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 Visions and beliefs in the west of Irela 
 
 IIIIIIDIIII 
 
 olln 
 
 3 1924 032 411 286 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://archive.org/details/cu31924032411286 
 
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 Auto- 
 biography 
 
 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 
 
VISIONS AND BELIEFS IN 
 THE WEST OF IRELAND 
 COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY 
 LADY GREGORY: WITH TWO ES- 
 SAYS 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 
 ttbe ftnlcftetbocfcer preee 
 
 1920 
 
 . V H I V I III* I 1 Y 
 
h s\% 
 
 io 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1930 
 BY 
 
 LADY GREGORY 
 
 Zbe Itntcfter&ocftee press, «ew fiorft 
 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. — Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 
 
 II. — Astray, and Treasure 
 
 III. — Banshees and Warnings 
 
 IV. — In the Way .... 
 
 V. — The Fighting of the Friends 
 
 VI. — The Unquiet Dead 
 
 VII. — Appearances .... 
 
 VIII. — Butter 
 
 IX. — The Fool of the Forth 
 
 X. — Forths and Sheoguey Places 
 
 XI. — Blacksmiths . 
 
 XII. — Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 
 
 XIII. — Friars and Priest Cures 
 
 swedenborg, mediums, and the deso 
 late Places 
 
 Notes 
 
 3 
 29 
 
 45 
 65 
 77 
 89 
 in 
 189 
 
 195 
 205 
 
 239 
 245 
 281 
 
 295 
 343 
 
 tu 
 
I 
 
 HERBS, CHARMS, AND WISE WOMEN 
 
HERBS, CHARMS, AND WISE WOMEN • 
 
 n^HERE 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 mysteri- 
 ous 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 1 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?' 1 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 prob- 
 ably in French, but to my ear it became English.'" 
 
 3 
 
/ 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 
 any one 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. 
 
 5 
 
6 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Eng- 
 land, 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. 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 7 
 
 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 inter- 
 fered with. Seven "Hail Marys" I say when 
 I'm gathering them, and I pray to our Lord and 
 
8 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 9 
 
 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 bis hand, and 
 getting over a wall he fell, and some way the 
 kippeen went in at his throat, where it had a 
 
io Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women n 
 
 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 Con- 
 oily 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. 
 
12 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 13 
 
 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. 
 
14 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 what- 
 ever 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 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 15 
 
 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. 
 
1 6 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Christ- 
 mas 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 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 17 
 
 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 
 
 VOL. II — 2 
 
1 8 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 19 
 
 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 recom- 
 mend 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 
 
20 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 sun- 
 rise 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 for- 
 bidden, 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 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 21 
 
 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 
 
22 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 her- 
 self 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 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 23 
 
 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 s^op it in a minute when nothing else can, 
 and there's one to take bones from the neck, 
 and one against ulcers. 
 
24 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Herbs, Charms, and Wise Women 25 
 
 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 
 
26 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
 27 
 
M 
 
 II 
 
 ASTRAY, AND TREASURE 
 
 R. 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 
 
 29 
 
30 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 dan- 
 ger. Yet some unbelievers may carry their credulity 
 so far as to believe that the creator of Father Kee- 
 gan's dreams may himself have dreamed the whole 
 adventure. 
 
/ 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 
 
 31 
 
32 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Astray, and Treasure 33 
 
 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 turn- 
 ing 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. 
 
 VOL. II — 3 
 
34 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Astray, and Treasure 35 
 
 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 descrip- 
 tion 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 
 
36 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Phdan: 
 
 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 
 
Astray, and Treasure 37 
 
 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 slant- 
 
38 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 wise 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 flag- 
 stone he lifted. But when he went back next day 
 to get it, all the strength he had wouldn't lift the 
 flag. 
 
Astray, and Treasure 39 
 
 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 
 
40 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 bleach- 
 ing, 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 not'ice 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 
 
Astray, and Treasure 41 
 
 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 five 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. 
 
