Bampton Hunt

“ There was such a fluttering of dread on the boy that he could not endeavour for to run, but he stood like a growing rush does be waving with the breeze. Three times the likeness of the great black bull came down against him, wounding him with the curved and lengthy horns were upon it; with that he awoke.
“The devil will be gifting the spirit of the dead with the form of a living beast, the way he’ll get bringing me the dark destruction he promised, and I looking fearful at the flames are burning in his eyes,” thinks the lad. ”

“ When she heard what he was after doing she began for to roar and to cry.
“It is destroyed we are in this ill hour,” she lamented. “The Good People will be following us surely with the black wrath of vengeance and spite. Never before did I hear of a man setting spuds in a fort.”
“Quit raving,” says he.
“Many and many’s the time I have seen them, they riding down by the hill; their fiddles and fifes I have heard, their shouts and their laughs. But I had no cause for a dread till it come on me now,” she replies. ”

“ Says himself, using the Gaelic, “I have a beautiful treasure without—bars of fine gold are in it, and jewels would be the delight of a queen of the world.”
“Oh, bring it into the house,” says she. “Sure it will rise my heart to be looking on the like; the hunger of it is put on my eyes by your words speaking.”
“I have better wit than to make display of my fortune to every person is living in the land,” says he. “Let you content yourself until the two men have departed, and then we’ll fetch the sack in from the byre where I left it in front of the cows.” ”

“ M’Carthy was rejoicing surely, and he married to a wife was the picture of the statue. Herself was in the best of humour too, for it was small delight she had in her own place, roaming the fields or stopping within and six waiting maids along with her. A fine, handsome husband was the right company for her like. They bought a lovely house and farm of land with the money was lent by the Jew; and they fixed all the grandest ever was seen. After a while M’Carthy got a good commission to be an officer, the way nothing more in the world was needful to their happiness. ”

“ When he began for to open the bag the cows went fair wild, striving and roaring and stamping to get away from the place entirely.
The head of a great eel looked out from under the man’s hand where he was groping for the treasure. The eyes of it were the colour of flame and as blinding to the sight as the naked sun at noon of a summer’s day.
The man gave one lep that carried him to the door and there the paralysis of dread held him down. Herself let a scream could be [52] heard in the next townland, but she never asked to stir from where she was standing. ”

“ But the appearance of the turkey cock opened the joining of his skull with one blow of the beak like a sharpened knife was upon it. The second stroke and the third dashed the brains from his head and scattered them grey on the brown and dusty path.
And that is the how he came to a bad death as his companion promised him, and the dark oath was accomplished no spite of the power of the grave.
We that are yet in this world know well where we are, but ignorance is on us of where we be to repair. Sure the passing of the spirit is the strangest and awfullest thing was ever devised or heard tell of. ”

“ The peasant of ancient race is more akin to the aristocratic type than the bourgeois can ever be—and the story told from generation to generation bears greater resemblance to the work of a poet than to that of the popular novelist, who is the bourgeois of literature. Superstition in a race is merely the proof of imagination, the people lacking fairy lore must also lack intelligence and wit. ”

“ And after a while she forgot the queer lad entirely. Didn’t she marry a farmer inland, and it was a comfortable life they enjoyed.
But a notion took himself that he’d prosper more in the States, for he was greedy for gold. He took passage for the two on a great big ship, and away with them from Ireland.
Not a long were they at sea before a sudden furl blast met the ship, and a wave twenty times as high as a house stood up over the deck and broke down. Every person was killed dead and smashed into the wood of the ship only the fisherman’s daughter. ”

“ When [108] the company set out for to go away home, in the black darkness of the night, every person in it was afraid to pass down by the fort.
“What is on you at all?” says Francis Pat. “I think scorn on the lot of you are in dread of the Good People.”
“God be with them—and their faces from us, their backs to us, the way they’re good friends,” says an old man. “I have great experience to know that it’s a danger to evenly make fun in speech of the like.”
“Away with you by the long hard road,” says Francis Pat. “’Tis I will walk my lone past the fort, and I dare the fairies to molest me.” ”

