of Father Mathew are rapidly driving the
fairies out of the country, for "they hate larnin' an' wisdom an' are
lovers av nacher entirely."

In a few remote districts, where the schools are not yet well established,
the good people are still found, and their doings are narrated with a
childlike faith in the power of these first inhabitants of Ireland, for it
seems to be agreed that they were in the country long before the coming
either of the Irishman or of his Sassenagh oppressor.

The bodies of the fairies are not composed of flesh and bones, but of an
ethereal substance, the nature of which is not determined. "Ye can see
thimselves as plain as the nose on yer face, an' can see through thim like
it was a mist." They have the power of vanishing from human sight when
they please, and the fact that the air is sometimes full of them inspires
the respect entertained for them by the peasantry. Sometimes they are
heard without being seen, and when they travel through the air, as they
often do, are known by a humming noise similar to that made by a swarm of
bees. Whether or not they have wings is uncertain. Barney Murphy, of
Kerry, thought they had; for several seen by him a number of years ago
seemed to have long, semi-transparent pinions, "like thim that grows on a
dhraggin-fly." Barney's neighbors, however, contradicted him by stoutly
denying the good people the attribute of wings, and intimated that at the
time Barney saw the fairies he was too drunk to distinguish a pair of
wings from a pair of legs, so this branch of the subject must remain in
doubt.

With regard to their dress, the testimony is undisputed. Young lady
fairies wear pure white robes and usually allow their hair to flow loosely
over their shoulders; while fairy matrons bind up their tresses in a coil
on the top or back of the head, also surrounding the temples with a golden
band. Young gentlemen elves wear green jackets, with white breeches and
stockings; and when a fairy of either sex has need of a cap or
head-covering, the flower of the fox-glove is brought into requisition.

Male fairies are perfect in all military exercises, for, like the other
inhabitants of Ireland, fairies are divided into factions, the objects of
contention not, in most cases, being definitely known. In Kerry, a number
of years ago, there was a great battle among the fairies, one party
inhabiting a rath or sepulchral mound, the other an unused and lonely
graveyard. Paddy O'Donoh