Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/69

Rh property, remaining a day in every townland, where she was entertained by her tenantry, who were obliged to provide a red deer for the feast. On her arrival at Ballyknock, she and her eight sons were entertained by Thomas Towhill, who, either for want of the means or inclination to procure venison, had a black sheep from his little flock slaughtered, and its flesh prepared for the occasion. The sons, not aware of the trick honest Towhill had played, were loud in praise of the 'venison'; but their sturdy mother, who had seen a little more of the world, undeceived them in the following terms:—

"The Ille Ruadh, who, like her sister, The Maun or Mawn, carried matters with a high hand against her weaker neighbours, was besieged in her castle, at Deelis, by Cromwell, and lost her life there. The Maun shared a like fate, as the shattered fragments of her keep at Knockmaun testify."

The tomb of the former is said to have been removed to Cappagh, but this we doubt, as what is referred to as a portion of a tomb is evidently part of an altar.—Reprinted from Dungarvan Journal, March, 1883.

Aughisky, or Water Horse.—The Irish aughisky seems to be very similar to the Scotch kelpie. In Munster and Connaught in most lakes there is a presiding aughisky, but especially on those where the wind gust can come down on and cast up fantastic waves that have a weird appearance in the gloaming. The stories are all very much alike. In Lough Mask, co. Mayo, there was an aughisky that used to frequent the Tieve Mackevvy, now called Toormakeady, shore: it used to go on shore and eat up the pregnant cattle and women, but was destroyed about twenty years ago by a monk. In Connemara, about three miles south of the little shebeen called the Garibaldi, on the road from Oughtnard to Clifden, there is a lake called Lettercraffroe. The mountain hereabouts belonged to a boy of the Coneelly's, and early one morning he spotted a magnificent colt feeding in the meadow alongside the lake; he stole down and got between it and the lake, threw a cloth over its head, put a halter on it, and brought