FAIRY LEGENDS

and

TRADITIONS

of

THE SOUTH OF IRELAND.


	"Come l' araba Fenice
	Che ci sia ognun lo dice;
	Dove sia, nessun lo sa."
			Metastasio

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

MDCCCXXXIV.


London:

Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE,

New-Street-Square.


PREFACE.

THE erudite Lessing styles a preface "the history of a book." Now, though there can be no necessity for a preface in that sense of the word to the reprint of a work of mere whim, which has been nearly ten years before the public, yet a few words are requisite to prevent the present condensed and revised edition from being considered an abridgment.

However compact may be the mode of printing adopted, the act of compressing into one volume the three in which the " Fairy Legends" originally appeared, involved to a certain extent the necessity of selection, perhaps the most difficult of all tasks judiciously to perform; but the following statement will show the system proceeded on.

Forty tales descriptive of Irish superstitions now appear instead of fifty. All superfluous annotations have been struck out, and a brief summary at the end of each section substituted, explanatory of the classification adopted, and in which a few additional notes have been introduced, as well as upon the text. It is therefore hoped that this curtailment will be regarded as an essential improvement; some useless repetition in the tales being thereby avoided, and much irrelevant matter in the notes dispensed with, although nothing which illustrates in the slightest degree the popular Fairy Creed of Ireland has been sacrificed. At the same time, the omission of a portion of the ten immaterial tales will sufficiently answer doubts idly raised as to the question of authorship.

CONTENTS.

The Shefro.

I. The Legend of Knocksbeogowna
II. ---------------- Knockfierna
III. ---------------- Knockgrafton
IV. The Priest's Supper
V. The Brewery of Egg-shells
VI. Legend of Bottle Hill
VII. The Confessions of Tom Bourke
VIII. Fairies or no Fairies
Note on the Section

The Cluricaune.

IX. The Haunted Cellar
X. Master and Man
XI. The Little Shoe
Note on the Section

The Banshee.

XII. The Bunworth Banshee
XIII. The M'Carthy Banshee
Note on the Section

The Phooka.

XIV. The Spirit Horse
XV. Daniel O'Rourke
XVI. The Crookened Back
Note on the Section

Thierna na Oge.

XVII. Fior Usga
XVIII. Cormac and Mary (Ballad)
XIX. The Legend of Lough Gur
XX. The Enchanted Lake
XXI. The Legend of O'Donoghue
Note on the Section



The Merrow.

XXII. The Lady of Gollerus
XXIII. Flory Cantillon's Funeral
XXIV. The Lord of Dunkerron (Ballad)
XXV. The Wonderful Tune
Note on the Section

The Dullahan.

XXVI. The Good Woman
XXVII. Hanlon's Mill
XXVIII. The Death Coach(Ballad)
XXIX. The Headless Horserman
Note on the Section

The Fir Darrig.

XXX. Diarmid Bawn, the Piper
XXX I. Teigue of the Lee
XXXII. Ned Sheehy's Excuse
XXXIII. The Lucky Guest
Note on the Section

Treasure Legends.

XXXIV. Dreaming Tim Jarvis
XXXV. Rent Day
XXXVI. Linn-na-Payshtha
Note on the Section

Rocks and Stones.

XXXVII. The Legend of Cairn Thierna
XXXVIII. The Rock of the Candle
XXXIX. Clough-na-Cuddy
XL. The Giant's Stairs

APPENDIX - Letter from Sir Walter Scott




            To The

DOWAGER LADY CHATTERTON,

      CASTLE MAHON.



Thee, Lady, would I lead through Fairy-land
(Whence cold and doubting reasoners are exiled),
A land of dreams, with air-built castles piled;
the moonlight SHEFROS there, In merry band
With artful CLURICAUNE, should ready stand
To welcome thee - Imagination's child!
Till on thy ear would burst so sadly wild
The BANSHEE'S shriek, who points with wither'd hand,
in the dim twilight should the PHOOKA come,
Whose dusky form fades in the sunny light,
That opens clear calm LAKES upon thy sight,
Where blessed spirits dwell in endless bloom.
know thee, lady-thou wilt not deride
such Fairy Scenes.-Then onward with thy Guide.

			T. CROFTON CROKER