If a healthy child suddenly droops and withers, that child is
fairy-struck, and a fairy doctor must be at once called in. Young girls
also, who fall into rapid decline, are said to be fairy-struck; for
they are wanted in Fairy-land as brides for some chief or prince, and
so they pine away without visible cause till they die.
The other malign influences that act fatally on life are the Wind and
the Evil Eye. The evil power of the Wind is called a fairy-blast;
while, of one suffering from the Evil Eye, they say he has been
“overlooked.”
The fairy doctor must pronounce from which of these three causes the
patient is suffering. The fairy-stroke, or the fairy-blast, or the Evil
Eye; but he must take no money for the opinion given. He is paid in
some other way; by free gracious offerings in gratitude for help given.
A person who visited a great fairy doctor for advice, thus describes
the process of cure at the interview:—
“The doctor always seems as if expecting you, and had full knowledge of
your coming. He bids you be seated, and after looking fixedly on your
face for some moments, his proceedings begin. He takes three rods of
witch hazel, each three inches long, and marks them separately, ‘For
the Stroke,’ ‘For the Wind,‘ ‘For the Evil Eye.’ This is to ascertain
from which of these three evils you suffer. He then takes off his coat,
shoes, and stockings; rolls up his shirt sleeves, and stands with his
face to the sun in earnest prayer. After prayer he takes a dish of pure
water and sets it by the fire, then kneeling down, he puts the three
hazel rods he had marked into the fire, and leaves them there till they
are burned black as charcoal. All the time his prayers are unceasing;
and when the sticks are burned, he rises, and again faces the sun in
silent prayer, standing with his eyes uplifted and hands crossed. After
this he draws a circle on the floor with the end of one of the burned
sticks, within which circle he stands, the dish of pure water beside
him. Into this he flings the three hazel rods, and watches the result
earnestly. The moment one sinks he addresses a prayer to the sun, and
taking the rod out of the water he declares by what agency the patient
is afflicted. Then he grinds the rod to powder, puts it in a bottle
which he fills up with water from the dish, and utters an incantation
or prayer over it, in a low voice, with clasped hands held over the
bottle. But what the words of the prayer are no one knows, they are
kept as solemn mysteries, and have been handed down from father to
son through many generations, from the most ancient times. The potion
is then given to be carried home, and drunk that night at midnight
in silence and alone. Great care must be taken that the bottle never
touches the ground; and the person carrying it must speak no word,
and never look round till home is reached. The other two sticks he
buries in the earth in some place unseen and unknown. If none of the
three sticks sink in the water, then he uses herbs as a cure. Vervain,
eyebright, and yarrow are favourite remedies, and all have powerful
properties known to the adept; but the words and prayers he utters over
them are kept secret, and whether they are good or bad, or addressed to
Deity or to a demon, none but himself can tell.”
These are the visible mysteries of the fairy doctor while working out
his charms and incantations. But other fairy doctors only perform the
mysteries in private, and allow no one to see their mode of operation
or witness the act of prayer.
If a potion is made up of herbs it must be paid for in silver but
charms and incantations are never paid for, or they would lose their
power. A present, however, may be accepted as an offering of gratitude.