ulster folklore 00 and ru of t

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ULSTER FOLKLORE


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PLATE I. HARVEST KNOTi [R. Welch, Photo.


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ULSTER FOLKLOREBY

ELIZABETH ANDREWS, F.R.A.I,

WITH FOURTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.

1913


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vi INTRODUCTIONaccordance with the conclusions he had drawnfrom his investigations in Scotland. A little laterI made his acquaintance, and owe him many thanksfor his great kindness and the encouragement hehas given me in my work.As wrill be seen in the following pages, tradition

records several small races in Ulster: the Grogachs,who are closely allied to the fairies, and also to theScotch and English Brownies; the short Danes,whom I am inclined to identify with the Tuathade Danann; the Pechts, or Picts; and also thesmall Finns. My belief is that all these, includingthe fairies, represent primitive races of mankind,and that in the stories of women, children, andmen being carried off by the fairies, we have arecord of warfare, when stealthy raids were madeand captives brought to the dark souterrain.These souterrains, or, as the country people callthem, [ coves/ 1 are very numerous. They areunderground structures, built of rough stoneswithout mortar, and roofed with large flat slabs.Plate II. shows a fine one at Ardtole, nearArdglass, Co. Down. The total length of thissouterrain is about one hundred and eight feet, itswidth three feet, and its height five feet threeinches.* The entrance to another souterrain isshown in the Sweathouse at Magheraf (Plate III.).

* See "Ardtole Souterrain, Co. Down," by F. J. Biggerand W. J. Fennell in Ulster Journal of Archeology, 1898-99,pp. 146, 147.

f I am much indebted to Mr. S. D. Lytle of that town forkind permission to reproduce this view.


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INTRODUCTION viiAs a rule, although the fairies are regarded as

1 fallen angels/ they are said to be kind to thepoor, and to possess many good qualities. Itwas better for the land before they went away isan expression I have heard more than once. Thebelief in the fairy changeling has, however, led tomany acts of cruelty. We know of the terriblecases which occurred in the South of Ireland someyears ago, and I met with the same superstitionin the North. I was told a man believed his sickwife was not herself, but a fairy who had been substituted for her. Fortunately the poor woman wasin hospital, so no harm could come to her.Much of primitive belief has gathered round the

fairy we have the fairy well and the fairy thorn.It is said that fairies can make themselves so smallthat they can creep through keyholes, and they aregenerally invisible to ordinary mortals. They canshoot their arrows at cattle and human beings, andby their magic powers bring disease on both.They seldom, however, partake of the nature ofghosts, and I do not think belief in fairies is connected with ancestral worship.Sometimes I have been asked if the people did

not invent these stories to please me. The bestanswer to this question is to be found in the diverselocalities from which the same tale comes. I haveheard of the making of heather ale by the Danes,and the tragic fate of the father and son, the lastof this race, in Down, Antrim, Londonderry, andKerry. The same story is told in many parts of


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viii INTRODUCTIONScotland, although there it is the Picts who makethe heather ale. I have been told of the womanattending the fairy-man s wife, acquiring the powerof seeing the fairies, and subsequently having hereye put out, in Donegal and Derry, and variants ofthe story come to us from Wales and the HolyLand.

I am aware that I labour under a disadvantagein not being an Irish scholar, but most of those inDown, Antrim, and Derry from whom I heard thetales spoke only English, and in Donegal thepeasants who related the stories knew both languages well, and I believe gave me a faithful versionof their Irish tales.Some of these essays appeared in the Antiquary,others were read to the Archaeological Section ofthe Belfast Naturalists Field Club, but are nowpublished for the first time in extenso. All havebeen revised, and additional notes introduced.To these chapters on folklore I have added anarticle on the Rev. William Hamilton, who, in his

Letters on the North-East Coast of Antrim, 1written towards the close of the eighteenth century,gives an account of the geology, antiquities, andcustoms of the country.The plan of the souterrain at BallymagreehanFort, Co. Down, was kindly drawn for me by Mr.

Arthur Birch. I am much indebted to the Councilof the Royal Anthropological Institute for theirkindness in allowing me to reproduce the plan ofthe souterrain at Knockdhu from Mrs. Hobson s


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INTRODUCTION ixpaper, " Some Ulster Souterrains," published inthe Journal of the Institute, vol. xxxix., January toJune, 1909. My best thanks are also due to Mrs.Hobson for allowing me to make use of her photograph of the entrance to this souterrain. Theother illustrations are from photographs by Mr.Robert Welch, M.R.I.A., who has done so much tomake the scenery, geology, and antiquities of theNorth of Ireland better known to the Englishpublic.

