Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/320

 3IO Collectanea.

appears in Mayo as a dark cloaked grey-haired woman sitting on a rock or fence near the house moaning or crying, more frequently heard than seen. She is occasionally confused with the Puca and with the fairies. In Connemara she wears a red cloak, and sings before a death ; her voice travels with the gust of wind. Maxwell in Wild Sports of the West tells how the Banshee comes in a storm. This was in the N.W. corner of Mayo.^ I nowhere heard of the ponylike or goatlike Puca round this coast ; it was known as of human shape. I hope some local student may be able to get more information on the subject.

Near Creggs at Lettermullen on Galway Bay is a curious rock from which a child's voice is heard crying before the death of any of the village children. In the same place Dr. Browne found a belief that four magpies (elsewhere foretelling a birth) or a raven sitting on a house are death omens. So is the apparition of a headless man sitting on a boat on the shore before any fatality. In some cases a cofhn is heard being made outside the house of the doomed man, or his wraith is seen to walk past and suddenly vanish. This last in Co. Limerick was rather a sign of recovery or long life. One man when going from Lettermullen to Co. Mayo saw the death coach and died shortly afterwards. In short, Dr. Browne and I were much impressed by the gloomy beliefs which preponderate on that section of the coast of Galway.

Near Ballycroy on Blacksod Bay the chief death omens mentioned are the appearance of a black dog or a white cow, both ghosts ; the last is especially feared.

On the north coast of Mayo east from Portacloy the crickets usually foretell death, " for they are hundreds of years old and very cunning and understand all that they hear." It is evi- dently their long gathered wisdom and experience, not any malicious element, that makes them prophets. I saw a cricket run out past the hearth and stay. " Look how the cricket js listening to your story," said my host. He seemed to have no prejudice against it. On Cliara, Loughaunaphuca was thought to be haunted — " the Puca was seen there and might 1 Wild Sports of (he IVest, vol. i. p. 67.