Ill 
 
 BANSHEES AND WARNINGS 
 
 43 
 
Ill 
 
 BANSHEES 'AND WARNINGS 
 
 " r T~'HEN 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 Cath- 
 bad, ' 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 Ire- 
 land 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 
 
 45 
 
46 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 inflames. And 
 when they came and heard of the three flashes of light 
 coming into the room and about the bed they aU said 
 it was the angels that were his friends that had come 
 to meet him." When Rafter y 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, u and those were the angels waking 
 him." Yet his warning had not been sent through 
 these white messengers but through a vision that had 
 
Banshees and Warnings 47 
 
 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 Sieve 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 
 
 vol. ii — 4 49 
 
50 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Banshees and Warnings 51 
 
 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 grand- 
 mother 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. 
 
52 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
Banshees and Warnings 53 
 
 And out there where the turf-boat is lying with 
 its sail down, outside Aughanish, there the Ban- 
 shee 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 
 
54 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Banshees and Warnings 55 
 
 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. 
 
 /. Hanlon: 
 
 There was one Costello used to be ringing the 
 bell and pumping water and such things at Rox- 
 borough, and one day he was at the fair of Lough- 
 rea. 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 
 
56 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 after- 
 wards 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. 
 
Banshees and Warnings 57 
 
 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 
 
58 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
Banshees and Warnings 59 
 
 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 warn- 
 ing 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 
 
60 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 mourn- 
 ful 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 Naugh- 
 ton, it is in a house of the Kearns he died, and 
 the Banshee always cries for the Kearns. 
 
Banshees and Warnings 61 
 
 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 any- 
 thing 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 
 
62 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
 63 
 
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. 
 
 VOL. II— s 6* 
 
/ 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 warn- 
 ing 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 
 
 67 
 
68 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
In the Way 69 
 
 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 
 
70 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
In the Way 71 
 
 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. 
 
72 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
In the Way 73 
 
 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 
 
 " ("V^^" ^ me on ^' 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 enter eth 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. 
 
78 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 dis- 
 comfit and aggrieved; and the sweet Mother of our 
 Lord God taketh the soul of the hermit. . . . And 
 
The Fighting of the Friends 79 
 
 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. 
 
 Bejore 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 
 Uve 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. 
 
/ 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. 
 
 VOL II — 6 8 1 
 
82 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 neighboiirs 
 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 
 
The Fighting of the Friends 83 
 
 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 
 
84 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
The Fighting of the Friends 85 
 
 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 
 
86 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 fight- 
 ing 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 
 
 87 
 
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 
 Deny, or when as an old man at my own gate told ■ 
 they came and visited the Fianna, the old heroes oi 
 Ireland, "because they were so nice and so respect j 
 able." Ireland has through the centuries kej. 
 continuity of vision, the vision it is likely all nation^ 
 possessed in the early days of faith. Here in Con- 
 nacht 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 
 
 89 
 
90 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
/ 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. 
 
 91 
 
92 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 Mrs. Martin: 
 
 There was a man beyond when I lived at Bally- 
 bron, 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 any- 
 way. 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. i\nd 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 
 
The Unquiet Dead 93 
 
 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. 
 
94 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
The Unquiet Dead 95 
 
 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 
 
96 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
The Unquiet Dead 97 
 
 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 appear- 
 ance 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 Kina- 
 dyfe, 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. 
 
98 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Kil- 
 macduagh, 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 
 
The Unquiet Dead 99 
 
 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. 
 
ioo Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
The Unquiet Dead 101 
 
 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 lamp- 
 post 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. 
 
102 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
The Unquiet Dead 103 
 
 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." 
 
104 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
The Unquiet Dead 105 
 
 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 may- 
 be 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 
 
106 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 the same shawl and clothes on her that she had be- 
 fore 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 ap- 
 pears 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 cpming 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." 
 
