A Harvest of Irish Folk-Lore 321 



English, and that imperfectly. These men belong 

 to a group of persons all of whom are well ad- 

 vanced in years, and some very old; with them 

 will pass away the majority of the story-tellers of 

 Ireland, unless new interest in the ancient lan- 

 guage and lore of the country is roused. 



" For years previous to my visit of 1887 I was 

 not without hope of finding some myth tales in a 

 good state of preservation. I was led to entertain 

 this hope by indications in the few Irish stories 

 already published, and by certain tales and beliefs 

 that I had taken down myself from old Irish per- 

 sons in the United States. Still, during the ear- 

 lier part of my visit in Ireland, I was greatly 

 afraid that the best myth materials had perished. 

 Inquiries as to who might be in possession of these 

 old stories seemed fruitless for a considerable time. 

 The persons whom I met that were capable of 

 reading the Gaelic language had never collected 

 stories, and could refer only in a general way to 

 the districts in which the ancient language was 

 still living. All that was left was to seek out the 

 old people for whom Gaelic is the every-day speech, 

 and trust to fortune to find the story-tellers." 



Thus Mr. Curtin was led to explore the counties 

 of Kerry, Galway, and Donegal. " Comforting 

 myself with the Kussian proverb that 4 game runs 



