The first three stories, namely, “The Tailor and the Three Beasts,”
“Bran,” and “The King of Ireland’s Son,” I took down verbatim, without
the alteration or addition of more than a word or two, from Seáġan O
Cuinneaġáin (John Cunningham), who lives in the village of Baile-an-ṗuil
(Ballinphuil), in the county of Roscommon, some half mile from Mayo. He
is between seventy and eighty years old, and is, I think, illiterate.
The story of “The Alp-luachra” is written down from notes made at the
time I first heard the story. It was told me by Seamus o h-Airt (James
Hart), a game-keeper, in the barony of Frenchpark, between sixty and
seventy years old, and illiterate. The notes were not full ones, and I
had to eke them out in writing down the story, the reciter, one of the
best I ever met, having unfortunately died in the interval.
The stories of “Paudyeen O’Kelly,” and of “Leeam O’Rooney’s Burial,” I
got from Mr. Lynch Blake, near Ballinrobe, county Mayo, who took the
trouble of writing them down for me in nearly phonetic Irish, for which
I beg to return him my best thanks. I do not think that these particular
stories underwent any additions at his hands while writing them down. I
do not know from whom he heard the first, and cannot now find out, as he
has left the locality. The second he told me he got from a man, eighty
years old, named William Grady, who lived near Clare-Galway, but who for
the last few years has been “carrying a bag.”
The long story of “Guleesh na Guss dhu,” was told by the same Shamus
O’Hart, from whom I got the “Alp-luachra,” but, as in the case of the
“Alp-luachra” story, I had only taken notes of it, and not written down
the whole as it fell from his lips. I have only met one other man since,
Martin Brennan, in the barony of Frenchpark, Roscommon, who knew the
same story, and he told it to me—but in an abridged form—incident for
incident up to the point where my translation leaves off.
There is a great deal more in the Irish version in the Leaḃar
Sgeuluiġeaċta, which I did not translate, not having been able to get
it from Brennan, and having doctored it too much myself to give it as
genuine folk-lore.
The rest of the stories in this volume are literally translated from my
Leaḃar Sgeuluiġeaċta. Neil O’Carree was taken down phonetically, by Mr.
Larminie, from the recitation of a South Donegal peasant.
The Hags of the Long Teeth come from Ballinrobe, as also William of the
Tree, the Court of Crinnawn, and the Well of D’Yerree-in-Dowan. See pages
239-240 of the L. S.