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[R. Welch, Photo.
U LSTER FOLKLORE
BY
ELIZABETH ANDREWS, F.R.A.!.
WITH FOURTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK
7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
19 1 3
.
INTRODUCTION
I N 1894 I was at the meeting of the British
Association at Oxford, and had the good
fortune to hear Professor Julius Kollmann give his
paper on "Pygmies in Europe," in \vhich he
described the skeletons which had then recently
been discovered near Schaffhausen. As I listened
to his account of these small people, whose average
height was about four and a half feet, I recalled the
description of Irish fairies given to me by an old
woman from Galway, and it appeared to me that
our traditional" wee-folk" were about the size of
these Swiss dwarfs. I determined to collect what
information I could, and the result is given in the
following pages. I found that the fairies are,
indeed, regarded as small; but their height may be
that of a well-grown boy or girl, or they may not
be larger than a child beginning to walk. I once
asked a woman if they were as small as cocks and
hens, but she laughed at the suggestion.
I had collected a number of stories, and had
become convinced that in these tales we had a
reminiscence of a dwarf race, when I read some of
Mr. David MacRitchie's works, and was gratified
to find that the traditions I had gathered were in
v
VI
INTRODUCTION
accordance \vith the conclusions he had drawn
from his investigations in Scotland. A little later
I made his acquaintance, and owe him many thanks
for his great kindness and the encouragement he
has given me in my work.
As will be seen in the following pages, tradition
records several small races in Ulster: the Grogachs,
who are closely allied to the fairies, and also to the
Scotch and English Brownies; the short Danes,
whom I am inclined to identify with the Tuatha
de Danann; the Pechts, or Picts; and also the
small Finns. My belief is that all these, including
the fairies, represent primitive races of mankind,
and that in the stories of women, children, and
men being carried off by the fairies, we have a
record of warfare, when stealthy raids were made
and captives brought to the dark souterrain.
These souterrains, or, as the country people call
them, "coves," are very numerous. They are
underground structures, built of rough stones
without mortar, and roofed with large flat slabs.
Plate II. shows a fine one at Ardtole, near
Ardglass, Co. Down. The total length of this
souterrain is about one hundred and eight feet, its
width three feet, and its height five feet three
inches.- The entrance to another souterrain is
shown in the Sweathouse at Magherat (Plate I II.).
* See U Ardtole Souterrain, Co. Down," by F. J. Bigger
and W. J. Fennell in Ulster Journal of Archæology, 1898-99.
pp. 14 6 , 147.
t I am much indebted to Mr. S. D. Lytle of that town for
kind permission to reprod nce this view.
INTRODUCTION
Vll
As a rule, although the fairies a e regarded as
U fallen angels," they are said to be kind to the
poor, and to possess many good qualities. cc It
was better for the land before they went away JJ is
an expression I have heard more than once. The
belief in the fairy changeling has, however, led to
many acts of cruelty. We know of the terrible
cases which occurred in the South of Ireland some
years ago, and I met with the same superstition
in the North. I was told a man believed his sick
wife was not herself, but a fairy who had been sub-
stituted for her. Fortunately the poor woman was
in hospital, so no harm could come to her.
Much of primitive belief has gathered round the
fairy-we have the fairy well and the fairy thorn.
It is said that fairies can make themselves so small
that they can creep through keyholes, and they are
generally invisible to ordinary mortals. They can
shoot their arrows at cattle and human beings, and
by their magic powers bring disease on both.
They seldom, however, partake of the nature of
ghosts, and I do not think belief in fairies is con-
nected with ancestral worship.
Sometimes I have been asked if the people did
not invent these stories to please me. The best
answer to this question is to be found in the diverse
localities from which the same tale comes. I have
heard of the making of heather ale by the Danes,
and the tragic fate of the father and son, the last
of this race, in Down, Antrim, Londonderry, and
Kerry. The same story is told in many parts of
Vlll
INTRODUCTION
Scotland, although there it is the Picts who make
the heather ale. I have been told of the woman
attending the fairy-man's wife, acquiring the power
of seeing the fairies, and subsequently having her
eye put out, in Donegal and Derry, and variants of
the story come to us from Wales and the Holy
Land.
I am aware that I labour under a disadvantage
in not being an Irish scholar, but most of those in
Down, Antrim, and Derry from whom I heard the
tales spoke only English, and in Donegal the
peasants who related the stories knew both lan-
guages well, and I believe gave me a faithful version
of their Irish tales.
Some of these essays appeared in the Antiquary,
others were read to the Archæological Section of
the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, but are now
published for the first time in extenso. All have
been revised, and additional notes introduced.
To these chapters on folklore I have added an
article on the Rev. William Hamilton, who, in his
" Letters on the North-East Coast of Antrim,"
written towards the close of the eighteenth century,
gives an account of the geology, antiquities, and
customs of the country.
The plan of the souterrain at Ballymagreehan
Fort, Co. Down, was kindly drawn for me by Mr.
Arthur Birch. I am much indebted to the Council
of the Royal Anthropological Institute for their
kindness in allowing me to reproduce the plan of
the souterrain at Knockdhu from Mrs. Hobson's
INTRODUCTION
IX
paper, U Some Ulster Souterrains," published in
the Journal of the Institute, vol. xxxix., January to
June, 1909. My best thanks are also due to Mrs.
Hobson for allowing me to make use of her photo-
graph of the entrance to this souterrain. The
other illustrations are from photographs by Mr.
Robert Welch, M.R.I.A., who has done so much to
make the scenery, geology, and antiquities of the
North of Ireland better known to the English
public.
BELFAST,
August, 1913.
t
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION V
FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES - I
A DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. LONDONDERRY 14
ULSTER FAIRIES, DANES, AND PECHTS - 24
FOLKLORE CONNECTED WITH ULSTER RA THS AND SOU-
TERRAINS 36
TRADITIONS OF DWARF RACES IN IRELAND AND IN
SWITZERLAND 47
FOLKLORE FROM DONEGAL 64
GIANTS AND DW ARFS 84
THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D. 105
XI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
I. HARVEST KNOT
Frontisþiece
FACING PAGE
II. SOUTERRAIN AT ARDTOLE, ARDGLASS, CO. DOWN I
III. ENTRANCE TO SWEATHOUSE, MAGHERA 14
IV. RUSH AND STRAW CROSSES - 17
V. HARVEST KNOTS 19
VI. "CHURN" 20
VII. ENTRANCE TO SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU - 30
VIII. THE OLD FORT, ANTRIM 36
IX. GREY MAN'S PATH, FAIRHEAD 49
x. TORl\IORE, TORY ISLAND 73
XI. VALLEY NEAR ARMOY, WHENCE, ACCORDING TO
LEGEND, EARTH WAS TAKEN TO FORM RATHLIN 90
XII. FLINT SPEARHEAD AND BASALT AXES FOUND UNDER
FORT IN LENAGH TOWNLAND
97
PLANS
SOUTERRAIN AT BALL YMAGREEHAN -
PAGE
6
SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU
3 0
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ULSTER FOLKLORE
Fairies and their Dwelling-places *
I N the follo\ving notes I have recorded a fe\v
traditions gathered from the peasantry in Co.
Down and other parts of Ireland regarding the
fairies. The belief is general that these little
people were at one time very numerous through-
out the country, but have now disappeared from
many of their former haunts. At Ballynahinch I
was told they had been blown away fifty years ago
by a great storm, and the caretaker of the old
church and graveyard of Killevy said they had
gone to Scotland. They are, however, supposed
still to inhabit the more remote parts of the
country, and the old people have many stories of
fairy visitors, and of what happened in their own
youth and in the time of their fathers and grand-
fathers.
We must not, however, think of Irish fairies as
tiny creatures who could hide under a mushroom
or dance on a blade of grass. I remember well
how strongly an old woman from Galway repudiated
* Communicated to Belfast Naturalists' Field Club,
J an uary 18, 18g8.
I
ULSTER FOLKLORE
such an idea. The fairies, according to her, were
indeed small people, but no mushroom could give
them shelter. She described them as about the
size of children, and as far as I can ascertain from
inquiries made in many parts of Ulster and Munster,
this is the almost universal belief among the
peasantry. Sometimes I was told the fairies were
as large as a well-grown boy or girl, sometimes that
they were as small as children beginning to walk;
the height of a chair or a table was often used as a
comparison, and on one occasion an old woman
spoke of them as being about the size of monkeys.
The colour red appears to be closely associated
with these little people. In Co. Waterford, if a
child has a red handkerchief on its head, it is said
to be wearing a fairy cap. I have frequently been
told of the small men in red jackets running about
the forts; the fairy women sometimes appear in
red cloaks; and I have heard more than once that
fairies have red hair.
A farmer living in one of the valleys of the Mourne
l\1ountains said he had seen one stormy night little
creatures with red hair, about the size of children.
I asked him if they might not have been really
children from some of the cottages, but his reply
was that no child could have been out in such
weather.
An old woman living near Tullamore Park, Co.
Down, described vividly how, going out to look
after her goat and its young kid, she had heard
loud screams and seen wild-looking figures with
FAIRIES AND THEIR D"TELLING-PLACES 3
scanty clothing whose hair stood up like the mane
of a horse. She spoke with much respect of the
fairies as the gentry, said they formerly inhabited
hills in Tullamore Park, and that care was taken
not to destroy their thorn-bushes. She related the
following story: As a friend of hers was sitting alone
one night, a small old woman, dressed in a white
cap and apron, came. in and borrowed a bowl of
meal. The debt was repaid, and the meal brought
by the fairy put in the barrel. The woman kept
the matter secret, and was surprised to find her
barrel did not need replenishing. At last her
husband asked if her store of meal was not corning
to an end; she replied that she would show him
she had sufficient, and lifted the cover of the
barrel. To her astonishment it was almost empty;
no doubt, had she kept her secret, she would have
had an unlimited supply of meal.
I have heard several similar stories, and have not
found that any evil consequences were supposed
to follow from partaking of food brought by the
fairies. Men have been carried off by them, have
heard their beautiful music, seen them dancing, or
witnessed a fairy battle without bringing any mis-
fortune on themselves. On the other hand, accord-
ing to a story I heard at Buncrana, Co. Donegal,
a little herd-boy paid dearly for having entered one
of their dwellings. As he was climbing among
the rocks, he saw a cleft, and creeping through it
came to where a fairy woman was spinning with
her II weans," or children, around her. His sister
4
ULs'rER FOLKLORE
missed him, and after searching for a time, she too,
carne to the cleft, and looking down saw her
brother, and called to him to corne out. He carne,
but was never able to speak again.
In another case deafness followed intercourse
with the fairies. An elderly man at Maghera, Co.
Down, told me that his brother when four or five
years old went out with his father. The child lay
down on the grass. After a while the father heard
a great noise, and looking up saw little men about
two feet in height dancing round his son. He
called to them to be gone, and they ran towards
a fort and disappeared. The child became deaf,
and did not recover his hearing for ten years. He
died at the age of seventeen.
To cut down a fairy thorn or to injure the house
of a fairy is regarded as certain to bring misfortune.
An old woman also living at Maghera, related
how her great-grandmother had received a visit
from a small old woman, who forbade the building
of a certain turf-stack, saying that evil would
befall anyone who injured the chimneys of her
house. The warning was disregarded, the turf-
stack built, and before long four CO\Vs died.
I was told that when a certain fort in Co.
Fermanagh was levelled to the ground misfortune
overtook the men who did the work, although,
apparently, they were only labourers, many of then1
dying suddenly. It was also said that vvhere this
fort had stood there were caves or hollows in the
ground into which the oxen would fall when plough-
FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES 5
ing. An attempt to bring a fort near Newcastle
under cultivation is believed to have caused the
sudden death of the owner.
The fairies are celebrated as fine musicians; they
ride on small horses; the women grind meal, and
the sound of their spinning is often heard at night in
the peasants' cottages. The following story is related
as having occurred at Camlough, near Newry.
A woman was spinning one evening when three
fairies carne into the house, each bringing a spinning-
wheel. They said they would help her with her
work, and one of them asked for a drink of water.
The woman went to the well to fetch it. When
there she ,vas warned, apparently by a friendly
fairy, that the others had corne only to mock and
harm her. Acting on the advice of this friend, the
\voman, as soon as she had given water to the
three, turned again to the open door, and stood
looking intently towards a fort. They asked what
she was gazing at, and the reply was: (( At the
blaze on the fort." No sooner had she uttered
these words than the three fairies rushed out with
such haste that one of them left her spinning-wheel
behind, which, according to the story, is now to be
seen in Dublin Castle. The woman then shut her
door, and put a pin in the keyhole, thus effectually
preventing the return of her visitors.
In this story we have probably an allusion to
the signal fires which are believed by the peasantry
to have been lit on the forts in time of danger, one
fort being always within view of another. These
6
ULSTER
"OLKLOJtE
forts, or raths, appear to have been the favourite
abode of the fairies. To use the language of the
peasantry, these little people live in the II coves of
the forths," an expression which puzzled me until
I found that coves, or caves, meant underground
passages-in other words, souterrains.
There are a number of these souterrains in the
neighbourhood of Castlewellan, and \vith a young
friend, who helped me to take a fe\v rough measure-
ments, I explored several.
Ballymagreehan Fort is a short distance from
t--
._-- -xt-_____- -
- - - -
PLAN OF BALLYMAGREEHAN SOUTERRAIN.
Castlewellan, near the Newry Road. It is a small
fort, and on the top we saw the narrow entrance
to the sou terrain. Passing down through this, \ve
found ourselves in a short passage, or chamber,
which led us to another passage at rightangles to
the first. It is about forty feet in length and three
feet in width; the height varies from four to five
feet. The roof is formed of flat slabs, and the walls
are carefully built of round stones, but without
mortar. At one end this passage appeared to
terminate in a wall, but at the other it was only
choked with fallen stones and débris, and I should
think had formerly extended farther.
Herman's Fort is another small fort on the oppo-
FAIRIES A
D t"I'HEIR D'VELLING-PLACES 7
site side of Castlewellan, in the townland of Clarkill.
Climbing to the top of it, we carne to an enclosure
where several thorn-bushes \vere growing. The
farmer who kindly acted as our guide showed us
two openings. One of these led to a narrow cham-
ber fully six feet high, the other to a passage more
than thirty feet in length and about three feet wide,
while the height varied from three and a half feet
in one part to more than five feet in another. I was
told that water is always to be found near these
forts, and was shown a well which had existed from
time immemorial; the sides were built of round
stones wi thou t mortar, in the same way as the walls
of the passage.
We heard here of another souterrain about a
mile distant, called Backaderry Cove. It is on the
side of a hill close to the road leading from Castle-
wellan to Dromara. A number of thorn-bushes
grow near the place, but there is no mound, either
natural or artificial. Creeping through the opening,
we found ourselves in a passage about forty feet in
length; a chamber opens off it nine feet in length,
and between five and six feet in height, while the
heigh t of the passage varies from four and a half to
five and a half feet. There is a tradition that this
passage formerly connected Backaderry with Her-
man's Fort.
Ballyginney Fort is near Maghera. I only saw
the entrance to the souterrain, but from what I
heard I believe that here also there is a chamber
opening off the passage. The farmer on whose land
8
ULSTER FOLKLORE
the fort is situated told me that one dry summer
he had planted flax in the field adjoining the fort.
The small depth of soil above the flat slabs affected
the crop, so that by the difference in the flax it was
easy to trace where the passage ran below the field.
\Ve have seen that the fairies are believed to
inhabit the souterrains; they are also said to live
inside certain hills, and in forts where, so far as is
known, no underground structure exists. I may
mention as an example the large fort on the Shimna
River, near Newcastle, where I was told their
music \vas often to be heard. There may be many
souterrains whose entrance has been choked up,
and of which no record has been preserved. Mr.
Bigger gave last session an interesting account of
one discovered at Stranocum; another was acci-
dentally found last September in a field about three
miles from Newry. Mr. Mann Harbison, who
visited the souterrain, writes to me that the excava-
tion has been made in a circular portion which is
six feet wide and five feet high. A gallery opens
ou t of this chamber, and is in some places not more
than three feet six inches high.
The building of the forts and souterrains is
ascribed by the country people to the Danes, a race
of whom various traditions exist. They are said
to have had red hair; sometimes they are spoken of
as large men, sometimes as short men. One old
woman, who had little belief in fairies, told me that
in the old troubled times in Ireland people lived
inside the forts; these people were the Danes, and
FAIRIES AND 'l'HEIR D'\TELLING.PLACES 9
they used to light fires on the top as a signal from
one fort to another. I heard from an elderly man
of Danes having encamped on his grandmother's
farm. Smoke was seen rising from an unfrequented
spot, and when an uncle went to investigate the
matter he found small huts with no doors, only a
bundle of sticks laid across the entrance. In one of
the huts he saw a pot boiling on the fire, and going
forward he began to stir the contents. Immediately
a red-haired man and woman rushed in; they
appeared angry at the intrusion, and when he went
out threw a plate after him.
The traditions in regard both to Danes and fairies
are very similar in different parts of Ireland. In
Co. Cavan the country people spoke of the beautiful
music of the fairies, and told me of their living in
a fort near Lough Oughter. One woman said they
were sometimes called Ganelochs, and \vere about
the size of children, and an old man described them
as little people about one or two feet high, riding
on small horses.
In Co. Waterford I was told that the fairies were
not ghosts: they lived in the air. One man might
see them while they would be invisible to others.
In an interesting lecture on the "Customs and
Superstitions of the Southern Irish," the Rev. J. B.
Leslie, \vho has kindly allowed me to quote from his
manuscript, describes the fairies as " a species of
beings neither men nor angels nor ghosts. . . .
They are connected in the popular imagination
with the Danish forts which are common in the
10
ULSTER FOLKLOR.E
country. In these they seem to have their abode
underground. At night they hold here high reyels-
in grand banqueting-haIls-and in these revels there
must always, I believe, be a living human being.
The fairies are often called the' good people' ; some
think they are' fallen angels.' They are usually
thought of as harmless creatures, unless, of course,
they are interfered with, when the power they \vield
is very great. They are very fond of games; some
testify that they have seen them play football,
others hurley, while playing at marbles is a special
pastime, and I have even heard of persons who
have discovered ' fairy marbles' near or in these
forts. No one will interfere with the forts; they
fear the power and anger of the fairies."
While the fairies are generally associated with the
forts, I heard both in Co. Down and Co. Kerry of
their living in caves in the mountains, and a lad
whom I met near the Gap of Dunloe described them
as having cloven feet and black hair.
A boatman at Killarney spoke of the Leprechauns
as little men about three feet in height, wearing
red caps. He thought the fairies might be taller,
and spoke of their living in the forts. He said these
forts had been built by the Danes, who must have
been small men, when they made the passages so
low. We thus see that fairies and Danes are both
associated with these ancient structures. Although
the Irish peasant speaks of these Danes having been
conquered by Brian Boru, the structure and position
of the raths and souterrains point to their having
FAIRIES A
D THEIR D\VELLI
G-PLACES 11
been the work of one of the earlier Irish races rather
than of the medieval Norsemen. Their name
appears to identify th
m with the Tuatha de
Danann whose necromantic power is celebrated
in Irish tales, and of \vhom, according to o 'Curry ,
one class of fairies are the representatives. I know
that some high authorities regard the Tuatha de
Danann and the fairies as alike mythological beings.
The latter are certainly in popular legend endowed
with superhuman attributes; they can transport
people long distances, creep through keyholes, and
the fairy changeling, when placed on the fire, can
escape up the chimney and grin at his tormentors.
If we ask the .country people who are the fairies,
the reply is frequently, " Fallen angels." According
to an old woman in Donegal, these angels fell, some
on the sea, some on the earth, while some remained in
the air; the fairies \vere those \vho fell on the earth.
These H fallen angels JJ may be the representatives
of the spirits whom the pagan Irish worshipped and
strove to propitiate, and some of the tales relating
to the fairies may have their origin in the mythology
of a primitive people. But the raths and souter-
rains are certainly the \vork of human hands, and I
would suggest that in the legends connected \vith
them we have a reminiscence of a d\varf race who
rode on ponies, were good musicians, could spin and
weave, and grind corn. The traditions would point
to their being red-haired.
Mr. Mann Harbison has kindly \vritten to me
on this subject, and expresses his belief that the
12
ULSTER FOLKLORE
souterrains (I were constructed by a diminutive
race, probably allied to the modern Lapps, who
seem to be the survivors of a widely distributed
race." In another letter he says: C( The universal
idea of fairies is very suggestive. The tall Celts,
when they arrived, saw the small people disappear
in a mysterious way, and, without stopping to
investigate, imagined they had become invisible.
If they had had the courage or the patience to
investigate, they \vould have found that they had
passed into their souterrain."
