Cappagh and I went past a place one Halvey had bought and I saw a man
having a white front to his shirt standing by the wall, and I said
to myself, "Halvey is minding this place well," and I went on, and I
saw the man following me, and the jennet let a roar and kicked at me,
and at that time we passed a stile, and I saw him no more.
_Mrs. Barrett:_
I don't know did old Michael see anything or was it in his head. But
James, the brother that died, told me one time that he was crossing
the way beyond from Brennan's, where the stones are. And there he saw
a hurling going on. He never saw a field so full before. And he stood
and watched them and wasn't a bit frightened, but the dog that was
with him shrank between his legs and stopped there.
* * * * *
And my father told me that one time he was stopping with my uncle, up
there near Mrs. Quaid's, in a house that's pulled down since. And he
woke up and saw the night so bright that he went out. And there he
saw a hurling going on, and they had boots like soldiers and were all
shining with the brightness of the night.
And Micky Smith, God rest his soul, saw them at midday passing in the
air above Cahir, as thick as birds.
_A Gate-keeper:_
Niland that met the coach that time and saw them other times, he told
me that there were two sets among them. The one handsome and tall
and like the gentry; the others more like ourselves, he said, and
short and wide, and the body starting out in front, and wide belts
about their waists. Only the women he saw, and they were wearing
white caps with borders, and their hair in curls over the forehead
and check aprons and plaid shawls. They are the spiteful ones that
would do you a mischief, and others that are like the gentry would do
nothing but to laugh and criticize you.
One night myself I was outside Loughrea on the road, about 1 o'clock
in the morning and the moon was shining. And I saw a lady, a true lady
she was, dressed in a sort of a ball dress, white and short in the
skirt, and off the shoulders. And she had long stockings and dancing
shoes with short uppers. And she had a long thin face, and a cap on her
head with frills, and every one of the frills was the breadth of my six
fingers. As to flowers or such things, I didn't notice, for I was more
fixed in looking at the cap. I suppose they wore them at balls in some
ancient times. I followed her a bit, and then she crossed the road to
Johnny Flanigan the joiner's house, that had a gate with piers. And I
went across after her, to have a better view, and when she got to the
pier she shrank into it and there was nothing left.
* * * * *
Johnny Kelly that lives in Loughrea was over here one evening, where
he had some cattle on the land at Coole. And where the river goes
away, he saw two ladies sitting, ladies he thought them to be, and
they had long dresses. And they rose up and went on to that hole
where the water is and the trees. And there all of a sudden they rose
a storm and went up in it, with a sort of a roar or a cry and passed
away through the air.
And I was in the house with my wife and I heard the cry, and I thought
it might be some drunken man going home, and it about 10 o'clock in the
evening. And I went to the door, and presently Kelly came in and you'd
have thought him a drunken man, walking and shaking as he did with the
fright he got seeing them going off away in the storm.
_Mrs. Casey:_
I went over to see Kate Cloran the other day, knowing that she had
seen some of these things. And she told me that she was led astray
by them one time--a great lot of them, they were dressed in white
blouses and black skirts and some of them had crimson mantles, but
none of them had any covering on their head, and they had all golden
hair and were more beautiful than any one she had ever seen.
And one night she met the coach and four, and it was full of ladies,
letting the window up and down and laughing out at her. They had
golden hair, or it looked so with the lights. They were dressed in
white, and there were bunches of flowers about the horses' heads.
Roses, chiefly, some pink and some blue. The coachmen were strange
looking, you could not say if they were men or women--and their
clothes were more like country clothes. They kept their heads down
that she could not see their faces, but those in the carriage had
long faces, and thin, and long noses.
_Mike Martin:_
They are of the same size as we are. People only call them diminutive
because they are made so when they're sent on certain errands.
There was a man of Ardrahan used to see many things. But he lost his
eyesight after. It often happens that those that see these things
lose their earthly sight.
The coach and four is seen by many. It appears in different forms, but
there is always the same woman in it. Handsome I believe she is, and
white; and there she will always be seen till the end of the world.
It's best to be neighbourly with them anyway--best to be neighbourly.
