Stories
& Legends of Ireland
THE
BEWITCHED BUTTER, pt. 5
John Keegan
Bryan
did not seek sleep that night; he sat up anxiously awaiting the midnight
hour. It arrived at last, and his friend, the herdsman, true to his
promise came at the time appointed. After some farther admonitions from
the collougb, they departed. Having arrived at the field, they consulted
as to the best position they could choose for concealment. At last they
pitched on a small brake of fern, situated at the extremity of the field,
adjacent to the boundary ditch, which was thickly studded with large,
old white-thorn bushes. Here they couched themselves, and made the dogs,
four in number, lie down beside them, eagerly expecting the appearance
of their as yet unknown and mysterious visitor.
It was
a still, calm night, and, for the season, extremely dark and gloomy.
There was not a single star visible in all the vast expanse of heaven,
whilst large masses of dark vapour, which rolled slowly athwart the
brow of the silent summer-night sky, almost constantly obscured the
waning moon, which at intervals appeared sinking redly on the western
horizon. There was a solemn tranquility, too, over the face of nature
- not a sound was to he beard, except the monotonous, grating call of
the land-rail from the adjacent meadows, or, now and then, the appalling
shriek of the screech-owl, hovering on dusky wing over the ivy-wreathed
ruins of Aghaboe Priory, which, a little to the eastward of where the
watchers lay, reared its venerable head in grim and isolated grandeur.
Here Bryan
and his comrade continued a considerable time in nervous anxiety, still
nothing approached, and it became manifest that morning was at hand.
The twilight breezes had now sprung
up, and were chasing the clouds along the sky before them, and the morning
star was visible over the rocky pinnacle of Shean More. Still nothing
appeared to disturb the sentinels; they soon began to grow impatient,
and were talking of returning home, when on a sudden they beard a rushing
sound behind them, as if proceeding from something endeavouring to force
a passage through the thick hedge in their rear. They looked in that
direction, and judge of their astonishment, when they perceived a large
hare in the act of springing from the ditch, and leaping on the ground
quite near them. They were now convinced that this was the object which
they had so impatiently expected, and they were resolved to watch her
motions narrowly.
After
arriving to the ground, she remained motionless for a few moments, looking
around her sharply. She then began to skip and jump in a playful manner;
now advancing at a smart pace towards the cows, and again retreating
precipitately, but still drawing nearer and nearer at each sally. At
length she advanced up to the next cow, and sucked her for a moment;
then on to the next, and so respectively to every cow on the field -
the cows all the time lowing loudly, and appearing extremely frightened
and agitated. Bryan, from the moment the hare commenced sucking the
first, was with difficulty restrained from attacking her; but his more
sagacious companion suggested to him, that it was better to wait until
she would have done, as she would then he much heavier, and more unable
to effect her escape than at present. And so the issue proved; for being
now done sucking them all, her belly appeared enormously distended,
and she made her exit slowly, and apparently with difficulty. She advanced
towards the hedge where she had entered, and as she arrived just at
the clump of ferns where her foes were couched, they started up with
a fierce yell, and hallooed the dogs upon her path.
Now came
on the 'tug of war.' The hare started off at a brisk pace, squirting
up the milk she had sucked from her mouth and nostrils, and the dogs
making after her rapidly. Rachel Higgins's cabin appeared, through the
grey of the morning twilight, at a little distance; and it was evident
that puss seemed bent on gaining it, although she made a considerable
circuit through the fields in the rear. Bryan and his comrade, however,
had their thoughts, and made towards the cabin by the shortest route,
and had just arrived as the hare came up, panting and almost exhausted,
and the dogs at her very scut. She ran round the house, evidently confused
and disappointed at the presence of the men, but at length made for
the door. In the bottom of the door was a small, semi-circular aperture,
resembling those cut in fowl-house doors for the ingress and egress
of poultry. To gain this hole, puss now made a last and desperate effort,
and had succeeded in forcing her head and shoulders through it, when
the foremost of the dogs made a spring and seized her violently by the
haunch. She uttered a loud and piercing scream, and struggled desperately
to free herself from his grip, and at last succeeded, but not until
she left a piece of her rump in his teeth. The men now burst open the
door; a bright turf fire blazed on the hearth, and the whole floor was
streaming with blood. No hare, however, could he found, and the men
were more than ever convinced that it was old Rachel who had, by the
assistance of some demon, assumed the form of the hare, and they now
determined to have her if she were over the earth. They entered the
bed-room, and heard some smothered groaning, as if proceeding from some
one in extreme agony. They went to the corner of the room from whence
the moans proceeded, and there, beneath a bundle of freshly cut rushes,
found the form of Rachel Higgins, writhing in the most excruciating
agony, and almost smothered in a pool of blood. The men were astounded;
they addressed the wretched old woman, but she either could not, or
would not, answer them. Her wound still bled copiously; her tortures
appeared to increase, and it was evident that she was dying. The aroused
family thronged around her with cries and lamentations; she did not
seem to heed them, she got worse and worse, and her piercing yells fell
awfully on the ears of the bystanders. At length she expired, and her
corpse exhibited a most appalling spectacle, even before the spirit
had well departed.
Bryan
and his friend returned home. The old hag had been previously aware
of the fate of Rachel Higgins, but it was not known by what means she
acquired her supernatural knowledge. She was delighted at the issue
of her mysterious operations. Bryan pressed her much to accept of some
remuneration for her services, but she utterly rejected such proposals.
She remained a few days at his house, and at length took her leave and
departed no one knew whither.
Old Rachel's
remains were interred that night in the neighbouring churchyard. Her
fate soon became generally known, and her family, ashamed to remain
in their native village, disposed of their property, and quitted the
country for ever. The story, however, is still fresh in the memory of
the surrounding villagers; and often, it is said, amid the grey haze
of a summer twilight, may the ghost of Rachel Higgins in the form of
a hare, be seen scudding over her ancient favourite and well-remembered
haunts.
What a
wild, fanciful, and improbable story is this; yet to discredit it is
considered by many in the neighbourhood where it is said to have occurred,
as a crime equal at least to murder or heresy.
