The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Larry, however, made him no answer; and, on looking for him again,
there was no Larry there for him. 'Nelly,' says he to his wife,
'did you see any sight of Larry since, he went to the still-house?'
'Arrah, no indeed, Tom,' says she; 'what's coming over you to spake to
the man that's near Drum-furrar by this time?' 'God keep him from harm!'
said Tom;--'poor fellow, I wish nothing ill may happen him this night!
I'm afeard, Nelly, that I saw his _fetch_;* and if I did, he hasn't long
to live; for when one's fetch is seen at this time of night, their lase
of life, let them be sick or in health, is always short.'
* This in the North of Ireland is called wraith, as in
Scotland. The Fetch is a spirit that assumes the likeness of
a particular person. It does not appear to the individual
himself whose resemblance it assumes, but to some of his
friends. If it is seen in the morning, it betokens long
life; if after sunset, approaching death; after nightfall,
immediate death.
“'Hut, Tom aroon!' says Nelly, 'it was the shadow of the jamb or
yourself you saw in the light of the candle, or the shadow of the
bed-post.'
“The next morning they were all up, hoping that he would drop in to
them. Sally got a creel of turf, notwithstanding her condition, and put
down a good fire to warm him; but the morning passed, and no sign of
him. She now got very unasy, and mintioned to his brother what she felt,
and Tom went up to the still-house to know if he was there, or to try if
he could get any tidings of him. But, by the laws! when he heard that
he had left that for home the night before, and he in a state of liquor,
putting this, and what he had heard and seen in his house together, Tom
knew that something must have happened him. He went home again, and on
his way had his eye about him, thinking that it would be no miracle, if
he'd meet him lying head-foremost in a ditch; however, he did not, but
went on, expecting to find him at home before him.
“In the mane time, the neighbors had been all raised to search for him;
and, indeed, the hills were alive with people. It was the second day
after, that Sally was standing, looking out at her own door towards the
mountains, expecting that every man with a blue coat upon him might be
Larry, when she saw a crowd of people coming down the hills. Her heart
leaped to her mouth, and she sent Dick, the eldest of the sons, to meet
them, and run back with word to her if he was among them. Dick went
away; but he hadn't gone far when he met his uncle Tom, coming on before
the rest.
“'Uncle,' says Dick, 'did you get my father? for I must fly back with
word to my mother, like lightning.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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