[3] The Banshee is a species of aristocratic fairy, who, in the shape of a little hideous old woman, has been known to appear, and heard to sing in a mournful supernatural voice under the windows of great houses, to warn the family that some of them are soon to die. In the last century every great family in Ireland had a Banshee, who attended regularly; but latterly their visits and songs have been discontinued. [4] _Childer:_ this is the manner in which many of Thady’s rank, and others in Ireland, _formerly_ pronounced the word _children_. [5] _Middle men_.--There was a class of men termed middle men in Ireland, who took large farms on long leases from gentlemen of landed property, and let the land again in small portions to the poor, as under-tenants, at exorbitant rents. The _head landlord_, as he _was_ called, seldom saw his _under-tenants_; but if he could not get the _middle man_ to pay him his rent punctually, he _went to his land, and drove the land for his rent_, that is to say, he sent his steward or bailiff, or driver, to the land to seize the cattle, hay, corn, flax, oats, or potatoes, belonging to the under-tenants, and proceeded to sell these for his rents: it sometimes happened that these unfortunate tenants paid their rent twice over, once to _the middle man_, and once to the _head landlord_. The characteristics of a middle man _were_, servility to his superiors, and tyranny towards his inferiors: the poor detested this race of beings. In speaking to them, however, they always used the most abject language, and the most humble tone and posture--“_Please your honour; and please your honour’s honour_” they knew must be repeated as a charm at the beginning and end of every equivocating, exculpatory, or supplicatory sentence; and they were much more alert in doffing their caps to these new men, than to those of what they call _good old families_. A witty carpenter once termed these middle men _journeymen gentlemen_.