In his work " Fians, Fairies, and Picts," Mr.
David MacRitchie argues that these three names
belong to similar if not identical dwarf races in
Scotland. The Tuatha de Danann he also regards
as of the same race as the fairies, or, to give them
their Irish name, the Fir Sidhe, the men of the
green mounds.
The remains of the ancient cave-d\vellers point
to a primitive race of small size inhabiting Europe.
Dr. Munro, in his work H Prehistoric Problems,"
refers to the skeletons discovered at Spy in Belgium
by MM. Lohest and De Pudzt. He describes them
as examples of a very early and lo\v type of the
human race, and states that Professor Fraipont,
who examined them anatomically, " came to the
conclusion that the Spy men belonged to a race
relatively of small stature, analogous to the modern
Laplanders, having voluminous heads, massive
bodies, short arms, and bent legs. They led a
sedentary life, frequented caves, manufactured flint
\
FAIRIES AND THEIR D'VELLING-PL..1CES 13
implements after the type known as lVloustérien,
and were contemporary with the Mammoth.".
Let us compare this description \vith that in the
ballad of Ie The Wee, Wee Man":t
tr His legs were scarce a shathmont'st length,
And thick and thimber was his thigh;
Between his brows there was a span,
And between his shoulders there was three."
I do not, however, mean to suggest that the
builders of the raths and souterrains were con-
temporary with the men of Spy, but rather that
a small race of pr-imitive men may have existed
until a comparatively late period in this country.
Leading a desultory warfare with their neighbours,
they \vould carry off women and children, and
injure the cattle with their stone \veapons. We
should note that in the traditions of the peasantry,
and also in the old ballads, those who have been
carried off by the fairies can frequently be released
from captivity, and they return, not as ghosts, but
as living men or women. May we not see in these
legends traces of a struggle between a primitive
race, whose gods may have been, like themselves, of
diminutive stature, and their more civilized neigh-
bours, who accepted the teaching of the early
Christian missionaries?
* P. 14 1 .
t tr Ancient and
lJdern Scottish Songs," published anony-
mously, but known to have been collected by David Herd
(vol. i., p. 95, ed. 1776).
t The fist closed \vith thumb extended, and may be con-
sidered a measure of about six inches.
A Dar at Maghera, Co. Londonderry *
O NE fine morning last August I found myself
in the quaint old town of Maghera. My first
visit was to the post-office, where I bought some
picture-cards, and inquired my way to Killelagh
Church, the Cromlech, and the Sweat-house, as it
is called, \vhere formerly people indulged in a
vapour-bath to cure rheumatism and other com-
plaints. I was told to follow the main street. This
I did, and when I came to the outskirts of the town
I tried to get a guide, and spoke to a boy at one of
the cottages. He, however, knew very little, but
fortunately saw an elderly man coming down the
road, who consented to show me the way, and
proved an excellent guide. His nalne is Daniel
McKenna, a coach-builder by trade. His father,
who was teacher in Maghera National School for
thirty-five years, knew Irish well, and I understand
."
gave Dr. Joyce information in regard to some of the
place-names in Co. Derry. Taking a road which
led in a north-westerly direction, we came to the
Cromlech, and a few yards farther on saw the old
Ch urch of K illelagh.
* Read before the Archæological Section of the Belfast
Naturalists' Ficld Club, January 15, 1913.
14
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-\ Y AT
I.AGHERA, CO. LO
DO
DERH.Y 15
l\ly guide pointed out that the doorstep was
much worn, doubtless by the feet of those who
during many centuries had passed over it; he
showed me, too, the strong walls, and said the
mortar had been cemented with the blood of
bullocks. This probably recalls an ancient custom,
when an animal-in still earlier times it might be
a human being*-was slain to propitiate or drive
away the evil spirits and secure the stability of the
building. A similar tradition exists in regard to
Roughan Castle, the stronghold of Phelim O'Neill,
in Co. Tyrone.
Leaving Killelagh Church, we continued our
walk, and I asked my guide about the customs and
traditions of the country. He told me that on
Hallo\v Eve Night salt is put on the heads of chil-
dren to protect them from the fairies. These fairIes,
or \vee folk, are about three feet in height, some not
so tall; they are of different races or tribes, and
have pitched battles at the Pecht's graveyard.
* In "lVIy Schools and Schoolmasters" (chap. X., pp.
222-223, cd. 1854, Hugh Miller describes the goblin who
haunted Craig House, near Cromarty Firth, as a " grey-headed,
grey-bearded, little old man," and the apparition was thus
explained by a herdboy: (( Ok! they're saying it's the spirit of
the man that was killed on the foundation-stone just after it
was laid, and then built inti! the wa' by the masons, that he
might keep the castle by coming back again; and they're saying
that a' the verra auld houses in the kintra had murderit men
builded intil them in that way, and that they have a' 0' them
this bogIe."
In " The Study of Man," Professor Haddon gives a number
of allusions to the human sacrifice in the building of bridges
(PP.347-35 6 ).
16
ULS".fER FOLKLORE
This is a place covered with rough mounds and
very rough stones, and is looked on as a great
playground of the fairies; people passing through it
are often led astray by them. The Pechts, or Picts,
were described to me as having long black hair,
which grew in tufts; they were small people, about
four feet six inches in height, thick set, nearly as
broad as they ,vere long, strong in arms and
shoulders, and with very large feet. \Vhen a
shower of rain came on, they would stand on their
heads and shelter themselves under their feet.
Some years ago I was told a similar story in Co.
Antrim of the Pechts lying down and using their
feet as umbrellas.-
I regretted we had not time to visit a large fort
we passed on the way to Ballyknock Farmhouse.
Here we left the road, and, passing through some
fields, came to the old Sweat-house. As you will
see from the photograph kindly given to me by
l\lr. Lytle of Maghera, the entrance is on the side
of a bank. It is a much n10re primitive structure
than those at the Struel Wells, near Downpatrick.
No mortar has been used in its construction, and I
should say it is an old souterrain, or part of a
souterrain. The follo,ving are rough measure-
men ts :
Height of entrance
Width of entrance
Height of interior
Width of interior
Length of interior
2 feet.
15 inches
5 feet 5 inches.
3 feet.
9 feet.
* See p. 27.
<\
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PLATE IV.
-
- - W CROSSES,
AND STRA
RUSH
-
W ' c h Photo.
[R. e. J
A DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. LONDONDERRY 17
This building, as already mentioned, was used
by those suffering from rheumatism, and near the
entrance is a \vell in which the patients bathed to
complete the cure.
While we were resting I asked about rush crosses,
which are put up in many cottages at Maghera,
and, gathering some rushes, Daniel McKenna showed
me how they were made. He told me that on
St. Bridget's Eve, January 31, children are sent
out to pull rushes, which must not be cut with a
knife. When these rushes are brought in, the
family gather round the fire and make the crosses,
which are sprinkled with holy water. The wife or
eldest daughter prepares tea and pancakes, and the
plate of pancakes is laid on the top of the rush cross.
Prayers are said, and the family partake of St.
Bridget's supper. The crosses are hung up over
doors and beds to bring good luck. In former
times sowans or flummery was eaten instead of
pancakes. I have heard of similar customs in
other places. At Tobermore those who bring in the
rushes ask at the door, II May St. Bridget come in ?"
c eYes, she may," is the answer. The rushes are
put on a rail under the table while the family par-
take of tea. Afterwards the crosses are made, and,
as at Maghera, hung up over doors and beds..
This custom probably comes to us from pre-
Christian times. The cross in its varied forms is
a very ancient symbol, sometimes representing the
* In Plate IV. the larger cross is of rushes, the smaller one
is made of straw.
2
18
ULSTER FOLKLORE
sun, sometimes the four winds of heaven. Schlieman
discovered it on the pottery of the Troad; it is
found in Egypt, India, China, and Japan, and
among the people of the Bronze Period it appears
frequently on pottery, jewellery, and coins.
Now, St. Bridget had a pagan predecessor, Brigit,
a poetess of the Tuatha de Danann, and whom we
may perhaps regard as a female Apollo. Cormac,
in his II Glossary," tells us she was a daughter of
the Dagda and a goddess whom all poets adored,
and whose two sisters were Brigit the physician
and Brigit the smith. Probably the three sisters
represent the same divine or semi-divine person
whom we may identify with the British goddess
Brigantia and the Gaulish Brigindo.
May we not see, then, in these rush crosses a very
ancient symbol, used in pagan times, and which
was probably consecrated by early Christian mis-
sionaries, and given a new significance?
The harvest knots or bows are connected with
another old custom which was, until recently I
observed at Maghera. When the harvest was
gathered in, the last handful of oats, the corn of
this country, was left standing. It was plaited in
three parts and tied at the top, and was called by
the Irish name cc luchter." The reapers stood at
some distance, and threw their sickles at the
luchter, and the man who cut it was exempt from
paying his share of the feast. Daniel McKenna
told me he had seen some fine sickles broken in
trying to hit the luchter. It was afterwards carried
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A DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. LONDONDERRY 19
home; the young girls plaited harvest knots and
pu t them in their hair, while the lads wore them
in their caps and buttonholes. A dance followed
the feast. The knots, with the ears of corn
attached, are, I am told, the true old Irish type,
while it is thought that the smaller ones were made
after a pattern brought from England by the
harvest reapers on their return home. I heard of
the same custom at Portstewart and also in the
Valley of the Roe, where the last sheaf of oats was
called the " hare," and the throwing of the sickles
was termed the" churn." In some places the last
sheaf itself was called the" churn," but by whatever
name it was kno\vn the man who hit it was regarded
as the victor, and was given the best seat at the
feast, or a reward of some kind. An old woman
above ninety years of age repeated to me a song
about the churn, or kirn, and she and many others
remember well the custom and the feast which
followed, when both whisky and tea were served.
In some districts the last sheaf is terlned the
" Cailleagh,". or old wife.
A similar custom in Devonshire has been described
* Mr. McKean "kindly informs me that he has found this
name or its modification H Collya " in Counties Armagh, Mona-
ghan, and Tyrone; also near Cushendall, Co. Antrim, where
the ceremony is called " cutting the Cailleagh. J) He was told
this Cailleagh was an old witch, and by "killing" her and
taking her into the house you got good luck. At Ballyatoge,
at the back of Cat Carn Hill, near Belfast, in the descent to
Crumlin, the custom is called "cutting the Granny.) ) At
Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, the plait or braid is called the" car-
line. JJ
o
ULs'rER FOLKLORE
by Mr. Pearse Chope in the London Devonian Year
Book for 1910, p. 12 7. Here corn is wheat, and a
sheaf of the finest ears, termed the " neck, IJ is
carried by one of the men to an elevated spot; the
reapers form themselves into a ring, and each man
holding his hook above his head, they all join in
,e the weird cry, C A neck! a neck! a neck 1 W
ha' un! we ha' un! we ha' un l' This is repeated
several times, with the occasional variation: C A
neck! a neck! a neck! God sa' un! God sa' un!
God sa' un!' After this ceremony the man with
the neck has to run to the kitchen, and get it there
dry, while the maids wait with buckets and pitchers
of water to C souse J him and the neck." Mr. Chope
adds that in most cases the neck is more or less in
the form of a woman, and undoubtedly represented
the spirit of the harvest, and that "the main
idea of the ceremony seems to have been that in
cutting the corn the spirit was gradually driven
into the last handful. . .. As it was needful to
cut the corn and bury the seed, so it was necessary
to kill the corn spirit in order that it might rise again
in fresh youth and vigour in the coming crop.".
I think we may safely assume that the Irish
churn had a similar origin, and that in throwing
the sickles the aim of the ancient reapers "vas to
kill the spirit of the corn.
We have seen that in the North of Ireland the
* Dr. Frazer also describes this Devonshire custom (see
Golden Bough, II Spirits of the Corn and the Wild," vol. i.,
pp. 26 4- 26 7).
PLAïE VI.
....
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A DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. I
ONDONDERRY
l
last sheaf is frequently termed the " hare," and
in many other countries the corn spirit takes the
form of an animal. In his recent volumes of the
Golden Bough, entitled (( Spirits of the Corn and the
Wild," Dr. Frazer mentions many animals, such
as the wolf, goat, fox, dog, bull, Co\V, horse, hare,
which represent the corn spirit lurking in the last
patch of standing corn. He tells us that (( at
harvest a number of wild animals, such as hares,
rabbits, and partridges, are commonly driven by
the progress of the reaping into the last patch of
standing corn, and make their escape from it as
it is being cut down. . .. Now, primitive man,
to whom magical changes of shape seem perfectly
credible, finds it most natural that the spirit of
the corn, driven from his home in the ripe grain,
should make his escape in the form of the animal,
which is seen to rush out of the last patch of corn
as it falls under the scythe of the reaper.".
To return to Maghera. The morning passed
swiftly as I listened to my guide's description of
these old customs, and it was after two o'clock
,vhen I said good-bye to him at his cottage, and
found myself again in the main street of Maghera.
I now wished to visit the Fort of Dunglady, and
after a refreshing cup of tea, engaged a car. The
driver knew the country well, and, going uphill and
downhill, we passed through the village of Cul-
nady, and were soon close to this fine fort. A
few minutes' walk, and I stood on the outer ram-
* II Spirits of the Corn and the Wild, IJ vol. i., pp. 304. 3 0 5.
fl
ULSTER FOLKLORE
part, and gazed across the inner circles at the
cattle grazing on the central enclosure.
This fort was visited in 1902 by the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland, when a very interesting
paper, written by Miss Jane Clark of Kilrea, was
read. She mentions that Dr. O'Donovan considered
this fort one of the most interesting he had met
with; not so magnificent as the Dun of Keltar at
Downpatrick, but much better fortified, and states
that a map of the time of Charles I. represents
Dunglady Fort as a prominent object, and shows
three houses built upon it, one of considerable
size. Quoting from an unpublished letter of Mr.
J. Stokes, she refers to the triple rampart, which
makes the diameter of the whole to be three
hundred and thirty feet. There was formerly a
draw well in the middle of the fort, and at one
time it was used as a burial-ground by members
of the Society of Friends. Miss Clark also referred
to a smaller fort at Culnady, \vhich had been
demolished. The two mounds in the centre of
this rath had been formed of earth on a stone
foundation.
A rapid drive brought me back to Maghera in
time for a short visit to the ruins of the Church of
St. Lurach, popularly known in the district as
St. Lowry. There is a curious sculpture of the
Crucifixion over the west doorway, which is shown
in the sketch of this doorway by Petrie in Lord
Dunraven's II Notes on Irish Architecture.".
* Vol. i., p_ 115-
A DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. LONDONDERRY
S
I must now conclude this account of my visit
to Maghera, but may I mention that farther north
there are other interesting antiquities? The large
cromlech, called the Broadstone, is some miles
from Kilrea. There are several forts in the neigh-
bourhood of that town, which draws its supply of
water from a fairy well.
.
Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts *
T HE fairy lore of Ulster is doubtless dying
out, but much may yet be learned about the
(( gentle JJ folk, and as we listen to the stories told
by the peasantry, we may well ask ourselves what
is the meaning of these old legends.
Fairies are regarded on the whole as a kindly
race of beings, although if offended they wiII work
dire vengeance. They have no connection with
churchyards, and are quite distinct from ghosts.
One old woman, who had much to say about fairies,
wheD asked about ghosts, replied rather scorn-
fully, that she did not believe in them. The
fairies are supposed to be small-" wee folk "-
but we must not think of them as tiny creatures
who could hide in a foxglove. To use a
North of Ireland phrase, they are the size of a
" lump of a boy or girl!" and have been often
mistaken for ordinary men or women, until their
sudden disappearance marked them as unearthly.
A farmer in Co. Antrim told me that once when
a man was taking stones from a cave in a fort,
an old man came and asked him would it not be
better to get his stones elsewhere than from those
ancient buildings. The other, however, continued
* Reprinted from the Antiqua'YY, August, 1906,
24
ULS'fER FAIRIES, DANES AND PECHTS 25
his v{ork; but when the stranger suddenly dis-
appeared, he became convinced that his questioner
was no ordinary mortal. In after-life he often said
sadly: " He was a poor man, and would always
remain a poor man, because he had taken stones
from that cave." The cave was no doubt a
sou terrain.
An elderly woman in Co. Antrim told me that
when a child she one evening saw " a little old
woman with a green cloak coming over the burn."
She helped her to cross, and afterwards took her
to the cottage, where her mother received the
stranger kindly, told her she was sorry she could
not giye her a bed in the house, but that she might
sleep in one of the outhouses. The children
made Grannie as comfortable as they could, and
in the morning went out early to see how she was.
They found her up and ready to leave. The child
who had first met her said she would again help
her across the burn-" But wait," she added,
Cl until I get my bonnet." She ran into the house,
but before she came out the old woman had dis-
appeared.
'Vhen the mother heard of this she said: Cl God
bless you, child! Don't mind Grannie; she is very
well able to take care of herself." And so it was
believed that Grannie was a fairy.
I have also heard of a little old man in a three-
cornered hat, at first mistaken for a neighbour,
but \vhose sudden disappearance proved him to be
a fairy.
6
ULs'rER FOLKLORE
In the time of the press-gang a crowd was seen
approaching some cottages. Great alarm ensued,
and the young men fled; but it was soon discovered
that these people did not come from a man-of-war
-they were fairies.
A terrible story, showing how the fairies can
punish their captives, was told me by an old woman
at Armoy, in Co. Antrim, who vouched for it as
being (( candid truth." A man's wife was carried
away by the fairies; he married again, but one night
his first wife met him, told him where she was,
and besought him to release her, saying that if he
would do so she would leave that part of the country
and not trouble him any more. She begged him,
however, not to make the attempt unless he were
confident he could carry it out, as if he failed she
would die a terrible death. He promised to save
her, and she told him to watch at midnight, \vhen
she would be riding past the house with the fairies;
she would put her hand in at the window, and he
must grasp it and hold tight. He did as she bade
him, and although the fairies pulled hard, he had
nearly saved her, when his second wife saw ,vhat
was going on, and tore his hand away. The poor
woman was dragged off, and across the fields he
heard her piercing cries, and saw next morning the
drops of blood where the fairies had murdered her.
Another woman was more fortunate; she was
carried off by the fairies at Cushendall, but was
able to inform her friends when she and the fairies
would be going on a journey, and she told them
ULs'rER }'AIRIES, DANES AND PECHTS fl7
that if they stroked her with the branch of a rowan-
tree she would be free. They did as she desired.
She returned to them, apparently having suffered
no injury, and in the course of time she married.
This story was to]d me by a man ninety years of
age, living in Glenshesk, in the north of Co. Antrim.
He spoke of the fairies as being about two feet in
height, said they were dressed in green, and had
been seen in daylight making hats of rushes. In
Donegal I was also told that the fairies wore high
peaked hats made of plaited rushes; but there, as
in most parts of Ulster, and indeed of Ireland, the
fairies are said to wear red, not green. In An trim
the fairies, like their Scotch kinsfolk, dress in green,
but even there are often said to have red or sandy
hair.
The Pechts are spoken of as low, stout people,
who built some of the II coves" in the forts. An
old man, living in the townland of Drumcrow,
Co. Antrim, showed me the entrance to one of
these artificial caves, and gave me a vivid descrip-
tion of its builders. II The Pechts," he said, II were
low-set, heavy-made people, broad in the feet-so
broad," he added, with an expressive gesture,
lC that in rain they could lie down and shelter
themselves under their feet." He spoke of them
as clad in skins, while an old woman at Armoy said
they were dressed in grey. I have seldom heard
of the Pechts beyond the confines of Antrim,
although an old man in Donegal spoke of them as
short people with large, unwieldy feet.
8
ULSTER FOLKLORE
The traditions regarding the Danes vary; some-
times they are spoken of as a tall race, sometimes
as a short race. There is little doubt that the
tall race were the medieval Danes, while in the
short men we have probably a reminiscence of an
earlier race.
A widespread belief exists throughout Ireland
that the Danes made heather beer, and that the
secret perished with them. According to an old
woman at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, the
Danes had the land in old times, but at last they were
conquered, and there remained alive only a father
and son. When pressed to disclose how the heather
beer was made, the father said: " Kill my son, and
I will tell you our secret"; but when the son was
slain, he cried: II Kill me also, but our secret
you shall never know!" I have the authority
of Mr. MacRitchie for stating that a similar story
is known in Scotland from the Shetlands to
the Mull of Galloway, but there it is told of the
Picts.
We all remember Louis Stevenson's ballad of
heather ale-how the son was cast into the sea:
(( And there on the cliff stood the father,
Last of the dwarfish men.
(( True was the word I told you:
Only my son I feared;
For I doubt the sapling courage
That goes without the beard.
But now in vain is the torture,
Fire shall never a vail;
Here dies in my bosom
The secret of heather ale."
