School: Waterville (C.) (roll number 16015)
- Location:
- Waterville, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Helen O' Sullivan
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0475, Page 130
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- XML “The Forbidden Room”
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- There was once a poor man who had three good daughters. His only possession was a garden of beautiful cabbages. A beast came at night and spoiled the garden. The eldest daughter was told off next night to watch the garden. In the night the beast came, took her on his horns and carried her off to sea to a beautiful palace outside the Carraig Dubh (Black Rock) in the ocean.
He gave her the keys of the whole house and told her she might take what she liked, but that she must not enter a certain room. He then went off and left her. The only living creature in the palace was a little cat. When she was preparing and eating her meal the cat hung about her and tried to get some of the food, but she beat it away and gave it nothing. After dinner she was tempted by curiosity and entered the forbidden room. It was filled with dead bodies. A drop of blood splashed on her forehead and though she tried to remove it, she could not do so. The beast came again in the evening, but now he was transformed into a man. He saw the blood on her forehead. He dragged her to the forbidden room and cut her head off. Next night the second daughter was sent to watch the garden. The beast came and took her also. She treated the little cat as the (the) sister had done and met a like fate. The third daughter was taken on the third night. She shared her meal with the cat. When she entered the forbidden room she found her dead sisters. The blood splashed on her forehead but, in gratitude for her kindness, the little cat jumped up and licked it off. When the beast (in the form of a man now) returned in the evening and found no trace of blood on her forehead, he was pleased beyond measure. The magic that turned him into the form of a beast during darkness and prevented him from going on dry land except in the form of a beast and at night only was now removed. He revived the two(continues on next page)
