He was like a big strong man, she said, and half naked, and that is all she said about him. I have never seen any myself, but I am a cousin of Hearne, and my uncle was away twenty-one years.’ The wife of the old miller said, ‘It is said they are mostly good neighbours, but the stroke of the fool is what there is no cure for; any one that gets that is gone. The _Amadán-na-Breena_ we call him!’ And an old woman who lives in the Bog of Kiltartan, and is very poor, said, ‘It is true enough, there is no cure for the stroke of the _Amadán-na-Breena_. There was an old man I knew long ago, he had a tape, and he could tell what diseases you had with measuring you; and he knew many things, and he said to me one time, “What month of the year is the worst?” and I said, “The month of May, of course.” “It is not,” he said; “but the month of June, for that’s the month that the _Amadán_ gives his stroke!” They say he looks like any other man, but he’s leathan (wide), and not smart. I knew a boy one time got a great fright, for a lamb looked over the wall at him with a beard on it, and he knew it was the _Amadán_, for it was the month of June. And they brought him to that man I was telling about, that had the tape, and when he saw him he said, “Send for the priest, and get a Mass said over him.” And so they did, and what would you say but he’s living yet and has a family! A certain Regan said, “They, the other sort of people, might be passing you close here and they might touch you. But any that gets the touch of the _Amadán-na-Breena_ is done for.” 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 he 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 him 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 he got the better of the other man, and then the troop on his side gave a great shout, and he was left home again. But about three years after that he was cutting bushes in a wood and he saw the _Amadán_ coming at him. He had a big vessel in his arms, and it was shining, so that the boy could see nothing else; but he put it behind his back then and came running, and the boy said he looked wild and wide, like the side of the hill. And the boy ran, and he threw the vessel after him, and it broke with a great noise, and whatever came out of it, his head was gone there and then. He lived for a while after, and used to tell 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.’ And an old woman in a Galway workhouse, who had some little knowledge of Queen Maive, said the other day, ‘The _Amadán-na-Breena_