looked into his
face as impidint as a magpie. 'Don't think fur to bully me,' she says. 'I
come av a race that niver owned a coward, and I wouldn't give that fur you
an' all the big soords ye cud carry,' says she, givin' her fingers a snap
right at the end av his nose.

"Now the owld haythen niver had anny wan to spake like that to him, an' at
first was that surprised like as a horse had begun fur to convarse at him,
no more cud he say a word, he was that full o' rage, and sat there,
openin' and shuttin' his mouth an' swellin' up like he'd burst, an' his
face as red as a turkey-cock's. Thin he remimbered his soord ah' pulled it
out an' stratched out his hand fur to ketch the quane an' cut aff her
head. But she was too quick for him entirely, an' whin he had the soord
raised, she said the charm that was to purtect her, an' afore ye cud wink,
there stood the blood-suckin' owld villin, mortified to shtone wid his
arrum raised an' his hand reached out, an' as stiff as a mast.

"Thin she said the other charm that called the inchanter an' he come at
wanst. She towld him phat she done an' he said it was right av her, an' as
she was a purty smart woman he said he'd marry her himself. So he did, an'
bein' that the island was cursed be rayzon av the king's crimes, they come
to Ireland wid all the payple. So they come to Connemara, an' the
inchanter got husbands fur all the king's wives an' homes fur all the men
av the island. But he inchanted the island an' made it so that the bad
king must live in it alone as long as the sun rises an' sits. No more does
the island stand still, but must go thravellin' up an' down the coast, an'
wan siven years they see it in Kerry an' the next siven years in Donegal,
an' so it goes, an' always will, beways av a caution to kings not to cut
aff the heads av their wives."

[Illustration: "Howlin' wid rage"]

HOW THE LAKES WERE MADE.

[Illustration: Initial: "How the Lakes were made"]

Among the weird legends of the Irish peasantry is found a class of stories
peculiar both in the nature of the subject and in the character of the
tradition. From the dawn of history, and even before, the island has been
crowded with inhabitants, and as the centres of population changed, towns
and cities were deserted and fell into ruins. Although no longer
inhabited, their sites are by no means unknown or forgotten, but in many
localities where now appear only irregular heaps