Part 1

# Ancient legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland: With sketches of the Irish past ### By Wilde, Lady

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Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.

ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND

Ancient Legends Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland

WITH SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST

BY

LADY WILDE

A NEW EDITION

LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1919

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON ANCIENT LEGENDS OF IRELAND.

‘A work to be welcomed as a valuable addition to the literature of folk-lore and mythology; taken down, for the most part, from oral communications with the peasantry.’—SCOTSMAN.

‘Few nations have a folk-lore so rich and imaginative as that of the Irish. Lady Wilde has studied it conscientiously, and is so well acquainted with the origins of her subject, that the perusal of her

## book is no less instructive than pleasing.’—MORNING POST.

‘An important contribution to the literature of Ireland and the world’s stock of folk-lore.’—EVENING MAIL.

‘Lady Wilde’s book will be welcome either to the professed student of Irish antiquity or to the more general reader who finds delight in fascinating folk-tales delightfully recorded.’—WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

‘Told with power as well as with simplicity ... a very interesting and readable collection of folk-lore.’—GRAPHIC.

‘Lady Wilde’s book is delightful.... Amongst those best acquainted with Irish folk-lore, legends, and mysteries, we believe few will be found capable of adding many words to pages which could only have been filled by an Irish woman lovingly treating such a subject.’—VANITY FAIR.

‘Those who care for legendary reading will find in this volume a source of much enjoyment.’—NORTHERN WHIG.

‘The myths and legends are all of deep interest and value.’—KNOWLEDGE.

COMPANION TO THE PRESENT VOLUME.

POPULAR ROMANCES OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND:

or, The Drolls, Traditions, and Superstitions of Old Cornwall.

Collected and Edited by ROBERT HUNT, F.R.S.

With Illustrations by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.

London: CHATTO & WINDUS, 97 & 99 St. Martin’s Lane, W.C.

CONTENTS.

PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 THE HORNED WOMEN 10 THE LEGEND OF BALLYTOWTAS CASTLE 12 A WOLF STORY 17 THE EVIL EYE 20 THE STOLEN BRIDE 27 FAIRY MUSIC 29 THE FAIRY DANCE 30 FAIRY JUSTICE 32 THE PRIEST’S SOUL 33 THE FAIRY RACE 37 THE TRIAL BY FIRE 39 THE LADY WITCH 41 ETHNA THE BRIDE 42 THE FAIRIES’ REVENGE 46 FAIRY HELP—THE PHOUKA 48 THE FARMER PUNISHED 49 THE FARMER’S WIFE 52 THE MIDNIGHT RIDE 53 THE LEPREHAUN 56 THE LEGENDS OF THE WESTERN ISLANDS 59 THE BRIDE’S DEATH-SONG 60 THE CHILD’S DREAM 62 THE FAIRY CHILD 64 THE DOOM 67 THE CLEARING FROM GUILT 69 THE HOLY WELL AND THE MURDERER 70 LEGENDS OF INNIS-SARK—A WOMAN’S CURSE 71 LEGENDS OF THE DEAD IN THE WESTERN ISLANDS 75 The Death Sign 75 Kathleen 76 November Eve 78 The Dance of the Dead 80 SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING THE DEAD 81 THE FATAL LOVE-CHARM 83 THE FENIAN KNIGHTS 84 RATHLIN ISLAND 86 THE STRANGE GUESTS 86 THE DEAD SOLDIER 87 THE THREE GIFTS 88 THE FAIRIES AS FALLEN ANGELS 89 THE FAIRY CHANGELING 89 FAIRY WILES 91 SHAUN-MOR 91

THE CAVE FAIRIES— The Tuatha-de-Danann 93 Edain the Queen 94 The Royal Steed 96

EVIL SPELLS— Cathal the King 97 The Poet’s Malediction 99 Drimial Agus Thorial 100 AN IRISH ADEPT OF THE ISLANDS 100 THE MAY FESTIVAL 101 MAY-DAY SUPERSTITIONS 106

FESTIVALS— Candlemas 107 Whitsuntide 108 Whitsuntide Legend of the Fairy Horses 108 NOVEMBER SPELLS 109 NOVEMBER EVE 110 A TERRIBLE REVENGE 112

MIDSUMMER— The Baal Fires and Dances 113 The Fairy Doctress 114 MARRIAGE RITES 115 THE DEAD 117 THE WAKE ORGIES 119 THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 123 THE POWER OF THE WORD 129 THE POET AND THE KING 130 THE SIDHE RACE 132 MUSIC 133 POET INSPIRATION—EODAIN THE POETESS 134 THE BANSHEE 135 QUEEN MAEVE 137 DEATH SIGNS 138 The Hartpole Doom 139 SUPERSTITIONS 140 THE FAIRY RATH 142 FAIRY NATURE 142 IRISH NATURE 144

LEGENDS OF ANIMALS.