* * * * *
There was a woman woke one night and she saw two women by the fire, and
they came over and tried to take away her baby. But she held him and
she nudged her husband with her arm, but he was fast asleep. And they
tried him again, and all she could do wouldn't waken the husband, but
still she had the baby tight, and she called out a curse in the devil's
name. So then they went away, for they don't like cursing.
One night coming home from Madden's where I was making frames with him,
I began to tremble and to shake, but I could see nothing. And at night
there came a knocking at the window, and the dog I had that would fight
any dog in Ireland began to shrink to the wall and wouldn't come out.
And I looked out the door and saw him. Little clothes he had on, but on
his head a quarter cap, and a sort of a bawneen about him. And I would
have followed him, but the rest wouldn't let me.
* * * * *
Another time I was crossing over the stile behind Kiltartan chapel into
Coole, and others along with me. And a great blast of wind came, and
two trees were bent and broken and fell into the river, and the splash
of water out of it went up to the skies. And those that were with me
saw many figures, but myself I only saw one, sitting there by the bank
where the trees fell, dark clothes he had, and he was headless.
* * * * *
They can take all shapes and it's said a pig is the worst, but I
believe if you take no notice of them and bless yourself as they
pass, they'll do you no harm at all.
There were two men walking by a forth that's beyond Cloon, and one of
them must have been in it at some time, for he told the other to look
through his arm, and when he looked he could see thousands of people
about walking and driving, and ladies and gentry among them.
There was a man in Cloon and he was very religious and very devout
and he didn't believe in anything. But one day he was at the
Punch-bowl out on the Ennis road, and there he saw two coaches coming
through the thick wood and they full of people and of ladies, and
they went in to the bushes on the other side. And since he saw that
he'd swear to _them_ being there.
* * * * *
There was a woman living over near Tirneevan, and one morning three
men came galloping up on three horses, and they stopped at the door
and tied up the horses and walked in, and they strangers. And the
woman put the tongs over the cradle where the baby was sleeping, for
that is a _pishogue_. And when they saw the tongs, they looked at one
another and laughed, but they did him no harm, but pulled out the
table and sat down and played cards for a while, and went away again.
* * * * *
But if they're well treated, and if you know how to humour them,
they're the best of neighbours.
* * * * *
There was a woman seen not long ago, all in white, and she standing
in a stream washing her feet. But you need never be afraid of
anything that's white.
* * * * *
There was a woman I know was away sometimes and used to go into a
forth among them. She told me about it, and she said there were
big and small among them as there are here. And they wore caps like
hurling caps, all striped with blue and different colours, and their
dress striped the same way.
_A Seaside Man:_
There was a girl below in Spiddal was coming home from Galway with
her father, and just at the bridge below she saw the coach and four.
Like a van it was, with horses, and full of gentlemen. And she tried
to make her father see it, and he couldn't. And it passed along the
road, and then turned down into a field, over the stones, and it
got to the strand and ran along it for a while, and what became of
it then I don't know. My father told me that one night he came from
a wake, and in the field beyond, that was all a flag then, but the
man that owns it has it covered with earth now, he saw about twelve
ladies all in white, and they dancing round and round and a fiddler
or a flute-player or whatever he was, in the middle. And he thought
they were some ladies from Spiddal, and called out to them that it
was late to be out dancing. And he turned to open the door of the
house, and while he was turning they were gone.
* * * * *
There was a man walking one night and he felt a woman come and walk
behind him, and she all in white. And the two of them walked on till
sunrise, and then a cock crowed, and the man said, "There's the cock
crowing." And she said, "That's only a weak cock of the summer." And
soon after another cock crowed, and he asked did she hear it, and she
said, "That's but a poor cock of the harvest." And the third time a
cock crowed and when the man asked her she said, "That's a cock of
March. And you're as wise as the man that doesn't tell Friday's dream
on Saturday." For if you dream on a Friday, you must never tell the
dream of a Saturday.
_Mrs. Swift:_
My mother told me, and she wouldn't tell a lie, that one time she
went to a wake at Ardrahan. And about 12 o'clock, the night being
hot, she and her sister went out to the back of the house. And there
they saw a lot of people running as hard as they could to the house,
and knocking down the walls as they came to them, for there were a
lot of small stones. And she said to her sister, "These must be all
the first cousins coming, and there won't be room to sit in the house
when they come in." So they hurried back. But no one ever came in or
came to the door at all.
