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Transcriber’s note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND
Published by
James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow,
Publishers to the University.
Macmillan and Co., London and New York.
London, Simpkin, Hamilton and Co.
Cambridge, Macmillan and Bowes.
Edinburgh, Douglas and Foulis.
MCM.
SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND
Collected entirely from Oral Sources
by
JOHN GREGORSON CAMPBELL
Minister of Tiree
Glasgow
James MacLehose and Sons
Publishers to the University
1900
Glasgow: Printed at the University Press
by Robert Maclehose and Co.
EDITOR’S NOTE.
This volume is the result of many years’ labour by the late Rev. John
Gregorson Campbell, while minister of Tiree during the years 1861—to
1891.
Much of the material was already collected before Mr. J. F. Campbell
of Islay published his _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_ in 1860,
and readers of Lord Archibald Campbell’s volumes on _Waifs and Strays
of Celtic Tradition_ are already acquainted with the valuable work
contributed to that series by the Rev. J. Gregorson Campbell.
It is hoped that this volume on the _Superstitions of the Scottish
Highlands_, full as it is of racy stories, may throw fresh light on an
extremely interesting subject.
The MS. of a corresponding work by the same author on _Witchcraft and
Second-Sight in the West Highlands_, is in the editor’s hands, and in
the event of the present work meeting with the reception which the
editor thinks it deserves, the volume on Witchcraft will be published
next year.
Mrs. Wallace, Hynish, Tiree, the author’s sister, has kindly read the
proofs.
_August, 1900._
PREFACE.
The object aimed at in the following pages is to put before the reader
a statement, as complete and accurate as the writer can attain to,
of the Superstitions and Antiquities of the Scottish Highlands and
Islands. In other words, the writer has endeavoured to gather full
materials relating to that subject, and to arrange them in a form that
may prove of some scientific value.
In pursuit of this object, it has been deemed advisable to derive
information solely from oral sources. Books have been purposely avoided
as authorities, and a rule has been laid down, and strictly adhered
to, not to accept any statement in print regarding a Highland belief,
unless also found current among the people. In the few books there
are, having any reference to Gaelic lore, the statements have been
so frequently found at variance with popular beliefs that this rule
has been a necessity. There are a few honourable exceptions, but in
general what is to be found in print on this subject is not trustworthy.
A want of acquaintance with the Gaelic language or with Highland
feelings and modes of thought, is usually the cause of error. The
writers think in English, and are not careful to eliminate from their
statements thoughts derived from English or classical literature,
or to keep from confusing with Celtic beliefs ideas derived from
foreign sources, and from analogous creeds existing elsewhere. This
gives an unconscious tinge to their statements, and (what is more
to be regretted) sometimes makes them fill up with extraneous and
foreign elements what seems to them gaps or blanks in beliefs they but
imperfectly understand.
The writer’s information has been derived from widely separated
districts in the North, West, and Central Highlands, and from the
Islands. Naturally, the bulk of the information was obtained in
Tiree, where the writer had most opportunity of making inquiries, but
information from this or any other source has not been accepted without
comparison with the same beliefs in other districts. The writer has
not been able personally to visit all parts of the Highlands, but his
informants have spent their lives in districts far apart. The reader
will fall into a mistake who supposes that the whole information is
within the belief, or even knowledge, of any one individual, or of any
one district.
The beliefs of one district do not differ essentially from those of
another. In one or two cases several versions of a tale are given to
show to some extent the nature of the variations of popular tradition.
The writer has thankfully to acknowledge, and he cannot but remember
with pleasure, the readiness and courtesy, and in very many cases the
great intelligence with which his inquiries have been answered. Some of
his informants have shown a quickness and retentiveness of memory which
he could not but envy, and an appreciation of, and an acquaintance with
ancient lore that seemed to him to indicate in those who were strangers
to the world of letters powers of mind of a high order.
The objection to books and print as authorities has also been
extended to written correspondence. No doubt much that is additional
and interesting could be obtained through these channels, but if
the account given is to serve any purpose higher than that of mere
amusement, strict accuracy is of such importance that all these
sources of possible error have been avoided; they cannot be sifted
by cross-examination and further inquiry so readily or thoroughly
as information obtained by word of mouth. The whole has thus passed
through the writer’s own hands directly from what he has found current
among the people. Care has been taken that no statement be made
conveying an idea different in the slightest from what has been heard.
A popular Gaelic saying can be quoted as applicable to the case: “If it
be a lie as told by me, it was a lie as told to me” (_Ma’s breug bh’uam
e, is breug dhomh e_). It is as free to another as it has been to the
writer, to draw his inferences from the statements given, and it is
thought no genuine tale or oral tradition will be found to contradict
the statements made in the following pages.
In the translations given of Gaelic, the object aimed at has been to
give the corresponding English expression, that is, one conveying the
same meaning to the English reader that the Gaelic expression conveys
to the Gaelic reader. Accuracy has been looked to on this point
rather than grace of diction. Where there is anything striking in the
Gaelic idiom the literal meaning is also given. In poetry there is
consequently a baldness, to which the original is a stranger; but this,
it may be urged, is a fault inherent in all translations, however
carefully executed. The transference of ideas from one language to
another weakens the force and beauty of an expression; what is racy
and witty, or musical and expressive in one, becomes tame and insipid
in another. This trite observation is made to deprecate unfavourable
opinions being formed of the genius and force of the Gaelic language
from the translations given.
CONTENTS
_CHAPTER I_
The Fairies
PAGE
Names Given to Fairies 3
The Size of Fairies 9
Fairy Dwellings 11
Fairy Dresses 14
The Defects of Fairies 15
Their Occupations 15
Seasons of Festivity 16
Fairy Raids 18
Circumstances under which Fairies are seen 21
Fairy Food 21
Gifts Bestowed by Fairies 22
The Giving and taking of Loans 24
Eddy Wind 24
Rain and Sunshine, Wind and Rain 26
Fairy Arrows 26
Cattle 27
Horses 30
Dogs 30
Elfin Cats 32
Fairy Theft 32
Stealing Women and Children 36
Changelings 38
Deformities 39
Nurses 40
The Men of Peace 40
The Bean Nighe, or Washing Woman 42
The Song of the Fairy Woman 44
The Glaistig as distinct from the Banshi 44
Elfin Queen 45
Protection against Fairies 46
_CHAPTER II_
Tales Illustrative of Fairy Superstition
Luran 52
The Cup of the Macleods of Raasa 57
The Fairies on Finlay’s Sandbank 57
Pennygown Fairies 59
Ben Lomond Fairies 60
Callum Clark and his Sore Leg 60
The Young Man in the Fairy Knoll 61
Black William the Piper 65
The Harris Woman and her Baking 66
Lifted by the Fairies 68
Fairies Coming to Houses 73
The Lowland Fairies 76
Fairies Stealing Women and Children 78
Ready Wit Repulses the Fairies 85
Kindness to a Neglected Child 86
The Bridegroom’s Burial 86
The Crowing of the Black Cock 87
Throwing the Arrow 88
The Woman Stolen from France 90
Changelings 90
Taking away Cows and Sheep 92
The Dwellings of the Fairies 93
Fairy Assistance 96
The Battle of Trai-Gruinard 100
Duine Sith, Man of Peace 101
Bean Shith, Elle Woman, or Woman of Peace 102
Donald Thrashed by the Fairy Woman 105
Iona Banshi 107
Tiree Banshi 108
Macphie’s Black Dog 109
The Carlin of the Spotted Hill 122
Donald, Son of Patrick 123
The Wife of Ben-y-Ghloe 125
Fairy Women and Deer 126
O’Cronicert’s Fairy Wife 127
The Gruagach Ban 132
Deer Killed and conveyed home at Night 133
Fairies and Goats 134
Fairies and Cows 134
Fairy Cows 135
The Thirsty Ploughman 137
The Fairy Churning 137
Milk Spilt by Dairymaids 138
Fairy Music 138
MacCrimmon 139
Fairy Dogs (‘Cu Sith’) 141
What happens to Dogs Chasing Fairies 144
Fairies and Horses 146
Fairies and the Handmill 149
Fairies and Oatmeal 150
Fairies and Iron 152
Name of the Deity 153
Fairy Gifts 153
Struck by the Fairy Arrow Spade 154
_CHAPTER III_
Tutelary Beings
(I) The Glaistig 155
At Glenduror 162
At Sron-Charmaig 162
At Inverawe House 164
