This is the story of long-footed Caoilte. In days of old there was a couple who lived at Grâin-leathan near Baile-an-Iocha, County Roscommon. They had been married for over twenty years without having children.
Caoilte with long feet
Once one morning Diarmuid (the husband) went out to see if he could kill a hare. There was a lot of snow on the ground and a dark fog that was so thick that you couldn't see anything two rods away. Diarmuid knew the terrain inch by inch for a mile around, but nevertheless he lost his way. He was trying to go to a place full of heather on the edge of the bog where the hares were. He went and went for many hours and could not find the edge. In the end he thought of returning home, but he could not. He walked until he was tired and went to sit down when he saw an old hare coming towards him. Diarmuid stretched out his hand and thought of giving him a blow, but the hare jumped aside and said to him:
– Hold back your hand, Diarmuid, and do not strike your friend.
Diarmuid fell into weakness and when he came to himself the black hare was in front of him and said to him:
– Don’t be afraid of me; It is not to harm you, but it is to do you good that I came to you this time. Have courage and listen to me. You are lost now; you walked on the mound of error and you would have died in the snow if I had not taken pity on you. I know well that you killed many of my race, and they did you no harm. But after the evil you have done, I will do you good. Tell me now what is the greatest desire you have in your heart except heaven and I will give it to you.
Diarmuid thought for a moment and said:
– I have been married for more than twenty years without having a single child and neither I nor my wife will have anyone in the world to help us in our old age, to lie down [on the mortuary table] and lament after our death. This is the greatest desire in my heart and in my wife's heart: that we have a child, but I fear that we are too old.
– Truly, you are not, said the hare, your wife will have a child in three trimesters from today and his like will not be found on the earth of the world. Now follow my trail in the snow, it will lead you home. But whoever you see, don't tell anyone alive that you saw me, and promise me that you won't kill any hares from now on.
“I promise,” said Diarmuid. Then the hare went ahead of him until they came to the foot of the house.
– Here is your house now, said the hare, come in!
When Diarmuid entered, Rose, his wife, welcomed him and said:
– Where have you been all day? I was thinking of going looking for you. You are freezing and half-starved.
– Truly, you are lucky that I am not drowned in a bog pond or swallowed up in a sand quarry. I stepped on the mound of error and lost my way. But take my word and I won't go looking for a hare again as long as I live!
It was good and it wasn't bad. Diarmuid thought of nothing other than the heir promised to him. When he saw that Rose was surely going to give him an heir, there was no one in the world as joyful as he was. he had a cradle made and all kinds of things prepared for the young heir who was going to come. When the neighbors noticed that Rose was in this state, they said that it was a marvel above all, for Rose was over fifty years old and did not have a piece of flesh on her, but she was as withered as 'a woman of seventy years old. Everyone was talking about Rose and Diarmuid. When the three trimesters were over, Rose had a son. Diarmuid invited the old women of the village to a meal and a party on the day the child was baptized; but he would have done better to leave them where they were. When the child was born, he was not like any other little child; he was four feet high; he was as thin as a stick and his feet were over a foot long. The women, young and old, were astonished, for they had never seen a child like this before. Diarmuid gave them brandy and they sang the praises of the child until it was all drunk. Then they began to make fun of him.
– Isn’t that Diarmuid that they call him? said an old woman who was half drunk.
– Yes, said an old woman, but it is not fair to call him Diarmuid; it's the name of Caoilte
(caol-thin) with long feet that it would be fair to give him.
“And that’s the name we’ll give it,” said the first old woman.
Rose was listening to this conversation and it made her angry. She called Diarmuid; she whispered in his ear that the women were speaking ill of young Diarmuid and she told him to chase them out of the house. Diarmuid approached the women to throw them out and there had never been a quarrel in Grain-leathan like the one between Diarmuid and the women. They did not give in a step, and it was necessary for Diarmuid to give them a jug of poitin before they moved.
But whatever happened, the name “Long-footed Caoilte” stuck to young Diarmuid all his life.
When young Diarmuid was ten years old, he was over six feet tall, but he was as thin as a Gaul fishing and his feet from the ankle were a foot and a half long and they were as thin as your thumb; and there was no greyhound or dog in Ireland which he did not reach in the race. He rarely went out because people made fun of him. When we played lacrosse, Caoilte didn't ask for a stick, he pushed the ball with his feet and if he found it in front of him, no one could reach him. As the years passed, Caoilte grew; when he was twenty-one he was over seven and a half feet tall and he was not a bit bigger than when he was ten and there was no more flesh on him than on a pair of tongs, although he had enough to eat and drink and ate more than seven. People said that he was not a real man, but an old lorgadân and that he had no guts at all; but Diarmuid and Rose thought there was not a young man in the country half as handsome as he; they thought that he would become fat and fat when he stopped growing, and that flesh would come to him; but she did not come.
