West Irish folk-tales and romances / collected and translated by William Larminie.

  • Larminie, William, -1900.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: West Irish folk-tales and romances / collected and translated by William Larminie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    soul to God, if the master isn’t come to life again ! ” Another came in, and said it was he really. And when the mistress heard of it, she came to see with her own eyes, for she would not believe I was there; and when she saw me she said she’d drown herself. And I said to her, “ If you yourself will keep the secret, no living man will ever get the story from me until I lose my head.” Many’s the man has come asking for the story, and I never let one return ; but now every one will know it, but she is as much to blame as I. I gave you my head on the spot, and a thousand welcomes, and she cannot say I have been telling anything but the truth. “ Oh ! surely; nor are you now.” When I saw I was in a man’s shape, I said I would take the child back to his father and mother, as I knew the grief they were in after him. I got a ship, and took the child with me ; and when I was journeying I came to land on an island, and I saw not a living soul on it, only a court dark and gloomy. I went in to see was there any one in it. There was no one but an old hag, tall and frightful, and she asked me, “ What sort of person are you ? ” I heard some one groaning in another room, and I said I was a doctor, and I asked her what ailed the person who was groaning.