Woman Scorned

Nuala

The Faerie hills isn't their actual name of course, but the Islanders are so used to their pagan name that we have given up all hope of recalling the true name of the land. Mrs Walsh even slipped up two years ago and used the pagan name when speaking to the priest. Children of the Island have been told the same story about the hills for as long as anyone can remember. Of course a mother may bend the story slightly to promise that children who don't wash behind their ears will be taken too. 

The tale goes that the hills are the ancient mounds of wild women, of travelers and magicians, of others. The group would journey from place to place around Eire keeping to back roads and rural places such as ours. They would set up large tents and make camp on a rural field just like the faerie hills and at the first minute of sundown their lights would ignite. Villagers would be lured into their tents and become transfixed with what they saw. In turn, every visitor would become a member of the group.

revellers visit and the fairies take them- they are angry still there luring 

===

The Fairies are also know to try and take animals, cows most often than not. Whenever a cow gets sick the owner must get nine elf stones. These are tricky to find in a rush as they are round like marbles with the tracks of fairy fingers on them. Most people on the island would never admit it, but they had a bag of elf stones hidden somewhere in their cottage if they raise livestock, or children. The stones must be put in a jug with three half pence and some chicken weed and filled to the brim with soft water. Then the owner or parent must wait for three agonizing hours, watching as the animal or child takes worse turn after turn. After the three hours the sick must drink down the whole jug. My mother performed this trick many times on our cattle and we never lost one of ours through illness. The old people in the village say that fairies fire these little stones at each other in the night time, when they are out playing. If they want to bring any animal with them, they hit it with one of the elf stones.