4 28 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



as ever they were when they came in. But one of the women couldn't 

 find her cueul at all, and she went up and down the cave in a terrible state, 

 crying and calling to the others not to leave her there. But they wouldn't 

 wait, and so they went off with themselves and left her there all alone by 

 herself. 



" By this time the sea had gone down, and the cauoe came out again to take 

 the man away from the cave ; so he got down out of the skelp with the cucul 

 hid close under his bawneen [white flannel vest], for well he knew the seal- 

 woman once she got hold of the cucul would slip it on and turn back into a 

 seal and swim off with herself. A real handsome woman she was, and after 

 speaking her fair and kindly, he took her into the canoe and brought her home 

 to the island, and they were married there by the priest. And they lived very 

 happy there, and had two children, and the husband took care to keep the 

 cucul hid in the thatch the way the wife wouldn't see it. 



" But one day he was out fishing, and the wife was drying fiax by the fire — 

 for at that time there was flax grown in the island — when the flax caught 

 fire and before sbe kuew where she was the house was all in a blaze. So she 

 ran out with the children, and the thatch caught fire in a few minutes and 

 she got a queer smell coming from the thatch and she looked up and what did 

 she see there but her cucul, and it singeing with the tire. With that she made 

 a leap at the cucul and caught it, and ran down to the shore with it, and 

 slipped it on and made a seal of herself, and away she swam off with herself, 

 leaving the two children behind her. 



" So the husband was left forlorn there with the children till one day a 

 neighbour came and told him how he'd seen his wife come up out of the sea 

 and throw off her cucul and walk up on the rocks and hug and kiss the 

 children were playing there, and cry as if her heart were breaking. ' And,' 

 says he, ' if you go your way down now to the shore and hide till she comes 

 up again you've nothing to do only dart out and snap up the cucul, and you'll 

 have her back again with you.' With that the husband goes down to the 

 shore and hides behind a rock nigh-hand where the children were sitting, and 

 sure enough a seal comes swimming up and throws off its cucul and he seen 

 at once 'twas his wife that was in it, and she takes to hugging and kissing the 

 children as if she'd like to eat them. Then out he leaps and grabs at the 

 cucul ; but he wasn't smart enough, for she caught it up before he came near 

 it and on she claps it, and away with her into the sea. And the poor man 

 never seen sight or light of her after that. He was a man that lived over 

 there at the other end of the island, but I disremember his name." 



I was unable to discover the precise meaning attached by the Clare Islanders 

 to the word Coca.ll, which so often recurs in these seal legends. All the 



