Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

by Edited

  Rose lived with her mother, about a mile off, but she obeyed her sister’s summons without the least fear, and kept the strange tryst in due time.

  “Rose, dear,” she said, as she appeared before her sister in the old wallsteads, “my mind’s oneasy about them twa’ red shawls that’s in the basket. Matty Hunter and Jane Taggart paid me for them, an’ I bought them wi’ their money, Friday was eight days. Gie them the shawls the morrow. An’ old Mosey McCorkell gied me the price o’ a wiley coat; it’s in under the other things in the basket. An’ now farewell; I can get to my rest.”

  “Grace, Grace, bide a wee minute,” cried the faithful sister, as the dear voice grew fainter, and the dear face began to fade: “Grace, darling! Thady? The children? One word mair!” but neither cries nor tears could further detain the spirit hastening to its rest!

  A LEGEND OF TYRONE

  ELLEN O’LEARY

  Crouched round a bare hearth in hard, frosty weather,

  Three lonely, helpless weans cling close together;

  Tangled those gold locks, once bonnie and bright—

  There’s no one to fondle the baby to-night.

  “My mammie I want; oh! my mammie I want!”

  The big tears stream down with the low wailing chant.

  Sweet Eily’s slight arms enfold the gold head:

  “Poor weeny Willie, sure mammie is dead—

  And daddie is crazy from drinking all day—

  Come down, holy angels, and take us away!”

  Eily and Eddie keep kissing and crying—

  Outside, the weird winds are sobbing and sighing.

  All in a moment the children are still,

  Only a quick coo of gladness from Will.

  The sheeling no longer seems empty or bare,

  For, clothed in soft raiment, the mother stands there.

  They gather around her, they cling to her dress;

  She rains down soft kisses for each shy caress.

  Her light, loving touches smooth out tangled locks,

  And, pressed to her bosom, the baby she rocks.

  He lies in his cot, there’s a fire on the hearth;

  To Eily and Eddy ’tis heaven on earth,

  For mother’s deft fingers have been everywhere;

  She lulls them to rest in the low suggaun* chair.

  They gaze open-eyed, then the eyes gently close,

  As petals fold into the heart of a rose,

  But ope soon again in awe, love, but no fear,

  And fondly they murmur, “Our mammie is here.”

  She lays them down softly, she wraps them around;

  They lie in sweet slumbers, she starts at a sound,

  The cock loudly crows, and the spirit’s away—

  The drunkard steals in at the dawning of day.

  Again and again, ’tween the dark and the dawn,

  Glides in the dead mother to nurse Willie Bawn:

  Or is it an angel who sits by the hearth?

  An angel in heaven, a mother on earth.

  THE BLACK LAMB*

  LADY WILDE

  It is a custom among the people, when throwing away water at night, to cry out in a loud voice, “Take care of the water;” or literally, from the Irish, “Away with yourself from the water”—for they say that the spirits of the dead last buried are then wandering about, and it would be dangerous if the water fell on them.

  One dark night a woman suddenly threw out a pail of boiling water without thinking of the warning words. Instantly a cry was heard, as of a person in pain, but no one was seen. However, the next night a black lamb entered the house, having the back all fresh scalded, and it lay down moaning by the hearth and died. Then they all knew that this was the spirit that had been scalded by the woman, and they carried the dead lamb out reverently, and buried it deep in the earth. Yet every night at the same hour it walked again into the house, and lay down, moaned, and died; and after this had happened many times, the priest was sent for, and finally, by the strength of his exorcism, the spirit of the dead was laid to rest; the black lamb appeared no more. Neither was the body of the dead lamb found in the grave when they searched for it, though it had been laid by their own hands deep in the earth, and covered with clay.

  SONG OF THE GHOST

  ALFRED PERCIVAL GRAVES

  When all were dreaming

  But Pastheen Power,

  A light came streaming

  Beneath her bower:

  A heavy foot

  At her door delayed,

  A heavy hand

  On the latch was laid.

  “Now who dare venture,

  At this dark hour,

  Unbid to enter

  My maiden bower?”

  “Dear Pastheen, open

  The door to me,

  And your true lover

  You’ll surely see.”

  “My own true lover,

  So tall and brave,

  Lives exiled over

  The angry wave.”

  “Your true love’s body

  Lies on the bier,

  His faithful spirit

  Is with you here.”

  “His look was cheerful,

  His voice was gay;

  Your speech is fearful,

  Your face is gray;

  And sad and sunken

  Your eye of blue,

  But Patrick, Patrick,

  Alas! ’tis you!”

  Ere dawn was breaking

  She heard below

  The two cocks shaking

  Their wings to crow.

  “Oh, hush you, hush you,

  Both red and gray,

  Or you will hurry

  My love away.

  “Oh, hush your crowing,

  Both gray and red,

  Or he’ll be going

  To join the dead;

  Or, cease from calling

  His ghost to the mould,

  And I’ll come crowning

  Your combs with gold.”

  When all were dreaming

  But Pastheen Power,

  A light went streaming

  From out her bower;

  And on the morrow,

  When they awoke,

  They knew that sorrow

  Her heart had broke.

