Ulster Folklore

PAGE INTRODUCTION. 2.   FAIRIES AND THEIR DWELLING-PLACES. 6. A DAY AT MAGHERA, CO. LONDONDERRY. 16. ULSTER FAIRIES, DANES, AND PECHTS. 25. FOLKLORE CONNECTED WITH ULSTER RATHS AND SOUTERRAINS. 35. TRADITIONS OF DWARF RACES IN IRELAND AND IN SWITZERLAND. 43. FOLKLORE FROM DONEGAL. 57. GIANTS AND DWARFS. 71. THE REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D. 87. We must not, however, think of Irish fairies as tiny creatures who could hide under a mushroom or dance on a blade of grass. I remember well how strongly an old woman from Galway repudiated such an idea. The fairies, according to her, were indeed small people, but no mushroom could give them shelter. She described them as about the size of children, and as far as I can ascertain from inquiries made in many parts of Ulster and Munster, this is the almost universal belief among the peasantry. Sometimes I was told the fairies were as large as a well-grown boy or girl, sometimes that they were as small as children beginning to walk; the height of a chair or a table was often used as a comparison, and on one occasion an old woman spoke of them as being about the size of monkeys.