CONCERNING DOGS 146 CONCERNING CATS 151 The King of the Cats 153 The Demon Cat 154 Cat Nature 156 SEANCHAN THE BARD AND THE KING OF THE CATS 159 THE BARDS 163 KING ARTHUR AND THE CAT 166 CONCERNING COWS 168 Fairy Wiles 170 THE DEAD HAND 172 THE WICKED WIDOW 173 THE BUTTER MYSTERY 175

CONCERNING BIRDS— The Magpie 177 The Wren 177 The Raven and Water Wagtail 177 The Cuckoo and Robin Redbreast 177

CONCERNING LIVING CREATURES— The Cricket 178 The Beetle 178 The Hare 179 The Weasel 179

THE PROPERTIES OF HERBS AND THEIR USE IN MEDICINE 181 A Love Potion 185 Love Dreams 185 To Cause Love 185

MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS AND ANCIENT CHARMS 186 Against Sorrow 188 To Win Love 189 For the Night Fire (the Fever) 189 For a Pain in the Side 189 For the Measles 190 For the Mad Fever 190 Against Enemies 190 To Extract a Thorn 190 To Cause Hatred between Lovers 191 For Love 191 How to have Money Always 191 For the Great Worm 191 For Sore Eyes 191 For Pains in the Body 192 Against Drowning 192 In Time of Battle 192 For the Red Rash 193 To Tame a Horse 193 A very Ancient Charm against Wounds or Poisons 193 For a Sore Breast 193 For a Wound 194 For the Evil Eye 194 For St. Anthony’s Fire 194 How to go Invisible 194 For Pains 194 For a Sprain 195 To Cause Love 195 For the Bite of a Mad Dog 195 For Toothache 196 For Freckles 196 For a Burn 197 For the Memory 197 For the Falling Sickness 197 For Chin-Cough 197 For Rheumatism 198 For a Stye on the Eyelid 198 To Cure Warts 198 For a Stitch in the Side 198 For Weak Eyes 198 For Water on the Brain 199 For Hip Disease 199 For the Mumps 199 For Epilepsy 199 For Depression of Heart 200 For the Fairy Dart 200

VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND CURES 200 To find Stolen Goods 207 A Prayer against the Plague 207 A Blessing 207 A Cure for Cattle 207 A Charm for Safety 208 An Elixir of Potency 208 For the Bite of a Mad Dog 208 Dreams 208 Fairy Doctors 209 Charms by Crystals 209 Alectromantia 210 Fairy Power 210

OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS 211 That Forbode Evil 211 To Attract Bees 213

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ISLANDS— Concerning the Dead 213 The Coastguard’s Fate 214 Relics 214

LEGENDS OF THE SAINTS.

ST. PATRICK 215 The Well of the Book 216 St. Patrick and the Serpent 216 St. Patrick and the Princesses 217 The Poison Cup 217 Divination 217 The Blind Poet 218 The Story of Breccan 218 Bardic Privileges 219 ST. CIARON 220 ST. MARTIN 220 ST. BRIDGET 222 ST. KIERAN 223 ST. KEVIN 223 CHRISTIAN LEGENDS 224

SWEARING STONES AND RELICS— The Cremave 225 Relics for clearing from Guilt 226 Innis-Murry 227

MYSTERIES OF FAIRY POWER.

THE EVIL STROKE 228 THE CHANGELING 229 THE FAIRY DOCTOR 231 THE POET’S SPELL 233 CHARM FOR THE FAIRY STROKE 233 THE FARMER’S FATE 234 THE FAIRY RATH 235

THE HOLY WELLS.

