Avoid the road, children, children_."[576]
[Dancing with the fairies at Hallowe'en.]
In Cardiganshire on November Eve a bogie sits on every stile.[577] On
that night in Ireland all the fairy hills are thrown wide open and the
fairies swarm forth; any man who is bold enough may then peep into the
open green hills and see the treasures hidden in them. Worse than that,
the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, known as "the Hell-gate of Ireland,"
is unbarred on Samhain Eve or Hallowe'en, and a host of horrible fiends
and goblins used to rush forth, particularly a flock of copper-red
birds, which blighted crops and killed animals by their poisonous
breath.[578] The Scotch Highlanders have a special name _Samhanach_
(derived from _Samhain_, "All-hallows") for the dreadful bogies that go
about that night stealing babies and committing other atrocities.[579]
And though the fairies are a kindlier folk, it is dangerous to see even
them at their revels on Hallowe'en. A melancholy case of this sort is
reported from the Ferintosh district of the Highlands, though others say
that it happened at the Slope of Big Stones in Harris. Two young men
were coming home after nightfall on Hallowe'en, each with a jar of
whisky on his back, when they saw, as they thought, a house all lit up
by the roadside, from which proceeded the sounds of music and dancing.
In reality it was not a house at all but a fairy knoll, and it was the
fairies who were jigging it about there so merrily.
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