Part 4
It remains for us to express our cordial obligations to the following authors and publishers for the use of copyright material. To Messrs. Macmillan and Miss B. Hunt for the story of "McCarthy of Connacht," from "Folk Tales of Breffny"; to Canon Hannay and Messrs. Methuen for chapters from "Spanish Gold" and "The Adventures of Dr. Whitty," entitled "J. J. Meldon and the Chief Secretary," and "The Interpreters"; to Mr. H. de Vere Stacpoole and Mr. Fisher Unwin for "The Meet of the Beagles," from the novel of "Patsy"; to Miss O'Conor Eccles and Messrs. Cassell for "King William," a story in the late Miss Charlotte O'Conor Eccles's "Aliens of the West"; to Miss Eleanor Alexander and Mr. Edward Arnold for "Old Tummus and the Battle of Scarva," from "Lady Anne's Walk," and to the same publisher and to Mr. John Stevenson for a chapter entitled "The Wise Woman" from "A Boy in the Country"; to Messrs. James Duffy and Sons for Kickham's Story of "The Thrush and the Blackbird"; to Mr. William Percy French for "The First Lord Liftenant"; to Mr. Frank Mathew for "Their Last Race," from his volume "At the rising of the Moon"; to Miss K. Purdon for a chapter entitled "The Game Leg," from her novel "The Folk of Furry Farm," and to its publishers, Messrs. James Nisbet and Co. Ltd.; to Dr. Douglas Hyde for his Folk-tale of "The Piper and the Puca"; to Martin Ross and Miss E. [OE]. Somerville and Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co., for the use of two chapters--"Trinket's Colt" and "The Boat's Share"--from "Some Experiences of an Irish R.M." and "Further Experiences of an Irish R.M." respectively; to Mr. Shan Bullock for "The Wee Tea Table," from his "Irish Pastorals"; to Miss Jane Barlow and Messrs. Hutchinson for "Quin's Rick," from "Doings and Dealings," and for "A Test of Truth," from "Irish Neighbours"; to Mr. Padraic Colum for his sketch "Maelshaughlinn at the Fair," from his "A Year of Irish Life," and to the publishers of the book, Messrs. Mills and Boon, Ltd.; to its author, "Lynn Doyle," and its publishers, Maunsel & Co., for "The Ballygullion Creamery," from "Ballygullion"; and to Mr. P. J. McCall and the proprietors of "The Shamrock" for the story "Fionn MacCumhail and the Princess."
Finally, acknowledgment is due to the courtesy of the Proprietors and Editor of "The Quarterly Review" for leave to incorporate in the Introduction an article which appeared in the issue of that periodical for June, 1913.
CONTENTS
PAGE DANIEL O'ROURKE _Dr. Maginn_ 1
ADVENTURES OF GILLA NA CHRECK AN GOUR _Patrick Kennedy_ 9
THE LITTLE WEAVER OF DULEEK GATE _Samuel Lover_ 18
FIONN MACCUMHAIL AND THE PRINCESS _Patrick J. McCall_ 30
THE KILDARE POOKA _Patrick Kennedy_ 38
THE PIPER AND THE PUCA _Douglas Hyde_ 42
MCCARTHY OF CONNACHT _B. Hunt_ 46
THE MAD PUDDING OF BALLYBOULTEEN _William Carleton_ 58
FRANK WEBBER'S WAGER _Charles Lever_ 72
SAM WHAM AND THE SAWMONT _Sir Samuel Ferguson_ 82
DARBY DOYLE'S VOYAGE TO QUEBEC _Thomas Ettingsall_ 84
BOB BURKE'S DUEL _Dr. Maginn_ 92
BILLY MALONEY'S TASTE OF LOVE AND GLORY _Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu_ 105
A PLEASANT JOURNEY _Charles Lever_ 123
THE BATTLE OF AUGHRIM _William Carleton_ 131
THE QUARE GANDER _Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu_ 139
THE THRUSH AND THE BLACKBIRD _Charles J. Kickham_ 148
THEIR LAST RACE _Frank Mathew_ 154
THE FIRST LORD LIFTINANT _William Percy French_ 159
THE BOAT'S SHARE _E. OE. Somerville and Martin Ross_ 167
"KING WILLIAM" _Charlotte O'Conor Eccles_ 179
QUIN'S RICK _Jane Barlow_ 200
MAELSHAUGHLINN AT THE FAIR _Padraic Colum_ 213
THE REV. J. J. MELDON AND THE CHIEF SECRETARY _George A. Birmingham_ 220
OLD TUMMUS AND THE BATTLE OF SCARVA _Eleanor Alexander_ 235
THE GAME LEG _K. F. Purdon_ 244
TRINKET'S COLT _E. OE. Somerville and Martin Ross_ 258
