Charley, as may be supposed, was lost in wonder, delight, and perplexity; the pelting rain, the wife’s pudding, the new snaffle—even the match against squire Jephson—all were forgotten; nothing could he think of, nothing could he talk of, but the headless horseman. He told it, directly that he got home, to Judy; he told it the following morning to all the neighbours; and he told it to the hunt on St. Stephen’s day: but what provoked him after all the pains he took in describing the head, the horse, and the man, was that one and all attributed the creation of the headless horseman to his friend Con Buckley’s “X water parliament.” This, however, should be told, that Charley’s old mare beat Mr. Jephson’s bay filly, Desdemona, by Diamond, and Charley pocketed his cool hundred; and if he didn’t win by means of the headless horseman, I am sure I don’t know any other reason for his doing so.
Dullahan or Dulachan signifies a dark sullen person. The word Durrachan or Dullahan, by which in some places the goblin is known, has the same signification. It comes from Dorr or Durr, anger, or Durrach, malicious, fierce, &c.—MS. communication from the late Mr. Edward O’Reilly.
The correctness of this last etymology may be questioned, as black is evidently a component part of the word.
The Death Coach, or Headless Coach and Horses, is called in Ireland “Coach a bower;” and its appearance is generally regarded as a sign of death, or an omen of some misfortune.
The belief in the appearance of headless people and horses appears to be, like most popular superstitions, widely extended.
In England, see the Spectator (No. 110) for mention of a spirit that had appeared in the shape of a black horse without a head.
In Wales, the apparition of “Fenyw heb un pen,” the headless woman, and “Ceffyl heb un pen,” the headless horse, are generally accredited.—MS. communication from Miss Williams.
“The Irish Dullahan puts me in mind of a spectre at Drumlanrig Castle, of no less a person than the Duchess of Queensberry,—‘Fair Kitty, blooming, young, and gay,’—who, instead of setting fire to the world in mamma’s chariot, amuses herself with wheeling her own head in a wheel-barrow through the great gallery.”—MS. communication from Sir Walter Scott.
In Scotland, so recently as January, 1826, that veritable paper, the Glasgow Chronicle, records, upon the occasion of some silk-weavers being out of employment at Paisley, that “Visions have been seen of carts, caravans, and coaches, going up Gleniffer braes without horses, with horses without heads,” &c.
Cervantes mentions tales of the “Caballo sin cabeça among the cuentos de viejas con que se entretienen al fuego las dilatadas noches del invierno,” &c.
“The people of Basse Brétagne believe, that when the death of any person is at hand, a hearse drawn by skeletons (which they call carriquet au nankon,) and covered with a white sheet, passes by the house where the sick person lies, and the creaking of the wheels may be plainly heard.”—Journal des Sciences, 1826, communicated by Dr. William Grimm.
See also Thiele’s Danske Folkesagn, vol. iv. p. 66, &c.
THE FIR DARRIG.
Whene’er such wanderers I meete,
As from their night-sports they trudge home,
With counterfeiting voice I greete,
And call them on with me to roame
Through woods, through lakes,
Through bogs, through brakes;
Or else, unseene, with them I go,
All in the nicke,
To play some tricke,
And frolicke it, with ho, ho, ho!
—Old Song.