Sheelah's Day

Quote on Irish Fairy Lore

"If an oat-cake be baked and left for the next day it should have a piece broken out of it, and should not remain whole, because if the fairies came in the night and saw a whole cake they would surely take it, but they would not touch a broken one, or take your leavings."

"This has now come to be applied to all cakes. Many of the old people used to leave potatoes ready cooked and pieces of bread for them of a night. In the morning these were given to the fowls and never eaten by the people of the house, because since it is, as it were, the spiritual part of the food that is taken, it would not be known whether the fairies had touched it."

"If milk be spilt no annoyance should be expressed, but you should say: "There’s a dry heart waiting for it," since the Good People may have been Awanting it, and caused it to be spilt."

"Should one come out of a house at night whilst eating, a portion should be thrown on the ground for the fairies"

— Folklore Journal, notes on Irish fairy lore. (via charlottesarahrichards)