School: Knockerra (B.) Killimer
- Location:
- Knockerra, Co. Clare
- Teacher: Mícheál Ó Cuinneagáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0629, Page 031
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
Download
Open data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Knockerra (B.) Killimer
- XML Page 031
- XML (no title)
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
(no title)
“One time when the Hickmans were landlords of Kilmore estate, the whole lot of the surrounding townlands were plagued with rats.”
One time when the Hickmans were landlords of Kilmore estate, the whole lot of the surrounding townlands were plagued with rats. When they became too plentiful Mr Hickman sent to England for a magician. When the magician came he wrote some magic words on a piece of paper. Then he put a razor on the trunk of a tree and he took a magic whistle from his pocket and blew upon it. Immediately all the rats from the Hickman estate appeared before the magician. Then the magician spoke to the rats and called out the oldest of them and put the piece of paper into his mouth. The old rat rubbed his neck to the edge of the razor. by doing so he cut his throat. When the other rats saw this they set up a loud cry which was heard for many miles around. There was so many rats there that it took several days to cart them away and bury them. From that day out the rats never got as plentiful again in the Hickman estate. I should have said above that when the old rat cut his neck on the razor all the other rats did likewise.
- Collector
- Samuel Keane
- Gender
- Male