Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/124

 112 Collectanea.

be seen from one lios to the other, and it travelled almost as fast as a telegram. There was always one out on the watch for these fires, as there was no other way to convey messages. The average number of Ciutharacd?is in each lios is about five or six.

There was a man as went out late one night, and he was passing beside a certain iios when he met the little man, and he was sitting down on a little-een chair on the lios. The man went over to him then, and says to the little man : — " Tabhairim spardn fia scillinge!" says he, ["Give me the purse of the shillings."] "Well," says the little Clutharacdn, says he, "■ Tab- hairine dii duch or, [I'll give you a keel of gold], but leave me spardn na scillinge, says the Clut/iaracdfi, says he.  1 won't take the duch 6r, but I want spardn na scillinge,^^ says the man. Now another Clutharacdn came behind the man then, and the first Clutharacdn was pointing to the man to look behind him, and, when he looked behind him, the Clutharacdn and spardn na scillifige were gone. And when he looked before him, the first was gone too, and the man said : — " I'm a lost poor man now. The spardn na scillinge is gone, and tlie keel of gold is gone, and I'm a poor man for ever."

2. The Clutharacdn' s Stick. The Clutharacdn is the smallest man in. the world. His eyes are only as big as the fly's eyes, and the hat he wears is so small that it wouldn't fit the smallest child. He wears a little red jacket and a short little breeches, and yet a leggings and low white shoes and red gloves on his hands from the cold. And he has terrible big pockets in the coat for to keep spardn na scillinge, and the spardn na scillinge would be full of all sorts of sovrans and silver, and it is a black long spardn with clasps on it. And he keeps it in those pockets, and if we find him we'll be never in want or need of any shillings, for there'll be a shilling in it every time you open it. He lives underground in a lios which is covered around with stones, and outside it are briars growing around it. And if ye'd happen to be there at the right hour ye'd meet him, but nobody knows the right hour, and, faix : if we did, we'd have plenty of money ! But when we can't we must manage without it.