Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/250

 2i8 Collectanea.

far relation of his, too ; but where ever and of his childer or gran'childer is now, I never heard. — Told by Thomas Golden, Cree, Co. Clare.

Believe in Fairies.

Bleve in um, throth, I have rason to bleve in um ! My mother's father had a brother, that was my gran'uncle at the mother's side — God be good to um all ! Well, when he was about three or four monts ould, his mother was in bed and asleep, 'twould be about 12 o'clock at night, when she woke wud a start and just had time to grasp the child round the body, for there, long side the bed, was a little man, having the child be the arm. " 'Twas well you woke," says he, " but we have part of him." Sur enuf, the arm that was cot [caught] never grew a bit bigger than 'twas that night ; although he grew to be a man, he was never right in himself. I have that from my mother — God rest her soul !^ — -and I wouldn't tell a lie of her soul. — Told by Mrs. Curtin, Tullycrine, near Kilrush.

Taken by the Good People.

I was serving my time to the cattle trade, with a man the name of Lynch — God be good to him ! I suppose I was no more than twelve years of age at the time. 'Twas a very out of the way place and mountainy. Well, not far from my master's house there was a family of the Brogans. 'Twas the will of God that Mrs. Brogan took sick, and there was a baby born, but the poor woman died. Well, the sister, a younger girl than the woman that died, came to nurse the child. After some time she began to look very delicate and uneasy. The naghbours were beginning to talk amongs themselves about her, and it came to Brogan's ears, and, begor, it made him vexed. So he asked the sister what was up with her. " Well, John," says she, " I did not like to tell you, but Ellie " — that was the name of the dead woman — " comes every night, and takes the baby and nurses it, and goes away without a word." " By my word," says John, " she is not dead at all, but taken, and I will watch her to-night." Good enough, he remained up, and about