AN IRISH FAIRY LEGEND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2062, 21 June 1890, Page 3

AN IRISH FAIRY LEGEND.

We find the following in an interesting paper on South Kildare, by Mr G. H. Graham, published in the Waimate Times: —There was a rath near my native place of which a fairy story was told. Early in this century Jim Core and Pat Welsh were ploughing in the field in which this rath stood. Core was driving the horses and Welsh guiding the plough. Welsh had a large hump on his back. Core became very hungry, and he said to Welsh, “ I wish the fairies in this rath would have something for me to eat.” “ Whisht,” says Welsh, “ its not lucky to talk that way.” “I don’t care,” says Core, “ if they give me something to eat I’ll eat it, I’m that hungry.” |When they got near the rath, there iwas the door of the fairy palace wide open in the outside face of the circular rath. Core went to this door and looked in ; there he saw a large hall with a long table well covered with the choicest viands and liquor of the best. The hall was beautifully lighted up and sprightly music from an invisible orchestra was gracefully interpreted into moticn by the lithesome figures of a large company of lady and gentlemen fairies dressed in the most delightful dresses. A grave old gentleman in a red cap sat at the further end of the table, and

seemed to be the president. The old man seeing Core peeping into the hall, asked him to come in. Core at once entered, and on being invited sac down at the table and partook of the viands with all the gusto of a young and hungry ploughman’s appetite. Enchanted by the scene and emboldened by the kind looks and address of a beautiful young lady, Core became her partner in the dance, and danced until almost tired, Welsh wondered what delayed Core so long in the fairy hall and went to look after him. He peeped in through the open doorway, and the old man in the red cap asked what that man at the door wanted. The young lady who had been dancing with Core replied that Welsh wanted tp have thp hump taken off his hack. Welsh was then called in and at a signal from the old man in the red cap, the young lady deftly drew her fingers around Welsh’s hump, took it ofi! his back, and threw it in a corner where other humps were After this magical amputation of his hump Welsh was as straight and fine-looking a man as could be found. The music, dancipg, and feasting then ceased- Core and Welsh found themselyes outside of the rath, and not a vestige of door, hall, or fairy could be seen. When Welsh went home from work that evening he was scarcely knowfl, 9P straight and agile he appeared WIU I the hump clean gPfte. There was another man in the same parish with a great hump on his back, who, on being told by Welsh how his deformity was cured, visited this rath to see i|

he could have his hump taken off. He went several evenings to the rath, but no door, or sight or sound of fairy could he see or hear. He went one evening, resolved that this would be the last. It was twilight when he came to the rath, and there was the door of the fairy hall open in the outside slope, just as Welsh had described. He went to the door, and on looking saw the fairies in great numbers feasting and dancing, and the old man in the red cap sitting at the head of the table. The latter saw the hump - backed man and asked what he wanted. One of the ladies replied “ He wants a hump on his back.” “ Let him hare it,” said the chief, and with that the man was ushered in, and the lady who had taken the hump off Welsh’s back, picked up the same hump and stuck it on top of the hump already between the man’s shoulders ; the place then darkened and the poor fellow found himself outside the rath with a huge double hump which he carried the remainder of his life.