Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.

ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND

Ancient Legends Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland

WITH SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST

BY

LADY WILDE

A NEW EDITION

LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1919

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND.

‘A work to be welcomed as a valuable addition to the literature of folk-lore and mythology; taken down, for the most part, from oral communications with the peasantry.’—SCOTSMAN.

‘Few nations have a folk-lore so rich and imaginative as that of the Irish. Lady Wilde has studied it conscientiously, and is so well acquainted with the origins of her subject, that the perusal of her book is no less instructive than pleasing.’—MORNING POST.

‘An important contribution to the literature of Ireland and the world’s stock of folk-lore.’—EVENING MAIL.

‘Lady Wilde’s book will be welcome either to the professed student of Irish antiquity or to the more general reader who finds delight in fascinating folk-tales delightfully recorded.’—WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

‘Told with power as well as with simplicity ... a very interesting and readable collection of folk-lore.’—GRAPHIC.

‘Lady Wilde’s book is delightful.... Amongst those best acquainted with Irish folk-lore, legends, and mysteries, we believe few will be found capable of adding many words to pages which could only have been filled by an Irish woman lovingly treating such a subject.’—VANITY FAIR.

‘Those who care for legendary reading will find in this volume a source of much enjoyment.’—NORTHERN WHIG.

‘The myths and legends are all of deep interest and value.’—KNOWLEDGE.

COMPANION TO THE PRESENT VOLUME.

POPULAR ROMANCES OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND:

or, The Drolls, Traditions, and Superstitions of Old Cornwall.

Collected and Edited by ROBERT HUNT, F.R.S.

With Illustrations by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.

London: CHATTO & WINDUS, 97 & 99 St. Martin’s Lane, W.C.

CONTENTS.

PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 THE HORNED WOMEN 10 THE LEGEND OF BALLYTOWTAS CASTLE 12 A WOLF STORY 17 THE EVIL EYE 20 THE STOLEN BRIDE 27 FAIRY MUSIC 29 THE FAIRY DANCE 30 FAIRY JUSTICE 32 THE PRIEST’S SOUL 33 THE FAIRY RACE 37 THE TRIAL BY FIRE 39 THE LADY WITCH 41 ETHNA THE BRIDE 42 THE FAIRIES’ REVENGE 46 FAIRY HELP—THE PHOUKA 48 THE FARMER PUNISHED 49 THE FARMER’S WIFE 52 THE MIDNIGHT RIDE 53 THE LEPREHAUN 56 THE LEGENDS OF THE WESTERN ISLANDS 59 THE BRIDE’S DEATH-SONG 60 THE CHILD’S DREAM 62 THE FAIRY CHILD 64 THE DOOM 67 THE CLEARING FROM GUILT 69 THE HOLY WELL AND THE MURDERER 70 LEGENDS OF INNIS-SARK—A WOMAN’S CURSE 71 LEGENDS OF THE DEAD IN THE WESTERN ISLANDS 75 The Death Sign 75 Kathleen 76 November Eve 78 The Dance of the Dead 80 SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING THE DEAD 81 THE FATAL LOVE-CHARM 83 THE FENIAN KNIGHTS 84 RATHLIN ISLAND 86 THE STRANGE GUESTS 86 THE DEAD SOLDIER 87 THE THREE GIFTS 88 THE FAIRIES AS FALLEN ANGELS 89 THE FAIRY CHANGELING 89 FAIRY WILES 91 SHAUN-MOR 91

THE CAVE FAIRIES— The Tuatha-de-Danann 93 Edain the Queen 94 The Royal Steed 96

EVIL SPELLS— Cathal the King 97 The Poet’s Malediction 99 Drimial Agus Thorial 100 AN IRISH ADEPT OF THE ISLANDS 100 THE MAY FESTIVAL 101 MAY-DAY SUPERSTITIONS 106

FESTIVALS— Candlemas 107 Whitsuntide 108 Whitsuntide Legend of the Fairy Horses 108 NOVEMBER SPELLS 109 NOVEMBER EVE 110 A TERRIBLE REVENGE 112

MIDSUMMER— The Baal Fires and Dances 113 The Fairy Doctress 114 MARRIAGE RITES 115 THE DEAD 117 THE WAKE ORGIES 119 THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 123 THE POWER OF THE WORD 129 THE POET AND THE KING 130 THE SIDHE RACE 132 MUSIC 133 POET INSPIRATION—EODAIN THE POETESS 134 THE BANSHEE 135 QUEEN MAEVE 137 DEATH SIGNS 138 The Hartpole Doom 139 SUPERSTITIONS 140 THE FAIRY RATH 142 FAIRY NATURE 142 IRISH NATURE 144

LEGENDS OF ANIMALS.

