"When Tom came home from labour,
Or Cis to milking rose,
Then merrily, merrily went their tabor,
And merrily went their toes."
But now, in the times of James, they had all gone, for "they were of the old profession," and "their songs were Ave Maries." In Ireland they are still extant, giving gifts to the kindly4, and plaguing the surly. "Have you ever seen a fairy or such like?" I asked an old man in County Sligo. "Amn't I annoyed with them," was the answer. "Do the fishermen along here know anything of the mermaids5?" I asked a woman of a village in County Dublin. "Indeed, they don't like to see them at all," she answered, "for they always bring bad weather." "Here is a man who believes in ghosts," said a foreign sea-captain, pointing to a pilot of my acquaintance. "In every house over there," said the pilot, pointing to his native village of Rosses, "there are several." Certainly that now old and much respected dogmatist, the Spirit of the Age, has in no [Pg x] manner made his voice heard down there. In a little while, for he has gotten a consumptive appearance of late, he will be covered over decently in his grave, and another will grow, old and much respected, in his place, and never be heard of down there, and after him another and another and another. Indeed, it is a question whether any of these personages will ever be heard of outside the newspaper offices and lecture-rooms and drawing-rooms and eel-pie houses of the cities, or if the Spirit of the Age is at any time more than a froth. At any rate, whole troops of their like will not change the Celt much. Giraldus Cambrensis found the people of the western islands a trifle paganish. "How many gods are there?" asked a priest, a little while ago, of a man from the Island of Innistor. "There is one on Innistor; but this seems a big place," said the man, and the priest held up his hands in horror, as Giraldus had, just seven centuries before. Remember, I am not blaming the man; it is very much better to believe in a number of gods than in none at all, or to think there is only one, but that he is a little sentimental6 and impracticable, and not constructed for the nineteenth century. The Celt, and his cromlechs, and his pillar-stones, these will not change much—indeed, it is doubtful if anybody at all changes at any time. In spite of hosts of deniers, and asserters, and wise-men, and professors, the majority still are averse7 to sitting down to dine thirteen at table, or being helped to salt, or walking under a ladder, or seeing a single magpie8 flirting9 his chequered tail. There are, of course, children of light who have set their faces against all this, though even a newspaper man, if you entice10 him into a cemetery11 at midnight, will believe in phantoms12, for every one is a visionary, if you scratch him deep enough. But the Celt is a visionary without scratching.
Yet, be it noticed, if you are a stranger, you will not readily [Pg xi] get ghost and fairy legends, even in a western village. You must go adroitly13 to work, and make friends with the children, and the old men, with those who have not felt the pressure of mere14 daylight existence, and those with whom it is growing less, and will have altogether taken itself off one of these days. The old women are most learned, but will not so readily be got to talk, for the fairies are very secretive, and much resent being talked of; and are there not many stories of old women who were nearly pinched into their graves or numbed15 with fairy blasts?
At sea, when the nets are out and the pipes are lit, then will some ancient hoarder16 of tales become loquacious17, telling his histories to the tune18 of the creaking of the boats. Holy-eve night, too, is a great time, and in old days many tales were to be heard at wakes. But the priests have set faces against wakes.
In the Parochial Survey of Ireland it is recorded how the story-tellers used to gather together of an evening, and if any had a different version from the others, they would all recite theirs and vote, and the man who had varied19 would have to abide20 by their verdict. In this way stories have been handed down with such accuracy, that the long tale of Dierdre was, in the earlier decades of this century, told almost word for word, as in the very ancient MSS. in the Royal Dublin Society. In one case only it varied, and then the MS. was obviously wrong—a passage had been forgotten by the copyist. But this accuracy is rather in the folk and bardic21 tales than in the fairy legends, for these vary widely, being usually adapted to some neighbouring village or local fairy-seeing celebrity22. Each county has usually some family, or personage, supposed to have been favoured or plagued, especially by the phantoms, as the Hackets of Castle Hacket, Galway, who had for their ancestor a fairy, [Pg xii] or John-o'-Daly of Lisadell, Sligo, who wrote "Eilleen Aroon," the song the Scotch23 have stolen and called "Robin24 Adair," and which Handel would sooner have written than all his oratorios25, [1] and the "O'Donahue of Kerry." Round these men stories tended to group themselves, sometimes deserting more ancient heroes for the purpose. Round poets have they gathered especially, for poetry in Ireland has always been mysteriously connected with magic.