At Dunstaffnage Castle 164
In Tiree 165
At Sleat, Skye 165
In the Island of Coll 166
At Dunolly Castle 166
At Mernaig Castle 166
In Strathglass 167
At Lianachan 168
In Glenorchy 171
M‘Millan of Knap stabbing the Glaistig 172
At Craignish 173
On Garlios, Morvern 173
At Ardnadrochit, Mull 175
On Baugh, Tiree 176
On Hianish, Tiree 177
At Strontian 177
In Ulva 178
In Iona 179
In Ross, Mull 179
In Corry-na-Henchor 180
Mac-Ian Year 181
At Erray, Mull 183
(II) The Gruagach 184
(III) Brownie 186
Gunna 189
The Old Man of the Barn 190
_CHAPTER IV_
The Urisk, The Blue Men, and The Mermaid
The Urisk 195
The Blue Men 199
The Mermaid 201
_CHAPTER V_
The Water-Horse
Farmers and Water-Horses 204
Mac-Fir Arois 205
The Talking Horse at Cru-Loch 207
Island of Coll 208
The Nine Children at Sunart 208
Killing the Raasay Water-Horse 209
The Water-Horse at Loch Cuaich 210
The Water-Horse at Tiree 211
Water-Horse and Women 212
The Water-Horse at Loch Basibol, Tiree 214
The Kelpie 215
The Water-Bull 216
The King Otter 216
Biasd na Srogaig 217
The Big Beast of Lochawe 218
_CHAPTER VI_
Superstitions about Animals
Lamprey—Sea Serpent—Gigelorum—Lavellan—Bernicle
Goose—Eels—Whale—Herring—Flounder—Lobster—Serpents—Rats
and Mice—Cormorant—Magpie—Beetles—Emmet—Skip-Jack
219-228
_CHAPTER VII_
Miscellaneous Superstitions
Gisvagun, Eapagun, Upagun 229
The Right-Hand Turn (Deiseal) 229
Rising and Dressing 230
Clothes 231
Houses and Lands 231
Baking 232
Removal Cheese (Mulchag Imrich) 234
Leg Cake (Bonnach Lurgainn) 234
Giving Fire out of the House 234
Thunder 235
Theft 236
Salt 236
Combing the Hair 236
Bird Nests 237
Hen’s First Egg 237
Euphemisms 237
Boat Language 239
Fresh Meat 240
Killing those too long alive 240
Funerals 241
The Watch of the Graveyard (Faire Chlaidh) 242
Cill Challum Chille 242
Suicides 242
Murder 243
The Harvest Old Wife (a Chailleach) 243
La u Bhrochain mhòr (Big Porridge Day) 244
Fires on Headlands 244
Stances 244
Names 245
Delivery of Cattle and Horses 245
Trades 246
Iron 246
Empty Shells 247
Protection against Evil Spirits 247
Misnaming a Person 248
Gaining Straw (Sop Seile) 248
Propitious Times 248
Unlucky Actions 249
_CHAPTER VIII_
Augury
At Outset of a Journey 253
Unlucky to look back 255
_CHAPTER IX_
Premonitions and Divination
Premonitions (Meamna) 258
Trial (Deuchainn) 259
Divination (Fiosachd) 262
Shoulder-blade Reading (Slinneineachd) 263
Palmistry (Dearnadaireachd) 266
Divination by Tea, or Cup-reading (Leughadh
Chupaichean) 266
_CHAPTER X_
Dreams and Prophecies
Dreams (Bruadar) 268
Prophecies (Fàisneachd) 269
The Lady of Lawers 274
_CHAPTER XI_
Imprecations, Spells, and the Black Art
Imprecation (Guidhe) 277
Spells (Geasan no Geasaibh) 281
The Black Art 285
_CHAPTER XII_
The Devil
Card Playing 292
Red Book of Appin 292
Coming for the Dying 295
Making the Devil your Slave 296
Coming Misfortune 298
The Gaïck Catastrophe (Mort Ghàthaig) 300
The Bundle of Fern 303
The Pig in the Indigo Pot 303
Among the Tailors 304
Taghairm, or “Giving his Supper to the Devil” 304
Glas Ghairm—Power of Opening Locks 311
CHAPTER I.
THE FAIRIES.[1]
In any account of Gaelic superstition and popular belief, the first
and most prominent place is to be assigned to the Fairy or Elfin
people, or, as they are called both in Irish and Scottish Gaelic,
the _sìth_ people, that is, ‘the people of peace,’ the ‘still folk,’
or ‘silently-moving’ people. The antiquity of the belief is shown
by its being found among all branches of the Celtic and Teutonic
families, and in countries which have not, within historical times,
had any communication with each other. If it be not entirely of Celtic
origin, there can be no doubt that among the Celtic races it acquired
an importance and influence accorded to it nowhere else. Of all the
beings, with which fear or fancy peopled the supernatural, the Fairies
were the most intimately associated with men’s daily life. In the
present day, when popular poetical ideas are extinguished in the
universal call for “facts” and by “cold material laws,” it is hard to
understand how firm a hold a belief like this had upon men in a more
primitive state of society, and how unwillingly it is surrendered.
Throughout the greater part of the Highlands of Scotland the
Fairies have become things of the past. A common belief is that
they existed once, though they are not now seen. There are others
to whom the elves have still a real existence, and who are careful
to take precautions against them. The changes, which the Highlands
are undergoing, have made the traces of the belief fainter in some
districts than in others, and in some there remains but a confused
jumbling of all the superstitions. It would be difficult to find a
person who knows the whole Fairy creed, but the tales of one district
are never contradictory of those of another. They are rather to be
taken as supplemental of each other, and it is by comparison and such
supplementing that the following statement has been drawn out. It is
thought that it will not be found at variance with any genuine Highland
Fairy Tale.
The Fairies, according to the Scoto-Celtic belief, are a race of
beings, the counterparts of mankind in person, occupations, and
pleasures, but unsubstantial and unreal, ordinarily invisible,
noiseless in their motions, and having their dwellings underground, in
hills and green mounds of rock or earth. They are addicted to visiting
the haunts of men, sometimes to give assistance, but more frequently to
take away the benefit of their goods and labours, and sometimes even
their persons. They may be present in any company, though mortals do
not see them. Their interference is never productive of good in the
end, and may prove destructive. Men cannot therefore be sufficiently on
their guard against them.
NAMES GIVEN TO FAIRIES.
The names by which these dwellers underground are known are mostly
derivative from the word _sìth_ (pronounced _shee_). As a substantive
(in which sense it is ordinarily used) _sìth_ means ‘peace,’ and, as
an adjective, is applied solely to objects of the supernatural world,
particularly to the Fairies and whatever belongs to them. Sound is
a natural adjunct of the motions of men, and its entire absence is
unearthly, unnatural, not human. The name _sìth_ without doubt refers
to the ‘peace’ or silence of Fairy motion, as contrasted with the stir
and noise accompanying the movements and actions of men. The German
‘still folk’ is a name of corresponding import. The Fairies come and go
with noiseless steps, and their thefts or abductions are done silently
and unawares to men. The wayfarer resting beside a stream, on raising
his eyes, sees the Fairy woman, unheard in her approach, standing on
the opposite bank. Men know the Fairies have visited their houses
only by the mysterious disappearance of the substance of their goods,
or the sudden and unaccountable death of any of the inmates or of
the cattle. Sometimes the elves are seen entering the house, gliding
silently round the room, and going out again as noiselessly as they
entered. When driven away they do not go off with tramp and noise, and
sounds of walking such as men make, or melt into thin air, as spirits
do, but fly away noiselessly like birds or hunted deer. They seem to
glide or float along rather than to walk. Hence the name _sìthche_ and
its synonyms are often applied contemptuously to a person who sneaks
about or makes his approach without warning. Sometimes indeed the elves
make a rustling noise like that of a gust of wind, or a silk gown, or
a sword drawn sharply through the air, and their coming and going has
been even indicated by frightful and unearthly shrieks, a pattering
as of a flock of sheep, or the louder trampling of a troop of horses.
Generally, however, their presence is indicated at most by the cloud
of dust raised by the eddy wind, or by some other curious natural
phenomenon, by the illumination of their dwellings, the sound of their
musical instruments, songs, or speech.
For the same reason _sìth_ is applied not merely to what is Fairy, but
to whatever is Fairy-like, unearthly, not of this world. Of this laxer
use of the term the following may be given as illustrations:
_Breac shìth_, ‘Elfin pox,’ hives, are spots that appear on the skin
in certain diseases, as hooping-cough, and indicate a highly malignant
stage of the malady. They are not ascribed to the Fairies, but are
called _sìth_, because they appear and again disappear as it were
‘silently,’ without obvious cause, and more mysteriously than other
symptoms. Cows, said to have been found on the shores of Loscantire in
Harris, Scorrybrec in Skye, and on the Island of Bernera, were called
_cro sìth_, ‘fairy cows,’ simply because they were of no mortal breed,
but of a kind believed to live under the sea on _meillich_, seaweed.
Animals in the shape of cats, but in reality witches or demons, were
called _cait shìth_, ‘Elfin cats,’ and the Water Horse, which has no
connection whatever with the elves, is sometimes called _each sìth_,
unearthly horse. The cuckoo is an _eun sìth_, a ‘Fairy bird,’ because,
as is said, its winter dwelling is underground.
