The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-09
THE MORNING NEWS: SUNDAY. JUNE 8. 1895.

tation TO mortal cupidity. He is also sup
| posed 10 carry a small leather purse con-
tanning shilling that is always replaced
/ by another. no matter now often ex-
pended The Leprechaun IS likewise much
I addicted to the human weaknesses of to-
! DaccO and liquor in fact. he is never
/ seen without a dudeen between his teeth
| and well-hlled pitcher at his side. The
/ small pipes Of ancient form sometimes
| turned up in plOughing are presumed to
l have been discarded by the Leprechaun.
| The remaining members OF the fairy
tribe in Ireland have Tar less individ-
uality than the Leprecnaun, who seems
really TO be d distinct national product
with as much of the human as the elf
| in his composition The popular name
Shefro, or Shifra. for example, appears
70 be applied to the spirit world at large.
Those
Whose midnight revels by forest side
Or fountain some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, wnIe overhead the
moon
Sits arbitress. and nearer to the earth
Wheels her pale course"
The Shefros may be said to correspond
IN a measure TO the old-IasniOned fairies
of romance and nursery legend who rare
~ assumed visible form, excepting for the
nocturnal merrymakngs by the light of
Shefros also are either good or bad (more
frequently the latter, but never indiffer-
ent, and are much given 10 attendance at
childbirth for obvious reasons Those
who profess TO have seen the tiny folk
describe them as about two feet in hight
and living in raths imounds), whence
they some times issue forth mounted on
diminutve steeds and prepared for the
hunt. They usually wear red caps and
green attire. In the vulgar mind every
bit of i'll luck endured by mortals is at
tributed to the fairies, who, in Ireland
at least, seem to be engaged in a constant
malevolent war against the unfortunate
human kind. and must therefore be treat
ed with the greatest Difference and re-
spect
Miss L. Dora Grimshaw, writing to
the London Spectator, reports the follow
ing curious incident from her own exper-
fence aproDos of Irish superstitions:
She happened to be stopping recently at
a country house near Dublin when it was
proposed to visit a rath. One Of the party
was an exceedingly up-to-date English
lady, probably a new woman. All around
the rath or mound were quantities of
bright-eyed ragweed, which was then COW
cred with little green caterpillars. This
lady broke off a piece of the weed to exam
Inc them, much to the horror of The peas
ant girl who acted as guide. For your life
! don't do that, my lady; sure" she implor-
| ed, "thims the good people; that's the
| shape they do be taking in the daytime
| and in the night they do be dancing on the
| rath." The new woman" however ap-
| parently not impressed with this warn
/ ing, bore away her uncanny prize in
! triumph, and secreted the caterpillars in a
/ cardboard box on her dressing-table, Just
/ to show the poor ignorant creatures how
/ absurd they were" Lo! in the morning the
box was still there but the catcrpillars
| had disappeared. Moreover, her watch,
| which had never been known to do such a
thing before, had suddenly stopped at mid
night. Sure, it's a warning they're after
] givin ye not to be mcddin' with the likes
| of them" said Nora, the housemaid. It's
wonder they didn't throttle you intirely."
The rivers Of Ireland are not peopled
with mikes and kelpies like those of Ger
many and Scotland, but on the ceacoast
they talk of Merrows or mermaids of sur
passing beauty, who in the past have been
| known to enter into matrimonial bonds
/ with mortals. Some southern families it is
| said, even now claim to have undoubted
| Morrow blood in their veins. These fishy
maidens are wont to sit on the rocks i'm fine
weather to dry and comb their long hair
While thus tengaged they might easily ex-
cite the amorOus instincts of passing fish
ermen. jilad
The Morrow is provided with a little en-
chanted cap, called the cohuleen driuth, by
Z Lne dlQ OF Wn1cn Sne Is eidDieQ 10 ave
down in to the depths of the ocean. 1t is
necessary then for the would-be sutton to
first possess himself of this cap be-
fore he makes his declaration of love- else
the maid will be apt to slip back into the
sea as quick as a wink.
The Banshee, al every one knows, is sup
posed to presage death or sickness by sing
ing mournful lamentations around the
house at night. However, as Dr. O'Brien
says in his Irish Dictionary, mo families
which are not of an ancient or noble stock
are believed to be honored with this fairy
privilege
The Dellahan lin Irish dubhlachan, a
dark, sullen person. is a grewsome sort of
goblin that delights in frightening mid
night wayfarers by playing ball with its
head Probably Brom Bones wished to
emulate this species when he so effectually
demoralized poor Ichabod Crane, as told in
the Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
The Pooka, or Phooka, is thought by
some to be the same as the English Puck,
and is described in Killarney as "a wicked
looking black thing in the form of a wild
colt with chains dangling from its back"
T. Crofton Croker, the famous antigua
rian and friend of Sir Walter Scott, spent
nearly half lifetime in collecting inform
alton and tales about the good people"
in his native land, and in my humble opin-
ion, one could hardly spend a cosey even
ing to better advantage than by devouring
the contents of his Fairy Legends of Ire
land" to which likewise 1 am indebted for
a portion of the information contained in