Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/125

Rh receive the stream. The place in question is about 12 miles east of Westport on the way to L. Carra. I visited it, desiring to explore the cavern as far as it seemed safe, and took a guide from the nearest part of the main road. When we approached the hollow my guide refused to come further, and tried to dissuade me. He sat down on a height afar off, and would not even go near the entrance. I had to go alone to the foot of the low cliff, but found two of the side entrances choked with debris, and did not venture into the main opening, which did not offer a secure foothold, especially to anyone unaccompanied by a guide. I offered him half a crown, then five shillings, but he said that not for a pound note would he go near the foot of the cliff, and showed such terror that I induced him to give me his reason. He then explained that though persons had penetrated more than once by one of the side openings, he knew a man who having got in suddenly saw the vault lit up by the lights of some large building illuminated with numerous windows, and what he saw and heard was too dreadful to be described, and then he crossed himself and made for his home, leaving me alone on the slope of the hill.

The Phantom Coach

In Leitrim I have often heard of this visitation, and on one occasion was present when the apparition was believed to have occurred. At Mohill Castle, the residence of an uncle of mine, one calm winter's night the family, eight in number, were all sitting in the drawing-room which faced the carriage drive. Suddenly we all heard the wheels of a carriage and the beat of horses' hoofs approaching, and then stopping opposite the hall door. My uncle, wondering who could be arriving at so late an hour, stepped into the hall accompanied by myself, then a lad of about eighteen years of age. As we were unbolting the door the butler also appeared, and said no bell had rung, but that the servants and he had heard a carriage drive up to the door. When it was opened there was nothing to be seen. There was no wind, and we heard only the drip of a drizzling rain from a tree hard by. The drive ended in the sweep opposite the hall door, so it could