A banner in the possession of the family of Macleod, of Macleod of
Skye, is called ‘Macleod’s Fairy Banner’ (_Bratach shìth MhicLèoid_),
on account of the supernatural powers ascribed to it. When unfurled,
victory in war (_buaidh chogaidh_) attends it, and it relieves its
followers from imminent danger.[2] Every pregnant woman who sees it is
taken in premature labour (a misfortune which happened, it is said, to
the English wife of a former chief in consequence of her irrepressible
curiosity to see the banner), and every cow casts her calf (_cha bhi
bean no bo nach tilg a laogh_). Others, however, say the name is owing
to the magic banner having been got from an Elfin sweetheart.
A light, seen among the Hebrides, a sort of St. Elmo’s light or
Will-of-the-wisp, is called _teine sìth_, ‘Fairy light,’ though no one
ever blamed the Fairies as the cause of it. In a semi-satirical song,
of much merit for its spirit and ease of diction, composed in Tiree to
the owner of a crazy skiff that had gone to the Ross of Mull for peats
and staid too long, the bard, in a spirited description of the owner’s
adventures and seamanship, says:—
“Onward past Greenock,
Like the deer of the cold high hills,
Breasting the rugged ground
With the hunter in pursuit;
She _sailed with Fairy motion_,[3]
Bounding smoothly in her pride,
Cleaving the green waves,
And passing to windward of the rest.”[4]
This latitude in the use of the word has led some writers on the
subject to confound with the Fairies beings having as little connection
with them as with mankind. A similar laxness occurs in the use of the
English word Fairy. It is made to include kelpies, mermaids, and other
supernatural beings, having no connection with the true Fairy, or Elfin
race.
The following are the names by which the ‘Folk’ are known in Gaelic. It
is observable that every one of the names, when applied to mortals, is
contemptuous and disparaging.
_Sithche_ (pronounced _sheeche_) is the generic and commonest term. It
is a noun of common gender, and its plural is _sithchean_ (sheechun).
In Graham’s _Highlands of Perthshire_, a work more than once quoted by
Sir Walter Scott, but unreliable as an authority, this word is written
_shi’ich_.
_Sireach_, plur. _sirich_, also _sibhrich_, is a provincial term; _an
siriche du_, ‘the black elf,’ _i.e._ the veriest elf.
_Sithbheire_ (pronounced _sheevere_), a masculine noun, is mostly
applied to changelings, or the elf substituted for children and animals
taken by the Fairies. Applied to men it is very contemptuous.
_Siochaire_ is still more so. Few expressions of scorn are more
commonly applied to men than _siochaire grannda_, “ugly slink.”
_Duine sìth_ (plur. _daoine sìth_), ‘a man of peace, a noiselessly
moving person, a fairy, an elf’; fem. _Bean shìth_ (gen. _mna sìth_,
plur. _mnathan sìth_, gen. plur. with the article _nam ban shìth_), ‘a
woman of peace, an Elle woman,’ are names that include the whole Fairy
race. _Bean shìth_ has become naturalized in English under the form
_Banshi_. The term was introduced from Ireland, but there appears no
reason to suppose the Irish belief different from that of the Scottish
Highlands. Any seeming difference has arisen since the introduction of
the Banshi to the literary world, and from the too free exercise of
imagination by book-writers on an imperfectly understood tradition.
The _leannan sìth_, ‘fairy sweetheart, familiar spirit,’ might be of
either sex. The use of this word by the translators of the Bible into
Gaelic is made a great handle of by the common people, to prove from
Scripture that Fairies actually exist. The Hebrew word so translated
is rendered ‘pythons’ by the Vulgate, and ‘consulters of the spirits
of the dead’ by modern scholars. Those said to have familiar spirits
were probably a class of magicians, who pretended to be media of
communication with the spirit world, their ‘familiar’ making himself
known by sounds muttered from the ground through the instrumentality,
as the Hebrew name denotes, of a skin bottle.
_Brughadair_, ‘a person from a brugh, or fairy dwelling,’ applied to
men, means one who does a stupid or senseless action.
Other names are _sluagh_, ‘folk, a multitude’; _sluagh eutrom_, ‘light
folk’; and _daoine beaga_, ‘little men,’ from the number and small size
ascribed to the elves.
_Daoine Còire_, ‘honest folk,’ had its origin in a desire to give
no unnecessary offence. The ‘folk’ might be listening, and were
pleased when people spoke well of them, and angry when spoken of
slightingly. In this respect they are very jealous. A wise man will not
unnecessarily expose himself to their attacks, for, ‘Better is a hen’s
amity than its enmity’ (_S’fhearr sìth ciree na h-aimhreit_). The same
feeling made the Irish Celt call them _daoine matha_, ‘good people,’
and the lowland Scot ‘gude neighbours.’
THE SIZE OF FAIRIES.
The difference in size ascribed to the race, though one of the most
remarkable features in the superstition, and lying on its surface, has
been taken little notice of by writers. At one time the elves are small
enough to creep through key-holes, and a single potato is as much as
one of them can carry; at another they resemble mankind, with whom they
form alliances, and to whom they hire themselves as servants; while
some are even said to be above the size of mortals, gigantic hags, in
whose lap mortal women are mere infants. In the Highlands the names
_sithche_ and _daoine sìth_ are given to all these different sizes
alike, little men, elfin youth, elfin dame, and elfin hag, all of whom
are not mythical beings of different classes or kinds, but one and
the same race, having the same characteristics and dress, living on
the same food, staying in the same dwellings, associated in the same
actions, and kept away by the same means. The easiest solution of the
anomaly is that the fairies had the power of making themselves large or
small at pleasure. There is no popular tale, however, which represents
them as exercising such a power, nor is it conformable to the rest of
their characteristics that it should be ascribed to them. The true
belief is that the Fairies are a small race, the men ‘about four feet
or so’ in height, and the women in many cases not taller than a little
girl (_cnapach caileig_). Being called ‘little,’ the exaggeration,
which popular imagination loves, has diminished them till they appear
as elves of different kinds. There is hardly a limit to the popular
exaggeration of personal peculiarities. Og, King of Bashan, was a big
man, and the Rabbis made his head tower to the regions of perpetual
snow, while his feet were parched in the deserts of Arabia. Finmac
Coul was reputed strong, at least he thrashed the devil, and made him
howl. A weaver in Perthshire, known as ‘the weaver with the nose’
(_figheadair na eròine_), had a big nose, at least he carried his loom
in it. Similarly the ‘little men’ came down to the ‘size of half an
ell,’ and even the height of a quart bottle.
The same peculiarity exists in the Teutonic belief. At times the elf
is a dwarfish being that enters through key-holes and window-slits; at
other times a great tall man. In different localities the Fairies are
known as Alfs, Huldra-Folk, Duergar, Trolls, Hill Folk, Little Folk,
Still Folk, Pixies, etc. A difference of size, as well as of name, has
led to these being described as separate beings, but they have all so
much in common with the Celtic Fairies that we must conclude they were
originally the same.
FAIRY DWELLINGS.
The Gaelic, as might be expected, abounds in words denoting the
diversified features of the scenery in a mountainous country. To this
the English language itself bears witness, having adopted so many
Gaelic words of the kind, as strath, glen, corrie, ben, knock, dun,
etc. From this copiousness it arises that the round green eminences,
which were said to be the residences of the Fairies, are known in
Gaelic by several names which have no synonym in English.
_Sìthein_ (pron. shï-en) is the name of any place in which the Fairies
take up their residence. It is known from the surrounding scenery by
the peculiarly green appearance and rounded form. Sometimes in these
respects it is very striking, being of so nearly conical a form, and
covered with such rich verdure, that a second look is required to
satisfy the observers it is not artificial. Its external appearance
has led to its being also known by various other names.
_Tolman_ is a small green knoll, or hummock, of earth; _bac_, a bank
of sand or earth; _cnoc_, knock, Scot. ‘a knowe,’ and its diminutive
_cnocan_, a little knowe; _dùn_, a rocky mound or heap, such, for
instance, as the Castle rock of Edinburgh or Dumbarton, though
often neither so steep nor so large; _òthan_, a green elevation in
wet ground; and _ùigh_, a provincial term of much the same import
as tolman. Even lofty hills have been represented as tenanted by
Fairies, and the highest point of a hill, having the rounded form,
characteristic of Fairy dwellings is called its shï-en (_sìthein na
beinne_). Rocks may be tenanted by the elves, but not caves. The
dwellings of the race are below the outside or superficies of the
earth, and tales representing the contrary may be looked upon with
suspicion as modern.
There is one genuine popular story in which the Fairy dwelling is in
the middle of a green plain, without any elevation to mark its site
beyond a horse-skull, the eye-sockets of which were used as the Fairy
chimney.
