great quadrilateral -banqueting hall of Tara was once ninety feet wide. - -NOTE 14. In _The Roman Ritual_, there is an exorcism for evil spirits -and a ceremony for the succour of the sick (_cura infirmorum_). And -in the beginning of the chapter containing this ceremony (Caput -IV., verse 12), it is stated that images of Christ, the Virgin, and -of saints especially in veneration of the sick man, may cure him -if brought into the room. In the ceremony of exorcism, the priest -is directed to make numerous signs of the cross over the possessed -person (_sic. rubric: Tres cruces sequentes fiant in pectore -daemoniaci_). The spirit is commanded to be gone in the name of the -Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The ceremony with psalms -covers twenty-six pages of my copy. The exorcism is described as -a driving out of the "most unclean spirit" of every phantasm and -every legion. It commands the "most evil dragon, in the name of the -immaculate lamb who walked upon the asp and the basilisk and cast -down the lion and the dragon" to "go down out of this man." - -In the ceremony for the sick, the priest places his hand on the head -of the sick man and says: - -"Let them place their hands on the sick and they shall be well -[_Super aegros manus imponent, et bene habebunt_]. May Christ Son of -Mary, Saviour of the world and Lord, by the merits and intercession -of his holy apostles Peter and Paul and of all the saints be clement -and propitious to you." - -The ceremony is ten pages and contains various psalms and selections -from the Gospels. - -Round these two ceremonies have gathered in the minds of the country -people, at least, many traditional ideas. When any one is cured, there -is a victim, some other human being or some animal will die. If one -remembers that diseases were very commonly considered to be the work -of demons, one sees how the story of the Gadarene swine would support -the tradition. I know not into what subtlety the dreaming mind may not -carry the thought, for some few months ago in France, an excommunicated -miracle-working priest said in my hearing: "There is always a victim; -so-and-so was the victim for France," naming a holy Italian nun who had -just died. "And so-and-so," naming a living holy woman, "is the victim -for my own village." Various medieval saints, and even certain witches, -cured sick persons by taking the disease upon themselves. - -Christian Scientists and Mental Healers are often afraid of -themselves acquiring the disease which they drive out of their -patient; they sometimes speak of the effort that it costs them to -shake it off. I was told a story the other day, which I have proved -not to be true, but which is evidence of the belief. A woman said to -me some such words as these: "My friend so-and-so, who is a Mental -Healer, was staying in the country. She saw a woman there with a -strange look. She asked what was wrong, and found that this woman was -expecting a periodical fit of madness. She offered to undertake her -cure, and brought her to her own house. The patient became violent, -but my friend was able by faith and prayer to soothe her till she -fell asleep. My friend went downstairs exhausted, and lay upon the -sofa. Presently she saw strange shadows coming into the room and -knew they had come from the patient upstairs, and these shadows, -taking the form of swine, threw themselves upon her and only after a -long struggle could she throw them off." The swine and their attack -were all moonshine, but the healer, whom I found and questioned, did -believe that she saw shadows leaving the patient. - -The transference of disease was a generally recognized part -of medieval and ancient medicine; and Albert de Rochas gives -considerable space to it in his _L'Exteriorisation de la -Sensibilite_, Paris, 1909. He quotes from a seventeenth-century -writer, Abbe de Vellemort, many examples from medical and scientific -writers of that time who believed themselves to have transferred -diseases from their patients to animals and to trees and to various -substances, "Mumia" as they called them, which absorb _des esprits -qui resident dans le sang_ and then describes various experiments -made in 1885 by Dr. Babinski "Chef de Clinique de M. Charcot" in -transferring now by magnets, now by suggestion various forms of -nervous disease from one patient to another. Where these diseases -were produced in the first instance by suggestion, the patient -from whom the disease was transferred, was freed from it, but -where the disease was natural and the cause of the patient being -at the hospital, there was no cure although in one case there was -improvement. Albert de Rochas then quotes as follows from a