BELFAST,August, 1913.


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CONTENTSPAGE

INTRODUCTION - V

FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES - IA DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. LONDONDERRY 14ULSTER FAIRIES, DANES, AND PECHTS - 24FOLKLORE CONNECTED WITH ULSTER RATHS AND SOU-

TERRAINS - 36TRADITIONS OF DWARF RACES IN IRELAND AND IN

SWITZERLAND . 47FOLKLORE FROM DONEGAL 64GIANTS AND DWARFS 84THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D D. - 105

XI


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPLATES

I. HARVEST KNOT FrontispieceFACING PAGE

II. SOUTERRAIN AT ARDTOLE, ARDGLASS, CO. DOWN IIII. ENTRANCE TO SWEATHOUSE, MAGHERA - 14IV. RUSH AND STRAW CROSSES - - 17V. HARVEST KNOTS - 19vi. "CHURN - 20VII. ENTRANCE TO SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU - 30VIII. THE OLD FORT, ANTRIM 36IX. GREY MAN S PATH, FAIRHEAD - 49X. TORMORE, TORY ISLAND - 73XI. VALLEY NEAR ARMOY, WHENCE, ACCORDING TO

LEGEND, EARTH WAS TAKEN TO FORM RATHLIN 90XII. FLINT SPEARHEAD AND BASALT AXES FOUND UNDER

FORT IN LENAGH TOWNLAND - 97

PLANSPAGESOUTERRAIN AT BALLYMAGREEHAN - - 6

SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU 30

Xlll


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ULSTER FOLKLOREFairies and their Dwelling-places *

IN the following notes I have recorded a fewtraditions gathered from the peasantry in Co.Down and other parts of Ireland regarding thefairies. The belief is general that these littlepeople were at one time very numerous throughout the country, but have now disappeared frommany of their former haunts. At Ballynahinch Iwas told they had been blown away fifty years agoby a great storm, and the caretaker of the oldchurch and graveyard of Killevy said they hadgone to Scotland. They are, however, supposedstill to inhabit the more remote parts of thecountry, and the old people have many stories offairy visitors, and of what happened in their ownyouth and in the time of their fathers and grandfathers .We must not, however, think of Irish fairies astiny creatures who could hide under a mushroomor dance on a blade of grass. I remember wellhow strongly an old woman from Galway repudiated

* Communicated to Belfast Naturalists Field Club,January 18, 1898.


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2 ULSTER FOLKLOREsuch an idea. The fairies, according to her, wereindeed small people, but no mushroom could givethem shelter. She described them as about thesize of children, and as far as I can ascertain frominquiries made in many parts of Ulster and Munster,this is the almost universal belief among thepeasantry. Sometimes I was told the fairies wereas large as a well-grown boy or girl, sometimes thatthey were as small as children beginning to walk;the height of a chair or a table was often used as acomparison, and on one occasion an old womanspoke of them as being about the size of monkeys.The colour red appears to be closely associated

with these little people. In Co. Waterford, if achild has a red handkerchief on its head, it is saidto be wearing a fairy cap. I have frequently beentold of the small men in red jackets running aboutthe forts; the fairy women sometimes appear inred cloaks; and I have heard more than once thatfairies have red hair.A farmer living in one of the valleys of the MourneMountains said he had seen one stormy night little

creatures with red hair, about the size of children.I asked him if they might not have been reallychildren from some of the cottages, but his replywas that no child could have been out in suchweather.An old woman living near Tullamore Park, Co.Down, described vividly how, going out to lookafter her goat and its young kid, she had heardloud screams and seen wild-looking figures with


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FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES 3scanty clothing whose hair stood up like the maneof a horse. She spoke with much respect of thefairies as the gentry, said they formerly inhabitedhills in Tullamore Park, and that care was takennot to destroy their thorn-bushes. She related thefollowing story : As a friend of hers was sitting aloneone night, a small old woman, dressed in a whitecap and apron, came in and borrowed a bowl ofmeal. The debt was repaid, and the meal broughtby the fairy put in the barrel. The woman keptthe matter secret, and was surprised to find herbarrel did not need replenishing. At last herhusband asked if her store of meal was not comingto an end; she replied that she would show himshe had sufficient, and lifted the cover of thebarrel. To her astonishment it was almost empty;no doubt, had she kept her secret, she would havehad an unlimited supply of meal.