These dwellings were tenanted sometimes by a single family only, more
frequently by a whole community. The elves were said to change their
residences as men do, and, when they saw proper themselves, to remove
to distant parts of the country and more desirable haunts. To them, on
their arrival in their new home, are ascribed the words:
“Though good the haven we have left,
Better be the haven we have found.”[5]
The Fairy hillock might be passed by the strangers without suspicion
of its being tenanted, and cattle were pastured on it unmolested by
the “good people.” There is, however, a common story in the Western
Isles that a person was tethering his horse or cow for the night on
a green _tolman_ when a head appeared out of the ground, and told
him to tether the beast somewhere else, as he let rain into “their”
house, and had nearly driven the tether-pin into the ear of one of
the inmates. Another, who was in the habit of pouring out dirty water
at the door, was told by the Fairies to pour it elsewhere, as he was
spoiling their furniture. He shifted the door to the back of the house,
and prospered ever after. The Fairies were very grateful to any one who
kept the shï-en clean, and swept away cow or horse-droppings falling
on it. Finding a farmer careful of the roof of their dwelling, keeping
it clean, and not breaking the sward with tether-pin or spade, they
showed their thankfulness by driving his horses and cattle to the
sheltered side of the mound when the night proved stormy. Many believe
the Fairies themselves swept the hillock every night, so that in the
morning its surface was spotless.
_Brugh_ (brŭ) denotes the Fairy dwelling viewed as it were from the
inside—the interiors—but is often used interchangeably with _sìthein_.
It is probably the same word as burgh, borough, or bro’, and its
reference is to the _number_ of inmates in the Fairy dwelling.[6]
FAIRY DRESSES.
The Fairies, both Celtic and Teutonic, are dressed in green. In
Skye, however, though Fairy women, as elsewhere, are always dressed
in that colour, the men wear clothes of any colour like their human
neighbours. They are frequently called _daoine beaga ruadh_, “little
red men,” from their clothes having the appearance of being dyed with
the lichen called _crotal_, a common colour of men’s clothes, in
the North Hebrides. The coats of Fairy women are shaggy, or ruffled
(_caiteineach_), and their caps curiously fitted or wrinkled. The men
are said, but not commonly, to have _blue_ bonnets, and in the song
to the murdered Elfin lover, the Elf is said to have a hat bearing “a
smell of honied apples.” This is perhaps the only Highland instance of
a hat, which is a prominent object in the Teutonic superstition, being
ascribed to the Fairies.
THE DEFECTS OF FAIRIES.
Generally some personal defect is ascribed to them, by which they
become known to be of no mortal race. In Mull and the neighbourhood
they are said to have only one nostril, the other being imperforate
(_an leth choinnlein aca druid-te_). The Elfin smith who made Finmac
Coul’s sword, “the son of Lun that never asked a second stroke” (_Mac
an Luin, nach d’fhàg riamh fuigheal bheum_), had but one gloomy eye
in his forehead. The _Bean shiìh_ was detected by her extraordinary
voracity (a cow at a meal), a frightful front tooth, the entire want
of a nostril, a web foot, praeternaturally long breasts, etc. She is
also said to be unable to suckle her own children, and hence the Fairy
desire to steal nursing women.
THEIR OCCUPATIONS.
The Fairies, as has been already said, are counterparts of mankind.
There are children and old people among them; they practise all kinds
of trades and handicrafts; they possess cattle, dogs, arms; they
require food, clothing, sleep; they are liable to disease, and can be
killed. So entire is the resemblance that they have even been betrayed
into intoxication. People entering their brughs, have found the inmates
engaged in similar occupations to mankind, the women spinning,
weaving, grinding meal, baking, cooking, churning, etc., and the men
sleeping, dancing, and making merry, or sitting round a fire in the
middle of the floor (as a Perthshire informant described it) “like
tinkers.” Sometimes the inmates were absent on foraging expeditions or
pleasure excursions. The women sing at their work, a common practice in
former times with Highland women, and use distaff, spindle, handmills,
and such like primitive implements. The men have smithies, in which
they make the Fairy arrows and other weapons. Some Fairy families or
communities are poorer than others, and borrow meal and other articles
of domestic use from each other and from their neighbours of mankind.
FESTIVITIES.
There are stated seasons of festivity which are observed with much
splendour in the larger dwellings. The brugh is illumined, the tables
glitter with gold and silver vessels, and the door is thrown open to
all comers. Any of the human race entering on these occasions are
hospitably and heartily welcomed; food and drink are offered them, and
their health is pledged. Everything in the dwelling seems magnificent
beyond description, and mortals are so enraptured they forget
everything but the enjoyment of the moment. Joining in the festivities,
they lose all thought as to the passage of time. The food is the most
sumptuous, the clothing the most gorgeous ever seen, the music the
sweetest ever heard, the dance the sprightliest ever trod. The whole
dwelling is lustrous with magic splendour.
All this magnificence, however, and enjoyment are nothing but semblance
and illusion of the senses. Mankind, with all their cares, and toils,
and sorrows, have an infinitely more desirable lot, and the man
is greatly to be pitied whom the Elves get power over, so that he
exchanges his human lot and labour for their society or pleasures.
Wise people recommend that, in the circumstances, a man should not
utter a word till he comes out again, nor, on any account, taste Fairy
food or drink. If he abstains he is very likely before long dismissed,
but if he indulges he straightway loses the will and the power ever
to return to the society of men. He becomes insensible to the passage
of time, and may stay, without knowing it, for years, and even ages,
in the brugh. Many, who thus forgot themselves, are among the Fairies
to this day. Should they ever again return to the open air, and their
enchantment be broken, the Fairy grandeur and pleasure prove an empty
show, worthless, and fraught with danger. The food becomes disgusting
refuse, and the pleasures a shocking waste of time.
The Elves are great adepts in music and dancing, and a great part of
their time seems to be spent in the practice of these accomplishments.
The changeling has often been detected by his fondness for them.
Though in appearance an ill-conditioned and helpless brat, he has been
known, when he thought himself unobserved, to play the pipes with
surpassing skill, and dance with superhuman activity. Elfin music is
more melodious than human skill and instruments can produce, and there
are many songs and tunes which are said to have been originally learned
from the Fairies. The only musical instrument of the Elves is the
bagpipes, and some of the most celebrated pipers in Scotland are said
to have learned their music from them.
FAIRY RAIDS.
The Gaelic belief recognizes no Fairyland or realm different from
the earth’s surface on which men live and move. The dwellings are
underground, but it is on the natural face of the earth the Fairies
find their sustenance, pasture their cattle, and on which they forage
and roam.
The seasons on which their festivities are held are the last night
of every quarter (_h-uile latha ceann ràidhe_), particularly the
nights before Beltane, the first of summer, and Hallowmas, the first
of winter. On these nights, on Fridays, and on the last night of the
year, they are given to leaving home, and taking away whomsoever of
the human race they find helpless, or unguarded or unwary. They may
be encountered any time, but on these stated occasions men are to be
particularly on their guard against them.
On Fridays they obtrusively enter houses, and have even the impudence,
it is said, to lift the lid off the pot to see what the family have
on the fire for dinner. Any Fairy story, told on this day, should be
prefixed by saying, ‘a blessing attend their departing and travelling!
this day is Friday and they will not hear us’ (_Beannachd nan siubhal
’s nan isneachd! ’se ’n diugh Di-haoine ’s cha chluinn iad sinn_). This
prevents Fairy ill-will coming upon the narrator for anything he may
chance to say. No one should call the day by its proper name of Friday
(_Di-haoine_), but ‘the day of yonder town’ (_latha bhatl’ ud thall_).
The Fairies do not like to hear the day mentioned, and if anyone is so
unlucky as to use the proper name, their wrath is directed elsewhere
by the bystander adding ‘on the cattle of yonder town’ (_air cro a
bhail’ ud thall_), or ‘on the farm of So-and-so,’ mentioning anyone
he may have a dislike to. The fear of Fairy wrath also prevented the
sharpening of knives on this day.
They are said to come always from the west. They are admitted into
houses, however well guarded otherwise, by the little hand-made cake,
the last of the baking (_bonnach beag boise_), called the _Fallaid_
bannock, unless there has been a hole put through it with the finger,
or a piece is broken off it, or a live coal is put on the top of
it;[7] by the water in which men’s feet have been washed; by the fire,
unless it be properly ‘raked’ (_smàladh_), _i.e._ covered up to keep
it alive for the night; or by the band of the spinning wheel, if left
stretched on the wheel.
The reason assigned for taking water into the house at night was that
the Fairies would suck the sleeper’s blood if they found no water in
to quench their thirst. The water in which feet were washed, unless
thrown out, or a burning peat were put in it, let them in, and was used
by them to plash about in (_gan loireadh fhéin ann_) all night. Unless
the band was taken off the spinning wheel, particularly on the Saturday
evenings, they came after the inmates of the house had retired to rest
and used the wheel. Sounds of busy work were heard, but in the morning
no work was found done, and possibly the wheel was disarranged.[8]
On the last night of the year they are kept out by decorating the house
with holly; and the last handful of corn reaped should be dressed up as
a Harvest Maiden (_Maighdean Bhuan_), and hung up in the farmer’s house
to aid in keeping them out till next harvest.
