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diff --git a/43974-0.txt b/43974-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1811d10 --- /dev/null +++ b/43974-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8126 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43974 *** + + _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: Ballylee Castle + +From a sepia drawing by Robert Gregory] + + + + + 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._" + + + + + _SECOND SERIES_ + + + + + + G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS + NEW YORK AND LONDON + =The Knickerbocker Press= + + 1920 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1920 + + BY + + LADY GREGORY + + =The Knickerbocker Press, New York= + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I.--HERBS, CHARMS, AND WISE WOMEN 3 + + II.--ASTRAY, AND TREASURE 29 + + III.--BANSHEES AND WARNINGS 45 + + IV.--IN THE WAY 65 + + V.--THE FIGHTING OF THE FRIENDS 77 + + VI.--THE UNQUIET DEAD 89 + + VII.--APPEARANCES 111 + + VIII.--BUTTER 189 + + IX.--THE FOOL OF THE FORTH 195 + + X.--FORTHS AND SHEOGUEY PLACES 205 + + XI.--BLACKSMITHS 239 + + XII.--MONSTERS AND SHEOGUEY BEASTS 245 + + XIII.--FRIARS AND PRIEST CURES 281 + + SWEDENBORG, MEDIUMS, AND THE DESOLATE PLACES 295 + + NOTES 343 + + + + + I + + HERBS, CHARMS, AND WISE WOMEN + + + + + I + + HERBS, CHARMS, AND WISE WOMEN + + +_There is a saying in Irish, "An old woman without learning, it is +she will be doing charms"; and I have told in "Poets and Dreamers" +of old Bridget Ruane who came and gave me my first knowledge of the +healing power of certain plants, some it seemed having a natural and +some a mysterious power. And I said that she had "died last winter, +and we may be sure that among the green herbs that cover her grave +there are some that are good for every bone in the body and that are +very good for a sore heart."_ + +_As to the book she told me of that had come from the unseen and +was written in Irish, I think of Mrs. Sheridan's answer when I asked +in what language the strange unearthly people she had been among had +talked: "Irish of course--what else would they talk?" And I remember +also that when Blake told Crabb Robinson of the intercourse he had had +with Voltaire and was asked in what tongue Voltaire spoke he said, "To +my sensations it was English. It was like the touch of a musical key. +He touched it probably in French, but to my ear it became English."_ + + +_I was told by her:_ + +There is a Saint at the Oratory in London, but I don't know his name, +and a girl heard of him in London, and he sent her back to Gort, and +he said, "There's a woman there that will cure you," and she came to +me, and I cured her in two days. And if you could find out the name +of that Saint through the Press, he'd tell me his remedies, and all +the world would be cured. For I can't do all cures though there are +a great many I can do. I cured Pat Carty when the doctor couldn't do +it, and a woman in Gort that was paralysed and her two sons that were +stretched. For I can bring back the dead with the same herbs our Lord +was brought back with--the _slanlus_ and the _garblus_. But there are +some things I can't do. I can't help anyone that has got a stroke +from the Queen or the Fool of the Forth. + +I know a woman that saw the Queen one time, and she said she looked +like any Christian. I never heard of any that saw the Fool but one +woman that was walking near Gort, and she called out, "There's the +Fool of the Forth coming after me." So her friends that were with +her called out though they could see nothing, and I suppose he went +away at that for she got no harm. He was like a big strong man, and +half-naked--that's all she said about him. + +It was my brother got the knowledge of cures from a book that was +thrown down before him on the road. What language was it written in? +What language would it be but Irish. Maybe it was God gave it to him, +and maybe it was the _other people_. He was a fine strong man, and +he weighed twenty-five stone--and he went to England, and then he +cured all the world, so that the doctors had no way of living. So one +time he got on a ship to go to America, and the doctors had bad men +engaged to shipwreck him out of the ship; he wasn't drowned but he +was broken to pieces on the rocks, and the book was lost along with +him. But he taught me a good deal out of it. So I know all herbs, +and I do a good many cures, and I have brought a great many children +home, home to the world--and never lost one, or one of the women that +bore them. I was never away myself, but I am a cousin of Saggarton, +and his uncle was away for twenty-one years. + + * * * * * + +This is _dwareen_ (knapweed) and what you have to do with this is to +put it down, with other herbs, and with a bit of threepenny sugar, and +to boil it and to drink it for pains in the bones, and don't be afraid +but it will cure you. Sure the Lord put it in the world for curing. + +And this is _corn-corn_ (small aromatic tansy); it's very good for +the heart--boiled like the others. + +This is _atair-talam_ (wild camomile), the father of all herbs--the +father of the ground. This is very hard to pull, and when you go for +it, you must have a black-handled knife. + +And this is _camal-buide_ (loosestrife) that will keep all bad things +away. + +This is _cuineul-Muire_ (mullein), the blessed candle of our Lady. + +This is _fearaban_ (water buttercup) and it's good for every bone of +your body. + +This is _dub-cosac_ (lichen), that's good for the heart, very good +for a sore heart. Here are the _slanlus_ (plantain) and the _garblus_ +(dandelion) and these would cure the wide world, and it was these +brought our Lord from the Cross, after the ruffians that was with the +Jews did all the harm to Him. And not one could be got to pierce His +heart till a dark man came and said, "Give me the spear, and I'll +do it," and the blood that sprang out touched his eyes and they got +their sight. + +And it was after that, His Mother and Mary and Joseph gathered their +herbs and cured His wounds. These are the best of the herbs, but they +are all good, and there isn't one among them but would cure seven +diseases. I'm all the days of my life gathering them, and I know them +all, but it isn't easy to make them out. Sunday evening is the best +time to get them, and I was never interfered with. Seven "Hail Marys" +I say when I'm gathering them, and I pray to our Lord and to St. +Joseph and St. Colman. And there may be _some_ watching me, but they +never meddled with me at all. + + +_Mrs. Quaid:_ + +Monday is a good day for pulling herbs, or Tuesday, not Sunday. A +Sunday cure is no cure. The _cosac_ (lichen) is good for the heart, +there was Mineog in Gort, one time his heart was wore to a silk +thread, and it cured him. The _slanugad_ (rib-grass) is very good, +and it will take away lumps. You must go down when it's growing on +the scraws, and pull it with three pulls, and mind would the wind +change when you are pulling it or your head will be gone. Warm it on +the tongs when you bring it and put it on the lump. The _lus-mor_ +(mullein) is the only one that's good to bring back children that are +away. But what's better than that is to save what's in the craw of a +cock you'll kill on St. Martin's Eve and put it by and dry it, and +give it to the child that's away. + +There's something in green flax I know, for my mother often told me +about one night she was spinning flax, before she was married and she +was up late. And a man of the faeries came in. She had no right to +be sitting up so late, they don't like that. And he told her to go +to bed, for he wanted to kill her, and he couldn't touch her while +she was handling the flax. And every time he'd tell her to go to bed, +she'd give him some answer, and she'd go on pulling a thread of the +flax, or mending a broken one, for she was wise, and she knew that at +the crowing of the cock he'd have to go. So at last the cock crowed, +and he was gone, and she was safe then, for the cock is blessed. + + +_Mrs. Ward:_ + +As to the _lus-mor_, whatever way the wind is blowing when you begin to +cut it, if it changes while you're cutting it, you'll lose your mind. +And if you're paid for cutting it, you can do it when you like, but if +not _they_ mightn't like it. I knew a woman was cutting it one time, +and a voice, an enchanted voice, called out, "Don't cut that if you're +not paid, or you'll be sorry." But if you put a bit of this with every +other herb you drink, you'll live for ever. My grandmother used to put +a bit with everything she took, and she lived to be over a hundred. + + +_An Old Man on the Beach:_ + +I wouldn't give into those things, but I'll tell you what happened +to a son of my own. He was as fine and as stout a boy as ever you +saw, and one day he was out with me, and a letter came and told of +the death of some one's child that was in America, and all the island +gathered to hear it read. And all the people were pressing to each +other there. And when we were coming home, he had a bit of a kippeen +in his hand, and getting over a wall he fell, and some way the +kippeen went in at his throat, where it had a sharp point and hurt +the palate of his mouth, and he got paralysed from the waist up. + +There was a woman over in Spiddal, and my wife gave me no ease till I +went to her, and she gave me some herb for him. He got better after, +and there's no man in the island stronger and stouter than what he is +but he never got back the use of his left hand, but the strength he +has in the other hand is equal to what another man would have in two. +Did the woman in Spiddal say what gave him the touch? Oh well, she +said all sorts of things. But I wouldn't like to meddle too much with +such as her, for it's by witchcraft I believe it's done. There was a +woman of the same sort over in Roundstone, and I knew a man went to +her about his wife, and first she said the sickness had nothing to +do with _her_ business, but he said he came too far to bring back an +answer like that. So she went into a little room, and he heard her +call on the name of all the devils. So he cried out that that was +enough, and she came out then and made the sign of the Cross, but he +wouldn't stop in it. + +But a priest told me that there was a woman in France used to cure +all the dumb that came to her, and that it was a great loss and a +great pity when she died. + + +_Mrs. Cloonan:_ + +I knew some could cure with herbs; but it's not right for any one +that doesn't understand them to be meddling with them. There was a +woman I knew one time wanted a certain herb I knew for a cure for her +daughter, and the only place that herb was to be had was down in the +bottom of a spring well. She was always asking me would I go and get +it for her, but I took advice, and I was advised not to do it. So +then she went herself and she got it out, a very green herb it was, +not watercress, but it had a bunch of green leaves. And so soon as +she brought it into the house, she fell as if dead and there she lay +for two hours. And not long after that she died, but she cured the +daughter, and it's well I didn't go to gather the herb, or it's on me +all the harm would have come. + +I used to be gathering an herb one time for the Bishop that lived at +Loughmore, dandelion it was. There are two sorts, the white that has +no harm in it, that's what I used to be gathering, and the red that +has a _pishogue_ in it, but I left that alone. + + +_Old Heffernan:_ + +The best herb-doctor I ever knew was Conolly up at Ballyturn. He +knew every herb that grew in the earth. It was said that he was away +with the faeries one time, and when I knew him he had the two thumbs +turned in, and it was said that was the sign they left on him. I had +a lump on the thigh one time and my father went to him, and he gave +him an herb for it but he told him not to come into the house by the +door the wind would be blowing in at. They thought it was the evil +I had, that is given by _them_ by a touch, and that is why he said +about the wind, for if it was the evil, there would be a worm in it, +and if it smelled the herb that was brought in at the door, it might +change to another place. I don't know what the herb was, but I would +have been dead if I had it on another hour, it burned so much, and I +had to get the lump lanced after, for it wasn't the evil I had. + +Conolly cured many a one. Jack Hall that fell into a pot of water +they were after boiling potatoes in, and had the skin scalded off him +and that Doctor Lynch could do nothing for, he cured. + +He boiled down herbs with a bit of lard, and after that was rubbed on +three times, he was well. + +And Pat Cahel that was deaf, he cured with the _rib-mas-seala_, that +herb in the potatoes that milk comes out of. His wife was against +him doing the cures, she thought that it would fall on herself. And +anyway, she died before him. But Connor at Oldtown gave up doing +cures, and his stock began to die, and he couldn't keep a pig, and +all he had wasted away till he began to do them again; and his son +does cures now, but I think it's more with charms than with herbs. + + +_John Phelan:_ + +The _bainne-bo-bliatain_ (wood anemone) is good for the headache, if +you put the leaves of it on your head. But as for the _lus-mor_ it's +best not to have anything to do with that. + + +_Mrs. West:_ + +Dandelion is good for the heart, and when Father Prendergast was curate +here, he had it rooted up in all the fields about, to drink it, and see +what a fine man he is. _Garblus_; how did you hear of that? That is the +herb for things that have to do with the faeries. And when you'd drink +it for anything of that sort, if it doesn't cure you, it will kill you +then and there. There was a fine young man I used to know and he got +his death on the head of a pig that came at himself and another man at +the gate of Ramore, and that never left them, but was at them all the +time till they came to a stream of water. And when he got home, he took +to his bed with a headache, and at last he was brought a drink of the +_garblus_ and no sooner did he drink it than he was dead. I remember +him well. Biddy Early didn't use herbs, but let people say what they +like, she was a sure woman. There is something in flax, for no priest +would anoint you without a bit of tow. And if a woman that was carrying +was to put a basket of green flax on her back, the child would go from +her, and if a mare that was in foal had a load of flax put on her, the +foal would go the same way. + + +_Mrs. Allen:_ + +I don't believe in faeries myself, I really don't. But all the people +in Kildare believe in them, and I'll tell you what I saw there one +time myself. There was a man had a splendid big white horse, and he +was leading him along the road, and a woman, a next-door neighbour, +got up on the wall and looked at him. And the horse fell down on his +knees and began to shiver, and you'd think buckets of water were +poured over him. And they led him home, but he was fit for nothing, +and everyone was sorry for the poor man, and him being worth ninety +pounds. And they sent to the Curragh and to every place for vets, but +not one could do anything at all. And at last they sent up in to the +mountains for a faery doctor, and he went into the stable and shut +the door, and whatever he did there no one knows, but when he came +out he said that the horse would get up on the ninth day, and be as +well as ever. And so he did sure enough, but whether he kept well, I +don't know, for the man that owned him sold him the first minute he +could. And they say that while the faery doctor was in the stable, +the woman came to ask what was he doing, and he called from inside, +"Keep her away, keep her away." And a priest had lodgings in the +house at the same time, and when the faery doctor saw him coming, +"Let me out of this," says he, and away with him as fast as he could. +And all this I saw happen, but whether the horse only got a chill or +not I don't know. + + +_James Mangan:_ + +My mother learned cures from an Ulster woman, for the Ulster women +are the best for cures; but I don't know the half of them, and what +I know I wouldn't like to be talking about or doing, unless it might +be for my own family. There's a cure she had for the yellow jaundice; +and it's a long way from Ennistymon to Creevagh, but I saw a man come +all that way to her, and he fainted when he sat down in the chair, +he was so far gone. But she gave him a drink of it, and he came in a +second time and she gave it again, and he didn't come a third time +for he didn't want it. But I don't mind if I tell you the cure and it +is this: take a bit of the dirt of a dog that has been eating bones +and meat, and put it on top of an oven till it's as fine as powder +and as white as flour, and then pound it up, and put it in a glass of +whiskey, in a bottle, and if a man is not too far gone with jaundice, +that will cure him. + +There was one Carthy at Imlough did great cures with charms and his +son can do them yet. He uses no herbs, but he'll go down on his knees +and he'll say some words into a bit of unsalted butter, and what +words he says, no one knows. There was a big man I know had a sore +on his leg and the doctor couldn't cure him, and Doctor Moran said +a bit of the bone would have to come out. So at last he went to Jim +Carthy and he told him to bring him a bit of unsalted butter the next +Monday, or Thursday, or Saturday, for there's a difference in days. +And he would have to come three times, or if it was a bad case, he'd +have to come nine times. + +But I think it was after the third time that he got well, and now he +is one of the head men in Persse's Distillery in Galway. + + +_A Slieve Echtge Woman:_ + +The wild parsnip is good for gravel, and for heartbeat there's nothing +so good as dandelion. There was a woman I knew used to boil it down, +and she'd throw out what was left on the grass. And there was a fleet +of turkeys about the house and they used to be picking it up. And at +Christmas they killed one of them, and when it was cut open they found +a new heart growing in it with the dint of the dandelion. + +My father went one time to a woman at Ennis, not Biddy Early, but one +of her sort, to ask her about three sheep he had lost. + +And she told him the very place they were brought to, a long path +through the stones near Kinvara. And there he found the skins, and he +heard that the man that brought them away had them sold to a butcher in +Loughrea. So he followed him there, and brought the police, and they +found him--a poor looking little man, but he had £60 within in his box. + +There was another man up near Ballylee could tell these things too. +When Jack Fahy lost his wool, he went to him, and next morning there +were the fleeces at his door. + +Those that are _away_ know these things. There was a brother of my +own took to it for seven years--and we at school. And no one could +beat him at the hurling and the games. But I wouldn't like to be +mixed with that myself. + + * * * * * + +There was one Moyra Colum was a great one for doing cures. She was +called one time to see some sick person, and the man that came for +her put her up behind him, on the horse. And some youngsters began +to be humbugging him, and humbugging is always bad. And there was a +young horse in the field where the youngsters were and it began to +gallop, and it fell over a stump and lay on the ground kicking as if +in a fit. And then Moyra Colum said, "Let me get down, for I have +pity for the horse." And she got down and went into the field, and +she picked a blade of a herb and put it to the horse's mouth and in +one minute it got up well. + +Another time a woman had a sick cow and she sent her little boy to +Moyra Colum, and she gave him a bottle, and bade him put a drop of +what was in it in the cow's ear. And so he did and in a few minutes +he began to feel a great pain in his foot. So when the mother saw +that, she took the bottle and threw it out into the street and broke +it, and she said, "It's better to lose the cow than to lose my son." +And in the morning the cow was dead. + + * * * * * + +The herbs they cure with, there's some that's natural, and you could +pick them at all times of the day; there's a very good cure for +the yellow jaundice I have myself, and I offered it to a woman in +Ballygrah the other day, but some people are so taken up with pride +and with conceit they won't believe that to cure that sickness you +must take what comes from your own nature. She's dead since of it, +I hear. But I'll tell you the cure, the way you'll know it. If you +are attending a funeral, pick out a few little worms from the earth +that's thrown up out of the grave, few or many, twenty or thirty if +you like. And when you go home, boil them down in a sup of new milk +and let it get cold; and believe me, that will cure the sickness. + + * * * * * + +There's one woman I knew used to take a bit of tape when you'd go to +her, and she'd measure it over her thumb like this; and when she had +it measured she'd know what was the matter with you. + + * * * * * + +For some sicknesses they use herbs that have no natural cure, and +those must be gathered in the morning early. Before twelve o'clock? +No, but before sunrise. And there's a different charm to be said over +each one of them. It is for any sort of pain these are good, such as +a pain in the side. There's the _meena madar_, a nice little planteen +with a nice little blue flowereen above on it, that's used for a +running sore or an evil. And the charm to be said when you're picking +it has in it the name of some old curer or magician, and you can say +that into a bit of tow three times, and put it on the person to be +cured. That is a good charm. You might use that yourself if it was +any one close to you was sick, but for a stranger I'd recommend you +not do it. _They_ know all things and who are using it, and where's +the use of putting yourself in danger? + + +_James Mangan:_ + +My mother learned to do a great many cures from a woman from the +North (Note 1) and some I could do myself, but I wouldn't like to be +doing them unless for those that are nearest me; I don't want to be +putting myself in danger. + +For a swelling in the throat it's an herb would be used, or for the +evil a poultice you'd make of herbs. But for a pain in the ribs or in +the head, it's a charm you should use, and to whisper it into a bit +of tow, and to put it on the mouth of whoever would have the pain, +and that would take it away. There's a herb called _rif_ in your own +garden is good for cures. And this is a good charm to say in Irish: + + A quiet woman. + A rough man. + The Son of God. + The husk of the flax. + + +_The Old Man on the Beach:_ + +In the old times all could do _druith_--like free-masonry--and the +ground was all covered with the likeness of the devil; and with +_druith_ they could do anything, and could put the sea between you +and the road. There's only a few can do it now, but all that live in +the County Down can do it. + + +_Mrs. Quaid:_ + +There was a girl in a house near this was pining away, and a travelling +woman came to the house and she told the mother to bring the girl +across to the graveyard that's near the house before sunrise and to +pick some of the grass that's growing over the remains. And so she did, +and the girl got well. But the mother told me that when the woman had +told her that, she vanished away, all in a minute, and was seen no more. + + * * * * * + +I have a charm myself for the headache, I cured many with it. I used to +put on a ribbon from the back of the head over the mouth, and another +from the top of the head under the chin and then to press my hand on +it, and I'd give them great relief and I'd say the charm. But one time +I read in the Scriptures that the use of charms is forbidden, so I had +it on my conscience, and the next time I went to confession I asked +the priest was it any harm for me to use it, and I said it to him in +Irish. And in English it means "Charm of St. Peter, Charm of St. Paul, +an angel brought it from Rome. The similitude of Christ, suffering +death, and all suffering goes with Him and into the flax." And the +priest didn't say if I might use it or not, so I went on with it, for +I didn't like to turn away so many suffering people coming to me. + +I know a charm a woman from the North gave to Tom Mangan's mother, +she used to cure ulcers with it and cancers. It was with unsalted +butter it was used, but I don't know what the words were. + + +_John Phelan:_ + +If you cut a hazel rod and bring it with you, and turn it round about +now and again, no bad thing can hurt you. And a cure can be made for +bad eyes from the ivy that grows on a white-thorn bush. I know a boy +had an ulcer on his eye and it was cured by that. + + +_Mrs. Creevy:_ + +There was Leary's son in Gort had bad eyes and no doctor could cure +him. And one night his mother had a dream that she got up and took +a half-blanket with her, and went away to a blessed well a little +outside Gort, and there she saw a woman dressed all in white, and she +gave her some of the water, and when she brought it to her son he got +well. So the next day she went there and got the water, and after +putting it three times on his eyes, he was as well as ever he was. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman here used to do cures with herbs--a midwife she +was. And if a man went for her in a hurry, and on a horse, and he'd +want her to get up behind him, she'd say, "No," that she was never +on horseback. But no matter how fast he'd go home, there she'd be +close after him. + + * * * * * + +There was a child was sick and it was known itself wasn't in it. And +a woman told the mother to go to a woman she told her of, and not to +say anything about the child but to say, "The calf is sick" and to +ask for a cure for it. So she did and the woman gave her some herb, +and she gave it to the child and it got well. + + * * * * * + +There was a man from Cuillean was telling me how two women came from +the County Down in his father's time, mother and daughter, and they +brought two spinning wheels with them, and they used to be in the +house spinning. But the milk went from the cow and they watched and +saw it was through charms. And then all the people brought turf and +made a big fire outside, and stripped the witch and the daughter to +burn them. And when they were brought out to be burned the woman +said, "Bring me out a bit of flax and I'll show you a pishogue." So +they brought out a bit of flax and she made two skeins of it, and +twisted it some way like that (interlacing his fingers) and she put +the two skeins round herself and the daughter, and began to twist it, +and it went up in the air round and round and the two women with it, +and the people all saw them going up, but they couldn't stop them. +The man's own father saw that himself. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman from the County Down was living up on that mountain +beyond one time, and there was a boy in the house next to mine that +had a pain in his heart, and was crying out with the pain of it. And +she came down, and I was in the house myself and I saw her fill the +bowl with oatenmeal, and she tied a cloth over it, and put it on the +hearth. And when she took it off, all the meal was gone out of one +side of the bowl, and she made a cake out of what was left on the +other side, and ate it. And the boy got well. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman in Clifden did many cures and knew everything. And +I knew two boys were sent to her one time, and they had a bottle of +poteen to bring her, but on the road they drank the poteen. But they +got her another bottle before they got to the house, but for all that +she knew well, and told them what they had done. + + * * * * * + +There's some families have a charm in them, and a man of those +families can do cures, just like King's blood used to cure the evil, +but they couldn't teach it to you or to me or another. + + * * * * * + +There's a very good charm to stop bleeding; it will stop it in a +minute when nothing else can, and there's one to take bones from the +neck, and one against ulcers. + + +_Kevin Ralph:_ + +I went to Macklin near Loughrea myself one time, when I had an ulcer +here in my neck. But when I got to him and asked for the charm, he +answered me in Irish, "The Soggarth said to me, any man that will use +charms to do cures with will be damned." I persuaded him to do it +after, but I never felt that it did me much good. Because he took no +care to do it well after the priest saying that of him. But there's +some will only let it be said in an outhouse if there's a cure to be +done in the house. + + +_A Woman in County Limerick:_ + +It is twenty year ago I got a pain in my side, that I could not +stoop; and I tried Siegel's Syrup and a plaster and a black blister +from the doctor, and every sort of thing and they did me no good. +And there came in a man one day, a farmer I knew, and he said, "It's +a fool you are not to go to a woman living within two miles of you +that would cure you--a woman that does charms." So I went to her nine +times, three days I should go and three stop away, and she would +pass her hand over me, and would make me hold on to the branch of +an apple tree up high, that I would hang from it, and she would be +swinging me as you would swing a child. And she laid me on the grass +and passed her hands over me, and what she said over me I don't know. +And at the end of the nine visits I was cured, and the pain left me. +At the time she died I wanted to go lay her out but my husband would +not let me go. He said if I was seen going in, the neighbours would +say she had left me her cures and would be calling me a witch. She +said it was from an old man she got the charm that used to be called +a wizard. My father knew him, and said he could bring away the wheat +and bring it back again, and that he could turn the four winds of +heaven to blow upon your house till they would knock it. + + +_A Munster Midwife:_ + +Is it true a part of the pain can be put on the man? It is to be sure, +but it would be the most pity in the world to do it; it is a thing I +never did, for the man would never be the better of it, and it would +not take any of the pain off the woman. And shouldn't we have pity upon +men, that have enough troubles of their own to go through? + + +_Mrs. Hollaran:_ + +Did I know the pain could be put on a man? Sure I seen my own mother +that was a midwife do it. He was such a Molly of an old man, and he +had no compassion at all on his wife. He was as if making out she had +no pain at all. So my mother gave her a drink, and with that he was +on the floor and around the floor crying and roaring. "The devil take +you," says he, and the pain upon him; but while he had it, it went +away from his wife. It did him no harm after, and my mother would +not have done it but for him being so covetous. He wanted to make out +that she wasn't sick. + + +_Mrs. Stephens:_ + +At childbirth there are some of the old women are able to put a part +of the pain upon the man, or any man. There was a woman in labour +near Oran, and there were two policemen out walking that night, and +one of them went into the house to light his pipe. There were two +or three women in it, and the sick woman stretched beyond them, and +one of them offered him a drink of the tea she had been using, and +he didn't want it but he took a drink of it, and then he took a coal +off the hearth and put it on his pipe to light it and went out to +his comrade. And no sooner was he there than he began to roar and to +catch hold of his belly and he fell down by the roadside roaring. But +the other knew something of what happened, and he took the pipe, and +it having a coal on it, and he put it on top of the wall and fired a +shot of the gun at it and broke it; and with that the man got well of +the pain and stood up again. + + * * * * * + +No woman that is carrying should go to the house where another woman +is in labour; if she does, that woman's pain will come on her along +with her own pain when her time comes. + + * * * * * + +A child to come with the spring tide, it will have luck. + + + + + II + + ASTRAY, AND TREASURE + + + + + II + + ASTRAY, AND TREASURE + + +_Mr. Yeats in his dedication of "The Shadowy Waters" says of some of +our woods:_ + + "_Dim Pairc-na-tarav where enchanted eyes + Have seen immortal mild proud shadows walk; + Dim Inchy wood that hides badger and fox + And martin-cat, and borders that old wood + Wise Biddy Early called the wicked wood._" + +_I have heard many stories of people led astray in these by invisible +power, though I myself, although born at midnight, have lived many +hours of many years in their shades and shelters, and as the saying +is have "never seen anything worse than myself."_ + +_Last May a friend staying with us had gone out early in the +afternoon, and had not come back by eight o'clock dinner-time. As +half-hours passed we grew anxious and sent out messengers riding and +on foot, searching with lanterns here and there in the woods and on +Inchy marsh, towards which he had been seen going. It was not till +long after the fall of darkness that he returned, tired out with so +many hours of wandering, and with no better explanation than "Yeats +talks of the seven woods of Coole, but I say there are seventy times +seven." It was in dim Inchy and the wicked wood it borders he had +gone astray; and many said that was natural, for they have a bad +name, and May is a month of danger. Yet some unbelievers may carry +their credulity so far as to believe that the creator of Father +Keegan's dreams may himself have dreamed the whole adventure._ + + +_I was told by An Army Man who had been through the Indian Mutiny:_ + +It's only yesterday I was talking to a man about _the others_, and he +told me that the castle of Ballinamantane is a great place for them, +for it's there a great stand was made long ago in one of their last +fights. And one night he was making his way home, and only a field +between him and his house, when he found himself turned around and +brought to another field, and then to another--seven in all. And he +remembered the saying that you should turn your coat and that they'd +have no power over you, and he did so, but it did him no good. For +after that he was taken again, and found himself in the field over +beyond. And he had never a one drop taken, but was quite sober that +night. + +What did they do it for? It might be that he had trespassed on one of +their ways; but it's most likely that there was some sort of a rogue +among them that turned and did it for sport. + + +_Mrs. Cloonan:_ + +The other evening I was milking the cow over in Inchy, and a +beggar-woman came by, with a sack of potatoes and such things on her +back. She makes her living selling ballads in Gort, and then begging +afterwards. So she sat down beside me, and she said "I don't like to +go on through the wood." So I asked did she ever see anything there. +"I did," says she, "three years ago, one night just where the old +house is the Dooleys used to live in. There came out of the end of it +a woman all in white, and she led me astray all the night, and drove +me that I had no time to turn my clothes--and my feet were black with +the blows she gave me, and though it was three years ago, I feel the +pain in them yet." + + +_Mrs. Coniffe_ says: + +I was in Inchy the other day late, and I met an old beggarman, and +I asked him was he ever led astray there. And he said, "Not in this +wood, but in the wood beyond, Garryland. It was one night I was +passing through it, and met a great lot of them--laughing they were +and running about and drinking wine and wanting me to drink with +them. And they had cars with them, and an old woman sitting on a sort +of an ass-car. And I had a scapular round my neck, and I thought that +would make me independent, but it did not, for it was on the highroad +outside I found myself put at last." + + +_A Mason:_ + +My father was led astray one time, when he was coming home from a +neighbour's house, and he was led here and there till he didn't know +what way he was going. And then the moon began to shine out and he +saw his shadow, and another shadow along with it ten feet in length. +So with that he ran, and when he got to the wood of Cloon he fell +down in a faint. + + * * * * * + +And I was led astray one night, going across to a neighbour's +house--just the length of a field away, and where I could find my way +blindfolded. Into the ditch I was led, and to some other field, and I +put my hand to the ground, and it was potato ground, and the drills +made, but the seed not put in. And if it wasn't at last that I saw a +light from Scalp, it's away I'd have been brought altogether. + + +_John Rivers:_ + +Once I was led astray in that field and went round and round and +could find no way out--till at last I thought of the old Irish +fashion of turning my waistcoat, and did so. And then I got out the +gate in one minute. + + * * * * * + +And one night I was down at the widow Hayley's--I didn't go much +there--she used to have the place full of loafers, and they playing +cards. But this night I stopped a bit, and then I went out. And the +way I was put I could not say, but I found myself in the field with +an eight-foot wall behind me--and there I had to stop till some of +the men came and found me and brought me out. + + +_A Girl of the Feeneys:_ + +One time my brother when he was coming home late one evening was +put asleep in spite of himself, on the grass, at this corner +we're passing. None of the boys like to be coming home late, from +card-playing or the like, unless there's two or three of them +together. And if they go to a wake, they wouldn't for all the world +come home before the cock crows. There were many led astray in that +hollow beyond, where you see the haycocks. Old Tom Stafford was led +astray there by something like a flock of wool that went rolling +before him, and he had no power to turn but should follow it. Michael +Barrett saw the coach one time driving across Kiltartan bog, and it +was seen to many others besides. + +As to Michael Barrett, I believe it's mostly in his own head they +are. But I know this that when he pulled down the chimney where he +said that the piper used to be sitting and playing, he lifted out +stones, and he an old man, that I could not have lifted myself when I +was young and healthy. + + +_A Clare Woman:_ + +As to treasure, there was a man here dreamt of some buried things--of +a skeleton and a crock of money. So he went to dig, but whether he +dreamed wrong or that he didn't wait for the third dream, I don't +know, but he found the skeleton, skull and all, but when he found +the crock there was nothing in it, but very large snail-shells. So +he threw them out in the grass, and next day when he went to look +at them they were all gone. Surely there's something that's watching +over that treasure under ground. + +But it doesn't do to be always looking for money. There was Whaney the +miller, he was always wishing to dream of money like other people. And +so he did one night, that it was hid under the millstone. So before it +was hardly light he went and began to dig and dig, but he never found +the money, but he dug till the mill fell down on himself. + +So when any one is covetous the old people say, "Take care would you +be like Whaney the miller." + + * * * * * + +Now I'll tell you a story that's all truth. There was a farmer man +living there beyond over the mountains, and one day a strange man +came in and asked a night's lodging. "Where do you come from?" says +the farmer. "From the county Mayo," says he, and he told how he had a +dream of a bush in this part of the world, and gave a description of +it, and in his dream he saw treasure buried under it. "Then go home, +my poor man," said the farmer, "for there's no such place as that +about here." So the man went back again to Mayo. But the bush was all +the time just at the back of the house, and when the stranger was +gone, the farmer began to dig, and there, sure enough, he found the +pot of gold, and took it for his own use. + +But all the children he had turned silly after that; there was one +of them not long ago going about the town with long hair over his +shoulders. + +And after that, a poor scholar, such as used to be going about in +those times, came to the house, and when he had sat down, the lid of +the pot the gold was found in was lying by the fire. And he took it +up and rubbed it, and there was writing on it, in Irish, that no one +had ever been able to read. And the poor scholar made it out, "This +side of the bush is no better than the other side." So he went out to +dig, and there he found another pot on the other side just the same +as the first pot and he brought it away with him, and what became of +him after is unknown. + + +_John Phelan:_ + +There was a man in Gort, Anthony Hynes, he and two others dreamed of +finding treasure within the church of Kilmacduagh. But when they got +there at night to dig, something kept them back, for there's always +something watching over where treasure is buried. I often heard +that long ago in the nursery at Coole, at the cross, a man that was +digging found a pot of gold. But just as he had the cover took off, +he saw old Richard Gregory coming, and he covered it up, and was +never able again to find the spot where it was. + +But there's dreams and dreams. I heard of a man from Mayo went to +Limerick, and walked two or three times across the bridge there. And +a cobbler that was sitting on the bridge took notice of him, and +knew by the look of him and by the clothes he wore that he was from +Mayo, and asked him what was he looking for. And he said he had a +dream that under the bridge of Limerick he'd find treasure. "Well," +says the cobbler, "I had a dream myself about finding treasure, but +in another sort of a place than this." And he described the place +where he dreamed it was, and where was that, but in the Mayo man's +own garden. So he went home again, and sure enough, there he found a +pot of gold with no end of riches in it. But I never heard that the +cobbler found anything under the bridge at Limerick. + + * * * * * + +I met a woman coming out one day from Cloon, and she told me that +when she was a young girl, she went out one day with another girl to +pick up sticks near a wood. And she chanced to lay hold on a tuft +of grass, and it came up in her hand and the sod with it. And there +was a hole underneath full of half-crowns, and she began to fill her +apron with them, and as soon as she had the full of her apron she +called to the other girl, and the minute she came there wasn't one to +be seen. But what she had in her apron she kept. + + +_A Travelling Man:_ + +There was a sister of mine, Bridget her name was, dreamed three +nights of treasure that was buried under the bush up there, by +the chapel, a mile to the east; you can see the bush there, blown +slantwise by the wind from the sea. So she got three men to go along +with her and they brought shovels to dig for it. But it was the woman +should have lifted the first sod and she didn't do it, and they saw, +coming down from the mountains of Burren, horses and horses, bearing +horse-soldiers on them, and they came around the bush, and the +soldiers held up their shovels, and my sister and the men that were +with her made away across the field. + +The time I was in America, I went out to the country to see Tom +Scanlon, my cousin, that is a farmer there and had any amount of land +and feeding for the cows, and we went out of the house and sat down +on a patch of grass the same as we're sitting on now. And the first +word he said to me was, "Did Bridget, your sister, ever tell you of +the dream she had, and the way we went digging at the bush, for I was +one of the men that was along with her?" "She did often," says I. +"Well," says he, "all she told you about it was true." + + * * * * * + +There were two boys digging for razor fish near Clarenbridge, and +one of them saw, as he was digging, a great lot of gold. So he said +nothing, the way the other boy would know nothing about it. But when +he came back for it it was gone. + + * * * * * + +There was another boy found gold under a flagstone he lifted. But +when he went back next day to get it, all the strength he had +wouldn't lift the flag. + + +_The Army Man:_ + +There was a forth sometime or other there inside the gate, and one +Kelly told me that he was coming by it one night and saw all the hollow +spread with gold, and he had not the sense to take it up, but ran away. + + * * * * * + +A friend I had near Athenry had more sense. He saw the ground spread +with gold and he took up the full of his pockets and paid his rent next +day and prospered ever after, as everyone does that gets the faery gold. + + * * * * * + +Another man I knew of had a dream of a place where there was three +crocks of gold. And in the morning he went to dig and found the +crocks sure enough, and nothing in them but oyster shells. That was +because he went to dig after the first dream. He had a right to wait +till he had dreamed of it three times. + + * * * * * + +A girl the same way dreamt of gold hid in a rock and did not wait for +the third dream, but went at once, and all she found was the full of an +ass-cart near of sewing needles, and that was a queer thing to find in +a rock. No, they don't always hinder you, they help you now and again. + + * * * * * + +There was a working man used to be digging potatoes for me, and +whenever he was in want of money, he found it laid on his window-sill +in the night. But one day he had a drop of drink taken, he told +about it, and never a penny more did he find after that. + + * * * * * + +Sure, there's an old castle beyond Gort, Fiddane it's called, and +there you'd see the gold out bleaching, but no one would like to go +and take it. And my mother told me one time that a woman went up in +the field beyond where the liss is, to milk the cow, and there she +saw on the grass a crock full of gold. So she left the bit she had +for holding the cow beside it, and she ran back to the house for to +tell them all to come out and see it. But when they came the gold was +nowhere to be seen, but had vanished away. But in every part of the +field there was a bit of rope like the one she left beside the crock, +so that she couldn't know what spot it was in at all. + +She had a right to have taken it, and told no one. They don't like to +have such things told. + + +_Mrs. Coniffe:_ + +That bush you took notice of, the boy told me that it is St. +Bridget's bush, and there is a great lot of money buried under it; +they know this from an old woman that used to be here a long time +ago. Three men went one time to dig for it and they dug and dug all +the day and found nothing and they went home and to bed. And in the +night whatever it was came to them, they never got the better of +it, but died within a week. And you'd be sorry to see--as the boy +did--the three coffins carried out of the three houses. And since +then no other person has ever gone to look for the money. + +That's no wonder for you to know a faery bush. It grows a different +shape from a common one, and looks different someway. + + * * * * * + +As to hidden gold, I knew a man, Patrick Connell, dreamed he found it +beneath a bush. But he wasn't willing to go look for it, and his sons +and his friends were always at him to tell where it was, but he would +tell them nothing. But at last his sons one day persuaded him to go +with them and to dig for it. So they took their car, and they set +out. But when they came to a part of the road where there's a small +little ditch about a foot wide beside it, he was walking and he put +his foot in it and they had to bring him home, for his leg was broke. +So there was no more digging for treasure after that. + + +_A Neighbour:_ + +There's crocks of gold in all the forths, but there's cats and things +guarding them. And if any one does find the gold, he doesn't live +long afterwards. But sometimes you might see it and think that it was +only a heap of dung. It's best to leave such things alone. + + + + + III + + BANSHEES AND WARNINGS + + + + + III + + BANSHEES AND WARNINGS + + +"_Then Cuchulain went on his way, and Cathbad that had followed him +went with him. And presently they came to a ford, and there they +saw a young girl, thin and white-skinned and having yellow hair, +washing and ever washing, and wringing out clothing that was stained +crimson red, and she crying and keening all the time. 'Little Hound,' +said Cathbad, 'Do you see what it is that young girl is doing? +It is your red clothes she is washing, and crying as she washes, +because she knows you are going to your death against Maeve's great +army.'