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that his wife must have been carried off by the fairies. Feeling that he was powerless against enemies possessed of more than mortal ability and cunning, he sought the advice and assistance of an old priest renowned for his skill in witchcraft and occult influences. The old priest told him that as soon as it was dark he would set about his preparations for compelling the return of the woman who had been abducted. At nightfall the priest’s invocations were commenced, spell after spell was uttered and solemn hymns recited full of reminders to the absent wife of the happiness she had once found with her husband, and how heart-broken he was to find her place at his side empty. Far away, in the home of the fairies, the stolen woman felt the influence of the charms recited by the priest, and her dreams became full of pictures of her former pleasant life. At last she could bear the crowding images of the old affectionate domestic existence no longer and she resolved at all hazards to try to escape from the fortress of her captors. This was not very difficult at that moment, for they were almost all absent on one of their midnight rambles. In the meantime Rua had been instructed by the priest to go out to meet his wife, and to bear in his hand a vessel full of sacred red colour with which to