the Boyne (_Siubhan Dubh na Boinne_) appeared on
Hallowe'en in the shape of a great black fowl, bringing luck to the
house whose _Vanithee_ (woman of the house) kept it constantly clean and
neat.

The Pooka, who appeared in the shape of a horse, and whom Shakespeare
has adapted as "Puck," was a goblin who combined "horse-play" with
viciousness.

The _dullaghan_ was a churchyard demon whose head was of a movable
kind, and Dr. Joyce writes: "You generally meet him with his head in his
pocket, under his arm, or absent altogether; or if you have the fortune
to light upon a number of _dullaghans_, you may see them amusing
themselves by flinging their heads at one another or kicking them for
footballs."

An even more terrible churchyard demon is the beautiful phantom that
waylays the widower at his wife's very tomb and poisons him by her kiss
when he has yielded to her blandishments.

Of monsters the Irish had, and still believe in, the _Piast_ (Latin
_bestia_), a huge dragon or serpent confined to lakes by St. Patrick
till the day of judgment, but still occasionally seen in their waters.

In Fenian times the days of Finn and his companion knights, the Piast,
however, roamed the country, devouring men and women and cattle in large
numbers, and some of the early heroes are recorded to have been
swallowed alive by them and then to have hewed their way out of their
entrails.

The Merrow, or Mermaid, is also still believed in, and many Folk Tales
exist describing their intermarriage with mortals.

According to Nicholas O'Kearney--"It is the general opinion of many old
persons versed in native traditional lore, that, before the introduction
of Christianity, all animals possessed the faculties of human reason and
speech; and old story-tellers will gravely inform you that every beast
could speak before the arrival of St. Patrick, but that the Saint having
expelled the demons from the land by the sound of his bell, all the
animals that, before that time, had possessed the power of foretelling
future events, such as the Black Steed of Binn-each-labhra, the Royal
Cat of Clough-magh-righ-cat (Clough), and others, became mute; and many
of them fled to Egypt and other foreign countries."

Cats are said to have been appointed to guard hidden treasures; and
there are few who have not heard old Irish peasants tell about a strange
meeting of cats and a violent battle fought by them in his
neighbourhood. "It was believed," adds O'Kea