ENNIS NA SHIA. 87 



condemnation of the vanquished. To earth 

 they had chosen to belong, and to the desti- 

 nies of earth they were consigned. They 

 are not subject to death like man, but they 

 are not immortal. Their life is limited to 

 the duration of their abode. The hills, the 

 plains, the woods, the springs, the waves, 

 and the breezes, all have their inhabitants. 

 Some of these localities perish even while 

 the earth exists, and their fairies perish 

 with them ; but all must be destroyed at the 

 great final crash of the world, and then, when 

 man rises into life, the fairy sinks into anni- 

 hilation. 



" From the blessings of Friday, therefore, 

 the day of redemption, the fairy is excluded, 

 and the consciousness of this operates, in one 

 way or other, on the minds of them all. 

 Most of them indulge in malicious, some in 

 vindictive feelings, against the favoured race 

 of man, whom they consider their inferiors, 

 but whose privileges, nevertheless, they envy. 

 The fairies of the Erne are of a milder and 

 better nature. They exhibit no envious 

 feelings whatever; but on Fridays they retire 

 into their subterraneous halls, and pass the 

 day in weeping and bemoaning their fate. 



