SUPERSTITIONS AND HAUNTINGS 277 



of others. As in Sullivan's case, he let no one see 

 how he worked. 



" Ye'll sup sorrow for this," is a common 

 expression. 



If everything goes wrong all day the old people 

 will tell you, " Ye got out of bed with ye're left 

 foot foremosht," which is a most unlucky thing 

 to do. 



In Connemara if you meet a red-headed woman 

 when you are going out fishing the boatman would 

 just as soon go home for the day. 



Bad scran to Maggie or Katie as the case may 

 be, that she should be out with the fine drop of 

 rain to stir the wather, now no chance of a feesh. 



Hares in Connemara are often said to be fairy 

 men who take off their skins when they get back 

 to their huts on the mountains. 



" Thim ones " you can only kill with a silver 

 bullet, they tell you. 



Superstition will take a long time to die out in 

 Ireland, if it ever does. The towns may kill it, 

 but in the lonely places where the mountain peaks 

 toss themselves up into the mist, and all the world 

 whispers after rain with the voices of babbling 

 falling streams, where the heather is pink and 

 crimson against brown rock and bog, or where 

 the pasture lands stretch green and wide with the 

 old forths rising from them, the children will 

 listen still for the tap of the fairy cobbler when 

 the grey dusk falls. They will still run past the 



i8* 