“ Now one of the doctors had a man with him was a very soft-spoken person, and he up and says:
“Maybe your honours would be giving me permission to visit the young gentleman. I have a tongue on me is that sweet I do be drawing the secrets of the world out of men and women and little children.”
Well they brought him up to the room and they left him alone with M’Carthy. He sat down by the side of the bed and began for to flatter him, the like of such conversation was never heard before. ”

“ It happened one time that Nallagh and the wife went to market, leaving the servant boy and servant girl to mind the place.
“Let you keep up a good fire for the youngster, the way he will not be lonesome, and he looking on the glowing turf is his whole delight. Let you attend to your business the same as if myself was standing by to bid you do all things particular and tasty,” says the mistress, and she going out at the door. [77]
Not a long were the two by their lone before they quit working and began for to play themselves through the kitchen. ”

“ It chanced one evening that he seen a gankeynogue in the field, sitting in under a bush, and he says:
“Yon lad will surely be worth a powerful weight of gold.”
With that he went over and caught a hold of the gankey.
“Let you discover a treasure,” says he, “or else I’ll keep you like a dog on a chain from this out.”
“Keep away!” says the gankey. “How would a poor creature like myself be finding treasure for a strong farmer!” [198]
“Let you not let on to be miserable,” says the man, “for well I know it’s great wealth you enjoy.” ”

“ It does be hard on me to refuse the noble refreshment the fairies set out, but if I’d eat of the like I could never escape from their power. Do you tell herself to leave me a mug of sweet milk and a morsel of bread on the sill of the window, to keep me from hungering more. ”

“ I have more gold in that sack than ever I’ll contrive for to spend.”
“Ah, not at all! It is twice as much I’ll be getting for you.”
“Is it another King’s daughter has need of a cure?” asks Paddy.
“No, but a different business entirely. There is a great bully to be fought in the City of Dublin, and yourself is the man shall win it.”
“Do you tell me so!” says Paddy.
“In troth I do. The man you have to fight is a big, fierce fellow no one can get the better of. He has the youth of the world battered to pieces, the way no person comes forward against him any more. ”

“ There were strong farmers, small farmers, tradesmen and dealers; a cow doctor, a blacksmith, and evenly a man that travelled in tea. Himself was disgusted with all; he put out the farmers and dealers very civil and stiff, but the tea man he stoned down the road for a couple of miles.
The next suitor to come was a beautiful young lad the name of Shan Alec. He was a tasty worker, and he had the best of good money was left him by his da. Now if you were to seek all Ireland ten times through, I’ll go bail you wouldn’t be finding a more suitable match nor Shan Alec and Bride. ”

“ The neighbours strove to break his intention, but he was persistent and proud.
When he came to the fort he seen a light, he heard voices speaking and the blows of an axe against wood.
“There is one more daring nor myself abroad this hour,” thinks Francis Pat. “I never heard tell of any person having audacity to interfere with the trees of the circle.” ”

“ With that Michael Hugh told him the story of the dreams that brought him from Ireland, and how he was expectant of a sign to instruct him to come at the kist. The Englishman let a great laugh.
“You’re a simple fellow,” says he. “Let you give up heeding the like of visions and ghosts, for there is madness in the same and no pure reason at all. There’s few has more nor better knowledge than myself of how [94] they be striving to entice us from our work, but I’m a reasonable man and I never gave in to them yet.” ”

“ It was maybe a hundredweight of treasure he had with him, and he went along planning out the uses of that wealth. Sure the burden was a rejoicement to him and no hardship at all evenly if it had him bent double like an aged and crippled man.
When he came to his own place he went to the byre, and it was there he put down the sack in front of three cows were standing in the bails. For he was not wishful to be making a display of that splendour before the neighbours all, and it was likely he would find some person within making their cailee. ”