  THE RADIANT BOY

  MRS. CROW

  Captain Stewart, afterward Lord Castlereagh, when he was a young man, happened to be quartered in Ireland. He was fond of sport, and one day the pursuit of game carried him so far that he lost his way. The weather, too, had become very rough, and in this strait he presented himself at the door of a gentleman’s house, and sending in his card, requested shelter for the night. The hospitality of the Irish country gentry is proverbial; the master of the house received him warmly; said he feared he could not make him so comfortable as he could have wished, his house being full of visitors already, added to which, some strangers, driven by the inclemency of the night, had sought shelter before him, but such accommodation as he could give he was heartily welcome to; whereupon he called his butler, and committing the guest to his good offices, told him he must put him up somewhere, and do the best he could for him. There was no lady, the gentleman being a widower.

  Captain Stewart found the house crammed, and a very jolly party it was. His host invited him to stay, and promised him good shooting if he would prolong his visit a few days: and, in fine, he thought himself extremely fortunate to have fallen into such pleasant quarters.

  At length, after an agreeable evening, they all retired to bed, and the butler conducted him to a large room, almost divested of furniture, but with a blazing turf fire in the grate, and a shake-down on the floor, composed of cloaks and other heterogeneous materials.

  Nevertheless, to the tired limbs of Captain Stewart, who had had a hard day’s shooting, it looked very inviting; but before he lay down, he thought it advisable to take off some of the fire, which was blazing up the chimney in what he thought an alarming manner. Having done this, he str
etched himself on his couch and soon fell asleep.

  He believed he had slept about a couple of hours when he awoke suddenly, and was startled by such a vivid light in the room that he thought it on fire, but on turning to look at the grate he saw the fire was out, though it was from the chimney the light proceeded. He sat up in bed, trying to discover what it was, when he perceived the form of a beautiful naked boy, surrounded by a dazzling radiance. The boy looked at him earnestly, and then the vision faded, and all was dark. Captain Stewart, so far from supposing what he had seen to be of a spiritual nature, had no doubt that the host, or the visitors, had been trying to frighten him. Accordingly, he felt indignant at the liberty, and on the following morning, when he appeared at breakfast, he took care to evince his displeasure by the reserve of his demeanor, and by announcing his intention to depart immediately. The host expostulated, reminding him of his promise to stay and shoot. Captain Stewart coldly excused himself, and, at length, the gentleman seeing something was wrong, took him aside, and pressed for an explanation; whereupon Captain Stewart, without entering into particulars, said he had been made the victim of a sort of practical joking that he thought quite unwarrantable with a stranger.

  The gentleman considered this not impossible among a parcel of thoughtless young men, and appealed to them to make an apology; but one and all, on honor, denied the impeachment. Suddenly a thought seemed to strike him; he clapped his hand to his forehead, uttered an exclamation, and rang the bell.

  “Hamilton,” said he to the butler; “where did Captain Stewart sleep last night?”

  “Well, sir,” replied the man; “you know every place was full—the gentlemen were lying on the floor, three or four in a room—so I gave him the Boy’s Room; but I lit a blazing fire to keep him from coming out.”

  “You were very wrong,” said the host; “you know I have positively forbidden you to put anyone there, and have taken the furniture out of the room to insure its not being occupied.” Then, retiring with Captain Stewart, he informed him, very gravely, of the nature of the phenomena he had seen; and at length, being pressed for further information, he confessed that there existed a tradition in the family, that whoever the “Radiant boy” appeared to will rise to the summit of power; and when he has reached the climax, will die a violent death, and I must say, he added, that the records that have been kept of his appearance go to confirm this persuasion.

  THE FATE OF FRANK M’KENNA

  WILLIAM CARLETON

  There lived a man named M’Kenna at the hip of one of the mountainous hills which divide the county of Tyrone from that of Monaghan. This M’Kenna had two sons, one of whom was in the habit of tracing hares of a Sunday whenever there happened to be a fall of snow. His father, it seems, had frequently remonstrated with him upon what he considered to be a violation of the Lord’s day, as well as for his general neglect of mass. The young man, however, though otherwise harmless and inoffensive, was in this matter quite insensible to paternal reproof, and continued to trace whenever the avocations of labor would allow him. It so happened that upon a Christmas morning, I think in the year 1814, there was a deep fall of snow, and young M’Kenna, instead of going to mass, got down his cockstick—which is a staff much thicker and heavier at one end than at the other—and prepared to set out on his favorite amusement. His father, seeing this, reproved him seriously, and insisted that he should attend prayers. His enthusiasm for the sport, however, was stronger than his love of religion, and he refused to be guided by his father’s advice. The old man during the altercation got warm; and on finding that the son obstinately scorned his authority, he knelt down and prayed that if the boy persisted in following his own will, he might never return from the mountains unless as a corpse. The imprecation, which was certainly as harsh as it was impious and senseless, might have startled many a mind from a purpose that was, to say the least of it, at variance with religion and the respect due to a father. It had no effect, however, upon the son, who is said to have replied, that whether he ever returned or not, he was determined on going; and go accordingly he did. He was not, however, alone, for it appears that three or four of the neighboring young men accompanied him. Whether their sport was good or otherwise, is not to the purpose, neither am I able to say; but the story goes that towards the latter part of the day they started a larger and darker hare than any they had ever seen, and that she kept dodging on before them bit by bit, leading them to suppose that every succeeding cast of the cock-stick would bring her down. It was observed afterward that she also led them into the recesses of the mountains, and that although they tried to turn her course homeward, they could not succeed in doing so. As evening advanced, the companions of M’Kenna began to feel the folly of pursuing her farther, and to perceive the danger of losing their way in the mountains should night or a snow storm come upon them. They therefore proposed to give over the chase and return home; but M’Kenna would not hear of it. “If you wish to go home, you may,” said he; “as for me, I’ll never leave the hills till I have her with me.” They begged and entreated of him to desist and return, but all to no purpose; he appeared to be what the Scotch call fey—that is, to act as if he were moved by some impulse that leads to death, and from the influence of which a man cannot withdraw himself. At length, on finding him invincibly obstinate, they left him pursuing the hare directly into the heart of the mountains, and returned to their respective homes.