WHEN SEEN.
There seems to be no definite rule as to the circumstances under which
the Fairies are to be seen. A person whose eye has been touched with
Fairy water can see them whenever they are present; the seer, possessed
of second sight, often saw them when others did not; and on nights on
which the _shï-en_ is open the chance passer-by sees them rejoicing in
their underground dwellings. A favourite time for their encounters with
men seems to be the dusk and wild stormy nights of mist and driving
rain, when the streams are swollen and ‘the roar of the torrent is
heard on the hill.’ They are also apt to appear when spoken of and when
a desire is expressed for their assistance; when proper precautions are
omitted and those whose weakness and helplessness call for watchfulness
and care, are neglected; when their power is contemned and when a
sordid and churlish spirit is entertained. Often, without fault or
effort, in places the most unexpected, mortals have been startled by
their appearance, cries, or music.
FOOD.
Fairy food consists principally of things intended for human food, of
which the Elves take the _toradh_, _i.e._ the substance, fruit, or
benefit, leaving the semblance or appearance to men themselves. In
this manner they take cows, sheep, goats, meal, sowens, the produce
of the land, etc. Cattle falling over rocks are particularly liable
to being taken by them, and milk spilt in coming from the dairy is
theirs by right. They have, of food peculiar to themselves and not
acquired from men, the root of silver weed (_brisgein_), the stalks of
heather (_cuiseagan an fhraoich_), the milk of the red deer hinds and
of goats, weeds gathered in the fields, and barleymeal. The _brisgein_
is a root plentifully turned up by the plough in spring, and ranked in
olden times as the ‘seventh bread.’ Its inferior quality and its being
found underground, are probably the cause of its being assigned to the
Fairies. It is a question whether the stalks of heather are the tops
or the stems of the plant. Neither contain much sap or nourishment.
The Banshi Fairy, or Elle woman, has been seen by hunters milking the
hinds, just as women milk cows.
Those who partake of Fairy food are as hungry after their repast as
before it. In appearance it is most sumptuous and inviting, but on
grace being said turns out to be horse-dung. Some, in their haste to
partake of the gorgeous viands, were only disenchanted when ‘returning
thanks.’
GIFTS BESTOWED BY FAIRIES.
The Fairies can bestow almost any gift upon their favourites—great
skill in music and in work of all kinds—give them cows and even
children stolen for the purpose from others, leave them good fortune,
keep cattle from wandering into their crops at night, assist them in
spring and harvest work, etc. Sometimes their marvellous skill is
communicated to mortals, sometimes they come in person to assist. If a
smith, wright, or other tradesman catches them working with the tools
of his trade (a thing they are addicted to doing) he can compel them
to bestow on him the _Ceaird Chomuinn_, or association craft, that is
to come to his assistance whenever he wants them. Work left near their
hillocks over night has been found finished in the morning, and they
have been forced by men, entering their dwellings for the purpose, to
tell the cure for diseases defying human skill.
In every instance, however, the benefit of the gift goes ultimately
to the Fairies themselves, or (as it is put in the Gaelic expression)
‘the fruit of it goes into their own bodies’ (_Theid an toradh nan
cuirp fhéin_). Their gifts have evil influence connected with them,
and, however inviting at first, are productive of bad luck in the
end. No wise man will desire either their company or their kindness.
When they come to a house to assist at any work, the sooner they are
got rid of the better. If they are hired as servants their wages at
first appear trifling, but will ultimately ruin their employer. It is
unfortunate even to encounter any of the race, but to consort with them
is disastrous in the extreme.
LOANS.
‘The giving and taking of loans,’ according to the proverb, ‘always
prevailed in the world’ (_Bha toirt is gabhail an iasad dol riamh feadh
an t-saoghail_), and the custom is one to which the ‘good neighbours’
are no strangers.
They are universally represented as borrowing meal, from each other
and from men. In the latter case when they returned a loan, as they
always honestly did, the return was in _barleymeal_, two measures for
one of oatmeal; and this, on being kept in a place by itself, proved
inexhaustible, provided the bottom of the vessel in which it was stored
was never made to appear, no question was asked, and no blessing was
pronounced over it. It would then neither vanish nor become horse-dung!
When a loan is returned to them, they accept only the fair equivalent
of what they have lent, neither less nor more. If more is offered they
take offence, and never give an opportunity for the same insult again.
We hear also of their borrowing a kettle or cauldron, and, under the
power of a rhyme uttered by the lender at the time of giving it,
sending it back before morning.
EDDY WIND.
When ‘the folk’ leave home in companies, they travel in eddies of wind.
In this climate these eddies are among the most curious of natural
phenomena. On calm summer days they go past, whirling about straws and
dust, and as not another breath of air is moving at the time their
cause is sufficiently puzzling. In Gaelic the eddy is known as ‘the
people’s puff of wind’ (_oiteag sluaigh_), and its motion ‘travelling
on tall grass stems’ (_falbh air chuiseagan treòrach_). By throwing
one’s left (or _toisgeul_) shoe at it, the Fairies are made to drop
whatever they may be taking away—men, women, children, or animals. The
same result is attained by throwing one’s bonnet, saying, ‘this is
yours, that’s mine’ (_Is leatsa so, is leamsa sin_), or a naked knife,
or earth from a mole-hill.
In these eddies, people going on a journey at night have been ‘lifted,’
and spent the night careering through the skies. On returning to the
earth, though they came to the house last left, they were too stupefied
to recognize either the house or its inmates. Others, through Fairy
despite, have wandered about all night on foot, failing to reach
their intended destination though quite near it, and perhaps in the
morning finding themselves on the top of a distant hill, or in some
inaccessible place to which they could never have made their way alone.
Even in daylight some were carried in the Elfin eddy from one island to
another, in great terror lest they should fall into the sea.
RAIN AND SUNSHINE, WIND AND RAIN.
When there is rain with sunshine, the ‘little people,’ according to a
popular rhyme, are at their meat,
“Rain and sun,
Little people at their meat.”
When wind and rain come from opposite directions (which may for an
instant be possible in a sudden shift of wind), by throwing some
horse-dung against the wind, the Fairies are brought down in a shower!
FAIRY ARROWS, ETC.
Natural objects of a curious appearance, or bearing a fanciful
resemblance to articles used by men, are also associated with the
Fairies. The reedmace plant is called ‘the distaff of the Fairy women’
(_cuigeal nam ban shìth_), the foxglove the ‘thimble of the Fairy
old women’ (_miaran nan cailleacha sìth_), though more commonly ‘the
thimble of dead old women’ (_m. nan cailleacha marbh_). A substance,
found on the shores of the Hebrides, like a stone, red (_ruadh_), and
half dark (_lith dhorcha_), holed, is called ‘Elf’s blood’ (_fuil
siochaire_).[9]
The Fairy arrow (_Saighead shìth_) owes its name to a similar fancy.
It is known also as ‘Fairy flint’ (_spor shìth_), and consists of a
triangular piece of flint, bearing the appearance of an arrow head.
It probably originally formed part of the rude armoury of the savages
of the stone period. Popular imagination, struck by its curious form,
and ignorant of its origin, ascribed it to the Fairies. It was said
to be frequently shot at the hunter, to whom the Elves have a special
aversion, because he kills the hinds, on the milk of which they live.
They could not throw it themselves, but compelled some mortal (_duine
saoghailte_) who was being carried about in their company to throw it
for them. If the person aimed at was a friend, the thrower managed
to miss his aim, and the Fairy arrow proved innocuous. It was found
lying beside the object of Fairy wrath, and was kept as a valuable
preservation in future against similar dangers, and for rubbing to
wounds (_suathadh ri creuchdun_). The man or beast struck by it became
paralyzed, and to all appearance died shortly after. In reality they
were taken away by the elves, and only their appearance remained. Its
point being blunt was an indication that it had done harm.
The Fairy spade (_caibe sìth_) is a smooth, slippery, black stone, in
shape ‘like the sole of a shoe.’ It was put in water, given to sick
people and cattle.
CATTLE.
Everywhere in the Highlands, the red-deer are associated with the
Fairies, and in some districts, as Lochaber and Mull, are said to be
their only cattle. This association is sufficiently accounted for by
the Fairy-like appearance and habits of the deer. In its native haunts,
in remote and misty corries, where solitude has her most undisturbed
abode, its beauty and grace of form, combined with its dislike to the
presence of man, and even of the animals man has tamed, amply entitle
it to the name of _sìth_. Timid and easily startled by every appearance
and noise, it is said to be unmoved by the presence of the Fairies.
