Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/377

 Collectanea. 34 1

with the churn " dash," and if you are smoking you should finish the pipe in the house, or you may " take " the butter. There is still living to the south of Ennis a man who is afraid to touch a churn lest the butter should "go away," and he get the discredit of "butter-taking." (I may boast myself of the repute of having " the lucky hand " that " brings " the butter quickly.) Long ago the O'Briens of Kells near Corofin told the late Dr. G. U. Mac- Namara of the latter place how one " Donogho buidhe" (yellow Donal), a local " fairy man," being offended one day about getting a glass of whiskey, left the house angrily. After his exit no amount of churning would bring the butter. He was pursued and appeased, and took a bit of paper from under the churn, when the butter came at once. In a case in the Tulla district in which a farmer's butter was " taken," he consulted the priest, by whose direction he searched in the corner of his corn-field, and found a small sheaf with a hazel rod in it. After destroying this the butter " came " in great abundance.-^

Thos. J. Westropp. 28 Cf. ante, p. 58..

{To be cojitinued.)

Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales {continued). 42. The Girl, the Snake, and the Pigeon. (U. G.)

Some young girls had assembled. They went to the forest, and climbed up a tree. Then a Snake (string of the ground) came and stretched himself around the trunk of the tree. He was looking for a certain one called Talele ; because of her popularity he wanted to swallow her.^ So, when one of the girls descended, she said, — " O Snake, I am not Talele. Give me room to pass." He gave her room, and she went off; he said it was Talele whom he wanted. Another then^fcame,

1 And 50 become popular himself. Talele means " loved bne."