546 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



carts, horses, and men were busily employed all one day, carting 

 the fort for manure, never dreading for a moment that for this 

 interference the good people might turn out bad people. 

 Strange to say, that night in the byre, where all had been well, 

 a cow died. Still the work went on with vigour the second 

 day, but that night three cows died. Now this gave food for 

 reflection, and caused a shaking of heads at a family council 

 duly assembled. Still it was absurd for a sturdy farmer to 

 believe in any such nonsense as fairies, and on went the work 

 of demolition during the third day, and that settled the matter; 

 for that night five cows died, and the stubborn old tiller of the 

 soil gave way. He not only gave way, he made restitution by 

 carting back to the fort all the soil he had removed. The 

 fairies were satisfied, and no more deaths ensued amongst the 

 cattle. This astonishing coincidence saved a pleasant feature of 

 the landscape, and vindicated the character of the slooa-shee 

 amongst an unbelieving peasantry. 



And now let us go to the Bann-side. Some unlucky people 

 had an " evil eye," for if any animal did not thrive, it was said 

 it had been blinked — that is, some person with an evil eye had 

 looked at it. I remember my old nurse threatening to leave, 

 and using dreadful language, because a clutch of chickens had 

 died off mysteriously, and some one had said she had blinked 

 them, thus causing the calamity. This same nurse had a lame 

 foot that there was always a mystery about, until her aged 

 mother told its history to my mother. It appeared that when 

 Mary Murphy (for that was her name) was a child about three 

 or four years of age, her father took her to the field where he 

 was working and lapped her in his coat, putting her to sleep 

 under an aged thorn ; when she awoke her foot was twisted, 

 and she was unable to walk. From her birth till then her 

 mother stated that she had been a perfect child without any 

 physical defect. Mr. Bigger said he was not much of a stickler 

 for forms or ceremonies, but he always religiously observed one 

 — that was, to turn his money when he saw the new moon, for he 

 was told if you do that you will never want cash. You should 



