sharply, telling him, at the same time, that it was a case with which priests and friars had nothing to do that clergymen affect to disbelieve in the existence of the 'good people,' though every day proved the fact. What has happened to your child,' said she, has happened to hundreds. This brat is the son of the fairywoman who took away your boy; and will keep him too if you don't put this thing out on the shovel. So, in the name of Saint Joseph, and the other twelve apostles, let us be after doing it this very night; and do you, Paddy, just like an honest boy, as you are, get us a drap of Bulcaan to wet our mouths after the fright we shall be in.'

This advice was taken; and, at eleven o'clock at night, a chosen few assembled in the cottage for the purpose of restoring the fairy her child, and regaining poor Patrick. Paddy provided a clean shovel; and the brat, being stripped naked, was placed upon it, in which position he was carried out, and left sitting in the centre of the dunghill, round which the old hags performed three circles, Roach all the time chanting some verses in Irish, of which the following is a translation:

Fairy men and women all
List! It is your baby's call:
For on the dunghill's top he lies
Beneath the wide inclement skies.

Then come with coach and sumptuous train,
And take him to your mote again;
For, if ye stay till cocks shall crow,
You'll find him like a thing of snow ;.
A pallid lump-a child of scorn-
A monstrous brat, of fairies born.
But, ere you bear the boy away,

Restore the child you took instead ;
When, like a thief, the other day,

You robbed my infant's cradle-bed. But give me back my only son, And I'll forgive the harm you've done; And nightly, for your gamboling crew, I'll sweep the hearth and kitchen too; And leave you free your tricks to play, Whene'er you choose to pass this way. Then, like good people, do incline To take your child and give back mine. This part of the ceremony finished, they hastily retired into the cottage, carefully closing the door after them; and then sprinkling abundance of holy water all over themselves, they fell on their knees to await the issue. In a

few minutes the house was assailed by a tremendous gale of wind, accompanied by thunder and lightning, that seemed to threaten instant destruction, while the cries of the brat were audible above the war of elements. Once or twice Roach was for going out to bring in the child, but the hags assured him that it was yet too soon; and then, desiring him to listen attentively, he heard, or thought he heard, the sounds of coaches and horsemen approaching. The next instant they rattled into the bawn; and, after wheeling once or twice around the dunghill, appeared to drive off in the direction of the mote. A prayer of thanksgiving was now uttered by the old women; after which the door was opened, and the child brought in. The hags unanimously declared it was the lost one; but Paddy, on examining it, shook his head, saying he could perceive no difference between it and the one he carried out on the shovel. His opinion, however, being overruled, he was doomed, as he thought, to rear a fairy's brat-a thing pale and feeble, though it devoured more food than half a dozen men; and, while its face indicated extreme old age, it seemed to improve nothing in size. Once or twice Paddy overheard it in conversation with some invisible beings; and such was the effect produced on the poor man's constitution, by the impression of his son being in communion with the good people,' that in a few years he sunk into a premature grave.

His wife survived him twenty years, during which time young Paddy reached the age, if not the stature, of man. His figure might have been mistaken for the original of Death upon wires,' for he was literally nothing but skin and bone, and withal so deformed that, whenever he ventured into public, a host of boys were sure to surround him. His eyes were so situated that he looked at once to two cardinal points; and his hair, of dirty red, singularly contrasted with his pallid and hollow cheeks. His limbs stood under him like a pair of stilts; and his long lank body resembled a permanent maypole on a winter's day, divested of all ornament.

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Such was the Fairyman of Croonaan,' an object calculated to fill the wise with surprise, and the credulous with apprehensions. From childhood he was regarded as an imposition on mortality-as one surreptitiously imposed upon human nature, and inhabiting a world in which he had no proper inheritance. To his lonely valley he was necessarily confined; and, during the life of his mother, he was to be seen an animated shadow-a walking skeleton-moving among the rocks, or hovering, like a spectre, about the holy well, from which his presence had expelled the usual visitants, who came to get cured of headaches, sore eyes, and the other evils to which even simple swains are exposed. He appeared to live in utter loneliness, associating with nothing but his mother's muil cow, to whom he appeared much attached; a circumstance that procured him the name of Paudeen-a-Boo, or Patrick of the Cow, though he was better known as the Fairyman of Croonaan.

