Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/234

 igS Collectanea.

Croaghan, and Celts such as Lachtna (a.d. 820-840), and Brian Boru (a.d. 980-1014). In one notable instance, King Conor (a.d. 1 242-69) is the reputed builder of the great stone fort of Dun Conor in Aran, which in the eleventh-century legend is evidently connected with Conchiurn or Conchraed the Firbolg, — a relation accepted in 1685 by Roderic O'Flaherty, although he called its hero " Conquevar " {i.e. Chonchobhar or Conor). Any modern allusion to the Danann is therefore " suspect." Many visits to the recesses of the hills in Burren from 1878 onwards, — and I may add that the same is true of the rest of Clare, — only gave me, in 1905, one direct reference to the Danann. '^^ At the natural moat crowned by the small stone ring wall of Croaghateeaun, near Lisdoonvarna, we were told to cross ourselves as a protection against the Danann. The place was, nevertheless, undoubtedly regarded by the older people living near it as a most dangerous fairy fort, and we were told how certain badger hunters, — (who brought drink with them), — after a long festival on its summit got benighted there; they eventually returned home sobered by fright, as they suddenly " saw the whole fleet " of " them " coming up the mound, and escaped only just in time.

The " whirlwinds " along dusty roads and sudden gusts were not long ago everywhere supposed to be caused by the progress of fairy beings. The older folk believed, and trembled, — crossing themselves, or saying a word of prayer, — while the younger folk, more than half in jest, raised their hats, as is still sometimes done to the unlucky " single magpie " and the weasel.

I know of two cases of reputed changelings. My second sister, whose delicacy, when an infant, excited remark, was, about 1842, taken out by a servant to be exposed on a shovel on the doorstep at Carnelly. The angry and hasty intervention of another servant saved the child, but the would-be " exposer" was convinced of the propriety of her attempt " to get back the real child " from the fairies. A very old woman, Kate (Geerin) Molony, a henwife at Maryfort, near Tulla, whom I faintly remember in 1869, was many years before anxious about her little daughter's failing health, and went to a "wise woman," who assured her that the child was ^^ Apart from Lon, at Slievnaglasha, and the "hags."
 * ' changed." She spoke of this on her return, and unfortunately