lecture -given by Dr. Luys to La Societe de Biologie in 1894. - -"M. D'Arsonval has, according to a communication from an English -physician, given an account at the last meeting of the Societe de -Biologie, of the persistent action in a magnetized iron bar of the -magnetic fluid, which to a certain extent, kept a memory of its -former state. - -"My researches of the same kind have given me proofs some time since -of analogous phenomena with the help of magnetized crowns placed on -the head of a subject in an hypnotic state. - -"In this case, it is a question not only of storing vibrations of -magnetic nature, but of really living nature, of real cerebral -vibrations through the coating of the brain, stored in a magnetic -crown, in which they remain for a greater or less length of time. - -"To arrive at this phenomenon, instead of using an unresponsive -physical instrument, I use a reacting living being--an hypnotized -subject, who has thus become sensitive to living magnetic vibrations. I -am presenting to the Society the magnetized crown, like several other -models which I have already shown. It is adapted to the head by means -of a system of straps, encircles it and leaves the frontal region free. - -"It also forms a bent magnet with a positive and a negative pole. -This crown was put, more than a year ago, on the head of a woman -suffering from melancholia with ideas of persecution, agitation, and -a tendency to suicide, etc. The application of the crown lead to the -patient's getting slowly better after five or six seances; and at -the end of ten days I thought I could send her back to the hospital -without any danger. At the end of a fortnight, the crown having been -isolated, the idea came to me quite empirically of placing it on the -head of the 'subject' now before you. - -"He is a male, hypnotizable, _hysterique_, given to frequent fits -of lethargy. What was my surprise to see this subject, put into the -somnambulistic state, complaining in exactly the same terms as those -the cured patient had used a fortnight before. - -"_He_ first of all took on the sex of the patient; _he_ spoke in the -feminine gender; _he_ complained of violent headache; _he_ said he was -going mad, that his neighbours came into his room to do him harm. In a -word, the hypnotic subject had, thanks to the magnetized crown, taken -on the cerebral state of the melancholic patient. The magnetized crown -had been powerful enough to draw off the morbid cerebral influx of -the patient (who got well), which had persisted, like a memory, in the -intimate (or innermost) texture of the magnetic strip of metal. - -"This is a phenomenon we have produced many times, for several years; -not only with the subject now present, but with others. - -"This communication is, amongst physiological phenomena, on a line -with M. D'Arsonval's on the persistence of certain anterior states -in inorganic bodies; it will no doubt cause much astonishment and -scepticism amongst those who are not accustomed to hypnologic research. - -"Doubts will be cast on the sincerity of the subject, on his tendency -to produce wonders, to being carried away, and also on what may -perhaps seem too easy an acquiescence on the part of the operator. - -"To all these objections I will only answer: that this phenomenon -of the transmission of the psychical states of a subject by means -of a magnetized crown which keeps given impressions is quite in the -order of the phenomena formerly communicated by M. D'Arsonval. And, -further, the first time I made this experiment, it was done without -my knowing, in an entirely empirical way. The impregnated crown was -put on the head of the hypnotic subject about a fortnight after it -had been put on the patient's head. There has therefore necessarily -been a first operation, of which I did not foreknow the results; -for we did not know any more than the hypnotized subject, what was -going to happen, and the subject reacted, _motu proprio_, without any -excitant other than the magnetic crown. - -"So one can assert, without trying to draw any other conclusions, -that certain vibratory states of the brain, and probably of the -nervous system, are capable of storing themselves in a magnetized -bent strip of metal, as the magnetic fluid is stored in the soft bar -of iron, and of leaving persistent traces; still further, that one -can only destroy this persistent magnetic property by fire. The crown -has to be red-hot before it ceases to act, as M. D'Arsonval found to -be the case with the iron bar." - -Albert de Rochas makes this notable comment: - -"The same phenomenon would certainly have been produced had the -patient been dead, and so one might by this means have a sort of -evocation