THE HOLY WELLS 236 The White Stones 237 The Sacred Trout 237 ST. AUGUSTINE’S WELL 238 THE GRILLED TROUT 238 LEGEND OF NEAL-MOR 239 ST. JOHN’S WELL 240 THE WELL OF FIONN MA-COUL 240 ST. SEENAN’S WELL 241 KID-NA-GREINA 241 THE WELL OF WORSHIP 243 THE BRIDE’S WELL 243 THE IRISH FAKIR 244 SACRED TREES 246 TOBER-NA-DARA 247 LOUGH NEAGH 247 THE DOCTOR AND THE FAIRY PRINCESS 248 A HOLY WELL 250 A SACRED ISLAND 251 THE LAKE OF REVENGE 251 SCENES AT A HOLY WELL 252 LOUGH FOYLE 252 THE HEN’S CASTLE 253 SLIABH-MISH, COUNTY KERRY 254 THE SKELLIGS OF KERRY 254

POPULAR NOTIONS CONCERNING THE SIDHE RACE.

THE SIDHE RACE 256 THE HURLING MATCH 259 THE RIDE WITH THE FAIRIES 260 THE FAIRY SPY 263 THE DARK HORSEMAN 264 SHEELA-NA-SKEAN 267 CAPTAIN WEBB, THE ROBBER CHIEF 270 THE MAYO CAPTAIN AND FEENISH THE MARE 271

SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST.

THE BARDIC RACE 274 THE ANCIENT RACE 276 THE ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND 278 EARLY IRISH ART 287 OUR ANCIENT CAPITAL 295

SIR WILLIAM WILDE ON “THE ANCIENT RACES OF IRELAND” 329

PREFACE.

The three great sources of knowledge respecting the shrouded part of humanity are the language, the mythology, and the ancient monuments of a country.

From the language one learns the mental and social height to which a nation had reached at any given period in arts, habits, and civilization, with the relation of man to man, and to the material and visible world.

The mythology of a people reveals their relation to a spiritual and invisible world; while the early monuments are solemn and eternal symbols of religious faith—rituals of stone in cromlech, pillar, shrine and tower, temples and tombs.

The written word, or literature, comes last, the fullest and highest expression of the intellect and culture, and scientific progress of a nation.

The Irish race were never much indebted to the written word. The learned class, the ollamhs, dwelt apart and kept their knowledge sacred. The people therefore lived entirely upon the traditions of their forefathers, blended with the new doctrines taught by Christianity; so that the popular belief became, in time, an amalgam of the pagan myths and the Christian legend, and these two elements remain indissolubly united to this day. The world, in fact, is a volume, a serial rather, going on for six thousand years, but of which the Irish peasant has scarcely yet turned the first page.

The present work deals only with the mythology, or the fantastic creed of the Irish respecting the invisible world—strange and mystical superstitions, brought thousands of years ago from their Aryan home, but which still, even in the present time, affect all the modes of thinking and acting in the daily life of the people.

Amongst the educated classes in all nations, the belief in the supernatural, acting directly on life and constantly interfering with the natural course of human action, is soon dissipated and gradually disappears, for the knowledge of natural laws solves many mysteries that were once inexplicable; yet much remains unsolved, even to the philosopher, of the mystic relation between the material and the spiritual world. Whilst to the masses—the uneducated—who know nothing of the fixed eternal laws of nature, every phenomenon seems to result from the direct action of some nonhuman power, invisible though ever present; able to confer all benefits, yet implacable if offended, and therefore to be propitiated.

The superstition, then, of the Irish peasant is the instinctive belief in the existence of certain unseen agencies that influence all human life; and with the highly sensitive organization of their race, it is not wonderful that the people live habitually under the shadow and dread of invisible powers which, whether working for good or evil, are awful and mysterious to the uncultured mind that sees only the strange results produced by certain forces, but knows nothing of approximate causes.

Many of the Irish legends, superstitions, and ancient charms now collected were obtained chiefly from oral communications made by the peasantry themselves, either in Irish or in the Irish-English which preserves so much of the expressive idiom of the antique tongue.

These narrations were taken down by competent persons skilled in both languages, and as far as possible in the very words of the narrator; so that much of the primitive simplicity of the style has been retained, while the legends have a peculiar and special value as coming direct from the national heart.

In a few years such a collection would be impossible, for the old race is rapidly passing away to other lands, and in the vast working-world of America, with all the new influences of light and progress, the young generation, though still loving the land of their fathers, will scarcely find leisure to dream over the fairy-haunted hills and lakes and raths of ancient Ireland.

