From the earliest ages the world has believed in the existence of a
race midway between the angel and man, gifted with power to exercise a
strange mysterious influence over human destiny. The Persians called
this mystic race Peris; the Egyptians and the Greeks named them demons,
not as evil, but as mysterious allies of man, invisible though ever
present; capable of kind acts but implacable if offended.
The Irish called them the Sidhe, or spirit-race, or the _Feadh-Ree_,
a modification of the word Peri. Their country is the _Tir-na-oge_,
the land of perpetual youth, where they live a life of joy and beauty,
never knowing disease or death, which is not to come on them till the
judgment day, when they are fated to pass into annihilation, to perish
utterly and be seen no more. They can assume any form and they make
horses out of bits of straw, on which they ride over the country, and
to Scotland and back. They have no religion, but a great dread of the
_Scapular_ (Latin words from the Gospels written by a priest and hung
round the neck). Their power is great over unbaptized children, and
such generally grow up evil and have the evil eye, and bring ill luck,
unless the name of God is instantly invoked when they look at any one
fixedly and in silence.
All over Ireland the fairies have the reputation of being very
beautiful, with long yellow hair sweeping the ground, and lithe light
forms. They love milk and honey, and sip the nectar from the cups of
the flowers, which is their fairy wine.
Underneath the lakes, and deep down in the heart of the hills, they
have their fairy palaces of pearl and gold, where they live in
splendour and luxury, with music and song and dancing and laughter and
all joyous things as befits the gods of the earth. If our eyes were
touched by a fairy salve we could see them dancing on the hill in the
moonlight. They are served on vessels of gold, and each fairy chief, to
mark his rank, wears a circlet of gold round his head.
The Sidhe race were once angels in heaven, but were cast out as a
punishment for their pride. Some fell to earth, others were cast into
the sea, while many were seized by demons and carried down to hell,
whence they issue as evil spirits, to tempt men to destruction under
various disguises; chiefly, however, as beautiful young maidens,
endowed with the power of song and gifted with the most enchanting
wiles. Under the influence of these beautiful sirens a man will commit
any and every crime. Then when his soul is utterly black they carry him
down to hell, where he remains for ever tortured by the demons to whom
he sold himself.
The fairies are very numerous, more numerous than the human race. In
their palaces underneath the hills and in the lakes and the sea they
hide away much treasure. All the treasure of wrecked ships is theirs;
and all the gold that men have hidden and buried in the earth when
danger was on them, and then died and left no sign of the place to
their descendants. And all the gold of the mine and the jewels of the
rocks belong to them; and in the Sifra, or fairy-house, the walls are
silver and the pavement is gold, and the banquet-hall is lit by the
glitter of the diamonds that stud the rocks.
If you walk nine times round a fairy rath at the full of the moon, you
will find the entrance to the Sifra; but if you enter, beware of eating
the fairy food or drinking the fairy wine. The Sidhe will, indeed, wile
and draw many a young man into the fairy dance, for the fairy women
are beautiful, so beautiful that a man’s eyes grow dazzled who looks
on them, with their long hair floating like the ripe golden corn and
their robes of silver gossamer; they have perfect forms, and their
dancing is beyond all expression graceful; but if a man is tempted to
kiss a _Sigh-oge_, or young fairy spirit, in the dance, he is lost for
ever—the madness of love will fall on him, and he will never again be
able to return to earth or to leave the enchanted fairy palace. He is
dead to his kindred and race for ever more.
On Fridays the fairies have special power over all things, and chiefly
on that day they select and carry off the young mortal girls as brides
for the fairy chiefs. But after seven years, when the girls grow old
and ugly, they send them back to their kindred, giving them, however,
as compensation, a knowledge of herbs and philtres and secret spells,
by which they can kill or cure, and have power over men both for good
and evil.
It is in this way the wise women and fairy doctors have acquired their
knowledge of the mysteries and the magic of herbs. But the fairies
do not always keep the mortal women in a seven years’ bondage. They
sometimes only take away young girls for a dance in the moonlight, and
then leave them back in their own home lulled in a sweet sleep. But the
vision of the night was so beautiful that the young girls long to dream
again and be made happy with the soft enchantments of the music and
dance.
The fairies are passionately fond of music; it is therefore dangerous
for a young girl to sing when she is all alone by the lake, for the
spirits will draw her down to them to sing to them in the fairy palace
under the waves, and her people will see her no more. Yet sometimes
when the moonlight is on the water, and the waves break against the
crystal columns of the fairy palace far down in the depths, they can
hear her voice, and they know that she is singing to the fairies in the
spirit land beneath the waters of the lake.
There was a girl in one of the villages that could see things no one
else saw, and hear music no one else heard, for the fairies loved her
and used to carry her away by night in a dream to dance with the fairy
chiefs and princes. But, above all, she was loved by Finvarra the king,
and used to dance with him all night till sunrise though her form
seemed to be lying asleep on the bed.
One day she told some of her young companions that she was going that
night to a great fairy dance on the rath, and if they chose she would
bring them and put a salve on their eyes so that they would see wonders.