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NOTE VI.
Where the Stories came from.
I learnt the story of Monuchar and Munuchar from an old spealadóir named Máirtín O Brianáin in the county Roscommon, near where it joins Mayo and Sligo. I have not altered a word or inflexion in it, except the one word tuaíge, which I have made feminine, as it should be.
My friend, Mr. Larminie. took down exactly as it was spoken the story of the Three Questions, as told him by a Donegal peasant. He wrote it down phonetically, and I have written it after him in Irish characters, with scarcely the change of a word. This accounts for the bad grammar, as lán slúip de rásúir and de ṁeuracáin for rásúraiḃ and ṁeuracánaiḃ, and for such phrases as ag an ḟear for ag an ḃfear. I have not changed them, as I wanted this story and that of Niall O Cearḃuiḋ to stand as specimens of the Northern Irish.
I heard the long story of Goillís na g-cos Duḃ from an old gamekeeper, Seumas O h-Airt, in Roscommon, near where it joins Mayo and Sligo. He had the greatest repertoire of stories of any shanachie I ever met. He is, unfortunately, dead, so that I have told the story as well as I could recollect it, in my own language, since I could not reproduce the ipsissima verba. Is is told, however, nearly as I heard it, except that I think the incident of the rats belongs to another tale. It was an interminable story.
The story of the Píobaire and the Púca was told by Máire ní Bairréad; and that of Uilliam an ċrann by Anna Brett, from the same place.