These folk-tales are full of simplicity26 and musical occurrences, for they are the literature of a class for whom every incident in the old rut of birth, love, pain, and death has cropped up unchanged for centuries: who have steeped everything in the heart: to whom everything is a symbol. They have the spade over which man has leant from the beginning. The people of the cities have the machine, which is prose and a parvenu27. They have few events. They can turn over the incidents of a long life as they sit by the fire. With us nothing has time to gather meaning, and too many things are occurring for even a big heart to hold. It is said the most eloquent28 people in the world are the Arabs, who have only the bare earth of the desert and a sky swept bare by the sun. "Wisdom has alighted upon three things," goes their proverb; "the hand of the Chinese, the brain of the Frank, and the tongue of the Arab." This, I take it, is the meaning of that simplicity sought for so much in these days by all the poets, and not to be had at any price.
The most notable and typical story-teller of my acquaintance is one Paddy Flynn, a little, bright-eyed, old man, living in a leaky one-roomed cottage of the village of B——, "The most gentle—i.e., fairy—place in the whole [Pg xiii] of the County Sligo," he says, though others claim that honour for Drumahair or for Drumcliff. A very pious29 old man, too! You may have some time to inspect his strange figure and ragged30 hair, if he happen to be in a devout31 humour, before he comes to the doings of the gentry32. A strange devotion! Old tales of Columkill, and what he said to his mother. "How are you to-day, mother?" "Worse!" "May you be worse to-morrow;" and on the next day, "How are you to-day, mother?" "Worse!" "May you be worse to-morrow;" and on the next, "How are you to-day, mother?" "Better, thank God." "May you be better to-morrow." In which undutiful manner he will tell you Columkill inculcated cheerfulness. Then most likely he will wander off into his favourite theme—how the Judge smiles alike in rewarding the good and condemning33 the lost to unceasing flames. Very consoling does it appear to Paddy Flynn, this melancholy34 and apocalyptic35 cheerfulness of the Judge. Nor seems his own cheerfulness quite earthly—though a very palpable cheerfulness. The first time I saw him he was cooking mushrooms for himself; the next time he was asleep under a hedge, smiling in his sleep. Assuredly some joy not quite of this steadfast36 earth lightens in those eyes—swift as the eyes of a rabbit—among so many wrinkles, for Paddy Flynn is very old. A melancholy there is in the midst of their cheerfulness—a melancholy that is almost a portion of their joy, the visionary melancholy of purely37 instinctive38 natures and of all animals. In the triple solitude39 of age and eccentricity40 and partial deafness he goes about much pestered41 by children.
As to the reality of his fairy and spirit-seeing powers, not all are agreed. One day we were talking of the Banshee. "I have seen it," he said, "down there by the [Pg xiv] water 'batting' the river with its hands." He it was who said the fairies annoyed him.
Not that the Sceptic is entirely42 afar even from these western villages. I found him one morning as he bound his corn in a merest pocket-handkerchief of a field. Very different from Paddy Flynn—Scepticism in every wrinkle of his face, and a travelled man, too!—a foot-long Mohawk Indian tatooed on one of his arms to evidence the matter. "They who travel," says a neighbouring priest, shaking his head over him, and quoting Thomas á'Kempis, "seldom come home holy." I had mentioned ghosts to this Sceptic. "Ghosts," said he; "there are no such things at all, at all, but the gentry, they stand to reason; for the devil, when he fell out of heaven, took the weak-minded ones with him, and they were put into the waste places. And that's what the gentry are. But they are getting scarce now, because their time's over, ye see, and they're going back. But ghosts, no! And I'll tell ye something more I don't believe in—the fire of hell;" then, in a low voice, "that's only invented to give the priests and the parsons something to do." Thereupon this man, so full of enlightenment, returned to his corn-binding.
