Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/133

 Collectanea. 1 2 1

Now there was another Abhac as was a small little-een man with his head bigger than his body. He was very rich, and had spardn na sctliinge, ye know. He had no wife, and there was nine of them hunting him because he was so rich and had spardn na scillinge. Well, one of the women was at him then, trying to get spardn na sciUini:;e, and he would not give it to her. " Well," he said, " I won't give ye spardn na scilitnge" he said, says he. " Well, if ye won't give me spardn na scillinge" says she, " I won't have ye at all," says she, " when ye wouldn't give me spardn na scillinge" says she. "Go away with ye and never come back again to look at me or to speak with me, for I won't have ye at all, and ye are only a small little-een man and its not ye I want, but its spardn na scillinge I want ! " says she. And she went away and was never seen again. And the other women went away, and they were never seen again.

15. The Badhby^

A Badhb is a big tall woman dressed in white, about ten feet in the height. She has hair about four feet long, and she goes along clapping her hands and tearing her hair, and she saying " Ochdn ! Ochdn ! " i^ And, when she comes to the house, she disturbs the fowls and kills all the birds and their eggs, and very soon after that you hear somebody is dead.

About twelve years ago, one evening at half-past seven, indeed, faith, as Kate Caher was standing at her own gate, she see a big tall woman, dressed in white, and she had terrible long foxy hair, and she clapping her hands. " Oc/idn I Ochdn!" she was saying. Faix ! ye might say she was frightened, and she went to call out her mother, and, just when she came out, no sign of her could be seen. She was gone off like a flying fox. A cousin of hers, a young girl, died soon after in about three months.

i^Pron. Bibe. Cf. note i. Now regarded as a kind of banshee by the peasantry,

^' Pron. " Ohone," a cry of lamentation.

{To be confi?ii(ed)