k.' The
Indians had their woodland spirits, spirits of rocks, trees, mountains,
star and moon maidens; the negroes had their enchanted animals and
conjure men; but as for real wee folk, either they were not indigenous
to the soil or else we unconsciously drove them away. Yet we had
facilities to offer! The columbines, harebells, and fringed gentians
would have been just as cosy and secluded places to live in as the Irish
foxgloves, which are simply running over with fairies. Perhaps they
wouldn't have liked our cold winters; still it must have been something
more than climate, and I am afraid I know the reason well--we are too
sensible; and if there is anything a fairy detests, it is common-sense.
We are too rich, also; and a second thing that a fairy abhors is the
chink of dollars. Perhaps, when I am again enjoying the advantages
brought about by sound money, commercial prosperity, and a magnificent
system of public education, I shall feel differently about it; but for
the moment I am just a bit embarrassed and crestfallen to belong to a
nation absolutely shunned by the fairies. If they had only settled among
us like other colonists, shaped us to their ends as far as they could,
and, when they couldn't, conformed themselves to ours, there might have
been, by this time, fairy trusts stretching out benign arms all over the
continent.

Of course it is an age of incredulity, but Salemina, Francesca, and I
have not come to Ireland to scoff, and whatever we do we shall not go
to the length of doubting the fairies; for, as Barney O'Mara says, 'they
stand to raison.'

Glen Ailna is a 'gentle' place near Carrig-a-fooka Inn--that is,
one beloved by the sheehogues; and though you may be never so much
interested, I may not tell you its exact whereabouts, since no one can
ever find it unless he is himself under the glamour. Perhaps you might
be a doubter, with no eyes for the 'dim kingdom'; perhaps you might gaze
for ever, and never be able to see a red-capped fiddler, fiddling
under a blossoming sloe bush. You might even see him, and then indulge
yourself in a fit of common-sense or doubt of your own eyes, in which
case the wee dancers would never flock to the sound of the fiddle or
gather on the fairy ring. This is the reason that I shall never take you
to Knockma, to Glen Ailna, or especially to the hyacinth wood, which is
a little plantation near the ruin of a fort. Just why the fairies are so
fond of an old rath or lis I can