I have heard several similar stories, and have notfound that any evil consequences were supposedto follow from partaking of food brought by thefairies. Men have been carried off by them, haveheard their beautiful music, seen them dancing, orwitnessed a fairy battle without bringing any misfortune on themselves. On the other hand, according to a story I heard at Buncrana, Co. Donegal,a little herd-boy paid dearly for having entered oneof their dwellings. As he was climbing amongthe rocks, he saw a cleft, and creeping through itcame to where a fairy woman was spinning withher " weans," or children, around her. His sister


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4 ULSTER FOLKLOREmissed him, and after searching for a time, she too,came to the cleft, and looking down saw herbrother, and called to him to come out. He came,but was never able to speak again.

In another case deafness followed intercoursewith the fairies. An elderly man at Maghera, Co.Down, told me that his brother when four or fiveyears old went out with his father. The child laydown on the grass. After a while the father hearda great noise, and looking up saw little men abouttwo feet in height dancing round his son. Hecalled to them to be gone, and they ran towardsa fort and disappeared. The child became deaf,and did not recover his hearing for ten years. Hedied at the age of seventeen.To cut down a fairy thorn or to injure the house

of a fairy is regarded as certain to bring misfortune.An old woman also living at Maghera, relatedhow her great-grandmother had received a visitfrom a small old woman, who forbade the buildingof a certain turf-stack, saying that evil wouldbefall anyone who injured the chimneys of herhouse. The warning was disregarded, the turf-stack built, and before long four cows died.

I was told that when a certain fort in Co.Fermanagh was levelled to the ground misfortuneovertook the men who did the work, although,apparently, they were only labourers, many of themdying suddenly. It was also said that where thisfort had stood there were caves or hollows in theground into which the oxen would fall when plough-


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FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES 5ing. An attempt to bring a fort near Newcastleunder cultivation is believed to have caused thesudden death of the owner.The fairies are celebrated as fine musicians ; they

ride on small horses ; the women grind meal, andthe sound of their spinning is often heard at night inthe peasants cottages. The following story is relatedas having occurred at Camlough, near Newry.A woman was spinning one evening when threefairies came into the house, each bringing a spinning-wheel. They said they would help her with herwork, and one of them asked for a drink of water.The woman went to the well to fetch it. Whenthere she was warned, apparently by a friendlyfairy, that the others had come only to mock andharm her. Acting on the advice of this friend, thewoman, as soon as she had given water to thethree, turned again to the open door, and stoodlooking intently towards a fort. They asked whatshe was gazing at, and the reply was: " At theblaze on the fort." No sooner had she utteredthese words than the three fairies rushed out withsuch haste that one of them left her spinning-wheelbehind, which, according to the story, is now to beseen in Dublin Castle. The woman then shut herdoor, and put a pin in the keyhole, thus effectuallypreventing the return of her visitors.

In this story we have probably an allusion tothe signal fires which are believed by the peasantryto have been lit on the forts in time of danger, onefort being always within view of another. These


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6 ULSTER FOLKLOREforts, or raths, appear to have been the favouriteabode of the fairies. To use the language of thepeasantry, these little people live in the " coves ofthe forths," an expression which puzzled me untilI found that coves, or caves, meant undergroundpassages in other words, souterrains.

There are a number of these souterrains in theneighbourhood of Castlewellan, and with a youngfriend, who helped me to take a few rough measurements, I explored several.

Ballymagreehan Fort is a short distance from

PLAN OF BALLYMAGREEHAN SOUTERRAIN.

Castlewellan, near the Newry Road. It is a smallfort, and on the top we saw the narrow entranceto the souterrain. Passing down through this, wefound ourselves in a short passage, or chamber,which led us to another passage at right angles tothe first. It is about forty feet in length and threefeet in width; the height varies from four to fivefeet. The roof is formed of flat slabs, and the wallsare carefully built of round stones, but withoutmortar. At one end this passage appeared toterminate in a wall, but at the other it was onlychoked with fallen stones and debris, and I shouldthink had formerly extended farther.Herman s Fort is another small fort on the oppo-


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FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES 7site side of Castlewellan, in the townland of Clarkill.Climbing to the top of it, we came to an enclosurewhere several thorn-bushes were growing. Thefarmer who kindly acted as our guide showed ustwo openings. One of these led to a narrow chamber fully six feet high, the other to a passage morethan thirty feet in length and about three feet wide,while the height varied from three and a half feetin one part to more than five feet in another. I wastold that water is always to be found near theseforts, and was shown a well which had existed fromtime immemorial; the sides were built of roundstones without mortar, in the same way as the wallsof the passage.We heard here of another souterrain about amile distant, called Backaderry Cove. It is on theside of a hill close to the road leading from Castle-wellan to Dromara. A number of thorn-bushesgrow near the place, but there is no mound, eithernatural or artificial. Creeping through the opening,we found ourselves in a passage about forty feet inlength; a chamber opens off it nine feet in length,and between five and six feet in height, while theheight of the passage varies from four and a half tofive and a half feet. There is a tradition that thispassage formerly connected Backaderry with Herman s Fort.