* * * * *
They are said to be outside the door there often. And some see them
hurling, small they are then, and with grey coats and blue caps. And
the car-driver told me--he wouldn't tell a lie--that he often passed
them walking like soldiers through the hollow beyond.
_An Old Man on Slieve Echtge:_
One night I was walking on that mountain beyond, and a little
lad with me, Martin Lehane, and we came in sight of the lake of
Dairecaol. And in the middle of the lake I saw what was like the
shadow of a tall fir tree, and while I was looking it grew to be like
the mast of a boat. And then ropes and rigging came at the sides and
I saw that it was a ship; and the boy that was with me, he began to
laugh. Then I could see another boat, and then more and more till the
lake was covered with them, and they moving from one side to another.
So we watched for a while, and then we went away and left them there.
_Mrs. Guinan:_
It's only a few days ago, I was coming through the field between this
and the boreen, and I saw a man standing, a countryman you'd say he
was. And when I got near him, all at once he was gone, and when I
told Mrs. Raftery in the next house, she said she didn't wonder at
that, for it's not very long ago she saw what seemed to be the same
man, and he vanished in the same way.
* * * * *
There's a woman living up that road beyond, is married to a man of
the Matthews, and last year she told me that a strange woman came
into her house, and asked had she good potatoes. And she said she
had. And the woman said: "You have them this year, but we'll have
them next year." And she said: "When you go out of the house, it's
your enemy you'll see standing outside," that was her near neighbour
and was her worst enemy.
* * * * *
They'll often come in the night, and bring away the food. I wouldn't
touch any food that had been lying about in the night, you wouldn't
know what might have happened it. And my mother often told me, best
not eat it, for the food that's cooked at night and left till the
morning, they will have left none of the strength in it.
* * * * *
There was a hurling seen in a field near our house, little men they
were in green with red caps, and a sergeant of police and his men
that were going by stopped to look at them, but Johnny Roland a boy I
know, was standing in the middle of them all the time in the field,
and never saw anything at all.
_A North Galway Woman:_
There was a man living over at Caramina, beyond Moyne, Dick Regan
was his name, and one night he was walking over a little hill near
that place. And when he got to the top of it, he found it like a
fair green with all the people that were in it, and they buying and
selling just like ourselves. And they did him no harm, but they put
a basket of cakes into his hand and kept him selling them all the
night. And when he got home, he told the story. And the neighbours
when they heard it gave him the name of the cakes and to the day of
his death he was called nothing but Richard Crackers.
* * * * *
There was a smith, and a man called on him late one evening, and asked
him to shoe a horse for him and so he did. And then he offered him pay
but he would take none. And the man took him out behind the house, and
there were three hundred horses with riders on them, and a hundred
without, and he said, "We want riders for those," and they went on.
_An Aran Man:_
A man that came over here from Connemara named Costello told me that
one night he was making poteen, and a man on a white horse came up,
and the horse put his head into the place they were making it, and
then they rode away again. So he put a bottle of the whiskey outside
the place, and in a little time he went and looked and it was empty.
And then he put another bottle out, and in a little time he looked
again, and it was empty. And then he put a third, but when he looked
the whiskey in it had not been stirred. And he told me he never did
so much with it or made so much profit as he did in that year.
* * * * *
They are everywhere. Tom Deruane saw them down under the rocks
hurling and they were all wearing black caps. And sometimes you'd
see them coming on the sea, just like a barrel on the top of the
water, and when they'd get near you, no matter how calm the day,
you'd have a hurricane about you. That is when they are taking their
diversions. And one evening late I was down with the wife burning
kelp on the rocks, where we had a little kiln made. And we heard a
talking and a whispering about us on the rocks, and my wife thought
it was the child that the sister was bringing down to her, and she
said, "God bless the son!" but no one came, and the talking went on
again, and she got uneasy, and at last we left the kelp and came
home; and we weren't the first that had to leave it for what they
heard in that place.