  In the meantime one of the most terrible snowstorms ever remembered in that part of the country came on, and the consequence was, that the self-willed young man, who had equally trampled on the sanctities of religion and parental authority, was given over for lost. As soon as the tempest became still, the neighbors assembled in a body and proceeded to look for him. The snow, however, had fallen so heavily that not a single mark of a footstep could be seen. Nothing but one wide waste of white undulating hills met the eye wherever it turned, and of M’Kenna no trace whatever was visible or could be found. His father, now remembering the unnatural character of his imprecation, was nearly distracted; for although the body had not yet been found, still by every one who witnessed the sudden rage of the storm and who knew the mountains, escape or survival was felt to be impossible. Every day for about a week large parties were out among the hill-ranges seeking him, but to no purpose. At length there came a thaw, and his body was found on a snow-wreath, lying in a supine posture within a circle which he had drawn around him with his cock-stick. His prayer book lay opened upon his mouth, and his hat was pulled down so as to cover it and his face. It is unnecessary to say that the rumor of his death, and of the circumstances under which he left home, created a most extraordinary sensation in the country—a sensation that was the greater in proportion to the uncertainty occasioned by his not having been found either alive or dead. Some affirmed that he had crossed the mountains, and was seen in Monaghan; others, that he had been seen in Clones, in Emyvale, in Five-mile-town; but despite of all these agreeable reports, the melancholy truth was at length made clear by the appearance of the body as just stated.

  Now, it so happened that the house nearest the spot where he lay was inhabited by a man named Daly, I think—but of the name I am not certain—who was a herd or caretaker to Dr. Porter, then Bishop of Clogher. The situation of this house was the most lonely and desolate looking that could be imagined. It was at least two miles distant from any human habitation, being surrounded by one wide and dreary waste of dark moor. By this house lay the route of those who had found the corpse, and I believe the door of it was borrowed for the purpose of conveying it home. Be this as it may, the family witnessed the melancholy procession as it passed slowly through the mountains, and when the place and circumstances are all considered, we may admit that to ignorant and superstitious people, whose minds, even upon ordinary occasions, were strongly affected by such matters, it was a sight calculated to leave behind it a deep, if not a terrible impression. Time soon proved that it did so.

  An incident is said to have occurred at th
e funeral in fine keeping with the wild spirit of the whole melancholy event. When the procession had advanced to a place called Mullaghtinny, a large dark-colored hare, which was instantly recognized by those who had been out with him on the hills, as the identical one that led him to his fate, is said to have crossed the roads about twenty yards or so before the coffin. The story goes, that a man struck it on the side with a stone, and that the blow, which would have killed any ordinary hare, not only did it no injury, but occasioned a sound to proceed from the body resembling the hollow one emitted by an empty barrel when struck.

  In the meantime the interment took place, and the sensation began, like every other, to die away in the natural progress of time, when, behold, a report ran abroad like wildfire that, to use the language of the people, “Frank M’Kenna was appearing!”

  One night, about a fortnight after his funeral, the daughter of Daly, the herd, a girl about fourteen, while lying in bed saw what appeared to be the likeness of M’Kenna, who had been lost. She screamed out, and covering her head with the bed clothes, told her father and mother that Frank M’Kenna was in the house. This alarming intelligence naturally produced great terror; still, Daly, who, notwithstanding his belief in such matters, possessed a good deal of moral courage, was cool enough to rise and examine the house, which consisted of only one apartment. This gave the daughter some courage, who, on finding that her father could not see him, ventured to look out, and she then could see nothing of him herself.

  Accordingly she very soon fell asleep, and her father attributed what she had seen to fear or some accidental combination of shadows proceeding from the furniture, for it was a clear moonlight night. The light of the following day dispelled a great deal of their apprehensions, and comparatively little was thought of it until evening again advanced, when the fears of the daughter began to return. They appeared to be prophetic, for she said when night came that she knew he would appear again; and accordingly at the same hour he did so. This was repeated for several successive nights, until the girl, from the very hardihood of terror, began to become so far familiarized to the specter as to venture to address it.