Belief in Fairies

transcribed at

Belief in Fairies  [duchas:4600866]

A man, passing his byre to see his cattle in the field, saw an old woman coming out of the byre with a bundle of straw in her hand. When she saw him she dropped the straw, and ran away. He picked up the bundle, and when he came back to his house his wife and daughter were churning. They had a large kettle of water on the fire - boiling for the churn. And he threw the bundle of straw into the fire under the kettle. He started to churn when the butter came on they weren't able to pull up the dash owing to the amount of butter on the milk.

If a stranger comes into a house while churning is going on that person must put a hand on the dash afraid he would take the butter with him.