ded by west
coast mothers, and many precautions are taken against the elves. Thefts of
this kind now rarely occur, but once they were common, as "in thim owld
times, ye cud see tin fairies where there isn't wan now, be razon o' thim
lavin' the counthry."

A notable case of baby stealing occurred in the family of Termon Magrath,
who had a castle, now in picturesque ruins, on the shore of Lough Erne, in
the County Donegal. The narrator of the incident was "a knowledgable
woman," who dwelt in an apology for a cabin, a thatched shed placed
against the precipitous side of the glen almost beneath the castle. The
wretched shelter was nearly concealed from view by the overhanging
branches of a large tree and by thick undergrowth, and seemed unfit for a
pig-pen, but, though her surroundings were poor beyond description, "Owld
Meg," in the language of one of her neighbors, "knew a dale av fairies an'
witches an' could kape thim from a babby betther than anny woman that iver
dhrew the breath av life." A bit of tobacco to enable her to take a "dhraw
o' the pipe, an' that warms me heart to the whole worruld," brought forth
the story.

[Illustration: "Owld Meg"]

"It's a manny year ago, that Termon Magrath wint, wid all his army, to the
war in the County Tyrone, an' while he was gone the babby was born an'
they called her Eva. She was her mother's first, so she felt moighty
onaisey in her mind about her 's knowin' that the good people do be always
afther the first wan that comes, an' more whin it's a girl that's in it,
that they thry to stale harder than they do a boy, bekase av belavin'
they're aisier fur to rare, though it's mesilf that doesn't belave that
same, fur wan girl makes more throuble than tin boys an' isn't a haporth
more good.

"So whin the babby was born they sent afther an owld struckawn av a widdy
that set up for a wise woman, that knew no more o' doctherin' than a pig
av Paradise, but they thought she could kape away the fairies, that's a
job that takes no ind av knowledge in thim that thries it. But the poor
owld woman did the best she knew how, an' so, God be good to her, she
wasn't to be blamed fur that, but it's the likes av her that do shame thim
that's larned in such things, fur they make people think all wise wimmin
as ignerant as hersilf. So she made the sign o' the crass on the babby's
face wid ashes, an' towld thim to bite aff its nails and not cut thim till
nine weeks, an' held