Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/218

 186 “It is not possible,” said he, “that she has killed my babe.”

“She killed and she ate.”

He went to her and found the child dead; but she did not speak a word to him. He said then he would burn her at twelve o'clock on the next day, and that he would put a tree of one foot and hang her on it. He commanded that every one should come in the morning with sods of turf and sheets of paper and everything to make a fire. And he put the tree standing, and she was brought and put up on the top of the tree; and she was sewing during this time. When it was twelve o'clock, sign was given she should be hung, and an old man in the crowd asked them to give her another hour by the clock; and when the hour was passed he asked again that they should give her a half-hour; the woman in it (he said) was under gassa. “You see that it is not her life that is troubling her, but that she is always sewing.”

It was not long till they saw a black cloud coming through the air, and they saw three things in the cloud coming.

“Well,” said the old man, “there are three angels from heaven, or three devils from hell, coming for her soul.”

There were three black ravens coming, and their mouths open, and as it were fire out of their mouths, till the three black ravens came and lay