Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/321

 Collectanea. 3 1 1

be seen yet," ^ but 1 could learn nothing of its shape and doings. I also heard that the weird cry of the curlew and other shore birds in the darkness was feared as ominous.

The only Mayo story of the death coach (if such it be) which gave any details I was unable to locate, save as in the county. I heard it as told in Roscommon.^ Lord Tirawley was a sensual, reckless young man and a misleader of his com- panions. One night a heavy carriage drove up to his door as he was carousing. The servants, unaccountably scared by the fierce ringing of the bell and knocking, long hesitated to open the door ; when at last they did so they saw a great black coach surrounded by a crowd of attendants dressed in black and holding torches. A stately man, also in black, got out and beckoned Lord Tirawley into an unfurnished wing of the building opposite to the dining room. They were long together, and when the peer rejoined his guests he told them with tears that he was given a warning to repent as he was doomed to die after a year. He for some months led a reformed and even pious life, then he gradually lapsed and led a wilder life than ever, though he still said that the coach would come on the anniversary of its former visit. When that day came he asked a large party of revellers to keep him company. As the evening darkened he sat in gloomy silence till the hour had come and gone, then he burst out into reckless mirth and a wild revel began. Mid- night struck, and a heavy rumbling silenced the mirth and blasphemy ; the knocking was heard ; the servants opened, and the dark stranger entered. He stood at the door and beckoned to the doomed lord, who rose and followed him like a sheep-walker. They passed to the innermost room of the opposite wing, leaving the doors open so all could be seen from the hall. The stranger drew a ship on the wall; it became solid and moved out ; he got on board. Lord Tirawley followed, and the ship sailed round and passed through the wall, which closed upon it, and neither of its occupants was seen again on earth !

^ Proc. R.I. Academy, vol. xxxi. "Clare Island Survey," part 3.
 * From Mr. Donnellan at Dingle.