Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/326

 3 1 6 Collectanea,

of the newborn child. If the tails of cattle are cut or marked it is attributed to the fairies. Fairy ships and boats sail in the air and are often seen over Inishturk. One ship sailed over Cfiara, and magic lights are often seen out to sea. There are two reputed fairy mounds on the island. A fine bronze sword was thrust out of the earth in one and secured for archaeology. As to the ships, Irish annals tell how in Il6l "demon ships w^ere seen to sail against the wind " in Galway harbour before the fort [dun) of Gaillimh (Galway) was destroyed. A hearth should be swept and the fire made up when the family go to bed, so that the fairies can warm themselves there.

Mr. Michael Lavelle, his brother Rev. Edward Lavelle, a priest on Cliara (Clare Island), and Mr. Myles Joyce, the school- master on Bofin (Inishbofin),i were stores of such local tales. One man subject to epileptic fits used to tell wondrous stories of his dealings with the fairies on such occasions.

The Allies family on Bofin were invaluable to us and Professor Haddon from their local knowledge. Mrs. Allies was once told by several of the islanders that they had seen numbers of little men dressed in green and led by two dressed in black running over the hills, and Mr. Cyril Allies, when rabbit shooting, was informed by an old man that a crowd of fairy girls were around him. He offered a large reward to be shown one or to be allowed to photograph one, but down to my visit in 191 1 the reward was unclaimed, and I recently heard with regret of the death of this kind and hospitable gentleman so bound up with the recollections of all explorers of Bofin in the last thirty years.

On one occasion his quarrymen stopped work because the rock was getting very hot from all the " good people " inside it. One variety of fairy, the Fir dearg or Red Man, is mentioned. I reserve the better known Bofin legends of the discovery of the island, the fairy woman and the enchanted " white cow," whence the name " Inis bofin " is derived.

On the Mullet peninsula we found on different occasions many tales of fairies. " They " have been seen dancing and making fairy rings on the sward and riding on stems of the " bohilaun "

^ The Lavelles are not (as some have said) French settlers, but of an old Irish family, Mullavell.