One story my Grandmother used to tell that always frightened my sister and I, concerned a tale her own Grandmother Alice Margaret Dowling had recountered about her childhood in Ireland and several meetings with those famous Irish spirits, the Ban Shee [Bean Si].
Although both women were strict Catholics, they firmly believed in such beings along with Leprechauns and in the case of my Grandmother, Ghosts.
The story goes that Alice had been sent to the well to get some water in a pitcher for her mother. As she made her way to the well she was aware of the Ban Shee running along the hedge that boarded the road. When she bent over the well the creature pushed her and she fell in. Either the well was not deep and she could stand or she somehow managed to stay afloat for she did not drown. She was able to call for help and eventually a 'Gentleman' riding past on his horse heard her and pulled her out. By all accounts she was a lucky girl.
There were several things about this story that intrigued us as children. Despite asking our grandmother for a description of the Ban Shee, she was never able to tell us what one looked like. Perhaps her Grandmother had not passed on that bit of information despite being well associated with them. According to tradition, a Ban Shee is a female spirit whose crying or wailing is supposed to herald a death in the family. According to Nana, Grandma Alice heard the Ban Shee on a number of occassions and although she never specifically mentioned death, she implied that bad things happened when the Ban Shee was heard.
The other odd thing about this story is that neither my sister or I had ever heard of a pitcher for carrying water. We were very young, I was probably no more than seven, my sister even younger and I have the distinct memory of trying to work out how anyone could carry water in a PICTURE [I imagined a framed painting!]
|