Popular belief also says that no deer is found dead with age, and that
its horns, which it sheds every year, are not found, because hid by the
Fairies. In their transformations it was peculiar for the Fairy women
to assume the shape of the red-deer, and in that guise they were often
encountered by the hunter. The elves have a particular dislike to those
who kill the hinds, and, on finding them in lonely places, delight in
throwing elf-bolts at them. When a dead deer is carried home at night
the Fairies lay their weight on the bearer’s back, till he feels as if
he had a house for a burden. On a penknife, however, being stuck in
the deer it becomes very light. There are occasional allusions to the
Fairy women having herds of deer. The Carlin Wife of the Spotted Hill
(_Cailleach Beinne Bhric horò_), who, according to a popular rhyme,
was ‘large and broad and tall,’ had a herd which she would not allow
to descend to the beach, and which ‘loved the water-cresses by the
fountain high in the hills better than the black weeds of the shore.’
The old women of Ben-y-Ghloe, in Perthshire, and of Clibrich, in
Sutherlandshire,[10] seem to have been _sìth_ women of the same sort.
‘I never,’ said an old man (he was upwards of eighty years of age) in
the Island of Mull, questioned some years ago on the subject, ‘heard
of the Fairies having cows, but I always heard that deer were their
cattle.’
In other parts of the Highlands, as in Skye, though the Fairies are
said to keep company with the deer, they have cows like those of men.
When one of them appears among a herd of cattle the whole fold of them
grows frantic, and follows lowing wildly. The strange animal disappears
by entering a rock or knoll, and the others, unless intercepted, follow
and are never more seen. The Fairy cow is dun (_odhar_) and ‘hummel,’
or hornless. In Skye, however, Fairy cattle are said to be speckled and
red (_crodh breac ruadh_), and to be able to cross the sea. It is not
on every place that they graze. There were not above ten such spots
in all Skye. The field of Annat (_achadh na h-annaid_), in the Braes
of Portree, is one. When the cattle came home at night from pasture,
the following were the words used by the Fairy woman, standing on Dun
Gerra-sheddar (_Dùn Ghearra-seadar_), near Portree, as she counted her
charge:
“Crooked one, dun one,
Little wing grizzled,
Black cow, white cow,
Little bull black-head,
My milch kine have come home,
O dear! that the herdsman would come!”
HORSES.
In the Highland creed the Fairies but rarely have horses. In Perthshire
they have been seen on a market day riding about on white horses; in
Tiree two Fairy ladies were met riding on what seemed to be horses, but
in reality were ragweeds; and in Skye the elves have galloped the farm
horses at full speed and in dangerous places, sitting with their faces
to the tails.
When horses neigh at night it is because they are ridden by the
Fairies, and pressed too hard. The neigh is one of distress, and if
the hearer exclaims aloud, “Your saddle and pillion be upon you” (_Do
shrathair ’s do phillein ort_) the Fairies tumble to the ground.
DOGS.
The Fairy dog (_cu sìth_) is as large as a two-year-old stirk, a dark
green colour, with ears of deep green. It is of a lighter colour
towards the feet. In some cases it has a long tail rolled up in a coil
on its back, but others have the tail flat and plaited like the straw
rug of a pack-saddle. Bran, the famous dog that Finmac Coul had, was of
Elfin breed, and from the description given of it by popular tradition,
decidedly parti-coloured:
“Bran had yellow feet,
Its two sides black and belly white;
Green was the back of the hunting hound,
Its two pointed ears blood-red.”
Bran had a venomous shoe (_Bròg nimhe_), with which it killed whatever
living creature it struck, and when at full speed, and ‘like its
father’ (_dol ri athair_), was seen as three dogs, intercepting the
deer at three passes.
The Fairy hound was kept tied as a watch dog in the brugh, but at times
accompanied the women on their expeditions or roamed about alone,
making its lairs in clefts of the rocks. Its motion was silent and
gliding, and its bark a rude clamour (_blaodh_). It went in a straight
line, and its bay has been last heard, by those who listened for it,
far out at sea. Its immense footmarks, as large as the spread of the
human hand, have been found next day traced in the mud, in the snow,
or on the sands. Others say it makes a noise like a horse galloping,
and its bay is like that of another dog, only louder. There is a
considerable interval between each bark, and at the third (it only
barks thrice) the terror-struck hearer is overtaken and destroyed,
unless he has by that time reached a place of safety.
Ordinary dogs have a mortal aversion to the Fairies, and give chase
whenever the elves are sighted. On coming back, the hair is found to be
scraped off their bodies, all except the ears, and they die soon after.
CATS.
Elfin cats (_cait shìth_) are explained to be of a wild, not a
domesticated, breed, to be as large as dogs, of a black colour, with a
white spot on the breast, and to have arched backs and erect bristles
(_crotach agus mùrlach_). Many maintain these wild cats have no
connection with the Fairies, but are witches in disguise.
FAIRY THEFT.
The elves have got a worse name for stealing than they deserve. So far
as taking things without the knowledge or consent of the owners is
concerned, the accusation is well-founded; they neither ask nor obtain
leave, but there are important respects in which their depredations
differ from the pilferings committed among men by jail-birds and other
dishonest people.
The Fairies do not take their booty away bodily; they only take what is
called in Gaelic its _toradh_, _i.e._ its substance, virtue, fruit, or
benefit. The outward appearance is left, but the reality is gone. Thus,
when a cow is elf-taken, it appears to its owner only as suddenly
smitten by some strange disease (_chaidh am beathach ud a ghonadh_).
In reality the cow is gone, and only its semblance remains, animated
it may be by an Elf, who receives all the attentions paid to the sick
cow, but gives nothing in return. The seeming cow lies on its side, and
cannot be made to rise. It consumes the provender laid before it, but
does not yield milk or grow fat. In some cases it gives plenty of milk,
but milk that yields no butter. If taken up a hill, and rolled down
the incline, it disappears altogether. If it dies, its flesh ought not
to be eaten—it is not beef, but a stock of alder wood, an aged Elf, or
some trashy substitute. Similarly when the _toradh_ of land is taken,
there remains the appearance of a crop, but a crop without benefit to
man or beast—the ears are unfilled, the grain is without weight, the
fodder without nourishment.
A still more important point of difference is, that the Fairies only
take away what men deserve to lose. When mortals make a secret of
(_cleth_), or grumble (_ceasad_) over, what they have, the Fairies
get the benefit, and the owner is a poor man, in the midst of his
abundance. When (to use an illustration the writer has more than once
heard) a farmer speaks disparagingly of his crop, and, though it be
heavy, tries to conceal his good fortune, the Fairies take away the
benefit of his increase. The advantage goes away mysteriously ‘in pins
and needles’ (_na phrìneachan ’s na shnàdun_), ‘in alum and madder’
(_na alm ’s na mhadair_), as the saying is, and the farmer gains
nothing from his crop. Particularly articles of food, the possession of
which men denied with oaths (_air a thiomnadh_), became Fairy property.
The elves are also blamed for lifting with them articles mislaid. These
are generally restored as mysteriously and unaccountably as they were
taken away. Thus, a woman blamed the elves for taking her thimble. It
was placed beside her, and when looked for could not be found. Some
time after she was sitting alone on the hillside and found the thimble
in her lap. This confirmed her belief in its being the Fairies that
took it away. In a like mysterious manner a person’s bonnet might be
whipped off his head, or the pot for supper be lifted off the fire, and
left by invisible hands on the middle of the floor.
The accusation of taking milk is unjust. It is brought against the
elves only in books, and never in the popular creed. The Fairies take
cows, sheep, goats, horses, and it may be the substance or benefit
(_toradh_) of butter and cheese, but not milk.
Many devices were employed to thwart Fairy inroads. A burning ember
(_eibhleag_) was put into ‘sowens’ (_cabhruich_), one of the weakest
and most unsubstantial articles of human food and very liable to Fairy
attack. It was left there till the dish was ready for boiling, _i.e._
about three days after. A sieve should not be allowed out of the house
after dark, and no meal unless it be sprinkled with salt. Otherwise,
the Fairies may, by means of them, take the substance out of the whole
farm produce. For the same reason a hole should be put with the finger
in the little cake (_bonnach beag ’s toll ann_), made with the remnant
of the meal after a baking, and when given to children, as it usually
is, a piece should be broken off it. A nail driven into a cow, killed
by falling over a precipice, was supposed by the more superstitious to
keep the elves away.
One of the most curious thefts ascribed to them was that of querns,[11]
or handmills (_Bra_, _Brathuinn_). To keep them away these handy
and useful implements should be turned _deiseal_, _i.e._ with the
right hand turn, as sunwise. What is curious in the belief is, that
the handmill is said to have been originally got from the Fairies
themselves. Its sounds have often been heard by the belated peasant, as
it was being worked inside some grassy knoll, and songs, sung by the
Fairy women employed at it, have been learned.
STEALING WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
Most frequently it was women, not yet risen from childbed, and their
babes that the Fairies abducted. On every occasion of a birth,
therefore, the utmost anxiety prevailed to guard the mother and child
from their attacks. It is said that the Fairy women are unable to
suckle their own children, and hence their desire to secure a human
wet-nurse. This, however, does not explain why they want the children,
nor indeed is it universally a part of the creed.