This latter denomination was, however, for a long time undeserved, as he did not commence the practice of his profession until late in life; but, as his almost supernatural figure was attributed to his nightly rambles astride the boughalaans after the good people,' it naturally followed that he was to be considered a fairyman.'

Whether Paudeen-a-Boo commenced fairyman upon his own or imputed familiarity with the good people' I cannot take upon myself to say; but certain it is no man ever acquired such a notoriety in the South of Ireland for fairyism, it being, at the present day, a common answer to a difficult question to say It would puzzle the Fairyman of Croonaan to tell you that.' He cured men and brutes, however affected; restored the profit of butter; told where lost goods were to be found; and, if stolen, gave a description of the thief. The past and future were alike open to him; and, while he related to strangers their personal concerns of the preceding day, he could recount what would be fall them to-morrow.

Such a man was found very useful; and the crowds who flocked for advice and herbs to the fairy glen of Croonaan exceeded, by hundreds, those

who circle the door of a metropolitan practitioner, who, for the sake of popularity, gives advice gratis every morning for full-ten minutes. Paudeen, fairyman as he was, had his enemies. The parish priest,.Father M'Shane, preached a sermon on the folly and irreligion of applying to what he called an impostor; and a youth named Richard M'Guire, alias Dioul Dick (Dick Devil), threatened to break his bones if ever he bewitched any of his cattle, or took away the profit of his cow's milk. On both of these the Fairyman of Croonaan promised to be amply revenged.

Father M'Shane resided in a lonely house, with no other inmate than a servant-man, a housemaid, and his niece

A chief of temper formed to please, Fit to converse and keep the keys.' To the latter Dioul Dick was in the habit of paying his addresses; and, though he was what the country people called a heram-skeeram sort of a fellow, yet the good father looked upon him as not totally irreclaimable, and gave him some hopes of a wife and a fortune when he should reform his rakish ways, and become sober. Dick, in a temporal point of view, was worthy of the first farmer's daughter in the country; for he possessed sixty acres of choice land, at half a crown an acre, had no less than twenty milch cows; and, as he used to boast at the Plough and Harrow,' a bull in the middle of them. The profit of all these, however, used to go to mine host' of the above noted sign; and, whenever Dick was reproached with his extravagance, he always replied that the priest had money enough for him when he had spent all his own.

In about a month after Father M'Shane's sermon against the Fairyman of Croonaan, as the good priest was one night reading his Breviary by the fire, a trampling of horses was heard approaching the house. The heart of the niece leaped, thinking that Dick was among the visitors, though it was unusual for him to be attended by such a cavalcade as was now within hearing. A strange voice cried out Father M'Shane !' and the incautious priest replied, 'Here!' then hurried to the door, which he opened, but had scarcely passed it when it

6

suddenly closed after him with a tremendous crash, and a loud and supernatural laugh was heard to mock the faint wailings of one in distress. The terrified niece, who firmly believed in the good people,' notwithstanding the frequent exhortations of her uncle, wrung her hands in despair; for, knowing that the fairies, in consequence of the priest's answering, contrary to the opinion of all old women, before the third call, possessed unlimited power over him, she thought it useless to attempt recovering him from their horrid dominion. On the same night Dioul Dick, whose cows had been fairy-struck-that is, their milk would yield no butter-resorted to the usual process of recovering what is technically called the 'profits of the dairy.' He brought home the plough-coulter; and, having placed it in a good turf fire, he set his people to churn in the middle of the floor, every aperture in the doors and windows being previously well secured, so that no one could possibly thrust their hand in. They had no sooner commenced than the churn-dash got so ponderous, that it required two men to lift it up and down, the milk all the time frothing out of the churn. Work away, my boys!' cried Dick: the coulter is just red, it is red,' he continued; and as he spoke a gentle tap was heard at the kitchen window. Who is there?' he inquired. A poor woman,' replied a mournful voice, begging a drink of water. No water, of course, was given, and the cries outside increased to an agony of distress. I know her,' cried Dick; it is Mollythe-mant-but I'll settle her witchcraft.'

Now I'll catch her,' said Dick, opening the door, and pursuing the moans, which appeared to cross the fields. The churn-dash immediately grew lighter, the milk returned to its natural state, and the dairy-maid confessed she never had a better churning or sweeter butter.

