Fóill ar do Lámh! /
Stay your Hand!
Stay your Hand!
Informant: Peig Sayers
Age: 70
Address: Baile an Bhiocáire, Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry
Collector: Seósamh Ó Dalaigh, National Folklore Collection, UCD
Date of Recording: November 1943
Reference:
NFC 911: 148-9
Peig Sayers, Dún Chaoin, 1946. [Caoimhín Ó Danachair, National Folklore Collection, UCD]
Fóill ar do Lámh!
Deir siad gur daoine atá fé dhraíocht, na róinte, agus níl aon ní is cosúla leis a’ duine a’ gol ná iad.
Bhí fear do mhuintir Shé aon uair amháin agus do chuai’ sé isteach i gcuas fén mar raghadh sé suas go Poll an Róin. Is dócha gur as bád nó as naomhóg a cuireadh i dtír é. Do bhí a chleith aige, cleith mhaith taithigeach [tathagach] daraí agus do shiúlai’ sé leis suas go tóin a’ chuasa agus n’fheacai’ sé aon rón. Ar mh’anam go raibh earraíocht mhaith á bhaint as róinte an uair sin, is milis a dh’ithidís iad. D’íosfadh duine ’nois leis goblach do rón ’á mbeadh sé acu.
Nuair a dhid [dhruid] sé suas n’fheacai’ sé aon rón ach bhí sé a’ meabhrú agus do chonaic sé aon cheann amháin thuas ar bhínnse cloiche, bainirseach. Do chuir sé siar a chleith chun tarrach i gcró’n cinn uirthi.
“Fóill ar do láimh, a Mhic Uí Shé,” arsa an bhainirseach, “go gcuirfead cúram an éin seo dhíom.”
Bhain sí geit as gan dabht agus do thit an chleith uaidh.
“Anois nó go brách,” ar seisean, “ní chuirfead-sa aon chuisteach [cuir isteach] ort féin ná ar do mhacasamhail.”
Níor chuaigh sé ina aon bhád a bhí ag gabháilt do róinte as san amach.
Stay your Hand!
They say that seals are people under enchantment, and that nothing sounds more like a person crying than they do.
There was a man from the Ó Sé family one time and he went into a cave in the same way he would go to Poll an Róin. He more than likely came ashore in a boat or a naomhóg. He had his stick, a good solid oak stick, and he walked down to the end of the harbour and he saw no seals. By my soul, there was a good profit to be made from seals in those times; they’d eat them with relish. A person would eat a good mouthful of seal now, if they had it.
When he moved closer he saw no seals, but he was thinking and he saw one, a female, up on a stone bench. He drew back the stick so as to bring it down on her head.
“Stay your hand, young Ó Sé,” said the seal, “until I’ve finished feeding this baby seal.”
She startled him, no doubt, and the stick fell from his hands.
“Never again will I interfere with you or any of your kind,” he said.
From that moment on, he never went in any boat that was going out to hunt seals.