The various collectors of Irish folk-lore have, from our point of view, one great merit, and from the point of view of others, one great fault. They have made their work literature rather than science, and told us of the Irish peasantry rather than of the primitive43 religion of mankind, or whatever else the folk-lorists are on the gad44 after. To be considered scientists they should have tabulated45 all their tales in forms like grocers' bills—item the fairy king, item the queen. Instead of this they have caught the very voice of the people, the very pulse of life, each giving what was most noticed in his day. [Pg xv] Croker and Lover, full of the ideas of harum-scarum Irish gentility, saw everything humorised. The impulse of the Irish literature of their time came from a class that did not—mainly for political reasons—take the populace seriously, and imagined the country as a humorist's Arcadia; its passion, its gloom, its tragedy, they knew nothing of. What they did was not wholly false; they merely magnified an irresponsible type, found oftenest among boatmen, carmen, and gentlemen's servants, into the type of a whole nation, and created the stage Irishman. The writers of 'Forty-eight, and the famine combined, burst their bubble. Their work had the dash as well as the shallowness of an ascendant and idle class, and in Croker is touched everywhere with beauty—a gentle Arcadian beauty. Carleton, a peasant born, has in many of his stories—I have been only able to give a few of the slightest—more especially in his ghost stories, a much more serious way with him, for all his humour. Kennedy, an old bookseller in Dublin, who seems to have had a something of genuine belief in the fairies, came next in time. He has far less literary faculty46, but is wonderfully accurate, giving often the very words the stories were told in. But the best book since Croker is Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends. The humour has all given way to pathos47 and tenderness. We have here the innermost heart of the Celt in the moments he has grown to love through years of persecution48, when, cushioning himself about with dreams, and hearing fairy-songs in the twilight49, he ponders on the soul and on the dead. Here is the Celt, only it is the Celt dreaming.
Besides these are two writers of importance, who have published, so far, nothing in book shape—Miss Letitia Maclintock and Mr. Douglas Hyde. Miss Maclintock writes accurately50 and beautifully the half Scotch dialect of [Pg xvi] Ulster; and Mr. Douglas Hyde is now preparing a volume of folk tales in Gaelic, having taken them down, for the most part, word for word among the Gaelic speakers of Roscommon and Galway. He is, perhaps, most to be trusted of all. He knows the people thoroughly51. Others see a phase of Irish life; he understands all its elements. His work is neither humorous nor mournful; it is simply life. I hope he may put some of his gatherings52 into ballads53, for he is the last of our ballad-writers of the school of Walsh and Callanan—men whose work seems fragrant54 with turf smoke. And this brings to mind the chap-books. They are to be found brown with turf smoke on cottage shelves, and are, or were, sold on every hand by the pedlars, but cannot be found in any library of this city of the Sassanach. "The Royal Fairy Tales," "The Hibernian Tales," and "The Legends of the Fairies" are the fairy literature of the people.
Several specimens55 of our fairy poetry are given. It is more like the fairy poetry of Scotland than of England. The personages of English fairy literature are merely, in most cases, mortals beautifully masquerading. Nobody ever believed in such fairies. They are romantic bubbles from Provence. Nobody ever laid new milk on their doorstep for them.
As to my own part in this book, I have tried to make it representative, as far as so few pages would allow, of every kind of Irish folk-faith. The reader will perhaps wonder that in all my notes I have not rationalised a single hobgoblin. I seek for shelter to the words of Socrates.[2]
"Ph?drus. I should like to know, Socrates, whether the [Pg xvii] place is not somewhere here at which Boreas is said to have carried off Orithyia from the banks of the Ilissus?
"Socrates. That is the tradition.