_"--"Cuchulain of Muirthemne." + + * * * * * + +_From Cuchulain's day, or it may be from a yet earlier time, that +keening woman of the Sidhe has been heard giving her lamentable +warning for those who are about to die. Rachel had not yet been heard +mourning for her children when the white-skinned girl whose keening +has never ceased in Ireland washed red clothes at the ford. It was +she or one of her race who told King Brian he was going to meet his +death at Clontarf; though after the defeat of the old gods that +warning had often been sent by a more radiant messenger, as when +Columcille at the dawn of the feast of Pentecost "lifted his eyes and +saw a great brightness and an angel of God waiting there above him." +And Patrick himself had his warning through his angel, Victor, who +met him on the road at midday and bade him go back to the barn where +he had lodged the night before, for it was there he had to die. Such +a messenger may have been at hand at the death of that Irish born +mystic, William Blake, when he "burst out into singing of the things +he saw in Heaven, and made the rafters ring." And a few years ago +the woman of a thatched house at the foot of Echtge told me "There +were great wonders done in the old times; and when my father that +worked in the garden there above was dying, there came of a sudden +three flashes of light into the room, the brightest light that ever +was seen in the world; and there was an old man in the room, one +Ruane, and I leaned back on him for I had like to faint. And people +coming the road saw the light, and up at Mick Inerney's house they +all called out that our house was in flames. And when they came and +heard of the three flashes of light coming into the room and about +the bed they all said it was the angels that were his friends that +had come to meet him." When Raftery died, the blind poet who wandered +through our townlands a hundred years ago, some say there were flames +about the house all through the night, "and those were the angels +waking him." Yet his warning had not been sent through these white +messengers but through a vision that had come to him once in Galway, +when Death himself had appeared "thin, miserable, sad and sorrowful; +the shadow of night upon his face, the tracks of the tears down his +cheeks" and had told him he had but seven years to live. And though +Raftery spoke back to him in scornful verse, there are some who say +he spent those last seven years in praying and in making his songs +of religion. To some it is a shadow that brings the warning, or a +noise of knocking or a dream. At the hour of a violent death nature +itself will show sympathy; I have been told on a gloomy day that it +had darkened because there was a man being hanged; and a woman who +had travelled told me that once at Bundoran she had "seen the waves +roaring and turning" and she knew later it was because at that very +time two young girls had been drowned._ + + +_I was told by Steve Simon:_ + +I will tell you what I saw the night my wife died. I attended the +neighbours up to the road, for they had come to see her, but she said +there was no fear of her, and she would not let them stop because she +knew that they were up at a wake the night before. + +So when I left them I was going back to the house, and I saw the +shadow of my wife on the road before me, and it was as white as +drifted snow. And when I came into the house, there she was dying. + + +_Mrs. Curran:_ + +My cousin Mary that lives in the village beyond told me that she was +coming home yesterday week along the road, and she is a girl would +not be afraid to walk the whole world with herself. And it was late, +and suddenly there was a man walking beside her, inside the field, on +the other side of the wall. + +And at first she was frightened, but then she felt sure it was her +cousin John that was dying, and then she wasn't afraid, for she knew +her cousin would do her no harm. And after a while he was gone, and +when she got near home and saw the lights she was frightened, and +when she got into the house she was in a sort of a faint. And next +day, this day week, her cousin was dead. + + +_Old Simon:_ + +I heard the Banshee crying not long ago, and within three days a boy +of the Murphy's was killed by his own horse and he bringing his cart +to Kinvara. And I heard it again a few nights ago, but I heard of no +death since then. What is the Banshee? It is of the nature of the +Hyneses. Six families it cries for, the Hyneses and the Fahys and I +forget what are the others. + + * * * * * + +I heard her beside the river at Ballylee one time. I would stand +barefooted in the snow listening to the tune she had, so nice and so +calm and so mournful. + + * * * * * + +I would yield to dreams because of some things were dreamed to me +in my lifetime and that turned out true. I dreamed one time that I +saw my daughter that was in America dead, and stretched and a table +laid out with the corpse. She came home after, and at the end of five +months she wasted and died. And there I saw her stretched as in the +dream, and it was on my own table. + + * * * * * + +One time I was walking the road and I heard a great crying and +keening beside me, a woman that was keening, and she conveyed me +three miles of the road. And when I got to the door of the house I +looked down and saw a little woman, very broad and broad faced--about +the bigness of the seat of that table--and a cloak about her. I +called out to her that was my first wife--the Lord be with her--and +she lighted a candle and I came in weak and lay upon the floor, and I +was till 12 o'clock that night lying in the bed. + +A man I was talking to said it was the Banshee, and it cries for +three families, the Fahys and the O'Briens and another I forget +which. My grandmother was a Fahy, and I suppose, father or mother, it +follows the generations. I heard it another time and my daughter from +America coming into the house that night. It was the most mournful +thing ever you heard, keening about the house for the same term as +before, till 12 o'clock of night. And within five months my daughter +from America was dead. + + +_John Cloran:_ + +There was a man near us that was ploughing a field, and he found an +iron box, and they say there was in it a very old Irish book with all +the knowledge of the world in it. Anyway, there's no question you +could ask him he couldn't answer. And what he says of the Banshee is, +that it's Rachel mourning still for every innocent of the earth that +is going to die, like as she did for our Lord when the king had like +to kill Him. But it's only for them that's sprung from her own tribe +that she'll raise her voice. + + +_Mrs. Smith:_ + +As for the Banshee, where she stops is in the old castle of +Esserkelly on the Roxborough estate. Many a one has seen her there +and heard her wailing, wailing, and she with a red petticoat put +about her head. There was a family of the name of Fox in Moneen, and +never one of that family died but she'd be heard keening them. + + +_The Spinning Woman:_ + +The Banshee is all I ever saw myself. It was when I was a slip of a +girl picking potatoes along with the other girls, we heard crying, +crying, in the graveyard beyond at Ryanrush, so we ran like foals to +see who was being buried, and I was the first, and leaped up on the +wall. And there she was and gave me a slap on the jaw, and she just +like a countrywoman with a red petticoat. Often they hear her crying +if any one is going to die in the village. + + +_A Seaside Woman:_ + +One time there was a man in the village was dying and I stood at the +door in the evening, and I heard a crying--the grandest cry ever you +heard--and I said "Glynn's after dying and they're crying him." And +they all came to the door and heard it. But my mother went out after +that and found him gasping still. + +Sure enough it was the Banshee we heard that evening. + +And out there where the turf-boat is lying with its sail down, +outside Aughanish, there the Banshee does always be crying, crying, +for some that went down there some time. + + * * * * * + +At Fiddoon that strip of land between Tyrone and Duras something +appears and cries for a month before any one dies. A great many are +taken away sudden there; and they say that it's because of that thing. + + * * * * * + +The Banshee cries every time one of the Sionnacs dies. And when the +old Captain died, the crows all left the place within two days, and +never came back for a year. + + +_A Connemara Woman:_ + +There was a boy from Kylemore I met in America used to be able to +tell fortunes. He used to be telling them when the work would be +done, and we would be having afternoon tea. He told me one time I +would soon be at a burying, and it would be a baby's burying, and I +laughed at that. But sure enough, my sister's baby, that was not born +at the time, died about a month after, and I went to its burying. + + +_A Herd:_ + +Crying for those that are going to die you'd hear of often enough. +And when my own wife was dying, the night she went I was sitting by +the fire, and I heard a noise like the blow of a flail on the door +outside. And I went to see what it was, but there was nothing there. +But I was not in any way frightened, and wouldn't be if she came back +in a vision, but glad to see her I would be. + + +_A Miller:_ + +There was a man that was out in the field and a flock of stares +(starlings) came about his head, and it wasn't long after that he died. + + * * * * * + +There's many say they saw the Banshee, and that if she heard you +singing loud she'd be very apt to bring you away with her. + + +_A Connemara Woman:_ + +One night the clock in my room struck six and it had not struck for +years, and two nights after--on Christmas night--it struck six again, +and afterwards I heard that my sister in America had died just at +that hour. So now I have taken the weights off the clock, that I +wouldn't hear it again. + + +_Mrs. Huntley:_ + +It was always said that when a Lord ---- died, a fox was seen about the +house. When the last Lord ---- lay dying, his daughter heard a noise +outside the house one night, and opened the hall-door, and then she +saw a great number of foxes lying on the steps and barking and running +about. And the next morning there was a meet at some distant covert--it +had been changed there from hard by where it was to have taken place +on account of his illness--and there was not a single fox to be found +there or in any other covert. And that day he died. + + +_J. Hanlon:_ + +There was one Costello used to be ringing the bell and pumping water +and such things at Roxborough, and one day he was at the fair of +Loughrea. And as he started home he sent word to my grandfather "Come +to the corner of the old castle and you'll find me dead." So he set +out, and when he got to the corner of the castle, there was Costello +lying dead before him. + + * * * * * + +And once going to a neighbour's house to see a little girl, I saw her +running along the path before me. But when I got to the house she was +in bed sick, and died two days after. + + +_Pat. Linskey:_ + +Well, the time my own wife died I had sent her into _Cloon_ to get +some things from the market, and I was alone in the house with the +dog. And what do you think but he started up and went out to the hill +outside the house, and there he stood a while howling, and it was +the very next day my wife died. + +Another time I had shut the house door at night and fastened it, and +in the morning it was standing wide open. And as I knew by the dates +afterwards that was the very night my brother died in India. + +Sure I told Stephen Green that, when he buried his mother in England, +and his father lying in Kilmacduagh. "You should never separate," +says I, "in death a couple that were together in life, for sure as +fate, the one'll come to look for the other." + +And when there's one of them passing in the air you might get a blast +of holy wind you wouldn't be the better of for a long time. + + +_Mrs. Curran:_ + +I was in Galway yesterday, and I was told there that the night before +those four poor boys were drowned, there were four women heard crying +out on the rocks. Those that saw them say that they were young, and +they were out of this world. And one of those boys was out at sea all +day, the day before he was drowned. And when he came in to Galway in +the evening, some boy said to him "I saw you today standing up on the +high bridge." And he was afraid and he told his mother and said "Why +did they see me on the high bridge and I out at sea?" And the next +day he was drowned. And some say there was not much at all to drown +them that day. + + +_A Man near Athenry:_ + +There is often crying heard before a death, and in that field beside +us the sound of washing clothes with a beetle is sometimes heard +before a death. + +I heard crying in that field near the forth one night, and not long +after the man it belonged to died. + + +_An Aran Man:_ + +I remember one morning, St. Bridget's Eve, my son-in-law came into +the house, where he had been up that little road you see above. And +the wife asked him did he see any one, and he said "I saw Shamus +Meagher driving cattle." And the wife said, "You couldn't see him, +for he's out laying spillets since daybreak with two other men." And +he said, "But I did see him, and I could have spoke with him." And +the next day--St. Bridget's Day--there was confessions in the little +chapel below and I was in it, and Shamus Meagher, and it was he that +was kneeling next to me at the Communion. But the next morning he +and two other men that had set the spillets went on in their canoe +to Kilronan for salt, for they had come short of salt and had a good +deal of fish taken. And that day the canoe was upset, and the three +of them were drowned. + + +_A Piper:_ + +My father and my mother were in the bed one night and they heard a +great lowing and a noise of the cattle fighting one another, that +they thought they were all killed, and they went out and they were +quiet then. But they went on to the next house where they heard a +lowing, and all the cattle of that house were fighting one another, +and so it was at the next. And in the morning a child, one Gannon, +was dead--or taken he was. + + +_An Old Man in Aran:_ + +When I was in the State of Maine, I knew a woman from the County +Cork, and she had a little girl sick. And one day she went out behind +the house and there she saw the fields full of _those_--full of them. +And the little girl died. + +And when I was in the same State, I was in the house where there +was a child sick. And one night I heard a noise outside, as if of +hammering. And I went out and I thought it came from another house +that was close by that no one lived in, and I went and tried the door +but it was shut up. + +And I went back and said to the woman, "This is the last night you'll +have to watch the child." And at 12 o'clock the next evening it died. + + * * * * * + +They took my hat from me one time. One morning just at sunrise I was +going down to the sea, and a little storm came, and took my hat off +and brought it a good way, and then it brought it back and returned +it to me again. + + +_An Old Midwife:_ + +I do be dreaming, dreaming. I dreamt one night I was with my daughter +and that she was dead and put in the coffin. And I heard after, the +time I dreamt about her was the very time she died. + + +_A Woman near Loughrea:_ + +There are houses in Cloon, and Geary's is one of them, where if the +people sit up too late the warning comes; it comes as a knocking at +the door. Eleven o'clock, that is the hour. It is likely it is some +that lived in the house are wanting it for themselves at that time. +And there is a house near the Darcys' where as soon as the potatoes +are strained from the pot, they must put a plateful ready and leave +it for the night, and milk and the fire on the hearth, and there is +not a bit left at morning. Some poor souls that come in, looking for +warmth and for food. + + * * * * * + +There is a woman seen often before a death sitting by the river and +racking her hair, and she has a beetle with her and she takes it and +beetles clothes in the river. And she cries like any good crier; you +would be sorry to be listening to her. + + +_Old King:_ + +I heard the Banshee and saw her. I and six others were card playing in +the kitchen at the big house, that is sunk into the ground, and I saw +her up outside of the window. She had a white dress and it was as if +held over her face. They all looked up and saw it, and they were all +afraid and went back but myself. Then I heard a cry that did not seem +to come from her but from a good way off, and then it seemed to come +from herself. She made no attempt to twist a mournful cry but all she +said was, "Oh-oh, Oh-oh," but it was as mournful as the oldest of the +old women could make it, that was best at crying the dead. + +Old Mr. Sionnac was at Lisdoonvarna at that time, and he came home a +few days after and took to the bed and died. It is always the Banshee +has followed the Sionnacs and cried them. + + +_Mrs. King:_ + +There was a boy of the Naughtons died not far from this, a fine young +man. And I set out to go to the burying, and Mrs. Burke along with +me. But when we came to the gate we could hear crying for the dead, +and I said "It's as good for us wait where we are, for they have +brought the corp out and are crying him." So we waited a while and +no one came, and so we went on to the house, and we had two hours to +wait before they brought out the corp for the burying, and there had +been no crying at all till he was brought out. We knew then who it +was crying, for if the boy was a Naughton, it is in a house of the +Kearns he died, and the Banshee always cries for the Kearns. + + +_A Doctor:_ + +There's a boy I'm attending now, and the first time I went to him, +the mother came out of the house with me and said "It's no use to do +anything for him, I'm going to lose him." And I asked her why did she +say that, and she said "Because the first night he took ill I heard +the sound of a chair drawing over to the fire in the kitchen, and it +empty, and it was the faeries were coming for him." The boy wouldn't +have had much wrong with him, but his brother had died of phthisis, +and when he got a cold he made sure he would die too, and he took to +the bed. And every day his mother would go in and cry for an hour +over him, and then he'd cry and then the father would cry, and he'd +say "Oh, how can I leave my father and my mother! Who will there be +to mind them when I'm gone?" One time he was getting a little better +they sent him over on a message to Scahanagh, and there's a man there +called Shanny that makes coffins for the people. And the boy saw +Shanny looking at him, and he left his message undone and ran home +and cried out "Oh, I'm done for now! Shanny was looking at me to see +what size coffin I'd take!" And he cried and they all cried and all +the village came in to see what was the matter. + + +_The Old Army man:_ + +As to the invisible world, I hear enough about it, but I have seen +but little myself. One night when I was at Calcutta I heard that +one Connor was dead--a man that I had been friendly with--so I went +to the house. There was a good many of us there, and when it came to +just before midnight, I heard a great silence fall, and I looked from +one to another to see the silence. And then there came a knock at +the window, just as the clock was striking twelve. And Connor's wife +said, "It was just at this hour last night there came a knock like +that and immediately afterwards he died." And the strange thing is, +it was a barrack-room and on the second story, so that no one could +reach it from the street. + + * * * * * + +In India, before Delhi, there was an officer's servant lodged in the +same house as me, and was thrown out of his cot every night. And as +sure as midnight came, the dogs couldn't stop outside but would come +shrinking and howling into the house. Yes indeed, I believe the faeries +are in all countries, all over the world; but the banshee is only in +Ireland, though sometimes in India I would think of her when I'd hear +the hyenas laughing. Keening, keening, you can hear her, but only for +the old Irish families, but she'll follow them even as far as Dublin. + + + + + IV + + IN THE WAY + + + + + IV + + IN THE WAY + + +_An old Athenry man who had been as a soldier all through the Indian +Mutiny and had come back to end his days here as a farmer said to me +in speaking of "The Others" and those who may be among them: "There's +some places of their own we should never touch such as the forths; and +if ever we cross their pathways we're like to know it soon enough, for +some ill turn they'll do us, and then we must draw back out of their +way.... And we should above all things leave the house clean at night, +with nothing about that would offend them. For we must all die some +day, but God knows we're not all fit for heaven just on the minute; and +what the intermediate state may be, or what friends we may want there, +I don't know. No one has come back to tell us that."_ + + +_I was told by John Donovan:_ + +Before I came here I was for two years in a house outside Cloon. And +no one that lived there ever prospered but all they did went to loss. +I sowed seeds and put in the crop each year, and if I'd stopped there +I wouldn't have had enough to keep trousers to my back. _In the way_ +the place must be. I had no disturbance in the house, but some nights +I could hear the barrel rolling outside the door, back and forwards, +with a sort of a warning to me. + +I knew another house in Clare where the front door is always shut up +and they only use the back door, but when I asked them the reason +they said if they opened the front door a sudden blast would come in, +that would take the roof off the house. And there's another house in +Clare built in a forth, a new one, shut up and the windows closed, +for no one can live in it. + + +_Andrew Lee:_ + +"In the way?" Yes that's a thing that often happens. Sure going into +Clough, you might see a house that no man ever yet kept a roof on. +Surely it's in the way of their coming and going. And Doctor Nolan's +father began to build a barn one time, and whatever was built in the +day, in the night it would be pulled down, so at last they gave over. +It was only labour and wages wasted. + + +_Mrs. Cloran:_ + +No, I never heard or felt anything since I came here. The old people +used to tell many things, they know more than what the youngsters do. +My mother saw many a thing, but they did her no harm. No, I remember +none of the stories; since my children died and a weight came on my +heart all those things went from me. Yes, it's true Father Boyle +banished the dog; and there was a cousin of my own used to live in +the house at Garryland, and she could get no sleep for what she used +to feel at night. But Father Boyle came and whatever he did, "You'll +feel them no more," says he, and she never did, though he was buried +before her. + +That was a bad, bad place we lived in near the sea. The children +never felt anything, but often in the night I could hear music +playing and no one else in the house could hear it. But the children +died one by one, passing away without pain or ache. + +All they saw was twice; the two last little girls I had were beside +the door at night talking and laughing and they saw a big dark man +pass by, but he never spoke. Some old thing out of the walls he must +have been. And soon after that they died. + +One time when I was there a strange woman came in, and she knew +everything and told me everything. "I'd give you money if I had it," +said I. "I know well you haven't much of it," says she; "but take my +word and go away out of this house to some other place, for you're +_in the way_." She told me to tell no one she came, and that shows +there was something not right about her; and I never saw her any more. + +But if I'd listened to her then, and if I knew then what she meant +by the house being _in the way_ I wouldn't have stopped in it, and +my seven fine children would be with me now. Took away they were by +_them_ and without ache or pain. I never had a sign or a vision from +them since, but often and often they come across me in my sleep. + + +_Her Husband:_ + +The woman that came to give my wife the warning, I didn't see her, +and she knew all that was in the house and all about me and what +money I had, and that I would grow very poor. And she said that +before I'd die, I'd go to the strand and come back again. And we +couldn't know what she meant, and we thought it must mean that I'd go +to America. But we knew it at last. For one day I was washing sheep +down at Cahirglissane, and there is said to be the deepest water in +the world in one part of that lake. And as I was standing by it, a +sheep made a run and went between my two legs, and threw me into the +water, and I not able to swim. And I was brought on the top of the +water safe and sound to land again; and I knew well who it was helped +me, and saved my life. She that had come before to give advice that +would save my children, it's she that was my friend over there. To +say a Mass in the house? No use at all that would have been, living +in the place we did. + + * * * * * + +But they're mostly good neighbours. There was a woman they used to +help, one of them used to come and help her to clean the house, but +she never came when the husband was there. And one day she came and +said they were going to move now, to near Clifden. And she bid the +woman follow them, and whenever she'd come to a briar turned down, +with a thorn stuck in the earth, to build a house there. + + +_A Travelling Man:_ + +I was sleeping at a house one time and _they_ came in--the fallen +angels. They were pulling the clothes off me, ten times they did +that, and they were laughing like geese--just the very sound of +geese--and their boots were too large for their feet and were +clapping, clapping on the floor. I suppose they didn't like me to be +in it, or that the house was built in one of their passages. + +My father was driven out of the little garden house at Castleboy one +time he went to sleep in it. In the way, I suppose it must have been. + +And I knew of a herd's house, where five or six herds went one after +another and every one of them died, and their dogs and their cow. And +the gentleman that owned the place came to ask another one to go in +it, and his wife said she wouldn't go, for there was some bad luck +about it. But she went after, and she was a very clean woman, not +like some of them that do have the house dirty. Well, one day a woman +came to the door and asked for a dish of oaten meal, and she took +it from the shelf, and gave it to her. "I'll bring it back to you +tomorrow," says she, "it'll be easy getting it then when it's market +day." "Do not," says the woman of the house, "for if you do I won't +take it." "Well," says the stranger, "you'll have luck after this; +only one thing I tell you, keep that door at the back shut, and if +you want any opening there, let you open the window." Well, so she +did, and by minding that rule, and keeping the house so clean, she +was never troubled but lived there all her life. + + +_An Island Woman:_ + +There are some houses that never bring luck. There is one over there, +out of this village, and two or three died in it, and one night it +blazed up and burned down, those that were out in the fishing boats +could see it, but it was never known how it happened. + +There was a house over in the other village and a woman living in it +that had two forths of land. And she had clever children, but the +most of them died one after another, boys and girls, and then the +husband died. And after that one of the boys that had died came to +her and said "You'd best leave this house or you'll be as we are, +and we are all now living in the Black Rock at the gable end of the +house. And two of the McDaraghs are with us there." + +So after that she left the house--you can cut grass now in the +place where it was, and it's green all through the summer and the +winter--and she went up to the north side and she married a young man +up there, for she was counted a rich woman. She had but two daughters +left, and one of them was married, and there was a match to be made +for the other, but the stepfather wouldn't allow her to give any of +the land to her, so she said she'd go to America, and the priest drew +up a stamped paper for her, that they'd keep a portion of money for +her every year till she'd come back. It wasn't long after that the +stepfather was out in one of the fields one day and two men came and +knocked him down and gave him a beating. And it was his belief it was +the father of the girl and one of the brothers that came to beat him. + +And one of the neighbours that went to the house one night saw one +of the brothers standing at the window, plump and plain. And a first +cousin of theirs--a Donovan--was near the Black Rock one night, and +he saw them playing ball there, the whole of them that had gone, and +others with them. And when they saw him they whistled to make fun of +him, and he went away. + +The stepfather died after that, and the woman herself died, and was +buried a week yesterday. And she had one son by the second husband and +he was always silly-like, and the night she died he went into the room +where she was, to the other side of the bed, and he called out, and +then he came out walking crooked, and his face drawn up on one side; +and so he is since, and a neighbour taking care of him. And you'd +hardly mind what a poor silly creature like him would say, but what he +says is that it was some of the boys that were gone that were in it. +And now there's no one to take up the land that so many were after; the +girl in America wouldn't for all the world come back to that place. + + + + + V + + THE FIGHTING OF THE FRIENDS + + + + + V + + THE FIGHTING OF THE FRIENDS + + +_"One time on Hy, one Brito of Columcille's brotherhood was dying, +and Columcille gave him his blessing but would not see him die, +and went out into the little court of the house. And he had hardly +gone out when the life went from Brito. And Columcille was out in +the little court, and one of the monks saw him looking upward, and +wonder on him, and he asked what was it he saw. And Columcille said, +'I have seen just at this moment the holy angels fighting in the air +against the power of the enemy, and I gave thanks to Christ, the +Judge, because the winning angels have carried to heaven the soul +of this stranger that is the first to have died among us in this +island. And do not tell his secret to any person in my lifetime,' he +said."_--"Saints and Wonders." + + * * * * * + +_"With that King Arthur entereth into a great forest adventurous, and +rideth the day long until he cometh about evensong into the thick of +the forest. And he espied a little house beside a little chapel, and +it well seemed to him to be a hermitage.... And it seemed to him that +there was a strife in the chapel. The ones were weeping so tenderly +and sweetly as it were angels, and the others spake so harshly as +it were fiends.... The voices ceased as soon as he was within. He +marvelleth how it came that this house and hermitage were solitary, +and what had become of the hermit that dwelt therein. He drew nigh +the altar of the chapel, and beheld in front thereof a coffin all +discovered, and he saw the hermit lying therein all clad in his +vestments, and his hands crossed upon his breast, and he had life in +him yet, but he was nigh his end, being at the point of death.... The +King departed and so returned back into the little house, and sate +him down on a seat whereon the hermit wont to sit. And he heareth +the strife and the noise begin again within the chapel, and the ones +he heareth speaking high and the others low, and he knoweth well by +the voices that the ones are angels and the others devils. And he +heareth that the devils are distraining on the hermit's soul, and +that judgment will presently be given in their favour, whereof make +they great joy. King Arthur is grieved in his heart when he heareth +that the angels' voices are stilled. And while he sitteth thus, +stooping his head toward the ground, full of vexation and discontent, +he heareth in the chapel the voice of a Lady that spake so sweet +and clear that no man in this earthly world, were his grief and +heaviness never so sore, but and he had heard the sweet voice of her +pleading would again have been in joy.... The devils go their way all +discomfit and aggrieved; and the sweet Mother of our Lord God taketh +the soul of the hermit.... And the angels take it and begin to sing +for joy 'Te Deum Laudamus.' And the Holy Lady leadeth them and goeth +her way along with them."_--"The High History of the Holy Grail." +Translated by Sebastian Evans. + + * * * * * + +_Before I had read this old story from "The High History of the Holy +Grail" I had heard on our own roads of the fighting at the hour of +death, and how the friends of the dying among the dead come and use +their strength on his side, and I had been shown here and there a house +where such a fight had taken place. In the old days it was a king or +saint who saw and heard this unearthly battle; but now it is not those +who live in palaces who are aware of it, and it is not around the roof +of a fair chapel the hosts of good and evil gather in combat for the +parting soul, but around the thatched and broken roof of the poor._ + + +_I was told by An Islander:_ + +There are more of the Sheogue in America than what there are here, and +more of other sort of spirits. There was a man from there told me that +one night in America he had brought his wife's niece that was sick back +from the hospital, and had put her in an upper room. And in the evening +they heard a scream from her and she called out "The room is full of +them, and my father is with them, and my aunt." And he drove them away +and used the devil's name and cursed them. And she was left quiet that +night, but the next day she said "I'll be destroyed altogether tonight +with them." And he said he'd keep them out, and he locked the door of +the house. And towards midnight he heard them coming to the door and +trying to get in, but he kept it locked and he called to them by way +of the keyhole to keep away out of that. And there was talking among +them, and the girl that was upstairs said that she could hear the laugh +of her father and of her aunt. And they heard the greatest fighting +among them that ever was, and after that they went away, and the girl +got well. That's what often happens, crying and fighting for one that's +sick or going to die. + + +_Mrs. Meagher:_ + +There was an old woman the other day was telling me of a little girl +that was put to bake a cake, for her mother was sick in the room. And +when she turned away her head for a minute the cake was gone. And +that happened the second day and the third, and the mother was vexed +when she heard it, thinking some of the neighbours had come and taken +it away. + +But the next day an old man appeared, and she knew he was the +grandfather, and he said "It's by me the cake was taken, for I was +watching the house these three nights when I knew there was some one +sick in it. And you never heard such a fight as there was for her last +night, and they would have brought her away but for me that had my +shoulder to the door." And the woman began to recover from that time. + + +_Tom Smith:_ + +There does often be fighting when a person is dying. John Madden's +wife that lived in this house before I came to it, the night she died +there was a noise heard, that all the village thought that every wall +of every garden round about was falling down. But in the morning +there was no sign of any of them being fallen. + +And Hannay that lived at Cahir, the bonesetter, when I went to him +one time told me that one night late he was walking the road near +Ardrahan. And they heard a great noise of fighting in the castle he +was passing by, and no one living in it and it open to the sky. And +he turned in and was going up the stairs, and a lady in a white dress +stopped him and wouldn't let him pass up. But the next day he went to +look and he found the floor all covered with blood. + + * * * * * + +And before John Casey's death, John Leeson asked me one day were we +fighting down at our place, for he heard a great noise of fighting +the night before. + + +_A Farmer:_ + +As to fighting for those that are dying, I'd believe in that. There was +a girl died not far from here, and the night of her death there was +heard in the air the sound of an army marching, and the drums beating, +and it stopped over the house where she was lying sick. And they could +see no one, but could hear the drums and the marching plain enough, and +there were like little flames of lightning playing about it. + + * * * * * + +Did they fight for Johnny Casey? No, believe me it's not among the +faeries Johnny Casey is. Too old he is for them to want him among +them, and too cranky. + + * * * * * + +I would hardly believe they'd take the old, but we can't know what they +might want of them. And it's well to have a friend among them, and +it's always said you have no right to fret if your children die, for +it's well to have them there before you. And when a person is dying the +friends and the others will often come about the house and will give a +great challenge for him. They don't want cross people, and they won't +take you if you say so much as one cross word. It's only the good and +the pious they want. Now isn't that very good of them? + + +_Another:_ + +There was a young man I knew died, a fine young man, twenty-five +years of age. He was seven or eight days ill, and the night he died +they could hear fighting around the house, and they heard voices but +they couldn't know what they were saying. And in the morning the +ground was all covered with blood. + + * * * * * + +When Connors the young policeman died, sure the mother said she never +heard such fighting as went on within the house. And there was blood +splashed high up on the walls. They never let on how he got the +touch, but I suppose they knew it themselves. + + +_A Gatekeeper:_ + +There was a girl near Westport was _away_, and the way it came on her +was, she was on the road one day and two men passed her, and one of +them said, "That's a fine girl," and the other said, "She belongs to +my town," and there and then she got a pain in her knee, and couldn't +walk home but had to be brought in a car. And she used to be away at +night, and thorns in her feet in the morning, but she never said where +she went. But one time the sister brought her to Kilfenora, and when +they were crossing a bog near to there, she pointed out a house in the +bog, and she said "It's there I was last night." And the sister asked +did she know any one she saw in it, and she said "There was one I know, +that is my mother's cousin," and she told her name. And she said "But +for her they'd have me ill-treated, but she fought for me and saved +me." She was thought to be dying one time and given over, and my mother +sent me to see her, and how was she. And she was lying on the bed and +her eyes turned back, and she speechless, and I told my mother when I +came home she hadn't an hour to live. And the next day she was up and +about and not a thing on her. It might be the mother's cousin that +fought for her again there. She went to America after. + + +_An Aran Woman:_ + +There's often fighting heard about the house where one is sick, that +is what we call "the fighting of the friends" for we believe it is +the friends and the enemies of the sick person fighting for him. + + * * * * * + +I knew a house where there were a good many sleeping one night, and +in the morning there was blood on the threshold, and the clothes of +those that slept on the floor had blood on them. And it wasn't long +after that the woman of the house took sick and died. + + * * * * * + +One night there was one of the boys very sick within, and in the +morning the grandmother said she heard a great noise of fighting in the +night about the door. And she said: "If it hadn't been for Michael and +John being drowned, you'd have lost Martin last night. For they were +there fighting for him; I heard them, and I saw the shadow of Michael, +but when I turned to take hold of him he was gone." + + + + + VI + + THE UNQUIET DEAD + + + + + VI + + THE UNQUIET DEAD + + +_A good many years ago when I was but beginning my study of the +folk-lore of belief, I wrote somewhere that if by an impossible miracle +every trace and memory of Christianity could be swept out of the world, +it would not shake or destroy at all the belief of the people of +Ireland in the invisible world, the cloud of witnesses, in immortality +and the life to come. For them the veil between things seen and unseen +has hardly thickened since those early days of the world when the sons +of God mated with the daughters of men; when angels spoke with Abraham +in Hebron or with Columcille in the oakwoods of Derry, or when as an +old man at my own gate told me they came and visited the Fianna, the +old heroes of Ireland, "because they were so nice and so respectable." +Ireland has through the centuries kept continuity of vision, the vision +it is likely all nations possessed in the early days of faith. Here in +Connacht there is no doubt as to the continuance of life after death. +The spirit wanders for a while in that intermediate region to which +mystics and theologians have given various names, and should it return +and become visible those who loved it will not be afraid, but will, as +I have already told, put a light in the window to guide the mother home +to her child, or go out into the barley gardens in the hope of meeting +a son. And if the message brought seems hardly worth the hearing, we +may call to mind what Frederic Myers wrote of more instructed ghosts:_ + +_"If it was absurd to listen to Kepler because he bade the planets +move in no perfect circles but in undignified ellipses, because he +hastened and slackened from hour to hour what ought to be a heavenly +body's ideal and unwavering speed; is it not absurder still to refuse +to listen to these voices from afar, because they come stammering and +wandering as in a dream confusedly instead of with a trumpet's call? +Because spirits that bending to earth may undergo perhaps an earthly +bewilderment and suffer unknown limitations, and half remember and +half forget?"_ + +_And should they give the message more clearly who knows if it would +be welcome? For the old Scotch story goes that when S. Columcille's +brother Dobhran rose up from his grave and said, "Hell is not so bad +as people say," the Saint cried out, "Clay, clay on Dobhran!" before +he could tell any more._ + + +_I was told by Mrs. Dennehy:_ + +Those that mind the teaching of the clergy say the dead go to Limbo +first and then to Purgatory and then to hell or to heaven. Hell is +always burning and if you go there you never get out; but those that +mind the old people don't believe, and I don't believe, that there is +any hell. I don't believe God Almighty would make Christians to put +them into hell afterwards. + +It is what the old people say, that after death the shadow goes +wandering, and the soul is weak, and the body is taking a rest. The +shadow wanders for a while and it pays the debts it had to pay, and +when it is free it puts out wings and flies to Heaven. + + +_An Aran Man:_ + +There was an old man died, and after three days he appeared in the +cradle as a baby; they knew him by an old look in his face, and his +face being long and other things. An old woman that came into the +house saw him, and she said, "He won't be with you long, he had three +deaths to die, and this is the second," and sure enough he died at +the end of six years. + + +_Mrs. Martin:_ + +There was a man beyond when I lived at Ballybron, and it was said of +him that he was taken away--up before God Almighty. But the blessed +Mother asked for grace for him for a year and a day. So he got it. I +seen him myself, and many seen him, and at the end of the year and a +day he died. And that man ought to be happy now anyway. When my own +poor little girl was drowned in the well, I never could sleep but +fretting, fretting, fretting. But one day when one of my little boys +was taking his turn to serve the Mass he stopped on his knees without +getting up. And Father Boyle asked him what did he see and he looking +up. And he told him that he could see his little sister in the +presence of God, and she shining like the sun. Sure enough that was a +vision He had sent to comfort us. So from that day I never cried nor +fretted any more. + + +_A Herd:_ + +Do you believe Roland Joyce was seen? Well, he was. A man I know told +me he saw him the night of his death, in Esserkelly where he had a +farm, and a man along with him going through the stock. And all of a +sudden a train came into the field, and brought them both away like a +blast of wind. + + * * * * * + +And as for old Parsons Persse of Castleboy, there's thousands of people +has seen him hunting at night with his horses and his hounds and his +bugle blowing. There's no mistake at all about him being there. + + +_An Aran Woman:_ + +There was a girl in the middle island had died, and when she was +being washed, and a priest in the house, there flew by the window the +whitest bird that ever was seen. And the priest said to the father: +"Do not lament, unless what you like, your child's happy for ever!" + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +Near the strand there were two little girls went out to gather +cow-dung. And they sat down beside a bush to rest themselves, and +there they heard a groan coming from under the ground. So they ran +home as fast as they could. And they were told when they went again +to bring a man with them. + +So the next time they went they brought a man with them, and they +hadn't been sitting there long when they heard the saddest groan that +ever you heard. So the man bent down and asked what was it. And a +voice from below said, "Let some one shave me and get me out of this, +for I was never shaved after dying." So the man went away, and the +next day he brought soap and all that was needful and there he found +a body lying laid out on the grass. So he shaved it, and with that +wings came and carried it up to high heaven. + + +_A Chimney-sweep:_ + +I don't believe in all I hear, or I'd believe in ghosts and faeries, +with all the old people telling you stories about them and the +priests believing in them too. Surely the priests believe in ghosts, +and tell you that they are souls that died in trouble. But I have +been about the country night and day, and I remember when I used to +have to put my hand out at the top of every chimney in Coole House; +and I seen or felt nothing to frighten me, except one night two rats +caught in a trap at Roxborough; and the old butler came down and beat +me with a belt for the scream I gave at that. But if I believed in +any one coming back, it would be in what you often hear, of a mother +coming back to care for her child. + +And there's many would tell you that every time you see a tree +shaking there's a ghost in it. + + * * * * * + +Old Lambert of Dangan was a terror for telling stories; he told me +long ago how he was near the Piper's gap on Ballybrit race-course, +and he saw one riding to meet him, and it was old Michael Lynch of +Ballybrista, that was dead long before, and he never would go on the +race-course again. And he had heard the car with headless horses +driving through Loughrea. From every part they are said to drive, and +the place they are all going to is Benmore, near Loughrea, where there +is a ruined dwelling-house and an old forth. And at Mount Mahon a herd +told me the other day he often saw old Andrew Mahon riding about at +night. But if I was a herd and saw that I'd hold my tongue about it. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +At the graveyard of Drumacoo often spirits do be seen. Old George +Fitzgerald is seen by many. And when they go up to the stone he's +sitting on, he'll be sitting somewhere else. + +There was a man walking in the wood near there, and he met a woman, +a stranger, and he said "Is there anything I can do for you?" For he +thought she was some country-woman gone astray. "There is," says she. +"Then come home with me," says he, "and tell me about it." "I can't +do that," says she, "but what you can do is this, go tell my friends +I'm in great trouble, for twenty times in my life I missed going to +church, and they must say twenty Masses for me now to deliver me, +but they seem to have forgotten me. And another thing is," says she, +"there's some small debts I left and they're not paid, and those are +helping to keep me in trouble." Well, the man went on and he didn't +know what in the world to do, for he couldn't know who she was, for +they are not permitted to tell their name. But going about visiting +at country houses he used to tell the story, and at last it came out +she was one of the Shannons. For at a house he was telling it at they +remembered that an old woman they had, died a year ago, and that she +used to be running up little debts unknown to them. So they made +inquiry at Findlater's and at another shop that's done away with now, +and they found that sure enough she had left some small debts, not +more than ten shillings in each, and when she died no more had been +said about it. So they paid these and said the Masses, and shortly +after she appeared to the man again. "God bless you now," she said, +"for what you did for me, for now I'm at peace." + + +_A Tinker's Daughter:_ + +I heard of what happened to a family in the town. One night a thing +that looked like a goose came in. And when they said nothing to it, +it went away up the stairs with a noise like lead. Surely if they had +questioned it, they'd have found it to be some soul in trouble. + +And there was another soul came back that was in trouble because of a +ha'porth of salt it owed. + +And there was a priest was in trouble and appeared after death, and +they had to say Masses for him, because he had done some sort of a +crime on a widow. + + +_Mrs. Farley:_ + +One time myself I was at Killinan, at a house of the Clancys' where the +father and mother had died, but it was well known they often come to +look after the children. I was walking with another girl through the +fields there one evening and I looked up and saw a tall woman dressed +all in black, with a mantle of some sort, a wide one, over her head, +and the waves of the wind were blowing it off her, so that I could hear +the noise of it. All her clothes were black, and had the appearance of +being new. And I asked the other girl did she see her, and she said she +did not. For two that are together can never see such things, but only +one of them. So when I heard she saw nothing I ran as if for my life, +and the woman seemed to be coming after me, till I crossed a running +stream and she had no power to cross that. And one time my brother was +stopping in the same house, and one night about twelve o'clock there +came a smell in the house like as if all the dead people were there. +And one of the girls whose father and mother had died got up out of her +bed, and began to put her clothes on, and they had to lock the doors to +stop her from going away out of the house. