Page [207]. 'And their step-mother, being jealous of their father's great love for them, cast upon the king's children, by sorcery, the shape of swans, and bade them go roaming, even till Patrick's mass-bell should sound in Erin; but no farther in time than that did her power extend.'—The Fate of the Children of Lir.
Page [222]. The wind was one of the deities of the Pagan Irish. 'The murmuring of the Red Wind from the East,' says an old poem, 'is heard in its course by the strong as well as the weak; it is the wind that wastes the bottom of the trees, and injurious to man is that red wind.'
Page [226]. Can Doov Deelish means 'dear black head.'
Page [231]. The chorus is pronounced Shoo-il, shoo-il, shoo-il, a rooin, Shoo-il go socair, ogus shoo-il go kiune, Shoo-il go den durrus ogus euli liom, Iss go de too, mo vourneen, slaun, and means—
'Move, move, move, O treasure,
Move quietly and move gently,
Move to the door, and fly with me,
And mayest thou go, my darling, safe!'
Page [232]. Shan van vocht, meaning 'little old woman', is a name for Ireland.
Page [235]. This is not the most ancient form of the ballad, but it is the form into which it was recast by Boucicault, and which has long taken the place of all others.
Page [237], line 2. 'Sinking,' violent swearing.
THE END
IRISH BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.