Читать книгу Кельтские сумерки. Уровень 1 / The Celtic Twilight - Уильям Батлер Йейтс - Страница 18

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Last summer, after I finished my work for the day, I would often go for walks in some woods. There, I would frequently meet an old man from the countryside and talk to him about his work and the woods. Sometimes, a friend would go with me, and the old man would share his thoughts more openly with them than with me. He had spent his whole life cutting down trees from the paths. He had also thought a lot about the natural and supernatural creatures in the woods. He said he heard the hedgehog grunting like a man. He strongly believed that the hedgehog steals apples by rolling around under an apple tree until apples stick to its quills[142]. He was also convinced that the cats in the woods have their own language. He said, “Cats were once serpents, and they were turned into cats during a big change in the world. That’s why they are difficult to kill and why it’s dangerous to mess with them. If you bother a cat, it might scratch or bite you in a way that would put poison into you, just like a serpent.” He spoke with great interest about all the wild creatures in the woods.

At least once, he has seen a strange sight in the woods. He said, “One time, when I was cutting timber over in Inchy, around eight o’clock in the morning, I saw a girl picking nuts. Her brown hair hung down over her shoulders, and she had a fresh and pleasant face. She was tall and didn’t wear anything on her head, and her dress was simple. When she sensed my presence, she quickly was gone. I followed her and searched for her, but I never saw her again from that day to this, never again.”

Others too have seen spirits in the Enchanted Woods. A worker told us about what his friend saw in a part of the woods called Shanwalla. He said, “One evening, I said goodbye to Lawrence Mangan in the yard, and he went through the path in Shanwalla. Two hours later, he was back in the yard and asked me to light a candle in the stable. He told me that when he entered Shanwalla, a little creature about as tall as his knee but with a head as big as a man’s body appeared and guided him off the path and around. Finally, it led him to the lime-kiln[143], and then it disappeared.”

A woman told me about something she and others saw in the river. She said, “I came over the stile[144] from the chapel, and others were with me. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind[145] came, and two trees bent and broke, falling into the river. Those who were with me saw many figures, but I only saw one sitting by the bank where the trees fell. The figure was dressed in dark clothes, and it had no head.”

A man told me that when he was a boy, he and another boy went to catch a horse in a field. This field is located near the lake, just a little away from the woods. He said to his companion, “I bet a button that if I throw a pebble at that bush, it will stay on it.” He meant that the bush was so dense[146] that the pebble wouldn’t be able to go through it. So, he picked up a pebble, and as soon as it hit the bush, the most beautiful music came out from it. They ran away, and when they had gone about two hundred yards, they looked back and saw a woman dressed in white walking in circles around the bush. “First, it appeared as a woman, and then as a man, and it kept going around the bush.”

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