The Unquiet Dead 107 
 
 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 de- 
 scendant 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 
 
 109 
 
VII 
 
 APPEARANCES 
 
 1IZHEN 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 
 
 in 
 
ii2 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 thatB.es- 
 sion'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 
 
Appearances 113 
 
 and who are you?' ' I'm going to Govt on a message' 
 says she, 'and Tm 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 s 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 warn- 
 ing on Saturday they had left him alone ,l 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 
 
 VOL. II — 8 
 
ii4 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Dor an, 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. 
 
Appearances 115 
 
 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." 
 
 "/ 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?" 
 
/ 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 " Noth- 
 ing 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 
 
 117 
 
ii 8 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 kip- 
 peens, 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 her- 
 self 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 
 
Appearances 1 19 
 
 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 
 
120 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 121 
 
 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 
 
122 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 123 
 
 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. 
 
124 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 There is a family at Timeevan 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 Timee- 
 van 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 
 
Appearances 125 
 
 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. 
 
126 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 127 
 
 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 any- 
 thing 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. 
 
128 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 some- 
 thing to eat before he'd start. So they got up 
 very early and she lighted the fire and put the 
 
Appearances 129 
 
 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 
 
 VOL II — 9 
 
130 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 131 
 
 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 
 
132 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 133 
 
 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 shout- 
 ing 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 
 
134 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Don- 
 nellans: 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 135 
 
 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. 
 
136 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 some- 
 times 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 
 
Appearances 137 
 
 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 
 
138 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Mc- 
 Manus — 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 
 
Appearances 139 
 
 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 
 
140 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 141 
 
 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, Ketteher, living in the Wicklow 
 Mountains, told me and W. B. Yeats and MissPol- 
 lexfen: 
 
 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 
 
142 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 sweet- 
 est 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 
 
Appearances 143 
 
 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. Some- 
 how 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. 
 
144 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 145 
 
 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, 
 
 VOL. II — 10 
 
146 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Thurs- 
 day," 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. 
 
Appearances 147 
 
 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 
 
148 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 acci- 
 dent. ") I was walking along the road, and it ran 
 beside me, and then I saw a woman in white be- 
 fore 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 
 
Appearances 149 
 
 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 
 
150 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 151 
 
 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 then- 
 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, 
 
152 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 "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. 
 
Appearances 153 
 
 "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. 
 
154 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 155 
 
 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 com- 
 pensation. 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. 
 
156 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 talk- 
 ing. 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 
 
Appearances 1 57 
 
 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. 
 
158 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 159 
 
 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 some- 
 way 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 
 
160 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 161 
 
 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 be- 
 yond 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 
 
 VOL. II — II 
 
1 62 Visions and Beliefs- 
 
 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 i 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, fon 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 
 
Appearances 163 
 
 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, 
 
1 64 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 car- 
 riage had long faces, and thin, and long noses. 
 
 Mike Martin: 
 
 They are of the same size as we are. People 
 only call them (liminutive 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. 
 
Appearances 165 
 
 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 be- 
 hind 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. 
 
1 66 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 167 
 
 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, 
 
168 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 "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. 
 
Appearances 169 
 
 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 
 
170 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 them next year." And she said: "When you go 
 out of the house, it's your enemy you'll see stand- 
 ing 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 
 
Appearances 171 
 
 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 
 
172 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 173 
 
 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 Cruach- 
 maa 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 
 
174 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 be- 
 tween 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 hus- 
 band 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 
 
Appearances 175 
 
 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 any- 
 thing j'ou'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 
 
176 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 1 77 
 
 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 j or give 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 roar- 
 ing 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 
 
 VOL II — 12 
 
178 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 179 
 
 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 
 
180 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Warring- 
 ton, 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, 
 
Appearances 181 
 
 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 car- 
 riage 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 stand- 
 ing at the window, and in a moment it was head- 
 less. And they'd see them coming in at the gate, 
 sometimes in the shape of a woman, and a sort of 
 ? 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 
 
182 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Appearances 1 83 
 
 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. 
 
1 84 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 gentle- 
 men, 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 
 
Appearances 185 
 
 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, 
 
1 86 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
 187 
 
VIII 
 BUTTER 
 
 / have been told: 
 
 Butter, that's a thing that's very much med- 
 dled 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. 
 