One day, Caoilte was with his father on the bog making piles of peat, when they saw a hare running as fast as he could and a weasel following him. The weasel held him close and he screamed as loud as he could. Caoilte ran after the hare and caught it before the weasel reached it. Great anger seized the weasel and it attacked Caoilte; she tore it and scratched it; she threw saliva in his right eye which she blinded. Then she left and entered a pile of peat. The hare, meanwhile, was in Caoilte's bosom, and when the weasel had gone, the hare said to him:
– I thank you, Caoilté, you saved my life this time, but you yourself are in danger. The weasel is an old witch, you are one-eyed now; but put your hand in my right ear, you will find there a small bottle of oil; smear it into your eye and the sight of your eye will be as good as it was before.
He did and his eye regained sight. Then the hare said to him:
– Let me go now and whenever you want to raise a hare for the hunters, come to the mound of rushes by the lake and I will be there. There is no greyhound or dog in the world capable of reaching me, and you can take me any time, but, as far as you have ever seen, do not book not to dogs and hunters. Now be on your guard tonight. The weasel will come find you tonight and cut your throat if you don't have Brighid Ni Mathghamhain's cat in your bed. You will hear a voice say:
It's Brighid Ni Mathgh'ûin's cat Who ate the bacon.
It's Brighid Ni Mathgh'ûin's cat Who ate the bacon.
When you hear it the third time, let go of the cat; and you will have no danger to fear.
Caoilte let the hare go, returned to his father and told him everything that had happened.
– Oh! ah! said the father, the hare is your best friend; follow his advice, but take care of yourself; doesn't tell the neighbors anything about him and doesn't give them anything to talk about; if you tell them this story, you will not be able to stay in this parish nor in the seven closest parishes.
– In truth, I am not so stupid, said Caoilte, I have not been talkative since I was born, but I ask you not to say a word about it to my mother.
He went out that evening to go to Brighid Ni Mathghamhain's to borrow the cat from him and when he was near the house he saw a fox stealing Brighid Ni Mathghamhain's gander. Caoilte ran after him and as he hugged him closely, the fox dropped the gander and entered a small wood which was nearby. Caoilte led the gander to the house of Brighid Ni Mathghamhain and said to him:
– It was on the fox's shoulder when I took it from him.
– Thank you very much, she said, do you need anything? you don't come to visit often.
– I came to ask you to borrow your cat, our bag of flour is damaged by mice.
“Take him, and willingly,” she said, “and keep him until he has killed all the mice in the house; he is a boy capable of chasing them away.”
Caoilte carried the cat home and went to bed, but sleep did not come over his eyes. About half an hour before midnight he heard the song:
It's Brighid Ni Mathghamhain's cat Who ate the bacon.
It's Brighid Ni Mathghamhain's cat Who ate the bacon.
It's Brighid Ni Mathghamhain's cat Who ate the bacon.
The third time he heard these words, the voice was near him, but the cat was clever; he jumped down and said:
– Lying witch, it was not me, but you who stole it.
And he attacked the weasel; such a battle with teeth, claws and such screams no one has ever heard. Poor Rose was mad with fear and she couldn't say a word except:
– Shh, cat out! And she repeated it to the point of hoarseness.
The fight continued until dawn and then the weasel gave up the fight and entered the hole of a lime kiln. The poor cat had no hair or skin left at that time and when Caoilte thought of catching him, he said to him:
– Coat me with the oil you found in the hare’s ear.
Caoilte did this and it healed him and made him as well as he was the day before.
“Now,” he said to Caoilte, “your enemy is dead, fear him no more.
Caoilte took some milk and gave it to the cat, then the cat returned home. Caoilte took a broom and pushed the hair and skin out; but there were bloodstains on the ground and all the water in the lake wouldn't have washed them away.
One day once there was a big hunt in County Roscommon and the deer headed for Grâin-leathan. Caoilte was outside and he saw the fallow deer and the greyhounds and the horsemen coming after him. Caoilte began to run after the deer and one of the hunters said:
– If you can divert him before he crosses the river, I will give you a yellow gold coin.
While he was talking with Caoilte, the deer had gone far ahead, but Caoilte soon overtook it and turned it away.
So he stopped until the hunter came, and he gave him a gold coin. The deer headed towards the lake, and as the greyhounds were close behind him, he jumped into the lake and swam to the other bank and the greyhounds did not want to follow him. When the hunters arrived at the edge of the lake, they said to one another:
– The deer has gone far from us and we will not be able to see him again today; he is going to go to Loch-'Glinn wood.
Caoilte listened and said:
– I would wager my head for a tenpence piece that I will overtake the deer and bring him back to you before he is half way to Loch-Ghlinn; If it is your will to wait half an hour here, I will make the deer turn back or I will give you permission to cut off my head.
– That’s good, they said, we’ll wait half an hour.
Thereupon Caoilte left as quickly as he could and reached the deer at the hill of Brêuna-Môr.
