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[Illustration: "GOD SAVE YER HOLINESS." Frontispiece.] "GOD SAVE YER HOLINESS." Frontispiece.
Irish Wonders
by D. R. McAnally, Jr.
Edition 1, (October 7, 2006)
THE GHOSTS, GIANTS, POOKAS, DEMONS, LEPRECHAWNS, BANSHEES, FAIRIES,
WITCHES, WIDOWS, OLD MAIDS, AND OTHER MARVELS OF THE EMERALD ISLE
Popular Tales as told by the People
WEATHERVANE BOOKS NEW YORK
[Illustration]
Copyright © MDCCCLXXXVIII
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77 72113
All rights reserved.
This edition is published by Weathervane Books
a division of Imprint Society, Inc., distributed by Crown Publishers, Inc.
a b c d e f g h
IN MEMORY OF YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP,
This Volume
IS INSCRIBED TO
MR. JOSEPH B. McCULLAGH,
AS A MODEST TRIBUTE OF
PERSONAL RESPECT.
PREFACE.
The wonderful imaginative power of the Celtic mind is never more
strikingly displayed than in the legends and fanciful tales which people
of the humbler walks of life seldom tire of telling. Go where you will in
Ireland, the story teller is there, and on slight provocation will repeat
his narrative; amplifying, explaining, embellishing, till from a single
fact a connected history is evolved, giving motives, particulars, action,
and result, the whole surrounded by a rosy wealth of rustic imagery and
told with dramatic force an actor might envy. The following chapters
comprise an effort to present this phase of unwritten Celtic literature,
the material having been collected during a recent lengthy visit, in the
course of which every county in the island was traversed from end to end,
and constant association had with the peasant tenantry. As, however, in
perusing a drama each reader for himself supplies stage action, so, in the
following pages, he is requested to imagine the charms of gesticulation
and intonation, for no pen can do justice to a story told by Irish lips
amid Irish surroundings.
[Illustration: "She 'll get all me Turf"]
CONTENTS
PREFACE.
THE SEVEN KINGS OF ATHENRY.
TAMING THE POOKA.
THE SEXTON OF CASHEL.
SATAN'S CLOVEN HOOF.
THE ENCHANTED ISLAND.
HOW THE LAKES WERE MADE.
ABOUT THE FAIRIES.
THE BANSHEE.
THE ROUND TOWERS.
THE POLICE.
THE LEPRECHAWN.
THE HENPECKED GIANT.
SATAN AS A SCULPTOR.
THE DEFEAT OF THE WIDOWS.
[Illustration: "Divil roast ye wid it"]
[Illustration: "Is it spilin' me wall he is?"]
ILLUSTRATIONS
"GOD SAVE YER HOLINESS." Frontispiece.
Vignette
"She 'll get all me Turf"
"Divil roast ye wid it"
"Is it spilin' me wall he is?"
"Howld on, we 'll argy the matther"
Initial: "The Seven Kinds of Athenry"
A Modern Irish Village
"All a makin' love to the Young Princess"
"DIVIL A WAN O' ME KNOWS," SAYS HE.
"The Princess had disayved thim all complately"
"All disconsarted entirely"
Initial: "Taming the Pooka"
Dennis and the Pooka
"He'd a sight of larnin', had the King"
"The Quane a gosterin'"
"IF IT'S AGGRAYBLE TO YE, I'LL LOOK IN YER MOUTH."
The Pooka Spirits
Initial: "The Sexton of Casbel"
THE ROCK OF CASHEL.
"Be aff wid yer nonsinse"
"Where is me dawther?"
"The Owld Man walkin' in Cormae's Chapel"
Initial: "Satan's Cloven Hoof"
Glendalough
Saint Kevin and the Devil
"An' so he's lame, an' must show his cloven fut"
Initial: "The Enchanted Island"
"Howld yer pace, ye palaverin' shtrap"
"Howlin' wid rage"
Initial: "How the Lakes were made"
Lough Conn
The Church by the Bog
Initial: "About the Fairies"
"Owld Meg"
Eva calling the Cattle
Initial: "The Banshee"
The "Hateful Banshee"
The "Friendly Banshee"
Initial: "The Round Towers"
"Crackin' their Haythen Shkulls"
Initial: "The Police"
The Police and the Tenants
"Thither goes the poor old women every day"
Initial: "The Leprechawn"
Returning the next morning with the spade
"Playing his pranks"
Initial: "The Henpecked Giant"
"AN' WHO ARE YOU, ME DEAR?" SAYS FINN, LOOKIN' UP... Continue reading book >>