THE WEE TEA TABLE _Shan Bullock_ 276
THE INTERPRETERS _George A. Birmingham_ 290
A TEST OF TRUTH _Jane Barlow_ 307
THE WISE WOMAN _John Stevenson_ 314
THE MEET OF THE BEAGLES _H. de Vere Stacpoole_ 324
THE BALLYGULLION CREAMERY SOCIETY, LIMITED _Lynn Doyle_ 336
AUTHORS REPRESENTED
PAGE ALEXANDER, ELEANOR 235
BARLOW, JANE 200, 307
BIRMINGHAM, GEORGE A. 220, 290
BULLOCK, SHAN 276
CARLETON, WILLIAM 58, 131
COLUM, PADRAIC 213
DOYLE, LYNN 336
ECCLES, CHARLOTTE O'CONOR 179
ETTINGSALL, THOMAS 84
FERGUSON, SIR SAMUEL 82
FRENCH, WILLIAM PERCY 159
HUNT, B. 46
HYDE, DOUGLAS 42
KENNEDY, PATRICK 9, 38
KICKHAM, CHARLES JOSEPH 148
LE FANU, JOSEPH SHERIDAN 105, 139
LEVER, CHARLES 72, 123
LOVER, SAMUEL 18
MAGINN, DR. 1, 92
MATHEW, FRANK 154
MCCALL, PATRICK J. 30
PURDON, K. F. 244
SOMERVILLE, E. OE. AND ROSS, MARTIN 167, 258
STACPOOLE, H. DE VERE 324
STEVENSON, JOHN 314
HUMOURS OF IRISH LIFE
Daniel O'Rourke.
_From Crofton Croker's "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland."_
BY DR. MAGINN (1793-1842).
People may have heard of the renowned adventures of Daniel O'Rourke, but how few are there who know that the cause of all his perils, above and below, was neither more nor less than his having slept under the walls of the Phooka's tower. I knew the man well: he lived at the bottom of Hungry Hill. He told me his story thus:--
"I am often axed to tell it, sir, so that this is not the first time. The master's son, you see, had come from beyond foreign parts; and sure enough there was a dinner given to all the people on the ground, gentle and simple, high and low, rich and poor. Well, we had everything of the best, and plenty of it; and we ate, and we drunk, and we danced. To make a long story short, I got, as a body may say, the same thing as tipsy almost. And so, as I was crossing the stepping-stones of the ford of Ballyasheenogh, I missed my foot, and souse I fell into the water. 'Death alive!' thought I, 'I'll be drowned now!' However, I began swimming, swimming, swimming away for dear life, till at last I got ashore, somehow or other, but never the one of me can tell how, upon a dissolute island.
"I wandered, and wandered about there, without knowing where I wandered, until at last I got into a big bog. The moon was shining as bright as day, or your lady's eyes, sir (with your pardon for mentioning her), and I looked east and west, and north and south, and every way, and nothing did I see but bog, bog, bog. I began to scratch me head, and sing the Ullagone--when all of a sudden the moon grew black, and I looked up, and saw something for all the world as if it was moving down between me and it, and I could not tell what it was. Down it came with a pounce, and looked at me full in the face; and what was it but an eagle? So he looked at me in the face, and says he to me, 'Daniel O'Rourke,' says he, 'how do you do?' 'Very well, I thank you sir,' says I; 'I hope you're well'; wondering out of my senses all the time how an eagle came to speak like a Christian. 'What brings you here, Dan?' says he. 'Nothing at all, sir,' says I: 'only I wish I was safe home again.' 'Is it out of the island you want to go, Dan?' says he. ''Tis, sir,' says I. 'Dan,' says he, 'though it is very improper for you to get drunk on Lady-day, yet, as you are a decent, sober man, who 'tends Mass well, and never flings stones at me or mine, nor cries out after us in the fields--my life for yours,' says he, 'so get on my back and grip me well for fear you'd fall off, and I'll fly you out of the bog.' 'I am afraid,' says I, 'your honour's making game of me; for who ever heard of riding horseback on an eagle before?' ''Pon the honour of a gentleman,' says he, putting his right foot on his breast, 'I am quite in earnest: and so now either take my offer or starve in the bog--besides, I see that your weight is sinking the stone.'