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman I knew of that after her death was kept for seven +years in a tree in Kinadyfe, and for seven years after that she was +kept under the arch of the little bridge beyond Kilchriest, with the +water running under her. And whether there was frost or snow she had +no shelter from it, not so much as the size of a leaf. + +At the end of the second seven years she came to her husband, and he +passing the bridge on the way home from Loughrea, and when he felt +her near him he was afraid, and he didn't stop to question her, but +hurried on. + +So then she came in the evening to the house of her own little girl. +But she was afraid when she saw her, and fell down in a faint. And the +woman's sister's child was in the house, and when the little girl told +her what she saw, she said "You must surely question her when she comes +again." So she came again that night, but the little girl was afraid +again when she saw her and said nothing. But the third night when she +came the sister's child, seeing her own little girl was afraid, said +"God bless you, God bless you." And with that the woman spoke and said +"God bless you for saying that." And then she told her all that had +happened her and where she had been all the fourteen years. And she +took out of her dress a black silk handkerchief and said: "I took that +from my husband's neck the day I met him on the road from Loughrea, +and this very night I would have killed him, because he hurried away +and would not stop to help me, but now that you have helped me I'll +not harm him. But bring with you to Kilmacduagh, to the graveyard, +three cross sticks with wool on them, and three glasses full of salt, +and have three Masses said for me; and I'll appear to you when I am at +rest." And so she did; and it was for no great thing she had done that +trouble had been put upon her. + + +_John Cloran:_ + +That house with no roof was made a hospital of in the famine, and +many died there. And one night my father was passing by and he +saw some one standing all in white, and two men beside him, and he +thought he knew one of the men and spoke to him and said "Is that +you, Martin?" but he never spoke nor moved. And as to the thing in +white, he could not say was it man or woman, but my father never went +by that place again at night. + + * * * * * + +The last person buried in a graveyard has the care of all the other +souls until another is to be buried, and then the soul can go and +shift for itself. It may be a week or a month or a year, but watch +the place it must till another soul comes. + + * * * * * + +There was a man used to be giving short measure, not giving the full +yard, and one time after his death there was a man passing the river +and the horse he had would not go into it. And he heard the voice +of the tailor saying from the river he had a message to send to his +wife, and to tell her not to be giving short measure, or she would be +sent to the same place as himself. There was a hymn made about that. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman lived in Rathkane, alone in the house, and she told +me that one night something came and lay over the bed and gave three +great moans. That was all ever she heard in the house. + + * * * * * + +The shadows of the dead gather round at Samhain time to see is there +any one among their friends saying a few Masses for them. + + +_An Islander:_ + +Down there near the point, on the 6th of March, 1883, there was a +curragh upset and five boys were drowned. And a man from County Clare +told me that he was on the coast that day, and that he saw them +walking towards him on the Atlantic. + + * * * * * + +There is a house down there near the sea, and one day the woman of it +was sitting by the fire, and a little girl came in at the door, and +a red cloak about her, and she sat down by the fire. And the woman +asked her where did she come from, and she said that she had just +come from Connemara. And then she went out, and when she was going +out the door she made herself known to her sister that was standing +in it, and she called out to the mother. And when the mother knew it +was the child she had lost near a year before, she ran out to call +her, for she wouldn't for all the world to have not known her when +she was there. But she was gone and she never came again. + + * * * * * + +There was this boy's father took a second wife, and he was walking +home one evening, and his wife behind him, and there was a great wind +blowing, and he kept his head stooped down because of the seaweed +coming blowing into his eyes. And she was about twenty paces behind, +and she saw his first wife come and walk close beside him, and he +never saw her, having his head down, but she kept with him near all +the way. And when they got home, she told the husband who was with +him, and with the fright she got she was bad in her bed for two or +three days--do you remember that, Martin? She died after, and he has +a third wife taken now. + + * * * * * + +I believe all that die are brought among them, except maybe an odd +old person. + + +_A Kildare Woman:_ + +There was a woman I knew sent into the Rotunda Hospital for an +operation. And when she was going she cried when she was saying +good-bye to her cousin that was a friend of mine, for she felt in her +that she would not come back again. And she put her two arms about +her going away and said, "If the dead can do any good thing for the +living, I'll do it for you." And she never recovered, but died in +the hospital. And within a few weeks something came on her cousin, +my friend, and they said it was her side that was paralysed, and she +died. And many said it was no common illness, but that it was the +dead woman that had kept to her word. + + +_A Connemara Man:_ + +There was a boy in New York was killed by rowdies, they killed him +standing against a lamppost and he was frozen to it, and stood there +till morning. And it is often since that time he was seen in the room +and the passages of the house where he used to be living. + +And in the house beyond a woman died, and some other family came to +live in it; but every night she came back and stripped the clothes +off them, so at last they went away. + + * * * * * + +When some one goes that owes money, the weight of the soul is +more than the weight of the body, and it can't get away and keeps +wandering till some one has courage to question it. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +My grandmother told my mother that in her time at Cloughballymore, +there was a woman used to appear in the churchyard of Rathkeale, and +that many boys and girls and children died with the fright they got +when they saw her. + +So there was a gentleman living near was very sorry for all the +children dying, and he went to an old woman to ask her was there any +way to do away with the spirit that appeared. So she said if any one +would have courage to go and to question it, he could do away with +it. So the gentleman went at midnight and waited at the churchyard, +and he on his horse, and had a sword with him. So presently the shape +appeared and he called to it and said, "Tell me what you are?" And it +came over to him, and when he saw the face he got such a fright that +he turned the horse's head and galloped away as hard as he could. But +after galloping a long time he looked down and what did he see beside +him but the woman running and her hand on the horse. So he took his +sword and gave a slash at her, and cut through her arm, so that she +gave a groan and vanished, and he went on home. + +And when he got to the stable and had the lantern lighted, you may +think what a start he got when he saw the hand still holding on to the +horse, and no power could lift it off. So he went into the house and +said his prayers to Almighty God to take it off. And all night long, he +could hear moaning and crying about the house. And in the morning when +he went out the hand was gone, but all the stable was splashed with +blood. But the woman was never seen in those parts again. + + +_A Seaside Man:_ + +And many see the faeries at Knock and there was a carpenter died, and +he could be heard all night in his shed making coffins and carts and +all sorts of things, and the people are afraid to go near it. There +were four boys from Knock drowned five years ago, and often now they +are seen walking on the strand and in the fields and about the village. + + * * * * * + +There was a man used to go out fowling, and one day his sister said +to him, "Whatever you do don't go out tonight and don't shoot any +wild-duck or any birds you see flying--for tonight they are all poor +souls travelling." + + +_An Old Man in Galway Workhouse:_ + +Burke of Carpark's son died, but he used often to be seen going about +afterwards. And one time a herd of his father's met with him and he +said, "Come tonight and help us against the hurlers from the north, +for they have us beat twice, and if they beat us a third time, it +will be a bad year for Ireland." + +It was in the daytime they had the hurling match through the streets +of Galway. No one could see them, and no one could go outside the +door while it lasted, for there went such a whirlwind through the +town that you could not look through the window. + +And he sent a message to his father that he would find some paper he +was looking for a few days before, behind a certain desk, between +it and the wall, and the father found it there. He would not have +believed it was his son the herd met only for that. + + +_A Munster Woman:_ + +I have only seen them myself like dark shadows, but there's many can +see them as they are. Surely they bring away the dead among them. + +There was a woman in County Limerick that died after her baby being +born. And all the people were in the house when the funeral was to +be, crying for her. And the cars and the horses were out on the road. +And there was seen among them a carriage full of ladies, and with +them the woman was sitting that they were crying for, and the baby +with her, and it dressed. + +And there was another woman I knew of died, and left a family, and +often after, the people saw her in their dreams, and always in rich +clothes, though all the clothes she had were given away after she +died, for the good of her soul, except maybe her shawl. And her +husband married a serving girl after that, and she was hard to the +children, and one night the woman came back to her, and had like +to throw her out of the window in her nightdress, till she gave a +promise to treat the children well, and she was afraid not to treat +them well after that. + +There was a farmer died and he had done some man out of a saddle, and +he came back after to a friend, and gave him no rest till he gave a +new saddle to the man he had cheated. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +There was a woman my brother told me about and she had a daughter +that was red-haired. And the girl got married when she was under +twenty, for the mother had no man to tend the land, so she thought +best to let her go. And after her baby being born, she never got +strong but stopped in the bed, and a great many doctors saw her but +did her no good. + +And one day the mother was at Mass at the chapel and she got a start, +for she thought she saw her daughter come in to the chapel with the +same shawl and clothes on her that she had before she took to the bed, +but when they came out from the chapel, she wasn't there. So she went +to the house, and asked was she after going out, and what they told her +was as if she got a blow, for they said the girl hadn't ten minutes to +live, and she was dead before ten minutes were out. And she appears +now sometimes; they see her drawing water from the well at night and +bringing it into the house, but they find nothing there in the morning. + + +_A Connemara Man:_ + +There was a man had come back from Boston, and one day he was out in +the bay, going towards Aran with £3 worth of cable he was after getting +from McDonagh's store in Galway. And he was steering the boat, and +there were two turf-boats along with him, and all in a minute they saw +he was gone, swept off the boat with a wave and it a dead calm. + +And they saw him come up once, straight up as if he was pushed, and +then he was brought down again and rose no more. + +And it was some time after that a friend of his in Boston, and that +was coming home to this place, was in a crowd of people out there. +And he saw him coming to him and he said, "I heard that you were +drowned," and the man said, "I am not dead, but I was brought here, +and when you go home, bring these three guineas to McDonagh in Galway +for it's owed him for the cable I got from him." And he put the +three guineas in his hand and vanished away. + + +_An Old Army Man:_ + +I have seen hell myself. I had a sight of it one time in a vision. It +had a very high wall around it, all of metal, and an archway in the +wall, and a straight walk into it, just like what would be leading +into a gentleman's orchard, but the edges were not trimmed with box +but with red-hot metal. And inside the wall there were cross walks, +and I'm not sure what there was to the right, but to the left there +was five great furnaces and they full of souls kept there with great +chains. So I turned short and went away; and in turning I looked +again at the wall and I could see no end to it. + +And another time I saw purgatory. It seemed to be in a level place +and no walls around it, but it all one bright blaze, and the souls +standing in it. And they suffer near as much as in hell, only there +are no devils with them there, and they have the hope of heaven. + +And I heard a call to me from there "Help me to come out of this!" +And when I looked it was a man I used to know in the army, an +Irishman and from this country, and I believe him to be a descendant +of King O'Connor of Athenry. So I stretched out my hand first but +then I called out "I'd be burned in the flames before I could get +within three yards of you." So then he said, "Well, help me with your +prayers," and so I do. + + + + + VII + + APPEARANCES + + + + + VII + + APPEARANCES + + +_When I had begun my search for folk-lore, the first to tell me he +himself had seen the Sidhe was an old, perhaps half-crazed man I will +call Michael Barrett_ (_for I do not give the real names either of +those who are living or who have left living relatives_). _I had one +day asked an old woman who had been spinning wool for me, to be made +into frieze by our weavers, if she had ever seen the faery host. She +said, "I never saw them myself nor I don't think much of them; it is +God that takes us or leaves us as He will. But a neighbouring man was +standing in my door last night, and there's no day of the year he +doesn't hear them or feel them._ + +"_It's in his head I think it does be, and when he stood in the door +last night I said 'the wind does be always in my ears and the sound of +it never stops,' to make him think it was the same with him. But he +said, 'I hear them singing and making music all the time, and one of +them's after bringing out a little flute, and it's on it he's playing +to them.' Sure he has half his chimney pulled down, where they used to +be sitting and singing to him day and night. But those that are born +in the daytime never have power to see or hear them all their life._" + +_Another neighbour talked to me of him and said, "One night he was +walking across the bog, and a lurcher, a bastard hound, with him. And +something ran across the path in the shape of a white cat, and the +lurcher went after him, and Barrett went home and to bed and left the +door open for the lurcher to come in. And in the morning they found it +there, lying under the table, and it paralysed and not able to stir. +But after a few months it got better, and one night they were crossing +the bog again and the same thing ran across their path, and this time +in the form of a deer. But the dog wouldn't follow it again, but shrank +behind Barrett until such time as it had passed by."_ + +_My spinning woman, coming another time with chickens to sell, said, +"Barrett is after telling me this morning that they were never so bad +as these last two nights. 'Friday fine-day' is what they say now, in +Irish, and he got no sleep till he threatened to throw dirty water +over them. The poor man, they do say they are mostly in his head now, +but sure he was a fine fresh man twenty years ago, the night he saw +them all linked in two lots, like slips of girls walking together. +And it was that very same day that Hession's little girl got a touch +from them. She was as fine a little girl as ever you saw, and her +mother sent her into Gort to do a message. And on the road she met a +red-haired woman, with long wisps of hair as bright as silver, and +she said, 'Where are you going and who are you?' 'I'm going to Gort +on a message,' says she, 'and I'm Mrs. Hession's daughter of such a +place.' Well, she came home, and that very night she got a pain in +her thigh, with respects to you, and she and her mother have half the +world walked since then, trying to get relief for her; but never a +bit better did she ever get. And no doubt at all but that's the very +same day Michael Barrett saw them in the field near Hession's house."_ + +_I asked Mr. Yeats to come with me to see the old man, and we walked +up the long narrow lane, from which we could see Slieve Echtge and +the Burren hills, to the little cabin with its broken chimney where +Michael Barrett told us of those that had disturbed his rest. This +was the first time we went together to enquire into the Hierarchy of +the Sidhe, of which by degrees we have gathered so much traditional +and original knowledge._ + +_As to old Barrett, I saw him from time to time, and he told me he was +still "tormented," and that "there is one that sat and sang b-b-b all +the night" til a few evenings before he had got a bit of rag and tied +it to a long stick, and hit at him when he came, and drove him out +with the rest. And in the next spring I heard he was ill, and that "on +Saturday he had been told by three he was to die." When I visited him I +found him better, and he said that since the warning on Saturday they +had left him alone "and the children that used to be playing about with +them have gone to some other place; found the house too cold for them +maybe." That was the last time I saw him; I am glad I had been able to +help him to more warmth and comfort before the end._ + +_I asked the old man's brother, a labourer, what he thought of +Michael's visions, but he made little of them. "Old he is, and it's +all in the brain the things he does be talking of. If it was a young +man told us of them we might believe him, but as to him, we pay no +attention to what he says at all. Those things are passed away, and +you--I beg your pardon for using that word--a person--hears no more +of them._ + +"_John Casey saw queer things? So he might. Them that travel by +night, why wouldn't they see queer things? But they'd see nothing if +they went to their bed quiet and regular._ + +"_Lydon that had the contract for the schoolhouse, we didn't mind much +what he said happened him the night he slept there alone, and in the +morning he couldn't stir across the floor from the place where he was. +But who knows? Maybe he had too much drink taken before he went to bed. +It was no wonder in the old times if there was signs and the like where +murder had been. But that's come to an end, and time for it._ + +"_There's another man, one Doran, has the same dreams and thoughts +as my brother, and he leaves pieces of silver on the wall; and when +they're took--it's the faeries! But myself I believe it's the boys do +be watching him._ + +"_No, these things are gone from the world, and there's not the same +dread of death there used to be. When we die we go to judgment, and +the places we'll get there, they won't be the same as what we had +here. The charitable, the kind-hearted, lady or gentleman, who'd +have a chance if they didn't? But the tyrants and schemers, what +chance will there be for the like of them?_" + +"_You will have a good place there, Barrett, you and John Farrell. +You have done your work better than most of us through all your life, +and it's likely you'll be above us there._" + +"_I did my work all my life, fair and honest every day; and now that +I'm old, I'll keep on the same track to the last. Like a horse that +might be racing at Galway racecourse or another, there might be eight +leaps or ten leaps he might be frightened at; but when he's once over +the last leap there's no fear of him. Why would he fail then, with +the winning post so near at hand?_" + + +_I was told by A Gatekeeper:_ + +There was once a family, the O'Hagans living in Dromore Hill, that now +belongs to you, well-to-do people. And one day the son that had been +at college was coming back, and there was a great dinner being made in +the house. And a girl was sent off to a spring by the forth to get some +water, and when she passed by the forth, she heard like the crying of +a child and some one said to it "Nothing given to us today, no milk +spilled for us, nothing laid out for us, but tonight we'll have what we +want and there will be waste and overflow." And that evening the young +man that was coming home got a fall from his horse, and was killed, and +all the grand things for the dinner were thrown about and went to loss. +So never begrudge the drop of milk you'll spill, or the bit you'll let +fall, it might turn all to good in the end. + + * * * * * + +One night at the house below it was just getting dark, and a man came +in the gate and to the door and came in and fell down on a chair. +And when I saw him shaking and his face so white, I thought it was +the _fear gortha_ (the hungry grass) he had walked on, and I called +to the wife to give him something to eat. But he would take nothing +but a cup of water with salt in it, and when he got better he told us +that when he was passing the big tree a man and a woman came out and +came along with him. They didn't speak but they walked on each side +of him, and then the woman seemed to go away, but the man's step was +with him till he came in at the gate. + + * * * * * + +There was a girl of the Heniffs brought the dinner one day to where +the men were working near where the river rises at Coole. And when she +had left the dinner she began to gather kippeens, and put them in her +shawl, and began to twist a rope of the ends of it to tie them up. And +at that moment she was taken up, and where she found herself was in +Galway, sitting in the Square. And she had no money, and she began to +think of the friends she had there and to say, "If they knew where I +was they'd give me money to bring me back." And in those days there was +a coach that ran from Galway to Kiltartan, and she found herself in it, +and it starting, and it left her safe and sound again at home. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +There was a girl at Tyrone was bringing back some apples out of the +garden there. And on the road she met a man, and she thought that he +was one of the old St. Georges, and he asked where did she get the +apples, and bid her put them down in the road, and when she opened the +bundle they were all turned to eggs. So she put them up again and +brought them home, and when she and her mother looked at them in the +house they were beginning to crack, and the chickens to put their beaks +through them; so they put them in the corner of the kitchen for the +night, and in the morning when they went to look at them they were all +turned to apples again, but they thought best not to eat them. + + +_A Munster Woman:_ + +There was a woman I knew in County Limerick, near Foynes--Mrs. +Doolan, a nurse. She was called out of bed one night by a small man +with a lamp, and he led her to a place she had never seen before, +and into a house, and there was a woman in a bed and the child was +born after she came. And I always heard her say it was a faery she +attended. And the man led her back and gave her a sovereign, and bid +her change it before sunrise. + + * * * * * + +And I know a boy lived on Lord Dunraven's property, one of a family +of large farmers, and he had a settle-bed in the kitchen, and one +night he saw the kitchen full of them, and they making up the fire +and cooking, and they set out the table and ate at it. + + * * * * * + +I often heard they'd fight in November at the time of harvest, and +my father told me that in the year of the famine there was great +fighting heard up in the sky, and they were crying out, "Black +potatoes, black potatoes, we'll have them now." I suppose it was one +tribe of them fighting against another for them. And the oats in that +year were all black as well as the potatoes. + + +_A Clare Man:_ + +I saw them myself one night I was going to Ennis with a load of +straw. It was when we came to Bunnahow and the moon was shining, and +I was on the top of the load of straw, and I saw them in a field. +Just like jockeys they were, and riding horses, red clothes and caps +they had like a jockey would have, but they were small. They had a +screen of bushes put up in the field and some of the horses would +jump over it, and more of them would baulk when they'd be put to it. +The men that were with me didn't see them, they were walking in the +road, but they heard the sound of the horses. + + +_Another Clare Man:_ + +I heard a churning one time in the hill up by the road beyond. I was +coming back from Kinvara, and I heard it plain, no mistake about it. +I was sorry after I didn't call down and ask for a drink. Johnny Moon +did so, and got it. If you wish for a drink and they put it out for +you, it's no harm to take it, but if you refuse it, some harm might +happen to you. Johnny Henderson often told that he heard churning in +that spot, but I wouldn't believe the sun rising from him, he had so +many lies. But after that, I said, "Well, Johnny Henderson has told +the truth for once anyhow." + + +_A Miller:_ + +There was Tom Gantly one evening was going to Coole, and he heard a +step behind him and it followed him every bit of the way, till he got +to the hall door of Coole House; but he could see nothing. + +He saw a gig one night on the road there by the wall and it full of +ladies laughing and grandly dressed--the best of hats and feathers +they had. And it turned and passed him a second time. And with the +fright he got, he never would pass that bit of road by himself again. + + * * * * * + +There were two men went one night to catch rabbits in that field +you have let now to Father Fahy, and the one next it. And when they +were standing there they heard a churning below. So they went on a +little way, and they heard a tambourine below, music going on and the +beating of a drum. So they moved a little farther on and then they +heard the sound of a fiddle from below. So they came home and caught +no rabbits that night. + + +_J. Creevy:_ + +May is a great time with these strangers, and November is a bad +month for them, and this month you're in now. I was trying the +other day in the town to get a marriage made up for a girl that was +seduced--and the family wouldn't have it this month because of that. + + * * * * * + +One night on the Kiltartan road I saw a flock of wool by the road +side, and I gave a kick at it and it didn't move, and then another +kick and it didn't move. So it can have been no natural thing. + + * * * * * + +And Lee told me that one night he saw red men riding through the +country and going over ditches. + + * * * * * + +One time I was sick in the bed and I heard music, and I sat up and +said: "Is it music I hear, or is it the squealing of pigs?" And they +all said they could hear nothing. But I could hear it for a long time, +and it the grandest I ever heard--and like a melodeon. And as to the +tune, I couldn't tell what it was but I know that I had heard it before. + + +_A Kerry Piper:_ + +One time in Kerry there was a coach coming after me and it passed +beside me, and I saw with it Mrs. Mitchell from the big house. And when +it came near the bridge it sank into the earth, and I saw no more of it. + + * * * * * + +And one time I was at Ennistymon I saw the ass-car and the woman and +the man out before me. I had a little ass of my own at that time, +and I followed them thinking to overtake them, but when I was in the +hollow they were on the hill, and when I was on the hill they were +in the hollow. And when they got near to the bridge that is over the +big river, they were not to be seen. For they can never cross over a +mering (boundary) that is a river. + + +_J. Fagan:_ + +One time I was at a party and I didn't leave the house till 2 o'clock +so you may think it was late in the night before I got home. And +after a while I looked back and I saw some one coming after me, a +little old woman about so high (3 feet) and she wearing a white cap +with a frilled border, and a red square and a red flannel petticoat. +I set off to run when I saw her, for at that time I had the run of +a hare, but when I got near home I looked back and she was after me +still. When I got inside the door I fell on my two knees. And it was +seven years before I got the better of that fright. And from that +time to this I never got the run again that I used to have. + + * * * * * + +There was a respectable woman, Mrs. Gaynor, living in Cloon, told me +that whenever she went out of Cloon in the direction of Fiddane in one +part of the road there was a woman sometimes met her, that she saw at +no other time, and every time she'd meet her she'd spit in her face. + +There is a family at Tirneevan and they were having a wedding there. +And when it was going on, the wine ran short, and the spirits ran +out and they didn't know what to do to get more, Gort being two +miles away. And two or three strange people came in that they had +never seen before. And when they found what was wanting they said +that they'd go get it. And in a few minutes they were back with the +spirits and the wine--and no place to get it nearer than Gort. + + * * * * * + +There was a herd's house up at Burren that no one could live in. But +one Holland from Tirneevan said he'd take the place, and try how +would he get on there. So he went with his family, and the first +day the daughter made the place clean and swept it, and then she +went out for a can of milk. And when she was coming in the door, it +was knocked out of her hand and spilled over her. And that evening +when they sat down to their supper the door opened and eight or nine +people came in, and a red man among them. And they sat down and ate. +And then they showed Holland one side of the room, and bid him to +keep it always clean, and spring water in it. + + +_A Herd:_ + +There was a man woke about three o'clock one morning and he bade the +servant girl go down and make the fire and put on the potatoes, where +he had to be going out early. So she went down and there she saw one +of _them_ sitting by the hearth in the kitchen. So she ran upstairs +with the fright she got to where the man was in bed with his wife. So +then he went down himself, and he saw one of them sure enough sitting +by the fire and he asked "How did you come in?" And he said, "By the +lock-hole of the door." And the man said, "There's the pot full of +potatoes and you might as well have used a few of them." And he said, +"We have them used already; and you think now they are potatoes, but +when you put the pot down on the fire you'll see they are no more +than horse dung." + + +_Thomas Cloonan:_ + +One night my father was beyond on the other side of the lake, going +to watch an otter where the water goes away underground. And he heard +voices talking, and he thought one was the voice of Father Nagle +the parish priest of Kilbecanty, and the other the voice of Father +Hynes from Cloon that does be late out fishing for eels. And when he +came to where the voices were, there was no one at all in it. And +he went and sat in the cave, where the water goes under, and there +was a great noise like as if planks were being thrown down overhead. +And you may think how frightened he was when he never took off his +boots to cross the river, but run through it just as he was and never +stopped till he got to the house. + + +_Mrs. Cloonan:_ + +Two men I saw one time over in Inchy. I was sitting milking the cow +and she let a snore and I looked up and I saw the two men, small men, +and their hands and their feet the smallest ever I saw, and hats +turned back on their heads, but I did not see their faces. Then the +cow rose her foot, and I thought, "it will be worse for me if she'll +put her foot down on me," and I looked at her, and when I looked up +again they were gone. Mrs. Stafford told me it was not for me they +came, but for the cow, Blackberry, that died soon after. + + * * * * * + +There was a man in Gort was brought for a while to Tir-na-Og, that is +a part of heaven. + + * * * * * + +McGarrity that was coming back one night to the new house beyond +the lake saw two children, two little girls they were, standing +beside the house. Paddy told me that, and he said they came there to +foretell him he was stopping there too late. + + +_John Phelan:_ + +I never saw them nor felt them all my life, and I walking the place +night and day, except one time when for twelve nights I slept in the +little house beyond, in the kitchen garden where the apples were being +robbed that time because there was no one living at home. In the +night-time in the loft above my head I used to hear a scratching and +a scraping, and one time a plank that was above in it began to move +about. But I had no fear but stopped there, but I did not put off my +clothes nor stretch myself on the bed for twelve nights. They say that +one man that slept in the same house was found in the morning choked in +his bed and the door locked that they had to burst it in. + +And in old Richard Gregory's time there was one Horan slept there, +and one night he ran out of it and out of the Gort gate and got no +leave to put his clothes on. But there's some can see those things +and more that can't, and I'm one of those that can't. Walking Coole +demesne I am these forty years, days and nights, and never met +anything worse than myself. + +But one night standing by the vinery and the moon shining, on a +sudden a wind rose and shook the trees and rattled the glass and the +slates, and no wind before, and it stopped as sudden as it came. And +there were two bunches of grapes gone, and them that took them took +them by the chimney and no other way. + + +_James Hill:_ + +One night since I lived here I found late at night that a black jennet +I had at that time had strayed away. So I took a lantern and went to +look for him, and found him near Doherty's house at the bay. And when +I took him by the halter, I put the light out and led him home. But +surely as I walked there was a footstep behind me all the way home. + +I never rightly believed in them till I met a priest about two years +ago coming out from the town that asked his way to Mrs. Canan's, +the time she was given over, and he told me that one time his horse +stopped and wouldn't pass the road, and the man that was driving +said, "I can't make him pass." And the priest said, "It will be the +worse for you, if I have to come down into the road." For he knew +some bad thing was there. And he told me the air is full of them. But +Father Dolan wouldn't talk of such things, very proud he is, and he +coming of no great stock. + + * * * * * + +One night I was driving outside Coole gate--close to where the +Ballinamantane farm begins. And the mare stopped, and I got off the +car to lead her, but she wouldn't go on. Two or three times I made +her start and she'd stop again. Something she must have seen that I +didn't see. + +Beasts will sometimes see more than a man will. There were three +young chaps I knew went up by the river to hunt coneens one evening, +and they threw the dog over the wall. And when he was in the field he +gave a yelp and drew back as if something frightened him. + + * * * * * + +Another time my father was going early to some place, and my mother +had a noggin of turnips boiled for him the night before, to give him +something to eat before he'd start. So they got up very early and she +lighted the fire and put the oven hanging over it for to warm the +turnips, and then she went back to bed again. And my father was in a +hurry and he went out and brought in a sheaf of wheaten straw to put +under the oven, the way it would make a quick blaze. And when he came +in, the oven had been taken off the hook, and was put standing in the +hearth, and no mortal had been there. So he was afraid to stop, and +he went back to the bed, and till daybreak they could hear something +that was knocking against the pot. And the servant girl that was in +the house, she awoke and heard quick steps walking to the stable, and +the door of it giving a screech as if it was being opened. But in the +morning there was no sign there or of any harm being done to the pot. + +Then the girl remembered that she had washed her feet the night +before, and had never thought to throw out the water. And it's well +known to wash the feet and not to throw the water out, brings some +harm--except you throw fire into the vessel it stands in. + + +_Simon Niland:_ + +Late one night I was out walking, and a gun in my hand, and I was +going down a little avenue of stones, and I heard after me the noise +of a horse's steps. So I stopped and sat down on the stile, for I +thought, the man that's with the horse, I'll have his company a bit +of the way. But the noise got louder like as if it was twenty horses +coming, and then I was knocked down, and I put out my foot to save +the gun from being broken. But when I got up there was no hurt on me +or on the gun, and the noise was all gone, and the place quiet. It +was maybe four year after that or six, I was walking the same path +with the priest and a few others, for a whale had come ashore, and +the jaw-bones of it were wanted to make the piers of a gate. And the +priest said to me, "Did you ever hear of the battle of Troy?" "I +didn't hear but I read about it," says I. "Well," says he, "there was +a man at that time called Simon, and they found that whenever he came +out with them to fight there was luck with them, and when he wasn't +with them, there'd be no luck. And that's why we put you in front of +us, to lead us on the path, you having the same name." So that put +it in my head, and I told him about what happened that night, and I +said, "Now would you believe that?" "I would," says he. "And what are +such things done by?" says I. "The fallen angels," he said, "for they +have power to do such things and to raise wind and storm, but yet +they have the hope of salvation at the last." + + * * * * * + +One clear night and the moon shining, I was walking home down this +road, and I had a strong dog at that time. And just here where you +stand he began to bark at something and he made rushes at it, and +made as if he was worrying it, but I could see nothing, though if it +had been even the size of a rat I must have seen it, the night was +so clear. And I had to leave him at last and heard him barking and I +was at the house-door before he came up with me. + + * * * * * + +I know a good many on the island have seen _those_, but they wouldn't +say what they are like to look at, for when they see them their +tongue gets like a stone. + + +_Mrs. Hynes of Slieve Echtge:_ + +When you see a blast of wind pass, pick a green rush and throw it +after them, and say, "God speed you." There they all are, and maybe +the _stroke lad_ at the end of them. + + * * * * * + +There was a neighbour of mine in late with me one night, and when he +was going home, just as he passed that little road you see, a big +man came over the wall in front of him, and was growing bigger as he +went, till he nearly fainted with the fright he got. + + * * * * * + +They can do everything. They can raise the wind, and draw the storm. + +And to Drogheda they go for wine, for the best wine is in the cellars +there. + + +_An Islander:_ + +One night I and another lad were coming along the road, and the dog +began to fight, as if he was fighting another dog, but we could see +nothing and we called him off but he wouldn't come. And when we got +home he answered us, and he seemed as if tired out. + + * * * * * + +There was a strange woman came to this island one day and told some +of the women down below what would happen to them. And they didn't +believe her, she being a stranger, but since that time, it's all been +coming true. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +I knew a woman that every night after she went to bed used to see +some sort of a shadow that used to appear to her. So she went to some +old woman, and she told her to sprinkle holy water about and to put a +blackthorn stick beside her bed. So she got the stick and put it there +and sprinkled the holy water, and it never appeared since then. Three +sorts of holy water she got, from the priest and from the friars and +from some blessed well. And she has them in three pint bottles in the +window, and she'd kill you if you so much as looked at them. + + +_A Fisherman:_ + +I never saw anything myself, but one day I was going over the fields +near Killeen, and it the quietest day of summer you ever saw. And +all of a sudden I heard a great noise like thunder, and a blast of +wind passed by me that laid the thistles low, and then all was quiet +again. It might be that they were changing, for they change from +place to place. + +I would not give in to faeries myself but for one thing. There was a +little boy of my own, and there was a wedding going to be here, and +there was no bread in the house, and none to be had in Kilcolgan, and +I bade him to go to Kinvara for bread. I pulled out the ass-car for +him and he set out. + +And from that time he was never the same, and now he is in the asylum +at Ballinasloe. + +Did he tell what happened? He never told me anything, but he told a +neighbour that he met awful looking people on the road to Kinvara +just about midnight, and that whatever they did to him, he could +never recover it. + + +_A Carter:_ + +Often and often I heard things. A great shouting I heard one night +inside Coole demesne,--a hurling it must have been. Another time I +was passing at night-time, near Reed the weaver's, and there were +rocks thrown at me all along the road, but they did not touch me, and +I could not see any one thing there. But I never went that road again +at night-time. + +It's said those that die are left in the place where they lived to +do their penance. Often and often when I came to that house below, I +felt knocks under the bed, and like some one walking over it. + +Two men I know were going from Gort one night, and there near the +wall of the demesne they saw two men ploughing, and they asked one +another what could they be to be ploughing by night. And then they +saw that as they ploughed, the land was going away from them, and +they were gone themselves, and they saw them no more. + + +_An Old Woman who was Housekeeper to the Donnellans:_ + +I'll tell you how the fortune of the family began. + +It was Tully O'Donnellan was riding home from Ballinasloe, or some +other place, and it was raining, and he came to a river that was in +flood, and there used to be no bridges in those times. And when he +was going to ride through the river, he saw the _greasa_ leprechaun +on the bank, and he offered him a lift, and he stooped down and +lifted him up behind him on the horse. + +And when he got near where the castle was, he saw it in flames before +him. And the leprechaun said, "Don't fret after it but build a new +castle in the place I'll show you, about a stone's throw from the +old one." "I have no money to do that," said Tully Donnellan. "Never +mind that," said the leprechaun, "but do as I bid you, and you'll +have plenty." So he did as he bade him, and the morning after he went +to live in the new castle, when he went into that room that has the +stone with his name on it now, it was full up of gold, and you could +be turning it like you'd turn potatoes into a shovel. And when the +children would go into the room with their father and mother, the +nurses would put bits of wax on their shoes, the way bits of the gold +would stick to them. And they had great riches and smothered the world +with it, and they used to shoe their horses with silver. It was in +racing they ran through it, and keeping hounds and horses and horns. + + +_Old Pegs Kelly:_ + +I seen the Sheogue but once, and that was five or six years ago, and +I walking the railway where I was looking after my little hens that +do be straying. And I saw them coming along, and in a minute I was in +the middle of them. Shavings, and shavings, and shavings going along +the road as fast as they could go. And I knew there was no shavings +to be seen this many year, since the stakes were made for the railway +down at Nolan's, and the carpenter that made them dead, and the shop +where he made them picked clean. And I knew well they were the horses +the Sheogue did be riding. But some that saw them said they looked +like bits of paper. And I threw three stones after them and I heard +them cry out as they went. And that night the roof was swept off Tom +Dermot's house in Ryanrush and haystacks blown down. And John Brady's +daughter that was daft those many years was taken, and Tom Horan's +little girl that was picking potatoes, she and her brothers together. +She turned black all of a minute and three days after, she was dead. + +That's the only time I seen them, and that I never may again, for +believe me that time I had my enough, thinking as I did that I hadn't +more than three minutes to live. + + +_A Herd's Wife:_ + +Martin's new wife is a fine big woman, if she is lucky. But it's not a +lucky house. That's what happened the last wife that lost her baby and +died. William Martin knows well _they_ are in it, but he is a dark man +and would say nothing. I saw them myself about the house one time, and +I met one on the forth going through the fields; he had the appearance +of a man in his clothes. And sometimes when I look over at Martin's +house there is a very dark look like a dark cloud over it and around it. + + +_The other Army Man:_ + +The faeries are all fallen angels. Father Folan told us from the +altar that they're as thick as the sands of the sea all about us, +and they tempt poor mortals. But as for carrying away women and the +like, there's many that says so, but they have no proof. But you have +only to bid them begone and they will go. One night myself I was +after walking back from Kinvara, and down by the wood beyond I felt +one coming beside me, and I could feel the horse that he was riding +on and the way that he lifted his legs, but they didn't make a sound +like the hoofs of a horse. So I stopped and turned around and said +very loud "Be off!" And he went and never troubled me after. And I +knew a man that was dying, and one came up on his bed and he cried +out to it, "Get out of that, you unnatural animal!" And it left him. +There's a priest I heard of that was looking along the ground like as +if he was hunting for something, and a voice said to him "If you want +to see them you'll see enough of them," and his eyes were opened and +he saw the ground thick with them. Singing they do be sometimes and +dancing, but all the time they have the cloven foot. + +Fallen angels they are, and after they fell God said, "Let there be +Hell, and there it was in a moment"--("God save us! It's a pity He said +that word and there might have been no Hell today" _murmurs the wife_). +And then He asked the devil what would he take for the souls of all the +people. And the devil said nothing would satisfy him but the blood of a +Virgin's Son. So he got that and then the gates of Hell were opened. + + +_The Wife:_ + +I never seen anything, although one night I was out after a cow till +2 o'clock in the morning and old Gantly told me he wondered at me to +be out in this place, by the wood near the white gate where he saw a +thing himself one night passing. But it's only them that's living in +mortal sin can see such things, that's so Thomas, whatever you may +say. But your ladyship's own place is middling free from them, but +Ratlin's full of them. + +And there's many say they saw the banshee, and that if she heard you +singing loud, she'd be very apt to bring you away with her. + + +_A Piper:_ + +There was an old priest I knew--Father McManus--and when he would go +walking in the green lawn before the house, his man, Keary, would go +with him, and he carrying three sticks. And after a while the priest +would say, "_Cur do maide_"--Fire your stick--as far as you can, and +he would throw it. And he would say the same thing a second and a +third time, and after that he would say, "We have no more to protect +us now," and he would go in. And another priest I was talking to the +other day was telling me they are between earth and air and the grass +is full of them. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +There was a boy I knew at Tyrone was a great card player. And one +night about 10 o'clock he was coming home from a party, and he had +the cards in his hands and he shuffling them as he went along. And +presently he saw a man before him on the road, and the man stopped +till he came up, and when he saw the cards, he says "Stop here and +I'll have a game with you," for the moon was shining bright. So the +boy sat down, and the stranger asked him had he any money, and he +said he had five shillings after the night's play. "Well," says the +man, "we'll play the first game for half-a-crown." So they sat down +and put out the money on a flagstone that was much like a table, and +they began to play, and the first game was won by the stranger. "Well +now," says he, "we'll have another." So the boy began to shuffle the +cards, but as he did, one card dropped on the ground, and he stooped +down for it, and when he did, he saw the man's feet that were partly +under the flagstone, and they were like the feet of a cow. So with +the fright he got, he jumped up and began to run and never stopped +till he got inside his house and had the door shut. And when he had +been sitting there a few minutes, a knock came to the door, and he +heard the voice of the stranger say, "It's well for you you ran away +when you did, or you'd be where I am now." And he heard no more; it +was the boy himself told me this. + +I hear them in this house ever since the first night I came, in the +kitchen, when all are in bed. Footsteps, I wouldn't think so much of, +but scraping the potatoes, that's another thing. + + * * * * * + +A daughter I had that went to America died there, and the brother +that came back told me that he was with her, and she going, and +surely they all heard the jennet coming to the door, and when they +opened it, there was nothing there, and many people standing and +waiting about it. I knew a woman died beyond in Boher and left a +house full of children and the night she died there was a light seen +in the sick house. + + * * * * * + +To leave a few cold potatoes, the first of them, outside, you should +surely do it, and not to leave the house without spring water. I knew +a boy that was sleeping up in the loft of a house and one night they +had forgotten to leave water within in the kitchen. And about midnight +he awoke and he saw through a hole in the loft two women, and one of +them just after having a baby. And they said, "What way will we wash +the child, and no water here; we must take the pan of milk down from +the shelf." So the boy said out loud the way they'd hear him, "I must +go for spring water. I forgot to leave it below." So he went and got +it and left it there, and let on not to see them. And--for I forget +what time after that--there was no morning he put his clothes on but +he'd find a half-crown in his boot. To do you harm? No, but the best of +neighbours they are, if you don't chance to offend them. + + +_A Schoolmaster:_ + +In Donegal one night some of the people were at a still in the +mountains, and on a sudden they heard a shot fired, and they thought +it was a signal given to the police, and they made home to the +village. And all the night they could hear like the tramp of horses +and of police and the noise of cars passing by, but nothing could be +seen. And next day the police came in earnest, and searched about +the place where they had been at work at the still, but no one was +there and they found nothing. So they knew it was a warning they were +after being given. + + +_John Madden:_ + +One day old Fogarty of Clough was cutting rods in Coole with a +black-handled knife, and he put it in his pocket, and presently he +felt for it and it was gone. But when he went home and went into the +house, there was the knife lying on the table. + + * * * * * + +My wife's brother was on a cock of hay in that field beyond one time, +and he sat down to rest and he saw them hurling in red caps and blue, +and a crowd looking in at them. But he said nothing to the men that +were with him. They are mostly in forths and lonesome places. + + +_An old man, Kelleher, living in the Wicklow Mountains, told me and +W. B. Yeats and Miss Pollexfen:_ + +I often saw them when I had my eyesight; one time they came about me, +shouting and laughing and there were spouts of water all around me. +And I thought that I was coming home, but I was not on the right path +and couldn't find it and went wandering about, but at last one of +them said, "Good-evening, Kelleher," and they went away, and then in +a moment I saw where I was by the stile. They were very small, like +little boys and girls, and had red caps. + +I always saw them like that, but they were bigger at the butt of the +river; they go along the course of the rivers. Another time they came +about me playing music and I didn't know where I was going, and at +last one of them said the same way, "Good evening, Kelleher," and I +knew that I was at the gate of the College; it is the sweetest music +and the best that can be heard, like melodeons and fifes and whistles +and every sort. + +_Mrs. Kelleher says_: I often hear that music too, I hear them +playing drums. + +_K._: We had one of them in the house for a while, it was when I +was living up at Ticnock, and it was just after I married that +woman there that was a nice slip of a girl at that time. It was in +the winter and there was snow on the ground, and I saw one of them +outside, and I brought him in and put him on the dresser, and he +stopped in the house for a while, for about a week. + +_Mrs. K._: It was more than that, it was two or three weeks. + +_K._: Ah! maybe it was--I'm not sure. He was about fifteen inches high. +He was very friendly. It is likely he slept on the dresser at night. +When the boys at the public-house were full of porter, they used to +come to the house to look at him, and they would laugh to see him but +I never let them hurt him. They said I would be made up, that he would +bring me some riches, but I never got them. We had a cage here, I wish +I had put him in it, I might have kept him till I was made up. + +_Mrs. K._: It was a cage we had for a thrush. We thought of putting +him into it, but he would not have been able to stand in it. + +_K._: I'm sorry I didn't keep him--I thought sometimes to bring him +into Dublin to sell him. + +_Mrs. K._: You wouldn't have got him there. + +_K._: One day I saw another of the kind not far from the house, but +more like a girl and the clothes greyer than his clothes, that were +red. And that evening when I was sitting beside the fire with the +Missus I told her about it, and the little lad that was sitting on +the dresser called out, "That's Geoffrey-a-wee that's coming for +me," and he jumped down and went out of the door and I never saw him +again. I thought it was a girl I saw, but Geoffrey wouldn't be the +name of a girl, would it? + +He had never spoken before that time. Somehow I think that he liked +me better than the Missus. I used to feed him with bread and milk. + +_Mrs. K._: I was afraid of him--I was afraid to go near him, I +thought he might scratch my eyes out--I used to leave bread and milk +for him but I would go away while he was eating it. + +_K._: I used to feed him with a spoon, I would put the spoon to his +mouth. + +_Mrs. K._: He was fresh-looking at the first, but after a while he +got an old look, a sort of wrinkled look. + +_K._: He was fresh-looking enough, he had a hardy look. + +_Mrs. K._: He was wearing a red cap and a little red cloth skirt. + +_K._: Just for the world like a Highlander. + +_Mrs. K._: He had a little short coat above that; it was checked and +trousers under the skirt and long stockings all red. And as to his +shoes, they were tanned, and you could hardly see the soles of them, +the sole of his foot was like a baby's. + +_K._: The time I lost my sight, it was a Thursday evening, and I was +walking through the fields. I went to bed that night, and when I rose +up in the morning, the sight was gone. The boys said it was likely I +had walked on one of their paths. Those small little paths you see +through the fields are made by _them_. + +They are very often in the quarries; they have great fun up there, +and about Peacock Well. The Peacock Well was blessed by a saint, and +another well near, that cures the headache. + +I saw one time a big grey bird about the cow-house, and I went to a +comrade-boy and asked him to come and to help me to catch it, but +when we came back it was gone. It was very strange-looking and I +thought that it had a head like a man. + + +_Old Manning:_ + +I never saw them except what I told you, the dog fighting, and I +heard the horses, and at that same time I saw smoke coming out of +the ground near Foley's house at Corker, by the gate. + +My mother lived for twenty years in Coole, and she often told me that +when she'd pass Shanwalla hill there would people come out and meet +her and--with respects to you--they'd spit in her face. + +Faeries of course there are and there's many poor souls doing their +penance, and how do we know where they may be doing it? + + +_A Farmer:_ + +I might not believe myself there are such things but for what +happened not long after I was married when my first little girl +was but a week old. I had gone up to Ballybrit to tie some sheep +and put fetters on them, and I was waiting for Haverty to come and +help me tie them. The baby was a little unwell that day but I was +not uneasy about her. But while I was waiting for Haverty, a blast +of wind came through the field and I heard a voice say quite clear +out of it "Katie is gone." That was the little one, we had called +her Catherine, but though she wasn't a week in the world, we had it +shortened already to Kate. And sure enough, the child got worse, and +we attended her through the night, and before daybreak she was gone. + + +_An Army Man:_ + +Two nights ago a travelling man came and knocked at John Hanlon's +house at 11 o'clock, where he saw a light in the window and he asked +would there be any one out hurling so late as that. For in coming by +the field beyond the chapel he saw it full of people, some on horses, +and hurling going on, and they were all dressed like soldiers, and +you would hear their swords clinking as they ran. And he was not sure +were they faeries till he asked John Hanlon was it the custom of +people in this country to go hurling so late as that. But that was +always a great field for them. From eleven to two, that is the time +they have for play, but they must go away before the cock crows. And +the cock will crow sometimes as early as 1 o'clock, a right one. + + * * * * * + +It was in the night that Christ our Saviour rose there were some Jews +sitting around the fire, and a cock boiling in the pot. And one of +them said, "He'll never rise again until that cock crows." And the +cock rose out of the pot and crowed, and he that was speaking got +scalded with the water that was splashed about. + + +_A Connemara Man:_ + +One night I was sleeping over there by the dresser and I heard them +("Would you say the day of the week," _says the old woman_. "It's +Thursday," said I. "Thank you," _says the old man, and goes on_)--I +heard them thick all about the house--but what they were saying I +couldn't know. + + +_The Old Woman:_ + +It was my uncle that was away at nights and knew the time his horse +fell in the ditch, and he out at sea. And another day he was working +at the bridge and he said, "Before this day is over, a man will be +killed here." And so it happened, and a man was killed there before +12 o'clock. He was in here one day with me, and I said, "I don't give +in to you being away and such things." And he says: "Um, Um, Um," +three times, and then he says, "May your own living be long." We had +a horse, the grandest from this to Galway, had a foal when in this +place--and before long, both horse and foal died. And I often can +hear them galloping round the house, both horse and foal. And I not +the only one, but many in the village even hear them too. + + +_Young Mrs. Phelan:_ + +Often I saw a light in the wood at Derreen, above Ballyturn. It would +rise high over the trees going round and round. I'd see it maybe for +fifteen minutes at a time, and then it would fall like a lamp. + + * * * * * + +In the month of May is their chief time for changing, and it's then +there's blowing away of hay and such things and great disturbance. + + +_A Mayo Man:_ + +One time I was led astray in a town, in Golden Hill in Staffordshire. I +was in the streets and I didn't know what way to turn all of a sudden, +and every street looked like a wood before me, and so I went on until +I met some man I knew, and I asked him where I was, and I went in, and +stayed drinking with the others till 10 o'clock and I went home sober. + +I saw the white rabbit too at Golden Hill. (_One of the other men +puts in_, "There is always a white rabbit seen there, that turns into +a woman before any misfortune happens, such as an accident.") I was +walking along the road, and it ran beside me, and then I saw a woman in +white before me on the road, and when I got to her, she was gone. And +that evening a woman in a house near by fell dead on her own doorstep. + +Another time near this, I was passing the barn where Johnny Rafferty +the carpenter and his son used to be working, but it was shut and +locked and no one in it. But when I came near it, I felt as if I was +walking on wood, and my hair stood up on my head, and I heard the +noise of tools, and hammering and sawing in it. + + +_Pete Heffernan:_ + +Old Doran told me that he was near Castle Hacket one time and saw +them having a fair, buying and selling for all the world like +ourselves, common people. But you or I or fifty others might have +been there like him and not seen them. It's only them that are born +at midnight that has the second sight. + +Fallen angels, they say they are. And they'd do more harm than what +they do but for the hope they have that some day they may get to +heaven. Very small they are, and go into one another so that what you +see might only be a sort of a little bundle. But to leave a couple of +cold potatoes about at night one should always do it, and to sweep +the hearth clean. Who knows when they might want to come in and warm +themselves. + +Not to keep the water you wash your feet in in the house at night, +not to throw it out of the door where it might go over them, but to +take it a bit away from the house, and if by any means you can, to +keep a bit of light burning at night, if you mind these three things +you'll never be troubled with them. + +That woman of mine was going to Mass one day early and she met a small +little man, and him with a book in his hand. "Where are you going?" +says he. "To the chapel beyond," says she. "Well," says he, "you'd +better take care not to be coming out at this hour and disturbing +people," says he. And when she got into the chapel she saw him no more. + + +_An Old Woman with Oysters from Tyrone:_ + +Oh, I wouldn't believe in the faeries, but it's no harm to believe in +fallen angels! + + +_Mrs. Day:_ + +My own sons are all for education and read all books and they +wouldn't believe now in the stories the old people used to tell. But +I know one Finnegan and his wife that went to Esserkelly churchyard +to cry over her brother that was dead. And all of a sudden there +came a pelt of a stone against the wall of the old church and no one +there. And they never went again, and they had no business to be +crying him and it not a funeral. + +Francis, my son that's away now, he was out one morning before the +daybreak to look at a white heifer in the field. And there he saw a +little old woman, and she in a red cloak--crying, crying, crying. But +he wouldn't have seen that if he had kept to natural hours. + +There were three girls near your place, and they went out one time +to gather cow-dung for firing. And they were sitting beside a small +little hill, and while they were there, they heard a noise of churning, +churning, in the ground beneath them. And as they listened, all of a +minute, there was a naggin of milk standing beside them. And the girl +that saw it first said, "I'll not drink of it lest they might get power +over me." But the other girl said, "I'll bring it home and drink it." +And she began to ridicule them. And because of she ridiculing them and +not believing in them, that night in bed she was severely beaten so +that she wasn't the better of it for a long time. + + * * * * * + +Often they'll upset a cart in the middle of the road, when there's no +stone nor anything to upset it. And my father told me that sometimes +after he had made the hay up into cocks, and on a day without a +breath of wind, they'd find it all in the next field lying in wisps. +One time too the cart he was driving went over a leprechaun--and the +old woman in the cart had like to faint. + + +_Mr. Hosty of Slieve Echtge:_ + +I never would have believed the shadow of a soul could have power, +till that hurling match I saw that I told you about. + + * * * * * + +It was in the old time it happened, that there was war in heaven. He +that was called the brightest of the angels raised himself up against +God. And when they were all to be thrown out, St. Michael spoke up +for them for he saw that when the heavens were weeded out they'd be +left without company. So they were stopped in the falling, in the air +and in the earth and in the sea. And they are about us sure enough, +and whenever they'll be saved I don't know, but it is not for us to +say what God will do in the end. + +I often heard that our winter is their summer--sure they must have +some time for setting their potatoes and their oats. But I remember a +very old man used to say when he saw the potatoes black, that it was +to them they were gone. "Sure" he used to say, "the other world must +have its way of living as well as ourselves." + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +Dolan I was talking to the other day, and I asked him if faeries used +not to be there. And he said, "They're in it yet. There where you're +standing, they were singing and dancing a few nights ago. And the +same evening I saw two women down by the lake, and I thought it was +the ladies from the house gone out for a walk, but when I came near, +it was two strange women I saw, sitting there by the lake, and their +wings came, and they vanished into the air." + + +_John Phelan:_ + +I was cutting trees in Inchy one time. And at 8 o'clock one morning +when I got there, I saw a girl picking nuts with her hair hanging +down over her shoulders, brown hair, and she had a good clean face +and was tall and nothing on her head, and her dress was no way gaudy, +but simple. And when she felt me coming, she gathered herself up and +was gone as if the earth had swallowed her up. And I followed her +and looked for her, but I never could see her again from that day to +this, never again. + + +_Mary Shannon:_ + +There was a herd's house near Loughrea that had a bad name; and a +strange woman came in one time and told the woman of the house that +she must never throw dirty water out of the back-door. "For," said +she, "if you had clean linen hanging there on a line before the fire, +how would you like any one to come in and to throw dirty water over +it?" And she bid her leave food always on the dresser. "For," said +she, "wherever you leave it we'll be able to find it." And she told +how they often went into Loughrea to buy things, and provisions, +and would look like any other person, and never be known, for they +can make themselves visible or invisible as they like. You might +be talking to one of them and never know she was different from +another. At our place there used to be a good many of these people +about, these Ingentry women or women from the North we sometimes call +them. There was one came into the house one day and told my mother +she didn't get all her butter in the milk. And she told her the +servant-girl was stealing and hiding some of it, for in these days +servants were cheap and we kept a couple; you'd get them for about +five shillings a quarter. And my mother went to look, and then she +went out of the house, and went off in a minute in a blast. And the +husband that was coming into the house, he never saw her at all, and +she going out of the door. + +Sunset is a bad hour, and just before sunrise in the morning, and +about 12 o'clock in the day, it's best not to be too busy or going +about too much. + + +_An Aran Man:_ + +Sometimes they travel like a cloud, or like a storm. One day I was +setting out the manure in my own garden and they came and rolled it +in a heap and tossed it over the wall, and carried it out to sea +beyond the lighthouse. + + +_Mr. Finnerty:_ + +People say two days of the week, they name two days. Some say Thursday, +and some say whatever day it is, and the day before it, and then they +can't be heard. In the village beyond, there were a good many people in +a house one night, and lights in it, and talking, and of a sudden some +one opened the door--and there outside and round the house _they_ were +listening to them--and when the door was open they were all seen, and +made off as thick as crows to the forth near the Burren hills. + + * * * * * + +There was one Ward was walking one night near Castle Taylor, and in +that big field that's near the corner where Burke was murdered he saw +a big fire, and a lot of people round about it, and among them was a +girl he used to know that had died. + + * * * * * + +Last week in that field beyond there, the hay was all taken up, and +turned into the next field in wisps. + + * * * * * + +You must put the potatoes out for them before they are put on the +table, for they would not touch them if they had been touched by +common persons. + + * * * * * + +And I saw Horan that had the orchard here bought run to our house in +the middle of the night naked with nothing on but his trousers, where +he was after being beat out of the house in the kitchen garden. +Every night when he was going to bed there did a knocking come in the +loft over his head, but he gave no attention to it. But a great storm +came and a great lot of the apples was blown down and he gathered +them up and filled the loft with them, thinking when he showed them +to get compensation. And that is the night he was beat out of bed. +And John Phelan knows well what things used to be in that house. + + +_John Creevy:_ + +My father? Yes indeed he saw many things, and I tell you a thing he +told me, and there's no doubt in the earthly world about it. It was +when they lived at Inchy they came over here one time for to settle +a marriage for Murty Delvin's aunt. And when they had the business +settled, they were going home again at dead of night. And a man was +after getting married that day, one Delane from beyond Kilmacduagh, +and the drag was after passing the road with him and his party going +home. And all of a minute the road was filled with men on horses +riding along, so that my father had to take shelter in Delane's +big haggard by the roadside. And he heard the horsemen calling on +Delane's name. And twenty-one days after, Delane lay dead. + +There's no doubt at all about the truth of that, and they were no +riders belonging to this world that were on those horses. + + +_Thomas Brown:_ + +There was a woman walking in the road that had a young child at home, +and she met a very old man, having a baby in his arms. And he asked +would she give it a drop of breast-milk. So she did, and gave it a +drink. And the old man said: "It's well for you that you did that, for +you saved your cow by it. But tomorrow look over the wall into the +fields of the rich man that lives beyond the boundary, and you'll see +that one of his was taken in the place of yours." And so it happened. + +In the old times there used to be many stories of such things, half +the world seemed to be on the _other side_. + +I used not to believe in them myself, until one night I heard them +hurling. I was coming home from town with Jamsie Flann; we were not +drunk but we were hearty. Coming along the road beyond we heard them +hurling in the field beside us. We could see nothing but we'd hear +them hit the ball, and it fly past us like the lightning, so quick, +and when they hit the goal, we heard a moan--"Oh! ah!"--that was +all. But after we went a little way we sat down by a little hill to +rest, and there we heard a thousand voices talking. What they said, +we couldn't understand, or the language, but we knew that it was one +side triumphing over the other. + + * * * * * + +But the nights are queer--surely they are queer by sea or by land. +There was a friend of mine told me he was out visiting one night, +and coming home across the fields he came into a great crowd of them. +They did him no harm, and among them he saw a great many he knew, +that were dead, five or six out of our own village. And he was in his +bed for two months after that, and he told the priest of it. He said +he couldn't understand the talk, it was like the hissing of geese, +and there was one very big man, that seemed the master of them, and +his talk was like you'll hear in a barrel when it's being rolled. + +There's a hill, Cruach-na-Sheogue down by the sea, and many have seen +them there dancing in the moonlight. + +There was a man told me he was passing near it one night, and the +walls on each side of the road were all covered with people sitting +on them, and he walked between, and they said nothing to him. And he +knew many among them that were dead before that. Is it only the young +go there? Ah, how do we know what use they may have for the old as +well as for the young? + +There are but few in these days that die right. The priests know +about this more than we do, but they don't like to be talking of +_them_ because they might be too big in our minds. + + * * * * * + +They are just the same in America as they are here, and my sister +that came home told me they were, and the women that do cures, just +like the woman at Clifden, or that woman you know of. + +There was one she went to out there, and when you'd come in to ask a +cure she'd be lulled into a sleep, and when she woke she'd give the +cure. _Away_ she was while the sleep lasted. + + +_The Spinning Woman:_ + +No, I never seen them myself, and I born and bred in the same village +as Michael Barrett. But the old woman that lives with me, she does +be telling me that before she came to this part she was going home +one night, where she was tending a girl that was sick, and she had to +cross a hill forth. And when she came to it, she saw a man on a white +horse, and he got to the house before her, and the horse stopped at +the back-door. And when she got there and went in, sure enough the +girl was gone. + +I never saw anything myself, but one night I was passing the boreen +near Kinvara, and a tall man with a tall hat and a long coat came out +of it. He didn't follow me, but he looked at me for a while, and then +he went away. + + * * * * * + +And one time I saw the leprechaun. It's when I was a young woman, +and there was black frieze wanting at Ballylee, and in those days +they all thought there could no black frieze be spun without sending +for me. So I was coming home late in the evening, and there I saw +him sitting by the side of the road, in a hollow between two ridges. +He was very small, about the height of my knee, and wearing a red +jacket, and he went out of that so soon as he saw me. I knew nothing +about him at that time. The boys say if I'd got a hold of his purse +I'd be rich for ever. And they say he should have been making boots; +but he was more in dread of me than I of him, and had his instruments +gathered up and away with him in one second. + + * * * * * + +There used to be a lot of things seen, but someway the young people +go abroad less at night, and I'm thinking the souls of some of +_those_ may be delivered by this time. + + * * * * * + +There was a boy looked out of the door, and he saw a woman milking +the cow. But after, when he went to milk her, he found as much milk +as ever there was. + + +_Mrs. Phelan:_ + +There was a woman at Kilbecanty was out one evening and she saw a +woman dressed in white come after her, and when she looked again she +had disappeared into a hole in the wall. Small she must have grown +to get into that. And for eleven days after that, she saw the same +appearance, and after eleven days she died. + + * * * * * + +There was another woman lived at Kilbecanty, just beside the +churchyard, you can see the house yet. And one day she found a plate +of food put in at the door, the best of food, meat and other things. +So she eat it and the next day the same thing happened. And she told +a neighbouring woman about it, and she left her door open, and a +plate of food was left in to her that night. But when she saw it she +was afraid to eat it, but took it and threw it out. And the next day +she died. But the woman that eat the food, nothing happened to her. + + * * * * * + +There was one Halloran took that farm on the road beyond one time, +but he locked the house up, not meaning to go and live in it yet a +while, and he kept the key in his pocket. But one night late he was +coming by and he saw a light in the window and looked in, and he saw +a woman sitting by a fire she was after lighting. So he ran away and +never went to live in the house after. + +One night myself coming back from Kelly's I saw a man by the side of +the road, and I knew him to be one Cuniff that had died a year before. + +There were two men stealing apples in a garden, and when they tried +to get out there was a soldier at the door with a sword in his hand. +And at the door there he was still before them; so they had to leave +the two bags of apples behind. + + +_W. Sullivan:_ + +One night myself I was driving the jennet I had at that time to +Cappagh and I went past a place one Halvey had bought and I saw a man +having a white front to his shirt standing by the wall, and I said +to myself, "Halvey is minding this place well," and I went on, and I +saw the man following me, and the jennet let a roar and kicked at me, +and at that time we passed a stile, and I saw him no more. + + +_Mrs. Barrett:_ + +I don't know did old Michael see anything or was it in his head. But +James, the brother that died, told me one time that he was crossing +the way beyond from Brennan's, where the stones are. And there he saw +a hurling going on. He never saw a field so full before. And he stood +and watched them and wasn't a bit frightened, but the dog that was +with him shrank between his legs and stopped there. + + * * * * * + +And my father told me that one time he was stopping with my uncle, up +there near Mrs. Quaid's, in a house that's pulled down since. And he +woke up and saw the night so bright that he went out. And there he +saw a hurling going on, and they had boots like soldiers and were all +shining with the brightness of the night. + +And Micky Smith, God rest his soul, saw them at midday passing in the +air above Cahir, as thick as birds. + + +_A Gate-keeper:_ + +Niland that met the coach that time and saw them other times, he told +me that there were two sets among them. The one handsome and tall +and like the gentry; the others more like ourselves, he said, and +short and wide, and the body starting out in front, and wide belts +about their waists. Only the women he saw, and they were wearing +white caps with borders, and their hair in curls over the forehead +and check aprons and plaid shawls. They are the spiteful ones that +would do you a mischief, and others that are like the gentry would do +nothing but to laugh and criticize you. + +One night myself I was outside Loughrea on the road, about 1 o'clock +in the morning and the moon was shining. And I saw a lady, a true lady +she was, dressed in a sort of a ball dress, white and short in the +skirt, and off the shoulders. And she had long stockings and dancing +shoes with short uppers. And she had a long thin face, and a cap on her +head with frills, and every one of the frills was the breadth of my six +fingers. As to flowers or such things, I didn't notice, for I was more +fixed in looking at the cap. I suppose they wore them at balls in some +ancient times. I followed her a bit, and then she crossed the road to +Johnny Flanigan the joiner's house, that had a gate with piers. And I +went across after her, to have a better view, and when she got to the +pier she shrank into it and there was nothing left. + + * * * * * + +Johnny Kelly that lives in Loughrea was over here one evening, where +he had some cattle on the land at Coole. And where the river goes +away, he saw two ladies sitting, ladies he thought them to be, and +they had long dresses. And they rose up and went on to that hole +where the water is and the trees. And there all of a sudden they rose +a storm and went up in it, with a sort of a roar or a cry and passed +away through the air. + +And I was in the house with my wife and I heard the cry, and I thought +it might be some drunken man going home, and it about 10 o'clock in the +evening. And I went to the door, and presently Kelly came in and you'd +have thought him a drunken man, walking and shaking as he did with the +fright he got seeing them going off away in the storm. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +I went over to see Kate Cloran the other day, knowing that she had +seen some of these things. And she told me that she was led astray +by them one time--a great lot of them, they were dressed in white +blouses and black skirts and some of them had crimson mantles, but +none of them had any covering on their head, and they had all golden +hair and were more beautiful than any one she had ever seen. + +And one night she met the coach and four, and it was full of ladies, +letting the window up and down and laughing out at her. They had +golden hair, or it looked so with the lights. They were dressed in +white, and there were bunches of flowers about the horses' heads. +Roses, chiefly, some pink and some blue. The coachmen were strange +looking, you could not say if they were men or women--and their +clothes were more like country clothes. They kept their heads down +that she could not see their faces, but those in the carriage had +long faces, and thin, and long noses. + + +_Mike Martin:_ + +They are of the same size as we are. People only call them diminutive +because they are made so when they're sent on certain errands. + +There was a man of Ardrahan used to see many things. But he lost his +eyesight after. It often happens that those that see these things +lose their earthly sight. + +The coach and four is seen by many. It appears in different forms, but +there is always the same woman in it. Handsome I believe she is, and +white; and there she will always be seen till the end of the world. + +It's best to be neighbourly with them anyway--best to be neighbourly. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman woke one night and she saw two women by the fire, and +they came over and tried to take away her baby. But she held him and +she nudged her husband with her arm, but he was fast asleep. And they +tried him again, and all she could do wouldn't waken the husband, but +still she had the baby tight, and she called out a curse in the devil's +name. So then they went away, for they don't like cursing. + +One night coming home from Madden's where I was making frames with him, +I began to tremble and to shake, but I could see nothing. And at night +there came a knocking at the window, and the dog I had that would fight +any dog in Ireland began to shrink to the wall and wouldn't come out. +And I looked out the door and saw him. Little clothes he had on, but on +his head a quarter cap, and a sort of a bawneen about him. And I would +have followed him, but the rest wouldn't let me. + + * * * * * + +Another time I was crossing over the stile behind Kiltartan chapel into +Coole, and others along with me. And a great blast of wind came, and +two trees were bent and broken and fell into the river, and the splash +of water out of it went up to the skies. And those that were with me +saw many figures, but myself I only saw one, sitting there by the bank +where the trees fell, dark clothes he had, and he was headless. + + * * * * * + +They can take all shapes and it's said a pig is the worst, but I +believe if you take no notice of them and bless yourself as they +pass, they'll do you no harm at all. + +There were two men walking by a forth that's beyond Cloon, and one of +them must have been in it at some time, for he told the other to look +through his arm, and when he looked he could see thousands of people +about walking and driving, and ladies and gentry among them. + +There was a man in Cloon and he was very religious and very devout +and he didn't believe in anything. But one day he was at the +Punch-bowl out on the Ennis road, and there he saw two coaches coming +through the thick wood and they full of people and of ladies, and +they went in to the bushes on the other side. And since he saw that +he'd swear to _them_ being there. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman living over near Tirneevan, and one morning three +men came galloping up on three horses, and they stopped at the door +and tied up the horses and walked in, and they strangers. And the +woman put the tongs over the cradle where the baby was sleeping, for +that is a _pishogue_. And when they saw the tongs, they looked at one +another and laughed, but they did him no harm, but pulled out the +table and sat down and played cards for a while, and went away again. + + * * * * * + +But if they're well treated, and if you know how to humour them, +they're the best of neighbours. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman seen not long ago, all in white, and she standing +in a stream washing her feet. But you need never be afraid of +anything that's white. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman I know was away sometimes and used to go into a +forth among them. She told me about it, and she said there were +big and small among them as there are here. And they wore caps like +hurling caps, all striped with blue and different colours, and their +dress striped the same way. + + +_A Seaside Man:_ + +There was a girl below in Spiddal was coming home from Galway with +her father, and just at the bridge below she saw the coach and four. +Like a van it was, with horses, and full of gentlemen. And she tried +to make her father see it, and he couldn't. And it passed along the +road, and then turned down into a field, over the stones, and it +got to the strand and ran along it for a while, and what became of +it then I don't know. My father told me that one night he came from +a wake, and in the field beyond, that was all a flag then, but the +man that owns it has it covered with earth now, he saw about twelve +ladies all in white, and they dancing round and round and a fiddler +or a flute-player or whatever he was, in the middle. And he thought +they were some ladies from Spiddal, and called out to them that it +was late to be out dancing. And he turned to open the door of the +house, and while he was turning they were gone. + + * * * * * + +There was a man walking one night and he felt a woman come and walk +behind him, and she all in white. And the two of them walked on till +sunrise, and then a cock crowed, and the man said, "There's the cock +crowing." And she said, "That's only a weak cock of the summer." And +soon after another cock crowed, and he asked did she hear it, and she +said, "That's but a poor cock of the harvest." And the third time a +cock crowed and when the man asked her she said, "That's a cock of +March. And you're as wise as the man that doesn't tell Friday's dream +on Saturday." For if you dream on a Friday, you must never tell the +dream of a Saturday. + + +_Mrs. Swift:_ + +My mother told me, and she wouldn't tell a lie, that one time she +went to a wake at Ardrahan. And about 12 o'clock, the night being +hot, she and her sister went out to the back of the house. And there +they saw a lot of people running as hard as they could to the house, +and knocking down the walls as they came to them, for there were a +lot of small stones. And she said to her sister, "These must be all +the first cousins coming, and there won't be room to sit in the house +when they come in." So they hurried back. But no one ever came in or +came to the door at all. + + * * * * * + +They are said to be outside the door there often. And some see them +hurling, small they are then, and with grey coats and blue caps. And +the car-driver told me--he wouldn't tell a lie--that he often passed +them walking like soldiers through the hollow beyond. + + +_An Old Man on Slieve Echtge:_ + +One night I was walking on that mountain beyond, and a little +lad with me, Martin Lehane, and we came in sight of the lake of +Dairecaol. And in the middle of the lake I saw what was like the +shadow of a tall fir tree, and while I was looking it grew to be like +the mast of a boat. And then ropes and rigging came at the sides and +I saw that it was a ship; and the boy that was with me, he began to +laugh. Then I could see another boat, and then more and more till the +lake was covered with them, and they moving from one side to another. +So we watched for a while, and then we went away and left them there. + + +_Mrs. Guinan:_ + +It's only a few days ago, I was coming through the field between this +and the boreen, and I saw a man standing, a countryman you'd say he +was. And when I got near him, all at once he was gone, and when I +told Mrs. Raftery in the next house, she said she didn't wonder at +that, for it's not very long ago she saw what seemed to be the same +man, and he vanished in the same way. + + * * * * * + +There's a woman living up that road beyond, is married to a man of +the Matthews, and last year she told me that a strange woman came +into her house, and asked had she good potatoes. And she said she +had. And the woman said: "You have them this year, but we'll have +them next year." And she said: "When you go out of the house, it's +your enemy you'll see standing outside," that was her near neighbour +and was her worst enemy. + + * * * * * + +They'll often come in the night, and bring away the food. I wouldn't +touch any food that had been lying about in the night, you wouldn't +know what might have happened it. And my mother often told me, best +not eat it, for the food that's cooked at night and left till the +morning, they will have left none of the strength in it. + + * * * * * + +There was a hurling seen in a field near our house, little men they +were in green with red caps, and a sergeant of police and his men +that were going by stopped to look at them, but Johnny Roland a boy I +know, was standing in the middle of them all the time in the field, +and never saw anything at all. + + +_A North Galway Woman:_ + +There was a man living over at Caramina, beyond Moyne, Dick Regan +was his name, and one night he was walking over a little hill near +that place. And when he got to the top of it, he found it like a +fair green with all the people that were in it, and they buying and +selling just like ourselves. And they did him no harm, but they put +a basket of cakes into his hand and kept him selling them all the +night. And when he got home, he told the story. And the neighbours +when they heard it gave him the name of the cakes and to the day of +his death he was called nothing but Richard Crackers. + + * * * * * + +There was a smith, and a man called on him late one evening, and asked +him to shoe a horse for him and so he did. And then he offered him pay +but he would take none. And the man took him out behind the house, and +there were three hundred horses with riders on them, and a hundred +without, and he said, "We want riders for those," and they went on. + + +_An Aran Man:_ + +A man that came over here from Connemara named Costello told me that +one night he was making poteen, and a man on a white horse came up, +and the horse put his head into the place they were making it, and +then they rode away again. So he put a bottle of the whiskey outside +the place, and in a little time he went and looked and it was empty. +And then he put another bottle out, and in a little time he looked +again, and it was empty. And then he put a third, but when he looked +the whiskey in it had not been stirred. And he told me he never did +so much with it or made so much profit as he did in that year. + + * * * * * + +They are everywhere. Tom Deruane saw them down under the rocks +hurling and they were all wearing black caps. And sometimes you'd +see them coming on the sea, just like a barrel on the top of the +water, and when they'd get near you, no matter how calm the day, +you'd have a hurricane about you. That is when they are taking their +diversions. And one evening late I was down with the wife burning +kelp on the rocks, where we had a little kiln made. And we heard a +talking and a whispering about us on the rocks, and my wife thought +it was the child that the sister was bringing down to her, and she +said, "God bless the son!" but no one came, and the talking went on +again, and she got uneasy, and at last we left the kelp and came +home; and we weren't the first that had to leave it for what they +heard in that place. + +Fallen angels they are said to be. God threw a third part of them +into Hell with Lucifer, and it was Michael that interceded for the +rest, and then a third part was cast into the air and a third on the +land and the sea. And here they are all about us as thick as grass. + + +_A Needlewoman from North Galway Working at Coole:_ + +Myself and Anne (one of the maids) went up the middle avenue after +dark last night and we got a fright, seeing what we thought to be +faeries. They were men dressed in black clothes like evening clothes, +wearing white ruffles round their necks and high black hats without +brims. Two walked in front and one behind, and they seemed to walk +or march stiff like as if there was no bend in the leg. They held +something in each hand and they stopped before the gate pier where +there is a sort of cross in white like paint, then they disappeared +and we turned and ran. + +(_When they were going up to bed, I am told, "Anne suddenly stopped +under the picture of Mary Queen of Scots and called out, 'That is like +the frill they wore' and sank down on the stairs in a kind of faint."