Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/328

 3 1 8 Collectanea.

not better have segregated these cures with medical lore, but thought it was well to complete the fairy lore as far as I was able.

At Ballycroy on Blacksod Bay, a lonely and somewhat in- accessible place, Mr. Michael Conway told Dr. Browne ^ that there were three classes of fairies dwelling respectively in the sea, air and earth, they injured human beings and animals. If one of the latter was shot a " wise man " passed a " fairy dart " thrice over and under the beast with suitable incantations. Not long before 1896 a child was carried for three miles away by the fairies, but it was rescued, I could not learn how. He also knew of a man who, coming within hearing of the fairy revels, danced to " the music of their sweet pipings," and died within a year.

Lady Wilde tells of a man on Shark (Inishark) Island, being weatherbound and unable to go to Bofin for tobacco, lost his temper and beat his wife. When he went out he met a stranger who offered to put him across the Sound. A number of men and ladies passed on horses ; he sprang up on one of the mysteri- ous steeds, which sprang to a rock midway between the islands. At this the cavalcade cried out that a mortal was among them and they tried to drown him, but a red-haired man rescued him and brought him back to Shark, warning him never to beat his wife again. The origin of this improving tale is evident. On Inisbofin it is unlucky even to speak of the fairies on a Wednesday or a Friday. One should watch and wave burning straw over the children, and if the horses are restless one should go into the stable and spit thrice, for evidently the fairies are there. The fairies have spears of fish bones or stone and are of two sorts, one being gentle and loving, the other kind malignant and friends of Satan.

A tale is told on Inishark a replica of that of " Daniel O'Rourke and the Eagle" in Crofton Croker's fairy legends, and probably brought in by some stranger. It tells how one Shaun More carried sacks for the fairies and received various gifts till he became rich and proud and quarrelled with his benefactors, challenging them to fight. His flight on the eagle's back,


 * " Ethnography of Ballycroy," Proc. R.I. Acad., vol. iv. ser. iii. p. 104.