36 Mr. E. J. M'Kean on Irish Ghost-Lore. 



several times, the second time " at a dinner-party, when he went 

 into a room by himself." The haunted man went at last to the 

 lawyers, who laughed at him and asked him for his witness, 

 refusing to pay heed to the ghost. The disappointed suitor then 

 went back to the ghost, who said, "They were to call him three 

 times, and he would appear in court " as a witness. The triple 

 call was made, and " a hand and part of an arm appeared and 

 struck the table three times," so that the court shook. The 

 lawyers then believed, and gave the lad the farm. The man 

 went back, and the next time he met the ghost asked him if he 

 was satisfied. The ghost said he was, and thanked the man 

 greatly. Some one had put the man up to ask the ghost whether 

 "he was happy," but the ghost told him that if it was any one 

 else he would have torn him in pieces for the question. They 

 have thrown down his gravestone in Drumbeg Churchyard to 

 keep Haddock down, and it remains so to this day. 



In the Ulster Journ. Arch. III., 325, W. Pinkerton has an 

 excellent article on this story, giving the tradition and also the 

 old accounts from More's editions of Granvil's " Sadducisinus 

 Triumphatus " and Richard Baxter's " Certainty of the World of 

 Spirits." 



It will thus be seen that everywhere about us is a multitude of 

 these stories. They are well worth collecting, if only for the 

 dramatic nature of some of them ; but if they are collected at all 

 they should be most carefully committed to paper or they are of 

 no value as folklore. 



