Notes by Yeats (or of untraced origin) to items other than his introduction, Irish Fairy Tales, ed. W. B. Yeats (1892) pp. 70, 115, 153, 190.
[Footnote (p. 70) to the word ‘Rath’ in ‘The Fairy Greyhound’ (pp. 69-76).]
Raths are little fields enclosed by circular ditches. They are thought to be the sheepfolds and dwellings of an ancient people.
[Footnote (p. 115) to the phrase ‘not a chapel, but a lonely old fort’ in Patrick Weston Joyce, ‘Fergus O’Mara and the Air-Demons’(pp. 112-22).]
A fort is the same as a rath (see p. 70); a few are fenced in with unmortared stone walls instead of clay ditches.
[Footnote (p. 153) to the phrase ‘white-headed boy’ in Gerald Griffin†, ‘Owney and Owney-na-peak’ (pp. 151-81).]
White-haired boy, a curious Irish phrase for the favourite child.
[Footnote (p. 190) to the word ‘gaesa’ in Standish James O’Grady, ‘The Knighting of Cuculain’.]
Curious vows taken by the ancient warriors. Hardly anything definite is known of them.—Ed.