Down Folk Tales by Lally Steve;

Author:Lally, Steve;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1052706
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

By the sheen of the stars

By the light of the moon

Under these our rights are done.

The still night and muffled streams

Gleaming frost and whitened earth

O! These are for our mirth.

Hence! Ye earth-born mortals, hence!

Come not near our wonted haunts

Taint ye not our ancient homes!

Then Billy saw one of them lifting up his hand suddenly, and they all stopped. In a powerful voice for such a small creature he shouted, ‘Our gentle thorn is injured. Look! And see what has performed this heinous act’.

They rushed over by where Billy was lying. The fear came back on him like a wave and he began to gasp as if he were drowning. As they gathered around him they let out such a terrible screech that turned Billy’s blood to ice.

Billy knew well enough not to open his mouth until he was spoken to, for if you speak to the fairies before they speak to you, you’ll never speak again. The one who stopped the dance stepped up to him and said, ‘Rash mortal, why do you dare disturb us?’

Billy replied by trying to explain how he had got lost and meant them no harm or disturbance.

With that one of the fairies rushed towards them crying ‘O King! It is he who has broken our gentle thorn’.

The wee man, whom Billy had just learnt was their king, looked at him severely, then raised his hand and shouted, ‘Punish him!’ With that, the rest of them pointed their fingers at Billy and wherever they pointed an agonizing pain surged though his body. Every bone in his body felt like it was being wrenched out of its socket. This seemed to last for an awful long time, he thought he could take no more, as he said to Jimmie, ‘I gave a groan thinkin’ I was departin”. But just when Billy was about to give up hope of survival the big lass came up near him and cried out, ‘O King, I must speak to him!’.

‘No, no’, replied the King.

‘Oh I must’, the girl implored.

The King relented and told the girl she could have a wee while, but mustn’t be long. With that they all scudded back into the hole and she sat down on the grass beside him. She put out her hand and touched him, instantly all pain left his body. He looked up at her with gratitude, it was then that he saw she was just a child, but spoke as well and sophisticated as an educated adult woman in a child’s voice.

The child asked him what had brought him there and he explained that he had got lost and did not realise he was so close to the fort, let alone a fairy ring.

‘Did you come here to spy on the fairies?’ asked the child. ‘Tell the truth, it will serve you best.’ Billy swore on the ‘Bible’ and the ‘Question Book’ that he was no spy. When he mentioned the ‘Question Book’ he saw that the child believed him. She asked

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