Remember, I am not blaming the man it is very much better to believe in a number of gods than in none at all, or think there is only one, but that he is a little sentimental and impracticable, and not constructed for the nineteenth century. There is one on Innistor but this seems a big place, said the man, and the priest held up his hands in horror, as Giraldus had, just seven centuries before. How many gods are there? asked a priest, a little while ago, of a man from the Island of Innistor. Giraldus Cambrensis found the people of the western islands a trifle paganish. At any rate, whole troops of their like will not change the Celt much. Indeed, it is a question whether any of these personages will ever be heard of outside the newspaper offices and lecture-rooms and drawing-rooms and eel-pie houses of the cities, or if the Spirit of the Age is at any time more than a froth. In a little while, for he has gotten a consumptive appearance of late, he will be covered over decently in his grave, and another will grow, old and much respected, in his place, and never be heard of down there, and after him another and another and another. Certainly that now old and much respected dogmatist, the Spirit of the Age, has in no manner made his voice heard down there.

In every house over there, said the pilot, pointing to his native village of Rosses, there are several. Here is a man who believes in ghosts, said a foreign sea-captain, pointing to a pilot of my acquaintance. Indeed, they don’t like to see them at all, she answered, for they always bring bad weather. Do the fishermen along here know anything of the mermaids? I asked a woman of a village in County Dublin. Amn’t I annoyed with them, was the answer. Have you ever seen a fairy or such like? I asked the old man in County Sligo. In Ireland they are still extant, giving gifts to the kindly, and plaguing the surly. In Queen Mary’s time he wrote-īut now in the times of James, they had all gone, for they were of the old profession, and their songs were Ave Maries.

CORBETT, Bishop of Oxford and Norwich, lamented long ago the departure of the English fairies. THE STORY OF CONN-EDA OR THE GOLDEN APPLES OF LOUGH ERNEĭR. KINGS, QUEENS, PRINCESSES, EARLS, ROBBERS TEIG O’KANE (TADHG O CÁTHÁN) AND THE CORPSE No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Cover.jpg IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES EDITED AND SELECTED By W.

Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by Various