Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second Series
General
Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second Series
Atlantic Coast (Ireland) -- Social life and customs; Folklore -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs
And big Joyce that was a servant to John O'Hara, he went to cut trees
one night near that hole at Raheen, near the corner of the road, and
he was prevented, and never could get the handsaw near a tree, nor
the other men that were with him.
And there was another man went and cut a bush not far from the
Kinvara road, and with the first stroke he heard a sort of a cough
or a groan come from beneath it, that was a token to him to leave it
alone. But he wouldn't leave off, and his mouth was drawn to one side
all of a sudden and in two days after he was dead. Surely, one should
leave such things alone.
_A Piper:_
I had a fall myself in Galway the other day that I couldn't move
my arm to play the pipes if you gave me Ireland. And a man said to
me--and they are very smart people in Galway--that two or three got a
fall and a hurt in that same place. "There is places in the sea where
there is drowning," he said, "and places on the land as well where
there do be accidents, and no man can save himself from them, for it
is the will of God."
_A Man Asking Alms:_
It's not safe sometimes to meddle with walls. There was a man beyond
Gort knocked some old walls not long ago, and he's dead since.
But it's by the big tree outside Raheen where you take the turn to
Kinvara that the most things are seen. There was a boy living with
Conor in Gort that was out before daylight with a load of hay in a
cart, and he sitting on top of it, and he was found lying dead just
beside the tree, where he fell from the top of the cart, and the
horse was standing there stock-still. There was a shower of rain fell
while he was lying there, and I passed the road two hours later, and
saw where the dust was dry where his body had been lying. And it was
only yesterday I was hearing a story of that very same place. There
was a man coming from Galway with a ton weight of a load on his cart,
and when he came to that tree the linching of his wheel came out,
and the cart fell down. And presently a little man, about two and a
half feet in height, came out from the wall and lifted up the cart,
and held it up till he had the linching put up again. And he never
said a word but went away as he came, and the man came in to Gort.
And I remember myself, the black and white dog used to be on the
road between Hanlon's gate and Gort. It was there for ten years and
no one ever saw it, but one evening Father Boyle's man was going out
to look at a few little sheep and lambs belonging to the priest, and
when he came to the stile the dog put up its paws on it and looked at
him, and he was afraid to go on. So next morning he told Father Boyle
about it and he said "I think that you won't see it any more." And
sure enough from that day it never was seen again.
_Steve Simon:_
I don't know did I draw down to you before, your ladyship, the
greatest wonder ever I saw in my life?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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