Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, First Series
History
Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, First Series
Atlantic Coast (Ireland) -- Social life and customs; Folklore -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs
All go among them when they die except the old people. And it's
better to be there than in the pains of Purgatory. As to Purgatory, I
don't think it is after being with _them_ we have to go there. But
I know we're told to give some clothing to the poor, and it will be
thrown down afterwards to quench the flames for us.
_A Policeman's Wife:_
There was a girl in County Clare was away, and the mother used to
hear horses coming about the door every night. And one day the mother
was picking flax in the house, and of a sudden there came in her hand
an herb with the best smell and the sweetest that ever was smelt
(_Note_ 44). And she closed it with her hand, and called to the son
that was making up a stack of hay outside "Come in, Denis, for I
have the best smelling herb that ever you saw." And when he came in
she opened her hand, and the herb was gone clear and clean. She got
annoyed at last with the horses coming about the door, and some told
her to gather all the fire into the middle of the floor and to lay
the little girl upon it, and to see could she come back again. So
she did as she was told, and brought the little girl out of the bed
and laid her on the coals. And she began to scream and to call out,
and the neighbours came running in, and the police heard of it, and
they came and arrested the mother and brought her to the Court-house
before the magistrate, Mr. MacWalter, and my own husband was one of
the police that arrested her. And when the magistrate heard all, he
said she was an ignorant woman, and that she did what she thought
right, and he would give her no punishment. And the girl got well
and was married. It was after she was married I knew her.
_An Old Woman at Chiswick:_
There was a woman went to live in a house where the faeries were
known to be very much about. And the first day she was there one of
them came in and asked her for the loan of a pot, and she gave it.
And the next day she came in again and asked for the loan of some
meal, and when she got it the woman said, "I hope you'll find it
to be fine enough." "It is," she said, "and to show you I think it
fine and good, I'll mix it here and boil the stirabout and we'll eat
it together." And so they did. And she said "We'll always be your
friends; and what you may miss in the morning, never grudge it, for
you'll have more than what you lost before night." And her tribe was
going away, and when she was going out the door, she made a hole with
her heel in the stone, and she filled it up with mud and earth, and
she said "If we die or if anything happens to us, blood will come in
this hole and fill it."
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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