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Poetry
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| The Horned Women | |
| By MarjoryBanks | ||||||||||
| 12 October 2006 | ||||||||||
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From the Celtic fairytale. To my night door the horned beldames came, First with unique horn, then two, then three, Until there perched before my ingle flame, A dozen harpies, horrible to see. Yet each took up my work in gnarled hand, My carding and my spinning and my knit, And queer as it may seem, this fiendish band, Set out to make a shroud my frame to fit. And as each worked with diabolic haste, They sang an ancient, mystifying rhyme, Mephistophelian magic interlaced, With incantations from the dawn of time. And as they sang my potency was sapped, As if a vampire suckled at my breast, Each horny demon deep in toil rapt, Stock-still, I watched their evil work progress. Then one of them called out in ancient Erse, “Arise frail woman, bake for us a cake”, So deep within the power of their curse, I sought a bowl some water for to take. Yet I could find no vessel in my house, In which to bring some water from the well, The anger of the witches thus aroused, “Take a sieve”! as one the coven yelled. I sat down by the well and cried my fill, For scarce the water could the sieve retain, I heard the witches’ voices singing still, Though sore my heart, my cries were not in vain. “Take thee some yellow clay and mix with moss, And plaster this within the sieve to hold, This blessed water on the witches toss, And sing this spell which comes from days of old”. “The mountain of the fenian women burns, The sky above it glows a fiery red”. The woman did these things on her return, And in an instant every demon fled! “Now to ensure the safety of this house” The spirit of the well the mistress bade, “Your threshold with a special water douse, The water which your children’s feet did bathe”. “The cake the witches made with blood and meal, Place morsels in each child’s sleeping lips, The cloth they wove take carefully and seal, Half within your padlocked chest in strips.” Secure with sturdy beam your feeble door, For hark I hear the witches swift return, Then take yourself from danger safe within, Thus their evil purpose will be spurned” In raging vengeance did the beasts return, And fell once more upon the woman’s door, “Open thee feet-water, our feet burn!” “This I cannot” feet-water spake in turn. “Open beam remove thee from thy groove!” “This I cannot, I have no power to move”. “Open cake that was co-mixed with blood!” “I sleep with children and my power is dud” In incandescent rage the harpies flew, To barren Slievenamon from whence they came, The mistress and the children’s strength renewed, Lived long to tell the tale by ingle flame. The house is yet protected to this day, By gracious spirit deep within the well, Five hundred years have come and gone away, Since horned demons came to cast their spell.
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A very accomplished piece of work and a pleasure to read.
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