J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

CLIONA OP MUNSTER. I35
of James, has wedded the young woman of the Sighe, or
kissed her lips, woe and wrath shall light on him, and her,
and on their mistress, Cliona, daughter of the Eed Druid."
At these threatening words Cliona came forth, and was
dismayed by the long coarse hair of the young witch that
fell to her hijDS, and by the cloak of raw hide, with horns,
legs, and all hanging about her, She had put a druidic charm
on her eyes, that even made the Sighe tremble. "Who are
you V said she. " Are you Aoine, or Aoibhil of the Gray
Rocks, or Ana Cleir, come hither from Eemus, or a witch
westward from Beara ?"
" Xo, I am not of your race at all. I am of the Bollar
Beamish, and my brother is Slatvbocht no Treamhie and the
Ruiddhera Rua^ (Eed Knight), from the harbour of Ben
Eedir (Howth). My other brother is Dorrin Deidh gal,
who can make the old young, and the young old, and raise
the dead out of the earth, and the Ard Eigh of the Sliochd
Sighe of Erinn has given me the run of all the country, and
if I meet with refusal or evil treatment, he will come and
take sharp revenge for it."
Cliona was overawed by the wild appearance and the
threatening language of the daughter of Black Catherine,
and she gave up John, son of James, praying that the witch
might be nothing the better for her acquisition. But she
was the better, for when she flung off her raw cloak, and
her long bead-covering of coarse horsehair, and stood be-
fore John, son of James, as a dark-eyed, beautiful young
woman, he said if she would not become his wife he would
return again to the Sighe of Cliona. The father gave his
consent, a little unwillingly ; but our authority has afforded
us no information on the subject of the subsequent house-
keeping of the young couple.
A loud noise as from the surging of a wave is occasionally
heard in the harbour of Glandore, county of Cork, both in
calm and stormy weather. It is the forerunner of the shift-
ing of the wind to the north-east. It is called the " Tonn
Cliona," or Cliona's wave, and was supposed in days gone
by to portend the death of a king or great chief.