 189 
 
190 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Butter 191 
 
 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 dis- 
 appeared 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 know- 
 ledge how to bring it back. And one time Lanigan 
 that lives below at Kilgarvan had all his butter 
 
192 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
 VOL II— 13 193 
 
IX 
 
 THE FOOL OF THE FORTH 
 
 TJ7E had, before our quest began, heard of faeries 
 V* 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, 1 ' the Fool of the Forth, 
 the Amaddn-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 
 
 195 
 
196 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Amaddn-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 Amadan-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 Amadan-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 Amadan-na-Briona is the master of them all, 
 I heard the priest say that. 
 
 197 
 
198 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Amadan 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 Amadan-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 Amadan 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 Amadan, 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 
 
The Fool of the Forth 199 
 
 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 Amadan- 
 na-Briona we call him. It's said they are mostly 
 good neighbours. I suppose the reason of the 
 Amadan 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 Amadan-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. 
 
200 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 But about three years after that he was cutting 
 bushes in a wood, and he saw the Amadan 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 Amadan 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 Amadan 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 Amadan- 
 na-Briona, that is the leprechaun." 
 
 An Old Woman: 
 
 The Amadan-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. 
 
The Fool of the Forth 201 
 
 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 Amadan. 
 
 Another: 
 
 Biddy Early couldn't do nothing for the touch 
 of the Amadan, because its power was greater 
 than hers. 
 
 In the Workhouse: 
 
 The Amadan-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 Amadan 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 Amadan 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. 
 
202 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Amadan-na-Briona. But to 
 meet the Amadan is to be in prison for ever. 
 
X 
 
 FORTHS AND SHEOGUEY PLACES 
 
 203 
 
FORTHS AND SHEOGUEY PLACES 
 
 17 THEN as children we ran up and down the 
 VV green entrenchments of the big round raths, 
 the Usses orforths, 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 inhabit- 
 ants, 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 
 
 205 
 
206 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 1 ' 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, notwithstandingtheir beauty andgrandeur, 
 those swept away into the hill dwellings would rather 
 have the world they know. One of Finn's men meet- 
 ing 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 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 207 
 
 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 think- 
 ing 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, 1 916, 1 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 road- 
 side, 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 contract- 
 or'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 Cor- 
 rib 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." 
 
208 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Hul. 
 For if I had what is there,' he said, l 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 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 209 
 
 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,' 1 
 he said, 'you will find a bottle and a rack-comb, and 
 bring them back here to me. 1 
 
 "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. 
 
 VOL. 11—14 
 
J 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. 
 
 211 
 
212 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 213 
 
 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 lady- 
 ship 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 
 
214 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 more with it." And sure enough, that very day a 
 bit of meat came into Mrs. Quaid's house. (Note I .) 
 
 Maurteen Joyce: 
 
 There's a forth near Clough that wanders under- 
 neath, 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 mid- 
 day — 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 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 215 
 
 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 
 
216 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 217 
 
 There is a faery hill beyond there in the moun- 
 tain, 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 
 
218 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 219 
 
 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 com- 
 ing 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 Cru- 
 achmaa 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. 
 
220 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 221 
 
 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 Bally- 
 vaughan, 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 tell- 
 ing 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, 
 
222 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 provoca- 
 tion? 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 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 223 
 
 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 
 
224 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 watch- 
 ing 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 tnat 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 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 225 
 
 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 won- 
 dered 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, 
 
 VOL. II — IS 
 
226 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 227 
 
 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 w&j ^ome 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 
 
228 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 tola 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. 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 229 
 
 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 
 
230 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 231 
 
 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 New- 
 town. 
 
232 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 233 
 
 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 toJohnO'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 drown- 
 ing," 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. _ __. 
 
234 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 be- 
 tween 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. 
 
Forths and Sheoguey Places 235 
 
 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 Bel- 
 harbour, 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 witn Celtic design). They had 
 
236 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
 237 
 
XI 
 
 BLACKSMITHS 
 
 / 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 black- 
 smith, 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. 
 
