School: Bunninadden

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1. A Story

   

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   A Story.
   There was once a woman who had two daughters. One of them was a step daughter. She did not like the step daughter as well as she liked her own. She would not let her to school. One day she told her to bring up a gallon of water. She said "I will give you an apple". When she came back she brought her into a room. She told her to stoop down into a box which was full of apples. When she stooped down, the step mother let the lid of it fall down on her neck. She cut her neck with the lid. She was very weak and she was not able to talk. She put her sitting on a chair outside the door. When her step sister was coming from school she asked her for a bite of the apple. She did not answer. She went in and she told her mother that her step- sister would not give her a bite of the apple. She told her to give her a slap and she would. She threw her off the chair and killed her. She went in and told her mother what happened. Her mother said "we will bury her under a tree in the garden. We will not tell her father". Every day afterwards a little robin used to come and sing
   "I had a mother who loved me well.
   Better than tongue can ever tell'
   I had another who hated me.
   She killed me and buried me under a tree".
   One day while the child's father was out working in the field he heard the robin singing that. He went in and he asked his wife what was buried under the tree and why used the little robin come and sing a short song under it. She said it was the little girl. The man got very angry with his wife. The robin went to a shoe-

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT0780: The Singing Bone

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Margaret Gallagher

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Bunnanaddan, Co. Sligo

   Informant

   Mrs Ellen Gallagher

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Achonry, Co. Sligo