lots, like young slips of girls walking together. It was the night they
took away Fallon's little girl." And she told how Fallon's little girl
had met a woman "with red hair that was as bright as silver," who took
her away. Another neighbour, who was herself "clouted over the ear" by
one of them for going into a fort where they were, said, "I believe
it's mostly in his head they are; and when he stood in the door last
night I said, 'The wind does be always in my ears, and the sound of it
never stops,' to make him think it was the same with him; but he says,
'I hear them singing and making music all the time, and one of them is
after bringing out a little flute, and it's on it he's playing to
them.' And this I know, that when he pulled down the chimney where he
said the piper used to be sitting and playing, he lifted up stones, and
he an old man, that I could not have lifted when I was young and
strong."

A friend has sent me from Ulster an account of one who was on terms of
true friendship with the people of faery. It has been taken down
accurately, for my friend, who had heard the old woman's story some
time before I heard of it, got her to tell it over again, and wrote it
out at once. She began by telling the old woman that she did not like
being in the house alone because of the ghosts and fairies; and the old
woman said, "There's nothing to be frightened about in faeries, miss.
Many's the time I talked to a woman myself that was a faery, or
something of the sort, and no less and more than mortal anyhow. She
used to come about your grandfather's house--your mother's grandfather,
that is--in my young days. But you'll have heard all about her." My
friend said that she had heard about her, but a long time before, and
she wanted to hear about her again; and the old woman went on, "Well
dear, the very first time ever I heard word of her coming about was
when your uncle--that is, your mother's uncle--Joseph married, and