 239 
 
240 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 sur- 
 rounded 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 
 
Blacksmiths 241 
 
 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. 
 
 VOL. II — 16 
 
XII 
 MONSTERS AND SHEOGUEY BEASTS 
 
 243 
 
XII 
 
 MONSTERS AND SHEOGUEY BEASTS 
 
 rHE 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 bio- 
 graphies 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, 
 
 245 
 
246 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
/ 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 some- 
 thing 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 
 
 247 
 
248 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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, 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 249 
 
 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 Piddeen. 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 
 
250 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Ballin- 
 derreen, 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 Ban- 
 shee, 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 under- 
 stand 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 251 
 
 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 thresh- 
 old 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 
 
252 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 some- 
 thing 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. 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 253 
 
 The lake down there (Lough Graney) is: an en- 
 chanted 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 Lough- 
 rea. 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 
 
254 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 255 
 
 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 
 
256 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 in the morning there was no sign of anything at 
 all. My father never saw the d g 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 257 
 
 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 
 
 VOL. II — 17 
 
258 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 fight- 
 ing 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, 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 259 
 
 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 es- 
 tate, 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 
 
260 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 he saw one of them before him in the form of a 
 tub, and it rolling along. 
 
 Another time he was coming home from Kin- 
 vara, 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 261 
 
 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 Kil- 
 tartan. 
 
 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 Kilde<?ert, 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 ? 
 
262 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 263 
 
 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 
 
264 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 good- 
 night. 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 but- 
 ter taken for the last two years, but she begged 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 265 
 
 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. 
 
266 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 un- 
 natural about it. But as to them being unlucky, 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 267 
 
 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. 
 
268 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 grey- 
 hound 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 mak- 
 ing 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 269 
 
 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. 
 
270 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 271 
 
 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 four- 
 pence 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 chil- 
 dren, 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 
 
272 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 273 
 
 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 
 
 VOL. II — 18 
 
274 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 for- 
 ever 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 275 
 
 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 granj'Og (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, 
 
276 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 and away with him to a scalp with them to be 
 eating through the winter. 
 
 I met with a granyog 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 shoot- 
 ing 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 
 
Monsters and Sheoguey Beasts 277 
 
 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 
 
 279 
 
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; 
 281 
 
282 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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." 
 
/ 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 
 
 283 
 
284 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Friars and Priest Cures 285 
 
 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 
 
286 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 some- 
 thing 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 
 
Friars and Priest Cures 287 
 
 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 some- 
 thing falls on them or on the things belonging to 
 them, if they do it too often. 
 
288 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Friars and Priest Cures 289 
 
 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 Lough- 
 rea, 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. 
 
 VOL. II — 19 
 
290 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Satur- 
 day 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 
 
Friars and Priest Cures 291 
 
 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. What- 
 ever 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 
 
292 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
 293 
 
SWEDENBORG, MEDIUMS, AND THE 
 DESOLATE PLACES 
 
 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 col- 
 lect 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 re- 
 corded 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." 
 
 295 
 
296 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 I had noticed many analogies in modern spirit- 
 ism and began a more careful comparison, going a 
 good deal to seances 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 con- 
 vinced, 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 297 
 
 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 stop- 
 ping 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 dis- 
 coverer of a vast generalization. I lived in excite- 
 ment, amused to make Holloway interpret Aran, 
 and constantly comparing my discoveries with 
 what I have learned of mediaeval 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. 
 
298 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 11 
 
 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 nebu- 
 lar 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 composi- 
 tion in a dead language. 
 
 In his fifty-eighth year he was sitting in an inn 
 in London, where he had gone about the publica- 
 tion 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 favour- 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 299 
 
 ing 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, lack- 
 ing 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 con- 
 sidered 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 com- 
 municated 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 
 
300 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 likelihood these angels also will be too high and 
 he will slip from state to state until he finds him- 
 self 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 corre- 
 spond 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 ex- 
 plains 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 some- 
 thing 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 301 
 
 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 butter- 
 men; 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 sud- 
 denly, "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 
 
302 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 re- 
 lated 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 cir- 
 cumstance and our body. 
 