ULSTER F.A.lRIES, DANES .A.ND PECHTS 29
The secret appears, however, to have been pre-
served for many centuries. After visiting Islay in
1772, the Welsh traveller and naturalist, Pennant,
states that" Ale is frequently made in this island
from the tops of heath, mixing two-thirds of that
plant with one of malt."-
Probably these islanders were descendants of the
Picts or Pechts.
I do not know if there is any record of the
making of heather beer in Ireland in later times,
but I heard the story of the lost secret in Down,
in Kerry, in Donegal, in Antrim, and everywhere
the father and the son were the last of the Danes.
Does not this point to the Irish Danes being a
kindred race to the Picts? If we may be allowed
to hold that the Tuatha de Danann are not alto-
gether mythical, I should be inclined to believe that
they are the short Danes of the Irish peasantry,
who built the forts and souterrains. I visited some
Danes' graves near Ballygilbert, in Co. Antrim; it
appeared to me that there were indications of a
stone circle, the principal tomb was in the centre,
the walls built without mortar, and I was told that
formerly it had been roofed in with a flat stone.
Various ridges were pointed out to me as marking
the small fields of these early people. I was also
shown their houses, built, like the graves, without
mortar. Within living memory these old struc-
* II Voyage to the Hebrides in 1772," p. 229. For a full
discussion of the subject, see Mr. MacRitchie's II Memories of
the Picts,JJ in the Scottish Antiquary for 1900.
30
UIÁS1:'ER FOLKLORE
tures were much more perfect than at present, many
of them having the characteristic flat slab as a roof;
but fences were needed, and the Danes' houses
offered a convenient and tempting supply of stones.
In the same neighbourhood I was shown a building
of uncemented stone with flat slabs for the roof
,
and was told it had been built by the fairies.
In the same district I visited a fine souterrain at
the foot of Knockdhu, which was afterwards fully
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explored and measured by Mrs. Hobson. She
describes it as cc a souterrain containing six cham-
bers, with a length of eighty-seven feet exclusive of
a flooded chamber.". Mrs. Hobson photographed
the entrance to this souterrain, which is reproduced
in Plate VII.
From the foregoing traditions it will be seen that
* See "Some Ulster Souterrains," Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, vol. xxxix., January-June, 1909.
The plan was drawn by Miss Florence Hobson from the
measurements made by Mrs. Hobson.
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ULSTER FAIRIES, D...J\NES A
D PECHTS 31
Pechts, Danes, and fairies are all associated with the
remains of primitive man. I may add that the
small pipes sometimes turned up by the plough are
called in different localities Danes', Pechts', or
fairies' pipes.
The peasantry regard the Pechts and the Danes
as thoroughly human; with the fairies it is other-
wise. They are unearthly beings, fallen angels with
supernatural powers; but, while quick to revenge an
injury or a slight, on the whole friendly to mankind.
" It was better for the country before they went
away," was the remark made to me by an old
woman from Garvagh, Co. Derry, and I have
heard the same sentiment expressed by others.
They are always spoken of with much respect, and
are often called the" gentry JJ or the" gentle folk."
\Ve hear of fairy men, fairy women, and fairy
children. They may intermarry \vith mortals, and
an old woman told me she had seen a fairy's funeral
Now, do these stories give us only a materialistic
view of the spirit world held by early man, or can
we also trace in them a reminiscence of a pre-Celtic
race of small stature? The respect paid to the
fairy thorn is no doubt a survival of tree-worship,
and in the banshee we have a weird being who has
little in common with mortal woman. On the other
hand, the fairies are more often connected with the
artificial forts and souterrains than with natural
hills and caves. These forts and souterrains, as we
have seen, are also the habitations of Danes and
Pechts. They are sacred spots-to injure them is
39l
ULSTER FOLKLORE
to court misfortune; but I have not heard them
spoken of as sepulchres.
I have already mentioned that I have rarely, if
ever, found among the peasantry any tradition of
fairies a few inches in height. In one of the tales
in " Silva Gadelica" (xiv.) we read, however, of
the lupracan being so small that the close-cropped
grass of the green reached to the thigh of their
poet, and the prize feat of their great champion was
the hewing down of a thistle at a single stroke.
Such a race could not have built the souterrains,
and probably owe their origin to the imagination of
the medieval story-teller. The lupracan were not,
however, always of such diminutive size. In a note
to this story Mr. Standish H. O'Grady quotes an
old Irish manuscript- in which a distinctly human
origin is ascribed to these luchorpan or wee-bodies.
" Ham, therefore, was the first that was cursed
after the Deluge, and from him sprang the wee-
bodies (pygmies), fomores, I goatheads' (satyrs),
and every other deformed shape that human beings
wear." The old writer goes on to tell us that this
was the origin of these monstrosities, " which are
not, as the Gael relate, of Cain's seed, for of his
seed nothing survived the Flood."t
I t is true that in this passage the lupracan or
wee-bodies are associated with goatheads; but
whether these are purely fabulous beings, or point
to an early race whose features were supposed to
* Raw!., 486, f. 49, 2.
t " Silva Gadelica JJ (translation and notes), pp. 5 6 3, 564.
ULS1:'ER FAIRIES, DANES AND PECH'rS 33
resemble those of goats, or who perhaps stood in
totem relationship to goats, it would be difficult
to say. What we have here are two medieval
traditions, the one stating that the pygmies are
descendants of Cain, the other classing them among
the descendants of Ham. Does the latter contain
a germ of truth, and is it possible that at one time
a people resembling the pygmies of Central Africa
inhabited these islands?
Those who have visited the African dwarfs in
their own haunts have been struck by the resem-
blance between their habits and those ascribed to
the northern fairies, elves, and trolls.
Sir Harry Johnston states that anyone who has
seen much of the merry, impish ways of the Central
African pygmies " cannot but be struck by their
singular resemblance in character to the elves and
gnomes and sprites of our nursery stories." He
warns us, however, against reckless theorizing, and
says: " It may be too much to assume that the
negro species ever inhabited Europe," but adds
that undoubtedly to his thinking "most fairy
myths arose from the contemplation of the mys-
terious habits of dwarf troglodyte races lingering
on still in the crannies, caverns, forests, and moun-
tains of Europe after the invasion of neolithic
man.". Captain Burroughs refers to the stories of
these mannikins to be found in all countries, and
adds that" it was of the highest interest to find
some of them in their primitive and aboriginal
* (( Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii., pp. 516, 517.
3
.
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1.I...e:, <:
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34
ULS'l'ER FOLKLORE
state.". He speaks of the red and black Akka þ
and Sir Harry Johnston also describes the t\VO
types of pygmy, one being of a reddish-yellow
colour, the other as black as the ordinary negro.
In the yellow-skinned type there is a tendency on
the part of the head hair to be reddish, more especi-
ally over the frontal part of the head. The hair is
never absolutely black-it varies in colour bet\veen
greyish-greenish-brown, and reddish.t We have
seen how Irish fairies and Danes have red hair, but
I should infer of a brighter hue than these African
dwarfs. The average height of the pygmy man is
four feet nine inches, of the pygmy woman four feet
six inches,t and although we cannot measure fairies,
I think the Ulster expression, " a lump of a boy or
girl," would correspond with this height. I do not
know the size of the fairy's foot, but, as \ve have
seen, both Danes and Pechts have large feet, and
so has the African pygmy.
One of the great
marks of the fairies is their vanishing and leaving
no trace behind, and Sir Harry Johnston speaks of
the baboon-like adroitness of the African d\varfs in
making themselves invisible in squatting im-
mobility.M
Dr. Robertson Smith has shown that" primitive
man has to contend not only with material diffi-
culties, but with the superstitious terror of the
unknown, paralyzing his energies and forbidding
* (C Land of the Pygmies," pp. 173, 174.
t "Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii. See pp. 5 2 7, 530; also
coloured frontispiece.
'.' Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii., p. 53 2 .
Ibid., p. 532. II Ibid., p. 5 1 3.
ULs'rER FAIRIES, DANES AND PECHTS 35
him freely to put forth his strength to subdue
nature to his use.". In speaking of the Arabian
" jinn," he states" that even in modern accounts jinn
and various kinds of animals are closely associated I
while in the older legends they are practically
identified,"t and he adds that the stories point
distinctly " to haunted spots being the places where
evil beasts walk by night.":!: He also shows that
totems or friendly demoniac beings rapidly develop
into gods when men rise above pure savagery,
and he cites the ancestral god of Baalbek, who ,vas
\vorshipped under the form of a lion.1I
If we see, then, that early man, terrified by the
\vild beasts, \vhether lions or reptiles, ascribed to
them superhuman powers, may not a similar mode
of thought have caused one race to invest with
supernatural attributes another race, strangers to
them, and possibly of inferior mental development?
The big negro is often afraid to withhold his
banana from the pygmy, and the dwarfish Lapps
and Finns have long been regarded as po\verful
sorcerers by their more civilized neighbours. In like
manner the little woman, inhabiting her under-
ground dwelling at the foot of the sacred thorn-
bush, might \vell be looked upon as an uncanny
being, and in after-ages popular imagination might
transform her into the \veird banshee, the woman
of the fairy mound, whose wailing cry betokens
death and disaster.
* IC The Religion of the Semites," p. 115.
t Ibid., pp. 122, 123. t Ibid., p. 12 3.
Ibid., note b, p. 424. II Ibid., p. 425.
Folklore connected with Ulster Raths and
Souterrains *
A s the title of this paper I have given cc Folklore
connected with Ulster Raths and Souter-
rains," but if I used the language of the country-
people I should speak, not of raths and souterrains,
but of forths and coves. In these coves it is
believed the fairies dwell, and here they keep as
prisoners women, children, even men. These sub-
terranean dwellings may not be known to mortals.
I heard of a lad being kept for several days in the
fort of the Shimna, near Newcastle, Co. Down, and
I was told that the great rath at Downpatrick had
been a very gentle place, meaning one inhabited
by fairies. In neither of these forts is there, as
far as is known, a sou terrain, nor is there one in the
old fort at Antrim, a typical rath. In many
cases we do find the entrance to a souterrain is in
a fort. I may mention Ballymagreehan Fort, the
stone fort near Altnadua Lough in Co. Down, and
Crocknabroom, near Ballycastle. Although not in
Ulster, I may also refer to a fine example of a rath
with a souterrain in it, the Mote of Greenffiount,
* Read before the Archæological Section of the Belfast
Naturalists' Field Club, February 12, 1908.
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ULSTER RArrHS AND SOUTERRAINS 37
described by the Rev. J . B. Leslie in his U History
of Kilsaran, Co. Louth.".
Many souterrains have no fort above them.
Take, for example, the one near Scollogstown, Co.
Down, with its numerous bridges, which it would
be decidedly unpleasant to face if little men were
behind them shooting arrows. Also Cloughnabrick
Cave, near Ballycastle, which is not built with stones,
but hollowed out of the basaltic rock.
Fairies are not the only race connected with
raths and souterrains. We have two others, Danes
and Pechts. I t is generally believed that the Danes
built the forts; hence we find many of them called
U Danes' forts." I will describe one named from
the townland in which it is situated, Ballycairn
Fort. It stands on a high bank overlooking the
Bann, about a mile north of Coleraine. The entire
height is about twenty-six feet; at perhaps twelve
feet from the ground a flat platform is reached, and
at one end of this the upper part of the fort rises in
a circular form for about fourteen or fifteen feet.
I was told the Danes who built it were short, stout
people, and as they had no wheelbarrows they
carried the earth in their leathern aprons. Here
we seem to come in contact with a very primitive
people, probably wearing the skins of wild animals,
and who are said, like the fairies, to have sandy or
red hair.
· Pp. 12-20. Several sections of this rath are given; also
a view showing Greenmount in 1748, and a plan of the same
date-both from Wright's U Louthiana,u published in that
year.
38
ULSTER FOLKLOIIE
As far as is known no souterrain exists in Bally-
cairn Fort, although I was sho\vn a stone at the
side which my guide said might be the entrance
to a U cove JJ; it appeared to me to be simply a
piece of rock appearing above the sod, or possibly a
boulder. There is a tradition of fairies living in
this fort, as it is said that in U long ago JJ times the
farmers used to threaten their boys if they were
not doing right, that the fairies \vould come out of
the fort and carry them away.
Many of the souterrains in this part of the world
are now blocked up, and of some the entrance is
no longer known, although they have been explored
wi thin living memory; others have been destroyed.
There was a souterrain a short distance from Bally-
cairn Fort in a field opposite to Cranogh National
School. The master of this school told me that
fifteen or sixteen years ago these underground
buildings existed, but now they have been all
quarried away. He also mentioned a tradition
that there was a subterranean passage under the
Bann.
On the opposite bank of the river, near Port-
stewart, I heard of several of these underground
dwellings.
One was on the land of an old farmer eighty-four
years of age. He told me he had been in this cave,
but no one could get in now. It had been hollowed
out by man, but the walls were not built of stones.
There were several rooms; you dropped from one
to another through a narrow hole. The rooms were
ULSTER RATHS A
D SOUTERRAINS 39
large, but low in the roof; in one of them a quantity
of limpet-shells were found. He added that some
said that the Danes had built these caves, others
that the clans made them as places of refuge. He
added that the Danes of those days had sandy hair
and were short people; not like the sturdy Danes
of the present day. These are well known to the
seafaring population of Ulster, and we sometimes
find the old Danes spoken of as a tall, fair race;
probably this is a true description of the medieval
sea-rovers. The short Danes I should be inclined
to identify with the Tuatha de Danann, and I
believe that, notwithstanding the magical portents
which abound in the tales that have come down
to us, we have here a very early people who had
made some progress in the arts.
This double use of the name Dane seems at times
to have perplexed the older \vri ters. The Rev.
William Hamilton, in his" Letters on the North-
East Coast of Antrim," published towards the end
of the eighteenth century, gives a description of
the coal-mines of Ballycastle. and of the very
ancient galleries, with the pillars, left by the pre-
historic miners, supporting the roof, which had been
discovered some twelve years before he wrote.
He tells us that the people of the place ascribed
them to the Danes, but argues that these were
never peaceable possessors of Ireland, and that it is
not " to the tumul tuary and barbarous armies of
the ninth and tenth centuries . . . we are to
* Part 1., Letter IV., Edition 1822.
.
40
ULSTER FOLKLORE
attribute the slow and toilsome operations of peace."
He mentions how the stalactite pillars found in
these galleries marked their antiquity, and ascribes
them to some period prior to the eighth century,
"when Ireland enjoyed a considerable share of
civilization."
In the same way John vVindele, writing in the
Ulster Journal of Archæology for 1862, speaks of
the mines in Waterford having been worked by the
ancient inhabitants, and adds: " One almost insu-
lated promontory is perforated like a rabbit-burrow,
and is known as the' Danes' Island,' the peasantry
attributing these ancient mines, like all other relics
of remote civilisation, to the Danes.".
From my own experience I can corroborate this
statement. An artificial island in Lough Sessiagh,
in Co. Donegal, was shown to me as the work of the
Danes. The forts on Horn Head and at Glenties
are also ascribed to them.
The use of the sou terrains was not confined to
prehistoric times. The one at Greenmount appears
to have been inhabited by the medieval Danes, as
a Runic inscription, engraved on a plate of bronze,
has been discovered in it, the only one as yet found
in Ireland. In 1 3 1 7 every man dwelling in an
ooan, or caher's souterrain, was summoned to join
the army of Domched O'Brian.t The French
traveller, J orevin de Rocheford, speaks of sub-
* Ulster Journal of Archæology, 1861-62, p. 212.
t See (( Prehistoric Stone Forts of Northern Clare, J J by
Thomas J. Westropp, M.A., M.R.I.A. {Journal of the Royal
Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. vi., fifth series, 18g6}.
ULSTER RA THS AND SOUTERRAINS 41
terranean vaults where the peasants assembled to
hear l\1ass,. and in still more recent times the
5muggler and the distiller of illicit whisky found
then1 convenient places of concealment.
In a former paper I referred to the lost secret
of the heather beer, and the tragic ending of the
last of the Danes.t As the story was told me near
Ballycairn Fort, the father said: It Give my son the
first lilt of the rope, and I "viII reveal our secret" ;
but \vhen the son \vas dead the father cried: " Slay
me also, for none shall ever know how the heather
beer was brewed !"
In a paper read to this club Mr. McKean t men-
tioned that this story had been told to him in Kerry,
where I, too, heard it. It appears to be almost
universal in Ulster. When visiting Navan Fort,
the ancient Emania, near Armagh, I was told that
on this fort the Danes made heather beer. I asked
if any heather grew in the neighbourhood, but the
ans\ver was, not now. There are variants of the
tale. In some parts of Donegal it is wine, not
beer, that the Danes are said to have made. As
a rule the slaughter is taken for granted, and very
little said about it; but a farmer in Co. Antrim
gave me a full account of the massacre, how at
a great feast a Roman Catholic sat beside each
* See cc Illustrations of Irish History," by C. Litton Falkiner,
p. 416. He considers it probable that Jorevin de Rochefort
was Albert Jouvin de Rochefort, Trésorier de France.
t See Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pe
hts, p. 28.
t See Annual Report of Belfast Naturalists' Field Club,
1907-08, U A Holiday Trip to West Kerry," p. 73.
4
ULSTER FOLKLORE
Dane, and at a given signal plunged his dirk into
his neighbour's side, until only one man and his son
remained alive; then followed the usual sequel.
These short Danes are said to have had large
feet, and one man described their arms as so long
that they could pick anything off the ground
without stooping. Long arms are also a charac-
teristic of the traditional dwarf of Japan, prob-
ably an ancestor of the Aino.* As I mentioned in
a previous paper,t large feet are also a traditional
characteristic of the Pechts, who are generally
said to have been clad in skins or in grey clothes.
They have occasionally superhuman attributes
ascribed to them. The same man who spoke of the
long arms of the Danes said the Pechts could creep
through keyholes-they were like" speerits "-and
he evidently regarded both them and the fairies as
evil spirits. At the same time he said they "vould
thresh corn or work for a man, but if they were
given food, they would be offended, and go away.
I think the close connection between Danes,
Pechts, and fairies will be apparent to all, although
the fairy has more supernatural characteristics,
and in the banshee assumes a very weird form.
Lady Fanshawe has described the apparition she
saw when staying, in 1649, with the Lady Honora
O'Brien, as a woman in white, with red hair and
ghastly complexion, \vho thrice cried " Ahone !"
* See Mr. David MacRitchie's U Northern Trolls," read at
the Folklore Congress, Chicago, 1893, p. 12.
t See Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts, p. 27.
ULSTER RATHS AND SOUTERRAINS 43
and vanished with a sigh more like wind than
breath. This was apparently the ghost of a mur-
dered woman, who was said to appear when any
of the family died, and that night a cousin of their
hostess had passed away.- Similar stories, as we
all know, exist at the present day.
Except in the case of the banshee, fairies rarely
partake of the nature of ghosts, and I should note
that in her description of the apparition Lady
Fanshawe does not use the word (( banshee." In
many respects the fairies are akin to mortals-there
are fairy men, fairy \vomen, and fairy children.
Fairies often live under bushes, and I was told in
Co. Armagh that it would be a very serious matter
to cut down a (( lone " thorn-bush; those growing
in rows were evidently less sacred. Did the thorn-
bush hide the entrance to the subterranean
dwelling?
The fairies are quick to revenge an injury or an
encroachment on their territory. A fire which
occurred at Dunree on Lough Swilly was attributed
to the fairies, who were supposed to be angry be-
cause the military had carried the works of their
modern fort too near the fairy rock. In some
places the raths have been cultivated, but, as a
rule, this is looked upon as very unlucky, and sure
to bring dire misfortune on the man who attempts
it. On the other hand, there appears to be no
objection to growing crops on the top of a souter-
* See U Memoirs of Anne, Lady Fanshawe," edited by
Herbert C. Fanshawe, pp. 57-59.
44
ULSTER FOLKLORE
raIn. Many are, it is true, afraid to enter these
dark abodes, and others consider it unwise to
carry anything out of them. I have never heard
them spoken of as tombs, and the fairies are re-
garded, not as ghosts, but as fallen angels, to
whom no Church holds out a hope of salvation.
Only in one instance did a woman tell me that
as fairies were good . to the poor, she thought
there would be hope for them hereafter. The
Irish fairy remains a pagan; the ancient well of
pre-Christian days may be consecrated to the
Christian saint, and patterns held beside it, but
no pious pilgrim prays on the rath or below the
fairy rock.
