* * *The fairies also exercise a malign influence by making a path through a
house, when all the children begin to pine and a blight falls on the family.
A farmer who had lost one son by heart disease (always a mysterious
malady to the peasants) and another by gradual decay, consulted a wise
fairy woman as to what should be done, for his wife also had become
delicate and weak. The woman told him that on November Eve the fairies
had made a road through the house, and were going back and forward ever
since, and whatever they looked upon was doomed. The only remedy was
to build up the old door and open another entrance. This the man did, and
when the witch-women came as usual in the morning to beg for water or
milk or meal they found no door, and were obliged to turn back. After this
the spell was taken off the household, and they all prospered without fear of
the fairies.
A Terrible Revenge
THE fairies often take a terrible revenge if they are ever slighted or
offended. A whole family once came under their ban because a fairy woman
had been refused admittance into the house. The eldest boy lost his sight for
some the, and though he recovered the use of his eyes yet they always had a
strange expression, as if he saw some terrible object in the distance that
scared him. And at last the neighbours grew afraid of the family, for they
brought ill-luck wherever they went, and nothing prospered that they
touched.
There were six children, all wizened little creatures with withered old
faces and thin crooked fingers. Every one knew they were fairy changelings,
and the smith wanted to put them on the anvil, and the wise women said
they should be passed through the fire; but destiny settled the future for
them, for one after another they all pined away and died, and the ban of the
fairies was never lifted from the ill-fated house till the whole family lay in
the grave.
Midsummer
The Baal Fires and Dances
THIS season is still made memorable in Ireland by lighting fires on every
hill, according to the ancient pagan usage, when the Baal fires were kindled
as part of the ritual of sun-worship, though now they are lit in honour of St.