of a personality no longer of this world." - -NOTE 15. As late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Irish -were accustomed to leave their houses on the plains and valleys in -spring and live with their cattle on the uplands, returning to the -valleys and plains in time to reap the harvest. Before tillage became -general they may not have returned till the chill of autumn. From -this perhaps came the faery flittings of May and November. - -NOTE 16. The pictures shown were drawings of spirits "A. E." made -from his own visions. The yellow thing upon the head was, I suppose, -some sort of crown. These countrywomen have seen so little gold that -they do not describe anything as "of gold" or "like gold." They will -say of yellow hair that it is "bright like silver." - -NOTE 17. The death-coach or more properly _coiste-bodhar_ or -"deaf-coach," so called from its rumbling sound. It is usually an -omen of death. - -NOTE 18. The thing "yellow and slippery, not hair but like marble" -is evidently a crown of gold. Are these spirits in dress of ancient -authority the shepherds of the more recent dead? - -NOTE 19. I have read somewhere, but cannot remember where, that -ragweed was once used to make some medicine for horses. This -would account for its association with them in the half-fantasy, -half-vision of the country seers. In the same way, the mushroom ring -of the faeries is, it seems, a memory of some intoxicating liquor -made of mushrooms, when intoxication was mysterious. The storyteller -speaks of "those red flowers," showing how vague her sense of colour, -or her knowledge of English, for ragweed is, of course, yellow. - -NOTE 20. "Bracket" is Irish for "speckled" and seems to me a -description of the plaids and stripes of medieval Ireland. - -NOTE 21. Bodin in his _De Magorum Daemonomania_ speaks of salt as a -spell against spirits because a "symbol of eternity." - -NOTE 22. Tir-na-n-og, the country of the young, the paradise of -the ancient Irish. It is sometimes described as under the earth, -sometimes as all about us, and sometimes as an enchanted island. This -island paradise has given rise to many legends; sailors have bragged -of meeting it. A Dutch pilot settled in Dublin in 1614, claimed -to have seen it off the coast of Greenland in 61 deg. of latitude. It -vanished as he came near, but sailing in an opposite direction he -came upon it once more, but Giraldus Cambrensis claimed that shortly -before he came to Ireland such a phantom island was discovered off -the west coast of Ireland and made habitable. Some young men saw it -from the shore; when they came near it, it sank into the water. The -next day it reappeared and again mocked the same youths with the -like delusion. At length, on their rowing towards it on the third -day, they followed the advice of an older man, and let fly an arrow, -barbed with red-hot steel, against the island; and then landing, -found it stationary and habitable. - -NOTE 23. Supernatural strength is often spoken of by the people as -a sign of faery power. It is also enumerated in _The Roman Ritual_ -among the signs of possession. I have read somewhere that the priests -of Apollo showed it in their religious transports. - -NOTE 24. "Materializations" are generally imperfect. The spirit makes -just enough of mind and form for its purpose. Even when the form is -only visible to the clairvoyant there may still be materialization, -though not carried far enough to affect ordinary sight. - -NOTE 25. The picture was made by "A. E." of one of the forms he sees -in vision. - -NOTE 26. The barrel which contained a brew that made the spirits -invisible is probably the cauldron of the god Dagda, called "The -Undry" "because it was never empty." The Tuatha-de-Danaan, the old -Irish divine race, brought with them to Ireland four talismans, the -sword, the spear, the stone, and the cauldron. Rhys, in his _Celtic -Heathendom_, compares it with the Irish well of wisdom, overhung by -nine hazels, and the Welsh "Cauldron of the Head of Hades," set over -a fire, blown into a flame by the breath of nine young girls. Girls -and hazels were alike, he thinks, symbols of time because of the nine -days of the old Celtic week, and comparable with the nine Muses, -daughters of Memory. Nutt thought the Celtic cauldron the first form -of the Holy Grail. - -NOTE 27. In my record of this conversation I find a sentence that has -dropped out in Lady Gregory's. The old man used these words: "And I -took down a fork from the rafters and asked her was it a broom and she -said it was," and it was that answer that proved her in the power of -the faeries. She was "suggestible" and probably in a state of trance. - -NOTE 28. The