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Celtic Twilight
by
William Butler Yeats
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The Swine of the Gods
A FEW years ago a friend of mine told me of something that
happened to him when he was a. young man and out drilling with some Connaught
Fenians. They were but a car-full, and drove along a hillside until they came to
a quiet place. They left the car and went further up the hill with their rifles,
and drilled for a while. As they were coming down again they saw a very thin,
long-legged pig of the old Irish sort, and the pig began to follow them. One of
them cried out as a joke that it was a fairy pig, and they all began to run to
keep up the joke. The pig ran too, and presently, how nobody knew, this mock
terror became real terror, and they ran as for their lives. When they got to the
car they made the horse gallop as fast as possible, but the pig still followed.
Then one of them put up his rifle to fire, but when he looked along the barrel
he could see nothing. Presently they turned a corner and came to a village. They
told the people of the village what had happened, and the people of the village
took pitchforks and spades and the like, and went along the road with them to
drive the pig away. When they turned the comer they could not find anything.
1902.
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