School: An Craoslach (roll number 10062)

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1. A Straw Dance

   

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   A Straw Dance
   In olden times when any person was short of straw they used to hold a straw dance.
   Each person would bring a battle of straw and the dances went on until two or three o'clock in the morning.
   An old woman had a cow and she had no straw for it, so she held a straw dance. The fiddler came and people came flocking in. The old dame was in great form, she had counted forty battles of straw. According to the custom of that time, she stood at the door to receive the guests and she told each one to throw his battle of straw in the room. The window in the room had no glass in it, it was just a square hole. The first person that came in with the battle of straw passed it out of the window to someone else. The person that was outside came in and passed the battle of straw out of the window to the next and so on. The old woman did not know that it was the same battle of straw all the time.
   The dance was going on for about an hour when the old lady thought she would like to go down to the room to gloat over the straw - for she thought she'd have enough straw to do the cow for the winter.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Dorothy Wilkinson

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Masiness, Co. Donegal

   Informant

   Mr A. Wilkinson

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Masiness, Co. Donegal