Tailor & The Hare-Woman

The next morning, he was wide awake from well before light and was determined to creep down and see what he could see. As soon as the sun was coming up, he could hear the noises again in the kitchen below him and, listening hard, the sound of water being carried into the kitchen. Getting up, he crept down and peered around the door. The woman had now the wooden tub filled and was peeling off her clothes. Not knowing that she was being watched, she leapt into the bath. In her place, out jumped the large hare. Without looking around, it was out through the kitchen door and away across the fields.

Quick as a flash and without thinking of the possible danger, the tailor undressed himself, ran into the kitchen and jumped into the water. As I said, he was cursed with a great curiosity and he wanted to see what the hare-woman was doing and where she was going. As soon as he touched the water, there was a flash and a puff of smoke and he was transformed into a hare himself. Then he leapt out of the bath and followed the witch out through the kitchen door and over the fields.

On and on they ran, across wide fields and across sheughs, hedges and ditches. All the while the witch-woman kept well ahead of the tailor, but he was still able to see her and follow her wherever she went. At length they came to a small, grassy hill in the middle of the townland of Ballylee, and there a good number of other hares had gathered. There were big hares and small hares, black hares and brown hares, hares with only one ear and hares that had strangely marked coats. They had formed themselves into a circle on top of the little hill. The tailor knew instantly that these were the witches of the locality and that they had gathered here so that they could work their evil in the district together. Quietly and without fuss he joined their company.

A big, grey buck-hare with a dark patch on its back stood up in the centre of the circle and spoke to all the witches that were gathered about him.

'Go home!' says he to them, 'For we'll do no bad work here today. There is a stranger amongst us!' And all the other hares turned around and looked in the direction of the tailor. He knew then that he had been found out! The hare that was the witch woman with whom he was lodging opened her mouth and issued a long and terrible shriek and with that the tailor knew that he had to get home and transformed back or something awful would befall him. He took to his heels and fled across the fields towards Coole and the bath of magic water. But the witch woman was not far behind him.

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From Beasts, Banshees and Brides from the Sea by Bob Curran