We may now ask ourselves the meaning of these
legends. The rath and souterrain are undoubtedly
the work of primitive man, yet here we have the
Sidh, inhabited by the fairy and the Tuatha de
Danann. In the" Colloquy of the Ancients ". we
are told it was out of a Sidh, Finn's chief musician,
the dwarf Cnu deiriol came, and from another
Sidh came Blathnait, whom the small man es-
poused. It was fairy music which Cnu taught to
the musicians of the Fianna. It was out of a
Sidh in the south that Cas corach, son of the Olave
of the Tuatha de Danann, came to the King of
Ulidia.t
In Derrick's " Image of Ireland," written in
* Translated by Mr. S. H. O'Grady in U Silva Gadelica,"
volume with translation:and notes. (For Cnu and Blathnait,
see pp. 115-117.) t Ibid., pp. 187, 188.
ULSTER RA1.'HS AND SOUTERRAINS 45
1578, and published in 1581, the Olympian gods
call upon certain little mountain gods, whom I
should be inclined to identify with the fairies, to
come to their aid:
II Let therefore little Mountain Gods
A troupe (as thei maie spare)
Of breechlesse men at all assaies,
Both leauvie and prepare
With mantelles down unto the shoe
To lappe them in by night;
With speares and swordes and little dartes
To shield them from despight."*
May I, in conclusion, express my belief that in
the traditions of fairies, Danes, and Pechts the
memory is preserved of an early race or races of
short stature, but of considerable strength, who
built underground dwellings, and had some skill
in music and in other arts? They appear to have
been spread over a great part of Europe. It is
possible that, as larger races advanced, these small
people were driven southwards to the mountains
of Switzerland, westward towards the Atlantic,
and northward to Lapland, where their descendants
may still be found. No doubt there is a large
supernatural element, especially in the stories of
the fairies; but the same may be said of the tales
of witches in the seventeenth century. The witch
was undoubtedly human, yet she was believed, and
sometimes believed herself, to possess superhuman
powers, and to be in communication with un-
* P. 3 8 , Edinburgh, 1883; edited by John Small, M.A.,
F .S.A.Scot.
46
ULSTER FOLKLORE
earthly beings. We must also remember the wide-
spread belief in local spirits or gods, and a taller
race of invaders might well fear the magic of an
earlier people long settled in the country, even if
the latter were inferior in bodily and mentaJ
characteristics.
Traditions of Dwarf Races in Ireland and
in Switzerland *
I N the traditions alike of S,vitzerland and of
Ireland \ve hear of a dwarfish people, dwellers
in mountain caves or in artificial souterrains, who
are gifted with magical powers. The quaint figure
of the Swiss d\yarf with his peaked cap has been
made familiar to us by the carvings of the peas-
antry, and in Antrim and Donegal the Irish fairy
is said to \vear a peaked cap of plaited rushes.
With rushes he also makes a covering for his
feet.t
Closely allied to the fairy is the Grogach, váth
his large head and soft body, ,vho appears to have
no bones as he comes tumbling do,vn the hills.
These Grogachs I heard of in North-East Antrim,
* Reprinted from the Antiquar}', October, 1909.
t l\Iay it not be that Cinderella's glass shoe was really green
and derived its name from the Irish word glas, denoting that
colour, which is familiar to us in place -names? I make this
conjecture with diffidence. I know the usual explanation is
that the shoe was made of a kind of fur called in Old French
vair, and that a transcriber changed this word into verre.
Miss Cox, in her II Cinderella," mentions that she had only
found six instances of a glass shoe. As Littré says in the
article on vair in his Dictionary, a soulier de 'l.'erre is absurd.
A fur slipper, however, does not appear very suitable for a ball.
47
48
ULSTER :FOLKLORE
and in them, as in the fairies, the supernatural
characteristics preponderate. I was told that both
were full of magic, and had come from Egypt.
We have, however, two other small races \vho
are usually regarded by the peasantry as strictly
human, the Pechts and the Danes.* Two tra-
ditions regarding Danes exist: sometimes we hear
of tall Danes, doubtless the medieval sea-rovers;
sometimes of small Danes, the builders of many of
the raths and souterrains.
While the Danes are the great builders through-
out Ireland, some of the raths and souterrains,
especially those in N orth- East Antrim, are said
to have been made by the Pechts. Last summer I
visited one of these, the cave of Finn McCoul. It
is a souterrain situated in Glenshesk, about three
miles from Ballycastle. The ground above it is
perfectly flat, no fort or any inequality to mark the
spot; iindeed, the farmer who kindly opened it for
me had at first a difficulty in knowing in what part
of the field to dig, as the entrance had been covered.
On my second visit, however, I found he had dis-
covered the spot. Entering a narrow passage, I
crept through an opening from one and a half to
two feet high, and found myself in a narrow
chamber eight or nine feet long and little over
four feet in height. The roof was formed of large
flat slabs, which I was told were whinstone (basalt).
At the opposite end of this chamber there \vas
another narrow opening, leading, I presume, to
* See Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts, p: 27 et seq.
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TRADITIONS O:F DWARF RACES 49
a passage. I did not, however, venture fa
ther;
bu t I understand this artificial cave extends for
about twenty perches underground, and has several
chambers.
I was told that this cave was the hiding-place
of Finn McCou!. His garden was pointed out to me
on rising ground at some little distance, and I was
also informed that about fifty years ago his castle
stood on the hill j but nothing now remains of it,
the stones having been used when roads were made.
The following story was related to me on the
spot: A Scotch giant came over to fight Finn
McCoul, but was conquered and slain. To cele-
brate this victory Finn invited the Grey Man of
the Path to a feast; but as hares and rabbits would
have been too small to furnish a repast for this
giant, FinD took his dog and went out to hunt red
deer. They were unsuccessful, and in anger he
slew his dog Brown,. which afterwards caused him
much sorrow.
In the Grey Man of the Path we have, doubtless,
a purely mythical character, an impersonation of
the mists which gather round Benmore,t while
* This is, no doubt, a corruption of Bran.
t The Grey Man's Path is a fissure on the face of Benmore
or Fair Head, by which a good climber can ascend the cliff. It
has been suggested that this Grey Man is one of the old gods,
possibly Manannan, the Irish sea-god. In the Ulster Journal
of Archæology for 1858, vol. vi., p. 358, there is an account
given of the Grey Man appearing near the mouth of the Bush
River to two youths, who believed they would have seen his
cloven foot had he not been standing in the water. They had
at first mistaken the apparition for an ordinary man.
4
50
ULs
rER FOLKLORE
Finn J\lcCoul, or MacCumaill, is one of Ireland's
greatest traditional heroes. According to a well-
known legend, he was a giant, and united Scotland
and Ireland by a stupendous mole, of \vhich the
cave at Staffa and the Giant's Causeway are the
two remaining fragments. In Glenshesk he is
only a tall man, between seven and eight feet in
height. Sometimes he is said to have been chief
of the Pechts; sometimes he is spoken of as their
master, and it is said they \vorked as slaves to
him and the Fians.
According to tradition, the Pechts \vere very
numerous, and must have carried the heavy slabs
for the roof of Finn l\1cCoul's cave a distance of
several miles. Although usually looked on as
strictly human, supernatural characteristics are
sometimes attributed to them. Like the Swiss
(( Servan," both they and the Grogachs have been
. known to thresh corn or do other work for the
farmers.
I was told at Ballycastle of one man who always
laid out at night the bundles of corn he expected
the Grogach to thresh, and each morning the
appointed task was accomplished. One night he
forgot to lay the corn on the floor of the barn, and
threw his flail on the top of the stack. The poor
Grogach imagined that he was to thresh the
whole, and set to work manfully; but the task was
beyond his strength, and in the morning he was
found dead. The farmer and his wife buried him,
and mourned deeply the loss of their small friend.
TR...
DITIONS OF DWARF RACES 51
Clough-na-murry Fort is said to be a (( gentle II.
place, yet an old man living near it told me he did
not believe in the Grogachs; he thought it was the
Danes \vho had worked for the farmers. He said
these Danes were a persevering people, and that
\vhen they \vere in distress they would thresh corn
for the farmers, if food were left out for them.
Others say that the Danes were too proud to work.
One does not hear much of Brownies in Ulster;
but I have been told they were hairy people who
did not require clothes, but would thresh or cut
down a field of corn for a farmer. On one occasion,
out of gratitude for the work done, some porridge
\yas left for them on plates round the fire. They
ate it, but ,vent away crying sadly:
" I got my mate an' my wages,
An' they want nae mair 0' me."
Although, according to some, the Grogachs
gladly accept food, others say that they and the
Pechts are offended if it is offered to them, and
leave to return no more.
I have not often heard of clothes being offered
to the Pechts or Grogachs, but the Rev. John G.
Campbell relates a story of a Brownie in Shetland
who ground grain in a hand-quern at night. He
was rewarded for his labours by a cloak and hood
left for him at the mill. These disappeared in the
morning, and with them the Brownie, who never
came back.t
* A place inhabited by fairies, or cr gentlefolk."
t rr Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scot-
land," p. 188.
5
ULSTER FOLKLORE
A similar tale is told of a Swiss dwarf. At Ems,
in Canton Valais, a miller engaged the services
of a U Gottwerg," and the little man worked early
and late, sometimes rising in the night to see that
all was in order. The mill produced twice as
much as formerly, and at the end of the year the
dwarf was rewarded by a garment made of the
best wool. He put it on, jumped for joy, and
crying out, " Now I am a handsome man, I have
no more need to grind rye," he disappeared, and
was not seen again..
In these tales from Ireland, Scotland, and
Switzerland, may there not be a reminiscence of a
conquered race of small stature, but considerable
strength, who worked either as slaves or for some
small gift? No doubt they were badly fed, and
their clothing would be of the scantiest.
Like the Danes and the Pechts, the fairies live
underground. There is a widespread story of a
fairy woman who begs a cottager not to throw
water out at the doorstep, as it falls down her
chimney. The request is invariably granted.
Some of these cc wee folk JJ dwell in palaces
under the sea. I heard a story at Ballyliffan, in
Co. Donegal, of men being out in a boat which was
nearly capsized by a heavy sea raised by a fairy.
At last one sailor cried out to throw a nail against
the advancing wave; this was done, and the nai]
hit the fairy. That night a woman, skilled in
* Dr. J. Jegerlehner, Ie Was die Sennen erzãhlen, Mãrchen
und Sagen aus dem Wallis," pp. 102, 103.
'rRADITIONS OF DWARF RACES 53
healing, received a message calling upon her to
go to the courts below the sea. She consented,
extracted the nail, and cured the fairy woman,
but was careful not to eat any food offered to her.
This fairy is said to have promised a man a pot of
gold if he would marry her, but he refused.
An old man at Culdaff told me another tale of
the sea. A fishing-boat was nearly overwhelmed,
when a fairy-boat was seen riding on the top of a
great wave.. and a voice from it cried: " Do not
harm that boat; an old friend of mine is in it." The
voice belonged to a man who was supposed to be
dead; but he had been carried off by the fairies,
and would not allow them to injure his old friend.
If the Irish fairy has power over the waves, the
Swiss dwarf can divert the course of the devas-
tating landslip. I was told by an elderly man in
the Bernese Oberland of the destruction of Burg-
lauenen, a village near Grindelwald. All the
cottages were overwhelmed by a landslip except
one poor hut, which had given shelter to a dwarf,
who was seen, seated on a stone, directing the
moving mass a\vay from the abode of his friends.
A similar story is told of the destruction of N ie-
derdorf, in the Simmenthal.* One Sunday evening
a feeble little man clad in rags came to the village;
he knocked at several houses, praying the inmates
to give him, for the love of God, a night's shelter.
* See" Der Untergang des Niederdorfs II in "Sagen und
Sagengeschichten aus dem Simmenthal,1I vol. ii., pp. 29-44, by
D. Gempeler.
54
ULSTER FOLKLORE
Everywhere he was refused-one hard-hearted
woman telling him to go and break stones-until
he came to a poor basket-maker and his wife,
who gave him the best they had, and when he left
he promised that God would reward them. A
week later the village was destroyed by a terrible
Iandslip, but here also the dwarf saved the dwelling
of those who had befriended him.
In this story and in many others the Swiss dwarf
appears as a good Christian, but sometimes a rude
and terrible form of paganism is attributed to
him. In the tale of the "Gotwergini im Löt-
schental ,,* these dwarfs are accused of devouring
children, and are said to have buried an old
woman alive. She was apparently one of them-
selves. When they were laying her in the pit she
wept bitterly, and begged that she might go free,
saying she could still cook. But the dwarfs showed
no pity: placing some bread and wine beside her,
they covered in the grave. Is this an instance
of the primitive barbarism of killing those no
longer able to work, which is said still to exist
among the Todas of India, and of which traces
have been found in the customs of Scandinavia
and other countries ?t
The Irish fairy never appears as a Christian.t
He is regarded by the peasant as a fallen angel,
* See U Am Herdfeuer der Sennen, Neue Mãrchen und Sagen
aus dem Wallis," pp. 26-31, by Dr. J. Jegerlehner.
t See II Folklore as an Historical Science," by Sir G. Laurence
Gomme, pp. 67-7 8 .
I have heard of only one exception.
'.I:'RADITIO.NS O:F D'V ARJ.1" RACES 55
and no Church holds out to him the hope of sal-
vation. I was told in lnishowen that a priest
walking between Clonmany and Ballyliffan was
surrounded by the" wee folk," \vho asked anxiously
if they could be saved. He threw his book towards
them, bade them catch it, and he would give them
an answer; but at the sight of the breviary they
scattered and fled..
The Protestant Bible and hymn-book are equally
dreaded by them, and are used as a spell against
their influence. I was told in the North of Antrim
of a woman who was nearly carried off by the
fairies because her friends had omitted to leave
these books beside her. Luckily her husband,
who was sleeping by the fire, awoke in time to
save her. A pair of scissors, a darning-needle, or
any piece of iron, would have been efficacious as
a charm, so would the husband's trousers, if
thrown across the bed.
While, as we have seen, the fairies are endowed
with many supernatural qualities, they have much
in common with ordinary mortals; there are fairy
* Patrick Kennedy, in U A Belated Priest," tells how the
II good people" surrounded a priest on a dark night, and asked
him to declare that at the Last Day their lot would not be
with Satan. He replied by the question, II Do you adore and
love the Son of God?" There came no answer but weak and
shrill cries, and with a rushing of wings the fairies disappeared
(see U Fictions of the Irish Celts," p. 89).
In U The Priest's Supper," the good people are anxious to
lmow if their souls will be saved at the Last Day, but when
an interview with a priest is suggested to them they flyaway
(see U Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,"
by T. Crofton Croker, pp. 36"42).
56
ULSTER FOLKLORE
men, fairy women, and fairy children. I have
more than once heard of a fairy's funeral; they
intermarry with mortals, and I have been told
that those who bear the name of Ferris are de-
scended from fairies. I presume Ferris is a cor-
ruption of Fir Sidhe. Fairies are never associated
with churchyards, nor are they usually looked on
as the spirits of the departed. The banshee may,
indeed, partake to some extent of a ghostly char-
acter. Lady Wilde speaks of her as the (( spirit
of death-the most weird and awful of all the
fairy powers," and adds, " but only certain families
of historic lineage or persons gifted with music and
song are attended by this spirit.".
It has often been stated that the banshee is an
appanage of the great, but this is not the belief
of the peasantry of Ulster: many families in humble
life have a banshee attached to them. When in
a curragh on Lough Sessiagh, in Co. Donegal, the
neighbouring hill of Ben alIa was pointed out to
me, and I was also shown a small cottage in which
a girl named alIa had lived. She was carried off
by the fairies, and her wailing was heard before
the death of her mother, and again before the
death of several members of her family. A farmer,
or even a labourer, may have a banshee attached
to his family-a little white creature was the de-
scription given to me by a woman who said she had
seen one; others say that banshees are like birds.
* It Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of
Ireland," vol. i., p. 250.
TRADrrIONS OF D'V ARF R...-\.CES 57
To leave these weird apparitions, it váll be seen
that the ordinary fairy, the Grogach, the Pecht,
and the Dane, all inhabit underground dwellings,
although the fairy and Grogach are regarded more
in the light of supernatural beings. To cut down
a fairy or a " Skiough JJ bush is to court misfor-
tune, sometimes to attempt an impossible task.
In Glenshesk some men tried to cut down
a Skiough bush, but the hatchet broke; after
several failures they gave up, and the bush still
flourishes. Another bush was transplanted, but
returned during the night.
To the Danes and Pechts the building of all the
raths and souterrains is ascribed, and in N orth-
East Antrim the Pechts are said to have been so
numerous that, when making a fort, they could
stand in a long line, and hand the earth from one
to another, no one moving a step. A similar story
is told of the Scotch Pechts by the Rev. Andrew
Small in his U Antiquities of Fife JJ ( 182 3).-
Speaking of the Round Tower of Abernethy, U The
story goes, JJ he says, U that it was built by the
Pechts . . . and that while the work was going on
they stood in a row all the way from the Lomond
Hill to the building, handing the stones from one
to another. . .. That it has been built of freestone
from the Lomond Hill is clear to a demonstration,
as the grist or nature of the stone points out the
very spot where it has been taken from-namely,
* It is quoted by l\lr. David MacRitchie in U Testimony of
Tradition," p. 67.
58
ULSTER FOLKLORE
a little west, and up from the ancient wood of
DrumdrieIl, about a mile straight south from
Meralsford." According to popular tradition in
Scotland, these Pechts or Picts were great builders,
and many of the edifices ascribed to them belong
to a comparatively late period. Mr. MacRitchie
suggests that in the erection of some of these the
Picts may have been employed as serfs or slaves.-
He believes the Pechts to be the Picts of history.
Mr. W. C. Mackenzie, on the other hand, has sug-
gested that they are an earlier dwarf race, the Pets
or Peti, who have been confused by the peasantry
with the Picts.t This is a matter I must leave to
others to decide; but I may remark in passing that
in an ancient poem on the Cruithnians, preserved
in the book of Lecan, we have a suggestion that
these Cruithnians or Picts were a smaller race than
their enemies, the Tuath Fidga. We are told
how
U God vouchsafed unto them, in munificence,
For their faithfulness-for their reward-
To protect them from the poisoned arms
Of the repulsive horrid giants."
Then follows an account of the cure discovered
by the Cruithnian Druid-how he milked thrice
fifty cows into one pit, and bathing in this pit
* U Testimony of Tradition," p. 68.
t See II The Picts and Pets "in the Antiquary for May, 1906,
p. 17 2 .
U The Irish Version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius,"
edited, with a translation and notes, by James H. Todd, D.D.,
F.T.C. (Dublin, 1848). The verse quoted is given at p. lxix,
additional notes.
FJ'RADrrIONS OF D\\T ARF RACES 59
appears to have healed the warriors and pre-
served them from harm.
In an article on U The Fairy Mythology of
Europe in its Relation to Early History,".
Mr. A. S. Herbert identifies the early dwarf
race with Palæolithic man, and states that from
such skeletons as have been unearthed (( it is
believed that they were a people of Mongolian
or Turanian origin, short, squat, yello\v-skinned,
and swarthy."
Professor J. Kollmann, of Basle, speaking
of dwarf races, describes U the flat, broad face,
with a flat, broad, lo\v nose and large nose
roots."t
Compare these statements with the description
given by Harris in the eighteenth century of the
native inhabitants of the northern and eastern
coasts of Ireland. U They are," he says, U of a
squat sett Stature, have short, broad Faces, thick
Lips, hollow Eyes, and Noses cocked up, and seem
to be a distinct people from the Western Irish, by
whom they are called Clan-galls--i.e., the offspring
of the Galls. The curious may carry these obser-
vations further. Doubtless a long intercourse and
various mixtures of the natives have much worn
* See the Nineteenth Century, February, 1908.
t See If Ein dolichokephaler Schãdel aus dem Dachsenbüel
und die Bedeutung der kleinen Menschenrassen für das
Abstammungsproblem der Crossen." His words are: If In
dem platten, breiten Gesicht sitzt dann eine platte, breite,
niedrige Nase, mit breiter Nasenwñrze1." He is speaking of
the characteristics of the present dwarf races found throughout
the world, and quotes the authority of Hagen.
60
ULSTER FOLKLORE
ou t these distinctions, of which I think there are
yet visible remains.".
We have, indeed, had in Ireland from very early
times a mingling of various races, but in the North
we are in the home of the Irish Picts or Cruith-
nians, and possibly this description of Harris may
indicate that some of the inhabitants in his day
bore marks of a dwarfish ancestry. I have
already drawn attention to a statement in an old
Irish manuscript t that the Luchorpan or wee..
bodies, the F omores and others, were of the race
of Ham. Keating also speaks of the Fomorians
being sea-rovers of the race of Cam (Ham), who
fared from Africa,
and states that among the
articles of tribute exacted by them from the race
of N eimhidh were two-thirds of the children.
