170 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Paut m. — Legends and Tkaditioins. 



L The Btu'lding of the Tower. — ^O'Conor thus relates a tale that was told 

 him about the reason for the incomplete state of the Soimd Tower : " The 

 local tradition is that this tower was never raised higher than it is at present 

 and assigns as the cause of this the craft of a witch, who by her scoffing at 

 the arehitect, who was busilj engaged in working at the building, irritated him 

 so much that he leaped off the top of it, on the ground and struck her on the 

 head with his hammer, by which blow she was metamorphosed. The people 

 now show her ' done in stone ' lying close to the tower to the west side, and 

 retaining still the track of the hammer." The allusion is to the cixiss-base, 

 N^o. 12 in the foregoing list. The tale is still told, but without the mad 

 leap of the architect from the top of the tower ; the witch is not now said 

 to have scoffed, but to have omitted the benediction on the work expected 

 from the passer-by. 



0'C!onor adds : " The witch said . to have been thus transformed, is the 

 cailleach na sioghbhruidheacht , fairy hag, who is spoken of in connection with 

 Illaanmore in the last letter." This reference is to p. 532 of the same volume 

 of the Ordnance Correspondence, where we read : " In the North East end 

 of the townland of lUaanmor (Oilean mor) in Loughdei^, 2 miles North East 

 of Williamstown Quay, there was, it is said, formerly an abbey occupied by 

 Friars of the Franciscan oidei. The foundation of an edifice, which was 

 probably a church, is still traceable here." Then follows a description of the 

 ruin, and of slabs with crosses within it, after which the writer says ; 

 " Between the houses of Patrick Hickey and Patrick Meara, on the island, close 

 to the shore . . . there is seen standing a rude stone, 8 or 9 feet high, which 

 tradition says, was set up by the Saints who founded the Churches on Inish- 

 caltra, to commemorate their departure from Illaanmore to the last-mentioned 

 island. They were first beginning to build the seven churches on this big 

 island, but relinqmi^hed their design by reason of a wntch who was called 

 cailleach na sioghbkrui/fheacht, i.e., the fairy hag, ha%ing, at the very moment 

 they were commencing the work, directed her unlucky eyes towards them. It 

 was said that a road led through the lake from this island to luishcaltra. 

 Persons can walk out a considerable distance on it into the lake in summer 

 time without any danger. It appears to be a causeway constructed with 

 stones of great size and weight, either by the hands of nature, or by art." 



I heard nothing of all this, though possibly search on Oilean Mor, which 

 I liave not visited, might bring to light some lingeiing i-ecollections of this 

 part of the tradition. But it is not uni-easonable to see in this stoiy a dim 

 recollection of the early struggle between Christianity and Pagauism on this 