Dundonians are, of course, the Tuatha-de-Danaan, and -those with the bag are the "firbolg" or "bag-men," we have now, it -may be, a true explanation of a name Professor Rhys has interpreted -with intricate mythology. I wonder if these bags are related to the -Sporran of the Highlanders. - -NOTE 29. Here though maybe but in seeming, spiritism and folk-lore are -at issue with one another. The spirit of the seance room is described -as growing to maturity and remaining in that state. In Swedenborg it -moves toward "the day-spring of its youth." Among the country people -too, one sometimes hears of the dead growing to the likeness of thirty -years in heaven and remaining so. Thirty years, I suppose, because -at that age Christ began his ministry. The idea that underlies Mrs. -Fagan's statement seems to be that we have a certain measure of life to -live out on earth or in some intermediate state. Are the inhabitants of -this "intermediate state" the "earthbound" of the spiritists? - -NOTE 30. Professor Lombroso quotes from Professor Faffofer the -following description of how he received news of the death -of Carducci: "On the 18th of February, in the evening, our -spirit-friends did not at once give us notice of their presence at -our sitting, and we waited for them about half an hour. 'Remigo,' -on being asked the reason why they had delayed, replied: 'We are in -a state of agitation and confusion here. We have just come from a -festival--of grief for you and joy for us. We have been present at -the death-bed of Carducci." He had died that day and in that very -hour and the news had not yet arrived by the ordinary channels. - -NOTE 31. I was the patient; it seemed to be the only way of coming to -intimate speech with the knowledgeable man. - -NOTE 32. The ghosts of "spiritism" are constantly changing place or -state. Sometimes for this reason they must say "goodbye" to a medium. -That they are passing to a "higher state" seems to be the usual phrase. -See for instance the account signed by A. I. Smart and a number of -witnesses, published in _The Medium and Daybreak_, of June 15, 1877. - -NOTE 33. I have been several times told that a great battle for the -potatoes preceded the great famine. What decays with us seems to come -out, as it were, on the other side of the picture and is spirits' -property. - -NOTE 34. This is true but he might have guessed it from the -difference of my glasses; one is plain glass. - -NOTE 35. They are only small when "upon certain errands," but when -small, three feet or thereabouts seems to be the almost invariable -height. Mary Battle, my uncle George Pollexfen's second-sighted -servant told me that "it is something in our eyes makes them big or -little." People in trance often see objects reduced. Mrs. Piper when -half awakened will sometimes see the people about her very small. - -NOTE 36. The same story as that in one of the most beautiful of the -"Noh" plays of Japan. I tell the Japanese story in my long terminal -essay. - -NOTE 37. Mediums have often said that the spirits see this world -through our eyes. John Heydon, upon the other hand, calls good -spirits "The eyes and ears of God." - -NOTE 38. The herbs were gathered before dawn, probably that the dew -might be upon them. Dew, a signature or symbol of the philosopher's -stone, was held once to be a secretion from dawning light. - -NOTE 39. The most puzzling thing in Irish folk-lore is the number of -countrymen and countrywomen who are "away." A man or woman or child -will suddenly take to the bed, and from that on, perhaps for a few -weeks, perhaps for a lifetime, will be at times unconscious, in a state -of dream, in trance, as we say. According to the peasant theory these -persons are, during these times, with the faeries, riding through the -country, eating or dancing, or suckling children. They may even, in -that other world, marry, bring forth, and beget, and may when cured of -their trances mourn for the loss of their children in faery. This state -generally commences by their being "touched" or "struck" by a spirit. -The country people do not say that the soul is away and the body in -the bed, as a spiritist would, but that body and soul have been taken -and somebody or something put in their place so bewitched that we do -not know the difference. This thing may be some old person who was -taken years ago and having come near his allotted term is put back to -get the rites of the church, or as a substitute for some more youthful -and more helpful person. The old man may have grown too infirm even to -drive cattle. On the other hand, the thing may be a broomstick or a -heap of shavings. I imagine that an explanatory myth arose at a very -early age when men had