_) + + * * * * * + +One time at home I was out about dusk, and presently I heard a +creaking, and a priest walked by reading his prayers. But when he +came close I saw it was Father Ryan that was dead some time before. +And I ran in and told a woman, who used to help in milking, what I +had seen, and she said, "If it's Father Ryan you saw I don't wonder, +for I saw him myself at the back of the door there only a week ago." + + * * * * * + +There was a boy was making a wall near Cruachmaa and a lot of _them_ +came and helped him, and he saw many neighbours that were dead among +them. And when they had the wall near built another troop of them +came running and knocked it down. And the boy died not long after. + + +_A Young Man:_ + +My father told me that he was down one time at the north shore +gathering wrack, and he saw a man before him that was gathering +wrack too and stooping down. He had a black waistcoat on him and the +rest of his clothes were flannel just like the people of this island. +And when my father drew near him, he stooped himself down behind a +stone; and when he looked there, there was no sight or mind of him. + +One time myself when I was a little chap, about the size of Michael +there, I was out in the fields, and I saw a woman standing on the top +of a wall, and she having a child in her hand. She had a long black +coat about her. And then she got down and crossed over the field, and +it seemed to me all the time that she was only about so high (three +feet) and that there was only about two feet between her and the +ground as she walked, and the child always along with her. And then +she passed over another wall and was gone. + + +_The Spinning Woman:_ + +There was a new-married woman, and the husband was going out and he +gave her wool to spin and to have ready for him. And she couldn't +know what in the world to do, for she never learned to spin. And she +was there sitting at it and a little man came in, and when she told +him about it he said he'd bring it away and spin it for her and bring +it back again. And she asked for his name, but he wouldn't tell that. +And soon after there was a ragman going the road and he saw a hole +and he looked down and there he saw the little man, and he stirring +a pot of stirabout with one hand and spinning with the other hand, +and he was singing while he stirred: "---- is my name (that's his +name in Irish but I won't tell you the meaning of it) and she doesn't +know it, and so I'll bring her along with me." So the ragman went in +and came to the young woman's house, and told her what the man was +singing. So when he came with the wool she called him by his name, +and he threw the wool down and went away; for he had no power over +her when she knew his name. + + +_Mary Glynn of Slieve Echtge:_ + +That's it, that's it, _the other class_ of people don't like us to be +going out late, we might be in their way, unless it's for a case, or +a thing that can't be helped. And this is Monday, no, Mrs. Deruane, +not Tuesday--we'll say it's Monday. It's at night they're seen, God +bless them, and their music is heard, God bless them, the finest +music you ever heard, like all the fifers of the world and all the +instruments, and all the tunes of the world. There was one of those +boys that go about from house to house on the morning of the new +year, to get a bit of bread or a cup of tea or anything you'll have +ready for him, and he told us that he was coming down the hill near +us, and he had the full of his arm of bits of bread, and he heard the +music, for it was but dawn, and he was frightened and ran and lost +the bread. I heard it sometimes myself and there's no music in the +world like it, but it's not all can hear it. Round the hill it comes, +and you going in at the door. And they are quiet neighbours if you +treat them well. God bless them and bring them all to heaven! + +For they were in heaven once, and heaven was the first place there +was war, and they were all to be done away with, and it was St. Peter +asked the Saviour to help them. So he turned His hand like this, and +the sky and the earth were full of them, and they are in every place, +and you know that better than I do because you read books. + + +_Mary Glynn and Mary Irwin:_ + +One night there were bonavs in the house,--God bless the hearers +and the place it's told in--God bless all we see and those we don't +see!--And there was a man coming to rise dung in the potato field in +the morning, and so, late at night, Mary Glynn was making stirabout +and a cake to have ready for breakfast. + +Mary Irwin's brother was asleep within on the bed. And there came the +sound of the grandest music you ever heard from beyond the stream, +and it stopped here. And Micky awoke in the bed, and was afraid and +said, "Shut up the door and quench the light," and so we did. It's +likely they wanted to come into the house, and they wouldn't when +they saw us up and the lights about. But one time when there were +potatoes in the loft, Mary Irwin and her brothers were well pelted +with them when they sat down to their supper. And Mary Glynn got a +blow on the side of her face from them one night in the bed. And they +have the hope of Heaven, and God grant it to them. And one day there +was a priest and his servant riding along the road, and there was a +hurling of _them_ going on in the field. And a man of them came and +stood on the road and said to the priest, "Tell me this, for you know +it, have we a chance of Heaven?" "You have not," said the priest +(_"God forgive him," says Mary Glynn--"a priest to say that"_); and +the man that was of them said, "Put your fingers in your ears till +you have travelled two miles of the road; for when I go back and tell +what you are after telling me to the rest, the crying and the bawling +and the roaring will be so great that if you hear it you'll never +hear a noise again in this world." So they put their fingers then in +their ears, but after a while the servant said to the priest, "Let me +take out my fingers now." And the priest said, "Do not." And then the +servant said again, "I think I might take one finger out." And the +priest said, "As you are so persevering you may take it out." So he +did, and the noise of the crying and the roaring and the bawling was +so great that he never had the use of that ear again. + + +_Callan of Slieve Echtge:_ + +We know they are in it, for Father Hobbs that was our parish priest +saw them himself one time there was a station here, and when some +said they were not in it, he said, "I saw them in a field myself, more +people than ever I saw at twenty fairs." It was St. Peter spoke for +them, at the time of the war, when the Saviour was casting them out; +he said to Him not to empty the heavens. And every Monday morning they +think the Day of Judgment may be coming, and that they will see Heaven. + + * * * * * + +There's never a funeral they are not at, walking after the other +people. And you can see them if you know the way, that is to take a +green rush and to twist it into a ring, and to look through it. But +if you do, you'll never have a stim of sight in the eye again, and +that's why we don't like to do it. + +Resting they do be in the daytime, and going about in the night. + + +_Old Hayden:_ + +One time I was coming home from a fair and it was late in the night +and it was dark and I didn't know was I on the right road. And I saw +a cabin in a field with a light in it, and I went and knocked at the +door and a man opened the door and let me in, and he said, "Have you +any strange news?" and I said, "I have not," and he said, "There is +no place for you here," and he put me out again. For that was a faery +hill, and when they'll ask have you strange news, and you'll say you +have not, they'll do nothing for you. So I went back in the field, +and there were men carrying a coffin, and they said, "Give us a hand +with this." And I put my hand to it to help them to lift it. And as we +walked on we came to a house, and we went in and there was a fire on +the hearth, and they took the body out of the coffin and put it before +the fire, and they said, "Now let you keep turning it." So I sat there +and turned it, and then they took it up and we went on till we came +to another house and the same thing happened there, and they put me +to turn the body. And when we went out from there they all vanished, +and there was the cabin before me again with the light in it. And when +the man came to the door and asked me, "Is there any strange news?" I +said, "There is indeed," and told him all that had happened. And then I +looked round, and I was within a few yards of my own house. + + +_Mrs. Keely:_ + +When you see a blast of wind, and it comes sudden and carries the +dust with it, you should say, "God bless them," and throw something +after them. How do we know but one of our own may be in it? Half of +the world is with them. + +We see them often going about up and down the hill, Jack O'Lanthorn +we call them. They are not the size of your two hands. They would not +do you much harm, but to lead you astray. + + +_The Spinning Woman:_ + +I remember one day a strange woman coming in and sitting down +there--very clever looking she was, and she had a good suit of +clothes. And I bid her rest herself and I'd give her a cup of tea, +and she said, "I travelled far today and you're the first that +offered me that." And when she had it taken she said, "If I had a +bit of tobacco, and a bit of bacon for my dinner, I'd be all right." +And I made a sign to the woman I have, under the table, to give her +a bit of tobacco. So she got it for her and she said, "I shouldn't +take it, and this the second time today you divided it." And that was +true, for a neighbouring boy had come in in the morning and asked +for a loan of a bit, and she had cut it for him. And I said, "Go to +that house beyond and the woman will give you a bit of bacon"; and +she said, "I won't go to that woman, for it was she told you that one +of the neighbours was bringing away her butter from her," and so she +had, sure enough. And then she said, she must be in Cruachmaa that +night, and she went away and I never saw her again. + + +_A Mayo Man:_ + +One time I was working in England near Warrington, and I was walking +the road alone at night, and I saw a woman under an umbrella in the +mist and I said, "Is it a living thing you are or dead?" And she +vanished on the minute. And I sat down by the hedge for a while, and +I heard feet walking, walking, up and down inside the hedge, and I +am sure they were the same thing. And then two strange men passed +me, dressed in working clothes, but talking gibberish that I could +not understand, and I know that they were no right men. So I went in +towards the town and I met a policeman, and he took up his lamp and +made it shine in my face, for they carry a lamp in their belt and +they will take the measurement of your face with it, the same as by +daylight. And he said, "There never was a worse road for an Irishman +to walk than this one." It was maybe because of the land and the +rough people of it he said that. + + +_A Gate-keeper:_ + +My sister and her husband were driving on the Kinvara road one day, +and they saw a carriage coming behind them, and it with bright lamps +about it. And they drew the car to one side to let it pass. And when +it passed they saw it had no horses, and the men that were sitting up +where the drivers should be were headless. + +There's many has seen the coach, in different shapes, and some have +seen the riders going over the country. Drumconnor is a great place +for these things. The Sheehans that lived in the castle had no peace +or rest. Mrs. Sheehan looked up one day she was outside, and there +was some person standing at the window, and in a moment it was +headless. And they'd see them coming in at the gate, sometimes in +the shape of a woman, and a sort of a cape in the old fashion and a +handkerchief over the head, and sometimes in the shape of a cow or +such things. And noises they'd hear, and things being thrown about +in the house and packs of wool thrown down the stairs. + +And they had a good many children, and all the best and the +best-looking were taken. And at last they got the owner to build them +a house outside, and since that they have no trouble and have lost no +more children. + + +_Mrs. Madden:_ + +Rivers of Cloonmore one time when he was going to Loughrea, at the +fish-pond corner saw the coach. I didn't see it, but I saw him draw +aside and say to Leary not to let on they saw it. + +Meagher another time saw it, and it full of children all in white. + +But Egan beyond, he'd never let on to believe in such things and +would make them out to be nothing--he has such a gift of talking. + +And one time in the night I and my husband woke and heard the car +rattling by, and we thought it was St. George going to Ballylee +Castle, till we asked in the morning. Four horses it has and they +headless, and sure and certain we heard it pass that night. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +And I knew a boy met the coach and four one time. Drawn by four +horses it was, and lights about it and music, and the horses dressed +with flowers. And in it were sitting ladies, very clever-looking and +wild, and their hair twisted up on their heads, and when they went +on a little way they called to some man on the road to come with +them, and he refused, and they laughed at that and ridiculed him. + +I never saw the coach and four with these two eyes; but one time I +heard it pass by, about 11 o'clock at night, when I was sitting up +mending the sole of a boot. Surely it passed by, but I would not look +out to see what it was like. + +For there was a woman I knew was walking with a man one night from +Kilcolgan to Oranmore. And as they were sitting by the roadside they +heard the coach and four coming. And the man stood up and looked at +it, but he had no right to do that, he should have turned his head +away. And there were grand people in it, ladies, and flowers about +them. But no sooner did he look at it than he was struck blind and +never had his eyesight since. + +It's best not to look at them if they pass. And when you go along the +road and a storm comes in the calm and raises all the dust of the road +up in the air, turn your head another way, for it's they that are +passing. In the month of May is the most time they do be travelling. +And it's best not to go near water then, near a river or a lake. + +When my father was dying my mother was sitting with him, and she +heard a car pass the door, going light and quick, but when it passed +down the road again it went heavy, and that was the coach and four. + +There was Sully had the forge one time, and passing one night down +the road towards Nolan's gate, he saw a brake pass full of ladies +and gentlemen, as he thought, and he believed it to be St. George's +carriage. But at Nolan's gate, it turned and came up again, and +whatever he saw, when he got home he took to his bed for some days +with the fright he got. + +Kelly told me one time he saw the coach and four driving through the +field above Dillon's, with four horses. And wasn't that a strange +place for it to be driving through all the rocks? + + * * * * * + +There was boys used to be stealing apples from the orchard at Tyrone, +and something in white with a candle used to come after them, and then +change to something in red. So they went to a forth, and they went to +the side of it where the sun rises and there they made the mark of the +cross, but after all they had to leave going after the apples. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman down at Silver's the other night, and when I was +standing to go home she said, "I wonder you not to be afraid to go +through these fields." So I asked her did ever she see anything, +and she said, "I was with another girl one day near Inchy gate, +and we heard a voice, and we saw the coach and four coming and we +were afraid, and we went in under the bushes to hide ourselves. It +passed by us then, it was big and long, longer than a carriage you +could see now, and there were people in it, men and women dressed in +all colours, blue and red and pink and black, but I could not say +what had they on their heads. And there was a man on the box, not a +coachman but just a Christian, and he driving the four horses. + +"As to the horses, the two that were in front were grey, but the two +that were near the carriage were brown; it gave me a great fright at +the time." + + * * * * * + +There is no light about it in the daytime, but at night it is all +shining. + + * * * * * + +There was a girl saw it one time in the same way, drawn by horses +that were without heads. She got a great fright and she ran home. And +in the morning when she got up, she that had been a dark-haired girl +was as white as snow, and her hair grey. She is living yet and is up +to nearly a hundred years. + + +_Mrs. Roche:_ + +My father would never believe in anything till one time he was walking +near Seanmor with another smith, and he stopped and said "I can't go on +with all the people that's in that field." And my father said "I don't +see any people." And the other said "Put your right foot on my right +foot, and your hand on my right shoulder." And he did, and he saw a +great many in the field, but not so many as the other saw; fine men +and all dressed in white shirts, shining they were so white. He told us +about it when he came home, and he said he wished he didn't see them. +He was dead within the twelvemonth, and the man that was with him was +dead before that, not much time between them. + + + + + VIII + + BUTTER + + + + + VIII + + BUTTER + + +_I have been told:_ + +Butter, that's a thing that's very much meddled with. On the first +of May before sunrise it's very apt to be all taken away out of +the milk. And if ever you lend your churn or your dishes to your +neighbour, she'll be able to wish away your butter after that. There +was a woman used to lend a drop of milk to the woman that lived next +door, and one day she was churning, churning, and no butter came. And +at last some person came into the house and said, "It's hard for you +to have butter here, and if you want to know where it is, look into +the next house." So she went in and there was her neighbour letting +on to be churning in a quart bottle, and rolls of butter beside her. +So she made as if to choke her, and the woman run out into the garden +and picked some mullein leaves, and said, "Put these leaves in under +your churn, and you'll find your butter come back again." And so she +did. And she found it all in the churn after. + +To sprinkle a few drops of holy water about the churn, and to put a +coal of fire under it, that you should always do--as was always done +in the old time--and the _others_ will never touch it. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman in the town was churning, and when the butter came +she went out of the house to bring some water for to wash it and to +make it up. And there was a tailor sitting sewing on the table. And +the woman from next door came in and asked the loan of a coal of +fire, and that's a thing that's never refused from one poor person +to another in the morning. So he bid her take it. And presently she +came in again and said that the coal of fire had gone out, and asked +another, and this she did the third time. But the tailor knew well +what she was doing, and that every coal of fire she brought away, +there was a roll of butter out of the churn went with it. So whatever +prayers he said is not known, but he brought the butter all back +again, and into a can on the floor, and no hands ever touched it. So +when the woman of the house came back, "There's your butter in the +can," said he. And she wondered how it came out of the churn to be in +three rolls in the can. And then he told her all that had happened. + + * * * * * + +There was a man was churning, churning, every day and no butter would +come only froth. So some wise woman told him to go before sunrise to a +running stream and bring a bottle of the water from it. And so he did +before sunrise, and had to go near four miles to it. And from that day +he had rolls and rolls of butter coming every time he churned. + + * * * * * + +There was one Burke, he knew how to bring it back out of some old +Irish book that has disappeared since he died. There was a woman +a herd's wife lived beyond, and one time Burke had his own butter +taken, and he said he knew a way to find who had done it, and he +brought in the coulter of the plough and put it in the fire. And +when it began to get red hot, this woman came running, and fell on +her knees, for it was she did it. And after that he never lost his +butter again. But she took to her bed and was there for years until +her death. And she couldn't turn from one side to another without +some person to lift her. Her son is now living in Dublin, and is the +President of some Association. + + * * * * * + +If a woman in Aran is milking a cow and the milk is spilled, she says, +"There's some are the better for it," and I think it a very nice +thought, that they don't grudge it if there is any one it does good to. + + * * * * * + +There was a man, one Finnegan, had the knowledge how to bring it back. +And one time Lanigan that lives below at Kilgarvan had all his butter +taken and the milk nothing but froth rising to the top of the pail like +barm. So he went to Finnegan and he bid him get the coulter of the +plough, and a shoe of the wickedest horse that could be found and some +other thing, I forget what. So he brought in the coulter of the plough, +and his brother-in-law chanced to have a horse that was so wicked it +took three men to hold him, and no one could get on his back. So he +got a shoe off of him. But just at that time, Lanigan's wife went to +confession, and what did she do but to tell the priest what they were +doing to get back the butter. So the priest was mad with them, and bid +them to leave such things alone. And when Finnegan heard it he said, +"What call had she to go and confess that? Let her get back her own +butter for herself any more, for I'll do nothing to help her." + + * * * * * + +Grass makes a difference? So it may, but believe me that's not all. +I've been myself in the County Limerick, where the grass is that rich +you could grease your boots in it, and I heard them say there, one +quart of cream ought to bring one pound of butter. And it never does. +_And where does the rest go to?_ + + + + + + IX + + THE FOOL OF THE FORTH + + + + + IX + + THE FOOL OF THE FORTH + + +_We had, before our quest began, heard of faeries and banshees and +the walking dead; but neither Mr. Yeats in Sligo nor I in Galway had +ever heard of "the worst of them all," the Fool of the Forth, the +Amadán-na-Briona, he whose stroke is, as death, incurable. As to the +fool in this world, the pity for him is mingled with some awe, for who +knows what windows may have been opened to those who are under the +moon's spell, who do not give in to our limitations, are not "bound by +reason to the wheel." It is so in the East also, and I remember the +surprise of the European doctor who had charge of an hospital in one of +the Native States of India, because when the ruler of the State came +one day to visit it, he and his high officials, while generous and +pitiful to the bodily sick, bowed down and saluted a young lad who had +lost his wits, as if recognizing an emissary from a greater kingdom._ + +_In one of my little comedies "The Full Moon," the cracked woman +comforts her half-witted brother, saying of his commonsense critics, +"It is as dull as themselves you would be maybe, and the world to be +different and the moon to change its courses with the sun." Those +commonsense people of Cloon describe a fool as "one that is laughing +and mocking, and that would not have the same habits as yourself, or +to have no fear of things you would be in dread of, or to be using a +different class of food." May it not be the old story of the deaf man +thinking all his fellow guests had suddenly lost their reason when they +began to dance, and he alone could not hear the call of the pipes?_ + +_There is perhaps sometimes a confusion in the mind between things +seen and unseen, for an old woman telling me she had often heard of +the Amadán-na-Briona went on "And I knew one too, and he's not dead +a twelvemonth. It's at night he used to be away with them, and they +used to try to bring people away into the forth where he was._ + +"_Was he a fool in this world too? Well, he was mostly, and I think I +know another that's living now_." + + +I was told by: + +_A Woman Bringing Oysters from the Strand:_ + +There was a boy, one Rivers, got the touch last June, from the +Amadán-na-Briona, the Fool of the Forth, and for that touch there is no +cure. It came to the house in the night-time and knocked at the door, +and he was in bed and he did not rise to let it in. And it knocked +the second time, and even then, if he had answered it, he might have +escaped. But when it knocked the third time he fell back on the bed, +and one side of him as if dead, and his jaw fell on the pillow. + +He knew it was the Amadán-na-Briona did it, but he did not see +him--he only felt him. And he used to be running in every place after +that and trying to drown himself, and he was in great dread his +father would say he was mad, and bring him away to Ballinasloe. He +used to be asking me could his father do that to him. He was brought +to Ballinasloe after and he died there, and his body was brought back +and buried at Drumacoo. + + +_Mrs. Murphy:_ + +Cnoc-na-Briona is full of them, near Cappard. The Amadán-na-Briona is +the master of them all, I heard the priest say that. + +There was a man of the MacNeills passing by it one night coming back +from the bog, and they brought him in, and when he came out next +day--God save the mark--his face was turned to his poll. They sent +then to Father Jordan, and he turned it right again. The man said +they beat him while he was with them, and he saw there a great many +of his friends that were dead. + + +_The Spinning Woman:_ + +There are fools among them, and the fools we see like that Amadán at +Ballymore go away with them at night. And so do the women fools, that +we call _lenshees_, that means, an ape. + +It's true enough there is no cure for the stroke of the +Amadán-na-Briona. There was an old man I knew long ago, he had a +tape, and he could tell what disease you had with measuring you, and +he knew many things. And he said to me one time "What month of the +year is the worst?" And I said, "The month of May, of course." "It +is not," he said, "but the month of June, for that's the month that +the Amadán gives his stroke." They say he looks like any other man, +but he's _leathan_--wide--and not smart. I know a boy one time got a +great fright, for a lamb looked over the wall at him, and it with a +big beard on it, and he knew it was the Amadán, for it was the month +of June. And they brought him to that man I was telling you about, +that had the tape. And when he saw him he said "Send for the priest +and get a Mass said over him." And so they did, and what would you +say but he's living yet, and has a family. + + +_A Seaside Man:_ + +The stroke of the Fool is what there is no cure for; any one that +gets that is gone. The Amadán-na-Briona we call him. It's said they +are mostly good neighbours. I suppose the reason of the Amadán being +wicked is he not having his wits, he strikes out at all he meets. + + +_A Clare Man:_ + +They, the other sort of people, might be passing you close and +they might touch you; but any one that gets the touch of the +Amadán-na-Briona is done for. And it's true enough that it's in the +month of June he's most likely to give the touch. I knew one that got +it, and told me about it himself. + +He was a boy I knew well, and he told me that one night a gentleman +came to him, that had been his landlord, and that was dead. And he told +him to come along with him, for he wanted to fight another man. And +when he went he found two great troops of them, and the other troop had +a living man with them too, and he was put to fight him. And they had +a great fight and at last he got the better of the other man, and then +the troop on his side gave a great shout, and he was left home again. + +But about three years after that he was cutting bushes in a wood, and +he saw the Amadán coming at him. He had a big vessel in his arms, and +it shining, so that the boy could see nothing else, but he put it +behind his back then, and came running; and he said he looked wide +and wild, like the side of a hill. + +And the boy ran, and the Amadán threw the vessel after him, and it +broke with a great noise, and whatever came out of it, his head +was gone then and there. He lived for a while after and used to be +telling us many things, but his wits were gone. He thought they +mightn't have liked him to beat the other man, and he used to be +afraid something would come on him. + + +_Mrs. Staunton:_ + +A friend of mine saw the Amadán one time in Poul-na-shionac, low-sized +and very wide, and with a big hat on him, very high, and he'd make +shoes for you if you could get a hold of him. But there are some say +"No, that is not the Amadán-na-Briona, that is the leprechaun." + + +_An Old Woman:_ + +The Amadán-na-Briona is a bad one to meet. If you don't say, "The +Lord be between us and harm," when you meet him, you are gone for +ever and always. What does he look like? I suppose like any fool in a +house--a sort of a clown. + + +_A Man near Athenry:_ + +Biddy Early could cure nearly all things, but she said that the only +thing that she could do no cure for was the touch of the Amadán. + + +_Another:_ + +Biddy Early couldn't do nothing for the touch of the Amadán, because +its power was greater than hers. + + +_In the Workhouse:_ + +The Amadán-na-Briona, he changes his shape every two days. Sometimes he +comes like a youngster, and then he'll come like the worst of beasts. +Trying to give the touch he used to be. I heard it said of late that he +was shot, but I think myself it would be hard to shoot him. + + +_Ned Meehan of Killinane:_ + +The Amadán is the worst; I saw him myself one time, and I'd be swept +if I didn't make away on the moment. It was on a race-course at +Ballybrit, and no one there but myself, and I sitting with my back +to the wall and smoking my pipe. And all at once the Amadán was all +around me, in every place, and I ran and got out of the field or I'd +be swept. And I saw others of them in the field; it was full of them, +red scarfs they had on them. + +I came home as quick as I could, and I didn't get over the fright for +a long time, but there he was all about me. + +_Meehan's wife says_: I remember you well coming in that night, and +you trembling with the fright you got. And you told me the appearance +he had, like a jockey he was, on a grey horse. + +"That is true indeed," _says Ned, and he goes on_: + +And one night I was up in that field beyond, watching sheep that were +near their time to drop, and I saw a light moving through the fields +beside me, and down the road and no one with it. It stopped for a +while where the water is and went on again. + +And there was a woman in Ballygra the same night heard the coach-a-baur +passing, and she not hearing at all about the lights I saw. + + +_A Man at Kilcolgan:_ + +Father Callaghan that used to be in Esker was able to do great cures; +he could cure even a man that had met the Amadán-na-Briona. But to +meet the Amadán is to be in prison for ever. + + + + + X + + FORTHS AND SHEOGUEY PLACES + + + + + X + + FORTHS AND SHEOGUEY PLACES + + +_When as children we ran up and down the green entrenchments of the big +round raths, the lisses or forths, of Esserkelly or Moneen, we knew +they had been made at one time for defence, and that is perhaps as much +as is certainly known. Those at my old home have never been opened, +but in some of their like I have gone down steps to small stone-built +chambers that look too low for the habitation of any living race._ + +_Had we asked questions of the boys who led our donkeys they would +in all likelihood have given us, from tradition or vision, news of +the shadowy inhabitants, the Sidhe, whose name in the Irish is all +one with a blast of wind, and of the treasures they guard. And the +old writings tell us that when blessed Patrick of the Bells walked +Ireland, he did not refuse the promise of heaven to some among those +spirits in prison, the old divine race for whom Mannanan himself had +chosen these hidden dwellings, after the great defeat in battle by +the human invaders, the Gaels, or to some they had brought among them +from the face of the green earth. It was one of their musicians who +played to the holy Clerks till Patrick himself said, "But for some +tang of the music of the Sidhe that is in it, I never heard anything +nearer to the music of heaven." That music is heard yet from time to +time; and it was into one of those hill dwellings that the father of +McDonough the Galway piper, my friend, was taken till the Sidhe had +taught him all their wild tunes and so bewitched his pipes that they +would play of themselves if he threw them up among the rafters. There +were great treasures there also in Saint Patrick's time, golden vats +and horns, and crystal cups, and silks of the colour of the foxglove. +It may be of these treasures that so many dreams are told._ + +_As to the women of the Sidhe, some who have seen them, as old Mrs. +Sheridan, tell of their white skin and yellow hair, for age has not +come on them through the centuries. When one of them came claiming +the fulfilment of an old promise from Caoilte of the Fianna, Patrick +wondered at her young beauty, while the man who had been her lover +was withered and bent and grey. But Caoilte said that was no wonder +"for she is of the Tuatha de Danaan who are unfading and whose life +is lasting, while I am of the sons of Milesius who are perishable +and fade away." Yet then as now, notwithstanding their beauty and +grandeur, those swept away into the hill dwellings would rather have +the world they know. One of Finn's men meeting a comely young man who +had been his comrade but was now an inhabitant of one of those hidden +houses, asked how he fared. And for all his fine clothing and his +blue weapons and the hound he held in a silver chain, the young man +gave the names of three drudges "who had the worst life of any who +were with the Fianna," and then he said, "I would rather be living +their life than the life I am leading now."_ + +_The name of these tribes of the goddess Dana is often confused +with that of the northern invaders who were afterwards a terror to +Ireland. And so it was of those unearthly tribes an old basket-maker +was thinking when he said, in telling of the defeat of the Irish +under James, "The Danes were dancing in the raths around Aughrim the +night after the battle. Their ancestors were driven out of Ireland +before, and they were glad when they saw those that had put them out +put out themselves, and everyone of them skivered."_ + +_Many of the stories I have gathered tell how those tribes still +protect their own; and even today, March 21, 1916, I have read in the +"Irish Times" that "a farmer who was summoned by a road contractor +for having failed to cut a portion of a hedge on the roadside, told +the magistrates at Granard Petty Sessions that he objected to cutting +the hedge as it grew in a fort or rath. He however had no objection +to the contractor's men cutting the hedge. The magistrates allowed +the case to stand till the next Court."_ + +_As to Knockmaa, or Cruachmaa, or, as it is called today, Castle Hacket +Hill, that overlooks Lough Corrib and the plain of Moytura, and that we +see as a blue cloud from our roads, it was in Saint Patrick's time the +habitation of Finnbarr a king among the Sidhe and his seventeen sons, +and it is to this day spoken of as "a very Sheoguey place."_ + +_It was in these enchanted hills that the ale of Goibniu the Smith +kept whoever tasted it from sickness and from death, and there is +some memory of this in a story told me by an old farmer. "There was +a man one time set out from Ireland to go to America or some place; +a common man looking for work he was. And something happened to the +ship on the way, and they had to put to land to mend it. And in the +country where they landed he saw a forth, and he went into it, and +there he saw the smallest people he ever saw, and they were the Danes +that went out of Ireland; and it was foxes they had for dogs, and +weasels were their cats._ + +_"Then he went back to get into the ship, but it was gone away, and he +left behind. So he went back into the forth, and a young man came to +meet him, and he told him what had happened. And the young man said +'Come into the room within where my father is in the bed, for he is +out of his health and you might be able to serve him.' So they went in +and the father was lying in the bed, and when he heard it was a man +from Ireland was in it he said, 'I will give you a great reward if you +will go back and bring me a thing I want out of Castle Hacket Hill. +For if I had what is there,' he said, 'I would be as young as my son.' +So the man consented to go, and they got a sailing ship ready, and it +is what the old man told him, to go back to Ireland. 'And buy a little +pig in Galway,' he said, 'and bring it to the mouth of the forth of +Castle Hacket and roast it there. And inside the forth is an enchanted +cat that is keeping guard there, and it will come out; and here is a +shot-gun and some cross-money that will kill any faery or any enchanted +thing. And within in the forth,' he said, 'you will find a bottle and a +rack-comb, and bring them back here to me.'_ + +_"So the man did as he was told and he bought the pig and roasted it +at the mouth of the forth, and out came the enchanted cat, and it +having hair seven inches long. And he fired the cross-money out of +the shot-gun, and the cat went away and he saw it no more. And he +got the bottle and the rack-comb and brought them back to the old +man. And he drank what was in the bottle and racked his hair with the +rack, and he got young again, as young as his own son."_ + +_It may be some of those faery treasures are still given out; for of +the family who have been for a good while owners of the hill, one at +least had the gift of genius. And I remember being told in childhood, +and I have never known if it were fact or folk-tale, that her mother +having as a bride gone to listen to some debate or royal speech in +the House of Lords at Westminster, the whole assembly had stood up in +homage to her beauty._ + + +_I was told by a Miller:_ + +It was the Danes built these forths. They were a fair-haired race, +and they married with the Irish that were dark-haired, just like +those linen weavers your own great-grandfather brought up from the +North, the Hevenors and the Glosters and others, married with the +Roman Catholics. There was a king of the Danes called Trevenher that +had a daughter that was a great beauty. And she gave a feast, and the +young men of the other race dressed like girls and came to it, and +sat at it till midnight, and then they threw off the women's clothes +and killed all the generals and the king himself. So the Danes were +driven out, that's why we have the fires and the wisps on St. John's +Eve. And as for Herself there, she wouldn't for all the world let St. +Martin's Day pass without killing of cocks--one for the woman and +another for the man. + + * * * * * + +As to the three lisses at Ryanrush, there must have been a great deal +of fighting there in the old time. There are some bushes growing on +them and no one, man or woman, will ever put a hand to cut them, no +more than they would touch the little bush by the well beyond, that +used to have lights shining out of it. + +And if any one was to fall asleep within the liss himself, he would +be taken away and the spirit of some old warrior would be put in his +place, and it's he would know everything in the whole world. There's +no doubt at all but that there's the same sort of things in other +countries. Sure _these_ can go through and appear in Australia in +one minute. But you hear more about them in these parts, because the +Irish do be more familiar in talking of them. + + * * * * * + +Enchanters and magicians they were in the old times, and could make +the birds sing and the stones and the fishes speak. + + * * * * * + +It's in the forths they mostly live. The last priest that was here +told us a lot about them, but he said not to be anyway afraid of +them, for they are but poor souls doing their penance. + + +_Mary Nagle:_ + +That's a fine big liss at Ryanrush, and people say they hear things +there, and sometimes a great light is seen--no wonder these things +should be seen there, for it was a great place for fighting in the +old centuries, and a great deal of bones have been turned up in the +fields. There was an open passage I remember into the liss, and two +girls got a candle one time and went in, but they saw nothing but the +ashes of the fires the Danes used to make. The passage is closed up +now I believe, with big stones no man could lift. + +One time a woman from the North came to our house, and she said a +great deal of people is kept below there in the lisses; she had been +there herself, and in the night-time in one moment they'd all be away +at Cruachmaa, wherever that may be, down in the North I believe. +And she knew everything that was in the house, and told us about my +sister being sick, and that there was a hurling going on, as there +was that day at the Isabella wood in Coole. And all about Coole House +she knew as if she spent her life in it. I'd have picked a lot of +stories out of her but my mother got nervous when she heard the truth +coming out, and bid me be quiet. She had a red petticoat on her, the +same as any country woman, and she offered to cure me, for it was +that time I was delicate and your ladyship sent me to the salt water, +but she asked a shilling and my mother said she hadn't got it. "You +have," says she, "and heavier metal than that you have in the house." +So then my mother gave her the shilling, and she put it in the fire +and melted it, and says she, "After two days you'll see your shilling +again." But we never did. And the cure she left, I never took it; +it's not safe, and the priests forbid us to take their cures--for it +must surely be from the devil their knowledge comes. But no doubt at +all she was one of the Ingentry, that can take the form of a woman by +day and another form at night. After that she went to Mrs. Quaid's +house and asked her for a bit of tobacco. "You'll get it again" she +said, "and more with it." And sure enough, that very day a bit of +meat came into Mrs. Quaid's house. (_Note_ 1.) + + +_Maurteen Joyce:_ + +There's a forth near Clough that wanders underneath, but a man +couldn't get into it without he'd crawl on his hands and knees. Well, +Kennedy's filly was brought in there, and lived there for five days +without food but what she got from _them_, and no one knew where she +was till a man passing by heard her neighing and then she was dug out. + + * * * * * + +There's a forth near our house, but it's not the good people that are +in it, only the old inhabitants of Ireland shut up there below. + + * * * * * + +There are a few old forths about, some of them you mightn't notice +unless you understood such things; but sometimes passing by you'd +feel a cold wind blowing from them, would nearly rend you in two. + + * * * * * + +When I was a young chap myself I used to see a white woman walking +about sometimes at midday--that's the worst hour there is--and she'd +always go back into a forth, the forth of Cahir near Cloonmore, and +disappear into it. + +She was known to be a woman that had died nine years before; and she +would sometimes come into the sister's house, and bid her keep it +clean. But one time the sister's husband went to burn the inside of +the forth, and the next morning his barn where he had all the wheat of +the harvest and near a ton of hay and two or three packs of wool, was +found to be on fire. And his own little girl, about eight years of age, +was in the barn, and a labouring man broke through and brought a wet +cloth with him and threw it over her and carried her out. But she was +as black as cinders and dead. Vexed they were at him burning the forth. + + +_An Old Miller:_ + +Did _they_ get help to make those forths? You may know well that they +did. There was an engineer here when that road was being made--a +sort of an idolater or a foreigner he was--anyway he made it through +the forth, and he didn't last long after. Those other engineers, +Edgeworth and Hemans beyond at Ardrahan when the railway was made, +I'm told they avoided such things. + + +_A Slieve Echtge Man:_ + +There were two brothers taken away sudden, two O'Briens. They were +cutting heath one day and filling the cart with it, and a voice told +them to leave off cutting the heath, but they went on, and a blow +struck the cart on the axle. And soon after that one of the brothers +sat down in his chair and died sudden. And the other was one day +going to market, I was going to it that day myself, and he wasn't far +beyond the white gate when the axle of the cart broke in that same +place where it had got the blow, and so he had to go home again, and +near the river where they're cutting the larch he turned in to talk +to a poor man that was cutting a tree, and the tree fell, and the top +of it struck him and killed him. And it was last March that happened. + +There was one Leary in Clough had the land taken that's near Newtown +racecourse. And he was out there one day building a wall, and it was +time for his dinner, but he had none brought with him. And a man came +to him and said "Is it home you'll be going for your dinner?" And +he said "It's not worth my while to go back to Clough, I'd have the +day lost." And the man said, "Well, come in and eat a bit with me." +And he brought him into a forth, and there was everything that was +grand, and the dinner they gave him of the best, so that he eat near +two plates of it. And then he went out again to build the wall. And +whether it was with lifting the heavy stones I don't know, but (with +respects to you) when he was walking the road home he began to vomit, +and what he vomited up was all green grass. + + +_A Man on the Connemara Coast:_ + +This is a faery stream we're passing; there were some used to see +them by the side of it, and washing themselves in it. And there used +to be heard a faery forge here every night, and the hammering of the +iron could be heard, and the blast of the furnace. + +There is a faery hill beyond there in the mountain, and some have +seen fires in it all through the night. And one time the police were +out there still-hunting, and the head of them, one Rogers, was in the +middle of that place, and there he died, no one could say how, though +some of his men were round about him. + +That's a nice flat clean place that rock we're passing--that's the +sort of place they'd be seen dancing or having their play. + + +_A Piper:_ + +I knew twin sons, Considines, and one was struck with madness in +England, and one at home--Pat in England, Mike in Connacht--at the +one time. Both were sent to Ballinasloe Asylum, and got well in eight +months, and that was ten year ago, and one of them is married and +rearing a family. The mother used to be doing cures with herbs; it is +likely that is the reason but she gave it up after they were struck. + +There were three of another family went in to the Asylum, one this +year, one next year, and one the year after, and no reason but that +their house was close to the side of a forth. + + +_Maurteen Joyce:_ + +When I was in Clare there was a forth, and two or three men went +down it one time, and brought rushes and lights with them. And they +came to where there was a woman washing at a river and they heard +the crying of young lambs, and it November, for when we have winter, +there is summer there. So they got afraid, and two of the men came +back, but one of them stopped there and was never heard of after. The +best of things they have, and no trouble at all but to be eating; but +they have no chance of being saved till the Day of Judgment. + +I knew another forth that two men watched, and at night there came +out of it two troops of horses, and they began to graze. But when the +men came near them they made for the forths, and all they got was a +foal. And they kept it, and it was a mare-horse, and it had foals, +and the breed was the best that was ever seen in the country. + + +_Mrs. Leary:_ + +There did strange things happen in that wood, noises would be heard, +and those that went in to steal rods could never get them up on their +back to bring them away. But there was one man said whatever happened +he'd bring them, and he got them on to his back, and then they were +lifted off it over the wood. But they fell again and he got them and +carried them away; I suppose they thought well of him having so much +courage. + +Cruachmaa is the great place for them. + +A man who had lost a blood mare met an old man from a forth who said +"Put your right foot on my right foot." And he did so, and at once he +saw the blood mare and his foal close by. + + +_The Old Man Who Is Making a Well:_ + +There was a man and his wife was brought away at Cruachmaa and he was +told to go dig, and he'd get her out. And he began to dig, and when +he had a hole made at the side of the hill he saw her coming out, but +he couldn't stop the pick that he had lifted for the stroke, and it +went through her head. + + +_J. Doran:_ + +Whether they are in it or not, there are many tell stories of them. +And I often saw the half of Cruachmaa covered--like as if there was a +mist on it. + +But one side of a wall is luckier than another, all the old people will +tell you that. There was a big stone in the yard behind our house and +my husband thought to blast it, for it was in the way, and my mother +said "I'm in the house longer than you, and take my advice and never +touch that stone," and he never did. But there was a man built a house +close by and he wanted to close a passage, and one morning he came +early and was laying hands on that stone to take it. But I was out when +I heard him and drove him away. And the house never throve with him, he +lost two or three children, and then he died himself. + + +_A Gate-keeper:_ + +At St. Patrick's well at Burren there used to be a great pattern +every year. And every year there was something lost and killed at it, +a horse or a man or a woman. + +So at last the priest put a stop to it. And there was an old woman +with me in the barracks at Burren, and she told me she remembered +well when she was