"It was true enough, as he said, for I found the stone every minute going from under me. 'I thank your honour,' says I, 'for the loan of your civility; and I'll take your kind offer.' I therefore mounted upon the back of the eagle, and held him tight enough by the throat, and up he flew in the air like a lark. Little I knew the trick he was going to serve me. Up--up--up, dear knows how far he flew. 'Why, then,' said I to him--thinking he did not know the right road home--very civilly, because why? I was in his power entirely: 'sir,' says I, 'please your honour's glory, and with humble submission to your better judgment, if you'd fly down a bit, you're now just over my cabin, and I could be put down there, and many thanks to your worship.'
"'Arrah, Dan,' said he, 'do you think me a fool? Look down in the next field, and don't you see two men and a gun? By my word it would be no joke to be shot this way, to oblige a drunken blackguard that I picked off a cowld stone in a bog.' Well, sir, up he kept, flying, flying, and I asking him every minute to fly down, and all to no use. 'Where in the world are you going, sir?' says I to him. 'Hold your tongue, Dan,' says he: 'mind your own business, and don't be interfering with the business of other people.'
"At last where should we come to, but to the moon itself. Now, you can't see it from this, but there is, or there was in my time, a reaping-hook sticking out of the side of the moon, this way' (drawing the figure thus on the ground with the end of his stick).
"'Dan,' said the eagle, 'I'm tired with this long fly; I had no notion 'twas so far.' 'And, my lord, sir,' said I, 'who in the world axed you to fly so far--was it I? did not I beg, and pray, and beseech you to stop half-an-hour ago?' 'There's no use talking, Dan,' says he; 'I'm tired bad enough, so you must get off, and sit down on the moon until I rest myself.' 'Is it sit down on the moon?' said I; 'is it upon that little round thing, then? why, sure, I'd fall off in a minute, and be kilt and split, and smashed all to bits; you are a vile deceiver, so you are.' 'Not at all, Dan,' said he; 'you can catch fast hold of the reaping hook that's sticking out of the side of the moon, and 'twill keep you up.' 'I won't, then,' said I. 'May be not,' said he, quite quiet. 'But if you don't, my man, I shall just give you a shake, and one slap of my wing, and send you down to the ground, where every bone in your body will be smashed as small as a drop of dew on a cabbage-leaf in the morning.' 'Why, then, I'm in a fine way,' said I to myself, 'ever to have come along with the likes of you'; and so, giving him a hearty curse in Irish, for fear he'd know what I said, I got off his back, with a heavy heart, took hold of the reaping-hook, and sat down upon the moon, and a mighty cold seat it was, I can tell you that.
"When he had me fairly landed, he turned about on me, and said, 'Good morning to you, Daniel O'Rourke,' said he; 'I think I've nicked you fairly now. You robbed me nest last year' ('twas true enough for him, but how he found it out is hard to say), 'and in return you are freely welcome to cool your heels dangling upon the moon like a cockthrow.'
"'Is that all, and is this the way you leave me, you brute, you?' says I. 'You ugly, unnatural baste, and is this the way you serve me at last?' 'Twas all to no manner of use; he spread out his great, big wings, burst out laughing, and flew away like lightning. I bawled after him to stop; but I might have called and bawled for ever, without his minding me. Away he went, and I never saw him from that day to this--sorrow fly away with him! You may be sure I was in a disconsolate condition, and kept roaring out for the bare grief, when all at once a door opened right in the middle of the moon, creaking on its hinges as if it had not been opened for a month before--I suppose they never thought of greasing 'em, and out there walks--who do you think, but the man in the moon himself? I knew him by his bush.
"'Good morrow to you, Daniel O'Rourke,' says he; 'how do you do?' 'Very well, thank your honour,' said I. 'I hope your honour's well.' 'What brought you here, Dan?' said he. So I told him how it was.
"'Dan,' said the man in the moon, taking a pinch of snuff, when I was done, 'you must not stay here.'
