ourse a man once found and hid one of these sealskins, and so got
a mermaid for a wife; and of course she recovered the skin and escaped.
[91] On the coasts of Ireland it is supposed to be quite an ordinary
thing for young sea-fairies to get human husbands in this way; the
brazen things even come to shore on purpose, and leave their red caps
lying around for young men to pick up; but it behooves the husband to
keep a strict watch over the red cap, if he would not see his children
left motherless.

This mermaid's cap has contributed its quota to the superstitions of
witchcraft. An Irish story tells how Red James was aroused from sleep
one night by noises in the kitchen. Going down to the door, he saw a
lot of old women drinking punch around the fireplace, and laughing and
joking with his housekeeper. When the punchbowl was empty, they all put
on red caps, and singing

"By yarrow and rue,
And my red cap too,
Hie me over to England,"

they flew up chimney. So Jimmy burst into the room, and seized the
housekeeper's cap, and went along with them. They flew across the sea to
a castle in England, passed through the keyholes from room to room and
into the cellar, where they had a famous carouse. Unluckily Jimmy, being
unused to such good cheer, got drunk, and forgot to put on his cap when
the others did. So next morning the lord's butler found him dead-drunk
on the cellar floor, surrounded by empty casks. He was sentenced to be
hung without any trial worth speaking of; but as he was carted to the
gallows an old woman cried out, "Ach, Jimmy alanna! Would you be afther
dyin' in a strange land without your red birredh?" The lord made no
objections, and so the red cap was brought and put on him. Accordingly
when Jimmy had got to the gallows and was making his last speech for the
edification of the spectators, he unexpectedly and somewhat irrelevantly
exclaimed, "By yarrow and rue," etc., and was off like a rocket,
shooting through the blue air en route for old Ireland. [92]

In another Irish legend an enchanted ass comes into the kitchen of a
great house every night, and washes the dishes and scours the tins,
so that the servants lead an easy life of it. After a while in their
exuberant gratitude they offer him any present for which he may feel
inclined to ask. He desires only "an ould coat, to keep the chill off of
him these could nights"; but as soon as he gets into the coat he resumes
his human form and bids