Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/290

 258 is, in this tale, "klebisjtjïn"; in the preceding tale it is "plebisjtjïn." Wonderful "horse-beasts" thus occur four times in this volume. In two stories it will be noted that they are merely human beings, enchanted; in the other two this is apparently not the case. The word rendered "healing water" is, in this, as in all the other stories in which it occurs, "ïqlæntj" (Donegal pron.), which literally means, "cure-health."

Page 219. "The Nine-legged Steed." The opening resembles a story of Curtin's, in which, however, the step-mother acts from the motive of hate instead of, as here, from affection. The words translated "transforming caps" are "qahal" (cochal), which also means a cloak, and "qantræltje," the translation of which is a guess. It must be inferred that of the three maidens, who came as swans, one was the nine-legged steed, another the lady in the greenawn. The third is not accounted for. "Greenawn" (grïănaan) means "sunny chamber." In Irish tales the ladies are generally described as occupying such apartments; a more general use of the word is found on page 179.