Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/278

 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF IRISH FOLKLORE.

BY D. H. MOUTRAY READ.

(Read at Meeting, 15th March, 1916.)

It was, I believe, Mr. Andrew Lang who summarised Scotch Folklore as "all witches" and Irish as "all fairies." The latter at least is the popular idea on the subject. It is correct to the extent that belief in fairies (Sidhe) is general in Ireland—all the varieties, from the Fairy Host to the Leprechaun. The varieties, it must not be forgotten, are more than a differentiation of local nomenclature. The Fairy Host, according to tradition, consists of the fallen angels. One version of their origin is as follows:

The Devil was admiring himself in a looking-glass, and he said, "I am very beautiful. I am very beautiful. I am more beautiful than God." He went on saying this till God got in a tearing rage and turned the Devil out of Heaven. A lot of the angels laughed at this, and God was so angry at their laughing that He threw them out of Heaven also, bailing them out by handfuls. So they fell down, down, down. But St. Michael interfered and begged for them to be spared. So they were allowed to stay where they were. And some were on earth, some were in the sea, and some were in the sky. So they became the Fairy Host.

A great deal has been written about the Banshee,