the churn, or bewitched the butther so it 'udn't come, or led the
shape into the bog. But that wasn't all.

"Wan 'ud have the head av a man murthered be her manes, an' wid it the
hand av him hung fur the murther; wan 'ud bring the knife she'd scuttled a
boat wid an' pint in the say to where the corpses laid av the fishermen
she'd dhrownded; wan 'ud carry on her breast the child she'd shtolen an'
meant to bring up in avil, an' another wan 'ud show the little white body
av a babby she'd smothered in its slape. And the corpse-candles 'ud tell
how they desaved the thraveller, bringin' him to the river, an' the avil
sper'ts 'ud say how they dhrew him in an' down to the bottom in his sins
an' thin to the pit wid him. An' owld Belzebub 'ud listen to all av thim,
wid a rayporther, like thim that's afther takin' down the spaches at a
Lague meetin', be his side, a-writing phat they said, so as whin they come
to be paid, it 'udn't be forgotten.

"Thim wor the times fur the Pookas too, fur they had power over thim that
wint forth afther night, axceptin' it was on an arriant av marcy they
were. But sorra a sinner that hadn't been to his juty reglar 'ud iver see
the light av day agin afther meetin' a Pooka thin, for the baste 'ud
aither kick him to shmithereens where he stud, or lift him on his back wid
his teeth an' jump into the say wid him, thin dive, lavin' him to dhrownd,
or shpring over a clift wid him an' tumble him to the bottom a bleedin'
corpse. But wasn't there the howls av joy whin a Pooka 'ud catch a sinner
unbeknownst, an' fetch him on the Corkschrew wan o' the nights Satan was
there. Och, God defind us, phat a sight it was. They made a ring wid the
corpse-candles, while the witches tore him limb from limb, an' the fiends
drunk his blood in red-hot iron noggins wid shrieks o' laughter to smother
his schreams, an' the Pookas jumped on his body an' thrampled it into the
ground, an' the timpest 'ud whishle a chune, an' the mountains about 'ud
kape time, an' the Pookas, an' witches, an' sper'ts av avil, an'
corpse-candles, an' bodies o' the dead, an' divils, 'ud all jig together
round the rock where owld Belzebub 'ud set shmilin', as fur to say he'd ax
no betther divarshun. God's presince be wid us, it makes me crape to think
av it.

"Well, as I was afther sayin', in the time av King Bryan, the Pookas done
a dale o' harrum, but as thim that they murthered wor dhrunken bastes that
wor in the shebeens in the day an' in the