"'Indeed, sir,' says I, ''tis much against my will I'm here at all; but how am I to go back?' 'That's your business,' said he; 'Dan, mine is to tell you that you must not stay, so be off in less than no time.' 'I'm doing no harm,' says I, 'only holding on hard by the reaping-hook, lest I fall off.' 'That's what you must not do, Dan,' says he. 'Pray, sir,' says I, 'may I ask how many you are in family, that you would not give a poor traveller lodging; I'm sure 'tis not so often you're troubled with strangers coming to see you, for 'tis a long way.' 'I'm by myself, Dan,' says he; 'but you'd better let go the reaping hook.' 'And with your leave,' says I, 'I'll not let go the grip, and the more you bids me, the more I won't let go;--so I will.' 'You had better, Dan,' says he again. 'Why, then, my little fellow,' says I, taking the whole weight of him with my eye from head to foot, 'there are two words to that bargain; and I'll not budge, but you may if you like.' 'We'll see how that is to be,' says he; and back he went, giving the door such a great bang after him (for it was plain he was huffed) that I thought the moon and all would fall down with it.
"Well, I was preparing myself to try strength with him, when back again he comes, with the kitchen cleaver in his hand, and without saying a word he gives two bangs to the handle of the reaping hook that was keeping me up, and whap! it came in two. 'Good morning to you, Dan,' says the spiteful little old blackguard, when he saw me cleanly falling down with a bit of the handle in my hand; 'I thank you for your visit, and fair weather after you, Daniel.' I had not time to make any answer to him, for I was tumbling over and over, and rolling, and rolling, at the rate of a fox-hunt. 'This is a pretty pickle,' says I, 'for a decent man to be seen at this time of night: I am now sold fairly.' The word was not out of my mouth when, whizz! what should fly by close to my ear but a flock of wild geese; all the way from my own bog of Ballyasheenogh, or else, how should they know me? The ould gander, who was their general, turning about his head, cried out to me, 'Is that you, Dan?' 'The same,' said I, not a bit daunted now at what he said, for I was by this time used to all kinds of bedevilment, and, besides, I knew him of ould. 'Good morrow to you,' says he, 'Daniel O'Rourke; how are you in health this morning?' 'Very well, sir,' says I, 'I thank you kindly,' drawing my breath, for I was mighty in want of some. 'I hope your honour's the same.' 'I think 'tis falling you are, Daniel,' says he. 'You may say that, sir,' says I. 'And where are you going all the way so fast?' said the gander. So I told him how I had taken the drop, and how I came on the island, and how I lost my way in the bog, and how the thief of an eagle flew me up to the moon, and how the man in the moon turned me out. 'Dan,' said he, 'I'll save you: put out your hand and catch me by the leg, and I'll fly you home.'
"'Sweet is your hand in a pitcher of honey, my jewel,' says I, though all the time I thought within myself that I don't much trust you; but there was no help, so I caught the gander by the leg, and away I and the other geese flew after him as fast as hops.
"We flew, and we flew, and we flew, until we came right over the wide ocean. I knew it well, for I saw Cape Clear to my right hand, sticking up out of the water. 'Ah! my lord,' said I to the goose, for I thought it best to keep a civil tongue in my head, any way, 'fly to land if you please.' 'It is impossible, you see, Dan,' said he, 'for a while, because, you see, we are going to Arabia.' 'To Arabia!' said I; 'that's surely some place in foreign parts, far away. Oh! Mr. Goose: why, then, to be sure, I'm a man to be pitied among you.' 'Whist, whist, you fool,' said he, 'hold your tongue; I tell you Arabia is a very decent sort of place, as like West Carbery as one egg is like another, only there is a little more sand there.'
"Just as we were talking, a ship hove in sight, scudding so beautiful before the wind; 'Ah! then, sir,' said I, 'will you drop me on the ship if you please?' 'We are not fair over her,' said he. 'We are,' said I. 'We are not,' said he; 'If I dropped you now you would go splash into the sea.' 'I would not,' says I; 'I know better than that, for it is just clean under us, so let me drop now, at once.' 'If you must, you must,' said he; 'there, take your own way,' and he opened his claw, and, 'deed, he was right--sure enough, I came down plump into the very bottom of the salt sea! Down to the very bottom I went, and I gave myself up then for ever, when a whale walked up to me, scratching himself after his night's sleep, and looked me full in the face, and never the word did he say, but, lifting up his tail, he splashed me all over again with the cold, salt water till there wasn't a dry stitch on my whole carcase; and I heard somebody saying--'twas a voice I knew, too--'Get up, you drunken brute, off o' that'; and with that I woke up, and there was Judy with a tub full of water which she was splashing all over me--for, rest her soul! though she was a good wife, she never could bear to see me in drink, and had a bitter hand of her own. 'Get up,' said she again: 'and of all places in the parish would no place sarve your turn to lie down upon but under the ould walls of Carrigaphooka? an uneasy resting I am sure you had of it.' And sure enough I had: for I was fairly bothered out of my senses with eagles, and men of the moons, and flying ganders, and whales driving me through bogs, and up to the moon, and down to the bottom of the green ocean. If I was in drink ten times over, long would it be before I'd lie down in the same spot again, I know that."
