MAURICE CONNOR.
Like the Siren, so does the female Neck enchant youths with sweet music, and draw them down into the water. Thus also Hylas, a king's son, is commemorated in Greek Mythology as having been drawn into the water by nymphs enamoured of the beautiful youth.
The Irish relate a somewhat similar story of a famous bagpiper, whose name was Maurice Connor, and who had the reputation of being the best piper in the whole province of Munster. One day, when he played on the sea coast, at a lonely place in the county of Kerry, a beautiful lady with green hair came up from the sea, singing and dancing most charmingly; and when she invited him to go with her, and to marry her, he could not resist. Thus Maurice Connor became the husband of the green-haired lady deep in the sea. The union evidently proved happy. For several years afterwards the sea-faring people often heard, on a still night, the sounds of a bagpipe off the coast, and some say they are quite sure that it was Maurice Connor's music which they heard.[73]