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School: Culdaff

Location:
Culdaff, Co. Donegal
Teacher:
Ailís Eibhlín de Brún
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1123, Page 010

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1123, Page 010

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  1. Story 3

    “In the olden days, people believed that the fairies came to a house where a baby was born and tried to steal the human baby, and leave a fairy baby in its place.”

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    Story 3 January 1938
    Told by Mrs Huston
    In the olden days, people believed that the fairies came to a house where a baby was born, and tried to steal the human baby and leave a fairy baby in its place. But if the parents of the child had any suspicions that this happened to their baby, they had a way of finding out. The following story shows how they found out.
    The parents of Charles Knox, the father of Robert George Knox, and grandfather of three of my pupils, had an idea that he was not their child, but that the fairies had stolen their child and had left this fairy baby in its place. Therefore, they bought him down to the forge, and the blacksmith placed him on the anvil, and the blacksmith struck the anvil with the hammer. As the baby sat quietly on the anvil.
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    History Edit
    Language
    English
    Informant
    Mrs Huston
    Gender
    Female
    Age
    c. 90