not learned to distinguish between the body and -the soul, and was perhaps once universal. The fact itself is certainly -"possession" and "trance" precisely as we meet them in spiritism, and -was perhaps once an inseparable part of religion. Mrs. Piper surrenders -her body to the control of her trance personality but her soul, -separated from the body has a life of its own, of which, however, she -is little if at all conscious. - -There are two books which describe with considerable detail a like -experience in China and Japan respectively: _Demon Possession and -Allied Themes_, by the Rev. John L. Nevius, D.D. (Fleming H. Revell -& Co., 1894); _Occult Japan_, by Percival Lowell (Houghton, Mifflin, -1895). In both countries, however, the dualism of body and soul -is recognized, and the theory is therefore identical with that of -spiritism. Dr. Nevius is a missionary who gradually became convinced, -after much doubt and perplexity, of the reality of possession by what -he believes to be evil spirits precisely similar to that described in -the New Testament. These spirits take possession of some Chinese man -or woman who falls suddenly into a trance, and announce through their -medium's mouth, that when they lived on earth they had such and such a -name, sometimes if they think a false name will make them more pleasing -they will give a false name and history. They demand certain offerings -and explain that they are seeking a home; and if the offerings are -refused, and the medium seeks to drive them from body and house they -turn persecutors; the house may catch fire suddenly; but if they have -their way, they are ready to be useful, especially to heal the sick. -The missionaries expel them in the name of Christ, but the Chinese -exorcists adopt a method familiar to the west of Ireland--tortures or -threats of torture. They will light tapers which they stick upon the -fingers. They wish to make the body uncomfortable for its tenant. As -they believe in the division of soul and body they are not likely to -go too far. A man actually did burn his wife to death, in Tipperary -a few years ago, and is no doubt still in prison for it. My uncle, -George Pollexfen, had an old servant Mary Battle, and when she spoke -of the case to me, she described that man as very superstitious. I -asked what she meant by that and she explained that everybody knew that -you must only threaten, for whatever injury you did to the changeling -the faeries would do to the living person they had carried away. In -fact mankind and spiritkind have each their hostage. These explanatory -myths are not a speculative but a practical wisdom. And one can count -perhaps, when they are rightly remembered, upon their preventing the -more gross practical errors. The Tipperary witch-burner only half knew -his own belief. "I stand here in the door," said Mary Battle, "and I -hear them singing over there in the field, but I have never given in to -them yet." And by "giving in" I understood her to mean losing her head. - -The form of possession described in Lowell's book is not involuntary -like that the missionary describes. And the possessing spirits are -believed to be those of holy hermits or of the gods. He saw it for -the first time on a pilgrimage to the top of Mount Ontake. Close on -the border of the snow he came to a rest house which was arranged to -enclose the path, that all, it would seem, might stop and rest and -eat and give something to its keeper. Presently he saw three young -men dressed in white who passed on in spite of the entreaties of -the keeper. He followed and presently found them praying before a -shrine cut in the side of a cliff. When the prayer was finished one -of them took from his sleeve a stick that had hanging from it pieces -of zigzag paper, and sat himself on a bench opposite the shrine. One -of the others sat facing upon another bench, clasping his hands over -his breast and closing his eyes. Then the first young man began a -long evocation, chanting and twisting and untwisting his fingers -all the time. Presently he put the wand with the zigzag paper into -the other's hands and the other's hands began to twitch, and that -twitching grew more and more. The man was possessed. A spirit spoke -through his mouth and called itself the God, Hakkai. - -Now the evoker became very respectful and asked if the peak would be -clear of clouds, and the pilgrimage a lucky one, and if the god would -take care of those left at home. The god answered that the peak would -be clear until the afternoon of the day following and all else go -well. The voice ceased and the evoker offered a prayer of adoration. -The entranced man was awakened by being touched on the breast and -slapped