School: Taobh Breac (roll number 15227)

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1. The Late Charlie Gallen of Gortichar and Shooting in Cattle

   

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   Scalan’s or Mass Rocks

   Capt. P.J. McGoldrick got the following frorm the late Charles Gallen, Gortichar:-
   One day as a small boy, he had been sent to mind the cows on the “skrigs” (rocky ground with dwarfish shrubs). At the bottom of a rowantree, was a little one no bigger than a tallow candle. The boy watched the little man steadily, and forgot to bless himself as well as the cattle, and the next thing he saw was the little man skipping over the rocks like a weasel in the direction of a red heifer. The little man took a bow and arrow, no bigger than a pin, and fired it at the heifer, afterwards disappearing ‘neath the rowantree. The boy took the heifer home and told his father, where he told his father what had happened. The father knew the trouble as shooting and immediately sent for a local man who had the cure. The man arrived, removed his coat and hat, and proceeded to “measure” the cow using the arm (from the elbow to the point of the middle finger) first girthwise, then from the tail to the point of the skull. When this was completed, he got some hot coals on a shovel and held it under the heifer’s head, having plucked three locks of hair from the heifer’s back and thrown them on the coals. The heifer got alright in half-an-hour. The man never spoke until the operation was over.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Donnachadh E. Mac Congáile

   Gender

   Male

   Occupation

   Múinteoir

   Informant

   Captain P.J. Mc Goldrick

   Gender

   Male