"Ph?drus. And is this the exact spot? The little stream is delightfully56 clear and bright; I can fancy that there might be maidens57 playing near.
"Socrates. I believe the spot is not exactly here, but about a quarter-of-a-mile lower down, where you cross to the temple of Artemis, and I think that there is some sort of an altar of Boreas at the place.
"Socrates. The wise are doubtful, and I should not be singular if, like them, I also doubted. I might have a rational explanation that Orithyia was playing with Pharmacia, when a northern gust60 carried her over the neighbouring rocks; and this being the manner of her death, she was said to have been carried away by Boreas. There is a discrepancy61, however, about the locality. According to another version of the story, she was taken from the Areopagus, and not from this place. Now I quite acknowledge that these allegories are very nice, but he is not to be envied who has to invent them; much labour and ingenuity62 will be required of him; and when he has once begun, he must go on and rehabilitate63 centaurs64 and chimeras65 dire66. Gorgons and winged steeds flow in apace, and numberless other inconceivable and portentous67 monsters. And if he is sceptical about them, and would fain reduce them one after another to the rules of probability, this sort of crude philosophy will take up all his time. Now, I have certainly not time for such inquiries68. Shall I tell you why? I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription69 says; to be curious about that which is not my [Pg xviii] business, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous. And, therefore, I say farewell to all this; the common opinion is enough for me. For, as I was saying, I want to know not about this, but about myself. Am I, indeed, a wonder more complicated and swollen70 with passion than the serpent Typho, or a creature of gentler and simpler sort, to whom nature has given a diviner and lowlier destiny?"
I have to thank Messrs Macmillan, and the editors of Belgravia, All the Year Round, and Monthly Packet, for leave to quote from Patrick Kennedy's Legendary71 Fictions of the Irish Celts, and Miss Maclintock's articles respectively; Lady Wilde, for leave to give what I would from her Ancient Legends of Ireland (Ward & Downey); and Mr. Douglas Hyde, for his three unpublished stories, and for valuable and valued assistance in several ways; and also Mr. Allingham, and other copyright holders72, for their poems. Mr. Allingham's poems are from Irish Songs and Poems (Reeves and Turner); Fergusson's, from Sealey, Bryers, & Walker's shilling reprint; my own and Miss O'Leary's from Ballads and Poems of Young Ireland, 1888, a little anthology published by Gill & Sons, Dublin.
W. B. YEATS.
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1
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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mermaids
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| n.（传说中的）美人鱼( mermaid的名词复数 ) | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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magpie
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| n.喜欢收藏物品的人，喜鹊，饶舌者 | |
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9
flirting
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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10
entice
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| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
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cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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numbed
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| v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hoarder
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| n.囤积者，贮藏者 | |
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loquacious
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| adj.多嘴的，饶舌的 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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bardic
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| adj.吟游诗人的 | |
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celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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oratorios
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| n.（以宗教为主题的）清唱剧，神剧( oratorio的名词复数 ) | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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parvenu
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| n.暴发户，新贵 | |
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eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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condemning
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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apocalyptic
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| adj.预示灾祸的，启示的 | |
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steadfast
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| adj.固定的，不变的，不动摇的；忠实的；坚贞不移的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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eccentricity
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| n.古怪，反常，怪癖 | |
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pestered
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| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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gad
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| n.闲逛；v.闲逛 | |
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tabulated
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| 把（数字、事实）列成表( tabulate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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49
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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52
gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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53
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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56
delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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58
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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discrepancy
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| n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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rehabilitate
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| vt.改造(罪犯)，修复；vi.复兴，(罪犯)经受改造 | |
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centaurs
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| n.（希腊神话中）半人半马怪物( centaur的名词复数 ) | |
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chimeras
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| n.（由几种动物的各部分构成的）假想的怪兽( chimera的名词复数 )；不可能实现的想法；幻想；妄想 | |
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66
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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67
portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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68
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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69
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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70
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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71
legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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72
holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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