The first care was not to leave a woman alone during her confinement.
A house full of women gathered and watched for three days, in some
places for eight. Various additional precautions against the Fairies
were taken in various localities. A row of iron nails were driven into
the front board of the bed; the smoothing iron or a reaping hook was
placed under it and in the window; an old shoe was put in the fire;
the door posts were sprinkled with _maistir_, urine kept for washing
purposes—a liquid extremely offensive to the Fairies; the Bible was
opened, and the breath blown across it in the face of the woman in
childbed; mystic words of threads were placed about the bed; and, when
leaving at the end of the three days, the midwife left a little cake
of oatmeal with a hole in it in the front of the bed. The father’s
shirt wrapped round the new-born babe was esteemed a preservative, and
if the marriage gown was thrown over the wife she could be recovered
if, notwithstanding, or from neglect of these precautions, she were
taken away. The name of the Deity solemnly pronounced over the child in
baptism was an additional protection. If the Fairies were seen, water
in which an ember was extinguished, or the burning peats themselves,
thrown at them, drove them away. Even quick wit and readiness of reply
in the mother has sent them off.[12]
It is not to be supposed that these precautions were universally known
or practised. In that case such a thing as an elf-struck child would
be unknown. The gathering of women and the placing of iron about
the bed seem to have been common, but the burning of old shoes was
confined to the Western Isles. If it existed elsewhere, its memory has
been forgotten. That it is an old part of the creed is evident from
the dislike of the Fairies to strong smells, being also part of the
Teutonic creed. The blowing of the breath across the Bible existed in
Sunart, part of the west of Inverness-shire.
CHANGELINGS.
When they succeeded in their felonious attempts, the elves left
instead of the mother, and bearing her semblance, a stock of wood
(_stoc maide_), and in place of the infant an old mannikin of their
own race. The child grew up a peevish misshapen brat, ever crying and
complaining. It was known, however, to be a changeling by the skilful
in such matters, from the large quantities of water it drank—a tubful
before morning, if left beside it—its large teeth, its inordinate
appetite, its fondness for music and its powers of dancing, its
unnatural precocity, or from some unguarded remark as to its own age.
It is to the aged elf, left in the place of child or beast, that the
name _sithbheire_ (pron. _sheevere_) is properly given, and as may well
be supposed, to say of one who has an ancient manner or look, ‘he is
but a sithbheire,’ or ‘he is only one that came from a brugh,’ is an
expression of considerable contempt. When a person does a senseless
action, it is said of him, that he has been ‘taken out of himself’
(_air a thoirt as_), that is, taken away by the Fairies.
The changeling was converted into the stock of a tree by saying a
powerful rhyme over him, or by sticking him with a knife. He could be
driven away by running at him with a red-hot ploughshare; by getting
between him and the bed and threatening him with a drawn sword; by
leaving him out on the hillside, and paying no attention to his
shrieking and screaming; by putting him sitting on a gridiron, or in a
creel, with a fire below; by sprinkling him well out of the _maistir_
tub; or by dropping him into the river. There can be no doubt these
modes of treatment would rid a house of any disagreeable visitor, at
least of the human race.
The story of the changeling, who was detected by means of egg-shells,
seems in some form or other to be as widespread as the superstition
itself. Empty egg-shells are ranged round the hearth, and the
changeling, when he finds the house quiet and thinks himself
unobserved, gets up from bed and examines them. Finding them empty, he
is heard to remark sententiously, as he peers into each, “this is but
a wind-bag (_chaneil a’ so ach balg fàs_); I am so many hundred years
old, and I never saw the like of this.”
DEFORMITIES.
Many of the deformities in children are attributed to the Fairies.
When a child is incautiously left alone by its mother, for however
short a time, the Fairies may come and give its little legs such a
twist as will leave it hopelessly lame ever after. To give them
their due, however, they sometimes took care of children whom they
found forgotten, and even of grown up people sleeping incautiously in
dangerous places.
NURSES.
The elves have children of their own, and require the services of
midwives like the human race. ‘Howdies,’ as they are called, taken in
the way of their profession to the Fairy dwelling, found on coming out
that the time they had stayed was incredibly longer or shorter than
they imagined, and none of them was ever the better ultimately of her
adventure.
THE MEN OF PEACE.
The Gaelic _sìthche_, like the English elf, has two ideas, almost
amounting to two meanings, attached to it. In the plural, _sìthchean_,
it conveys the idea of a diminutive race, travelling in eddy winds,
lifting men from the ground, stealing, and entering houses in
companies; while in the singular, _sìthche_, the idea conveyed is that
of one who approaches mankind in dimensions. The ‘man and woman of
peace’ hire themselves to the human race for a day’s work or a term of
service, and contract marriages with it. The elfin youth (_Gille sìth_)
has enormous strength, that of a dozen men it is said, and the elfin
women (or Banshis) are remarkably handsome. The aged of the race were
generally the reverse, in point of beauty, especially those of them
substituted for Fairy-abducted children and animals.
Mortals should have nothing to do with any of the race. No good comes
out of the unnatural connection. However enchanting at first, the
end is disaster and death. When, therefore, the _sìthche_ is first
met, it is recommended by the prudent to pass by without noticing;
or, if obliged or incautious enough to speak, and pressed to make
an appointment, to give fair words, saying, ‘If I promise that, I
will fulfil it’ (_ma gheallas mi sin, co-gheallaidh mi e_), still
sufficiently near houses to attract the attention of the dogs. They
immediately give chase, and the Fairy flies away.
The _Gille sìth_ (or Elfin youth) is very solicitous about his
offspring when his mortal mistress bears him children, and the love
that women have to him as their lover or familiar spirit (_leannan
sìth_) is unnaturally passionate. The Elfin mistress is not always so
secure of the affections of her human lover. He may get tired of her
and leave her. On meeting her first he is put under spells to keep
appointments with her in future every night. If he dares for one night
to neglect his appointment, she gives him such a sound thrashing the
first time she gets hold of him that he never neglects it again. She
disappears at the cock-crowing. While he remains faithful to her, she
assists him at his trade as farmer, shepherd, etc., makes him presents
of clothes, tells him when he is to die, and even when he is to leave
her and get married. She gives _Sian_ a magic belt or other charm, to
protect him in danger. If offended, however, her lover is in danger of
his life. The children of these alliances are said to be the _urisks_.
Those who have taken Elfin women for wives have found a sad termination
to their mesalliance. The defect or peculiarity of the fair
enchantress, which her lover at first had treated as of no consequence,
proves his ruin. Her voracity thins his herds, he gets tired of her
or angry with her, and in an unguarded moment reproaches her with her
origin. She disappears, taking with her the children and the fortune
she brought him. The gorgeous palace, fit for the entertainment
of kings, vanishes, and he finds himself again in his old black
dilapidated hut, with a pool of rain-drippings from the roof in the
middle of the floor.
THE BEAN NIGHE, OR WASHING WOMAN.
At times the Fairy woman (_Bean shìth_) is seen in lonely places,
beside a pool or stream, washing the linen of those soon to die, and
folding and beating it with her hands on a stone in the middle of the
water. She is then known as the _Bean-nighe_, or washing woman; and her
being seen is a sure sign that death is near.
In Mull and Tiree she is said to have praeternaturally long breasts,
which are in the way as she stoops at her washing. She throws them
over her shoulders, and they hang down her back. Whoever sees her
must not turn away, but steal up behind and endeavour to approach her
unawares. When he is near enough he is to catch one of her breasts,
and, putting it to his mouth, call herself to witness that she is his
first nursing or foster-mother (_muime cìche_). She answers that he
has need of that being the case, and will then communicate whatever
knowledge he desires. If she says the shirt she is washing is that of
an enemy he allows the washing to go on, and that man’s death follows;
if it be that of her captor or any of his friends, she is put a stop to.
In Skye the Bean-nighe is said to be squat in figure (_tiughiosal_),
or not unlike a ‘small pitiful child’ (_paisde beag brònach_). If a
person caught her she told all that would befall him in after life.
She answered all his questions, but he must answer hers. Men did not
like to tell what she said. Women dying in childbed were looked upon
as dying prematurely, and it was believed that unless all the clothes
left by them were washed they would have to wash them themselves till
the natural period of their death. It was women ‘dreeing this weird’
who were the washing women. If the person hearing them at work beating
their clothes (_slacartaich_) caught them before being observed, he
could not be heard by them; but if they saw him first, he lost the
power of his limbs (_lùgh_).
In the highlands of Perthshire the washing woman is represented as
small and round, and dressed in pretty green. She spreads by moonlight
the linen winding sheets of those soon to die, and is caught by getting
between her and the stream.
She can also be caught and mastered and made to communicate her
information at the point of the sword. Oscar, son of the poet Ossian,
met her on his way to the Cairbre’s feast, at which the dispute arose
which led to his death. She was encountered by Hugh of the Little Head
on the evening before his last battle, and left him as her parting gift
(_fàgail_), that he should become the frightful apparition he did after
death, the most celebrated in the West Highlands.
