264 Proceedings of the Roijal Irish Academy. 



dillisk (seaweed), asked some passing boatmen to put her out to an islet and 

 fetch her back ou their return : amu§ed by her talk they brought her fishing, 

 and soon got a " tremendous bite." They landed a green, fishy-looking child, 

 quite human in shape, and in their fright let him escape and dive. The man 

 who hooked him died suddenly within a year. Gallagher also said that he had 

 fired at and wounded a seal ; soon after, when far out to sea in his currach, he 

 cot lost in a fog-bank and reached an unknown island. An old man, moaning, 

 with one eye blinded, stood on the shore and proved to be the seal. With more 

 than human forgiveness, he warned his enemy to fly from the land of the seal- 

 men, lest his (the seal's) sons and friends should avenge the cruelty." Early 

 Yictorian stories did not lose in the telling. 



The compiler of a manuscript dated 1636, and in the Library of the Royal 

 Iri.sh Academy, tells how the Firbolgs fled to "the out islands" from the 

 Tuatha De Danann ; the latter in their turn fled — the writer knew not 

 whither—" unless they do inhabit an island which lyeth far out to sea on the 

 west of Con)iaught. And it is sometimes perceived by the inhabitants of 

 Uaile and Iris. It is said to be seen from St. Helen's Head, being the furthest 

 west point of land beyond the haven of Calbegs (Killybegs), now Teeling 

 Head."- He confuses Monaster Ladra with the Sunken Land. 



TiR HuDi. — General Vallaucey tells of a phantom island appearing off the 

 north-west of Donegal and the northern coasts. At the former place it is 

 called Tir Hudi ; it contains a city which once possessed all the riches of 

 the world, the key of which lies buried under some Druidical monument.' 

 Vallaucey is too fanciful and careless to be of much authority, and e^adently 

 confuses the Donegal "land" with Kilstuithin; yet it is curious that the 

 unidentified island of Dathuli^ is shown to the north-west of Donegal. Otway 

 had the good fortune once to see this northern phantom. " I was a witness 

 to the appearance of land rising out of the sea near the Giant's Causeway," 

 he says.' There is idso a belief in north Donegal of such a land " far outside 

 Inistrahull," which can be never reached and is rarely seen, " a sea-form of 

 the mist brumal." 



Brasil. — Most famous of all the phantom islands, and known along the 



' " Erris andTyrawly," p. 24 7 and p. 400. He cites "Whitehurat and Hamilton on p. 245 for 

 confirmation, and regards the evidence of the broken coast and traces of volcanic action in north 

 Antrim as decisive. " Tour in Counaught," p. 439. 



^ James Havdiman's " Irish Minstrelsy," vol. i, p. 138. The present St. Helen's Head is far 

 northward up the Donegal coast. 



' " Vindication of the Ancient History of Ireland,'' introd., p. 51. 



* Some have idenlified this as "San Chuli," a supposed equivalent to "St. Kilda." If not 

 Inistrahull (y. trachull), it may be Eockall. 



°" Erris," p. 249. 



