Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/130

 I o 2 Collectanea.

pursue,^ and though Domnall is slain in the hills to the east of the Munhin, the army of Medbh is routed, and Flidhais and the spoils recovered. The author ends abruptly by saying that Flidhais was never heard of more. There were evidently two versions of the Flidhais tale, and the local one took over and absorbed a separate story of Domnall duail buidhe. I think it by no means improbable that the folk tale and the Ulster version show the two uncon- nected constituents which are combined in the Erris recension by some one very well acquainted with the district.

Miss Knight, a sister of the civil engineer who has left us the tale in Erris in the Irish Highlands,^ in 1836, collected the local legends. The published version was possibly touched up for publication, but is worth comparing with the cruder copy of the folk tale two years later. " Donald Doolwee," the giant, used to shut the gates of the glen at his fort of Doon Donald every night to safeguard his dominion. One night a powerful band of raiders sur- prised and took "Doon Carton" and " Doon Keeghan." Alarmed by fugitives, Donald sallies, driving back his enemies in a fierce battle on the strand of " Tra Kirtaan," where he is preserved from death by a magic sword knot made by a witch in Iniskea. His wife, Munchin, "the daughter of the Reeks," of Bally Croy, sees the fight, and falls in love with the hostile leader. She treacher- ously persuades her husband to make terms with him and entertain him in Doon Donald. She (like Dalila) entreats Donald to tell her the secret of his valour and strength. He calls up the sorceress of Iniskea, who administers a fearful oath on a skull, scythe, keys, and other objects,^ and he tells how the sword is invincible till the knot is cut. Undeterred by her oath, she meets her lover in the glen, and directs him to tell Donald that he is about to return to " Doon Carton." The chief gets drunk at the farewell feast, and his rival cuts the knot, beheads him, and

^ There is a very interesting account of the war dogs tearing down the chariot horses of Fergus, who has to escape on foot. The tale abounds in early features comparable with the Grseco- Roman accounts of the Gauls in the centuries before our era.

^loc. cit., p. 166.

' The belief in the tremendous validity added by iron to the very solemn oath on the skull was certainly a true local belief in the barony. See infra.