Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

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104 Fictions of the Irish Celts.
music was over now, the lights went out, and the poor
creature lay till morning in a nightmare ; and there the
two women found him, at daybreak, more dead than
alive. It was a dismal return they had to Ballynocrish ;
and the moral of my story is, that you should never
drive till you first try the virtue of leading.
This fairy legend is certainly one of the most ancient
of its kind. Dancing to the tiresome melody was a
punishment inflicted on the fairies for their pristine
crimes. No wonder that they should have felt grateful
for the improvement effected.
THE BRETON VERSION OF THE PALACE IN THE
RATH.
In the Breton mythology the Irish fairies are replaced
by the korils (night dancers), who assemble on the heaths
and execute rondes till daybreak. Any inattentive mor-
tal crossing their territory is seized on, and obliged to
caper all night, and at sunrise is at the point of death
with fatigue. Benead Guilcher, the hero of a story
similar to the Ltisinore of the Legends of the South of
Ireland, returning with his wife from his labours at the
plough, was on the point of being seized on, when they
observed his paddle {fork in the original) in his hand,
and so were obliged to relinquish their prey, singing at
the same time,
" Lez-hi, lez-hon,
Bac'h an arer zo gant hon ;
Lez-hon, lez-hi,
Bac'h arer zo gant hi."
" Let him go, let her go,
Fork of plough has he
Let her go, let him go,
Fork of plough have they."
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