"The name _Lepracaun_," Mr. Douglas Hyde writes to me, "is from the
Irish _leith brog_--_i.e._, the One-shoemaker, since he is generally
seen working at a single shoe. It is spelt in Irish _leith bhrogan_,
or _leith phrogan_, and is in some places pronounced Luchryman, as
O'Kearney writes it in that very rare book, the _Feis Tigh Chonain_."
The _Lepracaun_, _Cluricaun_, and _Far Darrig_. Are these one spirit
in different moods and shapes? Hardly two Irish writers are agreed. In
many things these three fairies, if three, resemble each other. They
are withered, old, and solitary, in every way unlike the sociable
spirits of the first sections. They dress with all unfairy homeliness,
and are, indeed, most sluttish, slouching, jeering, mischievous
phantoms. They are the great practical jokers among the good people.
The _Lepracaun_ makes shoes continually, and has grown very rich. Many
treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time, has he now for his own. In
the early part of this century, according to Croker, in a newspaper
office in Tipperary, they used to show a little shoe forgotten by a
Lepracaun.
The _Cluricaun_, (_Clobhair-ceann_, in O'Kearney) makes himself drunk
in gentlemen's cellars. Some suppose he is merely the Lepracaun on a
spree. He is almost unknown in Connaught and the north.
The _Far Darrig (fear dearg)_, which means the Red Man, for he wears a
red cap and coat, busies himself with practical joking, especially
with gruesome joking. This he does, and nothing else.
The _Fear-Gorta_ (Man of Hunger) is an emaciated phantom that goes
through the land in famine time, begging an alms and bringing good
luck to the giver.
There are other solitary fairies, such as the House-spirit and the
_Water-sheerie_, own brother to the English Jack-o'-Lantern; the _Pooka_
and the _Banshee_--concerning these presently; the _Dallahan_, or
headless phantom--one used to stand in a Sligo street on dark nights
till lately; the Black Dog, a form, perhaps, of the _Pooka_. The ships
at the Sligo quays are haunted sometimes by this spirit, who announces
his presence by a sound like the flinging of all "the tin porringers in
the world" down into the hold. He even follows them to sea.
_The Leanhaun Shee_ (fairy mistress), seeks the love of mortals. If
they refuse, she must be their slave; if they consent, they are hers,
and can only escape by finding another to take their place. The fairy
lives on their life, and they waste away. Death is no escape from her.
She is the Gaelic muse, for she gives inspiration to those she
persecutes. The Gaelic poets die young, for she is restless, and will
not let them remain long on earth--this malignant phantom.
Besides these are divers monsters--the _Augh-iska_, the Waterhorse,
the Payshtha (_píast = bestia_), the Lake-dragon, and such like; but
whether these be animals, fairies, or spirits, I know not.