Phil Purcel, The Pig-Driver; The Geography Of An Irish Oath; The Lianhan Shee Part 24

A young priest on his way to the College of Valladolid, in Spain, was benighted; but found a lodging in a small inn on the roadside. Here he was tempted by a young maiden of great beauty, who, in the moment of his weakness, extorted from him a bond signed with his blood, binding himself to her forever. She turned out to be an evil spirit: and the young priest proceeded to Valladolid with a heavy heart, confessed his crime to the Superior, who sent him to the Pope, who sent him to a Friar in the County of Armagh, called Brian Braar, who sent him to the devil. The devil, on the strength of Brian Braar's letter, gave him a warm reception, held a cabinet council immediately, and laid the despatch before his colleagues, who agreed that the claimant should get back his bond from the brimstone lady who had inveigled him. She, however, obstinately refused to surrender it, and stood upon her bond, until threatened with being thrown three times into Brian Braar's furnace. This tamed her: the man got his bond, and returned to Brian Braar on earth. Now Brian Braar had for three years past abandoned G.o.d, and taken to the study of magic with the devil; a circ.u.mstance which accounts for his influence below. The young priest, having possessed himself of his bond, went to Lough Derg to wash away his sins; and Brian Braar, having also become penitent, the two worthies accompanied each other to the lake. On entering the boat, however, to cross over to the island, such a storm arose as drove them back. Brian a.s.sured his companion that he himself was the cause of it.

"There is now," said he, "but one more chance for me; and we must have recourse to it." He then returned homewards, and both had reached a hill-side near Bryan's house, when the latter desired the young priest to remain there a few minutes, and he would return to him; which he did with a hatchet in his hand.

"Now," said he, "you must cut me into four quarters, and mince my body into small bits, then cast them into the air, and let them go with the wind."

The priest, after much entreaty, complied with his wishes, and returned to Lough Derg, where he afterwards lived twelve years upon one meal of bread and water per diem. Having thus purified himself, he returned home; but, on pa.s.sing the hill where he had minced the Friar, he was astonished to see the same man celebrating ma.s.s, attended by a very penitential looking congregation of spirits.

"Ah," said Brian Braar, when ma.s.s was over, "you are now a happy man. With regard to my state for the voluntary sacrifice I have made of myself, I am to be saved; but I must remain on this mountain until the Day of Judgment." So saying, he disappeared.

There is little to be said about the superst.i.tion of the _Lianhan Shee_, except that it existed as we have drawn it, and that it is now fading fast away. There is also something appropriate in a.s.sociating the heroine of this little story with the being called the _Lianhan Shee_, because, setting the superst.i.tion aside, any female who fell into her crime was called _Lianhan Shee_. _Lianhan Shee an Sogarth_ signifies a priest's paramour, or, as the country people say, "Miss." Both terms have now nearly become obsolete.

We must here draw a veil over that which ensued, as the description of it would be both unnatural and revolting. Let it be sufficient to say, that the next morning he was found burned to a cinder, with the exception of his feet and legs, which remained as monuments of, perhaps, the most dreadful suicide that ever was committed by man. His razor, too, was found b.l.o.o.d.y, and several clots of gore were discovered about the hearth; from which circ.u.mstances it was plain that he had reduced his strength so much by loss of blood, that when he committed himself to the flames, he was unable, even had he been willing, to avoid the fiery and awful sacrifice of which he made himself the victim. If anything could deepen the the impression of fear and awe, already so general among the people, it was the unparalleled nature of his death. Its circ.u.mstances are yet remembered in the parish and county wherein it occurred--for it is no fiction, gentle reader! and the t.i.tular bishop who then presided over the diocese, declared, that while he lived, no person bearing the unhappy man's name should ever be admitted to the clerical order.

The shock produced by his death struck the miserable woman into the utter darkness of settled derangement. She survived him some years, but wandered about through the province, still, according to the superst.i.tious belief of the people, tormented by the terrible enmity of the _Lianhan Shee_.