Collectanea. 3 1 5
back and found his knife covered with blood and fled at the fairy's groan. When at last he ventured to return in the morning he only found a heap of slime as if a dead frog had melted there. This was told to Henri by the Bofin school- master, " M'C ."^
He was told by a man from Omey Island that one snowy day a millstone floated down Hghtly to earth ; it had fairy meal on it, and remained an undoubted relic of the fairy folk.^
Though Maxwell 3 inclined to telling picturesque tales, I found some of his stories well attested by local belief. Unfortun- ately they are, where reliable, brief and bald, relating to " butter taking" and the power of certain lochs near Ballycroy to cure cattle.
Dr. Browne and I in the " nineties " of the last century, and I between 1909 and 1912, found much information about the fairies. We exchanged notes, so I will give the combined results, adding that the larger portion (save perhaps on Cliara and Bofin) was gathered by Dr. Browne during his very valuable ethnological researches. On Cliara or " Clare " Island (I prefer the proper Irish name as less confused with the county Clare and the several towns of the name in it and the counties Galway and Mayo) Sergeant MacGolderic, Mr. Edward O'Malley and Mrs. C. Kelly told Dr. Browne^ (I had much con- firmation from several of the O'Malleys and Mr. and Mrs. Mac- Cabe there, 1909-1911) numerous stories of interest. One John Neddy saw about a hundred fairies in white running on the mountain side in the spring of 1896. They are thought to be the least guilty of the fallen angels condemned to wander on the earth (like the undying Jew) till the day of judgment. I heard vague but contradictory tales of their ultimate fate. A girl was once carried off by them, and they were removing a child when it was rescued by some people who passed at the critical moment. At childbirth a protective red cord should be tied round the wrist of the mother and another round that
' Err is and Tyrawky, p. 397.
- Wild Sports of the West, vol. ii. ]i. 61. '^ Ibid. pp. 64-66.
- " Ethnography of Clare Island .md InishUirk," ibid. vol. v. ser. iii. p. 63.
