1887.) 14i [Mooney. 



lives long after its return, owing to the rough treatment it receives while 

 in the hands of the fairies. 



In this operation we have a combination of fire, iron and dung, the three 

 great safeguards against the influence of fairies and the infernal spirits. 

 Three is also the sacred number in Ireland, as well as throughout Europe. 

 The changeling sometimes leaps through the window at sight of the prepa- 

 rations, and disappears in some unaccountable manner, when the real child 

 is found asleep in the cradle. This method is known throughout the coun- 

 try, but there are also other ways to accomplish the same purpose. In the 

 County Cork the mother, while still fasting, takes the changeling before 

 sunrise to a point where three running streams meet, and after stripping 

 it, dips it into the water three times in the name of the Trinity. This is 

 done on three successive mornings, and on returning home the third 

 morning her real child is restored to her arms as she enters the doorway, 

 the substitution being effected instantaneously by the fairies. 



In another instance a young man was suddenly stricken with a rheu- 

 matic illness, which confined him to his bed nearly three years. At last 

 one day while his parents were gone to the market he got up and joined 

 the younger children playing outside the house, and was as active as any 

 of them. When it was about time for the parents to return he went back 

 to bed again. The children told the old folks all about it and an elder 

 brother agreed to watch the next day. In the morning the parents started 

 off again, but were hardly out of sight when the sick man was out of bed 

 once more and in the field with the children. The watcher ran toward the 

 house to see if the bed was empty, but with all his swiftness, the rheu- 

 matic got there first and was in bed when he entered the door. The 

 brother look up an ax, and approaching the sick man, swore that he would 

 kill him if he did not tell who he was. "Oh, brother," cried the sick 

 man, "don't strike me, for I have only a few more days to serve, and 

 then I will be with you again." The brother desisted and soon after the 

 young man was restored as well and strong as he was three years before. 

 He explained that a servant girl of the family, who had apparently died 

 about a year before the beginning of his illness, was with the fairies, and 

 had warned him not to accept food or drink at their hands. He followed 

 her advice, and at the end of three years, the shortest period of fairy de- 

 tention, they were consequently obliged to release him, while the girl 

 who had made the fatal mistake of eating with them was never restored. 

 The young man was the son of a respectable farmer named Halpine, in 

 the County Limerick. 



This belief in the presence of a fairy changeling in .place of the sick 

 person is very general, especially in the case of infants which pine away 

 without apparent cause, strong young men suddenly stricken down, and 

 old persons whose illness is of a fitful and lingering nature. It probably 

 has its origin in the change in disposition and features under such circum- 

 stances, and the unwillingness of the people to believe that this can be 



