Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/529

This page needs to be proofread.

Collectanea. 487

He turned to see the Lake's blue plain.

With all its emerald glories round it ; But there appear'd a grand demesne,

By towering elms and poplars bounded.

He look'd behind — the scene was gone —

A thrill of wonder gather'd o'er him ; For, nothing save the blue Lake shone

With all its silver curls, before him."

There was another legend, but a very vague one, about a city submerged by a magic well under the beautiful lake of Inchiquin. The legend seems to have died out near Corofin. Another curious legend about Inchiquin lake was found by Dr. G. U. MacNamara, to the effect that the lake originated from an old woman piercing the earth with a spindle, when waters burst out and filled the valley.

Thos. J. Westropp.

(To be continued.)

Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales {continued). 19. The Hycena and the Wrestling Match. (B. G.)

This is about the Hyaena. She had a husband, a male hyaena.^ So she arose and got a vessel to go to the stream. So she went and came to (the place where) games were being held (by) the Elephant, the Buffalo, the Hartebeeste, the Roan Antelope, the Gazelle, the Jerboa, the Hare, the Lizard, and the Water-lizard. They were having a game. Now the Elephant was the great one, the umpire. So she (Elephant) said, — " Now (in this) wrestling game whoever throws down another may eat the flesh of him whom he has beaten." Now, on the Hyaena's arrival, they said, — "Are you not coming to play?" She said, — " I am (playing) certainly." When she had put down

'"Kura" is nearly always employed for both sexes, but the word itself ending in "a" is feminine ; only in story 28 is it made masculine. The male hyaena is larger than the female.