I must disclaim, however, all desire to be considered a melancholy _Laudatrix temporis acti_. These studies of the Irish past are simply the expression of my love for the beautiful island that gave me my first inspiration, my quickest intellectual impulses, and the strongest and best sympathies with genius and country possible to a woman’s nature.

FRANCESCA SPERANZA WILDE.

ANCIENT LEGENDS.

INTRODUCTION.

The ancient legends of all nations of the world, on which from age to age the generations of man have been nurtured, bear so striking a resemblance to each other that we are led to believe there was once a period when the whole human family was of one creed and one language. But with increasing numbers came the necessity of dispersion; and that ceaseless migration was commenced of the tribes of the earth from the Eastern cradle of their race which has now continued for thousands of years with undiminished activity.

From the beautiful Eden-land at the head of the Persian Gulf, where creeds and culture rose to life, the first migrations emanated, and were naturally directed along the line of the great rivers, by the Euphrates and the Tigris and southward by the Nile; and there the first mighty cities of the world were built, and the first mighty kingdoms of the East began to send out colonies to take possession of the unknown silent world around them. From Persia, Assyria, and Egypt, to Greece and the Isles of the Sea, went forth the wandering tribes, carrying with them, as signs of their origin, broken fragments of the primal creed, and broken idioms of the primal tongue—those early pages in the history of the human race, eternal and indestructible, which hundreds of centuries have not been able to obliterate from the mind of man.

But as the early tribes diverged from the central parent stock, the creed and the language began to assume new forms, according as new habits of life and modes of thought were developed amongst the wandering people, by the influence of climate and the contemplation of new and striking natural phenomena in the lands where they found a resting-place or a home. Still, amongst all nations a basis remained of the primal creed and language, easily to be traced through all the mutations caused by circumstances in human thought, either by higher culture or by the debasement to which both language and symbols are subjected amongst rude and illiterate tribes.

To reconstruct the primal creed and language of humanity from these scattered and broken fragments, is the task which is now exciting so keenly the energies of the ardent and learned ethnographers of Europe; as yet, indeed, with but small success as regards language, for not more, perhaps, than twenty words which the philologists consider may have belonged to the original tongue have been discovered; that is, certain objects or ideas are found represented in all languages by the same words, and therefore the philologist concludes that these words must have been associated with the ideas from the earliest dawn of language; and as the words express chiefly the relations of the human family to each other, they remained fixed in the minds of the wandering tribes, untouched and unchanged by all the diversities of their subsequent experience of life.

Meanwhile, in Europe there is diligent study of the ancient myths, legends, and traditions of the world, in order to extract from them that information respecting the early modes of thought prevalent amongst the primitive race, and also the lines of the first migrations, which no other monuments of antiquity are so well able to give. Traditions, like rays of light, take their colour from the medium through which they pass; but the scientific mythographic student knows how to eliminate the accidental addition from the true primal basis, which remains fixed and unchangeable; and from the numerous myths and legends of the nations of the earth, which bear so striking a conformity to each other that they point to a common origin, he will be able to reconstruct the first articles of belief in the creed of humanity, and to pronounce almost with certainty upon the primal source of the lines of human life that now traverse the globe in all directions. This source of all life, creed, and culture now on earth, there is no reason to doubt, will be found in _Iran_, or Persia as we call it, and in the ancient legends and language of the great Iranian people, the head and noblest type of the Aryan races. Endowed with splendid physical beauty, noble intellect, and a rich musical language, the Iranians had also a lofty sense of the relation between man and the spiritual world. They admitted no idols into their temples; their God was the One Supreme Creator and Upholder of all things, whose symbol was the sun and the pure, elemental fire. But as the world grew older and more wicked the pure primal doctrines were obscured by human fancies, the symbol came to be worshipped in place of the God, and the debased idolatries of Babylon, Assyria, and the Canaanite nations were the result. Egypt—grave, wise, learned, mournful Egypt—retained most of the primal truth; but truth was held by the priests as too precious for the crowd, and so they preserved it carefully for themselves and their own caste. They alone knew the ancient and cryptic meaning of the symbols; the people were allowed only to see the outward and visible sign.

