Don’t Curse Fairies (Co. Antrim)

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insulting fairies

In the townland of The Town-end, Bushmills, a man who lived in the moss had occasion one night to escort a neighbour down the rodden. They had to pass a fairy-forth on the way and, as they drew near it, there was such an uproar and commotion that ‘they couldn’t hear their ears.’ The Town-end man was angry and he cursed the fairies for a noisy pack. Soon after, when he had returned home, horsemen were heard approaching the house and, in a few minutes there was pandemonium in the farmyard. The horses and cows seemed to have been turned loose, and the fairy horsemen rode whooping round and round the house. The wee folk had heard the man cursing them and were seeking vengeance. They repeatedly shouted for him to come out and ‘face them’, but he, very wisely, stayed where he was. His wife, however, was much concerned lest the animals should be stampeded into the moss and lost, so she armed herself with a Bible and opened the door. The minute she laid her hand on the bolt the noise ceased and, when she looked out, not a living thing was to be seen in the yard. Warning her husband to bolt the door after her, she went to the stable and to the byre and found both horses and cows safely in their stalls, but as soon as she returned to the house the commotion broke out afresh. She went out once more and again she saw nothing and, when she returned, the noise re-commenced. She then made the entire family kneel down and repeat the Lord’s Prayer. Before the prayer ended silence fell upon the yard and house. The fairies had gone. It is interesting to notice that on this occasion no attempt was made to injure the farmer’s wife, nor were the animals interfered with; the man was the offender and it was the man only that they wanted to punish. (Foster, Ulster, 79)

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