Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/280

 252 Some Characteristics of Irish Folklore.

of Irish folklore. For it is but a segment. On the other hand, the witch-cult of the country has been practically ignored. There has been an absence of literature on the subject, and Ireland never developed a witch-cult of her own. Fairy-lore and witch-lore have, moreover, been confused. People use the words "witch" and "bewitched " when speaking of fairies. Yet, though it affected the island only partially, Ireland has not been exempt from the universal witch-cult, and I have found belief in both witches and fairies held by the same individuals, but clearly distinguished by them. For instance, a Queen's County man who told me that the will-o'-the-wisp was " a little dwarf that lived in the bog and waved," also told me the following tale :

"There was a man was a friend of me father's, John Daly he was, and 'tis often I heard me father tell the tale. John Daly told him, and me father firmly believed it to be the truth. There was a suspicion that someone was taking the milk from a cow, so they put a pony in the field to v/atch it. One morning early, say about three of the clock, there was a great noise heard, and John Daly creeping up to see what the mischief might be saw a hare taking the milk from the cow, sucking at her teats. John Daly had a big stick in his hand, a bit of a bludgeon with a knob to its top, and he crept, and he crept, silently up till he let out a great smack with his stick at the hare and broke her thigh. She limped off at that, and John Daly was content. ' She'll not be taking any more milk I'm thinking,' says he. Now a week after that as John Daly was driving barley to the market very early in the morning he wanted a light to his pipe. There was no ditch ^ along that road as there would be on the pike-road, so he drove up to a cottage he saw down by the bog and went in. There was two old women in the cottage, and one of them sat by the table sipping tea. ' Will you take a sup o' tay .-* ' says she to John Daly.


 * Hedge.