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Fairy
Tales from the
land of Fairies
DAOINE SHIE, OR THE MEN OF PEACE
They are, though not absolutely malevolent, believed to be a peevish,
repining, and envious race, who enjoy, in the subterranean recesses, a
kind of shadowy splendour. The Highlanders are at all times
unwilling to speak of them, but especially on Friday, when their
influence is supposed to be particularly extensive. As they
are
supposed to be invisibly present, they are at all times to be spoken of
with respect. The fairies of Scotland are represented as a
diminutive race of beings, of a mixed or rather dubious nature,
capricious in their dispositions, and mischievous in their
resentment. They inhabit the interior of green hills, chiefly
those of a conical form, in Gaelic termed Sighan, on which they lead
their dances by moonlight, impressing upon the surface the marks of
circles, which sometimes appear yellow and blasted, sometimes of a deep
green hue, and within which it is dangerous to sleep, or to be found
after sunset. The removal of those large portions of turf,
which
thunderbolts sometimes scoop out of the ground with singular
regularity, is also ascribed to their agency. Cattle p.
186which
are suddenly seized with the cramp, or some similar disorder, are said
to be elf-shot, and the approved cure is to chafe the parts affected
with a blue bonnet, which, it may be readily believed, often restores
the circulation. The triangular flints frequently found in
Scotland, with which the ancient inhabitants probably barbed their
shafts, are supposed to be the weapons of fairy resentment, and are
termed elf arrowheads. The rude brazen battle-axes of the
ancients, commonly called “celts,” are also
ascribed to
their manufacture. But, like the Gothic duergar, their skill
is
not confined to the fabrication of arms; for they are heard sedulously
hammering in linns, precipices, and rocky or cavernous situations,
where, like the dwarfs of the mines mentioned by George Agricola, they
busy themselves in imitating the actions and the various employments of
men. The Brook of Beaumont, for example, which passes in its
course by numerous linns and caverns, is notorious for being haunted by
the fairies; and the perforated and rounded stones which are formed by
trituration in its channels are termed by the vulgar fairy cups and
dishes. A beautiful reason is assigned by Fletcher for the
fays
frequenting streams and fountains. He tells us of
“A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks
The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds
By the pale moonshine, dipping oftentimes
Their stolen children, so to make them free
From dying flesh and dull mortality.”
p. 187It is sometimes accounted unlucky to pass such places without
performing some ceremony to avert the displeasure of the
elves.
There is upon the top of Minchmuir, a mountain in Peeblesshire, a
spring called the Cheese Well, because, anciently, those who passed
that way were wont to throw into it a piece of cheese as an offering to
the fairies, to whom it was consecrated.
Like the feld elfen of the Saxons, the usual dress of the fairies is
green; though, on the moors, they have been sometimes observed in
heath-brown, or in weeds dyed with the stone-raw or lichen.
They
often ride in invisible procession, when their presence is discovered
by the shrill ringing of their bridles. On these occasions
they
sometimes borrow mortal steeds, and when such are found at morning,
panting and fatigued in their stalls, with their manes and tails
dishevelled and entangled, the grooms, I presume, often find this a
convenient excuse for their situation, as the common belief of the
elves quaffing the choicest liquors in the cellars of the rich might
occasionally cloak the delinquencies of an unfaithful butler.
The fairies, besides their equestrian processions, are addicted, it
would seem, to the pleasures of the chase. A young sailor,
travelling by night from Douglas, in the Isle of Man, to visit his
sister residing in Kirk Merlugh, heard a noise of horses, the holloa of
a huntsman, and the sound of a horn. p. 188Immediately
afterwards, thirteen horsemen, dressed in green, and gallantly mounted,
swept past him. Jack was so much delighted with the sport
that he
followed them, and enjoyed the sound of the horn for some miles, and it
was not till he arrived at his sister’s house that he learned
the
danger which he had incurred. I must not omit to mention that
these little personages are expert jockeys, and scorn to ride the
little Manx ponies, though apparently well suited to their
size.
The exercise, therefore, falls heavily upon the English and Irish
horses brought into the Isle of Man. Mr. Waldron was assured
by a
gentleman of Ballafletcher that he had lost three or four capital
hunters by these nocturnal excursions. From the same author
we
learn that the fairies sometimes take more legitimate modes of
procuring horses. A person of the utmost integrity informed
him
that, having occasion to sell a horse, he was accosted among the
mountains by a little gentleman plainly dressed, who priced his horse,
cheapened him, and, after some chaffering, finally purchased
him.
No sooner had the buyer mounted and paid the price than he sank through
the earth, horse and man, to the astonishment and terror of the seller,
who, experienced, however, no inconvenience from dealing with so
extraordinary a purchaser.
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