upon the back and now another of the three took his place. -And all was gone through afresh; and when that was over the third -young man was entranced in his turn. - -Mr. Lowell made considerable further investigation and records many -cases, and was told that the god or spirit would sometimes speak in a -tongue unknown to the possessed man, or gave useful medical advice. -He is one of the few Europeans who have witnessed what seems to be -an important right of Shinto religion. Shintoism, or the Way of the -Gods, until its revival in the last half of the nineteenth century -remained lost and forgotten in the roots of Japanese life. It had -been superseded by Buddhism, if Mr. Lowell was correctly informed, -as completely as this old faery faith of Ireland has been superseded -by Christianity. Buddhism, however, having no Christian hostility to -friendly spirits, does not seem to have done anything to discourage -a revival which was one of the causes that brought Japan under the -single rule of the Mikado. It had always indeed in certain of its -sects practised ceremonies that had for their object the causing of -possession. - -There is a story in _The Book of the Dun Cow_ which certainly describes -a like experience, though Prof. Rhys interprets it as a solar myth. -I will take the story from Lady Gregory's _Cuchulain of Muirthemne_. -The people of Ulster were celebrating the festival of the beginning of -winter, held always at the beginning of November. The first of November -is still a very haunted day and night. A flock of wild birds lit upon -the waters near to Cuchulain and certain fair women. "In all Ireland -there were not birds to be seen that were more beautiful." - -One woman said: "'I must have a bird of these birds on each of my -two shoulders.' 'We must all have the same,' said the other women. -'If any one is to get them, it is I that must first get them,' said -Eithne Inguba, who loved Cuchulain. 'What shall we do?' said the -women. 'It is I will tell you that,' said Levarcham, 'for I will go -to Cuchulain from you to ask him to get them.'" - -So she went to Cuchulain and said: '"The women of Ulster desire that -you will get these birds for them.' Cuchulain put his hand upon his -sword as if to strike her, and he said: 'Have the idle women of -Ulster nothing better to do than to send me catching birds today?' -'It is not for you,' said Levarcham, 'to be angry with them; for -there are many of them are half blind today with looking at you, from -the greatness of their love for you.'" - -After this Cuchulain catches the birds and divides them amongst the -women, and to every woman there are two birds, but when he comes to -his mistress, Eithne Inguba, he has no birds left. '"It is vexed -you seem to be,' he said, 'because I have given the birds to the -other women.' 'You have good reason for that,' she said, 'for there -is not a woman of them but would share her love and her friendship -with you; while as for me no person shares my love but you alone.'" -Cuchulain promises her whatever birds come, and presently there come -two birds who are linked together with a chain of gold and "singing -soft music that went near to put sleep on the whole gathering." -Cuchulain went in their pursuit, though Eithne and his charioteer -tried to dissuade him, believing them enchanted. Twice he casts a -stone from his sling and misses, and then he throws his spear but -merely pierces the wing of one bird. Thereupon the birds dive and he -goes away in great vexation, and he lies upon the ground and goes to -sleep, and while he sleeps two women come to him and put him under -enchantment. In the Connacht stories the enchantment begins with a -stroke, or with a touch from some person of faery and it is so the -women deal with Cuchulain. "The woman with the green cloak went up -to him and smiled at him and she gave him a stroke of a rod. The -other went up to him then and smiled at him and gave him a stroke -in the same way; and they went on doing this for a long time, each -of them striking him in turn till he was more dead than alive. And -then they went away and left him there." The men of Ulster found him -and they carried him to a house and to a bed and there he lay till -the next November came round. They were sitting about the bed when a -strange man came in and sat amongst them. It was the God, AEngus, and -he told how Cuchulain could be healed. A king of the other world, -Labraid, wished for Cuchulain's help in a war, and if he would give -it, he would have the love of Fand the wife of the sea god Manannan. -The women who gave him the strokes of the rods were Fand and her -sister Liban, who was Labraid's wife. They had sought his help as the -Connacht