DOUGLAS HYDE.  
Translated literally from the Irish of the Leabhar Sgeulaigheachta.
 
In the old times, there was a half fool living in Dunmore, in the county Galway, and although he was excessively fond of music, he was unable to learn more than one tune, and that was the "Black Rogue." He used to get a good deal of money from the gentlemen, for they used to get sport out of him. One night the piper was coming home from a house where there had been a dance, and he half drunk. When he came to a little bridge that was up by his mother's house, he squeezed the pipes on, and began playing the "Black Rogue" (an rógaire dubh). The Púca came behind him, and flung him up on his own back. There were long horns on the Púca, and the piper got a good grip of them, and then he said——
 
"Destruction on you, you nasty beast, let me home. I have a ten-penny piece in my pocket for my mother, and she wants snuff."
 
"Never mind your mother," said the Púca, "but keep your hold. If you fall, you will break your neck and your pipes." Then the Púca said to him, "Play up for me the 'Shan Van Vocht' (an t-seann-bhean bhocht)."
 
"I don't know it," said the piper.
 
"Never mind whether you do or you don't," said the Púca. "Play up, and I'll make you know."
 
The piper put wind in his bag, and he played such music as made himself wonder.
 
"Upon my word, you're a fine music-master," says the piper then; "but tell me where you're for bringing me."
 
"There's a great feast in the house of the Banshee, on the top of Croagh Patric to-night," says the Púca, "and I'm for bringing you there to play music, and, take my word, you'll get the price of your trouble."
 
"By my word, you'll save me a journey, then," says the [Pg 96] piper, "for Father William put a journey to Croagh Patric on me, because I stole the white gander from him last Martinmas."
 
The Púca rushed him across hills and bogs and rough places, till he brought him to the top of Croagh Patric. Then the Púca struck three blows with his foot, and a great door opened, and they passed in together, into a fine room.
 
The piper saw a golden table in the middle of the room, and hundreds of old women (cailleacha) sitting round about it. The old women rose up, and said, "A hundred thousand welcomes to you, you Púca of November (na Samhna). Who is this you have with you?"
 
"The best piper in Ireland," says the Púca.
 
One of the old women struck a blow on the ground, and a door opened in the side of th............