Irish Folk Tales (45 page)

And that was that.

He couldn’t get him.

It was the nearest fairy tale that ever I heard. And I saw the man.

I saw the man. Yes.

He spoke calmly to the fairy. He says, “Wait,” he says, “till I catch you.” So he went to make a grab at him like that, on the ground.

But he had wings on him and he went up in the branches.

And that was that.

And if he had of taken him calmly, the fairy said that he’d tell him where the crock of gold was.

But then, he scared the fairy, the way the fairy disappeared into thin air.

That was that.

He was an old beardy man. I saw him. He’s not so very long dead now. That’s that.

G
ORTDONAGHY FORTH

Well, a forth: it’s round as a ring. And there’s trees growing all around the edge of it. And the grass grows inside.

And you’re not allowed to take anything out of a forth. Because it belongs to the Good People.

And I remember me husband one time,

   he had killed
pigs

      for the market.

And he went out to this forth to get a piece of a skiver to put in the
pig
.

And he got the piece of a stick, or rod, and he went out the next morning, the best pig he had, his two hams were broken. Because he cut that out of there.

I said for him to not go out
there
, so he went on. Went out the next morning to get the two pigs for market, their hams were broken.

They were broken that they were past using, you see.

He brought the pig to the market, and he didn’t get half-price for it.

There was another time, a man went out into a forth with an axe. He was after buying the new axe.

And they had no firing.

And he says to the mother, “I’ll go up to the forth and get a fire out of the windfalls,” out of the whitethorns that was down.

So, he went up with the new axe,

   and he hit the whitethorn,

   and the hatchet went in pieces,

   and blood flew out of the tree.

So he was very glad to leave it there.

And so would I.

So he went back. The mother says, “I told you not to go near it.”

And then where me mother’s uncle built the house. It was away down near Derrygonnelly.

And he had it well on to be built.

And he was told not to build it.

And he says, “Why?” And he wouldn’t be told.

And he was told a second time to not build it. And the man said then, “You’re building it on the fairies’ pass.”

He paid no heed. He built away, and he finished the house, completed it.

The next morning when he went out, the house was down, every stone of it, every stone of it, not one touching another one, no indeed, not one.

So then, the neighbor man says, “You were told to not, you were told to not build it.”

He knew it was on their pass, you see.

Funny, there was no forth beside it. Do you see, it was like the time me husband saw the fairies.

Of course, there’s people now would laugh at you, but sure, when you see the thing.

He saw the light coming across that hill at the end of the house there.

And he watched the lights. He watched the lights, and he could hear
them singing, and they went on round, and down through the other field, across in under the house, and they were playing
lovely
music, and
lovely
lights.

And they just crossed below the house and went into the forth, just at the end of the house there.

Oh, me husband seen them, and he come into the house here and he says, “Terry, come out till you hear this lovely music. And there’s a whole pile of lights,” he says. So Terry went out, and when Terry went out, he could see nothing.

So, me husband was told after: if he had of touched Terry, just touched him, like give him a pull to follow him like, he’d have seen them.

But when he told Terry, Terry seen nothing.

Shouldn’t have spoke, you see.

He was told after.

T
HE FAIRIES RIDE FROM GORTDONAGHY TO DRUMANE

There was people used to tell fairy tales.

I heard a story about two old men that was coming from a wake.

And the wake was in that lane that you go to Mrs. Cutler’s, to go to the house where this man was
dead
.

So, these two old men left at some time in the middle of the night.

And one of them had to come here to Derryinch, that’s where he lived, and the other man lived a wee piece up there off the road. It’s a house above John Moore’s; it’s James Monaghan that lives in it now.

So
after they come out to the main road
, they parted. And this Derryinch man took the fields, and the other man came along the road.

And when he was coming at Phil McHugh’s—it’s that small slated house on the roadside—he heard the loveliest music ever you seen. In Gortdonaghy. That would be at the back of Phil McHugh’s.

And the next thing he heared was a troop of horses starting out of Gortdonaghy.

And they galloped on into Drumane and away up the hill to where there’s a forth on the top of the hill.

So anyway, they started then a dance at the forth.

And, ah, there was the loveliest music ever you heared and the wonderfullest dancing, the wonderfullest carousing.

There was lumps of turf in a field along the roadside.

And he got in and he fixed himself up against one of these lumps of turf just for to listen to the music.

So the music went on anyway till it started to break day, and then it quit.

So he got up and prepared for home, and when he come to the other side of the lump, this companion of his was at it. He had heared the music and he had came back.

And the two had met together again, and they come out to the road, and he went home, and this other man went home to Derryinch.

So then the next
day
, he went to the owner of this land
round
the forth.

And he
told him
what he had heared the night afore. There seemed to be that many horses that the
whole
field round the forth would be all tracks.

So this man went and he examined, and there wasn’t the least track of a horse.

So. Of course, that might never have happened, you know. It could be all fiction, do you know.

But it used to be great pastime listening to tales like that.

L
ANTY’S NEW HOUSE

Lanty M’Cluskey had married a wife, and, of course, it was necessary to have a house in which to keep her. Now, Lanty had taken a bit of a farm, about six acres; but as there was no house on it, he resolved to build one; and that it might be as comfortable as possible, he selected for the site of it one of those beautiful green circles that are supposed to be the playground of the fairies.

Lanty was warned against this. But as he was a headstrong man, and not much given to fear, he said he would not change such a pleasant situation for his house, to oblige all the fairies in Europe. He accordingly proceeded with the building, which he finished off very neatly. And, as it is usual on these occasions to give one’s neighbors and friends a housewarming, so, in compliance with this good and pleasant old custom, Lanty, having brought home the wife in the course of the day, got a fiddler, and a lot of whiskey, and gave those who had come to see him a dance in the evening.

This was all very well, and the fun and hilarity were proceeding briskly, when a noise was heard after night had set in, like a crushing and straining of ribs and rafters on the top of the house. The folks assembled all listened, and without doubt there was nothing heard but crushing, and heaving, and pushing, and groaning, and panting, as if a thousand little men were engaged in pulling down the roof.

“Come,” said a voice, which spoke in a tone of command, “work hard: you know we must have Lanty’s house down before midnight.”

This was an unwelcome piece of intelligence to Lanty, who, finding that his enemies were such as he could not cope with, walked out, and addressed them as follows:

“Gentlemen, I humbly ask your pardon for building on any place belonging to you, but if you’ll have the civilitude to let me alone this night, I’ll begin to pull down and remove the house tomorrow morning.”

This was followed by a noise like the slapping of a thousand tiny little hands, and a shout of “Bravo, Lanty! Build halfway between the two whitethorns above the boreen.” And after another hearty little shout of exultation, there was a brisk rushing noise, and they were heard no more.

The story, however, does not end here, for Lanty, when digging the foundation of his new house, found the full of a kam of gold, so that in leaving to the fairies their playground, he became a richer man than ever he otherwise would have been, had he never come in contact with them at all.