FAIRY LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND.

BY

T. CROFTON CROCKER.

A New Edition.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, AFTER DESIGNS OFTHE AUTHOR AND OTHERS.

Philadelphia:

LEA AND BLANCHARD.

1844.

PREFACE.

The erudite Lessing styles a preface “the history of a book.” Now,though there can be no necessity for a preface in that sense of theword to the reprint of a work of mere whim, which has been nearly tenyears before the public, yet a few words are requisite to prevent thepresent condensed and revised edition from being considered anabridgment.

However compact may be the mode of printing adopted, the act ofcompressing into one volume the three in which the “Fairy Legends”originally appeared, involved to a certain extent the necessity ofselection, perhaps the most difficult of all tasks judiciously toperform; but the following statement will show the system proceededon.

Forty tales descriptive of Irish superstitions now appear instead offifty. All superfluous annotations have been struck out, and a briefsummary at the end of each section substituted, explanatory of theclassification adopted, and in which a few additional notes have beenintroduced,[vi] as well as upon the text. It is therefore hoped that thiscurtailment will be regarded as an essential improvement; some uselessrepetition in the tales being thereby avoided, and much irrelevantmatter in the notes dispensed with, although nothing which illustratesin the slightest degree the popular Fairy Creed of Ireland has beensacrificed. At the same time, the omission of a portion of the tenimmaterial tales will sufficiently answer doubts idly raised as to thequestion of authorship.

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CONTENTS.