How To Catch A Clever Leprechaun

In Mrs. K's kindergarten class, the children have been trying to catch a Leprechaun ever since they had their lessons on Irish culture and history. Anyone familiar with the old Irish lore will know that this is tough to do, because Leprechauns are so very clever that they hardly ever get caught by humans. Of course, the attraction of catching one lies in the opportunity to get at the crock of gold that every Leprechaun has stashed away for a rainy day. The more you know about the Leprechaun and his habits, the better your chances of capturing one and getting his treasure.

The Leprechaun belongs to the class of Fairies, supernatural beings with magical powers who live in that mysterious and enchanted realm that exists between the earthly domain of the Humans and the heavenly abode of the Angels. Leprechauns are most closely related to the Elves, Dwarves or Gnomes. These diminutive species of Fairies do not flit about like the proper Fairies, Pixies, Pucks or Brownies; they have a much more earth-bound lifestyle. The Elves are employed in a variety of trades, like toy-making (they are well-known for their big production facility at the North Pole). Gnomes, having the unique ability to pass through the earth the way fish swim through water, live under the ground and are usually involved in some kind of jewel mining operation. The hardworking Dwarfs are miners of the earth as well and are also renowned for their fine craftsmanship in weaponry and armor.

Leprechauns have only one function in their world: they are the shoemakers to all the Fairies. Unlike the Elves and Dwarfs and Gnomes, who live and work together in small societies or kingdoms, Leprechauns are solitary creatures, content to be left alone to cobble shoes all the day long. The sound of hammering usually betrays a Leprechaun's presence, the tapping, click-clack sounds he makes as he mends the tiny slippers of the Fairies while sitting in some lonely spot behind a wall, in a hedge, under tree roots, or in a ruined castle. Industrious and irascible, the Leprechaun keeps apart from the sociable Trooping Fairies, who live in splendor and sing and dance on moonlit nights as they wear holes into those slippers.

Origins of other fairy folk - Elves, Trolls, Pixies, Brownies - can be found in the lands to the north and east, in England, Scotland, and Scandinavia. The Leprechaun's roots are exclusively Irish, or Celtic. The name "Leprechaun" comes from "luchor pan," Old Irish words meaning "little body". These wee folk look peculiar, but their appearance does not suggest ugliness or deformity. Shaped like wizened old men, they have grey puckered faces with grey fringes of whiskers tucked under their chins. Beneath their brown leather shoemaker's aprons, they are often clad in green breeches and coats, and sometimes even a green brimmed hat, which helps them to blend into the glens, meadows and forests of their native Ireland. Naturally, they wear fine shoes, brogues with hobnailed soles and ostentatiously large silver buckles. Camouflaged by their small size and their clothing, they hide under the leaves, mushroom caps or tree roots, and unobservant Humans walk right past them without noticing.

Among Leprechauns, it is considered disgraceful to allow oneself to be captured and relieved of his crock of gold. The buried gold the Leprechauns are said to hoard is part of the treasure left behind by the Danes, or Vikings, who invaded, raided and pillaged Ireland hundreds of years ago, until they were defeated by an Irish king in a great battle near Dublin. Beautiful artifacts of beaten gold left over from that period were scavenged by the Leprechauns, dug up from the Irish peat bogs. One of the favorite hiding places for gold is at the ends of rainbows, for the Leprechauns know that it is impossible for a Human to travel to the end of a rainbow. Leprechauns also practice a little pick pocketing activity. At night, when the shoemaking is done, they go around stealing little pieces of gold to fill their crock up to use as a ransom in case one of them is ever caught by a man. However, the Leprechauns take pride in the fact that they always seem to be able to outwit and escape from the Humans without losing their ransom money.

When searching for Leprechauns, a keen ear and sharp eyes are important, but luck and cunning are essential. If you are lucky enough to come upon one of these wily, quick-witted imps, you must take great care not to let yourself be outmaneuvered by him. Walk up close to him quietly and grasp him with both your hands. Stare straight at him and ask him directly where his pot of gold is hidden. Bound by Fairy law, he will be compelled to tell you the truth about the whereabouts of his buried treasure crock, but beware! You must be insistent in your inquiry, as he will try to trick, mislead, and distract you. Skilled in the art of blarney, the Leprechaun will also try to sweet-talk you into letting him go. Also, if you take your eyes off a Leprechaun for even a blink-moment while he is leading you to his gold hideaway, he will vanish.

In a popular folk tale, a man who happened to discover a Leprechaun hoped to get his cache of gold. The little fellow led him all around the Irish countryside until they got to a field of yellow boliaun-flowers. "Dig there," the Leprechaun instructed as he pointed to one of the thousands of boliauns. "Deep under that boliaun is where I put my gold." The man pondered how he could somehow mark or identify that flower so that he could find it again after he went to fetch a spade for digging. He finally tied a bright red garter around the weed, and made the Leprechaun promise not to take it off while he went for a spade, because he knew that the Leprechaun would have to keep his word. When the man returned, to his dismay, a red garter just like his own had been tied to each and every flower in the field! He had been outsmarted by the crafty Leprechaun, and even though he tried digging under many flowers, he couldn't find the pot of gold.

According to legend, no Leprechaun has ever been cheated out of his treasure.

Although the Leprechauns formerly lived only in the mist-covered emerald hills of Ireland, it seems that many of them have made the trek over to America, perhaps stowing away on ships during the great waves of migration at the time of the Great Potato Famine. Most cereal-eating youngsters know about the success of L.C. Leprechaun, the cheerful spokes-leprechaun who appears on the Saturday morning television commercials telling American children that Lucky Charms is "magically delicious." However, most Leprechauns do not have such a sunny disposition. The Leprechaun is said to have descended from an evil spirit and a renegade Fairy, which accounts for a mixed nature: merry and generous one minute, crabby and mischievous the next. Their unpredictability makes them even harder to pin down.

Armed with all their newly gained knowledge about Leprechauns, the children of Mrs. K's kindergarten constructed their own Leprechaun traps to catch the tiny sprites. The traps were painstakingly assembled from shoe boxes and string, popsicle sticks, swatches of fabric, and lots of green paint, then baited with small pieces of glitter-gold and foil-silver. Though Leprechauns are not characteristically greedy, the children thought it best to capitalize on their affinity for gold and shiny trinkets. They hypothesized that the bright green coloring would lure the immigrant Leprechauns, who might be homesick for their verdant Gaelic springtime, toward the traps. The devices included nooses, mini-trap doors, spring-loaded nets, and other mechanisms ingeniously designed and engineered (by the kids and a few overzealous parents, too) to ensnare the unsuspecting Leprechaun as he went for the bait. Right before St. Patrick's Day was the time to set the traps, when the Leprechauns were likely to be in a mood to celebrate, perhaps venturing out in search of a bit of frothy ale.

Alas, the clever little Fairy-shoemakers eluded all of the traps, which as brilliantly as they were built, were still made by Humans.