Folk LoreAuthor(s): Elizabeth AndrewsSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 19, No. 9 (Sep., 1910), p. 200Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25523689 .

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200 The Irish Naturalist. September, 1910.

FOLK LORE. BY ELIZABETH ANDREWS.

I was told in Tory that fairies could make themselves large or small, their hair might be red, white, or black, but they

wore black clothing. This is the only case where I have

heard of fairies being dressed in black. Red appears to be

their favourite colour, but sometimes they wear tartan, and in

the north-east of Antrim are often dressed in green. If in the

fairy tales we have a reminiscence of dwarf races, I should

think the difference in apparel points to tribal differences. It

is very rarely that we find fairies associated with the spirits of the departed, but an elderly woman in Tory said those who

were drowned became fairies, and also those who had exceeded

in whiskey. This woman took me to see the old cross, the

fragments of a second cross, the round tower, and the ruins

of a very small church with a rude stone altar. She also

pointed out to me a small cairn of stones, where prayers were

formerly offered to St. Bridget. There are stories also of

King Balor and his daughter, but these would be too long for

insertion here. I may refer the reader to the " Donegal

Highlands," bv the Most Rev. Dr. MacDevitt.

If Balor is the grim hero of Tory Island, on the mainland one hears of Finn McCoul, and of a still larger giant, Goll.

Fairies also abound. In the woods of Cratlin a young girl told me that some, like the angels, guide people aright, others

Head them astray; Contrary to the Common belief she held

that fairies would be saved at the last day. A woman in

Rosguiti called the fairies " shee&ees." A lad in the same

weiglrbourhood gave me a variant of a story I had heard at

Gueedore and Kincasslagh :?how a man rode with the fairies when they carried off a young girl, but saved her f rOtn them And brought her Home to hisr mother, where she remained for a year deaf and dumb, until a few dropfc from a fairy bottle restored her speech.

' fh?same lad in speaking of the kitchen middens said the Dalies lived and had their houses on the water. Is this

possibly a tradition of early txibes who like the lake dwellers built their habitations on a wooden* structure above the waters

oftHesea?

Belfast

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