[The _banshee_ (from _ban [bean]_, a woman, and _shee [sidhe]_, a
fairy) is an attendant fairy that follows the old families, and
none but them, and wails before a death. Many have seen her as
she goes wailing and clapping her hands. The keen [_caoine_], the
funeral cry of the peasantry, is said to be an imitation of her
cry. When more than one banshee is present, and they wail and
sing in chorus, it is for the death of some holy or great one. An
omen that sometimes accompanies the banshee is the _coach-a-bower
[cóiste-bodhar]_--an immense black coach, mounted by a coffin,
and drawn by headless horses driven by a _Dullahan_. It will go
rumbling to your door, and if you open it, according to Croker, a
basin of blood will be thrown in your face. These headless
phantoms are found elsewhere than in Ireland. In 1807 two of the
sentries stationed outside St. James's Park died of fright. A
headless woman, the upper part of her body naked, used to pass at
midnight and scale the railings. After a time the sentries were
stationed no longer at the haunted spot. In Norway the heads of
corpses were cut off to make their ghosts feeble. Thus came into
existence the _Dullahans_, perhaps; unless, indeed, they are
descended from that Irish giant who swam across the Channel with
his head in his teeth.--ED.]