Unless these" were all slaughtered, we have here
an intermingling of races, and in the same way
it would be quite, possible that Finn McCoul
might be a tall man, and yet the leader of the
small Pechts. The capture of women and children
has been a common practice among savage races,
and this I believe to be the origin of many fairy-
tales, rather than any reference to the abode of
* Sir James Ware's" Antiquities of Ireland," translated,
revised, and improved, with many material additions, by
Walter Harris, Esq., vol. ii., chap. ii., p. 17 (Dublin, 1764).
The above is taken from one of the additional notes by Harris.
t Quoted by Mr. Standish H. O'Grady in " Silva Gadelica "
(translation and notes), pp. 563, 564. See Ante p. 32.
t Keating's" History of Ireland," book i., chap. viii. Trans-
lation by P. W. Joyce, LL.D., M.R.LA.
TRADITIO
S OF DWARF RACES 61
the dead. Throughout the U Colloquy of the
Ancients," Finn and the Fianna frequently enter
the green sidh-the mound where the Tuatha de
Danann dwell, and from which the fairies derive
their name" fir-sidh." Sometimes they fight as
allies of the inmates; frequently they intermarry
with them.. Throughout this colloquy the d\vellers
in the sidh possess many magical powers, but they
hardly appear as gods of the ancient Irish, and the
verse in Fiacc's hymn referring to the worship
of the Sidis is not among the stanzas regarded as
genuine by Professor Bury.t
We see that both in Ireland and Switzerland
there are many legends of dwarf races \vho inhabit
underground dwellings. In Switzerland their
skeletons have been found. Those discovered by
Dr. N uesch at Schweizersbild, near Schaffhausen,
have been minutely described by Dr. J. Kollmann,
Professor of Anatomy at Basle.
This burial-
place dates from the early Neolithic period; in it
are found skeletons belonging to men of ordinary
height, and in close proximity the graves of dwarfs.
The neighbourhood of Schaffhausen appears to
be rich in the remains of early man; several
skeletons have been found in the cave of Dach-
senbüel, two of them of small men, t, such as in
* See Cael's U Wooing of Credhe " in U The Colloquy of the
Ancients"; "Silva Gadelica," by Standish H. O'Grady, volume
with translation and notes, pp. 119-122.
t See U Life of St. Patrick," p. 264.
See Der Mensch, U Separat-Abzug aus den Denkschriften
der Schweiz Naturforschenden Gesellschaft," Band xxxv, 1896.
6
ULSTER FOLKLORE
Africa would be accounted pygmies.' '. Professor
Kollmann mentions several other places in Switzer-
land where skeletons of d\varfs have been found,
as also in the Grotte des Enfants on the Bay of
Genoa. He also speaks of dwarf races existing
at the present day in Sicily, Sardinia, Sumatra,
the Philippine Islands, besides the well-known
Veddas of Ceylon, the Andaman Islanders, and
the African pygmies. He believes that these
small people represent the oldest form of human
beings, and that from them the taller races have
been evolved.
How long did these primitive people continue
to exist in Ireland and in Switzerland? It would
be difficult to say. Tradition ascribes to them a
strong physique, but even if they could hold their
own with the taller races in the Neolithic period,
it must have been hard for them to contend with
those who used weapons of bronze or iron, and, as
we have seen, iron is specially obnoxious to the
fairies. The people, however, who built the large
number of souterrains dotted over Antrim and
Down could not be easily exterminated. Many
of them may have been enslaved or gradually
absorbed in the rest of the population; others
would take refuge in retired spots, such as are still
spoken of as (( gentle JJ or haunted by fairies. If
I might hazard a conjecture, I should say that both
* See the paper already referred to, U Ein dolichokephaler
Schãdel," etc. Professor J. Kollmann's words are: U Die man
in Africa wohl zu den Pygmãen zählen wurde."
TRADIT10NS OF D"r ARF RACES 63
in Ireland and in Switzerland dwarf races had sur-
vived far into Christian times, perhaps to a com-
paratively recent period. The Irish fairy may pos-
sibly represent those who refused to accept the
teaching of St. Patrick and St. Columbkill, while
St. Gall and other Irish monks may have num-
bered Swiss dwarfs among their converts. Be
this as it may, we have certainly in Ulster the
tradition of two dwarf races, the small Danes and
the Pechts, who are undoubtedly human. We are
sho\vn their handiwork, and, primitive as are their
underground dwellings, the builders of the souter-
rains had advanced far beyond the stage when
man could only find shelter in the caves provided
for him by Nature. Ho"v many centuries did he
take to learn the lesson? It is a far-reaching
question, but here fairy-tales and popular legends
are silent. They keep no count of time, although
they may bring to us whispers from long-past ages.
. j
Folklore from Donegal *
T HE stories current among the peasantry are
varied, especially in Donegal, where we hear
of giants and fairies, of small and tall Finns, of
short, stout Firbolgs or Firwolgs, of Danes who made
heather ale, and sometimes of Pechts with their
large feet.
According to one legend, the fairies were angels
who had remained neutral during the great war in
heaven. They are sometimes represented as kindly,
but often as mischievous. Near Dungiven, in Co.
Derry, I was told of a friendly fairy who, dressed
as an old woman, came one evening to a cottage
where a poor man and his wife lived. She said
to the wife that if the stone at the foot of the
table were lifted she would find something that
would last her all her days. As soon as the visitor
was gone, the wife called to her husband to bring
a crowbar; they raised the stone, and under it
was a crock of gold.
The old man who related this story to me had
himself found in a bog a crock covered with a
slate. He hoped it might be full of gold, but it
* Read before the Archæological Section of the Belfast
Naturalists' Field Club, February 8, 191I.
64
J.1'OLKLORE :FROM DONEGAL 65
only contained bog butter, which he used for
greasing cart-\vheels.
A carman at Rosapenna told me how the fairies
would lead people astray, carrying one man off to
Scotland. A girl had her face twisted through
their influence, and had to go to the priest to be
cured. II He was," the man added, II one of the
old sort, who could work miracles, of whom there
are not many nowadays." Near Finntown a girl
had offended the fairies by washing clothes in a
II gentle" burn, or stream haunted by the little
people. Her eyes were turned to the back of her
head. She, too, invoked the aid of a priest, and
his blessing restored them to their proper place.
Donegal fairies appear able to adapt themselves
to modern conditions. I was told at Finntown they
did not interfere \vith the railway, as they some-
times enjoyed a ride on the top of the train.
Although usually only seen in secluded spots, they
occasionally visit a fair or market, but are much
annoyed if recognized.
In the following story we have an illustration
of intercourse between fairies and human beings:
An old woman at Glenties was called upon by a
strange man to give her aid at the birth of a child.
At first she refused, but he urged her, saying it
was not far, and in the end she consented. When
he brought her to his dwelling she saw a daughter
whom she had supposed to be dead, but who was
now the wife of the fairy man. The daughter
begged her not to let it be known she was her
5
66
ULSTER FOLKLORE
mother, and, giving her a ring, bade her look on
it at times and she would know when they could
meet. She also added that her husband would cer-
tainly offer a reward, but she implored her mother
not to accept it, but to ask that the red-haired
boy might be given to her. "He \vill not be
willing to part from him," the daughter added;
" but if you beg earnestly, he \vill give him to you
in the end." The mother attended her daughter,
and when his child was born the fairy man offered
her a rich reward, but she refused, praying only
that the red-haired boy might be given to her.
At first the father refused, but when she pleaded
her loneliness, he granted her request. The
daughter \vas well pleased, told her mother they
might meet at the fair on the hill behind Glenties,
but warned her that even if she sa\v the fairy man
she must never speak to him. The old ",Toman
returned to her home, taking her grandson, the
red-haired boy, with her. She kept the ring
carefully, and it gave her \varning when she would
meet her daughter on the hill at Glenties. These
interviews were for a long time a great comfort
to mother and daughter, but one day, in the joy
of her heart, the mother shook hands with and
spoke to the fairy man. He turned to her angrily
asking how she could see him, and with that he
blew upon her eyes, so that she could no longer
discern fairies. The precious ring also disappeared,
and she never again saw her daughter.
Variants of this story were told to me by an old
FOLKLORE FROM DONEGAL 67
woman at Portstewart, and by a man whom I
met near Lough Salt during the Rosapenna Con-
ference of Field Clubs. In these versions there is
no mention of the red-haired boy, nor of the old
woman being the mother of the fairy man's wife;
she is simply called in to attend to her. When
rubbing ointment on the infant, she accidentally
draws her hand across one of her eyes and acquires
the power of seeing the fairies. Shortly after-
wards she meets the fairy man at a market or fair,
and inquires for his wife. He is annoyed at being
recognized, asks with which eye she sees him,
blovvs upon it, and puts it out.-
* In U Celtic Folklore," vol. i., p. 210 et seq., Sir John
Rhys relates a similar story. Here the woman is brought to
a place which appears to her to be the finest she has ever seen.
\Vhen the child is born the father gives her ointment to anoint
its eyes, but entreats her not to touch her o\vn with it. In-
advertently she rubs her finger across her eye, and no\v she
sees that the wife is her former maidservant Eilian. and that
she lies on a bundle of rushes and withered leaves in a cave.
Not long afterwards the woman sees the husband in the
market at Carnarvon, and asks for Eilian. He is angry. and,
inquiring with which eye she Sees him, puts it out 'with a
bulrush.
From Palestine we have another variant of this story. The
Rev. J. E. Hanauer, in " Folklore of the Holy Land," pp. 210
et seq", tells of a \voman at EI Welejeh who had spoken unkindly
to a frog. The next night, on waking, she found herself in a
cave surrounded by strange, angry-looking people; one of
these" Jân" reproached her bitterly, saying that the frog was
his wife, and threatening her with dire consequences unless
a son were born. She assisted at the birth of the child, who
was fortunately a boy, and was given a mukhaleh or kohl
vessel, and was bidden to rub some of this kohl on the infant's
eyes. \Vhen she had done this, she rubbed some on one of
her own eyes, but before she had time to put any on the other
68
ULSTER FOLKLORE
In another Donegal legend the fairies gain posses-
sion of a bride, and would have kept her in cap-
tivity had not their plans been frustrated by a
mortal. This is the story as told to me near
Gweedore, and also at Kincasslagh, a small sea-
port in the Rosses. Owen Boyle lived with his
mother near Kincasslagh, and worked as a car-
penter. One Hallow Eve, on his return home, he
found a calf was missing, and went out to look
for it. He was told it was behind a stone near
the spink or rock of Dunathaid, and when he got
there he saw the calf, but it ran away and dis-
appeared through an opening in the rock. Owen
was at first afraid to follow, but suddenly he was
pushed in, and the door closed behind him. He
found himself in a company of fairies, and heard
them saying: " This is good whisky from ü'Ðon-
nel's still. He buried a nine-gallon keg in the
bog; it burst, the hoops came off, and the whisky
has come to us." One of the fairies gave Owen
a glass, saying he might be useful to them that
night. They asked if he would be willing to go
with them, and, being anxious to get out of the
cave, he at once consented. They all mounted
on horses, and away they went through Dungloe,
across the hills to Dochary, then to Glenties, and
the vessel was angrily taken from her. She was rewarded with
onion-leaves, which in the morning turned to gold. Some
time afterwards this woman was shopping at EI Kuds, when
she saw the Jennizeh pilfering from shop to shop. She spoke
to her and kissed the baby, but the other answered fiercely,
and, poking her finger into the woman's eye, put it out.
FOLKLORE FROM DONEGAL 69
through Mount Charles to Ballyshannon, and
thence to Connaught. They came to a house
where great preparations were being made for a
wedding. The fairies told Owen to go in and
dance with any girl who asked him. He was much
pleased to see that he ,vas now wearing a good suit
of clothes, and gladly joined in the dance. After a
time there was a cry that the bride would choose
a partner, and the partner she chose was Owen
Boyle. They danced until the bride fell down in
a faint, and the fairies, who had crept in unseen,
bore her away. They mounted their horses and
took the bride with them, sometimes one carrying
her and sometimes another. They had ridden thus
for a time when one of the fairies said to Owen:
, , You have done well for us to-night." II And
little I have got for it," was the reply; II not even
a turn of carrying the bride." II That you ought
to have," said the fairy, and called out to give the
bride to OV\Ten. Owen took her, and, urging his
horse, outstripped the fairies. They pursued him,
but at Bal Cruit Strand he drew with a black
knife a circle round himself and the bride, which
the fairies could not cross. One of them, however,
stretched out a long arm and struck the bride on
the face, so that she became deaf and dumb. When
the fairies left him, Owen brought the girl to his
mother, and in reply to her questions, said he had
brought home one to whom all kindness should be
shown. They gave her the best seat by the fire; she
helped in the housework, but remained speechless.
70
ULSTER FOLI{LORE
A year passed, and on Hallow Eve Owen went
again to Dunathaid. The door of the cave was
open. He entered boldly, and found the fairies
enjoying themselves as before. One of them
recognized him, and said: "Owen Boyle, you
played us a bad trick when you carried off that
woman." II And a pretty woman you left with me !
She can neither hear nor speak t" "Oh! JJ said
another, {, if she had a taste of this bottle, she
could do both !" When Owen heard these words
he seized the bottle, ran home with it, and, pour-
ing a little into a glass, gave it to the poor girl to
drink. Hearing and speech were at once restored.
Owen returned the bottle to the fairies, and,
before long, he set out for Connaught, taking the
girl with him to restore her to her parents. When
he arrived, he asked for a night's lodging for
himself and his companion. The mother, although
she said she had little room, admitted them, and
soon Owen saw her looking at the girl. "Why are
you gazing at my companion ?" he asked. "She
is so like a daughter of mine who died a twelve-
month ago." "No," replied O\ven; " she did not
die; she was carried off by the fairies, and here
she is." There was great rejoicing, and before
long Owen was married to the girl, the former
bridegroom having gone away. He brought her
home to Kincasslagh, and not a mile from the
village, close to Bal Cruit Strand, may be seen
the ring which defended her and Owen from the
fairies. It is a very large fairy ring, but why the
FOLKLORE FRO}I DONEGAL 71
grass should grow luxuriantly on it tradition does
not say.
During the Field Club Conference at Rosapenna
a variant of this story was told me by a lad on
the heights above Gortnalughoge Bay. Here the
man \vho rode with the fairies was John Friel,
from Fanad. They \vent to Dublin and brought
away a young girl from her bed, leaving something
behind, which the parents believed to be their
dead daughter. Meanwhile the young girl was
taken northwards by the fairies. As they drew
near to Fanad, John Friel begged to be allowed to
carry her, and quickly taking her to his own
cottage, kept her there with his mother. The girl
was deaf and dumb, but there was no mention of
the magic circle or of the blow from the fairy's
hand. At the end of the year John Friel, like
Owen Boyle, pays another visit to the fairies,
overhears their conversation, snatches the bottle,
and a few drops from it restore speech .and hearing
to the girl. He takes her to Dublin. Her parents
cannot at first believe that she is truly their
daughter, but the mother recognizes her by a mark
on the shoulder, and the tale ends with great re-
joicing .-
In these stories we see the relations between
fairies and mortals. The fairy man marries a
human wife; he appears solicitous for her health,
* In II Guleesh na Guss Dhu," Dr. Douglas Hyde gives us a
similar tale from Co. Mayo. See II Beside the Fire," pp. 104-
128.
7Q
ULs'rER FOLKLORE
and is willing to pay a high reward to the nurse,
but the caution his wife gives to her mother shows
her fear of him, and when the latter forgets this
warning and speaks to the husband, he effectively
stops all intercourse between her and her daughter.
In another story we see that it was the living
girl who was carried off, and only a false image left
to deceive her parents.. It is true that, through
the magic of the fairies, she becomes deaf and dumb,
but when this is overcome, she returns home safe
and sound. The black knife used by Owen Boyle
was doubtless an iron knife, that metal being
always obnoxious to the fairies.
Stories of children being carried off by fairies
are numerous. There ,vas a man lived near
Croghan Fort, not far from Lifford, who was short,
and had a cataract--or, as the country-people call
it, a pearl-on his eye. He was returning home
after the birth of his child, when he met the fairies
carrying off the infant. They were about to change
a benwood into the likeness of a child, saying:
(( Make it wee, make it short;
Make it like its ain folk;
Put a pearl in its eye;
Make it like its Dadie."
Here the man interrupted them, throwing up
sand, and exclaiming: " If! the name of God, this
* In U Folk Tales from Breffny," by B. Hunt, there is a
story (pp. 99-103), U The Cutting of the Tree," which tells of
how the fairies, when baffled in their endeavour to carry off
the mistress of the house, left in the kitchen a wooden image
(( cut into the living likeness of the woman of the house."
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FOLKLORE
"ROM DONEGAL 73
to youse and mine to me I" They flung his own
child at him, but it broke its hinch, or thigh, and
was a cripple all its days.
I t is not often that fairies are associated \vith
the spirits of the departed, but in Tory Island and
in some other parts of Donegal it is believed that
those who are drowned become fairies. In Tory
Island I also heard that those who exceeded in
whisky met the same fate.
According to the inhabi tan ts of this island,
fairies can make themselves large or small; their
hair may be red, white, or black; but they dress
in black-a very unusual colour for fairies to appear
In. It may perhaps be explained by remembering
that Tory Island, or Toirinis, was a stronghold of
the Fomorians, whom Keating describes as " sea
rovers of the race of Cam, who fared from Africa.".
I need hardly add that " Cam " is an old name
for "Ham." I should infer that the fairies of
Tory Island represent a dark race.
King Balor, it is true, is not of diminutive
stature. I heard much of this chieftain with the
eye at the back of his head, which, if uncovered,
would kill anyone exposed to its gaze. He knew
it had been said in old times that he should die by
the hand of his daughter's son, and he determined
his daughter should remain childless. He shut her
up in Tormore, with twelve ladies to wait on her.
Balor had no smith on the island, but at Clogha-
nealy, on the mainland, there lived a smith who
* See ante, p. 60.
74
ULSTER FOLKLORE
had the finest cow in the world, named Glasgavlen.
He kept a boy to watch it, but, notwithstanding
this precaution, two of Balor's servants carried off
the cow. When the herd-boy saw it was gone, he
wept bitterly, for the smith had told him his head
would be taken off if he did not bring her back.
Suddenly a fairy, Geea Dubh, came out of the rock,
and told the boy the cow was in Tory, and if he
followed her advice he \vould get it back. She
made a curragh for him, and he crossed over to Tory,
but he did not get the cow. The tale now becomes
confused. We hear of twelve children, and how
Balor ordered them all to be drowned, but his
daughter's son \vas saved. The fairy told the herd-
boy that, if the child were taken care of, it would
grow up like a crop which, when put into the earth
one day, sprouts up the next.
The boy took service under Balor, and the child
was sent to the ladies, who brought him up for
three years. At the end of that time the herd boy
took him to the mainland, where he grew up a strong
youth, and worked for the smith. On one occa-
sion Balor sent messengers across to the mainland,
but the lad attacked them and cut out their
tongues. The maimed messengers returned to
Tory, and when Balor saw them he knew that he
who had done this deed was the dreaded grand-
son. He set out to kill him; but when the youth
saw Balor approaching the forge, he drew the poker
from the fire and thrust it into the eye at the
back of the King's head.
"'
FOLKLORE }'ROlVI DONEGAL 75
The wounded Balor called to his grandson to
come to him, and he would leave him everything.
The youth was wise; he did not go too near Balor,
but followed him from Falcarragh to Gweedore. "Are
you near me ?" was the question put by the King as
he walked along, water streaming from his wounded
eye; and this water formed the biggest lough in the
\vorld, three times as deep as Lough Foyle.
I have given this story as it was told to me by
an elderly man in a cottage on Tory Island.
A version of it is related by the late Most Rev.
Dr. MacDevittin the" Donegal Highlands." ltis r
-
ferred to by l\1r. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., in cc Highways
and Byways in Donegal and Antrim," and a very
full narrative is given by Dr. 0 'Donovan in a note
in his edition of the" Annals of the Four Masters.".
Dr. O'Donovan states that he had the story from
Shane O'Dugan, whose ancestor is said to have
been living in Tory in the time of St. Columbkille.
Here we read of the stratagem by which Balor,
assuming the shape of a red-haired Ii ttle boy,
carried off the famous cow Glasgavlen from the
chieftain Macl{ineely, and it is not the herdboy,
but the chieftain himself, who is wafted across to
Tory Island and introduced to Balor's daughter.
Three sons are born; Balor orders them all to be
drowned, but the eldest is saved by the friendly
banshee and taken to his father, who places him
in fosterage under his brother, the great smith
Gavida. After a time MacKineely falls a victim to
* Pp. 18-21.
76
ULSTER FOLKLORE
the vengeance of Balor, and is beheaded on the
stone Clough-an-neely, where the marks of his
blood may still be seen.
