Aw, the banshee, sir? Well, sir, as I was striving to tell ye, I was
going home from work one day, from Mr. Cassidy's that I tould ye of,
in the dusk o' the evening. I had more nor a mile--aye, it was nearer
two mile--to thrack to, where I was lodgin' with a dacent widdy woman
I knew, Biddy Maguire be name, so as to be near me work.
It was the first week in November, an' a lonesome road I had to
travel, an' dark enough, wid threes above it; an' about half-ways
there was a bit of a brudge I had to cross, over one o' them little
sthrames that runs into the Doddher. I walked on in the middle iv the
road, for there was no toe-path at that time, Misther Harry, nor for
many a long day afther that; but, as I was sayin', I walked along till
I come nigh upon the brudge, where the road was a bit open, an' there,
right enough, I seen the hog's back o' the ould-fashioned brudge that
used to be there till it was pulled down, an' a white mist steamin' up
out o' the wather all around it.
Well, now, Misther Harry, often as I'd passed by the place before,
that night it seemed sthrange to me, an' like a place ye might see in
a dhrame; an' as I come up to it I began to feel a could wind blowin'
through the hollow o' me heart. "Musha Thomas," sez I to meself, "is
it yerself that's in it?" sez I; "or, if it is, what's the matter wid
ye at all, at all?" sez I; so I put a bould face on it, an' I made a
sthruggle to set one leg afore the other, ontil I came to the rise o'
the brudge. And there, God be good to us! in a cantle o' the wall I
seen an ould woman, as I thought, sittin' on her hunkers, all crouched
together, an' her head bowed down, seemin'ly in the greatest affliction.
Well, sir, I pitied the ould craythur, an' thought I wasn't worth a
thraneen, for the mortial fright I was in, I up an' sez to her,
"That's a cowld lodgin' for ye, ma'am." Well, the sorra ha'porth she
sez to that, nor tuk no more notice o' me than if I hadn't let a word
out o' me, but kep' rockin' herself to an' fro, as if her heart was
breakin'; so I sez to her again, "Eh, ma'am, is there anythin' the
matther wid ye?" An' I made for to touch her on the shouldher, on'y
somethin' stopt me, for as I looked closer at her I saw she was no
more an ould woman nor she was an ould cat. The first thing I tuk
notice to, Misther Harry, was her hair, that was sthreelin' down
over his showldhers, an' a good yard on the ground on aich side of
her. O, be the hoky farmer, but that was the hair! The likes of it I
never seen on mortial woman, young or ould, before nor sense. It grew
as sthrong out of her as out of e'er a young slip of a girl ye could
see; but the colour of it was a misthery to describe. The first squint
I got of it I thought it was silvery grey, like an ould crone's; but
when I got up beside her I saw, be the glance o' the sky, it was a
soart iv an Iscariot colour, an' a shine out of it like floss silk. It
ran over her showldhers and the two shapely arms she was lanin' her
head on, for all the world like Mary Magdalen's in a picther; and then
I persaved that the grey cloak and the green gownd undhernaith it was
made of no earthly matarial I ever laid eyes on. Now, I needn't tell
ye, sir, that I seen all this in the twinkle of a bed-post--long as I
take to make the narration of it. So I made a step back from her, an'
"The Lord be betune us an' harm!" sez I, out loud, an' wid that I
blessed meself. Well, Misther Harry, the word wasn't out o' me mouth
afore she turned her face on me. Aw, Misther Harry, but 'twas that was
the awfullest apparation ever I seen, the face of her as she looked up
at me! God forgive me for sayin' it, but 'twas more like the face of
the "Axy Homo" beyand in Marlboro' Sthreet Chapel nor like any face I
could mintion--as pale as a corpse, an' a most o' freckles on it, like
the freckles on a turkey's egg; an' the two eyes sewn in wid red
thread, from the terrible power o' crying the' had to do; an' such a
pair iv eyes as the' wor, Misther Harry, as blue as two
forget-me-nots, an' as cowld as the moon in a bog-hole of a frosty
night, an' a dead-an'-live look in them that sent a cowld shiver
through the marra o' me bones. Be the mortial! ye could ha' rung a tay
cupful o' cowld paspiration out o' the hair o' me head that minute, so
ye could. Well, I thought the life 'ud lave me intirely when she riz
up from her hunkers, till, bedad! she looked mostly as tall as
Nelson's Pillar; an' wid the two eyes gazin' back at me, an' her two
arms stretched out before hor, an' a keine out of her that riz the
hair o' me scalp till it was as stiff as the hog's bristles in a new
hearth broom, away she glides--glides round the angle o' the brudge,
an' down with her into the sthrame that ran undhernaith it. 'Twas then
I began to suspect what she was. "Wisha, Thomas!" says I to meself,
sez I; an' I made a great struggle to get me two legs into a throt, in
spite o' the spavin o' fright the pair o' them wor in; an' how I
brought meself home that same night the Lord in heaven only knows, for
I never could tell; but I must ha' tumbled agin the door, and shot in
head foremost into the middle o' the flure, where I lay in a dead
swoon for mostly an hour; and the first I knew was Mrs. Maguire
stannin' over me with a jorum o' punch she was pourin' down me throath
(throat), to bring back the life into me, an' me head in a pool of
cowld wather she dashed over me in her first fright. "Arrah, Mister
Connolly," shashee, "what ails ye?" shashee, "to put the scare on a
lone woman like that?" shashee. "Am I in this world or the next?" sez
I. "Musha! where else would ye be on'y here in my kitchen?" shashee.
"O, glory be to God!" sez I, "but I thought I was in Purgathory at the
laste, not to mintion an uglier place," sez I, "only it's too cowld I
find meself, an' not too hot," sez I. "Faix, an' maybe ye wor more nor
half-ways there, on'y for me," shashee; "but what's come to you at
all, at all? Is it your fetch ye seen, Mister Connolly?" "Aw,
naboclish!"[15] sez I. "Never mind what I seen," sez I. So be degrees
I began to come to a little; an' that's the way I met the banshee,
Misther Harry!
"But how did you know it really was the banshee after all, Thomas?"
"Begor, sir, I knew the apparation of her well enough; but 'twas
confirmed by a sarcumstance that occurred the same time. There was a
Misther O'Nales was come on a visit, ye must know, to a place in the
neighbourhood--one o' the ould O'Nales iv the county Tyrone, a rale
ould Irish family--an' the banshee was heard keening round the house
that same night, be more then one that was in it; an' sure enough,
Misther Harry, he was found dead in his bed the next mornin'. So if it
wasn't the banshee I seen that time, I'd like to know what else it
could a' been."
[Footnote 15: _Na bac leis_--_i.e._, don't mind it.]