Water Cattle.—I have not found a water-bull legend clearly told in Clare, but cow's horns are seen over the waters of one lake and "something roared" under the waters of another.[1] In 1877 I heard of cattle coming out of some lake near Kilkishen, (perhaps Cullaun, with its enchanted city or palace), but I could not recover the story when searching twenty years later. "Loch na bó girre which is called loch Gréine" is given[2] as an old name for the large lake of Lough Graney in the Aughty mountains on the north border of Clare. This probably implies that it had a legend like that of Lough bo Girr, near Cahir in County Tipperary, whence an enormous long-horned cow used to issue.
Púcas and Horses.—Though the púca has influenced very often the place-names of Clare, its legends in the county are dry and vague. One man near Clonlara had the misfortune to become its sport. It took the form of a pony, and, finding the man searching for treasure in a gravel-pit, in which he had dreamed that gold was concealed, bore him away on a long rough ride and dropped him at the spot from which it started, where he was found bruised and insensible next morning.[3] The púca also appears as a hideous goat. I was told by a servant, about 1870, of a demon "black puck-goat with fiery eyes" appearing to a poor country woman on a roadside bank in the Cratloe hills.[4] The tale was very blood-curdling, but, doubtless to my relief then but regret now, I put it out of mind, and now forget its details. The púca always puts its hoof on the blackberries at Michaelmas, after which they become unfit to eat.[5]
Of spirit horses other than the púca, I have heard of one at a deep gravel quarry, near Trough in the same hills. The ghostly presentment of a Limerick gentleman, a Mr. Furnell, appeared one moonlight night on horseback. He rode at full gallop, with
- ↑ I think Lough Breeda, east from Tulla, and Clonlea Lake were intended. I am to blame for not making a note at the time, but was only interested in the legend. My notes only begin in 1878, though embodying earlier matter, and are too often "car notes" from drivers and others and not properly located. Where possible, I re-examined them from 1892 upwards.
- ↑ In the "Agallamh," Silva Gadelica, vol. ii., p. 126.
- ↑ So the late Sir Hugh Dillon Massy at Doonass.
- ↑ So Mrs. O'Shea at Clorane, Limerick.
- ↑ Cf. similar English belief as regards the devil.
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