 Swedenborg had spoken with shades that had 
 been learned Latinists, or notable Hebrew schol- 
 ars, 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, 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 303 
 
 arrayed in order and made one piece. "Every 
 man has many loves, but still they all have refer- 
 ence 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'lsle 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 unin- 
 habited 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 
 
304 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 con- 
 tinually 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. 
 
 " 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." 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 305 
 
 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 then- 
 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 inter- 
 mittent "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 as- 
 sociations 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 
 
 VOL. II — 30 
 
306 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 always in a fire that is God's love and wisdom, 
 changed into their own hunger and misbelief . 
 
 m 
 
 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 opposi- 
 tion 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 307 
 
 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 persona- 
 tion 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 them- 
 selves 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 speak- 
 ing 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 
 
jo8 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 iccident, and without God's permission that 
 jave the Greeks the idea they had lived before. 
 They have bodies as plastic as their minds that 
 low so readily into the mould of ours and he 
 •emembers having seen the face of a spirit change 
 ;ontinuously and yet keep always a certain generic 
 ikeness. It had but run through the features of 
 ;he individual ghosts of the fleet it belonged to, of 
 ;hose bound into the one mediatorial communion. 
 He speaks too, again and again, of seeing palaces 
 md mountain ranges and all manner of scenery 
 Duilt up in a moment, and even believes in im- 
 ponderable troops of magicians that build the like 
 jut of some deceit or in malicious sport. 
 
 IV 
 
 There is in Swedenborg's manner of expression 
 i seeming superficiality. We follow an easy 
 narrative, sometimes incredulous, but always, as 
 ;ve think, understanding, for his moral conceptions 
 ire simple, his technical terms continually repeated, 
 md for the most part we need but turn for his 
 'correspondence," his symbolism as we would say, 
 ;o the index of his Arcana Celestia. Presently, 
 lowever, we discover that he treads upon this 
 surface by an achievement of power almost as full 
 jf astonishment as if he should walk upon water 
 charmed to stillness by some halcyon ; while his 
 iisciple and antagonist Blake is like a man swim- 
 rring in a tumbling sea, surface giving way to sur- 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 309 
 
 face 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 Swed- 
 
310 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 enborg 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 01 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 reali- 
 ties of intellect from which the passions emanate 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 311 
 
 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 Chretien 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 cele- 
 brated him in stories, and turned away from his 
 thought, understanding that he was upon an 
 errand to their masters. Like Swedenborg he 
 
312 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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. 
 
 It was, I believe, the Frenchman Allen Cardec 
 and an American shoemaker's clerk called Jackson 
 Davis, who first adapted to the seance 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 n^l-We 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 313 
 
 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 sur- 
 rounded 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 
 
314 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 van- 
 ished. Twice in later childhood, and a third time 
 when he had grown to be a young man, he was over- 
 taken by the same phantom and the same words 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 315 
 
 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"? 
 
316 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 This belief, common among continental spirit- 
 ists, is denied by those of England and America, 
 and if one question the voices at. a seance 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 primi- 
 tive 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. 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 317 
 
 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 cer- 
 tain 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 danger- 
 ous condition it may be, that seems to make 
 possible "physical phenomena" and that over- 
 shadowing of the memory by some spirit memory, 
 which Swedenborg thought an accident and un- 
 lawful. 
 
