'This enchantment, however, did not change the prince's love for the
beautiful singer; and he explained how there was a day mentioned with
his father, the king, for all the great ladies of Ireland to assemble in
the Halls of Tara, and that the grandest lady and the greatest singer
and the best mantle-maker would be chosen as his wife. When he added
that each lady must come in a chariot, the rat spoke to him and said
that he must send to her home, on the day named, four piebald cats and a
pack of cards, and that she would make her appearance, provided that at
the time her chariot came to the Halls of Tara no one save the prince
should be allowed near it; and, she finally said to the prince, "Until
the day mentioned with your father, you must carry me as a rat in your
pocket."
'But before the great day arrived, the rat had made everything known to
one of the fairy women, and so when the four piebald cats and the pack
of cards reached the girl's home, the fairies at once turned the cats
into the four most splendid horses in the world, and the pack of cards
into the most wonderful chariot in the world; and, as the chariot was
setting out from the Moat for Tara, the fairy queen clapped her hands
and laughed, and the enchantment over the girl was broken, so that she
became, as before, the prettiest lady in the world, and she sitting in
the chariot.
'When the prince saw the wonderful chariot coming, he knew whose it was,
and went out alone to meet it; but he could not believe his eyes on
seeing the lady inside. And then she told him about the witches and
fairies, and explained everything.
'Hundreds of ladies had come to the Halls of Tara from all Ireland, and
every one as grand as could be. The contest began with the singing, and
ended with the mantle-making, and the young girl was the last to appear;
but to the amazement of all the company the king had to give in (admit)
that the strange woman was the grandest lady, the greatest singer, and
the best mantle-maker in Ireland; and when the old king died she became
the Queen of Tara.'
After this ancient legend, which Owen Morgan heard from the old folks
when he was a boy, he told me many anecdotes about the 'good people' of
the Boyne, who are little men usually dressed in red.
_The 'Good People' at New Grange._--Between Knowth and New Grange I met
Maggie Timmons carrying a pail of butter-milk to her calves; and when we
stopped on the road to talk, I asked her, in due time, if any of the
'good people' ever appeared in the region, or about New Grange, which we
could see in the field, and she replied, in reference to New Grange:--'I
am sure the neighbours used to see the _good people_ come out of it at
night and in the morning. The _good people_ inherited the _fort_.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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