(Cap for the head, alas! poor head, Coat for the back, alas! poor back, Breeches for the breech, alas! poor breech, But if big Gordon [farm] is thine, Thine is not the merry Glen of Rushen.)[44] And off he went to Glen Rushen for good.' TESTIMONY FROM THE KEEPER OF PEEL CASTLE From Mrs. Moore's house I walked on to Peel, where I was fortunate in meeting, in his own home, Mr. William Cashen, the well-known keeper of the famous old Peel Castle, within whose yet solid battlements stands the one true round tower outside of Ireland. I heard first of all about the fairy dog--the _Moddey Doo_ (Manx for Black Dog)--which haunts the castle; and then Mr. Cashen related to me the following anecdotes and tales about Manx fairies:-- _Prayer against the Fairies._--'My father's and grandfather's idea was that the fairies tumbled out of the battlements of Heaven, falling earthward for three days and three nights as thick as hail; and that one third of them fell into the sea, one third on the land, and one third remained in the air, in which places they will remain till the Day of Judgement. The old Manx people always believed that this fall of the fairies was due to the first sin, pride; and here is their prayer against the fairies:--"_Jee saue mee voish cloan ny moyrn_" (God preserve me from the children of pride [or ambition]).' _A Man's Two Wives._--'A Ballaleece woman was captured by the fairies; and, soon afterwards, her husband took a new wife, thinking the first one gone for ever. But not long after the marriage, one night the first wife appeared to her former husband and said to him, and the second wife overheard her: "You'll sweep the barn clean, and mind there is not one straw left on the floor. Then stand by the door, and at a certain hour a company of people on horseback will ride in, and you lay hold of that bridle of the horse I am on, and don't let it go." He followed the directions carefully, but was unable to hold the horse: the second wife had put some straw on the barn floor under a bushel.' _Sounds of Infinity._--'On Dalby Mountain, this side of Cronk-yn-Irree-Laa the old Manx people used to put their ears to the earth to hear the Sounds of Infinity (_Sheean-ny-Feaynid_), which were sounds like murmurs. They thought these sounds came from beings in space; for in their belief all space is filled with invisible beings.'[45] TO THE MEMORY OF A MANX SCHOLAR Since the following testimony was written down, its author, the late Mr. John Nelson, of Ramsey, has passed out of our realm of life into the realm invisible. He was one of the few Manxmen who knew the Manx language really well, and the ancient traditions which it has preserved both orally and in books. In his kindly manner and with fervent loyalty toward all things Celtic, he gave me leave, during December 1909, to publish for the first time the interesting matter which follows; and, with reverence, we here place it on record to his memory:--