School: Multyfarnham (roll number 2405)

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1. The Story of the Black Cofffin

   

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   The Story of the Black Coffin
   There was a haunted house in this parish one time where there lived a gentleman and his daughter but they had to leave this house at a certain time in the evening and return in the morning on account of the ghost in the house at nine o'clock.
   At last the gentleman got a man to stop in the house one night and he left him every kind of refreshment that night and when the hour of twelve came the man was sitting by the fire side when he heard a noise coming down the chimney when a black coffin arrived on the hearthstone and the ghost raised the lid of the coffin and told the caretaker that he must die. In the morning at nine o'clock the gentleman and his daughter arrived and they found the place closed up and the man dead. They got a second man to stop in the house and the same thing occurred.
   The gentleman said that he would try a third man. So he engaged the third man and told him that if he defeated the ghost the third night that he would make him a wealthy man and that and that he would give him his daughter in marriage and a big mansion and a coach and four. This man agreed and he got every kind of refreshment for the night. The man enjoyed himself for a while and then he started to prepare for the black coffin. So he gathered all the chains

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT0326: The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Anne Shanley

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   13

   Address

   Lismalady, Co. Westmeath

   Informant

   Mrs Rose Shanley

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   50

   Address

   Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath