Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/360

 352 in order to give something to the fairies that were flying along in the dust.

People had assured him, and no laughing could get them out of the belief, that they had seen a field full of fairies—little people two or three feet high.—Mr. .

A headless coach—that is, without horses—was said to career about the neighbourhood of Listowel when any misfortune was about to take place. Mr. Creagh remembers, as a boy, servants assuring him that they had seen it.

There was a common belief, though it is not much heard of now, that priests could turn people into hares.

Country people in Kerry don't eat hares; the souls of their grandmothers are supposed to have entered into them. (February 1891.)

The following notes were contributed in June, 1892, by Mr. G. C. Campbell, as nearly as possible in the actual words of his various informants: —

The Origin of the Fairies.—The. fairies are fallen angels. The time when Lucifer was head-angel, he was cast out of heaven. Pride put Lucifer down. There was wans o' the angels took part wi' the Almighty, and there was wans took part wi' Lucifer. The wans that sided wi' the Almighty, they stayed in heaven, an' the wans that sided wi' Lucifer they went straight to hell. But there was a third party, wans that kep' silent, an' the Almighty sent them out o' heaven into the rocks, an' sea, an' bushes, an' land; an' they are the gentry, the wee-folk. They say if there 's wan drap o' blood in them at the Judgment Day they'll be pardoned, but I don't believe they have wan drap o' blood in them.—Informant,, Londonderry, beggar.

Added to this.—They say some are hanging by the heels in the elements yet.—, co. Derry, farmer's wife.

Fairy Story.—There was a young married lady, an' she was very rich, an' the fairies took her away the night her first baby was born; so they could not find her no road. They had a coachman, an' he was always listenin' at the door of the fairies. So on Hallowe'en night he went back to the door; with that they opened the door, an' got him listenin', and let him in. So when