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ULSTER FOLKLORE




  [Illustration: PLATE I. [_R. Welch, Photo._
  HARVEST KNOT.]




  ULSTER FOLKLORE

  BY
  ELIZABETH ANDREWS, F.R.A.I.

  WITH FOURTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS

  LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK
  7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
  1913




INTRODUCTION


In 1894 I was at the meeting of the British Association at Oxford, and
had the good fortune to hear Professor Julius Kollmann give his paper on
"Pygmies in Europe," in which he described the skeletons which had then
recently been discovered near Schaffhausen. As I listened to his account
of these small people, whose average height was about four and a half
feet, I recalled the description of Irish fairies given to me by an old
woman from Galway, and it appeared to me that our traditional "wee-folk"
were about the size of these Swiss dwarfs. I determined to collect what
information I could, and the result is given in the following pages. I
found that the fairies are, indeed, regarded as small; but their height
may be that of a well-grown boy or girl, or they may not be larger than
a child beginning to walk. I once asked a woman if they were as small as
cocks and hens, but she laughed at the suggestion.

I had collected a number of stories, and had become convinced that in
these tales we had a reminiscence of a dwarf race, when I read some of
Mr. David MacRitchie's works, and was gratified to find that the
traditions I had gathered were in accordance with the conclusions he had
drawn from his investigations in Scotland. A little later I made his
acquaintance, and owe him many thanks for his great kindness and the
encouragement he has given me in my work.

As will be seen in the following pages, tradition records several small
races in Ulster: the Grogachs, who are closely allied to the fairies,
and also to the Scotch and English Brownies; the short Danes, whom I am
inclined to identify with the Tuatha de Danann; the Pechts, or Picts;
and also the small Finns. My belief is that all these, including the
fairies, represent primitive races of mankind, and that in the stories
of women, children, and men being carried off by the fairies, we have a
record of warfare, when stealthy raids were made and captives brought to
the dark souterrain. These souterrains, or, as the country people call
them, "coves," are very numerous. They are underground structures, built
of rough stones without mortar, and roofed with large flat slabs. Plate
II. shows a fine one at Ardtole, near Ardglass, Co. Down. The total
length of this souterrain is about one hundred and eight feet, its width
three feet, and its height five feet three inches.[1] The entrance to
another souterrain is shown in the Sweathouse at Maghera[2] (Plate
III.).

As a rule, although the fairies are regarded as "fallen angels," they
are said to be kind to the poor, and to possess many good qualities. "It
was better for the land before they went away" is an expression I have
heard more than once. The belief in the fairy changeling has, however,
led to many acts of cruelty. We know of the terrible cases which
occurred in the South of Ireland some years ago, and I met with the same
superstition in the North. I was told a man believed his sick wife was
not herself, but a fairy who had been substituted for her. Fortunately
the poor woman was in hospital, so no harm could come to her.

Much of primitive belief has gathered round the fairy--we have the fairy
well and the fairy thorn. It is said that fairies can make themselves so
small that they can creep through keyholes, and they are generally
invisible to ordinary mortals. They can shoot their arrows at cattle and
human beings, and by their magic powers bring disease on both. They
seldom, however, partake of the nature of ghosts, and I do not think
belief in fairies is connected with ancestral worship.

Sometimes I have been asked if the people did not invent these stories
to please me. The best answer to this question is to be found in the
diverse localities from which the same tale comes. I have heard of the
making of heather ale by the Danes, and the tragic fate of the father
and son, the last of this race, in Down, Antrim, Londonderry, and Kerry.
The same story is told in many parts of Scotland, although there it is
the Picts who make the heather ale. I have been told of the woman
attending the fairy-man's wife, acquiring the power of seeing the
fairies, and subsequently having her eye put out, in Donegal and Derry,
and variants of the story come to us from Wales and the Holy Land.

I am aware that I labour under a disadvantage in not being an Irish
scholar, but most of those in Down, Antrim, and Derry from whom I heard
the tales spoke only English, and in Donegal the peasants who related
the stories knew both languages well, and I believe gave me a faithful
version of their Irish tales.

Some of these essays appeared in the _Antiquary_, others were read to
the Archaeological Section of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, but
are now published for the first time _in extenso_. All have been
revised, and additional notes introduced. To these chapters on folklore
I have added an article on the Rev. William Hamilton, who, in his
"Letters on the North-East Coast of Antrim," written towards the close
of the eighteenth century, gives an account of the geology, antiquities,
and customs of the country.