Balor now deems himself secure. He often visits
the forge of Gavida, and one day, when there, boasts
of his conquest of MacKineely. No sooner has he
uttered the proud words than the young smith
seizes a glowing rod from the furnace and thrusts
it through Balor's basilisk eye so far that it comes
out at the other side of his head.
I t will be noted that in this version Balor's
death is instantaneous; nothing is said about the
deep lough formed by the water from his eye.
According to O'Flaherty's" Ogygia," Balor was
killed at the second battle of Moyture " by a stone
thrown at him by his grandson by his daughter
from a machine called Tabhall (which some assert
to be a sling).".
If Balor is the grim hero of Tory Island, on the
mainland we hear much of Finn McCoul. I was
informed that he had an eye at the back of his
head, and was so tall his feet came out at the door
of his house. How large the house was, tradition
does not say. The island of Carrickfinn opposite
to Bunbeg is said to have been a favourite hunting-
ground of Finn McCoul. When crossing over to
this island, I was told by the boatman that the
Danes were stout, small, and red-haired, and that
they lived in the caves. The Finns, he said, were
even smaller, dark yellow people.
* u Ogygia," part iii., chap. xii.
j:4"OLKLORE FROl\! DONEGAL 77
Near Loughros Bay I saw the Cashel na Fian,
but whether it was built by tall or small Finns I
do not know. Part of the wall was standing, built
in the usual fashion with stones without mortar.
This cashel was on a height, and near it I was
shown some old fields, the ridges farther apart than
those of the present day, and I was told they might
be the fields of those who built the cashel, or per-
haps of the Firbolgs. The old man vvho acted as
my guide softened the b in the Irish manner, and
spoke of those people as the Firwolgs; he said they
were short and stout, and cultivated the lands
near the sea.
To the Danes are ascribed the kitchen-middens
on Rosguill, and the lad I met above Gortnalughoge
Bay, told me they lived and had their houses on
the water, I should infer after the fashion of the
lake-dwellers. He could not tell me the height of
these Danes, but those who built the forts and
cashels have often been described to me as short
and red-haired. As I have stated on former occa-
sions, I should be inclined to identify these short
Danes with the Tuatha de Danann. I visited one
of their cashels above Dungiven, under which there
is a souterrain, and I also went to one on a hill
above Downey's pier at Rosapenna. I believe it is
the Downey's Fort marked on the Ordnance Survey
map. It appeared to be regarded as an uncanny
spot; treasure is said to be hidden under it, and I
had a difficulty in getting anyone to take me to
it. A little girl, however, acted as guide, and a
i8
ULSTER FOLKLORE
young farmer, who had at first refused, joined me
on the top. I took some very rough measurements
of this cashel. From the outer circumference it
was about 60 by 60 feet; the walls had fallen
inwards, so it was impossible to say how thick they
had been originally, but the space free from stones
in the centre measured about 25 by 25 feet.
The young farmer told me of some rocks at a
place he called Dooey, on which crosses were in-
scribed. I believe that near Mevagh, in addition
to the spiral markings, which were visited by many
members of the Conference, there is another rock
on \vhich crosses are also inscribed.
Firbolgs, Danes, Finns, and Pechts, of whom I
have spoken on former occasions, are all strictly
human; and if the fairy has been more spiritualized,
I think, in many of the traditions, we may see
ho\v closely he is allied to ancient and modern
pygmIes.
Fairies intermarry freely \vith the human race;
they are not exempt from death, and sometimes
come to a violent end. At Kincasslagh a graphic
story vvas told me by an old woman of ho\v two
banshees attacked a man \vhen he vças crossing the
" banks" at Mullaghderg. His faithful dog had
been chained at home, but, knowing the danger,
escaped, saved his master, and killed one of the
banshees. Her body was found next morning in
the sand: she had wonderful eyes, small legs, and
very large feet. I may mention that large feet are
characteristic of the Pechts.
:FOLKLORE }1-'ROM DONEGAL 79
It is true that those who are drowned may become
fairies, but if a fisherman be missing, vvho shall say
whether he lies at the bottom of the ocean or has
been carried captive to a lonely cave. In later times,
\vhen the fairies were associated with fallen angels,
one \vho had not received the last rites of the Church
might naturally be supposed to become a fairy.
In the tales of the giants \ve are brought face to
face \yith beings of great strength, but in a low
stage of civilization. Balor, \ve have seen, had no
smith on Tory Island, and in a story of the fight
bet\veen the giant Fargowan and a \vild boar, his
sister Finglas goes to his assistance \vith her apron
filled vvi th stones. Misled by the echo, she jumps
back\vards and for\vards across Lough Finn until at
last her long hair becomes entangled and she is
dro\yned. It is believed that her coffin \vas found
when the raihvay was being made; the boards were
14 feet long. Sometimes the works of Nature are
ascribed to the giants; we have all heard of Finn
:McCoul as the artificer of the Giant's Causeway,
and near Glenties I was shown perched blocks,
which had been thrown by the giants. On the
other hand, these giants, \vith all their magic, are
often very human; perhaps we are listening to the
tales of a small race, \vho exaggerated the feats of
their large but savage neighbours. Writing in
1860, J. F. Campbell, in his introduction to the
H Tales of the West Highlands," says: " Probably,
as it seems to me, giants are simply the nearest
savage race at ,var \vith the race \vho tell the tales.
80
ULSTER FOLKLORE
If they performed impossible feats of strength,
they did no more than Rob Roy, whose putting-
stone is now shown to Saxon tourists . . . in the
shape of a boulder of many tons.". Turning to
fairies, the same writer says: " I believe there was
once a small race of people in these islands, \vho are
remembered as fairies. . . . They are always repre-
sented as living in green mounds. They pop up
their heads when disturbed by people treading on
their houses. They steal children. They seem to
live on familiar terms with the people about them
when they treat them well, to punish them when
they ill-treat them. . . . There are such people now.
A Lapp is such a man; he is a little flesh-eating
mortal, having control over the beasts, and living
in a green mound, when he is not living in a tent or
sleeping out of doors, wrapped in his deerskin shirt."t
Since these \vords were written, our knowledge
of dwarf races has been greatly increased; their
'skeletons have been found in Switzerland and other
parts of Europe. We are all familiar vvith the
pygmies of Central Africa, and the members of this
Club will remember the interesting photographs of
them shown by Sir Harry Johnston. Besides the
Andamnan Islanders, we have dwarf races in
various parts of Asia, and doubtless we have all
read with interest the account of the New Guinea
dwarfs, sent by the members of the British Expedi-
tion, who are investigating that Island under many
difficul ties.
* Pp. xcix, c.
t Pp. c, ci.
FOLKLORE FROM DONEGAL 81
Dr. Eric Marshall describes these pygmies as
" averaging four feet six inches to four feet eight
inches in height, \vild, shy, treacherous little devils;
these little men wander over the heavy jungle-clad
hills, subsisting on roots and jungle produce, hunting
the wallaby, pig, and cassowary, and fishing in the
mountain torrents. . .. The only metal tool they
possessed was a small, wedge-shaped piece of iron, one
inch by two inches, inserted into a wooden handle,
and answering the purpose of an axe, and with this
the whole twenty-acre clearing had been made. None
but those who have worked and toiled in this dense
jungle can really appreciate the perseverance and
patience necessary to accomplish this, for many of
the trees are from twelve to fifteen feet in circum-
ference.".
Throughout Donegal we find many traces of the
primitive belief that men or women can change
themselves into animals. At Rosapenna I was
told of a hare standing on its hind-legs like an old
woman and sucking a cow, the inference being
plainly that the witch had transformed herself
into a hare. I heard similar stories at Glenties.
Here I was told of a man who killed a young seal,
but was startled when the mother, weeping, cried
out in Irish: " My child, my child I" Never again
did he kill a seal.
A story illustrating the same belief is told by
* See Morning Post, December 28, Ig10. In his work,
cc Pygmies and Papuans," which gives the results of this expe-
dition, Mr. A. F. R. W ollaston also describes these pygmies
(see especially pp. 159- 161 ).
6
8
ULs'rER FOLKLORE
John Sweeney, an inspector of National Schools,
who wrote about forty years ago a serIes of letters
describing Donegal and its inhabitants.- In his
account of Arranmore he says: "Until lately
the islanders could not be induced to attack a
seal, they being strongly under the impression
that these animals were human beings meta-
morphosed by the power of their own witchcraft.
In confirmation of this notion, they used to
repeat the story of one Rodgers of their island,
who, being alone in his skiff fishing, was over-
taken by a storm, and driven on the shore of
the Scotch Highlands. Having landed, he ap-
proached a house which was close to the beach,
and on entering it was accosted by name. Ex-
pressing his surprise at finding himself known in a
strange country, and by one whom he had never
seen, the old man who addressed him bared his
head, and, pointing to a scar on his skull, reminded
Rodgers of an encounter he had with a seal in one
of the caves of Arranmore. 'I was,' he said, , that
seal, and this is the mark of the wound you inflicted
on me. I do not blame you, however, for you were
not aware of what you were doing.' "
I fear I have lingered too long over these
old-world stories. To me they point to a far-
* I was shown a MS. copy of some of these letters by a
relative of the writer at Burtonport. I believe they were
written for a newspaper, and were aftErwards republished in
,. The Derry People," under the title "The Rosses Thirty Years
Ago." They contain much interesting information in regard
to the traditions current among the peasantry.
FOLI(LORE FROM DONEGAL 83
distant past, \vhen Ulster was covered with forests,
in which the red deer and perhaps the Irish elk
roamed, and inhabited by rude tribes, some of them
of d\varfish stature, others tall; but these giants
\vere apparently even less civilized than their
smaller neighbours. Wars were frequent; the
giant could hurl the unwieldy mass of stone, and
the dwarfish man could send his arrow tipped with
flint. Even more common was the stealthy raid,
when women and children \vere carried off to the
gloomy souterrain. How long did these rude
tribes survive? I t would be difficult to say; possibly
until after the days of St. Patrick and St. Colum-
kill.
I will not, however, indulge in a fancy sketch.
The pressing need is not to interpret but to collect
these old tales. The antiquary of the future, with
fuller knowledge at his command, may be better
able to decipher them; but if they are allowed to
perish, one link with the past will be irretrievably
lost.
Giants and Dwarfs *
T HE population of Ulster is derived from many
sources, and in its folklore we shall find traces
of various tribes and people. I shall begin with a tale
which may have been brought by English settlers.
In (( Folklore as an Historical Science JJ Sir G.
Laurence Gomme has given several variants of the
story of the Pedlar of Swaffham and London
Bridge. Most of these come from England, Scot-
land, and Wales, but among them there are also a
Breton and a Norse version. I have found a local
variant in Donegal. An elderly woman told me
that at Kinnagoe a II toon J' or small hamlet about
three miles from Buncrana, there lived a man
whose name, she believed, was Doherty. He
dreamt one night that on London Bridge he should
hear of a treasure. He set out at once for London,
and when he came there walked up and down the
bridge until he was wearied. At last a man ac-
costed him and asked him why he loitered there.
In reply, Doherty told his dream, upon which the
other said: C C Ah, man! Do you believe in drames ?
Why, I dreamt the other night that at a place called
Kinnagoe a pot of gold is buried. Would I go to
* Reprinted from the Antiquary, August, 1913.
84
GIANTS AND DW ARF
85
look for it? I might loss my time if I paid atten-
tion to drames." (( That's true," answered Do-
herty, who now hurried home, found the pot of gold,
bought houses and land, and became a wealthy man.
Whether this story embodies an earlier Irish
legend I do not kno"v, but I should say that the
mention of London Bridge points to its having
been brought over by English settlers. Sir G. L.
Gomme tells us that " the earliest version of this
legend is quoted from the manuscripts of Sir Roger
Twysden, who obtained it from Sir William Dug-
dale, of Blyth Hall, in Warwickshire, in a letter
dated January 29, 1652-53. Sir William says of
it that' it was the tradition of the inhabitants, as
it was told me there.' "
l'tIay not sonle of the planters brought over by
the Irish Society have carried this legend from
their English home, giving it in the name Kinnagoe
a local habitation?
Most of our folklore comes, however, from a very
early period. Our Irish fairy, although regarded
as a fallen angel, is not the medieval elf, who could
sip honey from a flower, but a small old man or
woman with 111agical powers, swift to revenge an
injury, but often a kindly neighbour. No story is
told more frequently than that of the old fairy
woman who borrows a U noggin" of meal, repays it
honestly, and re\vards the peasant woman by saying
that her kist will never be empty, generally adding
the condition as long as the secret is kept. The
woman usually observes the condition until her
86
ULS'.rER FOLKLORE
husband becomes too inquisitive. When she
reveals the secret the kist is empty.
Another widespread tale is that of the fairy
woman who comes to the peasant's cottage, some-
times to beg that water may not be thrown out at
the door, as it comes down her chimney and puts
out the fire; sometimes to ask, for a similar reason,
that the." byre," or cowhouse, may be removed to
another site. In some tales it is a fairy man who
makes the request. If it is refused, punishment
follows in sickness among the cattle; if complied
with, the cows flourish and give an extra supply of
milk. In one instance the " wee folk" provided
11l0ney to pay a mason to build the new cowhouse.
We may smile, and ask how the position of the cow-
house could affect the homes of the fairies; but if
these small people lived in the souterrains, as tradi-
tion alleges, we may even at the present day find
these artificial caves under inhabited houses. At
a large farmhouse on the border of Counties Antrim
and Londonderry I was told one ran under the
kitchen. At another farm near Castlerock, Co.
Londonderry, the owner opened a trapdoor in
his yard, and allowed me to look down into a
souterrain. At Finvoy, Co. Antrim, I was shown
one of these caves over which a cottage forn1erly
stood. A souterrain also runs under the Glebe
House at Donaghmore, Co. Down. The following
extract is from a work. in preparation, by the
Rev. Dr. Cowan, Rector of the parish, who, in
* " An Ancient Irish Parish, Past and Present. JJ
GIANTS AND DWARFS
87
describing this souterrain, writes: " The lintel to
the main entrance is the large stone which forms
the base of the old Celtic cross, which stands a few
yards south of the church. Underneath the cross
is the central chamber, which is sixty-two feet long,
three feet wide and upwards of four feet high, with
branches in the form of transepts about thirty feet in
length. From these, again, several sections extend
. . . one due north terminating at the Glebe House
(a distance of two hundred yards) underneath the
study, where, according to tradition, some rich old
vicar in past times fashioned the extreme end into
the dimensions of a wine-cellar."
According to another tradition-an older one, no
doubt-this chamber under the study was the
dressing-room of the small Danes, who after their
toilet proceeded through the underground passages
to church. They had to pass through many little
doors, down stairs, through parlours, until they
came to the great chamber under the cross where
the minister held forth. I shall not attempt to
guess to what old faith this minister or priest
belonged, or what were the rites he celebrated;
but the stairs probably represent the descent from
one chamber to another, and the little doors the
bridges found in some souterrains, and, I believe,
at Donaghmore, where one stone juts out from the
floor, and a little farther on another comes dovvn
from the roof, leaving only a narrow passage, so that
one must creep over and under these bridges to
get to the end of the cave.
88
ULSTER FOLKLORE
The Danes are regarded by the country people
as distinctly human, and yet there is much in them
that reminds us of the fairies; indeed, I was told
by two old men-one in Co. Antrim, and the other
in Co. Derry-that they and the wee-folk are much
the same. In a former paper* I referred to the
difference in dress ascribed to the fairies in various
parts of the country. I am inclined to believe that
this indicates a variety- of tribes among the abo-
riginal inhabitants. In the fairies who dress in
green may we not have a tradition of people who
stained themselves with woad or some other
plant? These fairies are chiefly heard of in N orth-
East Antrim. In some parts of that county they
are said to wear tartan, but in other parts of Ulster
the fairies are usually, although not universally,
described as dressing in red. Do these represent a
people who dyed themselves with red ochre, or
who simply went naked? In Tory Island I was
told the fairies dressed in black; and Keating
informs us that the Fomorians, who had their
headquarters at Toirinis, or Tory Island, were
(( sea-rovers of the race of Cam, who fared from
Africa."t
Stories of the fairies or wee-folk are to be found
everywhere in Ulster, and the Danes are also uni-
versally known; but one hears of the Pechts,
chiefly in the north-east of Antrim, where the
* See Ulster Fairies, Danes, and Pechts, p. 27.
t Keating, " History of Ireland," book i., chap. viü. (trans-
,
lation by P. W. Joyce, LL.D., M.R.I.A.). See ante, p. 60.
GIA.NTS AND D'V ARFS
8!J
Grogach is also known. The following story was
told to me in Glenariff, Co. Antrim:
A Grogach herded the cattle of a farmer, and
drove them home in the evening. He was about
the size of a child, and was naked. A fire was left
burning at night so that he might warm himself,
and after a time the daughter of the house made
him a shirt. When the Grogach saw this he
thought it was a " billet" for him to go, and, crying
bi tterly, he took his departure, and left the shirt
behind him. As I pointed out on a former occa-
sion,. in many respects the Grogach resembles the
Swiss dwarf. The likeness to the Brownie is also
very marked. At Ballycastle I was told the Gro-
gach was a hairy man about four feet in height,
who could bear heat or cold without clothing.
Patrick Kennedy has described a Gruagach as a
giant, and states that the word" Gruagach " has for
root gruach-( ( hair," giants and magicians being
furnished with a large provision of that appen-
dage."t This Gruagach was closely related to the
fairies, and, indeed, \ve shall find later in a Donegal
story a giant ogress spoken of as a fairy woman.
In Scotland, as well as in the South of Ireland, the
name is Gruagach, but in Antrim I heard it pro-
nounced (( Grogach." I was also told near Cushen-
dall that the Danes were hairy people.
One does not hear so much about giants in An-
* See Traditions of Dwarf Races in Ireland and in Switzer-
land, pp. 50-52.
t " Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts," second edition,
p. 123 note.
HO
ULSTER FOLKLORE
trim as in Donegal, but in Glenariff I was told of
four, one of whom lifted a rock at Ballycastle and
threw it across the sea to Rathlin-a distance of five
or six miles. Great as this feat was, a still greater was
reported to me near Armoy,. where I was shown a
valley, and was told the earth had been scooped
out and thrown into the sea, where it formed the
Island of Rathlin.
The grave of the giant Gig-na-Gog is to be seen
some miles from Portrush on the road to Beardi-
ville.t I could not, ho\vever, hear anything of
Gig-na-Gog, except that he was a giant.
In the stories of giants we no doubt often have
traditions of a tall race, who are sometimes repre-
sented as of inferior mental capacity. At other
times we appear to be listening to an early inter-
pretation of the works of Nature. The Donegal
peasant at the present day believes that the perched
block on the side of the hill has been thrown by the
arm of a giant. In the compact columns of the
Giant's Causeway and of Fingal's Cave at Staffa
primitive man saw a work of great skill and in-
genuity, which he attributed to a giant artificer;
and Finn McCoul is credited with having made a
stupendous mole, uniting Scotland and Ireland.
This Finn McCoul has many aspects. He does not
* A village about six miles from Ballycastle, where there is
a round tower.
t It is referred to in the " Guide to Belfast and the Adjacent
Counties," by the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, 18 74,
pp. 20 5,206; also by Borlase in "Dolmens of Ireland," vol. i.,
p. 37 1 .
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GIANTS AND DWARFS
91
show to much advantage in the following legend,
\vhich I heard on the banks of Lough Salt in
Donegal: Finn was a giant but there was a bigger
giant named Goll, \vho came to fight Finn, and
Finn was afraid. His wife bade him creep into
the cradle, and she would give an answer to Goll.
When the latter appeared, he asked where was
Finn. The wife replied he was out, and she was
alone with the baby in the cradle. Goll looked at
the child, and thought, if that is the size of Finn's
infant, what lllust Finn himself be? and without
more ado he turned and took his departure.-
This Finn had an eye at the back of his head, and
was so tall his feet came out at the door of his
house. We are not told, however, what was the
size of the ho use.
In this tale Finn shows little courage, but as a
rule he is represented as a noted hero. I was told
a long story at Glenties in Donegal of the three
sons Finn had by the Queen of Italy. He had
* A similar tale, but with more details, is related of Finn by
\Villiam Carleton. It was first published in Chambers' Edin-
burgh Journal in January, 1841, with the title, II A Legend of
Knockmary," and was reprinted in Carleton's collected works
under the title" A Legend of Knockmany." It is given by
lVIr. W. B. Yeates in his" Irish Fairy and Folk Tales." In
Carleton's tale Finn's opponent is not Goll, but Cuchullin. In
the notes first published in Chambers' Journal reference is,
however, made to Scotch legends about Finn McCoul and
Gaul, the son of Morni, whom I take to be the same as Goll.
