pieces of bread for them of a night. In the morning these were given to the fowls and never eaten by the people of the house, because since it is, as it were, the spiritual part of the food that is taken, it would not be known whether the fairies had touched it.
If milk be spilt no annoyance should be expressed, but you should say: "There's a dry heart waiting for it," since the Good People may have been Avanting it, and caused it to be spilt.
Should one come out of a house at night whilst eating, a portion should be thrown on the ground for the fairies.
I have referred above to the belief of the peasantry that the fairies are also inhabitants of the water as well as of the land. There are several local legends connected with Lough Allen which represent it as peopled by beings of a fairy nature. The following is one of these: —
Legend of Lough Allen.
There was a gentleman one time fishing on Lough Allen, himself and his boy. The lake was pure calm, but about the middle of the day he looked out before him, and he saw a great wave rising. As the wave was getting near them it was getting bigger and bigger; and they were greatly alarmed, and he did not know what to do. The gentleman in his trouble and fear took a dart he had in the boat and flung it with might and main at the giant wave. No sooner nor he did the lake became as calm as a bog-hole. The gentleman found himself greatly fatigued, and struck for the shore, and as he landed on the shore he found he was hardly able to walk; so when he came to his own house that was over the lake on the hill, his mother asked him was he ill? and he said not, but that he was very fatigued, and that he'd go to bed for a while; "and if anybody comes in enquiring for me, tell them I'm out;" for he wanted to rest.
