School: Tráigh Omna (roll number 13092)

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1. A Strange Story (continued)

   

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   Next morning he went to the husband's house. When he went in he met the husband and said "Good morning, I have queer news for you". "Is it about Julia?" cried the husband. "I was coming home from Castletownshend late last night" said John. "As I was coming along I stopped to light my pipe for company. I heard a sound of galloping horses behind me. I could not get my pipe to draw, until they were after passing. The last horse stopped, and on it was a pale, sad, forlorn woman and that woman was Julia, your wife. She told me to ask you to claim her before Hallow Eve, for it would be no good trying after" Then the man of the house said "Sure it wasn't Julia at all. She would not sit on an old cart and horse without falling off". "It was Julia" said John "didn't I see the salt tears streaming down her cheeks?". Then John was going away, and he turned back to the husband and said "May the Lord forget you, if you forget Julia". Then John went on his way home.
   Hallow Eve came and there was the husband sitting at home by the fire, and crying for his Julia in the Strange country. At that same time Julia was riding in through the Fairies Gap, and when she did not see her husband there she fell in a weakness. The good people lifted her, and placed her on a silver bed in the mansion. Then she started to cry once more. The fairy woman asked her what she was crying for and Julia said that she was lonesome for her husband. "Why should you weep for that good for nothing fellow?" said the fairy woman

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   James Nagle

   Gender

   Male

   Informant

   James Scully

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   80

   Address

   Castlehaven, Co. Cork