Adventures of Gilla na Chreck an Gour.
(THE FELLOW IN THE GOAT SKIN).
_From "Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts."_
BY PATRICK KENNEDY (1801-1873).
(Told in the Wexford Peasant Dialect.)
Long ago a poor widow woman lived down by the iron forge near Enniscorthy, and she was so poor, she had no clothes to put on her son; so she used to fix him in the ash-hole, near the fire, and pile the warm ashes about him; and, accordingly, as he grew up, she sunk the pit deeper. At last, by hook or by crook, she got a goat-skin and fastened it round his waist, and he felt quite grand, and took a walk down the street. So, says she to him next morning, "Tom, you thief, you never done any good yet, and you six-foot high, and past nineteen; take that rope and bring me a _bresna_ from the wood." "Never say't twice, mother," says Tom; "here goes."
When he had it gathered and tied, what should come up but a big _joiant_, nine-foot high, and made a lick of a club at him. Well become Tom, he jumped a-one side and picked up a ram-pike; and the first crack he gave the big fellow he made him kiss the clod. "If you have e'er a prayer," says Tom, "now's the time to say it, before I make _brishe_ of you." "I have no prayers," says the giant, "but if you spare my life I'll give you that club; and as long as you keep from sin you'll win every battle you ever fight with it."
Tom made no bones about letting him off; and as soon as he got the club in his hands he sat down on the bresna and gave it a tap with the kippeen, and says, "Bresna, I had a great trouble gathering you, and run the risk of my life for you; the least you can do is to carry me home." And, sure enough, the wind of the word was all it wanted. It went off through the wood, groaning and cracking till it came to the widow's door.
Well, when the sticks were all burned Tom was sent off again to pick more; and this time he had to fight with a giant with two heads on him. Tom had a little more trouble with him--that's all; and the prayers _he_ said was to give Tom a fife that nobody could help dancing to when he was playing it. _Begonies_, he made the big faggot dance home, with himself sitting on it. Well, if you were to count all the steps from this to Dublin, dickens a bit you'd ever arrive there. The next giant was a beautiful boy with three heads on him. He had neither prayers nor catechism no more nor the others; and so he gave Tom a bottle of green ointment that wouldn't let you be burned, nor scalded, nor wounded. "And now," says he, "there's no more of us. You may come and gather sticks here till little Lunacy Day in harvest without giant or fairy man to disturb you."
Well, now, Tom was prouder nor ten paycocks, and used to take a walk down the street in the heel of the evening; but some of the little boys had no more manners nor if they were Dublin jackeens, and put out their tongues at Tom's club and Tom's goat-skin. He didn't like that at all, and it would be mean to give one of them a clout. At last, what should come through the town but a kind of bellman, only it's a big bugle he had, and a huntsman's cap on his head, and a kind of painted shirt. So this--he wasn't a bellman, and I don't know what to call him--bugleman, maybe--proclaimed that the King of Dublin's daughter was so melancholy that she didn't give a laugh for seven years, and that her father would grant her in marriage to whoever would make her laugh three times. "That's the very thing for me to try," says Tom; and so, without burning any more daylight, he kissed his mother, curled his club at the little boys, and set off along the yalla highroad to the town of Dublin.
At last Tom came to one of the City gates and the guards laughed and cursed at him instead of letting him through. Tom stood it all for a little time, but at last one of them--out of fun, as he said--drove his _bagnet_ half an inch or so into his side. Tom did nothing but take the fellow by the scruff of his neck and the waistband of his corduroys and fling him into the canal. Some ran to pull the fellow out, and others to let manners into the vulgarian with their swords and daggers; but a tap from his club sent them headlong into the moat or down on the stones, and they were soon begging him to stay his hands.
So at last one of them was glad enough to show Tom the way to the Palace yard; and there was the King and the Queen, and the princess in a gallery, looking at all sorts of wrestling and sword-playing, and _rinka-fadhas_ (long dances) and mumming, all to please the princess; but not a smile came over her handsome face.