Fallen angels they are said to be. God threw a third part of them
into Hell with Lucifer, and it was Michael that interceded for the
rest, and then a third part was cast into the air and a third on the
land and the sea. And here they are all about us as thick as grass.
_A Needlewoman from North Galway Working at Coole:_
Myself and Anne (one of the maids) went up the middle avenue after
dark last night and we got a fright, seeing what we thought to be
faeries. They were men dressed in black clothes like evening clothes,
wearing white ruffles round their necks and high black hats without
brims. Two walked in front and one behind, and they seemed to walk
or march stiff like as if there was no bend in the leg. They held
something in each hand and they stopped before the gate pier where
there is a sort of cross in white like paint, then they disappeared
and we turned and ran.
(_When they were going up to bed, I am told, "Anne suddenly stopped
under the picture of Mary Queen of Scots and called out, 'That is like
the frill they wore' and sank down on the stairs in a kind of faint."_)
* * * * *
One time at home I was out about dusk, and presently I heard a
creaking, and a priest walked by reading his prayers. But when he
came close I saw it was Father Ryan that was dead some time before.
And I ran in and told a woman, who used to help in milking, what I
had seen, and she said, "If it's Father Ryan you saw I don't wonder,
for I saw him myself at the back of the door there only a week ago."
* * * * *
There was a boy was making a wall near Cruachmaa and a lot of _them_
came and helped him, and he saw many neighbours that were dead among
them. And when they had the wall near built another troop of them
came running and knocked it down. And the boy died not long after.
_A Young Man:_
My father told me that he was down one time at the north shore
gathering wrack, and he saw a man before him that was gathering
wrack too and stooping down. He had a black waistcoat on him and the
rest of his clothes were flannel just like the people of this island.
And when my father drew near him, he stooped himself down behind a
stone; and when he looked there, there was no sight or mind of him.
One time myself when I was a little chap, about the size of Michael
there, I was out in the fields, and I saw a woman standing on the top
of a wall, and she having a child in her hand. She had a long black
coat about her. And then she got down and crossed over the field, and
it seemed to me all the time that she was only about so high (three
feet) and that there was only about two feet between her and the
ground as she walked, and the child always along with her. And then
she passed over another wall and was gone.
_The Spinning Woman:_
There was a new-married woman, and the husband was going out and he
gave her wool to spin and to have ready for him. And she couldn't
know what in the world to do, for she never learned to spin. And she
was there sitting at it and a little man came in, and when she told
him about it he said he'd bring it away and spin it for her and bring
it back again. And she asked for his name, but he wouldn't tell that.
And soon after there was a ragman going the road and he saw a hole
and he looked down and there he saw the little man, and he stirring
a pot of stirabout with one hand and spinning with the other hand,
and he was singing while he stirred: "---- is my name (that's his
name in Irish but I won't tell you the meaning of it) and she doesn't
know it, and so I'll bring her along with me." So the ragman went in
and came to the young woman's house, and told her what the man was
singing. So when he came with the wool she called him by his name,
and he threw the wool down and went away; for he had no power over
her when she knew his name.
_Mary Glynn of Slieve Echtge:_
That's it, that's it, _the other class_ of people don't like us to be
going out late, we might be in their way, unless it's for a case, or
a thing that can't be helped. And this is Monday, no, Mrs. Deruane,
not Tuesday--we'll say it's Monday. It's at night they're seen, God
bless them, and their music is heard, God bless them, the finest
music you ever heard, like all the fifers of the world and all the
instruments, and all the tunes of the world. There was one of those
boys that go about from house to house on the morning of the new
year, to get a bit of bread or a cup of tea or anything you'll have
ready for him, and he told us that he was coming down the hill near
us, and he had the full of his arm of bits of bread, and he heard the
music, for it was but dawn, and he was frightened and ran and lost
the bread. I heard it sometimes myself and there's no music in the
world like it, but it's not all can hear it. Round the hill it comes,
and you going in at the door. And they are quiet neighbours if you
treat them well. God bless them and bring them all to heaven!
