Description: These brief, eerie stories take only a moment to read, but the chills they give you won't soon go away. Some feature seductive nymphs as deadly as they are beautiful, who emerge from the sea to lure the young men of the village to their deaths. Others tell of roanes -- half-dog, half-fish creatures -- taking revenge on hunters and fishermen and treating them like prey. You learn the lore about underground caves where seals who speak like humans live contentedly, and the demonic race of formorians -- monsters who disguise themselves as river sprites or as fearsome riders, to bring humans all manner of bad luck. Then comes a whole section of tales about outwitting the devil, from the boy who found him trapped in a green glass bottle to the farmers who encountered him disguised as a goat eating in their garden. Other stories echo with the wail of the banshee, heralding imminent death. still others tell of witches, wise women, waterbeasts, dragons, sea serpents, horned horse-shaped pookas, holy wells, fairy forts, curses and incantations -- gems of wisdom couched in fireside tales.

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