CONCERNING DOGS 146 CONCERNING CATS 151 The King of the Cats 153 The Demon Cat 154 Cat Nature 156 SEANCHAN THE BARD AND THE KING OF THE CATS 159 THE BARDS 163 KING ARTHUR AND THE CAT 166 CONCERNING COWS 168 Fairy Wiles 170 THE DEAD HAND 172 THE WICKED WIDOW 173 THE BUTTER MYSTERY 175

CONCERNING BIRDS— The Magpie 177 The Wren 177 The Raven and Water Wagtail 177 The Cuckoo and Robin Redbreast 177

CONCERNING LIVING CREATURES— The Cricket 178 The Beetle 178 The Hare 179 The Weasel 179

THE PROPERTIES OF HERBS AND THEIR USE IN MEDICINE 181 A Love Potion 185 Love Dreams 185 To Cause Love 185

MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS 186 Against Sorrow 188 To Win Love 189 For the Night Fire (the Fever) 189 For a Pain in the Side 189 For the Measles 190 For the Mad Fever 190 Against Enemies 190 To Extract a Thorn 190 To Cause Hatred between Lovers 191 For Love 191 How to have Money Always 191 For the Great Worm 191 For Sore Eyes 191 For Pains in the Body 192 Against Drowning 192 In Time of Battle 192 For the Red Rash 193 To Tame a Horse 193 A very Ancient Charm against Wounds or Poisons 193 For a Sore Breast 193 For a Wound 194 For the Evil Eye 194 For St. Anthony’s Fire 194 How to go Invisible 194 For Pains 194 For a Sprain 195 To Cause Love 195 For the Bite of a Mad Dog 195 For Toothache 196 For Freckles 196 For a Burn 197 For the Memory 197 For the Falling Sickness 197 For Chin-Cough 197 For Rheumatism 198 For a Stye on the Eyelid 198 To Cure Warts 198 For a Stitch in the Side 198 For Weak Eyes 198 For Water on the Brain 199 For Hip Disease 199 For the Mumps 199 For Epilepsy 199 For Depression of Heart 200 For the Fairy Dart 200

VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES 200 To find Stolen Goods 207 A Prayer against the Plague 207 A Blessing 207 A Cure for Cattle 207 A Charm for Safety 208 An Elixir of Potency 208 For the Bite of a Mad Dog 208 Dreams 208 Fairy Doctors 209 Charms by Crystals 209 Alectromantia 210 Fairy Power 210

OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS 211 That Forbode Evil 211 To Attract Bees 213

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ISLANDS— Concerning the Dead 213 The Coastguard’s Fate 214 Relics 214

LEGENDS OF THE SAINTS.

ST. PATRICK 215 The Well of the Book 216 St. Patrick and the Serpent 216 St. Patrick and the Princesses 217 The Poison Cup 217 Divination 217 The Blind Poet 218 The Story of Breccan 218 Bardic Privileges 219 ST. CIARON 220 ST. MARTIN 220 ST. BRIDGET 222 ST. KIERAN 223 ST. KEVIN 223 CHRISTIAN LEGENDS 224

SWEARING STONES AND RELICS— The Cremave 225 Relics for clearing from Guilt 226 Innis-Murry 227

MYSTERIES OF FAIRY POWER.

THE EVIL STROKE 228 THE CHANGELING 229 THE FAIRY DOCTOR 231 THE POET’S SPELL 233 CHARM FOR THE FAIRY STROKE 233 THE FARMER’S FATE 234 THE FAIRY RATH 235

THE HOLY WELLS.

THE HOLY WELLS 236 The White Stones 237 The Sacred Trout 237 ST. AUGUSTINE’S WELL 238 THE GRILLED TROUT 238 LEGEND OF NEAL-MOR 239 ST. JOHN’S WELL 240 THE WELL OF FIONN MA-COUL 240 ST. SEENAN’S WELL 241 KID-NA-GREINA 241 THE WELL OF WORSHIP 243 THE BRIDE’S WELL 243 THE IRISH FAKIR 244 SACRED TREES 246 TOBER-NA-DARA 247 LOUGH NEAGH 247 THE DOCTOR AND THE FAIRY PRINCESS 248 A HOLY WELL 250 A SACRED ISLAND 251 THE LAKE OF REVENGE 251 SCENES AT A HOLY WELL 252 LOUGH FOYLE 252 THE HEN’S CASTLE 253 SLIABH-MISH, COUNTY KERRY 254 THE SKELLIGS OF KERRY 254

POPULAR NOTIONS CONCERNING THE SIDHE RACE.

