Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Household Stones. 23
consequently on the very verge of civilization. He was
gardener, ploughman, and horseboy, to the Rev. Mr. M,
of Coolbawn, at the time of the learning of this tale.
We had once the misfortune to be at a wake, when the
adventures of another fellow with a goat-skin, not at all
decent, were told by a boy with a bald head, rapidly
approaching his eightieth year. Jemmy Reddy's story
has nothing in common with it but the name. We re-
cognised the other in Mr. Campbell's " Tales of the
Highlands," very much disguised ; but, even in that
tolerably decent garb, not worth preserving. The follow-
ing avowal is made with some reluctance. Forty or fifty
years since, several very vile tales—as vile as could be
found in the " Fabliaux," or the " Decameron," or any
other dirty collection, had a limited circulation among
farm-servants and labourers, even in the respectable
county of Wexford. It was one of these that poor old
T. L. told. Let us hope that it has vanished from the
collections still extant in our counties of the Pale.
ADVENTURES OF GILLA NA CHRECK AN GOUR.*
Long ago, a poor widow woman lived down near the
iron forge, by Enniscorthy, and she was so poor, she had
no clothes to put on her son ; so she used to fix him in
the ash-hole, near the fire, and pile the warm ashes about
him ; and according as he grew up, she sunk the pit
deeper. At last, by hook or by crook, she got a goat-
* Correctly, " GioUa na Chroicean Gobhar." (The Fellow with
the Goat-skin).