pter
IV., and from the latter that of the ghost and his wives, in Chapter
VII.

Having thus confessed my indebtedness, it would seem that my next duty
was to pay it. I fear that I can pay it only with thanks. I have not
taken a story from the work of any living collector without his
permission. It thus becomes my pleasure, no less than my duty, to
express my gratitude to Mr. Yeats for permission to use the stories in
"Irish Fairy and Folk Tales" and "The Celtic Twilight;" to Dr. Hyde
for his permission to take what I chose from "Beside the Fire," and to
Mr. Larminie and his publisher, Elliott Stock, for the same permission
with regard to his "West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances." My thanks are
equally due to Macmillan & Co., Limited, for permission to take
stories from Kennedy's "Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts," the
rights to which they own. I wish to say also that in each of these
cases the permission asked has been given with a readiness and a
cordiality no less pleasing than the permission itself.

I have learned much concerning the ways of Irish fairies from Lady
Wilde's "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland"
and "Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland," and I have gained
not a little from the books of William Carleton, especially his
"Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry," but from none of these
have I taken any considerable part of a story. Indeed I have found
help, greater or less, in more books than I can name here.

It may seem by this time that I am like the lawyer who conceded this
and that to his opponent till the judge said: "Do not concede any
more; you conceded your whole case long ago." But I have not conceded
my whole case. I have used the threads which others have spun, but I
have done my own weaving. The shorter stories have been told before,
but they have never been put together in this way before, and, as I
said at first, the main story is my own.

W.H.F.

NEW YORK, September 1, 1900.

* * * * *

FAIRIES AND FOLK OF IRELAND

[Illustration:]

I

O'DONOGHUE

It was in a poor little cabin somewhere in Ireland. It does not matter
where. The walls were of rough stone, the roof was of thatch, and the
floor was the hard earth. There was very little furniture. Poor as it
was, the whole place was clean. It is right to tell this, because,
unhappily, a good many cabins in Ireland are not clean. What furniture
there