In the mean time Dioul Dick pursued the moans of Molly-the-mant, across ditch and hedge, to a considerable distance, when the cries of his victim were drowned by the most delicious sounds he ever heard. Dick, having a natural ear for harmony, stopped to listen, and thought he heard passing him the confused noise of a festive throng, preceded by the most exquisite and fascinating music It was some moments before he recollected himself; and when his thoughts were restored he could not tell where he was. He felt around him, and discovered that the field was nearly covered with boughalaans, upon which he concluded he was in the midst of good people.' Forgetting the butter witch, he hastened towards what he considered a hedge: but when he approached it appeared a frightful and impassable chasm; and at the instant a brilliant fire arose in an opposite direction. He, therefore, hastened towards Will-o'-the-wisp; but when he got there the light was extinguished, and another chasm impeded his further progress. Dick, considering himself now as certainly bewitched, coolly took off his coat, and, having turned it inside out, put it on again, made the sign of the cross on his forehead, and, shouldering the coulter, which he still held, was proceeding on his way, when he stumbled over a human body. Dick, who never knew fear, demanded who was there, and was answered by Mollythe-mant, who had got no farther when the cock crew, at which time she was obliged to resume her natural form, burnt as she was by the red-hot coulter.

An explanation now took place : Molly acknowledged that she was employed by the Fairyman of Croonaan to take away Dick's butter; but that, if he would keep silence, she

would now enable him to be revenged on Paudeen-a-Boo. Dick instantly agreed to these conditions; and the witch, having cut a hazel switch, desired him to carry her to the fairy glen of Croonaan, as she had been too much burnt to walk. To this he assented with some reluctance; and, when they reached the mote, the music Dick had heard before now

rushed upon his ear. This night, said the witch, they keep revel here; and, as it is after twelve o'clock, they have no power to harm you; but, as you value liberty, taste nothing that is offered to you. Be not deceived by the splendour that surrounds you, for it's all deception, as you shall see. When I place this switch in your hand, if you see any one you wish to set at liberty, just touch them with this potent hazel, and they shall be restored to their former self.'

The witch now pronounced some gibberish; and, to Dick's astonishment, they were whirled through a suit of splendid apartments into a superb assembly-room, fantastically chalked, and hung round with the most exquisite paintings. Of these Dick was no great judge; but he could not but admire the beauty and elegance of the females who were tripping it on the light fantastic toe;' and he was not a little astonished to see his friend Father M'Shane the companion of a charming belle in a country dance. Amazed, however, as Dick undoubtedly was, at the scene before him, its splendour did not deprive him of either politeness or gallantry; for, seeing a creature of exquisite beauty in want of a partner, he stepped up to her, made a low bow, scraped the floor with his brogue, and begged the honour of her hand. She modestly complied; and, when the dance was over, he twirled her round in the usual way in expectation of a kiss; but, some how or other, her lips always receded from his. Presently fruits, conserves, and wines, were offered him in abundance; but he declined taking any upon which a solitary being, dressed in royal robes, approached, and congratulated him

Who are you?'

can

on his escape. asked Dick Paddy Roach's son,' replied the exalted personage: you tell me if my mother lives?—I am here heir to the throne of the fairies; but I long for the vale of Croonaan.' -And there you shall soon be,' cried Dick, seizing the hazel switch, and tapping him on the shoulder, at which he vanished. He then sought the priest, and, touching him, he also disappeared. Now me,' said the witch who had brought him hither. He obeyed, and she also flew away. Egad!' said Dick, I'll free them all; and he commenced laying about him with his hazel switch, when in an instant the fairy palace disappeared, and he found himself standing alone in the field of boughalaans. Hopeless of finding his way home before daylight, and being weary with his exertions in pursuit of the witch as well as in the dance, he laid down on the grass, and was quickly lost in sleep.

Next morning he was found by the country people in a quiet slumber, and when they awoke him he related what he had heard and seen. At first his wonderful narrative only excited laughter; but when it was discovered

that Father M'Shane had returned home, that a two-year old child was found on Paudeen-a-Boo's dunghill, and that the Fairyman of Croonaan had disappeared, the people altered. their opinion, and for once thought it possible that Dick might have been sober. At first, indeed, there were many sceptics; in a twelvemonth about half a dozen; but in two years there was not one, so universal had become the belief in the potency of a hazel switch.

Father M'Shane affected not to understand Dick's insinuations respecting the fair companion in the country dance; and, as the priest soon after bestowed the hand of his niece and two hundred guineas on the farmer, it was generally surmised that he did so to stop Dioul Dick from dwelling on what he called the 'rake's drunken fancies.'