“ One day Kate Ellen came into the kitchen of a friend’s house, and she stopped there chatting for an hour’s time. She allowed that she’d surely die in a short space for the disease was making great ravages and the doctors could take no hold of it at all.
“No person can give me the least relief in the world,” says she. “And I’ll be making but the one request of my friends and neighbours, let there be no whiskey at the wake.”
“Sure the like was never heard tell of before,” says the woman of the house. “What use would there be in a dry wake?” ”

“ And in all the confusion the little lad got away; Paddy never seen where he went. The whole crowd took up a terrible great collection of money for the champion was after destroying the man with a single blow. That lot of gold, along with the purse was promised for the fight, filled a sack as full as it could hold. So Paddy went home well rewarded, and not a bit the worse of his jaunt to the City of Dublin. ”

“ We feel we have been lifted for a brief space above the ordinary things of life, and come back to earth carrying with us the abiding memory of the rarely humorous and the beautiful. We have read nothing quite like The Crock of Gold. It has a charm and humour peculiar to itself, and places its author high in the ranks of imaginative poetic writers. ”

“ X THE CHILD AND THE FIDDLE
[99]
There was a woman one time, and she had the fretfullest child in all Ireland. He lay in the cradle and lamented from morning to night and from dark to the dawn of day. There was no prosperity nor comfort in that house from he came to it. All things went astray within in the kitchen and without upon the farm: the cattle fell sick, the potatoes took a blight, there was not a taste of butter on the churn, and evenly the cat began for to dwine and dwine away. ”

“ The lad was his tenth day in the chest when the man of the house came running in that evening, shouting at the top of his voice:
“Darragh fort’s on fire! Darragh fort’s on fire!”
With that the gankey began the most woeful lamentations, and he hammering like mad to get out of the chest.
“What ails you at all?” asks the farmer. [199]
“My wife and family are in that place,” says the gankey. “Let me away to bring them safe from the fire.”
“Will you show me a treasure?” asks the man. “Aye surely!” says the gankeynogue. ”

“ There was a fine young gentleman the name of M’Carthy, he had a most beautiful countenance and for strength and prowess there was none to equal him in the baronies of Connacht. But he began to dwine away, and no person knew what ailed him. He used no food at all and he became greatly reduced, the way he was not able to rise from his bed and he letting horrid groans and lamentations out of him. His father sent for three skilled doctors to come and find out what sort of disease it might be, and a big reward was promised for the cure. ”

“ He drank it down, middling speedy, and he held out the cup to be filled again.
“’Tis a heart scald surely,” says herself, “that I be to refuse the request of a man is weary walking the territory of Ireland, since the rising sun brought light on his path. There is a king in these parts, stranger, and he has the cattle destroyed on the poor of the world, the way he will have a lasting mortar to his house.”
“Isn’t yourself after giving me the loveliest [26] mug of sweet milk?” says he, like one was doubtful of the honesty of her words. ”

“ Not a long after Kate Ellen was found in her own house and she lying dead on the floor. All the friends and neighbours gathered in for the wake, and what had they along with them only a beautiful jar of the best whiskey. They could not think to give in to the arrangement herself set out, that they’d remain in the place with a parching drouth for company.
The whole party were sitting round, and the jar of itself was in the middle of the floor. There came a noise and shouting on the street, like as if there was a powerful assembly of people without ”

“ With that he pushed into the kitchen, and there was neither sight nor sign of a hare to be found, but an old woman lay in a corner and she bleeding.
The tongue hound gave the mournfullest whine and he juked to his master’s feet, it [87] was easy knowing the beast was in odious dread. The farmer gave a sort of a groan and he turned for to go away home.
“It’s a queer old diversion I’m after enjoying,” says he. “Surely there’s not a many in the world do be hunting hares through the fields and catching old women are bleeding to death.” ”

“ Children were changed by the fairies too, and no matter what way they were reared the like never grew to be right things.
There was once a man the name of Nallagh, lived in a tidy little place beyond the river. The wife and himself had one child, a gosoon, that could never be learned to speak, nor walk, nor stand upright, nor evenly to crawl upon the floor. The whole time the creature had all his makes and shapes [76] natural and good only for a powerful great head was on him. ”