Miscellanea. 363
so late at night ? " They were a very long time getting home, for the pig kept with them, attacking the donkey and trying to get at them in the cart. It disappeared at a certain ruined house. It is believed to have been a " phooka." The adventure had a great effect upon the old woman, who became very good and religious ; up to that time she had been rather the reverse.
Two men were driving home late one night, and met a woman, to whom they offered a "lift." No sooner was she in the cart than the mare set off at a tremendous pace, and the men could not hold her in. At last the woman got down and disappeared ; and when the mare was got in she was mad for three days, " trying to get out of a hole that was in the stable-roof." She, however, recovered.
Some other men who gave "a lift" to a woman whom they met by the road one night were less fortunate. "What makes the horse pull so hard ? " said they ; "he hasn't half a ton on him." " He has more," answered the woman ; "each of my arms weighs a ton, and each of my legs a ton. You'll lose your horse," said she, and got down and disappeared. And the horse died in the stable the same night.
B. himself coming home late once, heard a noise as of a crowd of persons following him on foot and on horseback. He could see nobody ; but the crowd seemed to advance at the same rate as himself, stopping whenever he stopped, and going on when he did. He was much alarmed, and knelt in the road and prayed ; and the steps receded, and he came home safe.
There was a dog at B.'s farm, and one night it darted out after something it heard passing. It came back in an hour or two horribly mangled, and died on the doorstep.
In the boggy corner of the lands of R., about fifty years ago, three men were cocking hay after sunset, and he who was upon the cock saw what seemed a funeral procession coming through the fields. It passed through the hedge close by the men, who all saw it, and went on out of sight.
Witchcraft.
There was a " fairy-man " living in the mountains not far from R. at the time I was there ; but I was not able to get to see him, and the people were shy of talking of him. He cures horses, I