The plan of the souterrain at Ballymagreehan Fort, Co. Down, was kindly
drawn for me by Mr. Arthur Birch. I am much indebted to the Council of
the Royal Anthropological Institute for their kindness in allowing me to
reproduce the plan of the souterrain at Knockdhu from Mrs. Hobson's
paper, "Some Ulster Souterrains," published in the _Journal_ of the
Institute, vol. xxxix., January to June, 1909. My best thanks are also
due to Mrs. Hobson for allowing me to make use of her photograph of the
entrance to this souterrain. The other illustrations are from
photographs by Mr. Robert Welch, M.R.I.A., who has done so much to make
the scenery, geology, and antiquities of the North of Ireland better
known to the English public.

  BELFAST,
  _August, 1913_.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] See "Ardtole Souterrain, Co. Down," by F. J. Bigger and W.
J. Fennell in _Ulster Journal of Archaeology_, 1898-99, pp. 146, 147.

[2] I am much indebted to Mr. S. D. Lytle of that town for
kind permission to reproduce this view.




CONTENTS


                                                           PAGE

  INTRODUCTION                                                V

  FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES                           1

  A DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. LONDONDERRY                          14

  ULSTER FAIRIES, DANES, AND PECHTS                          24

  FOLKLORE CONNECTED WITH ULSTER RATHS AND SOUTERRAINS       36

  TRADITIONS OF DWARF RACES IN IRELAND AND IN
  SWITZERLAND                                                47

  FOLKLORE FROM DONEGAL                                      64

  GIANTS AND DWARFS                                          84

  THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D.                           105




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  PLATES

     I. HARVEST KNOT                             _Frontispiece_

                                                    FACING PAGE

    II. SOUTERRAIN AT ARDTOLE, ARDGLASS, CO. DOWN             1

   III. ENTRANCE TO SWEATHOUSE, MAGHERA                      14

    IV. RUSH AND STRAW CROSSES                               17

     V. HARVEST KNOTS                                        19

    VI. "CHURN"                                              20

   VII. ENTRANCE TO SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU                   30

  VIII. THE OLD FORT, ANTRIM                                 36

    IX. GREY MAN'S PATH, FAIR HEAD                           49

     X. TORMORE, TORY ISLAND                                 73

    XI. VALLEY NEAR ARMOY, WHENCE, ACCORDING TO
        LEGEND, EARTH WAS TAKEN TO FORM RATHLIN              90

   XII. FLINT SPEARHEAD AND BASALT AXES FOUND UNDER
        FORT IN LENAGH TOWNLAND                              97


  PLANS

        SOUTERRAIN AT BALLYMAGREEHAN                          6

        SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU                               30




  [Illustration: PLATE II. [_R. Welch, Photo._
  SOUTERRAIN AT ARDTOLE, ARDGLASS CO. DOWN.]




Fairies and their Dwelling-places[3]


In the following notes I have recorded a few traditions gathered from
the peasantry in Co. Down and other parts of Ireland regarding the
fairies. The belief is general that these little people were at one time
very numerous throughout the country, but have now disappeared from many
of their former haunts. At Ballynahinch I was told they had been blown
away fifty years ago by a great storm, and the caretaker of the old
church and graveyard of Killevy said they had gone to Scotland. They
are, however, supposed still to inhabit the more remote parts of the
country, and the old people have many stories of fairy visitors, and of
what happened in their own youth and in the time of their fathers and
grandfathers.

We must not, however, think of Irish fairies as tiny creatures who
could hide under a mushroom or dance on a blade of grass. I remember
well how strongly an old woman from Galway repudiated such an idea. The
fairies, according to her, were indeed small people, but no mushroom
could give them shelter. She described them as about the size of
children, and as far as I can ascertain from inquiries made in many
parts of Ulster and Munster, this is the almost universal belief among
the peasantry. Sometimes I was told the fairies were as large as a
well-grown boy or girl, sometimes that they were as small as children
beginning to walk; the height of a chair or a table was often used as a
comparison, and on one occasion an old woman spoke of them as being
about the size of monkeys.

The colour red appears to be closely associated with these little
people. In Co. Waterford, if a child has a red handkerchief on its head,
it is said to be wearing a fairy cap. I have frequently been told of the
small men in red jackets running about the forts; the fairy women
sometimes appear in red cloaks; and I have heard more than once that
fairies have red hair.

A farmer living in one of the valleys of the Mourne Mountains said he
had seen one stormy night little creatures with red hair, about the size
of children. I asked him if they might not have been really children
from some of the cottages, but his reply was that no child could have
been out in such weather.