For they were in heaven once, and heaven was the first place there
was war, and they were all to be done away with, and it was St. Peter
asked the Saviour to help them. So he turned His hand like this, and
the sky and the earth were full of them, and they are in every place,
and you know that better than I do because you read books.
_Mary Glynn and Mary Irwin:_
One night there were bonavs in the house,--God bless the hearers
and the place it's told in--God bless all we see and those we don't
see!--And there was a man coming to rise dung in the potato field in
the morning, and so, late at night, Mary Glynn was making stirabout
and a cake to have ready for breakfast.
Mary Irwin's brother was asleep within on the bed. And there came the
sound of the grandest music you ever heard from beyond the stream,
and it stopped here. And Micky awoke in the bed, and was afraid and
said, "Shut up the door and quench the light," and so we did. It's
likely they wanted to come into the house, and they wouldn't when
they saw us up and the lights about. But one time when there were
potatoes in the loft, Mary Irwin and her brothers were well pelted
with them when they sat down to their supper. And Mary Glynn got a
blow on the side of her face from them one night in the bed. And they
have the hope of Heaven, and God grant it to them. And one day there
was a priest and his servant riding along the road, and there was a
hurling of _them_ going on in the field. And a man of them came and
stood on the road and said to the priest, "Tell me this, for you know
it, have we a chance of Heaven?" "You have not," said the priest
(_"God forgive him," says Mary Glynn--"a priest to say that"_); and
the man that was of them said, "Put your fingers in your ears till
you have travelled two miles of the road; for when I go back and tell
what you are after telling me to the rest, the crying and the bawling
and the roaring will be so great that if you hear it you'll never
hear a noise again in this world." So they put their fingers then in
their ears, but after a while the servant said to the priest, "Let me
take out my fingers now." And the priest said, "Do not." And then the
servant said again, "I think I might take one finger out." And the
priest said, "As you are so persevering you may take it out." So he
did, and the noise of the crying and the roaring and the bawling was
so great that he never had the use of that ear again.
_Callan of Slieve Echtge:_
We know they are in it, for Father Hobbs that was our parish priest
saw them himself one time there was a station here, and when some
said they were not in it, he said, "I saw them in a field myself, more
people than ever I saw at twenty fairs." It was St. Peter spoke for
them, at the time of the war, when the Saviour was casting them out;
he said to Him not to empty the heavens. And every Monday morning they
think the Day of Judgment may be coming, and that they will see Heaven.
* * * * *
There's never a funeral they are not at, walking after the other
people. And you can see them if you know the way, that is to take a
green rush and to twist it into a ring, and to look through it. But
if you do, you'll never have a stim of sight in the eye again, and
that's why we don't like to do it.
Resting they do be in the daytime, and going about in the night.
_Old Hayden:_
One time I was coming home from a fair and it was late in the night
and it was dark and I didn't know was I on the right road. And I saw
a cabin in a field with a light in it, and I went and knocked at the
door and a man opened the door and let me in, and he said, "Have you
any strange news?" and I said, "I have not," and he said, "There is
no place for you here," and he put me out again. For that was a faery
hill, and when they'll ask have you strange news, and you'll say you
have not, they'll do nothing for you. So I went back in the field,
and there were men carrying a coffin, and they said, "Give us a hand
with this." And I put my hand to it to help them to lift it. And as we
walked on we came to a house, and we went in and there was a fire on
the hearth, and they took the body out of the coffin and put it before
the fire, and they said, "Now let you keep turning it." So I sat there
and turned it, and then they took it up and we went on till we came
to another house and the same thing happened there, and they put me
to turn the body. And when we went out from there they all vanished,
and there was the cabin before me again with the light in it. And when
the man came to the door and asked me, "Is there any strange news?" I
said, "There is indeed," and told him all that had happened. And then I
looked round, and I was within a few yards of my own house.
_Mrs. Keely:_
When you see a blast of wind, and it comes sudden and carries the
dust with it, you should say, "God bless them," and throw something
after them. How do we know but one of our own may be in it? Half of
the world is with them.
We see them often going about up and down the hill, Jack O'Lanthorn
we call them. They are not the size of your two hands. They would not
do you much harm, but to lead you astray.
_The Spinning Woman:_