From Egypt, philosophy, culture, art, and religion came to Greece, but the Greeks moulded these splendid elements after their own fashion, and poured the radiance of beauty over the grave and gloomy mysticism of Egypt. Everything hideous, terrible, and revolting was banished from the Greek Mythology. The Greeks constructed no theory of a devil, and believed in no hell, as a distinct and eternal abode for the lost souls of men. The Greek gods were divinely beautiful, and each divinity in turn was ready to help the mortal that invoked him. The dead in Hades mourned their fate because they could no longer enjoy the glorious beauty of life, but no hard and chilling dogmas doomed them there to the tortures of eternal punishment. Earth, air, the heavens and the sea, the storms and sunshine, the forests and flowers and the purple grapes with which they crowned a god, were all to the Greek poet-mind the manifestations of an all-pervading spiritual power and life. A sublime Pantheism was their creed, that sees gods in everything, yet with one Supreme God over all. Freedom, beauty, art, light, and joy, were the elements of the Greek religion, while the Eternal Wisdom, the Great Athené of the Parthenon, was the peculiar and selected divinity of their own half divine race.

Meanwhile other branches of the primal Iranian stock were spreading over the savage central forests of Europe, where they laid the foundation of the great Teuton and Gothic races, the destined world-rulers; but Nature to them was a gloomy and awful mother, and life seemed an endless warfare against the fierce and powerful elemental demons of frost and snow and darkness, by whom the beautiful Sun-god was slain, and who reigned triumphant in that fearful season when the earth was iron and the air was ice, and no beneficent God seemed near to help. Hideous idols imaged these unseen powers, who were propitiated by sanguinary rites; and the men and the god they fashioned were alike as fierce and cruel as the wild beasts of the forest, and the aspects of the savage nature around them.

Still the waves of human life kept rolling westward until they surged over all the lands and islands of the Great Sea, and the wandering mariners, seeking new homes, passed through the Pillars of Hercules out into the Western Ocean, and coasting along by the shores of Spain and France, founded nations that still bear the impress of their Eastern origin, and are known in history as the Celtic race; while the customs, usages, and traditions which their forefathers had learnt in Egypt or Greece were carefully preserved by them, and transmitted as heirlooms to the colonies they founded. From Spain the early mariners easily reached the verdant island of the West in which we Irish are more

## particularly interested. And here in our beautiful Ireland the last

wave of the great Iranian migration finally settled. Further progress was impossible—the unknown ocean seemed to them the limits of the world. And thus the wanderers of the primal race, with their fragments of the ancient creed and mythic poet-lore, and their peculiar dialect of the ancient tongue, formed, as it were, a sediment here which still retains its peculiar affinity with the parent land—though the changes and chances of three thousand years have swept over the people, the legends, and the language. It is, therefore, in Ireland, above all, that the nature and origin of the primitive races of Europe should be studied. Even the form of the Celtic head shows a decided conformity to that of the Greek races, while it differs essentially from the Saxon and Gothic types. This is one of the many proofs in support of the theory that the Celtic people in their westward course to the Atlantic travelled by the coasts of the Mediterranean, as all along that line the same cranial formation is found. Philologists also affirm that the Irish language is nearer to Sanskrit than any other of the living and spoken languages of Europe; while the legends and myths of Ireland can be readily traced to the far East, but have nothing in common with the fierce and weird superstitions of Northern mythology.

This study of legendary lore, as a foundation for the history of humanity, is now recognized as such an important branch of ethnology that a journal entirely devoted to comparative mythology has been recently started in Paris, to which all nations are invited to contribute—Sclaves, Teutons, and Celts, Irish legends being considered specially important, as containing more of the primitive elements than those of other Western nations. All other countries have been repeatedly overwhelmed by alien tribes and peoples and races, but the Irish have remained unchanged, and in place of adopting readily the usages of invaders they have shown such remarkable powers of fascination that the invaders themselves became _Hibernicis ipsis Hiberniores_. The Danes held the east coast of Ireland for three hundred years, yet there is no trace of Thor or Odin or the Frost Giants, or of the Great World-serpent in Irish legend; but if we go back in the history of the world to the beginning of things, when the Iranian people were the only teachers of humanity, we come upon the true ancient source of Irish legend, and find that the original materials have been but very slightly altered, while amongst other nations the ground-work has been overlaid with a dense palimpsest of their own devising, suggested by their peculiar local surroundings.