He turned him away and did not take long to bring him back to the edge of the lake. When the hunters saw the deer coming, and Caoilte behind him, they were astonished and said that Caoilte was a leprechaun and that it would be right to chase him from the place, but they had no time for anything do him this time, because the dogs set off after the deer and they had to follow them. The deer went ahead of them and went towards Caisleân Riabhach (Castlerea), he entered a small wood near Baile-an-locha [Ballinlough] and they lost him. The hunters entered Castlerea and that ended the hunt that day. Caoilte went home, very satisfied with the gold coin he had for all his work for the day. He gave it to his father and told him everything that had happened.
About a week after this, Caoilte was on the bog pulling heather to make bedding for the cow, when the hunters came back that way and asked him if he had seen a hare.
– I haven’t seen any, said the latter, but I know where there are hares.
– Raise it for us, said one of them, we will give you the price of a pair of shoes.
– This is something I have never worn; he said, but give me the price of a pair of pants.
– We will give it to you, they said.
– Give it to me, said this one. I won a tenp coin from the hunters last week and they haven't given it to me yet. If I am strange to look at, I am not stupid.
They gave him the five coins and told him to raise the hare for them. He went to the mound of rushes at the edge of the lake and raised his friend the hare. The dogs and the hunters set off in pursuit; he headed towards the bog and they could not reach him. The hunters came five days in a row and Caoilte raised the hare for them every day, but they could not reach it. On the sixth day, they told Caoilte that he was a sorcerer and that it was an enchanted hare that he raised for them.
“If that’s your idea, find a hare yourself,” said Caoilte.
Thereupon they sought to seize him, but he was too fast for them. They followed him home and asked his father and mother to bring him to them so that they could kill him.
– What did he do to you? said the father.
“He’s an enchanted leprechaun,” they said.
When Rose heard this, she ran out and be sure she worked her tongue. But there was no point in her speaking; They said that if Caoilte did not come out, they would set the house on fire. When Caoilte heard this, he grabbed the handle of the spade, Diarmuid took the tweezers and Rose the rack. Caoilte ran out and attacked them with the shaft and threw them at his feet; while he was throwing them to the ground, his father and mother were hitting them with the tongs and the rack, so that they were all lying on the ground, unable to strike a blow. As they came to themselves, they left and finally the last one left. After two days, they went to the priest and complained strongly about Caoilte, his father and his mother.
– I will go to Diarmuid, said the priest, and I will get information on this affair.
In the morning, the next day, the priest went to Diarmuid and learned the subject of the battle. He returned home, sent for the people who had lodged the complaint and said to them:
– Diarmuid, his wife, nor his son are not at fault. They wouldn't have done you any harm if you hadn't started, and my advice to you is to leave them alone.
They were not satisfied with the priest's advice, and they formed a plot to burn Diarmuid's house down at night, while he, his wife, and his son slept. Caoilte was going that day to the bog to bring home a basket of peat when he met the hare who said to him:
– Caoilte, a troop of men will come this night to burn the house, with you, your father and your mother, but I will put a fog over their eyes; They will go astray and will not find their way to your house or to their own until the morning, and if they make a second attempt against you, they will be drowned in the lake.
That evening, the order was carried from house to house that the troops who were going to burn Diarmuid's house should be at the crossroads before midnight. About twenty men gathered there and headed towards Diarmuid's house, but they could not succeed. So they thought of returning home, but they could not find their houses or any other house until the white ring of day came. Then they found themselves at the same crossroads after walking all night. From that night they no longer troubled Caoilte, his father, nor his mother, but they avoided him as they would have avoided a spy or a thief.
One day, once, Diarmuid was alone on the bog and the old black hare came to him, the same one who had come to him on the morning he got lost, twenty-two years before.
– Now, he said, I have come to tell you that the time you and your wife have to be in this world is short, and if you have anything to settle, do it quickly, because you only have 'a week to be in this world.
– And what will Caoilte do? Diarmuid said, with no one to guard him.
“Don’t worry about Caoilte,” he said, “he’s from my tribe, Caoilte; I will take him to my house and on my word he will be happier there than if he were among his neighbors. You don't have to keep this secret to yourself. You can tell it to anyone you want.
Diarmuid was going home and very distressed, when he met his brother's son, and he told him the story from beginning to end.
– Truly, if you tell this story to anyone else, your family will be dishonored and we will find no one to put you in the grave.
“I won’t tell anyone in the world,” said Diarmuid, “except to Rose and the priest.
He went home and told the story to Rose. When he had finished, she was seized with a fit of coughing which choked her. Diarmuid and Caoilte buried him. At the end of the same week Diarmuid himself died and on the evening of the day he was buried Caoilte left and has not been heard of since.
Diarmuid's brother's son did not keep the secret, and soon after that the story went from mouth to mouth across the country as I have told you. Many people said after this that they often saw Caoilte next to the lake.
Either! But we have hope that they are in heaven.
