Mooney.] 264 [Oct. 19, 
’ 
it while on their nightly excursions with the ‘‘ good people,’’ who wer 
consequently compeld to releas them at the end of the term of three, 
five or seven years. I hav talkd with a number of persons of fair intel- 
ligence and education, and of varied experience, who believ and insist 
that their own parents, brothers or sisters wer thus carried off by the 
fairies, altho to all appearances they died and wer buried in the regular 
way. On the west coast, when a man is drownd and his friends fail to 
recover the body, it is known that he has been taken by the fairies and is 
stil alive in their caves at the bottom of the ocean. They ar sometimes 
seen by their former friends on their fishing trips, and in a few instances 
hav been allowd to return to the land of the living.. A single story, told 
by a Roscommon woman, wil show the belief on this subject. It was 
related as an incident within her own knowledge, and the fairy fort 
referd to was in her uncle’s field near Ballintubber. 
A woman named Nancy Flinn was one day going to see her sister when, 
as she was passing near the fort, she saw a number of young men, all of 
whom wer strangers to her, playing hurley in the field. As she came up 
one of them approachd her and said, ‘‘My good woman, you go back 
and take another road to your sister’s.’’ She paid no attention, but kept 
on, when he again warnd her to turn back. Some time after, while milk- 
ing, she suddenly fel down and began calling for help. As her husband 
came running up she cried out, ‘‘O, Ned, hold me!’’ He could hear 
the sound of blows, while she screamd at every blow. He carried 
her into the hous and put her to bed, but she lingerd only a short time 
and then died. A neighbor and his wife went to see her in the evening, 
and left the hous just as she drew her last breath. On their way home 
they stopd at the narrator’s hous, pale and trembling with fear, and said 
that in passing the fort they had seen it all lit up with a thousand lights, 
and had heard sounds of rejoicing and voices crying, ‘‘ We hav her at 
last, we hav her at last; but, Nancy, it was hard to get you.” 
When it is suspected that the dead person has really been carried off by 
the fairies, his friends ar accustomd to leav food or milk where he can get 
it during his nightly visits in company with the ‘‘good people,’’ in order 
that he may not be obliged to partake of the fairy food. On this subject 
Lady Wilde incorrectly states that ‘‘ it isa very general custom during 
some nights after a death to leav food outside the house—a griddle cake 
or a dish of potatoes. If it is gone in the morning the spirits must have 
taken it, for no human being would touch the food left for the dead.’’* 
The truth of the matter is that the food is lefr, not for those who ar 
known to be dead, but for those who ar believd to be stil alive, altho 
held in captivity by the fairies. On November night, however, food is 
left in readiness for the spirits of the dead, who then revisit their for- 
mer homes, while it isa common thing to propitiate the fairies in like 
manner at all seasons of the year. 
* Lady Wilde, Ancient Legends of Ireland, i, 225, London, 1887. 
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