THE SIDHE RACE 256 THE HURLING MATCH 259 THE RIDE WITH THE FAIRIES 260 THE FAIRY SPY 263 THE DARK HORSEMAN 264 SHEELA-NA-SKEAN 267 CAPTAIN WEBB, THE ROBBER CHIEF 270 THE MAYO CAPTAIN AND FEENISH THE MARE 271

SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST.

THE BARDIC RACE 274 THE ANCIENT RACE 276 THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND 278 EARLY IRISH ART 287 OUR ANCIENT CAPITAL 295

SIR WILLIAM WILDE ON “THE ANCIENT RACES OF IRELAND” 329

PREFACE.

The three great sources of knowledge respecting the shrouded part of humanity are the language, the mythology, and the ancient monuments of a country.

From the language one learns the mental and social height to which a nation had reached at any given period in arts, habits, and civilization, with the relation of man to man, and to the material and visible world.

The mythology of a people reveals their relation to a spiritual and invisible world; while the early monuments are solemn and eternal symbols of religious faith—rituals of stone in cromlech, pillar, shrine and tower, temples and tombs.

The written word, or literature, comes last, the fullest and highest expression of the intellect and culture, and scientific progress of a nation.

The Irish race were never much indebted to the written word. The learned class, the ollamhs, dwelt apart and kept their knowledge sacred. The people therefore lived entirely upon the traditions of their forefathers, blended with the new doctrines taught by Christianity; so that the popular belief became, in time, an amalgam of the pagan myths and the Christian legend, and these two elements remain indissolubly united to this day. The world, in fact, is a volume, a serial rather, going on for six thousand years, but of which the Irish peasant has scarcely yet turned the first page.

The present work deals only with the mythology, or the fantastic creed of the Irish respecting the invisible world—strange and mystical superstitions, brought thousands of years ago from their Aryan home, but which still, even in the present time, affect all the modes of thinking and acting in the daily life of the people.

Amongst the educated classes in all nations, the belief in the supernatural, acting directly on life and constantly interfering with the natural course of human action, is soon dissipated and gradually disappears, for the knowledge of natural laws solves many mysteries that were once inexplicable; yet much remains unsolved, even to the philosopher, of the mystic relation between the material and the spiritual world. Whilst to the masses—the uneducated—who know nothing of the fixed eternal laws of nature, every phenomenon seems to result from the direct action of some nonhuman power, invisible though ever present; able to confer all benefits, yet implacable if offended, and therefore to be propitiated.

The superstition, then, of the Irish peasant is the instinctive belief in the existence of certain unseen agencies that influence all human life; and with the highly sensitive organization of their race, it is not wonderful that the people live habitually under the shadow and dread of invisible powers which, whether working for good or evil, are awful and mysterious to the uncultured mind that sees only the strange results produced by certain forces, but knows nothing of approximate causes.

Many of the Irish legends, superstitions, and ancient charms now collected were obtained chiefly from oral communications made by the peasantry themselves, either in Irish or in the Irish-English which preserves so much of the expressive idiom of the antique tongue.

These narrations were taken down by competent persons skilled in both languages, and as far as possible in the very words of the narrator; so that much of the primitive simplicity of the style has been retained, while the legends have a peculiar and special value as coming direct from the national heart.

In a few years such a collection would be impossible, for the old race is rapidly passing away to other lands, and in the vast working-world of America, with all the new influences of light and progress, the young generation, though still loving the land of their fathers, will scarcely find leisure to dream over the fairy-haunted hills and lakes and raths of ancient Ireland.

I must disclaim, however, all desire to be considered a melancholy _Laudatrix temporis acti_. These studies of the Irish past are simply the expression of my love for the beautiful island that gave me my first inspiration, my quickest intellectual impulses, and the strongest and best sympathies with genius and country possible to a woman’s nature.

FRANCESCA SPERANZA WILDE.

ANCIENT LEGENDS.

INTRODUCTION.