At least once, he has seen a strange sight in the woods. He said, One time, when I was cutting timber over in Inchy, around eight oclock in the morning, I saw a girl picking nuts. Her brown hair hung down over her shoulders, and she had a fresh and pleasant face. She was tall and didnt wear anything on her head, and her dress was simple. When she sensed my presence, she quickly was gone. I followed her and searched for her, but I never saw her again from that day to this, never again.
Others too have seen spirits in the Enchanted Woods. A worker told us about what his friend saw in a part of the woods called Shanwalla. He said, One evening, I said goodbye to Lawrence Mangan in the yard, and he went through the path in Shanwalla. Two hours later, he was back in the yard and asked me to light a candle in the stable. He told me that when he entered Shanwalla, a little creature about as tall as his knee but with a head as big as a mans body appeared and guided him off the path and around. Finally, it led him to the lime-kiln[143], and then it disappeared.
A woman told me about something she and others saw in the river. She said, I came over the stile[144] from the chapel, and others were with me. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind[145] came, and two trees bent and broke, falling into the river. Those who were with me saw many figures, but I only saw one sitting by the bank where the trees fell. The figure was dressed in dark clothes, and it had no head.
A man told me that when he was a boy, he and another boy went to catch a horse in a field. This field is located near the lake, just a little away from the woods. He said to his companion, I bet a button that if I throw a pebble at that bush, it will stay on it. He meant that the bush was so dense[146] that the pebble wouldnt be able to go through it. So, he picked up a pebble, and as soon as it hit the bush, the most beautiful music came out from it. They ran away, and when they had gone about two hundred yards, they looked back and saw a woman dressed in white walking in circles around the bush. First, it appeared as a woman, and then as a man, and it kept going around the bush.
1902MIRACULOUS CREATURES
In the Enchanted Woods, there are small animals like martens, badgers, and foxes. But there are also bigger and stronger creatures that cant be caught with traps[147]. They are magical creatures that bring both hope and fear. Some can fly, while others move through the thickets[148] near the Gates of Death. Someone I know says that his father was once in the woods of Inchy, where the children from Gort[149] used to steal fishing rods[150]. He was sitting by a wall with his dog when he heard something running from Owbawn Weir. He couldnt see anything, but the sound of its feet on the ground was like the sound of the feet of a deer. The dog got scared and scratched at the wall, but the man could only hear the sound of hooves. Another time, the mans father told him that he was in a boat on the lake with a few men from Gort. One of them had a spear[151] for catching eels, and when he put it into the water, it hit something. The man fainted, and they had to carry him out of the boat to land. When he woke up, he said that what he struck was definitely not a fish! A friend of mine thought that these scary creatures, which are often found in lakes, were placed there long ago by clever enchanters[152] to guard the gates of wisdom. He believes that if we sent our spirits into the water, we would become one with the strange and powerful energies, and maybe even conquer[153] the world.
1902.ARISTOTLE OF THE BOOKS
The friend who can make the wood-cutter talk more easily than anyone else recently visited his old wife. She lives in a cottage near the edge of the woods and loves to share old stories, just like her husband. This time, she started talking about Goban and his wisdom. But then she said, Aristotle of the Books was also very wise and had a lot of experience, but didnt the bees outsmart him in the end? He wanted to know how they packed the honeycomb[154], so he spent almost two weeks watching them, but he couldnt see how they did it. Then he made a hive[155] with a glass cover and placed it over the bees. But when he went to look through the glass, the bees had covered it with wax, making it as black as a pot, and he was as blind as before. He said he had never been so fooled before. They had him that time surely!
1902.THE SWINE OF THE GODS
A few years ago, my friend told me about something that happened to him when he was a young man and was training with some rebels from Connaught. There were only a few of them, and they drove up a hill until they reached a quiet spot. They left the car and went further up the hill with their rifles, where they practiced for a while. As they were coming back, they noticed a very thin pig with long legs following them. Someone jokingly said it was a fairies pig, and they all began to run as part of the joke. Surprisingly, the pig started running too, and somehow, this playful chase turned into real fear. When they got to the car, they made the horse gallop as fast as possible, but the pig continued to follow them. At one point, one of them raised his rifle to shoot at the pig, but when he looked through the barrel, he couldnt see anything. Eventually, they turned a corner and arrived at a village. They told the villagers what had happened, and the villagers grabbed pitchforks[156], spades, and other tools to drive the pig away. However, when they reached the corner, they couldnt find anything.
1902.KIDNAPPERS
Near the town of Sligo, on the southern side of Ben Bulben, there is a small white square on the limestone. No one has ever touched it. It is the entrance to the land of fairies. During the middle of the night, the magical beings come from the door and walk on the land, invisible to all except for a few fairies-doctors who may look out from their homes to see what the fairies are up to. If there is a newborn baby or a newlywed[157] nearby, the fairies-doctors pay extra attention because sometimes the fairies take them into their mountains, and they become part of the land of the fairies.
In the early 19th century, a mysterious apothecary[158] named Dr. Opendon appeared at the western corner of Market Street in Sligo. At the time, a woman named Mrs. Ormsbys husband fell mysteriously ill, and the doctors couldnt figure out what was wrong with him. Desperate, Mrs. Ormsby turned to Dr. Opendon. When she entered his shop, she saw a black cat sitting by the fire. Dr. Opendon, dressed in black like the cat, came in, and his wife followed him, also dressed in black. Mrs. Ormsby gave the doctor a guinea[159] and he gave her a small bottle. Wonderfully, her husband recovered. Dr. Opendon continued to cure many people, but one day, a rich patient died. The doctor, his wife, and the black cat all disappeared overnight. A year later, Mr. Ormsby fell ill again. Mrs. Ormsby thought that the fairies wanted to take her handsome husband, so she visited the fairies-doctor at Cairnsfoot. After hearing her story, the fairies-doctor went behind the back door and started murmuring spells. This time, her husband recovered as well. However, he fell ill again, and Mrs. Ormsby went back to the fairies-doctor at Cairnsfoot. This time, the doctor told her there was no hope, and her husband died. From then on, Mrs. Ormsby believed that she knew where her husband was, and it wasnt in heaven, hell, or purgatory. She believed that a wooden log was left in place of her husband, but it was enchanted to look like his dead body.
Примечания
1
sidhe феи, волшебный народ Ирландии в гэльском фольклоре
2
Knocknarea большой холм к западу от города Слайго в графстве Слайго, Ирландия