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
There was a man watching the fire where two hares were cooking and
he heard them whistling in the pot. And when the people of the house
came home they were afraid to touch them, but the man that heard the
whistling ate a good meal of them and was none the worse.
* * * * *
There was an uncle of my own lived over near Garryland. And one day
himself and another man were going through the field, and they saw a
hare, and the hound that was with them gave chase, and they followed.
And the hound was gaining on the hare and it made for a house, where
the half-door was open. And the hound made a snap at it and touched
it as it leaped the half-door. And when my uncle and the others came
up, they could find no hare, but only an old woman in the house--and
she bleeding. So there's no doubt at all but it was she took the form
of a hare. My uncle spent too much money after, and gave up his land
and went to America.
* * * * *
As to hares, there was a man out with his greyhound and it gave chase
to a hare. And it made for a house, and went in at the window, and
the hound just touched the leg. And when the man came up, he found an
old woman in the house, and he asked leave to search the house and so
he did in every place, but there was no hare to be seen. But when he
came in she was putting a pot on the fire, so he said that he must
look in the pot, and he took the cover off, and it was full of blood.
And before the hound gave chase, he had seen the hare sucking the
milk from a cow.
* * * * *
As to hares, there's no doubt at all there's some that's not natural.
One night I was making pot-whiskey up in that hill beyond. Yes
indeed, for three year, I did little but run to and fro to the still,
and one December, I was making it for the Christmas and I was taken
and got nine weeks in gaol for it--and £16 worth of whiskey spilled
that night. But there's mean people in the world; and he did it
for half a sovereign, and had to leave the country after and go to
England. Well, one night, I was watching by the fire where it was too
fierce, and it would have burned the oats. And over the hill and down
the path came two hares and walked on and into the wood. And two more
after that, and then by fours they came, and by sixes, and I'd want
a slate and a pencil to count all I saw, and it just at sunrise. And
some of them were as thin as thin. And there's no doubt at all that
those were not _hares_ I saw that night.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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