J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

THE MUSIC OF HEAVEN". 13 I
again," " I am that poor lost brother," said the monk, " and
God has thus made me feel how a thousand years in His
sight are only as a day, a thing I was striving to understand
that evening. A thousand years listening to that bird of
heaven would not seem an hour to me. I have now lived
centuries beyond my time. Let me make my confession
and receive the last sacraments, for I think no further time
will be allotted me on earth." And it was so ; he died the
death of the saints that night.
The fairies are considered by archaeologists as the heirs
and descendants of the inferior pagan divinities, good and
evil. The demi-gods and demons were reduced to this
condition when heathenism was outwardly brought to an
end. However, tlie popular belief is that the fairies were
those angels who, at Lucifer's revolt, did not openly join
him, but felt a kind of sympathy with his wicked aspira-
tions. When the rebel angels w^ere precipitated into hell,
these cowardly spirits fell no farther than the earth, on
which they are to remain till the day of judgment, uncer-
tain during the whole time whether they are to be par-
doned or condemned. Our own Irish fairies are the spirits
of the Danaan Druid chiefs, W'ho, after their death, took
possession of the chief subterranean caverns throughout the
kingdom, and continued, according to their good or evil dis-
positions, to succour or injure the descendants of the Mile-
sians by whom they had been dispossessed. For further
information on the subject of the fairy kingdom the reader
is referred to the Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts;
Macmillan, 1866.
HOW DONN FIRINNE GOT HIS HOESE SHOD.
The oldest Sighe-Chiefof the Milesian line is Donn Firinne.
the truth-telling king. He was the son of Mil^, or Milesius.
and when the Danaans raised a fog round the island, to
prevent the landing of him and his brothers Heber, Here-
mon, and Amhergin, he was shipwrecked on the Duchains,
9*