Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/133

Rh sending a man to harpoon seals for seven holy bishops and of his perilous adventures when he strikes one of these animals.

Each of the counties on the west of Ireland has its spectral island. Donegal has Tir Hudi; Mayo, the "Great Sunken Land" and Ladra; Co. Galway has Skerd; Co. Clare has Kilstuitheen and Kilstapheen ; Kerry has the Island at Ballyheigue, while all have Hy Brasil.

Opposite to Annagh and Scotch Port in the Mullet is a rocky shoal called Edye on which the sea boils at low water. Some called it Monaster Ladra, or Letteragh. The first name recalls the mythical Ladra who (" 1599," say some, 2348), just before the Deluge, escorted Cesair, Noah's niece, to Ireland. He died and was the first person buried on the island. It is seen once in seven years, covered with houses and churches; no one has seen it a third time. Crampton calls it a "druid land." Its monarch was "King of the three kingdoms behind" (i.e. beyond Ireland). Some saw a great peak crowned with a castle on it. If anyone can drop a lighted coal on it it will become firm and habitable as Bofin has done.

This in the Mullet is now confused with Ladra. In 1839 it was reputed to lie between Donegal and Mayo from Teelin to the Stags and halfway to America. A woman named Lavelle saw it with its pleasant hills and valleys and cattle and sheep. A boatman at Ballycastle said he had seen it twice and he believed that if he saw it the third time, fourteen years after its first appearance, he could disenchant it. He became idle and useless and died, out of actual excitement, on the very eve of its expected appearance. Lieut. Henri's servant told him of one Gallagher who had landed on it in a fog. We have an account in 1636 of its appearance beyond Killybegs and Teelin.

It may be Imaire Buidhe, the cod bank, forty miles from land, which was believed to be an enchanted island and lay opposite