The Book of Halloween | Page 9

to forget his infatuation, and they lived happily afterward.
Even after Christianity was made the vital religion in Ireland, it was believed that places not exorcised by prayers and by the sign of the cross, were still haunted by Druids. As late as the fifth century the Druids kept their skill in fortune-telling. King Dathi got a Druid to foretell what would happen to him from one Hallowe'en to the next, and the prophecy came true. Their religion was now declared evil, and all evil or at any rate suspicious beings were assigned to them or to the devil as followers.
"Maire Bruin: Are not they, likewise, the children of God?
Father Hart: Colleen, they are the children of the fiend, And they have power until the end of Time, When God shall fight with them a great pitched battle And hack them into pieces."
YEATS: Land of Heart's Desire.
The power of fairy music was so great that St. Patrick himself was put to sleep by a minstrel who appeared to him on the day before Samhain. The Tuatha De Danann, angered at the renegade people who no longer did them honor, sent another minstrel, who after laying the ancient religious seat Tara under a twenty-three years' charm, burned up the city with his fiery breath.
These infamous spirits dwelt in grassy mounds, called "forts," which were the entrances to underground palaces full of treasure, where was always music and dancing. These treasure-houses were open only on November Eve
"For the fairy mounds of Erinn are always opened about Hallowe'en."
Expedition of Nera. (Meyer trans.)
when the throngs of spirits, fairies, and goblins trooped out for revels about the country. The old Druid idea of obsession, the besieging of a person by an evil spirit, was practised by them at that time.
"This is the first day of the winter, and to-day the Hosts of the Air are in their greatest power."
WARREN: Twig of Thorn.
If the fairies wished to seize a mortal--which power they had as the sun-god could take men to himself--they caused him to give them certain tokens by which he delivered himself into their hands. They might be milk and fire--
"Maire Bruin: A little queer old woman cloaked in green, Who came to beg a porringer of milk.
Bridget Bruin: The good people go asking milk and fire Upon May Eve--woe to the house that gives, For they have power over it for a year."
YEATS: Land of Heart's Desire.
or one might receive a fairy thorn such as Oonah brings home, which shrivels up at the touch of St. Bridget's image;
"Oh, ever since I kept the twig of thorn and hid it, I have seen strange things, and heard strange laughter and far voices calling."
WARREN: Twig of Thorn.
or one might be lured by music as he stopped near the fort to watch the dancing, for the revels were held in secret, as those of the Druids had been, and no one could look on them unaffected.
A story is told of Paddy More, a great stout uncivil churl, and Paddy Beg, a cheerful little hunchback. The latter, seeing lights and hearing music, paused by a mound, and was invited in. Urged to tell stories, he complied; he danced as spryly as he could for his deformity; he sang, and made himself so agreeable that the fairies decided to take the hump off his back, and send him home a straight manly fellow. The next Hallowe'en who should come by the same place but Paddy More, and he stopped likewise to spy at the merrymaking. He too was called in, but would not dance politely, added no stories nor songs. The fairies clapped Paddy Beg's hump on his back, and dismissed him under a double burden of discomfort.
A lad called Guleesh, listening outside a fort on Hallowe'en heard the spirits speaking of the fatal illness of his betrothed, the daughter of the King of France. They said that if Guleesh but knew it, he might boil an herb that grew by his door and give it to the princess and make her well. Joyfully Guleesh hastened home, prepared the herb, and cured the royal girl.
Sometimes people did not have the luck to return, but were led away to a realm of perpetual youth and music.
"Father Hart. What are you reading?
Maire Bruin. How a Princess Edane, A daughter of a King of Ireland, heard A voice singing on a May Eve like this, And followed, half awake and half asleep, Until she came into the land of faery, Where nobody gets old and godly and grave, Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue; And she is still there, busied with a dance, Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood, Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top."
YEATS: Land of Heart's Desire.
If one