School: Cill Thiomáin, Durrus, Bantry (roll number 15989)
- Location:
- Kilcomane, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Máiréad Ní Mhathúna
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0288, Page 052
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- (continued from previous page)bring water in it, and she took the sieve and went to the well: but the water poured from it, and she could fetch none for the cake, and she sat down by the well and wept
Then a voice came by her and said "Take yellow clay and moss, and bind them together and plaster the sieve that it will hold. This she did and the sieve held the water, and the voice said again "Return, and when thou comest to the north angle of the house, cry aloud three times and say 'The mountain of the Fenian[?] women and the sky over it is all in fire." And she did so. When the witches inside heard the call the rushed forth with wild lamentation and shrieks, and fled away to Slievenamon where was their chief abode. But the spirit of the well bade the mistress of the house to enter and prepare her home against the enchantment of the witches if they returned again.
And first to break their spells, she sprinkled the water in which she had washed her child's feet on the threshold. Secondly she took the cake which the witches had made in her absence of meal mixed with blood drawn from the sleeping family, and she broke the cake in his bits and places a bit in the mouth of each sleeper, and they were restored(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Anne Mc Carthy
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Cashelfean, Co. Cork