SONG.
The song of the Fairy woman foreboded great calamity, and men did not
like to hear it. Scott calls it
“The fatal Banshi’s boding scream,”
but it was not a scream, only a wailing murmur (_torman mulaid_) of
unearthly sweetness and melancholy.
GLAISTIG.
The Banshi is sometimes confounded with the Glaistig, the apparition
of a woman, acting as tutelary guardian of the site to which she is
attached. Many people use Banshi and Glaistig as convertible terms,
and the confusion thence arising extends largely to books. The true
Glaistig is a woman of human race, who has been put under enchantments,
and to whom a Fairy nature has been given. She wears a _green_ dress,
like Fairy women, but her face is wan and grey, whence her name
Glaistig, from _glas_, grey. She differs also in haunting castles and
the folds of the cattle, and confining herself to servant’s work.
ELFIN QUEEN.
The Banshi is, without doubt, the original of the Queen of Elfland,
mentioned in ballads of the South of Scotland. The Elfin Queen met
Thomas of Ercildoune by the Eildon tree, and took him to her enchanted
realm, where he was kept for seven years. She gave him the power of
foretelling the future, ‘the tongue that never lied.’ At first she was
the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but when he next looked—
“The hair that hung upon her head,
The half was black, the half was grey,
And all the rich clothing was away
That he before saw in that stead;
Her eyes seemed out that were so grey,
And all her body like the lead.”
In Gaelic tales seven years is a common period of detention among the
Fairies, the _leannan sìth_ communicates to her lover the knowledge
of future events, and in the end is looked upon by him with aversion.
There is no mention, however, of Fairyland, or of an Elfin King or
Queen, and but rarely of Fairies riding. True Thomas, who is as well
known in Highland lore as he is in the Lowlands, is said to be still
among the Fairies, and to attend every market on the look-out for
suitable horses. When he has made up his complement he will appear
again among men, and a great battle will be fought on the Clyde.
PROTECTION AGAINST FAIRIES.
The great protection against the Elfin race (and this is perhaps
the most noticeable point in the whole superstition) is _Iron_,
or preferably steel (_Cruaidh_). The metal in any form—a sword, a
knife, a pair of scissors, a needle, a nail, a ring, a bar, a piece
of reaping-hook, a gun-barrel, a fish-hook (and tales will be given
illustrative of all these)—is all-powerful. On entering a Fairy
dwelling, a piece of steel, a knife, needle, or fish-hook, stuck in the
door, takes from the Elves the power of closing it till the intruder
comes out again. A knife stuck in a deer carried home at night keeps
them from laying their weight on the animal. A knife or nail in one’s
pocket prevents his being ‘lifted’ at night. Nails in the front bench
of the bed keep Elves from women ‘in the straw,’ and their babes. As
additional safe-guards, the smoothing-iron should be put below the bed,
and the reaping-hook in the window. A nail in the carcase of a bull
that fell over a rock was believed to preserve its flesh from them.
Playing the Jew’s harp (_tromb_) kept the Elfin women at a distance
from the hunter, because the tongue of the instrument is of steel. So
also a shoemaker’s awl in the door-post of his bothy kept a Glaistig
from entering.
_Fire_ thrown into water in which the feet have been washed takes away
the power of the water to admit the Fairies into the house at night;
a burning peat put in sowens to hasten their fermenting (_greasadh
gortachadh_) kept the substance in them till ready to boil. Martin
(_West Isl._) says fire was carried round lying-in women, and round
about children before they were christened, to keep mother and infant
from the power of evil spirits. When the Fairies were seen coming in at
the door burning embers thrown towards them drove them away.
Another safe-guard is _oatmeal_. When it is sprinkled on one’s clothes
or carried in the pocket no Fairy will venture near, and it was usual
with people going on journeys after nightfall to adopt the precaution
of taking some with them. In Mull and Tiree the pockets of boys going
any distance after nightfall were filled with oatmeal by their anxious
mothers, and old men are remembered who sprinkled themselves with it
when going on a night journey. In Skye, oatmeal was not looked upon
as proper Fairy food, and it was said if a person wanted to see the
Fairies he should not take oatmeal with him; if he did he would not
be able to see them. When ‘the folk’ take a loan of meal they do not
appear to have any objections to oatmeal. The meal returned, however,
was always barleymeal.
Oatmeal, taken out of the house after dark, was sprinkled with salt,
and unless this was done, the Fairies might through its instrumentality
take the substance out of the farmer’s whole grain. To keep them from
getting the benefit of meal itself, housewives, when baking oatmeal
bannocks, made a little thick cake with the last of the meal, between
their palms (not kneading it like the rest of the bannocks), for the
youngsters to put a hole through it with the forefinger. This palm
bannock (_bonnach boise_) is not to be toasted on the gridiron, but
placed to the fire leaning against a stone (_leac nam bonnach_),
well-known where a ‘griddle’ is not available. Once the Fairies were
overtaken carrying with them the benefit (_toradh_) of the farm in a
large thick cake, with the handle of the quern (_sgonnan na brà_) stuck
through it, and forming a pole on which it was carried. This cannot
occur when the last bannock baked (_Bonnach fallaid_) is a little cake
with a hole in it (_Bonnach beag ’s toll ann_).[13]
_Maistir_, or stale urine, kept for the scouring of blankets and other
cloth, when sprinkled on the cattle and on the door-posts and walls of
the house, kept the Fairies, and indeed every mischief, at a distance.
This sprinkling was done regularly on the last evening of every quarter
of the year (_h-uile latha ceann ràidhe_).
Plants of great power were the _Mòthan_ (_Sagina procumbens_, trailing
pearlwort) and _Achlasan Challum-chille_ (_Hypericum pulcrum_, St.
John’s wort). The former protected its possessor from fire and the
attacks of the Fairy women. The latter warded off fevers, and kept the
Fairies from taking people away in their sleep. There are rhymes which
must be said when these plants are pulled.
Stories representing the Bible as a protection must be of a recent
date. It is not so long since a copy of the Bible was not available in
the Highlands for that or any other purpose. When the Book did become
accessible, it is not surprising that, as in other places, a blind
unmeaning reverence should accumulate round it.
Such are the main features of the superstition of the _Sìthchean_,
the still-folk, the noiseless people, as it existed, and in some
degree still exists, in the Highlands, and particularly in the Islands
of Scotland. There is a clear line of demarcation between it and
every other Highland superstition, though the distinction has not
always been observed by writers on the subject. The following Fairy
characteristics deserve to be particularly noticed.
It was peculiar to the Fairy women to assume the shape of _deer_;
while witches became mice, hares, cats, gulls, or black sheep, and the
devil a he-goat or gentleman with a horse’s or pig’s foot. A running
stream could not be crossed by evil spirits, ghosts, and apparitions,
but made no difference to the Fairies. If all tales be true, they
could give a dip in the passing to those they were carrying away;
and the stone, on which the “Washing Woman” folded the shirts of
the doomed, was in the middle of water. Witches took the milk from
cows; the Fairies had cattle of their own; and when they attacked
the farmer’s dairy, it was to take away the cows themselves, _i.e._
the cow in appearance remained, but its benefit (the real cow) was
gone. The Elves have even the impertinence at times to drive back
the cow at night to pasture on the corn of the person from whom they
have stolen it. The phrenzy with which Fairy women afflicted men was
only a wandering madness (φοιταλεα μανια), which made them
roam about restlessly, without knowing what they were doing, or leave
home at night to hold appointments with the Elfin women themselves;
by druidism (_druidheachd_) men were driven from their kindred, and
made to imagine themselves undergoing marvellous adventures and
changing shape. Dogs crouched, or leapt at their master’s throat, in
the presence of evil spirits, but they gave chase to the Fairies.
Night alone was frequented by the powers of darkness, and they fled
at the cock-crowing; the Fairies were encountered in the day-time as
well. There was no intermarriage between men and the other beings of
superstition, but women were courted and taken away by Fairy men, and
men courted Fairy women (or rather were courted by them), married, and
took them to their houses. A well-marked characteristic is the tinge
of the ludicrous that pervades the creed. The Fairy is an object of
contempt as well as of fear, and, though the latter be the prevailing
feeling, there is observably a desire to make the Elves contemptible
and ridiculous. A person should not unnecessarily provoke the anger
of those who cannot retaliate, much less of a race so ready to take
offence and so sure to retaliate as the Fairies. In revenge for this
species of terror, the imagination loves to depict the Elves in
positions and doing actions that provoke a smile. The part of the
belief which relates to the Banshi is comparatively free from this
feeling, but the ‘little people’ and changelings come in for a full
share of it. Perhaps this part of the superstition is not entirely to
be explained as the recoil of the mind from the oppression of a belief
in invisible beings that may be cognizant of men’s affairs and only
wait for an opportunity to exert an evil influence over them, but its
existence is striking.