a young girl and the time came when the pattern +used to be, the first year it was stopped her father put her up on a +big high wall near the well, and bid her look down. And there she saw +the whole place full of the _gentry_, and they playing and dancing +and having their own games, they were in such joy to have done away +with the pattern. I suppose the well belonged to them before it got +the name of St. Patrick. + +There's a small little house not far down the road where they used to +be very fond of going. And a woman in the town asked the old woman +that lived in it what did they look like. And she said "For all the +world like people coming in to Chapel." + + * * * * * + +There was a girl coming back here one time from Clough, and instead +of coming here she went the Esserkelly road and was led astray and a +man met her and says he, "Why do you say you're going to Labane and +it's to Roxborough you're facing?" and he turned her around. And when +she got home she took off the bundle she had on her back, and what +jumped out of it but a young hare. + + +_Mrs. Casey:_ + +I have a great little story about a woman--a jobber's wife that lived +a mile beyond Ardrahan. She had business one time in Ballyvaughan, +and when she was on the road beyond Kinvara a man came to her out +of a forth and he asked her to go in and to please a child that was +crying. So she went in and she pleased the child, and she saw in a +corner an old man that never stopped from crying. And when she went +out again she asked the man that brought her in, why was the old man +roaring and crying. The man pointed to a milch cow in the meadow and +he said, "Before the day is over he will be in the place of that cow, +and it will be brought into the forth to give milk to the child." +And she can tell herself that was true, for in the evening when she +was coming back from Ballyvaughan, she saw in that field a cow dead, +and being cut in pieces, and all the poor people bringing away bits +of it, that was the old man that had been put in its place. There is +poison in that meat, but no poison ever comes off the fire, but you +must mind to throw away the top of the pot. + + * * * * * + +That forth where I heard the talking long ago, and left my can, it's +only the other day I was telling Pat Stephens of it that has the +land. And he told me he put a trough in it to catch the water about a +month ago. And the next day one of his best bullocks died. + + +_Mrs. O'Brien:_ + +It's a bad piece of the road that poor boy fell off his cart at and +was killed. There's a forth near it, and it's in that forth my five +children are that were swept from me. I went and I told Father Carey +I knew they were there, and he said "Say your prayers, my poor woman, +that's all you can do." When they were young they were small and thin +enough, they grew up like a bunch of rushes, but they got strong +and stout and good-looking. Too good they were, so that everyone +would remark them and would say, "Oh, look at Ellen O'Brien--look +at Catherine--look at Martin! So good to work and so handsome, so +loyal to their mother." And they were all taken from me, all gone +now but one. Consumption they were said to get, but it never was in +my family or in the father's, and how would they get it without some +provocation? Four of them died with that, and Martin was drowned. One +of the little girls was in America and the other at home, and they +both got sick and at the end of nine months both of them died. + +Only twice they got a warning. Michael that was the first to go was out +one morning very early to bring a letter to Mr. Crowe. And he met on +the road a small little woman, and she came across him and across him +again, and then again, as if to be humbugging him. And he got afraid, +and told me about her when he got home. And not long after that he died. + +And Ellen used to be going to milk the cow for the nuns morning and +evening, and there's a place she had to pass, a sort of enchanted +place, I forget the name of it. And when she came home one evening +she said she'd go there no more, for when she was passing that place +she saw a small little woman, with a little cloak about her, and her +face not the size of a doll's face. And with the one look of her she +got a fright and ran as fast as she could, and sat down to milk the +cow. And when she was milking she looked up, and there was the small +little woman coming along by the wall. And she said she'd never like +to go up there again. So to move the thought out of her mind I said +"Sure that's the little woman is stopping up at Shamus Mor's house." +"Oh, it's not, Mother," said she; "I know well by her look she was no +right person." "Then my poor girl you're lost," says I, "for I know +it was the same woman that my husband saw." And sure enough, it was +but a few weeks after that she died. There wasn't much change in them +before their death, but there was a great change after. + +And Martin, the last that went, was stout and strong and nothing +ailed him, but he was drowned. He'd go down sometimes to bathe in the +sea and one day he said he was going, and I said, "Do not, for you +have no swim." + +But a boy of the neighbours came after that and called to him, and I +was making the little dinner for him, and I didn't see him from the +door. And I never knew he was gone till when I went out of the house +the girl from next door looked at me someway strange, and then she +told me two boys were drowned, and then she told me one of them was +my own. Held down he was, they said, by something under water. _They_ +had him followed there. + +It wasn't long after he died I woke one night and I felt some one +near, and I struck the light and then I saw his shadow. He was +wearing his little cap, but under it I knew his face and the colour +of his hair. And he never spoke and he was going out the door and I +called to him and said "Oh, Martin, come back to me and I'll always +be watching for you." And every night after that I'd hear things +thrown about the house outside, and noises. So I got afraid to stop +in it, and went to live in another house, and I told the priest I +knew Martin was not dead but that he was living. And about eight +weeks after Catherine dying, I had what I thought was a dream. I +thought I dreamt that I saw her sweeping out the floor of the room, +and I said, "Catherine, why are you sweeping? Sure you know I sweep +the floor down and the hearth every night." And I said "Tell me where +you are now?" And she said, "I'm in the forth beyond." And she said +"I have a great deal of things to tell you, but I must look out and +see are they watching me"; now wasn't that very sharp for a dream? +And she went to look out the door, but she never came back again. + +And in the morning when I told it to a few respectable people they +said "Take care but it might have been no dream, but herself that +came back and talked to you." And I think it was, and that she came +back to see me, and to keep the place well swept. + + * * * * * + +Sure we know there were some in the forths in the old times, for my +aunt's husband was brought away into one, and why wouldn't they be +there now? He was sent back out of it again; a girl led him home, and +she told him he was brought away because he answered to the first call +and that he had a right only to answer to the third. But he didn't want +to come home. He said he saw more people in it than he ever saw at a +hurling, and that he'd ask no better place than it in high heaven. + + * * * * * + +The Banshee always cries for the O'Briens. And Anthony O'Brien was a +fine man when I married him, and handsome, and I could have had great +marriages if I didn't choose him, and many wondered at me. And when +he was took ill and in the bed, Johnny Rafferty came in one day, and +says he "Is Anthony living?" and I said he was. "For," says he, "as I +was passing, I heard crying, crying, from the hill where the forths +are, and I thought it must be for Anthony, and that he was gone." +And then Ellen, the little girl, came running in, and she says, "I +heard the mournfullest crying that ever you heard just behind the +house." And I said "It must be the Banshee." And Anthony heard me say +that where he was lying in the bed, and he called out, "If it's the +Banshee it's for me, and I must die today or tomorrow." And in the +middle of the next day, he died. + + * * * * * + +One time I was passing by a forth down there, and I saw a thick smoke +coming out of it, straight up it went and then it spread at the top. +And when it was clearing away I saw two rows of birds, one on the one +side and one on the other, and I stopped to look at them. They were +white, and had shoulders and heads like dogs, and there was a great +noise like a rattling, and a man that was passing by looked up and +said "God speed you," and they flew away. + + +_A Seaside Man:_ + +There were five boys of the Callinans, and they rich and well-to-do, +were out in a boat, and a ship came out from the shore and touched it +and it sank, and the ship was seen no more. And one of the boys held +on to the boat, and some men came out and brought him to land. But +the second time after that he went out, he was swept. + + +_An Old Man in Gort Workhouse:_ + +I knew an old man was in here was greatly given to card-playing. And +one night he was up on the hill beyond, towards Slieve Echtge, where +there is a big forth, and he went into it, and there he found a lot +of _them_ playing cards. Like any other card-players they looked, and +he sat down and played with them, and they played fair. And when he +woke in the morning, he was lying outside on the hill, and nothing +under his head but a tuft of rushes. + + +_John Mangan:_ + +Old Hanrahan one time went out to the forth that's in front of his +house and cut a bush, and he a fresh man enough. And next morning he +hadn't a blade of hair on his head--not a blade. And he had to buy a +wig and to wear it for the rest of his life. I remember him and the +wig well. + +And it was some years after that that Delane, the father of the great +cricketer, was passing by that way, and the water had risen and he +strayed off the road into it. And as he got farther and farther in, +till he was covered to better than his waist, he heard like the voice +of his wife crying, "Go on, John, go on farther." And he called out, +"These are John Hanrahan's faeries that took the hair off him." "And +what did you do then?" they asked him when he got safe to the house, +and was telling this. And he said, "I turned my coat inside out, and +after that they troubled me no more, and so I got safe to the road +again." But no one ever had luck that meddled with a forth, so it's +always said. + + * * * * * + +There's Mrs. Lynch's daughter was coming through the trees about +eight months ago and when she came to a thicket of bushes, a short +little man came, out, about three feet high, dressed all in white, +and he white himself or grey, and asked her to come with him, and she +ran away as fast as she could. And with the fright she got, she fell +into a sickness--what they call the sickness of Peter and Paul--and +you'd think she'd tear the house down when it comes on her. + + * * * * * + +I met a woman some time ago told me more about the forths in this +place than ever I knew before, and well she might for she had passed +seven years in them, working, working, minding children and the like +all the time; no singing or dancing for her. + + +_M. Haverty:_ + +There was one Rock, was brought into a forth. A three-legged horse +came for him one night and brought him away; and when he got there +they all called him by his name. + + * * * * * + +There was a man up there cut a tree in one of them, and he was took +ill immediately after, and didn't live long. + + * * * * * + +There's a bad bit of road near Kinvara Chapel, just when you get +within sight of the sea. I know a man has to pass there, and he +wouldn't go on the driver's side of the car, for it's to the right +side those things are to be seen. Sure there was a boy lost his life +falling off a car there last Friday week. + +One night passing the big tree at Raheen I heard the sound of a +handsaw in the air, and I looked up and there in the top of a larch +tree that's near to a beech I saw a man sitting and cutting it with +the handsaw. So I hurried away home. But the next time I passed that +way I took a view of it to see might it have been one of the Dillons +that might be stealing timber; and there was no sign of a cut or a +touch in it at all. + + * * * * * + +There was a man on the road between Chevy and Marble Hill, where +there is a faery plumb-stone, that stands straight up and it about +five feet in height, and the man was building a house and carried it +away to put above his door. And from the time he brought it away, all +his stock began to die, and whenever he went in or out, night or day, +he was severely beaten. So at last he took the stone down and put it +back where it was before, and from that time nothing has troubled him. + + +_John Mangan:_ + +Myself and two of my brothers were over at Inchy Weir to catch a +horse, and growing close by the water there was a bush the form of +an umbrella, very close and thick at the top. So we began fooling as +boys do, and I said, "I'll bet a button none of you will make a stone +go through the bush." So I took up a pebble of cow-dung and threw it, +and they all threw, and no sooner did the pebble hit the bush than +there came from it music, like a band playing. So we all ran for our +lives, and when we had got about two hundred yards we looked back and +we saw something moving round the bush, first it had the clothes of a +woman and then of a man. So we stopped to see no more. + +Well, it was some years after that when Sir William ordered all the +bushes in that part to be cut down. And one Prendergast a boy that used +to be a beater here and that went to America after, went to cut them +just in the same place where I had seen that sight, and a thorn ran +into his eye and blinded him, and he never got the sight of it again. + + +_An Old Woman near Ballinsloe:_ + +There are many forths around, and in that one beyond, there is often +music heard. The smith's father heard the music one time he was +passing and he could not stop from dancing till he was tired. I heard +him tell that myself. + +And over there to the left there is a forth had an opening in it, and +the steward wanted to get it closed up, and he could get no men to do +it. And at last a young man said he would, and he went to work and at +the end of the week he was dead. + +And there was a girl milking a cow not long after that, and she saw +him coming to her, and she ran away, and he called to her to stop and +she did not, and he said "That you may never milk another cow!" And +within a week, she herself was dead. + +There was a woman over there in that house you can see, and she wanted +to root up a forth; covetousness it was, she had plenty and she wanted +more. And she tried to get a man to do it and she could not, but at +last a man that had been turned out of his holding, and that was in +want, said he would do it. And before he went to work he went on his +two knees, and he wished that whatever harm might come from it might +come on her, and not on himself. And so it did, and her hands got +crippled and crappled. And they travelled the world and could get no +relief for her, and her cattle began to die, and she died herself in +the end. And the daughter and the son-in-law had to leave that house +and to build another, for they were losing all the cattle, and they are +left alone now, but the daughter lost a finger by it. + + +_A Man near Corcomroe:_ + +I saw a light myself one night in the big forth over there near the +sea. Like a bonfire it was, and going up about thirty feet into the air. + + * * * * * + +Ghosts are to be heard about the forths. They make a heavy noise, and +there are creaks in their shoes. Doing a penance I suppose they are. +And there's many see the lights in the forths at Newtown. + + +_J. Doheny:_ + +One time I was cutting bushes up there near the river, and I cut a +big thorn bush, I thought it no harm to do it when it wasn't standing +by itself, but in a thicket, and it old and half-rotten. And when I +had it cut, I heard some one talking very loud to my wife, that was +gathering kippeens down in the field the other side of the wall. And +I went down to know who it was talking to her. And when I asked her +she said "No, it's to yourself some one was talking, for I heard his +voice where you were, and I saw no one." So I said, "Surely it's one +of them mourning for the bush I cut," for the sound of his voice was +as if he was mad vexed. + + * * * * * + +I think it's not in the tree at the corner there's anything, it's +something in the place. Not long ago there was one Greeley going +to Galway with a load of barley, and when he came to that corner +he heard the sound of a train crossing from inside the wall, and +the horse stopped. And then he heard it a second time and the horse +refused to go on, and at the end he had to turn back home again, for +he had no use trying to make the horse go on. + + * * * * * + +There were ash trees growing around the blessed well at Corker, and +one night Deeley, the uncle of Pat Deeley that lives beyond, and two +other men went to cut them down, to get the makings of a car-body. +And the next day Deeley's lip was drawn down--like this--and water +running from it for the rest of his life. I often see him; and as to +the two other men, they died soon after. + +And big Joyce that was a servant to John O'Hara, he went to cut trees +one night near that hole at Raheen, near the corner of the road, and +he was prevented, and never could get the handsaw near a tree, nor +the other men that were with him. + +And there was another man went and cut a bush not far from the +Kinvara road, and with the first stroke he heard a sort of a cough +or a groan come from beneath it, that was a token to him to leave it +alone. But he wouldn't leave off, and his mouth was drawn to one side +all of a sudden and in two days after he was dead. Surely, one should +leave such things alone. + + +_A Piper:_ + +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." + + +_A Man Asking Alms:_ + +It's not safe sometimes to meddle with walls. There was a man beyond +Gort knocked some old walls not long ago, and he's dead since. + +But it's by the big tree outside Raheen where you take the turn to +Kinvara that the most things are seen. There was a boy living with +Conor in Gort that was out before daylight with a load of hay in a +cart, and he sitting on top of it, and he was found lying dead just +beside the tree, where he fell from the top of the cart, and the +horse was standing there stock-still. There was a shower of rain fell +while he was lying there, and I passed the road two hours later, and +saw where the dust was dry where his body had been lying. And it was +only yesterday I was hearing a story of that very same place. There +was a man coming from Galway with a ton weight of a load on his cart, +and when he came to that tree the linching of his wheel came out, +and the cart fell down. And presently a little man, about two and a +half feet in height, came out from the wall and lifted up the cart, +and held it up till he had the linching put up again. And he never +said a word but went away as he came, and the man came in to Gort. +And I remember myself, the black and white dog used to be on the +road between Hanlon's gate and Gort. It was there for ten years and +no one ever saw it, but one evening Father Boyle's man was going out +to look at a few little sheep and lambs belonging to the priest, and +when he came to the stile the dog put up its paws on it and looked at +him, and he was afraid to go on. So next morning he told Father Boyle +about it and he said "I think that you won't see it any more." And +sure enough from that day it never was seen again. + + +_Steve Simon:_ + +I don't know did I draw down to you before, your ladyship, the +greatest wonder ever I saw in my life? + +I was passing by the forth at Corcomroe, coming back from some shopping +I had done in Belharbour, and I saw twelve of the finest horses ever +I saw, and riders on them racing round the forth. Many a race I saw +since I lived in this world, but never a race like that, for tipping +and tugging and welting the horses; the jockeys in coloured clothes, +striped and blue, and little blue caps on them, and a lady in the front +of them on a bayish horse and wearing a scarlet jacket. + +I told what I saw the same evening to an old woman living near and +she said, "Whatever you saw keep it secret, or some harm will come +upon you." There was another thing I saw besides the riders. There +were crowds and crowds of people, standing as we would against walls +or on a stage, and taking a view. They were shouting, but the men +racing on the horses said nothing at all. Never a race like that one, +with the swiftness and the welting and fine horses that were in it. + +What clothing had these people? They had coats on them, and on their +back there were pictures, pictures in the form of people. Shields +I think they were. Anyway there were pictures on them. Striped the +coats were, and a sort of scollop on them the same as that screen in +the window (a blind with Celtic design). They had little blue caps, +such as wore them, but some had nothing on the head at all; and they +had blue slippers--those I saw of them--but I was afeared to take +more than a side view except of the racers. + + +_An Old Army Man:_ + +You know the forth where the old man lost his hair? Well there's +another man, Waters, that married Brian's sister, has the second +sight, and there's a big bush left in that forth, and when he goes +there he sees a woman sitting under it, and she lighting a fire. + + * * * * * + +Cloran's father was living over at Knockmaa one time and his wife +died, and he believed it was taken into the hill she was. So he went +one morning and dug a hole in the side of the hill. But the next +morning when he went back to dig again, the hole was filled up and +the grass growing over it as before. And this he did two or three +times. And then some one told him to put his pick and his spade +across the hole. And so he did, and it wasn't filled up again. But +what happened after I don't know. + + +_An Old Army Man:_ + +That's a bad bit of road near Kinvara where the boy lost his life last +week; I know it well. And I knew him, a quiet boy, and married to a +widow woman; she wanted the help of a man, and he was young. What would +ail him to fall off the side of an ass-car and to be killed? + + + + + XI + + BLACKSMITHS + + + + + XI + + BLACKSMITHS + + +_I have been told:_ + +Yes, they say blacksmiths have something about them, and if there's a +seventh blacksmith in succession, from generation to generation, he +can do many things, and if he gave you his curse you wouldn't be the +better of it. There was one near the cliffs, Pat Doherty, but he did +no harm to any one, but was as quiet as another. He is dead now and +his son is a blacksmith too. (_Note_ 2.) + + * * * * * + +There was a man one time that was a blacksmith, and he used to go +every night playing cards, and for all his wife could say he wouldn't +leave off doing it. So one night she got a boy to go stand in the old +churchyard he'd have to pass, and to frighten him. So the boy did +so, and began to groan and to try to frighten him when he came near. +But it's well known that nothing of that kind can do any harm to a +blacksmith. So he went in and got hold of the boy, and told him he +had a mind to choke him, and went his way. + +But no sooner was the boy left alone than there came about him +something in the shape of a dog, and then a great troop of cats. And +they surrounded him and he tried to get away home, but he had no power +to go the way he wanted but had to go with them. And at last they came +to an old forth and a faery bush, and he knelt down and made the sign +of the cross and said a great many "Our Fathers," and after a time they +went into the faery bush and left him. And he was going away and a +woman came out of the bush, and called to him three times, to make him +look back. And he saw that it was a woman that he knew before, that was +dead, and so he knew that she was amongst the faeries. + +And she said to him, "It's well for you that I was here, and worked +hard for you, or you would have been brought in among them, and be +like me." So he got home. And the blacksmith got home too and his +wife was surprised to see he was no way frightened. But he said, "You +might know that there's nothing of that sort could harm me." + +For a blacksmith is safe from all, and when he goes out in the night +he keeps always in his pocket a small bit of wire, and they know him +by that. So he went on playing, and they grew very poor after. + + * * * * * + +And I knew a woman from the County Limerick had been _away_, and she +could tell you all about the forths in this place and how she was +recovered. She met a man she knew on the road, and she out riding with +them all on horseback, and told him to bring a bottle of forge-water +and to throw it on her, and so he did, and she came back again. + + * * * * * + +Blacksmiths surely are safe from these things. And if a blacksmith +was to turn his anvil upside down and to say malicious words, he +could do you great injury. + + * * * * * + +There was a child that was changed, and my mother brought it a nice +bit of potato cake one time, for tradesmen often have nice things on +the table. But the child wouldn't touch it, for they don't like the +leavings of a smith. + + * * * * * + +Blacksmiths have power, and if you could steal the water from the +trough in the forge, it would cure all things. + + * * * * * + +And as to forges, there's some can hear working and hammering in them +through the night. + + + + + XII + + MONSTERS AND SHEOGUEY BEASTS + + + + + XII + + MONSTERS AND SHEOGUEY BEASTS + + +_The Dragon that was the monster of the early world now appears +only in the traditional folk-tales, where the hero, a new Perseus, +fights for the life of the Princess who looks on crying at the brink +of the sea, bound to a silver chair, while the Dragon is "put in a +way he will eat no more kings' daughters." In the stories of today +he has shrunk to eel or worm, for the persons and properties of +the folk-lore of all countries keep being transformed or remade in +the imagination, so that once in New England on the eve of George +Washington's birthday, the decorated shop windows set me wondering +whether the cherry tree itself might not be a remaking of the +red-berried dragon-guarded rowan of the Celtic tales, or it may be of +a yet more ancient apple. I ventured to hint at this in a lecture at +Philadelphia, and next day one of the audience wrote me that he had +looked through all the early biographies of Washington, and either +the first three or the first three editions of the earliest--I have +mislaid the letter--never mention the cherry tree at all._ + +_The monstrous beasts told of today recall the visions of Maeldune on +his strange dream-voyage, where he saw the beast that was like a horse +and that had "legs of a hound with rough sharp nails," and the fiery +pigs that fed on golden fruit, and the cat that with one flaming leap +turned a thief to a heap of ashes; for the folk-tales of the world have +long roots, and there is nothing new save their reblossoming._ + + +_I have been told by a Car-driver:_ + +I went to serve one Patterson at a place called Grace Dieu between +Waterford and Tramore, and there were queer things in it. There was a +woman lived at the lodge the other side from the gate, and one day she +was looking out and she saw a woolpack coming riding down the road of +itself. + +There was a room over the stable I was put to sleep in, and no one +near me. One night I felt a great weight on my feet, and there was +something very weighty coming up upon my body and I heard heavy +breathing. Every night after that I used to light the fire and bring +up coal and make up the fire with it that it would be near as good +in the morning as it was at night. And I brought a good terrier up +every night to sleep with me on the bed. Well, one night the fire was +lighting and the moon was shining in at the window, and the terrier +leaped off the bed and he was barking and rushing and fighting and +leaping, near to the ceiling and in under the bed. And I could see +the shadow of him on the walls and on the ceiling, and I could see +the shadow of another thing that was about two foot long and that had +a head like a pike, and that was fighting and leaping. They stopped +after a while and all was quiet. But from that night the terrier +never would come to sleep in the room again. + + +_By Others:_ + +The worst form a monster can take is a cow or a pig. But as to a +lamb, you may always be sure a lamb is honest. + + * * * * * + +A pig is the worst shape they can take. I wouldn't like to meet +anything in the shape of a pig in the night. + + * * * * * + +No, I saw nothing myself, I'm not one of those that can see such +things; but I heard of a man that went with the others on rent day, and +because he could pay no rent but only made excuses, the landlord didn't +ask him in to get a drink with the others. So as he was coming home by +himself in the dark, there was something on the road before him, and he +gave it a hit with the toe of his boot, and it let a squeal. So then he +said to it, "Come in here to my house, for I'm not asked to drink with +them; I'll give drink and food to you." So it came in, and the next +morning he found by the door a barrel full of wine and another full of +gold, and he never knew a day's want after that. + + * * * * * + +Walking home one night with Jack Costello, there was something before +us that gave a roar, and then it rose in the air like a goose, and +then it fell again. And Jackeen told me after that it had laid hold +on his trousers, and he didn't sleep all night with the fright he got. + + * * * * * + +There's a monster in Lough Graney, but it's only seen once in seven +years. + + * * * * * + +There is a monster of some sort down by Duras, it's called the ghost +of Fiddeen. Some say it's only heard every seven years. Some say it +was a flannel seller used to live there that had a short fardel. We +heard it here one night, like a calf roaring. + + * * * * * + +One night my grandfather was beyond at Inchy where the lads from Gort +used to be stealing rods, and he was sitting by the wall, and the dog +beside him. And he heard something come running from Inchy Weir and +he could see nothing, but the sound of its feet on the ground was +like the sound of the feet of a deer. And when it passed by him the +dog got in between him and the wall and scratched at him, but still +he could see nothing but only could hear the sound of hoofs. So when +it was passed he turned away home. + +Another time, my grandfather told me, he was in a boat out on the lake +here at Coole with two or three men from Gort. And one of them had an +eel-spear and he thrust it into the water and it hit something, and +the man fainted, and they had to carry him in out of the boat to land. +And when he came to himself he said that what he struck was like a +horse or like a calf, but whatever it was, it was no fish. + + * * * * * + +There is a boy I knew, one Curtin near Ballinderreen, told me that +he was going along the road one night and he saw a dog. It had claws +like a cur, and a body like a person, and he couldn't see what its +head was like. But it was moaning like a soul in pain, and presently +it vanished, and there came most beautiful music, and a woman came +out and he thought at first it was the Banshee, and she wearing a red +petticoat. And a striped jacket she had on, and a white band about +her waist. And to hear more beautiful singing and music he never did, +but to know or to understand what she was expressing, he couldn't do +it. And at last they came to a place by the roadside where there were +some bushes. And she went in there and disappeared under them, and +the most beautiful lights came shining where she went in. And when he +got home, he himself fainted, and his mother put her beads over him, +and blessed him and said prayers. So he got quiet at last. + + * * * * * + +I would easily believe about the dog having a fight with something +his owner couldn't see. That often happens in this island, and that's +why every man likes to have a black dog with him at night--a black +one is the best for fighting such things. + +And a black cock everyone likes to have in their house--a March cock +it should be. + + * * * * * + +I knew the captain of a ship used to go whale fishing, and he said he +saw them by scores. But by his account they were no way like the ones +McDaragh saw; it was I described them to him. + + * * * * * + +We don't give in to such things here as they do in the middle island; +but I wouldn't doubt that about the dog. For they can see what we +can't see. And there was a man here was out one night and the dog +ran on and attacked something that was in front of him--a faery it +was--but he could see nothing. And every now and again it would do +the same thing, and seemed to be fighting something before him, +and when they got home the man got safe into the house, but at the +threshold the dog was killed. + +And a horse can see many things, and if ever you're out late, and the +horse to stop as if there was something he wouldn't pass, make the +sign of the cross between his ears, and he'll go on then. And it's +well to have a cock always in the house, if you can have it from a +March clutch, and the next year if you can have another cock from a +March clutch from that one, it's the best. And if you go late out of +the house, and that there is something outside it would be bad to +meet, that cock will crow before you'll go out. + + * * * * * + +I'm sorry I wasn't in to meet you surely, knowing as much as I do +about the faeries. One night I went with four or five others down by +the mill to hunt rabbits. And when we got to the field by the river +there was the sound of hundreds, some crying and the other part +laughing, that we all heard them. And something came down to the +river, first I thought he was a dog and then I saw he was too big and +strange looking. And you'd think there wouldn't be a drop of water +left in the river with all he drank. And I bid the others say nothing +about it, for Patrick Green was lying sick at the mill, and it might +be taken for a bad sign. And it wasn't many days after that he died. + + * * * * * + +My father told me that one night he was crossing this road, and +he turned to the wall to close his shoe. And when he turned again +there was something running through the field that was the size of a +yearling calf, and black, and it ran across the road, and there was +like the sound of chains in it. And when it came to that rock with +the bush on it, it stopped and he could see a red light in its mouth. +And then it disappeared. He used often to see a black dog in this +road, and it used to be following him, and others saw it too. But one +night the brother of the priest, Father Mitchel, saw it and he told +the priest and he banished it. + +The lake down there (Lough Graney) is an enchanted place, and old +people told me that one time they were swimming there, and a man had +gone out into the middle and they saw something like a great big eel +making for him, and they called out, "If ever you were a great swimmer +show us now how you can swim to the shore," for they wouldn't frighten +him by saying what was behind him. So he swam to the shore, and he only +got there when the thing behind him was in the place where he was. For +there are queer things in lakes. I never saw anything myself, but one +time I was coming home late from Scariff, and I felt my hair standing +up on my head, and I began to feel a sort of shy and fearful, and I +could feel that there was something walking beside me. But after a +while there was a little stream across the road, and after I passed +that I was all right again and could feel nothing near. + + * * * * * + +I never saw anything myself but once, early in the morning and I going +to the May fair of Loughrea. It was a little way outside of the town +I saw something that had the appearance of a black pig, and it was +running in under the cart and under the ass's feet. And the ass would +keep backing away from it, that it was hardly I could bring her along, +till we got to the bridge of Cloon, and once we were over that we saw +it no more, for it couldn't pass the running water. And all the time it +was with us I was hitting at it with my stick, and it would run from +me then, for it was a hazel stick, and the hazel is blessed, and no +wicked thing can stay when it is touched with it. It is likely the nuts +are blessed too. Aren't they growing on the same tree? + + * * * * * + +I was over at Phayre's mill one time to get some boards sawed and +they said I must wait an hour or so, where the mill wasn't free. And +I had a load of turf to get, and I went along the road. And I heard +something coming after me in the gutter, and it stood up over me like +an elephant, and I put my hands behind me and I said, "Madad Fior," +and he went away. It was just at the bridge he was, near Kilchriest, +and when I was coming back after a while, just when I got to the +bridge there, he was after me again. But I never saw him since then. + + * * * * * + +One time I was at the fair at Ballinasloe, and I but a young lad at the +time, and a comrade with me that was but a young lad too. We brought in +the sheep the Monday evening, and they were sold the Tuesday morning, +and the master bid us to go home on the train. "Bad cess," said my +comrade, "are we to get no good at all out of the fair? Let us stop," +says he, "and get the good of it and go back by the mail train." So +we went through the fair together and went to a dance, and the master +never knew, and we went home on the mail train together. We got out at +Woodlawn and we were going home, and we heard a sort of a groaning and +we could see nothing, and the boy that was with me was frightened, for +though he was a strong boy, he was a timorous man. We found then the +groaning coming from beyond the wall, and I went and put my two fists +on the wall and looked over it. There were two trees on the other side +of the wall, and I saw walking off and down from one tree to the other, +something that was like a soldier or a sentry. The body was a man's +body, and there was a black suit on it, but it had the head of a bear, +the very head and _puss_ of a bear. I asked what was on him. "Don't +speak to me, don't speak to me," he said, and he stopped by the tree +and was groaning and went away. + +That is all that ever I saw, and I herding sheep in the lambing +season, and falling asleep as I did sometimes, and walking up and +down the field in my sleep. + + * * * * * + +My father told me that in the bad times, about the year '48, he used +to be watching about in the fields, where the people did be stealing +the crops. And there was no field in Coole he was afraid to go into +by night except one, that is number three in the Lake Farm. For the +dog that was about in those times stopped the night in the clump +there. And Johnny Callan told me one night passing that field he +heard the noise of a cart of stones thrown against the wall. But when +he went back there in the morning there was no sign of anything at +all. My father never saw the dog himself but he was known to be there +and he felt him. + +And as for the monster, I never saw it in Coole Lake, but one day I +was coming home with my two brothers from Tirneevan school, and there +as we passed Dhulough we heard a great splashing, and we saw some +creature put up its head, with a head and a mane like a horse. And we +didn't stop but ran. + +But I think it was not so big as the monster over here in Coole Lake, +for Johnny Callan saw it, and he said it was the size of a stack of +turf. But there's many could tell about that for there's many saw it, +Dougherty from Gort and others. + + * * * * * + +As to the dog that used to be in the road, a friend of his own +was driving Father Boyle from Kinvara late one night and there it +was--first on the right side and then on the left of the car. And at +last he told Father Boyle, and he said, "Look out now for it, and +you'll see it no more," and no more he did, and that was the last of it. + +But the driver of the mail-car often seen a figure of a woman +following the car till it came to the churchyard beyond Ardrahan, and +there it disappeared. + +Father Boyle was a good man indeed--a child might speak to him. They +said he had the dog or whatever it may be banished from the road, but +of late I heard the driver of the mail-car saying he sees it on one +spot on the road every night. And there's a very lonely hollow beyond +Doran's house, and I know a man that never passed by that hollow +but what he'd fall asleep. But one night he saw a sort of a muffled +figure and he cried out three times some good wish--such as "God have +mercy on you"--and then it gave a great laugh and vanished and he saw +it no more. As to the forths or other old places, how do we know what +poor soul may be shut up there, confined in pain? + + * * * * * + +Sure a man the other day coming back from your own place, Inchy, when +he came to the big tree, heard a squealing, and there he saw a sort +of a dog, and it white, and it followed as if holding on to him all +the way home. And when he got to the house he near fainted, and asked +for a glass of water. + + * * * * * + +There's some sort of a monster at Tyrone, rising and slipping up and +down in the sun, and when it cries, some one will be sure to die. + + * * * * * + +I didn't believe in them myself till one night I was coming home from +a wedding, and standing on the road beside me I saw John Kelly's +donkey that he always used to call Neddy. So he was standing in my +way and I gave a blow at him and said, "Get out of that, Neddy." And +he moved off only to come across me again, and to stop me from going +in. And so he did all the way, till as I was going by a bit of wood I +heard come out of it two of the clearest laughs that ever you heard, +and then two sorts of shouts. So I knew that it was having fun with +me they were, and that it was not Neddy was there, but his likeness. + +I knew a priest was stopped on the road one night by something in the +shape of a big dog, and he couldn't make the horse pass it. + + * * * * * + +One night I saw the dog myself, in the boreen near my house. And that +was a bad bit of road, two or three were killed there. + +And one night I was between Kiltartan Chapel and Nolan's gate where I +had some sheep to look after for the priest. And the dog I had with +me ran out into the middle of the road, and there he began to yelp +and to fight. I stood and watched him for a while, and surely he was +fighting with another dog, but there was nothing to be seen. + +And in the same part of the road one night I heard horses galloping, +galloping past me. I could hear their hoofs, and they shod, on the +stones of the road. But though I stood aside and looked--and it was +bright moonlight--there were no horses to be seen. But they were +there, and believe me they were not without riders. + + * * * * * + +Well, myself I once slept in a house with some strange thing. I had my +aunt then, Mrs. Leary, living near, and I but a small little girl at +the time. And one day she came to our house and asked would I go sleep +with her, and I said I would if she'd give me a ride on her back, and +so she did. And for many a night after that she brought me to sleep +with her, and my mother used to be asking why, and she'd give no reason. + +Well, the cause of her wanting me was this. Every night so sure as +she put the candle out, _it_ would come and lie upon her feet and +across her body and near smother her, and she could feel it breathing +but could see nothing. I never felt anything at all myself, I being +sound asleep before she quenched the light. At last she went to Father +Smith--God rest his soul!--and he gave her a prayer to say at the +moment of the Elevation of the Mass. So the next time she attended Mass +she used it, and that night it was wickeder than ever it had been. + +So after that she wrote to her son in America to buy a ticket for +her, and she went out to him and remained some years. And it was only +after she came back she told me and my mother what used to happen on +those nights, and the reason she wanted me to be beside her. + + * * * * * + +There was never any one saw so many of those things as Johnny +Hardiman's father on this estate, and now he's old and got silly, and +can't tell about them any more. One time he was walking into Gort +along the Kiltartan road, and he saw one of them before him in the +form of a tub, and it rolling along. + +Another time he was coming home from Kinvara, and a black and white +dog came out against him from the wall, but he took no notice of it. +But when he got near his own house it came out against him again and +bit him in the leg, and he got hold of it and lifted it up and took +it by the throat and choked it; and when he was sure it was dead he +threw it by the roadside. But in the morning he went out first thing +early to look at the body, and there was no sign at all of it there. + + * * * * * + +So I believe indeed that old Michael Barrett hears them and sees +them. But they do him no mischief nor harm at all. They wouldn't, and +he such an old resident. But there's many wouldn't believe he sees +anything because they never seen them themselves. + +I never did but once, when I was a slip of a girl beyond at +Lissatiraheely, and one time I went across to the big forth to get a +can of water. And when I got near to it I heard voices, and when I +came to where the water runs out they were getting louder and louder. +And I stopped and looked down, and there in the passage where the +water comes I seen a dog within, and there was a great noise--working +I suppose they were. And I threw down the can and turned and ran, and +never went back for it again. But here since I lived in Coole I never +seen anything and never was afeared of anything except one time only +in the evening, when I was walking down the little by-lane that leads +to Ballinamantane. And there standing in the path before me I seen the +very same dog that was in the old forth before. And I believe I leaped +the wall to get away into the high-road. And what day was that but +the very same day that Sir William--the Lord be with his soul!--was +returned a Member of Parliament, and a great night it was in Kiltartan. + +But I'm noways afeared of anything and I give you my word I'd walk +in the dead of night in the nut-wood or any other place--except only +the cross beyond Inchy, I'd sooner not go by there. There's two or +three has their life lost there--Heffernan of Kildesert, one of your +ladyship's own tenants, he was one. He was at a fair, and there was +a horse another man wanted, but he got inside him and got the horse. +And when he was riding home, when he came to that spot it reared +back and threw him, and he was taken up dead. And another man--one +Gallagher--fell off the top of a creel of turf in the same place and +lost his life. And there was a woman hurted some way another time. +What's that you're saying, John--that Gallagher had a drop too much +taken? That might be so indeed; and what call has a man that has +drink taken to go travel upon top of a creel of turf? + +That dog I met in the boreen at Ballinamantane, he was the size of a +calf, and black, and his paws the size of I don't know what. I was +sitting in the house one day, and he came in and sat down by the +dresser and looked at me. And I didn't like the look of him when I +saw the big eyes of him, and the size of his legs. And just then a +man came in that used to make his living by making mats, and he used +to lodge with me for a night now and again. And he went out to bring +his cart away where he was afraid it'd be knocked about by the people +going to the big bonefire at Kiltartan cross-roads. And when he went +out I looked out the door, and there was the dog sitting under the +cart. So he made a hit at it with a stick, and it was in the stones +the stick stuck, and there was the dog sitting at the other side of +him. So he came in and gave me abuse and said I must be a strange +woman to have such things about me. And he never would come to lodge +with me again. But didn't the dog behave well not to do him an injury +after he hitting it? It was surely some man that was in that dog, +some soul in trouble. + + * * * * * + +Beasts will sometimes see more than a man will. There were three +young chaps I know went up near Ballyturn to hunt coneens (young +rabbits) and they threw the dog over the wall. And when he was in the +field he gave a yelp and drew back as if something had struck him +on the head. And with all they could do, and the rabbits and the +coneens running about the field, they couldn't get him to stir from +that and they had to come home with no rabbits. + + * * * * * + +One time I was helping Sully, the butcher in Loughrea, and I had to go +to a country house to bring in a measly pig the people had, and that he +was to allow them something for. So I got there late and had to stop +the night. And in the morning at daylight I looked from the window and +saw a cow eating the potatoes, so I went down to drive him off. And in +the kitchen there was lying by the hearth a dog, a speckled one, with +spots of black and white and yellow. And when he saw me he got up and +went over to the door and went out through it. And then I saw that the +door was shut and locked. So I went back again and told the people of +the house what I saw and they were frightened and made me stop the next +night. And in the night the clothes were taken off me and a heavy blow +struck me in the chest, and the feel of it was like the feel of ice. So +I covered myself up again and put my hand under the bedclothes, and I +never came to that house again. + + * * * * * + +I never seen anything myself, but I remember well that when I was a +young chap there was a black dog between Coole gatehouse and Gort for +many a year, and many met him there. Tom Miller came running into +our house one time when he was after seeing him, and at first sight +he thought he was a man, where he was standing with his paws up upon +the wall, and then he vanished out of sight. But there never was any +common dog the size of him, and it's many a one saw him, and it was +Father Boyle that banished him out of it at last. + + * * * * * + +Except that thing at Inchy Weir, I never saw anything myself. But one +evening I parted from Larry Cuniffe in the yard, and he went away +through the path in Shanwalla and bid me goodnight. But two hours +after, there he was back again in the yard, and bid me light a candle +was in the stable. And he told me that when he got into Shanwalla a +little chap about as high as his knee, but having a head as big as +a man's body, came beside him and led him out of the path and round +about, and at last it brought him to the limekiln, and there left him. + + * * * * * + +There is a dog now at Lismara, black and bigger than a natural dog, +is about the roads at night. He wouldn't be there so long if any one +had the courage to question him. + + * * * * * + +Stephen O'Donnell in Connemara told me that one time he shot a hare, +and it turned into a woman, a neighbour of his own. And she had his +butter taken for the last two years, but she begged and prayed for +life on her knees, so he spared her, and she gave him back his butter +after that, a double yield. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman at Glenlough when I was young could change herself +into an eel. It was in Galway Workhouse Hospital she got the +knowledge. A woman that had the knowledge of doing it by witchcraft +asked her would she like to learn, and she said that she would, for +she didn't know what it would bring on her. For every time she did +it, she'd be in bed a fortnight after with all she'd go through. +Sir Martin O'Neill when he was a young lad heard of it, and he got +her into a room, and made her do it for him, and when he saw her +change to an eel he got frightened and tried to get away, but she got +between him and the door, and showed her teeth at him and growled. +She wasn't the better of that for a fortnight after. + + * * * * * + +Indeed the porter did me great good, a good that I'd hardly like to +tell you, not to make a scandal. Did I drink too much of it? Not at +all, I have no fancy for it, but the nights seemed to be long. But +this long time I am feeling a worm in my side that is as big as an +eel, and there's more of them in it than that, and I was told to put +sea-grass to it, and I put it to the side the other day, and whether +it was that or the porter I don't know, but there's some of them gone +out of it, and I think it's the porter. + + * * * * * + +I knew a woman near Clough was out milking her cow, and when she +got up to go away she saw one of those worms coming after her, and +it eight feet long, and it made a jump about eight yards after her. +And I heard of a man went asleep by a wall one time, and one of them +went down his throat and he never could get rid of it till a woman +from the North came. And what she bade him do was to get a bit of old +crock butter and to make a big fire on the hearth, and to put the +butter in a half round on the hearth, and to get two men to hold him +over it. And when the worms got the smell of the butter they jumped +out of his mouth, seven or eight one after another, and it was in the +fire they fell and they were burned, and that was an end of them. + + * * * * * + +As to hares, there's something queer about them, and there's some +that it's dangerous to meddle with, and that can go into any form +where they like. Sure, Mrs. Madden is after having a young son, and +it has a harelip. But she says that she doesn't remember that ever +she met a hare or looked at one. But if she did, she had a right to +rip a small bit of the seam of her dress or her petticoat, and then +it would have no power to hurt her at all. + + * * * * * + +Doran the herd says, he wouldn't himself eat the flesh of a hare. +There's something unnatural about it. But as to them being unlucky, +that may be all talk. But there's no doubt at all that a cow is found +sometimes to be run dry, and the hare to be seen coming away from her. + + * * * * * + +One time when we lived just behind Gort my father was going to a fair. +And it was the custom in those days to set out a great deal earlier +than what it is now. So it was not much past midnight when he got up +and went out the door, and the moon shining bright. And then he saw a +hare walk in from the street and turn down by the garden, and another +after it, and another and another till he counted twelve. And they all +went straight one after another and vanished. And my father came in and +shut the door, and never went out again till it was broad daylight. + + * * * * * + +There was a man watching the fire where two hares were cooking and +he heard them whistling in the pot. And when the people of the house +came home they were afraid to touch them, but the man that heard the +whistling ate a good meal of them and was none the worse. + + * * * * * + +There was an uncle of my own lived over near Garryland. And one day +himself and another man were going through the field, and they saw a +hare, and the hound that was with them gave chase, and they followed. + +And the hound was gaining on the hare and it made for a house, where +the half-door was open. And the hound made a snap at it and touched +it as it leaped the half-door. And when my uncle and the others came +up, they could find no hare, but only an old woman in the house--and +she bleeding. So there's no doubt at all but it was she took the form +of a hare. My uncle spent too much money after, and gave up his land +and went to America. + + * * * * * + +As to hares, there was a man out with his greyhound and it gave chase +to a hare. And it made for a house, and went in at the window, and +the hound just touched the leg. And when the man came up, he found an +old woman in the house, and he asked leave to search the house and so +he did in every place, but there was no hare to be seen. But when he +came in she was putting a pot on the fire, so he said that he must +look in the pot, and he took the cover off, and it was full of blood. +And before the hound gave chase, he had seen the hare sucking the +milk from a cow. + + * * * * * + +As to hares, there's no doubt at all there's some that's not natural. +One night I was making pot-whiskey up in that hill beyond. Yes +indeed, for three year, I did little but run to and fro to the still, +and one December, I was making it for the Christmas and I was taken +and got nine weeks in gaol for it--and £16 worth of whiskey spilled +that night. But there's mean people in the world; and he did it +for half a sovereign, and had to leave the country after and go to +England. Well, one night, I was watching by the fire where it was too +fierce, and it would have burned the oats. And over the hill and down +the path came two hares and walked on and into the wood. And two more +after that, and then by fours they came, and by sixes, and I'd want +a slate and a pencil to count all I saw, and it just at sunrise. And +some of them were as thin as thin. And there's no doubt at all that +those were not _hares_ I saw that night. + + * * * * * + +As to hares, they're the biggest fairies of all. Last year the boys +had one caught, and I put it in the pot to wash it and it after being +skinned, and I heard a noise come from the pot--grr-grr--and nothing +but cold water in it. And I ran to save my life, and I told the boys to +have nothing to do with it, but they wouldn't mind me. And when they +tried to eat it, and it boiled, they couldn't get their teeth into the +flesh of it, and as for the soup, it was no different from potato-water. + + * * * * * + +The village of Lissavohalane has a great name for such things. +And it's certain that once one night every year, in the month of +November, all the cats of the whole country round gather together +there and fight. My own two cats were nearly dead for days after it +last year, and the neighbours told me the same of theirs. + + * * * * * + +There was a woman had a cat and she would feed it at the table before +any other one; and if it did not get the first meat that was cooked, +the hair would rise up as high as that. Well, there were priests came +to dinner one day, and when they were helped the first, the hair +rose up on the cat's back. And one of them said to the woman it was +a queer thing to give in to a cat the way she did, and that it was a +foolish thing to be giving it the first of the food. So when it heard +that, it walked out of the house, and never came into it again. + + * * * * * + +There's something not right about cats. Steve Smith says he knew a +keeper that shot one, and it went into a sort of a heap, and when he +came near, it spoke, and he found it was some person, and it said +it had to walk its seven acres. And there's some have heard them +together at night talking Irish. + + * * * * * + +There was a hole over the door of the house that I used to live in, +where Murphy's house is now, to let the smoke out, for there was no +chimney. And one day a black cat jumped in at the hole, and stopped in +the house and never left us for a year. But on the day year he came he +jumped out again at the same hole and didn't go out of the door that +was standing open. There was no mistake about it, it was the day year. + + * * * * * + +As to cats, they're a class in themselves. They're good to catch +mice and rats, but just let them come in and out of the house for +that; they're about their own business all the time. And in the old +times they could talk. And it's said that the cats gave a shilling +for what they have; fourpence that the housekeeper might be careless +and leave the milk about that they'd get at it; and fourpence that +they'd tread so light that no one would hear them, and fourpence that +they'd be able to see in the dark. And I might as well throw out +that drop of tea I left on the dresser to cool, for the cat is after +tasting it and I wouldn't touch it after that. There might be a hair +in it, and the hair of a cat is poison. + + * * * * * + +There was a man had a house full of children, and one day he was +taking their measure for boots. And the cat that was sitting on the +hearth said, "Take my measure for a pair of boots along with the +rest." So the man did, and when he went to the shoemaker he told him +of what the cat had said. And there was a man in the shop at the +time, and he having two greyhounds with him, and one of them all +black without a single white hair. And he said, "Bring the cat here +tomorrow. You can tell it that the boots can't be made without it +coming for its measure." So the next day he brought the cat in a bag, +and when he got to his shop the man was there with his greyhounds, +and he let the cat out, and it praying him not to loosen the bag. +And it made away through the fields and the hounds after it, and +whether it killed one of them I don't know, but anyhow the black +hound killed it, the one that had not a white hair on its body. + + * * * * * + +You should never be too attentive to a cat, but just to be civil and +to give it its share. + + * * * * * + +Cats were serpents, and they were made into cats at the time, I +suppose, of some change in the world. That's why they're hard to kill +and why it's dangerous to meddle with them. If you annoy a cat it +might claw you or bite you in a way that would put poison in you, and +that would be the serpent's tooth. + + * * * * * + +There was an uncle of mine near Galway, and one night his wife was +very sick, and he had to go to the village to get something for her. +And it's a very lonely road, and as he was going what should he see +but a great number of cats, walking along the road, and they were +carrying a young cat, and crying it. + +And when he was on his way home again from the village he met them +again, and one of the cats turned and spoke to him like a person +would, and said, "Bid Lady Betty to come to the funeral or she'll be +late." So he ran on home in a great fright, and he couldn't speak for +some time after getting back to the house, but sat there by the fire +in a chair. And at last he began to tell his wife what had happened. +And when he said that he had met a cat's funeral, his own cat that +was sleeping by the hearth began to stir her tail, and looked up at +him, affectionate like. But when he got to where he was bid send Lady +Betty to the funeral, she made one dash at his face and scraped it, +she was so mad that she wasn't told at once. And then she began to +tear at the door, that they had to let her out. + +For cats is faeries, and every night they're obliged to travel over +seven acres; that's why you hear them crying about the country. It +was an old woman at the strand told me that, and she should know, for +she lived to a hundred years of age. + + * * * * * + +I saw three young weasels out in the sea, squealing, squealing, for +they couldn't get to land, and I put out a bunch of seaweed and +brought them to the land, and they went away after. I did that for +them. Weasels are not _right_, no more than cats; and I'm not sure +about foxes. + + * * * * * + +Rats are very bad, because a rat if one got the chance would do his +best to bite you, and I wouldn't like at all to get the bite of a +rat. But weasels are serpents, and if they would spit at any part of +your body it would fester, and you would get blood poisoning within +two hours. + +I knew an old doctor--Antony Coppinger at Clifden--and he told +me that if the weasels had the power of other beasts they would +not leave a human living in the world. And he said the wild wide +wilderness of the sea was full of beasts mostly the same as on earth, +like bonavs and like cattle, and they lying at the bottom of the sea +as quiet as cows in a field. + + * * * * * + +It is wrong to insult a weasel, and if you pelt them or shoot them +they will watch for you forever to ruin you. For they are enchanted +and understand all things. + +There is Mrs. Coneely that lives up the road, she had a clutch of +young geese on the floor, and a weasel walked in and brought away one +of them, but she said nothing to that. + +But it came in again, and took a hold of another of the geese and +Mrs. Coneely said, "Oh, I'm not begrudging you what you have taken, +but leave these to me for it is hard I earned them, and it is great +trouble I had rearing them. But go," she said, "to the shoemaker's +home beyond, where they have a clutch, and let you spare mine. And +that I may never sin," she said, "but it walked out, for they can +understand everything, and it did not leave one of the clutch that +was at the shoemaker's." + +It is why I called to you now when I saw you sitting there so near +to the sea; I thought the tide might steal up on you, or a weasel +might chance to come up with a fish in its mouth, and to give you a +start. It's best if you see one to speak nice to it, and to say, +"I wouldn't be begrudging you a pair of boots or of shoes if I had +them." If you treat them well they will treat you well. + + * * * * * + +And to see a weasel passing the road before you, there's nothing in +the world like that to bring you all sorts of good luck. + + * * * * * + +I was out in the field one time tilling potatoes, and two or three +more along with me, and a weasel put its head out of the wall--a +double stone wall it was--and one of the lads fired a stone at it. +Well, within a minute there wasn't a hole of the wall but a weasel +had put its head out of it, about a thousand of them, I saw that +myself. Very spiteful they are. I wouldn't like them. + + * * * * * + +The weasels, the poor creatures, they will do nothing at all on you +if you behave well to them and let them alone, but if you do not, +they will not leave a chicken in the yard. And magpies, let you do +nothing on them, or they will suck every egg and leave nothing in the +garden; but if you leave them to themselves they will do nothing but +to come into the street to pick a bit with the birds. + + * * * * * + +The granyóg (hedgehog) will do no harm to chickens or the like; +but if he will get into an orchard he will stick an apple on every +thorn, and away with him to a scalp with them to be eating through +the winter. + +I met with a granyóg one day on the mountain, and that I may never +sin, he was running up the side of it as fast as a race-horse. + + * * * * * + +There is not much luck in killing a seal. There was a man in these +parts was very fond of shooting and killing them. And seals have +claws the same as cats, and he had two daughters, and when they were +born, they had claws the same as seals. I believe there is one of +them living yet. + + * * * * * + +But the thing it is not right to touch is the _ron_ (seal) for they +are in the Sheogue. It is often I see them on the strand, sitting +there and wiping themselves on the rocks. And they have a hand with +five fingers, like any Christian. I seen six of them, coming in a +boat one time with a man from Connemara, that is the time I saw they +had the five fingers. + +There was a man killed one of them over there near the point. And he +came to the shore and it was night, and he was near dead with the want +of a blast of a pipe, and he saw a light from a house on the side of a +mountain, and he went in to ask a coal of fire to kindle the pipe. And +when he went in, there was a woman, and she called out to a man that +was lying stretched on the bed in the room, and she said, "Look till +you see who this man is." And the man that was on the bed says, "I +know you, for I have the sign of your hand on me. And let you get out +of this now," he said, "as fast as you can, and it will be best for +you." And the daughter said to him, "I wonder you to let him go as easy +as that." And you may be sure the man made off and made no delay. It +was a Sheogue house that was; and the man on the bed was the _ron_ he +had killed, but he was not dead, being of the Sheogues. + + + + + XIII + + FRIARS AND PRIEST CURES + + + + + XIII + + FRIARS AND PRIEST CURES + + +_An old woman begging at the door one day spoke of the cures done in +her early days by the Friars at Esker to the north of our county. I +asked if she had ever been there, and she burst into this praise of it:_ + +_"Esker is a grand place; this house and the house of Lough Cutra and +your own house at Roxborough, to put the three together it wouldn't +be as big as it; it is as big as the whole town of Gort, in its own +way; you wouldn't have it walked in a month._ + +_"To go there you would get cured of anything unless it might be the +stroke of the Fool that does be going with_ them; _it's best not be +talking of it. The clout he would give you, there is no cure for it._ + +_"Three barrels there are with water, and to see the first barrel +boiling it is certain you will get a cure. A big friar will come out +to meet us that is as big as three. Fat they do be that they can't +hardly get through the door. Water there does be rushing down; you to +stoop you would hear it talking; you would be afraid of the water._ + +_"One well for the rich and one well for the common; blue blinds to +the windows like little bars of timber without. You can see where the +friars are buried down dead to the end of the world._ + +"_They give out clothes to the poor, bedclothes and day clothes; it +is the beautifullest place from heaven out; summer houses and pears; +glass in the walls around._" + + +_I have been told:_ + +The Esker friars used to do great cures--Father Callaghan was the +best of them. They used to do it by reading, but what it was they +read no one knew, some secret thing. + +There was a girl brought from Clare one time, that had lost her wits, +and she tied on a cart with ropes. And she was brought to Father +Callaghan and he began reading over her, and then he made a second +reading, and at the end of that, he bid them unloose the ropes, +and when they did she got up quite quiet, but very shy looking and +ashamed, and would not wait for the cart but walked away. + + * * * * * + +Father Callaghan was with a man near this one time, one Tully, and +they were talking about the faeries and the man said he didn't +believe in them at all. And Father Callaghan called him to the door +and put up his fingers and bade him look out through them, and there +he saw hundreds and hundreds of the smallest little men he ever saw +and they hurling and killing one another. + + * * * * * + +The friars are gone and there are missioners come in their place and +all they would do for you is to bless holy water, and as long as you +would keep it, it would never get bad. + + * * * * * + +My daughter, Mrs. Meehan, that lives there below, was very bad after +her first baby being born, and she wasted away and the doctors could +do nothing for her. My husband went to Biddy Early for her, but she +said, "Mother for daughter, father for son" and she could do nothing +for her because I didn't go. But I had promised God and the priest I +would never go to her, and so I kept to my word. But Mrs. Meehan was so +bad she kept to the bed, and one day one of the neighbours said I had a +right to bring her to the friars at Esker. And he said, "It's today you +should be in it, Monday, for a Monday gospel is the best, the gospel +of the Holy Ghost." So I got the cart after and put her in it, and she +lying down, and we had to rest and to take out the horse at Lenane, and +we got to Craughwell for the night. And the man of the house where we +got lodging for the night said the priest that was doing cures now was +Father Blake and he showed us the way to Esker. And when we got there +he was in the chapel, and my daughter was brought in and laid on a +form, and I went out and waited with the cart, and within half an hour +the chapel door opened, and my daughter walked out that was carried +in. And she got up on the cart herself. It was a gospel had been read +over her. And I said, "I wish you had asked a gospel to bring with you +home." And after that we saw a priest on the other side of a dry stone +wall, and he learning three children. And she asked a gospel of him, +and he said, "What you had today will do you, and I haven't one made up +at this time." So she came home well. She went another time there, when +she had something and asked for a gospel, and Father Blake said, "We're +out of doing it now, but as you were with us before, I'll do it for +you." And she wanted to give him £1 but he said, "If I took it I would +do nothing for you." So she said, "I'll give it to the other man," and +so she did. + + * * * * * + +I often saw Father Callaghan in Esker and the people brought to him +in carts. Many cures he did, but he was prevented often. And I knew +another priest did many cures, but he was carried away himself after, +to a lunatic asylum. And when he came back, he would do no more. + + * * * * * + +There was a little chap had but seven years, and he was doing no +good, but whistling and twirling, and the father went to Father +Callaghan, that was just after coming out of the gaol when he got +there, for doing cures; it is a gaol of their own they had. The man +asked him to do a cure on his son, and Father Callaghan said, "I +wouldn't like him to be brought here, but I will go some day to your +house; I will go with my dog and my hound as if fowling, and I will +bring no sign of a car or a carriage at all." So he came one day to +the house and knocked at the door. And when he came in he said to the +father, "Go out and bring me in a bundle of sally rods that will be +as thin as rushes, and divide them into six small parts," he said, +"and twist every one of the six parts together." And when that was +done, he took the little bundle of rods, and he beat the child on the +head with them one after another till they were in flitters and the +child roaring. Then he laid the child in the father's arms, and no +sooner there than it fell asleep, and Father Callaghan said to the +father, "What you have now is your own, but it wasn't your own that +was in it before." + + * * * * * + +There used to be swarms of people going to Esker, and Father Callaghan +would say in Irish, "Let the people in the Sheogue stand at one side," +and he would go over and read over them what he had to read. + + * * * * * + +There was an uncle of my own was working at Ballycluan the time the +Quakers were making a place there, and it was the habit when the +summer was hot to put the beds out into the barn. And one night he +was sleeping in the barn, and something came and lay on him in the +bed; he could not see what it was, but it was about the size of the +foal of a horse. And the next night it came again and the next, and +lay on him, and he put out his left hand to push it from him, and +it went from him quite quiet, but if it did, when he rose in the +morning, he was not able to stretch out his hand, and he was a long +time like that and then his father brought him to the friars at +Esker, and within twelve minutes one of them had him cured, reading +over him, but I'm not sure was it Father Blake or Father Callaghan. + +But it was not long after that till he fell off his cart as if he was +knocked off it, and broke his leg. The coppinger had his leg cured, +but he did not live long, for the third thing happened was, he threw +up his heart's blood and died. + +For if you are cured of one thing that comes on you like that, +another thing will come on you in its place, or if not on you, on +some other person, maybe some one in your own family. It is very +often I noticed that to happen. + + * * * * * + +The priests in old times used to have the power to cure strokes and +madness and the like, but the Pope and the Bishops have that stopped; +they said that the people will get out of witchcraft little by little. + + * * * * * + +Priests can do cures if they will, and it's not out of the Gospel +they do them, but out of a book specially for the purpose, so I +believe. But something falls on them or on the things belonging to +them, if they do it too often. + +But Father Keeley for certain did cures. It was he cured Mike +Madden's neck, when everyone else had failed--so they had--though +Mike has never confessed to it. + + * * * * * + +The priests can do cures surely, and surely they can put harm on you. +But they wouldn't do that unless they'd be sure a man would deserve it. +One time at that house you see up there beyond, Roche's, there was a +wedding and there was some fighting came out of it, and bad blood. And +Father Boyle was priest at that time, and he was vexed and he said he'd +come and have stations at the house, and they should all be reconciled. + +So he came on the day he appointed and the house was settled like +a chapel, and some of the people there was bad blood between came, +but not all of them, and Roche himself was not there. And when +the stations were over Father Boyle got his book, and he read the +names of those he had told to be there, and they answered, like a +schoolmaster would call out the names of his scholars. And when +Roche's name was read and he not there to answer, with the dint of +madness Father Boyle quenched the candles on the altar, and he said +this house and all that belong to it will go away to nothing, like +the froth that's going down the river. + +And if you look at the house now you'll see the way it is, not a stable +or an outhouse left standing, and not one of the whole family left in +it but Roche, and he paralysed. So they can do both harm and good. + + * * * * * + +There was a man out in the mountains used to do cures, and one day on +a little road the priest met him, and stopped his car and began to +abuse him for the cures he was doing. + +And then the priest went on, and when he had gone a bit of the road +his horse fell down. And he came back and called to the man and said, +"Come help me now, for this is your doing, to make the horse fall." +And the man said, "It's none of my doing, but it's the doing of my +master, for he was vexed with the way you spoke. But go back now and +you'll find the horse as he was before." So he went back and the +horse had got up and was standing, and nothing wrong with him at all. +And the priest said no more against him from that day. + + * * * * * + +My son is lame this long time; a fine young man he was, about +seventeen years--and a pain came in his knee all of a moment. I tried +doctors with him and I brought him to the friars in Loughrea, and one +of them read a gospel over him, and the pain went after that, but the +knee grew out to be twisted like. The friar said it was surely he had +been overheated. A little old maneen he was, very ancient. I knew +well it was the _drochuil_ that did it; there by the side of the road +he was sitting when he got the frost. + +There was a needlewoman used to be sewing late on a Saturday night, +and sometimes if there was a button or a thread wanting she would put +it in, even if it was Sunday morning; and she lived in Loughrea that +is near your own home. And one day she went to the loch to get a can +of water, and it was in her hand. And in a minute a blast of wind +came that rose all the dust and the straws and knocked herself. And +more than that, her mouth was twisted around to her poll. + +There were some people saw her, and they brought her home, and within +a week her mother brought her to the priest. And when he saw her he +said, "You are the best mother ever there was, for if you had left +her nine days without bringing her to me, all I could do would not +have taken off her what is on her." He asked then up to what time +did she work on the Saturday night, and she said up to one or two +o'clock, and sometimes on a Sunday morning. So he took off what was +on her, and bade her do that no more, and she got well, but to the +last there was a sort of a twisted turn in her mouth. + +That woman now I am telling you of was an aunt of my own. + + * * * * * + +Father Nolan has a kind heart, and he'd do cures. But it's hard to +get them, unless it would be for some they had a great interest in. +But Father McConaghy is so high in himself, he wouldn't do anything +of that sort. When Johnny Dunne was bad, two years ago, and all but +given over, he begged and prayed Father McConaghy to do it for him. +And he refused and said, "You must commit yourself to the mercy of +Almighty God," and Johnny Dunne, the poor man, said, "It's a hard +thing for a man that has a house full of children to be left to the +mercy of Almighty God." + + * * * * * + +But there's _some_ that can help. My father told me long ago that my +sister was lying sick for a long time, and one night a beggarman came +to the door and asked for shelter. And he said, "I can't give you +shelter, with my daughter lying sick in the room." "Let me in, it's +best for you," says he. And in the morning he went away, and the sick +girl rose up, as well as ever she was before. + + * * * * * + +Father Flaherty, when he was a curate, could open the eyes that were +all but closed in death, but he wouldn't have such things spoken of +now. Losses they may have, but that's not all. Whatever evil thing +they raise, they may not have strength after to put it down again, +and so they may be lost themselves in the end. + + * * * * * + +Surely they can do cures, and they can tell sometimes the hour you'd +go. There was a girl I knew was sick, and when the priest came and +saw her, he said, "Between the two Masses tomorrow she'll be gone," +and so she was. And those that saw her after, said that it was the +face of her mother that died before that was on the bed, and that it +was her mother had taken her to where she was. + + * * * * * + +And Mike Barrett surely saw a man brought in a cart to Father +Curley's house when he lived in Cloon, and carried upstairs to him, +and he walked down out of the house again, sound and well. But they +must lose something when they do cures--either their health or +something else, though many say no one did so many cures as Father +Fitzgerald when he was a curate. Father Airlie one time was called +in to Glover's house where he was lying sick, and did a cure on him. +And he had a cow at the time that was in calf. And soon after some +man said to him "The cow will be apt soon to calve," though it wasn't +very near the time. And Father Airlie said "She'll never live to do +that." And sure enough in a couple of days after she was dead. + + + + + SWEDENBORG, MEDIUMS, AND THE + DESOLATE PLACES + + + + + SWEDENBORG, MEDIUMS, AND THE + DESOLATE PLACES + + I + + +Some fifteen years ago I was in bad health and could not work, and +Lady Gregory brought me from cottage to cottage while she began to +collect the stories in this book, and presently when I was at work +again she went on with her collection alone till it grew to be, so +far as I know, the most considerable book of its kind. Except that I +had heard some story of "The Battle of the Friends" at Aran and had +divined that it might be the legendary common accompaniment of death, +she was not guided by any theory of mine, but recorded what came, +writing it out at each day's end and in the country dialect. It was at +this time mainly she got the knowledge of words that makes her little +comedies of country life so beautiful and so amusing. As that ancient +system of belief unfolded before us, with unforeseen probabilities and +plausibilities, it was as though we had begun to live in a dream, and +one day Lady Gregory said to me when we had passed an old man in the +wood: "That old man may know the secret of the ages." + +I had noticed many analogies in modern spiritism and began a more +careful comparison, going a good deal to séances for the first time +and reading all writers of any reputation I could find in English +or French. I found much that was moving, when I had climbed to the +top story of some house in Soho or Holloway, and, having paid my +shilling, awaited, among servant girls, the wisdom of some fat old +medium. That is an absorbing drama, though if my readers begin to +seek it they will spoil it, for its gravity and simplicity depends on +all, or all but all, believing that their dead are near. + +I did not go there for evidence of the kind the Society for Psychical +Research would value, any more than I would seek it in Galway or +in Aran. I was comparing one form of belief with another, and like +Paracelsus, who claimed to have collected his knowledge from midwife +and hangman, I was discovering a philosophy. Certain things had +happened to me when alone in my own room which had convinced me that +there are spiritual intelligences which can warn us and advise us, +and, as Anatole France has said, if one believes that the Devil can +walk the streets of Lisbon, it is not difficult to believe that he +can reach his arm over the river and light Don Juan's cigarette. And +yet I do not think I have been easily convinced, for I know we make a +false beauty by a denial of ugliness and that if we deny the causes +of doubt we make a false faith, and that we must excite the whole +being into activity if we would offer to God what is, it may be, the +one thing germane to the matter, a consenting of all our faculties. +Not but that I doubt at times, with the animal doubt of the Middle +Ages that I have found even in pious countrywomen when they have +seen some life come to an end like the stopping of a clock, or that +all the perceptions of the soul, or the weightiest intellectual +deductions, are not at whiles but a feather in the daily show. + +I pieced together stray thoughts written out after questioning the +familiar of a trance medium or automatic writer, by Allen Cardec, +or by some American, or by myself, or arranged the fragments into +some pattern, till I believed myself the discoverer of a vast +generalization. I lived in excitement, amused to make Holloway +interpret Aran, and constantly comparing my discoveries with what I +have learned of mediæval tradition among fellow students, with the +reveries of a Neo-platonist, of a seventeenth-century Platonist, of +Paracelsus or a Japanese poet. Then one day I opened _The Spiritual +Diary_ of Swedenborg, which I had not taken down for twenty years, +and found all there, even certain thoughts I had not set on paper +because they had seemed fantastic from the lack of some traditional +foundation. It was strange I should have forgotten so completely a +writer I had read with some care before the fascination of Blake and +Boehme had led me away. + + + II + +It was indeed Swedenborg who affirmed for the modern world, as +against the abstract reasoning of the learned, the doctrine and +practice of the desolate places, of shepherds and of midwives, and +discovered a world of spirits where there was a scenery like that of +earth, human forms, grotesque or beautiful, senses that knew pleasure +and pain, marriage and war, all that could be painted upon canvas, +or put into stories to make one's hair stand up. He had mastered the +science of his time, he had written innumerable scientific works in +Latin, had been the first to formulate the nebular hypothesis and +wrote a cold abstract style, the result it may be of preoccupation +with stones and metals, for he had been assessor of mines to the +Swedish Government, and of continual composition in a dead language. + +In his fifty-eighth year he was sitting in an inn in London, where +he had gone about the publication of a book, when a spirit appeared +before him who was, he believed, Christ himself, and told him that +henceforth he could commune with spirits and angels. From that moment +he was a mysterious man describing distant events as if they were +before his eyes, and knowing dead men's secrets, if we are to accept +testimony that seemed convincing to Emmanuel Kant. The sailors who +carried him upon his many voyages spoke of the charming of the waves +and of favouring winds that brought them sooner than ever before +to their journey's end, and an ambassador described how a queen, he +himself looking on, fainted when Swedenborg whispered in her ear +some secret known only to her and to her dead brother. And all this +happened to a man without egotism, without drama, without a sense +of the picturesque, and who wrote a dry language, lacking fire and +emotion, and who to William Blake seemed but an arranger and putter +away of the old Church, a Samson shorn by the churches, an author not +of a book, but of an index. He considered heaven and hell and God, +the angels, the whole destiny of man, as if he were sitting before a +large table in a Government office putting little pieces of mineral +ore into small square boxes for an assistant to pack away in drawers. + +All angels were once men, he says, and it is therefore men who have +entered into what he calls the Celestial State and become angels, +who attend us immediately after death, and communicate to us their +thoughts, not by speaking, but by looking us in the face as they +sit beside the head of our body. When they find their thoughts are +communicated they know the time has come to separate the spiritual +from the physical body. If a man begins to feel that he can endure +them no longer, as he doubtless will, for in their presence he can +think and feel but sees nothing, lesser angels who belong to truth +more than to love take their place and he is in the light again, but +in all likelihood these angels also will be too high and he will +slip from state to state until he finds himself after a few days +"with those who are in accord with his life in the world; with them +he finds his life, and, wonderful to relate, he then leads a life +similar to that he led in the world." This first state of shifting and +readjustment seems to correspond with a state of sleep more modern +seers discover to follow upon death. It is characteristic of his whole +religious system, the slow drifting of like to like. Then follows a +period which may last but a short time or many years, while the soul +lives a life so like that of the world that it may not even believe +that it has died, for "when what is spiritual touches and sees what +is spiritual the effect is the same as when what is natural touches +what is natural." It is the other world of the early races, of those +whose dead are in the rath or the faery hill, of all who see no place +of reward and punishment but a continuance of this life, with cattle +and sheep, markets and war. He describes what he has seen, and only +partly explains it, for, unlike science which is founded upon past +experience, his work, by the very nature of his gift, looks for the +clearing away of obscurities to unrecorded experience. He is revealing +something and that which is revealed, so long as it remains modest +and simple, has the same right with the child in the cradle to put +off to the future the testimony of its worth. This earth-resembling +life is the creation of the image-making power of the mind, plucked +naked from the body, and mainly of the images in the memory. All our +work has gone with us, the books we have written can be opened and +read or put away for later use, even though their print and paper have +been sold to the buttermen; and reading his description one notices, +a discovery one had thought peculiar to the last generation, that the +"most minute particulars which enter the memory remain there and are +never obliterated," and there as here we do not always know all that +is in our memory, but at need angelic spirits who act upon us there as +here, widening and deepening the consciousness at will, can draw forth +all the past, and make us live again all our transgressions and see our +victims "as if they were present, together with the place, words, and +motives"; and that suddenly, "as when a scene bursts upon the sight" +and yet continues "for hours together," and like the transgressions, +all the pleasure and pain of sensible life awaken again and again, all +our passionate events rush up about us and not as seeming imagination, +for imagination is now the world. And yet another impulse comes and +goes, flitting through all, a preparation for the spiritual abyss, +for out of the celestial world, immediately beyond the world of form, +fall certain seeds as it were that exfoliate through us into forms, +elaborate scenes, buildings, alterations of form that are related +by "correspondence" or "signature" to celestial incomprehensible +realities. Meanwhile those who have loved or fought see one another +in the unfolding of a dream, believing it may be that they wound one +another or kill one another, severing arms or hands, or that their lips +are joined in a kiss, and the countryman has need but of Swedenborg's +keen ears and eagle sight to hear a noise of swords in the empty +valley, or to meet the old master hunting with all his hounds upon the +stroke of midnight among the moonlit fields. But gradually we begin to +change and possess only those memories we have related to our emotion +or our thought; all that was accidental or habitual dies away and we +begin an active present life, for apart from that calling up of the +past we are not punished or rewarded for our actions when in the world +but only for what we do when out of it. Up till now we have disguised +our real selves and those who have lived well for fear or favour have +walked with holy men and women, and the wise man and the dunce have +been associated in common learning, but now the ruling love has begun +to remake circumstance and our body. + +Swedenborg had spoken with shades that had been learned Latinists, or +notable Hebrew scholars, and found, because they had done everything +from the memory and nothing from thought and emotion, they had become +but simple men. We have already met our friends, but if we were to meet +them now for the first time we should not recognize them, for all has +been kneaded up anew, arrayed in order and made one piece. "Every man +has many loves, but still they all have reference to his ruling love +and make one with it or together compose it," and our surrender to that +love, as to supreme good, is no new thought, for Villiers de l'Isle +Adam quotes Thomas Aquinas as having said, "Eternity is the possession +of one's self, as in a single moment." During the fusing and rending +man flits, as it were, from one flock of the dead to another, seeking +always those who are like himself, for as he puts off disguise he +becomes unable to endure what is unrelated to his love, even becoming +insane among things that are too fine for him. + +So heaven and hell are built always anew and in hell or heaven all do +what they please and all are surrounded by scenes and circumstance +which are the expression of their natures and the creation of their +thought. Swedenborg because he belongs to an eighteenth century not yet +touched by the romantic revival feels horror amid rocky uninhabited +places, and so believes that the evil are in such places while the good +are amid smooth grass and garden walks and the clear sunlight of Claude +Lorraine. He describes all in matter-of-fact words, his meeting with +this or that dead man, and the place where he found him, and yet we +are not to understand him literally, for space as we know it has come +to an end and a difference of state has begun to take its place, and +wherever a spirit's thought is, the spirit cannot help but be. Nor +should we think of spirit as divided from spirit, as men are from each +other, for they share each other's thoughts and life, and those whom he +has called celestial angels, while themselves mediums to those above, +commune with men and lower spirits, through orders of mediatorial +spirits, not by a conveyance of messages, but as though a hand were +thrust within a hundred gloves,[1] one glove outside another, and so +there is a continual influx from God to man. It flows to us through the +evil angels as through the good, for the dark fire is the perversion +of God's life and the evil angels have their office in the equilibrium +that is our freedom, in the building of that fabulous bridge made out +of the edge of a sword. + +To the eyes of those that are in the high heaven "all things laugh, +sport, and live," and not merely because they are beautiful things but +because they arouse by a minute correspondence of form and emotion +the heart's activity, and being founded, as it were, in this changing +heart, all things continually change and shimmer. The garments of all +befit minutely their affections, those that have most wisdom and most +love being the most nobly garmented, in ascending order from shimmering +white, through garments of many colours and garments that are like +flame, to the angels of the highest heaven that are naked. + +In the west of Ireland the country people say that after death every +man grows upward or downward to the likeness of thirty years, perhaps +because at that age Christ began his ministry, and stays always in +that likeness; and these angels move always towards "the springtime +of their life" and grow more and more beautiful, "the more thousand +years they live," and women who have died infirm with age, and yet +lived in faith and charity, and true love towards husband or lover, +come "after a succession of years" to an adolescence that was not in +Helen's Mirror, "for to grow old in heaven is to grow young." + +There went on about Swedenborg an intermittent "Battle of the +Friends" and on certain occasions had not the good fought upon his +side, the evil troop, by some carriage accident or the like, would +have caused his death, for all associations of good spirits have an +answering mob, whose members grow more hateful to look on through the +centuries. "Their faces in general are horrible, and empty of life +like corpses, those of some are black, of some fiery like torches, +of some hideous with pimples, boils, and ulcers; with many no face +appears, but in its place a something hairy or bony, and in some one +can but see the teeth." And yet among themselves they are seeming men +and but show their right appearance when the light of heaven, which +of all things they most dread, beats upon them; and seem to live in a +malignant gaiety, and they burn always in a fire that is God's love +and wisdom, changed into their own hunger and misbelief. + + + III + +In Lady Gregory's stories there is a man who heard the newly dropped +lambs of faery crying in November, and much