Ballyginney Fort is near Maghera. I only sawthe entrance to the souterrain, but from what Iheard I believe that here also there is a chamberopening off the passage. The farmer on whose land


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8 ULSTER FOLKLOREthe fort is situated told me that one dry summerhe had planted flax in the field adjoining the fort.The small depth of soil above the flat slabs affectedthe crop, so that by the difference in the flax it waseasy to trace where the passage ran below the field.We have seen that the fairies are believed toinhabit the souterrains; they are also said to liveinside certain hills, and in forts where, so far as isknown, no underground structure exists. I maymention as an example the large fort on the ShimnaRiver, near Newcastle, where I was told theirmusic was often to be heard. There may be manysouterrains whose entrance has been choked up,and of which no record has been preserved. Mr.Bigger gave last session an interesting account ofone discovered at Stranocum ; another was accidentally found last September in a field about threemiles from Newry. Mr. Mann Harbison, whovisited the souterrain, writes to me that the excavation has been made in a circular portion which issix feet wide and five feet high. A gallery opensout of this chamber, and is in some places not morethan three feet six inches high.The building of the forts and souterrains is

ascribed by the country people to the Danes, a raceof whom various traditions exist. They are saidto have had red hair ; sometimes they are spoken ofas large men, sometimes as short men. One oldwoman, who had little belief in fairies, told me thatin the old troubled times in Ireland people livedinside the forts; these people were the Danes, and


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FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES 9they used to light fires on the top as a signal fromone fort to another. I heard from an elderly manof Danes having encamped on his grandmother sfarm. Smoke was seen rising from an unfrequentedspot, and when an uncle went to investigate thematter he found small huts with no doors, only abundle of sticks laid across the entrance. In one ofthe huts he saw a pot boiling on the fire, and goingforward he began to stir the contents. Immediatelya red-haired man and woman rushed in; theyappeared angry at the intrusion, and when he wentout threw a plate after him.The traditions in regard both to Danes and fairies

are very similar in different parts of Ireland. InCo. Cavan the country people spoke of the beautifulmusic of the fairies, and told me of their living ina fort near Lough Oughter. One woman said theywere sometimes called Ganelochs, and were aboutthe size of children, and an old man described themas little people about one or two feet high, ridingon small horses.

In Co. Waterford I was told that the fairies werenot ghosts: they lived in the air. One man mightsee them while they would be invisible to others.

In an interesting lecture on the " Customs andSuperstitions of the Southern Irish," the Rev. J. B.Leslie, who has kindly allowed me to quote from hismanuscript, describes the fairies as " a species ofbeings neither men nor angels nor ghosts. . . .They are connected in the popular imaginationwith the Danish forts which are common in the


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10 ULSTER FOLKLOREcountry. In these they seem to have their abodeunderground. At night they hold here high revels-in grand banqueting-halls and in these revels theremust always, I believe, be a living human being.The fairies are often called the good people ; somethink they are fallen angels. They are usuallythought of as harmless creatures, unless, of course,they are interfered with, when the power they wieldis very great. They are very fond of games; sometestify that they have seen them play football,others hurley, while playing at marbles is a specialpastime, and I have even heard of persons whohave discovered fairy marbles near or in theseforts. No one will interfere with the forts; theyfear the power and anger of the fairies."

While the fairies are generally associated with theforts, I heard both in Co. Down and Co. Kerry oftheir living in caves in the mountains, and a ladwhom I met near the Gap of Dunloe described themas having cloven feet and black hair.A boatman at Killarney spoke of the Leprechaunsas little men about three feet in height, wearingred caps. He thought the fairies might be taller,and spoke of their living in the forts. He said theseforts had been built by the Danes, who must havebeen small men, when they made the passages solow. We thus see that fairies and Danes are bothassociated with these ancient structures. Althoughthe Irish peasant speaks of these Danes having beenconquered by Brian Boru, the structure and positionof the raths and souterrains point to their having


