The Witches' Excursion
from Legends of Irish Witches and Fairies
written by Patrick Kennedy 1866-1870
Shemus Rua was awakened from his sleep one night by noises in his kitchen. Stealing to the door, he saw half a dozen old women, sitting round the fire, jesting, and laughing, his own old housekeeper, Madge, quite frisky and gay, helping her sister crones to cheering glasses of punch. He began to admire the impudence and imprudence of Madge, displayed in the invitation and the riot, but recollected on the instant her officiousness in urging him to take a comfrotable posset, which she had brought to his bedside just before he fell asleep. Had he drunk it he would have been just now deaf to the witches' glee. He heard and saw them drink his health in such a mocking style as nearly to tempt him to charge them, besom in hand, but he restrained himself. The jug being emptied, one of them cried out, "It is time to be gone," and at the same moment, putting on a red cap, she added
By yarrow and rue,
And my red cap too,
Hie over to England.
Making use of a twig which she held in her hand as a steed, she gracefully soared up the chimney, and was rapidly followed by the rest. But when it came to the housekeeper's turn, Shemus interposed. "By your leave, ma'am!" said he, snatching twig and cap, "Ah, you desateful ould crocodile! If I find you here on my return, there'll be wigs on the green."
By yarrow and rue,
And my red cap too,
Hie over to England.
The words were not out of his mouth when he was soaring above the ridge-pole, and swiftly ploughing the air. He was careful to speak no word (being somewhat conversant in witch lore), as the result would be a tumble, and immediate return of the expedition. In a very short time they had crossed the Wicklow hills, the Irish Sea, and the Welsh mountains, and were charging at whirlwind speed the halldoor of a castle. Shemus, only for the company in which he found himself, would have cried out for pardon, expecting to be mummy against the hard oak door in a moment, but all bewildered he found himself passing through the keyhole, along a passage, down a flight of steps, and through a cellar door keyhole, before he could form any clear idea of his situation.
Waking to the full consciousness of his postion, he found himself sitting on a stillion, plenty of lights glimmering round, and he and his companions, nobbing and drinking helths as jovially and recklessly as if the liquor was honestly come by, and they were sitting in Shemus's own kitchen. The red birredh had assimilated Shemus's nature for the time being to that of his unholy companions. The heady liquors soon got in their brains, and a period of unconsciousness succeeded the ecstasy, the headache, the turning round the barrels, and the scattered sight of poor Shemus. He woke up under the impression of being roughly seized, and shaken and dragged upstairs, and subjected to a disagreeable examination by the lord of the castle, in his state parlour. There was much derision and laughter among the whole company, gentle and simple, on hearing Shemus's explanation; and as the thing occurred in the dark ages, the unlucky Leinsterman was sentenced to be hung as soon as the gallows could be prepared for the occasion.
The poor Hibernian was in the cart proceeding on his last journey, with a label upon his back, and another on his breast, announcing him as the remorseless villain who for the last month had been draining casks in my lord's vaults every night. He was striving to say a prayer, when he was surprised to hear himself addressed by his name, and in his native tongue, by an old woman in the crowd. "Ach, Shemus, alanna! is going to die, you are in a strange place, without your cappeen dearg!" These words infused hope and courage into the victim's heart. He turned to the lord, and humbly asked leave to die in his red cap, which he supposed had dropped from his head in the vault. A servant was sent for the headpiece, and Shemus felt lively hope warming his heart while placing it on his head. On the platform he was graciously allowed to address the spectators, which he proceeded to do in the usual formula composed for the benefit of flying stationers: "Good people all, a warning take by me;" but when he had finished the line, "My parents reared me tenderly," he unexpectedly added,
By yarrow and rue,
And my red cap too,
Hie over to England.
and the disappointed spectators saw him shoot up obliquely through the air in the style of a skyrocket that had missed its aim.
It is said that the lord took the circumstance muchto heart, and never afterwards hung a man for twenty-four hours after his offence.
