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



and Miss S. M. Thompson, member. Some views of children's 

 games were exhibited by Miss Patterson, of Holywood. There 

 was a very fine model of the paddle steamship Slieve Donard 

 exhibited by James Pinion, during the evening, which was a 

 most enjoyable one. 



On the 20th November, 1893, the following papers were 

 read :— "Irish Folk-Lore," by W. B. Yeats, of Dublin ; "A 

 Few Children's Games," by Clara M. Patterson. W. H. 

 Patterson, M.R.I.A., afterwards read the Report of the Ethno- 

 graphical Committee. 



W. B. Yeats, having been formally introduced by the 

 President, proceeded with his lecture, which consisted in the 

 main of illustrations showing the strong hold which a faith in 

 the existence of a fairy kingdom still retains upon the Irish 

 mind. They were surrounded, he said, by every kind of 

 sorrowing lamentation, and they could never thoroughly 

 express their emotions, no more than they could fully satisfy 

 any of their desires. They desired the infinite, and the world 

 was very finite. But Providence had sent them the fairy tales 

 and the fairy kingdom to rescue their hearts and desires from 

 starvation. One of the reasons why they never had enough of 

 anything was because their poor bodies were tired out before 

 their hearts and souls had their fill. But with the fairies their 

 lives were a continual festival. Scotland had its folk-lore, but it 

 excelled in terror. There were touches of horror in it which 

 they could not find at all in Irish folk-lore. That incident in 

 Homer where the cattle of the sun began to bellow up in spits 

 might have been a piece of Scotch folk-lore. That was the 

 quality of it. They did not get that sort of thing in Ireland. 

 They got certainly a more beautiful, and perhaps a more admir- 

 able thing. They did not excel in terror. Speaking of the 

 banshee, he comforted the audience by informing them that its 

 cry was not always the forerunner of death, but always of some 

 misfortune. 



