GODS OF THE EARTH.--Par. 2, Page 2.
Occultists, from Paracelsus to Elephas Levi, divide the nature spirits
into gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, undines; or earth, air, fire, and
water spirits. Their emperors, according to Elephas, are named Cob,
Paralda, Djin, Hicks respectively. The gnomes are covetous, and of the
melancholic temperament. Their usual height is but two spans, though
they can elongate themselves into giants. The sylphs are capricious,
and of the bilious temperament. They are in size and strength much
greater than men, as becomes the people of the winds. The salamanders
are wrathful, and in temperament sanguine. In appearance they are
long, lean, and dry. The undines are soft, cold, fickle, and
phlegmatic. In appearance they are like man. The salamanders and
sylphs have no fixed dwellings.
It has been held by many that somewhere out of the void there is a
perpetual dribble of souls; that these souls pass through many shapes
before they incarnate as men--hence the nature spirits. They are
invisible--except at rare moments and times; they inhabit the interior
elements, while we live upon the outer and the gross. Some float
perpetually through space, and the motion of the planets drives them
hither and thither in currents. Hence some Rosicrucians have thought
astrology may foretell many things; for a tide of them flowing around
the earth arouses there, emotions and changes, according to its nature.
Besides those of human appearance are many animal and bird-like
shapes. It has been noticed that from these latter entirely come the
familiars seen by Indian braves when they go fasting in the forest,
seeking the instruction of the spirits. Though all at times are
friendly to men--to some men--"They have," says Paracelsus, "an
aversion to self-conceited and opinionated persons, such as
dogmatists, scientists, drunkards, and gluttons, and against vulgar
and quarrelsome people of all kinds; but they love natural men, who
are simple-minded and childlike, innocent and sincere, and the less
there is of vanity and hypocrisy in a man, the easier will it be to
approach them; but otherwise they are as shy as wild animals."
SIR SAMUEL FERGUSON.--Pages 13 and 38.
Many in Ireland consider Sir Samuel Ferguson their greatest poet. The
English reader will most likely never have heard his name, for
Anglo-Irish critics, who have found English audience, being more Anglo
than Irish, have been content to follow English opinion instead of
leading it, in all matters concerning Ireland.
CUSHEEN LOO.--Page 33.
Forts, otherwise raths or royalties, are circular ditches enclosing a
little field, where, in most cases, if you dig down you come to stone
chambers, their bee-hive roofs and walls made of unmortared stone. In
these little fields the ancient Celts fortified themselves and their
cattle, in winter retreating into the stone chambers, where also they
were buried. The people call them Dane's forts, from a misunderstanding
of the word Dan[=a]n (Tuath-de-Dan[=a]n). The fairies have taken up
their abode therein, guarding them from all disturbance. Whoever roots
them up soon finds his cattle falling sick, or his family or himself.
Near the raths are sometimes found flint arrow-heads; these are called
"fairy darts," and are supposed to have been flung by the fairies, when
angry, at men or cattle.
LEGEND OF KNOCKGRAFTON.--Page 40.
Moat does not mean a place with water, but a tumulus or barrow. The
words _Da Luan Da Mort agus Da Dardeen_ are Gaelic for "Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday too." Da Hena is Thursday. Story-tellers, in
telling this tale, says Croker, sing these words to the following
music--according to Croker, music of very ancient kind:--
[Music:
Da Lu-an, da Mort, da Lu-an, da Mort, da
Lu-an, da Mort, au-gus da Dar-dine. Da Lu-an, da Mort, da
Lu-an, da Mort, da Lu-an, da Mort, au-gus da Dar-dine.
]
Mr. Douglas Hyde has heard the story in Connaught, with the song of
the fairy given as "Peean Peean daw feean, Peean go leh agus leffin"
[_pighin, pighin, dà phighin, pighin go ieith agus leith phighin_],
which in English means, "a penny, a penny, twopence, a penny and a
half, and a halfpenny."
STOLEN CHILD.--Page 59.
The places mentioned are round about Sligo. Further Rosses is a very
noted fairy locality. There is here a little point of rocks where, if
anyone falls asleep, there is danger of their waking silly, the
fairies having carried off their souls.
SOLITARY FAIRIES.--Page 80.
The trooping fairies wear green jackets, the solitary ones red. On the
red jacket of the Lepracaun, according to McAnally, are seven rows of
buttons--seven buttons in each row. On the western coast, he says, the
red jacket is covered by a frieze one, and in Ulster the creature
wears a cocked hat, and when he is up to anything unusually
mischievous, leaps on to a wall and spins, balancing himself on the
point of the hat with his heels in the air. McAnally tells how once a
peasant saw a battle between the green jacket fairies and the red.
When the green jackets began to win, so delighted was he to see the
green above the red, he gave a great shout. In a moment all vanished
and he was flung into the ditch.
BANSHEE'S CRY.--Page 108.