[427] Mr. Croker says, that according to the Munster peasantry the ordinary attire of the Fairy is a black hat, green coat, white stockings, and red shoes. [428] In Irish as in Erse, [Irish Uncial: daine maiṫ] (_deenè mâh_). [429] See above, p. 26. [430] They are [Irish Uncial: sia] (_shia_), [Irish Uncial: siaḃra] (_shifra_), [Irish Uncial: siacaire] (_shicârè_), [Irish Uncial: siġ] (_shee_), [Irish Uncial: siġe] (_sheeè_), [Irish Uncial: siġib](_sheeidh_) all denoting, spirit, fairy. The term [Irish Uncial: siġ] also signifies a hag, and a hillock, and as an adjective, spiritual. [431] We never heard a fairy-legend from any of the Connaught-men with whom we conversed in our boyhood. Their tales were all of Finn-mac-Cool and his heroes. [432] In Irish, [Irish Uncial: dia aoine] (_dhia eenè_). We are inclined to think that he must have added, [Irish Uncial: dia dardaoin, dia aoine] (_dhia dhardheen, dhia eenè_), _i.e._ Thursday, Friday; for we can see no reason for omitting Thursday. [433] See below, _Brittany_ and _Spain_, in both of which the legend is more perfect; but it is impossible to say which is the original. Parnell's pleasing Fairy Tale is probably formed on this Irish version, yet it agrees more with the Breton legend. [434] This story may remind one of the Wonderful Lamp, and others. There is something of the same kind in the Pentamerone. [435] _Inis_, pronounced sometimes _Inch_, (like the Hebrew _Ee_ (אי) and the Indian _Dsib_) is either island or coast, bank of sea or river. The Ang.-Sax. [Old English: ig] (_ee_) seems to have had the same extent of signification, hence Chelsea, Battersea, etc., which never could have been islands. Perhaps [Old English: þeordig] (_worthy_, _worth_) was similar, as _werd_, _werth_, in German is an island. [436] Mr. Croker says this is _moruach_, sea-maid; the only word we find in O'Reilly is [Irish Uncial: muiriṁmgeaċ] (_múrirgach_). We have met no term answering to _merman_. [437] It is a rule of the Irish language, that the initial consonant of an oblique case, or of a word _in regimine_, becomes aspirated; thus _Pooka_ (nom.), _na Phooka_ (gen.), _mac_ son, _a mhic_ (_vic_) my son. [438] In Irish [Irish Uncial: lobaircin] (_lubárkin_); the Ulster name is Logheryman, in Irish [Irish Uncial: loċarman] (_lucharman_). For the Cork term Cluricaun, the Kerry Luricaun and the Tipperary Lurigadaun, we have found no equivalents in the Irish dictionaries. The short _o_ in Irish, we may observe, is pronounced as in French and Spanish, _i. e._ as _u_ in _but_, _cut_; _ai_ nearly as _a_ in _fall_. It may be added, on account of the following tales, that in Kildare and the adjoining counties the short English _u_, in _but_, _cut_, etc., is invariably pronounced as in _pull_, _full_, while this _u_, is pronounced as that in _but_, _cut_.