A version of the story is also given by Patrick Kennedy in
"Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts," under the title
II Fann lVlacCuil and the Scotch Giant," pp. 179-181. This
Scotch giant is named Far Rua, and the fort to which he
journeys is in the bog of Allen.
9
ULSTER FOLKLORE
seen her bathing in Ireland, and he stole her
clothes, so she had to stay until she could get them
back. After a time she found them, and returned
to her own country, where she gave birth to three
sons-Dubh, Kian, and Glasmait. When they
\vere fourteen years of age the King of Italy sent
them away that they might go to their father Finn.
They arrived in Ireland, and when Finn saw
them he said: C C If those three be the sons of a
King, they will come straight on; if not, they ,viII
ask their way." The lads came straight on, knelt
before Finn, and claimed him as their father. He
asked them who was their mother, and when they
said the Queen of Italy, Finn remembered the
stolen clothes, and received them as his sons.
One day the followers of Finn could not find his
dividing knife, and Dubh determined to go in search
of it. He put a stick in the fire, and said he would
be back before the third of it was burnt out. He
followed tracks, and came to a house where there
was a great feast. He sat down among the men,
and saw they were cutting with Finn's knife. It
was passed from one to another until it came to
Dubh, who, holding it in his hand, sprang up and
carried it off.
When Dubh got home he wakened Kian and
said: cc My third of the stick is burnt, and now do
you see what you can do." Kian followed the
tracks, and got to the same place. He found the
men drinking out of a horn. One called for
whisky, another for wine, and whatever was asked,
GIANï"S ASD Ð'VARFS
93
the horn gave. Kian heard them say it was Finn's
horn, and that his knife had been carried off the
previous night. Kian waited, and when the horn
came he grasped it tightly and ran off home, where
he found his third of the stick was burnt. He
waked Glasmait, and told him two-thirds of the
night had passed, and it was now his turn to go out.
Glasmait followed the same tracks, but when he
came to the house blood was flowing from the door,
and, looking in, he saw the place full of corpses.
One man only remained alive. He told Glasmait
how they had all been drinking when someone ran
off with Finn McCoul's horn. cc One man blamed
another," he said; cc they quarrelled and fought
until everyone was killed except myself. Now I
beseech you throw the ditch- upon me and bury
me. I do not wish to be devoured by the fairy
woman, who will soon be here. She is an awful
size, and upon her back is bound Finn McCoul's
sword of light,t which gives to its possessor the
strength of a hundred men." The man gave Glas-
mait some hints to aid him in the coming fight,
and added: " Now I have told you all, bury me
quick."
Glasmait threw the ditch upon him, and hid
himself in a corner. The Banmore, or large woman,
now came in, and began her horrible repast. She
chose the fat men; three times she lifted Glasmait,
* In Ireland" ditch JJ is used for an earth fence.
t Claive Solus was the name given to it by the old woman,
who narrated the story, and she translated it H sword of
light."
94
ULS'TER FOLKLORE
but rejected him as too young and lean. At last
she lay down to sleep. Glasmait followed the
advice he had received. He touched her foot, but
jumped aside to avoid the kick. He touched her
hand, but jumped aside to avoid her slap. When
she was again asleep, he drew his sword and cut
the cords which bound the sword of light to her
back, and seized upon it. She roused herself, and
for two hours they fought, until in the end Glasmait
ripped open her body, when, behold, three red-
haired boys sprang out and attacked him. He
slew two of them, but the third escaped. Glasmait
returned home with the sword of light, and found
his third of the stick burnt.
The three sons now presented their father with
the dividing knife, the drinking horn, and the
sword of light, and there was great rejoicing that
these had been recovered.
Some time after this a red-haired boy appeared,
and begged to be taken into Finn's service for a
twelvemonth, saying he could kill birds and do any
kind of work. When asked what wages he looked
for, he replied that he hoped \vhen he died, Finn
and his men would put his body in a cart, which
would come for it, and bury him where the cart
stopped.
The red-haired boy worked well, but at the end
of the year he suddenly died. A cart drawn by a
horse appeared, and Finn and his men tried to
place the body in it; but it could not be moved
until the horse wheeled round and did the work
GIAN'I'S AND DWARFS
95
itself, starting immediately afterwards with its
load. Finn and his men followed, but a great mist
came on, so that they could not see clearly. At
last they arrived at an old, black castle standing
in a glen. Here they found the table laid, and sat
do\vn to eat, but before long the red-haired boy
appeared alive, and cried vengeance upon Finn and
his sons. The men tried to draw their swords, but
found them fastened to the ground, and the red-
haired boy cut off fifty heads.
No\v, however, the great Manannan appeared.
He bade the red-haired boy drop his sword, or he
would give him a slap that would turn his face to
the back of his head. He also bade him replace
the heads on the fifty men. The red-haired boy
had to submit, and after that he troubled Finn no
more. Manannan dispelled the mist, and brought
Finn and his men back to their own home, where
they feasted for three days and three nights.
This somewhat gruesome story contains several
points of interest. The stealing of the clothes is
an incident which occurs with slight variations in
many folk-tales. In H The Stolen Veil "* Musäus
tells us how the damsel of fairy lineage was detained
when her veil \vas carried off, and it was only after
she had recovered it that she \vas able, in the guise
of a swan, to return to her home.
\tVe have read, too, of how the Shetlander cap-
* See J. K. A. Musãus, H Volksmãhrchen der Deutschen,"
edited by J. L. Klee (Leipzig, 1842); H Der geraubte Schleier,"
pp. 37 1 -4 2 9.
96
ULS1.
ER FOLKLOIlE
tured the sealskin of the Finn woman, without
which she could not return as a seal to her hus-
band.- It should also be noted that the fairy
ogress is a large woman, apparently a giantess,
while her three sons have the red hair so often
associated with the fairies. At the end of the tale
Finn and his men are saved by l\1anannan, the
Celtic god of the sea, who has given his nan1e to
the Isle of Man. In Balor of Tory Island the great
Fomorian chief, we have another giant, with an
eye at the back of his head, which dealt destruction
to all who encountered its gaze. I was told in
Tory Island that when Balor was mortally wounded
water fell so copiously from his eye that it formed
the biggest lough in the world, deeper even than
Lough Foyle.t
These giants belonged to an olden time and a
very primitive race. They have passed away, and
are no longer like the fairies-objects of fear or
awe.
The fairies, being believed to be fallen angels,
are especially dreaded on Hallow Eve night. In
some places oatmeal and salt are put on the heads
of the children to protect them from harm. I first
heard of this custom in the valley of the Roe,
where there are a large number of forts said to
* See II The Testimony of Tradition JJ (London. 18 9 0 ,
pp. 1-25), by Mr. David MacRitchie, F.S.A.Scot.; also by the
same author, "The Aberdeen Kayak and its Congeners." Pro-
ceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xlvi.
(1911-12), pp. 213-241. Mr. l\1:acRitchie believes that the
magic sealskin was a Kayak. t See p. 75.
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GIANTS AND DWARFS
97
be inhabited by the fairies. The neighbourhood
of Dungiven on that river is rich in antiquities.
I was told there was a sou terrain under the
Cashel or n White Fort," said to have been built
by the Danes. There is another under Carnanban
Fort, and not far from this there are the stone
circles at Aghlish. .A.n old woman of ninety-six
showed them to me, and said it was a very gentle.
place, and it \vould not be safe to take away one
of the stones.
Here we have an instance of the strong belief
that to interfere in any way with stone, tree, or
fort, belonging to the fairies is certain to bring
disaster. About sixty-five years ago, when the
railway was being made between Belfast and Bally-
mena, an old fort with fairy bushes in the townland
of Lenagh stood on the intended track, and had
to be removed. The men working on the line
were most unwilling to meddle with either fort or
bushes. One, however, braver than the rest began
to cut down a thorn, when he met with an accident
which strengthened the others in their refusal. In
the end the fort had to be blo\vn up, I believe by
the officials of the railway J and underneath it a
very fine spearhead and other implements were
found.t
A fort near Glasdrumman, Co. Down, was de-
molished by the owner, but the country - people
* Fairy-haunted.
t This spearhead is in the possession of Mr. Robert Bell, a
member of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, from whom I
heard this narrative.
7
98
ULS'l'ER FOLKLORE
noted that the man who struck the first blow was
injured and died soon afterwards, while the owner
himself became a permanent invalid. A woman
living near this fort related that in the evening
after the work was begun she heard an awful
screech from the fort; presumably the fairies were
leaving their home.
A curious story was told me by an old woman in
the Cottage Hospital at Cushendall. A man at
Glenravel named M'Combridge went out one even-
ing to look for his heifer, but could not find it. He
saw a great house in one of his fields, where no
house had been before, and, wondering much at
this, he went in. An old woman sat by the fire,
and soon two men came in leading the heifer.
They killed it with a blow on the head and put it
into a pot. M'Combridge was too much afraid to
make any objection; he rose, however, to leave
the house, but the old \voman said: " Wait; you
must have some of the broth of your own heifer."
Three times she made him partake of the broth,
and he was then unable to leave the house. She
put him to bed, and the man gave birth to a
son. He fell asleep, but was wakened by some-
thing touching his ear, and found himself on the
grass near his home, and the heifer close to his
ear.
This fantastic story no doubt represents a dream,
but does it contain a reminiscence of the couvade,
where, after the birth of the child, the father goes
to bed? Sir E. B. Tylor, in the " Early History
GIANTS AND DWARFS
9
of Mankind," has shown how widespread this
custom was both in the Old and the New
World.
In these stories, drawn from various parts of
Ulster, we seem to hear echoes of a very distant
past. The giants often appear as savages of low
intelligence. In the fairies, I think, we may plainly
see a tradition of a dwarf race, although it is true
that the country-people do not regard them as
human beings; indeed, I was told in Co. Tyrone
that when the fairies were annoying a man he
threw his handkerchief at them, and asked if
among them all they could show one drop of blood.
This, being spirits, they could not do. In the
Grogach the human element is more pronounced,
and both Danes and Pechts are usually regarded
as men and women like ourselves, although of
smaller stature. It will thus be seen that in Ulster
we have traditions of giants, fairies, Grogachs,
Danes, and Pechts; and in Donegal I was also told
of a small race of yellow Finns. Can we identify
any of these with the prehistoric races of the
British Isles and of Europe?
It has been held by many that the relics of
Palæolithic man do not occur in Ireland, but the
Rev. Frederick Smith has found his implements,
some of them glaciated, at Killiney. ; and Mr. Lewis
Abbott, \vho has made the implements of early
man a special study, believes that Palæolithic man
* II The Stone Age in North Britain and Ireland," by the
Rev. Frederick Smith, Appendix, p. 396.
100
ULSTER FOLKLORE
lived and worked in Ireland. In a letter to me he
states that this opinion is based on material in his
possession. U I have," he writes, " the Irish collec-
tion of myoId friend, the late Professor Rupert
Jones; in this there are many immensely meta-
morphosed, deeply iron-stained (and the iron, again,
in turn further altered), implements of Palæolithic
types. . .. They are usually very lustrous or
highly ( patinated,' as it is called." In his recent
paper, U On the Classification of the British Stone
Age Industries,". in describing the club studs, Mr.
Abbott writes: U I have found very fine examples
in the Cromer Forest bed, and under and in
various glacial deposits in England and Ireland."
How long Palæolithic man survived in Ireland it
would be difficult to say, but in such characters as
the fairy ogress we are brought face to face with
a very low form of savagery. I t will be noted that
her sons are red-haired. Now, I have often found
red hair ascribed to fairies and Danes, but not to
Pechts. This persistent tradition has led me to
ask whether red was the colour of the hair in some
early races of mankind. The following passage in
Dr. Beddoe's Huxley Lecturet favours an affirma-
tive answer: (( There are, of course, facts, or re-
ported facts, which would lead one to suspect that
red was the original hair colour of man in Europe-
at least, when living in primitive or natural con-
* See Journal of the Royal A nthropological Institute, vol. xli.,
191 I, p. 462.
t II Colour and Race," delivered before the Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, October 3 1 , 19 0 5.
GIANTS AND DWARFS
101
ditions with much exposure, and that the develop-
ment of brown pigment came later, with sub-
jection to heat and malaria, and other influences
connected with what we call' civilisation.' "
We have seen that the implements of early man
are found in spots sacred to the fairies. The Rev.
Gath Whitley considers the Piskey dwarfs the
earliest Neolithic inhabitants of Cornwall, and de-
scribes them as a small race who hunted the elk
and the deer, and perhaps, like the Bushmen,
danced and sang to the light of the moon.- Our
traditional Irish fairies bear a strong resemblance
to these Piskey dwarfs of Cornwall, and also to the
Welsh fairies of whom Sir John Rhys writes that
\vhen fairyland is cleared of its glamour there seems
to be disclosed " a swarthy population of short,
stumpy men, occupying the most inaccessible dis-
tricts of our country. . .. They probably fished
and hunted and kept domestic animals, including,
perhaps, the pig, but they depended largely on what
they could steal at night or in misty weather.
Their thieving, however, was not resented, as their
visits were believed to bring luck and prosperity."t
This description might apply to our Ulster fairies,
who in many of the stories appear as a very primi-
tive people. In some of the tales, however, the
fairies are represented in a higher state of civilis a-
tion. They can spin and weave; they inhabit
* U Footprints of Vanished Races in Cornwall," by the
Rev. D. Gath Whitley, published in the Journal of the Royal
Institution of Cornwall, 1903, vol. xv., part ii., p. 283.
t U Celtic Folklore," vol. ii., chap. xii., pp. 668, 669
10
ULSTER
FOLKLORE
underground but well-built houses, and in the Irish
records they are closely associated \yith the Tuatha
de Danann.
I believe these Tuatha de Danann are the small
Danes, who, according to tradition, built the raths
and sou terrains. The late Mr. John Gray. would
ascribe a Mongoloid origin to them. In a letter
\vritten to me shortly before his death he stated
his belief that the Danes and Pechts (( were of the
same race, and were identical with a short, round-
headed race which migrated into the British Isles
about 2,000 B.C. at the beginning of the Bronze Age.
. .. The stature of these primitive Danes and
Pechts was five feet three inches, and they must
have looked very small men to the later Teutonic
invaders of an average stature of five feet eight
and a half inches."
In his papers, II Who built the British Stone
Circles ?JJt and (( The Origin of the Devonian
Race,JJt Mr. Gray has fully described this round-
headed race, who buried in short cists, and whom
he believes to have been a colony from Asia Minor
of Akkadians, Sumerians, or Hittites, who migrated
to England by sea in order to \vork the Cornish
tin-mines and the Welsh copper-mines.
For a fuller exposition of these views I must refer
the reader to Mr. Gray's very interesting articles.
* Treasurer to the Anthropological Institute.
t Read before Section H of the British Association at the
Dublin Meeting, September, Ig08, published in Nature,
December 24, Ig08, pp. 23 6 - 2 3 8 .
t Published in London Devonian Year-Book, 19 10 .
GIANTS ...
D DWARFS
JOg
In regard to the Tuatha de Danann, according to
Keating,. they came from Greece by way of Scan-
dinavia. This might lead us to infer a northern
origin, or, at least, that they had taken a different
route from those \vho came by the Mediterranean
to the West of Europe. They appear to have
known the use of metals and to have ploughed the
land.
Dr. O'Donovan, in writing of these Tuatha de
Danann, says: (( From the many monuments
ascribed to this colony by tradition and in ancient
Irish historical tales, it is quite evident that they
were a real people, and from their having been con-
sidered gods and magicians by the Gaedhil or
Scoti who subdued them, it may be inferred that
they were skilled in arts which the latter did not
understand." Referring to the colloquy between
St. Patrick and Caoilte MacRonain, Dr. O'Donovan
says that it appears from this ancient Irish text
that (( there were very many places in Ireland
where the Tuatha de Dananns were then supposed
to live as sprites or fairies." He adds: (( The infer-
ence naturally to be drawn from these stories is
that the Tuatha de Dananns lingered in the country
for many centuries after their subjugation by the
Gaedhil, and that they lived in retired situations,
which induced others to regard them as magicians."t
What is here averred of the Tuatha de Danann
may be true of other primitive races who may have
* "History of Ireland," book i., chap. x.
t See" Annals of the Four :Masters," vol. i., note at p. 24.
104
ULSTER FOLKIJORE
survived long in Ireland. It is difficult to exter-
minate a people, and they could not be driven
farther \vest.
It appears to me that in the traditions of the
Ulster peasantry we see indications of a tall,
savage people, and of various races of small men.
Some were in all probability veritable dwarfs, like
those whose skeletons have been found in Switzer-
land, near Schaffhausen. Others may have been
of the stature of the round-headed race described
by Mr. John Gray, but in tradition they all-fairy,
Grogach, Pecht, and Dane-appear as little people.
In these tales we have not a clear outline-the
picture is often blurred-but as \ve see the red-
haired Danes carrying earth in their aprons to build
the forts, the Pechts handing from one to another
the large slabs to roof the sou terrains, and the Gro-
gachs herding cattle, we catch glimpses of the life
of those who in long past ages inhabited Ireland.
The Rev. William Hamilton, D.D.*
AN EARLY EXPONENT OF THE VOLCANIC ORIGIN OF THE
GIANT'S CAUSEWAY
(( Here, hapless Hamilton, lamented name!
To fire volcanic traced the curious frame,
And, as his soul, by sportive fancy's aid,
Up to the fount of time's long current strayed,
Far round these rocks he saw fierce craters boil,
And torren t lavas flood the riven soil:
Sa w vanquished Ocean from his bounds retire,
And hailed the wonders of creative Fire."
DRUMMOND
T HESE lines are taken from a poem, (( The
Giant's Causeway," \vritten in 181 I, when
the nature of the basaltic rocks was regarded as
doubtful, and many held that their origin was to
be traced to the action of water rather than fire.
Hamilton is rightly brought forward as a champion
of the volcanic theory. In his C ( Letters concern-
ing the Northern Coast of Antrim," published to-
wards the close of the eighteenth century, he
adduces strong reasons to show that the Giant's
Cause\vay is no isolated freak of Nature, but part
of a vast lava field which covered Antrim and
extended far beyond the Scottish islands. Nor
does he confine his attention to geology, but fulfils
* Reprin ted from the Sun, May, 189 I.
10 5
106
ULSTER FOLKLORE
the promise on the title page, giving an account of
the antiquities, manners, and customs of the
country. 'To those who care to read of this part of
the world before the days of railroads and electric
tramways, when Portrush was a small fishing
village, and the lough which divides Antrim from
Down bore the name of the ancient city of Carrick-
fergus, this old volume will possess many attrac-
tions. Three copies lie before me; two belong to
editions published in the author's lifetime; the
third was printed in Belfast in 1822, and contains
a short memoir and a portrait of Dr. Hamilton.
The latter is taken from one of those black sil-
houettes by which, before the art of photography
was known, our grandfathers strove to preserve an
image of those they loved. In this imperfect like-
ness we can see below the wig a massive forehead,
and features which betoken no small determination
of character. We can well believe that we are
gazing on the face of a scholar, a man of science, a
divine, of one who believed that death, even in
the tragic form in which it came to him, was but
the laying aside of a perishable machine, the casting
away of an instrument no longer able to perform
its functions.
William Hamilton was born in December, 1757,
in Londonderry, where the family had resided for
nearly a century, his grandfather having been
one of the defenders of the city during the famous
siege. Little is known of his boyhood. Before he
was fifteen he entered the University of Dublin,
THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D. 107
and after a distinguished career obtained a fellow-
ship in 1779. It was while continuing his theo-
logical and literary studies that his attention was
drawn to the new sciences of chemistry and min-
eralogy . We can imagine the ardent student
attracting around him a band of kindred spirits,
\vho, meeting on one evening of the week under the
name of Palæosophers, studied the Bible and ancient
writings bearing on its interpretation, and the next,
calling themselves Neosophers , discussed the phe-
nomena of Nature, and the discoveries of Cavendish,
or the views of Buffon and Descartes. Nor did
his marriage in 1780 to Sarah Walker interrupt
these pursuits.
Hamilton was one of the founders of the Royal
Irish Academy, and dedicated his (( Letters con-
cerning the Coast of Antrim " to the Earl of Charle-
mont, the first president of that body. The book
opens with an account of his visit to the Island of
Raghery or Rathlin, where he was charmed with
the primitive manners of the people and the friendly
relations existing between them and their landlord.
He examined the white cliffs, the dark basal tic
columns, and the ruins of the old castle, where
Robert Bruce is said to have made a gallant defence
against his enemies. Here he found cinders em-
bedded in the mortar, showing that the lime used
in building the walls had been burnt with coal.
