11. When the mother of a man named McKeown, living near Kilcurry, was dying, a pigeon flew into the house and out again, while at the same time there was a tap on the window. This was a death warning.—[T. Curtis.]
Mr. Clodd having shown the above notes to Mr. W. B. Yeats, the latter gentleman kindly forwarded the following memoranda upon them:—
I have stories about most of the things in the slip of folklore you send. I will be dealing with a good many of the subjects in a month or two.
(1.) The coach is very common; Mr. Jones is perhaps wrong in calling it "the Dead Coach." The people of co. Galway usually call it "the Deaf Coach," because it makes a "deaf" sound. They describe "deaf" as muffled or rumbling. I never heard before of its being soundless. Has he mistaken "deaf" for "dead"?[1]
(2.) I am always hearing of forts and of certain rooms in houses being seen as if on fire. It is the commonest phenomenon in connection with forts, in all parts of Ireland I know.
(3.) I am collecting material about fairy battles, and am trying to find out when they coincide with May Day, or November Day, or thereabouts, or else with a death.
(4.) A Newfoundland dog, according to my uncle's old servant, is "a very quiet form to do your penance in." She is a Mayo woman and very much of a saint.[2]
(6.) It is always dangerous to go out late at night. I have a number of Galway and Sligo stories of people being carried to a distance, including one in which I myself am supposed to have been carried four miles in County Sligo. Compare the spiritualistic medium, Mrs. Guppy, being carried across London with a saucepan in one hand and an egg in the other. She weighed about nineteen stone. I have met about four peasants who believe in
- ↑ Both "Dead" and "Deaf" are perhaps corruptions of "Death." Mr. Jones, however, has kindly promised to make further inquiries about the word used by the Louth people; but to the best of his belief they always speak of "the dead coach."—Ed.
- ↑ Mr. Jones writes that he has been told that this form is the one usually assumed by evil spirits.—Ed.