An old woman living near Tullamore Park, Co. Down, described vividly
how, going out to look after her goat and its young kid, she had heard
loud screams and seen wild-looking figures with scanty clothing whose
hair stood up like the mane of a horse. She spoke with much respect of
the fairies as the gentry, said they formerly inhabited hills in
Tullamore Park, and that care was taken not to destroy their
thorn-bushes. She related the following story: As a friend of hers was
sitting alone one night, a small old woman, dressed in a white cap and
apron, came in and borrowed a bowl of meal. The debt was repaid, and the
meal brought by the fairy put in the barrel. The woman kept the matter
secret, and was surprised to find her barrel did not need replenishing.
At last her husband asked if her store of meal was not coming to an end;
she replied that she would show him she had sufficient, and lifted the
cover of the barrel. To her astonishment it was almost empty; no doubt,
had she kept her secret, she would have had an unlimited supply of meal.

I have heard several similar stories, and have not found that any evil
consequences were supposed to follow from partaking of food brought by
the fairies. Men have been carried off by them, have heard their
beautiful music, seen them dancing, or witnessed a fairy battle without
bringing any misfortune on themselves. On the other hand, according to a
story I heard at Buncrana, Co. Donegal, a little herd-boy paid dearly
for having entered one of their dwellings. As he was climbing among the
rocks, he saw a cleft, and creeping through it came to where a fairy
woman was spinning with her "weans," or children, around her. His sister
missed him, and after searching for a time, she too, came to the cleft,
and looking down saw her brother, and called to him to come out. He
came, but was never able to speak again.

In another case deafness followed intercourse with the fairies. An
elderly man at Maghera, Co. Down, told me that his brother when four or
five years old went out with his father. The child lay down on the
grass. After a while the father heard a great noise, and looking up saw
little men about two feet in height dancing round his son. He called to
them to be gone, and they ran towards a fort and disappeared. The child
became deaf, and did not recover his hearing for ten years. He died at
the age of seventeen.

To cut down a fairy thorn or to injure the house of a fairy is regarded
as certain to bring misfortune. An old woman also living at Maghera,
related how her great-grandmother had received a visit from a small old
woman, who forbade the building of a certain turf-stack, saying that
evil would befall anyone who injured the chimneys of her house. The
warning was disregarded, the turf-stack built, and before long four cows
died.

I was told that when a certain fort in Co. Fermanagh was levelled to
the ground misfortune overtook the men who did the work, although,
apparently, they were only labourers, many of them dying suddenly. It
was also said that where this fort had stood there were caves or hollows
in the ground into which the oxen would fall when ploughing. An attempt
to bring a fort near Newcastle under cultivation is believed to have
caused the sudden death of the owner.

The fairies are celebrated as fine musicians; they ride on small horses;
the women grind meal, and the sound of their spinning is often heard at
night in the peasants' cottages. The following story is related as
having occurred at Camlough, near Newry.

A woman was spinning one evening when three fairies came into the house,
each bringing a spinning-wheel. They said they would help her with her
work, and one of them asked for a drink of water. The woman went to the
well to fetch it. When there she was warned, apparently by a friendly
fairy, that the others had come only to mock and harm her. Acting on the
advice of this friend, the woman, as soon as she had given water to the
three, turned again to the open door, and stood looking intently towards
a fort. They asked what she was gazing at, and the reply was: "At the
blaze on the fort." No sooner had she uttered these words than the three
fairies rushed out with such haste that one of them left her
spinning-wheel behind, which, according to the story, is now to be seen
in Dublin Castle. The woman then shut her door, and put a pin in the
keyhole, thus effectually preventing the return of her visitors.

In this story we have probably an allusion to the signal fires which
are believed by the peasantry to have been lit on the forts in time of
danger, one fort being always within view of another. These forts, or
raths, appear to have been the favourite abode of the fairies. To use
the language of the peasantry, these little people live in the "coves of
the forths," an expression which puzzled me until I found that coves, or
caves, meant underground passages--in other words, souterrains.

There are a number of these souterrains in the neighbourhood of
Castlewellan, and with a young friend, who helped me to take a few rough
measurements, I explored several.

[Illustration: PLAN OF BALLYMAGREEHAN SOUTERRAIN.]

Ballymagreehan Fort is a short distance from Castlewellan, near the
Newry Road. It is a small fort, and on the top we saw the narrow
entrance to the souterrain. Passing down through this, we found
ourselves in a short passage, or chamber, which led us to another
passage at right angles to the first. It is about forty feet in length
and three feet in width; the height varies from four to five feet. The
roof is formed of flat slabs, and the walls are carefully built of round
stones, but without mortar. At one end this passage appeared to
terminate in a wall, but at the other it was only choked with fallen
stones and debris, and I should think had formerly extended farther.

Herman's Fort is another small fort on the opposite side of
Castlewellan, in the townland of Clarkill. Climbing to the top of it, we
came to an enclosure where several thorn-bushes were growing. The farmer
who kindly acted as our guide showed us two openings. One