This is adduced as a proof that the coal-beds near
Fair Head had been known at an early period, pos-
sibly at a time anterior to the Danish incursions of
108
ULSTER FOLKLORE
the ninth and tenth centuries-a view confirmed
by the discovery of an ancient gallery extending
many hundred yards underground, and in \vhich the
remains of the tools and baskets of the prehistoric
miners were found.
In a later letter a history is given of the Giant's
Cause\vay, and of the various opinions which have
been held regarding its origin. Beginning with the
old tradition. that the stones had been cut and
placed in position by the giant, Fin McCool or
Fingal, when constructing a mighty mole to unite
Ireland to Scotland, Hamilton alludes to the crude
notions exhibited in some papers published in the
early Transactions of the Royal Society. He
criticizes severely U A True Prospect of the Giant's
Causeway," printed in 1696 for the Dublin Society,
showing how the imagination of the artist had
planted luxuriant forest-trees on the wild bay of
Port N offer, and transformed basaltic rocks into
comfortable dwelling-houses. The two beautiful
paintings made by 1\1rs. Susanna Drury in 1740
are referred to in very different language, and any-
one who has seen engravings of these will endorse
his opinion, and feel that this lady has depicted,
with almost photographic accuracy, the Causeway
and the successive galleries of basaltic columns,
which lend a weird and peculiar grandeur to the
headlands of Bengore.
A large portion of Hamilton's work is occupied
with a minute investiga tion of these headlands, and
* See Letter I., part ii., edition 1822.
THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D. 109
of the lofty promontory of Fair Head. A descrip-
tion is given of the jointed columns of the Cause-
way, whose surface presents a regular and com-
pact pavement of polygon stones; we are told that
this basaltic rock contains metallic- iron, and that
he has himself observed how, in the semicircular
Bay of Bengore, the compass deviates greatly from
its meridian, and each pillar or fragment of a pillar
acts as a natural magnet. He also points out that
columnar rocks are found in many parts of Antrim,
and traces the basaltic plateau from the shores of
Lough Foyle to the valley of the Lagan; nay more,
he bids us extend our gaze, and remember It that
vvhatever be the reasonings that fairly apply to
the formation of the basaltes in our island, the same
must be extended with little interruption over the
mainland and western isles of Scotland, even to
the frozen island of Iceland, where basaltic pillars
are to be found in abundance, and where the flames
of Hecla still continue to blaze.".
Hamilton argues, in opposition to the views of
many of his contemporaries, that the vicinity of
the Giant's Causeway to the sea has nothing what-
* Letter VI., part ii., pp. 183, 184. Compare with this passage
the following enunciation of the results of modern geological
investigation. "A marked feature of this period in Europe
was the abundance and activity of its volcanoes. . .. From
the south of Antrim, through the west coast of Scotland,
the Faröe Islands and Iceland, even far into Arctic Greenland,
a vast series of fissure eruptions poured forth successive floods
of basalt, fragments of which now form the extensive volcanic
plateaux of these regions (Sir A. Geikie, " Geological Sketches
at Home and Abroad," pp. 347, 348).
110
ULSTER FOLKLORE
ever to do with the peculiar structure of its jointed
columns, which he ascribes to their having been
formed by the crystallization of a molten mass.
The following are his words:
" Since, therefore, the basaltes and its attendant
fossils. bear strong marks of the effects of fire, it
does not seem unlikely that its pillars may have
been formed by a process, exactly analogous to
what is commonly denominated crystallization by
fusion. . .. For though during the moments of
an eruption nothing but a wasteful scene of tumult
and disorder be presented to our view, yet, when
the fury of those flames and vapours, which have
been struggling for a passage, has abated, every-
thing then returns to its original state of rest; and
those various melted substances, which, but just
before, were in the wildest state of chaos, will no\y
subside and cool with a degree of regularity utterly
unattainable in our laboratories."t
I t is true that modern geologists would not apply
the term" crystallization " to the process by \vhich
the basaltic columns have been formed, but all
would agree that they have assumed their peculiar
shape during the slow cooling of the molten lava
of which they consist; thus Professor J ames Thom-
son
states that the division into prisms has
* Hamilton uses this word in its old meaning of rock or
stone. He expressly states that basalt does not contain the
slightest trace of animal or vegetable remains.
t Letter VII., part ii., pp. 187, 188, 189.
t See U Collected Papers," p. 430, edited by Sir Joseph
Larmor, Sec. R.S., IVLP., and James Thomson, M.A.
'THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTO
, D.D. III
arisen CI by splitting, through shrinkage, of a very
homogeneous mass in cooling."
I t would be tedious to repeat the reasoning by
which Hamilton, following in the steps of the
French geologists, Desmarest and Faujas de St.
Fond, establishes the volcanic origin of the basalt.
It is true, he assumes the position of an impartial
narrator, and brings forward at considerable length
the objections which had been urged against this
theory, but only to show that each one of them
admits of a full and complete answer. Thus he
states that the absence of volcanic cones does not
embarrass the advocates of the system: " According
to them, the basaltes has been formed under the
earth itself and wi thin the bowels of those very
mountains where it could never have been exposed
to view until, by length of time or some violent
shock of nature, the incumbent mass must have
undergone a very considerable alteration, such as
should go near to destroy every exterior volcanic
feature. In support of this, it may be observed that
the promontories of Antrim do yet bear very evident
marks of some violent convulsion, which has left
them standing in their present abrupt situation,
and that the Island of Raghery and some of the
western isles of Scotland do really appear like the
surviving fragments of a country, great part of
which might have been buried in the ocean.".
We thus see that Hamilton clearly perceived that
great changes, sufficient to sweep away lofty moun-
* Letter VII., part ii., p. 194.
ll
ULSTER FOLKLORE
tains, had taken place since those old lava streams
had flowed over the land. It is true that science
has advanced since his day with gigantic strides.
Some things which he regarded as doubtful have
become certain, and others vvhich he regarded as
certain have become doubtful, yet I trust that the
preceding extracts will show that his account of
the basaltic rocks of Antrim may still be read with
interest and profit.
As an antiquarian, Hamilton touches on the evi-
dences of early culture in Ireland. He mentions
the large number of exquisitely wrought gold orna-
ments found in the bogs, and translates for us a
poem of St. Donatus, which, although doubtless a
fancy sketch, shows the reputation enjoyed by the
island in the ninth century.
(( Far westward lies an isle of ancient fame
By nature bless'd, and Scotia is her name,
An island rich-exhaustless is her store
Of veiny silver and of golden are;
Her fruitful soil for ever teems with wealth,
With gems her waters, and her air with health.
Her verdant fields with milk and honey flow,
Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow;
Her waving furrows float with bearded corn,
And arms and arts her envy'd sons adorn.
No savage bear with lawless fury roves,
No rav'ning lion thro' her sacred groves;
No poison there infects, no scaly snake
Creeps through the grass, nor frog annoys the lake.
An island worthy of its pious race,
In war triumphant, and unmatch'd in peace."*
In referring to the doctrines and practices of the
ancient Irish Church, Hamilton enters on the field
* Letter IV., part i., p. 52.
THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D. 113
of controversy. It shows how widely his book was
known when we find the Giornale Ecclesiaslico of
Rome taking exception to some of his views. This
criticism led to the insertion in the second edition
of the work, of a letter- dealing more fully with
ecclesiastical matters. The reasoning, even when
supported by the high authority of Archbishop
U ssher, may possibly fail to convince us of the
identity of the Church of St. Patrick and St.
Columba with the Church of the Reformation; but
we shall find abundant proof of the vigour and
independence which characterized not only the
early monks, but the Irish schoolmen of the Middle
Ages.
Before this letter was published, Hamilton had
accepted the living of Clondevaddock in Donegal,
and had taken up his abode amid the wild but
beautiful scenery surrounding Mulroy Bay. Here
he expected to spend a tranquil life, watching over
the education of his large family, and combining
with his clerical duties the pursuit of science and
literature. In a favourable situation for observing
variations of telnperature and the action of rain,
wind, and tide, he pursued the investigation of a
subject which had already engaged his attention
before leaving Dublin. In a memoirt published
after his death he suggests that the cutting down
of the forests lnay have affected a sensible change
in the climate of Ireland, and gives several instances
* Letter V, part i.
t See Transactions of the Royal Irish Acadclny, vol. vi.,
p. 27.
8
114
ULSTER FOLKLORE
of the encroachment of the sea sand on fertile and
inhabited land. Perhaps the most striking is that
of the town of Bannow in Wexford. It was a
flourishing borough in the early part of the seven-
teenth century, while in his day the site was marked
only by a few ruins, appearing above heaps of
barren sand, and where at the time of an election
a fallen chimney was used as the council table of
that ancient and loyal corporation.
When we read the closing pages of this paper it
is difficult to believe that troubled times were so
near at hand; and even when he wrote his C C Letters
on the French Revolution," Hamilton could not
have foreseen that he was soon to fall before the
same spirit of wild vengeance, which claimed so
many noble victims on the banks of the Seine and
the Loire.
He acted as magistrate as well as clergyman, and
during nearly seven years he was treated with
respect and confidence by the people among whom
he lived. No doubt the majority of them did not
regard him as their pastor, but they appreciated his
efforts for their temporal welfare; we are told
that the country was advancing in industry and
prosperity, and remained tranquil when other parts
of Ulster were greatly disturbed. At last, however,
the revolutionary wave reached this remote district,
and a trivial incident inflamed the Ininds of the
inhabitants against Dr. Hamilton.
On Christmas night, 1796, while the memorable
storm \vhich in the south drove the French fleet
THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D. 115
from Bantry Bay was at its height, a brig, laden
with wine from Oporto, was shipwrecked on the
coast of Fanet, not far from Dr. Hamilton's dweU-
ing. In those days the peasantry regarded what-
ever was brought to them by the sea as lawful
booty, and were little disposed to brook the inter-
ference of magistrate or clergyman. We are told
"that Dr. Hamilton's active exertions on this
melancholy occasion gave rise to feelings of ani-
mosity on the part of some of his parishioners."
This animosity was fomented by popular agitators.
A stormy period ensued. One evening a band of
insurgents surrounded the parsonage demanding
the release of some prisoners, and for more than
twenty-four hours the house was closely besieged.
Two of the servants made their way with difficulty
to the beach, hoping to escape by sea and bring
succour from Derry, but they found holes had been
bored in the boats, which rendered them un-
serviceable. Dr. Hamilton acted with much
courage and coolness. He refused to accede to the
demands of his assailants, saying he was not to be
intimidated by men acting in open violation of the
Ia\1vs; at the same time, by repressing the ardour
of the guard of soldiers, he showed his anxiety to
prevent bloodshed. In company with a naval
officer, he undertook the perilous task of passing in
disguise through the rebel cordon, and returned
with a body of militia. On seeing this reinforce-
ment, the peasantry lost courage, and, throwing
away their arms, dispersed quickly to their homes,
116
ULSTER FOLI{LORE
so that the victory was achieved without loss of
life.
The country now became apparently more tran-
quil, and in early spring Dr. Hamilton paid a visit
to the Bishop of the diocese at Raphoe. He was
returning to his parish, when the roughness of the
weather delayed his crossing Lough Swilly, and he
turned aside to see a brother clergyman near
Fahan. He was easily prevailed upon to pass the
night in the hospitable rectory of Sharon, and no
doubt the visit of an old college friend was hailed
with delight by the crippled Dr. Waller, whose
infirmities obliged him to lead a secluded life.
Probably the conversation turned on the state of
the country; Dr. Waller, his wife, and her niece
would inquire about the perils from which their
guest had recently escaped. Perhaps they would
congratulate themselves on the security of their
neighbourhood compared with the wilder parts of
Donegal. Suddenly the tramp of a band of men
was heard. It is said that Dr. Hamilton's quick
ear first caught the sound, and knew it to be his
death-knell; but he was not the only victim-his
hostess fell before him. Let us hear the story of
that terrible tragedy as it was reported to the Irish
House of Commons. Speaking on March 6, 1797,
four days after the event, Dr. Brown said:
II As that gentleman (Dr. Hamilton) was sitting
with the family in Mr. Waller's house, several shots
were fired in upon them, the house was broken open,
and Mrs. Waller, in endeavouring to protect her
THE REV. 'VILLIAM HAMILF"TON, D.D. 117
helpless husband by covering him with her body,
was murdered. Mr. Hamilton, from the natural
love of life, had taken refuge in the lower apart-
ments. Thence they forced him, and as he en-
deavoured to hold the door they held fire under
his hand until they made him quit his hold. They
then dragged him a few yards from the house, and
murdered him in the most inhuman and barbarous
manner.' ,.
From a letter written by Dr. Hall to the Gentle-
man's Magazine (March, 1797), we learn that the
assassins retired unmolested and undiscovered.
Nor were any of them ever brought to justice,
although popular tradition, among both Catholics
and Protestants, says that misfortune dogged their
footsteps, and each one of them came to an untimely
end. Dr. Hamilton's body remained exposed dur-
ing the night, and was only removed the follow-
ing morning, when it was taken to Londonderry
and interred in the Cathedral graveyard. Here his
name is recorded on the family tombstone; and in
1890 his descendants erected a tablet to his memory
in the chancel of the Cathedral.
Hamilton obtained the degree of Doctor of
Divinity in 1794, and shortly before his death he
was elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh. We have seen how he was
cut off in the full vigour of mind and body-his last
memoir unprinted-and surely we may echo the
lament of his contemporaries, and feel that he was
* See report in the Belfast Newsletter, March 6-10, 1797.
118
ULs
rER FOLI{LORE
one who had conferred honour on his native land.
Yet, while they mourned his loss as a public
calamity, his friends would recall his words, and
remember that to him death was but the entrance
to a new life-the casting away of a covering which
fornled no part of his true self.
INDEX
ABBOTT, W. J. Lewis, F.G.S.,
99, 100
Abernethy Round Tower, 57
Aino, 4 2
Antrim, old fort at, 36
Ardtole souterrain, vi
Armoy, 26,90
Arranmore, 82
Backaderry souterrain, 7
Ballycairn Fort, 37, 38. 41
BallycastIe, 39, 50, 89
Ballyginney Fort and Souter-
rain, 7, 8
Ballyliffan, 52. 55
Ballymagreehan Fort and Sou-
terrain, 6
Balor, 73-7 6 , 79
Banshee, 31, 35,42.43,56.78
Beddoe, Dr., 100, 101
Bell. Robert, 97
Boyle, Owen, saves bride from
fairies, 68-71
Bridget, Eve of St., 17, 18
Brownie, 5 I, 89
Burglauenen. destruction of. 53
Bury. Professor, 6 I
Cailleagh, 19
Campbell, J. F., 79, 80
CastIewellan. 6. 7
Chope. R. Pearse. B.A.. 19.20
"Churn," 19. 20
Cinderella. 47
Clark. :l\Iiss T ane, 22
Coal-ll1illes, 'ã.ncient, near Bally-
castle. 39, 1 0 7- 8
Columbkill, St., 63, 83
Cowan. Rev. Dr., 86. 87
Cruithnians. 58
Culdaff, 53
Culnady, 21, 22
Cushendall. 89, 98
Danes, 8-11, 28-3 1 , 34, 37-4 2 ,
45. 51, 57, 77, 7 8 , 88. 89. 102,
10 4.
Derrick's Image of Ireland, 44,
45
Donaghmore. Co. Down. sou-
terrain at. 86. 87
Donatus. St., poem describing
Scotia or Ireland, 112
Downpatrick, rath at. 22, 36
Drumcrow, 27
Drury, Mrs. Susanna, 108
Dunglady Fort, 21. 22
Dunloe. Gap of, 10
Emania. 41
Fair Head, 49, 107. 108
Fairies. capture of women and
children by, 26, 69-73
compared with African
pygmies, 33, 34
dress of. 27. 88
a dwarf race, 13.45, 104
dwelling under sea, 52, 53
inhabit forts and souter-
rains, 8, 3 I. 36, 86
intern1arriage with the bu-
nlan race. 65 et seq.
vanish, 25. 34
Fanshawe, Lady, 4 2 , 43
Fargowan, 79
Fiacc's hymn. 61
Finglas, 79
Finn McCoul, 48- 50, 7 6 , 79, 9 U -
95. 108
IIg
IflO
ULSTER FOLKLORE
Finn, Lough, 79
Finns, 64, 78
Finntown, 65
Finvoy. 86
Frazer, J. G., D.C.L., 20, 21
Friel, John. saves young girl
from the fairies, 7 I
Gempeler, D., 53
Giants, 79, 89, go, 96, 99
Giant's Causeway. 50, 90, 105.
I08
111
Glasdrumrnan Fort, 97. 98
Glenties, 65. 66, 79
Goll, 91
Gomme, Sir G. L.. 54. 84. 85
Gottwerg and Gottwergini, 52.
54
Gray, John. B.Sc.. 102, 104
Greenmount, Mote at. 3 6 . 37, 40
Grey Man of the Path. 49
Grogach. 47, 50, 51. 57, 89. 99,
104
Gweedore, 68. 75
Ham, 3 2 , 60, 73
Hamilton, Rev. W., D.D.,
F.T.C.D., 39. 105-118
Hanauer, Rev. J. E., 67
Harbison. Mann, 8, I I, 12
Harris, 59, 60
Harvest knots, 18, 19
Heather ale. 28. 29. 41
Herd (David). 13
Herman's Fort and Soutcrrain,
6. 7
Hobson, Mrs.. viii, 30
Hunt, B, 72
Hyde. Dr. Douglas. 71
Infant carried off by fairies. but
saved by father, 7 2 . 73
Jegerlehner. Dr. J., 52. 54
Johnston, Sir Harry. 33. 34, 80
I(eating. Go, 88, 103
Killelagh Church. I-t-, 15
I(ilrea, 23
Kincasslagh, 68, 7 0 , 78
Knockdhu, souterrain at. 30
Kollmann, Professor Julius, v.
59, 61, 62
Lenagh Townland. fort blown
up, 97
Leprechaun, Lupracan. Luchor-
pan, 10, 32
Leslie, Rev. J. B., 9, 37
London Bridge legend, 84, 85
Luchter, 18
Lurach. St., church of, 22
LytIe, S. D.. vi, 16
Maghera. Co. Down. 4. 7
Maghera, Co. Londonderry. 14-23
Manannan. 49, 95, 9 6
McKean. E. J.. B.A.. 19.41
McKenna. Daniel, 14, 17, 18
MacKenzie. W. C.. F.S.A.Scot..
58
Mac Ritchie. David. F.S.A.Scot.,
v, 12,28.29,42.57.58,96
Marshall, Dr. Eric. 8 I
Mortar. cemented with the
blood of bullocks, 15
J\'Iourne Mountains. 2, 28
Munro, Dr., 12
Neosophers, 107
New Guinea, pygmies in, 80, 81
Niederdorff, destruction of, 53,
54
Nuesch, Dr., 61
O'Donovan. Dr.. 22, 75. 76, 103
0' Grad y. Standish H., 3 2 , 44. 6 I
O'Neill. Phelim. castle of, 15
Oughter. Lough. 9
Palæolithic man, 59. 99, 100
Palæosophers. 107
Patrick. St., 61, 63. 83
Pechts. 15, 16, 27. 3 1 . 50. 57,
78. 99. 102, 104
Pennant, 29
Piskey Dwarfs of Cornwall, 101
Portstewart. 19. 3 8 , 67
Rathlin Island, 90. 107
Heù hair ascribed to fairies and
Danes, 2. 9. 34, 37. 100
possibly the original hail
colour in Europe. 100
Rhys, Sir John, 67. 101
Rochefort. Jorevin de. 40, 41
Roe, Valley of the, 19. 9 6 , 97
Rosapenna, 65, 67, 7 1
Roughan Castle, I 5
Rowan tree, 27
Rush crosses, 17, 18
Schaffhausen, s k ele ton s 0 f
dwarfs discovered near, v, 61,
62, 104
Seals, belief that human beings
could change into, 8 I, 82
Sealskin of Finn woman, 96
Sea sand, encroachment on
land, 114
Smith, Dr. Robertson, 34, 35
Smith, Rev. Frederick, 99
Sidh, 44, 6 I
Sidis, 61
Silva Gadelica, 3 2 , 44, 61
Souterrains. 6-8. 16. 30. 3 I. 3 6 -
41. 86, 87
INDEX
l
l
Spy. men of, 12, 13
Staffa, 50
Stone circles at Aghlish, 97
Stranocum, souterrain at, 8
Sweeney. John, 82
Sword of light, 93, 94
Thomson, Professor James, 110
Tobermore. 17
Todas, 54
Tormore, 73
Tory Island, 73-76, 88, 96
Tuatha de Danann, II, 12, 18.
29. 77. 102, 1 0 3
Tullamore Park, 2, 3
Wee, wee man, 13
"\Vhitley, Rev. Gath, 101
vVindele, John, 4 0
THE END
ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. E.C.
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