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FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES 11been the work of one of the earlier Irish races ratherthan of the medieval Norsemen. Their nameappears to identify them with the Tuatha deDanann whose necromantic power is celebratedin Irish tales, and of whom, according to O Curry,one class of fairies are the representatives. I knowthat some high authorities regard the Tuatha deDanann and the fairies as alike mythological beings.The latter are certainly in popular legend endowedwith superhuman attributes; they can transportpeople long distances, creep through keyholes, andthe fairy changeling, when placed on the fire, canescape up the chimney and grin at his tormentors.If we ask the country people who are the fairies,the reply is frequently, " Fallen angels." Accordingto an old woman in Donegal, these angels fell, someon the sea, some on the earth, while some remained inthe air; the fairies were those who fell on the earth.These " fallen angels " may be the representatives

of the spirits whom the pagan Irish worshipped andstrove to propitiate, and some of the tales relatingto the fairies may have their origin in the mythologyof a primitive people. But the raths and souter-rains are certainly the work of human hands, and Iwould suggest that in the legends connected withthem we have a reminiscence of a dwarf race whorode on ponies, were good musicians, could spin andweave, and grind corn. The traditions would pointto their being red-haired.Mr. Mann Harbison has kindly written to me

on this subject, and expresses his belief that the


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12 ULSTER FOLKLOREsouterrains were constructed by a diminutiverace, probably allied to the modern Lapps, whoseem to be the survivors of a widely distributedrace." In another letter he says: " The universalidea of fairies is very suggestive. The tall Celts,when they arrived, saw the small people disappearin a mysterious way, and, without stopping toinvestigate, imagined they had become invisible.If they had had the courage or the patience toinvestigate, they would have found that they hadpassed into their souterrain."

In his work " Fians, Fairies, and Picts," Mr.David MacRitchie argues that these three namesbelong to similar if not identical dwarf races inScotland. The Tuatha de Danann he also regardsas of the same race as the fairies, or, to give themtheir Irish name, the Fir Sidhe, the men of thegreen mounds.The remains of the ancient cave-dwellers point

to a primitive race of small size inhabiting Europe.Dr. Munro, in his work " Prehistoric Problems/ 1refers to the skeletons discovered at Spy in Belgiumby MM.Lohest and De Pudzt. He describes themas examples of a very early and low type of thehuman race, and states that Professor Fraipont,who examined them anatomically, came to theconclusion that the Spy men belonged to a racerelatively of small stature, analogous to the modernLaplanders, having voluminous heads, massivebodies, short arms, and bent legs. They led asedentary life, frequented caves, manufactured flint


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FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES 13implements after the type known as Mousterien,and were contemporary with the Mammoth."*

Let us compare this description with that in theballad of " The Wee, Wee Man " :

" His legs were scarce a shathmont sj length,And thick and thimber was his thigh ;Between his brows there was a span,And between his shoulders there was three."I do not, however, mean to suggest that the

builders of the raths and souterrains were contemporary with the men of Spy, but rather thata small race of primitive men may have existeduntil a comparatively late period in this country.Leading a desultory warfare with their neighbours,they would carry off women and children, andinjure the cattle with their stone weapons. Weshould note that in the traditions of the peasantry,and also in the old ballads, those who have beencarried off by the fairies can frequently be releasedfrom captivity, and they return, not as ghosts, butas living men or women. May we not see in theselegends traces of a struggle between a primitiverace, whose gods may have been, like themselves, ofdiminutive stature, and their more civilized neighbours, who accepted the teaching of the earlyChristian missionaries ?

* P. 141.t " Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs," published anony

mously, but known to have been collected by David Herd(vol. i., p. 95, ed. 1776).

J The fist closed with thumb extended, and may be considered a measure of about six inches.


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A Day at Maghera, Go. Londonderry *ONE fine morning last August I found myselfin the quaint old town of Maghera. My firstvisit was to the post-office, where I bought somepicture-cards, and inquired my way to KillelaghChurch, the Cromlech, and the Sweat-house, as itis called, where formerly people indulged in avapour-bath to cure rheumatism and other complaints. I wras told to follow the main street. ThisI did, and when I came to the outskirts of the townI tried to get a guide, and spoke to a boy at one ofthe cottages. He, however, knew very little, butfortunately saw an elderly man coming down theroad, who consented to show me the way, andproved an excellent guide. His name is DanielMcKenna, a coach-builder by trade. His father,who was teacher in Maghera National School forthirty-five years, knew Irish well, and I understand

&

gave Dr. Joyce information in regard to some of theplace-names in Co. Derry. Taking a road whichled in a north-westerly direction, we came to theCromlech, and a few yards farther on saw the oldChurch of Killelagh.

* Read before the Archaeological Section of the BelfastNaturalists Field Club, January 15, 1913.


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