 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 
 
3i 8 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 obvious inference from those beliefs, and if he 
 wants more — well, he will find it in the best 
 authors. 1 
 
 vni 
 
 All spirits for some time after death, and the 
 "earth-bound," as they are called, the larvae, as 
 Beaumont, the seventeenth-century Platonist, pre- 
 ferred to call them, those who cannot become dis- 
 entangled 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 activi- 
 ties, wooing or quarrelling, or totting figures on 
 a table, in a round of dull duties or passionate 
 events. Today while the great battle in North- 
 ern 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 
 
 'Besides the well-known books of Atsikof, Myers, Lodge, 
 Flammarion, Floumoy, 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 Annates des Science Psyckiques and in the English 
 Annals of Psychical Science, and of those of Professor Hyslop 
 published during the last four years in the Journal and Trans- 
 actions of the American Society for Psychical Research. I have 
 myself been a somewhat active investigator. 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 319 
 
 angelic spirits seek to awaken them but still in 
 vain. 
 
 Those who have attained to nobler form, when 
 they appear in the seance room, create temporary 
 bodies, commonly like to those they wore when 
 living, through some unconscious constraint of 
 memory, or deliberately, that they may be re- 
 cognized. 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 seance room, the spirit itself 
 being far away. The images are made of a sub- 
 stance 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. * 
 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 
 
 1 Henry More considered that "the animal spirits" were "the 
 immediate instruments of the soul in all vital and animal func- 
 tions" 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." Ochoro- 
 wicz thought that certain small oval lights were perhaps the root 
 of personality itself. 
 
320 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 Vati- 
 can, 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 Frown- 
 ing Man or of Rodin's Man with the Broken Nose. 
 And once a rumour ran among the seance 
 rooms to the bewilderment of simple believers, 
 that a heavy middle-aged man who took snuffi 
 and wore the costume of a past time, had ap- 
 peared while a French medium was in his trance, 
 and somebody had recognized the Tartuffe of the 
 Comedie Francaise. 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 321 
 
 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 seance room, 
 fiat 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 appear- 
 ance kneaded up out of these and that luminous 
 mud or vapour almost as vivid as are those 
 pictures of Antonio Mancini which have frag- 
 ments of his paint tubes embedded for the high 
 lights into the heavy masses of the paint. Some- 
 times 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 
 
 VOL. II — 21 
 
322 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 in- 
 creases 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 dis- 
 covers 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 cob- 
 web 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 323 
 
 become the characters in the drama we ourselves 
 have invented. John King, who has delighted 
 melodramatic minds for hundreds of seances 
 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 accus- 
 tomed 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 histori- 
 cal, 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 dis- 
 missed 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 threaten- 
 
324 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 ings by the old grimoires to drown some disobe- 
 dient 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 
 persona 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 Chaldaean 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 325 
 
 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 fin- 
 gers 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 
 
326 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 some dark seance 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 frag- 
 mentary 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 con- 
 stantly 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 Good- 
 fellow 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. 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 327 
 x 
 
 Plutarch, in his essay on the daemon, 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 
 
328 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 329 
 
 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 
 
330 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 com- 
 presses 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 appear- 
 ance 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 imagina- 
 tion adding clothes and ornament. The material- 
 ization, 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 daemonic co-operation 
 that it appears and again becomes invisible, be- 
 coming condensed and rarefied." Porphyry, Phil- 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 331 
 
 oponus 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 Cor- 
 nelius 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 
 
33 2 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 ruf- 
 fling, 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 333 
 
 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 some- 
 times 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." Pre- 
 sently the cold drives away all the girls but one 
 
334 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 punish- 
 ments they will cease to exist. She listens in grati- 
 tude 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 de- 
 scribes the journey and the scene, and from time 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 335 
 
 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 
 
336 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 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 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 337 
 
 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 imagina- 
 tion. 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 naturalis- 
 tic 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 
 
 vol. 11 — J a 
 
338 Visions and Beliefs 
 
 dead man to build out of his spirit-body a recog- 
 nizable 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 sur- 
 roundings. 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. l 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 death- 
 less gods and hath to wife Hebe of the fair ankles, 
 
 •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. 
 
Swedenborg, Mediums, etc. 339 
 
 child of Zeus, and Hero c|E 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. 
 
NOTES 
 
 34« 
 
NOTES 
 
 Note i. 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. 
 
 343 
 
i. iS i Lniriiirt.' a.'f j 
 
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