276 WHO WERE THE FAIRIES ? 



point which Professor Macalister wishes to 

 emphasize is that " there is a complete break in 

 continuity between the supernatural beings of 

 the old Irish romances and those spoken of by the 

 modern peasant. The modern fairies in manners, 

 customs, garb, appearance, and names are as 

 different as possible from the Aes Sidhe and the 

 other beings of whom tales are told in the MSS." 

 And he takes an example which may be dwelt 

 upon for a moment. All over Ireland we find the 

 Puca or Pook embedded in place-names. There 

 is for example the Waterfall of Poul-a-Phuca near 

 Blessington : there is a Carrig-a-Phuca, that 

 curious peel-tower on the top of a rock which 

 cannot fail to catch the eye of any tourist motoring 

 from Macroom to Killarney, there is Castle-Pook 

 close to Doneraile, where Canon Sheehan lived 

 and is buried : there are a host of other examples. 

 The name itself ought to arouse our suspicions as 

 to a foreign origin for its bearer, for what has a 

 fairy with an initial P to do with a country of 

 K-Celts ? And as a fact Professor Macalister de- 

 clares that as far as the Puca is concerned " the 

 delvers in ancient Irish literature have not yet 

 unearthed the faintest trace of such a being or 

 anything like him." From these two facts it 

 would seem as if the Puca must be an alien im- 

 portation, and such Professor Macalister believes 

 him to have been. He thinks that the fairy as now 

 and in recent times known in Ireland is much 

 more like the Shakesperian sprite than he is to the 

 more ancient being of legend. No one will need 

 to be reminded that Shakespeare knew about Puck. 