faeries will ask the help of some good hurler. Were they -too like our faeries "shadows" until they found it? When the god was -gone, Cuchulain awoke, and Conahar, the King of Ulster, who had been -watching by his bedside, told him that he must go again to the rock -where the enchantment was laid upon him. He goes there and sees the -woman with the green cloak. She is Liban and pleads with him that -he may accept the love of Fand and give his help to Labraid. If he -will only promise, he will become strong again. Cuchulain will not go -at once but sends his charioteer into the other world. When he has -his charioteer's good report, he consents, and wins the fight for -Labraid and is the lover of Fand. In the Connacht stories a wife can -sometimes get back her husband by throwing some spell-breaking object -over the heads of the faery cavalcade that keeps him spellbound. -Emir, in much the same way, recovers her husband Cuchulain, for she -and her women go armed with knives to the yew tree upon Baile's -strand where he had appointed a meeting with Fand and outface Fand -and drive her away. - -We have here certainly a story of trance and of the soul leaving -the body, but probably after it has passed through the minds of -story-tellers who have forgotten its original meaning. There is -no mention of any one taking Cuchulain's place, but Prof. Rhys in -his reconstruction of the original form of the story of "Cuchulain -and the Beetle of Forgetfulness," a visit also to the other world, -makes the prince who summoned him to the adventure take his place in -the court of Ulster. There are many stories belonging to different -countries, of people whose places are taken for a time by angels or -spirits or gods, the best known being that of the nun and the Virgin -Mary, and all may have once been stories of changelings and entranced -persons. Pwyll and Arawyn in the Mabinogion change places for a -year, Pwyll going to the court of the dead in the shape of Arawyn to -overcome his enemies, and Arawyn going to the court of Dyved. Pwyll -overcomes Arawyn's enemies with one blow and the changeling's rule -at Dyved was marvellous for its wisdom. In all these stories strength -comes from men and wisdom from among gods who are but shadows. I have -read somewhere of a Norse legend of a false Odin that took the true -Odin's place, when the sun of summer became the wintry sun. When we -say a man has had a stroke of paralysis or that he is touched we -refer perhaps to a once universal faery belief. - -NOTE 40. I suppose this woman who was glad to "pick a bit of what -was in the pigs' trough" had passed along the roads in a state of -semi-trance, living between two worlds. Boehme had for seven days -what he called a walking trance that began by his gazing at a gleam -of light on a copper pot and in that trance truth fell upon him "like -a bursting shower." - -NOTE 41. A village beauty of Bally Lee. Raftery praised her in lines -quoted in my _Celtic Twilight_, and Lady Gregory speaks of her in her -essay on Raftery in _Poets and Dreamers_. - -NOTE 42. An old, second-sighted servant to an uncle of mine used to -say that dreams were no longer true "when the sap began to rise" and -when I asked her how she knew that, she said; "What is the use of -having an intellect unless you know a thing like that." - -NOTE 43. "In the faeries" is plainly a misspeaking of the old phrase -"in faery" that is to say "in glamour" "under enchantment." The word -"faery" as used for an individual is a modern corruption. The right -word is "fay." - -NOTE 44. The sudden filling of the air by a sweet odour is a common -event of the Seance room. It is mentioned several times in the -"Diary" of Stanton Moses. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[2] Since writing the above the authors of _An Adventure_ have shown -me a mass of letters proving that they spoke of the visions to -various correspondents before the corroboration, and showing the long -and careful research that the corroboration involved. - - W. B. Y. - - October, 1918. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - - -Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout. - -Non-Latin characters have been replaced with the nearest Latin -equivalent for example [oe] (the oe ligature), was replaced with oe. - -Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visions and Beliefs in the West of -Ireland, First Series, by Lady Gregory - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISIONS AND BELIEFS (1/2) *** - -***** This file should be named 43973.txt or 43973.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/9/7/43973/ - -Produced by Douglas L. 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