evidence to show a +topsy-turvydom of seasons, our spring being their autumn, our winter +their summer, and Mary Battle, my Uncle George Pollexfen's old +servant, was accustomed to say that no dream had a true meaning after +the rise of the sap; and Lady Gregory learned somewhere on Sleive +Ochta that if one told one's dreams to the trees fasting the trees +would wither. Swedenborg saw some like opposition of the worlds, for +what hides the spirits from our sight and touch, as he explains, +is that their light and heat are darkness and cold to us and our +light and heat darkness and cold to them, but they can see the +world through our eyes and so make our light their light. He seems +however to warn us against a movement whose philosophy he announced +or created, when he tells us to seek no conscious intercourse with +any that fall short of the celestial rank. At ordinary times they do +not see us or know that we are near, but when we speak to them we +are in danger of their deceits. "They have a passion for inventing," +and do not always know that they invent. "It has been shown me many +times that the spirits speaking with me did not know but that they +were the men and women I was thinking of; neither did other spirits +know the contrary. Thus yesterday and today one known of me in life +was personated. The personation was so like him in all respects, so +far as known to me, that nothing could be more like. For there are +genera and species of spirits of similar faculty (? as the dead whom +we seek), and when like things are called up in the memory of men and +so are represented to them they think they are the same persons. At +other times they enter into the fantasy of other spirits and think +that they are them, and sometimes they will even believe themselves +to be the Holy Spirit," and as they identify themselves with a man's +affection or enthusiasm they may drive him to ruin, and even an angel +will join himself so completely to a man that he scarcely knows "that +he does not know of himself what the man knows," and when they speak +with a man they can but speak in that man's mother tongue, and this +they can do without taking thought, for "it is almost as when a man +is speaking and thinks nothing about his words." Yet when they leave +the man "they are in their own angelical or spiritual language and +know nothing of the language of the man." They are not even permitted +to talk to a man from their own memory for did they do so the man +would not know "but that the things he would then think were his when +yet they would belong to the spirit," and it is these sudden memories +occurring sometimes by accident, and without God's permission that +gave the Greeks the idea they had lived before. They have bodies +as plastic as their minds that flow so readily into the mould of +ours and he remembers having seen the face of a spirit change +continuously and yet keep always a certain generic likeness. It had +but run through the features of the individual ghosts of the fleet it +belonged to, of those bound into the one mediatorial communion. + +He speaks too, again and again, of seeing palaces and mountain ranges +and all manner of scenery built up in a moment, and even believes +in imponderable troops of magicians that build the like out of some +deceit or in malicious sport. + + + IV + +There is in Swedenborg's manner of expression a seeming +superficiality. We follow an easy narrative, sometimes incredulous, +but always, as we think, understanding, for his moral conceptions are +simple, his technical terms continually repeated, and for the most +part we need but turn for his "correspondence," his symbolism as we +would say, to the index of his _Arcana Celestia_. Presently, however, +we discover that he treads upon this surface by an achievement of +power almost as full of astonishment as if he should walk upon +water charmed to stillness by some halcyon; while his disciple and +antagonist Blake is like a man swimming in a tumbling sea, surface +giving way to surface and deep showing under broken deep. A later +mystic has said of Swedenborg that he but half felt, half saw, half +tasted the kingdom of heaven, and his abstraction, his dryness, his +habit of seeing but one element in everything, his lack of moral +speculation have made him the founder of a church, while William +Blake, who grows always more exciting with every year of life, grows +also more obscure. An impulse towards what is definite and sensuous, +and an indifference towards the abstract and the general, are the +lineaments, as I understand the world, of all that comes not from the +learned, but out of common antiquity, out of the "folk" as we say, +and in certain languages, Irish for instance--and these languages are +all poetry--it is not possible to speak an abstract thought. This +impulse went out of Swedenborg when he turned from vision. It was +inseparable from this primitive faculty, but was not a part of his +daily bread, whereas Blake carried it to a passion and made it the +foundation of his thought. Blake was put into a rage by all painting +where detail is generalized away, and complained that Englishmen +after the French Revolution became as like one another as the dots +and lozenges in the mechanical engraving of his time, and he hated +histories that gave us reasoning and deduction in place of the +events, and St. Paul's Cathedral because it came from a mathematical +mind, and told Crabb Robinson that he preferred to any others a +happy, thoughtless person. Unlike Swedenborg he believed that the +antiquities of all peoples were as sacred as those of the Jews, and +so rejecting authority and claiming that the same law for the lion +and the ox was oppression, he could believe "all that lives is holy," +and say that a man if he but cultivated the power of vision would +see the truth in a way suited "to his imaginative energy," and with +only so much resemblance to the way it showed in for other men, as +there is between different human forms. Born when Swedenborg was a +new excitement, growing up with a Swedenborgian brother, who annoyed +him "with bread and cheese advice," and having, it may be, for +nearest friend the Swedenborgian Flaxman with whom he would presently +quarrel, he answered the just translated _Heaven and Hell_ with the +paradoxical violence of _The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_. Swedenborg +was but "the linen clothes folded up" or the angel sitting by the +tomb, after Christ, the human imagination, had arisen. His own memory +being full of images from painting and from poetry he discovered more +profound "correspondences," yet always in his boys and girls walking +or dancing on smooth grass and in golden light, as in pastoral scenes +cut upon wood or copper by his disciples Palmer and Calvert one +notices the peaceful Swedenborgian heaven. We come there, however, by +no obedience but by the energy that "is eternal delight," for "the +treasures of heaven are not negations of passion but realities of +intellect from which the passions emanate uncurbed in their eternal +glory." He would have us talk no more "of the good man and the bad," +but only of "the wise man and the foolish," and he cries, "Go put off +holiness and put on intellect." + +Higher than all souls that seem to theology to have found a final +state, above good and evil, neither accused, nor yet accusing, live +those, who have come to freedom, their senses sharpened by eternity, +piping or dancing or "like the gay fishes on the wave when the moon +sucks up the dew." Merlin, who in the verses of Chrétien de Troyes +was laid in the one tomb with dead lovers, is very near and the +saints are far away. Believing too that crucifixion and resurrection +were the soul's diary and no mere historical events, which had been +transacted in vain should a man come again from the womb and forget +his salvation, he could cleave to the heroic doctrine the angel in +the crystal made Sir Thomas Kelly renounce and have a "vague memory" +of having been "with Christ and Socrates"; and stirred as deeply +by hill and tree as by human beauty, he saw all Merlin's people, +spirits "of vegetable nature" and fairies whom we "call accident and +chance." He made possible a religious life to those who had seen the +painters and poets of the romantic movement succeed to theology, but +the shepherd and the midwife had they known him would have celebrated +him in stories, and turned away from his thought, understanding that +he was upon an errand to their masters. Like Swedenborg he believed +that heaven came from "an improvement of sensual enjoyment," for +sight and hearing, taste and touch grow with the angelic years, but +unlike him he could convey to others "enlarged and numerous senses," +and the mass of men know instinctively they are safer with an +abstract and an index. + + + V + +It was, I believe, the Frenchman Allen Cardec and an American +shoemaker's clerk called Jackson Davis, who first adapted to the séance +room the philosophy of Swedenborg. I find Davis whose style is vague, +voluble, and pretentious, almost unreadable, and yet his books have +gone to many editions and are full of stories that had been charming or +exciting had he lived in Connaught or any place else, where the general +mass of the people has an imaginative tongue. His mother was learned +in country superstition, and had called in a knowledgeable man when +she believed a neighbour had bewitched a cow, but it was not till his +fifteenth year that he discovered his faculty, when his native village, +Poughkeepsie, was visited by a travelling mesmerist. He was fascinated +by the new marvel, and mesmerized by a neighbour he became clairvoyant, +describing the diseases of those present and reading watches he could +not see with his eyes. One night the neighbour failed to awake him +completely from the trance and he stumbled out into the street and +went to his bed ill and stupefied. In the middle of the night he heard +a voice telling him to get up and dress himself and follow. He wandered +for miles, now wondering at what seemed the unusual brightness of the +stars and once passing a visionary shepherd and his flock of sheep, and +then again stumbling in cold and darkness. He crossed the frozen Hudson +and became unconscious. He awoke in a mountain valley to see once more +the visionary shepherd and his flock, and a very little, handsome, old +man who showed him a scroll and told him to write his name upon it. + +A little later he passed, as he believed, from this mesmeric condition +and found that he was among the Catskill Mountains and more than forty +miles from home. Having crossed the Hudson again he felt the trance +coming upon him and began to run. He ran, as he thought, many miles +and as he ran became unconscious. When he awoke he was sitting upon a +gravestone in a graveyard surrounded by a wood and a high wall. Many +of the gravestones were old and broken. After much conversation with +two stately phantoms, he went stumbling on his way. Presently he found +himself at home again. It was evening and the mesmerist was questioning +him as to where he had been since they lost him the night before. +He was very hungry and had a vague memory of his return, of country +roads passing before his eyes in brief moments of wakefulness. He now +seemed to know that one of the phantoms with whom he had spoken in the +graveyard was the physician Galen, and the other, Swedenborg. + +From that hour the two phantoms came to him again and again, the +one advising him in the diagnosis of disease, and the other in +philosophy. He quoted a passage from Swedenborg, and it seemed +impossible that any copy of the newly translated book that contained +it could have come into his hands, for a Swedenborgian minister in +New York traced every copy which had reached America. + +Swedenborg himself had gone upon more than one somnambulistic +journey, and they occur a number of times in Lady Gregory's stories, +one woman saying that when she was among the faeries she was often +glad to eat the food from the pigs' troughs. + +Once in childhood, Davis, while hurrying home through a wood, heard +footsteps behind him and began to run, but the footsteps, though they +did not seem to come more quickly and were still the regular pace of +a man walking, came nearer. Presently he saw an old, white-haired +man beside him who said: "You cannot run away from life," and asked +him where he was going. "I am going home," he said, and the phantom +answered, "I also am going home," and then vanished. Twice in later +childhood, and a third time when he had grown to be a young man, he +was overtaken by the same phantom and the same words were spoken, +but the last time he asked why it had vanished so suddenly. It said +that it had not, but that he had supposed that "changes of state" +in himself were "appearance and disappearance." It then touched him +with one finger upon the side of his head, and the place where he was +touched remained ever after without feeling, like those places always +searched for at the witches' trials. One remembers "the touch" and +"the stroke" in the Irish stories. + + + VI + +Allen Cardec, whose books are much more readable than those of Davis, +had himself no mediumistic gifts. He gathered the opinions, as he +believed, of spirits speaking through a great number of automatists +and trance speakers, and all the essential thought of Swedenborg +remains, but like Davis, these spirits do not believe in an eternal +Hell, and like Blake they describe unhuman races, powers of the +elements, and declare that the soul is no creature of the womb, +having lived many lives upon the earth. The sorrow of death, they +tell us again and again, is not so bitter as the sorrow of birth, +and had our ears the subtlety we could listen amid the joy of lovers +and the pleasure that comes with sleep to the wailing of the spirit +betrayed into a cradle. Who was it that wrote: "O Pythagoras, so +good, so wise, so eloquent, upon my last voyage, I taught thee, a +soft lad, to splice a rope"? + +This belief, common among continental spiritists, is denied by those +of England and America, and if one question the voices at a séance +they take sides according to the medium's nationality. I have even +heard what professed to be the shade of an old English naval officer +denying it with a fine phrase: "I did not leave my oars crossed; I +left them side by side." + + + VII + +Much as a hashish eater will discover in the folds of a curtain a +figure beautifully drawn and full of delicate detail all built up out +of shadows that show to other eyes, or later to his own, a different +form or none, Swedenborg discovered in the Bible the personal symbolism +of his vision. If the Bible was upon his side, as it seemed, he had +no need of other evidence, but had he lived when modern criticism +had lessened its authority, even had he been compelled to say that +the primitive beliefs of all peoples were as sacred, he could but +have run to his own gift for evidence. He might even have held of +some importance his powers of discovering the personal secrets of the +dead and set up as medium. Yet it is more likely he had refused, for +the medium has his gift from no heightening of all the emotions and +intellectual faculties till they seem as it were to take fire, but +commonly because they are altogether or in part extinguished while +another mind controls his body. He is greatly subject to trance and +awakes to remember nothing, whereas the mystic and the saint plead +unbroken consciousness. Indeed the author of _Sidonia the Sorceress_, +a really learned authority, considered this lack of memory a certain +sign of possession by the devil, though this is too absolute. Only +yesterday, while walking in a field, I made up a good sentence with an +emotion of triumph, and half a minute after could not even remember +what it was about, and several minutes had gone by before I as suddenly +found it. For the most part, though not always, it is this unconscious +condition of mediumship, a dangerous condition it may be, that seems +to make possible "physical phenomena" and that overshadowing of the +memory by some spirit memory, which Swedenborg thought an accident and +unlawful. + +In describing and explaining this mediumship and so making +intelligible the stories of Aran and Galway I shall say very seldom, +"it is said," or "Mr. So-and-So reports," or "it is claimed by the +best authors." I shall write as if what I describe were everywhere +established, everywhere accepted, and I had only to remind my reader +of what he already knows. Even if incredulous he will give me his +fancy for certain minutes, for at the worst I can show him a gorgon +or chimera that has never lacked gazers, alleging nothing (and I do +not write out of a little knowledge) that is not among the sober +beliefs of many men, or obvious inference from those beliefs, and if +he wants more--well, he will find it in the best authors.[2] + + + VIII + +All spirits for some time after death, and the "earth-bound," as +they are called, the larvæ, as Beaumont, the seventeenth-century +Platonist, preferred to call them, those who cannot become +disentangled from old habits and desires, for many years, it may be +for centuries, keep the shape of their earthly bodies and carry on +their old activities, wooing or quarrelling, or totting figures on a +table, in a round of dull duties or passionate events. Today while +the great battle in Northern France is still undecided, should I +climb to the top of that old house in Soho where a medium is sitting +among servant girls, some one would, it may be, ask for news of +Gordon Highlander or Munster Fusilier, and the fat old woman would +tell in Cockney language how the dead do not yet know they are dead, +but stumble on amid visionary smoke and noise, and how angelic +spirits seek to awaken them but still in vain. + +Those who have attained to nobler form, when they appear in the +séance room, create temporary bodies, commonly like to those they +wore when living, through some unconscious constraint of memory, or +deliberately, that they may be recognized. Davis, in his literal +way, said the first sixty feet of the atmosphere was a reflector and +that in almost every case it was mere images we spoke with in the +séance room, the spirit itself being far away. The images are made +of a substance drawn from the medium who loses weight, and in a less +degree from all present, and for this light must be extinguished or +dimmed or shaded with red as in a photographer's room. The image will +begin outside the medium's body as a luminous cloud, or in a sort of +luminous mud forced from the body, out of the mouth it may be, from +the side or from the lower parts of the body.[3] One may see a vague +cloud condense and diminish into a head or arm or a whole figure of a +man, or to some animal shape. + +I remember a story told me by a friend's steward in Galway of the +faeries playing at hurley in a field and going in and out of the +bodies of two men who stood at either goal. Out of the medium will +come perhaps a cripple or a man bent with years and sometimes the +apparition will explain that, but for some family portrait, or for +what it lit on while rumaging in our memories, it had not remembered +its customary clothes or features, or cough or limp or crutch. +Sometimes, indeed, there is a strange regularity of feature and +we suspect the presence of an image that may never have lived, an +artificial beauty that may have shown itself in the Greek mysteries. +Has some cast in the Vatican, or at Bloomsbury been the model? Or +there may float before our eyes a mask as strange and powerful as the +lineaments of the Servian's _Frowning Man_ or of Rodin's _Man with +the Broken Nose_. And once a rumour ran among the séance rooms to +the bewilderment of simple believers, that a heavy middle-aged man +who took snuff, and wore the costume of a past time, had appeared +while a French medium was in his trance, and somebody had recognized +the Tartuffe of the Comédie Française. There will be few complete +forms, for the dead are economical, and a head, or just enough of +the body for recognition, may show itself above hanging folds of +drapery that do not seem to cover solid limbs, or a hand or foot is +lacking, or it may be that some _Revenant_ has seized the half-made +image of another, and a young girl's arm will be thrust from the +withered body of an old man. Nor is every form a breathing and +pulsing thing, for some may have a distribution of light and shade +not that of the séance room, flat pictures whose eyes gleam and move; +and sometimes material objects are thrown together (drifted in from +some neighbour's wardrobe, it may be, and drifted thither again) +and an appearance kneaded up out of these and that luminous mud or +vapour almost as vivid as are those pictures of Antonio Mancini which +have fragments of his paint tubes embedded for the high lights into +the heavy masses of the paint. Sometimes there are animals, bears +frequently for some unknown reason, but most often birds and dogs. If +an image speak it will seldom seem very able or alert, for they come +for recognition only, and their minds are strained and fragmentary; +and should the dogs bark, a man who knows the language of our dogs +may not be able to say if they are hungry or afraid or glad to meet +their master again. All may seem histrionic or a hollow show. We are +the spectators of a phantasmagoria that affects the photographic +plate or leaves its moulded image in a preparation of paraffin. We +have come to understand why the Platonists of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries, and visionaries like Boehme and Paracelsus +confused imagination with magic, and why Boehme will have it that it +"creates and substantiates as it goes." + +Most commonly, however, especially of recent years, no form will show +itself, or but vaguely and faintly and in no way ponderable, and +instead there will be voices flitting here and there in darkness, +or in the half-light, or it will be the medium himself fallen into +trance who will speak, or without a trance write from a knowledge and +intelligence not his own. Glanvil, the seventeenth-century Platonist, +said that the higher spirits were those least capable of showing +material effects, and it seems plain from certain Polish experiments +that the intelligence of the communicators increases with their +economy of substance and energy. Often now among these faint effects +one will seem to speak with the very dead. They will speak or write +some tongue that the medium does not know and give correctly their +forgotten names, or describe events one only verifies after weeks +of labour. Here and there amongst them one discovers a wise and +benevolent mind that knows a little of the future and can give good +advice. They have made, one imagines, from some finer substance than +a phosphorescent mud, or cobweb vapour that we can see or handle, +images not wholly different from themselves, figures in a galanty +show not too strained or too extravagant to speak their very thought. + +Yet we never long escape the phantasmagoria nor can long forget +that we are among the shape-changers. Sometimes our own minds shape +that mysterious substance, which may be life itself, according to +desire or constrained by memory, and the dead no longer remembering +their own names become the characters in the drama we ourselves +have invented. John King, who has delighted melodramatic minds for +hundreds of séances with his career on earth as Henry Morgan the +buccaneer, will tell more scientific visitors that he is merely +a force, while some phantom long accustomed to a decent name, +questioned by some pious Catholic, will admit very cheerfully that he +is the devil. Nor is it only present minds that perplex the shades +with phantasy, for friends of Count Albert de Rochas once wrote out +names and incidents but to discover that though the surname of the +shade that spoke had been historical, Christian name and incidents +were from a romance running at the time in some clerical newspaper no +one there had ever opened. + +All these shadows have drunk from the pool of blood and become +delirious. Sometimes they will use the very word and say that we +force delirium upon them because we do not still our minds, or that +minds not stupefied with the body force them more subtly, for now +and again one will withdraw what he has said, saying that he was +constrained by the neighbourhood of some more powerful shade. + +When I was a boy at Sligo, a stable boy met his late master going +round the yard, and having told him to go and haunt the lighthouse, +was dismissed by his mistress for sending her husband to haunt +so inclement a spot. Ghosts, I was told, must go where they are +bid, and all those threatenings by the old _grimoires_ to drown +some disobedient spirit at the bottom of the Red Sea, and indeed +all exorcism and conjuration affirm that our imagination is king. +_Revenants_ are, to use the modern term, "suggestable," and may be +studied in the "trance personalities" of hypnoses and in our dreams +which are but hypnosis turned inside out, a modeller's clay for our +suggestions, or, if we follow _The Spiritual Diary_, for those of +invisible beings. Swedenborg has written that we are each in the +midst of a group of associated spirits who sleep when we sleep and +become the _dramatis personæ_ of our dreams, and are always the other +will that wrestles with our thought, shaping it to our despite. + + + IX + +We speak, it may be, of the Proteus of antiquity which has to be +held or it will refuse its prophecy, and there are many warnings in +our ears. "Stoop not down," says the Chaldæan Oracle, "to the darkly +splendid world wherein continually lieth a faithless depth and Hades +wrapped in cloud, delighting in unintelligible images," and amid that +caprice, among those clouds, there is always legerdemain; we juggle, +or lose our money with the same pack of cards that may reveal the +future. The magicians who astonished the Middle Ages with power as +incalculable as the fall of a meteor were not so numerous as the more +amusing jugglers who could do their marvels at will; and in our own +day the juggler Houdin, sent to Morocco by the French Government, was +able to break the prestige of the dervishes whose fragile wonders +were but worked by fasting and prayer. + +Sometimes, indeed, a man would be magician, jester, and juggler. In +an Irish story a stranger lays three rushes upon the flat of his hand +and promises to blow away the inner and leave the others unmoved, and +thereupon puts two fingers of his other hand upon the outer ones and +blows. However, he will do a more wonderful trick. There are many +who can wag both ears, but he can wag one and not the other, and +thereafter, when he has everybody's attention, he takes one ear between +finger and thumb. But now that the audience are friendly and laughing +the moment of miracle has come. He takes out of a bag a skein of silk +thread and throws it into the air, until it seems as though one end +were made fast to a cloud. Then he takes out of his bag first a hare +and then a dog and then a young man and then "a beautiful, well-dressed +young woman" and sends them all running up the thread. Nor, the +old writers tell us, does the association of juggler and magician +cease after death, which only gives to legerdemain greater power and +subtlety. Those who would live again in us, becoming a part of our +thoughts and passion have, it seems, their sport to keep us in good +humour, and a young girl who has astonished herself and her friends in +some dark séance may, when we have persuaded her to become entranced +in a lighted room, tell us that some shade is touching her face, while +we can see her touching it with her own hand, or we may discover her, +while her eyes are still closed, in some jugglery that implies an +incredible mastery of muscular movement. Perhaps too in the fragmentary +middle world there are souls that remain always upon the brink, always +children. Dr. Ochorowicz finds his experiments upset by a naked girl, +one foot one inch high, who is constantly visible to his medium and +who claims never to have lived upon the earth. He has photographed her +by leaving a camera in an empty room where she had promised to show +herself, but is so doubtful of her honesty that he is not sure she did +not hold up a print from an illustrated paper in front of the camera. +In one of Lady Gregory's stories a countryman is given by a stranger +he meets upon the road what seems wholesome and pleasant food, but a +little later his stomach turns and he finds that he has eaten chopped +grass, and one remembers Robin Goodfellow and his joint stool, and +witches' gold that is but dried cow dung. It is only, one does not +doubt, because of our preoccupation with a single problem, our survival +of the body, and with the affection that binds us to the dead, that all +the gnomes and nymphs of antiquity have not begun their tricks again. + + + X + +Plutarch, in his essay on the dæmon, describes how the souls of +enlightened men return to be the schoolmasters of the living, whom +they influence unseen; and the mediums, should we ask how they escape +the illusions of that world, claim the protection of their guides. One +will tell you that when she was a little girl she was minding geese +upon some American farm and an old man came towards her with a queer +coat upon him, and how at first she took him for a living man. He +said perhaps a few words of pious commonplace or practical advice and +vanished. He had come again and again, and now that she has to earn her +living by her gift, he warns her against deceiving spirits, or if she +is working too hard, but sometimes she will not listen and gets into +trouble. The old witch doctor of Lady Gregory's story learned his cures +from his dead sister whom he met from time to time, but especially at +Hallowe'en, at the end of the garden, but he had other helpers harsher +than she, and once he was beaten for disobedience. + +Reginald Scott gives a fine plan for picking a guide. You promise some +dying man to pray for the repose of his soul if he will but come to +you after death and give what help you need, while stories of mothers +who come at night to be among their orphan children are as common +among spiritists as in Galway or in Mayo. A French servant girl once +said to a friend of mine who helped her in some love affair: "You +have your studies, we have only our affections"; and this I think is +why the walls are broken less often among us than among the poor. Yet +according to the doctrine of Soho and Holloway and in Plutarch, those +studies that have lessened in us the sap of the world may bring to us +good, learned, masterful men who return to see their own or some like +work carried to a finish. "I do think," wrote Sir Thomas Browne, "that +many mysteries ascribed to our own invention have been the courteous +revelations of spirits; for those noble essences in heaven bear a +friendly regard unto their fellow creatures on earth." + + + XI + +Much that Lady Gregory has gathered seems but the broken bread +of old philosophers, or else of the one sort with the dough they +made into their loaves. Were I not ignorant, my Greek gone and my +meagre Latin all but gone, I do not doubt that I could find much +to the point in Greek, perhaps in old writers on medicine, much in +Renaissance or Medieval Latin. As it is, I must be content with what +has been translated or with the seventeenth-century Platonists who +are the handier for my purpose because they found in the affidavits +and confessions of the witch trials, descriptions like those in our +Connaught stories. I have Henry More in his verse and in his prose +and I have Henry More's two friends, Joseph Glanvil, and Cudworth in +his _Intellectual System of the Universe_, three volumes violently +annotated by an opposed theologian; and two essays by Mr. G. R. S. +Meade clipped out of his magazine, _The Quest_. These writers quote +much from Plotinus and Porphyry and Plato and from later writers, +especially Synesius and John Philoponus in whom the School of Plato +came to an end in the seventh century. + +We should not suppose that our souls began at birth, for as Henry +More has said, a man might as well think "from souls new souls" to +bring as "to press the sunbeams in his fist" or "wring the rainbow +till it dye his hands." We have within us an "airy body" or "spirit +body" which was our only body before our birth as it will be again +when we are dead and its "plastic power" has shaped our terrestrial +body as some day it may shape apparition and ghost. Porphyry is +quoted by Mr. Meade as saying that "Souls who love the body attach +a moist spirit to them and condense it like a cloud," and so become +visible, and so are all apparitions of the dead made visible; though +necromancers, according to Henry More, can ease and quicken this +condensation "with reek of oil, meal, milk, and such like gear, +wine, water, honey." One remembers that Dr. Ochorowicz's naked +imp once described how she filled out an appearance of herself by +putting a piece of blotting paper where her stomach should have been +and that the blotting paper became damp because, as she said, a +materialization, until it is completed, is a damp vapour. This airy +body which so compresses vapour, Philoponus says, "takes the shape +of the physical body as water takes the shape of the vessel that it +has been frozen in," but it is capable of endless transformations, +for "in itself it has no especial form," but Henry More believes that +it has an especial form, for "its plastic power" cannot but find +the human form most "natural," though "vehemency of desire to alter +the figure into another representation may make the appearance to +resemble some other creature; but no forced thing can last long." +"The better genii" therefore prefer to show "in a human shape yet +not it may be with all the lineaments" but with such as are "fit +for this separate state" (separate from the body that is) or are +"requisite to perfect the visible features of a person," desire and +imagination adding clothes and ornament. The materialization, as we +would say, has but enough likeness for recognition. It may be that +More but copies Philoponus who thought the shade's habitual form, the +image that it was as it were frozen in for a time, could be again +"coloured and shaped by fantasy," and that "it is probable that +when the soul desires to manifest it shapes itself, setting its own +imagination in movement, or even that it is probable with the help +of dæmonic co-operation that it appears and again becomes invisible, +becoming condensed and rarefied." Porphyry, Philoponus adds, gives +Homer as his authority for the belief that souls after death live +among images of their experience upon earth, phantasms impressed +upon the spirit body. While Synesius, who lived at the end of the +fourth century and had Hypatia among his friends, also describes the +spirit body as capable of taking any form and so of enabling us after +death to work out our purgation; and says that for this reason the +oracles have likened the state after death to the images of a dream. +The seventeenth century English translation of Cornelius Agrippa's +_De Occulta Philosophia_ was once so famous that it found its way +into the hands of Irish farmers and wandering Irish tinkers, and +it may be that Agrippa influenced the common thought when he wrote +that the evil dead see represented "in the fantastic reason" those +shapes of life that are "the more turbulent and furious ... sometimes +of the heavens falling upon their heads, sometimes of their being +consumed with the violence of flames, sometimes of being drowned +in a gulf, sometimes of being swallowed up in the earth, sometimes +of being changed into divers kinds of beasts ... and sometimes of +being taken and tormented by demons ... as if they were in a dream." +The ancients, he writes, have called these souls "hobgoblins," and +Orpheus has called them "the people of dreams" saying "the gates of +Pluto cannot be unlocked; within is a people of dreams." They are +a dream indeed that has place and weight and measure, and seeing +that their bodies are of an actual air, they cannot, it was held, +but travel in wind and set the straws and the dust twirling; though +being of the wind's weight they need not, Dr. Henry More considers, +so much as feel its ruffling, or if they should do so, they can +shelter in a house or behind a wall, or gather into themselves as it +were, out of the gross wind and vapour. But there are good dreams +among the airy people, though we cannot properly name that a dream +which is but analogical of the deep unimaginable virtues and has, +therefore, stability and a common measure. Henry More stays himself +in the midst of the dry learned and abstract writing of his treatise +_The Immortality of the Soul_ to praise "their comely carriage ... +their graceful dancing, their melodious singing and playing with +an accent so sweet and soft as if we should imagine air itself to +compose lessons and send forth musical sounds without the help of +any terrestrial instrument" and imagines them at their revels in +the thin upper air where the earth can but seem "a fleecy and milky +light" as the moon to us, and he cries out that they "sing and play +and dance together, reaping the lawful pleasures of the very animal +life, in a far higher degree than we are capable of in this world, +for everything here does, as it were, taste of the cask and has some +measure of foulness in it." + +There is, however, another birth or death when we pass from the +airy to the shining or ethereal body, and "in the airy the soul may +inhabit for many ages and in the ethereal for ever," and indeed it +is the ethereal body which is the root "of all that natural warmth in +all generations" though in us it can no longer shine. It lives while +in its true condition an unimaginable life and is sometimes described +as of "a round or oval figure" and as always circling among gods and +among the stars, and sometimes as having more dimensions than our +penury can comprehend. + +Last winter Mr. Ezra Pound was editing the late Professor Fenollosa's +translations of the Noh Drama of Japan, and read me a great deal of +what he was doing. Nearly all that my fat old woman in Soho learns +from her familiars is there in an unsurpassed lyric poetry and in +strange and poignant fables once danced or sung in the houses of +nobles. In one a priest asks his way of some girls who are gathering +herbs. He asks if it is a long road to town; and the girls begin to +lament over their hard lot gathering cress in a cold wet bog where +they sink up to their knees and to compare themselves with ladies +in the big town who only pull the cress in sport, and need not when +the cold wind is flapping their sleeves. He asks what village he +has come to and if a road near by leads to the village of Ono. A +girl replies that nobody can know that name without knowing the +road, and another says: "Who would not know that name, written on +so many pictures, and know the pine trees they are always drawing." +Presently the cold drives away all the girls but one and she tells +the priest she is a spirit and has taken solid form that she may +speak with him and ask his help. It is her tomb that has made Ono so +famous. Conscience-struck at having allowed two young men to fall +in love with her she refused to choose between them. Her father +said he would give her to the best archer. At the match to settle +it both sent their arrows through the same wing of a mallard and +were declared equal. She being ashamed and miserable because she had +caused so much trouble and for the death of the mallard, took her +own life. That, she thought, would end the trouble, but her lovers +killed themselves beside her tomb, and now she suffered all manner +of horrible punishments. She had but to lay her hand upon a pillar +to make it burst into flame; she was perpetually burning. The priest +tells her that if she can but cease to believe in her punishments +they will cease to exist. She listens in gratitude but she cannot +cease to believe, and while she is speaking they come upon her and +she rushes away enfolded in flames. Her imagination has created all +those terrors out of a scruple, and one remembers how Lake Harris, +who led Laurence Oliphant such a dance, once said to a shade, "How +did you know you were damned?" and that it answered, "I saw my own +thoughts going past me like blazing ships." + +In a play still more rich in lyric poetry a priest is wandering in +a certain ancient village. He describes the journey and the scene, +and from time to time the chorus sitting at the side of the stage +sings its comment. He meets with two ghosts, the one holding a red +stick, the other a piece of coarse cloth and both dressed in the +fashion of a past age, but as he is a stranger he supposes them +villagers wearing the village fashion. They sing as if muttering, +"We are entangled up--whose fault was it, dear? Tangled up as the +grass patterns are tangled up in this coarse cloth, or that insect +which lives and chirrups in dried seaweed. We do not know where are +today our tears in the undergrowth of this eternal wilderness. We +neither wake nor sleep and passing our nights in sorrow, which is +in the end a vision, what are these scenes of spring to us? This +thinking in sleep for some one who has no thought for you, is it more +than a dream? And yet surely it is the natural way of love. In our +hearts there is much, and in our bodies nothing, and we do nothing +at all, and only the waters of the river of tears flow quickly." To +the priest they seem two married people, but he cannot understand +why they carry the red stick and the coarse cloth. They ask him to +listen to a story. Two young people had lived in that village long +ago and night after night for three years the young man had offered a +charmed red stick, the token of love, at the young girl's window, but +she pretended not to see and went on weaving. So the young man died +and was buried in a cave with his charmed red sticks, and presently +the girl died too, and now because they were never married in life +they were unmarried in their death. The priest, who does not yet +understand that it is their own tale, asks to be shown the cave, and +says it will be a fine tale to tell when he goes home. The chorus +describes the journey to the cave. The lovers go in front, the priest +follows. They are all day pushing through long grasses that hide the +narrow paths. They ask the way of a farmer who is mowing. Then night +falls and it is cold and frosty. It is stormy and the leaves are +falling and their feet sink into the muddy places made by the autumn +showers; there is a long shadow on the slope of the mountain, and an +owl in the ivy of the pine tree. They have found the cave and it is +dyed with the red sticks of love to the colour of "the orchids and +chrysanthemums which hide the mouth of a fox's hole"; and now the two +lovers have "slipped into the shadow of the cave." Left alone and +too cold to sleep the priest decides to spend the night in prayer. +He prays that the lovers may at last be one. Presently he sees to +his wonder that the cave is lighted up "where people are talking and +setting up looms for spinning and painted red sticks." The ghosts +creep out and thank him for his prayer and say that through his pity +"the love promises of long past incarnations" find fulfilment in +a dream. Then he sees the love story unfolded in a vision and the +chorus compares the sound of weaving to the clicking of crickets. +A little later he is shown the bridal room and the lovers drinking +from the bridal cup. The dawn is coming. It is reflected in the +bridal cup and now singers, cloth, and stick break and dissolve like +a dream, and there is nothing but "a deserted grave on a hill where +morning winds are blowing through the pine." + +I remember that Aran story of the lovers who came after death to the +priest for marriage. It is not uncommon for a ghost, "a control" as +we say, to come to a medium to discover some old earthly link to fit +into a new chain. It wishes to meet a ghostly enemy to win pardon or +to renew an old friendship. Our service to the dead is not narrowed +to our prayers, but may be as wide as our imagination. I have known +a control to warn a medium to unsay her promise to an old man, to +whom, that she might be rid of him, she had promised herself after +death. What is promised here in our loves or in a witch's bond may be +fulfilled in a life which is a dream. If our terrestrial condition +is, as it seems the territory of choice and of cause, the one ground +for all seed sowing, it is plain why our imagination has command +over the dead and why they must keep from sight and earshot. At the +British Museum at the end of the Egyptian Room and near the stairs +are two statues, one an august decoration, one a most accurate +looking naturalistic portrait. The august decoration was for a public +site, the other, like all the naturalistic art of the epoch, for +burial beside a mummy. So buried it was believed, the Egyptologists +tell us, to be of service to the dead. I have no doubt it helped a +dead man to build out of his spirit-body a recognizable apparition, +and that all boats or horses or weapons or their models buried in +ancient tombs were helps for a flagging memory or a too weak fancy +to imagine and so substantiate the old surroundings. A shepherd at +Doneraile told me some years ago of an aunt of his who showed herself +after death stark naked and bid her relatives to make clothes and to +give them to a beggar, the while remembering her.[4] Presently she +appeared again wearing the clothes and thanked them. + + + XII + +Certainly in most writings before our time the body of an apparition +was held for a brief, artificial, dreamy, half-living thing. One +is always meeting such phrases as Sir Thomas Browne's "they steal +or contrive a body." A passage in the _Paradiso_ comes to mind +describing Dante in conversation with the blessed among their +spheres, although they are but in appearance there, being in truth +in the petals of the yellow rose; and another in the Odyssey where +Odysseus speaks not with "the mighty Heracles," but with his phantom, +for he himself "hath joy at the banquet among the deathless gods and +hath to wife Hebe of the fair ankles, child of Zeus, and Hero of the +golden sandals," while all about the phantom "there was a clamour of +the dead, as it were fowls flying everywhere in fear and he, like +black night with bow uncased, and shaft upon the string, fiercely +glancing around like one in the act to shoot." + + W.B.Y. + + _14th October, 1914._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The Japanese _Noh_ play _Awoi no Uye_ has for its theme the +exorcism of a ghost which is itself obsessed by an evil spirit. This +evil spirit, drawn forth by the exorcism, is represented by a dancer +wearing a "terrible mask with golden eyes." + +[2] Besides the well-known books of Atsikof, Myers, Lodge, Flammarion, +Flournoy, Maxwell, Albert De Rochas, Lombroso, Madame Bisson, Delanne, +etc., I have made considerable use of the researches of D'Ochorowicz +published during the last ten or twelve years in _Annales des Science +Psychiques_ and in the English _Annals of Psychical Science_, and of +those of Professor Hyslop published during the last four years in the +_Journal_ and _Transactions of the American Society for Psychical +Research_. I have myself been a somewhat active investigator. + +[3] Henry More considered that "the animal spirits" were "the +immediate instruments of the soul in all vital and animal functions" +and quotes Harpocrates, who was contemporary with Plato, as saying, +"that the mind of man is ... not nourished from meats and drinks +from the belly but by a clear and luminous substance that redounds +by separation from the blood." Ochorowicz thought that certain small +oval lights were perhaps the root of personality itself. + +[4] Herodotus has an equivalent tale. Periander, because the ghost +of his wife complained that it was "cold and naked," got the women +of Corinth together in their best clothes and had them stripped and +their clothes burned. + + + + + NOTES + + + + + NOTES + + +NOTE 1. A woman from the North would probably be a faery woman or +at any rate a "knowledgeable" woman, one who was "in the faeries" +and certainly not necessarily at all a woman from Ulster. The North +where the old Celtic other world was thought to lie is the quarter of +spells and faeries. A visionary student, who was at the Dublin Art +School when I was there, described to me a waking dream of the North +Pole. There were luxuriant vegetation and overflowing life though +still but ice to the physical eye. He added thereto his conviction +that wherever physical life was abundant, the spiritual life was +vague and thin, and of the converse truth. + +NOTE 2. St. Patrick prayed, in _The Breastplate of St. Patrick_, to +be delivered from the spells of smiths and women. + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout. + +Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visions and Beliefs in the West of +Ireland, Second Series, by Lady Gregory + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43974 *** |